Kaepernick will showcase his skills to NFL teams this afternoon

Colin Kaepernick will finally get a chance Saturday to show his stuff again to NFL teams — after nearly a three-year wait.

On a practice field near Atlanta, the 32-year-old free agent quarterback will have about two hours to demonstrate his skills.

At least 11 teams will send personnel to watch the league-arranged workout at the Atlanta Falcons' practice facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia, the NFL said Thursday. Other teams can review the workout on video the NFL will provide.

As of Thursday, the teams that said they were sending personnel were Arizona, Atlanta, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Miami, New England, New York Giants, New York Jets, Tampa Bay and Washington, the NFL said.

The closed session will begin at 3 p.m. ET, a source with direct knowledge told CNN. The timeline:

• Interview, 3:15 p.m.

• Measurements, stretching and warmups

• Timing and testing, 3:50 p.m. That include sprints and a strength test

• Quarterback drills, 4:15 p.m.

The NFL said former coach Hue Jackson will lead the workout.

Of the teams committed to the workout and interview session, most, and probably all, will send directors of player personnel and scouts who rate NFL players. Those are the people who would typically evaluate a back-up player — in this case a second- or third-string quarterback.

Kaepernick, who claimed the NFL and its teams colluded to keep him from playing following his refusal to stand during the National Anthem, tweeted Tuesday he's ready.

"I've been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can't wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday."

 

NFL told teams about work out Tuesday

The NFL sent a memo Tuesday about the workout for the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback to its 32 teams, ESPN first reported.

The event will be closed to media.

According to another source, several NFL teams inquired about the athlete-turned-activist's "football readiness" and desire to return to the league.

Kaepernick hasn't played in the league since the 2016 season — the same season he first sat during the playing of the anthem. The protest evolved into kneeling after onetime Seattle Seahawk and Green Beret Nate Boyer convinced Kaepernick it would be more respectful to the nation's military, the quarterback has said.

 

Kaepernick said he did so to protest police shootings of African American men and other social injustices faced by black people in the United States.

Kaepernick became a free agent in 2017. No team offered him a contract, and that October, he filed a grievance against the league, accusing team owners of colluding to keep him from being signed. The NFL denied any collusion. Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid, who knelt with Kaepernick, settled their cases.

Earlier this year, Kaepernick posted videos of himself on Twitter, taking part in weight training and throwing footballs.

 

Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl, played his last game on January 1, 2017, in the 49ers' loss to the Seattle Seahawks. During that season, in which the 49ers were 2-14, Kaepernick threw 16 touchdowns and had four interceptions. He rushed for 468 yards on 69 attempts.

He opted out of his contract after the season and has been a free agent since.

CNN's Wayn

 

source : https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/nfl-colin-kaepernick-workout/index.html

 

 

Pentagon's Esper says crucial South Korea pay more for U.S. troops

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pressed South Korea on Friday to pay more for the cost of stationing U.S. troops in the country and to maintain an intelligence-sharing pact with its other Asian ally Japan that Seoul is about to let lapse.

 

Speaking after a high-level defense policy meeting with his South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeong-doo, Esper also said the two countries have to be flexible with their joint military drills to support ongoing diplomatic efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear program.

But he stopped short of announcing any changes to exercises next month that North Korea has sharply condemned.

North Korea said on Thursday it had turned down a U.S. offer for fresh talks ahead of a year-end deadline Pyongyang has set for Washington to show more flexibility in negotiations.

The United States and South Korea are scrambling to clinch an agreement in the coming weeks to cover next year’s costs of maintaining the 28,500-strong U.S. military presence aimed at deterring North Korea.

 

South Korea, Esper said, “is a wealthy country and could and should pay more” for the deployment of U.S. military in the South.

“It is crucial that we conclude the (defense pact) ... with increased burden sharing by the Republic of Korea before the end of the year,” Esper told a news conference.

Jeong said he and Esper shared the view that the cost-sharing pact now being negotiated should be fair and mutually agreeable, but it was unclear if they shared any sense of what a fair amount might be.

A South Korean lawmaker said last week that U.S. officials demanded up to $5 billion a year, more than five times what Seoul agreed to pay this year under a one-year deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence Seoul take on a greater contribution as deterrence against North Korea has rattled South Korea. It could also set a precedent for upcoming U.S. negotiations on defense cost-sharing with other allies.

