【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2NFvo6w Countdown to Death: Trump Details Soleimani's End
Cameras "miles in the sky," a countdown and then "boom": US President Donald Trump has recounted the final moments of Iran's powerful military leader, Qassem Soleimani, in an American drone strike.
Trump delivered the account Friday night to Republican Party donors at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, for a fundraising dinner, U.S. media said.
CNN on Saturday broadcast an audio recording in which the president gave new details about the January 3 strike at the airport in Baghdad. It killed the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander and members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary force with close ties to Iran.
"He was supposed to be invincible," Trump said.
Democrats and other critics have questioned the timing of the strike, the month before Trump's Senate impeachment trial, and the administration's shifting reasons for launching it.
In the audio released by CNN, Trump did not refer to an "imminent" attack that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Soleimani was planning. Nor was there a reference to "four embassies," which Trump later alleged were being targeted.
'Saying bad things'
"He was saying bad things about our country. He was saying like, 'We're going to attack your country. We're going to kill your people.' I said, 'Look, how much of this s*** do we have to listen to?' " Trump told his guests.
He then described the scene, relaying the words of the military officers giving live updates to him in Washington.
"They said, 'Sir' — and this is from, you know, cameras that are miles in the sky — 'they are together, sir. Sir, they have two minutes and 11 seconds.' No bulls***. 'They have two minutes and 11 seconds to live, sir. They're in the car. They're in an armored vehicle, going. … Sir, they have approximately one minute to live, sir ... 30 seconds, 10, nine, eight … .' Then, all of sudden, boom. 'They're gone, sir.' "
Trump acknowledged that the U.S. strike "shook up the world" but said Soleimani "deserved to be hit hard" because he was responsible for killing "thousands of Americans."
Iran vowed revenge for the U.S. strike, raising fears of war, and later launched missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. None were killed.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2tylVqN Cefn Coch
Badgerchap: ←Created page with 'Cefn Coch is a small village or hamlet near Llanfair Caereinion in Mid Wales, located at 52.61500168 N,-3.40714327 W<ref> https://...'
Cefn Coch is a small village or [[hamlet]] near [[Llanfair Caereinion]] in [[Mid Wales]], located at 52.61500168 [[North|N]],-3.40714327 [[West|W]]<ref> https://ift.tt/30ywiac>. In 2012 the village was chosen as the site for a substation serving several [[wind farms]] in the area, causing public outcry <ref>https://ift.tt/3alNFQ5>
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2ue3yHA List of Algerian football transfers winter 2019–20
Hichem algerino: ←Created page with 'This is a list of Algerian football transfers in the 2019–20 winter transfer window by club. clubs in the 2019–20 Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 are in...'
This is a list of Algerian football transfers in the 2019–20 winter transfer window by club. clubs in the [[2019–20 Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1]] are included.
[[Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli)|Al-Ittihad Club]]}}<ref></ref> [[Club Africain]]}}<ref></ref> [[Albacete Balompié]] II}}<ref></ref>
'''Out:'''
===JS Saoura===
'''In:'''
'''Out:'''
===MC Alger===
'''In:'''
'''Out:'''
===MC Oran===
'''In:'''
'''Out:'''
===NA Hussein Dey===
'''In:'''
[[US Tataouine]]}}<ref></ref>
'''Out:'''
[[USM Alger]]}}<ref name="ligue-1-ilyes-yaiche-de-retour-a-lusma"></ref> [[Espérance Sportive de Tunis|Espérance de Tunis]]}}<ref></ref> [[Étoile du Sahel]]}}<ref></ref>
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/365zbjW National Archives Removes Exhibit With Altered Images of Women's March
The U.S. National Archives, home to foundational documents such as the Bill of Rights, apologized Saturday for altering images critical of President Donald Trump at an exhibit on women's fight for voting rights and said it had removed the display.
The entrance to the Washington exhibit had featured interlaced photographs of a 1913 women's suffrage march and the Women's March that took place on January 21, 2017, each visible from a different angle. In the 2017 photograph, the word "Trump" had been blurred in at least two signs carried by demonstrators, including one that originally read "God Hates Trump."
The word "vagina" and other anatomical references were also obscured.
No repeat pledged
"We apologize, and will immediately start a thorough review of our exhibit policies and procedures so that this does not happen again," the archives said in statement.
The photo editing was first reported by The Washington Post on Friday and witnessed by a Reuters reporter on Saturday at the same time as demonstrators attending this year's Women's March strolled through downtown Washington in the cold and drizzle.
The Post reported Friday that the archives had said in a statement last week that as a nonpartisan agency it had altered the image "so as not to engage in current political controversy."
Roughly an hour after Reuters witnessed the altered image, however, the archives issued a public apology in which it said it had removed the display and would replace it as soon as possible with one that uses the unaltered image.
"We made a mistake. As the National Archives of the United States, we are and have always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration," it said.
Along with its popular Washington museum, which includes exhibits of founding documents, the agency preserves government records and oversees research centers and presidential libraries in dozens of locations across the United States.
"Public access to government records strengthens democracy by allowing Americans to claim their rights of citizenship, hold their government accountable and understand their history," its mission statement reads.
Not easy to spot
The altered 2017 image was easy to miss, visible only from the side of the display at an angle of around 45 degrees. From the front, only the 1913 suffrage march — part of the movement that led to women winning the vote in 1920 — was visible.
Trump has been criticized for his behavior toward women, including for taped comments that surfaced in 2016 in which he can be heard bragging about groping and having sex with women.
At the time, Trump dismissed the tape as locker room banter.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2NGaSmj National Archives apologizes for blurring anti-Trump signs in Women's March photo: 'We made a mistake' The National Archives on Saturday apologized for having blurred out signs in a photograph of the 2017 Women's March in Washington D.C. showcased at the museum -- saying it would review policies and replace the image. January 19, 2020 at 07:07AM
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2R4960p Deaths related to binge-drinking on the rise, new studies show Next time you toast to your health, you might want to make it a water. January 19, 2020 at 06:18AM
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/3ajDfAF Erdogan Calls on Europe to Back Turkey's Moves in Libya
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Europe to support its work in Libya, where it is providing military support to the internationally recognized government, if it wants to end the conflict there.
Erdogan made his remarks in a column published on the Politico website on Saturday, ahead of a summit in Berlin on Sunday that will try to stabilize the country.
At the meeting, Germany and the United Nations will push rival Libyan camps fighting over the capital, Tripoli, to agree to a truce and monitoring mechanism as first steps toward peace, diplomats and a draft communique said.
Turkey supports the government of Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli and describes Khalifa Haftar, who heads the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA), as a coup plotter.
"Keeping in mind that Europe is less interested in providing military support to Libya, the obvious choice is to work with Turkey, which has already promised military assistance," Erdogan wrote.
"We will train Libya's security forces and help them combat terrorism, human trafficking and other serious threats against international security," he added.
Conversation with Merkel
As the summit loomed, the Turkish president spoke by phone with its host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to discuss developments in Libya and the region, Erdogan's office said.
In a sign of tensions surrounding the Libyan issue, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised Greece for hosting Haftar ahead of the summit in a tweet directed at Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
"Inviting Haftar to Greece and highlighting Greek national agenda sabotage the efforts to bring peace to Libya. We would like to remind our Greek friends that these futile efforts are in vain. @NikosDendias," Cavusoglu wrote.
Sunday's summit will put pressure on Haftar and the LNA to halt a nine-month offensive against Tripoli after a weeklong lull in fighting. But it will not try to broker power-sharing between the two sides, said diplomats briefed on preparations.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/378T3E9 Famed chef Paul Bocuse's restaurant downgraded to 2 Michelin stars after 55 years The Michelin guide announced Friday that Bocuse's restaurant in Collonges-au-Mont-d'or, near the French city of Lyon, has been downgraded to two stars. January 19, 2020 at 04:23AM
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/3aqBaTh Cameroon Teachers Protest, Seek Reinstatement of Corporal Punishment Amid Rising Violence
Cameroon teachers are protesting what they say is growing violence against them by both students and their parents, and the teachers are urging the government to protect them and reinstate corporal punishment. The teachers say the absence of corporal punishment is encouraging abuse of teachers. This week, several attacks on teaching staffs were reported, including one in which a teenage student fatally stabbed his teacher, in the capital.
Students shout Saturday at a government-run school in Obala, a town on the outskirts of Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, protesting the principal's decision to destroy all mobile phones and knives seized from children Friday at the school. One of their senior discipline masters, Narcisse Ateba, says the students use mobile phones to access social media platforms that promote violence, and they also use sharp objects such as knives to attack their peers and teachers.
He says that some parents and students will want to harass or beat him up, but he has nonetheless decided to publicly destroy the 15 mobile phones found and seized by teachers from students Friday because it is illegal to use them in classrooms. He says he will not allow students to come to school with razor blades, box-cutters and knives.
The destruction of the mobile phones and the peaceful marches to administrative offices and palaces are part of protests by teachers at Obala against what they say are increasing acts of violence against them.
This week, a 16-year-old student at the public school Nkolbisson in a neighborhood in Yaounde is accused of using a knife to stab his mathematics teacher who died of excessive bleeding as he was being rushed to a hospital. The school said the student insisted on using his mobile phone in class against the teacher's instruction. The student was arrested and detained by police, and will be answering to charges, including premeditated killing.
Another teacher this week was battered by students in Douala for questioning why they were late to school, and yet another teacher in Douala was beaten by a parent and fell into a coma. The parent was said to be angry with the teacher's decision to use corporal punishment on his son as punishment for making noise in class. In another incident, a student used a machete to chop off another student's finger in Obala after a fight during a soccer match.
Elvis Yisinyuy, an official with the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union in Yaounde, says attacks by students on teachers intensified in 2015 when Cameroon prohibited teachers from beating or severely punishing students.
"When a minister says that teachers are not supposed to administer corporal punishment to students, the student will now see that he [the minister] has the right to bring disorder because there is nothing the teacher can do in class," said Yisinyuy. "The minister should revisit the text and permit teachers to administer corporal punishment with caution."
Yusinyuy said the high wave of drug consumption by students and the inability of teachers to use corporal punishment because they have been prohibited from doing so is also responsible for the wave of attacks.
Nalova Lyonga, Cameroon minister of secondary education, says corporal punishment can not be tolerated because it is an abuse on the rights of students who are mostly children.
"What I have told the teachers is that they themselves have to make a distinction between a disciplinary case and a case which becomes a criminal case, and they should be able to report to the special police at the disposal of the schools," said Lyonga.
Lyonga said Cameroon students are exposed to other cultures of the world because of the increasing use of mobile phones, and they gain access to social media platforms that promote violence, while neglecting the peace and unity that Cameroon traditionally preaches.
Carol Kayum, president of Reference Citizens, a non-governmental organization that promotes citizenship education, has been visiting schools in Yaounde to educate both teachers and students against violence. She says Cameroon should uphold it's culture of non-violence to prevent the growing number of assaults on other students and teachers.
"Our cultures are rich. Parents should transmit them to children, and also there should be communication between schools and parents so that we know what our children are doing in school, and we also tell the school authorities what the children do at home," said Kayum. "School authorities and parents should control the use of drugs.
Kayum said many people now join the teaching profession because they lack jobs, and not for the love of teaching, and as such, they are not loved by students.
The students also have complained they are harassed by some teachers whom they accuse of behaving poorly or not teaching well.
The Cameroon Ministry of Secondary Education has recorded 40 violent attacks by students on their peers, 22 attacks on teachers and 15 attacks by parents on teachers within the past month.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2G3o2Wp Student Debtor Forgiven $220,000 in School Loans
A judge in bankruptcy court has ruled in favor of a law school graduate who asked to have more than $220,000 in student debt erased.
The case is notable because student debt is commonly thought to be unforgivable in bankruptcy cases, a lament of many students who leave college saying they are too financially burdened to advance the milestones of adulthood, like buying property or having children.
But borrower Kevin J. Rosenberg, 46, of Beacon, N.Y., asked the court to forgive his student debt because repaying the loans was impossible and created an undue hardship, the legal test of whether a debtor should be forgiven.
Rosenberg's student debt commenced in 1993, when he enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, according to court documents. After receiving a bachelor's degree in history, he served in the U.S. Navy on active duty for five years.
He then attended Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York from 2001 to 2004. His degrees were financed by student loans.
When he graduated from law school in April 2005, he consolidated his debts with a nonprofit corporation called Educational Credit Management Corp., (ECMC), owing $116,464 in principle on the loan amount before interest. But by November 19, 2019, the 3.38% interest rate expanded that loan debt to $221,385.
