Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Six In The Morning Tuesday August 21

Microsoft claims win over 'Russian political hackers'

Russian attempts to launch cyber-attacks against US conservative groups have been thwarted, Microsoft says.
The software company said Russian hackers had tried to steal data from political organisations, including the International Republican Institute and the Hudson Institute think tanks.
But they had been thwarted when its security staff had won control of six net domains mimicking their websites.
Microsoft said the Fancy Bear hacking group had been behind the attacks.



Arctic’s strongest sea ice breaks up for first time on record

Usually frozen waters open up twice this year in phenomenon scientists described as scary


The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer.
This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere.
One meteorologist described the loss of ice as “scary”. Others said it could force scientists to revise their theories about which part of the Arctic will withstand warming

'Silent Sam' confederate statue knocked down by protesters on University of North Carolina campus

As the monument toppled, protesters seen kicking its head and pouring earth over it
A crowd of 250 protesters at the University of North Carolina has torn down a controversial Confederate statue that was erected in 1913.
Video shows the statue of “Silent Sam” coming down on Monday evening outside the Chapel Hill campus, as students chant: “I believe that we will win,” – a popular US sports chant.
As the monument was toppled, protesters were seen kicking the statue’s head and pouring earth over it.

In 1968, Warsaw Pact troops suppressed the Prague Spring

In 1968, Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakia, ending the brief, exuberant Prague Spring. The legacy of the invasion is evident in the modern-day Czech Republic — one need look no further than the prime minister.
Soviet tanks led the way as more than 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops marched into the Czechoslovak capital during the night of August 20, 1968, ending the Prague Spring at the behest of the rulers in Moscow.
The number of occupying troops would total more than 500,000, and the invasion would end to the dream of a European socialism based on freedom — above all freedom of expression. When he took office as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia at the beginning of 1968, Alexander Dubcek began allowing journalists to ignore the official censorship orders. He supported free and democratic socialism in the hope that Soviet leaders in Moscow would allow the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR) to forge its own way in the Kremlin-dominated Eastern bloc. But, ultimately, there was a greater fear that more freedom in the CSSR could lead to upheaval in neighboring Soviet-aligned countries.

Koreas to shut down some border guard posts: Seoul


North and South Korea have agreed to close some guard posts along their border on a trial basis, Seoul's defence minister told parliament Tuesday amid a rapid diplomatic thaw.
The Demilitarized Zone that has divided the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953 is, despite its name, one of the most fortified places on earth, with the areas on either side of it bristling with minefields and barbed-wire fences.
Song Young-moo said the South would withdraw around 10 guard posts as part of confidence-building measures following the landmark summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in in April.

Trump is powerless as his legal fate spins out of his control


Updated 0512 GMT (1312 HKT) August 21, 2018

President Donald Trump may no longer control his fate, a plight that helps explain his increasingly volcanic Twitter eruptions.
Trump's persona -- in politics, business and life -- relies on his self-image as the guy who calls the shots, closes deals and forces others to react to the shock moves of a master narrative weaver.
But as a legal web closes around the President, he's in a far weaker position than he would like, a situation especially underlined by the bombshell revelations that White House counsel Donald McGahn has spent 30 hours in interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller.




 the longest.

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