US Navy plane has unsafe encounter with Russian fighter over Black Sea - ABC News

US Navy plane has unsafe encounter with Russian fighter over Black Sea

By LUIS MARTINEZ Nov 27, 2017

A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane had an “unsafe interaction” with a Russian SU-30 fighter jet this Saturday that used its afterburners as it flew in front of the American plane over the Black Sea, according to a U.S. official. It was the first unsafe encounter for a U.S. military aircraft in months.

According to the U.S. official, the Navy plane was flying over the Black Sea when it was intercepted by a Russian SU-30 "Flanker" fighter.

Russian fighter flies 20 feet from US Navy plane over Black Sea

Russian Fighter Comes Within 10 Feet of US Navy Plane

At its closest point, the Russian fighter came as close as 50 feet to the Navy aircraft, but it was a maneuver flying in front of the American plane that has led to the U.S. labeling the encounter as unsafe.

Moving from right to left, the Russian fighter then activated its afterburners as it flew in front of the American plane.

The official said the Russian fighter's move caused a turbulence wake in front of the American plane that led it to roll as it flew through it.

The Pentagon has deemed the Russian aircraft's maneuver as an "unsafe interaction".

This weekend's unsafe interaction is the first unsafe encounter in months involving a Russian aircraft.

The U.S. military uses various criteria aside from distance to determine whether an encounter with a foreign military vessel or aircraft should be classified as unsafe.

For example, the speed of an aircraft and rate of closure can factor more than a close distance in an air encounter.

Such was the case in May over the Black Sea when a Russian fighter's coming within 20 feet of a P-8 aircraft was deemed "safe and professional."

At the time, a U.S. official said that was the case because both aircraft visually identified each other and the Russian aircraft approached the American plane in a professional manner.

Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake - TIME

Access Hollywood Hits Back After Report that President Trump Says Leaked Tape Is Fake

By Katie Reilly 27/11/2017

Access Hollywood set the record straight on Monday about recent reports that President Trump now claims the leaked tape in which he bragged about groping women was fabricated.

Trump suggested to a Senator and an adviser this year that the Access Hollywood tape — in which he said he “can do anything” to women because he’s a celebrity — was not authentic, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Shortly after it was leaked in October 2016, Trump acknowledged his comments and apologized for them.

“We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape,” Access Hollywood host Natalie Morales said during the show on Monday. “Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real. Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker-room talk.’ He said every one of those words.”

Asked during Monday’s press briefing whether Trump believes the tape is real, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders avoided a direct answer.

“Look, the President addressed this. This was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the President and the fact that he’s sitting here in the Oval Office today,” she said.

Asked again whether Trump’s apology for the tape indicated that he believes it’s authentic, she said: “No. Like I just said, the President hasn’t changed his position. I think if anything that the President questions, it’s the media’s reporting on that accuracy.”

Southern Indian city welcomes Ivanka Trump at business summit - Reuters

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Southern Indian city welcomes Ivanka Trump at business summit

Aditi Shah

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - India rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday for Ivanka Trump, daughter of the U.S. president, who was set to attend a business summit in the southern tech hub of Hyderabad, where thousands of policemen stood on guard.

As political and economic ties expand, India has become a major market for the United States, with two-way trade of about $115 billion last year. Military and strategic ties are also improving as China’s influence rises in Asia and beyond.

Billboards with pictures of Ivanka dotted many parts of the city home to major U.S. firms such as Microsoft. Authorities took beggars off city streets in a clean-up drive before the meeting, media said.

“Global eyes are on Hyderabad today,” said Jayesh Ranjan, a government official helping to organize the event. “We are representing India.”

Television broadcast images of the arrival of Ivanka, the leader of the U.S. delegation, who is also an informal adviser to President Donald Trump.

Later in the day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), an event conceived by former U.S. President Barack Obama that is being jointly hosted by India and the United States.

Preparations included about 10,000 police deployed to provide security, while some schools closed because of traffic restrictions, a senior police officer told Reuters. Authorities also beefed up the numbers of closed-circuit cameras.

On standby were sniffer dogs as well as “spotters”, or men trained to detect any suspicious activity or people, the officer said, reflecting the trappings of a visit by a state leader.

The organizers of the summit, to be attended by 1,500 entrepreneurs and investors from 150 countries, had been overwhelmed with thousands of applications, state officials said.

Atif Bin Arif, a bus tour operator who traveled from neighboring Pakistan, said he wanted to explore collaboration opportunities on tourism in India, and was keen to hear Ivanka.

“I am interested in what Ivanka Trump has to say,” Arif said. “I also want to know her reason for coming to Asia for this summit. Does she see this as a land of opportunities?”

In an interview with the Times of India newspaper, Ivanka pitched for better ties between the two countries.

“We share common priorities, including promoting economic growth and reform, fighting terrorism and expanding security cooperation,” she said in the interview, published on Tuesday.

This year, women are the theme of the gathering, held in prior years in countries such as the United States and Turkey.

More than half the participants will be women, and all-female delegations will represent several countries, among them Afghanistan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“I aim for GES 2017 to be a global celebration that elevates the importance of empowering and investing in women entrepreneurs,” Ivanka said.

Writing by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Clarence Fernandez

Raise investment to maintain global growth, says OECD - Financial times

Raise investment to maintain global growth, says OECD

Strongest upturn this decade expected to fade in 2019, Economic Outlook warns

Act now to protect the recovery

The OECD says it is struggling to understand why business investment has been so weak

Chris Giles in London

Business investment rates in most large economies remain too low to keep the global economy powering forward for long, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Tuesday.

In its latest Economic Outlook, the club of mostly rich nations said the momentum and high global growth rates would continue next year but fade in 2019 unless investment improved.

Catherine Mann, chief economist, said: “Policy is currently stimulative but in the absence of structural reforms we won’t get the private sector investment to get the productivity improvements we need.”

The organisation, which is tasked with improving economic performance, said the upturn is largely cyclical and has been spurred on by central banks’ efforts to lower the cost of borrowing and governments’ easing back on austerity.

This combination, Ms Mann said, had led to the strongest synchronised upturn since 2010, with all the 35 advanced economy countries that belong to the OECD growing and most of them enjoying an accelerating expansion.

“Countries should use this period of growth for policies to ensure the dynamism continues when fiscal and monetary policy stimulus is no longer active,” she said.

The OECD forecasts that the global economy will expand 3.6 per cent this year, rising to 3.7 per cent in 2018, just below the 2005-2014 average, but will ease back to 3.6 per cent in 2019. This “hump shape” of projected growth rates is expected to occur throughout the largest economies — China, the eurozone, the US and Japan — because business investment has only just climbed back to normal levels, when it would traditionally be far above average levels at similar points in previous cycles.

It is unusual for business investment growth to remain muted when economies are surging forward, since this is normally the time when business leaders invest in additional capacity to meet demand for additional goods and services.

“We’re struggling with the question of why [business investment has been so weak],” Ms Mann said, adding that there was not a simple recipe for each country to follow and that the reforms needed differed from country to country.

In the US, the OECD supports corporate tax reform to bring the American system and those of other advanced countries more into line. But the organisation expresses more scepticism towards the specifics of the White House-backed legislation working its way through Congress. Ms Mann suggested it “does not really address some of the important issues of how tax is related to productivity”.

Business leaders are being urged to invest in additional capacity to meet growing demand for goods and services © Bloomberg

For the eurozone, she urged national leaders not to be complacent now that the single currency area was enjoying strong growth rates. There was still more work to do in fostering competition in services and resolving the problems of non-performing loans, particularly in southern Europe.

Brexit uncertainties should encourage the UK authorities to bring forward government investment even more than they are already doing, Ms Mann said, since the UK was projected to be slowing just as most other OECD economies were accelerating. The UK growth forecast was revised from 1 per cent next year to 1.2 per cent because there is a greater chance of agreement between Britain and the EU to have a transition period immediately after Brexit.

The OECD says there is no reason that most advanced economies cannot return to the growth rates of the past, since there are ample untapped labour resources among women and older workers. Returning investment to levels of previous upswings would rekindle productivity growth and raise living standards.

Brexit: Norway says UK must safeguard its interests if it cares about gas supplies - Independent ( source : Bloomberg )

Brexit: Norway says UK must safeguard its interests if it cares about gas supplies

Norway provides about 40 per cent of the UK’s energy needs, and is keen to defend its access to a key trade partner.

