As both sides raised military stakes, U.S. and Russian diplomats pledged to keep discussions open.

(Reuters) — U.S. federal agencies have been directed to raise the minimum wage for government employees to $15 an hour, according to new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The directive will impact almost 70,000 federal employees, most of whom work at the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Veteran Affairs, OPM said in a statement on Friday.

President Joe Biden made supporting blue-collar workers a priority of his presidential campaign, saying strong unions and higher wages could resurrect America’s middle class while helping bridge economic and racial inequities.

Last year, Biden issued an executive order raising wages of federal contract workers to $15 an hour.

“Raising pay rates across the federal government to a minimum of $15 per hour reflects our appreciation for the federal workforce and our values as a nation,” Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in the statement.

OPM has asked agencies to implement the new wage by Jan. 30, and it excludes the U.S. Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission, the statement said. 

CIA: Most ‘Havana syndrome’ cases not linked to US adversary  WXIX

Federal prosecutors allege that the Oath Keepers militia group was prepared to move a stash of firearms and equipment from a Virginia hotel to rioters on Jan. 6 last year, claiming that Edward Vallejo, arrested recently on seditious-conspiracy and other charges, worked with others to coordinate what they called “quick reaction forces” stationed at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Virginia, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some other alleged members of the group, including Thomas Caldwell, a Virginia man who served in the U.S. Navy, and Jessica Watkins, a former U.S. Army infantryman, were among the first to be arrested after the riot, and accused of developing a military-style plan to breach the Capitol.

Prosecutors have already accused Caldwell of discussing a plan to station a boatful of “weps,” or weapons, across the Potomac River from Washington as part of a quick reaction force. In the new indictment, in which both Caldwell and Watkins are named, and the accompanying detention memo for Vallejo, prosecutors described evidence that Rhodes had purchased more than $15,000 of firearms and related supplies in the days before the riot, including an “AR-platform rifle, sights, mounts, triggers, slings and additional firearms attachments” while he traveled to Washington, D.C., from Texas on Jan. 3, 2021. Prosecutors also allege that, after the riot, Rhodes and Vallejo continued to plot to try to thwart Biden’s inauguration.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has revealed that hackers have stolen data on over 515,000 “highly vulnerable people,” recipients of aid and services from at least 60 affiliates of the charitable organization worldwide, forcing the aid organization to temporarily halt a program that reunites families torn apart by violence, migration or other tragedies, reports NPR.

The biggest concern is that the hackers will ransom, leak or sell sensitive information on the families and their locations to bad actors who might seek to cause further harm to victims. While the Red Cross hasn’t yet attributed the attack to specific cybercriminals, terrorists or nation-state hackers, it has partnered with “highly specialized firms” to help deal with what it’s calling a “sophisticated” attack.

Vulnerable people can be ideal targets for other possible scams and extortion, while refugees can become political pawns in broader geopolitical conflicts. Meanwhile, experts have called for an international response to the cyberattack against the Red Cross and argue that more well-endowed funders as well as tech companies should shoulder some of the cost of improving cybersecurity for humanitarian organizations in general that rarely have the resources for advanced defenses.

The United States plans to present Russia next week with a written record of its concerns about Moscow’s behavior and proposals aimed at resolving the security crisis on the Russia-Ukraine border, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

Blinken’s remarks came after his meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, where the two top diplomats held highly anticipated talks following a week of engagements by Blinken with U.S. allies in Kyiv and Berlin.

In a news conference, Blinken described his conversation with his Russian counterpart as “frank and substantive,” and he said they both “agreed that it’s important for the diplomatic process to continue” as Russia maintains its military buildup along Ukraine’s border.

“I told him that, following the consultations that we’ll have in the coming days with allies and partners, we anticipate that we will be able to share with Russia our concerns and ideas in more detail and in writing next week, and we agreed to further discussions after that,” Blinken told reporters.

Still, it remains unclear how a written response to Moscow from Washington will help advance the mostly stagnant diplomacy between Russia and the West. The United States has already ruled out Russia’s major demands: that NATO pull back its presence in the Baltic and Eastern Europe, and that Ukraine and Georgia be permanently barred from joining the military alliance.

“This was not a negotiation, but a candid exchange of concerns and ideas,” Blinken said Friday. “I made clear to Minister Lavrov that there are certain issues and fundamental principles that the United States and our partners and allies are committed to defend. That includes those that would impede the sovereign right of the Ukrainian people to write their own future. There is no trade space there. None.”