Category: News

President Trump announces plans for Pentagon to create ‘Space Force’

Trump announces plans for Pentagon to create ‘Space Force’
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Vowing to reclaim U.S. leadership in space, President Donald Trump announced Monday he is directing the Pentagon to create a new “Space Force” as an independent service branch aimed at ensuring American supremacy in space.
Trump envisioned a bright future for the U.S. space program, pledging to revive the country’s flagging efforts, return to the moon and eventually send a manned mission that would reach Mars. The president framed space as a national security issue, saying he does not want “China and Russia and other countries leading us.”
“My administration is reclaiming America’s heritage as the world’s greatest spacefaring nation,” Trump said in the East Room, joined by members of his space council. “The essence of the American character is to explore new horizons and to tame new frontiers.”
Trump had previously suggested the possibility of creating a space unit that would include portions equivalent to parts of the Air Force, Army and Navy. But his directive will task the Defense Department to begin the process of establishing the ‘Space Force’ as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces. He said the new branch’s creation will be overseen by Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Trump said. He added: “We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal.”
The president also used the White House event to establish a new policy for reducing satellite clutter in space. The policy calls for providing a safe and secure environment up in orbit, as satellite traffic increases. It also sets up new guidelines for satellite design and operation, to avoid collisions and spacecraft breakups.
Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the recently revived space council, and several Cabinet members, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, retired astronauts and scientists.
The council’s executive secretary, Scott Pace, told reporters before the meeting that space is becoming increasingly congested and current guidelines are inadequate to address the challenge.
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Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Hillary Clinton: Separating families at border a ‘moral crisis’

H. Clinton: Separating families at border a ‘moral crisis’
By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday called the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that has separated children from their parents at the southern U.S. border “a moral and humanitarian crisis.”
Speaking at an awards lunch for the Women’s Forum of New York, Clinton said what was happening to families at the U.S.-Mexico border is “horrific.”
“Every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged,” Clinton said.
The separations stem from a policy that turns all cases of people trying to enter the country illegally over for criminal prosecution. Children are not detained with their parents when those parents are facing a criminal charge, as per U.S. protocol.
President Donald Trump has defended the policy, which has taken nearly 2,000 immigrant children away from their parents.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” he added. “Not on my watch,” Trump said Monday.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said she had warned during the campaign that Trump’s hard-line immigration stance would result in family separations.
“Now as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening,” she said.
The policy has come under increasingly strong criticism, with accounts of children kept in cages and parents not knowing where their children are.
Trump has falsely blamed Democrats, and his administration has echoed his stance by claiming it was enforcing the law, with some using the Bible as religious justification.
Clinton pushed back on all of those points, saying the separations are required by no law and grounded in no religion.
“The test of any nation is how we treat the most vulnerable among us,” she said. “We are a better country than one that tears families apart.”

Hazy, Hot & Humid Today In Beaver County!

WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY, JUNE 18TH, 2018

 

TODAY – HAZY, HOT AND HUMID. A STRAY SHOWER OR
THUNDERSTORM POSSIBLE. HIGH – 93.

TONIGHT – SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS OVERNIGHT.
LOW- 72.

TUESDAY – SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE
MORNING. REMAINING PARTLY CLOUDY
THROUGHOUT THE AFTERNOON. HIGH – 83.