The first big special election of the Trump era is headed to a runoff The first big special election of the Trump era is headed to a runoff

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff speaks to volunteers and supporters at a campaign office as he runs for Georgia's 6th Congressional District in a special election. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Voters in Georgia have forced a runoff between a Democratic and Republican candidate for a congressional seat Republicans have held for the last 40 years.

The special election in Georgia's 6th congressional district made Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel the leading candidates set to compete in a runoff on June 20.

"We know how to fight," Ossoff told supporters during a rally late Tuesday. "This is already a victory for the ages. We have defied the odds, we have shattered expectations."

Trump relied on some his 2016-era rhetoric, accusing Ossoff of campaigning on "major outside money" and "fake media support." He called the runoff a "big win" for Republicans.

"Glad to be of help," Trump tweeted.

Karen Handel, Georgia's former secretary of state and Ossoff's closest Republican challenger, earned about 20% of the vote Tuesday night.

While other Republican candidates in the district expressed loyalty to President Donald Trump during the race, Handel was among the few who kept their distance. She did not mention the president during a short speech on Tuesday night, local media reported.

Republican candidate Karen Handel for Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election talks to supporters during a campaign stop at Santino's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Alpharetta, Georgia. REUTERS/Kevin D. Liles

Ossoff, a 30-year-old upstart candidate, earned major financial support and national attention in the first closely watched state election of Trump's tenure. He took a significant early lead in Tuesday's special election, but soon fell to about 48% with nearly all precincts reporting. Ossoff needed to break a 50% threshold to claim the seat outright.

Jon Ossoff. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Ossoff was a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide before he jumped into the race. He has raised more than $8 million from party donors keen to send a message to Trump and the Republican Party at large ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to reclaim seats in the House and Senate.

Early vote tallies in the 6th congressional district Tuesday night immediately pushed Ossoff to the head of a crowded field. Eighteen candidates were on the ballot Tuesday — 11 Republicans, five Democrats, and two candidates running as independents.

Shortly after polls closed, Ossoff launched ahead with more than 60% of the early vote, with DeKalb County backing him on more than 55% of their ballots. Ossoff claimed more than 40% of Cobb and Fulton counties.

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff speaks to volunteers and supporters at an election rally as he runs for Georgia's 6th Congressional District in a special election. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A hiccup in Fulton County briefly set precincts back shortly before midnight. Some "technical difficulties" forced Fulton to manually check cards to single out the error, but that hiccup appeared to get remedied quickly.

Some observers have warned against extrapolating this particular election as a predictor for national midterm elections in 2018, though the results in Georgia's 6th district were seen as a general indication of voter sentiment toward Trump and Republicans in Congress. Trump won the district by 1.5 points last November. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, for whom the seat is being filled, won by more than 20 points in 2016.

Trump lent his own voice to GOP candidates late in the race, recording a robo-call in which he described Ossoff as a potential "disaster" for Congress and calling him a "super liberal." Ossoff responded to Trump in interviews, saying simply, "I don't have great personal admiration for the man."

Goldman Sachs misses, cites 'mixed' environment Goldman Sachs misses, cites 'mixed' environment

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs reported earnings per share of $5.15 on revenues of $8 billion in the first quarter of 2017. 

That's below analyst expectations. Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings per share of $5.33 on revenues of $8.32 billion. 

The results are striking, as JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America all reported earnings ahead of analyst estimates.

“The operating environment was mixed, with client activity challenged in certain market-making businesses and a more attractive backdrop for underwriting in our investment banking franchise,” Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement. 

Total revenues came in below those of the fourth quarter, with investment banking the only key business line to report a quarter-on-quarter improvement.

Fixed income in particular disappointed, with revenues up just 1% on the first quarter of 2016, and down from the final three months of 2016. In comparison, Goldman Sachs' rivals have posted double-digit gains in fixed income revenues. 

Here are the key numbers:

• Investment banking revenues of $1.7 billion were up 16% year-on-year.
• Fixed income, currencies and commodities revenues, at $1.7 billion, were up just 1% on the same period last year, and down 16% from the fourth quarter.
• Equities revenues, at $1.7 billion, were down 6% year-on-year.
• Investing and lending revenues were $1.5 billion, down 1% quarter-on-quarter, but up sharply from the first quarter of 2016 when the unit struggled.
• Investment management revenues revenues were $1.5 billion, up 12% year-on-year. 

