On the eve of the capital insurrection anniversary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recollected the trauma of that day.

US: The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recollect the trauma of the Capitol insurrection

US President Joe Biden will call out former President Donald Trump for 'singular responsibility' in provoking the rioters on the 6th of January last year in Capitol riots.

President Biden will call out former President Trump for 'singular responsibility' in Capitol Riots

A department of justice investigation has revealed that four FBI officials were involved in sex with prostitutes while they were on an assignment overseas. The fifth official also tried to do the same but failed. This comes in violation of FBI policies.&nbsp;

"The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated an investigation after receiving information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleging that, while working for the FBI overseas, multiple then FBI officials solicited, engaged in, and/or procured commercial sex," read the statement.&nbsp;

The statement further said that it was alleged that one of the FBI officials provided another of the officials a package with nearly 100 white pills so that it can be delivered to a foreign law enforcement officer. The reports did not elaborate on what exactly the pills were.

The investigation then concluded that "all five officials failed to report their own misconduct and the misconduct of others in connection with the procurement of commercial sex."&nbsp;

The report has not identified the officials but it claims that two had resigned and the other two had retired. Also,&nbsp;one of them was removed during the investigation process.

Another official who has been accused of breaking policy as he failed to report his colleagues’ misconduct still works for the bureau.

FBI has vowed to “take all appropriate disciplinary actions” against the employee.

(With inputs from agencies)

A department of justice investigation has revealed that four FBI officials were involved in sex with prostitutes while they were on an assignment overseas. The fifth official also tried to do the same but failed.

A department of justice investigation has revealed that four FBI officials were involved in sex with prostitutes while they were on an assignment overseas. The fifth official also tried to do the same but failed. This comes in violation of FBI policies. "The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated an investigation after receiving information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleging that, while working for the FBI overseas, multiple then FBI officials solicited, engaged in, and/or procured commercial sex," read the statement. The statement further said that it was alleged that one of the FBI officials provided another of the officials a package with nearly 100 white pills so that it can be delivered to a foreign law enforcement officer. The reports did not elaborate on what exactly the pills were. The investigation then concluded that "all five officials failed to report their own misconduct and the misconduct of others in connection with the procurement of commercial sex." The report has not identified the officials but it claims that two had resigned and the other two had retired. Also, one of them was removed during the investigation process. Another official who has been accused of breaking policy as he failed to report his colleagues’ misconduct still works for the bureau. FBI has vowed to “take all appropriate disciplinary actions” against the employee. (With inputs from agencies)

FBI officials quit after it emerged they had sex with prostitutes during overseas assignment

Havana Syndrome has emerged as a new topic of concern in the US.&nbsp;

Officially called "anomalous health incidents", the Federal Bureau of Investigation has termed the syndrome as a top priority and said that they will continue to look for the cause behind it.&nbsp;

“The issue of anomalous health incidents is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues across the federal government is paramount,” the FBI said in a statement.

It further stated that it would keep working with the intelligence community to “identify the cause of these incidents and determine how we can best protect our personnel.”

The FBI for the first time acknowledged that some of its agents may have suffered from symptoms of this mysterious syndrome.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/havana-syndrome-strikes-again-what-is-it-exactly-408221">Also read |&nbsp;Havana Syndrome strikes again? What is it exactly?</a>

Not just the FBI but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to get to the bottom of this syndrome. There are suspicions that the mysterious illness plaguing US diplomats the world over could be caused by Russian microwave attacks.

"All of us in the US government, and especially we at the State Department, are intently focused on getting to the bottom of what and who is causing these incidents, caring for those who've been affected, and protecting our people," Blinken said.

Lawyer Mark Zaid, who represents Havana Syndrome victims, said that the FBI has “been less than helpful, particularly by claiming victims are suffering psychosomatic symptoms even though they never interviewed the individuals…I suspect that is about to change.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/havana-syndrome-blinken-vows-to-solve-mystery-of-illness-affecting-us-diplomats-427052">Also read |&nbsp;Havana Syndrome: Blinken vows to solve mystery of illness affecting US diplomats</a>

The first case of the mysterious syndrome emerged in 2016 when a US intelligence agent in the US embassy in Havana complained of vertigo, ear pain, tinnitus. As per a report in Politico, the doctor said that the agent had inner-ear damage likely caused due to projected energy device.

Since then the number of US officials in the diplomatic and intelligence corps reporting similar experiences in countries including China, Austria, Colombia and Russia, has risen to the low hundreds.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Havana Syndrome has emerged as a new topic of concern in the US. Officially called "anomalous health incidents", the Federal Bureau of Investigation has termed the syndrome as a top priority and said that they will continue to look for the cause behind it.

Havana Syndrome has emerged as a new topic of concern in the US. Officially called "anomalous health incidents", the Federal Bureau of Investigation has termed the syndrome as a top priority and said that they will continue to look for the cause behind it. “The issue of anomalous health incidents is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues across the federal government is paramount,” the FBI said in a statement. It further stated that it would keep working with the intelligence community to “identify the cause of these incidents and determine how we can best protect our personnel.” The FBI for the first time acknowledged that some of its agents may have suffered from symptoms of this mysterious syndrome. Also read | Havana Syndrome strikes again? What is it exactly? Not just the FBI but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to get to the bottom of this syndrome. There are suspicions that the mysterious illness plaguing US diplomats the world over could be caused by Russian microwave attacks. "All of us in the US government, and especially we at the State Department, are intently focused on getting to the bottom of what and who is causing these incidents, caring for those who've been affected, and protecting our people," Blinken said. Lawyer Mark Zaid, who represents Havana Syndrome victims, said that the FBI has “been less than helpful, particularly by claiming victims are suffering psychosomatic symptoms even though they never interviewed the individuals…I suspect that is about to change.” Also read | Havana Syndrome: Blinken vows to solve mystery of illness affecting US diplomats The first case of the mysterious syndrome emerged in 2016 when a US intelligence agent in the US embassy in Havana complained of vertigo, ear pain, tinnitus. As per a report in Politico, the doctor said that the agent had inner-ear damage likely caused due to projected energy device. Since then the number of US officials in the diplomatic and intelligence corps reporting similar experiences in countries including China, Austria, Colombia and Russia, has risen to the low hundreds. (With inputs from agencies)

Havana Syndrome: FBI makes it a top priority, will continue to 'identify the cause'

The boyfriend of murdered US blogger Gabby Petito, who was found dead last month, had committed suicide, his family lawyer said in a statement.

Brian Laundrie’s body was found in a wilderness area in Florida, a month after his girlfriend Petito,22, was found strangled to death near Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park, where the couple had been travelling together in a van. &nbsp;

The FBI had found his human remains at the park in Florida on October 20.

Laundrie,23, was named a suspect in the case after he arrived at his parent’s home alone in early September and then went missing.

Laundrie’s family lawyer said that Brian shot himself.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/boyfriend-wanted-in-murder-of-us-blogger-gabby-petito-found-dead-422920">Boyfriend wanted in murder of US blogger Gabby Petito found dead</a>

“Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound... and the manner of death was suicide,” Steven Bertolino told ABC Action News.

“Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families,”&nbsp;the family’s lawyer said.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/fbi-florida-police-on-hunt-for-gabby-petitos-fiance-after-family-says-he-is-missing-414057">FBI, Florida police on hunt for Gabby Petito’s fiancé after family says he is ‘missing’</a>

FBI investigators have been searching for clues in belongings found near Laundrie’s body, including a water-damaged notebook. The FBI has yet to release any statement on the progress of its investigation, according to the Guardian.

In a statement Tuesday, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said, “We are thankful that another step in finalizing this case has been taken.”

“While this entire situation evokes nothing but sadness, we’re hopeful that all the work which went into the chaotic search for answers will help heal those impacted,” Garrison said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

The boyfriend of murdered US blogger Gabby Petito, who was found dead last month, had committed suicide, his family lawyer said in a statement. Brian Laundrie’s body was found in a wilderness area in Florida, a month after his girlfriend Petito,22, was found strangled to death near Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park, where the couple had been travelling together in a van.

The boyfriend of murdered US blogger Gabby Petito, who was found dead last month, had committed suicide, his family lawyer said in a statement. Brian Laundrie’s body was found in a wilderness area in Florida, a month after his girlfriend Petito,22, was found strangled to death near Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park, where the couple had been travelling together in a van. The FBI had found his human remains at the park in Florida on October 20. Laundrie,23, was named a suspect in the case after he arrived at his parent’s home alone in early September and then went missing. Laundrie’s family lawyer said that Brian shot himself. Also read | Boyfriend wanted in murder of US blogger Gabby Petito found dead “Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound... and the manner of death was suicide,” Steven Bertolino told ABC Action News. “Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families,” the family’s lawyer said. Also read | FBI, Florida police on hunt for Gabby Petito’s fiancé after family says he is ‘missing’ FBI investigators have been searching for clues in belongings found near Laundrie’s body, including a water-damaged notebook. The FBI has yet to release any statement on the progress of its investigation, according to the Guardian. In a statement Tuesday, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said, “We are thankful that another step in finalizing this case has been taken.” “While this entire situation evokes nothing but sadness, we’re hopeful that all the work which went into the chaotic search for answers will help heal those impacted,” Garrison said. (With inputs from agencies)

Boyfriend of murdered US blogger Gabby Petito shot himself, says lawyer

In the torturous history of the US government’s black sites, the FBI has long been portrayed as acting with a strong moral compass. Its agents, disgusted with the violence they saw at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, walked out, enabling the bureau to later deploy “clean teams” untainted by torture to interrogate the five men accused of conspiring in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

But new information that emerged this week in the September&nbsp;11 case undermines that FBI narrative. The two intelligence agencies secretly arranged for nine FBI agents to temporarily become CIA operatives in the overseas prison network where the spy agency used torture to interrogate its prisoners.

The once-secret program came to light in pretrial proceedings in the death penalty case. The proceedings are examining whether the accused mastermind of the September&nbsp;11 plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-defendants voluntarily confessed after years in the black site network, where detainees were waterboarded, beaten, deprived of sleep and isolated to train them to comply with their captors’ wishes.

At issue is whether the military judge will exclude from the eventual trial the testimony of FBI agents who questioned the defendants in 2007 at Guantánamo and also forbid the use of reports that the agents wrote about each man’s account of his role in the hijacking conspiracy.

A veteran Guantánamo prosecutor, Jeffrey D. Groharing, has called the FBI interrogations “the most critical evidence in this case.” Defense lawyers argue that the interrogations were tainted by the years of torture by U.S. government agents.

In open court Thursday, another prosecutor, Clayton G. Trivett Jr., confirmed the unusual arrangement, in which nine agents were "formally detailed" to the agency “and thus became a member of the CIA and worked within CIA channels.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/rittenhouse-acquittal-polarises-us-on-political-lines-attracts-sharp-reactions-430653">Also read |&nbsp;Rittenhouse acquittal polarises US on political lines, attracts sharp reactions</a>

He said that the agents served as “debriefers,” a CIA term for interrogators, and questioned black site prisoners “out of the coercive environment” and after the use of “EITs.”

EITs, or enhanced interrogation techniques, is a CIA euphemism for a series of abusive tactics that the agency used against Mohammed and other prisoners in 2002 and 2003&nbsp;tactics that were then approved but are now illegal. They include waterboarding, painful shackling and isolating a prisoner nude, shivering and in the dark to break his will to resist interrogation.

Trivett offered no precise time period but made clear that the FBI agents were absorbed by the CIA sometime between 2002, when the black sites were established, and September 2006. On their return to the FBI, they took on the status of CIA assets, he said, and so their identities are classified.

Five of the nine agents had roles in the interrogations of some of the defendants in the case, Trivett said, and their names have been provided to defence lawyers on the basis that they not be disclosed.

The FBI declined to comment on the arrangement, as did the CIA.

A defence lawyer, James G. Connell III, added more details in the same court hearing.

He said that the nine agents “stopped being FBI agents and became CIA agents temporarily” under a memorandum of understanding that established a different arrangement than the more typical assignment of a representative of one law enforcement agency to work out of the organisation of another.

A former CIA historian, Nicholas Dujmovic, said there was a precedent for “taking employees from another government agency and quickly making them CIA employees for specific functions.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-us-uk-considering-boycott-of-beijing-winter-olympics-430708">Also read |&nbsp;After US, UK 'considering' boycott of Beijing winter Olympics</a>

In the 1950s, the CIA transformed US Air Force pilots into CIA employees during their stints flying U-2 spy planes and then returned them to the Air Force without the loss of seniority or benefits. “President Eisenhower thought it was important that U-2s not be piloted by US military pilots,” Dujmovic said. The process was called “sheep dipping,” he said.

Earlier testimony showed the FBI participating remotely in the CIA interrogations through requests sent by cables to the black sites seeking certain information from specific detainees, including Mohammed after he was waterboarded 183 times to force him to talk.

The pretrial hearings are in their ninth year and the military judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall of the Air Force, is the fourth judge to hear testimony at Guantánamo. In arguing over potential trial evidence, the prisoners’ lawyers have repeatedly accused prosecutors of redacting information that the defence needs to prepare for the capital trial. In the military commissions, prosecutors are the gatekeepers of potential trial evidence and can withhold information they deem not relevant to the defence’s needs.

In one example, Connell showed the judge a November 2005 cable the FBI sent to the CIA that contained questions for three of the defendants while they were in a black site out of reach of the courts, lawyers and the International Red Cross.

The FBI released the cable to the public this month under an executive order by President Joe Biden to declassify information about the FBI investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Connell had earlier received a version of the same cable from prosecutors. But it was so redacted that it obscured the fact that the FBI wanted Mohammed and the other defendants questioned in the black sites.

Trivett sought to play down the disclosure of the FBI-CIA collaboration as routine business at a time when the U.S. government was devoting tremendous resources to investigating the September 11 attacks. “This is not some big bombshell,” he told the judge.

A lawyer for Mohammed, Denny LeBoeuf, cast the collaboration as part of a conspiracy to portray FBI accounts of interrogations of the defendants at Guantánamo in 2007 as “clean team statements,” a law enforcement expression.

“They were never clean,” LeBoeuf said. “Torture isn’t clean. It is filthy. It has sights and sounds and consequences.”

