[BBC] The youngest Spitfire pilot to fly in the Battle of Britain during World War Two has died, it has been announced.
Sqn Ldr Geoffrey Wellum, who was just 18 when he joined the RAF in August 1939, died at his home in Cornwall on Wednesday evening aged 96. He served with 92 Squadron and his first missions included the "dogfights" above London and the Home Counties for which the battle became known.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust said it was "saddened by the news".
Sqn Ldr Wellum was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and was later promoted to flight commander with 65 Squadron. He later led eight Spitfires from HMS Furious to relieve Malta.
Sqn Ldr Wellum, speaking in 2013, said: "Somebody said: 'Here's a Spitfire - fly it, and if you break it there will be bloody hell to pay'."
"Looking at my life now, I had peaked at about 21 or 22. It was just lovely blokes, all together in Fighter Squadron." He remained in the RAF until 1960.
Patrick Tootal, secretary of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, said members of the charity's staff and volunteers had been "much saddened by the news".
"Only this week Sqn Ldr Wellum had been talking enthusiastically about attending the Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey on 16 September," he said.
[MITSloan] AN MIT PROFESSOR TRIES TO GET A FOLLOW FROM TAYLOR SWIFT AND ENDS UP WITH A NEW TOOL FOR INFORMATION WARFARE.
WHY IT MATTERS
To influence someone on social media, first you need them to follow you. New research uncovers the behavioral and network features that make that happen.
It was 2014. Taylor Swift had recently released her single “Shake It Off.” She was now a certifiable pop star and Tauhid Zaman, associate professor of operations at MIT Sloan, wondered if he could get her to follow him on Twitter. Swift had about 60 million followers; he had fewer than 1,000. She represented a global empire; he was an academic. A long shot, yes, but these odds were precisely what motivated the question.
“I wanted to know what makes people follow you back,” Zaman said. “Celebrities have a wall around them, but their weaknesses on social media are the people they follow.”
Could he somehow use a celebrity’s friends on Twitter — Swift’s hair stylist or sound engineer — to open the gates to her inner circle? He dubbed this the “follow-back problem,” and he solved it with his students at MIT.
Head to the link to see how.
By the time he and his team got to work on this, though, “Shake it Off” had become much less interesting than the world’s most famous Twitter user, President Donald Trump. What, he wondered, would be the most promising path to get a follow from @realDonaldTrump?
[TheDrive] Multiple types of weapons were fired at the ship during the highly anticipated drill, which included land-based attackers for the very first time, and in a big way. A variant of the U.S. Navy's recently selected Naval Strike Missile was launched by the U.S. Army—which is also looking to acquire the weapon—from a palletized truck-mounted canister. It flew 63 miles to impact the target successfully.
Japan also unleashed four of its Type 12 land-based anti-ship missiles at the ship, which marked the first time Japanese anti-ship missiles were fired under the command of U.S. military assets.
According to Military.com, nearly half a dozen HIMARS guided-artillery rockets were also fired at the vessel. The push to migrate the hugely successful HIMARS into a maritime and even an anti-ship role is something we once suggested ourselves and have been following closely as of late. It was all but a given that it would be featured in some sort of live-fire fashion during RIMPAC 2018.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) ‐ At least several tornadoes tore through central Iowa on Thursday afternoon, hitting key landmarks in some cities, such as the Marshall County Courthouse in Marshalltown and Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella.
Heavy rain, damaging winds and hail were also part of the system. Seven people inside the manufacturing plant were taken to the hospital and treated for injuries. They have since been released.
Pella Regional Health Center spokeswoman Billie Rhamy confirmed Thursday evening that all the injuries were minor and all patients have been discharged.
The company, which has about 2,800 employees, makes agricultural machinery, including hay balers and mowers, and equipment for the pipeline and forestry management industries.
Vermeer CEO Jason Andringa said that 400 dealers and customers were in town to celebrate the company's 70th anniversary. He said operations will be closed Friday as crews assess the structural damage.
Emergency responders attempted to get inside the damaged building to see if anyone was trapped inside.
Vice President of Operations Vince Newendorp said the east half of the company's campus, which includes seven manufacturing buildings, sustained extensive damage.
He said the plant activated its storm warning system and workers were in shelters when the storm hit.
[PRESSTV] South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said he is ready to accept a peace deal to end a civil war and set up an inclusive new government.
The deal being negotiated in Sudan would give the country five vice presidents and also covers security and power sharing.
"The people of South Sudan are looking for peace and if that arrangement can bring about peace to the people of South Sudan, I am ready to take it," said Kiir late on Wednesday at a swearing-in ceremony for his foreign minister.
"People talk about exclusivity, nobody is to be left out of the government. I accept it," he said.
South Sudan erupted in conflict in 2013 because of a dispute between Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar. Tens of thousands have been killed, a quarter of the population has fled their homes and the oil-dependent economy has been wrecked.
A 2015 peace deal briefly halted the fighting but it fell apart after Machar returned to the capital the following year.
The conflict has mostly been fought along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir's dominant Dinka tribe and its rival, the ethnic Nuer of Machar.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Mail] Higher prices will be particularly painful for families planning to drive on their summer holidays, motoring groups said.
The Office for National Statistics said rising fuel prices were a major factor affecting living standards last month.
It said the annual rate of inflation held firm at 2.4 per cent in June as the price of motor fuels rose by 11.6 per cent – the biggest increase since September 2014.
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied bond today for an accused Russian spy as prosecutors alleged that she offered sex to gain an edge in her political influence operation. Funny, doesn't look as a honeypot to me
In this photo taken on April 21, 2013, Maria Butina, leader of a pro-gun organization in Russia, speaks to a crowd during a rally in Moscow. Okay, I get the message
h/t Gates of Vienna
The White House sought Thursday to tamp down another firestorm that broke out in the wake of President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin, making clear the president does not support the Russian leader's proposal to allow his government to interview American officials.
"It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a brief statement on Thursday afternoon.
The statement came as the administration faced mounting backlash for even entertaining Putin's proposal, which pertained to the Robert Mueller probe.
The Russian leader on Monday had proposed an unusual quid pro quo, offering to let the special counsel team question newly indicted Russian officers as part of the election meddling case, if Russians could question certain U.S. individuals.
[ Bloomberg] Vladimir Putin told Russian diplomats that he made a proposal to Donald Trump at their summit this week to hold a referendum to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but agreed not to disclose the plan publicly so the U.S. president could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin’s closed-door speech on Thursday.
Details of what the two leaders discussed in their summit in Helsinki, Finland, remain scarce, with much of the description so far coming from Russia. While Putin portrayed the Ukraine offer as a sign he’s seeking to bring the four-year-old crisis to an end, a referendum is likely to be a hard sell with Ukraine and its backers in Europe, who remain committed to an 2015 European-brokered truce deal for the Donbas region, parts of which are controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
White House officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. If Putin’s account of Trump’s reaction is accurate, it would suggest a more flexible approach than the U.S. has shown to date on the issue. At the Helsinki meeting, Trump also agreed to consider a Putin request to question the former U.S. ambassador to Moscow over U.S. campaign-finance violations that critics say Trump should have dismissed outright. And the consideration ended in a "No.".
[PRESSTV] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... has expressed his strong opposition to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ) eastward, warning the US-led military alliance against unspecified consequences in case it seeks to forge closer ties with Ukraine and Georgia.
Addressing a meeting of Russian ambassadors and envoys in Moscow on Thursday, Putin said there was a need to rebuild trust in Europe, and that NATO's attempts concerning deployment of military contingents and infrastructure near Russia’s western frontiers were not acceptable.
"We will respond appropriately to such aggressive steps, which pose a direct threat to Russia," the Russian leader said.
He added, "Our colleagues, who are trying to aggravate the situation, seeking to include, among others, Ukraine and Georgia in the orbit of the alliance, should think about the possible consequences of such an irresponsible policy."
Putin said he had discussed the matter with his US counterpart Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... at a summit in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[AsiaTimes] Many flights have been delayed or cancelled as the People's Liberation Army closes airspace while it holds military exercises aimed at scaring Taiwan.
A renewed show of force by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday to scare Taiwan has resulted in large swathes of the East China Sea and airspace southeast of Shanghai cordoned off.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday came under withering criticism from automakers, foreign governments and others as officials consider imposing tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts, a levy that could hike vehicle costs, hurting auto sales and industry jobs. I'm sticking with Wilbur.
Hundreds of workers employed by foreign automakers rallied on Capitol Hill, urging the administration to drop the plans they said could threaten their jobs. A bipartisan group of 150 lawmakers signed a letter urging the administration to drop the plans amid the opposition of groups representing nearly all major automakers, dealers, parts companies and retailers.
Administration officials and congressional aides say the tariff probe is in part designed to win concessions during ongoing NAFTA renegotiation talks, but note that Trump has told aides he wants to impose tariffs before the congressional elections in November.
The department opened an investigation in May into whether imported autos and parts pose a national security risk and held a hearing on the probe on Thursday, taking testimony from auto trade groups, foreign governments and others.
[DailyMail] Astonishing video footage captured at a street demonstration in Paris shows Alexandre Benalla, who is in his mid-30s, attacking two young protesters, one female, one male.
It has led to a political scandal, with opponents of Mr Macron accusing him of trying to cover up the attacks, and calling for Benalla to be imprisoned.
The deputy chief of staff at the Elysee Palace had put on a police helmet, despite not being authorised to do so.
He can clearly be seen first of all grabbing a young woman by the neck at the demonstration on May 1 – a traditional day of street action that this year saw hundreds of thousands campaigning across France against Mr Macron's employment reforms.
Benalla then turns his attention to a bearded Left-wing activist who has been apprehended by gendarmes.
The burly Benalla pulls the man away from the police, and starts slapping him around the head by himself.
When other demonstrators start shouting at Benalla, he looks scared of being identified behind his visor, and then slinks off to a café.
Alexis Corbiere, an MP and spokesman for former far-Left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, said he 'asked for penal sanctions' against a 'colleague of Macron who disguised himself as a police officer to commit violence.'
[FOX] The Pentagon is making a massive push to accelerate the application of artificial intelligence to ships, tanks, aircraft, drones, weapons and large networks as part of a sweeping strategy to more quickly harness and integrate the latest innovations.
Many forms of AI are already well-underway with U.S. military combat systems, yet new technologies and applications are emerging so quickly that Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has directed the immediate creation of a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
“The Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the DoD Chief Information Officer to standup the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in order to enable teams across DoD to swiftly deliver new AI-enabled capabilities and effectively experiment with new operating concepts in support of DoD's military missions and business functions." DoD spokeswoman Heather Babb told Warrior Maven.
Pentagon officials intend for the new effort to connect otherwise disparate AI developments across the services. The key concept, naturally, is to capitalize upon the newest and most efficient kinds of autonomy, automation and specific ways in which AI can develop for the long term -- yet also have an immediate impact upon current military operations.
#1
This should have been answered with gunfire. Here's why, the people doing this are committing an attack with a weapon of mass destruction. It's biological warfare. It's attempting to spread disease.
When the Navy accepted delivery of the newly-built $4.6 billion Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer Michael Monsoor (hull DDG 1001) in April, it marked the occasion with a signing ceremony and a news release.
"Delivery of DDG 1001 marks the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from our Navy and industry team," Capt. Kevin Smith, the Zumwalt destroyer program manager, said at the time. "We have incorporated many lessons learned from DDG 1000 and are proud of the end result."
The only problem was the Navy already knew ‐ and had known since February ‐ that the condition of the Monsoor was far from ship-shape.
It already needed a new engine.
That information would not be disclosed for another three months.
News of the engine troubles broke on July 11, when Rear Adm. William Galinis ‐ the program executive officer of ships at the Naval Sea Systems Command ‐ acknowledged the issue at a Navy League breakfast.
His comments were first reported by the U.S. Naval Institute.
One of the Monsoor's two $20 million engines would need to be replaced before the ship could transition to its future homeport of San Diego, he said. The engine was damaged during sea trials early this year, and will be replaced at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
"In February 2018, a post-cleaning inspection of one of the DDG 1001's two Main Turbine Generators revealed damage to the rotor blades of the generator's MT30 engine," Alan Baribeau, a spokesman for the Navy, said by email. "After the damage was identified, and out of an abundance of caution, the Navy decided to remove the engine in its entirety to ensure a successful and safe transit of the ship to her San Diego homeport."
Baribeau said the Navy accepted delivery of the ship in April ‐ despite the damaged engine ‐ in order to remain on-schedule.
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07/20/2018 11:09 ||
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#1
...and that's how people die. However, all the brass will get medals and a nifty retirement ceremony.
#2
Before it would have been a manufacturer's defect engine replacement. Now I suppose it falls under the customer warranty. I had a VW Camper situation like that.
The transmission blew 100 miles short of the power train warranty end. The 105 mile tow was covered. The dealership 'declined' to replace the transmission under warranty because of the mileage.
