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Technology

Final Fantasy VII Remake gets virtual reality mod

Final Fantasy VII Remake gets virtual reality mod

Image: Square Enix

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VR modder Luke Ross brings the next popular video game to virtual reality. This time, fans of the Final Fantasy series can rejoice.

In 1997, Square Enix brought Final Fantasy to the third dimension for the first time. The 3D graphics of Final Fantasy VII on the first PlayStation have aged poorly, but the game remained one of the most popular spin-offs of the series for many years.

This unwavering popularity led developer studio Square Enix to announce a three-part remake in 2015. Part one, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergradewas released in spring 2020, and the sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, is scheduled for release on PC and PlayStation 5 next winter. You can sweeten the wait now with a VR mod for the first part.

Luke Ross releases VR mod for Final Fantasy VII Remake

For fans of VR modder Luke Ross, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is now playable in virtual reality. However, Ross himself warns that the mod is the ultimate VR sickness test and could hit you pretty hard.

“The camera movements are so wild, even I am left breathless every now and then,” Ross writes on his Patreon blog. His VR mod for Elden Ring, he says, is more leisurely in comparison. So you need a strong stomach to enjoy this VR mod without motion sickness.

Publisher threatens VR modder with lawsuit

On his Patreon channel, Ross currently has over 2,000 supporters who pay $10 per month to get access to his latest VR mods. In an interview with MIXED, Ross reveals that he makes a good income thanks to his mods. However, that wouldn’t be much money for a major game maker.

However, one of those publishers, Take Two, doesn’t want Ross to make money from its games. In July, Take Two’s lawyers threatened an ultimatum and sent Ross a cease-and-desist letter. The reason: alleged copyright infringements. Among other things, the VR modder brought GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 to virtual reality, two of the biggest game hits from Take Two’s portfolio.

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Ross seeks talks with Take Two

To counteract the threat of his Patreon account being suspended and his revenue stream drying up, Ross took the VR mods in question offline.

However, according to his latest blog post, the modder is trying to find a solution that makes sense for both sides. A return of the VR mods for GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia Definitive Edition seems unlikely despite all efforts.

Ross writes, “I’m still trying to open a communication channel with them in order to negotiate an agreement, although I have to say that they really can’t seem to be bothered to reach a solution that doesn’t leave their own customers. hanging out to dry.”

Read more about high-quality VR mods in our guide PC VR Mods for gaming hits.

Sources: LukeRoss (Patreon)


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US

Arctic Warming 4 Times as Fast as the Rest of the Planet, New Analyzes Find

The rapid warming of the Arctic, a definitive sign of climate change, is occurring even faster than previously described, researchers in Finland said Thursday.

Over the past four decades the region has been heating up four times faster than the global average, not the commonly reported two to three times. And some parts of the region, notably the Barents Sea north of Norway and Russia, are warming up to seven times faster, they said.

The result is faster melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which leads to greater sea-level rise. But it also affects atmospheric circulation in North America and elsewhere, with impacts on weather like extreme rainfall and heat waves, although some of the impacts are a subject of debate among scientists.

While scientists have long known that average temperatures in the Arctic are increasing faster than the rest of the planet, the rate has been a source of confusion. Studies and news accounts have estimated it is two to three times faster than the global average.

Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, said he and his colleagues decided to look at the issue in the summer of 2020, when intense heat waves in the Siberian Arctic drew a lot of attention.

“We were frustrated by the fact that there’s this saying that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the globe,” Dr. Rantanen said. “But when you look at the data, you can easily see that it is close to four.”

The new findings are bolstered by those of another recent study, led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which found similar rates of warming, although over a different time span.

The Arctic has long been an important indicator of climate change, and reducing warming there by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases will require international cooperation to prevent the most catastrophic effects. Reduction of emissions from the United States, historically the largest emitter and now second behind China, is a focus of the Biden administration’s climate package that is expected to soon gain Congressional approval.

