President Barack Obama's order to intelligence officials for a full-scale review of campaign-season cyberattacks has prompted President-elect Donald Trump's transition team to say it is "time to move on".
Trump's transition office issued a statement on Saturday criticising the Central Intelligence Agency officials for revealing that Russia had aimed specifically to help Trump win the presidency.
"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," the statement said.
"The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again'."
Trump has been repeatedly dismissive of the intelligence community's determination that Russia sought through hacking to disrupt the US election, and Obama's new initiative was similarly brushed off by the Trump transition team.
The investigation ordered by Obama will be a "deep dive" into a possible pattern of increased "malicious cyber activity" timed to the campaign season, Eric Schultz, White House spokesperson, said on Friday.
Schultz said it will look at the tactics, targets, key actors and the US government's response to the recent email hacks, as well as incidents reported in past elections.
The president ordered up the report earlier in the week asked that it be completed before he leaves office next month, Schultz said.
Russia has rejected the hacking accusations.
In the months leading up to the election, email accounts of Democratic Party officials and a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide were breached, emails leaked and embarrassing and private emails posted online.
Many Democrats believe the hackings benefited Trump's bid.
Schultz said the president sought the probe as a way of improving US defenve against cyberattacks and was not intending to question the legitimacy of Trump's victory.
"This is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the election," Schultz said.
Obama's move comes as Democratic politicians have been pushing Obama to declassify more information about Russia's role, fearing that Trump, who has promised a warmer relationship with Russia, may not prioritise the issue.
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Patti Smith forgets lines while performing Bob Dylan Nobel tribute
Patti Smith has given a stumbling performance of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall at a gala ceremony for Nobel laureates.
The American rock star appeared either to forget the lyrics or was overcome with nerves and she apologised to the 1,500 guests at the event in Stockholm, which was marked by Dylan's absence.
"I apologise. I'm sorry, I'm so nervous," she said, asking the orchestra to start again, as the audience comforted her with applause.
Dylan, 75, is the first songwriter to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
The American rock star appeared either to forget the lyrics or was overcome with nerves and she apologised to the 1,500 guests at the event in Stockholm, which was marked by Dylan's absence.
"I apologise. I'm sorry, I'm so nervous," she said, asking the orchestra to start again, as the audience comforted her with applause.
Dylan, 75, is the first songwriter to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Exxon Mobil boss Rex Tillerson 'to be US Secretary of State'
Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson is to be selected by Donald Trump as his Secretary of State, NBC News reports.
He emerged as the President-elect's leading candidate to be America's top diplomat on Friday and met the billionaire on Saturday, a transition official said.
His expected appointment comes after former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for the job.
Ex-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lost to Barack Obama in the 2012 election, is also said to have been among those in the running.
Mr Tillerson, 64, has been chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil since 2006 and he is set to retire from the company next year.
Mr Trump's spokesman Jason Millerin said there would be no official announcements on the Secretary of State job until next week at the earliest.
Should Mr Tillerson be nominated, his business ties will come under scrutiny.
Exxon Mobil operates in more than 50 countries and explores for oil and natural gas on six continents.
In 2011, his company signed a deal with Rosneft, Russia's largest state-owned oil company, for joint oil exploration and production.
Since then, the companies have formed 10 joint ventures for projects in Russia.
In 2013, President Vladimir Putin awarded Mr Tillerson his country's Order of Friendship.
The oil chief has been a vocal critic of US sanctions against Moscow after Russia's 2014 incursion into Crimea.
Following the incursion, Exxon Mobil was forced to scrap some projects and it suffered at least $1bn (£800m) in losses.
Mr Trump has spoken of wanting closer relations with Moscow, which has sparked concerns in Congress he could lift or loosen some Russian sanctions.
Climate change could be another divisive issue if Mr Tillerson is nominated.
The company is under investigation by the New York Attorney General's office for allegedly misleading investors, regulators and the public on what it knew about global warming.
