You've just landed in Beijing, Rio de Janeiro or Christchurch, New Zealand, and you're greeted at the airport by a clutch of adoring locals. What is the polite way to greet them? Do you bow, or proffer your hand, or prepare to envelop the assembled strangers in an embrace? More important: To kiss or not to kiss? The world may be increasingly globalized, but when it comes to greeting practices, local customs still prevail — and things can get awkward when, say, a American businessman meets his Japanese counterpart for the first time. (Best just to bow.) If you find yourself facing a group of native Maoris in New Zealand, you'll want to steel yourself for a traditional nose greeting, which involves touching snouts and foreheads. In Rio, local convention dictates three cheek kisses. But a few hours' drive to the south in São Paulo, the single peck prevails. In Beijing, the locals prefer a nod and a smile. In the interests of international fellowship and peace, here is an incomplete guide to world greetings. In much of Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, air kissing between strangers is common, but each nation, and in some cases each region within a country, may have its own habits. Argentine men will one another, but only if they are friends of friends. In most of the Arab world, a double air kiss is obligatory, though only between people of the same sex. Things can get complicated in France, as this map suggests: Expect anywhere from four kisses (in Nantes) down to two (in Toulouse) or just a single peck (in Brest). The general rule is that lips should never touch cheek, though a faint smooching sound is expected. In most of Northern Europe, a firm handshake will usually suffice between strangers, and a single kiss for friends. "Firm" doesn't begin to describe the obligatory handshake between two unacquainted men in Russia, which can feel like a test of strength with near results. And there's a taboo about shaking hands across the threshold of a home: Wait until you are both on the same side of the door. When kisses are called for, where do you aim? In Portugal, the kissing usually progresses from left to right, but in Strasbourg, France, it's right to left. Kissing or touching strangers is frowned upon in Asia. The customary greeting in Thailand involves a bow with the palms pressed together, as if in prayer similar gestures are common from Cambodia to Indonesia. In India, a limp handshake between men is fine, but don't try it with a member of the opposite sex. The traditional way to greet an Indian elder is to bend down and touch his feet. Tibetans have one of the most unusual traditional gestures for greeting others: They stick out their tongues — though always from a safe distance.


France s defense minister warned on Tuesday that North Korea could develop ballistic missiles that reach Europe sooner than expected. The scenario of an escalation towards a major conflict can not be discarded, Florence Parly said in a speech to the French military. Europe risks being within range of (North Korean President) Kim Jong Un s missiles sooner than expected, she said.


A new, Republican-controlled U.S. Congress convenes on Tuesday eager to repeal major portions of President Barack Obama's healthcare law and roll back environmental and financial industry regulations, but could quickly become embroiled in fights over President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet choices. Despite his promise to unite a deeply divided country, Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20 leading a Republican Party that early on will push legislation through Congress without significant - or any - Democratic support. According to a Gallup poll released on Monday, Trump will take office with less than half of Americans confident in his ability to handle an international crisis, use military force wisely or prevent major ethics lapses in his administration. Leading Democrats on Monday warned of a fierce fight over Obamacare, which is expected to have 13.8 million people enrolled in the program that aims to provide health insurance to economically disadvantaged people and to expand coverage for others. Obama is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with congressional Democrats to discuss strategies for fending off Republican attacks on Obamacare. Vice President-elect Mike Pence will meet with his fellow House Republicans the same day to rally them on repealing Obamacare, Politico reported. Republicans in coming weeks will try to steer legislation through Congress using procedures that would not require Democratic cooperation. Their bill, which has not been unveiled, is expected to repeal Obamacare, but postpone the actions for two or three years while also maintaining some of the law's provisions. "We're going to fight as hard as ever to protect the ACA (Affordable Care Act), said Representative Steny Hoyer, the House of Representatives' second-ranking Democrat. Speaking to reporters, Hoyer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said they would launch an effort to mobilize grassroots support for Obamacare by explaining how repeal would create a ripple effect hurting a majority of Americans. For years, Republicans have hammered away at Obamacare, insisting it was unworkable and was hampering job growth. With control of Congress and the White House, they will be in a position to enact a repeal bill. The Senate will have more than legislation on its hands in the new year. It has the daunting task of debating and voting on the scores of appointees Trump already has announced to head his Cabinet departments and for other top jobs in the new administration. It also is expected to receive a Supreme Court nomination early on from Trump, triggering a likely confirmation war. Prominent Senator John McCain has warned that Rex Tillerson, Trump's choice for secretary of state, will have to explain his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom McCain has called a "thug and a murderer." Tillerson, who spent much his career at Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), has been involved in business dealings in Russia and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. Meanwhile, Democrats are expected to oppose Republican Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, in part because of his opposition to immigration and past remarks that showed racial insensitivity. And given Trump's campaign promise to "drain the swamp" in Washington of special interests, especially Wall Street influence, Democrats are also poised to attack the nomination of Steven Mnuchin to be treasury secretary. Mnuchin is a successful private equity investor and hedge fund manager who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N). Nevertheless, Trump is expected to win approval of most, if not all, of his nominees. Besides Obamacare repeal, Republicans also want to curtail or block regulations aimed at controlling industrial emissions that contribute to climate change and banking industry reforms enacted in the wake of the near-collapse of Wall Street several years ago. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who waged bitter battles against Obama over the past eight years, has warned his fellow Republicans against overreaching following their Nov. 8 election victories. In an interview with Kentucky Educational Television on Dec. 19, McConnell said, "It's certainly no time for hubris" and there is "not much I can do (legislatively) with Republicans only in the U.S. Senate." While he repeatedly called for removing Obamacare "root and branch," McConnell said in the interview that his top priorities for the new Congress were dealing with "massive overregulation" that he said has been a brake on the U.S. economy and accomplishing tax code changes to stop companies from moving jobs offshore.


