Daily Archives: December 15, 2021

This season, and the last few days specifically, have not been good for Urban Meyer.

Yet despite the increased controversy and scrutiny, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan insisted on Monday night that he wont make a quick or emotional decision when it comes to his first-year head coach.

"I want to do the right thing for the team. I want to do the right thing for the city," Khan said, via ESPN. "That, to me, is way more important than just acting helter-skelter on emotion. I think we have a history of really looking at the facts and then really doing the right thing.

"Gus Bradley was here four years. Doug Marrone was here four years. It was wins and losses and this is a little bit different but, you know, I'm going to reflect on all of that and do what's the right thing for the team and the right thing for the city."

A report from the NFL Network on Saturday detailed severe discontent within the Jaguars organization under Meyer who has gone just 2-11 so far this season.

Players and coaches are reportedly fed up with Meyer both on and off the field, and his coaching style has apparently led to multiple run-ins. He reportedly berates his coaching staff and called them losers to their faces in a meeting before challenging each coach individually to explain when theyve ever won and forcing them to defend their resumes.

Meyer who was also videotaped partying at a bar in Ohio earlier in the season after a loss then complained about who leaked the story after their 20-0 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday and threatened to fire whoever it was on the spot.

Whats the answer? Starting leaking some information or nonsense? Meyer said when asked how to fix their many issues. Thats garbage If theres a source, then that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds.

On Monday, Meyer then was asked about safety Andre Cisco, who didnt play one snap against the Titans.

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Cisco is playing a little bit more, I believe, I dont have his numbers in front of me, he said.

Cisco, again, didnt play at all on Sunday.

Though Khan knows his organization has had its struggles, theyve mostly been on-field issues. The team has made the postseason just once in the past 14 years, and only has one winning record in that timespan. Last season, the finished 1-15.

The problems surrounding Meyer, however, are new both for Khan and Meyer himself.

"Now the scrutiny we have is really something different, Khan said, via ESPN. How much of that is we're bringing it upon ourselves, or how much of that is deserved? Urban, he won wherever he was. This is something he's never dealt with.

"And when you win in football you create enemies, OK, and the only way you can really deal with that is you've got to win again."

But despite everything, both on the field and off, Khan isnt going to rush to make a decision regarding Meyers job. He reportedly met with Meyer on Sunday night, and said he wants to make sure he has all of the information before making any move.

"I'm not impulsive," Khan said, via ESPN. "I learned that a long time ago with anything that's this important. You don't want to be impulsive. You want to look at exactly what I know firsthand or people are telling me and then collect that and do the right thing."

Though Urban Meyers issues in Jacksonville keep getting worse by the day, Shad Khan insists he isnt going to make a quick decision when it comes to Meyer's job. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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Jaguars owner Shad Khan on Urban Meyers troubles, future: You don't want to be impulsive - Yahoo Sports

Long suffering New York Giants fans are marking an auspicious anniversary. This February will be 10 years since the Giants beat the New England Patriots, 21-17, in Super Bowl XLVI .

The former star wide receiver Victor Cruz helped lead the Giants to victory, catching four balls for 25 yards and a touchdown.

Since then, the team has been unable to win a playoff game. In an exclusive interview, Cruz told Yahoo Finance Live that the team needs to first get healthy after a number of players were sidelined with injuries.

That's the biggest thing that's plagued us all year long, he said. So, it's just been a tough season to watch, and I think they have to figure out how to finish the season on a bright note and then go on to the off-season with what I believe will be some major changes to that football team.

He also acknowledged that playing professional sports during a pandemic is a major challenge. While more than 94% of NFL players are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there are some holdouts, including players who have misled their teams about their vaccination status.

It's just, you know, it's a tough place to be as an athlete right now in the NFL" said Cruz. "I'm vaccinated but I honestly, you know, if I was in the NFL, it'd be tough just even navigating it. There's a lot at stake here. In football, every week counts, every game matters, every paycheck depends on every week that you perform out there, and if something like a vaccination is setting you back it can hurt yourself, you can hurt the team.

As for taking home the Vince Lombardi trophy in 2012, Cruz says it seems like just yesterday he was on the field with his teammates. I'll tell you what, it goes fast, man. It goes fast, he said.

New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game in Indianapolis, Indiana, February 5, 2012. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

The 35-year-old NFL Pro Bowler said not a day goes by that he doesnt think about that Super Bowl win. I mean, it's hard not to. It defines such a huge part of my life and my career that its hard not to think about it.

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On a recent Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Cruz gathered on the field with his former teammates to commemorate the championship and to of course give each other some good-natured ribbing.

Linking back up with the guys, seeing who got fat over the years, you know, it's like, Oh, you gained weight! That's the first thing you want to see is who didn't take care of themselves in 10 years, he joked. But most of the guys look incredible, and it was great to see everyone for sure.

One former teammate he sees regularly is quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champ Eli Manning. The two became close when Cruz joined the Giants as an undrafted rookie in 2010.

Cruz reminisced about how he and Manning would throw the football around in the streets of Hoboken, N.J., before the season began.

Once I made the team, it helped us build a rapport and, kind of just, put us on track to be the duo that we became, he said. I think that without us knowing it, those early days of getting to know each other in Hoboken really paid off towards the back end of our careers.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 05: Quarterback Eli Manning (L) #10 of the New York Giants and Victor Cruz #80 work out on the field during warmups before the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 5, 2012 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Cruz and Mannings close bond was on full display during a recent episode of The Eli Manning Show on YouTube when Cruz took his former QB shopping for some vintage Giants clothes.

[Mannings] like a one-trick pony, Cruz laughed. He's a plaid shirt, brown belt, slacks or khakis - keeps it very much within his wheelhouse. Sometimes you just need to break out of that shell a little bit, kind of get out of your comfort zone.

Cruz who describes his own fashion style as adult chic helped Manning get decked out in head-to-toe Giants gear at a shop in Brooklyn, N.Y.

To Eli's credit, man, he owned it. He put it on and immediately felt the swagger and was, like OK, I need to go outside and like walk around. People need to see me in this. I was dying laughing. It was the best thing.

Cruz, who was never the same after a 2014 knee injury, officially retired from the NFL in 2018. Since then, hes worked as a sports analyst at ESPN and when hes not attending The Met Gala or sitting in the front at New York Fashion Week, Cruz is busy flexing his business acumen.

He recently partnered with the restaurant chain Krystal to bring the Southeast-based burger chain to the Northeast, including to his hometown of Paterson, N.J. He also signed on as an adviser to the soon-to-be-launched peer-to-peer sports betting exchange Prophet Exchange.

