Sen. Rand Paul submitted a question to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Thursday afternoon that included the possible name of the intelligence community whistleblower. Roberts passed on reading the question to the chamber. Immediately after, Paulleft the chamber and held a news conference reading the question in front of the TV cameras.

Paul read the question aloud, pertaining to the contact between a staffer for House Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff and a person who has been speculated by other parties to be the whistleblower.

Paul claimed his question had nothing to do with the whistleblower and that he didnt know his or her identity.

My question is about two people who are friends who worked at the National Security Council, Paul said.

Manager Schiff says he has no knowledge. If he has no knowledge, the rest of us can have no knowledge of who the whistleblower is. The presidents team says they have no knowledge of who the whistleblower is, Paul said.

Paul then highlighted his support for Edward Snowden.

You shouldnt be able to use statutes to somehow make a whole part of the discussion over this impeachment go away. Look, Im the biggest defender of the whistleblower statute. Ive been one saying that Edward Snowden was the greatest whistleblower of all-time, Paul said. Half of these people down here who say they support the whistleblower statute want to put Edward Snowden to death or in jail forever.

Unlike Snowden, the whistleblower whose report is at the center of the allegation, requested anonymity and went through appropriate and legal channels for reporting concerns related to national security.

Paul said he opted against prolonging Thursdays session by forcing a debate on whether or not to overrule the decision by the chief justice to decline to read the question as drafted.

That was a debate I made up until the very last minute, and I decided that were going to have enough voting tomorrow, the Kentucky Republican said. I decided that we're going to have enough voting tomorrow, that rather than delay the proceeding I think were going to have 12 hours of voting tomorrow.

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Roberts blocks Rand Paul's attempt to name alleged whistleblower - Roll Call

Journalist and Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald is no stranger to controversy and has been at or near the center of some of the most important American news stories since he left his law practice and started writing full time in 2005. Despite this, until recently, although hes certainly made powerful enemies over the years, it hasnt seemed as if he were in real danger of imprisonment or worse.

Even in the case of whistle blower Edward Snowden, whose 2013 leaks of government surveillance programs catapulted Greenwald to international fame, it was the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor whose arrest has been demanded by American authorities, not the journalist responsible for very carefully bringing the secrets he exposed to the world.

Due to his often adversarial tone, Greenwald has been loved and hated at different times by both conservatives and the neoliberal center. Most recently, it was liberals decrying the journalist for casting a critical eye on claims that Kremlin interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was what swung the vote in the favor of the current occupant of the White House.

In fact, although it wasnt always the most popular of opinions, Greenwald was far from the only reporter who thought that the self identified liberal American press, the Clinton campaign and a Democratic party that was almost completely in her camps thrall, might have more productively engaged in a bit of self reflection and analyzed, among other things, how the electoral college had facilitated, in terms of the popular vote, minority Republican presidencies twice this century,

Still, it was strange for many of us to see him finding a platform for these views on Fox News, especially on nerdy libertarian turned nativist Tucker Carlsons show rather than the other cable networks who have been breathlessly extolling the anonymous whistle-blower who first brought Trumps dealings with Ukraines government to light. The entirely plausible argument the journalist has made for this numerous times is that Carlson offered a platform to address a wider audience that the other networks denied him.

Evidence of the bias against him was offered just this past Sunday, as Greenwald, who is facing serious cyber crime charges in his adopted country, Brazil, had an appearance on CNNs Reliable Sources canceled at the last moment to allow the show to exclusively cover the ridiculously aggressive behavior of Mike Pompeo to an NPR reporter who had the audacity to ask him if he had supported former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in his role as Secretary of State (he didnt). This story was undoubtedly newsworthy, but some time on CNNs equivalent to Meet the Press could have been devoted to the case of a Pulitzer prize winning American journalist facing imprisonment for doing his job.

As the reporter told the conservative Washington Examiner after his invitation to appear was rescinded, I find it disappointing that CNN cant devote 6 minutes to a major attack on a free press by the worlds fifth largest country that every major media outlet in the world has extensively covered, but being disappointed isnt the same as being surprised.

The case being built against Greenwald, by Brazils far right government and its demagogic leader, Jair Bolsonaro, deals with leaked documents, mostly comprised of hacked phone messages, provided by a still anonymous source that proved the countrys Justice Minister, Sergio Moro, who was supposedly an impartial judge at the time, worked behind the scenes with prosecutors to help them coordinate their media strategies as part of what was called Operation Car Wash, an anti-corruption investigation that most famously resulted in the jailing of the countrys former socially democratic president, Lula da Silva, who, along with his Workers Party, made significant strides in fighting poverty in the country beginning in 2003.

The leaks proved that Moros crusade, which emboldened Brazils far right and personally elevated him into an almost untouchable figure in the countrys politics, was built on an edifice of lies, leading to Lulas release from prison in November.

