Sen. Susan Collins and Brett Kavanaugh are both in the Bush family inner circle. That helps explain her vote

Sen. Susan Collins and Brett Kavanaugh are both in the Bush family inner circle. That helps explain her vote

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The Intercept reports: The announcement Friday by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that she would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was about family. Namely, the Bush family. George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush have both been welcomed into the ranks of the resistance to President Donald Trump, but their most consequential action since his election has been to help lift Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court. Collins is an honorary member of the Bush family….

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Turkey concludes Saudi journalist Khashoggi killed by ‘murder’ team, sources say

Turkey concludes Saudi journalist Khashoggi killed by ‘murder’ team, sources say

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The Washington Post reports: Turkey has concluded that Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist from Saudi Arabia, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this week by a Saudi team sent “specifically for the murder,” two people with knowledge of the probe said Saturday. Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia. It was a preplanned murder,” said one of the people. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They offered no…

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How China used a hardware hack to infiltrate Amazon, Apple and dozens of other U.S. companies

How China used a hardware hack to infiltrate Amazon, Apple and dozens of other U.S. companies

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Bloomberg Businessweek reports: In 2015, Amazon.com Inc. began quietly evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies, a potential acquisition to help with a major expansion of its streaming video service, known today as Amazon Prime Video. Based in Portland, Ore., Elemental made software for compressing massive video files and formatting them for different devices. Its technology had helped stream the Olympic Games online, communicate with the International Space Station, and funnel drone footage to the Central Intelligence Agency. Elemental’s national security…

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Social media is revolutionizing warfare

Social media is revolutionizing warfare

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P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking write: “The exponential explosion of publicly available information is changing the global intelligence system … It’s changing how we tool, how we organize, how we institutionalize—everything we do.” This is what a former high-level intelligence official told us back in the summer of 2016, explaining how the people who collect secrets—professional spies—were adjusting to a world increasingly without secrets. We were asking him about one of the most important changes in technology and…

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Russia accused of cyber-attack on chemical weapons watchdog

Russia accused of cyber-attack on chemical weapons watchdog

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The Guardian reports: A Russian cyber-attack on the headquarters of the international chemical weapons watchdog was disrupted by Dutch military intelligence just weeks after the Salisbury novichok attack, it emerged on Thursday, amid fresh revelations of spying that escalated the diplomatic war between the west and Vladimir Putin. The incident, which was thwarted with the help of British intelligence officials, came after the Sandworm cybercrime unit of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU had attempted unsuccessfully to hack the UK…

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How the UN has saved Lebanon

How the UN has saved Lebanon

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Max Boot writes: Imagine 125 million refugees flooding into the United States (population: 328 million). That is what Lebanon has experienced on a per capita basis. Since 2011, this nation of 4 million people has seen an influx of some 1.5 million refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war next door. “I find it a miracle this country hasn’t exploded,” a Western diplomat told me last week. “Most countries would never have allowed this to happen.” This is the dog that…

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As an adolescent and a drunk, Kavanaugh exercised more restraint than he did before the Senate. Really?

As an adolescent and a drunk, Kavanaugh exercised more restraint than he did before the Senate. Really?

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In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Brett Kavanaugh writes: I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife,…

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How the Republican Party is gradually killing American democracy

How the Republican Party is gradually killing American democracy

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Christopher R. Browning writes: As a historian specializing in the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and Europe in the era of the world wars, I have been repeatedly asked about the degree to which the current situation in the United States resembles the interwar period and the rise of fascism in Europe. I would note several troubling similarities and one important but equally troubling difference. In the 1920s, the US pursued isolationism in foreign policy and rejected participation in international organizations like…

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Was the White House afraid of Kavanaugh lying to the FBI?

Was the White House afraid of Kavanaugh lying to the FBI?

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David Corn reports: [T]he standard operating procedure for any investigation would include questioning the accuser and the accused. Forgoing these interviews undermines the FBI’s report and makes it easy for critics to contend that this has been a sham investigation. So why would the White House take such a step? The Democrats on Senate Judiciary Committee have a theory: Trump White House officials blocked an interview with Ford because they were worried about the FBI questioning Kavanaugh. According to Democratic…

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FBI report provides key Republicans the fig leaf they were looking for

FBI report provides key Republicans the fig leaf they were looking for

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The Washington Post reports: A pair of key Republican senators expressed satisfaction Thursday with a new FBI report, increasing the odds of Senate confirmation this weekend of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who has faced sexual misconduct allegations. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of three Republicans who had not indicated how they plan to vote, said Thursday that “it appears to be a very thorough investigation, but I’m going back later to personally read the interviews.”…

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FBI avoided talking to witnesses who could corroborate allegations against Kavanaugh

FBI avoided talking to witnesses who could corroborate allegations against Kavanaugh

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The New Yorker reports: Frustrated potential witnesses who have been unable to speak with the F.B.I agents conducting the investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, have been resorting to sending statements, unsolicited, to the Bureau and to senators, in hopes that they would be seen before the inquiry concluded. On Monday, President Trump said that the Bureau should be able to interview “anybody they want within reason,” but the extent of the constraints placed…

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National Council of Churches calls for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn

National Council of Churches calls for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn

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The Hill reports: The nation’s largest coalition of Christian churches on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court. The National Council of Churches, which has membership from more than 40 denominations including most major Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations in the U.S., wrote in a statement on their website that they believe Kavanaugh has “disqualified himself from this lifetime appointment and must step aside immediately.” The statement cited a number of reasons for the…

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Over 1,000 law professors (and counting) call on Senate not to confirm Kavanaugh

Over 1,000 law professors (and counting) call on Senate not to confirm Kavanaugh

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Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge. As the Congressional Research Service explains, a judge requires “a personality that is even-handed, unbiased, impartial, courteous yet firm, and dedicated to a process, not a result.” The concern for judicial temperament dates back to our founding; in Federalist 78, titled “Judges as Guardians of the Constitution,” Alexander Hamilton expressed the need for “the integrity and moderation of the judiciary.” We are law professors who teach, research and…

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I was Brett Kavanaugh’s college roommate. He lied under oath

I was Brett Kavanaugh’s college roommate. He lied under oath

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James Roche writes: In 1983, I was one of Brett Kavanaugh’s freshman roommates at Yale University. About two weeks ago I came forward to lend my support to my friend Deborah Ramirez, who says Brett sexually assaulted her at a party in a dorm suite. I did this because I believe Debbie. Now the FBI is investigating this incident. I am willing to speak with them about my experiences at Yale with both Debbie and Brett. I would tell them…

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As midterms approach, proposed U.S. Navy show of force would escalate tensions with China

As midterms approach, proposed U.S. Navy show of force would escalate tensions with China

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CNN reports: The US Navy’s Pacific Fleet has drawn up a classified proposal to carry out a global show of force as a warning to China and to demonstrate the US is prepared to deter and counter their military actions, according to several US defense officials. The draft proposal from the Navy is recommending the US Pacific Fleet conduct a series of operations during a single week in November. The goal is to carry out a highly focused and concentrated…

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Most American soldiers are overweight and underslept

Most American soldiers are overweight and underslept

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Military Times reports: A 2018 RAND report on health promotion and disease prevention has painted a grim picture of the military’s physical fitness and sleep standards. The study, featuring roughly 18,000 randomly selected participants across each of the service branches, showed that almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or obese, based on the military’s use of body mass index as a measuring standard. While the number of overweight service members is a cause for…

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