Selasa, 01 Oktober 2019
Moment bridge collapses in Taiwan crushing boats and trapping crew - Guardian News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCjzUzDoIqQ
2019-10-01 09:52:06Z
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Trump grievance machine reaps millions off impeachment - POLITICO
Donald Trump’s campaign aides expected months ago that Democrats would try to impeach the president — and he needed a way to exploit it.
So this summer, Trump 2020 officials spliced news clips of Democrats discussing impeachment into a 90-second video montage, punctuated by the president imploring supporters to help him “stop this nonsense.” Aides quietly filed the spot away until last week, when it was released it as part of an online counteroffensive to the impeachment push that brought in 50,000-plus new donors and raked in $8.5 million in two days — the campaign’s biggest digital haul since its June launch.
The push demonstrates how Trump, in less than three years in office, has perfected a grievance machine that converts deep-seated outrage on the right into fundraising dollars and new support. As Trump confronts the gravest threat to his presidency yet, his campaign is stoking — and monetizing — the anger of a Republican base that has long seen the president as under siege.
With damaging revelations about the president’s dealings with Ukraine emerging on a near-daily basis and polls showing increasing support for impeachment, the president is facing serious political peril. But even Democrats acknowledge concern that Trump’s unique ability to rally his supporters and marshal resources could have a profound impact on the 2020 election.
Tara McGowan, a Democratic digital strategist who worked for a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC in 2016, said that Trump’s “ability to very quickly define any event or issue on his terms and energize his base” through online advertising “provides him with a huge competitive advantage over Democrats.”
“This approach enables Trump to set the narrative on his terms and paint himself as the iconoclast that is always under attack from the ‘fake news media’ and Democratic ‘witch hunt,’ and it clearly works as they continue to perpetuate it every chance they get,” McGowan added.
The Trump team has orchestrated a massive digital campaign aimed at pushing his supporters’ emotional buttons by conveying a singular message: The president is under assault.
The campaign spent $1 million on Facebook ads in the span of 72 hours last week, asking for supporters to donate and become leaders “in defending the president against these baseless and disgusting attacks.” Trump 2020 also sent out 65 million emails and 12 million text messages asking small-dollar donors to help combat “hateful and baseless attacks.”
The approach has been heavily shaped by Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. With 24-hour cable news stations airing near-constant coverage of impeachment, Parscale has privately compared the campaign to a marketing machine that is setting its own narrative.
Trump has spent years priming his supporters to see him as under attack, and aides say their fundraising is typically at its highest when he’s perceived as in danger. The campaign, for example, raised $1 million in the 24 hours following the release of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
But the threat of impeachment, Trump allies say, has turbocharged giving.
“When you’re under attack, your supporters are more engaged and that’s the general position [of the campaign’s messaging] — that ‘We’re under siege,’ and ‘We need your help,' and ‘This is ridiculous,’ and ‘Let’s fight back,’” said Gerrit Lansing, who serves as president of WinRed, the online donation processor used by the Trump campaign. “And that’s a powerful message.”
With the White House choosing to forgo an impeachment-focused war room, much of the messaging is being outsourced to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. The two organizations, working closely with one another, have sent out dozens of statements, tweets, and video clips designed to cast the president as the prey of a Democratic Party out to destroy him. On Monday, the RNC unveiled a rapid response program focused on impeachment.
Trump’s political machine has enabled him to capitalize financially on impeachment in a way he struggled to when confronting past political crises. Veterans of Trump’s disorganized 2016 campaign, for example, said the firestorm caused by the release of the lewd “Access Hollywood” video did not prompt anything near the protective response from supporters that the impeachment push has generated.
For the Trump campaign, perhaps the biggest prize of its recent efforts is the 50,000 new donors. Trump aides will be able to ask them for cash repeatedly in the months to come. And now that the party has their contact information and other personal data, turning those voters out next year will be far easier.
“These are the same types of people who will vote with their wallets,” said Zac Moffatt, the digital director on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. “They’re on the team. They’re unlikely [to be] coming off that now.”
Parscale has briefed the president on the impeachment-focused fundraising effort and has told him that the amount he’s receiving in donations is one of the clearest indicators of how the impeachment battle is playing out.
Flush with cash, the campaign has chosen to plow $8 million into a nationally aired televison ad tying former Vice President Joe Biden to Ukraine and accusing Democrats of plotting to “steal” the 2020 election. Trump, who has signaled to White House aides that he’s eager to go after Biden, personally signed off on the purchase after son-in-law Jared Kushner broached the idea, according to an administration official.
The RNC has separately begun its own TV ads going after House Democrats from districts Trump won in 2016 who’ve given their support to the impeachment inquiry.
Democrats have generally been more reluctant to fundraise off impeachment, though several Democratic candidates have sent out appeals tied to the investigation. Spokespersons for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said they’d taken steps to raise money from their supporters but declined to provide specifics on how much they’d taken in.
Some Democrats express discomfort about the prospect of financially capitalizing off what they describe as a serious process.
“Democrats just aren't as motivated and excited by the specter of removing the president as they are by soundly defeating him next year. And there's a conscious effort to avoid overly politicizing a legal process,” said Daniel Scarvalone, a veteran Democratic digital strategist. “I wouldn't be shocked if Democrats continued to tiptoe around the issue, because there just isn't as much upside for it as there is for Republicans.”
But while Trump reaps the rewards of playing to his base, some senior Republicans caution that he’ll eventually need to woo swing voters to be successful in 2020.
Republican strategist Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection, said Trump’s fundraising numbers were indicative of a tribal moment in politics “where if the president is attacked, his supporters will react by becoming even more revved up and come to his defense in whatever way they can.”
But Rove added that the Democratic and Republican bases were fully engaged and that both parties would need to compete for a relatively small group of swing voters who were likely to decide the outcome of the election.
“I think it is a huge mistake for people to say, ‘Oh, well we can win this by simply focusing on the base alone,’” said Rove. “I can’t think of a successful presidential re-elect that was focused on the base and the base only.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/01/trump-impeachment-campaign-014183
2019-10-01 09:03:00Z
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Bridge collapse in Taiwan caught on video as oil tanker tumbles onto boats in Nanfangao bay today - CBS News
Taipei, Taiwan — A towering arch bridge over a bay in eastern Taiwan collapsed Tuesday, sending an oil tanker truck falling onto boats in the water below. An air force helicopter, fishing vessels and more than 60 military personnel, including divers were searching for possible victims.
Six people were believed trapped on one of the boats, the National Fire Agency said in a statement. Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung told reporters about five people were feared to have been on the bridge when it collapsed. Ten people were sent to hospitals, six of them with serious injuries.
Fishing vessels were helping to search for the missing, Hsu told Formosa TV.
Trending News
The bridge collapsed about 9:30 a.m. in Nanfangao, a tiny but often-crowded Pacific coast fishing village.
The weather at the time of the collapse was sunny, hours after a typhoon swept across parts of the island. Disaster relief officials would not say if the storm had weakened the bridge or give other details on the potential cause. Government-run Central News Agency said a bridge pier may have collapsed.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said she hoped all government departments would do everything possible to save people and "keep the number of deaths and injuries as low as possible," CNA reported.
National Fire Agency spokesperson Su Hong-wei said the tanker's fall smashed three boats. It also set off a fire on the tanker truck but it did not spread beyond the vehicle.
Of the 10 people hospitalized, six were Filipinos and three were Indonesians, the agency said in a statement. People from both countries regularly work on fishing boats registered in Taiwan, where pay is better than in their home countries.
Typhoon Mitag had brought high winds and heavy rain to northern Taiwan on Monday night before moving northeast. Flights and ferry services had been canceled Monday.
The 460-feet Nanfangao Bridge is a tourist attraction in Yilan. It was opened in 1998 and was built to replace a lower bridge that prevented large fishing vessels from passing underneath.
According to the company that designed the nearly 60-feet-high bridge, MAA Consultants, it's the only single-span arch bridge in Taiwan supported by cables and the second single arch-cable steel bridge in the world.
Video footage on Twitter showed a large truck almost getting across the bridge and then tumbling backward as the bridge collapsed into the water.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bridge-collapse-in-taiwan-caught-on-video-oil-tanker-falls-onto-boats-nanfangao-bay-today-2019-10-01/
2019-10-01 08:04:00Z
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China Flexes Muscles In Parade Marking 70 Years Of Communist Rule - NPR
Troops prepare for the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Tuesday in Beijing. VCG/VCG via Getty Images hide caption
Near Beijing's center, along Chang'an Avenue or the Avenue of Eternal Peace, more than 100,000 performers and soldiers readied for mass military parade that would unveil China's newest fighting technology, including a hypersonic missile and stealth fighter jets.
At promptly 10 a.m., the parade began with 70 rounds of cannon fire.