One thing that may work in Greenwalds favor is that the cyber crime charges, which Federal Police had already dropped months ago, have instead been laid by the countrys equivalent of the U.S. Justice Department. Just as in the United Sates, this institution is under control of the president, but uniquely, the charges will still have to receive the approval of a judge, which might create a hurdle for the governments case going forward, considering that many in the countrys judiciary, deeply embarrassed by the revelations of the journalists and his colleagues at the Intercept Brasil, may be hoping to publicly display their independence, as the Supreme Court did most recently in releasing Lula.

Even if the case were to move forward, the defense will be able to show that Greenwald could teach a master class in both legally obtaining information from leakers and protecting his sources from the Snowden affair (although the same couldnt be said of the Intercept itself, which truly failed in its duty to Reality Winner in 2017).

A chilling parallel to the charges facing Greenwald is the ongoing persecution of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange, who remains in jail in the UK despite having served his time for jumping bail in the Summer of 2012. Assange is also facing cyber-crimes charges in the United States related to the leaks provided to him by Chelsea Manning a decade ago. In both cases the charges against the men seem intended to do an end run around protections offered to journalists in both countries.

As Greenwald wrote in regards to this in a statement released last week by the Intercept, Less than two months ago, the Federal Police, examining all the same evidence cited by the Public Ministry, stated explicitly that not only have I never committed any crime but that I exercised extreme caution as a journalist never even to get close to any participation. Even the Federal Police under Minister Moros command said what is clear to any rational person: I did nothing more than do my job as a journalist ethically and within the law.

An even greater fear than facing prison is the very real danger Greenwald, his husband David Miranda and their children are in, forcing them to use armed guards for protection. This isnt from an excess of caution when one considers the assassination of the couples friend and Mirandas colleague, a popular city councilwomen, Mireille Franco, on March 14th, 2018. The case is still ongoing, with four arrested so far for the killing

The arrests came as reportsalleged Bolsonaros son, Flavio, now a member of the countrys Senate, had employed members of a far-right militia composed of police and former members of the Brazilian military implicated in Francos assassination and even pointing a finger of accusationat the president himself, who appeared in a picture hugging one ofthe accused.

On a larger scale,as Greenwalf himself has reminded readers since Bolsonaro, a proud racist, misogynist and enemy of his countrys LGBTQ communities came topower, the danger he represents is a return to dictatorship in acountry where military rule only ended in 1985 and some are stillnostalgia for it. The first steps towards bringing back this era orcreating a hybrid of it are already underway with political opponentsof Bolsonaro and his cronies jailed or taking flight and a powerful, contrarian journalistic voice targeted for retribution pn trumped up charges. Itsunlikely that Greenwald, who at least has the benefit of widespreadfame and international support, will be the last journalist to be targeted.

FALL FUNDRAISER

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First Assange, now Greenwald: The growing attacks on adversarial journalism - NationofChange

A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs are pictured at a souvenir store, near Parliament Square, on Brexit day, in London, Britain Jan 31, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

The Tuesday decision by the British government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to allow Huawei to participate in the country's 5G network has dealt a major blow to those in Washington who have been hysterically trying to pressure and intimidate the United States' allies to exclude the Chinese telecommunications giant.

While the United Kingdom is only allowing Huawei to provide equipment for the non-core part of its 5G network and has put a 35-percent cap on market share, it sent a strong signal to other European nations which will make their 5G decisions soon.

It also sent a clear signal that countries don't want to be forced to choose between China and the US, a message that Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong repeated at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.

It's not the first time for UK to take such a lead. Back in 2015, UK resisted US pressure by joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank initiated by China. Many other European nations then followed suit, and many in the US criticized their government for not joining the AIIB and for trying to block others from joining.

And the UK's decision on Huawei was made despite the incessant US fearmongering about the Chinese company, including a trip to London two weeks ago by deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger to make the final plea with a so-called dossier of evidence.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has led the smear campaign against Huawei. He has made several trips to Europe and sent tweets hyping up a Huawei threat days before UK's decision. He clearly has not given up after arriving in London on Wednesday.

But Europeans have shown that they are able to make their own decisions despite decades of dependence on the US. Just a day after UK's decision, the EU, in announcing its toolbox for 5G deployment, also did not ban Huawei as the US had urged.

The UK and some other European countries paid a heavy price for blindly following the US into the disastrous Iraq War. And they well remember that according to the whistle-blowing of NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency conducts wide-ranging surveillance, including on European leaders,

In Davos last week, Israeli historian Yuval Harari appearing on a panel alongside Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, pointed out that it is not that there is no surveillance in the US, it is just that it has a very sophisticated surveillance mechanism.

