The United Front Work Department is a nimble and tightly led party organ, headed by the chief of the secretariat of the C.C.P.’s central committee. It oversees a dozen organizations that do political networking, through both persuasion and infiltration. One of those is the European and American Alumni Association, which keeps close tabs over the ever-larger number of Chinese students and academics training or residing in the West, and enjoins them to conduct “people diplomacy” — in effect turning all those scholars into foot soldiers for the United Front.C.P.P.C.C. members nominally are political consultants to the C.C.P.; in fact, they must toe the party line. And their real job begins when the shop talk ends: It mainly consists of influencing other important people in their respective walks of life and eventually drawing them into Beijing’s orbit — with money, women, the promise of fame or simply by tapping their patriotism. Any recruits are given good opportunities in China: to perform, proselytize, invest or make a lot of money.In some ways, the C.P.P.C.C. operates like a mafia: It is secretive, relies on close personal ties and stands ready to break the law. It is also something of a political Ponzi scheme: Its members are rewarded when they entice others to become initiates — only then to come under more pressure to do even more. Patrick Ho Chi-ping, a former home affairs secretary of Hong Kong and the head of an energy nonprofit, now finds himself embroiled in a criminal case in the United States, accused of bribing African heads of states to secure oil contracts for Chinese energy interests controlled by the state. A veteran of the C.P.P.C.C., he appears to have been done in by those connections.Yet China’s influence machine purrs on. Earlier this year the Chinese authorities in Beijing allocated to Hong Kong a record 200-plus seats in the current C.P.P.C.C., about 10 percent of the entire membership — even though the city’s population is the equivalent of only about 0.5 percent of China’s total.Seven decades ago, Mao’s United Front was instrumental in catapulting the Chinese Communists to power. Since then, China’s influence machine has become infinitely more resourceful — and far more global.

“Wait, so diversity is not a problem in Hollywood anymore?” “Nope, we solved it.” “Wow!” ♪ “You’re welcome, Asian people, we gave you that one show.” ♪ ♪ “And who can forget the amazing Sandra Oh?” ♪ [applause] “Rachel Brosnahan.” “And one of things I love the most about this show is that it’s about a woman who’s finding her voice anew. And it’s something that’s happening all over the country right now. One of the most important ways that we can find and use our voices is to vote.” “Bill Hader, ‘Barry.’” [applause] “Jan, you are the sunshine in my life. ... You wonder why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife.” [cheering] “Will you marry me?” [cheering] “Claire Foy, ‘The Crown.’” [applause] “I know everyone’s talking at the moment about women in the industry. But if that’s anything to go by, bloody hell.” “And the Emmy goes to Matthew Rhys.” “And she said, ‘If you propose to me, I will punch you clean in the mouth.’” “And the Emmy for outstanding comedy series goes to ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.’” “Thank you to the viewers. Thank you.” “We’ve got one more award to go. The Emmy for outstanding drama series goes to ‘Game of Thrones.’” [applause] “Writing for these actors behind us is the honor of a lifetime. But we didn’t invent these characters — that was George R. R. Martin. We could not have — the show could not be without the mad genius of George.”

The decision in Trump v. Hawaii did so explicitly. The section of the opinion rejecting the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claim began with an explanation about why the entry-ban case differs from other First Amendment challenges. The difference, the court said, is that “the admission and exclusion of foreign nations is a ‘fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government’s political departments largely immune from judicial control.’” The court quoted a passage from a prior case that relied on both the Chinese Exclusion Case and Fong Yue Ting to justify the idea that immigration is insulated from judicial review.Plenary power includes the ideas that courts have a limited ability to oversee immigration decisions by Congress and the president and that constitutional constraints on the government, like the First Amendment, are weaker when it comes to immigration.The court now justifies the broad authority of the political branches over immigration in terms other than naked racism. But papering over the racial origins of the political branches’ sweeping immigration authority can do only so much. While the ideas behind the plenary-power doctrine may no longer be acceptable (at least in certain circles), invoking the president’s near plenary authority over immigration allowed the court, in effect, to turn a blind eye to racism.How else to interpret Mr. Trump’s announcement, as a candidate, that he had a plan for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. Or his statement after signing the entry ban that “we all know what that means.”He’s right; we do.Which is why the entry-ban case shows how the plenary-power doctrine enables presidents and Congress to get away with blatant racism in immigration decisions. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor observed in her dissent, the majority “blindly” accepted “the government’s misguided invitation to sanction a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity toward a disfavored group, all in the name of a superficial claim of national security.”Of course, the court didn’t put it that way. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. merely observed in his majority opinion that “unlike the typical” First Amendment case, the entry-ban “plaintiffs seek to invalidate a national security directive regulating the entry of aliens abroad.”The majority interpreted the executive branch’s broad authority over immigration to forbid the courts to meaningfully scrutinize the president’s motives. Instead, the court insisted, it was confined to a more “circumscribed judicial inquiry,” considering the order at face value and upholding it “so long as it can reasonably be understood” to have a legitimate justification. Under that standard, the court upheld the entry-ban proclamation, because it was “expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices.”

PARIS (AP) — France’s defense ministry announced Monday it had carried out its first armed drone strike, killing seven Islamic extremists in central Mali over the weekend. France joins a tiny group of countries that use armed drones, including the United States.The drone deployment came nearly one month after two French helicopters collided in Mali, killing 13 soldiers in the deadliest military loss for France in nearly four decades.A defense ministry statement said the drone strike took place Saturday while French President Emmanuel Macron was visiting neighboring Ivory Coast, where France has a military base. Macron already had announced that French forces had killed 33 extremists that day.The drone strike targeted jihadis in the Ouagadou forest, where a group known as the Macina Liberation Front is active. French commandos “were attacked by a group of terrorists who infiltrated on motorcycles,” the ministry said.“Working in a difficult environment, in a densely wooded region, this action was made possible by the action of ground troops supported by the air component,” the ministry said. The French military successfully tested its weaponized Reaper drone for the first time last week, and Defense Minister Florence Parly called the drones “protectors for our troops and effective against the enemy.”She said they allow French troops more discretion and flexibility, and insisted that France will respect rules of armed conflict in using the drones. She had announced in 2017 that France would arm its surveillance drones after the country suffered a string of extremist attacks. The use of armed drones has been somewhat sensitive in France, notably because of civilians killed by U.S. drones in Afghanistan and Somalia.France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, led a 2013 military operation to oust Islamic extremists from power in northern Mali, where they had implemented a harsh version of Sharia law. Since then, however, Mali’s military has failed to stem the violence despite support from the French and a United Nations peacekeeping mission. This year has been particularly deadly for Malian forces, prompting the president to reassign some soldiers in the most remote and vulnerable desert outposts.The French military has 4,500 personnel in West and Central Africa. Macron is set to discuss the future of France’s military mission in Africa’s Sahel region at a meeting in France next month with presidents from the countries taking part in the regional G5 Sahel counterterror force.___Krista Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal.

