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iHeartAwards Winners Last Year (2016)

2017-01-03T18:46:00.002-08:00

2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards

The iHeartRadio Music Awards present awards to some of the world's most in-demand artists. Host Jason Derulo serve as the show's host. Taylor Swift, per usual, is the queen of the night, leading with eight nominations. The Weeknd has six and Adele, Drake, Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran receive five apiece. Confirmed performances include Zayn, Meghan Trainor, Chris Brown, DNCE, Demi Lovato, Iggy Azalea, Fetty Wap, G-Eazy, Bebe Rexha, Jason Derulo, with performances in other venues by Pitbull, Maroon 5 and The Weeknd.

This is the list of winners below:

Female Artist of the Year: Taylor Swift

Male Artist of the Year: Justin Bieber

Best New Artist: Fetty Wap

Best Duo/Group of the Year: Maroon 5

Album of the Year: 1989, Taylor Swift

Best Tour: Taylor Swift, 1989 World Tour

Alternative Rock Artist of the Year: Twenty One Pilots

Alternative Rock Song of the Year: "Stressed Out, Twenty One Pilots

Rock Artist of the Year: Foo Fighters

Rock Song of the Year: "Heavy Is the Head," Zac Brown Band featuring Chris Cornell

Country Artist of the Year: Luke Bryan

Country Song Song of the Year: "Buy Me a Boat," Chris Janson

Dance Artist of the Year: Calvin Harris

Dance Song of the Year: "Where Are U Now," Skrillex & Diplo with Justin Bieber

Hip Hop Artist of the Year: Drake

Hip Hop Song of the Year: "Hotline Bling," Drake

R&B Artist of the Year: Chris Brown

R&B Song of the Year: "Earned It," The Weeknd

Best Lyrics: "Fight Song," Rachel Platten

Best Collaboration: "Uptown Funk," Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

Best Cover Song: "Uptown Funk," Fifth Harmony, Jasmine V, Jacob Whitesides and Mahogany Lox
covering Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

Best Song From a Movie: "Til It Happens To You," Lady Gaga (The Hunting Ground)

Triple Threat: Selena Gomez

iPhone Emoji Update

2016-12-12T23:33:00.000-08:00

Here Are the New Emoji Coming to Your iPhone (and How to Get Them)

by Lisa Eadicicco - December 12, 2016

Apple is releasing emoji for sneezing, selfies and more.

Apple launched its iOS 10.2 software update for the iPhone on Monday, bringing a wider selection of fresh emoji to choose from, including new professions, facial expressions and foods.

The iPhone emoji keyboard will now come with symbols that represent occupations like teacher, scientist and firefighter, for instance, as well as updated people-themed emoji—including one depicting a pregnant woman. The newly released batch will also bring new types of smiley faces that show different emotions and actions, such as a face with a Pinocchio-like nose.

The update, which officially launched Monday after previously being available in beta, comes as various tech companies and organizations have made an effort to develop emoji that are more inclusive and represent a broader range of people, activities and interests. A group of Google employees proposed a new set of gender-diverse emoji in May, while Facebook rolled out new options for its Messenger platform in June.

Apple’s latest update will bring the company’s recently announced TV app, improvements to the iPhone’s Photos app and new full-screen effects in iMessage.

Here’s how to download and install the update:

Back up your iPhone before installing the new software. To do this, navigate to Settings > iCloud > Backup > Back Up Now. You can also connect your iPhone to iTunes on your computer via its charging cable to manually back up your phone.
After backing up, open Settings.
Tap General.
Choose the Software Update option.
Make sure your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi.
Tap the Download and Install button to begin the process.

This story was originally published on Time.com.

AMD's Radeon Software Crimson ReLive debuts with features galore

2016-12-08T07:59:00.003-08:00

There’s a chill in the air, and the leaves are falling off the trees en masse. You know what that means: It’s time for AMD’s huge annual Radeon software update. Like 2014’s Catalyst Omega and 2015’s Radeon Software Crimson, this year’s refresh packs in some huge new features and extends some existing ones—like the superb Radeon WattMan overclocking tool—to more graphics cards.
This year’s iteration expands on Radeon Crimson to become Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition (whew, what a mouthful), named after its highlight ReLive feature. ReLive replaces the Raptr-powered AMD Gaming Evolved app that AMD unceremoniously dumped a few months back.
It brings a bevy of video recording and streaming options right into AMD’s core software to challenge Nvidia’s popular Share (née Shadowplay) solution.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s all sorts of new gamer-centric tools, including FreeSync improvements, HDR support, and a feature designed to ratchet down Radeon temperatures and power usage when extra oomph isn’t needed. Separately, AMD’s releasing an easy-to-use benchmarking tool that logs in-game performance across DirectX 11, DX12, and even Vulkan games.
There's a lot, is what I'm saying. Let’s dig in.

ReLive

It only seems appropriate to start with ReLive. ReLive does everything you’d expect a utility like this to do: video recording, video streaming, instant replays, and screenshot captures.

The new ReLive tab in Radeon Settings.

Open the Radeon Settings tool and you’ll find a new ReLive tab in the navigation buttons across the top. Selecting it reveals a wealth of options, from simply enabling ReLive—it’s disabled by default—to setting hotkeys, assigning where your gameplay videos will be saved, and deciding whether to record just games or your PC’s desktop as well.

Here’s a picture of the ReLive overlay you can summon in-game:

From left to right, the icons are:

ReLive settings
Instant replay. Saves the last few minutes of your gameplay. You can configure how far back Instant Replay saves in the Radeon Settings tool’s ReLive options, along with granular features like the encoding type and frame rate for recordings.
Record video. As with instant replay, the ReLive settings (pictured above) let you tweak the details, such as video and audio bitrates and the recording resolution. The video encoding options available to you depend on which graphics card you’re using. And yes, you can opt to record the desktop too. Huzzah!

Stream to Twitch, YouTube, or other services. Again, you can tweak all sorts of options related to the output.
Screenshot. Pretty self-explanatory!

Video capture utilities are great—unless they send your in-game frame rates plummeting, in which case they’re garbage. Fortunately, Radeon ReLive appears to fall into the former category. When AMD tested Overwatch, H1Z1 King of the Kill, Battlefield 1, and World of Warcraft—examples of games that are widely streamed—at punishing graphics levels on a system equipped with a Core i7-600K and Radeon RX 480, ReLive’s impact was a mere 3 to 4 percent loss. Always take manufacturer-supplied numbers with a pinch of salt, but that’s impressive.

Time will tell whether Radeon ReLive winds up being as popular as Nvidia’s vaunted ShadowPlay, but it’s certainly off on the right foot.

Radeon Chill

AMD’s new Polaris GPU architecture succeeded in driving the energy and heat levels of graphics cards way, way down in the Radeon RX 400-series versus their predecessors, but Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards still hold the energy-efficiency crown.
The new Radeon Chill feature in Crimson ReLive aims to cool down AMD’s hardware with an assist from software, sort of like a more effective version of AMD’s existing Frame Rate Target Control.
Radeon Chill—which, like the ReLive feature, is disabled by default and must be enabled in the WattMan section of the Radeon Settings app—aims to scale down your graphics card’s GPU usage rather than pump out unneeded extra frames. The feature tracks your computer’s input.

When your mouse and keyboard go idle for a few seconds, Chill dynamically scales down the frame rate because the on-screen action is static. When you start moving again, the frame rate fluidly ramps back up. Meanwhile, Chill’s constantly working to avoid excessively high frame rates to reduce the load on your GPU.

AMD says that using Radeon Chill in World of Warcraft results in up to 31 percent power savings and a temperature decrease of up to 13 degrees Celsius, while fan noise is also notably decreased. Like Nvidia’s Fast Sync, the biggest benefits come in less-intensive games that routinely pump out frames far faster than a system’s monitor can display them—think e-sports titles—though you’ll also see a difference in traditional titles, too.

Radeon software head Terry Makedon says that in “blind taste tests” users don’t see any difference in performance when using Chill, because it was designed to ramp up and scale down frame rates quickly. And if you do see the transition, you can dive into the Radeon Settings profile for specific games and fine-tune how Chill behaves, manually tweaking the minimum and maximum frames per second.

The games supported by Radeon Chill at launch.

AMD’s rolling out game support for Radeon Chill using a whitelisting method, which means the company approves specific games and creates profiles for them. Over time, AMD hopes it can move to a blacklisting method instead, Makedon says—disabling Radeon Chill only in games where it doesn’t function properly. DirectX 9, 10, and 11 games can be supported by Chill at launch.

Microsoft is about to turn a phone into a real PC

2016-12-08T07:33:00.002-08:00

Microsoft is bringing a full version of Windows 10, complete with desktop app support, to ARM chipsets. The software giant demonstrated Windows 10 running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip today, complete with HD video playback, Adobe Photoshop support, and Microsoft Office. Microsoft expects ARM-based laptops to be the first to adopt this new version of Windows 10.

Traditional x86 desktop apps will be emulated, making the experience seamless to the end user. Laptops might be the first, but it’s easy to see past that and realize that this means Microsoft is about to turn a phone into a real PC.

Microsoft surprised everyone with Continuum for phones last year, a feature of Windows 10 that lets phones turn into a PC. Continuum makes use of Qualcomm chipsets and Windows 10’s new universal apps to scale from a phone screen up to a monitor and includes features that make it feel like a full-blown PC.

While it might look like a PC, you can’t currently run apps like Chrome or Photoshop, and it’s reliant on developers creating universal apps. Microsoft is making Continuum a lot more powerful next year, thanks to desktop apps.

I’ve used Continuum many times, but its lack of apps mean I always end up switching back to a real PC if I need to do anything more than basic web browsing or Word documents. It feels like a gimmick right now, but a suite of desktop apps that I’m used to using could make it a lot more appealing.

There have been persistent rumors that Microsoft was working on an Intel-powered Surface Phone, but Intel’s cancelation of its Atom processors put those rumors to rest. It now seems likely that any Surface phone or mini tablet that Microsoft may create will have an ARM chipset and the emulated desktop apps required to turn it into a PC.

Turning a phone into a PC is something that the industry has explored before. Motorola attempted it with the Atrix, Asus created a variety of PadFones, and Canonical has experimented with Ubuntu phones turning into PCs, but Microsoft’s dominance in PCs means it’s the only company likely to pull it off at scale.
Microsoft isn’t discussing its exact mobile plans for Continuum with desktop apps, but the company is ready to support ARM processors for devices with small screens, large screens, and no screens at all.

