| 25 years in prison for ex-Florida policeman who shot black motorist Posted: 25 Apr 2019 02:58 PM PDT  A former Florida police officer was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for fatally shooting a black man whose car had broken down on the highway. Nouman Raja, 41, was convicted of manslaughter and attempted murder last month for the October 2015 shooting of Corey Jones, a 31-year-old musician. Raja, a former member of the Palm Beach Gardens police force, is the first police officer to be convicted in Florida for the on-duty shooting death of a black man in three decades.
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| Joe Biden Kicks Off 2020 Campaign With Brutal Attack on Trump Posted: 25 Apr 2019 03:09 AM PDT  Handout via ReutersFormer Vice President Joe Biden officially joined the Democratic presidential race Thursday with an incendiary announcement video that focused on the deadly march in Charlottesville and portrayed Donald Trump as a stain on American history who must be removed from power."If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen," he said.Biden has led early polling of potential Democratic candidates for months, in part due to the name-recognition that comes with serving two terms as President Barack Obama's vice president and decades in the Senate. His intention to run has become an open secret in recent weeks, but few people expected him to enter the race with such an aggressive and direct attack on the president.The 76-year-old former Delaware senator plans to formally kick off his presidential campaign with an appearance at a Pittsburgh union hall on Monday. Biden's first interview after his announcement, an appearance on The View, will air on Friday.The four-minute video posted on his Twitter account Thursday morning contrasted sharply with the optimistic announcements by his many Democratic rivals. Biden was presenting himself as the brawler who has the power and the willingness to go toe-to-toe with Trump in what is guaranteed to be a bruising presidential election in 2020."We are in the battle for the soul of this nation," he said, claiming that American democracy is "at stake" under Trump. The launch video shows men with tiki torches shouting "Jews will not replace us" and images of swastikas and Confederate flags at the right-wing marches that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017."We saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open. Their crazed faces illuminated by torches, veins bulging and baring the fangs of racism, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the '30s," he said."That's when we heard the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were quote some 'very fine people on both sides.' Very fine people on both sides?"Biden said he's running for president because everything about American democracy is "at stake" under a Trump presidency. "We have to remember who we are—this is America."In the widest and most diverse field of presidential contenders in the party's history, Biden will have to combat concerns that his age, more moderate legislative and policy record, and recent questions about his interactions with women make him just another old white guy seeking the nomination."He operated at a different time and environment and will have a lot to answer for," a former Obama-Biden aide told The Daily Beast last month. "Look at Hillary Clinton's numbers before she got into the 2016 race. The most popular moment is when you're a prospective candidate and a statesman who can shape the field from the outside. Being in presidential campaigns tends to be diminishing for everyone except for the victor."Biden told reporters after a speech in front of union workers in Washington, D.C., last month that he would bide his time as the Democratic field continued to grow. "My intention from the beginning was if I were to run would be the last person to announce," he said.It appears he has surveyed the field and concluded that no one else has shown the firepower to stand up to Trump. By going after the president directly—over the heads of his primary challengers—Biden appeared to signal his unrivaled stature in American public life.The aggressive campaign launch may also be pitched at America's white working-class voters, a cohort that Democrats are desperate to win back from Trump. Biden has made his close ties with union workers a centerpiece of his until-now nascent presidential campaign in recent weeks, joining a picket line of striking grocery store workers in Massachusetts and telling a firefighters union in Washington that the United States "was built by the great American middle class—and unions built that middle class."His relationship with the unions and working classes combined with his close ties to Obama-era fundraisers and staffers, gives the former vice president a formidable campaign operation—to the point that deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told NBC News that Biden requested Obama not endorse his candidacy, so as to avoid the appearance that the Democratic establishment was in the tank for his campaign.Biden's family foundation has also announced that it will suspend all operations, effective immediately.In all of his decades of experience, however, lurk potential landmines for any presidential candidate, particularly a presumptive frontrunner with nearly two dozen opponents seeking to bring him down. Biden's first two presidential campaigns, in 1988 and 2008, ended disastrously after a plagiarism scandal and a racially insensitive gaffe about his future running mate, respectively, and Biden's handling of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings provides fertile ground for opponents who will likely seek to paint him as too out of touch with the current Democratic Party.More recently, Biden's own behavior with women has come under scrutiny as well. After a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada described feeling deeply uncomfortable when he touched her, kissed her and smelled her hair during a campaign event in 2016, more than half a dozen women came forward to describe similar physical interactions.Biden responded to the allegations in a cellphone video, saying that he would be more "mindful" of women's personal space in the future, but later joked about the controversy, a sign that the former vice president's famously undisciplined speaking style, too, presents potential pitfalls.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| Russian city with Korean flavour welcomes Kim Posted: 25 Apr 2019 04:54 AM PDT  Waitresses at the North Korean restaurant in Vladivostok have broad smiles but fall silent when asked what they think about the visit of leader Kim Jong Un to the Russian city. Many of them had gathered to take selfies on the main square, looking onto a harbour teeming with Russian naval vessels and cargo ships.
