14 ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Monday there are plans for a possible second meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, after their historic 2016 encounter in Cuba became a landmark in mending relations severed by the 1,000-year-old schism that divided Christianity. Speaking to reporters as he traveled home from Greece, Francis said he planned to meet next week with the Russian church’s foreign envoy “to agree on a possible meeting” with Patriarch Kirill. He noted that Kirill is due to travel in the coming weeks but also said he was “ready to go to Moscow” even if diplomatic protocols weren’t yet in place. “Because talking with a brother, there are no protocols,” Francis said. “We are brothers. We say things to each other’s face like brothers.” The two churches split during the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, … [Read more...]

LONDON (AP) — The family of the British woman charged with helping the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exploit underage girls has asked the U.S. attorney general to improve the treatment she is receiving during her trial “in the interest of justice and common humanity.” Ghislaine Maxwell’s family have written to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland requesting that authorities stop using four-point restraints to shackle her hands, waist and feet when she is moved from a holding cell to the courtroom, and that she receive a food pack and a bar of soap each day. The family also asked that she be allowed to meet with her attorneys for at least 30 minutes before and after each day’s proceedings. The restraints cause bruising, broken skin and other “unnecessary trauma,” the family said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. They also complained that she received “minimal sustenance” during the first week of her trial, had no access to soap or hand sanitizer despite the risk … [Read more...]

Chinese intelligence agents acquired National Security Agency hacking tools and repurposed them in 2016 to attack American allies and private companies in Europe and Asia, a leading cybersecurity firm has discovered. The episode is the latest evidence that the United States has lost control of key parts of its cybersecurity arsenal. Based on the timing of the attacks and clues in the computer code, researchers with the firm Symantec believe the Chinese did not steal the code but captured it from an N.S.A. attack on their own computers — like a gunslinger who grabs an enemy’s rifle and starts blasting away. The Chinese action shows how proliferating cyberconflict is creating a digital wild West with few rules or certainties, and how difficult it is for the United States to keep track of the malware it uses to break into foreign networks and attack adversaries’ infrastructure. The losses have touched off a debate within the intelligence community over whether the United States … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON — The United States Cyber Command is targeting individual Russian operatives to try to deter them from spreading disinformation to interfere in elections, telling them that American operatives have identified them and are tracking their work, according to officials briefed on the operation. The campaign, which includes missions undertaken in recent days, is the first known overseas cyberoperation to protect American elections, including the November midterms. The operations come as the Justice Department outlined on Friday a campaign of “information warfare” by Russians aimed at influencing the midterm elections, highlighting the broad threat the American government sees from Moscow’s influence campaign. Defense officials would not say how many individuals they were targeting, and they would not describe the methods that Cyber Command has used to send the direct messages to the operatives behind the influence campaigns. It is not clear if the information was … [Read more...]

British police have launched an investigation after Hong Kong activists were targeted by a £10,000 anonymous bounty for information. The bounties, backed by a so-called “anonymous boss”, were posted on popular Chinese social media platform WeChat, and promised £10,000 to anyone able to provide either the home or work addresses of two Hong Kong democracy activists. Hong Kong activists have been repeatedly targeted by the Chinese Communist Party in the past. Activists both at home and abroad have been threatened in apparent efforts to undermine the current “one country, two systems” arrangement in the region. “Anonymous boss offers £10,000 as bounty for anyone who can provide each Simon Cheng or Nathan Law’s residential and work address,” read the WeChat post according to a report from The Telegraph. The post was followed by a photograph of both men at an event with British MPs, including Labour’s Stephen Kinnock. The bounty, which was posted in a group containing … [Read more...]