Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Billions Spent on U.S. Cyberdefenses Failed to Detect Giant Russian Hack – The New York Times

So far, though, President Trump has said nothing, perhaps aware that his term in office is coming to an end just as it began, with questions about what he knew about Russian cyberoperations, and when. The National Security Agency has been largely silent, hiding behind the classification of the intelligence. Even the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the group within the Department of Homeland Security charged with defending critical networks, has been conspicuously quiet on the Russian mega hack.

Mr. Blumenthal’s message on Twitter was the first official acknowledgment that Russia was behind the intrusion.

Trump administration officials have acknowledged that several federal agencies — the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, parts of the Pentagon as well as the Treasury and the Department of Commerce — had been compromised. Investigators were struggling to determine the extent to which the military, intelligence community and nuclear laboratories were affected.

Saudi prosecutor seeks maximum jail sentence for women’s rights activist | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian (this is a US ally?)

Loujain al-Hathloul The state prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia is seeking the maximum possible jail sentence for the women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, raising the possibility that the campaigner could face 20 years behind bars after a verdict in her case is announced next week.

In a hearing on Wednesday at Saudi Arabia’s notorious terrorism court, the judge said he would deliver a verdict and possible sentencing in the case on Monday, said Hathloul’s sister Lina, who also shared a copy of the prosecution’s indictment with the Guardian.

Later on Wednesday night, however, Loujain’s parents, who act as her legal team, received a text message summoning them to Riyadh’s criminal court on Thursday morning. It is not yet clear what this development means for Hathloul’s case, which was transferred from the criminal court to the terrorism court last month.

“My sister must be released … All she has done is ask for women to be treated with the dignity and freedom that should be their right. For that, the Saudi authorities are seeking the maximum sentence available under the law – 20 years in prison,” said Lina al-Hathloul.

“They say she is a terrorist – in reality she is a humanitarian, an activist and a woman who simply wants a better fairer world.”

Source: Saudi prosecutor seeks maximum jail sentence for women’s rights activist | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian

California breaks single-day coronavirus death record, as fatalities rise 35 percent in a week | TheHill

California is now averaging 32,000 new coronavirus cases a day, the Times reports, and has so far recorded 21,500 deaths and nearly 1.65 million cases.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have also risen, with 14,283 patients statewide as of Monday. The record for hospitalizations has been broken for 17 days straight, the Times notes, more than doubling since Thanksgiving.

In November, Newsom ordered a one-month lockdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Newsom said early in November that stay-at-home orders may go into effect in some regions of the state where available units in intensive care units fall below 15 percent.

Source: California breaks single-day coronavirus death record, as fatalities rise 35 percent in a week | TheHill

Covid-19 antibody drug used to treat President Trump isn’t getting to Americans

The drugs are not simple to administer. For one thing, they’re given by intravenous infusion, so patients must go to health centers where this can be done. But since they’re likely contagious, existing IV facilities, like where patients receive chemotherapy, can’t be used. Another issue is that the drugs need to be given early in the course of the disease. The FDA’s guidance for health-care providers says they should be administered as soon as possible after diagnosis, and within 10 days of symptom onset. It recommends against use of the drugs once patients are so sick they’re hospitalized. But many patients don’t feel sick right away, so the idea of an IV-infused drug doesn’t occur to them immediately after diagnosis, Slaoui and Azar suggested.

Source: Covid-19 antibody drug used to treat President Trump isn’t getting to Americans

The Jasmine Revolution

yaskhan

The hard face of freedom
Beckoning people to martyrdom
By the people, for the people
For future generations to come.

It is like the devil's decree
People know not where to flee
The blue blooded menace
Turning blind eye to people's plea.

In this civil resistance strife
Lost is the value of life
Sitting cozy in glass houses
Their exrtavagance rampant, rife.

Hang in there people, stay steady
Even though blue waters turn bloody
Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya
Soon a status quo of victory.

#Rubaiyat

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