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Workers as diverse as FBI agents, air traffic controllers and museum staff, did not receive paychecks Friday. Photo: AFP

The US government shutdown that has left 800,000 federal employees without salaries as a result of President Donald Trump´s row with Democrats over building a Mexico border wall entered a record 22nd day Saturday.

The Democrats´ refusal to approve $5.7 billion demanded by Trump for the wall project has paralyzed Washington, with the president retaliating by refusing to sign off on budgets for swaths of government departments unrelated to the dispute.

As a result, workers as diverse as FBI agents, air traffic controllers and museum staff, did not receive paychecks Friday.

The partial shutdown of the government became the longest on record at midnight Friday (0500 GMT Saturday), when it overtook the 21-day stretch in 1995-1996, under president Bill Clinton.

Trump on Friday backed off a series of previous threats to end the deadlock by declaring a national emergency and attempting to secure the funds without congressional approval.

“I´m not going to do it so fast,” he said at a White House meeting.

Trump described an emergency declaration as the “easy way out” and said Congress had to step up to the responsibility of approving the $5.7 billion.

“If they can´t do it… I will declare a national emergency. I have the absolute right,” he insisted.

Until now, Trump had suggested numerous times that he was getting closer to taking the controversial decision.

Only minutes earlier, powerful Republican ally Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted after talks with Trump: “Mr President, Declare a national emergency NOW.”

It was not clear what made Trump change course.

But Trump himself acknowledged in the White House meeting that an attempt to claim emergency powers would likely end up in legal battles going all the way to the Supreme Court.

Opponents say that a unilateral move by the president over the sensitive border issue would be constitutional overreach and set a dangerous precedent in similar controversies.
‘Under siege’

The standoff has turned into a test of political ego, particularly for Trump, who came into office boasting of his deal making powers and making an aggressive border policy the keystone of his nationalist agenda.

Democrats, meanwhile, seem determined at all costs to prevent a president who relishes campaign rally chants of “build the wall!” from getting a win.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the US-Mexican frontier presents major challenges, ranging from the hyper-violent Mexican drug trade to the plight of asylum seekers and poor migrants seeking new lives in the world´s richest country.

There´s also little debate that border walls are needed: about a third of the frontier is already fenced off.

But Trump has turned his single-minded push for more walls into a political crusade seen by opponents as a stunt to stoke xenophobia in his right-wing voter base, while wilfully ignoring the border´s complex realities.

For Trump, who visited the Texas border with Mexico on Thursday, the border situation amounts to an invasion by criminals that can only be solved by more walls.

“We have a country that´s under siege,” he told the local officials in the White House.

Some studies show that illegal immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States, although not everyone agrees on this.

More certain is that while narcotics do enter the country across remote sections of the border, most are sneaked through heavily guarded checkpoints in vehicles, the government´s own Drug Enforcement Administration said in a 2017 report.

It said that most smuggling is done “through US ports of entry (POEs) in passenger vehicles with concealed compartments or commingled with legitimate goods on tractor trailers.”

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives and a key figure in opposing Trump´s agenda, said money should be spent in many areas of border security, but not on walls.

“We need to look at the facts,” she said.

But Trump accused the Democrats of only wanting to score points against him with a view to the 2020 presidential elections.

“They think, ´Gee, we can hurt Trump,´” he said. “The Democrats are just following politics.”

WASHINGTON:(media92tv) A US Senator, who plans to contest the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump, has said she supports withdrawing Ameri­can troops from military engagements in Syria and Afghanistan.

“I think it is right to get our troops out of Syria and let me add, I think it is right to get our troops out of Afghanistan,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Mas­sachusetts Democrat who declared last week that she plans to run against Pres­ident Trump in 2020. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee already, Senator Warren already has a say in military matters.

President Trump and senior officials of his administration announced recently that they planned to withdraw all US troops from Syria and half of the 14,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Senator Warren’s rema­rks, made during an interview to MSNBC television this week, shows that the pressure for pulling out troops from Afghanistan is being felt in both Republi­can and Democratic parties.

Although known for her strong criticism of President Trump and his views, Ms Warren refused to condemn his decision to withdraw troops from warzones.

“I think that everybody who keeps saying, ‘No, no, no, we can’t do that (withdraw troops),’ in the defence establishment needs to explain what they think winning in those wars [looks] like and where the metrics are,” she said.

But the US lawmaker disagreed with President Tru­mp’s abrupt announcements on such sensitive issues, saying policies shouldn’t be conducted via Twitter.

“We actually need to plan this out and talk about it with our allies, how we ens­ure more safety and stability in the region,” she said.

Observers in Washington say that the Afghan war has become so unpopular in the United States that no American politician would like to advocate keeping troops there. And the talk of recalling troops from Afgha­nistan would grow louder when the election campaign starts later this year.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday mocked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for funding a library in Afghanistan, suggesting it was of no use.

Trump brought up India´s aid during a rambling press appearance at a cabinet meeting as he defended his push for the United States to invest less overseas.

While stating that he got along with Modi, Trump said the Indian leader was “constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan.”

“You know what that is? That´s like five hours of what we spend,” Trump said.

“And we´re supposed to say, ´Oh, thank you for the library.´ I don´t know who´s using it in Afghanistan,” Trump said.

It was unclear to which project Trump was referring, but India has committed $3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the extremist Taliban regime after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Projects have included the reconstruction of an elite high school in Kabul and scholarships to India for 1,000 Afghan students each year.

Inaugurating the Afghan parliament building in 2015 after reconstruction financed by India, Modi promised to promote programs “empowering Afghan youth with modern education and professional skills.”

India has been one of the most enthusiastic countries over the US mission in Afghanistan, where the former Taliban regime sheltered fiercely anti-Indian militants.

Trump last month moved to pull all 2,000 US troops out of Syria and cut by half the 14,000-strong force in Afghanistan, calling for less spending overseas.

Alluding in Wednesday´s remarks to the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Trump said: “Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan.”

WASHINGTON:(Net News/Media 92 News) Jamming and astrophysics go hand-in-hand for Queen lead guitarist Brian May, who announced Wednesday he is releasing a musical tribute to a far-flung NASA spacecraft that is about to make history.

The US space agency´s New Horizons spacecraft will soon make the most distant flyby of a cosmic object ever, zipping by an object called Ultima Thule — a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, on January 1.

A NASA scientist involved with the mission asked the legendary British guitarist behind “Bohemian Rhapsody” — who also holds a doctorate in astrophysics — to contribute some music to play as the flyby occurs.

And May, 71, agreed. The “New Horizons” track (Ultima Thule mix), which will be released New Year´s Day, is his first solo single since 1998.

“For me it´s been an exciting challenge to bring two sides of my life together — astronomy and music,” said May in a statement.

“I was inspired by the idea that this is the furthest that the Hand of Man has ever reached — it will be by far the most distant object we have ever seen at close quarters, through the images which the spacecraft will beam back to Earth,” he added.

“To me it epitomizes the human spirit´s unceasing desire to understand the Universe we inhabit.”

Portions of the wailing guitar track, overlaid with the voice of the late legendary scientist Stephen Hawking, are already available on www.brianmay.com.

A third installment in expected in the next few days.

Scientists do not yet have a clear picture of exactly what Ultima Thule is, whether a single object or a cluster, spanning about 19 miles (30 kilometers) in diameter.

But when New Horizons passes, it should capture images at a resolution of 98 to 230 feet (30 to 70 meters) per pixel.

New Horizons completed a successful flyby of Pluto three years ago, and returned stunning images of the dwarf planet.

WASHINGTON: Former FBI Director James Comey testified about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails behind closed doors on Friday before House of Representatives lawmakers and said he believed the session could have been public.

He also said he had agreed to testify again on Dec. 17.

“When you read the transcript you’ll see that we’re talking again about Hillary Clinton’s emails for heaven’s sake, so I’m not sure we need to do this at all,” Comey told reporters after testifying before the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees.

“We could have done this in open setting,” he said.

The former FBI director dropped his opposition to a closed-door hearing on Dec. 2 after members of the Judiciary Committee panel agreed to provide a full transcript within 24 hours and said he would be permitted to make it public.

The panels are investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was in office and about the handling of the probe into whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 U.S. election.

The Republican-led inquiry has been lambasted by Democrats as a partisan effort to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election. Russia has denied any interference.

Comey told reporters after the hearing he had total confidence that the use of electronic surveillance as part of investigation was handled in a “thoughtful, responsible way” by the Department of Justice and the FBI.

“I think the notion that FISA was abused here is nonsense,” Comey said, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that governs use of electronic surveillance by federal law enforcement.

WASHINGTON: As many as 500 million guests at Marriott International hotels may have been victims of a hack that in most cases pilfered passport numbers or other key identifying data, the company announced Friday.

Marriott said it was alerted on September 8 that there had been an attempt to hack their reservation database in the United States.

The hack is among the largest ever disclosed, prompting a big drop in Marriott shares and an investigation by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who said on Twitter that “New Yorkers deserve to know that their personal information will be protected.”

The company discovered “that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014” which compromised personal and financial information.

The probe found “an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information and took steps towards removing it.”

After decrypting the information, the company found on November 19 “that the contents were from the Starwood guest reservation database.”

Hotel brands in the Starwood network include Sheraton, Westin, Four Points and W Hotels. Marriott completed a $13.6 billion acquisition of Starwood in 2016. The deal was announced in November 2015.

“We deeply regret this incident happened,” Marriott chief Arne Sorenson said in a statement. “We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves.”

Marriott said hackers accessed information like names, addresses and dates of birth from most of the affected customers but could not rule out that they were also able to access some encrypted credit card information.
The latest case

After reaching the deal with Marriott, Starwood disclosed in November 2015 that it suffered a hack on some hotels in North America, later determining that malware affected restaurants and gift shops but that there was no evidence the infiltration netted key consumer data, such as social security numbers or debit card codes.

Marriott’s statement did not mention the earlier Starwood disclosure.

Marriott said it would reach out to victims of the hack and was offering support to those affected including free, one-year enrollment in WebWatcher, a service which monitors internet sites where personal data is shared.

Marriott also is working with law enforcement and security experts to tighten security on its system.

It is the latest case of massive breaches that have compromised personal data and can cause years of headaches for victims, who often face serious legal and financial repercussions.

Marriott said it was “premature” to estimate the financial hit from the breach and that it carried cyber insurance that could take care of some of the costs.

“The company does not believe this incident will impact its long-term financial health,” Marriott said in a securities filing. “As a manager and franchisor of leading lodging brands, the company generates meaningful cash flow each year with only modest capital investment needed to grow the business.”

Shares of Marriott slumped five percent to $115.81 in mid-morning trading.

US President Donald Trump will award the 2018 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Elvis Presley (L), George Herman “Babe” Ruth Jr (R). Photo: AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will award the 2018 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Elvis Presley, George Herman “Babe” Ruth Jr and five other individuals, the White House said in a statement on Saturday.

The medal is the highest civilian honor in the United States and is given annually to people who have made outstanding contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Trump will also award the medal to Miriam Adelson, a physician who together with her husband Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate, is a major donor to the Republican party, Jewish causes worldwide, and medical research.

Also receiving the award next week will be Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and the first African-American to serve on that court Alan Page, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and former professional football player Roger Staubach.

WASHINGTON: Pakistan told the United Nations on Monday that the ongoing violations of human rights in Indian Occupied Kashmir are a blot on the conscience of humanity, and demand immediate corrective action from the international community.

Speaking in the Third Committee of the General Assembly on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Dr Maleeha Lodhi said that India’s consistent denial of the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination was “a telling example” of Indian impunity.

Ambassador Lodhi said that the latest report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had “lifted the veil from decades of obfuscation by India of massive human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir”.

She said that when the Kashmiri people demand the right of self-determination promised to them by several Security Council resolutions, they are met with oppression and ruthless human rights abuses at the hands of Indian occupying forces.

The envoy reaffirmed Pakistan’s strong support for the OIC resolution on combating intolerance and negative stereotyping in the context of interfaith harmony. Pakistan will continue to support an equitable, just and fair order, both at home and globally, she noted.

Lodhi added that Pakistan will continue its efforts to choose dialogue over division, harmony over intolerance and right over might.

She further called for strengthening safeguards against new and contemporary manifestations of discrimination, xenophobia and Islamophobia.

KARACHI/WASHINGTON:(Net News/ Media 92 News) The United States has made it clear to Pakistan that its “South Asia policy has not changed”, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday night.

Pompeo made the comment as he welcomed long-delayed legislative elections in Afghanistan, saying the United States was ‘encouraged’ by voter turnout, despite reports of widespread problems including poll centers that failed to open or lacked voter rolls.

“Our expectation is that Pakistan will not provide safe harbour to terrorists on their western border,” Pompeo told reporters when asked about Islamabad’s role.

“We couldn´t have made that message any more clear,” he said, adding: “Pakistan will be held to account if they don’t achieve that, if they’re not sincere in that effort.”

Noting that he “met with Pakistani leaders a few weeks ago”, Pompeo while referring to all stakeholders said, “Everyone wants a reconciliation in Afghanistan and to achieve that, you can’t have a safe harbour for Taliban, for Haqqani and for others inside of Pakistan.”

“Hope Pakistan achieves [the] goal we have set for them,” he stated.

President Donald Trump’s administration last month cut $300 million in military aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan has said that it has paid a heavy price internally for fighting militants and that it can help bring the Taliban to the table.

A Taliban delegation earlier this month met in Qatar with a US envoy. Prime Minister Imran Khan is a longstanding supporter of negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan, where the United States has been deployed since 2001.

WASHINGTON:(Net News/ Media 92 News) Twitter on Wednesday released data on foreign influence campaigns on its platform showing some 10 million tweets, mostly from Russia, dating back as far as 2009.

California-based Twitter said it was releasing detailed data on previously disclosed misinformation efforts to allow researchers to gain more insight into the campaigns.

“In line with our strong principles of transparency and with the goal of improving understanding of foreign influence and information campaigns, we are releasing the full, comprehensive archives of the tweets and media that are connected with these two previously disclosed and potentially state-backed operations on our service,” said a statement from Twitter trust and safety chief Vijaya Gadde and site integrity head Yoel Roth.

“We are making this data available with the goal of encouraging open research and investigation of these behaviors from researchers and academics around the world.”
n Wednesday’s statement, Twitter said influence campaign efforts came from 3,841 accounts originating in Russia, and 770 potentially originating in Iran.

They included more than 10 million tweets and more than two million images and videos from as early as 2009.

“It is clear that information operations and coordinated inauthentic behaviour will not cease,” Twitter said. “These types of tactics have been around for far longer than Twitter has existed — they will adapt and change as the geopolitical terrain evolves worldwide and as new technologies emerge. For our part, we are committed to understanding how bad-faith actors use our services.”

Researchers at the Atlantic Council, who had early access to analyse the Twitter data, the influence campaigns sought to exploit vulnerabilities in a polarized electorate.

“The Russian and Iranian troll farm operations show that American society was deeply vulnerable, not to all troll farm operations, but to troll accounts of a particular type,” said a blog post from the group’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

“That type hid behind carefully crafted personalities, produced original and engaging content, infiltrated activist and engaged communities, and posted in hyper-partisan, polarising terms.”