Xi Warned About Taiwan Interference But Don't Expect An Imminent Invasion Analysts Say
Xi Warned About Taiwan Interference — But Don't Expect An Imminent Invasion, Analysts Say https://digitalalaskanews.com/xi-warned-about-taiwan-interference-but-dont-expect-an-imminent-invasion-analysts-say/
China will continue to work toward becoming more self-reliant, but don’t expect President Xi Jinping to move on Taiwan by force, analysts said.
Their comments follow Xi’s speech at the opening of the Chinese communist party’s national congress on Sunday.
There were little surprises in Xi’s nearly two-hour speech where he outlined his vision for the country for the next five years, analysts said. Xi is widely expected to cement his leadership for an unprecedented third term during the week-long meeting.
There was, however, a key standout in Xi’s speech, said Dylan Loh, a professor in foreign policy and China expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. Unlike previous speeches, Xi made clear China had to brace itself for growing external challenges, Loh said.
Additionally, the Chinese leader’s call for the party to “build a socialist modern power by 2049” indicates “his determination to resist external pressures and steer China on the party’s own course,” said political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group.
Self-reliance
The importance of self-reliance was reinforced after Xi re-articulated the so-called “dual circulation” policy, Eswar Prasad, professor of international trade and economics at Cornell University told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
The dual circulation strategy first emerged in 2020 when a Chinese Politburo meeting called for more focus on domestic markets, or “internal circulation” to support China’s growth. The strategy involves placing less reliance on export-based or trade-related growth without abandoning it altogether.
In a nearly two-hour speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined his vision for the country for the next five years. The Chinese leader is widely expected to cement his leadership for an unprecedented third term during the week-long meeting.
Lintao Zhang | Getty Images News
“Certainly, Chinese leaders have been taking very careful note of what has been happening in the Ukraine war and what sort of chokehold the west has been able to put on Russia and of course, there is a sense of great power competition between the U.S. and China as well,” Prasad said.
“So this notion of self-reliance, especially in the context of technology … trying to become less dependent on the rest of the world, either for export markets or for technology or imports of any sort. That is clearly going to be a key pillar.”
Xi Jinping has made very clear what his intentions are: he wants a private sector that is controllable, that is manageable.
Eswar Prasad
Professor of International Trade & Economics, Cornell University
To get there, Prasad said Beijing’s control of China’s private sector would ramp up instead of heading toward the other end of the spectrum, that is, to allow for more market-oriented reforms.
He said Xi’s speech, consistent with Beijing’s comments in recent months, suggested the government viewed a more state-dominated economy as the pathway to stability.
“Xi Jinping has made very clear what his intentions are: he wants a private sector that is controllable, that is manageable.”
That strategy is well underway given Beijing’s intervention in the past with China’s educational and property sectors.
As such, there would likely be a reshuffle in Xi’s cabinet by the end of this week’s meeting, including possible changes at the People’s Bank of China, in addition to an expected replacement for Premier Li Keqiang who is due to retire in March, Prasad said.
But it wouldn’t matter who the new premier or cabinet members are as Xi has made it clear he will be pulling all the strings, according to Prasad.
China-Taiwan tensions
Other observers such as Bilahari Kausikan, former permanent secretary at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Xi is not be keen to take Taiwan by force, even though he said in his speech that China “will never promise to renounce the use of force.”
China sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and tensions between the two were inflamed recently when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visited the island in August despite warnings from Beijing.
“I really don’t think that the Chinese are very eager to start something to reunify Taiwan by force … because if you start that you must win,” Kausikan said.
“I don’t think any Chinese leader can survive a bungled attempt on Taiwan as Putin bungled Ukraine. And I don’t believe they have the capability yet.”
Read more about China from CNBC Pro
Lyle J. Morris, a senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, agreed.
“Xi is not signaling to the international community that he wants to invade Taiwan or that he’s running out of patience for political reconciliation,” he said pointing out that peaceful reunification was still the operative phrase Xi used.
“He did reference external forces very early on in the speech, so clearly the factor of the US is front and center in his mind.
Sticking to China’s zero-Covid policy
Asked if he was surprised Xi stayed firm on China’s zero-Covid policies to the despair of businesses that are hoping the country will reopen, Bilahari said Xi was driven by party and political logic which are secondary to economic logic.
“To abruptly abandon it would be to admit that it was a mistake … it will be unwound gradually over the next year or two without ever admitting that it has failed,” Bilahari told CNBC.
Loh from Singapore’s NTU said that sticking to zero-Covid policies had other practicalities. The Chinese medical infrastructure needs to be reformed before it can cope with a higher number of infections.
“The easiest, quickest and in some ways, surest, method to prevent deaths from Covid from spiralling out of control is the zero-Covid policy. I do expect some tweaks at the implementation level but probably nothing beyond,” he said.
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Trump Slightly Ahead Of Biden In New York Times Poll Armenia News
Trump Slightly Ahead Of Biden In New York Times Poll – Armenia News https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-slightly-ahead-of-biden-in-new-york-times-poll-armenia-news/
Trump slightly ahead of Biden in New York Times poll Armenia News
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The United States Is Gearing Up For Midterm Elections. What Are They And Whats At Stake? | Politics
The United States Is Gearing Up For Midterm Elections. What Are They And What’s At Stake? | Politics https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-united-states-is-gearing-up-for-midterm-elections-what-are-they-and-whats-at-stake-politics/
PTI | Washington DC | Updated: 18-10-2022 11:42 IST | Created: 18-10-2022 11:40 IST
Midterm elections in the United States elect the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and thousands of state legislative and executive offices. For all their magnitude and importance, these elections attract far less attention than presidential elections and have much lower turnout.
But the November 8 2022 midterms, taking place in one of the most closely divided Congresses in history, could have far-reaching consequences.
What could happen in the elections? Democrats currently hold the House of Representatives by a margin of just 10 seats out of 435. This is the narrowest House majority since 1955. They have no majority at all in the Senate, which is split 50-50, relying on the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
This makes it historically unlikely that the Democrats will hold on to the House. Since the Civil War, the president’s party has lost seats at every midterm election except for 1934 (the Great Depression), 1998 (Bill Clinton’s impeachment) and 2002 (the first election after the September 11 terrorist attacks). Republicans only need to gain five seats to take the House. This outcome is widely expected but far from certain, and Democrats can take some comfort from some encouraging results in special elections earlier in the year.
The Senate could be more favourable to Democrats, despite Republicans needing just one seat to flip it. Because only a third of Senate seats are contested at each election, one party often needs to defend far more of its seats than the other. This year Republicans are defending 20 seats compared to the Democrats’ 14, and a lot of these races are extremely close.
Under these circumstances, some forecasts slightly favour Democrats to retain control of the Senate. But given the tightness of key races, it could well come down to contingencies that are hard to predict.
What are the main issues for voters? Each party wants voters to focus on different sets of issues. For Republicans, the job is straightforward. Voters often treat midterm elections as a referendum on the president, even though the president is not on the ballot. While Biden’s approval ratings have recovered somewhat this year, they are still in the low 40s, a historically bad sign for the president’s party.
Inflation has dominated economic news for the last year and now there is talk of a recession. Republicans have harnessed increasing disquiet over crime, asylum seekers at the southern border and pandemic school closures. With such advantageous conditions for Republicans, commentators as recently as June were predicting a “red wave” election that would wipe out Democrats in both houses.
But developments over the American summer shifted the focus away from these problems. In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the almost 50-year-old ruling protecting abortion rights across the United States. Republican legislators in some states quickly enacted new laws restricting or banning abortion, while Democrats initiated legislation in other states to protect rights that many had taken for granted.
There was little doubt that politically, the abortion issue helped Democrats as Republicans staked out increasingly extreme positions. A ballot initiative in Kansas, usually seen as a reliably “red” state, saw 59% of the population vote to keep the state’s constitutional protection for abortion.
The Supreme Court’s decision reflected the conservative super-majority installed by former President Donald Trump, and brightened the spotlight Democrats were already shining on the former president. The House Select Committee’s hearings into the January 6 riots, which are continuing, had a peak of just over 20 million TV viewers in June. They were presented with graphic and moving evidence of Trump’s culpability in the violence.
In August, an NBC News poll found 21% of Americans rated “threats to democracy” as the most important issue in the midterm elections, compared to 16% saying cost of living issues and 14% saying jobs and the economy.
It is hard to maintain the kind of attention these issues got over the summer. More recent polling suggests that economic issues have once again become the central focus of attention, which will hurt Democrats. Republican candidates have quietly toned down their opposition to abortion and removed endorsements from Trump from their campaign websites.
The impact of midterm elections Biden has found it hard enough to advance a legislative agenda even with unified Democratic control of Congress. If Democrats lose either house, it will make almost any further major legislation essentially impossible because of the veto power of both houses and the president.
If Republicans win the House of Representatives, they will quickly put an end to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot. As Democrats move to subpoena Trump himself as part of that investigation, Republicans are planning retaliatory investigations and subpoenas. Kevin McCarthy, the likely speaker of a Republican-controlled House, has already threatened that the House would investigate Attorney-General Merrick Garland over the August FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence. Numerous Republicans have said they should impeach Biden. The president will also be concerned that a majority Republican House might reduce military aid to Ukraine.
If Republicans win the Senate, Biden will face a lot of problems making appointments that need to be confirmed by the Senate. In particular, he will probably lose any chance of making another appointment to the Supreme Court. The last time a Republican-majority Senate confirmed a Democratic President’s Supreme Court nominee was in 1895.
But the most significant consequences could be for the next presidential election in 2024. Trump has continued to claim that the 2020 election was fraudulently “stolen” from him, and hundreds of Republican candidates across the 2022 midterms have echoed these claims. This was how many of them secured Trump’s endorsement, and their nominations. Some of these candidates are seeking statewide positions that could give them immense influence over the 2024 elections, especially the offices of governor and secretary of state, which have ultimate responsibility for certifying election results in most states.
