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A DB spokesperson told Reuters that under current IT security legislation it did not have to run network components by Germany's cybersecurity office, the BSI, unlike public telecoms network operators. A BSI spokesperson said it was not aware of any law that determined the DB IT systems as "critical components". A Huawei spokesperson said the firm would never harm any nation or individual. The December contract with Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is for Huawei tech like switches and routers. A government source said it had detected some operators had already built in Huawei critical components without waiting for a BSI green light and could be required to replace those.

☆ Wagner Group mercenaries are being butchered in Ukraine, but US intel expects them to keep stirring up trouble elsewhere on Russia's behalf
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The notorious Wagner Group has operated around the world on Russia's behalf for years. For years, the Wagner Group has put boots on the ground in countries across Africa and the Middle East. A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary 'Group Wagner' and a slogan in Russian on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia. Graves of Russian Wagner mercenary group fighters are seen in a cemetery near the village of Bakinskaya in Krasnodar region, Russia, January 22, 2023. Like Russia's regular military, Wagner has endured heavy losses on the battlefield.

☆ Threats towards women deter political involvement - UN
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Dina Kartit | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 8 (Reuters) - Violence and threats towards women still act as a deterrent to their involvement in politics, the U.N. gender equality organisation said, despite more women holding office. Data showed that the number of women in political leadership posts, both in government and in parliament, has improved overall, though, some regions such as the Middle East and North Africa lagged far behind. "Full democracy needs the equal participation of women in all its processes," the U.N. body added in its report on Tuesday, ahead of International Women's Day. The organisation's data also showed the global average number of women in national parliaments had inched up to 26.5% as of Jan 1., from 25.5% a year ago. The region grouping the Middle East and North Africa remained at the bottom of the regional ranking with fewer than 18% of female members of parliament, the U.N. Women's data showed.

March 8 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday agreed with the state's Republican attorney general that the policy of President Joe Biden's administration to release many people who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border rather than detaining them violates U.S. immigration law. Republican critics have called the policy "catch and release." The judge agreed with the argument made by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who challenged the policy. Moody sued DHS in 2021, claiming its policy, officially known as Parole Plus Alternative to Detention, violates a U.S. law called the Immigration and Nationality Act. Federal immigration law allows DHS to "parole" migrants rather than detaining them "on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit."

☆ White House backs Senate bill to boost US ability to ban TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The bill gives the Commerce Department the ability impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national security risks, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Intelligence Committee. He said it would also apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. TikTok said in a statement that any "U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide." Warner said it was important the government do more to make clear what it believes are the national security risks to U.S. from the use of TikTok. McCaul said he thinks the full U.S. House of Representatives could vote on bill this month.

☆ US senators unveil bipartisan bill empowering Biden to ban TikTok and other services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —A dozen US senators unveiled bipartisan legislation Tuesday expanding President Joe Biden’s legal authority to ban TikTok nationwide, marking the latest in a string of congressional proposals threatening the social media platform’s future in the United States. The legislation, called the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, does not target TikTok specifically for a ban. In the case of TikTok, lawmakers have said China’s national security laws could force TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to provide access to TikTok’s US user data. The bill specifically directs the Secretary of Commerce to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” national security risks associated with technology linked to those countries. But those have expanded to include makers of surveillance cameras and, more recently, apps and software makers such as TikTok.

The six countries included in the bill are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Warner said. "This competition with China around who dominates technology domains, that really is where the nexus of national security lies going forward," Warner said. Warner said the bill is not solely meant to address TikTok, and rather should create a "systemic approach" that prevents the need for one-off actions. "A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide. We hope that Congress will explore solutions to their national security concerns that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

☆ 13 times solar storms caused freak events on Earth, from detonating mines to crashing financial markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A solar storm shorted Quebec's power grid for 8 hours. NASA/SDOOn March 10, 1989, an enormous solar flare blew up on the sun with the power of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. The particles created a strong current in the sky, and the Earth created electrical current in the ground to rectify this. This surged the Quebec power grid, which was out of commission for eight long hours on a weekday morning, affecting about 6 million people. And radio interference jammed signals from Radio Free Europe into Russia.

☆ Southwest Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Havana after cabin fills with smoke
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HAVANA, March 5 (Reuters) - A Southwest Airlines plane bound for Fort Lauderdale from Havana was forced to return to Cuba's Jose Marti Airport Sunday after an engine reportedly caught fire following a bird strike, according to passenger cell phone video and media reports. NBC 6 News in Florida reported a Southwest Airlines spokesperson had confirmed the incident. Cell phone footage showed smoke filling the cabin as panicked parents appeared to explain to their children how to fit oxygen masks. Emergency lighting inside the plane was lit and footage showed customers evacuating the jet via emergency slides on the runway at Cuba's largest airport as firemen and trucks looked on. The news report said there had been no serious injuries and that all passengers were safely on the ground in Havana.

☆ A Southwest passenger says they felt their lungs 'burning' after the cabin filled with smoke mid-flight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Florida-bound Southwest flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Cuba on Sunday. The plane's cabin filled with smoke after the Boeing 737 was hit by birds. A passenger told NBC's "Early Today" show they felt their lungs "burning" in the smoke. Marco Antonio, a passenger on the flight, told NBC's "Early Today" show that people on board the Boeing 737 jet were "screaming," adding: "Nobody could breathe. A spokesperson for Southwest told Insider the plane's engine and nose were struck by birds, which prompted an emergency landing.

☆ Tiny homes, big problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Beyond their star appeal, low-cost tiny homes like Casitas have real-world utility. The homes have been seized upon as a solution for cities like Los Angeles to house the homeless. They showed off their homes' transportability by hitching several of them to a Tesla and filming drag races between Teslas and trucks that were hooked to trailers carrying the homes. So far, though, after a little more than a year of building, the company has fabricated only about 400 homes. Even if it were churning out thousands of units, Boxabl hasn't yet received the certifications required to sell them in most states across the country.

☆ Pablo Escobar and the real story behind 'Cocaine Bear'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Chris Dalby | Insight Crime | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"Cocaine Bear" depicts an ursine rampage through Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The film is a fictionalization of a real event involving a bear finding cocaine thrown from a drug-laden airplane. Plenty has been written on the film's fictionalization of a real event involving a bear finding cocaine thrown from a drug-laden airplane. The real bear, which found packets of cocaine in the forest in 1985, never got a chance to go on a murder spree. The companyFor all its insanity, Cocaine Bear screenwriter Jimmy Warden does include elements of the real story.

☆ Cuba's president meets CEO of Russia's Rosneft amid fuel shortage
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, March 5 (Reuters) - Russian oil firm Rosneft's CEO Igor Sechin met with Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel late on Saturday, the island's leader said, amid an acute fuel shortage that has service stations temporarily shuttered and hours-long gasoline queues. Several tweets on Cuba's Presidency account emphasized the good relations between the two countries, but did not specify the reason for the visit by the state-run oil firm's boss. Cuba's former leader Raul Castro has also flown to Caracas for the occasion, Cuban state-run media said. Russia, hit by Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, is looking to strengthen political and economic ties with other countries opposed to what it calls U.S. hegemony. Cuba has been under a U.S. economic embargo since 1962 after a Communist revolution led by former leader Fidel Castro.

☆ Cuba blasts U.S. for years of disregarding evidence on 'Havana Syndrome'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Dave Sherwood | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

read more"This conclusion ... confirms what we already knew," Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Reuters in an interview in Havana late on Thursday. "The unfortunate thing is, the U.S. government leveraged (Havana Syndrome) to derail bilateral relations ... and discredit Cuba." Cuba has for years labeled as "science fiction" the idea that ´Havana Syndrome´ resulted from an attack by a foreign agent, and its top scientists in 2021 found no evidence of such allegations. De Cossio told Reuters there had been no shortage of evidence and that the revelation this week cast fresh doubt on the credibility of other U.S. policies towards Cuba. ´Havana Syndrome,´ referred to by the U.S. government as "anomalous health incidents," first came to light in 2016 after dozens of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Havana complained of intense headaches, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok, the Chinese social media app used by more than 100 million Americans. Yet even as Democrats objected, many of them said they did so regretfully, and they would have much preferred to support a version of McCaul's TikTok ban. "My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any other software application that threatens U.S. national security." "It would be unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee were to censor millions of Americans," TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter told CNBC in an email Monday. On Monday, the Biden administration released new implementation rules for a TikTok ban that applies only to federal government-owned devices, which was passed by Congress in December.

☆ Cuba blasts US govt for granting asylum to pilot of stolen plane
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HAVANA, March 1 (Reuters) - Cuban authorities have accused the U.S. government of being "complicit in piracy" for granting political asylum to a pilot who fled to Florida on a small "kidnapped" plane last October. In a statement late Tuesday, Cuba's foreign ministry said it had summoned Washington's charge d'affaires in Havana to communicate Cuba's "protest" to the asylum granted to the Cuban pilot, arguing he violated regulations. The Cuban ministry said it had made four requests to the U.S. to "return" the 29-year-old pilot and the aircraft, a Russian-made Antonov An-2 single-engine used for fumigating crops, owned by the national air service company. The Caribbean nation's authorities warned that the U.S. decision could encourage similar unlawful acts with negative repercussions for the national security of both countries. Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Writing by Valentine Hilaire Editing by Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] Maylin Amador, 42, poses for a photo with Gucci, her bichon habanero, the national dog of Cuba, in Havana, Cuba, February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre MeneghiniHAVANA, March 1 (Reuters) - Maylin Amador breeds and styles one of Cuba's most attractive dogs - the Havanese bichon, a small but lively lapdog with abundant waves of tobacco-colored hair, and the Caribbean island's only native breed. "It is difficult to raise this animal because it bathes every four days," she said, as she prepares her dog Gucci for a national competition. The dog - considered the island's national breed - was popular among Cuban aristocrats before the Fidel Castro-led 1959 revolution. Evelio Fernandez, president of the Cuban "Bichon Havanese" club, told Reuters the association currently counts over 1,400 Havanese, and that the dog was officially recognized as Cuban in 2016.

☆ 'Havana syndrome' not caused by foreign adversary, U.S. intel finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The mysterious syndrome, first reported by U.S. officials in the Cuban capital Havana in 2016, has afflicted U.S. diplomats, intelligence officers and other U.S. personnel worldwide. The investigation also did not find common medical explanations for all of the different symptoms reported or common circumstances, according to intelligence officials. The declassified assessment said the seven U.S intelligence agencies that conducted the investigation had varying levels of confidence in the judgments. "We cannot tie a foreign adversary to any incident," said one of two U.S. intelligence officials who briefed reporters on the investigation. U.S intelligence agencies found confusion among foreign foes over the issue, according to the briefing.

☆ Cuba's top cigar maker puffs out more sales, led by European buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Sales at Cuban cigar maker Habanos rose 2% last year compared with the previous year, the company announced on Monday, as it recovers business following the COVID-19 pandemic and the havoc caused by a major hurricane. Habanos reported sales of $545 million last year, the company said during the inauguration of a festival in the Cuban capital of Havana. The cigar company said it has 40% of the global premium tobacco market while controlling up to 80% of sales for hand-rolled cigars. In Europe, sales have grown mainly in Spain, France and Germany. In Asia, China has also become an important market for Cuba's signature export and "the driving force" for sales in its region.

☆ Massive forest fires rage on in eastern Cuba
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Nelson Acosta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HAVANA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Forest fires raged on in Cuba's eastern region on Monday, inching toward more populated ground more than a week after sparking near a national park. More than 2,000 hectares of forest, including plantations and coffee crops, have been devoured by the flames, authorities said, as firefighters, park employees and soldiers battled the blaze. The fires have moved away from the Mensura-Piloto National Park and toward the province of Santiago de Cuba, home of the populous city of the same name, according to officials. The latest fires add to the dozens in January, which authorities said was a higher-than-average figure. Pinar del Rio and Artemisa, in western Cuba, and Camaguey and Holguin, in the central-eastern region, were the areas most affected.

☆ Continuing Sanctions Against Russia Mark ‘Tectonic’ Shift
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Hundreds of companies, though, decamped, calculating that the looming threat of sanctions ratcheting up and reputational risk warranted an exit. Prof. Sonnenfeld and Mr. Tannebaum both have been personally sanctioned by Russia, which has accused critics of engaging in a “Russophobic” campaign. “Countries continue to rely on those tools for foreign policy. The Russia sanctions have functioned as a “wake-up call” to the C-suite, Mr. Smith said. The use of coordinated sanctions, both in Russia and as a broader foreign policy tool, doesn’t seem to be going away, experts agreed.

☆ A Year After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Tough Sanctions Linger
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago prompted a volley of tough sanctions from the U.S. and its allies, a historic use of economic measures that will likely have lasting implications for businesses. Hundreds of companies, though, decamped, calculating that the looming threat of sanctions ratcheting up and reputational risk warranted an exit. “Countries continue to rely on those tools for foreign policy. The Russia sanctions have functioned as a “wake-up call” to the C-suite, Mr. Smith said. The use of coordinated sanctions, both in Russia and as a broader foreign policy tool, doesn’t seem to be going away, experts agreed.

☆ U.S. transfers two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Pakistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 23 (Reuters) - The United States has transferred two brothers from the Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention facility in Cuba to Pakistan, bringing the total number of people held at Guantanamo down to 32, the Pentagon said on Thursday. There were 40 detainees when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. The federal government is barred by law from transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. mainland prisons. "The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," the Pentagon said in a statement. A total of 32 detainees remain, of whom 18 are eligible for transfer, the Pentagon said in its statement.

☆ DeSantis wants to make it harder for undocumented immigrants to work and go to college in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

DeSantis is accelerating his clamp down against undocumented immigrants in Florida. Ron DeSantis of Florida rolled out a series of proposals on Thursday that would impose major restrictions on career and educational opportunities for undocumented immigrants in the state. The governor wants state legislators to repeal a state law that allows children of undocumented immigrants to get in-state college tuition rates. Under the proposal, hospitals would be required to collect data on how much they spend providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants. These cities limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities by refusing to report or hand over certain undocumented immigrants for deportation.

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday said the government will encourage companies to build at least two advanced domestic computer chip factories employing thousands of union workers, as part of a $52.7 billion dollar initiative. The centers would also include a "robust supplier ecosystem," Raimondo said in a speech in Washington. "America needs to design and produce the world's most advanced chips right here in America," Raimondo said, adding that the United States leads in design but not manufacturing. Raimondo said the department planned to invest $11 billion in semiconductor research and development, including the creation of a public-private partnership she called the National Semiconductor Technology Center. The United States has some chip production, and signs of expansion despite a very tight labor market.

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