Israeli settlers rampage at a military base in the West Bank
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged around a military base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, setting fires, vandalizing military vehicles, spraying graffiti and attacking soldiers, the military said.
Sunday night's unrest came after several attacks in the West Bank carried out by Jewish settlers and anger at their arrests by security forces attempting to contain the violence over the past few days.
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Winnipeg Free Press
16 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bush, Obama and a tearful Bono fault Trump's gutting of USAID on agency's last day
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell on Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday. The former presidents and Bono spoke during a videoconference with thousands in the USAID community, which was billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with The Associated Press. They expressed their appreciation for the thousands of USAID staffers who have lost their jobs and life's work. Their agency was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government-cutting by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, with staffers abruptly locked out of systems and offices and terminated by mass emailing. Trump claimed the agency was run by 'radical left lunatics' and rife with 'tremendous fraud.' Musk called it 'a criminal organization.' Obama, speaking in a recorded statement, offered assurances to the aid and development workers, some listening from overseas. 'Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come,' he told them. Obama has largely kept a low public profile during Trump's second term and refrained from criticizing the monumental changes that Trump has made to U.S. programs and priorities at home and abroad. 'Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,' Obama said. He credited USAID with not only saving lives, but being a main factor in global economic growth that has turned some aid-receiving countries into U.S. markets and trade partners. The former Democratic president called Trump's dismantling of USAID a 'colossal mistake' that hurts the U.S. and predicted that 'sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed.' Asked for comment, the State Department said it would be introducing the department's foreign assistance successor to USAID, to be called America First, this week. 'The new process will ensure there is proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests,' the department said. USAID oversaw programs around the world, providing water and life-saving food to millions uprooted by conflict in Sudan, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere, sponsoring the 'Green Revolution' that revolutionized modern agriculture and curbed starvation and famine, preventing disease outbreaks, promoting democracy, and providing financing and development that allowed countries and people to climb out of poverty. Bush, who also spoke in a recorded message, went straight to the cuts in a landmark AIDS and HIV program started by his Republican administration and credited with saving 25 million lives around the world. Bipartisan blowback from Congress to cutting the popular President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, helped save significant funding for the program. But cuts and rule changes have reduced the number getting the life-saving care. 'You've showed the great strength of America through your work — and that is your good heart,'' Bush told USAID staffers. 'Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you,' he said. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former Colombian President Juan Manual Santos and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield also spoke to the staffers. So did humanitarian workers, including one who spoke of the welcome appearance of USAID staffers with food when she was a frightened 8-year-old child in a Liberian refugee camp. A World Food Program official vowed through sobs that the U.S. aid mission would be back someday. Bono, a longtime humanitarian advocate in Africa and elsewhere, was announced as the 'surprise guest,' in shades and a cap. He jokingly hailed the USAID staffers as 'secret agents of international development' in acknowledgment of the down-low nature of Monday's unofficial gathering of the USAID community. Bono held back tears at times as he recited a poem he had written to the agency and its gutting. He spoke of children dying of malnutrition, a reference to millions of people who Boston University researchers and other analysts say will die because of the U.S. cuts to funding for health and other programs abroad. 'They called you crooks. When you were the best of us,' Bono said.
Winnipeg Free Press
17 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US brings charges in North Korean remote worker scheme that officials say funds weapons program
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced criminal charges Monday in connection with a scheme by North Korea to fund its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology workers employed unwittingly by U.S. companies. The charges are part of what law enforcement officials described as a nationwide operation that also resulted in the seizure of financial accounts, websites and laptops that were used to carry out the fraud. Two separate cases — one filed in Georgia, the other in Massachusetts — represent the latest Justice Department effort to confront a persistent threat that officials say generates enormous revenue for the North Korean government and in some cases affords workers access to sensitive and proprietary data from the corporations that hire them. The scheme involves thousands of workers who, armed with stolen or fake identifies of U.S. citizens, are dispatched by the North Korean government to find work as remote IT employees at American companies, including Fortune 500 corporations. Though the companies are duped into believing the workers they had hired were based in the U.S., many are actually stationed in North Korea or in China and the wages they receive are transferred into accounts controlled by co-conspirators affiliated with North Korea, prosecutors say. 'These schemes target and steal from U.S. companies and are designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regime's illicit programs, including its weapons programs,' Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement. In one case exposed on Monday in federal court in Massachusetts, the Justice Department said it had arrested one U.S. national and charged more than a half dozen Chinese and Taiwanese citizens for their alleged roles in an elaborate fraud that prosecutors say produced at least $5 million in revenue and affected more than 100 companies. The defendants are accused of registering financial accounts to receive the proceeds and creating shell companies with fake websites to make it appear that the workers were connected to legitimate businesses. They also benefited from the help of unidentified enablers inside the United States who facilitated the workers' remote computer access, tricking companies into believing the employees were logging in from U.S. locations. The Justice Department did not identify the companies that were duped, but said that some of the fraudulent workers were able to gain access to and steal information related to sensitive military technology. The case filed in Georgia charges four North Korean nationals with using fake identities to gain access to am Atlanta-based blockchain research and development company and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in virtual currency. The Justice Department has filed similar prosecutions in recent years, as well as created an initiative aimed at disrupting the threat.
Winnipeg Free Press
17 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Iranian cyberattacks remain a threat despite ceasefire, US officials warn
WASHINGTON (AP) — A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has not ended the threat of cyberattacks from hacking groups supportive of Tehran, the FBI and federal cybersecurity officials warned Monday. In a public bulletin, the authorities warned that hacking groups affiliated with or supportive of Tehran may still seek to disrupt or disable critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. such as utilities, transportation and economic hubs. Hackers may also target defense contractors or other American companies with ties to Israel, the agencies said. 'Despite a declared ceasefire and ongoing negotiations towards a permanent solution, Iranian-affiliated cyber actors and hacktivist groups may still conduct malicious cyber activity,' the agencies warned. The warning of continued cyberthreats after a halt to conventional warfare reflects the often opaque nature of cyber conflict. Hacking groups may have only loose ties to a nation state, and may seek to retaliate as an alternative to traditional military action. The bulletin outlined recommendations, including the use of regular software updates and strong password management systems to shore up digital defenses. Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and energy companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions. While it lacks the technical abilities of China or Russia, Iran has long used its more limited capabilities to steal secrets, score political points or frighten opponents. Analysts have tied some of these activities to groups working on behalf of Iran's military and intelligence agencies. But in other instances, the groups appear to act independently.
