US intelligence: Russia, Iran tried to influence presidential election
Russia’s government tried to seed the 2020 US presidential campaign with “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against candidate Joe Biden through allies of president Donald Trump and his administration, US intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The assessment was made in a 15-page report into election interference published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It underscores allegations that Trump’s allies were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the November 3 election. Biden defeated Trump and took office on January 20.
US intelligence agencies found other attempts to sway voters, including a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Iran intended to undercut Trump’s support.
The report assesses “with high confidence” that Iran carried out an influence campaign during the 2020 presidential election. These efforts “intended to undercut the reelection prospects of former President Trump and further its longstanding objectives of exacerbating divisions in the US, creating confusion and undermining the legitimacy of US elections and institutions.”
“There are no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, voter tabulation, or reporting results,” the report said.
“We did not identify Iran engaging in any election interference activities as defined in this assessment,” it said.
Iran’s election influence included “creating or amplifying social media content that criticized former president Trump – probably because they believed that this would advance Iran’s longstanding objectives and undercut the prospects for the former president’s reelection without provoking retaliation,” the report said.
The assessment also mentioned Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He “probably” authorized the influence campaign, it said, adding that “it was a whole of government effort.”
“Iran focused its social media and propaganda on perceived vulnerabilities in the United States, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, and civil unrest,” the report said.
Beijing “did not deploy interference efforts,” it said.
“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.
US officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”
US intelligence agencies and former special counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election to boost Trump’s candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
MADRID (Reuters) – Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has challenged striker Luis Suarez to end his long drought without a Champions League away goal and lead his side to victory against Chelsea in Wednesday’s last-16 second leg.
Suarez has not scored in a European away game since netting for Barcelona in a group stage match with AS Roma in 2015 and his side could certainly use his goals as it looks to overturn a 1-0 deficit at Stamford Bridge.
“Suarez is a crucial player for us, a striker with a huge amount of experience and influence. It would be the perfect match to break that run which everyone keeps talking about, so why not?” said Simeone. “Tomorrow could be a beautiful night for him and for us.”
Atletico has fond memories of its last match in England, when it knocked out then Champions League holder Liverpool with a thrilling 3-2 victory after extra-time at Anfield, although it had held a 1-0 lead in the tie from the first leg.
Simeone said the negative result obliged
Atletico to play with more ambition than in the first leg, held in Bucharest due to COVID19 restrictions and in which his team failed to have a shot on target.
He also praised Chelsea’s resurgence under Thomas Tuchel and said his side’s best chance of winning would be to put the Premier League outfit under pressure by scoring an early goal.
Chelsea has only conceded twice in 12 games in all competitions under Tuchel, while Southampton is the only team to have taken the lead against the Blues.
“We’re facing a team in very good form, who have never lost with their new coach and who are very strong at home. I don’t think Chelsea have any weaknesses,” Simeone said.
He also confirmed record signing Joao Felix would start the game after being benched in three of the last four matches.
“He is a very important player for us, he had a great start to the season and gave us the quality in attack we needed. All players go through good and bad patches, especially when they are young,” Simeone added of the 21-year-old Portuguese forward, who cost the club 126 million euros ($149.99 million) from Benfica in 2019.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s Kai Havertz said he is now free of injury and illness and there can be no excuses if he fails to deliver at Stamford Bridge.
The German midfielder managed just one goal and four assists in 21 league appearances since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen for 71 million pounds ($98.20 million).
Havertz, 21, was laid low by COVID-19 in November and was then used mostly as a substitute before picking up an injury last month.
“The coronavirus is now over [for me] and I feel good,” Havertz told Chelsea’s website. “I had a little injury in the past few weeks but it’s now time to play good.
“It has not been easy for me but there are no excuses.
“I just have to keep on working and hopefully there will be a big turnaround soon.”
