| Shanahan's confirmation hearing for defense secretary delayed amid FBI investigation Posted: 17 Jun 2019 04:22 PM PDT  Patrick Shanahan is facing a protracted FBI investigation that has delayed his Senate hearing until at least next month. With Shanahan's confirmation on hold, press reports have questioned his relationship with the president, and the Pentagon has been fielding press queries about his personal life.
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| China earthquake kills 13, injures 199 Posted: 18 Jun 2019 07:49 AM PDT  The toll from a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake in southwest China rose to 13 dead and 199 injured on Tuesday as rescuers pulled bodies and survivors from wrecked buildings. More than 8,000 people were relocated as a large number of structures were damaged or collapsed after the quake struck late Monday near Yibin, in Sichuan province, according to the city government. Other images were of a woman being helped out of another collapsed structure.
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| Death toll from China quakes rises to 11 Posted: 17 Jun 2019 05:07 PM PDT ![Death toll from China quakes rises to 11]( "Death toll from China quakes rises to 11") BEIJING/SHANGHAI, June 18 (Reuters) - The death toll from two strong earthquakes in China rose to 11 on Tuesday, with 122 people injured, state media said, adding that rescuers pulled some survivors from rubble in a part of the country that often suffers strong tremors. The quakes, roughly 30 minutes apart, hit the southwestern province of Sichuan late on Monday, with shaking felt in key regional cities, such as the provincial capital of Chengdu and the metropolis of Chongqing. People rushed into the streets and cracks were left in some buildings by the quakes, pictures posted on the social media accounts of state media showed.
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| The Latest: Hong Kong police seek to defuse public anger Posted: 17 Jun 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Hong Kong's police commissioner says only people who committed violence will be charged with rioting during clashes between police and protesters outside the legislature on Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to defuse widespread public anger over aggressive police tactics. It included the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and steel batons against protesters who removed barriers. Protesters in Hong Kong have gathered outside the office of the city's leader, demanding that she resign for her handling of an unpopular extradition bill.
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| Daring maneuver brings NASA’s orbiter closer to an asteroid than ever before Posted: 17 Jun 2019 08:44 AM PDT  NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been orbiting the space rock known as Bennu since the start of the year. It caught up with the asteroid in late December of 2018 and successfully inserted itself into orbit around the object around New Year's day. There have been several "firsts" along the way, but its latest maneuver is the most daring yet, and it allowed the spacecraft to break yet another record.A recent tweak to its orbit has brought the probe to an orbit of just 680 meters, or around 2,230 feet from the asteroid's surface. This is now the closest that any manmade spacecraft has orbited any planetary body.It's a stellar achievement for NASA, but it's worth noting that the previous record was actually already held by the OSIRIS-REx probe. What NASA did was break its own record and set itself even farther ahead from any competition to come in the future.This new orbit, which the research team calls the Orbital B phase, will give scientists a better understanding of the asteroid's surface and hopefully allow NASA to choose a suitable location where the probe can briefly snag a sample of its material.Actually pulling off such a daring maneuver will be incredibly risky, and nobody is quite sure if the spacecraft can make it happen. This is due in large part to the incredibly messy surface of Bennu, which surprised scientists when they got their first close look. The asteroid's surface is littered with debris ranging from tiny pebbles to massive boulders, and the spacecraft's handlers now have to find the safest place on the rock from which to gather a sample.Assuming it pulls off the sample grab, the probe will then leave Bennu and return to Earth with the sample material stowed safely for scientists on Earth to examine.
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| Could GM Bring Hummer Back as an Electric SUV Brand? Posted: 18 Jun 2019 08:48 AM PDT  Reports are swirling about the revival of the military-inspired SUVs.
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| McConnell on Jon Stewart: 'I don't know why he's all bent out of shape' over 9/11 victims' fund Posted: 17 Jun 2019 08:23 AM PDT  The Senate majority leader says he can't understand why the former "Daily Show" host is angry over the handling of health care funding for 9/11 victims.
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| U.S.-North Korea Summit Proves to Be All Talk, No Seoul Posted: 17 Jun 2019 08:48 AM PDT  Moon Jae-in was a very busy man last week. He spent three days in Northern Europe with a large host of dignitaries and very important people. During that time he engaged in a "hackathon" with the Finlandian president, held talks with the Norwegian prime minister, and attended a state dinner with the king and queen of Sweden. It was an opportunity for the South Korean president to play the statesman and escape the rough-and-tumble politics of Seoul for at least a few days.Moon, however, has a big problem. He has staked his five-year tenure in large part on transforming inter-Korean relations and turning the page on seven decades of animus on the Korean Peninsula. So, he can't escape the North Korea file for long—even when he is in the Nordic.In fact, Moon delivered two speeches during his three-day trip, which were heavily devoted to his peace project with the North. His June 14 address to the Swedish parliament, in which Moon predicted that the "international society will immediately respond if North Korea puts forth sincere efforts" towards denuclearization, was a public plea to knock some sense into the North Korean elite. By pushing Pyongyang into fulfilling its obligations in the letter and spirit of the three inter-Korean summits last year, Moon was sending a very basic message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: we are in this thing together, so help me help you.
