Pilots of India’s national carrier Air India are inviting unwanted publicity for the financially beleaguered airline.India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation today (Nov. 12) said it has suspended the flying licence of Air India’s director of operations, Arvind Kathpalia, for three years. On Sunday (Nov. 11), the senior pilot had failed a mandatory breath analyser test before he was to command a New Delhi-London flight. The director of operations is generally responsible for flight safety and training. Kathpalia is also a member of the carrier’s board, according to its website.“In the case of Kathpalia being detected ‘BA (breath analyser) positive’ on Nov. 11, the privileges of his licence have been suspended for a period of three years as per the provisions of applicable regulations,” the DGCA said in a statement.According to flying norms, crew members are prohibited from having any alcoholic drink 12 hours before flying.Though reporting to fly after consuming alcohol is not a criminal offence under the Indian Aircraft Act, it can lead to a suspension of licence for three months for a first-time offender and three years for a second-time offender. In case of a third instance, a pilot’s licence is cancelled.Kathpalia was suspended for three months in 2017 for allegedly refusing to take breathalyser tests.The incident involving Kathpalia is not a lone one as far as Air India is concerned. In a response to a right to information query, Air India had stated last month that 58 of its pilots, in the past eight years, have been caught with alcohol in their blood right before they had to fly.“Because Air India has state backing, its union has more muscle-flexing power. So there is a sort of an attitude that one can get away with anything, which is not so much in case of private airline companies,” an aviation sector analyst told Quartz on the condition of anonymity.Kathpalia, however, denied being drunk. “It was 1:30 in the afternoon (when the test was conducted), only a bloody stark raving alcoholic is bloody drunk at 1:30 in the afternoon,” Kathpalia told the news agency Reuters. “I am going to contest this.” He has gone for a blood test with a private agency, the results of which are expected later.Episodes like these are something the loss-making carrier can do without. Its pilots have received a lot of bad press lately.In a separate incident, on Sunday, an Air India flight headed for Thailand’s Bangkok returned to New Delhi 30 minutes after take-off because the co-pilot missed the pre-flight breath analyser test.Last month an Air India flight from the southern Indian city of Tiruchirappalli to Dubai sustained damages after hitting the airport wall during take off. The pilots have been grounded, pending investigation.In September this year, an Air India flight from the south Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, to Male landed on the wrong runway in the Maldives.

On 4 March, the Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles. My film, Last Men in Aleppo, is one of the nominees for best documentary feature. It was shot during the 2015-2016 siege of Aleppo, when the Assad regime fought to seize control of the city with the help of its ally, Russia. Throughout this time, the citizens of Aleppo were cut off from food and medical supplies and Russian warplanes dropped bombs on a near-constant basis. That’s the factual background, but the film’s true subject is the people of Aleppo, particularly a small group of volunteer rescue workers with the civil defense organization known as the White Helmets. Last Men in Aleppo is a diary of war, seen through the eyes of ordinary men who race to bombing sites to save the living and retrieve the dead. It is also a story about hope and belief in human values.My colleagues and I made Last Men in Aleppo because we believe in the power of film and the arts to bring attention to injustice. The Academy Awards broadcast is one of the world’s biggest public stages, and a tremendous opportunity to connect with audiences outside of movie theaters. I was looking forward to being there alongside two people who are very important to the film: Mahmoud Al Hattar, one of the White Helmets, and my producer, Kareem Abeed.Now we know that will not happen. About 10 days ago we learned that the Syrian government had denied Mahmoud’s request for a passport. The authorities also scheduled Kareem’s visa interview for two days before the Oscars were to be broadcast. Then, on 20 February, the US government rejected Kareem’s visa application under the rules of Trump’s travel ban, which refuses entry to people from Syria and seven other countries. Syria’s restrictions on Mahmoud and Kareem’s movements are one way the Assad regime can act to silence witnesses to history. The restrictions are essentially a ban of freedom of expression which is clear for the world to see. But this is not the only action taken to suppress the story of Aleppo. Because the film captures the sickening results of Russian airstrikes, Russia is waging a disinformation campaign to discredit the film, its subjects and me.The White Helmets had been previously smeared as terrorists when a short film about them, The White Helmets, was released in 2016, so the groundwork was already in place. The propaganda campaign against Last Men in Aleppo started soon after it premiered at the 2017 Sundance film festival and has gotten worse since the Oscar nominations came out in January. The Russian state news agency Sputnik published articles saying Last Men in Aleppo was western-funded propaganda and a recruiting tool for al-Qaida. There have been posts on my Facebook and Twitter pages calling me a terrorist sympathizer and a liar. The Russians hacked the US election. They want to hack the Oscars as well.There is nothing new about authoritarian regimes using propaganda tactics, psychological warfare and physical threats to silence artists who criticize them or portray them in a way they don’t like. Social media and the tag “fake news” have become very effective and very dangerous weapons in their arsenal. And the attacks aren’t only on social media. I have had some intense, frightening face-to-face encounters. When I was showing the film at the Palm Springs film festival, a woman accused me of spying for the FBI or CIA and faking news. Another time, I was in Dallas and a Russian man started talking to me. When he realized I was the director of the film, he became hostile and said “I can’t believe your story”. And I told him, “I’m Syrian and I saw the Russian planes dropping bombs. But my film isn’t about the Russians, it’s for the citizens of Aleppo.” And he said, “No, anyone could have staged this.” It’s even happened with the American authorities. When I was flying from Los Angeles to Turkey to work on my next film, I was stopped by immigration officers. They scrolled through my phone and saw the accusations. They said, “How can we know the people in this film are real?” This is coming from American officials, who are perhaps more prone to scan a person’s phone because of the current political climate. This is the impact of the Russian propaganda. When I shot this film, I was scared by the war and the bombs, but I had a kind of contract with myself that gave me peace with the idea of death. And I had faced death before. Years ago, I was arrested by the Assad regime and tortured, but even then I didn’t have the same fear that I have now. I knew then what the threats were. I have greater fear now because the threat could come from an unknown person. The Russians call me a terrorist. Trump bans Syrian refugees and says he’s doing it to protect the country. In either case, some ordinary person could decide to do something about the person who is “the enemy”.I never thought as a film-maker that I would feel endangered. I find myself in a place of trauma and paranoia, fear and mistrust. I start to wonder if it’s worth it to tell another story. But that’s what the people in power want. They want artists – film-makers, writers, journalists, actors and actresses, fine artists and musicians – to stop speaking their truths. Now more than ever, it’s important for artists to stand together, to support one another, to fight for the truth. When people are banned from coming to the Oscars, when people are banned from telling their stories, when people are banned from connecting with other people, it is a threat to freedom of expression. It says that anyone who has power can stop anyone who tries to tell the truth. Topics Oscars 2018 Documentary films Syria Middle East and North Africa Russia Europe features

