Verizon’s Revenue Falls Due to Disappointing Subscriber Numbers

Amid a price war with the competition in an over saturated phone market, Verizon Communications Inc tallied far fewer wireless subscribers than expected in the 3rd quarter. The company hopes to draw out new revenue from its fledgling digital advertising and media business.

The company said on Thursday total operating revenue fell 6.7 percent to $30.94 billion, from $33.16 billion. Analysts had anticipated revenue in the quarter of $31.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Verizon’s shares were down 2.6 percent at $49.07 in premarket trading. Share prices have surged about 9 percent this year so far.

It said it added a net 442,000 retail postpaid subscribers, those who pay their bills on a monthly basis. This number falls considerably short of analysts’ projected 766,300 according to market research firm FactSet Street Account.

Smaller rivals such as Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc have launched aggressive promotions to convert Verizon’s subscriber base.

As the company staves off competition in a ripening wireless market, it has picked up AOL and plans to buy Yahoo. Moreover, their attempts for a set of digital web properties and ad technology tools that will help it compete with internet giants Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc.

Verizon may ‘call off’ Yahoo acquisition

Since the Yahoo data breach concerning 500 million email accounts was reported in September, investors have pondered how Verizon will proceed. Verizon’s general counsel has said the incident may signify a material event that could allow Verizon to call off the deal.

Net income creditable to Verizon dropped to $3.62 billion, or 89 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $4.04 billion, or 99 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company netted $1.01 per share excluding items, outdoing the average analyst estimate of 99 cents per share.

Churn, or customer defections, among postpaid wireless retail customers improved to 1.04 percent of total wireless subscribers, in relation with the average estimate of 0.99 percent, according to FactSet.

See Related News: Yahoo’s Sudden Revenue Increase Places Merger with Verizon Under Hazy Cloud

 

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Trump: I Will Totally Accept Election Result…If I Win

Donald Trump said today that is now prepared to accept the result of the US presidential elections…as long as he is the winner.

During yesterday’s live presidential TV debate he indicated that he may not accept the result if rival Hillary Clinton topped the polls saying: “I will look at it at the time.”

Speaking to supporters in Delaware, Ohio, he hit out at critics who are angry at his refusal to publicly state that he is prepared to accept the election result whatever the outcome.

Trump said he was unwilling to waive his right to contest the election if he saw fit to do so.

He told the Delaware rally: “I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win.

“Of course, I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.”

Both Republicans and Democrats were taken aback by Trump’s refusal to categorically state that he is willing to abide by the results of the November 8 election.

Previously he has repeatedly claimed that the election has been rigged against him.

Trump compared his situation to that of the 2000 election when when Al Gore demanded a recount in several counties after the results of the election in Florida were very close.

He said: “If Al Gore or George Bush had agreed three weeks before the election to concede results and waived their right to a legal challenge or a recount then there would be no Supreme Court case.”

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Schiaparelli Mars Lander is Probably Destroyed After Thrusters Failed

Europe’s Schiaparelli Mars lander may be lying dead on the surface of the red planet after its thrusters failed.

The thrusters were supposed to fire for 30 seconds to slow the lander down so that it could touch down gently and protect the sensitive equipment on board.

However it has been confirmed that they fired for just three or four seconds before unexpectedly switching off in the final phase of the six minute descent.

Lost

All contact was lost with Schiaparelli in the final minute of the descent and scientists at the European Space Agency are still analysing data sent from the lander to discover exactly what happened.

At this stage it is not certain that the lander was destroyed on impact but it is certainly feared that it did not survive the landing.

Everything was going fine with the descent phase until the final minute or so.

Schiaparelli successfully separated from its mothership the Trace Gas Orbiter, entered Mars’s atmosphere as planned and that its parachute was deployed as normal.

Martian

“From this point on, the lander has definitely not behaved exactly as we had expected,” Andrea Accomazzo, head of solar and planetary operations, told a news conference today.

“When we put this hardware in the Martian environment, the spacecraft didn’t behave exactly as we had expected. Now it is a matter to analyze why.

“We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition under which the lander touched the ground.

“We are still processing the data from the descent and (when that is done) we will know whether it could have survived structurally or not.”

Valuable

Even if Schiaparelli did not survive the landing it was recording valuable atmospheric data on its descent to Mars and scientists will be able to analyze that.

Schiaparelli is part of the European-Russian ExoMars program to explore the red planet.

The Trace Gas Orbiter, another key part of the program,  is now successfully in orbit around the planet so all was not lost with the Mars mission.

“Following yesterday’s events we have an impressive orbiter around Mars ready for science and for relay support for the ExoMars rover mission in 2020,” said Jan Wörner, ESA’s Director General.

Data

“Schiaparelli’s primary role was to test European landing technologies. Recording the data during the descent was part of that, and it is important we can learn what happened, in order to prepare for the future.”

David Parker, ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration, said: “In terms of the Schiaparelli test module, we have data coming back that allow us to fully understand the steps that did occur, and why the soft landing did not occur.

“From the engineering standpoint, it’s what we want from a test, and we have extremely valuable data to work with. We will have an enquiry board to dig deeper into the data and we cannot speculate further at this time.”

 

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Monkeys Making Ancient Stone Tools, Humans Not So Special After All

Scientists recently found a remarkable discovery in a Brazilian forest. A stone tool was found in the forest which was always considered as handiwork made by early humans, but the discovery suggests, this is unlikely.

A group of capuchin monkeys was seen making stone flakes, an early tool used by ancient humans. It is unclear how the monkeys knew how to make one. Nonetheless, this might prompt researchers to be more cautious when they come across the ancient site where similar tools were found.

Stone flakes were used as knives by ancient humans. To make a flake you need to smash two rocks together. A special rock can easily break in a certain way, then you have to hit the two rocks until it breaks into flakes. The flake is shaped like a scallop shell, hold it together or place it in a stick then you’ve got a knife.

This ancient tool making method dates back 3.3 million years ago and has always been connected to ancient humans. They were also uses by some early ancestors such as Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus.

A group of anthropologists filmed a Brazilian capuchin doing this ancient tool making method easily.

Tomos Proffitt, Paleoanthopologist from Oxford University saw them do it and was expecting to see “Capuchins do nut-cracking,” he added, “they crack open palm nuts all the time. So we were looking for this.” It’s something chimpanzees do, as well.

But instead, the capuchins were smashing one rock on top of another, he added “we saw this, doing this stone-on-stone percussion, and that was quite exciting looking at the material they produced. … It was sort of a jaw-dropping moment.”

“Jaw-dropping because they were chipping off flakes. No one has ever seen a monkey doing that. Nuts, sure, but stone tools?”

“We hypothesize that it’s something to do with getting minerals from the quartz because they lick the dust, they ingest it,” Proffitt says.

Another possibility suggests they’re trying to get the lichen that grows on many rocks in the forest. These organisms were found to be nutritious.

Whatever it was, the capuchins were ignoring the flakes. Hence, we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that monkeys are not as smart as our early ancestors.

Proffitt says the monkey flakes should not confuse researchers. The one made by humans are “more complex than what we see with the capuchins. Nonetheless, they share the same basic characteristics”. There are usually clues found along ancient tools, like cut-marks on nearby bones, unlike the monkey flakes.

This discovery tells us that non-human primates do use tools, occasionally.

The method used by capuchins are more primitive than what early humans most likely used to make flakes. What is interesting is it shows a higher level of thinking for a monkey, said Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a biologist and expert on stone tools at Chatham University.

“We are constantly erecting false barriers between our mental and manipulative abilities and those of other animals,” she says. “But the truth is far more blurry.”

John Shea, an anthropologist at Stony Brook University says it’s important to remember that humans are more “obligated” to use tools; it was an essential part of being a human.

Most non-human primates don’t use tools. However, those who do don’t improve their usefulness over time, as human ancestors did.

But watching the films the team captured tells us capuchins smash the rocks earnestly, whatever the reason for it.

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Schiaparelli Mars Lander Feared Lost While Descending on Mars

Schiaparelli’s robot attempted to land on Mars surface but a minute before it touched down, the robot’s radio signals dropped.

Satellites currently orbiting Mars attempted to check the status of the probe. An American satellite also tried calling out to Schiaparelli to get it to respond, so far without success.

The European Space Agency fear’s that the robot crashed and has been destroyed. However, it is still too early to assume the probe’s outcome.

Schiaparelli’s engineers will be conducting “fault trees” to shed some light as per why communication was lost. The procedure will also tell them what they can do to proceed with the mission. This test might take several days to complete.

The Schiaparelli “mothership” also comes with a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) to examine Martian atmosphere. As the probe descends down the surface, the TGO was placing itself into a parking ellipse around Mars. That telemetry, however, could not hold essential clues as to what happen before the expected touchdown.

Schiaparelli’s engineers and ESA experts will analyse the downlinked data overnight. They will hold a press conference at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST; 08:00 GMT) on Thursday.

“People will spend the night looking at this data. I’m pretty confident that this telemetry will tell us what action was interrupted when we lost the communications. I would say we have a very good chance tomorrow morning to either know that the lander is lost or to know what attempts we can make to recover it,” said Paolo Ferri, head of mission operation at ESA’s control centre in Germany.

If the Schiaparelli’s fate is really unlucky, the TGO would still proceed in its mission to orbit Mars’s atmosphere.

The mission, formally called ExoMars 2016, is a key part of the international joint endeavor of Russian Space Agency (Roscos) and ESA. The TGO would spend most of its time studying the behavior of gasses such as methane, water-vapor and nitrogen dioxide in the Martian atmosphere.

Gases such as Methane could hold vital clues about Mars’s current state and may even give clues to the existence of life on the planet.

The spacecraft’s calculated fast descent has to be just the right speed, or else it would run smashing into the Martian surface.

Schiaparelli is equipped with parachute, heat-shield and rocket thrusters in order to slow its approach to the surface.

If the robot is later confirmed as lost, it would be another major disappointment to ESA which recently suffered failure with Beagle-2 on Mars last 2003.

Six-wheeled-rover for planned 2021 mission

Official’s said Schiaparelli has always been considered as the agency’s technology demonstrator. The project was meant to provide the learning experience to land a more ambitious six-wheeled rover on Mars in 2021.

Professor Jan Woerner, ESA’s Director General said, “this is typical for a test”. He added, “we did this in order to get data on how to land on Mars with European technology. Therefore, all the data we will get this night will be used to understand how to manage the next landing when we go with the rover.”

 

The six-wheeler rover is expected to use the same technology as Schiaparelli. This   includes a doppler radar to calculate its distance to the surface while descending. Furthermore, it carries a similar navigation system and control algorithms.

The budget of the six-wheeler rover is not yet secure. If Schiaparelli is indeed lost, ESA officials would have to work harder to explain to member states why the extra investment would be worthy.

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Angelina Gets a visit from the FBI While Brad Enjoys Second Visit to Kids

Brad Pitt paid a visit to his kids for the second time since the highly publicized divorce case from his wife Angelina Jolie. According to E! News, Brad is not the only one getting visits recently as Angelina Jolie got a visit from the Federal Bureau Investigation herself.

However, there is no information if the couple’s 15-year-old son Maddox was able to see his father. According to a source, the famous stars’ eldest son, “is mad at his dad and doesn’t want to see him now.”

Brad Pitt had a monitored visit that “lasted about 90 minutes at an undisclosed neutral location.” And that the famous actor, “wasn’t as emotional as the first visit, but it was obvious that he was very happy to see the kids”, as reported by In Touch.

On the other side, two FBI agents called on the kids’ famous mother, Angelina Jolie. The FBI agents spent three hours with Jolie and her children at their Malibu home. According to TMZ, the FBI agents interviewed the famous Hollywood actress regarding the private plane incident. That particular occasion involved Pitt and one of their children.

FBI spokesperson said in an interview, “In response to your inquiry regarding allegations within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States; specifically, an aircraft carrying Mr. Brad Pitt and his children, the FBI continues to gather facts and will evaluate whether an investigation at the federal level will be pursued.”

The Department of Children and Family Services continues to investigate the accusations about the altercation onboard the private plane. The allegations involving Pitt and his oldest son, Maddox occurred during their flight from France going to the United States. But according to a source, authorities’ main concern is the well-being of the children.

Angelina gets temporary custody of children

Initially, Jolie filed for a sole custody of their six children. Nonetheless, the Hollywood couple agreed to a temporary custody. The children will stay with Jolie while Brad recieved visitation rights.

The famous star both agreed to undergo individual counseling. Also, Pitt’s first visit with the children involved a therapist. Up to now, the therapist had not released directives for supervision or monitoring.

Jolie guaranteed that the sole custody of the children will not become permanent; she had done what was necessary to the situation for the children’s well-being. The famous star still believes that they need to co-parent the children in the future.

 

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Kurds Begin Large-Scale Assault in Mosul

As an assault to drive out so-called Islami State militants from Mosul continues, Kurdish fighters say they have started a large-scale operation north and east of the Iraqi city.

The Kurds say the plan is to tighten the noose around the militant’s last key stronghold in Iraq.

The Special Forces have now joined the offensive as the Iraqi army has been moving from the south.

The US military says there are indications that IS leaders have fled Mosul.

Nevertheless, there are an estimated 5,000 IS fighters still in the city.

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces said their campaign was on three fronts. They also followed recent advances by both the Kurds and the Iraqi security forces in the area.

The statement said that the intentions are to clear some of the nearby villages. This action will give them control of strategic sites to further constrain ISIL’s (IS) movements.

Meanwhile, Iraqi special forces joined the assault on Thursday, Iraqi Major General Maan al-Saadi said. They made a pre-dawn advance on the nearby town of Bartalla.

The special forces were backed by air strikes performed by a US-led coalition.

General Gary Volesky said earlier that they’ve seen movement out of Mosul and that they got signs that leaders have left. The American general, however, did not specify who had fled, nor did he state where they had gone.

The whereabouts of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are not known. Some accounts say he is in Mosul while others say he has escaped the northern Iraqi city.

BBC Middle East analyst Alan Johnston says it is likely that any fighters leaving the city had simply been heading to the front line areas, which still lie beyond the outskirts.

Nobody has any reservations that a die-hard IS militant would stay in the city and fight for it, the correspondent adds.

General Volesky said that foreign fighters are expected to form the bulk of the force who will hold out. The general heads the land component of the US-led coalition battling IS.

Save the Children charity asserts that 5,000 people from the conflict zone have fled to a refugee camp over the Syrian border in the last 10 days. There are 1,000 more waiting at the border.

UN camps ready to receive in excess of 200,000 Mosul refugees

Refugee camps are being set up in the south, north and east of Mosul in provision for an inflow of people fleeing the city. The UN says it anticipates more than 200,000 in the coming days and weeks.

An estimated 1.5 million civilians are believed to still be in Mosul. Those inside reported that IS was stopping them from departing the city and that they were running out of basic necessities.

Mosul has been under IS control since 2014. It is the militant group’s last major Iraqi stronghold.

The attack to retake the city started on Monday as the advancing forces seized several villages on the city’s borders ahead of a final push.

However, with IS fighters seeming to be putting up unyielding resistance in places, progress is expected to be slow.

There are also threats that the group could use chemical weapons or human shields.

With these challenges, it could be months before the city is liberated.

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NBA Star Derrick Rose Acquitted on All Charges in Rape Case

In a hotly contested civil trial, a Los Angeles jury decided that NBA star Derrick Rose and his two friends should not be held legally responsible on any charges. Rose’s ex-girlfriend accused the three men of drugging her, breaking into her apartment. She also accused them of gang-raping her while she was passed out in August of 2013.

