After four decades, Star Wars is drawing to its epic conclusion. Lev Grossman goes behind the scenes with director J.J. Abrams and the cast for the inside scoop on "The Rise of Skywalker." With exclusive photographs by Annie Leibovitz.
Gentrifying neighborhoods are a key reason behind the vermin outbreak, which extends beyond New York — Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting issues.
BRD runs monthly promotions to push cryptocurrency awareness. Buy or trade within the BRD app and get yourself some awesome giveaways for joining the movement.
When the Jehovah's Witnesses moved out of Brooklyn Heights over the past few years, cashing in on their now-valuable properties and moving upstate, they left behind a collection of buildings that had been their headquarters for over a century.
Covering your mouth when you're speaking doesn't actually mean you're lying. Joe Navarro, who spent 25 years with the FBI, where he worked on catching spies, knows what's actually going on.
Forgetting passwords (again and again) is one of modern day's most frustrating problems. RememBear Password Manager solves this by saving and autofilling your passwords and forms for you — with total security. Save 33% off today and get a two-year subscription for $40.
Director Quentin Tarantino and his headlining stars, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, get together for their first conversation since wrapping the movie.
Sebastian Spencer, a junior at West Virginia's Weir High School, holds West Virginia's state record in the 100 meters (and he has several D-I college football scholarship offers). He showed off his wheels in this wild comeback in the final leg of the 4x100 relay at West Virginia's state meet.
Any understanding of the Blazers' place in Portland has to be rooted in this truth — a black institution sitting dead center in the middle of a white city's cultural life.
Sleep paralysis is a real and scary affliction that's also incredible common. Here, animator Andrew Ognibene explains his struggle with his own hallucinations, aided with alarming illustrations.
The creators of "Stranger Things" wrote the failed beverage into the coming season as part of a big marketing push. With memories of a 1985 backlash faded, Coca-Cola dug out the old recipe.
It started with "Aladdin" and Robin Williams. Or, more accurately, it started with the Walt Disney Company screwing over Robin Williams by going against his wishes to market the movie around his star power.
Pick a problem, or a perceived problem, in baseball, and it can probably be traced back, directly or indirectly, to the rise of velocity as the sport's ultimate weapon.
Default Filename feels quietly radical in 2019. The project imagines a YouTube without recommendation algorithms that think you only want to watch beauty tutorials, Avengers outtakes or product unboxings. It's a glimpse of a timeline where Google and Facebook didn't create and capitalize on a vast economy of tracking, prediction and control.
To be honest, I feel like I probably spent more time thinking about it than the people who designed these characters and chose to name them "mutants." And that's the problem, here. Game designers are being lazy and in the process are committing real world harm.
More than a dozen former shock prisoners say the programs come at a steep cost: they allege humiliation and physical abuse from guards as well as demands to go off their medications.
The memo contradicts the Trump administration's justification for denying lawmakers' request for President Trump's tax returns, exposing fissures in the executive branch.
Back in the heady days of 2015, when a Donald Trump presidency seemed even to Republicans little more than a Steve Bannon fever dream, O'Rourke and I would run into each other in the Capitol and talk about punk.
"Holzhauer is a professional gambler, and you can see it in his gameplay... his strategy isn't about beating his opponents, it's about maximizing his winnings."
At long last, Mother Nature has taken her fickle foot off our necks and ushered in consistently warmer weather 'round the country.
If past research holds up, that means you're about to start exercising way more than you did when it was chilly outside.
That *also* means now is a great time to pick up a shiny new fitness tracker to help you meet your health goals — say, the Fitbit Alta HR from Amazon, where select styles are currently on sale for up to 43% off Fitbit's asking price of $129.95.
Featuring Fitbit's slimmest design thus far, the Alta HR looks similar to a watch and is worn on one's wrist, where it uses SmartTrack Auto Exercise Recognition technology to automatically log your steps, heart rate, calories burned, workout intensity, and even sleep stages on its dashboard. Read more...
Essential oils have all sorts of different purposes: Peppermint can boost energy and help with digestion while lavender is known to relieve stress. An essential oil diffuser is one of the most common forms of practicing aromatherapy. A diffuser fills your space with your choice of remedy, plus acts as an air freshener to keep your home smelling nice.
This set includes a diffuser with a 50-milliliter reservoir and six five-milliliter essential oils: lavender, peppermint, frasier fir, pomander, eucalyptus, and sweet orange. Read more...
One of Netflix's original originals says goodbye in 2019, and the cast of Orange is the New Black sang a very special song to announce the final season.
Netflix shared the Season 7 premiere date with a video featuring Uzo Aduba, Dascha Polanco, Danielle Brooks, Taylor Schilling, Natasha Lyonne, Kate Mulgrew, Adrienne C. Moore, Jackie Cruz, and Diane Guerrero singing the show theme song, "You've Got Time" by Regina Spektor. Filmed separately, they make their way around the Orange set for the last time, taking in props, costumes, and sets and sharing bittersweet greetings with the crew.
Orange is the New Black returns to Netflix on July 26. Read more...
Memorial Day mattress sale just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?
Casper, Nectar, and about 20 more of the big mattress-in-a-box names are dropping prices for the holiday weekend, but trying to sift through whether $100 off a $600 mattress is better than getting two free pillows gets overwhelming. No shade.
If dropping that much on a mattress isn't in the budget right now, an Eco-Sense memory foam mattress from Zinus may be calling your name — and they're up to $100 off at Walmart today. (The prices are so good, the king is only $262.65.)
Jennifer Garner, actress and graduate of Denison University's Class of 1994, recently delivered the Ohio college's 2019 commencement address, and boy was it a good one.
After explaining how she regretted agreeing to the speech, because writing it made her examine her life choices, "gain five pounds," and "loathe her friend and Denison alum Steve Carell" who graduated before her and should have had to address the college first, Garner gave the grads some invaluable life advice.
Her speech begins a few minutes after the one hour mark, and she quickly shares words of wisdom, such as never walk down the Grand Canyon to see what it looks like from the bottom, don't smoke and don't vape because it's "not cute," and always use sunscreen. Read more...
Amazon has been conducting research that involves digital 3D "scans" of people's bodies in exchange for a $25 Amazon gift card.
The e-commerce giant is currently carrying out the image study at two different locations in New York City.
Mashable became aware of the research program after a staff member was targeted with an advertisement on Instagram. The ad led to an online form where would-be participants were able to sign up for a 3D body scan session.
A screenshot of the signup page for the Amazon Body Labs imaging study.
Image: amazon / screenshot
The signup page for the study claims that Amazon takes 3D scans, photos, and videos of study participants, both fully clothed and in “form-fitting” swimwear. Height and weight measurements are also collected during the session. On the website, Amazon states that the data collected during the study is “exclusively for internal product research” and will not be used in a marketing capacity. Read more...
It's a whole new world, one in which Will Smith is playing the Genie and Mena Massoud is perfectly cast as Agrabah's cutest thief in Disney's live-action Aladdin remake.
The long-awaited movie is out on May 24, but the reviews are finally in.
Mashable's Angie Han calls it less satisfying despite a longer runtime than the originalIn her review, she states that director Guy Ritchie and his team seem to have no idea of how to stage and shoot a musical number; instead of establishing a rhythm and letting us focus on the spectacle, they crowd the screen with so much stuff that it all blurs together, and then speed up the dancing to a bizarre unnatural pace. Read more...
