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STUTTGART, Germany — The United States needs to revive the lines of communication with Moscow that helped both countries avoid nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the top American general in Europe said this week. “We could read each other’s signals. We knew how to send signals to each other… almost all of that is gone now,” Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO supreme allied commander and head of U.S. European Command, said Monday.

Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions. But Austin’s effort Saturday fell flat, when Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe declined to get on the line, the Pentagon says. China’s Defense Ministry says it refused the call from Austin after the balloon was shot down because the U.S. had “not created the proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange. The U.S. action had...

There was a time when a family faced medical emergencies that they met their personal physician at the hospital emergency room and, together, the doctor and family made critical medical decisions based on the medical opinion of the doctor and the informed decisions of the patient. While radical changes have occurred in the medical field in the past 25 years, the true transformation of health care from a benevolent service to a profit making business truly came into focus in the midst of the COVID pandemic.Government public health mandates and financial incentives paved the way for hospitals to make a...

Cybersecurity experts who held lucrative Pentagon and homeland security contracts and high-level security clearances are under investigation for potentially abusing their government privileges to aid a 2016 Clinton campaign plot to falsely link Donald Trump to Russia and trigger an FBI investigation of him and his campaign, according to several sources familiar with the work of Special Counsel John Durham. Durham is investigating whether they were involved in a scheme to misuse sensitive, nonpublic Internet data, which they had access to through their government contracts, to dredge up derogatory information on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016...

Biden national security adviser pushed collusion claims after they were debunked. An attorney for the Clinton campaign exchanged emails with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan regarding a discredited theory of Trump-Russia collusion at the center of an ongoing special counsel investigation, the New York Times reports. Attorney Marc Elias exchanged emails with Sullivan and other Clinton campaign officials on Sept. 15, 2016, regarding a purported link between the computer servers of Donald Trump’s real estate company and the Russian oligarch-owned Alfa Bank, the Times reported. Elias and Michael Sussmann, partners at the firm Perkins Coie, shared the data with...

Matt Zeller, an Army veteran and former CIA analyst, was distracted for a very understandable reason during a live appearance on The Week with MSNBC’s Joshua Johnson to discuss the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan: he was waiting for news about several family members and friends who had not yet been able to leave the country. As Johnson introduced him at the beginning of the segment, Zeller could be seen glancing downwards. He would later explain that he had been checking his phone for news of his loved ones.... And I’m trying to get them out,” he continued. “This is personal...

A hotline to receive calls about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's conduct has received hundreds of tips, according to a member of the New York state Assembly. Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who serves as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the hotline, which was set up by law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, has received more than 200 tips for an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against the governor. “In total, Davis Polk has spoken with attorneys for about 70 people who may have relevant information,” Lavine said during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the investigation on Wednesday. The brief session allowed...

Eric Trump sounded the alarm on the Democrat National Convention and accused the left of blocking citizens’ ability to report voting irregularities. In a tweet shared Friday, the President’s son accused the DNC of attempting to hijack the Trump campaign’s “voter fraud hotline,” and said they may have something to hide. The @DNC is spamming our voter fraud hotline to bog down the thousands of complaints we are receiving! Wonder what they have to hide. — Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 7, 2020 He added the spam calls were blocking thousands of complaints the Trump campaign has been receiving. This came...

Chanel Rion OAN @ChanelRion Top Campaign Source tells @OANN : The evidence flowing into Voter Fraud Hotline is overwhelming. Campaign legal team setting battlefield for fight in the courts - armed with incontrovertible evidence. Major Press Conference today. Stay tuned.

BALTIMORE — Maryland state officials have established a phone and email hotline for residents to report concerns about coronavirus precautions being ignored. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Maryland Department of Health and Maryland State Police announced on Thursday the toll-free COVID Prevention Line is 833-979-2266, or email prevent.covid@maryland.gov. The hotline and email address are available across the state 24 hours a day to report situations of concern where prevention guidelines are being ignored and the potential for the spread of COVID-19 is high, officials said.

CINCINNATI - Local advocates said they are seeing an increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines since people began self-isolating due to coronavirus. With Ohio under a Stay At Home order Monday night, they worry things will only get worse. "We're really concerned about survivors right now," president and CEO of Women Helping Women, Kristin Shrimplin said. Cincinnati-based Women Helping Women works to combat gender-based violence. "We looked at a snapshot of what we were seeing with hotline calls just even last week compared to this week," Shrimplin said. "We're already starting to see about a 30% increase there."

After Doctor Christine Blasey Ford's testimony on Thursday, the National Sexual Assault Hotline reported a 147 percent increase in its normal call volume. That's a trend that we have seen since the #MeToo movement. Advocates say more sexual assault victims have been inspired to come forward. Daniele Dreitzer is the Executive Director of the Rape Crisis Center. "We've seen our counseling numbers go up, we've seen our support group numbers really expand," she said. In the first half of the year, the center saw a 24% increase in the number of calls to its hotline.

As the world learned the news Friday that renowned chef and food writer Anthony Bourdain had died by apparent suicide, the same phone number flooded the internet. The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline—1-800-273-8255—was pinned to the bottom of memorial Instagram posts, shared in tweets and ran alongside news obituaries. Whenever a notable person commits suicide, calls to the hotline spike, said Director John Draper. Just days before Mr. Bourdain’s death, news of another famous person had spread: handbag designer Kate Spade, whose apparent cause of death was also suicide. Calls jumped 25% in the two days after her...

North and South Korea on Friday set up their first ever direct telephone hotline between their leaders, ahead of a historic summit next week that aims to resolve nuclear tensions with Pyongyang and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. An official in Seoul confirmed that a successful four minute test call was conducted between South Korea’s presidential office and Pyongyang’s most powerful institution, the State Affairs Commission. “The connection was smooth and the voice quality was very good. It was like calling next door,” he said. The hotline is intended to prevent misunderstandings between the neighbouring countries, who are still...

21:58 .   Russian Defense Ministry summons U.S. military attache, cuts off communication with Pentagon on Syria (Part 2) http://www.interfax.com/news.asp  

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has set up a hotline to help out students who are stressed or worried from the election of Donald Trump has president. . . “Although it has been nearly a month since the presidential election, many of our students still have questions and concerns about potential impact on them and their families,” Superintendent Michelle King said in the recorded phone call for parents. . . Seventy-four percent of LAUSD’s 655,000 students are Hispanic, and the district includes thousands of students who are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants. The district saw...

A division of the Department of Veterans Affairs tasked with fixing up the VA's broken veteran suicide hotline has dropped roughly 1.4 million phone calls from veterans since fiscal year 2015, a VA whistleblower told the Washington Examiner. That high number of abandoned calls is raising questions about whether the VA is doing all it can to fix up the suicide hotline, which has been criticized as the latest part of the VA that is failing veterans. Scott Davis, a whistleblower and program specialist at the VA's Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta, noted that the VA's Health Resource Center is...

WASHINGTON, United States — The United States is to review staffing on a hotline to report ceasefire violations in Syria after some volunteers had trouble understanding Arabic speakers. State Department personnel in Washington are manning a line to allow witnesses in Syria to report breaches in a tentative truce between rebels and regime forces. But in recent days reports have surfaced that callers from the Middle East have found it hard to explain the details of alleged air and artillery strikes. According to non-profit news organization “Syria Direct” one US official mistook “Harbnifsah” — a frontline village — for “Harb...

A Florida veteran says he was repeatedly put on hold for up to ten minutes at a time when trying to call the Department of Veterans Affairs suicide hotline. U.S. Air Force veteran Ted Koran told ABC Action News in Tampa Bay that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts following the death of his wife six months ago and tried to reach out to the VA hotline. ABC Action News reports: The U.S. Air Force veteran first called the James Haley VA Center in Tampa, where a recording gave him the 800 number to the hotline.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Just 12 hours before police say a man threw his 5-year-old daughter to her death off a Tampa Bay bridge last month, his own attorney called Florida's child abuse hotline, warning that his client was suffering from mental delusions. But the hotline operator didn't refer the call to investigators because she didn't think the child was in danger, according to documents released by Florida child welfare officials Monday. One week earlier, another worried caller told the Department of Children and Families that Jonchuck's daughter Phoebe had been physically abused in the past. But that call also...