And Cruz just expanded his namesake sneaker collaboration with luxury fashion designer Pierre Hardy.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 06: Victor Cruz attends the Costume Institute Gala for the "PUNK: Chaos to Couture" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Stewart/Getty Images)

When this reporter caught up with Cruz for our virtual interview, he had just landed in Aspen, Colorado, for a little snowboarding.

So whats left on Cruzs bucket list? Going to space something former Giants champ Michael Strahan just did on Jeff Bezos Blue Origin.

I asked if he could put me in his luggage, if there's an extra place for me on the rocket, said Cruz, half joking. I would love to do that.

Alexis Christoforous is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter@AlexisTVNews.

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Former NY Giant Victor Cruz on COVID, the Super Bowl and fashion - Yahoo Finance

The quarterback who still has something to prove showed that maybe he really is built to win big games.

The head coach who still does too, showed that maybe he's not.

The Los Angeles Rams and QB Matthew Stafford defeated the Arizona Cardinals, coached by Kliff Kingsbury, on Monday night, 30-23. While this was still a regular season game in December, it might signal plenty about the January playoff ones to come.

Stafford did everything to win it. Kingsbury did enough to not.

Start with Stafford, who is closing in on 50,000 career passing yards, 320 career touchdowns and $250,000,000 in career salary.

There has never been any doubt about his ability to throw a football, a primary reason he was the No. 1 quarterback recruit coming out of high school and the No. 1 overall draft pick coming out of college.

Winning critical games? Thats a different question. In a dozen seasons in Detroit, Stafford never won a playoff game (0-3 in the wild-card round) or a division crown. Even significant regular season victories are tough to find on his resume.

The Rams went all in on him last offseason though, making a deal that included QB Jared Goff and two first-round draft picks on the belief that Stafford was a winner dragged down by Lions dysfunction.

The Rams are now 9-4, but it wasnt really until Monday, on the road, with an injury and COVID-depleted roster, that Stafford looked like someone capable of leading L.A. to the Super Bowl.

He threw for 287 yards and three touchdowns, including multiple completions featuring near impossible accuracy. He threw sidearm, downfield and seemingly through needles. He was brilliant.

I thought Matthew Stafford was outstanding, Rams coach Sean McVay said. I thought he made great decisions, some unbelievable big shots he took advantage of, he was great on third down.

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford calls out assignments during the first half Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Glendale, Arizona. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

This was exactly the Stafford the Rams were hoping to see. His connection with Cooper Kupp (13 catches for 123 yards) belies the fact that they are in their first season as teammates. His ability to make huge plays out of busted ones changed the game.

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I thought we were efficient in the passing game, taking what they gave us and then we took some shots and hit those shots, said Stafford, who hit Odell Beckham Jr. for 40 yards, Kupp for 44 and Van Jefferson Jr. for 58.

Then there were the little things, the winning things. Maybe none was bigger than chasing down his own fumble after being strip sacked. Just about everyone else on the field thought it was just an incomplete pass. It wasnt. The ball was live. Stafford recovered and two snaps later threw a touchdown that pushed the lead to 27-13.

I was screaming as I was running [for it], Stafford said. I [thought] it was an incomplete pass, but I didnt want to leave it to chance.

Those were the moments that Arizona lacked. It doesnt all fall on the coach, but while Kingsbury has done excellent work to get the Cardinals to 10-3, no one has any idea if the third-year coach is built for the playoffs, where every decision gets magnified.

Among the questionable ones was a fourth-and-1 from the Rams' 37-yard line with 5:24 remaining in the game and Arizona trailing by 10. Kick the field goal Matt Prater was bombing them in and it's a one-score game with plenty of time left. The Cardinals were always going to need a field goal.

Instead they went for it, got stuffed and handed L.A. a huge advantage. Even though the Rams were forced to punt, they still had a two-score lead.

I like the call, it just didnt work out," Kingsbury said. "Youve got to give them credit. Id go for it 100 times out of 100.

When the Cardinals got the ball back with 2:44 remaining, they ran an 11-play drive until fourth down forced them to attempt a 49-yard field goal with 41 seconds remaining. Prater hit it, cutting the lead to 30-23, but there was almost no time left. They had numerous options to kick sooner and preserve the clock.

Instead, after the Cards recovered the onside kick, they were forced into a hurried, sloppy drive that featured two offensive penalties and some final-play confusion over whether Kyler Murray was supposed to spike it or attempt a Hail Mary. Instead, with an offensive line not blocking, Aaron Donald ended the game with a sack.

It was miscommunication between me and the o-line, Murray said. They thought it was going to be spike. But thats heat of the moment stuff. I dont even recall what was being said in the helmet.

Thats the kind of stuff that needs to be sewn up. It was just part of the problem.

A lot of penalties, the two turnovers, conversions on fourth down, Murray said. If we do a lot of things differently, it would have ended differently.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury shouts to his players, including quarterback Kyler Murray (1), as they warm up before facing the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Except they didnt. So it didnt. Arizona is still first in the NFC West, although it has given up the No. 1 seed. Kingsbury could only shrug. Considering his team is just 3-3 at home and 7-0 on the road this season, however, he joked that maybe theyre better off as a lower seed.

Kingsbury has just one year on his contract remaining and his name got floated (probably not coincidentally) for an open job at the University of Oklahoma, even though the Sooners never considered him.

This has been a breakthrough season, and Arizona would be wise to keep him around. But the spotlight of January is coming, and any backfiring decision can end a season and wreck a reputation.

Its the big games, the playoff games, after all, where respect is truly handed out.

Just ask Matthew Stafford. Hes still looking for his.

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Where Matthew Stafford thrived, Kliff Kingsbury and Cards crumbled under cloud of mistakes, miscommunication and odd decisions - Yahoo Sports

After a 2020 season that saw COVID-19 hotspots develop in multiple organizations, the NFL hoped experience, knowledge and a high vaccination rate would head off another spate of intense roster infections in 2021.

That hope hit an iceberg this week.

After setting a single-day record for COVID positives across the league Monday, the Los Angeles Rams were forced to close their team facility on Tuesday, while the Cleveland Browns also moved into the leagues enhanced protocols after placing eight players including four starters onto the COVID reserve list. The NFL hit a single-day high of 37 positive tests among players Monday, then rolled into Tuesday with the Rams and Browns both bracing for more positive tests.

As of Tuesday, the leagues COVID reserve list had ballooned to nearly 100 players, with the expectation that number will climb over the course of the week.

For the Browns in particular, further tests could stress the teams ability to field a competitive team on Saturday against the Las Vegas Raiders, a game that was flexed to Saturday by the NFL several weeks ago as part of an effort to showcase matchups after the end of college footballs regular season. Now its going to highlight the leagues renewed difficulty in stopping hotspots for coronavirus spread inside franchises.

With the Browns already placing a sizable chunk of their active game roster on the list, it could also challenge the resolve of the league office if the spread of infection continues to spiral. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell laid down a zero-tolerance policy in the offseason when it came to outbreaks inside teams, stating that games would not be moved out of television slots in 2021 and that teams will incur potential fines and game forfeiture if they are unable to play due to the spread of COVID. No team had to forfeit in 2020, though several games were pushed back, sometimes even into midweek.

Among some of the notable names that landed on the COVID-reserve list in the past several days: wideout Odell Beckham Jr., cornerback Jalen Ramsey, tight end Tyler Higbee and offensive tackle Rob Havenstein of the Rams; defensive end Takk McKinley, tight end Austin Hooper, wideout Jarvis Landry, guard Wyatt Teller and offensive tackle Jedrick Wills of the Browns; Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle Rashawn Slater; Dallas Cowboys wideout Cedrick Wilson; Houston Texans linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill; Kansas City Chiefs wideout Josh Gordon; Miami Dolphins running backs Myles Gaskin and Phillip Lindsay; Minnesota Vikings running back Alexander Mattison; New York Giants wideout Kadarius Toney; Philadelphia Eagles wideout Quez Watkins; Washington Football Team defensive tackle Jonathan Allen; and Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey.

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The NFL has hit a COVID-19 iceberg, putting Roger Goodells zero-tolerance policy to the test - Yahoo Sports

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh didn't care if you criticized him for his decision to go for two on Sunday. He knows it was the right call, and he'll try to explain it to you.

For most of NFL history, the common approach for coaches was to keep a game alive. You'd see plenty of suboptimal decisions made in the name of not practically ending the game, but staying within a possession or two. There are many field goals that have been kicked to pull a game within 14 points in the fourth quarter, when coaches should have gone for it to actually help their chances to win.

That "keep the game going" line of thinking is hard to shake, and that's why Harbaugh had to explain his decision from the Ravens' 24-22 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

Here was the scenario: Late in the game, the Ravens scored to cut the Browns' lead to 24-15. An extra point would have pulled Baltimore within eight points and make it a one-possession game. Until teams started using some forward thinking in recent years, just about every coach would have taken the extra point. Keep the game alive.

Harbaugh went for two.

"Its really a non-decision," Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh explained the thought process as well as anyone could. In the Ravens' scenario, a team needs a successful two-point conversion at some point. Putting it off until later doesn't do any good. Going for two right away lets a team know what it needs the rest of the game.

"You do it at that point in time because youre going to have to win a two-point conversion, so you understand if you get it or dont get it early where youre at going from there, how many possessions you're going to need, and what youre going to have to do," Harbaugh said. "If you wait until the last two-point conversion and you dont get it, the games over. You lost.

"You try it early. If youre in a 7-point game, you know where we stand. We dont get it, youre in a 9-point game and you need two possessions."

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It's hard for many to embrace that thinking because of what happened to the Ravens on Sunday.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh explained a debatable decision to go for two against the Browns. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Baltimore didn't make the two-point conversion, so it looked like the wrong call. Instead of being down 24-16 with an extra point, the Ravens trailed 24-15 and needed two possessions. For those who think the goal should be to extend the game as long as you can, that's bad.

There are more layers to the decision than Harbaugh's brief explanation. An extra point isn't automatic anymore and that plays into the math (although Harbaugh has Justin Tucker, who is close to automatic). Also, playing to get to overtime is far from a guarantee to win the game. Ben Baldwin of The Athletic explained that last week.

Going for two early and getting it would mean a team trails by seven points. Theoretically that team could go for two again later and try to win in regulation. Harbaugh went for two and the win in a Week 13 loss at Pittsburgh. That was another decision that looked bad because the result was unsuccessful. But, like going for two on Sunday, the decision itself was fine.

When coaches go against conventional wisdom, they get unwarranted criticism. That's why it took nearly 100 years of NFL football before some coaches realized going for it instead of punting on fourth-and-short isn't really a gamble. Harbaugh didn't get the result he or the Ravens desired when he went for two. That doesn't mean it was the wrong decision.

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John Harbaugh offers the best explanation for going for 2 after others disagreed with him - Yahoo Sports

Phillip Adams, a former NFL cornerback who was accused of shooting six people to death before killing himself in April, had "unusually severe" chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease associated with head trauma and concussions.

The results of Adams' brain examination were announced Tuesday by Dr. Anne McKee, a neuropathologist who serves as director of Boston University's CTE Center. She compared Adams' brain to the brain of Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots player who took his own life in 2017 while serving a life sentence for murder. Hernandez was found to have Stage 3 CTE when his brain was examined after his death, with severe damage to the frontal lobes.

"Mr. Adams' CTE pathology was different than the other young NFL players with CTE," McKee said. "It was different in that it was unusually severe in both frontal lobes."

McKee diagnosed Adams with Stage 2 CTE. Symptoms of Stage 2 include depression, mood swings and short-term memory loss. A smaller percentage of people with Stage 2 can also experience impulsivity and suicidal thoughts.

Police say Adams, 32, shot and killed six people in Rock Hill, South Carolina on April 7. Local physician Robert Lesslie, his wife, Barbara, and two of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie, were all killed, as were two HVAC technicians working at the Lesslie home, James Lewis and Robert Shook. Police found Adams in the home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Adams played for six different teams over six seasons in the NFL, including the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders. He suffered multiple concussions during his career, including two over a three-game span in 2012.

A representative for Adams' family told WCNC that he had been "desperately seeking help" from the NFL, but because he had issues completing tasks and problems with his short-term memory, all his claims were denied.

Adams' sister Lauren told USA Today the day after the shooting deaths that her brother's mental health had been in steep decline for several years. More recently, he'd stopped dating, withdrawn from his family and friends and began neglecting his personal hygiene.

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Former NFL CB Phillip Adams had 'severe' CTE when he allegedly killed 6 people and himself - Yahoo Sports

Justin Bieber, Prince Harry and Hyun Bin are among Yahoo Singapore's top most-searched international male celebrities of 2021. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

As we approach the end of 2021, here are the top 10 international male celebrities who've entertained and shocked audiences in Singapore this year.

Read on to find out who lands the coveted top spot on this list:

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 13: Simu Liu attends Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man: No Way Home" Los Angeles Premiere on December 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

10. Simu Liu

Simu Liu made his Marvel debut in Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. As Marvels most prominent Asian superhero, Shang-Chi made a record US$94.7 million in American and Canadian cinemas over a four-day weekend, making it one of the most successful Marvel films of all time.

Prior to starring in the film, Liu was in the CBC sitcom, Kims Convenience.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 29: Lee Jung-Jae attends the 2021 Gotham Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on November 29, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

9. Lee Jung-jae

Perhaps one of the biggest stars of 2021, Lee Jung-jae recently starred as the main character in Netflixs insanely popular Squid Game.

While it might seem like Lees a breakout star in Western media, the truth is, the 1.8m tall talent has been in the industry since 1993. He started as a fashion model before beginning his acting career on television.

LOS ANGELES - NOVEMBER 15: CBS presents the 23RD ANNUAL A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS AT THE GROVE, featuring uplifting stories of adoption from foster care and raising awareness of this important social issue, to be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 5 (9:30-10:30 PM, ET/9:00-10:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+*. Pictured: Justin Bieber. (Photo by Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images)

8. Justin Bieber

The Canadian pop star was one of the top most-streamed artists this year.

Besides releasing some addictive songs, Biebers also been collaborating with several brands including Balenciaga and Canadian fast-food chain, Tim Hortons.

Together with Tim Hortons, the singer worked on creating bite-sized Timbits in three new flavours. Timbits are essentially tiny doughnut balls.

XIAMEN, CHINA - NOVEMBER 27: Actor Andy Lau attends 'Shock Wave 2' press conference during the 33rd China Film Golden Rooster Awards on November 27, 2020 in Xiamen, Fujian Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

7. Andy Lau

In celebration of his 40th anniversary in showbiz, Andy Lau held a live broadcast to interact with his biggest fans on the Chinese social media platform Douyin in July. Lau also released a new song to commemorate this huge occasion.

While the broadcast was a big success, several of the 60-year-olds fans from Hong Kong were disappointed that he did not release anything in Cantonese for them.

In September, the veteran actor recorded a mini-concert to celebrate his 60th birthday and performed three songs. The 15-minute concert was uploaded to his fansite, Andy World Club.

South Korean actor Song Joong-ki poses on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan on October 6, 2021. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

6. Song Joong-ki

The South Korean actor mourned the death of his maternal grandmother late last month as he prepared for his return to the small screen in a new drama, The Youngest Son Of The Chaebol Family. Song is probably best known for his roles in Descendants Of The Sun and Vincenzo.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 10: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex speaks on stage as Intrepid Museum hosts Annual Salute To Freedom Gala on November 10, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum)

5. Prince Harry

Prince Harry and Meghan Markles interview with Oprah garnered a record 17.1 million viewers on CBS alone.

Following their interview, the couple received both criticism and praise for how they chose to handle their marriage and relinquish their royal duties.

4. Jeon Jung-kook

As a member of BTS, Jungkook breaks the internet without even trying.

The multi-hyphenate consistently impresses with his dancing and singing skills on stage at BTS concerts. Most recently, the entertainer's performance in a deep V-neck jacket at a BTS concert in Los Angeles broke the internet as fans gushed on Twitter.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - October 28: Actor Hyun-Bin during a red carpet event of 2020 Korean Popular Culture and Art Awards at Kyunghee University Peace Hall on October 28, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images)

3. Hyun Bin

The Crash Landing On You star has had a great year! Not only is he the ambassador for Italian brand Loro Piana, Tom Ford Beauty also announced that he will be the brands first regional ambassador in Asia Pacific.

It was revealed in January this year that Hyun Bin was dating his co-star Son Ye-jin.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MAY 28: Singer Kris Wu attends Seeyoung promotional event on May 28, 2021 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

2. Kris Wu

Actor Kris Wu and several other actors including Zheng Shuang and Zhang Zhehan were recently placed on Chinas celebrity blacklist.

According to an official notice by the China Association of Performing Arts, Wu and 87 other celebrities, streamers, and influencers have been blacklisted for illegal and unethical behaviour.

Wu, who was a member of South Korean boyband EXO, was accused of date rape and preying on underage girls after his ex-girlfriend Du Meizhu made public allegations of his sexual assault crimes.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - March 25: Actor Kim Seon-Ho during JTBC Drama 'Welcome to Waikiki2' Press Conference at Conrad Hotel on March 25, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images)

1. Kim Seon-ho

In October, actor Kim Seon-ho was alleged to have coerced a woman into getting an abortion when they were dating. The woman posted the allegation online.

Following the allegation, Kim was dropped as an ambassador for several brands and lost his role in the variety series 2 Days & 1 Night.

The Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha star's image was soon rehabilitated after his ex-girlfriend clarified the situation and accepted his apology.

Link:

Yahoo Singapore's top 10 most-searched international male celebrities of 2021 - Yahoo Singapore News

Clemson is keeping it in the family.

Dabo Swinney lost both his offensive coordinator, Tony Elliott, and defensive coordinator, Brent Venables, to head-coaching jobs in recent weeks. Some wondered if Swinney would look outside the Clemson building to fill those vacancies. Instead, he is promoting from within.

Swinney announced Tuesday that Wes Goodwin will take over as defensive coordinator for Venables, who left to become the head coach at Oklahoma. Additionally, Brandon Streeter has been elevated to offensive coordinator to replace Elliott, who took the Virginia job.

Goodwin, in his 10th season at Clemson, previously held the title of senior defensive assistant. In that role, he served in a critical off-field role, helping Venables with defensive breakdowns and opponent scouting, among other responsibilities.

Streeter previously held the role of quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator. He was also Clemsons recruiting coordinator from 2014 to the end of the 2019 season. Streeter has previous offensive coordinator and play-calling experience from his time at Liberty and Richmond.

Offensively, theres nobody more deserving than Brandon Streeter, Swinney said. Hes called a lot of plays in his day. He was a coordinator when I hired him, and he left being a coordinator to come to Clemson. What an amazing job he did with Deshaun Watson, an amazing job he did recruiting and developing Trevor Lawrence and what hes done from a passing game standpoint.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney sings the school alma mater with safety Jalyn Phillips (25) after the team's NCAA college football game against South Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021, in Columbia, S.C. Clemson won 30-0. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

Additionally, safeties coach Mickey Conn has been given the added title of co-defensive coordinator, cornerbacks coach Mike Reed is now also the special teams coordinator and defensive tackles coach Todd Bates has added an assistant head coach title. Bates also serves as Clemsons recruiting coordinator.

