U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warned Wednesday that ransom-motivated cyberattacks are “getting worse and worse,” echoing other top Biden administration officials who have sounded the alarm about the problem in recent weeks.
“We have to do everything we possibly can here,” Garland told lawmakers. “This is a very, very serious threat.” The attorney general’s warning during a Senate hearing on the Justice Department’s fiscal 2022 budget request followed a pair of high-profile ransomware attacks over the past month that have rattled the U.S. national security and law enforcement establishment and sparked calls for beefed-up cyber defenses. In a ransomware attack, hackers lock a company’s or organization’s data, offering keys to unlock the files in exchange for a large sum of money. FILE – Tanker trucks are parked near the entrance of Colonial Pipeline Company, in Charlotte, N.C., May 12, 2021.Last month, cybercriminals believed to be based in Russia hacked the computer networks of Colonial Pipeline, America’s largest fuel pipeline operator, disrupting supplies along the East Coast and touching off panic-buying. Colonial later said it paid $4.4 million to retrieve access to its network. On Monday, the Justice Department revealed it had seized most of the ransom. Last week, ransomware criminals struck JBS USA, the U.S. arm of the world’s largest processor of fresh beef and pork based in Brazil. JBS refused to pay a ransom and was forced to shut down its processing facilities in the United States. FILE – A JBS meatpacking plant is seen in Plainwell, Michigan, June 2, 2021.The White House has said the criminal gangs behind both attacks — known as DarkSide and REvil — are likely based in Russia, but officials have not alleged any ties to the Russian government. The Justice Department identified DarkSide as the hacking group that was targeted by law enforcement officials for retaliation and ransom recovery. The ransomware attacks are likely to hang over the June 16 meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers on Monday that Biden will make clear to Putin that “states cannot be in the business of harboring those who are engaged in these kinds of attacks.” Once seen as a financial crime, ransomware has emerged as a growing national security threat in just the last couple of years, as cybercriminals have turned to attacking local governments, schools, hospitals and other critical service providers, and demanding millions of dollars in ransom. According to a May 12 report by Check Point Research, ransomware attacks more than doubled this year compared with the beginning of 2020, with health care and utilities the most commonly targeted sectors. “You can imagine what could happen if we had multiple attacks at the same time on even more fundamental infrastructure. So, I’m very worried about it, and so is the administration,” Garland said. “And that’s why we’ve asked for such a large increase in our cyber budget.” The Justice Department’s nearly $36 billion budget includes about $1.1 billion for cybersecurity. If approved by Congress, that would constitute the largest increase in cybersecurity resources for the department in more than a decade, according to Garland. In April, before the attack on Colonial, the Justice Department set up an internal task force dedicated to developing strategies to combat ransomware. Its first major operation was recapturing most of the millions of dollars paid in ransom by Colonial to DarkSide hackers, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced. Garland called the recovery a “significant success,” but he said it is not enough. “This has to be a constant, just a constant focus,” he said, adding that he has discussed the issue with his counterparts from major U.S. allies.
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Month: June 2021
JBS Settles Muslim Discrimination Lawsuit for $5.5 Million
The second-largest producer of beef, pork and chicken in the U.S. will pay up to $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the company discriminated against Muslim employees at a meat processing plant in northern Colorado. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit in federal court in Denver in 2010, saying JBS Swift & Company discriminated against employees at its beef processing plant in Greeley by denying them bathroom breaks and disciplining them more harshly than other workers because they were Muslim, immigrants from Somalia and Black. JBS USA LLC, doing business as JBS Swift & Company, must pay the $5.5 million to about 300 employees who were included in the settlement, which was announced by the commission on Wednesday. Nikki Richardson, a spokeswoman for JBS USA, said the company does not admit any liability in the settlement, prohibits all discrimination and harassment at its facilities and “is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.” AccusationsAccording to the lawsuit, JBS prevented Muslim employees from praying and harassed them when they tried to pray during scheduled breaks and bathroom breaks. JBS also was accused of shutting off water fountains during the holy month of Ramadan in 2008, keeping Muslim Somali workers from getting a drink at sundown after a day of fasting, and from washing before prayers. According to the lawsuit, JBS managers and other employees threw meat or bones at Black and Somali employees, called them offensive names and tolerated offensive graffiti in restrooms at the Greeley plant, including the use of the N-word and “Somalis are disgusting.” “This case serves as a reminder that systemic discrimination and harassment remain significant problems that we as a society must tackle,” EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said in a statement. RequirementsJBS must take several steps to prevent further discrimination, including allowing former employees covered under the settlement to be eligible for rehire; reviewing, updating and posting its anti-discrimination policies; and maintaining a 24-hour hotline for reporting discrimination. The company also will be required to provide quiet locations other than bathrooms for employees to pray. Many Somalis started working at the Greeley plant following a 2006 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in which 270 Hispanic employees were detained. The treatment of the Somali workers came to a head two years later when they asked company officials to move the plant’s scheduled meal break so they could stop fasting at sunset during Ramadan. Officials agreed to an earlier meal break but changed course three days later, and according to the lawsuit, Muslim workers who were told to go outside to pray weren’t allowed back into the plant. Days later, several workers were fired for what the company said was an unauthorized work stoppage, according to the lawsuit.
