Rebel Wilson deserved the right of reply before a magazine painted her as a serial liar, and an apology after the articles went to print, a Melbourne court has been told.The Hollywood star sat through day two of a court of appeal hearing on Thursday as the publisher of Woman’s Day challenged supreme court of Victoria orders it must pay her $4.5m for defamation.In June, an all-female jury agreed with Wilson’s claims that Bauer Media, which also publishes Australian Women’s Weekly, painted the 38-year-old as a serial liar about her age, real name and childhood in order to make it in Hollywood.Justice John Dixon ordered Bauer pay her a record $650,000 in general damages and $3,917,472 in special damages over the articles.Bauer’s barrister Michael Wheelahan QC had argued the level of damages was “manifestly excessive” and said Dixon made an error ordering Wilson be compensated for losing film roles.On Thursday Wilson’s barrister Matthew Collins QC said publication of the articles and Bauer’s conduct during the trial went “beyond ordinary bounds” in terms of aggravating features.He argued Wilson’s payout figure was conservative considering the Pitch Perfect actress could have taken eight different proceedings – one for each article – and been awarded much more overall.Collins said Dixon found there was a campaign to “take down” the actress, and when she tried to fight back, the publisher attempted to “neutralise” her responses.For example, Bauer made no attempt to get comment from Wilson before publishing content from a source with “an axe to grind”, Collins said.There was no subsequent apology from the publisher, he added.Collins said Dixon was right in finding it was “neither here nor there” that Wilson couldn’t point to a particular job lost after the articles were published.“This is an unusual industry. The studios create projects for hot stars and they do it quickly,” he said.Justice David Beach argued cinemagoers still supported Wilson’s smash hit film Pitch Perfect 2 despite the articles.“The money people in Hollywood would [pay] it doesn’t matter what’s written in Woman’s Day,” he said.“You’ve got this very good actress and she’s in a very good film and she’s being called a serial liar. What’s being a serial liar got to do with the film?“That’s the link that might be missing from this case.”But Collins said Wilson was not a typical A-list Hollywood star and had built her reputation as a homegrown actress – a reputation damaged by the articles.The parties have been given a fortnight to prepare written submissions.The appeal may then be dismissed, or damages reassessed by either the supreme court or the court of appeal.Speaking outside court before she rushed off to co-host Network Ten show The Project, Wilson said she was “really confident” the court would make “the right decision”. Topics Rebel Wilson Australian media Melbourne Celebrity Magazines news

It just got slightly easier to charge your personal cloud of Apple devices.Today (Oct. 19), Apple started accepting pre-orders for its latest smartphone, the iPhone Xr, but it also slipped out another small piece of hardware, noticed by the folks at 9to5Mac. The company released a new magnetic USB-C charging cable for the Apple Watch.Previously, Apple only sold USB-A cables, the standard USB style that’s also used for its iPhones and countless other gadgets. But the company is slowly swapping over to USB-C cables, which have a higher data transfer rate, can support more types of data being sent over them, and charge devices at the same time. They also happen to be the only type of ports on every MacBook laptop released since 2015, meaning that iPhone and Apple Watch users can’t charge their devices from their computers with the cables that come with their products.Apple started selling USB-C to Lightning (the iPhone charging port) cables around the time the new MacBooks came out, but didn’t offer a similar cable for Apple Watches. The new cable will run you $29, but at least it does mean you theoretically only need to bring one charging brick to charge all your Apple devices when you travel.

