After weeks of saying that longtime Oracle exec Thomas Kurian was taking some much deserved time off and was “expected” back, Oracle on Friday announced that Kurian has resigned.

We understand that last week, Oracle elevated T.K. Anand to take over many of Kurian’s responsibilities, telling employees at the time that his promotion was temporary until Kurian came back. Oracle declined comment on Anand’s ongoing role at the company so it’s not clear if he’s permanently got the job or is just on trial.

Oracle’s indicated that multiple other execs have been assigned bits of Kurian’s responsibilities, too. That would make sense, since 35,000 people in 32 countries, or about one-quarter of the company, had reported to him, Kurian’s LinkedIn profile said.

T.K. Anand is an interesting choice to lead Oracle’s most important engineering unit, as he’s an Oracle outsider. He joined the company in June after a 22-year-career in engineering at Microsoft, working himself up to a general manager role in Microsoft’s cloud unit, according to his LinkedIn profile.

TK Anand/LinkedIn

We can understand why Oracle might like his background. Microsoft, like Oracle, is doing head-to-head battle with Amazon in cloud these days. And Microsoft is widely considered to be competing well, the No. 2 player, and is a particular favorite among large corporations, which are also Oracle’s key customers.

An outsider is also a complete about-face from Kurian who had been with Oracle since 1996 and was so close to Oracle founder, chairman and CTO Larry Ellison that Kurian was once rumored to be in the running to become CEO if Ellison ever retires.

The company says that Kurian’s resignation officially occured on September 28 and that he left to “pursue other opportunities.” But no one inside of Oracle is surprised.

Kurian was one of Oracle’s longest-serving engineering executives who was in charge of Oracle’s all-important cloud business and his exodus was revealed earlier this month, first reported by CNBC’s Jordan Novet.

Although his leaving was described as an “extended” leave of absence, Business Insider published a copy of his email to the troops and it seemed to use language that sounded like a final goodbye.

Within the company, no one among the rank-and-file employees expected him back, an insider told us. This, even though Mark Hurd repeatedly held the official corporate line with analysts on the quarterly conference call last week, saying a couple of times about Kurian’s departure: “He’s taken a break. We expect him back.”

Kurian reportedly left because he was butting heads with his boss, Ellison, over the direction of the company’s cloud-computing business, which, as we previously reported, makes a lot of sense.

Oracle’s cloud is years behind market leader Amazon’s in terms of features. It will take Oracle billions of dollars and possibly several years to catch up to Amazon, if it can.

Amazon isn’t sitting still, but is adding features at an ever-increasing rate, hundreds or more per quarter. And now Amazon has begun a direct attack to pull Oracle’s customers away, not just from Oracle’s fledgling cloud, but from its all-important database, the technology upon which its entire empire is built.

All of this put Kurian and his team in the hot seat.

Although some parts of Oracle’s cloud business are doing extremely well, there are signs that the cloud overall is not doing as well as the company wants.

As Business Insider previously reported, there were people among Oracle’s massive salesforce using tricks to make cloud sales, even to customers who weren’t interested and wouldn’t ultimately use the cloud, prompting the head of North American sales to write an email essentially telling them all to knock it off.

Meanwhile, although Oracle’s customers tend to love its products, they also complain that Oracle uses contractual tricks to shake them down for money.

Back in 2015, Business Insider reported on a tactic, where Oracle audits a customer to verify the customer is using Oracle tech in accordance with the software license. If it finds something out of whack, it can send a big bill. An Oracle rep may then tell the customer that to reduce the bill, the customer needs to buy some cloud services, even if the customer doesn’t want or need the cloud service.

Such audits are still occurring, an Oracle insider tells us.

On top of that, top Oracle execs didn’t earn certain performance payments tied to cloud goals, and they stopped openly reporting cloud revenues and Oracle missed analysts’ expectations for its last quarter.

None of this means that Oracle is in a sandpit of despair, but things are looking bumpier than it would prefer to admit.

Britain is due to leave the EU in six months’ time, at 23:00 GMT on March 29, 2019.

Here are five things to know:

1. Will Brexit definitely happen?

The UK government remains committed to reaching an agreement with the EU before negotiations end in March, however May’s Conservatives do not have a parliamentary majority and any deal made with Brussels will be subject to a vote in parliament.

Analysts say parliament’s reaction will be decisive, as MPs could choose to reject the deal entirely.

May has warned this would lead to a no-deal scenario, in which all ties with the EU would be severed with immediate effect. 

“If the politicians are stupid enough to take us down that road then everything essentially just stops the minute we leave,” says Nigel Driffield, a professor of international business at Warwick University.

“There will be no firms investing in the UK because they’ll just be concerned they won’t get their money out. The pound will fall and … there’ll be a shortage of drugs and a shortage of food, [but] I’m sure all of that will get worked out because I think the politicians involved recognise that putting the country into that sort of mess is one sure-fire way of not getting elected again,” he told Al Jazeera.

MPs could also choose to hold a second referendum on the terms of the divorce.

A second vote is controversial as some argue that it could violate the democratic result of the first referendum.

According to opinion polls, momentum for such a vote appears to be growing, with one survey published in July claiming 42 percent of British voters believe they should be given a final say on leaving the EU. 

At their annual conference in September, the opposition Labour party voted to back a new referendum – which could include the option to remain in the EU – if May’s eventual Brexit deal failed to get through parliament.

“Nobody is ruling out ‘Remain’ as an option,” Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit minister, said on Tuesday.  

2. Is a trade deal expected?

While preliminary agreements have been reached on issues such as immigration and the fee the UK will have to pay to leave, a trade deal has so far remained elusive.

“In my view, the future trade relationship between the UK and EU is the most important factor in determining the outcome of Brexit,” said Kai Loyens, current developments analyst at Foreign Brief, a geopolitical risk analysis website. “However, I am quite pessimistic on prospects for a comprehensive trade agreement in goods and services.”

The Chequers agreement deals solely with goods, despite services accounting for the bulk of UK exports.

It proposes that the UK will mirror EU rules on goods and that the country will be treated as a “combined customs territory”.

This would see the UK apply domestic tariffs for goods intended for UK consumption and EU tariffs for those heading into the EU. This plan is meant to prevent the need for a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which has become a thorny issue. 

It seems unlikely, however, that the EU would accept the trade guidelines laid out in the Chequers agreement.

“The EU remains opposed to anything less than a comprehensive agreement on both [goods and services] and they are actively stonewalling the PM over advancing negotiations until the UK concedes ground on this,” Loyens told Al Jazeera.

“Until the UK recognises that it is unrealistic to expect a tailored trade agreement, which takes the most desirable parts of the single market, a comprehensive trade agreement cannot be guaranteed in the coming months,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UK is also looking further afield, attempting to secure trade deals with overseas partners including the United States, Australia and several African countries.

“I think at the moment you can kind of see what [International Trade Secretary] Liam Fox is trying to do – he’s just looking to get a deal with anybody over anything so that he can announce one,” said Driffield.

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting in late September, May said she had discussed a desire for a “big and ambitious” post-Brexit trade deal with US President Donald Trump. 

“I think particularly the Brexiteers would love to have a sort of free market version of a deal with America, where we stop worrying about things like hormone-injected beef or chlorine-washed chicken, and we do a deal that’s in the image of the right wing of the Tory party and of the right wing of the Republican party, which is terribly free market,” Driffield told Al Jazeera.

“I imagine we will [strike deals with Australia and New Zealand] but in terms of their importance to the UK, they’re going to be tiny”.

3. What will happen to EU migrants in Britain?

May has said an agreement reached with the EU in December will allow the 3.2 million EU citizens currently living and working in the UK – along with citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – to “go on living like before”.

If the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, these individuals will have their rights enshrined in UK law as long as they came to the country before the Brexit deadline date.

Beyond that, it’s uncertain what conditions future EU migrants to the UK will have to meet.

“The UK cabinet has endorsed reforms to the immigration system, which would emphasise skill sets over nationality in determining eligibility to live and work in the UK,” said Loyens.

“[May] has pledged to end unlimited immigration so I believe it is unlikely that any EU national emigrating to the UK after the official Brexit date would be able to undergo the same application.”

 

EU citizens living in the UK and vice versa will be able to leave for up to five years without losing these rights, according to the draft agreement.

During the 21-month transition phase following the split, EU citizens will continue to be allowed to work in the UK, but it is unclear if they will enjoy the same rights granted to pre-Brexit arrivals. 

This agreement will only come into force if and when a final Brexit deal is reached and approved by parliament, however May has said EU citizens will be allowed to remain in the country even in the event of a no-deal scenario.

“Free movement of labour [between EU countries] has been seen as something to help firms not spend money on training, so in the short term there are going to be big skill shortages,” said Driffield.

“If firms can’t bring people in from the EU in the way they did before, they’re going to be lobbying to bring people in form other parts of the world like South Asia, China, the Caribbean – wherever it is – to fill those skills gaps.”

4. What will happen to British migrants in EU countries?

UK citizens in the EU will have a similar deal to the above, according to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, who said that “cheap and simple” administration procedures will be put in place to facilitate this.

However the 27 EU member states have yet to ratify December’s Withdrawal Agreement.

There are roughly 1 million Britons living in the EU awaiting clarity on whether they have a right of return to the UK, and if that right would cover spouses and children from EU countries, as well as work-related issues.

“The possibility of a large number of financial services jobs being relocated to the continent makes it a strong possibility that EU national governments could become more accommodating in their migration schemes,” said Loyens.

5. How is the UK economy expected to be affected after Brexit?

Immediately after the Brexit vote, there were signs of trouble for the UK economy.

Sterling dropped by 10 percent against the dollar, reaching a 31-year low in the hours following the referendum.

In August, the pound hit a record low for 2018 against both the euro and the dollar as fears of a no-deal scenario grew.

“The UK economy will be worse off after Brexit. How much worse off it will be depends on the deal that is reached. This is a view shared by the EU as well as the Bank of England, and the IMF in its most recent analysis of the UK economy,” Loyens told Al Jazeera.

 

“Recession under a no-deal scenario is likely, and threats to the economy will continue even with an exit agreement and into the transition period. Forecasts of 1.5 percent growth for 2019 are also contingent on a smooth Brexit,” he said.

International businesses including Lloyd’s Bank and Bank of America have moved their European headquarters from London to continental cities since the Brexit vote.

Banking giant HSBC announced that it would move 1,000 jobs from London to Paris, where it will set up its European headquarters.

According to the European Automobile Manufactures Association, 80 percent of the UK’s car production is exported, of which 54 percent goes to EU member states.

“The threat to auto-manufacturing in the UK is a serious risk to the economy in my view. A substantial number of automakers retain manufacturing operations in the UK. A no-deal Brexit scenario would see them face uncompetitive tariffs, threatening jobs and investment,” said Loyens. “I believe that a trade or economic arrangement which doesn’t address this reality increases the threat to domestic jobs and business confidence in the UK.”

“It’s going to be bad if we have anything even approaching Chequers,” Driffield said. “I think we will see a huge reduction in investment, I think we will see firms orienting away from UK production and doing more in Europe because they will just think: ‘It’s not worth the hassle’ […] Over time business will find a solution and that solution will be doing less in the UK”.

Associated Press

Published 3:26 a.m. ET Sept. 29, 2018

The powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia’s central Sulawesi has claimed dozens of victims, a disaster official said Saturday, as rescuers raced to reach the region and an AP reporter saw numerous bodies in a hard-hit city.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference that four hospitals in the central Sulawesi city of Palu have reported 48 dead and hundreds of injured. He said “many victims” are still to be accounted for.

Dawn revealed a devastated coastline in central Sulawesi where the 3-meter high (10 foot) tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake Friday smashed into two cities and several settlements.

Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. Seawater still pooled inland and a mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged. A shopping mall in the paralyzed city of more than 380,000 people had been reduced to a crumpled hulk.

The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.

An AP reporter saw bodies partially covered by tarpaulins and a man carrying a dead child through the wreckage.

In the nearby city of Donggala a large bridge with yellow arches that spanned a coastal river had collapsed.

Indonesian TV showed a smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting Palu at dusk, with people screaming and running in fear. The water smashed into buildings and a large mosque already damaged by the earthquake.

Communications with the area are difficult because power and telecommunications are cut, hampering search and rescue efforts.

Nugroho has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu airport’s though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway is cracked and the control tower damaged.

AirNav said one of its air traffic controllers died in the quake after staying in the tower to ensure a flight he’d just cleared for departure got airborne safely. It did.

Indonesia’s president on Friday night said he had instructed the security minister to coordinate the government’s response to a quake and tsunami that hit central Sulawesi.

Joko “Jokowi” Widodo also told reporters in his hometown of Solo that he had called on the country’s military chief help with search and rescue efforts.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said U.N. officials were in contact with Indonesian authorities and “stand ready to provide support as required.”

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

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A portion of a water system that serves south Bossier Parish has tested positive for a brain-eating amoeba, according to the operator of the water system.

Andy Freeman, the operator of Sligo Water System, said residents from Highway 71 to Red Chute Bayou along Sligo Road may be affected.

The Louisiana Department of Health conducted a random test of the system last week and notified the system of the positive result on Friday, Freeman said.

Sligo had purchased the water that tested positive for the amoeba from Bossier City. Sligo has disconnected from Bossier City water and is now using well water to supply those customers, Freeman said.

MORE:  How ‘rare’ is illness from brain-eating amoeba? Very

Other Sligo testing sites did not have the amoeba, Freeman said.

Sligo already was concerned about chlorine levels, so it began flushing the affected portion of the water Wednesday, Freeman said. The water system has been instructed to initiate a free chlorine burn for the next 60 days.

The state has not issued a boil order, Freeman said.

The amoeba, naegleria fowleri, is commonly found in warm freshwater and soil. It usually infects people when it enters the body through the nose and later the brain. You cannot get infected by swallowing the water.

Attempts to contact Traci Landry, a Bossier City Spokesperson, was not successful before publication.

Sligo normally serves water users with well water but, Freeman said, dry conditions had prompted it to buy Bossier City water.

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FBI agents were homing in on a potential witness to interview on Friday night, shortly after President Donald Trump authorized the agency to conduct a supplemental background check on Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, sources in a Los Angeles Times report published Friday.

FBI agents reportedly aimed to schedule an interview with one of the two additional women who came forward with their own accusations of sexual misconduct involving Kavanaugh. Christine Blasey Ford, a California-based professor who alleged Kavanaugh was “stumbling drunk” when he sexually assaulted her during a small party in the 1980s, was the first accuser who was publicly identified.

Following the publication of Ford’s account in a Washington Post report on September 16, Deborah Ramirez, a fellow Yale classmate, and Julie Swetnick, a woman who claimed to have witnessed Kavanaugh display “abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls,” came forward with their own reports about Kavanaugh.

It was unclear if the woman the FBI reportedly took interest in on Friday was either Ramirez and Swetnick — the LA Times report did not reveal the woman’s identity.

The attorneys for one of the two women from the report were reportedly contacted by the FBI to schedule an interview “as early as tonight,” a source for The Times said. The sources added that the process could start sometime during the weekend.

On Thursday, lawmakers from the Senate Judiciary Committee listened to emotional testimonies from both Kavanaugh and Ford.

Ford recounted how Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her over her clothes, and covered her mouth with his hand when she started to yell. Kavanaugh “categorically and unequivocally” denied the allegation, but stopped short of claiming Ford had fabricated the incident.

Asked multiple times by lawmakers if he believed an FBI investigation would be prudent, Kavanaugh dodged the question and deferred the decision to the Judiciary Committee.

“I welcome whatever the committee wants to do, because I’m telling the truth,” Kavanaugh said during the hearing.

On Friday, the committee voted along party lines to move Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate floor. During the procedural vote, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona conditioned his approval by asking that an FBI investigation, one that was “limited in time and scope,” be conducted prior to a formal vote by the entire Senate.

The final confirmation vote for Kavanaugh is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.

Russia has started delivering S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Syrian forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations (UN) on Friday that “the delivery started already” after a decision was reached following downing of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft which was hit by a Syrian missile.

Moscow said Israel was culpable as the Il-20 was caught in the crossfire as four Israeli fighter jets attacked targets in northwestern Syria.

The Israeli military said that Syria’s indiscriminate air defence fire was the cause of the incident.

“As President [Vladimir] Putin said, after that incident … the measures that we will take will be devoted to ensuring 100 percent safety and security of our men,” said Lavrov.

The move comes in defiance of opposition from the United States and Israel. 

US National Security Advisor John Bolton called Moscow’s decision a “major mistake”. 

“We think introducing the S-300s to the Syrian government would be a significant escalation by the Russians and something that we hope, if these press reports are accurate, they would reconsider,” he said on Monday. 

In a phone call, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Putin that “transferring advanced weapons systems into irresponsible hands will increase the dangers in the region”, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. 

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Friday he hoped the missile system would help close the country’s sky for Israeli warplanes. 

Friendly fire

The downing of the reconnaissance plane was the worst case of friendly fire between Russia and Syria since Moscow’s military intervention in the country in support of President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces in September 2015.

Israel has carried out about 200 air raids in the last two years, according to its officials.

Since intervening in Syria’s war, Russia has generally turned a blind eye to Israeli attacks inside the country. Israel and Russia have maintained a special hotline to prevent their air forces from clashing in the skies over Syria.

Israeli military officials have previously praised its effectiveness.

A dispute between Israel and Russia could restrict Israel’s ability to mount air raids inside Syria on what it considers the greatest threat to its security from the Syria conflict: the build-up of Iranian forces or Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters. 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

The image, for so many women across the country, was searing — a mirror reflection of long-hidden pain, of memories that still cut to the bone, of wounds that sometimes feel like they will never fully heal.

There was Christine Blasey Ford, voice trembling, hair slightly askew, eager to appear pleasant and collegial before the panel of stern men staring back at her. Terrified, as she told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee considering the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

For hours on Thursday, she recounted one of the most traumatic events of her life, even as she knew the likely outcome: “I wondered if I would just be jumping in front of a train that was going where it was going anyway, and I would just be personally annihilated.”

The next day, Fran Scott, a 65-year-old retiree, sat in a food court in a suburban Houston mall and predicted the same. Scott had no doubt that Kavanaugh, despite the allegations that he sexually assaulted three women, will eventually be appointed to the court. She had no doubt that his angry, tearful tirade before the committee would be perceived more sympathetically than Ford’s restrained and stricken demeanor. 

“We think we have come far, but nothing has changed. We are not believed when we say we are abused,” said Scott, who described herself as “defeated, deflated and numb” but determined to press forward.

But while many women said Ford’s experiences echoed their own and they were appalled at Kavanaugh’s anger, many men saw his indignation during the hearing Thursday as justified — a reflection of the gender divide stoked by the nomination.

Cameron Nessmith, 29, an internal auditor the Houston area, admired the fire and fury of Kavanaugh’s appearance. During his testimony, the Supreme Court nominee veered between outrage and tears, and at times, was combative with the Democrats questioning him.

“He just cared about clearing his name,” Nessmith said. “I felt like he was fighting for his life. That gave me more sympathy for him. He didn’t come across as begging.”

Across the country, women who watched Ford’s testimony saw glimpses of their own stories, eliciting a mix of anger, resignation and frustration. For some, the hearing excavated long-buried trauma, prompting a 147 percent spike in calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

More: Trump calls Ford’s testimony ‘compelling,’ orders new FBI probe of Kavanaugh

Opinion: Kavanaugh vs. Ford testimonies cry out for an investigation before a vote

Related: Tips for sexual assault survivors dealing with onslaught of triggering news

Other survivors flooded the C-SPAN phone lines to share their experiences of sexual abuse and assault. One 76-year-old woman described being sexually molested as a second grader; a 26-year-old talked — through tears — of being assaulted in college.

In social media, many — including the daughter of longtime Disney company executive Roy E. Disney — shared wrenching stories of sexual and family violence and commented on the difference between Ford’s and Kavanaugh’s testimony, noting how their markedly different demeanors reinforced what is considered socially acceptable for men and women.

“What’s breaking my heart right now is Ford’s desperate and quite earnest desire to please,” posted writer Jennifer Senior. 

While women and girls are often socialized to be polite and smile through pain, Kavanaugh “comes and starts yelling that he has been treated unfairly and everyone sympathizes. Why does he feel free to get indignant and yell at senators?” asked Elizabeth Gregory, director of the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston.

The outpouring of emotional response to the hearing reveals how pervasive sexual violence is in society, said Gregory, noting that “violence is all around us. It occurs all the time. It is the premise of every TV show, where we know women will be killed.”

For women, the possibility of sexual violence is a constant in a way that it is not for most men, said Gregory. That may be one reason why the Kavanaugh allegations have resonated differently along gender lines.

According to a recent USA TODAY/Ipsos Public Affairs Poll, 35 percent of women said they believe Ford’s accusations, compared to 21 percent of men. Men by nine percentage points said they believe Kavanaugh’s denials, 37 percent to 28 percent.

In addition, women oppose him by 20 points, 43 percent to 23 percent; men support him by four points, 40 percent to 36 percent.

Nessmith, the Houston auditor, said he understands why the allegations and the graphic testimony would trigger such personal and emotional reactions in women, and admitted that a double standard exists in the way men and women are treated.

Yet, even though he found Ford’s testimony credible and compelling, Nessmith felt there was not enough proof to derail Kavanaugh’s life and career.

Anna Núñez, by contrast, found herself shaken and unsettled, as Thursday’s testimony unearthed her own experience of sexual harassment. 

“We all have #MeToo stories that we don’t want to talk about,” said Núñez, 51, coordinator of special programs at The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health in Houston. “A lot of women will wake up with the same shame. Dr. Ford spoke out but how many of us have remained silent?”

As she watched Kavanaugh speak, Núñez said she felt sick to her stomach.

“Regardless of political affiliation, every woman could look at his smug, angry face and recognize it,” she said. “We all have had instances where we are not heard, not listened to or respected, where we are shut down.”

In downtown Denver, a crowd of more than 100 men and women Friday chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Kavanaugh has got to go,” outside the office of Republican Sen. Cory Gardner. Their protest began moments after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Kavanaugh‘s nomination.
 
“There’s just a sense of shock that they are barreling ahead and not listening to what people are saying about this person’s character,” said Rana Gheissari, who held an “I believe Ford” sign.
 
Gheissari, a Democrat who works in sales, said seeing Kavanaugh’s testimony hardened her opposition.

“It increased my resolve that this isn’t something that should proceed,” she said. “His overall tone was shocking and inappropriate.”
 
Chris Vogler, on the other hand, said the hearings offered little clarity. Vogler, who described himself as right-leaning, said Kavanaugh did a good job forcefully defending himself. 

He said he was also particularly impressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham’s “tirade” in support of the judge.
 
“I’ve never really liked Lindsey Graham before but I kind of like him now,” said Vogler, 47, who works in industrial sales and was attending a convention in Denver.

In Portland, Cory Huff, 37, who works in marketing, said he purposely avoided the hearing Thursday, even deleting Twitter from his phone. But he still felt the fallout.

A family member is currently recovering from sexual assault so “this entire process of hearing from and about multiple accusers has been traumatic for our family,” said Huff, who is not registered with either party. “She’s having a hard time. She’s had to tune everything out completely.”

Another Portland resident, Erinn Warner, 48, identified herself as a “bleeding-heart liberal.”

“That’s what’s happening right now,” she said. “My heart is bleeding.”

At first, Warner thought Ford’s testimony — “so credible and so believable” — would be hard for Kavanaugh to follow. Then she saw his bluster and ire.

“When it was over I thought, he’s gonna get confirmed,” Warner said. “It doesn’t matter that he lies about a bunch of little things, doesn’t matter that he’s been accused of sexual assault by multiple women—they have an agenda and they want someone who can help them overturn Roe vs Wade. I’ll be shocked if he’s not confirmed.”

For Christina Doan, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mom of two toddler daughters, the outcome is not as important as Ford’s willingness to speak out.

Pretty much every woman has gone through some kind of sexual harassment or assault, Doan said matter-of-factly. She has. More than once.

“Males think they can treat you any old way. They think no one will believe you,” she said, as her little girls played on rides at a Houston mall. “More women need to speak out like she has.”

She paused, gazed at her giggling children, then chased after one of her daughters, who wore a black t-shirt with a slogan in silver sparkle: “Slaying it like Mama.”

Contributed: Trevor Hughes and Lindsay Schnell

 

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