The Arctic is heating more rapidly in large part because of a feedback loop in which warming melts sea ice in the region, which exposes more of the Arctic Ocean to sunlight and leads to more warming, which in turn leads to even more melting and warming. The result of this and other oceanic and atmospheric processes is called Arctic amplification.

How the rate of warming in the Arctic is described compared with the global average is related in part to the time period that is analyzed and how the region is defined.

The new analysis, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, begins with data from 1979, when accurate temperature estimates from satellite sensors first became available. The researchers also defined the Arctic as the area north of the Arctic Circle, above about 66 degrees latitude.

Thomas Ballinger, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said how the region is defined “is a very, very relevant conversation for understanding Arctic change.” A bigger Arctic would include more land, reducing the impact of the ice-ocean feedback on average temperatures.

Dr. Ballinger, who was not involved in either study, is an author of the annual Arctic Report Card prepared for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said some of the findings in the Finnish study were especially interesting, including those showing very high rates of warming in the late 1980s and 1990s. “That really was when Arctic amplification rates were the strongest,” he said.

The earlier study, published last month in Geophysical Research Letters, looked at data from 1960 onward and defined a larger Arctic, north of 65 degrees latitude, which includes more land. It found that the rate of warming reached four times the global average starting about 20 years ago.

Unlike the Finnish study, it found that there were two decade-long periods, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and in the 2000s, with large jumps in warming in the region. “It doesn’t change continuously, it changes in steps,” said Manvendra K. Dubey, an atmospheric scientist at Los Alamos and one of the study’s authors.

Dr. Dubey said the step-like increases suggest that in addition to the effects of increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, natural climate variability, may also play a role in the rapid warming in the region.

Dr. Rantanen said his group’s results also point to natural variability as having some influence on the rate of warming, perhaps some long-term changes in ocean or atmospheric circulation.

But clearly the interaction between water temperature and ice is most important, he said, especially in areas like the Barents Sea where the warming rate is even higher.

“The warming trends are quite strongly coupled with the decline of sea ice,” he said. “They’re most highest over those areas where the sea ice has been declining the most. That’s the primary reason.”

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Technology

Included games & tiers, prices, dates, and more

The Resident Evil Decades of Horror Bundle is a brand new bundle that Humble Bundle has launched for August. The majority of the classic series are represented in this bundle of Resident Evil games, as the name would imply.

The latest bundle from Humble is likely the most affordable way to enjoy the Resident Evil series. With just $30, fans may acquire 11 Steam-compatible titles and a voucher for Resident Evil Village.

There are ten games included in this, along with the remakes of Resident Evil 1 through 3, Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 4–7, and Revelations 1 and 2. Resident Evil Decades of Horror, a collection of games from Capcom and Humble, is now available and features a selection of the best in the survival horror genre.


Resident Evil Decades of Horror Humble Bundle: Included games & tiers

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The Resident Evil franchise has grown incredibly large with its expansion over numerous games and spinoffs. Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil Revelations, and Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1 are included in a three bundle for players who merely want a taste and have a dollar.

In addition to the titles stated above, Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, and Resident Evil Revelations 2: Deluxe Edition are all included in a seven-item package offered by Humble for $10.

The aforementioned titles, as well as the remade versions of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7, are all included for $30 or more. RE Village also has a 50% off voucher available in the Humble Store.

The franchise’s best hits can be caught up on in this tier. RE 2 and 3 are much more authentic third-person homages that succeed in capturing the essence of the original blockbusters, while 7 and Village are both excellent survival horror games. The Resident Evil Decades of Horror Humble Bundle will be available until August 24, giving users plenty of opportunities to check out the offer.

The Resident Evil Decades of Horror game bundle contains only Windows PC-compatible titles. For its most recent affordable bundle packed with gaming delights, Humble is collaborating with Direct Relief, a charitable organization offering health services and medical assistance to people who would not otherwise be able to afford them.