The list of Emmy winners | red carpet looks | our critic's review of the show ] LOS ANGELES — It was business as usual in the two major categories at the Emmys on Sunday night, as HBO's "Game of Thrones" and "Veep" repeated as winners for best drama and comedy. But for a ceremony that can be numbingly predictable, the Emmys were energized by a slew of winners in the acting categories and a tour de force in the limited series category by FX's "The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. " The success of the O. J. series set the theme for the evening as Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance and Sterling K. Brown all scored their first Emmy victories. Rami Malek won his first Emmy as well in a race for best actor in a drama, for his role as the tortured hacker in USA's "Mr. Robot. " And in a big upset, Tatiana Maslany won as best actress in a drama for her numerous performances in BBC America's "Orphan Black," beating out the likes of Robin Wright, Claire Danes and last year's winner, Viola Davis. Kate McKinnon of "Saturday Night Live" provided a change of pace, too, upsetting Allison Janney, a Emmy winner, as best supporting actress for comedy. Likewise, Louie Anderson won his first Emmy in the best supporting comedy category for his role as a suburban mother in FX's "Baskets. " There was a changing of the guard in the variety category, as John Oliver's show, "Last Week Tonight," ended the run of Comedy Central victories. There were familiar winners as well: In the comedy category, Julia won her fifth consecutive best actress award for her role on "Veep," and Jeffrey Tambor, for the second year in a row, won for his role as a transgender woman in "Transparent. " This was the second consecutive year that "Game of Thrones" and "Veep" took top honors, which helped propel HBO to six Emmys on Sunday night and 22 Emmys over all (some categories were awarded previously) the biggest haul of any programmer. FX was right behind with 18 wins, including six on Sunday. "Thrones" once again led all shows with 12 wins, including three on Sunday, but there is some good news for HBO's rivals in the drama category: Next year "Game of Thrones," one of TV's most widely praised dramas, will not be eligible for the Emmys the network elected to start the show's seventh season in the summer 2017, outside of the window. In a sign of the expected Emmys dominance for "Game of Thrones" and "O. J," Jimmy Kimmel, the show's host, said in his opening monologue, "If your show doesn't have a dragon or a white Bronco in it, go home. " Here are some of the themes and highlights of the evening: Comedy Central had a chokehold on the variety talk show category for years, and a Comedy Central alumnus took the award on Sunday: Mr. Oliver, for his HBO show, "Last Week Tonight. " The show is now in its third season, and the win represents a breakthrough of sorts. The Emmy in this category has been handed out to daily talk shows for years and hasn't been given to a weekly show since Tracey Ullman won for her sketch series "Tracey Takes On … " nearly 20 years ago. (Starting last year, variety sketch series and variety talk series were separated into different categories.) Mr. Oliver's triumph is a blow for Comedy Central, which had won this award for 13 consecutive years between "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report. " Not this year Trevor Noah, Jon Stewart's replacement, was shut out of the race and not nominated in his first year as host of "The Daily Show. " But there was some solace in Comedy Central's night, when "Key Peele" won the best variety sketch series award. The bad news? That is now off the air. Not surprisingly, this year's divisive election played a significant role in this year's ceremony. Lamenting the possibility of a Donald J. Trump presidency, Mr. Kimmel lit into the reality show producer Mark Burnett, who was one of the creators of NBC's "The Apprentice," the show that made Mr. Trump a nationwide television star. With ABC's camera firmly squared on Mr. Burnett — who laughed the entire time, despite the charged barbs — Mr. Kimmel said that if Mr. Trump is elected president, Mr. Burnett is the man to blame. "If he's elected and he builds that wall, the first person we're throwing over it is Mark Burnett," Mr. Kimmel said. Later in the night, after "The Voice" won the best reality show, Mr. Burnett, a producer for that show as well, shot back at Mr. Kimmel saying that the host gave "another five minutes of free publicity" for Mr. Trump. Mr. Kimmel took the stage afterward and had his own retort: "That Emmy is going on the hood of Trump's limousine, isn't it?" And Ms. who plays the vice president turned president Selina Meyer, said this upon winning her Emmy for every year she's been nominated in the role: "Our show started out as a political satire, but it now feels more like a sobering documentary. " FX's "The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story" was a ratings hit and a darling of critics, and now a Emmy winner. In addition to winning the limited series Emmy, Ms. Paulson, Mr. Vance and Mr. Brown all won acting awards. Mr. Vance and Mr. Brown both beat to win. Nearly every feature player on the show was nominated for an award, a total of six in all. After Ms. Paulson was named best actress, she got up from her seat and gave a big hug to Marcia Clark, the prosecutor she played in the drama, and whom she brought as her guest to the ceremony. Ms. Paulson's performance was a sympathetic one, and it's been a year of redemption for Ms. Clark. "I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment," Ms. Paulson said, choking up as she directed her comments to Ms. Clark. "And I am glad to be able to stand here today in front of everyone and tell you I'm sorry. '' For FX, "The People v. O. J. Simpson" was the leader for what was turning out to be its best year at the Emmys ever. "Fargo" was also nominated in the category and, after years of being shut out, FX's critically praised "The Americans" finally broke through with three major nominations — best drama, best actor (Matthew Rhys) and best actress (Keri Russell) — though it did not win. The Oscars have been the subject of withering outrage the last two years for a lack of racial diversity in the acting categories. The Emmys? There's been something closer to silence. No one would argue that TV has fully addressed the issue of race — it has a problem when it comes to tapping minorities behind the scenes, as the Directors Guild of America reported last week, and CBS was criticized in August for a fall lineup featuring familiar white male actors. But nearly two dozen minority actors were nominated for Emmys this year, following Ms. Davis's acting victory a year ago. There were three winners in acting categories Sunday, a notable departure from this year's Academy Awards, in which no minorities were nominated in the acting categories. In addition to wins from Mr. Brown and Mr. Vance, Regina King won the supporting actress in a limited series Emmy for her role in ABC's "American Crime. " And "Key Peele" prevailed in the variety sketch award. Instead, attention has turned to the awards themselves, with campaigning having turned into something of a blood sport. In the last two years there has been a 40 percent increase in the number of submissions for the best drama Emmy, according to the Television Academy. And "for your consideration" mailers have reached comical proportions, with Netflix sending out a package to Emmy voters so hefty that it could crush a toe. For each of the last three years, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have become a larger presence at the Emmys. Netflix had 54 nominations this year, its highest ever, and for the first time, it did better than any of the broadcast networks. But despite the upheaval Netflix has caused in the industry, the streaming service has yet to have a big Emmys night. Though it collected nine Emmys overall, including three on Sunday, Netflix continues to strike out in the best drama, best comedy and best actor and actress categories. Ben Mendelsohn did win the Emmy for best supporting actor for his role in "Bloodline. " But even with the lavish attention on the presidential election this year, neither Kevin Spacey nor Robin Wright won for their roles in the political drama "House of Cards. " Neither actor has won a Primetime Emmy Award. For Amazon, Mr. Tambor won again for "Transparent. '' The broadcast networks continued to have a diminished presence at the Emmys. NBC won two awards Sunday night, and ABC and Fox won one. CBS was shut out altogether. Sign up for the Watching newsletter to get expert film and TV recommendations straight to your inbox.


Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating and troubling article detailing how aggressively the Department of Injustice moved to stymie efforts of FBI agents who wanted to investigate pay-to-play criminality with regard to the Clinton Foundation.  Of course, none of this should come as a surprise. The Justice Department under President Obama never met a powerful person it cared to prosecute. Indeed, under Eric Holder's crony reign (same now with Loretta Lynch), it's been apparent for a very long time that senior leadership at the DOJ see the institution's primary role to be the coddling and protection of oligarch criminals, especially those in the financial sector (see: Must Watch Video – "The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime" ).  The death of the rule of law in America, otherwise known as the two-tier justice system, has been a key topic of mine since the very beginning. In fact, I think it is the number one cancer plaguing our society at this time. As I warned in the 2014 post, New Report – The United States' Sharp Drop in Economic Freedom Since 2000 Driven by "Decline in Rule of Law" :  In my opinion, the U.S. is living on borrowed time. The entrepreneurial spirit is still very much alive, and a lot of innovative things are happening in the tech area, but other than that, the U.S. economy looks very much like a third word oligarchy. From my perspective, we need to reinstate the rule of law at once. The bad actors amongst the rich and powerful will continue to feast relentlessly on the productive parts of the economy so long as they they are never held accountable for their crimes. Simply put: The rule of law must be restored immediately.  When it comes to the restoration of the rule of law, there is simply no time to waste.  The rule of law has not been restored, a realization that is consistently reenforced by the lengths to which the Department of Justice goes to protect the powerful. Yesterday's WSJ article gives us an additional glimpse into how that happens behind the scenes.   article, FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe :  The surprise disclosure that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are taking a new look at Hillary Clinton's email use lays bare, just days before the election, tensions inside the bureau and the Justice Department over how to investigate the Democratic presidential nominee.  The new investigative effort, disclosed by FBI Director James Comey on Friday, shows a bureau at times in sharp internal disagreement over matters related to the Clintons, and how to handle those matters fairly and carefully in the middle of a national election campaign. Even as the probe of Mrs. Clinton's email use wound down in July, internal disagreements within the bureau and the Justice Department surrounding the Clintons' family philanthropy heated up, according to people familiar with the matter.  New details show that senior law-enforcement officials repeatedly voiced skepticism of the strength of the evidence in a bureau investigation of the Clinton Foundation, sought to condense what was at times a sprawling cross-country effort, and, according to some people familiar with the matter, told agents to limit their pursuit of the case. The probe of the foundation began more than a year ago to determine whether financial crimes or influence peddling occurred related to the charity.  Some investigators grew frustrated, viewing FBI leadership as uninterested in probing the charity, these people said. Others involved disagreed sharply, defending FBI bosses and saying Mr. McCabe in particular was caught between an increasingly acrimonious fight for control between the Justice Department and FBI agents pursuing the Clinton Foundation case.  Early this year, four FBI field offices—New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Little Rock, Ark.—were collecting information about the Clinton Foundation to see if there was evidence of financial crimes or influence-peddling, according to people familiar with the matter.  Los Angeles agents had picked up information about the Clinton Foundation from an unrelated public-corruption case and had issued some subpoenas for bank records related to the foundation, these people said.  The Washington field office was probing financial relationships involving Mr. McAuliffe before he became a Clinton Foundation board member, these people said. Mr. McAuliffe has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer has said the probe is focused on whether he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity.  In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the Justice Department, according to these people. By all accounts, the meeting didn't go well.  Some said that is because the FBI didn't present compelling evidence to justify more aggressive pursuit of the Clinton Foundation, and that the career anticorruption prosecutors in the room simply believed it wasn't a very strong case. Others said that from the start, the Justice Department officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case.  "That was one of the weirdest meetings I've ever been to," one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.  Anticorruption prosecutors at the Justice Department told the FBI at the meeting they wouldn't authorize more aggressive investigative techniques, such as subpoenas, formal witness interviews, or grand-jury activity. But the FBI officials believed they were well within their authority to pursue the leads and methods already under way, these people said.  According to a person familiar with the probes, on Aug. 12, a senior Justice Department official called Mr. McCabe to voice his displeasure at finding that New York FBI agents were still openly pursuing the Clinton Foundation probe during the election season. Mr. McCabe said agents still had the authority to pursue the issue as long as they didn't use overt methods requiring Justice Department approvals.  The Justice Department official was "very pissed off," according to one person close to Mr. McCabe, and pressed him to explain why the FBI was still chasing a matter the department considered dormant. Others said the Justice Department was simply trying to make sure FBI agents were following longstanding policy not to make overt investigative moves that could be seen as trying to influence an election. Those rules discourage investigators from making any such moves before a primary or general election, and, at a minimum, checking with anticorruption prosecutors before doing so.  "Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?" Mr. McCabe asked, according to people familiar with the conversation. After a pause, the official replied, "Of course not," these people said.  For Mr. McCabe's defenders, the exchange showed how he was stuck between an FBI office eager to pour more resources into a case and Justice Department prosecutors who didn't think much of the case, one person said. Those people said that following the call, Mr. McCabe reiterated past instructions to FBI agents that they were to keep pursuing the work within the authority they had.  Others further down the FBI chain of command, however, said agents were given a much starker instruction on the case: "Stand down." When agents questioned why they weren't allowed to take more aggressive steps, they said they were told the order had come from the deputy director—Mr. McCabe.  Others familiar with the matter deny Mr. McCabe or any other senior FBI official gave such a stand-down instruction.  In September, agents on the foundation case asked to see the emails contained on nongovernment laptops that had been searched as part of the Clinton email case, but that request was rejected by prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn. Those emails were given to the FBI based on grants of partial immunity and limited-use agreements, meaning agents could only use them for the purpose of investigating possible mishandling of  Some FBI agents were dissatisfied with that answer, and asked for permission to make a similar request to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. McCabe, these people said, told them no and added that they couldn't "go prosecutor-shopping."  The above revelations, in conjunction with the email server probe being reopened by the FBI, is why I now think Donald Trump has a very good chance of winning the Presidency. As I noted in Friday's post, Another Black Swan Hits the U.S. Presidential Election :  The problems with Hillary Clinton will never go away. They will always resurface or new problems will emerge, and it has nothing to do with a "vast rightwing conspiracy" (or Putin). It has to do with her. It has to do with the fact that her and her husband are career crooks, warmongers, and shameless looters of the American public. This re-opening of the FBI investigation just hammers all of that home for everyone. We know what 4 years of Hillary will look like. It'll be Obama cronyism on steroids, plus endless investigations with a side of World War 3. I don't think people want that, and so more Americans than the pundits realize will take a gamble on Trump.  It's not just me saying it. Even longtime Clinton supporter Doug Schoen is revisiting whether he can continue to support Clinton. As he wrote There will be no goodwill or honeymoon period for Clinton. Her first 100-days agenda will take a backseat to partisan divisions and polarization with little chance of constructive legislative action occurring. We have seen that a hyper-partisan, gridlocked Washington is bad for the country. There is no reason to believe that Clinton's tenure will be anything but more of the same in this way and, most likely, a lot worse. Further, Russian President Vladimir Putin said (tongue-in-cheek) that we are not a banana republic. I greatly fear we could become one if Secretary Clinton is elected president. Our national security will continue to be jeopardized by ongoing investigations by the FBI, and potentially the Justice Department and Congress, putting us at immediate risk of more assertive actions in Europe, Middle East and Asia by the Russians and Chinese. Moreover, we simply cannot face a situation where the president elect may need or want a pardon from the president to govern. Or worse yet, need to pardon herself after she takes office. As of now, I have no confidence that either of those questions will be answered by Election Day or that we will have full clarity on an investigation into what could be as many as 650,000 emails that found their way to Weiner and Abedin's computer. However, in good conscience, and as a Democrat, I am actively doubting whether I can vote for the Secretary of State. I also want to make clear that I cannot vote for Donald Trump as his world view and mine are very different. For more on the Clinton Foundation, see:


Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the war-torn Darfur region on Tuesday in an effort to show his country is ready to have 20-year-old sanctions lifted by the United States just weeks before Washington is expected to issue a decision. In July the Trump administration postponed for three months the decision to permanently lift sanctions, setting Oct. 12 as a deadline for Sudan to meet conditions, including resolving conflicts and stepping up its humanitarian efforts. Conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against Sudan s Arab-led government. A joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping operation, known as UNAMID, has been on the ground for the past decade. Fighting between the army and rebels in the southern Kordofan and Blue Nile regions also broke out again in 2011, when South Sudan declared independence. Sudan had announced short-term truces in these regions in June and October 2016, after which fighting eased in Blue Nile and Kordofan but carried on in Darfur. Bashir has extended a ceasefire in response to the U.S. moves. After security and stability, comes development, Bashir said in a speech. He said Darfur s security has begun recovering and insisted that arms will only be in the hands of state forces. Just before leaving office, former U.S. President Barack Obama temporarily eased penalties against Sudan, suspending a trade embargo, unfreezing assets and removing sanctions. His decision was delayed for six months to allow Sudan time to meet the conditions which also included cooperating with the U.S. to fight terrorism and improving its rights record. Gabriel Belal, the spokesman of the Justice and Equality movement, one of the main rebel groups in Darfur, criticized Bashir s two-day visit, saying it aimed to give a wrong image to the international community that the war was over. Bashir s visit is not welcomed by the people of Darfur because he personally issued direct orders for ethnic cleansing, Belal said. Security, humanitarian and political conditions are tense in Darfur and there s no prospect for a political resolution.


The virtual currency Bitcoin has been swept up in yet another speculative frenzy, pushing its price toward the peak it last reached in late 2013. The price of Bitcoin has been buoyed by increased interest from places like Venezuela, where the local currency has lost much of its value, and India, where the government recently removed the largest cash notes from circulation. More broadly, a tilt toward isolationism that has emerged in American and European politics — highlighted by Donald J. Trump's election victory — has given a new sheen to a currency that can move between countries with little oversight. "The more there is an expectation for new barriers to be erected, the more there is an expectation that Bitcoin will be valuable for moving money across borders," said Gil Luria, the director of research at Wedbush Securities. Still, most of the people actually buying and selling Bitcoin these days are coming from a single country: China. Some wealthy Chinese have used Bitcoin to evade their government's strict controls on moving money in and out of the country, according to Bitcoin specialists in China. But the heavy trading on Chinese Bitcoin exchanges, much of it by automated software, suggests that most of the price movement is a result of bets by speculators. In recent days, the price of a Bitcoin has been about 3 percent higher on these exchanges than on dollar denominated exchanges, suggesting more demand in China than outside. The importance of speculators suggests that the value of Bitcoin is still driven by the hope of how it might be used someday, rather than real world use today, which has generally been hard to quantify. In dollar terms, a Bitcoin was going for about $1, 025 on Tuesday, or about 140 percent more than what it cost at the beginning of 2016. The volatile price has led many analysts to conclude that is less similar to a currency than to a commodity, like gold, which has a value resulting from its scarcity. In Bitcoin's case, the rules of the network dictate that only 21 million Bitcoin will ever be created. The recent rise has brought the price of one Bitcoin to within striking distance of the price of an ounce of gold, which was about $1, 150 on Monday. The price has increased in the last year despite the lack of interest in Bitcoin from banks and a majority of more sophisticated investors. After showing early interest in the currency, most big banks have moved on to make investments in the blockchain, the new type of ledger technology introduced by Bitcoin, while eschewing Bitcoin itself. Some central banks have talked about issuing their own national currencies on some sort of blockchain inspired by but unrelated to the blockchain that Bitcoin uses. Bitcoin and the blockchain were introduced in late 2008 by a mysterious coder who used the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Anyone with a computer and internet access can open a Bitcoin wallet and help maintain the blockchain ledger where all Bitcoin transactions are recorded. Because it is run by a decentralized network of computers around the world, Bitcoin does not require a central authority like a central bank or financial institution. That has made it attractive to people who hope to do financial transactions anonymously, such as the drug dealers who have sold illicit goods for Bitcoin on the Silk Road website and its successors. New Bitcoins are released at regular intervals to computers helping to support the Bitcoin network, and previously released Bitcoins can be bought and sold on exchanges around the world. Since 2009, the price of Bitcoin has generally been defined by long periods of stability marked by short periods of speculative excitement. The only other time the price of Bitcoin has exceeded $1, 000 was in late 2013, when the demand was driven by a surge of interest from Chinese investors and traders. The price soon crashed when one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, which was based in Tokyo and went bankrupt, announced that it had lost most of the Bitcoins held by its customers (the cause remains in dispute). The Bitcoin price fell to its low — under $200 — in early 2015. Since then, the price has risen in fits and starts, in part because of continuing hacking and fraud, and because of fights over the direction of the Bitcoin network. Many Bitcoin businesses have wanted to edit the basic Bitcoin software to change the number of transactions that can move through the network every day. But the proposed changes have run into opposition from the team of coders responsible for maintaining the basic Bitcoin software. Many Chinese Bitcoin companies have sided with the coders. That disagreement has led to slowdowns on the Bitcoin network, with some transactions taking days to be processed. The slowdowns have made it harder to use Bitcoin for everyday payments. But through the controversy the security of the basic Bitcoin wallets and transaction software has held up, making it a potential alternative for people in countries with less secure currencies and financial institutions. In November, interest in Bitcoin spiked in India after the government announced moves to quickly ban the largest Indian bank notes, in an effort to crack down on corruption. The continued fall in the value of the Venezuelan currency, the bolívar, has led to reports about Venezuelans desperate to exchange their money for Bitcoin. But despite the new demand, the total value of all outstanding Bitcoin, about $16 billion, is still only that of a American company, and is not large enough to sustain the demand of even a moderate number of Indians or Venezuelans looking to store their wealth in the virtual currency. That points back to the importance of speculators, who are betting that someday soon people worldwide will turn to Bitcoin for their daily financial needs, and push the price much higher. "I ascribe only 10 percent of the value of Bitcoin to current day usage, and more like 90 percent of it to the expectation of future usage," Mr. Luria of Webush Securities said.


