FF 11: May 15th, 2017 News and Chat About Afghanistan With Matthew Archibald

Matthew Archibald, Phd in International Relations and scholar on Afghanistan, is today’s guest.  He will help us learn about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and some of the current challenges facing that nation.

In the News

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated on Sunday that the Senate should refuse to confirm any new FBI director until a special counsel is appointed to take over the investigation into Russia meddling in the U.S. election.

U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, issued a memo on Friday that directs the U.S. Attorneys to, “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”  The direction is a reversal from the Obama administration that instructed prosecutors to avoid pursuing the toughest charges in certain cases.  

Brooks Brothers warned customers on Friday that payment card information of some of its customers may be compromised.  Customers who purchased items at Brooks Brothers’ stores between April 2017 and March 2017 should monitor their credit and debit cards.  The company explained that somebody gained access to some of their payment processing systems and installed malicious code.  

In Tech News

A massive ransomware attack began on Friday and still continues.  Over 100,000 organizations in more than 150 countries are affected so far.  Malware was distributed which locks important files for organizations and businesses while a pop-up window states that the files can be unlocked for a few hundred dollars to be paid in Bitcoin.  If users do not pay within a certain time frame, the files will be lost.  

Be sure to check out our episode about cyber security with Dave Bittner of the CyberWire podcast

Waymo, which is the self-driving car unit of parent company Alphabet (aka Google) reached a deal with Lyft, the ride hailing company.  The goal is to bring autonomous vehicles into the mainstream, but details of the agreement between the two companies were not available.

In International News

North Korea, also known as the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, launched a medium range ballistic missile on Sunday with the North Korea’s official news agency claiming that the missile has the capability to carry a nuclear weapon.

The launch comes at a time when President Trump has stated he may be open to dialog with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un and when South Korea’s new President, Moon Jae-in is favor out renewed outreach to the North.

The White House national security advisor, H.R. McMaster said on Friday that President Trump has not yet made a decision on whether to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and instead would like to hear from U.S. allies first and will have that chance at the upcoming NATO summit on May 25th.