Much to Trump’s chagrin, no governor or secretary of state refused to certify the 2020 election results, despite the pressure he applied to them. But this year’s Republican candidates in key swing states include Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano, who attended Trump’s January 6 rally and supported efforts to overturn the state’s election results in 2020, Arizona’s Kari Lake, who has said she would not have certified her state’s 2020 result, and Nevada’s Jim Marchant, who plans to lead a coalition of “America first secretary of state candidates” to get Trump elected in 2024.
Even state legislative races in the 2022 midterms could have huge implications for the 2024 elections. The Supreme Court will soon hear a case that could dramatically expand the power of state legislatures in elections. It could remove the ability of state courts to review electoral boundaries and electoral rules set by legislatures, even if those conflict with state constitutions. Republicans currently have unified legislative control over states that account for 307 out of 538 electoral college votes, a number that could expand or shrink this election.
These mid-terms show that no election in America is a discrete contest. State elections shape national elections. The institutional power that this year’s elections confer has major consequences for future elections. Although neither Biden nor Trump are on the ballot this year, they will be in voters’ minds as they go to the polls.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Australia Reverses Decision To Recognise West Jerusalem As Israeli Capital
Australia Reverses Decision To Recognise West Jerusalem As Israeli Capital https://digitalalaskanews.com/australia-reverses-decision-to-recognise-west-jerusalem-as-israeli-capital/
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
The status of Jerusalem is a contentious issue
By Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
Australia has reversed a decision made four years ago to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Canberra’s decision in 2018 had undermined peace and put Australia out of step with other nations, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
She stressed that Australia remained a “steadfast friend” to Israel. Its embassy will stay in Tel Aviv.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contested issues between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel’s foreign ministry has expressed its “deep disappointment” at Australia’s decision and will summon its ambassador, Israeli media reported.
Former US President Donald Trump drew international criticism in 2017 when he reversed decades of American foreign policy by recognising the ancient city as Israel’s capital. The US embassy was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018.
Months later, Australia’s then Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his government would follow suit.
At the time, Mr Morrison said Australia would recognise West Jerusalem immediately but not move its embassy from Tel Aviv until a peace settlement was achieved.
Mr Morrison’s government lost power in an election in May this year.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the former government’s decision a “cynical play” to win over Jewish voters ahead of an election in Australia.
“I regret that Mr Morrison’s decision to play politics resulted in Australia’s shifting position, and the distress these shifts have caused to many people in the Australian community who care deeply about this issue,” she said.
She reaffirmed the country’s “previous and longstanding” position that the status of Jerusalem should be resolved as part of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people.
The UK is currently considering moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Honduras, Guatemala and Kosovo are the only countries other than the US with embassies in the city.
Israel regards Jerusalem as its “eternal and undivided” capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem – occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war – as the capital of a future state.
The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and according to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.
You may also be interested in:
Media caption,
Why the ancient city of Jerusalem is so important
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Democrats Who Flipped Congress In 2018 Face Hurdles In 2022
Democrats Who Flipped Congress In 2018 Face Hurdles In 2022 https://digitalalaskanews.com/democrats-who-flipped-congress-in-2018-face-hurdles-in-2022/
FILE – Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, speaks during a roundtable discussion at the Elite Octane ethanol plant Nov. 9, 2021, in Atlantic, Iowa. Moments after she flipped a longtime Republican congressional seat in 2018, Axne declared that “Washington doesn’t have our back and we deserve a heck of a lot better.” Now seeking a third term in one of the most competitive House races, Axne is sounding a similar tone, telling voters she’s delivered for Iowans “while Washington politicians bicker.” (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File) Charlie Neibergall AP
WASHINGTON
Moments after she flipped a longtime Republican congressional seat in 2018, Iowa Democrat Cindy Axne declared that “Washington doesn’t have our back and we deserve a heck of a lot better.”
Now seeking a third term in one of the most competitive House races, Axne is sounding a similar tone, telling voters she’s delivered for Iowans “while Washington politicians bicker.”
But Axne and other Democrats from the class of 2018 are campaigning in a much different political environment this year. The anxiety over Donald Trump’s presidency that their party harnessed to flip more than 40 seats and regain the House majority has eased. In its place is frustration about the economy under President Joe Biden.
And many districts that were once competitive have been redrawn by Republican-dominated state legislatures to become more friendly to the GOP.
“It was a very different world,” pollster John Zogby said of 2018. “Inflation’s now where we haven’t seen in 40 years and it affects everybody. And this is the party in power. With campaigns, you don’t get to say, ‘But it could have been’ or ’But look at what the other guy did.’”
Many swing-district Democrats elected four years ago were buoyed by college-educated, suburban voters, women and young people shunning Trump. That means many defeats for second-term House Democrats could be read as opposition to Trump no longer motivating voters in the same way — even though the former president could seek the White House again in 2024.
Trump continues to shape politics in a far more present sense, too. He’s dominated the national Republican Party despite spreading lies about 2020’s free and fair presidential election and now facing a House subpoena for helping incite the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol last year.
Tom Perez, who headed the Democratic National Committee from 2017 until 2021, noted that midterm cycles are historically tough for the president’s party and that — plus grim U.S. economic news — would normally raise the question “are Democrats going to get shellacked?”
Instead, Perez thinks many of the toughest congressional races remain close because of the strength of Democrats elected four years ago.
“All these folks from the Class of ’18, what they have in common is they’re really incredibly competent, accomplished and they’ve earned the trust of voters in their districts across the ideological spectrum,” said Perez, co-chair of the super PAC American Bridge 21st Century. “That, to me, is why we have a chance here, not withstanding the headwinds of the moment, is that incredible combination of candidate quality contrasted with the extreme views of the people who are running against them.”
In all, 66 new Democrats won House races in 2018, flipping 41 Republican seats. Their party gave back many of those gains in 2020, with Republicans taking 14 new seats. Those GOP victories included defeating a dozen Democrats elected to the House for the first time the previous cycle.
The Democratic House losses were overshadowed by Biden beating Trump. But this time, the ranks of the 2018 Democratic House class further dwindling may draw more attention — especially if it helps the GOP gain the net five seats it needs to reclaim the chamber’s majority.
In addition to Axne, Democrats who may be vulnerable include Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Tom Malinowski of New Jersey and Elaine Luria of Virginia. Another Virginia Democrat, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, as well as Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Angie Craig of Minnesota and Sharice Davids of Kansas all also may face tough reelections.
“The question is, is it going to have similarities to ’18 or not in the sense of democracy being on the ballot and a reaction to Trump,” former California Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda, who was elected in 2018 but narrowly lost his reelection bid, said of next month’s election. “Based on polling and the primaries, it doesn’t seem like the voting public is holding Republicans responsible for the Big Lie.”
Perez is more sanguine: “The midterm election is supposed to be a referendum on the president, but Donald Trump continues to inject himself” into the nation’s politics.
House turnover is common among both parties. By early 2018, almost half of the 87 House Republicans newly elected when their party took control of the chamber during the 2010 tea party surge were gone. More lost that November.
Still, the 2018 class was notable as the largest influx of first-year House Democrats in four-plus decades, and the chamber’s youngest and most diverse ever.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said 2018 was also the largest class of new women elected to the House since 1992, with 35 Democrats and one Republican. But 2020 also saw 28 new women elected to Congress, and some were Republicans who defeated Democrats who’d won for the first time the last cycle.
“We had a couple of very strong years in a row, one for Democrats and one for Republicans,” Walsh said of women in the House. She said that means that even if the 2018 House Democratic class gets smaller this year, ”I would not look at one election cycle and say the face of Congress is going back to old, white men.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have 32 Hispanic nominees and 23 Black nominees running for the House this cycle — both party records. They say their chances of winning the chamber’s majority are built more on high inflation and crime rates rising in some places than Trump or last year’s insurrection.
“We have a choice between commonsense and crazy,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “And Americans will vote for Republicans up and down the ballot as a result.”
The Democrats’ 2018 House class won’t dissolve completely. Some incumbents are seeking reelection in safely blue districts, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Lucy McBath of Georgia and Colin Allred of Texas, who was the class’ co-president.
Democratic Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens, the other co-president, beat fellow 2018 Democratic House class member Andy Levin when the two incumbents squared off in this year’s Democratic primary based on their state’s new map.
One Democratic 2018 House class member ousted in 2020, former New York Rep. Max Rose, is now running to get back to Congress. Another member, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, has since become a Republican.
Former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman was a Republican elected in 2018 but lost his 2020 GOP primary. Riggleman is now appearing in a TV ad praising Spanberger.
“She’s trying to change Congress and make it work,” Riggleman says in the ad. “She puts country first.”
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AP News Summary At 12:12 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1212-a-m-edt/
Suicide drones strike fear in Ukraine’s capital, killing 4
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones have struck Ukraine’s capital, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them. The attack sent people scurrying for shelter and came a week after Russia unleashed its most widespread strikes against the country in months. Authorities said four people died. One drone struck a residential building. Energy facilities were also hit by the drones, which appeared to include Iranian-made Shaheds. Separately, Moscow authorities said a Russian Su-34 warplane crashed in a residential area in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, after an engine failure during takeoff, killing four people on the ground, injuring 25 and setting an apartment building ablaze. Officials said both crewmembers bailed out safely.
Democrats who flipped Congress in 2018 face hurdles in 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day in 2018 saw Democrats flip more than 40 seats to regain the House majority. Anxiety over Donald Trump’s presidency was a major reason for the strong Democratic showing. But those Democrats elected four years ago are campaigning in a much different political environment this year, with Trump out of office and voters concerned about the economy and crime. Plus, many districts that were once competitive have been redrawn by Republican-dominated state legislatures to become more friendly to the GOP. Those changes are leaving several Democrats in the Class of 2018 facing tough reelections.