 

Jeong said he and Esper discussed personal views on South Korea’s decision to end an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, called GSOMIA, and that both governments will put in realistic effort to narrow differences before the pact expires on November 23.

Relations between the two neighbors have plunged after South Korea’s top court last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate some wartime forced laborers, and Japan curbed exports of key industrial materials to South Korea in July.

 

source : reuters

 

 

Brrrrr! Polar blast heading for Spain

An icy blast is heading for Spain sending temperatures plummeting towards the end of this week, and snow in areas above 700metres.

It’s time to pull out the winter coat, wrap up in hats and scarves, and discover the joys of Spanish hearty stews as winter truly gets under way.

A large low pressure weather system will sweep across the peninsular to bringing strong winds, nightly frosts and precipitation which could be snow for those in the hills.

Ruben del Campo, spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) warned that full on winter will return from Thursday and that by Sunday, temperatures will be between 4C and 10C lower than is typical for mid-November.

#AEMETinforma📣
Aviso especial por #FMA. Temporal marítimo🌊 y precipitaciones🌧️🌨️ fuertes y persistentes. El jueves recorrerá la Península un frente frío que dará paso a una masa de aire frío e inestable🥶🌬️❄️☃️
👉https://t.co/95W3KAVrVz pic.twitter.com/a1SyLDFfuc

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) November 12, 2019

“Thursday will see storms that mark the arrival of a cold front bringing wind and adverse weather,” he said. “Temperatures will continue to drop on Friday and into the weekend.

⚠️Una masa de aire frío llegará a nuestro país a partir del jueves. Las consecuencias:
- Lluvia. 🌧️
- Nieve (no solo en las montañas) ⛄️
- Viento. 🌬️
- Frío. ❄️
En este #VídeoAEMET te contamos los detalles.👇 pic.twitter.com/wg7nCym48I

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) November 12, 2019

The north of the peninsular will see maritime storms as wind whips up the seas with heavy precipitation expected in Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria and the northern parts of Castille-Leon and heavy snowfall of up to 30cm in mountainous parts.

He predicted that rain would be seen across the peninsula, with the exception of Almeria, Murcia and the Valencia regions.

He warned that Friday would see wintry temperatures. “A good part of the country will see highs that are 10C lower than typical for this time of year. There will be widespread frosts across the plateaus and mountain areas and strong winds.”

 

source : https://www.thelocal.es/20191112/icy-blast-heads-for-spain

A protester was shot, and a man set on fire, in a violent day for Hong Kong’s protests

A police officer shot a Hong Kong protester Monday morning, setting off a wave of violent confrontations in the territory where pro-democracy demonstrations have raged for nearly six months.

Protesters on Monday had planned for a city-wide strike — intended to bring the city to a standstill — in response to the death of a protester, who fell from a parking garage last week and died. Demonstrators have blamed the police for the 22-year-old’s death, as officers were firing tear gas in the area, though the circumstances are still a bit murky.

That tragedy was a harbinger of the violence in Hong Kong on Monday, including the shooting of a 21-year-old protester by a police officer. The incident, which was filmed by a Hong Kong-based production company called Cupid Producers, showed a police officer grabbing one protester in an intersection and then brandishing his gun and firing at a different man wearing black, his face obscured by a scarf. In the video (warning: graphic footage), the victim tumbles to the street, and the officer appears to fire a few more shots, based on the audio — though it’s not clear in what direction, as the footage gets shaky.

The protester is currently in critical condition, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

Huge crowd chanting and flipping off police in the heart of Hong Kong's business district. Seconds after this, they fired tear gas. pic.twitter.com/0RtOSWDj9d

— Ben Westcott (@Ben_Westcott) November 11, 2019

The shooting of the protester is likely to intensify the unrest in Hong Kong, which is entering its 24th week of sustained demonstrations. The protests began in June over a controversial extradition bill that’s since been withdrawn, but the uprising has continued as activists demand accountability for what they see as police abuses during the weeks-long protests and continue to fight to preserve and expand democracy in Hong Kong and resist the influence of China. Hong Kong, a former British colony, has its own government and judiciary under the “one country, two systems” rule, though pro-democracy advocates say China is trying to circumvent this.

