news wireline

Seven Democratic presidential candidates are meeting in South Carolina Tuesday night to try to convince voters there to support them days before the fourth primary or caucus in the nation. Billionaire Tom Steyer qualified for the debate after missing last weeks event in Nevada. The 62-year-old businessman had supported early efforts to impeach President Donald Trump. Hell join six candidates on stage: former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78; former Vice President Joe Biden, 77; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 78; former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 70; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), 59. Check back for updates. Sanders Would Study Moving US Embassy Back to Tel Aviv Sanders says he would study the issue of relocating the American Embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem but wouldnt commit to commanding the change. The Vermont senator said during Tuesday nights debate in Charleston, South Carolina, that he is “very proud..

Attorney General William Barr met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday to convince them to support an expiring surveillance law, while telling them that he wants to make internal reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process. Several GOP senators told reporters after a private caucus lunch that Barr was looking at steps to reform the FISA warrant application process internally to tighten standards on obtaining a warrant. The FISA warrant application process is at the center of a damning report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page during the 2016 presidential election. The report, released on Dec. 9, 2019, concluded that the applications for FISA warrants on Page included 17 significant errors or omissions. Horowitz faulted the entire chain of command involved in the FBI investigation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill that Barr went over “his recommendations an..

Amid questions over Russian interference in the 2020 election and the Democratic primary, President Donald Trump said he has not received any help from Russia and doesnt want any assistance from foreign powers during his reelection bid. “First of all, I want no help from any country, and I havent been given help from any country,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. The White House and Trump over the weekend responded to news reports citing anonymous sources that the Kremlin is again waging a disinformation campaign to get Trump reelected, and later, other reports claimed Russia is also trying to secure Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders election. Those reports were based on a House Intelligence Committee briefing from a Trump administration official earlier this month. During a news conference in India, Trump said in a press conference that “somebody leaked it in intelligence, but nobody ever told me that.” Pointing to his national security adviser, Robert OBrien, the president then sa..

President Donald Trump said Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg should recuse themselves from any cases that involve Trump-related matters, citing statements they have made about him or his administration. “I just dont know how they can not recuse themselves for anything having to do with Trump,” he said at a Feb. 25 press availability during his trip to New Delhi. Sotomayor Comments Regarding Sotomayor, Trump was referring to her Feb. 21 dissenting opinion, in which she made a remark that at least some people interpreted as political. She criticized the countrys highest court for recently overruling a number of lower-court decisions that blocked Trumps policies, which some interpreted as accusing her colleagues of having a bias in favor of the administration. “Perhaps most troublingly, the Courts recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others,” she said (pdf). Trump called the statement “terrible” and “highly inappropria..

Issued on: 25/02/2020 – 22:07Modified: 25/02/2020 – 22:07 Top samba "schools" in Brazil's Carnival capital Rio de Janeiro paraded for a second night on Monday, peppering the annual sizzling fusion of music, dance and costume with jabs at the country's president, Jair Bolsonaro. Advertising Read more The last six of the city's 13 top samba schools took to the "sambodromo", or Sambadrome, with hundreds of colorfully dressed and some scantily clad dancers and musicians parading behind huge, elaborate floats designed around a broad theme. Monday's parades, which ran well into the early hours of Tuesday, touched on many themes, among them Bolsonaro, who has cut a controversial and divisive figure since being sworn into office in January last year. Brazilian actor and comedian Marcelo Adnet starred in the Sao Clemente school's parade dressed up as Bolsonaro, mockingly doing push ups, saluting, and firing an imaginary gun with his fingers, all of which the e..

Fenech responds to his competitive ban in November in a lengthy YouTube message. Electronic Arts has banned controversial 25-year-old Maltese FIFA esports player Kurt "Kurt0411" Fenech from all EA games and services. The move is an unprecedented escalation in punishment for a player EA has been struggling to deal with publicly for well over a year. EA says Fenech has "continued to post abusive and threatening messages and videos about EA employees and competitive players on social media and he has encouraged others to do the same. His messages have crossed a line of decency into very personal attacks and breach our Terms of Service. We will not tolerate threatening behavior." An Important message regarding FIFA player Kurt0411. pic.twitter.com/RcHu1hMCup — Electronic Arts (@EA) February 24, 2020 Fenech, who has been banned from EA's professional FIFA esports competitions since November, has continued to host popular FIFA streams on Twitch in a personal capacity in recent month..

Enlarge / ESAs ExoMars rover (foreground) and Russias stationary surface science platform (background) are scheduled for launch in July 2020,ESA/ATG medialab The European and Russian space agencies have announced they will decide the fate of their ExoMars mission at a meeting on March 12. The joint mission to deliver a rover and suite of scientific instruments to the surface of the red planet is set for a July on a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. However, serious questions were raised about the viability of the lander's complicated parachute systems last year and ongoing problems in testing them. According to a spokesperson for the European Space Agency (ESA), a "working-level review" for the project was held among ESA and Roscosmos officials in late January, and a preliminary assessment was forwarded to the respective heads of the space agencies, Jan Wörner of ESA and Dmitry Rogozon of Roscosmos, on February 3. "They instructed the respective inspecto..

Enlarge Alexander Koerner / Stringer / Getty Images Volkswagens chief executive has pledged to employ a young climate campaigner to “aggressively” challenge the companys environmental policies, as he acknowledged the worlds largest carmaker was moving too slowly in the race to roll out electric vehicles. “Im looking to hire an activist,” Herbert Diess told the Financial Times. “We have so many ideas, but they take too long to implement in our big organization, so I need someone really aggressive internally.” In a rare move for a multinational, the appointee will be granted direct access to Diess and other top VW executives. The 61-year-old boss, who is overseeing the German groups €33 billion push into battery-powered vehicles, has been increasingly vocal about the need for a CO2 price—a carbon tax that applies to all industries as opposed to individual sectors—and has called on Brussels to crack down on coal-fired energy plants in Europe. Volkswagen hopes to sell 1 million emissio..

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump visited a “happiness class” at a government-run school in the Indian capital on Feb. 25 . The curriculum dovetails with her “Be Best” initiative to teach children and young adults to be kind, avoid drugs and take care of themselves. A student band at the Sarvodaya Co-Educational Senior Secondary School played bagpipes as they greeted the first lady at the school, which was decorated with floral garlands and motifs. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump walks with two children at Sarvodaya Co-Educational Senior Secondary School in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 25, 2020. (Altaf Qadri/AP Photo) She sported a floral wreath around her neck as she stopped at a reading room, spent time with kindergarten students and watched a yoga practice. She later told them during brief remarks that “Sarvodaya” means prosperity to all. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump speaks during her visit to Sarvodaya Co-Educational Senior Secondary School in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 25, 2020. (Al..

As President Donald Trump concluded his two-day trip to India on Feb. 26 after an extravagant reception and signing of a slew of important defense and economic deals, analysts said the trip was mutually beneficial and the Indo-U.S. strategic ties will endure across party lines. During a joint press conference on Tuesday, Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “This relationship is the most important partnership of the 21st century. And therefore, today, President Trump and I have taken a decision to raise our partnership to the level of a comprehensive global strategic partnership,” said Modi. Aparna Pande, research fellow and director of the India Initiative at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that comprehensive global strategic partnership means upgrading the already existing partnership. A joint statement released by the White House on Wednesday said that this comp..