I tend to agree with plane on this carrier issue. China needs longer range for projection of power.
A shining example of China's need to project power was in Libya. Thirty thousand Chinese oilfield workers were airlifted out of Libya as the war there heated up. The Chinese couldn't do a God-damn thing to protect their oil interests there against NATO. A couple of Chinese carriers in the Mediterranean would have made all the difference to the Chinese and Ghaddafi. Carriers with fuel tankers in tow are just presenting the fuel tankers as extra targets for the enemy; at the very least, the carriers' jets have to busy themselves with the defence of the tankers, which when they're already far from home is a waste of their resources. Even worse if the tankers are sunk or burned, where the hell are the carriers then? Much better that the carriers are nuclear-fueled.
As China's economy grows even bigger over the next two decades, they are going to need lots and lots more oil - - this fucking bullshit of the U.S. and its NATO partners chasing the Chinese out of every foreign oil patch they invest in is going to have to stop, and stop fast. Hence the rebuilt carrier and the three more soon to be built from scratch.
As for sirs' claims that the sexual abuse allegations against Cain are unfounded: Bullshit! Cain is trapped in his own lies, first that there was no settlement, then that it was small, "only" a few thousand bucks, then it turns out that there WAS a settlement and it was for one of the women $35,000 or a YEAR'S pay, not the "two or three months' pay" that Cain first said it was.
This can get messier. As the media presses for the victims' stories, Cain will be forced into the position of refusing to release them from any confidentiality agreements they may have signed. He can't win - - it's "cover-up" if he succeeds in silencing the victims, and it's a messy situation if they are allowed to voice their accusations in public. There's also the third victim to consider. What the hell is SHE going to say and when if ever will she be dropping her bombshell?
Personally, if I were Cain, I'd let the whole story air now - - the accusations don't seem to go beyond suggestive talk, which a lot of people (myself included) don't consider to be such a BFD, especially when, as seems to be the case here, all parties were drinking fairly heavily at the time. I think, as long as there was no groping or force involved, there could even be a sympathy vote for Cain, as in "WTF is the BFD here? This guy is being crucified for nothing." OTOH, if Cain obstructs the release of the victims' stories (by refusing to release them from their confidentiality agreements,) then people will start to call him "pervert" with some justification, the thinking being, "Well, if there weren't something to cover up, he'd release the victims from the confidentiality agreement."
The bottom line is that a $35,000 settlement (which Cain already lied about at least twice) is not chickenshit. At this point, most people who aren't totally brain-dead would probably conclude that there was some basis to the accusations.