 

 

Monday was also not the first time that a Hong Kong police officer has fired at protesters. But the scene, captured on video, is likely to galvanize the movement that already views the police as overstepping their authority.

In a separate area of Hong Kong, a man was set on fire after getting into a confrontation with protesters, also on Monday. A protester dressed in black doused him in a liquid and then put a light to the man, who was then engulfed in flames. The man is also in critical condition, according to the Guardian.

These two disturbing incidents fueled increasingly tense protests across the territory on Monday afternoon — and showed just how volatile relations are in the city between pro-democracy activists and those opposed to the movement.

Demonstrators descended on streets Monday, including in Hong Kong’s central business district, to the police, who responded with tear gas at the crowds. Protesters vandalized transit stops and buses and businesses seen as pro-Beijing. A police officer was captured on video riding a motorcycle and clipping protesters on an otherwise deserted road. (Officials say he’s been suspended.) At least 60 people were injured in Monday’s turmoil.

When will Hong Kong’s protests hit a breaking point?

The unspooling violence puts Hong Kong in uncertain terrain, as China grows increasingly impatient with the unrest, and distrust between the protesters and the Hong Kong authorities has become toxic.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam — whom protesters see as aligned with Beijing — condemned the violence on Monday, saying that demonstrators were “destroying society.”

“If there is still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence the government will yield to pressure,” Lam said, according to the Guardian, “I am making this clear and loud here. That will not happen.”

But the political crisis in Hong Kong is becoming more untenable. Aggressive police tactics have inflamed the protesters, which has only escalated the brutality on both sides. Though the government rescinded the extradition bill, it’s continued to ignore the other protest demands, including an independent investigation into the police and the chance to elect the city-state’s leaders without input or meddling from Beijing.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has given his backing to Lam, who was Beijing’s preferred candidate in the last election. But Chinese officials are also urging Hong Kong’s government to impose stricter security laws to curb the unrest — although that could just as likely ignite even more furious protests.

“The need to safeguard national security and strengthen law enforcement have become prominent issues and urgent tasks facing the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and people from all walks of life,” Zhang Xiaoming, the Chinese government official who runs the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said this weekend, before Monday’s protests.

Many Hongkongers are looking toward November 24, when Hong Kong is holding its district council elections. Hong Kong has 18 district councils, representing 452 separate constituencies. These elections are semi-democratic; the chief executive can appoint a certain number of people to the councils, but the rest of the seats are up for a vote. This year, pro-democracy lawmakers are going all out to try to contest almost every seat they can that’s held by a pro-Beijing lawmaker.

But given the backdrop of the chaos in Hong Kong, it’s unclear if these elections will go smoothly — or even happen.

Last week, Hong Kong authorities arrested seven pro-democracy lawmakers, accusing them of obstructing the debate over the now-withdrawn extradition bill months ago. The pro-democracy advocate argued their arrests were an attempt to put a chilling effect on the local elections, where pro-democracy lawmakers are expected to win big. The Hong Kong government denied that they were doing anything other than upholding the law.

But some fear that the Hong Kong government might cancel or postpone the elections, citing the violence in the city. And there has been violence against lawmakers seen as sympathetic to Beijing; one pro-Beijing lawmaker was stabbed on the campaign trail last week by an opponent posing as a supporter.

There are still two weeks to go until that vote. As the date approaches, the volatility and anger in Hong Kong has only become more palpable and unpredictable, and the divisions seemingly more intractable than ever.

 

source : vox

 

'Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall': Reagan Statue Unveiled in Berlin at Cold War Speech Site

BERLIN (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in Berlin unveiled a statue of Ronald Reagan on Friday at a site overlooking the location of the former president's iconic speech imploring the Soviet Union to remove the Berlin Wall.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the inauguration of the work a "monumental moment" before helping remove the cover from the larger-than-life statue on the Embassy's terrace, at eye-level with the top of the landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Pompeo was winding up a two-day trip to multiple cities and towns for commemorations.

 

The gate, which was just on the East German side of the Wall, was the backdrop for Reagan's 1987 speech in which he challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to go further with the reforms he was instituting.