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Pentagon Launches Effort to Better Address China Challenge
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rolled out a departmentwide effort Wednesday aimed at more effectively addressing China as the “pacing challenge” for the U.S. military.While some of the initiatives will remain classified, defense officials told reporters the effort puts new organizational structures in place to better prioritize competition with China and to make sure the challenges in the Indo-Pacific region are “gaining the attention they deserve.”The effort is not a “new strategy or change of direction from where the Biden administration has been to date,” according to one defense official who spoke to reporters Wednesday.“This directive from the secretary is ultimately about getting the department’s house in order, ensuring that the department lives up to the stated prioritization of China as the number one pacing challenge,” the defense official said.The initiatives are based on the Pentagon’s China Task Force, which was established in February to review the department’s China-related policies and spotlight top priorities. The group reviewed thousands of pages of documents, interviewed current and former defense officials, and consulted other government agencies along with Congress, according to officials.FILE – Ensign Grayson Sigler of Corpus Christi, Texas, watches from the pilot house as the USS John S. McCain conducts operations in the Taiwan Strait, Dec. 30, 2020. China accused the U.S. of staging a show of force in the strait. (U.S. Navy)’Ascending power’During his confirmation hearing in January, Austin told lawmakers China is an “ascending power” and “the most concerning competitor that we’re facing.”U.S. officials have consistently raised concerns about what they say is China’s industrial espionage, its theft of biomedical information and the potential manipulation of technology, like 5G cellular networks.Bradley Bowman, a defense expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA that anything the Pentagon does “to bring a more laser focus” on resourcing and strategy on China is a good thing.However, he criticized the Pentagon effort for lacking “the simple things” such as “giving the Indo-PACOM [Indo-Pacific] commander what he says he needs.”“Unfortunately, in the budget request that just went to [Capitol] Hill a short while back, many of the things that Indo-PACOM said that it needs were either absent or underfunded,” Bowman said.VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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Europe Prepares Warm Welcome for Biden at G-7, but Skepticism Remains
Leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet this weekend in Britain, with an agenda topped by the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, taxation, and the challenges posed by Russia and China. The three-day summit beginning Friday will be held at Carbis Bay, a popular tourist resort in Cornwall on Britain’s southwestern peninsula. British warships are patrolling the coastline and more than 6,500 police officers have been deployed as Britain prepares to host the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa also have been invited as guests. Police officers stand guard outside a security gate around Tregenna Castle in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, June 9, 2021.The summit marks President Joe Biden’s first official overseas trip while in office. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as he prepared to fly to Britain on Air Force One, Biden was asked about his priorities for the trip. “Strengthening the alliance. Making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight, and the G-7 is going to move,” Biden said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday he was looking forward to hosting allies face to face. “This is the first time for almost six months in office almost that Joe Biden the U.S. president has been able to come overseas for a major trip; it’s his first time on the European continent. It’s the first time that any of us really have been able to see each other face to face since the pandemic began. “So here at the G-7, what we’re looking at is making sure we have a new treaty on the pandemic, working on that, building back greener, building back better, which is why we’re looking at what’s going on here in Cornwall with all of the green technology, but also talking about the values we have in common, everything we want to do together. There’s a huge agenda,” said Johnson. Plane spotters take pictures of an airplane at RAF (Royal Air Force) Mildenhall ahead of the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden, near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Britain, June 9, 2021.After four years of troubled transatlantic relations under former President Donald Trump — whose “America First” agenda alienated many allies — Biden will receive a warm welcome in Europe, says analyst Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, vice president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “The attempt to rebuild trust — lost trust — with allies is at the heart of the agenda. And that message comes across loud and clear,” Kleine-Brockhoff told VOA. But he added that the scars have not yet fully healed. “There’s sort of a lingering suspicion that Joe Biden could be an outlier, an intermezzo between two nationalist presidencies, and an America that has changed for the long haul. And so, the investment into the Biden administration [by European allies] is not as immediately visible as the Biden administration would hope,” Kleine-Brockhoff said. Nonetheless, analysts say the G-7 leaders will put on a strong show of unity amid numerous challenges, says Creon Butler, a former British government adviser on the G-7 and now the director of the Global Economy and Finance Program at London’s Chatham House foreign policy institute. “The COVID recovery generally is the top item, and you can see that in the way that the U.K. is presenting the summit,” Butler told VOA. “There is a sort of economic aspect and then there are other aspects, particularly on the health side.” FILE – Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivers a speech n central London, Britain, May 21, 2016.The summit host, British Prime Minister Johnson, has pledged the G-7 will help to vaccinate the whole world by the end of 2022. One of his predecessors, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, says that rhetoric must be turned into reality. “I think it’s no exaggeration to say that Friday’s G-7 is a life and death matter. Its decision will determine who is vaccinated and safe and who remains unvaccinated and at risk of dying,” Brown said at a virtual meeting held Tuesday by Chatham House. G-7 leaders also will focus on tackling climate change, and trade and taxation are high on the agenda. G-7 finance ministers last week backed a plan for a minimum global tax rate of 15%. “This bit is really quite revolutionary,” said Butler. “As, indeed, is the agreement on sharing taxing rights around — so not just in the location where the tax residence of the company is, but also in locations where a company may have very large revenues but pay very, very little tax.” Butler said Britain’s hosting of the G-7 summit provides an ideal platform for the government to project a new image now that it has left the European Union. A man rides a motorbike past a pub with flags of the G-7 nations and the flag of Cornwall in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, June 9, 2021.”Actually, the G-7 is now even more important for the U.K. and actually for the Western alliance more generally, now that the U.K. has left the EU, because, certainly for the U.K., things that you might have wanted to coordinate and work with the EU on within the EU, the G-7 is now the logical place to do it.” The threat to G-7 democracies from Russia and China also will be discussed in Cornwall. Biden will be hoping for a strong response from allies, says analyst Kleine-Brockhoff. “The question as to whether Western countries can find a joint approach vis-à-vis China, and whether President Biden can get the language and the commitment that he needs also for his domestic political purposes out of his European allies … that to me is the big question,” said Kleine-Brockhoff. Several of the G-7 leaders will go straight from Cornwall to Brussels on Monday for a NATO summit. Biden is then scheduled to meet European Union leaders Tuesday. Analysts say the sequence of meetings is aimed at underscoring allies’ support ahead of Biden’s summit Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
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ICC Prosecutor Calls on Sudan to Hand Over War Crimes Suspects
The departing prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has called on Sudan’s government to transfer four men wanted for war crimes in Darfur to The Hague.”Sudan has to tangibly demonstrate that the new Sudan is now a fully fledged member of the international community that has joined the fight against impunity and is fully committed to justice and the rule of law,” Fatou Bensouda said Wednesday during her final briefing to the U.N. Security Council as the court’s chief prosecutor.”Almost all the suspects are in the custody of the government of Sudan, and there is no legal impediment to their surrender to the ICC.”Only one Darfur war crimes suspect is in ICC custody. Ali Kushayb, whose given name is Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, surrendered voluntarily and was transferred to the ICC a year ago.The arrest warrant for the former Janjaweed militia commander includes 22 counts of crimes against humanity and 28 counts of war crimes, allegedly committed in 2003 and 2004 in Sudan’s Darfur region. He is suspected of planning and, in some cases, participating in attacks against civilians.The yearslong conflict between Darfur rebels and the Khartoum government killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2 million more, causing a humanitarian crisis that is still felt today.Prosecutor’s ‘historic visit’Bensouda just returned from her first trip to Darfur.”My historic visit to Darfur last week opened my eyes even more to the reality of what we and the people of Darfur have been fighting for over the years,” she told the council.She said that another suspect, former Sudanese Interior Minister Ahmad Harun, who is at large, reportedly wants to surrender to the court, and that there is an “urgent need” to transfer him to The Hague soon.FILE – Ahmed Harun, then the governor of South Kordofan, a Sudanese province, gestures during a press conference in Talodi, South Kordofan, April 12, 2012.Harun is charged with many of the same crimes as Kushayb. Their cases were separated because one is in the court’s custody and the other is not. Bensouda said there is still time to rejoin their cases, which would be more efficient and allow witnesses to testify only once about traumatic events.”Sudan is under a legal obligation to surrender the suspects pursuant to Resolution 1593,” she said of the Security Council resolution that first referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC more than 16 years ago.Bensouda said last year’s Juba Peace Agreement between Sudan’s government and various rebel groups also states that war crimes suspects must appear before the ICC, and that Sudan should fully cooperate with the ICC’s investigations and prosecutions of these suspects.Other warrantsThe other three outstanding warrants are for former President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in a Khartoum jail since he was ousted during a popular revolution in 2019; Abdallah Banda, former commander of the rebel group Justice and Equality Movement; and former Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein.Last August, Sudan’s prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, said the transitional government was ready to cooperate with the court. But so far, it has not handed over any of the suspects. His representative at the Security Council said Wednesday that ending impunity remains a top priority.”Last week, the prime minister announced that the government ‘is working with the ICC and victim groups to find the best ways to bring wanted suspects to justice before the ICC,’ ” the representative said, quoting Hamdok.Prosecutor Bensouda leaves the court this month after nearly 20 years, nine of them as the top prosecutor. Her tenure has not always been smooth.In 2016, African countries threatened a potential exodus from the court over complaints that it disproportionately targeted Africans. They eventually backed down. And in 2019, the Trump administration revoked Bensouda’s U.S. visa and, the following year, sanctioned her and a colleague over investigations into U.S. troops in Afghanistan.Sanctions liftedThe Biden administration lifted those sanctions in early April, and at Wednesday’s meeting, its envoy expressed support for the prosecutor’s work. The U.S. is not a member of the ICC.”The United States fully supports the ICC’s investigations in Darfur,” Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis said. “We call on the civilian-led transitional government to honor its obligations under the Juba Peace Agreement and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1593 to cooperate with the ICC.”In that regard, the United States has taken — and will continue to take — active steps to encourage the civilian-led transitional government to immediately transfer Ahmed Harun to the court.”On June 16, Bensouda, a native of Gambia, will be succeeded at the ICC by British human rights lawyer Karim Khan.
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French Government Spokesman: Slap Won’t Stop Macron Travel
A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that an incident in which a man slapped the president would not deter his national tour.Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town. The man in question was taken into custody, and after security initially pulled the president away from the scene, he resumed shaking hands and visiting with people a short time later.At a Paris news conference Wednesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters that while the presidential security detail remained as vigilant as always, no special alert had been raised after the slap.Attal said Macron would continue tours of the country because at this time, as the COVID-19 pandemic is winding down and human contact has been restricted for so long, there is no better way to “take the pulse” of the country.”There is nothing more suited than direct contact and direct exchanges with French people. So obviously [Macron] will continue this in the coming weeks,” Attal said.Speaking of the incident during a Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, Macron said any acts of physical violence must be taken seriously.“There’s stupidity, and when stupidity comes with violence, that’s unacceptable. That’s something else. We can’t confuse it for something else,” the French president said.Macron also said he thought people were tired from the pandemic, and that although there was never an excuse for resorting to violence, he hoped the media would not make too much of the incident. He felt it was an isolated incident and should be left as such.Meanwhile, the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, reported that Macron’s assailant had been identified only as Damien T, 28. He remained in police custody and was expected to be charged with assaulting a public figure, which carries a maximum three-year prison term. Police said he had no criminal record.
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Federal Probe: Protest Last Summer Not Broken Up Due to Trump Photo Op
An internal investigation has determined that the decision to forcibly clear racial justice protesters from an area in front of the White House last summer was not influenced by then-President Donald Trump’s plan to stage a photo opportunity at that spot. The report released Wednesday by the Interior Department’s inspector general concludes that the protesters were cleared by U.S. Park Police last June 1 so that a contractor could get started installing new fencing. The demonstrators were protesting the death of George Floyd, who died after a then-Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and pinned him to the ground for about 9 1/2 minutes. A half-hour after the Washington protesters were forced from the area with pepper pellets and flash-bangs, Trump walked across Lafayette Park amid the lingering scent of pepper spray and delivered a short speech while holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church. Park Police officials had already planned to clear the area and “had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park,” Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt said in a statement accompanying the report. “We determined that the evidence did not support a finding that the USPP cleared the park on June 1, 2020, so that then President Trump could enter the park.”FILE – Then-President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he stands outside St. John’s Church at Lafayette Park near the White House, June 1, 2020, in Washington.The report determined that the decision to clear the protesters was justified, but that law enforcement agencies on the scene failed to effectively communicate with each other and failed to communicate warnings to the protesters about the impending crackdown. The conclusions, which deny any political influence on decisions and cite fog of war confusion for any missteps, are likely to be dismissed as insufficient by critics of last summer’s crackdown. Lafayette Park, the Washington nexus of the last summer’s national wave of racial justice protests, is under Park Police jurisdiction; that agency falls under the Interior Department. The new report focuses on the Park Police decision-making and its complicated interactions with various law enforcement entities, including the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department. It points out that “the USPP and the Secret Service did not use a shared radio channel to communicate” and determines that “weaknesses in communication and coordination may have contributed to confusion during the operation.”
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South African Program Aims to Save Smuggled Pangolins
A private game reserve in South Africa is collaborating on a project to rescue trafficked pangolins – a scaly mammal that is one of the most smuggled species in the world. Romain Chanson has the story from the southeast province of KwaZulu-Natal in this report narrated by Carol Guensburg.Camera: Romain Chanson
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Albania Parliament Votes to Impeach President
Albania’s Parliament voted Wednesday to impeach President Ilir Meta, after the ruling Socialist Party accused him of meddling in the April 25 national election and violating the country’s constitution.
The issue goes now to the Constitutional Court, which will have the final say.
One hundred and four lawmakers voted in favor, seven against and three abstained in the Socialist-dominated legislature. Ninety-four votes, or two-thirds, were needed for the impeachment.
Some 30 years since the Balkan nation’s communist era came to an end, it is the first time that Albania’s Parliament has voted to impeach the president. Lawmakers followed an accelerated procedure to impeach after an ad hoc investigative commission worked for three weeks to conclude that Meta had committed impeachable offenses.