He emerged as the President-elect's leading candidate to be America's top diplomat on Friday and met the billionaire on Saturday, a transition official said.
His expected appointment comes after former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for the job.
Ex-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lost to Barack Obama in the 2012 election, is also said to have been among those in the running.
Mr Tillerson, 64, has been chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil since 2006 and he is set to retire from the company next year.
Mr Trump's spokesman Jason Millerin said there would be no official announcements on the Secretary of State job until next week at the earliest.
Should Mr Tillerson be nominated, his business ties will come under scrutiny.
Exxon Mobil operates in more than 50 countries and explores for oil and natural gas on six continents.
In 2011, his company signed a deal with Rosneft, Russia's largest state-owned oil company, for joint oil exploration and production.
Since then, the companies have formed 10 joint ventures for projects in Russia.
In 2013, President Vladimir Putin awarded Mr Tillerson his country's Order of Friendship.
The oil chief has been a vocal critic of US sanctions against Moscow after Russia's 2014 incursion into Crimea.
Following the incursion, Exxon Mobil was forced to scrap some projects and it suffered at least $1bn (£800m) in losses.
Mr Trump has spoken of wanting closer relations with Moscow, which has sparked concerns in Congress he could lift or loosen some Russian sanctions.
Climate change could be another divisive issue if Mr Tillerson is nominated.
The company is under investigation by the New York Attorney General's office for allegedly misleading investors, regulators and the public on what it knew about global warming.
Islamic State re-enters historic Syrian city of Palmyra
Islamic State fighters have re-entered Palmyra in Syria nine months after they were expelled by pro-Assad forces backed by Russia.
The Palmyra Coordination Collective reports that militants have overrun the city's military warehouse and its northern and western districts after taking several government positions, oil fields, and strategic hilltops in the surrounding countryside in a lightning three-day campaign.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says IS forces reached the city's Tadmor Hospital and its strategically located wheat silos.
:: Syria 'agrees to Aleppo ceasefire' to allow civilian escape, says Russia
"IS entered Palmyra on Saturday and now occupies its northwest. There is also fighting with the army in the city centre," said the group's spokesman Rami Abdel Rahman.
A statement by Islamic State's news agency Amaq said the group had taken the strategic Jabal al Tar and Jabal Antara mountains that overlook the city in some of the heaviest fighting since the group lost the city.
The US-led coalition which is separately fighting the militants said late on Friday it had taken out 168 IS oil tanker trucks near Palmyra in a large air raid.
The militants destroyed several of the city's famed ancient Roman monuments and executed its archaeological director after sweeping into the city in July 2015 and holding it for 11 months, causing extensive damage to many of its ancient sites.
They were ousted from Palmyra in March by Syrian regime forces backed by Russia.
China flies nuclear-capable bomber in South China Sea after Trump Taiwan call, US officials say
China flew a long-range nuclear-capable bomber outside China for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan, two US officials told Fox News.
The dramatic show of force was meant to send a message to the new administration, according to the officials.
Even more concerning for the Pentagon, China has been seen by American intelligence satellites preparing to ship more advanced surface-to-air missiles to its contested islands in the South China Sea.
Trump's call with Taiwan's President Tsai ling-wen broke decades- long protocol after American leaders stopped communicating directly with the Taiwan president in 1979, when diplomatic ties were severed and the United States shifted to a new "one-China" policy. China protested Trump's call with President Tsai.
MANILA SAYS WILL NOT HELP US ON PATROLS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA
The Chinese H-6 bomber flew along the disputed "Nine-Dash line" Thursday, which surrounds the South China Sea and dozens of disputed Chinese islands, many claimed by other countries in the region.
The Pentagon was alerted to the Chinese flight Friday. It was the first long-range flight of a Chinese bomber along the U-shaped line of demarcation since March 2015, according to the officials.
Over the summer, Chinese bombers flew over the South China Sea and the contested islands, but they did not fly nearly as far as this one, the officials said.
