22 Mar 2019
Brace yourself: AOC and Hillary Clinton have joined forces on Twitter to create a clapback so powerful that you may need to take a some deep breaths to compose yourself.It went down on Thursday night, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a very straightforward "But his WhatsApp," after it was alleged that Jared Kushner had been communicating with foreign officials using WhatsApp. > But his WhatsApp https://t.co/kLO3ZHvdbO> > -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 22, 2019Kushner's behavior is obviously problematic on any number of levels, not least of which is that his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, ran his campaign against Hillary Clinton almost exclusively on the charge that she'd used a private email server while she was secretary of state. Lock her up, etc. AOC's tweet was a twist on the well-worn "But her emails" meme, which pops up on political Twitter every time the Trump administration does something shady. So it was especially potent when Hillary herself replied to AOC's tweet with a succinctly satisfying, "Tell me about it."> Tell me about it.> > -- Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 22, 2019That's the stuff. Hillary is no dummy and no doubt knew this was exactly the kind of thing that AOC's sizable social media fanbase would go wild over. And, of course, AOC had the reaction that pretty much all of us had, which was to freak out in a reply tweet to Hill.> !!!> > -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 22, 2019We can only hope that this exchange is the beginning of a long-lasting friendship between to the two Democratic icons -- and that they exclusively communicate using the encrypted messaging app Signal so that none of us ever have to hear about it again.
22 Mar 2019 12:48pm GMT
Political news in a Utah congressional district wasn't coming from inside the U.S. -- a mismatch Facebook had tuned its software algorithms to detect. A data scientist in the election-monitoring center at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, inspected the activity manually and discovered, at 11:47 a.m., that the source spreading the content was an ad farm in Bangladesh. The slides, viewed by Bloomberg News, show in detail how Facebook has improved its process for rooting out bad actors using tactics similar to those Russian operatives used in 2016.
22 Mar 2019 10:00am GMT
Indonesia's national carrier Garuda has told Boeing it will cancel a multi-billion-dollar order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after the model was involved in two fatal crashes. The move could spark more cancellations from other major carriers, an aviation analyst said, as Boeing and US federal regulators get set to face their first public grilling by Congress since the deadly incidents. "We have sent a letter to Boeing requesting that the order be cancelled," Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said.
22 Mar 2019 8:23am GMT
The mealy-mouthed responses of the late senator's former colleagues demonstrates the extent to which Trump has recast the party in his own imageJohn McCain was brutalized in captivity in Vietnam for his sense of duty and honor. Photograph: ABC Photo Archives/Getty ImagesIn death as he was in life, John S McCain is an American patriot and hero, regardless of what Donald Trump may think or say. As the Vietnam war raged, McCain was held for five years as a prisoner of war at the so-called Hanoi Hilton. Rather than trade on his family's connections - his father and grandfather served as navy admirals - the young McCain elected to stay with his fellow prisoners, and was brutalized for his sense of duty and honor.While Trump's nonstop effort to mar the late senator's memory should surprise no one, the response of McCain's Republican Senate colleagues to Trump's posthumous onslaught is both telling and disgraceful. The barons of the Senate live in fear of the president and his base. When Trump told Iowans in early 2016 that he could stand on New York's Fifth Avenue "and shoot somebody" and still not lose voters, he knew of what he spoke.Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain's "best friend" and a naval reserve officer, is the most obvious case in point. Graham would only offer up tweeted mush in defense of his one-time "Amigo": "As to @SenJohnMcCain and his devotion to his country: He stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body." We are comforted.Sign up to receive the latest US opinion pieces every weekdayLater, Graham told reporters, "I think the president's comments about Senator McCain hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of Senator McCain. I'm going to try to continue to help the president." We know you are.Graham continued, "My job is to represent the people of South Carolina. They want me to work with the president where I can. I've gotten to know the president. We have a good working relationship. I like him." In other words, Graham is scared silly of Palmetto State Republicans.And yet politically, who can blame Graham for going full weasel?The polls tell the story, namely that embrace of Trump is a surefire way to defuse a prospective GOP primary. To illustrate, in 2017 Graham had one of the highest disapproval ratings in his home state of any senator, 40%. By January 2019, Graham's disapproval numbers had dropped to 32%.Playing Trump's hatchet man at the Kavanaugh confirmation clearly paid off for Graham, and with McCain lying soundly in the grave, their friendship could lie there too. Said differently, if Graham could stand idly by as Trump trashed McCain, it was a green light for others to do the same.> McSally offered up the same anodyne gruel as McConnell, heaping praise upon the late senator, without mentioning Trump's conductTake Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. McConnell gushed: "It was a blessing to serve alongside a rare patriot and genuine American hero in the Senate." On the other hand, not a word about the president's posthumous offensive.Ditto the Arizona senator Martha McSally, who filled the vacant Senate seat left by McCain. McSally offered up the same anodyne gruel as McConnell, heaping praise upon the late senator, without mentioning Trump's conduct: "John McCain is an American hero and I am thankful for his life of service and legacy to our country and Arizona." For the record, the names Graham, McConnell and McSally will each appear on the November 2020 ballot.By contrast, two senators who won't be running for re-election are Georgia's Johnny Isakson and Utah's Mitt Romney. Isakson faces the voters in 2022, Romney is newly elected, and their distance from the ballot box showed.Isakson called Trump out by name: "The McCain family deserves better, I don't care if he's president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world." For good measure, Isakson later labeled Trump's comments "deplorable".As for Romney, he posited this rhetorical question: "I can't understand why the president would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God." No other Senate Republicans have come close to seconding Isakson or Romney.As for decorum, it didn't make a difference in 2016, and don't expect it to make a difference now. The bottom line is that Trump has recast the Republican party in his own image. He embodies and channels the party's core - not McConnell in his banker's shirts. As Trump sees it, and the Senate GOP tacitly acknowledges, without the president the GOP would probably be lost.