The Resident Evil: Decades of Horror Bundle’s games are listed below

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$1 Tier includes:

  • Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1
  • resident Evil
  • Resident Evil Revelations

$10 Tier includes:

  • Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1
  • Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Deluxe Edition
  • resident Evil
  • Resident Evil Revelations
  • Resident Evil 0
  • Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
  • resident Evil 6

$30+ Tier includes:

  • Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1
  • Resident Evil Revelations
  • Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Deluxe Edition
  • resident Evil
  • Resident Evil 0
  • Resident Evil 2
  • Resident Evil 3
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
  • resident Evil 6
  • Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
  • Resident Evil Village (50% Off Coupon)

Resident Evil fans can check out the latest Humble Bundle deal here.


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Categories
US

How Donald Trump’s Problems All Converged at Once in One Hellish Week

With the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago this week, former President Donald Trump is at one of his lowest moments since he left office.

After fighting off a subpoena for half a year, Trump was finally forced to testify on Wednesday at a closed-door deposition with New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations of bank and insurance fraud at his family company—a civil case which could force it to close shop.

He pleaded the Fifth, still a self-incriminating tactic for a man who, during his 2016 presidential campaign, once declared: “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” While the move may spare him of criminal liability, it will only bolster the AG’s case in civil court, where staying silent can legally be perceived as damning evidence of his own.

The prospect of another long and damaging trial is also hanging over the Trump Organization and the ex-president’s former right-hand money man, Allen Weisselberg. According to Duncan Levin, an attorney representing a witness in that case, prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office are currently preparing eyewitness testimony for an upcoming criminal trial over the company’s scheme to dodge taxes on personal perks.

Weisselberg will be in court on Friday.

The Fulton County district attorney is also ramping up her investigation of Trump’s threatening phone call to the top elections official in Georgia last year, with a special purpose grand jury that is dragging witnesses behind closed doors in preparation for an official report that could pave the way to a criminal indictment for violating state laws.

Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani will be there next Wednesday, according to a familiar source.

The House’s Jan. 6 Committee is also continuing its investigation, after already documenting how Trump tried to subvert the American democratic system and remain in power. The committee has fired warning shots at Trump himself for engaging in what could be described as witness tampering, threatening to refer him to the Justice Department because he allegedly reached out to at least one former staffer before their congressional testimony. And members are expertly making the case to the public that Trump obstructed an official proceeding of Congress.

The widely watched hearings resume next month.

On Tuesday, after losing a bitter legal fight with a pissed-off staffer, Trump’s 2016 campaign revealed in court documents that it has been notifying ex-employees that they are freed from their eleven-ironclad nondisclosure agreements.

They’re now free to dish about any of Trump’s misdeeds.

An appeal court also ruled on Tuesday that the House Ways and Means Committee is entitled to review Trump’s tax returns—the crown jewels that Democrats have been seeking for half a decade to prove that the billionaire has always lied about his wealth, assets, and how much he pays in taxes.

Trump’s taxes might soon get their own congressional hearings.

And then there is the most threatening development of all: the sudden appearance of FBI agents at Trump’s Palm Beach mansion. More than two days later, the raid is still shrouded in mystery, mostly because Trump won’t reveal details about the warrant his lawyers were given.

In fairness, what little is known about the visit has mostly come from the breathless statement Trump made on his internet social media network, TruthSocial.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” his account posted Monday evening. “After working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate… they even broke into my safe!”

Several legal scholars told The Daily Beast there was no chance anyone outside a small DOJ team had seen the lead FBI agent’s sworn affidavit supporting the application for a search warrant, which would detail exactly why authorities were there. But the warrant itself would at least provide some clues as to why the FBI came knocking—as well as what potential crimes Trump may be charged with.

Anonymous sources told several news outlets the raid was part of an ongoing investigation into Trump’s unauthorized removal of classified documents from the White House and relocation to his private home in South Florida—a clear violation of the Presidential Records Act. That law was itself put in place after former President Richard Nixon, who had already resigned, inappropriately kept a ton of records that would have further harmed his already miserable reputation.

Even a local law enforcement agency was kept in the dark about the Mar-a-Lago raid. The Palm Beach Police Department said in a statement it “was not aware of the existence of a search warrant nor did [it] assist the FBI in the execution.”

“The Palm Beach Police Department continues to maintain a good relationship with the FBI; however, we are disappointed by their lack of communication regarding this incident,” Major John Scanlan wrote to The Daily Beast.

The other agency in the area, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, told The Daily Beast it “was not involved.”

According to three sources, one of the lead defense lawyers representing Trump in the criminal investigation matter that led to the FBI raid is Evan Corcoran, an attorney who recently represented right-wing media personality Steve Bannon at his trial for defying a congressional subpoena and remaining loyal to Trump. One attorney briefed on the matter said Corcoran had been in talks with the DOJ for at least two months before the raid, discussing the location of classified and sensitive material that remained at Mar-a-Lago—at one point in a locked storage basement room .

Three attorneys told The Daily Beast that the unannounced FBI raid put a target on Corcoran’s back because any sudden door knock by federal agents reflects a breakdown in negotiations between prosecutors and defense lawyers.

“That’s what the Justice Department will use it for: to get rid of a lawyer, to create distrust between a client and their lawyer,” said Alan Dershowitz, a legal scholar who served on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial.

A person’s lawyers try to convince prosecutors not to indict and will hand over documents and evidence to ease the process and not stoke the fire. But when those talks don’t seem to go anywhere—or when there’s a risk that evidence will be destroyed—law enforcement kicks into action.

“It’s not unusual for DOJ to try to reach out and get as much dialogue as possible,” said Kendall Coffey, a Miami lawyer who served as the region’s top federal prosecutor in the 1990s. “But if DOJ has at some level decided there is going to be a search, they are not going to tell the attorney for the subject of the search.”

“A search warrant—while you are in discussions—signals significant adversity,” he said. “Prosecutors can be cordial and polite, even when they’re planning to indict your client.”

Dershowitz, who criticized the FBI’s historic move as “hard to justify,” said Trump’s criminal defense lawyers should have been more combative and attempted to loudly and publicly halt the search.

“He has to be very aggressive, and he has to go to court, and he has to not trust negotiations with the Justice Department. He has to seek injunctions. He has to seek to have a special master appointed to look at the docs,” Dershowitz told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “There should have been a lawyer in front of a judge at 10 am yesterday.”

The danger to Trump personally is severe. Violating the Presidential Records Act, a little-known and seldom cited law, comes with the implausible risk of prison time but the very real threat of barring him from ever being elected again.

Anyone who willfully conceals, removes, or destroys any presidential records—or even attempts to do so—is “disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

John W. Carlin, who led the National Archives for a decade during the Clinton and Bush II administrations, said the Justice Department was right to become “much more aggressive.”

“I would be shocked if they were nonconsequential classified records. There’s a reason why those boxes were taken,” he said of the raid at Mar-a-Lago.

“We’re talking about national security. We’re talking about protecting records that should not be routinely available to the public. Period. Classified records are very strictly managed. As Archivist, even I couldn’t just walk in and see classified records at a spur-of-the-moment,” he said.

Carlin said that even at the White House presidents are required to carefully handle documents with sensitive information.

“Just because you sit behind the [Resolute] desk doesn’t mean you can casually have classified records sitting around the Oval Office. That’s just not the way they’re handled,” he said.

Much less when you’re a former president sitting behind a faux Resolute desk at a private club.

“Casually taking two or three boxes from the White House with no permission… there’s no way that’s right,” Carlin said.

The next phase of Trump’s troubles depends entirely on what he does next.

His reluctance to immediately make public a copy of the search warrant his team received may spare him embarrassing details in the short term, but it has prompted New York Times to sue for access to it. If that lawsuit succeeds in convincing a South Florida federal judge to unseal the warrant, Trump will be pressured to publicly explain what he was doing in possession of those sensitive government materials.

Meanwhile, his unrelenting attacks on those who authorized and conducted Monday’s FBI search are galvanizing his most rabid supporters, who have started openly discussing violent action against, among others, the magistrate judge believed to have signed off on the warrant application.

