WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is crafting plans to keep nearly 1,000 forces in Syria, U.S. officials said, a shift that comes three months after President Trump ordered a complete withdrawal and is far more than the White House originally intended.

Protracted administration talks with Turkey, European allies and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters have so far failed to secure an agreement to create a safe zone in northeastern Syria, part of Mr. Trump’s plan for leaving Syria.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-military-now-preparing-to-leave-as-many-as-1-000-troops-in-syria-11552853378

CLOSE

Officials in eastern Nebraska are still evacuating communities around rivers that are spilling their banks in the wake of heavy rains and massive snow melt.
Time, Time

A “bomb cyclone” storm that bloated rivers as it roared through much of the Midwest combined with spring snowmelt Sunday to drive some Midwest rivers to record levels and force evacuation of hundreds of homes.

And some areas must brace for more rain Tuesday, forecasters said. 

Tuesday’s storm won’t match last week’s “bomb cyclone” that triggered heavy snow, howling winds and several tornadoes, AccuWeather Meteorologist Jim Andrews said. But he said there is the potential for up to another inch of rain on areas that have no place to put the water.

“That could trigger new or aggravate problems if that rain targets the areas hit hardest by the flooding,” he said.

The governors of Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin have declared states of emergency. Roads and highways were closed. Amtrak said some trains in the region were delayed and other canceled.

The Missouri River between Omaha and Kansas City could remain at or near record levels through most of this week as runoff from flooded streams and rivers flows downstream, AccuWeather said.

In Nebraska, Offutt Air Force Base was under siege from water. Base officials finally called off a furious sandbagging effort, saying the water was rising too fast to be stopped.

Much of the base, home to almost 9,000 service members, was underwater Sunday. It was open to essential personnel only.

“We have about 2 feet of water in the Bennie Davis Maintenance Facility,” 55th Wing Commander Col. Michael Manion said. “All streets south and east of the Field House are impassible.”

Interstate 29 was shut down from Omaha to Rockport, Missouri. Last week, Columbus, Nebraska, farmer James Wilke, 50, died when a bridge collapsed as he used a tractor to rescue a stranded motorists.

“All evacuation notices, suggested and mandatory, are strongly encouraged,” the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said. “By ignoring evacuation recommendations, extraction requests made later may be delayed.”

More than 2,000 Iowans have fled their homes since heavy rains triggered flooding last week. The Missouri River in Fremont County, Iowa, rose two feet above its previous record level on Sunday. Authorities ordered evacuation of the town of Thurman’s more than 200 residents.

“Fast moving water was approaching the town of Thurman,” the National Weather Service warned Sunday. “This is likely the result of levee breaches in the area. Evacuation operations were beginning.”

County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said the swift current added to the danger.

“This wasn’t a gradual rise,” Crecelius said. “It’s flowing fast and it’s open country – there’s nothing there to slow it down.”

Aleido Rojas Galan, 55, died after he and two other men tried to drive around a “road closed” barricade, Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said Saturday. All three escaped the vehicle, and Galan was found clinging to a tree in the water. 

Galan was flown to a Nebraska where he died. The other men were treated for their injuries.

Parts of Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin were also facing flooding. Several Wisconsin communities have been evacuated since Friday night. 

“The massive flooding impacting our state can be overwhelming,” Gov. Tony Evers said. 

Contributing: The Associated Press

 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/17/midwest-flooding-bomb-cyclone-thousands-evacuate/3194936002/

“In his conflation of this horrendous terrorist attack with issues of immigration, in his attack on Islamic faith specifically — these comments are appalling and they’re ugly and they have no place in Australia, in the Australian Parliament,” Morrison said. “He should be, frankly, ashamed of himself.”

Source Article from https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2019/03/16/australian-senator-blames/

March 17 at 10:39 AM

Naeem Rashid, 50, a teacher and father of three who emigrated from Pakistan to New Zealand a decade ago, was busy this month planning the spring wedding of his son Talha, 21. 

 Neither father nor son lived to celebrate the occasion. Both were killed Friday, along with seven other Pakistanis, when a gunman struck at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing at least 50 people and wounding scores.  

But since then, Rashid has become a national hero in his native country, after video footage of the shootings showed him trying to tackle the gunman outside one mosque before being shot. 

“My brother was a brave man who died to save others. His death showed how he cared for humanity,” Rashid’s brother Khurshid Alam said in a telephone interview Sunday from his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Just a few days ago, he said, “we were talking to Naeem about the family coming to Pakistan for Talha’s wedding. Now we are talking about his death and funeral arrangements.” 

Alam said Rashid and his son, who was shot alongside him, “fell victim to terrorism. . . . The whole world should work together to eliminate this scourge.”

Avowed neo-Nazi Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, has been charged in the massacres.

Pakistan has been a victim and an alleged source of Islamist terrorism for two decades. Even as tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in Islamist militant attacks, India, Afghanistan and the United States have accused it of sheltering and supporting other militant groups that stage attacks abroad.