On the offensive side, Kyle Richardson is now the teams passing game coordinator and tight ends coach. Richardson was previously the director of high school relations and a special offensive assistant.

I am excited and energized by this deserved opportunity for so many members of our staff in new roles, Swinney said. But most of all, Im happiest for our players. More than anybody, they know what this group of coaches is capable of, and our players excitement to see them in these roles has been amazing.

Clemson was 4-3 midway through the season but closed out the regular season with five consecutive wins. Now 9-3, the Tigers will face Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 29.

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Clemson promotes from within to replace Brent Venables, Tony Elliott - Yahoo Sports

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When SafeSearch is enabled, your search engines block what they consider to be mature content in your search results. In case youd like to include those results in your searches, you will have to turn off SafeSearch first. Heres how.

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To disable SafeSearch on Google on your desktop, simply open Google Search and go to Settings > Search Settings > SafeSearch Filters. There you can uncheck Turn on SafeSearch.

For more detailed instructions on this process, as well as how to do it on mobile devices, check out our dedicated guide. It lists and illustrates each step you need to follow to enable mature content results in your searches.

RELATED: How to Turn Off SafeSearch on Google Search

If you use Bing as your search engine, its easy to disable SafeSearch on this engine on both desktop and mobile.

On your Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook desktop computer, open a web browser and launch the Bing site. In Bings top-right corner, click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines).

In the menu that opens, click SafeSearch.

You will see a Search page. Here, in the SafeSearch section, enable the Off option. This disables SafeSearch on Bing for you.

In case you do not want to disable SafeSearch completely, but youd rather change its effect, use either Moderate or Strict options for SafeSearch.

To save your changes, in the menu that pops up from the bottom of your screen, click Save.

On your Android, iPhone, or iPad, launch a web browser and open the Bing site. In the sites top-right corner, tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines).

From the menu that opens, select SafeSearch.

On the Search page, in the SafeSearch section, activate the Off option. This removes SafeSearchs filtering.

Save your changes by tapping Save in the menu that opens.

Confirm that you are at least 18 years old by tapping Agree in the prompt that opens.

Thats all.

RELATED: How to Get Bing's Daily Photos as Your Wallpaper on Windows 10

Unlike other search engines, on Yahoo, you have to first perform a search to then disable SafeSearch.

On your Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook computer, open a web browser and access the Yahoo site. On the site, click the search box, type any query, and press Enter.

On the search results page, in the top-right corner, click Yahoo Sites (a square made of nine dots).

At the bottom of the Yahoo Sites menu, click Settings.

You will see a Search Preferences page. Here, next to SafeSearch, click the drop-down menu.

Choose Off in the drop-down menu to disable SafeSearch.

Save your changes by scrolling down the page, and at the bottom, clicking Save.

Enjoy more results in your Yahoo searches going forward.

On an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone, open a web browser and launch the Yahoo site. At the top of the site, tap the search box and type a query. Then press Enter.

Scroll the search results page to the bottom. There, tap Settings.

Yahoo will open a Search Preferences page. On this page, in the SafeSearch section, tap the drop-down menu.

Select Off from the menu.

Scroll the Search Preferences page to the bottom, and there, tap Save.

You will see a prompt that says you must agree to Yahoos terms to disable SafeSearch. If you agree, tap I Accept.

Yahoo will take you back to your search results with SafeSearch disabled. Youre all set.

Like other search engines, DuckDuckGo also comes with the SafeSearch filter. You can disable this filter fairly easily from the settings page.

RELATED: What Is DuckDuckGo? Meet the Google Alternative for Privacy

On your Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook computer, open your preferred web browser and access the DuckDuckGo site. In the sites top-right corner, click the three horizontal lines.

In the Settings menu that opens, at the top, click All Settings.

On the All Settings page, at the top, click the General tab.

Scroll down the General tab to the Safe Search section. Here, click the drop-down menu and choose Off.

Scroll your page all the way down, and at the bottom, select Save and Exit.

SafeSearch is now turned off on DuckDuckGo.

On your handheld device, open a web browser and launch the DuckDuckGo site. In the sites top-left corner, tap the three horizontal lines.

In the menu that opens, tap All Settings.

At the top of the All Settings page, tap the General tab.

In the General tab, scroll down to the Safe Search option. Here, tap the drop-down menu and select Off.

Save your changes by scrolling the page to the bottom and tapping Save and Exit there.

Thats all.

And thats how you ensure you get all kinds of search results on your favorite search engine!

If you are a Twitter user, you might want to unblock potentially sensitive content on the popular microblogging site, too. Its easy to do that.

RELATED: How to Unblock "Potentially Sensitive Content" on Twitter

Original post:

How to Turn Off SafeSearch on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo - How-To Geek

It was almost 10 p.m. on a Thursday night, and Ali Watkins was walking around the capital following instructions texted by a stranger. One message instructed her to walk through an abandoned parking lot near Washington, D.C.s Dupont Circle, and then wait at a laundromat. Then came a final cryptic instruction: She was to enter an unmarked door on Connecticut Avenue leading to a hidden bar.

The Sheppard, an upscale speakeasy, was so dimly lit it was sometimes hard to see the menu, let alone a stranger at the bar. But amid the red velvet upholstery, Watkins, then a reporter at Politico, almost immediately spotted the man she was supposed to meet: He was wearing a corduroy blazer and jeans and had a distinctive gap between his teeth.

I wont tell you my name, but I work for the U.S. government, he said, according to her account later provided to government investigators.

It was June 1, 2017, and Watkins was a rising star in the world of national security journalism, breaking big stories about the investigation into President Trumps alleged ties to Russia. She had hopped from the Huffington Post to BuzzFeed and then Politico, when a man writing under the pseudonym Jack Bentley had reached out, wanting to meet with her. She agreed, as journalists often do, thinking he might be a potential source.

Ali Watkins during a PBS interview about her reporting on Russian espionage, June 1, 2017. (PBS/YouTube)

Once at the bar, however, she found that the man seemed more interested in gathering information about her than in providing her with information. And he appeared to know a lot about her, including details of her travels and her relationship with James Wolfe, an older man who worked on Capitol Hill.

The meeting, which lasted almost four hours, would change both of their lives. Late the following year, Wolfe, the onetime boyfriend of Watkins, was sentenced to two months in prison for lying to the FBI about his relationship with reporters. And Watkins, by then at the New York Times, faced ethical questions about her relationship with Wolfe, even though she denied he had been a source for her stories while they were involved.

The true mystery of the saga was the role of the man at the bar. He was portrayed in subsequent articles as something of a rogue actor who had taken it upon himself to conduct a Trump-era leak investigation, and he subsequently faced an internal investigation at the Department of Homeland Security, where he worked.

Story continues

Yet documents obtained by Yahoo News, including an inspector general report that spans more than 500 pages and includes transcripts of interviews that investigators conducted with those involved, emails and other records reveal a far more disturbing story than the targeting of a single journalist. The man, whose real name is Jeffrey Rambo, worked at a secretive Customs and Border Protection division. The division, which still operates today, had few rules and routinely used the countrys most sensitive databases to obtain the travel records and financial and personal information of journalists, government officials, congressional members and their staff, NGO workers and others.

As many as 20 journalists were investigated as part of the divisions work, which eventually led to referrals for criminal prosecution against Rambo, his boss and a co-worker. None were charged, however.

Rambo, who believes he was unfairly vilified for seeking out Watkins, said in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Yahoo News that he acted legally and appropriately. He agreed to speak amid what he describes as escalating threats against him in San Diego, where he now lives, and after Yahoo News obtained a copy of the inspector general investigation into Rambo and his colleagues.

Im being accused of blackmailing a journalist and trying to sign her up as an FBI informant, which is whats being plastered all around San Diego at the moment because of misinformation reported by the news media, he said in the interview.

The story Rambo tells is even stranger than the one already in the public view, which is strange enough. His meeting with Watkins, he says, was the result of a Trump-era White House assignment to Customs and Border Protection to combat forced labor. Rambo, the lead on the project, was authorized to reach out to anyone who he thought might be useful, including journalists and other people inside and outside the government.

As part of that process, he and others he worked with vetted those potential contacts, pulling email addresses, phone numbers and photos from passport applications and checking that information through numerous sensitive government databases, including the terrorism watchlist.

Jeffrey Rambo in his San Diego coffee shop, Storymakers Coffee Roasters. (Sandy Huffaker for Yahoo News)

There is no specific guidance on how to vet someone, Rambo later told investigators. In terms of policy and procedure, to be 100 percent frank there, there's no policy and procedure on vetting.

Those swept up in the divisions vetting included journalists from national news organizations, ranging from the Associated Press to the New York Times.Even Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, was flagged in those searches.

When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access to, that's just status quo, that's what everyone does, Rambo told investigators.

But the idea of government officials trawling through government databases, looking at the private lives and even romantic relationships of U.S. citizens not suspected of any crime, is precisely what civil liberties experts have warned about for years.

For two decades, weve seen how the collect-it-all, share-it-all philosophy underlying post-9/11 law enforcement floods agencies with sensitive personal information on millions of Americans, Hugh Handeyside, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties National Security Project, told Yahoo News. When agencies give their employees access to this ocean of information, especially without training or rigorous oversight, the potential for abuse goes through the roof.

Rambo, however, doesnt see his story as one of abuse. He was doing precisely what his higher-ups authorized him to do.

Im called a rogue Border Patrol agent, Im called a right-hand man of the Trump administration, I accessed data improperly, I violated her constitutional rights all of these things are untrue, Rambo told Yahoo News. All these things are standard practices that let me rephrase that. All of the things that led up to my interest in Ali Watkins were standard practice of what we do and what we did and probably whats still done to this day.

CBPs National Targeting Center was created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help identify potential threats crossing the borders of the United States, whether people, drugs or weapons. When Rambo was detailed to the center in 2017, he was assigned to the newly launched Counter Network Division, a unit designed as a bridge between law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community that prided itself on taking out of the box approaches.

Freed from the constraints of bureaucracy, those inside were supposed to think creatively about how to solve problems. According to testimony in the inspector general report, Rambos supervisor, Dan White, fostered a freewheeling atmosphere at the division, calling his team WOLF, short for way out in left field. White even had a water bottle with a WOLF sticker. He himself would later tell investigators: We are pushing the limits and so there is no norm, there is no guidelines, we are the ones making the guidelines.

The divisions assignments were high-level and came directly from the CBP commissioner, the secretary of Homeland Security or the White House, which in May 2017 asked the division to look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the U.S. believed companies were using cobalt mined by forced labor to produce consumer goods in China. Rambo, one of few Border Patrol agents assigned to the division, where he worked alongside representatives from across law enforcement and intelligence agencies, was asked to lead the project. My orders were to tackle a problem set that we were given from the White House, he told Yahoo News.

Rambo, according to documents included in the inspector general report, was told to gather the evidence needed to hit companies with sanctions under the rarely used Tariff Act of 1930. He proposed using information from experts in academia, NGOs, humanitarian groups, officials at other government agencies and journalists specializing in forced labor reporting. The plan was greenlighted by his boss, he later told investigators, with one caveat. "Make sure you vet whoever you contact, Rambo said White told him.

In late May 2017, Rambo and one of his co-workers began reaching out to people, including Martha Mendoza, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter who covered forced labor. On May 31, Rambo, using his government email, wrote to Mendoza explaining that CBP was trying to identify companies that were importing goods possibly linked to forced labor. We are hoping to connect with subject matter experts outside of the traditional government circles as your rules of engagement are a bit different than ours, he wrote Mendoza, and can perhaps help in pointing us in the right direction to U.S. companies that meet such criteria or are suspected of such.

Associated Press journalist Martha Mendoza. (Khairil Yusof/Flickr)

Another reporter who caught his eye was Ali Watkins. On June 1, he spotted a Politico story by Watkins on how Russias spy games were heating up inside the United States. Her story, which came at the height of Trump administration concerns over leaks relating to the FBIs Russia investigation, cited a half-dozen anonymouscurrent and former intelligence officials. Ali Watkins was, for lack of a better word, the hot-topic reporter at the time, Rambo told Yahoo News.

Rambo, who was later pressed repeatedly about why he chose to reach out to Watkins, a reporter who had never written about forced labor, said he was looking for prominent journalists with access and buzz. He told investigators he wanted to identify national security journalists who could not just tell CBP about forced labor but also publish stories thatwould allow him to overstate U.S. enforcement capabilities. Rambo believed these stories inflating U.S. capabilities would prompt shippers to alter their routes, proving they were involved in illegal activities.

I thought, OK, Ill use Ali Watkins, he said.

A former senior DHS official told Yahoo News that forced labor was indeed a concern of CBP.

Forced labor was a priority of the administration. Its a priority of the Senate Finance Committee that oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection," the former official added. "It remains a bipartisan priority both for the anticompetitive aspects and trade perspective, but more importantly for the humanitarian aspects."