According to the commission’s findings, the head of state committed major constitutional violations, with at least nine offenses such as meddling with the election and damaging relations with Albania’s strategic partners along with the country’s reputation.
“Ilir Meta has destroyed the institution of the guarantor of national unity,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said in Parliament. “Ilir Meta has violated the vital separation of powers in our parliamentarian democracy.”
In Albanian law, the president does not belong to a political party and symbolizes the unity of the country.
Reacting on social media, presidential spokesperson Tedi Blushi called the vote an “anti-constitutional and ridiculous” parliamentary decision.
The governing Socialist Party controls the Parliament since the main opposition parties in an unprecedented move vacated their seats in 2017. The Socialist Party will be in power for the next four years after winning the general election in April.
The new Parliament takes over in September.
Meta, who called the move to oust him “illegitimate,” did not appear in front of the Investigative Commission or Parliament to defend himself.
He hosted an arts event at the presidential headquarters as the vote was carried out.
The final decision to remove the president from office now stands with the country’s Constitutional Court, which does not have a deadline to consider the case.
“The court will have to review the procedure that led to the Parliament decision, including the alleged violations, to decide whether they justify ousting him,” Aurela Anastasi, professor of constitutional law at Tirana University’s Law School, told VOA.
The judicial body faces its own challenges, with two of its nine seats currently vacant.
Ilirian Agolli contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Albanian Service.
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Biden Replaces Trump Ban on TikTok, WeChat, Other Apps
Former president Donald Trump’s executive order that attempted to ban Chinese video app TikTok has been replaced by the Biden administration, which has implemented its own executive orders to review several Chinese apps for possible national security and privacy risks. President Joe Biden’s executive order directs the Commerce Department to analyze TikTok, WeChat and other Chinese apps to see if they collect personal data or if they are connected to the Chinese military. According to a White House statement about the order, Commerce, in consultation with other federal agencies, can “make recommendations to protect against harm from the sale, transfer of, or access to sensitive personal data, including personally identifiable information and genetic information — to include large data repositories — to persons owned or controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of, foreign adversaries.”
“The administration is committed to promoting an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet and to protecting human rights online and offline, and to supporting a vibrant global digital economy,” a senior administration official said Wednesday, according to The Verge, which first reported the story. “The challenge that we’re addressing with this [executive order] is that certain countries, including China, do not share these commitments or values and are instead working to leverage digital technologies and American data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks,” the official added. Trump’s efforts to ban TikTok in the summer of 2020 were blocked by the courts, and the issue was soon overshadowed by the 2020 presidential election. US Judge Halts Government Ban on TikTok Trump administration wants TikTok and WeChat removed from app stores
Discussions that a U.S. company might take over TikTok operations in the U.S. never resulted in concrete action.
Last week, the Biden administration expanded a Trump-era ban on American companies investing in Chinese firms with ties to the Chinese military. The order lists 59 Chinese companies that reportedly develop surveillance technology to be used against Muslim minorities and pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong.
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Slow Vaccination Rate in Africa Could Have Major Consequences, Experts Warn
By any measure, the number of those being vaccinated against COVID-19 in Africa are running behind the rest of the world. Health experts warn that failure to inoculate the 1.3 billion people on the continent will have a huge impact on its health care systems and economies. More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, most African countries have vaccinated only a tiny fraction of their populations.Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, has fully vaccinated just 0.1% of its citizens.The Africa Center for Disease Control says three countries — Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea — and the self-declared Sahrawi Republic have yet to receive any vaccines, while Burkina Faso has received 115,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but has not yet administered a single jab.Abdhalah Ziraba, an epidemiologist and the head of the health system at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, says the failure to inoculate is partly due to vaccine hesitancy among the population, and underdeveloped health care systems, especially in non-urban areas. “In Africa, most people live in rural areas. The health care system that should be the system to deliver the vaccines to the last person is not as elaborate as the population is distributed. So, people are far away from where they can get access to vaccines, and as a consequence, they are definitely left out, but they remain at risk of getting exposed to COVID-19,” Zariba said.Kenya has fully vaccinated just 13,000 people out of a population of 50 million, although about 1 million have received one dose of a vaccine. Davji Atellah, the secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union, calls for the government to allocate 1% of the country’s budget to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.“Countries like Uganda, or here in Kenya, we can still see there are waves, there is a surge in infections. So, the ultimate way to get things back to normal is to vaccinate. That’s why we are asking the government, if our current budget is 3.6 trillion Kenya shillings. If 1%, that’s about 35 billion shillings ($324.4 million) is put into buying the vaccines for the Kenyans, then we may have hope to see the opening up.” Atellah said.Kenya’s western region has been witnessing high rates of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, and officials have warned they may have to impose a new lockdown to curb transmissions. In neighboring Uganda, the government recently reintroduced a strict lockdown to fight an increase in infections. The lockdown includes the shutting down of schools and religious activities, and imposing travel bans within the country.Ziraba said African countries’ failure to vaccinate their population will disrupt everyday life and will pose a problem to the rest of the world.“It will be a cascade that will be very disruptive to the African countries’ economies and health care system. But the rest of the world will not sit pretty because while a big part of their population will be protected, they will not be comfortable knowing that there will be a new infection coming to their borders every now and then,” Ziraba said.Overall, Africa has recorded about 5 million cases of COVID-19 and 133,000 deaths.
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UN Agencies Commend Indonesia’s Rescue of Rohingya Refugees at Sea
U.N. agencies have commended the Indonesian government for offering a safe haven to dozens of Rohingya refugees who have been stranded at sea for months.Ninety Rohingya embarked on their ill-fated journey from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in the first week of February. Nine refugees reportedly had died by the time their harrowing four-month odyssey came to an end last Friday. Spokesman for the U.N. Migration Agency Paul Dillon said the boat ran into trouble almost immediately after it set sail. He said the engine broke down leaving the group adrift at sea and putting the refugees’ lives at risk.“They ran into engine trouble again near East Aceh last week. Local fishermen discovered their stranded vessel and brought them to safety. Upon disembarkation, the local government of Aceh officials immediately conducted rapid COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 vaccinations were subsequently provided to all of the arrivals,” he said.Dillon said his agency is providing food, drinking water and medical support to the 81 Rohingya who survived the journey. He said the group consists of 45 women, 17 men and 19 children.U.N. refugee spokesman Babar Balloch said the UNHCR and humanitarian partners also are onsite to provide additional support and to ensure that refugee needs are met.Rohingya Muslims rest on a beach after their boat was stranded on Idaman Island in East Aceh, Indonesia, June 4, 2021.He notes this is not the first time Rohingya refugees at sea have been rescued by the communities and local authorities in Aceh, Indonesia. He praises them for providing a lifeline to the desperate people, noting not all nations are as humane.“It is both a humanitarian imperative and an international obligation to provide vessels in distress with life-saving assistance and disembarkation to a place of safety…Vulnerable women, children and men should not be left to the mercy of the high seas,” said Balloch.Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar in 2017. Human rights officials say thousands of refugees flee the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar every year in hopes of achieving a better life in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.The International Organization for Migration says roughly 1,400 Rohingya found themselves stranded at sea during the 2020 sailing season, which ended with the arrival of the monsoons in early June. It says at least 130 Rohingya are reported to have died.
