Clinton defends handling of classified information at State
Clinton defends handling of classified information at State
NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton defended anew her handling of classified information as secretary of state Wednesday night, insisting she did not jeopardize national security by discussing the Obama administration’s drone program and other sensitive matters on a personal email account.
Speaking at a televised national security forum, Clinton also defended her support for U.S. military intervention in Libya, despite the chaos that has consumed that country since then. The Democratic nominee urged voters to weigh her readiness to be president not based on one decision but “on the totality of my record.”
Clinton and Republican Donald Trump spoke back-to-back but not face-to-face at the forum, hosted by NBC. The candidates also took questions from an audience of veterans and active-duty troops gathered on the decommissioned USS Intrepid, which is now a floating museum in New York.
With Clinton and Trump taking the same stage, the forum served as something of a preview for the candidates’ upcoming debates.
By virtue of a coin flip, Clinton took the stage first. She quickly faced a barrage of questions about her email use at the State Department, where she used a personal email address and a private server.
Trump promises huge boost in military spending
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Republican Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to boost defense spending and deploy more active troops, fighter planes, Navy ships and submarines as he works to convince skeptics in both parties that he’s ready to lead the world’s most powerful military.
The New York businessman, who has struggled at times to demonstrate a command of foreign policy, also seemed to acknowledge he does not currently have a plan to address cyber security or the Islamic State group.
If elected, Trump said he would give military leaders 30 days to formulate a plan to defeat the group, commonly known as ISIS. He also said he would ask the joint chiefs of staff to conduct a review of the nation’s cyber defenses to determine all vulnerabilities.
Trump’s address came hours before his national security acumen is tested at a “commander in chief” forum on NBC.
“We want to deter, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength,” Trump declared of his Democratic opponent in his Wednesday speech, delivered inside the exclusive Union League of Philadelphia, which first allowed women in 1986.
Aleppo bombed as US and Russia plan Syria talks
BEIRUT (AP) — An airstrike near the site of a suspected gas attack in Syria killed at least 10 civilians Wednesday, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to meet this week for extended discussions on ending the 5-year-old civil war.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been conducting airstrikes to bolster his forces for nearly a year. The United States supports rebels fighting to overthrow Assad and has called on him to step down.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to negotiate a settlement on the sidelines of the G-20 conference in China on Monday. Obama acknowledged “gaps of trust” between the rival powers following months of negotiations between their top diplomats.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry would meet Thursday and Friday in Geneva to work out the remaining details of a possible deal, following a phone call between the two. But U.S. officials indicated the earliest the talks could happen is Friday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in London that Kerry would not be making another attempt with Lavrov if there were no prospects for success, but he added: “We’re a long way from getting there.”
Mexico’s finance secretary resigns after Trump visit
MEXICO CITY (AP) — One of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s closest advisers and confidants, Finance Secretary Luis Videgaray, has resigned in a move seen as linked to the unpopular decision to invite Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to visit Mexico.
Pena Nieto has taken responsibility for inviting Trump, but a former government official familiar with the workings of the administration said Videgaray would have played a preponderant role in the decision. Newspaper columnists in Mexico have reported Videgaray was behind last week’s visit, after which Pena Nieto was criticized for not being forceful enough in rejecting Trump’s proposals and comments about Mexico.
Videgaray “was the architect” of Trump’s visit, because he was the adviser that Pena Nieto had “the most reliance on, and was closest to,” said columnist and political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio.
Videgaray acted as Pena Nieto’s campaign manager during his 2012 election campaign and has been seen as the architect of many administration policies. He led Mexico’s Treasury Department and is sometimes referred to as treasury secretary or minister, but because he oversaw budgets and fiscal policies, his role was closer to that of a finance secretary.
He has shared both in the president’s triumphs and embarrassments. In 2014, Videgaray acknowledged he had bought a house from the same government contractor that sold a mansion to Pena Nieto’s wife, Angelica Rivera, in the administration’s deepest scandal.
Asteroid Bennu getting first visitor in billions of years
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid that may hold the key to life is getting its first visitor in billions of years.
Asteroid Bennu, a black roundish rock taller than the Empire State Building, is the intended target of a NASA spacecraft set to blast off Thursday night. Not only will the robotic probe named Osiris-Rex fly to this ancient asteroid, it will scout it out for two years before scooping up some gravel and dust, and deliver the samples back to Earth.
All told, the mission will take seven years, from launch to sample return.
Flying to another world is no simple matter. Neither is vacuuming samples off an asteroid. “We’re going out into the unknown,” said principal scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona at Tucson.
Five tidbits about Bennu, chosen for NASA’s first such mission from more than 500,000 known asteroids in our solar system: