The United States government believes Israeli agents planted surveillance devices near the White House and elsewhere in Washington, D.C., Politico reported Thursday.
Miniature surveillance devices that "mimic regular cell towers to fool cell phones into giving them their locations and identity information" within the last two years were discovered planted near the White House and other "sensitive locations" in Washington, "likely intended to spy on" Trump and his associates, according to the report, which cites three former senior U.S. officials.
The FBI and other agencies reportedly felt "confident" that Israeli agents were responsible, although the report says it's "not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful."
An Israeli Embassy spokesperson denied the allegations, telling Politico they're "absolute nonsense" because "Israel doesn't conduct espionage operations in the United States, period," an assertion Politico writes intelligence experts "scoff at." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also called the report "a blatant lie," Axios reports.
Although the U.S. reportedly came to this determination that Israel was likely responsible for planting the devices, no action has reportedly been taken, with one former senior intelligence officials telling Politico, "I'm not aware of any accountability at all." Brendan Morrow
Weeks ahead of the 2020 Oscars, the Best Picture race already seems to be over. But is it, really?
After a big win at the Golden Globes, 1917 this past weekend cemented its status as Oscar frontrunner by taking the top prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards, one of the most reliable Best Picture bellwethers. The PGA winner has lined up with Best Picture at the Oscars about 70 percent of the time, IndieWire notes.
Just as important as what won at the PGA Awards was what lost, though: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was thought of as the Best Picture frontrunner weeks ago. But Quentin Tarantino's film has been taking hit after hit, especially after not earning an editing nomination at the Oscars; it's rare for a film to take Best Picture without a nomination in this category.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood after losing at the PGA Awards also didn't win the top prize of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, despite a star-studded cast that many thought would provide it an easy victory. Instead, SAG chose a dark horse: Parasite. With this win, Parasite surges into a strong second place in the Best Picture competition behind 1917, and The New York Times argues it's now a two-way race between these films. Working against Parasite is the fact that no foreign-language film has ever won Best Picture, though that was also true at the SAG Awards until this year.
All eyes now turn to the Directors Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs, where Once Upon a Time in Hollywood could regain momentum, Parasite could prove to be an even bigger threat, or 1917 could continue its domination. For now, the consensus is that Best Picture is 1917's to lose after its back-to-back Golden Globes and PGA victories. But Parasite is quite well positioned for a history-making upset. Brendan Morrow
No, this isn't the leaked plot for the next James Bond movie.
Back in August, Swiss police uncovered what appears to be a Russian attempt to secretly surveil the World Economic Forum happening this week, Zürich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper first reported. In what sounds like a ridiculous whodunnit, a pair of Russian spies posed as plumbers and stayed in the Swiss resort of Davos for an "unusually long" time before their alleged intentions were discovered, the Graubünden police department confirmed to the Financial Times.
The two men had been staying in Davos for an unspecified amount of time before Swiss police were "alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort," the Financial Times writes. The men then "claimed diplomatic protections, but had not been registered as official diplomats with Bern," the Financial Times continues. And while there was no indication the men had committed any crimes, "police and Swiss federal officials suspected the pair of being Russian intelligence agents, posing as tradesmen in order to install surveillance equipment at key facilities around the town" in anticipation of this week's WEF.
It's unclear just what Russia would've learned from the WEF, which is packed with events that eventually get reported to the public. But "the gathering is nevertheless a rare concentration of global power and influence that is tempting to spymasters," including visits from President Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Financial Times says. Read more at the Financial Times. Kathryn Krawczyk
Ready for a return to the 2016 Democratic primary?
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is bringing it back by blasting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the upcoming documentary series Hillary. A new piece in The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Clinton goes after Sanders in the documentary, saying, "He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it."
Clinton, asked by the Reporter if this assessment of Sanders still holds, simply responded, "Yes, it does." She declines to say whether she'll endorse Sanders if he wins the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 while criticizing "the culture around him."
"It's his leadership team," she tells the Reporter. "It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it."
Asked about the recent allegation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that Sanders told her in a private 2018 meeting that a woman couldn't be elected president in 2020, which Sanders denies, Clinton called this "part of a pattern."
"If it were a one-off, you might say, 'OK, fine,'" Clinton said. "But he said I was unqualified. I had a lot more experience than he did, and got a lot more done than he had, but that was his attack on me."
Read the full interview with Clinton sure to generate tons of discussion at The Hollywood Reporter. Hillary will begin streaming on Hulu on March 6. Brendan Morrow
Greta Thunberg returned to the World Economic Forum a year after famously observing that "our house is on fire" with a familiar warning.
The Swedish climate activist spoke Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, returning to the event after saying in a 2019 speech there that "our house is on fire." Opening a panel called "How to Save the Planet: Averting a Climate Catastrophe," Thunberg recalled her speech a year ago while advocating for "radical emission cuts at the source, starting today."
"From a sustainability perspective, the right, the left as well as the center have all failed," Thunberg said. "No political ideology or economic structure has been able to tackle the climate and environmental emergency and create a cohesive and sustainable world. Because, in case you haven’t noticed, that world is currently on fire."
Thunberg went on to blast what she referred to as being "worse than silence" from leaders: "empty words and promises which give the impression that sufficient action is being taken." She also asked leaders at the forum "what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing the climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?"
She concluded by echoing her previous warning, saying, "Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour. We are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else."
Thunberg spoke after an address from President Trump, who said "we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse." Brendan Morrow
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has said he is willing to testify at President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, and "Trump's legal defense team and Senate GOP allies are quietly gaming out contingency plans" to make sure that doesn't happen, The Washington Post reports.
Under rules proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate won't vote on whether to allow testimony from new witnesses or other new evidence until after House impeachment managers and Trump's team lay out their arguments and senators ask questions, and four Republicans would have to join all 47 Democrats to approve witnesses. If 51 senators allow subpoenaing witnesses, "McConnell is expected to ensure that those individuals are questioned in a closed-door session rather than a public setting," the Post reports, and Bolton's deposition could be moved to "a classified setting because of national security concerns, ensuring that it is not public."
"But that proposal, discussed among some Senate Republicans in recent days, is seen as a final tool against Bolton becoming an explosive figure in the trial," the Post reports. "First, Republicans involved in the discussions said, would come a fierce battle in the courts," with Trump invoking executive privilege to keep Bolton from talking then asking the courts for an injunction if Bolton "refuses to go along with their instructions."
Republicans are also warning Democrats that if they win on Bolton's testimony, Trump's team will subpoena Hunter Biden — though Senate Democrats seem pretty comfortable with that trade, or perhaps calling that bluff. Nobody's sure if Bolton would help or hurt Trump, but Republicans are not eager to find out. At the same time, a CNN-SSRS poll released Monday found that 59 percent of American adults and a 48 percent plurality of Republicans want the Senate trial to include testimony from witnesses not interviewed by the House. Peter Weber