By Zachary Basu
PHOTO: Virginia Democratic governor’s 1984 yearbook
page shows people in blackface and KKK robe
A page from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's
1984 medical school yearbook, obtained Friday by The
Virginian-Pilot, shows people wearing blackface and Ku Klux Klan attire.
The photo was first obtained by the right-wing website Big
League Politics.
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BREAKING: Gov. Ralph
Northam yearbook page shows blackface and Klan
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Details: The identities of the two
people in the photo are unknown, but the picture is next to photos of Northam.
The photo's caption lists Northam's alma mater, his interest in pediatrics, and
a quote that reads: "There are more old drunks than old doctors in this
world so I think I'll have another beer." Northam's office has yet to
issue a statement or respond to Axios' request for comment.
- In
a statement, a spokesperson for Eastern Virginia Medical School said:
"I can confirm that the picture in question does appear in a 1984
student-produced publication. The EVMS library is open to the public and
does provide access to its materials."
__________________
IN
OTHER NEWS
Payrolls surge by 304,000, smashing estimates
despite government shutdown
By Jeff Cox | CNBC
News
Job growth in January shattered expectations, with
nonfarm payrolls surging by 304,000 despite a partial government shutdown that
was the longest in history, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4 percent, a level
where it had last been in June, a likely effect of the shutdown, according to
the department.
However, officials said federal workers generally were counted
as employed during the period because they received pay during the survey week
of Jan. 12. On balance, federal government employment actually rose by 1,000.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected payrolls to
rise by 170,000 and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.9 percent.
In all, it was a powerful performance at a time when
economists increasingly have said they expect growth to slow in 2019. January
marked 100 months in a row of positive job creation, by far the longest streak
on record.
Stock futures and Treasury yields jumped in response to the
better-than-expected report.
....
______________________
Trump suspends arms treaty to focus on China,
Russia threats
By DEB RIECHMANN, ROBERT BURNS and MATTHEW LEE | APN News
Photo: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pulling the
plug on a decades-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia, lifting what it sees as
unreasonable constraints on competing with a resurgent Russia and a more
assertive China. The move announced Friday sets the stage for delicate talks
with U.S. allies over potential new American missile deployments.
In explaining his decision, which he had foreshadowed
months ago, President Donald Trump accused Moscow of violating the 1987
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with “impunity” by deploying banned
missiles. Moscow denies it is in violation and has accused Washington of
resisting its efforts to resolve the dispute.
Democrats in Congress and some arms control advocates
criticized Trump’s decision as opening the door to an arms race.
“The U.S. threat to terminate the treaty will not bring
Russia back into compliance and could unleash a dangerous and costly new
missile competition between the United States and Russia in Europe and beyond,”
the private Arms Control Association said. It argued that Washington had not
exhausted options for drawing Russia back into compliance.
Trump said in a statement that the U.S. will “move
forward” with developing its own military response options to Russia’s banned
deployment of cruise missiles that could target western Europe.
“We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally
bound by this treaty, or any other,” Trump said. Other officials said the
treaty could still be saved if Russia reverses course and returns to
compliance, but that window of opportunity will close in six months when the
American withdrawal is due to take effect.
The Trump decision reflects his administration’s view
that the arms treaty was an unacceptable obstacle to more forcefully confronting
not only Russia but also China. China’s military has grown mightily since the
treaty was signed, and the pact has prevented the U.S. from deploying weapons
to counter some of those being developed in Beijing.
Leaving the INF pact, however, risks aggravating
relations with European allies, who share the administration’s view that Russia
is violating the treaty but who have not endorsed a U.S. withdrawal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking to reporters
after Trump’s statement, said Russia will be formally notified on Saturday that
the U.S. is withdrawing from the treaty, effective in six months. In the
meantime, starting Saturday, the U.S. will suspend its obligations under the
treaty.
Pompeo said that if, in the coming six months, Russia
accepts U.S. demands that it verifiably destroy the cruise missiles that
Washington claims are a violation, then the treaty can be saved. If it does
not, “the treaty terminates,” he said.
Administration officials have dismissed concerns that the
treaty’s demise could trigger a race to develop and deploy more
intermediate-range missiles. U.S. officials have emphasized their fear that
China, which is not party to the treaty, is gaining a significant military
advantage in Asia by deploying large numbers of missiles with ranges beyond the
treaty’s limit.
Whether the U.S. will now respond by deploying INF noncompliant
missiles in Asia is unclear. In any case, it seems unlikely Beijing would agree
to any negotiated limits on its weaponry.
Russia accused the U.S. of unilaterally seeking to neuter
the treaty.
“I ‘congratulate’ the whole world; the United States has
taken another step toward its destruction today,” said Konstantin Kosachev,
head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament.
INF was the first arms control measure to ban an entire
class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500
kilometers (310 miles) and 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles).
At the time, in the
late stages of the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies were mainly concerned by
the perceived threat of Russian medium-range nuclear missiles that were
targeted at Europe. The U.S. deployed similar missiles in response, in the
1980s, leading to negotiations that produced the INF treaty.
Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington state Democrat and new
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blasted Trump for raising the
risk of nuclear war.
“The administration’s ideological aversion to arms
control as a tool for advancing national security is endangering our safety, as
well as that of our allies and partners,” Smith said. “The risk of
miscalculation or misunderstanding is already higher than at any point since
the end of the Cold War, and this decision only makes it worse.”
U.S. officials say they have little reason to think
Moscow will change its stance in the next six months.
“We have raised Russia’s noncompliance with Russian
officials — including at the highest levels of government — more than 30
times,” Pompeo said. “We have provided Russia an ample window of time to mend
its way. Tomorrow that time runs out.”
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, said in an
interview Friday with The Associated Press that Russia can still save the
treaty by returning to compliance before the U.S. withdrawal takes effect.
“But at the same time, we have started to assess the
consequences, look into options,” Stoltenberg said. “We need to make sure that
we respond as an alliance, all 29 allies, because all allies are involved and
all allies are affected.”
Trump said his administration will move forward with
developing military response options.
But senior Trump administration officials
said they don’t expect any immediate testing or deployment of weapons that are
banned under the treaty. The current Pentagon budget includes $48 million for
research on potential military responses to the alleged Russian violations, but
U.S. officials said the options do not include a nuclear missile.
The officials, speaking after Trump’s announcement, said
the U.S. is not in position to flight test, let alone deploy, INF noncompliant
missiles as a counter to Russia any time soon. The officials spoke on condition
of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
One official said allies will be consulted before any
decisions are made on responding to any Russian missiles.
Leaving the treaty would allow the Trump administration
to counter the Chinese, but it’s unclear how it would do that. U.S. security
concerns are complicated by what U.S. intelligence officials earlier this week
called efforts by China and Russia to expand their global influence,
particularly in Asia and the Middle East.
“China and Russia are more aligned than at any point
since the mid-1950s, and the relationship is likely to strengthen in the coming
years as some of their interests and threat perceptions converge,” Director of
National Intelligence Dan Coats said in testimony Tuesday to Congress.
Associated Press writer Lynn Berry contributed to this
report.