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Biden Heads to Europe for Summits with Allies and Putin
President Joe Biden headed to Europe Wednesday on his first overseas trip as the U.S. leader, set to hold high-level talks with other Western heads of state before meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva. As he boarded Air Force One, Biden said his goals for the trip were strengthening ties with allies, while “making it clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight.” President Joe Biden talks to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 9, 2021.Biden also said he would be announcing a new strategy for vaccinating the world against the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. has vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but impoverished countries in Africa and elsewhere have trailed far behind that level of inoculations. As he left for Britain, the White House said the trip “will highlight America’s commitment to rallying the world’s democracies, coming together to shape the rules of the road for the 21st century, defend our values and tackle the world’s biggest challenges.” Biden is holding talks Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson before attending the G-7 summit of leading industrial nations in Cornwall, Britain, from Friday to Sunday. He and first lady Jill Biden are also meeting Sunday with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle before leaving for a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday. While in the Belgian capital, Biden will hold separate talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a NATO ally who has angered Washington by his go-it-alone stance in buying a Russian-made air defense system that is incompatible with NATO’s. On Tuesday, Biden meets with Belgian King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as well as attending a U.S.-European Union summit. In Geneva on Wednesday, Biden is meeting with Swiss Confederation President Guy Parmelin, before his potentially contentious sit-down with Putin — the first time the two leaders have met face to face since Biden became president. Throughout his trip, Biden said he hopes to present a different face for the U.S. than former President Donald Trump, who often contended that NATO allies were not for the most part contributing their fair share to support the seven-decade-old Western military alliance. The White House said Biden would “affirm the United States’ commitment to NATO, trans-Atlantic security and collective defense.” At the G-7 summit, the White House said Biden “will reinforce our commitment to multilateralism, work to advance key U.S. policy priorities on public health, economic recovery and inclusive growth, and demonstrate solidarity and shared values among major democracies.” Meeting with Putin Biden’s relations with Putin are already strained. Trump held Putin blameless of allegations that Russia intruded in the 2016 U.S. presidential to help Trump’s election victory. FILE – Security officers stand outside the Villa La Grange, ahead of the June 16 summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 4, 2021.By contrast, Biden, in early phone conversations with Putin, has bluntly told the Russian leader the U.S. holds the Kremlin responsible for election interference, a massive cyberattack on U.S. government agencies and the poisoning of Putin opponent Alexey Navalny. Each country has expelled some of the other’s diplomats from Moscow and Washington. In a television interview, Biden also said he considered Putin to be a “killer,” a claim Putin quickly turned against the U.S. by citing its slaughter of Native Americans in the 18th century settlement of the country, and deadly abuse of minorities throughout its history. Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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US Surgeons Help Russian Boy Born Deaf, Without Ears
Four-year-old Kirill Zherebtsov was born deaf and without ears. He was scheduled for a special surgery in California but a day before his flight, his mother died unexpectedly. What happened next is a story in resilience. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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‘In the Heights’ Lifts Hopes for a Latino Film Breakthrough
Color. Dance. Music. Joy. An all Latino cast!The hype for “In the Heights” has brought great expectation for Latinos in the United States, a group that’s been historically underrepresented and widely typecast in films. With upcoming titles like “Cinderella” with Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” with Mexican star Salma Hayek and Steven Spielberg’s revival of “West Side Story,” it’s just the beginning of a string of productions that place Latinos front and center.”In the Heights,” which opens Friday, is director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Tony-award winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes about the hopes and struggles of residents of New York City’s Washington Heights. Many hope it marks a new beginning on the big screen for the largest minority group in the country — one that mirrors shifts that have already happened for Black and Asian actors and creators.This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows director John Chu, left, and Lin-Manuel Miranda on the set of “In the Heights.””You have this beautiful collage of people in the community,” says Jimmy Smits, who plays Kevin Rosario, a single father and the owner a taxi cab service, in “In the Heights.” “It’s the immigrant experience that’s been part of the fabric of this country since it started. And it’s positive. So we need that right now after the pandemic.”John Leguizamo agrees.”I think that ‘In the Heights’ is gonna be THE project that changes the whole thing finally,” says the Colombian-American actor and playwright, who won a special Tony Award in 2018 for his commitment to bringing diverse stories and audiences to Broadway through his one-man shows like “Freak, and “Latin History for Morons.”Leguizamo says he’s been pitching stories to Hollywood for 30-plus years.”I started to believe that maybe I don’t know how to write, maybe I just don’t know how to pitch, cause all my stories were rejected,” he says. “And then I started to realize, ‘Oh my God, it’s because it was Latin content!’ They didn’t know what to do with it.”They weren’t rejecting my ability, there were rejecting my culture.”The Census Bureau estimates almost 60 million Hispanics lived in the United States as of 2018. And many are devoted filmgoers: Latinos have consistently led the box office, reaching 29% of tickets sold, according to the latest Motion Picture Association report on theatergoers.Yet they only represent 4.5% of all speaking or named characters and a mere 3% of lead or co-lead actors, a 2019 study of 1,200 popular movies from 2007 to 2018 by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found.Awards recognition, too, has been elusive. This year’s Oscars featured a diverse slate of nominees, but no Latino performers.FILE – Actress Rita Moreno poses with her Oscar after she was named best supporting actress at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 9, 1962. She won for her role in “West Side Story.”Since Rita Moreno became the first Latina to win best supporting actress award in 1962 as Anita in “West Side Story” only one other Latino has won: Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro for his supporting role 2000’s “Traffic.” Before them, Puerto Rican José Ferrer became the first Latino actor to receive an Academy Award for his leading role in “Cyrano de Bergerac” in 1951, and Mexican-born Anthony Quinn got two supporting actor statues for “Viva Zapata!” (1953) and “Lust for Life” (1957).No Latina has won best actress at the Oscars, with Hayek one of the few who have even been considered.Moreno, an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner whose career spans seven decades, says she doesn’t expect to live to see Latinos achieve broad success in Hollywood.”My age forbids it. But I sure as hell hope something happens,” Moreno says “I can’t believe we’re still struggling the way we are.””I don’t know what the hell is wrong. I don’t know what is not working right,” Moreno says. “The Black community has done incredibly, and I have nothing but the deepest admiration for the Black professional community. They’ve done it. And I think we can take some lessons from them. But where is our ‘Moonlight’? Why are we not advancing?”Nevertheless, Leguizamo says he’s seen an important change during the COVID-19 pandemic and with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.”The studios woke up,” says Leguizamo, who is now in talks to direct a few projects, including one he’s written. “I think everybody is making moves to change into being inclusive. I see it from small producers, directors in their offices, in their casting. I see it at Viacom. I see it at Univision. I see it at Netflix. I see it everywhere!”Audiences will too, starting this summer with releases like Everardo Gout’s “The Forever Purge” with Ana de la Reguera (both Mexican); M. Night Shyamalan’s “OLD,” with Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move” with del Toro.Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” set for December 10, includes a Latino cast this time. Many “Puerto Ricans” in the original were white actors in brown makeup and, although widely successful, the 1961 movie was also criticized for stereotypical portrayals of Latinos.This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Anthony Ramos in a scene from “In the Heights.”, who leads “In the Heights” as Usnavi, the character originally played by Miranda on the stage, says that “now is an incredible, beautiful moment where we can capitalize on Hollywood being receptive to what is naturally happening in the streets.”As for Miranda, who became a superstar with the Broadway hit “Hamilton” and since then has been working also on TV and film, the “time has caught up to ‘In the Heights'” and he hopes people of color will support it.”We’re part of a larger series of voices,” Miranda says. “I remember how important it was for me to go support ‘Black Panther’ opening weekend, to go and support ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ opening weekend, to vote with my wallet, to go and support ‘Minari’ opening weekend. If you want newer and richer stories beyond the ones you’ve heard, you vote with your wallet.”
