| Ally Kostial murder: Former-neighbor shares dark details about suspect in Ole Miss student's death Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:46 AM PDT  " "I'm not going to sugar coat it, he was pretty much a daddy's boy type,"University of Mississippi student Rex Ravita told KMOV
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| U.S. calls for no more North Korean 'provocations,' hopes to resume talks Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:03 PM PDT |
| A Violent Turn in Hong Kong Protests Marks a Dangerous New Phase Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:23 AM PDT  Sparked by a proposed bill that would allow suspected criminals to face trial in China, protests in Hong Kong have turned violent.
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| US warship sails through Taiwan Strait, China 'concerned' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:13 AM PDT  An American warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy and Taiwanese authorities said Thursday, triggering concern in Beijing. The transit came as China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, unveiled a defence white paper Wednesday stressing its willingness to use force to thwart any move towards the self-ruled island's independence, and accusing the United States of undermining global stability. According to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, the USS Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, conducted a routine transit through the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan during July 24-25.
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| California 'straight pride' parade plans draw critics: 'That’s all hate crime stuff to me' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:12 AM PDT  Modesto, California, officials are weighing whether to approve a "straight pride" parade to "celebrate" heterosexuality and western civilization.
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| UPDATE 3-Ukraine seizes Russian tanker, frees crew after Moscow threat Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:15 AM PDT |
| Lightfoot faces fallout over comment picked up by hot mic, calling police union official a "clown" Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:03 PM PDT  Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a remark about a Chicago police union official that was caught on a hot mic Wednesday.
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| No F-35 for You: Iran's Air Force Might Be Dying Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:43 AM PDT  Not good.Two incidents in late August 2018 involving Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-5F Tiger II fighter jets underscored the ongoing crisis in Iran's air force.On Aug. 21, Iran unveiled what it described as a new, fourth-generation fighter jet. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani even sat in the plane's cockpit and posed for photographs.One problem. The aircraft in question was conspicuously an F-5F, one of the 17 Iran bought from the United States during the rule of the Shah. It was not domestically-built."Iran has probably upgraded the electronics systems, originally from the 1960s, and made other upgrades," Iran analyst Nader Uskowi suggested. "But it is not clear why the president of the country should unveil a 40-year-old plane as a new fighter."War Is Boring contributor Sebastien Roblin pointed out that Iran is in fact developing a new plane called the Kowsar-88, another in a long line of modified reverse-engineered F-5s that Tehran will either use as a trainer or light-attack aircraft.But that jet "wasn't ready for display this August, so Tehran simply took an old, very well-known jet fighter and claimed it was a new one, in full view of domestic and international audiences that would know better," Roblin wrote at The National Interest.
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| Mueller: Trump's answers were 'generally' untruthful Posted: 24 Jul 2019 01:38 PM PDT  Former special counsel Robert Mueller told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that President Trump's written answers to his questions were not only incomplete — they were "generally" untruthful.
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| Ford's "Baby Bronco" Compact SUV Shows Off Its Off-Road Chops Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:00 AM PDT  This Escape-based crossover could be called Bronco Scout, Bronco Sport, or Adventurer.
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| We’re Getting an Idea of Boris Johnson’s Plan A: Deal, Then Election Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson hasn't given much information about his Brexit plans B, C or D, but his statement to Parliament on Thursday gives us an idea of his Plan A:Prepare Britain for No Deal. Posters, TV ads, roads widened and infrastructure installed. The message: "Britain Can Take It"Tell the EU it can either give way, or take its share of the economic hit from a no-deal split. Secure enough concessions to go back to ParliamentGet the deal through Parliament. Britain leaves the EU. Can-do spirit and pluck have won the dayCall an election. Probably around March 2020, because parties don't like campaigning in the winter. Johnson needs a majority in Parliament to do any of the things he wants to do, and this would be his moment of maximum strengthThat's if everything goes well. If things go badly and he can't get enough concessions to satisfy Parliament, the election might be sooner.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| AP Explains: How Emirates troop drawdown impacts Yemen's war Posted: 24 Jul 2019 11:15 PM PDT  The United Arab Emirates, one of the most powerful parties in Yemen's war, has begun to draw down its forces, pulling out several thousand troops in a move that leaves the Saudi-led coalition there with a weakened ground presence and fewer tactical options. The UAE isn't quitting Yemen or the coalition, which it and Saudi Arabia formed in 2015 to stem the advance of Iranian-allied Shiite rebels known as Houthis who took over the north. The UAE says the reduction aims to boost negotiations with the Houthis to end the war.
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| The 'American Dream' of many migrants becoming a Mexican one Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:52 PM PDT  Honduran Rolando Rodrigo arrived last week in the Mexican city of Tapachula with his family, just one stop on the long route to the United States and the dream of a new life free from the poverty and gang violence that wracks their homeland. Just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard exchanged congratulations on "significant progress" in a deal to slow down the wave of undocumented migrants heading for US soil, Rodrigo wandered about Tapachula's central square with his three-year-old son Gadiel asking for money to feed his family.
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| The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:33 PM PDT ![The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck]( "The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck") A medical examiner in Georgia ruled a man died of natural causes. Then funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck.
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| 40+ Halloween Desserts That'll Thrill Everyone At Your Holiday Party Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:19 PM PDT |
| Justice Department will not pursue criminal contempt charges in Census dispute with Congress Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:11 PM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department will not pursue criminal charges against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to hold them in contempt in a dispute over documents concerning whether to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. "Accordingly, the department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General or the Secretary," he added.
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| So Much of the Arctic Is on Fire, You Can See It From Space Posted: 25 Jul 2019 07:09 AM PDT  Wildfires burning large swaths of Russia are generating so much smoke, they're visible from space, new images from NASA's Earth Observatory reveal.Since June, more than 100 wildfires have raged across the Arctic, which is especially dry and hot this summer. In Russia alone, wildfires are burning in 11 of the country's 49 regions, meaning that even in fire-free areas, people are choking on smoke that is blowing across the country.The largest fires -- blazes likely ignited by lightning -- are located in the regions of Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Buryatia, according to the Earth Observatory. These conflagrations have burned 320 square miles (829 square kilometers), 150 square miles (388 square km) and 41 square miles (106 square km) in these regions, respectively, as of July 22. [In Photos: Fossil Forest Unearthed in the Arctic]The above natural-color image, taken on July 21, shows plumes rising from fires on the right side of the photo. Winds carry the smoke toward the southwest, where it mixes with a storm system. The image was captured with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP, a weather satellite operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The Russian city of Krasnoyarsk is under a layer of haze, the Earth Observatory reported. And while Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city, doesn't have any fires as of now, smoke carried there by the winds caused the city's air quality to plummet.Wildfires are also burning in Greenland and parts of Alaska, following what was the hottest June in recorded history. It's common for fires to burn during the Arctic's summer months, but the number and extent this year are "unusual and unprecedented," Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a part of the European Union's Earth observation program, told CNN.These fires are taking a toll on the atmosphere; they've released about 100 megatons of carbon dioxide from June 1 to July 21, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide Belgium released in 2017, according to CAMS, CNN reported.The Arctic is heating up faster than other parts of the world, making it easier for fires to thrive there. In Siberia, for example, the average June temperature this year is nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 degrees Celsius) hotter than the long-term average between 1981 and 2010, Claudia Volosciuk, a scientist with the World Meteorological Organization, told CNN.Many of this summer's fires are burning farther north than usual, and some appear to be burning in peat soils, rather than in forests, Thomas Smith, an assistant professor of environmental geography at the London School of Economics, told USA Today. This is a dangerous situation, because whereas forests might typically burn for a few hours, peat soils can blaze for days or even months, Smith said.Moreover, peat soils are known carbon reservoirs. As they burn, they release carbon, "which will further exacerbate greenhouse warming, leading to more fires," Smith said. * In Photos: The Deadly Carr Fire Blazes Across Northern California * In Photos: Devastating Wildfires in Northern California * In Photos: The Vanishing Ice of Baffin IslandOriginally published on Live Science.