Rosenberg is among a small percentage of student debtors – 2% -- who owe most of the nation's $1.7 trillion student debt. This group borrowed money to pay for expensive graduate school programs, like law and medicine.
The average loan debt for law school graduates in 2012 was between $84,600 and $122,158, according to the American Bar Association. Almost 70% of law school graduates in 2016 left with student debt, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
ECMC -- a nonprofit lender organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- argued that Rosenberg did not meet the undue hardship standard. They cited his age (45), health, lack of dependents, two degrees, and law licenses in New York and New Jersey in their legal brief."
Shortly after starting his first job as an associate attorney at a law firm, [Rosenberg] decided that practicing law was not for him, because he disliked working in an office and did not find the work interesting," New Jersey attorney Kenneth Baum, who represented ECMC, wrote in his court brief.
"Thus, after leaving that job after only 2½ months, [Rosenberg], with the exception of a brief period of working as a part-time contract attorney on a project basis – which [he] likened to working as a paralegal – has not sought any employment in the legal profession and has no intention of ever doing so, despite the fact that opportunities abound for Plaintiff to make a very respectable living in the legal profession," Baum wrote.
Rosenberg was quoted in Yahoo Finance on January 12, saying, "First of all, I realized the whole job is sitting in the office by yourself. You can't be creative at all, but also that you either help people out or you make a good living -- you can't do both. And I kind of had a problem with that."
But Rosenberg told VOA that his hardship was caused by the collapse in the bricks-and-mortar retail industry in 2017, when a shop he owned in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, failed because consumers made their purchases online.
"I left the law in 2005 and filed for bankruptcy in 2018," Rosenberg told VOA in email and by phone. "In between, I was able to launch a business as a street vendor and grow it into a small shop, and then with the help of an investor, a much larger shop that was nationally recognized, before brick & mortar retail collapsed in 2017. It was nation's switch to ecommerce and the collapse of retail that directly caused my bankruptcy."
Judge Cecelia G. Morris, chief U.S. Bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York, agreed with Rosenberg. She used the student-debt test case, Brunner v N.Y. State Higher Education Services Corp., from 1987 differently than other decisions. "
Brunner has received a lot of criticism for creating too high of a burden for most bankruptcy petitioners to meet," Morris wrote. For Brunner, who filed for bankruptcy within a year of graduation, "the test is difficult to meet," she wrote. "
However, for a multitude of petitioners like Mr. Rosenberg, who have been out of school and struggling with student loan debt for many years, the test itself is fairly straightforward and simple," she said.
Rosenberg was relieved of his debt.
Student-loan experts say that most students are under the impression that student debt cannot be relieved in bankruptcy court. Some get bad advice from attorneys who also believe student debt cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy court. "
Jason Iuliano, student-debt expert and assistant professor of law at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.
You can't discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy: That was the prevailing wisdom," said Jason Iuliano, an expert in student debt and assistant professor of law at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.
But Iuliano, whose own student debt was hundreds of thousands of dollars after receiving degrees from Harvard University and Princeton University, dove into the caseload and found that wasn't true. "
What I found when I actually went in and collected the cases was a lot of folks actually do meet the [undue hardship] test," he said. "About 40% of the student loan debtors in bankruptcy … are successful in getting a discharge of some sort. And that struck me as really important."
Iuliano said about 250,000 student debtors file for bankruptcy each year. But only about 500 of them take a necessary additional legal step – an adversary proceeding - to address college-loan specific debt. Only 1% end up going in front of a judge.
"A lot more people should be filing and trying to prove undue hardship, because they would be successful if they actually came before a judge," Iuliano advised.
Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending in Washington.
Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, celebrated the decision, but said student debt that impacts low-income and minority borrowers more than any others should be addressed long before debtors end up with interest-bloated loans. "
My initial thought was, 'This is great, good for him.' We've always supported student-loan discharge of both private and federal loans," Harrington said. "But, there still is a need for Congress to do something about it."
Among students in the Class of 2016, 70% borrowed an average of $30,000, Harrington said."
People are really struggling under this debt for a very long time. Your repayment term is 20 to 25 years, and that's as long as some people's mortgages," she said."
Part of the conversation is changing in judicial chambers because everyone is realizing what a crisis this is, seeing how it effects students' lives," Harrington added. "How much help have you given them?"
Rosenberg said he is frustrated by "some folks [who] come away acting like my case was a scheme to get out of a bad decision and it wasn't.
"I did everything I could to avoid bankruptcy and tried to work things out with the lenders but they refused to budge ... I only filed for bankruptcy when I had no other realistic option."
ECMC has the right to appeal the decision. Spokesperson Laura Telander Graf emailed VOA that "We are reviewing the ruling to determine how we will proceed."
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2R4y1B7 Shire of Gascoyne-Minilya
The Drover's Wife: New article.
The '''Shire of Gascoyne-Minilya''' was a [[Local government areas of Western Australia|local government area]] in [[Western Australia]].
It was established on 17 March 1911 as the '''Gascoyne-Minilya Road District''' with the amalgamation of the Lower Gascoyne Road District and the Minilya Road District.<ref name="mbar"></ref> It was based in the town of [[Carnarvon, Western Australia|Carnarvon]], although the township was located in the separate [[Municipality of Carnarvon]].<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2) </ref>
A section of the district was severed on 11 August 1911 with the establishment of the [[Shire of Mullewa|Mullewa Road District]].<ref name=mbar />
It was declared a shire with effect from 1 July 1961 following the passage of the ''Local Government Act 1960'', which reformed all remaining road districts into shires.<ref name=mbar />
The [[Shire of Exmouth]] was separated from Gascoyne-Minilya on 23 June 1961 due to the development of the town of [[Exmouth, Western Australia|Exmouth]].<ref name=mbar />
It ceased to exist on 12 February 1965 when it amalgamated with the [[Town of Carnarvon]] to form the [[Shire of Carnarvon]].<ref name=mbar />
==References==
[[Category:Former local government areas of Western Australia]]
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2swU0Hg US Official: Unknown if Iran Athlete Plans to Seek Asylum in America
A U.S. official says women are the force behind the massive protests in Iran, and that the United States is unaware of whether Iranian Olympic athlete Kimia Alizadeh is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Alizadeh, Iran's only female Olympic medalist, said earlier this week on social media that she has permanently left Iran because she had had enough of being used by its authorities for political purposes."
