Corporate America Considers Throwing Support Behind Harris Despite Targeting Their Profits: REPORT

(Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Hailey Gomez

General Assignment Reporter

August 19, 2024

A considerable share of business leaders may be considering backing Vice President Kamala Harris despite concerns her economic policies could cut into their profits through oppressive taxes and regulations, according to the Financial Times.

The Harris campaign has garnered strong support from Democratic donors, lawmakers, and political figures and could now be attracting the backing of major businessmen who traditionally have thrown their support to Republicans, the Financial Times reported. The support is in spite of her recent economic plan that has called for both raising taxes on corporations and imposing restrictions on what businesses can do with their prices.

“In a matter of weeks, the business community has gone from readying itself for a Republican-run Washington to scenario planning for a wide range of outcomes,” Republican consultant Ken Spain told the Financial Times. “Many are hedging their bets given the volatility of the political environment.”

Despite Harris’ campaign not publishing a full policy platform on her website as of Monday, corporate CEO’s are allegedly considering supporting the vice president as they hope she’ll rethink Biden’s firm stances on competition, labor and financial services policy, according to the Financial Times.

The Goldman Sachs company logo is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on August 02, 2024 in New York City.(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Prior to Harris stepping in, Biden had received donations from four Business Roundtable members, a nonprofit lobbyist association — the CEOs of Centene, Kaiser Permanente, Stripe and Suffolk — with Trump pulling support from Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, the Financial Times reported.

While US business leaders have typically thrown their support behind Republicans, over the last eight years Trump has received little support from the group, with only two Fortune 100 CEOs disclosing their donations to the former president, according to the president of Yale University’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the Financial Times reported.

“If you are a CEO, what do you do now? You need to have a vigorous discussion with the policy team on the Harris side about how can [they] attract business to be partners in the future,” the chief executive of the PR firm Edelman, Richard Edelman, told the Financial Times. “I don’t think people are assuming that as it was under Biden, so it will be under Harris.”

Since Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris has faced significant pushback from pundits on both sides of the aisle after unveiling her economic plan for the U.S. While Harris discussed tax credits, housing and reducing high prices, her main focus was on a federal proposal to address “corporate price gouging,” aimed at attempting to solve rising grocery prices as Americans continue to struggle with food costs.

Pundits have warned that the implementation of a price gouging policy could not only drive up already high prices but could create black markets, thus affecting corporations’ profits.

Additionally, Harris is seeking to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% if elected into office, according to Reuters. Harris’ spokesperson, James Singer, told the outlet the economic move would be “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.”

Donations to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign are set to become public through Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times. Harris’ campaign announced in early August that it had raised over $300 million in July, breaking a record with $200 million reportedly donated within the first week of Harris being named as the party’s presumptive nominee. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Fails To Distance Herself From Left-Wing 2020 Campaign, Despite Aides’ Best Efforts)

In recent months, Trump has gained increasing support from Silicon Valley, a region once firmly aligned with the Democratic Party. Major tech industry figures, including billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, have all thrown their support behind Trump, as many are now viewing his potential administration as one who could help their industry.

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

2,000-Year-old Roman Mosaic Floor Decorated with Sea Creatures Discovered in England

By Andy Corbley
-Aug 19, 2024

The mosaic discovered at Wroxeter – credit English Heritage.

A remarkable 2,000-year-old Roman mosaic was uncovered during excavations at Wroxeter Roman city, which also uncovered an ancient building and shrine.

The Roman presence in Britain is often referred to as the high water mark of the Roman Empire, while the decline and eventual abandonment as something like the receding of a tide.

As the tides of empire receded from England’s Shropshire, near Wales, they left behind a stunning mosaic of fish and other sea life made from green, blue, yellow, and red tiles that’s just been seen for the first time in centuries.


Recent excavations on the largely unexcavated Roman city of Wroxeter turned up the foundations of the settlement’s main building.

“One of the best-preserved examples of a Roman city in Britain, Wroxeter (or Viriconium as it was known) established in the 90s AD, was a thriving city of the Roman Empire, once as large as Pompeii,” a statement from English Heritage reads.

“At its height, the city would have contained over two hundred houses, a civic bath house, marketplace, county hall and judicial center.”

The trenches were dug near the city’s forum, in search of a building called the Civic Temple. Located along the main road, the trenches yielded this “particularly rare” mosaic depicting sea life, and a painted plaster wall, the bottom of which, remarkably, survives to this day.

The mosaic discovered at Wroxeter – credit English Heritage.

Also discovered was a mausoleum and shrine that may have housed the remains of an early civic leader such as a mayor.

Wroexeter contains the largest free-standing Roman wall remaining in Great Britain, and remnants of the public baths have also survived through the ages. The whole site, which saw 20 aspiring archaeologists join in the project, was reburied to protect it from oxidative damage and weathering.

MORE MUST-SEE MOSAICS: This 2,300-year-old Mosaic Made of Shells and Coral Has Just Been Found Buried Under Rome

AND: Stunning Ancient Roman Mosaic Found Submerged in the Sea off Naples

Fish and sea life were common motifs in mosaics made by the Romans and several of their contemporaries, for example, Carthage. The museum in Monastir, Tunisia, contains one of the most impressive collections of classical mosaics outside the Roman world, and sea life is depicted on many of them.

Ukraine’s plan to buy Russian-made nuclear reactors sparks uproar

Lawmakers argue buying aging atomic energy equipment from Bulgaria won’t help keep the lights on and could fuel corruption.



Ukraine's government is facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption. | Valentina Petrova/AFP via Getty Images

August 15, 2024 

By Gabriel Gavin

POLITICO EU

Ukraine's government is fighting off growing opposition to a multimillion-dollar scheme to buy mothballed nuclear reactors, facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption just as they push to clean up the country’s energy sector.

The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. The quickest and fastest way to do so, they argue, is to buy Russian-made reactors currently sitting in storage in Bulgaria at an estimated cost of $600 million.

But the deal needs lawmakers’ sign-off, and several parliamentarians — including at least one from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own party — are alleging the deal could blow a massive hole in the country's tattered budget for outdated technology that won't necessarily help Ukrainians stave off looming blackouts.

The issue came to a head Tuesday morning when government officials met with members of parliament to discuss the issue. According to two lawmakers present, the government acknowledged it didn't currently have the necessary backing amid swirling doubts.

“It’s extremely rare for things on such a high level not to be supported,” said Andrii Zhupanyn, an MP from Zelenskyy’s governing party and a member of the parliament’s energy committee.

He rattled through several questions he said remained unanswered: “Can we afford to be buying Russian nuclear reactors during the full-scale invasion? And what is the condition of these reactors? They were bought by Bulgaria 10-12 years ago, so will they work when they arrive in Ukraine?”

However, Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galuschenko, who is pushing the plan, dismissed the concerns, arguing that expanding nuclear power is the only way to keep the beleaguered energy grid operating, and that the two VVER-1000 reactors are the fastest and cheapest options available.

“Against Russian attacks, nuclear energy [accounts for] 60 percent of our energy mix and is a backbone of our energy system,” he said in comments to POLITICO. “The development and adding more units to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station is a priority for the government of Ukraine.”

Needing nuclear

The row has created another point of contention as Ukraine tries to crack down on corruption in its energy sector. Earlier this week, Galushenko’s deputy minister, Oleksandr Kheil, was arrested over allegations he pushed for a bribe of half a million dollars in exchange for transferring coal mining equipment belonging to a state enterprise.

Zhupanyn and his colleagues claim the Russian nuclear reactor purchase will become another venue for such dodgy dealing.

“In the last 10 years, there have been many criminal cases against people using tenders to extract cash from Ukraine’s state nuclear power company,” he said in an interview. “If you allow them to spend billions of hryvnia on this, you can expect a pipeline of criminal cases in the next 10 years.”

Galuschenko denied accusations the government was withholding information.

The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images

“The very fact the law is in [parliament] and we discuss its provisions with MPs and society is a clear sign of our openness,” he added. “All speculations on ‘transparency’ are manipulations by the forces and circles that are not interested in the development of the Ukrainian nuclear state sector.”

Yet parliamentarians are still claiming the government has failed to answer key questions on how the scheme provides value for money or addresses the challenges of the beleaguered energy grid. And Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an economist and MP from Ukraine’s liberal Holos party, said he wasn’t confident the government could appease those concerns.

“There are a lot of MPs from basically all factions that are not supporting it,” he told POLITICO following the meeting on Tuesday. “We are concerned about corruption in this procurement process and we have not received any explanations.”

Bulgaria's energy sector is facing its own corruption scandals — on Tuesday, investigators raided the offices of its state-owned gas network operator in a probe over alleged misuse of EU cash. Supporters of a far-right, pro-Russian political party in the country in May blocked access to one of the country's nuclear power plants for a delegation from Kyiv, which intended to inspect equipment it plans to buy for its own atomic energy sector.

Ukrainian energy and environment NGO Ekodiya has also raised concerns about the proposals for Khmelnytskyi, arguing that the project would rely on “obsolete Russian-made equipment” and that “the use of outdated technology can lead to serious safety and efficiency problems.”

Instead, the group argues, the better investment would be in smaller electricity-generating facilities, including renewables, distributed across a wider area. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of state power firm Ukrenergo, told POLITICO earlier this year that building a broad green energy network would make the grid less susceptible to Russian attacks.

Moscow has stepped up missile and drone strikes on key infrastructure in recent months, crippling the electricity system and leaving Ukraine dependent on imports from the EU. Analysts warn that, without concerted efforts to bring additional capacity online and ensure critical sites are protected with anti-air missiles, the country could face a power crisis this winter.

A fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine over the weekend triggered fears of a disaster at the site, close to the front lines. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the power station, seized by Moscow in the early days of the full-scale war, is being operated in unsafe conditions.

Microsoft patches Windows security flaw exploited by North Korean hackers — but is it too late?

By Sead Fadilpašić 

08/19/24

TECH TREND

Lazarus had already used the flaw to access IT systems

(Image credit: Shutterstock) (Image credit: Shutterstock)

As part of its latest Patch Tuesday cumulative update, Microsoft fixed a privilege escalation bug in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver (AFD.sys) for WinSock. This bug is tracked as CVE-2024-38193, and carries a severity score of 7.8.

Abusing this flaw apparently grants attackers admin privileges on the vulnerable endpoint, with Microsoft noting, "an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges."


However, the patch may have come a little too late, since some researchers said hackers were already abusing the bug, while it was a zero-day. In fact, researchers from Gen Digital (owners of Norton, Avira, Avast, and others) claim Lazarus Group, the infamous North Korean state-sponsored organization, used it to drop a malware rootkit called FudModule.

Lazarus strikes again

"This flaw allowed them to gain unauthorized access to sensitive system areas," Gen Digital said in a report. "The vulnerability allowed attackers to bypass normal security restrictions and access sensitive system areas that most users and administrators can't reach."

“This type of attack is both sophisticated and resourceful, potentially costing several hundred thousand dollars on the black market. This is concerning because it targets individuals in sensitive fields, such as those working in cryptocurrency engineering or aerospace to get access to their employer’s networks and steal crypto currencies to fund attackers’ operations,” the researchers concluded.

Lazarus is a known threat actor, responsible for some of the most devastating cyberattacks in recent history. It is most famous for its fake job campaigns, in which it creates fake LinkedIn profiles (or impersonates known figures) and then approaches software developers with offers of great jobs with amazing salaries.

One such attack, carried out against a blockchain developer, resulted in the theft of roughly $600 million from a cryptocurrency project. Some researchers claim North Korea is using the money to fund its state apparatus, as well as its weapons program.

PAKISTAN

Lahore police detain man in connection with UK disinformation probe

Asif Chaudhry 

Published August 20, 2024 

DAWN

LAHORE: Police have detained a Pakistani citizen, accused of having a role in disseminating the disinformation that led to race motivated riots across the UK following the stabbing of three young girls in the city of Southport, law enforcement sources told Dawn.

