tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90602536185662742912024-03-13T23:20:50.942-07:00CODUN BLOGFreakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.comBlogger253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-71798194655120163492019-01-12T03:22:00.004-08:002019-01-12T03:22:50.110-08:00Shutdown becomes longest federal closure in US history<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img alt="Donald Trump" height="213" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:799ccf9b799d4aadb792df504236cebc/800.jpeg" width="320" /></div>
<br />
<br />
WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown became the longest
closure in U.S. history when the clock ticked past midnight into early
Saturday as President Donald Trump and nervous Republicans scrambled to
find a way out of the mess.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
A solution couldn’t come soon enough for federal workers who got pay statements Friday but no pay.<br />
The House and Senate voted to give federal workers back
pay whenever the federal government reopens and then left town for the
weekend, leaving the shutdown on track to become one for the record
books once the clock struck midnight and the closure entered its 22nd
day. And while Trump privately considered one dramatic escape route —
declaring a national emergency to build the wall without a new stream of
cash from Congress — members of his own party were fiercely debating
that idea, and the president urged Congress to come up with another
solution.<br />
“What we’re not looking to do right now is national
emergency,” Trump said. He insisted that he had the authority to do
that, adding that he’s “not going to do it so fast” because he’d still
prefer to work a deal with Congress.<br />
About 800,000 workers missed paychecks Friday, many
receiving blank pay statements. Some posted photos of their empty
earnings statements on social media as a rallying cry to end the
shutdown, a jarring image that many in the White House feared could turn
more voters against the president as he holds out for billions in new
wall funding.<br />
With polls showing Trump getting most of the blame for
the shutdown, the administration accelerated planning for a possible
emergency declaration to try to get around Congress and fund the wall
from existing sources of federal revenue. The White House explored
diverting money for wall construction from a range of other accounts.
One idea being considered was diverting some of the $13.9 billion
allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers after last year’s deadly
hurricanes and floods.<br />
That option triggered an outcry from officials in
Puerto Rico and some states recovering from natural disasters, and
appeared to lose steam on Friday.<br />
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called it an
“unconscionable” idea to look at using disaster assistance “to pay for
an immoral wall that America doesn’t need or want.”<br />
Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas told reporters
after discussions with the White House: “I feel confident disaster
relief dollars will not be tapped.” Brady said the administration was
looking at the “breadth” of unspent dollars in other government
accounts.<br />
Other possibilities included tapping asset forfeiture
funds, including money seized by the Department of Justice from drug
kingpins, according to a congressional Republican not authorized to
speak publicly about private conversations. The White House also was
eyeing military construction funds, another politically difficult choice
because the money would be diverted from a backlog of hundreds of
projects at bases around the nation.<br />
Despite Trump’s go-slow message, momentum grew in some
corners for some sort of emergency declaration. Republican Sen. Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina, who met with the president on Friday, took to
Twitter afterward to urge: “Mr. President, Declare a national emergency
NOW. Build a wall NOW.”<br />
Trump has been counseled by outside advisers to move
toward a national emergency declaration, but many in the White House are
trying to pump the brakes. Senior aide Jared Kushner, who traveled with
the president to the Texas border on Thursday, was among those opposed
to the declaration, arguing to the president that pursuing a broader
immigration deal was a better option. A person familiar with White House
thinking said that in meetings this week, the message was that the
administration is in no rush and wants to consider various options. The
person was unauthorized to discuss private sessions and spoke on
condition of anonymity.<br />
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has signaled
moral opposition to the wall and vowed to oppose any funding, said the
president is seeking to divert attention from special counsel Robert
Mueller’s investigation and other White House problems.<br />
“This isn’t a wall between Mexico and the United
States. This is a wall between his failures of his administration,”
Pelosi told reporters. “This is a big diversion, and he’s a master of
diversion.”<br />
Pelosi sent a letter to colleagues late Friday thanking
House Democrats for passing bills to reopen shuttered departments and
agencies. Pelosi said there’s “no excuse for President Trump to keep
government shut down over his demands for an ineffective, wasteful
wall.” She said he’s “endangering the health and safety of the American
people and stealing paychecks from 800,000 innocent workers” over the
shutdown.<br />
Although Trump has been frustrated with aides as he
loses the public relations battle over the shutdown, White House
attempts to use the trappings of the presidency to buttress his case for
the wall have yielded mixed results in the president’s view.<br />
Trump has long avoided using the Oval Office as a
backdrop for his speeches, telling aides that previous presidents looked
stilted and “flat” in the standard, straight-ahead camera angle. But he
was persuaded that the seriousness of the moment warranted the Oval
Office for his speech to the nation this week about the fight over the
border wall.<br />
But since Tuesday night’s address, Trump has complained
that he looked lifeless and boring, according to a Republican close to
the White House who was not authorized to speak publicly about private
conversations. The president also expressed misgivings about his visit
to the border, believing it would do little to change anyone’s mind.<br />
In a Friday morning tweet, Trump called illegal
immigration on the southern border “an invasion,” even though border
crossings have declined in recent years. Later, he tried to blame
Democrats for the shutdown, claiming he’s flexible about the needed
barrier.<br />
“I don’t care what they name it,” Trump said. “They can name it ‘peaches.’”<br />
Trump has told advisers he believes the fight for the
wall — even if it never yields the requested funding — is a political
win for him.<br />
But some of his outside advisers have urged him to
declare a national emergency, believing it would have two benefits:
First, it would allow him to claim that he was the one to act to reopen
the government. Second, inevitable legal challenges would send the
matter to court, allowing Trump to continue the fight for the wall — and
continue to excite his supporters — while not actually closing the
government or immediately requiring him to start construction.<br />
Such a move could put Republicans in a bind. While it
might end the standoff over funding and allow Congress to move onto
other priorities, some Republicans believe such a declaration would
usurp congressional power and could lead future Democratic presidents to
make similar moves to advance liberal priorities.<br />
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of the conservative
House Freedom Caucus who speaks to Trump frequently, said that unless
Republicans and Democrats strike an unlikely compromise, “I fully expect
him to declare a national emergency.”<br />
“Most conservatives want it to be the last resort he
would use,” Meadows said. “But those same conservatives, I’m sure if
it’s deployed, would embrace him as having done all he could do to
negotiate with Democrats.”<br />
In a sign of growing unease, five GOP senators backed a
bill from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
to resume paychecks for some 420,000 federal employees who are now
working without pay during the shutdown.<br />
Many Democrats, meanwhile, say they have little reason
to give into Trump’s demand for border wall funding since taking control
of the House in the midterm elections.<br />
“The American people gave us the majority based on our
comprehensive approach to this problem and they rejected President
Trump’s,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-31474546027748068582018-11-14T21:51:00.002-08:002018-11-14T21:51:34.817-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Catholic bishops’ meeting nears end, no vote on abuse plan</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Robert Hoatson" height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:cca16bce1be7446fb1f8e23dfa9ee3cc/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
BALTIMORE— U.S. Catholic bishops made clear their
frustrations Wednesday as a national assembly focused on clergy
sex-abuse neared its conclusion without strong new steps to combat the
multifaceted crisis.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Avoiding any direct confrontation with the Vatican, the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ended the public sessions of its
three-day meeting without any vote on two major anti-abuse proposals
that had been drafted weeks ago. On the eve of this week’s meeting, the
Vatican issued a surprise order for such action to be delayed until
after a global meeting on sex abuse scheduled for February.<br />
“The decision of the Holy See to constrain us did allow
a limited response,” Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vermont
said. “All of us are disappointed that we weren’t able to do as much as
we wanted.”<br />
The U.S. Catholic church has been grappling with
sex-abuse scandals for many years, but events this year have taken a
heavy toll on the leadership’s credibility.<br />
In August, a grand jury report in Pennsylvania detailed
decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses, alleging more than 1,000
children had been abused over the years by about 300 priests. Since
then, federal prosecutors and attorneys general in several other states
have launched investigations.<br />
Bishops at this week’s meeting appeared to be most
angered and embarrassed by the scandal involving disgraced church leader
Theodore McCarrick, who allegedly abused and harassed youths and
seminarians over many years as he rose to be archbishop of Washington
and a member of the College of Cardinals until his removal by Pope
Francis in July.<br />
Several investigations, including one at the Vatican,
are underway to determine who might have known about and covered up
McCarrick’s alleged misconduct. The U.S. bishops expressed eagerness to
learn details of the Vatican probe but defeated a motion Wednesday
pressing for access to information uncovered in that process.<br />
“We have taken no official action to distance ourselves
form the shameful behavior of one of our own,” said Bishop Liam Cary,
of Baker, Oregon. “What do people make of our silence?”<br />
Bishop Michael Olson, of Fort Worth, Texas, noted with
regret that McCarrick has not been defrocked and would have been
eligible to participate in this week’s assembly.<br />
“He is not welcome,” Olson said. “We should say that for his sake, and out of respect for those he has harmed.”<br />
For much of Wednesday’s session, the bishops discussed
the two anti-abuse proposals that initially had been scheduled for
votes. One would establish a new code of conduct for individual bishops;
the other would create a nine-member special commission, including six
lay experts and three members of the clergy, to review complaints
against the bishops.<br />
Leaders of the conference said the Vatican intervened
to ensure that steps taken by the U.S. bishops would be in harmony with
those decided at a Vatican-convened global meeting on sex abuse in
February. They also said more time was needed to vet aspects of the U.S.
proposals that might conflict with church law.<br />
The head of the bishops’ conference, Cardinal Daniel
DiNardo of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, said a newly formed
sex-abuse task force would work on fine-tuning those and other proposals
ahead of the global meeting in Rome in February. One proposed step will
be a national mechanism for publishing the names of clergy who face
substantiated claims of abuse.<br />
“I opened this meeting expressing some disappointment —
I end the meeting with hope,” DiNardo said. “We leave this place
committed to take the strongest possible action at the earliest possible
moment.”<br />
In other action, the bishops approved a pastoral letter
condemning racism, the first time they have spoken as a group on that
issue since 1979.<br />
“Every racist act — every such comment, every joke,
every disparaging look as a reaction to the color of skin, ethnicity or
place of origin — is a failure to acknowledge another person as a
brother or sister, created in the image of God,” the document said.<br />
It also denounced racial profiling of Hispanics and
African-Americans and decried “the growing fear and harassment” of
people from Muslim countries.<br />
According to Catholic News Service, the committee
responsible for the pastoral letter rejected a proposed amendment that
would have included the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate, along with
nooses and swastikas.<br />
The bishops also voted to endorse a campaign seeking
sainthood for Sister Thea Bowman, a Mississippi-born descendant of
slaves who became the first black member of the Franciscan Sisters of
Perpetual Adoration and — in 1989 — the first black woman to address a
national meeting of the bishops’ conference.<br />
Among the bishops elected to USCCB posts was Archbishop
Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who will head the Committee on
Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. Cordileone, an outspoken
opponent of same-sex marriage, suggested Tuesday that the bishops
commission a new study on whether there’s a link between clergy sex
abuse and the presence of gays in the priesthood. A church-commissioned
study in 2004 determined there was not a link.<br />
Not far from the assembly venue, a Minnesota attorney
who handles sex abuse cases nationwide and three men who say they were
abused by clergy during their boyhoods gathered to announce a lawsuit
against the bishops conference, accusing it of hiding the crimes of
predator priests.<br />
Jeff Anderson, who filed the lawsuit this week in
federal court in Minnesota, said the bishops were named because their
dioceses kept secret files about clergy whose misconduct might expose
the church to more abuse accusations.<br />
“We are taking the opportunity to do everything we can together to protect kids, to disgorge the secrets,” Anderson said.<br />
The federal lawsuit demanding a trial by jury has six plaintiffs; three joined Anderson in Baltimore.<br />
Among then was Joseph McLean, of Minneapolis. The
priest he says abused him decades ago was publicly named as a “credibly
accused” offender in 2015 by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and
Minneapolis.<br />
“I am here to protect kids today. I’m here to protect
kids tomorrow. And I’m here to protect children who have grown into
adults and who haven’t had an opportunity to heal from the abuse that
they suffered,” McLean said.<br />
___<br />
Crary reported from New York.</div>
<h1>
</h1>
<h1>
<div class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded">
</div>
<svg class="SvgSprite gallery-arrow"><use xlink:href="https://apnews.com/dist/spritemap.svg#sprite-gallery-arrow"></use></svg><div class="count-caption">
<br /></div>
</h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-90117084981463339892018-11-14T21:42:00.004-08:002018-11-14T21:42:59.904-08:00ENTERNATIONAL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Chris Stapleton wins big at CMAs, Keith Urban nabs top prize</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Keith Urban" height="260" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:bcf8ad0346364391bdd813ea15a69812/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
Chris Stapleton won the most awards at the 2018 Country
Music Association Awards and had the show’s best performance, almost
capping a perfect night.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
That was until Keith Urban surprisingly won the top
prize — entertainer of the year — moments before the three-hour show
wrapped Wednesday night.<br />
Urban’s actress-wife, Nicole Kidman, was in tears as
the singer walked onstage to collect the award at the Bridgestone Arena
in Nashville, Tennessee.<br />
“Baby girl, I love you so much,” he said. “I’m shocked beyond shocked.”<br />
Urban last won entertainer of the year in 2005 and also beat out Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney for the prize.<br />
“I wish my dad was alive to see this,” the Australian performer said.<br />
Stapleton, however, cleaned house at the CMAs, winning four awards including male vocalist, song and single of the year.<br />
“I want to thank my kids who put up with me being gone
quite a bit and not getting to be as a good daddy that I would always
like to be,” said the father of four and soon to be five since his wife,
singer-songwriter Morgane Stapleton, is pregnant.<br />
Stapleton also won the performance of the night: His
supergroup featuring Mavis Staples, Maren Morris, Marty Stuart and his
wife gave a soulful and powerful performance of “Friendship,” a song
made famous by Pop Staples, the iconic singer’s late father. They then
performed “I’ll Take You There,” jamming onstage along with a choir.