The challenges to democracy and civic order in Brazil, the world’s fifth most populous country, have increased significantly in the past couple of weeks. As dangers to Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, and his movement grow, so, too, do the threats emanating from them.Tensions reached a boiling point last week when the former president Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva was released from prison after Brazil’s supreme court ruled that the constitution bars imprisonment of defendants, such as Lula, before they have exhausted their appeals.Lula is not only the obvious and most charismatic leader of the leftwing opposition to Bolsonaro but also the greatest prize of Bolsonaro’s minister of justice and public security, Sérgio Moro. It was Moro who found Lula guilty on dubious corruption charges in 2017 and ordered him imprisoned in 2018 at a time when all polls showed that Lula was the clear frontrunner to win the presidential election.The sight of Lula walking out of prison was a powerful symbolic repudiation to Moro but also a clear threat to Bolsonaro’s efforts to consolidate the 2018 wave that ushered the far-right movement into power. Lula has strong emotional ties to the country’s poor and is singularly capable of moving them.Lula’s release became a lightning rod for threats of repression. After the ex-president used his first speech to call for protests similar to those taking place in Chile, members of Bolsonaro’s party formally requested that he be “preventatively imprisoned” on the grounds that he was attempting to incite violence against the government.But even before Lula’s release, the ways in which Brazilian democracy are imperiled were becoming more acute. In the past, each time the supreme court was set to rule on the possible release of Lula, more extremist members of the Brazilian military posted not-very-veiled threats on their social media accounts warning the court not to do so.In a country where half the population – including all of the supreme court’s members – remember the brutal military regime that only ended in 1985, such warnings pack a heavy punch.As the court was set to rule again this time, the same happened, and worse. Along with generals, leading members of the Bolsonaro movement – led by its US-based astrologer/“philosopher” guru Olavo de Carvalho – began openly advocating for a return of the dictatorship-era law AI-5 (Institutional Act Number 5).The mere invocation of that bureaucratic-sounding phrase sends chills down the spine of many Brazilians. AI-5 was an infamous decree issued by the military regime in 1968 that empowered military dictators to close congress, ignore court orders and suspend constitutional rights in the name of order.That decree is widely credited with laying the groundwork for the Brazilian dictatorship’s horrific torture of Brazilian dissidents. Bolsonaro and his sons have explicitly praised the regime’s most notorious torturers.In fact, in an interview earlier this month, Eduardo Bolsonaro openly advocated reinstating AI-5. “If the left radicalizes to this extent [in Brazil] we will need to respond, and that response could come via a new AI-5,” said the president’s son.After his statement was condemned across the political spectrum and by most mainstream institutions, Eduardo “clarified” that he was merely speaking hypothetically, and that such a measure would be warranted only if protests, disorder and violence of the kind taking place in Chile came to Brazil.Small comfort, especially given that his remarks appeared to be a direct threat against leftwing protests.Previous reporting had already linked the Bolsonaro family to the violent militia that is believed to have been behind the still-unsolved 2018 assassination of my party compatriot and close friend, the city councilwoman Marielle Franco.But a report earlier this month by the nation’s largest and most influential media outlet, Globo TV, suggested that the Bolsonaro family may be linked to the assassination itself. Globo reported that hours before Marielle’s murder, the driver of the car that killed her, an ex-police officer, came to Bolsonaro’s gated condominium to meet with the ex-police officer who pulled the trigger. The doorman at the gate noted in his records, and then testified to the police, that the ex-police officer gained entrance by saying he was going to Bolsonaro’s house.According to the Globo report, someone inside Bolsonaro’s house authorized Marielle’s alleged murderer to enter the gated community.Perhaps as revealing as the Globo report was Bolsonaro’s reaction. When the report broke, Bolsonaro was in Saudi Arabia – meeting with, and showering praise on, Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi autocrat accused of ordering the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.In a rambling middle-of-the-night video, Bolsonaro responded to the Globo allegation with an extended rant against his enemies. Last week he announced he was cutting public funds to Globo, and the justice minister Moro announced that a criminal investigation not against Bolsonaro and his family but against the doorman who said that Marielle’s killers had gained access via Bolsonaro’s house.Perhaps the most revealing incident of all was the widely reported physical assault on my husband, the journalist Glenn Greenwald, by the pro-Bolsonaro, far-right journalist Augusto Nunes.When Glenn appeared on the network where Nunes works and Nunes was added to the panel at the last minute, Glenn confronted him about his attacks on our family and called him a “coward”, which led to Nunes physically attacking him.While Nunes’s violence was widely condemned in mainstream venues, the key figures of Bolsonaro’s circle cheered and called for more. Bolsonaro’s guru, Olavo, tweeted that it was “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on Brazilian TV”. Two of Bolsonaro’s politician sons, along with members of congress, also applauded it, with some regretting that it was not more violent.What all of these events reveal is the true goal of Bolsonaro and his movement: they want and crave violence and disorder because, as Eduardo said, it is what they will use to justify a restoration of the repressive measures of the military regime.Don’t forget that Bolsonaro spent the last three decades in congress relegated to the fringes precisely because he openly praised the military dictatorship (in which he served as an army captain) as superior to Brazilian democracy. That view, once taboo, has been dragged into the mainstream by the Bolsonaro family’s open revisionism as well as the use of social media to convince millions of Brazilians that the dictatorship was not shameful but noble.Bolsonaro and his movement know they cannot end Brazilian democracy without pretexts. They need disorder, protests and violence to justify a restoration of dictatorship-era measures, which will no doubt be depicted as necessary to restore order – the same rhetorical framework used to justify the military coup in 1964. And they are determined to bring about exactly that to our once-stable country. David Miranda is a member of the Brazilian congress for the Socialism and Liberty party and a Guardian US columnist Topics Brazil Opinion Jair Bolsonaro The far right Americas comment

