Ex-US intelligence officers accused of hacking for UAE

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UAE
Court documents have revealed that three former US intelligence and military officials were working for the United Arab Emirates to carry out hacking operations on behalf of the UAE government. The US Justice Department, which released the documents on Tuesday, detailed that the defendants — Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke — have admitted providing sophisticated computer hacking technology to the UAE and agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve the charges. Prosecutors say the men were part of a clandestine unit called Project Raven that helped the UAE spy on its enemies through the use of hacking and intelligence-gathering systems in violation of US military export restrictions.

Haiti
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has ordered the firing of the Port-au-Prince chief prosecutor who was investigating the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, deepening the political crisis in the Caribbean nation. The prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, was looking into Henry’s possible connections to the assassination and had asked a judge to bar him from leaving Haiti. Henry had allegedly spoken twice with a key suspect in the Moïse assassination just hours after the killing.

Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s women’s soccer team have left the country and arrived in Pakistan following the Taliban’s takeover and uncertainty over female athletes under the militant group’s rule. The 32 women and their families entered Pakistan through the northwestern Torkham border crossing, according to Pakistan officials. Questions remain unanswered over the rights of women in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s previous brutal rule which imposed harsh restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and dress code, and banned women from work and education.

From The World

Afghan women to the Taliban: #DoNotTouchMyClothes

As a historian of Afghanistan, Bahar Jalali says she was stunned with the images of women at a pro-Taliban rally who were wearing black face coverings and black dresses.

“I was just really shocked to see that something that is completely and utterly foreign to Afghan culture was being presented as authentic Afghan attire,” Jalali said. 

That is when Jalali, who grew up in Afghanistan before the Taliban’s previous rule, uploaded a picture of herself in a colorful traditional Afghan dress to Twitter with the hashtag #AfghanistanCulture. Then, other women followed suit using hashtags such as #DoNotTouchMyClothes.

Pregnant women and children with HIV in Ghana struggle to access lifesaving medicine during pandemic

Ghana faces an acute shortage of antiretroviral drugs, endangering the health and the lives of tens of thousands of HIV-positive children and pregnant women. Health officials say this has pushed their efforts to end the AIDS epidemic backward.

Double Take

How about getting a lottery ticket for an unusual prize: The house former drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán fled in 2014 as Mexican authorities surrounded him in Culiacán, Mexico. The Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People gave this seized property a fresh coat of paint and tiled over where the tub used to be — which is also where the entrance to where the escape tunnel was located. The property, valued at $183,000, was put to auction last year with no takers. Now, it could be yours with a $12 ticket.

In case you missed it

Listen: Two governments claim to run Myanmar

Two governments claim to run Myanmar. Will the United Nations accept Myanmar’s widely despised military regime or will it recognize a new revolutionary government that has massive public support? Also, Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. Now, the mayor of Helsinki wants to declare the capital an English-language city, but not everyone agrees. And renowned soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world’s most physically fit athletes. Ronaldo’s clean-food living has inspired his fellow players to skip dessert on at least one occasion. 

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