I left Manhattan in 1988, the morning after marrying a peripatetic advertising executive whose career would take us to six different cities over the course of 26 years. On the ascent out of LaGuardia, I turned my head to the clouds and cried. Following stints in the Midwest, the and New England, I eventually arrived in Texas with two babies, two dogs and the aforementioned husband. Last August, after delivering the younger daughter to college and graduating, myself, from the residential restriction in a divorce decree, I returned home. I was just one person, this moving day, one person and a new canine charge, Charles. Some people flee New York without reservation, while others depart uneasily, but certain that one day, they will make it back. The is inspired, typically, by the universal tug of home and family, along with the draw of the city's singular street life, culture and sensibility. The notion of change is inherent in any return, though, since the city will have evolved in your absence and you, too, may be different from who you were when you left. I knew, in 1988, that I would come back to New York. I was born on York Avenue and East 70th Street and raised in Westchester County, but returned twice after graduate school, living first on Central Park West and later on the Upper East Side. This time, in search of reasonably priced space that would accommodate two college students during vacations and Charles the terrier daily, I landed near where I began, on East End Avenue. I didn't know that it would take so long to get here, or that so much would happen before I did. But I counted down, the whole time. Other former New Yorkers have done the same. "Moving back was in my head, and my friends will say that I've been talking about it forever," said David Kurtz, 58, a film and television composer who lived in Los Angeles for 35 years. "I am very grateful for L. A. but this was always home, whatever all that means. " The emotional bond with a place, of course, does not develop simply because you may have emerged from a delivery room within its ZIP code. Native New Yorkers are not the only ones who may feel like expatriates anywhere else. Mr. Kurtz grew up in Sayville, N. Y. on Long Island, but he formed a connection to Manhattan when he was a child. "My grandmother worked in Columbus Circle at the Diners Club. She loved to take me to Radio City for movies. And my grandfather worked the counter at Katz's Deli. " During high school, Mr. Kurtz took the train to Penn Station almost every Saturday for class in the Juilliard School Division, and he credits his time there for solidifying his New York City identity. "It was more than a great musical experience," he said. "It was my literal salvation. I blossomed in this city. " While at the Manhattan School of Music in 1974, he lived on West 89th Street in the home of Isidore Cohen, then the violinist with the Beaux Arts Trio. "They rehearsed there all the time. Heaven!" The neighborhood, because of its proximity to Lincoln Center and its "European feeling," was his first choice when he returned from California a year and a half ago. He had sold his Malibu house and bought an apartment on West 76th Street, off Central Park. "My L. A. friends say, 'How are you going to live in that?' and my New York friends say, 'How did you find that?' " In March, he and Candace Bowes, a freelance advertising producer who spends weeks at a time working in Los Angeles, were married in the Ladies Pavilion in Central Park, down the street from their new home. "It was an iconic New York thing to do," said Mr. Kurtz, who credits a confluence of events for his return, including his children leaving home, aging parents, immediate family who live here and a shift from composing for television programs to writing a screenplay. Like others who depart New York for places with more serenity and a quieter pace, Mr. Kurtz found he needed to create his own stimulation in California rather than find it in his surroundings. "The ocean, the environment, it became continuous and I lost the fascination," he said. "Here, I'm in awe every day. I walk out the door, and the city is performance art. " What a New York will feel like depends on how long the person has been away and what his life was like at the time he left, said Christine Haney, the executive vice president of global relocation for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. "They come here because they have always loved the city," she said. There is a certain age when people are unafraid to make changes and move anywhere, she added, but after they've gone down that path, "they want to come back and just enjoy. " Once back in town, where they choose to rent or buy an apartment is often determined by how they will now spend their days, in addition to their budgets. "I had a client who said to me, 'I am ready to go to Lincoln Center. I want to live facing the steps,' " said Annie Cion Gruenberger, an associate broker with Warburg Realty. "We went out and bought an apartment facing the steps. " Susan Adler Funk, 56, loves seeing plays. She has at least six subscriptions to Off and Off Off Broadway theaters and attends between 50 and 60 performances a year. This past September, she and her husband, Allen Funk, 55, rented a on Columbus Avenue and West 96th Street after selling a house in Sleepy Hollow, N. Y. where they had lived for three years following 18 years in and around Seattle and six in Washington, D. C. Also, the couple recently purchased a home in Flemington, N. J. where they intend to grow and sell grapes, "a retirement plan," Ms. Funk said. "Every book that I own doesn't have to be in this apartment. I am spoiled that way. " When the grapes are in their infancy, the Funks will spend more time in New Jersey and keep their apartment as a . Ms. Funk views herself as a Manhattan expatriate, despite a Rockland County, N. Y. upbringing, attributing that status to the years she lived here during her formative 20s. After college, she rented two apartments, first on Sutton Place and then on West 82nd Street. Following Harvard Business School, where she met Mr. Funk, a Los Angeles native and former newspaper publisher, she rented a on West 77th Street. Now, as a "fully formed" adult, she has returned to the city and, specifically, to the Upper West Side, for its energy and its closeness to the stage. "Theater is the reason I'm here," she said. "I don't know how the passion began, but I remember going to Playwrights Horizons when I first lived here and was poor and didn't see much. " Nostalgia is not part of the for Ms. Funk, who, while in Seattle, started and ran a think tank focused on diversity issues in the technology industry and now is studying to become an accredited executive coach. "I actually tried to find where I used to live, but I couldn't figure it out," she said. Sometimes, though, returning to a place where childhoods happened, first jobs were held and mates were met can evoke strong sentiments about the passing of time and life choices. When people haven't regularly seen the spots where seminal experiences occurred — both good and bad — they can feel walloped, emotionally. Across the street from the hospital where I was born is the hospital where my father died I have to bolster myself before walking by or choose a different route. "You have to be part psychologist," said Ms. Haney of helping people relocate. "You have to be very sympathetic, very understanding of what they're going through. " In 1993, after six years of city life, Randy Gilman agreed to leave York Avenue and East 79th Street for Livingston, N. J. when her husband, Zvi Bolimovsky, expressed a desire to raise children outside Manhattan. "From Day 1, when I was pregnant, I was on a countdown to come back once my kids finished high school," said Ms. Gilman, 63, who was born on Long Island and grew up near Hartford, Conn. After Ms. Gilman's father died in 1990, her mother, Evelyn, moved to Manhattan, renting an apartment at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street, with a park view. Six years ago, when Ms. Gilman's younger child was 15, the women bought, together, a apartment around the corner, on Park Avenue and East 65th Street, into which the elder Ms. Gilman moved. After Ms. Gilman's daughter graduated from high school three years ago, Ms. Gilman and Mr. Bolimovsky joined Evelyn Gilman, who is now 91, on the premises. "My daughter left in August and we moved in by October," Ms. Gilman said. "I felt like I always belonged here. " While leaving New Jersey stirred little emotion, sharing space with her mother, who has her own suite, has prompted Ms. Gilman to reminisce. "I feel sentimental about living with the beautiful art and artifacts that she accumulated on her many trips with my father," Ms. Gilman said. "Living here also helps remind me about when I was a child and my parents took my sister and me to museums, theater and dance performances. " When Charles and I landed in New York, there was no party, no ticker tape. The confetti was in my mind, raining down feelings of finish lines, relief, exhilaration, promise. People here ask where I lived before, and when I mention my 17 years in Texas, they seem uniformly horrified. They crinkle up their faces and ask, "Did you like it?" expecting a certain response. I would have provided that reply, at first. Now, I feel that I should defend the place that I desperately did not like, and that I would want to do this surprises me a little, but makes me feel encouraged about my time there. I tell the people about the efficient and the civility of the children who shake hands when they are in preschool. I tell them that I raised two daughters there, two daughters who speak softly, saying y'all and ma'am and sir. I feel good about the place, standing in Carl Schurz Park on the East River, with Charles on a lead. I do, really, I do. This realization has played emotional tricks with my return, which, for years, I viewed as a simple construct, an escape from exile. Here, whatever was missing would suddenly exist, and I would feel energized, nurtured and safe. I would feel like me. I must say that this has happened, and in a magnified way — my old friends are more wonderful, the ballet more breathtaking, the brownstone facades more stunning. But is it home? Does it feel like home? I do not know. Sometimes, the transition is not what people envision it will be. After 40 years, Howard Bloomberg, 70, chose to return to Manhattan and his family's Upper West Side neighborhood — not because he was nostalgic necessarily, but for its prewar architecture and residential ambience. "In 1976, I escaped. There was crime, filth, graffiti on the subway, you couldn't see out the windows," said Mr. Bloomberg, a retired investment banker who has lived in London, Boston and, most recently, New Hampshire. "But then, New York became a fabulous city, and it more closely resembled the time when I grew up. " Mr. Bloomberg and his parents lived at 685 West End Avenue his grandparents, uncle and aunts lived at 697 West End Avenue. Mr. Bloomberg's childhood apartment had bedrooms and baths on one side of a hall, and common rooms on the other. He hoped to duplicate that layout. But Mr. Bloomberg is not one to act rashly. He started his hunt in 2001, but it wasn't until 2010 that he settled on Riverside Drive, across the street from Joan of Arc Park, where he used to play football. The apartment in a 1902 building designed by Ralph S. Townsend overlooks the Hudson, has ceilings and the details that Mr. Bloomberg was looking for. "I am very particular. It took three years to renovate. It didn't even need a renovation," he said. It took another two years to sell his house on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, delaying his return to the city until this spring. Mr. Bloomberg was ready to make the transition, to be less sedentary and more engaged in city life. "Over the decades, I've lost touch with just about everybody," he said before he arrived in early May. "I look forward to having a big dinner party with them in my new apartment. It will be great fun, though we are no longer young men. " Upon moving in, however, the anticipation turned rapidly to upset. Mr. Bloomberg walked into and out of five supermarkets, unable to navigate the narrow aisles. His phone wouldn't work. His television and computer wouldn't turn on. He was dismayed to see litter. After four days in the city, he thought to himself: "I can no longer cope. I don't think I can possibly live here again. " Now, some weeks later, Mr. Bloomberg is still here, though still out of sorts. He contemplated selling the apartment and leaving — where to, he was not sure — but the expense of such a turnaround dissuaded him. He did secure a New York City phone number. Adaptation, could it be? Expectations vary, according to Jeff Feuer, an associate broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Mr. Bloomberg's real estate agent for 10 years. Typically, he said, the adjustment is a lot more difficult if you are leaving New York than if you are returning. "I have a house in Woodstock, and I love it," he said, "but even after a couple of days, I just want to come back. "


