DA 5 BLOODS Trailer (2020) Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee Netflix Movie
From Academy Award® Winner Spike Lee comes a New Joint: the story of four African-American Vets — Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) — who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader (Chadwick Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes, joined by Paul’s concerned son (Jonathan Majors), battle forces of Man and Nature — while confronted by the lasting ravages of The Immorality of The Vietnam War.
U.S.-China Feud Over Coronavirus Erupts at World Health Assembly
China’s president pledged $2 billion to fight the virus, a move the United States criticized as an effort to head off scrutiny of its handling of the pandemic.
Article via NYTimes
A meeting of the World Health Organization that was supposed to chart a path for the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic instead on Monday turned into a showcase for the escalating tensions between China and the United States over the virus.
President Xi Jinping of China announced at the start of the forum that Beijing would donate $2 billion toward fighting the coronavirus and dispatch doctors and medical supplies to Africa and other countries in the developing world.
The contribution, to be spent over two years, amounts to more than twice what the United States had been giving the global health agency before President Trump cut off American funding last month, and it could catapult China to the forefront of international efforts to contain a disease that has claimed at least 315,000 lives.
But it was also seen — particularly by American officials — as an attempt by China to forestall closer scrutiny of whether it hid information about the outbreak to the world.
Mr. Xi made his announcement by videoconference to the World Health Assembly, an annual decision-making meeting of the W.H.O. that is being conducted virtually this year because of safety considerations during the pandemic. Mr. Trump declined to address the two-day gathering, providing the Chinese president an opening to be one of the first world leaders to address the 194 member states.
“In China, after making painstaking efforts and sacrifice, we have turned the tide on the virus and protected lives,” Mr. Xi said. “We have done everything in our power to support and assist countries in need.”
Late Monday, Mr. Trump responded in a scathing letter in which he accused the W.H.O. of an “alarming” dependence on China. In the letter, addressed to the W.H.O.’s director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and posted on Twitter at 10:55 p.m., the president said, “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world.”
The four-page letter details Mr. Trump’s grievances against China and the W.H.O. over the pandemic and ends with a threat to permanently pull U.S. funding and revoke American membership in the organization if it does not “commit to substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”
Though the president did not specify the changes he was seeking, he said that “the only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China.”
Earlier, Trump administration officials denounced China’s aid announcement as an attempt to influence the W.H.O., which is facing pressure from member states to investigate whether it was complicit in Beijing’s lack of transparency in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.
China’s “commitment of $2 billion is a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure to meet its obligations under international health regulations to tell the truth and warn the world of what was coming,” John Ullyot, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “As the source of the outbreak, China has a special responsibility to pay more and to give more.”
Other world leaders, in their remarks to the assembly, criticized the lack of unity in fighting the pandemic and, without naming any one country, urged nations to set aside their differences.
“No country can solve this problem alone,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said. “We must work together.”
Dr. Tedros nodded to criticism of the organization’s own handling of the early weeks of the outbreak, saying the agency would review “lessons learned” about its global response.
But he did not address Mr. Trump’s insistence that the health agency investigate allegations widely dismissed by scientists that the coronavirus originated in a lab in China. Mr. Xi in his speech called for any examination to take place after the health crisis had subsided.
In recent weeks, Chinese leaders and citizens have become increasingly aware of the international criticism and open hostility over China’s initial handling of the outbreak. Top American officials have been scathing, but European leaders have also spoken of mysteries surrounding the outbreak in China that needed to be addressed.
China’s aggressive diplomacy and international anger over exports of Chinese-made medical equipment that turned out to be shoddy have also contributed to the rising tensions.
About 100 nations have called for an independent investigation into the origins of the pandemic.
Against that backdrop, and with the imminent start of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing on Friday, Mr. Xi’s move appeared to be an effort to win over international support and calm the public anxieties in China.
“Certainly this is a very tricky moment for Xi,” said Dali L. Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. “Clearly he doesn’t want this really to be hanging above him, given how many countries are engaged and have asked for an investigation into the origins of the virus.”
Mr. Trump’s retreat from the global stage has created openings for China, which has been seeking to reshape multilateral institutions long dominated by Washington.
