Author: Scarlett Williamson

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer demanded answers from the Selective Service agency for reposting a vulgar social media screed last month suggesting the US may be on a similar trajectory to Nazi Germany. Although the report was subsequently scrubbed from the Selective Service’s official X account, Comer (R-Ky.) is keen on obtaining additional information on the matter and wants to ensure the perpetrator is fired. “The Committee is deeply disturbed that an independent federal agency, tasked with registering and maintaining a system of individuals potentially subject to military conscription if authorized by the President and Congress, would re-post a wholly unsubstantiated, false,…

Germany’s likely next chancellor says Europe should be ready to back a peace plan for Ukraine independently of the U.S. Ukraine’s major European allies should forge an alliance aimed at agreeing on a “common vision” for peace in Ukraine, the leader of Germany’s conservative opposition, Friedrich Merz, said during a visit to Kyiv Monday. Merz, who is in pole position to become Germany’s next chancellor ahead of a federal election in his country slated for Feb. 23, suggested European leaders, along with Ukraine, would need their own strategy for how to bring an end to the war given the impending arrival of…

The cybersecurity agencies of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand) issued a warning on Tuesday that hackers were increasingly exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to access their targets’ networks. It marks a significant departure from similar advisories issued in 2022 and 2021, when the agencies warned that malicious cyber actors were exploiting older software vulnerabilities more frequently than recently disclosed ones. In a co-authored advisory, the agencies list the top 15 most routinely exploited vulnerabilities of 2023, with CVE-2023-3519 — an issue affecting Citrix’s networking product NetScalers — being the most widely used. Reports around the time…

After Tajiks were charged with a deadly attack in Moscow, the country has cracked down on signs of Islam. But experts say it’s not addressing the causes of terrorism. People in Tajikistan were expecting a government crackdown after Tajik men were arrested and charged with a terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall in March. But it still seemed excessive to Nilufar, a 27-year-old education professional, when she saw local authorities with scissors outside a K.F.C. in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, trimming beards that were deemed too long. Excessive, but not so surprising. In the span of a month, Nilufar herself…

BH Properties Deal Reflects Weaker Property Valuations A Southern California investor appears to be extending its Bay Area buying spree by closing in on a discounted deal for an office in one of the nation’s hardest hit real estate markets in the wake of the pandemic. Los Angeles-based BH Properties intends to pay $13.5 million for a 111,000-square-foot office in downtown San Francisco at 989 Market St. in a deal expected to close next week, people familiar with the transaction tell CoStar News. That price would mark a nearly 80% discount to the $61.2 million that the office sold for about a decade ago,…

Large primary insurer Chubb successfully renewed its Global Property Catastrophe Reinsurance Program for its North American and International operations, significantly raising the retention for the North American program while adding a new layer of per occurrence coverage for named windstorms and earthquakes within Northeast states. Chubb’s renewed global property cat reinsurance program consists of three layers in excess of losses retained by the insurer on a per occurrence basis. For losses in the US (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) for 2024, Chubb’s all natural perils and terrorism cover attaches after a $1.75 billion retention, up $650 million from the $1.1 billion…

The terrorist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall in March 2024, which left 140 people dead, has sparked a crackdown on central Asian workers living in Russia, and put the relationship between the region and Russia under increasing strain. The four suspected gunmen under arrest are all citizens of Tajikistan, a central Asian nation that was once part of the Soviet Union. Following the Crocus City attack, Russian police started rounding up and deporting workers who are originally from Tajikistan, as well as from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The attack, which Russia has blamed on Ukraine, also sparked massive police raids, document checks of migrants…

Toby Keith, a major country music star who sold tens of millions of records, has died at the age of 62 “[He] passed peacefully last night… surrounded by his family,” a statement on his social media channels said. Keith rose to fame in the 1990s with songs such as Should’ve Been a Cowboy which topped the country music chart. He announced in June 2022 that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, an illness the star said was “debilitating”. The statement said he “fought his fight with grace and dignity”. Over a more than 30-year career, hits including Who’s Your…

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue has turned down $320 million in federal money aimed at reducing tailpipe emissions, arguing federal transportation officials are overstepping their authority in the program. Perdue on Nov. 13 notified U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg the state will not participate in the federal Carbon Reduction Program, a five-year, $6.4 billion effort focused on emissions that contribute to global warming. The program was authorized in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion federal law intended to rebuild and invest in the nation’s transportation system. Perdue wrote that “nothing within the (law) explicitly…

While the number of people moving out has increased, the number of people moving into the state has declined. Virginians are continuing to vote with their feet — and also their moving vans — and they’re increasingly voting against the state. A new batch of Census Bureau data shows that more people continue to move out of the state than move into it, and the gap between the two is widening. This trend is not a new one. Since 2013, Virginia has experienced net out-migration, or more people moving out than moving in. What’s new is the latest set of…