Microsoft has spent most of 2016 walking back its mobile efforts, after admitting it wasn’t the company’s focus. The software giant gutted its phone business earlier this year, and Windows Phone’s market share has plummeted. Microsoft has refused to walk away from Windows Phone totally, and it’s clear this ARM effort is the reason why.

The challenge Microsoft now faces if it truly wants to spark interest in Windows-powered phones again is that they still need to be primarily a good mobile phone with apps and a vibrant ecosystem. Emulation has its draw backs for performance, and turning a phone into a PC is a great technical achievement, but no matter how good that PC experience is the mobile side will always let the dream down. It’s a challenge that the entire industry will need to face as devices continue to converge.

Apple has iOS apps on the iPad Pro and not the full powerful desktop apps that most professionals need, and it has to rely on Adobe and other developers to invest time and effort into rebuilding those apps. Likewise, Google has Android apps that don’t work well as desktop equivalents, and there are persistent rumors that Chrome OS and Android will merge to meet this challenge. Microsoft is well positioned to meet the desktop needs of these mobile devices, but without the mobile support it won’t be the device that millions will want in their pocket.

Microsoft has shown recently that it’s willing to invest into niche areas (like the Surface Studio) and appeal to communities of creators to secure its dominance of the PC side of computing. Turning a phone into a PC is just another part of that, even if it only appeals to Windows fans and business customers.

That sizable audience might be enough to keep Microsoft’s mobile efforts alive until the next big shift in computing. That next shift increasingly looks like mixed reality computing from Microsoft’s perspective, and the company is keen to enable its traditional PC partners to build VR and mixed reality headsets that support its vision for computing beyond the smartphone. Until then, expect Microsoft to keep trying to turn your phone into a real PC.

Tiny Gaming Console Can Play Retro Games From 28 Different Systems

2016-12-08T07:18:00.001-08:00

Aside from the pointlessly short controller cables, the only other complaint we have with Nintendo's NES Classic Edition is that it only comes with 30 classic games. There are so many classic consoles and retro titles to choose from, which is why the RetroEngine Sigma might be a better alternative since it promises to emulate over 28 different classic gaming machines.

Nostalgic gamers have been using emulators and downloading ROMs of their favourite games for years now. But installing and configuring the necessary software to perfectly run those retro titles can be a little complicated for some casual gamers who aren't as obsessed with flawless frame rates, or pixel-perfect graphics.
The RetroEngine Sigma sounds like it will make the process of running classic games impossibly easy. Since the tiny console, which includes two USB ports for attaching controllers or Bluetooth adapters, doesn't have a keyboard of its own, users instead connect to it over Wi-Fi using an app on a smartphone or tablet where they can choose what software to install.

The palm-sized console rivals the NES Classic Edition when it comes to its tiny form factor, but the RetroEngine Sigma promises to blow Nintendo's offering away when it comes to functionality. Users can even turn it into a 4K-capable media centre, but it's the RetroEngine Sigma's ability to play everything from Game Boy, to Dreamcast, to even N64 games (hello, GoldenEye) that might make this Indiegogo campaign worth backing.
The first 500 contributors to the RetroEngine Sigma's crowdfunding campaign can pre-order the console for just $US50 ($67), which includes a 16GB microSD card for storing games and media, and even a USB gaming controller so you can start playing one of the 15 included games right away.

The usual caveats apply here given this is a crowdfunded product, and delivery isn't expected until sometime in mid-2017 so you've got a bit of waiting to do before you can start playing. But while the RetroEngine Sigma makes installing and configuring emulators for 28 different systems easy, due to legal concerns you'll have to hunt down copies of all of your favourite classic games yourself. If you're not internet-savvy enough to know where to look, you might want to skip this one.
[Indiegogo - RetroEngine Sigma]

The Latest: Turkish, Russian leaders discuss Aleppo truce

2016-12-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016 photo, released by the International Committee for the Red Cross, shows members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent laying a patient on stretcher after taking him out of a medical facility in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria. The ICRC said it evacuated 148 disabled or civilians in need of urgent care from the facility, now under Syrian government control. ICRC said in a statement Thursday the evacuation was possible after fighting calmed down in the area. (Syrian Arab Red Crescent/Noor Hazouri via AP)

Beirut — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):

2:45 p.m.
A senior Turkish official says the fate of the Syrian city of Aleppo has dominated high-level talks between Turkey and Russia.
Turkey's presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Thursday there was "intense diplomatic activity" in order to bring about a cease-fire and the delivery of humanitarian aid. He says "the events taking place in Aleppo are of serious concern to all of us."
Kalin says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is personally engaged in the effort and has spoken three times with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The Syrian government with the help of its allies has regained almost complete control of the eastern neighborhoods of the divided city in a devastating military offensive.
Russia is a key ally of the Syrian government and has been carrying out airstrikes for more than a year in support of President Bashar Assad's forces. Turkey is a leading sponsor of the opposition.

___
1:05 p.m.
Syria opposition activists are reporting intense government bombings of a number of neighborhoods that remain under rebel control in the city of Aleppo.
They say clashes are underway on Thursday along the fast-moving front line. The opposition Local Coordination Committees says government airstrikes and artillery hit at least six rebel-held neighborhoods in central and southeastern Aleppo
Opposition Thiqa news agency says the government dropped barrel bombs on al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighborhoods.
Syrian troops and allied militiamen moved swiftly into rebel-held eastern Aleppo less than two weeks ago and are now in control of more than three quarters of the besieged rebel enclave.
Activists are struggling to document casualties because of street clashes and intense bombings.
The Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo says it was able to record 38 killed in Wednesday's violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 were killed in Aleppo's Old City, which was seized by the government Wednesday.

___
12:15 p.m.
The International Committee for the Red Cross says it has evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo's Old City that is now under Syrian government control.
ICRC said in a statement on Thursday that the evacuation was possible after fighting calmed down in that part of the city. It said the evacuation was undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and was completed late on Wednesday.
The government secured the area after repelling rebels, who retreated to the south.
Pawel Krzysiek, ICRC communication coordinator in Damascus, says the evacuees had been "forgotten" amid the fighting.
He says they were trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly. They include mental health patients, elderly orphans, and patients with physical disabilities. Some were injured civilians who had sought refuge there.
Krzysiek says they were evacuated to hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.

___
11:30 a.m.
Syrian President Bashar Assad says victory in the battle for Aleppo will be a "big gain" for his government but that it will not be the end of the war in Syria.
In an interview published on Thursday in the state-owned newspaper al-Watan, Assad described his forces' fight in Aleppo as one against terrorism and a conspiracy to destroy and divide Syria, allegedly led by Turkey.
Assad says that "liberating Aleppo from the terrorists deals a blow to the whole foundation of this project."
With Aleppo, Syria's largest city and former commercial heart, the capital of Damascus and Homs, the third largest city under his control, Assad says "terrorists" no longer hold any cards.
But he added, "to be realistic, it doesn't mean the end of the war."
"Even if we finish in Aleppo, we will carry on with the war against them."

___
9:40 a.m.
A Russian deputy foreign minister says Russia is close to reaching a deal with the United States on a cease-fire for the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.
The Syrian government and its ally Russia have rejected previous calls for truce for the war-torn city, keeping up the military offensive that has squeezed and forced rebels to retreat in several areas.
Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Moscow and Washington are "close to reaching an understanding" on Aleppo but warned against "high expectations."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on Wednesday in Germany but didn't release any statements.

Ryabkov said the Kerry-Lavrov talks were extensive but said a final deal has not been worked out yet.

'Everything destroyed': Indonesians face quake destruction

2016-12-08T05:03:00.001-08:00

KUTA PANGWA, Indonesia: When the earthquake struck before dawn, Marthonis and his family had no time to run out of their home before it collapsed into ruins around them.
Pinned under concrete in the pitch dark, Marthonis - the chief of Kuta Pangwa village - was not alone.

Every house in his small hamlet was flattened when a 6.5-magnitude quake tore through Aceh province in Indonesia's west, killing more than 100 people.
Marthonis' mother was among the dead, crushed in her sleep.
"My mother didn't survive. Maybe it was her destiny to die in a disaster like this," Marthonis told AFP.

It was not his mother's first encounter with nature's fury - she had survived the destruction of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, that killed 170,000 in Aceh alone.
But for Marthonis - who like many Indonesians goes by one name - there has been little time to grieve.

Faizal, 8, holds a clock showing the time when the earthquake struck, at Kuta Pangwa village. (Photo: AFP)

Fifteen people from his village died in the quake - so many from one family they were buried in a single grave.
As daylight arrived, similar tragedies were unfolding across Aceh, and the scale of devastation becoming clear.

Hundreds of homes, mosques and businesses had been reduced to rubble, burying families in their sleep.
A frantic search for survivors began, many clawing at the rubble with their bare hands.
Rahmawati, 35, was among those pulled from the wreckage five hours after the quake struck.
But she was the only one in her family who made it out alive, her husband and two children were crushed by falling debris.

"I accept this as fate, because in the end we all will be called back to Allah," she told AFP.
As aid pours into Aceh, the villagers from Kuta Pangwa - like thousands of others across the province - must prepare for a second night eating at temporary kitchens and sleeping in shelters.
Hundreds more will spend another evening in ill-equipped health clinics and overcrowded field hospitals, waiting to see a doctor.
As the rubble is slowly cleared, and victims laid to rest, the enormous task of rebuilding will begin.
But it's impossible for Marthonis to contemplate at this stage, as he still comes to grips with the reality his village - and beloved mother - is gone.

"Every one of my villagers' homes is destroyed," he said, gesturing to piles of grey rubble where a neighbourhood once stood.
"Nothing can be occupied again."

- AFP/nc

Pakistan plane issued Mayday call before deadly crash

2016-12-08T04:51:00.002-08:00

A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing in mountains, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA on December 8, to identify victims.

Photo: AFP

SADDHA BATOLNI, PAKISTAN - A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing into a mountain, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA Thursday to identify victims.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight smashed into a hillside in the country's north after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from the city of Chitral to the capital Islamabad.

It burst into flames upon impact and parts of the wreckage were found hundreds of metres (yards) away from the main crash site in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The pilot of the ATR-42 turboprop aircraft contacted ground authorities after one engine failed and issued a Mayday call at 4:14 pm (1114 GMT), Azam Saigol, the airline's chairman, told a news conference Wednesday in Islamabad.
It began descending a minute later before disappearing from radar at 4:16 pm.