The complainant had claimed that Rose and two friends, Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen, put a drug in her drink. This was done during a party at Rose’s Beverly Hills residence. She is a 30-year-old woman identified in court documents as “Jane Doe”.

Thie woman had a non-exclusive sexual relationship with Rose from late 2011 up to July 2013.

She professed to have taken a cab home and that the driver had to walk her to her front door. The woman also stated that she remembered throwing up and fainting in her bedroom with her clothes on. She could recall not much else regarding the early hours of August 27, 2013. She had a recollection, however, of Rose, Allen and Hampton being in her apartment, Rose having sex with her, and then Allen and Hampton later having sex with her while Rose watched.

Lawyers of Rose, Hampton and Allen had admitted that their clients had sex with Doe on the night in question, but called the sex consensual. The respondents testified that the complainant had asked them to go to her house after the party. They also stated that she’d let them into her apartment herself and that they alternately had consensual sex with the woman in her room.

Their lawyers alleged the accuser was attempting to “shake down a highly respected and successful athlete.”

Cleared on all counts

One day after hearing closing arguments in the case, the jury reached its decision after 3 hours and 45 minutes of deliberation on Wednesday. The panel had been delegated with deliberating the separate allegations. These include trespassing, battery, sexual battery, gender violence, emotional distress and conspiracy.

The panel must also establish distinct undisputed verdicts on whether the three men should be held liable on any of the claims.

Rose, Allen and Hampton were cleared on all counts.

Following the verdict, the plaintiff’s attorneys said that they are contemplating an appeal.

With the trial now decided, Rose is expected to rejoin his new team. The New York Knicks goes up against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday’s regular season opener.

 

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Yahoo’s Sudden Revenue Increase Places Merger with Verizon Under Hazy Cloud

Last Tuesday, Yahoo Inc. got an unexpected increase in their quarterly adjusted profit; this good news, however, has a slight effect on Verizon Communication due to the recent email hacking issue.

In 2014 almost 500 email accounts were hacked, which puts the $4.38 billion deal on shaky ground, Verizon’s general counsel said.

Customer loyalty

Recent profit increase shows that the data breach did not lead to a massive withdrawal of yahoo customers, as some had expected. Customer trends showed positive growth in page views and email usage, Yahoo said.

JMP’s securities analyst Ronald Josey says, even if the recent customer trends are “encouraging,” it’s too early for us to tell the long-term effect of the massive Yahoo hack.

“The message here is email and messaging is a very sticky product and people want to get to their messages,” Josey added.

The increase in page views and email usage could be “500 million people trying to figure out if they’re exposed,” says Fatemeh Khatibloo, a security analyst with Forrester Research.

Khatibloo added, loss of customers and lawsuits related to the breach, may affect the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to limit telecommunications companies to use customer data. Furthermore, it could encourage Verizon to back out of the deal.

However, the fact that Yahoo did not see a sudden decrease in users was a sign that email hacking may not lead to negative effects. For instance, results that could influence a deal with Verizon, says Scott Kessler, an analyst with CFRA Research.

“The bottom line here is from a fundamental operational and financial perspective, it doesn’t seem like much has changed at the company over the last quarter,” he added.

Verizon would need to prove that the breach leads to a material adverse change that would allow it to pull out of the deal, the legal expert says.

Profits still rising

Another bright spot for Yahoo was that profit from Mavens – short for “mobile, video, native, and social”, climbed up 24.2% to $524 million. This made Chief Executive Marissa Meyer brag about its growing businesses.

However, despite good standing with Mavens, Yahoo, in general, is still failing in major profit categories. Gross profit dropped 14.1% to $752.5 million.

According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, Total profit hiked up to 6.5 percent to $1.31 billion, just beating the average analyst estimate of $1.30 billion. But after deducting fees paid to partner websites, profit went down to $857.7 million from $1 billion.

In a statement last Friday about Verizon deal, Yahoo said, ‘it would not hold a call or webcast after the release of the results’.