Amazon and Whole Foods are about to shake up the US seltzer market.Whole Foods is currently offering steep discounts on 12-packs of flavored sparkling water by 365 Everyday Value, its private label, at stores in the San Francisco area. The $3.99, buy-one-get-one-free deal is exclusive for Amazon Prime members who download the Whole Foods app and sign in with their Prime accounts. It’s also a clear shot at LaCroix, a popular seltzer brand among American millennials, a 12-pack of which retails for $5.99 at Whole Foods stores in San Francisco.The deal highlights how Amazon is using Whole Foods, which it bought for $13.7 billion in June 2017, to go after some of the hottest brands in consumer-packaged goods. Whole Foods introduced 365-branded canned sparkling water in September 2017, a month after Amazon closed the acquisition. The drink is available nationally in five flavors—lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, and “pure”—with a new ginger flavor set to launch this September, a Whole Foods spokesman told Quartz.“I’ve got to laugh when they do grapefruit,” said Barry Joseph, author of the forthcoming book, Seltzertopia. “LaCroix made grapefruit a standard flavor for seltzer. If someone’s putting out seltzers that include grapefruit, they’re clearly going after the market that LaCroix developed, even if they don’t call it pamplemousse.”More Americans are drinking seltzer than ever before. From 2008 to 2017, sales of unflavored carbonated water more than doubled in the US to 770 million gallons, according to data from industry research firm Euromonitor.The frothiest company in the market is National Beverage Corp., LaCroix’s parent, which reported $827 million in sales during its 2017 fiscal year, up 17% over the previous fiscal year. Once a favorite of Midwestern moms, LaCroix has been reborn a millennial status symbol whose shiny pastel cans fill the fridges of Los Angeles screenwriters and Silicon Valley startups, and have even inspired a line of T-shirts.“WOW… what a year!” declared Nick Caporella, National Beverage Corp.’s 81-year-old chairman and CEO, in the 2017 annual report. The company’s stock price (ticker: FIZZ), rose 90% in the 2017 calendar year, hitting an all-time high of $126.40 in September.Amazon and Whole Foods aren’t the only ones challenging LaCroix. Pepsi in February introduced Bubly, a zero-calorie sparkling water in eight flavors that, with its brightly colored cans and modish slogans (“Hey u,” “hiii”), is an obvious play for the LaCroix consumer. Sparkling water is also one of the fasting growing product lines for Coca-Cola, which sells flavored seltzers from brands Dasani, Smartwater, and Topo Chico. Coca-Cola’s sparkling water portfolio grew more than 20% by volume in North America in 2017.Whole Foods’ 365 seltzer line was in the works before the Amazon acquisition, a spokesman told Quartz. Late last year, Whole Foods named sparkling water as a “top food trend” for 2018.“Some people say LaCroix was the peak of seltzertopia,” Joseph said. “When we see things like Bubly from Pepsi and this from Amazon, it’s clear that we’re just moving up toward the next stage of the national battle over flavored seltzer.”Additional reporting by Elijah Wolfson.

Syrian government forces have killed more than 500 civilians during a week of intense bombardment of a rebel enclave near Damascus, activists say.The victims in the Eastern Ghouta include 121 children, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the conflict.Syrian government forces backed by Russia have been pounding the area since last Sunday.The UN Security Council is struggling to agree on a ceasefire resolution. A vote has been delayed several times since Thursday, and a council meeting is under way.On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory said at least 29 civilians were killed, including 17 in the main town, Douma - bringing the total to over 500 for the week.The group said the strikes were being carried out by both Syrian and Russian planes - although Russia denies direct involvement.Barrel bombs and shell fire have been dropped on the area, where some 393,000 people remain trapped. Aid groups report several hospitals being put out of action since Sunday. The Syrian government has denied targeting civilians and said it is trying to liberate the Eastern Ghouta from "terrorists" - a term it has used to describe both the jihadist militants and the mainstream rebel groups that hold the enclave.The plight of civilians in the area has alarmed world leaders. Conditions there have been described as "hell on earth" by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.The Security Council has been debating a resolution calling for a 30-day calm to allow for aid deliveries. But Russia wants changes. Under current draft, any ceasefire would not apply to the Islamic State group, or the Nusra Front - formerly al-Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria.Moscow says it must go further and exclude other groups "co-operating with them" and which have shelled Damascus.Western diplomats have accused Russia of stalling for time.They suspect that Moscow wants to give Syria time to deal a final blow to forces defending the enclave on the edge of Damascus.On Friday evening US President Donald Trump pointed the finger of blame firmly at Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran, for the humanitarian crisis. The rebels in Eastern Ghouta are not one cohesive group. They encompass multiple factions, including jihadists, and in-fighting between them has led to past loses of ground to the Syrian government.The two biggest groups in the area are Jaish al-Islam and its rival Faylaq al-Rahman. The latter has in the past fought alongside the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - an alliance of factions led by the Nusra Front, which sprung from al-Qaeda. The Syrian government is desperate to regain the territory, because it says the rebels are directly endangering the capital. Eastern Ghouta is so close that it is possible for rebels to fire mortars into the heart of Damascus, which has also led to civilian deaths.Syrian state media said rebels have killed at least 16 civilians in eastern districts of the city since Sunday.

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NEW DELHI—India will likely lose its title as the fastest-expanding large economy this year, as a recent growth spurt sputtered after failing to trigger new corporate investment. This was supposed to be the year Asia’s third-largest economy could at last emerge from China’s shadow. Instead, it is struggling with a slowdown.Ask executives,...

(Reuters) - Grappling with a ballooning number of migrants at the U.S. southern border, President Donald Trump has suggested increasingly bold steps to fulfill his signature campaign pledge to stem illegal immigration. Central American migrants walk during their journey towards the United States, in Villa Comaltitlan, Mexico April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jose CabezasYet many of his administration’s ideas have been hindered by legal, practical and political obstacles. Meanwhile, the flow of migrants seeking asylum or a better life in the United States continues to swell. By March, the number of illegal entrants into the country had surged to the highest level in more than a decade. On Wednesday, the acting director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan visited the Texas border to underscore the administration’s concerns about a growing crisis. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Thursday that the agency would set up two temporary tent facilities in Texas to process migrants, each with a capacity to hold up to 500 people. Such camps have been criticized by Congress members for holding migrants too long and not providing adequate places to sleep or shower. The president, whose statements and tweets suggest a rising level of frustration, recently cleaned house at the Department of Homeland Security, firing Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and several other high-ranking staff. He has vowed to move in a “tougher direction.” But a look at several significant Trump Administration ideas or policies shows the difficulty the president faces in trying to reverse the tide of migration, which today is largely driven by poverty, corruption, crime and other factors in Central America. Some examples of administration proposals or policies that have run, or may run, into trouble: U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday issued a ruling that allows asylum seekers who cross the border illegally to be held without bond as they challenge their deportation – a decision affecting perhaps tens of thousands of migrants. It was the latest move by top justice officials seeking to reshape legal precedent in the country’s U.S. immigration courts. (See graphic here on such actions: tmsnrt.rs/2XmGDDg) Rights groups have already threatened to sue over the measure - which goes into effect in 90 days - and as a practical matter, additional detention space would be needed, requiring funding from Congress. Until that happens, many migrants are likely to continue to be released with an order to appear in court. Earlier this month, Trump proposed sending “an unlimited supply” of immigrants who are fighting deportation to so-called sanctuaries - the hundreds of cities, counties and states where law enforcement limits its cooperation with Trump’s crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally. Immigration experts said it would be costly to transport migrants from the border and would require shifting funds from Border Patrol and other operations. In addition, the migrants would be free to move elsewhere once released. The administration recently backed off a threat to shut the southern border, one of the busiest in the world, amid opposition from Democrats as well as often Republican-friendly business groups. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called the idea an “economic calamity.” One of the boldest proposals by the Trump administration has been to tap a little used clause in immigration law to send hundreds of migrants who ask for asylum in the United States back to border towns in Mexico to wait months - or potentially years - for their cases to be resolved in U.S. courts. Local Mexican officials say their towns are already overwhelmed with migrants who have nowhere to live and few job prospects, while immigration advocates say those who are stuck in Mexico often have trouble finding lawyers and receiving proper notice for their U.S. hearings. A federal judge ordered a halt to the policy but an appeals court said it could continue while the administration appeals. The current wave of migrants includes many more families, as opposed to the single men who flocked north in the past. That has caused the administration to take another look at a 1997 agreement, known as the Flores settlement, that strictly limits detention of children. The administration has said repeatedly that t wants to scrap the legal deal and propose new regulations. It is unclear where - and with what funding - the government would detain the youngsters. Legal challenges to this proposal have been in the works from the moment it was announced. Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Julie MarquisOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Two House committees have stepped up their investigation of Donald Trump’s business operations by issuing subpoenas for a range of documents from the institution that has long been his main financial prop, Deutsche Bank.The move comes from the intelligence committee and financial services committee of the House, both of which have been controlled by the Democratic party since January. Leaders of the two panels stressed the urgency of the inquiries.Maxine Waters, who heads the financial services committee, said the investigation was exploring “the use of the US financial system for illicit purposes”, including the potential involvement “of the president and his associates”.On the intelligence committee side, the panel’s chairman, Adam Schiff, said subpoenas had been sent to “multiple financial institutions” including Deutsche Bank, which he emphasized was cooperating.In past comments Schiff has indicated that the purpose of the inquiries was to see whether “any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates”.Deutsche Bank said it was in a “productive dialogue” with the committees.The new subpoenas, first reported by the New York Times, come as Washington is braced for the release of a redacted version on Thursday of the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. On the back of a four-page summary written by his handpicked attorney general, William Barr, Trump has claimed that he has been “exonerated” of any claims of collusion or other wrongdoing.But he still faces political peril when the entire nearly 400 pages of Robert Mueller’s report come out, redactions notwithstanding. And as the actions of the two powerful committees show, Democratic leaders in the House remain determined to hold the president to account over his financial dealings.Deutsche Bank has been increasingly identified by congressional investigators as a possible vulnerability for Trump. In the wake of bankruptcies of some of his companies in the 1990s, Trump was shunned by many US lenders and turned to the German bank for help.Over the years he has borrowed more than $2bn from the institution. The Trump Organization is believed to have about $300m in loans still outstanding.In return, the bank has been willing to lend to Trump, given its own problems in the wake of a succession of scandals including multimillion-dollar fines for failure to prevent money laundering of Russian money. Topics Donald Trump Deutsche Bank House of Representatives Banking news

