| The Western-educated bomber who botched Sri Lanka hotel attack Posted: 26 Apr 2019 08:10 AM PDT ![The Western-educated bomber who botched Sri Lanka hotel attack]( "The Western-educated bomber who botched Sri Lanka hotel attack") His target was the breakfast buffet at the Taj Samudra, a luxury hotel on Colombo's seafront. Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel, who was educated in Australia and Britain, was the only attacker out of the eight Sri Lankans pledging allegiance to Islamic State who failed to hit his intended target in the series of Easter Sunday attacks that killed at least 253, according to police. People who knew him said Jameel, like many of the other bombers, was an educated family man who was radicalized after traveling abroad, though an attempt to reach Syria failed in 2014, according to a Sri Lankan intelligence source.
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| US ex-cop shot dead Australian woman 'to protect partner' Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:12 PM PDT  A former US police officer on trial for fatally shooting an Australian woman told a Minneapolis court Friday that he fired to protect his partner, but never saw a gun –- only a blonde woman in a pink T-shirt with her right arm raised. At issue in the trial of Mohamed Noor, the 33-year-old officer who killed Justine Damond in the Midwestern city in July 2017, is whether the use of deadly force was justified.
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| Joe Biden's non-apology to Anita Hill casts long shadow over 2020 run Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Biden's bid for president has invited renewed questions over his handling of Hill's 1991 testimony – and his failure to say sorry Biden, the committe chair, points angrily at Clarence Thomas during the 1991 hearing. Biden on Friday did say he was sorry – but not for anything he had done. Photograph: Greg Gibson/AP After Joe Biden failed once more on Friday to apologize to Anita Hill for his handling of a 1991 Senate hearing at which she testified about being sexually harassed by supreme court nominee Clarence Thomas, questions surged anew. Why can't Biden just issue a straightforward apology? To what extent might the episode trip up his presidential candidacy? And what, exactly, is Biden said to have done wrong at the time? As he asks voters to choose him over multiple women candidates to run against Donald Trump, a president accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women, Biden has had to respond to complaints of unwanted touching. He has said "social norms are changing" and promised to 'be more mindful of personal space in the future". But according to experts in gender studies and sexual harassment interviewed by the Guardian, his failure to apologize to Hill, in a recent personal call with her and on the national TV program The View on Friday morning, is particularly frustrating and potentially damning. I am sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done Joe Biden Hill told the New York Times this week that Biden called her and expressed "his regret for what she endured". But, she said, it wasn't an apology. "I cannot be satisfied by simply saying, 'I'm sorry for what happened to you,'" Hill said. "I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose." On The View, Biden did say he was sorry – but not for anything he had done. "I am sorry she was treated the way she was treated," Biden said. "I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done. I did everything in my power to do what I thought was within the rules to try to stop things." But analysts questioned whether Biden had, as chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, done everything in his power to protect Hill. "He was the chairman of the committee and it was up to him to do something, and there's a kind of passivity about it, even in retrospect, and that's really upsetting," said Helena Michie, director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University in Texas. He was the chairman of the committee and it was up to him to do something Helena Michie, Rice University "Biden has done things since that time – and it has been a long time – on behalf of women, and on behalf of mitigating violence against women. But I think what Hill was saying was that until he takes full responsibility for his role, until he stops saying he wished he could have done something, or kind of underplaying his agency in the structuring of that event, then she's going to continue to be deeply suspicious of him." The event While it might be hard to believe, given the hyperpartisanship of today's Congress, in 1991 the Thomas nomination, put forward by Republican president George HW Bush, appeared to be sailing through the Democrat-controlled judiciary committee. At the head of the committee sat Biden, then 51, already in his fourth term as a senator. Then Hill's bombshell allegations emerged. She had told the FBI that Thomas, her supervisor at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, had sexually harassed her. "On several occasions, Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess," she would testify, describing multiple other specific instances of alleged harassment which Thomas denied. Biden called Hill to testify in an open hearing. What millions of viewers across the country saw was unforgettable: a young African American law professor – Hill was just 31 – facing a panel of mostly aged white men quizzing her about being harassed. The moment was a generational touchstone, said Amy Blackstone, a sociology professor at the University of Maine who conducted a long-running study of views on sexual harassment that surveyed people in their early 20s at the time of the hearings. "It's really interesting how many of them noted, without being prompted by me at all, the Thomas hearings as sort of this turning point for them in their consciousness about workplace sexual harassment," said Blackstone. "I don't think that cohort from our sample is unique in any way, at least in that respect. Certainly it was a turning point for many people in the country in terms of our awareness about harassment as an issue, and about the reality that for many women, they're not alone in that experience." It was a turning point for many people in the country in terms of our awareness about harassment as an issue Amy Blackstone, University of Maine The Thomas hearings were further charged by racial politics. Thomas, an African American circuit court judge, had been nominated by Bush to replace Thurgood Marshall, the high court's first African American justice. In his climactic testimony, Thomas said, in part, "from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned it's a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks". As committee chairman, Biden was responsible for calling and questioning witnesses, for controlling the pace of testimony and cross-examination and for defining the tenor of the hearing. His critics say he failed in each regard, calling witnesses inimical to Hill while failing to call corroborating witnesses, forcing Hill to describe in graphic detail scenes of harassment she had suffered, and in general failing to defend Hill's vulnerability and to direct the hearing. "Can you tell the committee what was the most embarrassing of all the incidences that you have alleged?" Biden asked Hill at one point. "He absolutely failed at almost every point to take control of the event and to make it dignified and safe for Anita Hill," said Michie. "The other thing he did is that he made her repeat in detail every sexual allegation in front of this panel. And she said repeatedly, 'It's all in writing, you have it all in writing.' And he would say, 'I know it's uncomfortable, but we have to do it.' "There was really a kind of repetition of the violation, but this time in public." Biden has blamed Republican intransigence for the failed hearing. "To this day, I regret I couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved, given the courage she showed by reaching out to us," he said last month. On The View, Biden credited Hill with creating support for the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, watershed legislation he authored to investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women. "She's responsible for significant changes and she deserves credit for it," Biden said. Hill has been careful about the spotlight. She did not respond to an interview request. But in her public statements and speeches she repeatedly calls for a better process for handling the testimony of victims of sexual violence. That was her message after the confirmation hearings last year for supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused by Dr Christine Blasey Ford of sexual assault. Hill told a group of Pennsylvania students more witnesses should have been called and more evidence allowed. "Anita Hill really has been just such an amazing leader in terms of speaking out about harassment and getting us to think more deeply about the impact that it has on people," said Blackstone. "And certainly I am grateful to her for that, as no doubt are many others."
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| Twitter CEO phoned Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar to defend Trump’s tweet that sparked death threats Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:38 AM PDT  Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey phoned Ilhan Omar on Tuesday and stood by the company's decision to permit a tweet from President Donald Trump that later resulted in a flood of death threats targeting the congresswoman.The previously unreported call focused on an incendiary video that Trump shared on April 12, which depicts Ms Omar discussing the 9/11 attacks interspersed with footage of the Twin Towers burning.The clip did not include the full context of Ms Omar's remarks, which were taken from a public event on the broader issue of Islamophobia.Ms Omar pressed Mr Dorsey to explain why Twitter didn't remove Trump's tweet outright, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.Mr Dorsey said that the president's tweet didn't violate the company's rules, a second person from Twitter confirmed.He also pointed to the fact that the tweet and video already had been viewed and shared far beyond the site, one of the sources said.But the Twitter executive did tell Ms Omar that the tech giant needed to do a better job generally in removing hate and harassment from the site, according to the two people familiar with the call.On Thursday, a spokesman for Ms Omar declined to comment. Following the president's tweet, Ms Omar said on 14 April that she had witnessed an "increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referencing or replying to the president's video".Other Democratic leaders later condemned Mr Trump as well.In a statement, Twitter confirmed the call took place. "During their conversation, [Mr Dorsey] emphasised that death threats, incitement to violence, and hateful conduct are not allowed on Twitter," the company said."We've significantly invested in technology to proactively surface this type of content and will continue to focus on reducing the burden on the individual being targeted. Our team has also consistently been in touch with Rep Omar's office."The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Mr Trump is one of Twitter's most popular yet controversial users, whose political salvos are broadcast to nearly 60 million followers each day.Critics say his comments often violate site rules that prohibit hate speech, attacks on the basis of one's personal characteristics and incitements to violence.But Twitter ultimately has allowed the president to tweet without limit, arguing there's a public interest in allowing a head of state to communicate such views unfettered.But in recent weeks, Twitter has signalled it is rethinking that policy.Company leaders recently said they are planning to institute a new approach that would provide more context around tweets that its rules would have prohibited but were permitted to remain on the site anyway because of the speaker.Such a policy could result in public notations on Trump's own tweets.Mr Dorsey's outreach to Ms Omar came on the same day that the Twitter chief executive met with Trump at the White House, a meeting convened at the president's invitation.During the conversation, Trump spent a significant amount of time raising his concerns that Twitter deliberately targets and removes his followers, the Washington Post previously reported.Trump has made those claims in connection with his belief that social media sites are biased against conservatives.But Mr Dorsey said that Twitter's efforts to combat spam result in fluctuations in a user's follower count, noting even he had been affected.Asked about that meeting, Twitter noted in a statement that Dorsey and the president also discussed the 2020 election and efforts to stop the opioid epidemic. A source at the time described the meeting as cordial.The Washington Post
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| Exclusive: Sri Lankan ex-defense chief Gotabaya says he will run for president, tackle radical Islam Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:20 AM PDT  Gotabaya, as he is popularly known, is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two led the country to a crushing defeat of separatist Tamil rebels a decade ago after a 26-year civil war. More than 250 people were killed in bomb attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that the government has blamed on Islamist militants and that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for. Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island's current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on.
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| Migrants protest after hundreds escape from Mexican detention center Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:44 PM PDT  Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Mexico) (AFP) - Central American migrants at a detention center in southern Mexico protested against their captivity on Friday, a day after an escape involving around 1,300 mostly Cuban inmates. Dozens of migrants shouted on Friday morning: "We want to go," and "we're hungry" at the facility in Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas. At dinner time on Thursday, some 1,300 migrants escaped after threatening to set fire to the detention center to protest against overcrowding, witnesses said.
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| Trucker arrested in fiery Colorado pileup that killed four Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:48 AM PDT  The crash turned a stretch of Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, into a raging inferno on Thursday that involved at least 28 vehicles and may have damaged the road surface and an overpass, authorities said. Lakewood, Colorado police said they arrested Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, after he lost control of his tractor-trailer truck and started a chain-reaction during the late afternoon rush hour. "At that time of day we all know that I-70 can be very jammed," police spokesman Ty Countryman told reporters near the scene.
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| F-35s vs. J-20s: How America's 5th Generation Stealth Fighters Would Crush China Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:32 AM PDT  This can be explained in terms of a well-known Air Force strategic concept pioneered years ago by air theorist and pilot Col. John Boyd, referred to as the "OODA Loop," --- for observe, orient, decide and act. The concept is to complete this process quickly and make fast decisions while in an air-to-air dogfight -- in order to get inside the enemy's decision cycle, properly anticipate, and destroy an enemy before they can destroy you.The Air Force is accelerating development of a special, high-tech, on-board threat library for the F-35 designed to precisely identify enemy aircraft operating in different high-risk areas around the globe - such as a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter or Russian T-50 PAK FA 5th Gen fighter, service leaders said. (This first appeared in late 2017.)Described as the brains of the airplane, the "mission data files" are extensive on-board data systems compiling information on geography, air space and potential threats in areas where the F-35 might be expected to perform combat operations, Air Force officials explained."Mission data files are the key that unlocks the F-35," Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, Director of the F-35 Integration Office said.
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| Economy Grows 3.2 Percent During First Quarter, Outpacing Expectations Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:11 AM PDT  The economy grew 3.2 percent during the first quarter of this year, beating analysts' and investors' expectations, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).Economists had expected a first-quarter showing of 2.5 percent GDP growth, only slightly higher than the 2.2 percent growth in the last quarter of 2018. Instead, GDP grew 3.2 percent, marking the economy's best first-quarter performance since 2015.The BEA attributed the favorable growth rate to exports as well as better state- and local-government spending. Disposable personal income increased by 3 percent in the first quarter, while prices rose 0.8 percent. Imports sank by 3.7 percent and exports increased by the same amount. At the same time, some potential warning signs also appeared in the report, including a 50 percent drop in the business-investment rate despite 2017's tax cuts.The growth rate also defied expectations that the economy would suffer more seriously from the record-breaking 35-day partial government shutdown earlier this year, as well as fears that global growth was sputtering. President Trump's tariffs on China had particularly worried investors, with even the White House saying that American companies may see their earnings projections take a hit because of them."It's not going to be just Apple," top White House economist Kevin Hassett said in January. "I think that there are a heck of a lot of U.S. companies that have a lot of sales in China that are basically going to be watching their earnings be downgraded next year until we get a deal with China."
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| Trump’s decision to withdraw from the UN Arms Treaty could pull US into more foreign wars, critics claim Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:37 PM PDT  Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty could lead the country into future foreign wars and exacerbate the immigration crisis at the southern border with Mexico, critics have claimed.Speaking at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, the president said he was withdrawing US support or the accord because it gave a degree of sovereignty to other countries.But some critics decried the move, saying it would create more problems, rather than solve them."If you look at it downstream, I think it creates real risk that the we are drawn into conflicts that are filled with guns manufactured and sold in the United States to these entities," Kris Brown, the president of the national gun safety group Brady, told The Independent.Ms Brown explained the UN Arms Trade Treaty was designed to forbid the sale of firearms to dangerous foreign actors and human rights abusers, and that the deal was supported by 100 countries across the world, including America's European allies.Pulling out of the deal essentially allows the sale of US firearms to foreign actors, which could then be used in wars that threaten American interests abroad, and then pull the US into those conflicts."We've seen this movie before many times over," Ms Brown said.During his speech on Friday, the president said that he decided to remove America's signature from the treaty because he believed the deal hands over some sovereignty to foreign decision makers.That announcement represented a major policy victory to the NRA, which broke its own record for campaign spending to support the former reality television star in 2016."We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedom," Mr Trump said. "I'm officially announcing today that the United States will be revoking the effect of America's signature from this badly misguided treaty." But proponents of the treaty — which was first developed during the administration of George W Bush and finalised during Barack Obama's presidency — say that the treaty would have no impact on US domestic firearm laws.Ms Brown said that pulling out of the treaty could even fuel the kind of violence that has sent thousands of migrants north from Central American to the US, seeking asylum. She said the idea was pretty simple: US guns are sold with less regard to whether the weapons are getting into the hands of human rights abusers, and those weapons are used to spread fear among populations who are then forced to flee.That flow of migrants has prompted Mr Trump to declare an emergency in the US, and provided reason for Mr Trump to push for a border wall on the US-Mexico border."That's an impact and quite frankly the logical outgrowth of this is you also have many people in those regions who are displaced as a result of the conflicts that are fuelled with these weapons, and we see often in countries neighbouring the Untied States the impact on many of those people is to flee," Ms Brown said. She continued: "It increases strain and stress around immigration. All of these issues are connected to one another."
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| Correction: Confederate Monuments-North Carolina story Posted: 27 Apr 2019 04:28 PM PDT  HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) — In a story April 25 about the toppling of a Confederate monument, The Associated Press reported erroneously that 11 other people besides Raul Arce Jimenez and Shawn Birchfield-Finn have been convicted in connection with the August melee in which the statue was toppled. At least seven other people besides those two men have been convicted in connection with various protests over the statue. The Associated Press also reported erroneously that one of the defendants is named Shawn Birchfield-Finn Jimenez. His name is Shawn Birchfield-Finn.
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| AJ Freund cause of death released, parents bond set at $5M each for Joann Cunningham, Andrew Freund, Sr. Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:30 PM PDT  Andrew "AJ" Freund died of multiple blunt force injuries to the head, the McHenry County Coroner said Thursday.
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| UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2% Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:12 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2%]( "UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2%") Morgan Stanley's economists said on Friday they expect that U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% annual pace in the second quarter due to a reversal of the surge in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs analysts marked down their estimate on U.S. gross domestic product in the current quarter, but the pace was still twice as fast as Morgan Stanley's projection. "Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q," Morgan Stanley economists wrote in a research note.
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| American Airlines cuts profit forecast as 737 MAX woes bite Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:17 PM PDT  American Airlines slashed its profit forecast Friday largely due to the crisis around the Boeing 737 MAX, a somewhat more profound hit to operations and customer bookings than at other carriers affected by the jet's grounding. "That's not just our passengers," said American Airlines President Robert Isom. American's hit from the MAX crisis came as the aviation industry watches for Boeing to clear several key hurdles with the US Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators to allow the planes to resume service.
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| Mom discovers vomit on daughter's Frontier Airlines seat, gets into altercation with flight attendant Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:12 AM PDT  A 53-year-old North Carolina woman and her teenage daughter discovered vomit in their seating area on a recent Frontier Airlines flight.