In the torturous history of the US government’s black sites, the FBI has long been portrayed as acting with a strong moral compass. Its agents, disgusted with the violence they saw at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, walked out, enabling the bureau to later deploy “clean teams” untainted by torture to interrogate the five men accused of conspiring in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the torturous history of the US government’s black sites, the FBI has long been portrayed as acting with a strong moral compass. Its agents, disgusted with the violence they saw at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, walked out, enabling the bureau to later deploy “clean teams” untainted by torture to interrogate the five men accused of conspiring in the attacks of September 11, 2001. But new information that emerged this week in the September 11 case undermines that FBI narrative. The two intelligence agencies secretly arranged for nine FBI agents to temporarily become CIA operatives in the overseas prison network where the spy agency used torture to interrogate its prisoners. The once-secret program came to light in pretrial proceedings in the death penalty case. The proceedings are examining whether the accused mastermind of the September 11 plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-defendants voluntarily confessed after years in the black site network, where detainees were waterboarded, beaten, deprived of sleep and isolated to train them to comply with their captors’ wishes. At issue is whether the military judge will exclude from the eventual trial the testimony of FBI agents who questioned the defendants in 2007 at Guantánamo and also forbid the use of reports that the agents wrote about each man’s account of his role in the hijacking conspiracy. A veteran Guantánamo prosecutor, Jeffrey D. Groharing, has called the FBI interrogations “the most critical evidence in this case.” Defense lawyers argue that the interrogations were tainted by the years of torture by U.S. government agents. In open court Thursday, another prosecutor, Clayton G. Trivett Jr., confirmed the unusual arrangement, in which nine agents were "formally detailed" to the agency “and thus became a member of the CIA and worked within CIA channels.” Also read | Rittenhouse acquittal polarises US on political lines, attracts sharp reactions He said that the agents served as “debriefers,” a CIA term for interrogators, and questioned black site prisoners “out of the coercive environment” and after the use of “EITs.” EITs, or enhanced interrogation techniques, is a CIA euphemism for a series of abusive tactics that the agency used against Mohammed and other prisoners in 2002 and 2003 tactics that were then approved but are now illegal. They include waterboarding, painful shackling and isolating a prisoner nude, shivering and in the dark to break his will to resist interrogation. Trivett offered no precise time period but made clear that the FBI agents were absorbed by the CIA sometime between 2002, when the black sites were established, and September 2006. On their return to the FBI, they took on the status of CIA assets, he said, and so their identities are classified. Five of the nine agents had roles in the interrogations of some of the defendants in the case, Trivett said, and their names have been provided to defence lawyers on the basis that they not be disclosed. The FBI declined to comment on the arrangement, as did the CIA. A defence lawyer, James G. Connell III, added more details in the same court hearing. He said that the nine agents “stopped being FBI agents and became CIA agents temporarily” under a memorandum of understanding that established a different arrangement than the more typical assignment of a representative of one law enforcement agency to work out of the organisation of another. A former CIA historian, Nicholas Dujmovic, said there was a precedent for “taking employees from another government agency and quickly making them CIA employees for specific functions.” Also read | After US, UK 'considering' boycott of Beijing winter Olympics In the 1950s, the CIA transformed US Air Force pilots into CIA employees during their stints flying U-2 spy planes and then returned them to the Air Force without the loss of seniority or benefits. “President Eisenhower thought it was important that U-2s not be piloted by US military pilots,” Dujmovic said. The process was called “sheep dipping,” he said. Earlier testimony showed the FBI participating remotely in the CIA interrogations through requests sent by cables to the black sites seeking certain information from specific detainees, including Mohammed after he was waterboarded 183 times to force him to talk. The pretrial hearings are in their ninth year and the military judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall of the Air Force, is the fourth judge to hear testimony at Guantánamo. In arguing over potential trial evidence, the prisoners’ lawyers have repeatedly accused prosecutors of redacting information that the defence needs to prepare for the capital trial. In the military commissions, prosecutors are the gatekeepers of potential trial evidence and can withhold information they deem not relevant to the defence’s needs. In one example, Connell showed the judge a November 2005 cable the FBI sent to the CIA that contained questions for three of the defendants while they were in a black site out of reach of the courts, lawyers and the International Red Cross. The FBI released the cable to the public this month under an executive order by President Joe Biden to declassify information about the FBI investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. Connell had earlier received a version of the same cable from prosecutors. But it was so redacted that it obscured the fact that the FBI wanted Mohammed and the other defendants questioned in the black sites. Trivett sought to play down the disclosure of the FBI-CIA collaboration as routine business at a time when the U.S. government was devoting tremendous resources to investigating the September 11 attacks. “This is not some big bombshell,” he told the judge. A lawyer for Mohammed, Denny LeBoeuf, cast the collaboration as part of a conspiracy to portray FBI accounts of interrogations of the defendants at Guantánamo in 2007 as “clean team statements,” a law enforcement expression. “They were never clean,” LeBoeuf said. “Torture isn’t clean. It is filthy. It has sights and sounds and consequences.”

FBI agents became CIA operatives in secret overseas prisons

Warning of a possible cyber-attack, thousands of fake email messages were sent from one of the servers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency has launched probe in the matter. &nbsp;

The incident on Saturday morning was a part of an "ongoing situation", the government agency said. It provided no further details. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/star-dolphin-winter-of-dolphin-tale-fame-died-of-twisted-intestines-says-aquarium-429269" hreflang="en">Star dolphin Winter, of 'Dolphin Tale' fame, died of twisted intestines, says aquarium</a>

The messages were purported to be from the Department of Homeland Security of US. It claimed to be a warning about a supposed threat. The mail was titled, "Urgent: Threat actor in systems." &nbsp;

According to the non-profit anti-spam watchdog ‘Spamhaus’, recipients of the email were told that they were the target of a "sophisticated chain attack" from an extortion group, which was known as the Dark Overlord. &nbsp;

In a tweet, Spamhaus said, "They are causing a lot of disruption because the headers are real, they really are coming from FBI infrastructure." It added that they did not include names or contact information of the sender. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/how-the-us-hid-an-airstrike-that-killed-dozens-of-civilians-in-syria-429233" hreflang="en">How the US hid an airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Syria</a>

More than 100,000 emails were sent out as per US media reports. &nbsp;

In a statement, the FBI said on Saturday that it was "aware of the incident this morning involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account". &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Warning of a possible cyber-attack, thousands of fake email messages were sent from one of the servers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency has launched probe in the matter.

Warning of a possible cyber-attack, thousands of fake email messages were sent from one of the servers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency has launched probe in the matter. The incident on Saturday morning was a part of an "ongoing situation", the government agency said. It provided no further details. Also Read: Star dolphin Winter, of 'Dolphin Tale' fame, died of twisted intestines, says aquarium The messages were purported to be from the Department of Homeland Security of US. It claimed to be a warning about a supposed threat. The mail was titled, "Urgent: Threat actor in systems." According to the non-profit anti-spam watchdog ‘Spamhaus’, recipients of the email were told that they were the target of a "sophisticated chain attack" from an extortion group, which was known as the Dark Overlord. In a tweet, Spamhaus said, "They are causing a lot of disruption because the headers are real, they really are coming from FBI infrastructure." It added that they did not include names or contact information of the sender. Also Read: How the US hid an airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Syria More than 100,000 emails were sent out as per US media reports. In a statement, the FBI said on Saturday that it was "aware of the incident this morning involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account". (With inputs from agencies)

FBI probes fake emails sent from internal server over possible cyber-attack

According to reports, the FBI and other key law enforcement agencies failed to act on a host of tips and other information ahead of January 6 that signaled a potentially violent event might unfold that day at the US Capitol.

Reports: FBI did not pay heed to mounting warnings of Jan 6 Capitol Riots

New emails have revealed that US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden had tried to sell the refined analysis of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Rosemont Seneca, the company that tried to sell ''political and corporate risks, elite networks associated with Oleg Deripaska,'' is run by Christopher Heinz and Hunter Biden.

Hunter had sent an email to Alcoa's Vice President Daniel Cruise according to a report by 'The New York Post.'&nbsp;The asking price for phase one of the project was $25,000 while for a&nbsp;refined analysis it was $55,000.

Deripaska was of interest to Alcoa as he is the founder of Russian aluminum giant Rusal.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-hunter-bidens-business-links-with-china-330056/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Cruise's colleague Pei Chang had shown interest in ''the list of Russian elites connected to OD [Deripaska] that would not otherwise be on the Government Affairs team's radar, including various Russian Committee Heads, Union leaders or Ministers.''

The emails have emerged after the FBI raided Washington and New York City homes linked to Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire and a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/lifestyle/news-hunter-biden%E2%80%99s-memoir-7-takeaways-from-%E2%80%98beautiful-things%E2%80%99-374496">Also read |&nbsp;Hunter Biden’s memoir: 7 takeaways from ‘Beautiful Things’</a>

According to US Treasury Department, "There are allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman and had links to a Russian organised crime group."

Deripaska filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the Treasury Department, accusing it of illegally targeting him, but the suit was tossed out this year by a federal judge.

The suit claimed that Deripaska's net worth had dropped by $7.5 billion after the sanctions were imposed on him and six other Russian oligarchs by the Trump administration in April 2018.

Washington imposed sanctions on Deripaska, 53, and other influential Russians because of their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election which Moscow denies.

Deripaska once employed Manafort, who was convicted in 2018 of criminal charges arising from the US investigation into the alleged interference but was pardoned by then-president Trump in December.

(With inputs from agencies)

New emails have revealed that US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden had tried to sell the refined analysis of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Rosemont Seneca, the company that tried to sell ''political and corporate risks, elite networks associated with Oleg Deripaska,'' is run by Christopher Heinz and Hunter Biden.

New emails have revealed that US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden had tried to sell the refined analysis of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Rosemont Seneca, the company that tried to sell ''political and corporate risks, elite networks associated with Oleg Deripaska,'' is run by Christopher Heinz and Hunter Biden. Hunter had sent an email to Alcoa's Vice President Daniel Cruise according to a report by 'The New York Post.' The asking price for phase one of the project was $25,000 while for a refined analysis it was $55,000. Deripaska was of interest to Alcoa as he is the founder of Russian aluminum giant Rusal. Cruise's colleague Pei Chang had shown interest in ''the list of Russian elites connected to OD [Deripaska] that would not otherwise be on the Government Affairs team's radar, including various Russian Committee Heads, Union leaders or Ministers.'' The emails have emerged after the FBI raided Washington and New York City homes linked to Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire and a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Also read | Hunter Biden’s memoir: 7 takeaways from ‘Beautiful Things’ According to US Treasury Department, "There are allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman and had links to a Russian organised crime group." Deripaska filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the Treasury Department, accusing it of illegally targeting him, but the suit was tossed out this year by a federal judge. The suit claimed that Deripaska's net worth had dropped by $7.5 billion after the sanctions were imposed on him and six other Russian oligarchs by the Trump administration in April 2018. Washington imposed sanctions on Deripaska, 53, and other influential Russians because of their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election which Moscow denies. Deripaska once employed Manafort, who was convicted in 2018 of criminal charges arising from the US investigation into the alleged interference but was pardoned by then-president Trump in December. (With inputs from agencies)

Hunter Biden tried to sell refined analysis of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that they have found human remains in the wilderness of Florida while they were searching for Gabby Petito's fiance Brian Laundrie.

Laundrie was named a person of interest in her disappearance and has been missing ever since it was confirmed in Petito's autopsy report that she was killed by strangulation.&nbsp;

Both of them had gone on a road trip together. But after a few days, Laundrie returned alone while Petito had vanished and her family filed a missing report for her.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/fbi-issues-arrest-warrant-for-boyfriend-brian-laundrie-in-gabby-petito-case-415465">Also read |&nbsp;FBI issues arrest warrant for boyfriend Brian Laundrie in Gabby Petito case</a>

The FBI found ''what appeared to be human remains, along with personal items ... belonging to Brian Laundrie."

The investigators said that they "appear to have been there a while."

FBI special agent Michael McPherson said "Our evidence response team is on the scene using all available forensic resources to process the area," he said. "It's likely the team will be on scene for several days."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/fbi-confirms-gabby-petitos-death-by-homicide-amid-ongoing-search-for-fiance-414779">Also read |&nbsp;FBI confirms Gabby Petito's death by homicide amid ongoing search for fiance</a>

After the discovery, the FBI&nbsp;had called Sarasota County Medical Examiner's Office to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.

Petito's case had become an internet sensation as it became more and more enigmatic. The tabloid mystery gained traction as she was a blogger documented her ''van life'' with her partner and described it as a loving American couple on an adventure.

The 22-year-old posted her final photo to Instagram on August 25, the same day she last spoke to her mother by phone.

Utah police had stopped Petito and Laundrie after they received a phone call for a dispute on road.&nbsp;

Her remains were discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. She was last seen alive on August 26.

Laundrie had been indicted by a jury in Wyoming on a charge of fraudulently using Petito's bank debit card.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that they have found human remains in the wilderness of Florida while they were searching for Gabby Petito's fiance Brian Laundrie.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that they have found human remains in the wilderness of Florida while they were searching for Gabby Petito's fiance Brian Laundrie. Laundrie was named a person of interest in her disappearance and has been missing ever since it was confirmed in Petito's autopsy report that she was killed by strangulation. Both of them had gone on a road trip together. But after a few days, Laundrie returned alone while Petito had vanished and her family filed a missing report for her. Also read | FBI issues arrest warrant for boyfriend Brian Laundrie in Gabby Petito case The FBI found ''what appeared to be human remains, along with personal items ... belonging to Brian Laundrie." The investigators said that they "appear to have been there a while." FBI special agent Michael McPherson said "Our evidence response team is on the scene using all available forensic resources to process the area," he said. "It's likely the team will be on scene for several days." Also read | FBI confirms Gabby Petito's death by homicide amid ongoing search for fiance After the discovery, the FBI had called Sarasota County Medical Examiner's Office to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. Petito's case had become an internet sensation as it became more and more enigmatic. The tabloid mystery gained traction as she was a blogger documented her ''van life'' with her partner and described it as a loving American couple on an adventure. The 22-year-old posted her final photo to Instagram on August 25, the same day she last spoke to her mother by phone. Utah police had stopped Petito and Laundrie after they received a phone call for a dispute on road. Her remains were discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. She was last seen alive on August 26. Laundrie had been indicted by a jury in Wyoming on a charge of fraudulently using Petito's bank debit card.

FBI finds human remains in Florida amid search for Gabby Petito's fiance Brian Laundrie

For attempting to sell 'restricted data' on the design of nuclear-powered warships, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Maryland couple on Saturday, reported Justice Department. &nbsp;

According to the Department of Justice, 42-year-old Jonathan Toebbe, who is a nuclear engineer at the Department of the Navy and his 45-year-old wife, Diana, sold information to a person they believed was a representative for another nation for a year. The representative turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

The couple used to place&nbsp;an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at the “dead drop” location for the "representative" to recover.&nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/doha-talks-candid-taliban-to-be-judged-based-on-its-actions-us-419772" hreflang="en">Doha talks 'candid', Taliban to be judged based on its actions: US</a>

Attorney General Merrick B Garland, said, “The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation. The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.” &nbsp;

The Toebbes will be produced in a federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia on October 12, as per the DOJ. They have been charged with criminal offences under Atomic Energy Act. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-calling-homosexuality-filth-us-leader-faces-calls-for-resignation-419697" hreflang="en">After calling homosexuality 'filth', US leader faces calls for resignation</a>

In April 2020, Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to the undercover FBI agent containing a sample of "restricted data". The package also included instructions for establishing a covert relationship to purchase more information. Believing that FBI agent was a foreign representative, Toebbe began corresponding with him through encrypted email, reported the DOJ. &nbsp;

For several months, Toebbe continued correspondence and made an agreement to sell "restricted data" in exchange for money in cryptocurrency. &nbsp;

As a “good faith” payment, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe on June 8.&nbsp;The couple travelled to a location in West Virginia a couple of times to deliver an encrypted SD card in exchange of money.

The FBI arrested the couple on their third visit, the DOJ reported. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

For attempting to sell 'restricted data' on the design of nuclear-powered warships, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Maryland couple on Saturday, reported Justice Department.

For attempting to sell 'restricted data' on the design of nuclear-powered warships, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Maryland couple on Saturday, reported Justice Department. According to the Department of Justice, 42-year-old Jonathan Toebbe, who is a nuclear engineer at the Department of the Navy and his 45-year-old wife, Diana, sold information to a person they believed was a representative for another nation for a year. The representative turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. The couple used to place an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at the “dead drop” location for the "representative" to recover. Also Read | Doha talks 'candid', Taliban to be judged based on its actions: US Attorney General Merrick B Garland, said, “The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation. The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.” The Toebbes will be produced in a federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia on October 12, as per the DOJ. They have been charged with criminal offences under Atomic Energy Act. Also Read: After calling homosexuality 'filth', US leader faces calls for resignation In April 2020, Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to the undercover FBI agent containing a sample of "restricted data". The package also included instructions for establishing a covert relationship to purchase more information. Believing that FBI agent was a foreign representative, Toebbe began corresponding with him through encrypted email, reported the DOJ. For several months, Toebbe continued correspondence and made an agreement to sell "restricted data" in exchange for money in cryptocurrency. As a “good faith” payment, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe on June 8. The couple travelled to a location in West Virginia a couple of times to deliver an encrypted SD card in exchange of money. The FBI arrested the couple on their third visit, the DOJ reported. (With inputs from agencies)

FBI arrests Navy engineer, wife for selling restricted nuke info in peanut butter sandwich in US

According to reports, the US government has allegedly issued warrants for&nbsp;search giant Google to provide data on people typing specific search terms.

A Forbes report said the FBI is issuing "keyword warrants" asking Google to provide data amid fears that innocent users may get caught.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/deeply-illogical-zuckerberg-hits-out-at-facebook-whistleblower-418514">Also Read:&nbsp; Zuckerberg hits out at Facebook whistleblower</a>

It is however unclear how many such warrants have been issued and just how much data authorities reportedly have already.

Google has reportedly defended its move asserting that it carries&nbsp;out a "rigorous process" and protects the privacy of users while supporting law enforcement officials.

The report comes amid a row over Facebook's privacy policies after a whistleblower claimed the social media giant should be regulated since its harms children and puts profits over public safety.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/critics-warn-of-apple-google-chokepoint-repression-413904">Also Read:&nbsp;Critics warn of Apple, Google 'chokepoint' repression</a>

Facebook's ex-employee Frances Haugen told US lawmakers that Facebook stokes "division and weakens our democracy" as she urged the US Congress&nbsp;to take action.

However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the allegations as "deeply illogical" saying: &nbsp;"I don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-lawmakers-grill-facebook-over-teen-mental-health-417319">Also Read:&nbsp;US lawmakers grill Facebook over teen mental health</a>

US lawmakers have been threatening for years to regulate social media companies.&nbsp;Senator Ed Markey said Mark "Zuckerberg's time of invading privacy was over" after&nbsp;Haugen's testimony.

Senator Amy Klobuchar added that Haugen testimony&nbsp;was a "catalyst for action" even as Zuckerberg defended the company.

According to reports, the US government has allegedly issued warrants for search giant Google to provide data on people typing specific search terms. A Forbes report said the FBI is issuing "keyword warrants" asking Google to provide data amid fears that innocent users may get caught.

According to reports, the US government has allegedly issued warrants for search giant Google to provide data on people typing specific search terms. A Forbes report said the FBI is issuing "keyword warrants" asking Google to provide data amid fears that innocent users may get caught. Also Read: Zuckerberg hits out at Facebook whistleblower It is however unclear how many such warrants have been issued and just how much data authorities reportedly have already. Google has reportedly defended its move asserting that it carries out a "rigorous process" and protects the privacy of users while supporting law enforcement officials. The report comes amid a row over Facebook's privacy policies after a whistleblower claimed the social media giant should be regulated since its harms children and puts profits over public safety. Also Read: Critics warn of Apple, Google 'chokepoint' repression Facebook's ex-employee Frances Haugen told US lawmakers that Facebook stokes "division and weakens our democracy" as she urged the US Congress to take action. However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the allegations as "deeply illogical" saying: "I don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed." Also Read: US lawmakers grill Facebook over teen mental health US lawmakers have been threatening for years to regulate social media companies. Senator Ed Markey said Mark "Zuckerberg's time of invading privacy was over" after Haugen's testimony. Senator Amy Klobuchar added that Haugen testimony was a "catalyst for action" even as Zuckerberg defended the company.

US government orders Google to track people searching specific names: Report

Federal investigators Tuesday morning raided the Manhattan office of one of New York City’s main police unions in connection with an ongoing investigation, according to two people with the knowledge of the matter.

The union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, represents about 13,000 active and retired police sergeants in New York. Its headquarters were searched as part of an investigation by the FBI and the public corruption unit in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, the people said.

Investigators also executed a search warrant at the Long Island home of the union’s president, Edward D. Mullins, a person with knowledge of the operation said.

While the precise focus and scope of the investigation could not immediately be determined, the search of Mullins’ home suggests that the inquiry is at least in some measure focused on him.

An FBI spokesman said only that agents “were conducting a law enforcement operation pursuant to an ongoing investigation” at the union’s offices in Lower Manhattan.

At least four federal agents were inside the union’s headquarters around noon Tuesday. The investigators lowered dark wooden blinds and placed pieces of cardboard inside four windows to prevent the public from gazing inside.

Mullins, who has run the union since 2002, could not immediately be reached for comment. The sergeants’ union, which says it is the fifth-largest police union in the country, did not immediately respond to questions about the raid, which was reported earlier by The New York Daily News.

Mullins, long an outspoken figure, has become known in recent years for making brash and incendiary remarks on social media, particularly against Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mullins recently faced internal discipline charges over his behavior on Twitter, including for sharing a police report documenting the arrest of de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, during protests in New York.

The Police Department does not typically release internal reports, and the one that Mullins shared contained personal information about Chiara de Blasio.

Bill de Blasio declined to comment on the raid at a news conference Tuesday, saying he did not know any details, but he said that Mullins had long been a “divisive voice” whose behavior had been “destructive.”

Mullins also faces internal discipline over tweets in which he used profane language against Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the former city health commissioner, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman who represents the Bronx.

Torres, who has called for Mullins’ resignation over what he has described as racist, misogynistic and homophobic remarks, tweeted Tuesday that Mullins had received a “first-class raid” from the FBI.

Mullins has also drawn scrutiny for his outspoken right-wing politics in a city where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans. Both the sergeants’ union and its larger sister union, the Police Benevolent Association, have been run mostly by conservatives whose views are not representative of the metropolis they police.

Mullins has praised former President Donald Trump, a Republican who was deeply unpopular among city residents. He also came under fire from liberal lawmakers after giving an interview to Fox News surrounded by paraphernalia linked to QAnon, a fringe conspiracy theory backed largely by Trump supporters.

Federal investigators Tuesday morning raided the Manhattan office of one of New York City’s main police unions in connection with an ongoing investigation, according to two people with the knowledge of the matter.

Federal investigators Tuesday morning raided the Manhattan office of one of New York City’s main police unions in connection with an ongoing investigation, according to two people with the knowledge of the matter. The union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, represents about 13,000 active and retired police sergeants in New York. Its headquarters were searched as part of an investigation by the FBI and the public corruption unit in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, the people said. Investigators also executed a search warrant at the Long Island home of the union’s president, Edward D. Mullins, a person with knowledge of the operation said. While the precise focus and scope of the investigation could not immediately be determined, the search of Mullins’ home suggests that the inquiry is at least in some measure focused on him. An FBI spokesman said only that agents “were conducting a law enforcement operation pursuant to an ongoing investigation” at the union’s offices in Lower Manhattan. At least four federal agents were inside the union’s headquarters around noon Tuesday. The investigators lowered dark wooden blinds and placed pieces of cardboard inside four windows to prevent the public from gazing inside. Mullins, who has run the union since 2002, could not immediately be reached for comment. The sergeants’ union, which says it is the fifth-largest police union in the country, did not immediately respond to questions about the raid, which was reported earlier by The New York Daily News. Mullins, long an outspoken figure, has become known in recent years for making brash and incendiary remarks on social media, particularly against Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mullins recently faced internal discipline charges over his behavior on Twitter, including for sharing a police report documenting the arrest of de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, during protests in New York. The Police Department does not typically release internal reports, and the one that Mullins shared contained personal information about Chiara de Blasio. Bill de Blasio declined to comment on the raid at a news conference Tuesday, saying he did not know any details, but he said that Mullins had long been a “divisive voice” whose behavior had been “destructive.” Mullins also faces internal discipline over tweets in which he used profane language against Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the former city health commissioner, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman who represents the Bronx. Torres, who has called for Mullins’ resignation over what he has described as racist, misogynistic and homophobic remarks, tweeted Tuesday that Mullins had received a “first-class raid” from the FBI. Mullins has also drawn scrutiny for his outspoken right-wing politics in a city where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans. Both the sergeants’ union and its larger sister union, the Police Benevolent Association, have been run mostly by conservatives whose views are not representative of the metropolis they police. Mullins has praised former President Donald Trump, a Republican who was deeply unpopular among city residents. He also came under fire from liberal lawmakers after giving an interview to Fox News surrounded by paraphernalia linked to QAnon, a fringe conspiracy theory backed largely by Trump supporters.

FBI raids headquarters of New York Sergeants’ Union 

The FBI has issued a federal arrest warrant for Gabby Petito's boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, for his "use of unauthorised devices" following her death. The indictment says that Brian used a debit card and PIN number for accounts that did not belong to him between 30 August and 1 September.

The FBI has issued a federal arrest warrant for Gabby Petito's boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, for his "use of unauthorised devices" following her death. The indictment says that Brian used a debit card and PIN number for accounts that did not belong to him between 30 August and 1 September. Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman from Florida, was travelling along with her fiance Brian Laundrie but was reported missing on September 11 after he returned alone from the trip and refused to answer questions about her. He did not contact her family or the police when he returned on September 1. Brian was visiting Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming with Petito. The police are searching for him after the FBI found human remains ''consistent'' with Petito's description. Also read | FBI confirms Gabby Petito's death by homicide amid ongoing search for fiance The FBI later said a county coroner had confirmed that Petito's cause of death was a homicide and have labelled him a ''person of interest.'' According to bodycam footage released by the Utah police, Petito had filed a report about a domestic violence incident and had complained about her mental health. Laundrie had claimed that she had struck him during an argument. However, he did not file any charges. The case has been in the headlines in the past couple of days and has captivated the attention of internet sleuths on several social media platforms. A Tiktok campaign is trending with the hashtag Gabby Petito on Tiktok with over 650 million views.

FBI issues arrest warrant for boyfriend Brian Laundrie in Gabby Petito case

After confirming the human remains found near the Wyoming border belong to Gabby Petito, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking public's help in finding Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie. The agency has determined that Petito died by homicide. &nbsp;

Watch:&nbsp;

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The agency is looking for information from anyone, who may have come in contact with Laundrie or Petito, or who visited the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest from August 27 to 30 or may have seen their vehicle. &nbsp;

In some TikTok videos, a woman Miranda Baker seems to have been claiming that she and her boyfriend gave lift to Laundrie on August 29 in Wyoming. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/fbi-confirms-gabby-petitos-death-by-homicide-amid-ongoing-search-for-fiance-414779" hreflang="en">FBI confirms Gabby Petito's death by homicide amid ongoing search for fiance</a>

The couple also said that he claimed he was camping all by himself for some days while Petito was back at their van working on social media posts. &nbsp;

According to the Baker, the couple came in contact with Laundrie when he was hitchhiking in Colter Bay, Wyoming. It is not far from where remains of Petito were found. Laundrie also seems to have offered to pay $200 for the ride, said Baker. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/fbi-florida-police-on-hunt-for-gabby-petitos-fiance-after-family-says-he-is-missing-414057" hreflang="en">FBI, Florida police on hunt for Gabby Petito’s fiancé after family says he is ‘missing’</a>

In a statement obtained by CNN’s affiliate KSL, the Petito family attorney Richard Benson Stafford said, the family needs time to grieve, and they will release a statement "when Gabby is home." &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

After confirming the human remains found near the Wyoming border belong to Gabby Petito, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking public's help in finding Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie.

After confirming the human remains found near the Wyoming border belong to Gabby Petito, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking public's help in finding Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie. The agency has determined that Petito died by homicide. Watch: × The agency is looking for information from anyone, who may have come in contact with Laundrie or Petito, or who visited the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest from August 27 to 30 or may have seen their vehicle. In some TikTok videos, a woman Miranda Baker seems to have been claiming that she and her boyfriend gave lift to Laundrie on August 29 in Wyoming. Also Read: FBI confirms Gabby Petito's death by homicide amid ongoing search for fiance The couple also said that he claimed he was camping all by himself for some days while Petito was back at their van working on social media posts. According to the Baker, the couple came in contact with Laundrie when he was hitchhiking in Colter Bay, Wyoming. It is not far from where remains of Petito were found. Laundrie also seems to have offered to pay $200 for the ride, said Baker. Also Read: FBI, Florida police on hunt for Gabby Petito’s fiancé after family says he is ‘missing’ In a statement obtained by CNN’s affiliate KSL, the Petito family attorney Richard Benson Stafford said, the family needs time to grieve, and they will release a statement "when Gabby is home." (With inputs from agencies)

After new revelations, FBI seeks public's help in looking for Petito's fiancé

Florida police and the FBI are searching for the fiancé of the missing woman, Gabby Petito, after his family told the officials that they had not seen him in three days, further deepening the mystery surrounding the 22-year-old woman.

Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie had been on a “van life” trip across the south-western US, living in their vehicle.

The case has been drawing attention across the US, partly due to Petito’s large following on Instagram. Her last post was dated August 25.

Petito’s family reported her missing on September 11, 10 days after Laundrie returned to Florida without her.

“The attorney for the Laundrie family called FBI investigators Friday night indicating the family would like to talk about the disappearance of their son. The family now claims that they have not seen Brian since Tuesday of this week,” Josh Taylor of the North Port Police Department said in a statement.

On Saturday, police searched a vast wildlife reserve near the Gulf coast for Laundrie, who they said was a person of interest in the case but was not wanted for any crime.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/gabby-petito-mystery-deepens-as-us-girl-22-goes-missing-on-a-road-trip-with-fiance-413698">Gabby Petito: Mystery deepens as US girl, 22, goes missing on a road trip with fiancé</a>

Dozens of North Port police officers, FBI agents and members of other law enforcement agencies searched the 24,000-acre Carlton reserve in the Sarasota area.

“His family says they believe he entered the area earlier this week,” North Port police tweeted.

Police said Laundrie’s family told officers they had not seen him since Tuesday, but had not told authorities he was missing for three days.

The conversation on Friday evening, police said, was the first time they had spoken to Laundrie’s family in detail, and came at the family’s request.

An attorney for the family called FBI investigators and said they wanted to talk, police said.

In a separate statement, police said the investigation was now a “multiple missing persons” case, they said.

(With inputs from agencies)

Florida police and the FBI are searching for the fiancé of the missing woman, Gabby Petito, after his family told the officials that they had not seen him in three days, further deepening the mystery surrounding the 22-year-old woman.

Florida police and the FBI are searching for the fiancé of the missing woman, Gabby Petito, after his family told the officials that they had not seen him in three days, further deepening the mystery surrounding the 22-year-old woman. Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie had been on a “van life” trip across the south-western US, living in their vehicle. The case has been drawing attention across the US, partly due to Petito’s large following on Instagram. Her last post was dated August 25. Petito’s family reported her missing on September 11, 10 days after Laundrie returned to Florida without her. “The attorney for the Laundrie family called FBI investigators Friday night indicating the family would like to talk about the disappearance of their son. The family now claims that they have not seen Brian since Tuesday of this week,” Josh Taylor of the North Port Police Department said in a statement. On Saturday, police searched a vast wildlife reserve near the Gulf coast for Laundrie, who they said was a person of interest in the case but was not wanted for any crime. Also read | Gabby Petito: Mystery deepens as US girl, 22, goes missing on a road trip with fiancé Dozens of North Port police officers, FBI agents and members of other law enforcement agencies searched the 24,000-acre Carlton reserve in the Sarasota area. “His family says they believe he entered the area earlier this week,” North Port police tweeted. Police said Laundrie’s family told officers they had not seen him since Tuesday, but had not told authorities he was missing for three days. The conversation on Friday evening, police said, was the first time they had spoken to Laundrie’s family in detail, and came at the family’s request. An attorney for the family called FBI investigators and said they wanted to talk, police said. In a separate statement, police said the investigation was now a “multiple missing persons” case, they said. (With inputs from agencies)

FBI, Florida police on hunt for Gabby Petito’s fiancé after family says he is ‘missing’

Four elite American gymnasts testified about the abuse they had suffered by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and their feelings of betrayal by investigators, including from the FBI which they say let them down.

US: Gymnasts blast FBI, Olympic committee for mishandling Nassar investigation

FBI Director Christopher Wray and several elite gymnasts, including Simone Biles, were testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday on the agency’s botched handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case, the first public questioning of the failure to properly investigate one of the biggest sexual abuse cases in U.S. history.

McKayla Maroney, a former Olympic gymnast, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she spent hours telling FBI agents how Nassar had repeatedly sexually abused her, only to have them misrepresent her statements later.

“Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” Maroney testified. She said she was 15 when she spoke to agents. “They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.”

The hearing comes days after the FBI fired one agent who initially worked on the case investigating Nassar, the former national gymnastics team doctor who ultimately was convicted on state charges of abusing scores of gymnasts, including Olympians, under the guise of physical exams.

And it comes two months after the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report that sharply criticized the FBI for making crucial errors in the matter. Those errors allowed Nassar to continue treating patients for eight months at Michigan State University, where he practiced, and in and around Lansing, Michigan, including at a local gymnastics center and a high school.

Nassar, who is serving what amounts to life in prison for sexual misconduct, was able to molest more than 70 girls and women while the FBI failed to act, the inspector general’s report said.

Two FBI agents initially assigned to the case no longer work for the agency. Michael Langeman, a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Indianapolis office, was fired in the days leading up to Wednesday’s hearing, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Those people did not want their names published because they do not have the authority to speak about the case. The Washington Post was the first to publish news of Langeman’s firing.

Langeman, who was not immediately available for comment, was not named in the inspector general report, but his actions as the special supervisory agent, and his multiple crucial missteps, were described in detail. The report said Langeman should have known that Nassar’s abuse was probably widespread, yet he did not investigate the case with any urgency.

Langeman interviewed just one of the three elite gymnasts who gave USA Gymnastics details of Nassar’s abuse and did not properly document that interview or open an investigation. In an interview report Langeman filed with the FBI 17 months after he spoke to that gymnast — Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, who was not named in the report — he included statements she did not make, according to the report.

Like other agents initially involved in the case, Langeman also did not alert local or state officials of Nassar’s alleged abuse, violating FBI policy that states that crimes against children “invariably require a broad, multijurisdictional, and multidisciplinary approach.”

Langeman later said he had filed an initial report about Nassar, asking for the case to be transferred to the Lansing office because that’s where Nassar was based at Michigan State. But the paperwork wasn’t found in the FBI database, the inspector general’s report said.

W. Jay Abbott, a special agent in the FBI’s Indianapolis office, also is no longer with the FBI, after retiring in 2018. The report said he made false statements to Justice Department investigators and also “violated FBI policy and exercised extremely poor judgment under federal ethics rules.” According to the report, he had been angling for a job with the United States Olympic &amp; Paralympic Committee and discussed it with then-President of USA Gymnastics Steve Penny. Abbott applied for the job with the USOPC but didn’t get the position — yet told Justice Department investigators that he never applied.

Hundreds of girls and women who were abused by Nassar have been waiting to hear from the FBI about the mistakes in the case. Biles, the Olympic gold medalist, has been vocal about wanting to know “who knew what, and when” about Nassar. She won a silver medal and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games after dropping out of the team competition because of a mental health issue.

Biles was testifying alongside former teammates Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who is known as “Athlete A” in the Nassar case because she was the first elite gymnast to report the abuse to USA Gymnastics. That was in July 2015. The Lansing office of the FBI opened its official investigation into Nassar in October 2016.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and several elite gymnasts, including Simone Biles, were testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday on the agency’s botched handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case, the first public questioning of the failure to properly investigate one of the biggest sexual abuse cases in U.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and several elite gymnasts, including Simone Biles, were testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday on the agency’s botched handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case, the first public questioning of the failure to properly investigate one of the biggest sexual abuse cases in U.S. history. McKayla Maroney, a former Olympic gymnast, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she spent hours telling FBI agents how Nassar had repeatedly sexually abused her, only to have them misrepresent her statements later. “Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” Maroney testified. She said she was 15 when she spoke to agents. “They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.” The hearing comes days after the FBI fired one agent who initially worked on the case investigating Nassar, the former national gymnastics team doctor who ultimately was convicted on state charges of abusing scores of gymnasts, including Olympians, under the guise of physical exams. And it comes two months after the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report that sharply criticized the FBI for making crucial errors in the matter. Those errors allowed Nassar to continue treating patients for eight months at Michigan State University, where he practiced, and in and around Lansing, Michigan, including at a local gymnastics center and a high school. Nassar, who is serving what amounts to life in prison for sexual misconduct, was able to molest more than 70 girls and women while the FBI failed to act, the inspector general’s report said. Two FBI agents initially assigned to the case no longer work for the agency. Michael Langeman, a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Indianapolis office, was fired in the days leading up to Wednesday’s hearing, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Those people did not want their names published because they do not have the authority to speak about the case. The Washington Post was the first to publish news of Langeman’s firing. Langeman, who was not immediately available for comment, was not named in the inspector general report, but his actions as the special supervisory agent, and his multiple crucial missteps, were described in detail. The report said Langeman should have known that Nassar’s abuse was probably widespread, yet he did not investigate the case with any urgency. Langeman interviewed just one of the three elite gymnasts who gave USA Gymnastics details of Nassar’s abuse and did not properly document that interview or open an investigation. In an interview report Langeman filed with the FBI 17 months after he spoke to that gymnast — Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, who was not named in the report — he included statements she did not make, according to the report. Like other agents initially involved in the case, Langeman also did not alert local or state officials of Nassar’s alleged abuse, violating FBI policy that states that crimes against children “invariably require a broad, multijurisdictional, and multidisciplinary approach.” Langeman later said he had filed an initial report about Nassar, asking for the case to be transferred to the Lansing office because that’s where Nassar was based at Michigan State. But the paperwork wasn’t found in the FBI database, the inspector general’s report said. W. Jay Abbott, a special agent in the FBI’s Indianapolis office, also is no longer with the FBI, after retiring in 2018. The report said he made false statements to Justice Department investigators and also “violated FBI policy and exercised extremely poor judgment under federal ethics rules.” According to the report, he had been angling for a job with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and discussed it with then-President of USA Gymnastics Steve Penny. Abbott applied for the job with the USOPC but didn’t get the position — yet told Justice Department investigators that he never applied. Hundreds of girls and women who were abused by Nassar have been waiting to hear from the FBI about the mistakes in the case. Biles, the Olympic gold medalist, has been vocal about wanting to know “who knew what, and when” about Nassar. She won a silver medal and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games after dropping out of the team competition because of a mental health issue. Biles was testifying alongside former teammates Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who is known as “Athlete A” in the Nassar case because she was the first elite gymnast to report the abuse to USA Gymnastics. That was in July 2015. The Lansing office of the FBI opened its official investigation into Nassar in October 2016.

Biles and teammates testify on FBI’s handling of abuse case

Taliban on Tuesday announced its government which included several listed individuals in the terrorist list.

Those&nbsp;listed in the terrorist list&nbsp;included Afghanistan's interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil Haqqani who was named minister of refugees. The Haqqani Network was categorised as a terrorist group by the United States.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is one of the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/we-will-judge-taliban-by-its-actions-says-us-on-new-government-411468">FBI's</a> most wanted men due to his links in suicide attacks and Al Qaeda ties. Abdul Ghani Baradar was named the Taliban government's new deputy of state.

Watch:

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Baradar was earlier arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010 and had become the head of the Taliban's political office in Doha after his release in 2018 as he spearheaded the talks with the US government with the former Trump administration.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/paying-homage-to-old-guard-taliban-name-caretaker-afghanistan-cabinet-411402">Also Read:&nbsp;Paying homage to old guard, Taliban name caretaker Afghanistan cabinet</a>

Muhammad Hassan Akhund was named the head of state, he was earlier blacklisted by the UN.&nbsp;At least five of the newly appointed members are on the UN-designated list of terrorists. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is on the &nbsp;UN-sanctioned list.

Abdul Salam Hanafi was&nbsp;also named the deputy head of state. He&nbsp;is the second deputy prime minister after Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, is the son of Taliban's founder Mullah Omar, was named the defence minister.&nbsp;

Haibatullah Akhundzada is a hardline cleric whose son was a suicide bomber. Akhundzada was an early member. He had served as the chief of the Taliban's justice system. In 2001, in the wake of the US invasion of Afghanistan and the ouster of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks, Akhundzada had reportedly fled to Pakistan where he taught and preached at a mosque for 15 years.

Sirajuddin Haqqani was wanted by the US in connection with a deadly 2008 attack on a Kabul hotel. Mullah Hasan Akhund, an ethnic Pashtun from the southern Afghan province of Kandahar has been named as prime minister.

Akhund like many in the Taliban leadership derives much of his prestige from his close link to the movement's late founder Mullah Omar. Akhund is long time chief of the Taliban's powerful decision-making body Rehbari Shura. He was the foreign minister and then deputy prime minister when the Taliban were last in power and like many of the incoming cabinet&nbsp;is under UN sanctions.

Akhund is believed to be at least in his mid-60s and possibly older. &nbsp;Khairallah Khairkhawa was named the minister for information and culture and Amir Muttaqi will be the new foreign affairs minister.

Din Muhammad Hanif was named the minister for economic affairs. Noor Muhammad Saqib has been named the minister of Hajj affairs and Mullah Fazil Mazloom, the deputy defence minister. Noorullah Nuri was named the minister for borders and tribal affairs

Abdul Haq Wasiq is the new intelligence chief and Abdul Latif Mansoor was named the minister for water and power.

Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai was named the deputy foreign minister. Essa Akhund who was earlier the minister for water and power holds the same portfolio in the government. Najibullah Haqqani was named the minister for communications 
and Rehmatullah Najeeb was named as the deputy intelligence chief.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Taliban on Tuesday announced its government which included several listed individuals in the terrorist list. Those listed in the terrorist list included Afghanistan's interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil Haqqani who was named minister of refugees.

Taliban on Tuesday announced its government which included several listed individuals in the terrorist list. Those listed in the terrorist list included Afghanistan's interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil Haqqani who was named minister of refugees. The Haqqani Network was categorised as a terrorist group by the United States. Sirajuddin Haqqani is one of the FBI's most wanted men due to his links in suicide attacks and Al Qaeda ties. Abdul Ghani Baradar was named the Taliban government's new deputy of state. Watch: Baradar was earlier arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010 and had become the head of the Taliban's political office in Doha after his release in 2018 as he spearheaded the talks with the US government with the former Trump administration. Also Read: Paying homage to old guard, Taliban name caretaker Afghanistan cabinet Muhammad Hassan Akhund was named the head of state, he was earlier blacklisted by the UN. At least five of the newly appointed members are on the UN-designated list of terrorists. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is on the UN-sanctioned list. Abdul Salam Hanafi was also named the deputy head of state. He is the second deputy prime minister after Abdul Ghani Baradar. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, is the son of Taliban's founder Mullah Omar, was named the defence minister. Haibatullah Akhundzada is a hardline cleric whose son was a suicide bomber. Akhundzada was an early member. He had served as the chief of the Taliban's justice system. In 2001, in the wake of the US invasion of Afghanistan and the ouster of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks, Akhundzada had reportedly fled to Pakistan where he taught and preached at a mosque for 15 years. Sirajuddin Haqqani was wanted by the US in connection with a deadly 2008 attack on a Kabul hotel. Mullah Hasan Akhund, an ethnic Pashtun from the southern Afghan province of Kandahar has been named as prime minister. Akhund like many in the Taliban leadership derives much of his prestige from his close link to the movement's late founder Mullah Omar. Akhund is long time chief of the Taliban's powerful decision-making body Rehbari Shura. He was the foreign minister and then deputy prime minister when the Taliban were last in power and like many of the incoming cabinet is under UN sanctions. Akhund is believed to be at least in his mid-60s and possibly older. Khairallah Khairkhawa was named the minister for information and culture and Amir Muttaqi will be the new foreign affairs minister. Din Muhammad Hanif was named the minister for economic affairs. Noor Muhammad Saqib has been named the minister of Hajj affairs and Mullah Fazil Mazloom, the deputy defence minister. Noorullah Nuri was named the minister for borders and tribal affairs Abdul Haq Wasiq is the new intelligence chief and Abdul Latif Mansoor was named the minister for water and power. Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai was named the deputy foreign minister. Essa Akhund who was earlier the minister for water and power holds the same portfolio in the government. Najibullah Haqqani was named the minister for communications and Rehmatullah Najeeb was named as the deputy intelligence chief. (With inputs from Agencies)

Taliban government: Sirajuddin Haqqani on FBI wanted list, other key members on UN blacklist

After consultations with partners on how to show a united front to the hardline new administration in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned that the Taliban would have to earn legitimacy from the rest of the world.&nbsp;

"The Taliban seek international legitimacy. Any legitimacy — any support — will have to be earned, " Blinken told reporters at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany, after leading a 20-nation ministerial meeting on the Afghan crisis.

Standing beside him, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the international community expected the Taliban to respect human rights, especially women's rights, to allow humanitarian supplies into the country, and to let individuals who wanted to leave to do so.

Maas stated that the talks on Wednesday were "the beginning point for international coordination" in dealing with the Taliban.

The virtual summit was attended by European allies as well as Pakistan, a long-time Taliban supporter.

Initial reactions showed that the new administration could have trouble gaining the international support that the new authorities so sorely need to prevent a financial crisis.

The interior minister is Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the FBI for questioning.

The declaration came just hours after the Taliban shot their weapons into the air to disperse protestors in Kabul's capital and arrested several journalists, marking the second time in less than a week that harsh measures were employed to disperse a demonstration.&nbsp;

The US State Department expressed concern that the Cabinet consisted solely of Taliban, no women, and individuals with a questionable track record, but stated that the new administration's actions would be judged.