Small town in southern Mexico hosts thousands of migrants
MEXICO CITY (AP) — As migrants, especially Venezuelans, struggle to come to terms with a new U.S. policy discouraging border crossings, one small town in southern Mexico is unexpectedly playing host to thousands of migrants camped far from the U.S. border. San Pedro Tapanatepec had 7,000 migrants, about 75% Venezuelans, when The Associated Press visited at the beginning of October. By Monday, Mayor Humberto Parrazales estimated the number had grown to 14,000. While many Venezuelans had planned to make their way to the U.S. border, the new U.S. policy says border crossers will simply be expelled. That leaves many camped out in the temporary tent shelters wondering what they’ll do next.
Student loan forgiveness application website goes live
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has officially kicked off the application process for his student debt cancellation program. He announced Monday that 8 million borrowers had already applied for loan relief during the federal government’s soft launch period over the weekend. Biden is encouraging the tens of millions eligible for potential relief to visit studentaid.gov and touting the application form, which he says will take less than five minutes to complete. He says an early, “beta launch” version of the online form released late Friday handled the early stream of applications “without a glitch or any difficulty.”
House panel: Trump’s bills to Secret Service ‘exorbitant’
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times — including two charges for more than $1,100 per room, per night. That is according to documents released Monday by a congressional committee investigating the former president. The House Oversight Committee said the Secret Service was charged more than $800 per night at least 11 times by his properties. The Trump Organization denied anything improper. It said it provided rooms to the Secret Service at cost or deep discount, adding that its business did not profit at all from the presidency.
US businesses propose hiding trade data used to trace abuse
A group of major U.S. businesses wants the government to hide key import data — a move trade experts say would make it more difficult for Americans to link the products they buy to labor abuse overseas. The proposal obtained by The Associated Press was made by an advisory panel comprised of executives from 20 companies, including Walmart, General Motors and Intel. If adopted, it would shroud in secrecy customs data on ocean-going freight responsible for about half of the $2.7 trillion in goods entering the U.S. every year. Human rights activists say it flies in the face of government commitments to be more transparent on trade.
Mike Lee tries to distance himself from Trump in Utah debate
OREM, Utah (AP) — U.S. Senator Mike Lee has used a debate with his challenger Monday evening to try to draw a distinction between his record and former President Donald Trump’s. Lee is locked in a competitive race against independent Evan McMullin, hoping to win a third-term representing Utah in the U.S. Senate. The race has taken shape as a referendum on the direction Trump has taken the GOP. McMullin is attempting to harness anti-Trump sentiment, while Lee is attacking the direction President Joe Biden has taken the nation. Lee’s last minute efforts to put space between his voting record and Trump’s stances depart from his past messaging as the election nears.
UK leader in peril after Treasury chief axes ‘Trussonomics’
LONDON (AP) — New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping “almost all” the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
Australia drops recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has reversed a previous government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the center-left Labor Party government Cabinet agreed to again recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and reaffirmed that Jerusalem’s status must be resolved in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The former conservative government’s decision in 2018 followed a U.S. decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government was elected out of office in May after nine years in power.
North Carolina No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball
North Carolina is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll. The national runner-up from last season returns four of five starters and received 47 of 62 first-place votes. Gonzaga is No. 2, followed by Houston and Kentucky. Kansas and Baylor, the last two national champions, are tied for fifth. Duke, led by new coach Jon Scheyer, is seventh with UCLA, Creighton and Arkansas rounding out the top 10. The Big 12 and SEC lead the way with five teams apiece in the Top 25.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Man Fatally Struck By Train In Queens During Fight; Suspect In Custody | AmNewYork
Man Fatally Struck By Train In Queens During Fight; Suspect In Custody | AmNewYork https://digitalalaskanews.com/man-fatally-struck-by-train-in-queens-during-fight-suspect-in-custody-amnewyork/
Police investigate the death of a man who was struck and killed by a train in Queens on Oct. 17, 2022.
Photo by Dean Moses
A man was struck and killed by an oncoming subway train in Queens on Monday afternoon during an apparent dispute, police sources said.
Law enforcement sources said 48-year-old Heriberto Quintana of Jamaica, Queens had apparently wound up on the roadbed of the tracks and was hit by an arriving F train at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station at about 4:45 p.m. on Oct. 17.
Moments before being killed, according to authorities, Quintana had been engaged in an argument with an unidentified 50-year-old suspect that led to a physical struggle. Police apprehended the suspect, who was brought in for further questioning.
Meanwhile, the victim man was rushed by EMS units to nearby Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The incident snarled the Monday evening commute for thousands of riders at the station, which is serviced by the 7, E, F, M and R trains on weeknights. Disturbed by the incident, serval riders voiced their cocnern regarding what they feel is becoming a serious safety concern.
“My wife came back late the other night, past 12, I was upset. It is is dangerous now. I am a new Yorker and I don’t go out late anymore,” one straphanger told amNewYork Metro.
Queens commuters are blocked from entering part of the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway station on Oct. 17, 2022 after a person was struck and killed by a train there.Photo by Dean Moses
Forest Hills- and Jamaica-bound trains were forced to skip the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station while police investigated the scene, according to MTA New York City Transit. Visit mta.info for further information on service changes.
With reporting from Dean Moses.
This is a developing story; check back later for further updates.
Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox. Photo by Dean Moses
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2022 Candidate Interviews: Mike Shower KTNA 88.9 FM
2022 Candidate Interviews: Mike Shower – KTNA 88.9 FM https://digitalalaskanews.com/2022-candidate-interviews-mike-shower-ktna-88-9-fm/
October 17, 2022 | Phillip Manning
State Senator Mike Shower is running to retain his seat in the November 8th general election. Shower recently spoke with KTNA’s Phillip Manning about his time in the legislature thus far and why he believes voters should send him back to Juneau.
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Stock Markets Bounce After A Week Of Whiplash https://digitalalaskanews.com/stock-markets-bounce-after-a-week-of-whiplash/
Business|Stock Markets Bounce After a Week of Whiplash
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/business/stock-markets.html
The S&P 500 rose sharply on Monday after better-than-expected earnings at Bank of America and news of a radically revised tax plan in Britain.
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Stock markets shot upward on Monday, the latest in a series of wild swings, after several big financial institutions reported earnings that beat expectations.
Large day-to-day fluctuations have become more common in the stock market this month. The S&P 500 closed with a gain of 2.65 percent, reversing a fall of more than 2 percent on Friday, which itself came after a rise of more than 2 percent on Thursday. All 11 sectors of the S&P 500, which include groupings like technology, energy and real estate, were also up. The benchmark index has recorded six daily moves bigger than 2 percent this month, compared with only two in September.
The S&P remains down more than 22 percent since the beginning of the year.
The big shift in the markets on Monday came after Bank of America, the nation’s second-largest bank, reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations. Also lifting sentiment was news from Britain that Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tax plan, which had rattled markets, would be reversed.
Bank of America pointed to continued strength in consumer spending, echoing the earnings of other big banks at the end of last week. Its shares rose 6 percent. Charles Schwab and the Bank of New York Mellon also reported better-than-expected earnings.
Investors are keeping a close eye on companies reporting earnings this quarter to gauge whether big corporations are beginning to feel the effects of an economic downturn. This week, businesses including American Airlines, Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble are set to open their books, providing updates and forecasts for investors anxious about the path of the economy.
Our Coverage of the Investment World
The decline of the stock and bond markets this year has been painful, and it remains difficult to predict what is in store for the future.
A Bad Year for Bonds: This has been the most devastating time for bonds since at least 1926 — and maybe in centuries. But much of the damage is already behind us.
Discordant Views: Some investors just don’t see how the Federal Reserve can lower inflation without risking high unemployment. The Fed appears more optimistic.
Weathering the Storm: The rout in the stock and bond markets has been especially rough on people paying for college, retirement or a new home. Here is some advice.
College Savings: As the stock and bond markets wobble, 529 plans are taking a tumble. What’s a family to do? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but you have options.
The big gyrations in stocks lately haven’t always been about changes in fundamentals, like a strong earnings report, said Kristy Akullian, a senior iShares strategist at BlackRock. There’s a “technical element” too that’s driving the bigger-than-usual moves, she said.
“We’re actually seeing that whenever the market rallies a little bit, it tends to rally a lot.”
Yields on U.S. government bonds, a benchmark for borrowing costs, were largely unchanged. The yield on the two-year note inched lower, to 4.45 percent. The yield on the 10-year note was unchanged at 4.02 percent. Yields move inversely to prices.
In other markets, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, fell 0.3 percent, to $85 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, also fell 0.1 percent, to almost $92 a barrel.
London’s FTSE 100 closed with gains of 0.9 percent, the British pound strengthened and Britain’s government bond yields plunged after Jeremy Hunt, the newly installed chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on Monday more reversals of Ms. Truss’s plan for tax cuts funded by additional borrowing.
“At a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut,” Mr. Hunt said.
Last week, data showed that inflation in the United States did not cool down as much as economists had expected, a sign that the Federal Reserve would likely announce another substantial interest rate increase at its next meeting in November. That prospect, paired with a survey that showed an increase in consumers’ expectations for future inflation, had cast a shadow over markets.
“We think that this volatility is going to persist,” Ms. Akullian said. “Most likely until the end of the year and probably even past that until we have a little bit more of a concrete sense for what the Fed is going to be able to do.”
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Russia-Ukraine War Latest: What We Know On Day 237 Of The Invasion
Russia-Ukraine War Latest: What We Know On Day 237 Of The Invasion https://digitalalaskanews.com/russia-ukraine-war-latest-what-we-know-on-day-237-of-the-invasion/
Moscow stepped up attacks across Ukraine on Monday, killing four people and cutting off power in a series of kamikaze drone strikes in the capital. Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, said Russia launched five strikes in Kyiv, as well as attacks against energy facilities in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages.
Elsewhere, at least three people were killed when a Russian warplane crashed near the border with Ukraine. The plane struck a residential area of Yeysk, a town in southwestern Russia, news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry. Both pilots managed to eject before the crash, but many locals were taken to hospital with injuries, local authorities said. Health minister Mikhail Murashko said three people had died and 19 were injured, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The ministry of emergency situations had earlier given a toll of six dead. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Ukraine announced that more than 100 prisoners have been swapped with Russia in what it said was the first all-female exchange with Moscow after nearly eight months of war. “The more Russian prisoners we have, the sooner we will be able to free our heroes. Every Ukrainian soldier, every frontline commander should remember this,” Zelensky said.
In the south, Ukrainian troops have been pushing closer and closer to the large city of Kherson, just north of Crimea. Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Moscow recently claimed to have annexed.
Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the European Union to sanction Iran for providing Russia with kamikaze drones that killed at least four civilians in Kyiv on Monday.
Iran said again on Monday that it had not provided Russia with drones to use in Ukraine. “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it is circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc would look for “concrete evidence” about the participation of Iran in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The European Union has agreed to create a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers. It will also provide a further €500m to help buy weapons. An EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday approved the two-year training mission, which will involve different EU forces providing basic and specialist instruction to Ukrainian soldiers, in Poland and Germany. Officials hope the mission, which is expected to cost €107m, will be up and running by mid November.
Israeli officials refused to comment on comments from Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, that Tel Aviv is preparing to supply military aid to Ukraine. In a Telegram message on Monday, Medvedev, currently deputy chair of Russia’s security council, warned Israel against arming Kyiv, calling it a “a reckless move” that would “destroy relations between our countries”. Israel has tried to maintain a neutral stance, as it relies on Russia to facilitate its operations against Iranian-linked actors in Syria.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the former Russian state TV journalist who staged an on-air protest against the war in March, has fled the country, according to her lawyer.
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Alaska News Nightly: Monday, October 17, 2022 https://digitalalaskanews.com/alaska-news-nightly-monday-october-17-2022/
Youth keynote speaker Christianna Edwards receives a pair of beaded earrings from First Alaskans Institute indigenous innovations manager Gloria Wolfe. (Katie Anastas/Alaska Public Media)
Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly podcast.
Monday on Alaska News Nightly:
Troopers face criticism over their search of a missing man in Northwest Alaska. Also, for the first time in three years, the Elders and Youth Conference kicks off in person. And Wrangell’s cross country team wins the state championship.
Reports tonight from:
Sabine Poux in Kenai
Davis Hovey in Nome
Liz Ruskin and Chris Klint in Anchorage
Emily Schwing in Bethel
Angela Denning in Petersburg
and Sage Smiley in Wrangell
Alaska News Nightly is hosted by Casey Grove, with producing and audio engineering from Toben Shelby and Katie Anastas.
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Trump Administration Interfered With Federal Response To Covid-19
Trump Administration Interfered With Federal Response To Covid-19 https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-administration-interfered-with-federal-response-to-covid-19/
Washington: A US Congressional panel released a new report detailing efforts by the Trump administration to politicise federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis accused the White House under former US President Donald Trump of undermining “public health to benefit the former president’s political goals”.
Trump and his top aides repeatedly attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) scientists, compromised the agency’s public health guidance, and suppressed scientific reports in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus, Congressman James Clyburn, Chair of the panel, said in a statement.
“This prioritisation of politics, contempt for science, and refusal to follow the advice of public health experts harmed the nation’s ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus crisis and put Americans at risk,” Clyburn alleged.
The investigation uncovered that Trump’s appointees sought to influence CDC’s scientific reports — attempting to change the publication process, manipulate the content, or block the dissemination of at least 19 different reports that they deemed to be politically harmful to the administration.
The subcommittee has been investigating the Trump administration’s “political interference” across the federal government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic since June 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US has reported nearly 97 million Covid-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The CDC said a new Covid variant dubbed BQ.1 and a descendant called BQ.1.1 have gained traction in the US, accounting for 11.4 per cent of new cases across the country in the week ending October 15.
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October 17, 2020 Russia-Ukraine News | CNN https://digitalalaskanews.com/october-17-2020-russia-ukraine-news-cnn/
with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones, striking the country’s capital at least four times on Monday, Ukrainian officials say. CNN’s Clarissa Ward reports.” data-details=”” data-duration=”03:25″ data-editable=”settings” data-fave-thumbnails=”{“big”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/221017172031-kyiv-damage-ward-10-17-22.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”},”small”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/221017172031-kyiv-damage-ward-10-17-22.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”}}” data-featured-video=”true” data-headline=”CNN on scene in Kyiv after ‘kamikaze’ drones hit Ukrainian capital” data-live=”” data-medium-env=”prod” data-show-ads=”true” data-show-name=”” data-show-url=”” data-source=”CNN” data-uri=”archive.cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/h_6a73ee7c05b10c756191baad307ab1f8-h_fe56fc206dd98d247567dffee76d2720@published” data-video-id=”world/2022/10/17/russia-attacks-kyiv-clarissa-ward-ovn-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn” data-vr-video=””
CNN on scene in Kyiv after ‘kamikaze’ drones hit Ukrainian capital
03:25 – Source: CNN
At least four people were killed after Russia attacked Kyiv with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials. Among those killed were a pregnant woman and her husband, according to the city’s mayor.
Ukraine’s foreign minister called for sanctions against Iran at an EU meeting amid more attacks by Iranian-made drones. Tehran has denied supplying weapons to Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russian-backed authorities in the eastern Donetsk region exchanged more than 200 prisoners. The swap also featured a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian human rights officials.
Four people were killed and 25 others injured after a Russian fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the Russian city of Yeysk, officials said.
Our coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that the funding request the company had made to the Pentagon to start picking up the bill for satellite internet services for Ukraine has been withdrawn.
Musk’s announcement on Twitter followed an exclusive CNN report that SpaceX made a request to the Pentagon in September saying they were no longer able to donate the critical Starlink terminals or support the expensive accompanying service “for an indefinite period of time.” SpaceX asked the Pentagon to start paying for the service for the current terminals operated by the Ukrainian government as well as fund almost 8,000 new terminals and service for Ukraine’s military and intelligence services.
After the CNN report revealed the request and showed in greater detail that SpaceX is not solely responsible for Starlink access in Ukraine (in fact numerous international efforts funded much of it), Musk tweeted on Saturday: “To hell with it…even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding the Ukraine govt for free.”
Musk’s tweet on Monday went a bit farther, saying the step had been taken to rescind the request to the Defense Department.
CNN has asked the Pentagon if SpaceX has withdrawn its request for funding.
Two sources briefed on the discussions between SpaceX and the Pentagon told CNN that as of Friday, before Musk’s apparent about-face, the Pentagon had in fact agreed to the request from SpaceX to pay for ongoing service for Ukraine’s government and the new request from Ukraine’s commanding general.
To read more, click here.
Brittney Griner’s family and supporters are launching a #WeAreBG messaging campaign for the WNBA star’s 32nd birthday on Tuesday, which she will be spending in a Russian prison.
“I’ve felt every moment of the grueling seven months without her,” Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s wife, says in a video. “I want to thank President Biden for the Administration’s efforts to secure her release.”
The friends and family of Griner want to once again bring attention back to Griner’s wrongful detention. The US Embassy in Russia has not had consular access to Griner since early August, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week.
Griner has a hearing next week for the appeal of her prison sentence.
Some background: Earlier this month, Cherelle Griner said on CBS This Morning that she thinks it’s going to take Russian President Vladimir Putin to “have mercy” on her wife to get her home.
“I feel like at this point it’s going to take Putin to have that same mindset and say ‘You know what, Brittney Griner Z– who came to my country for seven, eight years, and helped my country be recognized through sport, paid taxes in my country, helped my country – I’m going to sit at a table, and I’m going to be clear about what I need in return for her release,’ so that we can actually get a meeting of the minds between these two governments,” she said.
The WNBA star was sentenced in August to nine years in a Russian jail for drug-smuggling. She turns 32 on Tuesday.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, left, meets with Tatyana Moskalkova, Russian Human Rights Commissioner, during an exchange of more than 200 prisoners of war.
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russian Human Rights Commissioner
In a first, Ukrainian and Russian human rights officials met Monday during a prisoner exchange between the two sides.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, met with Tatyana Moskalkova, Russian Human Rights Commissioner, during the swap of more than 200 prisoners of war.
Moskalkova posted video of the meeting on Telegram. It is unclear where exactly the exchange took place.
In the video, Lubinets and Moskalkova approach each other on a deserted highway, shake hands, and have a brief exchange.
“Today is the day that our civilian sailors will be coming home,” Moskalkova told Lubinets. “It’s also important that we ensure that safe corridors exist for our work with the evacuated. We have a Iot of questions, but the most important is returning all their documents to them. So that’s what I am coming to you today for, and I’m here to help in the case that an evacuee or refugee needs a specific document or confirmation of their identity.”
“It’s an important humanitarian aspect in terms of social rights,” she said.
Lubinets replied that “we are exchanging lists, and I request that you will work through it and be in touch on what’s possible.”
“Most importantly, we have activated the process of exchanging civilians of our countries. I’m sure that you want this as much as we do.”
Moskalkova said that “certainly everyone is interested in this path forward.”
In a summation of the meeting posted on Telegram, Moskalkova said that she “met for the first time with Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine Dmitry Valeryevich Lubinets. We had a constructive dialogue and agreed to continue working to ensure the proper treatment of prisoners, keep working for future exchanges, to protect the rights of civilians, and learn the fate of missing persons.”
Lubinets, on his Telegram account, said that “the need for negotiations is the humanitarian sphere.”
“In particular, we talked about the need to intensify the repatriation of prisoners of war and the release of civilian hostages,” he said.
He said that the two discussed, among other things, the need to “develop ways to visit prisoners of war, inspect places of their detention, both on the territory controlled by the Russian Federation and in Ukraine” and “thorough searches for missing persons.”
They also discussed Ukraine’s desire to visit prisoners of war held in Olenivka, which is in an occupied portion of the Donetsk region.
“At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to send official letters for the implementation of the discussed tasks involving the protection of human rights,” Lubinets said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed an exchange of more than 200 prisoners by Russia and Ukraine.
Among those released by Russian and pro-Russian forces, he said, were people who had been detained since before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February.
“We do not forget about any of our people,” he said. “We must return them all. And we will.”
