V'GER

Voyager 1 detects a hum in interstellar space

Posted by Kelly Kizer Whitt in SPACE | May 12, 2021

Now 8 years into its travels in the deep reaches of space between the stars, Voyager 1 has detected a faint, low-level hum. It stems from the vibration of the plasma, or ionized gas, in interstellar space.


Voyager 1 is said to have sailed out of our solar system in 2012, when it crossed the heliopause into interstellar space. Image via NASA.

Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 and crossed the boundary of our sun’s magnetic influence (the heliopause) in 2012. It’s now traveling in the vastness of interstellar space – the space between the stars – and is, at present, the most distant human-made object from us. Interstellar space isn’t quite as empty as a vacuum, and a team of scientists announced on May 10, 2021, that Voyager 1 has now sent back a message, saying it’s detected a faint, monotonous hum of interstellar gas (plasma). Astronomer Stella Koch Ocker of Cornell University led the study and, in a statement, described Voyager 1’s discovery:

It’s very faint and monotone, because it is in a narrow-frequency bandwidth. We’re detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas.

The study was published May 10, 2021, in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy.

Astronomer Stella Koch Ocker led the study leading to the discovery of a low-level hum in interstellar space. Image via Cornell University.

Although Voyager 1 is traveling in interstellar space, it still feels some influence from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from our sun. This stream from our sun is no longer the dominant force affecting Voyager 1, however; similar “winds” from other stars mix in. As Voyager 1 reads its environment, it allows scientists to understand how the interstellar medium and solar wind interact and how the the bubble of the solar system’s heliosphere is shaped by external forces.

Voyager 1 has an instrument called a Plasma Wave System, which has been detecting larger eruptions from the sun that affect the plasma, or ionized gas, in interstellar space. It’s when the eruptions are quiet that there’s a background hum. Team member James Cordes of Cornell University described the hum not as an annoying drone, but as something much more pleasant:

The interstellar medium is like a quiet or gentle rain. In the case of a solar outburst, it’s like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then it’s back to a gentle rain.

The low-level hum let scientists track how interstellar plasma is distributed in the space through which Voyager 1 is passing. That’s huge! We’ve never had a spacecraft so far from Earth before and so never before could obtain this sort of direct measurement. Team member Shami Chatterjee of Cornell University explained how the hum helps scientists learn more about the interstellar plasma:

We’ve never had a chance to evaluate it. Now we know we don’t need a fortuitous event related to the sun to measure interstellar plasma. Regardless of what the sun is doing, Voyager is sending back detail. The craft is saying, ‘Here’s the density I’m swimming through right now. And here it is now. And here it is now. And here it is now.’ Voyager is quite distant and will be doing this continuously.

Voyager 1 is 14 billion miles (22.5 billion km) from Earth. The signals it sends back to us require nearly an entire earthly day to travel back to Earth. In other words, Voyager 1 is nearly 1 light-day away. For this spacecraft launched in 1977 to still be working outside our solar system and transmitting data is a truly stupendous achievement. Ocker said:


Scientifically, this research is quite a feat. It’s a testament to the amazing Voyager spacecraft. It’s the engineering gift to science that keeps on giving

This artist’s concept shows Voyager 1 leaving the solar system and the greater influence of solar particles and entering interstellar space. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

Bottom line: Voyager 1 has detected a faint, monotonous hum from plasma (ionized gas) in interstellar space.

Source: Persistent plasma waves in interstellar space detected by Voyager 1

Via Cornell University

   

DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS

Apple reportedly fires Antonio Garcia Martinez after employee backlash

By Mike Peterson | May 13, 2021

Apple has reportedly fired Antonio Garcia Martinez after an employee backlash over sexist comments that he made in his book "Chaos Monkeys."

The newly hired engineer is "gone from Apple after employee backlash," the company confirmed to Bloomberg on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Apple employees began circulating a petition that called for an investigation into Garcia Martinez's hiring.

"At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here," Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg.

In their petition to Eddy Cue, the Apple employees said that Antonio Garcia's hiring "calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values."

Specifically, employees expressed concerns about Garcia Martinez's views about women and people of color. One passage from "Chaos Monkeys," which was circulated on Twitter, called women in the Bay Area "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit."

Apple had hired Garcia Martinez to work on its ad platforms product engineering team in April. The Cupertino-based division works on advertising systems within the App Store, Apple News, and elsewhere.


Apple staffers demand investigation into recent 'misogynistic' hire

By Mike Peterson | May 12, 2021


A group of Apple employees are calling for an investigation into the recent hiring of former Facebook ad manager Antonio Garcia Martinez, citing concerns about "misogynistic statements" that he made.

According to a circulating petition that the staffers signed, Garcia Martinez's hiring "calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values."

In the petition, first seen by The Verge, the employees expressed concerns about Garcia Martinez's views on women and people of color. They cite passages from "Chaos Monkeys," an autobiography about Garcia Martinez's work in Silicon Valley, and comments from interviews with the former Facebook ad products executive.

For example, one quote from the book that's being shared on Twitter calls women in the Bay Area "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit."

Garcia Martinez was hired to join Apple's ad platforms product engineering team, works on advertising technology within the App Store and in other places like Apple News and the Stocks app. He will be based in Cupertino.

The petition calls for an investigation into how Garcia Martinez's "published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again."

Apple says that diversity is one of its core values. According to its latest diversity report, women made up 34% of Apple's total workforce in 2020. The share of Asian workers also increased to 27%, up from 23% in 2018.

The full text of the letter, which started circulating on Wednesday, can be seen below.

We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez. His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as "Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit" (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple's commitment to Inclusion & Diversity. We are profoundly distraught by what this hire means for Apple's commitment to its inclusion goals, as well as its real and immediate impact on those working near Mr. Garcia Martinez. It calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values.

It is concerning that the views Mr. Garcia Martinez expresses in his 2016 book Chaos Monkeys were overlooked — or worse, excused — during his background check or hiring panel. We demand an investigation into how his published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again.

Inclusion isn't just about who we hire; it's also about how we support everyone who already works at Apple. Given Mr. Garcia Martinez's history of publishing overtly racist and sexist remarks about his former colleagues, we are concerned that his presence at Apple will contribute to an unsafe working environment for our colleagues who are at risk of public harassment and private bullying. We are entitled to insight into how the People team intends to mitigate this risk.

Further, the explicit, conscious biases expressed in Mr. Garcia Martinez's writing will continue to slow our I&D progress as long as they are tolerated by those with the power to affect hiring decisions and career trajectories. At a minimum, we demand assurance that Mr. Garcia Martinez and any who share his harmful views will not be involved in hiring, interviewing, or performance decisions during their tenures at Apple.