Ryan Hass, a China scholar at the Brookings Institution, said a familiar pattern had emerged. “Whenever Trump withdraws the U.S. from international leadership, Xi announces that China will step forward,” said Mr. Hass, who was a senior Asia director on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. “Xi has been ruthlessly opportunistic about seeking to exploit America’s withdrawal from global leadership for China’s advantage.”
Washington’s weak diplomatic hand was apparent on Monday when its efforts to lead a coalition of countries seeking to win Taiwan admission to the assembly as an observer failed. The self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its own territory, had observer status until 2016. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top American officials had recently called on the W.H.O. and its members to re-establish Taiwan’s admission over Beijing’s objections.
Mr. Trump’s fury at the W.H.O., and his decision last month to freeze financial contributions to the group in the middle of a global pandemic, came as critics pointed to his own administration’s slow and bungled response to a pandemic that has infected nearly 1.5 million people in the United States and killed nearly 90,000.
To many of the president’s supporters, the W.H.O. and other international organizations are to blame for lost jobs, low wages and economic uncertainty in the United States. But Mr. Trump will need to convince a broad part of the electorate that he was not responsible for the deaths and massive economic calamity caused by the virus. Casting the W.H.O. and the Chinese government as enemies could be an effective way, at least in the eyes of his supporters, for Mr. Trump to blunt fierce criticism from Democrats over his failures on the pandemic.
“Why is it that China, for decades, and with a population much bigger than ours, is paying a tiny fraction of $’s to The World Health Organization, The United Nations and, worst of all, The World Trade Organization, where they are considered a so-called ‘developing country’ and are therefore given massive advantages over The United States, and everyone else?” Mr. Trump tweeted over the weekend.
Beijing contributed a total of $86 million to the W.H.O. in 2018 and 2019, indeed much less than Washington’s $893 million contribution over those two years.
Police officer told homeowner he could contact Ahmaud Arbery shooting suspect for help with potential trespassers, text message shows
A text message obtained by CNN shows a Glynn County police officer told the owner of a home under construction near the Georgia coast that he could contact Gregory McMichael for help with potential trespassers seen in surveillance video from his property. Months later, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, would be arrested for the February 23 fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging through the neighborhood and, according to attorneys for Arbery’s family, seen in surveillance footage from the property that day.
Elizabeth Graddy, an attorney for the homeowner, Larry English, said the text exchange occurred on December 20, 2019. In it, English sends a video clip from his surveillance camera to the police officer. The officer responded, telling English that one of English’s neighbors is Gregory McMichael, a retired police officer and retired investigator in the local district attorney’s office. McMichael “said please call him day or night when you get action on your camera,” the officer wrote in his text message to English. CNN has reached out to the Glynn County Police Department for comment but has not heard back.McMichael and his son, the alleged shooter, were arrested May 7 and charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the death of Arbery. Attorneys for the elder McMichael said in a statement Friday that their client “did not commit murder,” pointing out that he’s been charged as party to the crime. The attorneys, Frank and Laura Hogue, said they are aware of “several other critically important facts” that portray “a very different narrative” for the killing.Travis McMichael’s attorneys made similar comments on Thursday, saying he had “been vilified before his voice could even be heard.” “The truth in this case will exonerate Travis,” the statement said.
Arbery was running in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside Brunswick on February 23 when he was followed by the McMichaels and fatally shot, according to a Glynn County police report.
Gregory McMichael told police after the shooting that he and his son pursued Arbery because they thought he looked like a suspect in a series of recent break-ins, the report says. A struggle ensued between Arbery and Travis McMichael, who was armed with a shotgun, according to the report and a video that appears to show the incident. Arbery was shot three times, including twice in the chest, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy report.
No string of break-ins was reported in more than seven weeks before Arbery’s death and there was only a burglary report after a gun was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in front of the McMichaels’ home, police said.The two men were arrested two days after the 36-second video was published, sparking widespread outrage that the suspects, who are white, had not been arrested more than two months after Arbery, an African American, was killed.