Lazio’s Inzaghi hopes for return with Bayern in command
In Wedneday’s other match, Lazio has made things difficult for itself to qualify for the quarterfinals, but coach Simone Inzaghi said on Tuesday the Italian club’s goal is to become a regular in the competition after missing out in recent years.
Lazio, who last participated in the Champions League in 2007/08, lost the first leg of the last-16 tie 4-1 to defending champion and treble winner Bayern Munich last month.
It’s qualification for Europe’s elite competition next season is in doubt with the Italian side seventh in Serie A with a game in hand, six points behind fourth-place Atalanta.
“We hadn’t entered the Champions League for more than 10 years, we missed the second round [last-16] for 20 years. We have to hit it more consistently,” Inzaghi told reporters.
“But we know that it’s not easy and that there are five battleships ahead of us in addition to Atalanta who are doing very well. We have to fully enjoy an evening like tomorrow night.
“I hope it will happen again soon because we are very ambitious. We’ve achieved our goal, to return to the second round. Unfortunately, with the first leg we have compromised passage to the next round.”
However, Inzaghi said he hoped to count on his side’s unbeaten away record in the competition this season when it takes on Bayern, which last lost a game in Europe two years ago.
“We know how much we have worked in recent years to play such matches. We will go to play the game in the best possible way,” Inzaghi added.
“Before Bayern we had not yet lost in the Champions League in the group stage... we have had three away matches with three draws against Bruges, [Zenit] St Petersburg and [Borussia] Dortmund.
“[Bayern] is a very strong team, they deserved all the trophies... We will play with determination and desire.”
Bayern is on a four-match winning run in all competitions and leads the German top-flight by four points after 25 games.
“We’ve delivered strong performances in the Champions League, as well as in the Bundesliga. Our current aim is to continue on in this manner,” coach Hansi Flick told reporters on Tuesday.
“We want to win tomorrow. Especially since we’re at home, we really want to win to further build our self-confidence.
“We are not approaching this game expecting that we can just bring [the win] home. We want to win and to do that we have to perform well because Lazio can play very good football.
“They know how to score goals so we have to be alert and ready on the field from the start.”
Tuesday’s results: Champions League last-16 second leg: Manchester City vs Borussia Moenchengladbach (Man City led 2-0 from 1st leg) (late); Real Madrid vs Atalanta (Real led 1-0 from 1st leg) (late).
Wednesday on TV: Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid (Chelsea leads 1-0 from 1st leg) (live on Sport5 at 10 p.m.); Bayern Munich vs Lazio (Bayern leads 4-1 from 1st leg) (live on Sport5+ at 10 p.m.).
As Israel formulates its approach to the Biden administration, one priority needs to be the development of a cooperative strategy for addressing China and its rise. Israel and the United States view China differently, and that divergence will remain a source of bilateral tension until a joint approach is formulated.
The urgency of a joint US-Israel approach to China is highlighted by two recent developments. First, a group of Israelis were arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) last month for selling drones to China, reflecting yet again Beijing’s keen interest in Israeli technology to help fuel its global rise.
Second, a slew of articles breathlessly reporting a US request, which Israel did not accept, that the US Coast Guard be permitted to inspect Haifa Port, where a Chinese company is constructing a shipping terminal near docks frequently used by the US Navy. The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) first reported this US request in its recent report on Chinese activity in Israel, and we stand by the accuracy of our information. The fascination with this story – and the rush to deny it – highlight the strong need for profound and well-coordinated US-Israeli dialogue when it comes to delicate matters with clear national interests at stake.
The United States, for its part, seems fixated on individual cases of Chinese activity in Israel, like Haifa Port, when the problem is much more systematic. Beijing seeks not only to buy Israeli defense technology illicitly, but uses legal investments into Israeli infrastructure and start-ups to gain access to civilian Israeli technology that it can monetize or adapt for military purposes. Washington has a clear interest in stopping such Chinese penetration of Israel’s economy.