Get the latest Goldman Sachs stock price here.

North Korea's embarrassing missile failure may have been due to US cyber sabotage North Korea's embarrassing missile failure may have been due to US cyber sabotage

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. AP Images / Business Insider

North Korea attempted to fire a missile Sunday, but it blew up within seconds.

It happened one day after the anniversary of the country's founding.

While North Korea's missile program may be the shadowiest on earth, it's possible that US cyber warriors were the reason for the failed launch.

A recent New York Times report uncovered a secret operation to derail North Korea's nuclear-missile program that has been raging for at least three years.

Essentially, the report attributes North Korea's high rate of failure with Russian-designed missiles to the US meddling in the country's missile software and networks.

Although North Korea's missile infrastructure lacks the competence of Russia's, the Soviet-era missile on which North Korea based its missile had a 13% failure rate, and the North Korean version failed a whopping 88% of the time, according to the report.

While the missile failure on Sunday could have just been due to poor workmanship, US Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland seemed to leave room for speculation about espionage, telling Fox News, "We can't talk about secret intelligence and things that might have been done, covert operations, so I really have no comment."

Vice President Mike Pence on Monday visited the demilitarized zone between the Koreas, saying that "all options are on the table to achieve the objectives and ensure the stability of the people of this country," and that "the era of strategic patience" with North Korea "is over."

To those in the know, the campaign against North Korea came as no surprise. Ken Geers, a cybersecurity expert for Comodo with experience in the National Security Agency, told Business Insider that cyber operations like the one against North Korea were the norm.

While the US hacking another country's missile program may be shocking to some, "within military intelligence spaces, this is what they do," Geers said. "If you think that war is possible with a given state, you're going to be trying to prepare the battle space for conflict. In the internet age, that means hacking."

Reuters

North Korea's internal networks are fiercely insulated and not connected to the internet, however, which poses a challenge for hackers in the US. But Geers said it was "absolutely not the case" that hacking requires computers connected to the internet.

A recent report in The New Yorker on Russian hacking detailed one case in which Russia gained access to a NATO computer network in 1996 by providing bugged thumb drives to shops near a NATO base in Kabul, Afghanistan. NATO operators bought the thumb drives, used them on the network, and just like that, the Russians were in.

"That's where SIGINT (signals intelligence) or COMINT (communications intelligence) comes into collaboration with HUMINT (human intelligence)," Geers said.

He described the present moment as the "golden age of espionage," as cyberwarfare remains nonlethal, unattributable, and almost completely unpunished.

But a recent missile salvo from North Korea suggests that even a prolonged, sophisticated cyberattack can't fully derail its nuclear-missile program.

"Imagine you're the president. North Korea is a human-rights abuser and an exporter of dangerous technology," Geers said. "Responsible governments really need to think about ways to handle North Korea, and one of the options is regime change."

The test fire of Pukguksong-2 in February. KCNA/Handout via Reuters

Further, Geers said, because of the limited number of servers and access points to North Korea's very restricted internet, "if it ever came to cyberwar between the US and North Korea, it would be an overwhelming victory for the West."

"North Korea can do a Sony attack or attack the White House, but that's because that's the nature of cyberspace," Geers said. "But if war came, you'd see Cyber Command wipe out most other countries' pretty quickly."

The White House may have violated its own ethics rules with Trump's executive branch hires The White House may have violated its own ethics rules with Trump's executive branch hires

Donald Trump. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Aly Song/File Photos

The Trump administration may be entangling itself in another ethical landmine.

In this case, the White House could have violated its own ethics rules with at least two hires, a New York Times and ProPublica investigation found.

One potential conflict involves Michael Catanzaro, who is the White House's top energy adviser. Until last year, the Times and ProPublica found, Catanzaro was working as a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry and had clients like Devon Energy of Oklahoma, and Talen Energy of Pennsylvania.

Both companies were stalwart opponents of former president Obama's environmental regulations, like the Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce climate change caused by fossil fuels, and promote the use of alternative energy sources. Trump signed an executive order undoing the plan in March. As the White House's top energy adviser, Catanzaro will handle many of those same issues.

Another possible ethical dilemma involves Chad Wolf. Wolf, the Times and ProPublica investigation found, is currently the chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration, but he spent the past several years lobbying the TSA to secure funding for a new carry-on luggage screening device, which could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Wolf's new role as the TSA's chief of staff puts him in a prime position to make the decision he had previously spent years lobbying for.

In another instance, two officials who joined the Department of Labor were direct recruits from Washington's lobbyist circle. According to the investigation, prior to joining the White House, the two officials were opponents of Obama's labor policies, including the fiduciary rule, which stipulated that financial advisers had to act in the best interest of their clients when providing retirement advice.

Determining whether the White House violated its own ethics rules by hiring lobbyists, however, is a murky area, because the investigation found that the Trump administration has secretly been issuing waivers to the very same rules it first introduced in a stated effort to increase transparency.

President Barack Obama onstage at his farewell address in Chicago. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Trump signed an executive order in January eliminating an Obama rule mandating that lobbyists could not accept jobs in federal agencies they had lobbied. Trump's elimination of that rule blurred ethical standards for at least 4,000 executive hires, the Times and ProPublica investigation found.

Examining the degree to which ethical misconduct may have occurred is next to impossible now, according to Walter M. Shaub Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Although the Obama administration also issued ethical waivers, it did so under a narrow set of circumstances. Those waivers also had to be disclosed for public inspection. Now that it is no longer required to disclose waivers, Shaub told the Times that "there's no transparency, and I have no idea how many waivers have been issued."

Other ethical landmines

While it is not uncommon for lobbyists to become government officials — the Obama administration had 65 former lobbyists on its payroll at one point — Trump's critics have repeatedly scrutinized the current administration's overall lack of transparency and questionable ethical conduct.

On Friday, for example, the White House announced that it would not release its visitor logs and that they would be kept secret for five years after Trump leaves the White House. The move, which drew instant backlash from government accountability advocates across the country, means that the White House will not be releasing information about bankers, lobbyists, or other officials who may visit the grounds in an effort to influence government policy.

Trump has also refused to release his tax returns since he launched his presidential campaign, saying that he cannot disclose them because they are under audit. The IRS said during the campaign that Trump had the freedom to release his tax returns, regardless of whether he was under audit.

After thousands protested in cities across the US on Saturday calling for the president to release his tax returns, Trump tweeted his response on Sunday that "the election is over!"

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

The president ignited a number of ethical controversies with his initial staff appointments, the most significant of which was his decision to make son-in-law Jared Kushner a senior adviser. Since assuming his role, Kushner has steadily gained influence in his father-in-law's inner circle and taken on more responsibility, including visiting Iraq and meeting with the Iraqi prime minister before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did.

The White House also recently announced that Kushner would be head of the new White House Office of American Innovation, which will aim to use business tactics to overhaul the federal government.

In late March, it was announced that Trump's daughter and Kushner's wife, Ivanka, would be assuming a "voluntary" role in her father's administration, and would function as Trump's "eyes and ears" in the White House. She also received security clearance and an office in the West Wing.

After swift backlash against the opacity of Ivanka's new role and the conflicts of interest raised by her assuming a White House position while maintaining ownership of her eponymous fashion brand, it was announced that her employment would no longer be voluntary, and that she would be subject to the same ethics rules imposed on other federal employees. Her new position is that of an unpaid adviser.

Read the Times/ProPublica report here »

North Korean missile 'blows up' on test launch as Pence heads for South North Korean missile 'blows up' on test launch as Pence heads for South

A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva Oct. 2, 2014. Reuters/Denis Balibouse

SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in the South for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program.

The failed launch from the east coast came a day after North Korea held a military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder, in which what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles were on display.

Pence is due in Seoul at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of the U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension over North Korea.

President Donald Trump and his military team are aware of North Korea's missile launch, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement on Saturday. Trump has no further comment on the matter, Mattis said.

A U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier strike group was also heading for the region.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked.

"The North attempted to launch an unidentified missile from near the Sinpo region this morning but it is suspected to have failed," the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the missile "blew up almost immediately", adding the type of missile was being analyzed.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited an unnamed South Korean intelligence source as saying the missile appeared to have not flown far from its land-based launch site.

The North launched a ballistic missile from the same region earlier this month ahead of a summit between the leaders of the United States and China, its key ally, to discuss the North's arms program.

A U.S. Navy attack on a Syrian airfield this month with Tomahawk missiles raised questions about Trump's plans for reclusive North Korea, which has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, regularly threatening to destroy the United States.

Sinpo, where the launch took place, is the site of a North Korean submarine base and where the North has tested the submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) it is developing.

The missile launched earlier this month flew about 60 km (40 miles) but what U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile only traveled a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.

“It appears today’s launch was already scheduled for re-launching after the earlier test-firing” Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

“This launch can possibly be a test for a new type of missile or an upgrade,” Kim added.

The North has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering all the necessary technology.

Tension had escalated sharply in the region amid concerns that the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test launch around the April 15 anniversary it calls the "Day of the Sun."

The White House has said Trump has put the North "on notice" while the possibility of U.S. military action against Pyongyang has gained traction following U.S. strikes against Syria on April 7.

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and the South's main ally, the United States.

 

(Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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United made a major change to ensure the nightmare of Flight 3411 doesn't happen again United made a major change to ensure the nightmare of Flight 3411 doesn't happen again

A United Express Embraer E175.United

On Friday, United Airlines announced that all crews traveling on board its aircraft should be booked 60 minutes ahead of the time of departure.

This is a significant policy change aimed at preventing the set of circumstances leading up to the violent removal of Dr. David Dao from happening in the future. 

Even though passengers involuntarily denied boarding is quite common across the airline industry, the forceful removal of a fare-paying customer after he has boarded the aircraft is virtually unheard of.

And this is the exact scenario the new policy seeks to prevent. 

In a statement to Business Insider, United Airlines wrote:

"We issued an updated policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure. This ensures situations like Flight 3411 never happen again. This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies in order to deliver the best customer experience."

Last Sunday, gate agents handling United Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville were notified at the last minute that four crew members needed to travel on board the flight. The crew was needed in Louisville to operate a later flight. 

Since the plane — operated by Republic Airways under the United Express brand —  was packed and no one volunteered to give up their seats, four passengers were selected based on an algorithm to be involuntarily bumped. Three passengers deplaned peacefully with Dr. Dao being the lone holdout until he was brutally removed from the aircraft by law-enforcement.

Had gate agents received 60-minutes notice, they would have had more time to find solutions for the passengers who had to be bumped. Crucially, 60 minutes ahead of departure means the gate agent would now know if people needed to be bumped prior to boarding — preventing the need to physically remove passengers from the aircraft. 

The disturbing incident and its accompanying cellphone footage has seen a wave of public anger, criticism, and ridicule heaped on the airline — with some even vowing to boycott the carrier. 

While this policy change far from resolves the perfect storm of operational, cultural, public relations shortcomings that culminated in the manhandling of a paying customer, it's a significant opening act. 

Losing our religion: Your guide to a godless future

By Graham Lawton

(Image: Sylvia Serrado/Plainpicture)

The human mind is primed to believe in god, so why are so many people abandoning religion – and should we be worried about living in an atheist world?

ON AN unseasonably warm Sunday morning in London, I do something I haven’t done for more than 30 years: get up and go to church. For an hour and a half, I sing, listen to readings, enjoy moments of quiet contemplation and throw a few coins into a collection. At the end there is tea and cake, and a warm feeling in what I guess must be my soul.

This is like hundreds of congregations taking place across the city this morning, but with one notable exception: there is no god.

Welcome to the Sunday Assembly, a “godless congregation” held every other week in Conway Hall, home of the world’s oldest free-thought organisation. On the day I went there were at least 200 people in the hall; sometimes as many as 600 turn up.

Further reading: Faith of the faithless – Is atheism just another religion?

Founded by comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans in 2013, the Sunday Assembly aims to supply some of the uplifting features of a religious service without any of the supernatural stuff. Atheism is also off the agenda: the Assembly is simply about celebrating being alive. “Our mission is to help people live this one __life as fully as possible,” says Jones.

The Assembly’s wider goal is “a godless congregation in every town, city and village that wants one”. And many do: from a humble start in a deconsecrated church in London, there are now 28 active assemblies in the UK, Ireland, US and Australia. Jones now