The leaders of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security declined to testify publicly at a scheduled Senate hearing Thursday on global national security threats, a break from precedent following years of open testimony before the panel.
“Their choice to not provide public testimony about their departments’ efforts to address wide-ranging national security threats robs the American people of critical information and the opportunity for public accountability of what the federal government is doing to keep Americans safe,” Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said in a statement.
U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade.
The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice calls for sweeping punishments that would include a sale of Google’s industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions to prevent Android from favoring its own search engine.
Ukraine claimed Thursday that Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight at one of its cities. If confirmed, it would be the first time Moscow has used such a weapon in the war.
Ukraine did not provide any evidence that an ICBM was used in the attack on the central city of Dnipro, apparently armed with conventional warheads.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a missile used “matches the speed and altitude” of an ICBM. The Kremlin refused to comment on the strike.
Megan Farrell can be reached at farr9505@stthomas.edu.