The event was the culmination of celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party's 70th year in power. Much of it was dedicated to showcasing military hardware; 160 aircraft flew overhead, while more than 600 tanks, missiles and other weapons systems slowly rolled past carefully selected onlookers throughout the morning.
"There is no force that can shape the foundation of this great nation and no force that can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation from getting ahead," Xi Jinping, China's top leader and party chairman, said in an opening speech. He framed the parade as a moment of triumph over the "humiliation" of foreign imperialism beginning with the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century.
Tuesday's celebrations were first and foremost a projection of military might, now technologically advanced enough to counter the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Since 2015, Xi has consolidated his direct control over China's now 2 million person-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA). An ambitious modernization effort trimmed the force by 300,000 and restructured its command system from seven to five zones. That allowed the PLA to streamline operations – and laid the foundations for Xi to purge three top generals in the following years.
Among the military hardware shown to the public for the first time: 16 of the long-anticipated Dongfeng-41, China's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching the United States with nuclear warheads. Onlookers were also given the first glimpse of the Dongfeng-17, a medium-range missile that can travel at hypersonic speeds with the aim of breaking through U.S. anti-missile shields.
Military vehicles equipped with the latest DF-41 ballistic missile roll by during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing on Tuesday. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption
Military analysts had closely monitored satellite images of Chinese military facilities and nearby traffic for signs of the missile being readied for display.
The Chinese military might be building a new type of missile silo at its new training area near Jilantai. Satellite images from @DigitalGlobe/@maxar show construction well underway. They also show dozens of new DF-41, DF-31AG, DF-26, and DF-21 launchers. https://t.co/kqLgTqGzyB pic.twitter.com/2R2qlQ3SUL
— Hans Kristensen (@nukestrat) September 3, 2019
The pomp and circumstance of Beijing's celebrations were in stark contrast to another day of mass protests planned in the city of Hong Kong against Beijing's influence and for democratic reforms.
Police officers detain a pro-government supporter during clashes with demonstrators in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong on Tuesday. Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Protestors attempted to disrupt a flag-raising ceremony commemorating the anniversary earlier Tuesday morning, but the ceremony's participants continued by watching from inside an adjacent convention center. Several of Hong Kong's busiest metro stops were closed in anticipation of another day of mass protests, now in their 17th week. A march planned for the afternoon did not get permission from Hong Kong police, but protestors say they will convene anyway.
Xi's brief opening speech Tuesday included strong language reiterating Beijing's control over Hong Kong and the nearby island of Taiwan: "We will maintain long term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau, advance peaceful development of cross strait relations, unite the whole country and continue to strive forward with complete unification of our country."
Hong Kong's embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam was in Beijing as a guest of honor at the parade, seated overlooking Tiananmen Square in the second row of the box reserved for officials.
Beijing's parade was also an important show of party unity. Xi appeared flanked by the six other members of the powerful Communist Politburo standing committee.
He was also accompanied by his predecessors — Hu Jintao and 93-year-old Jiang Zemin, whose death has been frequently rumored. Jiang was very much alive, albeit held up by two assistants.
Amy Cheng contributed reporting from Beijing.
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/765948838/china-flexes-muscles-in-parade-marking-70-years-of-communist-rule
2019-10-01 06:06:00Z
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Bridge collapse in Taiwan caught on video as oil tanker tumbles onto boats in Nanfangao bay today - CBS News
Taipei, Taiwan — A towering arch bridge over a bay in eastern Taiwan collapsed Tuesday, sending an oil tanker truck falling onto boats in the water below. The search for potential victims involved an air force helicopter and more than 60 army and naval personnel, including divers.
Six people were believed trapped on one of the boats, the National Fire Agency said in a statement. Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung told reporters about five people were feared to have been on the bridge when it collapsed. Ten people were sent to hospitals, six of them with serious injuries.
Fishing vessels were helping to search for the missing, Hsu told Formosa TV.
Trending News
The bridge collapsed about 9:30 a.m. in Nanfangao, a tiny but often-crowded Pacific coast fishing village.
The weather at the time of the collapse was sunny, hours after a typhoon swept across parts of the island. Disaster relief officials would not say if the storm had weakened the bridge or give other details on the potential cause. Government-run Central News Agency said a bridge pier may have collapsed.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said she hoped all government departments would do everything possible to save people and "keep the number of deaths and injuries as low as possible," CNA reported.
National Fire Agency spokesperson Su Hong-wei said the tanker's fall smashed three boats.
