Xi is not a friend anymore, remarks Donald Trump, and Iran says America stands isolated as it tries to ‘violate international laws’.
What each side said: how the Kavanaugh inquiry unfolded
In a highly sensitive court proceeding at the US Senate Thursday, California-based psychology professor Dr Christine Blasey Ford accused President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually harassing her when they were in high school in 1982.
The allegations come at a time when Kavanaugh is likely to earn the position of an associate judge in the top court.
“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school,” Ford said.
During the eight-hour long hearing, Ford’s version of the story remained constant. Kavanaugh, on the other hand, denied all allegations, calling the confirmation process “a national disgrace,” New York Times says.
A teary-eyed Kavanaugh denied that he had never sexually assaulted someone and called the accusations a “frenzy”, aimed at destroying his nomination. “The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy”, he remarked.
Supporting Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump tweeted right after the hearing adjourned, “Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him.”
The event that was first brought to attention by the The Washington Post on 16 September 2018, soon became an issue of national as-well-as global interest.
Xi Jinping is not a friend anymore, says Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the ongoing trade war between the US and China has left an impact on his friendship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, reports The Washington Examiner.
During a press conference at the UN General Assembly in New York Wednesday, Trump said, “Maybe he’s not my friend anymore; I’ll be honest with you. I think we had a very good friendship”.
The US-China trade war has escalated with two sides slapping volleys of tariffs against each other in retaliation. Trump has also accused China of meddling in the 2018 elections.
“They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade,” Trump said earlier Wednesday.
He also stressed that he has no personal grudge for Xi or the Chinese people. “They’re having big problems,” he said during the press briefing. “I don’t want them to have problems, but they’ve got to make a fair deal”.
He even said that he has a good chemistry with Xi.
America is alone, says Iran
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that the US stands isolated as it attempts to violate international laws with a team of political and diplomatic ‘novices’ which is earning global disapproval, CNN reported.
“Today it became clear that America is alone,” President Rouhani said at the press conference in New York. Commenting on the highly controversial Iran nuclear deal, he said that Iran’s “intent is to ensure that the United States of America abides by laws and stops bullying, stops pressuring, maintains commitments… [and] adheres to the United Nations Security Council resolution” that oversees the deal.
Highlighting the stance of the European Union that is exploring prospects of establishing direct trade relations with Iran for oil imports, Rouhani said that his country is not isolated.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton had Tuesday warned that if Iran doesn’t change its behaviour it will “have hell to pay”. At the UN Assembly Tuesday, President Trump urged “all nations to isolate Iran’s regime” and warned that “any individual or entity that fails to comply will face severe consequences,” CNN added.
Facebook’s top executive calls co-founder of Whatsapp ‘low class’
After the sudden exit of Instagram co-founders, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has criticised Facebook’s monetisation strategy for the app in an explosive interview to Forbes, The Verge reports.
Acton who quit Facebook a year ago, expressed regret for being a part of the deal, in the interview published Wednesday. “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day”, he said.
The interview has triggered a response from one of the Facebook’s high-level executives, David Marcus. In a Facebook post titled “The other side of the story” he said that the Forbes interview contained statements, and recollection of events that differ greatly from the reality he witnessed first-hand.
“I find attacking the people and company that made you a billionaire, and went to an unprecedented extent to shield and accommodate you for years, low-class. It’s actually a whole new standard of low-class”, Marcus further said in his post.
Donald Trump’s press conference was all about himself
US President Donald Trump held a press conference Wednesday and stuck to his favourite subject: himself, a CNN op-ed says.
On the eve of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s hearing, Trump kept himself at the centre of every question thrown at him.
When asked about his opinion of Kavanaugh’s case, Trump remarked that he was also accused by five to six women of sexual harassment. A CNN fact-check reveals that he was accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women whom Trump had threatened to sue in 2016, during his presidential nominations. However, he has taken no actions since then.
Replying to questions regarding US relations with North Korea, Trump said that countries would be at war right now, had he not been the president.
Trump even misquoted his share of women’s votes by confusing it with the share of white women’s votes in the 2016 elections.
To finish, when questioned about the impact of tariffs on farmer, he replied that farmers loved him.
World leaders laughed at Trump because they love his honesty, says Nikki Haley
US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, Wednesday said that President Donald Trump drew laughs by the world leaders in response to his speech at the UN General Assembly only because of his honesty, reports USA Today.
Trump began his speech at the UN Monday by saying his administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.
When his comment drew laughter from the world leaders, Trump said,”I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay.”
“They love that he’s honest with them and they’ve never seen anything like it, so there’s respect there,” she said on the Fox news.
Uber is paying $148 million penalty for data breach
Taxi hailing app Uber is paying $148 million as penalty to settle a legal action over a cyber-attack that had exposed data of 57 million customers and drivers in 2016, BBC reported.
At that time, Uber had decided to hide the breach from regulators and paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the data they attained from the company’s cloud servers.
The $148 million penalty comes as a settlement for Uber’s failure to produce the lost data to the US government and 50 states who sought legal action against the company.
Now, along with paying the penalty, the ride-hailing firm has also pledged to change its modes of operations and initiate preventive actions to avoid such incidents in future.