Despite US' exaggerating the threat posed by China's National Security Law, Europeans have found that the US Patriot Act and US CLOUD Act are no different in requiring US companies to comply with government requests under certain circumstances.

Europeans are clear-eyed and show no appetite to join the US in its geopolitical campaign against China and risk another Cold War, or tech Cold War.

China of course does not resemble a Cold War enemy. It is not exporting revolution and ideology but promoting multilateralism, globalization, world peace and the fight against climate change.

At the Davos forum, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that any decoupling between China and US, whether in technology or trade, will make everyone worse off. He believes the way forward is for China, US and EU to talk about a set of rules and norms.

With Europeans showing they want to make their own decisions, hopefully it will convince the US administration to ditch its zero-sum Cold War mentality toward China and Huawei and engage in win-win cooperation.

The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.

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Europe shows it will not blindly do US bidding - Opinion - Chinadaily USA

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Philip Glass and Jerry Quickley's Whistleblower on Saturday, March 21 at 8 p.m. at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown LA. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office.

Whistleblower employs an original text by spoken word artist Jerry Quickley and a live score performed by legendary contemporary composer Philip Glass. Quickley and Glass use this performance as a vehicle to share their personal and visceral musings, reflections and emotions about a significant moment in history. In 2013, Edward Snowden copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) that revealed numerous global surveillance programs.

Even though the extent and breadth of the government programs were shocking, this whistleblower act punctuated the sweeping change in society and its relationship to privacy. The March 21st evening will be paired with a work entitled Is Infinity Odd or Even? with text by Arturo Bejar, spoken word by NYC/London based performer Tara Hugo and music written and performed by Glass. The show had its European Premiere at the Amsterdam Dance Event in the fall of 2016.

Quickley is one of the most well-regarded performance poets in the United States, he has received multiple commissions from the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and was the recipient of the prestigious $600K Irvine Foundation Creators Grant. Glass commissioned Quickley to write melodramas with him about the modern human condition as part of Glass' yearly arts festival in Big Sur, CA, The Days and Nights Festival. Glass, as a composer, weaves reiterations of brief, elegant melodic fragments in and out. He has composed more than twenty-five operas, twelve symphonies, three piano concertos and several albums and has participated in a variety of collaborations.

Tickets: Starting at $28 Online: cap.ucla.edu Phone: 310-825-2101 The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office: Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; day of the show, 90 minutes prior to the event start time.

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UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Philip Glass and Jerry Quickley's WHISTLEBLOWER - Broadway World

WhatsAppwill stop working on dozens ofolder phone models from 1 February, meaning millions of people will no longer have access to the worlds most popular messaging app.

The Facebook-owned app claims the mass cull is necessary in order to protect the security of its users, as it is no longer actively developing features and updates for certain older handsets.

Affected devices include any iPhonesrunning iOS 8 or earlier, as well as Android phones running versions older than 4.03 also referred to as Ice Cream Sandwich. (The Independenthas put together a list of every device affected.)

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Any WhatsAppusers with Windows phones have already lost access, after a similar purge at the end of 2019.

While some users may choose to upgrade toa new smartphone to avoid the purge, this may not be an option for everyone. For those who are unwilling or unable to ditch their old phones, weve put together a list of the best alternatives.

Arguably the most like-for-like messaging app to WhatsApp is Telegram, which supports many of the same features and even some extras.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has consistently criticised WhatsAppfor perceived security and privacy issues, most recently in a blog post on Thursday.

WhatsApp boasts hundreds of millions more users than Telegram but a series of scandals are pushing people towards the rival messaging app (Composite)

The Russian entrepreneur described WhatsApp as "dangerous", building on previous claims that it would never be secure.

His warning that "there hasn't been a single day in WhatsApp's 10 year journey when the service was secure" appeared to be confirmed earlier this month when it was revealed Jeff Bezos was hacked through a security flaw in the app.

With more than 200 million users, Telegram is therefore already a popular alternative for more privacy-focused users.

With around 260 million users, Viber is even more popular than Telegram. Its users tend to be more concentrated to certain regions, however, meaning it might be difficult to find friends using it unless you are from there.

Its core user base is in eastern Europe, north Africa and the Middle East, though there is a scattering of users elsewhere in the world.

You can unsend a message by tapping and holding it, hitting the Delete symbol and selecting Delete for Everyone. The feature works for all types of messages, but only if they were sent less than seven minutes ago.

WhatsApps blue ticks show when sent messages have been read, but you can disable them buy going to Settings > Account > Privacy > Read Receipts. However, bear in mind that, by doing so, youll lose the ability to see when your own sent messages have been read. Another, more fiddly way of reading your messages without triggering the blue ticks, is enabling Aeroplane Mode before opening your messages - just remember to close the app before switching Aeroplane Mode off again.

Prevent your friends from finding out when you were last online by hiding your last seen time. Go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen. As is the case with disabling read receipts, hiding your last seen time will also stop you from seeing anybody elses.