The sun is out and it's warm again, which means summer gram is back in full force.
Here's the thing — when there are 1 billion Instagram users out there celebrating longer days and hotter nights, how many unique summer-themed posts can there really be? You're bound to see one, or two, or 10 posts with the same poses and captions. If the account @insta_repeat has taught us anything, it's that #wanderlust photoshoots aren't exactly one of a kind.
Here are 10 Instagram posts you're sure to see this summer.
Having a cat (or a few) can be an amazing experience. They’re soft, cute, cuddly, goofy in the best and weirdest way, and they’re always there for you on a bad day. Plus, there’s nothing better — or more relaxing — than falling asleep to the sound of their purring.
But there’s one thing about being a cat mum or dad that is horrible: scooping and cleaning the cat litter box. This tedious, repetitive, gross, and smelly task takes up way more time than we want it to. And if you get lazy, even for a moment — say after a long, bad day at the office — your cat thanks you in the morning with a present in the bath. Read more...
Believe it or not, there are people out there who hop onto their phone in the morning to check the weather and traffic, organise their appointments in a paper diary, and then check their phone again to book a restaurant. All this switching isn't necessary anymore.
There are devices out there that can answer questions, organise routines, play videos and music, and much more. That's everything through one device, guys. It might be time to finally throw away your beloved diary, and upgrade to the Google Home Hub.
You can get answers from Google, command your audio, plan your day, and control your smart home through the Google Home Hub. This device is usually listed at £119, but is currently available for just £89 from BT. Read more...
We have been over this before, but just in case you are still funny about factory renewed or refurbished items, we're going to try and explain the deal again.
Factory renewed products are a great way to enjoy the products you want at outstanding prices. If you're desperate to pick up a set of headphones from Bose but you've been put off by the price, we recommend checking out the renewed range.
A factory renewed product is simply one that’s been returned to Bose, for any reason, and then thoroughly inspected, tested, and serviced to meet strict sound quality standards. So it's exactly the same as a new product, apart from the price. These products go for much lower prices because some people out there are still a bit hesitant about renewed items. The winner in this situation is you. Read more...
Birthdays are special occasions that need to be celebrated. Don't even try and protest. You might say that you find your birthday cringey, but you would be smiling if you were faced with all your best friends, balloons, and an absolutely massive caterpillar cake. Wouldn't you?
It doesn't matter where you are from, or how old you are, because you deserve a celebration. Even a VPN deserves a little bit of fanfare on its birthday. Yep, that's right. We're celebrating the birthdays of Virtual Private Networks now. That's how important birthdays are, guys.
PureVPN has just turned 12, and wants you to join in on the celebrations. There's not really much you can give a VPN as a gift, other than signing up to the service, and PureVPN has just dropped a big incentive to purchase a contract. When a new user signs up to any plan they’ll be eligible to gift monthly accounts to 12 friends. Read more...
We're into the second day of Amazon's Bank Holiday Sale. The Bank Holiday itself isn't until May 27, but we're getting a week of deals, and that's not something we should be questioning too much, because Amazon knows best, always.
We have looked through the wide selection of offers and handpicked the very best deals on laptops, tablets, beard trimmers, electric toothbrushes, and more. You can save on top brands like Microsoft, Apple, Philips, and Panasonic. You can also pick up discounted Amazon devices including the Echo Input and Echo Dot.
These are the best deals from across the internet for May 22. Read more...
It's a cliché by this point to wonder about the purpose of Disney's live-action remakes. They make lots of money, they scratch a nostalgic itch, they reintroduce these stories to a new generation — oh, and did I mention they make lots and lots of money?
But the question is impossible to ignore when the films themselves seem torn between recreating every magical moment you loved in the original, and trying to forge something genuinely new — and with few exceptions, the remakes rarely seem to measure up.
Aladdin, alas, is no exception. It sweats and strains to deliver exactly the Aladdin you remember from your childhood, from the classic songs to the soaring carpet ride. Yet it feels most enchanting in the rare moments that it allows itself to relax a bit and lean into the chemistry of its cast. Read more...
It feels like it's been months since the premiere of "The Long Night," a highly anticipated episode of HBO's Game of Thrones featuring the longest battle sequence in the history of film. Like the rest of the fantasy epic's final season, it was divisive; some fans found it to be an enthralling example of the series at its best, while others found it to be an unsatisfying and abrupt ending to a major storyline.
One thing people on both sides of the aisle agreed upon was that it's a little difficult to see what's going on during the episode. Fans contended that it was too dark, while the episode's cinematographer insisted people needed to recalibrate their TVs. Read more...
When the self-driving delivery vans finally arrive, it's going to be a challenge getting packages from the vehicle to the doorstep. That's where Ford's partnership with Digit – a bipedal robot from Agility Robotics – comes in handy.
The main problem is that watching a two-legged robot like Digit can be creepy and disconcerting, especially when it awkwardly walks on its creature-like legs and then bends over – or when it sneakily unfolds itself from the back of the delivery van.
Ford plans to use Digit to carry packages up to 40 pounds when humans aren't around to help grab deliveries from the back of a truck or van. Digit can walk up and down stairs, navigate around obstacles in its path, and stay balanced even after getting bumped. The humanoid can also fold up, so it stows away in the back of the delivery van ready to unfold and carry packages once the van arrives. Read more...
The most potent thunderstorms roil and churn, like a pot of boiling water.
With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) latest weather-imaging satellites, this aggressive storm behavior is easily visible from space. Such dynamic thunderstorm activity was on full display Monday, when conditions ripe for severe weather and tornadoes swirled over the Southern Plains. NOAA's GOES-16 satellite captured the action from some 22,000 miles above Earth.
"It looks like a big bomb going off," said Jeff Weber, a meteorologist with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
#GOESEast saw this powerful storm over Texas as severe weather was starting to ramp up across the central and southern Plains on Monday afternoon. More than 20 tornadoes were reported across Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. More imagery: https://t.co/JeQmIesXtIpic.twitter.com/kpJvdbyXKD
In September 2016, Apple released iOS 10. With it came the iMessage Tapback, the convenient and highly ambiguous reaction feature that — nearly three years later — no one quite knows how to use.
Tapbacks were created, one assumes, to make texting more convenient. It's true that they're nearly effortless to employ: Simply press on a message until you're presented with the Tapback options — a heart, a thumbs up, a thumbs down, a HAHA, a double exclamation point, and a question mark — and pick the one you want. Easy, right? You didn't even have to type anything!
Here's the trouble, though. There's no practical consensus on what, exactly, Tapbacks are supposed to be, or mean. Thus, no implicit code of etiquette has emerged around their use. In our already anxiety-ridden texting culture, that's a recipe for chaos. Read more...
In an interview with The New York Times, RihRih casually mentioned the fact that moved to London earlier this year.
Sorry, what?!
In the interview, published on Monday, Rihanna talked about some of the things that she's "come to appreciate" since moving to London. "Walking around the block," she said.
"When I go walking, I try to keep it a little incognito."
Per the NYT, "Rihanna moved to London earlier this year, where she is closer to the team working on Fenty, which is designed in Paris and manufactured in Italy." Read more...
We called it. That doesn't mean we buy it. Still, let's try to make more sense out of it.
The way Tyrion Lannister told it in the Game of Thrones finale, Bran Stark has the best story in all of Westeros — a story that will help the common folk and the nobles unite behind King Bran the Broken. Ironically, and perhaps in part to keep the ending a surprise, Game of Thrones itself became utterly disinterested in telling Bran's story — relegating him to season 8's most persistent background character.