(Committee staff are not aware of the Counter Network Division working on forced labor, Keith Chu, a spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told Yahoo News. The staff were also not aware that Rambos leak investigation was done under the auspices of working on the forced labor issue, he added.)

Asked about Rambos plan, however, the official expressed surprise that such a thing would be pursued at CBP.

I can tell you at minimum that is an overexuberant interpretation. CBP does not conduct psychological ops or misinformation campaigns. CBP is not a member of the intelligence community. CBP does not have the authorities to do those kinds of things, the former senior official said.

Rambo believed he did have the authority, and he had certainly had his bosss approval to contact Watkins. After reading her story, he did something that most journalists probably dont expect government officials to do: He ran Watkins through an assortment of databases. Those included, among others, CBPs Automated Targeting System, a tool that compares travelers against law enforcement and intelligence data; TECS, which tracks people entering and exiting the country; the Treasury Departments FinCEN, used for identifying financial crimes; and the State Department consular database, which included details of her passport application.

When you say vet someone, you vet them. Theres no parameters on what that means, Rambo said.

Vet the reporters you use, Rambo said his boss told him, vet them through our systems. I vet them no different than I vet a terrorist.

On his screen was Watkinss international travel, color-coded blue in a format similar to an Excel spreadsheet. He saw a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, sandwiched between two trips with the same person, a man more than 30 years her senior named James Wolfe. Together they traveled to Cancn, London and Spain, according to the inspector general report.

Recounting his search of Watkinss travel, Rambo began to reenact what he saw as his aha moment.

I know what suspicious travel looks like, he said, recalling the moment he thought he had stumbled on something big: the mystery male companion.

Who is James Wolfe? he recalled asking himself, mimicking typing when describing his efforts to identify Watkinss traveling companion.

James Wolfe, former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington on June 13, 2018. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Then he queried Watkinss family members, thinking he might be related to her. Wolfe, he found, was not a family member but a senior staff member on Capitol Hill.

Why is Ali Watkins flying with the head of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee? Rambo recalled wondering, excited by his find.

But he already had a theory, one that would later be denied by Watkins. Wolfe, he surmised, was giving her information and access in exchange for a personal relationship with her.

Its reasonable for me to believe in exchange for personal trips she was given access to Guantnamo, he recounted, unaware that the Pentagon regularly offers journalists the opportunity to travel to the U.S. naval base there to report on legal proceedings related to 9/11 detainees.

Rambo then went to his boss. I say, This person is great in terms of access, but based on my vetting she may be receiving classified info,' he recalled to Yahoo News.

White later told investigators that the division would regularly conduct checks on journalists to determine their personal connections, to establish if they were someone CBP could trust.

Figure it out, White told Rambo. If you can use her, use her. If not, dont.

That afternoon, Rambo reached out to Watkins using the address jackbentleyesq@gmail.com, which he later described as an off network account sanctioned by the Counter Network Division. It wasnt just some random alias I created just then to meet her,he said during an interview in San Diego, where lives with his two dogs, father-and-son beagles named Jack and Bentley.

He would later defend using the Gmail account and a fake name, he said, because he didn't want to provide information on where he worked unless he deemed her trustworthy. He and his boss even discussed signing her up as a confidential human source a highly unusual proposal for a journalist so she would be locked into a confidentiality agreement, though the idea was never pursued.

Rambo and Watkins agreed to meet in Dupont Circle that evening.

As Rambo prepped for his meeting, he reached out to an old FBI counterterrorism contact, now at the bureaus headquarters. Can you give me a call, Rambo wrote in an email. If possible ASAP. I need to run something by you that I *believe* might be in your swim lane.

At the bar, Rambo sipped WhistlePig old fashioneds and fired off questions to Watkins. Could he trust her? Had she ever burned a source? The questions began to unnerve Watkins, particularly when they revealed that Rambo appeared to know private details about her life, like where she had lived in New Jersey for a short period, and where she traveled. And yet they stayed in the bar for nearly two hours talking.

Around midnight, as the bar was closing, Rambo paid with a credit card, and they began walking together up the street toward Kramerbooks & Afterwords, a popular bookstore and caf near Dupont Circle. Inside, Watkins said, Rambo was holding up books and magazines while talking, as if to conceal his identity.

At around 1 a.m. the two left Kramerbooks together and walked down the street.

Standing in front of a closed Starbucks, Rambo continued to press Watkins about her sources. Had she ever had an inappropriate relationship with a source? Had she ever done anything to compromise her journalistic integrity?

Watkins said no, but eventually told Rambo what he already suspected: She was involved with Wolfe, but she denied he was leaking to her. Ive never received information from that person, she said, according to her account later.

Do you know he is married? Rambo asked, turning the cellphone in his hand around so Watkins could see.

This is his wife, Rambo said, apparently not realizing he was showing her a photo of Wolfes first wife (the two had divorced and Wolfe had remarried).

Rambo continued to ask about her relationship, and what would happen to her career if it was made public.

Are you trying to blackmail me? Watkins asked him. Rambo denied he was.

The two continued talking outside the Starbucks, with Rambo pressing her on Wolfe and her confidential sources. Watkins by then felt spooked, she later told investigators.

Rambo never revealed to Watkins where he was employed or his real name, but she later told investigators he insinuated he was working in the Washington metro area with the FBI.

Heres a tip, he told her not long before they parted ways around 2 a.m. Dont travel together.

The morning after the meeting, both Watkins and Rambo each set out to investigate the other.

Rambo emailed his FBI contact again. Confirmed improper relationship between a member of the SSCI and the press, he wrote, using an abbreviation for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Additional details in person if possible.

[Subject of investigation] is the SSCI Director of Security, he added in another email an hour later.

That same day, Watkins returned to the Sheppard to get Rambos credit card slip, which had his real name. A quick Google search led to a story about a Border Patrol agent starting a brewery. She called CBP, gave his name and asked to be connected. After a brief silence, then a click, a phone rang. No one picked up. Still, she later told investigators, she took this as quasi-confirmation that Jack Bentley was Jeffrey Rambo. (Even several years later, Rambo is still furious at the bar for giving Watkins his credit card receipt. Who owns that place? They gave her my personal information, he fumed.)

Rambo didnt know that she had identified his real name when, a few days after their meeting, he discussed with his boss, White, how to proceed. According to emails included in the inspector general report, Rambo was ready to hand everything over to the FBI, but his boss stopped him. White wanted to run Watkins through more DHS databases to find out if she had any sources inside the department, expanding the investigation. Rambos probe into Watkins and Wolfe also now had a name, taken from the whiskey he drank at the bar where he met Watkins: Operation Whistle Pig.

Rambo said Operation Whistle Pig was focused only on whether Wolfe was providing classified information to Watkins, or anyone else, but it appeared that a large number of journalists were caught up in the probe. After Operation Whistle Pig was approved, Rambo identified 15 to 20 national security reporters and conducted CBP records checks of those reporters, according to a FBI counterintelligence memo included in the inspector general report.

Rambo in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego. (Sandy Huffaker for Yahoo News)

While the Justice Department has policies on seeking information from journalists or news organizations, the rules apply to records that require a subpoena or warrant, such as phone records, not information that the government already possesses. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department responded to questions about this.

White then introduced Rambo and another member of the team to Charlie Ratliff, a program analyst in the Counter Network Division. Ratliff worked on DOMEX, a program that collects information from the contents of a persons electronic device when they cross a U.S. border. The controversial program sweeps up everything from phone contacts and emails to the contents from encrypted messaging apps and social media.

We know you do high profile, White told Ratliff, introducing him to Rambo.

Rambo explained to Ratliff that Watkins and Wolfe were having an affair and that Wolfe may have been leaking classified information to Watkins. Rambo gave Ratliff what are known as selectors, such as telephone numbers, email addresses and Social Security numbers. Ratliff, in turn, ran those selectors through a number of databases, including the Terrorist Screening Database, a watchlist that has more than 1 million names and has been widely criticized for errors and lack of review.

Watkins didnt have any direct connections in that database, also known as TSDB, but one of her contacts did: Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post. Oh.and the Huffington Post owner was/is a direct contact to a TSDB on 3 phones and 1 email. LoL, Ratliff wrote in one email to White.

Its impossible for Arianna to comment, as she is completely unclear what her connection to the watchlist is, a spokesperson for Huffington told Yahoo News.

Handeyside, the ACLU attorney, called the database a due process disaster.

The standard for placement on the watchlist is so low, and the safeguards against errors and misplaced suspicion are so deficient, that its no wonder the watchlist has ballooned to well over a million people, he said. Having a connection to someone on the watchlist is not remotely suspicious of itself.

Arianna Huffington at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2020. (David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

But it wasnt just journalists being investigated, or vetted, in the parlance of the Counter Network Division. Ratliff, whose email signature was In God We Trust. For Everyone Else We Vet, created a PDF file later that month that included several Congressional referrals, according to the inspector general report. That PDF was then sent to CBPs Analytical Management Systems Control Office, which is described in congressional testimony as dedicated to finding anomalies among the agencys employees to mitigate any potential threat to the CBP mission.

According to Whites later testimony, Ratliff regularly investigated congressional staffers travel captured by CBP to run against the Terrorist Screening Database. White stated that when Congressional Staffers schedule flights, the numbers they use get captured and analyzed by CBP, the inspector general report says. White told the investigators that Ratliff does this all the time, looking at inappropriate contacts between people. At one point in an email, Ratliff also references sending a PDF package listing several congressional members linked to people on the Terrorism Screening Database. It is unclear, based on the inspector general report, which members were identified.

Rambo then contacted analysts with Deloitte, a government contractor that had employees working directly for CBPs Counter Network Division, who specialized in investigating people using social media and other open sources of information. I sent them the link to that [Russia] article as context as to who Ali Watkins was and basically told them to move on with that to uncover what they could, Rambo told investigators. He identified Watkins as a primary target of Operation Whistle Pig and Wolfe as an associated target.

Deloitte did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The Deloitte team soon sent back a bulletin pinpointing Watkinss exact location on dates when they knew she was with Wolfe, like their trip to Spain. They also noted other geotagged Facebook check-ins during the time under scrutiny, including domestic travel to three states. The bulletin included information on her mother and brother and links to their profiles. Attached to the email were photos taken from Watkinss Facebook profile showing her in Spain.

Gracias, Rambo replied.

There were conflicting accounts about how many other journalists, beyond Watkins, who were scrutinized by the Counter Network Division. White told investigators that in preparation for speaking with the Associated Presss Mendoza, she was run through multiple databases, and CBP discovered that one of the phone numbers on Mendozas phone was connected with a terrorist.

In a statement to Yahoo, after being told of the investigation into one of its reporters, an AP spokesperson, Lauren Easton, blasted CBP.

The Associated Press demands an immediate explanation from U.S. Customs and Border Protection as to why journalists including AP investigative reporter Martha Mendoza were run through databases used to track terrorists and identified as potential confidential informant recruits, Easton told Yahoo News in a statement. We are deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power. This appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the First Amendment.

According to a memo that Troy Miller, then the head of the National Targeting Center, provided to investigators, the division reached out to reporters at the Huffington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press. These entities were analyzed further to determine nexus to the information being provided to CBP in order to validate any future information that would be provided on alleged forced labor practices, wrote Miller, who went on to become the acting CBP commissioner.

According to records included in the inspector general report, such vetting was standard practice at the division.

I would just remove journalists from that question, to begin with, Rambo later said when asked about the vetting process for journalists. Just through day-to-day practice of how we operate, when you're told to vet somebody, that you vet them through all of those systems.

A former New York Times reporter confirmed to Yahoo News that they met with Dan White and others at CBP to discuss trade-based money laundering, among other issues. They also pitched me on the labor abuse work that CBP was doing, the former Times reporter said.

"We are deeply troubled to learn how U.S. Customs and Border Protection ran this investigation into a journalist's sources, Danielle Rhoades Ha, a New York Times spokesperson, wrote to Yahoo News. As the Attorney General has said clearly, the government needs to stop using leak investigations as an excuse to interfere with journalism. It is time for Customs and Border Protection to make public a full record of what happened in this investigation so this sort of improper conduct is not repeated."

The Justice Department and the White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including about the appropriateness of investigating journalists. A spokesperson for DHS referred requests for comment to CBP.

CBP vetting and investigatory operations, including those conducted by the Counter Network Division, are strictly governed by well-established protocols and best practices, a spokesperson for the agency said in a written statement to Yahoo News. The Counter Network Division within U.S. Customs and Border Protections (CBP) National Targeting Center (NTC) shares information with key partners, analyze threats, and enhances the U.S. governments operational ability to combat illicit networks, including those associated with terrorists and transnational criminal organizations.

Read more from the original source:

Operation Whistle Pig: Inside the secret CBP unit with no rules that investigates Americans - Yahoo News