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Tigray War Victims Buried in Mass Graves
Some 200 bodies have been buried in shallow graves in and around the town of Hawzen, Ethiopia after more than seven months of war in the Tigray region. As VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Hawzen, residents fear the fighting will continue and more people will be killed.Camera: Yan Boechat, Produce: Jason Godman
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Australian Scientists Confirm Discovery of New Dinosaur Species
Officials in Australia have confirmed the discovery of a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur, the largest ever found on the continent, and one of the largest to have ever lived.A study published Monday in the scientific journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science describes how bones originally discovered in 2006 have been officially designated as Australotitan Cooperensis, a giant sauropod, a type of long-necked plant-eating dinosaur.Queensland Museum paleontologist Scott Hocknull told reporters Tuesday the animal stood five to six-and-a-half meters high and was 25 to 30 meters long from head to tail.The dinosaur is known as Australotitan for short, and affectionately as “Cooper” by the members of the team that conducted the study. The bones were originally discovered on a family farm in 2006 about 1,000 kilometers west of Brisbane in the Eromanga Basin.The team of paleontologists, geologists and volunteers spent 15 years studying the bones using 3-D digital scanning technology to compare the dinosaur with its close relatives, to determine and confirm what they had found. Hocknull said, “We compared Australotitan’s bones to all of these gigantic sauropods and it’s in the top 10 to 15.”The bones had been on display in the museum since 2007 pending the results of the study.That part of the titanosaur family lived about 100 million years ago. The Queensland Museum says they were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropod dinosaurs and the largest known land-dwelling animals to have ever lived.
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UN Human Rights Warns of ‘Massive Loss of Life’ in Eastern Myanmar
A United Nations official says Myanmar’s eastern Kayah State is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people facing starvation after fleeing their homes to escape fighting between security and ethnic rebel forces. Tom Andrews, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, issued a statement Wednesday saying more than 100,000 people in Kayah State, which lies along the border with Thailand, have been forced to flee their homes and villages to escape “bombing raids and artillery fire” by security forces, with many forced into nearby forests without food, water or shelter. Andrews said he’s received reports of junta forces setting up blockades in Kayah State to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching the refugees, even going so far as to lay landmines on public roads. He warns that “mass deaths from starvation, disease and exposure” could occur in Kayah State “without immediate action,” and called on neighboring countries to do “everything possible to support the movement of cross-border aid into Myanmar.” Myanmar has descended into chaos since the military’s February 1 overthrow of the civilian government and its leader, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta has launched a bloody crackdown in response to daily nationwide protests against the takeover. A human rights monitoring group estimates that at least 850 protesters have been killed since the coup, though the army disputes that figure.
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Residents Dig Mass Graves to Bury Tigray War Victims
On the outskirts of Hawzen, Ethiopia, rocks and dirt cover the bodies of war victims in shallow graves. Some graves hold dozens of bodies, some only a few. About 200 people are believed to be buried in and around the town after more than seven months of war. Locals say there are about 20 graves in all, containing bodies that were found in the streets after multiple battles, the most recent of which happened just a few weeks ago. Photo gallery by Yan Boechat Destruction in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region The town of Hawzen, Ethiopia, has changed hands five times in battles since last November Hawzen has changed hands about five times in fights between the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Militias and Eritrean soldiers also are among the warring parties. As sand blows over the field outside her house on the edge of town, Letay Girmay, 50, says she helped bury bodies and hopes they can soon be moved to a churchyard. “The bodies lay … on the ground for seven or eight days,” she said. “And there was no one to help us take them to the church, so a few of us buried them. They smelled bad, rotting and attracting maggots.” A priest was summoned for a blessing before they covered the bodies. War-torn town Inside Hawzen, many buildings are in ruins, and people can be seen funneling water from trucks. Much of the local infrastructure has been destroyed. Government forces are now in control, manning checkpoints and patrolling the market. Most of the residents have fled to camps or to the homes of families or friends in safer towns, villages and cities. Nearly 2 million people in the Tigray region are displaced inside Ethiopia and more than 60,000 have fled to neighboring Sudan. Those remaining in Hawzen are on edge, fearing new battles could break out again at any moment. “There have been so many bombings,” says a woman selling tomatoes and onions in a market, still open despite the tension. She doesn’t want her name used for security reasons. “Children have died, and houses are destroyed.” In the market, most sellers lay their wares on tarps on the ground. Vegetables, cooking oil and a little candy is available, but almost no one is buying. The usual shoppers are residents of the town. Many remaining say they only stay because they cannot afford to go anywhere else. “There is no business at all,” says the woman. “But we sit here all day.” At an outdoor coffee shop near the market, a 33-year-old man, who also does not want his name used for safety reasons, says he used to own a small grocery store. He sold things like coffee, pasta and sugar. His shop, like so many others, was looted and is now empty, he says. “Now, I have nothing.” In one of the few restaurants still open, Haftom Gidey, 35, says he was once a waiter in a local hotel. Since the war began, the hotel has been closed and now it is looted and damaged. But Haftom says poverty is the least of his worries. He also helped bury the dead after bombings and has fled his home several times. “I’m not afraid,” he insists. “There may be things to fear, but nothing could be worse than what I have already seen.” Recovery? The Ethiopian government says it is working to help the people of Tigray recover, distributing aid and prosecuting soldiers accused of sexual violence. But much of the region is cut off, with roads closed and internet service blocked. The World Food Program says more than 90% of the people in Tigray need emergency food aid. Most health care centers in Tigray are looted and/or damaged, and hundreds of women and girls have reported being raped by Eritrean soldiers, the Amhara regional militias and Ethiopian federal soldiers. And while the government appears to have captured most of the region, battles continue, with war-wounded arriving at hospitals daily. In Hawzen, locals say they see no sign of the war abating as they bury their dead themselves. “The killing continues,” says Letay, as the wind whips up her forest-green head wrap. “Recently we buried another seven bodies near the church.”
