| Trump must release his tax returns or be barred from state’s 2020 election ballot, Illinois senate votes Posted: 12 Apr 2019 04:01 AM PDT  Donald Trump will have to release five years of tax returns if he wants appear on the Illinois 2020 presidential ballot, the state's senate has ruled. The bill, which still requires approval by the Prairie State's House of Representatives, comes amid a growing row in Washington over Mr Trump's unprecedented refusal to make publicly available his income tax returns. The US Treasury ignored a congressional deadline to release the documents earlier this week. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin claimed the request by the House ways and means committee was "politically motivated". Mr Trump himself has claimed that he cannot release his tax returns because they are under audit, although technically there is nothing preventing him from doing so. In Illinois, the bill would need to be signed into law by Democratic governor Jay Robert Pritzjer, if it passes through the House which is also controlled by Mr Trump's political rivals. Mr Pritzjer is yet to take a public stance on the issue. Tony Munoz, the state senator who sponsored the bill said: "If you want to run for vice president or president of the United States, hey, what's wrong with providing your tax returns for the past five years?" The veteran Democrat added: "If you've got nothing to hide, you shouldn't worry about anything. That's how I see it."But the move drew complaints from Republicans in the senate. "This is, quite frankly, with all due respect to the sponsor, an embarrassing waste of the senate's time," said Dale Righter. "This is being pushed by a far-leftist organisation from the city of Chicago that wants to be able to get up and chirp about the president of the United States."Ilinois is not the only state where legislation to codify standard practices surrounding tax disclosures for presidential candidates is being advanced. The Washington state senate last month approved legislation that would legally require all presidential candidates to release the last five years of their personal tax returns in order to have their names featured on both primary and general voting ballots.New Jersey has also advanced a similar bill to the state's general assembly that would force candidates to disclose their recent tax returns.
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| US cop's son arrested in arson of three black churches Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:25 PM PDT  The white son of a Louisiana police officer has been arrested and accused of burning down historically black churches in the southern US state, authorities announced Thursday. Holden Matthews is charged with three counts of arson on a religious building for allegedly burning down three rural churches over a 10-day period beginning in late March. Authorities said they were not ready to discuss the motive for the attacks, but a federal hate crimes investigation was ongoing.
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| U.S. lobbying probes persist though Mueller investigation over Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:46 AM PDT  In a sign that evidence from Mueller's 22-month investigation may yet ensnare more prominent Washington figures, federal prosecutors in Washington cited a former U.S. congressman "working for the government of Ukraine" in charges filed Thursday against former Obama administration official Greg Craig. Craig pleaded not guilty on Friday to lobbying violations and making false statements. The former congressman is not named in Craig's indictment, but other filings by his former law firm cite identical work done for the firm by Vin Weber, a lobbyist with Mercury Public Affairs, who was a U.S. representative from Minnesota from 1981 to 1993.
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| The Last Front-Engined Chevrolet Corvette, a 2019 C7 Z06, Will Be Auctioned Off in June Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:45 PM PDT  All proceeds from the sale of the final C7 Corvette will go to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
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| Michael Avenatti Indicted on Charges He Defrauded Paraplegic Client, Others Out of Millions Posted: 11 Apr 2019 11:38 AM PDT  Avenatti tweeted claims that he mishandled client money are "bogus nonsense."
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| North Korea shakes up leadership amid diplomacy, economic efforts: KCNA Posted: 11 Apr 2019 04:04 PM PDT  Choe Ryong Hae was named President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea at a session of its rubber-stamp legislature that took place on Thursday, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, replacing Kim Yong Nam. The person holding that position is technically considered North Korea's head of state and usually represents the country at diplomatic events, though experts say real power remains concentrated in leader Kim Jong Un's hands. Since early 2018 Kim has embarked on a push for economic development and international engagement, including historic summits with the leaders of the United States, China, and South Korea.