They earned a standing ovation from the audience.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/c95455f571294224abd7a2188275ad65/gallery/media:b5b37f875860452da76d8dddea8c4dcc"><img alt="Chris Stapleton, Maren Morris, Mavis Staples, Morgane Stapleton" height="253" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:b5b37f875860452da76d8dddea8c4dcc/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
(Photo by Charles Sykes</div>
</a>
When Stapleton won single of the year — where he won as
both a performer and producer — earlier in the show, he said he was
“thinking about the people in California right now” and he wants to
“dedicate this award to them.”<br />
He was referring to the 12 people who were killed at a
Southern California country music bar last week, who were also honored
at the top of the show when Garth Brooks held a moment of silence as the
names of the victims were displayed on the screen.<br />
“Tonight let’s celebrate their lives. Let the music unite us with love,” Brooks said.<br />
The CMAs, which aired on ABC, also took time to honor those affected by the deadly wildfires in California.<br />
“We send our love to you,” said Carrie Underwood, also mentioning the “brave firefighters.”<br />
Underwood worked triple-duty as co-host, performer and
nominee at the CMAs. She was teary-eyed when she won female vocalist of
the year.<br />
“Thank you God. I have been blessed with so much in my
life,” she said. “Thank you family. Thank you country music. Thank you
country music family. ...It’s all about family around here.”<br />
She kept the positive and uplifting theme of the show
going when she gave a rousing performance of her song “Love Wins.” It
features the lyrics, “I believe you and me are sisters and brothers/And I
believe we’re made to be here for each other.”<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/c95455f571294224abd7a2188275ad65/gallery/media:a5e96cc9fd05447087a6b53ecd9c2664"><img alt="Carrie Underwood" height="262" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:a5e96cc9fd05447087a6b53ecd9c2664/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
Carrie Underwood performs "Love Wins." (Photo by Charles Sykes</div>
</a>
Kacey Musgraves, the only woman nominated for album of the year, won the prize for “Golden Hour.”<br />
“This is really, really crazy timing — 10 years ago today I moved to Nashville. That’s so crazy,” she said.<br />
“I’m so proud of it,” she said of the pop-leaning
country album, which was inspired by Sade, the Bee Gees and others.
“It’s inspired by this beautiful universe, and all of you, and mostly
love.”<br />
Dan + Shay lost in all four categories they were
nominated in but gave an impressive performance of their hit “Tequila.”
When Brothers Osborne won vocal duo of the year, John Osborne said, “I
thought this was going to go to Dan + Shay. Make some noise for those
boys.”<br />
“I don’t know why we keep winning this,” John Osborne said when he first walked onstage.<br />
“If this was in Florida there definitely would be a recount,” added T.J. Osborne, which earned laughs from the crowd.<br />
Luke Combs, who has the year’s most-streamed country
music album, sang onstage with a red cup in his hand and won new artist
of the year.<br />
“God, I love country music, man,” said Combs.<br />
Brooks performed a touching new song dedicated to his
wife, Trisha Yearwood, who was teary-eyed and was hearing the song for
the first time. Recent Country Hall of Famer Ricky Skaggs performed
alongside Brad Paisley and Urban.<br />
Underwood and Paisley returned as CMA hosts for the
11th time this year, telling jokes at the top of the show, which ranged
from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” to Underwood’s
pregnancy.<br />
Underwood seemingly revealed a secret about the child,
saying it will be a “Willie” after Paisley repeatedly asked about the
sex of the baby.<br />
</div>
<aside class="RightRail"><div class="top-stories trc_related_container trc_spotlight_widget trc_elastic trc_elastic_trc_69371 tbl-feed-card " data-placement-name="Right Rail Thumbnails" id="taboola-right-rail-thumbnails">
<div class="trc_rbox_container" style="display: block;">
<div>
<div class="trc_rbox organic-thumbnails-rr trc-content-organic " id="trc_wrapper_69371" style="display: block; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="trc_rbox_header trc_rbox_border_elm" id="trc_header_69371">
<span class="trc_rbox_header_span">Trending </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside></div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-82958518580784997852018-11-14T21:38:00.003-08:002018-11-14T21:38:50.245-08:00ENTERTAINMENT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
List of winners at the 2018 Country Music Association Awards</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Chris Stapleton" height="277" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:e5f20a18b4f440c9b0810c6a6e202fb7/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
NASHVILLE, Tennessee— Complete list of winners
from the 2018 Country Music Association Awards, held Wednesday at the
Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
— Entertainer of the year: Keith Urban<br />
— Female vocalist of the year: Carrie Underwood<br />
— Male vocalist of the year: Chris Stapleton<br />
— New artist of the year: Luke Combs<br />
— Album of the year: “Golden Hour,” Kacey Musgraves<br />
— Song of the year: “Broken Halos,” Chris Stapleton<br />
— Single of the year: “Broken Halos,” Chris Stapleton<br />
— Vocal duo of the year: Brothers Osborne<br />
— Vocal group of the year: Old Dominion<br />
— Musical event of the year: “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” David Lee Murphy and Kenny Chesney<br />
— Music video of the year “Marry Me,” Thomas Rhett<br />
— Musician of the year: Mac McAnally (guitar)<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-29541279009030110012018-11-12T22:52:00.002-08:002018-11-12T22:52:35.889-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Chinese premier says reforms, not stimulus, vital for growth</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:01d7c0e6addb4ea2baddd6fbcd4489cb/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<h1>
</h1>
<div class="Article">
SINGAPORE— Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says the
country needs reforms to support business to help drive growth as it
weathers a trade war with the U.S., rather than more economic stimulus.<br />
Li said Tuesday in Singapore that China can energize
its slowing economy by adjusting policies, such as streamlining
bureaucratic procedures like business registrations, taxes and fees.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
“Despite the downward pressure, we will not resort to
massive stimulus. We will make adjustments as appropriate. We want to
energize the market, in particular, market entities, and we have the
conditions to do that,” Li said in a wide-ranging lecture that touched
on China’s role in regional development.<br />
He said the government will “crack down harshly” on
businesses that infringe on patents and other intellectual property
rights and engage in “other cheating activities.”<br />
China and the U.S. are locked in a trade dispute over
Washington’s complaints that China uses predatory tactics to acquire
technologies a drive to supplant U.S. technological supremacy.<br />
He stressed that the government would “crack down
harshly” on businesses that infringe intellectual property rights and
engage in “other cheating activities.”<br />
“China will not stop in its opening up. The door will
only open wider and China will continue to deepen reform. Reform and
opening up have brought China to where it is today,” Li added.<br />
China and the U.S. are locked in a trade dispute over
Washington’s charges that China uses predatory tactics in a drive to
supplant U.S. technological supremacy. The two countries have raised
import duties on billions of dollars of each other’s goods, including
soybeans, electric cars and whiskey.<br />
Li expressed hopes for a compromise. U.S. President
Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to meet at
the Group of 20 summit in Argentina this month.<br />
“The stable development and sound progress of such a
pair of relationship benefits both countries and the larger world.
Otherwise, it will affect the whole world,” Li said.<br />
“We hope that negotiations will be carried out on the
basis of mutual respect, balance, mutual benefit and good faith, so that
a solution can be found acceptable to both sides,” he added.<br />
Li is on an official visit to Singapore ending Friday. He is set to participate in the 33rd ASEAN Summit and its related events.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-44714681938752011982018-11-12T22:49:00.001-08:002018-11-12T22:49:21.732-08:00POLITICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Pence, Abe agree on Nkorea sanction, Indo-Pacific projects</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Mike Pence, Shinzo Abe" height="262" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:eacb3ca08746455aa777a452e02ed38a/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
TOKYO — U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday reaffirmed the need to
keep sanctions on North Korea to achieve its denuclearization as they
showcased their bilateral alliance, while Pence also urged Japan to do
more to reduce U.S. trade deficit.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Pence and Abe also agreed to deepen cooperation in
promoting energy, infrastructure and providing loans to nations in the
region.<br />
Pence said the U.S.-Japan alliance is a “cornerstone”
of the region’s peace and prosperity and said Japan is not only an ally
but a friend, but that Japan needs to do more to reduce the bilateral
trade imbalance.<br />
“Japan is an indispensable trade partner for the United
States,” he said. “The United States has had a trade imbalance with
Japan for too long.”<br />
Abe and President Donald Trump agreed in September to
start bilateral free trade talks, which are expected to begin early next
year. Pence also said he expected Japan’s increased “investment” in
stepping up the country’s defense. Japan’s Deputy Chief Secretary
Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters later that Japan limited defense
purchases to necessities and no details were discussed Tuesday.<br />
Japan has faced demands that it reduce its trade
surplus with the U.S. and is also concerned about the impact of Trump’s
trade war with China.<br />
Pence said in a recent opinion piece in The Washington
Post that America will soon begin negotiations for “a historic trade
agreement with Japan.”<br />
Trump’s administration has made trade agreements with
South Korea, Mexico and Canada. Pence wrote that the new trade deals
“will put American jobs and American workers first.”<br />
Pence and Abe gave reassurances of their cooperation on North Korea’s denuclearization.<br />
Pence also said the U.S. will continue to put
diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and urged all
Indo-Pacific nations to maintain pressure and sanctions until the
complete denuclearization of North Korea is achieved. Abe said Japan and
the U.S. will continue to work together to get North Korea, which has
hard-working people and rich resources, realize it has a bright future
if it keeps its promise.<br />
On China, Abe explained recent improvements in
Japan-China relations as demonstrated in his visit to Beijing for formal
bilateral summit with President Xi Jinping. Pence said the U.S. wants a
relationship with China based on fairness and reciprocity, and that
Japan and the U.S. will continue to cooperate closely to deal with
China’s increased influence in the region.<br />
Pence was to leave later Tuesday to attend a meeting of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore and an
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea on behalf
of Trump.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-85919487605615015012018-11-12T22:43:00.004-08:002018-11-12T22:43:58.749-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
After 17 years, many Afghans blame US for unending war</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:fbc23e25908544dcbd631fba04a50e0f/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
KABUL, Afghanistan — When U.S. forces and their Afghan allies
rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But
after 17 years of war, the Taliban have retaken half the country,
security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame
squarely on the Americans.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The United States has lost more than 2,400 soldiers in
its longest war, and has spent more than $900 billion on everything from
military operations to the construction of roads, bridges and power
plants. Three U.S. presidents have pledged to bring peace to
Afghanistan, either by adding or withdrawing troops, by engaging the
Taliban or shunning them. Last year, the U.S. dropped the “mother of all
bombs” on a cave complex.<br />
None of it has worked. After years of frustration,
Afghanistan is rife with conspiracy theories, including the idea that
Americans didn’t stumble into a forever war, but planned one all along.<br />
Mohammed Ismail Qasimyar, a member of Afghanistan’s
High Peace Council, wonders how U.S. and NATO forces — which at their
peak numbered 150,000 and fought alongside hundreds of thousands of
Afghan troops, were unable to vanquish tens of thousands of Taliban.<br />
“Either they did not want to or they could not do it,”
he said. He now suspects the U.S. and its ally Pakistan deliberately
sowed chaos in Afghanistan to justify the lingering presence of foreign
forces — now numbering around 15,000 — in order to use the country as a
listening post to monitor Iran, Russia and China.<br />
“They have made a hell, not a paradise for us,” he said.<br />
Afghanistan is rife with such conspiracy theories.