Israel gets defensive about American complaints because it is in a different position and takes a different outlook in foreign policy. The Jewish state remains a smaller power with a smaller economy
compared to America, with a more transactional approach to international relations. It views China as a major power with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, whose people and government are not inherently antisemitic or antagonistic (as some Western countries are).
Beijing, despite its economic ties with Iran, has become a growing economic partner for Israel. And given general American retrenchment from the Middle East, and at times engagement of arch-enemy Iran, it behooves Israel to remain on good terms with China. Moreover, Israel views US-China economic ties as still very strong, despite American posturing. Yet, Israel also is viscerally part of the West, and keenly understands that its most important strategic ally, with which it has so much in common and can collaborate on so many fields, is the US.
Thus, Israel has been slow to match America’s more recent growing concern about China.
ALTHOUGH ISRAEL has been cooperative with US concerns about Chinese acquisition of Israeli military technology,
it has only made minor policy adjustments when it comes to civilian and dual-use technology. That is partly a result of Israel’s assessment that the economic downsides to “decoupling” from China, as the United States and Western countries are moving to do, outweigh any security benefits.
Yet, predatory Chinese economic activities do pose real economic and security threats to Israel. China’s theft or acquisition of intellectual property threatens the innovation that has made Israel the Start-Up Nation; its willingness to cut economic and military deals with Israel’s enemies, like Iran, threatens Israeli security.
Still, the real threat that China poses is to the US-Israeli partnership.
That partnership has been strengthened over the last two decades by shared threats from common enemies in the same geographic region. Such an overlap of interests will not persist; it is already fading as the US looks beyond the Middle East to new global challenges. If the two partners cannot find ways to cooperate despite prioritizing different security threats, they could either slowly drift apart or even fall out over recriminations that neither is doing enough to help the other, such as with Haifa Port.
The US-Israel partnership is too important to let China become a wedge. The United States has no better, more capable or determined partner anywhere in the world. And Israel has no more committed or generous ally.
It is imperative, therefore, that Washington and Jerusalem upgrade their partnership to match the new era of great power competition. That means adopting a comprehensive and cooperative strategy for dealing with China, particularly preserving their joint qualitative technology edge over Beijing. In its report, JINSA recommends three major steps.
First, Israel must recognize it lacks a comprehensive and coordinated strategy toward China. This requires designing new laws and institutions to protect the Israeli economy.
Second, the United States should understand that China is not a preeminent strategic priority for Israel, that making demands of its partners is an unproductive approach, and that there are real costs for Israel in taking steps to address China’s penetration of its economy. To this end, the United States should consider economic collaboration to incentivize Israel to take a tougher stand.
And third, on a cooperative level, the US and Israel need to formulate a new conception of their partnership that encompasses not just security but also economic and technological cooperation. First steps should include signing a bilateral investment treaty, updating the current US-Israel Free Trade Agreement, and pursuing more joint research and development initiatives.
The United States and Israel must confront the growing China threat but, more importantly, they must do so together.
Regarding “Crave can’t save their bacon as rabbinate says word isn’t kosher” (March 16), Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has outlawed the inclusion of the word “bacon” in the Crave restaurant menu in the Mahaneh Yehuda market even though the term used in the menu is “lamb bacon.”
Apparently “bacon” means any meat that has been cured and smoked in a specific way. However, there will be no kashrut certificate for the Crave restaurant unless they replace “bacon” by facon lacon or zircon.
So aside from kitchen and food kashrut supervisors we now have the rabbis serving as word police. Where does it end? In order to be awarded the prized kashrut certificate, will the male waiters be forced to wear kippas (skull caps) ? Will the female waitresses be forced to cover their hair and shoulders as well ? Will the owners have to promise not to drive on the Sabbath ?
The anti-bacon pathetic attempt at thought and word control is a great turn off. The next time I’m at the Crave restaurant I’ll ask for my usual BLT (bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich ) with a wink and hope that a furious kashrut supervisor won’t throw me out for blasphemy.
