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CHICAGO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned against "politics that feeds anger and resentment" on Tuesday in a speech at the groundbreaking of his presidential library in Chicago, which he said would work to strengthen democratic ideas.

The 44th president said that future Obama Presidential Center in Chicago will aim to strengthen ideals that are vulnerable in a bitter modern U.S. political environment and address global economic, social, technological and environmental issues that major institutions have failed to address.

"In the breach, a culture of cynicism and mistrust can grow," the Democratic former president said. "We start seeing more division and increasingly bitter conflict. A politics that feeds anger and resentment towards those who are not like us and starts turning away from democratic principles in favor of tribalism and might makes right."

Obama did not directly name his successor, Republican Donald Trump, who has continued since leaving office to push false claims that his November election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump's own administration rejected those claims.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama attends a groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama presidential center in Jackson Park, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Sebastian Hidalgo

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Construction of the $700 million center on the city's South Side began in August despite opposition from local activists. Donations to the Obama Foundation are paying for the project.

It will house a museum of artifacts from Obama's 2009-2017 presidency and be a public gathering space for cultural and educational events. Obama made history as the first Black U.S. president.

"We are about to break ground on the world's premier institution for developing civic leaders across fields, across disciplines and, yes, across the political spectrum," said Obama, 60, who once worked as a community organizer in Chicago.

Obama represented part of the city's South Side in the Illinois state Senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate and then the White House.

Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Scott Malone and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Obama warns against politics of 'anger and resentment' in Chicago - Reuters

RIDGEFIELD While Cody Keenan was attending Ridgefield High School, the thought of working in the White House never crossed his mind, he said. But under Obamas administration, Keenan helped craft some of the most iconic speeches given by Americas 44th president.

Keenan, 40, served as the White House director of speechwriting during President Barack Obamas second term. He started as a speechwriting intern for the campaign in 2007 and was part of the presidents speechwriting team from 2009 to 2011, when he was promoted to deputy speechwriter. After Obama left office in 2017, Keenan remained as his sole speechwriter and collaborator for four years.

This professional experience made Keenan an ideal candidate to assist Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra composer Paul Frucht in developing A More Perfect Union. The song cycle is based on six speeches from Obamas presidency, which will debut at RSOs season kickoff on Saturday the ensembles first concert in almost 20 months.

I had been wanting to write this for a long time to capture the historical and cultural significance of Barack Obamas words through our artform, Frucht said in a statement. The symphony is a celebration of deeply-rooted American values articulated by a president revered for his rhetoric.

Frucht began developing A More Perfect Union in 2018. That year he arranged to meet Keenan at a bar at the Park Hyatt in Washington.

I dont know the first thing about writing music or even how to read it it feels totally foreign to me, Keenan said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, but (Frucht) walked me through what it entails.

The composer sought speeches that shared connective tissue, Keenan said. The six speeches referenced in the symphony are: A More Perfect Union; Obamas first inaugural address; an address to the American Medical Association; an address to the nation on U.S. military action in Syria; an address on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala.; and a eulogy for the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, S.C.

From each speech, Frucht chose snippets containing universal ideals about thoughtfulness, plurality, unity, spirituality and the way we approach faith, he said. The libretto of A More Perfect Union will be sung by acclaimed American operatic baritone Jorell Williams.

The one thread through all those speeches ... is what kind of country do we want to be, and the answer is never as easy as we think it is, Keenan said. Each of them tell a bigger story about who we are and who we can be as a country and a people.

Obamas address to the AMA in June 2009 provides one of his first arguments for health care reform, Keenan said.

Amid a chippy presidential primary in March 2008, Keenan recalled, Obama confronted racism head in his speech for which RSOs symphony is named. It turned the campaign around, he added.

An updated version of that speech was given as a eulogy seven years later following the Charleston church shooting, which killed nine people, including Pinckney, in June 2015. The speeches address racial divides, divisions and misunderstandings, and how acknowledging our past mistakes as a nation can pave the path for a better future.

Obama views this country as a big jangling symphony you have all these wildly different instruments that look and behave differently working together to make something beautiful, Keenan said. It requires all of them one section playing alone doesnt contribute to the broader piece.