Reagan implored him: "If you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Pompeo praised Reagan for his bold defense of freedom, telling a gathering of politicians, diplomats, donors, and others that the former president "courageously denounced the greatest threat to that freedom, the Soviet Empire, the Evil Empire."

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas drew domestic and international flak recently for failing to mention Reagan - or any other American - in an op-ed published in 26 European newspapers focused on the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of communism.

"Dear Minister Maas, on behalf of the late President Reagan, whom you don't mention, and the millions of American Soldiers who served in West Germany along with your other NATO Allies, you're welcome," former U.S. Army Europe commander, retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, wrote on Twitter.

Maas sought to defuse the criticism Thursday at an event with Pompeo, saying "we owe you our freedom and unity to a decisive degree," while singling out contributions from Reagan and former President George H.W. Bush.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell earlier this year opened a multimedia exhibit on the same terrace focusing on Reagan's Brandenburg Gate speech, and said the statue was a tribute to a president whose "willingness to defend people seeking greater freedom around the world remains an inspiration today to Germans, Americans and every human being."

"As a Californian, I'm personally proud to have our former governor and president of the United States standing atop the Embassy, reminding visitors of America's commitment to democracy and freedom," he told The Associated Press.

Several American presidents visited Berlin during the Cold War to express their solidarity with those in the democratic West of the city that was divided by the Wall from Aug. 13, 1961, to Nov. 9, 1989.

Perhaps the best-known speech delivered by an American president came in 1963 when John F. Kennedy appeared at West Berlin's city hall.

He told the thousands gathered: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

Today a plaque marks that location and the square have been renamed "John F. Kennedy Platz."

The site of the Reagan speech is marked with an information sign. The lawmaker who heads the state committee in charge of memorials in Berlin, Sabine Bangert, rejected the suggestion that Reagan had somehow been given short shrift.

"The contributions of U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to Berlin as well as to German unity are well known in Berlin," she told the AP.

"Kennedy's ... 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech and Ronald Reagan's memorable Berlin sentence from 1987, 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall,' as well as Barack Obama's speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 2016, are in all of our memories."

 

source : cbn

 

Children as young as 12 being strip searched by police in Australia

Children as young as 12 are being strip searched by police in Australia.

New figures show more than 120 girls in New South Wales have been told to remove their clothes by officers in the past three years.

At 17, one woman was forced to remove her shirt on a public street by officers. They found nothing, yet the incident continues to haunt her five years on.

"I'm still standing there, middle of the street, no shirt on in front of school friends, other friends, family - anyone that can walk past," she recalled.

"It makes me extremely uncomfortable because I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone else. I have felt so uncomfortable, I didn't even tell my parents."

In three years, 122 girls under the age of 17 were strip searched by police.

The youngest were two 12-year-olds, while eight 13-year-olds were also searched.

"In two-thirds of these strip searches, nothing was found on the young women, which means these strip searches were completely unnecessary," Redfern Legal Centre's Samantha Lee said.

The law states that police don't need parents’ consent, either, if it's deemed necessary for a child's safety or to prevent the destruction of evidence.

Police Minister David Elliott is refusing to back down, pointing to children as young as 10 being involved in terrorism.

"I've got young children and if I thought that the police felt they were at risk of doing something wrong, I'd want them strip searched," he said.

However, Greens MP David Shoebridge said it wasn't good enough.

"No child should be pulled off the street by uniformed police, taken to a secret location and then strip searched," Mr Shoebridge said. "That is about as close as you get to state-sanctioned sexual assault and it should not be happening."

While some Australians want at least a warrant to be required for a strip search to be carried out, others are pushing for the practice to be done away with completely.

 

source : tvnz

 

Smart Cities Are Creating a Mass Surveillance Nightmare

With a chip that can track your every move, New York’s city-issued ID cards are about to take a seriously dystopian turn.

More than a million New Yorkers could soon willingly agree to carry a government-issued tracking device, whether they realize it or not.

That’s the proposal from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who having recently returned from the cornfield-dotted campaign trail in Iowa, is setting his sights on transforming New York City into something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel. But some critics are urging caution about the move.

The fuss is about a tiny RFID chip that the mayor wants to embed into each and every municipal ID card for New York residents as part of the “IDNYC” program.