At various points in recent long-range flights, Chinese fighter jets provided escorts to the single Chinese bomber.
In recent days, U.S. intelligence satellites have spotted components for the Chinese version of the SA-21 surface-to-air missile system at the port of Jieyang, in southeast China, where officials say China has made similar military shipments in the past to its islands in the South China Sea.
TRUMP'S TAIWAN CALL, TWEETS POINT TO FLASHPOINTS WITH CHINA
In February, Fox News first reported that China had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system, the HQ-9, to Woody Island, a contested island in the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
The HQ-9 is based on the Russian S-300 missile system and has a range of roughly 125 miles.
The Chinese SA-21 system, based on the more advanced Russian S-400, is a more capable missile system than the HQ-9.
Depending on the types of missiles used, it could extend the range up to 250 miles and target not only aircraft, but ballistic missiles as well.
The head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris has repeatedly warned in the past year about China's continued military build-up or "militarization" of the South China Sea.
In October, a US Navy destroyer sailed close to Woody Island in what the Pentagon calls a "freedom of navigation" operation. The Chinese called the act "provocative." It was the fourth such operation by the U.S. Navy in the past year.
China has constructed over 3,000 acres of land atop reefs in the South China Sea in the past few years. It now has three runways and has sent bombers and fighter jets to a number of them.
TRUMP REMAINS ON DEFENSIVE AFTER CALL WITH TAIWAN PRESIDENT
In August, satellite photos appeared to show China making progress on at least two dozen hardened concrete hangers in order to land Chinese bombers and fighter jets as well as in-flight refueling planes, greatly expanding the reach of the Chinese military.
The photos were collected and studied by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think-tank. They showed the construction on China's man-made islands at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs.
Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews
China 'blocks' Mongolia border after Dalai Lama visit
Mongolia says China has closed a key border crossing, creating huge congestion, nearly a week after the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, visited the country.
Hundreds of truck drivers for the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto are stuck at the Gants Mod crossing in southeastern Mongolia in freezing temperatures.
Footage shows a long line of trucks on the Mongolian side of the border waiting to cross.
"Mongolia says these drivers spend hours, and in some cases days, waiting in the cold," Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said on Saturday. "Temperatures at night that can drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius."
Rio Tinto, which operates vast copper and gold mines, has now suspended shipment to China of copper concentrate.
The Dalai Lama is cherished as a spiritual leader in predominantly Buddhist Mongolia, but is considered a separatist in China for supporting a long drawn-out campaign for independence for Tibet.
Beijing has been campaigning for a diplomatic boycott of the Dalai Lama since 1959, when he escaped to India and formed a government-in-exile. The Dalai Lama retired from political life in 2011.
Hundreds of truck drivers for the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto are stuck at the Gants Mod crossing in southeastern Mongolia in freezing temperatures.
Footage shows a long line of trucks on the Mongolian side of the border waiting to cross.
"Mongolia says these drivers spend hours, and in some cases days, waiting in the cold," Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said on Saturday. "Temperatures at night that can drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius."
Rio Tinto, which operates vast copper and gold mines, has now suspended shipment to China of copper concentrate.
The Dalai Lama is cherished as a spiritual leader in predominantly Buddhist Mongolia, but is considered a separatist in China for supporting a long drawn-out campaign for independence for Tibet.
Beijing has been campaigning for a diplomatic boycott of the Dalai Lama since 1959, when he escaped to India and formed a government-in-exile. The Dalai Lama retired from political life in 2011.
Gambia's ruler refuses to step down despite losing election to former Argos security guard
Gambia's long-time leader has declared he no longer accepts the outcome of last week's election which he lost to a former Argos security guard.
Defeated president Yahya Jammeh, who had previously vowed to rule for "a billion years", claimed a "thorough investigation" had revealed voting irregularities and demanded fresh elections.
Defeated president Yahya Jammeh, who had previously vowed to rule for "a billion years", claimed a "thorough investigation" had revealed voting irregularities and demanded fresh elections.
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