Enlarge this image Rohingya refugees use a mock elephant during a training session on how to respond to elephant incursions at the Kutupalong refugee camp. The massive refugee camp sits in what used to be a migratory path for elephants moving between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Munir Uz Zaman/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Munir Uz Zaman/Getty Images Rohingya refugees use a mock elephant during a training session on how to respond to elephant incursions at the Kutupalong refugee camp. The massive refugee camp sits in what used to be a migratory path for elephants moving between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Munir Uz Zaman/Getty Images Foyes Ullah's first thought was — burglars! It was 2 in the morning in a crowded part of the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, and a commotion had just jolted him awake. People outside were yelling. The walls of his shelter were trembling. He could hear bamboo snapping as if someone were ripping apart a neighboring hut.His neighbor was screaming, "Who is hitting my house? Who is there? But no one was responding," Ullah says. He wanted to go outside but his wife stopped him, saying, "They will kill you."It sounded as if the whole neighborhood had woken up. People were yelling, "There are robbers!"Then Ullah heard a sound: "EEEK."And he knew it was an elephant. Enlarge this image When Rohingya refugee Foyes Ullah heard noises one night, he first thought robbers were tearing at the walls of his shelter. It was actually an elephant. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption toggle caption Jason Beaubien/NPR When Rohingya refugee Foyes Ullah heard noises one night, he first thought robbers were tearing at the walls of his shelter. It was actually an elephant. Jason Beaubien/NPR When Ullah finally came outside, he says the elephant was knocking down everything in the camp, including shelters made of tarps and woven bamboo mats tied to bamboo frames. The elephant had plowed through several huts and was eating from a pot of rice that it had spilled over."One of the men here saw the elephant," Ullah says. "He pulled the tail of the elephant, and the elephant just turned and went away.It was then that Ullah discovered that the elephant had stepped on his neighbor's chest, killing him.Ullah's neighbor was one of 14 people, all but one of them refugees, who have been killed by elephants over the past year and a half in and around the camps. The most recent fatality was in February. An Asian elephant in Bangladesh. The males can weigh up to 12,000 pounds. Mamun Hossain/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mamun Hossain/Getty Images Asian elephants can weigh up to 12,000 pounds. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered. In Bangladesh, there are only a few hundred left in a couple of areas in the wild. And one of those areas is exactly where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are now taking shelter in sprawling refugee camps. Late in 2017, nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to escape brutal attacks by government security forces and pro-government militias. World Bangladesh Struggles To Cope With Pressures Of Hosting 1 Million Rohingya Refugees To deal with the elephant problem, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, has helped set up elephant response brigades among the refugees."We are not traditionally an organization that gets involved in conservation," says Paul McCallion, a senior energy and environment officer working out of the UNHCR office in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh."We are involved with the elephants here simply due to the fact that their migratory path has been cut off with the influx of refugees."The elephants end up in the camps, McCallion says, because they're instinctively trying to follow a path they've taken in the past. "It's just in their DNA, and they will keep naturally trying to take that route."He says the elephants travel each year back and forth between Myanmar and Bangladesh foraging on local vegetation. But as the Rohingya refugee camps have expanded, the settlements have taken over areas where the elephants used to graze and blocked them from getting to other grazing spots.McCallion says the elephants aren't naturally aggressive. The fatal encounters usually occur, he says, when an elephant ends up cornered in a camp:"The elephant can feel trapped. It can feel confused once it's behind the shelters. The danger is when the elephant ends up in the midst of a camp and doesn't know how to get out. That's when it gets to a stage where the animal could react in a very aggressive way."The main goal of the elephant response teams is to keep the animals out of the camps in the first place.Dotted around the camps are tall, thatched watchtowers on spindly bamboo frames. They look like fire lookouts or guard towers. Enlarge this image The U.N. constructed this elephant watch tower in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh so residents can be on the lookout. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption toggle caption Jason Beaubien/NPR The U.N. constructed this elephant watch tower in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh so residents can be on the lookout. Jason Beaubien/NPR Noor Salam, who's 33, is with the elephant response team in an area known as Camp 4 Extension. He is dressed in the official uniform of what UNHCR officials call a "tusk force" — a blue T-shirt and dark track suit bottoms. He says the towers are used to watch for elephants that might be approaching the settlement.If an elephant does enter the camp, Salam and his colleagues use whistles to summon more members of the team."In the training, we were taught to surround the elephant on three sides," Salam says. "We leave one area open for the elephant to move back toward the edge of the camp."The team members wave fluorescent flags and blast sirens from handheld megaphones at the elephants to drive them away. At night they shine large lights while making lots of noise.Salam says before the response teams were formed, the refugees would yell at the elephants and bang pots to drive them away, but it was often chaotic. The noise and the commotion would often upset the elephants even more. And it didn't keep them away. "This is the elephant's land," Salam says. "They're going to keep coming back here."But the response teams have been effective. Since Salam's team was formed in Camp 4 Extension last year, there haven't been any fatal elephant incursions in his part of the camp.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: After a marathon month of meetings with senators and intensive prep sessions, Judge Brett Kavanaugh is ready for his close-up. President Trump's pick for the Supreme Court will begin testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. It's one of the last hurdles before the Senate votes on his nomination. Kavanaugh is expected to face tough questions, especially from Senate Democrats, on issues like presidential power and abortion.Here to help us preview the hearings is Ron Bonjean. He's a Republican strategist. He led the communications team during the Neil Gorsuch confirmation effort. Welcome to the program.RON BONJEAN: Thanks. It's so great to be here.CORNISH: So at this point I understand prep for Supreme Court nominees involves mock hearings that they sit through. What does that process typically look like?BONJEAN: Yes, that's absolutely right. Kavanaugh has been at the Old Executive Office Building where they've literally set up a hearing room to look exactly like it would look like in the Senate. And what they do is they have either his former clerks, White House counsel, former senators or even current senators attend and ask him the hardest questions.CORNISH: Are people critiquing his answers in this process?BONJEAN: So that's a very good question. The first goal is to get his stamina going because, you know, it's sort of like lifting weights. Imagine sitting there all day long being pounded with questions from senators. You know, if you didn't practice, it may not work out so well.CORNISH: So you don't end up doing a bunch of eye rolling and things like that.BONJEAN: Right. And then of course there has been protesting - fake protesting, so to speak - to desensitize him for those kind of distractions because those moments can get caught on camera, and they could define the hearing itself.CORNISH: There's been a lot of debate over documents from Brett Kavanaugh's time at the White House under President George W. Bush. Now, White House says it's withholding some records from that time. They cite executive privilege. Here's a taste of the reaction from Democrats. Senator Amy Klobuchar said this to NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")AMY KLOBUCHAR: You have a nominee with excellent credentials, with his family behind him. You have the cameras there. You have the senators questioning. But this isn't normal. We are not able to see a hundred thousand documents because the administration has said we can't see them.CORNISH: Ron Bonjean, do you agree that this is not normal?BONJEAN: Well, first of all, I'm glad that Senator Klobuchar called the judge qualified. However, I would disagree with her because there are literally thousands of documents available to review. The judge has presided over 300 cases, you know, on the D.C. Circuit Court. And to claim that they're not able to understand where Kavanaugh's coming from is completely absurd.CORNISH: Will you feel the same way when the shoe is on the other foot - right? - when there's going to be a nominee and Republicans are going to say, look; we're looking for a specific set of documents, and you may have a White House that says, nope, executive privilege?BONJEAN: Well, see; and that's the challenge here, is that the Supreme Court nomination process, confirmation process has become a very partisan process much like a political campaign. Yes, of course there will be Republicans that would complain when the shoe is on the other foot. But at some point you do have to stop somewhere and draw the line. And if the White House has done so, there's not much we can do about it anyway.CORNISH: Democrats are essentially arguing that there is more in the documents that they're looking for that could reveal his thinking on issues from torture, same-sex marriage, even executive privilege, which is something people are talking about now with the current Mueller investigation. Are they wrong to try and push for that?BONJEAN: I think their goal is to try to delay this whole process. They know that the votes are there to confirm Kavanaugh. And so they've concocted a strategy to try to delay the game. They have the confirmation hearings to ask him all of these questions.CORNISH: How much of this has to do with Merrick Garland? Are they right to make the argument that...BONJEAN: A lot.CORNISH: ...Once upon a time they were told, look; we should wait until the voters have their say and an election is a referendum? Why shouldn't they have that referendum through the midterms?BONJEAN: There are a lot of Democrats who are very sore at what happened with Merrick Garland. Yes, we are in the midterms at this point, but the decision's been made to move forward. It's, you know, unfortunate that partisanship has really taken over. But we have a nominee that is about to go through the hearing process, and it's a little late for those arguments.CORNISH: Is there a way to depoliticize the Supreme Court nomination process, or is there essentially no turning back from the partisan way things are done now?BONJEAN: It's - looks very difficult right now, right? You have both sides pouring a lot of money into ads. And you have senators posturing for an increasingly I would say hyperventilating media.CORNISH: Sounds like you're saying it's a lost cause frankly.BONJEAN: (Laughter) Yeah, right now I think it's - it would be very difficult to take the campaign out of it.CORNISH: That's Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. Thank you for speaking with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.BONJEAN: Thank you so much.Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

People are blowing a fuse about sex robots – or rather, “rape robots”. Journalists from the New Statesman and the New York Times among others have all reported on the sex robot Roxxxy TrueCompanion’s controversial “Frigid Farrah” setting: a mode in which she has been programmed to resist sexual advances and which will allow men to act out rape fantasies.Women’s rights activists have lined up to condemn Roxxxy. Everyday Sexism’s Laura Bates describes her as “the sex robot that’s yours to rape for just $9,995”. Writing in the Times on Thursday, the barrister Kate Parker called for sex robots like Roxxxy to be criminalised. “The sophistication of the technology behind Roxxxy marks a step forward for robotics. For human society, it’s an unquestionable regression,” she says.There’s a problem with this story: the robot doesn’t exist. Douglas Hines, the man behind Roxxxy TrueCompanion, has been drumming up publicity for his creation ever since he unveiled her to the public at the 2010 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Even though his website pulsates with throbbing “Order Her Now!” buttons, no journalist has seen or photographed Roxxxy since 2010, and no one in the surprisingly extensive robot enthusiast community has ever reported owning one.I tried to meet Hines in person many times over the past year while researching a documentary and article on sex robots, and although he was happy to talk over the phone he avoided meeting me when I asked to see Roxxxy in the flesh. Roxxxy, much like the replicants and Stepford Wives of science fiction, seems to be nothing more than fantasy.But while Roxxxy may not be available to buy, models like her will be very soon. Abyss Creations are due to ship the first talking, animatronic, AI-enabled heads for their hyper-realistic silicone sex dolls by the end of the year. And while the sex robots on offer from China and Japan may currently have more in common with push-button talking baby dolls than Ava from Ex Machina, there’s commercial pressure to get sophisticated models with AI on sale as soon as possible.The sex tech industry is worth $30bn a year, and with two thirds of heterosexual men in a recent survey saying they could imagine buying a sex robot for themselves, the race is on to make the fantasy a reality. But before sex robots hit the market, we have the space to ask whether they should.The issue with sex robots in general – not just hypothetical ones programmed to have a “resist” function – is how their existence will affect how human beings interact with each other. Sex robots are different from sex dolls and sex toys because they have AI. More than just a mechanism for giving you an orgasm, a sex robot is designed to be a substitute partner: a vibrator doesn’t laugh at your jokes and remember your birthday, but Abyss Creations’ Harmony model can.If men (and it will be men – even the few male sex dolls produced by Abyss Creations every year are generally shipped to male customers) become used to having sex with synthetic companions that are programmed to meet their most precise specifications, how will they then interact with real women who have the inconvenience of having their own idiosyncrasies and free will? If you are used to having sex with ultra-life-like humanoids whenever and however you want, will you be more likely to expect complete dominance in your relationships with other humans?Young people who have grown up in the age of online porn might consider shaved pubic hair and double penetration to be completely normal. Similarly, the generation growing up when sex robots are commonplace might see brutally selfish sex as both desirable and achievable.Sex robots exist purely to satisfy their owners. Is any sexual relationship healthy if it’s only ever about one person’s pleasure? Can sex with a robot ever be consensual? This isn’t about robot rights – it’s about the kind of sex that will become normal within human societies if we start having sex with robots.Child sex dolls have been banned in the UK because of fears they will encourage the desire to abuse among paedophiles, rather than simply sate it. Parker is calling for a similar ban for all sex robots. But while we might be able to stop them being imported or manufactured here, we can’t stop them being developed overseas.Perhaps the most important question to ask is why there is a market for sex robots in the first place. Why do some people find the idea of a partner without autonomy so attractive? Until we have the answer to that, we’ll need to prepare ourselves for the inevitable rise of the sex robots.• Jenny Kleeman is a freelance journalist Topics Robots Opinion Artificial intelligence (AI) Computing Consciousness Sex comment