Mr. Zuckerberg did not specifically address the antitrust concerns but said on a conference call with investors, “with the guidance and expectations from regulators, we have a clearer path forward.” He called for more government oversight of the tech industry at large.The F.T.C. confirmed the antitrust investigation against Facebook and declined to comment further.The agency’s five commissioners put out dueling statements on the privacy settlement. The three Republican commissioners — including the F.T.C. chairman, Joseph J. Simons — who voted to approve the deal said they were “proud” of the agreement and believed the measures “will provide significant deterrence not just to Facebook, but to every other company that collects or uses consumer data.”But the two Democratic commissioners disagreed. One of them, Rohit Chopra, warned that the terms of the settlement legally shielded Facebook from liability for a wide range of past problematic practices. “This shield represents a major win for Facebook, but leaves the public in the dark as to how the company violated the law and what violations, if any, are going unaddressed,” he said.Even as the scrutiny around Facebook has grown, its business has remained strong. It said on Wednesday that revenue for its second quarter rose 28 percent from a year ago to $16.9 billion. While profits fell 49 percent to $2.6 billion because of a one-time $2 billion charge to pay the F.T.C.’s fine and an accounting charge related to tax deductions, Facebook still performed better than Wall Street had expected.“Facebook, with all of its missteps over the past two years, is going to remain a strong stock over the next few years,” said Shawn Riegsecker, chief executive of the ad-technology company Centro.The F.T.C.’s privacy settlement with Facebook follows an investigation over the past year into whether the company had violated a 2011 privacy agreement with the agency. Under that earlier agreement, the social network had said it would not deceive people over how their information was used and shared.Then last year, a report from The New York Times and The Observer of London revealed how Facebook had allowed Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm to the Trump campaign, to harvest the personal information of its users. Cambridge Analytica had used the data to build profiles of American voters without the consent of Facebook users.

Tens of thousands of train drivers, teachers, nurses, air traffic controllers and other public sector staff went on strike across France on Thursday, staging street protests against Emmanuel Macron’s plans for change.The 180 street demonstrations nationwide were mainly peaceful, but scuffles erupted between police and hooded young protesters on the margins of marches in Paris and the western city of Nantes, where security forces fired teargas and water cannon.The strikes saw transport cancellations, some schools and creches closed, as well as limits on some services such as libraries and rubbish collection. Around 30% of Paris flights were cancelled and there was airport disruption in the south.France’s centrist president, who has been in power for nearly a year, has so far avoided large strikes and trade union action, managing to easily push through an overhaul of labour laws in the autumn despite limited street marches.But Thursday’s strike marked a new joint phase in trade union action – the first time civil servants and railway staff had joined forces against Macron.The two different sets of grievances have the potential to cause a headache for the French government.France’s large public sector, which has 5.4 million state workers, is angry about Macron’s belt-tightening plans. Unions accuse him of seeking to dismantle the state sector. After his election promises of better recognition and remuneration for public sector staff, there has been fury among state workers that Macron has gone back on his word and in fact seeks to slash budgets, rely more on contract workers, introduce merit-based pay and make voluntary redundancies.Workers complain of unfair pay stagnation and increasingly difficult workplace conditions. Macron has promised to cut the number of public workers by 120,000 over five years.“Discontent and worry are spreading very quickly,” said Jean-Marc Canon of UGFF-CGT, one of the largest civil servants’ unions.Meanwhile, rail workers are planning prolonged strike action that could last until June. They are protesting against Macron’s plans to push through sweeping changes to France’s vast state rail system, including cutting costs by limiting special employment rights for rail workers. From 3 April until 28 June rail unions have planned strikes on two days out of every five.François Rauch, 65, a former SNCF rail operator, told Reuters: “We’re here against the government, which is only helping the rich.”He said he was also protesting against tax hikes on pensions. Macron’s government has insisted it will stand firm on its programme to cut state costs and is hoping public opinion will be exasperated by train disruption and not support the strikes. A poll for Les Echos showed just over half of French people backed Thursday’s strike but a majority of private sector workers were against it. “We are going to continue reforming France in depth ... with the certitude that our country needs this transformation to make up for the ground lost over previous decades,” Macron told reporters during a trip to India last week.A separate survey by the Elabe group showed that 58% of French people thought Macron was implementing his manifesto programme but that 74% thought it was unfair.Thursday’s strike date was deliberately chosen to echo the start of nationwide protests in 1968 that led to the country’s biggest ever strikes and the notorious street battles between police and students in May of that year. Topics France Emmanuel Macron Unions Europe Paris news