Finally, we expect and deserve a transparent, intentional, and detailed strategy from Apple to ensure our culture of inclusion is strong enough to protect our team members against biases like these that ANY new hire brings. Our training calls attention to the unconscious biases that contradict our stated values, but no amount of training can inspire a commitment to inclusion in someone who objects to its basic premise.

We have included a selection of direct quotes below this letter from Chaos Monkeys and interviews with Mr. Garcia Martinez that showcase some of the statements he's made. We are aware that Mr. Martinez has claimed that the quote above is taken out of context, but the full passage is no less harmful. We are also aware that Mr. Martinez has attempted to distance himself from these statements by claiming that they represent widely held attitudes in the tech industry. This is not a tenable position. In reproducing these harmful stereotypes, and in materially benefiting from them, Mr. Martinez shows himself to be a participant in this culture and only furthers the sexism and racism that our I&D initiatives are working to counteract.

Thank you for hearing our concerns. We look forward to your response regarding Apple's plans to continue moving toward a more inclusive workspace.


Update 6:45 p.m. Eastern Time: Antonio Garcia Martinez is "gone from Apple," the company confirmed to Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Meet America's Newest Chess Master,

 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa Adewumi


May 11, 2021

Heard on All Things Considered

MARY LOUISE KELLYTwitter
KAREN ZAMORA
AMY ISACKSON
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Tanitoluwa Adewumi, pictured in 2019, just became the newest national chess master in the U.S. at age 10.Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a 10-year-old in New York, just became the country's newest national chess master.

At the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship tournament in Connecticut on May 1, Adewumi won all four of his matches, bumping his chess rating up to 2223 and making him the 28th youngest person to become a chess master, according to US Chess.

"I was very happy that I won and that I got the title," he says, "I really love that I finally got it."

ARTS & LIFE
This Young Chess Champion Is 'Not Scared Of Anything On That Board'

"Finally" is after about three years — the amount of time that Adewumi has been playing chess. When he started, Adewumi and his family were living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after fleeing religious persecution by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in their home country of Nigeria.

Now, Adewumi practices chess "every day" after school for "10, 11 hours" — and still manages to get some sleep.

His hours of practice have paid off. As a chess player, he describes himself as a bit of an every man, "aggressive" or "calm" when he needs to be, and always thinking ahead.
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"On a normal position, I can do up to 20 moves [in advance]", he says. Keeping all of the pieces straight in his head might seem like a challenge but Adewumi says it's a skill that "when you master, it just keeps coming back."

Adewumi competes against other chess players at all levels. But his favorite match?

"I guess Hikaru Nakamura is my favorite person I've ever played," he says. "He's a grandmaster, a very strong one. He's on the top of the rankings."

Nakamura won that match. But Adewumi takes each loss in stride — and there's always the possibility of a comeback.

"I say to myself that I never lose, that I only learn," he says. "Because when you lose, you have to make a mistake to lose that game. So you learn from that mistake, and so you learn [overall]. So losing is the way of winning for yourself."

Since the last time NPR spoke with Adewumi, his family moved out of the shelter and he's written a book about his life called My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles. That book has been optioned for a Trevor Noah-produced film adaptation with a script by The Pursuit of Happyness screenwriter Steven Conrad.

But Adewumi's journey is not over yet. He says his goal is to become the world's youngest grandmaster. At 10 years 8 months, he has a little under two years to beat the current record holder, Sergey Karjakin, who gained his title at 12 years 7 months.

Karen Zamora and Amy Isackson produced and edited the audio story. Cyrena Touros adapted it for Web.

For Some Anti-Vaccine Advocates, Misinformation Is Part Of A Business

May 12, 2021
GEOFF BRUMFIEL

 

Transcript

Anti-vaccine advocates are using the COVID-19 pandemic to promote books, supplementals and services.Emilija Manevska/Getty Images

Sayer Ji is a 48-year-old proponent of what he calls natural medicine.

"My parents didn't know about natural medicine, so it really wasn't until I was 17 that I learned some basic principles of nutrition and self care," he told attendees at a recent virtual conference. "I was liberated from needing pharmaceutical medicines."

Ji was also there promoting his website, full of natural remedies and reams of anti-vaccine misinformation. He sells subscriptions for anywhere from $75 to $850 a year.

He is one of many anti-vaccine advocates with a business on the side. They promote false claims about the dangers vaccines pose, while selling treatments, supplementals or other services. Their potential market is the roughly 20% of Americans say they do not want to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to recent polling.

UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION

The Most Popular J&J Vaccine Story On Facebook? A Conspiracy Theorist Posted It

Health experts worry that the misinformation being spread is doing real damage. Without sufficient vaccination, communities could see a resurgence of the virus, particularly in the coming fall and winter months.

Ji has spent years pushing scientifically disproven views about vaccines and other conventional medical treatments, but the coronavirus pandemic gave him and others in the anti-vaccine community a new set of talking points. "This is the new medical apartheid, this is the new biosegregation that they want to roll out across the world," he warned of the vaccination campaigns during a lengthy Facebook video posted earlier this year.

"COVID was the opportunity," says Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit group that tracks anti-vaccination misinformation. "COVID generated a lot of anxiety and conspiracies and misinformation thrive where there is anxiety."

As people have searched online for information on the virus and vaccines, Ji and others have upped their rhetoric, while continuing to promote their books, workshops and other products. Research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows it can work, as 147 key anti-vaccination accounts have managed to grow their followings by at least 25% since the start of the pandemic.

And Ahmed believes for those with something to sell, anti-vaccine misinformation serves a second important purpose.

"One of the things that antivaxxers have to do to sell their own remedies ... is to persuade people not to trust authorities they've trusted in the past," Ahmed says.

By using their debunked theories to turn people away from mainstream medicine, these entrepreneurs are creating customers: "Once they've managed to hook someone, they can then sell to them for a lifetime."

That selling can be big business. One of the leading anti-vaccine advocates, Joseph Mercola, is believed to bring in millions each year through his companies, which sell an array of branded natural supplements, beauty products and even pet supplies. In a written statement to NPR, Mercola's company said he "rejects your biased accusation of promoting misinformation."

Separately, in an interview with NPR, Sayer Ji denied that his website was a major source of income.

"I mean I'm a published author, so I encourage people listening to buy my book if they're interested. How about that. So there it is, I've just promoted something, I'm a shill for the anti-vax industry," he said.