You can control how much data you munch through on WhatsApp by limiting the types of media you automatically download on a mobile connection. Go to Settings > Data Usage and choose the best option for you.

If youre expecting an important WhatsApp message from someone, set a custom notification for them by opening the chat, tapping their name at the top and hitting Custom Notifications.

To jazz up any of your messages, simply highlight it by tapping and holding it, hit the More Options key on the pop-up menu and tap the formatting option you want - bold, italic, strikethrough or monospace.

You can get Siri or Google Assistant to type your WhatsApp messages out for you by saying either Hey Siri or Okay Google, followed by the name of the person you want to message and the actual contents of the message.

When youve read a message but cant reply to it straight away, you can set a visual reminder by marking it as unread. On Android, long-press the conversation, and on iOS, swipe from left to right on a chat.

You almost certainly wont do this on a regular basis, but its a handy option to have. You can export entire conversations - complete with emoji and media attachments - by hitting More inside a chat a selecting Email Chat.

You can send the same message to lots of your contacts without lumping them all into one group, much like the BCC option on email, by hitting the New Broadcast option on the apps main menu.

You pin up to three contacts and groups to the top of your WhatsApp conversation list by tapping and holding a chat, then hitting the pin icon.

You can easily mark key messages with a star, allowing you to find them easily when you need to. Just tap and hold a message and hit the star icon to save it, and return to it later by selecting Starred Messages in WhatsApps main menu.

You can unsend a message by tapping and holding it, hitting the Delete symbol and selecting Delete for Everyone. The feature works for all types of messages, but only if they were sent less than seven minutes ago.

WhatsApps blue ticks show when sent messages have been read, but you can disable them buy going to Settings > Account > Privacy > Read Receipts. However, bear in mind that, by doing so, youll lose the ability to see when your own sent messages have been read. Another, more fiddly way of reading your messages without triggering the blue ticks, is enabling Aeroplane Mode before opening your messages - just remember to close the app before switching Aeroplane Mode off again.

Prevent your friends from finding out when you were last online by hiding your last seen time. Go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen. As is the case with disabling read receipts, hiding your last seen time will also stop you from seeing anybody elses.

You can control how much data you munch through on WhatsApp by limiting the types of media you automatically download on a mobile connection. Go to Settings > Data Usage and choose the best option for you.

If youre expecting an important WhatsApp message from someone, set a custom notification for them by opening the chat, tapping their name at the top and hitting Custom Notifications.

To jazz up any of your messages, simply highlight it by tapping and holding it, hit the More Options key on the pop-up menu and tap the formatting option you want - bold, italic, strikethrough or monospace.

You can get Siri or Google Assistant to type your WhatsApp messages out for you by saying either Hey Siri or Okay Google, followed by the name of the person you want to message and the actual contents of the message.

When youve read a message but cant reply to it straight away, you can set a visual reminder by marking it as unread. On Android, long-press the conversation, and on iOS, swipe from left to right on a chat.

You almost certainly wont do this on a regular basis, but its a handy option to have. You can export entire conversations - complete with emoji and media attachments - by hitting More inside a chat a selecting Email Chat.

You can send the same message to lots of your contacts without lumping them all into one group, much like the BCC option on email, by hitting the New Broadcast option on the apps main menu.

You pin up to three contacts and groups to the top of your WhatsApp conversation list by tapping and holding a chat, then hitting the pin icon.

You can easily mark key messages with a star, allowing you to find them easily when you need to. Just tap and hold a message and hit the star icon to save it, and return to it later by selecting Starred Messages in WhatsApps main menu.

It comes with group chat, instant voice and video messaging, as well as support for audio and video calls.

Similar to both Telegram and WhatsApp, all messages on Viber are end-to-end encrypted, while it also allows users to send timed self-destruct messages.

Endorsed by the world's most famouswhistleblowerEdward Snowden, Signal is the go-to app for people who's number one priority for a messaging service is privacy.

Unlike Telegram, it uses open-source encryption that allows security developers to test it for flaws and find bugs.

Edward Snowden has consistently praised the privacy benefits of the Signal messaging app (Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images)

It is free and simple to use, however it does not support some of the more popular features of other messaging apps.

Available on all major platforms, it's a great alternative for anyone happy to go without animated emojis.

WeChat is the most popular app you may never have heard of, with nearly a billion people using it every day. Almost all of these users, however, are in China.

The versatile app has achieved such dominance in its native country by covers messaging, social media and mobile payments.

The multi-purpose app is also used by companies as a communication platform, while organisations also use official accounts as a platform to register for servicers.

Its popularity has led to fears that it is used for state surveillance activities, while also being heavily censored.

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WhatsApp is about to stop working for millions what are the best alternatives? - The Independent