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THE PRESIDENT: (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please. Thank you. Please. Thank you. My name is Joe Biden, and I am Jill’s husband — (laughter) — as I’m known here in Washington and many other places.
I — Happy Hanukkah, everyone.
AUDIENCE: Happy Hanukkah.
THE PRESIDENT: You know, first, I want to thank Doug and Kamala. And this is a White House tradition — a White House tradition — but the first time in history it is a family tradition.
Doug, we’re honored that you — you’re leading the Menorah lighting.
And I — I see my dear friends in — from Congress and the community out there, many of whom I’ve known for a long, long time.
And I know how many more are joining us virtually.
You know, first of all, I want to welcome our Cabinet members: Attorney General Merrick Garland. Stand up so they can see you, Merrick. (Applause.) He is practicing the Jewish tradition of restoring justice to the Justice Department. (Applause.) Read More
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President Biden on Saturday addressed the fatal weather that ravaged parts of the South and Midwest and used the tragedy to further his own beliefs on climate change.
While speaking to reporters and virtually assessing the tornado damage from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden was asked whether he "could conclude that these storms and the intensity have to do with climate change."
"All I know is that the intensity of the weather across the board has some impacts as a consequence of the warming of the planet and climate change," Biden said. "The specific impact on these specific storms, I can't say at this point."
"I'm going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that," Biden added. "The fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming. Everything. And obviously it has some impact here, but I can't give you a quantitative read on that." Read More
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The Israel Defense Forces will hold a large-scale exercise over the Mediterranean in the spring with dozens of aircraft simulating a strike against Iran’s nuclear program, the military confirmed Thursday.
The plan comes as Israeli officials have stepped up their rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, including threatening to take unilateral action against Tehran.
According to a Wednesday report by the Kan public broadcaster, which was confirmed by the IDF the following morning, the drill will be one of the largest ever held by the Israeli Air Force and will include dozens of aircraft, including the F-15, F-35, and F-16 fighters, Gulfstream G550 spy planes, and refueling jets.
The planes will conduct the exercise far out over the Mediterranean Sea to simulate the distance — over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) — that the aircraft would need to travel in a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
This would not be the first time that the IAF has conducted exercises at these distances. Earlier this year, Israeli jets took part in a Greek-led exercise over the Mediterranean Sea.
The exercise is scheduled to be held in roughly six months. Read More
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The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has entered a collaboration with the World Bank and United Nations to deploy the Aadhaar digital ID architecture for systems outside India, The Economic Times reports, as the authority also looks to bolster mobile face biometrics usage.
Speaking at a virtual event organized by the Payments Council of India, UIDAI CEO Saurabh Garg said the organization is also establishing a dedicated advisory board to help deploy Aadhaar across different sectors.
Some of these include enrolments, authentication, and customer relationship management.
In addition, Garg confirmed the UIDAI is currently looking for additional partners from India who can help it in exporting Aadhaar-style digital ID systems overseas.
“In the Aadhaar ecosystem, we realized we need to partner with others outside the UIDAI internal system. In the past, we had people from the industry.”
During the online session, Garg also announced UIDAI is planning to add more biometrics modalities to Aadhaar’s current fingerprint and iris recognition technologies.
“Apart from the finger, we already have iris but iris is more cumbersome to use and it requires special devices. That’s why we are looking at facial authentication with due precaution.”
The UIDAI already supports facial recognition through specialized devices, but is looking at deploying Aadhaar’s facial authentication capabilities on mobile devices. Read More
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(CNN)Former President Donald Trump railed against his one-time close ally Benjamin Netanyahu in a new interview series, saying he felt betrayed by the then-prime minister of Israel's video message to Joe Biden congratulating him on winning the presidency.
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JERUSALEM, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Israel on Thursday led a 10-country simulation of a major cyberattack on the global financial system in an attempt to increase cooperation that could help to minimise any potential damage to financial markets and banks.
The simulated "war game", as Israel's Finance Ministry called it and planned over the past year, evolved over 10 days, with sensitive data emerging on the Dark Web. The simulation also used fake news reports that in the scenario caused chaos in global markets and a run on banks.
The simulation -- likely caused by what officials called "sophisticated" players -- featured several types of attacks that impacted global foreign exchange and bond markets, liquidity, integrity of data and transactions between importers and exporters.
"These events are creating havoc in the financial markets," said a narrator of a film shown to the participants as part of the simulation and seen by Reuters. Read More
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