When Trump learned that Mueller had been appointed, his initial reaction was "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed."
One day in 1900 or 1940, or at some point in between, a man whose name was John Frum — although he might not have been a man, and his name might not have been John Frum — arrived on Tanna island, in an archipelago that was then called the New Hebrides but is now called the Republic of Vanuatu.
Zeta is a free tool that takes over the money chores in your relationship so you don't have to. Use it to track your spending, bills, net worth, and goals - both individually and as a couple.
It all started at the end of April 2018, with an email out of the blue to my address at Chatham House, the London-based think tank, asking me if I would be willing to speak at a conference. That meeting was odd, but not so odd that I was sure it was a set-up.
An emerging fault system along the Nevada border is shaking up the tech industry's latest frontier — and only a small group of scientists is paying attention.
Nintendo has been eyeing virtual reality for longer than you realize. You wouldn't have known it back in January 2018 when the first cardboard gaming kit was announced, but work was happening behind the scenes. It was far enough along even then to make a cameo appearance in that first reveal.
If we're going to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we'll need an energy revolution. And that means batteries. But there's a big problem.
Be the data wizard of your company (and indispensable!) with this Excel Data Analyst Certification School — learn to convey complex technical information simply, explore data manipulation, analytics and problem-solving, and much more.
While many of the blasts, including the first Trinity test, were only recorded on film, at least one test in the Nevada desert came with audio as well, and was preserved on the National Archive.
Never heard of a dugong? Neither had we until we watched this video. These noble sea cows are in the same taxonomic order as manatees (hence the resemblance) and can be found in the waters off of East Africa, South Asia and all the way to Australia.
Among the immediate questions once the report is public will be how faithfully Attorney General William P. Barr reflected its conclusions in a March 24 letter to Congress.
Zeta is the mission control for your finances. It's a free tool specifically designed for couples with shared expenses to track their spending, bills, savings, and more. And it only takes 10 minutes to get set up.
Another content creator was forced to file a DMCA takedown request after Barstool swiped its content. It's the latest in a long line of complaints against the media company.
Say you want to send scientific equipment, a time capsule, or your grandmother's ashes to the lunar surface, but you're not NASA or Jeff Bezos, so you pay someone to arrange it all for you. John Thornton wants to be that someone.
Made of 30% butter and 30% sugar, the Kouign-amann is pure pleasure. This divinely rich pastry comes from the coastal town of Douarnenez, France, where it was accidentally created in 1860 by a busy baker who had run out of pastries to sell.
One team of cyberspies has pulled off that scale of espionage with a rare and troubling trick: DNS hijacking, a technique that meddles with the fundamental address book of the internet.
For the last 50 years, researchers and journalists have been tracking the phenomenon of plummeting numbers of female births, especially across large swaths of Asia.
A 5-year-old was calling the shots. And the rules were simple: pink toys, pink clothes, and pink things only. As a parent bearing witness to the efficacy of advertisements targeted to children, photographer JeongMee Yoon questioned the long-term effects of a color-coded childhood.
Don't settle for anything less than you deserve, guys.
We won't get into that person that doesn't deserve a text back from you, but we will scold you for putting up with that decrepit six-year-old laptop that makes work harder rather than easier.
It's time for a glow up: The Lenovo Yoga line has some of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market right now, and you can snag the 13.9-inch Yoga C930 for as low as $1,049.99. The least you'll save is $350, and savings just go up from there.
Lenovo was out here experimenting with convertible laptops way before Dell or HP. The Ideapad and Yoga lines have been through a lot of tweaking in the past seven years, and the Yoga C930 is essentially the model that got to benefit from all that trial and error. Read more...
Years of squabbling between two giant tech companies came to an end on Tuesday, as Apple and Qualcomm settled their legal disputes globally. This is likely a good thing for consumers because it means Apple may now be able to get a 5G iPhone out the door in a somewhat timely manner.
According to a report from Bloomberg, working with Qualcomm was probably the only way for Apple to embrace the new wireless high-speed standard in the near future.
Put simply, Qualcomm has resources that Apple and any other company Apple could hire to make 5G modems do not. Apple had intended to work with Intel on making a 5G iPhone until the legal settlement, but even then, Intel seemingly couldn't compete with Qualcomm's expertise and resources in the 5G space. Read more...
Taking care of your pearly whites should always be a priority. Your smile is something you should own and be proud of — so show it some love by making sure you have the right toothbrush. Philips Sonicare is one of the most popular brands when it comes to toothcare, and you can get one of their chomper-cleaning tools on sale right now.
The Philips Sonicare 4100 toothbrush is $20 off on Amazon — with a focus on plaque-control, this toothbrush will have you wanting to show off your smile wherever you go.
The Philips Sonicare 4100 removes up to seven times more plaque than manual toothbrushes do — and it’s much easier to use. The brush’s pressure sensor protects your gums from damage caused by excess scrubbing (say goodbye to gingivitis), and the automatic smart timer alerts you when the recommended two minutes of cleaning are up. Its battery life can last up to two whole weeks (the charger is included in the package), and the Sonicare’s Brush Sync system reminds you when it’s time to replace your old brush head. Read more...
People are going wild with the new stage builder in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was added to the game in the free version 3.0.0 update Wednesday.
Smash players immediately jumped into the stage builder and have been sharing their custom creations online, some of them being clever and impressively detailed battle arenas, others being more comical than practical. And, of course, it was only a matter of time before people started making lewd stages.
Perhaps the most clever/goofy/weird stage that's come out of it so far is a stage called "spicy meatball," which contains a gigantic Mario that swallows players and poops them out with such force that they die. Read more...
Amazon and YouTube are buddies again, and as a result of their restored friendship, the YouTube app will soon return to Fire TV devices and Fire TV smart TVs.
Similarly, Amazon's Prime Video will also support Chromecast devices and Android TV products.
YouTube will return to Fire TV devices "in the coming months" according to Amazon. Apps for YouTube TV and YouTube Kids will be available on Amazon's streaming media devices "later this year."
"We are excited to work with Amazon to launch the official YouTube apps on Fire TV devices worldwide," said Heather Rivera, Global Head of Product Partnerships at YouTube. "Bringing our flagship YouTube experience to Amazon Fire TV gives our users even more ways to watch the videos and creators they love." Read more...
When people think of tablets, iPads are often what come to mind. But you don’t have to drop a couple hundred to get a reliable tablet capable of the functions you want. Amazon’s Fire HD 10 is already significantly cheaper than an iPad, and now it’s $50 off, making it even more affordable.
Obviously you’re not going to get a ton of great features with a tablet this cheap, but the Fire HD 10 has a 10.1-inch 1080p Full HD display, up to 1.8 GHZ quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and up to 10 hours of battery life.
As with other Amazon smart devices, the tablet has Alexa capabilities, allowing you to pause videos, play music, open apps, display the weather, and more, just with your voice. Plus, if you’re a Prime member, you get unlimited access to more than a thousand books and magazines, millions of songs, and thousands of movies and TV episodes included in the subscription. Read more...
If you're a Jeopardy! fan you've no doubt heard the name James Holzhauer, who cleaned house by earning $131,127 in a single game on Wednesday.
This was Holzhauer's tenth straight win on the game show, and his fourth time breaking the record for most money earned on the show in a single night. This time, he broke his own record of $110,914, and has now earned a grand total of $697,787 so far, with no sign of stopping any time soon.
Holzhauer now holds four of the top five spots in the list of top earnings in a single show. The only other man on that list is Roger Craig in fifth place.
Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler, which explains his strategic approach to choosing questions worth more money first and larger than average bets on Daily Doubles. Read more...
As the world waits for the release of the Mueller report, Donald Trump has tweeted perhaps his most nonsensical meme yet.
Shortly after Attorney General William Barr's press conference, but before the public has even had a chance to read the redacted report, President Trump tweeted another Game of Thrones meme of himself.
"No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats — GAME OVER," the image of him walking into a bunch of fog, read.
Trump's past tweets, and the classic Game of Thrones font he used seem to suggest this is a reference to the popular HBO show. But aside from being a wildly unprofessional tweet from a president, the meme makes absolutely no sense. Read more...
While laptops are wonderful for watching movies and TV shows, sometimes you just need a dedicated machine for getting the job done with no distractions. A great laptop for business needs to be versatile for an assortment of daily tasks, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and web research.
In the business world, "the dog ate my homework" is not a good excuse. Business laptops need to be light enough to easily take to meetings and conferences across the country (or around the world), while also performing under pressure and maintaining battery life. The last thing you want is your laptop dying in the middle of an important presentation or meeting. Read more...
You may have heard the news earlier this year about an all-digital Xbox One S. Well, Microsoft has now taken the next step and officially unveiled the new console, and you can pre-order it for under £200 from Amazon.
The Xbox One S all-digital edition console is due to be released on May 7. You can ensure that you are one of the first to get your hands on the new device by pre-ordering for £199.99. If you order now and the Amazon price decreases between the time you place your order and the release date, you'll be charged the lowest price. So you are guaranteed the best deal.
The digital Xbox One S comes with a wireless controller, a one-month Xbox Live Gold subscription, and download codes for Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3, and Sea of Thieves. The new console is identical to the regular Xbox One S except it doesn't have a disc drive. This means you won't be able to play game discs, but everything is downloadable nowadays anyway. Read more...
If you have got a seemingly ever-growing list of items that you absolutely must have, then you are not alone. We definitely aren't recommending going on a massive splurge and ticking everything off. We are recommending taking the opportunity to save on your most wanted products.
Until midnight on April 22, you can get your wishlist for less from selected sellers on eBay, with a helpful code. Simply make a purchase of £20 or more on eBay, enter the code PRO10 at the checkout when prompted, and receive a 10 percent discount.
It is worth noting that the maximum discount you can receive is £50 per redemption and you are limited to one redemption, but that's still a considerable saving. Read more...
Attorney general William Barr held a press conference Thursday morning to discuss the long-awaited Mueller report, a move which has been criticized by Democrats as unnecessary and "inappropriate." Next to him stood deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who spent most of the conference staring intensely into the middle distance.
Remember when Chris Christie stood next to Trump during a rally and looked like he'd just woken up on a submarine to hell? This was kind of like that. Several people made "Sound of Silence" jokes.
madame tousseau's new rod rosenstein figure looks pretty lifelike
Apple's new iPhone models, likely coming out this fall, will get an improved selfie camera, and two new models will get a triple camera with a super-wide lens, a new report claims.
The news is courtesy of reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors), and while it mostly rehashes his report from early April, it does mention a few new details.
Kuo claims that the 6.5-inch OLED and the 5.8-inch OLED iPhones — corresponding to the iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XS — will get the triple camera, while the 6.1-inch LCD model (corresponding to the iPhone XR) will be upgraded to a dual camera. Read more...
Now the #WhatsMyName hashtag is spreading — with the help of her family — to make sure more riders safely get home. A website, a growing social presence, and media appearances are all efforts to educate passengers on how to find the correct Uber or Lyft after ordering a car through an app. Read more...
Do you ever pause amidst the bloody carnage of Game of Thrones and think: Why can't these people just get along?
Well, so does Elmo from Sesame Street, and he's done with all this fighting and incest nonsense. In a magical crossover spot from Game of Thrones and Sesame Street, Elmo shows up in King's Landing to mediate squabbling Lannister siblings Cersei and Tyrion, and...it works.
The video is part of Sesame Workshop's "Respect Brings Us Together" campaign, which includes videos with Common and a trip to Westworld.
You've gotta wonder how far a little respect would go in Westeros, where siblings speak openly about their dreams to murder each other (and might even follow through). If they can't get along, they can at least try! Read more...
At long last, the day has come. A copy of the Mueller report is expected to be released to the general public shortly, and while the American people wait they've decided to pass the time by making comfort memes.
Attorney General William Barr is set to release some 400-pages of findings from Mueller's Special Counsel investigation into Donald Trump and his administration's involvement with Russia, but there's a catch: parts of the report will be redacted.
The report is said to be "lightly redacted," but having seen the massive redacted portions in the Special Counsel's sentencing memo on Michael Flynn last year, people are rightfully skeptical. As they wonder whether or not the report will be presented with an absurd amount of blacked out text, people are preparing for a potential let down with some jokes. Read more...
The NFL's Carolina Panthers hit a sweet spot for fans on Wednesday night as they rolled out their 2019 schedule with the perfect homage to our favorite video games.
There's a lot packed in here for 17 weeks of football (16 games and one off week) but it's incredibly entertaining nonetheless: Skate or Die, Pitfall, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, NBA Jam, Oregon Trail, and Goldeneye all make appearances, scratching that nostalgia itch. But there are a few more recent games, too, including Words With Friends and PokémonGo.
The NFL has made a big to-do in recent years in releasing the official schedule for the upcoming season and each team put out their own spin on a schedule release video, like the Los Angeles Chargers who purposely used stock footage to poke fun at some of their opponents. Read more...
The iPhone X is one of Apple's most advanced and most popular smartphones ever. It's a technological marvel inside and out. It's also extremely slippery and you should definitely get a case (even if it's a cheap one) to protect your device.
There are a zillion cases you can buy, but which one is right for you and your lifestyle? Here are 6 of the best we recommend. Read more...
OtterBox cases are legendary for their ability to take serious abuse and that remains unchanged for the iPhone X. The Defender case is bulky, which means you lose some pocketability (sucks if you wear skinny jeans), but it'll protect your iPhone X from virtually all kinds of impact, dust, and lint. The only downside to Otterbox's iPhone X case is it doesn't shield the screen, which is odd because the Defender cases for other models like the iPhone 8 do. A screen protector will cost you extra, but at least the body is covered up.
The summer movie season is upon us, flooding our theaters with intriguing new releases. So here we are to help you navigate that storm, with a look ahead at some of the most exciting titles to come.
Feeling overwhelmed in your day-to-day life is generally a bad thing, sure. But feeling overwhelmed at the movies? Sometimes, that's exactly what you want.
Whether you're eager to feel triumphant or terrified, passionate or perplexed, there's something out there for you. Here's what to watch if you want to feel feelings ...
… and you’re looking for inspiration: Knock Down the House (May 1)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 'Knock Down the House'.
One more day till Good Friday. Take advantage of holiday sales. It's the perfect opportunity for you to grab a bargain, as retailers will use any excuse to hold a new sale to increase their revenues during this Easter holiday.
Amazon is marking down many of their own devices such as their Fire HD 10 tablets, Echo Show, Echo Dot, and more. They only really discount these items during holiday periods or special events so if you have longed for these devices for awhile, now is your time to purchase it.
It's hard to picture Jason Momoa without his signature beard. That's because it's been such a major part of the aesthetics of some of his most notable roles, like Khal Drogo and Aquaman.
But those days are gone. Momoa has kissed goodbye to his facial fuzz (for the first time since 2012, he says). And he filmed himself shaving it off.
"Goodbye Drogo, goodbye Arthur Curry, goodbye Declan," said Momoa as he sheared clumps of hair off his face.
In the video, Momoa says the reason he's decided to part ways with his beard is because he wants to raise awareness of the destructive impact of plastics on the environment. He goes on to advocate aluminium recycling. Read more...
Extinction Rebellion is a London climate change protest, causing traffic disruptions by occupying various public spaces – like Oxford Circus and Waterloo Bridge.
The goal is to see British government declare an ecological emergency and take immediate action to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025. Read more...
Little Mix's Perrie Edwards has opened up about her experience of living with anxiety and panic attacks over the past few years.
In an Instagram post, she began by stating that she wanted to open up about something because "venting your feelings is healthy and I want to be honest with you all."
"Over the past few years I have suffered really badly with anxiety and panic attacks," wrote Edwards. "When I first started to feel the effects of anxiety I thought I was losing my mind and it terrified me. I felt so alone and like I was the first person in the world to ever experience it." Read more...
The bank holiday weekend is almost here, and that means just one more working day before a glorious four-day break. With this in mind, we have lined up a selection of great deals to help you get the good vibes going.
We have handpicked the very best deals on a wide selection of Amazon devices, kitchen appliances, and more, including juicers, kettles, stand mixers, smart home devices, and speakers.
Take your pick from leading brands like Ultimate Ears, Kenwood, Philips, and Logitech. These are the best deals from across the internet for April 18.
Best of the best
We have lined up the best deals on everything from across the web, including speakers, smart home devices, and Logitech gaming accessories. Read more...
Nintendo has been eyeing virtual reality for longer than you realize.
You wouldn't have known it back in Jan. 2018 when the first cardboard gaming kit was announced, but work was happening behind the scenes. It was far enough along even then to make a cameo appearance in that first reveal.
"When we first came up with the concept of Labo, we realized that we can incorporate VR experiences into it," Labo Director and Software Lead Tsubasa Sakaguchi said through a translator during a recent interview.
"[It] was part of the theme from the earlier stages. As you can see from the release announcement video, the VR Toy-Cons are actually included in that announcement video." Read more...
When you're an actor, not getting an audition must be tough. But surely getting the audition only to be casually replaced after you've already recorded the show must be a lot worse.
Just ask Linda Cardellini. She appeared on The Late Late Show on Wednesday and recounted how that exact scenario happened to her on Family Guy — and she told the story in front of Seth MacFarlane.
"I did a voice on it, and I told everybody, like, 'tune in and watch', and then when I watched it I was replaced!" she said.
MacFarlane's response? "In my defence, I have no recollection of anything past this morning." Read more...
Anyone who follows Chrissy Teigen on Twitter will know that she always speaks her mind — and she's definitely not afraid to hit back at people who attack her.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Fox News host Laura Ingraham found this out first hand.
It started with a clip of Ingraham mocking Chrissy Teigen's inclusion on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People" of 2019.
The top story on Fox's 10 o'clock hour is Laura Ingraham raging about @chrissyteigen being named to Times top 100 most influential list. Laura is mad that Mrs. Tiegen said a naughty word pic.twitter.com/BHItYHCoqH
There are a lot of different travel gadgets out there, and it’s hard to know if what you’re getting is going to be useful or just end up collecting dust somewhere in your closet. When you’re hopping around from country to country, it’s important to travel light and only pack the essentials.
Travel gadgets are something we cover often. We’ve broken down the best coffee mugs to take on your morning commute, gotten tech-savvy with the most high tech smart luggage sets, and scoured the web for the one item we pretty much always forget when journeying into foreign lands: Travel adapters.
An ideal travel gadget is the kind of thing you'll use over and over, something that will satisfy such a specific and persistent need that you'll come to rely on it, uncertain how you ever traveled without it. A good travel gadget should be well-made, easy to pack, and worth every penny. Read more...
If Idris Elba (or DJ Big Driis) can perform a two-hour set at Coachella despite his grueling acting career, then so can you. You don't even have to be crowned as the Sexiest Man Alive to pursue DJ-ing. All you need is a passion for creating music magic and a feature-rich digital audio workstation (DAW) to start working the turntables.
For the world's highest-paid DJs like Calvin Harris, David Guetta, and Steve Aoki, and genius producers like Kendrick Lamar and Chris Martin, their DAW of choice is Apple's very own Logic Pro.
Remember when your jaw dropped as you watched Calvin Harris demo how he mixed the banger that is "Slide"? At the center of his production workflow was yup, you named it: Logic Pro. He used the software to cut, combine, and edit a variety of audio elements. But it's easier seen than done. Ogling at a renowned musician produce hits like it's no big deal may make you feel that you can pull it off yourself at first try, but you still need expert-led instruction if you have hopes of breaking into the Billboard Hot 100. Read more...
Freelancing can be great — all that freedom to be your own boss, plus you can work in your underwear. But there's another side to freelancing that isn't as fun: the side that includes project management, time tracking, invoicing, proposal writing, and lead generation.
Plutio is an app that takes the headache out of your hustle. Designed with freelancers in mind, it's an all-in-one tool that caters to your every need, so you can free up time to do actual work.
Garnering over 1,700 upvotes on Product Hunt and named one of the "Top Ten Essential Tools For All Freelancers And Micro Businesses" by Forbes, Plutio offers a helping hand in almost every aspect of your workflow. It lets you send invoices in a snap and track when they are opened, and gets you paid swiftly with a variety of payment methods including PayPal and Stripe. The tracking tool allows you to better account for your time, and the task management feature lets you organize your to-do list in a way that will help you stay focused. Read more...
A man carrying 2 full cans of gasoline was arrested on Wednesday night after trying to enter St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the police said https://t.co/2z78jrnyCO
A bunch of roses placed near Notre-Dame Cathedral is pictured at sunrise after a massive fire devastated large parts of the gothic structure in Paris. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
WNU Editor: The above picture came from this photo-gallery .... Editors Choice Pictures (Reuters).
Posted: 17 Apr 2019 09:31 PM PDT
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak (SBU) speaks during a news conference, dedicated to the alleged detention of members of a sabotage-reconnaissance group, who according to SBU were sent by Russian intelligence agencies, in Kiev, Ukraine April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's security service SBU said on Wednesday it had captured a Russian military intelligence hit squad responsible for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian military spy in the run-up to a presidential election on Sunday.
The issue of how to deal with Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and backs pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, is prominent ahead of the vote, with incumbent Petro Poroshenko casting himself as the commander-in-chief Ukraine needs to defend the country.
Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of the SBU, the main intelligence agency, told a news conference in Kiev that seven members of the Russian group had been detained and charged and that an eighth person had been detained on Wednesday morning.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un looks on during the test-fire of inter-continental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang, July, 4 2017. KCNA | Reuters
* North Korean state media says the Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of a new type of tactical guided weapon. * The test come less than two months after the collapse of nuclear talks between President Trump and Kim in Hanoi. * The rogue state had stopped testing its nukes as the U.S. and international community offered the possibility of relief from crippling economic sanctions.
WASHINGTON — North Korea tested a new type of tactical guided weapon on Wednesday, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday morning local time.
The test of "a powerful warhead" was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and marks the first public weapons test from the rogue regime since President Donald Trump's historic meeting with Kim in Singapore last year.
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
A few days before the collapse of the Islamic State's caliphate, I visited one of the new "pop-up prisons" that had been hastily converted to hold thousands of surrendering ISIS fighters in Syria. The numbers wildly exceeded all expectations, including estimates by U.S. intelligence. The most striking sight at the prison entrance was a mound of human hair lying on the raw concrete floor. Clumps of it—some brown, some graying, most of it greasy or matted—had been shaved off the heads and faces of fighters before they were taken to group cells. "Lice," one of the guards told me.
where has this mosque gone? Keriya Aitika Mosque. more than 800 year history, disappeared in early 2018 despite selected as Chinese architectural heritage in late 2017. pic.twitter.com/2BnSRe90kr
We are not making nearly enough noise about the cultural genocide the Beijing government is undertaking in Xinjiang province, against the Uighur Muslims. From scholar Rachel Harris in The Guardian:
After the Cultural Revolution, Uighur and Kazakh Muslims began to reconnect with their faith. They resumed the traditional practices of pilgrimage and festivals at the shrines that lie deep in the Taklamakan desert. They began to learn about Islam in the wider world; people who could afford it travelled to Mecca for the hajj, and they began to rebuild their mosques. As local communities grew richer they invested in bigger and more beautiful mosques; people crowded into them for Friday prayers, and they served as living symbols of community identity and pride.