Meanwhile, Analyst at Needham & Co said on Tuesday that Yahoo’s decision to not disclose anything about the deal cast doubts, which lead to the downgrade of their stock rating from “Buy” to Hold.”

Yahoo shares closed up 1.3% on Tuesday extended trading session.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, net income attributable to Yahoo jumped to $162.8 million, or 17 cents per share, from $76.3 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding some items, Yahoo gained 20 cents per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of 14 cents.

Verizon acquired Yahoo for $4.4 billion last year, which includes Yahoo’s search, email, and messenger assets as well as advertising technology tools with its AOL unit

Major revamp after acquisition

The acquisition would revamp Yahoo into a holding with a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and a 35.5 percent interest in Yahoo Japan Corp as well as Yahoo’s convertible notes, certain minority investments and its non-core patents.

The deal should close in early 2017, after which Yahoo plans to change its name and become a publicly traded investment company.

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Actress Pleads Not Guilty in Pipeline Dispute

On Wednesday, actress Shailene Woodley pleaded not guilty to allegations coming from her eminent arrest with 27 other people, court documents show. They were apprehended while protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.

According to court documents, Woodley’s attorney entered the pleas to misdemeanor counts of engaging in a riot and trespassing. However, the 24-year-old star was not present for the brief hearing in Morton County District Court in North Dakota.

Woodley was seen on camera being taken into custody. She had been broadcasting the October 10 protest on Facebook Live. The rally was held at a Dakota Access pipeline construction area about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the town of St. Anthony.

The actress said she had been quietly heading back to her car when officers grabbed her by her jacket. They also told her not to continue.

Police said Woodley was among the last people arrested at the time after she left private property.

Aside from acting, Woodley is known for her environmental activism. She has beforehand joined members of North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protest against the $3.7 billion project.

The 1,100-mile (1771-km) pipeline would be the first to bring Bakken shale from North Dakota straight to refineries on the US Gulf Coast. A consortium of companies led by Energy Transfer Partner LP is building the pipeline.

The construction of the pipeline, called Dakota Access, has been hampered by demonstration causing delays to the planned start of operations in the fourth quarter of this year.

The tribe believes that the pipeline would damage historic and culturally significant sites. Moreover, it would leave its land exposed to contamination from oil spills.

Pipeline cheaper and safer alternative to rail and road transport

On the other hand, supporters say it would provide a more secure and cost-effective way to move Bakken oil shale to the US Gulf than by rail or road.

Woodley co-starred in the recently released film “Snowden”. She portrayed Lindsay Mills, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s girlfriend.

Edward Snowden revealed information concerning the US administration’s widespread surveillance programs. Hence, he fled the United states in 2013 and was allowed asylum in Russia.

 

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According to Former Guards, Hillary Clinton’s Security Detail Hated Her

One of Hillary Clinton’s former guards told the Post that her security detail hated her so much that they secretly laughed following her accidental fall that broke her arm during her time as secretary of state in 2009.

Clinton, who was then 61, was in the basement of the State Department en route to her meeting with President Obama when she fell. She ended up in the hospital for an operation to fix her shattered right elbow.

“We sort of got the last laugh. It was kind of like payback: You’re treating us like s—t. Hey, karma is a bitch! We were smiling to ourselves,” the agent said on Wednesday.

However, according to the agent, Clinton, who often behaved like a diva-in-chief, made it worse blaming her detail for the mishap.

FBI documents released this week that showed Clinton’s protective detail loathed her for regarding them with contempt supported the agent’s account.

The agent said that when he first met her, they were given particular instructions not to look at her and not to look at her general direction. If they need to talk to her, they have to keep it short and stay out of her way, he added.

The agent also voiced-out that Clinton behaved like she was president during her term as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. She even once made an evidently upset President Obama wait for her as she socialized with foreign dignitaries at the United Nations.

The agent added that Clinton was handling every stopover like a campaign stop for the presidency, shaking hands with everybody and looking like a presidential nominee. It was like she was running for president for all the years she was secretary of state.