The slayings in Christchurch signified a relatively rare instance in which Muslims living peaceably overseas have been targeted by mass violence because of their religion.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Sunday that Rashid would be given a posthumous national award for bravery. In tweets after the attack, Khan said the nation was proud of Rashid, “who was martyred trying to tackle the White Supremacist terrorist.”

 Khan said the Christchurch attacks “reaffirm what we have always maintained: that terrorism does not have a religion.” He also said, “I blame these increasing attacks on the Islamophobia post-9/11, where Islam and 1.3 billion Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror by a Muslim.”

His government declared Monday a national day of mourning and ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff.

In an editorial Sunday, the English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn said the “violent hatred undergirding such mass murders” is linked to a process of “ultra-right radicalisation that Western political and intellectual leaderships have done little to address.” It said that “antipathy towards Muslims, anti-immigration rhetoric and permissiveness towards hate speech” have all contributed to such violent extremism.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday confirmed the deaths of the seven other Pakistanis in the mosque shootings. 

 One was Syed Areeb Ahmed, 27, an accountant from the port city of Karachi who had recently moved to New Zealand to take a job. Ahmed’s father, Syed Ayaz Ahmed, told journalists in Karachi that the family had been worried and begun praying for him when they heard of the mosque attacks and were unable to reach him. 

“We continued to pray for him, but he is no more. I loved my son,” Ahmed’s father said. “I am devastated.”

Among the other Pakistanis killed were Syed Jahandad Ali, 34, a man whose wife and children were on a visit to Pakistan at the time; a couple, Ghulam Hussain and Karam Bibi, and their son Zeeshan Raza; and Mahboob Haroon, 40, an academician and father of two.

Rashid, a former banker, was reported to have moved to New Zealand to pursue graduate studies. His wife was a teacher there, and their three sons were students. He was also the cousin of a former Pakistani legislator from Abbottabad, Amna Sardar. 

“He treated me like a sister. He was a humble and decent man,” Sardar said in an interview. “But he died as a brave man, the way he lived. I am so proud of him. If he hadn’t tried to stop the killer, many more people would have been killed.”

Constable reported from Kabul. 

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistani-man-who-tried-to-stop-new-zealand-shooter-to-be-given-national-award/2019/03/17/582667fa-48af-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html

A malfunctioning software program aboard the Max 8 planes is a central focus of investigators. The software program, called M.C.A.S., was installed in the new Max 8 planes as a way of preventing stalls and worked by forcing the nose of the plane down.

In the Indonesian flight, there are indications that the system acted in error and that the pilots had trouble overriding the software’s actions. They ultimately lost their battle before the plane plunged into the sea.

The data from the Ethiopian Airlines flight recorders, or black boxes, has not been publicly released. Experts generally caution that conclusions at this stage of an investigation are far from certain and note that there are many possible causes for crashes.

[When the 737 Max was introduced, Boeing and regulators agreed that pilots didn’t need additional simulator training.]

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/europe/ethiopia-737-crash-data-recorders.html

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(CNN)New Zealand authorities are racing to identify the 50 people killed in a massacre at two mosques so that their families can bury them in accordance with Muslim tradition.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/17/asia/new-zealand-mosque-shooting-victims-identification-intl/index.html

    President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden on potential candidacy: ‘I have the most progressive record’ Left-wing Dems in minority with new approach to spending Washington Senate passes bill that would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns MORE on Sunday defended Fox News hosts, warning that the Democrats and the “Fake News” media are trying to silence a majority of the country through a campaign against the network’s conservative hosts.

    “The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well,” he tweeted.

    Trump specifically named Jeanine Pirro, host of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” calling for Fox to “bring back @JudgeJeanine.” Pirro’s Fox News show did not air on Saturday night. 

    Last week, Fox News condemned remarks made by Pirro after the host on air questioned whether Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarActivist who confronted Chelsea Clinton: She ‘hurt our fight against white supremacy’ Fox News won’t air ‘Justice with Jeanine’ on Saturday after Pirro’s comments about Omar Trump Jr. defends Chelsea Clinton after confrontation at vigil for New Zealand attacks MORE (D-Minn.) is loyal to Sharia because she wears a hijab.

    “We’re not commenting on internal scheduling matters,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Hill of Pirro’s show being preempted.

    Several advertisers pulled their ads from Pirro’s show last week in the wake of the Omar controversy. Tucker Carlson, host of Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” also lost advertisers after a left-leaning blog resurfaced comments he made during appearances on a radio show between 2006 and 2011.

    Trump on Sunday also named Carlson, urging, “Keep fighting for Tucker.”

    He encouraged Fox to “stay strong and fight back” and “stop working soooo hard on being politically correct.” He suggested that Fox’s ratings prove people want its hosts to stay on air.

    Fox News’ ratings made the channel No. 1 in in all of basic cable in 2018.

