India to add 56 warships, six submarines to naval fleet
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/12/04/India-to-add-56-warships-six-submarines-to-naval-fleet/2151543950800/
No “devastating impact” to F-35 industrial base if Turkey pushed from program, Air Force official says
WASHINGTON — A potential United States decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 program over its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system may have only minimal impact on the fighter jet’s industrial base, a senior Air Force official said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump has yet to determine what steps the Defense Department may take if Turkey moves forward with the S-400 buy. However, Heidi Grant, the Air Force’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs, said that the Pentagon’s own analysis shows that it will not be catastrophic if Turkey is forced from the program.
“While it will have some impact on the F-35 program, I don’t think it’s going to be any type of devastating impact if … there’s a policy decision that they are no longer a partner,” Grant told reporters in a Dec. 4 roundtable interview just weeks before she puts a cap on a 16 year career with the Air Force.
On Jan. 7, Grant will take over as head of the Defense Technology Security Administration, the Defense Department’s lead agency for ensuring that sales of weapon systems to foreign nations will not endanger the United States’ technological advantages. As director of DTSA, Grant said she expects to play “an even more active role” on the question of whether to export the F-35 to Turkey.
Some lawmakers are concerned that — should Ankara move forward with its purchase of the S-400 — Russia could build back doors into the anti-aircraft system that allows it to glean classified information about NATO capabilities like the F-35.
In its most recent defense policy bill, Congress included language that prohibits Turkey from taking hold of its F-35s until the Pentagon delivered on Turkey’s role in the program and potential risks posed by a Turkish S-400.
The unclassified summary of the report, obtained last week by Bloomberg, restated that Turkish may face expulsion from the F-35 program if the S-400 deal goes through.
That outcome could influence the U.S. government’s relationship with other partner nations that have also signed on to buy the S-400, such as India or Qatar.
Turkey is set to buy 100 joint strike fighters over the course of the program, and its first F-35 pilots have already begun training alongside U.S. pilots at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. Turkish companies also play a key industrial role on the program, as one of the producers of the center fuselage and the maker of the cockpit display.
Grant said she was unaware how long it would take to replace Turkey’s contributions to the F-35 program or what proposed solutions the Trump administration is offering to the country.
But she fears it may be too late at this point to persuade the Turkish government to abandon the S-400 deal.
“It is what it is, at this point. If they've made up their mind already, they're a sovereign nation — to buy another country's system, we're going to have to work through those policy issues,” she said. “But what I'd like to do when I get over there [to DTSA] is [figure out], how do we avoid even getting to that point and make sure that U.S. is the partner of choice?”
"Did we do enough work up front to try to prevent it? I know a lot of work was done, but I think there's been a lot of learning from this on the risks of not being the partner of choice."
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/12/04/no-devastating-impact-to-f-35-industrial-base-if-turkey-pushed-from-program-air-force-official-says/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Socialflow+DFN&utm_source=twitter.com
Bolton: Trump aims for second Kim summit in early 2019
National security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that the second meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would likely happen in “January, February” of 2019.
Bolton said that Trump wanted another meeting because North Korea has not lived up to the commitments it made during the Singapore summit in June.
"They have not lived up to the commitments so far," Bolton said at The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council conference, according to CNN. "That's why I think the President thinks that another summit is likely to be productive."
Trump made similar comments on the timing of the meeting on Saturday.
At their first summit, Trump and Kim agreed to a framework for denuclearization, a deal which also included unspecified American security assurances.
"We're going to pursue this," Bolton said. "If the North Koreans follow through on their commitments they made in Singapore, President Trump will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize."
"He opened the door for them," Bolton added. "Now they have to walk through it. That's what we hope to make progress on at the next meeting."
Progress on dismantling the country's arsenal has been stalled multiple times, and satellite images published in November indicate that North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 bases across the country.
Trump maintained the images did not contain new information.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/asia-pacific/419679-bolton-trump-aims-for-second-kim-summit-in-january-or?rnd=1543951248
Actress Meryl Streep believes Americans should be scared of President Donald Trump right now because his children are “in jeopardy.”
At the Montclair Film Festival’s “An Evening with Stephen Colbert” fundraiser in New Jersey over the weekend, Streep took the stage and dove immediately into politics and the subject of the current sitting president.
It wasn’t much of a surprise, since leftist late-night host Stephen Colbert introduced the actress by gabbing about politics and Trump.
He even referenced the president’s calling Streep “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood.”
“I’m scared by [Trump],” the 69-year-old actress said to a crowd of nearly 3,000 when she took the stage.
She added, “I empathize with him. I can’t imagine what his 3 a.m. is like. There is a gathering storm. Everybody feels it. He feels it. His children are in jeopardy and I feel that. I think, what if my children were in jeopardy? I would do anything. Anything! To get them out of trouble. So we should be afraid.”
https://truepundit.com/meryl-streep-donald-trumps-kids-are-in-jeopardy-and-people-should-be-scared/https://truepundit.com/meryl-streep-donald-trumps-kids-are-in-jeopardy-and-people-should-be-scared/
Pompeo holds press conference in Brussels
https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1070032324836904962
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-home-health-services-company-owner-and-co-conspirator-plead-guilty-roles-86-million
Dershowitz wildin' out
https://twitter.com/AlanDersh/status/1070044333389291520
Scientists develop 10-minute universal cancer test
Scientists have developed a universal cancer test that can detect traces of the disease in a patient’s bloodstream.
The cheap and simple test uses a colour-changing fluid to reveal the presence of malignant cells anywhere in the body and provides results in less than 10 minutes.
While the test is still in development, it draws on a radical new approach to cancer detection that could make routine screening for the disease a simple procedure for doctors.
“A major advantage of this technique is that it is very cheap and extremely simple to do, so it could be adopted in the clinic quite easily,” said Laura Carrascosa, a researcher at the University of Queensland.
The test has a sensitivity of about 90%, meaning it would detect about 90 in 100 cases of cancer. It would serve as an initial check for cancer, with doctors following up positive results with more focused investigations.
“Our technique could be a screening tool to inform clinicians that a patient may have a cancer, but they would require subsequent tests with other techniques to identify the cancer type and stage,” Carrascosa said.
The test was made possible by the Queensland team’s discovery that cancer DNA and normal DNA stick to metal surfaces in markedly different ways. This allowed them to develop a test that distinguishes between healthy cells and cancerous ones, even from the tiny traces of DNA that find their way into the bloodstream.
Healthy cells ensure they function properly by patterning their DNA with molecules called methyl groups. These work like volume controls, silencing genes that are not needed and turning up others that are. In cancer cells, this patterning is hijacked so that only genes that help the cancer grow are switched on. While the DNA inside normal cells has methyl groups dotted all over it, the DNA inside cancer cells is largely bare, with methyl groups found only in small clusters at specific locations.
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the Queensland team described a series of tests that confirmed the telltale pattern of methyl groups in breast, prostate and colorectal cancer as well as lymphoma. They then showed that the patterns had a dramatic impact on the DNA’s chemistry, making normal and cancer DNA behave very differently in water. “This is a huge discovery that no one has grasped before,” said Carrascosa.
After a series of experiments, the scientists hit on the new test for cancer. The suspect DNA is added to water containing tiny gold nanoparticles. Though made of gold, the particles turn the water pink. If DNA from cancer cells is then added, it sticks to the nanoparticles in such a way that the water retains its original colour. But if DNA from healthy cells is added, the DNA binds to the particles differently, and turns the water blue. “The test is sensitive enough to detect very low levels of cancer DNA in the sample,” Carrascosa said…….
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/04/scientists-develop-10-minute-universal-cancer-test?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_b-gdnnews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1543948388
Second woman says she was paid to collect absentee ballots in North Carolina House race
A second woman has come forward claiming that a Bladen County, N.C., electioneer paid her to collect absentee ballots for last month's midterm elections.
Cheryl Kinlaw told WSOCTV, a local news station in Charlotte, N.C., that Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. paid her $100 to collect ballots in their district, adding that Dowless “has been doing it for years."
Kinlaw said that she never mailed the ballots she collected and that she instead handed them over to Dowless. She said she was unaware that what she was doing was illegal.
Her comments come a day after another woman, Ginger Eason, told the news station that Dowless, the Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, paid her between $75 and $100 to pick up ballots.
Both of them have said they do not know what Dowless did with the ballots.
Dowless has been named twice in sworn affidavits as someone who worked for Republican candidate Mark Harris's campaign and has been at the center of an investigation into the results of the election in North Carolina's 9th District.
When asked by WSOCTV about paying people to pick up ballots on Monday, Dowless said that he had no comment.
In November, Democrat Dan McCready conceded to Harris in their House race when he was down by approximately 700 votes.
But the elections board elected not to certify the results, citing “claims of irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail voting.”
WSOCTV reported that it has discovered what appears to be a targeted effort to illegally pick up ballots in Bladen County.
The news station noted that it consistently found the same people signing as witnesses for the people voting, something it notes is unconventional. Eason was listed as signing as a witness for 28 submitted and accepted absentee ballot envelopes.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) who was recently elected Democratic caucus chair, said Tuesday that it "appears increasingly likely" that Republican operatives stole an election through election fraud.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has also warned that Harris won't be sworn into the House if allegations of election fraud persist into 2019, when Democrats take a majority in the House.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/419693-second-woman-says-she-was-paid-to-collect-absentee-ballots-in-north?rnd=1543953464
concur. still needs diagnosis
yes sir, i'm spreading info i see…. victory towards good is my cause here.
Voters Still See Mueller Charges Against Trump As Unlikely
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/december_2018/voters_still_see_mueller_charges_against_trump_as_unlikely
Interesting line by Grassley
Chuck Grassley: "The president could solve all of his problems if he just showed his wife the tweet before he punches the send button."
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1070045324503339008
https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1070045187253116933
223 / 322
NASA SCIENTIST SAYS EARTH MAY HAVE BEEN VISITED BY ALIENS
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/aliens-earth-nasa-scientist-space-extraterrestrial-travel-seti-a8667506.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1543955017