A senior U.S. lawmaker wants details from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the safety of the cockpit alerting system for the Boeing 737 MAX — an issue at the heart of a dispute over two new variants of the best selling airplane.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell on Tuesday circulated a draft proposal that would extend the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 certification deadline and require retrofitting existing planes with safety enhancements, Reuters reported.

Cantwell told Reuters on Tuesday she had asked the FAA for additional information as she works to reach agreement on legislative language that would lift the deadline. “Safety should be the focus, not a date, safety,” she said.

Boeing is seeking an extension from Congress of a Dec. 27 deadline imposing a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia and led to the plane’s 20-month grounding.

A timely FAA response could help address concerns among some other lawmakers who oppose Boeing’s request, potentially opening the way for an extension to be granted following months of discussions.

In a previously unreported Nov. 23 letter to the FAA seen by Reuters, Cantwell sought additional information on its certification of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet and compliance with the crew alerting requirements” by Dec. 5.

After Dec. 27, all planes must have modern cockpit alerting systems to be certified by the FAA, which could put the two new MAX planes future in jeopardy.

Cantwell’s letter asked “to the extent FAA has identified safety deficiencies with 737 MAX’s flight crew alerting system, please describe FAA’s plans to immediately address these safety concerns.”

The FAA said it “was working on a response” to Cantwell’s letter.

Lawmakers are discussing whether to include the provision in the House version of an annual defense bill, sources told Reuters.

Relatives of those killed in the crashes vehemently oppose to waiving the alerting requirements.

“How many people have to die for Boeing to be required to follow the law and install safe, modern flight crew alerting in their aircraft?” Michael Stumo, whose daughter died in the Ethiopian Airlines MAX crash, asked on Wednesday.

Boeing declined to comment but has said it is safer to have one common cockpit alerting system for all versions of the 737.

Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen told reporters earlier this month he did not view either version of the MAX as better. “There is no safer,” Nolen said. “It’s safe or it’s not. If it is not safe, it should not be flying.”

Seditious conspiracy.

Well — Stewart Rhodes was found guilty.

Guilty of Seditious conspiracy.

I like the way those words sound. Congratulations to the Justice Department. This verdict is a vindication.

For MONTHS after the January 6 terrorist attack, we had to listen to all of the fake news and fake pundits saying stuff like this:

“Is it REALLY sedition?”

“This was not sedition.”

“Overreach.”

Well — I have a message for those pundits. That message is f### you.

It infuriated many to hear the dismissive tone these people used. It was so disparaging to everyone at the Capitol that day, particularly the brave Capitol police officers.

But now it is in the history books.

Seditious conspiracy. An incredibly difficult charge to prove. And yet they (The Justice Department) proved it.

Rhodes will be going away for a long time.

Co-defendant Kelly Meggs was also found guilty of the same charge.

Two little seditionists — on their way to prison.

And ALL five defendants were found guilty of obstruction. ALL five are looking at prison time.

This news is welcome and shows the strength of the cases against them. It also shows the competency of our Justice Department. It is the best news.

And while there will still be doubters (Maga will never believe anything the DOJ does), this is a pure vindication, and there is no other way of looking at it.

So thank you, Merrick Garland. Thank you to the brave attorneys who prosecuted the case.

Thank you to the jurors who found the truth and said so. And thank you again to the Capitol police who fought that day with their very souls. You will never be forgotten.

The post Down they go… appeared first on Palmer Report.

Chinese newspapers turned their front pages black on Thursday and flags were put at half mast in mourning for the death of former president Jiang Zemin, whose death has prompted a wave of nostalgia for the more liberal times he oversaw.

Jiang died in his home city of Shanghai just after noon on Wednesday of leukaemia and multiple organ failure. He was 96.

A date has yet to be set for his funeral.

The front page of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily devoted its whole front page to Jiang, and carried a large picture of him wearing his trademark “toad” glasses.

“Beloved comrade Jiang Zemin will never be forgotten,” it said in its headline, above a story republishing the official announcement of his death.

Flags flew at half mast on key government buildings and Chinese embassies abroad, while the home pages of e-commerce platforms Taobao and JD.com also turned black and white.

But foreign governments, political parties and “friendly personages” will not be invited to send delegations or representatives to China to attend the mourning activities, the official Xinhua news agency said.

At one of the largest foreign banks in China, employees have been asked to wear black in meetings with regulators, senior staff have been asked not to be photographed at parties and the bank has put marketing activities on hold for 10 days, a senior executive at the lender told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Jiang’s death comes at a tumultuous time in China, where authorities are grappling with rare widespread street protests among residents fed up with heavy-handed COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic.

China is also locked in an increasingly bad-tempered stand-off with the United States and its allies over everything from Chinese threats to democratically-governed Taiwan to trade and human rights issues.

While Jiang could have a fierce temper, his jocular side where he would sometimes sing for foreign dignitaries and joke around with them stand in marked contrast to his stiffer successor Hu Jintao and current President Xi Jinping.

Some Chinese social media users have posted pictures and videos of Jiang speaking or laughing and articles about his 1997 speech at Harvard University in English, reminiscing about an era when China and the West were on better terms.

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The United States is working a new round of sanctions against North Korea, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, as Pyongyang forges ahead with banned missile development and signals a possible new nuclear test.

“We have a new set of sanctions measures coming forward as we speak,” he told a conference in Seoul organised by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and the South Korean JoongAng media group.

Sullivan, who spoke via live video link, did not elaborate but said Washington was committed to using pressure and diplomacy to entice North Korea into giving up its nuclear arsenal.

The “North Star” of U.S. Joe Biden’s North Korea policy is the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and it remains steadfast in pursuing that goal while being flexible in working with partners on how to achieve it, he said.

He pointed to increased cooperation between the United States, South Korea, and Japan, which have increased joint military drills. The United States is also working on a more “visible” regional presence of its strategic assets, Sullivan said, referring to major weapons such as aircraft carriers and long-range bombers.

North Korea has said denuclearisation is off the table, and accused the United States and its allies of pursing “hostile” policies, including sanctions, that have left it no choice but to expand its military.

Sullivan said Washington had no ill intent toward North Korea and is open to talks without preconditions.

“Pyongyang has rejected this sincere outreach,” he said.

The last round of U.S. sanctions in October targeted two Singapore-registered companies and a Marshall Islands-registered firm that Washington said support Pyongyang’s weapons programmes and its military.

Decades of U.S.-led sanctions have not halted North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear weapon programmes, and China and Russia have blocked recent efforts to impose more United Nations sanctions, saying they should instead be eased to jumpstart talks and avoid humanitarian harm.

Sullivan said the administration has no illusions about the challenges, but that the United States remained committed to holding North Korea accountable.

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Russian forces tried to advance in eastern Ukraine and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Kherson in the south, the Ukrainian military said, as Western allies sought to buttress Ukraine and its neighbours against Moscow.

In Washington, a $1.2 billion contract for six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for Ukraine was awarded to Raytheon, the Pentagon said.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday his country needed U.S.-made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, which has been under heavy attack by Russia at the start of winter.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin had focused “his ire and his fire” on Ukraine’s civilian population and warned Russia that its strategy would fail to divide Ukraine’s supporters.

“Heat, water, electricity … these are President Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard. This brutalisation of Ukraine’s people is barbaric,” Blinken told a news conference in Bucharest following a two-day NATO meeting.

At the NATO foreign ministers meeting, allies on Wednesday pledged to help Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as they face pressure from Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and ministers said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the outcome showed NATO was “absolutely not interested in a political and diplomatic solution in Ukraine”.

Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago in what it calls a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of nationalists it considers dangerous. Ukraine and Western allies accuse Russia of an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.

Ukraine ordered all of Kyiv’s embassies abroad to strengthen security after two letter bombs were sent to the Ukrainian ambassador in Madrid and an arms company in Spain that manufactures rocket launchers donated to Ukraine. Spanish police said they were are examining a possible link between the two bombs, one of which injured an embassy security officer.

In the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, site of the heaviest fighting, Russian forces tried to make further advances and shelled several towns, including Bakhmut and nearby Soledar and Opytne, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Wednesday night statement.

On the southern front, it said Russian forces took up defensive positions and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Ukrainian positions and on the regional capital of Kherson, abandoned by Russian troops earlier in November.

Other battleground activity was reported in northeastern and central Ukraine, the military said.

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

“We are analysing the intentions of the occupiers and preparing counter-measures – tougher counter-measures than is now the case,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday evening address.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said electricity had been restored to 65% of consumers in Kherson.

Nearly six million customers in a majority of Ukraine’s regions and in Kyiv had no electricity, Zelenskiy said on Wednesday night.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said defence forces had shot down 340 of the roughly 400 Iranian drones that Russian had launched during the war.

“We haven’t seen these Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles for about two weeks … the first batch has probably already run out,” he told Ukraine’s main television network.