22 Mar 2019 6:00am GMT
The Super Hornets would be the first new-build examples of the Block III variant of the F/A-18E/F. The Block III flies farther and carries more weapons than an older F/A-18E/F can do and also is stealthier than earlier Super Hornet models are.
22 Mar 2019 4:00am GMT
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A white former police officer said Thursday he thought a weapon was pointed at him when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager outside Pittsburgh last summer.
22 Mar 2019 2:38am GMT
Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, must pay more than $24 million in fines and restitution. He faces more prison time next week.
22 Mar 2019 12:52am GMT
21 Mar 2019
President Trump on Thursday reversed a long-standing American policy that treated Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights as temporary.
21 Mar 2019 10:19pm GMT
T-Mobile on Thursday unveiled a limited home internet service that it plans to pilot for 50,000 mobile customers at $50 a month, with the company promising it could build on that, and eventually offer a lot more once its $26.5 billion merger with Sprint finally goes through.For now, the new invitation-only service will focus on areas where the carrier can deliver high-speed internet access to connect up to 50,000 homes in rural and underserved parts of the country. Once it merges with Sprint, however, T-Mobile says it should be able to cover more than half of the US with broadband service by 2024.This seems to be one attempt by T-Mobile to push back against critics of the proposed merger who worry it will leave customers with less choice and the potential for prices to rise. "We're walking the walk and laying the foundation for a world where we can take the fight to Big Cable on behalf of consumers and offer real choice, competition and savings to Americans nationwide," T-Mobile CEO John Legere about the home broadband pilot.The service will be offered only in areas where T-Mobile expects to deliver speeds of around 50 Mbps through fixed unlimited wireless service over LTE, with no data caps. The carrier points to one economist's estimate that showed while customers today pay around $80 a month for wired in-home broadband service, "the new T-Mobile will save customers up to $13.65 billion a year on home broadband by 2024".As context for why it decided to pursue the new service, T-Mobile went on to note in its announcement that almost half of Americans today have no competitive choice for high-speed in-home broadband. "The New T-Mobile," the company declares, "will be armed with spectrum and network assets that will build the highest capacity wireless network in US history, covering millions with 5G, not just a few people in a few blocks of a few cities like the other guys."If you're eligible to participate in the home broadband pilot, T-Mobile plans to start sending out invitations by email and regular mail this week.We mentioned T-Mobile's pending merger with Sprint, and it's also worth pointing out, as a reminder, that it's still under review by federal regulators. T-Mobile has said it feels optimistic everything will be approved in the first half of this year.
21 Mar 2019 10:04pm GMT
Huawei is an independent company, owned by our employees and not the Chinese government, writes Joy Tan, senior vice president of Huawei USA.
21 Mar 2019 9:38pm GMT
Two Boeing jets that crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia each lacked a pair of cockpit safety features that the plane manufacturer charged extra for. The systems might have helped the pilots as they struggled to control their planes, aviation experts said. Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in October killing 189 people, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down on March 10, shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, with the loss of 157 lives. Both Boeing 737 Max aircraft were new but did not have an angle of attack indicator, which shows how much the nose is tilted. They also did not have an angle of attack disagree light, which is triggered if other sensors are giving conflicting information, the New York Times reported. Such safety features were not required on new planes by the US Federal Aviation Administration, and Boeing charged a fee to have them put in if an airline requested them. Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines had opted not to. Boeing has now announced the angle of attack disagree light will be free on new 737 Max planes. Ethiopia Airlines crash Bjorn Fehrm, an aviation analyst, told the New York Times: "They're critical and cost almost nothing for the airlines to install. Boeing charges for them because it can. But they're vital for safety." The various extra customised features offered by plane manufacturers can be expensive, with airlines paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. Many low-cost airlines opt not to do so if regulators have not made them mandatory. Airlines with Boeing 737 Max 8s in their fleet The US Justice Department has reportedly issued a number of subpoenas as part of an investigation, which is in its early stages, looking at Boeing's safety procedures. In a statement Ethiopian Airlines said its pilots went through all the extra training required by Boeing and the FAA to fly the 737 Max. As investigators look into the crashes attention has turned to a new software in the planes that can push the nose down in some circumstances, for example when the sensors suggest the plane may be stalling. The FAA has said satellite-based tracking data showed the movements of both flights were similar before they crashed. It has emerged that the Lion Air pilots frantically scrambled through a handbook to understand why the jet was lurching downwards.
21 Mar 2019 8:53pm GMT
21 Mar 2019 8:21pm GMT
Mortgage interest rates are now lower than a year ago, and home shoppers are buying in, but most are wealthier and purchasing more expensive homes.
21 Mar 2019 7:56pm GMT
As investigators work to determine what caused a charter bus crash in Virginia that killed two people and hospitalized 54 others, people familiar with that stretch of interstate wonder if a group of signs may have contributed to the crash.
21 Mar 2019 7:54pm GMT
The United States has threatened Venezuela with severe consequences unless President Nicolas Maduro immediately release a senior aide to Juan Guaido, who was snatched from his home by masked intelligence agents in the early hours of Thursday. Roberto Marrero, chief of staff to Mr Guaido, shouted out loud that Mr Maduro's agents had planted two rifles and a grenade on him, Mr Guaido tweeted. On Thursday afternoon, 12 hours later, Mr Marrero was still being held. John Bolton, the US national security advisor, said that the arrest of Mr Marrero "would not go unanswered". "Maduro has made another big mistake," he added. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, also threatened to "hold accountable those involved". Juan Guaido, at a rally in Caracas on March 12 Venezuela's government has not commented on the 2am arrest, but Mr Guaido said that Mr Marrero had been taken by Sebin, the Venezuelan intelligence agency, and was being detained at an unknown location. Mr Marrero's neighbour, Sergio Vergara, a pro-Guaido deputy, was able to raise the alarm. Mr Vergara said around 15 Sebin officers threw him to the floor and "ransacked" his own home for around two hours, while asking where to find Mr Marrero. Mr Marrero was able to send a voice message shortly before he was taken, and urged: "Look after the president". The voice message was distributed by Mr Guaido's press team, who also sent a video of another opposition politician, Carlos Berrizbeitia, showing damage to the door of Mr Marrero's home and a broken lock. Mr Guaido, the 35-year-old head of the national assembly, was himself briefly detained on January 13, en route to a rally. But since he declared himself the legitimate president on January 23 he has been able to move freely throughout Venezuela and internationally, with the support of the United States. Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido both believe they are the legitimate rulers of Venezuela Mr Maduro and Mr Guaido both claim to be Venezuela's legitimate leaders but Mr Maduro, 56, retains the loyalty of the military and has control of state apparatus. The White House has frequently said that touching Mr Guaido would cross a line and provoke a strong response. Mr Guaido demanded the release of his chief of staff, saying that "we won't be intimidated" by the "vile, vulgar kidnapping." He said that Mr Maduro is weak and does not "dare" to detain him. Elliott Abrams, Mr Trump's envoy to Venezuela, agreed, saying that Mr Maduro is instead targeting Mr Guaido's aides. The United Nations said it learned "with concern" about reports of Mr Marrero's detention, and urged all sides "to lower tensions and refrain from any action that could lead to further escalation." Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, noted that UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, whose team is currently in the country, and has expressed concern at Mr Marrero's detention. On Wednesday Ms Bachelet issued a strongly-worded condemnation of the situation in Venezuela, demanding that Mr Maduro allow her team to work unhindered, and highlighting more than 300 murders and abductions by the Venezuelan security forces.
21 Mar 2019 7:45pm GMT
(Bloomberg) -- The realities of the Brexit situation indicate that the U.K. is going to end up with "something that's founded on a customs union" with the European Union, according to Karen Ward, chief market strategist for Europe, Middle East and Africa at JPMorgan Asset Management.
21 Mar 2019 7:41pm GMT
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