"Ultimately, my point though is that I work for a living, and I always have very hard."

He says his primary motive is to provide information to anyone interested in reading it.

Promoting products is not always a cynical move, says Kolina Koltai, a researcher who studies the anti-vaccine movement at the University of Washington. She believes that many are sincere in their beliefs about vaccines.

"If you really want to make that your life's mission, you need to make income somehow," she says. "We live in this capitalist society."

Regardless of motivation, she believes that money is a major part of a feedback loop that continues to drive vaccine misinformation on social media. The extended public health crisis has created a marketing opportunity that "just gives you more and more followers and more and more money."

Ahmed adds that while the anti-vaccine community's self-made personalities resemble others who have proliferated in the age of social media influencers, the potential damage they can cause is real. "Someone who's promoting lipstick isn't going to lead to us not being able to contain a pandemic that's already taken half-a-million lives [in America]," he says.

But the crisis is also bringing more scrutiny to anti-vaccine promoters. Sayer Ji's Instagram account was suspended in April after he repeatedly posted misleading and false information. Other anti-vaccine advocates have toned down their rhetoric on large platforms like Facebook. Koltai says losing these accounts could pose a threat to their livelihoods.

"When they get kicked off of their social media platforms I do think they take a major hit to their business models," she says.

On May 4, Mercola announced that he would remove all information on COVID-19 from his website. In a lengthy post, he cited threats against him as the reason, rather than business or legal considerations. As of May 10, many posts about COVID-19 still appeared on the site.

For his part, Ji says the biggest hit to his web traffic actually came before the pandemic, in 2019, when Google changed its search algorithms to hide anti-vaccine sites like his.

And he says he doesn't worry much about the financial implications of getting kicked off social media sites either.

"Social media deplatforming? Give me a break," he says. "We have hundreds of thousands and millions of followers out there, in part because we do a really good job of providing information that people want."

His company's Facebook account continues to promote vaccine misinformation to half-a-million followers. And lately he has added a big red stamp to it that reads "censored."

Revamped EPA website shows increased climate change risks

By MATTHEW DALY
11/5/2021

EPA Administrator Michael Regan speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a gap of more than four years, the Environmental Protection Agency is relaunching a website highlighting evidence of climate change in the United States, including rising temperatures, increased ocean acidity, sea level rise, river flooding, droughts, heat waves and wildfires.

EPA unveiled the revamped website on Climate Change Indicators on Wednesday, calling it a “comprehensive resource” that presents clear and compelling evidence of changes to the climate. The website was effectively suspended under President Donald Trump, who did not allow information on the site to be updated and who repeatedly disputed or downplayed the effects of climate change.

“There is no small town, big city or rural community that is unaffected by the climate crisis,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Wednesday. “Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close, with increasing regularity.”

Unlike Trump, President Joe Biden calls climate change an existential threat to the planet and has made slowing global warming a top priority of his administration. He led a virtual global summit on climate change from the White House last month.

The Biden administration revived the climate change website and added some new measures, pulling information from government agencies, universities and other sources.

Regan called the revamped website “a crucial scientific resource that underscores the urgency for action on the climate crisis,” adding: “With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme.″

Regan said it’s “imperative that we take meaningful action” to address climate change.

The new indicators show that 2020 was the second-warmest year on record, after 2016, and that Arctic sea ice was the second smallest on record last year.

The website also shows that heat waves are occurring more often across the United States, from an average of two heat waves per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s.

Sea levels rose along much of the U.S. coastline between 1960 and 2020, particularly the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Gulf Coast, where some reporting stations registered increases of more than 8 inches, the EPA said.

Coastal flooding also is becoming more frequent, especially along the East and Gulf Coasts, while the average length of the growing season in the lower 48 states increased by more than two weeks since the beginning of the 20th century.

EPA said it worked with partners from dozens of government agencies, academic institutions and other organizations to develop the climate change indicators. Each indicator was peer reviewed by independent experts.

The revamped site also features interactive data exploration tools with graphs, maps and figures, along with an overview of the climate change indicators and climate change’s effects on human health and the environment.

ONE BILLIONAIRE EXITS ANOTHER ENTERS

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Might Have Just Made A Grand Entrance Into The Bitcoin Market

By Olivia Brooke
-May 12, 2021




The CEO of Facebook might have just dropped subtle hints on his “Bitcoin holdings.” In a post that has left the cryptocurrency space confused, for the most part, Zuckerberg posted a picture of two of his goats, named Max and Bitcoin.
What is cooking at the Zuckerberg mansion?

While a lot of Bitcoin proponents have asserted and concluded that the billionaire may have been hoping to spite the cryptocurrency community with the “offensive post” others are reading a deeper meaning to it; a more bullish one that is.

Entrepreneur and founder of Skybridge Anthony Scaramucci is a prominent Bitcoiner who believes that Zuckerberg is cooking something. He implies that Mark Zuckerberg’s move to recruit David Marcus, a former PayPal staff, to manage Facebook’s Cryptocurrency project was the first hint that Zuckerberg was paying attention to Bitcoin. It is possible that the media magnate may have plans to either buy the asset for himself or his companies.

“I knew Mark Zuckerberg would become a Bitcoin-er when he hired David Marcus from PayPal to run Facebook’s crypto business. It’s been a long and winding road, but welcome to Bitcoin. Great job Zuck and David. Excited for what comes next.” Wrote Scaramucci.

BTCUSD Chart By TradingView

Meanwhile, analyst CryptoWhale is also just as optimistic as Scaramucci, as he interprets Zuckerberg’s tweet as a pointer to the Billionaire finally entering the Bitcoin market.
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Mark Zuckerberg rumored to have bought $10 billion worth of Bitcoin

Scaramucci’s views are not just mere guesses. The rumors about Facebook buying Bitcoin have been circulating since the year began. Last month, prior to Facebook revealing its first-quarter earnings report, news broke that the company bought a large amount of Bitcoin for its reserve. However, not a single Bitcoin was in sight after the earnings reports were made. Zuckerberg, who revealed that he intended to invest in other fields of emerging technologies in the future, did not include cryptocurrencies as one of the options.

Despite this, the rumors have resurfaced yet again, this time claiming that Zuckerberg may be buying Bitcoin for his family and not Facebook as was earlier speculated. Implying that the Billionaire might just be imitating the steps of the Winklevoss twins, whom he lost a court case to.