I don't know if she is seeking asylum so I can't speak to that," Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, said Friday when asked by VOA if the U.S. would welcome Alizadeh if she seeks asylum in the United States.
"Much of the strength and the energy in the anti-regime protests are being led by Iranian women," Hook said, adding he believes "many more Iranian women would like to leave the oppression that this regime presents to them." Iran was shocked when Alizadeh announced her defection earlier this week.
Iranian politician Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh accused "incompetent officials" of allowing Iran's "human capital to flee," according to media reports.
A deputy Iranian sports minister, Mahin Farhadizadeh, reportedly told the news agency ISNA that Alizadeh defected to pursue her education "in physiotherapy," according to a New York Post report.
Friday, Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess referee who is in Russia for the Women's World Chess Championship, told Reuters she does not want to return home out of fear for her safety. Bayat has been accused of violating her nation's Islamic dress code while adjudicating a women's tournament.
Last week, protests erupted across Iran after a period of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 2, and Iran responded Jan. 8 by launching an airstrike from Tehran against an Iraqi base that housed U.S. military. Shortly after, a Ukrainian International Airline Boeing 737 taking off from Tehran's airport crashed, killing all 176 people on board. Three days later, Iran admitted to mistakenly shooting down the airplane, which led to street protests in Tehran and several other Iranian cities.
The 21-year-old Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, did not reveal her whereabouts but in the past has said she wants to settle in the Netherlands.
In a tweet, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said "#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran's only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime's oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them."
#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran's only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime's oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them. https://t.co/NIzdo4PPwI
Western media had credited the taekwondo medalist with "emboldening Iranian girls and women to push the boundaries of personal freedom."
In December, Alireza Firouzja, Iran's top-rated chess champion, said he would not play for Iran in an upcoming tournament and is ready to renounce his citizenship because of a ban on competing against Israeli players.
Saeid Mollaei, an Iranian judo world champion, left the country for Germany last fall and sought asylum. Mollaei said he had been pressured to deliberately lose in the semifinals at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo to avoid facing Israelis.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2TyUVlG Jury of 7 Men, 5 Women Selected for Weinstein's Rape Trial
A jury of seven men and five women was selected Friday for Harvey Weinstein's rape trial after an arduous, two-week process in which scores of people were dismissed because they had already made up their minds about the disgraced Hollywood mogul.
Opening statements are expected Wednesday in the case against the 67-year-old executive who has come to be seen as the arch villain of the #MeToo era.
The once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love is charged with raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing a sex act on another at his apartment in 2006. He has said any sexual activity was consensual. If convicted, he could get life in prison.
During jury selection, prosecutors accused Weinstein's lawyers of systematically trying to keep young women off the panel, though the final gender makeup of the jury turned out to be more closely balanced.
Mistrial sought
For its part, the defense raised an outcry and demanded a mistrial because one of the jurors is the author of an upcoming novel involving young women dealing with predatory older men. The request was denied, but Weinstein's lawyers continued to claim outside court that the juror had withheld the information on her questionnaire.
``We got the best jury we could get under the circumstances,`` defense attorney Donna Rotunno told reporters. ``I'm obviously not happy with what happened in the end there. I think that was an absolutely ridiculous decision.``
The defense said it wasn't specifically trying to exclude young women but didn't want jurors too young to understand the way men and women interacted in the early 1990s.
``That was a different time in New York and on planet Earth,'' said another Weinstein attorney, Arthur Aidala,
A stooped Weinstein, shuffling out of the courthouse with the use of a walker because of recent back surgery, had no comment when asked for his thoughts on jury selection. ``Ask Donna!'' he said, referring to Rotunno.
Donna Rotunno walks ahead of her client Harvey Weinstein, left, as they arrive at a Manhattan courthouse to attend jury selection for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges in New York, Jan. 17, 2020.
Three alternates — one man and two women — were also seated and will sit through the trial and take the place of any jurors who can't make it through to deliberations.
On the first day of jury selection last week, one-third of the first 120 prospective jurors were promptly sent home after Judge James Burke asked if there was anyone who could not be impartial and about 40 hands went up. Each day for nearly a week afterward, dozens of people raised their hands when the question was asked of a new batch of potential jurors.
Of the more than 600 people summoned for the case, some marked themselves for disqualification by admitting they knew one of Weinstein's many accusers, had personal experience with sexual abuse or had read Catch and Kill, a book by Ronan Farrow, one of the first reporters to expose the allegations against Weinstein.
Weinstein's lawyers have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to move the trial out New York City, arguing that heavy publicity has turned the case into a ``carnival'' and that the media hub where celebrities and ordinary people often intersect can't possibly give their client a fair trial. The request is now before a state appeals court.
Not a 'referendum'
Cognizant of the media attention and the weight some people are attaching to the case, the judge cautioned potential jurors: ``This trial is not a referendum on the #MeToo movement.''
Supermodel Gigi Hadid was summoned for jury duty and briefly remained in the running even though she said she had met the defendant. A man whose wife starred on a show that Weinstein's studio produced said he couldn't be impartial. A woman said she couldn't be impartial because she has a ``close friend who had an encounter with the defendant in his hotel room.''
Another man was scratched for saying he couldn't be fair-minded because he had often spotted Weinstein in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. ``On several occasions I've seen him on the phone screaming at someone,'' he said.
There was at least one instance of what jury consultants call ``stealth jurors'' — people eager to serve, especially on a high-profile case, because they hope to make a point or a profit.
On Thursday, the judge threatened to hold a potential juror in contempt of court for asking his followers on Twitter ``how a person might hypothetically leverage serving on the jury of a high-profile case to promote their new novel.''
Pesky Pelican Grille shows they aren't going anywhere after Hurricane Michael
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2uVuHzu FRANKLIN COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — Taking a trip through Franklin County, many locally-owned restaurants and businesses sit along highway 98. January 18, 2020 at 09:11AM
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2G6oBOZ Trump Adds Big Names to Impeachment Defense Team
President Donald Trump has assembled a made-for-TV legal team for his Senate impeachment trial.
The team includes Ken Starr, the prosecutor whose investigation two decades ago resulted in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Also, former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz will deliver constitutional arguments meant to shield Trump from allegations that he abused his power.
The additions on Friday bring experience in the politics of impeachment as well as constitutional law to the team, which faced a busy weekend of deadlines for legal briefs and other documents before opening arguments begin Tuesday.
The two new Trump attorneys are already nationally known both for their involvement in some of the more consequential legal dramas of recent American history and for their regular appearances on Fox News, the president's preferred television network.
FILE - Attorney Alan Dershowitz leaves federal court in New York, Dec. 2, 2019.
Dershowitz is a constitutional expert whose expansive views of presidential powers echo those of Trump. Starr is a veteran of partisan battles in Washington, having led the investigation into Clinton's affair with a White House intern that brought the president's impeachment by the House. Clinton was acquitted at his Senate trial, the same outcome Trump is expecting from today's Republican-led chamber.
Still, the lead roles for Trump's defense will be played by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, who also represented Trump during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
There are some signs of tension involving the president's outside legal team and lawyers within the White House.
The White House would not confirm the fuller roster of the president's lawyers Friday, and some officials there bristled that the announcement was not coordinated with them. Hours after Dershowitz announced his involvement with the team in a series of tweets on Friday, he played down his role by saying that he would be present for only an hour or so to make constitutional arguments.
Not a 'full-fledged member'
``I'm not a full-fledged member of the defense team,`` he told ``The Dan Abrams Show`` on SiriusXM. He has long been a critic of ``the overuse of impeachment,`` he said, and would have made the same case for a President Hillary Clinton.
A legal brief laying out the contours of the Trump defense, due at noon on Monday, was still being drafted, with White House attorneys and the outside legal team grappling over how political the document should be. Those inside the administration have echoed warnings from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the pleadings must be sensitive to the Senate's more staid traditions and leave the sharper rhetoric to Twitter and cable news.
White House lawyers were successful in keeping Trump from adding House Republicans to the team, but they also advised him against tapping Dershowitz, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. They're concerned because of the professor's association with Jeffrey Epstein, the millionaire who killed himself in jail last summer while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
A Fox News host said on the air that Starr would be parting ways with the network as a result of his role on the legal team.
FILE - White House adviser Pam Bondi stands in the Oval Office as President Donald Trump participates in a bill signing ceremony for the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, Nov. 25, 2019, in Washington.
Other members of Trump's legal defense include Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general; Jane Raskin, who was part of the president's legal team during Mueller's investigation; and Robert Ray, who was part of the Whitewater investigation of the Clintons.
Trump was impeached by the House last month on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, stemming from his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democratic rivals as he was withholding security aid, and his efforts to block the ensuing congressional probe.
Senators were sworn in as jurors on Thursday by Chief Justice John Roberts.
The president insists he did nothing wrong, and he complains about his treatment daily, sometimes distracting from unrelated events. On Friday, as Trump welcomed the championship LSU football team to the Oval Office for photos, he said the space had seen ``a lot of presidents, some good, some not so good. But you got a good one now, even though they're trying to impeach the son of a bitch. Can you believe that?''
New revelations
While the president speaks dismissively of the case, new revelations are mounting about his actions toward Ukraine.
The Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the White House violated federal law in withholding the security assistance to Ukraine, which shares a border with hostile Russia.
At the same time, an indicted associate of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, has turned over to prosecutors new documents linking the president to the shadow foreign policy being run by Giuliani. The voluble Giuliani is not expected to play a formal role on the impeachment defense legal team, according to one official.
The GAO report and Parnas documents have applied fresh pressure to senators to call more witnesses for the trial, a main source of contention that is still to be resolved. The White House has instructed officials not to comply with subpoenas from Congress requesting witnesses or other information.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2G4je2M Trade deals, Trump impeachment trial showcase 'Washington whiplash' at its finest Only in Washington could you have such a juxtaposition. January 18, 2020 at 07:49AM
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2ND2lk7 US General '100% Confident' Against North Korean Missiles
The United States has long seen North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons as a major national security threat. But the missiles Pyongyang would use to deliver a nuclear bomb appear to be a different matter.
A top U.S. general Friday dismissed concerns North Korea's rapidly developing missile program is capable, for now, of producing anything that could get by U.S. defenses.
"I have 100% confidence," General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Washington. "I don't say 100% confidence often. I have 100% confidence in those capabilities against North Korea."
'Gift' wasn't given
U.S. military and intelligence officials have been keeping an especially close eye on Pyongyang since late last year, when leader Kim Jong Un threatened to give Washington a "Christmas gift" it might not like.
At the time, U.S. officials expected some sort of weapons test or a test of one of the country's new long-range ballistic missiles. Only no such test ever materialized. And with negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang seemingly stalled, there are growing concerns a peaceful, diplomatic solution may be drifting out of reach.
Earlier this week, during a news conference at the Pentagon with Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters the next move was "in Kim Jong Un's hands."
FILE - Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Japan's Defense Minister Taro Kono speak during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 14, 2020.
"We continue to send the message to North Korea that the best path forward is through a diplomatic solution that results in the denuclearization of North Korea," Esper said.
"We monitor very closely what's happening," Esper added, warning that if necessary, "we remain ready to fight tonight."
Speaking alongside Esper, Kono voiced hope that dialogue could prevail.
"Hopefully, he will make the right decision for his own people," the Japanese minister said of North Korea's Kim.
Nearly 70 tests
Even as Pyongyang engaged in talks with the U.S. last year, it launched 13 missile tests, bring the total of tests under Kin Jong Un to almost 70.
"They've changed the entire structure of the world with the 115th most powerful economy," Hyten said Friday at the Center for Strategic International Studies.
FILE - People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.
"North Korea has been building new missiles, new capabilities, new weapons as fast as anyone on the planet," he added. "They learned how to go fast."
In contrast to his confidence in defending against North Korean missiles, Hyten warned U.S. systems are not nearly as capable against new and emerging technologies, like hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China.
"It doesn't matter what the threat is, if you can't see it, you can't defend against it," the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command warned, calling for space-based sensors while acknowledging their likely hefty price tag.
"I would like to see research and development into low-Earth-orbit as well as medium-Earth-orbit," he said. "That's the only way to get a global [missile defense] capability that is affordable."
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2RvR7PH Nigerian Authorities to Financially Support Families of Fallen Soldiers
Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osibanjo this week announced plans by the government to allocate funds to support families of fallen troops and to increase the allotment to veterans and those currently serving in the military.
The announcement came amid events marking Armed Forces Remembrance Day on Wednesday.
"This is the commitment that the federal government through the president has made to do better for our veterans and the families of our fallen heroes and to improve the conditions of those who serve today," Osibanjo said. "And we shall do so incrementally, making provisions in the annual budget. We do not and will not take our men and women of the armed forces for granted."
Thousands of victims
Since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009, thousands of troops have been killed by the Islamist militant group and its West African affiliate ISWAP, leaving behind their families. Leaders of the Military Widows Association (MiWA) say there are more than 5,000 registered members and the number keeps growing by the day.
Armed Forces Remembrance Day is usually celebrated to remember troops and their families and also renew commitments toward ending the war. This year's event was by far the most memorable, said Marlin Idris, whose husband was killed by Boko Haram during an ambush on a military convoy in Borno state in 2014.
"The army has been very supportive, the government has been supportive through the army as well, and then other individuals have also tried to support the widows," Idris said. "Basically, I'd say even though it seemed as if our lives ended at that point in time, we're still moving because God has provided people that supported us."
Sign of hope
Gift Aloko, president of the widows association, said, "When they're burying your husband, they tell you, 'Madam, we're here for you,' but this is the first time we're seeing that 'we're here for you' is really a word that they fulfilled."
The widows now do not receive any official payment from the government, but Aloko said they usually get some donations from the wife of the country's defense chief.
It is not known when the budgetary allotment to families of slain soldiers will take effect, but the families are waiting and hoping the government fulfills its promise.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/363PTQP Erdogan Takes Sides in Libyan Conflict Ahead of Berlin Meeting
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doubling down on support for the U.N.-backed government in Libya ahead of a Berlin conference aimed at ending the Libyan civil war.
Erdogan, who is set to attend the Sunday meeting, lashed out at Libyan rebel leader General Khalifa Haftar on Friday while announcing the deployment of Turkish forces to Libya.
Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar meets Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not pictured) at the Parliament in Athens, Greece, Jan. 17, 2020.
"Haftar is a man I do not trust. … He continued bombing Tripoli yesterday," Erdogan said in a statement. Haftar is waging war against the Turkey-backed Government of National Accord.
A day earlier, Erdogan announced additional military forces would be deployed in support of the GNA. Earlier this month, Ankara sent a few dozen military personnel and equipment to Tripoli as part of a military agreement with the GNA.
Haftar infuriated Erdogan by refusing to sign a cease-fire agreement Wednesday brokered by Turkey and the Russian government. Russian mercenaries linked to the Kremlin are backing Haftar, although Russian President Vladimir Putin denies arming the militia.
"With these new developments, Turkey is getting more and more in a losing position," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "Probably Tayyip Erdogan will face much bigger problems in Berlin than he assumed before. He [Erdogan] thought he would be in a stronger position, but with no cease-fire, he is in a much more difficult position."
Haftar and GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj are expected to attend the Berlin conference. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also confirmed his attendance.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas met with Haftar on Thursday, claiming a breakthrough. Maas tweeted Haftar "has agreed to abide by the ongoing cease-fire" and that the Berlin meeting offered "the best chance in a long time" for peace.
But Turkey is voicing skepticism about the prospects for peace and has criticized the conference for excluding Turkish allies Qatar and Tunisia.
"He [Erdogan] will be taking a very hard position in Berlin," said Bagci. "I expect more, harsher words in Berlin — he is not going there to be soft, [he] is going there to be very hard."
FILE - In this photo taken on Oct. 30, 2018, Turkey's oil and gas drillship Conquerer is seen off the coast of Antalya, southern Turkey.
Turkish oil interests
Ankara says the survival of the GNA is a strategic priority. Along with a security deal, Erdogan also signed an agreement with Sarraj that gives Turkey control of a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean. The area is believed to have vast potential reserves of hydrocarbons.
"We will start search and drilling activities as soon as possible in 2020 after issuing licenses for the areas," Erdogan said Friday, adding that a seismic exploration vessel would soon be deployed to this field.
Turkey's deal with the GNA is strongly condemned by Greece, which claims the contested region as part of its territorial waters.
The two countries are engaged in an increasingly bitter competition for resources in the eastern Mediterranean.
Analysts note Turkey is aware that if Haftar were to prevail in the Libyan civil war, all deals it made with the GNA likely would become null and void.
FILE - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appears at a reception, at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 8, 2020.
On Thursday, Haftar flew by private plane to Athens and was taken to a luxury hotel for two days of talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
In a move that could further complicate the Berlin talks, Mitsotakis underlined his determination to annul Turkey's Mediterranean deal with the GNA.
"Greece at the level of an [EU] summit meeting will never accept any political solution on Libya that does not include as a precondition the annulment of this agreement. To put it simply, we will use our veto," Mitsotakis said Thursday in a television interview.
EU officials are also set to attend the Berlin conference, and the EU is strongly opposed to Turkey's agreement with the GNA on the Mediterranean, saying it violates international law.
FILE - Former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende says personal chemistry can facilitate efforts to resolve escalating tensions. (Dorian Jones/VOA)
Turkey insists it's ready to negotiate. "The GNA deal aims to protect Turkish vital national interests and Turkey is not to remain isolated," said former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende. "Turkey has made it clear it's ready to talk."
In Cairo Thursday, the seven-member East Mediterranean Gas Forum pledged to strengthen cooperation, deepening Ankara's isolation. Turkey views the move by Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Egypt as an attempt to deny what Ankara sees as its fair share of Mediterranean energy resources.
Erdogan dismissed the Cairo agreement, saying, "They tried to implement a scenario to imprison our country in the Mediterranean Sea. We ended this game with the agreements we made with Turkish Cyprus and then with Libya."
Some analysts say Ankara's stance ultimately may prove counterproductive.
"Turkey wants to be in Syria, Libya and the eastern Mediterranean; it wants to be a player," Bagci said. "Turkey wants to get more and more involved in this region. But the problem is Turkey is not wanted because it creates an atmosphere of hegemony. So this is what Turkey faces, and this is why Erdogan's rhetoric is getting harsher."
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/3ae1JLo US to Screen Airline Passengers From China for New Illness
U.S. health officials announced Friday that they will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for a new virus that has sickened dozens and killed two, prompting worries about a new international outbreak.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers at three U.S. airports who traveled from the outbreak city of Wuhan.
Officials estimate roughly 5,000 passengers will go through the process in the next couple of weeks at New York City's JFK International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. The first direct flight was expected Friday night at JFK, and the next expected Saturday morning in San Francisco.
More than 40 cases of the newly identified coronavirus have been confirmed in Asia, including two deaths — at least one involving a previous medical condition. Officials have said it probably spread from animals to people but haven't been able to rule out the possibility that it spreads from person to person.
So far, the risk to the American public is deemed to be low, but the CDC wants to be prepared and is taking precautions, Dr. Martin Cetron said.
It's always possible a virus can mutate to become more dangerous. It's also likely that more cases will spring up around the world, including at least one at some point in the United States, said another CDC official, Dr. Nancy Messonnier.
At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China. The list includes Thailand and Japan, which both have reported cases of the disease in people who had come from Wuhan. Travel is unusually heavy right now as people take trips to and from China to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Arguments against screening
The CDC said the airport screenings are part of an effort to better detect and prevent the virus from the same family of bugs that caused an international outbreaks of SARS and MERS that began in 2002 and 2012.
FILE - Travelers pass by a health checkpoint before entering immigration at the international airport in Beijing, Jan. 13, 2020.
The CDC did not screen incoming passengers during those outbreaks, and some public health experts questioned whether they should do so now.
"It's not a particularly effective intervention, and it potentially offers a false sense of security," said Dr. Kamran Khan, a University of Toronto researcher who has studied airport screenings during the SARS and Ebola outbreaks.
Screeners likely will flag a lot of people with other germs — it is flu season — while missing infections from the new virus. Experts believe it may take up to two weeks between the time someone is infected and when they come down with a fever and other symptoms.
The only time the CDC has done airport screenings was in 2014, when health officials screened thousands of passengers from three West African countries for Ebola but detected no illnesses. In fact, one passenger who was infected but had no symptoms passed through the screenings and then developed symptoms after arriving in the United States.
Some have argued measures like this have less to do with good science than with politicians hoping to convince the public that the government is doing something to protect them.
Cetron rejected that notion. "There's widespread consensus we should be doing this now,'' among both political appointees and government scientists, he said.
New coronavirus
Late last month, doctors in central China began seeing cases of a new type of viral pneumonia in people who worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan. The most common symptoms were fever, cough and difficulty breathing.
This month, health authorities identified it as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some of which cause the common cold; others found in bats, camels and other animals have evolved into more severe illnesses.
SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, belongs to the coronavirus family, but Chinese state media say the illness in Wuhan is different from coronaviruses that have been identified in the past. Earlier laboratory tests ruled out SARS and MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome — as well as influenza, bird flu, adenovirus and other common lung-infecting germs.
CDC officials said Friday that they are not certain if China has begun screening passengers before they board airplanes to travel abroad, but it's been discussed.
The New York and San Francisco airports each receive three direct flights from Wuhan each week, Cetron said. Los Angeles International gets significant numbers of passengers who start their journeys in Wuhan but change planes in Beijing.
People with symptoms who seem like they might be infected will undergo testing for flu or other possible causes. Specimens can be sent to CDC for specialized testing for the new virus, though it can take a day for those results to come back, CDC officials said.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/2Rww2Eu Trump Reinforces Right to Pray in Public Schools
On National Religious Freedom Day, Thursday, the Trump administration released what it calls an updated guidance laying out "constitutional protections for prayer and religious expression in public schools."
"You have the right to pray," President Donald Trump declared during a ceremony in the Oval Office. "And that's a very important and powerful right. There's nothing more important than that."
Surrounded by students who administration officials contend have suffered discrimination for practicing religion at school, the president repeated his accusation that his Democratic opponents are waging a war against the faithful. "There is a growing totalitarian impulse on the far left that seeks to punish, restrict and even prohibit religious expression," he said.
FILE - President Donald Trump attends a U.N. event on religious freedom at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2019.
Trump has made religious freedom a key issue in his domestic and foreign policy, helping to solidify his support among conservative evangelical Christians.
The administration said the government guidelines remind public school administrators that federal funds can be withdrawn if they violate their students' rights to religious expression, and will help improve individuals' ability to file complaints if they are denied the ability to participate in protected religious expression. "It will empower students and others to know and exercise their rights," said Joe Grogan, director of the U.S. Domestic Policy Council, in a briefing for reporters.
No apparent change
Although the U.S. Education Department has not released details of the updated guidance, there appears to be no change to existing laws or regulations. While school-sponsored prayer in American public schools is prohibited under a 1962 Supreme Court ruling, individual and group prayers on school grounds are allowed. In fact, under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, school districts must certify each year that their policies do not prevent or deny participation in constitutionally protected prayer in elementary and secondary schools.
"These are mechanisms that are already in place," said Quardricos Driskell, adjunct professor of religion and politics at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "The president is trying to appeal to the fact that it is National Religious Freedom Day. I also think the president is trying to appeal to his base."
Earlier this month, at an "Evangelicals for Trump" rally in Miami, Trump pledged to bring prayer to school. "Very soon I'll be taking action to safeguard students and teachers' First Amendment rights to pray in our schools," Trump said.
FILE - Faith leaders pray with President Donald Trump during a rally for evangelical supporters at the King Jesus International Ministry church, Jan. 3, 2020, in Miami.
According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, 43% of U.S. adults, about 110 million people, identify with Protestantism; 59% of those, or 64 million, are born-again or evangelical Christians.
More than 80% of white evangelicals voted for Trump in the 2016 election.
Chad Seales, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin, called Trump's move "politically motivated" to appease white evangelicals who have focused on the issue of school prayer since the Supreme Court's landmark 1962 decision.
Seales added that, historically, protecting religious freedom meant protecting the rights of individual citizens to practice their religion without being compelled by the government. But since the 1980s — and particularly under Trump — "that language has become a lot more complicated as it's been fraught with political ambition," Seales said.
Federal funds for religious groups
The Trump administration is also proposing changes that would make it easier for religious groups that provide social services to access federal funds.
FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2016, photo, Pastor Joshua Nink, right, prays for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trump launched a coalition of evangelicals early in his 2020 presidential campaign.
Grogan said that nine federal agencies, including the Education Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department, will propose rules to ensure that federal grants and state grants with federal funding can be accessed by religious organizations in addition to secular groups, and that "organizations are not discriminated against simply because they are religious in nature."