The incident occurred in either 2009 or 2010 during the General Assembly when Obama and Clinton were heading into a Security Council gathering with foreign leaders, the agent said.

“She was basically saying, ‘I don’t wait for the president, the president waits for me.’ Obama stopped, turned around and rolled his eyes a little bit. He looked at her in a way that inferred, ‘Let’s go,” the agent added.

Agents loved Condoleeza

On the other hand, the security detail loved Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state who served under George W. Bush.

The agent said that Condoleezza Rice was a true diplomat. She developed a lot of rapport with her security detail. She was one of the boys as she would talk about family and football. Clinton didn’t care. If you weren’t in her little inner circle, she wanted nothing to do with you.

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US Pledges All-Out Defense to Counter Grave North Korean Threat

The United States and South Korea said on Wednesday that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs posed a grave security threat after repeated tests this year. Consequently, the two countries agreed to intensify diplomatic and military efforts to counter that threat.

The countries said they had agreed to establish a high-level Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group. The group’s purpose is to influence “the full breadth of national power” following talks in Washington between their foreign and defense ministers. This includes military coordination, information, diplomacy, and economic elements.

The United States would do whatever it has to protect itself, South Korea and other allies against North Korea, according to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

A joint statement by Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter reiterated that any attack by North Korea would be crushed. It also stated that any use of nuclear weapons would be met with an effective and overwhelming response.

Kerry and Carter also reaffirmed the solid and unwavering US commitment to bring in the full range of its military capabilities. Their primary goal is to provide extended deterrence to South Korea. These military capabilities include conventional strike, the US nuclear umbrella, and missile defense capabilities.

Questioned on what the US could do to stop North Korea from conducting more nuclear tests following those in January and September, Kerry told a news conference: “We will up and energize those three things that we have already been doing and put greater pressure, put greater diplomacy to work, and put greater deterrence to work so that in every case, we will underscore the futility of what Kim Jong-un and North Korea are pursuing.”

He said the military alternative was a last option and Washington was exerting effort to tighten sanctions. This includes trying to seal off a loophole in UN steps that permitted North Korea to export coal for commerce.

Kerry said the United States, as part of the military effort, would position the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to South Korea immediately.

China sharply resists deployment of the missile defense system, saying it would intrude on its own strategic deterrence.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se expressed North Korea was close to the final stage of nuclear weaponization. Due to this imminent threat, the allies would marshal “all tools in the toolkit” to defend themselves.

“Extended deterrence” could include permanent positioning of US strategic assets in South Korea. These assets involve F-22 stealth fighter jets, nuclear-capable B-52 and B-1B bombers, and nuclear-powered submarines.

Yun said he knew this would be deliberated on in talks between Carter and Han at the Pentagon on Thursday. He did not give further details.

Carter said earlier that Seoul and Washington would persist to modernize the alliance, appropriate new opportunities, and tackle developing threats. However, the Pentagon did not immediately respond when queried about the likelihood of such deployments.

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Man to be Executed in Georgia for 1997 Murder of Police Officer

On Wednesday, Georgia plans to put to death a man who opened fire on Atlanta police in 1997. The man killed one officer and injured another critically after they had given his intoxicated girlfriend a ride home.

Gregory Paul Lawler, 63, is slated to be executed by injection at 7 p.m. EDT at a state prison in Jackson. According to data from the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center, the execution would be the seventh this year in Georgia. This matches Texas for the most death sentences done in a state in 2016.

The center’s data shows that there have been 16 executions in the United States in 2016 as compared to 28 last year.

In 2000, Lawler was sentenced to death after being found guilty in the killing of officer John Sowa. Meanwhile, Patricia Cocciolone, the other officer, survived the shooting with damaged intestines, a shattered pelvis and permanent brain injury. According to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case, She testified at Lawler’s trial.

The summary said, the night of the October 1997 shooting, Lawler and his girlfriend had been drinking at a bar near their Atlanta apartment.

