(IGHRAN, Morocco) — A 5-year-old boy who had been trapped 32 meters underground in a well in Morocco for four days was found dead on Saturday following a lengthy rescue attempt that had captivated the Arab world.
In an official statement carried by state television, Morocco’s King Mohamed VI offered his condolences to the parents of the boy, identified as Rayan, as the meticulous relief operation came to a heart-wrenching end.
Relentless digging by bulldozers parallel to the well reached the full depth of 32 meters before rescuers embarked on a horizontal dig to reach the boy.
In the last stretch, which took longer than expected, rescuers resorted to manual digging in fear of possible landslides that would put Rayan’s life at risk. They also inserted pipes as a shelter from rock collapses, television footage showed.
After the pathway leading to Rayan was cleared, paramedics rushed to the tunnel to attend to him. His parents stood by anxiously, with security personnel forming a barrier in front of a crowd of onlookers as the sound of prayers blared through a loudspeaker.
The security guards then formed a cordon around an ambulance as Rayan’s body was moved out on a stretcher, with his mother appearing to be weeping.
Rayan reportedly fell through a narrow opening of the well while playing in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.
A “Save Rayan” Arabic hashtag trended in several Arab countries, including in neighboring Algeria as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan as thousands of users took to social media to offer their prayers.
“I prayed to God and begged him to get him out of the well alive and safe. Please God, ease my pain. I hope the authorities and rescuers manage to save my son,” Rayan’s mother, Wassima Kharchich, told France24 earlier on Saturday.
Many likened his story to that of Prophet Yunis, commonly referred to as Jonah in the Bible, who was swallowed up by a whale for three days before the giant fish spat him out.
“Please God, protect him just like you protected Yunis in the belly of the whale,” read a caption on a widely shared drawing of a boy playing with toys while being trapped in a deep well.
Several Moroccan media outlets livestreamed the rescue operation to hundreds of thousands of viewers, leading to an outpouring of sympathy. A CCTV camera lowered into the well to track Rayan showed him alive on Thursday, albeit he appeared to be suffering from head injuries. Oxygen, food and water were also lowered into the well.
(LONDON) — Prince Andrew has agreed to a deposition date of March 10 in connection with the civil lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, according to an attorney for Giuffre and a source close to the prince.
Lawyers for Giuffre are expected to travel to London to question the prince. The specific location for the deposition has not yet been determined.
Sigrid McCawley, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, the firm that represents Giuffre, on Saturday confirmed to ABC News that the date has been set. The news of the agreed-upon date was first reported by The Telegraph.
A source close to the prince told ABC News that Prince Andrew’s legal team has agreed to “voluntarily produce” him for the deposition on that date. Giuffre has yet to commit to a date for her deposition “despite repeated requests,” the source close to the prince said.
The news comes following Prince Andrew’s failed attempt to have a lawsuit from Giuffre, an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim, dismissed at this stage in the proceeding. A federal judge in New York rejected his arguments in January.
Giuffre alleges Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to Prince Andrew who she claims took advantage and sexually abused her when she was under 18.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegation and attacked Giuffre’s credibility and motives.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Members of the Texas National Guard deployed to the southern border under Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial immigration initiative, Operation Lone Star, are raising several concerns about their mission, including reports that some guardsmen have died in suspected suicides.
The Texas National Guard and the Department of Public Safety have been collaborating under Operation Lone Star to stem what they describe as the flow of undocumented immigrants coming across the southern border and to combat drug trafficking.
ABC News has spoken to three soldiers in the Guard who asked that their names not be used so they can talk freely about the issues they say are affecting morale among some of their fellow service members deployed to the border.
They say those problems have ranged from pay delays to poor housing arrangements and inadequate training to assist Border Patrol in apprehending immigrants. Some of the guardsmen who spoke to ABC News say word of the suspected suicides of four members of the National Guard since October has also prompted them to come forward. The concerns raised by these members of the Guard add to the mounting pressure the program has already faced from Democratic lawmakers and advocates who say the mission violates the rights of immigrants who should be given the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States without fear of being detained for weeks at a time.