Maas stated that Germany is prepared to provide humanitarian aid through the United Nations and that it will continue to communicate with the Taliban in order to guarantee the departure of former employees and others from Afghanistan.

He went on to say that any commitment beyond that would be contingent on the Taliban's actions.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

After consultations with partners on how to show a united front to the hardline new administration in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned that the Taliban would have to earn legitimacy from the rest of the world.

After consultations with partners on how to show a united front to the hardline new administration in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned that the Taliban would have to earn legitimacy from the rest of the world. "The Taliban seek international legitimacy. Any legitimacy — any support — will have to be earned, " Blinken told reporters at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany, after leading a 20-nation ministerial meeting on the Afghan crisis. Standing beside him, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the international community expected the Taliban to respect human rights, especially women's rights, to allow humanitarian supplies into the country, and to let individuals who wanted to leave to do so. Maas stated that the talks on Wednesday were "the beginning point for international coordination" in dealing with the Taliban. The virtual summit was attended by European allies as well as Pakistan, a long-time Taliban supporter. Initial reactions showed that the new administration could have trouble gaining the international support that the new authorities so sorely need to prevent a financial crisis. The interior minister is Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the FBI for questioning. The declaration came just hours after the Taliban shot their weapons into the air to disperse protestors in Kabul's capital and arrested several journalists, marking the second time in less than a week that harsh measures were employed to disperse a demonstration. The US State Department expressed concern that the Cabinet consisted solely of Taliban, no women, and individuals with a questionable track record, but stated that the new administration's actions would be judged. Maas stated that Germany is prepared to provide humanitarian aid through the United Nations and that it will continue to communicate with the Taliban in order to guarantee the departure of former employees and others from Afghanistan. He went on to say that any commitment beyond that would be contingent on the Taliban's actions. (With inputs from agencies)

Any legitimacy, any support 'will have to be earned': Blinken to Taliban

Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir, the Taliban government's Minister of Education, has declared that PhD and master's degrees are not useful because mullahs do not have them, even though they are "the greatest of all."

A video of Afghanistan's Education Minister is now being widely shared on Twitter, wherein he is seen talking of education policy and of master's degrees and PhD.

"No PhD degree, master's degree is valuable today. You see that the Mullahs and Taliban that are in power, have no PhD, MA, or even a high school degree, but are the greatest of all, " Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir is heard saying in the video. The remarks, as expected, drew huge criticism. 
&nbsp;

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This is the Minister of Higher Education of the Taliban -- says No Phd degree, master's degree is valuable today. You see that the Mullahs &amp; Taliban that are in the power, have no Phd, MA or even a high school degree, but are the greatest of all. <a href="https://t.co/gr3UqOCX1b">pic.twitter.com/gr3UqOCX1b</a>
— Said Sulaiman Ashna (@sashna111) <a href="https://twitter.com/sashna111/status/1435300979352739842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/taliban-government-lists-agenda-on-sharia-law-media-quality-foreign-policy-411556">Also read: Taliban government lists agenda on Sharia law, media quality &amp; foreign policy</a>

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced a hardline interim government led by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, with high-profile Taliban members sharing crucial posts, including the interior minister, who is a specially designated global terrorist of the dangerous Haqqani Network. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/taliban-government-sirajuddin-haqqani-on-fbi-wanted-list-other-key-members-on-un-blacklist-411531">Also read | Taliban government: Sirajuddin Haqqani on FBI wanted list, other key members on UN blacklist</a> 
 
Mullah Hasan, the head of the Taliban's influential decision-making body, the 'Rehbari Shura,' will serve as Acting Prime Minister, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as his deputy in the "new Islamic government," according to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.&nbsp; 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/taliban-fighter-points-gun-at-afghan-woman-protesting-against-non-inclusive-government-411547">In Pics: Taliban fighter points gun at Afghan woman protesting against non-inclusive government</a>

Meanwhile, since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, female and male university students have been divided in a class by curtains.

As institutions around the country started classes following the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of US troops, photos of students being segregated emerged.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir, the Taliban government's Minister of Education, has declared that PhD and master's degrees are not useful because mullahs do not have them, even though they are "the greatest of all.

Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir, the Taliban government's Minister of Education, has declared that PhD and master's degrees are not useful because mullahs do not have them, even though they are "the greatest of all." A video of Afghanistan's Education Minister is now being widely shared on Twitter, wherein he is seen talking of education policy and of master's degrees and PhD. "No PhD degree, master's degree is valuable today. You see that the Mullahs and Taliban that are in power, have no PhD, MA, or even a high school degree, but are the greatest of all, " Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir is heard saying in the video. The remarks, as expected, drew huge criticism. This is the Minister of Higher Education of the Taliban -- says No Phd degree, master's degree is valuable today. You see that the Mullahs & Taliban that are in the power, have no Phd, MA or even a high school degree, but are the greatest of all. pic.twitter.com/gr3UqOCX1b — Said Sulaiman Ashna (@sashna111) September 7, 2021 × Also read: Taliban government lists agenda on Sharia law, media quality & foreign policy On Tuesday, the Taliban announced a hardline interim government led by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, with high-profile Taliban members sharing crucial posts, including the interior minister, who is a specially designated global terrorist of the dangerous Haqqani Network. Also read | Taliban government: Sirajuddin Haqqani on FBI wanted list, other key members on UN blacklist Mullah Hasan, the head of the Taliban's influential decision-making body, the 'Rehbari Shura,' will serve as Acting Prime Minister, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as his deputy in the "new Islamic government," according to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. In Pics: Taliban fighter points gun at Afghan woman protesting against non-inclusive government Meanwhile, since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, female and male university students have been divided in a class by curtains. As institutions around the country started classes following the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of US troops, photos of students being segregated emerged. (With inputs from agencies)

Watch | Taliban Education Minister says PhD and Master's degrees worthless, mullahs greatest without them

In 2020, hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level in more than a decade, largely driven by a spike in assaults against people of Asian and African heritage, an FBI report has stated.

According to the annual report released on Monday, more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the country identified 7,759 hate crimes in 2020, a 6 per cent rise than 2019—the highest tally since 2008.

In a year that saw huge Black Lives Matter protests highlighting problems of racism in the country, reports of hate crimes against Black Americans rose 40 per cent, from 1,972 in the year 2019 to 2,755 in the year 2020, the data showed.

Meanwhile, attacks against Asian Americans surged 70 per cent with 274 incidents in 2020 against 161 in 2019—a trend that has been linked to the rhetoric that blames Asian people for the spread of Covid-19.

Of the 7,426 hate crime offences classified as crimes against people, as opposed to crimes against property, 53.4 per cent were for intimidation, 27.6 per cent were for simple assault and 18.1 per cent were for aggravated assault. Twenty-two murders and 19 rapes were reported as hate crimes.

While crimes against black Americans did not see as large a spike from 2019, there were 2,755 reported incidents, making African Americans the largest victim category.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/black-men-executed-in-1951-rape-granted-posthumous-pardons-409967">Black men executed in 1951 rape granted posthumous pardons</a>

The FBI said nearly 62 per cent of victims were attacked due to race or ethnicity biases. Offences based on religion and sexual orientation were the next most common, at around 13 per cent and 20 per cent.

The offences were often were classified as intimidation. Of the over 6,400 known offenders, 55% were white.&nbsp;

The US Justice Department has warned that white supremacist groups represent a rising security threat after the deadly January 6 assault on the US Capitol.

In May this year, United States President Joe Biden signed a law that aims to address a rising number of anti-Asian attacks.

The legislation made the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach and ensuring reporting resources are available online in multiple languages.

It also directs the Department of Justice to designate a point person to expedite the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and authorizes grants to state and local governments to conduct crime-reduction programs to prevent and respond to hate crimes.

(With inputs from agencies)

In 2020, hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level in more than a decade, largely driven by a spike in assaults against people of Asian and African heritage, an FBI report has stated.

In 2020, hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level in more than a decade, largely driven by a spike in assaults against people of Asian and African heritage, an FBI report has stated. According to the annual report released on Monday, more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the country identified 7,759 hate crimes in 2020, a 6 per cent rise than 2019—the highest tally since 2008. In a year that saw huge Black Lives Matter protests highlighting problems of racism in the country, reports of hate crimes against Black Americans rose 40 per cent, from 1,972 in the year 2019 to 2,755 in the year 2020, the data showed. Meanwhile, attacks against Asian Americans surged 70 per cent with 274 incidents in 2020 against 161 in 2019—a trend that has been linked to the rhetoric that blames Asian people for the spread of Covid-19. Of the 7,426 hate crime offences classified as crimes against people, as opposed to crimes against property, 53.4 per cent were for intimidation, 27.6 per cent were for simple assault and 18.1 per cent were for aggravated assault. Twenty-two murders and 19 rapes were reported as hate crimes. While crimes against black Americans did not see as large a spike from 2019, there were 2,755 reported incidents, making African Americans the largest victim category. Also read | Black men executed in 1951 rape granted posthumous pardons The FBI said nearly 62 per cent of victims were attacked due to race or ethnicity biases. Offences based on religion and sexual orientation were the next most common, at around 13 per cent and 20 per cent. The offences were often were classified as intimidation. Of the over 6,400 known offenders, 55% were white. The US Justice Department has warned that white supremacist groups represent a rising security threat after the deadly January 6 assault on the US Capitol. In May this year, United States President Joe Biden signed a law that aims to address a rising number of anti-Asian attacks. The legislation made the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach and ensuring reporting resources are available online in multiple languages. It also directs the Department of Justice to designate a point person to expedite the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and authorizes grants to state and local governments to conduct crime-reduction programs to prevent and respond to hate crimes. (With inputs from agencies)

Hate crimes in US spiked 6% in 2020, highest in 12 years: FBI report

A man who threatened to set off a bomb on Washington's Capitol Hill surrendered to police Thursday, ending an hours-long standoff that rattled lawmakers still shaken by January's pro-Trump insurrection. Much of the complex was cordoned off as police and FBI agents negotiated with the driver, who police said had appeared to have a detonator in his hand.

Man who threatened to set off bomb on Washington's Capitol Hill surrenders

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has asked the Central Government to consider and pass a law that would grant greater autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Justices N.Kirubakaran and Pugalendhi also mentioned that the CBI has to be on par with entities such as the Election Commission and Comptroller Auditor General (CAG).

It was emphasized that the CBI must not be under the administrative control of the Central Government. The court was hearing a plea by a group from Ramanathapuram that sought a CBI probe into an alleged Rs.300cr financial fraud.&nbsp;

In its order, the Court pointed out the public demand for CBI investigation into cases involving heinous and sensitive crimes, in the absence of proper investigation by local police. It was noted that while the people trusted the CBI and its credibility, the premier probing agency dragged its feet, citing resource and manpower shortages that prevented them from conducting investigations.&nbsp;

Referring to the many serious cases investigated by the CBI that led to an acquittal, the Court said that it reflected badly on the investigation of the agency. It was added that the CBI’s dependence on officers from the police, CISF and CRPF in investigating white-collar crimes highlighted that the officers coming on deputation did not have experience in probing such cases. A slew of measures and modernizations to augment the CBI were also shared.&nbsp;

The court order mentioned the need to have CBI officers with a wide spectrum of knowledge and expertise in various fields. Numerous high-profile cases, such as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, 2G Scam, Coal Scam, Hawala Scandal, Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide, etc. were stated to showcase the different domains of crime.&nbsp;

Among the directions issued to the government of India were to enact a separate Act giving statutory status with more powers and jurisdiction to the CBI, to make the agency more independent like the Election Commission and CAG, and to provide a separate budgetary allocation for the CBI. The Director of the CBI shall be given powers as that of Secretary to the Government and shall directly report to the Minister/Prime Minister, the order added.

It was added that CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) should have more modern facilities that are on par with the FBI in the US and Scotland Yard in the UK. The Court order also urged the CBI to file a policy for permanent recruitment of Cyber Forensic experts, financial audit experts and also send a detailed proposal seeking an increase in Divisions/Wings and strength of officers in the CBI. The Court has also stated deadlines, before which, the CBI and the government of India must respond and take action on these matters.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has asked the Central Government to consider and pass a law that would grant greater autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has asked the Central Government to consider and pass a law that would grant greater autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Justices N.Kirubakaran and Pugalendhi also mentioned that the CBI has to be on par with entities such as the Election Commission and Comptroller Auditor General (CAG). It was emphasized that the CBI must not be under the administrative control of the Central Government. The court was hearing a plea by a group from Ramanathapuram that sought a CBI probe into an alleged Rs.300cr financial fraud. In its order, the Court pointed out the public demand for CBI investigation into cases involving heinous and sensitive crimes, in the absence of proper investigation by local police. It was noted that while the people trusted the CBI and its credibility, the premier probing agency dragged its feet, citing resource and manpower shortages that prevented them from conducting investigations. Referring to the many serious cases investigated by the CBI that led to an acquittal, the Court said that it reflected badly on the investigation of the agency. It was added that the CBI’s dependence on officers from the police, CISF and CRPF in investigating white-collar crimes highlighted that the officers coming on deputation did not have experience in probing such cases. A slew of measures and modernizations to augment the CBI were also shared. The court order mentioned the need to have CBI officers with a wide spectrum of knowledge and expertise in various fields. Numerous high-profile cases, such as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, 2G Scam, Coal Scam, Hawala Scandal, Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide, etc. were stated to showcase the different domains of crime. Among the directions issued to the government of India were to enact a separate Act giving statutory status with more powers and jurisdiction to the CBI, to make the agency more independent like the Election Commission and CAG, and to provide a separate budgetary allocation for the CBI. The Director of the CBI shall be given powers as that of Secretary to the Government and shall directly report to the Minister/Prime Minister, the order added. It was added that CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) should have more modern facilities that are on par with the FBI in the US and Scotland Yard in the UK. The Court order also urged the CBI to file a policy for permanent recruitment of Cyber Forensic experts, financial audit experts and also send a detailed proposal seeking an increase in Divisions/Wings and strength of officers in the CBI. The Court has also stated deadlines, before which, the CBI and the government of India must respond and take action on these matters.

CBI should get autonomy at par with FBI, Scotland Yard : Madras High Court tells Indian Govt

United States: Among the documents the group seeks are supporting evidence found during a widespread FBI investigation into the attacks that examined alleged Saudi links and was completed in 2016.

FBI to review more 9/11 records for possible public release

Nearly three years after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the FBI has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House.

In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an FBI assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Kavanaugh’s past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear.

The letter left uncertain whether the FBI itself followed up on the most compelling leads. The agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation, meaning that “the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” the letter said.

Tyson’s letter was a response to a 2019 letter from Whitehouse and Coons to the FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, posing questions about how the FBI’s review of Kavanaugh was handled.

In an interview, Whitehouse said the FBI’s response showed that the FBI’s handling of the accusations into misconduct by Kavanaugh was a sham. Tyson’s letter, Whitehouse said, suggested that the FBI ran a “fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith.”

Whitehouse and six of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee replied to the FBI’s letter on Wednesday with demands for additional details on the agreement with the White House that governed the inquiry. They also pressed for more information on how incoming tips were handled.

“Your letter confirms that the FBI’s tip line was a departure from past practice and that the FBI was politically constrained by the Trump White House,” the senators wrote. Among those signing the letter were Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s chair, Coons and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Donald McGahn, the White House’s general counsel at the time, and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Former President Donald Trump has long taken credit for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which was almost derailed over allegations by a California professor that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her during a high school gathering in the early 1980s.

Despite widespread concern over the claims — which were followed by other allegations of sexual misconduct, all of which Kavanaugh has consistently denied — Trump steadfastly backed the judge. He deployed McGahn to shepherd Kavanaugh through the unusually fraught confirmation, which culminated in a heated, daylong hearing in September of 2018.

Both Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who said she was assaulted, and Kavanaugh were grilled by senators on the Judiciary Committee.

In a recent interview with author Michael Wolff, Trump put his handling of Kavanaugh into stark terms, asking “Where would he be without me? I saved his life.”

But in addition to offering shows of support, the Trump White House carefully controlled the investigations into Kavanaugh’s past. After Ford came forward, Trump’s staff tried to limit the number of people the FBI interviewed as part of that probe. Only after an outcry from Democrats over the president’s approach did the administration say the agency could conduct a more open investigation.

Ultimately, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the FBI, according to the FBI’s recent letter. Ford and Kavanaugh themselves were never interviewed by the FBI.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who signed Wednesday’s letter to the FBI, called the process “an injustice in fact orchestrated by the White House under Donald Trump, an injustice that frankly was a disservice to the FBI.”

Nearly three years after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the FBI has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House.

Nearly three years after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the FBI has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House. In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an FBI assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Kavanaugh’s past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear. The letter left uncertain whether the FBI itself followed up on the most compelling leads. The agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation, meaning that “the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” the letter said. Tyson’s letter was a response to a 2019 letter from Whitehouse and Coons to the FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, posing questions about how the FBI’s review of Kavanaugh was handled. In an interview, Whitehouse said the FBI’s response showed that the FBI’s handling of the accusations into misconduct by Kavanaugh was a sham. Tyson’s letter, Whitehouse said, suggested that the FBI ran a “fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith.” Whitehouse and six of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee replied to the FBI’s letter on Wednesday with demands for additional details on the agreement with the White House that governed the inquiry. They also pressed for more information on how incoming tips were handled. “Your letter confirms that the FBI’s tip line was a departure from past practice and that the FBI was politically constrained by the Trump White House,” the senators wrote. Among those signing the letter were Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s chair, Coons and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. Donald McGahn, the White House’s general counsel at the time, and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Former President Donald Trump has long taken credit for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which was almost derailed over allegations by a California professor that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her during a high school gathering in the early 1980s. Despite widespread concern over the claims — which were followed by other allegations of sexual misconduct, all of which Kavanaugh has consistently denied — Trump steadfastly backed the judge. He deployed McGahn to shepherd Kavanaugh through the unusually fraught confirmation, which culminated in a heated, daylong hearing in September of 2018. Both Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who said she was assaulted, and Kavanaugh were grilled by senators on the Judiciary Committee. In a recent interview with author Michael Wolff, Trump put his handling of Kavanaugh into stark terms, asking “Where would he be without me? I saved his life.” But in addition to offering shows of support, the Trump White House carefully controlled the investigations into Kavanaugh’s past. After Ford came forward, Trump’s staff tried to limit the number of people the FBI interviewed as part of that probe. Only after an outcry from Democrats over the president’s approach did the administration say the agency could conduct a more open investigation. Ultimately, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the FBI, according to the FBI’s recent letter. Ford and Kavanaugh themselves were never interviewed by the FBI. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who signed Wednesday’s letter to the FBI, called the process “an injustice in fact orchestrated by the White House under Donald Trump, an injustice that frankly was a disservice to the FBI.”

Details on FBI Inquiry into Kavanaugh draw fire from Democrats

A key witness whose testimony was used in the indictment of Julian Assange has admitted to lying. Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson was recruited by US authorities to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of his.

Julian Assange Case: Key witness admits to lying in testimony to help FBI

Whether it was gangsters a century ago speeding off in faster getaway cars or terrorists and hackers in recent decades who shielded their communications through encrypted apps, criminals have perennially exploited technology to stay a step ahead of law enforcement.

The FBI struck back in the past week with a pair of victories: a seizure of most of the $4 million ransom in Bitcoin that Russian hackers extorted from a US pipeline operator and the announcement of a yearslong sting operation where thousands of suspects were duped into using a messaging app secretly controlled by authorities. More than 800 people were arrested in more than a dozen countries.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/el-salvador-legalises-bitcoin-as-other-nations-plan-similar-moves-390658">El Salvador legalises Bitcoin as other nations plan similar moves</a>

The breakthroughs came in part because law enforcement officials learned how to leverage two rapidly advancing technologies — encryption and cryptocurrencies — that had previously been a boon for criminals.

Yet the events did little to fundamentally alter the challenges for authorities in an increasingly digital world, according to former law enforcement officials, prosecutors, historians and technology experts. The global sting is highly unlikely to keep criminals from using encryption and could encourage them to go even further underground, experts said. And while the FBI has shown that it can recover stolen cryptocurrencies, doing so requires resources beyond the reach of most law enforcement agencies.

Ultimately, the cases were the latest iteration in the decades-long back and forth between lawbreakers and the FBI in which both sides have seized on technological advances, whether it is criminals hiding behind encryption or investigators exploiting facial recognition, drones and other mechanisms.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/uk-police-accidentally-discover-bitcoin-mine-while-searching-for-cannabis-warehouse-388213">UK police accidentally discover Bitcoin mine while searching for cannabis warehouse</a>

“You get a sharper sword; they get a stronger shield. The greed of the bad guys is always stronger than the reach of the good guys,” said Tim Weiner, author of “Enemies: A History of the FBI.” “That’s not just the story of the FBI; it’s been true throughout the history of warfare.”

Now law enforcement agencies are seeking more access to digital devices, sometimes buying hacking tools from the private sector, and urging lawmakers to give them more power to track suspects.

“This does not end the debate on encryption,” said Joseph DeMarco, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who has spent years working on cybercrime. “It shows that law enforcement is willing to design flanking maneuvers to go around encryption obstacles. But the debate about whether or not those workarounds are adequate will continue.”

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/elon-musks-tesla-halts-bitcoin-purchases-amid-concerns-of-increasing-carbon-emissions-384647">Elon Musk's Tesla halts bitcoin purchases amid concerns of increasing carbon emissions</a>

Law Enforcement Gains

Technology has not been all bad for the police. Beyond facial recognition and drones, authorities in the United States use gunshot detectors and devices that simulate cell towers to surreptitiously connect to suspects’ phones and determine their location.

Law enforcement also has an advantage when it gets hold of digital devices. Despite claims from Apple, Google and even the Justice Department that smartphones are largely impenetrable, thousands of law enforcement agencies have tools that can infiltrate the latest phones to extract data.

“Police today are facing a situation of an explosion of data,” said Yossi Carmil, CEO of Cellebrite, an Israeli company that has sold data extraction tools to more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies, including hundreds of small police departments across the United States. “The solutions are there. There is no real challenge to accessing the data.”

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-administration-secretly-seized-phone-records-of-times-reporters-389303">Trump administration secretly seized phone records of Times reporters</a>

The police also have an easier time getting to data stored in the cloud. Technology companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft regularly turn over customers’ personal data, such as photographs, emails, contacts and text messages, to authorities with a warrant.

From January 2013 through June 2020, Apple said, it turned over the contents of tens of thousands of iCloud accounts to US law enforcement in 13,371 cases.

And Friday, Apple said that in 2018, it had unknowingly turned over to the Justice Department the phone records of congressional staff members, their families and at least two members of Congress, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., now the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The subpoena was part of an investigation by the Trump administration into leaks of classified information.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/apple-is-said-to-have-turned-over-data-on-trumps-white-house-counsel-in-2018-391445">Apple is said to have turned over data on Trump’s White House counsel in 2018</a>

Challenge of Encryption

Yet intercepting communications has remained a troublesome problem for the police. While criminals used to talk over channels that were relatively simple to tap — like phones, emails and basic text messages — most now use encrypted messengers, which are not.

Two of the world’s most popular messaging services, Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp, use so-called end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and receiver can see the messages. Not even the companies have access to their contents, allowing Apple and Facebook to argue that they cannot turn them over to law enforcement.

Authorities’ frustration has prompted them to target smaller encrypted apps favoured by criminals. In July, the police in Europe said they hacked into one called EncroChat, leading to hundreds of arrests.

That pushed many criminals onto a new service, Anom. They had to buy specialized phones with few working features, aside from an app disguised as a calculator. With a code, it would turn into a messaging app, Anom, that claimed to be encrypted.

In fact, the FBI created Anom. The bureau and the Australian police started the operation by persuading an informant to distribute the devices to criminal networks, after which they caught on by word-of-mouth. After three years, Anom had more than 12,000 users.

Criminals felt so comfortable on the service that they stopped using coded language, sending photos of smuggled cocaine shipments and openly planning murders, the police said. And when authorities obtained court approval to surveil any Anom users, they could easily monitor their messages.

But when the police carried out hundreds of arrests and detailed the scheme to news cameras this past week, the ruse was over. Authorities were once again in the dark.

An Attractive Tool for Criminals

For years, Bitcoin and other digital currencies were the coin of choice for international criminal syndicates. The qualities that make cryptocurrencies attractive — decentralization and anonymity — make them great for theft, ransom and selling drugs.

Getting paid used to be the hardest part of holding something or someone hostage, said Ross Anderson, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Cambridge who studies how the police and criminals use technology.

“It’s easy enough to grab the heiress or her dog, but the problem then is that when you threatened to cut her ear off and asked Mr. Rockefeller to send you a large suitcase full of dollar bills, the police tagged along, or they put a radio transmitter in it,” he said. “With Bitcoin, you can get actually quite substantial extortion amounts, like seven- and eight-figure sums, which can be delivered instantaneously to Russia or North Korea or wherever.”

That new model fueled a surge in ransomware attacks, where hackers take control of a person’s or company’s computers and demand a ransom. Recorded Future, a security company that tracks such attacks, estimated that last year, one attack occurred every eight minutes.

Ransomware attacks have recently hit hospitals, meatpackers, minor league baseball teams and the ferries to Martha’s Vineyard. Many companies pay the ransoms because it is easier and faster than alternative solutions, despite also giving hackers more incentive.

Yet the Colonial Pipeline case showed that the police could also use cryptocurrencies to their advantage. Each transaction is recorded in a public ledger, making the money traceable even as it travels from one anonymous account to the next. That means that law enforcement with enough money and know-how can typically hack into an account and snatch back the money.

But hacking can be expensive and time-consuming, leaving few agencies outside the FBI with the ability to do it.

The 21st-Century Fight

The history of the cat-and-mouse game between the police and criminals is long. In the 1920s, bandits realized that cars could allow them to rob a home or bank and quickly escape to the next county or state, where the police would be less interested in solving the crime.

“It took something like 50 years for the police to catch up with regional crime squads and police national computers and eventually with automatic plate number recognition,” Anderson said. “But for a while, the existence of the car meant that it was a fun time for the gangsters.”

Today, law enforcement’s eagerness to keep up has spawned a rapidly growing industry dedicated to extracting suspects’ communications data. Cellebrite, the Israeli company, said its sales increased 38 per cent in the first quarter to $53 million as more police departments bought its tools to hack into suspects’ phones.

At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states have such tools, including 49 of the 50 largest US police departments, according to Upturn, a Washington nonprofit that investigates how the police use technology.

Still, some of the nation’s top law enforcement officials have asked for more from tech companies and lawmakers. Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, told Congress in 2019 that data extraction tools were expensive and unreliable. They can sometimes take weeks or even years to crack into a phone, he said.

“There are many, many serious cases where we can’t access the device in the time period where it is most important for us,” Vance told lawmakers.

Apple said security researchers agreed that the iPhone is the most secure device on the market. Google declined to comment.

Whether it was gangsters a century ago speeding off in faster getaway cars or terrorists and hackers in recent decades who shielded their communications through encrypted apps, criminals have perennially exploited technology to stay a step ahead of law enforcement.

Whether it was gangsters a century ago speeding off in faster getaway cars or terrorists and hackers in recent decades who shielded their communications through encrypted apps, criminals have perennially exploited technology to stay a step ahead of law enforcement. The FBI struck back in the past week with a pair of victories: a seizure of most of the $4 million ransom in Bitcoin that Russian hackers extorted from a US pipeline operator and the announcement of a yearslong sting operation where thousands of suspects were duped into using a messaging app secretly controlled by authorities. More than 800 people were arrested in more than a dozen countries. Also read | El Salvador legalises Bitcoin as other nations plan similar moves The breakthroughs came in part because law enforcement officials learned how to leverage two rapidly advancing technologies — encryption and cryptocurrencies — that had previously been a boon for criminals. Yet the events did little to fundamentally alter the challenges for authorities in an increasingly digital world, according to former law enforcement officials, prosecutors, historians and technology experts. The global sting is highly unlikely to keep criminals from using encryption and could encourage them to go even further underground, experts said. And while the FBI has shown that it can recover stolen cryptocurrencies, doing so requires resources beyond the reach of most law enforcement agencies. Ultimately, the cases were the latest iteration in the decades-long back and forth between lawbreakers and the FBI in which both sides have seized on technological advances, whether it is criminals hiding behind encryption or investigators exploiting facial recognition, drones and other mechanisms. Also read | UK police accidentally discover Bitcoin mine while searching for cannabis warehouse “You get a sharper sword; they get a stronger shield. The greed of the bad guys is always stronger than the reach of the good guys,” said Tim Weiner, author of “Enemies: A History of the FBI.” “That’s not just the story of the FBI; it’s been true throughout the history of warfare.” Now law enforcement agencies are seeking more access to digital devices, sometimes buying hacking tools from the private sector, and urging lawmakers to give them more power to track suspects. “This does not end the debate on encryption,” said Joseph DeMarco, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who has spent years working on cybercrime. “It shows that law enforcement is willing to design flanking maneuvers to go around encryption obstacles. But the debate about whether or not those workarounds are adequate will continue.” Also read | Elon Musk's Tesla halts bitcoin purchases amid concerns of increasing carbon emissions Law Enforcement Gains Technology has not been all bad for the police. Beyond facial recognition and drones, authorities in the United States use gunshot detectors and devices that simulate cell towers to surreptitiously connect to suspects’ phones and determine their location. Law enforcement also has an advantage when it gets hold of digital devices. Despite claims from Apple, Google and even the Justice Department that smartphones are largely impenetrable, thousands of law enforcement agencies have tools that can infiltrate the latest phones to extract data. “Police today are facing a situation of an explosion of data,” said Yossi Carmil, CEO of Cellebrite, an Israeli company that has sold data extraction tools to more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies, including hundreds of small police departments across the United States. “The solutions are there. There is no real challenge to accessing the data.” Also read | Trump administration secretly seized phone records of Times reporters The police also have an easier time getting to data stored in the cloud. Technology companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft regularly turn over customers’ personal data, such as photographs, emails, contacts and text messages, to authorities with a warrant. From January 2013 through June 2020, Apple said, it turned over the contents of tens of thousands of iCloud accounts to US law enforcement in 13,371 cases. And Friday, Apple said that in 2018, it had unknowingly turned over to the Justice Department the phone records of congressional staff members, their families and at least two members of Congress, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., now the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The subpoena was part of an investigation by the Trump administration into leaks of classified information. Also read | Apple is said to have turned over data on Trump’s White House counsel in 2018 Challenge of Encryption Yet intercepting communications has remained a troublesome problem for the police. While criminals used to talk over channels that were relatively simple to tap — like phones, emails and basic text messages — most now use encrypted messengers, which are not. Two of the world’s most popular messaging services, Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp, use so-called end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and receiver can see the messages. Not even the companies have access to their contents, allowing Apple and Facebook to argue that they cannot turn them over to law enforcement. Authorities’ frustration has prompted them to target smaller encrypted apps favoured by criminals. In July, the police in Europe said they hacked into one called EncroChat, leading to hundreds of arrests. That pushed many criminals onto a new service, Anom. They had to buy specialized phones with few working features, aside from an app disguised as a calculator. With a code, it would turn into a messaging app, Anom, that claimed to be encrypted. In fact, the FBI created Anom. The bureau and the Australian police started the operation by persuading an informant to distribute the devices to criminal networks, after which they caught on by word-of-mouth. After three years, Anom had more than 12,000 users. Criminals felt so comfortable on the service that they stopped using coded language, sending photos of smuggled cocaine shipments and openly planning murders, the police said. And when authorities obtained court approval to surveil any Anom users, they could easily monitor their messages. But when the police carried out hundreds of arrests and detailed the scheme to news cameras this past week, the ruse was over. Authorities were once again in the dark. An Attractive Tool for Criminals For years, Bitcoin and other digital currencies were the coin of choice for international criminal syndicates. The qualities that make cryptocurrencies attractive — decentralization and anonymity — make them great for theft, ransom and selling drugs. Getting paid used to be the hardest part of holding something or someone hostage, said Ross Anderson, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Cambridge who studies how the police and criminals use technology. “It’s easy enough to grab the heiress or her dog, but the problem then is that when you threatened to cut her ear off and asked Mr. Rockefeller to send you a large suitcase full of dollar bills, the police tagged along, or they put a radio transmitter in it,” he said. “With Bitcoin, you can get actually quite substantial extortion amounts, like seven- and eight-figure sums, which can be delivered instantaneously to Russia or North Korea or wherever.” That new model fueled a surge in ransomware attacks, where hackers take control of a person’s or company’s computers and demand a ransom. Recorded Future, a security company that tracks such attacks, estimated that last year, one attack occurred every eight minutes. Ransomware attacks have recently hit hospitals, meatpackers, minor league baseball teams and the ferries to Martha’s Vineyard. Many companies pay the ransoms because it is easier and faster than alternative solutions, despite also giving hackers more incentive. Yet the Colonial Pipeline case showed that the police could also use cryptocurrencies to their advantage. Each transaction is recorded in a public ledger, making the money traceable even as it travels from one anonymous account to the next. That means that law enforcement with enough money and know-how can typically hack into an account and snatch back the money. But hacking can be expensive and time-consuming, leaving few agencies outside the FBI with the ability to do it. The 21st-Century Fight The history of the cat-and-mouse game between the police and criminals is long. In the 1920s, bandits realized that cars could allow them to rob a home or bank and quickly escape to the next county or state, where the police would be less interested in solving the crime. “It took something like 50 years for the police to catch up with regional crime squads and police national computers and eventually with automatic plate number recognition,” Anderson said. “But for a while, the existence of the car meant that it was a fun time for the gangsters.” Today, law enforcement’s eagerness to keep up has spawned a rapidly growing industry dedicated to extracting suspects’ communications data. Cellebrite, the Israeli company, said its sales increased 38 per cent in the first quarter to $53 million as more police departments bought its tools to hack into suspects’ phones. At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states have such tools, including 49 of the 50 largest US police departments, according to Upturn, a Washington nonprofit that investigates how the police use technology. Still, some of the nation’s top law enforcement officials have asked for more from tech companies and lawmakers. Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, told Congress in 2019 that data extraction tools were expensive and unreliable. They can sometimes take weeks or even years to crack into a phone, he said. “There are many, many serious cases where we can’t access the device in the time period where it is most important for us,” Vance told lawmakers. Apple said security researchers agreed that the iPhone is the most secure device on the market. Google declined to comment.

Bitcoin and encryption: A race between criminals and the FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/tit-for-tat-russia-to-expel-us-diplomats-sanction-officials-378028">(FBI</a>) in the US along with police officers in over a dozen countries cracked down on mafia groups, crime syndicates and criminal networks as part of operation "Trojan Shield" leading to the arrest of 800 people worldwide.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/police-crack-encrypted-criminal-network-390197/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The FBI, along with the drug enforcement administration, Australian police, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/europol-says-800-arrested-worldwide-in-huge-crime-sting-390137">Europol</a> and other law enforcement partners launched their own encrypted communications platform and supplied more than 12,000 devices to criminal organisations that operate around the globe, the US law enforcement agency said.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
800 Criminals Arrested in Biggest Ever Law Enforcement Operation Against Encrypted Communication: The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FBI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FBI</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AusFedPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AusFedPolice</a> launched an encrypted communication platform and sold thousands of encrypted devices to criminal groups throughout the world. <a href="https://t.co/3VUURbNJg9">https://t.co/3VUURbNJg9</a> <a href="https://t.co/hAzkv1pglO">pic.twitter.com/hAzkv1pglO</a>
— FBI (@FBI) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1402296182488043524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The FBI and Australian police launched an encrypted communication platform and sold thousands of encrypted devices to criminal groups throughout the world, the US agency revealed.

"Criminal organizations that rely on hardened, stripped-down devices to send encrypted messages may learn this week they have been using a platform operated by the very investigators they are trying to thwart," the FBI said.

Operation Trojan Shield was conceived by Australian police and the FBI three years ago.

Suzanne Turner, FBI's San Diego special agent-in-charge said: "The FBI received a copy of each and every message that originated outside the United States&nbsp;which were reviewed and then disseminated to law enforcement agencies in 40 countries."

Turner informed that 9,000 law enforcement officers participated in Monday's crackdown on criminal gangs.

Australian police informed that 200 people have been charged as Sweden arrested 155 people. Finland said it had arrested 100 people. In Germany, 70 people were detained with several arrests in the Netherlands and New Zealand.

The FBI said that the operation will have far-reaching, "long-term transnational effects on these organizations and their ability to communicate and coordinate their criminal activities."

(With inputs from Agencies)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US along with police officers in over a dozen countries cracked down on mafia groups, crime syndicates and criminal networks as part of operation "Trojan Shield" leading to the arrest of 800 people worldwide.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US along with police officers in over a dozen countries cracked down on mafia groups, crime syndicates and criminal networks as part of operation "Trojan Shield" leading to the arrest of 800 people worldwide. Watch: The FBI, along with the drug enforcement administration, Australian police, Europol and other law enforcement partners launched their own encrypted communications platform and supplied more than 12,000 devices to criminal organisations that operate around the globe, the US law enforcement agency said. 800 Criminals Arrested in Biggest Ever Law Enforcement Operation Against Encrypted Communication: The #FBI and @AusFedPolice launched an encrypted communication platform and sold thousands of encrypted devices to criminal groups throughout the world. https://t.co/3VUURbNJg9 pic.twitter.com/hAzkv1pglO — FBI (@FBI) June 8, 2021 × The FBI and Australian police launched an encrypted communication platform and sold thousands of encrypted devices to criminal groups throughout the world, the US agency revealed. "Criminal organizations that rely on hardened, stripped-down devices to send encrypted messages may learn this week they have been using a platform operated by the very investigators they are trying to thwart," the FBI said. Operation Trojan Shield was conceived by Australian police and the FBI three years ago. Suzanne Turner, FBI's San Diego special agent-in-charge said: "The FBI received a copy of each and every message that originated outside the United States which were reviewed and then disseminated to law enforcement agencies in 40 countries." Turner informed that 9,000 law enforcement officers participated in Monday's crackdown on criminal gangs. Australian police informed that 200 people have been charged as Sweden arrested 155 people. Finland said it had arrested 100 people. In Germany, 70 people were detained with several arrests in the Netherlands and New Zealand. The FBI said that the operation will have far-reaching, "long-term transnational effects on these organizations and their ability to communicate and coordinate their criminal activities." (With inputs from Agencies)

How the FBI along with global law enforcement agencies conducted operation Trojan Shield

In September, a New York auction house had a rare treasure up for sale: a five-centuries-old letter revealing political intrigue involving Hernán Cortés, the famed leader of the Spanish force that colonized what is modern-day Mexico.

Cortés papers seldom come to market. The 1521 document, offered by Swann Galleries, was expected to fetch $20,000 to $30,000. That is, until a plucky group of academics in Mexico and Spain helped thwart the sale.

Searching online catalogues of global auction houses and mining one of the researchers' personal trove of photos of Spanish colonial documents, they traced its provenance to the National Archive of Mexico (AGN), the nation's equivalent of the National Archives in Washington. An image of that 1521 letter captured by a Mormon genealogy project would play a supporting role.

What's more, these amateur detectives unearthed nine additional Cortés-linked papers put on the block from 2017 to 2020 in New York and Los Angeles by auction houses - including the well-known British firms Bonhams and Christie's - that are now confirmed to be missing from AGN, officials at the Mexico City-based archive said. They said some of those documents, once bound in weather-beaten books, had been surgically removed as if with a scalpel.

"It's scandalous," said one of the gumshoes, María Isabel Grañén Porrúa, a prominent Mexican cultural figure and a scholar of 16th-century Spanish colonial books. "We are very worried, not just by this theft, but also about all the other robberies and looting of national heritage."

Names of the buyers and sellers of the Cortés documents were never disclosed publicly by the auction houses. Such anonymity is commonplace in an industry whose well-heeled patrons prize secrecy.

Swann Galleries, which handled a half-dozen Cortés papers, denied wrongdoing. London-based Christie's, which put two out for bid, said it carefully vets the provenance of all items it puts up for auction. Bonhams, another London firm, auctioned one; it declined to comment. Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Sanders, which put one Cortés document on the block, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Cortés flap comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny of the global antiquities trade. Countries including Mexico are watching auction houses for potentially pilfered objects. Others are demanding repatriation of relics displayed in foreign museums.

The researchers' sleuthing has sparked law enforcement investigations in Mexico as well as in the United States by US&nbsp;Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), according to a report by Reuters.&nbsp;

The news organisation is also the first to reveal that Mexico's Foreign Ministry has enlisted the help of the US&nbsp;Department of Justice (DOJ) in repatriating the 10 missing manuscripts, according to Alejandro Celorio, the ministry's legal advisor.

"We are already in cooperation with the federal prosecutor in the New York district," Celorio said.

The Brazilian buyer of one of the allegedly purloined Cortés manuscripts handled by Swann Galleries had returned it to the auction house.

Manhattan-based Swan Galleries has emerged as a key player in the unfolding drama. It cancelled its scheduled Sept. 24 auction of the 1521 Cortés letter on September&nbsp;9, one day after Reuters contacted the firm about the researchers' allegations.

Swann Galleries said it works diligently to ascertain the provenance of antiquities it auctions. It keeps extensive records and cooperates fully with law enforcement, said Alexandra Nelson, Swann Galleries' chief marketing officer. "Knowingly moving stolen material through an auction house is just about the silliest thing a person can do," Nelson said.

Robert Wittman, a former special agent who founded the Art Crime Team at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said big auction houses aren't doing enough to safeguard the world's antiquities.

"They are not in the business of recovering stolen property or protecting cultural property," Wittman said. "They're in the business of buying and selling."

Also under scrutiny is the AGN, Latin America's largest archive. Mexican academics have long warned that the holdings of the cash-strapped institution are vulnerable to decay and theft.

"We are not ruling out any hypothesis," about how the Cortés papers were stolen, Marco Palafox, legal counsel for the AGN, told Reuters. "We are not discounting the possibility that the person responsible for the thefts of these documents was a manager, a worker or a researcher."

Key to the discovery of the alleged Cortés heists was a small group of Mexico-based academics. They included Grañén, the researcher of Spanish colonial books, and Michel Oudijk, a Dutch philologist at Mexico's National Autonomous University of Mexico. They also recruited María del Carmen Martínez, a renowned Cortés scholar at the University of Valladolid in Spain.

They said their suspicions were first aroused when a handful of Cortés-signed letters suddenly appeared at auctions in 2017 after three decades of no public sales.

The mini-boom began in April that year at Swann Galleries, which touted a 1538 letter from Cortés to his property manager as the first such document sold publicly since 1984. "Cortés letters are quite scarce on the market," the auction house said on its website.

The document fetched $32,500, according to the website. The name of the buyer was not published. But in 2018, the letter was displayed at The Morgan Library and&nbsp;Museum in New York. The institution said it did not own the letter and that it was part of an exhibition based on the private manuscript collection of Brazilian art historian Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Reuters contacted Corrêa do Lago last month to inquire about the document.

"I have returned the letter, acquired in good faith, to Swann Galleries," Corrêa do Lago said in an e-mail. He declined further comment on what he termed a "very rare and unfortunate occurrence".

Swann Galleries declined to comment on Corrêa do Lago's remarks.

Bonhams, Christie's and Nate D. Sanders also auctioned one Cortés document each in 2017, according to the academics and information on Bonhams and Christie's websites.

Nate D. Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. Bonhams declined requests for comment.

Christie's said it devotes "considerable resources to investigating the provenance and authenticity" of auctioned objects and it "does not comment concerning ongoing investigations."

The researchers said they alerted Mexican antiquities authorities in 2018 and 2019 about their suspicions as fresh Cortés manuscripts kept appearing at auction, including four in 2019. When two more surfaced in 2020, with still no action from the government, the academics launched their own investigation around mid-year.

One of the group contacted Martínez, the Spanish scholar, for help. Not only was Martínez a leading Cortés expert, she had taken thousands of photographs of AGN manuscripts documenting his colonial administration during two trips to Mexico City in 2010 and 2014.

The academics quickly compiled a list of nine documents that had been put up for auction since 2017. A tenth was to be sold by Swann Galleries on September&nbsp;24, 2020: a 1521 missive to Cortés from some allies imploring him to avoid an emissary of the Spanish crown intent on stripping him of his powers.

It sounded familiar to Martínez. Poring over her photos, she found a match. The document shown on Swann Galleries' website was identical to one she had photographed at AGN years earlier - down to the penman's swooping cursive and a small triangle-shaped chunk of parchment missing from the left-hand margin.

In all, Martínez had photographed eight of the 10 manuscripts allegedly swiped from Mexico's national archive.

"We really shouldn't have situations like this in the 21st century," Martínez told Reuters.

The researchers went public with their concerns in early September. Swann Galleries cancelled its September&nbsp;24 sale following inquiries from Reuters.

Palafox, the archive's legal counsel, said AGN didn't contact the US&nbsp;auction house to stop the sale because it could not quickly establish - beyond Martínez's photos - that the 1521 manuscript and others were, in fact, missing from its collection.

AGN houses hundreds of thousands of documents, but only about 40 per cent&nbsp;have been catalogued, Palafox said. "The other 60 per cent&nbsp;we don't know what's there," he said.

For help, the archive staff turned to microfilm images recorded at AGN in 1993 by the Genealogical Society of Utah, an arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The non-profit, now known as FamilySearch, has photographed archives worldwide to assist Mormons and others in tracing their ancestry.

