| FBI arrests leader of armed group stopping migrants in New Mexico Posted: 21 Apr 2019 03:04 PM PDT  The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group that is stopping undocumented migrants after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border into New Mexico. The arrest came two days after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the group of illegally detaining migrants and New Mexico's Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered an investigation. Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
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| 110 Kosovars, mostly children and women, returned from Syria Posted: 20 Apr 2019 07:34 AM PDT  PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo authorities announced Saturday they have brought back from Syria 110 Kosovar citizens, mostly women and children, with the assistance of the United States.
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| What the Mueller Probe Really Means Posted: 20 Apr 2019 11:04 AM PDT  The Mueller Report, despite the best efforts of the chief author and his partisan investigative staff, is a bone-crushing defeat for the president's enemies. There is not a whit of evidence that any American collaborated with any Russian to alter the results of the 2016 presidential election, and there is extensive evidence that the Trump campaign was the subject of enticements to collaborate and rebuffed all of them at all levels. The laborious bulk of Mueller's minute description of completely inconsequential twists and turns in his investigation leaves the reader in no doubt of his thoroughness, and in no doubt of the complete absence of any case that could be made for collusion, let alone cooperation in an actual crime of attempting to influence the election illegally. As there is clearly no excuse for the special counsel to have been established, Mueller devotes the second half of his report to an effort to scratch together a virtual justification for it, by leading the reader through another maze to imply that there might be a conceivable case against the president for obstruction of justice. He acknowledges that he does not have a clear idea of the president's motives, and so cannot judge if there was a corrupt motive, but cannot exonerate him either.
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| South Carolina 5th-grader in school fight died of natural causes; no charges will be filed Posted: 19 Apr 2019 07:25 PM PDT  Officials said the 10-year-old died from a preexisting condition called arteriovenous malformation, and there was no evidence trauma led to her death.
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| Solemn service to mark 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre Posted: 20 Apr 2019 03:00 AM PDT ![Solemn service to mark 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre]( "Solemn service to mark 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre") A week-long series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre culminates on Saturday with a remembrance ceremony celebrating the lives of the 13 victims slain in the rampage. Betty Shoels, the aunt of murdered student Isaiah Shoels, said her 18-year-old nephew was a fun-loving athlete who was always smiling, despite feeling out of place as one of the school's few African-American students. Evan Todd was a sophomore at Columbine two decades ago when he was wounded in the school library, where 10 of the students were killed.
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| Northern Irish Police: Journalist’s Murder Sign of a ‘New Brand of Terrorism’ Posted: 20 Apr 2019 02:38 PM PDT  Northern Irish police said a "new brand of terrorism" was responsible for the death of a well-respected journalist who was killed last week as they announced the arrest of two teenagers in connection with the killing.Twenty-nine-year-old journalist and LGBT activist Lyra McKee was fatally shot on Thursday while covering a clash between police and nationalist rioters in Londonerry. She was standing near police officers when rioters fired gunshots and threw petrol bombs at police. During a press conference on Saturday, police in Northern Ireland announced that they had arrested two men, 18 and 19 years old, under the country's terrorism act in connection with McKee's murder. They have been taken the two to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite for questioning.On Friday, police blamed McKee's murder on gunshot wounds fired indiscriminately, and released footage of a masked gunman firing during the riots. "What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation," Police Service of Northern Ireland Superintendent Jason Murphy said.Violence has flared in Northern Ireland over the past several months as the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union has once again raised questions about the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland's borders. Law enforcement on Friday blamed the killing on members of the New Irish Republican Army. The small group rejects the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which put an end to the unrest of the period dubbed the Troubles and years of sectarian civil war between Irish nationalists and UK loyalists. According to the Associated Press, the group has also been blamed for a car bombing in Londonderry earlier this year, as well as several killings over the past several years. The group also claimed it sent mail bombs across the UK.McKee, an independent journalist whose work covering the conflict in Northern Ireland once earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, was just weeks away from publishing her first book about young people who disappeared during the Troubles.Her death sparked an outpouring of grief from journalists and many local and international political figures. "This cannot stand," her partner Sara Canning said during a vigil on Friday. "Lyra's death must not be in vain because her life was a shining light in everyone else's life, and her legacy will live on in the light that she's left behind."Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| A Meditation after Easter Posted: 20 Apr 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Editor's Note: This article was first published in the April 24, 1987, issue of National Review.* * *And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.—Luke 22: 10–12There is a strange agency at work here. The Scripture might be haunted. That pitcher-bearer. This goodman. They spook me. Who are they, what special order of grace do they belong to? And, elsewhere, those men who surrender the colt "whereon yet never man sat." Nameless, equivocal shapes. "Hey," they shout, "why loose ye the colt?" The Lord has need of it, His disciples explain. Oh, well. In that case. Why didn't you say so? Take our expensive animal. And has their free will been taken also? It is as if a casual, weird cast of accomplices inhabited Jerusalem. Men or suchlike who know, often better than fumbling Peter or over-literal Thomas, just how to ornament the Passion.Were they perhaps made of some angelic stuff? I don't think so: it is the Lord's habit, thank God, to enlist men wherever convenient. He has an economical disposition. And Man was, after all, what this grand enterprise had been about from the first. But how then did Jesus, so to speak, make His room reservation in advance? Were these men sensitized by dreams? Did the Holy Spirit, foraging like a quartermaster sergeant, requisition their possessions through sign and vision? It is possible. The Lord had been known to trouble sleep. "And being warned of God in a dream . . . " Was there fitfulness before the Passover?Again, I think not. God prefers, when He can, to conserve terrestrial order. He has a dramatic instinct. And His own peculiar unities. The Passion is as naturalistic as frail wrist tissue shredded by a spike. Jesus could ferment water. He could infinitely divide the loaf and the fish. But here He had need of a furnished apartment. His colt might have come about providentially, as Abraham's ram came about, caught in some thicket. But God wanted a known colt: one that had memorable references in Jerusalem. It was His purpose to leave a clear and historical track behind — evidence that might stand up in court. The presence of transcendent power among modest instruments is more persuasive than any bullying miracle could be.I suppose it this way, then. That these — pitcher-bearer and goodman and colt-owner, these first acolytes of the Eucharist — were men given sudden and heightened perception. An abrupt seeing Into. Spirit came upon them as Jesus came upon Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom: "Follow me. And he arose, and followed Him." Simply that. Next Window Please. We are so habituated to reason and a precious carefulness that Christ's people seem, well, irresponsible. But grace is first the law-breaker. It can be brutal: "Let the dead bury their dead." Brutal and rash and unfair. Because there is no ground whatever for believing that these were righteous men. They didn't earn their cameo roles in the Passion through good work. I suspect they were chosen rather for an openness to potential. They were, above all, ready men.Simon of Cyrene, recruited by grace and some Roman to lug Jesus' cross, is my paradigm in this. He had, it would seem, no previous experience for the work. No moral credentials that we hear about. Just a man "who passed by, coming out of the country." To trade, to sightsee, to window-shop: another tourist in the Big Fig. And, all at once, he is absorbed by that rubbernecking mob. Elbow to the front — what have we here? And it's you, yes you. Bozo, pack that wood. We know nothing about Simon, except that his children, Rufus and Alexander, became Christians. On Good Friday, Simon was what we all are, a passerby. And shanghaied by the Holy Spirit. I take comfort in this thought, whose life otherwise does not much recommend itself to God. That I may be granted, through His fierce randomness and my mere availability, a walk-on moment of redemption.Return to the Passion now. Imagine, say, a man in his workshop room alone. For best effect, I'd fancy him preoccupied: revising some device of his craft, in thought, whatever. Suppose it hot and ordinary out. Then, all of one rush, as weather can change, there should be an importance in the air. Let that cheap pitcher interpose itself across his attention here. For this instant it should have more pitcherness. The way common objects astound and please when we are full of joy. This is, you know, not his regular time to fetch water in. But the thought of "pitcher," the very surprising idea that it can hold water, contains aptness and fascination for him. It has been infused by grace. And he rises at a call — not from God as such, nor from any impending event — but to honor the perfect nature of one created thing. There is elevation all around.Returning from the well he happens upon two men. After that, unaware, they will become a procession of three.It is not through war and celebrity that God has most advanced His will. It is through the commonplace: room, colt, manger, fisherman — thunderous Easter, atrocity and miracle, are prepared for in them. Open a window. Pick up anything. Inhale. These are moments and incidents without moral import except for this: that reverence and special shining can inhere. We are admonished to be alert. And certainly we have lost just that measure of openness and heightening and expectation. This is, I suspect, what those shadowy men are about. If they didn't know, they felt, felt at some proper instant, that even in the filling of a pitcher one might lead great strangers to magnificence.
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| SpaceX test accident in Florida sends a massive plume of smoke into the sky Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:08 AM PDT  A SpaceX Crew Dragon experienced an "anomaly" during ground tests that manifested as a column of smoke rising from the spacecraft's thrusters. The Crew Dragons were expected to fly with astronauts aboard later in the year, and it is currently unclear whether recent tests could delay that.> Smoke seen for miles as SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers anomaly at Cape Canaveral https://t.co/W4Cj2bcN6y via @Florida_Today> > -- Code Tripping (@Code_Tripping) April 21, 2019Though few details are available, SpaceX did release a statement to SpaceNews confirming the incident."Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," a spokesperson told SpaceNews. "The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand."Images from Cape Canaveral show a column of smoke visible from local beaches. The ground test anomaly came from an engine test, specifically the SuperDraco engines which provide power for astronauts to get to safety during an aborted launch. Beyond fire and smoke, the anomaly even showed up on radar:> Dragon's static fire anomaly was big enough to show up on radar! ☁️SpaceX CrewDragon FLwx LowCC (Non-meteorological radar signature) pic.twitter.com/WpebHEo6Az> > -- Jabes (@GISRockstar) April 20, 2019NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine also shared a statement to Twitter:> NASA has been notified about the results of the @SpaceX Static Fire Test and the anomaly that occurred during the final test. We will work closely to ensure we safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program. pic.twitter.com/yE2J5yGzA7> > -- Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) April 21, 2019 WATCH: NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine warns India's anti-satellite test could be dangerous for the ISS
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| Egyptians vote in referendum to extend Sisi's rule Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Egyptians started voting Saturday in a referendum that aims to cement the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former coup leader who presents himself as a rock of stability in a turbulent region. Voters were being asked to back amendments to the constitution to allow Sisi, 64, to run for another six-year term while boosting his control over the judiciary and giving the military even greater influence in political life. At a polling station in Manyal, a Cairo suburb overlooking the Nile, Mohamed Abdel Salam, 45, told AFP he fully supported the changes.
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| What's missing? The clues to Barr's 1,000 Mueller report redactions Posted: 19 Apr 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Nearly 40% of the 448 pages have parts blacked out but that content – including remarks by Trump – is not a total mysteryThe attorney general, William Barr, made redactions under four categories: harm to ongoing matters; grand jury evidence; investigative techniques; and personal privacy. Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Mueller report contains tantalising details of Trump campaign dealings with Russia and of the president's possible attempts to obstruct justice. But much of it is blacked out. Nearly 40% of the pages in the document contain at least one redaction, totalling nearly 1,000 in all. In some parts, entire sections have disappeared.The redactions fall into four categories. The largest is "harm to ongoing matters". This refers to likely future trials, including that of Trump's friend and ally Roger Stone, who is due in court in November.The second-biggest category is "grand jury": material that might be used in ongoing legal matters. Information has also been removed which could compromise FBI "investigative techniques". The fourth category is "personal privacy". It concerns individuals peripheral to the core investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.Trump's attorney general, William Barr, will release a less-redacted version of the report to Congress. A close reading of the 448-page report made public offers clues as to what is missing, including remarks made by Trump about sensitive matters. 1\. Russian interference in the 2016 electionThe report gives a voluminous account of how Russian military intelligence hacked and released Democratic party emails, and how Moscow used social media to boost Trump and damage Hillary Clinton. The campaign was conducted by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a troll factory in St Petersburg funded by the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.Details of the IRA's structure, history and growth since 2014 have been redacted. Also hidden are paragraphs concerning Prigozhin's background and ties to Vladimir Putin.Paragraphs have been blacked out here because of "harm to ongoing matters". They appear to illuminate work done by "Twitter specialists" and pro-Trump rallies organised by the IRA. Mueller has indicted Prigozhin and others but there is little prospect they will ever appear in a US court.Some of the most intriguing missing sections concern the GRU spy agency. Technical details have been redacted on the grounds they might reveal FBI methods. They encompass how the GRU researched Democratic websites, surreptitious payments made by Bitcoin, and the lease of computers in Arizona and US cities.Redactions in the Mueller report. Photograph: Reuters Graphics 2\. Campaign interactions with GRU and WikiLeaksMueller concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal-level conspiracy between Trump aides and Moscow. However, his report makes clear that Trump and those around him sought to use the Kremlin's hacking and dumping to their advantage.There are crucial deletions over how the GRU transmitted stolen emails to WikiLeaks. "[Julian] Assange has access to the internet from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, England," the report says, with the rest of the sentence redacted. Also struck out is the name of a Clinton aide targeted by the GRU in July 2016, after Trump appealed to Russia to find Clinton's "missing 30,000 emails".The most striking section is titled The Trump Campaign and the Dissemination of Hacked Materials. The campaign "showed interest" in the leaked emails, the report says. But deletions make it difficult to piece together who communicated directly with WikiLeaks, what information was passed up to Trump, and when the campaign became aware of Moscow's espionage work.Rick Gates, Trump's deputy campaign manager, who cooperated with Mueller, describes Trump as "generally frustrated" that Clinton's emails had not been discovered. Other parts of his evidence are redacted. Similarly Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, recalls talking to Trump in Trump Tower in July 2016, after WikiLeaks released the first tranche of emails."Candidate Trump said something to the effect of …" the report says. Trump's comment is redacted.The campaign chairman Paul Manafort's conversation with Trump on the same theme is blacked out. One imagines Trump was thrilled by the emails' publication but his remarks are missing. 3\. Contacts with RussiansThe report says the FBI began investigating Russian interference after a tip-off in July 2016. Australia's high commissioner in London, Alexander Downer, met George Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy aide. A Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, told Papadopoulos Moscow was sitting on hacked emails and had "dirt" on Clinton.Mueller says Mifsud travelled regularly to Moscow and was in contact with a former member of the IRA. The name has been blacked out. So is the identity of another Mifsud contact linked to Russia's ministry of defence.The next section concerns Carter Page, another Trump aide who in summer 2016 travelled to Moscow and held talks with Kremlin officials. Lines are blacked out, including part of an email sent by Page to senior campaign figures concerning policy on Russia. The redactions are explained as "grand jury". Page has not been charged. It is unclear which case is meant here. 4\. ProsecutionsThis report looks at the conduct of individuals and whether they committed a federal offence. Mueller asks if there is enough evidence to sustain a conviction. He makes clear the criminal threshold is beyond reasonable doubt and does not include collusion, which is not a "term" under US law.The special counsel refers to "two sets of charges" brought against Russians, GRU officers and IRA employees indicted in 2018. But the names of some Americans are hidden. One name buried is almost certainly that of Stone. A paragraph begins 'Questions over whether …" and then disappears. Two names are rubbed out from a list that also includes Cohen and Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. 5\. Violation of campaign finance lawsThe report examines possible campaign finance violations and considers if Trump campaign officials should be designated Russian agents. Lobbyists for foreign governments are obliged to register with the Department of Justice. Failure to do so is a crime: one of several charges against Manafort over his pre-Trump work in Ukraine.Mueller writes at length about the notorious Trump Tower meeting in which Manafort, Donald Trump Jr and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer. He decided not to pursue a criminal prosecution because of the "high burden" of proving a "culpable mental state". A second similar instance is discussed – and entirely deleted. 6\. Trump's conductThere are fewer blackouts in the second volume, which deals with possible obstruction of justice. Mueller lays out Trump's conduct towards witnesses, his anxiety over where the Russia investigation is heading, the firing of the FBI director, James Comey, and his interactions with key players including Flynn and Manafort. Trump's behaviour towards a third person is considered. We don't know who this is. It might be Stone – or someone else. The relevant passages are scrubbed. 7\. ReferralsThe report contains appendices. One is a list of dramatis personae. Names are given in alphabetical order, some removed. They include mystery surnames beginning with G or H, K and M, and a line of biography concerning Stone.The last section describes investigations which the special counsel has handed over to the FBI and the justice department. Two of these legal "transfers" – numbers nine and 11 – are rubbed out, the words "investigation ongoing" underneath. There are 13 redacted "referrals" of cases which fall outside the scope of Mueller's inquiry.
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| The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:32 AM PDT ![The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday]( "The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday") What better way to relax and recharge than with some retail therapy?
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| How the U.S. Navy Sank Imperial Japan's Top Secret Aircraft Carrier Posted: 19 Apr 2019 07:00 PM PDT  "No doubt he intends to act as a decoy at some point to lure away our screening destroyers. That accomplished, his comrades can approach Shinano unopposed. We must guard against any such ploy," grumbled the thoughtful skipper.The first torpedo struck farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier's hull, working their way forward. The explosions and instant flooding immediately killed scores of men, many asleep in their bunks.As tons of seawater cascaded into the wounded colossus, men below deck could see the extent of the damage, were seized with panic, and stampeded topside. The missiles had hit 10 feet below the water line, and on the bridge and upper levels the commander and his officers were not yet aware of how sorely they were hurt. Many had survived earlier torpedo attacks, and aboard less formidable vessels than this one. Even as their gargantuan ship began to list, they remained optimistic."Expressing the Flavor of an Ancient Samurai"
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| Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:14 AM PDT ![Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV]( "Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV") The assailants who attacked a state security building northwest of Riyadh on Sunday are Saudi militants who belong to Islamic State, Saudi-owned Arabiya TV said in a tweet, citing its own correspondent. Saudi state media said authorities thwarted the attack by four militants targeting the Mabaheth (domestic intelligence) station in Zulfi, a small city about 250 km (155 miles) northwest of the capital Riyadh. There has been no Islamic State claim of responsibility for the attack so far, and the authorities did not officially identify the assailants.
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| Tourists, Easter worshippers lament closure of Notre Dame Posted: 20 Apr 2019 01:37 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — Tourists, devout Catholics and others looked on mournfully at Notre Dame Cathedral Saturday, regretting that they couldn't get inside the magnificent monument on this Easter weekend because of the damage caused by a violent fire.
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| Authorities say investigation into murder of two Indiana schoolgirls is going in 'new direction' Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:13 AM PDT  Indiana State Police say they will announce new information about the deaths of Abigail Williams and Liberty German who were found dead on a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana in 2017.
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| Air strikes and explosions hit Libyan capital Posted: 20 Apr 2019 06:10 PM PDT  Several air strikes and explosions shook the Libyan capital Tripoli overnight, residents said, in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognised government. A Reuters reporter and several residents said they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the capital late on Saturday, and that it made a humming sound before opening fire on several areas. An aircraft was heard again after midnight, circling for more than ten minutes before a heavy explosion shook the ground. It was not clear whether an aircraft or unmanned drone was behind the strike, which triggered heavy anti aircraft fire. Residents had reported drone strikes in recent days, but there has been no confirmation and explosions heard in the city centre this time were louder than in previous days. Residents counted several missile strikes, one of which apparently hit a military camp of forces loyal to Tripoli in the Sabaa district in the south of the capital, scene of the heaviest fighting between the rival forces. Authorities closed Tripoli's only functioning airport, cutting air links to a city of an estimated 2.5 million residents. The airport in Misrata, a city 200 km to the east, remained open. A vehicle belonging to Libyan fighters loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) is pictured during clashes with forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar south of the capital Tripoli's suburb of Ain Zara Credit: MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP The Libyan National Army (LNA) force loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar started an offensive two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the government's southern defences. If a drone strike was confirmed this would point to more sophisticated warfare. The LNA has so far mainly used ageing Soviet-made jets from the air force of Muammar Gaddafi, toppled in 2011, lacking precision firepower and helicopters, according to residents and military sources. In the past the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes during campaigns to take eastern Libya. Both countries flew air strikes on Tripoli in 2014 during a different conflict to help a Haftar-allied force, US officials said at the time. Since 2014 the UAE and Egypt have provided the LNA with military equipment such as aircraft and helicopters, helping Haftar gain the upper hand in Libya's eight-year conflict, U.N. reports have established. The UAE even built an air base in Al Khadim in eastern Libya, one such report said in 2017. The air strikes, which were also filmed by residents in video posted online, came after a day of heavy clashes in southern districts, with shelling audible in the city centre. The violence spiked after the White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Haftar earlier in the week. The disclosure of the call and a U.S. statement that it "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources" has boosted the commander's supporters and enraged his opponents. Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftar's forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire. Both sides claimed progress in southern Tripoli on Saturday, but no more details were immediately available. A Reuters TV cameraman visiting the southern Khalat Furgan suburb heard heavy shelling but saw no apparent change in the frontline. On Friday, two children were killed in shelling in southern Tripoli, residents said. The fighting has killed 227 people and wounded 1,128, the World Heath organization (WHO) said before the air strikes. On Thursday, both the United States and Russia said they could not support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time. Russia objects to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence when his LNA advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli earlier this month, diplomats said. The United States did not give a reason for its decision not to support the draft resolution, which would also call on countries with influence over the warring parties to ensure compliance and for unconditional humanitarian aid access in Libya.
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| Pastor apologises for asking students to spit on and cut him in Easter demonstration Posted: 20 Apr 2019 10:17 AM PDT  A US church has been forced to apologise after a part-time associate pastor urged children to spit on, slap, and even cut him with a steak knife.The preacher at Impact City Church in Ohio, named Jaddeus Dempsey, was leading an after-school activity intended to explain "the very important topic of crucifixion".Mr Dempsey said the exercise was his idea alone and that no one else knew about his plans.One of the students who took part, aged 12, said: "I thought it was very weird and awkward."I took part because I thought it was OK because it was coming from an adult.""The reactions are appropriate," said the lead pastor, Justin Ross, speaking of the harsh response the church had received. "Many of you were disgusted, many of you were hurt by this, many of you were very confused." Mr Ross noted the activity was inappropriate, but he also said the "intent was honourable".Mr Ross added: "[Jesus] chose to allow them to spit on him and beat him and crucify him in order to take the payment of our debt that we call sin.""So Jaddeus, in an effort to share that message of love through the gospel and the story of Jesus' crucifixion, he shared this illustration and tried to share some of the pain that Jesus took on that day."In his apology, Mr Dempsey said: "I am so sorry for misrepresenting the community, the church, the parents, the students and anybody that I hurt," said Dempsey. "It was not my intention. My intention was just to show them how much Jesus loves them and I love them."The local sheriff's office has opened an investigation into the incident, as has the church's board of directors.
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| Ukraine vote pits young comic against reformer incumbent Posted: 20 Apr 2019 06:43 PM PDT  The latest opinion polls show his incumbent rival Petro Poroshenko heading for a brutal defeat in the second-round runoff. Zelensky's rise to political prominence has been extraordinary. Three months later he won the first round of the election, receiving nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko.
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| UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians Posted: 20 Apr 2019 08:44 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians]( "UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians") BEIRUT/MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met senior officials from his strongest ally Russia in Damascus on Friday and Saturday to discuss upcoming peace talks, renting out Tartus port and trade between the two countries, state media in Syria reported. Russia has helped Assad's forces to take back most of the country but the eight-year-long war continues. Swathes of the northeast and northwest are out of his control, while sanctions and a fuel shortage are constricting the economy.
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| Sri Lanka explosions: Media says at least 129 dead, more than 500 wounded on Easter Sunday Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:14 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's state-run newspaper has reported that 129 people have died in a series of Easter Sunday blasts targeting three churches and three hotels.
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| Iran's top leader picks new Revolutionary Guard chief Posted: 21 Apr 2019 11:05 AM PDT  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's supreme leader on Sunday appointed a new chief of the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, picking a general with a history of threatening the U.S. just days after America designated the paramilitary force a terrorist organization.
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| Incident on SpaceX pad could delay its first manned flight Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:06 AM PDT  A mysterious but apparently serious incident occurred Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Florida involving the SpaceX capsule intended to carry American astronauts into space late this year, the private company and NASA announced. "Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," a SpaceX spokesman said in a statement.
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| Giuliani rails against Mueller report as Democrats mull Trump impeachment Posted: 21 Apr 2019 10:11 AM PDT  * Trump lawyer: 'Nothing wrong with information from Russians' * Teflon Don: how Trump the mafia boss fought the law … and won * Opinion: Moral squalor, not impeachment, will remove TrumpDonald and Melania Trump arrive at the Bethesda-by-the-Sea church for Easter services in Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty ImagesAs the White House mounted a furious assault on the Mueller report and critics of a president not found to have conspired with Russia but not cleared of obstruction of justice, the chair of the House judiciary committee said obstruction, if proven, "would be [an] impeachable" offence.Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani toured the Sunday talk shows, arguing with interviewers in a series of chaotic encounters.On Fox News Sunday, he claimed Robert Mueller's 448-page report, which was released with redactions on Thursday, was full of "calumny, lies and distortion".On CNN's State of the Union, the former New York mayor called one of Mueller's lawyers a "hitman" and claimed the special counsel's team "came close to torturing people" in questioning and confining Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was convicted and sentenced on financial charges.Asked on NBC's Meet the Press why Trump was so angry at Mueller and former White House counsel Don McGahn, a key witness, Giuliani replied: "Because they tried to frame him."> There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from> > Rudy GiulianiThe first volume of Mueller's report concerns Russian election interference and the Trump campaign's warm reception to "offers of assistance" including an infamous June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer offering "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.Giuliani told CNN: "There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from."On ABC's This Week, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who previously called the inquiry a "a political proctology exam", took a different tone, saying: "The campaign I managed in those last few months did not welcome help from Russia. In fact, I don't recall getting, being offered help from Russia. It would have been a ridiculous prospect."In his second volume, Mueller considers potential obstruction of justice by Trump or his campaign, of which 11 instances are listed. He passed judgment on the issue to Congress.House judiciary committee chair Jerrold Nadler told NBC that if evidence shows Trump obstructed justice, "some of this would be impeachable, yes". He added that Democrats plan to "go where the evidence leads".Democrats remain split on impeachment, which would begin in the House they control but almost certainly fail in the Republican Senate. Some fear it would galvanise Trump's supporters and win him sympathy among independents.On Fox, House intelligence chair Adam Schiff said to impeach or not to impeach was "going to be a very consequential decision and one I'm going to reserve judgment on until we have a chance to fully deliberate on it".Oversight chair Elijah Cummings told CBS's Face the Nation he could "foresee [impeachment] possibly coming". But he said: "We have to be very careful here. The American people, a lot of them clearly still don't believe that President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy and has done a lot of things very poorly."He also said he thought "history would smile upon us for standing up for the constitution".> The American people, a lot of them clearly still don't believe President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy> > Elijah CummingsGiuliani fiercely attacked McGahn, who is cited by Mueller in descriptions of orders from Trump to fire the special counsel, which McGahn did not do.McGahn's recollections were "wrong", Giuliani said on CNN, claiming the experienced lawyer was "confused [and] cannot be relied upon". Mueller depicts McGahn taking notes of meetings with Trump, a practice Trump is said to have questioned. The Trump campaign has severed links with the law firm to which McGahn returned.An incensed Giuliani made the "hitman" claim about Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor Trump allies claim is too close to the Clintons."I have no problem with investigating Russian interference in the election," Giuliani said, adding: "The reality is, you think this is the first time the Russians have interfered with a presidential election?"Special counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish leave St John's Episcopal Church in Washington. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/APGiuliani was pressed on criticism of Trump by the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, who said he was "sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president"."Stop the bull, stop this pious act," Giuliani said, adding: "Who says [taking information from Russians is] even illegal? … And then does the information turn out to be false, by the way?"Referring to Democratic party emails hacked by Russia and obtained by WikiLeaks, he said: "The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it. Why did the Washington Post print the information that came from a foreign source, when they knew it was hacked? Aren't they just as wrong for doing that as the campaign wanting to use it?"Of Giuliani's claim there was "nothing wrong with taking information from Russians", former US attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by Trump in 2017, told CNN: "That's an extraordinary statement and I would hope he would retract it."Giuliani ran against Romney for the 2008 Republican nomination, both losing to John McCain. Asked if he would have accepted such information, Giuliani said: "I probably wouldn't. I wasn't asked. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, don't do it." He also accused Romney of doing "things very similar", although he did not elaborate.Asked if Trump thought Russian interference helped him win, Giuliani told NBC: "Whether he did or he didn't, I think it's quite clear that there are a lot of factors that go into any election and the reality is he was elected president."Conway told ABC Trump "didn't need WikiLeaks. We had Wisconsin. He won because he was the better candidate".Trump has repeatedly claimed Mueller's investigation exonerated him, which it did not, and called the inquiry a "hoax". He continued to tweet on Sunday, from his club in Florida.Attending church, the president was asked if he felt betrayed by staffers who spoke to Mueller. According to the White House pool report, he "clearly heard the question" but "just smiled and turned away".
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| This tiny RC car could absolutely destroy your car in a race Posted: 20 Apr 2019 10:27 AM PDT  A 0-to-60 mph time of under three seconds is something that all but the most wealthy supercar owners are ever likely to enjoy. A 0-to-100 mph time of just over five seconds? Well now we're in territory that few production automobiles have ever dared tread, but it's all in a day's work for RC enthusiasts who seek to achieve the most ludicrous speeds with their high-tech toys.A recent video posted by YouTuber Innovation RC clearly demonstrates just how insane RC cars can be, with one of the pint-sized speed demons hitting an absolutely absurd speed of 124 mph in less than eight seconds, all while hauling a not-super-light action camera and traveling over what seems to be a fairly rough surface.Radio-controlled vehicles used to be near the top of every kid's wishlist, and perhaps some of them still are, but these aren't your grandfather's RC toys. These tiny cars are built with performance in mind, and enthusiasts regularly modify them in an effort to push the hardware to its absolute limit. They can set you back several hundreds of dollars, and that's without any additional tuning or upgrades. But they're fast... really, really fast.Just check this out:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpdRrPYcEVsThat's 124 mph while hauling a camera that, if I had to guess, doesn't look like the most aerodynamic thing in the world. Not to mention the fact that the pavement being raced on here appears to be anything but smooth. It's easy to imagine this little car topping out at much higher speeds under ideal conditions, but it's still an incredibly impressive run considering the circumstances.In fact, in a subsequent video the same car can be seen hitting a top speed of 133 mph, though without a GoPro on board it's a little bit less interesting to watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo_oCzCHCxMI want one. No, no. I need one.
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| Take a Look at the SW1911 Gun: Smith & Wesson’s Very Own 1911 Pistol Posted: 20 Apr 2019 02:37 AM PDT  One of the oldest gun companies in America produces its own take on one of the most exemplary handgun designs in U.S. history.Smith & Wesson's series of handguns based on the 1911 platform stays true to the gun's roots while adding in a number of features desirable to modern firearms enthusiasts. The company produces a full line of 1911s, from traditional to contemporary, catering to collectors and duty carriers, in a full range of sizes.The 1911 pistol was invented by prolific small arms designer John Moses Browning in the early twentieth century. Browning paired the pistol with his new .45 Automatic Colt Pistol cartridge, a large, heavy subsonic cartridge that delivered upwards of 400 foot-pounds of energy on target. The pairing of a semi-automatic pistol capable of holding eight rounds with the .45 ACP manstopper round was in response to reports that U.S.-issue revolvers in .38 Long Colt often failed to stop Filipino insurgents in close quarters combat.Although the 1911 missed the Philippine Insurrection, it was well positioned to enter World War I on the side of the U.S. military. The American Expeditionary Force issued the 1911 in large numbers where they fought in the trenches of World War I. Minor changes in the design resulted in the 1911A1 designation during the 1920s. More than a million pistols were produced for U.S. and allied forces during World War II, enough that the armed services kept the 1911 in frontline service well into the 1980s.
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| Turkish opposition leader safe after attack at soldier's funeral Posted: 21 Apr 2019 11:55 AM PDT  Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) that pulled off victories in the March 31 vote, had attended a funeral for one of four Turkish soldiers killed on Friday in clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK Party wants the election results annulled in Istanbul, had repeatedly warned during last month's campaign that PKK members were among the CHP's list of candidates. The PKK clashes in the country's southeast on Friday prompted several pro-government newspapers to tie the soldiers' deaths to the CHP.
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| Roman Polanski sues the Academy after being kicked out of the Oscars 'without warning' Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:57 AM PDT  Roman Polanski is suing the Academy after being kicked out of the Oscars organisation. The Chinatown director was ejected from the Academy along with Bill Cosby in 2018. A lawyer for the long-time fugitive filmmaker said that he was expelled "without warning" and with no chance to respond. Polanski's lawyer filed a writ at the Los Angeles Superior Court and will pursue legal action against the film institution on grounds that the famed director's expulsion was unfair. But the Academy responded hours later and said in a statement its removal of Polanski from its ranks was "fair and reasonable" and it will not reverse the decision. It said in a statement: "The procedures taken to expel Mr Polanski were fair and reasonable. The Academy stands behind its decision as appropriate." Polanski, who has been on the run for decades following a sexual abuse case, was told of his ejection in a letter citing the need to respect "human dignity". Representing the long-time Academy member, lawyer Harland Braun has also written to the Oscars overseers on behalf of Polanski. Documents say the intention of legal action is to "redress the Academy's improper administrative action" to "summarily expel" Polanski. Braun told the Press Association: "If you notice, we are litigating the fairness of their procedure. "They threw him out without warning and without giving him a chance to respond. There was not even any notice of why, after 40 years, on the same day as Cosby. "Give me a break." Polanski was voted out of the Academy in May of 2018, receiving an unsigned letter from the organisation. The director has been a fugitive from US justice since 1978, following accusations of a sexual offence. A letter, made available by to the court, cites the need to uphold respect for "human dignity" as the motivation for the action taken in 2018. It states: "The board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy's values of respect and human dignity, and is categorically opposed to any form of abuse and harassment." Braun claims in his writ that: "The Academy failed to comply with its own rules, polices, and regulations" when it ejected Polanski. The director fled to France in 1978 after being arrested and charged with the rape of a 13-year-old girl in the US.
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| South Korea to Hold Summit Anniversary Event Without North Korea Posted: 21 Apr 2019 02:09 AM PDT ![South Korea to Hold Summit Anniversary Event Without North Korea]( "South Korea to Hold Summit Anniversary Event Without North Korea") Seoul's Ministry of Unification in charge of inter-Korean affairs said in a statement Sunday that the event, featuring artists from South Korea, the U.S., China and Japan, will be held on April 27 at the border town of Panmunjom. The absence of North Korean participation highlights the challenges facing inter-Korean relations.
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| Black Parishioners in Louisiana Pray on Easter for Alleged Racist Who Burned Down Their Church Posted: 21 Apr 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Glenna GordonOPELOUSAS, Louisiana—Decked out in vibrant pink and yellow dresses and suits and elaborate hats, the all-black congregation of the Greater Union Baptist Church packed into a plain, windowless room in a private Masonic lodge with plastic folding chairs Sunday morning to hold their Easter service. They've been gathering in this cramped donated space since April 2, when their historic church was burned to the ground in a series of alleged suspected hate crimes that destroyed three black churches over nine days. Spirits were high, despite the circumstances. The gospel choir sang, and the churchgoers danced and hollered and praised exuberantly, as if nothing were different. Occasionally, bits of grief broke through: A woman burst into tears and started sobbing into her lap, and people passed a box of tissues down the row and rubbed her back until she recovered. Otherwise, the mood felt something like triumph. The remains of Greater Union Baptist Church in St. Landry's Parish, Louisiana, one of three black churches destroyed in a string of arsons that authorities consider a hate crime.Glenna GordonReverend Harry Richard addressed the fire many times in his sermon. He praised the congregation for handling the tragedy so gracefully amid all the media attention, and for resisting angry reactions. He urged continued empathy and prayers for the suspect in police custody, a 21-year-old white man named Holden Matthews, and his family. "Holden and his parents, I think about what they must have been going through," he said. "I would hate for that to have been my son. How would I feel? I put myself in his place. How would I feel if it was my son? Can you imagine that mother and that father waking up that morning and realizing it was their son that did this? Can you feel the heartbreak?""Don't ever give up on love," he continued. "I don't care what the world might do to you. You never give up on love." The loss of this church, more than 100 years old, felt like the death of a close family member to many of the people who grew up in it. Monica Guidry Harris, 56, said her mother and father renewed their vows inside those walls every single year for 73 years in a row until they both passed away in the fall, two months apart. They're buried together in a grave behind the now-burned church. The night of the blaze, Harris received a frantic call from one of her 12 siblings at 2:30 in the morning, and she jumped out of bed to drive to the scene."The only thing I could see in my mind was my dad with a waterhose, trying to put the fire out," she said. "He only had a second grade education. He lived, breathed, everything this church. He used to cut the grass here."Several of the Guidry siblings wore matching pins Sunday morning with a picture of their parents on it. "I'm glad Mama and Daddy weren't here to see the church burn," said Celina Guidry Richard, 69. The congregation is hesitant to talk about race or racism with regard to the fire, despite the long, painful history of white supremacists burning black churches in the Deep South. St. Landry Parish, the heart of Cajun country in Louisiana, is 41 percent black and 56 percent white. I grew up here, about five miles from Greater Union. The parish is still fairly segregated — there are black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods, black schools and white schools — but the races have interacted peacefully here for decades. Any tension or strife, like most things in the bayou, swims stealthily beneath the surface. The older members of the church are keen to keep it that way by treating Matthews' crime as if it were just an unfortunate anomaly, despite the mounting evidence that he was motivated by racism. "He could have very well been a black man or a Mexican, it didn't matter to me to that he was white," said Harris. "He's 21 years old, what does he know about life? He just ruined the rest of his life. We just started praying for him, that God takes pity on him and opens up his heart, and that way he'll have somewhere to go in his afterlife." "It was almost a relief for the black community that it wasn't a black kid," said Florence Guidry, another of the seven sisters. "We were scared, because we didn't know if it was one ours, one of our grandkids." I asked James Vaughn, 75, if the incident brought back memories of similar hate crimes from the civil rights era. "No, it didn't come back to me," he said. "The poor child was sick, that's the way I look at it. All you can do is pray for him."Some of the younger church members, who didn't grow up watching black churches burn, are having a much harder time coping with the incident. Brandon Prince, 26, was the only person who answered affirmatively when I asked if he was angry. "A little," he said, holding back tears. "I can't say that I'm not. But it's like the pastor said: The church isn't the building. The church is us." After their Easter service, at the pile of ash and rubble where the old church used to be, Prince's mother held him as he sobbed into her chest. Other members carefully walked through the charred debris, picking out half-burned Bible pages and mementos to take home and preserve. They'll rebuild the church soon, bigger and better: A GoFundMe page for the three churches has raised over $2 million in the past week, thanks to promotion from celebrities and journalists. The three churches will split the money evenly for rebuilding efforts. Richard, who serves as the secretary for Greater Union, says the whole incident may leave them in a better place than they were before. "Maybe in some weird way or a blessed way, God had a hand," she said. "I feel sorry for Holden. He thought destroying a building would destroy our faith and ambition to be better, and he didn't. All he did was motivate us." —Photographs by Glenna Gordon with the Aftermath Project.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| United Constitutional Patriots: Border Patrol pushes back against armed civilians policing border Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Customs and Border Protection "does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands."
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| Mueller report: Elizabeth Warren becomes first 2020 candidate to call for Trump’s impeachment Posted: 20 Apr 2019 03:26 AM PDT  Elizabeth Warren has become the first 2020 election candidate to make a clear call for impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report.The Massachusetts senator tweeted that it would be damaging to "ignore a president's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behaviour" and would allow future presidents to act in the same way. She added: "The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States."Mr Mueller, who examined whether Mr Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election and whether the president tried to interfere with the inquiry, made no clear verdict on obstruction of justice.His report did, however, lay out 11 possible attempts to influence the investigation – although he indicated the president was "mostly unsuccessful" because his aides refused to carry out orders.Other Democrats running in 2020 have been more cautious on impeachment than Ms Warren in their response to the publication. Julian Castro said it would be "perfectly reasonable for congress to open up those proceedings".Both Jay Inslee of Washington and Eric Swalwell – both of whom have recently launched presidential campaigns – said only that the idea should not be taken off the table.Other Democratic candidates, including senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, suggested it was too soon to start impeachment proceedings.> The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.> > — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) > > April 19, 2019"We don't have an unredacted version of the report. We don't have the underlying materials that that report was written upon. We haven't had yet an opportunity to have hearings where we interview Mueller," said Mr Booker said during a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada."I think that's there definitely a conversation to be had on that subject, but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and really understand what exactly is the evidence that supports the summary that we've been given," said Ms Harris on impeachment hearings.Pete Buttigieg, the Indiana mayor also running for the White House, suggested it was not the best way to get rid of Mr Trump.He told NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers: "If we really want to send Trumpism into the history books, the best thing we can do is defeat it decisively at the ballot box in 2020."Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while not running in 2020, has signed on to an impeachment resolution from fellow Democrat, Rashida Tlaib.The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, has issued a subpoena for the full Mueller report and expects the Justice Department to comply by 1 May. Attorney general William Barr is to appear before the committee on 2 May, while Mr Nadler has also summoned Mr Mueller to testify by 23 May.The only Republican who had declared he will run against Donald Trump in 2020 said on Friday he was "horrified" by special counsel Robert Mueller's report, but said he could not back impeachment for "political reasons".The former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld told ABC News: "It's very unlikely that he would ever be convicted in the Senate where you need a two thirds vote".
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| Army Vet Sues Company That Made 'Defective' Earplugs for the Military Posted: 20 Apr 2019 04:00 PM PDT  A Texas veteran is suing the company he says knowingly produced and sold defective earplugs which were issued to the U.S. military, leading him and many others to develop hearing problems, including tinnitus.(This article by Haley Britzky originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2018.)Sgt. Scott D. Rowe, who served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003 to 2004, told the Houston Chronicle that he's "never at peace" from the "high-pitched frequency" he hears every day, as a result of the earplugs he received from 3M Company. Rowe told the Chronicle that 3M "lied," and "took our well-being for jeopardy while we're out there protecting the country."Rowe says in his lawsuit that 3M was aware of the defects in earplugs when it acquired the company that originally developed them, Aearo Technologies, in 2008. He says, according to the Chronicle, that the earplugs were made too short, which makes them difficult to be put deeply into the ear canal, causing the earplug to loosen and sound to get in around them.
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| UPDATE 6-Afghan communications ministry attacked, seven killed Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:50 AM PDT ![UPDATE 6-Afghan communications ministry attacked, seven killed]( "UPDATE 6-Afghan communications ministry attacked, seven killed") At least seven people were killed in an attack on the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul on Saturday, breaking months of relative calm in the capital and underlining the continued security threats despite efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban. The attack began shortly before midday when a suicide bomb was detonated at the entrance to the multi-story building housing the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire which could be heard over a mile away. The area around the building was sealed off by police as at least three attackers battled security forces for several hours before the attack was finally suppressed in the late afternoon, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
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| Target's car seat trade-in event returns April 22 with a discount for bringing in old seat Posted: 21 Apr 2019 02:15 PM PDT ![Target's car seat trade-in event returns April 22 with a discount for bringing in old seat]( "Target's car seat trade-in event returns April 22 with a discount for bringing in old seat") Target's popular car seat trade-in event returns April 22. For bringing in an old car seat, get a coupon for 20% off baby items.
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| Is 4/20 on the way to becoming marijuana's Hallmark holiday? Posted: 19 Apr 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Once an underground celebration of weed smoking, the annual event is turning into big business in the era of legalizationTyler Shumway of Aurora, Colorado, lights up a joint at 420pm in Civic Center Park on 20 April 2012 in Denver. Photograph: Marc Piscotty/Getty ImagesToday may be the day that marijuana officially loses its cool. April 20, 4/20, the once underground national holiday for dope smokers, appears to have sold out to The Man.The origins of 4/20 are as disputed as the last pack of gummy bears after a long smoking session. Some say it was once police code for "marijuana smoking in progress" – apparently untrue – and others claim it was invented by high school stoners in Marin county, California, who would meet at 4.20pm to get high.No matter what the origins it's big business for a rapidly growing industry – the Black Friday of getting high.Sign up for the US morning briefingThis year's 4/20 falls on a Saturday and is expected to be the biggest sales day yet for legal marijuana, exceeding an 111% sales spike record last year. Stoners will gather at Denver's Civic Center Park to celebrate, with clouds of marijuana smoke drifting over the crowds, some still in tie-dye and preaching cosmic one-ness.4/20 doesn't have a Hallmark card yet but it can't be far off. Of the hundreds of tie-in promotions this year, Lyft is offering a $4.20 credit on a single ride in Colorado and in select cities in the US and Canada. The fast-food chain Carl's Jr is using a Denver outlet to test a hamburger infused with CBD oil.But there is a serious side to it. This year the ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's is calling on consumers to pressure lawmakers to expunge prior marijuana convictions for anyone arrested for smoking pot. Considering those arrests are four times more likely to affect African Americans, the social justice implications are clear.According to Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University, 4/20 is on its way to becoming a mainstream national holiday and that's largely a function of the booming marijuana business. Arcview, a cannabis investment and market research firm, estimates US retail sales of cannabis products jumped to $10.5bn last year, a threefold increase from 2017."It's still a celebration of marijuana but the conversation has been expanded by brands that tie into the cannabis industry and for marketers to tie into something that has a coolness to it," Yarrow says. That conversation, she adds, is increasingly focused on people wondering what role cannabis may play in their life."The stoner dude mentality is still there but there is another that is more focused on marijuana's medicinal properties and that's growing in stature," said Yarrow.The marijuana business could soon be dwarfed by the market for products using CBD, a cannabis compound from the hemp plant that supposedly has health benefits but doesn't get you high.CBD, which is not listed as a controlled substance, can now be found in candies, coffee and other food, drinks and dietary supplements, along with perfume, lotions, creams and soap.Gus Dabais stands outside his Sidewalk Wellness store in San Francisco, where CBD oil-infused products are popular items. Photograph: Eric Risberg/APAccording to Louis Zerobnick, a veteran Colorado cannabis promoter, the CBD industry has the potential to become a far larger business than an industry based on THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. As it is, he says, the marijuana industry has moved far beyond its hippie-stoner roots and is increasingly dominated by big industry and big banking."A lot of the old hippies aren't going to make it in this new industry. Although they're responsible for it, and did the activism to make it happen, you find that marijuana companies want to bring in people who have worked in other government-regulated industries. That's the level of professionalism that's now required to turn it into a real business," said Zerobnick.Zerobnick thinks 4/20 could one day exceed the size of other semi-official holidays, including Valentine's Day and Halloween. "It's a national, non-denominational, non-racial holiday mostly celebrated by getting high," Zerobnick said, reeling off events scheduled in Florida, Chicago and the High Times' Cannabis Cup in California. "For people who use cannabis 4/20 is as big as Christmas."And in the meantime Big Business is moving in to harsh the original stoners' buzz. John Boehner, the permatanned former Republican speaker of the House, is a director of one of the US's largest cannabis businesses, Acreage Holdings. Coca-Cola has joint venture with a cannabis company that could lead to Coke High. Big tobacco is waiting in the wings.The 4/20 the counterculture pioneers who campaigned for legalization may well be wondering if there is a high price for a legal high."We don't necessarily like it but everybody knows it," says Zerobnick. At the same time that a lot of old hippies won't make it, he says, "many could become billionaires when they're bought out and their strains turned into commercial success".
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| British woman killed, three other people kidnapped in northern Nigeria Posted: 21 Apr 2019 11:34 AM PDT ![British woman killed, three other people kidnapped in northern Nigeria]( "British woman killed, three other people kidnapped in northern Nigeria") Kidnappings are rampant in Nigeria, where both locals and foreigners are targeted — mostly for ransom. The British High Commission named the woman as Faye Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday but added it would not speculate on the motive or nature of attack. Mooney was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organization called Mercy Corps.
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| Easter Sunday Bombs in Sri Lanka Target Christians and Tourists, Kill Hundreds Posted: 21 Apr 2019 05:23 AM PDT  REUTERS/Dinuka LiyanawatteA series of coordinated bomb blasts at churches and hotels across Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and left hundreds more injured on Easter Sunday in one of the worst bouts of violence in the island nation since civil war ended a decade ago.Four luxury hotels and three Catholic churches were among the highly populated areas that were targeted, according to the Associated Press. Officials told the AP that at least two of the blasts were carried out by suicide bombers. Late Sunday, Sri Lanka's Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena said authorities apprehended several people suspected of being involved in the attacks, according to the Associated Press. Three police officers were reportedly killed during operations to arrest the suspects.A further improvised device was found at Bandaranaike International Airport by the Sri Lankan Air Force overnight Sunday. "A PVC pipe which was six feet in length containing explosives in it was discovered," Air Force Spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told Sri Lanka's main newspaper the Sunday Times.Two senior intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that a Sri Lankan police official had alerted security officials in an advisory ten days ago about a threat on churches though it remains unseen what, if any, safety measures were taken to protect worshipers. The document, which has been reviewed by The Daily Beast is written in Sinhala, but is dated April 11 and clearly states in English in all caps, "Information of an alleged plan attack." Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said he had not been informed, underscoring tensions within the government, the New York Times reported. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the calculated attacks.Both the Associated Press and AFP quoted local Sri Lankan intelligence officials that they had received warnings that "terrorist elements, including the radical Islamic organization NTJ, would carry out a suicide attack in certain churches during Easter." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Sunday confirming that "several Americans" had been killed in the attacks. "While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed," he wrote in a statement. "These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism."Officials told the Associated Press that at least nine foreigners are among those killed in Colombo, including two people who are dual citizens of the United States and the U.K. At least one American is among those reported missing, the news site said citing the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The dead include one Portuguese citizen and two U.K. citizens, the ministry said. Chinese State Media has confirmed death of one of its citizens, per the AP. All of the foreigners were killed in attacks on hotels.Emergency officials were still combing through the bomb sites for victims as night set in Sunday, but more tourists and foreign nationals are considered to be among the dead. The New York Times reports that the deadliest attack occurred at 8:45 a.m. at the St. Sebastian Catholic Church in the city of Negombo about 20 miles from the capital city of Colombo. Survivors posted photos on social media and described seeing bodies blown to bits, with flesh splattered on the church walls. "It was a river of blood," a witness named N. A. Sumanapala, t0ld the Times. "The priest came out and he was covered in blood."The Catholic churches of St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo and the Zion Church in Batticaloa on the eastern side of the island were also bombed, according to reports. Pope Francis, who visited the country four years ago to minister to the island nation's Christian minority, expressed his condolences in his Easter Sunday mass in St. Peter's Square in Rome. "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence," he said. "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event."Local media showed images of damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. One report showed the second-floor restaurant of the Shangri-La gutted. Sri Lanka has not seen such violence since the end of a 26-year civil war that ended over a decade ago. Then, rebels from the Tamil Tigers sought independence from the country's Sinhala Buddhist majority. Sri Lanka's prime minsiter Ranil Wickremesinghe called for calm on Twitter. "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he wrote. "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."The BBC reported that British nationals were among the injured. Prime Minister Theresa May called the attacks "truly appalling" adding "no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear".U.S. President Donald Trump also tweeted his condolences, "The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!"The attacks sent officials around the world into high gear taking precautions at churches in preparation for Easter celebrations. A spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed to The Daily Beast that the department has ramped up domestic security measures in the wake of the attacks, and that officers will be visiting all houses of worship, with a focus Sunday on those offering Easter services. —With reporting from Pervaiz Shallwani and Victoria AlbertRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| Galaxy Fold units keep mysteriously breaking, while the iPhone XS survives a shark bite Posted: 19 Apr 2019 06:03 PM PDT  If you've paid attention to tech industry news to any degree over the past day or two, you're no doubt aware that Samsung is dealing with a bit of unpleasant scrutiny at the moment over reports of early units of its forthcoming Galaxy Fold phone mysteriously breaking. Definitely a bad look for Samsung and suggestive that the company may have rushed its first foldable handset into production, or that there may at least have been some issues around quality control. It was hard not to be reminded of those reports about Galaxy Folds breaking after a day or so of normal usage while watching the behind-the-scenes video that complements Apple's latest "Shot on iPhone" commercial. At one point in the behind-the-scenes footage, which you can watch above, one of the filmmakers is shown basically helpless when a shark snatches up his iPhone. With the phone secure in the shark's jaws, the filmmaker swims after him and ends up successfully retrieving it. And the phone appears to be fine after that. For the new commercial, titled Don't Mess with Mother, Apple hired production company Camp4 Collective to showcase the iPhone XS's video capabilities while capturing scenes from mother nature. The outtakes video includes scenes from a volcano, in the water with sharks and on mountains, the whole thing giving off a thrilling, "you are there" vibe. At one point, we see a monkey playing with and scrutinizing an iPhone. The idea is apparently that iPhones can capture images and video of stunning quality in nature, with the inadvertent reminder that they can withstand some tough elements too. Just something to think about as we get closer to the April 26 launch date that Samsung has decided to stick to for its ridiculously expensive foldable phone that it's still hoping people will take a chance on, despite the easy breakage some reviewers have experienced.
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| Facebook Has Assembled a Small Army of Fact-Checkers. Too Small. Posted: 21 Apr 2019 04:00 PM PDT  This is Boom Live, one of seven tiny fact-checking firms at the heart of Facebook's efforts to rebuild some of its credibility during India's elections. Based on the early tallies, more than 60 percent of India's 900 million eligible voters are expected to cast ballots between now and May 19, as the center-left Congress Party tries to seize power from the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. As in other elections around the world, paid hacks and party zealots are churning out propaganda on Facebook and the company's WhatsApp messenger, along with Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and other ubiquitous communication channels.
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| The Latest: Trump expresses anger at Mueller report Posted: 20 Apr 2019 02:03 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on special counsel Robert Mueller's report and President Donald Trump (all times local):
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| Check Out These Dangerous Looking Chinese Assault Rifles (There's A Problem) Posted: 20 Apr 2019 03:00 PM PDT  To hear Chinese state media tell it, the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army will go into battle in the future wearing an array of high-tech gizmos. In their hands will be enormous weapons combining a rifle with a 20-millimeter grenade launcher akin to the old — and cancelled — American OICW. On top of that, they will have heads-up displays and networked positioning systems so Chinese troops can monitor each other digitally, almost like a video game.It looks impressive, and Chinese announcements of the system have circulated in the press with varying degrees of skepticism and hyperbole. A more skeptical take recently came from the military news wire Shephard Media, which pointed out that China is claiming the 20-millimeter hybrid weapon, dubbed QTS-11, can fire airbursting grenades lethal within a radius of 7.7 meters.
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