However, a fair share of the Bitcoin community continues to insist that Zuckerberg might be making a mockery of Bitcoin and its holders as a whole. “he’s calling us (bitcoin maxis) jackasses lol. Either way Bitcoin doesn’t need Zuck. Zuck needs bitcoin.” one user wrote.



Olivia Brooke
Hi, I'm Olivia. When I'm not stressing about my multicolored Chihuahua, I'm reading up on the next big thing that Cryptocurrency has to offer. Contact: Olivia.Brooke@zycrypto.com

THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG

Never Mind: Elon Musk Says Tesla Won't Accept Bitcoin For Car Purchases Any More

By CAMILA DOMONOSKE • NPR

12/5/2021

Tesla CEO Elon Musk delivers his opening monologue on "Saturday Night Live" last week in an image released by NBC. Musk tweeted on Wednesday that Tesla would no longer accept cryptocurrency Bitcoin for car purchases.

WILL HEATH / NBC VIA AP

Tesla is executing a rapid U-turn on Bitcoin.

Months after Tesla embraced Bitcoin, CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the auto maker would no longer accept the cryptocurrency for car purchases due to its environmental impact.

Bitcoin is very energy-intensive. The "coins" are created through a process called "mining," in which powerful computers solve difficult math problems. That requires electricity — a mind-boggling amount of it.

"We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions," Musk explained in a tweet, "especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."

The tweet comes just three months after Tesla surprised many by saying it would allow customers to pay for their electric vehicles with Bitcoin. Not only that, the company said at the time it also invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

It was a good investment. In its most recently quarterly statement, Tesla's bitcoin holdings contributed substantially to its net profits.

But on Wednesday, Musk also said Tesla would no longer sell the cryptocurrency.

From the start, the company came under fire for embracing a currency with a substantial carbon footprint even though Musk has said that Tesla is dedicated to fighting climate change,

Bitcoin enthusiasts point out that renewable energy can power that mining. But critics point out that doesn't mean there's no impact.

And in some cases, Bitcoin mining has actually kept fossil fuel power plants in production when they would otherwise be inactive, adding to the world's carbon footprint.

"Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment," Musk also said on Twitter, a platform he frequently uses to comment on his companies.

Bitcoin values fell by thousands of dollars in the minutes immediately after Musk's tweet. But the price is still north of $50,000 per Bitcoin — 100 times what they were trading for five years ago.

In his tweet, Musk added the company is open to other cryptocurrencies with significantly fewer energy requirements.

The announcement comes days after Musk led to a plunge in another cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, after calling it a "hustle" while hosting Saturday Night Live.

Dogecoin, which started as a joke but became backed with real money, had previously surged in value after Musk expressed support for the cryptocurrency.

Biden issues executive order to increase U.S. cybersecurity defenses

By Lawrence Abrams
May 12, 2021



President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to modernize the country's defenses against cyberattacks and give more timely access to information necessary for law enforcement to conduct investigations.

This executive order follows the numerous cyberattacks targeting US interests this year, including the SolarWinds supply chain attacks in December and the more recent DarkSide ransomware attack against the largest US fuel pipeline, Colonial Pipeline.

The 34-page 'Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity' is designed to modernize the cybersecurity defenses of the federal government's infrastructure, created a standardized incident response playbook, and increase communication between service providers and law enforcement.

In summary, the executive order will direct the government to perform the following actions:

Require IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) service providers, including cloud hosting providers, to share information about cybersecurity threats and breaches that they become aware of and to remove contractual issues that prevent the sharing of such information.

Modernize the federal government IT services, including moving towards a Zero Trust Architecture, require multi-factor authentication, encryption for data at rest and in transit, and develop strict security guidelines on the use of cloud services.

Improve supply-chain security by developing guidelines, tools, and best practices to audit and assure that critical software is not tampered with by malicious actors in supply-chain attacks. As part of this initiative, the Federal government will create an "energy star" type of program that shows software was developed securely.

Establish a "Cyber Safety Review Board" that includes Federal and private-sector members who will convene after a significant cyber incident to assess the attack, provide recommendations, and share relevant confidential information with law enforcement.

Create a standardized playbook across all government agencies for responding to breaches and cyberattacks.

Improve the detection and remediation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and breaches on government networks by deploying a centralized Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution and intra-governmental information sharing.

These initiatives will be conducting in rolling phrases ranging between 30 days from the executive order, to in some cases, 360 days.

"This is one of the most detailed and deadline-driven EOs I’ve seen from any administration. In the wake of a seismic attack, like SolarWinds, this is incredibly encouraging to see," Amit Yoran, CEO of Tenable and founding director of US-CERT, shared in a statement to BleepingComputer.

The White House has also released a summarized version of the executive order that provides a good overview of the upcoming changes being made to increase the country's cybersecurity posture.

Related Articles:

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Brown University hit by cyberattack, some systems still offline

City of Tulsa's online services disrupted in ransomware incident

Largest U.S. pipeline shuts down operations after ransomware attack

DarkSide ransomware will now vet targets after pipeline cyberattack

Ransomware Group Leaks Info on Some D.C. Cops as Retribution for Demands Going Unmet

Maggie Gile 
NEWSWEEK

A Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate that stole data from the Washington, D.C., police department said it rejected an initial offer of a $100,000 payment and that if more money is not offered, it will release sensitive information that could put lives at risk, the Associated Press reported.

© Alex Brandon/Associated Press FILE - In this April 2, 2021, file photo, Washington Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee speaks during a news conference in Washington. Political hand-wringing in Washington over Russia's hacking of federal agencies and meddling in U.S. politics has mostly overshadowed a worsening digital scourge with a far broader wallop: crippling and dispiriting extortionary ransomware attacks by cybercriminal mafias. All the while, ransomware gangsters have become more brazen and cocky as they put more and more lives and livelihoods at risk. This week, one syndicate threatened to make available to local criminal gangs data they say they stole from the Washington, D.C., metro police on informants.

The Babuk group said on its website late Monday that it would release "all the data" if the D.C. police didn't "raise the price."

"The negotiations reached a dead end, the amount we were offered does not suit us," the group said.

A day after the initial threat, the gang leaked personal information of some police officers taken from background checks, including details of officers' past drug use, finances and of past sexual abuse.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The extortion threat comes amid a separate ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that's affected part of the nation's fuel supply, highlighting the power of internet-savvy criminal gangs to sow mayhem from a half a world away with impunity.

D.C. police did not immediately comment and has not said whether it's negotiated any possible payment.

On Tuesday, the gang released screenshots that appear to be negotiations with the department. They show the gang asked for $4 million and received a counter-offer of $100,000. The authenticity of the screenshots could not be independently confirmed.