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| 30+ Healthy Snacks Better Than Anything In A Vending Machine Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:05 AM PDT |
| How U.S. Allies in the Middle East are Responding to Rising Tensions with Iran Posted: 18 Jun 2019 07:24 AM PDT  The impact of escalation is likely to be most acute in the Gulf region
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| Rescue efforts underway after China quake kills at least 12 Posted: 18 Jun 2019 01:37 AM PDT  Rescue efforts were underway Tuesday after an earthquake in southwestern China left 12 people dead and 135 others injured, authorities said. Hundreds of firefighters arrived early Tuesday and rescued at least eight trapped people, the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said. State broadcaster CCTV showed soldiers using a chainsaw to cut through a wooden door and rescue a couple under a fallen kitchen wall.
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| Four More Years? Trump Has Reasons to Fear Posted: 18 Jun 2019 02:55 AM PDT ![Four More Years? Trump Has Reasons to Fear]( "Four More Years? Trump Has Reasons to Fear") (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.It's been 27 years since an incumbent U.S. president lost re-election, and judging by the health of the economy and other traditional metrics, Donald Trump looks unlikely to break the trend.In addition to presiding over sustained growth and low unemployment, Trump enjoys a nation at relative peace, a well-funded campaign and the strong backing of the Republican Party. And yet, as he prepares to formally kick off his 2020 re-election bid with a prime-time speech in Florida, he has reason to be circumspect, Shannon Pettypiece and Mike Dorning report.Most private forecasters expect the economy to slow entering the election year, as U.S. trade disputes threaten global commerce — hurting core voters like farmers — and the fiscal stimulus from Trump's 2018 tax cut fades.Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into election meddling by Russia, alongside other controversies that have dogged Trump's administration, are also potential liabilities.Trump trails six of his Democratic rivals in hypothetical head-to-head contests, a poll showed last week. And no president since 1952 has been re-elected with an approval rating below 48%. Trump has not exceeded 46% in Gallup polls since taking office.Much hinges on the Democrats. The question is whether they can select a challenger able to attract the funding and support in battleground states needed to deny Trump a second term.Global HeadlinesIran under pressure | The Pentagon plans to send about 1,000 more troops to the Middle East, even as Trump described as "very minor" the recent attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman that the U.S. has blamed on Iran. The Pentagon also released new photos and a timeline it said bolstered the case that Iran was behind the incidents. Tehran denies any involvement.Click here to read how Trump's campaign vow to get the U.S. out of costly foreign entanglements is colliding with the messy reality of commitments in the Middle East.Trade turmoil | The chairwoman of the world's biggest bicycle maker delivered an ominous message to China that its days as a global manufacturing hub may be numbered. Giant Manufacturing started rolling production of its U.S.-bound orders back home to Taiwan when Trump made his tariff threats last year, Cindy Wang reports. Trump's top trade envoy, Robert Lighthizer, is due to appear before Congress this week to account for the trade conflict.Scottish dilemma | Scots didn't vote for Brexit and neither did they elect the Conservatives. So the likelihood of a Brexiteer such as Boris Johnson winning the race to succeed Theresa May as Tory leader and prime minister is forcing some hard choices north of the border. As Alan Crawford and Rodney Jefferson report, the sense in Edinburgh is that another referendum on Scottish independence is now inevitable.As the Conservative field narrows further today, Alex Morales profiles Rory Stewart, the lesser-known candidate suddenly making waves.Fall from grace | The holding company of the Brazilian construction and energy giant at the center of a massive Latin America graft probe has filed for bankruptcy protection. Odebrecht has struggled since the "Carwash" investigation, which started in 2014 and brought the construction industry to a halt as access to government projects was cut and executives jailed. The political fallout is still reverberating from Ecuador to Mexico, Peru and Brazil.Waiting game | Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi still hasn't named a cabinet five months after taking office, leaving investors in the mineral-rich nation facing endless delays. After a disputed election, Tshisekedi's protracted talks with his coalition partner have almost paralyzed a nation ranked by the World Bank as one of the most difficult and corrupt places to do business.What to WatchHong Kong leader Carrie Lam today apologized for backing a bill to allow extraditions to China, as she seeks to defuse protests that have rocked the city. She declined to resign or withdraw the bill completely — key demands of protest leaders. Rights groups have urged a transparent probe into the death of Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood foot soldier who became Egypt's first freely elected civilian president. He collapsed during a court hearing over an espionage case, with state-run media saying he suffered a "sudden heart attack." Chancellor Angela Merkel's candidate to head the European Commission — Manfred Weber, a German lawmaker in the European parliament — is struggling for momentum, which means she may need to instead focus on getting her preferred person into the European Central Bank's top job. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo meets today with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Washington. Mogherini said yesterday the EU will not support Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan without a two-state solution included.And finally...You used to catch only rare glimpses of them in public — a waiter willing to risk jail time might accept them for the right price, street hawkers making offers for them under their breath. Today, U.S. greenbacks are widely used in Venezuela's supermarkets and bodegas. As Andrew Rosati reports, with the bolivar devalued into irrelevance by Nicolas Maduro's regime, the cash printed by the gringos he rails against is king. \--With assistance from Karl Maier and Jon Herskovitz.To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Alan CrawfordFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Buttigieg: There's Definitely Been Gay Presidents Before Posted: 17 Jun 2019 02:58 AM PDT  Reuters / John Sommers IIIf he wins in 2020, Pete Buttigieg is pretty sure he won't be the first gay president. Speaking to Axios on HBO, the South Bend mayor was asked how he's going to respond to people who attack him during the campaign for being too young, too liberal, or too gay to be the American president. "We have had excellent presidents who have been young," he said. "We have had excellent presidents who have been liberal. I would imagine we've probably had excellent presidents who were gay—we just didn't know which ones." He went on to say that it was statistically "almost certain" that there had been gay presidents, but he couldn't name names. "My gaydar even doesn't work that well in the present, let alone retroactively," he lamented.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The Dire Necessity of Strategic Concessions and Relationship Building in U.S.-North Korea Relations Posted: 18 Jun 2019 09:21 AM PDT  Looking back at U.S. responses to North Korea's nuclear program, one would think that they are looking at a modified model of the five stages of grief. The United States has gone through everything: denial, anger (see: "fire and fury"), bargaining, depression, denial again. Yet, try as we might, we cannot hide from established fact—North Korea has developed the capabilities necessary to target U.S. bases and homeland territory with nuclear weapons, and it has been able to target U.S. critical allies in Asia for far longer. With Kim Jong-un showing no indication of a willingness to completely give up his nuclear arsenal in the near future and with little in the way of engagement since the second summit in Hanoi, where do we go from here?On the surface level, U.S. President Donald Trump's current policy of maximum pressure appears to have worked. After all, Kim was brought to the bargaining table in a historic United States-North Korea summit in 2018. However, attributing the summit to a policy that was hawkish at best, and brought the United States and its allies to the brink of nuclear war with North Korea at worst, would be blatantly overlooking history. To praise "maximum pressure" would also be downplaying the decades of North Korean precedent to meet pressure with pressure and diminishing crucial peace-keeping role that South Korean President Moon Jae-in undertook to alleviate tension on the Korean peninsula.
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| Tesla and NIO fires in China prompt authorities to enact new safety guideline Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:04 PM PDT  Statistically, electric cars are far less likely to catch fire than their gasoline-powered brethren. That said, traditional cars don't tend to catch fire for seemingly no reason at all, which, for reasons that remain murky, has happened a handful of times to electric cars from the likes of Tesla and NIO in recent memory.We've covered a few spontaneous Tesla fires over the past few months, but NIO, for those not familiar, is a Chinese electric car manufacturer. There are only a few thousand NIO vehicles on the road in China, but there have already been three reports of NIO electric vehicles spontaneously catching fire over the last three months alone. Something peculiar is certainly happening and authorities in China naturally want to get to the bottom of it.Consequently, Bloomberg reports that the Chinese industry and technology ministry is now requiring electric automakers to conduct thorough checks for fire safety on both new and existing vehicles."Companies need to check for potential safety hazards with battery boxes, waterproof protection in cars, high-voltage wiring harnesses, as well as on-board charging devices," the report notes.Any subsequent findings need to be submitted via a written report to the ministry by October of this year. The ministry's full statement, which can be read in its entirety over here, also relays that EV manufacturers must conduct a timely investigation into every fire incident. Further, if a fire happens to result in the death of a driver or passenger, EV manufacturers will have 6 hours to embark on a thorough investigation.To be clear, these fire incidents are far from common, though there's still something harrowing about a car catching fire for absolutely no discernible reason. To this point, you may recall this video from April of a Model S spontaneously catching fire in a parking garage.https://youtu.be/sAQlLu5ttOk?t=85
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| Attorney Michael Avenatti faces November trial in New York Posted: 18 Jun 2019 02:35 PM PDT  California attorney Michael Avenatti learned Tuesday that he faces a November trial date on charges he tried to extort millions of dollars from Nike. The Nov. 12 trial date was set by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe at a pretrial hearing in Manhattan. Avenatti participated by telephone.