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| Never ending Mueller report: Today's Toon Posted: 25 Apr 2019 07:29 PM PDT  Want to keep up with USA TODAY's editorial cartoons? Bookmark this page. We'll update it frequently.
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| A widow was eating alone when 3 young men invited her to their table in a now-viral act of kindness Posted: 25 Apr 2019 02:02 AM PDT ![A widow was eating alone when 3 young men invited her to their table in a now-viral act of kindness]( "A widow was eating alone when 3 young men invited her to their table in a now-viral act of kindness") The woman had lost her husband and that the next day would have been their 60th anniversary.
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| Jenna Bush Hager reveals she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy: It was 'very isolating' Posted: 25 Apr 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Jenna Bush Hager is overjoyed to be expecting her third child, but says she's all too familiar with the "pain" that comes with pregnancy complications.
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| Kill a 'Raptor': How to Shoot Down an F-22 Stealth Fighter Posted: 25 Apr 2019 06:00 PM PDT  The Chinese—like the Russians—have formidable electronic attack capabilities including DRFM jammers.The U.S. Air Force has as a tiny fleet of 186 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. That's all that survived out of 187 production aircraft (195 jets if developmental airframes are included) that were built out of the 750 that were originally planned. Of those 186 remaining Raptors, only 123 are "combat-coded" aircraft with another twenty that are classified as backup aircraft inventory machines. The rest are test and training assets.But even if 186 aircraft remain in the Air Force's inventory—not all of those fighters are operational. At least two—possibly more—jets are not currently flyable. One test aircraft—tail 91-4006—at Edward Air Force Base (AFB) in California has avionics that are so old; it's not worth bothering to fly it anymore. Another aircraft—02-4037—was badly damaged in a belly landing at Tyndall AFB, Fla. It's going to take at least four years and $98 million to repair the damage. The Air Force has also had trouble with repairing other F-22s due to snafus with retrieving improperly stored production tooling for the jet.This first appeared in October 2015.
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| The Latest: Defense rests in trial of Minneapolis officer Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:36 PM PDT  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible crime (all times local):
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| Anita Hill deserves a real apology. Why couldn't Joe Biden offer one? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:08 AM PDT  His failure to genuinely say sorry makes Biden not seem like a responsible, self-aware man who has learned from his mistakes and wants to make amends'It's the same demand she's had for years: not for a simple acknowledgement that she has suffered, but for a way to ensure that other women don't have to suffer the same way.'' Photograph: Jennifer Law/AFP/Getty ImagesJoe Biden's long-awaited presidential announcement finally came on Thursday, in the form of a policy-free video in which the former vice-president castigated Donald Trump for his racism and offered peans to an imagined noble American past (presumably, the past of 2008-16, when Biden served under Barack Obama) instead of a vision for the future."America's coming back like we used to be," Biden said of his run. "Ethical, straight, tell 'em the truth. Supporting our allies, all those good things." It was Make America Great Again, delivered from a different old white man, with a slightly more patrician east coast accent – harking back to a past that never was, and ignoring or, perhaps, tacitly embracing the injustices that the real past contained.Several of those injustices have been perpetrated by Biden himself, or exacerbated by his career in the Senate, in which he worked steadily to push the Democratic party to the right, championed the 1994 crime bill that needlessly and sadistically accelerated mass incarceration, and cultivated a chummy, shoulder-clapping consensus with Republicans.Among those injustices were the 1991 confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, now one of the most fiercely conservative justices on the supreme court. As chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Biden led the hearings into accusations of gross sexual harassment by Thomas that had been unearthed from Anita Hill, a lawyer who had once been Thomas' employee at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Under Biden's leadership, the committee subjected Hill to a humiliating public ordeal in which she was belittled, condescended to, smeared and disbelieved.It was a spectacle of cruelty in which Biden and his all-male committee colleagues confirmed the dark suspicions of many American woman, on live TV: that men could harass and humiliate them with impunity. Hill was harangued in the press, which concocted a bizarre and evidence-free theory, encouraged by