After last month’s assassination of Kandahar’s powerful police chief,
Gen. Abdul Raziq, social media exploded with pictures and posts
suggesting he was the victim of a U.S. conspiracy. Recent insider
attacks, in which Afghan forces have killed their erstwhile U.S. and
NATO allies, have attracted online praise.<br />
“In 2001 the Afghan people supported the arrival of the
United States and the international community wholeheartedly,” said
Hamid Karzai, who was installed as Afghanistan’s first president and
twice won re-election, serving until 2014.<br />
“For a number of years things worked perfectly well,”
he said in a recent interview. “Then we saw the United States either
changed course or simply neglected the views of the Afghan people and
the conditions of the Afghans.”<br />
He blames the lingering war on the U.S. failure to
eliminate militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan, the bombing of
Afghan villages and homes, and the detention of Afghans in raids.<br />
Others blame the notoriously corrupt government, which
Karzai headed for more than a decade, and which is widely seen as yet
another bitter fruit of the American invasion.<br />
“All the money that has come to this country has gone
to the people in power. The poor people didn’t get anything,” said Hajji
Akram, a day laborer in Kabul’s Old City who struggles to feed his
family on around $4 a day. “The foreigners are not making things better.
They should go.”<br />
It’s not just Afghans. The United States’ own inspector
general for Afghanistan’s reconstruction offered a blistering critique
in a speech in Ohio earlier this month.<br />
John Sopko pointed out that the U.S. has spent $132
billion on Afghanistan’s reconstruction — more than was spent on Western
Europe after World War II. Another $750 billion has been spent on U.S.
military operations, and Washington has pledged $4 billion a year for
Afghanistan’s security forces.<br />
The result?<br />
“Even after 17 years of U.S. and coalition effort and
financial largesse, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest, least
educated, and most corrupt countries in the world,” Sopko said. “It is
also one of the most violent.”<br />
Hamidullah Nasrat sells imported fabrics in the
capital’s main bazaar on the banks of the Kabul River, a fetid trickle
running through a garbage-filled trench. He remembers welcoming the
overthrow of the Taliban, who had shut down his photography studio
because it was deemed un-Islamic.<br />
“After the Taliban we were expecting something good,
but instead, day by day, it is getting worse,” he said. “How is it that a
superpower like the United States cannot stop the Taliban? It is a
question every Afghan is asking.”<br />
The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat
mission in 2014. Since then, the Taliban have carried out near-daily
attacks on rural checkpoints and staged coordinated assaults on major
cities. Authorities stopped publishing casualty figures earlier this
year, deeming them classified. An Islamic State affiliate has meanwhile
carried out massive bombings against the country’s Shiite minority.<br />
Afghans who have recently served on the front lines
complain of faulty equipment, inadequate supplies and reinforcements
that show up late and ill-equipped, if at all.<br />
Tameem Darvesh served in the Afghan army for nearly
five years in the southern Helmand province. This year he went on
holiday and never returned, trading his $180 monthly salary for work as a
day laborer making much less. He said morale is at an all-time low,
with many soldiers expressing sympathy for the Taliban.<br />
Jawad Mohammadi served for more than seven years in the
security forces until 2015, when he stepped on a land-mine he was
tasked to clear and lost both his legs. He was just 25 years old.<br />
He recalls how the foreign instructors told him to
always check his mine detector by waving it over a piece of metal before
heading out into the field. But whenever a device failed to respond,
his Afghan commander would tell him to use it anyway.<br />
“I was told that’s all we have. That’s what we were given, you just have to use it,” he said.<br />
The next time he went out with a faulty device, his foot found a bomb the detector had missed.<br />
“I felt myself being thrown through the air. I looked
and I saw my legs were near me and there was so much blood. I yelled:
‘Please help me.’”</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-79549885213890414482018-11-12T22:33:00.001-08:002018-11-12T22:33:34.866-08:00TECHNOLOGY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Internet traffic hijack disrupts Google services</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:b7b714664e2548ff9baa00c763692b36/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
An internet traffic diversion rerouted data through
Russia and China and disrupted Google services on Monday, including
search, cloud-hosting services and its bundle of collaboration tools for
businesses.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Service interruptions lasted for nearly one and a half
hours and ended about 5:30 p.m. EST., network service companies said. In
addition to Russian and Chinese telecommunications companies, a
Nigerian internet provider was also involved.<br />
The diversion “at a minimum caused a massive denial of
service to G Suite (business collaboration tools) and Google Search” and
“put valuable Google traffic in the hands of ISPs in (internet service
providers) in countries with a long history of Internet surveillance,”
the network-intelligence company ThousandEyes <a href="https://blog.thousandeyes.com/internet-vulnerability-takes-down-google/">said in a blog post.</a><br />
A Google <a href="https://status.cloud.google.com/incident/cloud-networking/18018">status page</a> noted that “access to some Google services was impacted” and said the cause was ”<a href="https://status.cloud.google.com/incident/cloud-networking/18018">external to Google</a> .” The company offered little additional information.<br />
The type of traffic misdirection employed, known as
border gateway protocol hijacking, can knock essential services offline
and facilitate espionage and financial theft. It can result either from
misconfiguration — human error, essentially— or from malicious action.<br />
Most network traffic to Google services —<a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/https/overview?hl=en">94 percent</a> as of October 27 — is encrypted, which shields it from prying eyes even if diverted.<br />
Alex Henthorn-Iwane, an executive at ThousandEyes,
called Monday’s incident the worst affecting Google that his San
Francisco company has seen.<br />
He said he suspected nation-state involvement because the traffic was effectively landing at state-run China Telecom. <a href="https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=mca">A recent study</a>
by U.S. Naval War College and Tel Aviv University scholars found that
China systematically hijacks and diverts U.S. internet traffic.<br />
Google said it had no reason to believe the traffic hijacking was malicious. It did not explain why.<br />
Much of the internet’s underpinnings are built on
trust, a relic of the good intentions its designers assumed of users.
One consequence: little can be done if a nation-state or someone with
access to a major internet provider — or exchange — decides to reroute
traffic.<br />
Henthorn-Iwane says Monday’s hijacking may have been “a war-game experiment.”<br />
In two recent cases, such rerouting has affected financial sites. In April 2017, one <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/russian-controlled-telecom-hijacks-financial-services-internet-traffic/">affected MasterCard and Visa</a> among other sites. This past April, another hijacking <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/04/24/a-160000-ether-theft-just-exploited-a-massive-blind-spot-in-internet-security/">enabled cryptocurrency theft</a> .<br />
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<br />
ThousandEyes named the companies involved in Monday’s
incident, in addition to China Telecom, as the Russian internet provider
Transtelecom and the Nigerian ISP MainOne.<br />
Both ThousandEyes and the U.S. network monitoring
company BGPmon said the internet traffic detour originated with the
Nigerian company. Neither was ready to more definitively pinpoint the
cause.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-70224139009314788862018-11-12T01:16:00.002-08:002018-11-12T01:16:29.815-08:00POLITICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
The Latest: Trump pays tribute to Americans who died in WWI</h1>
<h1>
<img height="277" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:bd034a4e23504c7dbc486c0cac58c7d9/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
PARIS — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s trip to Paris. (all times local):<br />
11:30 p.m.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
President Donald Trump paid tribute to U.S. and allied
soldiers killed in World War I during what he called “a horrible,
horrible war” that marked America’s emergence as a world power.<br />
Trump made his comments Sunday at the Suresnes American
Cemetery and Memorial in the suburbs of Paris, where more than 1,500
Americans who died in the war are buried. He said that world leaders
“are gathered together at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to
the brave Americans” who gave their lives in that war.<br />
Trump said: “It is our duty to preserve the
civilization they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave
their lives to secure one century ago.” He made the comments after
spending a moment standing alone amid the cemetery’s white crosses.<br />
___<br />
6:16 p.m.<br />
A top Kremlin foreign affairs aide says the French
government requested that President Vladimir Putin and President Donald
Trump back away from plans to meet during their Paris visit.<br />
Whether the U.S. and Russian presidents would meet on
the sidelines of the ceremonies commemorating the end of World War I had
been a subject of speculation in the lead-up to Sunday’s events.<br />
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said on
Russian state television that a preliminary agreement on a Trump-Putin
meeting had been reached but was dropped after taking into account what
he called French considerations. He said this decision was made in
consultation with American officials.<br />
___<br />
4:15 p.m.<br />
President Donald Trump says victory came at a “terrible cost” to allied forces that fought and died in World War I.<br />
Trump said that 26,000 Americans were killed in just the last battle of the war alone.<br />
Trump spoke during a WWI centennial at the Suresnes
American Cemetery and Memorial where more than 1,500 U.S. military
servicemen are buried.<br />
He says it’s the duty of today’s generation to defend the peace they nobly gave with their lives.<br />
Trump introduced six American veterans of the Second
World War and an U.S. eighth-grader who saved money for two years so he
could attend the ceremony to honor the heroes of WWI.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/a0a5966977994bcbb2f7d578e32f4cd4/gallery/media:ee0d7ab7081442a089e12cd1959640c2"><img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:ee0d7ab7081442a089e12cd1959640c2/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
Russian
President Vladimir Putin. extends a hand to greet U.S. President Donald
Trump as German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on. </div>
</a>
___<br />
4:10 p.m.<br />
The “Baby Trump” balloon is back, hovering over a demonstration of several hundred people in eastern Paris.<br />
The main message of the anti-Trump protest was to speak
out against the president and what he stands for to those who oppose
his “America first” message and policies.<br />
Trump is in Paris to mark Sunday’s centennial of the end of World War I.<br />
The protest, held in steady rain, drew a range of
groups and causes from Trotskyists to Communists and some seeking to
free a convicted Lebanese terrorist from jail.<br />
___<br />
3:30 p.m.<br />
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he didn’t have a
separate meeting with President Donald Trump at events in Paris marking
the end of World War I, but says they will meet on the sidelines of the
Group of 20 summit in Argentina later this month.<br />
Putin said he and Trump decided “not to interrupt the
schedule” of the World War I events with a separate meeting. Putin spoke
to RT’s France network.<br />
Putin also praised the idea of a European army because
he said it could “strengthen the multipolar nature of the world.” Macron
has pushed the idea of a European army.<br />
___<br />
1:30 p.m.<br />
President Donald Trump is attending a lunch with world
leaders who have gathered in Paris to mark 100 years since the end of
World War I.<br />
French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the gathering at the Elysee Palace, where he and Trump met and had lunch Saturday.<br />
Trump arrived without his wife, Melania, who is visiting Versailles Sunday with Macron’s wife, Brigitte Macron.<br />
The menu: lobster from Brittany, France’s iconic Bresse
chicken, and potatoes from the Somme, in a nod to one of the war’s
deadliest battles.<br />
They have just come from a ceremony to commemorate the Armistice that ended World War I at the base of the Arc de Triomphe.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/a0a5966977994bcbb2f7d578e32f4cd4/gallery/media:9f76a36de609407294f2e8fd1812de67"><img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:9f76a36de609407294f2e8fd1812de67/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
World leaders attend a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day.</div>
</a>
___ 11:47 a.m.<br />
The feminist activist group Femen has claimed
responsibility for topless protesters who disrupted President Donald
Trump’s motorcade on its way to a ceremony commemorating the end of
World War I.<br />
One woman easily breached tight security along the
Champs-Elysees avenue, walking in the midst of the motorcade and
shouting “fake peacemaker” as the cars passed.<br />
Officers seized her afterwards.<br />
At least one other topless protester also made it into the avenue, but was unable to reach the cars.<br />
Femen’s topless protesters have repeatedly breached security around world leaders and major events.<br />
___<br />
11:40 a.m.<br />
President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have
greeted one another at a ceremony in Paris marking the 100th
anniversary of the end of World War I.<br />
Cameras at the event captured Trump and Putin briefly
shaking hands after Putin arrived. Putin also flashed Trump a thumbs-up
sign and patted Trump’s arm.<br />
He also greeted several other leaders sitting in the
front row, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.<br />
Trump is sitting between his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and Merkel at the event.<br />
___<br />
11:25 a.m.<br />
At least one topless woman ran out toward President
Donald Trump’s motorcade on Sunday as he traveled to the Arc de Triomphe
for a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World
War I.<br />
She had slogans written on her chest that included the words “Fake” and “Peace.”<br />
Police tackled the women and the motorcade continued uninterrupted.<br />
Trump is among dozens of leaders attending the centennial anniversary ceremony.<br />
Most of the other leaders traveled together, from the Élysée Palace. Trump arrived on his own.<br />
___<br />
10:30 a.m.<br />
President Donald Trump joined French President Emmanuel
Macron and other world leaders Sunday to the mark 100 years since the
end of World War I.<br />
More than 66 leaders gathered in Paris — a century after guns fell silent in a global war that killed millions.<br />
Trump was accompanied by first lady Melania Trump at the Tome of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe.<br />
The president also was attending a leaders’ lunch hosted by Macron.<br />
Afterward, Trump plans to visit and deliver Veterans
Day remarks at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris
where more than 1,500 Americans who died during the war are buried.<br />
Rain on Saturday forced the cancellation of Trump’s helicopter trip to a different American cemetery in France.<br />
___<br />
This story has been corrected to show that Trump introduced six American veterans of the Second World War, not World War I.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-47443086502790197752018-11-12T01:11:00.002-08:002018-11-12T01:11:24.091-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Devastation as deadly California blaze tallies grim stats</h1>
<h1>
<img height="264" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:70a6d44fe51d4822a37ac98f000bcfdf/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
PARADISE, Calif.— As wildfires continued to rage on both ends
of California, officials released another grim statistic: six more dead
in a swath of Northern California wiped out by fire, raising the death
toll there to 29. It matched California’s record for deaths in a single
fire.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Another 228 remain unaccounted for as crews stepped up
the search for bodies and missing people. Two people were killed in a
wildfire in Southern California.<br />
Ten search teams were working in Paradise — a town of
27,000 that was largely incinerated last week — and in surrounding
communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Authorities called in a DNA
lab and teams of anthropologists to help identify victims.<br />
Statewide, 150,000 remained displaced as more than
8,000 fire crews battled wildfires that have scorched 400 square miles
(1,040 square kilometers), with out-of-state crews continuing to arrive.