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| 6 children among 15 dead after gun battle between Sri Lankan military and Easter bombing suspects Posted: 27 Apr 2019 06:31 AM PDT  The bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people. The shootout between troops and suspected Islamist militants erupted on Friday evening in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara, to the south of the town of Batticaloa, site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts at three churches and four luxury hotels. A police spokesman said that three suspected suicide bombers were among the 15 dead after the shoot out. Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said in a statement that as troops headed towards the safe house three explosions were triggered and gunfire began. "Troops retaliated and raided the safe house where a large cache of explosives had been stored," he said in a statement. Sri Lankan police and army soldiers secure the site after the explosion and a gunbattle in Kalmunai, in eastern Sri Lanka Credit: Achala Upendra/AP He said the militants were suspected members of the National Thowheed Jama'at (NTJ), which has been blamed for last Sunday's attacks. Mohamed Saleem, President of Jamiathul Ulema, a governing Muslim body, told the Telegraph: "The house had been rented out to two men from Kathankudy on the 16th of April. "It was rented out by two men who claimed that they were planning to start a business in the area. Four days after they rented the place, more than two people started moving in. The landlord and the neighbours became suspicious when a larger crowd moved in and they started moving boxes in and out of the house in a van. The landlord, mosque authorities and local residents then complained to the police, according to Mr Saleem. On Friday, four mosque officials, the village leader and the landlord visited and demanded to search the house where the terrorists were staying. The men initially refused saying there were women in the house, then pulled out a AK47 rifle and shot up in the air, trying to frighten them away. He then took stacks of money, all in 5,000 Rupee bundles, screaming at them to take it. As they landlord and others ran for cover there was another explosion and the military arrived and there was a shootout. Earlier, detectives had found explosives, drones and an Islamic State group banner and robes used in a propaganda video recorded before the bombers detonated in crowded hotels and restaurants. The bombers filmed themselves swearing allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) before they killed 253 Christians, hotels guests and staff. The clashes on Friday came as the country remained on high alert and thousands of extra security forces had been drafted onto the streets. Sri Lankan authorities also said the extremist preacher suspected of masterminding and leading the bombings died in the blast at the Shangri La hotel, where British victims died. The interior of St Anthony's Shrine five days after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday Credit: AFP Mohamed Zahran, the leader of the local jihadi group National Thowheed Jamath, known for his incendiary speeches on social media, was one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on three hotels and three churches, the police said on an official Twitter account. Detectives had also arrested the group's second-in-command and said the militants' military training was provided by "Army Mohideen" and weapons training had taken place overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka's Eastern province. Maithripala Sirisena, the president, said the group was driven by "religious fanaticism," suggesting its leader had killed himself to "set an example" and gain more followers. However, Chula Senaviratne, the national security chief, said there was "still ambiguity whether he is dead or not" while DNA tests are being carried out. Members of the public join in an interfaith candlelight vigil during a Mass of Remembrance Credit: BIANCA DEMARCHI/REX "There is strong likelihood that the decapitated head of the suicide bomber at Shangri La was the same person we identified in the photographs..." he added. "However, we cannot be absolutely certain." Sri Lankan officials have made claims and counterclaims in the chaotic aftermath of Sunday's atrocities as security forces rush to detain suspects and the government reels from failures to act on warnings that bombings were imminent. Security agencies are also trying to track down hauls of explosives, some of which may have been left over from Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war. President Sirisena told reporters in Colombo that some 140 people had been been identified as having links to the Islamic State group, although he reassured the public that the Sri Lankan government has "the capability to completely control ISIS activities". The government has apologised for its failure to act on precise and repeated alerts from India that named suspects planning to attack local churches. Sri Lanka's Catholic leader said he felt "betrayed" by the failure to act on warnings that could have prevented the bloodshed. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, said he had asked for an explanation, but not received an answer. olice officers patrol the area around Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid ahead of Friday prayers Credit: Carl Court/Getty As fears of retaliation or follow-up attacks continued, Muslims were asked to stay at home to pray rather than attend Friday prayers in mosques that could also be targeted by extremists. The Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that seven suicide bombers carried out the attacks, including Adbul Lathief Jameel Mohammed who studied engineering for a year in the UK. They said all the bombers came from a middle-class, educated background. In new details that emerged on Friday, the police said that the attackers had worked out at a local gym and by playing soccer using their authentic national identity cards. They added that the vehicles used in the attack were purchased from a car dealership in Kadawatha, a suburb of the capital. They said that the operator of a copper factory who was arrested in connection with the bombings had helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices and purchase empty cartridges sold by the Sri Lankan military as scrap copper. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, has said investigators are still working to determine the extent of the bombers' foreign links.
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| Fighter Fight: Russia's Su-35 vs. America's F-15, F-16 or F-35 (Who Dies?) Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:00 PM PDT  As history shows us, many times in war you do not always get to chose from the most optimal of solutions.Russia's Su-35 fighter certainly has western defense outlets buzzing--and for good reason.Moscow, despite heavy sanctions and an economy that has certainly seen better days, keeps pumping out new combat systems one after another--items like new tanks, submarines, nuclear weapons platforms and more.While many were indeed designed and planned for ahead of the imposition of sanctions, Russia is clearly making a big effort to modernize its armed forces, especially its air force, and moving past older Soviet platforms. The Su-35 is a good example of such efforts.So how would the Su-35 do against America's best planes? How would it fare against an American air force that is clearly the best in the world. How would, for example, the Su-35 do in a combat situation against Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter? How would Russia's new plane do against older aircraft like the F-15 or say F-16?Such scenarios matter--and not just in the context of a possible NATO/Russia or Middle East situation, but now that Russia is set to deliver the Su-35 to China, such comparisons matter even more. There are many places where all of these lethal aircraft will overlap, making such comparisons even more timely.Compiled below are three articles, written several years ago by TNI's former Defense Editor, Dave Majumdar, that looks at these questions in depth, combined in one posting for your reading pleasure. With that said, let the debate begin.This first appeared in September 2016.
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| Florida man arrested after disabled, bedridden woman in his care was discovered living among trash and feces Posted: 26 Apr 2019 07:54 AM PDT  65-year-old Lawrence Goodwin arrested for the abuse and neglect of a 67-year-old disabled, bedridden woman who was found living in a home filled with trash, feces and rotting trash.
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| The Latest: Biden: Charlottesville was epiphany on 2020 run Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:06 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential bid (all times local):
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| Explainer: What does it take to remove a U.S. president from office? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 03:06 AM PDT  Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice. Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.
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| MetLife’s Departing CEO Urges Executives to Take Public Stances Posted: 26 Apr 2019 05:04 AM PDT  In his parting letter to shareholders, Chief Executive Officer Steven Kandarian urged fellow executives to push for policies that preserve free markets, create wealth and raise living standards. Kandarian cited stances MetLife took during his tenure, which he said helped both the insurer and the country overall.
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| This is how NASA would respond to an asteroid impacting Earth Posted: 27 Apr 2019 10:09 AM PDT  If an asteroid were ever to be come hurtling towards Earth, what would be the plan to stop it from impacting the planet? That's the question NASA and its partners, including the European Space Agency and the U.S.'s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are gathering at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in early May to investigate. SEE ALSO: Behold, the very bizarre Facebook auto-captions from NASA launch During the five day conference, NASA and its partners plan to engage in a "tabletop exercise" that simulates what would happen if scientists and authorities were to learn of a near-Earth Object (NEO) impact scenario. "A tabletop exercise of a simulated emergency commonly used in disaster management planning to help inform involved players of important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for accomplishing a successful response," says NASA. In the exercise (detailed by the ESA here), NASA and its partners have to respond to a "realistic — but fictional — scenario" involving a NEO named "2019 PDC," which has a 1 in 100 chance of impacting Earth in 2027. Each day of the #PlanetaryDefense Conference, a press release will be put out, updating participants on the hypothetical asteroid #2019PDC - now (hypothetically) hurtling towards Earth.��☄️More on this year's #ImpactScenario on the #rocketscience blog:https://t.co/kn9xsTABg2 pic.twitter.com/AAC5B9mzje — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 27, 2019 Armed with all of the hypothetical information about "2019 PDC," the exercise is intended to see how the various organizations and governments would handle the situation as it unfolds. "The first step in protecting our planet is knowing what's out there," said Rüdiger Jehn, the ESA's Head of Planetary Defence. "Only then, with enough warning, can we take the steps needed to prevent an asteroid strike altogether, or minimize the damage it does on the ground." In such a situation, the ESA says it would live tweet details "so you'll find out the 'news' as the experts do." And for the hypothetical 2019 PDC asteroid exercise at the conference, the agency will indeed live tweet the series of decided actions as if they are made. "These exercises have really helped us in the planetary defense community to understand what our colleagues on the disaster management side need to know," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer. "This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments." Despite NASA having participated in six NEO impact exercises before, each scenario is different and the agency says it's learned that the focus is not always on the asteroid details, even though that's still crucial to creating a plan to either deflect it or reduce its impact. "What emergency managers want to know is when, where and how an asteroid would impact, and the type and extent of damage that could occur," said Leviticus Lewis of the Response Operations Division for FEMA. Well, you know what they say...it's better to be prepared. At the very least, NASA and friends won't be panicking as hard if an asteroid were ever to really hit Earth. WATCH: NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine warns India's anti-satellite test could be dangerous for the ISS
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| Ford says US opened criminal probe over vehicle emissions Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:58 AM PDT  US authorities have opened a criminal probe into Ford's emissions certification process, the automaker said Friday. Ford "voluntarily disclosed" to US and California regulators in February a "potential concern" with the program to certify the amount of pollutants emitted by its vehicles. "Subsequently, the US Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into the matter," the automaker said in a securities filing, stressing that is it did not involve "defeat devices" that have cost German automaker Volkswagen billions of dollars.
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| How Does the GMC Sierra's CarbonPro Bed Compare vs. the Ford F-150's Aluminum Bed? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:41 AM PDT  Which material is best for a pickup bed?
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| Sri Lanka attack leader 'died in hotel bombing', authorities say Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:49 AM PDT  The suspected ringleader of the terrorist group accused of carrying out the Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri La hotel, the Sri Lankan authorities claimed on Friday. Mohamed Zahran, the leader of the local jihadi group National Thawheed Jamath, known for his incendiary speeches on social media, was one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on three hotels and three churches, the police said on an official Twitter account. The police also revealed that they had arrested the group's second-in-command and that the assailants' military training was provided by "Army Mohideen" and weapons training had taken place overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka's Eastern province. Maithripala Sirisena, the president, said the group was driven by "religious fanaticism," suggesting its leader had killed himself to "set an example" and gain more followers. However, in a somewhat confusing statement, Chula Senaviratne, the national security chief, said there was "still ambiguity whether he is dead or not" while DNA tests are being carried out. "There is strong likelihood that the decapitated head of the suicide bomber at Shangri La was the same person we identified in the photographs..." he added. "However, we cannot be absolutely certain." The statements fit a pattern of claims and counterclaims by Sri Lankan officials that have muddied the waters in the chaotic aftermath of Sunday's heinous attack as security forces rush to detain suspects and the government investigates a failure to act on key intelligence that could have prevented the tragedy. Images and photos released by Isil appear to show the attackers pledging allegiance to the group Late on Thursday, Sri Lanka's health ministry drastically revised down its estimated death toll from the coordinated bombings from 359 to 253. Some officials offered the tragic explanation that some bodies had been so torn apart by the blasts that they had been counted as more than one person. The Indian Ocean island remains on high alert as the authorities hunt down suspects linked to the NTJ which is believed to have been inspired by the global Islamic State terrorist network which claimed responsibility for the attacks earlier this week. Security agencies are also trying to track down hauls of explosives, some of which may have been left over from Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war. President Sirisena told reporters in Colombo that some 140 people had been been identified as having links to the Islamic State group, although he reassured the public that the Sri Lankan government has "the capability to completely control ISIS activities." The government has, however, apologised for its failure to act on precise and repeated intelligence from India weeks and even hours before the massacre, warning about named suspects who were planning to attack local churches. Across Colombo, there was a visible increase of security on Friday after the authorities and foreign embassies, including the UK and the US, warned of the possibility of a second wave of attacks. Muslim communities were asked to stay at home to pray on Friday rather than attend communal prayers in mosques that could also be targeted by extremists. Amid fears of further attacks, authorities advised Muslims to pray at home on Friday, but many defied the warnings Credit: AFP Sri Lanka's Muslim minority has been shocked to the core by the atrocity and fears repercussions. Amid the nationwide manhunt, an association of Islamic theologians urged Muslim women not to "hinder the security forces in their efforts" by wearing veils. The Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that seven suicide bombers carried out the attacks, including Adbul Lathief Jameel Mohammed who studied engineering for a year in the UK. They said all the bombers came from a middle-class, educated background. In new details that emerged on Friday, the police said that the attackers had worked out at a local gym and by playing soccer using their authentic national identity cards. They added that the vehicles used in the attack were purchased from a car dealership in Kadawatha, a suburb of Colombo, the capital. They said that the operator of a copper factory who was arrested in connection with the bombings had helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices and purchase empty cartridges sold by the Sri Lankan military as scrap copper. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, has said investigators are still working to determine the extent of the bombers' foreign links. Police presence is high on the streets of Colombo amid fears of further attacks Credit: Carl Court/Getty Images The Hindu, an Indian newspaper, reported on Wednesday that two of the suspects had recently returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq. The prime minister admitted to Sky News that the authorities knew of the returnees from Syria but legally couldn't do anything about it. "We knew they went to Syria … But in our country, to go abroad and return or to take part in a foreign armed uprising is not an offence here," he said. "We have no laws which enable us to take into custody people who join foreign terrorist groups. We can take those who are, who belong to terrorist groups operating in Sri Lanka." Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, told the Telegraph that the country's tourism industry would take a long time to recover from the attacks. "They've hit the very sector of the economy that had some momentum," he said. "While the arguments are about it being part of Isis and geopolitical terrorism, the consequences of the attack are very specific to Sri Lanka." ___
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| Now Is Not the Time to Get Rid of the A-10 Warthog (And Replace It with the F-35) Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:07 PM PDT  I admit it, as a former infantryman, I'm a partial to the A-10 Thunderbolt II. I don't mind that it's ugly. I don't mind that it entered service all the way back in the mid 1970s, making it older than me. I don't mind that it's slow, basically a flying 30 mm cannon sheathed in a 1,200-pound titanium "bathtub." In fact, these are exactly the things that endear the A-10 to grunts like me. It's our plane. It was made for us and us alone.The Warthog was, is, and will be for the foreseeable future the premier close-ground support plane. And all the things that I mentioned above — its simplicity and weight — are what make it so effective at its job. The titanium armor encasing the plane makes it impervious to high-explosive and armor-piercing projectiles up to 23 mm. It can even take a few hits from 57 mm rounds. Parts of the cockpit interior is covered with a nylon spall to protect the pilot from fragmentation. In other words, this is a plane meant to fly low and slow, mix it up in close quarters with ground targets that can return fire, and get its hands a little bit dirty. The A-10 is notorious for being able to take damage and keep flying. It's battle tested and soldier approved.(This article by Scott Beauchamp originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2016.)
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| The 7 best sales and deals you can get this weekend Posted: 27 Apr 2019 07:49 AM PDT ![The 7 best sales and deals you can get this weekend]( "The 7 best sales and deals you can get this weekend") Shop and save on the best products this weekend.
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| Joe Biden, 76, says he has no plans to limit himself to one-term in the White House Posted: 26 Apr 2019 07:31 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is looking to become the oldest candidate elected president, said Friday that he wasn't interested in pledging to serve only one term in office.
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| UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:15 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister]( "UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister") Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates overstate their oil capacities, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported on Friday. The comments were in reaction to expectations the two countries would fill any supply gap caused by a tightening of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Washington has decided not to renew its exemptions from U.S. sanctions to buyers of Iranian oil.
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| Family of slain motorist celebrates after officer sentenced Posted: 25 Apr 2019 08:00 PM PDT  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Corey Jones's family sang the gospel song "Victory is Mine" as they walked out of a Florida courthouse, celebrating after a judge handed a 25-year sentence to a former police officer for killing the stranded black motorist in 2015.
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| Amazon delivers record profits on gains in cloud, advertising Posted: 25 Apr 2019 10:16 PM PDT  Amazon on Thursday delivered record profits for the first quarter, fueled by gains in cloud computing and new business segments for the US technology colossus. Net profit in the quarter more than doubled from the same period last year to $3.6 billion, extending Amazon's trend of rising profitability. Seattle-based Amazon said revenue from online sales was up 10 percent billion while money taken in from subscription services and the Amazon Web Services cloud platform leapt some 40 percent.
