Tag: unrest

US believes Wagner mercenary group is expanding influence and took delivery of North Korean arms | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Newly downgraded US intelligence suggests the Russian mercenary group Wagner has assumed expanded influence and is recruiting convicts – including some with serious medical conditions – from prisons to supplement Moscow’s flagging military.

The group recently took delivery of arms from North Korea, a top US official said, a sign of its growing role in the war in Ukraine.

And the US believes Wagner could be locked in a power battle with the Russian military itself as it jockeys for influence with the Kremlin.

“In certain instances, Russian military officials are actually subordinate to Wagner’s command,” said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council. “It’s pretty apparent to us that Wagner is emerging as a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries.”

The revelations about the Wagner group came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic visit to Washington, where he thanked the United States for its military assistance and said more was needed to fend off Russian advances.

Wagner has emerged as a key player in the 10-month conflict. The group is often described as President Vladimir Putin’s off-the-books troops. It has expanded its footprint globally since its creation in 2014, and has been accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria and Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the US applied new restrictions on Wagner’s access to technology exports.

Kirby said the US estimates Wagner currently has about 50,000 personnel deployed inside Ukraine, of which 40,000 could be convicts recruited from Russian prisons. He said the group was spending $100 million per month to fund its operations in Ukraine.

The group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has even traveled personally to Russian prisons to recruit convicts himself to go to the front lines and fight. Some of them suffer from “serious medical conditions,” Kirby said.

“It seems as though Mr. Prigozhin is willing to just throw Russian bodies into the meat grinder in Bakhmut. In fact, about 1,000 Wagner fighters have been killed in the fighting in just recent weeks, and we believe that 90% of those 1,000 fighters were, in fact, convicts,” Kirby said.

Prigozhin, who has sometimes been referred to as “Putin’s chef,” already has close ties to the Russian president. But Kirby suggested he was working to strengthen those ties through his efforts to bolster Russian forces through his mercenary recruitment.

“It’s all about how good he looks to Mr. Putin, and how well he’s regarded at the Kremlin,” he said. “In fact, we would go so far as to say that his influence is expanding.”

Last month, Wagner received a delivery of infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea, Kirby said, an indication of how Russia and its military partners continue to seek ways around Western sanctions and export controls.

Wagner, not the Russian government, paid for the equipment. The US doesn’t believe it will significantly change the battlefield dynamic in Ukraine – but suggested North Korea could be planning to deliver further material.

Prigozhin said Thursday that Kirby’s claims that his group took weapons deliveries from North Korea are “nothing more than gossip and speculation.”

“Everyone knows that it’s been a long time since North Korea has supplied weapons to the Russian Federation,” Prigozhin said in a statement published on his Telegram channel. “And no other such attempts have even been made. Therefore, these arms deliveries from the DPRK are nothing more than gossip and speculation.”

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December 22, 2022
Hillary Clinton calls Zelensky’s speech ‘extraordinary’ | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress “extraordinary,” saying the country’s fight against Russian aggression has “proven that they are a really good investment for the United States.”

The speech “connected the struggle of Ukrainian people to our own revolution, to our own feelings that we want to be warm in our homes to celebrate Christmas and to get us to think about all the families in Ukraine that will be huddled in the cold and to know that they are on the front lines of freedom right now,” Clinton said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” Wednesday.

She said Zelensky’s historic address “strengthened both Democrats and Republicans who understand what is at stake in this fight against Putin and Russian aggression and now with their ally, Iran, as well.”

“I also think no one is asking for a blank check,” Clinton added. “I believe that the Ukrainians have proven that they are a really good investment for the United States. They are not asking us to be there to fight their war. They’re fighting it themselves. They’re asking us and our allies for the means to not only defend themselves but to actually win.”

When asked, Clinton said that President Joe Biden sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine was “absolutely” the right move.

“I hope that they will send more than one,” she added. She noted there’s “been some reluctance in the past” by the US and NATO to provide advanced equipment, but added “We’ve seen with our own eyes how effective Ukrainian military is.”

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

“I think around now, what [Putin] is considering is how to throw more bodies, and that’s what they will be – bodies of Russian conscripts – into the fight in Ukraine,” Clinton said.

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December 22, 2022
‘I really had tears in my eyes’: Ukrainians react to Zelensky’s historic visit to Washington DC | CNN

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CNN
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech at the US Capitol on Wednesday, where he expressed gratitude for US support, was a historic moment, and one which resonated with people in his home country.

CNN spoke to members of the public in Ukraine to gauge their reaction to Zelensky’s visit and the way he was received by US lawmakers, with one woman saying the moment brought “tears” to her eyes.

The transatlantic visit was Zelensky’s first trip outside Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. He took the opportunity to thank the key Western ally for the country’s support, and ask for further assistance.

“Against all odds, and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking,” Zelensky said.

His trip drew ire from the Kremlin, with a spokesperson saying neither US President Joe Biden nor Zelensky were showing a “potential willingness to listen to Russia’s concerns.” Moscow warned that the US supplying Patriot missile systems to Ukraine would prolong people’s “suffering,” and Russia’s foreign ministry said Kyiv and its Western allies are “set for a long confrontation with Russia.”

Yet within Ukraine itself, people were touched by their leader’s speech.

Mariya Hrachova, a marketing director in Kyiv, told CNN that she is always moved by Zelensky’s speeches, and Wednesday was no different.

“When he spoke to the House of Representatives, the way he looked, he didn’t wear a suit, he was himself,” she said. “He spoke the truth, he said what he wanted, what he had to say, I admire that.”

His reception was “very touching,” said Hrachova, who underlined the effectiveness of the visit in “bringing back weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid,” even if more will be needed in future.

“We understand that will need to increase,” said Hrachova. “I know that there are various views in the American establishment about the situation in Ukraine and US support for Ukraine, but we hope that the majority in the government and in the Congress will support us.”

Tetyana Vasylivna, a fruit seller in Kyiv, also hailed Zelensky’s visit to Washington.

“It seems to me that this visit will bring the end of the war closer,” said Vasylivna, who is originally from Kherson. “I think this trip will help us to get victory.”

“I really had tears in my eyes when I see in such a good way he (Zelensky) was welcomed,” she said. “He is doing a great job as a president, really great, I have no other words to describe him.”

Oleksandr Kuzmenko, who works in computer graphics in Kyiv, said it was important that US lawmakers heard about the situation on the ground directly from the Ukrainian president, rather than from a third party.

“I’d say he put it across very well, both in terms of messaging and choreography,” Kuzmenko said. “It was a good way to emphasize all the points and ask for weapons.”

Kuzmenko said that he supports Zelensky’s key messages, and believes the Russian invasion has shown the shortcomings of existing world institutions.

“The current world security architecture is ineffective, and we are the reason it needs to be rebuilt, because of our sacrifice,” he said.

“If we let it pass, it won’t be us having to sort … out this mess, it will be for our children and grandchildren,” added Kuzmenko.

Oleksandr Solonko, a Ukrainian serviceman currently based near Bakhmut, said he didn’t manage to watch Zelensky’s speech in Washington, but he believes that the visit was a positive.

“Such visits do not happen by chance. For us, this is an indicator of the commitment of the United States and that we will continue to be supported,” he said.

“We, the military, are doing our job and expect our government to make progress towards obtaining the necessary weapons and other means to help us drive the occupiers from our land.”

It is also part of “the symbolic war,” said Solonko.

“What will happen behind the scenes of the visit, apart from military cooperation and economic support, is also interesting,” he said. “There are probably many more issues that need to be discussed between the representatives of our countries.”

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December 22, 2022
Opinion: Zelensky’s powerful message to Putin | CNN

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Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
—

Members of the United States Congress, Republicans and Democrats, rose to their feet time and again Wednesday night, nearly drowning out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in one emotional standing ovation after another. It was an extraordinary evening, concluding an extraordinary day during a crucial moment in history.

The entire day was geared to three audiences – the American people and its leaders, the Ukrainian people and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky’s message resonated loudly to all of them: From the moment he landed in the US, dressed in his trademark olive green clothes, to the warm welcome he received in the White House from President Joe Biden, to the rapturous reception in the Congress, a place where few foreign leaders receive the honor of speaking to a joint meeting of the two chambers.

The visit aimed to convince Americans to continue supporting Ukraine, to show Ukrainians that there’s reason to remain hopeful and resilient and to prove to Putin that Ukraine is not about to let up.

The Ukrainian president is an eloquent speaker, but the images alone spoke with soaring power. Biden’s hand on Zelensky’s shoulder. The warmth exuded by so many members of Congress as they greeted him. And then there were the words.

Imagine being Putin, who just yesterday visited one of his very few allies, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and seeing the politically polarized United States come together to embrace Zelensky.

Imagine Putin hearing Biden say, as he did in a press conference at the White House after speaking with Zelensky for more than two hours, “And it was very important for him and everyone else to see that President Zelenskyy and I are united, two countries together, to make sure he cannot succeed…. “It’s important for [Putin] to know that we are going to do everything in our power – everything in our power to see that [Zelensky] succeeds”

The Ukrainian president finally had that visit to the White House he had requested years ago from President Trump, hoping that the image would deter Putin’s aggression. The visit would have to wait until a different American president, and it would be too late to prevent Putin’s assault.