Republicans, that she had invented her accusations against Thomas because she was sexually obsessed with him. Biden and his cohort confirmed Thomas anyway.In an interview with the New York Times this week, Hill, now a law professor at Brandeis, revealed that Biden contacted her last month. She "declined to characterize his words to her as an apology".In the past, Biden, under pressure from women's rights activists and a Democratic base increasingly intolerant of sexual misconduct, has spoken of the Thomas hearings in passive terms, as something that happened rather than as something he did. At an event in New York in March, he said: "To this day, I regret I couldn't give her the kind of hearing she deserved. I wish I could have done something." Like his announcement, this statement partakes of a kind of rosy historical revisionism, one that conveniently absolved Biden of all responsibility. Because he absolutely could have, in his words, "done something". He was the chairman of the committee overseeing the hearings. There was no one with more power to "do something" than him.> He seems to understand Hill as an annoying obstacle to his own rise, rather than as a full person with rights and dignityBiden's non-apology to Hill, coming as it did 28 years after the disastrous hearings, six months after a similarly humiliating and futile ordeal was endured by Dr Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, and mere days before Biden's own presidential run, smacks of insincere opportunism. He seems to understand Hill as an annoying obstacle to his own rise, rather than as a full person with rights and dignity, whom he wronged and should make amends to.His insistent use of the passive voice, meanwhile, makes him appear to lack an understanding of his own agency and power, like someone who will exaggerate his responsibilities for successes and disavow any role in missteps, wrongdoings and failures. As the journalist Bryce Covert put it: "There's a huge difference between 'I'm sorry for what I did', and 'I'm sorry that happened to you'." In failing to grapple with his own blind spots, privileges, prejudices and personal failures, Biden has betrayed a lack of personal responsibility that in unacceptable in any adult, let alone in a national leader. The episode does not make Biden seem like a responsible, self-aware man who had learned from his mistakes and wants to make amends. It makes him seem like a man who wants to shut a woman up.To her credit, Hill has not taken the bait. Where a person of less fortitude would have understandably wanted to put the hearings behind them, Hill has been unwavering in her insistence that the way she was treated was wrong and unwilling to compromise in her search for real justice. "I cannot be satisfied by [him] simply saying, 'I'm sorry for what happened to you,'" she told the New York Times. "I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose."It's the same demand she's had for years: not for a simple acknowledgement that she has suffered, but for a way to ensure that other women don't have to suffer the same way. "Rather than expect an apology, which in political terms is a pretty easy act to do," she told the writer Irin Carmon in 2014, "I would like for us to improve our processes, and ensure that we do not allow this to happen ever again." * Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
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| Brother of slain Border Patrol agent shares his message to Congress Posted: 25 Apr 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Kent Terry speaks out about the border crisis and the dangers migrants illegally crossing the border face.
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| Trump says he welcomes China, Russia help over NKorea Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:08 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Friday welcomed Russian and Chinese help with North Korean nuclear negotiations, despite Kim Jong Un accusing the US of "bad faith" at a first summit with Vladimir Putin. "I appreciate that Russia and China are helping us," he told reporters at the White House. Putin's first summit with Kim on Thursday was seen as a response to the failure of a Kim-Trump meeting in Hanoi in February, where talks broke down without agreement.
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| 'I smiled in the face of bigotry': A woman's response to anti-Islam protesters goes viral Posted: 26 Apr 2019 03:24 PM PDT  A group of anti-Islam protesters gathered at a conference in Washington, D.C. One woman's reaction: 'I smiled in the face of bigotry.'
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| Iraq on track to be third oil supplier in 2030: IEA Posted: 25 Apr 2019 04:25 AM PDT  Iraq is on track to produce nearly six million barrels of crude daily by 2030, the International Energy Agency said Thursday, which would make it the world's third biggest oil supplier. The IEA's wide-ranging report found that Iraq's production in the next decade could increase by an impressive 1.3 million barrels per day to a total of 5.9 million bpd. "Iraq is and will remain one of the key pillars of the oil market in the years to come," IEA head Fatih Birol told reporters on Thursday.