Typhoon Mitag had brought high winds and heavy rain to northern Taiwan on Monday night before moving northeast. Flights and ferry services had been canceled Monday.
The 460-feet Nanfangao Bridge is a tourist attraction in Yilan. It was opened in 1998 and was built to replace a lower bridge that prevented large fishing vessels from passing underneath.
According to the company that designed the 18-meter-high (nearly 60 feet) high bridge, MAA Consultants, it's the only single-span arch bridge in Taiwan supported by cables and the second single arch-cable steel bridge in the world.
Video footage on Twitter showed a large truck almost getting across the bridge and then tumbling backward as the bridge collapsed into the water.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bridge-collapse-in-taiwan-caught-on-video-oil-tanker-falls-onto-boats-nanfangao-bay-today-2019-10-01/
2019-10-01 06:35:00Z
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Communist China Doesn’t Let Hong Kong Unrest, Trade War Rain on Its Parade - The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING—Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a grandiose military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Communist rule, a projection of strength as the country wrestles with a challenge from President Trump, while Hong Kong braced for another round of anti-Beijing protests.
“There isn’t any force able to shake our great motherland’s status,” Mr. Xi declared from the podium in Tiananmen Square, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China seven decades ago. “There isn’t any force able to impede the forward strides of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.”
Speaking after a playing of the national anthem and a 70-gun salute, Mr. Xi said the founding of the Communist-ruled state had reversed China’s tragic fate of being “bullied and humiliated” for more than a century. Instead, he said, China was now on the road to a “great rejuvenation.”
Inspecting the troops from an open-top Hongqi, or Red Flag, limousine, Mr. Xi oversaw a tightly-choreographed showcase of nationalistic iconography and military firepower, a procession of tank columns, long-range missiles and goose-stepping soldiers meant to signal China’s emergence as a global military power.
The lavish procession past Tiananmen Square, where pro-democracy protesters gathered three decades ago before a bloody crackdown, stood in contrast to recent upheaval in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, protesters were expected to take to the streets of the specially-administered Chinese city, with large demonstrations planned to divert attention from National Day festivities.
A flag-raising ceremony in Hong Kong to mark the anniversary, which was been moved indoors to prevent disruption from protesters, took place peacefully. The city’s Beijing-blessed chief, Carrie Lam, was in Beijing with a large delegation that included officials from the Hong Kong Police Force, which has faced off against protesters in the streets since June.
Preparations for the spectacle in Beijing, which was televised live nationally, were meticulous. Flying kites and homing pigeons were banned to ensure open skies for the release of 70,000 doves and 70,000 colored balloons during the parade. And tightened security measures and road closures for dress rehearsals have snarled traffic in the city for extended periods over recent weeks.
Building up to Tuesday’s pageantry, Chinese state media have for weeks produced wall-to-wall coverage exhorting the Communist Party’s accomplishments since 1949. Yet the portrayal of China as an increasingly confident nation has come as Mr. Xi faces a confluence of some of the most severe challenges he has faced in his seven years at the top.
In addition to the months of Hong Kong protests that have defied Beijing’s rule, China’s leaders are also contending with faltering economic growth due in part to protracted trade tensions with the U.S. They have also had to grapple with an outbreak of African swine fever that has decimated hog herds and sent pork prices soaring, in addition to international scrutiny over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang.
After coming to power in late 2012, Mr. Xi was quick to warn cadres about the pitfalls of straying from traditional Communist ideals, urging them to study the collapse of the Soviet Union. The People’s Republic of China has now lasted longer than the Soviet Union.
Mr. Xi has trained much of his focus on party discipline, from his signature anticorruption drive to intensive political-education campaigns.
On Monday, Mr. Xi paid his respects at Mao’s tomb. He has sought to portray himself as a visionary leader in the tradition of Mao.
Mr. Xi himself warned party members of a “great struggle” ahead, evoking Mao in a closely-analyzed speech at the Central Party School last month.
“Beneath the facade of confidence, unity and strength, the party-state is paranoid about the accumulating political risks, social tensions and frustrations, and myriad domestic and international challenges,” said Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.
Mr. Xi has shown a greater penchant for bombastic military displays than his predecessors. That muscle flexing has unsettled neighbors and strategic rivals who are already anxious about China’s military advances.
Tuesday’s procession was China’s third large-scale military parade in the past five years. The scale of the pageantry eclipsed that of parades marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II in 2015 and the 90th anniversary of the establishment of China’s military in 2017.
