Current News

Friday, November 1, 2019

Wikipedia article of the day for November 2, 2019

The Wikipedia article of the day for November 2, 2019 is Operation Okra.
McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft have flown in Australian service since 1984. In 1981, 75 "A" and "B" variants of the F/A-18 were purchased for the Royal Australian Air Force to replace Dassault Mirage III fighters. Hornets were part of the Australian contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, flying patrols and close air support sorties to assist coalition ground forces. They provided security for the American air base at Diego Garcia in late 2001 and early 2002, in addition to their domestic protection duties. Between 2015 and 2017 Hornets were deployed to the Middle East and struck Islamic State targets as part of Operation Okra. Hornets are now at risk of being outclassed by other fighters and air-defence systems, and will leave Australian service entirely in the early 2020s. Four Hornets have been destroyed in flying accidents, two were transferred to Canada in 2019 and several others have been retired.

Five hundred goats save the Ronald Reagan library from wildfires

Animal team charged with eating through 13 acres of scrubland that could have fueled California’s Easy fireGoats are released at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, during a similar crisis in 2012. Photograph: Juan Carlo/APDiligent work by a team of 500 goats has helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from wildfires that are ravaging parts of California.The library deployed the goat squadron during the spring in order to munch their way through around 13 acres of scrubland around the library that could’ve provided tinder-like fuel to a wildfire.This preventive action created a fire break between the library and the Easy fire, which has menaced thousands of homes in the Simi Valley near Los Angeles. More than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the blaze, which caused flames to approach the presidential library from a nearby hillside. Treasures saved include a piece of the Berlin Wall and Air Force One.“We actually worked with the Ventura county fire department in May and they bring out hundreds of goats to our property,” Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the library, told ABC. “The goats eat all of the brush around the entire property, creating a fire perimeter.”The goats were sourced from a firm called 805 Goats, which oversees an army of horned contractors, including Vincent van Goat, Selena Goatmez, Goatzart and, more prosaically, Oreo. The company charges fire-threatened clients about $1,000 per acre of goat-cleared land. It plans to expand its herd to cope with a growing wildfire threat in California, fueled by the climate crisis.Goats are growing in popularity as a tool to combat wildfires across the western US, as they are viewed as cheaper and more environmentally friendly than teams of human workers using chemicals. They are also used for general weed clearance in other parts of the country, such as in New York City’s Prospect Park.A heavy dependence upon goats does carry risks, however, as residents of West Boise, Idaho, found out to their cost last year when a herd of more than 100 goats rampaged through the neighborhood. The invaders caused carnage in flowerbeds and lawns before breaking a fence and it took two hours for the goats to be rounded up.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/31ZKM1T

North Dakota gov wants more monitoring after pipeline leak

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum appealed to Keystone pipeline owner TC Energy to review its inspection and monitoring of the line after it leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) in the northeastern part of the state. Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said the Republican governor spoke Thursday night to officials at the Calgary, Alberta-based company formerly known as TransCanada. North Dakota regulators said some wetlands were affected, but not any sources of drinking water.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2PBKQTg

Despite break in winds, Maria Fire north of Los Angeles becomes fast-moving blaze, prompting evacuations

Despite a break in the Santa Ana winds, the Maria Fire exploded overnight north of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2JDGcQC

Boeing's CEO was at a loss for words when he got hammered over attempts to move lawsuits from 737 Max victims' relatives to Indonesia

The House Transportation Committee grilled Dennis Muilenburg about Boeing's efforts to move lawsuits from the Lion Air crash to Indonesia.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2qXd9Rv

How The B-1 Lancer Went From A Nuclear Bomber To an ISIS Killer

Priorities and capabilities change with time.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2PwECE5

The Latest: Man accused of arson in California wildfire

Authorities say a man was arrested and accused of arson after a crew responded to a report of a wildfire in Northern California. A CalFire statement said engine crews were able to quickly contain the small fire in the Sonoma County community of Geyserville and identified a potential suspect. Authorities reported progress Wednesday in battling the Kincade fire in Sonoma County that started last week outside of Geyserville and forced the evacuation of the entire community, home to about 900 people.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36hrf0d

Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain

The polling is clear. Over the more than three years since they voted to leave the European Union, British voters have come to regret their choice. Polls consistently show a several-point margin in favor of Remain, only one in three voters will endorse the proposition that getting Brexit over with is better than further delay, and two thirds believe that a no-deal Brexit should require another referendum.So why are Boris Johnson's Tories, running on a clearer stance for Brexit than ever before, currently projected to win a decisive victory in the December election?The simplest answer is: the opposition is divided. But that answer obscures more than it reveals, because it presumes that the question of Brexit is as dominant among the opposition as it is among the Tories. And the division of the opposition itself proves that this is not the case. On the contrary: Brexit is a truly existential question for a far larger fraction of Leave voters than it is of Remain voters, and that has had and continues to have material electoral consequences.Consider the largest opposition party. Labour under Jeremy Corbin has trended in an overwhelmingly left-wing direction, not only on economic matters but also on immigration and foreign policy. A "no enemies on the left" approach has even seen extremist illiberal and anti-Semitic elements gain a greater foothold within the party. But on Brexit, Corbyn has taken a somewhat ambiguous stance, reflecting the fact that while a majority of Labourites voted Remain, a not insignificant number had always been skeptical of an economic arrangement that gave financial interests greater influence at both the national and European levels of government.That combination of stridency and straddle hasn't played well in electoral terms, and has opened space for two other parties to establish themselves as alternatives: the Liberal Democrats, a longstanding centrist liberal party that has positioned itself as the unequivocal party of Remain, and the Brexit Party, a newly-minted political faction founded by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party. At one point this past summer, both parties looked capable of surpassing the Tories, and possibly Labour as well.Since Boris Johnson took the premiership, though, the picture has changed dramatically. The Brexit party has fallen back to 10-12 percent in the polls, while the Tories have surged to the mid-to-high 30s. Moreover, Farage has intimated that he might cooperate with the Tories strategically, targeting constituencies where left-wing Leave voters are concentrated to pull them away from Labour, while staying away from seats that would be contested between the Remain-oriented Liberal Democrats and the Leave-oriented Tories.How could such a strategy work if Brexit is only getting less-popular with time? The answer comes down to intensity and cohesion.If Tory Remain voters -- of which there were many -- cared more about stopping Brexit than they did about the fate of their party, they would defect to the Liberal Democrats, badly damaging the Tories' chances of winning a majority. Similarly, if Labour Remain voters felt that Brexit was the most important issue, they would either have pushed Corbyn to a more decisive Remain stance, or would be working strategically with the Liberal Democrats in the way that the Brexit Party may work with the Tories. And the Liberal Democrats would be doing the same.But while Brexit may be a politically-defining event for the liberal center, for the left this is their first chance at power since the 1970s -- not something to be traded away lightly for the sake of free trade with Germany or even stability in Ireland. Even for liberal centrists, the choice between Corbyn and Johnson may be a tough one. For the right, meanwhile, the party as a whole seems to have come to realize that while the hard Leave voters are a minority in the country, they hold the balance of power within the Tory coalition. If they are not given the wheel, the coach isn't going anywhere.Now they have the wheel, and a Leave coalition looks likely to triumph decisively, in spite of all regrets.What happens then? The opposition could continue to come up with explanations for why the result doesn't truly reflect the will of the people -- blaming the electoral system, for instance (though in current polling the Tory-plus-Brexit coalition outpolls Labour-plus-Lib-Dems by an average of five points, suggesting even proportional representation would give victory to the Brexiteers). But they would be wiser to focus on the future. No longer dependent on the votes of Irish Unionists, nor needing to cater to the concerns of the Scottish Nationalists, a big Tory majority could govern from the center of England rather than Britain.The biggest post-Brexit challenge may not be how to get Britain back into Europe, but how to hold Britain itself together.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Pzqha0