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| Julian Assange's charges are a direct assault on press freedom, experts warn Posted: 11 Apr 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Parts of the indictment go head-to-head with basic journalistic activities protected by the first amendment, academics say A protester outside Westminster magistrates court in London on 11 April. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The charge sheet accusing Julian Assange of engaging in criminal theft of US state secrets contains a direct assault on fundamental press freedoms and could have a devastating effect on the basic acts of journalism, leading first amendment scholars and advocacy groups have warned. Prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia released on Thursday an indictment against the WikiLeaks founder that has been under seal since March 2018. It will now form the basis of the US government's request for Assange to be extradited from the UK to Alexandria to face trial. Academics and campaigners condemned large chunks of the indictment that they said went head-to-head with basic activities of journalism protected by the first amendment of the US constitution. They said these sections of the charges rang alarm bells that should reverberate around the world. Yochai Benkler, a Harvard law professor who wrote the first major legal study of the legal implications of prosecuting WikiLeaks, said the charge sheet contained some "very dangerous elements that pose significant risk to national security reporting. Sections of the indictment are vastly overbroad and could have a significant chilling effect – they ought to be rejected." Carrie DeCell, staff attorney with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the charges "risk having a chill on journalism". She added that the tone of the indictment and the public release from the Department of Justice that went with it suggested that the US government desired precisely that effect. "Many of the allegations fall absolutely within the first amendment's protections of journalistic activity. That's very troubling to us." Among the phrases contained in the indictment that have provoked an uproar are: "It was part of the conspiracy that Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States." It is a basic function of journalism to encourage sources to provide information in the public interest on the activities of government. "It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning took measures to conceal Manning as the source of the disclosure of classified records to WikiLeaks." Protecting the anonymity of sources is the foundation stone of much investigative and national security reporting – without it sources would not be willing to divulge information, and the press would be unable to fulfill its role of holding power to account. "It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning used the 'Jabber' online chat service to collaborate on the acquisition and dissemination of the classified records." The indictment similarly refers to a dropbox. Both Jabber and Dropbox are communication tools routinely used by journalists working with whistleblowers. A key element of the indictment is a new allegation that Assange actively engaged in helping Manning try to crack a password that allowed the US soldier to gain unauthorized and anonymous access to highly sensitive military computers. At the time, in 2010, Manning was working as an intelligence analyst at a forward operating base outside Baghdad. Experts on freedom of the press and speech were generally more relaxed about that narrow charge, standing on its own, in that it essentially accuses Assange of violating computer hacking laws – specifically the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – in a way that has no first amendment protection. If prosecutors succeed in presenting evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to that effect, it is unlikely to arouse fierce opposition across the board. Bradley P Moss, deputy executive of the James Madison Project, a public-interest group focusing on US intelligence and national security, said he was unflustered by the hacking allegation. "I have no concerns about the broader ramifications for press freedoms, whether in the US or elsewhere. What Julian Assange did is what journalists are trained not to do." But fears for the chilling impact of the prosecution were rampant. The Center for Constitutional Rights, whose late president Michael Ratner was Assange's lawyer in the US, warned that the threat posed by the indictment was increased by having a president in the White House hostile to the media. "This is a worrying step on the slippery slope to punishing any journalist the Trump administration chooses to deride as 'fake news'," it said. Two advocacy groups working in the field of press freedom also waded in. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the wording of the charges contained "broad legal arguments about journalists soliciting information or interacting with sources that could have chilling consequences for investigative reporting and the publication of information of public interest". Freedom of the Press Foundation said: "Whether or not you like Assange, the charge against him is a serious press freedom threat and should be vigorously protested by all those who care about the first amendment."
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| Boeing to meet with US airlines over 737 MAX Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:07 PM PDT  The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday it would meet with American commercial airlines that use the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded worldwide since mid-March following two accidents that killed 346 people. The meeting, scheduled to take place on Friday in Washington, comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny after 157 people died in an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash on March 10 -- the second deadly crash involving the aircraft in five months. Security representatives from American Airlines, Southwest and United will be at the meeting, as well as representatives from their pilot unions.
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| Disney CEO Bob Iger: 'Hitler would have loved social media' Posted: 11 Apr 2019 08:43 AM PDT  Accepting an award for his humanitarian work Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger attacked social media for its role in spreading hate. "Hitler would have loved social media," said Iger.
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| PM rival Gantz congratulates Netanyahu after final results Posted: 12 Apr 2019 06:28 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (AP) — Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White party who had challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called to congratulate him Friday after Israel's final election results showed the prime minister poised to win a fifth term.