The latest proposal might seem modest, but the reality is that it potentially puts hundreds of thousands of us at greater risk of identity theft, stalking, and (for undocumented New Yorkers) deportation. And sadly it’s part of the global trend towards so-called “smart cities”—a series of high-tech undertakings that claim to improve municipal efficiency at the modest price of stripping us of our privacy and autonomy.

It’d be a dubious trade-off if the technology delivered, but increasingly we see that these systems take more than we feared while delivering far less than we were promised.

Smart cities proponents claim that by integrating the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and networks of sensors that we can make our children smarter, our commutes faster, and even save lives. The outlandish claims don’t end there. Smart cities are heralded as the solution to everything from the opioid crisis to de facto school segregation. Perhaps the most outlandish claim yet is that knock-off RoboCops will even prevent crimes before they even happen.

The movement is only in its infancy, but smart city programs already include every municipal service from schools, to hospitals, to sanitation, to law enforcement. And those outside major cities aren’t exempt either. Increasingly, towns big and small are being taken in by the promise of a data-driven society.

MORE DATA, MORE PROBLEMS

The privacy risk is hard to overstate. Government agencies will have increasing amounts of extremely sensitive data about our health, our children’s school performance, and where we spend our free time. Go to the bar? The smart city knows. Go to a protest? It probably knows that too. And so will anyone who hacks in.

Hacking isn’t some theoretical risk, it’s already happened. As early as 2014, security researchers starting raising the alarm that critical city systems were unencrypted and completely vulnerable to attack.  That same year, the Department of Homeland Security admitted that hackers had broken into a public utility by simply guessing the password.

More recently, we’ve seen entire cities held hostage by hackers. Both Baltimore and Atlantasaw large swaths of their governments grind to a halt when attackers used ransomware to encrypt government computer systems, demanding a large payment in exchange for the key. Residents lost access to everything from online bill payments, to deed transfers and even court scheduling. In the case of Baltimore, not only was the city out of action for weeks by the attack, but crucial data was permanently lost.

Disturbingly for those whose health and financial data is held in these systems, hackers can just as easily post what they find in public. As The Wall Street Journal recently noted: “The more connected a city is, the more vulnerable it is to cyberattacks.” Even with the best security protections, cities can’t eliminate the threat—not as long as we continue to collect the data.

Sadly, for many smart city projects, privacy protections are not just an unwanted expense, but an existential threat. After all, even though these systems are sold with the promise of promoting government efficiency, the true product is often the public itself and all our data. Ventures like Firefly and LinkNYC use public location data to do what so many tech ventures have done: better target their ads. Smart cities create a captive, highly segmented audience ready to be told what they need to buy.

But the dangers don’t end with the exploitation of surveillance capitalism. As these systems are increasingly integrated into city services, we run the risk of automating age-old biases and further discriminating against marginalized communities. Some of the most visible examples to date have stemmed from the use of racially-biased facial recognition in law enforcement and racially or socioeconomically biased algorithms in child risk assessments. The risks likely go even further than what we can imagine now.

Rather than accept the New York’s new chip proposal, advocates are speaking out, and now the New York City Council is considering a bill that would outlaw this type of feature. If the bill passes, it will be a milestone in the backlash against smart cities and a clear signal we need to slow down and think more clearly about implementation before accidentally rushing into a dystopian future we can’t come back from.

 

source : https://patriotrising.com/smart-cities-are-creating-a-mass-surveillance-nightmare/

Drake is going into business with a Canadian cannabis firm

San Francisco (CNN Business)Cannabis, so hot right now.

The burgeoning North American cannabis industry — and, notably, the booming hemp-derived CBD sector — has become a red-carpet-like affair with celebrities and athletes signing on to pitch one brand or another.

On Thursday, Aubrey Drake Graham, best known as hip-hop artist Drake, partnered with Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth to launch the More Life Growth Company cannabis producer in Graham's hometown of Toronto.

Drake joins a surging wave of celebrities who have aligned themselves with the cannabis industry by selling products, joining corporate boards, or, in this case, creating a joint venture business.

 

With a list that already includes Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Montel Williams, Rob Gronkowski, Martha Stewart, Tony Hawk, Gweneth Paltrow, and Whoopi Goldberg, the question becomes: Have we reached peak celebrity cannabis?

"I don't think they've reached full saturation yet," said Ryan McConnell, senior vice president at Kantar Futures, a business insight and brand consulting firm.