According to Vice, a right-wing forum dedicated to Trump—formerly hosted on Reddit and now on an independent website—has become a hub for Trumpists to publicly post the magistrate judge’s contact information and personal details. The threat was real enough that the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida has taken down Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart’s official webpage.

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Categories
Technology

Why Are Competitive Valorant Queues Disabled?

Guides

How long Valorant servers take to come back online.

Ranked games are at the core of the Valorant experience, and when so naturally, when they’re not available to play, everyone is wondering why the competitive Valorant queue is disabled. Here’s what we know about the issue, which is currently preventing anybody from playing the game’s competitive mode.

Why Are Competitive Valorant Queues Disabled? answered

Valorant’s competitive queues are no longer down. The issues that were plaguing the game yesterday have been resolved.

For those not up to speed, the queues were disabled yesterday due to the launch of Patch 5.03, which introduced changes to the game’s engine and therefore required extended maintenance.

However, there was then a subsequent bug/exploit following the patch deployment that caused the developers to quickly take the servers down while they work on a fix. The bug is a flash exploit that allowed players to become invulnerable to flashes by changing a setting in the menu.

How Long Is Valorant Server Maintenance? answered

When it comes to server maintenance for updates, the servers will be down for just a short period of time, no longer than 10-50 minutes; the actual time of day it’s down, though, will be different depending on which region you’re playing the game. In Europe, for example, the maintenance has already ceased and servers are back online, whereas in the Asia/Pacific region the maintenance is still ongoing.

However, in the case of a bug, server maintenance can take longer. When the development team encounters unexpected issues after the launch of a new patch, such as the flash exploit that is currently plaguing the game, it could take several hours to fix.

Typically, if you look at the top-left-hand corner of the menu screen when attempting to enter a competitive lobby, you will actually see a reference to whatever the issue is at hand. Riot typically makes note of any issues such as this on its Twitter channel, too, as highlighted above.

That’s everything there is to know about why the competitive Valorant queue is disabled. For more Valorant content, why not read our latest editorial about why deathmatch is somehow worse despite recent changes? You can also check out the full list of patch notes for the game’s most recent update here.

Categories
US

Louisiana child kicked out of class because parents are same-sex couple | louisiana

A Louisiana five-year-old was allegedly forced out of her kindergarten class at a religious school because her parents are a same-sex couple.

Emily and Jennie Parker said they were informed by school officials at the Bible Baptist Academy in DeQuincy, Louisiana, during a meeting with the school’s director and a pastor that their same-sex relationship did not follow the teachings of the school and that they would need to find a new school for their daughter, Zoey.

“We got called into the principal’s office for a meeting, they informed us that Zoey wouldn’t be able to go to school there anymore because of our lifestyle choices,” said Jennifer Parker, 31, to KPLC, a local news affiliate.

Emily Parker, 28, said that the meeting took place only two days before the school year started. During the conference, she and her wife de ella also were told that, as a religious-based school, the school would teach students that marriage was between a man and a woman.

The Parkers recently adopted Zoey, who is Jennie’s niece, after her father died in a workplace accident in September 2020.

“She lost her father, she lost her mother and now she’s losing her school which she loves very much,” Jennie told KPLC.

Zoey had previously attended pre-school at Bible Baptist Academy, where, the couple told NBC News, Zoey had many friends and teachers she liked.

The Parkers said that after Zoey’s exclusion from the school, they have received widespread support from the community.

The couple also said they have received several offers from other local Christian schools for Zoey to start her kindergarten year.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” Jennie told KPLC. “We have an opportunity to bring her to a school which is a little closer and it’s a new opportunity for her to make new friends.”

Bible Baptist Academy published a statement on their dismissal of the Parkers, writing, in part, that the school is “committed to instructing and living in accordance with the teachings of Scripture.”

It added: “As a Baptist academy, we are also committed to provide an environment that is consistent with the beliefs that we hold. We want our students to not only know our beliefs, but we want them to see them as well. Regarding personal relationships, we hold that those relationships, whether in dating or in marriage, should be between a man and a woman.”

