Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran and Russia, and force President Donald Trump to get Congress’ approval before easing any existing sanctions on Russia.

The 100-member Senate backed the measure by a margin of 98-2.

Republican Senator Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, were the only two “no” votes.

The bill includes new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and other activities not related to the international nuclear agreement reached with the United States and other world powers.

The Senate this week also added new sanctions punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for Syria’s government in that country’s six-year-long civil war.

Lawmakers also voted overwhelmingly earlier on Thursday to add provision to the bill allowing the U.S. space agency NASA to continue using Russian-made rocket engines and reaffirming the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance.

To become law, the legislation still must pass the House of Representatives and be signed by Trump. House aides said they expected the chamber would begin to debate the measure in the coming weeks, although they could not predict when it might face a final vote.

Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, had questioned the legislation in testimony in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

“I would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation,” he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

However, aides in both the Senate and the House said they expected support for the bill would be strong enough to override a Trump veto if necessary.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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The BBC reported today that the UK defense company BAE systems sold powerful surveillance technology to a number of countries in the Middle East. The report comes after a year-long investigation spearheaded by BBC Arabic and the Danish newspaper, Dag…

One of the creepiest and scariest books that I ever read was Stephen King’s IT. Pennywise the clown was freaky as hell, and in the TV movie based on the book, he was just as disturbing. With a new theatrical version of the movie coming soon, a new Funko POP! vinyl figure has surfaced.

This Pop! figure is based on Pennywise from the TV adaptation of the book, not the new film, but it’s still plenty creepy. He’s got the trademark clown white face, red hair and red nose, but eyes with no pupils, and gnarled, jagged teeth. The figure can be yours for $9.99(USD) on ThinkGeek, though you’ll need to set aside some extra cash for therapy.

Dobby’s fellow house-elves never respected him. All that liberation talk was shameful ― a disgrace to the name of inherited servitude. He could have been a throwaway character in the “Harry Potter” universe, there to simply muck up Harry’s second year at Hogwarts before sinking into the scenery. But his intentions were too noble. When he wasn’t thumping his head against a wall in melodramatic self-discipline, Dobby became an iconoclast, a civil-rights advocate, a freedom fighter and the most loyal pal any witch, wizard or Muggle could envision. 

In honor of the first “Harry Potter” novel’s 20th anniversary, I am here to extol the virtues of Dobby, that squat critter who, in J.K. Rowling’s words, bears “large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls.”

He is my favorite. Dobby embodies an altruism not enough humans aspire to. Now, with an American president who employs bullying tactics and an internet culture that lets brutes hide behind anonymous avatars, that benevolence resonates even more than it did nearly two decades ago. 

Because they don’t fight for their own rights, house-elves reflect a timeless fear: the idea that we are stuck with whatever fate dictates. But Dobby’s employment with the oppressive Malfoy clan, which comes to a blissful close when Harry’s scheme to free him works at the end of Chamber of Secrets, turns him into a resilient ideal. Being released from his harsh past bestowed in Dobby a generosity that he then showed to others. Like so many great literary figures, that generosity became his tragic flaw. 

Forever amazed by Harry and company’s most basic kindnesses, Dobby did not exploit his newfound autonomy. He remained humble. In liberating the elf, Rowling made him the backbone of a key political divide: how labor is honored within the wizarding world. House-elves are low-ranking members of the proletariat, their owners slave drivers. Freed, Dobby rightly insisted he be paid for his work, a foreign concept for house-elves, penniless creatures expected to preserve unyielding loyalty toward their masters. But he wasn’t fighting for his pocketbook ― he just wanted an emblem of respect. When Dumbledore gave Dobby a gig in the Hogwarts kitchen, Dobby negotiated downward, accepting a mere portion of the salary and benefits package offered to him. He is everything we human greed machines are not: humble, dutiful, limber. 

Rowling found optimal use for Dobby’s purity throughout the series. He brought Harry a bundle of Gillyweed during the Triwizard Tournamnet. When Winky imbibed too much Butterbeer, he hid her in the Room of Requirement, which he then recommended to Harry as a boardroom for the Voldemort-resistant Dumbledore’s Army. (Essentially, Voldemort’s demise can be traced to Dobby’s guidance.) When the vile Kreacher insulted Harry, Dobby pulverized him, tearfully insisting his cherished pal is a great wizard. Later, in the story’s most tragic death, Dobby Apparated to Malfoy Manor ― his former penitentiary ― to save Harry and crew from Bellatrix Lestrange, only to meet the cold quietus of her silver knife. By the time Harry escaped with Dobby in his arms, it was too late. Dobby died sputtering his two favorite words: “Harry … Potter …”

We can also credit him for fomenting Ron and Hermione’s relationship. Moved by Dobby’s plight and death, Ron suggested evacuating the house-elves during the Battle of Hogwarts, promoting Hermione to kiss him for the first time. 

For a loud-mouthed sprite whose initial appearance threatened to derail Harry’s Hogwarts trajectory, Dobby remained a champion beyond his final breath. In Harry and his comrades, he found humans who saw him as they did themselves: worthy, competent, crucial. Few of us are or have friends as lovely as Dobby, true stalwarts who look outside their own economic and emotional sorrows in the name of others’ prosperity. We need more of that right now.

I sobbed a pond of tears when my beloved little chum perished. While re-reading his death scene in “Deathly Hallows” last week, I teared up again. Harry’s mutual loyalty runs deep and rich, years after he wanted nothing more than for those tennis-ball eyes and bat-like ears to get the hell away from Privet Drive. It’s a buddy tale for the ages. 

Here lies Dobby, a free elf and a fantastic character. 

From June 1 to 30, HuffPost is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the very first “Harry Potter” book by reminiscing about all things Hogwarts. Accio childhood memories.

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One cost of freedom is steel. To remain independent, America must maintain its own vibrant steel industry.

Steel is essential to make munitions, armor plate, aircraft carriers, submarines and fighter jets, as well as the roads and bridges on which these armaments are transported, the electrical grid that powers the factories where they are produced, the municipal water systems that supply manufacturers, even the computers that aid industrial innovation.

If America imports that steel, it becomes a vassal to the producing countries. It would be victim to the whims of countries that certainly don’t have America’s interests in mind when they act. In the case of China, the attempt to subjugate is deliberate. Beijing intentionally overproduces, repeatedly promises to cut back while it actually increases capacity, then exports its excess, state-subsidized steel at below-market costs. This slashes the international price, which, in turn, bankrupts steelmakers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Spain and elsewhere. Then, China dominates.

To his credit, President Donald Trump has said America can’t be great without the ability to make its own steel. He ordered the Commerce Department to investigate the extent to which steel imports threaten national security. Commerce officials are scheduled Friday to brief Senate committees on the inquiry. That’s because they’re being second guessed by a handful of federal officials, exporters and corporations whose only concern is profit, not patriotism. To protect national security, American steel and family-supporting jobs, the administration must stand strong against foreign unfair trade in steel that kills American jobs and creates American dependency.

Imports already take more than a quarter of the U.S. steel market. They rose in May by 2.6 percent, seizing a 27 percent market share. That is dangerous. America can’t rely on unfairly traded foreign steel as it tries to expand manufacturing jobs or when it faces foreign threats. Defense needs are the basis of the administration inquiry, called a Section 232 investigation under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

National security relies on dependable, modern transportation and utility systems as well as armaments. To produce defense materials, factories need supplies to arrive routinely and electricity to flow consistently. Steel is just as crucial for roads, bridges, airports and utilities as it is for armor plate.

Some importers are pressuring Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross not to recommend imposing limits or tariffs on steel imports, asserting that the only consideration should be price. They contend that if China, South Korea, Japan and Turkey subsidize their steel production, which lowers the cost of exports, then American builders should benefit – no matter how much that damages national security or destroys steelworkers’ family-supporting jobs. Their preoccupation with profit at their country’s expense should disqualify them from consideration.

To be clear, American steel companies and my union, the United Steelworkers, have tried repeatedly to resolve the problem of trade cheating through normal channels – filing trade enforcement cases against the violators. But the United States has refused to take currency manipulation by countries like China into account. And every time an American company wins an enforcement case against a trade law violator and tariffs are imposed on a particular type of steel import, China and other cheaters begin subsidizing a different type of steel and exporting that.

American companies have won dozens of cases – welded stainless steel pressure pipe, rebar, line pipe, oil country tubular goods, wire rod, corrosion-resistant steel, hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, cut-to-length plate, grain-oriented electrical steel. But in every case, countries like China and South Korea find a way to circumvent the rulings by subsidizing some new steel product and exporting that or by trans-shipping – sending the product to another country first to make it look like the steel originated there to evade the tariffs.

American steel producers and steelworkers can compete successfully against any counterpart in the world, but they can’t win a contest against a country.

The USW and American producers are looking for a broader solution now, something that will prevent cheating and circumvention across-the-board. And they have good reason to believe they can count on Commerce Secretary Ross. This is a guy who knows the industry and has a track record of saving steel mills and jobs.

At the turn of the century, as recession and the Asian financial crisis pushed more than 30 U.S. steel companies into bankruptcy, Secretary Ross bought a half dozen failing steel firms and restored them to solvency.

Because of his experience, Secretary Ross can be trusted to know the difference between China and Canada. American steelworkers and steel producers aren’t looking for blatant protectionism. American firms and Canadian companies have relationships in which steel from Canton, Ohio, may travel to St. Catherines, Ontario, where it is converted into engine blocks that are then shipped back across the border to Detroit, Mich., for installation in cars. Canada doesn’t illegally subsidize its steel industry or manipulate its currency. Only countries like China, Russia, South Korea and others that flagrantly violate international trade rules should be subject to the Section 232 sanctions.

Secretary Ross experienced the hell of 30 steel bankruptcies. He knows just how bad it can be for workers, companies and the country. With President Trump at his back, Secretary Ross now is key to ensuring American steel doesn’t descend back into that hell and that America remains steel independent.

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