In recent months, dozens of state lawmakers and members of Congress have called on the Department of Justice to investigate Operation Lone Star, citing concerns over civil rights violations and the reported suicides. In December 2021, the ACLU of Texas and other civil rights groups asked the DOJ to investigate the mission, which authorizes members of the National and state law enforcement agencies to detain or arrest migrants suspected of trespassing on private or state property. They cited alleged incidents of racial profiling and cases where migrants were lured onto private land so they could be arrested.
“What we found is that officials are targeting Black and brown migrants in arrests and are frequently luring them in situations in which they are unknowingly on private property without permission,” ACLU of Texas lawyer Kate Huddleston told ABC News in a previous interview. “In 70% of cases charges are being dropped but that’s only after people are spending weeks in jail.”
Abbott’s office pushed back against the criticism in a statement to ABC News.
“It comes as no surprise that Democrats who support President Biden’s reckless and dangerous open border policies disagree with Governor Abbott’s resolve to do the President’s job and actually try to secure the border,” said Nan Tolson, a spokesperson for Abbott. “Those legislators should listen to the complaints the Governor has heard during dozens of visits to border communities–complaints by constituents who are suffering the consequences of almost 2 million immigrants crossing the border illegally in the past 12 months.”
A mission that quickly expanded
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, dispatching Texas National Guard, Department of Public Safety officers and other state resources to control the rising number of immigrant crossings at the border.
In less than a year, the originally voluntary operation of about 500 National Guardsmen has escalated to a mandatory activation of over 10,000 troops.
Former enlisted senior adviser to the Texas National Guard, Sgt. Maj. Jason Featherston, said he believes four reported recent incidents of the unit’s soldiers dying by suicide, including one who served under his leadership a few years back, are directly tied to the rapid escalation and poor execution of the program.
“This should have been planned, this was just a knee-jerk reaction to get people out there and no one took into account the individual soldier and what their needs are,” Featherston said. “That’s a mistake because if you’re not taking care of the soldier he is going to be distracted and they’re not going to focus on the mission and that is what is happening now.”
Since he retired in November, Featherston has been advocating for guardsmen on the front lines of the mission. Soldiers he has spoken to have complained about a lack of cold weather gear and Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKS). Others have said that pay delays are putting a strain on their spouses who struggle to pay bills when they’re away on duty. Featherston says that military leaders have prioritized quick mobilization over the needs of each guardsman.
The Army Times was first to report on four suspected suicides of guardsmen who were serving or set to be deployed under Operation Lone Star.
ABC News has not been able to reach the families of the soldiers who died or confirm that all were connected to Operation Lone Star, but military documents describe the death of one soldier who was currently deployed under the operation as a “confirmed suicide.” Another soldier was found inside a vehicle with “an apparent gunshot wound to the head with his right hand still holding the firearm,” according to the documents.
Suicides draw concern
The military documents reviewed by ABC News show that one guardsman, Pfc. Joshua Cortez, submitted a hardship request to be relieved from duty. Cortez noted he had missed his first opportunity to get hired for a job when he was deployed on a previous mission, but was on his way to getting hired for this “lifetime job” at an insurance company.
He included additional documentation that indicated the company was moving forward with the hiring process and wanted to set up an interview.
His request was denied by two of three commanders who reviewed it, with one of them writing “Soldier can deploy. If offered a job then soldier can be given time for training.” The comment was dated on Nov. 4. Less than two days later, an incident report reviewed by ABC News showed Cortez shot himself in a parking lot.
The Texas Military Department, which has been collaborating with the Texas Department of Public Safety to deploy personnel and resources to the border has, cautioned against connecting the deaths to Operation Lone Star.
“There has been misleading and false information publicized without proper context or relevant information, irrespective of family sensitivity and desires,” Texas Military Department public affairs staff told ABC News in an email. “Two of the four service members publicized by media outlets were mobilized in support of Operation Lone Star. However, there is no evidence to support that their decisions were made as a result of Operation Lone Star… It would be irresponsible journalism at this point in time to tie these tragedies to Operation Lone Star, and to not respect the wishes of grieving family members.”