The British parliament has been due an expensive refurbishment for decades, but MPs have repeatedly put off making decisions. As a result it has become, instead, a metaphor for the failures of our political leaders
The world watched in horror as one of the greatest symbols of civilisation burned. The cathedral of Notre Dame was a remarkable flowering of the Gothic style, with its high arched roofs and flying buttresses. It is a monument to the ambition, piety, technological advance and splendour of the high middle ages.
One estimate suggests that building the cathedral absorbed about one-fifth of the economic resources of the Paris basin for a century and a half, 1100 to 1250. It was built to last forever, and it was heartbreaking to watch such ancient grandeur consumed by the flames.
* Attorney General William Barr will discuss special counsel Robert Mueller's report at a 9:30 a.m. ET press conference on Thursday. * Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will accompany him, according to NBC News. There was no indication that the report would be released before the press conference.
Attorney General William Barr will discuss special counsel Robert Mueller's report at a 9:30 a.m. ET press conference on Thursday.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will accompany him, according to NBC News. There was no indication that the report would be released before the press conference.
Mueller submitted the report to the Justice Department late last month. Barr will be releasing a redacted version of the approximately 400-page document, which details Mueller's findings about the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
KYIV -- There is one presidential candidate Ukrainians have become accustomed to watching sing and dance on stage.
It is not incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.
And yet there the 53-year-old was, gyrating and pumping his fist beside yellow-overall-clad rockers at a campaign rally at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 14.
Fighting for his political survival -- one week before the election.
Then, in another act his aides said was unscripted, Poroshenko led a gushing crowd of a few thousand people inside the 70,000-seat stadium for nearly an hour, rousing them with patriotic chants and posing for selfies with supporters.
WNU Editor: This is suppose to be Ukraine President Poroshnko's core support .... Ukrainian leader's re-election drive to win the army vote stutters (Reuters). My prediction still holds. Ukraine President Poroshenko will be easily defeated this Sunday by challenger Volodomyr Zelenskiy, and I for one am very happy about that.
Khartoum, Sudan (CNN)Sudan's ousted President Omar al-Bashir was transferred on Tuesday evening to Kober prison, a maximum-security prison notorious for holding political prisoners during his 30-year dictatorship, two prison officials who witnessed his arrival told CNN.
Several other regime figures are being held at the jail and kept separately to Bashir, who is under intensified security measures, the officials said. The prison's main yard has been well-known as a site for executions.
"He would've been led past the same hangman's noose where he sent people to meet their Lord," said one of the prison officials.
WNU Editor: Talk about poetic justice. Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is now staying in the same prison where he imprisoned his opponents during his reign.
More News On Former Sudan President Omar al-Bashir Being Transferred To Jail
Video game PUBG is popular across Iraq. On Wednesday the Iraqi parliament voted to push for a ban of the game and others it deems a threat to society. Photo: Rudaw
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament voted on Wednesday to ban popular online video games including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, citing their "negative" influence especially on the young in a country long plagued by real-life bloodshed.
Iraq held its first election in 2018 after years of devastating factional violence. Islamic State militants held wide swathes of the country for three years until they were driven out in heavy fighting with U.S.-backed forces in 2017.
Lawmakers, who were sworn in last September after months of disputed results and ballot box recounts, approved a resolution that mandated the government to bar online access to the games and ban related financial transactions.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi during an official reception ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 17, 2019. Reuters
King Salman praised the warming of ties after an Iraqi delegation arrived in Riyadh.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed 13 political and economic agreements in a sign of improving ties between the two countries after 25 years of estrangement.
The development comes as Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh leading a high-level delegation of senior ministers and business leaders.
The Iraqi leader was welcomed by Saudi King Salman.
Before the visit, Mr Abdul Mahdi said relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia had entered a new stage.
"We are facing major shifts in our relations with Saudi Arabia," he said in Baghdad on Tuesday evening.
"Iraq wants to develop relations with Saudi Arabia in all fields. This will bring security and stability to the region."
WNU Editor: When Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two weeks ago, he was told to order U.S. troops out of the country .... Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Tells Iraq To Expel U.S. Troops 'As Soon As Possible' (April 7, 2019). But when Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi met Saudi King Salman, instead of being told what to do, monies and loans were offered and given, and the need to have more consultations in the future to better ties. In this context, it is not hard to figure out who the Iraqi PM would want to deal with.
Leaving for good: Soldiers close the Iraq-Kuwait border gate behind the final vehicles. There are concerns about how stable Iraq is and whether the departure of U.S. troops is too premature. December, 2011.
The US has over 5,000 troops currently based in Iraq.
The status of foreign troops in Iraq has once again been raised in recent months. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated Tehran's opposition to the US presence in Iraq following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi on April 6.
"US military presence in Iraq is detrimental to countries and nations of the region. You should take action to make the US withdraw its troops from Iraq because wherever they have had [an] enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," he told the Iraqi premier.
WNU Editor: Iraqi rhetoric aside, I do not see Baghdad ordering U.S. forces out of Iraq in the foreseeable future. The Iraqi government is more concerned about Turkish forces in the northern part of the country, the autonomous Kurdish regions, and the Iranian-Persian desires to make Iraq a satellite state of Tehran. Telling the U.S. to leave will bring no benefit to Baghdad, and I think they all know that. I think the Iraqis also know that if they tell the U.S. to leave, President Trump would quickly grab that as an excuse to leave ASAP.
In a high-profile meeting with Syrian President Beshar al-Assad in Tehran on Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran considers backing for Syria in the face of the grand coalition of the U.S., Europe and their regional allies against Damascus as a support for the resistance movement and Tehran is proud of this. Tehran Times
Syrian Minister of Transport Ali Hammoud met with Chinese Ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin in Damascus on April 10. Hammoud stressed the importance of his country's incorporation into Beijing's One Belt, One Road initiative — an ambitious plan to recreate the modern-day analogue of the Silk Road. Hammoud invited Chinese investors to participate in commercial projects on Syrian soil, including the City of Marine Industries, to be established on the coast between Latakia and Tartus; the development of international transport routes; and the launch of railroad projects in rural Damascus.
At least 11 people have been killed in escalating clashes between Russian forces and pro-Iranian militias in the city of Aleppo, amid strained relations between the two Assad allies, news agency Syria Call has reported.
A Russian military source acknowledged the death of 11 people, including two children and three women, whilst 11 others are believed to have been injured in the violence. Clashes reportedly broke out near a vegetable market in Khaldiya, which quickly escalated to the use of heavy weaponry, with some ground-to-air missiles fired on nearby areas within the city, resulting in the civilian casualties.
WNU Editor: No reporting from the West on these clashes. But Russian social media has been talking about growing tensions between Russian and Iranian-backed forces in Syria for the past few months.
#Israel Air Force successfully used #Rampage for first time. Due to the danger of #Syria Air Defense Force's S-300PM-2s, #Israel Air Force had to use the rocket to target a rocket/ ballistic missile factory + weapon warehouses of #IRGC proxies in #Masyaf, #Syria on 13/04/2019: https://t.co/4YjD7ySZ5O
The Israeli Air Force is reportedly successfully used new supersonic Rampage stand-off air-to-surface missiles for the first time during a recent airstrike on Syrian military positions.
Israel has reportedly conducted a number of strikes on sites around Masyaf in the predawn hours of Saturday morning. Satellite imagery analysis company ImageSat confirmed that Israel targeted the base in Masyaf.
A large hangar and three nearby buildings were destroyed in the attack on the facility, near the city of Masyaf in the western Hama province, according to the satellite images analyzed and distributed by ImageSat International.
GarcÃa, who faced accusations of taking bribes from Brazilian company Odebrecht during his presidency, shot himself at his home
Peru's former president Alan GarcÃa has died after deliberately shooting himself in the head when police tried to arrest him in connection with a multibillion-dollar Latin American corruption scandal.
"I am saddened by the death of former president Alan GarcÃa," tweeted the country's current president, MartÃn Vizcarra, confirming the news. "I send my condolences to his family and loved ones."
Army Secretary Mark Esper says he wants to shift money away from light vehicles and cargo helicopters made for "different conflicts" of the past.
U.S. Army leaders revealed Tuesday that they are briefing top military commanders about new weapons being built specifically for "high-intensity conflict" against China and Russia, in a new effort to assure that they could provide vital firepower for those potential battlefields of the future.
Army Secretary Mark Esper said he wants to shift some money away from vehicles and aircraft more suited for conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and into "what I need to penetrate Russian or Chinese air defenses."
A record 70 percent of Russians approve of Soviet leader Josef Stalin's role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday.
Stalin's image has been gradually rehabilitated in the 2000s from that of a bloody autocrat to an "outstanding leader." President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet anthem, Soviet-style military parades and a Soviet-era medal for labor during his presidency.
Seventy percent of Russian respondents told the Levada Center in 2019 that Stalin played a positive role for Russia. Stalin's previous record approval rating stood at 54 percent in 2016.
A record low of 19 percent viewed Stalin's role negatively, down from 32 percent in 2016.
WNU Editor: The poll is here .... The perception of Stalin (Levada Center). My read of the poll is different from what the Moscow Times is saying. Some of the questions that were asked would result in even me saying yes to Stalin, such as this one .... "REGARDLESS OF THE MISTAKES AND FLAWS ATTRIBUTED TO STALIN, THE FACT THAT OUR PEOPLE WON THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP IS WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT"? What the pollster should have asked is something like this .... would you vote/support for someone like Stalin to be the leader of Russia today? On this question I can guarantee that over 95% would say no.
* Inspector general to audit Columbia class propulsion, steering * Audit likely to finish as Congress mulls money for first sub
The Pentagon's inspector general plans to audit how well the Navy is overseeing development of the propulsion and steering system for its new $128 billion Columbia class of nuclear-armed submarines.
An audit this early in the Navy's top-priority program -- at least 17 months before construction is scheduled to start on the first of 12 vessels -- signals concern about the potential risks in technology for the sub, which is still mostly in its design phase.
The review that's likely to begin by June will "determine whether the Navy is managing the development" of the system to "ensure that it meets performance requirements without cost increases or schedule overruns," the watchdog office said in its fiscal 2019 audit plan.
"There is a suggestion in this statement that the stern section may present some risk of cost growth or schedule delay," Ronald O'Rourke, naval systems analyst for the Congressional Research Service, said in an email. Until now, he said, concern about cost and delay "has focused on things other than the stern section."
WNU Editor: I guess someone figured out that the initial budget on the cost of this program was not realistic, and now everyone wants to know how much will this submarine program really cost.
* Five of Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-35 jets reportedly made seven emergency landings prior to a crash somewhere in the Pacific Ocean last week, according to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.
* The emergency landings occurred in flight tests between June 2017 and January 2019, The Mainichi reported, citing defense officials.
* The crashed F-35, which was assembled by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagoya, Japan, was reportedly diagnosed with cooling and navigation system problems in June 2017 and August 2018.
* Four of the five F-35s with problems were also assembled by Mitsubishi.
Five of Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-35 jets reportedly made seven emergency landings prior to a crash somewhere in the Pacific Ocean last week, the Ministry of Defense said, according to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.
Two of the emergency landings were related to the crashed F-35, but the Defense Ministry approved the aircraft to fly again. The emergency landings occurred in flight tests between June 2017 and January 2019, The Mainichi reported.
Among other issues, the F-35s reportedly had problems with the fuel and hydraulics systems. The diagnosed aircraft were were inspected and refitted with parts.
There is a growing demand for hard-kill anti-torpedo defenses to defeat newer torpedoes that are increasingly immune to existing countermeasures.
German and Canadian defense contractors are moving ahead with the development of a rocket-powered hard-kill anti-torpedo defense system called SeaSpider that they hope could become a standard feature on naval vessels in both of those countries. The project is another example of growing interest around the world in anti-torpedo torpedoes to defeat increasingly advanced threats. The War Zone has been closely following the U.S. Navy's own effort, which you can read about in depth in a recent feature.
Left to right: KPN hovercraft, mystery ship, Krivak-class frigate, and a second hovercraft. A narrow patrol boat-type warship is tied up next to the Krivak, and a second of the class is in drydock at the bottom of the screenshot. Screenshot: Google Earth
What may well be a small, one or two-person submarine and mothership has been sighted at a military base in Nampo, North Korea. The small submarines are allegedly meant to conduct suicide attacks on enemy ships, and their appearance could be part of a regular training cycle, or something more sinister.
The ship is tied up alongside other Korean People's Army Naval Force ships at the port of Nampo. It's approximately 30 meters (about 98 feet) long.
The vessel features a rectangular-shaped section in the stern that appears lower than the rest of the ship, casting a shadow. Inside that section, about 10 meters long, is a bullet-shaped object perhaps six or seven meters long.
WNU Editor: It is hard to tell from the above image on what type of ship it is, but it would not surprise me if North Korea does have suicide squads that would do such a mission.
The Marines can take care of their own damaged helicopters, thank you very much.
As an expeditionary force, the U.S. Marine Corps is expected to operate in distant, faraway places with little support from the other services. That's why, for example, it operates its own heavy artillery, fighter jets, and even aerial refueling tankers. That's also why its largest helicopter, the CH-53 Sea Stallion heavy lift helicopter, can lift other helicopters in the Marines' inventory if the latter run into a jam.
American Chad Elwartowski and his Thai partner Supranee Thepdet, also known as Nadia Summergirl, were reportedly living in the house, built by Ocean Builders, to promote the concept of “seasteading.”
“Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government,” says the company on its website.
In a promotional video posted to YouTube in March, Elwartowski toasts his partner with champagne on the roof of their ocean dwelling. He says 20 more floating homes are planned so others can join them in a libertarian-style community that they believe will be beyond legal jurisdictions.
Governments “have a monopoly on land but they don’t have a monopoly at sea,” Elwartowski says in the video. “We’re looking forward to freedom-loving people to come join us out on the open ocean.”
In an earlier video, he says international waters are “where there are no laws other than the law of the sea.”
But Thai authorities have a different view. They have filed a compliant, accusing the couple of breaching a section of the country’s criminal code that relates to threatening the sovereignty of a state, and erosion of a state’s independence, according to the Post. The charges carry the death penalty.
“We have already prepared a vessel, equipment and manpower to move the structure. We will try to move it within a week’’ a Thai vice-admiral told the newspaper.
Elwartowski says the couple are now in hiding. “This is ridiculous. We lived on a floating house boat for a few weeks and now Thailand wants us killed,” he said on his Facebook page.
He told TIME by email that he and his partner “have no claim to the home. It was never ours, we just lived there and promoted it.”
Journalists around the world are seeing increased fear and violence in their line of work as media freedom faces further decline, according to data published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday.
The 2019 World Press Freedom Index categorizes the media climate in more than three-fourths of the 180 countries and territories studied as “problematic”, “difficult” or “very serious.” Just 8% have a media climate considered “good”.
The U.S., Venezuela, Brazil, Iran and China saw their rankings drop. Of those five, China — which a separate report by RSF said is ramping up its interference and spread of propaganda not just locally, but in international media — is ranked lowest at 177, while the U.S.’ fall of three spots to 48 is notable as it marks the first time the country’s media climate has been labelled “problematic” in the index. RSF made reference to the attack on Maryland paper Capital Gazette last June, when a man opened fire at the publication’s offices, killing five members of staff.
“This happened in a democracy, not in a country with a reputation of suppressing freedom of thought,” Cédric Alviani, the East-Asia Bureau Director of RSF, told TIME, explaining the shooting as one of the most significant events threatening press freedom in the past 12 months.
Also in the Americas, Venezuela slipped four places to 148. Under the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, news outlets and social media platforms are regularly blocked, and critics arrested. Maduro has also consistently denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis in the country, blocking off the delivery of foreign aid until this week. In February, six U.S. journalists were deported after he said he “did not like” the questions they asked.
“Democracy is in great danger,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Halting this cycle of fear and intimidation is a matter of the utmost urgency of all people.”
At number 172, Saudi Arabia is the richest country in the bottom 10 of the list, falling three places from last year. In October 2018, Washington Post columnist and longtime critic of the regime, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed in the Saudi Arabia embassy in Istanbul, igniting global concern over further deteriorating press freedom in the conservative country.
“Political leaders consistently denigrate and insult the work of journalists, assuming that media is just pushing an agenda whenever they hear something they don’t like,” Alviani said.
The Trump administration has frequently denounced what it calls the “fake news media.” In Brazil, which slipped three places in this year’s index, President Jair Bolsonaro has likewise blasted unflattering stories as misinformation.
Many governments go further than denunciations. The editor of Philippines news outlet Rappler, Maria Ressa, was arrested at the end of March. Her organization is known for its open criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose extrajudicial war on drugs has raised pressing human rights concerns. The Philippines is 133 on the index, below Afghanistan and Nicaragua.
In Myanmar, which slipped a place in this year’s index, two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested after reporting on a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority group.
On the flip side, Ethiopia has climbed 40 places from near the bottom to 110, reflecting the country’s release of all of its jailed prisoners and the dismissal of charges against diaspora-based media outlets under new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came into office last April. Gambia also moved up in rank to 92, putting it 30 spots higher than last year. RSF attributes the jump to a change in government, under which the human rights climate in the country has greatly improved.
At the top of the rankings is Norway, which has commanded the position for the third consecutive year. Finland and Sweden were second and third place respectively.
Generally, though, the situation does not look hopeful to Alviani. “It’s worse every year,” he said. “Democracies seem to be giving up, while increasingly authoritarian governments are silencing the media.”
According to another report published by RSF, 80 journalists were killed worldwide in 2018, up from 65 in 2017. Forty-nine of these were journalists deliberately killed because of their reporting. A total of 348 journalists were detained.
The Capital Gazette staff, Khasshogi, Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo, Ressa, alongside other arrested or targeted journalists, were collectively hailed as “The Guardians” and named 2018 Person of the Year by TIME in recognition of their work.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo has won a second five-year term, preliminary election results showed Wednesday, in a victory for moderation over the nationalistic rhetoric of his rival, Prabowo Subianto.Vote counts from five independent survey groups showed Widodo with a clear lead over Subianto, a general during the era of the Suharto military dictatorship who warned Indonesia would fall apart without his strongman leadership.The so-called “quick counts” from reputable survey organizations that use a sample of polling stations have been reliable in past elections. With an average of 80% of sample polling stations counted, the five survey organizations showed Widodo winning 54-56% of the vote, a modest improvement on his 2014 showing.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, is an outpost of democracy in a Southeast Asian neighborhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the world’s biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the country’s two decades of democratization.
Addressing jubilant supporters a few hours after polls closed, Widodo said he was aware of his lead and called for the nation to reunite after the divisions of the campaign.
“From the indications of the exit poll and also the quick counts, we can see it all, but we must be patient to wait for the official counting from the Election Commission,” he said.
Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, had not yet conceded defeat. He said his campaign’s exit poll and quick count showed that he had won but urged his supporters not to cause chaos.
His campaign team has alleged massive voter list irregularities, but analysts say the claims are absurd and designed to undermine the election.
The balloting was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Helicopters, boats and horses were used to get ballots to remote and inaccessible corners of the archipelago.
Conservative opponents had tried to discredit Widodo, a furniture exporter whose political career started as a small city mayor, as insufficiently Islamic.
Widodo tried to neutralize the not-a-real-Muslim whispers with the selection of Ma’ruf Amin, the leading Islamic cleric in Indonesia, as his running mate, though he risked alienating progressive and moderate supporters.
Pre-election polls consistently gave a lead of as much as 20 percentage points to Widodo, widely known by the nickname “Jokowi.”
“I’ve voted for Jokowi because five years in office was not enough for him to complete his brilliant programs for infrastructure, health and education,” said Eko Cahya Pratama, 43, after voting in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta.
“For me, this country is better to be managed by a man with a clean track record rather than a dirty one in the past,” he said.
After the results became clear, hundreds of Widodo supporters marched through downtown Jakarta, some holding aloft a giant red and white Indonesian flag.
Widodo’s campaign highlighted his progress in poverty reduction and improving Indonesia’s inadequate infrastructure with new ports, toll roads, airports and mass rapid transit. The latter became a reality last month in chronically congested Jakarta with the opening of a subway.
A strident nationalist, Subianto ran a fear-based campaign, highlighting what he sees as Indonesia’s weakness and the risk of exploitation by foreign powers or disintegration.
His ultra-nationalist tactics preceded President Donald Trump’s polarizing rhetoric by several years and the party he founded in 2008, Gerinda, is officially known as the Greater Indonesia Movement. He has long been dogged by his dismissal from the military in 1998 after soldiers under his command kidnapped student activists, 13 of whom were never seen again.
“I promised that we will work for the good of the country,” Subianto said after voting. “If it’s chaos or not, it’s not coming from us. But I guarantee that we don’t want to be cheated anymore, that Indonesian people don’t want to be cheated anymore.”
Economic growth in Indonesia has been stable if unspectacular and inflation is low, maximizing the impact of poverty alleviation programs.
The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization and other international agencies said earlier this month that the percentage of Indonesian children suffering from stunting — malnutrition that can result in lifelong physical and cognitive impairment — fell to 30.8% from nearly 38% between 2013 and 2018.
(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — Two Saudi sisters appealed for help Wednesday from the former Soviet republic of Georgia after fleeing their country, in the latest case of runaways from the ultra-conservative kingdom using social media to seek asylum.
Using a newly created Twitter account called “GeorgiaSisters,” they identified themselves as Maha al-Subaie, 28, and Wafa al-Subaie, 25. Like other Saudi women who have fled and turned to social media, they posted copies of their passports to establish their identities.
The sisters claim they are in danger and will be killed if they are forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia. They said their father and brothers have arrived in Georgia looking for them. Wafa said they fled “oppression from our family” without elaborating.
Saudis can enter Georgia visa-free, making the country a transit point for numerous other Saudi women who have fled in recent years.
Saudi women who run away are almost always fleeing abusive male relatives and claim there are few good choices for them to report the abuse in Saudi Arabia. Saudi women caught running away in the kingdom can be forced into restrictive shelters, pressured to reconcile with their abusers or detained on charges of disobedience.
Regardless of their age, women in Saudi Arabia must have the consent of a male relative to obtain a passport, travel or marry under so-called male guardianship laws .
The sisters’ first post to the Twitter account was Tuesday evening. It read: “We are two Saudi sisters who fled from Saudi Arabia seeking asylum. Yet, the family and the Saudi government have suspended our passports and now we are trapped in Georgia country. We need your help please.”
In another post, the sisters appear with their faces showing and their hair uncovered — a taboo for conservative families in Saudi Arabia. The post says they are showing their faces in order for the world to “remember us” in case something happens to them.
In a later video posted on Twitter, Maha said: “We want your protection. We want a country that welcomes us and protects our rights.”
Her sister posted another video calling for help from the U.N. refugee agency.
“We fled oppression from our family because the laws in Saudi Arabia (are) too weak to protect us. We are seeking the UNHCR protection in order to be taken to a safe country,” Wafa said.
The sisters did not give further details on why they have fled. The Associated Press could not immediately reach the sisters in Georgia. A Saudi activist who goes by the name Ms Saffaa told the AP that she and other activists have had direct contact with the sisters in Georgia.
The UNHCR in Georgia said it does not comment on individual cases, but that they are closely monitoring the situation of the two sisters.
Georgia is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning people requesting international protection in the country have access to the government’s asylum procedures. UNHCR said in a statement to the AP that through its partners it provides legal representation throughout the entire asylum procedure.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said the sisters had not contacted security authorities regarding claims of request for asylum, nor any other issue concerning their safety.
Their cases mirror that of 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, who in January drew worldwide attention when she barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Bangkok after fleeing her Saudi family during a trip to Kuwait. Her social media pleas on Twitter prompted quick action by the UNHCR and she was granted asylum in Canada.
There had been speculation that al-Qunun’s successful getaway would inspire others to copy her, but powerful deterrents remain in place. If caught, runaways face possible death at the hands of relatives for purportedly shaming the family.
The issue of male guardianship is extremely sensitive in the kingdom, where conservative, tribal families view what they consider to be the protection of women as a man’s duty.
Around a dozen women’s rights activists have been detained, many since May, after they campaigned against the guardianship system. Some had also wanted to create alternative shelters for women runaways, saying that current shelters in Saudi Arabia are run similar to detention centers.
There is a government app that offers a range of government services, including allowing men the ability to grant or deny a woman permission to travel. Some young women who have fled Saudi Arabia managed to access their father’s phone and change the app’s settings to grant themselves travel permission.
The app is merely implementing existing laws, and removing it would not change or remove the guardianship rules in place. Still, the feature has sparked calls in past weeks for leading tech companies like Google and Apple to block access through their app stores.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of “tactical guided weapon,” in what may be an attempt to register displeasure with a deadlock in nuclear talks with the United States without causing those coveted negotiations to collapse.
Leader Kim Jong Un observed the unspecified weapon being fired Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim was reported to have said “the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People’s Army.”
The Associated Press could not independently verify North Korea’s claim, and it wasn’t immediately clear what had been tested.
It is likely not, however, a banned ballistic missile test, which would jeopardize the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said that details in the North’s media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: one of the lower level officials mentioned in the North’s report on the test — Pak Jong Chon — is known as an artillery official.
The test comes during an apparent deadlock in nuclear disarmament talks after the failed summit in Hanoi between Kim and President Donald Trump earlier this year. Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hardline negotiating stance and grant the North’s demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Trump’s response of “fire and fury” had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy.
Trump said last month that he “would be very disappointed if I saw testing.”
As the diplomacy stalls, there have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site where Pyongyang is believed to build missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. North Korean media said Wednesday that Kim guided a flight drill of combat pilots from an air force and anti-aircraft unit tasked with defending the capital Pyongyang from an attack.
During a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim set the year’s end as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage diplomacy.
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Korea’s descriptions of the test show the weapon is possibly a newly developed cruise missile. The North’s report said the “tactical guided weapon” successfully tested in a “peculiar mode of guiding flight” and demonstrated the ability to deliver a “powerful warhead.”
The North said Thursday that Kim mounted an observation post to learn about and guide the test-fire of the weapon.
This is the first known time Kim has observed the testing of a newly developed weapon system since last November, when North Korean media said he watched the successful test of an unspecified “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon.” Some observers have been expecting North Korea to orchestrate “low-level provocations,” like artillery or short-range missile tests, to register its anger over the way nuclear negotiations were going.
The analyst in Seoul, Kim Dong-yub, who is a former South Korean military official, said it wasn’t yet clear whether the North conducted an advanced test of the same weapon Kim Jong Un observed in November or tested something different.
The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. The Pentagon also said it was aware but had no information to provide at this point.
A U.S. official familiar with monitoring operations said that neither U.S. Strategic Command nor NORAD observed any weapons test. That rules out tests that go high into the atmosphere, such as a ballistic missile, but does not rule out tests at lower altitudes.
After the animosity of 2017, last year saw a stunning turn to diplomacy, culminating in the first-ever summit between Washington and Pyongyang in Singapore, and then the Hanoi talks this year. North Korea has suspended nuclear and long-range rocket tests, and the North and South Korean leaders have met three times. But there are growing worries that the progress could be killed by mismatched demands between Washington and Pyongyang over sanctions relief and disarmament.
Washington says it won’t allow the North’s desired sanctions relief until the nation commits to verifiably relinquishing his nuclear facilities, weapons and missiles. Kim has shown no signs that he’s willing to give away an arsenal he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival.
(CORAL GABLES, Fla.) — The Trump administration on Wednesday intensified its crackdown on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, rolling back Obama administration policy and announcing new restrictions and sanctions against the three countries whose leaders national security adviser John Bolton dubbed the “three stooges of socialism.”
“The troika of tyranny — Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — is beginning to crumble,” Bolton said in a hard-hitting speech near Miami on the 58th anniversary of the United States’ failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the island, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.
The measures seem likely to hit hardest in Cuba, which is at a moment of severe economic weakness as it struggles to find cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors.
Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives in Cuba. The Obama administration had lifted limits on remittances, but the new limit will be $1,000 per person per quarter. Remittances to Cuba from the United States amounted to $3 billion in 2016, according to the State Department.
Washington also moved to restrict “non-family travel” after a broad loosening of so-called purposeful visits under Obama led to soaring numbers of American trips for cultural and educational exchanges. Details on the restrictions were not immediately clear, but tourism is a key lifeline of hard currency for Cuba. Bolton called such visits “veiled tourism.”
Bolton spoke hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new policy allowing lawsuits against foreign firms operating on properties Cuba seized from Americans after the 1959 revolution. The United States has enforced a trade embargo against Cuba since the early 1960s.
Cuban officials met the announcements with defiance.
“Nobody will snatch away from us, neither through seduction nor force, ‘the Fatherland that our parents won for us by standing up,'” President Miguel Díaz-Canel said via Twitter. “We Cubans will not surrender.”
El título III no es peor que el I ni el II, que están en la cartera de acciones contra todo el pueblo de #Cuba. Nadie va a arrebatarnos, ni por la seducción ni por la fuerza, “la Patria que los padres nos ganaron de pie”. Los cubanos no nos rendimos. #SomosCuba#SomosContinuidadpic.twitter.com/oiUIK6FeZi
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) April 17, 2019
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called it an attack on international law, Cuban sovereignty and countries that would do business with the island: “Aggressive escalation by (hashtag)US against Cuba will fail. Like at Giron, we will be victorious,” he tweeted, referring to a Bay of Pigs beach where invaders landed.
Rechazo enérgicamente anuncio del Sec. de Estado Pompeo de activación del Título III de la Ley Helms-Burton. Es un ataque al Derecho Internacional y a la soberanía de #Cuba y de terceros Estados. Agresiva escalada de #EEUU contra #Cuba fracasará. Como en Girón, venceremos.
On Venezuela, Bolton said Washington was sanctioning the country’s Central Bank, which the Trump administration says has been instrumental in propping up the embattled government of President Nicolas Maduro. He also announced sanctions against financial services provider Bancorp, which he claimed is a “slush fund” for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
“The United States looks forward to watching each corner of this sordid triangle of terror fall: in Havana, in Caracas, and in Managua,” Bolton said in South Florida, which is home to many thousands of exiles and immigrants from the three countries.
He said Obama administration policies had given the Cuban government “political cover to expand its malign influence” across the region, including in Venezuela. Cuba has trained Venezuelan security forces to repress civilians and support Maduro, Bolton said, calling Maduro “quite simply a Cuban puppet.”
Bolton’s pledge to “never, ever abandon” the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in their fight for freedom also might ring hollow in light of the historical events he sought to highlight at the event hosted by the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association.
Many Cuban Americans to this day resent the late President John F. Kennedy for not deploying American troops at a critical moment in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Meanwhile, with the high stakes of the Cold War a fading memory, some critics of U.S. policy toward Venezuela worry that the Trump administration’s stance that all options are on the table, including a military one, to oust Maduro is an empty threat that will only serve to ignite the streets and geopolitical tensions with Russia, compounding the misery of Venezuelan citizens.
“Honoring one of U.S.’ greatest military fiascos from 60 years back suggests U.S. policy to Latin America owes more now to a perverse Cold War nostalgia than practical benefits for people of the region,” said Ivan Briscoe, the Latin American director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel, said in a statement that the measures on remittances and travel threaten the economic survival of Cuban families and the viability of thousands of independent small businesses allowed to operate since 2010 under reforms implemented by former Presiden Raul Castro.
“The only winners here are a handful of members of Congress and those stuck in the past that support them,” Laverty said. “The losers are millions of Cubans on and off the island and the overwhelming majority of Americans that support engagement with Cuba.”
Many of the 400 or so who paid $100 to attend Bolton’s speech at the Biltmore in South Florida were of Cuban descent. Rafael UsaTorres, a member of the 2506 Brigade that worked for the CIA at the time of the invasion, said he has faith that the measures will bring down Díaz-Canel’s government, though he wished it had been done sooner.
“Today is a big day,” the 78-year-old said. “But I feel very sad — Too many years waiting.”
But others said Washington isn’t going far enough. Manuel Menendez-Pou, 79, said the Cuban government had confiscated some $63 million in property from his family, once one of the wealthiest on the island, mainly in the sugar industry.
“The problem is not the money,” Menendez-Pou, also a former member of the brigade said minutes before the speech. “They stole our life.”
In Havana, homemaker Odalis Salazar worried about the future of remittances she receives from two children living abroad, including one in the United States.
“It hurts everyone and Trump is absolutely criminal, because he knows that … (the remittances) help us a lot,” Salazar said. “We Cubans have families there and we get by largely with that help that they send us.”
“We have already gone through other periods of crisis and we overcame them,” said Tania Astiazarain, a guide at the Playa Giron museum. “This does not scare us, and we are prepared for whatever comes.”
Pompeo’s decision on allowing lawsuits lets Americans, including Cubans who became naturalized citizens years after the fact, sue companies that operate out of hotels, tobacco factories, distilleries and other properties nationalized after Fidel Castro took power.
Pompeo said he would not renew a bar on litigation that has been in place for two decades, meaning that lawsuits can be filed starting May 2 when the current suspension expires.
The Justice Department has certified roughly 6,000 claims as having merit, according to Kimberly Breier, the top U.S. diplomat for the Americas. Those claims have an estimated value of $8 billion: $2 billion in property and $6 billion in interest, she said. Another 200,000 uncertified claims could run into the tens of billions of dollars, she said.
Breier said there would be no exceptions to the policy but foreign companies “will have nothing to worry about if they are not operating on properties taken from Americans.”
Nonetheless, companies in the European Union and Canadian companies stand to lose tens of billions in compensation and interest, and the decision prompted stern responses and vows to protect businesses from lawsuits.
In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called the decision to remove the longstanding waivers “regrettable” and said it “can only lead to an unnecessary spiral of legal actions.”
In Spain, which has large investments in hotels and other tourism-related ventures on the island, a senior government official said Madrid would ask the EU mount a challenge at the World Trade Organization.
“The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal and violates international law,” said Alberto Navarro, EU ambassador to Cuba. “I personally consider it immoral. For 60 years the only thing that’s resulted from the embargo is the suffering of the Cuban people.”
(LISBON, Portugal) — A tour bus carrying German tourists crashed on Portugal’s Madeira Island on Wednesday, killing 29 people and injuring 28 others, local authorities said.
The bus, which was carrying 55 people, rolled down a steep hillside after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, and struck at least one house, local mayor Filipe Sousa told cable news channel SIC.
Local television showed bodies scattered over a rural hillside next to the Atlantic Ocean. Madeira, off northwestern Africa, is a popular vacation destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape.
The dead included 18 women and 11 men, one of whom died later at a hospital, Sousa told public broadcaster RTP.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said preliminary reports he had received indicated all the dead were German. But Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said not all the victims had been identified and refused to confirm the nationality of the dead.
Pedro Calado, vice president of Madeira’s regional government, said at a news conference that the injured, including the Portuguese driver and a local tour guide, were taken to a hospital. He did not say whether anyone who was not on the bus, including people on the roadside at the time of the accident, were among the victims.
No children were among the dead and injured, Alves said. She said at a news conference that two of the injured were Portuguese and the rest were foreign, but she declined to give further details.
The mayor said the bus was carrying a group of German tourists.
The German foreign ministry, in a tweet, expressed “great shock” at the accident. “We must unfortunately assume that victims are from Germany,” it said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet that he had sent condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I learned of this tragic accident in Madeira with deep sorrow,” he said.
Merkel’s spokesman said “terrible news is reaching us from Madeira.” Steffen Seibert said on Twitter that “we are in deepest sorrow over all those who lost their lives in the bus crash.” He added: “Our thoughts are with the injured.”
Portugal’s air force said it had three aircraft on standby in case any injured needed to be taken to hospitals on the Portuguese mainland, almost 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away. But Funchal hospital’s clinical director, Dr. Pedro Freitas, said transfers were not necessary.
Madeira’s regional government announced three days of mourning, when flags on public buildings are flown at half-staff.
Residents said the weather was fine at the time of the accident, which happened in daylight in the early evening.
Calado, the regional government’s vice president, said the bus was five years old and had passed its mandatory inspections for roadworthiness.
Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the crash.
(PARIS) — The Paris prosecutor’s office says the investigation into the Notre Dame Cathedral fire has not produced any indication so far of a criminal act. The probe is still in its early stages.
The office on Wednesday said investigators had been able to access some parts of the building to begin their on-site work.
Meanwhile, “about 10” more people have been questioned by police, bringing the total to about 40.
(JERUSALEM) — Israel’s president on Wednesday formally nominated Benjamin Netanyahu for a fourth consecutive term as prime minister, officially launching a process that is expected to result in a new government dominated by religious and nationalist parties in the coming weeks.
In one of the president’s few non-ceremonial roles, President Reuven Rivlin tasked Netanyahu with assembling a governing coalition within 42 days.
The move was widely expected after Netanyahu’s Likud party and its right-wing allies captured a majority of seats in parliamentary elections last week.
In a joint appearance after the two leaders signed and presented the official nomination, Rivlin called on Netanyahu to “heal the wounds and rifts” laid bare in Israeli society by the bruising election campaign.
Netanyahu said he was “moved” to accept his fifth nomination as prime minister “as though it’s the first time, and in a certain way, even more than the first time.”
He said he would “do everything to earn the trust that the citizens of Israel have bestowed on me.”
In a post-election ritual, Rivlin hosted consultations with party leaders this week to hear their recommendations for who should serve as the next prime minister.
Netanyahu’s nationalist and religious allies all lobbied for Netanyahu to continue as prime minister. The last one to hold out, former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the hawkish Yisrael Beitenu party, formally confirmed his support for Netanyahu late Monday.
Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc — made up of Kulanu, the Union of Right Wing Parties, Yisrael Beitenu and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism — now commands a 65-55 majority in the 120-seat parliament.
In the coming weeks, Netanyahu will have to negotiate coalition deals with his partners, who will jockey for powerful Cabinet posts with large and influential budgets.
If Netanyahu fails to form a coalition within 42 days, Benny Gantz, leader of the rival centrist Blue and White party, would be given a shot at assembling a government.
But that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. “We will establish a right-wing government as soon as possible, likely within a month,” said Yonatan Ulrich, a spokesman for the prime minister.
In a matter of months, Netanyahu will officially become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, surpassing David Ben-Gurion, the country’s founding father.
The massive fire that engulfed Paris’ landmark Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, causing the monument’s iconic spire to collapse, highlighted the difficulty in protecting historical buildings from fire.
The cathedral is just one of many famous historical sites around the world that have been damaged by fire and required repair and restoration work to be returned to their former glory. Notre Dame sustained “colossal damage,” Cathedral spokesman Andre Finot told reporters. Firefighters are still surveying the full extent of the damage.
Many other historical buildings were able to re-open their doors after being successfully restored. With the work of skilled architects and builders, some sites were reconstructed in such a way that it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between original features and their replicas.
Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England — a governmental body that protects historical sites — tells TIME that, despite the pain of seeing a beloved landmark burn, these disasters can present opportunities of their own. Building restorations, he says, can create jobs, strengthen the craftwork industries, and inject modern day creativity in architecture.
Here’s a look at other historical structures that were ravaged by fire, only to be rebuilt:
Windsor Castle, England, 1992
Tim Graham —Getty ImagesThe Inside Of St George’s Hall, Windsor Castle on January 14, 1993, after the fire in November
In 1992, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, an official residence of Queen Elizabeth II and the largest inhabited castle in the world. The blaze damaged more than 100 rooms in the gothic estate.
Wilson said that out of the destruction came an opportunity, as it helped “to encourage the development of craft skills and a first class restoration of 19th century interiors that had been degraded.”
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, 1906
George Rose —Getty ImagesGrace Cathedral is located on Nob Hill in San Francisco, 2009
The Grace Cathedral – the third largest in the U.S. – burnt down in 1906 after a fire erupted in the city following one of the most significant earthquakes in history.
The cathedral (originally built in 1849) was rebuilt, beginning in 1928 and completed in 1964, in the French Gothic style of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral. Grace’s spire looks almost identical to the one that collapsed in flames in France on Monday.
Slane Castle, Ireland, 1991
Julien Behal – PA Images via Getty Images Slane Castle in County Meath ahead of the Oasis concert on Saturday June 20, 2009.
In 1991, a fire took hold of Slane Castle, located in the town of Slane, in Ireland’s County Meath, destroying one-third of the 18th century building. For 10 painstaking years, craftsmen and architects worked to restore the castle and reproduce the interior features in the style of that time.
“All the windows and plasterwork in the ballroom are brand new, and I defy you to tell me the difference,” said Slane owner Lord Henry Mount Charles after it was rebuilt. The Castle is now a thriving venue for music concerns, weddings and other events, with room for 80,000 guests. The castle’s open air concerts have featured an array of big artists, including Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Queen.
Cologne Cathedral, Cologne, World War II
During World War II, the cathedral — the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe — was hit by 14 aerial bombs. Luckily, some of the treasured items inside were protected by sandbags, and the medieval windows were removed before the attacks. An emergency repair was carried out in 1944 with poor-quality brick taken from other buildings destroyed in the war; they remained visible for over 50 years as a reminder of the conflict. In 2005, the cathedral was fully reconstructed in line with its original appearance.
Old St. Paul’s, London, 1666
St. Paul’s Cathedral, considered the mother church of London, was severely damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The reconstruction took 33 years and spanned the reigns of five monarchs, partly due to the challenge in getting supplies of Portland stone.
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mauro Pimentel — AFP/Getty ImagesA worker walks inside Brazil’s National Museum as journalists make their first visit since the building burnt down last September, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 12, 2019.
In September 2018, Brazil’s oldest museum and most important history and science museum was burnt down. Much of its collection of 200 million items was lost in the blaze. The 200-year-old museum was the largest in Latin America. It is currently undergoing restoration.
What’s next for Notre Dame?
A “faithful” restoration of a destroyed building rests on the availability of public records and photos, Wilson said. “If you haven’t got those, you rely very carefully on your salvage operation — an archeological approach,” he explains. Once the fire is out and the cathedral is stable, he says that leftover artifacts will be carefully recovered and studied so that they may be replicated during the restoration process.
Wilson adds that reconstruction projects sometimes make use of a “creative response” from the present day. He believes a combination of public records and the archeological approach will be used to restore the damaged parts of Notre Dame. The “iconic” nature of Notre Dame’s “representation of the French state and Catholic church” will cause leaders to restore Notre Dame in a way that’s faithful to the landmark as it stood before the blaze, he adds.
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ALBERT EINSTEIN was not only the greatest thinker of his generation but arguably the most influential in history – however, in his later years he came to deeply regret sending a letter that made it possible for the human race to wipe itself out.
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SHOCKING new footage has emerged of the dramatic moment a coach full of German tourists careers off a road on the holiday island of Madeira and crashes down a hillside.
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How to crash a business: The Jet story explained As Jet Airways shuts down operations, the beginning of its end, at least in its current form, can be traced back to many events. Perhaps the most consequential of those events happened on a Sunday afternoon around last Diwali.Naresh Goyal, along with his financial advisers, drove to Deepak Parekh's Mumbai residence to seek advice on how to save Jet. Around that time, the Tatas were evaluating the option of buying Goyal's troubled carrier. There was also a private equity consortium led by TPG Capital and Indigo Partners LLC, a specialist aviation investor.HDFC's avuncular chairman Parekh — key adviser to the Abu Dhabi government, the same Emirate where Etihad, Jet's partner, is the state-owned carrier — advised Goyal to step back and make way for a new investor.Goyal has many such important friends on speed dial — politicians, policymakers, chief executives, airline lessors and manufacturers. He talks to them all, but finally listens only to himself. So he refused to relent or cede control last year, believing instead that he would pull a rabbit out of his hat, like always. But he couldn't. Tata Sons, the only suitor with a comprehensive offer for Jet, walked off never to return. 68930971 ET spoke to multiple persons for this story. Many spoke off the record. A Jet spokesperson termed a detailed set of emailed queries sent earlier "speculative." The Tata group said it won't comment. Parekh too declined to comment."In retrospect, perhaps Goyal ought to have put more faith in the people he hired to help run the airline," said Shukor Yusof, founder of Malaysian research firm Endau Analytics. "He does bear responsibility for many of the carrier's strategic mistakes. He finds it hard to let go, and this has worsened the situation.""Goyal has failed his company, his employees and his shareholders," a top airline executive told ET. "He had a readymade investment opportunity from Tata Sons, which he squandered. Jet was sailing till January. Then it all went downhill."By recent estimates, Jet Airways is making a daily loss of Rs 21 crore and has debt and dues of at least Rs 15,000 crore.Jet's fall is a story of the fall of its founder. Few business failures are so inseparable from the failings of their promoters. Industry insiders often quote a line attributed to Goyal, "I am the person in Jet. When people look at Jet Airways, they look at me." The garrulous founder of the airline, admired by some for his quicksilver wit, was once its biggest asset. Today, he has proved to be its biggest liability.Even with Etihad on board, Goyal repeatedly flirted with Delta Air Lines. With an FY18 net income of close to $4 billion, annual cash flows of over $7 billion and almost no presence in the big Indian market, Delta could have been Jet's richest suitor. It offered Rs 300 per share. But Goyal wanted over Rs 400.All this when his airline's shares price had hovered between Rs 182 and Rs 347 for the past six months."Delta executives said, 'Don't just come to us for money. Come if you want us to help you turn around your airline'," said the executive cited above. Delta declined to comment to ET.POWER COUPLE'S DARBARSAirlines have always had flamboyant founders/chief executives known as much for their love of the high life as for their hospitality. Goyal is no exception. He is self-admittedly inspired as much by CP Krishnan Nair of the Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts and PRS Oberoi of the Oberoi Group as by any successful airline CEO or founder. He wanted Jet's Mumbai-London passengers to get a five-star hotel experience.Goyal would hold meetings at his Mumbai and London homes and almost no one was allowed to leave without breaking bread with the family. When in London, the food would often come from Taj's Bombay Brasserie, which also provided meals on Jet's international flights.Problems arose when Goyal blurred the personal with the professional. And when he fell totally out of sync with industry disruptions, feel his peers.He would hold meetings that employees termed "darbars." His room on the fifth floor of Siroya Centre, Jet's corporate office in Mumbai, has a large round table with phones but no computers — Goyal, until recently, used fax, read printouts of emails and has joined WhatsApp in the past year, said a Jet executive. Facing this table are couches where executives sat.Goyal would come into office post 1 pm, often summon heads of various departments, sermonise for hours and even take them to task publicly, caring little for designations such as head of planning and strategy. In Jet, Goyal was the sole planner and strategist. He liked to repeat things thrice for emphasis. His benchmark for efficiency was "like a Swiss clock" and he often cited Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa.On the other hand, Goyal was also extremely emotional about his staff, showing reluctance and sadness in laying off almost any employee.His wife Anita, also called Neeta, (a board member who resigned with him on March 25) held similar darbars one floor down. She was kinder, though just as exacting, and kept tabs on how much every Jet flight earned or lost. She was known to informally call up the heads of other airlines — Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo, Ajay Singh of SpiceJet and Jeh Wadia of GoAir (Naresh Goyal called chairman Nusli Wadia) — when they cut prices too much. Her associates called her sense of revenue management "reactive."Goyal and his wife would often differ on many aspects of the airline business but they agreed on one thing always: total control. At the end of 2018, for instance, when the cash crunch was deepening, Jet announced a slew of discounted offerings to fill its planes — a move that was objected to by CEO Vinay Dube.An executive from Delta, Dube didn't find the model sustainable for a full-service carrier already burdened by costs. However, Anita Goyal shot down Dube's objection and asked him not to interfere, as it was "her airline."Numbers tell the rest of the story — those forward bookings gave the airline interim cash, but have now become a liability of Rs 3,500 crore worth of cancellations for around 3.2 million passengers. It has indeed been Dube who has kept the airline running in the past few months, pacifying angry creditors and encouraging distressed staff. Former executives say the Goyals' biggest mistake has been placing too much trust in a handful of individuals.There were "camps" close to Goyal and his wife. The company was "too personality-driven." The couple frequently changed management decisions. For instance, the management would enforce additional duties on pilots or crew. But sometimes, a crew member would call up Goyal directly, and decisions would be overturned.As Jet plunged financially, the darbars became infrequent, and stopped completely after September. But the Jet story isn't just about Mr and Mrs Goyal. There was the son, Nivaan, too.FATHER'S BURDENNivaan was mentored at Jet by former chief executive Cramer Ball and then Jayaraj Shanmugam, currently executive vice-president of products and services. He worked with various departments before joining the business transformation team set up to turn around the airline and finally became a close aide of his father.Former colleagues have said Nivaan never threw his weight around. Yet, many often found him detached. "Ball used to call assessment meetings with the top management. Nivaan would attend every meeting, but never said anything relevant," said an executive who was part of these meetings. 68931023 Unlike his parents, Nivaan was more amenable to giving the management a free hand. Sometimes, he would be the 'nicer' Goyal when his father upbraided an executive. But his parents didn't let him take any key decisions.Following Goyal's cardiac ailment, Nivaan asked his father to allow him, Anita and the management to run the airline. Even then, Naresh Goyal didn't budge. A few weeks ago (around March 18), when Etihad said it didn't want to be part of Jet's revival plan, father and son flew to Qatar to give presentations to Qatar Airways' global chief executive Akbar Al Baker. They weren't able to garner interest. It was a sorry end to a great entrepreneurship story.TAKE-OFF TO CRASH-LANDThe beginning of Goyal's entrepreneurial journey — from a cashier at his uncle Charandas Ramlal's travel company East-West Agencies to an independent general sales agent (GSA) building connections with airline executives across the world — has been told many times.GSAs in the 1990s were powerful. They worked as international airlines' representatives in the local market and were several notches higher in the pecking order than travel agents.At its peak, Jet Air Transport's office was aligned with 17 desks, each representing a different global airline.Always a sharp networker, Goyal once took a visiting official from lobbying body International Air Transport Association (IATA) to Agra, and bought him and his team marble-topped furniture worth?5 lakh. Then, over lunch and subsequent cups of tea, he had a threehour discussion on buying some smaller aircraft. This was a strategy meeting minus corporate frills.Jet started as an air taxi service operator in 1993 and went on to become India's biggest airline, offering top-class international services. It started with a 20% equity partnership with Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air, both of whom exited later. Its overseas operations kicked off with a Chennai-Colombo route in 2004. Its successful initial public offer (IPO) was in 2005. Nothing was going wrong. But then, something big did.TWO MISTAKESMany observers argue that Jet's financial problems started with Goyal buying out rival Air Sahara in 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore, This was a deal that gave Jet endless problems – financial, legal and human resource-related.Goyal bought Sahara to take on Kingfisher Airlines and low-fare carriers Air Deccan, IndiGo and SpiceJet. But the deal reduced Jet's ability to spend extra money to take on the competition effectively. Jet wasted IPO funds that remained after placing plane orders."After that, the smallest of bumps affected Jet more than its peers.Over the years, it has depended more and more on external positive factors such as fares going up and fuel prices coming down," another industry executive pointed out.Kingfisher shut down operations in 2012. IndiGo quietly grew to topple Jet from its leadership position. Then came the second big mistake.Goyal decided to buy a mixed fleet of 10 wide-bodied Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 planes. Mixing in such a small fleet was impractical as it increased cost of resources. Also, Goyal decided to configure them "like palaces," building in only 308 seats, much lower than the global standard of about 400. He lost a fourth of the potential revenue in the process, executives said.Even when the configuration changed to 348 seats, Goyal insisted on retaining eight first class seats long after it was proven that they were not earning anything. He didn't listen to advice from his then commerce chief Sudheer Raghavan and longtime associate, CEO Nikos Kardassis. At 250 kg each, the seats added an unnecessary 8 tonne to aircraft weight that earned nothing for the flight. What's more, there was never a proper network planned for the aircraft.Since 2008, Jet had to lease out up to 70% of its wide-bodies to the likes of Turkish Airlines, Oman Air, Thai Airways, Gulf Air and Etihad. "Jet wasn't a leasing company, but was forced to behave like one," said one of the people cited above. "At least two executives from the top management used to travel for weeks every month in search of airlines that would take the aircraft on lease. It took up to six months to find an interested lessee. This, when fuel prices were rising, competition was getting brutal and the management should have focused on running the airline."AUSSIE FROM ABU DHABIJet faced its first serious financial distress in 2011-12. Goyal responded by pretty much single-handedly leading negotiations with Etihad, run by hardnosed Australian James Hogan. Close to 50 meetings later, Goyal managed to sell Etihad 24% for $379 million, a nearimpossible price given the precarious state Jet was in. But the miracle came at a price — Goyal soon saw his beloved company slipping out of his hands."Etihad's entry was the first instance that filled him with fear of losing control," recalls an executive. The Gulf carrier came in with 15 men and an aim to 'professionalise' Jet, though also to make a feeder airline of it. Weekly meetings with department heads were organised, routes changed, branding overhauled and cost discrepancies flagged.But Goyal soon took back charge. The Etihad men left. Almost as a retaliatory move, Jet shifted its global hub to Amsterdam, from Brussels, and in November 2017, signed deep commercial agreements with the Air France-KLM combine. This was an opportunity Goyal had squandered in 2010 by wooing Star Alliance, a global airline group that chose Air India as its member instead.Again, Goyal stitched together the new agreement almost single-handedly, with trusted lieutenant Gaurang Shetty. That was perhaps his last big win for Jet, the ultimate proof of his superlative networking skills.Meanwhile, the fear of losing control had taken deep root. "In many meetings last year, when he took the top management to task for the airline losing money, he often ended the tirades with, 'What should I do? Dilute stake in the airline that I have built? Exit?'" recalled a former executive who was present at many of those meetings.Mistakes piled up as Goyal started to run the airline again. In 2013-14, Jet had the opportunity to offload all the costly A330-200s to several potential buyers, including Turkish Airlines. But Goyal bargained over the price and lost the deal.Again in 2016, Jet had the opportunity to sell its entire ATR fleet, which was incurring an annual loss of over $100 million, to Etihad Regional or Air Serbia. And again, Goyal baulked. These lost opportunities returned to haunt Jet. Over the last 12 months, it has searched for and failed to find buyers for its Airbus A330s and ATRs.From London last week, Goyal again bid for his airline after the lenders put it under the auctioneer's hammer. His offer was rejected. In between, he continued to bicker with the lenders, saying they weren't doing a proper job of reviving Jet. On multiple occasions in the past few months, potential investors Etihad and TPG threatened to walk out if Goyal remained at the airline. Ultimately, by the time the Goyals left Jet, it didn't make a difference at all.Naresh Goyal, who built an airline from nothing, left behind a lesson for entrepreneurs — no founder is bigger than the company he runs.Mallya Sympathises with GoyalsLONDON: Erstwhile liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Wednesday took to social media once again, this time to express his solidarity with Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. "Even though Jet was a major competitor to Kingfisher at the time, I feel sorry to see such a large private airline on the brink of failure when government used Rs 35,000 crore of public funds to bail out Air India. Just being a PSU is no excuse for discrimination," Mallya tweeted. "I have offered to pay back 100% but am being criminally charged instead. Airline Karma?" The UB Group chief expressed his sympathy for the troubles being faced by Goyal and his wife Neeta. "Even though we were fierce competitors, my sympathies go out to Naresh and Neeta Goyal, who built Jet Airways, that India should be extremely proud of. Fine airline providing vital connectivity and class service. Sad that so many airlines have bitten the dust in India. Why?" Mallya asked. - PTI Source: ET
Why Tatas are no match for Amazon, Flipkart KOLKATA: The investment by Tatas into their e-commerce venture Tata CLiQ pales in comparison to Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Latest regulatory filings show Tatas invested Rs 292 crore in FY19 in Tata UniStore, the entity which owns the ecommerce marketplace. Though investment was up by 30% from FY18 (Rs 224 crore) as per the filings made to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), analysts said with such low investment it might be difficult for Tata CLiQ to win market share in the Indian e-commerce market with the cash-rich Reliance Retail, too, planning a mega entry.In calendar 2018, Amazon India received Rs 9,450 crore, the highest ever capital infusion into the Indian entity in a single year. After Walmart acquired a controlling 77% in Flipkart last August, Flipkart Internet received over Rs 3,463 crore while the wholesale arm Flipkart India received Rs 2,190 crore. Flipkart India received another Rs 1,431 crore in January.Analysts said Flipkart and Amazon together control over 90% of the Indian ecommerce market."A significant portion of Amazon and Flipkart's capital infusion has gone into market acquisition. If that's stripped out, then it's possible to build an ecommerce business with lower investment. But the way it is now, anybody who wants a significant chunk of ecommerce needs to consider bring deep pockets to the business," said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at consultancy firm Third Eyesight.The capital infusion into Tata UniStore was made by its two shareholders — Tata Industries, which owns 90%, and the group's retail arm, Trent, which owns the balance 10% — through allotment of equity shares. The investment was made in various tranches while the last one was done on February 25, 2019, for Rs 38.6 crore, as per RoC documents.In response to an email, Tata Industries executive director KRS Jamwal said Tata CLiQ's strategic goal is sustainable profitable growth and the investments are in line with the demands of this industry. He said the company has taken a long-term perspective and wants to build a differentiated brand in the consumer's mind with robust investments."Our enhanced product offering has received positive customer feedback. Along with our 'phygital' model, this has led to healthy growth last year.We continue to focus on delivering unique brand experience backed by authenticity and quality," said Jamwal.A senior executive with a leading online focussed appliance maker said Tata CLiQ is creating conflict in the consumer's mind with Tataowned Croma online storefront for smartphones and electronics."In fact, both the Tata online ventures are competing against each other," he said. As per RoC filings, Tata UniStore's total income in FY18 trebled to Rs 41.7 crore from Rs 13.5 crore, while loss increased more than 28% to Rs 208.4 crore from Rs 162.1 crore. Source: ET
MFs may have shot themselves in the foot What if banks take a leaf out of Kotak and HDFC Mutual Funds' decision to direct investors to come another day to get their money instead of paying them on the promised date?There would be a run not just on the bank that does something like that, but probably a host of banks would witness a rub-off effect. Can something similar happen to mutual funds? Not yet.Investors still believe that what they see as net asset value of their investments every morning would be handed out to them when they need it.But that faith may not last very long if mutual fund managers do not keep their promises. The decision of the two large mutual funds to carve out the holdings in a defaulting firm without exercising their rights raises the question whether they are doing justice to their investors.Mutual fund as a concept is a passthrough institution. An investor in a scheme gets the market value of his holding irrespective of profits or losses. The investor runs the risk of losing his capital if investments by the fund manager turn sour.Unlike deposits where the risk is borne by the bank, in mutual funds the investor bears the risk. Simply, it is a case of heads I win and tails you lose for Asset Management Companies.What went wrong? These funds invested in the bonds sold by Zee Group promoter Subhash Chandra's companies which defaulted on interest payments. Funds had the shares of various group firms as collateral with covenant that at any point it should be 1.5 times the borrowing.When there is a default and the value of collateral breaches the stipulated limit, either the lender gets more collateral or sells out the collateral to recover what is owed to it so that it repay its investors."Majority of lenders, reached a conclusion that, if all the lenders were to invoke pledge of shares and liquidate the security, it would have resulted in erosion of collateral value and led to sub-optimal recovery of dues,'' Kotak said in a note to investors.In this case, mutual funds were worried about the value erosion for the borrower if they sold off the collateral instead of repaying their investors who entrusted them with their savings. It was a case of misplaced loyalty.Debate about funding promoters is more digression than meaningful. If Chandra was facing temporary problems there were other routes like funding by non-banking finance companies to keep him going rather than compromising mutual fund investor interests.Investors can take market risk, but not mismanagement risk.The regulator may have played a role in this misbehaviour by mutual funds.Its hurried introduction of the 'side-pocketing' scheme post the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services blow-up last year has emboldened mutual funds. What was a one-time bail out for the US-64 scheme that sank the Unit Trust of India was introduced for the entire industry.Side pocketing is a concept where mutual funds can keep aside the securities of a defaulter and repay the investor after realising its actual value. That safety net intended at stability has the potential to encourage adventurism, than conservatism.Mutual funds is a good business to be in where the profitability is quite high once grown to a certain size. AMCs that run them have no skin in the game unlike banks where the shareholder is on the hook for bad loans. All that one requires to start a mutual fund is Rs 50 crore irrespective of the asset size whereas banks have capital adequacy in proportion to their loans.Revenues of top 39 mutual funds which have assets of Rs 21 lakh crore rose to Rs 12,984 crore in fiscal 2018, from Rs 3,579 crores in 2011. Their profit before tax margin is at 35 per cent, up from 19 per cent during the period, data from the regulator shows. Bigger is better. For large AMCs, the profit margin is at 46 per cent.The regulator in the past had penalised the likes of JPMorgan Mutual Fund for bad decisions to protect investors. But that has been given a good bye.While the industry has grown at an average of more than 20 per cent since the turn of the century, the quest for size and tax proposals have made it riskier for small investors.Treasuries of big companies dominate the fixed income side of mutual funds with them comprising half the debt schemes. In liquid and money market funds, retail is less than 5 per cent while corporates are at 70 per cent.To make it better for less savvy investors, the regulator may prescribe capital in proportion to the size of the assets manage like it is for banks. Mandating a cap on corporate investments in schemes that have retail investors would ringfence the common man.Without adjustments and making the mutual fund industry robust, they may well squander the benefits derived from demonetisation. 68901970 68861121 68842385 Source: ET
Why India should beware of Saudi Aramco's billions By David FicklingIt's funny how friendly someone gets when they're trying to sell you something.Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is doing its best to make nice with one of its biggest customers. With the ink barely dry on the takeover of 70 percent of the country's chemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and the issuance of its first-ever corporate bond, Aramco is looking to buy a stake in the world's biggest oil refinery.Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. is seeking to sell as much as a quarter of its refining business for at least $10 billion and is entertaining offers from Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News this week.That represents quite a prize. Reliance's Jamnagar refinery is about twice the size of the biggest U.S. plant, Aramco-owned Port Arthur, and is so massive that maintenance work occasionally skews India's entire trade balance.Trade is also the reason India should be cautious of Aramco's embrace. The country has a dangerous addiction to imported crude, and it should be wary of getting too cozy with its dealer. 68932026 For more than a century, the rise of major economic powers has been fueled by petroleum. The U.S. is both the world's biggest oil consumer and its biggest producer. The Soviet Union was built on its oilfields in the Caucasus and Siberia. While China has overtaken America as the biggest oil importer, it's also the biggest producer outside the Middle East after the U.S., Russia and Canada. India is different. The U.S. produces about 1.8 metric tons of oil a year per capita and even China manages 138 kilograms. India – at a far earlier stage of development than either country – ekes out just 30 kilograms. Production peaked all the way back in 2010, and shows no sign of recovery. Industrialization is an energy-intensive process. If India's development is going to be powered by crude oil, it's going to be buying a whole lot more from Aramco and its ilk.Such a future would pose some profound risks. Balance of payments crises are a recurring danger for emerging economies, and even at its current stage of development oil typically accounts for about a quarter of India's imports. If prices spike higher – as, inevitably, they will from time to time – that's good news for Riyadh, but potentially devastating for New Delhi. 68932031 When crude is averaging $85 a barrel – roughly the level at which Saudi Arabia can balance its budget, according to the International Monetary Fund – oil imports would reduce India's gross domestic product by about 3.6 percentage points, according to a study this year by the Reserve Bank of India. Higher prices will also push up inflation and weaken the government's fiscal position, the authors found.At present, that dynamic is somewhat mitigated by the fact that about a third of India's oil imports are re-exported as petroleum products, giving the country a natural hedge against rising prices. Jamnagar, for instance, produces almost exclusively for export, meaning that it probably makes a modestly positive contribution to the trade balance since oil products are more valuable than the crude they're made from.Should domestic consumption grow faster than export refinery capacity, though, India's oil dependence will start taking a deeper bite out of its current account. In a worst-case scenario, a spike in oil prices could drive the country toward a balance of payments crisis like the one it suffered in 1991, when a splurge on oil imports over the previous decade resulted in New Delhi pledging its gold reserves as security for bailouts from multilateral lenders.India is aware that its dependence on imported crude risks constraining growth. The government wants 30 percent of new cars and two-wheelers to be electric by 2030 and is already home to more than 1.5 million electric rickshaws. It's also adjusted tax policies to encourage that transition. In a country at grave risk from climate change, whose cities are already choking on vehicle smog, reducing the reliance on imported fossil fuels is more than just an issue for the current account.That goal isn't an unrealistic one given the rock-bottom local cost of wind and solar. Still, no country has managed a low-carbon industrialization on this scale before, so it won't be easy – and Saudi Arabia will be hoping it proves all but impossible. By promising to buy a chunk of Reliance and help fund a new $44 billion Jamnagar-sized refinery in western India, Aramco is counting on the country being unable to kick its self-destructive oil habit. Indians should hope that it's wrong. Source: ET
Partners accuse Prajay Promoters of mismanagement; move NCLT Foreign and local partners of Prajay Engineers Syndicate have moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), accusing the promoters of the real estate and property development firm of mismanagement and malaise, thereby eroding its substratum and raising the risk of winding up.Global partners Belclare and Whitestock, and a group of domestic shareholders led by Hymavathi Reddy, widow of its former chief promoter DS Chandra Mohan Reddy, filed separate petitions in the NCLT. They urged the tribunal to order a forensic audit of Prajay Engineers and restrain its management led by chairman and managing director D Vijay Sen Reddy from alienating any assets. They also sought annulment of contracts entered into by the promoters against the provisions of foreign investment agreements.Belclare, a Cyprus-based firm owned by Oman's State General Reserve Fund, had invested Rs 70 crore in a stepdown property development subsidiaries of Prajay Engineers in May 2010. It has now accused Vijay Sen Reddy and others in the management of violating agreements on governance and corporate compliance. Belclare said it was excluded from the affairs of the entities where it had invested in and that it had not received any financial statements or information on the progress of the projects undertaken by the entities ever since it had made the investments.According to the Cyprus firm, it learnt that its investments into Prajay Properties were diverted to parent Prajay Engineers through inter-corporate deposits and then siphoned off. Belclare told the tribunal that it had appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a forensic audit of the books of the Prajay Engineers entities, but the auditing firm wasn't allowed to carry out it despite repeated requests.Belclare alleged that the promoters led by Vijay Sen Reddy had resorted to "making material decisions, including altering the composition of the board by way of fictitious board meetings". The investor said Vijay Sen Reddy had repeatedly requested it to retrospectively sign the "fictitious minutes" of such board meetings. "There was also a request from respondent No 4 (Vijay Sen Reddy) to backdate minutes of a meeting that in fact did not take place," it claimed. Source: ET