However, investigators want the government to form a joint investigation team to investigate the allegations levelled by UK broadcaster ITV News, which had accused a Lah­ore-based freelancer of being the source of the misinformation that the 17-year-old British-born suspect was an immigrant who arrived in UK.

Officers privy to developments told Dawn that their own investigations led them to the conclusion that Farhan Asif — a freelance web developer associated with the Channel3Now platform that is blamed for posting the disinformation — was not the source of this spurious news, but rather copy-pasted it from a social media post.

“The allegations should not be taken lightly as they can have a far-reaching impact on Pakistani community in the UK, in particular, and Muslims in general,” a police officer told Dawn on Monday.

Investigators want JIT to probe ‘serious’ allegations; say Channel3Now freelancer was not ‘primary source’ of spurious claims

According to the officer, investigators believe that the disinformation was first published by kossyderrickent.com, a little-known tabloid on July 29th.

The tabloid posts reports about celebrities and trending topics in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uga­nda, US, Zimbabwe and India.

The disinformation was then shared by a UK-based woman, who has previously been involved in spreading disinformation about Covid-19 and climate change, on X (formerly Twitter), the officer said.

The X account of the woman in question also seems to be inactive, with the last post being made on Aug 7.

The officer said that police were looking into Asif, whose social media accounts had now been disabled, adding that he had no criminal record or suspicious transaction history.

He said Asif, upon realising the mistake, had issued an apology and deleted the post from all social media accounts, but the disinformation kept gaining traction as it kept being shared by other users and garnering views online.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024

UK

Clapping For NHS During Covid Was Like Treating Service As A 'Religion', Ombudsman Says

Kate Nicholson

HUFFPOST
Mon, 19 August 2024

Former PM Boris Johnson stands outside 10 Downing Street to join in the nationwide Clap for Carers to recognise and support National Health Service (NHS) workers and carers fighting the coronavirus pandemic, in London, Thursday, May 21, 2020. via Associated Press

The nationwide campaign to ‘Clap for Carers’ during Covid was “dangerous” because it made the NHS seem like a “national religion,” the parliamentary and health service ombudsman has said.

Rebecca Hilsenrath’s office looks into complaints against government departments, public organisations and NHS England.

She has just given evidence to a review of the health service, launched by the new government.

Labour is looking to reform the NHS after the health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “broken”.

She told The Sunday Telegraph: “There is an argument I have heard that clapping for the NHS during the pandemic was quite a dangerous thing to do … because no organisation can be a national religion, and no organisation should be beyond constructive criticism.

“I don’t think that it is helpful for any organisation to be treated as religion.”

Inspired by the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, Clap for Carers first came to the UK in March 2020, shortly after the first lockdown began.

Households around the country – including those in the Royal Family and the No.10 Downing Street – stood on their doorsteps, or leant out of their windows, to show their gratitude for the health workers struggling on as Covid cases rose.

Hilsenrath told Sky News she joined in with the clap for our carers at the time, too, but she has since heard from a worker within the NHS that such”deification” is “profoundly unhelpful”.

She said that she understood why people did it, telling the newspaper: “Of course, people were enormously grateful for the extraordinary efforts that people in the NHS went to during that time, including risking their own personal safety.”

However, the campaign soon drew public ire for being an empty gesture at a time when the NHS was seriously struggling with staff shortages, and constantly exposed to Covid.

Hilsenrath said: “I also know that the national mood has changed since then, and I think it’s incredibly difficult as an NHS worker to consistently read about the failings in your service, and how you’re letting people down.”

The number of complaints against the NHS in England have steadily risen in the last decade.

There were 27,479 reported between 2023/24, a stark increase compared to 2013/14, when there were 17,964, although there was a drop at the height of the Covid pandemic.

She said that rapid change in public opinion left NHS workers “in a place of risk”.

Hilsenrath, who previously led the the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said this reflects a “change in attitude towards the NHS and a far lower degree of happiness with services”.

She also told The Telegraph she did not think Streeting’s description of the NHS as “broken” was “really helpful” either, adding: “We have to have an honest conversation about what’s really going on and how it needs to do better.”

 From Troy to Sde Teiman: The Cycle of Brutality in War

Joel Zivot

AUGUST 18, 2024 

Edited by: JURIST Staff

The author, a physician and medical ethicist, argues that the alleged abuses at Israel's Sde Teiman detention center reflect a universal human tendency towards brutality in war, highlighting the ethical challenges faced by militaries in maintaining humanity while dealing with enemy combatants...

In legend, Achilles, Greek warrior and hero of the Trojan War, fought Trojan prince Hector to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus. Hector had killed Patroclus, and he planned to cut off Patroclus’ head and give his body to the dogs for food. Before the fight, Hector waits for Achilles and then proposes that whoever wins, be it him or Achilles, will respect the other’s body and return it for proper burial. Achilles refuses, saying that there is “…no love between us. No truce till one or the other falls and gluts with blood.” After Achilles kills Hector, he strips him naked and drags his corpse behind his chariot three times around the walls of Troy. Brutality engenders brutality.

When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the aftermath found widespread evidence of the desecration of the body, both living and dead. Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel managed the mass casualty event. The extent of indiscriminate rape, murder, and mutilation left the Israeli population in a state of rage. On the evening of Oct. 7, a detention center to hold captured suspected terrorists was set up at the existing military base, Sde Teiman. More than 1,000 detainees suspected of terrorist activities have been held there pending transfer to other facilities.

On Oct. 14, Israel built a field hospital next to the detention center. This field hospital was created to care for injured suspected perpetrators of the massacre. Despite the rage of the Israeli population, the Israeli Army is bound to follow the law concerning the handling of detainees. The ethical practice of medicine obligates physicians and practitioners to provide those detainees with proper medical care regardless of who they are or what they have done.

On July 29, 2024, Israeli Military Police took into custody 10 reservist Israeli soldiers tasked with guarding detainees at Sde Teiman.  A physician at the field hospital reported finding an injury in a detainee, suggesting sexual assault. The soldiers were suspected of aggravated sodomy (a charge equivalent to rape), causing bodily harm under aggravated circumstances, abuse under aggravated circumstances, and conduct unbecoming of a soldier. After a review of evidence, five of the 10 soldiers have been released. The remaining five have been remanded to house arrest. Israeli military law jurisprudence defines these charges, and that will establish the available defenses.

The holding of detainees normally falls to a Military Police (MP) brigade. In understanding the sexual abuse claims currently engulfing Sde Teiman, it may be helpful to review the experiences of some of their US counterparts.

We know a great deal about the experiences of American MPs, who run permanent military prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Published studies have revealed grim accounts of detainee abuse at these facilities. Suicide and suicidal ideation have been reported among guards who completed tours at Guantanamo, along with myriad other severe psychiatric symptoms.

The real problem is how the stress of prolonged combat makes some good soldiers do terrible things. The book “Black Hearts” tells the story of four U.S. Army soldiers of the 1st Platoon, Bravo Company. A widespread breakdown of discipline resulted in depression and drinking, and four platoon soldiers raped, murdered, and set on fire a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. To even attempt to make sense of this horrific crime, it must be recognized how the platoon was subject to unrelenting violence in the triangle of death. All four platoon soldiers were convicted and punished. One of the four later committed suicide.

And the phenomena of MPs and military personnel conducting unspeakable atrocities in the course of official duty are not limited to the past quarter-century. Though rarely spoken, US soldiers raped and looted during WWII.  Some of these soldiers were tried by Army court-martial, found guilty, and executed.

In Sde Teiman, the guards were reservists, non-MP soldiers with limited experience and training. If it can be verified that sexual abuse occurred, it would point not only to illegal and immoral conduct by the guards but also to a chain of command failure.

To embrace moral conduct, a military must understand and grapple with the coalescence of operations, military history, officer/non-commissioned officer duties, mental health, deployment, and many other issues.  Problems at Sde Teiman may have been brewing for months. Accounts by people working at Sde Teiman from May 2024 claim some detainees were beaten as revenge for what was done by Hamas on Oct. 7. The Israeli military condemns such actions. Still, the top brass does not always have eyes on all facilities at all times. IDF MPs arrested soldiers tasked with guarding detainees at Sde Teiman based on probable cause.

