Yahoo Finance’s Brian Cheung speaks with Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren about the latest jobless claims numbers and the U.S. economy.
The first major meteor shower since January is coming to a sky near you. Here's the best time to try to watch it.
Advocates used the national spotlight on the Derek Chauvin conviction to draw attention to legal protections granted to police in civil lawsuits.
Mosquito Lake in northeast Ohio would be renamed to honor Trump, who carried the state in 2020 with more votes than any candidate there in history.
President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division is facing new scrutiny over a plea deal he brokered with a Louisiana district attorney who was accused of coercing sexual favors from as many as two dozen women. A former FBI agent blasted Kenneth Polite in a whistleblower letter unsealed this week, saying he lacked the courage to seek justice and left victims in the dark about the 2016 case while serving as New Orleans’ top federal prosecutor. At issue is the case of Harry Morel, the longtime district attorney in suburban St. Charles Parish who was accused of trading sex for leniency for years from women facing criminal charges in his jurisdiction.
Shadow minister calls gap between formation of group in 2015 and ban ‘profoundly concerning’
‘It’s actually white supremacist extremists,’ says Star Trek actor George Takei
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Jack Guez/GettyFacebook has uncovered two hacking groups targeting a range of officials on opposite sides of the political divide in Palestinian politics.On Wednesday, Facebook’s security team announced that it had disrupted a hacking effort linked to the Palestinian Authority-controlled intelligence agency, the Preventive Security Service (PSS), and a campaign targeting the Palestinian Authority linked to a shadowy hacking group known as “Arid Viper.”According to Facebook, the PSS-linked hackers targeted non-governmental journalists and human-rights activists as well as government targets across the region, including in the Palestinian territories, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and Turkey.The PSS-linked hackers used sock-puppet accounts which posed “primarily as young women” in an effort to tempt targets into engaging with the personas and installing malicious Android and Windows applications.Chinese Hackers Used Microsoft Email App to Break Into ComputersIn a somewhat more sophisticated effort, Facebook said Wednesday that it found a separate group of hackers linked to a group known to security researchers alternately as “Arid Viper” and “Desert Falcon” attempting to target officials from the Palestinian National Authority, Special Police, Ministries of Interor and Education, as well as the Palestinian political party, Fatah.Arid Viper is linked to a 2017 campaign in which fake Facebook profiles populated with thirst trap photos of attractive women sent malicious Android apps to Israeli Defense Force members. The IDF blamed Hamas for the social engineering effort and at least one cybersecurity firm linked the effort to Arid Viper.Facebook, however, said that it “cannot conclusively confirm this connection based on our evidence.”In what Facebook called a “tactical shift,” Arid Viper hackers moved away from a primarily Android-based approach to hacking adversaries and developed its own custom malware to break the iPhone operating system, iOS.Starting in 2019, Facebook’s security team “observed a spike in Arid Viper’s activity involving the creation of dozens of fake Facebook and Instagram profiles.”In particular, Arid Viper hackers began attempting to post links to the malicious iOS malware, as well as a similarly malicious Android application, on its platform and blocked the sites, leading the hackers to try and host the poisoned apps at off-platform websites.The iOS malware used by Arid Viper appears to be less sophisticated than other malware found attacking the iPhone and iPad operating system. While some of the most notorious iOS malware can infect a device with a single errant click on a malicious link (or, in some cases, without one), Arid Viper hackers’s iOS malware was more rudimentary. In order to infect their targets, the hacker had to trick victims into weakening their phone’s security settings and installing a malicious application. Facebook characterizes the malware and the methods to deploy it, which rely heavily on targets making a series of unwise security mistakes, as having “low-sophistication.”Once installed, the malicious software could gain access to a user’s photos, camera, microphone text messages, WhatsApp messages, and other sensitive data.Facebook says it alerted affected users, blocked links to known phishing sites hosting the malware, and warned industry partners about the hackers abuse of an Apple developer certificate which allowed the malicious software to appear legitimate.The malicious iPhone hacking attempts, according to Facebook, suggest that the Apple platform is increasingly a target for hackers even beyond elite cyber powers. “Arid Viper’s use of custom iOS surveillance-ware shows that this capability is becoming increasingly attainable by adversaries believed to be of lower sophistication,” the company said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Tom Carper says proposed bill ‘would prevent big cats from living in inhumane conditions’
The Department of Labor is set to release its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday.
Jen Psaki says killing of 16 year old ‘came just as America was hopeful for a step forward’ after Chauvin guilty verdict
The district attorney dismissed 914 past cases under its new policy, along with 5,080 cases for loitering for the purpose of prostitution.
USA TODAY's panel of experts celebrate the success of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program but worry that although most Americans can get a shot, too many won't.
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In Atlanta, Ga., one person's sign reflects the actual verdicts that had just been delivered in the Derek Chauvin trial. Megan Varner/Getty ImagesShortly after the guilty verdicts were revealed in former police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial for murdering George Floyd, legal experts suggested Chauvin will appeal, arguing that his right to a fair trial was threatened by extensive pretrial publicity. Video of Derek Chauvin with his knee on the neck of George Floyd for more than nine minutes was shared around the globe on social media and drew international outrage. The publicity around Floyd’s death will likely underlie any Chauvin appeal. To help place the jury’s unanimous decision on all three charges in context, here are some important facts about juries. Pretrial publicity and other biases High-profile incidents of police killings often result in widespread pretrial publicity about the defendant and victim. The Derek Chauvin case was no exception. I research the prejudicial effects of pretrial publicity and other factors that influence jurors’ decisions. Information that comes out before the trial begins can elicit strong emotional reactions and shape jurors’ judgments of credibility. The police often have the first chance to shape public opinion because they have staff experienced in making statements to the press – and the press is eager to get those statements. Unfortunately – though not uncommonly – early media attention on the death of George Floyd was based on inaccurate police statements that minimized the role of Derek Chauvin. Information provided by the news, including misleading information, can create opinions that are resistant to change. This happens especially when the information aligns with readers’ preexisting beliefs. Furthermore, pretrial publicity that casts either the defendant or the victim in a negative light can lead jurors to interpret ambiguous trial evidence in ways that support the slant of the information that came out before the trial began. A video created by a committee of judges and attorneys to be shown to jurors that aims to highlight and combat the problems presented by unconscious bias. For example, in an experiment, mock jurors were more likely to convict a defendant when they were exposed to anti-defendant pretrial publicity compared with those who did not receive this pretrial information. In contrast, exposure to pro-defendant pretrial publicity decreased the likelihood of mock jurors convicting. The process of jury selection, formally called “voir dire,” does little to eliminate jurors with biases that they are not consciously aware of – known as implicit bias – regardless of whether those biases stem from pretrial information specific to the case or are deeper-seated biases associated with race or gender. To address these implicit bias concerns, several courts across the country have developed safeguards, including special instructions like those about implicit bias given in Chauvin’s trial and educational videos shown during jury selection. However, there is little evidence that these proposed remedies are effective. Public confidence in police In criminal trials, it is commonly believed that jurors grant police officers credibility by virtue of their job. Jurors also grant police officers much discretion when it comes to use of force, even deadly force. Yet, public confidence in the police is at record lows, especially among Black adults. Frequent viral videos of police violence, recent investigative reporting exposing the extent of police misconduct and few examples of police accountability have likely all contributed to the decline in public confidence in policing. More broadly, the way policing and issues of race are portrayed in the media has the potential to create biases that affect the impartiality of the jury pool. For example, Black male victims of police violence are often described in the news using language that dehumanizes and criminalizes their behavior. Race and racially diverse juries Two potential solutions exist for addressing implicit racial biases. The first is making race a more explicit part of a trial. When attorneys call attention to the relevance of race in a case, especially when a case involves a Black male victim, white jurors exhibit less racial bias. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin listens as the verdict is read in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd. Court TV via AP, Pool Another potential solution is to have racially diverse juries, like the one in Chauvin’s trial. To avoid appearing prejudiced, white jurors become more careful in their contributions during deliberations with a racially diverse jury. Diversity offers the opportunity for many perspectives to enter the deliberation process, resulting in deliberations that are more thorough and accurately reflect the facts of the case. Importantly, the public has more confidence in the verdicts of racially diverse juries and views them as fairer. To increase the diversity and representativeness of juries, two changes could be made by courts. For example, the use of peremptory challenges – which attorneys can use to remove a juror without reason except to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex – could be curtailed. Attorneys use these challenges more often to strike minority jurors, even though they claim it’s not a challenge based on race. Efforts are also underway in state courts to better manage the way jury pools are compiled and jurors are summoned to court. These efforts ensure jury pools reflect the demographics of the community from which they are drawn, ultimately translating to more diverse and representative juries. Historically, juries in American criminal courts give police officers wide discretion in their use of force, up to and including deadly force. The outcome of the Chauvin trial provides some evidence that this wide-ranging discretion can be challenged.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Angela M. Jones, Texas State University. Read more:Why this trial was different: Experts react to guilty verdict for Derek ChauvinBeing skeptical of sources is a journalist’s job – but it doesn’t always happen when those sources are the police Angela M. Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
We’d like to hear from people in the US about their reaction to Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict, and what more needs to be done People react to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial on Tuesday. Photograph: Jason Armond/LA Times/Rex/Shutterstock Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of the murder of George Floyd, in a killing which triggered demonstrations against police brutality and racism in the US and around the world. We’d like to hear from people in the US about their reaction to the verdict, and hopes for the future of policing in America. Share your experiences How did you feel when you heard about the conviction? What are your hopes for the future? What do you think needs to change in US policing to work towards fairness and accountability? You can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously if you wish or via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44 (0)7867 825056. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. One of our journalists will be in contact before we publish, so please do leave contact details. If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here.
Starting today, all Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S owners can play free online multiplayer games without an Xbox Live Gold membership.
President Joe Biden will announce that he has achieved early his goal of administering 200 million COVID shots in his first 100 days in office.
Lehigh County district attorney Jim Martin says incidents appeared to be ‘indiscriminate and unrelated’
The Justice Department is taking new aim at ransomware after a year that officials say was the most costly on record for the crippling cyberattacks. Formation of a task force of FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors is an acknowledgment of the growing threat posed by ransomware attacks, in which hackers lock up computer data and demand ransom payments in order to give it back. The force is part of a broader government effort to combat cyberattacks that target vital infrastructure, including a 100-day Biden administration initiative to bolster the digital security of electricity in the nation.
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