The first movement of A More Perfect Union includes a line from Obamas inaugural address in January 2009: A man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

As a composer, you want to make an audience member think more deeply or feel something about a (certain) moment in their lives, Frucht said, and I hope that this piece does that.

alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com

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How Barack Obama's speeches have become focus of Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra - The Ridgefield Press

Everything old was new again this week as ransomware came roaring back into the headlines, hitting a crucial Iowa grain cooperative, among other targets. And WIRED sat down with DeSnake, the former number two of the dark web marketplace AlphaBay, to hear about his reemergence and relaunch of AlphaBay four years after its takedown by law enforcement. "AlphaBay name was put in bad light after the raids. I am here to make amends to that," DeSnake said.

The Groundhog Day vibes continued with the annual release of Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 15. The new OS comes with a slew of privacy features, including more granular details about what your apps are up to, a mechanism to block email trackers, and a sort of VPN-Tor Frankenstein monster called iCloud Private Relay that protects your browsing activity. Use WIRED's handy guide to get up to speed and start changing some settings.

And if you want a DIY project that isn't tied to a tech company's walled garden, we've got tips on how to set up your own network attached storage (NAS) that plugs straight into your router and gives you a place to share files between your devices or easily store backups.

And there's more! Each week we round up all the security news WIRED didnt cover in depth. Click on the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.

A letter to Congress shared with Motherboard shows that the US National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other members of the Intelligence Community use ad blockers on their networks as a security protection. "The IC has implemented network-based ad-blocking technologies and uses information from several layers, including Domain Name System information, to block unwanted and malicious advertising content, the IC chief information officer wrote in the letter.

You may use an ad blocker to make your browsing experience more pleasant, but the tools also have potential defense benefits. Attackers who try to run malicious ads on unscrupulous ad networks or taint legitimate-looking ads can steal data or sneak malware onto your device if you click, or sometimes by exploiting web vulnerabilities. The fact that the IC views ads as an unnecessary risk and even a threat speaks to long-standing problems with the industry. The NSA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have released public guidance in recent years advising the use of ad blockers as a security protection, but the IC itself wasnt required to adopt the measure. Its members deployed ad blockers voluntarily.

The security division of Russian telecom giant Rostelecom took down a portion of a notorious botnet this week, thanks to a flaw introduced by the malicious platforms developers. The error allowed Rostelecom to sinkhole part of the system. A botnet is a zombie army of devices that have been infected with malware to centrally control coordinated operations. The platforms are often used for DDoS attacks, in which actors direct a firehose of junk traffic at a targets web systems in an attempt to overload them.

The Meris botnet is currently the largest botnet available to cybercriminals and is thought to be made up of about 250,000 systems working collectively. It has been used against targets in Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, among others. The Rostelecom partial takedown is significant, because Meris attacks are powerful and challenging for targets to combat. Earlier this month, a Meris attack on the Russian tech giant Yandex broke the record for largest-ever volumetric DDoS attack. Yandex managed to defend itself against the assault.

European law enforcement in Italy and Spain have arrested 106 people on suspicion of running a massive fraud campaign over many years, with profits totaling more than $11.7 million in the last year alone. And police said this week that the individuals involved have ties to an Italian mafia group. The suspects allegedly ran phishing schemes, conducted business email compromise scams, launched SIM-swapping attacks, and generally perpetrated credit card fraud against hundreds of victims. The activity was also allegedly connected to drug trafficking and other property-related crimes. To actually extract funds from these digital scams, the suspects allegedly laundered stolen money through a system of money mules and shell companies. In addition to the arrests, law enforcement froze 118 bank accounts and seized computers, SIM cards, 224 credit cards, and an entire cannabis plantation in connection with the bust.

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Even the CIA and NSA Use Ad Blockers to Stay Safe Online - WIRED

Earlier this year, a report from CNET explored the current state of ad blockers. Among the data cited within was a study from the software company Blockthrough, which estimated that 40% of adults in the United States make use of some ad-blocking technology. That might not come as much of a surprise to you but another recent report at Vice offers a fascinating window into some of the people and organizations utilizing ad-blocking technology.

In the Vice article, Joseph Cox covered the way the U.S. intelligence community has begun making use of ad-blocking technology. That includes the CIA and the NSA, among a number of other agencies. Last week, Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter to the Office of Management and Budget calling for them to protect federal networks from foreign spies and criminals who misuse online advertising for hacking and surveillance.

Wyden cited guidelines from both the NSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommending that ad-blocking software be used. Wyden goes on to quote the Chief Information Officer from the Intelligence Community, who stated, The IC has implemented network-based ad-blocking technologies and uses information from several layers, including Domain Name System information, to block unwanted and malicious advertising content.

A report from CrowdStrike published earlier this year warned of the dangers of malvertising which has cropped up on legitimate websites, and has been used to give control of computers and mobile devices to a third party. Thats alarming enough in its own right, so its not hard to see why people dealing with classified information would be especially worried. Will Wydens letter find a welcome response? It could be the difference between an ordinary day and a crisis waiting to happen.

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Who's Worried About the State of Online Advertising? The NSA and CIA, For Starters. - InsideHook

Each year North Star Academy (NSA) welcomes students and staff back with a theme carried throughout the school year. This year in particular, a theme of joy and laughter seems quite fitting.

Collectively, the world has seen more challenges in the past 18 months than weve faced in a long time, and with palpable exhaustion and frustration. Building on the courage and resilience theme from the previous two years, North Star Academy principal Kendra Hossfeld kicked off staff development week for the 2021/2022 school year surprising the team with motivational speaker Molly Kennedy and RISE Comedy founder Steve Wilder to jumpstart the joy and laughter theme.

Resiliency is a life-long trait that usually requires challenging experiences and psychological strength. In our household, laughter is the best medicine and sometimes the only medicine. Being able to laugh at yourself and laugh with others relieves stress and creates bonding experiences, Hossfeld said. Research reveals that little moments of joy can help our bodies recover from the physiological effects of stress, and can help us find meaning and purpose in tragic events. Rather than being a distraction, when we allow ourselves a moment of joy, it creates a respite that makes us more resilient, Hossfeld said.

Kennedy, a proponent of the growth mindset, ironman triathlete, author and motivational speaker, shared the importance of gratitude and how it leads to joy. Kennedy has visited NSA in the past, sharing a similar message with students. During her time with the staff, they discussed multiple ways teachers are already practicing gratitude in their own lives, opportunities to expand on that gratitude as well as what it may look like in their classrooms with their students.

Where your focus goes, your energy flows. If we choose to shift our focus to what is good, positive, optimistic, possible, etc, that changes what we see and feel. Operating from this space allows us to feel a bit more invigorated and energized. Thats a good thing, Kennedy said. The North Star teachers were able to easily come up with ways to incorporate gratitude on a regular basis, and some ideas sparked ideas in other teachers. It was wonderful to see!

Following on the heels of Kennedy was guest speaker Steve Wilder, a comedian and founder of RISE Comedy, who took the teachers through several engaging activities that promote joy and laughter. Wilder initiated several games designed to build on the theme.

We focused on simple improv to create fun and laughter in an environment without pressure or expectations, Wilder said. Having fun was the goal versus. trying to be funny. With so many distractions in our world today its important to be present, communicate and take risks in a safe, supportive environment. The improv games we played allowed the NSA teachers to connect in a new way by being silly, goofy and getting out of their heads.

For example, Wilder introduced the clap game, a simple game in which participants get in a circle and take turns clapping simultaneously with a nearby person. While it sounds simple, the result tends to produce an opportunity to pass energy to one another while creating a true presence. The essence of joy is the ability to allow the brain to say, Hey! Im here having fun and theres nothing else clouding my thoughts.

There was a willingness by the North Star staff to go for it and by the end of my time with them, they were having a blast and willing to look silly in front of their peers. It was so refreshing and you could feel the positivity and excitement in the room with a palpable level of support and acceptance, Wilder said.

Our joy and laughter theme seems perfect this year after what we have endured the past year and a half. The trainings were a fun way to start the school year. We certainly had a lot of laughter as we saw our colleagues step out of their comfort zone during the improv session especially, said NSA middle school social studies teacher Kerrie Derosia. The NSA staff is already having fun focusing on the theme when we want to step away from the curriculum in our classes for a minute. We can chalk any fun idea with the students up to incorporating joy and laughter. Things as small as a minute of silly dancing or as big as an additional field trip.

Morgan Schneider, NSA middle school science teacher added, It feels really good to focus on the excitement and to have some space for laughter and fun in life, work and the classroom. It was a lot of fun seeing my coworkers let loose and be silly doing improv with Steve.

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North Star Kicks off School Year with Joy and Laughter | YourHub - The Know