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| Rep. Tlaib Compares BDS Movement Against Israel To U.S. Boycotting Nazi Germany Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT  Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib compared the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to Americans' boycott of Nazi Germany during a Tuesday floor speech.The Michigan congresswoman was speaking against a House resolution passed Wednesday that opposes the movement because it "does not favor a two-state solution and that seeks to exclude the State of Israel and the Israeli people from the economic, cultural, and academic life of the rest of the world," the text of HR 246 states.Tlaib started by saying she would not allow Congress to attack the right to "boycott the racist policies of the government and state of Israel.""The right to boycott is deeply rooted in the fabric of our country," Tlaib said. "What was the Boston Tea Party but a boycott? Where would we be now without the boycott led by civil rights activists in the 1950s and '60s, like the Montgomery bus boycott and the United Farm Workers grape boycott?"She continued that some of the country's "most important advances in racial equality and equity and workers' rights" have been achieved through constitutional, collective action.
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| SpaceX 'Starhopper' rocket test ends in spectacular flames Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:21 AM PDT  SpaceX's Starhopper – a prototype of the rocket it hopes will one day fly around the solar system – had a failed launch test that ended with it being surrounded by flames.The company was aiming to try the first "untethered" test of the rocket, which was intended to allow it to jump up into the air and then come back down again, without the restraining ties that have held it down in previous attempts.But as the test began, the rocket failed to launch and it stayed on the ground as flames poured out of its rocket. Another flame flew out of the top of the rocket, as can be seen on the video.The rocket itself appeared to survive without problems, but it is just the latest in a run of issues. It came a week after the Starhopper craft flew a fireball out of its bottom during another test.It was the first time that SpaceX has allowed one of the tests to be streamed. Previous attempts have happened in private – with spectacular descriptions of the launches leaking out after."It appears as though we have had an abort on today's test. As you can see there, the vehicle did not lift off today," SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said on a live stream provided by the company. "As I mentioned before, this is a development program, today was a test flight designed to test the boundaries of the vehicle."While the Starhopper is just a test vehicle, SpaceX hopes that it will one day turn into a rocket known as Starship. It aims to use that one day to carry people to Mars, with the help of a huge array of rocket engines.
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| Ruth Bader Ginsburg Insists She’s Not Going Anywhere Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:28 AM PDT  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed this week that she dreams of serving on the Supreme Court for another decade.Ginsburg, age 86, traveled to Portugal with Justice John Paul Stevens — who died July 16 at the age of 99 — during the last week of his life. She recounted a story from the trip at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by Duke Law School on Wednesday night: "As we were leaving the U.S. ambassador's residence our last evening in Lisbon, I said to John, 'My dream is to remain on the court as long as you did.' His immediate response? 'Stay longer!'"Ginsburg would need to serve until 2028, when she would be 95, to surpass Stevens's nearly 35-year tenure on the court.It may be a bit morbid, but given the nature of lifetime appointments and the outsize role of the Supreme Court in American political life, there is intense interest surrounding Ginsburg's health. She has spent the week making public appearances and pointedly insisting that she isn't going anywhere."There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months," Ginsburg told NPR in an on-camera interview Tuesday, the day of Stevens's funeral, referring to former Kentucky senator Jim Bunning. "That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I am very much alive."On Wednesday night, Ginsburg delivered a 30-minute speech looking back at the 2018 Supreme Court term and Stevens's life, before participating in an hour-long question-and-answer session with Duke Law professor Neil Siegel, one of her former clerks. When Siegel asserted during the Q&A that "nominees for the Supreme Court are not chosen primarily anymore for independence, legal ability, [and] personal decency, and I wonder if that's a loss for all of us," Ginsburg immediately defended Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. "My two newest colleagues are very decent, very smart individuals," she said.She expressed delight over the fact that she had assigned two opinions to Gorsuch and one to Kavanaugh during the last term, something she was only able to do only because the two justices senior to her on the court (Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas) were in the minority."The Court remains the most collegial place I have ever worked," Ginsburg said. She lamented how divisive Supreme Court nominations have become. "I had a history of being a flaming feminist," Ginsburg said, before noting that she was confirmed 96–3. "I was general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union." Ginsburg pointed out that her "buddy," the late Justice Antonin Scalia, also had well-known constitutional views when he was confirmed by a unanimous vote. "My hope is we will return to the way it once was," Ginsburg said of the confirmation process."Nowadays, when people divide into 'I'll talk to my own kind, and the others I have nothing to do with,' that's very sad because that hasn't been the way it was and isn't the way this country should be," Ginsburg said. She added that Americans should go "beyond just mere tolerance of different views" to "welcoming different views because they enrich our society."To NPR, Ginsburg also expressed concern about the perils of packing the Supreme Court, a policy that has gained the support of several Democratic presidential candidates. "Nine seems to be a good number. It's been that way for a long time," she said. "I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.""If anything would make the court look partisan," she added, "it would be that: one side saying, 'When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.'"Despite Ginsburg's dream of staying on the court for another decade, she sounded a more realistic note at the end of Wednesday night's Q&A session. "I'll stay on this job as long as I can do it full-steam. That means, at my age, 86, you have to take it year by year," she said. "I was okay this last term. I expect to be okay next term. And after that, we'll just have to see."