In late January, 50 Texas House Democrats signed a letter calling on the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to investigate and end Operation Lone Star. The letter said members of the Texas legislature had received an email from a soldier with concerns about the mission.
“Furthermore, on Dec. 24, 2021, Members of the Texas Legislature and of Congress received an anonymous email from a Soldier in the Texas Army expressing grave concerns with Operation Lone Star, including four reported deaths by suicide of Texas Guardsmen over the course of the operation,” lawmakers wrote.
“We should ignore the governor’s attempts to deflect responsibility for the deaths of Guardsmen whom he is using as political pawns and get to the bottom of the causes for these tragedies,” lawmakers wrote.
The DOJ declined to comment when asked by ABC News if they’ve responded to the calls for an investigation.
News of the suicides has shocked the military community. Some soldiers currently deployed under Operation Lone Star said the deaths should call attention to the stresses the mission is causing. One soldier told ABC News he knew one of the deceased members and acknowledged that while several factors often contribute to a suicide, being deployed at a moment’s notice is a major stressor.
“I do think that a lot of the stress is that they yanked people out from their lives,” he said.
Housing and pay concerns
One of the soldiers interviewed by ABC News said he was given less than a week to prepare for his deployment last fall, which he was told would last around 120 days. Once he arrived at his station, he was told his deployment would be extended to at least a year of mandatory service. Soldiers have been living for months in RVs that have been retrofitted to house several soldiers, raising concerns over COVID-19 exposure.
“This type of mission being in our backyards — you would think that you didn’t have to pack us like sardines, six to a trailer,” the soldier said.
Another soldier told ABC News, that although they’re used to living in different conditions when deployed, military leaders did not tell soldiers what to pack for. While some soldiers have been living in old hotels or rental homes, others have been sleeping in the RVs.
“They look like massive six-wheel trailers with slide outs that have two bathrooms and either between 12 and 20 beds,” he said. “So there was a lot of uncertainty — soldiers didn’t know where they were going to be living.”
In a statement titled “Setting the Record Straight on Operation Lone Star,” the Texas Military Department pushed back on what they called “inaccurate reports and social media posts” about issues related to living conditions and lack equipment.
“Our personnel are trained to operate and adapt in austere environments at home and abroad,” Col. Rita Holton, Texas Military Department’s public affairs officer said. “Commanders in the field have identified areas of improvement in regards to equipment and living conditions and are actively working with vendors and supply chains to execute those solutions.”
When soldiers leave their civilian lives behind, they also leave their jobs and rely on their National Guard salary. Yet some members of the National Guard ordered to the border have reported not receiving their paychecks on time or getting paid the wrong amounts during their deployment for this mission.
Another soldier ABC interviewed, said he has tried to help resolve some of the payroll issues lower-ranking soldiers have raised to him, but added that checks are still being sent to soldiers with the wrong amounts.
“I have multiple reports from my guys having pay issues and not being paid on time. Some of them are getting direct deposits and some of them are getting checks that are incorrect,” he said. “I have a single soldier who is making more than soldiers with dependents. Yeah, it’s just a pay fiasco.”
According to the statement released by the Texas Military Department, a new pay system for state active-duty missions was installed after the agency found issues with the former pay system following Hurricane Harvey. The agency said it was identifying and addressing gaps within the new system.
Every soldier ABC News spoke to said they did not feel they were being properly trained to help detain or arrest migrants.
“What are we out here for?” asked the guardsman who was dispatched to the border with less than a week to prepare. “There’s a whole bunch of better resources you could have used the money for instead of just throwing us out on these ranch roads just sitting there.”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also reach the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or the Crisis Text Line by texting “START” to 741741.
(NEW YORK) — The monster winter storm that dumped more than 1 foot of snow as well as ice from Missouri to the Northeast and freezing temperatures to Texas is making its exit.
As the storm exists the Northeast, it eaves behind harsh dry and bitter cold conditions Saturday, ranging from the northern Plains to New England, and into coastal Texas.
Texas will see the worst of the cold , with wind chill advisories and hard freeze warnings across the state.
California, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota also have wind chill alerts in place.
