News on Youtube Jan 24 2019

Hey Group Leaders!

It's Michelle with AST, here to help you get a jump on your groups travel plans.

Are you looking to take a class trip to Washington DC but want a museum that will blow your students'

minds?

How about the new International Spy Museum, opening in Spring 2019?

It doesn't matter whether your formative years were spent watching The Avengers (the

BBC version, not the comic books) or Inspector Gadget.

Somewhere, deep inside you, there's a secret agent just wanting to go to a museum filled

with all kinds of spy memorabilia and interactive experiences.

Tell your inner secret agent to rejoice and get over to the International Spy Museum.

With permanent exhibits, traveling exhibits and interactive experiences galore, you're

sure to spend an enjoyable afternoon humming the Mission Impossible theme song and plotting

imaginary escapades.

The International Spy Museum experience begins with an orientation to the techniques, tools,

and other tradecraft associated with espionage.

Visitors watch a Briefing Film and tour the "School for Spies," where 200 artifacts are

displayed.

The latter also includes interactive exhibits about audio surveillance, threat analysis,

and maintaining one's cover.

Visitors use this newfound knowledge throughout the rest of the Museum as they explore two

floors of intimate galleries that trace the history of espionage from biblical times to

the present day.

Exhibits feature stories of real spies, their missions, their fates, and how their espionage

affected some of the most pivotal moments in world history.

The Museum experience concludes with a film about the significance of intelligence in

the 21st Century.

Sound perfect for your next group adventure?

Give us a call today to begin your mission.

Our Group Coordinators are here to guide through this process.

Be sure to follow AST on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on all things travel.

If you have a destination you'd like to know more about drop your suggestion in the

comments below.

Until next time!

For more infomation >> New International Spy Museum Opens in Washington DC - Duration: 2:10.

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Emory & Henry Women's Basketball vs Washington and Lee - Duration: 1:45.

(no audio - natural sound only)

For more infomation >> Emory & Henry Women's Basketball vs Washington and Lee - Duration: 1:45.

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Der deutsche Außenminister Heiko Maas kommt zu einem Kurzbesuch nach Washington. Doch diplomatische - Duration: 6:38.

 Es gibt in diesen Tagen nicht viele Menschen in Washington, die sich über den seit 34 Tagen herrschenden Shutdown freuen

Doch der deutsche Außenminister Heiko Maas ist ein Profiteur des Verwaltungsstillstands

Hätte nicht Präsident Donald Trump im Streit mit der Opposition alle Auslandsreisen der Regierung abgesagt, wäre US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo nun nämlich in Davos

 So aber steht er am Mittwochnachmittag in der Empfangs-Rotunde des State Department und schüttelt dem Gast aus Berlin freundlich die Hand

Von den Spannungen zwischen den beiden Regierungen spürt man bei der Begrüßung nichts

Maas spricht im UN-Sicherheitsrat Eigentlich ist Maas auf dem Weg nach New York, wo er erstmals als Vertreter Deutschlands im Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen sprechen will

Doch Pompeos plötzliche Verfügbarkeit ermöglicht einen Abstecher nach Washington und ein Stück Pendeldiplomatie

In der vergangenen Woche erst ist der SPD-Politiker in Russland gewesen und hat mit seinem Kollegen Sergej Lawrow über das Verbot atomarer Mittelstreckenraketen gesprochen

Weil Moskau nach Einschätzung der Nato mit neuen Raketen vom Typ 9M729 dagegen verstößt, will die Trump-Regierung den INF-Vertrag am 2

Februar kündigen. Viel Neuigkeiten kann Maas nicht verkünden, als er in Washington nach einer Dreiviertelstunde vor die Kameras tritt

„Ein Wettlauf um neue Waffen ist das letzte, was die Welt nun braucht", sagt er. Allerdings hatte Lawrow ihm wenig Argumente geliefert, die Amerikaner von ihrem bevorstehenden Schritt abzuhalten

Moskau bestreitet einfach, dass die Marschflugkörper mehr als 500 Kilometer fliegen können und damit gegen den Vertrag verstoßen

Die Amerikaner sind vom Gegenteil überzeugt. Also mahnt Maas bei Russland mehr Transparenz und Kontrollmöglichkeiten an: „Sich lediglich eine Rakete anzuschauen wird nicht genügen

" Man müsse vor dem 2. Februar „alle Möglichkeiten nutzen, um die russische Seite dazu zu bringen, vertragstreu zu sein", erklärt der Minister

Besonders substanziell klingt das nicht. Maas kritisiert neue US-Waffensysteme Bei anderen Themen sind die Differenzen zwischen Berlin und Washington offensichtlich: Weder mit der Aufkündigung des Iran-Abkommens, noch mit dem unabgestimmten Rückzug der USA aus Syrien oder Trumps neuem Raketenabwehrprogramm ist Maas einverstanden

„Im Moment befinden wir uns in einer Diskussion auch mit Meinungsverschiedenheiten", räumt er ein: „Das muss offen ausgesprochen werden

" Ohne diplomatische Zurückhaltung erklärt er denn auch, was er von den neuen Hyperschallwaffen im All hält: „Ich glaube nicht, dass die Welt dadurch viel sicherer wird

"Trum mit Alleingang in Sachen Venezuela Maas befand sich noch im wetterbedingt holprigen Anflug auf die Ostküste der USA, als deren Präsident im Alleingang ein weiteres potenzielles Konfliktfeld eröffnete: Ohne Rücksprache mit den Verbündeten erkannte Trump kurzerhand den venezolanischen Oppositionspolitiker Juan Guaido als Interimsstaatschef an

 „Wir werden uns jetzt sehr eng auf Basis dieser Entscheidung abstimmen, auch mit unseren europäischen Partnern", beantwortet Maas eine Frage zu diesem Thema ausweichend

Im übrigen mahnt er zur Besonnenheit: Man müsse alles tun, um eine Eskalation der Lage vor Ort zu verhindern

  Mit der schwarzen Limousine geht es weiter zum Kapitol, wo Maas die demokratische Parlamentschefin Nancy Pelosi trifft

Die 78-Jährige ist die wichtigste Gegenspielerin von Trump. Für den deutschen Minister hat sie eine halbe Stunde Zeit

Dann eilt Maas zum Zug nach New York, und Pelosi muss den Nervenkrieg mit Trump über den Shutdown weiterführen

 Das Thema beherrscht derzeit die amerikanischen Schlagzeilen. „Was sagen Sie den Staatsdienern, die zwangsbeurlaubt sind oder ohne Gehalt arbeiten müssen?", hat eine amerikanische Reporterin bei der Begegnung mit Maas dessen Amtskollegen Pompeo zugerufen

Für den Besuch des deutschen Ministers interessiert sich die amerikanische Öffentlichkeit in dieser innenpolitisch brisanten Lage eher wenig

For more infomation >> Der deutsche Außenminister Heiko Maas kommt zu einem Kurzbesuch nach Washington. Doch diplomatische - Duration: 6:38.

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Emory & Henry Women's Basketball Pulls Away From Washington and Lee, 88-73 - Duration: 0:40.

For more infomation >> Emory & Henry Women's Basketball Pulls Away From Washington and Lee, 88-73 - Duration: 0:40.

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Democrats open investigation of White House security clearance process The Washington Post - Duration: 3:11.

Democrats open investigation of White House security clearance process The Washington Post

House Democrats are opening an investigation of the Trump White Houses security clearance practices and what they are calling grave breaches of procedure that allowed potentially compromised people to access the countrys most sensitive secrets.

The investigation, announced Wednesday by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings D Md. , seeks both to expose why the White House allowed certain people with security clearance issues to continue to access sensitive information and to close those loopholes.

The panel also plans to challenge administration officials on why they have not been more responsive to congressional requests regarding the security clearance process, as required by law.

Among the people whose cases the panel plans to scrutinize are former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials; Trumps son in law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who did not disclose several contacts with foreign officials on his security clearance forms; and former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of spousal abuse.

Over the course of Trumps presidency, the committees Democrats have sent letters to the administration asking for information regarding the security clearances of officials who were shown to have problems on their application forms or who were operating on interim clearances for abnormally long periods, and why the White House had not revoked the clearances of people who engaged in conduct that could have compromised their fitness to have access to sensitive information.

In a Wednesday letter to White House lawyer Pat Cipolline, Cummings reminded him that the White House had already acknowledged it needed to make adjustments.

Last year, General John Kelly, President Trumps Chief of Staff at the time, conceded that there are major shortcomings with the White Houses security clearance process. He warned that the White House should — and in the future, must — do better,  Cummings wrote, adding: I agree.

The investigation will focus not just on Trumps time in the White House, but also on actions of his transition team, members of which also handled sensitive information with questionable clearances. Vice President Pence, who was chair of the transition team, received Cummings letter, as did the FBI, the State Department and the National Rifle Association.

House Democrats are interested in learning whether security officials limited, suspended or turned down any White House staffers applications to acquire permanent security clearances — a request that could disclose why the intelligence community never approved Kushner to view highly sensitive compartmented information despite his proximity to the president.

Other figures of note who are expected to be scrutinized under the probe include Flynns son and transition team member, Michael Flynn Jr.; his former deputy, K.T. McFarland; his former Africa director, Robin Townley; and his eventual successor, John Bolton. Sebastian Gorka, the onetime deputy assistant to the president whose security clearance Kelly reportedly revoked, is also a subject of the probe.

Cummings did not include in his letter any pledge to investigate Trumps pledge last summer to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, who has frequently criticized the presidents policies on television and Twitter.

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For more infomation >> Democrats open investigation of White House security clearance process The Washington Post - Duration: 3:11.

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Washington Grown Season 6 Episode 4 Promo - Duration: 0:31.

This week on Washington Grown,

we're talking all things raspberries.

We'll make a raspberry pie at the Lynden Dutch Bakery.

This is one of the hardest things I've ever done

on this show!

And try a peanut butter and jelly burger.

This is good, man!

And we'll wrap up with a tasty tour of the Country Mercantile.

I don't think I've ever eaten my way through an entire tour

like that before.

It makes it a little more fun.

So yummy, yeah.

For more infomation >> Washington Grown Season 6 Episode 4 Promo - Duration: 0:31.

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Apartamento para alugar no rio de janeiro - Rua Washington Luís 20 - Duration: 1:09.

For more infomation >> Apartamento para alugar no rio de janeiro - Rua Washington Luís 20 - Duration: 1:09.

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How to break the impasse Spurn both sides hard liners The Washington Post - Duration: 1:56.

How to break the impasse Spurn both sides hard liners The Washington Post

Opinion Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events

IT MAY be obscured by the headlines, but the Kabuki dance of intransigence and hostility underway between President Trump and congressional Democrats contains the seeds of a breakthrough that would reopen the government and provide both sides with an honorable way forward. Honorable, that is, if both sides could muster the spine to rebuff their own noisiest partisans and do some old fashioned horse trading.

Cut through the fog of invective in the presidents tweets, and through House Speaker Nancy Pelosis D Calif. crisp return volleys, and an emerging compromise is faintly visible. Mr. Trumps offer to on deporting 700,000 dreamers and legal Central American and Haitian residents who have enjoyed temporary protected status in the United States — both of whom he has sought to strip of protections — may look like scant recompense for the he wants as down payment on his border wall. Yet by coupling his own priority with that of many Democrats, he has constructively set the outlines, if not the terms, of a plausible compromise.

Ms. Pelosi, carrying the banner for the Democrats, insists the government be reopened before her party will negotiate. Yet meanwhile she has floated a sweetener: more than . Granted, none of that would go to construct a wall, but at least the geography is germane, along with the subject: . She has yet to make a counteroffer on the , who grew up in this country after their parents brought them here as children. She should.

A deal would demand harder concessions all around. For Mr. Trump, that means a more secure future for the dreamers, and : not just the who have registered for work permits under the Obama era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals but an additional million or so who are eligible for that program. They deserve not just a three year reprieve, as the president offered, but a pathway to legal status or citizenship. Either one would provide the most important thing: a certain future.

That might be tough for the hardcore nativists in the Trump coalition to swallow, but no tougher than it would be for many devoutly pro immigration Democrats to accept funding for a border wall. Let the two sides hash out that impasse in the legislative arena — thats what congressional conference committees are for. In the meantime, Congress could immediately reopen other parts of government.

The No Dealers are carrying the day — for now. A major impediment is White House aide Stephen Miller, on whose initiative to reopen the government is freighted with poison pills. They include measures that would erect formidable new obstacles for Central American asylum seekers, for example forcing them to apply for asylum not in the United States but at home — where many face immediate risks to their lives — and imposing severe restrictions on the criteria by which asylum would be granted.

Thats red meat for Mr. Trumps nativist base, just as Ms. Pelosis rhetoric about walls being immoral is for Democrats on the left. If a deal is to be struck, both sides will need to spurn those camps in favor of those who prefer solutions.

Read more:

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For more infomation >> How to break the impasse Spurn both sides hard liners The Washington Post - Duration: 1:56.

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HOT | Virginia needs to get on board with fair redistricting The Washington Post - Duration: 2:09.

HOT | Virginia needs to get on board with fair redistricting The Washington Post

Opinion Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events

ELECTED OFFICIALS in Virginia have proved so hopeless at drawing a state electoral map that passes constitutional muster, the task was outsourced to a professor in — wait for it — . That should be the final straw for partisan dysfunction in Richmond, which produced legislative districts so gerrymandered when they were that they remain the subject of litigation in 2019.

The commonwealths extravagant failure to produce fair maps is so obvious — the will soon hear arguments for the third time concerning the 2011 map — that state lawmakers may at last be forced to enact the only solution that makes sense: a constitutional amendment establishing an independent redistricting commission.

Legislation to get the ball rolling on the — a process that takes at least two years in Virginia — is before lawmakers in Richmond. Democrats support it. Republicans, who until now have fought relentlessly to challenge and delay changes to the 2011 House of Delegates map, which they drew, are dragging their feet.

No wonder. The GOPs legislative cartographers engineered electoral districts in the House of Delegates to their own advantage in 2011 — much as Democrats have done when they have been in the majority. In the Republicans case, their electoral map packed African Americans tightly into 11 districts, mostly in Hampton Roads and Richmond, thereby diminishing their clout in adjacent, GOP held districts. Despite that, the partys 2 to 1 advantage in the 100 seat House was cut in the 2017 elections to the narrowest possible margin: .

Now, in every House district, plus all 40 districts in the state Senate, Republicans are loath to rejigger the map as momentum builds in Democrats favor.

Hence the foot dragging. GOP lawmakers, led by House Speaker Kirk Cox Colonial Heights , refused to act on a Democratic proposal for redrawing districts. Instead, he that the 2011 map was unconstitutional. The federal court ; Mr. Cox then appealed to the Supreme Court, which, though it accepted the case, also declined to delay a redrawing of the map by a law professor in California.

The professor, appointed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, is of the University of California at Irvine. In, he offered three dozen possible electoral map configurations from which the court can choose. All of them are more compact and contiguous than the status quo map and designed to be blind to partisan outcomes — much as required by , which has been routinely ignored by both parties.

Now, respected former lawmakers and legal experts — including , the University of Virginia law professor who drafted the constitution — are to handle redistricting. Legislation to achieve that is pending, backed by Gov. Ralph Northam and his Democratic colleagues in the General Assembly. Its time for Republicans to get on board.

Read more:

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