A federal judge delivered an extraordinary public dressing down to Michael Flynn, US President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, on Tuesday accusing him of betraying the American flag by working for a foreign government.
Mr Flynn appeared in a Washington court to receive what was expected to be a lenient sentence for lying to prosecutors but instead asked for a delay in proceedings.
He pleaded guilty in December 2017 for concealing that he had discussed US sanctions against Russia with Sergei Kislyak, the then Russian ambassador to Washington, according to his plea deal.
Prosecutors suggested he need not go to prison after offering his cooperation.
But as he weighed the charges, Emmet Sullivan, US District Judge, also raised the fact that Mr Flynn had failed to register this work for the Turkish government while part of Mr Trump’s team.
“You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president, said Emmet Sullivan, US District Judge. “That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.”
The delay means he will not now be sentenced until at least March.
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Mr Trump’s woes intensified on Tuesday as he agreed to shut down his personal charity amid allegations that it was used for his personal and political benefit and his former national security adviser received an extraordinary dressing down in court.
Barbara Underwood, New York's attorney general, and the Trump Foundation filed a joint stipulation with the court laying out a process for dissolving the charity and distributing its remaining assets to other non-profit groups.
New York filed a lawsuit last spring accusing the foundation of operating like an extension of Mr Trump's businesses and political campaign. That suit will continue.
Lawyers for the foundation insist any infractions were minor and say they have been trying to shut down the foundation voluntarily for months.
"This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone," said Ms Underwood in a statement.
"We'll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law."
The lawsuit accused Mr Trump of illegally using the charity's money to settle disputes involving his business empire and to boost his political fortunes during his run for the White House, including by giving out big grants of other's people money to veterans' organisations during the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, the first presidential nominating contest of 2016.
But it was Mr Flynn who was top of the news agenda on Tuesday. Mr Flynn is the fourth defendant in the Mueller probe to have been sentenced. Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal attorney, George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the 2016 campaign, Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer, each pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and received prison sentences.
The end of 2018 has been marked by three weeks of bombshell moments for Mr Trump and his team.
Taken together, the latest twists reveal how almost every aspect of the president’s campaign and time in office is now under investigation – from his business affairs to his close associates. Wired magazine counted 17 different investigations.
Two new investigations have revealed how Moscow’s operatives used social media to target African-Americans and suppress turnout among Democratic voters.
Those efforts started earlier than previously understood and continue today with websites and online accounts targeting Mr Mueller, according to the reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
One post on a Facebook page entitled ‘Merican Fury, for example, claimed falsely that Mr Mueller had worked in the past with “radical Islamic groups”.
Adam Schiff, the most senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said every concerned American should read the reports.
“Russian efforts to manipulate Americans through social media are sophisticated, cynical, effective and very much ongoing,” he said. “Russia seeks to divide us among racial, ethnic and political fault lines.”
The scale of that operation was laid bare in two reports – one by social media analysts New Knowledge and the other by an Oxford University team working with analytical firm Graphika - that examined online Russian attempts to influence the election.
The researchers analysed more than 10 million posts to understand how the Russian government's Internet Research Agency, based in St Petersburg, tried to manipulate American politics.
They included stoking “secessionist movements” in California and Texas, according to the New Knowledge report.
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black Americans as assets,” the report says.
It used websites and usernames that sounded African-American in origin such as blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info and @blackstagram.
Oxford/Graphika said the content included messages urging black voters to boycott the election as well as misinformation about voting procedures to suppress turnout for Hillary Clinton, while also encouraging Right-wing voters to be more confrontational.
The new details build on a US intelligence report that last year concluded that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, directed a campaign to undermine Mrs Clinton’s chances of election victory.
Mr Trump has always denied any collusion with the Russian regime.
On Tuesday, he tried to shift focus, accusing social media platforms of working against him.
“Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous! Twitter, in fact, has made it much more difficult for people to join @realDonaldTrump,” he posted on Twitter.
Yet analysts said it beggared belief that he and his supporters were unwilling to acknowledge the way Russia had exploited American democracy.
“Like all great enemies, like all great foes, they found a way to find our greatest strength our greatest weakness, which is our essential openness in a technological and digital sense,” John Meacham, a presidential historian, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe show.
“They are taking advantage of the American ethos of free expression to conduct a concentrated propaganda campaign on behalf of a particular person and that particular person’s political agenda.”
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
MORE ON CORONAVIRUS & THE ECONOMY
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Terminator: Dark Fate
Director: Tim Miller
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis
Rating: 3/5
Mercedes V250 Avantgarde specs
Engine: 2.0-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo
Gearbox: 7-speed automatic
Power: 211hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.0 l/100 km
Price: Dh235,000
WRESTLING HIGHLIGHTS
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Get inspired
Here are a couple of Valentine’s Day food products that may or may not go the distance (but have got the internet talking anyway).
Sourdough sentiments: Marks & Spencer in the United Kingdom has introduced a slow-baked sourdough loaf dusted with flour to spell out I (heart) you, at £2 (Dh9.5). While it’s not available in the UAE, there’s nothing to stop you taking the idea and creating your own message of love, stencilled on breakfast-inbed toast.
Crisps playing cupid: Crisp company Tyrells has added a spicy addition to its range for Valentine’s Day. The brand describes the new honey and chilli flavour on Twitter as: “A tenderly bracing duo of the tantalising tingle of chilli with sweet and sticky honey. A helping hand to get your heart racing.” Again, not on sale here, but if you’re tempted you could certainly fashion your own flavour mix (spicy Cheetos and caramel popcorn, anyone?).
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Virtuzone GCC Sixes
Date and venue Friday and Saturday, ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City
Time Matches start at 9am
Groups
A Blighty Ducks, Darjeeling Colts, Darjeeling Social, Dubai Wombats; B Darjeeling Veterans, Kuwait Casuals, Loose Cannons, Savannah Lions; C Awali Taverners, Darjeeling, Dromedary, Darjeeling Good Eggs
