Russia’s Deep Dive into Hacking

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Ralph Emerson

“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” – Ibid.

Russia’s Deep Dive into Hacking the United States Grid: Divetechnoservices, a firm that designs and manufactures underwater diving and wrecking equipment, was one of five Russian companies and three individuals newly sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for working with Moscow’s military and intelligence services on ways to conduct cyber attacks against America and its allies. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made the announcement Monday, stating: “The entities designated today have directly contributed to improving Russia’s cyber and underwater capabilities through their work with the FSB [Russia’s Federal Security Service] and therefore jeopardize the safety and security of the United States and our allies.”

Mnuchin emphasized that Russia had been actively tracking undersea communication cables, which carry the bulk of the world’s telecommunications data. Additionally, he noted that Russia had conducted assaults on the US energy grid and on internet routers and switches.

– One of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history involves the Brazilian construction behemoth Odebrecht, which has admitted paying almost $800 million in bribes to secure government contracts in a dozen countries. Investigations everywhere the company operated have resulted in impeachments, arrests, an end to political careers from Peru to Panama — but not in Venezuela or Mexico. The former nation is an international pariah with an authoritarian government; the latter’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has been hounded by corruption scandals from the moment he took office. And when a special prosecutor started an investigation into Odebrecht’s criminal activities in Mexico, eventually identifying an aide close to Peña Nieto as a suspect, the government fired the special prosecutor. (NYT)

– One of the toughest, most anxiety-ridden jobs to have is that of an international interpreter at a high-stakes summit. Correct translation of every word is beyond crucial; one slip-up could have monumental consequences. So the pressure’s really on for whomever is translating at today’s summit between President Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. We don’t know how Kim’s interpreter will do, but we do know Trump’s interpreter will be challenged. The president is known to go off-script, plus any usage of colloquialism or profanity could compound the difficulty. (NPR)

– One person who doesn’t seem the least bit riddled with anxiety about today’s summit is President Trump himself. He was all confident and chit-chatty while talking to other Asian leaders Monday. Over lunch with Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, the president was bullish about the outcome of his meeting with Kim, saying “I just think it’s going to work out very nicely.” Somewhere close-by, American and North Korean diplomats were knee-deep in difficult last-minute negotiations to resolve gaps in basic issues dividing the two sides, and a team of American diplomats was working on language to include in a joint communique to be issued by Trump and Kim at the end of their meeting. (NYT)

– Two young men who stopped to ask for directions in a village in the northeastern Indian state of Assam were beaten to death by a large mob who believed the men were the child kidnappers social media warned them about. The audio engineer and the digital artist were both residents of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam. Seven other people have been killed in the past month by mobs who believed the rumors they’d read on WhatsApp. (BBC)

– Both Italy and Malta turned away a ship that had rescued 629 people from the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday, including 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children, and seven pregnant women. The Aquarius was left stranded at sea over the weekend. Aid workers aboard the vessel said food was about to run out and people were injured. Governments were told there was “an urgent humanitarian imperative” to act and on Monday Spain answered the call, opening the port of Valencia. But the Associated Press noted that the trip might not be feasible considering the ship was 750 nautical miles from the port. (NPR)

Celebrity Deaths Reflect America’s Mental Health Crisis: Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released results from a new studydemonstrating the alarming statistical rise in US suicide rates from 1999 to 2016. Now, not yet halfway through 2018, the shocking, back-to-back suicides of two celebrities are putting faces on those statistics. It is not hyperbole to state that America is in the midst of an intractable public health crisis.

Editor and influential fashion designer Kate Spade, 55, and chef, writer, and TV host Anthony Bourdain, 61, took their own lives within three days of each other last week. Spade left behind a 13-year-old daughter; Bourdain is survived by an 11-year-old daughter. Spade had battled severe depression; Bourdain had fought heroin and cocaine addiction. Both had achieved enormous success and wealth. Neither gave any immediate indication of despair so overwhelming that suicide seemed the only way to stop the private pain.

The CDC study reported that 54% of people who take their own lives have no previously known mental health issue. Treatment for chronic depression, anxiety, or addiction has never been more available and more widespread, at least for those who seek it, and can afford it. Yet suicide rates have been steadily climbing each year across most age and ethnic groups, and after decades of research, effective prevention strategies remain elusive. Of nearly 45,000 suicides in 2016, almost half were from gunshots. And while reducing access to guns would certainly preclude some of those statistics, there’s little legislative will to do that. Arguably, despite all the freedom and opportunity in America, failure to address and forestall its escalating suicide rate is a profound indictment of its mental health system.

FCC rules requiring internet providers to treat all data that travels across their networks equally expired on Monday. The rules, known as “net neutrality,” were enacted in 2015 and sought to stop providers from giving preferential treatment to sites and services that paid them to accelerate their data. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the rules discouraged innovation, but critics said telecom companies could charge consumers extra for anything more than the most basic service. The FCC is facing legal challenges from consumer rights groups and some state attorneys general over its decision. A new law to treat data equally went into effect in Washington State immediately after the FCC rules expired, and California, New York, and Illinois plan to pass their own versions soon. (BBC)

• How Hunger Pangs Can Make Nice People ‘Hangry’ (NPR)
• Online Big Spenders Tend To Be Men, NPR/Marist Poll Shows (NPR)
• More Rain, More Development Spell Disaster For Some U.S. Cities (NPR)
• Why Getting Distracted Can Be A Very Good Thing (BBC)
• Hell on Wheels: Fatal accidents, off-the-books workers, a union once run by a mobster. The rogue world of one of New York’s major trash haulers. (ProPublica)
• How some inside FIFA battled Russian influence, and lost (ESPN)
• How Britain let Russia hide its dirty money. For decades, politicians have welcomed the super-rich with open arms. Now they’re finally having second thoughts. But is it too late? (The Guardian)

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Emerson

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