"This plane was technically sound and was checked in October," he said, adding the captain had flown more than 12,000 hours and the aircraft was nine years old.

"Our focus now is to retrieve all the dead bodies," he added, vowing a full investigation.
PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani said the aircraft's black box has been recovered but "it will take time to ascertain a reason of the crash".

An earlier death toll of 48 has been revised down to 47.

The dead included Junaid Jamshed, one of the country's best loved singers who later became a Muslim evangelist, as well as senior local officials and three foreigners - two Austrians and one Chinese.

Dozens of friends and family members gathered at hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Thursday to try to identify the badly charred and dismembered remains.

Relatives have been asked to submit DNA samples to help the identification process.

"My friend died in the plane crash, it is a great tragedy for me as he was my childhood friend," said Murad Khan from Chitral.

"His relatives have not arrived yet as I work in Islamabad so I am here to receive his body. I don't know if I will see his face for the last time or not." Raja Aamir, whose mother died in the crash, said: "The sudden death of our mother is great loss for our family - 40 to 50 members of my family have arrived here in Islamabad we don't know where we will stay." Six of the victims had already been identified through fingerprints, according to Ali Baz, an official at the Ayub Medical Complex.

Senior aviation officials on Thursday pushed back against allegations that a maintenance lapse had caused the accident.

"One engine of the plane failed after its takeoff from Chitral and the pilot informed us about that in his call to the control. The plane, however, was cleared for flight and that's why it flew. Had it not been cleared, it would not fly," said Muhammad Irfan Elahi, a top aviation official.

Rescuers, including hundreds of villagers, had overnight pulled badly burned remains from the smouldering wreckage of the aircraft near the village of Saddha Batolni.

"We put into sacks whatever we could find... and carried them down to the ambulance," a villager in his thirties, who declined to give his name, told AFP.

A senior rescue official on the site who requested anonymity added: "The villagers told us that the plane was shaky before it crashed. It was about to hit the village but it seems that the pilot managed to drag the plane towards the hills." Wednesday's crash was the fourth deadliest on Pakistani soil.

The country's worst air disaster was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while about to land, killing all 152 on board - an incident blamed on pilot error.

Trump to nominate Pruitt to lead US environmental agency: Statement

2016-12-08T04:34:00.002-08:00

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a critic of federal environmental regulation, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his transition team said on Thursday (Dec 8).

The choice, which enraged environmental activists and cheered the oil industry, signals that the Republican president-elect plans to move ahead with his promise to cut back regulation and free up drilling and coal mining, in a likely reversal of Democratic President Barack Obama's environmental agenda.

"For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn," Trump was quoted as saying in a statement from the transition team.

Pruitt has been a harsh opponent of Obama's measures to curb climate change and has helped lead a legal effort by some states to throw out an integral piece of Obama's climate change strategy that requires states to curb carbon output.

Since becoming the top prosecutor for the oil- and gas-producing state in 2011, Pruitt, 48, has launched multiple lawsuits against regulations put forward by the agency he is now poised to lead, suing to block federal measures to reduce smog and curb toxic emissions from power plants.

"The American people are tired of seeing billions of dollars drained from our economy due to unnecessary EPA regulations, and I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses," Pruitt was quoted as saying.

The transition team statement called Pruitt "a national leader against the EPA's job-killing war on coal" who will help implement Trump's energy plan.

- Reuters/nc

Singapore Red Cross pledges S$50,000 towards disaster response in quake-hit Aceh

2016-12-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Red Cross (SRC) will commit S$50,000 to support disaster response efforts in Aceh, which was struck by a deadly 6.5-magnitude quake on Wednesday morning.

In a media release on Thursday (Dec 8), SRC said the funds will support the work of the Indonesian Red Cross or Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI), in providing excavation and debris clearance equipment as well as medical and relief supplies which include blankets, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, food packs, water purification equipment and two 5,000-litre water tanks.

A two-man team well-equipped with disaster management skills as well as expertise in water and sanitation is on standby to be deployed, it added.

More than 100 people have been killed in the quake which hit Pidie Jaya district. The sole hospital there was quickly overwhelmed, with patients treated on the grass out front or sent to neighbouring districts with better facilities.

An estimated 4,000 people have been evacuated to shelters, said local disaster agency chief Puteh Manaf, adding that they are in need of food, clean water, medication and blankets.
SRC and its Indonesian counterpart have been working closely on disaster response and recovery efforts since the Asian tsunami in 2004 that wiped out entire communities in Indonesia and other countries around the Indian Ocean.

“We are deeply saddened to see the devastation caused by the disaster," said Mr Benjamin William, secretary-general and CEO of the Singapore Red Cross, adding that SRC's priority is to "support our Indonesian colleagues in having sufficient funds and resources to rescue, evacuate, and care for as many people as possible.

"The Singapore Red Cross will remain in close contact with the Indonesian Red Cross to assess the extent of the damage and needs, and provide further support where needed.”

Aid groups descend on Indonesia quake zone; deaths reach 102

2016-12-08T04:11:00.000-08:00

In this image made from video, rescuers use excavators to search for victims in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in Pidie, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia's Aceh province Thursday as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo)

An Acehnese man and a police officer survey the damage after an earthquake in Ulhee Glee, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Thousands of people in the Indonesian province of Aceh took refuge for the night in mosques and temporary shelters after a strong earthquake Wednesday killed a large number of people and destroyed dozens of buildings. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

A man salvages printed materials from under the rubble of a shop flattened in Wednesday's earthquake at a market in Meureudu, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Rescue workers, soldiers and police combed through the rubble of a devastated town in Indonesia's Aceh province early Thursday, resuming a search for earthquake survivors that was halted at night by rain and blackouts. (AP Photo/Heri Juanda)

Aid groups descend on Indonesia quake zone; deaths reach 102

MEUREUDU, Indonesia (AP) — Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia's Aceh province Thursday as the local disaster agency called for urgent food supplies and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel concentrated their search on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake that hit before dawn Wednesday. But the small number of heavy excavators on the scene meant progress was slow. Humanitarian assessment teams fanned out to other areas of the district.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals within a 100-meter (yard) radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble. The disaster agency said more than 750 people were injured.

Acehnese men walk amid the rubble as they survey the damage at an Islamic boarding school badly hit by Wednesday's earthquake in Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Rescue workers, soldiers and police combed through the rubble of the devastated town early Thursday, resuming a search for earthquake survivors that was halted at night by rain and blackouts. (AP Photo/Heri Juanda)

Those killed included very young children and the elderly. Mohammad Jafar, 60, said his daughter, granddaughter and grandson died in the quake but he was resigned to it as "God's will."
He was getting ready for morning prayers when the earthquake hit. He said he and his wife managed to push their way out through the debris. Another man said he found his 9-year-old daughter alive beneath a broken wall at his neighbor's house.
Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their houses. Officials in Aceh said more than 8,000 people spent Wednesday night in shelters in Pidie Jaya district alone.

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude-9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.

Iskandar, a Disaster Mitigation Agency official in Aceh, said staple foods for women and babies are most urgently needed. He said medicines are sufficient for the time being because assistance is coming from the army, police, state-run companies and local governments.

"What's badly needed now are staple foods such as rice, cooking oil, salted fish and other foods," said Iskandar. He said people had complained about a lack of clean water, but the problem has been tackled and electricity supply is returning to normal in many areas.

Nugroho, at a news conference in Jakarta, listed as urgent food and clothing, specialist doctors for victims suffering fractures, medical equipment, temporary shelters and heavy excavation equipment.

The Indonesian government announced 50 tons of urgent aid for Aceh, including 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags.

"Every aid and civil society organization is piling into the area with as many boxes of rice, instant noodles, blankets and other aid as they can shift," said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which has an assessment team in northern Aceh.

It will take at least two more days before there's a fuller picture of how many people are displaced and the relief effort required, he said. On Twitter, the IOM said one mosque was sheltering 2,000 displaced women and children.

The military is setting up an emergency field hospital and sending two dozen doctors, and the Health Ministry is sending a medical team and medicines. The Red Cross sent aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group CARE is leading an assessment team of four international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts. Aid groups and others are also appealing for donations.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Sigli, a town near the northern tip of Sumatra, at a depth of 17 kilometers (11 miles). It did not generate a tsunami. Aftershocks have rattled the area.

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh.

Scores of rescuers and giant excavators worked away at the debris of a market in Meureudu, the hard-hit town, where many shop houses collapsed.

One shop owner, Hajj Yusri Abdullah, didn't hold out much hope of finding survivors. He said nearly two dozen bodies were pulled from the market debris the day before. They included a group of eight consisting of a newlywed couple and family members holding an ornate celebration known as Antar Dara Baro.

The national disaster agency said nearly 600 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed in the districts of Pidie Jaya, Pidie and Bireun. Most were shop houses or dwellings but mosques, a hospital, boarding schools and a shopping center also sustained damage. Roads also cracked and power poles toppled over.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini, Stephen Wright and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

A man surveys a damaged mosque after Wednesday's earthquake in Meureudu, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Thousands of people in the Indonesian province of Aceh took refuge for the night in mosques and temporary shelters after the strong earthquake killed a large number of people and destroyed dozens of buildings. (AP Photo/Heri Juanda)

Rescuers use machinery as they search for victims at a market collapsed in Wednesday's earthquake in Meureudu, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Rescue workers, soldiers and police combed through the rubble of a devastated town in Indonesia's Aceh province early Thursday, resuming a search for earthquake survivors that was halted at night by rain and blackouts. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

In this image made from video, rescuers search for victims in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in Pidie, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia's Aceh province Thursday as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo)

In this image made from video, rescuers use an excavator to search for victims in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in Pidie, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia's Aceh province Thursday as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo)

A rescuer searches for victims under the rubble of a market collapsed in Wednesday's earthquake in Meureudu, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Rescue workers, soldiers and police combed through the rubble of a devastated town in Indonesia's Aceh province early Thursday, resuming a search for earthquake survivors that was halted at night by rain and blackouts. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Trump backs away from some of his strident campaign promises

2016-11-23T04:27:00.003-08:00

Trump backs away from some of his strident campaign promises

President-elect Donald Trump abruptly abandoned some of his most tendentious campaign promises Tuesday, saying he does not plan to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email system or the dealings of her family foundation, has an “open mind” about a climate-change accord from which he vowed to withdraw the United States and is no longer certain that torturing terrorism suspects is a good idea.

The billionaire real estate developer also dismissed any need to disentangle himself from his financial holdings, despite rising questions about how his global business dealings might affect his decision-making as the nation’s chief executive.