“I thank all those involved for this success, and I also thank all those who replenish our exchange fund, who ensure the capture of the enemy,” he added.
A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Monday morning killed a woman who was 6 months pregnant and her husband, according to Kyiv’s mayor.
In reaction, President Volodymyr Zelensky said:
“The world can and must stop this terror,” Zelensky said. “When we talk about Ukraine’s need for air and missile defense, we are talking about real lives that are taken by terrorists.”
He said that though Ukraine has been successful in shooting down Iranian-made Shahed drones, it was not enough.
“In order to guarantee the protection of our skies and reduce to zero the capabilities of Russian terrorists, we need much more modern air defense systems and more missiles for such systems,” he added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine. While she would not say whether the Biden administration believes the war is entering a new phase, she did describe the last few weeks as an “escalation.”
“I’m not going to go into any analysis on where we are in this war, we have been very clear about how we — how we’ve been seeing Russia’s escalation over the past several weeks,” Jean-Pierre told CNN’s MJ Lee.
She also again noted that the administration is in daily contact with the Ukrainians and she pointed to the la...
Stock Futures Rise After Nasdaq Notches Best Day Since July
Stock Futures Rise After Nasdaq Notches Best Day Since July https://digitalalaskanews.com/stock-futures-rise-after-nasdaq-notches-best-day-since-july/
Stock futures rose Monday evening after the Nasdaq Composite posted its best daily performance since July.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 174 points or 0.58%. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.69% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.75%.
The moves came after a winning day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial Average popped about 550 points, coming off a volatile past week of trading. The S&P 500 also rose 2.65% for the day. The Nasdaq surged 3.43% as tech stocks rebounded, led by names such as Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. It was the best day for the tech-heavy index since July 27.
Solid earnings reports sent stocks higher. Bank of America rose 6.06% after delivering better than expected results, and Bank of New York Mellon gained 5.08% after its own earnings beat.
In addition, another pivot from the U.K. bolstered markets. Jeremy Hunt, the new U.K. finance minister, announced Monday that he would reverse nearly all announced tax cuts and walk back an energy subsidy.
Investors are watching for any sign that the stock market has bottomed and the new rally may be the start of a new bull cycle. Analysts aren’t so sure that the bottom is in, however, and many see more pain ahead.
“I think this is going to be one of those bear market rallies that has people scratching their heads,” said Guy Adami, director of advisor advocacy at Private Advisor Group in Morristown, New Jersey, on CNBC’s “Fast Money,” adding that markets are nowhere near out of the woods when it comes to the bear market.
More big bank earnings are on deck. Tuesday morning, Goldman Sachs will report its quarterly results. Johnson & Johnson, Netflix and United Airlines will also announce results that day. Later in the week, Tesla, IBM and American Airlines report.
CNBC Pro: Strategist predicts when the S&P 500 could bottom — and names 3 stocks he likes right now
Rob Luna, chief investment strategist at Surevest, says his firm has “started to witness individual stocks outperforming and showing signs of already bottoming.”
He predicts when the S&P 500‘s long-term move downward could turn, and names the stocks he thinks look attractive right now.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
Monday’s rally saw all sectors close more than 10% from 52-week highs
During Monday’s rally, all three major indices climbed and the Nasdaq posted its best day since July. It also closed more than 34% from its 52-week high, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 23% and 18% from their 52-week highs, respectively.
All sectors also closed more than 10% from their 52-week highs, led by communication services that was up more than 40% from the key level. Tech, consumer discretionary and real estate were all more than 32% from 52-week highs, while financials and materials were more than 22% from 52-week highs.
—Carmen Reinicke
Tuesday earnings on deck
Third quarter earnings season continues Tuesday, with a slew of companies reporting results before and after the bell. Here’s what companies are on deck for tomorrow.
Before the bell:
Goldman Sachs
Hasbro
Albertsons
Johnson & Johnson
After the bell:
Netflix
United Airlines
—Carmen Reinicke
Stock futures rise after Monday rally
Stock futures were higher Monday evening after stocks staged a rally in the regular trading session.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 161 points or 0.53%. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.58% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.59%.
—Carmen Reinicke
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What Was Said During The Debate Between Mike Lee And Evan McMullin?
What Was Said During The Debate Between Mike Lee And Evan McMullin? https://digitalalaskanews.com/what-was-said-during-the-debate-between-mike-lee-and-evan-mcmullin/
The U.S. Senate debate between incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee and independent Evan McMullin took place in front of a live audience at the Ragan Theater at Utah Valley University. It is the only scheduled debate between the two ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Ballots will start being mailed out Tuesday.
Doug Wright, a former KSL NewsRadio host, moderated the debate.
Following are highlights from the debate:
What is that one thing you would bring to Utah?
Sen. Mike Lee: “Stop excessive federal spending. … I’ve stood against my party time and time again to oppose reckless spending. I will do it again and again and again. We need people to say ‘no,’ because when Washington only wants to spend money, they’re spending it at your expense.”
Evan McMullin: “The reality is, we need to send people to Washington who are willing to stand up both to Republicans and Democrats in the White House who are guilty of reckless spending because the administration before Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s, was guilty of the same.”
Did Joe Biden fairly win the 2020 presidential election?
Mike Lee: “Yes, Joe Biden is our president. He was chosen in the only election that matters, the election held by the electoral college. It was on that basis that I voted to certify the election results. … As to whether there were errors, as to whether some states might have conducted their elections better than others, there’s always room for debate and questions about that.”
Evan McMullin: “Well I certainly think it’s important that we protect voter’s rights and we protect the peaceful transfer of power, Sen. Lee. But for you to talk about the importance of the electoral college, I think, is rich. I think you know exactly how important it is, and I think you knew how important it was when you sought to urge the White House that had lost an election to find fake electors to overturn the will of the people. Sen. Lee, that was the most egregious betrayal of our nation’s constitution in its history by a U.S. senator, I believe, and it will be your legacy.”
Sen. Mike Lee’s rebuttal: “Evan, that’s not true. You know that’s not true. You, sir, owe me an apology.”
How do you characterize the events that happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol?
Evan McMullin: “It was a violent insurrection with the intention of overturning the American Republic. … You told the president that you were working overtime — 14 hours a day, I think you said, — to unravel this for him. To keep a president who had been voted out of office according to the will of the people, in power, despite the will of the people. Sen. Lee, it is a betrayal of the American Republic.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “I think I disagree with everything my opponent just said including the words ‘but,’ ‘and’ and ‘the.’ It was an information-free, truth-free statement, that’s something of a record. There is absolutely nothing to the idea that I would have ever supported, ever did support the fake elector’s plot. Nothing. There’s not even a scintilla of evidence suggesting that. Yet you continue to insist that with a cavalier, reckless disregard for the truth. This is sad. This is troubling. It’s also entirely consistent with your adopted political party.”
Evan McMullin: “Sen. Lee, you know I’m not a Democrat. But you’re not worried about that. You’re worried about the fact that I’m an independent and that I’m building a cross-partisan coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents and members of third parties to replace you and to stand up to your broken politics …”
Sen. Mike Lee: “The words (of the Constitution) matter. I’ve followed the words. You distort the truth. And you should be ashamed.”
What solutions do you have for the student loan crisis?
Sen. Mike Lee: “The first and best thing that the federal government could with regards to student loans is get out of the student loan business. It has no business there.”
Evan McMullin: “I still think the federal government does have a role to play, especially for low-income students or for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford higher education, but it has contributed to inflation of the worst kind in higher education, and we have to reform that to bring prices down.”
Do you support continuing social security and medicare?
Evan McMullin: “I do. I believe that social security and medicare are important elements of our social fabric in America. I’ll work with anybody who wants to ensure our senior’s future. I think the biggest challenge right now is our fiscal irresponsibility in this country, and again I’m talking about both parties.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “We have seen the peril of putting this power in the federal government. … Yes we need to honor those things. And we also need to reform them to make it more difficult for Congress to raid seniors’ money.”
Who do you feel bears most of the responsibility for the higher prices?
Sen. Mike Lee: “(Milton Friedman) said in the United States of America, inflation has but one cause. It is federal spending. Reckless, excessive federal spending. … We thought it was too much cowbell before. They gave it 10 times the cowbell.”
Evan McMullin: “The job of a senator, especially representing our state, has to be to stand up to leaders of both parties, to Joe Biden and to Donald Trump. That’s what’s required, Sen. Lee, because both parties are spending recklessly.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “I called (Pres. Trump) out in public and in private, on a train, in the rain, with a fox in a box, every time I got the chance.”
How will each of you approach foreign policy in the Senate?
Sen. Mike Lee: “We need a Republican offset to a president who’s not all there, to a president for whom my opponent voted, a president who has been saber-rattling and speaking of Armageddon under circumstances that are deeply troubling to all of us.”
Evan McMullin: “We need to elect leaders and representatives of this freedom-loving state that will stand up to foreign dictators and not enable them. Sen. Lee, remarkably, you are the only member of Utah’s congressional delegation, he already knows where I’m going, not to be blacklisted by Vladimir Putin. It’s an incredible distinction.
“You know, there’s a reason why, It’s because in 2017, Sen. Lee was one of only two senators to vote against sanctioning Putin’s regime. Then in 2019, he went to Russia alone and discussed lifting sanctions with him. He has voted repeatedly against supporting Ukraine.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “I voted against the sanction bill because it was cobbled together in a piece of legislation with some progressive ideology. Perhaps you’re OK with that. I was not. I voted against it.
“As far as going to Russia, I went to Russia at the invitation of my friend, mentor and former boss Jon Huntsman, who was then the U.S. ambassador to Russia. I did so because I needed to stand up for religious freedom. We had had missionaries and other Americans imprisioned for their religious beliefs in Russia, and I found this unacceptable and that’s why I went there.
“As to why they haven’t blacklisted me, I don’t know. I’d love to be blacklisted there. I’ve been banned for life from China. I hope Russia will ban me next. But for you to suggest, as you have repeatedly, that I’m some sort of fan of Vladimir Putin is absolutely false and disgraceful.”