Enlarge this image German Chancellor Angela Merkel's political allies in the wealthy alpine state of Bavaria risk losing ground to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party in upcoming regional elections. Pool/Zick,Jochen-Pool/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Pool/Zick,Jochen-Pool/Getty Images German Chancellor Angela Merkel's political allies in the wealthy alpine state of Bavaria risk losing ground to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party in upcoming regional elections. Pool/Zick,Jochen-Pool/Getty Images German support for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives is at an all-time low, and in few places is that more evident than Bavaria.A booming economy and ever fewer migrants crossing the border into the wealthy alpine state haven't eased a populist backlash against the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is the closest ally of Merkel's party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). The CSU has governed Bavaria for all but three years since 1946, most of the time with an absolute majority. But its future is in doubt, with conservative Bavarian voters in the midst of a shift toward Alternative for Germany (AfD). Just 5 years old, the far-right party is currently the main opposition in the German parliament and is widely expected to win seats in the Bavarian legislature for the first time when regional elections are held on Sunday. One of the Bavarian cities where AfD is especially popular is Ingolstadt, which is hardly a typical stronghold for the far-right faction that traditionally plays to Germany's working class in the less affluent, formerly communist east. Luxury cars abound on Ingolstadt's cobblestone streets and the 137,000 residents of the medieval city, where carmaker Audi is headquartered, enjoy the highest per capita income in Germany. But as well off as people in Ingolstadt are, many there are nonetheless anxious about their future. Enter the AfD, which excels at stoking such fears. The party's candidate in Ingolstadt is Johannes Kraus von Sande, 48, who embraces the same campaign line the AfD used to win 13 percent of the vote in last October's national elections: Uncontrolled migration threatens the German identity, security and economy, and the mainstream political parties aren't doing anything about it. "As our campaign posters say: The AfD fulfills the promises the CSU makes. The CSU's failure to keep promises has pretty much defined the whole history of that party," Kraus von Sande said in an interview with NPR. But what exactly the AfD plans to do to fulfill campaign promises — or to address the problems it raises — the candidate said is still being worked out."The city has changed a lot," Kraus von Sande said, recalling how when he went to high school in Ingolstadt, everyone knew everyone else by name. Now, the city and its lucrative job market is far bigger and more international. City officials in Ingolstadt, where the population has grown by more than a third in the past four decades, estimate at least two out of five residents are either immigrants or descended from immigrants. Many of those immigrants are Muslims, who until recently, thought of Ingolstadt as a welcoming place for adherents of their faith.Kraus von Sande said he doesn't have a problem with all Muslim immigrants: "We have the Turks and I must say they are strongly integrated in German society and some of them are critical of Islam." But he said the migrants coming from the Middle East and Africa since 2015 — when war and poverty, coupled with Merkel's open-door refugee policy, led to well over a million new arrivals in Germany — are causing more problems. He said the earlier arrivals he speaks to don't want newcomers who don't or can't fit in or fail to contribute to the German economy. The law needs to change, and they are looking to AfD to help with that, Kraus von Sande said. "That definitely needs to happen very fast."The 53-year-old CSU candidate for the Bavarian legislature from Ingolstadt – police chief Alfred Grob – also has concerns about more effectively managing asylum seekers who come to Germany and ensuring that newcomers integrate. He said it would be better for his city – and his political party — if the German government wasn't operating a large refugee processing center for asylum seekers on the edge of Ingolstadt. That center, which housed about 1,400 migrants last year, was transformed in August into an "AnkER" center – a blend of the German words for arrival, decision and repatriation — and houses new arrivals who aren't likely to qualify for asylum so they can be processed and deported more quickly.But Grob criticized the AfD for capitalizing on fears rather than facts. Even though crime is up 11 percent in Ingolstadt, "the reality is that we have not had such a low crime rate for 20 years now," Grob told NPR. "The other side is that refugees are proportionally over-represented in the crime statistics." He said that's easy to explain: Most asylum seekers are young men, and as a demographic, they – no matter what their racial background – are more likely to commit crimes. Grob said many of the crimes by asylum seekers are happening at the transit center. He added that German voter backlash against the CSU and other mainstream parties is about a lot more than asylum seekers or the AfD. He called it "German angst." "People are afraid of a societal decline," Grob explained. "We're doing very well here. We feel so good that many think it can't get any better and that in fact, it's going to go down and maybe faster."A diesel emissions testing scandal and other problems at Audi have exacerbated such worries, he said. So have skyrocketing rents in the city. Older residents are also struggling with pensions that aren't keeping up with the rising cost of living in Ingolstadt.Another reason AfD is doing well in Ingolstadt is that it isn't a university town, says Luzia Grasser, an editor in the Ingolstadt office of the daily Augsburger Allgemeine. "Ingolstadt has a relatively conservative voter class, so protest voters may not vote in the left milieu" compared to what's happening in the rest of Germany, where the left-leaning, environmentally friendly Green Party has climbed to the number two spot in the latest opinion poll.Much of the support for AfD in Ingolstadt comes from a large community of ethnic Germans from Russia who after the collapse of communism, immigrated to the region in the late 80s and early 90s. The candidates here say those immigrants were less likely to vote in Ingolstadt in the past, but are now worried about their jobs, unemployment benefits and pensions being gobbled up by newer immigrants — fears that AfD has seized on. The far-right party has put up billboards around Ingolstadt warning of Muslim hordes stripping Bavaria of its Christian identity, pensions and benefits and fostering insecurity. One such billboard showing a white woman looking back in fear at two hooded men, and urging voters to cast their ballots for AfD to "protect our women and children," stands across the street from a grocery store frequented by the many German Russians in the working class neighborhood of Piusviertel. The neighborhood, with its apartment buildings, pristine parks and playgrounds, is home to many of Ingolstadt's Turkish and Middle Eastern immigrants, who are reporting more harassment and abuse — especially of women wearing headscarves — since AfD began campaigning here. The community center there offers a wide range of programs to help residents seeking employment, integration into German society and culture and language. One of the volunteers is Yeser Saygili, who immigrated to Ingolstadt from Turkey a quarter century ago and speaks fluent German."I help a lot of immigrant women who are looking for jobs. One office looking for a cleaning woman recently asked me if the applicant wore a headscarf," Saygili said. "I was, like, 'Hello, how far have we regressed?' In the end, she didn't get the job."Saygili says she fears a far-right win in Bavaria on Sunday will only make things harder for Muslims in Ingolstadt. Political observers say it could also lead to a reshuffling or worse of Merkel's cabinet, as her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, is co-leader of the CSU party and would feel pressured to resign following a poor election result.

The brand logo of Alphabet Inc's Google is seen outside its office in Beijing, China August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas PeterRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s antitrust watchdog Cade is considering opening an investigation into Google over alleged abuses in its cell phone operating system, the president of the agency said in an interview published on Wednesday in newspaper Valor Economico. The reported comments by Alexandre Barreto come just weeks after European antitrust regulators fined Google a record 4.34 billion euros ($4.91 billion) and ordered it to stop using its popular Android mobile operating system to block rivals. According to the report, Barreto said Cade would decide whether to formally probe the U.S. company, whose parent is Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), depending on the results of an evaluation that is already underway. “What we are doing now is analyzing the European Union’s decision to determine if we have grounds to act here,” Barreto said in an interview. Google declined to comment. But in a blog post following the European Union decision, CEO Sundar Pichai said Android phones compete with iOS phones, adding that the ruling did not take into account how much choice Android provides phone-makers and mobile network operators. Google’s Android system, which device makers can use for free, runs on about 80 percent of the world’s smartphones, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics. According to the European Union, Google’s illegal behavior dates back to 2011 and includes forcing manufacturers to preinstall Google Search and its Chrome browser together with its Google Play app store on their Android devices. It also includes paying them to preinstall only Google Search and blocking them from using rival systems. Google said it would appeal that ruling. Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Emmanuel Macron will be forced to speak out on France’s ongoing pensions strike in his televised new year address on Tuesday as transport stoppages look likely to continue into a fifth week, causing major disruption over the holiday period and into January.The centrist French president, who made overhauling the country’s pensions system a key election pledge, has until now refrained from intervening personally, leaving his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, to deal with the day-to-day response to the crisis. But, as slogans among leftwing demonstrators at a street protest in Paris this weekend read: “Macron, your silence is killing us,” Elysée officials told French media that Macron’s televised speech on 31 December would aim to calm tensions. He is likely to express sympathy for the many people whose travel plans have been disrupted, acknowledge the constitutional right to strike and call for dialogue.On a trip to West Africa before Christmas, he simply urged transport unions to call a truce over the festive season, which they ignored, leaving rail services severely disrupted.Macron is unlikely, however, to enter into the complex technical details of the pension changes in his new year address, instead arguing that, after overhauling labour rules and the unemployment benefit system, changes to pensions are vital to his plans to deliver what he has called the biggest transformation of the French social model and welfare system since the second world war.The government insists it will be fairer to create a single, universal points-based system for all – instead of dozens of different systems for workers in different sectors. It also says it will be able to balance the pension budget by incentivising workers to stay in the labour force until 64 in order to take home a full pension, instead of leaving at the official retirement age of 62. The unions, however, fear people will be made to work longer for lower pensions. Even moderate unions are angry at any effective change to the retirement age.Macron is under pressure to make concessions to unions and strikers, but he has built his political identity on a promise never to cave in to street protests. Nor can he risk alienating his support base, which currently includes voters from the traditional right, by being seen to concede too much. He also faces a growing distrust of politicians in France. Polls have shown that many French voters want pension reform, but they do not trust the government to do it fairly.The nationwide transport strike entered its 25th day on Sunday and looks likely to continue for at least another two weeks, potentially spreading in January when teachers are back at school and could join in. Government negotiations will resume on 7 January before a nationwide day of protest scheduled for 9 January. The longest previous transport strike in France lasted 28 days, also over Christmas in 1986 and early 1987.Rail workers, some of whom have already lost considerable income from the strike, said they wanted government concessions. Other professions have had their pension proposals tweaked in recent days. After striking ballet dancers at the Paris Opera performed Swan Lake in the street before Christmas in what protesters called the most beautiful picket line Paris had seen, the culture minister offered to make the reforms apply only to dancers who join after 2022. Other concessions will apply to airline pilots and flight attendants, as well as police and firefighters.Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the junior transport minister, accused the leftwing CGT union on Sunday of “systematically opposing all reforms” and said it often engaged in intimidation. Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT, shot back that the government was “organising chaos” and deliberately allowing the conflict to worsen.Macron’s new year’s speech will not be the first he has given with the country in the throes of social crisis. His gave his address last year after weeks of anti-government gilets jaunes protests and called on the nation to unite and stop “hateful” attacks. Topics France Emmanuel Macron Protest Europe news

Andrew Yang is offering to meet with new “Saturday Night Live” cast member Shane Gillis over his use of racist Asian jokes ― including one targeting the Democratic presidential candidate ― and is arguing the comedian shouldn’t be cut from the show. “I prefer comedy that makes people think and doesn’t take cheap shots. But I’m happy to sit down and talk with you if you’d like,” he wrote in a Saturday tweet responding to a post from Gillis, who was announced earlier this week as one of the program’s latest additions. Yang, who is Asian, added that rather than penalize Gillis by firing him, he should be shown forgiveness. “For the record, I do not think he should lose his job,” he said. “We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive. We are all human.” For the record, I do not think he should lose his job. We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive. We are all human.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 14, 2019 On Thursday, just after news broke that Gillis would be an “SNL” regular, freelance comedy reporter Seth Simmons tweeted footage of a 2018 podcast interview in which Gillis uses the slur “chinks” to describe Chinese people and mocks their speech. Hours after the clip appeared online, drawing backlash, Gillis released a nonapology in which he neglected to unequivocally acknowledge that his remarks were offensive. “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” he said. “I sometimes miss.” Continuing, Gillis said he’s “happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.” “My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.” On Friday, Vice reported that Gillis had again used the slur while taking aim at Yang in podcast recorded in May, calling the candidate a “Jew chink.” Gillis will be one of three new faces on “SNL,” including Bowen Yang, a former staff writer whose promotion makes him the show’s fourth Asian cast member after Nasim Pedrad, who was born in Iran, and Fred Armisen and Rob Schneider, who are of Asian descent. Download Calling all HuffPost superfans! Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter Join HuffPost

Last year he gave us “covfefe”. This year – and just in time for Christmas –Donald Trump has bestowed upon the English language the phrase: “Smocking Gun”.“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun… No Collusion,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday.In the hours after the president’s tweet, “Smocking Gun” began trending on Twitter. Searches for the term “smocking gun” surged, according to Google Trends, as did searches for “smocking” – a type of embroidery made of many small folds. It was not the mere typo that tickled readers, but also the capitalisation of “Smocking” and “Gun”, and the repetition of the expression.​Many people tweeted suggestions for what a “Smocking Gun” might be.Others found logic in his argument.The tweet was reminiscent of Trump’s “covfefe” moment last May, when he tweeted: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”, which was followed by silence and no explanation. Trump later followed up with a tweet saying: “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!”This latest social media blunder came as Trump has been furiously defending himself on Twitter over the past few days amid mounting pressure on several fronts.On Friday, federal prosecutors said in court filings that Trump directed his one-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, to commit two felonies, by directing him to make payments to two women who said they had sex with Trump in an effort to influence the 2016 election by buying their silence.Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the president, also revealed that during the 2016 election campaign one of Trump’s closest advisers met with a Russian who was offering help from Moscow and a meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.But Trump has alleged that the revelations do not implicate him, last week saying the news: “totally clears the President!”Defenders of the president struggled to brush off the “Smocking Gun” tweet as anything more than a simple typo. One of the more creative explanations came from Bill Mitchell, the host of a YouTube channel “dedicated to supporting the presidency of Donald J Trump”.Mitchell said the use of “Smocking” had been deliberate “because he is MOCKING the Democrats for having no smoking gun”, wrote Mitchell.“Why would Trump use ‘Smocking Gun’, capitalized as to draw even more attention to it?” he wrote as justification of his theory.Why indeed. Topics Donald Trump Trump-Russia investigation Trump administration US politics news

The biggest one was, I lined a hallway closet in my home with tiny candies from China that had these beautiful flowers on it. They were tiny pastel colors, like the size of two postage stamps together. And I emptied all the candy out and did an entire hallway, floor to ceiling, in those candy wrappers, then I went over the whole thing with packing tape. It was fantastic. I cover everything with packing tape — it’s just prettier. I travel with packing tape. It’s always on me. Why haven’t they asked me to do a commercial?So if there was ever a signature line of “At Home” products, à la the Martha Stewart Collection, I’m guessing packing tape would be ——Absolutely! And Scotch tape. Anything sticky. And any kind of eraser with googly eyes on it. Anything with googly eyes on it — I’m a big fan of googly eyes.I find it hard to believe this is your first Emmy nomination. How did you react when you found out?I laughed. I’m not part of that fraternity, really. So it’s great. I was happier for everyone else on the show. I was just so surprised by it, and I’m excited about it; it’s really nice. But I’ve never gone to the Emmys. My first thought was, “Oh God, I have to wear makeup and dress up.” So that’s kind of weird. I don’t really do things like that, so I’ll be a fish out of water.You do lots of talk shows. Does that make you nervous, too?I get eager more than nervous. But with the Emmy thing, I don’t know. I guess I would have to think of some kind of speech to prepare myself. But it’s also my style not to. And I think of all the people who we’re up against — there’s no way. But then I would hate to be that person who wins and gets up there like “Oh my God, I don’t know what to say.” I’m just not going to think about it. I think more about, Who’s going to watch my rabbit while I fly to L.A., in the middle of shooting, to do this awards thing?

Civilians in opposition-held Syria face a cold, hungry start to the winter with an intensified bombing campaign forcing thousands to flee their homes while fuel shortages threaten medical care and push up prices of food and transport.At least 90 people have been killed and 12,000 have fled the town of Maaret al-Numan in southern Idlib province after heavy bombing over the last week, local activists said. They fear the bombing campaign, which has included air strikes, barrel bombs and shelling, could be preparations for a ground offensive.Charities and hospitals are struggling to respond to the crisis because of soaring fuel prices, which have more than doubled in the area since early October.One hospital director said he had turned off heaters on his wards despite plunging winter temperatures to save fuel for ambulances and generators that power vital medical devices. Aid workers say they have had to cut back support for some of the internally displaced people in the region.“We have faced many barriers to our work over the last three years,” said Haytham Abu Husam, who lives in southern Idlib and works for a Syrian-run aid group there. “But none are on the scale of the current crisis.“We have continued despite countless risks, including targeting of humanitarian workers in Idlib, where many have been kidnapped and two killed in the last few months. Warplanes and helicopters haven’t left the skies. We didn’t stop our work despite all that, but if the fuel crisis continues, we would have to stop.”More than 3 million people are estimated to be living in Idlib, many of them refugees displaced from other parts of the country, as President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies reclaimed areas that had been under rebel rule and opposition supporters fled.The long offensive has been marked by a willingness to violate international law by targeting civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, before the intensive bombing of the last week that hit busy markets and an olive oil processing plant, making it harder for families to buy food.Ali Saraqbi was in his family’s fruit and vegetable store in Maaret al-Numan, which is a hub for the area, when a bomb hit during mid-morning trading on 2 December. It killed nine and injured 12, activists said.“I became deaf for some minutes and then I started hearing the screaming, groaning, yelling and the ambulance sirens,” Saraqbi said. “Then I went outside my store and saw some bodies, including owners of three neighbouring shops and two porters.”It was the fifth time the town’s market has been hit. Saraqbi said he would not even attempt to reopen his family’s fruit and vegetable store. He was already heavily in debt and shoppers were staying away. Instead he might buy a push cart to sell vegetables in the street.People were already cutting back on food because of soaring prices. Fuel shortages made transportation costlier, so staples like tomatoes, cucumber and aubergine were at least three times more expensive than a month earlier.These bombing attacks make fuel for ambulances vital. “We move around a lot to reach urgent cases especially in the current aerial campaign against civilians in Idlib,” said Abu Husam, the aid worker.Budgets for this period had already been allocated, so when fuel costs went up, cuts had to be made. “We made it a priority to secure fuel for the bakeries, to make bread for the people who are still in the south of Idlib and neighbouring villages and towns,” he said. “Now we are having difficulties reaching more distant areas, so our activities have been limited.”For years, much of the fuel in Idlib had come from oil fields in north-eastern Syria, near Hassakah. Crude oil was trucked west along roads held by Kurdish and rebel forces to be turned into gasoline, diesel and fuel oil in makeshift refineries.But after the US president, Donald Trump, decided to abruptly abandon the US’s Syrian Kurdish allies, leaving Turkish forces to sweep into some areas they held, fighting closed the main trucking route.The situation has calmed again, but the crossing remains closed, said one trader who operates several 125-barrel tanker trucks but has not been able to make any runs since mid-October. “The clashes have eased and the situation is stable on both sides near Manbij now, so I don’t understand why the border is still closed,” he said.Complicating the situation, in late November activists said strikes by unidentified planes hit several of the refineries around north and north-east Aleppo, hampering any attempt to processcrude oil should it start to arrive again.Hussein Akoush contributed to this report Topics Syria Bashar al-Assad Middle East and North Africa

President Trump on Friday discussed trade in a call with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after the U.S. abruptly threatened to reimpose steel tariffs on the South American nation."Just had a great call with the President of Brazil, @JairBolsonaro. We discussed many subjects including Trade. The relationship between the United States and Brazil has never been Stronger!" Trump tweeted.Just had a great call with the President of Brazil, @JairBolsonaro. We discussed many subjects including Trade. The relationship between the United States and Brazil has never been Stronger!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2019Further details of the call were not immediately available.Trump and Bolsonaro have enjoyed a close relationship since the South American leader took office earlier this year.But Trump appeared to catch Bolsonaro off guard when he announced earlier this month that the U.S. would restore tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and Argentina, citing "massive devaluation of their currencies."National Economic Council director Larry KudlowLawrence (Larry) Alan KudlowMORE later said the administration had not made a final decision about imposing the tariffs, even though Trump's tweet said they were "effective immediately."The Trump administration first implemented steel and aluminum tariffs in March 2018 in an effort to pressure countries into negotiating trade deals, despite opposition from members of both parties.In May 2018, the administration made deals with several countries, including Brazil and Argentina, to temporarily suspend the tariffs.

Google will be the target of an antitrust investigation by a broad coalition of state attorneys general set to be announced as early as next week, The Washington Post reported.According to the Post, more than half of the nation’s state attorneys general will be participating in the Google investigation, though it’s unclear which states are involved.An investigation has been rumored for months amid the growing federal scrutiny that Silicon Valley is facing over potential antitrust violations.A small group of state law enforcers met with Makan Delrahim, head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division, earlier this summer to discuss competition issues in Silicon Valley."Google's services help people every day, create more choice for consumers, and support thousands of jobs and small businesses across the country,” a Google spokesman said in a statement. “We continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general, in answering questions about our business and the dynamic technology sector."The DOJ is also exploring tech giants’ market power for potential antitrust issues, but it’s unclear if the department will be collaborating with the states on their investigation.The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust also announced on Tuesday that it would hold a hearing later this month on competition concerns surrounding acquisitions by tech giants.

Enlarge this image The author of a new book, Doing Harm, argues that a pattern of gender bias in medicine means women's pain may be going undiagnosed. PhotoAlto/Michele Constantini/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption PhotoAlto/Michele Constantini/Getty Images The author of a new book, Doing Harm, argues that a pattern of gender bias in medicine means women's pain may be going undiagnosed. PhotoAlto/Michele Constantini/Getty Images When journalist Maya Dusenbery was in her 20s, she started experiencing progressive pain in her joints, which she learned was caused by rheumatoid arthritis.As she began to research her own condition, Dusenbery realized how lucky she was to have been diagnosed relatively easily. Other women with similar symptoms, she says, "experienced very long diagnostic delays and felt ... that their symptoms were not taken seriously."Dusenbery says these experiences fit into a larger pattern of gender bias in medicine. Her new book, Doing Harm, makes the case that women's symptoms are often dismissed and misdiagnosed — in part because of what she calls the "systemic and unconscious bias that's rooted ... in what doctors, regardless of their own gender, are learning in medical schools." Shots - Health News Answering Your Questions: Health 101 For Grown Women "I definitely believe that the fact that medicine has been historically and continues to be mainly run by men has been a source of these problems," she says. "The medical knowledge that we have is just skewed towards knowing more about men's bodies and the conditions that disproportionately affect them."Dusenbery is also the executive editor of Feministing, a website of writing by young feminists about social, cultural and political issues.On how women have been left out of drug trials and medical observational studies There was a lot of concern about including women in drug trials, specifically because of concerns about affecting their hypothetical fetuses. So in the '70s the FDA had a policy of prohibiting any woman of childbearing age from participating in early-stage drug trials. ...But we also see that at that time, women were also excluded from studies that were just observational studies — not just drug trials. In the '90s, when there were congressional hearings about this problem, the public learned that women had been left out of things like a big observational study looking at normal human aging that was ongoing for 20 years. It started in the '50s, and for the first 20 years women had been left out of that.On women's recent inclusion in National Institutes of Health studies [In] 1993, Congress passed a law saying that women need to be included in NIH-funded clinical research. And in the aggregate, women do make up a majority of subjects in NIH research. However, we still don't know that women are necessarily adequately represented in all areas of research, because the NIH looks at the aggregate numbers, and the outside analyses that have been done show that women are still a little bit underrepresented. Shots - Health News Clinical Trials Still Don't Reflect The Diversity Of America More importantly, even though women are usually included in most studies today, it's still not the norm to really analyze results by gender to actually see if there are differences between men and women. So experts have described this to me as an "add women and stir" approach. Women are included, but we're still not getting the knowledge we need about ways that their symptoms or responses to treatment might differ from men.On why some medicine affects men and women differently — and how that results in women receiving excessive doses of most drugsThere are a lot of factors that go into these recognized sex differences in drug metabolism and response. ... Percentage of body fat affects it. Hormones, different levels of enzymes — all of these things go into it. But really, probably the most straightforward [factor] is that, on average, men have a higher body weight than women. And yet, even that difference is not usually accounted for. We prescribe drugs based on this one-size-fits-all dosage, but that ends up meaning that, on average, women are being overdosed on most drugs.On the difference between how men and women experience heart disease Shots - Health News Hidden Heart Disease Is The Top Health Threat For U.S. Women Over the last couple of decades, there's been a recognition that for the first 35 years we were studying heart disease, we were really mostly studying it in men. And so there's been a concerted effort to go back and compare women's experiences to men's, which has led to the knowledge that women are more likely to have what are considered to be atypical symptoms. [And] the only reason they're considered "atypical" is because the norm has been this male model — so, atypical symptoms, like pain in the neck or shoulder, nausea, fatigue, lightheadedness. ...Partly as a result of those differences in symptoms — which are still not always recognized by health care providers — women (especially younger women) are more likely to be turned away when they're having a heart attack, sent home. One study found it was younger women — so women under 55 — were seven times more likely than the average patient to be sent home mid-heart attack. ... Even if they're not sent home, you see longer delays [for women] to getting [electrocardiograms] and other diagnostic testing or interventions in the ER setting.On how the subjective symptom of fatigue is dismissed in womenOne of the most common [symptoms] that really is common across ... [the autoimmune diseases] is fatigue — a really deep, deep fatigue that isn't just being sleep-deprived from staying up too late. That fatigue, comparable to pain, is this very subjective symptom that's hard to communicate to other people. And I think that women are up against this real distrust of their own reports of their symptoms. Shots - Health News Annals Of The Obvious: Women Way More Tired Than Men So conditions like autoimmune diseases that really are marked by these subjective symptoms of pain and fatigue, I think, are very easy to dismiss in women. ... Even though we do know about autoimmune diseases, during that diagnostic delay, women are often told, "You're just stressed. You're tired." And [they] have a really hard time convincing doctors that this fatigue is abnormal.On some female patients taking a male relative or spouse with them to doctors' appointments to vouch for themI found this to be one of the most disturbing things that I found in my research: how many women reported that as they were fighting to get their symptoms taken seriously, [they] just sort of sensed that what they really needed was somebody to testify to their symptoms, to testify to their sanity, and felt that bringing a partner or a father or even a son would be helpful. And then [they] found that it was [helpful], that they were treated differently when there was that man in the room who was corroborating their reports.Heidi Saman and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Scott Hensley adapted it for the Web.

French travellers were braced for transport disruption over the Christmas holiday season after unions vowed to continue the nationwide transport strike over pension reforms until January, as thousands prepared to travel home to their familiesThe French prime minister, Edouard Philippe, failed to break the deadlock in talks with unions and employers’ representatives on Thursday where the government had sought to avoid a Christmas holiday pile-up of frustrated travellers on Friday and over the weekend.As strikes entered their third week, Philippe emerged from the talks saying he was committed to pushing through the pension reforms. The president, Emmanuel Macron had indicated via his office earlier this week that he was “willing to improve” his plan to eliminate dozens of separate pension schemes by creating a single points-based system.But unions continued to express their anger at a new “pivot age” of 64 that workers would have to reach in order to receive a full pension, beyond the official retirement age of 62.Philippe reiterated a plea to unions to suspend transport strikes during the holidays. “I call on unions to allow French people to travel to see their families over Christmas,” he said.Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate CFDT union, said on Thursday night that he still disagreed with the government. Philippe Martinez, leader of the leftwing CGT union said: “The prime minister hasn’t heard what the street is saying.”Unions called for another day of nationwide street protests on January 9. However, UNSA, the second-biggest union at railway company SNCF, called for a truce over Christmas, which could alleviate some transport misery.The standoff is a crucial test for the centrist president, whose planned overhaul of the pensions system was a key election promise. It is part of his pledge to deliver the biggest “transformation” of the French social model and welfare system since the postwar era.Nearly 12% of the country’s rail workers staged stoppages and about 60% of drivers were on strike on Thursday, less than the previous day. The SNCF national rail authority said about 60% of trains were halted on Thursday, down from 90% earlier in the strike.Street marches took place in Paris and other cities. Recent polls show a majority of people still support the strikes and protests, as they fear they will have to work longer in return for lower pensions. Past polls have shown broad support for Macron’s principle of streamlining the pension system but, amid confusion over the changes, many do not trust the government to carry out the reforms in a fair way.Even if the strikes ease slightly, maintenance and timetabling issues could lead to a knock-on effect on Christmas services. The ecology minister, Élisabeth Borne, who handles transport, said this week that 850,000 train tickets had been purchased for Christmas travel and that all would have a place on a train.The SNCF said it could not announce travel availability between the 24 and 26 December until Friday. There were long queues at ticket offices in Paris as passengers sought to exchange tickets and take whatever services were available over the weekend, but some smaller destinations, for example towns in the south-west of France, were likely to see key services cancelled and very limited local trains or buses.The SNCF also said the strikes had led it to cancel France’s popular unaccompanied minor service on holiday trains, in which children aged between 4 and 14 can travel with a monitor. About 6,000 children will not be able to travel with the service over Christmas. The leftwing CGT union accused the rail firm of “political spin” by choosing to suspend children’s services.Macron suffered a fresh blow on Thursday as the Paris prosecutor’s office announced a preliminary investigation into possible conflicts of interest by the official leading the pensions reform process.Jean-Paul Delevoye resigned his post earlier this week after admitting he had failed to publicly declare all of his affiliations when taking on the pension project. Topics France Emmanuel Macron Europe news

UPDATE: 8:15 p.m. — Andrew Yang announced during the Democratic debate Thursday that he would randomly choose 10 families to whom he would distribute $120,000 to kick off his touted universal basic income plan. The legalities of such a policy, however, are debatable. Previously: Democratic candidate Andrew Yang has a very mysterious “big” surprise in store for the third presidential debate Thursday. After a week that included crowd-surfing, slam-dunks and suspenseful tweets, it’s hard to know what to expect. Yang was up in the polls this week when he clocked within the top six polling candidates Tuesday and has quite literally been riding the popularity wave, sharing footage on Sunday as he crowd-surfed at a California campaign event: — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 8, 2019 On Monday night, “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah pointed out Yang’s lack of media coverage and subsequent increase in stunts. “He’s not getting a ton of media coverage, so he’s out there getting that attention for himself,” Noah said in the segment. “Crowd-surfing, playing basketball, doing the cupid shuffle.... Only problem is, Andrew, you realize, you’re going to have to keep escalating your stunts.” “At this rate, in six months he’s going to have to go full Tom Cruise,” Noah said. Yang was quick to own it, sharing his own version of Noah’s clip alongside a hint there was something planned for Thursday’s debate: — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 10, 2019 He stoked the suspense throughout the week with other possible clues: It seems to me that ninja-style headwear makes everything cooler.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 11, 2019 For those wondering I will be crowdsurfing in sandals at Thursday’s debate.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 11, 2019 Two words for the debate stage tomorrow night: Gold chain.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 11, 2019 When I see an eight-foot rim I know exactly what to do. 😀 pic.twitter.com/IFVB4EIiRH— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 11, 2019 HuffPost has contacted Yang’s campaign for comment. Should Yang’s teases pan out on Thursday, it won’t be his first time sending shockwaves with his debate performance. He appeared without a tie in previous debates, making him the first male candidate to do so at a national debate on live television. RELATED COVERAGE Three Candidates Attend First Asian American Democratic Presidential Forum Andrew Yang Crowd Surfs At Southern California Campaign Event MSNBC Misidentifies Andrew Yang As 'John Yang' Download Calling all HuffPost superfans! Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter Join HuffPost

DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, dramatically underscoring the growing strategic ties between the former foes at a time when China’s regional influence is rising. The imposing grey silhouette of the USS Carl Vinson could be seen from the cliff tops just outside the central Vietnamese city of Danang, where the 103,000-tonne carrier and two other U.S. ships begin a five-day visit. “The visit marks an enormously significant milestone in our bilateral relations and demonstrates U.S. support for a strong, prosperous and independent Vietnam,” Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, said in a statement. “Through hard work, mutual respect, and by continuing to address the past while we work toward a better future, we have gone from former enemies to close partners.” The arrival of the Vinson marks the biggest U.S. military presence in Vietnam since 1975 - but it also illustrates Hanoi’s complex and evolving relationship with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea as China announced its largest rise in defense spending in three years [nL4N1QN08R]. Vietnamese envoys had been working for months to ease the concerns of their giant Chinese neighbor over the visit and the prospect of broader security cooperation between Hanoi and Washington, according to diplomats and others familiar with the talks. [nL4N1QL0AG] U.S. carriers frequently cross the South China Sea in a rising pattern of naval deployments, and are now routinely shadowed by Chinese naval vessels, naval officers in the region say. “We’ve met with numerous international entities. We’ve seen several, so yes, we’ve seen Chinese ships,” Rear Admiral John Fuller, Commander, Carrier Strike Group 1, told reporters in Danang. “We’ve seen other ships out there, so nothing extraordinary. It’s been a routine deployment and everything we’ve seen has been exceptionally professional.” China’s rapid construction and build-up of the land it holds in the disputed Spratly islands group has alarmed Vietnam and other regional governments as it seeks to enforce its claims to much of the disputed waterway, through which some $3 trillion in trade passes each year. While some Chinese commentators have used the Vinson’s presence to demand an even greater Chinese military build-up in the South China Sea, official reaction from Beijing has been relatively muted since the stop was announced in January. That announcement came during a two-day visit to Hanoi by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and followed months of backroom military diplomacy between Hanoi and the Pentagon. Slideshow (6 Images)Although no U.S. aircraft carrier has been to Vietnam since the end of the war, other, smaller U.S. warships have made high-level visits. Those include a 2016 visit by submarine tender USS Frank Cable and guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain to Cam Ranh Bay, a crucial logistics complex during the Vietnam War. A U.S. Navy band will play a concert in Danang during the Vinson’s visit, and sailors from the carrier are to spend time at a treatment center for people who were exposed to Agent Orange chemicals during the war. Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick MacfieOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.