Wind chills in Minneapolis are at a low of 25 degrees below zero on Saturday morning.
Wind chills are as low as 9 degrees in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 7 degrees in New York and 22 degrees in Houston.
The Arctic blast will last into Sunday morning with wind chills from Houston to Augusta, Maine, remaining below 31 degrees.
Southern and coastal Texas will experience wind chills of 15 to 20 degrees, making for the coldest air mass in Texas this year.
Less severe weather and rain are expected on Saturday.
In central Montana, active Santa Ana winds at a 70 mph on Saturday may create some localized travel concerns along the Rocky Mountain front.
There are high wind warnings in north to central Montana, inducing the Great Falls, with gusts reaching near 75 mph — at hurricane-level strength.
The Santa Ana winds are also gusting to up to 60 mph in Los Angeles County and 55 mph in Ventura County, California.
In Florida, seasonal warmth will stay south of Gainesville.
Johnsburg, New York got the largest amount of snow over Thursday and Friday, with 17.8 inches.
Friday into Saturday, 17 inches of snow fell on the slopes in Killington, Vermont.
Temperatures in the Northeast will swing to seasonal and warmer on Tuesday, while the mid-Atlantic states will warm up Sunday.
(BLACKSBURG, Va.) — One person was killed and four others were injured at a shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, near Virginia Tech on Friday, according to Blacksburg Police.
Police responded to reports of shots fired at the Melody Hookah Lounge in downtown Blacksburg at 11:53 p.m. on Friday, police said in a statement, and found five injured people.
They were all taken to local hospitals where one died, police said. Conditions of the remaining four are currently unknown, according to police.
“This incident continues to be a complex, ongoing case that has shifted to a homicide investigation,” Blacksburg police said in a statement.
One of the injured was a Virginia Tech student, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said in a letter to members of the university community.
“Our condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased and we extend our support to those who were injured,” Sands said.
The names of the victims have not been released.
Virginia Tech did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — A new bill proposed this week would develop a federal alert system for active shooter situations, which have increased by over 1200% between 2000 and 2020.
The FBI defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” Though they account for a small percentage of gun deaths, 333 active shooter incidents in the United States resulted in 2,851 deaths between 2000 and 2019, according to an FBI report released last year.
On Tuesday alone, there were active shooter incidents at Bridgewater College in Virginia, where two officers were killed, and at South Education Center in Minnesota, where one student was killed and another was left in critical condition.
A bill proposed in the House the same day would help sound the alarm when such incidents occur so that people nearby an active shooter incident would be sent up-to-date information on their phones.
Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., proposed the bill, which aims to improve law enforcement officers’ ability to quickly disseminate information during active shooter situations. The AMBER Alert system, which this bill is modeled after, is a public alert triggered when a child is endangered or abducted.
The mechanics of the alert system are not spelled out in the legislation, but a coordinator from the Department of Justice would be responsible for determining best practices.
“It’s really about protecting law enforcement, protecting communities from gun violence, making sure that people have accurate and instantaneous information when there’s an active shooting to save lives,” Cicilline told ABC News.
Similar alert systems like the one proposed in the bill have been established in Michigan, Rhode Island and Texas, but the new legislation would provide a more uniform, national approach.
While several attempts at federal gun control legislation have been stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition in recent years, this bill — which doesn’t directly impact gun ownership — was brought to the House floor by the bipartisan duo optimistic about garnering similar support in the Senate.
“I think it’s fair to say that when we pass this bill out of the House, there will be significant bipartisan support. We have been in discussions with both Democrats and Republicans,” Cicilline said.
Upton was one of eight House Republicans who voted in favor of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 that would require a background check for all firearm purchases. Despite passing in the House on March 11, 2021, the bill has yet to receive a vote in the Senate, where it’s unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
The Active Shooter Alert Act focuses on reducing harm during a shooting event instead of aiming to prevent the active shooter from acquiring a gun in the first place.
“Look, to the extent that anyone thinks that this bill alone is going to do all that we need to do to reduce gun violence in this country, of course, that’s not true,” Cicilline said.