Celebrity endorsements and partnerships are a way to help lend credibility and trust to a business, he said. And for an emerging — and somewhat illicit — industry, that can be huge.

"[Cannabis] is a field that is not, in some people's eyes, legitimate yet," he said. "It still has that veneer of being illegal."

But not all celebrity tie-ups are created equal. People are attracted to brands that are real and authentic, said Diana Eberlein, an entertainment marketing specialist.

"If it feels inauthentic, they will lose that audience very quickly," said Eberlein, who now heads up marketing efforts at SoRSE, a company that helps make cannabis oil water soluble. SoRSE worked with Mad Tasty, a brand of hemp sparkling waters launched by OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder.

Canopy Growth's other celebrity partnerships have struck that chord well, she said. It made perfect sense that Snoop Dogg, actor Seth Rogen and even Snoop's pal Martha Stewart were venturing into the cannabis industry.

Drake, while hugely popular, doesn't garner that immediate association with cannabis, she said.

"But Drake is such a big name," she said. "So, it really depends on how he drives the brand moving forward."

Drake's arrangement with Canopy Growth does stand apart from most of the celebrity cannabis deals, which are mostly endorsements, minority investments or advisory roles. Drake is the majority owner of a company that has a license from Health Canada, which oversees the nation's regulated cannabis market.

Under the agreement, Drake will own 60% of More Life Growth Company while Canopy Growth will retain the other 40% and have the ability to "exclusively exploit certain intellectual property" in Canada and internationally.

For Canopy Growth, which has become a bit of a poster child for the publicly traded cannabis companies in operational and financial flux, the deal underwhelmed at least one analyst who follows the company.

"We take a relatively dim view of the venture's Canadian prospects in justifying the implied value ceded by Canopy," Andrew Carter, an analyst with brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel, said in a research note on Thursday. "Canadian cannabis brand development is difficult with restrictions specifically prohibiting utilizing celebrity names, and we believe Canopy is ceding a cash flow positive asset."

When viewing the deal long-term, however, it could play out well for Canopy.

"But, we believe Canopy is creating another option to enhance its positioning for the US," Carter wrote. "Canopy's continued investment towards the larger global opportunity is a differentiating factor versus peers pursuing actions to ensure viability."

 

source : cnn

Trump OKs wider Syria oil mission, raising legal questions

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.

The decision, coming after a meeting Friday between Trump and his defense leaders, locks hundreds of U.S. troops into a more complicated presence in Syria, despite the president’s vow to get America out of the war. Under the new plan, troops would protect a large swath of land controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters that stretches nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) from Deir el-Zour to al-Hassakeh, but its exact size is still being determined.

 

Officials said many details still have to be worked out. But, Trump’s decision hands commanders a victory in their push to remain in the country to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group, counter Iran and partner with the Kurds, who battled IS alongside the U.S. for several years. But it also forces lawyers in the Pentagon to craft orders for the troops that could see them firing on Syrian government or Russian fighters trying to take back oil facilities that sit within the sovereign nation of Syria.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump’s order also slams the door on any suggestion that the bulk of the more than 1,200 U.S. troops that have been in Syria will be coming home any time soon, as he has repeatedly promised.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, called the mission misguided.

“Risking the lives of our troops to guard oil rigs in eastern Syria is not only reckless, it’s not legally authorized,” Kaine told The Associated Press. “President Trump betrayed our Kurdish allies that have fought alongside American soldiers in the fight to secure a future without ISIS - and instead moved our troops to protect oil rigs.”

The Pentagon will not say how many forces will remain in Syria for the new mission. Other officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations, suggest the total number could be at least 800 troops, including the roughly 200 who are at the al-Tanf garrison in southern Syria.

According to officials, lawyers are trying to hammer out details of the military order, which would make clear how far troops will be able to go to keep the oil in the Kurds’ control.

The legal authority for U.S. troops going into Syria to fight Islamic State militants was based on the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force that said U.S. troops can use all necessary force against those involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on America and to prevent any future acts of international terrorism. So, legal experts say the U.S. may have grounds to use the AUMF to prevent the oil from falling into IS hands.

 

But protecting the oil from Syria government forces or other entities may be harder to defend.

“The U.S. is not at war with either Syria or Turkey, making the use of the AUMF a stretch,” said Stephen Vladeck, a national security law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

He added that while the U.S. Constitution bestows significant war powers on the president, those are generally meant to be about self-defense and for the collective defense of the country. Arguing that securing the oil is necessary for national security “just strikes me as a bridge too far,” he said.

Members of Congress, including Kaine, have also raised objections to the Trump administration using the AUMF as a basis for war against a sovereign government. That type of action, he and others have argued, required approval by Congress.

U.S. officials said the order approved by Trump does not include any mandate for the U.S. to take Syria’s oil. Trump has said multiple times that the U.S. is “keeping the oil.” But the White House and the Pentagon have so far been unable to explain what he means by that. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday he “interprets” Trump’s remarks to mean the military should deny IS access to the oil fields.

There were already a couple hundred U.S. troops around Deir el-Zour, and additional forces with armored vehicles, including Bradley infantry carriers, have begun moving in. Officials have said the total force there could grow to about 500.

Trump, Esper and other defense leaders have said it’s important to protect the oil so that Islamic State militants can’t regain control of the area and use the revenues to finance their operations.

Currently, the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces have controlled the oil, supported by a small contingent of U.S. troops. A quiet arrangement has existed between the Kurds and the Syrian government, whereby Damascus buys the surplus through middlemen in a smuggling operation that has continued despite political differences. The Kurdish-led administration sells crude oil to private refiners, who use primitive homemade refineries to process fuel and diesel and sell it back to the administration.

It’s unclear how long that agreement may continue. And if some dispute arises, U.S. troops must have clear guidance on how to respond.

U.S. forces can use military force to protect themselves. But the oil fields are expansive, and troops can’t be everywhere. If, for example, Syrian government troops try to retake a portion of an oil facility and U.S. troops are not nearby, it’s unclear now how much force they could use if they aren’t acting in self-defense.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Robert Burns contributed to this report.

 

source : apnews

Microsoft has been trying to beat the iPad for a decade, and the Surface Pro X is close

Microsoft’s Surface Pro X is the company’s latest attempt to sell a computer that runs on an Arm-designed chip like the iPad and most cellphones, instead of the Intel-designed processor akin to the ones that have run most Windows personal computers since the very earliest days of personal computing.

The idea is that this computer, which runs on a custom Microsoft SQ1 chip, built in partnership with Qualcomm, can deliver a really thin design with no fans, long battery life and cellular connectivity, while also running most of the traditional Windows apps people need. I’ve been testing it for the past several days.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, that’s because Microsoft has tried this same strategy before, first with the Surface RT computer in 2012 and again through a partnership with Nokia in 2013. Last year, I reviewed one of the first modern Windows on Arm computers built by HP and found that it still lagged behind Intel machines.

Microsoft has made some improvements in the Surface Pro X, but it’s not quite fulfilling all of Microsoft’s promises.

Since it doesn’t run on a traditional Intel or Intel-compatible ARM processor, some of the apps you might rely on for work may not work. Because of that, and the $999 starting cost without the $139.99 keyboard, I don’t expect this to fly off store shelves.

Still, it’s the best attempt yet at a new kind of Windows computer. And it’s got a nicer design than the Surface Pro 7, which still uses an Intel chip.

I love the design of the Surface Pro X and wish Microsoft used the same big display with narrow edges on the new Intel-powered Surface Pro 7.

The screen is big, bright and sharp. The speakers are great. The form factor is similar to the Surface Pro 7, too, with an optional keyboard (it costs $269.99 with the optional Surface Pro Pen or $139.99 without it) that attaches to the bottom and allows the tablet to double as a full laptop.

This year, Microsoft hid the new Surface Pen inside the top

of the keyboard in a tiny pocket where it charges. It’s a bit of genius, since this little area also makes it hard to lose the pen in a bag.

The device is thinner than the Surface Pro 7 but has a similar kickstand that pops out from the back to help keep it sturdy.

 

A small panel in the back opens up allowing you to swap in more storage or pop in a SIM card. I added a T-Mobile SIM and had cellular connectivity in just seconds, something that you can’t do with almost any other computer on the market. This lets you connect to the internet when you don’t have Wi-Fi.

