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Corporations still engaged in buck-passing

Almost none of the corporate entities involved as client, consultant or contractor in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment are accepting much blame for the disaster and have ignored pleas from the inquiry not to engage in a merry-go-round of buck-passing, said the lead counsel to the inquiry, Richard Millett QC.

Arconic, the US industrial conglomerate that made the cladding panels, knew in 2011 they were too flammable for use across Europe, but believed it could still work with regulators who are not as restrictive. A 2015 internal email showed that Arconic knew the material was dangerous on facades and everything should be transferred to fire retardant as a matter of urgency. The Arconic official wrote that a standard interpreted as allowing its use should have been discontinued over 10 years ago.

Celotex, the company that made Grenfells synthetic insulation, was worried in 2013 that its material should not be used with aluminium composite cladding, saying in an email: Do we take the view that our product realistically shouldnt be used behind most cladding panels because in the event of a fire it would burn?

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea sent building control officers to examine the cladding system being installed at Grenfell seven times but found nothing wrong. The view expressed by building control was that the work was completed to a high standard, the inquiry heard. The council has accepted that it failed in its duty on building safety.

Staff at Harley Facades, the company that installed the cladding, have been interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives investigating possible manslaughter and corporate manslaughter charges. The counsel for the firm, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, said it was deeply unfair to suggest they knew how unsafe the materials they were using were. They have also suffered and they are also now confronted with having to give evidence in the glare of a level of publicity they can have had no previous experience [of].

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Grenfell Tower inquiry: what we learned as second phase begins - The Guardian

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's impeachment trial may not result in his removal from office, but it could help determine whether his Republicans retain control of the Senate in the November congressional elections.

For the handful of senators who face tough re-election battles this year, their vote to acquit or convict Trump, or even to call witnesses in the trial, could loom large when voters consider whether to give them another six-year term, analysts said.

Republican strategist James Bowers predicted that the impeachment will play a major role in campaign ads for years.

"We will be seeing the ghost of this impeachment for (election) cycles to come," Bowers said.

Democrats need to pick up four seats from Republicans to win a majority in the Nov. 3 election, in which Trump also will be on the ballot. Democratic political groups are scouring their media appearances for statements that could be used against them.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in December, alleging he abused his powers and obstructed Congress for pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump says he has done nothing wrong, and his acquittal is seen as likely in the Senate because at least 20 Republicans would have to vote for his removal.

Embattled Republicans like Corey Gardner of Colorado and Martha McSally of Arizona might face a voter backlash if they vote to wrap up the trial quickly, as Republican leaders want, instead of calling for more evidence and witnesses, which could potentially upend the proceeding.

"It could add to their potential problems, if they look like partisan soldiers and not independent, free-thinking senators," said Stuart Rothenberg, senior editor at Inside Elections, a campaign newsletter.

Voting against further evidence would shore up support from Trump conservatives back home, but it could hurt their chances of appealing to independent voters in states such as Maine, where Republican Senator Susan Collins is hoping to win a fifth six-year term.

Collins already was facing a backlash over her vote for the 2017 tax-cut bill and her 2018 vote to confirm conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Now, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats, has launched a website to pressure her to vote for more witnesses and evidence, as she did in the 1999 impeachment trial of Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The normally easygoing Collins has bristled lately over trial procedures, after casting several preliminary votes against witnesses and evidence. She said she likely will vote to subpoena witnesses after both sides present their cases.

"This thoughtful approach is what Mainers appreciate most," Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said.

Gardner has sidestepped the question in Washington and at home in Colorado. A Gardner campaign official said political concerns would not influence his decisions during the trial.

McSally has taken a more confrontational approach, calling a CNN reporter a "liberal hack" after he asked her whether she would vote to see more evidence, and set up a website at http://www.liberalhack.com to raise money off the incident. Her office declined to comment.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, another Republican running hard for re-election, has frequently criticized the Democrats' case for impeachment during breaks in the trial.