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| A Federal Judge Has Defied the Law to Protect Abortion Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:57 PM PDT  Honestly, after two years of nationwide injunctions, ludicrously expanded standing rules, and blatant disregard for precedent, it's become hard for the judicial resistance to surprise. If there is a Trump regulation they can block — at least temporarily — they will do so, sound reasoning be damned. But even my cynical heart received a jolt at the sheer brazenness of Judge Stanley Bastian, from the Eastern District of Washington.Yesterday he issued (yes, of course) a nationwide injunction blocking implementation of the Trump administration's new Title X regulations — regulations that were a milder version of the Reagan administration's so-called "gag rule" against abortion counseling by Title X recipients. Whereas the Reagan rule prohibited Title X projects from counseling or referring for abortion, the Trump rule limits the referral. Both the Trump and the Reagan rules required physical and financial separation of Title X projects from abortion-related activities.But here's what makes Judge Bastian's decision so brazen. The stricter Reagan rules were upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Rust v. Sullivan, one of the seminal abortion decisions of the Rehnquist Court. The Court noted that Title X itself states that "none of the funds appropriated under this subchapter shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning" and then held that the Reagan rule — which, again, prohibited even abortion counseling — "plainly allow[ed] the Secretary's construction of the statute" and that the administration's break with past regulatory practice was supported by "reasoned analysis."Given this on-point Supreme Court precedent, you would think that a judge contradicting it would engage in searching analysis of why the Court's ruling doesn't govern the case.The Affordable Care Act, for example, does contain provisions prohibiting regulations that "interfere with communications regarding a full range of treatment options between the patient and the provider" or that create "unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care." But the ACA does not disturb Title X's prohibition against use in programs "where abortion is a method of family planning," and that is the key language the Supreme Court used to uphold Reagan's rule.Oddly enough, Judge Bastian held that the administration's regulation "likely violates the central purpose of Title X, which is to equalize access to comprehensive, evidence-based, and voluntary family planning." Yet that "central purpose" is unchanged since Rust and was no impediment to Reagan's rule.He called the Trump rule "arbitrary and capricious." The Supreme Court called the Reagan rule "plainly allowed."He claimed that the Trump administration offered "no reasoned analysis" for its regulation, but a virtually identical "reasoned analysis" was unequivocally upheld by the Court almost three decades ago.As a general rule, it is far more preferable to legislate than to regulate, but when the Supreme Court has specifically upheld remarkably similar regulations — or when a president is acting pursuant to specific congressional delegations — it is not the role of a mere district-court judge to wave away precedent. It is especially not the role of a mere district-court judge to increase his reach from coast to coast.Moreover, given the relatively glacial pace of even injunction litigation, this same district-court judge knows that he can have his way for months on end as the case winds its way through appeals and as the clock ticks down on Trump's first term. Judicial overreach and judicial delaying tactics are now the new normal.Our nation is moving deeper into contention, division, and stagnation. Thanks to precedents being set now, look for this pattern to repeat itself time and again. Activists and attorneys general from opposing parties will race to favorable jurisdictions, block disfavored policies, then try to hold on for dear life for month after month until the next election.There has been a great deal of hand-wringing (especially on the left) about America's allegedly "undemocratic" institutions. The Senate is under fire now. So is the Electoral College. But I see absolutely no handwringing from those same individuals when unelected district judges defy statutes drafted by the democratically elected Congress or regulations crafted by a democratically elected president.The Constitution trumps Congress and the president, of course, but the hallmark of decisions such as Judge Bastian's is not respect for the Constitution but rather contempt for the administration. Based on the belief that Trump is a threat to America, decisions like this threaten our constitutional order, and they set negative precedents and establish negative practices that will doubtless persist well beyond the end of the present administration. Both sides, at different times, will come to regret the toxic legacy of the judicial resistance.
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| Would You Pay This Much For A Corvette Body? Posted: 27 Apr 2019 05:22 AM PDT  Quite a few people love the look of a classic Chevy Corvette Stingray, and why not? While that's certainly true, you might be wondering why this 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible body is so pricey. All you get is the body, doors, hinges, rear exhaust valance, convertible decklid, bird cage, and windshield frame, plus the glass.
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| Huge new iPhone 11 leak reminds us how much better Apple is at hardware than Android vendors Posted: 26 Apr 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Despite the fact that we still have nearly five months left to wait before Apple releases its next-generation iPhone 11 series smartphones, the pace of leaks has really picked up in recent weeks. The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max, and iPhone 11R (or whatever Apple ends up calling it) were shaping up to be boring updates a few short months ago, but more recent reports suggest that Apple is cooking up far more new features and upgrades than we had previously thought.Notes over the past month from the world's top Apple insider, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, have revealed a number of big upgrades coming to this year's iPhone 11 lineup. According to Kuo, the iPhone 11R will be bumped up to a dual-lens rear camera, while the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will both get huge camera upgrades, including a new triple-lens array. Kuo also says they'll have new frosted glass backs, and we might even have a new finish to look forward to.In terms of hardware, it looks like 2019's iPhone 11 will follow the same path as 2016's iPhone 7 series; the phones will look the same as their predecessors for the most part, but they'll pack huge performance improvements and a bunch of exciting new features. Those of us who follow the industry closely will immediately recall that the holiday quarter following the iPhone 7's release remains Apple's biggest quarter ever for iPhone sales. A whopping 78.29 million iPhones were sold in that three-month period, proving that iPhones can still drum up a ton of buzz despite modest design changes. But while the visual design changes on this year's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will indeed be modest, a new leak reminds that Apple's attention to detail remains unrivaled in the smartphone industry.It wasn't very long ago that a massive gap existed between iPhones and every other smartphone out there. Where design, build quality, and premium materials were concerned, nothing else on the market even came close. Android smartphones from vendors like Samsung and LG felt cheap and plasticky because, well, they were made out of cheap plastic. If you wanted a flagship smartphone that looked and felt like a flagship smartphone, you bought an iPhone.Needless to say, this is no longer the case. Samsung and other Android phone makers have invested a tremendous amount of effort and resources into building flagship phones that are on par with Apple's iPhone handsets. In 2019, even small Chinese smartphone vendors that most people in the US have never heard of build sleek flagship phones made of glass and metal. There is absolutely no question that the gap between the iPhone and flagship Android phones has narrowed -- but it's still there.We've seen Apple's 2019 iPhone designs leak a few times now. In fact just yesterday a Japanese blog posted a video that shows physical mockups of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max side by side. The video gives us a very good idea of what Apple's next-generation iPhones will look like in real life when they're released in September, but 3D printed mockups obviously don't feature the refinement we can expect from Apple's actual handsets.That brings us to a fresh new leak from Thursday morning. Twitter use @OnLeaks is known for getting his hands on files from Foxconn servers and using them to create renders of unreleased smartphones. The iPhone 11 has been been rendered before in the past, but @OnLeaks apparently received updated information recently because a new set of renders was just released with a number of key changes compared to the ones we saw earlier this year.The new iPhone 11 renders from @OnLeaks were posted on some website called Cashkaro, and they likely give us a very good idea of what to expect when Apple announces the iPhone 11 in the late summer. The square triple-lens rear camera array is where you should focus your attention, because that's where you'll find the biggest changes compared to earlier renders.The holes cut out above the camera lenses are much larger than they had been previously, but the camera bump itself is where your attention should be directed. First off, it looks a bit thinner than it has in previous renders. But more importantly -- and more impressively -- the camera bump on the iPhone 11 is apparently made entirely of glass. In fact, @OnLeaks tweeted that the entire back of the phone is a single piece of molded glass, camera bump included.Earlier iPhones will glass backs like the iPhone X and iPhone XS have metal inserts to house the rear camera, and those designs are far easier to manufacture. Of course Apple has never shied away from a challenge when it comes to manufacturing, and that's why it's still the only smartphone maker that uses a brilliant but expensive engineering trick to almost completely eliminate the bottom "chin" bezel beneath its iPhone displays.Most people probably won't even notice the difference if they upgrade from an iPhone X to the iPhone 11 later this year. But those of us who appreciate design know that many small details like this add up to a device with a fit and finish like no other.
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| Hours after mass escape, migrants demand food, freedom Posted: 27 Apr 2019 09:11 AM PDT  About 600 mostly Cuban migrants who were part of a mass escape from a southern Mexico immigration detention center a day earlier remained at large Friday evening, immigration authorities said. Hours after the mass escape, throngs of detained migrants raised their fists in the air and chanted "We want food! We want out!"
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| North Korea demands US pay for comatose student's medical bill: report Posted: 25 Apr 2019 06:56 PM PDT  North Korea demanded that the United States pay a $2 million medical bill for US student Otto Warmbier, who went into a coma after being tortured in the totalitarian country, a report said Thursday. The Washington Post quoted unidentified sources as saying that a US official was made to sign a pledge to pay an invoice for the medical costs before being allowed to fly Warmbier back home from Pyongyang in 2017. The envoy signed the pledge on instructions from President Donald Trump, according to the Post report.
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| 'I am deeply embarrassed.' Russian agent Maria Butina sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:32 AM PDT  The gun-toting, red-haired graduate student pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for the Russian government.
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| Huawei hopes for Britain-like solution in New Zealand 5G bid Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:17 AM PDT  China's Huawei Technologies said Britain's decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans. Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei's equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage. Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world's top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.
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| Markets Right Now: Stocks are closing at fresh record highs Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:12 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):
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| UPDATE 1-U.S. oil drillers make biggest rig cuts in over 3 months- Baker Hughes Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:04 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.S. oil drillers make biggest rig cuts in over 3 months- Baker Hughes]( "UPDATE 1-U.S. oil drillers make biggest rig cuts in over 3 months- Baker Hughes") U.S. oil drillers this week cut the most rigs in over three months and reduced the number of oil rigs operating for a second week in a row and for the fifth straight month, as independent producers follow through on plans to cut spending on new drilling and completions. Drillers cut 20 oil rigs in the week to April 26, the steepest decline since the week to Jan. 18, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, has fallen to 805, below year-ago levels when 825 rigs were active.
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| Dead Falcon: Could Russia's Su-35 Beat an Air Force F-16 in Battle? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:45 AM PDT  With an AESA, the F-16 could probably hold its own against the Su-35 at longer ranges—but it would still be a challenge.The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon has been the mainstay of the U.S. and allied air forces for decades. Over the years, the aircraft has evolved from a lightweight visual range dogfighter into a potent multirole warplane that flies the gamut of missions ranging from the suppression of enemy air defenses to air superiority. Though it has been operational since 1980, the "Viper" continues to evolve and will remain in service with the U.S. Air Force and other militaries for decades to come. But while the F-16 remains a potent fighter, potential adversaries have caught up—the latest Russian aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-35 can match or exceed the Viper in many respects.While the Su-35 is more of an analogue to the Boeing F-15 Eagle, Russia is selling many more Flankers than MiG-29 Fulcrum derivatives around the world. Indeed, the U.S. Air Force usually has its "red air" aggressors replicate Flanker variants (usually the Flanker-G) rather than the MiG-29 or its derivatives during large force exercises like Red Flag or Red Flag Alaska. That's because derivatives of the massive twin-engine Russian jet are amongst the most likely aerial adversaries American pilots might face.(This first appeared in September 2015.)
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| Save $100 on Sony wireless noise canceling headphones before this deal sells out Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:17 AM PDT ![Save $100 on Sony wireless noise canceling headphones before this deal sells out]( "Save $100 on Sony wireless noise canceling headphones before this deal sells out") The Sony WH1000XM3 Bluetooth Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones are Sony's most popular noise canceling headphones because, well, they're the best wireless noise canceling headphones in the world. They're also quite expensive at $348, and the best you can do right now if you want to save money is to pick up refurbs on Amazon for $266. That's still a whole lot of money to spend on headphones, so we'll give you another option to check out. The Sony WHH900N Hi-Res Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones are a small step below the WH1000XM3 headphones in terms of sound quality and noise cancellation tech, but they're a big step down in terms of price right now. The normally sell for $300, but you'll only pay $199.99 if you snag a pair right now while they're discounted on Amazon!Here are some key details from the product description: * High-resolution Audio compatible. Supported Audio Format(s) - SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC. Supported Content Protection - SCMS-T * DSEE HX Upscale compressed music to near high-resolution sound quality. Impedance (Ohm)- 32 ohm (1 kHz) (when connecting via the headphone cable with the unit turned on) , 16 ohm (1 kHz) (when connecting via the headphone cable with the unit turned off).Sensitivities (dB/mW)- 103 dB/mW (1 kHz) (when connecting via the headphone cable with the unit turned on), 98 dB/mW (1 kHz) (when connecting via the headphone cable with the unit turned off)Frequency Response (Bluetooth Communication)- 20 Hz-20,000 Hz (44.1 kHz Sampling)/20 Hz-40,000 Hz (LDAC 96 kHz Sampling, 990 kbps) * Digital noise cancelling and ambient sound mode let you control what you hear * Touch sensor control panel for easy operation * Fine-tune your sound using the Sony | headphones connect app * In the Box: Carrying Pouch, Connection Cable, USB Cable, Warranty Card, Operating Instructions, Reference Guide
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