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| Boeing's embattled chief faces tough crowd at Paris Air Show Posted: 16 Jun 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg will have his work cut out for him at the Paris Air Show this week as he tries to reassure airlines and industry partners over the fate of its flagship 737 MAX plane, indefinitely grounded after two fatal crashes.
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| Freed Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Addresses Rally on the Day He Is Released From Prison Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:03 AM PDT  He is expected to resume his place at the forefront of the city's fight for political freedom
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| Argentina, Uruguay restore power after massive blackout Posted: 16 Jun 2019 07:15 PM PDT  Electricity services have been restored to all of Argentina and Uruguay following a massive blackout that left around 48 million people without power on Sunday, authorities said. The cut, which began just after 7:00 am, also caused short, localized losses of power in Paraguay, but didn't impact Tierra del Fuego in Argentina's extreme south because the region is not part of the national system. The episode was the first time a power cut had affected the majority of Argentina, with a population of more than 44 million, and the entirety of Uruguay, which has 3.4 million inhabitants.
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| 'It's a bunch of malarkey': Biden blasts Trump for stirring racial tensions Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden told an anti-poverty gathering Monday that President Trump has pitted racial groups against one another, but pushed back against criticism of his calls for bipartisan compromise.
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| Trump Cryptically Parrots Fox News Graphic Encouraging Iran Military Strike Posted: 17 Jun 2019 11:06 AM PDT  Mere minutes after Fox News aired a segment on Monday that seemingly laid out the case for military strikes against Iran, President Trump cryptically—and without context—tweeted out verbatim a graphic displayed by the network, noting Iran has threatened to exceed uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal."Iran to defy Uranium Stockpile Limits," the president tweeted at 11:49 a.m. ET, three minutes after America's Newsroom aired a chyron with the same wording:As first highlighted by Media Matters' Matthew Gertz—who often tracks the president's habit of live-tweeting Fox News programming—the segment itself included commentary that encouraged strikes against Iran, claiming that Iran only responds to strength and brief action against the nation won't necessarily lead to a protracted war.Fox News anchor Julie Banderas first highlighted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's assertion over the weekend that America doesn't want war as tensions increase with Iran but will take military action if needed."History will tell you Iran only responds to strength," Banderas noted after Fox News contributor Daniel Hoffman said the stockpiling of low-grade uranium was a "real threat" to the United States. "Strength in numbers, strength in military action is needed according to Mike Pompeo, who says the president would back that. Do you believe that military action is needed?"Stating the United States is not interested in returning to the Iran Nuclear Deal that the Trump administration withdrew from last year, Hoffman went on to say that the administration is hinting at a "flexible response" that could include B-52 bombers if the United States felt under attack."If there's something smaller, then we might respond with something less serious than that," the former CIA official added.Banderas, meanwhile, responded by replaying an earlier segment that featured Fox News analyst and retired general Jack Keane, noting Keane claimed military action would not necessarily lead to war and that viewers shouldn't be that concerned over potential military strikes.After playing Keane's remarks, in which he said Iran doesn't want a war but is willing to "escalate militarily" so the United States has to "have enough resolve to stand up to that," Banderas reiterated Keane's belief that America needs to be tougher with Iran."The United States does not want war as well with Iran," the Fox News anchor declared. "But they are going to step up the game because these war game that are being played by Iran, the United States isn't going to go for that."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The Latest: Indiana AG's office plans vigorous defense Posted: 18 Jun 2019 12:54 PM PDT  The Indiana attorney general's office says it will vigorously defend him against a federal lawsuit by four women who say he drunkenly groped them during a party last year. The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges sexual harassment by Republican state Attorney General Curtis Hill on a state lawmaker and three legislative staffers in March 2018 at an Indianapolis bar. Hill has denied wrongdoing and rebuffed calls from Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to resign.
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| Hawaiian, Southwest, Allegiant top Forbes list of fastest airlines in the U.S. Posted: 18 Jun 2019 09:30 AM PDT ![Hawaiian, Southwest, Allegiant top Forbes list of fastest airlines in the U.S.]( "Hawaiian, Southwest, Allegiant top Forbes list of fastest airlines in the U.S.") Hawaiian, Southwest and Allegiant airlines topped the list that measured efficiency and government on-time percentage rates.
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| Facebook’s Libra coin isn’t even out yet, but it’s already facing opposition in Europe Posted: 18 Jun 2019 01:20 PM PDT  Facebook on Tuesday announced the Bitcoin rival it has been developing for the better part of a year: Libra. From the start, Facebook insisted on how secure Libra would be, and on the fact that a subsidiary called Calibra will be in charge of Libra, and that a Libra Association would oversee the Libra blockchain.It's as if Facebook wanted to ensure everyone ahead of Libra's 2020 launch that the coin won't be another way for the company to make money off of its customers by collecting even more personal data from them. We told you before the announcement that you should avoid Libra at all costs until Facebook proves it can be trusted with our privacy. But now that Libra is official, it's already facing opposition out of Europe.As the recent past has shown, it's Europe that US tech companies have to fear. Google has been slapped with no less than three multi-billion dollar fines in anti-trust cases, and regulators in various countries aren't fans of Facebook in light of the recent scandals that plagued the social network.Facebook's desire to handle payments won't go unnoticed or unscrutinized in the region, and the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire already commented on Libra. "It is out of question" that Libra "become a sovereign currency," Le Maire said in an interview with Europe 1 radio, per Bloomberg. "It can't and it must not happen."The official also called on the Group of Seven central bank governors to prepare a report on Facebook's project for the upcoming July meetings. Le Maire's fears were echoed by Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament who took to -- wait for it -- Facebook to say that with more than 2 billion users, the company could become a "shadow bank," and that regulators should be on high alert."Multinational corporations such as Facebook must not be allowed to operate in a regulatory nirvana when introducing virtual currencies," said Ferber.The other day I said that Libra does have one advantage over other cryptos: It can raise awareness about blockchain tech and digital currencies to teach more people about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. In light of these first reactions from the EU, there's one other side-effect that Libra might have on the crypto space. It could convince more governments to take a closer look at cryptos, and issue stricter regulation.
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| Sex cult trial in New York moves to closing arguments on Monday Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:00 AM PDT ![Sex cult trial in New York moves to closing arguments on Monday]( "Sex cult trial in New York moves to closing arguments on Monday") Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments on Monday in the trial of Keith Raniere, the New York man accused of trapping women in a sex cult and having them branded with his initials. Prosecutors said he used his organization Nxivm, which billed itself as a self-help group, to hide a secretive sorority known as DOS in which young women were blackmailed into have sex with him, follow dangerously restrictive diets and be branded with his initials. Raniere, who could face life in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty.
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| Alibaba Plans Stock Split as It Preps Giant Listing Posted: 16 Jun 2019 10:28 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans a one-to-eight share split, as the e-commerce giant prepares for a stock sale that could be Hong Kong's largest since 2010.China's largest company is proposing to increase the number of ordinary shares eight-fold to 32 billion, it said in a statement. The proposal will be discussed and put to a vote at its annual general meeting in Hong Kong on July 15. If approved, the split should take place no later than July 2020.Alibaba is said to have filed for a listing in Hong Kong last week via a confidential exchange application. That sale of stock, which could raise as much as $20 billion, replenishes the online retailer's war-chest and helps it attract investors closer to home as tensions between China and the U.S. escalate.In the Hong Kong offering, the company will seek to preserve its governance system, where a partnership of top executives has rights including the ability to nominate a majority of board members, a person familiar with the matter has said. It's possible also that the company may not need to seek a waiver, as the city's listing rules allow some Chinese issuers who have already listed on an established international bourse to keep their existing structures in a secondary listing.To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Huawei phone sales plunge, cutbacks planned as US pressure bites Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:14 AM PDT  Huawei's founder said Monday the Chinese telecom giant's overseas smartphone sales have tumbled since the US last month threatened to blacklist the company, and he warned the embattled firm would slash production to weather the US drive to isolate it. The announcements by Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei marked the first clear indication from the company of the impact of the US pressure, which is being applied over concerns in Washington that Huawei is in bed with China's security apparatus. Speaking at a panel discussion organised by the company at headquarters in the city of Shenzhen in southern China, Ren was asked if he could confirm media reports citing anonymous sources which said its overseas smartphone sales had fallen by up to 40 percent.
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| Paul Manafort reportedly won’t go to Rikers Island prison, thanks to the Justice Department Posted: 18 Jun 2019 12:00 PM PDT  Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign manager who was convicted of multiple federal crimes, will no longer be transferred to New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail after all, the New York Times reported on Monday.
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| See Photos of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:00 PM PDT |
| Since When Are Liberals against Investigating the CIA and FBI? Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Was there ever a time when Americans had unquestioning faith in federal law-enforcement agencies? Maybe in the days before Vietnam and Watergate, most citizens did believe that those in charge of the nation's fate could be trusted. Before World War II, the FBI's formidable public-relations machine actually produced a popular radio and television program lauding its efforts "in peace and war." After the war, when the CIA became the country's first full-time foreign-intelligence agency, few Americans understood much about what it was doing, and what little they did know was colored by the government's propaganda efforts.But ever since the upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s seemed to make cynicism about government our new national pastime, the notion that the intelligence community is above politics has been as outdated as the adulation once accorded to J. Edgar Hoover. It's in that context that we should understand the recent debate about whether it's appropriate to scrutinize the CIA and FBI's role in the origins of the Russia probe. Though Democrats are now treating criticism of federal law enforcement as beyond the pale, their newfound faith is every bit as partisan as Republicans' newfound skepticism. A sober look at the history of the past few decades reveals that, to paraphrase Clausewitz, in Washington, intelligence has always been a matter of politics by other means.Attorney General William Barr's decision to launch an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation has caused some predicable anger among Democrats and other Trump-administration critics. This discomfort stems from what they regard as an attempt to flip the narrative from Trump's alleged collusion with Russia to a dubious decision by the FBI to begin spying on the political opponents of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.Given the failure of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to prove the collusion allegations, Barr's attempt to determine whether the unprecedented probe of a presidential campaign was an abuse of power seems reasonable. But Barr's decision is a huge problem for Democrats who are hoping to pursue the impeachment of Trump by picking up the case that Mueller failed to make after two years of effort.So we saw CNN crime-and-justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz this week telling host Don Lemon that it is "troubling" that the Department of Justice is questioning the work of CIA agents. "You don't do this," Prokupecz said. "The CIA kind of operates in their own world." Indeed the CIA does, but that never stopped Democrats or the press from going all out to probe its activities as long as said activities were perceived to further their opponents' political agenda.Prokupecz and the House Democrats who are rushing to the barricades to defend the actions of former CIA director John Brennan at the beginning of the Mueller probe are acting as if the agency's reputation has never before been called into question. Some of them may be too young to have experienced the political ferment of the 1970s and'80s, in which congressional committees led by Democrats such as Frank Church and Otis Pike conducted far-reaching investigations that embarrassed the intelligence establishment. But surely they have some memory of the debates about intelligence after the 9/11 attacks and the heated run-up to George W. Bush's Iraq War. The only difference between those episodes and this one is that the political parties have switched sides.In the past, it was Republicans defending the FBI and the CIA against Democrats' charges that these agencies were out of control. But since the summer of 2016, when the intelligence establishment seemed to join forces to raise alarms about Russian meddling in the presidential election and, more important, to raise concerns about untrue allegations of Trump-campaign collusion in that meddling, Democrats have acted as if Langley and Quantico are beyond reproach.Once Trump started criticizing the intelligence agencies' consensus about Russians' election interference, and then after it became known that the FBI and CIA had begun probing his campaign in the summer of 2016, Democrats became unstinting in their defense of the agencies. By contrast, Republicans who had been stalwart CIA and FBI defenders suddenly became bitter critics, demanding transparency and sometimes floating the same sort of conspiracy theories about the intelligence community's activities that used to be the province of the Left.Sensible people of either party will always seek to mix deference to the intelligence community's mission, which often requires a fair degree of secrecy, with an understanding that all government officials and agencies must be kept on a tight leash lest they abuse the awesome power vested in them.To those who have followed past controversies involving the FBI and CIA, it should seem entirely plausible that some federal law-enforcement agents could let their distaste for Trump get the better of them. That Democrats no longer care and Republicans suddenly do testifies to the fact that in Washington, most things always boil down to politics.
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| Forget Stealth Fighters or Aircraft Carriers: China Will Beat America with This Posted: 17 Jun 2019 02:00 AM PDT  What's particularly interesting about a Chinese drone swarm is China's predominance in drone production. Chinese manufacturer DJI makes nearly 80 percent of the drones used in the United States and Canada (U.S. authorities recently warned these robots could be stealing data from their users). Such a solid manufacturing base puts Beijing in a strong position to build large numbers of small attack drones.China has a history of overwhelming its enemies with sheer numbers of troops.Now, China may have a modern iteration on that tactic: swarms of tiny rocket-armed helicopter drones that will swamp enemy forces like angry bees.(This first appeared last month.)"China's domestically developed helicopter drones carrying proximity explosive mortar shells, grenade launchers and machine guns can now form swarms and engage in coordinated strikes," according to Chinese newspaper Global Times, citing a statement by the Guangdong-based Zhuhai Ziyan company, which makes unmanned aerial vehicles. The system was also displayed at a recent Turkish defense trade show.
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| NASA says there’s ‘no doubt’ SpaceX Crew Dragon explosion has pushed back crewed flights Posted: 18 Jun 2019 11:48 AM PDT  NASA desperately needs a way to get its astronauts into space without paying for pricey seats aboard Russian rockets, but the agency's two best hopes -- SpaceX and Boeing -- are stumbling a bit at the finish line. Boeing's Starliner has been plagued by delays nearly from the start, and SpaceX is now dealing with its own list of problems.In remarks to reporters at the Paris Airshow, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine admitted that the recent destruction of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule during static testing is a major setback for NASA's crewed flight schedule. The race to be the first to deliver a suitable solution for NASA's needs now appears to be anyone's game."There is no doubt the schedule will change," Bridenstine reportedly said during his brief talk. "It won't be what was originally planned."Back in late April, something went seriously wrong during a static test of Crew Dragon's thrusters. The thrusters being tested were those that would spring into action if a launch had to be aborted after it had already lifted off. They're designed to push the crew capsule away from the rest of the launch vehicle, keeping the crew safe.Unfortunately, a glitch that so far has been described only as "an anomaly" occurred and the entire Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed in a fiery explosion. Details regarding exactly what went wrong have been scant, but both NASA and SpaceX are still conducting their investigations into the matter.Up until that point, SpaceX was clearly beating competitor Boeing in the race to finish a crew-capable NASA spacecraft. However, an explosion can be a pretty big setback, and now it's unclear when SpaceX will be able to resume its testing and get back on track. In the meantime, NASA will just have to wait.
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| View Photos of the 2019 BMW X5 and 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:15 AM PDT |
| LAPD investigates officer's actions in Costco shooting Posted: 16 Jun 2019 08:05 PM PDT  The Los Angeles Police Department is gathering evidence and video footage in an administrative investigation into an off-duty officer who shot and killed a man authorities say attacked him inside a Southern California Costco Wholesale warehouse store. Two others were critically injured in the shooting in Corona, which is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. The officer opened fire after Kenneth French, 32, of Riverside, "assaulted" him "without provocation" as the officer held his young child, Corona police said Saturday.
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| Democrat Bullock seizes spotlight after getting left out of presidential debate Posted: 18 Jun 2019 07:00 AM PDT ![Democrat Bullock seizes spotlight after getting left out of presidential debate]( "Democrat Bullock seizes spotlight after getting left out of presidential debate") Montana Governor Steve Bullock is making a flurry of appearances on television and the campaign trail after getting locked out of next week's Democratic Party presidential debate, a move aimed at turning the bad news into a boost for his candidacy. While 20 of his rivals meet over two nights on the debate stage in Florida, Bullock will be in Iowa and New Hampshire - the first states to have presidential nominating contests - holding televised town halls. A new ad being released on Tuesday and seen by Reuters complains that Bullock was "ousted" from the debate and urges supporters to donate to his campaign.
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| Cat filter accidentally applied to Pakistani politician's face during live stream Posted: 18 Jun 2019 01:57 PM PDT  Call it a filter fail, a real social media CAT-astrophe.
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| Ethiopian Airlines rejects 'pilot error' claim in US Posted: 17 Jun 2019 07:14 AM PDT A US politician who blamed pilot error for contributing to the deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX flown by Ethiopian Airlines was "seriously misinformed", the carrier's boss has said. Republican Sam Graves told a House of Representatives hearing last month that "facts" in investigations after crashes in both Ethiopia and Indonesia "reveal pilot error as a factor in these tragically fatal accidents". The 737 MAX 8 is currently grounded worldwide after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in March, killing all 157 people onboard and drawing scrutiny to the new Boeing model's anti-stall system.
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| Reynolds Wrap will pay someone $5,000 a week to travel across America eating ribs Posted: 18 Jun 2019 10:34 AM PDT  Grill masters and backyard barbecue bosses, listen up
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| AOC: ‘Hyde Amendment Is about Income Inequality’ Not Abortion Posted: 17 Jun 2019 05:43 AM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Sunday praised former vice president Joe Biden for his recently announced opposition to the Hyde amendment and said that her own opposition to the prohibition on the direct federal funding of abortion is rooted in her concern about income inequality."I'm encourage by the fact that he is now against the Hyde Amendment," Ocasio-Cortez told ABC's Jonathan Karl when asked about Biden's recent reversal on the issue.Ocasio-Cortez, who launched a petition over the weekend to build public support for the amendment's repeal, went on to explain that the direct federal funding of abortion is necessary to protect the abortion rights of incarcerated pregnant women."Reproductive health care for incarcerated women should be guaranteed as it is with all women in the United States, so I think it really depends," said the freshman New York lawmaker. More from her remarks:> And that's really what the Hyde amendment is really about. The Hyde amendment isn't about abortion per se. The Hyde amendment is truly about equality of healthcare and healthcare access for low income women and women of color and women that get caught in our mass incarceration system. And so the Hyde amendment is about income inequality and it's about women's healthcare in a system of income inequality. So I think that we need to repeal it.After maintaining support for the Hyde amendment throughout his decades-long career in politics, Biden reversed himself last month in response to pressure from abortion-advocacy groups."If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's ZIP code," Biden said at a Democratic National Committee gala in Atlanta, citing the restrictive abortion bills recently passed in a number of southern states as the impetus for his reversal.Biden's high-profile reversal on the Hyde amendment prompted an outpouring of public statements from his 2020 Democratic primary opponents about the need to repeal the amendment, which has been added as a rider to federal spending bills in the decades since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
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| Why are we headed for a blowup with Iran? It began when Trump scrapped the nuclear deal Posted: 17 Jun 2019 07:05 PM PDT ![Why are we headed for a blowup with Iran? It began when Trump scrapped the nuclear deal]( "Why are we headed for a blowup with Iran? It began when Trump scrapped the nuclear deal") At minimum, Iran and America need a hotline to deconflict their military forces and avert a serious escalation. But that has been rejected before.
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| NASA’s Mars 2020 rover finally has its head Posted: 17 Jun 2019 01:30 PM PDT  NASA's Mars 2020 mission will be its most ambitious trip to the Red Planet yet. The Mars 2020 rover is absolutely packed with the latest high-tech instruments, and while the mission isn't scheduled to begin until next summer, excitement is already building in a big way.Recently, NASA began hosting a live stream where viewers can watch its engineers slowly testing and assembling the components that will be shot skyward. As NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory boasts in a new blog post, the rover just got a huge addition in the form of its mast, which is the iconic "face" of any rover.The mast of the Mars 2020 rover is equipped with lenses and various sensors that will provide scientists back on Earth with a more detailed glimpse of the Martian surface than ever before. However, the mast will actually be folded flat for the trip between Earth and Mars.JPL explains:> During Mars 2020's launch, interplanetary cruise, and its fast and fiery descent toward the Martian surface, the mast will be in stowed flat on the rover's deck. Soon after touchdown, the mast (which tops out at over 7 feet, or 2.2 meters) will be raised to provide a high perch for the SuperCam, Mastcam-Z and Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzerinstruments as well as four Navcam engineering cameras.That's a whole bunch of high-tech goodies that need to work perfectly, and hooking it all up takes time. According to JPL, the "selfie" above was snapped on June 5th after the mast was first attached, but its various instruments took another six days to fully integrate.The Mars 2020 mission is scheduled to get underway on July 17th, 2020, but it won't actually arrive on the Red Planet until February of 2021. We still have a bit of a wait on our hands, but once the rover is on the Red Planet it'll surely have some surprising discoveries to share with us.
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| Amazon synod to debate ordination of married men Posted: 17 Jun 2019 08:13 AM PDT  An upcoming Vatican global synod dedicated to the Amazon is set to discuss allowing married men in remote areas to be ordained as priests, according to a preview of the meeting made public on Monday. The much-anticipated discussion, which will form part of the October 6 to 27 synod, is aimed at boosting the stock of potential clergy in far-flung areas where they are currently scarce. Pope Francis has repeatedly said there is no doctrinal prohibition on married men who have reached a certain age from becoming priests, and therefore the discipline could be changed.
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| Belgian dad pleas for help to find son missing in Australia Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:04 AM PDT  An encrypted phone message sent by a missing Belgian tourist could hold a clue to the 18-year-old's disappearance from an Australian coastal town, his father said on Monday. Theo Hayez was last seen leaving a Byron Bay nightclub late on May 31. Hayez on Monday made a public appeal for help to access his son's encrypted WhatsApp account.
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| UPDATE 3-China's President Xi to visit North Korea this week Posted: 17 Jun 2019 04:42 AM PDT ![UPDATE 3-China's President Xi to visit North Korea this week]( "UPDATE 3-China's President Xi to visit North Korea this week") Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea for two days from Thursday, state media in both countries reported on Monday, making him the first Chinese leader to visit in 14 years. Neighbouring China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally, and the visit comes amid renewed tensions between the United States and North Korea over efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
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| This big bank is eliminating all fees on checking and savings accounts Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:56 PM PDT  Discover is doing away with fees of any kind on its checking, savings, money market and certificate of deposit accounts.
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| The 2020 Lexus GX460 Gets an Even Crazier Grille and a New Off-Road Package Posted: 18 Jun 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Lexus's smaller body-on-frame SUV gets some extremely minor styling and safety updates.
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