Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 117. page

>Alterra’s president, Mukemmel Sarimsakci, is a familiar face in Dallas, where he has recruited foreign investment to other developments that earned praise from city officials. Mr. Sarimsakci — who goes by Mike, or, alternatively, the “Turkish Trump” — is also listed on an expert consultant website charging $465 an hour for advice on doing business in such countries as Iran, Mexico and Nigeria. And he has counseled the governments of Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Sudan and Georgia, among others, on renewable energy, he acknowledged to The Times.

>His brother and longtime business partner, Yusuf Sarimsakci, has helped oversee numerous developments around the world, including the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow near the Kremlin, the hotel where Mr. Trump stayed in 2013 while his Miss Universe pageant came to town. On that project, Yusuf worked with a wealthy Kazakh businessman who has ties to the strong-arm leader of that country.

>“For construction, we do business in Russia, Kazakhstan and Iraq, and we have a big office in Istanbul,” Mike Sarimsakci said in 2015 at a start-up event in Texas, adding, “And that’s run by my brother, my partner.”

>The Times’s review of Alterra’s international business dealings also found that Yusuf had worked with an array of companies based in corporate secrecy and tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, a revelation from the vast leak of legal and financial documents known as the Panama Papers. At least three of the companies shared an address in the British Virgin Islands that the Treasury Department — unrelated to Yusuf, who has never been accused of wrongdoing — identified as housing a sanctioned North Korean entity.
...

>The Times’s examination found that Alterra and its associates have done business in countries that have complex and tense relations with the United States — including Turkey, which has become a vexing place for the Trump administration. (Mr. Sarimsakci did not answer questions about his opinions on Turkish politics, though posts on Twitter from 2015 show some support for the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.)

>In January, then President-elect Trump and his lawyers announced his ethics plan, which included putting his business in a trust managed by his two eldest sons and an executive, while also appointing an outside ethics adviser and a chief compliance counsel to review potential deals.

>The potential partnership with Mr. Sarimsakci’s firm has not yet cleared those ethical hurdles, and lawyers scrutinizing the deal have privately raised concerns about some of the foreign connections, including Yusuf’s ties to Russia, according to a person briefed on the matter but who was not authorized to speak publicly about Trump Organization business.

>It is possible that the deal will proceed only if Mr. Sarimsakci agrees to restrictions on his partners and the funding of the deal. The vetting process is iterative, allowing the Trump Organization to restructure deals if the ethics officer raises concerns.

>In an interview, Eric Danziger, the chief executive officer of the Trump Organization’s hotel operation, said that the company had signed letters of intent with Mr. Sarimsakci and about 30 other partners across the country, but that there were no final contracts or guarantees. Of all those partners, Mr. Sarimsakci is the only one who has been publicly confirmed, as he has trumpeted the potential deal in the local news media.
...

>“That particular owner got out ahead of his skis for whatever reason,” said Mr. Danziger, who said that there were four potential Scion deals in the Dallas area, calling it “a perfect market for us.” He said that a potential Alterra partnership was still on the table and that foreign ties would not automatically disqualify it.

>In drafting his presidential ethics policy, Mr. Trump gave extra consideration to international dealings, given the emoluments clause of the Constitution banning federal employees from accepting gifts from foreign leaders or governments. He pledged that profits made from foreign governments at existing Trump hotels would be donated to the United States Treasury.

>Projects in the United States, even those funded with foreign money, arguably pose less of a reputational and ethical threat to the company and the president because they would be subject to local laws and regulations. Even so, once foreign money is involved, it can be difficult to trace its origins.

>Mike Sarimsakci has been quoted in the Dallas Business Journal saying that the deal would be financed by his family and business associates in Turkey and Kazakhstan. In recent statements to The Dallas Morning News, which has chronicled Mr. Sarimsakci’s legal and business difficulties in the United States, he backed away from those claims and said the money would come only from him and two American partners. He declined to elaborate to The Times.

>Over the past month, Mr. Sarimsakci deferred numerous interview requests from The Times, canceled a dinner meeting and directed reporters to the Trump Organization. When presented with a publication deadline, he provided email responses to only some questions.
...

>“The bigger deal is how it impacts the ability to make appointments going forward,” he said.

>Usually, when a position becomes vacant, the first assistant to that post takes over on an acting basis, but the law allows the president to choose someone else, from a limited set of officials. For more than 15 years, the 1998 law was widely understood to bar the first assistant — but not any of the other qualified officials — from filling the higher role on an acting basis if that person was nominated for long-term appointment to that post.

>That the law was generally misinterpreted, and that no one raised objections, does not change its meaning, Justice Roberts wrote.