“The law’s totally on my side. The president can’t have a conflict of interest,” Trump told editors and reporters of the New York Times during an expansive, hour-long question-and-answer session. “In theory, I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There’s never been a case like this.”
Trump further sought to distance himself from a small, far-right movement known for its embrace of racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric that has celebrated Trump’s election.

“I don’t want to energize the group, and I disavow the group,” Trump said of the alt-right.

The president-elect has a record of making statements that are inconsistent with his previous ones, which means it is uncertain whether any of the positions he espoused on Tuesday will hold in the days going forward, much less after he is inaugurated.

Some of Trump’s shifts also have the potential to spark a backlash from his most ardent supporters.In his meeting with the Times, Trump assumed a more cordial, magnanimous posture than he has in recent days. Over the weekend, he used his Twitter account to attack the comedy of “Saturday Night Live” and the cast of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.” On Monday, he upbraided broadcast news executives and on-air journalists in an off-the-record session that quickly leaked to other media.

His stance on Clinton, the former secretary of state, was a jarring pivot from the presidential campaign, during which he called her “Crooked Hillary” and threatened during one of their debates to put his Democratic opponent in jail. At his rallies and during the Republican convention in Cleveland, Trump’s supporters would regularly chant, “Lock her up!”

But on Tuesday, he said: “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons. I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”

Asked whether that meant he had ruled out appointing a special prosecutor, as he had said he would, Trump said: “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about.”

If Trump were to push or try to block a criminal investigation from the Oval Office, it would mark an extraordinary break with political and legal protocol, which holds that the attorney general and FBI make decisions on whether to conduct probes and file charges, free of pressure from the president.

The president-elect’s new position may also have no effect on the plans of other members of his party on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah,) who is finishing his first term leading the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has vowed to continue to investigate Clinton’s email server.

Asked whether he plans to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord, he said he is keeping “an open mind to it.” The deal negotiated by nearly 200 countries last year commits them to a global push to reduce greenhouse gases.

Trump, however, has repeatedly said the agreement is bad for U.S. businesses. In a speech in May, he declared that during his first 100 days in office, “we’re going to cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.”

Trump signaled another shift on the question of how to treat terrorism suspects. During his presidential campaign, he had said that he would reinstate the use of waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques in the questioning of suspected terrorists.

“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump said in February at a retirement community in South Carolina. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”

But Tuesday he suggested he might have changed his mind after interviewing a leading candidate for secretary of defense, retired Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, who headed the U.S. Central Command.

Mattis argued that he had never found harsh interrogation techniques “to be useful,” Trump said, adding that the retired general preferred building trust with “a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers.”

“I was very impressed by that answer,’’ Trump said.

Trump spoke extensively about the implications of an unprecedented situation in which a businessman with global holdings will sit in the Oval Office. That prospect has prompted criticism that there will be inevitable conflicts of interest.

His election, Trump acknowledged, has been good for his business, making the name that he emblazons on his properties and markets through his licensing agreements “a hotter brand than it was before.”

As he plans his presidential transition, Trump remains involved in several of his private enterprises.

He held a meeting at Trump Tower with three business partners building a Trump property south of Mumbai. His new hotel in Washington, just blocks from the White House, last week invited about 100 foreign diplomats to hear a sales pitch.

It also raised eyebrows when Trump’s daughter Ivanka, a vice president at the Trump Organization, attended his meeting last week with the Japanese prime minister.

While no statute specifically requires divestment by the president, all of them in modern history have put their assets under independent management, generally through a blind trust.

The concern is to avoid running afoul — in actuality or appearance — of laws against bribery and other forms of corruption in dealings with corporations, foreign entities and powerful interests.

Trump noted that he has turned the management of his businesses over to his children, giving him a requisite distance from the operation, but he protested: “If it were up to some people, I would never, ever see my daughter Ivanka again.”

But his comments fueled more criticism.

“Donald Trump campaigned against a culture of self-enrichment in Washington and pledged to ‘drain the swamp,’ but made clear today that he doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” Democratic National Committee communications director Adam Hodge said in a statement. “He fully intends to use the Oval Office to expand his family’s wealth.”

2016-11-23T03:43:00.001-08:00

News of President-elect Donald Trump’snational security picks set off fresh tremors across the Islamic world on Friday as Middle Eastern allies and Muslim American groups prepared to face advisers and potential Cabinet members noted for harshly anti-Muslim rhetoric.

The naming of Trump’s picks for attorney general, CIA director and national security adviser drew public condemnations from Muslim civil rights groups as well as private expressions of concern from several Arab states that cooperate closely with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. Some current and former government officials worried that the appointments could reinforce perceptions among the world’s Muslims that the United States is at war against Islam itself.

American civil rights organizations and faith leaders said Friday they were disturbed by Trump’s appointment of retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to be his top national security adviser. Flynn, a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has repeatedly referred to Islam as “a cancer,” claimed that a “fear of Muslims is rational” and warned — despite a lack of evidence — that Sharia or Islamic law is spreading throughout the United States.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the president-elect’s designee for attorney general, has supported Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants and has suggested that a “toxic ideology” lies at the root of Islam. And Rep. Mike Pompeo — Trump’s pick for CIA director — has co-sponsored a bill to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based Islamist organization that conspiracy theorists on America’s far right have accused of plotting to infiltrate the government.
The elevation of Flynn, Sessions and Pompeo to key positions triggered a rash of Googling in Middle Eastern capitals, where none of the three is particularly well known. But what seemed quickly apparent was that all “carry a clear hawkish line against Islam” — something that could complicate regional efforts to battle terrorist groups, said Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian ambassador to the United States.

“While the region has the same commitment to fight terrorism, it needs a nuanced view of Islam and of Muslims, rather than treating all Muslims with a broad brush,” said Muasher, now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. “The cause of fighting terrorism will not be helped if the new administration treats the Muslim world as a problem rather than as part of the solution.”

American civil rights advocates and Muslim leaders echoed those concerns.

“All Americans should be really concerned,” said Talib M. Shareef, who serves as imam and president of Washington’s Masjid Muhammad, the capital’s oldest mosque. An Air Force veteran, Shareef said he worried that the appointments would alienate allies as well as American Muslims serving in the armed forces and in government.

Five of Shareef’s children are active-service military, and they have already experienced discrimination while in uniform, he said. “When you’re needed but you’re not made to feel comfortable, it’s going to be difficult for you to give 100 percent. . . . You are not going to excel at whatever you’re needed in. And we need everybody.”

“We need them, and they need us,” he said. “I don’t care how powerful we say we are as a military, we will never be able to fight the battles on our own.”

The Trump transition team dismissed the concerns. “President-elect Trump will surround himself with talented individuals who will be uniquely qualified to enact the agenda set forth by the Administration. As a leader who will unite Americans of all backgrounds, President-elect Trump was elected on his vision to fight for everyone and will have one of the most inclusive presidencies in history,” the team said in an emailed statement.

Trump’s picks have largely echoed the views of the president-elect himself, who at various points in the campaign called for religious tests for immigrants as well as surveillance of American mosques. Terrorism experts and human rights groups have warned that such rhetoric drives support for extremist groups by making Muslim citizens feel unwelcome in their own country.

“The danger is that they’re going to pass legislation that not only alienates Muslim countries on which we depend for our security, but also it may alienate American Muslims and push them in the direction of our enemies,” said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Both Flynn and Sessions have dismissed criticisms of their views on Islam as oversimplifications. In his 2016 book, “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies,” Flynn distinguishes between radical Islamists and ordinary Muslims, though he at times resorts to harsh terms in describing the fight against the former. He calls Islam a “political ideology” disguised as a religion.

“We’re in a world war against a messianic mass movement of evil people, most of them inspired by a totalitarian ideology: Radical Islam,” he writes.

Flynn joined the board of Act for America, an alt-right activist group that has helped introduce bills to ban Islamic Sharia law in nearly two dozen U.S. states, shortly after he joined the Trump campaign. Act for America’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, has assailed a “cancer called Islamofacism” that permeates a Muslim world in which “extreme is mainstream.”

Sessions has repeatedly blasted the Obama administration over its policies for admitting Syrian refugees into the country and suggested that a religious test could be part of the process for determining who is admitted as an immigrant.

“We have to understand that most Muslims do not adhere to this extreme ideology, but there is nothing wrong to refuse admittance to those who distance themselves from our values,” Sessions told the American Thinker, a conservative magazine. “We need to use common sense with the who-what-where of the threat: It is the toxic ideology of Islam.”

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-
Islamic Relations, likened such views to a “kind of raw bigotry that would disqualify anyone from serving in public office.”

“Why it’s okay to be an anti-Muslim bigot and have a powerful post in the administration is a mystery,” Hooper said. Of Flynn, whom Hooper described as “beyond the pale,” he said: “He should not be in public office. We can only imagine what policies will flow from the fact that he believes Islam is a cancer, and that he’s been at war with Islam.”

A number of Middle Eastern leaders — most notably Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sissi — cheered Trump’s surprise victory last week, applauding the Republican’s leadership style and predicting improved relations with the White House under a Trump presidency. Erdogan also specifically praised Flynn after the retired general published an op-ed last week supporting the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, the exiled Turkish cleric and Pennsylvania resident whom Erdogan blames for inspiring the foiled July 15 coup against his government.

A PAC allied with the Democratic Party on Friday accused Flynn of violating federal law by failing to register with the Justice Department as a “foreign agent” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The Democratic Coalition Against Trump said Flynn signed a contract in September to lobby on behalf of a Dutch company with close ties to the Erdogan government.

Soner Cagaptay, director of the a Washington think tank, also said that support among the Middle East’s strongmen could wane if Trump follows through with policies that explicitly target Muslims.

“Erdogan is an authoritarian populist, and there was jubilation over Trump’s presidency because he saw a similar style of politics on the rise in the United States,” Cagaptay said. “But if the administration implements policies to register Muslims or to take other discriminatory action, it’s going to be very hard for Erdogan to swallow that.”

Jeff Sessions, as Attorney General, Could Overhaul Department He’s Skewered

2016-11-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON — Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, as the courtly senator from Alabama used to be known, was a stalwart Justice Department prosecutor for almost 15 years, a job he called the adventure of a lifetime.

Today, Mr. Sessions has a growing list of gripes about how the Obama administration has run his old department, from its “breathtaking” stance on immigration to its “shameful” refusal to defend a federal ban on gay marriage.

“I’m not happy about what’s happened to my Department of Justice,” Mr. Sessions said last year, jabbing his reading glasses in the air at the Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.

After nearly a quarter-century away, Mr. Sessions — now known simply as Jeff — is poised to return to the department to clean house as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, with a mandate to carry out the “law and order” agenda Mr. Trump promised on the campaign trail.

If he is confirmed, Mr. Sessions, who is considered one of the most conservative members of the Senate, will most likely push for wholesale changes and hard-line stances on immigration, terrorism, crime, drugs and guns. Democrats fear he could wipe away progress in civil rights, changes in sentencing and police accountability.

“The Justice Department is likely to be one of the most transformed departments in the cabinet in a Trump administration, and with an Attorney General Sessions, you’d obviously see a very strong law-and-order figure at the top,” said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor.

“Much of his self-identity is as a prosecutor — a real, in-the-trenches prosecutor,” said Mr. Turley, who testified before Mr. Sessions at a Senate hearing last year about the Obama administration’s use of executive authority.

Mr. Sessions, 69, was the first senator to endorse Mr. Trump in February, when many Republicans were still shunning the businessman. He has since become a close adviser.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, where Mr. Sessions has served for years and sometimes clashed with fellow members, will consider his nomination. Democrats are eager to interrogate him on the rockier patches of his long career, particularly the accusations of racially charged comments in the 1980s that derailed his nomination as a federal judge.

Critics charge that the controversy was a harbinger of hostility toward minorities that has continued in his two decades as a senator.

“He’s one of the most strident anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-L.G.B.T. voices in the Senate,” said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, a liberal civil rights group in Washington.

Mr. Sessions, like Mr. Trump, has made tougher immigration policies a central priority. He has said President Obama’s Justice Department flouted the will of Congress by failing to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

When many Republicans distanced themselves from Mr. Trump’s startling campaign proposal to ban Muslim immigration, Mr. Sessions said he was open to considering it in a Breitbart interview last December with Stephen K. Bannon, who was chosen by Mr. Trump this week as a top White House adviser.

Mr. Sessions acknowledged in theinterview that the proposal was “treading on dangerous ground” because of the country’s long history of religious freedom.

“At the same time, we’re in an age that’s very dangerous, and we’re seeing more and more persons enter, and a lot of them have done terrorist acts, and a lot of them believe it’s commanded by their religion,” he said. “So I think it’s appropriate to begin to discuss this.”

As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Mr. Sessions and the political appointees under him would hold wide discretion in shaping policies across the federal government and in overseeing the enforcement of federal laws at the F.B.I. and other agencies within the Justice Department.

His department would also play an important role in advising the White House on Supreme Court nominees and working to get them confirmed in the Senate. Mr. Sessions, an avid student of constitutional history, has called the Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February, a model, hailing him for “an unwavering commitment to the rule of law” rather than judicial activism.

Mr. Sessions was born in Selma, Ala., the son of a country store owner. The diminutive Mr. Sessions was an Eagle Scout known as “Buddy” as a child. His parents, he said, instilled in him the values of “honesty, hard work, belief in God and parental respect.”

With a law degree from the University of Alabama, Mr. Sessions worked as a private attorney and as an assistant federal prosecutor before President Reagan tapped him in 1981 as the United States attorney for the southern district of Alabama. He held that post for 12 years.

Accusations of inappropriate racial remarks — one black prosecutor said Mr. Sessions called him “boy,” and another prosecutor said he referred to groups like the N.A.A.C.P. and the American Civil Liberties Union as “un-American” — doomed his nomination for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench in 1986.

But Mr. Sessions took satisfaction in not only winning election to the Senate a decade later, but also in earning a seat on the powerful judiciary committee, the same panel that had rejected his nomination as a judge.

Trump’s security picks deepen Muslim worries about an anti-Islamic White House

2016-11-18T19:46:00.001-08:00

After Trump chat, Putin's airstrikes pound Syria

2016-11-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

Russia launched a major military offensive in Syria on Tuesday, hours after President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the need to join forces to combat international terrorism.
"Today we started a large-scale operation to deliver massive fire on the positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs," Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting Tuesday with Putin and Russian defense industry representatives.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes shook the provinces of Idlib and beleaguered Aleppo, which has been the focal point in a five-year war between U.S.-backed rebels and troops loyal to Russian-backed Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Syrian military said it had hit targets inside Aleppo, ending a month-long pause in strikes in the rebel-held city.
"Our houses are shaking from the pressure. Planes are soaring above us, and the bombardment is around us," Modar Shekho, a resident of rebel-held eastern Aleppo, told Reuters.
The airstrikes drew a sharp rebuke from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said Putin "has rejoined Bashar Assad in his barbaric war against the Syrian people."
Trump, who expressed respect for Putin during the campaign, spoke with the Russian leader by phone Monday. The two leaders discussed a range of issues including "threats and challenges facing both nations," the Trump transition team said in a statement.

The Kremlin said Putin congratulated Trump on his election triumph, adding that the leaders agreed on "uniting efforts in the fight with the common enemy No. 1 – international terrorism and extremism." The Kremlin also pledged to build a relationship based on mutual respect and non-interference.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday discussed Aleppo with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, emphasizing the State Department position that the solution must be political, not military. Hours later the airstrikes began.
Shoigu said the airstrikes are focused on ammunition depots, groups of terrorists and their training centers and facilities being used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. He said Russia had sent radiation, chemical and biological protection troops to determine the toxic substances used by terrorists.
"Within the past week they used them twice – in one case, 27 people were hospitalized and three died, in the other case 30 people were hospitalized," Shoigu said.
Some of the strikes appeared to target al-Qaeda affiliates fighting alongside the rebels, the observatory said. An airstrike also hit a hospital in the town of Awejel just outside Aleppo, injuring civilians, the British-based advocacy group said. Russian and Syria denied targeting hospitals.
Jabhat al-Nusra is an al-Qaida affiliate loosely aligned with the U.S-backed rebels. Russia has blamed rebel ties to terror groups for the dire humanitarian issues in Aleppo. The State Department has acknowledged that "marbleization" of the anti-Assad forces has been a problem.

Trump tapped into a 'troubling' strain

2016-11-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

Obama: Trump tapped into a 'troubling' strain

Athens, Greece (CNN)President Barack Obama issued a warning Tuesday against "crude nationalism" in the wake of Donald Trump's victory, saying during a news conference on his final overseas trip that the President-elect had tapped into a "troubling" strain of rhetoric playing on Americans' fears of globalization to win the presidency.

Speaking in Athens, Obama said he recognized an "anger and fear in the American population" over threats of mechanization and globalization, but that Republican officials didn't use facts when making their case about the US economy.

"You've seen some of the rhetoric among Republican elected officials and activists and media. Some of it pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to facts, but being used effectively to mobilize people," Obama said at a news conference alongside Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. "And obviously, President-elect Trump tapped into that particular strain within the Republican Party and then was able to broaden that enough and get enough votes to win the election."

Obama said countries across Europe, as well as the United States, were confronting populist movements based on a fear of intruding global forces, arguing people "are less certain of their national identities or their place in the world." He said leaders should heed lessons from results in the US and in Britain, which in June voted to exit the European Union.

"It starts looking different and disorienting. And there is no doubt that has produced populist movements, both from the left and the right," he said. "That sometimes gets wrapped up in issues of ethnic identity or religious identity or cultural identity. And that can be a volatile mix."

He said Americans must guard against those trends during Trump's presidency, and insisted he, too, would speak out against divisive language even after he leaves office.

"We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an us and a them," he said. "And I will never apologize for saying that the future of humanity and the future of the world is going to be defined by what we have in common as opposed to those things that separate us and ultimately lead us into conflict."

Explaining Trump's win to Europeans, who themselves face rising populist movements in countries across the continent, Obama theorized Americans were simply ready for a change in Washington and were not rejecting his policies outright.

"People seem to think I did a pretty good job," he said, alluding to surveys showing his job approval rating near its highest point. "And so there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger. Perhaps the view of the American people was just that need to shake things up."

Obama is on a week-long, three-stop foreign swing that has taken new urgency following Trump's election. He's expecting questions from leaders in Greece, Germany and Peru about Trump's motives and his plans going forward.

Global leaders have expressed concerns over Trump's suggestion on the campaign trail that the US might not keep its current level of international commitments, including to NATO. Obama Tuesday also called Greece a "reliable ally" in its commitment to the transatlantic alliance, even under tremendous strain from the country's debt crisis.

"We are proud to count Greece as one of our closest allies and one of our greatest friends," Obama said at the news conference, commending the country's ability to meet its financial obligations to NATO despite austerity measures.

Greek debt crisis

Air Force One touched down at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport just past 3:30 a.m. ET (10:30 a.m. local time) on Tuesday, where Obama was greeted with a red carpet and an ornate display of military pageantry.

In the morning preceding his news conference, Obama paid a courtesy call to Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

Obama also sat for formal talks with Tsipras at the neo-classical presidential mansion in central Athens.

Ahead of the meeting, Obama had said he would stress that debt reduction strategies beyond austerity must be utilized in Europe going forward.

"I will continue to emphasize our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity," Obama said, traveling with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who was expected to discuss Greece's persistent debt crisis with officials here.

Obama is the first US president to visit Greece in 17 years, and he focused intently on the debt situation and the influx of refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.

Obama says he's not responsible for Trump's rise to power

2016-11-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

ATHENS

Before the election, President Obama was so confident that Donald Trump wouldn't be elected to succeed him that he scoffed at questions about whether he was partly responsible for the Trump backlash.
"You know, talk to me if he wins. Then we'll have a conversation about how responsible I feel about it," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer in January.

Trump did win, and Obama still isn't sure what he would have done differently.
"I think it’s fair to say that I was surprised by the election results, and I've said so," Obama said Tuesday after being reminded of the quote by NBC reporter Chris Jansing at a news conference in Athens. "I still don’t feel responsible for what the president-elect says or does. But I do feel a responsibility as president of the United States to make sure that I facilitate a good transition and I present to him as well, as the American people my best thinking, my best ideas about how you move the country forward."

