NYT Wednesday Evening Briefing

nytimes.com

Gun Control, Florida, Hope Hicks: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Karen Zraick and David Scull

7-9 minutes

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Al Drago for The New York Times

1. President Trump’s busy day included praising the Rev. Billy Graham at a memorial, criticizing his attorney general (“DISGRACEFUL”) and stunning lawmakers by embracing gun control.

In a remarkable televised meeting in the Cabinet Room, the president called for expanding background checks, keeping guns from people with mental illness and restricting gun sales from some young adults.

We took a close look at the AR-15, the weapon used in the school massacre in Florida. Since 2007, at least 173 people have been killed in mass shootings involving the military-style firearm.

Mostly cloudy, a bit of rain in the p.m.

59°F 56° 42°

Tomorrow: 44° 36°

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Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

2. “We love these kids and their rallying cry, ‘enough is enough.’ It got to us.”

That was the chief executive of Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of the country’s largest sporting goods retailers, speaking about the Florida survivors this morning.

He was explaining why Dick’s is ending sales of assault-style rifles and barring gun sales to those under 21, taking one of the strongest corporate stances since the mass shooting.

Across the country, protests against the gun lobby are coalescing into a powerful movement.

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Joe Raedle/Getty Images

3. It was the first day of classes back at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

We spent the morning with Brooke Harrison, a 14-year-old who saw three of her classmates die. Her backpack has a bullet hole in it.

Brooke and her mother passed heavily armed police officers and TV cameras. Teachers from their old middle and elementary schools waved signs of support.

“Please don’t cry,” Brooke had to say to her mother.

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Leah Millis/Reuters

4. Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, plans to resign.

The 29-year-old former model has been one of the president’s most trusted aides.

The announcement came a day after she testified for eight hours before the House Intelligence Committee, admitting that she sometimes told white lies for Mr. Trump. But our White House reporter Maggie Haberman is hearing there’s no connection.

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Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

5. The U.S.-led campaign to hunt down the last pockets of ISIS militants in Syria has lost its most effective fighters.

The Kurdish leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces have diverted to the northwestern city of Afrin, to take on Turkish troops. They’ve left their Syrian Arab and American allies to battle ISIS in the southeast.

American military officials fear hundreds of foreign fighters might escape.

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Tolga Akmen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

6. The “Beast from the East” is walloping parts of Western Europe.

The Arctic storm system brought the enchantment of snow in Rome, but panic and chaos across much of Britain, including London, above.

Schools and roads were closed in heavy snow and bitter cold, and emergency officials said many drivers had to be rescued from stranded vehicles.

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Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group, via Associated Press

7. A federal official accused the mayor of Oakland, Calif., of being “no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘Police!’” because she forewarned the public about a large-scale raid to round up undocumented immigrants.

Officers with the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency have arrested more 150 people as “public safety threats” in Northern California since Sunday — nowhere near the 1,000 they’d aimed for.

The mayor, Libby Schaaf, above, countered that her alert had been meant “to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options” and to enable them “to keep their family together.”

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Tony Luong for The New York Times

8. You may know that we have a national poet laureate. But did you know that we have a national youth poet laureate, too?

Amanda Gorman, above, is the first to hold the lofty title. A native of Los Angeles and a sophomore at Harvard, she told us, “I write a lot for that bucktoothed, kinky-haired, speech-garbled 7-year-old still inside myself who didn’t see herself reflected in literature.”

Our Race/Related newsletter asked her to write new works for Black History Month — and then we animated them.

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Russell James for Variety

9. Variety published a lengthy interview with Barbra Streisand, focusing on her decades-long efforts to break up Hollywood’s boys’ club, ahead of the Oscars on Sunday.

But it was a short aside about pets that caused her name to start trending: She revealed that two of her three Cotons de Tulear are clones of her late dog Samantha.

We did a little research about this dog-cloning business. Turns out you can do it too, if you have upward of $50,000 to spare.

Market Snapshot 7:31 pmView Full Overview

• S.& P. 500–1.11%closed
• Dow–1.5%closed
• Nikkei–0.95%

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Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

10. Finally, Wednesday’s episode of “The Late Show” should be interesting.

Omarosa Manigault, the controversial former White House aide who was recently voted off the reality show “Big Brother,” will sit down with Stephen Colbert.

And if you’re looking for dinner ideas, our Cooking team put together a list of their favorite meals that can be ready in under an hour. Above, rice noodles with zucchini, tomatoes and mint. Here’s the recipe.

