Nation and world news in brief for August 14

Army intelligence analyst pleads guilty to selling military secrets to China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Army intelligence analyst on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell military secrets to China, the Department of Justice said.

Korbein Schultz was charged in March with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official.

Schultz, who held top secret clearance, conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong, whom he suspected of being associated with the Chinese government, to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to U.S. military weapons systems, in exchange for money, according to charging and plea documents.

Hayes’ family sues Trump for using his song at rallies

(TNS) — The estate of Isaac Hayes is suing former president Donald Trump for unauthorized use of the late singer’s songs at campaign rallies.

Lawyers for Isaac Hayes Enterprises identified 134 uses of Hayes’ “Hold On, I’m Coming” at Trump rallies from 2022 to the present.

“We demand the cessation of use, removal of all related videos, a public disclaimer, and payment of $3 million in licensing fees by August 16, 2024. Failure to comply will result in further legal action,” the family said in a statement, noting the dollar amount was “a very discounted fee” given how many times the song had been used.

“The normal fee for these infringements will be 10 times as much if we litigate, starting at $150,000 per use,” it said.

Trump has repeatedly been asked by bands and artists, like Adele and The Rolling Stones, to stop using their material.

6 California police officers face prison

LOS ANGELES (TNS) — The troubled Antioch Police Department faces another blow, as a second police officer was convicted last week in a scheme to fraudulently obtain college degrees for higher pay.

Morteza Amiri, 33, and five others from the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments falsely claimed they had obtained bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice in a ploy to qualify for higher pay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement Friday.

But the officers actually hired someone else to complete the courses online, unlocking raises and financial incentives they had not earned, prosecutors said. The other five pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud earlier this year; Amiri’s case was the only one to go to trial.

Breaking up Google an option being considered by US

(Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Justice is considering options that include breaking up Alphabet’s Google, a week after a judge ruled the tech giant illegally monopolized the online search market, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Shares of the California-based company were down 1.4% in extended trading.

The verdict, delivered last week, held that Google violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s default search engine. The ruling is seen as the first big win for federal authorities taking on the market dominance of Big Tech.

The DOJ’s other options include forcing Google to share data with competitors and instating measures to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage in AI products, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Starbucks taps Chipotle’s Niccol as CEO

(Reuters) — Starbucks on Tuesday named Chipotle Mexican Grill head Brian Niccol as its new CEO, poaching a successful fast-food executive known for reviving the burrito chain to lead a turnaround, in a shock move that sent the coffee chain’s shares up 24%.

Niccol replaces Laxman Narasimhan, whose tenure only lasted a year-and-a-half after he was originally brought in as CEO in March 2023 to engineer a “reinvention” of the world’s biggest coffee chain. Since then, the stock has continued to falter, losing nearly one-quarter of its value.

He inherits several challenges at the coffee giant, which has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management to improve its business, and has suffered from increased competition and weakening demand in the United States and China.

Dispossessor ransomware group shut down

BERLIN (Reuters) — The globally active criminal ransomware group Radar/Dispossessor, which targeted at least dozens of companies in sectors including healthcare and transport, has been taken down, authorities in the United States and Germany said on Tuesday.

The group, founded in August 2023 and led by the online moniker “Brain”, targeted small to medium-sized companies, at first focusing on the US and then expanding globally

The investigation has identified 43 companies as victims, from countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Honduras, India, Canada, Croatia, Peru, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, they said.

A large number of companies have very likely also been affected and are not yet known to authorities, they said, adding that in the US, the group had also targeted hospitals.

Blinken postpones Middle East trip amid ‘uncertainty’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to the Middle East, delaying his planned Tuesday departure, Axios reported ahead of planned Gaza ceasefire talks this week.

The top U.S. diplomat’s travel was delayed over “uncertainty about the situation,” Axios said, citing two unnamed sources.

On Tuesday, Hamas fired two rockets aimed at Tel Aviv for the first time in months while Israel launched separate deadly airstrikes in Gaza. On Monday, U.S. officials had said they expected Thursday’s talks to continue as planned.

More than 1,000 arrested following UK riots, police say

LONDON (Reuters) — British authorities have now arrested more than 1,000 people following days of rioting involving violence, arson and looting as well as racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants, a national policing body said on Tuesday.

The riots, which followed the killings of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport, began after the July 29 attack was wrongly blamed on an Islamist migrant based on online misinformation.

Violence broke out in cities across England and also in Northern Ireland, but there have been fewer instances of unrest since last week after efforts to identify those involved were ramped up.

Poland buys 96 Apache helicopters from U.S

WARSAW (Reuters) — Poland on Tuesday signed a contract with the U.S. to buy 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters as it bolsters its armed forces following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Under the deal with the U.S. government announced by Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the helicopters will provide new combat capabilities in terms of target engagement and reconnaissance, and will replace Poland’s post-Soviet Mi-24 helicopters.

In August 2023 the U.S. approved the sale of 96 AH-64E Apaches and related equipment to Poland for about $12 billion.

The deal provides a logistics package, including equipment for helicopter maintenance, airport and hangar equipment and technical support, a training package, and ammunition and spare parts.

Greek wildfire eases near Athens after one death

ATHENS (Reuters) — Greece’s worst wildfire of the year eased on the outskirts of the capital Athens on Tuesday thanks to weaker winds, pausing progress of a destructive blaze that killed one person and torched cars, buildings, fields and forests.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by 10 waterbombing aircraft battled the blaze since Sunday as it barrelled from a forest into Athens’ northern suburbs, torching homes and stirring panic in neighbourhoods that had not seen such a fire so close to the center in decades.