German civil servants investigated over ‘spying for Russia’

German civil servants investigated over ‘spying for Russia’

The Guardian reports: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is investigating allegations that two senior civil servants working in the economy ministry could have been spying for Russia, according to a local media report. Die Zeit, which first revealed the case, said the officials being investigated had close involvement with energy supply issues and held key positions. The economy ministry and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, would not comment on the reports….

Read More Read More

Energy war erupts as Putin and the West clash over oil and gas

Energy war erupts as Putin and the West clash over oil and gas

Politico reports: The energy battle between Russia and the West escalated dramatically Friday, with Western countries making a concerted push to cap the prices of Moscow’s oil and gas exports, while Russia announced it won’t be restarting the crucial Nord Stream pipeline. Finance ministers from the G7 group of industrialized democracies called for devising a system that would only allow the sale of Russian oil at below-market prices. The European Commission president also called for capping Russian gas prices. The…

Read More Read More

What you need to know about the new omicron booster shots

What you need to know about the new omicron booster shots

Science News reports: Revamped COVID-19 vaccines are poised to do battle with the super-contagious omicron variant. On September 1, U.S. health officials greenlit the first major update of the mRNA-based shots, reformulated to recognize both the original version of SARS-CoV-2 and the recently circulating versions of omicron. Those mRNA vaccine boosters could start going into arms within days. “They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants,” Rochelle…

Read More Read More

Oldest human or just another ape? Row erupts over 7 million-year-old fossil

Oldest human or just another ape? Row erupts over 7 million-year-old fossil

The Observer reports: It is a dispute that has taken a long time to reach boiling point. Seven million years after an apelike creature – since nicknamed Toumaï – traversed the landscape of modern Chad, its means of mobility has triggered a dispute among fossil experts. Some claim this was the oldest member of the human lineage. Others that it was just an old ape. The row, kindled by a paper in Nature, last week led scientists to denounce opponents…

Read More Read More

The science of a wandering mind

The science of a wandering mind

By Tim Vernimmen, Knowable Magazine, September 1, 2022 When psychologist Jonathan Smallwood set out to study mind-wandering about 25 years ago, few of his peers thought that was a very good idea. How could one hope to investigate these spontaneous and unpredictable thoughts that crop up when people stop paying attention to their surroundings and the task at hand? Thoughts that couldn’t be linked to any measurable outward behavior? But Smallwood, now at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, forged ahead….

Read More Read More

William Barr, on Fox, says no legitimate reason for classified docs to be at Mar-a-Lago, doubts Trump declassified

William Barr, on Fox, says no legitimate reason for classified docs to be at Mar-a-Lago, doubts Trump declassified

CNN reports: Former Attorney General William Barr appeared on Fox News on Friday to say there is no “legitimate reason” for classified documents to have been at Mar-a-Lago and cast doubt in the idea that they had somehow been declassified. “No. I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they should have been — could be taken out of government, away from the government if they are classified,” Barr said of the documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Florida…

Read More Read More

FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 folders missing their contents

FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 folders missing their contents

The Guardian reports: Among the items the FBI retrieved from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this month were 90 empty folders marked classified or for return to the White House staff secretary or a military aide, according to a detailed inventory of items seized from the property made public on Friday. The inventory – unsealed by a federal judge overseeing the former president’s request to get a so-called special master to determine what materials the justice department can use in its…

Read More Read More

Why Sarah Palin’s loss is a warning for the GOP

Why Sarah Palin’s loss is a warning for the GOP

Politico reports: Everyone who could read a poll or a room in Alaska knew Sarah Palin was unpopular in her home state. What was jarring to Republicans about her defeat in a U.S. House race there was that so many conservatives were unwilling to vote for her, anyway. In an election that could spell disaster for pro-Donald Trump hard-liners in states across the midterm electoral map, only about half of voters who supported a more traditionalist Republican, Nick Begich III,…

Read More Read More

Trump’s interest in intelligence focused on power and leverage

Trump’s interest in intelligence focused on power and leverage

The New York Times reports: As president, Donald J. Trump showed the most interest in intelligence briefings when the topics revolved around his personal relationships with world leaders and the power available at his fingertips. He took little interest in secret weapons programs, but he often asked questions about the look of Navy ships and sometimes quizzed briefers on the size and power of America’s nuclear arsenal. He was fascinated by operations to take out high-value targets, like those that…

Read More Read More

Trump embraces conspiracy theories he only winked at before

Trump embraces conspiracy theories he only winked at before

The New York Times reports: In a 24-hour period this week, former President Donald J. Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, 88 times, amplifying one conspiracy theory after another. Among his unsupported claims: A retiring F.B.I. agent was behind both the search of his Mar-a-Lago property on Aug. 8 and the investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia; a forthcoming report will prove widespread corruption against his 2016 campaign; and he should be reinstalled as president…

Read More Read More

How Putin’s agents are infiltrating Germany

How Putin’s agents are infiltrating Germany

Der Spiegel reports: Five months after her sudden disappearance, Maria Adela K. provided a sign of life. She had been trying to hide from herself, she wrote to her friends in an emotional post on Facebook. But now she had to “reveal the truth.” She had cancer, she wrote. Thirty-two of her Facebook friends promptly responded. They showed concern, said they were happy to hear from her and also offered words of encouragement. But shortly after that, K. disappeared again,…

Read More Read More

Gorbachev died shocked and bewildered by Ukraine conflict, says interpreter

Gorbachev died shocked and bewildered by Ukraine conflict, says interpreter

Reuters reports: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was shocked and bewildered by the Ukraine conflict in the months before he died and psychologically crushed in recent years by Moscow’s worsening ties with Kyiv, his interpreter said on Thursday. Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with the late Soviet president for 37 years and was at his side at numerous U.S.-Soviet summits, spoke to Gorbachev a few weeks ago by phone and said he and others had been struck by how traumatised…

Read More Read More

Republicans worry as Miriam Adelson’s big donations dwindle

Republicans worry as Miriam Adelson’s big donations dwindle

Bloomberg reports: Republicans aren’t seeing as many big checks from one of their most generous benefactors, creating a financial hole for the GOP just as Democrats get a fundraising windfall tied to abortion. Miriam Adelson along with her late husband Sheldon Adelson were the party’s biggest donors over the past decade. But her only major contribution in the current election cycle is the $5 million she donated in July to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC that backs House…

Read More Read More

Ginni Thomas worked harder to overturn the election than was previously known

Ginni Thomas worked harder to overturn the election than was previously known

The Associated Press reports: The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers, including the chair of the Senate elections committee, urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the tightly contested state, emails obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show. Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist, also had sent messages to more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona. In her communications with lawmakers in both states, Thomas urged Republicans…

Read More Read More