Donald Trump heaped public praise on a potential witness in the Russia investigation on Monday in a manner that legal experts said could amount to criminal witness tampering.Trump tweeted in praise of Roger Stone, his longtime political adviser, who allegedly made contacts with the WikiLeaks organization through an intermediary in an effort to help the 2016 Trump campaign. Stone has denied all wrongdoing but has said he expects to be indicted.The flow of information between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which published emails stolen by Russians from the Hillary Clinton campaign, has emerged as a focal point for the special counsel Robert Mueller, who has yet to interview Stone.“‘I will never testify against Trump’,” the president tweeted. “This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about ‘President Trump.’ Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!’”Prominent lawyers and analysts led by George Conway, the husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, said the tweet appeared to violate a section of the US code that makes it a federal crime to “corruptly persuade” a witness with intent to influence or prevent that witness’s testimony in a criminal proceeding.The offense, which prosecutors said is common in organized crime cases, is not typically committed in public because it is illegal activity, lawyers said.“Having prosecuted mob bosses,” tweeted Daniel Goldman, a former assistant US attorney in the southern district of New York, “it’s unfair to compare them to Trump. Mob bosses are far smarter and way more savvy and discrete than Trump.”“George is right,” tweeted Neal Katyal, a supreme court lawyer and law professor. “This is genuinely looking like witness tampering… The fact it’s done out in the open is no defense.”“This is witness tampering under 18 USC 1512(b), which makes it illegal to ‘cause or induce any person to withhold testimony’,” tweeted Norm Eisen, a lawyer and former ambassador who has analyzed the question for the Brookings Institution.But it would be difficult to prove a witness tampering case against the president based on the tweet alone because Trump could dispute that he praised Stone with a corrupt motive, other lawyers said.“The President isn’t tampering if he’s genuinely just saying ‘hooray for Roger Stone telling the truth’,” said Ken White, host of Make No Law: The First Amendment Podcast, who tweets @popehat.“Though it’s very hard to prove this is witness-tampering, it’s absolutely norm-violating, and if a CEO or mob boss or other authority figure did it, the feds would absolutely crawl up their ass and look for a way to charge them for it.”Former US attorney Renato Mariotti agreed that the Trump tweet alone would be difficult to prove as witness tampering because “Trump’s lawyers would argue that the purpose of his tweet was to influence the public, not Stone, and that they could have spoken to Stone’s attorney privately if Trump actually wanted to influence him.”Others noted that Trump’s praise for Stone followed closely on the heels of a pair of tweets in which the president attacked his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, accusing Cohen of lying to win a reduced sentence on charges of making false statements to Congress, campaign finance crimes and other charges.“He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence,” Trump tweeted about Cohen. The contrast between that tweet and the subsequent tweet praising Stone could represent an effort by the president to dangle a pardon to Stone if he is convicted of a crime in the future, analysts said.Dangling a pardon in such a way is probably illegal, the Harvard law professor Alex Whiting wrote in March on the Just Security blog in discussing the cases of the former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whom Trump praised in August for “refus[ing] to “break” under pressure from Mueller. Manafort later reached a plea deal with Mueller, which fell apart last week.“If the dangle is found to be orchestrated with a corrupt motive,” wrote Whiting, “it should qualify as a potential act of obstruction of justice.”Trump’s praise for Stone appeared to be prompted by an appearance by Stone on Sunday on ABC News.“There’s no circumstance under which I would testify against the president because I’d have to bear false witness against him,” Stone said. “I’d have to make things up, and I’m not going to do that.” Topics Donald Trump US politics Trump-Russia investigation Robert Mueller Russia Europe Trump administration news

The death of a law student and anti-rape activist in South Africa, whose funeral is being held on Thursday, has brought the simmering issue of campus rape back to the forefront. Khensani Maseko, 23, took her own life last week after writing a post on Instagram: "No-one deserves to be raped!" Days earlier the third year student had reported to the authorities at Rhodes University in Grahamstown that she was allegedly raped by a fellow student in May."The university immediately made contact with her family [after the alleged rape was reported] and they travelled the next day from Johannesburg to Grahamstown for a meeting where they elected to take Khensani home for a while," Rhodes University said in a statement. The institution said a decision to suspend the alleged perpetrator was made on Monday, three days after Ms Maseko died.Her passing left students reeling with grief and anger. The school suspended academic activities on campus for two days after student representatives called for a "campus shutdown" to honour her."The world has lost a jewel. It lost someone who really stood up for women," her friend Florence Bagonza, who now lives in Uganda, told the BBC."There is something about Khensani that let her stand out. She was confident and when she spoke you could feel her power," she said, adding that they had met in 2016 at a student-organised event called "Women of Influence".Others agreed she was an active member of student body, juggling various roles as she completed her law degree.In 2016, she was elected into the university's Student Representative Council (SRF) and was a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EEF) party student group.Radical EFF opposition leader Julius Malema has changed his Twitter profile picture to a photo of Ms Maseko wearing his party's beret.Her interest in student politics and sport inspired her to enter the "Miss Varsity" competition, which is a pageant that helps support university rugby. After winning the 2017/18 title, Ms Maseko expressed her excitement about the academic year ahead. "It is going to be an exciting year, it is going to be unexpected, but it is going to be big things only," she said in a Rhodes University video. Close friend Eric Ofei, a former student who now works at Rhodes University, said he also came to know Ms Maseko in 2016 when he mentored her as she ran to become councillor with the SRF."She was far from quiet" and could not "be ignored", he said while waiting to get on a plane to Johannesburg, where he will be attending her funeral on Thursday. Siya Nyulu, who says she cried for an hour after hearing of Ms Maseko's death, says the law student "fought against [alleged] rape culture on campus". According to the 22-year-old student, Ms Maseko was a supporter of the 2016 student protests over the issue. Allegations against Rhodes University's campus rape problem began with a poster campaign called "'Chapter 212' to get students talking about rape culture and how to dismantle it", Ms Nyulu told the BBC.The poster campaign alleged the processes to report rape were inaccessible and there was a lack of staff to process the claims."Members of the movement state that management is accountable for perpetuating rape culture at Rhodes, and these discriminatory and victim-shaming policies must change," Rhodes' student news publication Activate wrote at the time.Days after, a list of 11 alleged campus rapists was leaked on social media, culminating in students marches and protests that were broken up by police.According to South African law, suspects in sex crimes can only be named after they have appeared in court and pleaded. Will South Africans ever be shocked by rape? Are men the key to fighting rape? Will I be next? South Africa women ask But students at the university who say they have been victims of rape complain that no action was taken when they reported the assaults.The protesting students also called for changes in the university's rape policy, demanded the immediate suspension of those listed, and for the burden of proof removed from victims. The hashtag #RUReferencelist began trending in South Africa as the situation escalated when students and sympathetic staff members reportedly clashed with the police who were firing rubber bullets.The anti-rape protests shut down the university's campus for a week. By the end of the week the university had set up a team to investigate the issue and address the students' demands. The investigation team came up with around 90 recommendations, but Ms Nyulu said "those recommendations have not been met". "The university is failing to accept this is the current issue," she said."Khensani died for something she was protesting against. How can you say the university has changed when someone has died?" The university's vice-chancellor, Sizwe Mabizela, conceded there was a problem on campus during a memorial service for Ms Maseko on Tuesday. "We always tell young women how they should conduct themselves, yet we fail to tell young men they have no right to interfere with the bodily integrity of another person," he said, according to the South African Independent Online. "We hope this tragic incident will allow the university an opportunity to reflect and engage, even deeper, on how we must pull together as a university and society to eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence."Both Ms Nyulu and Ms Bagonza said the protests in 2016 were distressing as they are victims of rape. Ms Bagonza said that while universities are a place for learning, they should acknowledge the wider context of gender-based violence in South Africa and provide "enough resources to help students suffering from mental health issues and rape," she says. South Africa has one of the highest rape statistics in world - last year there were nearly 4,000 cases reported to the South African police. According to Africa Check, the femicide rate in South Africa is five times higher than the global rate. The issue is so pernicious that thousands of women demonstrated across the country last week against the increase in gender-based violence. Meanwhile, students from Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth staged a protest on Monday following an alleged rape last week."This is not just about the university, this is something that our society has failed to acknowledge," Ms Bagonza said. If you are affected by the topics in this article, the Stop Gender violence organisation can be contacted free on 0800 150 150 in South Africa. Alternatively you can contact, LifelineSA Tel: (+27 11) 715-2000 or by email on [email protected]

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By Updated Sept. 29, 2017 7:04 pm ET Google is conducting a broad internal investigation to determine whether Russian-linked entities used its ads or services to try to manipulate voters ahead of the U.S. election, according to a person familiar with the matter, a move that comes after Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. said Russian actors used their sites. Google, part of Alphabet Inc., is also talking with congressional officials who are investigating Russian efforts to influence the election and plans to share its findings with them once completed, the person... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In

Party members did their best to appear less threatening and less foreign-inspired even as they still praised all things Soviet, proclaiming that Communism was simply “20th-century Americanism.” Communists also reached out to groups they had previously scorned, like the New Deal Democrats, and to politicians they had previously denounced, like Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.For a while, it worked. In cities around the country, from Detroit to Seattle to Los Angeles, Communists began to play a visible and effective role in politics, both local and national. But nowhere were they as successful as in New York.By 1938, the party counted 38,000 members in New York State, about half its national membership, and most of those lived in New York City. Communists were increasingly native-born (although many were the children of immigrants). Party-organized mass meetings in the old Madison Square Garden were packed with as many as 20,000 participants; the annual May Day parades drew tens of thousands, too.Some neighborhoods in New York could be likened to the “red belt” surrounding Paris: Communist-organized cooperative parties on Allerton Avenue in the Bronx were a strong base of party support, as were parts of East Harlem, Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. In Harlem, the party’s strong commitment to fighting racism (still quite rare, even on the liberal left) helped it to attract the support of African-Americans across the social spectrum, including some leading artists like actor and singer Paul Robeson.Communists were central to spreading the gospel of unionism from the garment trades to a host of previously unorganized industries and workplaces, as organizers and officials in the Transport Workers Union, the National Maritime Union, the Teachers Union and the American Newspaper Guild, among others. Ben Gold, the president of the Fur Workers Union, was one of the few labor leaders in the United States who openly avowed his Communist beliefs. A Communist candidate for the presidency of the city’s board of aldermen received nearly 100,000 votes in 1938; and during World War II, two open Communists, Peter V. Cacchione of Brooklyn and Benjamin Davis of Harlem, held seats on the City Council. At City College, Brooklyn College and Columbia University, there were hundreds of members of the Young Communist League, and thousands of students who joined Communist front groups like the American Youth Congress.In the end, the decade or so that New York City “spent” in Russia came to nothing. The Communist Party’s ties to the Soviet Union, which forced it into the role of apologist for the worst crimes of the Stalin regime, from the Moscow Trials to the Nazi-Soviet Pact, limited its appeal even at the height of its success. With the onset of the Cold War, and of a second Red Scare more pervasive and longer-lasting than the original, Communists found themselves persecuted and isolated.

Donald Trump has sought to rally thousands of diehard supporters against the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia – on the same day news emerged that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has convened a grand jury in the case.“They’re trying to cheat you out of the leadership that you want with a fake story,” Trump told a rally in Huntington, West Virginia.The concerted effort could be a sign that the White House is realising the full gravity of the situation. Mueller, appointed special counsel in May following the dismissal of the former FBI director James Comey, has recruited more than a dozen investigators, including current and former justice department prosecutors with experience in international bribery, organised crime and financial fraud.On Thursday, it was reported – first by the Wall Street Journal, but later by other outlets including the Associated Press – that Mueller is using a grand jury in Washington, meaning he could subpoena witnesses and records in the coming weeks and months.The use of a grand jury, a standard prosecution tool in criminal investigations, suggests that Mueller and his team of investigators are likely to hear from witnesses and demand documents in the coming weeks and months.In what might be seen as a bid to weaponise his populist base, Trump told the crowd in Huntington, a coal country stronghold where he beat Hillary Clinton by 42 percentage points: “Most people know there were no Russians in our campaign; there never were. We didn’t win because of Russia. We won because of you.”The crowd, many with “Make America great again” hats or signs, erupted in vociferous cheers. Trump continued: “We won because we totally outworked the other side. We won because of millions of patriotic Americans voted to take back their country.”The president asked mockingly: “Have you seen any Russians in West Virginia or Ohio or Pennsylvania? Are there any Russians here tonight, any Russians? They can’t beat us at the voting booths so they’re trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. They’re trying to cheat you out of the leadership that you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most importantly demeaning to our country and demeaning to our constitution.”Trump’s rhetoric at a 9,000-person capacity arena on Thursday echoed rallies during the election campaign where he claimed the system was rigged against him. This time he appeared to be scattering seeds of doubt about the investigations by Mueller and two congressional committees into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.“I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one, which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in November deserve and what all Americans who want a better future want and deserve,” the president added ominously.“Democrat lawmakers will have to decide. They can continue their obsession with the Russian hoax or they can serve the interests of the American people. Try winning at the voter booth. Not going to be easy, but that’s the way you’re supposed to do it.”Trump spared the media his usual broadsides and instead focused on the Democrats, whom he claimed were trying to find an excuse for “the greatest loss in the history of American politics”. Prosecutors should be looking for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 emails, he added, prompting thunderous cheers and chants of “Lock her up!” – some nine months after the election.The prolonged denial of links to Moscow signalled a shift in strategy for Trump, who rarely dwells on the issue during rallies, where few supporters seem concerned. His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, also brought it up during a short speech, calling it a “crazy story about Russia”. And the West Virginia governor Jim Justice, announcing his defection from the Democrats to the Republicans, told the crowd: “Have we not heard enough about the Russians? I mean, to our God in heaven, think about it: the stock market’s at 22,000 and this country has hope and we’re on our way.”The defense attorney John Dowd told the Associated Press: “With respect to the news of the federal grand jury, I have no reason to believe that the president is under investigation.”Ty Cobb, special counsel to the president, said he was not aware Mueller had started using a new grand jury. “Grand jury matters are typically secret,” Cobb told the Associated Press. “The White House favours anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly … The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr Mueller.”It was unclear how the Washington grand jury was connected to the work of a separate grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, that has been used to gather information on Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is under scrutiny over his ties to Moscow.Steve Williams, the mayor of Huntington, criticised Trump’s claim that the Russia story was a hoax. “It obviously isn’t because Mueller is announcing today that a grand jury has been impaneled. Methinks he does protest too much.”Trump’s speech in the city was a wasted opportunity, Williams added. “I thought it was a 2016 campaign rally. I expected some discussion about the opioid crisis, particularly since the president’s commission’s report came out a couple of days ago. I was hoping he would declare a national emergency.” Topics Donald Trump West Virginia US politics Russia Europe news

Enlarge this image A man evacuates a child from building destroyed by airstrikes in Douma, Syria, in January 2016. Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images A man evacuates a child from building destroyed by airstrikes in Douma, Syria, in January 2016. Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images Researchers have strong evidence that bombs in Syria were targeting civilians, including women and children.In the past seven years, barrel bombs have killed civilians almost exclusively, an international team of scientists report Wednesday. Civilians comprised 97 percent of the deaths from these bombs."That is a very big deal," says Debarati Guha-Sapir, an epidemiologist at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, who led the study. "Governments are either missing combatants on purpose, or they have very inept war strategies." The Two-Way Coalition Strikes Killed More Than 800 Civilians In Fight Against ISIS, U.S. Says The study also finds a dramatic rise in the number of children killed as the war has progressed.Children represented a small proportion of deaths, about 9 percent, in the first two years of the war. But since 2013, that proportion has more than doubled. Now nearly 1 in 4 civilian deaths are children, Guha-Sapir and her team report in the journal Lancet Global Health."This increase is directly associated with the use of aerial bombings," Guha-Sapir says. "We conclude that the use of bombs ends up targeting children and women more than targeting combatants."In the late 2000s, Guha-Sapir was instrumental in documenting war crimes and genocide in Darfur, Sudan and testified about her findings at the Hague."I've analyzed data from Iraq, Darfur, the Congo — places with very problematic wars," she says. "Deaths of children were usually associated with lack of access to medical care, vaccination, postnatal care because of the war. By and large, children did not die directly because of war weapons."That's not the case in Syria.So far, at least 14,000 children have been killed in Syria by snipers, machine guns, missiles, grenades, roadside bombs and aerial bombs. About a thousand children have been executed. And more than a hundred were tortured and then executed."The impact on the civilian population is unusually high — much higher than what you would expect in a war in which soldiers are fighting soldiers," says Dr. Madelyn Hicks, a psychiatrist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, who contributed the study.In particular, barrel bombs have been especially deadly for children and women. Children have comprised nearly a third of all deaths from barrel bombing."That percentage is really unacceptable," says Dr. Hani Mowafi, at Yale University, who wasn't involved in the study. "These are weapons that can be used really only on people who can't fight back." Goats and Soda What Will Winter Bring For Syria's Refugees? A barrel bomb is essentially a large metal container filled with explosives and shrapnel. They can be incredibly powerful, decimating entire city blocks. But they are very imprecise weapons."Many times the barrel bombs are simply dropped from low-flying helicopters onto densely populated parts of cities," Mowafi says. "You couldn't drop them onto combatants because they would simply shoot down the helicopter."Instead, barrel bombs are used to terrorize families and convince them to leave a city, Mowafi says. "We've seen barrel bombing of hospitals, which are clearly marked. We've seen barrel bombing of people queuing up to get bread."The new study raises "serious questions" about the war-fighting methods in Syria, Mowafi says. In particular, whether or not governments are really trying to differentiate between civilians and combatants with aerial bombs."The findings in this study are really important because the authors have adhered to international standards for reporting on war deaths," Mowafi says. "It is very difficult to do this type of study well, and the authors have done a really good job."In the study, Guha-Sapir and her colleagues analyzed data documenting the deaths of nearly 150,000 people in Syria from 2011 to 2016. About 70 percent of those deaths were civilians.The data come from a group of activists inside Syria, called Violations Documentation Center, dedicated to documenting deaths caused by war weapons.The group has a network of volunteers which rush to a site of an attack and begin collecting information about who died. They document the person's age, gender, military status and how they died. The group reports its data directly to the U.N. Security Council."They have a very robust data set," Mowafi says. "The group often collects information within hours of a death, and then they corroborate the information with independent reports."The data are not comprehensive, he notes. VDC documents deaths only in regions not controlled by the government because the group has access only in those regions."And the VDC only includes deaths when they can corroborate the information," Mowafi says. "Clearly more people have died than are reported here, but the study represents one of the most complete accounts of war deaths in the Syria to date."