>In 2010, the general counsel of the labor board resigned, and President Barack Obama named Lafe Solomon, who was not the first assistant, as acting general counsel. A year later, the president nominated Mr. Solomon to be general counsel, and he continued to do the job on an acting basis as he awaited Senate confirmation. But for more than two years, the Senate did not act on the appointment, and it was withdrawn.

>In 2013, while Mr. Solomon’s appointment was awaiting Senate action, the labor board took on a complaint against SW General, an ambulance company, ultimately finding against the company in a pay dispute. The company later sued, arguing that the board’s action was invalid because Mr. Solomon’s appointment was invalid.
...

>The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in SW General’s favor, a decision that quickly had consequences for Mr. Obama’s ability to fill positions.

>In one prominent example, in January 2016, Eric K. Fanning stepped down as acting secretary of the Army so that the president could appoint him on a long-term basis. Mr. Fanning was not confirmed until that May.

>Prime Minister Abe denies any connection to the land sale, and says he'll step down if it's proven otherwise.

>"I have no understanding about the details of what this school is doing," he said in a session of parliament in February. "I only took a brief look at their brochure."

>Kagoike said he's withdrawn the application to build the school at the advice of his lawyer despite the fact that construction is almost finished.

>"It was a heartbreaking moment," he said. "But after that nothing has improved ... (the) government acted like I am the only bad guy. I'm starting to find it strange."

>The Moritomo Gakuen group declined to speak with CNN. Representatives for the Abes did not give specific answers to CNN's inquiries, instead pointing to public comments the Prime Minister has made.

>Abe's wife Akie was a prominent supporter of the planned school, serving as "honorary principal" until her abrupt resignation last month.

>Her picture and title were listed on the school's website but have since taken down.

>Abe told parliament in February his wife resigned due to "various incidents," without going into more detail.

>"She thought being honorary principal could result in giving trouble to children and parents," he told lawmakers.
...

>Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie see off Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as they leave for Vietnam from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on February 28.

>But Kagoike told reporters and politicians the Abes have been supporters of his for a while. He claims Akie Abe donated 1 million yen (about $8,900) on her husband's behalf to Moritomo Gakuen in 2015 -- something the Prime Minister has denied himself and through his spokesman.

>The donation isn't necessarily illegal, but if verified it would mean Abe misled lawmakers in a session of parliament.

>"I have no idea why he (Kagoike) has said this," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
During his testimony, Kagoike said Akie Abe gave him the donation when she came to one of his schools to give a speech on September 5, 2015. Akie Abe asked her aide to leave the room during a meeting and then gave him an envelope with the money inside, Kagoike said in his testimony.

>"(The donation) was a great honor for us, so we remember it very vividly," he said.

>The Prime Minister's ruling Liberal Democrat Party jumped on this as an opportunity to discredit Kagoike's testimony. If Akie Abe and Kagoike were alone and the cash was exchanged, there's no way Kagoike could conclusively prove his account about the donation, Prime Minister Abe's allies said.
Suga again denied allegations Thursday that either of the Abes made a donation to Moritomo Gakuen after Kagoike's testimony. He said the government will not ask Akie Abe about it again and reiterated his belief the land deal was done in fair and legal manner.
...

>>124512
>The scandal first broke in February after a local assembly member sued the government for not disclosing the details of the sale.

>The Prime Minister was fielding questions about the school by the middle of February, when he denied any connection to the transaction. But he told lawmakers his wife said Kagoike is a passionate educator who shares his "way of thinking very much."

>Kagoike said the Abes support his school's philosophy during his Thursday testimony.

>"I wonder why the people who has been supportive to my school suddenly turned their back and left me alone," he said. "I won't be cast off like the tail of lizard."

>This has caused concern among the Japanese public, as officials at Kagoike's Moritomo

>Gakuen have been accused of using derogatory language when referring to Chinese and Korean people in letters home to parents.

>A note on one school's website blamed "delinquent parents" of "former students coming from C country and K country" for making the letter public.

>"Our school stands firm against such actions by those extreme minority from C country and K country living in Japan," Moritomo Gakuen said on its website.

>"C Country" and "K country" likely refer to China and South Korea.

>The school group eventually took down the note and issued an apology on its website for their "misleading expressions."

>Moritomo Gakuen also requires its students to recite Imperial Rescript of Education, a relic of

>Japan's imperial era education system that deifies the Emperor. Today, reciting the rescript is seen by some in the Japanese public as glorifying the history of Japanese aggression.

>Those accusations strike a chord with Abe's opponents, who believe the Prime Minister himself has been too cavalier when it comes to Japan's history.
...

>>124385
>native to ukraine

Are russians really that desperate to make ukraine look bad?

Zebra mussels are native to ALL of E. europe. In fact, I think russia has the largest contiguous population of them in the world.

Holy fucking shit russians are stupid.

>>124387
>Are russians really that desperate to make ukraine look bad?

god damn are you a stupid fuck..

http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/21/massive-wall-of-molluscs-native-to-ukraine-block-london-water-network-6524082/

>>124390

From http://cisr.ucr.edu/quagga_zebra_mussels.html, emphasis mine:
>Quagga and zebra mussels are aquatic invasive species that are native to EASTERN EUROPE. The quagga mussel originated from DNIEPER RIVER drainage of UKRAINE. The zebra mussel was first described from the lakes of SOUTHEAST RUSSIA and its natural distribution also includes the Black and Caspian Seas.

They are also described as being from the Volga and Ural rivers, both of which have nothing to do with Ukraine. Therefore, >>124387 is not wrong, these things were originally from across eastern Europe.

Also, these things are old news, they've been spreading to Britain since the early 19th century, a time at which Ukraine was controlled by THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. So it is positively ridiculous to use this as a anti-Ukrainian propaganda piece in more ways than one.

It's absolutely inappropriate to try to induce seizures in the guy but because it's the internet I don't think it should result in a conviction. Like the whole cyberbulling bs, unless it manifests offline/physically, then avoidance is as simple as not using the cancer that is social media.

twitter could simply not automatically play gif/videos when you scroll over them or give people the option to do that.

>>123122
So... what, epileptics should just shut themselves down from social media because someone MIGHT send them pictures that induce seizures?

Unlike cyberbullying where it's easy to react and put the bullies on ignore/shut down your account/whatever, a single seizure-inducing picture just might fuck you up, and you don't really have any way of avoiding exposure(short of having no social media presence of any kind in the first place, which I don't really think is a reasonable measure) if someone spontaneously decides to start fucking with you. So I would say that deliberately trying to cause someone to have a seizure absolutely DOES warrant a conviction.

Broofs?

...sure, the government needs to growfund money for killing a person.....when you create such a silly story, you have to make it more realistic....

>>121310
>the government needs to growfund money for killing a person

TOP KEK. ukrainian sure

>Tillerson's decision will likely raise eyebrows among some of the United States' European partners.

>Close to the Russian border, some people fear that Trump's thawing relationship with President Vladimir Putin could leave them exposed. Like NATO, Moscow has been ramping its military exercises and also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

>"Donald Trump's administration is making a grave error that will shake the confidence of America's most important alliance and feed the concern that this administration simply too cozy with Vladimir Putin," said U.S. Rep. Eliot L. Engel, D- New York, who was one of the first to respond to Tillerson's decision.

>He added: "I cannot fathom why the administration would pursue this course except to signal a change in American foreign policy that draws our country away from western democracy's most important institutions and aligns the United States more closely with the autocratic regime in the Kremlin."

>He also labeled the move "an absolute disgrace."

>Historically, NATO's promise to come to the defense of any partner under attack has reassured these countries, particularly those in the former Soviet Union, who believed they would be safe from Kremlin interference.

>That's shifted under Trump, who has spoken warmly of Putin, called NATO "obsolete" and suggested he would not protect allies unless they upped their military spending. The FBI is also investigating links between his election campaign and Russian hacking. Tillerson has had dealings with Putin in his former role as ExxonMobil CEO.

>Trump has recently spoken in more reassuring terms toward NATO, but many analysts say that even the suggestion that the U.S. might not respond to an aggression might leave allies vulnerable. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, at a brief photo spray Tuesday with his Finnish counterpart, expressed confidence that the U.S. will be represented at the upcoming NATO meeting.

>"We'll take care of the representation," Mattis said. "This is something to be worked out, no problem."

>> 2 hours of excellent talks with Sec.Mattis. Serious business but a very warm welcome. Always glad to be with such a strong friend of NATO. pic.twitter.com/gnnGz99UHh
>>— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 21, 2017

>It appeared that other U.S. officials were well aware of the negative signals likely generated by Tillerson's absence from the key meeting. Before the spokesman's official comment, one State Department told NBC News on condition of anonymity that there was a push within the agency to convince him to attend.

>However, Tillerson is instead sending the State Department's second-most senior official, Tom Shannon, to the key NATO meeting on April 5-6.

>A NATO official pointed out that "all allies are represented at NATO ministerial meetings ... it's up to allies to decide at what level they are represented," adding that such gatherings were "important regular events."

>Reuters, the news agency that first reported Tillerson's decision, quoted unidentified officials saying that the secretary of state would be staying in the U.S. to attending meetings between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

>Related: Chinese Media Claims Tillerson Visit Was a Home Run — for China

>The State Department spokesman did not mention this detail and NBC News could not immediately independently confirm it.

>The secretary of state is also scheduled to travel to a meeting of the G-7 countries in Italy before traveling to Russia next month.

>While she did not confirm Tillerson's meetings in Russia, Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that "we are definitely surprised by the constant leaks of sensitive information from Washington."

There will be no need to be protected from Russia if Russia is already on your side, Russia is more valuable as an ally not an enemy

>muslim looking man

>>124215
>Muslim looking man

>>124216
Absolutely! No doubt!

If Ukraine is a democracy, why not create an environmental watchdog to protect against this type of thing?

>>124097

Russian propaganda outlet. Reported komrade.

>>124132
because it's a "democracy" just like russia is a "democracy." really, it's a kleptocracy (no different from russia [or the US to an extent]) because really, the only people who have power are those with investments in industry, they offer shares or some return to politicians in exchange for looser regulations and everybody (who is rich/politically influential) gets a slice of the pie. welcome to democracy, under capitalism.

>The Broward County Sheriff’s Office did not respond immediately to The Washington Post’s request for comment late Wednesday. CBS4 Miami confirmed with the local authorities that a hit-and-run vehicle accident occurred at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at the intersection that Stone had described.

>The sheriff’s report, according to CBS4 News, states that “a deputy was not dispatched to the accident until 11:56 a.m. — more than 70 minutes after the crash. The deputy arrived on the scene at 11:59 a.m. The report makes no mention of Stone being a passenger in the vehicle.” Stone said that he waited 30 minutes, but when authorities failed to arrive, he left via Uber.

>The driver of the struck vehicle, John Kakanis, confirmed to CBS4 that Stone was in the passenger’s seat. A witness, Ron Snowden, also told the Miami news station that he saw a man who resembled Stone at the scene.

>Stone said in a Twitter post that he was “fine,” other than blurred vision in his right eye, which he said was previously injured in a boxing match.

>Stone told The Post that his suspicions were also aroused because the hit-and-run occurred on the same day that “the ranking Democrat called for me to testify before an inquiry into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.” The House Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), said he was alarmed by Stone’s Twitter correspondence with hacker Guccifer 2.0, CNN reported Wednesday.

>The person or people behind Guccifer 2.0 have claimed responsibility for stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee, which WikiLeaks released during the summer. After the release, U.S. intelligence officials expressed “high confidence” that Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian military agent.
...

>Stone, who recently admitted to corresponding with Guccifer 2.o via private Twitter messages, denied any complicity.

>“Many fake news outlets are claiming I colluded with Guccifer 2.0 via Twitter to hack and disseminate the DNC documents in July,” Stone said in his email to The Post. “The proof they offer is our exchange on Twitter,” he said, but noted that the correspondence was dated August 14, “almost five weeks after the hack and release of the DNC documents.”

>An ongoing counterintelligence investigation has probed possible Russian links to Stone as well as Trump campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Carter Page, the New York Times reported Jan. 19.

>“There remains no proof of anyone involved in the Trump campaign having colluded with any Russians,” Stone told The Post.

>Wednesday’s crash marked the second time in recent months that Stone said his life was threatened. Stone claimed that, in late 2016, he was poisoned with polonium, the radioactive material used to kill former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

I'm surprised nobody seems to be talking about this.

>Last week on the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Science Superstar Neil deGrasse Tyson said those who are pro-planetary status for Pluto need to “get over it.”

>“Pluto had it coming from the beginning,” Tyson said. “Pluto’s orbit crosses that of another planet. That is no kind of behavior for another planet…. Stay in your lane.”

>The team of researchers suggested a new definition of a planet in a February proposal, that is more in line with “scientific classification and peoples’ intuition'" should be adopted.

>“In the mind of the public, the word 'planet' carries a significance lacking in other words used to describe planetary bodies,” the proposal states. “In the decade following the supposed 'demotion' of Pluto by the International Astronomical Union, many members of the public, in our experience, assume that alleged 'non-planets' cease to be interesting enough to warrant scientific exploration.”

>The scientists suggest planets should constitute as “round objects in space that are smaller than stars,” thus excluding white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes from the planetary status.

>"A planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters," the proposal elaborates, noting that the Earth's moon would constitute as a planet under the new definition.

>Stern and his colleagues note that the IAU’s definition of a planet is too narrow and recognizes planets only as objects that orbit our sun and "requires zone clearing, which no planet in our solar system can satisfy since new small bodies are constantly injected into planet-crossing orbits."

>Runyon will take questions on the proposed definition during a poster session Tuesday.

Science is officially based on concensus.

>>123904
The issue is a semantic linguistic disagreement, not a scientific one.

>Arroyo had been driving the ambulance through the Bronx, with another female EMT in the passenger seat, when a passerby flagged down the ambulance at about 7 p.m. and told them a man was riding on the rear bumper, police said.

>Both Arroyo and the other EMT exited the ambulance, Nigro said. Arroyo, who left the ambulance door open, was approaching the man, later identified as Gonzalez, who then moved around her and went inside the ambulance. Gonzalez threw the ambulance into reverse, knocking Arroyo to the ground, according to police. That’s when he ran over Arroyo and dragged her as he drove over a sidewalk and to an intersection, striking several parked cars along the way, authorities said.

>He then stopped the ambulance and ran away, police said. Gonzalez was later caught by an Metropolitan Transportation Authority officer, according to police.

>Officers found Arroyo on the roadway with “trauma about her body,” a police news release states. Her partner, a 30-year-old EMT who has not been publicly identified, suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder.

>A witness, Justin Lopez, 20, shot a video of the incident.

>“I was coming from the street, up to the red light and I just saw the ambulance, the sirens and lights, and I told my brother, ‘Look something’s happening,’ and then somebody just hopped in, and then he hit two cars and ran over the person,” Lopez told the New York Daily News. “I realized he was hijacking the car.”

>Nancy Montavo, who was nearby, told the Daily News that the second paramedic was devastated. “She was screaming ‘my partner, my partner.’ She was screaming hysterically. I can’t forget her screaming,” Montavo said. “All the police came running and they put her in an ambulance.”

>“We lost a good woman,” de Blasio said. “She started her shift today like every other day, and then a senseless act of violence takes her life.”

Rest in peace brave ambulance lady.

>>123884
F

>>122950
Piers you did p good on that hbo show, weird, but fuck off.

>>122952
seconding this. Feck off Piers, you wanker.

>>122950
Moral is important.

>>>/pol/

>>117306
>>>/reddit/

Gross

>>117729
>Our measure of media tone excludes soundbites from identified partisans, focusing instead on tallying the evaluative statements made by reporters and the non-partisan talking heads (experts and average citizens) included in their stories. In their coverage of Trump’s first month, the networks crowded their stories with quotes from citizens angry about many of his policies, while providing relatively little airtime to Trump supporters.

>And the networks’ anchors and reporters often injected their own anti-Trump editorial tone into the coverage. “It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality,” CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley snidely began his February 6 broadcast.

>“Instead of working to clarify or backtrack on President Trump’s false claims,” NBC’s Hallie Jackson scolded on the January 24 Nightly News, “today his press secretary instead tried to cement them.”

>>117730
>The biggest controversy during President Trump’s first month in office was the temporary ban on immigration from seven countries compromised by Islamic terrorism (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). The three evening newscasts spent more than 3 hours (188 minutes) on this topic alone, accounting for about one-fifth of all of the Trump administration’s coverage.

>Network coverage provided a megaphone to those distressed by Trump’s action, with NBC’s Lester Holt on January 30 beginning his newscasts from “the Statue of Liberty, which for nearly 130 years has symbolized the welcome arms of a country of immigrants.” As for Trump’s temporary ban, Holt quoted anonymous “critics” who “call it a solution in search of a problem, and an unconstitutional and thinly-disguised ban on Muslims.”

>A range of other immigration initiatives (the border wall with Mexico, a crackdown on sanctuary cities and increased deportation of criminal illegal aliens) accounted for 62 minutes of network airtime. Most of this coverage was sympathetic to those newly at risk for deportation; for example, ABC’s Jim Avila, on February 11, cast it as a “stern warning to all 11 million undocumented living in the United States, most of them law-abiding and paying taxes and working, that they are no longer safe to stay here.”

>>117732
>The networks spent a total of 49 minutes on the confirmation battles surrounding Trump’s Cabinet picks, with Education Secretary Betsy Devos garnering the most airtime (17 minutes), followed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions (10 minutes) and failed Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder (7 minutes). Combined, the networks spent less than one-tenth as much coverage (just over four minutes) on Senate Democrats’ calculated strategy of obstructing the confirmation process.

>Further highlighting the hostile tone of these newscasts, nearly an hour of coverage (56 minutes) was given over to anti-Trump protests on various topics, with nearly one-fifth (82 out of 442) of the Trump stories or briefs aired during these 30 days including at least some discussion of an anti-Trump protest.