Asked by Reuters about Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine, Ernst said, "He will do what he wants to do. It's probably not the way I would have handled it."

Another vulnerable Republican, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, showed no sign of concern earlier this week, telling reporters that he intends to vote for Trump's acquittal.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, warned that Democrats risk overplaying their hand because many independent voters did not want to see an impeachment trial in the first place.

"Democrats are taking a big gamble, because it could just as easily go against them," he said.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan; additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Cynthia Osterman)

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There's Something Else at Stake in Trump Impeachment: Control of Senate - The New York Times

The helicopter had received special approval to fly around Burbank in foggy weather.

The helicopter that crashed on Sunday with Kobe Bryant and eight other people on board, killing everyone, had received approval to fly through the controlled airspace around Burbank even though weather conditions were worse than usual standards for flying.

The helicopter flew north from Orange County after takeoff on Sunday morning and circled near Burbank, waiting for clearance to keep going. According to audio records between the helicopters pilot and air traffic control at Burbank Airport, the helicopter was given what is known as Special Visual Flight Rules clearance, meaning they could proceed through Burbanks airspace on a foggy morning in Southern California.

Whether the pilot made the right decision to continue flying on despite low fog in the hillsides of Calabasas, where the aircraft crashed will likely be at the center of the investigation into the cause of the crash.

Any special clearance from air traffic controllers would have allowed the pilot to fly through the controlled airspace around Burbank and Van Nuys, but would not give the flight blanket clearance to continue on from there to Calabasas, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official.

A pilot is responsible for determining whether it is safe to fly in current and expected conditions, and a pilot is also responsible for determining flight visibility, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

Once the pilot left Burbanks control zone, the official added, it would have been up to him to either make sure there were appropriate visual flight conditions, or transition to flying solely with the use of his instruments, which would have required an additional F.A.A. clearance.

According to F.A.A. records, the pilot was not only certified to fly under instrument conditions, but to teach other pilots seeking to obtain their instrument ratings. His commercial pilots license was issued in 2007.

Officially transitioning to instrument flight rules would have allowed the pilot to go on flying, even with very low visibility, but would not have allowed the flight to land except at an airport. The pilot might also have had to gain altitude in order to be fully visible on radar used by controllers.

Just before losing radio contact, the pilot had asked for flight following, which allows controllers to track the flight and be in regular contact, under his special visual flight clearance.

The controller responded that the helicopter was too low level for flight following at this time.

Sergeant Yvette Tuning, who was the watch commander for the Los Angeles Police Departments Air Support Division on the morning of the crash, said that most of the Los Angeles basin was so cloudy that flights could be conducted only under instrument rules, on Sunday morning.

L.A.P.D. helicopters do not generally fly under those conditions because officers need to be able to see while doing air patrols. The visibility was less than two and a half miles from the departments heliport near Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, she said.

She said these conditions occur more often in the winter and early in the summer, when fog along the coast is commonplace.

Tuning said the weather this winter, as it was on Monday morning, has been fairly clear, allowing helicopters to operate normally.

But yesterday when I came to work I immediately saw it as I came down into the valley, that it was just socked in, Tuning said. So I already knew we meaning L.A.P.D. Air Support werent going to be flying unless it burned off quick. And it did not burn off quick.

Scott Daehlin, 61, said the fog had been as thick as swimming in a pool of milk when he walked out of Church in the Canyon at 9:40 a.m. on Sunday.

He had come out of the Presbyterian church, which is across the street from the crash site, to get sound equipment for the Sunday service, when the sound of a helicopter coming low and loud through the thick marine layer prompted him to look up.

I couldnt see anything, not even a silhouette, he said as he looked across the street where the steep mountainside rose, the grassy slope now littered with wreckage. My first thought was what in the world is a helicopter doing out here in this fog?

Low cloud layers are common in the area, but on Sunday the fog was so thick it came nearly to the ground and made visibility so low, church members said, that they had trouble driving.

For about 20 seconds on Sunday morning, Daehlin followed the sound of the helicopter as it swept over the church parking lot and south toward the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains. It sounded even and normal, but, he said, it sounded too low.

It sounded almost like the pilot was hovering, trying to find his way, said Daehlin, who said his father was a pilot. He added I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, and I was saying, Get some altitude.

Then he heard a loud thump and the crack of what sounded like fiberglass, and all sound from the engines stopped.

He called 911 and directed fire crews to the hillside. He could not see the crash because of the fog, but saw some smoke and heard several pops as the wreckage burned.

The retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, Calif., on Sunday, along with seven other victims.

The helicopter was flying from Orange County, Calif., where the Bryant family lives, and crashed in foggy conditions about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles as it was en route to Bryants youth basketball academy.

The other passengers included the pilot, Ara Zobayan; the college baseball coach John Altobelli and Altobellis wife, Keri, and daughter Alyssa; Christina Mauser, a basketball coach; and Sarah and Payton Chester, a mother and daughter who lived in Orange County.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva of Los Angeles County said the helicopter went down in an area with very rough terrain, and that even emergency crews had found it dangerous trying to get there during daylight on Sunday. The debris field, he said, was roughly 100 yards in each direction.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would look at the history of the pilot and any crew on board.

Well be looking at maintenance records of the helicopter, said Jennifer Homendy, a member of the board. We will be looking at records of the owner and operator of the helicopter and a number of other things.

It was not immediately clear how many passengers the helicopter was approved to transport, or whether the helicopter was overloaded.

The chief medical examiner for Los Angeles County, Dr. Jonathan R. Lucas, said it could take several days to recover the bodies from the crash site.

We will be doing our work thoroughly, quickly and with the utmost compassion, Lucas said. Were doing everything we can to confirm identifications and give closure to the families involved.

There were nine victims in all.

The helicopter was traveling to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and its passengers included Bryants 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who played at the school.

Bryant coached her team, and Gianna, whose nickname was Gigi, was hellbent on playing for the University of Connecticut and in the W.N.B.A., he told The Los Angeles Times last year.

At a UConn game last year, the father and daughter sat courtside and Bryant was asked about his daughter picking up the game by SNY. I watch the game through my daughters eyes, he said.

John Altobelli, 56, a longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College, a junior college in Costa Mesa. Calif., was also on the helicopter with his wife, Keri, and daughter Alyssa, according to a college spokesman.

This is a tremendous loss for our campus community, said Angelica Suarez, the president of Orange Coast College, in a statement.

Last year, Altobelli led the Pirates to the California Community College baseball state championship, their fourth state title with the coach, and he was named one of the American Baseball Coaches Association coaches of the year.

Jeff McNeil, a Mets All-Star infielder, had been coached by Altobelli, and told ESPN, Him taking that chance on me, having me on his team, got me drafted.

Although the California authorities have not publicly identified the victims, their relatives, friends and employers announced and grieved the deaths. The other victims are:

Sarah and Payton Chester, a mother and daughter who lived in Orange County

Christina Mauser, a California basketball coach who had worked with Gianna Bryant

Ara Zobayan, a pilot

Bryants company spent years applying for trademarks.

There was Black Mamba, Bryants nickname. There was Mamba Mentality. And, more recently, there was Mambacita, Giannas nickname.

Bryants company applied for the trademark in December, seeking to safeguard a burgeoning brand that seemed poised to become more valuable as Giannas basketball stock soared.

Her ambitions included playing in the W.N.B.A., and in a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, her fathers company suggested it wanted to protect the use of the name Mambacita on athletic shirts and shorts, jerseys, sweatpants and sweatshirts, among other items.

Bryant used the nickname on his Instagram account as recently as Jan. 14, when he posted a video from a gymnasium and said his daughter was getting better every day.