Ed wasn't excited about his job. He worked for a large automotive manufacturer. This is the kind of industry that might invest heavily into robots and research and development, but when it comes to managing their supply chain and accounts receivable, their IT infrastructure was frozen in amber circa 1974.  The pay was fine, but the work was frustrating. Things like "Code reviews" and "refactoring" were viewed as "wastes of time" or "developers playing with toys". Unit tests were a luxury for "lazy" developers- good developers should just be writing code that works. If the work you're doing isn't directly involved in getting cars built and shipped, you shouldn't be doing it.  Ed was looking to get out of the company, and while he kept sending out resumes, he found more excuses to get away from his desk by taking smoke breaks with Mitchell. Mitchell was a lifer- he joined the company back when pensions were a thing, and was close enough to retirement that he just needed to keep his head down and stay the course to check out with a nice nest-egg. "But you," he'd tell Ed, "you've gotta get out of here. You're young. You shouldn't be wasting your time here."  After one of those smoke breaks, Ed returned to his desk to see Pilar waiting for him. Pilar was their summer intern, a junior in college. She mostly handled "manual reporting", which was a euphemism for "we don't actually have a reporting system for this data set, so we have an intern run SQL queries against production and then copy/paste the results into a spreadsheet." Yes, there were still manual reports because none of the SBUs wanted to pay to automate them.  "I've got a new report," she said, "and it's on something called SCORDBE? You wouldn't know how I get access, would you?"  Ed didn't know. At best, he might have seen the acronym someplace on a PowerPoint during a quarterly meeting once. "No, but has anyone shown you the Internal Apps Sheet?" He was referencing a spreadsheet used to track support contacts for different applications. He CTRL+F-ed to the entry for SCORDBE. "Oh, no…"  The SCORDBE database was administered by Yev "Ticket-Nazi" Kassem. He automatically closed any tickets for changing the database- even for production releases. Any ticket requesting access to the database, for any reason, received a simple reply: "NO ACCOUNT FOR YOU." He used IP whitelists to prevent connections from unapproved devices. While it probably was good for security, that was an afterthought. Yev had a small bit of power, and he wanted to make sure that he held onto it.  Still, that was just the database side. There was an application on top of that database. He scrolled across the spreadsheet, past the cloumns for "Approving Manager", "SBU Contact", "SBU Backup Contact", "SBU Backup Bakcup Contact" and found "IT Development Contact". It was Mitchell.  "I don't think you'll get very far with the database," Ed said. "But maybe Mitchell can help?"  Pilar went off to visit Mitchell, and Ed got back to his regular work. A half hour later, Mitchell CCed him on an email to Pilar. "I've got a solution. Just visit this URL and it'll run your query. And you can change the id=… part at the end to do it for other part numbers."  Ed didn't think much about it until his next smoke break. "So," he said, "how'd you get past the Ticket-Nazi?"  Mitchell laughed. "I didn't." He paused and lit his cigarette, taking a few drags before explaining. "SCORDBE is about 35,000 lines of Perl written back in the 90s. Nobody ever wants to touch this code, and nobody really understands what it does. I figured there had to be some poorly escaped queries, so I just grepped until I found one. Now we can run ad-hoc queries as needed."  Ed left the company a short time later. Mitchell, and his injection-based reporting solution, however, are still there. [Advertisement] BuildMaster integrates with an ever-growing list of tools to automate and facilitate everything from continuous integration to database change scripts to production deployments. Interested? Learn more about BuildMaster!


The State Department is considering formally declaring the crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims to be ethnic cleansing, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, as lawmakers called for sanctions against the Southeast Asian country's military. Pressure has mounted for a tougher U.S. response to the Rohingya crisis ahead of President Donald Trump's maiden visit to Asia next month when he will attend a summit of Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, in Manila. U.S. officials are preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that would define the military-led campaign against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, which could spur new sanctions, the U.S. government sources said. The proposal - part of an overall review of Myanmar policy - could be sent to Tillerson as early as this week, and he would then decide whether to adopt it, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, since security forces responded to Rohingya militants' attacks on Aug. 25 by launching a crackdown. The United Nations has already denounced it as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. Three U.S. officials testifying at a Senate hearing on Tuesday declined to say whether the treatment of the Rohingya was ethnic cleansing, but listed new measures including targeted sanctions that Washington is considering. Those steps, however, stopped short of the most drastic tools at Washington's disposal such as reimposing broader economic sanctions suspended under the Obama administration. "I'm not in a position ... to characterize it today, but to me this very closely resembles some of the worst kind of atrocities that I've seen during a long career," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Storella said when pressed to say whether he viewed the situation as ethnic cleansing. Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he considered the treatment of the Rohingya "genocide" and is working on bipartisan legislation that could spell out whether additional sanctions are needed. Myanmar, also known as Burma, insists that action was needed to combat "terrorists." The recommendation to Tillerson - first reported by the Associated Press - is not expected to include a determination on whether "crimes against humanity" have been committed, as this would require further legal deliberations, one U.S. official said. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some U.S. lawmakers criticized Aung San Suu Kyi, head of Myanmar's civilian-led government and a Nobel peace laureate once hugely popular in Washington, for failing to do more. Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the committee, chided Suu Kyi for what he called "dismissiveness" toward the plight of the Rohingya and said it might be time for a "policy adjustment" toward Myanmar. At the hearing, Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian And Pacific Affairs, said additional sanctions were being considered, but cautioned that doing so could lessen Washington's ability to influence Myanmar.


A group of 22 members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked the Environmental Protection Agency in a letter on Thursday not to lower some requirements for mixing biofuels into the country's fuel supply, but also not to let ethanol exports qualify for renewable fuel credits, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Reuters. The members of Congress are part of a bipartisan voting bloc dedicated to supporting the biofuels industry called the House Biofuels Caucus. They represent districts in states such as Iowa and Illinois where farmers grow corn for ethanol and other biofuels. They urged the agency to increase biomass-based biodiesel requirements and not to decrease the amount of advanced biofuels required to be added to the fuel supply. "Our farmers and biofuels producers need greater certainty from the EPA," the letter said, adding recent proposals the agency said it was considering "create unnecessary angst." "We will respond to the House Biofuels Caucus through the proper channel," said EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox in an email to Reuters. Midwestern politicians and industry representatives have been pressuring the EPA not to reduce renewable fuel standards. Fuel companies, meanwhile, want to change certain rules for complying with the standards to make it easier and cheaper for them to meet their renewable fuel requirements. They want ethanol exports to count as tradable credits toward their renewable fuel requirements, a proposal the Biofuels Caucus members condemned. "This proposition would upend infrastructure investments needed to blend ethanol into our fuel supply and pick winners and losers in a manner inconsistent with the Congressional intent of the Renewable Fuel Standard," they wrote. Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds said that President Donald Trump told her on a phone call on Wednesday that he was committed to renewable fuels, though advocates say they won't be satisfied until the EPA reverses recent steps it has taken to lower renewable fuel requirements. Last month, the EPA said it was looking to cut 2018 biodiesel blending requirements, roiling markets and drawing criticism from the country's farm belt. In July, it proposed cutting total volumes of all renewable fuels use for next year.


The U.N. refugee agency has urged Japan to resettle more asylum seekers, its chief said on Monday, pressuring the country to help solve a global crisis after giving refugee status to just three people in the first half of the year. Japan is one of the developed world s least welcoming countries for asylum seekers. It accepted 28 in 2016, despite applications from a record 10,091 people. It has since 2008 given home to limited numbers of refugees through a so-called third-country resettlement scheme, resettling a total of 152 people - mostly ethnic Karen people from Myanmar living in Thai and Malaysian camps. That program is very small, about 20-30 refugees a year, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news conference in Tokyo. I have asked the government to consider whether it could be expanded. Japan s reluctance to accept refugees mirrors a wider caution towards immigration in a nation where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity. Its record at home has drawn sharp criticism from international human rights groups, and has been at odds with its traditional status as a major international donor on refugees. But Japan s donations to the UNHCR have slipped: in the year to Oct. 2, it was the fourth-largest donor, giving $152 million, compared to the second-largest four years ago. Contributions from the government to the UNHCR have been declining a little bit every year since 2013, Grandi said. What I asked the government to consider is that the needs of refugees and displaced people are increasing. More than 2 million people fleeing wars or persecution have joined the ranks of the world s refugees this year. At the end of last year, the latest figure available, 17.2 million refugees fell under the UNHCR s mandate. Japan says that many people claim asylum in Japan to find work, encouraged by access to renewable work permits for people applying for refugee status. It officially rejects unskilled migrant workers, even as a fast-shrinking and ageing population blunts the potency of government efforts to rouse the economy from over two decades of sluggish growth and deflation. The Justice Ministry, which oversees refugee recognition, is weighing steps including restrictions on work permits for asylum seekers to curb what it deems abusive applications.


Mysterious, middle-of-the-night drone flights by the U.S. Secret Service during the next several weeks over parts of Washington -- usually off-limits as a strict no-fly zone -- are part of secret government testing intended to find ways to interfere with rogue drones or knock them out of the sky, The Associated Press has learned. A U.S. official briefed on the plans said the Secret Service was testing drones for law enforcement or protection efforts and to look for ways, such as signal jamming, to thwart threats from civilian drones. The drones were being flown between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to publicly discuss the plans. The Secret Service has said details were classified. Some consumer-level drones, which commonly carry video cameras, are powerful enough to carry small amounts of explosives or a grenade. The challenge for the Secret Service is quickly detecting a rogue drone flying near the White House or the president's location, then within moments either hacking it to seize control over its flight or jamming its signal to send it off course or make it crash. The Secret Service has said only that it will openly test drones over Washington, but it declined to provide details such as when it will fly, how many drones, over what parts of the city, for how long and for what purposes. It decided to tell the public in advance about the tests out of concern that people who saw the drones might be alarmed, particularly in the wake of the drones spotted recently over Paris at night. Flying overnight also diminishes the chances that radio jamming would accidentally affect nearby businesses, drivers, pedestrians and tourists. It is illegal under the U.S. Communications Act to sell or use signal jammers except for narrow purposes by government agencies. Depending on a drone's manufacturer and capabilities, its flight-control and video-broadcasting systems commonly use the same common radio frequencies as popular Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Jamming by the Secret Service -- depending on how powerfully or precisely it works -- could disrupt nearby Internet networks or phone conversations until it's turned off. Testing in the real-world environment around the White House would reveal unexpected effects on jamming efforts from nearby buildings, monuments or tall trees. Signals emanating from an inbound drone -- such as coming from a video stream back to its pilot -- could allow the Secret Service to detect and track it. Federal agencies generally need approval to jam signals from the U.S. telecommunications advisory agency, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. That agency declined to tell the AP whether the Secret Service sought permission because it said such requests are not routinely made public. The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed it formally authorized the Secret Service to fly the drones and granted it a special waiver to fly them over Washington. The agency declined to provide specifics about the secret program. In January, a wayward quadcopter drone, piloted by an off-duty U.S. intelligence employee, landed on the White House lawn. At the time, the Secret Service said the errant landing appeared to be accidental and was not considered a security threat. The agency had been looking at security issues surrounding drones before the January crash, but the crash of that drone led the agency to focus more attention on security issues surrounding small, unmanned aircraft that can be hard to detect. Previously published reports have disclosed that the Secret Service already uses jammers in presidential and vice presidential motorcades to disrupt signals that might detonate hidden remotely triggered improvised explosive devices. Researchers with the Homeland Security Department's science and technology directorate are working on strategies to interdict an unauthorized drone flying inside security areas. The research arm of DHS is trying to balance security concerns of the small, hard-to-detect devices, with the burgeoning commercial use and interests of hobbyists. Likewise, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said last week it's studying how the U.S. can resolve privacy risks with increasing use of drones. The Homeland Security Department hosted a two-day meeting last month with industry officials, law enforcement and academics to discuss balancing security and commercial interests and establishing security practices. Days later, the Secret Service, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, distributed a three-sentence press release saying it will "conduct a series of exercises involving unmanned aircraft systems, in the coming days and weeks." Trying to keep drones out of a secure area can be tricky. There are basically three ways to stop a drone, said Jeremy Gillula, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation: block the radio signals linking the drone to its controller, hack the aircraft's control signals and trick it into believing it is somewhere else, or physically disable it. Some drone manufacturers program a "geo fence" -- location coordinates their drones treat as off-limits and refuse to fly past -- into the drone's programming. Police could physically knock a drone out of the air with a projectile or use a net to catch it. "If it were me that would actually be the first thing I would think about doing," Gillula said. "You would have to basically encase the White House in this net. It sure wouldn't look pretty, but in some ways it would be the most effective way."


Britain wants to reach agreement over the terms of its departure from the European Union but is prepared for a no deal scenario, Brexit minister David Davis said on Friday. We don t want a no deal, but if one comes, we ll be ready for it, Davis told broadcasters.


Craig Diangelo, Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut's 5th District and former information technology worker, who was laid off and forced to train his foreign replacement here via an visa, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow Thursday. [Fox Business News also recently reported Diangelo's story: "In the very beginning we did not know that we would be training our replacements … the CIO came down from Boston, said that she would hold a town hall meeting to discuss the future of our IT at our particular company," Diangelo said. "We all got into the room, 220 of us, she proceeded to tell us that … what we are going to do is … outsource IT infrastructure and IT development. " Diangelo said company employees at the time were told it was because "global employees can adjust to change a lot faster than the American worker. " He questioned why American workers weren't classified equally. Diangelo said while he feels supported by many average citizens in Connecticut, that's not the case with the state's politicians. "Senator Blumenthal, after I spoke with him and talked about this, he went out and . … That was to increase the number of by 100, 000, on top of the 85, 000 visas that are issued every year," he said. "Elizabeth Esty, who I'm running against, she was very curt with me," he added, saying she passed him off to an aide who was supposed to call him but never did. Diangelo said Esty was not even informed of the pertinent immigration laws at the time of their encounter. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern.


One of our biggest concerns is that so many Americans don t realize the magnitude of just how much our nation is in deep trouble. With the election of Trump, the shadowy foes have been coming out and showing themselves to attack Trump. Glenn Greenwald does a great job of explaining what s going on:Co-founding editor of The Intercept says opponents have used the media in open warfare against the President-elect, and the CIA wanted Hillary Clinton to win the presidency:Look no further than Buzzfeed to see what he s talking about:BUZZFEED S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Attempts Lame Explanation Of Why He Published Fake News On Trump: This was absolutely the right thing to do [Video]GREENWALD:The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer:This is the faction that is now engaged in open warfare against the duly elected and already widely disliked president-elect, Donald Trump. They are using classic Cold War dirty tactics and the defining ingredients of what has until recently been denounced as Fake News. Their most valuable instrument is the U.S. media, much of which reflexively reveres, serves, believes, and sides with hidden intelligence officials. And Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss as well as a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing eager to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry and damaging those behaviors might be READ MORE: THE INTERCEPT


Six years of war in Syria have ravaged the life of Ebrahim Abbas, 27. Mr. Abbas, a computer technician, was detained for protesting against the Syrian government, besieged in his hometown and shot in the stomach, and watched his brother die in a shelling attack. He escaped, but his father, a diabetic, died later from a lack of medicine, and his mother was killed by a sniper. It was from his refuge in Turkey that Mr. Abbas heard about President Trump's decision to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base to punish President Bashar for a chemical weapons attack. It felt good. "Watching a world power taking revenge for civilians against the Syrian regime gave me a surge of hope and made me a bit optimistic," Mr. Abbas said. But the attack will not bring back all that he has lost nor help him return home soon. In a measure of how entrenched the war is, there were new airstrikes on Saturday on the town targeted in the attack, with at least one person killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The strike on the air base was the most direct, deliberate military intervention by the United States against Mr. Assad's forces since the war began. Mr. Trump said he had launched the strike because he was moved by images of women and children choking on poison gas. "That was a horrible, horrible thing," he told reporters after the chemical attack. "And I've been watching it and seeing it, and it doesn't get any worse than that. " But while the strike on Thursday appeared intended to limit the chances of retaliation, Mr. Trump has offered no proposals to end the war or to assuage the vast human suffering it has generated, sending fleeing Syrians across the globe. Yasmine Mashaan, a pharmacy technician from the town of Muhassan in eastern Syria who lost several brothers to the conflict, said the strike was unlikely to change much for her and her family. And she doubts Mr. Trump's motivations. "It would be great if he continued this in the direction of saving more civilians or establishing a safe zone, but after his racist speeches and policy, I think the strike is more for popularity," said Ms. Mashaan, who is now in Germany after fleeing there with her family. "But judging by how fast he intervened in Syria and how powerful it was, then we might be going somewhere with it. " The number affected by the conflict boggles the mind. What began as an uprising in 2011 escalated into a civil war as protesters took up arms to respond to the government's repression and seek its ouster. Over time, countries like the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia backed the rebels, while Russia and Iran helped Mr. Assad. As chaos spread, extremist groups gained ground. Al Qaeda infiltrated the rebel movement, while the jihadists of the Islamic State seized territory that extended into Iraq. Now more than 400, 000 people have been killed, a figure roughly equal to the population of Tulsa, Okla. or Oakland, Calif. Many more have been maimed. Half of Syria's prewar population of 22 million have fled their homes, a number close to the population of Belgium. Five million of those are registered refugees abroad, according to the United Nations. Most are in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, where 70 percent live on less than $3. 84 a day, less than the cost of some lattes at Starbucks. Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which does aid work in Syria, said he could not comment for or against the strike by the United States, but he said that "they do not solve any of my urgent priorities. " For the humanitarian situation to improve, aid workers would need more border crossings for getting aid into the country, assurances that air and ground forces would not attack hospitals and better access to besieged and suffering communities, including nearly 400, 000 people within an hour's drive of Damascus, the capital. "It is heartbreakingly frustrating to be a humanitarian worker and to have the resources and the supplies but not to be able to reach these people," Mr. Egeland said. Within the conflict's statistics are countless stories of torture, detention, forced conscription, families torn apart and normal lives downgraded rapidly or simply cut short. Even some Syrians who welcomed the strike questioned why, after all of the war's brutality, it was the chemical attack this past week that had brought a show of force against Mr. Assad. "Of course chemicals are weapons of mass destruction," said a doctor east of Damascus who treated victims of the first major chemical attack in Syria, in 2013. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared government reprisal. "But what about sieges? What about killing children? Isn't it wrong for children to grow up without knowing Tom and Jerry? Without knowing chocolate?" President Barack Obama did not respond militarily to a chemical attack in 2013, despite having called the use of such weapons a "red line. " Since then, the doctor has watched the world move on while the siege of his area has tightened, he said through Skype. He said he had learned to live with less electricity, less fuel, less clean water and less food. "We are living like ancient people, how they depended on themselves, how they used wood to make fires," he said. "It is a hard life. " He expected more from the United States and its allies after the 2013 attack, what he called "a position that was appropriate for the free world. " But the result was an agreement, brokered by Russia, for Mr. Assad to give up his chemical weapons. "The solution to the crime was a deal to take away the weapon but leave the criminal," the doctor said. The strike by the United States made him mildly optimistic that Mr. Trump would intervene more forcefully than Mr. Obama had. "Trump is a closed box that has started to open," he said. "Soon we will see what's inside. " While conflict monitors said that Mr. Assad's forces and their allies had caused the bulk of the war's deaths with their advanced weapons, communities loyal to Mr. Assad have also paid a heavy price. Tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers have been killed, and religious minorities, secularists and others who view Mr. Assad as a symbol of a unified Syria have continued to fight out of fear that they would be eradicated if Islamist rebels take over the country. Others have had to face both the government and the jihadists. Ms. Mashaan, the pharmacy technician, said her family's troubles began when she intervened to stop a security officer from beating her brother for protesting. The officer beat her instead, breaking her arm. As the uprising spread, Ms. Mashaan, 36, and her five brothers joined in. Soon, her brothers and husband were arrested and tortured, in some cases coming home with their fingernails removed, she said. Then they began to die. One was killed when security forces fired into a crowd of protesters, she said. Another was shot in their home by a sniper. Yet another disappeared. She later recognized his face in a trove of photos of bodies smuggled out of a prison near Damascus. As violence spread, Ms. Mashaan's family fled to a refugee camp in the countryside, but it was soon taken over by a new force in the area: Islamic State jihadists. They killed her younger brother and took advantage of her medical training by forcing her to work in a clinic, she said. The family later fled to a refugee camp across the border in Turkey, where they lived until Ms. Mashaan's husband and her last remaining brother joined the migration to Europe and paid smugglers to take them to Greece in rubber dinghies. They made their way to Germany, where she and her five children joined them last year. Living in Germany is hard, she said in a Facebook chat from her new home. Not speaking the language made it difficult to register the children, and many Germans refused to rent lodgings to her family because they were refugees, she said.


The Other October Surprise---An Eruption In The Bond Pits By David Stockman. Even as the FBI's probe of Huma/Weiner's laptop was happening behind the scenes during the last several weeks, an even more important eruption was quietly gathering steam in the world's bond markets. To wit, the casino gamblers who have made a killing front-running the central banks have begun to fade the trade. You need to login to view this content.  David Stockman's Contra Corner isn't your typical financial tipsheet. Instead it's an ongoing dialogue about what's really happening in the markets… the economy… and governments… so you can understand the world around you and make better decisions for yourself.  David believes the world -- certainly the United States -- is at a great inflection point in human history. The massive credit inflation of the last three decades has reached its apogee and is now going to splatter spectacularly.  This will have lasting ramifications on how governments tax and regulate you… the type of work you and your family members will have available and what you get paid… the value of your nest egg… and all other areas comprising your quality of life. Login  David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman's latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler's Daily Data Dive and David's personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers.


Energy infrastructure companies in the Caribbean and southeastern United States continued to restart as of Friday after shutdowns due to Hurricane Irma. Irma was downgraded to a tropical depression on Monday and weakened further into a post-tropical cyclone by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. Kinder Morgan Inc said it is making significant progress on restarting systems that were temporarily or partially shut down as a precaution during the passage of Irma. It said the Orlando and Tampa products terminals and their associated truck racks, the Central Florida Pipeline (CFPL), Elba Island LNG Terminal, the Plantation Pipe Line system, and other terminals in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are fully operational. Dominican Republican Refidomsa s Haina refinery and its docks returned to normal after Irma, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Statoil said operations at South Riding Point resumed earlier this week after being shut down during the weekend. Buckeye Partners LP did not immediately have an update available on its Bahamas crude oil and fuel terminal, previously known as Borco. The terminal is Buckeye s largest and can store about 26.2 million barrels of oil, fuel oil, gasoline and other products. Buckeye s terminals in Puerto Rico have returned to normal, a spokesman told Reuters in an email. Port Everglades, South Florida s main petroleum delivery hub, said it is open with no restrictions. Of the 12 petroleum terminals supplying transportation fuels, 10 were up and delivering fuel to retail stations and two that are still working to reopen have water intrusion and related issues, the Port said. Irma, which had ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record before striking the U.S. mainland as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, has been blamed for at least 82 deaths, with several hard-hit Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, accounting for more than half the fatalities. COMPANY LOCATION ACTION FULL STORY Refidomsa Haina, Refining, docks back Dominican to normal Republic COMPANY LOCATION ACTION FULL STORY Norfolk U.S. Opened origin Southern Corp Southeast facility gates for shipments destined to Charleston, South Carolina, though gates remained closed to traffic destined for Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah-Garden City in Georgia, and Florida East Coast Railway locations COMPANY LOCATION ACTION FULL STORY Buckeye Puerto Rico Terminal facilities Partners in Puerto Rico have returned to normal operations Buckeye Freeport, Targets normal Partners Grand Bahama operations at Bahamas Island oil, fuel terminal on Tuesday Statoil Grand Bahama South Riding Point Island storage and transshipment terminal operations resumed NuStar St. Statia terminal Eustatius suffered damage to several tanks and other equipment due to Hurricane Irma. All employees safe, no oil spills have been registered; Assessments were put on hold due to Hurricane Jose Limetree Bay St. Croix, Hovensa terminal Terminals U.S. Virgin shuttered due to Islands storm, traders said American Brunswick, Shut down around noon Midstream Georgia on Friday and Brunswick evacuated employees Terminal Odfjell Charleston, Continuing Terminal South operations, Carolina monitoring the status of storm Port Hollywood, Open with no [nL4N1LU4L9] Everglades Florida restrictions Kinder Morgan Making significant progress on restarting systems that were temporarily or partially shut down as a precaution COMPANY LOCATION ACTION FULL STORY Shell Eastern Gulf Reduced staff at its of Mexico eastern Gulf of Mexico assets as a precautionary measure BP Thunder Non-essential Horse personnel evacuated platform from platform and associated drill ship West Vela


French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday congratulated Donald Trump on his shock victory in the U.S presidential election, but warned the result would open up a period of uncertainty. "I congratulate him as is natural between two democratic heads of state," said Hollande. "This American election opens a period of uncertainty." France would be vigilant and frank in its talks with the new administration on international issues, he said, adding that Trump's victory showed that France needed to be stronger and that Europe needed to be united. A presidential official said Hollande had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel before making his declaration.


The Russian President has immediately sent his Admiral Grigorovich frigate armed with cruise missiles and a self-defence system from the Black Sea to dock in Syria later. It will pass through the east Mediterranean waters where the USS Ross and USS Porter fired the 59 Tomahawk missiles that pounded Assad s al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs in the early hours of Friday. Bret Baier tweeted out the news: Putin today called it an illegal act of aggression and also ripped up an agreement to avoid mid-air clashes between Russian and US fighter jets over Syria. In the continuing fight back Russian or Syrian planes also bombed the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the scene of Tuesday s horrific chemical gas attack where 80 died, witnesses in the rebel-held area claimed. The US was also branded a partner of ISIS by al-Assad s spokesman, calling the missile strikes reckless and irresponsible and accused Trump of naively falling for a false propaganda campaign about the Idlib Sarin massacre. Today world leaders praised the US strikes and urged Putin to hold urgent talks with Trump to prevent the Syria crisis escalating into a wider world conflict. Nikki Haley says U.S. took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. .@Nikkihaley says U.S. took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. #Syria pic.twitter.com/asNvxTZMUz CSPAN (@cspan) April 7, 2017 French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking alongside German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, said: We do not want an escalation. We have to stop the hypocrisy. If Russia is acting in good faith it should stop and negotiate .


Munich prosecutors have arrested a former board member of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) unit Porsche in connection with an emissions scandal at carmaker Audi, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Wolfgang Hatz, former Research and Development chief at Porsche and head of powertrain development at Audi and parent Volkswagen in previous roles, was taken into custody, the person said, marking the first arrest of a former board member of one of Volkswagen s units in Germany. A lawyer representing Hatz declined to confirm the arrest and also declined any further comment. Hatz left Porsche last year, having been suspended since Volkswagen s emissions test-cheating scandal broke in September 2015. Investigations found no evidence against him, Porsche said in May 2016. Munich prosecutors earlier said they had arrested a second suspect and widened the number of suspects in their investigation. They did not disclose the suspect s identity. Prosecutors have also searched personal premises, a spokeswoman for the Munich prosecutors said, adding that corporate locations were not part of the raid. Audi has no knowledge of the arrest and continues to cooperate with authorities, a spokesman said. German business daily Handelsblatt first reported the arrest and Sueddeutsche Zeitung disclosed Hatz s identity. Audi admitted in November 2015, two months after parent Volkswagen s diesel emissions scandal broke, that its 3.0 liter V6 diesel engines were fitted with an auxiliary control device deemed illegal in the United States. In March, Munich prosecutors searched offices at the carmaker s Ingolstadt base, where about 44,000 workers are employed, and the premises of Jones Day, a U.S. law firm hired by Volkswagen to lead an investigation into the emissions scandal. Four months later the U.S. Justice Department said it had charged a former Audi manager with directing employees at the company to design software to cheat U.S. emissions tests in thousands of Audi diesel cars. The former Audi manager, Italian citizen Giovanni Pamio, was subsequently arrested by Munich prosecutors on suspicion of fraud and false advertising in connection with the carmaker s emissions scandal. Pamio remains in custody pending ongoing German investigations and an extradition request by U.S. authorities. Pamio s lawyers said he is cooperating fully with prosecutors and has denied the allegations.


The Republican presidential campaign of Ohio Governor John Kasich has hired a former deputy White House press secretary for President George W. Bush as a top communications adviser, a campaign source said on Tuesday. The adviser, Trent Duffy, is an Ohio native who worked on Capitol Hill when then-Representative Kasich was chairman of the House Budget Committee. Duffy, who has been a public relations consultant in the years since serving in the Bush White House, will be a national communications strategist and responsible for national media outreach on behalf of Kasich's campaign for the Nov. 8 election. The hire takes place during the heat of the South Carolina primary battle. Republicans in the state vote on Saturday and Kasich is campaigning in the state over the next few days to try to build on the momentum he received from a second-place finish in the New Hampshire nominating contest last week. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters' editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.


Every year the nation s press corps meets in Washington D.C. at the Correspondents Dinner. A dinner which is always entertaining, to say the least, as President Obama jokes about events that may have happened throughout the past year, and people who have most significantly appeared in the media.This year was no different as the president quipped about each and every presidential candidate, not leaving anyone out. He also made a joke indicating who he believes will be the president at next year s Correspondents Dinner.Obama said: Next year someone else will be standing here in this spot, and it s anyone s guess who she will be. Obama clearly insinuated that he believes former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not only win the Democratic primary, but also win in November against whoever the Republicans may put up against her.Only time will tell to see if President Obama s prediction will come true, but no matter who the nominee may be on the Democratic ticket, we ve got to make sure liberals unite and against the Republican candidate. No matter who, vote blue. Not only for yourself, but for the good of entire nation.Watch the video of Obama s prediction here:Obama: Next year someone else will be here, and "it's anyone guess who she will be" #WHCD https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/w9u1yCIqQv CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 1, 2016


Donald Trump s pride and joy is the tacky, gaudy literal glass tower he lives in, known as Trump Tower. It, and other Trump structures around the nation and world, are the best indicators of the guy s undeniable and extreme narcissism, so making fun of them is sure to get The Donald s knickers in a twist and that is just what Google Maps did on Saturday.For quite some time during the afternoon, Trump Tower showed up on Google Maps as Dump Tower. This did not go unnoticed on that bastion of internet trollery, Twitter. Here are just a few choice tweets, via The Hill:Look at what cute little Google Maps did they labeled Trump Tower "Dump Tower" pic.twitter.com/sKZ39bTB6o MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) November 27, 2016Rigged! @google Maps shows Trump Tower as "Dump Tower" pic.twitter.com/L8pZk1y0zc Evan Smith (@evanasmith) November 26, 2016The Google Maps Trump hack is live ??? #DumpTrump #DumpTower pic.twitter.com/AuBe7GKjQ4 mcbc (@mcbc) November 27, 2016The Google Maps Trump hack is live ??? #DumpTrump #DumpTower pic.twitter.com/AuBe7GKjQ4 mcbc (@mcbc) November 27, 2016The best way to get under Trump s skin is, of course, is to mock him. During the election, everyone tried to shame him by painting him as unacceptable, by appealing to the better instincts of the electorate by pointing out his bigotry, misogyny, and other unsavory characteristics. However, since Trump and his supporters have no sense of shame, that didn t work. However, they DO have pride. They can t stand to be disagreed with, and they ESPECIALLY cannot stand to be mocked. So, keep it up, Google Maps and everyone else. Mock and troll the hell out of Trump for his entire presidency until his head explodes.


On Monday, International Workers Day, protesters will fill the National Mall and the streets of cities elsewhere to protest what they call the federal government's "deportation machinery" and to demand civil rights reserved for citizens be bestowed upon illegal immigrants. [The May Day protest by illegal aliens goes back to 2006 when "1. 5 million people took to the streets across the country to demand immigration reform," magazine The Nation reported on Friday. Now, protesters aren't asking for a pathway to citizenship. "Today, no one, not even immigrants rights advocates, is calling for immigration reform anymore," Nation contributor Julianne Hing wrote . "Immigrants and their allies are now defending civil rights like due process and values like democracy and inclusiveness. "The policy agenda is no longer about winning citizenship or even legal status for the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants," the article said. "It's about defending families from separation. " This year's march will also include other protesters opposed to President Trump's policies on immigration. "With the Trump administration intensifying attacks on Native Americans, immigrants, refugees, trans individuals, Muslims, women, people of color in general, and the poor, a coalition led by immigrants and workers is aiming to mark this year's May Day with the biggest workers strike in over a decade," The Nation article said. "One thing I've been struck by since the election is everyone is ready to see how these different movements intersect," Jack Darin, director of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club said in the article, and he cited the Women's March shortly after Trump's inauguration as the prototype for their protest. "Our members see how our struggles and our goals intersect with these other constituencies. " "It showed a lot of people at a moment when we really needed to see it that we were all in this together and combined, we really do represent the majority," Darin said. "As immigrants our livelihoods, our futures, our families — they're all in danger," Cabrera, the director of communications at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) said in The Nation article. "May Day presents an opportunity for us to not silence ourselves and to remain vigilant. " Organizers behind the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in February are calling again for people to not report to work on Monday. "Activists in Scranton, Pennsylvania Raleigh, North Carolina and Newark, New Jersey and dozens of other cities have been calling for a strike," The Nation reported in an article entitled "How to Join the 'Day Without Immigrants' on May Day. " "We believe that when the country recognizes it depends on immigrant labor to function we will win permanent protection from deportation for the 11 million undocumented immigrants the right to travel freely to visit our loved ones abroad, and the right to be treated with dignity and respect," Movimiento Cosecha's Maria Fernanda Cabello in a statement included in the article. "Immigrant, African American, LGBTQ, indigenous and women workers along with allies are striking on May 1," the bsolid. org website states. "#may1strike is an invitation from the Food Chain Workers Alliance and SEIU USWW to build a General Strike on International Workers Day. Stand with us to pledge your participation … " The website states that people said should not be silent when the government and corporations are escalating "immigration raids," violating "Native sovereignty," banning Muslims "because of their faith," "criminalizing" black, brown and "trans people," and "rapidly destroying the environment. " "Opposing Trump is not enough," the website states. "We must stop him. "


In an interview with Spain's flagship leftist newspaper, Pope Francis warned against rash judgments of President Donald Trump, noting that he deserves to be given a chance to prove himself. [The interviewer from the Spanish daily El País told the Pope that "the whole world is tense" over the election of President Trump, calling him a xenophobe filled with "hatred for foreigners. " The Pope said that the new President deserved to be judged by his actions, not by "prophecies" of what he may or may not do. "I think that we must wait and see," Francis said. "I don't like to get ahead of myself nor judge people prematurely. We will see how he acts, what he does, and then I will have an opinion. " The Pope said it is "most unwise" to be afraid of something that might happen. "It would be like prophets predicting calamities or windfalls that don't take place. We will see. We will see what he does and then evaluate," he said. "I prefer to wait and see. " The interviewer, Antonio Caño, pressed the Pope further, asking whether he wasn't "worried about the things you have heard up until now. " "I'm waiting. God waited a long time for me, with all my sins … " Francis replied. The Pope's words Friday echoed a recent interview with the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who also advised against rushing to negative judgments of Trump, comparing him to Ronald Reagan, who turned out to be a great president. Asked for his impressions about the election of Donald Trump, Cardinal Schönborn noted that when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 "many shook their heads" and it turned out they were wrong. "Good God, an actor from California!" they said. "And Reagan was certainly one of the best presidents the U. S. ever had. So you should not be too quick to judge," he advised. In Friday's lengthy interview with El País, Pope Francis was also asked whether he was concerned about the spread of a populism throughout the world that capitalizes on "people's fears," preaching "a message of hate. " Francis distinguished between a good, grassroots populism, where it is the people who are "the protagonists," and a cult of personality where a charismatic figure like Hitler rises to power and is welcomed as a savior figure. The latter can be very dangerous, he said. The risk, Francis said, is that in times of crisis we lack judgment and people can begin to think, "Let's look for a savior who gives us back our identity and let's defend ourselves with walls, whatever, from other people that may rob us of our identity. " "And that is a very serious thing," he said. "That is why I always try to say: talk among yourselves, talk to one another. " Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome