Model and left-wing activist Emily Ratajkowski made her support for the global “climate strike” known by virtue signaling to her 1.5 million Twitter followers about how “the problem is plastic straws” and “corporate greed.”

“The problem is plastic straws it’s corporate greed #globalclimatestrike,” declared Ratajkowski, who often sets her climate concerns aside and post photos to social media showing her excessive private air travel.

For example, check out this braggadocious Instagram post.

Additionally, the she’s is a huge proponent of JetSmarter, which has been dubbed the “Uber of air travel.” It’s the “first global digital marketplace for private aviation” which makes booking flights on private jets a breeze for carbon footprint producing celebrities like Ratajkowski.

Ratajkowski’s private jet usage — while decrying the use of plastic straws and “corporate greed” — is not an isolated phenomenon. Over the summer, celebrates and elites, who say they are committed to fighting climate change, flew across the globe to attend a “Google Summer Camp” to discuss climate change.

As Breitbart News reported:

They are not the only notable figures who have demonstrated a seeming disregard for the looming planetary “crisis” by using private air travel, with Joe Biden (D) spending $256,000 on private plane travel from the start of his presidential bid through July and the Sanders campaign spending $297,685.50 on private air travel over the span of  nine days, it was reported last year.

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Ratajkowski’s rant comes on the same day that students around the country are skipping school to join in on the global climate strike. What’s more? More than 90 percent of the planet’s plastic waste comes Asia and Africa. Straws in the United States account for about 0.03 percent of global plastic pollution.

Legendary Hollywood actor Jon Voight ripped the Democrat Party in an interview published Wednesday, saying its lawmakers no longer represent the interests of the United States and the American people.

“I’m a big supporter of our president, and I feel that what has happened with the Democratic party is something that I’d never thought I’d see happen,” Voight, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“This is not the Democratic party of John Kennedy, who I was in support of,” added the Deliverance star.

Voight went on to say the Democrat Party was once home to “many heroes,” but no longer have any in its ranks today and decried what he called “slander and name-calling and lying” by its lawmakers.

“Somebody has to stand up and say that and punch back at that nonsense. This is not America. The Democratic party doesn’t represent America anymore,” the Academy Award-winner told the entertainment magazine.

Further, Voight condemned Hollywood leftists for attacking “anybody who is for Trump or who is for the Republican party.”

“The Democratic party has been undermined and overtaken, and I wish it could recoup itself and that there could be people who would stand up for the Democratic party that we have known and we have counted on and there are not anybody in that group who is standing up and protecting it. They are falling in,” he said.

Voight also predicted President Trump will win back the White House in 2020 irrespective of the House Democrats’ formal impeachment inquiry, who he previously branded a “war against truths.”

“Donald Trump is going to win the presidency once again and this is going to be proven to be nonsense just as the two years with [the Mueller Report] and millions of dollars wasted and has taken those people in the House who are Democrats away from doing the business of the people,” he stated.

Actress Rosario Dawson, the girlfriend of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), confirmed her endorsement for his presidential bid on Monday after she suggested that she was not going to back a particular candidate.

“For the record I, of course, endorse @CoryBooker,” Rosario Dawson wrote on Twitter. “Anyone writing otherwise clearly hasn’t been paying attention.”

“My focus this election is on voter registration and the census,” she added.

Dawson, who stars in the upcoming sequel of Zombieland, also touted her support for Voto Latino, a non-profit which aims to encourage young Hispanic and Latino voters to register to vote and become more politically involved.

“Proud to celebrate 15 years with @votolatino and support folks in using their voice and being counted,” Dawson said.

In a conversation with Variety, Dawson insisted she was not going to back a specific presidential candidate and that she wants to be “behind the electorate.”

“Regardless of Cory, I wasn’t going to be behind any particular candidate this election,” Dawson stated at Variety’s Toronto Film Festival. “I really just want to be behind the electorate.”

The Men in Black II star joined Cory Booker on the campaign trail in July, and continues to campaign for him ahead of the release of her latest film, Zombieland 2.

Follow Kyle on Twitter @RealKyleMorris and Facebook.

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Jean-Claude Juncker called his team the “Last Chance” Commission. His successor, Ursula von der Leyen, could end up leading the “Innocent-Until-Proven-Guilty Commission.”

In addition to tough questioning by members of the European Parliament during confirmation hearings, von der Leyen and some of her nominees are likely to be grilled in the coming weeks and months by investigators and parliamentary committees as part of ongoing inquiries —  in Brussels or in their home countries — that in some cases threaten to derail their candidacies.

On Tuesday, as von der Leyen was preparing to unveil her roster of commissioners at a news conference in Brussels, one of the most prominent names on her list, Sylvie Goulard, a former French defense minister and ex-MEP, appeared at a police station in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, and submitted to questioning about allegations that she and other French MEPs employed assistants with EU funds who were actually doing work for their national parties in France.

Goulard, a close, early ally of President Emmanuel Macron, resigned as defense minister in June 2017 to defend herself  in the case, in which she reportedly reimbursed the Parliament €45,000. Her submission for questioning, accompanied by a lawyer, on the same day that her name was put forward to be the commissioner in charge of the internal market, overseeing what leaders consider to be a premier benefit of membership in the European Union, was a particularly dramatic illustration of legal troubles facing some of von der Leyen’s team.

But Goulard is hardly the only one in hot water.

Rovana Plumb, the proposed transport commissioner, is a veteran Romanian government minister who was named in a corruption case in 2017, in which she was accused of aiding the leader of her Social Democratic party in an illicit real estate deal involving ownership of an island in the Danube River.

And von der Leyen’s pick for agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski of Poland, is under investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud agency for alleged irregularities in travel expense reimbursements during his tenure as an MEP, from 2004 to 2014. That investigation, and scrutiny of the allegations against Goulard by the EU’s anti-fraud agency OLAF, prompted one of the more uncomfortable questions for the president-elect, during her nearly two-hour long news conference on Tuesday.

“In your team, there are a number of commissioners who are questionable, a couple of them are subject to an OLAF inquiry or investigation,” a reporter asked. “Why did you not just turn them down? Because otherwise your Commission might already have this tarnished image, including people who are suspected of having committed fraud, even if they are presumed innocent.”

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In posing the question, the reporter invoked a reference to the Commission of Jacques Santer, which was forced to resign in March 1999 over a corruption scandal centered on the French commissioner, former Prime Minister Édith Cresson. It was hardly the sort of comparison von der Leyen wanted as she announced her new team, even as Plumb and Wojciechowski denied any wrongdoing.

“OLAF is an independent body and that’s how it should be,” von der Leyen said. “One is always presumed to be innocent, as you quite rightly pointed out.”

That presumption is of importance to von der Leyen personally, as she faces grilling by the German parliament over allegations of misspending and mismanagement during her tenure at the German Defense Ministry, which she led for five-and-half years before being tapped in early July as the first woman to head the European Commission.

An investigative committee of the German parliament is examining how lucrative defense ministry contracts were awarded  to high-priced outside consultants without proper oversight and whether a network of informal personal connections involving some ministry officials facilitated those deals. The committee plans to subpoena von der Leyen and summon her to Berlin for questioning, likely in December.

The scandal at the defense ministry was known but played little role in deliberations among national EU leaders when they decided to propose von der Leyen for the EU’s top executive position. One EU official waved off the suggestion that the European Council should have engaged in more thorough vetting, saying that it was impossible to find anyone with a career in politics who had not faced some sort of criticism or charges.

At the news conference on Tuesday, von der Leyen similarly sought to use the Council’s blessing of her Commission nominees as evidence that she had assembled a solid roster, though she conceded that ultimately the investigations would run their course.

“Finally let me say that the list of commissioners proposed was accepted by the Council, which is always necessary,” she said. “I think we have an excellent list of men and women. I am not going to comment on OLAF’s investigations because they are entirely independent, they will conclude their work and we will listen to what they have to say.”

However, some MEPs have already reached their verdicts on von der Leyen’s more controversial nominees.

Dacian Cioloș, a former Romanian prime minister and EU agriculture commissioner who is now leader of the liberal-centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, said he had warned von der Leyen against accepting Bucharest’s nomination of Plumb. In an interview on Wednesday, Cioloș told POLITICO that he would vote against the Romanian nominee and would urge members of his group to do the same.

“I know Rovana Plumb,” Cioloș said, dismissing suggestions that he should support her out of some sense of national solidarity. “How can I be sure she will represent European values?”

Precisely how much difficulty von der Leyen’s nominees will face on the path to confirmation remains to be seen. But some Parliament insiders predict bitter fights in the new, more highly-divided assembly, as MEPs line up to torpedo nominees from rival political groups.

Of von der Leyen’s choices, 10 are center-left social democrats; nine are from her own center-right European People’s Party; six are affiliated to Renew Europe, while one, the Lithuanian nominee, is nominally from the Greens.