Have a great night.

SEC Press Release - February 28, 2018: SEC Files Charges Seeking to Halt Recidivist and Associates in Scheme to Defraud Small Businesses.

sec.gov

SEC Files Charges Seeking to Halt Recidivist and Associates in Scheme to Defraud Small Businesses

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Washington D.C., Feb. 28, 2018 —

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three-time recidivist Steven J. Muehler with operating an unregistered broker-dealer, facilitating an unregistered securities offering, and defrauding small businesses, while promising to help them raise money from investors.  Three companies under Muehler’s control, Muehler’s wife, Claudia M. Muehler, and his associate, Koorosh “Danny” Rahimi, were also charged.  Because the scheme is ongoing, the SEC is also seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Muehler’s ongoing violations of the securities laws, pending trial of the action.
The SEC’s complaint, which was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, also charges Muehler with violating a cease-and-desist order issued by the Commission in 2016 barring Muehler from associating with any broker-dealer.  The SEC has filed a parallel action in the same court to enforce that Commission order.
According to the complaint, Muehler’s companies are not registered as broker-dealers.  But since at least November 2015, Muehler and his companies have nonetheless agreed to provide broker-dealers services to more than 20 small businesses, including identifying and soliciting investors and utilizing a purportedly proprietary online securities exchange to help raise funds from investors.  In return, Muehler and his companies received fees, the right to a percentage of any funds raised from investors, and the right to an equity stake in each small business customer.
The SEC also alleges that in offering broker-dealer services, Muehler and his companies made numerous fraudulent claims to potential customers, including that Muehler and his companies had $50 million on-hand to invest in their customers’ securities, that they had previously helped customers raise millions of dollars, and that their proprietary online exchange was registered with the SEC.  They also concealed that Muehler is subject to a Commission cease-and-desist order and has been sanctioned by California and Minnesota securities regulators.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Claudia Muehler and Danny Rahimi helped Muehler carry out this scheme.
“As alleged in our complaint, Muehler tells small businesses that he runs a successful broker-dealer enterprise that can raise millions of dollars from investors.  In truth, Muehler is a repeat securities-law violator who already admitted to defrauding small businesses the last time the Commission brought an enforcement action against him.  The complaint demonstrates the Commission’s vigilance in enforcing its orders and dealing with recidivist violators,” said Michele Wein Layne, Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office.
The SEC’s complaint charges Muehler and the three companies he controls (AltaVista Capital Markets, LLC, AltaVista Private Client, LLC, and AltaVista Securities, LLC) with violating Section 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 15(a), Section 10(b), and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and also charges Muehler with violating Section 15(b)(6) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  It charges Claudia Muehler with aiding and abetting Muehler’s and the AltaVista Companies’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and charges Rahimi with violating Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The complaint also seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement plus interest, and penalties.
The SEC’s investigation, which is ongoing, has been conducted by M. Lance Jasper and Benjamin Faulkner, and supervised by Spencer E. Bendell.  The litigation will be led by Donald W. Searles and supervised by Amy J. Longo.

Asia, Europe and U.S. Markets Report on February 28, 2018

                                                                                 ASIA

cnbc.com

Powell testimony, China PMIs and earnings in focus

Cheang Ming

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday after Chinese manufacturing data came in below expectations. Markets also digested comments from the new Federal Reserve chief made overnight.
Losses in Asia, which were initially slighter than declines seen stateside, steepened as the session progressed.
The Nikkei 225 declined 321.62 points, or 1.44 percent, to end at 22,068.24, paring some of its recent gains. The index slipped further into negative territory as the yen firmed during the session.
A miss in industrial output figures for January, which showed a steep fall of 6.6 percent on month, likely weighed on sentiment. That was below a median 4.2 percent decrease projected by Reuters.
Manufacturers, technology, automakers and financials traded in negative territory. Among large caps, Honda Motor fell 2.19 percent, SoftBank Group dropped 2.39 percent and Fast Retailing lost 2.52 percent.

