Saturday , November 11 Veterans Day 2017 in United States of America

Marine Corps Celebrates 242nd Birthday

Members of the U.S. Marine Corp honor guard salute during the singing of the National Anthem.

The United States Marine Corps is celebrating its 242nd birthday.
The Marines formed on November 10, 1775 in Philadelphia during the American Revolution to lead the fight “on land and on sea” against the British.
Since then the marines have been an integral part of battles, especially in World War II and most recently in the Middle East in the War on Terror.
After laying a wreath at the World War II memorial in Washington Friday morning, General Robert B. Neller, the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps. addressed the crowd.
“The world we have is the world we have,” said the general. “It’s probably not the world we want, but it can become the world that we want if we are willing to sacrifice and dedicate and work hard to make it what we believe it should be.”
Currently, there are more than 180,000 active duty marines, and more than 30,000 in the Marine Reserves.
The motto of the Marine Corps — “semper fi” — was adopted around 1883, and is Latin for “always faithful.”

NYC MTA cuts 'ladies and gentlemen' from announcements for more gender-neutral phrasing

New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority announced it will no longer use the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" effective immediately.  (AP)

Riders of New York City’s subways will no longer hear the phrase “ladies and gentlemen” ringing across the PA system before the doors close, reported PIX11.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is opting for a more gender-neutral approach. Bus drivers and subway conductors are reportedly told to use words such as "passengers," "riders" and "everyone."

The change is effective immediately, reported the news outlet.
Transit staff was notified of the new policy in a bulletin earlier this week, which is part of the NYC Subway Action Plan to improve communication with its customers.
"We're fundamentally changing the way we talk with riders to give them better and clearer information," MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein told PIX11.
Pre-recorded messages that include the former language will also be changed, and more emphasis will be placed on real time live updates.
Conductors will also have more freedom in terms of announcements, making them more personable and even shouting out local landmarks, reported PIX11.
This is just one of several upcoming changes within the MTA, including a new app, improved communication of track updates and additional representatives to help with customer questions, the news outlet reported.

US citizen fighting for ISIS surrenders to US-backed forces in Syria

Mohamad Jamal Khweis 

Jan. 14, 2014: ISIS marching in Raqqa, Syria.  (AP) 

A U.S. citizen fighting for ISIS surrendered to U.S.-backed fighters in Syria, two U.S. military officials confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear where or when the surrender took place, but one official said it occurred in northern Syria in an area controlled by a U.S.-backed militia called the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF is a Kurdish and Arab army that has been fighting ISIS.

The man was not immediately identified and it was not clear where he was being held.
Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman for the coalition against ISIS, would not comment on the surrender. Dillon deferred to the State Department on the issue. 
The U.S. military command told the Daily Beast they were aware of the report.
“We are aware of the report that a U.S. citizen believed to be fighting for ISIS surrendered to Syrian Democratic Forces on or about Sept. 12," the command said in a statement. "As a precondition for Coalition support, SDF and Iraqi forces have pledged to observe international laws and the laws of armed conflict. Foreign fighters who are captured or surrender to SDF partners in Syria will be safeguarded and transported humanely, and their home nations will be contacted regarding the next steps."
The statement added: “The Coalition defers questions pertaining to captured ISIS fighters to their relative nations' Departments of State or equivalent agencies. The Coalition's mission is to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and we will pursue ISIS fighters regardless of nationality.”
The unidentified man is not the first American to be seized for participating in combat for ISIS. In March 2016, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, of Virginia, joined ISIS and then surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. Khweis later expressed regret for joining the terror group.

Trump, Putin reportedly agree to defeat ISIS in Syria

Nov. 11: U.S. President Trump and President Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam.  (Reuters)

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement on Saturday vowing to continue the fight against ISIS in Syria until the militants are completely defeated, Reuters reported, citing the Kremlin.

The statement was released after the two leaders chatted briefly during the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam, Reuters reported, citing the Kremlin.

The statement reportedly said both Washington and Moscow agree that there is no military solution to the conflict and both countries expressed a commitment to Damascus’ sovereignty.
The two leaders chatted on Saturday while they walked to a “family photograph” at the summit and donned matching silk button-down shirts the day before, holding true to the tradition of wearing local attire at annual display of cooperation among world leaders.
The White House and the Trump administration earlier appeared to downplay Trump's possible meetings with Putin during the summit.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders blamed a scheduling conflict for why the two would not have a formal meeting. But she said it was “possible” and “likely” that they would have a less formal encounter.

Reuters  (President Trump and President Putin take part in a "family photo.")