Video clips show other people on the property
Surveillance video from English’s construction site on February 23 appears to show Arbery minutes before he was killed. The footage appears to show him looking around but never touching anything and eventually, walking away.Earlier this week, English said he never accused Arbery of any wrongdoing. “I don’t want it to be put out and misused and misinterpreted for people to think that I had accused Mr. Arbery of stealing or robbery, because I never did,” English told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Tuesday night. By the time English had seen the clip, Arbery was already dead, according to Graddy, the attorney for English. Multiple security video clips obtained by CNN show unidentified people on other occasions entering English’s home, which was under construction.
In a video from February 11, another person is seen in the home. A 911 caller who identified himself as Travis McMichael that day said he saw a man go into the house, according to a Glynn County police report. English told CNN he could not identify the individual in the February 11 footage and said he did not report the incident to the police. In a statement to CNN on Friday, Graddy said the man in the February 11 video appears to be the same man filmed in the house last fall and on December 17. She said the man may have come into the house for water, adding there are water sources both behind the house and in front of it. In the December 17 footage, the man is seen wiping his mouth and “what sounds like water can be heard” before he jogs away, Graddy said in a statement. Attorneys for Arbery’s parents said they have reviewed a number of surveillance videos released by English’s attorney. They confirmed Ahmaud Arbery appeared in one video but were unable to confirm that he appeared in the others. The statement from the attorneys said people were frequently on the construction site both day and night but “Ahmaud Arbery seems to be the only one who was presumed to be a criminal.”
Article via CNN
11 firefighters injured, multiple buildings damaged after explosion in downtown L.A.
Eleven firefighters were injured and multiple buildings were set ablaze after an explosion in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
The blast was reported around 6:30 p.m. while firefighters were responding to a fire at a one-story structure at 327 E. Boyd St., just outside Little Tokyo, according to LAFD.
LAFD Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said the firefighters did what they usually do: Some went in through the front of the building, and the rest went up on the roof. But things didn’t seem right, he said.
The smoke pressure inside was escalating and it was getting hotter.
The officer in charge directed everybody to get out quickly, and as they were trying to leave, the explosion rang out, the fire chief said.
“Our firefighters came down the aerial ladder from the roof with their turnout coats on fire,” the chief said.
A mayday call was transmitted over the radio.
“The kind of call I always dread is a significant incident, with the potential of a lot of our firefighters injured,” the fire chief said, standing at the scene of the explosion next to the rescue ambulance of Fire Engine 9, which belonged to the crew with the injured firefighters.
The fire appears to have started at Smoke Tokes Warehouse Distributor, a supplier for businesses that make butane honey oil, LAFD Captain Erik Scott said during a news conference. Terrazas said firefighters found small butane canisters inside and outside.
Video showed dark plumes of smoke billowing over the area and flames shooting up from at least one of the buildings as sirens wailed in the background.
“Significant explosion — very high, very wide, rumbling the entire area— and firefighters were coming out with obvious damage and burns,” Scott said.
All 11 firefighters were hospitalized, three of them in critical condition and one in serious condition, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said. LAFD had previously estimated that 10 firefighters were hurt.
Four firefighters will be going to the burn intensive care unit, two were placed on ventilators for swelling of their airways from inhalation of the superheated gases, and the others suffered varying burns to their upper extremities, ranging from very serious, to moderate, to minor, according to Dr. Marc Eckstein, attending physician at L.A. County USC Medical Center, where the firefighters were being treated.
“We have every anticipation the firefighters will pull through,” the doctor said.
Doctors said all of the crew members were alert when they were brought in, and that it could have been even worse.
“We know we’re at risk when we go to any emergency, but we never want to see this happen,” department spokesman Nicholas Prange said.
LAFD upgraded the incident to “a major emergency” shortly after the explosion, and over 230 firefighters responded to the fire, going into defensive mode as they battled the flames, authorities said.
LAFD reported firefighters extinguished the bulk of the fire around 8:10 p.m.
But firefighters responding to the blast were met with a difficult situation, pouring water on the flames from outside as they were unable to go inside of the buildings, Prange said.
“We’re always worried about a secondary explosion, we don’t know what caused the first one and we’re trying to avoid this incident becoming even worse if the second one does happen,” Prange told KTLA.
Crews later went into offensive mode, attacking and extinguishing the fire.
It remains unclear what set off the explosion and whether there were hazardous materials involved. Scott said the cause of the blast is under investigation and that a hazmat team responded to the scene.