If allegations of sexual abuse are true, rather than pointing to some personality trait endemic to IDF soldiers, the evidence may point to the reality that throughout human history, brutal circumstances have engendered brutal dispositions. As evidenced by the famous Milgram experiment on obedience to authority and the Stanford Prison Experiment, the design of such places can promote and transform well-meaning people into torturers. Both studies demonstrated the power of social situations and hierarchies and how people can comply with those roles even when they are arbitrary. The most alarming findings were about how people can be manipulated into harming others, even when they may disagree.

However, these psychological experiments often overlook that a third of us resist Achilles’ savage tendency. Mistreatment of enemy combatants is not the IDF norm. Delivering care to enemy combatants in conflicts has been a long-held principle. In 2004, Yuval Bitton, then a 28-year-old dentist, diagnosed current Hamas Chief Yaha Sinwar with a life-threatening brain tumor. Sinwar was transferred to Soroka Medical Center to undergo lifesaving treatment. Years later, Soroka Medical Center would be the place to care for the victims of Oct. 7 because of a murderous plan conceived by Sinwar.

Israel is democratic, with a fair-minded legal system. Israel signed and ratified the Convention against Torture. After 9/11, the US developed so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” to question high-value detainees. In a US Office of Public Affairs report, enhanced interrogation was formally rejected. Under the pressure of constant war for the last 75 years, Israel may feel compelled to gather intelligence under extraordinary means.  Politics aside, it would still be false to claim Israel baked in abuse at Sde Teiman from the beginning.

A functioning Israeli legal system will seek to punish responsible parties. It is a testament to Israel’s humanity that, despite being in the vortex of brutality, it strives to remain moral. The gods protected Hector’s body after Achilles killed him.  Achilles is ultimately punished for his actions. The god Apollo guided the arrow of Paris to the only spot where Achilles was vulnerable. In these circumstances, Israel’s fate lies in its capacity to guard itself where all people are most vulnerable — in the heel of our humanity.

Joel Zivot is a practicing physician in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine and a senior fellow in ethics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Zivot, who also holds a legal master’s degree, is a recognized expert who advocates against the use of lethal injection in the death penalty and is against the use of the tools of medicine as an arm of state power. Follow him on “X”/Twitter @joel_zivot

Opinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, donors or the University of Pittsburgh.

US House Republicans launch probe into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s China ties amid vice-presidential candidacy

Office of Governor Walz & Lt. Governor Flanagan, 

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Joshua Villanueva | UC Law San Francisco, US
AUGUST 18, 2024 
THE JURIST

The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee led by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) launched an investigation on Friday into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s alleged connections to China.

Rep. Comer sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding information on Chinese entities and individuals connected to Governor Walz. Comer is seeking any documents and communications between Walz’s office and the FBI, specifically regarding warnings or guidance about government officials engaging with Chinese government representatives or their proxies.

In a statement on Friday, Comer said:

Americans should be deeply concerned that Governor Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential running mate, has a long-standing and cozy relationship with China, Mr. Walz has visited China dozens of times, served as a fellow at a Chinese institution that maintains a devotion to the CCP, and spoke alongside the President of a Chinese organization the State Department exposed as a CCP effort to influence and co-opt local leaders.

Governor Walz first went to China in 1989, participating in a Harvard University teach-abroad program where he spent a year teaching English and American history. Later, he founded Educational Travel Adventures, organizing trips to China. In 2007, Governor Walz was a fellow at Macao Polytechnic University. Despite these ties, he has been a vocal critic of China, meeting with the Dalai Lama and a Hong Kong democracy activist, and supporting the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in the House when he served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

The latest investigation marks a continuation of House Republicans’ efforts to scrutinize their top political rivals. As the 19-month impeachment inquiry on President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings wraps up, Republicans are now directing their investigatory focus toward the Harris-Walz ticket. Friday’s new probe comes on the heels of Comer launching an investigation last week into Harris’s involvement in immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, casting her as Biden’s “border czar” as Republicans try to connect her to the rise in migrant numbers.