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters in Beijing on Thursday that there was no reason to schedule a formal meeting between Trump and Putin if the two countries are unable to make significant progress on issues including Syria and Ukraine.
"The view has been if the two leaders are going to meet, is there something sufficiently substantive to talk about that would warrant a formal meeting," he said.
It was reported on Thursday that Washington and Moscow were nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once ISIS is defeated.
The U.S.-Russian agreement that was being discussed focused on three elements, officials told The Associated Press: "deconfliction" between the U.S. and Russian militaries, reducing violence in the civil war and reinvigorating U.N.-led peace talks. The officials weren't authorized to discuss the deliberations and requested anonymity.

Mueller and Manafort Cartoons

Cal Thomas: Trump, Mueller and Manafort -- Get ready for more magical thinking

In considering the indictment of former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate, I am reminded of former Bill Clinton aide and defender James Carville’s line about the ability of a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”

Manafort and a longtime business partner, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to all 12 counts against them. Manafort is under house arrest after posting an outrageously high bond of $10 million. Gates’ bond was set at $5 million. George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about his foreign contacts with several top Russian officials.

Predictably, the major media are celebrating this as the beginning of the end of the nascent Trump presidency. Within hours of the announced indictments, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof rushed into print with a column titled “Will Manafort Sing? If so, it may mark the beginning of the end of this presidency.”
Look for more of this wishful thinking that the establishment, the Democrats and all of the mainstream media have been hoping for since Trump won the election.
What Manafort stands accused of has nothing to do with the 2016 election, or with Russian “collusion.” No one, so far, has produced any evidence the Russians affected the election’s outcome. This is all about overturning the results and keeping “the swamp” full for those who live in it and reject change.
Real collusion might be in the significant share of U.S. uranium sold to the Russians during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state (she signed off on the deal), followed by a $500,000 fee paid to her husband for a speech in Moscow and the millions of dollars that subsequently flowed into the Clinton Foundation from uranium investors.
Special counsel Robert Mueller and Congress should investigate that Russian connection, along with the role of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign (and the earlier Republican role) in creating an anti-Trump dossier that has been shown to be a fraud and yet was used to justify the appointment of Mueller. If the reason for Mueller’s appointment is fraudulent, how can it be said that his investigation, which includes staff attorneys who made donations to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, is not tainted?
Among the many problems with this investigation is that it has no legal, subject or monetary limits. If Mueller and his associates are unable to prove collusion with the Russians, one can count on them coming up with something else. Far-left members of Congress, such as Maxine Waters, D-Calif., openly state that their objective is to “take out” the president, and they don’t mean to lunch.
There is also the matter of leaks from the grand jury. Not surprisingly, the details of the indictments matched the leak to CNN. Unless that network employs mind readers and engages in paranormal activity, those leaks are felonies and the leakers should be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are firing up investigations of their own, including long-overdue looks into various questionable and possibly illegal activities by the Clintons. Congress is the proper avenue for such investigations, not special counsels, who can “go rogue” if they wish.
These seemingly endless accusations and investigations are what so much of the country hates about Washington, the “D.C.” that increasingly seems to stand for “dysfunctional city.”
No matter which party controls government, the other party does all it can, by whatever means, to undermine those elected. This behavior solves no problems. It is only about grabbing and holding onto power.
Given the many moving parts in the Mueller probe and the loss of focus on the primary reason for it, the government may have a difficult time proving its case in court. But with unlimited funds and a staff of lawyers who have Democratic affiliations, you can bet they will try to make more than a ham sandwich out of it.
Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated op-ed columnist. His latest book is "What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America". Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.

Radioactive cloud floating over Europe is nothing to worry about, experts say

FILE: Steam is emitted from the cooling tower at a nuclear power plant in Brussels. Authorities reportedly said the cloud poses only an “extremely low” risk of contaminating vegetation.  (AP)

Don’t mind the cloud of radioactive pollution floating over Europe – it’s harmless, the French nuclear safety institute IRSN said Thursday.

Officials in Europe said they began detecting unusually high levels of ruthenium 106, a radioactive atom that does not occur naturally, near France in the last week of September.

The IRSN immediately “mobilized all its means of radiological monitoring of the atmosphere and conducted regular analysis of the filters from its monitoring stations,” the agency said in a press release.
IRSN director Jean-Marc Peres told Reuters that the leak likely came from a nuclear fuel treatment site or center for radioactive medicine in Russia or Kazakhstan, not a nuclear reactor.
The radioactive cloud poses only an “extremely low” risk of contaminating mushrooms and other foodstuffs that are imported into France, the IRSN said in a statement.
“The potential health risk associated with this scenario is also very low,” the IRSN said.
In January, the IRSN similarly assured Europeans that the small amounts of nuclear radiation that were blooming throughout Europe were nothing to worry about.