How are you thinking about the legal questions around abortion?
Evan McMullin: “I’m pro-life, and I’ve always believed in the sanctify of life. And I oppose the extremes on both sides of this issue. Those that are in favor of late-term abortion on-demand or those who would demand abortions without exceptions. I think that’s wrong. This issue is dividing our country unnecessarily. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “Now that it’s been returned to the states where it belongs, I believe that is where it belongs, and with a small handful of exceptions dealing with federal funding … this is where it should remain. Because it’s within the states that we can achieve the most consensus and protect the most babies.”
Read More Here
AP News Summary At 8:09 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-809-p-m-edt/
Suicide drones strike fear in Ukraine’s capital, killing 4
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones have struck Ukraine’s capital, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them. The attack sent people scurrying for shelter and came a week after Russia unleashed its most widespread strikes against the country in months. Authorities said four people died. One drone struck a residential building. Energy facilities were also hit by the drones, which appeared to include Iranian-made Shaheds. Separately, Moscow authorities said a Russian Su-34 warplane crashed in a residential area in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, after an engine failure during takeoff, killing four people on the ground, injuring 25 and setting an apartment building ablaze. Officials said both crewmembers bailed out safely.
UK leader in peril after Treasury chief axes ‘Trussonomics’
LONDON (AP) — New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping “almost all” the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
North Carolina No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball
North Carolina is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll. The national runner-up from last season returns four of five starters and received 47 of 62 first-place votes. Gonzaga is No. 2, followed by Houston and Kentucky. Kansas and Baylor, the last two national champions, are tied for fifth. Duke, led by new coach Jon Scheyer, is seventh with UCLA, Creighton and Arkansas rounding out the top 10. The Big 12 and SEC lead the way with five teams apiece in the Top 25.
Student loan forgiveness application website goes live
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has officially kicked off the application process for his student debt cancellation program. He announced Monday that 8 million borrowers had already applied for loan relief during the federal government’s soft launch period over the weekend. Biden is encouraging the tens of millions eligible for potential relief to visit studentaid.gov and touting the application form, which he says will take less than five minutes to complete. He says an early, “beta launch” version of the online form released late Friday handled the early stream of applications “without a glitch or any difficulty.”
House panel: Trump’s bills to Secret Service ‘exorbitant’
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times during his presidency — including two charges for more than $1,100 per room, per night. That is according to documents released Monday by a congressional committee investigating the former president. The House Oversight Committee said the Secret Service was charged more than $800 per night at least 11 times by his properties. The Trump Organization denied anything improper. It said it provided rooms to the Secret Service at cost or deep discount, adding that its business did not profit at all from the presidency.
US businesses propose hiding trade data used to trace abuse
A group of major U.S. businesses wants the government to hide key import data — a move trade experts say would make it more difficult for Americans to link the products they buy to labor abuse overseas. The proposal obtained by The Associated Press was made by an advisory panel comprised of executives from 20 companies, including Walmart, General Motors and Intel. If adopted, it would shroud in secrecy customs data on ocean-going freight responsible for about half of the $2.7 trillion in goods entering the U.S. every year. Human rights activists say it flies in the face of government commitments to be more transparent on trade.
Haiti calls for help at the UN as world mulls assistance
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Mexico say they are preparing a U.N. resolution that would authorize “an international assistance mission” to help improve security in crisis-wracked Haiti so desperately needed humanitarian aid can be delivered to millions in need. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council as thousands across Haiti organized protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The U.S. ambassador said the proposed “non-U.N.” mission would be limited in time and scope and be led by “a partner country” that was not named “with the deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective.”
Groups mobilize to help voters confronting new election laws
ATLANTA (AP) — Voters in Georgia, Texas and some other states are facing new hurdles to cast a ballot during the midterm elections under laws passed by Republican-led legislatures following President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud cost him reelection in 2020. The restrictions have prompted groups that assist voters to reorient themselves so they can avoid running afoul of new barriers. The groups anticipate confusion and conflict at the polls and are redoubling efforts to register and educate. The Brennan Center for Justice says lawmakers in 21 states have passed at least 42 restrictive laws since 2021. At least 33 of those laws are in effect for this year’s midterms.
Teary Kevin Spacey testifies of sex abuse claims: ‘Not true’
NEW YORK (AP) — A teary Kevin Spacey has testified in a New York courtroom that he never made a sexual pass at the actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp says Spacey put him on his bed after a 1986 party and laid on top of him when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey said Monday on the stand that those allegations are “not true.” Spacey said he met Rapp and aspiring actor John Barrowman backstage after a performance. Spacey testified that “Anthony Rapp seemed like a kid and John Barrowman seemed like a man.” Spacey’s account is backed up by a deposition by Barrowman.
How Michael Flynn goes local to spread Christian nationalism
VENICE, Fla. (AP) — Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is influential in the far-right Christian nationalist movement that has growing stature in the Republican Party. Flynn is making Sarasota County, Florida, a laboratory of sorts for his political agenda. Flynn’s slogan is “Local action equals national impact.” Flynn has energized local conservative activists through social media and public appearances. Flynn questions American democratic institutions, repeats lies about the 2020 election, attacks the news media and embraces conspiracy theories about COVID-19. One of the groups Flynn has welcomed into the fold is the violent extremist group the Proud Boys.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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The Day Democracy Died: A Timeline Of Events On January 6 2021 WFHB
The Day Democracy Died: A Timeline Of Events On January 6, 2021 – WFHB https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-day-democracy-died-a-timeline-of-events-on-january-6-2021-wfhb/
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“Stop the steal,”
“Hang Mike Pence,”
“Fight for Trump,” his loyal followers chanted as the world watched the events unfold in Washington, D.C.
The attempted insurrection occurred on the afternoon of January 6, 2021, following a “March to Save America” Rally hosted by the right-wing group Women for America First, (CNBC, Schwartz). The group got all the proper permits, expecting a crowd of 5000 people, but that number ballooned to tens of thousands when the attendees’ goals shifted from listening to fighting.
***
The riots that followed Trump’s appearance at the “March to Save America” rally were the result of months of baseless claims declaring the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged to falsely certify Joe Biden’s victory. The Trump campaign spent the previous 2 months vigorously objecting election results in key swing states to no success. This, however, did not stop the soon-to-be former President to prematurely declare victory.
TRUMP: We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said on Election Night to roaring applause.
Trump’s re-election campaign faced an uphill battle during his administration’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. The administration’s laissez-faire policies regarding Covid regulations assured the public the virus would disappear ‘like magic’, while deaths were multiplying across the country.
QUOTE: From the very beginning, that minimization … set a tone that reverberated from the highest levels of government to what the average person believes about the virus,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said END QUOTE (Lopez, 2020)
Trump’s approval rating was waning and declaring election fraud had worked for him in the past.
QUOTE: In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” END QUOTE, Trump said in 2016.
Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million (Krieg, 2016). Trump peddled election fraud in 2016 and was peddling it again in 2020. Following months of allegations by the President of ballot stuffing and vote dumping, the MITRI corporation found these claims were baseless and concluded voter fraud conspiracies were false (Durkee, Forbes, 2021).
QUOTE: The claim that Dominion machines artificially inflated results to Joseph Biden, Jr.’s advantage is not supported in the election results data,” END QUOTE the researchers wrote.
Donald Trump undermined the legitimacy of mail-in voting for months and his rhetoric permeated in the minds of his supporters. A December 2020 poll from Quinnipiac University found that 77% of Republicans believed in widespread fraud during the presidential election (Keating, 2020).
The lies spread by former-President Trump through misinformation campaigns and repeated by the Republican establishment created a powder keg of tensions in the United States. Major news outlets confirmed Joseph Biden as President-Elect after a tense counting cycle, but the saga of Trump is not over.
He still has an Ace up his sleeve.
His cult of personality.
***
On December 19, Trump tweeted his support for the “March to Save America” rally that he would speak at. Trump tweeted,
QUOTE: “Be there, will be wild!” END QUOTE (Petras, Loehrke, Padilla, Zarracina, Borresen, USA Today).
On January 3, an internal intelligence report circulated within the Capitol Police department detailed the need for increased security around the Capitol Building. The intelligence memo explicitly warned of the large group of pro-Trump supporters being partnered with white supremacist movements to target Congress itself.
QUOTE: The memo concluded that Jan. 6 was shaping up to potentially be a perfect storm of danger because of the size of the expected crowds, the urgency of the group’s mission, the call for demonstrators to bring lethal weapons, the location of the two largest protests in proximity to the Capitol grounds and the fact that ‘both have been promoted by President Trump himself,’ END QUOTE (Leonnig, 2021).
The report was not widely shared among law enforcement agencies, according to an FBI official. The Virginia office of the FBI explicitly warned of a caravan of extremists traveling to Washington.
Other notable speakers that were present at the “Save America” rally include members of Trump’s personal clique like his sons, Eric and Don Jr., along with his lawyer, former New-York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The keynote speakers at the rally backed up the President’s baseless claims of election fraud, with Giuliani going so far as to suggest that. . .
GIULIANI: Let’s have trial by combat! (Daily Mail)
. . . To determine the true election results
At 11:50 a.m., the President took the stage and delivered a speech full of rhetoric that threatened the integrity of American democracy. Across Constitution Avenue, about 2.5 miles away, Congress was meeting to certify the electoral results in a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
As Trump finished his speech at 1:10, he delivered a call to action that will live on as his legacy.
TRUMP: And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
Armed with assault rifles, plastic handcuffs, and Trump’s promises still fresh in their minds, the mob marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the Capitol where they were met by a Capitol Police barricade.
***
Capitol Police tried to contain the rioters, but as the angry hoard of Trump supporters swelled, police were forced to give up their positions. The violent scene quickly escalated as rioters surrounded police officers on their way to overrun the halls of the Capitol. Police outside were met with hostility.
QUOTE: They’re throwing metal poles at us,” an officer says. “Multiple law-enforcement injuries,” he adds in a panicked voice END QUOTE (BBC, 2021).