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee Democrats stated that Comer’s new investigation into Walz “is nothing more than a political stunt to aid the former president.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), currently running for Senate, has also voiced concerns about Governor Walz’s trips to China. In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week, Rep. Banks questioned whether Walz adhered to foreign travel reporting requirements for his security clearance during his visits to China while serving in the National Guard.

FactCheck Posts 

How Govenor Tim Walz Responded to Riots in Minnesota After the Death of George Floyd

By D'Angelo Gore
Posted on August 16, 2024

For years, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been criticized by some for his response to riots in his state after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. That criticism picked up again this month when Vice President Kamala Harris chose Walz to be her running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket.

“Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020,” Sen. JD Vance, Walz’s vice presidential opponent, told reporters on Aug. 6.

Three days later, former President Donald Trump, the head of the Republican presidential slate, made the same claim about Walz at a rally in Montana. Trump, on multiple occasions, has even falsely claimed that he, not Walz, called in the Minnesota National Guard after rioters in Minneapolis and St. Paul began looting stores and committing arson.

It was Walz who issued the executive order activating the guard — although he didn’t do so as quickly as some thought he should have. According to local reporting, the approval came about 20 hours after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey first phoned Walz on the evening of May 27, 2020, to ask that members of the state-based military force be sent to help local law enforcement. Some protests had turned violent on May 26, the day after Floyd’s death, and the civil unrest continued the next day.

“He did not say yes,” Frey told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in an Aug. 3, 2020, interview, about his May 27 conversation with Walz. “He said he would consider it.”

The governor later said that Frey, in his initial call, did not provide the specifics necessary for deployment at the time — so he did not activate the guard until the following day, when city officials submitted a formal written request and provided a more detailed plan.

“I don’t think the mayor knew what he was asking for,” Walz said about Frey, in an Aug. 4, 2020, press briefing, according to press accounts. “I think the mayor said, ‘I request the National Guard, whew, this is great. We’re going to have massively trained troops.’ No. You’re going to have 19 year olds who are cooks.”

Walz, who served 24 years in the National Guard, added: “I asked, what do you want out of the guard? It’s not like pulling a can out. What units do you want? What do their capabilities need to be? How are you going to deploy them.”

A group of protesters surround National Guard vehicles that were driving on Lake Street in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020. Photo by Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via Getty Images.

An October 2020 report issued by Minnesota state Senate committees controlled by Republicans argued that if Walz “had acted in a decisive manner by activating the Minnesota National Guard when requested, the riots would have been brought under control much faster.”

The report said that, throughout Minnesota, there was an estimated $500 million in property damage, including more than 1,500 businesses and buildings that were burned. There also were more than 160 fires, some which were investigated as arson, according to news reports.

Meanwhile, an independent “after-action review” commissioned by Minneapolis concluded that the delayed deployment of the state National Guard was at least partly the result of inexperienced city officials not following the proper protocols when Walz was first contacted about providing military assistance.

Notably, while Trump has often publicly criticized Walz’s response, an audio recording obtained by ABC News this month documents Trump telling Walz in a June 1, 2020, call with governors that he was “very happy” with how Walz responded in the days after protests turned violent.

“You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins,” Trump said on the call, according to ABC News.

Below, we provide a brief timeline of events in May 2020 as a guide for readers:
May 25

Floyd, a Black man, is arrested in the evening on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a Minneapolis convenience store. He dies after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck during the arrest for more than nine minutes, ignoring Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe while being pinned to the ground.
May 26

The Minneapolis Police Department releases a statement saying that Floyd “resisted arrest” and died following a “medical incident during police interaction.” The statement is countered by video of the arrest, which was recorded by a bystander and posted on social media.

The MPD later updates its statement to add that the incident, because “additional information has been made available,” is under investigation with FBI assistance.

Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, announces that four officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest and subsequent death were terminated.

People start protesting in response to Floyd’s death. Some demonstrations turn violent, with participants damaging property, including a police station that was vandalized.
May 27

Protests and riots continue throughout the day, with some individuals looting stores, including a Target near Minneapolis’ Third Precinct police station.

Medaria Arradondo, then the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, determines that officers are overwhelmed and, according to the Star Tribune, calls the mayor at 6:23 p.m. to ask for assistance from the Minnesota National Guard. Minutes later, Frey calls to relay that information to Walz, who, according to Frey, was noncommittal about sending in guard soldiers.

Frey later told the newspaper that the phone conversation with Walz was a formal request for National Guard support. Walz and his office countered that it wasn’t.

At 9:11 p.m., Arradondo also forwards an email, from then-MPD Commander Scott Gerlicher, to John Harrington, then the state’s public safety commissioner. The message reportedly includes a document with the outline of a plan asking for 600 National Guard troops.

Also that night, rioters in Minneapolis set fire to an AutoZone and other businesses.
May 28

Frey submits a written request for the National Guard at about 10:55 a.m. He also issues a local emergency declaration.

In the afternoon, at about 2:30 p.m., Walz issues an executive order activating his state’s National Guard, which, according to reports, had been notified earlier of a possible deployment. The executive order says that Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter both requested assistance “to help provide security and restore safety.”

At 11:41 p.m., the guard tweets that it has “activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities.”

But that was after rioters took over the MPD’s Third Precinct station, which officers were ordered to evacuate earlier that night. Rioters went on to set fire to the police station and nearby buildings.
May 29

At 12:53 a.m., more than an hour after the state guard posted about the deployment, Trump tweets: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.”

By that point, Walz had already activated the guard.

About seven hours later, Trump’s then-White House Twitter account quotes him saying: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

In the afternoon, Chauvin is arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

An 8 p.m. curfew ordered by Walz goes into effect, but rioting in Minneapolis and St. Paul continues.
May 30

Walz orders a full mobilization of the guard.

In a post at 10:33 p.m., the guard writes, “We now have more than 4,100 — quickly moving toward 10,800 — Minnesota Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen supporting our friends and neighbors in the Twin Cities.” That was up from about 700 on duty, as of May 29.
June 1

The violent protests begin to ease. By this point, about 7,000 guard members had been deployed, a guard spokesperson told us for a June 2020 story.

In a phone call with Walz and other governors, Trump compliments Walz for bringing in military support.

“I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump said, according to audio obtained by ABC News.

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The Paris Olympics saw a whole load of domain-related cybercrime

News
By Ellen Jennings-Trace published August 16, 2024

Fake ticketing sites and social media accounts tried to scam Paris Olympics visitors

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Fans attending the recent Paris Olympics were the target of cybercriminals looking to capitalize on scarce tickets and eager fans with a multitude of scams, experts have revealed.

A surge in malicious online activity before and during the games outlined the threat consumers face when navigating the games, as large sporting and ticket events often attract criminals who look to take advantage of fans wanting cheaper tickets and merch.

Researchers at BforeAI studied the Newly Registered Domains (NRDs) in the two weeks running up to the Olympics, and found 166 unique domains which displayed signs of Domain Name System (DNS) abuse. The scammers look to collect personal data such as names, emails, addresses, and card details from unsuspecting spectators.

Spot the signs

The domains the research found to employ specific buzzwords to drive traffic, like ‘"paris2024", "olympics2024" and frequently included misspellings of keywords, such as ‘olymplics,’ and ‘olymppics’ to try and catch users who misspelled search words. The domains also commonly used suspicious and unconventional top-level domains such as .xyz, .win, .stream, .mobi, .shop, .store, and .info.

Fake ticket sites, social media accounts, and merchandise stores were all set up to trick fans into handing over their financial details. The threat with these websites is not just in the immediate financial loss, but the risk of card details being put onto the dark web and sold to other cybercriminals. This could lead to identity theft or further financial loss.

Researchers recommend relying exclusively on official Olympic social media channels and websites, as well as staying alert to unofficial content and refraining from clicking on suspicious links, especially if they offer lower prices for tickets or merchandise.

BforeAI published a list of suspicious domains to avoid to help consumers stay safe.