If true, it's an example how complex the ransomware problem is when even police find themselves forced to consider making payments to criminal gangs.

Late last month, the group said it had hacked into the network of the city's police department and threatened to leak the identities of confidential informants unless an unspecified ransom was paid. Experts said such a release could endanger the lives of the informants.

Babuk leaked similar background files on Monday with its threat to release more, said Brett Callow, a threat analyst and ransomware expert at the security firm Emsisoft.

"This is far worse than any hack of other police departments previously," Callow said, adding that he's never seen a law enforcement agency pay a ransom before.

Ransomware gangs have been leaking sensitive data from victims for well over a year, but experts said they've not seen such aggressive new tactics used before against police departments. The cybercriminal mafias mostly operate in foreign safe havens out of the reach of Western law enforcement.

The average ransom payments last year were $310,000, up 171% from 2019, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Related Articles
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Russian Ransomware Group Claims Credit for Cyber Attack on D.C. Metro Police

'Principled' ransomware hackers who took down the Colonial Pipeline: We regret it

The cybercriminals who caused an energy crisis on the U.S. East Coast said they had no hard feelings on Monday and expressed regret for causing trouble.

Provided by National Post Oil infrastructure stands at the Colonial Pipeline Co. Pelham junction and tank farm in Pelham, Alabama, U.S., Sept. 2016.

Colonial Pipeline Co. halted operations on May 7 after hackers stole almost 100 gigabytes of data and locked the company’s computers in a ransomware attack the FBI attributed to the DarkSide hacking ring.

The company has said the pipeline, the nation’s biggest, will be substantially back in operation by the end of the week. In the meantime, service stations from Virginia to Florida have sold out of gasoline as supplies dwindled and panic buying set in.

The 5,500-mile energy artery, extending from Texas to New Jersey, connects refineries along the Gulf Coast to population centres from Atlanta to New York and beyond. Each day, it carries about 2.5 million barrels, an amount that exceeds the entire oil consumption of Germany.

In a statement on Monday DarkSide expressed regret for the disruption, saying its intention was to “make money” — “not creating problems for society.”
Cyberattack shuts down America’s largest fuel pipeline, gasoline prices to spike
Colonial Pipeline says corporate website back online

The group also tried to shift the blame to its collaborators, adding that going forward DarkSide would “check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences.” It maintains that the targeted companies can afford the ransom, sometimes ranging in the millions, which it demands in return for encrypted data.

“We do not want to kill your business,” the group has previously said.

DarkSide’s site on the dark web hints at their hackers’ past crimes, claims they previously made millions from extortion and that just because their software was new “that does not mean that we have no experience and we came from nowhere.”

The site also features a Hall of Shame-style gallery of leaked data from victims who haven’t paid up, advertising stolen documents from more than 80 companies across the United States and Europe.

In a screenshot of one of its attacks posted on Bleeping Computer , the group reveals some of its stolen data to the company and threatens to release the entirety online.

In some ways DarkSide is hard to distinguish from the increasingly crowded field of internet extortionists. Like many others it seems to spare Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian-speaking companies, suggesting a link to the former Soviet republics.

Since coming into the limelight last year, Canadian companies have also been a victim of DarkSide’s attacks. Earlier this year, it seized 120 gb of data from Discount Car and Truck Rentals, the Canadian division of U.S.-based Enterprise Holdings. Most recently, corporate data from Home Hardware has been pilfered and, last year, an unnamed billion dollar company was subject to its demands, IT World Canada reported .

According to news reports of DarkSide’s website, the group spares funeral services, hospitals, universities, non-profits or government bodies from attacks, “based on our principles.”

“I assume the attack on Colonial was carried out by an affiliate and the group is concerned about the level of attention it has attracted,” an analyst told Financial Times .

National Post Staff
With files from Reuters and Bloomberg

NATIONALIZE PIPELINES

Tech audit of Colonial Pipeline found 'glaring' problems

BOSTON (AP) — An outside audit three years ago of the major East Coast pipeline company hit by a cyberattack found “atrocious” information management practices and “a patchwork of poorly connected and secured systems,” its author told The Associated Press.

“We found glaring deficiencies and big problems,” said Robert F. Smallwood, whose consulting firm delivered an 89-page report in January 2018 after a six-month audit. “I mean an eighth-grader could have hacked into that system.”

How far the company, Colonial Pipeline, went to address the vulnerabilities isn't clear. Colonial said Wednesday that since 2017, it has hired four independent firms for cybersecurity risk assessments and increased its overall IT spending by more than 50%. While it did not specify an amount, it said it has spent tens of millions of dollars.

"We are constantly assessing and improving our security practices — both physical and digital,” the privately held Georgia company said in response to questions from the AP about the audit's findings. It did not name the firms who did cybersecurity work but one firm, Rausch Advisory Services, located in Atlanta near Colonial's headquarters, acknowledged being among them. Colonial's chief information officer sits on Rausch's advisory board.

Colonial has not said how the hackers penetrated its network. How vulnerable it was to compromise is sure to be intensely scrutinized by federal authorities and cybersecurity experts as they consider how the most damaging cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure might have been prevented.

Friday's pipeline shutdown has led to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations in the Southeast. Colonial said it initiated the restart of pipeline operations on Wednesday afternoon and that it would take several days for supply delivery to return to normal.

Ransomware attacks have reached epidemic levels as foreign criminal gangs paralyze computer networks at state and local governments, police departments, hospitals and universities — demanding large sums to decrypt the data. Many organizations have failed to invest in the safeguards needed to fend off such attacks, though U.S. officials worry even more about state-backed foreign hackers doing more serious damage.

Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products.

Smallwood, a partner at iMERGE and managing director of the Institute for Information Governance, said he prepared a 24-month, $1.3 million plan for Colonial. While iMERGE’s audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity “we found many security issues, and that was put in the report.”

Colonial’s statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwood’s recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack “as soon as we learned of it.” Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware.

Unlike electrical utilities, the pipeline industry is not subject to mandatory cybersecurity standards, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair, Richard Glick, called for in a statement Tuesday.

Smallwood’s study was not a cybersecurity audit. It focused on ensuring smooth operations and preventing data theft, which is exactly what Colonial suffered last week. Colonial is not saying what the cybercriminals took before activating the ransomware.

The hackers, from a Russian-speaking syndicate called DarkSide, steal data before locking up networks to doubly extort victims. If a victim refuses to pay, they not only refuse to unscramble the data, they threaten to release sensitive material online. Colonial has not said whether it paid DarkSide.

Smallwood read portions of his report to the AP but would not share it because he said some of the content is confidential. He said he was paid about $50,000 for it.

He cited, for example, Colonial's inability to locate a particular maintenance document. "You’re supposed to be able to find it within 15 minutes. It took them three weeks.”

Locating such a document could be crucial in responding to an accident or keeping up-to-date pipeline inspection records to prevent leaks, Smallwood said.

Colonial experienced one of the worst gasoline spills in U.S. history last August, contaminating a nature preserve north of Charlotte . After it was discovered by two teenagers, the spill's severity was not immediately clear as Colonial's initial reports indicated a far lower volume. North Carolina environmental regulators angrily called the company's failure to promptly provide reliable data unacceptable. Colonial says it released the best available data on spill volume as the discovery progressed.

Separately, shippers have complained to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Colonial inflated what it spends on pipeline integrity to deflect accusations it overcharges them. Colonial rejects this, citing the rising costs of safely maintaining its system.

Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog Pipeline Safety Trust, called worrisome the allegations of deficient IT management, piecemeal spill reporting and pipeline integrity issues.

“I think all these things just could paint a picture of the culture at Colonial maybe not taking risks seriously enough,” he said.

Smallwood said he was reluctant to go public about the Colonial audit for fear of alienating future clients “but the gravity of the situation demands that the public know just how fragile some of these systems within our infrastructure are.”

One of his main recommendations was that Colonial hire a chief information security officer, a position that cybersecurity experts consider essential in any company with infrastructure vital to national security. Colonial said it instead assigned those responsibilities to a subordinate of chief information officer Marie Mouchet.

Mouchet was on the advisory board of Rausch when it did a cybersecurity study for Colonial concurrent to Smallwood’s audit. Asked if that might present a conflict of interest, Rausch CEO Michael Lisenby said Mochet's advisory board seat is an unpaid, voluntary position.

Smallwood’s recommendations included a data loss prevention program to ensure highly confidential, marketable data — such as details on how the pipeline is used — could not be easily removed.

Colonial says it has strengthened data-loss-prevention defenses with three different software tools that provide alerts when data leaves the network.

Smallwood said he found no security-awareness training, which mostly teaches employees not to fall victim to phishing, the cause of more than 90% of cyber-intrusions. But Colonial said its expanded cybersecurity regime includes regular simulated phishing campaigns for employees.

The audit “covered environmental procurement, legal risk, business development, asset integrity, accounting and tax safety operations, information technology, (Microsoft) SharePoint and human resources. And so it was a very comprehensive assessment,” said Smallwood.

Originally founded by nine oil companies in 1962, Colonial is privately held. It's owners include a pair of private equity firms, a Canadian fund manager, a Koch Industries subsidiary and a subsidiary of Shell Midstream Partners. The company does not release earnings or revenue figures.

___

This story has been updated to correct reference to one of the owners of Colonial. It is a Koch Industries subsidiary, not a Koch Brothers subsidiary.

Frank Bajak, The Associated Press

Biden: White House in 'very close contact' with Colonial Pipeline on shutdown, fuel shortage

Courtney Subramanian
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Wednesday his administration is in "very close contact" with Colonial Pipeline after a cyberattack disrupted fuel deliveries and threatened a gas shortage across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions in recent days.

"We have been in very, very close contact with Colonial Pipeline, which is the one area you’re talking about - one of the reasons gasoline prices are going up," Biden told reporters during remarks on the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.

Colonial Pipeline issued a statement following the president's remarks announcing that it restarted its pipeline operations after temporarily closing it for six days. The company said it would take several days before its supply chain could return to normal.

Biden's comments came as officials urged Americans not to hoard gas, including advising against filling up plastic bags of gasoline, and the administration worked to find alternative ways to deliver gas amid the temporary shutdown of Colonial Pipeline, a major system that delivers fuel across the East Coast.

The FBI announced last Friday that hackers known as DarkSide hit the Colonial Pipeline system with a ransomware attack, which takes computerized systems hostage until a payment is made.

The incident,along with the SolarWinds hack on U.S. federal agencies last year and a cyber breach of Microsoft Exchange, raised fresh questions about the vulnerability of the U.S. infrastructure system.

In response, Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to modernize the nation's cyber defense, according to a senior administration official.

The order includes removing contractual barriers to allow IT service providers to share breach information with government officials, establishing baseline security standards for commercial software sold to the government, creating a standard playbook for cyber incident responses and establishing a cybersecurity safety review board led by government and private sector officials.

The official said the order was the first of many steps the government would take to confront cybersecurity threats but reflected a shift in the administration's mindset from incident response to prevention.
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More:Colonial Pipeline restarted operations, owners say 'it will take several days' for supply chain to return to normal

More:Continued gas shortages? Panic buying after Colonial Pipeline cyberattack won't solve the problem, experts say.

Panicked drivers rushed to fill up their tanks, fearing a gas shortage, even though pipeline officials have said they expect to "substantially" restore service by the end of the week, likely limiting most of the fallout.

According to AAA Gas Prices, which conducts a daily survey, the national average price for gas rose 8 cents from a week ago to $3.01, marking the first time national prices have topped $3 since 2014. The impact is largely concentrated in the Southeast, with station outages occurring throughout the region.

Biden and other White House officials have sought to allay concerns by issuing emergency waivers to ease restrictions on the distribution of fuel and assist in supply challenges

"I have in the meantime made it easier for us to have lifted some of the restrictions on the transportation of fuel, as well as access to the United States military providing fuel and with vehicles to get it there, places where it's badly needed," Biden told reporters.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters earlier on Wednesday the administration was "working around the clock" to tackle the delays caused by the pipeline shutdown.

Buttigieg, who appeared alongside Michael Regan, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, outlined the steps the administration has taken in recent days, including surveying the availability of vessels that are qualified to carry petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico and up the eastern seaboard and issuing waivers to extend the hours during which drivers can transport fuel.


He also said the White House determined that 10 states can use existing federal major debt disaster declarations to issue permits that allow drivers to temporarily carry additional gasoline that would ordinarily exceed existing weight limits on federal highways in their state.

Buttigieg, who is among the administration officials pushing Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, said the incident was a reminder that the U.S. infrastructure needed to be more resilient.

"This is not an extra, this is not a luxury, this is not an option,” he said. “This has to be core to how we secure critical infrastructure.”

Contributing: Brett Molina, Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY

#FREEINTERNETFORALL

Internet Subsidy Gives $50 A Month Discounts For Low-Income Americans


The pandemic has underscored the importance of having a reliable internet connection, with adults dependent on it for work and young people reliant on it for their education.Nam Y. Huh/AP

Financially strapped American families are now eligible for an emergency discount on their internet service under a COVID-19 relief program that went into effect on Wednesday.

The Emergency Broadband Benefit program from the Federal Communications Commission provides a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. It also gives low-income families a $100 discount for the purchase of a laptop or desktop computer, or a tablet. However, the FCC reports, Cox and Windstream are the only providers participating in this benefit so far.

The pandemic has underscored the importance of having a reliable internet connection, with adults dependent on it for work and young people reliant on it for their education. Expanding high-speed internet access is a priority for the Biden administration which has placed Vice President Harris in charge of the endeavor. The White House has asked Congress for $100 billion to make broadband more affordable and to carry it to rural areas that have been left behind by the tech advances.
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"High-speed internet service is vital for families to take advantage of today's health, education, and workplace opportunities," Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chair of the FCC, said in a statement. "And the discount for laptops and desktop computers will continue to have positive impact even after this temporary discount program wraps up."

The $3.2 billion temporary pandemic subsidy was approved by Congress late last year but it's taken months for the FCC to finalize the rules of the program.

Only those Americans who already qualify for free and reduced-price school lunch programs, are recipients of a federal Pell Grant, experienced a substantial loss of income since early 2020, or meet eligibility criteria for participating providers' existing low-income or COVID-19 programs are eligible to apply for the benefits. People can access the funds until the money runs out or up to six months after the Department of Health and Human Services declares an end to the pandemic.

Earlier this week the FCC approved the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which sets aside nearly $7.2 billion to help schools and libraries provide devices and connectivity to students, school staff, and library patrons during the pandemic.

NATIONALIZE BIG PHARMA
Private equity group swoops on pharma services provider UDG Healthcare with a £2.6bn bid

By MATT OLIVER FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 12 May 2021

Private equity buyers have swooped on pharmaceuticals services provider UDG Healthcare with a £2.6billion bid.

The London-listed firm urged shareholders to back the cash offer from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), which is worth 1023p per share. That is a 21.5 per cent premium on UDG’s closing price on Tuesday.

It is the latest British company to fall into private equity hands after a string of deals, including approaches which were made for John Laing and St Modwen last week.


Pharmaceuticals services provider UDG Healthcare has urged shareholders to back a £2.6bn cash offer from private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

Analysts say the bonanza is being fuelled by a perception that UK firms appear ‘cheap’, due to the weak pound and the knock to share prices in the pandemic.

UDG’s shares leapt more than 20 per cent in response to the takeover bid.

They closed up 20.7 per cent, or 174p, at 1016p.

Shane Cooke, chairman of Dublin-based UDG, insisted the board was ‘confident’ in its future prospects but that the takeover bid was ‘an attractive offer for shareholders’.

‘The offer reflects the quality, strength and long-term performance of UDG’s businesses and its future growth potential,’ he added.


‘We believe that our people, our clients and our businesses will continue to prosper under the stewardship of CD&R.’

Eric Rouzier, partner at CD&R, said: ‘UDG has long established itself as a leading provider of high-value services to pharma and biotech companies globally, supported by a highly skilled workforce.’

UDG, which has its headquarters in Dublin, specialises in healthcare advisory, communications, commercial, clinical and packaging services.

Its manufacturing services include making placebos used in clinical trials.

However, the offer premium of 21.5 per cent is lower than the average of 36 per cent that has been offered in a string of other recent deals, according to AJ Bell.

Russ Mould, AJ Bell’s investment director, said that the avalanche of bids ‘suggests that someone, somewhere feels UK companies are still going cheap’.

He said overseas buyers were attracted by the weak pound, which still sits below levels reached ahead of the EU referendum in 2016, giving them improved buying power.

UDG also reported for the six months the end of March, showing that revenues fell 5 per cent to £469million but profits rose 5 per cent to £46million

APARTHEID ISRAEL

Mob 'lynching of Arab' aired live on Israeli TV

By AFP - May 13,2021 - 

This video grab obtained from a footage released by Kan 11 Public broadcaster on Wednesday, shows a far-right Israeli mob attacking who they considered an Arab man, on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam, a town south of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv (AFP photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Fooage of a far-right Israeli mob attacking a man near Tel Aviv they believed to be an Arab was aired live on television Wednesday night, as the Israel-Palestinian conflict raged on.

The shocking images show a man being forcibly removed from his car and beaten by a crowd of dozens until he lost consciousness.

The attack, broadcast by public broadcaster Kan, took place on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam, south of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv.

Police and emergency services did not arrive on the scene until 15 minutes later, while the victim lay motionless on his back in the middle of the street.

Those in the crowd justified the attack by saying the man was an Arab who had tried to ram the far-right nationalists, but the footage shows a motorist trying to avoid the demonstration.

"The victim of the lynching is seriously injured but stable," Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital said in a statement, without revealing his identity.



Issawi Fredj, an Arab deputy from the left-wing Meretz party, said the images were a sign that the country was heading towards "civil war".

Demonstrations by far-right activists broke out Wednesday night in several cities, leading to clashes with police and sometimes Arab Israelis.

Police said they were responding to violent incidents in cities including Acre, Haifa and Lod.

In Acre, a mixed Arab-Jewish town in northwest Israel, a Jew was seriously injured by stone throwers, police said.

"The rioters in Lod and Acre do not represent Israeli Arabs, the rioters in Bat Yam... do not represent Israeli Jews, violence will not dictate our lives," said opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is currently tasked with forming a government after March elections.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have launched hundreds of rockets since Monday at Israel, which has carried out air strikes on the crowded coastal enclave.

The most intense hostilities in seven years between Israel and Gaza's armed groups were triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Polish bishop resigns after probe into cover-up allegations

OPPOSES LGBTQ RIGHTS COVERS UP CHILD ABUSE

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop following a Vatican investigation into alleged negligence in addressing cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests under the bishop's authority.

The forced departure of Bishop Jan Tyrawa was the latest in a string of sanctions the pope has meted out since mid-2020 to Polish Catholic Church leaders over cases of cover-up of sexual abuse by other priests.

The Vatican Embassy in Poland said that on Wednesday Francis accepted Tyrawa's resignation from the diocese of Bydgoszcz, in central Poland, and placed Bishop Wieslaw Smigiel from the neighboring Torun diocese temporarily in charge.

The Vatican communique said the investigation was launched in response to signs of negligence in addressing sex abuse of minors. It didn't say what the findings were concerning these allegations.

It said Tyrawa handed in his resignation after the probe was concluded and also due to some other difficulties in the running of the diocese.

Tyrawa was mentioned among other cases described in TV documentaries in Poland about alleged sex abuse by priests and cover-up by their superiors. The allegations came as a shock in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

The Associated Press

Prosecutors shelves probe of gang rape that shocked Egypt

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian prosecutors said they have shelved their months-long investigation into an alleged 2014 gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a luxury Cairo hotel, ordering the release of all suspects for lack of evidence.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The case shocked Egypt’s conservative society when it was revealed last year by a social media account that tracks alleged sexual assaults in the country.

In a detailed statement late Tuesday, prosecutors said evidence collected during their nearly nine-month investigation was not enough to refer the case to a criminal court. The statement said witnesses gave conflicted testimonies.

Prosecutors ordered the release of the four suspects, who were arrested last year and jailed pending investigations. Three of them were arrested in Lebanon and deported to Cairo last year.

Prosecutors said the probe could be reopened if new evidence emerges.

The alleged gang rape involves a group of young men from wealthy and powerful families. They allegedly drugged the teen at a party at a five-star Cairo hotel, then took turns raping her.

Accounts of the alleged assault surfaced amid a renewed #MeToo campaign on social media that swept Egypt last summer.

Potential witnesses in the suspected gang rape case and acquaintances were arrested as private, explicit videos purportedly from their phones circulated via private messenger apps. Some of them were later released.

In a joint statement Wednesday, seven Egyptian rights groups asked prosecutors to reconsider their decision. The groups, including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said prosecutors ignored the arrest and intimidation of some of the witnesses, which “undoubtedly contributed to such regrettable outcome.”

The investigation into the hotel case uncovered another alleged gang rape in the North Coast resort on Mediterranean. Three suspects were referred to criminal trial last month in that resort case.

The Associated Press

Doctor apologizes for letting a registered sex offender into a retreat for sex assault survivors

Ashley Burke, Kristen Everson 

© Laura Osman, CBC News Dr. Manuela Joannou has posted a public apology to participants in one of her therapy retreats.

The doctor running Project Trauma Support now says she regrets her decision to allow a registered sex offender to peer mentor a group of sexual assault survivors with post traumatic stress disorder under her care.

Seven female first responders and Canadian Forces veterans shared their story publicly with CBC News yesterday. They said their trust was violated by Dr. Manuela Joannou because she failed to tell them their peer mentor recently had been convicted in two separate cases of sexual assault before attending the six-day trauma retreat in July 2018.

CBC News obtained an image of a statement posted by Joannou to Facebook on Wednesday apologizing to participants in her program.


"I am deeply saddened by the compounded hurt and pain that having a registered sex offender as a mentor on our program in 2018 has caused for so many people," Joannou wrote in the Facebook post.

"If I had a chance to do it all over again, this would not have happened. Did we make some errors in our early efforts? Undoubtedly, but it has shaped our awareness and our methods going forward."

The post comes a day after Joannou, in an exchange with CBC News, defended her actions and did not apologize for using retired Canadian Forces major Jonathan Hamilton as a peer mentor at the retreat.

Retreat participants said they were upset that Joannou's public apology came after several major donors to the program — including the Mood Disorder Society of Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion — severed ties with her charity in the wake of CBC's report and said they would not be funding it in future.

Joannou said she started Project Trauma in 2015 as a suicide prevention program. CBC News spoke to a Canadian Forces member who said she became suicidal after taking part in the program.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) investigated the case and advised Joannou in 2019 to be more careful in her hiring practices.

In her Facebook apology, Joannou wrote she now has code-of-conduct agreements for peer mentors to sign and is conducting police background checks on them.

"We fully intend to continue to offer our programming as we feel it is unethical to cease our mission that has resonated with so many," wrote Joannou. "We are committed to doing better …"

The Centre of Excellence on PTSD said Joannou's actions contravened its member agreement and it will no longer affiliate with her or Project Trauma Support.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with those women impacted by this egregious act and recognize the deep hurt associated with this situation," said the Centre's CEO and president Dr. Patrick Smith in a media statement.

Military doctor stepping away from Project Trauma

The Canadian Armed Forces confirms its chief of rehabilitation medication has now left his volunteer role with Project Trauma Support in the wake of the story.

Lt.-Col. Markus Besemann, who has spent his career rehabilitating injured soldiers, had been volunteering with Project Trauma Support and is featured in uniform on the program's website. Some of the participants said they took part in 2018 because of Besemann's reputation in this field.

The Office of the Veterans Ombudsman said retired Brig.-Gen.Paul Rutherford has resigned from his role on the veteran's ombudsman advisory council and his name has been removed from its website in light of the CBC story.

Rutherford is the chair of Project Trauma Support's board of directors and also was an adviser to the veterans ombudsman. He and Joannou signed a letter in response to CBC's report, saying that "the truth cannot be realized by listening to one side of the story."

Veterans ombudsman Nishika Jardine said she was "deeply disturbed" by participants' accounts.

"No one who has experienced sexual trauma should be placed in a position where a peer support mentor is a sex offender," said Jardine in a statement to CBC News. "Individuals who have experienced this type of trauma need the safest space possible to promote their healing."

© Hallie Cotnam/CBC Female participants of Project Trauma Support take part in a group hug at the centre of a labyrinth in Perth, Ont.

Crown attorney did not grant approval

Some of the women who participated in the retreat only learned the full extent of the mentor's criminal past this month after CBC News published a story about the military's handling of one of his court cases.

In 2017, a justice found Hamilton guilty of unlawfully entering a Kingston home and sexually assaulting retired Capt. Annalise Schamuhn on two different occasions. Hamilton also was convicted of twice physically assaulting Schamuhn's husband, retired major Kevin Schamuhn.

Hamilton was sentenced to three years parole as a result, according to the attorney general's office.

In a second, unrelated case, Hamilton was sentenced to three years in custody on April 20, 2018 after a jury found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault.

Joannou had told the CPSO she had permission from the Crown attorney and the court for Hamilton to participate in Project Trauma Support, according to a report from the college obtained by CBC News.

But the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General said Wednesday that while it did consent to Hamilton staying there as part of his community service, the Crown did not grant permission for him to be a peer mentor.

"I can confirm that the Crown did not authorize Mr. Hamilton's participation in any peer mentoring groups," ministry spokesperson Brian Gray said in a statement to CBC News.