Nothing beats the lure of a government job in India.On April 24, Indian Railways said it had received a whopping 23 million applications for just 90,000 vacancies it had advertised for earlier this year. The openings were roles like clerk, station master, ticket collector, commercial apprentice, traffic apprentice, trackman, helper, gunman, and peon.In this scenario, government jobs seem like the most secure option, Kris Lakshmikanth, founder of recruitment firm Head Hunters India, told Quartz.“Take a peon in railways or anywhere, who gets around Rs25,000 ($375) a month. Today, a software engineer can’t get that money unless he joins an Infosys or a TCS (Tata Consultancy Services),” Lakshmikanth said. Besides, government jobs come with perks like provision for children’s education and housing quarters.While increments are way higher in the private sector, “there are no layoffs in the government,” Lakshmikanth said.It’s no wonder then that even the most educated prefer low-rung government jobs. Earlier this year, when the southern state of Tamil Nadu opened vacancies for clerical jobs like typists, village administrative officers (VAO) and stenographers, the applicant pool included 992 PhD holders, 23,000 MPhil holders, 250,000 post-graduates, and 800,000 graduates.This month, the police constable positions in Maharashtra drew applications from doctors, MBAs, and lawyers; and in January, the openings for the positions of peon in Madhya Pradesh drew applications from such highly overqualified candidates.

Enlarge this image Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., argues with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the third day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings on Thursday. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., argues with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the third day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings on Thursday. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Day 3 of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh featured a morning quarrel over documents as members concluded two days of public questioning of Kavanaugh. Here are some of the highlights:1. Booker's gambitIn this space, we have focused a bit on the possible 2020 presidential candidates on the committee. On Wednesday night, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., was the center of attention as she grilled Kavanaugh on whether he had discussed special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election with anyone at the law firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres, which was founded by President Trump's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz. Politics WATCH LIVE: Democrats, Republicans Dispute Status Of Released Documents On Thursday, another possible 2020 Democratic contender, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, grabbed the spotlight in a fight over documents that Democrats had been demanding Republicans release. In particular, Booker sought the release of a memo on racial profiling, one of thousands received by the committee but labeled "Committee Confidential," which allows senators to review but not make public.The memo was drafted by Kavanaugh during his time in the George W. Bush White House. Booker attempted to ask Kavanaugh about it during questioning Wednesday night, but Republicans raised a point of order, saying it was unfair to Kavanaugh to be asked to comment on a document he didn't have before him.So on Thursday, Booker said he was making the memo public, despite the possible consequences. "I'm going to release the email about racial profiling and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate," he declared. PBS NewsHour YouTube Other Democrats quickly joined Booker, saying they too would release documents. In response, Booker joked that he was having "a Spartacus moment."Republicans weren't amused. Texas Sen. John Cornyn accused Booker of "irresponsible conduct unbecoming of a senator," and said, "Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate."Later in the day, Republicans said all the documents that Democrats had requested to be relieved of the "Committee Confidential" designation had, in fact, already been approved to be made public before Thursday's hearing began — suggesting that Democrats had been grandstanding. But if senators from either side of the aisle were aware of that at the outset of the hearing, they didn't let on.2. Kavanaugh gets a do-over Enlarge this image Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh about whether he had ever spoken with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres about the Mueller investigation. Kavanaugh responded: "The answer is no." Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh about whether he had ever spoken with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres about the Mueller investigation. Kavanaugh responded: "The answer is no." Drew Angerer/Getty Images As to Harris' questioning of Kavanaugh, the judge was given several chances Thursday to clarify, or perhaps clean up, his remarks from Wednesday. While saying he didn't know everyone who worked at the Kasowitz firm, he added, "I don't recall any conversations of that kind," about Mueller's Russia investigation. Politics Kavanaugh Hearings, Day 2: More Protests As Senators Press On Precedent In a statement, the law firm said, "There have been no discussions regarding Robert Mueller's investigation between Judge Kavanaugh and anyone at our firm."Kavanaugh also said Thursday: "I haven't had any inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone," adding he had not "given anyone any winks, hints, forecasts, previews, nothing, about my view as a judge, or how I would rule as a judge on that or anything related to that."Under questioning from Harris again Thursday night when she again asked him whether he had ever spoken with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres about the Mueller investigation, Kavanaugh responded: "The answer is no."Harris, meanwhile, even before she garnered attention on social media for her cross-examination of Kavanaugh on Wednesday night, was already taking advantage of the desire of the Democratic base to try to block Kavanaugh. She asked on Twitter on Wednesday morning for people to "sign my petition opposing Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court."Her appeal was not all that different from an email Booker sent out earlier in the week, which was criticized for politicizing the hearings.3. Circuses get a bad nameThe committee's hearings this week have been high on spectacle and, arguably, low on substance. It's debatable how much has actually been revealed about Kavanaugh's thinking as a judge or about the kind of Supreme Court justice he would be.Like most of his recent predecessors, he has not revealed much of anything during the hearings about his judicial philosophy — other than that he is a "pro-law" judge and, if confirmed, would be a "one of a team of nine" on the high court — or his take on a number of hot-button issues that are of particular interest to Democrats. Politics Kavanaugh Hearings, Day 1: Protesters Focus On Roe; Attempted Handshake Goes Viral Meanwhile, the regular interruptions by protesters, combined with the quarreling among committee members over documents and how much time they have remaining, accusations of "mob rule," etc. have left the hearings without any sense of momentum or much of a sense of accomplishment. There's little we know now about Kavanaugh that we didn't at the start of the week.But don't call it a circus, says committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C."I want to defend circuses," he said Thursday. "Circuses are entertaining and you can take your children to them," he joked. "This hearing is neither entertaining, nor appropriate for young people."Still, that didn't stop members of Kavanaugh's Catholic Youth Organization basketball team from showing up Thursday and posing for a group picture with their coach. Enlarge this image Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh poses for photos with young basketball players he has coached, during a break in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Thursday. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh poses for photos with young basketball players he has coached, during a break in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Thursday. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

India has deployed thousands of riot police and shut down internet services in two northern states before the sentencing of a self-styled “god man” whose followers were involved in deadly clashes with authorities after he was convicted of rape on Friday. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, has a vast rural following in Punjab and Haryana states, where his furious supporters burned down petrol stations and train stations and torched vehicles after a local court found him guilty of raping two women in a 2002 case. At least 38 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the violence in Haryana, officials said, drawing sharp criticism for the state government run by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), to which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, belongs. The case has also highlighted the Indian heartland’s fascination with spiritual gurus, who enjoy immense political clout for their ability to mobilise millions of followers frustrated by the shortcomings of the state. Security forces have cordoned off a jail in Rohtak city, 44 miles (70km) from New Delhi, where Singh – also known as the guru of bling for the clothes he wears in the movies he has starred in – is being held. The judge who convicted Singh will hold a special hearing inside the prison in Rohtak at about 2.30pm local time on Monday to decide the punishment, in a move that officials hope will prevent his followers from gathering in the streets like they did on Friday. Singh faces a minimum of seven years in prison. The town of Sirsa, home to Dera’s headquarters, is already under lockdown, said BS Sandhu, Haryana’s police chief. Schools and colleges have been ordered to shut, the government said. “We’re fully prepared. We have a contingency plan in place,” Sandhu said, adding that more than 10,000 police would patrol the state as it awaited Singh’s sentencing. Neighbouring Punjab, where violence was sporadic, has summoned more than 8,000 paramilitary and police, banned large gatherings and switched off mobile internet connections across the state until Tuesday, its top administrator said. “Our intelligence reports caution that there could be arson and some other incidents,” said Karan Avtar Singh, the chief secretary to Punjab government. The Haryana government has faced severe criticism from the opposition Congress party and a state court for failing to stop the rioting and vandalism. Singh, whose verified Twitter profile calls him a saint, philanthropist, sportsman, actor, singer, movie director, writer, lyricist and autobiographer, has been photographed with senior BJP leaders including the Haryana chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar. Last year a Haryana minister announced the state would donate 5m Indian rupees ($78,000) to Singh’s Dera sect to promote sports. Bir Kumar Yadav, BJP’s Haryana spokesman, said the party had been associated with Singh only in his capacity as a social worker who had spread awareness about public sanitation and cleanliness. Modi also weighed in on Sunday, vowing to take tough action against anyone trying to break the law. “I want to assure my countrymen that people who take the law into their own hands and are on the path of violent suppression – whether it is a person or a group – neither this country nor any government will tolerate it,” he said in his monthly radio address, without directly mentioning the recent violence. Singh’s conviction is the latest in a series of cases involving spiritual leaders who have been accused of sexually abusing followers, amassing untaxed money and finding favour with politicians. Besides the rape charges, he is also under investigation over allegations that he convinced 400 of his male followers to undergo castration, allegations he denies. Topics India South and Central Asia news

Special counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly notified the White House that his team will try to seek interviews with six current and former aides to Donald Trump as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.According to a report in the Washington Post on Friday, former press secretary Sean Spicer, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and interim communications director Hope Hicks are among the aides Mueller’s team is interested in interviewing.The other three aides the team signalled it might interview were identified in the Post as White House counsel Don McGahn; one of his deputies, James Burnham; and White House spokesman Josh Raffel, who works closely with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior West Wing adviser.Each of the six aides were “privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller’s investigators”, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. This includes Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey in May and prolonged inaction after warnings that Michael Flynn, then national security adviser, has lied about meetings with the Russian ambassador to the US.The justice department inquiry is investigating ties between Trump associates and Russian officials. Mueller’s team is also examining whether Trump or others in the White House attempted to obstruct justice when the president fired Comey, who had been leading the Russia investigation until his dismissal.The Post story was followed by quickly by a report in Politico that Mueller’s team was planning to interview up to a dozen White House aides. That report anonymously quoted one person involved in the case as saying the current aides of interest are not “the marquee names you would think”. Mueller’s team has requested documents from the White House related to the firing of Comey. According to the New York Times, Mueller has also obtained a copy of a letter Trump reportedly wanted to send to Comey outlining his rationale for firing him. The president was stopped from sending the letter by McGahn.The Russia investigation has dogged Trump’s presidency and continues to flare on multiple fronts. As well as the justice department, several House and Senate committees are examining ties between Trump associates and Russians.CNN has reported that that Mueller is interested in interviewing White House staffers who were aboard Air Force One during the crafting of a statement – which later turned out to be misleading – that defended the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, in response to a report that he had met with a Russian lawyer believed to have ties to the Kremlin.In the statement, reportedly drafted in part by Donald Trump, the president said that his son “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” during the meeting, which Kushner and then campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended. Emails released later by Trump Jr revealed that he was in fact promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.On Thursday, Trump Jr answered questions from a Senate panel about the meeting. After the appearance, Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, distributed a memo that spotlighted the federal statute prohibiting false statements to Congress. It was something “to keep in mind regarding Donald Trump Jr’s testimony today”, Coons said. Topics Robert Mueller Donald Trump Russia US politics Europe Paul Manafort Trump-Russia investigation news

PingWest品玩10月24日报道，负责Apple Pay支付的苹果在线业务副总裁Jennifer Bailey在拉斯维加斯的Money20/20会议上，进行了一场关于Apple Pay的主题演讲。她表示，Apple Pay已登陆全球20个市场，在所运营的市场占据90%的移动非接触式交易。贝利同时宣布，Apple Pay将在未来几天登陆丹麦、芬兰、瑞典以及阿联酋，使其登陆的市场总量达到20个。她表示，Apple Pay已经与全球4000家借记卡和信用卡发卡商达成了合作。尽管听起来不算很惊人的数据，但是20个市场代表了全球银行卡交易量的70%。这也凸显了苹果在部署Apple Pay时采取的策略：哪里有钱，就先去哪里。另外，贝利公布的数据显示，在美国，Apple Pay已经被50%以上的零售点接受，包括全美前100大零售商中的67家。更多精彩请关注我们的微信公众号：PingWest品玩新闻线索请投稿至：[email protected]