YIGAL HOROWITZ, PHD
Beersheba or
LONDON (Reuters) – In an empty London theater, producer Nica Burns sits among the once buzzing stalls hoping audiences will soon be back for good to watch live performances.
A year ago, Burns shut the doors to her six theaters, where shows like Harry Potter And The Cursed Child and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie played to crowds in London’s West End, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
Twelve months on, following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s road map out of lockdown for England, she is cautiously preparing to reopen them from mid-May.
“People have been heartbroken to be closed down for a year in a profession where it’s not just about not having a salary,” Burns, chief executive and co-owner of Nimax Theatres Ltd., told Reuters on a visit to the Apollo Theater.
“It’s a vocation, performers really need to perform.”
Burns said her theaters were “flat out” before drawing the curtains on the shows, going from “100% to zero”. With some 1,000 people working across the Nimax group, she last reopened briefly around Christmas in between lockdowns.
Johnson’s plan states entertainment venues can reopen from May 17. For theatres, this means operating at 50% audience capacity, or no more than 1,000 people, with social distancing.
“In London we’ll see 10 or 12 theaters open fairly quickly around that or certainly May, June into July. For others, it may take a bit longer,” Julian Bird, chief executive of the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, said.
“You should expect things like timed entry... You’ll be wearing a face covering to begin with. You might need to follow a one way system around the building. Drinks might be served to you in your seat... and almost certainly you’ll have an electronic ticket.”
The West End grosses some £750 million ($1.04 billion) a year in ticket sales, Bird said. Some theaters will resume past productions, others will reopen with smaller shows.
The government has announced financial support for the arts sector, but theater counts many freelancers, who during the shutdown have had to look elsewhere for work.
“I’m opening all my six theaters quickly... but the very big shows can’t open yet,” Burns said. “We are lobbying the government very strongly for a government-backed insurance scheme.”
Sejal Keshwala is one of 26 actors starring in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which will be among the first musicals to resume.
“It’s strange because obviously I was in this building six days a week a year ago, and then it was just cold turkey,” she said. “... But even just being here now, you still feel that tingling feeling of being in a West End show. I’m just excited to be back home very soon.”
ZURICH (Reuters) – Credit Suisse warned it may have to book a charge over its dealings with Greensill, as scrutiny grows over its relationship with the British finance firm that collapsed into insolvency.
The Swiss bank has had to close around $10 billion of supply-chain finance funds that bought notes issued by Greensill, and which it marketed to clients. It is also trying to recoup a $140 million loan it made to the company last year.
“While these issues are still at an early stage, we would note that it is possible that Credit Suisse will incur a charge in respect of these matters,” it said on Tuesday.
Greensill filed for insolvency last week after losing insurance coverage for its debt repackaging business.
Credit Suisse’s share price has fallen more than 10% since it announced its supply-chain funds were suspended on March 1. It has paid investors about $3.1 billion in redemptions from the four funds so far, and said it would be announcing further cash distributions over coming months.
The bank also said on Tuesday that, “contrary to certain reports,” its chief risk and compliance officer, Lara Warner, was not aware until February 22 that insurance related to Greensill could expire on March 1.
Greensill founder Lex Greensill said in a court filing last week that he kept senior individuals at Credit Suisse, including Warner, informed about the funds’ insurance coverage in the “weeks” leading up to its insolvency application on March 8.
The collapse has put fresh pressure on Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein who has been trying to move Credit Suisse on from a string of bad headlines, spanning a spy scandal that ousted predecessor Tidjane Thiam to a $450 million write-down on a hedge fund investment.
The level of oversight and risk management at the bank’s asset management division is under scrutiny, particularly as Gottstein had ordered a review of the Greensill funds last year.
The saga overshadowed an otherwise strong start to the year for Credit Suisse, whose shares opened up 1.8% as it said it had achieved the highest level of pretax income in both January and February in a decade.