Soon after the rioters break past the police barricade and rush up the West stairs to Capitol, police issue an evacuation warning to surrounding federal buildings… but not the Congress in session. As protesters scaled the walls of the Capitol Building, Vice President Pence was rushed away from the session. Soon after, Members of Congress were instructed to evacuate the chamber.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution. . . USA demands the truth!” Trump tweeted shortly after. (Petras, Loehrke, Padilla, Zarracina, Borresen, USA Today, 2021).
When insurrectionists breached the Capitol and overran police backup, their goal was to disrupt the counting of electoral votes. Their reasoning was to stop the perceived stolen election from being certified and would do anything to achieve that goal, including the assassination of prominent Democratic leaders.
RIOTERS: Knock, knock. . . we’re here.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York shared her testimony on Instagram Live weeks after the attempted insurrection. She says she didn’t feel safe sharing an extraction point with GOP colleagues, fearing they would lead rioters to her location.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: . . .This is the moment where I thought everything was over,
She managed to hide in an office with another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) for five hours during the coup.
Ocasio-Cortez disclosed that she is a victim of sexual assault and accused Republican lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) of attempting to downplay the seriousness of the riots like abusers who attempt to discredit and silence victims.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: These folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the same tactics of abusers. And I’m a survivor of sexual assault,” she said (Peiser, Washington Post).
An estimated 140 people were injured during the attempted insurrection and the official death toll of the event was five individuals. The total number of insurrectionists charged for their involvement in the event is up to 900, with more being charged every day.
LEON PANETTA: I can think of no greater failure by a commander in chief than to allow this kind of disturbance to continue, and not stop it,” Leon Panetta, former U.S. Defense secretary said.
Insider has a searchable list of people with charges relating to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
USEFUL LINKS:
https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. “Opinion: Trump’s Big Lie Wouldn’t Have Worked without His Thousands of Little Lies.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Jan. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/opinions/big-lie-ben-ghiat/index.html.
Durkee, Alison. “’No Evidence’ Of Election Fraud In Battleground States, Statistical Analysis Finds As Trump Continues False Claims.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/02/19/no-evidence-of-election-fraud-in-battleground-states-statistical-analysis-finds-as-trump-continues-false-claims/?sh=2c3593303315.
Harrington, Rebecca, et al. “420 People Have Been Charged in the Capitol Insurrection so Far. This Searchable Table Shows Them All.” Insider, Insider, 16 Apr. 2021, www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1.
Keating, Christopher. “Quinnipiac Poll: 77% of Republicans Believe There Was Widespread Fraud in the Presidential Election; 60% Overall Consider Joe Biden’s Victory Legitimate.” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 10 Dec. 2020, www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-q-poll-republicans-believe-fraud-20201210-pcie3uqqvrhyvnt7geohhsyepe-story.html.
Krieg, Gregory. “It’s Officia...
Tightening New York Governor https://digitalalaskanews.com/tightening-new-york-governor/
NEW YORK — With just over three weeks until Election Day, the gloves are off in the tightening New York governor’s race between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin.
It’s turning into a bare-knuckle brawl. Republican challenger Zeldin is taking to the streets of New York to slam Hochul, while the well-funded Democratic governor is letting her commercials do the talking, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Monday.
CBS2 got the first look at Hochul’s seven-figure ad buy where she, not an announcer, takes the fight to her opponent.
“The stakes in this election couldn’t be higher. Lee Zeldin says he wants abortion outlawed, he’d repeal New York’s common sense gun laws, and he even voted to overturn the 2020 election. That’s who he is, but it’s not who we are as New Yorkers,” Hochul says in the ad.
Hochul is making full use of the powers of incumbency and a bulging campaign war chest to make her case to voters. The ad will start airing Tuesday around the state.
For the most part, Hochul has ignored her scrappy challenger, using the same strategy her hard-charging predecessor employed. She’s letting the powers of the office do the talking.
Monday, Hochul signed legislation to combat the theft of catalytic converters on Long Island, Zeldin’s home turf. She seemed unperturbed by a poll showing Zeldin slightly ahead there.
“I always run like I’m down 10 or 12 points. It focuses me on the issues,” said Hochul.
Tri-State voter guide: Nov. 8 General Election details and deadlines
For his part, Zeldin was at a subway station in the Bronx where another rider was pushed to the tracks. Zeldin demanded that Hochul abandon congestion pricing until rider experience improves. But it was also about calling the governor out.
“Kathy Hochul is a coward,” said Zeldin.
Zeldin was angry that the governor has agreed to only one debate on cable TV. But he also appeared frustrated about her so-called “Rose Garden strategy” of avoiding him by simply running the state.
“Kathy Hochul is out trying to crawl across the finish line. She’s trying to survive this election. I’m working as hard as I possibly can to do my part to save the state. Kathy Hochul is barely working to try to save Kathy Hochul,” said Zeldin.
But Zeldin seemed reluctant to embrace the enthusiastic endorsement he got over the weekend from former Pres. Donald Trump.
“What this race is about is about Lee Zeldin against Kathy Hochul deciding the future of New York state. It’s not about the former president,” said Zeldin.
Zeldin said he has no plans to campaign with Trump before Election Day. He dodged another question from Kramer asking if he will show up for the debate the governor agreed to.
In:
Lee Zeldin
Kathy Hochul
Marcia Kramer
Marcia Kramer joined CBS2 in 1990 as an investigative and political reporter. Prior to CBS2, she was the City Hall bureau chief at the New York Daily News.
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Russian Warplane Crashes In Residential Area Killing At Least 4 People And Igniting Massive Blaze
Russian Warplane Crashes In Residential Area, Killing At Least 4 People And Igniting Massive Blaze https://digitalalaskanews.com/russian-warplane-crashes-in-residential-area-killing-at-least-4-people-and-igniting-massive-blaze/
Russia launches deadly drone strikes on Kyiv
Russia launches deadly drone strikes on Kyiv 03:08
A Russian warplane crashed Monday into a residential area in a Russian city on the Sea of Azov after suffering engine failure, leaving at least four people dead, three of whom died when they jumped from upper floors of a nine-story apartment building to escape a massive blaze.
A Su-34 bomber came down in the port city of Yeysk after one of its engines caught fire during takeoff for a training mission, the Russian Defense Ministry said. It said both crew members bailed out safely, but the plane crashed into a residential area, causing a fire as tons of fuel exploded on impact.
Authorities said at least four residents were killed, six were missing and 25 others were injured, including eight people who were in grave condition.
Vice governor of the region, Anna Menkova, said three of the four victims died when they jumped from the upper floors of the building in a desperate attempt to escape the flames, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.
In this handout photo released by Kooperativ Telegram Channel, flames and smoke rise from the scene after a warplane crashed into a residential area in Yeysk, Russia, Oct. 17, 2022. One of the pilots, right, descends on a parachute. Kooperativ Telegram Channel via AP
The authorities reserved emergency rooms at local hospitals and scrambled medical aircraft. At least 17 apartments were affected by the fire, and 250 residents were evacuated and provided with temporary accommodations.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the crash and ordered the ministers of health and emergencies along with the local governor to head to the site. Yeysk, a city of 90,000, is home to a big Russian air base.
Several hours after the crash, regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that emergency services managed to contain the fire, making the evacuation of residents in adjacent buildings unnecessary.
Surveillance cam videos posted on Russian messaging app channels showed a plane exploding in a giant fireball. Other videos showed an apartment building engulfed by flames and loud bangs from apparent detonation of the warplane’s weapons.
A Russian warplane crashed in a residential area in the southern city of Yeysk, Russia, Oct. 17, 2022. Reuters/Stringer
Oksana, a local resident who declined to give her last name, told the AFP news service the area was cordoned off.
“There could be an explosion. Everything is burning inside. There is smoke,” she told AFP.
She said she was stuck in traffic when she heard the news.
“I’m in shock obviously. My child was alone at home. We already used to go to sleep with fear every day — Mariupol is just across from us,” she said.
The Su-34 is a supersonic twin-engine bomber equipped with sophisticated sensors and weapons that has been a key strike component of the Russian air force. The aircraft has seen wide use during the war in Syria and the fighting in Ukraine.
Monday’s accident marked the 10th reported non-combat crash of a Russian warplane since Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Military experts noted that as the number of military flights increased sharply during the fighting, so did the crashes.
AFP contributed reporting.
In:
War
Plane Crash
Russia
Vladimir Putin
Moscow
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More U.S. Companies Charging Employees For Job Training If They Quit
More U.S. Companies Charging Employees For Job Training If They Quit https://digitalalaskanews.com/more-u-s-companies-charging-employees-for-job-training-if-they-quit/
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked.
Not only was Bal a licensed esthetician with no need for instruction, she argued that the trainings were specific to the shop and low quality.
Bal’s story mirrors that of dozens of people and advocates in healthcare, trucking, retail and other industries who complained recently to U.S. regulators that some companies charge employees who quit large sums of money for training.
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Nearly 10% of American workers surveyed in 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute.
The practice, which critics call Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, or TRAPs, is drawing scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Sherrod Brown is studying legislative options with an eye toward introducing a bill next year to rein in the practice, a Senate Democratic aide said.
At the state level, attorneys general like Minnesota’s Keith Ellison are assessing how prevalent the practice is and could update guidance.
Ellison told Reuters he would be inclined to oppose reimbursement demands for job-specific instruction while it “could be different” if an employer wanted reimbursement for training for a certification like a commercial driving license that is widely recognized as valuable.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun reviewing the practice, while the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have received complaints about it.
The use of training agreements is growing even though unemployment is low, which presumably gives workers more power, said Jonathan Harris who teaches at the Loyola Law School Los Angeles.
“Employers are looking for ways to keep their workers from quitting without raising wages or improving working conditions,” said Harris.
The CFPB, which announced in June it was looking into the agreements, has begun to focus on how they may prevent even skilled employees with years of schooling, like nurses, from finding new, better jobs, according to a CFPB official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
“We have heard from workers and worker organizations that the products may be restricting worker mobility,” the official said.