    -Updated 9:48 a.m.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/media/434425-trump-defends-fox-news-hosts-from-attempt-to-silence-them

    Reuters held on to a report about former congressman Beto O’Rourke and his participation in a hacking group as a teenager until after his failed 2018 Senate race in Texas.

    O’Rourke, now 46, announced Thursday he’s running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. A day later, Reuters reported he was a member of a computer hacking group called the Cult of the Dead Cow and authored a series of writings under the name “Psychedelic Warlord.”

    Hours after publishing the report, Reuters put out a follow-up piece that said the author, reporter Joseph Menn, held on to O’Rourke story for more than a year.

    Menn said he found out about O’Rourke’s membership in the Cult of the Dead Cow as he was doing research for a book on the well-known hacking group.

    “While I was looking into the Cult of the Dead Cow, I found out that they had a member who was sitting in Congress. I didn’t know which one. But I knew that they had a member of Congress,” he said. “And then I figured out which one it was. And the members of the group wouldn’t talk to me about who it was. They wouldn’t confirm that it was this person unless I promised that I wouldn’t write about it until after the November election. That’s because the member of Congress had decided to run for Senate. Beto O’Rourke is who it was.”

    Menn said he then met O’Rourke and told him he would publish the book after his Senate race. “And he said, ‘OK,’” Menn said. “And he told me about his time in the Cult of the Dead Cow.”

    The Reuters report Friday on O’Rourke’s membership in the Cult of the Dead Cow also revealed he authored a series of writings under the name “Psychedelic Warlord,” including disturbing fiction he wrote when he was about 15 that detailed the murder of children.

    “I’m mortified to read it now, incredibly embarrassed, but I have to take ownership of my words,” O’Rourke said in an apology. “Whatever my intention was as a teenager doesn’t matter, I have to look long and hard at my actions, at the language I have used, and I have to constantly try to do better.”

    “It’s not anything I’m proud of today, and I mean, that’s the long and short of it,” he told reporters earlier on Friday. “All I can do is my best, which is what I’m trying to do. I can’t control anything I’ve done in the past. I can only control what I do going forward and what I plan to do is give this my best.”

    O’Rourke also apologized for joking about “sometimes” helping his wife raise their three children.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/reuters-held-story-about-beto-orourke-until-after-senate-race

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    (CNN)Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand officially jumped in the 2020 presidential race on Sunday by declaring her Democratic candidacy with a campaign video titled “Brave Wins.”

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/17/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-presidential-campaign-2020/index.html

      OMAHA, Neb. — Authorities were using boats and large vehicles on Saturday to rescue and evacuate residents in parts of the Midwest where a recent deluge of rainwater and snowmelt was sent pouring over frozen ground, overwhelming creeks and rivers, and killing at least one person.

      The scramble to move people out of harm’s way was expected to subside going into the new week, as rivers and creeks in flooded eastern Nebraska and western Iowa were expected to crest Saturday and Sunday. That left officials downstream looking to prepare for likely flooding.

      Missouri Gov. Mike Parson had already met with emergency management team members Friday to review and update flood-response plans, and the Missouri Highway Patrol was preparing additional equipment and putting swift water rescue personnel on standby. The Missouri National Guard also temporarily relocated the 139th Airlift Wing’s C-130s from Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph as a precaution.

      The National Weather Service said the Missouri River at St. Joseph reached nearly 26 feet on Saturday, about a foot below what’s considered major flooding at the northwest Missouri city. But it’s expected to crest Wednesday or Thursday at 29.3 feet — more than two feet above major flooding level.

      Evacuation efforts in eastern Nebraska and some spots in western Iowa on Saturday were hampered by reports of levee breaches and washouts of bridges and roads, including part of Nebraska Highway 92, leading in and out of southwest Omaha. Authorities confirmed that a bridge on that highway that crosses the Elkhorn River had been washed out Saturday. In Fremont, west of Omaha, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation for some residents after floodwaters broke through a levee along the Platte River. And in Mills County, Iowa, authorities ordered people in some rural areas to evacuate after the Missouri River overtopped levees.

      The flooding followed days of snow and rain — record-setting, in some places — that swept through the West and Midwest. The deluge pushed some waterways, including the Missouri River, to record levels in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. The flooding was the worst in nearly a decade in places.

      The family of farmer James Wilke, 50, of Columbus, Nebraska, said he was killed Thursday when a bridge collapsed as he was using his tractor to try to reach stranded motorists on Thursday. His body was found downstream, his cousin Paul Wilke told the Columbus Telegram. Gass Haney Funeral Home confirmed James Wilke’s death.

      At least two other people were missing in floodwaters in Nebraska. Officials said a Norfolk man was seen on top of his flooded car late Thursday before being swept away in the water and another man was swept away by waters when a dam collapsed on the Niobrara River.

      Officials in Sarpy County, south of Omaha, said Saturday that power may be shut off to communities along the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers for safety reasons. They warned those who choose to ignore calls to evacuate that rescues would be attempted only during daylight hours. Some cities and towns, such as North Bend on the banks of the Platte River, were submerged. Others, such as Waterloo and Fremont, were surrounded by floodwaters, stranding residents in virtual islands with no access in or out.