Within that microfilm, Palafox said, AGN staff found images of nine of the 10 manuscripts that had come up for auction; a written description was found of the 10th. From there, AGN employees pinpointed where those papers should have been housed in its stacks. All were missing, Palafox said, some cut cleanly from their colonial-era bindings.

In October, Palafox said he hosted a video call with US&nbsp;investigators. He displayed images of the Cortés documents from the websites of the auction houses alongside those of the 1993 microfilms and researcher Martínez's photos to show the similarities.

"This was enough to get their attention," Palafox said.

The State Department said it could not comment on specific cases, but said the government was committed to combating the theft and trafficking of cultural heritage.&nbsp;

Palafox said Mexican federal prosecutors have also launched a probe. The Mexican Attorney General's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Wittman, the ex-FBI agent, said US&nbsp;investigators would likely subpoena the auction houses to identify the sellers and consignors who handled transport of the documents. The strategy, he said, is to work down the chain until they reach the suspected thieves in Mexico.

(With inputs from agencies)

In September, a New York auction house had a rare treasure up for sale: a five-centuries-old letter revealing political intrigue involving Hernán Cortés, the famed leader of the Spanish force that colonized what is modern-day Mexico.

In September, a New York auction house had a rare treasure up for sale: a five-centuries-old letter revealing political intrigue involving Hernán Cortés, the famed leader of the Spanish force that colonized what is modern-day Mexico. Cortés papers seldom come to market. The 1521 document, offered by Swann Galleries, was expected to fetch $20,000 to $30,000. That is, until a plucky group of academics in Mexico and Spain helped thwart the sale. Searching online catalogues of global auction houses and mining one of the researchers' personal trove of photos of Spanish colonial documents, they traced its provenance to the National Archive of Mexico (AGN), the nation's equivalent of the National Archives in Washington. An image of that 1521 letter captured by a Mormon genealogy project would play a supporting role. What's more, these amateur detectives unearthed nine additional Cortés-linked papers put on the block from 2017 to 2020 in New York and Los Angeles by auction houses - including the well-known British firms Bonhams and Christie's - that are now confirmed to be missing from AGN, officials at the Mexico City-based archive said. They said some of those documents, once bound in weather-beaten books, had been surgically removed as if with a scalpel. "It's scandalous," said one of the gumshoes, María Isabel Grañén Porrúa, a prominent Mexican cultural figure and a scholar of 16th-century Spanish colonial books. "We are very worried, not just by this theft, but also about all the other robberies and looting of national heritage." Names of the buyers and sellers of the Cortés documents were never disclosed publicly by the auction houses. Such anonymity is commonplace in an industry whose well-heeled patrons prize secrecy. Swann Galleries, which handled a half-dozen Cortés papers, denied wrongdoing. London-based Christie's, which put two out for bid, said it carefully vets the provenance of all items it puts up for auction. Bonhams, another London firm, auctioned one; it declined to comment. Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Sanders, which put one Cortés document on the block, did not respond to a request for comment. The Cortés flap comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny of the global antiquities trade. Countries including Mexico are watching auction houses for potentially pilfered objects. Others are demanding repatriation of relics displayed in foreign museums. The researchers' sleuthing has sparked law enforcement investigations in Mexico as well as in the United States by US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), according to a report by Reuters. The news organisation is also the first to reveal that Mexico's Foreign Ministry has enlisted the help of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in repatriating the 10 missing manuscripts, according to Alejandro Celorio, the ministry's legal advisor. "We are already in cooperation with the federal prosecutor in the New York district," Celorio said. The Brazilian buyer of one of the allegedly purloined Cortés manuscripts handled by Swann Galleries had returned it to the auction house. Manhattan-based Swan Galleries has emerged as a key player in the unfolding drama. It cancelled its scheduled Sept. 24 auction of the 1521 Cortés letter on September 9, one day after Reuters contacted the firm about the researchers' allegations. Swann Galleries said it works diligently to ascertain the provenance of antiquities it auctions. It keeps extensive records and cooperates fully with law enforcement, said Alexandra Nelson, Swann Galleries' chief marketing officer. "Knowingly moving stolen material through an auction house is just about the silliest thing a person can do," Nelson said. Robert Wittman, a former special agent who founded the Art Crime Team at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said big auction houses aren't doing enough to safeguard the world's antiquities. "They are not in the business of recovering stolen property or protecting cultural property," Wittman said. "They're in the business of buying and selling." Also under scrutiny is the AGN, Latin America's largest archive. Mexican academics have long warned that the holdings of the cash-strapped institution are vulnerable to decay and theft. "We are not ruling out any hypothesis," about how the Cortés papers were stolen, Marco Palafox, legal counsel for the AGN, told Reuters. "We are not discounting the possibility that the person responsible for the thefts of these documents was a manager, a worker or a researcher." Key to the discovery of the alleged Cortés heists was a small group of Mexico-based academics. They included Grañén, the researcher of Spanish colonial books, and Michel Oudijk, a Dutch philologist at Mexico's National Autonomous University of Mexico. They also recruited María del Carmen Martínez, a renowned Cortés scholar at the University of Valladolid in Spain. They said their suspicions were first aroused when a handful of Cortés-signed letters suddenly appeared at auctions in 2017 after three decades of no public sales. The mini-boom began in April that year at Swann Galleries, which touted a 1538 letter from Cortés to his property manager as the first such document sold publicly since 1984. "Cortés letters are quite scarce on the market," the auction house said on its website. The document fetched $32,500, according to the website. The name of the buyer was not published. But in 2018, the letter was displayed at The Morgan Library and Museum in New York. The institution said it did not own the letter and that it was part of an exhibition based on the private manuscript collection of Brazilian art historian Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Reuters contacted Corrêa do Lago last month to inquire about the document. "I have returned the letter, acquired in good faith, to Swann Galleries," Corrêa do Lago said in an e-mail. He declined further comment on what he termed a "very rare and unfortunate occurrence". Swann Galleries declined to comment on Corrêa do Lago's remarks. Bonhams, Christie's and Nate D. Sanders also auctioned one Cortés document each in 2017, according to the academics and information on Bonhams and Christie's websites. Nate D. Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. Bonhams declined requests for comment. Christie's said it devotes "considerable resources to investigating the provenance and authenticity" of auctioned objects and it "does not comment concerning ongoing investigations." The researchers said they alerted Mexican antiquities authorities in 2018 and 2019 about their suspicions as fresh Cortés manuscripts kept appearing at auction, including four in 2019. When two more surfaced in 2020, with still no action from the government, the academics launched their own investigation around mid-year. One of the group contacted Martínez, the Spanish scholar, for help. Not only was Martínez a leading Cortés expert, she had taken thousands of photographs of AGN manuscripts documenting his colonial administration during two trips to Mexico City in 2010 and 2014. The academics quickly compiled a list of nine documents that had been put up for auction since 2017. A tenth was to be sold by Swann Galleries on September 24, 2020: a 1521 missive to Cortés from some allies imploring him to avoid an emissary of the Spanish crown intent on stripping him of his powers. It sounded familiar to Martínez. Poring over her photos, she found a match. The document shown on Swann Galleries' website was identical to one she had photographed at AGN years earlier - down to the penman's swooping cursive and a small triangle-shaped chunk of parchment missing from the left-hand margin. In all, Martínez had photographed eight of the 10 manuscripts allegedly swiped from Mexico's national archive. "We really shouldn't have situations like this in the 21st century," Martínez told Reuters. The researchers went public with their concerns in early September. Swann Galleries cancelled its September 24 sale following inquiries from Reuters. Palafox, the archive's legal counsel, said AGN didn't contact the US auction house to stop the sale because it could not quickly establish - beyond Martínez's photos - that the 1521 manuscript and others were, in fact, missing from its collection. AGN houses hundreds of thousands of documents, but only about 40 per cent have been catalogued, Palafox said. "The other 60 per cent we don't know what's there," he said. For help, the archive staff turned to microfilm images recorded at AGN in 1993 by the Genealogical Society of Utah, an arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The non-profit, now known as FamilySearch, has photographed archives worldwide to assist Mormons and others in tracing their ancestry. Within that microfilm, Palafox said, AGN staff found images of nine of the 10 manuscripts that had come up for auction; a written description was found of the 10th. From there, AGN employees pinpointed where those papers should have been housed in its stacks. All were missing, Palafox said, some cut cleanly from their colonial-era bindings. In October, Palafox said he hosted a video call with US investigators. He displayed images of the Cortés documents from the websites of the auction houses alongside those of the 1993 microfilms and researcher Martínez's photos to show the similarities. "This was enough to get their attention," Palafox said. The State Department said it could not comment on specific cases, but said the government was committed to combating the theft and trafficking of cultural heritage. Palafox said Mexican federal prosecutors have also launched a probe. The Mexican Attorney General's office did not respond to requests for comment. Wittman, the ex-FBI agent, said US investigators would likely subpoena the auction houses to identify the sellers and consignors who handled transport of the documents. The strategy, he said, is to work down the chain until they reach the suspected thieves in Mexico. (With inputs from agencies)

Mexico asks US to return stolen letters written by Hernan Cortes

China is increasingly becoming a near-peer competitor of the US, posing challenges in multiple domains, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system, a top American intelligence officer has told lawmakers.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday briefed members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the worldwide threat assessment of the US.

“China increasingly is a near-peer competitor, challenging the United States in multiple areas while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system,” Haines said.

China, she said, is employing a comprehensive approach to demonstrate its growing strength and compel regional neighbours to acquiesce to Beijing’s preferences, including its claims over disputed territory and assertions of sovereignty over Taiwan.

“It also has substantial cyber capabilities that, if deployed at a minimum, can cause localised temporary disruptions to critical infrastructure inside the United States,” Haines said.

Russia, Iran and North Korea are the other three countries that pose threats to the United States, she said.

At the same time, regional conflicts continue to fuel humanitarian crises, undermine stability and threaten US persons and interests.

“The fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria has a direct implication for U.S. forces, while tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan remain a concern for the world. The iterate of violence between Israel and Iran, the activity of foreign powers in Libya and conflicts in other areas, including Africa and the Middle East, has the potential to escalate or spread,” Haines said.

“Asia has periodic upheavals, such as the Burmese military seizure of power in February. Latin America has contested elections. Violent popular protests are likely to continue to produce volatility. And Africa will continue to see ongoing marginalisation of some communities, ethnic conflict, and contentious elections,” she said.

Senator Mark Warner, Chairman of the Senate Committee, described the rise of China as a major challenge for the United States.

“As we grapple with the challenges posed by a rising China, our problem is with the Chinese Communist Party, not with the Chinese people or the Chinese diaspora globally. And certainly not with Asian Americans here in the United States,” he said.

As China grows in power and stature, the CCP has sought to undercut the United States as the world’s leading technological power, he said.

“We see this in the reliance on both strategic investments and traditional espionage to acquire intellectual property, their use and export of surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes, and their modernization of traditional and asymmetric military capabilities, including in the space and cyber domains,” Warner said.

“When we look at development, for example, of 5G technology, we’ve seen the CCP act aggressively to influence international standard-setting bodies and invest in a national champion, Huawei, that threatens to dominate the worldwide telecommunications market,” Warner said.

“I fear that the CCP will develop a similar strategy to dominate the development of other emerging technologies, including AI, quantum computing, and BAU technology. In many ways, the IC is the only part of our overall enterprise that sees across all domains in this field, and I think we must be clear-eyed in assessing the threats posed by the CCP,” he added.

Senator Marco Rubio said that the United States made a mistake to not focus on both China’s capabilities and on its growing and intensifying efforts to involve and engage itself in the political environment in the United States.

“Different aims, perhaps, different tactics in some ways. But certainly, they have every capability that the Russians do, and more, in many cases. And they are certainly interested in moulding public discourse and creating political pressure among creating pressure on political figures who they don’t like here in the United States,” he said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Senators that the investigating agency now has over 2,000 investigations that tie back to the Chinese government.

“And on the economic espionage investigation side alone, it’s about a 1,300 per cent increase over the last several years. We’re opening a new investigation into China every 10 hours. And I can assure the committee, that’s not because our folks don’t have anything to do with their time,” he said.

China is increasingly becoming a near-peer competitor of the US, posing challenges in multiple domains, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system, a top American intelligence officer has told lawmakers.

China is increasingly becoming a near-peer competitor of the US, posing challenges in multiple domains, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system, a top American intelligence officer has told lawmakers. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday briefed members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the worldwide threat assessment of the US. “China increasingly is a near-peer competitor, challenging the United States in multiple areas while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system,” Haines said. China, she said, is employing a comprehensive approach to demonstrate its growing strength and compel regional neighbours to acquiesce to Beijing’s preferences, including its claims over disputed territory and assertions of sovereignty over Taiwan. “It also has substantial cyber capabilities that, if deployed at a minimum, can cause localised temporary disruptions to critical infrastructure inside the United States,” Haines said. Russia, Iran and North Korea are the other three countries that pose threats to the United States, she said. At the same time, regional conflicts continue to fuel humanitarian crises, undermine stability and threaten US persons and interests. “The fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria has a direct implication for U.S. forces, while tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan remain a concern for the world. The iterate of violence between Israel and Iran, the activity of foreign powers in Libya and conflicts in other areas, including Africa and the Middle East, has the potential to escalate or spread,” Haines said. “Asia has periodic upheavals, such as the Burmese military seizure of power in February. Latin America has contested elections. Violent popular protests are likely to continue to produce volatility. And Africa will continue to see ongoing marginalisation of some communities, ethnic conflict, and contentious elections,” she said. Senator Mark Warner, Chairman of the Senate Committee, described the rise of China as a major challenge for the United States. “As we grapple with the challenges posed by a rising China, our problem is with the Chinese Communist Party, not with the Chinese people or the Chinese diaspora globally. And certainly not with Asian Americans here in the United States,” he said. As China grows in power and stature, the CCP has sought to undercut the United States as the world’s leading technological power, he said. “We see this in the reliance on both strategic investments and traditional espionage to acquire intellectual property, their use and export of surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes, and their modernization of traditional and asymmetric military capabilities, including in the space and cyber domains,” Warner said. “When we look at development, for example, of 5G technology, we’ve seen the CCP act aggressively to influence international standard-setting bodies and invest in a national champion, Huawei, that threatens to dominate the worldwide telecommunications market,” Warner said. “I fear that the CCP will develop a similar strategy to dominate the development of other emerging technologies, including AI, quantum computing, and BAU technology. In many ways, the IC is the only part of our overall enterprise that sees across all domains in this field, and I think we must be clear-eyed in assessing the threats posed by the CCP,” he added. Senator Marco Rubio said that the United States made a mistake to not focus on both China’s capabilities and on its growing and intensifying efforts to involve and engage itself in the political environment in the United States. “Different aims, perhaps, different tactics in some ways. But certainly, they have every capability that the Russians do, and more, in many cases. And they are certainly interested in moulding public discourse and creating political pressure among creating pressure on political figures who they don’t like here in the United States,” he said. FBI Director Christopher Wray told Senators that the investigating agency now has over 2,000 investigations that tie back to the Chinese government. “And on the economic espionage investigation side alone, it’s about a 1,300 per cent increase over the last several years. We’re opening a new investigation into China every 10 hours. And I can assure the committee, that’s not because our folks don’t have anything to do with their time,” he said.

China increasingly a near-peer competitor, posing multiple challenges: Top US intelligence officer

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