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| Sudan protesters defy curfew after army topples president Omar al-Bashir Posted: 11 Apr 2019 09:40 PM PDT  Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was deposed by the country's military on Thursday, but protesters against his iron-fisted rule defied a night-time curfew to rally against the military "coup". In a televised address, Sudan's defence minister said the military would rule the country directly for a two year transition period before fresh elections. General Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibnouf, who is also a vice president and was seen as an ally of Mr Bashir, said the long-serving dictator was in a "safe place." "I announce as minister of defence the toppling of the regime and detaining its chief in a secure place," Gen Ibnouf said. He declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed a one-month 10 pm curfew. He said airspace would be closed for 24 hours and border crossings sealed until further notice. Mr Bashir is a former solider who ran a brutal dictatorship after coming to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989. He is a pariah in many countries and is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Darfur. Crowds are carrying a giant flag of Sudan as they march towards the military headquarters in Khartoum. The military is expected to make a statement following reports of President Omar al-Bashir's resignation pic.twitter.com/draKmgfS8C— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) April 11, 2019 His overthrow follows four months of nationwide protests against his 30-year rule, and there were scenes of jubilation in Khartoum on Thursday morning as rumours spread that he had been deposed. But Gen Ibnouf's early afternoon announcement was greeted with unease by the opposition movement that has brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets in recent weeks. Although demonstrators had called on the army to intervene against the president, the defence minister is deeply unpopular among the opposition and widely seen as a Bashir ally. Hundreds of Sudanese protesters maintained their sit-in outside army headquarters in Khartoum for the fifth day in a row Credit: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Several protesters on the streets of Khartoum told The Telegraph ahead of the announcement they would not accept him as a replacement for Bashir. Minutes before the announcement, Alaa Salah, the 22 year old woman who has become an icon of the protests, tweeted: "We are waiting for a statement by the army. We will only accept a transitional civilian government composed of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change. No other plan will be acceptable." She later added: "The people do not want a transitional military council. Change will not happen with Bashir's entire regime hoodwinking Sudanese civilians through a military coup. We want a civilian council to head the transition." Thousands of protesters staged a sit-in for the sixth night running outside Khartoum army headquarters as the military council's curfew began. The army had earlier warned protesters not to defy the curfew. Well after nightfall, tens of thousands beat drums, sang and chanted slogans against the armed forces and Ibn Ouf. "The first one fell, the second will, too!" protesters shouted. And: "They removed a thief and brought in a thief!" Washington said Khartoum should "exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government". "The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future and the Sudanese people have been clear and are demanding a civilian-led transition," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters. The European Union urged the army to carry out a "swift" handover to civilian rule. The Sudanese Professionals Association, the umbrella group of trade unions that has coordinated the protest movement, had earlier warned that it would not accept an internal military coup. The people do not want a transitional military council. Change will not happen with Bashir's entire regime hoodwinking Sudanese civilians through a military coup. We want a civilian council to head the transition. Sudan— Alaa Salah (@iAlaaSalah) April 11, 2019 They issued a statement vowing to remain in the streets until the "regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government." Demonstrations against Mr Bashir's rule initially broke out in the northeastern town of Atabara after the price of bread tripled in December. Protests quickly spread to other cities and morphed from an outpouring of indignation at economic conditions into demands for Mr Bashir to step down. The regime responded with a brutal crackdown, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and live rounds to break up demonstrations and arrested ringleaders and even doctors who treated injured protesters. The movement culminated in massive protests in the capital, beginning on April 6, when opposition leaders called a "one million person" march towards the army's headquarters to mark the anniversary of the bloodless coup that overthrew Gaafar Nimeriy, another president who faced mass discontent. In conscious emulation of 1985, the SPA called for a sit-in outside army headquarters to call on the military to protect the demonstrators. Sudan uprising, in pictures The first sign of a rupture within the regime came when soldiers inside the compound intervened to prevent security personnel from the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) clearing the demonstration on Monday and Tuesday. Several people were killed in the clashes, which prompted fears of a wider conflict between the multiplicity of armed forces, security agencies, and militia groups Mr Bashir set up to challenge one another and consolidate his rule. Thousands sang and danced on Thursday morning when the army said on state media it would be making an important announcement, in what many took as a sign the revolution had succeeded. Later in the morning, several officials pre-empted the military and told the media that Mr Bashir had been arrested. As the morning wore on, officials said that all political prisoners would be released, but it was not clear when. Meanwhile, troops were deployed at key points around the capital and soldiers were seen entered the headquarters of Mr Bashir's Islamic Movement, the main component of the ruling National Congress Party. Some protesters surrounded and entered houses belonging to prominent Bashir allies in Khartoum, and there were unconfirmed reports of crowds storming buildings belonging to NISS. The Alliance for Freedom and Change, which has been involved in supporting the protests, urged the people "not to attack" government and private properties as they awaited the army's announcement. "We are calling on our people to control themselves and not to attack anybody or government and private properties," the Alliance for Freedom and Change said in a statement. "Anyone found doing this will be punished by law. Our revolution is peaceful."
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| Warren Pushes New Corporate Tax on Profits Above $100 Million Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:25 PM PDT  There would be "no loopholes or exemptions" for the so-called Real Corporate Profits Tax, Warren said. It would be paid on top of what corporations owe under U.S. tax law and apply to profits earned domestically and abroad, preventing companies from shifting profits offshore to avoid the tax. The Massachusetts senator's plan is part of her initiative to claim the mantle of progressive policy visionary in the large and diverse primary field, and to put meat on the bones of her populist message that corporations and financial elites are rigging the rules at the expense of ordinary Americans.
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| Southwest flight attendant walks plane aisle with baby to give tired mother a break Posted: 12 Apr 2019 12:43 PM PDT  A Southwest Airlines flight attendant is being lauded online over her kind deed for a weary traveler.
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| Hillary Clinton says WikiLeaks' Julian Assange must 'answer' after London arrest Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:03 AM PDT  "I do think it's a little ironic that (Assange) may be the only foreigner that this administration would welcome to the United States," Clinton said.
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| Missouri: The Most Famous Battleship Of All Time (And a Truly Deadly Warship) Posted: 11 Apr 2019 09:00 AM PDT  In 1999 USS Missouri opened as a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, not far from the wreck of USS Arizona. It has subsequently appeared in a pair of terrible movies; the 2001 Michael Bay effort Pearl Harbor, in which it fills in for USS West Virginia, and the 2012 film Battleship, in which it fights aliens. Missouri was also the setting for 1992's Under Siege which was altogether better than either of the other two films.The North Carolina– and South Dakota–class battleships were designed with the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty in mind. Although much more could be accomplished in 1938 with thirty-five thousand tons than in 1921, sacrifices still had to be made. As had been practice in the first round of battleship construction, U.S. Navy architects accepted a low speed in return for heavy armor and armament. Consequently, both the South Dakotas and the North Carolinas had speeds a knot or two slower than most foreign contemporaries. The Montanas, the final battleship design authorized by the Navy, would also have had a twenty-eight-knot maximum speed. In any case, Japan's failure to ratify the 1936 London Naval Treaty bumped the maximum standard tonnage from thirty-five to forty-five thousand, giving the designers some extra space to work with. The result was the Iowa class, the most powerful and best-designed battleships ever built.Recommended: America's Battleships Went to War Against North Korea
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| Photos of the 2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Sudan's Bashir brought down by people he ruled with iron fist Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:11 AM PDT  Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, long wanted on genocide and war crimes charges, was finally brought down in a popular uprising by the very people he ruled with an iron fist for 30 years. One of Africa's longest-serving presidents, the 75-year-old had remained defiant in the face of months-long protests that left dozens of demonstrators dead in clashes with security forces. In what was clearly a last ditch effort to quell the protests, Bashir had imposed a state of emergency on February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the demonstrators.
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| Trump’s Pursuit of ‘Big Deal’ With Kim Dents Calls for Quick Fix Posted: 12 Apr 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The U.S. president, speaking Thursday during a White House meeting with Moon, said "this isn't the right time" for inter-Korean projects including reopening a joint industrial park kept shuttered by sanctions.
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| Why didn’t scientists photograph the black hole at the center of the Milky Way? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:03 PM PDT  After years of work and a whole lot of hype, researchers working with the Event Horizon Telescope project finally unveiled the very first image ever captured of an actual black hole this week. The relatively low-res image was nonetheless fantastic, and the fact that scientists were able to capture an image of the black hole from a distance of approximately 55 million light-years away is absolutely mind-boggling.But wait, we live in the Milky Way galaxy, and at the center of it is what scientist believe is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. Our galaxy is only around 150,000 to 200,000 light years across, so wouldn't it have been a whole lot easier to just photograph our own black hole instead?That's a question I've seen a few times on social media since the first black hole photo began circulating, and it's a good one. It would make sense to capture a photo of the closest black hole to Earth, especially if we want to see it in great detail. Unfortunately, Earth -- and the vast majority of the planets in the galaxy -- just aren't in the right position to see our galaxy's black hole with optical technology.The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with long arms filled with hundreds of billions of stars, and it's arranged like a flat disc. If you were to look at the entire galaxy from its face, you'd quickly see our dilemma:The dot labeled "Sun" is where our solar system resides in the galaxy, riding the edge of one of the Milky Way's long, curved arms. From out vantage point, gazing in the direction of the center of the galaxy looks something like this:Trying to see our galaxy's own black hole is like trying to see the center of a vast forest while standing along its fringe. There's just too much stuff in the way, including stars, planets, gas, and dust. To have any hope of seeing our own black hole we'd have to send a spacecraft tens, or even hundreds of thousands of light years away, allowing it view the Milky Way from its face rather than its side, at least when talking about the optical spectrum.Radio telescopes are capable of cutting through a lot of the cloudy debris and light that obscures our view. An array of such telescopes, spread across the globe, is exactly what the Event Horizon Telescope is, making it possible to glimpse Sagittarius A*, but first the black hole needs to cooperate.The Milky Way's black hole is significantly more difficult to capture in images due to how much its signal changes, and how rapidly those changes occur. Researchers with the EHT project still hope to capture a suitable image of Sagittarius A*, but they're not quite there yet.So, the EHT team did the next best thing. M87, the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87, proved to be the perfect first candidate for observation due to its enormous size and consistency. It still took many years and required the collection of an incredible wealth of data, but we finally have our first-ever image of a real black hole.
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| EXCLUSIVE-EU eyes 20 billion euros of U.S. imports to hit over Boeing - diplomats Posted: 12 Apr 2019 08:51 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-EU eyes 20 billion euros of U.S. imports to hit over Boeing - diplomats]( "EXCLUSIVE-EU eyes 20 billion euros of U.S. imports to hit over Boeing - diplomats") The European Commission has drawn up a list of U.S. imports worth around 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) that it could hit with tariffs over a transatlantic aircraft subsidy dispute, EU diplomats said. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose tariffs on $11 billion worth of European Union products over what Washington sees as unfair subsidies given to European planemaker Airbus. The EU measures would relate to the EU's World Trade Organization complaint over subsidies to Boeing.
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| Ocasio-Cortez defends Omar amid 9/11 controversy: GOP is 'happy to weaponize her faith' Posted: 11 Apr 2019 11:23 AM PDT  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "Here's 1 fact: @IlhanMN is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. She's done more for 9/11 families than the GOP who won't even support healthcare for 1st responders."
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| Why Ecuador Finally Got Sick of Julian Assange and Ended His Refuge at the Embassy in London Posted: 11 Apr 2019 03:04 AM PDT  Six years, nine months and 24 days after walking into the Ecuadorian embassy in London and declaring asylum, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was dragged back out onto the streets by British police officers.A few hours later, federal prosecutors in Virginia unsealed an indictment accusing Assange of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to crack a password to swipe classified documents from government computers nearly a decade ago.Assange, 47, who was pale and heavily bearded, shouted "The U.K. must resist!" as he was bundled towards a waiting police vehicle by a clutch of officers. He appeared to be carrying a copy of Gore Vidal's book History of The National Security State. His dramatic expulsion from the embassy follows a year of ratcheting tension between Assange and his Ecuadorian hosts, culminating in WikiLeaks publicizing a leak of hundreds of thousands of hacked emails mysteriously stolen from the inboxes of Ecuador's president and first lady.It was this last move that finally set Ecuador's government firmly against Assange, who was by then already being treated less like a political refugee than an inmate—albeit one who was free to leave at any time. "The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit on the behavior of Mr. Assange," Ecuador's president, Lenín Moreno, said on Thursday. Assange, who has an outstanding warrant for jumping bail in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, was taken into custody after officers were invited inside by embassy officials.Hauled off to court, he was quickly found guilty on the relatively minor bail charge and faces 12 months in prison for that. In court, a judge said he had displayed "the behaviour of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest."More seriously, British police confirmed a few hours after the initial arrest that Assange was arrested for a second time on behalf of U.S. authorities on an extradition warrant. The Department of Justice then announced in a press release that Assange had been charged in connection with Manning's hack, which led to the leak of thousands of diplomatic cables."The charge relates to Assange's alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States," the statement reads.Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, have been working to build a case against the Australian cypherpunk for nearly a decade, and a paperwork error last year revealed they had a sealed criminal complaint ready to pop at the right moment. Randy Credico, a New York lefty radio host and friend of Assange who saw him in March, told The Daily Beast he was shocked by his appearance as he emerged from the embassy on Thursday."I complained to his mom and to some others about the fact that he didn't look good, he was coughing," Credico said. "So I know right now seeing him walk out with that beard, he hasn't had any medical attention, the first thing he needs is medical attention."The arrest opens a new chapter in a saga that began when Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London on June 19, 2012. At the time, Assange was facing imminent extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in a rape and sexual-assault investigation that's since been dropped on a technicality. He showed up at the embassy after losing a final appeal in the British courts.Assange had good reason for choosing Ecuador as his protector. A few weeks earlier, then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa appeared on Assange's TV interview show on the Russian government's RT network. The interview revealed Correa as a WikiLeaks fan, and the interplay between the two was filled with the friendly banter of fellow travelers.Two months after Assange's walk-in, Correa's government formally granted the asylum request. In the months and years that followed, Correa built a miniature intelligence agency around his new guest, leaked documents would later show. Called "Operation Hotel," Ecuador placed outside security contractors into a basement apartment around the corner from the embassy, where for years they surveilled and scrutinized the neverending parade of international visitors calling on Assange. But as Assange's tenancy wore on, his welcome wore out. In October 2016, international pressure fell on Ecuador over Assange's role in Russian election interference, and Correa temporarily cut off Assange's internet access, not restoring it until after the U.S. election. Assange's standing with his host nation became even more troubled after Correa was term-limited out of office in 2017. He was succeeded by Moreno, his one-time vice president, who won a narrow election victory espousing the same socialist policies as his predecessor. Once in office though, Moreno proved more conservative, and he made no secret that he regarded Assange as an "inherited problem" and a "nuisance."Assange wasted little time testing Moreno's limits. He stirred a diplomatic hornet's nest in 2017 when he threw his celebrity weight behind the Catalan independence movement in Spain, forcing Ecuador's foreign minister to clarify in a statement that Assange's views "do not represent the position of the Ecuadorian State." Moreno once again suspended Assange's Internet, this time enforcing the ban with cellphone jamming equipment. Assange was allowed back online in late 2018, but only after agreeing not to "carry out activities that could be considered political interference in the internal affairs of other states." At the same time, Ecuador imposed a new and detailed set of rules on its fugitive guest, banning unannounced visitors, and requiring Assange to pay his own medical bills, clean up after himself in the bathroom and tend to the "well-being, food, cleanliness, and proper care" of his cat.Assange bristled at the restrictions and took Ecuador's foreign ministry to court. When he lost, he filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which rejected it.What happened next was perhaps inevitable. It was Lenín Moreno's time in the barrel.In late February, one of Moreno's political rivals revealed he'd received a tranche of leaked documents from an anonymous source. The files, he claimed, showed Moreno had corruptly profited from a deal with a Chinese firm. The dossier was dubbed the "INA Papers," after one of the shell companies allegedly used to channel the money, INA Investments Corp.On Feb. 19, the Ecuadorian news outlet Le Fuente published pages from the leak in an investigative story on the alleged corruption. Three days later, someone anonymously registered the website address INApapers.org to publish much more. The site went live in early March with material hacked from the accounts of Moreno and his wife, among others. The stash includes SMS messages, phone logs, WhatsApp and Telegram texts, and private emails and attachments that the site says number in the hundreds of thousands.The INA Papers leak appears to have earned little notice outside of Ecuador, until a fateful tweet from WikiLeaks on Thursday, March 28 that referenced the resultant corruption investigation by lawmakers in Ecuador's national assembly. The tweet, since retweeted over 3,700 times, linked directly to the anonymous website hosting the hacked material in bulk. Like some of WikiLeaks' own signature releases, including the John Podesta and Democratic National Committee hacks, INA Papers is loaded with material unrelated to corruption, including personal photos of Moreno and his family—"photos of my bedroom, what I eat, and how my wife and daughters and friends dance," Moreno complained in a radio interview Tuesday.WikiLeaks has said it has no connection to the site or the hacking. Moreno, though, clearly suspects otherwise. "Mr. Assange has violated the agreement we reached with him and his legal counsel too many times," Moreno said, according to a Reuters' translation from the same interview. "It is not that he cannot speak and express himself freely, but he cannot lie, nor much less hack private accounts or phones." Ecuador called out WikiLeaks by name for promoting the leak in a complaint to a U.N. privacy council. Moreno's vice president, Otto Sonnenholzner, went on television to charge "what WikiLeaks and other political actors have done, to publish private photos of the president of the republic, of his family, is a despicable, repugnant, and odious act." Moreno's minister of foreign affairs was quoted vowing to take action against Assange.The escalating clash between Assange and the government protecting him likely sent U.S. officials scurrying in preparation, said attorney Christopher Ott, a former Justice Department prosecutor who worked on Russia's election-hacking investigation prior to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "'They're five hours ahead of us," Ott said. "You don't want to wake up in the morning and all of a sudden have two hours to get the whole packet done."The unsealing of the indictment confirmed suspicions that the Virginia case against Assange centers on WikiLeaks' first impactful leaks in 2010, when the secret-spilling website began dumping hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and U.S. Army field reports leaked by Manning, then an Army intelligence analyst.Manning has been in jail since March 3, when a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify in front of the Alexandria, Virginia, grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Manning said in a legal filing that the subpoena was preceded by extensive surveillance against her.At her court-martial in 2013, Manning gave a lengthy statement detailing her motives and accepting personal responsibility for the leaks. The online chats between Manning and Assange used as evidence in the court-martial provide few clues to a potential charge against Assange. With the exception of a brief exchange in which Assange offers to help crack the password for an Army desktop, Assange comes across as little more than a publisher determined to get Manning's material, some of it of significant news value, out to the public.Unless prosecutors have more damning evidence waiting in the wings, the extradition request will likely trigger months, or even years, of legal battles in the U.K. courts. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| College admissions scandal: Will the students stay in school? Colleges don't have to say Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:22 AM PDT  Two universities say they have booted students, but colleges don't have to give details of disciplinary decisions. Here's why they're staying quiet.
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| How the Greatest Battleships Ever Built Could Make the Ultimate Comeback Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:40 AM PDT  While a comeback is unlikely, it's always nice to dream.Battleships captivate the imagination. Before they were displaced by aircraft carriers, battleships were symbols of great-power status. Some of the most iconic were the American Iowa class, the last battleships ever built by the United States. Powerful in appearance, yet with sleek lines filled in with haze gray, the Iowa class served in World War II and were unretired three more times to serve as the U.S. Navy's big guns. If we brought them back today, what would they look like?The National Defense Authorization Act for 1996, generally known as the defense budget, had a unique provision hidden inside the text: the text directed the Navy to keep at least of the four Iowa-class ships on the Naval Register in good condition, retain the logistical support to maintain battleships on active duty and keep those ships on the Register until the secretary of the navy certified that existing naval gunfire support equaled or exceeded the firepower of two battleships. Iowa and Wisconsin were finally stricken from the Register in 2006 after the secretary of the navy, citing the upcoming thirty-two Zumwalt-class destroyers, certified they were no longer needed.(This first appeared several years ago.)
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| The "$35,000" Tesla Model 3 Is No More, and It Seems That It Never Was Posted: 12 Apr 2019 07:08 AM PDT  Tesla already raised the price on the Standard Range car, which is now available only by special order, and all signs point to the company never having delivered a single car with a cloth interior.
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| Durham explosion: Surveillance video captures moment of blast Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:53 PM PDT  ABC11 has exclusively obtained surveillance video showing the moment an explosion rocked Durham Wednesday morning, killing one person and leaving 25 others injured.
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| Fed Officials’ Veiled Advice to Cain, Moore: Better Bring Facts Posted: 12 Apr 2019 09:41 AM PDT  Federal Reserve officials, in their polite and coded way, have a veiled warning for the political loyalists that President Donald Trump is trying to insert into their ranks: We don't do flimsy economics. Trump wants to nominate conservative economist Stephen Moore and former pizza company executive Herman Cain -- whose bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination ended amid accusations of sexual harassment and infidelity -- to the seven-member Fed Board in Washington. Both are staunch Trump allies who've argued in favor of the gold standard.
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| South Korea's Top Court Orders Government to End 66-Year-Old Abortion Ban Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:06 AM PDT  South Korea's current laws governing abortion are some of the strictest in the developed world
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| Fresh Ways to Use Asparagus You Haven’t Tried Before Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:38 PM PDT |
| Tripoli forces take prisoners as EU demands Libya's Haftar to stop offensive Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:06 PM PDT  The fighting between Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) and troops under the internationally-backed Tripoli government has killed at least 56 people and forced 8,000 to flee their homes in the city in the last week, the United Nations said. A Reuters reporter heard occasional heavy gunfire and explosions as the LNA faced off with forces of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj's government around a disused former international airport and the Ain Zara district. After sweeping up from the south, the LNA became bogged down in Tripoli's southern suburbs 11 km (7 miles) from the city center.
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| Ex-Obama White House counsel caught in Mueller dragnet Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:04 PM PDT  A prominent Washington attorney who worked in Barack Obama's White House on Thursday became the first Democrat to face charges from Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling. Greg Craig, 74, was charged with lying to investigators about his lobbying for the Russia-backed government of Ukraine, part of an operation that has already seen charges against three others, including President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
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| 7 Best Financial Funds to Buy and Hold Posted: 12 Apr 2019 12:08 PM PDT ![7 Best Financial Funds to Buy and Hold]( "7 Best Financial Funds to Buy and Hold") Financial companies provide unique benefits to investors.
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| Amazon employees listen to customers through Echo products, report finds Posted: 11 Apr 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Employees listen to Echo recordings, transcribe and annotate them and feed them back to the software so that Alexa can better grasp human speech.
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| Fiat Gives the 124 Spider a Blacked-Out Urbana Appearance Package Posted: 12 Apr 2019 06:15 AM PDT  The compact Italian roadster provides more personalization options than its Mazda Miata clone.
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| Samsung announces US launch dates for Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10 5G Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Samsung unveiled two of the most intriguing phones of the year -- the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy S10 5G -- at its Unpacked event this February, but it didn't tell US consumers when they would actually be able to get their hands on the devices. But today, after weeks of anticipation, the South Korean conglomerate has finally announced availability details for the US, and, as expected, Android fans won't have to wait too much longer.As for the Galaxy Fold, Samsung says that it will be sending out exclusive invitations to reserve the foldable phone on Friday, April 12th to everyone who has registered on Samsung.com. You still have time to sign up here for an invite if you haven't already, and remember, supplies will be limited. The Galaxy Fold launches on April 26th, and should be available at select AT&T, T-Mobile, Best Buy and Samsung Experience stores for $1,980.Samsung wasn't quite as forthright with the release date of the Galaxy S10 5G. Rather, the company says preorders for its 5G-capable phone will be "starting soon," and that it will go on sale in the US in May. Samsung debuted the S10 5G in its home country of South Korea on April 5th, with the 512GB model coming in at 1.55 million won ($1,366), and the 256GB model priced at 1.39 million won ($1,231). We expect similar prices in the US.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9z_mF4XL4sSamsung also discussed some of the features and specifications of the two phones in its news release, highlighting the Galaxy Fold's 7.6-inch main display. As we've seen in multiple leaked videos over the past few weeks, the content on the tiny screen on the front of the device can seamlessly transfer to the main screen, and vice versa. The Galaxy Fold is also the first phone to offer three-app multitasking on its massive display.As for the Galaxy S10 5G, we know it will feature a 6.7-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, quadruple rear camera with dual OIS, 4,500 mAh battery with Super Fast charging, 8GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage, all running on the latest version of Android. But we're still waiting on a final price and release date.
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| After Assange arrest, Trump says WikiLeaks is 'not my thing.' It was his thing in 2016. Posted: 11 Apr 2019 10:30 AM PDT  "I know nothing about Wikileaks. It's not my thing," the president told reporters inside the Oval Office when asked if he still loves WikiLeaks.
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| Dimon Defends JPMorgan’s Minimum Wage, Pointing to Low Pay Elsewhere Posted: 12 Apr 2019 07:05 AM PDT  The chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank, pushed back on questions in a call with journalists, asking reporters from the New York Times and CNBC how much their publications pay entry-level workers and saying the banking industry likely pays more than the U.S. government. Representative Katie Porter, a first-term Democrat from California, asked Dimon at a hearing on Wednesday about a minimum-wage employee at JPMorgan who couldn't cover her monthly expenses. Minimum wages at major companies have been under the spotlight, as Jeff Bezos this week called on retailers to match or beat Amazon.com Inc.'s pledge to boost pay to at least $15 an hour.
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| Picture was clear, but black hole's name a little fuzzy Posted: 12 Apr 2019 02:06 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The newly pictured supermassive black hole is a beast with no name, at least not an official one. And what happens next could be cosmically confusing.
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| Former White House counsel for Obama charged in Mueller-related case Posted: 11 Apr 2019 12:45 PM PDT  Gregory Craig was charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul ManafortFollow the latest in US politics – live Gregory Craig is the first prominent Democrat to face criminal prosecution as a result of Robert Mueller's investigation. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, has been charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul Manafort for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Craig, 74, was indicted by a grand jury in Washington on Thursday following an investigation that grew out of Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He has denied wrongdoing. He is the first prominent Democrat to face criminal prosecution as a result of Mueller's investigation, which led to the conviction of Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, for a series of financial crimes. Craig is charged with giving false information to the justice department officials who regulate work in the US by lobbyists, lawyers and other representatives of foreigners under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara). He is also charged with concealing details of his work from the same officials. Attorneys for Craig said in a statement that the charges were unfair and that prosecutors had chosen to omit evidence that was favourable to him. "Mr Craig had no interest in misleading the Fara unit because he had not done anything that required his registration," the attorneys said. "That is what this trial will be all about." Sign up for the US morning briefing Craig worked in 2012 for Ukraine's ministry of justice while he was a partner at the prestigious law firm Skadden Arps. Manafort, a veteran Republican operative, meanwhile worked as a consultant to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's pro-Kremlin president, who was later ousted. A team at Skadden produced a report to help the Yanukovych government defend its prosecution of a former Ukrainian prime minister, which critics said had been politically motivated. Craig also coordinated public relations work to boost the government's image. Craig wanted to avoid registering as a foreign agent in order to protect his ability to work in the US government in the future, according to the indictment, and so Skadden could avoid disclosing the $4m it was secretly receiving for its work from a wealthy Yanukovych backer. When Skadden was asked by the Fara unit for information on its Ukraine work, the firm submitted a response signed by Craig that failed to disclose Craig's contacts with US media on behalf of Ukraine as part of a public relations strategy. Skadden Arps reached an agreement with the justice department in January this year to avoid prosecution. The deal forced the law firm to turn over the more than $4.5m it was paid by Ukraine and to register as a foreign agent retroactively. Craig has since left the firm. Prosecutors said on Thursday that, if convicted, Craig faced sentences of up to five years' imprisonment for each charge. He could also be fined up to $100,000 and $250,000 for the respective charges. Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were later charged by the US with money laundering in relation to their payment for work in Ukraine. Manafort was convicted and Gates pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
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