Zelensky made his historic trip at a crucial moment in what future generations may come to view as one of the defining conflicts of our time: the battle between democracy and autocracy, in which Ukraine today is the blazing, blood-soaked, shivering front line.

He came to tell Americans “Thank you.” And he said it over and over. “I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart.” But that was only the first part of his message to the country that has supplied the weapons that have helped enable Ukraine to push back against a much bigger enemy: Zelensky came to explain why this is not just Ukraine’s fight.

“Your money is not charity,” he assured a Congress about to debate billions more in military and economic support, where skeptical Republicans will soon have more influence. “It is an investment in the global security and democracy, that we handle in the most responsible way.”

To continue what has been a successful defense against Russia, despite appalling human suffering, Zelensky had to persuade Americans – in Congress and at home – that Ukraine’s fight is a fight for the values of the free world.

As Zelensky pleaded for continuing and growing support, he wouldn’t be so brazen, so blunt to phrase it directly, but we should know the truth: He may be saying thank you, but it is the free world that should be thanking Ukraine. Ukrainians are fighting a battle for freedom, democracy and the very notion of national sovereignty.

A victory by Ukraine tells dictators everywhere that the old days, when a strong country could invade and swallow its neighbors, are not coming back. Ukraine’s loss would change everyone’s world. This is clearly not just their war.

“We really fight for our common victory against this tyranny that is real life,” Zelensky said in a press conference at the White House — “and we will win.”

The Ukrainian president, in his gravelly voice, was trying to convince the American people and their leaders to stick with Ukraine. He invoked the battles of American soldiers against Nazis in 1944. And he noted that Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas by candlelight – not because it’s more romantic, but because Russian attacks have left much of the country without power, heat or running water. “We do not complain,” he said, nor compare who has it harder. Ukraine just wants to receive the support it needs to continue the fight until victory.

Underscoring the point, he said the soldiers fighting in the brutal battle for Bakhmut asked him to give their battle flag – a flag of Ukraine signed by its defenders – as a gift to the U.S. Congress. Tears were shed in the House.

Zelensky arrived in Washington 300 days after the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion. It was his first international trip since the war began in February, and it came at a time when several factors could conspire to counter what has been the remarkable, ferocious resistance by the Ukrainian people with the massive support from the United States and its NATO allies.

With winter bearing down and Putin’s forces using Iranian drones and other artillery to bombard crucial infrastructure, deliberately targeting civilian installations and leaving millions of Ukrainians in the cold and dark, “trying to use winter as a weapon,” in the words of President Joe Biden, “freezing people, starving people,” the suffering of Ukrainian men, women and children is worsening.

Putin seeks to break what has been an indomitable will to resist. At the same time, the US House of Representatives, which has been reliably supportive of Biden’s campaign to support Ukraine, is about to change hands. Some Republicans, such as Kevin McCarthy, the likely new Speaker of the House, have expressed some reluctance to continue large-scale support for Kyiv, with McCarthy saying he wouldn’t automatically support the Biden administration’s requests for more aid. And that is happening just as Putin is believed to be planning a renewed offensive. Putin, who rules over a much larger, wealthier country, apparently still believes he can win.

Zelensky revealed that he outlined a 10-point peace plan to Biden, but judging by Putin’s recent statements, Russia seems more prepared to keep up the fight than negotiate. Putin seems to be counting on the United States and NATO tiring, slackening their support for Kyiv. That’s why this speech, reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s address to Congress in December 1941, was arguably the most important one Ukraine’s leader has given since the start of the war.

If Americans get tired of supporting Ukraine, if they listen to the ugly voices disparaging Zelensky, Russia could ultimately win, and the world as we know it would change. It would be a victory for autocracy and a grievous loss for democracy. If Zelensky was able to make that clear, his historic visit was a triumph.

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December 21, 2022
5 takeaways from Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic visit to Washington | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Three-hundred days after his country was invaded by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky jetted to Washington, DC, for talks on what the next 300 days might bring.

Shrouded in secrecy until the last minute, the historic visit was heavy with symbolism, from Zelensky’s drab green sweatshirt to President Joe Biden’s blue-and-yellow striped tie to the Ukrainian battle flag unfurled on the House floor.

But the trip was about far more than symbols. Biden wouldn’t invite Zelensky to Washington – and endure a risky trip outside Ukraine for the first time since the war began – if he did not believe something real could be accomplished meeting face-to-face instead of over the phone.

Emerging from their talks, both men made clear they see the war entering a new phase. As Russia sends more troops to the frontlines and wages a brutal air campaign against civilian targets, fears of a stalemate are growing.

Yet as Zelensky departed Washington for a lengthy and similarly risky return trip to Ukraine, it wasn’t clear that a pathway to ending the conflict was any clearer.

In pictures: Zelensky’s wartime visit to US

Gaining clarity on where Zelensky stands when it comes to ending the war was among the prerogatives in bringing him to the White House. The Ukrainian leader had previously expressed a desire for a “just peace” that would end the conflict – a point that US officials said would be at the center of their talks Wednesday.

But on Wednesday, Zelensky used bellicose rhetoric that suggested such a peace was not close, saying the road to ending the war would not involve making concessions to Russia.

“For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,” he said, indicating he doesn’t see any road to peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory or sovereignty.

Later, in his address to Congress, Zelensky said he’d presented a 10-point peace formula to Biden – though US officials said afterward it was the same plan he offered to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit last month.

Among the Western nations that have rallied in support behind Zelensky, there have been lingering concerns about what Zelensky’s long-term plan might be.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Zelensky peppered his address to lawmakers with references to American history, from the critical Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War to the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He delivered his address in English, a purposeful choice he telegraphed ahead of the speech. Even his attire – the now-familiar Army green shirt, cargo pants and boots – seemed designed to remind his audience they were in the presence of a wartime leader.

Over the course of the conflict, Zelensky has demonstrated an acute ability to appeal to his audience, be they national legislatures or the audience of the Grammys.

On Wednesday, he sought to harness Americans’ emotional response to his country’s suffering, evoking dark winter nights as Russia seeks to interrupt Ukraine’s power supply.

“In two days we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe candlelit. Not because it’s more romantic, no, but because there will not be – there will be no electricity,” he said.

But he also seemed aware that many Americans – including some Republicans in Congress – have wondered aloud why billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away. He sought to make the cause about more than his own homeland.

“The battle is not only for life, freedom, and security of Ukrainians or any other nation which Russia attempts to conquer,” he said. “The struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live in.”

He added, “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

At the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Zelensky turned down an American offer to evacuate him from Kyiv.

“I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky told the US.

Ten months later, he got both. When Zelensky touched down outside Washington in a US military plane Wednesday, his arrival capped a 10-day sprint by American and Ukrainian officials to arrange a risky wartime visit meant to rally support for Ukraine’s ongoing resistance to Russia’s invasion.

Just ahead of Zelensky’s arrival, the Biden administration announced it is sending nearly $2 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine – including a sophisticated new Patriot air defense system that Zelensky has been requesting for months.

In weighing a visit, Zelensky suggested to advisers he did not want to travel to Washington had there not been a significant development in the bilateral relationship with the United States, according to a source familiar with the matter. Zelensky viewed the US decision to send a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine as a major shift in the relationship between the two allies.

Yet standing alongside Biden, he was frank that he did not view the single Patriot system as enough.

“We would like to get more Patriots,” he said as Biden laughed. “I’m sorry but we are in war.”

Speaking later to Congress, Zelensky was again up front that he did not believe the American support was sufficient.

“Is it enough? Honestly, not really,” he said of the artillery that the US has so far provided.

Zelensky’s candid request for more Patriots – and Biden’s lighthearted response – amounted to a window into one of the world’s most complicated relationships.

On the surface, Biden and Zelensky have maintained a stalwart partnership. And Zelensky was effusive in his praise of Biden as he went from the Oval Office to the East Room to Capitol Hill.

Yet it doesn’t take much to see tensions just beneath the surface. Zelensky has consistently agitated for additional US support, despite the tens of billions of dollars in military assistance that Biden has directed to his country.

That hasn’t always sat well with Biden or his team. But as he has with a host of other foreign leaders, Biden appeared intent Wednesday on translating physical proximity into a better understanding of his counterpart.

“It is all about looking someone in the eye. I mean it sincerely. I don’t think there is any substitute for sitting down face to face with a friend or a foe and looking them in the eye,” he said.

Listen to Zelensky’s message to Americans from Oval Office

Biden invited Zelensky to Washington this week because he believes the war in Ukraine is entering a “new phase,” officials said ahead of the visit. As winter sets in and Russia continues targeting civilian infrastructure, the moment seemed ripe for Zelensky to make a dramatic public appeal for continued international support.

Yet the new phase isn’t only on the battlefield. Around the world, leaders are confronting the bitter fallout of Russia’s invasion. Higher energy and food prices, in part generated by tough sanctions on Moscow, have caused trouble for politicians in Europe and the United States.

Retired colonel predicts how Putin will respond to Zelensky’s White House visit

In Washington, Republicans poised to take control of Congress have made clear they won’t rubber stamp each of Biden’s requests for Ukraine assistance – though fears funding will dry up completely appear unfounded. Congress is on the verge of approving almost $50 billion in additional security and economic assistance.

Speaking to lawmakers, Zelensky repeatedly referred to members of “both parties,” seeking to frame his cause as a bipartisan one.

Still, some Republicans refused to attend Zelensky’s address to Congress, a protest of what they claim are unrestrained dollars heading out of the US.

It was against that backdrop Biden insisted US support would continue for months.

He said it was “important for the American people, and for the world, to hear directly from you, Mr. President, about Ukraine’s fight, and the need to continue to stand together through 2023.”

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December 21, 2022
Exclusive: Biden task force investigating how US tech ends up in Iranian attack drones used against Ukraine | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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The Biden administration has launched an expansive task force to investigate how US and western components, including American-made microelectronics, are ending up in Iranian-made drones Russia is launching by the hundreds into Ukraine, multiple officials familiar with the effort tell CNN. 

The US has imposed tough export control restrictions and sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining high-end materials, but evidence has emerged that suggests Iran is finding an abundance of commercially-available technology. 

Last month, the UK-based investigative organization  Conflict Armament Research examined  several drones that had been downed in Ukraine and found that 82% of their components were manufactured by companies based in the US. 

Among the components found in some of the drones are processors built by the Dallas-based technology company Texas Instruments, according to an investigation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a source familiar with the US inquiry, as well as an engine made by an Austrian firm owned by Canada’s Bombardier Recreational Products. Both companies have condemned any use of their technology for illicit purposes. 

Their apparently unintentional ensnarement in Iran’s drone manufacturing industry underscores how inexpensive products intended for civilian use can be easily retrofitted for military purposes, and often fall just outside the bounds of sanctions and export control regimes.  

Texas Instruments said in a statement to CNN that “TI is not selling any products into Russia, Belarus or Iran. TI complies with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, and partners with law enforcement organizations as necessary and appropriate. Additionally, we do not support or condone the use of our products in applications they weren’t designed for. ”

Bombardier Recreational Products  said in a statement that it was launching an investigation into how the engines ended up in the drones.

The investigation has intensified in recent weeks amid intelligence obtained by the US that the Kremlin is preparing to open its own factory for drone production inside Russia as part of a deal with Iran, the officials said. 

Iran has already begun transferring blueprints and components for the drones to Russia to help with production there, CNN has reported, in a dramatic expansion of the countries’ military partnership. 

Agencies across Washington are involved in the task force, including the departments of Defense, State, Justice, Commerce and Treasury, with one official describing the inquiry as an “all hands on deck” initiative. The effort is being overseen by the White House National Security Council as part of an even bigger, “holistic approach” to dealing with Iran, a senior administration official said, from its crackdown on protesters and its nuclear program to its deepening role in the war in Ukraine.

But the drone issue is particularly urgent given the sheer volume of US-made components, many of them manufactured in the last couple years, that have been found in the Iranian drones Russia has been deploying across Ukraine against civilians and critical infrastructure. 

Conflict Armament Research found that the Iranian drones they examined in Ukraine in November had “higher-end technological capabilities,” including tactical-grade sensors and semiconductors sourced outside of Iran, demonstrating that Tehran “has been able to circumvent current sanction regimes and has added more capabilities and resiliency to its weapons.”

National Security Council official John Kirby told reporters earlier this month that the US would be sanctioning three Russian companies involved in acquiring and using the Iranian drones, and is “assessing further steps we can take in terms of export controls to restrict Iran’s access to sensitive technologies.” 

Much of that work has fallen to the task force, officials said, and among its first tasks has been to notify all of the American companies whose components have been found in the drones. Congressional staffers briefed on the effort told CNN that they hope the task force provides lawmakers with a list of US companies whose equipment is being found in the drones in an effort to force greater accountability by urging the companies to monitor their supply chains more closely.

The task force is also having to coordinate with foreign allies, since the components being used in the drones are not limited to those produced by American companies.  Conflict Armament Research also found that “more than 70 manufacturers based in 13 different countries and territories” produced the components in the Iranian drones they examined.

In October, CNN obtained access to a drone that was downed in the Black Sea near Odesa and captured by Ukrainian forces. It was found to contain Japanese batteries, an Austrian engine and American processors. 

Iran may also be acquiring near-exact replicas of western components from China, according to a study published last month by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. “China plays a larger role than previously assessed in enabling Iran to manufacture and supply drones to Russian forces,” the report found. “It appears that Chinese companies are supplying Iran with copies of Western commodities to produce UAV combat drones.”

The White House believes it is successfully driving home the scale of the issue with allies. The senior administration official told CNN that there was “growing broad and deep international consensus on Iran, from the EU to Canada to Australia and New Zealand, which is being led by US diplomacy.”

There is no evidence that any of the western companies are knowingly exporting their technology to be used in the drones, and that is partly why the task force’s job has been so difficult, officials said. 

The task force has its work cut out for it in tracing supply chains for the microelectronics industry, which relies heavily on third party distributors and resellers. The microchips and other small devices ending up in so many of the Iranian and Russian drones are not only inexpensive and widely available, they are also easily hidden. 

Iran also uses front companies to buy equipment from the US and EU that may have a dual use, like the Austrian engines, that Tehran can then use to build drones, according to the Treasury Department, which sanctioned several of those companies in September. 

 That makes supply chain monitoring a challenge, though experts say US and European companies could be doing a lot more to track where their products are going. 

“American companies should be doing a lot more to track their supply chains,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, the former chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. 

Keeping better track of resellers is a first step, he said, but the task is admittedly difficult because so many of these companies’ products are so commoditized and available off-the-shelf and online for civil purposes. Ultimately, neutering some Iranian front companies with sanctions and cutting off their supply from some western companies will be akin to “a game of whack a mole,” Alperovitch said, noting that they “can easily find another supplier.”

He added that the real “weak underbelly” of US policy when it comes to export controls is enforcement—and prosecuting the specific individuals involved in the illicit transactions. 

“We have to beef up the resources for enforcement of our sanctions to achieve the desired effect,” Alperovitch said.

“You can put companies on the [sanctioned] entities list,” he added, “but if you don’t actually go after the people involved, it doesn’t mean a whole lot.” 

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December 21, 2022
Why Zelensky’s surprise US visit is so hugely significant | CNN Politics

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CNN
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President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit Wednesday will symbolically bolster America’s role as the arsenal of democracy in the bitter war for Ukraine’s survival and send a stunning public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The trip – Zelensky’s first outside Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February – also highlights President Joe Biden’s historic role in reviving the Western alliance that kept the Soviet Union at bay and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers.

Zelensky’s arrival will draw poignant echoes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s arrival in Washington, 81 years ago on Thursday, days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That Christmas visit cemented the alliance that would win World War II and built the post-war democratic world.

Zelensky compared his nation’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s lonely defiance of the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II during a video address to the UK Parliament earlier this year, and his arrival in the US capital will sharpen the parallels to the earlier meeting of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt.

His visit is unfolding amid extraordinary security. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even confirm the early reports that she’d welcome Zelensky to the US Capitol in an unexpected coda to her speakership, saying on Tuesday evening, “We don’t know yet. We just don’t know.”

A White House reception for Zelensky, who sources said was traveling to the US on Tuesday night, will above all be an unmistakable sign of US and Western support for Ukraine’s battle against Putin, who says the country has no right to exist. The war exemplifies what Biden has framed as a global struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, which he has put at the center of his foreign policy.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who visited Ukraine earlier this month, said on CNN’s “AC360” that Zelensky was coming to Washington on a specific mission. “What he is trying to do is draw a direct correlation between our support and the survival and support and future victory of Ukraine,” Gallego, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said.

Biden will announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during the visit, with the coveted Patriot missile systems as part of that package, a US official told CNN’s Phil Mattingly. Washington also plans to send Ukraine precision bomb kits to convert less sophisticated munitions into “smart bombs” that could help it target Russian defensive lines, sources told CNN’s Pentagon team. Zelensky’s visit also comes as Congress is poised to sign off on another $45 billion in aid for Ukraine and NATO allies, deepening the commitment that has helped Kyiv’s forces inflict an unexpectedly bloody price on Putin’s forces.

The decision on Patriots, which would satisfy a long-standing Ukrainian request, reflects a US process of matching its aid to the shifting strategy of Russia’s assault. The system would help Kyiv better counter Russia’s brutal missile attacks on cities and electricity installations, which it has mounted in an effective attempt to weaponize bitter winter weather to break the will of Ukrainian civilians.

The meeting between Biden and Zelensky, who have spoken multiple times by phone and video link-ups but have not met in person since the invasion, comes at a vital moment in the war. Biden has for months cautiously calibrated US shipments of arms and weapons systems in a way designed to save Ukraine but to avoid escalating the conflict into a disastrous direct clash between NATO and Russia. He, for instance, rejected Ukrainian calls for the West to enforce a no-fly zone over the country. The Patriots – a long range-aerial defense system – would represent the deepest US dive into the conflict so far.

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Wesley Clark said that Zelensky’s trip reflects a critical moment when the destiny of a war that Ukraine cannot win without upgraded US support could be decided before Russia can regroup.

“This is a window of opportunity for Ukraine and a window of danger as well,” Clark told CNN’s John Berman on “AC360” on Tuesday.

“Russia’s weak, (but) Russia will be stronger. This is a period where the United States needs to pour in the support. … This is the window, President Zelensky knows it – if he is going to defeat, with US support, the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Clark said.

“Wait until the summer and it will be an entirely different battlefield.”

But the highly public nature of Zelensky’s visit, and the expected announcement regarding Patriots, also risks further provoking Putin when he is signaling that, as disastrous as the war has been for Russia’s troops, he’s in for the long haul, betting the West’s commitment will eventually ebb.

His visit to Congress will also play into an increasingly important debate on Capitol Hill over Ukraine aid with Republicans set to take over the House majority in the new year. Some pro-Donald Trump members, who will have significant leverage in the thin GOP majority, have warned that billions of dollars in US cash that have been sent to Ukraine should instead be shoring up the US southern border with a surge of new migrants expected within days.

Conscious of pressure from his right flank, the possible next speaker, GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, has warned that Ukraine should not expect a “blank check” from the new House. Even though Ukraine still has strong Republican support in the Senate, it’s this kind of shifting political dynamic that appears to inform Kremlin perceptions about how long US resolve will last in a conflict on which Putin’s political survival may well depend.

Zelensky’s pre-Christmas trip promises to be the greatest public relations coup yet for the media savvy comic actor-turned-president, who has cleverly tapped into the history and patriotic mythology of Western nations in a series of video addresses to lawmakers from war-torn Kyiv. Often, while grateful for outside support, he has seemed to be trying to shame the West to do more and to create a deeper understanding among voters for the trials facing Ukraine.

In March, for instance, Zelensky evoked Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream Speech” during a virtual address to Congress. He also referred to two days of infamy in modern history when Americans directly experienced the fear of aerial bombardment.

“Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it,” Zelensky said. “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked, attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it, you could not stop it. Our country experiences the same every day.”

When Zelensky arrives in Washington, he might well experience the same revelation that Churchill did over the capital’s blazing lights at Christmas after months in the dark of air raid blackouts back home.

The wartime British leader sailed to the United States aboard HMS Duke of York, dodging U-boats in the wintery Atlantic and took a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, where he was met on December 22, 1941, by President Franklin Roosevelt before their joint press conference the next day.

Over days of brainstorming and meetings – fueled by Churchill’s regime of sherry with breakfast, Scotch and sodas for lunch, champagne in the evening and a tipple of 90-year-old brandy before bed – the two leaders plotted the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and laid the foundation of the Western alliance that Biden has reinvigorated in his support for Ukraine.

Churchill, who had pined for US involvement in World War II for months and knew it was the key to defeating Adolf Hitler, said during his visit, “I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.”

Zelensky is sure to get that kind of hero’s welcome and will hope that extra US support will mean that Washington has truly “drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard,” as Churchill said of the Roosevelt administration in his address to Congress on December 26, 1941.

The Ukrainian leader is likely to appreciate the historical parallels. He paraphrased one of Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches in an emotional address to British members of parliament in March.

“We will not surrender, we will not lose, we will go to the end,” he said.

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December 21, 2022
House January 6 committee handing over investigative materials to DOJ | CNN Politics

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The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, has started handing over evidence and transcripts from its probe to the Department of Justice, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee parts of the DOJ’s investigation into the insurrection, sent a letter to the committee earlier this month requesting all of the information from the panel’s investigation, one of the sources told CNN.

Smith’s investigators will ultimately have all of the evidence the House committee has obtained, the source said.

The handover comes during a key week for the committee. The panel on Monday held its final public meeting, during which committee members voted to refer former President Donald Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges. The panel is slated to release its full final report on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. A spokesperson for the special counsel did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The committee has been sending documents and transcripts over the course of the last week, the second source added, with the production focusing specifically on former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s former election lawyer John Eastman.

The panel has also started to share transcripts of witness interviews pertaining to the false slates of electors and the pressure campaign by Trump and his allies on certain states to overturn the 2020 election results.

The department has also received Meadows’ text messages from the committee.

Punchbowl News was first to report some of these details.

California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, said on CNN on Monday, “We’ve actually given some transcripts to the Department of Justice during the last month,” adding that the committee would begin making transcripts public on Wednesday.

The DOJ investigation being led by Smith is examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6, and it appears that federal investigators are already looking at much of the conduct that the select committee has highlighted.

During its Monday meeting, the committee laid out the case for both the public and the Justice Department that there’s evidence to pursue criminal charges against Trump on multiple criminal statutes, including obstructing an official proceeding, defrauding the United States, making false statements and assisting or aiding an insurrection.

But whether the department brings charges will depend on whether the facts and the evidence support a prosecution, Garland, who will make the ultimate call on charging decisions, has said.

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December 20, 2022
Colorado judge in 2021 case called Club Q shooting suspect ‘a scary person’ | CNN

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A year before the deadly Club Q shooting in November, a Colorado judge called the suspect “a scary person” during a hearing about a bomb threat at their grandparents’ home.

According to a court transcript obtained by CNN, Anderson Aldrich was present in the courtroom for a hearing regarding a 2021 bomb threat by Aldrich that involved their mother when Colorado Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Robin Chittum made the remark.

During that hearing, the defense argued for a lower bond. “The part that concerns me is… that you clearly have been planning for something else, and it wasn’t something that – I just – it didn’t have to do with your grandma and grandpa,” the judge considered.

“It was saving all these firearms and trying to make this bomb, and making statements about other people being involved in some sort of shootout and a huge thing. And then that’s kind of what it turned into,” Judge Chittum said, according to the transcript.

Judge Chittum also voiced concern regarding Aldrich’s state of mental health.

“Yes, a million dollars is a lot for a bond. And I don’t think it’s appropriate to leave it at that, but I have here a very, very aggravated allegation of the threatening, the kidnapping, and the holding of your grandparents. And then things just went unhinged. And it looks like it could have been worse because you had plans for it to be worse. I need to reflect the fact that you have some plans for mental health coverage; that you have some plans for places to go and things to do to be able to address these issues if you get out, but wow. Just really, really scary,” Chittum said.

Aldrich promised the judge, “I’m not able to access any firearms, and I won’t make any effort to do so in the future.”

Even with the concerns, the judge lowered the bond to $100,000 and also modified the protection order in place so that Aldrich could have contact with their mother, Laurel Voepel. If Aldrich could post bond, the judge said that they needed to live with their mom, that they must participate in treatment and continue to take their medications.

According to the transcript, the Judge Chittum had concerns saying, “If we have a slip-and-fall and mess-up on this one, it’s going to be so bad. So I can’t risk that.”

CNN previously reported an unsealed case file revealed details about what took place during a 2021 bomb threat incident that led to the arrest of Aldrich.

Aldrich’s grandmother had told dispatchers that Aldrich was upset about the recent sale of her house and plans to move to Florida with her husband.

“You guys die today, and I’m taking you with me. I’m loaded and ready. You’re not calling anyone,” Aldrich reportedly told their grandparents while drinking from a bottle of vodka, holding a handgun and loading the magazine, according to the affidavit.

The grandmother also reportedly told officials that Aldrich told her if they moved to Florida “it would interfere with his plans to conduct a mass shooting and bombing,” the affidavit said.

When officials responded to the scene Aldrich said that they had an explosive called Tannerite, that they would shoot through the walls, and that they had a gas mask and armor-piercing ammunition, the affidavit said.

Aldrich was ultimately arrested following the incident, but Judge Chittum dropped all charges against them on July 5, 2022.

In a December press conference Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said the charges against Aldrich were ultimately dropped because after roughly a year of court continuances, the family was unwilling to testify against Aldrich.

“If we are unable to produce a witness, none of those statements would be admissible in a criminal courtroom,” Allen said. “If witnesses cannot be produced at a trial and we are against a speedy trial, it is very common for a court to dismiss the case.”

Aldrich – whose attorneys say identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns – faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted on first-degree murder charges stemming from the November 19 Club Q shooting that left five dead and 25 injured at the LGBTQ club.

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December 20, 2022
Iran and Russia were too distracted to meddle in midterm elections, US general says | CNN Politics

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Domestic unrest in Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine may have distracted Tehran and Moscow from making more of an effort to influence or interfere in the 2022 US midterm election, a top US military cyberofficial said Monday.

“We collectively saw much less focus from foreign adversaries, particularly the Russians” in targeting the 2022 election compared to previous elections, Maj. Gen. William J. Hartman, who leads the Cyber National Mission Force of US Cyber Command, the military’s offensive and defensive hacking unit, said at a press briefing at Fort Meade, home to Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Hartman said he was “surprised” by the relative lack of activity from the Russians and Iranians during the midterm election. The US military’s cyber forces have taken a more active role in defending US elections from foreign interference since 2018 by targeting computer networks used by Russia and others to try to sow discord.

Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of Cyber Command, confirmed to reporters this month that the command conducted offensive and defensive cyber operations in an effort to protect the midterms from foreign interference and influence.

Nakasone declined to go into details on the operations, but said the command focused on taking down the computer infrastructure used by foreign operatives “at key times.”

“There was a campaign plan that we followed and it wasn’t just November 8. it covered before, during and until the elections were certified,” said Nakasone, who also leads the National Security Agency.

Foreign governments tend to use established agencies to meddle in elections rather than create new organizations to do that on the fly, Hartman said. And the security services in Russia and Iran were preoccupied in the weeks and months before Americans went to the polls in November.

Iranian security forces carried out a bloody crackdown on protesters this fall after a woman died in the custody of the so-called morality police. Russia’s military, meanwhile, pummeled Ukrainian cities with drone and missile strikes to try to turn the tide of the war.

As they have since they were caught flat-footed by Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, US officials prepared for a range of foreign actors to try to influence voters or interfere with the vote in 2022.

Asked in July whether the war in Ukraine would distract Russia from interfering in the US midterm election, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was “quite confident the Russians can walk and chew gum” and that US officials were preparing accordingly.

But foreign operatives from Iran and Russia generally reused old tactics and tools in their influence operations during the US midterms rather than try anything brand new, Nakasone told reporters this month.

While there weren’t any reports of high-impact foreign interference activity during the midterm elections, there were attempts by Russian, Iranian and Chinese operatives to influence voters, according to researchers.

Suspected Russian operatives used far-right media platforms to denigrate Democratic candidates in battleground states just days before the elections, according to Graphika, a social media analysis firm. For their part, alleged Chinese operatives showed signs of engaging in more “Russian-style influence activities” that stoke American divisions ahead of the midterm vote, according to the FBI.

On Election Day, pro-Russia hackers took responsible for a cyberattack that knocked the website of the Mississippi secretary of state’s website offline. The incident didn’t affect the tallying of votes.

“It is likely that a primary objective of the identified pro-Russia actors was to build the perception of influencing the elections—potentially in hopes of supporting future narratives that would undermine the credibility of the election results,” Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google, said in an analysis published Monday.

Mandiant said it had “moderate confidence” that whoever ran that Russian hacktivist group’s channel on the Telegram messaging app was coordinating their operations with actors sponsored by Russia’s military intelligence agency.

“This year some [foreign groups] seemed most interested in reinforcing the notion that they still posed a threat, even if they didn’t push too hard to actually affect outcomes” of the election, John Hultquist, Mandiant’s vice president of intelligence analysis, told CNN.

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December 20, 2022
Here’s what’s in the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill | CNN Politics

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Senate leaders unveiled a $1.7 trillion year-long federal government funding bill early Tuesday morning.

The legislation includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding, according to a bill summary from Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

The sweeping package includes roughly $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies, boosts in spending for disaster aid, college access, child care, mental health and food assistance, more support for the military and veterans and additional funds for the US Capitol Police, according to Leahy’s summary and one from Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

However, the bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, left out several measures that some lawmakers had fought to include. An expansion of the child tax credit, as well as multiple other corporate and individual tax breaks, did not make it into the final bill. Neither did legislation to allow cannabis companies to bank their cash reserves – known as the Safe Banking Act. Also, there was also no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located.

The spending bill is the product of lengthy negotiations between top congressional Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers reached a “bipartisan, bicameral framework” last week following a dispute between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense domestic priorities. They worked through the weekend to craft the legislation.

The Senate is expected to vote first to approve the deal this week and then send it to the House for approval before government funding runs out on December 23. The bill would keep the government operating through September, the end of the fiscal year.

Congress originally passed a continuing resolution on September 30 to temporarily fund the government in fiscal year 2023, which began October 1.

More aid for Ukraine: The spending bill would provide roughly $45 billion to help support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia’s attack.

About $9 billion of the funding would go to Ukraine’s military to pay for a variety of things including training, weapons, logistics support and salaries. Nearly $12 billion would be used to replenish US stocks of equipment sent to Ukraine through presidential drawdown authority.

Also, it would provide $13 billion for economic support to the Ukrainian government.

Other funds would address humanitarian and infrastructure needs, as well as support European Command operations.

Emergency disaster assistance: The bill would appropriate more than $38 billion in emergency funding to help Americans in the west and southeast affected by recent natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. It would aid farmers, provide economic development assistance for communities, repair and reconstruct federal facilities and direct money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, among other initiatives.

Overhaul of the electoral vote counting law: A provision in the legislation aims at making it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, in a direct response to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The changes would overhaul the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which then-President Donald Trump tried to use to overturn the 2020 election.

The legislation would clarify the vice president’s role while overseeing the certification of the electoral result to be completely ceremonial. It also would create a set of stipulations designed to make it harder for there to be any confusion over the accurate slate of electors from each state.

Higher maximum Pell grant awards: The bill would increase the maximum Pell grant award by $500 to $7,395 for the coming school year. This would be the largest boost since the 2009-2010 school year. About 7 million students, many from lower-income families, receive Pell grants every year to help them afford college.

Increased support for the military and veterans: The package would fund a 4.6% pay raise for troops and a 22.4% increase in support for Veteran Administration medical care, which provides health services for 7.3 million veterans.

It would include nearly $53 billion to address higher inflation and $2.7 billion – a 25% increase – to support critical services and housing assistance for veterans and their families.

The bill also would allocate $5 billion for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, which provides additional funding to implement the landmark PACT Act that expands eligibility for health care services and benefits to veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service.

Beefing up nutrition assistance: The legislation would establish a permanent nationwide Summer EBT program, starting in the summer of 2024, according to Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger advocacy group. It would provide families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meal with a $40 grocery benefit per child per month, indexed to inflation.

It would also change the rules governing summer meals programs in rural areas. Children would be able to take home or receive delivery of up to 10 days worth of meals, rather than have to consume the food at a specific site and time.

The bill would also help families who have had their food stamp benefits stolen since October 1 through what’s known as “SNAP skimming.” It would provide them with retroactive federal reimbursement of the funds, which criminals steal by attaching devices to point-of-sale machines or PIN pads to get card numbers and other information from electronic benefits transfer cards.

More money for child care: The legislation would provide $8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a 30% increase in funding. The grant gives financial assistance to low-income families to afford child care.

Also, Head Start would receive nearly $12 billion, an 8.6% boost. The program helps young children from low-income families prepare for school.

Help to pay utility bills: The bill would provide $5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Combined with the $1 billion contained in the earlier continuing resolution, this would be the largest regular appropriation for the program, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Home heating and cooling costs – and the applications for federal aid in paying the bills – have soared this year.

Enhance retirement savings: The bill contains new retirement rules that could make it easier for Americans to accumulate retirement savings – and less costly to withdraw them. Among other things, the provisions would allow penalty-free withdrawals for some emergency expenses, let employers offer matching retirement contributions for a worker’s student loan payments and increase how much older workers may save in employer retirement plans.

More support for the environment: The package would provide an additional $576 million for the Environmental Protection Agency, bringing its funding up to $10.1 billion. It would increase support for enforcement and compliance, as well as clean air, water and toxic chemical programs, after years of flat funding.

It also would boost funding for the National Park Service by 6.4%, restoring 500 of the 3,000 staff positions lost over the past decade. This would be intended to help the agency handle substantial increases in visitation.

Plus, the legislation would provide an additional 14% in funding for wildland firefighting.

Additional funding for the US Capitol Police: The bill would provide an additional $132 million for the Capitol Police for a total of nearly $735 million. It would allow the department to hire up to 137 sworn officers and 123 support and civilian personnel, bringing the force to a projected level of 2,126 sworn officers and 567 civilians.

It would also give $2 million to provide off-campus security for lawmakers in response to evolving and growing threats.

Investments in homelessness prevention and affordable housing: The legislation would provide $3.6 billion for homeless assistance grants, a 13% increase. It would serve more than 1 million people experiencing homelessness.

The package also would funnel nearly $6.4 billion to the Community Development Block Grant formula program and related local economic and community development projects that benefit low- and moderate income areas and people, an increase of almost $1.6 billion.

Plus, it would provide $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which would lead to the construction of nearly 10,000 new rental and homebuyer units and maintain the record investment from the last fiscal year.

Increased health care funding: The package would provide more money for National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The funds are intended to speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics and preventive measures, beef up public health activities and strengthen the nation’s biosecurity by accelerating development of medical countermeasures for pandemic threats and fortifying stockpiles and supply chains for drugs, masks and other supplies.

More resources for children’s mental health and for substance abuse: The bill would provide more funds to increase access to mental health services for children and schools. It also would invest more money to address the opioid epidemic and substance use disorder.

Tiktok ban from federal devices: The legislation would ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form video app, from federal government devices.

Some lawmakers have raised bipartisan concerns that China’s national security laws could force TikTok – or its parent, ByteDance – to hand over the personal data of its US users. Recently, a wave of states led by Republican governors have introduced state-level restrictions on the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.

Enhanced child tax credit: A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates pushed hard to extend at least one provision of the enhanced child tax credit, which was in effect last year thanks to the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Their priority was to make the credit more refundable so more of the lowest-income families can qualify. Nearly 19 million kids won’t receive the full $2,000 benefit this year because their parents earn too little, according to a Tax Policy Center estimate.

New cannabis banking rules: Lawmakers considered including a provision in the spending bill that would make it easier for licensed cannabis businesses to accept credit cards – but it was left out of the legislation. Known as the Safe Banking Act, which previously passed the House, the provision would prohibit federal regulators from taking punitive measures against banks for providing services to legitimate cannabis businesses.

Even though 47 states have legalized some form of marijuana, cannabis remains illegal on the federal level. That means financial institutions providing banking services to cannabis businesses are subject to criminal prosecution – leaving many legal growers and sellers locked out of the banking system.

FBI headquarters: There was also no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located, a major point of contention as lawmakers from Maryland – namely House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer – pushed to bring the law enforcement agency into their state. In a deal worked through by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the General Services Administration would be required to conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with Maryland and Virginia representatives about potential sites in each of the states, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

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December 20, 2022
Indonesia president supports plan to scale back troops in restive Papua | CNN

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday he supports plans to scale back the presence of troops in the eastern region of Papua, where the country’s military has been accused of human rights abuses in tackling a long-running independence movement.

Jokowi, as the president is known, said “the reduction of military troops in Papua is good, but we need to continue to be stern,” after appointing a new chief of armed forces.

Otherwise, he said, armed rebel groups will continue to operate there and “the problem will never end”.

It was unclear when and by how much the military presence in Papua would be scaled back.

Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has seen a long-simmering separatist movement, which has intensified in recent years. The military maintains a heavy presence in the impoverished region, and has been accused by activist groups of human rights abuses, which it denies.

Former military chief Andika Perkasa had in 2021 advocated for a “humanistic approach” in Papua that emphasizes communicating with rebel groups, according to state news agency Antara.

When asked whether troops in Papua would be reduced, newly-installed military chief, Yudo Margono, told reporters on Monday that he would go to Papua and evaluate the situation before making a decision but did not provide details.

Jakarta-based research group, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said in a report this year that the frequency of insurgency-related violence in Papua had increased from an average of 11 incidents a year between 2010 to 2017 to 52 incidents a year from 2018-2021.

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December 19, 2022
Lawmakers to push through first legislative response to January 6 Capitol attack by week’s end | CNN Politics

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Lawmakers reached an agreement to include in must-pass legislation a measure aimed at making it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, marking the first legislative response to the US Capitol insurrection and then-President Donald Trump’s relentless pressure campaign to stay in power despite his 2020 loss.

Several congressional sources told CNN that the legislation – to overhaul the 1887 Electoral Count Act – will be added to a bill to fund the federal government before Friday’s deadline to avoid a shutdown. If it becomes law, as is expected, the vice president’s role would be clarified to be completely ceremonial while overseeing the certification of the electoral result. It also would raise the threshold in Congress to make it harder for lawmakers to force votes attempting to overturn a state’s certified result and prevent efforts to pass along fake electors to Congress. The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, called for the bill’s passage in a summary of its report released Monday.

The bill is a result of intense bipartisan negotiations over several months that won over the support of top Republicans, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, but has drawn pushback from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. With Republicans set to take control of the House within days, lawmakers pressed to send the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk knowing its fate is likely doomed in the next Congress.

One part of the legislation is focused on modernizing and overhauling the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that Trump had sought to exploit and create confusion over how Congress counts Electoral College votes from each state. As part of that proposal, senators are attempting to clarify that the vice president only has a ceremonial role in overseeing the certification of the electoral results.

The bill includes a number of changes aimed at making sure that Congress can clearly “identify a single, conclusive slate of electors from each state,” the fact sheet says.

This comes as revelations surfaced about an effort by Trump allies to subvert the Electoral College process and install fake GOP electors in seven key states.

The legislation creates a set of stipulations designed to make it harder for there to be any confusion over the accurate electors. For example, it states that each state’s governor would be responsible for submission of a certificate that identifies electors. Congress would not be able to accept a slate of electors submitted by any other official. “This reform would address the potential for multiple state officials to send Congress competing slates,” the fact sheet states.

While constitutional experts say the vice president currently can’t disregard a state-certified electoral result, Trump pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to obstruct the Electoral College certification in Congress as part of his pressure campaign. But Pence refused to do so and, as a result, became a target of the former President and his mob of supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6.

The proposal “raises the threshold to lodge an objection to electors to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.” Currently, only one member of each body is required to make an objection.

Final legislative text of the sweeping government funding bill has not yet been formally unveiled but is expected to be released imminently as lawmakers race the clock to avert a shutdown at the end of the week.

The expectation on Capitol Hill is that Congress will be able to avoid a shutdown, but pressure is on for lawmakers as congressional leaders have little room for error given the tight timeline they are facing. Government funding is currently set to expire on Friday at midnight.

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December 19, 2022
5 things to know for December 19: Jan. 6, Twitter, World Cup, Immigration, Turbulence | CNN

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When you make a purchase at a coffee shop or casual eatery, an employee usually spins around a touch screen to show you suggested tip amounts – typically between 10% and 25%. Then, there’s an awkward moment as the worker (directly across from you) waits to see how much you tip while customers behind you peer over your shoulder. You then choose the highest option, reluctantly. It’s a familiar scenario that many people grapple with nowadays, and more shoppers are saying they feel stressed that a generous tip has become an etiquette norm instead of a low-pressure decision. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

The January 6 committee investigating the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol is set to make announcements today about criminal referrals to the Justice Department. The panel has weighed criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump and several members of his inner circle. A referral is a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate whether to charge the people in question, but the move is largely symbolic because it doesn’t obligate federal prosecutors to bring such a case. Whether the Justice Department brings charges will depend on whether the facts and the evidence support a prosecution, Attorney General Merrick Garland has said. Garland will make the ultimate call on any charging decisions.

Elon Musk says he will step down as Twitter’s CEO if he’s voted out by a poll he tweeted Sunday. According to the poll, the option “yes” won by a margin of 57% to 43% – and Musk has said he would abide by the results. In several follow-up tweets, Musk suggested he was serious about leaving and made a vague threat about Twitter’s future if he is voted out. “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” Musk tweeted. Since buying Twitter for $44 billion and taking over as CEO in late October, Musk has been embroiled in numerous controversies for causing abrupt changes to platform and its workforce. The most recent change came over the weekend when Twitter banned links to certain other social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The controversial policy was removed less than 24 hours after its initial introduction.

Hear how Musk responded to journalists before he hung up mid-question

Argentina won the 2022 World Cup on Sunday, beating France via a penalty shootout in one of the most thrilling finals in tournament history. Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi dazzled in his last World Cup match, scoring twice, making tournament history and finally hoisting the trophy. The streets of Buenos Aires were awash with blue and white as people poured out to celebrate. While the match in Qatar ended in glory for Messi as a fitting culmination of his extraordinary career, it was a sad outcome for France’s superstar Kylian Mbappé. France made a stunning comeback to force the final to extra time, but was unable to secure the win, falling short of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles in 60 years. Now the countdown begins to the next men’s World Cup in 2026. It will be held in the US, Mexico and Canada.

Fans in Argentina douse reporter while celebrating World Cup win

As border authorities try to prepare for the scheduled lifting of Title 42 on Wednesday, officials in the Rio Grande Valley say they have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily during the past two weeks. These numbers are reminiscent of the 2019 surge, when agents at the border encountered at least 1,000 migrants a day, according to a federal law enforcement source. The termination of the Title 42 policy is expected to lead to an increase in border crossings since authorities will no longer be able to quickly expel migrants as has been done since March 2020. Meanwhile, two buses carrying migrants arrived in New York City on Sunday and up to 15 more are expected in the next few days. The city’s shelter system is already at capacity and should expect more than 1,000 additional asylum-seekers to arrive every week, Mayor Eric Adams said. Denver, Colorado, is also struggling to provide shelter for a growing number of migrants.

At least 36 people on a Hawaiian Airlines flight were injured after their plane encountered “severe turbulence” on a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu on Sunday, authorities said. The turbulence occurred 15 to 30 minutes before the plane landed in Honolulu, carrying 278 passengers and 10 crew. Twenty passengers were taken to emergency rooms, and 11 patients were in serious condition, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement Sunday. Among those transported to the hospital was a 14-month-old child. The patients’ injuries included a serious head injury, lacerations, bruising and loss of consciousness, Honolulu EMS said. One passenger, a college student on her way home for winter break, told CNN the turbulence escalated suddenly and “felt like free-falling.”

Thai warship sinks in severe weather, leaving 31 crew missing

A Royal Thai Navy warship sank in severe weather early today, leaving 31 of its crew of 106 sailors missing in stormy seas in the Gulf of Thailand, Thai authorities said. Search and rescue operations are underway for the missing crew. The 252-foot long vessel was built in the US and commissioned into the Thai Royal Navy in 1987. A retired US Navy captain said the Thai crew faced a difficult situation on such an old ship.

‘Avatar: Way of Water’ has earned $435 million at the global box office

The highly anticipated “Avatar” sequel is packing theaters – but needs to make another $2 billion to break even with its expensive production cost.

Rihanna shares first images of baby boy

The wait is over. The musician and entrepreneur posted this cute video of her son “hacking” her phone.

Why we can’t get enough of the ‘Wednesday’ dance

Hello, my dear storm clouds. Glad to know I’m not the only one still dying over Wednesday Addams and this iconic scene from the Netflix series.

Cecily Strong bids farewell to ‘Saturday Night Live’

The actress’ departure is another gut-punch to the show’s lineup. Watch some of the emotional moments from her farewell here.

Pope Francis orders Vatican to return Parthenon sculptures to Greece

These 2,500-year-old sculptures have been held in the Vatican for more than a century. The pope is now giving them to the Greek Orthodox Church.

1,500

That’s how many exotic fish spilled into a Berlin hotel lobby after a giant aquarium burst into shards, injuring at least two people. None of the fish survived, officials said, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated. The aquarium was 46 feet high and on display in the foyer of a Radisson Collection Hotel.

“Together, we must stand up against the disturbing rise in antisemitism. And together, we must stand up against bigotry in any of its forms. Our democracy depends on it.”

– US Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking out against antisemitism at the National Menorah lighting Sunday night in New York City. The world’s largest menorah was lit to mark the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Jewish families around the world will light a candle in a menorah every night for eight nights to commemorate the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians and the re-dedication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem around 165 BC.

Severe storm and tornado threat continues for South as North sees more snow

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The Reason Why Your Doughnut Box is Pink

The reason why your doughnut box is pink

What do you prefer in the morning: bagels or doughnuts? Even if you’re firmly “Team Bagel,” you may make a switch after learning about the sweet history of pink doughnut boxes. (Click here to view)

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December 19, 2022
January 6 committee considering how to handle uncooperative GOP lawmakers, Schiff says | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, said Sunday the panel is considering how to hold accountable the GOP lawmakers who defied their subpoenas.

“We will also be considering what’s the appropriate remedy for members of Congress who ignore a congressional subpoena, as well as the evidence that was so pertinent to our investigation and why we wanted to bring them in,” the California Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“That will be something we will be considering tomorrow,” Schiff added, noting that the panel has weighed whether it is better to criminally refer members of Congress to other parts of the federal government or if Congress should “police its own.” Such congressional mechanisms could include censure and referrals to the House Ethics Committee.

Five House Republicans have been subpoenaed by the January 6 panel: GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

The select committee is set to hold its final public hearing on Monday and release its full report on Wednesday.

The panel is expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The impact House referrals could have remains unclear because the Department of Justice special counsel investigation is already examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6.

But in addition to criminal referrals, January 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters that the panel could issue five to six other categories of referrals, such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

“Censure was something that we have considered. Ethics referrals is something we have considered,” Schiff said Sunday, noting that the committee will disclose its decision Monday.

CNN previously reported that the panel has also weighed criminal referrals for a number of Trump’s closest allies, including former Trump attorney John Eastman, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according to multiple sources.

Schiff reiterated Sunday that he believes there is evidence that Trump committed criminal offenses related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“Viewing it as a former prosecutor, I think there’s sufficient evidence to charge the president,” he said. “The evidence seems pretty plain to me.”

“This is someone who, in multiple ways, tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist. This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what is,” he added.

Schiff declined to comment on the specific charges the committee is planning to refer to the Justice Department as it relates to the former president, but he made clear he thinks Trump violated multiple criminal statutes, including one for insurrection.

“If you look at Donald Trump’s acts and you match them up against the statute, it’s a pretty good match,” Schiff told Tapper when asked specifically about a charge of insurrection.

“I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws. And I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is, you have to be prosecuted,” he said.

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December 18, 2022
Israel deports French-Palestinian lawyer, accusing him of ‘terrorist activity’ in case Israeli group calls ‘gross violation of basic rights’ | CNN

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Jerusalem
CNN
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Israel deported a French-Palestinian lawyer it accused of organizing, inciting and planning “terrorist attacks” to France early Sunday morning, Israeli authorities said, in a case that an Israeli human rights organization called a “gross violation of basic rights.”

Salah Hamouri’s Israeli residency was revoked two weeks ago based on accusations by Israel he was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to Israel’s interior ministry. The PFLP is designated by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organization.

“During his life he organized, incited and planned to carry out terrorist attacks himself and for the organization against citizens and prominent figures in Israel,” a statement from the interior ministry said.

In a voice message posted on the Instagram account of the official Palestinian civil society campaign for Hamouri on Sunday, Hamouri said he was being “forcibly deported and uprooted from my homeland.”

“I leave you today from prison to exile. But rest assured that I will always remain the person you know. Always loyal to you and to your freedom,” Hamouri said in the message.

Hamouri, who had been in an Israeli prison since March on administrative detention without formal charges, has denied involvement in terrorist organizations, and human rights groups have condemned Israel’s actions.

“Deporting a Palestinian from their homeland for breach of allegiance to the state of Israel is a dangerous precedent and a gross violation of basic rights,” human rights organization HaMoked said in a statement on Sunday.

The Israel-based organization called Hamouri’s deportation a “gross violation of basic rights.”

France’s Foreign Ministry said the deportation was “against the law.”

The ministry said France has been working “to ensure that Mr. Salah Hamouri’s rights are respected, that he benefits from all means of recourse and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live.”

The statement from the foreign ministry expressed France’s “opposition to the expulsion of a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, an occupied territory under the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Israel disputes that east Jerusalem, which it captured in 1967, is occupied territory.

Hamouri had been held previously by Israeli authorities. He has always maintained his innocence of Israeli accusations against him.

In 2005 he was tried and convicted of working on a plan to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, founder of the Shas ultra-orthodox political party.

He was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of 1,027 Palestinian and other Arab prisoners held by Israel as part of a deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas in 2006.

He had been living and working as a lawyer in Jerusalem since then, including doing work as a human-rights lawyer for Adameer, an organization that helps Palestinian prisoners. Adameer was outlawed by Israel earlier this year in a move condemned by UN officials.

Hamouri was born in east Jerusalem, although he also holds French citizenship.

Leah Tsemel, Hamouri’s lawyer, told CNN on Sunday that Hamouri’s case is a “test bullet” for the interior ministry to deny residency of east Jerusalem residents.

“We will have to address the issue in principle in a petition to the Supreme Court soon regarding the unconstitutionality of denying residency to a person that was born in Jerusalem under occupation and does not have a duty of loyalty, the violation of which is the reason for denying his residency,” Zemel told CNN.

HaMoked previously appealed the decision to revoke Hamouri’s residency and requested an injunction to prevent his deportation until its case challenging the legality of the law is heard, but the Supreme Court rejected both pleas.

HaMoked said it will be able to file a new petition to the High Court once the new Israeli government takes power in the coming weeks.

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December 18, 2022
Trump calls on his supporters to stand down on McCarthy opposition | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Donald Trump has weighed in on the contentious battle confronting GOP leader Kevin McCarthy in his bid to be the chamber’s next speaker, with the former president calling on his supporters in Congress to halt their opposition tactics against McCarthy and stop “playing a very dangerous game.”

“Look, I think this: Kevin has worked very hard. I think he deserves the shot,” Trump said Friday in an interview with Breitbart News. “Hopefully he’s going to be very strong and going to be very good and he’s going to do what everybody wants.”

The former president cited the scenario from 2015, when then-House Speaker John Boehner resigned after clashes with conservative GOP hard-liners and was then replaced by Paul Ryan.

“It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner and he was a strange person but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse,” Trump told Breitbart. “Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history.”

McCarthy is in a fight for the speakership with five hardline Republicans opposing him. With House Republicans holding 222 seats in the next Congress, such opposition would deny him the 218 votes he’d need to be elected speaker.

McCarthy has negotiated behind closed doors over chamber rules that his detractors want to weaken the speakership, including allowing an individual member to call for a vote to oust the speaker. That’s something the California Republican has resisted so far.

McCarthy and Trump had a brief falling out following the January 6, 2021, insurrection, with McCarthy even suggesting on a private phone call that was recorded that Trump should resign. But the two quickly made amends with McCarthy traveling to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida just a few weeks later.

In his interview with Breitbart, Trump didn’t name those lawmakers who oppose McCarthy’s speakership bid but said he is “friendly” with many of them and they are supporters of his.

“I’m friendly with a lot of those people who are against Kevin. I think almost every one of them are very much inclined toward Trump, and me toward them. But I have to tell them, and I have told them, you’re playing a very dangerous game,” Trump said. “You could end up with some very bad situations. I use the Boehner to Paul Ryan example. You understand what I’m saying? It could be a doomsday scenario.”

McCarthy said Friday that the five conservative holdouts – Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia and Matt Rosendale of Montana – have not budged in their opposition to him and offered dire warnings that House Republicans’ hard-fought narrow majority could be derailed if they don’t bend.

“We’re still continuing to talk, but they have not moved,” McCarthy told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, taking to the airwaves to argue that the detractors threaten to put the entire House Republican agenda in peril and that basic decisions on legislating and investigating will be “all in jeopardy.”

McCarthy’s comments represent a sharp escalation in his public pressure campaign against critics, including Biggs, who last week announced his own bid for the speaker’s gavel.

And Trump isn’t the only one signaling to House Republicans to get in order. The conservative-leaning editorial board of The Wall Street Journal wrote Saturday that those looking to take down McCarthy “don’t seem to have any constructive reason to oppose Mr. McCarthy beyond a desire to grab the media spotlight or blow everything up.”

Delving into “GOP dysfunction since Election Day,” the editorial board said, “Republicans are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight – except at one another.”

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December 17, 2022
Georgia grand jury investigating Trump election interference is winding down and has begun writing final report | CNN Politics

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A special grand jury investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia is winding down its work, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Atlanta-area special grand jury has largely finished hearing witness testimony and has already begun writing its final report, the sources said, an indication that prosecutors will soon be deciding whether to seek criminal charges and against whom.

In Georgia, special grand juries are not authorized to issue indictments. The final report serves as a mechanism for the panel to recommend whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should pursue indictments in her election interference investigation. Willis could then go to a regularly empaneled grand jury to seek indictments.

“It’s a significant step, it’s the culmination of work by prosecutors and the special grand jury. But it shouldn’t be taken as any kind of guarantee of a conviction down the road,” said Michael J. Moore, former US attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. “It’s just the beginning.”