A witness who thought he saw Lawler hit the woman with a bag as they walked home summoned the police. Lawler took off when the officers arrived.

The officers agreed to help the woman get home. When they got to the apartment, Lawler met them and opened fire at the officers 15 times, the case synopsis said.

Both Cocciolone and Sowa still had their pistols fastened into their holsters when backup arrived. According to court records, Lawler surrendered after a six-hour confrontation.

Intense hatred for police

A co-worker testified at the trial that Lawler had talked about having an extreme dislike of police, court records said. He also said that if they ever tried to enter his home he would be ready for them.

On Tuesday, Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Lawler’s request for clemency. His attorneys said Lawler had lately been diagnosed with autism. Moreover, they claimed that the disorder had prevented him from rationalizing the murder to jurors.

The petition requested to have Lawler’s sentence commuted to life in prison without parole.

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Has Donald Trump just lost the Presidential Election live on national TV?

Donald Trump may have made a huge blunder in his final head-to-head showdown with Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton tonight.

In a 90 minute live debate in Los Angeles, he refused to state whether he would accept the result of the election if it went against him.

And with his attitudes towards women in the spotlight, it may not have helped his image with the voters when he interrupted Clinton to say: “Such a nasty woman.”

Trump’s claim that he election has been rigged against him is set to be one of the major talking points of this debate.

Corrupt

He blamed the US media for being “corrupt and dishonest” and accused them of “trying to poison the minds of the voters” against him.

Hillary Clinton responded: “Every time something goes against him, he says that everything is rigged against him. This is how Donald thinks, it is funny but it is also very troubling.”

When debate moderator Chris Wallace asked the Republican nominee: “Will you absolutely accept the result of the election? Trump replied: “I will look at it at the time; I am not looking at anything now. I will look at it at the time.”

One commentator said immediately after the debate: “This is not the rhetoric of someone who thinks they are going to win – it sounds like the words of someone who thinks they have lost already.”

Tonight’s debate started off slowly with it taking about 30 minutes for both Clinton and Trump to hit their stride.

Insults

At that point it changed dramatically and got really personal with both candidates trading verbal blows and insults with each other for the remaining hour.

They clashed on immigration.

Trump: “We need to build a wall (between the US and Mexico.) We have some bad, bad hombres here and we have to get them out.

“Drugs are pouring in through the border. We have no country if we have no borders.”

Clinton: “We should bring undocumented immigrants out from the shadows because putting them into the formal economy will be good because employers can’t exploit them and undercut Americans wages.

Respect

“Donald has used undocumented labor to build the Trump Tower. He underpaid undocumented workers and when they complained, he basically said what a lot of employers do – you complain I’ll get you deported.”

They cashed on Trumps views on woman.

Clinton: “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity and self-worth – that’s who Donald is.”

Trump: “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”

And they spent a lot of time just trading insults. These two examples are typical of many insults which were exchanged during the debate.

Problem

Trump: “Hillary Clinton never gets anything done. The problem is you talk, but you don’t get anything done, Hillary, you don’t.”

Clinton: “On the day when I was in the situation room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting the Celebrity Apprentice.”

Trump closed the debate by saying he wanted to make America great again.

He said: “We don’t take care of our veterans. We take care of illegal immigrants, people that come into the country illegally, better than we take care of our vets. That can’t happen.

“I will do more for African-Americans and Latinos than she can ever do in ten lifetimes. All she’s done is talk to the African-Americans and to the Latinos. We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama. And that’s what you get when you get her.”

Clinton closed by saying she was reaching out to all Americans, whether they be Democrats, Republicans or independents.

Privileged

She said: “We need everybody to help make our country what it should be, to grow the economy, to make it fairer, to make it work for everyone.

“I’ve been privileged to see the presidency up close and I know the awesome responsibility of protecting our country and the incredible opportunity of working to try to make life better for all of you.

“I will do everything that I can to make sure that you have good jobs with rising incomes, that your kids have good educations from preschool through college.”

 

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