Categories
Technology

Anti-Apex Legends #NoApexAugust Campaign Fails Spectacularly

A pirate shrugs in Apex Legends.

screenshot: EA

It’s not a universal maxim, but in many cases, there’s no surer sign a game is alive and well than when waves of players start calling it a “dead game.” The most recent example is apex legendswhich just set an all-time player count record amid a coordinated—I use that word generously—social media campaign urging players to fall off the game for a month.

apex legendsa free-to-play first-person shooter some people still call Why Aren’t You Titanfall 3?, launched three years ago amid the industry’s battle royale boom. Though it initially seemed experimental, a fun if ephemeral multiplayer pitstop between developer Respawn’s blockbusters (like titan fall and Jedi: Fallen Order), Apex quickly adopted a seasonal model. It’s been riding the live service train ever since and is now on its 14th season. This brings us to #NoApexAugust, a community effort to highlight various issues fans have with the game.

#NoApexAugust has mostly organized around a hashtag on Twitter, though the genesis can be traced back to to Reddit post from last month. Initially, one player suggested a single-day strike against apex legends. The post blew up. Complaints about apex legends poured in (the initial post has more than 1,000 responses), and it eventually morphed into the idea that the community would take a whole month off from the game.

The idea of ​​#NoApexAugust was to spur Respawn and publisher EA into action, addressing what players see as issues with the game: the high-ping servers…or the lack of cross-progression…or the overpriced cosmetics…or the lack or interesting cosmetics …or the slew of specific items some say are too powerful…or, look, players have a bunch of nonsense issues, many of which seem minor in isolation but coalesce into a larger “please fix game” rallying cry.

Right out of the gate, #NoApexAugust sputtered. Some people pointed out that the player base actually increased (if only marginally) over the first two days of the month, immediately after the campaign kicked off. And just yesterday—again, while #NoApexAugust was supposedly in full swing—apex legends set its all-time record number of players on Steam: 510,286 players, according to stat-tracking database steamcharts. (The previous record of 411,183 was set in May. These figures don’t account for players on consoles, however.)

Some dead game.

Clearly, #NoApexAugust has failed spectacularly at its intended goal of getting players to abstain from playing apex legends. Due to the obvious irony, you are allowed at least one (1) chuckle. Still, that a social campaign—messy execution aside—was merited here in the first place calls attention to very real issues players have with the game. Those shouldn’t be ignored, even if players are coming out in record numbers.

Representatives for EA, which publishes apex legendsdid not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

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Categories
US

Feds seized documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

Investigators executed Monday’s search in part because they had developed evidence, including from at least one witness, that there were potentially classified documents still remaining at the Palm Beach, Florida, property months after the National Archives arranged for the retrieval of 15 boxes of documents that included classified information in January of this year, a person briefed on the matter said.

Authorities also believed the documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago had national security implications, CNN reported earlier this week.

The subpoena issued before the June meeting, during which investigators were shown where documents were held in a basement room at the Trump residence and private club, shows how the investigation has escalated and suggests the discussions had become confrontational long before Monday’s search.

The criminal investigation started with concerns about missing documents raised by the National Archives, which made a criminal referral to the Justice Department. That led to FBI interviews with aides to grand jury subpoenas to this week’s court-authorized search and seizure of documents.

The Justice Department is in a no-win situation as Trump's fury rages
Trump and his lawyers have sought to present their interactions with Justice Department prosecutors as cooperative, and that the search came as a shock. The subpoena was first reported by Just the News.
Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the search for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was prompted by a tip to investigators about the possibility of additional classified documents.

In response to questions about the grand jury subpoena, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement to CNN: “Monday’s unprecedented and absolutely unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home was only the latest and most egregious action of hostility by the Biden Administration, whose Justice Department has been weaponized to harass President Trump, his supporters and his staff.”

Earlier this spring, federal investigators began interviewing members of Trump’s staff at Mar-a-Lago and former White House officials who were involved in moving documents from the West Wing to his Palm Beach residence at the end of his presidency, according to three people familiar with those interviews.