On the economic front, a deal was close on resuming Russian ammonia exports through a pipeline to a Ukrainian Black Sea port, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said.

“I think we’re quite close, we’re edging towards it this week,” Griffiths told a Reuters NEXT event.

A deal aimed at easing global food shortages by helping Ukraine export its agricultural products from Black Sea ports was extended on Nov. 17 for four months, though Russia said its own demands were yet to be fully addressed. The agreement was initially brokered in July by the United Nations with the help of Turkey.

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While many people spent 2021 and 2022 doomcasting about how disastrous the midterms would be for Democrats and the Biden administration – some even relishing the thought that a serious loss would ‘teach them a lesson,’ about not checking off items from their wishlist. On November 8, we not only averted disaster, but even strengthened the political power of local Democratic parties in a number of states. Now, before the new Congress has yet to be sworn in, people are already hand wringing about 2024 – if Democrats can win the White House again and if they’ve doomed their prospects for the Senate. A lot of you are already acting as though losing the Senate is a foregone conclusion and fretting over how many Republicans will take over.

The problem with that thinking – aside from it being two years in the future – is that it’s not necessarily based in reality. 2024 will be a difficult year for Democrats to hold the Senate – let’s not deny that – but our prospects for getting President Biden re-elected and winning back the House are pretty decent ones. Fortunately, the second most powerful Republican in the Senate gave us a huge gift just in time for Christmas.

Sen. John Thune who openly mused about using the debt limit to pave the way for Social Security cuts. The fact that Republicans were open about their plan to privatize Social Security is a big reason they lost as badly as they did on Election Day and it’s clear they haven’t learned their lesson. In fact, the GOP right now is still the same vile party with unpopular ideas as it was before Nov 8 – so that means we spend between now and 2024 making sure the Dobbs decision and killing Social Security stick to them.

The post Here they go again appeared first on Palmer Report.

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed U.S. lawmakers from both political parties on Wednesday and pushed back over new American subsidies that are riling European leaders, according to a participant in a closed-door meeting.

Macron arrived in Washington on Tuesday for his second state visit to the United States since taking office in 2017, ahead of which French officials said he would confront President Joe Biden over the subsidies contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Biden and Macron, joined by their wives Jill and Brigitte, took an early opportunity to get together ahead of their formal talks on Thursday. They rode in the U.S. presidential motorcade a short distance from the White House to the historic area of Georgetown and dined at Fiola Mare, an Italian restaurant.

In a meeting with U.S. lawmakers at the Library of Congress, Macron said the Inflation Reduction Act was “super aggressive” toward European companies, one participant told Reuters. The participant requested anonymity to discuss a private part of the meeting.

Macron’s office declined to confirm the comment, which was first reported by Agence France-Presse.

European leaders have complained about the legislative package, signed by Biden in August, that offers massive subsidies for U.S.-made products, which they say unfairly disadvantages non-American companies and would be a serious blow to their economies as Europe deals with the fallout from Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the legislation “presents significant opportunities for European firms as well as benefits to EU energy security,” when asked about European concerns.

The IRA has provisions that will contribute to the growth of the clean energy sector globally, she added.

In introductory remarks at the Library of Congress with reporters present, Macron said France and the United States should join forces to reform the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank so their funds can be directed to countries hit by climate change.

After Republicans won the House of Representatives in this month’s mid-term elections, Macron’s efforts to reach out to both parties was a recognition he must look beyond Biden, a Democrat, to advance cooperation with Washington, French official say.

Macron is the first foreign leader to be given a state dinner at the Biden White House, a sign of his importance to Washington despite some differences with the Biden administration. The formal dinner on Thursday will feature music from Jon Batiste, Chardonnay from the Napa Valley and cheddar cheese from a family-run creamery in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, according to details provided by the office of first lady Jill Biden.

Earlier, Macron visited NASA headquarters with Vice President Kamala Harris, and said U.S.-French cooperation was important to counter the risk of conflict in space. The two announced new U.S.-French cooperation on space during a meeting in Paris a year ago.

Macron said space represents “a new place of conflict” and that it was important for France and the United States to work together on setting rules and norms because they share a commitment to science as well as democratic values.

“We have crazy players in space as well, and we have rogue states there and we have new hybrid attacks,” Macron said, speaking in English.

France joined the United States and several other nations in ruling out destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missile testing after Russia struck one of its own satellites in orbit last year, creating debris and drawing scorn from the United States and its allies.

The United States, which last demonstrated such a missile in 2008, first announced its ban on the tests in April.

Macron’s visit came as NATO ministers met in Bucharest and pledged more aid to Ukraine to help against Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure as winter bites.

The alliance, of which the United States and France are founding members, was also discussing how to address challenges posed by China’s military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Macron has said in the past that China should not be a focus for NATO.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a briefing call that China would top the agenda during Macron’s visit “because of the global influence that China is trying to exude and demonstrate and because of the security challenges that China continues to pose, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.”

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Australia’s biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd, (MPL.AX), said on Thursday that hackers had released more of its stolen medical records, as media reported that the complete set of data on millions of customers was now public.

The latest release on the dark web follows progressive uploads, including records of customers’ mental health and alcohol use, that began after Medibank said on Nov. 7 it would not pay a ransom.

“The raw data we have analysed today so far is incomplete and hard to understand,” chief executive David Koczkar said. “While there are media reports of this being a signal of ‘case closed’, our work is not over.”

On Thursday, media reported that a blog, believed by cyber experts to be used by the hackers, carried a new post: “Happy Cyber Security Day!!! Added folder full. Case closed.” It also included a file that had several compressed files amounting to more than 5 gigabytes.

Reuters has not verified the contents of the latest files uploaded on the dark web, part of the World Wide Web that is accessible only with special software. Medibank did not immediately respond to a Reuters question asking whether it believed all stolen data had now been released.

Australian Federal Police last month said Russia-based hackers were behind the Medibank cyberattack, which compromised the details of almost 10 million current and former customers. Medicare revealed the breach on Oct. 13.

In its latest update, Medibank said there were currently no signs that banking data had been stolen. Personal details accessed by hackers were not enough to enable financial fraud, it added.

Six zipped files placed in a folder called “full” and containing raw data believed to have been stolen had been uploaded, Medibank said in a statement.

Australia has been grappling with a recent rise in cyber attacks. At least eight companies, including telecoms company Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications (STEL.SI), have reported breaches since September.

Technology experts have said Australia has become a target for hackers just as a skills shortage leaves an understaffed, overworked cybersecurity workforce ill-equipped to stop attacks.

Police in Spain are examining a possible link between two letter bombs sent to the Ukrainian ambassador in Madrid and to an arms company that manufactures rocket launchers donated to Kyiv, they confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.

In the first incident, an officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador, prompting Kyiv to order greater security at all its representative offices abroad.

The letter, which arrived by regular mail and was not scanned, caused “a very small wound” on one finger when an officer opened it in the embassy garden, Mercedes Gonzalez, a Spanish government official, told broadcaster Telemadrid.

Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told the Ukrainian news site European Pravda that the suspicious package addressed to him was handed to the embassy’s commandant, a Ukrainian staff member.

“The package contained a box, which raised the commandant’s suspicions and he decided to take it outside – with no one in the vicinity – and open it,” Pohoreltsev was quoted as saying.

“After opening the box and hearing a click that followed, he tossed it and then heard the explosion…Despite not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commandant hurt his hands and received a concussion.”

Hours later, an arms company in Zaragoza, northeastern Spain, received a similar package, police confirmed.

The government representative in Zaragoza, Rosa Serrano, said in an interview with the SER station that the two envelopes appeared to have the same sender, since the same e-mail address was written on the back of both of them. Serrano said the packages came from Ukraine and this is what alarmed the arms company, which called the police.

The arms company is Instalaza, the manufacturer of the C90 rocket launcher that Spain donates to Ukraine.

After the first incident, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all of Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security and urged Spain to take investigate the attack, a ministry spokesperson said.

The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the second incident.

Ambassador Pohoreltsev told TVE later that he was working as usual at the embassy “with no fear”.

“We have instructions from the ministry in Ukraine that given the situation we have to be prepared for any kind of incident… any kind of Russian activities outside the country,” he said.

Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago in what it calls a “special military operation” that Kyiv and the West describe as an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.

Spain’s High Court has opened a probe into the attack as a possible case of terrorism, a judicial source said.

Police carried out a contained explosion in the factory and the incident reported no damage, according to the same media.

The envelope that was sent to Zaragoza was 10 x 15 cm and an X-ray showed the explosive charge with a wire line ready to be activated when the envelope was opened, Serrano said.

Correos, the Spanish state-run postal company, told Reuters it is cooperating with the investigation.

The residential area surrounding the embassy in northwestern Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene, as well as the area around the Zaragoza factory.

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