[CNN] David Resch, the executive assistant director in charge of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, is retiring after more than two decades of service, as is Scott Smith, who worked under him as the head of the Cyber Division.
The moves are not atypical for FBI agents who have hit the work milestones that the men recently did, making them eligible to receive retirement benefits. But they come as threats in the cyber world, like Russia's election interference and online foreign influence campaigns, have reached a point of alarm.
The bureau also confirmed the upcoming retirement of a third top official, Executive Assistant Director Carl Ghattas, who heads the National Security Branch.
Over a 20-year career, Ghattas worked several of the bureau's most high-profile counterterrorism cases.
Resch and Ghattas had been appointed to their senior positions earlier this year. In their roles -- overseeing all of the bureau's global criminal and cyber investigations, and national security operations and intelligence efforts, respectively -- both men would have been on the front lines of the US fight against Russian hacking.
An FBI official said Thursday that the retirements were not related to the wider climate around the bureau, and pointed to a hiring boom in the late 1990s that has led to a recent rise in senior agent retirements.
h/t Instapundit
Last month the Supreme Court held in Janus v. AFSCME that it is unconstitutional for the states to require public employees to pay labor unions if they choose not to become members (these payments were called "agency fees"). There has been plenty written about what this means for the future of public sector unions and what might happen next. But it turns out that there is another important question: what about the agency fees that unions had been collecting before Janus? Are unions liable for collecting them? Can they be forced to pay them back?
A series of lawsuits have been recently brought in seven states arguing that unions are liable, and now subject to quite significant liability. Noam Scheiber has a story in the New York Times about the suits, (and the lawyer bringing the suits, a former law professor and former Texas solicitor general, Jonathan Mitchell):
Even before the Supreme Court struck down mandatory union fees for government workers last month, the next phase of the conservative legal campaign against public-sector unions was underway.
In March, with the decision looming, lawyers representing government workers in Washington State asked a federal court to order one of the state's largest public-employee unions "to disgorge and refund" fees that nonmembers had already paid. Similar lawsuits were filed in California, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Ohio.
#4
The Right is finally starting to wage Lawfare against the Left. I believe it will happen. I also expect that the attacks against the Left are going to escalate. About time too.
Posted by: Black Charlie Joluns3524 ||
07/20/2018 9:32 Comments ||
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#5
A series of lawsuits have been recently brought in seven states arguing that unions are liable, and now subject to quite significant liability.
And they'll have to pick up & disclose such a liability on their financial statements, and tax returns as well, until the matter's adjudicated.
#6
Who cares about their liability? What I would love to see is the Unions being forced to open their books. Transparency. Let's get a good look at what sort of corruption and shenanigans have been paid for out of forced dues!
[Breitbart] Columbus Dispatch journalist Randy Ludlow claimed on Twitter, Thursday, that he would "love" to see his Marine son "ship out to Crimea" for a war with Russia.
"The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war. They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin. We are doing MUCH better than any other country!" posted President Trump on Twitter, prompting Columbus Dispatch senior reporter Randy Ludlow to respond.
"My son is a Marine master sergeant. And yes, I’d love to see him ship out to Crimea," Ludlow declared, almost instantly receiving criticism from other users on the social network. This is how "Um, Dad..." moments begin.
The annexation of Crimea occurred swiftly under President Obama’s watch. Russian forces ‐ and unofficial "Russia-allied" militants ‐ began appearing in Crimea by the thousands in February 2014. The Ukrainian government, by then under the anti-Russian government of acting president Oleksandr V. Turchynov, loudly protested to the sudden population boom of Russian soldiers on the peninsula. President Obama responded by issuing a statement that month warning Russia that "any violation of Ukrainian sovereignty would be deeply destabilizing" and "there will be costs."
Yet by mid-March, Crimea ‐ now flooded by thousands of Russian soldiers ‐ declared "independence" after a "vote" Putin forced in the peninsula. Russian attacks continued throughout eastern Ukraine, and the pro-Russian leaders of Crimea now demanded that Putin annex them into the Federation.
On March 19, Putin announced that "Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia in the hearts and minds of people" and called Western nations liars and "cheaters" for having expanded NATO into Ukraine.
The Obama administration did not respond. The Pentagon ignored Ukraine’s pleas for military assistance. Putin officially signed the legal documentation to annex Crimea in late March 2014.
Obama’s inaction earned him a stern critique from even mainstream media sources. "President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality," an editorial in the Washington Post dated March 2014 read. "As Mr. Putin ponders whether to advance further ‐ into eastern Ukraine, say ‐ he will measure the seriousness of U.S. and allied actions, not their statements."
#8
They gave a hundred and fifty billion dollars to Iran to give to Russia to bomb Syria _after_ the invasion of Ukraine but they're pure patriots ready to send their kids to die in what to us is a strategic cul-de-sac.
#9
So this Ohio presstitute would rather put his own son in harm's way than consider the possibility of solving the issue diplomatically between Trump and Putin. A new low.
#12
Russians don't always fight very well outside of Russia but they have a long, long history of defending their own territory. Some of the more recent examples are Napoleon and Hitler who both thought Russia was weak but both ran into surprisingly stubborn resistance.
Russians have some valid arguments for their claim on Crimea of which most Americans seem totally ignorant. But it's for damn sure Ukrainians never fought for it and never settled in it like the Russians have.
Just for fun, I went to Wikipedia for its version of the Crimean War. According to Wikipedia, Britain and France could be said to have won this war but from a longer historical view it can be seen as nothing but a bloody exercise in futility that left the Russians in control of the Crimea.
It is chickenshit at best for this old man to commit his son to a war in which our country has no strategic interest. I don't know how he'd feel when his son comes back in a box but I'd have a lot more sympathy for his son than for him.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/20/2018 12:22 Comments ||
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#13
People use "Love/Hate" a lot these days, don't they? Everything has to have the Emotional Dial™ cranked all the way to 11 or higher.
I would be proud of a relative showing courage in doing their duty. For this jerk to "Love it" only seems to show that he is treating his son as an expendable prop in his own narcissistic drama.
#15
The left has always been in bed with the Communists. See Obama's mentor and influences and Bill and Hillary's influences (Alinsky). Didn't Slick travel from the UK to the USSR during his Oxford days? What was he said about the military: "I loathe the military." Now all these lefties are hawks and want a war. WTF? Crazy bastids.
#16
Volodya himself has stated on several occasions that he does not believe the Russian military can win against the American military.
So, he attacks asymmetrically. His words.
I agree that our forces can win tactically against the Russian military, unless we get into some sort of "knife fight" in which the Russians can take a chunk out of us and make any war politically unsavory.
#18
The thing about it is that the left believes nationalism is is dirty word. Many on the left have bought into the Soros and other's ideas concerning open borders, multiculturalism, NWO and giving up your national identity. They think we will all be one happy world. It seems that buying into their B.S. would result in disparate warring tribes, the very thing they say they are trying to avoid. The problem is they want to sit on top of the heap with all the money and power.
[ICE Newsroom] FARGO, N.D. ‐ A team of investigators, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and prosecutors were recognized Wednesday for their work on Operation Denial, a criminal investigation of a trans-national opioid trafficking organization.
Acting Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Uttam Dhillon recognized the team with its "Administrator’s Award for Outstanding Group Achievement" at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
This is the first time an investigation in North Dakota has received this prestigious honor.
HSI leads the team that includes the following agencies: DEA, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Narcotics Task Force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Portland (Oregon) Police Bureau, IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division, Portland (Oregon) High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Interdiction Task Force, Oregon State Police, and Grand Forks (North Dakota) Police Department.
This case came to the attention of law enforcement as part of Operation Denial, an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation into the international trafficking of fentanyl and other lethal drugs. The case was significantly aided by the national and international coordination led by the multi-agency Special Operations Division (S.O.D.) near Washington, D.C., as part of Operation Deadly Merchant. This investigation started in North Dakota Jan. 3, 2015, with the overdose death in Grand Forks of 18-year-old Bailey Henke. To date, 32 defendants have been charged in this investigation.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BBC] The youngest Spitfire pilot to fly in the Battle of Britain during World War Two has died, it has been announced.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) ‐ At least several tornadoes tore through central Iowa on Thursday afternoon, hitting key landmarks in some cities, such as the Marshall County Courthouse in Marshalltown and Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella.
[Al Jazeera] Scandinavia unprepared for worst drought in 74 years as wildfires rage and Stockholm asks for international assistance
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
Many flights have been delayed or cancelled as the People's Liberation Army closes airspace while it holds military exercises aimed at scaring Taiwan.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday came under withering criticism from automakers, foreign governments and others as officials consider imposing tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts, a levy that could hike vehicle costs, hurting auto sales and industry jobs.