Others said that troubled nominees might win confirmation more easily than expected — as part of an agreement among the political groups to hold their noses and get everyone’s candidates installed in the new Commission.

So far, the first scenario — of confirmation hearings potentially turning into a fierce, partisan brawl — seems more likely.

Cioloș, for instance, said he had accepted the explanations from Goulard, a member of his own political family, regarding the allegations against her and would support her nomination, because ultimately it was clear to him that she respected the EU’s rules — as evidenced by her reimbursement of EU funds.

But François-Xavier Bellamy, a prominent French MEP from the conservative Les Républicains party, said the charges raised questions about Goulard’s fitness for office, despite her long and accomplished resume in EU affairs.

“I believe that it is a bad signal sent to our European partners to give the impression that someone who is not qualified, or who is not free enough, from a legal standpoint to be a minister can take responsibility for a job at European Commission level,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ismail Ertug, a German center-left MEP, defended Plumb, his fellow socialist, and suggested some conservatives were leveling false accusations against her. “We’ll have to make it clear that the  Romanian anti-corruption authority has dropped the case,” Ertug said in an interview. “That has to be taken into account.”

Still, Ertug said all of the allegations would be scrutinized by Parliament. “At the end of the day, everyone will be examined,” he said. “We are at the beginning of the process. Crunch time will start as early as next week in Strasbourg.”

Von der Leyen, at her news conference on Tuesday, declined to make any predictions about the confirmation process, though she acknowledged some nominees have their work cut out for them.

“I know that it is a very important process of the hearings in the European Parliament and each commissioner, each vice president will have to convince,” she said.

Lili Bayer, Janosch Delcker, Florian Eder, Rym Momtaz, Carmen Paun and Zosia Wanta contributed reporting. 

Andrej Plenković can see his moment coming.

He has been Croatian prime minister for less than three years but is already a darling of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP). And there are big plans in the making, starting with Croatia’s presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of next year.

Plenković wants to conclude negotiations on the long-term budget during his country’s six-month presidency. “Our ambition [is] to conclude the negotiation on the MFF [Multiannual Financial Framework] because it is very clear that this will, at least partly, end up on our table, that will be the key dossier,” he told POLITICO in an interview.

EU leaders last December agreed to reach an agreement “in autumn 2019,” but diplomats admit that is not likely to happen.

Plenković, 49, a former diplomat and MEP, used the interview to reiterate his commitment toward deeper EU integration. Croatia — the youngest EU member, having joined in 2013 — aims to join the passport-free Schengen area and the euro by 2024, the prime minister said.

“That’s my ambition, by the end of the next [EU] mandate … I would say Schengen earlier and euro later.”

Croatia’s EU presidency will also be the moment to restart discussions on EU enlargement, a topic put firmly on the backburner by the current Commission. (“In the next five years, no new members will be joining us in the European Union,” Jean-Claude Juncker said in July 2014 when he was still a candidate for Commission president.)

During the Croatian presidency, EU leaders will meet in Zagreb for a summit with Western Balkan countries.

“I believe that in 2020 … it is the new moment to really see what we can do in solving open issues between the countries in the region and having some sort of agenda of their institutional dynamic vis-à-vis the European Union for the next decade,” Plenković said.

Just don’t call it a relaunch of EU enlargement.

“I wouldn’t use that word, especially not now before the [European] elections … Nobody wants to mention enlargement but I feel that if we are too hesitant as the European Union, if we are too slow, too distant, we’ll see the involvement of other big actors in the region,” he said, refusing to name any particular country with eyes on the region — which include Russia, China and Turkey — while adding that “they are not threats, they are articulating their interests.”

China ties

Croatia has come under scrutiny for signing a deal with a Chinese company for the construction of a bridge that will link the southern Pelješac peninsula with the rest of the country. The EU will contribute 85 percent of the cost, as the Commission allocated €357 million of EU funds for the project, which will be carried out by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, a state-owned company.

That’s raised eyebrows as in recent months the EU has tried to get tougher on China, calling for example for reciprocity in market access. And last month Croatia hosted in Dubrovnik a meeting between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

Plenković said he doesn’t see any problem with his approach to Beijing. He said the bridge contract was awarded after a “transparent public tender” and the conclusions of the Dubrovnik summit were “fully in line” with the stance taken at the last EU-China summit.

“It wasn’t easy to explain to the Commission that this is a project that connects two parts of Croatia,” he said of the Pelješac bridge. But he said it would become a “monument of EU membership.”

The Croatian prime minister also took the chance to pour cold water on a border dispute with Slovenia, saying his country has good relations with Ljubljana and that a solution is possible through bilateral talks.

And he defended the Commission against accusations from Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, who in a recent interview with POLITICO said it is biased toward Croatia in the border dispute because its government is run by an EPP party. The Commission presidency is currently in the hands of EPP veteran Jean-Claude Juncker.

“The Commission did the only thing that was possible, to leave it bilaterally to us,” Plenković said.

Plenković, along with all other EU leaders except Theresa May, will be in Sibiu, Romania on Thursday to discuss the future of the bloc and, although it is not officially on the agenda, talk about appointments for the EU’s top jobs after the European election.

In a speech on Tuesday at the European Policy Centre, Plenković set out his view of the EU’s future and underlined the achievements of the bloc, saying that “Europe is home to the most equal societies in the world, with the highest level of life quality” while also calling for a deal on migration “in a way that no member state is put in difficulty because of its geographical location.”

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In the speech he said he wants a Europe that is “agile, not fragile,” “together, not apart” and “outward-, not inward-looking.”

Later this month, on May 18, Plenković will host a campaign event in Zagreb for the EPP’s lead candidate for Commission president, Manfred Weber, who will be joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Plenković said the German MEP is “a friend” and that the event in Zagreb would be an “occasion to give full support to him.”

However, asked three times if Weber, who has no previous experiment in government, would be the ideal candidate for the Commission job, Plenković didn’t give a clear answer.

On suggestions that Merkel could get one of the top EU jobs, Plenković was very careful: “I have never heard it, neither from her nor from anyone else that I trust … so far I haven’t seen an articulation of this scenario.”

He said the same about rumors that he himself is interested in a senior EU job, making clear that he hadn’t heard such rumblings and adding: “My job is prime minister of Croatia.”

Mark Rutte: ‘Important questions remain’ on Johnson’s Brexit plan

Dutch prime minister spoke with his UK counterpart on Saturday.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte remains unconvinced on U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan after the two leaders spoke Saturday.

In a tweet Saturday afternoon following a phone call with Johnson, Rutte suggested the U.K. prime minister’s proposal to replace the controversial Irish backstop mechanism in a Brexit deal is not yet acceptable to EU leaders.

“Important questions remain about the British proposals,” the Dutch prime minister said. “There is a lot of work to be done ahead of [the EU Council] on October 17/18.”

Rutte’s remarks add to a long list of criticisms that top Brussels officials and ambassadors have expressed since Johnson unveiled his proposal on Wednesday.

EU leaders will meet for a European Council summit on October 17.

Officials in Brussels have suggested the proposals may be part of Johnson’s positioning for an election, as the U.K. prime minister continues to maintain the only options are his new proposal or a no-deal Brexit.

Late on Friday, Johnson tweeted: “New deal or no deal – but no delay. #GetBrexitDone #LeaveOct31.”

New deal or no deal – but no delay. #GetBrexitDone #LeaveOct31 🇬🇧

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 4, 2019

That’s despite legislation passed by British MPs obliging the prime minister to apply to Brussels for an extension if no deal is reached by October 19.

Talks between London and Brussels on Johnson’s proposals are set to continue Monday, amid reports the EU rejected a request for discussions over the weekend.

The Guardian on Saturday quoted a senior EU diplomat as stating: “If we held talks at the weekend, it would look like these were proper negotiations. The truth is we’re still a long way from that. We need to work out quickly whether there is the opportunity to close that gap.”

A European Commission spokeswoman said Friday: “We will meet again on Monday to give the UK another opportunity to present its proposals in detail,” according to the Guardian. The spokeswoman said the proposals did not “provide a basis for concluding an agreement.”

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Back to you, Ursula.

The European Parliament looks to have handed Ursula von der Leyen her first big test as incoming Commission president by rejecting the Romanian and Hungarian nominees in her top team.

Citing concerns about conflicts of interest, Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee blocked Rovana Plumb of Romania, the nominee for transport commissioner, and Hungary’s László Trócsányi, who was in line to be commissioner for relations with the EU’s neighbors.

The unprecedented move means the pair cannot proceed to confirmation hearings that begin next week for von der Leyen’s Commission, which is due to take office on November 1.

According to EU rules, if the committee concludes a nominee could not carry out the duties of a commissioner, the Parliament president should ask the Commission chief how she plans to proceed. Von der Leyen could try to address the committee’s concerns and ask MEPs to reconsider the nominees. She could also withdraw the nominees and ask their governments to put forward new candidates.

However, the process — which is following new rules of procedure for the first time — appeared in some confusion on Thursday evening. Parliament officials said letters from the committee setting out its concerns lack clarity and do not explicitly state that the panel’s concerns could not be overcome. Parliament President David Sassoli was expected to ask the committee for further clarification before writing to von der Leyen, a Parliament official said.

If the committee makes clear that its concerns can’t be resolved, that would put the German president-elect in a delicate position with government leaders in Budapest and Bucharest, who expressed anger at the move. The affair has already raised questions about how much due diligence von der Leyen and her aides conducted before recommending the two nominees.

Von der Leyen herself made no comment on the Parliament’s decision. Soon after the news broke, Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva acknowledged that the confirmation process for the two nominees was suspended. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean that now a new candidate automatically has to be proposed,” she told reporters.

She said the next steps would be determined by both the Parliament and von der Leyen.

The committee has yet to publicly detail the reasons for its decisions, taken following closed-door sessions with both Plumb and Trócsányi. But criticism of Plumb, a former government minister from Romania’s ruling Social Democrats, has centered on two loans worth nearly €1 million that she did not declare in her original financial declaration scrutinized by MEPs.

Trócsányi, a former justice minister, has come under scrutiny over links between a law firm he founded and work that it carried out for the Hungarian government.

The government of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the committee of rejecting its nominee due to Budapest’s hard line against migration from outside the EU. Trócsányi himself branded the move “a political decision … lacking any factual basis.”

“I fully intend to take all legal steps against it,” he declared.

In Romania, the decision exposed tensions between center-right President Klaus Iohannis and the Social Democrats, who control the government. Iohannis called for the government to put forward a new nominee. But the secretary-general of the Social Democrats accused the Romanian opposition of sabotaging Plumb in the European Parliament.

Fifteen members of the Legal Affairs Committee voted to reject Plumb’s candidacy while six voted in her favor. There were two abstentions.

The committee voted against Trócsányi by a margin of 11 against and nine in favor. Two MEPs abstained.

Sergey Lagodinsky, the vice president of the committee, told POLITICO: “The two [nominees] have been rejected while 24 were cleared.”

Another MEP with knowledge of the file said that neither nominee had been able to clear up concerns about their declarations of interest despite meeting with the committee in person.

“For the two of them, there are gray areas regarding their conflicts of interest that we have been unable to clarify,” the MEP said. “It’s because these gray areas exist that we have not been able to give our green light, nor make any specific request to allow potential conflicts of interests to be dismissed.”

A spokesperson for von der Leyen said she had been in contact with Sassoli.

“As a next step, we are now expecting a letter from the president of the European Parliament, which entails the decisions of the European Parliament,” the spokesperson said. “It should also contain the recommendations of the … [legal affairs] committee for both of the candidates — in line with the European Parliament’s rules of procedure.”

Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.

This article is part of POLITICO’s premium policy service: Pro Mobility. From the digitization of the automotive sector to aviation policy, logistics and more, our specialized journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the Mobility policy agenda. Email pro@politico.eu for a complimentary trial.

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Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.

Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and the tech team, Emily Birnbaum (@birnbaum_e) and Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills).

 

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NEW HUAWEI CHARGES: U.S. prosecutors have brought two new charges against embattled Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

The indictment in the Eastern District Court of New York alleges that Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets and U.S. technology. It also charges Huawei and two America-based subsidiaries of Huawei with conspiracy to commit racketeering. Those follow previous charges of stealing intellectual property, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Huawei Devices, Huawei USA, Futurewei, Skycom and Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wangzhou are also listed as defendants.

Much of the addition to last year’s indictment centers around allegations that Huawei USA and Futurewei — which were both located in the U.S. at the time of the alleged Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act violations — misappropriated the technology of six U.S. companies by entering into confidentiality agreements and then breaking them. They allegedly recruited employees of the American companies and offered incentives for those employees to provide confidential information to Huawei.

The new charges stem from what prosecutors described as a “decades-long effort” by Huawei and its affiliates to steal U.S. intellectual property, including source codes, internet routers and antenna technology, to grow its business.

The indictment claims that Huawei was broadly successful in these efforts, allowing the world’s largest telecom equipment company to increase its margins.

Response: Huawei denied the allegations Thursday.

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“This new indictment is part of the Justice Department’s attempt to irrevocably damage Huawei’s reputation and its business for reasons related to competition rather than law enforcement,” a spokesperson for the company told The Hill in a statement.

Big picture: The indictment comes amid rising scrutiny over the company from U.S. lawmakers and agencies after warnings from the intelligence community that Huawei poses a threat to national security.

Read more on the new charges here.

 

BUT US COMPANIES GET A REPRIEVE: The Trump administration is delaying a deadline for U.S. businesses to cut ties with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei for the fourth time, the Department of Commerce announced Thursday.

Huawei was granted a temporary license to keep working with American companies for 45 days.

Thursday marked the fourth time the administration has extended the deadline since Huawei was added to the Commerce Department’s “entity list” in May 2019. American companies are banned from doing business with companies on the list, effectively blacklisting groups included.

Huawei was originally added to the list – which is seen a death sentence for foreign companies – because the U.S. government deemed it a national security risk.

The Commerce Department said it gave Huawei a fourth temporary license “as a measure to prevent interruption of existing network communication systems in rural U.S. regions and permit global network security measures.”

The agency suggested that American companies should not acquire new technology from Huawei during the 45 day extension.

Huawei declined to comment on the extension at the time of publication.

Read more on the decision here.

 

JEDI COURT TRICK: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to halt its work on a controversial cloud-computing contract amid a court challenge by Amazon, notching a major win for the tech giant as it seeks to prove that President TrumpDonald John TrumpHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency NASA astronaut reunites with dog after breaking record for longest space mission by a woman Trump says his ‘life would’ve been a lot easier’ if he picked Barr over Sessions MORE improperly interfered to keep the $10 billion contract away from Amazon. 

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The Court of Federal Claims is granting Amazon’s request to stop the Pentagon from forging ahead with the cloud-computing project until the lawsuit is settled. The Department of Defense was planning to work with Microsoft, the company that received the contract over Amazon last year, to implement a sweeping cloud infrastructure across the entire department despite Amazon’s legal challenge. 

Microsoft, which has said little publicly about Amazon’s court challenge, said in a statement Thursday it is “disappointed” by the judge’s decision to delay the contract implementation but believes the facts are on its side. 

“While we are disappointed with the additional delay, we believe that we will ultimately be able to move forward with the work to make sure those who serve our country can access the new technology they urgently require,” Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of communications, said.  

“We have confidence in the Department of Defense, and we believe the facts will show they ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft,” Shaw said. 

Amazon and the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more on the order here.

 

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A NEW DATA AGENCY?: Sen. Kirsten GillibrandKirsten GillibrandHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Gillibrand proposes creating new digital privacy agency Lobbying world MORE (D-N.Y.) wants to create an entirely new federal agency dedicated to protecting online privacy, she said in a proposal released Thursday morning. 

In her first major policy proposal since dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, Gillibrand is calling for the creation of a “Data Protection Agency” tasked with creating new rules around how tech companies are allowed to collect and use personal information about their users. Gillibrand’s legislation would empower the agency to investigate, subpoena and go after companies accused of violating online privacy. 

The agency would take tech oversight away from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the century-old federal agency currently tasked with overseeing privacy and antitrust issues. Gillibrand’s proposal says the FTC has “failed” to act on some of the most pressing privacy issues of the day, including online marketing to children. 

“As the data privacy crisis looms larger over the everyday lives of Americans, the government has a responsibility to step forward and give Americans meaningful protection over their data and how it’s being used,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “The U.S. needs a new approach to privacy and data protection.

“We cannot allow our freedoms to be trampled over by private companies that value profits over people,” she continued, “and the Data Protection Agency would do that with expertise and resources to create and meaningfully enforce data protection rules and digital rights.”

The U.S. is virtually the only developed nation without an independent privacy watchdog.  

Gillibrand’s proposal is unlikely to move forward in the Senate, where a group of key Republicans and Democrats have been locked in tense negotiations over the country’s first comprehensive online privacy law for over a year. The lawmakers have largely shot down the idea of creating an entirely new agency, instead proposing more resources for the FTC.

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Read more on her proposal here.

 

A VULNERABLE VOTING APP: Voatz, a voting app used in multiple states during the 2018 midterms elections to allow for more accessible voting, has cyber vulnerabilities that could allow for votes to be changed or exposed, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found. 

In a paper published Thursday, three MIT researchers found that Voatz had vulnerabilities that “allow different kinds of adversaries to alter, stop, or expose a user’s vote” and that the app also had several privacy issues due to the use of third-party services to ensure the app functioned. 

The researchers found that if an individual were able to gain remote access to the device used to vote on the Voatz app, vulnerabilities could have allowed that person to discover and change the votes cast. 

The researchers described their findings as being part of the first “public security analysis of Voatz” and noted that they used reverse engineering of the Android Voatz app to come to their conclusions.

The Voatz app was used during the 2018 midterms in some municipal, state or federal elections in West Virginia, Colorado, Oregon and Utah. The company allows voters to cast their votes via an app and was rolled out in West Virginia as a way for overseas military personnel and other voters unable to physically go to the polls to cast their votes.

It was also used during the 2016 Massachusetts Democratic Convention and the 2016 Utah Republican Convention. The Voatz app was not used during the recent Iowa caucuses, which were thrown into chaos when a separate app used by the Iowa Democratic Party for vote tabulation suffered a “coding issue” that slowed down the count. 

Before going public with their findings, the MIT researchers contacted the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in order to work with election officials impacted by the findings to address the vulnerabilities. 

Voatz pushed back strongly against the findings, describing the research as “untested claims” and “bad faith recommendations.”

Read more here.

 

MEANWHILE IN NEVADA…: The Nevada State Democratic Party plans to use a Google calculator uploaded to iPads to help tally voting results in the upcoming Nevada caucuses, a top party official announced Thursday. 

Party Executive Director Alana Mounce pushed out a memo explaining that the calculator will be loaded onto 2,000 iPads purchased by the Nevada State Democratic Party, with the iPads then distributed to precinct chairs.

Mounce wrote that the party “consulted with a team of independent security and technical experts to create a simple, user-friendly calculator,” and that the calculator will only be used by “trained precinct chairs and accessed through a secure Google web form.”

Each precinct will also separately record voters and award delegates on paper backup sheets to ensure the results of the caucus are accurate in case something goes wrong with the calculator.

Mounce emphasized that the party had invited testing from security experts, volunteers, and community leaders to ensure the process was user-friendly.

“We understand just how important it is that we get this right and protect the integrity of Nevadans’ votes,” Mounce wrote. “We are confident in our backup plans and redundancies.”

The announcement comes after the party made the decision to not use a vote tabulator app built by Shadow, Inc. that malfunctioned due to a “coding issue” during the Iowa caucuses and caused a backup in tallying results.

Read more on the Nevada move here.

 

SAY ‘NO’ TO RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA: A group of House Democrats criticized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday for not taking action to curb Russian propaganda aired on U.S. radio stations, and urged the agency to take steps to remedy this ahead of the 2020 elections.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the House members led by Reps. Anna EshooAnna Georges EshooHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Democrats criticize FCC for not taking action against DC station broadcasting Russian disinformation Gillibrand proposes creating new digital privacy agency MORE (D-Calif.) and Michael Doyle (D-Pa.) pointed to concerns around WZHF, known as Radio Sputnik, which is based in the Washington, D.C., metro area and airs Russian propaganda without informing listeners that the information is propaganda.

A federal judge ruled last year that the station had to register as a Russian foreign agent due to the station continuously airing Sputnik International news from Moscow. 

The FCC opened an inquiry into the station in 2018 to rule on whether the station was complying with an agency rule that requires stations to fully disclose the identity of sponsors of programs. 

The Democratic members – who also included Reps. Jerry McNerneyGerlad (Jerry) Mark McNerneyHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Democrats criticize FCC for not taking action against DC station broadcasting Russian disinformation Democrats demand FCC act over leak of phone location data MORE (Calif.), Jimmy PanettaJames Varni PanettaHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Democrats criticize FCC for not taking action against DC station broadcasting Russian disinformation Lawmakers warn Pentagon against reduction of US forces in Africa MORE (Calif.), David CicillineDavid Nicola CicillineHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Democrats criticize FCC for not taking action against DC station broadcasting Russian disinformation Bring back equitable access for the Digital Age: Congress must act MORE (R.I.), Sharice DavidsSharice DavidsHillicon Valley: US hits Huawei with new charges | Judge orders Pentagon to halt ‘war cloud’ work amid Amazon challenge | IRS removes guidance on Fortnite game currency Democrats criticize FCC for not taking action against DC station broadcasting Russian disinformation Haaland, Davids included in ‘Jeopardy’ clue for historic first as Native American congresswomen MORE (Kan.), and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) – noted that they were told by the FCC in December that the investigation is ongoing, with the members writing that they found the lengthy investigation “shameful.”

“The FCC has failed to enforce its own rules as they apply to registered foreign agents, allowing hostile Russian propagandists to attack our democracy as another election is upon us,” the members wrote. “The FCC’s continued inaction, after receiving many Congressional letters from us about this critically important issue, is a stunning abdication of its responsibility to protect American airwaves.”

Read more here.

 

FORTNITE RULEZ: The IRS has removed guidance from its website that said in-game virtual currency in video games such as Fortnite could be subject to a new reporting requirement on federal tax returns.

IRS Chief Counsel Michael Desmond said the video game currencies should not have been included in the guidance alongside bitcoin, according to a report by Bloomberg Tax. 

He described their inclusion as a mistake, but provided little clarity on how the error occurred.

“It was corrected and that was done quickly — as soon as it was brought to our attention,” the counsel told reporters Thursday at a Tax Council Policy Institute conference in Washington, according to Bloomberg Tax.

The language had identified V-bucks, the currency used in Fortnite, as an example of a convertible virtual currency.

Bloomberg Tax had asked the IRS if gamers who purchased the currencies would have to disclose the information on their tax forms, and the language was removed from the IRS’s website shortly after Bloomberg Tax inquired to the agency.

Read more.

 

A LIGHTER CLICK: Long Chile

 

AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: What happens if a President Warren breaks up ‘Big Tech’?

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

The Influencer Election Is Here (Kate Knibbs / Wired)

A 14-year-old in Atlanta created one of the biggest dances on the internet. But nobody really knows that. (The New York Times / Taylor Lorenz)

Click Here: Australia Rugby Shop

Copyright could be the next way for Congress to take on Big Tech (Verge / Adi Robertson)

What we know (and don’t know) about the Nevada caucus “tool” (Recode / Sara Morrison)

The United Arab Emirates’ nuclear regulator approved a nuclear reactor Monday, paving the way for the first commercial nuclear power plant in an Arab nation.

The Barakah reactor, run by a joint venture with Korea Electric Power Corp., is now free to begin loading fuel and eventually begin full commercial operation over the next several months, Bloomberg reported, with other nations in the region, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, taking steps to enter the nuclear sphere.

“Barakah was meant to be the showcase for the international nuclear industry,” Mycle Schneider, an independent analyst, told the publication. “Grid connection is at least three years late, and there is no doubt that it is way over budget.”

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The reactor is one of four that the UAE hopes to have up and running by 2023, with an estimated cost of $25 billion for all four. They are projected to collectively produce up to 5.6 gigawatts, nearly 20 percent of the country’s current generating capacity.

The UAE is third in production among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and has worked in recent years to diversify domestic energy production and reduce dependence on oil. Dubai has set a 75 percent renewable energy target by 2050, according to Bloomberg.

The nation had about 30.4 gigawatts in installed power-generating capacity as of 2017, the vast majority of which involves burning natural gas, the publication reported.

“The U.A.E. has to build up a domestic pool of experts in many areas to keep these plants running smoothly and efficiently,” Mark Hibbs, nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nuclear Policy Program, told the publication. “That won’t be trivial because when this project got underway virtually all of the expertise was imported from outside.”

Federal prosecutors alleged a Florida doctor defrauded Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance providers to the tune of $26 million by billing them for nonexistent procedures.

Prosecutors with the Northern District of Florida allege Dr. Moses D. Degraft-Johnson submitted a series of false claims and pocketed the money between September 2015 and February 2020, in some cases claiming to have performed the procedures in his office while actually traveling to locations such as Spain, Ghana and the United Kingdom, ABC News reports.

They alleged Degraft-Johnson, a naturalized American citizen, had told officials he was building toward an “ultimate long-term professional goal” of becoming president of Ghana and was “hard at work using the proceeds of fraud in the United States to establish an empire in a foreign country.”

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“He used his access to the hospital’s daily census to poach patients for his scheme to defraud, instructing his staff to cold call patients from the hospital so that he could use their presence to fraudulently bill health care programs,” prosecutors said in court documents.

Degraft-Johnson pleaded not guilty Friday on all charges in the indictment, which include health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Stampelos ruled Degraft-Johnson was a flight risk Friday, ordering him held at Tallahassee’s Federal Detention Center ahead of his March 23 trial, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Grogan said the doctor has more than a million dollars in cash assets despite claiming to have only $200,000 in a pretrial report.

“You can get enough money to hit the road,” Grogan said during a three-hour detention hearing, according to the newspaper. “That’s what we’re concerned about.”

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