By the time the finale rolled around, then, it was hard to remember that Bran was far more than the kid who overcame adversity, learned to fly and became the nation's institutional memory, to use Tyrion's participation-trophy language. The reaction to that kid's elevation to the throne, therefore, was a collective "meh" when it could have been a collective "holy crap, they put an actual time-traveling psychic in charge of six kingdoms! And he knew it was going to happen! Did he somehow make it happen? There's a lot to unpack here!" Read more...
If it feels like DJ Khaled is everywhere in the transit world, that's because he is.
Popping up on Lyft scooters, ride-share driving undercover, and owning a ridiculous car collection, the hip-hop star is all about getting around. Now he's helping you get where you're going as a new navigation voice option in the Waze app.
Sure, his voice giving directions is part of a six-week promo with streaming music service Deezer for his new album. But that doesn't mean you can't embrace the advice-filled phrases the performer is known for. Here's a sense of what it'll be like to have him guiding your drive starting Wednesday and available until June 30. Read more...
This article contains spoilers in abundance. If you haven't watched the Game of Thrones finale yet, look away now.
It feels good to be right.
So it must feel pretty wonderful right now to be Gwendoline Christie, who successfully predicted the ending of Game of Thrones a whopping TWO WHOLE YEARS AGO.
But you know who should be feeling very silly right now? Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Has your desktop had its days? If you are looking for an upgrade, we have found a great deal on a Dell XSP Tower. It retails for $1000, but it's currently chilling at $699.99 with code AFF300XPS — that's our definition of a hidden gem.
These XPS towers have a swing-out power supply which makes easy to access the motherboard, and that 460W of power ensures that your high-end video cards will be handled with ease. (Just add a Dell monitor on sale and have yourself a full-out desk glow up.)
Still filling in passwords manually? Is your fallback password still "PASSWORD" or "NOTMYPASSWORD"? That's basically irrefutable proof you should get a password manager. And if you're simply using iCloud Keychain's basic functionality (and finding it less than helpful), we stand by that statement.
These handy apps have become incredibly sophisticated, now that more people than ever are relying on them to store, auto-fill, auto-generate, and organize their login details. Still, considering this is your personal data and digital privacy at stake here, you may be (understandably) concerned about selecting a quality one that actually does the job right. Read more...
The answer, dear reader, is this: They've all been brought to life on Raspberry Pi, a miniature computer the size of a deck of cards. (That was your exact guess, right? Right.)
Now in its third generation, this little guy is a remarkable piece of equipment that can be used for all kinds of computing, robotics, and Internet of Things projects. This versatility has made it quite popular, as have its beginner-friendliness and its ridiculously affordable $35 price tag. Read more...
And if anyone knows a thing or two about polarising TV series finales, it's the Seinfeld cast.
Star of the legendary sitcom Jason Alexander, better known as your ol' pal George "Can't-Stand-Ya" Constanza, has offered up kind words for the Game of Thrones crew on Twitter.
"I know a little something about finales and disappointed fans," he wrote on Tuesday.
"My advice: live in joy that you are part of something that moves people so. You were all magnificent. My family and I loved it all. Thanks." Read more...
Google has revealed it had left some business users' passwords exposed in plain text.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the tech giant said it had discovered the issue in Google's popular enterprise product, G Suite, back in January.
When stored in a system, passwords are cryptographically hashed — scrambled into a random-looking assortment of numbers — which make it near-impossible to try and guess what it is.
The bug, which had existed since 2005, stored an unhashed, plain text copy of the password in G Suite's administration console. The console had allowed administrators to reset a password for a user, in case they forgot it, but Google said the function no longer exists. Read more...
E-commerce giant Amazon has prevailed in its domain name battle with Amazon, the geographic region in South America.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has approved of Amazon’s proposal to run the top level domain name extension “.amazon” after a 7 year dispute with more than a half dozen countries, according to the Financial Times.
The dispute was backed by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), a group promoting the development of the Amazon Basin. Its member states include Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Read more...
Can you picture a scenario in which Oreo cookies are discussed at a House Financial Services Committee hearing?
No? That's OK. No need to imagine hypotheticals, because as it turns out, on Tuesday HUD Secretary Ben Carson name-dropped the popular Nabisco sandwich cookie on the stand. He accidentally mixed Oreo cookies up with REO, a common real estate term. Casual!
After California Congresswoman Katie Porter asked Carson to explain a disparity in REO rates, she took the time to confirm that he actually knew what REO stood for. And it's a good thing she double checked, because Carson most certainly did not know. Read more...
Nevada will send legislation to the governor's desk that would give the state's Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote -- and could become the 15th state to do so https://t.co/bHcleMzha9
Vote counting is under way in Malawi's general elections where Peter Mutharika is facing off against his deputy for the presidency pic.twitter.com/KeST8sDuro
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has sent a parliamentary delegation to China to press for the release of two Canadian citizens formally arrested for espionage last week, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday.
Businessman Michael Spavor, who worked with North Korea, and former diplomat Michael Kovrig were picked up separately in December, shortly after Canada arrested Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to the United States.
Canada has condemned the detentions as "arbitrary", while China has repeatedly demanded Meng be released. Freeland, in an interview with CBC radio, said she sought "repeatedly" to speak with her Chinese counterpart, but to no avail.
WNU Editor: This is a low level Canadian delegation. The Chinese are not going to take it seriously. So why send them in the first place? It is all for show. As to what do the Chinese want? They want Canada to immediately releasing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou.
A student supports her fellow plebes (freshmen) as they build a human pyramid to climb the 21-foot vegetable-shortening covered Herndon Monument at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The midshipman who makes it to the top replaces the 'dixie cup' hat with a midshipman's hat, marking their class ascent to upperclassmen. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
WNU Editor: The above picture is form this photo-gallery .... Editor's Choice Pictures (Reuters).
* Cabinet has signed off on Theresa May's plan to bring forward new Brexit Bill * But PM had to water down concessions on referendum after mutiny by ministers * Ministers threatened to quit if Mrs May allowed a free vote on the referendum * Her chances of getting the deal through are fading as Tories voice opposition * Fears legislation could suffer heavier defeat next month than her deal in March * Cabinet is openly rowing about whether to leave the EU with No Deal in October
Theresa May's Brexit deal was hanging by a thread last night as furious Tory MPs savaged her decision to open the door to a second referendum.
In a dramatic gamble, the Prime Minister offered MPs a binding vote on a second EU poll – if they backed her withdrawal deal at the fourth attempt next month.
Mrs May pleaded with Parliament to finally approve her plan so Britain could avoid 'a nightmare future of permanently polarised politics'.
Desperate to win over Labour MPs, she also suggested the agreement could be amended to include a temporary customs union. The move followed a fractious three-hour Cabinet meeting, in which at least two ministers are said to have hinted they might resign in protest at the concessions.
WNU Editor: What a mess. After three years where the British public made it very clear in a referendum that they wanted to leave the EU, Prime Minister May is now offering another referendum. She is toast. The question that now remains to be answered is .... when will she leave?
More News On Theresa May's Brexit Deal Being Roundly Rejected
Large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the signature expression of American military power. They enable U.S. warfighters to sustain devastating air attacks against hostile forces on land or at sea for months at a time, precisely hitting hundreds of targets each day. And unlike some other combat systems, they don't need access to bases ashore to accomplish their missions.