Online video consumption in India is on fire, but content companies are struggling.Between January and June 2015 (H1 2015), and January and June 2017 (H1 2017), the average amount of time Indians spent on apps classified as “video players and editors, and entertainment” grew by over 300%, according to US-based app analytics company, App Annie.“In H1 2017, India saw the highest two-year growth in average monthly average users (MAU) for the top five video-streaming apps, increasing more than 100%,” App Annie said. “This was more than twice the rate of other countries analysed in APAC (Asia-Pacific).”The trend was “driven by rapid adoption of smartphones and increased access to affordable data,” App Annie said in a recent report titled State of Video Streaming Apps in Asia.However, in terms of revenue generation (between H1 2016 and H1 2017), India lags everyone in the group. Most Indians flock to YouTube but several young homegrown apps are catching up.Star India-owned Hotstar saw a 100% year-on-year increase in MAU during January-June 2017, and Reliance Industries’ JioTV and JioCinema, launched in September 2016, have quickly become favourites.Top video streaming apps in India in H1 2017 1. YouTube 2. Hotstar 3. JioTV 4. JioCinema 5. Voot But when it comes to making money, it is US-based Netflix that’s leading the pack. ”Long-form videos such as movies and television shows by international platforms such as Netflix and local consolidators both remain a key growth driver in APAC,” App Annie said.Top five video streaming apps by revenue in H1 2017 1. Netflix 2. Hotstar 3. Eros Now 4. Wynk Movies 5. MLB.com At Bat

TIANJIN, China (Reuters) - China will not stoop to competitive devaluation of its currency, Premier Li Keqiang stressed, hours after China hit back, with a softer punch than the one landed by the United States, in an escalating tariff war between the world’s largest economies. Addressing a World Economic Forum event in the port city of Tianjin on Wednesday, Li did not directly mention the trade conflict but said talk of Beijing deliberately weakening its currency was “groundless.” “One-way depreciation of the yuan brings more harm than benefits for China,” he said. “China will never go down the road of relying on yuan depreciation to stimulate exports.” China will not do that to chase “thin profits” and “a few small bucks”. Li went on to say that the world’s multi-lateral trading system should be upheld, and that unilateral trade actions will not solve any problems. His remarks gave a lift to the yuan [CNY=CFXS], which has lost about 9 percent of its value since mid-April amid the ongoing trade war. On Tuesday, Beijing added $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned levies on $200 billion of Chinese goods. But Beijing is running out of room to respond to any further U.S. tariffs on a dollar-for-dollar basis, raising concerns it may resort to other measures to weather what could be a protracted trade battle. China has yet to publicly accept an invitation extended last week by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hold a fresh round of talks, which China welcomed at the time. On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he had no information on a possible trade delegation and questioned U.S. sincerity about wanting new talks, noting that the last round was followed immediately by the activation of new tariffs. “This has become a kind of U.S. routine,” he said. The United States wants to pressure China to make sweeping changes to its trade, technology transfer and high-tech industrial subsidy policies. Trump had warned that retaliation by China would trigger tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese goods, on top of duties on $250 billion in imports that are already in place or threatened. China, which bought only $130 billion in American goods last year, has imposed or threatened tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. products. “China are out of bullets. The fight is done and dusted. Now it’s just a question of how the Chinese can save face and say ‘alright we’re going to change, going to open up wider access not only to the U.S. but to the EU and Japan’,” said Christopher Peel, chief investment officer at Tavistock Wealth in London. “Their economy is export-led, they can’t afford for it to go out of control,” he told Reuters. The new U.S. tariffs will begin on Sept. 24 at 10 percent and will increase to 25 percent by the end of 2018, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasting a 0.5 percentage point decline in Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2019 to 6.1 percent. Oxford Economics said in a note that China’s economic growth in 2019 could fall well below 6 percent, and said prospects for near-term easing in tensions were low. But, it added “the likelihood of de-escalation will rise over time as the increasing economic impact in the U.S. will make the Trump team less combative, and China realizes that it will be hard to integrate more into the global economy without some concessions regarding its specific economic model.” Investors were relieved that the latest escalation was less severe than some market participants had expected, with Asian stocks .MIAPJ0000PUS rising on Wednesday and U.S. Treasury yields near four-month highs. China remains unafraid of the “extreme measures” taken by the United States, the People’s Daily newspaper said in a front-page article in its overseas edition on Wednesday. “To deal with the trade war, what China really should do is to focus on doing its own thing well,” said the newspaper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party. “(China) is not worried that the U.S. trade counter measures will raise domestic commodity prices by too much but will instead use it as an opportunity to replace imports, promote localization or develop export-oriented advanced manufacturing,” it said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry (unseen) at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing, China, August 28, 2018. Roman Pilipey/Pool via REUTERSThe Global Times tabloid, which is affiliated to the People’s Daily, said the trade war was a chance to pursue greater global recognition of its financial markets and that it could open its A-share market more to listings by Western firms. Confidence among Asian companies has slumped to the weakest in almost three years as businesses fear collateral damage from the worsening trade war and China’s slowing economy, the latest Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. Chinese firms were the most pessimistic since the poll began in 2009. Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Helen Reid in LONDON; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Kim CoghillOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hillary Clinton takes responsibility for her loss in the 2016 presidential election – up to a point – in a bombshell new memoir out next week. But she saves plenty of fire for her Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders, former FBI director James Comey and even vice-president Joe Biden.She also, of course, excoriates the man who beat her, Donald Trump, and forcefully defends the man who cheated on her with an affair that disgraced his presidency, Bill Clinton.And she mildly scolds Barack Obama.What Happened reportedly gets as close as anything yet to the real Hillary Clinton beneath the candidate and what led to perhaps the most shocking result in a presidential election in modern times.Clinton’s take on her campaign, at 494 pages, will be published by Simon & Schuster on 12 September, but CNN said it bought an advance copy from a store in Jacksonville, Florida, and reported on excerpts on Tuesday.Other extracts, previously broadcast by MSNBC, revealed that Clinton considered telling Donald Trump “Back up, you creep!” during one of the presidential debates. She said her “skin crawled” when he invaded her personal space.She writes in her new book: “I go back over my own shortcomings and the mistakes we made. I take responsibility for all of them. You can blame the data, blame the message, blame anything you want – but I was the candidate. It was my campaign. Those were my decisions.”She admits she badly misjudged the environment in which she was running and the candidate she was running against, according to CNN.She writes: “I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t realize how quickly the ground was shifting under all our feet. I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment.”Clinton recalls the euphoria of her last full day of campaigning. During their final event together, Barack Obama hugged her and whispered, “You’ve got this. I’m so proud of you.” Then in the early hours of 9 November, Obama urged Clinton to concede to Trump, not string things out. The phone call was “one of the strangest moments” of her life.“I congratulated Trump and offered to do anything I could to make sure the transition was smooth,” she writes. “It was all perfectly nice and weirdly ordinary, like calling a neighbor to say you can’t make it to his barbecue. It was mercifully brief. I was numb. It was all so shocking.”Clinton says sexism hampered her ability to connect with voters. “What makes me such a lightning rod for fury? I’m really asking. I’m at a loss. I think it’s partly because I’m a woman,” she writes. She also admits suffering from an inability to speak her mind on the campaign trail. She pinpointed her comment during a CNN town hall about putting coal miners out of business as the misstep “I regret the most.” Clinton also reiterated that it was “dumb” of her to use a private email server when she was secretary of state.But she criticises Sanders, her opponent in the Democratic primaries, who ran her to the wire with a huge wave of popular support behind his calls for a socialist-style revolution.“He didn’t get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic party,” she writes. “He isn’t a Democrat. That’s not a smear, that’s what he says. I’m proud to be a Democrat and I wish Bernie was, too.“Every time I wanted to hit back against Bernie’s attacks, I was told to restrain myself. My team kept reminding me that we didn’t want to alienate Bernie’s supporters. President Obama urged me to grit my teeth and lay off Bernie as much as I could. I felt like I was in a straitjacket.“Nonetheless, his attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign.”She is generous with her praise for many party colleagues and those who campaigned for her. But she questions criticism she received from former vice-president Biden, who is still viewed by some as a contender for 2020.“Joe Biden said the Democratic party in 2016 “did not talk about what it always stood for – and that was how to maintain a burgeoning middle class,’” Clinton writes. “I find this fairly remarkable, considering that Joe himself campaigned for me all over the midwest and talked plenty about the middle class.”But it was then-FBI director James Comey’s October revival of her email troubles that holed her campaign below the waterline, she writes, after he wrote a letter telling Congress he was looking into freshly discovered emails relating to her use of a private server while at the state department.“Comey’s letter turned that picture upside down,” Clinton writes, turning her image from a steady leader to one compromised by scandal.Meanwhile, during passages about Russia’s meddling in the election, she wonders whether a more forceful public response from then-president Barack Obama could have changed matters.In her personal life, she describes her marriage to Bill as one with “many, many more happy days than sad or angry ones” and talks at length about their loving relationship, despite hearing time and again even on the 2016 campaign trail that it was “just a marriage on paper now.”Looking back to the scandals of the 1990s, when he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to his impeachment, and accusations by several women of sexual impropriety, she writes: “There were times that I was deeply unsure about whether our marriage could or should survive, but I asked myself the questions that mattered to me: do I still love him? And can I still be in this marriage without becoming unrecognizable to myself – twisted by anger, resentment, or remoteness? The answers were always yes.” Topics Hillary Clinton US politics Donald Trump Bernie Sanders Democrats news

