world news: 2018-09-23

Saturday 29 September 2018

Lawyers For Brett Kavanaugh's Alleged Victims Were Uncooperative, Claims Grassley

During his opening statement for testimony related to Judge Brett Kavanaugh's

Mark Judge Went To His Lawyer’s Office Right When Senate Was Voting On Brett Kavanaugh

WASHINGTON ― Mark Judge, the man who was said to be present when Brett

Death toll jumps to 384 after tsunami, quake in Indonesia

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi jumped to 384 on Saturday, authorities said, with many of those killed swept away by giant waves as they played on the beach.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2OZtbBw

Kavanaugh Testified That 'The Drinking Age Was 18.' Not In Maryland When He Was 18.

Fending off the accusation that he drunkenly assaulted a 15-year-old when he

China, Russia take up globalism mantle as US sheds it at UN

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Days after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced globalism before world leaders at the United Nations, China and Russia positioned themselves Friday as defenders of internationalism that are keeping promises when Washington is backing away from them.

Hundreds killed in Indonesia quake-tsunami

Nearly 400 people were killed when a powerful quake sent a tsunami barrelling into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials said Saturday, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region. The national disaster agency put the official death toll so far at 384, all of them in the tsunami-struck city of Palu, but warned the toll was likely to rise. There were also concerns over the whereabouts of hundreds of people preparing for a beach festival due to start Friday evening, the disaster agency said.

Yale Law School Dean Calls For Kavanaugh Investigation Before Confirmation Vote

The dean of the Yale Law School on Friday joined the American Bar Association

Raptor Reborn: Is a Super F-22 Fighter Heading to Japan?

Lockheed Marting is pitching the idea to Tokyo.

Everybody on plane survives crash landing in Pacific lagoon

A passenger on a plane that crashed into a Pacific lagoon on Friday said the flight attendants were panicking and he saw water pouring through a hole in the side of the plane before he was able to escape.

US midterm elections 2018 poll tracker: Who will win the Congress?

On November 6, America will go to the polls to elect members for each of the 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats in Congress. Donald Trump and the Republicans will hope to maintain their majority in both houses during the midterm elections, but with the Democrats having a healthy lead in the polls, it is believed that they have a decent chance of taking the House of Representatives. A Democrat victory in either chamber would grant powers to open investigations into President Trump, so the stakes are high. The latest polling and forecasts indicate that Donald Trump and the Republicans could hold onto both houses, although the House of Representatives looks the more likely to fall to the Democrats. But the Republican president, who has faced tough weeks after his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight charges in his fraud trial, is reportedly planning 40 days of campaigning for the elections, and so the polls are likely to move further before election day. US mid term elections header General ballot between Republicans and Democrats The latest polls show that the Democrats are around eight percentage points ahead of the Republicans, standing at an average of 48.2 per cent compared to the Republicans’ 40.6 per cent. This is an average of the last eight polls, and has indicated a consistent lead for the Democrats on a national level. While the Democrats are ahead in the general ballot, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are decided by a series of local elections, which means that the Republicans may still hold both houses. The Democrats need 24 seats to flip the House of Representatives, and two to flip the Senate. But to make matters harder, the Democrats are defending 26 of the 35 seats up for election in the Senate this time. US mid term elections poll tracker House of Representatives forecast: Democrats knocking on the door Of the 435 seats up for re-election in the House of Representatives, the Democrats need to flip 24 seats - something that should be within reach for the party. The latest forecast, from the Cook Report, has the Democrats on a likely 204 seats and the Republicans on 201. This means that the remaining 30 "toss-up" seats, which are too close to call, will be incredibly important for the outcome of the election. House of Representatives forecast Senate forecast: A tough Republican nut to crack Only needing two seats to take the Senate, it would at first seem that the Democrats should be able to take control. But there is an issue with this: Of the 35 seats up for election, 26 are currently defended by the Democrats. That means that the Democrats need to claim two seats from the remaining eight Republican-defended seats. According to the Cook Report forecast, this seems unlikely, as there are only 44 seats that are marked as "leaning" Democrat or stronger. To claim a majority, the party would have to pick up a further seven seats that are either toss-ups or leaning towards the Republicans Senate forecast Key seats to watch In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won big in rural and working class communities. This helped him flip - albeit with small margins - traditionally Democrat states in the rust belt, including Wisconsin and Michigan. If the Democrats are to have hope of taking the House of Representatives from the Republicans, they need to ensure that they retain seats in these areas, before moving onto Republican territory in others. US cartogram map - House seat forecasts A series of both Republican and Democrat seats are currently classed as a "toss-up" by the Cook Report, indicating that there could be turnovers for both parts in the mid terms. The Republicans will hope to hold onto their under siege seats in places like Tennessee and West Virginia, while making inroads in Democrat areas that Trump claimed with huge majorites in the 2016 presidential election. Seats in Indiana and North Dakota are among those places where the Republicans will hope that Trump's base will help them flip seats. Key seats to watch in the Senate Does President Trump's approval rating matter? Donald Trump's approval ratings are at relatively healthy and stable levels as the mid-terms according to The Telegraph's poll tracker. The tracker, which takes an average of the last eight polls, puts Trump's approval rating on 41 per cent in mid-September. While this level is quite high for Trump, it is relatively low for sitting presidents - and this is important, as presidential approval ratings are a good indicator of net losses at mid term elections. Only two presidents - Truman (1946 and 1950), and Bush (2006) - had a lower approval rating than Trump when going into their respective mid term elections. All three of these ended up losing over 28 seats in the House of Representatives and over five in the Senate. Presidential approval matters, and Trump’s is lower than most The Telegraph's poll tracker takes an average of the last eight polls in order to take a full picture of the broad movements in the polling environment and not put too much weight on individual polls. Polls used are nationally representative with adequate sample sizes.

Netanyahu, in U.N. speech, claims secret Iranian nuclear site

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. Netanyahu spoke 4-1/2 months after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu said the site contained some 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved and called on the U.N. atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters.

The New Yorker's Latest Cover Is A Nod To Brett Kavanaugh, Women Not Being Heard

Next week's cover of The New Yorker is an homage to the testimony given by

Police chief 'heartbroken' after body discovered in creek

The chief of a North Carolina police department said he was "heartbroken" over the discovery of the body of a missing 6-year-old boy.

Pope defrocks priest at center of Chilean sexual abuse scandal

Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called "exceptional" and done "for the good of the Church."

Hedi Slimane’s Celine: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

By VANESSA FRIEDMAN from NYT Fashion & Style https://ift.tt/2NOsU8f

People Are Fed Up With Sen. Chuck Grassley Interrupting Women In Senate Hearing

Within the first 30 seconds of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) opening

China urges US to stop slander after Trump's meddling claim

Beijing urged the U.S. to stop slandering China after President Trump accused the Asian giant of trying to interfere in upcoming American congressional elections.

Standing By Kavanaugh, Republicans Subscribe To Doppelganger Theory

WASHINGTON ― In standing by President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme

Russian paper: Villagers ID Russian suspect in UK poisoning

Residents in a small Russian village have identified one of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Maddox Ritch Dead: Emotional Officials Say Body Found in Water Is Likely Missing Boy's

The discovery of the body ended the search for the little boy as it entered its sixth day.

Christine Blasey Ford: Mark Judge Saw Me And Looked 'Ill' After Alleged Assault

WASHINGTON ― Christine Blasey Ford provided a potentially crucial new detail

Republican Senators Only Wanted To Win

In Senate Republicans' haste to avoid repeating the disastrous optics of the

Dutch raids neutralized extremists' threat, authorities say

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Police who arrested seven men suspected of plotting a major extremist attack somewhere in the Netherlands found large quantities of raw materials for explosives at their homes, prosecutors said Friday.

A Prostitute Was Killed in France. Is a New Law Partly to Blame?

By ELIAN PELTIER and EMMA BUBOLA from NYT World https://ift.tt/2QcCzlE

American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh Confirmation Vote Until FBI Investigates

The American Bar Association late Thursday called on the Senate Judiciary

The Latest: Indonesia tsunami swept away houses

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Latest on a powerful earthquake that rocked central Sulawesi in Indonesia (all times local):

Ford describes assault in unwavering testimony

In gripping testimony, Christine Blasey Ford tells the Senate Judiciary Committee about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attempt to rape her.

Passengers safe after Air Niugini flight crashes into sea in Micronesia

A flotilla of small boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew from an Air Niugini flight that crashed into the sea short of the runway at an airport in the tiny South Pacific nation of Micronesia on Friday, the airport's manager said. "It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards short and she went down," Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport at Weno in Micronesia, told Reuters by telephone. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft hit the lagoon surrounding the small island about 9.30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Thursday), Emilio said.

US regulators charge Tesla CEO Elon Musk with fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Tesla CEO Elon Musk with securities fraud, alleging he misled investors last month in tweets about taking the company private. Musk tweeted August 7 that he had "secured" funding to privatize the electric automaker at $420 a share, causing a brief spike in Tesla's share price. The SEC said Musk's statements on Twitter were "false and misleading" and that he had never discussed the plans with company officials or potential funders.

Trump two-state comments turn heads among Israelis, Palestinians

Comments by US President Donald Trump supporting a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict for the first time have turned heads ahead of UN speeches by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Trump's endorsement of the goal of a Palestinian state, long the focus of US peace efforts before he came into office, was decidedly lukewarm -- and he even slightly backtracked from it later in the day.

Kavanaugh Testified That 'The Drinking Age Was 18.' Not In Maryland When He Was 18.

Fending off the accusation that he drunkenly assaulted a 15-year-old when he

Syria reopens Nassib border crossing with Jordan

The Syrian government reopened on Saturday the major Nassib border crossing with Jordan, a statement by the transport ministry said.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2NMGx7M

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Trump orders ‘supplemental’ FBI investigation into Kavanaugh

09/28/18 5:06 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Senate GOP leaders agree to seek an additional FBI background investigation into Brett Kavanaugh before a final vote

09/28/18 4:01 PM