In fact, mass shootings, which can include active shooter situations, represented a mere 1% of all of the 191,897 gun deaths that occurred from 2015 to 2019, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that identifies mass shootings as cases in which four or more people are shot and tracks them through public data, news reports and other sources. They also accounted for only 2.8% of the 74,565 gun homicides during that same five-year period.
The bill is on pace to be up for a vote in the House during Police Week, which runs from May 15 through May 21, according to the bill’s sponsors.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The parents of Amir Locke spoke out at a press conference Friday alongside civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Jeff Storms and Antonio Romanucci following the killing of the 22-year-old earlier this week.
Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in an apartment early Wednesday morning. Body camera footage released on Thursday shows officers executing a “no-knock” search warrant before coming across Locke, who had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. He is seen holding a gun as he begins to sit up, still covered with the blanket, before he is shot less than 10 seconds after officers entered the room.
Locke was not named in the “no-knock” warrant, Crump said at the press conference. The warrant was being executed on behalf of St. Paul police, who were searching for a homicide suspect.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has ruled Locke’s death a homicide.
“My son Amir was a law-abiding citizen who did not have a criminal history,” his father, Andre Locke, said at the press conference. “My son Amir was loved by many of us, by our family and many people, everyone that he came in touch with. My son Amir did what was right. He did all the things that he was supposed to do.”
Locke’s parents became emotional discussing their son’s killing, saying that he was a good kid working in the music industry and an entrepreneur who wanted to help the youth.
His mother, Karen Wells, said she struggled to watch the body camera footage.
“I could not watch it,” she said. “But when I finally was able to see parts of that video when they released it yesterday — a mother should never have to see her child executed in that type of manner.”
The officer who shot and killed Locke was identified by police as Mark Hanneman. In accordance with policy, he’s been place on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the incident.
Crump, who is representing the Locke family with Storms and Romanucci, said that he was “shocked,” as he reflected on Locke’s death. According to MinnPost, Minneapolis announced that it had changed its policy on “no-knock” search warrants and restricted their use after Breonna Taylor was killed in a similar situation in 2020. Minneapolis was one of several cities to make the change.
Minneapolis police still use “no-knock” search warrants in limited cases. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman said at a Thursday press conference that “both a no-knock and a knock search warrant were obtained … so that the SWAT team could assess the circumstances and make the best possible decision.”
“If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor, it is that ‘no-knock’ warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens,” Crump said.
“We have a city that just refuses to learn,” Storms added, referring to George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis and David Smith’s 10 years earlier.
Romanucci said that Locke was “doomed to die,” because of the way that the police department carried out the raid.
“Had they announced who they were and why they were there, this tragedy could have been averted,” he said at the press conference. “But because they executed in the manner in which they did, Amir was doomed to die.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a moratorium on “no knock” warrants late Friday.
“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said in a statement. “To ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted, I’m issuing a moratorium on both the request and execution of such warrants in Minneapolis.”
Locke’s family said at the press conference that he had a license to carry the gun in his possession on Wednesday, though this has not been confirmed by ABC News. His father also said he was mentored by relatives who had a background in law enforcement.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus issued a statement on Friday addressing the shooting, saying that it was “completely avoidable.”
“Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” said Chair Bryan Strawser. The organization called for an independent investigation into the circumstances around Locke’s death.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will work with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to review Locke’s death, the office said in a press release Friday.
Locke’s parents are committed to getting justice for their son.
“As his mother, I will make sure that as long as I’m on this side of this world, I’m going to fight every day, throughout the day, 365 days, to make sure that Amir Rahkare Locke gets justice for being executed by the MPD,” Wells said.
“We know that we are not going to let them sweep Amir’s death under the rug, as they attempted to initially. His family, led by his mother and father, are gonna fight to say that Amir Locke’s life matters,” Crump added.
The Minneapolis Police Department declined to provide comment.
ABC News’ Miles Cohen and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report
(KYIV, Ukraine) — TikTok isn’t just for dance memes — it’s now being used by amateur investigators to track the Russian military buildup along Ukraine’s borders.