Jonas Bergman, Sveinung Sleire 11 hours ago0 comments

Norway is Scandinavia’s richest country and western Europe’s biggest oil and gas exporter REUTERS

Norway says Britain and the EU need to figure out how to include it in the Brexit process.

The UK’s biggest gas supplier -- itself not an EU member -- is lobbying the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, not to put its access to the market at risk.

“Our core message to Barnier is that Norway isn’t just any ordinary third-party country,” Marit Berger Rosland, Norway’s EU and EEA Affairs Minister, said in an interview at the Foreign Ministry in Oslo.

All major UK banks pass Bank of England’s annual stress test

Scandinavia’s richest country and western Europe’s biggest oil and gas exporter is working hard to ensure it doesn’t lose out in any transitional accord struck between the EU and Britain once it leaves the bloc.

Norway provides about 40 per cent of the UK’s energy needs, and is keen to defend its access to a key trade partner.

“Things are time-critical and it’s important to secure real agreements over the days and weeks we have up to the EU summit in the middle of December,” Ms Rosland said. But comments by Barnier also suggest “we have to be prepared for a no-deal scenario.”

Reiterating a position held by her predecessor, Ms Rosland said there was an understanding in Oslo that “any transition solutions will also be applied to Norway.” The 39-year-old minister says her message to the UK Government is that it should work to “safeguard its interests with key partners, including Norway.”

While the minister says Norway doesn’t expect its gas exports to be hit by Brexit, because “both countries have a great interest in maintaining gas exports on good terms,” there are numerous scenarios to consider. Norway is also doing what it can to prepare for the possibility that Brexit talks won’t end in an agreement.

Ms Rosland says the risks surrounding Brexit have underscored for Norway the value of its membership in the EEA.

“With all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the EEA model is now almost stronger because we are more aware of the predictability it gives us with access to the common market,” Ms Rosland said. “Even if we are not a member of the EU, there is a clear cooperation model between us and the EU countries in the economic sphere.”

Norway’s state-owned Statnett and the UK’s National Grid are building an underwater power cable between the two countries, and this project is expected to be implemented and operated as planned, regardless of the Brexit process, she said.

“The EEA agreement is safer than it has been for a long time,” Ms Rosland said.

How Merkel’s Ex-Partners May Get Her Out of Limbo: - Bloomberg

How Merkel’s Ex-Partners May Get Her Out of Limbo:

By Rainer Buergin

November 28, 2017

Germany has been an oasis of political stability in a fractious Europe since Angela Merkel became chancellor in 2005. Her failure to form a coalition government, after a month of talks, raised concerns in Germany and throughout the European Union, which is already grappling with risks posed by Brexit. Now that the Social Democrats have opened the door for a “grand coalition” -- the term for a German government formed by the two parties with the most seats in parliament -- chances have increased that a long stretch of uncertainty can be avoided.

1. How did Merkel get into this pickle in the first place?

The surge of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, which became the third-largest force in the Bundestag after winning 12.6 percent of the vote in September’s election, narrowed Merkel’s options to form a government. (Because of Germany’s parliamentary system, it’s next to impossible for one party to win an absolute majority, so coalitions are the norm.) Merkel’s conservative bloc -- which comprises the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union -- held exploratory talks with the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalist Greens. Those talks broke down on Nov. 19, when the Free Democrats pulled out over disagreements on immigration, tax cuts and EU policy. Even Merkel, once dubbed “the queen of the backrooms,” couldn’t bridge them.

2. Where does that leave Merkel?

While she could still head a minority government or hold out for new elections, she wants a coalition with a majority in the Bundestag. That pushes her into the arms of the Social Democrats, or SPD, her preferred coalition partner from the get-go and a party she shared power with during eight of her 12 years as chancellor. But the left-leaning SPD just endured its worst election result since World War II, prompting leader Martin Schulz to rule out a re-run of that grand coalition. Under pressure to secure a stable government, Schulz is now indicating he could change his mind. He’s agreed to a meeting with Merkel that will be hosted by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Merkel’s challenge will be allowing Schulz a face-saving U-turn on his pledge while at the same time safeguarding the interests of her Christian Democrat-led bloc.