Obama attributed Trump's victory to a vague yearning for change amid unease about globalization. And he warned against a "crude sort of nationalism" that threatens Western nations where people are anxious about growing income inequality and job loss.
"Globalization combined with technology, combined with social media and constant information, have disrupted people's lives sometimes in very concrete ways," he said. "But also psychologically, people are less certain of their national identities or their place in the world. It starts looking different and disorienting. And there is no doubt that that has produced populist movements both from the left and from the right in many countries in Europe."
But Obama said he still believes his policies were the right ones.
"Last I checked, a pretty healthy majority of the American people agree with my worldview on a lot of things," he said. "And I know that that begs the question, well, how is it that somebody who appears to have a very different world view just got elected? As I said, sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up."
Obama has been largely deferential to the president-elect since the election — a remarkable turnaround from his campaign rhetoric in which he called Trump "dangerous" and "unfit for the presidency."
But on Tuesday, he seemed to differentiate between the Trump presidency — which he's constitutionally obligated to accede to — and Trump's rhetoric, which he called "pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to facts."
Obama promised that he would speak out when he believes the Republican Party is wrong, even as he pledged to work with them "on things that I think will advance the causes of justice and prosperity and inclusiveness in America."
Obama spoke at a press conference in Athens, where he began a three-city foreign tour the week after Trump's upset victory. And he used the European experiment as an example, even as he engaged in a mission to try to reassure European leaders that Trump's election would not alter the U.S. commitment to economic and political cooperation.

"We know what happens when Europeans start dividing themselves up and emphasizing their differences," Obama said. "The 20th century was a bloodbath. And for all the frustrations and failures of the project to unify Europe, the last five decades have been a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity in Europe."
"History doesn’t move in a straight line," Obama said. "It zigs and zags."

Trump advisers steamroll Christie’s transition

2016-11-15T13:21:00.000-08:00

Donald Trump aides have nixed at least one Chris Christie-backed person being considered for a Cabinet position since Friday's campaign shakeup.

Top Donald Trump campaign advisers who have taken charge of the president-elect’s transition team are casting aside much of the work on Cabinet picks that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his aides put in place over several months — and leaving behind a far more chaotic operation dominated by Trump loyalists.
Trump aides have nixed at least one Christie-backed person being considered for a Cabinet position in the aftermath of last Friday’s shakeup, a person closely tracking the transition told POLITICO.

The transition team has yet to publicly release a code of ethics for itself or for nominees. And an aide to a person being considered for a top Cabinet position said the person had not yet been asked to complete a detailed questionnaire to suss out red flags.
Trump was slated to meet Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who now leads the team, to review names in hopes of announcing nominees for key Cabinet posts in the coming weeks.

"Obviously, Inauguration Day is not getting further away," transition spokesman Jason Miller told reporters waiting in Trump Tower Monday night. "And people need to get going. This is an absolute top priority understood by the president-elect and the vice president-elect.”
By comparison, President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team was deep into the vetting process by early November 2008 — not just meeting with prospective nominees but also compiling fat dossiers on them, according to emails made public through WikiLeaks. The Obama team also released a code of ethics for transition team members just a few days after the election to limit the influence of special interests. The Trump transition team, meanwhile, is full of lobbyists and has not released such a code.

“It’s a lot of new people coming in the door. I’m sure their heads are spinning, with security clearances and background checks,” said one transition team source. “They’re going from the footloose and fancy-free world of the campaign into the process of setting up a government. It’s a little different.”
The demotion of Christie and his top aides — Rich Bagger, Christie’s former chief of staff, and William Palatucci, a former Christie law partner and the transition’s general counsel — sent shock waves through the team’s ranks.
Bagger and Palatucci worked behind the scenes for months to create a methodical operation that was less drama-filled than the New York-based campaign shop. They played a central role in hiring transition staff, developing an infrastructure, setting up policy- and agency-focused teams and culling shortlists for top administration jobs.
The shakeup “definitely caused some confusion,” said one person on Trump’s transition team. “There’s been a lot of dust that’s been kicked up.”
Among those departing is former House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, who said Tuesday that the group’s work “will provide a strong foundation for the new transition team leadership as they move into the post-election phase, which naturally is incorporating the campaign team in New York who drove President-elect Trump to an incredible victory last Tuesday.”
At one point, members of the transition team even talked with good-government types — some of them Democrats, such as former Obama administration ethics czar Norm Eisen — to think through a code of ethics for the team. “I and others appealed to both sides in this election to put in these tough rules, starting in the transition, because that is where the tone is set,” he said.

The transition team has not yet made public its internal code of conduct, nor did it respond to a request for comment about it.
Nonetheless, Trump’s closest aides are meeting with prospective candidates in hopes of announcing nominees for key Cabinet posts in the coming weeks, sources told POLITICO.
Going forward, sources familiar with the team said they expect the operation to have a more top-down structure, with the president-elect’s closest advisers, such as Pence, Sen. Jeff Sessions, newly named chief of staff Reince Priebus, political strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner bulldozing much of the former transition leaders’ existing work and making Cabinet decisions on their own, in consultation with Trump.
Trump’s aides are focused on recruiting allies and loyalists who they have long hoped to install in top Cabinet posts, such as Sessions, or as Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a Trump donor and Goldman Sachs veteran.
One person who has talked to transition officials compared their approach to that of Dick Cheney, who ran George W. Bush’s transition team.
“Cheney had his own list in his head, and he appointed the people he wanted,” the person said, adding that there are factions within the Trump transition — including Sessions loyalists, Heritage Foundation wonks, Trump’s campaign staff and conservative activists who admire Pence — that are each pushing their preferred candidates.
The transition team is also working to develop cohesive policies aimed at vetting nominees and protecting against conflicts of interest. Trump’s transition website, greatagain.gov, says candidates for jobs in his administration will be subjected to a full FBI background check and must complete a “Personal Data Statement.”

The statement includes questions about “possible conflicts of interest deriving from your sources of income; all aspects of your personal and professional life, including organizations to which you belong or once belonged; speeches you may have given and books, articles and editorials you may have written; legal, administrative and regulatory proceedings to which you may have been a party,” according to the website, which urges candidates to disclose “anything that might embarrass the President or you if he should choose you for a position in his administration.”
If the transition team follows through on that plan, it would subject Cabinet nominees and top White House staff to a greater level of scrutiny than Trump himself received. He was the first presidential candidate in modern history to refuse to release his tax returns, leaving Americans in the dark about his own possible conflicts on financial matters and dealing with foreign governments.
Past transition teams have generally subjected Cabinet nominees and other top administration officials to a rigorous in-house screening before announcing their nominations — and before nominees face questions from the White House Office of Government Ethics, the Office of Personnel Management and key Senate committees.

Obama infamously asked Cabinet candidates to complete a seven-page form with 63 separate requests for information. A WikiLeaks email from Nov. 2, 2008 shows the extensive vetting of James Steinberg, which involved a total of nine lawyers and a deep dive into his past. Steinberg later served as deputy secretary of state.
So far, the Trump transition team does not seem particularly concerned, for instance, about a transition team staffed heavily with lobbyists from energy, agriculture, transportation and banking.
“Frankly, one of the refreshing parts of it about the whole Trump style is that he does not care about political correctness. From a practical standpoint, I have heard lots of people say, ‘Why would we box ourselves out of the most knowledgeable policy people in the country?’” said one source close to the transition team.
Donald McGahn II, a partner at the firm Jones Day and Trump’s lawyer, is expected to play a central role in vetting nominees. So is Arthur Culvahouse Jr., a partner at the firm O’Melveny & Myers, who helped vet vice presidential candidates and, according to a source, has been helping the campaign organize its White House picks.
Culvahouse declined a request for an interview. None of the lawyers in the political law practice at Jones Day returned POLITICO’s calls. Culvahouse has faced backlash from colleagues at his firm for working with Trump, according to people familiar with the situation, with one person saying the decision was “amazingly controversial” within the firm. Many top partners at O’Melveny, including Tom Donilon, were vocal backers of Hillary Clinton.

New Zealand earthquake

2016-11-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

New Zealand earthquake: Tsunami arrives after powerful tremor hits

The epicentre of the earthquake was just north of Christchurch

A tsunami has hit after an earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.8 quake hit just after midnight (11:02 GMT on Sunday), some 95km (59 miles) from Christchurch.
The tsunami arrived in the north-eastern coast about two hours later. Officials said the first waves may not be the largest, with tsunami activity possible for several hours.
Residents were warned to head inland or for higher ground along the coast.
A gauge at Kaikoura, 181 km (112 miles) north of Christchurch, measured a wave of two metres (6ft 5ins), according to Weatherwatch.co.nz.
Smaller waves are said to be arriving in Wellington and other areas, the website said.

Terrifying

Residents in the Chatham Islands, an archipelago 423 miles (680km) south-east of the mainland, were also being warned a wave would hit imminently by the civil defence.
Thousands of people have already evacuated their homes as aftershocks continue to hit the area, Radio New Zealand reported.

The earthquake was felt across large swathes of New Zealand, including Wellington (aftermath pictured)

Others have taken to social media to offer people a safe bed for the night.
New Zealand lies on the notorious Ring of Fire, the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.
Christchurch is still recovering from the 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and destroyed the city centre.
The Herald newspaper said the tremor was felt all the way to Wellington, where sirens sounded and people fled buildings into the streets, some of them crying.
Early reports suggested some houses in Cheviot town, near the epicentre, have been damaged.

But Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents and found "everyone seems okay".
He told RadioNZ: "There's a lot of debris in houses, but at this stage it doesn't look like anything too bad has happened."
New Zealand's GeoNet suggests the earthquake may have been only a magnitude-5.5 tremor.
A resident of Christchurch said the tremor lasted a "long" time.
"We were asleep and woken to the house shaking, it kept going and going and felt like it was going to build up," she told AFP news agency.
On Twitter, Hayley Colgan described it as "the the most terrifying earthquake I think I've felt in my 23 years in New Zealand".
A magnitude-7.1 quake struck 169km (105 miles) north-east of Gisborne on the North Island in September, sparking a tsunami warning. It caused some damage to property, but no injuries.

7 Reasons Donald Trump Won The Presidential Election

2016-11-13T05:58:00.002-08:00

Donald Trump supporters cheer on Tuesday night at the New York Hilton Midtown.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The dust is starting to settle in Washington and around the country after an election that stunned political watchers and pollsters.
Here are seven things we've learned about Donald Trump's path to victory Tuesday night:

1. Hillary Clinton now has a wider popular vote lead than Al Gore in 2000, but the Electoral College picks presidents.

As vote continues to be counted, Hillary Clinton has now surpassed Al Gore's 2000 popular vote margin. Clinton's popular-vote lead is 668,171 over President-elect Donald Trump, according to the latest totals compiled by the U.S. Election Atlas. Gore got 547,398 more votes than George W. Bush in 2000.
Clinton's lead will only likely grow as votes continue to be finalized. Democrats have now won the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, but lost the Electoral College in two of them. This takes place as Democrats continue to migrate to cities and the coasts where their population is more concentrated.
The constitution mandates the Electoral College picks presidents. The founders created that system in part to avoid the largest states picking "favorite sons" and having outsize influence.

2. Overall turnout will be about the same as 2012.

It may even surpass it when all the vote is counted. These figures represent only about half of all eligible voters in the U.S.. But, as explained below, Clinton earned a lower share than Obama and more voters chose third party candidates.

Domenico Montanaro/NPR

3. A significant chunk of voters were dissatisfied with their choice of candidates.

The number of people electing not to vote for the Republican or Democratic nominee went up by 4.5 million votes, nearly tripling from 2012:

Votes for third party or candidates outside the major parties in 2012 vs. 2016.

Domenico Montanaro/NPR

It's difficult to say who those voters would have gone to precisely. Libertarian Gary Johnson got more than 4 million votes (or 3 percent), up from 1.3 million in 2012. Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 1.3 million votes in this election, only about 1 percent overall.
But more young voters went third party this year:
18-29 YEAR OLDS WHO CHOSE THIRD PARTY/OTHER2012: 3 percent
2016: 8 percent

4. Clinton did not fire up the Obama Coalition.

Clinton got nearly 5 million fewer votes overall than Obama:

Domenico Montanaro/NPR

Trump, meanwhile, got roughly the same number of voters as Mitt Romney four years ago:

Domenico Montanaro/NPR

18-29-YEAR-OLDSYoung voters were the same share of the electorate (19 percent), but went in smaller margins for Clinton than Obama and they jumped in third-party support from 3 percent to 8 percent:
2012: 60-37 Obama, 3 percent third party
2016: 55-37 Clinton, 8 percent third party

LATINOSBy their sheer size, Latinos went up as a share of the electorate from 10 percent to 11 percent, but the idea that they would turn out for Clinton in bigger numbers than Obama because of Trump turned out just not be true overall — and a significant share, especially among Latinos, went third party:
2012: 71-27 Obama
2016: 65-29 Clinton; 6 percent third party

Latinos certainly had an impact in the Southwest, helping Clinton win Nevada and Colorado and even made Arizona and Texas closer than past years. Texas was within 10 points for the first time in 20 years, and Latinos were a quarter of the electorate (24 percent).
It might be becoming clear that about 3 in 10 Latinos are simply part of the conservative base.

BLACK VOTERSBlack voters were down as a share of the electorate slightly and went for Clinton in a smaller margin — more like 2004 numbers for John Kerry:
2012: 13% of electorate, 93-6 Obama
2016: 12% of electorate, 88-8 Clinton
In places like Wayne County, Mich., home to Detroit, and Milwaukee, Wis., Clinton was significantly off from Obama's vote total in 2012. In fact, had she met Obama's vote total, it would have made been more than enough to make up the statewide differences in both states:
WISCONSIN STATEWIDE MARGIN: Trump +24,000 votes

MILWAUKEE Obama total votes 2012: 332,000
Clinton total votes 2016: 289,000 (-43,000)

MICHIGAN STATEWIDE MARGIN: Trump +13,000 votes

WAYNE COUNTYObama total votes 2012: 595,000
Clinton total votes 2016: 517,000 (-78,000)
A similar pattern wouldn't have helped Clinton win Pennsylvania. She turned out about 25,000 fewer voters in Philadelphia than Obama, but that discrepancy would not have made up for the crumbling in rural areas and even some counties Obama won. Luzerne (Wilkes-Barre), for example, shifted huge to Trump — by 25 points. Erie shifted 18 points.
In North Carolina, despite Clinton doing better in the Research Triangle area than Obama, black voters, who traditionally turn out at high rates in North Carolina, dropped significantly:
BLACK VOTERS IN NORTH CAROLINA2012: 23% of electorate, 96-4 for Obama
2016: 20% of electorate, 90-8 for Clinton
Could they have made up the difference? Quite possibly. Trump won the state by 177,000 votes out of about 4.7 million votes. If black voters were the same share of the electorate as 2012, and Clinton won 90 percent, she would have picked up some 126,000 votes. Now, if they voted in the 96-percent, same margin as they did for Obama and turned out at the same share of the electorate, Clinton would have picked up 191,000 votes.

Now almost no one expected, including the Clinton campaign, to get the same margins and share of the electorate with black voters as Obama, so these calculations probably aren't fair. What's more, Trump increased turnout among Republicans, so the black share would have to drop even if the same raw number turned out as 2016.

Sure, mathematically, no slippage with black voters, no third-party bleed among young voters in particular and juicing the Latino vote would have meant Clinton could have won despite a white, working-class cratering (more on that below). But that's not realistic, considering the election didn't take place in a vacuum. The declines are interrelated.

POST GRADUATESPost-graduates went by a slightly wider margin for Clinton than Obama:
2012: 18% of electorate, 55-42 Obama
2016: 18% of electorate, 58-37 Clinton
This furthers the distinct education gap in this election, especially among whites.

5. Whites without college degrees have fled to the GOP.

They were a group Democrats used to compete with. In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton won them by a point. But they have fled to the GOP in the years since –- and now the gap between whites with college degrees and without appears to be the widest ever. A whopping 35 points.

6. And that leads to what might be the biggest story of the election — Democrats' cratering with blue-collar white voters.

Ohio and Iowa went by huge margins for Trump –- almost 10 points in Iowa and 9 in Ohio. Trump won Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (by less than a point), leads in Michigan (by an even smaller margin), and lost by less than 2 points in Minnesota.
These are all states that went for Democrats in six straight presidential elections. They were crucial to the Democratic Blue Wall, and Trump took a sledgehammer to it.
We heard the voices of Obama-Trump white, working class voters in our stories online and on the air, but they never registered in big enough numbers — in public or private, non-partisan, Republican or Democratic polling before the election to show that a Trump win was apparent. Take a look at the vote shifts among the white, working class in some key states:

Domenico Montanaro/NPR

THOSE WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE IN INDUSTRIAL NORTH
MINNESOTA2012: 53% of electorate, 52-46 Obama
2016: 44% of electorate, 55-38 Trump (net gain: R+23)

WISCONSIN2012: 58% of electorate, 51-47 Obama
2016: 55% of electorate, 56-40 Trump (net gain: R+20)

IOWA2012: 57% of electorate, 52-46 Obama
2016: 57% of electorate, 54-40 Trump (net gain: R+20)

MICHIGAN2012: 54% of electorate, 56-43 Obama
2016: 58% of electorate, 49-45 Trump (net gain: R+17)

OHIO2012: 60% of electorate, 53-46 Obama
2016: 56% of electorate, 51-45 Trump (net gain: R+13)

PENNSYLVANIA2012: 52% of electorate, 57-42 Obama
2016: 52% of electorate, 52-45 Trump (net gain: R+12)

7. Clinton forgot how she campaigned in 2000.

Overall, the reason Trump won was because he flipped big margins with white, working class voters in the Midwest and Pennsylvania — something that was always a possibility.
Trump spoke to these voters — whether it was on policy with how he blew up the Republican message on trade and Clinton's ties to the establishment and pro-globalist agenda; or his fueling white resentments and racial bias; and there was likely some degree of sexism that played a role. That's something that's difficult to measure, though there will likely be dissertations written about it.

But Clinton made her mistakes with this group — calling half of Trump supporters "deplorables" likely fired up these exact kinds of voters, for example.
The late-in-the-campaign letter from FBI Director James Comey about Clinton's emails likely also played a role, reinforcing a narrative about her as untrustworthy especially with voters who were prone to believe the worst about her.

In the end, though, Clinton allowed the caricature created of her to become cemented. It's actually surprising considering how she campaigned for her 2000 Senate seat. Back then, she took on the caricatures of her as a carpetbagger who didn't deserve it by meeting and talking with voters in upstate New York. Some questioned that strategy given New York City and the suburbs have such big populations and generally determine the outcome of statewide races. (Sound familiar?)

Clinton, though, worked hard and won many of them over — and easily won the Senate seat.
She never did that this time. It was something she promised she would do at the outset of this campaign, but it was never attempted during the general election when she was against Trump. Instead, she was largely absent from the campaign trail for most of August, staying out of the news, as Trump was steeped in controversy. That turned out to be a mistake.

She never created an affirmative message about her candidacy. "Stronger Together" was reactive to Trump. And she took for granted what used to be a critical piece of the Democratic coalition. It's ironic that instead of courting these voters to solidify the Blue Wall, she spent a lot of time courting Republicans. But the Republicans who would be open to her message would be metropolitan globalists, and it's the very type of message that appeals to them that would turn off populist, blue-collar Democrats.

A rural Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin tour might not have reversed this 36-year trend away from Democrats, but given how extraordinarily close all three states turned out to be, Clinton likely would have reduced the margins enough to win.
Of course, that's not what happened.

Mike Pence to lead Donald Trump's transition team

2016-11-12T05:30:00.003-08:00

Donald Trump continues his transition to the White House as protests and riots break out nationwide over his election.

#Mike Pence replaces Chris Christie as head of Trump's transition team
#Harry Reid: Trump 'emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America'
#Calls to "lock her up" for Hillary Clinton may put Trump in a bind
#Anti-Trump protesters swarm major cities,including L.A., for a third night; Portland protests turned to riots
#Trump accuses the media of inciting the protests.

Donald Trump talks the Clintons, Obamacare in first television interview since election

President-elect Donald Trump described Hillary Clinton as gracious in her phone call this week conceding defeat and hinted that he may take future advice from her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

“Hillary called, and it was a lovely call, and it was a tough call for her, I mean, I can imagine,” Trump, in his first television interview since the election, told CBS' “60 Minutes.” “Tougher for her than it would have been for me. I mean, for me, it would have been very, very difficult. She couldn't have been nicer. She just said, ‘Congratulations, Donald, well done.’ ”

Trump, who redrew the political map with his win on Tuesday, carrying several states that traditionally vote Democratic, said that former President Bill Clinton called him later in the week to offer congratulations as well. When asked if he would seek the counsel of the former president, Trump said it was possible.

“He's a very talented guy, I mean, this is a very talented family,” Trump said. “Certainly, I would certainly think about that.”

In the interview, Trump also largely reiterated comments he made earlier in the day to the Wall Street Journal that indicated he wanted to preserve parts of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

He said that any healthcare law his administration helps draft would keep provisions in the current law that ensure coverage for people with preexisting conditions and allow children living at home to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans until age 26.

Trump also said there would be no lapse in healthcare coverage for people insured under the Obama plan and whatever replaces it.

“We're going to repeal it and replace it,” he said of the president's healthcare law.

Election Season Painting Portraits of Veterans Wounded Carrying Out His Orders

2016-11-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

George W. Bush posted a photo on Veterans Day showing the former president painting portraits of those wounded in service to the United States during his time in office.

Bush wrote:

Over the past several months, I’ve painted the portraits of 98 wounded warriors I’ve gotten to know – remarkable men and women who were injured carrying out my orders. I think about them on #VeteransDay and every day. Their paintings and stories will be featured in PORTRAITS OF COURAGE – a book and special exhibit – next spring, and I am donating all my proceeds to @thebushcenter and our Military Service Initiative’s work to honor and support them.

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush each phoned President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate the Republican nominee on defeating Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night.

Bush 41 made the first call, his spokesman Jim McGrath told CNN’s Jamie Gangel, and the two spoke for about five minutes. The elder Bush wished Trump “good luck on your new challenge.”

His son, Bush 43, also spoke to the president-elect.

“This morning I called President-elect Donald Trump and congratulated him on his election as president of the United States of America,” Bush said in a statement to Gangel. “Laura and I wish the president-elect, Melania, and the entire Trump family all our very best as they take on an awesome responsibility and begin an exciting new chapter in their lives. We pray for the success of our country and the success of our new president.”

CNN contributed to this report

What Happened After Trump Victory

2016-11-09T11:39:00.001-08:00

Global Markets, Initially Shaken, Edge Higher After Trump Victory

As the realization worked its way around the planet that Donald J. Trump would become the next president of the United States, global investors tried to make sense of the financial and economic implications, putting markets on edge.

American stocks were higher, a respite from the wild ride in Europe and Asia. But confusion showed no signs of abating, with investors awaiting the articulation of Mr. Trump’s agenda.

Global investors initially reacted as if the world had caught fire. They yanked their money from the marketplace in an unrestrained bout of selling reminiscent of the outbreak of war.

They sold stocks — first in Asia, and then in Europe. They sold oil and the Mexican peso, pushing it to a record low.

They even sold the American dollar, which nearly always functions as a refuge in times of chaos. Other traditional havens, like gold and the Japanese yen, rose in moves that had all the hallmarks of what traders usually describe as a flight to safety.

However, as Mr. Trump offered his victory speech in New York — eschewing the crude and divisive rhetoric that has brought him accusations of racism and misogyny in favor of congratulating his vanquished opponent, Hillary Clinton, and calling for unity — the markets began a steady climb back. By midday in London, stocks were roughly where they had begun, though they remained down sharply in Spain, and moderately down in France and Germany.

The dollar had largely recovered its losses. American stocks rose, with major indexes up nearly 1 percent by midday.

Even so, the initial stampede for the exits resonated as recognition that a vast range of policies framing global commerce — from trade to immigration to defense to climate change — were now subject to a potentially radical refashioning.

It is said frequently that what markets crave more than anything is certainty. The world suddenly seems in shortage of that.

The stunning June vote in Britain to abandon the European Unioneffectively redrew the regional map governing trade, risking a rupture within a marketplace encompassing 500 million relatively affluent people. But a Trump presidency presented the possibility that the whole atlas for international commerce had been torn to bits.

During the campaign, he vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States. He repeatedly promised to slap punitive tariffs on imports from China, raising the prospect of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Mr. Trump at one point threatened to renegotiate the terms of American debt, effectively raising the prospect of a sovereign default in the epicenter of the global financial system and a loss of confidence in the reliability of the American currency. If faith in the basic sanctity of the dollar cannot be taken as a given, then nearly every crevice of finance is subject to some additional layer of risk — from mortgages to corporate bonds to government debt.

More broadly, Mr. Trump vowed to radically alter a host of agreements made between the American government and significant actors on the global stage, from the Paris accord setting out targets to reduce the pollutants contributing to climate change, to the deal aimed at constraining Iran’s nuclear aspirations. He promised to escalate the battle against the Islamic State, intensifying bombing in Iraq and Syria. He vowed to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Taken as a whole, markets absorbed the looming Trump presidency as a signal that the knowns are now vastly outnumbered by the unknowns — a clear signal to pull their money to the sidelines.

“This is a negative shock for markets,” said Ricardo Reis, an economist at the London School of Economics. “For sure, this is a huge increase in uncertainty. And for the most part, what certainty is available seems bad. Like the Brexit vote, this raises the likelihood that trade deals will be repudiated and borders will be closed.”

In recent weeks, markets around the world largely assumed that the election would be won by Hillary Clinton, a known quantity with a record in public life going back more than a quarter-century.

But as returns emerged Tuesday evening, raising the possibility that two previously unimaginable words — “President Trump” — were on the verge of becoming official nomenclature, markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia and the rest of the region dropped precipitously, shedding as much as 6 percent of their value by early afternoon.

As trading commenced in Europe, stock markets were down more than 3 percent before recovering slightly. London shares opened down 2 percent before bouncing back.

Stock market futures initially indicated a sell-off once Wall Street awoke. Futures on the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 4 percent, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index plunged about 5 percent.

But when the American markets opened, stocks showed resilience. Major indexes were up by the middle of the day.

As currency markets fluctuated, they appeared to be functioning as barometers of national prospects in the wildly unpredictable new era unfolding.

The dollar’s initial weakening — it surrendered more than 1 percent on a broad index in Asian trading — was construed as a sign that protectionistpolicies championed by an incoming Trump administration risked damaging economic growth in the United States.

The Mexican peso fell in an apparent indication that markets assumed Mr. Trump would follow through on his promises to make it harder for American companies to manufacture goods south of the border while selling finished goods in the United States. Eighty percent of Mexico’s exports land in the United States.

The yen rallied against the dollar, as investors sought refuge in the currency. This intensified pressure on Japanese officials, who have often intervened in markets to lower the value of the yen in an effort to bolster exports. Officials from Japan’s Finance Ministry, the Bank of the Japan and the Financial Services Agency met in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon, with one warning obliquely that the government could intervene in currency markets.

Ironically, Mr. Trump’s victory may have momentarily taken some of the pressure off one of his primary adversaries: the Chinese government.

Though Mr. Trump has in recent months repeatedly accused China of intervening to weaken the value of its currency in a bid to make its exports cheaper on world markets, the reverse has in fact been true: China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has been devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to bolstering the value of the Chinese currency, the renminbi.

China has been contending with money leaving the country, a trend accelerated by assumptions that the United States Federal Reserve will soon lift interest rates. But with Mr. Trump destined for the White House, ratcheting up concerns about economic growth, many analysts now expect the Fed to reconsider. That gives the Chinese central bank less reason to fear a continued exodus of money.

But beyond such immediate concerns, the looming ascent of Mr. Trump to the most powerful office on earth has injected enormous variables into the calculations of those who control money. This appeared to be the message contained within the frenzied selling that accompanied word of his victory.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump will do all he said during his campaign, said Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of the deVere Group, a financial management firm, in a note to clients. “For now,” he wrote, “Trump winning is sending shock waves across the world.”

The Empire State Building Has Transformed Into a Giant

2016-11-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Empire State Building has transformed into a giant, glowing election tracker tonight.

CNN used the Empire State Building in New York City to mark its vote count on election night. (The Washington Post)

If you happen to be in New York City tonight — be sure to look up.
The south facade of the Empire State Building is being transformed into a 32-story screen ablaze with real-time election results, campaign photos, Instagram mosaics and animations — a spectacle befitting the final hours of an historic, high-stakes, over-the-top campaign.
When the 45th president of the United States is officially announced, the winner’s towering visage will glow over Manhattan.

[What time will this election finally be over?]
The display, produced by Obscura Digital, is a collaboration by CNN, Instagram, CA Technologies and the skyscraper’s management. It’s one part news-delivering tool, and one part crowd-sourced art project: A countdown clock will mark when polls close across the country, and massive charts will track the candidates’ progress as they compete for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Here’s an early live image of how it looks from another high-rise several blocks away:

There will also be flashing lights and animated images of fireworks. And if you’ve ever posted an election-themed photo to Instagram with the hashtag #MyVote, it just might be featured in the display.
“We are using those images, the faces of the supporters of each candidate, to create these projections,” said Ed O’Keefe, a senior vice president at CNN. Since September, CNN has documented voters as part of its #MyVote social media tour. The election night display is the tour’s grand finale.
“We wanted to break the fourth wall,” O’Keefe said. “We wanted to make a connection between the television program, which is very much speaking at people, and this election, which has fostered so many emotions and conversations among people.”

Adding to the dramatic atmosphere is the fact that both candidates are notably in the vicinity: Donald Trump and his fans will be following the election results from the New York Hilton in midtown. Just two miles away, Hillary Clinton will be doing the same with her supporters at the Jacob. K. Javitz Convention Center.
“It really just struck us as this incredibly unique opportunity,” O’Keefe said. “After the most vitriolic campaign, and months of back-and-forth across the nation, they both end up here.”
If you’re not in New York — not to worry: CNN will televise the Empire State Building display and share it on social media. There will also be similar, smaller-scale events in other cities: The facade of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will be splashed with live election results and Instagram images, as will the exterior of Miracle Mile shopping mall on the Las Vegas Strip.
Meanwhile, at the end of the night, San Francisco’s Colt Tower will be lit red or blue to symbolize California’s choice for America’s next president.

This isn’t the first time that the Empire State Building has put on an election-themed show. On Election Day 2012, the top of the building was bathed in blue light when CNN called the race for President Obama. The skyscraper has become well known for its elaborate light displays; last year, filmmakers projected massive portraits and moving images
of endangered species on the building to promote the documentary “Racing Extinction.”

But the event planned for this election night is the most ambitious yet, said Anthony E. Malkin, chairman and chief executive officer of Empire State Realty Trust, which owns the building.
“This is performing without a net,” Malkin said. “It’s real time, and the content has been specifically prepared for this purpose, and none of that has ever been done before.”

The light display will be created with 40 projectors perched atop a building three blocks away. The projection will cover 70,000 square feet — “one of the world’s most enormous canvasses,” O’Keefe said.
And it’s not just any canvass: “The Empire State building is an international phenomenon,” Malkin said. “It connects with individuals around the world in a very personal way.” Now, he hopes the luminous extravaganza might help a weary nation rally.

“This is still the best political system in the world, and I think this is a great way to share the results and broadcast that,” he said. “I hope it distracts people from some of the rancor, and puts us in a position to move forward.”