NIKKEI	NIKKEI	22068.24		-321.62	-1.44%
HSI	HSI	30844.72		-423.94	-1.36%
ASX 200	S&P/ASX 200	6016.00		-40.90	-0.68%
SHANGHAI	Shanghai	3259.50		-32.57	-0.99%
KOSPI	KOSPI Index	2427.36		-28.78	-1.17%
CNBC 100	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	8873.04		-119.46	-1.33%

South Korea's Kospi fell 1.17 percent to close at 2,427.36. Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which traded in positive territory earlier in the day, closed lower by 0.68 percent as other tech stocks recorded declines.
Automakers and manufacturing names finished the session mostly lower.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 finished the session 0.68 percent lower at 6,016, with just three out of its 12 sub-indexes closing in positive territory. Gold producers and telecommunications stocks were among the worst performing sectors while the heavily weighted financials sector slipped 0.55 percent.
Mining majors Rio Tinto and BHP closed lower by 0.55 percent and 1.96 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, greater China markets extended losses after declining in the last session.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 423.94 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 30,844.72. Major financial stocks closed in negative territory, with heavyweights China Construction Bank and HSBC down 2.74 percent and 0.76 percent, respectively.
Tech giant Tencent, the most heavily weighted stock on the index, fell 3.09 percent by the end of the day, as other technology names similarly recorded declines.
Markets in mainland China were mixed: The Shanghai composite lost 0.99 percent, but the Shenzhen composite pared early losses to close higher by 0.16 percent. Meanwhile, the ChiNext start-up board climbed 0.44 percent by the end of the day.
Of note, official manufacturing PMI in China for the month of February stood at 50.3, below the 51.2 forecast by Reuters and the 51.3 figure seen in January. China's February PMI reading may be influenced by long Lunar New Year public holidays this year, as factories shut over the festive season.
Even so, the data released on Wednesday still point to a "clear slowdown" in early 2018, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, Capital Economics' senior China economist in a note.
MSCI's broad index of shares in Asia Pacific excluding Japan was down 1.13 percent by 3:39 p.m. HK/SIN.
Markets in Taiwan were closed for Peace Memorial Day.

US stocks fall on Powell comments

Major U.S. stock indexes recorded declines of more than 1 percent across the board on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 1.16 percent, or 299.24 points, to close at 25,410.03.
The moves came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's positive assessment of the economy during his testimony before Congress on Tuesday. Powell also indicated that the central bank raising interest rates more than three times was a possibility as inflation moves "up to target."
"The gist is that even as [Powell] espoused that the Fed will continue to normalize policy at a gradual pace, markets suspect his confidence could rub off to four rate hikes for 2018, instead of the three penciled in," Chang Wei Liang, a strategist at Mizuho Bank, said in a note.
U.S. Treasury yields rose on the back of those remarks, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note standing at 2.9 percent during early Asian trade.
Following Powell's Tuesday testimony, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of rivals, was steady at 90.345 after bouncing in the last session.
Against the yen, the dollar pared overnight gains to trade at 107.06 at 3:34 p.m. HK/SIN, below Tuesday's close of 107.36. The move also came as Japan's central bank slightly reduced the amount of 25 to 40-year Japanese government bonds to 70 billion yen ($652 million) it offered to purchase, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar edged up after falling as low as $0.7780 in the last session with the firmer dollar. The Aussie dollar last traded at $0.7805.
In corporate news, South Korean steelmaker Posco fell 4.49 percent. The company said Tuesday that it would purchase a maximum of 240,000 tons of lithium concentrate each year from Australia's Pilbara Minerals, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, shares of Australian retailer Harvey Norman plunged 12.45 percent after the company reported a 19.3 percent fall in first-half profit.
On the commodities front, oil prices extended losses after last session's declines. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 0.38 percent to trade at $62.77 per barrel. Brent crude futures edged down by 0.23 percent to trade at $66.48.
Economic releases for the day included January retail sales out of Japan, which rose 1.6 percent on year, missing a 2.1 percent increase projected.
Ahead, the release of India's fourth-quarter GDP is expected later in the day at 8:00 p.m. HK/SIN.
— CNBC's Huileng Tan contributed to this report. 

                                                                          EUROPE
cnbc.com

European stocks: Fed, earnings, inflation

Silvia Amaro, Justina Crabtree

European equities close provisionally lower Wednesday following comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell committing to a gradual increase in interest rates.

FTSE	FTSE	7231.91		-50.54	-0.69%	895157727
DAX	DAX	12435.85		-54.88	-0.44%	96279669
CAC	CAC	5320.49		-23.44	-0.44%	86766149
IBEX 35	---	---	---	---	---	---

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed provisionally 0.65 percent lower with most sectors trading in negative territory. Insurance stocks were the only sector trading above the flatline on results. Admiral Group rose above 5 percent in early trade after announcing a dividend of 58 pence per share and a 43 percent increase in pre-tax profit. However, the stock lost those gains by mid-morning trade.
All the other sectors traded mostly lower as investment sentiment continued to be influenced by Tuesday's remarks from Fed Chair Powell. The recently-appointed chairman said that it was possible the central bank could increase rates more than three times this year. Expectations of a more hawkish Fed are traditionally harmful to stocks as higher rates increase firms' costs.

Earnings; inflation down in the euro zone

Looking across the European benchmark, Dialog Semiconductor hit the top of the index, up by 9 percent after reporting its latest results. On the other hand, Biomerieux fell more than 9 percent after positing results.

What's the best thing about the recent market volatility?

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Not a Scientific Survey. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.

Solvay said Wednesday that profit growth should slow down in 2018 though its fourth-quarter numbers came in line with expectations. The stock fell nearly 3 percent.
Bayer saw its fourth-quarter net profit fall due to a tax overhaul in the U.S. The firm didn't add any details on the merger with Monsanto but said that wants to see the deal closed in the second quarter. The stock fell 3.3 percent.
Ahold Delhaize's net income grew more than four times in the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago. Shares rose 2.7 percent.

ITV said that a tough ad market contributed to a 5 percent drop in earnings. The stock was down by 6 percent.
In terms of data, inflation in the euro zone dropped for the third month in a row in February. Consumer prices rose 1.2 percent in the region from a year ago, the lowest annual rate since 2016.

 

                                                                          U.S.

 cnbc.com

Dow closes 380 points lower, snaps longest monthly win streak since 1959

Fred Imbert

7-9 minutes

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U.S. stocks fell sharply in choppy trade Wednesday, giving up earlier gains, as Wall Street wrapped up a volatile month for the major averages.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed 380.83 points lower at 25,029.20, with Caterpillar as the worst-performing stock in the index.
More than half of the day's losses came in the final hour of trading with the Dow losing more than 240 points in the final 60 minutes.

The S&P 500 pulled back 0.9 percent to close at 2,713.83, with energy as the worst-performing sector. The Nasdaq composite ended 0.8 percent lower at 7,273.01.
Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial said the S&P 500 dipped below its 50-day moving average late in the session. "That forces some technical selling pressure and flushes out some weak longs," he said.
Earlier in the session, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose as much as 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. The Dow gained as much as 166.12 points.
The Dow and S&P 500 snapped 10-month winning streaks, their longest since 1959. The Nasdaq posted a monthly loss for the first time in eight months. For the month, the Dow and S&P 500 closed lower by 4.3 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq closed February down 1.9 percent.
February was a volatile month for stocks. The major averages dipped in correction territory earlier this month, falling 10 percent from record highs set on Jan. 26. The move lower came as fears of rising inflation sent rates higher and sent market volatility surging after a year of unprecedented calm.
"The volatility is being caused by one overarching theme: The market doesn't know what to expect from the Fed," said Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report. "There's uncertainty around that and it's going to continue for the next several months."

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange.

But the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq had recovered some of those losses as of Wednesday's close. The Dow and S&P 500 are 6 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, below their all-time highs, while the Nasdaq was 3.1 percent away.
Stocks rose earlier on Wednesday as interest rates stabilized. On Tuesday, the 10-year U.S. note yield jumped about five basis points to over 2.9 percent after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at the possibility of more than three rate hikes for 2018 in his testimony to Congress members.
Powell's testimony also sent stocks reeling. The Dow closed nearly 300 points lower, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the previous session down 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
"Valuations keep getting stretched," said Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares. "As long as rates remain low, the market can justify them. But as rates go higher, then we have to have higher earnings growth. The question is can companies sustain this."
Powell is scheduled to testify in front of Congress again on Thursday.
In corporate news, home improvement retailer Lowe's reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, sending the company's stock down more than 6 percent.
Booking Holdings — formerly known as Priceline — saw its shares spike more than 6 percent after reporting better-than-expected adjusted earnings.
Correction: Powell is scheduled to testify in front of Congress on Thursday. A previous version of this story misstated the day.

SEC Press Release - February 28, 2018 meraTex Energy, Inc., et al - February 28, 2018

sec.gov

AmeraTex Energy, Inc., et al (Release No. LR-24057; Feb. 28, 2018)

Litigation Release No. 24057 / February 28, 2018

Securities and Exchange Commission v. AmeraTex Energy, Inc., et al, No. 4:18-cv-00129 (E.D. Tex., filed February 27, 2018)

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three Plano, Texas-based oil and gas companies and their principals, together with an accountant and compliance coordinator, for their roles in operating an $11.7 million offering fraud for oil drilling and operations projects allegedly located in Kentucky.
The SEC alleges that AmeraTex Energy, Inc., Lewis Oil Corp., Lewis Oil Company, Thomas Lewis (the CEO of all three entities), and former AmeraTex President, William Fort, sold unregistered securities and made numerous misleading statements to over 150 investors concerning the use of investor proceeds, including false information about prospect wells; false statements about sales commissions; and false guarantees regarding the comingling and loaning of funds. To conceal the growing number of investor and employee complaints that appeared online, the SEC further alleges that Lewis and Fort used services to suppress Internet search results that would otherwise have cautioned potential investors about the nature of the fraudulent offering. This scheme enabled Lewis to misappropriate more than $1 million.
The SEC also alleges that accountant Damon Fox and compliance coordinator Brian Bull played key roles in the scheme by adding legitimacy and credibility to the operations and taking significant actions of their own. Fox misleadingly categorized entries in the companies' books and records and sent investors false K-1 statements. Bull reviewed many of the misrepresentations to investors, enabled the solicitation and acceptance of non-accredited investors, and filed false Forms D with the Commission.
The SEC's complaint charges AmeraTex, Lewis Oil Corp., Lewis Oil Company, Lewis, Fort, and Fox with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"), Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; and alternatively charges Fox with aiding and abetting AmeraTex's, Lewis Oil Corp.'s, Lewis's, and Fort's violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. It further charges Lewis and Fort with violations of Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act and AmeraTex, Lewis, and Fort with violations Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act. Finally, the SEC charges Bull with violations Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act and aiding and abetting AmeraTex's, Lewis's, and Fort's violations of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil monetary penalties against all defendants.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by Sarah S. Mallett and supervised by Assistant Director James E. Etri in the Fort Worth Regional Office. The SEC's litigation will be led by Matthew J. Gulde.

Associated Presss (AP) - Hicks Refuses to answer Russia Probe Questions.

- Gross Domestic Product, 4th quarter and annual 2017 (second estimate) on February 28,2017

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has issued the following news release today:

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.   
The full text of the release on BEA's Web site can be found at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm.

, Max Keiser Report: Fear of Missing out Published on February 27, 2018.

Consumeraffairs | Consumer News

consumeraffairs.com

Consumer News

Amy Martyn

18-23 minutos

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E-cigarette News

Study finds e-cigarette vapors may contain lead and other toxic metals2/23/2018

Researchers say the devices’ heating coils are to blame

A new study finds e-cigarette vapors may contain potentially unsafe levels of toxic metals, including lead and arsenic.Researchers from Johns Hopkins B… continue readingBy Sarah D. Young

Travel

Airbnb adding hotels, luxury properties to its site2/23/2018

The company wants to become more of a full-service travel booking site

Airbnb has announced that it will expand its selection of travel accommodation options available to customers to include hotels, new housing categories, an… continue readingBy Sarah D. Young

Automotive

Nissan wades into ride-sharing with program designed around self-driving cars2/23/2018

Unless you're rich, sharing a ride may be the only exposure you have to the new technology

Recent surveys show U.S. consumers don't have that much confidence in self-driving cars.Nearly 60 percent of drivers who currently own a connected car… continue readingBy Mark Huffman

Amazon News

Amazon gives the green light for more Amazon Go stores2/23/2018

Seattle, Los Angeles are the next moves in the company’s cashier-less experiment

The plans for Amazon Go, Amazon’s revolutionary convenience store, just ramped up further with up to six more storefronts expected in 2018, according to a… continue readingBy Gary Guthrie

Personal finance

The best cities for consumers seeking a fresh start2/23/2018

Cities with low rents, high incomes, and lots of singles top the list

Where would you go if you lost your job, split with your significant other, or had some setback that caused you to contemplate starting over? It’s a diffic… continue readingBy Mark Huffman

Gas Prices

Gasoline prices take an unexpected tumble2/23/2018

But the surprising break at the gas pump probably won't last

Gasoline prices, which normally rise at this time of year, have gone down in the last week, matching levels that were prevalent a month ago.According t… continue readingBy Mark Huffman

Recalls

Snyder’s Lance recalls Emerald Glazed Walnuts2/23/2018

The product may contain peanuts, almonds, cashews and pecans, allergens not declared on the label

Snyder’s Lance is recalling Emerald Nuts Glazed Walnuts that may contain peanuts, almonds, cashews and pecans, allergens not

The weekly hack: Tesla, Facebook founder’s college roommate, and Fortune 500 companies under attack

3-4 minutos

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Photo (c) weerapatkiatdumrong - Getty Images

A local news channel in Australia reported that a bizarre hack prevented people from accessing its own Facebook page. When viewers tried to visit the Channel 7 Facebook page, they were automatically redirected to the profile page belonging to Arie Hasit, Mark Zuckerberg's former college roommate.

Hasit was an early adopter of the social media platform, but does not work for the company. He currently lives in Jerusalem and became a rabbi last year.

Individual Facebook users also reported being redirected to his page when trying to access their own profiles. A Facebook spokesman confirmed the instances but denied it was a breach.

The spokesman told The West Australian newspaper “this was due to a misconfiguration, not a hack or a security issue. We promptly fixed the matter, and the affected Pages are working normally.”

Tesla

Tesla is the latest entity to fall victim to crypto-jacking, a hack in which a victim unknowingly mines cryptocurrency on behalf of a hacker. Such breaches have become more common with the rising value of cryptocurrencies. A similar breach last week affected consumers who visited government websites in the United States, the U.K., and Canada.

Crypto-jacking allows hackers to put someone else on the hook for the expensive process of “mining” for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, a process that is so energy-intensive that experts warn it could worse global warming.

It costs between $3,000 to $7,000 to produce a single Bitcoin in energy and hardware expenses, according to research conducted by Morgan Stanley.

Tesla confirmed that its Amazon cloud network had been breached by crypto-jackers following an investigation and discovery initially made by the security from RedLock. Tesla added that customer data had not been compromised.

"Our initial investigation found no indication that customer privacy or vehicle safety or security was compromised in any way,"  a company spokeswoman told the BBC.

Fortune 500 companies

Last fall, the security firm IBM Security noted a “significant increase” in complaints about fraudulent wire transfers from its corporate clientele.

Hackers had apparently convinced accounting personnel at “some Fortune 500 companies” to transfer money into their accounts, “resulting in the theft of millions of dollars.”

The firm investigated and, in a report published on Wednesday, detailed the sophisticated measures hackers took to defraud corporations. They used stolen email credentials so that they appeared to work for the company, infiltrated existing conversations taking place online between company employees, and imitated vendors that companies did business with.

“In cases in which additional approval or paperwork was needed, the attackers found and filled out appropriate forms and spoofed supervisor emails to get required approvals,” IBM Security writes.

The report highlights the ability of hackers to defraud corporations without having to use malware, which law enforcement agencies and companies have been cracking down on.

Tinder

Researchers at the security firm AppSecure found a vulnerability in which hackers would be able to manage a stranger’s Tinder account by simply knowing their phone number. The news prompted Tinder to change its login system.

The Washington Post | ALERT

washingtonpost.com

House panel releases Democrats’ memo defending FBI surveillance of ex-Trump campaign aide

https://www.facebook.com/PostRoz

7-9 minutos

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The House Intelligence Committee released on Saturday a redacted memo authored by Democrats and intended to rebut GOP allegations that federal law enforcement agencies had political motivations for wiretapping one of President Trump’s former campaign aides.
In their retort, Democrats charge that the GOP unfairly maligned the FBI and the Justice Department for citing in their surveillance application information from the author of a controversial dossier alleging that Trump had ties to Russian officials, research that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“Our extensive review . . . failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat.

[Read the Democrats’ memo]

Republican leaders have argued that the former campaign aide, Carter Page, was unfairly targeted, saying the surveillance court that approved the warrant was never told that information from the dossier’s author, former British spy Christopher Steele, was financed by the Democrats.

Rep. Devin Nunes responded to the release of a Democrat-written memo defending FBI surveillance at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 24. (The Washington Post)

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) responded to the release of a Democrat-written memo defending FBI surveillance at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 24. (The Washington Post)

According to the Democrats’ memo, Page had been of interest to the FBI for years. It asserts that the bureau had interviewed him multiple times about his contacts with Russian intelligence, including in March 2016 — the same month he was named a Trump campaign adviser, and months before Steele was hired to conduct research on Trump and before he made contact with the FBI.
The court was told that Steele had been approached by a “U.S. person” who had been hired “to conduct research regarding Candidate #1’s ties to Russia,” according to a portion of the surveillance applications contained in the Democrats’ memo. Candidate #1 is a reference to Trump.
“The FBI speculates that the U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit candidate #1’s campaign,” the application says.
The memo’s content is the product of negotiations among the committee’s Democratic members, as well as with the FBI and the Justice Department.
According to Schiff, Democrats submitted their proposed redactions more than a week ago. At first, they were told the memo would be released Friday, then on Monday, he said. They learned of its release Saturday only shortly before the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), announced that the document had been put online for public perusal, Schiff said.
“I think the White House tried to bury it as long as they could,” he told The Washington Post in an interview. The Republicans’ decision to release the memo without warning, on a Saturday, is “not what you do when you think you’re vindicated,” he added. “It’s what you do when you think the facts don’t reflect well on you.”
The president nonetheless claimed a victory on Twitter, calling the Democrats’ memo “a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!”
Speaking Saturday evening on Fox News, the president characterized the memo as “a very bad document for their side” and, once more, attacked Schiff personally, calling him “a bad guy.” He also sought to depict the Democrats as sore losers.
“I don’t want to sound braggadocios,” Trump told host Jeanine Pirro. “I was a far better candidate. She was not a good candidate. She went to the wrong states.”
Initially, Trump would not agree to release the 10-page document without significant redactions, arguing that making it available to the public would risk revealing intelligence-gathering sources and methods. Democrats accused the president of applying a double standard, as he had promised to release the Republican memo before he had even read it, according to White House officials and the timing of his public comments.

[Trump will not release Democrats’ memo on FBI surveillance]

No new information was declassified in the Democrats’ redacted memo, according to a senior Democratic committee official. Schiff had pledged to heed recommendations from the FBI and Justice Department regarding sensitive information.
But on Saturday, Nunes accused Democrats of colluding with the government in a “coverup.”
“We actually wanted this out,” he told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington. “It’s clear evidence that the Democrats are not only covering this up, but they’re also colluding with parts of the government to cover this up.”
Nunes’s accusations were directed not only at the Democrats who authored the memo, but also at the Obama administration.
“This was money from the Hillary campaign and the Democratic Party making its [way into the hands of] an agent who was paying Russian agents,” Nunes said. “Is it fair to ask, what did President Obama know?”
Surveillance applications and reports routinely obscure the identities of individuals and entities who are not the intended targets of wiretaps. The application to conduct surveillance on Page, and three extensions, were approved by four separate judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, the Democrats’ memo says.
Page has acknowledged that an FBI wiretap detected suspected Russian spies discussing their attempts to recruit him in 2013. He has told congressional investigators that he was interviewed by the FBI and cooperated as they investigated the men, who were ultimately charged with acting as unregistered foreign agents. Page continued to have extensive contacts with Russians, including making trips to Moscow in July and December 2016.
The Democrats said on Saturday that the FBI had several other reasons to suspect the Trump campaign of questionable connections to Russia — including evidence that foreign agents approached another former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos — before Steele approached the FBI and produced his dossier.
“DOJ told the Court the truth,” the Democrats’ memo reads. “Christopher Steele’s reporting . . . played no role in launching the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference and links to the Trump campaign.”
The memo states that by the time Steele’s information reached the FBI’s Russia team in mid-September 2016, the bureau had already opened “sub-inquiries” into other “individuals linked to the Trump campaign.” The identities of those individuals are redacted in the memo.
Schiff said he hopes its release means the Intelligence Committee can refocus attention on “the core investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.” But there seems little chance this disclosure will quell the bitter political feuding that has consumed the panel.
In his comments at CPAC, Nunes stressed that the panel had seen “no evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia — a conclusion Schiff disputes. He suggested, too, that surveillance rules need to be changed.

The Democrats are “advocating that it’s okay for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against another political campaign,” Nunes said.
Republicans have floated a legislative change that would bar material paid for by a political entity from being presented as evidence to secure a surveillance warrant. Democrats oppose the effort.
David Weigel and John Wagner contributed to this report.

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