TRAPs have been around in a small way since the late 1980s primarily in high-wage positions where workers received valuable training. But in recent years the agreements have become more widespread, said Loyola’s Harris.
Licensed esthetician Simran Bal, who was taken to court by her former employer to repay $1900 in trainings they required her to attend, poses for a portrait outside the King County District Court in Shoreline, Washington, U.S., October 13, 2022. Bal, whose case was dismissed, says she was already licensed for services the trainings covered. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
One critic of the CFPB effort was the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, which said the issue was outside the agency’s authority because it was unrelated to consumer financial products and services.
“(Some state governments) have authority to regulate employer-driven debt. CFPB should defer to those governments, which are closer to the people of the states than the CFPB,” it added.
NURSING AND TRUCKING
Bal said she was happy when she was hired by the Oh Sweet salon near Seattle in August 2021.
But she soon found that before she could provide services for clients, and earn more, she was required to attend trainings on such things as sugaring to remove unwanted hair and lash and brow maintenance.
But, she said, the salon owner was slow to schedule the trainings, which would sometimes be postponed or cancelled. They were also not informative; Bal described them as “introductory level.” While waiting to complete the training, Bal worked at the front desk, which paid less.
When she quit in October 2021, Bal received a bill for $1,900 for the instruction she did receive. “She was charging me for training for services that I was already licensed in,” said Bal.
Karina Villalta, who runs Oh Sweet LLC, filed a lawsuit in small claims court to recover the money. Court records provided by Bal show the case was dismissed in September by a judge who ruled that Bal did not complete the promised training and owed nothing. Villalta declined requests for comment.
In comments to the CFPB, National Nurses United said they did a survey that found that the agreements are “increasingly ubiquitous in the health care sector,” with new nurses often affected.
The survey found that 589 of the 1,698 nurses surveyed were required to take training programs and 326 of them were required to pay employers if they left before a certain time.
Many nurses said they were not told about the training repayment requirement before beginning work, and that classroom instruction often repeated what they learned in school.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in comments that training repayment demands were “particularly egregious” in commercial trucking. They said firms like CRST and C.R. England train people for a commercial drivers license but charge more than $6,000 if they leave the company before a certain time. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
The American Trucking Associations argues that the license is portable from one employer to another and required by the government. It urged the CFPB to not characterize it as employer-driven debt.
Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who spent six months training and then driving truck, said the issue deserved scrutiny.
“Anytime we have training contracts for low-skilled workers, we should be asking why,” he said. “If you have a good job, you don’t need a training contract. People are going to want to stay.”
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Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Diane Bartz
Thomson Reuters
Focused on U.S. antitrust as well as corporate regulation and legislation, with experience involving covering war in Bosnia, elections in Mexico and Nicaragua, as well as stories from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nigeria and Peru.
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House Panel: Trumps Bills To Secret Service exorbitant
House Panel: Trump’s Bills To Secret Service ‘exorbitant’ https://digitalalaskanews.com/house-panel-trumps-bills-to-secret-service-exorbitant/
By Bernard Condon | Associated Press
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times during his presidency, including two charges for more than $1,100 per room, per night, according to documents released Monday by a congressional committee.
The Secret Service was charged room rates of more than $800 per night at least 11 times when agents stayed at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., and other properties, the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee said. It noted that Trump made over 500 trips to his properties while president.
The “exorbitant” rates point to a possible “taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses,” Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney of New York wrote in a letter Monday to the Secret Service requesting more information.
The Secret Service said it had received the letter and was reviewing it.
The Trump Organization denied that the Secret Service charges were a problem and said it provided rooms and other services at cost, at big discounts or for free.
“The Trump Family is likely the first family in American history to have not profited off of the United States government,” said Eric Trump in a statement. He added, “President Trump funded the vast majority of his campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money and turned away billions of dollars in real estate deals worldwide.”
In total, the Trump Organization charged the agency responsible for protecting the president and his family at least $1.4 million, according to Secret Service records released by the committee. The committee said the total bill was likely higher because the panel only got records through September 2021 and payments for trips abroad were not included.
The former president has been repeatedly criticized by Democrats and government watchdogs for what they say were brazen attempts make money from taxpayer funds during his presidency.
In addition to money from the Secret Service when he and his family visited his clubs and hotels, Trump played host to foreign officials at his properties, also requiring lodging for accompanying agents. The president tried to arrange for his Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida to be chosen as the venue for a Group of Seven meeting of global leaders, only to pull back after an outcry of about self dealing.
Among the documents released Monday was a bill tied to 2017 trip by Trump’s oldest son, Don Jr., to the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House. That resulted in a Secret Service room charge of $1,185 per night, more than five times the government-approved per diem rate, the committee said, though the agency is allowed to make exceptions.
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Trump's Secret Service Bills 'exorbitant' https://digitalalaskanews.com/trumps-secret-service-bills-exorbitant/
Live
Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the US Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times during his presidency, including two charges for more than $US1100 ($A1750) a night, according to documents released by a congressional committee.
The Secret Service was charged room rates of more than $US800 a night at least 11 times when agents stayed at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the Trump hotel in Washington, DC, and other properties, the Democratic-led House oversight committee says.
It noted Trump made more than 500 trips to his properties while president.
The “exorbitant” rates point to a possible “taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses,” committee chair Carolyn Maloney of New York wrote in a letter on Monday to the Secret Service requesting more information.
The Secret Service said it had received the letter and was reviewing it.
The Trump Organization denied the Secret Service charges were a problem and said it provided rooms and other services at cost, at big discounts or for free.
“The Trump Family is likely the first family in American history to have not profited off of the United States government,” said Eric Trump in a statement.
“President Trump funded the vast majority of his campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money and turned away billions of dollars in real estate deals worldwide.”
In total, the Trump Organization charged the agency responsible for protecting the president and his family at least $US1.4 million, according to Secret Service records released by the committee.
The committee said the total bill was likely higher because the panel only got records through September 2021 and payments for trips abroad were not included.
The former president has been repeatedly criticised by Democrats and government watchdogs for what they say were brazen attempts make money from taxpayer funds during his presidency.
As well as money from the Secret Service when he and his family visited his clubs and hotels, Mr Trump played host to foreign officials at his properties, also requiring lodging for accompanying agents.
– AAP
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Trump Urged Jews To Get their Act Together On Day He Endorsed Zeldin
Trump Urged Jews To Get ‘their Act Together’ On Day He Endorsed Zeldin https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-urged-jews-to-get-their-act-together-on-day-he-endorsed-zeldin/
Shortly before wading into New York politics on Sunday by endorsing Rep. Lee Zeldin’s Republican run for governor, former President Donald Trump criticized American Jews, claiming they are insufficiently loyal to Israel.
“U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!” Trump wrote in a cryptic post on his Truth Social platform, deploying an anti-Semetic trope.
The post drew arched eyebrows, cast a shadow over his endorsement of Zeldin and continued to draw rebukes as the work week began Monday.
Former President Donald Trump (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat and the majority leader, said in a statement on Monday that it is “no surprise that a guy who aligns himself with hateful white nationalists says stupid and offensive things about Jewish Americans and Israel.”
“No matter the issue, Donald Trump only thinks of what’s in it for him and not what is best for the nation, the American people, or for that matter, the Jewish people,” added Schumer, who is Jewish.
And Dan Goldman, the Democratic nominee for a House district that spans lower Manhattan and much of Brooklyn, said in a statement that Trump’s “transactional treatment of American Jews is not only repugnant but also antisemitic.”
“Perhaps Trump should focus more on learning from Jewish values, which strongly reject criminally conspiring to overturn an election and stealing national security secrets,” Goldman, who is Jewish, said in the statement.
Asked about the post, Zeldin’s campaign said in a statement that the congressman is “honored to have the support of New Yorkers from all walks of life.”
“They’re sick and tired of the attacks on our wallets, safety, kids’ education and more, and they know it’s going to take a new generation of leadership to get the job done,” said the statement.
Zeldin, who is challenging Gov. Hochul, has served as a loyal ally of Trump and voted to overturn the 2020 election won by President Biden.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) is pictured during a press conference at the Po.rt Authority in Manhattan, New York on Aug. 15, 2022. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
The Long Island lawmaker joined a fund-raiser with Trump last month, but did not widely promote Trump’s endorsement through his press shop or social media channels, apparently wary of the former’s president’s dismal approval ratings in New York.
At a news conference in the Bronx on Monday, Zeldin said Trump’s endorsement “shouldn’t have been news.”
“He’s supported me before this weekend,” Zeldin said. “We’re getting support from people who are Republicans, who are Democrats, who are independents.”
Trump published his endorsement, which described Zeldin as a “great and brilliant lawyer,” about 22 minutes after issuing his missive about Jewish loyalty to Israel.
The post joined a series of remarks Trump has made suggesting he believes Jews should tie their faith to certain political preferences.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
He has said any Jewish American who votes for a Democrat displays “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty” and has described Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before an audience of American Jews as “your prime minister.”
A spokeswoman for Trump, Liz Harrington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
[ Trump returns to center stage in New York governor’s race as Zeldin welcomes ex-prez at fund-raiser ]
The Sunday post arrived after Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, faced restrictions on his Twitter and Instagram accounts over anti-Semetic comments. West moved Monday to buy Parler, a conservative social media platform that has drawn fans of Trump.
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Hargraves Recognized For Second Time As NAHL Star Of The Week
Hargraves Recognized For Second Time As NAHL Star Of The Week https://digitalalaskanews.com/hargraves-recognized-for-second-time-as-nahl-star-of-the-week/
Staff report
Oct 17, 2022
1 hr ago
Kayden Hargraves blocked 74 of 79 shots he faced during a two-game sweep of Kenai River.
The Monroe Catholic Lady Rams basketball team went defeated and took first place in the regional tournament in Valdez, propelling them to the state competition in Anchorage. The All Tournament team was Shannel Kovalsky, Sophia Stepovich and Miranda Wilkerson, with All Conference MVP awarded …
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