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| ICE releases US citizen, 18, wrongfully detained near border Posted: 24 Jul 2019 08:05 AM PDT  Francisco Erwin Galicia left a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Pearsall, Texas, on Tuesday. Galicia lives in the border city of Edinburg, Texas, and was traveling north with a group of friends when they were stopped at a Border Patrol inland checkpoint. According to Galan and the Morning News, agents apprehended Galicia on suspicion that he was in the U.S. illegally even though he had a Texas state ID.
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| Co-conspirator in ex-India PM's assassination released on parole Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:40 AM PDT  India's longest-serving female prisoner, who was convicted over the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, walked out of prison Thursday on a 30-day parole to arrange her daughter's marriage. Nalini Sriharan was granted parole earlier this month by the Madras High Court after spending nearly three decades in jail over her role in Gandhi's murder by a female suicide bomber in 1991.
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| 'Enraged' wife hits husband with laptop during argument over other women on plane in Miami Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:26 PM PDT  A woman on an American Airlines plane about to take off from Miami threw a laptop at her husband, hitting a flight attendant and a passenger.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Lexus RX Crossover Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| U.S. Senate confirms Milley as chairman of Joint Chiefs Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:30 AM PDT |
| Gambia ex-president accused of ordering murder of two US businessmen Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:16 PM PDT  Former members of a Gambian death squad known as the Junglers on Thursday accused ex-president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the murder of two US citizens in 2013, having already confessed to the killing of a well known journalist. Since Monday, Gambians have been gripped by live coverage of three ex-Junglers -- Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie -- before the West African country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On the last day of hearings before the commission adjourns until August 5, Badjie, a member of Jammeh's elite hit squad, said the head of state had ordered in June 2013 that two US-Gambian businenessmen, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, who he suspected were planning a coup, should be "chopped into pieces".
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| Fake Tweets Put Israel in Bed With Iranian Exile ‘Terrorists’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:14 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyTEL AVIV—It was already late afternoon Tuesday local time when a call came in from a contact several time zones away. "A strange story is making the rounds in the Iranian press," said the contact, who tracks such things. The leader of the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile group often described by critics as a cult, had secretly traveled to Israel last week for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. Rudy Giuliani, a long-time supporter of the group, had apparently been a go-between.A Shady Facebook Campaign Is Stoking the Iran-U.S. ConflictEven stranger was the source for the report: the French consul general in Jerusalem, Pierre Cochard, who had publicized the news a few days prior via his personal Twitter account, citing a former colleague whom he had worked with in Tehran. In a long five-tweet thread, Cochard lamented the fact that the MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi, a political refugee in France, had not received official approval from Paris for such sensitive talks with the Israeli government. "You may want to look into this on your end," my contact said.The intriguing report hadn't really gained traction yet, although a few Iran-focused journalists and analysts on Twitter had begun credibly highlighting the consul's tweets and bombshell revelations. The news value was obvious. A quasi-Marxist group that fell afoul of the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, the MEK has been in exile for most of the last four decades. Both the U.S. and European Union used to consider the group a terrorist organization, a designation lifted just a few years ago after a high-profile lobbying campaign by many allegedly well-paid supporters like former CIA chief James Woolsey, Howard Dean, and, yes, Giuliani. More to the point the MEK was simply weird, with a cult of personality reportedly built around its husband-wife leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. While their actual base of support inside Iran is extremely suspect, the MEK does on occasion deliver. In the early 2000s they were the source for several major revelations regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program. Which is where Israel may come in. According to a 2017 report likely attributable to the Obama administration, Israel had teamed up with the MEK to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. More recently, an Iranian terror plot out of Austria and Belgium in 2018 reportedly was foiled by the Mossad. The alleged target? An MEK rally in Paris. In short, there were plausible reasons for Rajavi to make a trip to Jerusalem, although such a move would be hugely controversial—sending a message, as it was sure to do, that the MEK is an Israeli partner in the service of regime change in Iran. "The Iranians always suspect a hidden hand supporting any of the anti-regime groups, inside or outside the country, rightly or wrongly," one U.S-based analyst that covers Iran told The Daily Beast. The French consul in Jerusalem would surely have known all of this when he went public. The Cochard profile, on the face of it, looked like a legitimate French diplomat's personal account. It retweeted the French foreign ministry, it issued official-sounding platitudes about Bastille Day and the Franco-Israel relationship, it spotlighted highlights from French President Emanuel Macron. Established in 2013, the account had over 2,000 followers, including the verified profiles of several prominent Israeli journalists, the French ambassador in Israel, and the French embassy in Tel Aviv. A picture of the consul general visiting a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem was tweeted out around the same time as the MEK thread; a cursory search on Google brought up no other hits for the image, lending further credence to the account's legitimacy. An initial inquiry made to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office for comment dished up what often is a classic non-denial denial. Responding to the question of whether Ms. Rajavi indeed visited Israel last week to meet with Netanyahu, a spokesman told The Daily Beast that "[I] have not seen those media reports and have nothing to offer on query." When pressed on the fact that these weren't media reports, but rather (ostensibly) the online postings of a senior European diplomat working across town in Jerusalem, the spokesman declined to comment further. Intriguing. And yet, going back further in the account's timeline, things began to look very different. The consul was in the past apparently a major fan of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Homages to Lebron James were interspersed with ruminations about NBA basketball generally. Following the patois of modern social media there were purposeful spelling mistakes and online American slang. Not exactly the public profile of a pedigreed French diplomat and graduate of the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration. At a certain point earlier this year, it turned out, the account was re-branded—or bought, or potentially hacked. Gone were the references to the Razorbacks and King James. In their place, under the profile of Pierre Cochard, the account was now churning out, in fluent French, tweets about high diplomacy and French foreign policy hyperspecific to what a real consul general sitting in Jerusalem would be occupied with. Until, at the height of an escalating standoff between Tehran and Washington (and Jerusalem), it tweets out an elaborate story regarding the MEK, Rudy Giuliani, secrets flights from Talinn, the Mossad, and more. The story did succeed in gaining some traction online before this reporter finally reached the French consulate for comment, bringing L'affaire Rajavi to its attention. A spokesman rejected the veracity of the profile, telling The Daily Beast it was a fake and that they were contacting Twitter about the matter. The consulate added that Cochard had been the victim of an identity theft on the popular social media platform. Twitter took down the Pierre Cochard account a few hours later. Giuliani to Speak Beside Leader of Accused Iranian 'Cult'The story, a classic case of fake news and disinformation, was luckily stopped before it was able to travel halfway around the world—although the Iranian media is likely still flogging the "report." Yet the real moral is just how much time, effort, and resources were invested to make this particular profile seem like the real personal account of the French consul general in Jerusalem. This is the new face of psy-ops and cyber-ops in our hyperconnected, digitized world, and it all too often resembles the real thing. As if on cue, on Wednesday the Israeli intelligence services said they had scuttled a wide-ranging Iranian online recruitment campaign targeting Israeli nationals, primarily via the use of fake social media profiles on Facebook."The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem calls internet users to remain vigilant," read the conclusion of the official statement issued Tuesday. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Glaciers Are Melting Underwater. It's Worse Than Previously Thought Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Underwater glacier melt could be happening faster than previously thought, a dangerous finding as melting ice and glaciers raise sea levels
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| Inmate questioned after Jeffrey Epstein is found nearly unconscious in jail cell Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:45 PM PDT  An inmate was questioned over an incident in which financier and convicted sexoffender Jeffrey Epstein was found nearly unconscious in his New York Cityjail cell, WNBC reports
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| China defends air patrol with Russia after S. Korea, Japan fury Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:30 AM PDT  China on Wednesday defended a joint air force exercise with Russia that triggered a furious response from regional US allies South Korea and Japan over a perceived airspace violation. The incident erupted on Tuesday when a Russian A-50 early warning and control plane violated airspace over the Dokdo islands, Seoul said. South Korea scrambled fighter jets, which fired nearly 400 warning shots at the alleged intruder.
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| FBI Chief Says China's Trying to `Steal Their Way' to Dominance Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:18 AM PDT  FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators that China is engaging in a sweeping effort to steal its way to economic dominance, with more than 1,000 investigations underway on intellectual property theft "almost all leading back to China."
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| California college student Harrison Duran has long been 'obsessed' with dinosaurs. He just found a real one Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:29 PM PDT  Harrison Duran, a fifth-year biology student from the University of California, Merced, found the 65-million-year-old fossil in North Dakota.
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| Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:20 AM PDT ![Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan]( "Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan") Pakistan's main opposition parties held protest rallies in cities across the country on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Imran Khan's government of ruining the economy and seeking to intimidate and silence its opponents. The so-called "Black Day" protests, a year after Khan's PTI party swept to power following a bitterly contested election, come amid mounting economic problems for Pakistan and a political climate that has grown increasingly angry. "Every day in the presence of Imran Khan is a black day," Maryam Nawaz, leader of the PML-N party that was ousted from power in last year's election told a crowd of thousands of supporters in a football stadium in the western city of Quetta.
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| Point Break: Is Iran Ready to Retaliate Against America? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  The United States and Iran remain locked in a tense standoff, punctuated by periodic escalations, that could easily transition into a full-blown conflict. Following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran has been subjected to crushing sanctions that have contracted its economy and put pressure on its leadership. Rather than concede, Iran has responded with increasingly provocative moves—sabotaging several oil tankers, shooting down a U.S. drone, and openly violating the uranium enrichment and storage thresholds in the JCPOA. Many in Washington want the United States to launch military strikes on Iran because they believe the prospect of a war that it would lose would force Iran into submission. Military action is much more likely to backfire, however, since it would only legitimize Iran's nuclear program and make a nuclear arsenal essential to defend itself from the United States.Iran has clearly telegraphed that it would restart uranium enrichment unless America's European allies—who want to remain in the JCPOA—defy U.S. sanctions and continue to import Iranian oil. Iran's recent moves are a desperate effort to recapture some of the economic benefits of the deal in exchange for its continued compliance. So far, modest European efforts to that end have done little to ease Iran's economic crisis. Iran's recent seizure of a British oil tanker—retaliation for the Royal Navy's seizure of an Iranian vessel—is likely to make the Europeans even less willing to risk angering the United States on Iran's behalf.
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| Brazil judge orders Petrobras to refuel Iran ships: source Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:35 AM PDT  Brasília (AFP) - A Supreme Court judge on Thursday ordered Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras to refuel two Iranian ships stranded off the country's coast, a source involved in the dispute and a report said. The order came after Iran's top envoy to Brazil told Bloomberg that Tehran could suspend imports from the Latin American country if the issue was not resolved. Petrobras has refused to provide fuel to the vessels, which have been stuck at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana since early last month, for fear of breaching US sanctions.
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| Maine Confirmed Its First Case of a Rare Tick-Borne Virus in Years. Here's What to Know About Powassan Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:24 AM PDT  What to know about the tick-borne illness
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| Canadian police confirm sightings of murder suspects Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:39 PM PDT  Police said Thursday there have been two sightings of the suspects in the slaying of an American woman, her Australian boyfriend and another man in the Gillam area of Manitoba and they are believed to still be nearby. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Julie Courchaine said authorities have corroborated the sightings of 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky.
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| Rudy Giuliani, Estranged Wife Argue in Court Over His Free Trump Legal Work Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:01 AM PDT  REUTERSRudy Giuliani is providing gratis legal work for President Donald Trump to shortchange estranged wife Judith Nathan Giuliani, her lawyer said Thursday during a proceeding in their increasingly acrimonious divorce."Not only is he working pro bono for the president, for this individual, but it's costing him money," said Bernard Clair, who represents Judith. "Not only does he work for free, but all of his expenses, every time he goes down to Washington, D.C., every time he travels for the president… it comes out of his own pocket." "When he's going to work for the president, he bundles, for lack of a better word, clients from his other businesses" to defray these costs, including a recent trip to Warsaw, Poland, Clair said. Clair said Giuliani's work for Trump is meant to lead the court to "believe he somehow doesn't have money." The lawyer added that Giuliani spent "over one million on credit cards" but "says 'woe is me' financially… 'I don't have any money left.'" Giuliani borrowed $100,000 from Marc Mukasey, another one of Trump's lawyers and has paid back some $90,000, Clair said.Judge: Rudy Giuliani, Estranged Wife Can't Be in Same Room at Country ClubsJudith filed for divorce from the former New York City mayor in April 2018, after 15 years of marriage. Allegations that Giuliani has been holding out on her have been an ongoing theme of the divorce proceedings. Clair alleged in court in November that Giuliani cried poor after she served him divorce papers. In addition to citing the no-cost legal work for Trump, Clair had claimed that Giuliani did so after spending $286,000 on his rumored girlfriend, a New Hampshire hospital administrator named Maria Rosa Ryan. "Mr. Giuliani has taken it upon himself to radically change the financial status quo that existed prior to this action," Clair had told Justice Michael Katz, calling it "conduct that can only be characterized as SIDS... sudden income deficit syndrome.""My client doesn't care about romantic interest or otherwise, she really doesn't… What she cares about is that these expenses, for these people, are continuing while she's not received any direct support since August of this past year—not a dime directly for her," Judith's lawyer had said.In the proceeding last fall, Clair claimed that Giuliani earned $7.9 million in 2016 and $9.5 million in 2017. Their monthly expenses were about $232,000 and $238,000, respectively.Faith Miller, a lawyer representing Giuliani, insisted the ex-mayor has been trying to find other sources of income, including a podcast. Miller, meanwhile, accused Judith of taking "everything that she in her own personal opinion was hers" from one of their homes, including "the china, silverware, the pictures off the walls.""He walked in, the place was denuded, the place was a mess," Miller said. "I did not! I did not," Judith cried out, slapping her hand against the table."I'm not going to tolerate an outburst," Judge Katz warned. The furniture allegation is among many petty squabbles in their made-for-tabloid split. In March, Katz told them not to be in the same room if they ran into each other at country clubs.Millionaire Rudy Giuliani Cries Poor in Divorce Court After Spending Big on Alleged Mistress"There was an issue at one of the clubs last week," Lisa Zeiderman, one of Giuliani's attorneys, previously told Katz. "We're going to ask that Ms. Giuliani just keep her distance from Mr. Giuliani when they're at clubs together and their children, as well, and not take photographs, because that's what was happening last weekend, I'm advised, at one of the clubs.""He just wants to be left alone," Zeiderman had said.One of Judith's lawyers had responded that Giuliani was just embarrassed to be spotted spending money on his purported girlfriend's daughter. (Giuliani denied this after that hearing.)Clair had told Katz that "she went into the gift shop at the club. She saw Mr. Giuliani. He got anxious and yelled at her.""I am tired of hearing about Mr. Giuliani's personal life," Katz had remarked, later saying, "Whoever is in the room first is allowed to stay in the room."The second person who enters the room can go to another room "and vice versa," Katz had instructed.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Florida girl, 9, attacked by bison at Yellowstone National Park Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A nine-year-old girl was thrown into the air by a bison at YellowstoneNational Park on Monday
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| UPDATE 5-U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait, stirs tensions with China Posted: 24 Jul 2019 04:17 PM PDT ![UPDATE 5-U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait, stirs tensions with China]( "UPDATE 5-U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait, stirs tensions with China") BEIJING/WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - China expressed "deep concerns" on Thursday over a U.S. Navy warship sailing through the Taiwan Strait, a day after Beijing warned that it was ready for war if Taiwan moved toward independence. Taiwan is among a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing said China had "expressed deep concerns to the U.S. side" over its latest action in the strait separating China from Taiwan.
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| 2-year-old injured after riding baggage conveyor belt at Atlanta airport Posted: 25 Jul 2019 06:52 AM PDT  A 2-year-old boy was hurt after jumping on a baggage conveyor belt at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He landed in a luggage room.
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| US sanctions Venezuela emergency food 'corruption network' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT  The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's stepsons, a Colombian businessman and six others for running a "corruption network" that profited from emergency food imports. The US has in recent months escalated sanctions against Venezuela, which is struggling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of its 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. The new restrictions target Maduro's stepsons Walter Jacob Gavidia Flores, Yosser Daniel Gavidia and Yoswal Alexander Gavidia Flores, whom the US says collaborated with Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran to profit off importing emergency food into the country as it struggled with rising malnutrition.
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| No F-22: Why Iran's Qaher 313 "Stealth" Fighter Is an Utter Joke Posted: 24 Jul 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Iran's then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ahmad Vahidi, then the country's defense minister, unveiled the Qaher 313 at a staged event in February 2013. Officials claimed the plane could carry two 2,000-pound bombs or at least six air-to-air missiles.Tensions have escalated in the Persian Gulf region in the aftermath of U.S. president Donald Trump's decision unilaterally to withdraw the United States from the agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program.The U.S. military has implicated Iranian agents in several summer 2019 attacks on civilian ships sailing near Iran. The U.S. Navy sent the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and her strike group to the region. The U.S. Air Force deployed B-52 bombers and F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.If war breaks out, American forces likely will attempt to secure Gulf air space by destroying or suppressing Iran's air forces. The regular Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force and the air wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps militia together operate around 700 aircraft, including around two dozen U.S.-made F-14s.(This first appeared earlier in July 2019.)One thing U.S. forces won't have to worry about is an Iranian stealth fighter. The Islamic republic's supposedly radar-evading Qaher 313 fighter was nothing but a cheap mock-up when it first rolled out in early 2013. It was still a cheap mock-up when it appeared again in public in 2017.Iran's then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ahmad Vahidi, then the country's defense minister, unveiled the Qaher 313 at a staged event in February 2013. Officials claimed the plane could carry two 2,000-pound bombs or at least six air-to-air missiles.
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| Indonesia pardons woman sentenced to jail for exposing lewd boss Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:57 AM PDT  An Indonesian woman sentenced to six months in jail for exposing her lecherous boss won a parliamentary pardon Thursday after the case sparked an outcry over victim's rights. Loud applause broke out in the House of Representatives as lawmakers unanimously voted to quash the prison sentence handed to Baiq Nuril Maknun over a recording she made of her former employer's sexual harassment. Rights groups had condemned the sentence and the high-profile case sparked fears it would discourage victims of sexual harassment from speaking out in the conservative Muslim majority nation.
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| US long-term mortgage rates fall; 30-year average at 3.75% Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:06 AM PDT  U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell this week, edging toward three-year lows amid signals from Federal Reserve officials that they could cut their benchmark interest rate at their meeting next week. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the key 30-year mortgage dipped to 3.75% from 3.81% last week. On Thursday, the European Central Bank joined the Fed in making clear that more stimulus could be coming soon to support an economy weakening in the face of global trade tensions.
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| WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S. Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:00 AM PDT ![WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S.]( "WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S.") Lety Perez fell to her haunches, a clenched hand covering her face as she wept, an arm clutching her small 6-year old son, who glared defiantly at the Mexican National Guard soldier blocking them from crossing into the United States. The plight of this mother and son who had traveled some 1,500 miles (2,410 km) from their home country of Guatemala to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, only to be stopped mere feet from the United States, was captured by Reuters photographer Jose Luis Gonzalez as twilight approached on Monday. "The woman begged and pleaded with the National Guard to let them cross ... she wanted to cross to give a better future" to her young son Anthony Diaz, Gonzalez said.
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