3. Could there be another grand coalition?

That’s the way things are looking. A majority government would provide the political stability to tackle a myriad of issues facing the country and its European allies. But the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, is split between conservatives arguing for another grand coalition and left-leaning members who want to be in the opposition. While SPD leaders are no longer ruling out a grand coalition, Merkel would have to offer something -- possibly in the area of social policy and support for Europe -- that could win over the party’s skeptical rank-and-file. Merkel also needs to convince the SPD that the alternative to a coalition deal could be even worse: New elections might lead to poorer results, while a minority government could mean the Social Democrats end up supporting the policies of Merkel’s bloc without having much say in the process.

4. What if the Social Democrats turn Merkel down?

She could decide to go it alone. That would mean filling all ministerial posts with members of her bloc and relying on shifting alliances with other parties to get bills through. She could also try to partner with the Greens, but that would still be a minority government which would need support from the SPD or the Free Democrats to pass legislation. The problem for all German parties is that, unlike elsewhere in Europe, this has never been tested. And the current environment doesn’t lend itself to trial and error.

5. Can she do anything else?

Not really. Reviving efforts to form an alliance with the Free Democrats and the Greens looks doomed after Free Democrat leader Christian Lindner cited a lack of trust, and not just disagreement over policies, as a major reason why the talks broke down. There’s also no incentive for Merkel to consider a Social Democrat fringe proposal to bring the Greens into a super-sized coalition. A strong left-leaning counterweight to Merkel’s bloc within a ruling coalition isn’t anything the conservatives in her party would support.

6. What happens next?

Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who has urged all parties to rethink their positions to avoid new elections, will meet Merkel and Schulz for talks on Thursday to sound out chances for an alliance. But Schulz isn’t going to be wooed easily after calling for the SPD to take an opposition role. He wants members to sign off on any proposals, so won’t commit to anything before a Dec. 7-9 SPD party convention at the earliest and could take until early 2018 before a new government is formed.

7. Could there be new elections?

It would be up to Steinmeier to call them once all attempts to form a majority government have failed and if the alternative of a minority-led government is deemed too unstable. Most recent polls suggest growing support for Merkel’s bloc and the SPD as voters increasingly favor a re-run of the grand coalition. Failure to agree could reverse those gains and lead to losses in any new elections, which would probably happen next spring. Merkel would govern as a caretaker until then.

8. Would that be the end for Merkel?

The former East German physicist, whose rise to the top began with the fall of the Berlin Wall 28 years ago, has made a career of defying expectations and making surprise shifts, including Germany’s exit from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan. But the strong showing of Alternative for Germany, which drew many voters from Merkel’s conservative bloc and could benefit from the other parties’ inability to form a government, has clearly diminished her standing as the country’s quietly dominating political force.

Pope Francis meets Suu Kyi in Myanmar, avoids mention of Rohingya - NBC News

NOV 28 2017

Pope Francis meets Suu Kyi in Myanmar, avoids mention of Rohingya

by CLAUDIO LAVANGA and ALASTAIR JAMIESON

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Pope Francis met with Myanmar leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi Tuesday, but avoided any public mention of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority who the U.S. says are being subjected to "ethnic cleansing.”

Francis spent his first full day in the Buddhist-majority country meeting its civilian leader, a day after hosting the military general in charge of the mission to drive Rohingya from the northern Rakhine state.

Image: Pope Francis meets Aung San Suu Kyi

Pope Francis meets Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, on Tuesday. Max Rossi / Reuters

The pontiff’s speech was the most anticipated of his visit, given the outcry over a crackdown that has sent more than 620,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh from where they have reported entire villages were burned and looted, and women and girls were raped.

He previously has prayed for "our Rohingya brothers and sisters," lamented their suffering and called for them to enjoy full rights, but the term “Rohingya” is avoided inside Myanmar because the ethnic group is not a recognized minority.

Several high-profile figures, including former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Myanmar Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, urged Francis not to utter the term, fearing a potential blowback against Myanmar's tiny Catholic community.

The pope spoke obliquely, offering encouragement to the “to all those who are working to build a just, reconciled and inclusive social order.”

“The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnicity,” he said.

Hours earlier, he met the commander responsible for the crackdown, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

The Vatican didn't provide details of the contents of the 15-minute "courtesy visit," except to say that “they spoke of the great responsibility of the authorities of the country in this moment of transition" and that the pair exchanged gifts. Francis gave the general a medallion of the trip, while the general gave the pope a harp in the shape of a boat, and an ornate rice bowl.

Rohingya Muslims have long faced state-supported discrimination in Myanmar, and were stripped of citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless. They cannot travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doctors, and they have little access to medical care, food or education. The Myanmar government and most of the country’s Buddhists consider the Rohingya Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country.

Myanmar's army denies accusations of rape, torture, murder and forced displacement.

The latest violence erupted in August, when Myanmar security forces responded to militant attacks with a scorched-earth campaign that has sent many Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, where the pope will also visit on his trip.

Human rights groups had hoped the pope would not pull his punches in Myanmar.

“The Rohingya have little left besides their group name after years of statelessness, discriminatory restrictions on movement and access to life-sustaining services, and being targeted by a military subjecting them to ethnic cleansing and atrocities,” Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch in Asia, told Reuters earlier this month. “The Pope absolutely should stand up for the Rohingya by using the name Rohingya.”

In 2015, Pope Francis angered Turkey when he used the word “genocide” to describe the World War I mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The Turkish government, which denies that the deaths constituted a genocide, recalled its ambassador to the Vatican in protest.

Alastair Jamieson reported from London.

EPA to Hold Its One Hearing on Climate Rollback in Coal Country - Bloomberg

EPA to Hold Its One Hearing on Climate Rollback in Coal Country

By Christopher Flavelle

November 28, 2017

The Trump administration is holding its one public hearing on rolling back President Barack Obama’s regulations limiting carbon emissions from power plants -- and it will be in West Virginia.

While the Environmental Protection Agency leadership under Obama steered clear of the coal-producing state, the agency will hold a public hearing on dismantling Obama’s climate rule in Charleston, West Virginia on Tuesday and Wednesday. That will give coal miners and executives easy access to weigh in on the plan to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which would have forced utilities to burn less coal. The plan aroused particular resistance in coal-producing states such as West Virginia.

Under President Donald Trump, the EPA has made clear that it wants to help coal miners. On Oct. 10, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt traveled to another coal bastion -- Hazard, Kentucky -- to announce the regulation would be repealed.

"The war on coal is over," Pruitt said then.

Opponents of the plan loudly faulted Pruitt’s predecessor, Gina McCarthy, for not holding a hearing in West Virginia while she was developing the Clean Power Plan. In 2015, West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she was "appalled" by McCarthy’s skipping her state. This week’s hearings mark a sort of rebuke to that decision.

Among the issues the agency must decide is whether and how it will replace the Obama-era rule. One industry group, Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, is set to argue Tuesday that the benefits of the rule didn’t justify the costs. But the group also will ask for a milder replacement plan.

"Federal guidance of sufficient flexibility, and limited to actions within the fence line, can provide regulatory certainty, diminish frivolous litigation, and can aide in planning," Scott Segal, the group’s director, will say, according to a written copy of his remarks.

NYT: Trump questions authenticity of 'Access Hollywood' tape - CNN News

NYT: Trump questions authenticity of 'Access Hollywood' tape

Anchor Muted Background

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

November 27, 2017

Donald Trump responds to lewd

Donald Trump responds to lewd 2005 comments 01:31

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has questioned the authenticity of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which he bragged about being able to grope women, The New York Times reported over the weekend, despite the fact that Trump immediately apologized for his remarks when the video surfaced.

Trump's decision to stick with Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore despite sexual harassment allegations against him is rooted in the President's own sexual harassment scandal during the 2016 election.

"He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous 'Access Hollywood' tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women's genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after," the Times reported. "He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently."

CNN has not independently confirmed the New York Times' reporting. The White House has not responded to CNN's request for comment.

During the election, several women accused Trump of previous instances of sexual harassment and the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape of Trump released in October 2016 caught him saying on a hot mic: "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the p****. You can do anything."

Trump's reported denials mentioned in the New York Times directly contradict his apology following the tape's release.

He said in a short video statement hours after the video surfaced: "I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize."