The biennial Dubai Air Show opened Sunday with hometown long-haul carrier Emirates making a $15.1 billion buy of Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, as the world’s biggest defense companies promoted their weapons amid heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Other airlines also are taking part, but missing from the trade show this year is one of the region’s largest long-haul carriers, Qatar Airways, amid diplomatic fallout between Qatar and four Arab nations.

The Boeing announcement came after a several hours of delays by Emirates amid rumors of a possible Airbus sale involving its A380 aircraft, a major workhorse for the airline. Journalists asked Emirates CEO and Chairman Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum about Boeing’s European competitor Airbus, specifically its A350.

Boeing vs. Airbus

“We were comparing two apples,” he said, but found that the Boeing 787 is “the best option” for Emirates. Delivery begins in 2022.

The sale comes as the Qatar dispute is now in its fifth month with no resolution in sight. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar in June over its ties with Iran and its support of Islamist groups, accusing the small Gulf state of supporting extremists, charges it denies. The Arab quartet cut direct flights with Qatar and closed their airspace to Qatari aircraft.

Qatar Airways previously had played a big role in the Dubai Air Show, reserving a large pavilion and displaying its latest aircraft to visitors.

Private suites on board

At the start of the air show, Dubai-based Emirates, the Middle East’s largest carrier, unveiled new, state-of-the-art, first class private suites.

In an industry first, passenger suites in the middle aisle without windows will be fitted with “virtual windows” relaying the sky outside via fiber optic cameras on the plane. There’s also a video call feature in the suites that connects passengers to the cabin crew, as well as temperature control and various mood lighting settings. 

Emirates President Tim Clark declined to say how much a ticket in the 40 square-foot (3.7-square-meter) private suite will cost. The private suites will be available on the airline’s Boeing 777.

In previous years, major Mideast carriers have flexed their spending power at the Dubai Air Show, including $140 billion in new orders announced in 2013 before the collapse of oil prices. Prices have rebounded recently to around $60 a barrel.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Standing in a stately Mayo Clinic library, Lilly Ross reached out and touched the face of a stranger, prodding the rosy cheeks and eyeing the hairless gap in a chin she once had known so well.

“That’s why he always grew it so long, so he could try to mesh it together on the chin,” she told Andy Sandness, as he shut his eyes and braced for the tickle of her touch on new nerve endings in the face that had been her husband’s.

Sixteen months after transplant surgery gave Sandness the face that had belonged to Calen “Rudy” Ross, he met the woman who had agreed to donate her high school sweetheart’s visage to a man who lived nearly a decade without one.

First meeting

The two came together last month in a meeting arranged by the Mayo Clinic, the same place where Sandness underwent a 56-hour surgery that was the clinic’s first such transplant. With her toddler Leonard in tow, Ross strode toward Sandness, tears welling in her eyes as they tightly embraced.

Ross had fretted before the meeting, fearful of the certain reminders of her husband, who took his own life. But her stress quickly melted away: Without Calen’s eyes, forehead or strong cheeks, Sandness didn’t look like him, she told herself.

Instead, she saw a man whose life had changed through her husband’s gift, newly confident after 10 years of hiding from mirrors and staring eyes.

“It made me proud,” Ross said of the 32-year-old Sandness. “The way Rudy saw himself … he didn’t see himself like that.”

Two men, similar tale

Sandness and Calen Ross lived lives full of hunting, fishing and exploring the outdoors before their struggles consumed them, 10 years and hundreds of miles apart.

Sandness put a rifle below his chin in late 2006 in his native Wyoming and pulled the trigger, destroying most of his face. Ross shot himself and died in southwestern Minnesota a decade later.

By then, Sandness had receded from contact with the outside world, ashamed of his injuries — surgeries to rebuild his face had left him a quarter-sized mouth, and his prosthetic nose frequently fell off.

Hope first came in 2012 when the Mayo Clinic started exploring a face transplant program and again in early 2016 when he was wait-listed for the procedure.

Ross had agreed to donate her husband’s lungs, kidneys and other organs to patients. Then LifeSource, a Midwestern nonprofit organization that facilitates organ and tissue donations, broached the idea of a donation for a man awaiting a face transplant at the clinic.

Ross and Sandness’ ages, blood type, skin color and facial structure were such a near-perfect match that Sandness’ surgeon, Dr. Samir Mardini, said the two men could have been cousins.

Ross consented, despite her hesitation about someday seeing her husband’s face on a stranger. Eight months pregnant at the time, she said one reason to go forward was that she wanted the couple’s child to one day understand what his father did to help others.

Simple tasks treasured

More than a year after a surgery that took a team of more than 60 medical professionals, Sandness is finding a groove in everyday life while still treasuring the simple tasks he lost for 10 years, such as chewing a piece of pizza.

He’s been promoted in his work as an oilfield electrician and is expanding his world while still prizing the anonymity that comes with a normal face.

“I wouldn’t go out in public. I hated going into bigger cities,” he said. “And now I’m just really spreading my wings and doing the things I missed out on — going out to restaurants and eating, going dancing.”

Life with a transplanted face takes work, every day. Sandness is on a daily regimen of anti-rejection medication. He’s constantly working to retrain his nerves to operate in sync with his new face, giving himself facial massages and striving to improve his speech by running through the alphabet while driving or showering.

“I wanted to show you that your gift will not be wasted,” Sandness told Ross.

​Like family now

Mardini and the rest of Sandness’ medical team have delighted in seeing their patient and friend open up since the procedure, going out of his way to talk with strangers whose gaze he once hid from.

“It turns out Andy is not as much of an introvert as we thought,” Mardini said. “He’s enjoying these times, where he’s missed out on 10 years of his life.”

Ross and Sandness say they feel like family now. They plan to forge a stronger connection, and Sandness said he’ll contribute to a trust fund for Leonard’s education.

On the day of their meeting, the boy stared curiously at Sandness at first. But later, he walked over and waved to be picked up. Sandness happily obliged.

For Ross, just meeting Sandness felt like a huge release, a way to get past a year filled with grieving, funeral planning, childbirth and gut-wrenching decisions about organ donations.

“Meeting Andy, it has finally given me closure,” she said, her voice choking as it trailed off. “Everything happened so fast.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

For the first time, a museum in Australia is telling the stories of the massacres by colonists of indigenous people from an Aboriginal perspective. Thousands of First Nation people are believe to have been killed by white settlers until the 1940s, but much of that history is yet to be uncovered.

Near the city of Portland is the site of the oldest known massacre of indigenous people in the Australian state of Victoria. 

There was tension in the early 1830s between European settlers, who had set up a whaling station, and a local Aboriginal tribe over a whale carcass. The precise details of the confrontation have been hard to establish, but 60 to 200 First Nation people were killed in what is known as the Convincing Ground massacre.

The killings are part of a series of stories being told in a new exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. Called “Black Day, Sun Rises, Blood Runs,” the multimedia show is included in the museum’s Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Center.

Indigenous stories

The stories are told by indigenous people who have been filmed at the sites of several massacres.

Officials say the testimony tries to fill gaps in the documentation of the killings contained in court proceedings, newspaper reports and Aboriginal records.

Curator Genevieve Grieves says the exhibition contains valuable historical information.

“We are going quite deeply into six narratives that include massacre, they include resistance, they include the native police, who were used against Aboriginal people in Victoria and other parts of the country,” she said, “And we are really doing that through first-person voice. So we are just talking to people connected to those spaces and so we have got what is on the historical record, but also what is contained in memory as well, in indigenous memory and, indeed, in non-indigenous memory as well.”

Grieves says this is the first time a new permanent exhibition at an Australian museum has detailed the stories of the massacres from an indigenous perspective.

Thousands massacred

According to the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, about 1,200 indigenous people in Victoria state died in 40 massacres from the 1830s to the 1850s. Academics say that armed white settlers or farmers would ambush Aboriginal camps in the night or early morning.

In July, an online map marking the massacres of Aboriginal clans across Australia’s colonial frontier was launched. It detailed more than 150 sites where violent attacks against indigenous groups took place in eastern Australia following the arrival of European settlers in the late 1700s.
…

From: MeNeedIt

West Virginia could produce profitable niche crops grown on reclaimed mine sites.

At least that’s what Nathan Hall, president of Reclaim Appalachia envisions.

Hall spoke about uses for reclaimed sites at the West Virginia Good Jobs Conference last Tuesday at Tamarack. The goal of the conference is to bring together entrepreneurs, funders, local community leaders and government agencies to trade ideas, provide mentorship and support entrepreneurs in southern West Virginia.

Reclaim’s first operational site is next to the Buck Harless Wood Products Industrial Park in Holden, a property owned by the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority.

Former miners

Reclaim and Refresh Appalachia have partnered to develop an active commercial agroforestry site, which is on about 50 acres of land that was mined and reclaimed in the late 1990s, managing crops including blackberries, hazelnuts, lavender and pawpaws. The site also has animals including chickens, hogs, goats and honeybees, which are managed with “rotational grazing techniques.”

Hall said he first started work on the Mingo County site early last year. The business has five full time crew members and one crew chief. Of those six employees, four are former coal miners.

According to Reclaim’s website, the organization intends to replicate the model on more mined properties and on a larger scale.

“With any post surface mine landscape, this model works well,” Hall said. “It’s especially suited to areas where it’s not feasible to turn into a big shopping center or a golf course.”

Long-term approach

Hall said the model is designed to be long term and said sites like these may not see profit until a few years down the road.

“This approach is never profitable in year one or even year two,” he said. “It’s more of a three-five year horizon to get into the black. A lot of agricultural investments like this are longer term.

“With animals, you have to establish a breeding stock. It takes some time before you’re able to send animals to slaughter,” Hall said. “And with perennial plants, it takes a year of establishment to get fruit, sometimes three to four years. We are looking at this as a longer-term investment but this is a pretty common way to invest in projects you see on the West Coast and the Northeast. A lot of investors know this is not a quick turnaround.”

However, down the road, Hall said he envisions West Virginia as being primary producers of niche produce on the East Coast.

“If we produce enough at a low cost and upgrade to high value products, move it six to nine hours away, there is a huge amount of ways to use these lands in ways that we’ve barely started to scratch the surface,” he said.

Crops, animals for rocky soil

Hall mentioned the possibility of products including lavender or grapes — plants that can thrive in the rocky soil.

“You could even have things like goat meat, which is something you don’t think about as something to eat in this area,” Hall said. “There are huge markets for it, maybe not here but the conditions are great for these sites.”

Hall spoke about some of the struggles with using these sites including the rocky terrain itself.

“You think about nice farmland where there is this loose, fluffy, brown soil you can almost scoop your hand into,” he said. “This soil, you can’t get a shovel to go more than 2 inches. The only thing that can survive is something with a shallow breeding system.”

Controlling invasive species

Another issue is invasive species of plants that were planted for reclamation. However, Hall said animals including goats and hogs can eat the shrubby plants while also adding nutrients to the soil.

“I’m a fan of high-intensity rotational grazing,” he said. “You have people out there tending fences and maintaining the animals and the site regularly. It has a more diversified income. And there is a benefit to the land through manure and reducing unwanted vegetation. You can eventually replant to better quality pastures if you do rotational.”

He said stacking systems including orchards and animals have been efficient in maintaining the land along with adding a larger labor force.

“You have the animals in between the orchard growth keeping the areas maintained,” he said. “It’s benefiting the roots and the trees. You’re also able to sell the meat and eggs while harvesting fruit and berries.”

Not the first attempt

Hall isn’t the first or the only person to grow crops on reclaimed mine sites. Hall mentioned one in particular back in the 1990s in Kentucky where there was a hog farm on a former mine site.

“There are a lot of activity in these spaces,” he said. “We are more focused on stacking systems and having this multifaceted approach. Other folks want one piece. It’s an interesting time to be involved. We can learn from each other and grow a new sector of the economy.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

Despite 70 years of tense relations between India and Pakistan, the two countries share a passion for each other’s movies, food and fashion trends. Take the example of palazzos, a popular Pakistani type of pants that are all the rage in India. VOA Urdu’s Ritul Joshi reports from Delhi that the trend started after a new Indian TV channel started broadcasting Pakistani dramas.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Afghanistan has received an inaugural consignment of wheat from India through an Iranian port, opening a new trade and transit route for the landlocked nation that bypasses neighboring Pakistan.

The strategic sea route, officials say, will help improve trade and transit connectivity between Kabul and New Delhi.

It will also potentially give India access to Central Asian markets through Afghanistan, because rival Pakistan does not allow Indian goods to be transported through its territory .

The shipment of almost 15,000 tons of wheat dispatched from India’s western port of Kandla on October 29 reached the Iranian port of Chabahar on November 1. It was then loaded on trucks and brought by road to the Afghan province of Nimroz, which borders Iran.  

Speaking at a special ceremony to receive the historic consignment Saturday in the border town of Zaranj, India’s ambassador to Kabul, Manpreet Vohra, said the shipment has demonstrated the viability of the new route. He added that India, Afghanistan and Iran agreed to operationalize the Chabahar port only a year-and-a-half ago.

“The ease and the speed with which this project is already working is evident from the fact that as we are receiving the first trucks of wheat here in Zaranj, the second ship from Kandla has already docked in Chabahar,” Vohra announced.

He said there will be seven shipments between now and February and a total of 110,000 tons of wheat will come to Afghanistan through Chabahar. Vohra added the shipments are part of a promised 1.1 million tons of wheat as India’s “gift” to Afghanistan out of which 700,000 has already been sent to the country.  

India is investing $500 million in Chabahar port to build new terminals, cargo berths and connecting roads, as well as rail lines.

The Indian shipment arrived in Afghanistan days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to New Delhi, allayed concerns the Trump administration’s tough stand on Iran could pose a fresh stumbling block to India’s plans to develop the strategic Iranian port as a regional transit hub.

The Indian ambassador also took a swipe at Pakistan, though he did not name the rival country.

“The logic of finding easy connectivity, assured connectivity for Afghanistan is also because you have not had the benefit despite being a landlocked country of having easy access to international markets. We all know that a particular neighbor of yours to the east has often placed restrictions on your transit rights,” Vohra noted.

The shortest and most cost effective land routes between India and Afghanistan lie through Pakistan.

But due to long-running bilateral territorial disputes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and India are not allowed to do two-way trade through Pakistani territory. Kabul, however, is allowed to send only a limited amount of perishable goods through Pakistani territory to India.

“We are confident that with the cooperation, particularly of the government of Iran, this route now from Chabahar to Afghanistan will not see any arbitrary closure of gates, any unilateral decisions to stop your imports and exports, and this will provide you guaranteed access to the sea,” vowed Vohra.

Pakistan also allows Afghanistan to use its southern port of Karachi for transit and trade activities. However, Afghan officials and traders are increasingly complaining that authorities in Pakistan routinely indulge in unannounced trade restrictions and frequent closure of border crossings, which has undermined trade activities.

“With the opening of Chabahar Port, Afghanistan will no longer be dependent on Karachi Port,” provincial governor Mohammad Samiullah said while addressing the gathering. The economic activity, he said, will create job opportunities and bring billions of dollars in revenue to Afghanistan, Iran and India.

Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan have also plunged to new lows in recent years over mutual allegations of sponsoring terrorism against each other’s soils.

In its bid to enhance economic connectivity with Afghanistan, India also opened an air freight corridor in June this year to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market.

Pakistani officials, however, have dismissed suggestions the direct trade connectivity between India and Afghanistan is a matter of concern for Islamabad.

“It is our consistent position that Afghanistan as a landlocked country has a right of transit access through any neighboring country according to its needs,” said Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a nearly 2,600 kilometer largely porous border. However, Islamabad has lately begun construction of a fence and tightened monitoring of movements at regular border crossings between the two countries, saying terrorist attacks in Pakistan are being plotted on the Afghan side of the border.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

U.S. President Donald Trump heaped praise on Vietnam Saturday, saying the southeast Asian nation is “one of the great miracles of the world.”

Trump’s remarks were made at a state banquet in the capital of Hanoi, the latest event on his five-country Asian tour. Trump, who arrived in Hanoi Saturday, told dignitaries he toured parts of the country, which he said “is really something to behold.”

After the nearly 20-year Vietnam War that killed millions of people, the country’s economy has been among the world’s fastest growing since 1990. Its gross domestic product has grown nearly 6.5-percent annually in the 2000s, according to the World Bank.

On Sunday Trump is to have meetings with Vietnamese President Tran dai Quang and other leaders.

Prior to his arrival in Hanoi, Trump was in the central Vietnamese city of Danang, where he attended the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Enroute to Hanoi aboard Air Force One, Trump reiterated to reporters traveling with him that he discussed with APEC leaders bilateral agreements that have resulted in trade imbalances he says are disadvantageous to the U.S.

“It’s disgraceful. And I don’t blame any of those countries. I blame the people we had representing us who didn’t know what they were doing because they should have never let that happen.”

At the close of the APEC meeting, the 21 member nations issued a statement expressing support for free trade and closer regional ties, without any mention of Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrine.

WATCH: Leaders of US and China Offer Asia Business Leaders Divergent Paths

​Two views on trade

On Friday, Trump and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, offered starkly contrasting views of the direction for trade in Asia in separate speeches to regional business leaders

Trump told the APEC CEO Summit that he is willing to make bilateral trade agreements with any country in the Indo-Pacific region, but he firmly rejected multi-national deals such as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was quickly abandoned in the first days of his administration.

“I will make bilateral trade agreements with any Indo-Pacific nation that wants to be our partner and that will abide by the principles of fair and reciprocal trade,” Trump said. “What we will no longer do is enter into large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty, and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”

The U.S. president said that in the past when his country “lowered market barriers, other countries didn’t open their markets to us.”

From now on, however, Trump warned the United States will, “expect that our partners will faithfully follow the rules. We expect that markets will be open to an equal degree on both sides and that private investment, not government planners, will direct investment.”

But making that happen is something that is easier said than done.

​Not playing by the rules

China has already shown that it has no intention of playing by the rules, said Fraser Howie, co-author of the book Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise.

“China has been in WTO terms simply much sharper and smarter than the Americans,” Howie said. “While the Americans went in with good faith thinking the Chinese would change and whatever, the Chinese never had any intention of changing.”

Howie added that trade and access issues are difficult and sophisticated, and so far Trump has a poor track record when it comes to follow through – be it his travel ban, the wall, healthcare or tax policy.

“Yes you’re going to get tough on them, but how do get tough without penalizing them,” he said. He added, “how can China be penalized when Xi Jinping is your best mate? It doesn’t make any sense.”

WATCH: Despite Tough US Talk on Trade, Experts See Greater Trade Opportunities

President Xi, whose country’s rise has been driven greatly by large-scale government-planning, immediately followed Trump on the stage in Da Nang.

Xi embraced the multilateral concept, in particular calling for support for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which would harmonize regional and bilateral economic pacts.

China was left out of the TPP, which was led by the United States and Japan, and was meant in great part as a bulwark against China’s strategic ambitions.

Xi also termed globalization an irreversible trend, but said the world must work to make it more balanced and inclusive.

The speeches came just hours after Trump left China where he and Xi met several times on Wednesday and Thursday.

In Beijing on Thursday, the U.S. president had struck a markedly softer tone than in the past on touchy subjects such as North Korea and trade saying he had an “incredibly warm” feeling for Xi.

Trump noted the U.S. must change its policy.

“It’s too bad that past administrations allowed it go get so far out of kilter,” said Trump. “But we’ll make it fair, and it will be tremendous for both of us.”

The Chinese leader said Beijing’s relationship with Washington “now stands at a new starting point” and vowed to “enhance communication and cooperation on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula” and other issues.

“For China and the United States, cooperation is the only viable choice, and win-win cooperation can take us to a better future,” said the Chinese president.

Much of Trump’s Asia tour has focused on North Korea, which is developing a nuclear and missile program in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Trump pressed Xi privately on the North Korea nuclear issue, according to Trump administration officials. According to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump told Xi, “You’re a strong man, I’m sure you can solve this for me.”

Speaking in Beijing, Tillerson noted “there is no disagreement on North Korea” between the United States and China. The diplomat pointed out the Chinese have been clear and unequivocal over two days of talks that they will not accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons.

“There’s no space between both of our objectives,” said Tillerson. “We have our own views of the tactics, the timing and how far to go with pressure and that’s what we spend a lot of time exchanging views on.”

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Chinese consumers are spending billions of dollars shopping online for anything from diapers to diamonds on “Singles Day,” a day of promotions that has grown into the world’s biggest e-commerce event.

China’s biggest e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, said sales by retailers on its platforms had topped $19 billion by midafternoon Saturday in a count that started at midnight.

Its main rival, online retailer JD.com, which tracks sales starting from Nov. 1 through to the actual day, had topped $16.7 billion.

Starting at midnight, diamonds, Chilean frozen salmon, tires, diapers, beer, shoes, handbags, and appliances were shipped out from JD.com’s distribution centers on trucks bound for deliveries across China.

Singles Day was begun by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a version of Valentine’s Day for people without romantic partners.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Pneumonic plague continues to decline in Madagascar, according to the World Health Organization, whose latest figures put the number of suspected cases at 1,947, including 143 deaths.

The latest reported cases of pneumonic plague, based on the number of people hospitalized and on district reporting in Madagascar, is good news, said Fadela Chaib, WHO spokeswoman.

“As of yesterday, 6 November, there were only 27 people hospitalized with plague compared with 106 on 29 October, for example,” she said. “This decline in new cases is encouraging and shows that the quick steps taken to support the government of Madagascar to contain the outbreak have been effective.”

Vigilance and money

However, Chaib warns that everyone must remain vigilant. She says flare-ups of this deadly disease cannot be ruled out until the plague season ends in April.

WHO, she said, needs $4 million to sustain its effort.

Much vital work remains, she said. For example, samples from sick people and those in contact with them must be laboratory tested, she said. She told VOA that since the start of the outbreak in August, WHO has trained teams of people who have traced 6,000 contacts.

“This is a huge operation,” she sad. “This needs to be done because you will need to maintain a high level of surveillance. You will need to train people. You will need also to provide logistical help to the hospitals and health centers.”

Fighting distrust, too

In Madagascar, Tomislav Jagatic of Doctors Without Borders told Reuters that medical staff fight distrust as well as the disease.

“We are sending teams of outreach, health promoters to discuss with all the people in the community how the plague is transmitted and also more important is we want to gain the trust of the community,” Jagatic said.

So far, there have been no reported cases of plague outside Madagascar.

WHO is working with all countries to strengthen their surveillance systems at the borders, Chaib said. WHO also is urging them to be prepared to quickly contain the disease in case plague is reported.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Despite President Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, international business leaders say they are excited by the prospects of greater cooperation among the 21 member countries of APEC. Many believe the annual economic leaders forum, established nearly three decades ago, will become more influential in the future and lead to greater and more balanced trade between East and West. Mil Arcega has more.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Rupert Murdoch telephoned AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months and talked about cable network CNN, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday.

One source said the 86-year-old executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. offered to buy CNN in both conversations.

Another source said Murdoch had “zero interest” in owning CNN.

Representatives of Twenty-First Century Fox, AT&T and Time Warner, CNN’s parent, declined to comment.

CNN has become the focal point in antitrust approval of AT&T’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc., hatched in October 2016.

U.S. Department of Justice staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit — which includes CNN — a government official told Reuters on Thursday, in order to gain antitrust approval.

On Thursday, Stephenson said he had no interest in selling CNN and that he was ready to defend the deal in court if necessary.

According to one of the sources on Friday, Murdoch called Stephenson twice, unprompted, on May 16 and August 8, and on both occasions asked whether CNN was for sale. Stephenson replied both times that it was not, according to the source.

Target of Trump’s

The fate of CNN has broader political significance. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the network for its coverage of his campaign and his administration, while he has publicly praised Murdoch’s Fox News.

In the run-up to last year’s election he vowed that as president his Justice Department would block AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner. He has not commented on the transaction since taking office in January.

Trump’s comments have provoked concern that he may improperly influence the Justice Department to block the deal. The White House has said Trump has not spoken to the attorney general about the matter.

Nevertheless, a group of eight Democratic U.S. senators on Friday wrote to Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, urging the department “to oppose any attempt by the White House to interfere with antitrust law enforcement decisions, particularly for political reasons.”

Speaking at an event in Los Angeles later in the day, Delrahim said he had not had any contact with the White House or the attorney general on the matter.

“I’ve got to keep my nose down and be a law enforcer and do what’s good and what I’ve committed to doing to the American people,” said Delrahim.

But he appeared to voice doubts about AT&T’s reasoning that the purchase of Time Warner would not result in a company with too much power because the combined company would have to compete with powerful new online rivals such as Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Delrahim referred to a comment by former President Ronald Reagan that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

“I’d say you should be equally terrified when someone in an incumbent company, whatever industry, comes to you and says, ‘I’m here to help you against the evils of Netflix, Amazon, Google and Facebook,’ ” said Delrahim. “Some of these pro-competitive comments and justifications remind me of that quote strongly.”

Offer in 2014

It would not be the first time Murdoch has attempted to take control of CNN.

His Twenty-First Century Fox made an $80 billion offer for Time Warner in 2014 but abandoned the plan in the face of Time Warner’s resistance. At that time, Fox had planned to divest CNN — which competes with Fox News — in order to avoid antitrust issues.

There is no law against a company owning two cable networks, but there is a Federal Communications Commission prohibition on owning two broadcast networks. A Fox deal with CNN could also raise antitrust concerns because of the market share that a combined company would have among cable news viewers.

“I have been called and asked if I would sell CNN by numerous people,” Stephenson told The New York Times’ DealBook conference on Thursday. But he added: “Selling CNN makes no sense.”

Fox has held talks in the last few weeks to sell most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co., CNBC reported this week, which would leave the company with its Fox News, sports programming and broadcasting stations.

Twenty-First Century Fox would sell its stake in European satellite broadcaster Sky Plc in a deal with Disney, according to CNBC’s report. Fox is trying to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own, but the bid is strongly opposed by some lawmakers and has been subject to lengthy regulatory scrutiny.
…

From: MeNeedIt

U.S. women’s soccer star Hope Solo on Friday accused Sepp Blatter of sexual assault, claiming the disgraced former FIFA president groped her backside at the 2013 Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Solo, 36, her country’s standout goalkeeper, said Blatter, 81, committed the act shortly before she was to present an award to her teammate Abby Wambach.

“It was a few years ago at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, just before I got on stage,” Solo told Portuguese newspaper Expresso.

A spokesman for Blatter, however, said the accusation was “ridiculous.”

Solo, a World Cup winner and two-time Olympic champion, made the allegation on the sidelines of the Web Summit being held in Lisbon.

She said sexual harassment on the part of male officials was a common problem in women’s soccer.

“I have seen this all of my career, and I would like to see more athletes speak about their experiences,” said Solo.

“It’s out of control, not just in Hollywood but everywhere,” she added, referring to the firestorm of sexual harassment allegations in entertainment, politics and sport ever since the scandal involving Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein unfolded.

Blatter was president of FIFA from 1998 until 2015, when he was banned for corruption.
…

From: MeNeedIt