As the flames raged earlier in the evening, Prange told people in the area to find a way to shelter themselves from the smoke, saying even a tent would help. The explosion rang out just a few blocks away from Skid Row.
The explosion drew onlookers, and concerned residents took to social media to share video of the flames.
Article via ktla
Child abuse reports are down during the pandemic. Experts say that’s a bad sign
Article via CNN
A drop in child abuse would usually be welcome news — but with schools closed and kids at home, experts believe that the recent decline in calls to child abuse and neglect hotlines might really mean more cases are going unnoticed.
Figures provided to CNN from states across the country show considerable drops in child abuse reports as social distancing measures have kept people home and kids out of sight. In Massachusetts alone, reports of alleged child abuse dropped almost 55% from 2,124 in the first week of March to just 972 by the last full week in April, according to data provided by the state. Compared to last year, Connecticut, California, Michigan, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Louisiana have all seen double-digit percentage drops as they’ve implemented their own stay-home orders.
Teachers, coaches and other adults who interact with children and are legally required to report signs of abuse can’t always see red flags over Zoom or other remote connections — if they’re able to get in touch with at-risk kids at all. And kids who are at-risk are less able to signal distress if their abusers are in the background of calls. “When children are no longer visible to the vast majority of people who are trained and required to report, and then you see this kind of decline, we get super concerned,” said Melissa Jonson-Reid, a professor of social work research at Washington University in St. Louis.
Children’s advocates say they’re also having a harder time finding ways to intervene before abuse starts in at-risk families. Paula Wolfteich, intervention and clinical director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center, told CNN that mitigation measures have hampered their contact with at-risk families and handicapped the organization’s ability to help.”The kids that we normally can see and support and — and families that we can support, our hands are tied and we’re unable to do that as well as we usually do,” she said.Wolfteich said because families are “sort of on lockdown and isolated,” her organization has seen a stream of reports including “substance abuse involvement, there’s domestic violence in the home and then, you know, physical abuse is going on.”The strains on families are only rising as financial hardships grow for millions of Americans.
The US lost 20.5 million jobs in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — by far the most sudden and largest decline since the government began tracking the data in 1939. Anna Gassman-Pines, a Duke University professor whose expertise includes the effects of unemployment on children, told CNN that this kind of financial strain will likely have an outsized impact on already at-risk children. “In very stressed communities where there have been a lot of job losses — even the families where the adults have managed to maintain employment — that community has an increased risk for child maltreatment because of concerns of everyone in that community about uncertainty around their jobs, feelings of instability, worry about the future,” she said. “Or it may even be that those who remain employed have less earnings,” she said. “So there are a lot of reasons why, in communities that have been particularly hard hit by job losses, that increases the risk for everyone in that community.”
Rates of reported child neglect, for example, increased by 24.28% between 2007 and 2009 during the Great Recession, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
National figures on child abuse and neglect reports related to the coronavirus will be collected by HHS as part of the federal fiscal year 2020, which ends on September 30 — but that data isn’t due to be publicly released until January 2022. The coronavirus pandemic has prompted an unprecedented shutdown that has taken kids out of sight in a way that experts and advocates haven’t seen before. Nadine Burke Harris, the surgeon general of California and a pediatrician with expertise in childhood trauma, described to CNN the challenge of issuing public health directives while balancing competing interests.
“Well, you know certainly when we’re thinking about the remain-at-home order we are thinking about all of these things. We’re thinking about the economic impact, right, we’re thinking about these stress-related secondary impacts. We’re thinking about safety and well-being and looking at the death toll related to the — the virus,” she said. “So all of this is being considered.”
Jonson-Reid stressed the particular dangers facing young children, like a lack of knowledge about the resources they can use for relief. “They have to know that there’s the possibility of assistance,” she said. “And you can imagine it would be pretty scary to just sort of get on a phone and call some stranger to ask for help when no one has ever mentioned that that’s even possible.”In recent weeks, some Democratic lawmakers have pushed for emergency funding for the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act — one of the few federal child welfare programs that help fund state initiatives to respond and prevent child neglect and abuse. “Investing in programs that support families and keep children safe is more important than ever,” said an April letter to Senate leadership signed by Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and others. “Existing federal programs with infrastructure and expertise are already in place to address these challenges,” said the letter. “However, they currently lack the financial support to effectively combat the new challenges presented by this crisis.”
Jonson-Reid hopes lawmakers will “use this time to see the strain that we’re putting on families during the pandemic” and take steps to invest in child welfare programs. The outbreak, she posited, is a time to “not just prepare to go back to business as usual, but to say, ‘This is a time to invest in our families,’ so that we are saving these long-term costs related to delinquency, educational outcomes, mental health, health outcomes across the board.”
Anyone worried about the possibility of abuse or neglect can contact the national child abuse hotline: 1-800-422-4453 or childhelphotline.org. Crisis counselors answer calls 24/7 and provide crisis intervention, information, and referrals.
Man shoots down drone, gets hit with felony charges in Minnesota
The drone’s owner was taking aerial images of a meat-processing facility.
A Minnesota man is facing two felony charges for shooting down a drone, The Free Press reports.
The incident began when an unnamed man flew a drone over Butterfield Foods, a producer of meat products—including chicken—in the Southern Minnesota town of Butterfield. The man later told a sheriff’s deputy he was trying to prove that chickens were being slaughtered because of the pandemic.
Two employees approached the man and asked him what he was doing. Soon afterwards, someone else shot the drone out of the sky. The man says his drone cost $1,900.
The authorities arrested 34-year-old Travis Duane Winters and charged him in Watonwan County District Court, The Free Press says. Officials say Winters admitted to shooting the drone. He faces charges of criminal damage to property and reckless discharge of a weapon within city limits.
This is not the first time someone has shot down a drone. We reported on several such shootings in 2016 and 2017. In one case, a man sued a neighbor who shot his drone when it flew over the neighbor’s land. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit on procedural grounds, finding that it should have been filed in state, not federal, courts.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said that shooting down a drone is illegal under the same federal aviation laws that make it illegal to shoot down a crewed aircraft. But we don’t know of any cases of people being prosecuted under those laws.
Article via ArsTechnica
Woman, 5-year-old boy drown at home of former Boston Red Sox OF Carl Crawford (report)
A woman and a five-year-old boy who was reportedly under her care drowned on Saturday in a pool at the Houston home of former MLB outfielder Carl Crawford, per the Houston Chronicle.
Per police, as recorded by the Chronicle, the boy began struggling to breathe while he swam in the pool, and the woman — who was 25 — jumped in to try to help him. Per a local CBS affiliate, which took video of Crawford speaking to police, attempts to resuscitate both the woman and child via CPR were unsuccessful at the scene. Both were unresponsive when transported to the hospital, where they were declared dead.
Article via MassLive
Jamie Lynn Spears Tears Up as She Shares Heartbreaking Details About Daughter Maddie’s ATV Accident
“There’s nothing worse than looking at your child and just feeling that you’ve failed her,” the singer and actress said.
Jamie Lynn Spears is opening up about her daughter’s near-death experience.
The country music singer and actress, 29, shared terrifying details about her 11-year-old daughter Maddie’s 2017 ATV accident during Thursday’s episode of Better Together with Maria Menounos.
Speaking candidly about the harrowing incident, Spears got emotional as she recalled how things were “not looking good” when Maddie was admitted to the hospital, revealing that a priest was in the middle of reading her child’s last rites when Maddie suddenly became responsive again.
“My oldest daughter was in a really bad accident,” she began, explaining that Maddie was riding on an ATV near her family “with every safety measure that could be taken” when she “somehow or another, drove into the water.”
“We dove in and we were able to rescue her,” she said. “When we were finally able to get her out of the water … and the first responders took from me, we thought she was gone. We thought we lost our daughter.”
“That moment, I felt everything that you can feel, I think, as far as the worst,” the mom, who also shares 2-year-old daughter Ivey Joan with husband Jamie Watson, continued. “There’s nothing worse than looking at your child and just feeling that you’ve failed her. And I didn’t want her to think that I couldn’t save her.”
Spears said a firefighter was finally able to get a pulse, though Maddie’s condition looked grim at the time and the young girl had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital.
“She wasn’t responding to anything and so it was not looking good for us,” she recalled, telling host Maria Menounos that she remembers asking for a priest to be let into the intensive care unit to pray for her daughter in what she described as a “worse case scenario.”
“He went to put the oil on her and read the rites and she sat up and started kicking, and her hands started grabbing at all the things,” Spears said. “That was our first sign that she was there.”
The Zoey 101 alum said “everything changed” for her as a parent in that moment.
“I’ve faced my worst fear now. What else can I mess up or do wrong that will be as horrible as that? Nothing. There’s nothing,” she shared. “God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back. I lost her and I got her back.”
“So I don’t get to make any excuses. I’ve been given the best, biggest blessing you can be given,” Spears added. “I’m not allowed to waste a day on this earth complaining or being ungrateful.”
The mother of two commemorated the “miracle anniversary” of the accident in February, writing on her Instagram: “3 years ago today, Super Bowl Sunday fell on February 5th, and I’ll never forget that, because it was the day my whole world stopped.”
“It started like most Sundays, going to church, visiting family, to suddenly trying to save my daughter’s life, to them taking her away, to us believing we had lost her forever, and it literally felt like the world stood still around me,” she wrote. “I have never spoken fully in detail about that day, and the events that followed, but what I will share is that God blessed us with a true miracle. Maddie not only stayed here with us, but she made a full recovery.”
Sharing photos of Maddie on her hospital bed after the accident, Spears said in the post, “I know so many of you prayed so hard for us, so I will never let this day pass without thanking each of you for every single prayer you said for us, and I hope you all know we do not take this huge blessing we were given for granted, because most are not as fortunate, and we are fully aware of that horrible and unfair fact.”
“I am filled with gratitude today, and everyday [sic], even on the bad days, because even those days are a gift, that so many others would give anything for just to have their loved ones back,” the star added.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories
“Let’s all be thankful for the tiny miracles in our lives every day, that we may take for granted, because it could all change in a second. Thank y’all for always being there for me and my family, we appreciate you and love you so much. #MiracleAnniversary.”
Article via People
Criminal group that hacked law firm threatens to release Trump documents
A known criminal enterprise released a large set of stolen files, at least some of which appeared legitimate.
A cybercriminal gang that hacked a major entertainment law firm claims it will release information on President Donald Trump if it doesn’t receive $42 million in ransom.
The group, a known criminal enterprise, didn’t offer any proof it had information compromising to Trump. It did, however, release a large set of stolen files from the law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. NBC News reviewed some of the documents and they appear legitimate.
The group uses ransomware — a type of malicious software — to break into a victim’s networks and encrypt them, demanding a fee to unlock them. If the victim doesn’t pay up, the group slowly leaks out unencrypted versions of files stolen from those networks to prompt payment.
The criminal group posted on its blog a threat to publish files related to Trump.
“The next person we’ll be publishing is Donald Trump. There’s an election race going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time,” the group wrote, giving a one week deadline. “And to you voters, we can let you know that after such a publication, you certainly don’t want to see him as president.”
Though the gang tends to release legitimately hacked files, they left no clue of whether they actually had compromising information on Trump, or whether this was a ploy to put more pressure on the law firm to pay.
“On the one hand, I think it’s bulls—,” said Brett Callow, who studies ransomware gangs at the antivirus company Emsisoft. “But on the other hand, getting a rep for bluffing isn’t helpful to extortionists. They need their victims to believe that their threats are real and will be carried through.”
The law firm did not respond to a request for comment, but told Rolling Stone: “Despite our substantial investment in state-of-the-art technology security, foreign cyberterrorists have hacked into our network and are demanding $42 million as ransom.”
The White House declined to comment.
Ransomware gangs have become a persistent threat to the U.S. in recent years, and law enforcement has had difficulty stopping them. In many cases, these groups operate out of Russia, which doesn’t extradite its citizens.
“We’re pretty sure these guys operate in Russia’s ‘locus of control,’” said Allan Liska, who tracks the gang for the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
But threatening to release files about Trump, who enjoys a cordial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, might be a step too far, Liska said.
“If they release this stuff, it is possible they will have both U.S. Cyber Command and FSB targeting them,” Liska said, referring to Russia’s Federal Security Service. “Most Russian leadership leaves them alone as long as they don’t target Russian citizens. This would probably be an exception.”
Article via NBCNews