The Ukrainian leader will visit the German capital at the invitation of the German Chancellor. He will also be awarded the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen during his visit.

Read also: Germany’s Scholz announces new deliveries of Gepard, Iris-T systems to Ukraine

Zelenskyy will be officially received with military honors by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on May 14, before traveling by helicopter to Aachen, where he will be awarded the Charlemagne Prize.

Zelenskyy will then return to Ukraine.

Read also: Zelenskyy reveals to journalist why he stayed in Kyiv after start of full-scale war

President Zelenskyy arrived in Finland on May 3 at the invitation of the Finnish government. He will take part in the summit of Nordic leaders.

This is Zelenskyy’s fifth visit abroad since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He has previously visited the United States, Belgium, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Read also: Zelenskyy presents Ukrainian pilot helmet to UK parliament – video report

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KAYSERI, Türkiye

The deputy defense ministers of Türkiye, Russia, and Ukraine are expected to hold a meeting in Istanbul on Friday to discuss the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, set to expire later this month, the Turkish defense chief said.

“We discussed the grain initiative in our meetings. In this context, as a result of the acceptance of our proposal by both parties, it is planned for the deputy defense ministers of Türkiye, Ukraine, and Russia to meet in Istanbul on Friday, May 5,” National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters in the province of Kayseri in central Türkiye.

Various issues, particularly the Black Sea grain deal, will be discussed during the meeting, he added. The deal is set to expire on May 18.

“It is our hope that the grain deal will continue undisturbed because this agreement is very important for regional peace and stability, as well as for countries in need.

“In this context, we can say that the parties are willing to extend the deadline. It is our wish that this initiative be extended without any problems,” Akar said.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul last July to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which were paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.

A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN was set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

*Writing by Diyar Guldogan in Ankara

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U.S. intelligence agencies pushing lawmakers to reauthorize a controversial set of surveillance tools are hoping to get a boost from a new report showing fewer U.S. citizens and residents are getting swept up in the agencies’ collection efforts.

The just-released report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that even as U.S. intelligence agencies are making greater use of collection authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the number of U.S. persons — citizens or legal residents — being targeted has declined steadily.

Friday’s transparency report said there were only 49 court-approved surveillance or search orders for U.S. persons in 2022, down from 67 in 2021 and from 102 in 2020.

Additionally, the number of U.S. persons subject to law enforcement queries after they were swept up in foreign electronic surveillance, under what is known as FISA Section 702, also saw a “significant decline,” according to the report, despite an overall increase in the use of the authorities.

FBI abused access, say some

FISA Section 702 allows for the National Security Agency and the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance and data collection of non-Americans. But such efforts sometimes pick up information on U.S. persons, and that has been a point of contention for some lawmakers and civil liberties groups who argue the FBI has abused its access to the data.

According to the report, the number of non-Americans targeted under FISA Section 702 jumped to 246,000 in 2022, an increase of more than 13,600 from the previous year.

However, the ODNI’s records indicated the FBI searches of the data for information on U.S. persons dropped by almost 96%.

“This reduction occurred following a number of changes FBI made to its systems, processes and training relating to U.S. person queries,” the report said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has similarly touted internal reforms, telling lawmakers last month that the bureau’s own data showed searches for U.S. citizens or their information under Section 702 had dropped 93% from 2021 to 2022.

“We are absolutely committed to making sure that we show you, the rest of the members of Congress and the American people that we’re worthy of these incredibly valuable authorities,” he said at the time.

Yet the FBI’s assurances, and the new report from ODNI, have done little to assuage lawmakers charged with reauthorizing the FISA Section 702 authorities before they expire at the end of the year.

“We need to pass substantive and meaningful reforms to help deter abusive behavior by the FBI in the FISA process,” Representative Mike Turner, House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Representative Darin LaHood, both Republicans, said in a statement Friday.

“We must protect the American people’s privacy and civil liberties,” they said. “Without additional safeguards, a clean reauthorization of 702 is a nonstarter.”

LaHood, who said last month that the FBI searched for his name in foreign data multiple times under FISA Section 702, has been leading a bipartisan working group charged with proposing meaningful reforms.

Lawmakers have also been joined by human rights groups, who argue the latest data show problems remain.

“While the new statistics show a decline, the total number of searches is huge even now, and the intrusion on Americans’ privacy is undeniable,” Patrick Toomey, deputy director with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said in a statement.

“FBI agents are sitting at their computers and subjecting Americans to warrantless ‘backdoor searches’ hundreds of times per day,” Toomey said. “After years of FBI surveillance abuses, it’s time for Congress to step in and require the constitutional gold standard: a warrant.”

‘A vital source of intelligence’

Despite such concerns, U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly urged lawmakers to renew the collection authorities, arguing they are critical to protecting Americans at home and U.S. interests abroad.

NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce earlier this month called FISA Section 702 “a vital source of intelligence.”

“I can’t do cybersecurity at the scope and scale we do it today without that authority,” he told an audience in Washington.

A day later, CIA Director William Burns told an audience at Rice University in Texas that FISA Section 702 has become an indispensable tool in combating drug cartels sending fentanyl into the U.S.

U.S. intelligence officials have previously credited FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance authorities with providing information crucial in launching the strike that killed al-Qaida terror leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Washington — A Rhode Island software company commissioned by Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign to investigate claims of election fraud was subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith earlier this year, according to the firm’s founder.

Ken Block — a software engineer and politician who once ran for governor of the state  — confirmed that his company, Simpatico Software Systems, was hired by the Trump campaign and found over a dozen claims of election fraud presented to him by the campaign were false.

The existence of the subpoena and Block’s firm’s election findings were first reported by The Washington Post.

The data were shared with the special counsel, who is investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Block said.

Block says he founded Simpatico, a software engineering firm, 20 years ago. It designs computers for big corporations across the country and has also been hired to conduct public research on registered voter lists to determine if deceased people are still listed on voter rolls and whether ballots were cast in their names.

The day after the 2020 presidential election, a Trump campaign lawyer hired Simpatico to both “attempt to validate some pretty wild claims of voter fraud” and analyze voter data from across the country collected by the Republican National Committee, Block said.

He declined to provide any further details about his work with the Trump campaign or about his interaction with federal investigators because of the ongoing special counsel probe. However, speaking broadly, he said, “The claims that I deal with are the claims that have some basis in data. None of those claims have yielded anything close to fraud that could change an election.”

“I don’t believe I’ve seen any credible report of massive voter fraud ever,” Block said Friday in an interview with CBS News, explaining the data he examined have not turned up any substantive evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of an election.

And as for the more than a dozen instances of voter fraud alleged by the campaign, Block said, “Every fraud claim I was asked to investigate was false.”

When approached by federal investigators earlier this year who asked to speak with an attorney for Simpatico, the Rhode Islander said he responded, “I am accounts-receivable, janitorial, and legal. How can I help you?” and soon after fully complied with the subpoena from Smith’s office.

During an interview with the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last year, a Trump campaign attorney confirmed that Simpatico was hired to try to “to verify some of the information that came in about categories of election fraud,” according to a transcript of the interview released by the committee.

“It’s very difficult within the timeframes of an election to be able to confirm to a level that would withstand judicial scrutiny whether or not someone voted twice or whether or not someone was deceased when they voted. There are issues with the data, and it’s hard to say with a high degree of certainty that certain things are verifiable,” the attorney, Alex Cannon, testified.

When pressed by committee staff about Simpatico’s findings, Cannon told investigators such information was privileged, the publicly released transcript revealed.

Block is a registered Republican who, after first founding the Moderate Party in Rhode Island, ran in the state’s GOP primary for governor in 2014. During the gubernatorial campaign, he was criticized for revealing that he had previously voted for Barack Obama and as a result, wouldn’t disclose who he voted for in the 2020 presidential election.

“It’s private information,” he said Friday.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment, but told the Washington Post in its initial report, “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

Smith and his team of investigators have convened numerous grand juries in recent months, tasked with investigating efforts to subvert the Biden presidency. On Thursday, former Vice President Mike Pence testified for approximately seven hours, after an appeals court rejected Trump’s attempts to assert executive privilege over his testimony.

Other Trump aides and allies, including former national security adviser Robert O’Brien and White House advisor Stephen Miller, were spotted in recent months at the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse where the grand juries meet each week.

And last year, the special counsel subpoenaed election officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for communications with Trump, his campaign and several lawyers and allies associated with his 2020 presidential campaign, state officials confirmed.

Beyond the special counsel’s investigation, Block hopes his election data analysis will lead to “meaningful change that is not partisan.” He is now working to highlight inconsistencies in state laws concerning votes lawfully cast by individuals via mail who then die before Election Day.

“The experience of the voter is dramatically different depending on where they live,” Block said. “The voter experience should be largely the same and it’s not.”

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KYIV, April 27 (Reuters) – One person was killed and 23 people, including a child, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block and houses in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Thursday, officials said.

“At night, Russia bombarded Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.

“The high-precision weapons were aimed at private houses, a historic building, and a high-rise building. For now, we know about one dead and 23 wounded, including a child.”

A video posted by Zelenskiy showed badly damaged buildings with smashed windows and smoke rising above the roofs.

Regional governor Vitaliy Kim said the emergency services put out several fires caused by the missile debris and that they were clearing the rubble.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion that has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and destroyed towns.

Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre and port, had a population of about 470,000 people before the war. The city has suffered heavy Russian bombardments throughout the war.

Reporting by Olena Harmash, editing by Elizabeth Piper

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