Bryant had posted another video with the nickname in November, when he slyly noted a familiar looking fade.

The N.B.A. is reflecting on Bryants legacy.

Bryant was drafted to the N.B.A. directly out of high school in 1996, helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to five championships, and was named an All-Star in 18 of his 20 seasons for the team. His hypercompetitive nature could lead to drama among coaches and teammates which sometimes spilled over into public but his commitment to winning was never questioned.

Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, hailed Bryant as one of the most extraordinary players in the history of our game.

For 20 seasons, Kobe showed us what is possible when remarkable talent blends with an absolute devotion to winning, Silver said, adding that Bryant would be remembered most for inspiring people around the world to pick up a basketball and compete to the very best of their ability.

Bryants tenacity and intensity won him respect from rivals and inspired those who followed him into the game. Tributes from other athletes rolled in on Sunday, as Bryants friends and rivals shared what he meant to them. His former teammate, Shaquille ONeal, said he would hug Bryants children like they were my own.

Michael Jordan said in a statement that he spoke to Bryant often and that he was like a little brother to me. Dwyane Wade, the former Miami Heat star, said on Instagram that Bryant was who I chased and that it was one of the saddest days in my lifetime.

Bryants rsum included the N.B.A.s Most Valuable Player Award for the 2007-8 season, the finals M.V.P. in both 2009 and 2010, an 81-point game in 2006 that is the second-highest single-game total in N.B.A. history and a sterling pedigree on the international stage, where he won gold medals for U.S.A. Basketball in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

In 2016, after various injuries had taken their toll on the longtime superstar, he ended his career by scoring 60 points in his final game.

Off the court, Bryants legacy was far more complicated. He was arrested in 2003 after a sexual assault complaint was filed against him in Colorado. A 19-year-old hotel employee claimed that Bryant, who was working to rehabilitate his knee following surgery, had raped her. The legal case against Bryant was eventually dropped, and a civil suit was settled privately out of court, but Bryant publicly apologized for the incident.

Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did, he said in his statement. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.

In retirement, Bryant expanded his purview, winning an Academy Award in 2018 for his animated short film Dear Basketball while also creating the web series Detail for ESPN in which he analyzed current players. He was scheduled to headline the 2020 N.B.A. Hall of Fame nominees.

Kobe Bryant may not have been the driver of the N.B.A.s extraordinary growth abroad, but he was a core vehicle for it, acting as an ambassador for basketball throughout his career, both for the leagues interests and his own. He played on two Olympic teams, winning gold medals in 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London). In 2018, Bryant was named, along with Yao Ming, a global ambassador for last years FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Sterns vision was always to make the N.B.A. a global sport and certainly, he was a commissioner who embraced that, Michael Veley, a professor of sport management at Syracuse University, said. But he needed players to also buy into that. It started with the Olympic team The Dream Team but after some of the superstars like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, the baton had to be passed on to other people who not only were going to be great players, but were going to represent the sport and talk about it on an international stage.

Matteo Zuretti, the head of international relations for the N.B.A. players union, said in an interview that Bryants dominant play alone helped the league encourage more people outside the United States to take up the sport.

When you are an international player and you stay up until 4 a.m. to watch your idol play, youre so much removed from him that you develop a special connection, Zuretti said. Kobe had been super relevant for people in Los Angeles. But for a generation of international players, he was the winner and idol.

Three American presidents and athletes, celebrities and fans around the world grieved for Bryant, who became a superstar as basketball grew into an international sensation.

President Trump said that Bryant was just getting started in life, even after a career that forever marked him as one of basketballs greats.

He loved his family so much, and had such strong passion for the future, the president wrote on Twitter. The loss of his beautiful daughter, Gianna, makes this moment even more devastating.

Former President Barack Obama, who once welcomed the Lakers to the White House, posted on Twitter that Bryant was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act.

The death of Bryants daughter, the former president added, is even more heartbreaking to us as parents.

Former President Bill Clinton, who was in the White House when Bryant ascended to the N.B.A., and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, extolled how Bryant brought excitement and joy to basketball fans not just in Los Angeles, but all over the U.S. and around the world.

The Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr. paid tribute to Bryant, as did the tennis player Naomi Osaka, who thanked him for caring and checking up on me after my hard losses.

Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback whose kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racism and police brutality inspired a number of athletes to speak out publicly, said on Twitter that he would remember Bryant as a basketball legend, a father & a man.

The Italian Basketball Federation said on Monday that it would hold a moment of silence in every game this week for Bryant, who lived in Italy from ages 6 to 13 while his father played professional basketball there.

Bryant was fluent in Italian, and once said it would be a dream to play for the country, but in 2011, when an Italian team, Virtus Bologna, offered him a one-year contract during the N.B.A. lockout, the deal fell through, The Associated Press reported.

Its a small but heartfelt and deserved gesture to honor the life and memory of Kobe Bryant, an absolute champion who always had Italy in his heart, the federation said in a statement. Bryant, the statement said, was and will always be linked to our country.

Los Angeles woke up Monday grappling with the loss of a global superstar who was, to Southern California, still a local hero. On Sunday, spontaneous shrines and vigils cropped up around the region, including outside Staples Center, the home of the Lakers, the team he played with for 20 seasons.

He was not a perfect man, but we all have our faults, Joe Rivas, a 28-year-old registered nurse, said on Sunday. Its beyond basketball.

Los Angeles County officials have been worried by the number of people who tried to visit the crash site, which they said is located amid challenging terrain.

Were now faced with, I guess, well-wishers and people mourning who have descended on the area, on the residential community and even the crash site itself, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Sunday evening. We have to reiterate that it is off-limits to everybody except the first responders and investigators.

Mourners, he said, could gather at a nearby park.

Tuesday promises to be a challenging day in Los Angeles, where the Lakers will play their first game since Bryants death. Their opponent? The Los Angeles Clippers.

The Washington Post suspended one of its reporters, Felicia Sonmez, after she published a series of tweets about Bryant in the hours after his death.

Sonmez initially tweeted a link to a Daily Beast article about sexual assault allegations made against Bryant in 2003 a missive that stood out in the general outpouring of appreciation for Bryant and drew a swift backlash.

She followed up with a post about the negative responses she had received, including a screenshot of an email she had received that used offensive language, called her a lewd name and displayed the senders full name.

It was not immediately clear if any specific tweet prompted the suspension, and The Post said it was reviewing whether tweets about the death of Kobe Bryant violated The Post newsrooms social media policy.

Separately, as the sheriff of Los Angeles County, Alex Villanueva, gave one of his first official update on the investigation, he declined to say whether Bryant was one of the victims and offered a pointed rebuke to the news organization that broke the news.

It would be extremely disrespectful to understand your loved one has perished and you learn about it from TMZ, he said. That is just wholly inappropriate so we are not going to be going there. We are going to wait until the coroner does their job.

TMZ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The news media also drew criticism on Sunday after inaccurate reports circulated that four of Bryants children were killed in the crash, and a reporter for ABC News apologized for the report.

Reporting was contributed by Louis Keene, Kevin Draper, Elena Bergeron, Jennifer Medina, Neil Vigdor, Sopan Deb, Marc Stein, Jill Cowan, Miriam Jordan, Mihir Zaveri, Jon Hurdle, Rachel Abrams, Benjamin Hoffman, Jonah Engel Bromwich and Daniel Victor.

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Live Updates: Helicopter Carrying Kobe Bryant Was Approved to Fly in Fog - The New York Times

Men walk in front of a screen at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, October 20, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

The spread of information networks is forming a new nervous system for our planet. In a landmark speech delivered ten years ago at the NewseumWashingtons shrine to the First AmendmentUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton foreshadowed the internets potential to improve human life. Drawing a contrast between the State Departments work on internet freedom and oppositional efforts around the world to destroy it, Clinton continued, principles like information freedom arent just good policy, not just somehow connected to our national values, but they are universal.

Yet these words arrived at a starkly different time inhistory: before Edward Snowdens leaks about globe-spanning US surveillanceprograms, before a social media-infused Arab Spring prompted authoritarianinternet crackdowns, and before people around the world began to recognize how muchthey could be tracked and hacked through the internet. Democracies were muchmore hopeful about a fair, free, and open global internet than many are today.

A decade later, the Newseum has shuttered and the idealsof an open internet are under assault. The new reality is one where democraciesmust play a more assertive role to protect an open, free, fair, and secure internet,utilizing a strategy that recognizes the changes the internet has undergone,the pernicious influence of authoritarian states, and the role companies havein both protecting and fragmenting it. The internet cant be brought back intime but there is hope, perhaps, that its original core values can be preservedin a new form through determined effort by its users, some companies, and thedemocratic states where the open web was born.

The world faces great challenges in how authoritarian regimes undermine internet principles long heralded by liberal democraciesfreedom, openness, interoperability, security, resilience. Efforts by the Chinese state to provide for control, if not outright censorship, of every byte of data flowing across national networks tore at the fabric of a global internet. The effectiveness of this domestic information control prompted copycats to attempt construction of their own cyber control systems in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran. The political and digital logic behind this regime of censorship and information control helped articulate an ideological counterweight to the open internet.

But there is more to the story than China; politicaland economic decisions made within liberal democracies helped pull this networkapart. The internet as we know is in its fourth generation and with eachsuccessive decade becomes more closed, its ownership more concentrated, andleaves users with less control over what was once their network.

Borne of a research project, the internets firstbroadly accessible generation came online in 1983 with many of the sametechnical protocols in use today. In its earliest form, the internet was atext-based information network with a high barrier to entry for novice users. Earlyresearch and non-commercial networks were slowly decommissioned, browsers matured,and sites like eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo grew as part of the e-commercerevolution powering the internets second generation.

Along with e-commerce platforms came a slow but steadyadvance of tracking and advertising delivery networkssurveillance, of a corporatekind, to profile users and tailor ads and services accordingly. Thesetechnologies, often situated in a Silicon Valley culture of ruthless andpersistent innovation, drove features before security and strained the informalnetworks of trust integral to the internets gestation. Simultaneously it wasdemocracies, including France and Germany, that implemented some of theearliest efforts to link internet addresses with physical locations. Bothstates cared a great deal where things like Nazi memorabilia were being soldand took steps to block these transactions in their jurisdictions. This secondgeneration of the internet had already begun to fuse the virtual and physicaldomains.

With the birth of cloud computing in the 2006 launchof Amazon Web Services, the internet entered a third generationone which wouldbe characterized by increasing concentration of computing and networking power.Cloud provider giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google built vast computationalresources and drove massive amounts of traffic flying between their datacenters. Demand for cloud services grew, and so did the power of theseproviders. Microsoft and others have built undersea internet cables to handlethe increasing traffic between their facilities, for example, while Google haseven developed a replacement for one of the internets core protocols (QUIC),implementing it years before any global governing body accepted or approved thestandard. The 2018 expulsion of the widely used encrypted communications app,Signal, from Google and Amazons clouds, where it had received protection fromcensorship by authoritarian states, underlined a troubling consequence of thisconcentration.

The spread of social media, and subsequent explosion of disinformation and other online harms like hate speech has occasioned the internets fourth and current generationthe rise of platform companies. What cloud computing did for the internets networking and computing architecture, social media did for information; large companies drove new features and seamless association of ever-greater amounts of information across a global user base. Information freedom increasingly moved into corporate hands.

Across each generation, the internets pool ofstakeholders has shrunk. The network as a whole has become less open. Whereonce intelligence sat at the edge of the network, it has slowly become morecentralized. Alongside the censorship and surveillance regimes of authoritarianstates, a small set of companies has begun to exert tremendous influence overthe shape and composition of the internet. None of this suggests the influenceis necessarily malicious; it is a product of broad commercial demand for thesecompanies services. But the result is the same: strengthening a handful ofcompanies in the middle of the network at the expense of the networks edge anda concentration of power into organizations whose decision-making lacks clear democraticlegitimacy.

In hindsight, the Secretarys speech in part missed, andin part got wrong, the promise of a democratic internet model in the face ofthe its growing risks. But there is hope; together users and democracies andeven some companies can reinvest in a free, fair, open, and secure network fornext generation of the internet. Democracies should support non-profittechnical bodies and companies to more expeditiously protect the internetscore technical protocols like Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Domain NameSystem (DNS) from abuse. Governments across the United States, European Union,and elsewhere can invest resources to work with internet swingstates to preserve the content freedoms that Americans fromStanford and Berkeley saw in the webs DNA. Through all of this, democraciesmust recognize something else mentioned little at the Newseum ten years ago:the dual role technology companies will play in cyberspaces future.

For while the internet was once heralded as acorporate-less democratic utopia, a handful of companies who build and selltechnology have the capacity to influence of much of the internet; at once arisk to, and critical partner in defending, the positive vision of a networkwhose design, access, and content reflects a fair, free, open, and secureethos. The internet of today is not what it was even ten years ago, but thefight is on to save something of its original soul in whatever form it takes adecade from now.

Trey Herr, PhD, is director of the Atlantic Councils Cyber Statecraft Initiative under the Scowcroft Center.

Justin Sherman (@jshermcyber) is a fellow with the Atlantic Councils Cyber Statecraft Initiative.

Tue, Jan 7, 2020

Irans government will feel the need to retaliate against the United States, but it does not wish to ignite a prolonged war with the United States. The regimes near-term aim is to demonstrate to its domestic and regional constituencies that it has the capability and the resolve to avenge Soleimanis killing and, more strategically, to drum up support for hardliners ahead of legislative elections next month. While Iran has a number of options available, its cyber toolkit not one to be overlooked.

New AtlanticistbySimon Handler, Will Loomis, and Katherine Wolff

Mon, Dec 16, 2019

While the Internet of Things offers a range of humanitarian, commercial, and national security benefits, its pervasive nature has many concerned over its impacts on safety and security in society. In a new report by the Atlantic Councils Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Karl Rauscher notes that the worlds two largest powers are at a crossroads with regard to their level and scope of cooperation in continued IoT advances. United StatesChina Collaboration on the Internet of Things Safety: Whats Next? analyzes possibilities for the United States and China to work together to establish consensus policies and standards to make their societies safer and provide a model for the world.

ReportbyKarl Frederick Rauscher

Wed, Oct 9, 2019

The Kazakh case serves as an example of irresponsible cyber statecraft, when governments use cyberspace and technological tools to achieve specific political goals, placing the rights of citizens, as well as their political legitimacy, on the line.

New AtlanticistbySafa Shahwan

See more here:
Warring for the soul of the internet: Ten years on - Atlantic Council

BY THE NUMBERS

With the coronavirus spreading, world stocks are tumbling and perceived safer investments are rising. U.S. stock futures are sliding early Monday following Wall Street's worst day of 2020 on Friday. The Dow already has a four-day losing streak in place, its longest since August, and is coming off its largest weekly loss in five months. The S&P 500's weekly decline last week was its largest in nearly four months. (CNBC)

* Treasury yields move lower as coronavirus fears escalate (CNBC)* Gold climbs to 2-week high as virus fears spark safety buying (Reuters)* International oil prices drop below $60 as China virus drives demand concern (Reuters)

More than 2,800 people in China are now infected by the fast-spreading Wuhan coronavirus while more countries have reported their first confirmed cases.Chinese officials have said there are 2,862 confirmed cases, with the death toll rising to 81. On Sunday, the United States on Sunday reported its fifth confirmed case in Arizona. (CNBC)

Travel-related stocks are likely to be hit once again as coronavirus cases mount, including major airlines like United (UAL), Delta (DAL), American (AAL) and Southwest (LUV), and cruise line operators like Royal Caribbean (RCL), Norwegian (NCLH), and Carnival (CCL). Starbucks (SBUX) and McDonald's have temporarily closed near the Chinese city ofWuhan.

On today's U.S.economic calendar, the government will release its December report on new home sales at 10 a.m. ET. Arconic (ARNC), DR Horton (DH) and Sprint (S) are among the companies issuing quarterly earnings this morning, while Whirlpool (WHR), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Rambus (RMBS) report after the bell.

Federal safety investigators launched a probe into a helicopter crash in the LA area that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. NBA athletes, officials and fans mourned Bryant's death in messages and memorials across social media. (CNBC)

* 'Terrible,' 'heartbreaking,' 'devastated' World leaders and athletes mourn the death of Kobe Bryant (CNBC)* Athletes pay tribute to Kobe Bryant. 'He was like a little brother to me' Michael Jordan says (CNBC)

A passenger plane crashed in central Afghanistan, senior Afghan officials said today. According to local media, the plane went down in territory under Taliban control. It was initially reported to be a jet from state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines. However, the airline's acting CEO has denied that one of their planes has crashed. (CNBC)

President Donald Trumpis expected to disclose details of his long-delayed Mideast peace proposal to Israeli leaders today. Trump will hold separate, back-to-back meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White Party. Gantz is Netanyahu's rival in March 2 elections. (Reuters)

Trump's impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal. The articles of impeachment charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. (AP)

Democrats stepped up their calls for former national security advisor John Bolton to testify at the trial after an explosive report alleged that in his unpublished book, he said Trump personally tied Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, an account that conflicts with the president's. (NBC News)

*Trump denies telling Bolton Ukraine aid was tied to investigations (The Hill)

Sen. Bernie Sanders holds an edge in the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary as the key presidential nominating contest nears, according to an NBC News/Marist poll. The Vermont senator garners the support of 22% of likely Democratic primary voters in the Granite State, the survey found. Ex-Mayor Pete Buttigieg trails at 17%. (CNBC)

* Sen. Elizabeth Warren seeks spark in final Iowa push after getting Des Moines Register endorsement (AP)

U.S. state attorneys general will meet Justice Department attorneys next week to share information on their investigations into Google (GOOGL), Reuters reported. The probes revolve around monopolistic behavior that may harm consumers through Google's control of online advertising markets and search traffic.

AbbVie (ABBV) sold a number of assets to Nestle and AstraZeneca (AZN), as it seeks to win regulatory approval for its $63 billion acquisition of drug maker Allergan.

Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) filed court motions Friday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by rival automaker General Motors (GM). Fiat Chrysler said GM does not have sufficient grounds to bring a racketeering case that alleges bribery of union officials.

Kraft Heinz (KHC) Chief Executive Officer Miguel Patricio told the Wall Street Journal that he wants the food maker to make fewer but bigger bets on new products, as its older brands suffer a sales decline.

Winnebago Industries (WGO) was rated "overweight" in new coverage at KeyBanc, which sees recreational vehicle shipments stronger than consensus for 2020 and is also optimistic on the increasing benefits of Winnebago's 2016 acquisition of towable vehicle maker Grand Design.

The 62nd Grammy Awards were dominated by 18-year-old Billie Eilish. The first-time Grammy nominee secured five awards including record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, best new artist and best pop vocal album. (CNBC)

The Grammy awards took place at the Staples Center where Kobe Bryant played for the Lakers. Alicia Keys and Boys II Men sang "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" in tribute to the basketball star. (CNBC)

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What to watch today: Dow to sink, Kobe Bryant remembered and Wuhan virus spreads - CNBC