The military parade featured 59 phalanxes of some 15,000 soldiers, about 160 aircraft and 580 items of military hardware and weaponry, state media said. It took more than an hour to complete the route.
Among the military hardware being showcased publicly for the first time was the Dongfeng-41, a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile which, with a range of 7,500 miles, is capable of striking any target in the U.S.
The parade also saw the debut of the Dongfeng-17, a short- to medium-range missile that can launch a hypersonic glider; the Dongfeng-100, a new supersonic cruise missile; in addition to an assortment of new drones and antiship missiles.
The military display was followed by a civilian parade of some 100,000 people and 70 floats featuring farmers, factory workers, students and delivery workers, showcasing the nation’s “socioeconomic accomplishments,” while a gala with live performances and fireworks on Tiananmen Square was scheduled to cap the festivities Tuesday night.
Former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, looking considerably more frail than in past years, were also in attendance and watched as giant portraits of themselves were carried through the parade route.
Delivering a speech at a reception in Beijing on Monday evening, Mr. Xi touched indirectly on the Hong Kong unrest, saying that the Chinese special administrative region’s high level of autonomy and its adherence to “one country, two systems,” the arrangement that grants Hong Kong a measure of self-rule under Beijing’s sovereignty, must be maintained. He reiterated that sentiment during his address Tuesday.
“Unity is iron and steel. Unity is a source of strength,” Mr. Xi said on Monday, emphasizing the importance of unity in overcoming all “risks and challenges.”
Mr. Xi also said Monday that he believed that, with the full support of patriotic Hong Kong residents, the former British colony could develop better in step with the mainland.
“Tomorrow will definitely be better!” he said.
In Hong Kong, clashes have flared between antigovernment and pro-Beijing groups, with protesters in some cases attacking citizens from the mainland. On Sunday evening, a man identified by some protesters as a mainlander from Fujian province was chased down by a mob and beaten to the ground, before some reporters intervened, though the reason for the attack wasn’t clear.
Hong Kong was largely locked down Tuesday morning with a number of subway stations across the city closed and riot police on guard on many street corners in the urban core. The public was kept at a distance from the ceremonial raising of the Chinese and Hong Kong flags, which allowed the event to proceed without disruption.
Joey Jiang, 35, together with her husband and daughter, arrived for the ceremony an hour and a half early, expecting a large crowd. Instead, they watched from a bridge about 400 feet away along with a handful of other onlookers. “We are happy as long as we could see it,” Ms. Jiang said.
Her daughter waved a small red flag that read “China” and sang the Chinese national anthem as the flags were raised.
Meanwhile, a dozen black-clad protesters led by former Hong Kong lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, chanted “End one-party rule” while marching toward the fence that surrounded the flagpoles. After their path was blocked, they left peacefully.
Related Coverage
- Ugly Clashes as Hong Kong Protesters Battle Police Ahead of China Anniversary (Sept. 29, 2019)
- Taiwan Rallies for Hong Kong to Resist Beijing’s Influence (Sept. 29, 2019)
- Hong Kong Police Deploy Water Cannon as Thousands Rally on Anniversary of Umbrella Movement (Sept. 29, 2019)
- For China’s Xi, the Hong Kong Crisis Is Personal (Sept. 27, 2019)
- Hong Kong Leader Unbowed by Anger at Rare Public Forum (Sept. 26, 2019)
—Chun Han Wong and Joyu Wang in Hong Kong and Jeremy Page in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Philip Wen at philip.wen@wsj.com and Eva Dou at eva.dou@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
https://www.wsj.com/articles/communist-china-doesnt-let-hong-kong-unrest-trade-war-rain-on-its-parade-11569898994
2019-10-01 04:40:00Z
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Senin, 30 September 2019
Al-Shabab extremists attack US military base in Somalia: report - Fox News
Al-Shabab extremists on Monday staged an attack on a US military base in Somalia, which is used to launch drone strikes.
A Somali official told the Associated Press that a suicide car bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the gate of a military airstrip which is a base for U.S. and Somali forces.
Yusuf Abdourahman, a security official with the Lower Shabelle regional administration, told the news agency that a burst of gunfire could be heard across the base after the bombing.
The terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the report said.
The U.S. military uses Belidogle airstrip in the Lower Shabelle region as a base where it launches drones that attack al-Shabab and trains Somali troops.
There are reports of a second attack on European Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
https://www.foxnews.com/world/al-shabab-extremists-attack-us-military-base-in-somalia-report
2019-09-30 09:34:53Z
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