Emerging online threats changing Homeland Security’s role
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday that her department was founded to combat terrorism, but its mission is shifting to also confront emerging online threats. China, Iran and other countries are mimicking the approach that Russia used to interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2016, she said. Under threat are Americans’ devices and networks. “It’s not just U.S. troops and government agents on the front lines anymore,” Nielsen said. “It’s U.S. companies.”
NEW YORK – A judge directed prosecutors Monday to publicly release documents related to the search warrant for last year’s FBI raids on the home and office of President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III ordered that redacted versions of the documents be released Tuesday. Pauley sentenced Cohen to three years in prison in December for crimes including lying to Congress and paying two women to stay silent about affairs they claimed to have had with Trump.
WASHINGTON – The president of Brazil visited CIA headquarters Monday on his first official trip to the U.S., an unusual move that reflects the country’s shift in leadership to a more pro-american stance. President Jair Bolsonaro planned to discuss “international themes in the region” at the visit to headquarters in Langley, Virginia, according to his son, Eduardo, a Brazilian lawmaker accompanying him. Eduardo Bolsonaro described the CIA as “one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world.”
PARIS – The French civil aviation investigation bureau BEA has concluded there were “clear similarities” between this month’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane and a Lion Air plane crash last October. The French bureau said Monday that black box data from the Ethiopian Airlines flight showed the links and will be used for additional study. Ethiopian authorities asked BEA for help in extracting and interpreting the crashed plane’s black boxes because Ethiopia does not have the necessary expertise and technology.