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Why Malaysia, Normally Calm, Is Upset with China over a Maritime Dispute
Analysts say a rare burst of anger from Malaysia over the flight of Chinese air force planes near its airspace and a coast guard vessel spotted in a disputed waterway indicates Beijing has crossed a line with Kuala Lumpur in its slow maritime expansion. Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a June 1 statement it would summon the Chinese ambassador over 16 People’s Liberation Army Air Force planes that flew over a Malaysian “maritime zone.” Malaysia’s air force scrambled its own jets to push China’s planes out. Days later, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency official said a Chinese coast guard ship had been seen 156 kilometers from shore, according to the Borneo Post domestic news website. Malaysia normally keeps quiet or protests out of public view when the militarily stronger China passes ships into waters Kuala Lumpur sees as its own. Aircraft sightings are less common. It “bends over backwards to accommodate” China because of their deep economic relationship, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner for the past 12 years and a source of investment in domestic infrastructure. Steady coast guard presence But Malaysian officials have long simmered privately as Chinese coast guard ships frequent waters in their exclusive economic zone north of Borneo, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. The coast guard has kept a regular presence there since 2013, he estimates. Malaysia drills for natural gas in those waters, which are part of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea. China says 90% of the sea, including the tract that its coast guard patrols, falls under its flag. The two Asian nations entered into a standoff in November after a Chinese coast guard ship stationed itself near Luconia Shoals north of Borneo, the same tract where the vessel appeared this month. Malaysia says those waters belong to a maritime exclusive economic zone.China and Malaysia, Usually Friends, Land in Another Maritime Standoff The Royal Malaysian navy is tailing a Chinese coast guard vessel that sailed unusually close to Malaysia, analysts say Malaysian statements June 8 about the Chinese coast guard show the frequency of those vessels is “getting a bit too much,” Oh said. Domestic media outlets quoted the maritime enforcement agency official saying his agency and the Malaysian navy were “monitoring the situation closely.” Malaysia cannot do much against China militarily because Chinese forces are stronger, analysts agree. “What can they do?” said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia. This month’s tiffs will mark a “really bad patch” in relations, he said.
“Those Chinese ships are always there,” Lockman said. “They come and go but they have a permanent presence at Luconia Shoals. Obviously, this is an irritant in the relationship. It is not appreciated by the Malaysian government.”
Exercises with a U.S. carrier groupChina is probably giving Malaysia a “stress test” after it joined the United States, Beijing’s rival superpower, for military air exercises in April, Oh said. The USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group carried out the exercises in the South China Sea alongside Malaysia’s air force. “This is the Chinese simultaneously signaling their unhappiness to Malaysia and also flexing muscle to the U.S.,” Oh said. China hopes to take more control over the wider sea bit by bit, Vuving said. “I think it’s another slice in the salami,” he said. “China’s end goal in the South China Sea is to control the water and the skies, so every day they advance a little.” Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the same sea as well. They prize the waterway for its undersea fuel reserves and rich fishing grounds. China has alarmed the others by landfilling tiny islets over the past decade for military installations. Vietnam and the Philippines speak out against China when its ships, planes or oil rigs overlap their offshore economic zones. The United States has no claim in the South China Sea but counts Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan as allies. U.S. officials regularly pan China over its expansion in the waterway, sparking angry rebuttals from Beijing. The United States passed navy ships through the sea 10 times in 2019 and another 10 times last year.
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With Trump Suspension, Facebook Tells World Leaders: Your Speech Will Not Get a Pass
Facebook’s recent decision to ban former president Donald Trump for two years sends a message to world leaders that Facebook is stepping up its role as sheriff on its service. Tina Trinh reports.Produced by Tina Trinh
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US Forming Expert Groups on Safely Lifting Global Travel Restrictions
The Biden administration is forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to safely restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions, a White House official said on Tuesday. Another U.S. official said the administration will not move quickly to lift orders that bar people from much of the world from entering the United States because of the time it will take for the groups to do their work. The White House informed airlines and others in the travel industry about the groups, the official said. “While we are not reopening travel today, we hope that these expert working groups will help us use our collective expertise to chart a path forward, with a goal of reopening international travel with our key partners when it is determined that it is safe to do so,” the White House official said, adding “any decisions will be fully guided by the objective analysis and recommendations by public health and medical experts.” The groups will be led by the White House COVID Response Team and the National Security Council and include the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other U.S. agencies. The CDC said on Tuesday it was easing travel recommendations on 110 countries and territories, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Africa and Iran, but has declined to lift any COVID-19 travel restrictions. FILE – Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 18, 2021.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the U.S. travel restrictions in place since 2020 are subject to “an interagency conversation, and we are looking at the data in real time as to how we should move forward with that.” The Biden administration has faced pressure from some lawmakers who said U.S. communities along the Canadian border have faced economic hardship because of land border restrictions. Airlines and others have pressed the administration to lift the restrictions that prevent most non-U.S. citizens who have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil from traveling to the United States. The United States also bars most non-essential travel at its land borders with Mexico and Canada. Airlines for America, a trade group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and others, praised the working groups but the group believes “these working groups should act quickly to endorse a policy backed by science that will allow travelers who are fully vaccinated to travel to the U.S. Quickly is the key – we believe the science is there.” FILE – A United Airlines airplane sits at a gate at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey.United Airlines said it was encouraged the White House was prioritizing a plan to reopen air travel to international markets and requested urgency, given the typically busy impending summer travel season. “Now is the time to implement a reopening strategy for the benefit of both the economy and the traveling public.” On Monday, the heads of all passenger airlines flying between Britain and the United States called on both countries to lift limits on trans-Atlantic travel restrictions. U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet at the G-7 meeting of advanced economies this week in Cornwall, England. U.S. and UK airline officials said they do not expect Washington to lift restrictions until around July 4 at the earliest as the administration aims to get more Americans vaccinated. The U.S. Travel Association welcomed the working groups, saying “a public-private task force can quickly develop a blueprint to reopen international inbound travel and jumpstart a sustained jobs and economic recovery.”
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How a Fake FBI-Encrypted Device Ensnared Criminals Around the World
The global sting operation billed as “Trojan Shield” that led to the arrests of hundreds of criminals this week began with the takedown of an encrypted device maker catering to drug traffickers around the world. In 2018, the FBI dismantled Canada-based Phantom Secure, forcing its customers — at the time estimated at more than 10,000 — to look for other encrypted apps. To fill the void, the FBI in late 2019 recruited a “confidential human source” to launch its own hardened encrypted device company called ANOM, putting a new, secure communications product on the market. The informant in turn introduced the device to his network of trusted distributors, allowing the use of the device to grow organically, according to an FBI affidavit. The ANOM app quickly took off in the criminal underworld. So confident were ANOM’s distributors and administrators in the secrecy of the devices that “they openly marketed them to other potential users as designed by criminals for criminals,” Andy Grossman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, said at a press conference Tuesday in San Diego, announcing charges against 17 foreign nationals accused of administering and distributing the app. The ANOM logo is displayed on the screen of a smartphone in Paris, June 8, 2021.Law enforcement officials stand in front of an Operation Trojan Shield logo at a news conference, in San Diego, June 8, 2021.The data was then provided to the FBI, which reviewed the communications for criminal activity and shared them with law enforcement agencies around the world. Law enforcement officials said they obtained more than 27 million messages in 45 different languages exchanged over the ANOM app during the 18 months of the investigation. “The supreme irony here is that the very devices that these criminals were using to hide from law enforcement were actually beacons for law enforcement,” Grossman said. While the FBI had previously infiltrated encrypted communications platforms used by criminals, Operation Trojan Shield marked the first time the bureau operated its own platform, which at the time of its takedown on Monday had more than 9,000 active users. The operation was unprecedented in its scale, innovative strategy, international coordination and investigative outcome, Grossman said. Law enforcement agencies from 16 countries took part in the investigation, searching 700 locations and arresting more than 800 people, including 300 over the last two days, on a range of criminal charges. In addition, more than 32 tons of narcotics and more than $48 million in international currencies were seized. In the U.S., prosecutors unsealed federal charges against 17 foreign nationals, including Ayik, with drug trafficking, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Eight of the 17 were taken into custody late Monday. The rest remain at large. Law enforcement officials said the sting operation’s real significance lay beyond the arrests and seizures. “The immense and unprecedented success of Operation Trojan Shield should be a warning to international criminal organizations: Your criminal communications may not be secure, and you can count on law enforcement worldwide working together to combat dangerous crime that crosses international borders,” said Suzanne Turner, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego field office.
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Pipeline Executive Felt Cornered by Ransomware Attack
The top executive for the biggest fuel pipeline operator in the United States told lawmakers he felt like he had no choice but to pay off hackers after a ransomware attack shut down operations along the East Coast. Testifying Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Colonial Pipeline Chief Executive Joseph Blount took responsibility for agreeing to pay the Russian-based DarkSide Network approximately $5 million to minimize potentially disastrous delays to fuel delivery. “I know how critical our pipeline is to the country, and I put the interests of the country first,” Blount said. “It was the hardest decision I’ve made in my 39 years in the energy industry,” he added. “We wanted to stay focused on getting the pipeline back up and running. I believe with all my heart it was the right choice to make.” The May 7 DarkSide ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline spawned fuel shortages and panic-buying across parts of the U.S., pushing prices higher as drivers hunted for gas stations that had not run out of fuel. FILE – A man with a gas container greets a motorist waiting in a lengthy line to enter a gasoline station during a surge in the demand for fuel following the cyberattack that crippled the Colonial Pipeline, in Durham, North Carolina, May 12, 2021.U.S. law enforcement, including cyber experts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), routinely warn companies against paying ransoms to hackers. But Blount said that even though the company was in contact with the FBI, he felt paying DarkSide was the most prudent option. “It was our understanding that the decision was solely ours as a private company,” he told lawmakers. “Considering the consequences of potentially not bringing the pipeline back on as quickly as I possibly could, I chose the ransom.” Blount said Colonial did not deal with DarkSide directly and instead hired legal experts and negotiators to act as intermediaries. The payment was delivered May 8 to the ransomware network in the form of the bitcoin cryptocurrency. In return, DarkSide provided Colonial with a decryption key that helped the company regain access to its systems and eventually resume operations, Blount said, noting that some systems are just now coming back online. Blount’s testimony comes just a day after the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI announced that they managed to track the ransom and recover the majority of the bitcoin, which was valued at about $2.3 million. FILE – A Colonial Pipeline station is seen in Smyrna, Ga., near Atlanta, May 11, 2021.Other experts worry that companies, organizations and governments, like Colonial Pipeline, are putting themselves at a disadvantage. “With ransomware, the misconception is that there’s two options: pay criminals or don’t pay criminals,” said Raj Samani, co-founder of No More Ransom, an organization that distributes decryption keys for free. “Many of the decryptors that are developed by the ransomware groups are actually rubbish,” said Samani, who is also the chief scientist at McAfee, a U.S.-based cybersecurity company. “So, even if you pay a fee, you may not get your data back.” In the case of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, the decryption key did allow the company to start getting some systems up and running. “It’s not a perfect tool,” Blount told lawmakers Tuesday, adding that the company is working to further harden its cyber defenses. Blount said DarkSide was able to access Colonial’s systems by exploiting a virtual private network (VPN) that was no longer in use and which was protected only by a single password. CISA recommends using what is known as multifactor authentication, which requires users use a password and then complete a second step, such as replying to a text message, in order to access critical systems.
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