The fearsome power of America's aircraft carriers makes them a potent tool for deterring aggressors without needing to rely on nuclear weapons. However, it is a common refrain among military analysts that our carriers are becoming vulnerable as long-range, anti-ship missiles proliferate around the world. For instance, Sydney Freedberg of Breaking Defense—one of the most respected journalists covering the military—observed in a March 12 budget analysis that "Beijing's growing arsenal of precision-guided missiles seems increasingly able to find and cripple a thousand-foot-long flattop."
WNU Editor:Hmmmm .... I am not sure about a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier being one of the safest places to be in a war. It looks like a big and high priority target to me.
The Air Force is investigating the Navy for a cyber intrusion into its network, according to a memo obtained by Military Times.
The bizarre turn of events stems from a decision by a Navy prosecutor to embed hidden tracking software into emails sent to defense attorneys, including one Air Force lawyer, involved in a high-profile war-crimes case of a Navy SEAL in San Diego.
The tracking device was an attempt to find out who was leaking information to the editor of Navy Times, a sister publication. A similar tracking device was also sent to Carl Prine, the Navy Times editor, who has written numerous stories about the case.
Navy Capt. David Wilson, chief of staff for the Navy's Defense Service Offices, wrote in the May 19 memo that an Air Force attorney was among the defense lawyers who had received emails with the hidden tracking software, which he described as "malware."
Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-14 is pictured during its second test-fire in this undated picture provided by KCNA in Pyongyang on July 29, 2017. KCNA via Reuters
GENEVA (Reuters) - The risk of nuclear weapons being used is at its highest since World War Two, a senior U.N. security expert said on Tuesday, calling it an "urgent" issue that the world should take more seriously.
Renata Dwan, director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said all states with nuclear weapons have nuclear modernization programs underway and the arms control landscape is changing, partly due to strategic competition between China and the United States.
Traditional arms control arrangements are also being eroded by the emergence of new types of war, with increasing prevalence of armed groups and private sector forces and new technologies that blurred the line between offence and defense, she told reporters in Geneva.
With disarmament talks stalemated for the past two decades, 122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, partly out of frustration and partly out of a recognition of the risks, she said.
WNU Editor: Being one who lived through the Cold War, today's risk of a nuclear war do not come even close to what was the situation at that time. So no .... risk of nuclear war now is not the highest since WW2.
Half of all Americans believe that the United States will go to war with Iran "within the next few years," according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released on Tuesday amid increased tensions between the two countries.
While Americans are more concerned about Iran as a security threat to the United States now than they were last year, few would be in favor of a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian military. But if Iran attacked U.S. military forces first, four out of five believed the United States should respond militarily in a full or limited way, the May 17-20 poll showed.
Historically tense relations between Washington and Tehran worsened in May after U.S. President Donald Trump hardened his anti-Iran stance and restored all sanctions on Iranian oil exports following his decision a year ago to pull the United States out of a 2015 international nuclear accord with Tehran.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May set out a "new deal" on Tuesday for Britain's departure from the European Union, offering sweeteners to parliament including the chance to vote on whether to hold a second referendum to try to break the impasse over Brexit.
Three years after Britain voted to leave the EU and almost two months after the planned departure date, May is mounting a last effort to try to get the deeply divided parliament's backing for a divorce deal and leave office with some kind of legacy.
Deputy chancellor and head of far-right party has resigned after video sting operation
What happened in Austria over the weekend?
On Friday night, two German media outlets published a video that shows the Austrian deputy chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache, talking to an unidentified woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian oligarch at a luxury resort in Ibiza. When the woman expresses an interest in gaining control of the country's largest-circulation tabloid, Kronen Zeitung, Strache suggests he could offer lucrative public contracts in exchange for campaign support.
The United States' response to alleged Iranian threats has "put on hold" potential attacks by Iran, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said.
"I think our steps were very prudent and we've put on hold the potential for attacks on Americans and that is what is extremely important," Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon on May 21.
He added that "the threat remains high and our job is to make sure that there is no miscalculation by the Iranians."
Later in the day, Shanahan, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, are set to brief U.S. lawmakers on Iran.
Tensions are escalating between the United States Opens a New Window. and Iran – and its economy is buckling even further after the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last year and reinstated sanctions.
Over the weekend President Trump lashed out at Iran after a rocket landed less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone Opens a New Window. , the first such attack since September as reported by Fox News. An Iraqi military spokesman told reporters the rocket appeared to have been fired from east Baghdad, which is home to several Iran-backed Shiite militias.
In bipartisan letter, some 79 senators, 303 representatives from both parties recommend Trump limit the presence of terrorists and extremists, strengthen Israel's security, underscore Israel's right to self-defense and increase pressure on Hezbollah.
A bipartisan letter signed by nearly 400 members from both sides of the aisle in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate was sent to U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, calling on him to address threats in Syria and ensure Israel's safety.
"At a time of grave insecurity in the Middle East, we are deeply concerned about the role that terrorist and extremist groups and U.S. adversaries continue to play, particularly in Syria," stated the letter. "As some of our closest allies in the region are being threatened, American leadership and support are as crucial as ever."
Joko Widodo has been re-elected as Indonesia's president after last month's vote, beating former general Prabowo Subianto.
The result was released a day ahead of schedule in the early hours of Tuesday, amid fears of unrest.
Around 32,000 security personnel were deployed across the capital Jakarta, AFP news agency reports.
Mr Prabowo rejected the result and said he would pursue "legal avenues", but urged his supporters to stay calm.
Ahead of the final tally he had alleged "widespread cheating" and warned of potential street protests. In 2014 Mr Prabowo challenged an election defeat by Mr Widodo in Indonesia's constitutional court, but lost.
The latest vote followed a bitter campaign in which religion played a key role, but independent observers have said it was free and fair.
Tariffs aren't changing China's mind. So get ready for more tariffs.
"I have been talking about China for many years. And you know what? Nobody listened," Donald Trump told a crowd outside Pittsburgh in 2016. "But they are listening now." If China's leaders didn't notice a campaign speech then, the president has their attention now.
In office, President Trump and his administration have taken a series of escalating measures against China in hopes they would coerce Beijing to change its trade practices. But, two years and numerous rounds of meetings later, the trade talks aren't moving.
.... If we look at China's behaviour, it does so many things to lift up their people, but it is also known as a vindictive nation, (it does) so many things to countries and companies they don't necessarily like. Curtis Chin (Asia fellow, Milken Institute)
When I was stationed in China in the 1980s, I said to my Chinese hosts the following when I was asked on what were my impressions of the country.
.... "China's culture is one of the oldest in the world, steeped in history and tradition. But politically, China is one of the youngest and most immature countries in the world. Especially when compared to Europe and to countries like the U.S./Canada/Australia/etc..
I said that comment over 30 years ago, and it pains me to say that the same can be said today. China's view of the world and how this view is being translated into foreign policy and foreign relations may give some short term benefits to Beijing today, but in the long term it is only going to alienate China from the rest of the world. No one likes an arrogant bully, and no one wants to deal with someone who acts vindictive when they do not get their way. Unfortunately, that is the China of today.
* Talks to end the trade dispute between the U.S. and China are believed to have hit a roadblock, and relations between the economic superpowers have deteriorated earlier this month. * The U.S.-China trade dispute will get worse before it gets better, says Curtis Chin, an Asia fellow at think tank the Milken Institute. * Chinese President "Xi Jinping needs to show he is in charge," says Chin, a former U.S. ambassador
There's more pain ahead for the U.S. and China as their bilateral trade dispute drags on, an expert forecast on Tuesday.
"It's going to get worse before it gets better," said Curtis Chin, an Asia fellow at the Milken Institute, a think tank.
Talks to end the ongoing trade dispute are believed to have hit a roadblock, and relations between the two economic superpowers deteriorated earlier this month when U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would increase tariffs on $200 billion in goods from 10% to 25%. China responded by upping the tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods.
Chinese President Xi Jinping lays a floral basket at a monument marking the departure of the Long March in Yudu County of Ganzhou City, east China's Jiangxi Province. Photo: Xinhua
* Xi Jinping told cheering crowds in Jiangxi: 'We are now embarking on a new Long March, and we must start all over again!' * His comments come amid an increasingly sour mood in official Chinese media, which have become more forceful in anti-US rhetoric since trade war talks collapsed
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the nation to embark on a new Long March and "start all over again", in the most dramatic sign to date that Beijing has given up hope of reaching a trade deal with the United States in the near term.
since the escalation of the trade war two weeks ago. Jiangxi is where China's defeated Red Army started its famous Long March in 1934, and Xi's choice of destination is being viewed as an effort to invoke a spirit of endurance and to rally public spirit amid rising tensions with Washington.
"We are here at the starting point of the Long March to remember the time when the Red Army began its journey," Xi told cheering crowds on Monday, in footage posted on state broadcaster CCTV's website on Tuesday. "We are now embarking on a new Long March, and we must start all over again!"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump warned on Monday Iran would be met with "great force" if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East, and government sources said Washington strongly suspects Shi'ite militias with ties to Tehran were behind a rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone.
"I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. "If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will."
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Preble (DDG 88), USS Halsey (DDG 97) and USS Sampson (DDG 102) are underway behind the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Michael A. Colemanberry/Released
* A US Navy warship conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation on Sunday near the Scarborough Shoal. * The shoal is a territorial holding in the South China Sea that China seized from the Philippines in 2012. * This operation followed one carried out earlier this month by two guided-missile destroyers in the Spratly Islands. * These operations are designed to challenge China's maritime claims and reinforce international law. * They often irritate Beijing, which considers the vast majority of the South China Sea to be Chinese waters.
A US Navy guided-missile destroyer checked China in the South China Sea on Sunday, drawing Beijing's ire for the second time this month.
The USS Preble conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, sailing within 12 nautical miles of this territory to "challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law," a 7th Fleet spokesman told Reuters.
China seized the Scarborough Shoal, part of a strategic triangle that also includes the Paracel and Spratly Islands, from the Philippines in 2012. Read more ....
Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- May 21, 2019
NORTH KOREA has branded presidential hopeful Joe Biden "bereft of elementary quality as a human" in a scathing attack following comments he made about their leader.
THE CHERNOBYL nuclear disaster in 1986 was the most catastrophic nuclear accident in history, as the blast created deadly radioactive fallout 400 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb.
FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has warned the European Union is on the brink of an "existential" crisis, as he reiterated his call for voters to shun far-right populism just days ahead of crunch elections for the European parliament.
THERESA May is playing with fire by considering the idea of keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU - with one Turkish analyst warning his country's deal with Brussels was "eroding" 23 years after being signed.
DUBAI is usually an idyllic destination throughout the month of May. Temperatures are warm, but not scorching, and the rainfall is minimal, which makes it the perfect time to visit for many tourists.
Supporters of the main opposition candidate Prabowo Subainto clashed with security forces and set fire to a police dormitory and vehicles in the capital, the Guardian reports. Prabowo, a former general, lost the election to incumbent President Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, but he has refuted the results since quick count results showed that Jokowi won the April election.
Dedi Prasetyo, a National Police spokesman, said protests turned violent late Tuesday and that police arrested 20 “provocateurs,” reports the Guardian. He stressed that police did not have live bullets. The city’s police spokesman said tear gas and water cannons were being used against protestors attacking with weapons such as rocks and molotov cocktails, according to the Guardian.
The Guardian reports that more than 30,000 troops have been deployed to Jakarta, and several governments offices, schools, shopping centers and businesses have been closed as a precautionary measure.
The country’s security minister says that social media will be blocked in parts of the country due to the protests, but he did not specify which locations would be affected by the restrictions, according to the Associated Press.
Protestors had started gathering outside the election commission building as of Wednesday morning, according to the Guardian.
Malaysia plans to send non-recyclable plastic back to the countries that sent it to there, said its environment minister on Tuesday.
“Developed countries must be responsible in what they send out,” Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s minister of energy, technology, science, climate change and environment told Reuters. She added that some of the waste sent to Malaysia was in contravention of the Basel Convention, an international treaty drafted to regulate the export of waste to developing countries.
The Southeast Asian country became the top destination for plastic waste in 2018 after China stopped accepting imports, according to Reuters, with plastic waste imports jumping to 456,000 tonnes between January and July 2018 compared with 316,600 tones in all of 2017 and 168,500 tonnes in all of 2016.
Yeo said Malaysia has already sent five containers of waste that had been smuggled into Malaysia to Spain, where it originated, according to Reuters.
Plastic waste has become a contentious issue since China upset the global market with its import ban. Just last week, the Philippines recalled its ambassador and consuls in Canada after the country missed a deadline to take back plastic waste they had shipped to the Asian nation years ago.
Approximately 180 countries agreed to amend the Basel Convention to better regulate plastic waste trade, according to Reuters. The U.S. has not ratified the treaty.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea has labeled Joe Biden a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being” after the U.S. presidential hopeful called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant during a recent speech.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday said the former American vice president had insulted the country’s supreme leadership and committed an “intolerable and serious politically-motivated provocation” against the North.
Biden during a campaign launch in Philadelphia on Saturday accused President Donald Trump of cozying up to “dictators and tyrants” like Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“What he uttered is just sophism of an imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a politician,” KCNA said.
The piece, labeled a commentary, said Biden had “gone reckless and senseless, seized by ambition for power.” It went on to mention apparent Biden gaffes, such as once appearing to fall asleep during a speech by President Barack Obama.
“It is by no means accidental that here is nonstop comment over his bid for candidacy that he is not worth pinning hope on, backed by the jeer that he is a fool of low IQ,” KCNA said.
It mocked Biden’s belief that he was “the most popular presidential candidate.” ”This is enough to make a cat laugh,” the report said.
There was no immediate reaction from the Biden camp, possibly due to the late hour in the United States.
North Korea has often unleashed crude insults against U.S. and South Korean politicians to criticize what it sees as slanderous remarks toward its leadership or hostile diplomatic and military policies against Pyongyang. The insults have included racist and sexist diatribes, including when the North called Obama “a monkey” and former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the country’s first female leader, a prostitute.
During tensions created by a provocative run in missile tests in 2017, Kim called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” after he said that the United States would “totally destroy North Korea” if forced to defend itself or its allies.
The North’s description of Trump dramatically improved after Kim initiated diplomacy with Washington and Seoul in 2018 while attempting to leverage his nuclear arsenal for economic and security benefits. The nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang stalled in February when a summit between Kim and Trump collapsed over mismatched demands in sanctions relief and disarmament.
Two years after their quiet departure from Hong Kong, two political activists from the semiautonomous region of China have come forward to say that they are under refugee protection in Germany.
Ray Wong, 25, and Alan Li, 27, faced rioting charges for their roles in a protest that turned into a violent overnight clash with police in February 2016, but the pair jumped bail and fled to Germany in 2017, according to the New York Times. Germany granted the pair protection last May, they say, according to the Times.
Germany’s federal office for migration and refugees also confirmed to the Times in an email that it had granted two Hong Kongers refugee protection last year.
They are believed to be the first political activists from the city to be granted asylum by a foreign country. The revelation is likely to deal a blow to Hong Kong’s international reputation, at a time when political freedoms have been eroding in the city.
“This is a worrying sign, though not entirely surprising given recent trends in Hong Kong,” Kelley Loper, Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, told TIME.
“Although Hong Kong still enjoys a certain amount of autonomy and is politically and legally distinct from the rest of China, recent developments could chip away at those guarantees and negatively affect Hong Kong’s international reputation,” Loper said.
Wong was the leader of Hong Kong Indigenous, an activist group that opposes Beijing’s encroachment on the city, and Li was a member. In 2016, hundreds of protesters clashed with police in the busy Mongkok district after authorities tried to stop unlicensed food vendors from operating, which is a Lunar New Year tradition in the city. It turned into an all-night riot, during which scores of people were injured and dozens were arrested. Beijing later denounced the protestors as “radical separatists.”
Other political activists in the city have been prosecuted for advocating for democracy.
Leaders of a 2014 pro-democracy movement dubbed the Umbrella Revolution were handed prison sentences late last month, and a student leader, Joshua Wong, was sent back to prison last week to finish his sentence for defying a court order to leave a protest site during the 2014 demonstrations.
Hong Kong, a former British colony which was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, is supposed to operate under a “one country, two systems” model meant to ensure that it retains certain freedoms such as an independent judiciary. But concerns about the city’s rule of law have increased in recent years as Beijing has tightened its grip on the city.
A fierce debate continues in the city’s legislature over a proposed extradition law, which would allow people to be sent to the mainland to face trials under China’s opaque legal system, where arbitrary detentions, forced confessions, torture and closed criminal trials are commonplace according to rights groups.
“If amendments to Hong Kong’s extradition law go through, we are likely to see more activists seeking asylum elsewhere,” Loper says.
In recent years, the city’s press freedom rankings have been on a precipitous slide, a senior foreign journalist was expelled for hosting a talk with a pro-independence political leader, and several booksellers offering content critical of the Communist Party have disappeared.
A few weeks before Donald Trump became president, Russian banker Petr Aven, a billionaire oligarch with Moscow’s Alfa Bank, pulled aside Washington lobbyist Richard Burt at a corporate meeting in Luxembourg with a sensitive request.
Aven told Burt that “someone high in the Russian government” wanted “a communications channel between the Kremlin and the Trump Transition Team,” according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recently released report. Aven wanted Burt, a former ambassador who had helped Trump’s campaign, to work on setting it up.
Burt later told Mueller’s team that the request was, in the words of the report, “outside the normal realm,” even for Burt, a well-traveled Washington insider who had worked with Aven for years. It looks even more remarkable now.
The “high” Russian official was none other than President Vladimir Putin, Mueller’s team would later learn. Amid what Mueller called a “flurry of Russian activity” during the Trump transition, the Aven outreach is the only publicly known instance in which Putin, a onetime KGB spy, was personally involved in directing Russia’s clandestine efforts with the incoming administration.
The surreptitious contacts involving Putin, Aven and Burt as described in the Mueller report contradict repeated assertions by Alfa Bank that it had no contacts with Trump or people around him. At the time of Trump’s election, Alfa Bank was at the center of a mystery over an unexplained surge in computer traffic from Moscow to the Trump Organization in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign. Computer analysts concluded that Alfa Bank had developed a covert communications channel to the Trump Organization.
The bank has adamantly denied those assertions, saying in March 2017, for instance, that opponents were trying to use the Internet traffic to create “the false impression that Alfa Bank has business or other dealings with Mr. Trump.” Alfa Bank said separately that same month that the bank and Mr. Aven had not had “any contact with Mr. Trump or his organizations.”
Mueller did not address the cyber-traffic one way or the other in his report. That has left some Democrats on Capitol Hill unsatisfied. “Even in the wake of the Mueller report, we don’t know the meaning of the 2016 communications between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization servers, nor do we even know whether the FBI has fully investigated those links,” says Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Burt, who was the U.S. ambassador to West Germany during the Reagan Administration, wears a number of hats in the 2016 story of Aven and Alfa Bank. He helped develop key points for an important foreign-policy speech that then-candidate Trump delivered in Washington in April 2016, with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in attendance. Burt also dined during the campaign with Jeff Sessions, then a top Trump advisor, to discuss policy matters, Mueller said.
Burt has worked over the years with Alfa Bank and other Russian interests. He aided Russia’s plans for a massive gas pipeline, and currently sits on the board of a Luxembourg company, LetterOne, that Aven helped found in 2013 with other Alfa Group leaders and that is investing billions in American health care. It was at a LetterOne meeting that Aven first told Burt of the back channel idea.
“Putin suggested that Aven needed to take steps to protect himself and Alfa Bank,” against the possibility of U.S. sanctions, including by opening up the back channel, the Mueller report said. Putin never explicitly told him to create the back channel to protect against that threat, Aven told Mueller’s investigators, but he took his comments as “implicit directives, and that there would be consequences for Aven if he did not follow through.”
Burt took Aven’s idea to Dmitri Simes, the Russian-born president of a Washington think tank, the Center for the National Interest, where Burt served on the board. Burt asked Simes to arrange a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, Simes told Mueller’s investigators. Simes was lobbying for Burt to be ambassador to Russia, and was speaking with Kushner about foreign policy issues.
According to Mueller’s report, Simes said he told Burt the secret channel “was not a good idea” because of the growing scrutiny over Trump’s alleged Russian ties. The Kushner meeting apparently never occurred. Burt, however, reported back to Aven that there was “interest and an understanding for the need to establish such a channel.” He said that while a “very influential person” advised him the idea was “too explosive” at the moment, it might be reconsidered in the New Year, Mueller said.
Aven said he, in turn, reported back to Putin in early 2017 about what Mueller’s report describes as his “lack of success.” Putin “continued to inquire” in later meetings, Aven said. He eventually told Putin’s chief-of-staff the FBI had subpoenaed him, asking “whether he had worked to create a back channel between the Russian government and the Trump Administration,” Mueller said, but Putin’s aide “did not appear to care.”
Burt insists his efforts led nowhere. “My understanding is nothing came of that,” he told TIME in an interview. “We concluded it wasn’t a good idea. I then contacted Petr [Aven] and that was the end of it.”
Mueller’s report is silent on why Putin thought Alfa Bank and Aven might be the subject of U.S. sanctions. Nor does it say why Aven may have found the danger of sanctions sufficient to take the “unusual” step of asking for Burt’s help in setting up the secret back channel to the incoming U.S. president’s team, or whether he simply did it at Putin’s suggestion.
Alfa Bank was neck deep in a controversy between Russia and the Trump campaign at the time. Beginning in the spring of 2016, according to cyber analysts, Alfa Bank’s computer servers in Russia had “pinged” a rarely-used email server connected to the Trump Organization more than 2,700 times with computer-domain “look-ups” — essentially a knock on the door from one computer server seeking to talk to another one. The “look-ups,” and were identified by independent computer analysts tracking Internet traffic.
One of them, Jean Camp, a computer science professor at Indiana University, examined Alfa Bank’s email “look-ups,” and posted an analysis of the Internet traffic soon after it surfaced, urging more investigation. A number of experts in the field, including Camp, said the computer traffic had the characteristics of a covert email chain that could facilitate the transfer of data or other hidden communications. The Trump server involved in the traffic was taken down in September of 2016, soon after the bank’s Washington representatives learned of questions about the suspicious activity.
Alfa Bank’s lawyers sent Camp a series of letters denying any communication with the Trump Organization and threatening legal action. In one March 2017 letter, Alfa told her the company had “never had any relationship of any kind with the Trump Organization.”
Alfa Bank sticks by that claim when it comes to the question of communication between Alfa’s computer servers and the Trump camp. Any suggestion to the contrary “is false, it’s still false, and it will always be false,” Jeffrey Birnbaum, a spokesman for the bank with the BGR Group in Washington, told TIME when asked again recently about the suspicious cyber activity. “There was never any sort of electronic communication — ever,” Birnbaum says.
After the election, Daniel Jones, a former senior national security investigator with both the FBI and the Senate Intelligence Committee who now leads a private investigative firm, used a team of computer analysts to examine the Alfa Bank server traffic, and says that the computer traffic in 2016 was “highly unusual.” Jones’ team found that 80% of the traffic going to one particular server at the Trump Organization was coming from Alfa Bank. “The question is why?” says Jones.
Jones says the Mueller report deepens the mystery. “Who knows what they were doing with the Alfa server but this new evidence certainly raises all sorts of additional questions,” Jones said in an interview. Camp says she finds it striking that Putin personally directed Aven to create a Trump backchannel, even after Alfa Bank repeatedly denied that any relationship existed before that. “I feel vindicated knowing that there really were communications going on,” she said.
Mueller’s redacted report doesn’t mention the cyber-traffic, or say whether there were any communications during the campaign between Alfa Bank and the Trump camp. “We still don’t know the full story,” said Ilya Zaslavskiy at the Free Russia Foundation in Washington.
Mueller concluded that overall, “the evidence was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with representatives of the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.” He did report finding “numerous links” between Russia and the Trump campaign—during the campaign and after.
Burt’s role in the proposed back channel, as outlined by Mueller, is certainly one of them. Following his work on foreign policy for the Trump campaign, Burt said that he also played a limited role in the transition in preparing Rex Tillerson for his confirmation hearing as Secretary of State.
The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee has launched a wide-ranging investigation into possible corruption and abuse of power by the Trump Administration, issuing letters and document requests in March, prior to the Mueller report, to 81 people and groups, including many prominent business, political and personal associates of the president. Alfa Bank and Aven were not on that list, but may be of interest in the wake of the Mueller report, a committee source tells TIME.
The House intelligence committee is also preparing oversight hearings based in part on Mueller’s findings. Staffers declined to say whether Aven and Alfa bank will be a subject of their ongoing probe.
(LONDON) — Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s British restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, partly due to increased competition and escalating rents in local commercial districts.
The insolvency will leave 1,000 people out of work and reignited worries about local retail and food outlets in Britain, which are struggling to attract customers much like downtowns in the United States.
“I’m devastated that our much-loved U.K. restaurants have gone into administration,” Oliver wrote on Twitter. “I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the staff and our suppliers who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years.”
I’m devastated that our much-loved UK restaurants have gone into administration. I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the people who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years. Jamie Oliver
Financial firm KPMG, which will oversee the process, said all but three of the group’s 25 eateries will close. They include restaurants in the Jamie’s Italian chain, as will the more upmarket Fifteen, and steak house Barbecoa.
Two restaurants and a diner at Gatwick Airport will continue to operate while joint administrators explore options for the site. Overseas branches of Jamie’s Italian, Jamie’s Pizzeria and Jamie’s Deli, are not affected, nor is Fifteen Cornwall, which operates as a franchise.
Oliver said Jamie’s Italian was launched in 2008 “with the intention of positively disrupting mid-market dining” with higher quality ingredients, animal welfare standards, better service and good value.
But the launch came just as local businesses throughout the U.K. were squeezed by the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Rising food prices, increasing rents and competition took a toll.
The company had been in trouble for at least two years, despite Oliver’s global fame on the back of his cookbooks and television shows. Last year, it shuttered 12 of its 37 sites in Britain, while five branches of the Australian arm of Jamie’s Italian were sold off and another put into administration.
He has personally pumped 13 million pounds into his Italian chain, but it was not enough.
“I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected,” he said.
Will Wright, a partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said that the directors at Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group had worked hard to stabilize the business, but costs were rising and consumer confidence was brittle.
He said the priority now is to support those that have been made redundant.
Simon Mydlowski, a partner at Yorkshire law firm Gordons and an expert on the hospitality industry, said Jamie’s is the latest brand that has failed to keep pace in a rapidly changing sector where a business needs to keep evolving.
“A number of suppliers will have been caught unawares here, perhaps showing a little too much trust in the Jamie Oliver name, but this is not the first big restaurant chain to have suffered and it won’t be the last,” he said in a statement.
“Faced with higher rent, rising food prices and increased competition, restaurants need a point of difference — it’s no coincidence that smaller brands with the freedom and flexibility to keep things fresh are currently the ones performing well.”
(LONDON) — British Prime Minister Theresa May says Parliament will get the chance to vote on whether to hold a new referendum on Britain’s EU membership, as she tries to get lawmakers to back her divorce deal with the European Union.
May says Tuesday that an EU withdrawal agreement bill that she plans to bring to Parliament next month will include a provision for a vote on whether to hold a new public poll on whether to leave. That is a key demand of many opposition lawmakers.
May is offering concessions in what she says is a “last chance” to secure an orderly British departure from the bloc.
The deal that she struck with the EU has been rejected by UK lawmakers three times already.
(KIEV, Ukraine) — Ukraine’s new president on Tuesday ordered the dissolution of the nation’s legislature and called a snap election in two months, hoping to ride the wave of his electoral success to get his supporters into parliament.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old comedian who won 73% of the vote last month, announced his intention to disband parliament in his inauguration speech Monday, saying that current lawmakers are focused on self-enrichment and lack public trust.
He quickly fulfilled the promise in Tuesday’s decree that set the parliamentary election for July 21.
The election to the Verkhovna Rada was originally scheduled for Oct. 27, a situation that would have put Zelenskiy in a position where he would face a parliament dominated by supporters of former President Petro Poroshenko and would be unable to pursue his agenda for months.
Zelenskiy, who has become famous for playing the role of a Ukrainian president in a widely popular TV sitcom, is gambling that his popularity will allow his party to make a successful showing in the parliamentary vote.
“Zelenskiy is trying to act as quickly as possible, because he realizes that voters’ excitement will cool down in half-a-year,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kiev-based independent think-tank Penta.
His foes in parliament sought to push back his inauguration past the May 27 deadline by which the parliament can be dissolved, but eventually had to submit to public pressure.
Zelenskiy’s landslide victory reflected Ukrainians’ exasperation with the country’s economic woes and rampant official corruption and the country’s political elite.
Zelenskiy already has asked several top ministers to step down, but he will likely have trouble getting their successors appointed by the current parliament.
In his inaugural speech, Zelenskiy said that the main goal for the presidency is to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for five years in a conflict that has left at least 13,000 dead.
(BEIJING) — The founder of Huawei expressed confidence Washington’s curbs on sales to the Chinese tech giant will have little impact and said Tuesday it is discussing “emergency relief” from Google for possible loss of services for its smartphone business.
Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest maker of network gear for phone carriers, has “supply backups” if it loses access to American components, Ren Zhengfei told Chinese reporters. His comments were broadcast by state TV and other outlets.
The Trump administration’s order last week steps up pressure on Huawei, which Washington says is a security risk, and threatens to hamper sales of network gear and other products. Huawei is the No. 2 global smartphone brand but relies on Google’s Android operating system and U.S. components suppliers.
China’s government repeated its promise to defend Chinese companies abroad but gave no details of what Beijing might do.
American officials say Huawei and other Chinese telecom equipment vendors are a risk because they beholden to the ruling Communist Party. Huawei denies accusations it facilitates Chinese spying.
The U.S. controls “will have no impact within this company” and none on development of next-generation telecom technology, Ren said. He said some low-end business might be affected.
Huawei has developed its own chips for some smartphones and other products but relies on American suppliers for its most advanced components.
Huawei and Google are discussing possible “emergency relief measures” for its smartphone business, which might lose access to some of the American company’s services, Ren said. He gave no details.
Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., said Monday its basic services still will work on Huawei smartphones, which use its Android operating system.
Google gave no details of what services might be curtailed. But the company would be barred from transferring hardware or software directly to Huawei. That would affect maps or other services that require the American company’s support.
Huawei trails only Samsung of South Korea in global smartphone sales. Industry analysts say it might struggle to compete if it cannot line up replacements for Google services that run afoul of the U.S. curbs.
“I should say this impact will be very big, but Google is an extremely good company,” Ren said. “We are discussing emergency relief measures.”
A foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington of misusing “state power” to hurt foreign companies and interfere in commercial markets.
“The Chinese government has determination and ability to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests,” said the spokesman, Lu Kang.
Apple Inc., Huawei’s main American rival in smartphones, makes a prominent potential target for Beijing. The company’s iPhones are assembled in China and the country is its No. 2 market after the United States.
Attacking Apple might be politically awkward for Chinese leaders who have accused Washington of mistreating Huawei. Business groups say Chinese officials are trying to reassure American companies they are welcome despite Beijing’s tariff war with President Donald Trump. But regulators have an array of tools including tax and safety inspections that can hamper a company with no official acknowledgement it is targeted.
Huawei’s U.S. sales collapsed in 2012 after a congressional panel told phone carriers to avoid the company and its smaller Chinese competitor, ZTE Corp., as security threats.
Despite that, Huawei’s sales elsewhere have grown rapidly. The company reported earlier its global sales rose 19.5% last year over 2017 to 721.2 billion ($105.2 billion). Profit rose 25.1% to 59.3 billion yuan ($8.6 billion).
Huawei smartphone shipments rose 50 percent over a year earlier in the first three months of 2019 to 59.1 million, while the global industry’s total fell 6.6%, according to IDC. Shipments by Samsung and No. 3 Apple declined.
Last week’s order, however, threatens to disrupt Huawei’s global business by limiting access to components for products sold everywhere, not just in the U.S. market.
It will take effect after a 90-day grace period that will allow some transactions to allow telecom operators that depend on Huawei equipment for “critical services” time to make other arrangements, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Monday in a notice on its website.
Washington has tried to persuade U.S. allies to shun Huawei as a supplier of fifth-generation technology. Australia, Taiwan and some other governments have imposed curbs on use of Huawei technology, but Germany, France and other countries still do business with the company.
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Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai blames US for sinking trade deal Washington has long suspected deep links between Huawei and the Chinese military, and its moves against the company came amid the churning trade dispute.
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Gold hovers near 2-week low on strong dollar ahead of US Federal Reserve's minutes The dollar hovered near a four-week high supported by higher U.S. yields, which rose overnight after the United States eased trade restrictions on Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.
Oil slides on rising US crude stockpiles, Saudi Arabia vow to keep market balanced Official data from the U.S Energy Information Administration's oil stockpiles report is due later on Wednesday.
Global markets: Asia stocks fragile as trade anxiety overshadows Huawei reprieve MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan moved in and out of the red and last stood little changed.
Iraq seeks to calm tensions, to send urgent delegations to US On Sunday, a Katyusha rocket was fired into Baghdad's Green Zone housing government offices and embassies including the US mission, days after Washington evacuated staff from Iraq, citing Iranian threats.
81% of Indian firms plan to divest in next 2 years: EY report About 63% respondents said their last divestment was driven by a need to streamline their operating model, with 86% adding that it will continue to be a key factor in their divestment plans over the next 12 months.
Opposition's defeat imminent, doubt over EVMs bogus: Nitish Kumar Almost all exit polls have predicted an easy win for the BJP-led NDA under Narendra Modi's leadership. The NDA is projected to bag more than 300 seats in 543 members Lok Sabha.
Dassault Systemes set to give a leg up to Indian manufacturing Bernard Charles, vice chairman and CEO, Dassault Systemes, said the lack of innovative knowhow in the country provides a huge opportunity for the company .
What will steer share market today: Lok Sabha election results, Rupee and other key things to watch out for The Indian headline indices- Sensex and Nifty are likely to open positive ahead of Lok Sabha election results on Thursday. The stock market has been on a rally since exit poll results predicted victory for BJP.
TPG Growth to sell CTSI to Varian for $283 million TPG said in a release that when CTSI was first acquired by TPG Growth, it operated one facility in Hyderabad.
Sahil Vachani: Building Max Group#39;s real estate dreams The 36-year-old has led a turnaround in Max Ventures, and has just opened the Group#39;s first real estate property
Jindal Steel slumps 10% as loss widens in Q4 Total expenses of the company stood at Rs 11,850.61 crore in March 2019 quarter as compared to Rs 8,493.57 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.
Suzuki Motorcycle India reveals accessories list for Gixxer SF Gixxer SF 250 Most of these accessories are for aesthetic purposes, but some are functional too
IT and banks our top pick; normal monsoon will boost consumption: Axis Securities We are of the opinion that the discretionary consumption would bounce back if the monsoon is ‘normal’, liquidity situation eases and stable government is in place, said Arun Thukral of Axis Securities
Soybean futures expected to trade sideways: Angel Commodities According to Angel Commodities, Soybean futures expected to trade sideways in coming days due to lower physical demand by the oil mills.
Gold prices expected to trade lower today: Angel Commodities According to Angel Commodities, on the MCX, gold prices are expected to trade lower today, international markets are trading lower by 0.15 percent at $1275.15 per ounce.
The 36-year-old has led a turnaround in Max Ventures, and has just opened the Group#39;s first real estate property
Total expenses of the company stood at Rs 11,850.61 crore in March 2019 quarter as compared to Rs 8,493.57 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.
Most of these accessories are for aesthetic purposes, but some are functional too
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We are of the opinion that the discretionary consumption would bounce back if the monsoon is ‘normal’, liquidity situation eases and stable government is in place, said Arun Thukral of Axis Securities
According to Angel Commodities, Soybean futures expected to trade sideways in coming days due to lower physical demand by the oil mills.
According to Angel Commodities, on the MCX, gold prices are expected to trade lower today, international markets are trading lower by 0.15 percent at $1275.15 per ounce.
Today, USD-INR pair is expected to quote in the range of 69.40 and 70.05, says Motilal Oswal.