Microsoft’s Windows Hello, a facial recognition system that lets you unlock the computer, continues to impress me. The camera identifies my face and unlocks the computer right when I sit down, almost instantly, similar to how I unlock my iPhone and iPad. It means you don’t need to spend time typing in a long password.

I also love that it charges fully in just an hour — my MacBook Air takes about 3 hours to charge. And, if you want, you can use a USB-C charger instead of the included power brick, which is convenient for people like me who want to carry a single charger for multiple devices.

OK, so the elephant in the room: Windows 10 on Arm. I’ve been a big critic of this approach in the past, since I really don’t like having to think about whether an app is going to work on my computer or not. But, Microsoft has done a good job adding support for older apps. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting there.

 

I was able to download and run most of what I use regularly. Spotify and Netflix are in the Windows Store (though those usually work just fine in a browser anyway). The Google Chrome browser downloaded and worked flawlessly. Microsoft Office is, of course, available. I even tried running a game from 1997 called Ultima Online that wasn’t designed to work on an Arm-based computer. Microsoft, in this case, runs those older apps (technically called 32-bit x86 apps) in an emulator. It’s seamless, and you don’t even realize they weren’t supposed to run on this machine.

Some apps you might need for work or school still don’t work yet, however. Let’s talk a bit about that.

 

Windows 10 on Arm generally looks and feels like Windows 10 on any other computer. But it isn’t the same as the regular version of Windows 10 that most apps were designed to run on.

That means you might run into trouble, as I did, if you need a specific app for corporate VPN access. The app I needed didn’t run on the Surface Pro X. You should make sure your school or office will let you connect first.

Then there are other apps that just don’t work.

Adobe’s Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop, doesn’t run on the Surface Pro X. It might eventually, since Adobe just launched Photoshop on the iPad, but it’s not here yet. If you rely on specific 3D rendering, financial or video editing apps, you should make sure they’re supported before you buy the Surface Pro X.

 

There isn’t some single universal web site you can just go check to see if they’ll work, either. You just need to try installing them one by one to see if they fail. Or, you can try to teach yourself a bit about 32-bit x86 and 64-bit x64 compatibility and check to see if the apps you use will run on this machine by visiting each app’s website. In some cases you won’t find the information.

The problem here is most people buying a new computer assume it’s going to run every Windows app just fine. People considering the Surface Pro X need to know that’s simply not the case.

I also have a few quibbles with the design.

 

One of the big promises of using an Arm machine is all-day battery life. But the Surface Pro X didn’t seem to last any longer than my MacBook Air. After using it at my desk for a couple of hours with the screen at half-brightness, it dropped down to 86 percent battery life. That’s not really all-day battery. But it was able to idle without draining much, which is good if you’re worried about the battery draining while it’s in your bag.

The keyboard is just OK. It’s mushy when you press down on it and flexes a lot, which is expected on portable like this. I still prefer the sturdier feel of the one on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3. I like that the keyboard is backlit, though, and I like the large and clicky (albeit loud) glass trackpad, too.

Finally, the Surface Pro X’s kickstand is still terrible if you want to use the computer in your lap. I felt like I was constantly trying to balance it.

 

The Surface Pro X is a gorgeous computer that’s truly great to use. I love that it charges fast, connects to cellular networks anywhere I go, has a beautiful screen and generally works for pretty much everything I need, except my work VPN software.

But it’s hard to recommend because it’s so expensive and, if you buy one, you run the risk of not being able to run apps you might need for work or school. My review unit, for example, costs $1,499 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of hard drive space. Add in the keyboard and pencil and it costs $1,769.98 before tax. Even if you buy the entry-level $999 machine and just the keyboard, you’re spending $1,138.99.

Those are prices I can only stomach if I know they’ll work with everything.

The good news is that Microsoft is making far more progress than I thought on the Windows on Arm front. It seems developers are working to add support for this platform more than ever before. In 2012 the Surface RT was a mess because it couldn’t run apps most people needed. Seven years later, I’m finally understanding what Microsoft is trying to achieve.

As it continues to build on this idea, I expect more computers that cost less will start to hit the market. And then maybe we’ll start to see machines that fulfill the promise of all-day battery life, cellular connectivity and really thin designs at affordable price points. We’re just not there yet.

 

source : cnbc