Prosecutors had hoped to move ahead with indictments as early as December, sources previously told CNN. But court fights for testimony from high-profile witnesses, such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – all of whom were ordered to testify before the special grand jury – have likely shifted indictments to 2023, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Willis has already informed Rudy Giuliani and 16 Republicans who served as pro-Trump fake electors in the state that they are targets of her investigation. She has also been scrutinizing Trump and other top lieutenants, including Meadows.

The next phase in the Georgia investigation comes at a politically and legally perilous time for Trump. His nascent 2024 presidential campaign is off to a sputtering start, and he is under Justice Department scrutiny both for his handling of classified government documents after leaving the White House and for his activities surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and efforts to upend the 2020 election results. Federal investigators are also scrutinizing several Trump associates who were involved in the unsuccessful effort to overturn the presidential election.

Some outside legal experts have cautioned, though, that any case against Trump would be far from a slam dunk.

When there’s a public case, “the games begin. It will be fought in the court of law and the court of public opinion,” Moore said.

If prosecutors hope to bring a successful case against Trump or his allies, they will have to prove that their activities extended well beyond the usual efforts to win an election and veered into criminal territory.

“I just think when you’re taking on a political figure like this, it’s a tougher case,” Moore said. “Every candidate wants to win, every candidate does everything they can to win, and they explore every option.”

Willis has already spent more than a year digging into Trump and his associates, kicking off her investigation in early 2021, soon after a January call became public in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary for Trump to win the Peach State in the presidential election.

Trump lost to Joe Biden in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes in 2020. The former president has insisted that there was nothing problematic about his activities contesting the 2020 election in Georgia and has referred to his call with Raffensperger as a “perfect” phone call.

Willis’ investigation has long since expanded beyond the call to encompass false election fraud claims made to state lawmakers; the fake elector scheme; efforts by unauthorized individuals to access voting machines in one Georgia county; and threats and harassment against election workers.

The special grand jury – made up of 23 jurors and three alternates – was seated in May 2022, with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents and otherwise investigate the effort to subvert Georgia’s presidential election results. The panel is authorized to continue its work until May 2023, but Willis has signaled for months that she hoped to conclude the grand jury’s investigative work well before then.

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

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December 17, 2022
The real revelation from the ‘Twitter Files’: Content moderation is messy | CNN Business

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Before then-President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter after the Capitol riot last January, there was a debate among some employees about what to do with the company’s most prominent and controversial user.

Some employees questioned whether Trump’s final tweets on the platform actually violated the company’s policies, according to internal documents. Others asked if the tweets could be considered veiled (or “coded”) efforts to dodge Twitter’s rules and requested research to better understand how users might interpret them.

The high-stakes debate among several employees, including several top execs, was revealed earlier this week in the latest edition of the “Twitter Files,” a tranche of internal company documents provided to and tweeted out by several journalists unaffiliated with major news organizations. The releases so far have focused on some of the social media company’s most high-profile, and controversial, content moderation decisions.

The Twitter Files reports appear aimed at calling into question the integrity of Twitter’s former leadership and riling up the right-leaning user base that new owner Elon Musk has increasingly courted. The latest release, for example, appeared to imply that Twitter executives had sidestepped the platform’s rules when deciding to ban Trump and instead sought a justification to support a partisan decision they’d already made. That interpretation, while not fully supported by the documents, was echoed by Musk, who has cheered and seemingly sanctioned the release of the documents. But outside of Musk’s core base, reaction to the Twitter Files, which provide little new insight into the company’s policy and decision-making, has been largely muted.

Strip away the spectacle and partisan discord and what the Twitter Files show is something that is arguably both far less explosive but nonetheless should give all users pause, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum. In the absence of meaningful coordination or government oversight, a select few powerful tech platforms are left to make incredibly impactful and difficult decisions around content moderation — and, even when well intentioned, the people at these companies often struggle with how messy that process can be.

In moments of crisis, platforms are generally on their own to determine how to weigh sometimes competing priorities — protecting speech versus protecting users — and often under immense public scrutiny and with pressure to act quickly. These companies have created extensive platform guidelines, set up content moderation councils, partnered with fact-checkers and invested heavily in artificial intelligence, but at the end of the day, it can still just be a group of employees trying to sort through unprecedented decisions such as whether or not to ban a sitting US president.

“There’s no decision that’s cost free,” said Matt Perault, tech policy consultant and professor at University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science. “The challenge is that any decision [social media companies] make, including the decision not to act, will have consequences and they need to figure out which consequences they’re comfortable with … I do think it is much harder than most people seem to think it would be.”

The process doesn’t necessarily always yield the right result. Former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth has acknowledged the company may not have made the right call in how to handle the 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. And Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey reiterated in an online post Tuesday that he believes the company acted wrongly in removing Trump’s account.

“We did the right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society,” Dorsey wrote, although he added, “I continue to believe there was no ill intent or hidden agendas, and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time. Of course mistakes were made.”

Monday’s Twitter Files released from journalist Bari Weiss appeared to present screenshots showing Twitter employees debating how to handle Trump’s tweets in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack as proof that the company’s leadership wanted to sidestep its rules to ban Trump. But the screenshots could also be interpreted as showing a group of employees challenging each other to find the best possible way to apply the company’s rules during a critical moment that no one could have perfectly prepared for.

The process of involving multiple staffers and teams and relying on research for high-profile decisions does not appear out of line with how Twitter and other social platforms make content moderation decisions, especially in crisis situations.

“This is how the whole process went … this is not really out of the ordinary,” one former Twitter executive told CNN, noting that the various teams involved in content decisions would push each other to consider context and information they might not have thought of as they worked through how to handle difficult issues. “I think these conversations look like people were trying to be really thoughtful and careful,” the former executive said.

It’s not just Twitter that wrestles with tough decisions, including around Trump. Meta also had a monthslong back-and-forth with its internal team and its external oversight board about its own decision to suspend Trump on Facebook and Instagram.

The Files also point to several instances in which Twitter leaders changed, or considered changing, the company’s policies as evidence that they had ulterior motives. For example, there was a screenshot of a Slack message from an unnamed employee the day after Trump’s ban discussing a desire to address medical misinformation and “getting to a place of improved maturity in how our policies are actualized.” But examining emergent concerns and considering whether they might require new or updated policies seems to be precisely the job of social media trust and safety teams.

The “Twitter Files” threads appear to have been written “with a very clear agenda,” the former executive said. “What they seem to have missed … is just how much power and influence was sitting on the shoulders of a very small number of people.”

Even Dorsey in his Tuesday night post called for a radical overhaul of how social media works that would involve taking away the power of big social media platforms, including the one he co-founded. “I generally think companies have become far too powerful,” Dorsey said. He added that he is pushing for the growth of decentralized social media that is not controlled by any one corporation or individual, and where users can choose their own forms of content moderation.

Still, the Twitter Files reports show just how many of the company’s employees and teams were involved in the deliberations over difficult content decisions. According to the former Twitter executive, that was by design. “Twitter’s process was designed to make sure that the decision doesn’t come down to just one person,” they said. “The alternative is that you wait until Jack Dorsey decides he doesn’t like somebody and you take it down.”

And despite the often-charged rhetoric about the people making content decisions at social media companies, “the people who do this work are thoughtful, are skilled,” Perault said. “They’re deeply connected to the technology, to the products, to the social implications of their products.”

The process under Musk now appears to be much different — the new Twitter owner has fired many of the employees that had been responsible for safety on the platform, he’s used easily-manipulated Twitter polls to justify major content rulings, he’s done away with Twitter’s council of outside trust and safety experts and he’s based at least one decision on who to allow on the platform on his personal feelings.

It’s hard to argue that process isn’t messy, too.

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December 17, 2022
January 6 defendant arrested for allegedly planning to kill FBI agents who had investigated him | CNN Politics

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A Tennessee man already facing charges in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was arrested for allegedly planning to kill FBI agents, including those who had been investigating him, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Edward Kelley, who was previously charged with assaulting an officer during the Capitol riot, and Austin Carter, also from Tennessee, have been charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, interstate threats and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

According to an affidavit, Kelley and Carter had a list of names of 37 law enforcement members to assassinate.

The list noted which officers were involved in Kelley’s arrest in May in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the January 6-related charges or present during the search of his home, and it included some of their phone numbers, according to the affidavit.

An “acquaintance” of Kelley and Carter gave the list to police and began cooperating with investigators, according to the affidavit.

CNN has reached out to Kelley’s attorney. Carter’s attorney, Joshua Hedrick, told CNN in a statement, “Our investigation is only just beginning, but we are looking forward to providing a zealous defense of Mr. Carter, who has asserted his innocence.”

In a news release Friday, the Justice Department said Kelley not only discussed attacking law enforcement agents with Carter and their unnamed acquaintance, but also planned to attack the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee Field Office.

“If I’m extradited to DC or you don’t hear about my status within 24 or 48 hours..if they are coming to arrest me again, start it,” Kelley told the acquaintance during a recorded call Wednesday, according to the affidavit. “You guys are taking them out at their office. What you and [Carter] need to do is recruit as many as you can…and you’re going to attack their office.”

When the acquaintance asked if Carter was in support of part of Kelley’s plans, Carter told the individual that “this is the time, add up or put up” and “to definitely make sure you got everything racked, locked up and loaded.”

Kelley and Carter will remain detained pending further hearings.

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December 16, 2022