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Trump Admits To Russian Hacking Even As He Attacks US Intelligence Community

[email protected] (Agencies)
January 12, 2017

New York, Jan 12: President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time here Wednesday that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic Party during last year's election, but denied that the leaks were intended to boost him and argued that Moscow would cease cyber attacks on the United States once he is sworn in.

presidentIn a rollicking hour-long news conference, Trump furiously denounced as "fake news" the reports that Russia had obtained salacious intelligence that could compromise him. He suggested that any damaging information collected by Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration would already have been released - and he celebrated what had leaked out about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"As far as hacking, I think it was Russia," Trump said. "Hacking's bad and it shouldn't be done. But look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking."

Allowing his hostility and contempt toward the U.S. intelligence community to again burst into public view, Trump also reaffirmed his belief - first expressed in a tweet earlier Wednesday morning - that intelligence officials were behaving as though they were in "Nazi Germany" with what he termed "disgraceful" leaks to the media. The Anti-Defamation League asked Trump to apologize for trivializing the Holocaust.

Trump made a series of promises but provided little specific evidence on how he would deliver them. He vowed to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act quickly and nearly simultaneously ("could be the same hour"); to start building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico before convincing the Mexican government to pay for it ("that will happen, whether it's a tax or whether it's a payment"); and unveiled how he is disentangling himself from management of his massive business empire while still refusing to divest himself of his financial interests.

Trump also said he planned to announce a nominee fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late justice Antonin Scalia within two weeks of his Jan. 20 inauguration, having already reviewed a list of about 20 candidates recommended by conservatives at the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation. And he promised to bring jobs to the states that supported him in November, calling himself "the greatest jobs producer that God ever created."

In a performance that was by turns considered, combative, and carnivalesque, Trump also definitively confirmed that winning the presidency has not changed his public presentation to that of a more traditional statesman.

Instead, he repeatedly lashed out at the news media. He shushed correspondents from CNN - "You are fake news," he hissed at them - which broke the news late Tuesday that Trump and Obama had been briefed on allegations that Russian intelligence services have compromising material and information on Trump's personal life and finances.

He also went after Buzzfeed, which published a document Tuesday outlining some of the unverified allegations, which were based on research done by an outside entity engaged in political consulting work and led by a former high-ranking British intelligence official. Trump called Buzzfeed a "failing pile of garbage" and warned it would "suffer the consequences" for publishing the dossier.

Some 300 journalists packed into the marble lobby of Trump Tower for the president-elect's first full-fledged news conference since July 27, when among other pronouncements Trump urged the Russian government to find and release tens of thousands of Clinton's private emails.

Six months later, the subject of Russian hacking still clouds Trump's transition to power and questions about the hacking attacks dominated Wednesday's press conference. At first, Trump refused to say whether he or anyone on his campaign had been in contact with Russia, but he clarified as he left the press conference, telling reporters near the elevators that neither he nor his team had any contact with Russia about his campaign.

Trump also insisted that the warm relationship he has cultivated with Putin is beneficial to the United States.

"If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks? That's called an asset, not a liability," he said. "Now, I don't know that I'm gonna get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do. But there's a good chance I won't. And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me?"

At times, Trump also seemed eager to both reminisce about and relitigate his unlikely campaign. He recounted his crowds of thousands that "would go crazy" when he urged them to cheer that Mexico would pay for a border wall. And he poked fun at Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a longtime critic who ran unsuccessfully in the 2016 Republican primary, when asked about a bill Graham is co-sponsoring that would increase sanctions on Russia.

"I've been competing with him for a long time," Trump said, nodding to Graham's poor showing in the primaries. "He is going to crack that 1 percent barrier one day."

On cyber attacks, he said his administration will produce within 90 days a major report on how to stop the hacking "phenomena."

He also argued that Russia hacked the Democrats because "the Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked."

Trump claimed credit for instructing Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, his incoming White House chief of staff, to invest in ordering "a very, very strong hacking defense," and said the Russians had tried to hack his party's internal systems but "were unable to break through."

FBI Director James Comey said at a hearing Tuesday that none of the RNC's current computer networks were hacked but that old email servers that were no longer being used were penetrated. The fact that none of that information was released by the Russians factored into the intelligence community's conclusion that Moscow aimed to help Trump win, Comey said.

He noted that the Russian hackers "got far deeper and wider into the DNC than the RNC." Officials have previously said that the DNC's cybersecurity was not as strong as the RNC's.

Like many Trump productions, Wednesday's press conference was strategically staged and cast. Aides carried out heaps of papers in manila folders, which Trump claimed were the legal documents transferring management of his many business interests over to his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.

Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, emerged first at the lectern to play the role of outraged disciplinarian, setting the tone for a press conference that was both offensive and defensive. He half-read, half-shouted a strongly worded statement castigating some media organizations for "highly salacious and flat-out false" reports Tuesday night about Trump and Russia that he said were intended to undermine the new administration.

"The fact that BuzzFeed and CNN made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks," Spicer said, as his boss looked on proudly.

Spicer's admonishment seemed intended to free Trump to rise above the fray - and Trump's initial remarks were measured and largely magnanimous. But a few questions into the news conference, the president-elect delved directly into the topic of Russia.

Asked whether he engaged in behavior during his Russia trip for the Miss Universe pageant that he now regrets and that makes him now vulnerable to blackmail, Trump said he is "extremely careful" when traveling abroad. He said he tells his bodyguards to beware hidden cameras in foreign hotels.

"You have cameras in the strangest places - cameras that are so small with modern technology you can't see them and you won't know," Trump said. "You better be careful or you'll be watching yourself on nightly television. I tell this to people all the time."

Trump added, "I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way. Believe me."

Trump's post-election news conference, where he had planned to formally announce how he would restructure his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest, was delayed for weeks as he and his lawyers worked to disentangle the president-elect.

Midway through, Trump turned over the lectern to Sheri Dillon, a tax adviser at the Morgan Lewis law firm, who read a lengthy statement explaining that Trump was giving up management of the Trump Organization and shifting his assets into a trust managed by Donald Jr. and Eric Trump while he serves as president.

However, Trump will not sell his business or his stake. He also said he would continue continued to refuse to release his tax returns for public review. "The only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters," Trump said.

Trump's company, which has a vast array of licensing deals, buildings, golf courses and other properties around the globe, will make no new foreign deals while he is in office, Dillon said. Any new domestic deals would undergo vigorous review and require approval by an independent ethics adviser.

As Dillon explained the nuances of the new arrangement, Trump stood off to the side appearing restless and perhaps bored. He shifted his stance, whispered back and forth with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and at one point ducked out of camera view to take a sip of water.

Yet Trump soon returned to his spot at center stage, parrying questions on a range of subjects before drawing the cameras to focus on the display of papers and folders at the table next to him. He said they were "just a piece of the many, many companies" being put into a trust to be run by his sons.

"I hope at the end of eight years I'll come back and say, 'Oh, you did a good job,' " Trump said, as his two older sons looked on admiringly.

But Trump couldn't resist a final flourish, underscoring his ongoing struggle to shift from reality television host to leader of the free world. "Otherwise, if they do a bad job," Trump continued, "I'll say, 'You're fired!' "

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Agencies
February 16,2020

Wuhan, Feb 16: The death toll from China's coronavirus epidemic has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500, officials said on Sunday, as top WHO experts scramble to assist Beijing contain the virus spread.

China's National Health Commission confirmed 2,009 new cases across the country.

Hubei and its provincial capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, reported 1,843 of the new cases. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in Hubei to 56,249 cases.

Of the new deaths, 139 were in Hubei, two in Sichuan, and one in Hunan, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The number of new cases, however, appears to have started dropping and a top Chinese health official has said efforts to control the outbreak have reached the “most crucial stage".

The report said 9,419 infected patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery so far.

The coronavirus has posed a severe threat to the medical staff as more than 1,700 Chinese health officials have been infected by the virus while treating the patients and six of them have died.

Experts from the World Health Organisation are expected in Beijing on Sunday to join Chinese health authorities in containing the virus, which has spread to several other countries forcing them to temporarily stop tourist arrivals from China.

The health commission said a joint mission with WHO experts will pay field visits to China's three provincial-level regions to learn the effectiveness of the epidemic control measures.

One task of the mission will be to come up with standard medicine to cure the disease, according to the health commission.

Several antiviral drugs are under clinical trials and Chinese researchers have narrowed down their focus to a few existing drugs, including Chloroquine Phosphate, Favipiravir and Remdesivir, said Zhang Xinmin, director of the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development.

Experts have asked people to frequently wash hands and face, and wear masks.

Authorities have begun quarantining large quantity of bank notes and coins in the affected areas and sanitising them with UV light before releasing them back into circulation to stop the virus from spreading.

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News Network
April 2,2020

United Nations, Apr 2: The global economy could shrink by up to one per cent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a reversal from the previous forecast of 2.5 per cent growth, the UN has said, warning that it may contract even further if restrictions on the economic activities are extended without adequate fiscal responses.

The analysis by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) said the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting global supply chains and international trade. With nearly 100 countries closing national borders during the past month, the movement of people and tourism flows have come to a screeching halt.

"Millions of workers in these countries are facing the bleak prospect of losing their jobs. Governments are considering and rolling out large stimulus packages to avert a sharp downturn of their economies which could potentially plunge the global economy into a deep recession. In the worst-case scenario, the world economy could contract by 0.9 per cent in 2020," the DESA said, adding that the world economy had contracted by 1.7 per cent during the global financial crisis in 2009.

It added that the contraction could be even higher if governments fail to provide income support and help boost consumer spending.

The analysis noted that before the outbreak of the COVID-19, world output was expected to expand at a modest pace of 2.5 per cent in 2020, as reported in the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020.

Taking into account rapidly changing economic conditions, the UN DESA's World Economic Forecasting Model has estimated best and worst-case scenarios for global growth in 2020.

In the best-case scenario with moderate declines in private consumption, investment and exports and offsetting increases in government spending in the G-7 countries and China global growth would fall to 1.2 per cent in 2020.

"In the worst-case scenario, the global output would contract by 0.9 per cent instead of growing by 2.5 per cent in 2020," it said, adding that the scenario is based on demand-side shocks of different magnitudes to China, Japan, South Korea, the US and the EU, as well as an oil price decline of 50 per cent against our baseline of USD 61 per barrel.

The severity of the economic impact will largely depend on two factors - the duration of restrictions on the movement of people and economic activities in major economies; and the actual size and efficacy of fiscal responses to the crisis.

A well-designed fiscal stimulus package, prioritising health spending to contain the spread of the virus and providing income support to households most affected by the pandemic would help to minimise the likelihood of a deep economic recession, it said.

According to the forecast, lockdowns in Europe and North America are hitting the service sector hard, particularly industries that involve physical interactions such as retail trade, leisure and hospitality, recreation and transportation services. Collectively, such industries account for more than a quarter of all jobs in these economies.

The DESA said as businesses lose revenue, unemployment is likely to increase sharply, transforming a supply-side shock to a wider demand-side shock for the economy.

Against this backdrop, the UN-DESA is joining a chorus of voices across the UN system calling for well-designed fiscal stimulus packages which prioritize health spending and support households most affected by the pandemic.

Urgent and bold policy measures are needed, not only to contain the pandemic and save lives, but also to protect the most vulnerable in our societies from economic ruin and to sustain economic growth and financial stability, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin said.

The analysis also warns that the adverse effects of prolonged economic restrictions in developed economies will soon spill over to developing countries via trade and investment channels.

A sharp decline in consumer spending in the European Union and the United States will reduce imports of consumer goods from developing countries.

Developing countries, particularly those dependent on tourism and commodity exports, face heightened economic risks. Global manufacturing production could contract significantly, and the plummeting number of travellers is likely to hurt the tourism sector in small island developing States, which employs millions of low-skilled workers, it said.

Meanwhile, the decline in commodity-related revenues and a reversal of capital flows are increasing the likelihood of debt distress for many nations. Governments may be forced to curtail public expenditure at a time when they need to ramp up spending to contain the pandemic and support consumption and investment.

UN Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Elliot Harris said the collective goal must be a resilient recovery which puts the planet back on a sustainable track. We must not lose sight how it is affecting the most vulnerable population and what that means for sustainable development, he said.

The alarms raised by UN-DESA echo another report, released on March 31, in which UN experts issued a broad appeal for a large-scale, coordinated, comprehensive multilateral response amounting to at least 10 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP).

According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, confirmed coronavirus cases across the world now stand at over 932,600 and over 42,000 deaths.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Washington, Jul 14: Florida on Sunday reported a record 15,300 new coronavirus cases, the most by any state in a single day even as the coronavirus cases in the country have surged to 3,363,056.

The Washington Post reported that the huge number was result of both increased testing and widespread community transmission. The numbers shattered previous highs of 11,694 reported by California last week and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15.

Natalie E. Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida wrote that with Florida largely open for business, he doesn't expect this surge to slow.

Nationally, the conversation over reopening has become increasingly fraught amid the newly soaring case numbers, with much of the debate centering on whether schools should open their doors in the fall, reported the Post.

The Health workers in California and Texas too are facing an influx of COVID-19 patients where officials reported seven day averages for new cases - 8,664 and 9060 respectively.

According to the report, Florida has reported nearly 70,000 cases in last week alone, the most of any state.

Even though the COVID-19 cases are surging, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stuck to an aggressive reopening plan with state officials recently ordering schools to reopen five days a week in the new academic year.

The state is also set to hold the Republican National Convention next month in Jacksonville's VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, an indoor facility that seats about 15,000, reported Washington Post.

Seven-day averages for new cases -- considered a more reliable indicator of the virus's impact than single-day totals -- hit new highs in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.

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