Whipping winds and tinder-dry conditions threaten more areas through
the rest of the week, fire officials warned.<br />
“This is truly a tragedy that all Californians can
understand and respond to,” Gov. Jerry Brown said at a press briefing.
“It’s a time to pull together and work through these tragedies.”<br />
<div class="YoutubeEmbed">
<div class="youtube-wrapper">
</div>
</div>
<div class="embed-caption">
(Nov. 11)</div>
Brown, who has declared a state emergency, said
California is requesting aid from the Trump administration. President
Donald Trump has blamed “poor” forest management for the fires. Brown
said federal and state governments must do more forest management but
that climate change is the greater source of the problem.<br />
“And those who deny that are definitely contributing to
the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness
in the coming years,” he said.<br />
Drought and warmer weather attributed to climate
change, and the building of homes deeper into forests have led to longer
and more destructive wildfire seasons in California. While California
officially emerged from a five-year drought last year, much of the
northern two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry.<br />
Firefighters battling fire with shovels and bulldozers,
flame retardant and hoses expected wind gusts up to 40 mph (64 kph)
overnight Sunday.<br />
In <a href="https://apnews.com/c407bf8b89c9456f8bcb72b20da84b8b">Southern California</a>
, firefighters beat back a new round of winds Sunday and the fire’s
growth and destruction are believed to have been largely stopped. Malibu
celebrities and mobile-home dwellers in nearby mountains were slowly
learning whether their homes had been spared or reduced to ash. Two
people were killed and the fire had destroyed nearly 180 structures.<br />
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby stressed there
were numerous hotspots and plenty of fuel that had not yet burned, but
at sunset he said there had been huge successes despite “a very
challenging day.”<br />
Celebrities whose coastal homes were damaged or
destroyed in a Southern California wildfire or were forced to flee from
the flames expressed sympathy and solidarity with less-famous people
hurt worse by the state’s deadly blazes, and gave their gratitude to
firefighters who kept them safe. Actor Gerard Butler said on Instagram
that his Malibu home was “half-gone,” adding he was “inspired as ever by
the courage, spirit and sacrifice of firefighters.”<br />
Flames also besieged Thousand Oaks, the Southern
California city in mourning over the massacre of 12 people in a shooting
rampage at a country music bar on Wednesday night.<br />
In Northern California, where more than 6,700 buildings
have been destroyed, the scope of the devastation was beginning to set
in even as the blaze raged on.<br />
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the county
consulted teams of anthropologists because, in some cases, investigators
have been able to recover only bones and bone fragments.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/315d61f6464443a1a1558cdbf32c4254/gallery/media:f34b9bf449e840dda5ab1f60a90f3509"><img height="259" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:f34b9bf449e840dda5ab1f60a90f3509/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
A bag containing human remains lies on the ground as officials continue to search at a burned out home.</div>
</a>
In some neighborhoods “it’s very difficult to determine whether or not there may be human remains there,” Honea said.<br />
Public safety officials toured the Paradise area to
begin discussing the recovery process. Much of what makes the city
function is gone.<br />
“Paradise was literally wiped off the map,” said Tim
Aboudara, a representative for International Association of Fire
Fighters. He said at least 36 firefighters lost their own homes, most in
the Paradise area.<br />
“Anytime you’re a firefighter and your town burns down,
there’s a lot of feelings and a lot of guilt and a lot of concern about
both what happened and what the future looks like,” he said. “Every
story that we’ve heard coming through has been that way, like ‘I wish I
could have done more, What’s going to happen to our community, Where are
my kids going to go to school?’”<br />
Others continued the desperate search for friends or
relatives, calling evacuation centers, hospitals, police and the
coroner’s office.<br />
Sol Bechtold drove from shelter to shelter looking for
his mother, Joanne Caddy, a 75-year-old widow whose house burned down
along with the rest of her neighborhood in Magalia, just north of
Paradise. She lived alone and did not drive.<br />
As he drove through the smoke and haze to yet another
shelter, he said, “I’m also under a dark emotional cloud. Your mother’s
somewhere and you don’t know where she’s at. You don’t know if she’s
safe.”<br />
The 29 dead in Northern California matched the
deadliest single fire on record, a 1933 blaze in Griffith Park in Los
Angeles, though a series of wildfires in Northern California wine
country last fall killed 44 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes.<br />
Firefighters made progress against the blaze, holding
containment at 25 percent on Sunday, but they were bracing for gusty
winds predicted into Monday morning that could spark “explosive fire
behavior,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
spokesman Bill Murphy said.<br />
Fire officials are bracing for potentially more fires
in Southern California’s inland region as high winds and critically dry
conditions were expected to persist into next week.<br />
“We are really just in the middle of this protracted weather event, this fire siege,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said.<br />
He said officials were moving resources and preparing
for “the next set of fires” as winds are expected to pick up. The chief
warned that fire conditions will continue until the parched state sees
rain.<br />
“We are in this for the long haul,” Pimlott said.<br />
<h1>
</h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-24830224982043239012018-11-12T01:06:00.001-08:002018-11-12T01:06:13.975-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Netanyahu rushes back to Israel after burst of Gaza violence</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:73713e432da940bba55186c0681a6496/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
JERUSALEM— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was rushing back to Israel on Monday following a sudden burst
of fighting the previous night that left in doubt efforts to bring to an
end months of relentless violence between Israel and Hamas.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The Israeli military said an officer was killed and
another was moderately wounded during an operation in the southeast Gaza
Strip, involving an exchange of gunfire. It did not disclose other
details surrounding the incident.<br />
The Palestinians said seven people, among them at least five militants, were killed in the conflagration.<br />
Netanyahu’s office said he cut short a visit to Paris
because of the flare-up and he was set to arrive back in Israel on
Monday morning.<br />
The unexpected spasm of violence came days after both
Israel and Hamas had begun taking steps to ratchet down months of border
fighting, that has seen thousands of protesters descend on the
perimeter fence between Gaza and Israel, with many throwing stones,
burning tires and hurling grenades at Israeli troops.<br />
About 170 demonstrators, many unarmed, have been killed
by Israeli fire in the months of confrontations, which appeared to be
reaching a turning point with the steps toward an unofficial cease-fire
between Israel and Hamas. Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to deliver $15
million in aid to Gaza’s cash-strapped Hamas rulers. Hamas responded by
lowering the intensity of the border protest last Friday.<br />
While the fighting eased early on Monday, and the sides
appeared to show restraint, the fate of the progress toward a truce
remained uncertain.<br />
It was not clear what exactly touched off Sunday’s fighting.<br />
Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Israeli
undercover forces in a civilian vehicle infiltrated 3 kilometers (about 2
miles), into Gaza on Sunday and fatally shot Nour el-Deen Baraka, its
local commander in Khan Younis town. It said militants discovered the
car and chased it down, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed “a
number of people.” The Israeli military said militants launched 17
rockets from Gaza toward Israeli communities, where school was cancelled
in response.<br />
Netanyahu was in Paris, where he had joined dozens of world leaders in commemorating the end of World War I.<br />
On Sunday, he defended his decision to allow through
the Qatari cash to Gaza as a way to avert an “unnecessary war,” maintain
quiet for residents of southern Israel and prevent a humanitarian
catastrophe in the impoverished Gaza Strip.<br />
Hamas has been leading the protests since March 30 in a
bid to ease a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade that was imposed in
2007 in order to weaken the militant group. The blockade has led to over
50 percent unemployment and chronic power outages, and prevents most
Gazans from being able to leave the tiny territory.<br />
Israel says it is defending its border against militant
infiltrations, but its army has come under international criticism
because of the large number of unarmed protesters who have been shot.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-49751569184570219862018-11-12T00:59:00.003-08:002018-11-12T00:59:47.554-08:00BUSINESS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Options limited, North Korea lit by flashlights, creaky grid</h1>
<h1>
<img height="276" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:7b183199aeb24282b502672d0260fbbf/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — More than 20 years after his father
almost bargained them away for a pair of nuclear reactors, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un has his nuclear weapons — and a nation still plagued
by chronic blackouts.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Even on the clearest days, plumes of smoke from two
towering chimneys linger over the center of Pyongyang. The Soviet-era
Pyongyang Combined Heat and Power Plant smokestacks are one of the North
Korean capital’s most recognizable landmarks.<br />
Possibly more than anything else, this is Kim Jong Un’s
Achilles heel as he turns his attention from developing the country’s
nuclear weapons arsenal to building its economy.<br />
If stalled nuclear talks with Washington ever get back
on track, helping Kim solve his country’s chronic energy deficit could
be one of the biggest carrots President Trump has to offer. Washington,
Seoul and Tokyo tried that back in the 1990s, and were even ready to pay
for and build those two reactors Kim’s father wanted.<br />
Years of intensive sanctions have severely impacted
North Korea’s supply of fossil fuels from the outside world, but they
also have spurred the country to cobble together a smorgasbord of energy
resources, some of them off the grid and some of them flat-out illegal.<br />
Here’s a look at where Kim stands and what he is doing to win his country’s real struggle for power.<br />
___<br />
THE BIG PICTURE<br />
Among the most iconic images of North Korea are
nighttime satellite photos that reveal it as an inky abyss ringed by the
bright lights of China, South Korea and Japan.<br />
The whole nation of 25 million people uses about the
same amount of electricity each year as Washington alone. It uses as
much crude oil in a year as the U.S. consumes in just 12 hours. South
Korea has about twice the population of the North, but its electricity
consumption in 2014 was about 40 times bigger.<br />
Hydroelectricity, which is subject to seasonal swings,
provides about half of the fuel supplied to the national energy grid.