"I support the fact that he is broadening the scope of religious freedoms," said Driskell. "My concern is that this religious freedom extends only to Christians, and particularly the evangelical wing of Christianity."
Additionally, the rules would lift an Obama-era executive order that compelled religious organizations to inform the people they serve that they can receive the same service from a secular provider.
【Move to another page】 Quote https://ift.tt/38kZGng Tapered double-clad fiber
Neil at PULSE Project: Added page on Tapered double-clad fibers
The patented technology <ref>V. Filippov, Yu. Chamorovskii, O. G. Okhotnikov and M. Pessa, US patent No.8,433,168 B2 "Active optical fiber and method for fabricating an active optical fiber".</ref> of active tapered double-clad fibers (T-DCF) was developed at Tampere University to overcome the nonlinear effects which are the major contraint for power-scaling of fiber lasers and amplifiers . T-DCF is a fiber in which outer and inner claddings and core diameters are varied smoothly with length.
The core at the narrow end of a T-DCF supports propagation of fundamental mode only, whereas at wide end the core can guide many modes. However, it has been shown experimentally <ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>, that the light launched into a narrow end of a T-DCF propagates in a wide core without any changes of a mode content. As a result, at the wide (substantially multimode) end of a T-DCF light propagates only in a fundamental mode with excellent beam quality. Thus, tapered fiber structure uniquely propagates and amlplifies a fundamental mode regime in a the multimode fiber.
Single-mode propagation has been achieved in T-DCF with a 120 µm core diameter <ref name=":0" /> and even 200 µm <ref name=":1">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> with core [[Numerical aperture|NA]]=0.11. The large core diameter of T-DCF has enabled record values of peak power and energy without significant non-linear distortions. Moreover, there are few practical limitations in the use of T-DCF, which can be wound in a 30 cm coil without compromising performance.
The main advantages of T-DCF are following:
# Allows use of a much larger fiber core (up to 200 µm) and cladding (up to 1.6mm) diameters; # Increased pump absorption, per unit length compared to regular (cylindrical) active double-clad fiber; # A built-in mechanism of suppressing of stimulated [[Brillouin scattering]] (SBS) and amplified [[spontaneous emission]] (ASE); # Immunity to mode instability; # High ratio of pump brightness enhancement; # Simplicity of production comparing with other fiber amplifier technologies (rod type fibers, 3C fibers, HOMF and LCF).
These advantages are considered in details.
'''''Extremely large core (up to 200 µm) and cladding (up to 1.6mm) diameters''''';
Large active core diameter allows to reach a high stored energy/power and, simultaneously, significantly increase non-linear effects thresholds (SBS, SRS, SPM). Happy combination of these two circumstances helps to achieve efficient amplification of short pulses. Using T-DCF, we have demonstrated 60 ps pulses with 300 µJ energy <ref name=":1" /> - the best result so far for all-fiber [[Optical parametric oscillator|MOPA]]<nowiki/>s.
By virtue of the large cladding diameter T-DCF can be pumped by optical sources with very poor brightness factor such as laser diode bars or even VECSELs matrices significantly reducing the cost of fiber lasers/amplifiers.
'''''High absorption per unit length'''''
T-DCF has a better double clad pump absorption comparing to regular double clad fibers with similar level of core doping. This is a result of two main circumstances. Firstly, the absorption at the T-DCF is always better due to better clad mode mixing <ref name=":2">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> and secondly, the absorption per unit length in the wide end T-DCF is substantially higher for geometric reasons. Indeed, rare earth ions are located preferably at the wide end of T-DCF (proportional to the square of the core diameter). This feature allows the use of preforms with relatively low [[dopant]] concentration ([[Absorption (electromagnetic radiation)|absorption]] in the core of only 300-400dB/m), which avoids the [[photodarkening]] effect. The high absorption makes it possible to create very short-amplifiers (a few tens of cm), which is important for amplification of ultrashort pulses.
'''''SBS and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression'''''
T-DCF owns embedded mechanisms of SBS and ASE suppression. It is well known from the literature that the diameter modulation leads to increasing of SBS threshold <ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>. This important feature is very useful for amplification of very narrow-band signals (MHz or kHz FWHM), for example, pulsed sources for LIDARs. ASE is suppressing at the T-DCF during propagation towards to a narrow end due to violation of the total internal reflection law. It allows to exploit a T-DCF for amplification of pulses with very low duty cycle (up to "on demand" mode).
'''''Immunity to the mode instability'''''
Earlier it was experimentally shown that spatial modulation of the core diameter along a fiber length leads to the increasing of the mode instability threshold <ref name=":2" />. This means that the T-DCF technique allows lasers and amplifiers to be built with higher output power in comparison to a regular [[Double-clad fiber|DCF]].
'''''High brightness magnification factor'''''
A [[laser]] or [[optical amplifier]] is a device which improves the brightness of a powerful pump source. Specifically, the low brightness light from a pump source is converted through the absorption process into output radiation with a longer wavelength and simultaneously with better brightness. The maximum launched pump power is determined by the clad diameter of [[Double-clad fiber|DCF]]. Since the diameter of a T-DCF's cladding is much higher (up to 1.6 mm <ref name=":2" />), it is possible to increase the brightness enhancement factor compared to regular DCFs. T-DCF lasers and amplifiers can also use low quality pump sources with very low [[brightness]], or [[M squared|M-Squared]] value which are unsuitable for pumping other fibers.
'''''Simplicity of production'''''
One of the significant advantages of T-DCF is the simplicity of production. The preform production for special high power fibers (microstructured rod type fibers, 3C or LCF fibers) involves complex technology and strict structural requirements. Conversely, T-DCF is made using standard fiber preforms. Simple production techniques of varying of the drawing speed during the pulling process leads to the fiber diameter changing along its length. T-DCF production is lhardly more complex than the production of a regular active fiber.
Thus, the simple production and special properties of T-DCF enables the realisation of a broad range of photonics devices with unique properties:
# · Ultrafast (ps and sub-ns) powerful (tens of watts) amplifiers; # · SBS-free amplifiers for high coherent radiation; # · Powerful actively Q-switched pulsed lasers; # · Brightness converters: lasers or amplifiers pumped by inexpensive powerful pumps with low brightness (laser bar stuck, VECSELs, etc.).