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, called elections in Catalonia in order to squash the wealthy region’s troublesome independence movement, but instead discovered he was incapable of taming it.The results from Thursday’s vote are disastrous for Rajoy and his conservative government, but are also a headache for those who now have to form a Catalan regional government. Just as in 2015, most Catalans voted against the independence parties, but these still won a majority in parliament – with the balance of power now in the hands of the most radical separatists.Rather than heal wounds, this split will inflame them. Neither side looks likely to back down, and both Catalonia and Spain will suffer as a result.Carles Puigdemont, the outgoing prime minister who fled to Belgium after leading the regional parliament to a declaration of independence in October, may now be reappointed. He would run the strangest regional government Spain has ever seen. It is not clear, for example, whether he will return to Catalonia, where an investigating magistrate is waiting to arrest him on charges of sedition and misuse of public funds. He may choose, instead, to become a symbolic leader in exile. Both the number two in Puigdemont’s new Together for Catalonia coalition (JxC), Jordi Sànchez, and the leader of their allied Catalan Republican Left party, Oriol Junqueras, are currently in jail and under investigation on the same charges. Puigdemont’s first demand on Thursday was for them to be released, but that is up to the courts, not the government. The sight of deputies such as Junqueras being ferried backwards and forwards in police vans to the Catalan parliament in Barcelona cannot be ruled out. Competition between the parties of Puigdemont and Junqueras for leadership of the independence movement, meanwhile, will force them to ramp up the rhetoric of confrontation. Although a coalition government led by the two men is the most likely outcome, this cannot be formed without the anti-capitalist, pro-civil disobedience Popular Unity Candidacy, whose four deputies hold the balance of power. They want a full showdown with Madrid. A return by the separatists to the so-called “route map” by which they unilaterally declared an insubstantial form of independence in October would lead to them crashing straight back into the concrete wall of Spain’s constitution and its cast-iron defender, Rajoy. The latter showed on 1 October, when police beat their way into voting stations to snatch away urns during an illegal referendum organised by Puigdemont’s government, that he was willing to use the violence of the state.Friday’s decision by the supreme court to widen its investigation into attempted sedition, naming other parliamentarians elected on Thursday as suspects, shows there will be no let-up from the courts either. With support from the EU glaringly absent and nobody recognising a Catalan right to self-determination, Puigdemont and Junqueras will struggle to find ways to advance their independence project. Before they can do that, however, separatists have other battles to fight. The October independence declaration led to the imposition of direct rule by Madrid. Rajoy will not change that until a new Catalan government is formed, and will reimpose it if that government steps outside the constitution. The separatists will fight to have Junqueras, Sànchez and others released on bail and to prevent them from being sent back to jail after trial. There are already calls for an amnesty. Rajoy’s standing in Catalonia, meanwhile, could not be lower. Only 4% of Catalans voted for his People’s party (PP), which will have just three deputies in the 135-seat regional parliament. That contrasts with the quarter of the vote won by Citizens, a liberal rival that was born in Catalonia and is as firm in its opposition to separatism as the PP. Citizens is a threat to Rajoy elsewhere in Spain, and the competition to prove who is tougher on separatism may lead to the rhetoric of unionism becoming more heated. That leaves the two sides even more at loggerheads than they were three months ago, before the current crisis exploded. More worrying for Catalans, however, is the deep rift opening up in their own society as extreme positions win out over moderation. Healing that wound may prove the biggest challenge of all. In the meantime, Catalans need a government to run their schools, hospitals and police force. Neither Rajoy’s rock-like obstinacy, nor Puigdemont’s efforts to bring about independence despite the majority who oppose it, will help improve their lives in the short-term. Topics Catalonia Spain Europe analysis

The S&P 500 share index is due to break the record for the longest bull market in US stock market history on Wednesday.Global economyThe strength of the global economy has helped US stocks. There had been fears that China would suffer a hard landing after years of supercharged economic growth, yet Beijing has managed to record slower growth without a total collapse.Chinese growth might have come down from an annual growth rate of more than 10% in 2010 to 6.9% last year, but it has far from crashed as feared, helping to drive forward the global economy – and many American companies in the S&P 500. The eurozone sovereign debt crisis snared the European economy straight after the financial crisis, causing problems for US markets, although never enough to unseat the bull market under way since 2009. More recently, the eurozone appears to have come through the worst of the crisis, helping further propel global economic growth and to support US stocks. There are risks emerging in Italy, facing a potential budget clash with the EU, while there are also problems in some emerging market economies, including Turkey, Venezuela and Argentina. However, analysts say the risks remain idiosyncratic and manageable for the wider global economy, for now.World politicsStock markets have largely avoided the impact of geopolitical disruption over the past decade, despite international crises such as the Syrian civil war and the rise of Isis. Brexit, the annexation of Crimea and regular sabre-rattling from North Korea have also failed to shake American investors. Overall, the global political environment has been benign for markets since the turn of the decade.Fiscal policyBarack Obama’s stimulus package for the US economy – worth about $1.4tn in tax cuts, spending and other measures during his presidency – was unfurled straight after the financial crisis to avert a damaging and slow recovery from the crash, with the support helping America get back on its feet.Since then, Donald Trump’s tax cuts, brought in at the tail end of the record bull run, have helped turbocharge American corporate profits. The president cut the US corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% from the beginning of 2018, arguing it would help companies to create more jobs. Critics said the cuts would instead line the pockets of the richest in society.Second quarter profits for American companies were around a quarter higher than they were a year ago, according to Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at investment management firm Aberdeen Standard, who said the tax cuts had provided much of the uplift. “The tax cuts put the afterburners on already strong profits,” he said. Topics US markets Standard & Poor's Rating agencies Federal Reserve US economy US economic growth and recession Barack Obama

Wildfires blazing through California have entered the heart of Los Angeles as authorities warned of an “extreme fire danger” across the city.Firefighters in the affluent Bel-Air neighbourhood battled to save multimillion-dollar estates in the path of the flames, which have destroyed homes near the Getty museum in America’s second largest city.Video and photographs posted on social media showed hillsides above busy roads covered in flames, rows of houses reduced to ash, and firefighters spraying water on walls of fire. The largest blaze, the Thomas fire, has covered more than 95,000 acres, destroying more than 150 homes and threatening thousands more in Ventura, about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of Los Angeles. A woman was found dead after a car crash in an area under an evacuation order, the authorities said on Thursday.With winds forecast to reach 80mph, officials have warned the worst could be yet to come.An alert sent by the countrywide emergency system in Los Angeles said: “Strong winds overnight creating extreme fire danger.” The fear is that the winds, blowing westward from the California desert, could stoke several blazes burning in the Los Angeles area that have already forced an estimated 200,000 people to evacuate.“We are in the beginning of a protracted wind event,” Ken Pimlott, the director of the California department of forestry and fire protection, told the Los Angeles Times. “There will be no ability to fight fire in these kinds of winds.” The Skirball fire, which erupted early on Wednesday, burned about 500 acres near large estates in Bel-Air, scorching part of a winery owned by Rupert Murdoch. It erupted before dawn in the Sepulveda Pass, just up Interstate 405 from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), which cancelled classes for the rest of the day. The Los Angeles Unified school district, the country’s second largest with more than 640,000 students, said it closed at least 265 of its nearly 1,100 schools on Thursday.Dozens of schools were also closed in Ventura County. The school district, with nearly 17,000 students, said it hoped to reopen on Monday. In the city of Ventura, along the coast, where hundreds of structures were destroyed, blazes also killed more than two dozen horses at a stable.The deputy fire chief, Charles Butler, said firefighters and aircraft had stopped the spread of the blaze in Bel-Air and were attempting to contain it before the winds returned. He said four homes had been destroyed and 11 damaged, while about 700 properties, an apartment building and a school had been ordered to evacuate. Paris Hilton was among those who said they had fled the fire.The Los Angeles mayor declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday morning because of the Skirball fire. Eric Garcetti told a news conference: “These are days that break your heart. These are also days that show the resilience of our city.”In the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, the Creek fire destroyed at least 30 homes, blackened more than 12,000 acres and forced the evacuation of 2,500 homes and a convalescent centre.Another fire, known as the Rye, threatened more than 5,000 homes and structures north-west of Los Angeles. According to the LA Times, the LAPD have asked people to avoid using navigation apps on their phones because drivers were being directed towards open roads that were traffic-free because they were on fire.Footage of a man appearing to coax a rabbit out of the fires near La Conchita on Wednesday night went viral on social media.Three firefighters were injured and said to be in a stable condition in hospital, the Los Angeles fire department said. South of Los Angeles, authorities also ordered evacuations in parts of San Diego County, closer to the Mexico border. In the rural community of Bonsall, more than a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed. In a small evacuated community called Faria Beach, some residents were staying in place. Joseph Ruffner, a resident who left earlier in the week and recently returned, told the Associated Press that he wasn’t going to evacuate again.“This morning there was a wall of fire back right over here,” he said. “I didn’t think it was no big deal, but it’s coming back to burn what it didn’t burn yesterday.” Topics Wildfires Natural disasters and extreme weather California Los Angeles news

Mr. Trump eventually relented on the family separations, and a federal judge in California halted them in June. But in January, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that thousands more families might have been separated than previously reported.While Mr. Trump has been hampered by the law in his efforts to impose some new enforcement policies, there are certain things he can do without congressional approval.Those include shutting down ports of entries along the southwestern border and slowing down the process for both illegal and legal immigration.Last month, he closed American field offices abroad that had helped facilitate immigration applications. Mr. Trump has also limited the number of people who can request asylum each day through a process known as “metering,” and he has threatened to shut down traffic lanes and tariff trucks at the ports of entry.Jonathan Meyer, a former deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, said the Trump administration will continue to pursue hard-line immigration policies because they are important to the president’s political supporters, who helped fuel Mr. Trump’s success in the 2016 presidential campaign.“It appears that at times it’s less important in this administration, whether they lose or win in court, than to just say they’ve been able to have done it and have it as a talking point,” Mr. Meyer said. “And have an opportunity to criticize the courts if they lose.”Mr. Meyer said installing a new secretary at the department will further embolden Mr. Trump.“He’s willing to move forward and do things even when he knows he’s going to be sued for it and when the legality is in question,” Mr. Meyer said. “If that’s the position you take and if you have people willing to implement that strategy, there’s a lot of things you can do. But eventually you’re going to be hit with a temporary restraining order.”

After years of on-and-off talks, T-Mobile and Sprint have finally agreed to tie the knot. That’s assuming that regulators approve of the deal.T-Mobile and Sprint have, for a very long time, been the smaller and less powerful No. 3 and No. 4 national carriers, behind Verizon and AT&T. Over the past decade, that’s yielded some good prices for consumers as the two have fought desperately to take subscribers from the frontrunners. But too often, the low prices have been accompanied by spotty or slower service.That’s been changing over the last few years, at least on the T-Mobile side. The company has invested heavily in its LTE networks, and speeds and coverage away from city centers has improved. The company has seemed to revel in its insurgent status, joyfully jabbing at AT&T and Verizon, both in the public comments of CEO John Legere and in its terms and pricing. It can be credited with exposing the onerous phone subsidy schemes of the wireless carriers, and offering an alternative that helped do away with the practice altogether.T-Mobile has also helped encourage the whole industry to offer unlimited wireless data plans. This insurgent attitude is wrapped up in the “Un-carrier” brand name it gave itself.The question now is whether T-Mobile will retain its “Un-carrier” modus operandi when it’s no longer a much smaller insurgent. If the Sprint deal is approved, the combined companies–which will be called T-Mobile and led by Legere as CEO–would control about 30% of the nation’s wireless subscribers, versus about 38% for Verizon and 33% for AT&T. But the new company may find itself in a stronger position to win a larger share from Verizon and AT&T.Smaller wireless market players like T-Mobile and Sprint become victims of economics. They have less buying power for things like network equipment, wireless spectrum, and consumer handsets. And, of course, one of the main goals of any corporation combination is to find areas of redundancy and excise them. (T-Mobile and Sprint have said the merger will create jobs, but I imagine some fairly creative reasoning underpins that rosy statement.)What’s In It For Consumers?As wireless consumers, we should be asking ourselves what’s in this merger for us. Will T-Mobile be willing or able to bring its disruptive strategies to the new company? Or will it start behaving more like AT&T and Verizon? Will it start doing things like colluding with other big carriers to make it harder for people to change carriers? (The Department of Justice is now investigating AT&T and Verizon for that.) Finally, will the deal eventually result in faster service at better prices?I’m not so sure. If the merger goes through, I expect T-Mobile to make a show of offering new “Un-carrier” deals that sound disruptive but don’t change people’s phone bills all that much. After all, T-Mobile’s leadership will have to answer to a couple of big corporate overlords in the background (Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank), who want to see real dividends grow from the merger.T-Mobile and Sprint will have a long time to think about it. The deal, if approved, won’t see the companies actually combine for another year.What’s Different This Time?The two companies have come to the table to talk about a deal several times in the past, but have walked away with no agreement. This time is different for a couple of important reasons–one technical and one political.The merger is all about the next generation of wireless service that’s coming our way. Wireless carriers are preparing to start the transition from 4G LTE wireless technology to 5G. As of now, Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s older 3G networks are still in operation–and the two companies use two different flavors of 3G wireless technology. Back when a large portion of network traffic ran over those networks, it made less sense for T-Mobile and Sprint to combine. Now that LTE handles most of the traffic, the 3G incompatibility is no longer a big issue.On the political side, the current administration–and the current FCC under Ajit Pai–wants a more market-driven, hands-off approach to regulating corporations. It’s good weather for big mergers. In fact, T-Mobile and Sprint reopened talks after Trump took office last year, but ended up with no deal because Sprint’s major owner Softbank hesitated to give up leadership of the combined company to T-Mobile. That hesitation has apparently softened in 2018.In the past, regulators have looked with disfavor on big deals like this one because they feared it would result in less competition in the wireless marketplace. Recall that AT&T tried to swallow up T-Mobile back in 2011 for $39 billion but eventually gave up its bid after it became clear that the FCC didn’t want the wireless market to shrink from four players to three.But this deal is very different. It’s not a big shark swallowing a small one. It’s the distant No. 3 and No. 4 joining forces to form a competitor with the strength to compete on the same level with No. 1 and No. 2.Two Ways Of Seeing ItWhether regulators will measure the wireless market on the number of the competitors or the strength of the competitors is anybody’s guess.Gartner analyst Bill Menezes believes both the FCC and FTC will need to sign off on the deal, as well as the antitrust division of the Justice Department.“If the last couple of attempts at a merger by these two–along with the regulatory treatment of large telecom mergers in general–taught us anything, it’s that the regulatory review will be lengthy and the outcome cloudy for some time,” Menezes said. “Anyone who tells you they know right now how this will turn out from the regulatory side is nuts.”I hope the deal goes through this time. The playing field is about to radically change with the advent of 5G, and fast wireless services will be ubiquitous. Many more devices will be connected to the internet wirelessly. When that happens, speeds—and consumer expectations—will go way up. The big carriers will no doubt want to recoup their investment in the new network technology by asking for a larger share of consumer paychecks. We may need a competitive counterbalance to that impulse more than ever.

A United Nations expert has urged Iran's government to stop harassing BBC Persian staff and their families.David Kaye, the special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, confirmed he had received a complaint from the BBC about their treatment.It came after Iran initiated a criminal investigation into 150 BBC staff, former staff and contributors for "conspiracy against national security".A subsequent court order froze the assets of the 150 staff involved.That means they cannot inherit family assets and prevents them and their families from selling property or cars.BBC director general Tony Hall said Iran's action was "an unprecedented collective punishment of journalists" and against fundamental human rights.BBC Persian broadcasts news from London on TV, radio and online. It reaches an estimated audience of 18 million every week despite being banned in Iran.In a statement issued on Wednesday, the BBC said its BBC Persian staff and people associated with them had been subjected to a "sustained campaign of harassment and persecution" since the disputed 2009 presidential election, when the Iranian government accused foreign powers of interference. Examples it cited included: The sister of a journalist was held in Evin prison for 17 days and forced to plead with the journalist via Skype to stop working for the BBC or spy on colleagues Many elderly parents of BBC staff have been interrogated, including being questioned late at night BBC staff not being able to visit their dying parents for fear of imprisonment or being prevented from leaving Iran Reputations of staff attacked in the press and on social media with false and defamatory allegations including claims of sexual impropriety or sexual acts which are illegal in Iran, including those which attract the death penalty The BBC complaint to the UN cites what it describes as numerous severe breaches of Iranian obligations under various international treaties to which it is signatory.By Rana Rahimpour, BBC PersianIn November 2013, my father's passport was confiscated when he was about to board a flight from Tehran to London to join my mother ahead of the birth of my first child. My mother's passport was confiscated upon her return to Iran two weeks later.It took three months before we found out how long the travel ban was going to last. My parents spent many days in the courthouse, trying to get an answer to no avail. It was only after my mother passed out at the gates that the judge's secretary felt sorry for them and arranged a meeting.The judge told my father that my work as a journalist for the BBC was the reason why my parents were banned from leaving Iran. He added that, as my parents, they had the power to stop me - which they obviously did not.The travel ban was lifted a year later. But it took a long time to recover from the darkest period of our lives. "This is an unprecedented collective punishment of journalists who are simply doing their jobs. This is not just a campaign against BBC Persian staff but against fundamental human rights, and the BBC calls on the government of Iran to end this legal action immediately," Lord Hall said."The BBC, on behalf of its staff, will use all available legal avenues to challenge this order and we call on the international community to use their own influence in Iran to persuade the authorities that this completely unacceptable treatment must end."Mr Kaye later told reporters in New York that he was aware of the BBC's complaint and that he would discuss the allegations with Iranian officials."We urge the government of Iran to stop harassing the employees and families of employees of the BBC," he said.

India’s obsession with affordable small cars could delay the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious plan to only sell electric vehicles (EVs) in the country by 2030.Weaning Indian automobile customers away from low-cost cars to the significantly more expensive EVs will be an uphill task unless the government subsidises the companies to help bring down prices. However, authorities are yet to do anything to make EVs attractive to consumers, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s (BNEF’s) report on long-term EV outlook said.And this lack of affordability leads to a grim outlook. “Low average vehicle prices will inhibit EV uptake for the next 10 years before adoption rises in the 2030s…We expect EVs to represent just 10% of India’s total passenger vehicle fleet in 2040,” said the report released on July 06.In any case, it’s not only BNEF that has raised the issue. The industry, too, has referred to the need for monetary support from the government to popularise EVs in a price-sensitive market like India.“Nobody would buy a Rs5 lakh car which would entail an additional cost of Rs7 lakh (after electrification). Affordability becomes a huge problem,” Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava had said in April this year.Besides, the government’s dillydallying on a concrete EV plan has not helped the segment.Months after announcing the “EV only” plan, the government did an about turn, informing parliament in January this year that there was no such plan at all. Then, in March, power minister RK Singh said the government would come up with a policy that would have both a regulatory framework and technical standards on EVs.Many companies are in a wait-and-watch mode due to this inconsistency.For instance, Korean carmaker Hyundai Motors is yet to decide if it should make EVs in India or import and assemble them locally. ”The former (local manufacture) will translate into cheaper vehicles in a price-sensitive market, but the latter (import) will be quicker to implement,” Rakesh Srivastava, director for sales and marketing of Hyundai Motors India, had said at the Delhi Auto Expo in February. “The other challenge in India’s EV market is finding a balance between affordability and volume.”The BNEF report even suggests creating strict EV quotas like China has done. According to China’s new policy, automakers are assigned EV scores linked to their production of various types of zero- and low-emission vehicles. Starting 2019, this score has to be at least 10% of the company’s overall car production, rising to 12% in 2020.

By Updated Nov. 14, 2017 6:02 pm ET BEIJING—Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, posted a 39% drop in quarterly net profit amid production challenges dogging the flagship product of its biggest customer, Apple Inc. Apple’s iPhone X, which Foxconn assembles in China, went on sale Nov. 3, after it was plagued by a series of production problems among Apple’s suppliers. The troubles were centered on new technologies packed into the device, the most expensive iPhone ever, with a starting price of $999 and features including... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In

A day after India celebrated Diwali (Oct. 19), the festival of lights, cities across the country are gasping for breath.In New Delhi, India’s capital city of 16 million people, the air quality crossed even the danger level with extremely high PM 2.5 content in the air, according to US embassy’s pollution monitoring system. PM 2.5 is fine particulate matter of diameter less than 2.5 microns which reduces visibility and causes respiratory problems.Mumbai was a little better off, but its air quality remained hazardous on Oct. 20.Earlier this month, India’s supreme court had banned the sale of firecrackers during Diwali in Delhi with the aim of curbing air pollution. Last year, New Delhi was under a virtual shut down as the Diwali fireworks caused smog that lingered for days.A look at New Delhi’s pollution levels this year shows how pollution grew steadily from the time people began bursting crackers on Oct. 19 evening.Across the country, air quality remained extremely hazardous in the morning of Oct. 20, even though it did improve in several cities.Pollution levels began to fall in Mumbai but was still very unhealthy at 254, which that could lead to significant aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons suffering cardiopulmonary disease.Meanwhile, across south Indian cities, as well as in Kolkata, the pollution was declining by Oct. 20. In Hyderabad, it was returning to normal following a spike through the night. In Chennai and Kolkata, it was in the permissible range, probably because the former celebrated Diwali a day earlier on Oct. 18, while it has been raining continuously in the latter.

Enlarge this image Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig is facing charges related to the work he and his former law firm did on behalf of the former government of Ukraine. Charles Dharapak/Associated Press hide caption toggle caption Charles Dharapak/Associated Press Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig is facing charges related to the work he and his former law firm did on behalf of the former government of Ukraine. Charles Dharapak/Associated Press Updated at 3:03 p.m. ETFormer Obama White House counsel Greg Craig was charged with making false statements on Thursday in connection with what authorities called failures to report work for powerful clients in Ukraine.A grand jury in Washington, D.C., returned an indictment on Thursday that included two charges, the Justice Department said. In short, the indictment alleges that Craig withheld information he knew he should have given to the Justice Department and deliberately gave it other information he knew was false. Attorneys for Craig warned Wednesday evening that such an indictment was likely. They said they would fight any prosecution. "Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion," William W. Taylor III and William J. Murphy of the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder said in a statement. Craig, who stepped down from the firm Skadden, Arps last year without explanation, is part of the latest investigation by authorities involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires disclosures by people in the U.S. working for overseas entities. Another onetime Skadden lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, and the firm itself have been the focus of earlier action by the Justice Department.Skadden reached a settlement with the department in January in which it avoided prosecution by agreeing to register under FARA and pay about $4.6 million. Law Greg Craig, Ex-White House Counsel, Expects Charges In Ukraine Case, Lawyers Say National Security All The Criminal Charges To Emerge So Far From Robert Mueller's Investigation Manafort and Gates later became Donald Trump's campaign chairman and vice chairman during the 2016 presidential race and have faced criminal charges of their own related to their work for Ukraine. The Tymoshenko briefThe political consulting of that era is the origin of the legal troubles for Craig and Skadden: Manafort helped arrange for Ukraine's then-pro-Russian government to hire the law firm at the time the regime was Manafort's client. National Security A 'Toothless' Old Law Could Have New Fangs, Thanks To Robert Mueller Skadden was tasked with preparing a report defending the Ukrainian prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The case against her was considered thin and she was widely viewed as the victim of a kangaroo trial designed to punish a political enemy of the government. That's why Ukraine's then-President Viktor Yanukovych likely wanted his consultant, Manafort, to try to rehabilitate the case against her and the image of Ukraine in the West. To so do, Manafort sought the services of Skadden and its well-connected attorneys. The firm wrote a report validating the Tymoshenko prosecution.At the time, Manafort and the team of American lawyers and lobbyists working on the account never registered their activities with the Justice Department. Justice Department lawyer Andrew Weissmann, part of the team that prosecuted Manafort, later told a sentencing judge that "this deliberate effort to obscure the facts undermines our political discourse."Tymoshenko later was freed from prison after a popular uprising that drove Yanukovych from office. He fled to exile in Russia. That also meant the end of lucrative business for Manafort and Gates. Politics Paul Manafort Sentenced To 3.5 More Years In Prison; New State Indictment Announced The laws they broke in response to the withering of their Ukraine income became the subject of separate criminal cases.Manafort has been sentenced to about 7 1/2 years in federal prison for his Ukraine-connected crimes and others; Gates has pleaded guilty to federal charges but has been cooperating with investigators and has not yet been sentenced. Craig's defense preparations Craig appears to have been expecting action by prosecutors for some time; he retained attorney Taylor in the autumn of last year. Taylor had largely been silent about Craig's case until Wednesday; he reportedly said around the time he was hired that Craig hadn't had any requirement to register under FARA. According to the indictment released on Thursday, the FARA unit told Craig he didn't need to register because of its "reliance on Craig's representations and having been misled by Craig."Craig has been a top player in Democratic politics for many years. He joined the administration of President Bill Clinton to help with the impeachment case brought by Republicans in Congress and then later became White House counsel to President Barack Obama.As the top lawyer in that era, he dealt with Obama's attempts to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other controversial counterterrorism issues. National Security Citing 'Spying' On Trump, Barr Says He Is Looking Into Origins Of Russia Inquiry National Security Barr: Mueller Report Out Within 1 Week; IG Report On Russia Inquiry This Summer National Security What Else Could Robert Mueller's Report Reveal About Trump And Russia? National Security Mueller Report Doesn't Find Russian Collusion, But Can't 'Exonerate' On Obstruction

They appear hellbent on making qualification for the World Cup as difficult as possible, but at least the Socceroos’ hopes of reaching Russia are still alive. After falling behind to an early hammer blow at ANZ Stadium, Ange Postecoglou’s side recovered to beat Syria 2-1 by the skin of their teeth in extra-time and book a place in a final qualifying play-off. The bad news for followers of Australian football is that, inevitably, another gut-wrenching 180 minutes of tension awaits.Tim Cahill, restored to the starting lineup having been left on the bench for last week’s first leg in Malaysia, sparked the revival early in the first half and then sealed the win deep in extra-time, both with trademark headers. The second, in the 109th minute, was the talismanic forward’s 50th for his country. You could say it was one of the more important goals of his international career.“He’s just a freak,” Postecoglou said of Cahill. “I can’t think of when he last played 90 minutes, let alone 120. He’s got real belief in himself. He’s just a unique, extraordinary individual. He led from the front today.”It might have been a different story. Omar Al Soma, last week’s Syrian goalscorer in the 1-1 draw that set up such a tense game in Sydney, had stunned the home side inside six minutes and prompted a wave of early panic inside the stadium. Even after Cahill had helped ease those fears, Al Soma very nearly struck a decisive blow with a free-kick that struck Mathew Ryan’s upright in the final minute. A 2-2 draw on the night would have sent Syria through. Such are the margins.“I had belief in the players and in what we do,” Postecoglou said. “I have real conviction in the way we do things and part of that process is that we know we wear teams down and they have to work awfully hard to stay with us. That’s the kind of game we’re built for and we keep going right until the end and make sure when the whistle goes, we’re the ones still standing.”Another two-legged tie, likely against Panama or Honduras of the Concacaf region, in November is the Socceroos’ prize for a heart-stopping victory that puts Syria out of the running. For Postecoglou, who was shouldering intense pressure going into this game, his tenure continues for at least another two games.Postecoglou is his own man and has always done things his own way. Tuesday was no different, with his team selection raising eyebrows when it was announced hours before the kick-off: out went Aaron Mooy, last week’s standout player in Malacca, and in came Tom Rogic. Cahill, who turns 38 in December, got the nod to lead the line while Brad Smith, who endured a torrid time against Japan at the end of August, and James Troisi also started.It was a statement of attacking intent but the Socceroos could not have got off to a worse start. With just five minutes on the clock, Mark Milligan lost the ball cheaply in the middle of the park and Syria made him – and Australia – pay dearly. As the visitors broke at pace Al Soma received the ball from Tamer Hag Mohamad and kept his cool, finishing astutely past Ryan. Postecoglou later said it was a “dumb goal to concede”.Cue delirium among those in the 42,136-strong crowd sporting white, red and black. The main section of Syrian fans, mostly assembled behind the goal at the opposite end, had already made their presence felt. Against a complex political backdrop and divided loyalties towards their conflict-ravaged country, the national anthem was sung with gusto by those inside the stadium – outside protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime had been staged before kick-off.Their counterparts in gold were left stunned. This was not going how their night was supposed to pan out. To their credit, the Socceroos responded well to the early blow and, off the back of what was superficially a moment of misfortune, the tide turned in the hosts’ favour. Smith, having picked up what looked like a hip injury, could play no further part; enter Mooy in his place, to cap his exile at a touch over 10 minutes.The equaliser came soon after. And it was who else but Cahill to haul his side out of the hole they had dug for themselves. Matthew Leckie delivered the kind of cross that Cahill dreams of – his bread and butter – and he rose, loosely marked, to power a header past Ibrahim Alma.With Mooy back in the lineup, Australia became a more potent attacking threat and the Huddersfield midfielder’s deft touch brought a calming influence to the Socceroos’ midfield, which began to impose itself on the game. Troisi stung Alma’s fingers before he ran onto a delightful reverse pass from Mooy to cross for Cahill, whose goalbound effort ricocheted wide.Alma was tested again, this time by Leckie, Rogic’s snap shot on the turn bounced wide of the mark and a handball shout was turned down as half-time approached but despite their ascendency, the Socceroos went in at the break locked at 1-1 – the only result that would have prompted a period of extra-time.The chances continued to come after the break, but frustration mounted as the Syrians’ defence repelled the hosts. Leckie saw a header bounce the wrong side of an upright, another Cahill header was easy for Alma to claim and the keeper made a stunning save to deny Rogic, who then saw a curling effort drift wide of the post.Tempers threatened to boil over as the Syrians, apparently happy to prolong the game, sought to run the clock down; the quality of the game suffered but with two minutes left, Rogic emerged from the scrappiness to get a shot off. It was deflected wide and with that any hope – from either side – of ending the tie in regulation time evaporated. Extra-time – and yet more mileage on the journey to Russia – beckoned.Syria’s hopes were dealt a blow early in the first period of extra-time as they were reduced to 10 men after Mahmoud Al Mawas was cautioned for a second time – for a challenge on Leckie – and the manner of his departure from the pitch only served to reinforce the theory the visitors fancied their chances more in a shootout. To say the midfielder took his time in reaching the touchline would be the understatement of the night.Still, there was opportunity for Syria to snag a winner on the break, and had Al Soma not dragged his shot wide midway through the first half of extra-time, things could have been different. Likewise, had Nikita Rukavytsya’s volley from a wonderful Mooy cross not been diverted over the bar.But it was left to Cahill, so often Australia’s saviour, to deliver the knockout blow, bring up a personal milestone, avert the lottery of spot-kicks and keep his side in the running to reach the World Cup finals. Not bad for a night’s work. Topics Australia Syria football team World Cup 2018 qualifiers Australia sport news

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn has given “substantial assistance” to the Trump-Russia investigation and other inquiries, the special counsel Robert Mueller said late on Tuesday.But in a heavily redacted court filing that is likely to alarm Trump’s inner circle, Mueller shielded the details of Flynn’s cooperation because they include “sensitive information about ongoing investigations”, he said.Mueller recommended to a judge that Flynn, who participated in 19 interviews and provided investigators with documents and communications, should not be given a prison sentence for the crime of lying to the FBI.The two-part sentencing memo said Flynn had given firsthand accounts of “interactions between individuals in the presidential transition team and Russia” following Trump’s election win in November 2016. A further 24 lines of text detailing his assistance with the Trump-Russia investigation were redacted.The special counsel also reported that Flynn had provided “substantial assistance” in a separate criminal investigation whose details were completely redacted, and had assisted with a third matter that was not described at all.Mueller said Flynn had been a valuable witness and deserved credit for promptly admitting wrongdoing and cooperating with investigators. His 33-year military career and other public service also “distinguish him from every other person who has been charged” by Mueller’s team, the filing said.Flynn last year admitted lying to investigators about his communications with Russia’s ambassador to the US late in December 2016. The discussions related to sanctions that the then president, Barack Obama, had imposed on Moscow over its interference in the US election, and a UN security council vote on halting new Israeli settlements.Trump and White House advisers had been anxiously awaiting the filing on Tuesday, following other explosive developments in Mueller’s investigation.Last week Michael Cohen, Trump’s former legal fixer, said he had lied to Congress about Trump’s plans to build a tower in Moscow, in an attempt to protect the president. Days earlier, Mueller’s team scrapped a plea deal with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, after he allegedly continued lying to investigators even after promising to cooperate.The president claimed on Twitter on Monday that Mueller was “a much different man than people think” and praised his own longtime associate Roger Stone for refusing to testify against him – a move legal experts said could amount to criminal witness tampering.Sentencing memos filed by Mueller in other prosecutions so far, including that of the former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, had contained new information about wrongdoing and cooperation by the subjects.Mueller found that on 29 December 2016, Flynn asked Russia’s ambassador not to retaliate against Obama’s sanctions, after receiving instructions from a senior member of Trump’s transition team, who was with the president-elect at Trump’s private club in Florida.The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, indicated in a statement the following day that Russia would not retaliate, a move Trump praised as “very smart”. Mueller said the Russian ambassador then called Flynn on 31 December to explain that Putin’s decision was a response to Flynn’s request.Mueller also said that under direction from a “very senior” member of the Trump team, reported to be Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Flynn urged Russia to vote against the resolution on Israel at the UN.In Tuesday’s memo, Mueller offered a new criticism for a third area of false statements Flynn admitted last year. Flynn acknowledged that, when belatedly registering as a lobbyist in the US for Turkey, he had failed to disclose that his $530,000 project in 2016 was directed by Turkish government officials.On election day 2016, Flynn published an opinion article on the Hill, a political website, advocating for the removal of a dissident Turkish cleric from the US, yet failed to disclose in public filings that the piece was written on behalf of the Turkish government.“At the time, the defendant was a national security advisor and surrogate for the Trump campaign who opined publicly on foreign policy and national security issues,” Mueller said, adding this was exactly the type of relationship supposed to be made public by the disclosure laws. Topics Michael Flynn Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Robert Mueller Trump administration Russia news