Coal accounts for the other half.<br />
The grid is leaky, archaic and badly needing repairs.<br />
That smoke-spewing power plant in the capital, which
supplies much of the power and hot water needs for central Pyongyang,
dates to the 1960s. Lights in the huge concrete apartment blocks of
Tongil Boulevard across town stay lit thanks largely to the East
Pyongyang Thermal Power Station — built by the Soviet Union in the
1980s.<br />
What electricity there is is unevenly distributed.<br />
The showcase capital and cities near coal or
hydroelectric power plants get the best coverage. Military facilities
also take precedence and often have their own supply. So do important
party and government operations, some of the higher-profile residences
and hotels in the capital and even some restaurants. Lights used to
illuminate portraits of the leaders at night never go out.<br />
Still, it’s not uncommon for the power even in many
higher status locations to flicker on and off. Dancing beams of
flashlights are commonplace on the streets or in otherwise darkened
apartments. In rural villages, even that often fades to black.<br />
___<br />
KEEPING THE OIL FLOWING ...<br />
North Korea must import about 3 million to 4 million barrels of crude oil each year to sustain its economy.<br />
Most of it flows through one pipeline.<br />
The China-North Korea “Friendship Oil Pipeline” runs
from the border city of Dandong under the Yalu River to a storage
facility on the North Korean side about 13 kilometers (10 miles) outside
the city of Sinuiju. From there, some is sent across country by truck
or rail to the east coast, where it is stored at the port of Munchon.
More is transported to Pyongyang for priority recipients such as the
military, government departments and state enterprises, and to the port
of Nampo, southwest of Pyongyang.<br />
The pipeline —technically there are two, one for crude and the other for refined products — was built between 1974 and 1976.<br />
North Korea used to have two refineries. The pipeline
from China terminates at the Ponghwa Chemical Factory, which produces
gasoline and diesel. The other refinery was built by the Soviet Union in
the north near the Rason Special Economic Zone in the 1970s. It shut
down in 1995 with the collapse of the Soviet empire. The pipeline that
connected it with Siberia has long been out of use.<br />
Under U.N. sanctions imposed late last year, North
Korea can import a maximum 500,000 barrels of refined oil products along
with 4 million barrels of crude oil per year.<br />
Along with its Chinese connection, the North has been
supplied by Russian tankers that ship oil and petroleum products to
Munchon and another east coast port, Hungnam. It has found willing
suppliers in the Middle East, or on the open market.<br />
Since the imposition of the import cap, Pyongyang has
been implicated in increasingly sophisticated schemes to augment its
supplies with hard-to-track transfers of oil by tankers at sea.<br />
Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki
Haley, told the Security Council in September the United States tracked
at least 148 instances of oil tankers delivering refined petroleum
products obtained through illegal ship-to-ship transfers in the first
eight months of this year. She claimed the amount of illegally
transferred oil — about 800,000 barrels — was 160 percent of the annual
500,000 barrel cap.<br />
“In reality, we think they have obtained four times the annual quota in the first eight months of this year,” Haley said.<br />
___<br />
... AND GOING OFF THE GRID<br />
David von Hippel and Peter Hayes of the Nautilus Institute have been following North Korea’s energy issue for years.<br />
Comparing Chinese trade figures from 2000 through 2017,
they found explosive growth in North Korea’s imports of passenger cars
and trucks that put an additional 107,000 vehicles on its roads. Tractor
sales also rose and sales of “electricity propelled” bicycles or
scooters, a category that wasn’t even listed until last year, doubled to
128,000.<br />
The truck and tractor sales almost certainly reflect an
upgrade to the North’s transportation and agricultural sectors. Being
able to get around is a key to doing business in a market-centric
economy, and so is having enough spending power to buy things like
electric scooters.<br />
Moreover, in a study released this month, Hayes and von
Hippel also found that imports of diesel- and gasoline-powered
generators, coupled with solar panels that are already ubiquitous in the
North, are creating an energy system increasingly independent of the
national power grid.<br />
“The data ... reinforces a picture of a DPRK in which a
more vibrant, modernizing, increasingly (at least functionally)
market-based economy is providing households, business and institutions
with the wherewithal to invest in both off-grid electricity supplies and
increased transport services,” they wrote, using the acronym for the
North’s official name.<br />
Still, keeping the power on often can be an elaborate routine.<br />
Solar panels, the cheapest option, can keep a room lit,
a mobile phone working and maybe a TV or another appliance going. When
electricity from the grid is actually flowing, it can be used to charge
batteries before the next blackout hits.<br />
Those with a little more clout or money use diesel- or
gas-powered generators that can power anything from a restaurant to an
apartment block.<br />
Or a military installation.</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-69951262264169060792018-11-11T00:21:00.005-08:002018-11-11T00:21:49.431-08:00ENTERTAINMENT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Ugandan pop star-politician performs 1st show since jailing</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:a22967510c1a45299c49c44c4fb77f15/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
KAMPALA, Uganda— Ugandan pop star and opposition
politician Bobi Wine performed his first concert since he was charged
with treason and jailed, a show of defiance Saturday punctuated by
anti-government slogans and barbs aimed at the long-time president he is
challenging.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Thousands of Ugandans attended the lakeside event held
outside the capital, Kampala, many of them clad in red outfits
symbolizing their allegiance to the “People Power” movement led by Wine,
a rookie legislator whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.<br />
Ssentamu staged the show at his private beach after he was denied permission to hold the concert at the national stadium.<br />
“Blocked three times by the state but on the (fourth)
attempt there is a mammoth turnout,” his attorney Nicholas Opiyo said on
Twitter.<br />
The opening acts also played music protesting the
government before Wine, putting on his trademark red beret, came onstage
and electrified the crowd.<br />
With a heavy deployment of security forces near the
show venue, Wine thanked the police officers and men wearing military
fatigues for their “unusual” services. Then he started singing the songs
that made him a celebrity in Uganda long before he became a politician,
with a loyal following among young people disenchanted by joblessness
and rampant corruption.<br />
“Tell Bosco,” the revelers sang, “that this Uganda belongs to us.”<br />
Bosco is President Yoweri Museveni’s latest nickname, based on a clumsy character in a popular TV ad.<br />
Ssentamu was arrested and charged with treason in
August over an incident in which the president’s convoy was pelted with
stones in the aftermath of a political rally. After he was released from
detention, Ssentamu sought specialist care in the United States for
injuries he said he sustained during alleged torture by state agents.<br />
The government vehemently denies Ssentamu was tortured.
He has said the criminal charges against him are false and politically
motivated. Court proceedings in the case have not started.<br />
Ssentamu won a seat in the national assembly last year
as an independent candidate without the backing of a major political
party. He now says he is fighting for freedom from oppression and wants
Museveni to retire at the end of his fifth term.<br />
He has refused to say if he will run for president in 2021, even as his supporters urge him to do so.<br />
Museveni has accused opposition figures like Ssentamu of trying to lure young people into rioting.<br />
Ssentamu’s arrest sparked riots by demonstrators
demanding his release and a violent response by security forces to stop
the protests in Kampala. Dozens of musicians from around the world
condemned his treatment and the European Union parliament and some U.S.
senators have urged Ugandan authorities to respect basic human rights.<br />
Museveni, a key U.S. ally on regional security, took
power by force in 1986. Although he has campaigned on his record of
establishing peace and stability, some worry those gains are being
eroded the longer he remains in office.<br />
</div>
<aside class="RightRail"><div class="top-stories trc_related_container trc_spotlight_widget trc_elastic trc_elastic_trc_59533 tbl-feed-card " data-placement-name="Right Rail Thumbnails" id="taboola-right-rail-thumbnails">
<div class="trc_rbox_container" style="display: block;">
<div>
<div class="trc_rbox organic-thumbnails-rr trc-content-organic " id="trc_wrapper_59533" style="display: block; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="trc_rbox_header trc_rbox_border_elm" id="trc_header_59533">
<span class="trc_rbox_header_span">Trending </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside><h1>
<a class="LeadFeature" href="https://apnews.com/90a99dd62f9d42fdb38cce230770f66b/gallery/media:a22967510c1a45299c49c44c4fb77f15"><svg class="SvgSprite gallery-arrow"><use xlink:href="https://apnews.com/dist/spritemap.svg#sprite-gallery-arrow"></use></svg></a> </h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-41725509500306501542018-11-11T00:11:00.001-08:002018-11-11T00:11:13.365-08:00ENTERTAINMENT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Spice Girls add 5 shows as ticket demand skyrockets</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:0397425ab2c14b8d94364d64f6d435cb/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
LONDON— It seems British fans can’t get enough of the soon-to-be reunited Spice Girls.<br />
The band that peaked in the 1990s has added five shows
to its planned reunion tour next year after fans complained they
couldn’t buy tickets.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The Spice Girls added extra gigs in London, Coventry
and Manchester. The reunion tour will now begin at Etihad Stadium in
Manchester on May 31.<br />
The dates were added after tickets went on sale
Saturday morning and fans struggled to get them for the existing shows.
Many complained of long waits in electronic queues.<br />
The Spice Girls will be performing without Victoria Beckham, who has launched a successful career as a fashion designer.<br />
They last performed together during the 2012 Olympics in London.<br />
</div>
<h1>
<br /></h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-73654738141915926252018-11-11T00:08:00.002-08:002018-11-11T00:08:41.621-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Toll rises to 53 dead from bomb blasts in Somalia’s capital</h1>
<h1>
<img height="256" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:f5d4f82d0cbc48f4867720d47cb37639/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
NAIROBI, Kenya— Somali hospital and police
sources say the death toll from Friday’s bombings outside a hotel in
Mogadishu has risen to 53 with over 100 injured.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer,
said many of the injured suffered horrific wounds, raising fears that
death toll could rise further. The figure given by Hussein is consistent
with submissions from hospitals.<br />
Ahmed Yusuf, a nurse at Madina hospital, said that
Mogadishu’s hospitals are coping to treat the influx of wounded victims
who continued to come in Saturday.<br />
Four car bombs by Islamic extremists exploded outside a
hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, Friday afternoon. After the three
explosions in front of the hotel, a fourth blast hit as medics attempted
to rescue the injured.<br />
Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the bombs.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-51855841690489409372018-11-08T23:36:00.003-08:002018-11-08T23:36:29.752-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Imelda Marcos convicted of graft, court orders her arrest</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Imelda Marcos" height="283" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:ac25bc10e1c346f99a3dfeb7a13151c6/800.jpeg" width="400" /> </h1>
<div class="Article">
MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine court found
former first lady Imelda Marcos guilty of graft and ordered her arrest
Friday in a rare conviction among many corruption cases that she’s
likely to appeal to avoid jail and losing her seat in Congress.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The special anti-graft Sandiganbayan court sentenced
Marcos, 89, to serve 6 to 11 years in prison for each of the seven
counts of violating an anti-corruption law when she illegally funneled
about $200 million to Swiss foundations in the 1970s as Metropolitan
Manila governor.<br />
Neither Marcos nor anyone representing her attended
Friday’s court hearing. No one has issued any reaction on her behalf
although her lawyers were expected to appeal the ruling, which
anti-Marcos activists and human rights victims welcomed as long overdue.<br />
The court disqualified Marcos from holding public
office, but she can remain a member of the powerful House of
Representatives while appealing the decision. Her congressional term
will end next year but she has registered to run to replace her daughter
as governor of northern Ilocos Norte province.<br />
“I was jumping up and down in joy in disbelief,” said
former Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Loretta Ann Rosales, who
was among many activists locked up after Imelda’s husband, former
President Ferdinand Marcos, declared martial law in the Philippines in
1972.<br />
Rosales said the decision was a huge setback to efforts
by the Marcos family to revise history by denying many of the
atrocities under the dictatorship, and urged Filipinos to fight all
threats against democracy and civil liberties.<br />
Imelda Marcos’ husband was ousted by an army-backed
“people power” revolt in 1986. He died in self-exile in Hawaii in 1989
but his widow and children returned to the Philippines. Most have been
elected to public offices in an impressive political comeback.<br />
Government prosecutor Ryan Quilala told reporters that
Marcos and her husband opened and managed Swiss foundations in violation
of the Philippine Constitution, using aliases in a bid to hide stolen
funds. The Marcoses have been accused of plundering the government’s
coffers amid crushing poverty. They have denied any wrongdoing and have
successfully fought many other corruption cases.<br />
Imelda Marcos was acquitted Friday in three other
cases, which were filed in 1991 and took nearly three decades of trial
by several judges and prosecutors. She was once convicted of a graft
case in 1993, but the Supreme Court later cleared her of any wrongdoing.<br />
President Rodrigo Duterte, an ally of the Marcoses,
said last year the Marcos family had indicated a willingness to return a
still-unspecified amount of money and “a few gold bars” to help ease
budget deficits. He indicated the family still denied that the assets
had been stolen as alleged by political opponents.<br />
Ferdinand Marcos had placed the Philippines under
martial rule a year before his term was to expire. He padlocked
Congress, ordered the arrest of political rivals and left-wing activists
and ruled by decree. His family is said to have amassed an estimated $5
billion to $10 billion while he was in power.<br />
A Hawaii court found Marcos liable for human rights
violations and awarded $2 billion from his estate to compensate more
than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit against him for torture,
incarceration, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.<br />
Duterte has acknowledged that Imee Marcos, the couple’s daughter and a provincial governor, backed his presidential candidacy.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-51870459476065115022018-11-08T23:27:00.001-08:002018-11-08T23:27:05.008-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Collision between 2 buses kills 50 in Zimbabwe</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:e02de86891c44cf98a1761e73214790c/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
HARARE, Zimbabwe— A collision between two buses
has killed 50 people in Zimbabwe and left about 80 others hospitalized,
some with serious injuries, officials said.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The accident between the two long-distance buses
occurred near Rusape, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) east of the
capital, Harare, on Wednesday evening, said police spokesman Paul
Nyathi.<br />
One of the buses was trying to get around two trucks on
a stretch of road where passing is prohibited, said Ellen Gwaradzimba,
the minister for Manicaland province, in an interview with Zimbabwe’s
state broadcaster.<br />
The buses, both of which were speeding, swerved but still sideswiped each other and crashed, police told the broadcaster.<br />
The number of dead overwhelmed Rusape’s small morgue,
which can only hold up to 16 bodies, the state-run Herald newspaper
reported.<br />
Bus accidents are frequent in this southern African
country, where bus drivers often exceed the speed limit in order to make
as many trips as possible per day.<br />
The road where the accident occurred was recently resurfaced as part of government attempts to improve infrastructure.<br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-2064727387014564942018-11-08T23:16:00.001-08:002018-11-08T23:16:46.053-08:00ENTERTAINMENT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Michelle Obama rips Trump in new book</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Michelle Obama" height="283" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:b109eaa772474036a5f9d52a4f97456b/800.jpeg" width="400" /> </h1>
<div class="Article">
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama
blasts President Donald Trump in her new book, writing how she reacted
in shock the night she learned he would replace her husband in the Oval
Office and tried to “block it all out.”<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
She also denounces Trump’s “birther” campaign
questioning her husband’s citizenship, calling it bigoted and dangerous,
“deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks.”<br />
In her memoir “Becoming,” set to come out Tuesday,
Obama writes openly about everything from growing up in Chicago to
confronting racism in public life to her amazement at becoming the
country’s first black first lady. She also reflects on early struggles
in her marriage to Barack Obama as he began his political career and was
often away. She writes that they met with a counselor “a handful of
times,” and she came to realize that she was more “in charge” of her
happiness than she had realized. “This was my pivot point,” Obama
explains. “My moment of self-arrest.”<br />
Obama writes that she assumed Trump was “grandstanding”
when he announced his presidential run in 2015. She expresses disbelief
over how so many women would choose a “misogynist” over Hillary
Clinton, “an exceptionally qualified female candidate.” She remembers
how her body “buzzed with fury” after seeing the infamous “Access
Hollywood” tape, in which Trump brags about sexually assaulting women.<br />
She also accuses Trump of using body language to
“stalk” Clinton during an election debate. She writes of Trump following
Clinton around the stage, standing nearby and “trying to diminish her
presence.”<br />
Trump’s message, according to Obama, in words which appear in the book in darkened print: “I can hurt you and get away with it.”<br />
The Associated Press purchased an early copy of
“Becoming,” one of the most anticipated political books in recent
memory. Obama is admired worldwide and has offered few extensive
comments on her White House years. And memoirs by former first ladies,
including Clinton and Laura Bush, are usually best-sellers.<br />
Obama launches her promotional tour Tuesday not at a
bookstore, but at Chicago’s United Center, where tens of thousands of
people have purchased tickets — from just under $30 to thousands of
dollars — to attend the event moderated by Oprah Winfrey. Other stops on
a tour scaled to rock star dimensions are planned at large arenas from
New York City’s Barclays Center to the Los Angeles Forum, with guests
including Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker. While some fans
have criticized the price as too high, 10 percent of tickets at each
event are being donated to local charities, schools and community
groups.<br />
In “Becoming,” Obama shares both pain and joy. She
writes lovingly of her family and gives a detailed account of her
courtship with her future husband, whom she met when both were at the
Chicago law firm Sidley Austin LLP; she was initially his adviser.
Secretaries claimed he was both brilliant and “cute,” although Michelle
Obama was skeptical, writing that white people went “bonkers” any time
you “put a suit” on a “half-intelligent black man.” She also thought his
picture had a “whiff of geekiness.”<br />
But she was more than impressed after meeting him, by
his “rich, even sexy baritone” and by his “strange, stirring
combination” of serenity and power. “This strange
mix-of-everything-man,” when she finally let him kiss her, set off a
“toppling blast of lust, gratitude, fulfillment, wonder.”<br />
But throughout her husband’s life in politics, she
fought to balance public and private needs, and to maintain her
self-esteem. She agonized over what she feared was a cartoonish, racist
image. She remembered being labeled “angry” and, by the Fox network,
“Obama’s Baby Mama.” At times, she feared she was damaging her husband’s
2008 presidential campaign, especially after conservatives seized on a
line from one of her speeches — taken out of context, she notes — that
for the first time as an adult she was “really proud” of her country.<br />
The remarks faded from the news, but she sensed lasting
damage, a “pernicious seed,” a “perception” that she was “disgruntled
and vaguely hostile.”<br />
As the first black first lady, she knew she would be
labeled “other” and would have to earn the aura of “grace” given freely
to her white predecessors. She found confidence in repeating to herself a
favorite chant: “Am I good enough? Yes I am.”<br />
“Becoming” is part of a joint book deal with former
President Barack Obama, whose memoir is expected next year, that is
believed worth tens of millions of dollars. The Obamas have said they
will donate a “significant portion” of their author proceeds to charity,
including the Obama Foundation.<br />
Widely praised as a gifted orator and communicator,
Michelle Obama has long said she has no interest in running for office,
although she held a few campaign-style rallies before the midterms
urging people to register to vote. The rallies were part of her work as
co-chairman of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization When We All Vote.<br />
Last year, she launched a program to help empower girls
worldwide through education. The Global Girls Alliance aims to support
more than 1,500 grassroots organizations combating the challenges girls
encounter in their communities.<br />
</div>
<aside class="RightRail"><div class="top-stories trc_related_container trc_spotlight_widget trc_elastic trc_elastic_trc_46730 tbl-feed-card " data-placement-name="Right Rail Thumbnails" id="taboola-right-rail-thumbnails">
<div class="trc_rbox_container" style="display: block;">
<div>
<div class="trc_rbox organic-thumbnails-rr trc-content-organic " id="trc_wrapper_46730" style="display: block; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="trc_rbox_header trc_rbox_border_elm" id="trc_header_46730">
<span class="trc_rbox_header_span">Trending </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside></div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-48145212659001912052018-11-08T23:10:00.004-08:002018-11-08T23:10:52.810-08:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
In the final hours of World War I, a terrible toll</h1>
<h1>
<img height="230" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:5a7bf96c7c0a4faea9becc90541a9a62/800.jpeg" width="400" /> </h1>
VRIGNE-MEUSE, France— Augustin Trebuchon is buried beneath a white lie.<br />
His tiny plot is almost on the front line where the
guns finally fell silent at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month in
1918, after a four-year war that had already killed millions.<br />
A simple white cross says: “Died for France on Nov. 10, 1918.”<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Not so.<br />
Like hundreds of others along the Western Front,
Trebuchon was killed in combat on the morning of Nov. 11 — after the
pre-dawn agreement between the Allies and Germany but before the
armistice took effect six hours later.<br />
His death at almost literally the eleventh hour only
highlighted the folly of a war that had become ever more
incomprehensible to many in nations drawn into the first global
conflict.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:460b4bc17b914dc3b2ba347cdc409b0b"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:460b4bc17b914dc3b2ba347cdc409b0b/800.jpeg" /><div class="embed-caption">
The bones of soldiers piled in a crypt at the Douaumont Ossuary in Verdun, France. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo). </div>
</a>
Before Nov. 11, the war had killed 14 million people,
including 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries.
Germany came close to a quick, early victory before the war settled into
hellish trench fighting. One battle, like the Somme in France, could
have up to 1 million casualties. The use of poison gas came to epitomize
the ruthlessness of warfare that the world had never seen.<br />
For the French, who lost up to 1.4 million troops, it
was perhaps too poignant — or too shameful — to denote that Trebuchon
had been killed on the very last morning, just as victory finally
prevailed.<br />
“Indeed, on the tombs it said ‘Nov. 10, 1918,’ to
somewhat ease the mourning of families,” said French military historian
Nicolas Czubak.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:5a7bf96c7c0a4faea9becc90541a9a62"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:5a7bf96c7c0a4faea9becc90541a9a62/800.jpeg" /><div class="embed-caption">
A re-constructed WWI trench in Ploegsteert, Belgium. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo).</div>
</a>
There were many reasons why men kept falling until the
call of the bugler at 11 a.m.: fear that the enemy would not abide by
the armistice, a sheer hatred after four years of unprecedented
slaughter, the ambition of commanders craving a last victory, bad
communications, the inane joy of killing.<br />
As the hours ticked down, villages were taken, attacks
were thwarted with heavy losses and rivers were crossed under enemy
fire. Questions remain whether the gains were worth all the human
losses.<br />
Historian Joseph Persico estimated the total dead, wounded and missing on all sides on the final day was 10,900.<br />
U.S. Gen. John J. Pershing, who had been bent on
continuing the fighting, even had to explain to Congress the high number
of last-day losses.<br />
Other nations also were not spared such casualties.<br />
With two minutes to go, 25-year-old Canadian Pvt. George Lawrence Price was slain by a German sniper.<br />
About 250 kilometers (150 miles) away in France, a
23-year-old American, Henry Gunther, was killed by German machine-gun
fire one minute before the armistice.<br />
Trebuchon, 40, also was shot minutes before the
cease-fire. He was running to tell his comrades where and when they
would have a meal after the armistice.<br />
All three are considered their nations’ last men to fall in active combat.<br />
___<br />
“THE FUTILITY OF THE LARGER WAR”<br />
Anti-German sentiment ran high after the United States
declared war in April 1917, and Gunther and his family in Baltimore were
subjected to the kind of prejudice and suspicion that many of German
descent faced at the time.<br />
“It was not a good time to be German in the United States,” said historian Alec Bennett.<br />
<a class="LazyImage tall-image LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:4e1ab4eb30684165adaf9937f45da39a"><img height="400" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:4e1ab4eb30684165adaf9937f45da39a/800.jpeg" width="273" /><div class="embed-caption">
A
memorial to US World War I soldier Henry Gunther perched on a hill
where he died in Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, France. Henry Gunther's
time of death was recorded at 10:59am and was recognized by General John
Pershing as the last American to die on the battlefront. </div>
</a>
Gunther had little choice when he got drafted. He was
given the rank of sergeant, but he later was demoted when he wrote a
letter home critical of the conditions in the war.<br />
Soon after, he was thrown into the biggest U.S. battle of the war, the Meuse-Argonne offensive in northeastern France.<br />
There were reports he was still brooding over his
demotion right on Nov. 11. When he emerged from a thick fog in the
valley around Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, he and his comrades faced a
German machine gun nest on the hillside.<br />
Indications are that the Germans fired one salvo over
his head as a warning, knowing the war was almost over. But he still
charged onward.<br />
“His time of death was 10:59 a.m., which is just so
haunting,” Bennett said. Gunther was recognized by Pershing as the last
American to die on the battlefield.<br />
Questions remain whether it was a suicide run, an attempt at redemption or an act of true devotion.<br />
“It is just as puzzling now as it was 100 years ago,”
Bennett said, adding that one thing is clear: “Gunther’s act is seen as
almost a symbol of the futility of the larger war.”<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:eb7338275ff34ecd8a9c071f9153d08f"><img height="249" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:eb7338275ff34ecd8a9c071f9153d08f/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
The memorial to Gunther. </div>
</a>
But there was one more cruel twist for his family: They were unaware he had been killed.<br />
Upon his expected return “they went to the train
station to meet Henry — not there!” said Bruce Malone, superintendent of
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the final resting place for 100
Americans who died Nov. 11.<br />
___<br />
“A NEED TO KILL ONE LAST TIME”<br />
There was no mystery surrounding the death of Price, the Canadian. It was an utterly senseless loss of life.<br />
He was a farm laborer in Saskatchewan when the swirl of
history plucked him off the land in October 1917 as the Allies sought
ever more manpower for the Western Front.<br />
The summer after he was drafted, he was part of the
surge of victories that seized villages and cities right up to Nov. 11.
By that time, Canadians were retaking Mons in southern Belgium, where
soldiers from the British Commonwealth had their very first battle with
the Germans in August 1914.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:5b872ca9ccea46428222f1ffc4d42e4d"><img height="220" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:5b872ca9ccea46428222f1ffc4d42e4d/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
The grave of Pvt. George Lawrence Price, center, at the St. Symphorien Cemetery. </div>
</a>
It was especially sweet for the Commonwealth commanders
to retake the city, bringing the war full circle where they lost their
first soldier, English Pvt. John Parr, on Aug. 21, 1914.<br />
Price decided to check out homes along the canals while
civilians in the center of Mons had already broken out the wine and
whiskey they had hidden for years from the Germans to celebrate with the
Canadians.<br />
Suddenly, a shot rang out and Price collapsed.<br />
“It really was one man, here and there, who was driven
by vengeance, by a need to kill one last time,” said Belgian historian
Corentin Rousman.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:fc418acda81a484caca443f57d655506"><img height="293" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:fc418acda81a484caca443f57d655506/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
This
file photo shows American World War I soldiers waving their helmets
after the Nov. 11, 1918, Armistice was signed in France. </div>
</a>
The final minutes counted not just for the casualties but also for the killers.<br />
“There are rules in war,” Rousman said. “There is
always the possibility to kill two minutes before a cease-fire. Two
minutes after, the German would have had to stand before a judge. That’s
the difference.”<br />
At the St. Symphorien cemetery just outside Mons,
Price, the last Commonwealth soldier killed in the war, lies a stone’s
throw from Parr, the first.<br />
“He is not forgotten,” Rousman said of Price. “It’s a soldier whose tomb is often draped in flowers.”<br />
___<br />
“PART OF THIS GREAT PATRIOTIC MOMENTUM”<br />
Trebuchon’s grave stands out because of the date, underscoring the random fortunes of war.<br />
He was a shepherd from France’s Massif Central and could have avoided the war as a family breadwinner at age 36.<br />
“But he was part of this great patriotic momentum,” said Jean-Christophe Chanot, the mayor of Vrigne-Meuse, where he died.<br />
<a class="LazyImage LazyImage-loaded" href="https://apnews.com/1fa30471966c41efac92767a824061c5/gallery/media:9bc877ed69db408a8fe10d8ed2e09d5d"><img height="245" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:9bc877ed69db408a8fe10d8ed2e09d5d/800.jpeg" width="400" /><div class="embed-caption">
An
iron gate leads to a World War I German cemetery in
Ville-devant-Chaumont, France. The cemetery contains the graves of 1766
German World War I soldiers. </div>
</a>
Trebuchon knew misery as part of France’s most brutal
battles — Marne, Somme, Verdun. He survived right up to his last order —
to tell soldiers where to gather after the armistice.<br />
Instead, his body was found with a bullet wound to the
head. He was recognized as “the last French soldier killed during the
last French attack against the Germans,” Chanot said.<br />
The date on his grave — Nov. 10, 1918 — remains controversial, even if it was meant to soothe a family’s sorrow.<br />
“It was a lie, without a question,” said Czubak, the French historian.<br />
<h1>
</h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-82560523594926683102018-10-31T21:06:00.003-07:002018-10-31T21:06:45.766-07:00POLITICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
S. Korea’s Moon: N. Korean leader Kim to visit Seoul ‘soon’</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Moon Jae-in" height="272" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:ee9e5ec92d4441a1b2a17a2434d5e0c7/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
SEOUL, South Korea— South Korean President Moon
Jae-in said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will “soon”
visit Seoul as part of a flurry of high-profile diplomacy aimed at
ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
During a speech before parliament, Moon said that a
second North Korea-U.S. summit is “near at hand” and that Chinese
President Xi Jinping is expected to visit North Korea soon. Moon also
said he expected Kim to visit Russia soon and that Kim may meet with
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.<br />
Moon has previously said that Kim told him he would
visit Seoul within this year when the leaders met in Pyongyang in
September. South Korea’s presidential office said later Thursday that it
had nothing to add to Moon’s speech about Kim’s trip. His comments were
in line with previous statements, the Blue House said. They suggest
that Moon is determined to push ahead with diplomacy to resolve the
nuclear issue.<br />
“Now, based on firm trust among one another, South and
North Korea and the United States will achieve complete denuclearization
and lasting peace of the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said. “This is an
opportunity that has come like a miracle. It’s something that we should
never miss.”<br />
The prospects for a second summit between Kim and
President Donald Trump improved after U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo made his fourth visit to North Korea earlier this month. But no
breakthrough has followed. U.S. officials have recently said a second
Trump-Kim summit will likely happen early next year. Some experts have
raised doubts over whether Kim’s Seoul trip would be realized by
December.<br />
Moon, a liberal who took office last year, favors a
negotiated resolution to the decades-long international standoff over
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. He has facilitated a series of
high-level U.S.-North Korea exchanges, including their first-ever summit
in Singapore in June.<br />
But Moon has faced growing outside skepticism over
whether his engagement policy will eventually end the nuclear standoff
amid ups and downs in his diplomatic push. Many conservatives in South
Korea and the United States say North Korea has no intention of fully
giving up its nuclear program and only intends to buy time to perfect
its weapons program.<br />
Since entering nuclear talks earlier this year, North
Korea has halted nuclear and missile tests and dismantled its nuclear
testing site. The United States suspended some of its annual military
drills with South Korea, but is reluctant to provide the North with big
political or economic benefits unless it takes more serious disarmament
steps.<br />
The two Koreas remain split along the world’s most
heavily fortified border since the three-year Korean War ended in 1953
with an armistice. If Kim, a third-generation hereditary leader, visits
Seoul, he would be the first North Korean leader to cross the border
into the South since the war’s end. Last year saw increased fears of a
second war on the peninsula as he exchanged threats of destruction and
crude insults with Trump over North Korea’s push to develop a nuclear
missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland.<br />
</div>
<aside class="RightRail"><div class="top-stories trc_related_container trc_spotlight_widget trc_elastic trc_elastic_trc_848 tbl-feed-card " data-placement-name="Right Rail Thumbnails" id="taboola-right-rail-thumbnails">
<div class="trc_rbox_container" style="display: block;">
<div>
<div class="trc_rbox organic-thumbnails-rr trc-content-organic " id="trc_wrapper_848" style="display: block; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="trc_rbox_header trc_rbox_border_elm" id="trc_header_848">
<span class="trc_rbox_header_span">Trending </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside><h1>
</h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-21681206800129650672018-10-31T21:00:00.001-07:002018-10-31T21:00:08.352-07:00INTERNATIONAL NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
South Sudan opposition leader returns as part of peace deal</h1>
<h1>
<img alt="Riek Machar" height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:1215951491e44feaa6516c00c3539521/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
JUBA, South Sudan— For the first time since
fleeing South Sudan more than two years ago, opposition leader Riek
Machar returned on Wednesday to take part in a nationwide peace
celebration.<br />
“I came only to confirm to people that I am for peace.
The past is gone. We have opened a new chapter for peace and unity, ”
said Machar, speaking in both Arabic and English to several thousand at
the event. He assured South Sudan’s citizens that peace was in the
hearts of all members of the opposition and those attending have seen
peace with their own eyes.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Machar promised to strengthen government institutions,
address corruption and injustice and said that the new government would
uphold accountability.<br />
South Sudan President Salva Kiir said Machar’s return
marked the end of the civil war and warned the “prophets of doom” who
were waiting for another explosion in Juba that peace was here to stay.
Addressing the South Sudanese people directly, Kiir apologized for five
years of brutal fighting and said the responsibility falls on his
shoulders.<br />
“I deeply regret the psychological and emotional wounds inflicted on you by this war,” he said.<br />
Kiir also announced that the pardons of two opposition
members who had been sentenced to death. The two being pardoned are
William John Endly, a South African national and former adviser to Riek
Machar who will be deported immediately and longtime spokesman for
Machar, James Gatdet who will be released as well.<br />
Also attending the peace celebrations were South
Sudan’s other opposition groups and the leaders of Sudan, Ethiopia,
Uganda, Somalia and Egypt.<br />
Under the new peace deal signed on September 12, Machar
will once again serve as a vice president in President Salva Kiir’s
government. This will be the third time the two men will try to work
together since the country erupted into civil war in 2013. The last
attempt failed when fighting broke out in the capital Juba in July 2016
and Machar escaped the country on foot.<br />
Five years of fighting in South Sudan has crippled the
country, displacing millions and killing almost 400,000 people from
violence and disease according to a recent report.<br />
The latest peace deal has been met with skepticism by
the international community, including the United States, Norway and the
UK, the troika which ushered South Sudan into independence in 2011.
Since the deal was signed six weeks ago it has been criticized for slow
implementation, missed deadlines and continued cease-fire violations.<br />
While security concerns remain surrounding Machar’s
return, he has come back to give confidence to the population and to put
more pressure on the government to implement the peace process,
opposition spokesman Mabior Garang de Mabior told The Associated Press.<br />
At least one South Sudan expert says Machar’s return is a positive step toward peace.<br />
“This indicates South Sudanese leaders’ readiness to
implement the agreement. That President Kiir invited Dr. Riek (Machar)
ahead of the implementation schedule and Dr. Riek responding positively,
in particular, offers reason to be hopeful. I think that this shows a
genuine desire by the leaders to end the conflict,” said Augustino Ting
Mayai, researcher at the Sudd Institute.<br />
Some locals in Juba, however, are more wary of his return.<br />
“We’ll feel peace when we have three meals a day, when
we can afford basic needs, when we can put our children and siblings
through school, when we are paid our salaries at the end of each month,
when we are no longer being attacked by ‘unknown gunmen.’ That would be
peace. Machar’s coming home is just that, he’s coming home. I’m not sure
what else it means,” Eva Lopa, South Sudan radio. <br />
</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-73375509206314032322018-10-31T19:07:00.000-07:002018-10-31T19:07:56.976-07:00BUSINESS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Turkey begins oil and gas search that could stoke tensions</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:be88f14cb9e841c6aa75904d4f07f2bd/800.jpeg" width="400" /> </h1>
<div class="Article">
ANTALYA, Turkey— Turkey embarked on a search for
oil and gas in the east Mediterranean on Wednesday in a move that could
stoke regional tensions, with the country warning it would thwart
“unilateral, illegitimate and unfair” actions against its interests.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The drillship ‘Conquerer’ — named after Ottoman Sultan
Mehmet, who conquered Constantinople — began exploratory drilling off
Antalya, on Turkey’s southern coast.<br />
The country is asserting itself in the east
Mediterranean to signal that it won’t be left out of a potential
offshore gas bonanza as neighboring Cyprus is poised to renew
exploratory drilling off its southern shores. ExxonMobil is scheduled to
start drilling in one of 13 blocks inside Cyprus’ exclusive economic
zone by year’s end.<br />
Turkey doesn’t recognize Cyprus as a state and opposes
its gas search, which it says infringes on its rights to oil and gas
reserves and ignores the rights of breakaway Turkish Cypriots to the
ethnically split island’s natural resources. Turkey also says that its
continental shelf overlaps part of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone.<br />
Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded in
response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey
recognizes a declaration of independence by Turkish Cypriots in the
island’s north, where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.<br />
“We would protect until the end our and the Republic of
Northern Cyprus’ rights...against those attempting to take unilateral,
illegitimate steps that are unfair to Turkey,” said Turkey’s Energy and
Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez during a tour of the ‘Conquerer’
on Tuesday.<br />
In February, Turkish warships prevented a drillship
from carrying out exploratory drilling southeast of Cyprus, where
Italian company Eni is licensed to search for gas. Days earlier, Eni had
announced a significant find southwest of Cyprus.<br />
Tiny Cyprus, with a population of just over a million
people, rejects Turkey’s claims. It says its gas search is fully in line
with international law and says Turkey is trying to create a crisis to
undermine Cyprus’ energy program.<br />
Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said
any potential wealth from newly discovered gas deposits belongs to all
Cypriots — both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot — and will be shared
once a peace accord reunifying the island is reached.<br />
“Whatever is found in the exclusive economic zone of
the Cypriot state is the property of the Cypriot people, meaning all
legal citizens of Cyprus, which includes Turkish Cypriots but not
necessarily Turkey,” said Prodromou.<br />
France’s Total is also licensed to drill off Cyprus’
southern coast. In 2011, Texas-based Noble Energy discovered a field
estimated to hold 4.5 trillion cubic feet (130 billion cubic meters) of
gas.<br />
</div>
<aside class="RightRail"><div class="top-stories trc_related_container trc_spotlight_widget trc_elastic trc_elastic_trc_50522 " data-placement-name="Right Rail Thumbnails" id="taboola-right-rail-thumbnails">
<div class="trc_rbox_container" style="display: block;">
<div>
<div class="trc_rbox organic-thumbnails-rr trc-content-organic " id="trc_wrapper_50522" style="display: block; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="trc_rbox_header trc_rbox_border_elm" id="trc_header_50522">
<span class="trc_rbox_header_span">Trending </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside></div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-65339337567242645502018-10-31T15:56:00.001-07:002018-10-31T15:56:24.086-07:00SPORTS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Nadal pulls out of Paris Masters; will lose No. 1 ranking</h1>
<h1>
<img height="282" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:67f7fbf44ec6438993ee18e149fc27d8/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
PARIS — Returning from one injury to play at the Paris Masters, Rafael Nadal pulled out with another one.<br />
This time it wasn’t the troublesome right knee which
had sidelined him since the U.S. Open semifinals in early September, but
rather an abdominal injury which just crept up on him.<br />
Given his history of injuries, Nadal listened to advice
and did not play his second-round match against Fernando Verdasco on
Wednesday.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
“The last few days I start to feel a little bit the
abdominal, especially when I was serving,” Nadal said. “The doctor says
that is recommended to not play, because if I continue the abdominal
maybe can break and can be a major thing.”<br />
This latest injury will cost him his No. 1 ranking, which goes back to longtime rival Novak Djokovic next week.<br />
Djokovic lost his top ranking to Andy Murray at the Paris Masters two years ago.<br />
As he then struggled to come back from a lingering
elbow injury, the 31-year-old Serb’s ranking plummeted to No. 22 in May
this year.<br />
But Djokovic has completely turned his form around,
winning four of the last five tournaments he has entered, including
Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and most recently the Shanghai Masters. The
14-time Grand Slam champion’s brilliant comeback makes him the first
player to reach No. 1 after being ranked below 20th in the same season
since Marat Safin in 2000, according to the ATP Tour.<br />
Djokovic faces Damir Dzumhur in the third round, the first time they have played each other.<br />
For Nadal, it is the second straight year he has
withdrawn from the Paris indoor tournament and he is not sure if he will
play at the season-ending ATP Finals in London, starting Nov. 11.<br />
“I cannot answer. I just go day by day,” the 17-time
Grand Slam champion said. “The most important thing for me is to be
healthy, be healthy and have the chance to compete weeks in a row.
Something that I was not able to do this year, playing only nine events
and retiring in two.”<br />
Nadal has dealt with off-and-on knee problems for years
and the 32-year-old Spaniard prefers to be cautious. At the U.S. Open,
he retired during his match against Juan Martin del Potro. He then
skipped the Asia swing to recover, missing tournaments in Beijing and
Shanghai.<br />
“It has been a tough year for me in terms of injuries
so I want to avoid drastic things,” Nadal said. “The doctor says if I
want to play the tournament, I want to try to win the tournament, the
abdominal with break for sure.”<br />
Nadal is optimistic his latest injury will pass, providing he does not rush back.<br />
“It would not be fair to say it’s a real injury today
but what is sure, if I continue it will be a real injury,” he said.
“When you come back after injuries, and you push a little bit, the body
at the beginning some issues can happen.”<br />
Lucky loser Malek Jaziri replaced Nadal and beat Verdasco 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3 and next faces defending champion Jack Sock.<br />
Roger Federer also advanced to Thursday’s third round
after big-serving Milos Raonic retired before their match with a right
elbow injury.<br />
Raonic injured himself during a three-set win against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday.<br />
“In the middle of second set, I overextended my elbow
and it did some kind of pain,” he said. “I went and I did an ultrasound
and MRI, and they found some kind of a lesion in the tricep.”<br />
Federer, who won his <a href="https://www.apnews.com/b6c7c384f01043eab9084fb20f740fde">99th career title at the Swiss Indoors</a> last Sunday, will next face 13th-seeded Fabio Fognini. He leads the Italian 3-0 in matchups.<br />
Sock and fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev reached round three in straight sets.<br />
The 16th-seeded Sock won 6-3, 6-3 win against Frenchman
Richard Gasquet, while Zverev advanced 6-4, 6-4 over American Francis
Tiafoe.<br />
Sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem won 6-4, 6-2 against Gilles Simon, beating the Frenchman for the eighth time in 10 meetings.<br />
No. 7 Kevin Anderson, the Wimbledon runner-up; No. 8
John Isner, No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 10 Kei Nishikori and No. 15 Diego
Schwartzman also advanced.<br />
Isner and Nishikori are competing with No. 5 Marin
Cilic and Thiem for the last two ATP finals places. Cilic faces Dimitrov
on Thursday.<br />
No. 11 Borna Coric completed second-round action with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Daniil Medvedev and next faces Thiem.</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-17614335305779238662018-10-31T15:52:00.002-07:002018-10-31T15:52:53.635-07:00SPORTS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Son double sends Tottenham to English League Cup quarters</h1>
<h1>
<img height="269" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:cf790e6ef5b24083a2d8b4248fc88436/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
Son Heung-min burst out of a 19-game goal drought to help Tottenham
into the English League Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, while a pair of
early own-goals ruined Frank Lampard’s return to former club Chelsea.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Son scored his first two goals and another of
Tottenham’s forgotten men, Fernando Llorente, added one in a 3-1 win
over West Ham in an all-Premier League London derby at the Olympic
Stadium.<br />
While remaining a star for South Korea, which he led to
a gold medal — thereby earning exemption from military service — at the
Asian Games in September, Son is no longer guaranteed a first-team
place at Tottenham because of fierce competition up front.<br />
Spurs are looking to end what will be an 11-year wait
for a trophy, while also claiming the first piece of silverware under
Mauricio Pochettino.<br />
Lampard, now a manager, returned to Chelsea with his
second-tier team Derby County and was trying to take down the club where
he is the all-time top scorer with 211 goals after a trophy-laden
13-year spell.<br />
Derby lost 3-2 and was ultimately undone by two
own-goals in the opening 21 minutes — the first of which was scored in
the fifth minute by a player on loan from Chelsea, Mikayo Tomori.<br />
The game almost went to penalties, with Derby striker David Nugent hitting the post in the final minutes.<br />
Lampard spent time on the Stamford Bridge field after
final whistle, applauding Chelsea’s fans and getting plenty of cheers in
return.<br />
Arsenal beat third-tier Blackpool 2-1 thanks to goals
by Stephan Lichtsteiner — his first for the club — and Emile Smith Rowe.
Both teams finished the game with 10 men.<br />
Second-tier Middlesbrough was playing Crystal Palace in the other last-16 game on Wednesday.<br />
Bournemouth and third-tier Burton Albion advanced to the last eight on Tuesday.<br />
Defending champion Manchester City hosts Fulham on Thursday.<br />
<h1>
</h1>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9060253618566274291.post-6853499399480556992018-10-31T15:03:00.001-07:002018-10-31T15:04:04.560-07:00TECHNOLOGY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Google spinoff to test truly driverless cars in California</h1>
<h1>
<img height="266" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:c645a9538fb84145bff01bb098a4f429/800.jpeg" width="400" /></h1>
<div class="Article">
SAN FRANCISCO — The robotic car company created by
Google is poised to attempt a major technological leap in California,
where its vehicles will hit the roads without a human on hand to take
control in emergencies.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The <a href="https://medium.com/waymo/a-green-light-for-waymos-driverless-testing-in-california-a87ec336d657">regulatory approval</a> announced Tuesday allows Waymo’s driverless cars to cruise through California at speeds up to 65 miles per hour.<br />
The self-driving cars have traveled millions of miles
on the state’s roads since Waymo began as a secretive project within
Google nearly a decade ago. But a backup driver had been required to be
behind the wheel until new regulations in April set the stage for the
transition to true autonomy.<br />
Waymo is the first among dozens of companies testing
self-driving cars in California to persuade state regulators its
technology is safe enough to permit them on the roads without a safety
driver in them. An engineer still must monitor the fully autonomous cars
from a remote location and be able to steer and stop the vehicles if
something goes wrong.<br />
California, however, won’t be the first state to have
Waymo’s fully autonomous cars on its streets. Waymo has been giving
rides to a group of volunteer passengers in Arizona in driverless cars
since last year. It has pledged to deploy its fleet of fully autonomous
vans in Arizona in a ride-hailing service open to all comers in the
Phoenix area by the end of this year.<br />
But California has a much larger population and far
more congestion than Arizona, making it even more challenging place for
robotic cars to get around.<br />
Waymo is moving into its next phase in California
cautiously. To start, the fully autonomous cars will only give rides to
Waymo’s employees and confine their routes to roads in its home town of
Mountain View, California, and four neighboring Silicon Valley cities —
Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Palo Alto.<br />
If all goes well, Waymo will then seek volunteers who want to be transported in fully autonomous vehicles, similar to <a href="https://medium.com/waymo/apply-to-be-part-of-waymos-early-rider-program-5fd996c7a86f">its early rider program in Arizona</a> . That then could lead to a ride-hailing service like the one Waymo envisions in Arizona.<br />
But Waymo’s critics are not convinced there is enough
evidence that the fully autonomous cars can be trusted to be driving
through neighborhoods without humans behind the wheel.<br />
“This will allow Waymo to test its robotic cars using
people as human guinea pigs,” said John Simpson, privacy and technology
project director for Consumer Watchdog, a group that has repeatedly
raised doubts about the safety of self-driving cars.<br />
Those concerns escalated <a href="https://apnews.com/fc96c4ec74fc4f68bfda092304bea82e">in March after fatal collision involving a self-driving car</a>
being tested by the leading ride-hailing service, Uber. In that
incident, an Uber self-driving car with a human safety driver struck and
killed a pedestrian crossing a darkened street in a Phoenix suburb.<br />
Waymo’s cars with safety drivers have been involved in
dozens of accidents in California, but those have mostly been minor
fender benders at low speeds.<br />
All told, Waymo says its self-driving cars have
collectively logged more than 10 million miles in 25 cities in a handful
of states while in autonomous mode, although most of those trips have
occurred with safety drivers.<br />
Waymo contends its robotic vehicles will save lives
because so many crashes are caused by human motorists who are
intoxicated, distracted or just bad drivers.<br />
“If a Waymo vehicle comes across a situation it doesn’t
understand, it does what any good driver would do: comes to a safe stop
until it does understand how to proceed,” the company said Tuesday.</div>
</div>
Freakyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192033628294272382noreply@blogger.com0