      “There is no way out of here unless you’ve got a helicopter — or a boat,” the Rev. Mike Bitter, pastor of Christian Church of Waterloo, told the Omaha World-Herald.

      Officials in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska were urging people not to drive unless necessary. In Iowa, a section of northbound Interstate 29 that runs parallel to the Missouri River was closed due to flooding. Authorities were rerouting motorists at Kansas City, Missouri, using a detour that took people almost 140 miles (225 kilometers) out of the way.

      Farther east, the Mississippi River saw moderate flooding in Illinois from Rock Island south to Gladstone. Meteorologist Brian Pierce with the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities office in Davenport, Iowa, said flooding on the Mississippi could get worse a few weeks as more snow melts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

      “What we’re having now is the dress rehearsal for the main event that’s going to happen in early April,” he said of the flooding on the Mississippi.

      Rising waters along the Pecatonica and Rock rivers flooded some homes in the northern Illinois cities of Freeport, Rockford and Machesney Park. The National Weather Service said record crests were possible along the rivers, with water levels forecast to continue to rise over the next several days and remain above flood stage through most of the weekend.

      Freeport resident Mary Martin told the (Freeport) Journal-Standard that she went to the store to get milk and bread when she saw floodwaters were rising Friday.

      “Within an hour of going to the store, I could not get back in. That’s how fast the water was coming up,” Martin said.

      Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/03/17/deadly-midwest-floods-breach-levees-force-evacuations/

      <!– –>

      China moved first. Indonesia followed. Then Singapore and Australia.

      By midday Wednesday more than 30 countries and airlines from India to Italy had banned Boeing 737 Max jets from their skies after a second fatal crash of one of the planes brought the death toll to 346 people. The deadly crashes raised concerns around the world that they may have both been caused by software Boeing added to the modern version of its workhorse jet.

      But the U.S. aviation regulator repeatedly stood by the American-made plane, even as close allies like the European Union decided to suspend the plane from operating there.

      It left the Federal Aviation Administration, which has presided over an unprecedented period of commercial airline safety at home, in an unfamiliar state: alone.

      Knee-jerk reactions

      Had such a worldwide break from U.S. aviation officials happened before?

      “Never,” said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transport Safety Board. He’s investigated accidents including the July 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed all 230 people on board. Goglia called the moves by other countries to ground the 737 Max planes “knee-jerk reactions” since details of what could have caused the Ethiopia crash were still scarce.

      The U.S. had for decades taken the lead in issuing aviation safety guidance to carriers and countries. Countries instead followed China, set to become the world’s biggest air travel market by the middle of the next decade, according to the International Air Transport Association.

      In January 2013, battery fires on new Boeing 787 Dreamliners prompted the agency to ground the planes that month. European aviation officials followed suit from the FAA, which had certified the plane. The 787s were airborne again by April of that year after FAA deemed the planes airworthy after a fix from Boeing. In 1979, the FAA grounded McDonnell Douglas DC-10 planes after deadly crashes.

      Trump announcement

      On Wednesday afternoon, Canada had joined most of the world in grounding the planes, citing new satellite data.

      Hours later President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would also ground the planes, a type of announcement usually made by the FAA. The FAA’s acting administrator Daniel Elwell later told reporters that this new satellite-data and physical evidence more closely linked the Ethiopian Airlines crash of the Boeing 737 Max on March 10 to that of Lion Air Flight 610 that plunged into the Java Sea in Indonesia last October, killing all 189 aboard.

      He defended the FAA’s decision to hold off on grounding the planes.

      “We are a fact-driven, a data-based organization,” said Elwell told reporters after the FAA issued its order to ground the planes in the U.S. “Since this accident occurred we were resolute in our decision that we would not take action until we had data to support taking action. That data coalesced today and we made the call.”

      Boeing said it recommended the decision to the FAA.

      U.S. inaction

      The inaction from the U.S. had drawn criticism from some, like former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, whose FAA grounded the Dreamliners in 2013, before the FAA made the call that it should have grounded the planes. “Safety can never be compromised,” he told CNBC.

      Others, including former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune, who previously oversaw production of 737s and 757 at Boeing, said the U.S. should wait until it had more information.

      After the FAA decided to go ahead and ground the jets, Elwell told CNBC’s Closing Bell in an interview that the FAA, which certified the 737 Max plane, “didn’t feel global pressure.” The Max is a new variant with larger engines, made by a joint venture of General Electric and France’s Safran, and other features and rolled out in 2017.

      On Monday and Tuesday, the FAA said it had no information to warrant grounding the Boeing 737 Max planes, even as other nations and airlines took that step. Of the more than 350 of the planes that have been delivered to carriers worldwide, 72 are in U.S. airline fleets, including those of American, United and Southwest. Boeing has 4,600 more on order globally.

      Chaos

      As the U.S. grew more isolated on the issue, airlines were in the awkward position of at once defending the airplane as safe and changing for free the tickets of travelers who said they were too scared to fly it. Flight attendants’ unions asked for the planes to be grounded and told members they wouldn’t be forced to work a 737 Max flight. Some United flight attendants reassigned themselves on other aircraft, according to the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, their labor union.

      “When FAA got behind the court of public opinion everything else becomes optics over rational decision making,” said Robert Mann, a former TWA executive and an airline consultant.

      Boeing shares lost more than 10 percent in the week, shaving $24.6 billion off its market capitalization.

      Lawmakers, travelers and even some airline employees, including flight attendants, urged the government and carriers to park the planes until more was known about what brought down the Ethiopian Airlines’ four-month-old Boeing 737 Max 8 on Sunday shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.

      “I know this tragedy is especially challenging coming only months after the loss of Lion Air Flight 610,” Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg told employees in an email. “While difficult, I encourage everyone to stay focused on the important work we do. Our customers, business partners and stakeholders depend on us to deliver for them.”

      The FAA’s about-face

      Then the U.S. changed its position.

      At American’s nerve center, a cavernous, 150,000-square-foot facility at its Fort Worth, Texas headquarters where the airline monitors its some 6,700 flights a day, about a dozen members of American’s staff and executives and like Kerry Philipovitch, senior vice president of customer experience, assembled in a room used for crises like the 2016 Brussels bombing, where they were later joined by CEO Doug Parker, to view on a wall full of screens where its 24 Boeing 737 Max planes were and how to rebook passengers whose trips were upended by FAA’s immediate order.

      The airline had been discussing contingency plans since China grounded the planes on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. American uses the planes for 85 flights a day and began canceling flights after the FAA order. Southwest took similar steps. The three U.S. airlines flying the planes said they supported FAA’s decision.

      FAA and Boeing

      The FAA, which has had Elwell as acting head since Michael Huerta stepped down in January 2018, was the body that certified the one to certify the best-selling plane that started flying in commercial fleets less than two years ago.

      That is drawing questions from lawmakers. Investigators in the Lion Air crash have indicated that the pilots were battling an automated anti-stall system that Boeing added to the new 737 Max jets before they started flying in 2017.

      The plane is a new model of Boeing’s 737, an aircraft that has been flying since the 1960s and is the best-selling of all time. Boeing, facing competition from European archrival Airbus, whose A320neo, a more fuel-efficient version of its single-aisle plane that had just won orders from longtime Boeing customer American Airlines, ordered up a similar fuel-saving engine upgrade. Boeing also changed the wing and landing gear. Airbus’s newly re-engined A320s started flying more than a year before Boeing’s 737 Max.

      Because of the changes it made to the planes, Boeing also added a system, known as the Maneuver Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, to detect whether a plane is in a stall and automatically push the aircraft’s nose down, the way planes recover from such a position. Investigators are looking at whether the sensors on the doomed Lion Air plane erroneously showed the aircraft was in a stall.

      ‘Absolutely shocked’

      Some pilots said they did not know the MCAS system existed until after the Lion Air crash.

      “It blew us away. It absolutely shocked us,” said Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines Boeing 737 pilot an a spokesman for the airline’s union, the Allied Pilots Association.

      Switching from previous models of the 737 to the 737 Max entailed a 56-minute iPad training session, Tajer said. The FAA did not require additional training under the certification of the plane.

      On an earnings call in April 2017, Boeing’s CEO Muilenburg was asked how deregulation early in Trump’s term affected the company.

      Muilenburg replied that “the administration has been very engaged across government agencies and with industry to find ideas and ways and opportunities to simplify and streamline.

      “Things like FAA certification processes is one place that we’re seeing some solid progress,” he said. “That’s helping us more efficiently work through certification on some of our new model aircraft, such as the Max, as it’s going through flight test and entering into service.”

      The FAA had signed off on the 737 Max 8 planes in March 2017.

      Boeing met with American’s pilots as well as with their counterparts at Southwest after the Lion Air crash to discuss the system.

      Boeing told the pilots they were working on a fix to the plane’s software, which the FAA confirmed when it had said on Tuesday that the planes were still airworthy. Tajer said pilots felt renewed confidence following the Boeing meeting in November.

      Demanding answers

      The FAA is mandating those changes along with tweaks to training and manuals for the 737 Max planes. It expects to sign off on the software fixes on March 25, according to a person familiar with the matter, opening the door for it to be rolled out onto aircraft.

      Acting FAA administrator Elwell said the 35-day partial government shutdown, which furloughed FAA safety inspectors, did not delay the software changes. (The shutdown ended hours after several FAA’s air traffic controllers, working without pay for more than a month, did not show up for work, snarling air travel.)

      Now lawmakers are demanding answers.

      Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure called for an investigation into the certification process for the plane, which propelled Boeing to a record $100.1 billion in revenue last year. The FAA’s Elwell told reporters he was still confident in the certification for the plane.

      Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and chair of the Senate Commerce Committee said he’s planning a hearing on aviation safety because of the two crashes.

      While the issue is ongoing, Boeing said it would suspend deliveries of the Max planes.

      Boeing said its planned changes will make “an already safe aircraft even safer.”

      -CNBC’s John Schoen contributed to this article.

      Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/17/two-boeing-737-fatal-plane-crashes-the-world-turns-on-the-faa.html

      Jeb Bush believes a Republican should challenge President Trump for the nomination in 2020 — slamming the president’s “dangerous” policies on trade and other issues.

      In the latest salvo between the two former rivals, Bush, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, made the comments Saturday during an interview with ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod.

      “I think someone should run just because Republicans ought to be given a choice,” Bush said on CNN’s “The Axe Files.”  “It’s hard to beat a sitting president, but to have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative, I think it’s important.”

      BETO BOASTS OF HAVING REPUBLICAN MOM, DESPITE HER FREQUENT VOTES FOR DEMOCRATS

      Bush, whose father George. H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United States and his brother, George W. Bush, was the 43rd, reportedly added that Republican voters should be given more of a choice between different ideologies.

      “And our country needs to have competing ideologies that people — that are dynamic, that focus on the world we’re in and the world we’re moving toward rather than revert back to a nostalgic time,” he said on CNN, seeming to take aim at Trump’s “Make America Great Again” 2016 slogan.

      Bush elaborated about his disagreements with Trump during the interview.

      “We haven’t had a major crisis to deal with, but this unilateralism or going-alone-ism I think is really dangerous,” Bush said of Trump’s foreign policy moves, according to The Hill.

      “Our friends no longer believe they can trust the United States and our enemies, in many cases, feel emboldened by this approach,” he reportedly added. “I think it defies the…bipartisan kind of consensus on foreign policy that has, by and large, kept America safe.”

      ANOTHER BIDEN GAFFE? FORMER VP CLAIMS HE’S ‘MOST PROGRESSIVE DEM’ RUNNING

      According to The Hill, Bush also critiqued Trump’s ability to handle the more symbolic aspects of running the country, such as responding during moments of crisis.

      However, he did praise Trump’s tax policy, regulatory changes and judicial nominations.

      “You can honestly say he’s done good things in terms of policy and applaud them,” Bush said. “I think the symbolic, you know the kingly duties of the presidency, that’s where he falls short, and it’s important.”

      The interview is the latest in a series of back-and-forth jabs between the two men.

      Bush blasted Trump in September 2018 as a bad role model for young children, telling the Detroit Free Press: “He is not my role model as it relates to values I would share with my children and grandchildren.”

      During a June 2018 interview with CNBC, Bush criticized Trump for going negative, saying that candidates must be civil with one another.

      “The kind of campaign [Trump] ran would have never been successful a decade ago or in the age of [Ronald] Reagan and Bush, for example,” said Bush.

      BEHIND THE BUDGET ‘GIMMICK’ THAT COULD HELP SECURE TRUMP’S BORDER WALL

      The ends don’t justify the means, Bush said, referring to the way Trump goes negative. “It’s not worth disparaging people.”

      Bush told Axelrod that Republicans need to “offer a compelling alternative” to Democratic ideas rather than just calling their ideas “bad.”

      So far, the only person to hint at challenging Trump for the 2020 GOP nomination is former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who formed an exploratory committee in February.

      CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jeb-bush-trump-should-be-challenged-by-a-republican-in-2020

      Ms. Ardern said that her government would discuss the New Zealand’s gun laws at a meeting on Monday.

      “There will be changes to our gun laws,” she said at an afternoon news conference.

      She also said she would look into reports that there had been a surge in gun sales in New Zealand since the attack on Friday.

      The shooting has vaulted New Zealand into what could be a divisive political battle over gun control in the country, where an extraordinary number of people own weapons, with few restrictions. The authorities say the suspect in the assault used five guns he had acquired legally, including two semiautomatic assault weapons.

      Within hours of the Friday killings, the prime minister promised changes to gun laws and said regulations of semiautomatic weapons were “one of the issues.” New Zealand’s attorney general, David Parker, appeared to go beyond that statement at a vigil for the victims on Saturday, indicating that semiautomatic weapons would be banned, but he later backtracked. Mr. Parker told Radio New Zealand that had been trying to reflect Ms. Ardern’s comments that “we need to ban some semiautomatics, perhaps all of them.”

      “Those decisions have yet to be taken, but the prime minister has signaled that we are going to look at that issue,” Mr. Parker told the broadcaster.

      Licensed New Zealand gun owners pushed back. The Kiwi Gun Blog, a gun-rights online publication, said that among the mosque shooter’s goals, one was “to cause the gun rights of responsible New Zealanders to be attacked.” It said “our prime minister is now capitulating with him.”

      There is no dispute that acquiring a military-style semiautomatic weapon is relatively easy in New Zealand, where guns are plentiful. According to a 2017 small arms survey, there are more than 1.2 million firearms among the population of 4.6 million.

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/asia/new-zealand-shooting.html

      Former Vice President Joe Biden was cheered Saturday by a crowd at the Delaware Democratic Party dinner where he said he has the “most progressive record of anybody running.” He quickly corrected himself and said, “anybody who would run” — and then added, “I didn’t mean it.”

      Biden is one of the last high-profile holdouts in the race for the Democratic nomination after former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke announced Thursday that he was running for president. Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told CBS News podcast “The Takeout” recently that Biden is “95 percent” ready to run for president and an announcement should be coming “in the coming weeks.” 

      Some of the Democrats who have already jumped into the race have highlighted their progressive records, especially Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. 

      Biden has faced criticism from the left-wing of the Democratic party, especially after he called Vice President Mike Pence a “decent guy.” He acknowledged in his speech Saturday that he gets criticized by the “new left,” but he said “we don’t treat the opposition as the enemy.”

      “We Democrats, we choose hope over fear, we choose unity over division, and we choose truth over lies,” Biden said. “Folks it’s still our century, we have to remember that.”

      Former Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the First State Democratic Dinner in Dover, Delaware, on Sat. March 16, 2019.

      Reuters


      Biden also repeatedly railed against President Trump for stoking division and anger.  

      “As Americans, we are much bigger than ourselves and this president snares at those values and thinks that we are weak, but he is wrong … it is these values that make our country strong and you can’t define any American by religion race or gender,” Biden said. 

      Biden, 76, has long been known for gaffes — in 2012, he said he was “absolutely comfortable” with legalizing gay marriage. The comment sent the White House scrambling since then-President Obama had yet to actually publicly declare his support, according to Jo Becker’s book “Forcing the Spring.” Mr. Obama said later that Biden had “got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit.”  

      Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-2020-delaware-democratic-party-dinner-speech-verbal-slip-2019-03-16/

      Meghan McCain had a sharp response for President Trump on Saturday after he posted an unflattering tweet about her late father, saying that late Sen. John McCain had “far worse ‘stains’” against him than reports that he’d helped share the infamous Russia dossier.

      Quoting former Independent Counsel Ken Starr, the president got the ball rolling when he tweeted about new reports involving Senator McCain. Those reports said that the senator and an associate had shared with the FBI and various media outlets the unverified dossier alleging that Moscow held compromising information on Trump.

      COURT FILES REVEAL ROLE OF MCCAIN, ASSOCIATE IN SPREADING ANTI-TRUMP DOSSIER

      “Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier ‘is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain.’ Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel,” Trump wrote.

      “He had far worse ‘stains’ than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace [of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act] after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!”

      Meghan McCain, bristling at the remark, fired back with her own Twitter post, in which she said that “no one will ever love you the way they loved my father.”

      MEGHAN MCCAIN DECRIES TRUMP’S INFLUENCE ON REPUBLICAN PARTY, PREFERS TO CALL HERSELF A CONSERVATIVE

      She continued: “I wish I had been given more Saturday’s with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine?”

      In a newly unsealed declaration from September, former senior counterintelligence FBI agent Bill Priestap confirmed that the FBI received a copy of the first 33 pages of the dossier in December 2016 from Senator McCain.

      McCain had denied being the source for BuzzFeed after it published the dossier, but acknowledged giving it to the FBI.

      CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      The filings were unsealed as part of an ongoing libel case against BuzzFeed by a Russian businessman.

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mccain-has-sharp-response-to-trumps-john-mccain-dossier-tweet

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      New York (CNN Business)Jeanine Pirro was off the air at Fox News on Saturday, one week after she was widely denounced for doubting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s patriotism.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/16/media/jeanine-pirro-fox-news/index.html

      HILLSBOROUGH, California (KTRK) — A homeowner is in trouble with the City of Hillsborough for decorating her home like a “modern stone age family,” inspired by The Flintstones.

      The home is complete with a dinosaur herd in front.

      The city has now filed a complaint saying no permits were filed to make modifications to the home, like landscaping and a “yabba dabba do” sign.

      The city is now demanding everything be taken down, calling it an eyesore.

      Source Article from https://abc13.com/community-events/homeowner-forced-to-take-down-flintstones-decor/5199166/

      “First of all, this is insanity,” said Mike Loder, a contributor to Kiwi Gun Blog. “We know why he did it. He did it in revenge for a Muslim killing people with a truck. It wasn’t about guns.” Mr. Loder was referring to the shooter’s own widely reported account of his radicalization.

      But compared with those in the United States, conversations about guns tend to be calmer and less ideological in New Zealand. Many New Zealanders seem eager to find some middle ground, with the latest round of arguments over the country’s gun laws inevitably being shaped by countervailing forces.

      On the one hand, with its current gun laws, New Zealand had one of the lowest murder rates in the world, as of a week ago. But the horrific bloodshed at the two mosques has clearly shaken what had been the country’s prevailing sense of safety.

      “We’ve lived in a utopia, but the world’s caught up with us,” said Chris Cahill, head of the Police Association, a union of police officers. “Our innocence is gone.”

      A shift may already be rippling through the country.

      On Sunday morning, Raymond Healey, 49, a member of the Christchurch Pistol Club, arrived at a local shooting range, hoping to get some time firing at targets. He was greeted with a white sign, painted in red capital letters: “range closed.”

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/world/asia/new-zealand-gun-laws.html

      “First of all, this is insanity,” said Mike Loder, a contributor to Kiwi Gun Blog. “We know why he did it. He did it in revenge for a Muslim killing people with a truck. It wasn’t about guns.” Mr. Loder was referring to the shooter’s own widely reported account of his radicalization.

      But compared with those in the United States, conversations about guns tend to be calmer and less ideological in New Zealand. Many New Zealanders seem eager to find some middle ground, with the latest round of arguments over the country’s gun laws inevitably being shaped by countervailing forces.

      On the one hand, with its current gun laws, New Zealand had one of the lowest murder rates in the world, as of a week ago. But the horrific bloodshed at the two mosques has clearly shaken what had been the country’s prevailing sense of safety.

      “We’ve lived in a utopia, but the world’s caught up with us,” said Chris Cahill, head of the Police Association, a union of police officers. “Our innocence is gone.”

      A shift may already be rippling through the country.

      On Sunday morning, Raymond Healey, 49, a member of the Christchurch Pistol Club, arrived at a local shooting range, hoping to get some time firing at targets. He was greeted with a white sign, painted in red capital letters: “range closed.”

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/world/asia/new-zealand-gun-laws.html

      Image copyright
      Reuters

      Image caption

      UN staff mourn colleagues during a ceremony at the crash site near Addis Ababa

      Ethiopian Airlines has offered the relatives of 157 victims of last Sunday’s Boeing 737 Max plane crash bags of scorched earth to bury in place of their loved ones, reports say.

      Earth from the crash site is being made available for a planned service in Addis Ababa on Sunday, Reuters reports.

      Families have been told it could take up to six months to identify remains.

      Countries across the world grounded the 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft after flight 302 crashed on 10 March.

      Ethiopia’s transport minister said on Saturday it may take “considerable time” for investigators to find the cause of the crash involving the new aeroplane.

      “An investigation of such magnitude requires a careful analysis and considerable time to come up with something concrete,” Dagmawit Moges told a press conference.

      Relatives of the passengers killed in the incident are being encouraged to provide DNA samples either in Addis Ababa or at any overseas offices of Ethiopian Airlines.

      Death certificates are expected to be issued in two weeks.

      Image copyright
      Reuters

      Image caption

      Candles burn for victims at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines crash days after the plane came down

      Families mourning the victims are being offered a 1kg (2.2lbs) bag of charred soil to bury as part of Sunday’s service in the Ethiopian capital, AP news agency reports.

      “The soil came as it became impossible to identify bodies and hand over remains to family members,” one family member reportedly said, adding: “We will not rest until we are given the real body or body parts of our loved ones.”

      Passengers from more than 30 countries were on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

      The Ethiopian investigation into the crash is being assisted by teams from around the world, including the US and France.

      The aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), or black boxes as they are often called, have been recovered and investigators are hoping they will shed light on the tragedy.

      Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47599654

      Image copyright
      Reuters

      Image caption

      UN staff mourn colleagues during a ceremony at the crash site near Addis Ababa

      Ethiopian Airlines has offered the relatives of 157 victims of last Sunday’s Boeing 737 Max plane crash bags of scorched earth to bury in place of their loved ones, reports say.

      Earth from the crash site is being made available for a planned service in Addis Ababa on Sunday, Reuters reports.

      Families have been told it could take up to six months to identify remains.

      Countries across the world grounded the 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft after flight 302 crashed on 10 March.

      Ethiopia’s transport minister said on Saturday it may take “considerable time” for investigators to find the cause of the crash involving the new aeroplane.

      “An investigation of such magnitude requires a careful analysis and considerable time to come up with something concrete,” Dagmawit Moges told a press conference.

      Relatives of the passengers killed in the incident are being encouraged to provide DNA samples either in Addis Ababa or at any overseas offices of Ethiopian Airlines.

      Death certificates are expected to be issued in two weeks.

      Image copyright
      Reuters

      Image caption

      Candles burn for victims at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines crash days after the plane came down

      Families mourning the victims are being offered a 1kg (2.2lbs) bag of charred soil to bury as part of Sunday’s service in the Ethiopian capital, AP news agency reports.

      “The soil came as it became impossible to identify bodies and hand over remains to family members,” one family member reportedly said, adding: “We will not rest until we are given the real body or body parts of our loved ones.”

      Passengers from more than 30 countries were on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

      The Ethiopian investigation into the crash is being assisted by teams from around the world, including the US and France.

      The aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), or black boxes as they are often called, have been recovered and investigators are hoping they will shed light on the tragedy.

      Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47599654