In addition to the grand jury subpoena for documents, CNN previously reported that federal investigators separately served a subpoena for surveillance video at Mar-a-Lago, seeking to gather information about who had access to areas where documents were stored, according to people briefed on the matter. The subpoena served to the Trump Organization, the former President’s company that operates the Palm Beach property, came after the June meeting.

CNN previously reported that federal investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in June to discuss White House records they believed were still being held at the Palm Beach property with the former President and his attorneys.

Trump was present at the beginning of the meeting to greet investigators but did not stay to answer questions. During the meeting, Trump’s attorneys showed the investigators documents — some of them had markings indicating they were classified. The agents were given custody of the documents that were marked top secret or higher, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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Categories
Technology

A Long-Known Linux Zero-Day Was Just Patched With Google’s Help

Image for article titled A Linux Zero-Day Was Finally Patched After Half a Decade of Inaction With Help From Google

photo: justin sullivan (Getty Images)

Google’s Threat Analysis Group revealed new details today about its efforts to identify and help patch a zero-day exploit impacting Android devices built by a commercial surveillance vendor and dating back to at least 2016. The research, presented at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, represents the latest attempt by Google to step up its efforts against a growing private surveillance industry that’s thriving, according to the researchers.

The vulnerability in question, referred to as CVE-2021-0920, was a zero day “in the wild” exploit in a garbage collection mechanism within the Linux kernel, the core piece of software that governs the entire Linux operating system. Google says the attackers, using an exploit chain that included the vulnerability, were able to remotely gain controls of users’ devices.

Google says it has previously attributed a number of Android zero-day exploits to the developer behind CVE-2021-0920. In this case, a Google spokesperson told Gizmodo the surveillance vendor used “several novel and unseen exploitation techniques to bypass existing defensive mitigations.” That, the spokesperson said, suggests the vendor is well funded.

Though the CVE-2021-0920 vulnerability was patched last September in response to Google’s research, they say the exploit was identified before 2016 and reported on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. A proper patch was offered up at the time, but Linux Foundation developers ultimately rejected it. Google shared the public Linux kernel email thread from the time which shows disagreement on whether or not to implement the patch.

“Why would I apply a patch that’s an RFC, doesn’t have a proper commit message, lacks a proper signoff, and also lacks ACK’s and feedback from other knowledgable developers,” one developer wrote.

Responding to the Surveillance-for-Hire Era

Google has ramped up its efforts to spot and publicly identify spyware groups in recent years, partly in response to the sheer increase in the number of attacks. In testimonial delivered to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, Google Threat Analysis Group Director Shane Huntley said, “the growth of commercial spyware vendors and hack-for-hire groups has necessitated growth in TAG [threat analyses groups] to counter these threats.”

Huntley said his team’s recent findings suggest advanced commercial spyware firms, like Israel-based NSO Group, have managed to acquire hacking capabilities once reserved to the world’s most advanced state-sponsored intelligence agencies. The use of those techniques, which can include zero click exploits that take over a device potentially without a user ever engaging with malicious content, appear to be increasing and are being carried out at the behest of governments, Huntley suggested. Seven of the nine zero-day exploits discovered by Huntley’s team last year were reportedly developed by commercial providers and sold to state-sponsored actors. Highly technical surveillance techniques, once available to only a select group of countries, can now simply be purchased by the highest bidder.

“These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools, arming nation state actors that would not otherwise be able to develop these capabilities in-house,” Huntley said. “While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are found to be used by some state actors for antithetical purposes to democratic values: targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers, and opposition party politicians.”

“This industry appears to be thriving.” Huntley said.

Lucas Ropek contributed reporting.

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Categories
US

Why Some Don’t Want Brittney Griner Free From Russian Prison: Expert

  • WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.
  • The US government has classified her as wrongfully detained and is working to negotiate her freedom.
  • Some Americans don’t want Griner to return, and a political scientist said two theories could explain why.

Some Americans are actively rooting against Brittney Griner’s return home to the United States.

The WNBA superstar was arrested in February after customs agents at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport claimed they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She was found guilty of drug smuggling in early August and sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.

Brittney Griner.

Griner is escorted out of the courtroom after receiving her verdict and sentence.

REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool


Given the timing of her detention, the nature of her alleged offense, and the unjust reputation of the Russian courts, Griner is widely considered to be a political pawn Moscow is using as leverage against the United States. As such, the State Department classified Griner as wrongfully detained in May.

Even despite the “strong signal that the US government does not believe that there is a legitimate case against her,” as an expert previously told Insider, many of the two-time Olympic gold medalist’s compatriots are opposed to the Biden administration’s efforts to secure her freedom through negotiating a prisoner exchange with the Kremlin.

And there could be a scientific explanation why they’ve sided with a foreign adversary instead of supporting their fellow American.

Brittney Griner.

Griner competes for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics.

Charlie Neibergall/AP


Dani Gilbert, an expert on hostage taking and recovery who is currently a Rosenwald Fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at Dartmouth College’s John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, told Insider her research suggests that “how someone came to be in need of assistance affects whether or not the public thinks that person should receive it.”

This phenomenon, she said, is called the “deservingness heuristic.”

Gilbert used poverty as an example for her explanation. Individuals who believe that poor people are simply “unlucky” are the ones who are willing to support programs that provide assistance. But those who deem poor people lazy are less likely to support those same programs.

Her research, which she conducted along with a colleague at the University of California San Diego, suggests that that same theory applies to the public perception of hostages and wrongfully detained individuals. Griner is no exception.

Brittney Griner.

Griner is placed in her defendant’s cage during her Russian drug-smuggling trial.

AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov


“The fact that the American public might be really focused on the alleged drug possession and the outlandish accusation of drug smuggling might make the American public less willing to pay attention to this case.” [and] less supportive of government efforts to bring her home,” Gilbert said. “That’s the kind of dynamic that might really be in play.”

“It’s unfortunately quite predictable that Americans respond this way,” she added.

Gilbert further explained that personal characteristics could have an impact on the way the public regards Griner’s situation. Though “gender tends to be less influential in how the American public and how the media care about sympathizing with pay attention to Americans who are held hostage abroad,” than some other factors, “race is a huge deal here.”

Brittney Griner.

Griner.

Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/Reuters


This concept is aptly called “the missing white woman syndrome,” Gilbert told Insider.

“A white girl or a white woman who is taken captive or arrested or something like that elicits tons of sympathy from the American public in a way that women and girls of color do not,” she explained. “And so I think the fact that [Griner is] Black could be a huge part of the lack of attention to her case.”

“And then there are other demographic characteristics, including the fact that she is openly gay, that she is gender nonconforming, not traditionally feminine — all of these work against public sympathy for someone in her position,” Gilbert added.

Griner’s beliefs may also play a role in her perceived deservingness of spending nine years at a Russian penal colony. Though she’s not particularly political — having only cast her first vote during the 2020 presidential election — she’s received serious criticism for her views of her on the national anthem.

Brittney Griner.

Griner sits on the bench as her Phoenix Mercury competes in the 2021 WNBA Finals.

AP Photo/Rick Scuteri


“I honestly feel we should not play the National Anthem during our season. I think we should take that much of a stand,” Griner told the Arizona Republic in July 2020, when many athletes knelt or stayed off the court when the anthem played in order to protest police brutality and honor Black Americans who were killed by police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“I don’t mean that in any disrespect to our country,” she added. “My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country.”

Still, some see Griner as unpatriotic. Gilbert mentioned Facebook comments she saw that she basically said, “If you hate the United States so much, how does it feel now?”

Brittney Griner.

Griner behind bars.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS


“I think that feeds in, in a way, to the whole deservingness thing,” Gilbert said. “People decide in their minds, if someone protests or has a particular political persuasion, that suddenly means that they’re not worthy of government assistance.”

“What we should really be focused on is the fact that she was wrongfully detained and is sitting in Russian prison in illegitimate arrest,” she added. “And that any American in that situation deserves help to come home.”