Among those researchers is the Conflict Intelligence Team, or CIT, a tight-knit collection of investigators based between Russia and Ukraine.
CIT practices open-source intelligence, a method of gathering and analyzing information that, as its name suggests, draws on publicly available data like social media posts and satellite imagery.
“It’s basically a bunch of independent bloggers slash researchers slash military equipment enthusiasts,” said Kirill Mikhailov, one of a handful of the group’s core members. Mikhailov, 33, is from Russia but currently lives in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The group came together in 2014, he said, during the early days of fighting in eastern Ukraine between that country’s military and pro-Russian separatists. Mikhailov said the group’s audience is primarily “people in Russia who need to be informed about this stuff,” but the group’s work is also translated into English for Western audiences.
CIT’s research has been cited widely in recent months, including in a January 15 analysis of Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine by two experts from the nonprofit CNA, a think tank that advises the US military.
The group’s work has also appeared in recent publications by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
Thomas Bullock, an analyst at the private intelligence firm Jane’s, pointed to CIT as one of the best outfits currently tracking Russia’s military buildup.
Gathering data amid Russia-Ukraine tensions
The Biden administration has warned that Russia may fabricate a pretext to invade Ukraine, a charge Russia denies. The government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion.
Amid this tension, which is spanning across the globe, Mikhailov explained one way how CIT gathers some of its data.
“Ideally, every train in Russia is logged in some central database,” Mikhailov said.
A train’s departure is checked against social media images — certain Russian-language TikTok hashtags abound with videos of trains carrying multiple launch rocket systems, troop carriers, and tanks — which researchers match visually to stations along the trains’ routes.
The type of hardware on a train, Mikhailov said, can in some cases be matched to specific military formations. CIT and other researchers have spotted in social media videos equipment allegedly used by units of Russia’s storied 76th Guards Air Assault paratrooper division, for example, due to the specific vehicles being used, their distinctive paint jobs, or unit markings.
This kind of information can be cross-referenced against the known home base of a military unit.
Researchers also supplement their findings with satellite data or, in some cases, social media comments.
“If a TikTok goes viral — like, super viral — then we can get lucky,” Mikhailov said, as the videos attract comments from soldiers’ relatives.
These comments can contain useful nuggets of information, Mikhailov said, like suggestions that a loved one’s military deployment will be longer than the routine exercises publicly announced by Russia’s military.
“There is no hiding” in today’s global military landscape, according to Robert Abrams an ABC News contributor and the former commander of U.S. forces in Korea.
Open-source intelligence is more pervasive than ever now; everyone has a cellphone and satellite images are cheaper to obtain.
“From a military perspective, you have to really think through how you are going to protect your position and your movements and what your capabilities are,” said Abrams. “You don’t have to just worry about aircraft flying with side or forward looking infrared radar, you now have to worry about Joe Schmoe on the street corner with a cellphone.”
Verifying gathered information
When the U.S. military makes decisions based on publicly available information — the kind used by CIT — that data is cross-referenced with other forms of intelligence, like human sources or intercepted communications, Abrams said.
“You don’t make decisions and assessments on one report or one source of intelligence. As a general rule, you want to cross-cue with another form of intelligence,” Abrams said.
To avoid disinformation, Mikhailov said CIT’s researchers aim to collect social media posts from genuine eyewitnesses.
Satellite imagery also helps verify the data CIT collects, Mikhailov said.
But one method used by CIT of validating their findings has recently become trickier, after, Mikhailov said, an intervention by Russia’s authorities.
Eight-digit numbers on the side of a train car can aid CIT in isolating a specific train and obtaining a history of its movements. That data is now harder to come by, Mikhailov said.
“They’ve been blocking our accounts, they’ve been limiting some specific types of requests, like you could request to see all trains that are currently at a station. It’s not available at this point,” Mikhailov said.
The most significant recent change, Mikhailov said, was the removal of data about journeys by trains carrying military cargo.
This wasn’t the first time a new roadblock has been thrown up for open-source researchers. In 2019, Russian lawmakers approved a bill blocking troops there from using smartphones while on duty and from posting personal details online.
Mikhailov said researchers are adapting to the latest setbacks.
“We have found some workarounds and loopholes they haven’t plugged yet,” he said.
(ATLANTA) — Travis McMichael withdrew on Friday his guilty plea in the federal case against him in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. The trial goes forward on Monday.
Gregory McMichael, Travis’ father, informed a federal court Thursday evening that he was withdrawing his guilty plea to federal hate crime charges connected to Arbery’s death after a federal judge this week rejected the terms of a plea agreement reached with the Justice Department.
A lawyer for Gregory McMichael, the father of Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery in February 2020 three times at close range, informed U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Wood in a filing that he was ready to stand trial.
Wood rejected a plea deal in which federal prosecutors guaranteed the men would be able to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison. She told the men she wanted an answer by Friday.
They will go to trial next week with their co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, who was not offered the same plea deal.
In accepting the change, the court agreed not to allow the statements made by the men last Monday in association with the plea, where they had admitted to targeting Arbery because he was Black.
Gregory McMichael, 66, and his 36-year-old son were convicted of state murder charges last year along with Bryan, 52, and were all sentenced to life in prison, the McMichaels without the possibility of parole.
The McMichaels and Bryan will be required to serve their state sentence before they serve a federal sentence, if they are convicted.
During a hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, Wood said she felt “uncomfortable” approving a plea deal that locked her into giving the McMichaels a three-decade sentence in a federal penitentiary. She noted that the case was in its early stages and said, “I can’t say that 360 months is the precise, fair sentence in this case.”
The federal trial will include evidence of the McMichaels’ prior racist behavior, which was excluded from the state trial.
Wood’s decision came on the heels of Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, giving impassioned statements in court. They asked the judge to deny the men their wish to go to federal prison, which is safer and better funded than most state prisons, according to legal experts.
“Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me,” Cooper-Jones told Wood. “It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
At Monday’s hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Tara Lyons said Travis and Gregory McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of a multi-count indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.” Lyons said the agreement called for other charges to be dismissed, including attempted kidnapping and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
The agreement also called for the McMichaels to waive their right to appeal in both the federal and state cases.
Arbery, 25, was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck.
Bryan also used his cellphone to record Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun, video that became integral to their state murder convictions.
(NEW YORK) — Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate NewsCorp was hit with a cyberattack, and a leading cybersecurity firm, Mandient, brought in to investigate concluded the activity was likely from China, NewsCorp said Friday.
In an email to all NewsCorp employees, David Kline, NewsCorp’s chief technology officer and Billy O’Brien, its chief information security officer, said “attack activity” was discovered Jan. 20 on a system used by several of the company’s business units.
They said they believe the activity affected a “limited number of business email accounts and documents from NewsCorp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.”
The company said the threat, however, is contained and “the systems housing customer and financial data were not affected. In addition, we have not experienced related interruptions to our business operations.”
They said they have also notified federal authorities.
NewsCorp said that some data was taken by a foreign government. Mandient is alleging China is involved.
“Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests,” said Dave Wong, vice president, incident response at Mandiant.
NewsCorp said its “highest concern” is the protection of journalists and their sources.
A person familiar with the situation said journalists were among the targets of the alleged attack.
“We will not tolerate attacks on our journalism, nor will we be deterred from our reporting, which provides readers everywhere with the news that matters. We believe it is important that other media organizations be made aware of this threat in order to take appropriate precautions, and we are providing technical details of the attack to the Media Information Sharing and Analysis Organization,” Kline and O’Brien wrote to employees.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned this week of the dangers of China stealing U.S. innovation — a topic he has continued to beat the drum on since becoming the agency’s director.
“The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries—so much so that, as you heard, we’re constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so,” Wray said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Monday.
“Here in the U.S., they unleash a massive, sophisticated hacking program that is bigger than those of every other major nation combined,” he said without directly speaking about the NewsCorp hack. “Operating from pretty much every major city in China, with a lot of funding and sophisticated tools, and often joining forces with cyber criminals, in effect, cyber mercenaries. In just one case, one example, a group of MSS-associated criminal hackers stole terabytes of data from hundreds of companies.”