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| The Best Affordable Performance Cars, Trucks, and SUVs Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:56 AM PDT |
| Sri Lankan military in gun battle with Easter bombing suspects as huge cache of explosives found Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:12 AM PDT  Sri Lankan soldiers on Friday night fought a gun battle with suspected militants and found a large cache of bomb materials as they hunted survivors of Easter Sunday's terrorist bombing ring. Soldiers exchanged gunfire raiding a building in Sennal Kiramam, Sainthamaruthu, in eastern Sri Lanka, with residents hearing several explosions. Earlier, detectives had found nearby a cache of explosives, drones and an Islamic State group banner and robes used in a propaganda video recorded before the bombers detonated in crowded hotels and restaurants. The bombers filmed themselves swearing allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) before they killed 253 Christians, hotels guests and staff. The clashes on Friday came as the country remained on high alert and thousands of extra security forces had been drafted onto the streets. Sri Lankan authorities also said the extremist preacher suspected of masterminding and leading the bombings died in the blast at the Shangri La hotel, where British victims died. The interior of St Anthony's Shrine five days after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday Credit: AFP Mohamed Zahran, the leader of the local jihadi group National Thawheed Jamath, known for his incendiary speeches on social media, was one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on three hotels and three churches, the police said on an official Twitter account. Detectives had also arrested the group's second-in-command and that the militants' military training was provided by "Army Mohideen" and weapons training had taken place overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka's Eastern province. Maithripala Sirisena, the president, said the group was driven by "religious fanaticism," suggesting its leader had killed himself to "set an example" and gain more followers. However, Chula Senaviratne, the national security chief, said there was "still ambiguity whether he is dead or not" while DNA tests are being carried out. Members of the public join in an interfaith candlelight vigil during a Mass of Remembrance Credit: BIANCA DEMARCHI/REX "There is strong likelihood that the decapitated head of the suicide bomber at Shangri La was the same person we identified in the photographs..." he added. "However, we cannot be absolutely certain." Sri Lankan officials have made claims and counterclaims in the chaotic aftermath of Sunday's atrocities as security forces rush to detain suspects and the government reels from failures to act on warnings that bombings were imminent. Security agencies are also trying to track down hauls of explosives, some of which may have been left over from Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war. President Sirisena told reporters in Colombo that some 140 people had been been identified as having links to the Islamic State group, although he reassured the public that the Sri Lankan government has "the capability to completely control ISIS activities". The government has apologised for its failure to act on precise and repeated alerts from India named that suspects who were planning to attack local churches. Sri Lanka's Catholic leader said he felt "betrayed" by the failure to act on warnings that could have prevented the bloodshed. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, said he had asked for an explanation, but not received an answer. olice officers patrol the area around Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid ahead of Friday prayers Credit: Carl Court/Getty As fears of retaliation or follow-up attacks continued, Muslims were asked to stay at home to pray rather than attend Friday prayers in mosques that could also be targeted by extremists. The Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that seven suicide bombers carried out the attacks, including Adbul Lathief Jameel Mohammed who studied engineering for a year in the UK. They said all the bombers came from a middle-class, educated background. In new details that emerged on Friday, the police said that the attackers had worked out at a local gym and by playing soccer using their authentic national identity cards. They added that the vehicles used in the attack were purchased from a car dealership in Kadawatha, a suburb of the capital. They said that the operator of a copper factory who was arrested in connection with the bombings had helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices and purchase empty cartridges sold by the Sri Lankan military as scrap copper. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, has said investigators are still working to determine the extent of the bombers' foreign links.
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| Iranian Foreign Minister Proposes a Prisoner Swap With the U.S. Posted: 25 Apr 2019 12:30 AM PDT  "Let's have an exchange. I'm ready to do it," he said.
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| Russian DNA: How the F-35 Was Partly Inspired By This Old Russian Fighter Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:30 PM PDT  The Yak-141 Freestyle may not technically count as a predecessor to the F-35, but the JSF does seem to have at least some Russian DNA floating around its engine design — and as the F-35 came to fruition in the United States, the Yak-141 Freestyle died a quiet death in Russia. However, if a resurgent Russian defense industry chooses to move forward with a carrier-based VTOL aircraft, at least one Russian legislator has called for the Yak-141 to be revived, most likely with a stealthier new look for a new Cold War.For all the yelling and shouting over the Department of Defense's much-maligned F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, there's an unusual, often overlooked footnote in the trillion-dollar project's history: its origins as an experimental Soviet fighter that only fell into Lockheed Martin's lap because a desperate Russian aerospace company needed some cold, hard cash.Before the F-35, there was the Yak-141 'Freestyle' multi-role vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fighter born during a tumultuous period in Russian military history. Though the Yak-141's first flight in 1987 was a revolutionary contribution to the development of VTOL systems, the hovering death bird was largely developed as the Soviet Union came apart at the seams, and the newly-broke Russian military was in no position to continue development of the new aircraft after the Berlin Wall.(This first appeared in 2018.)
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| Tesla's Elon Musk, SEC again ask for more time to reach deal over CEO's Twitter use Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:34 PM PDT  Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sought a second delay and requested to provide the court another joint submission on or before April 30, indicating whether they have reached an agreement to settle a dispute over Musk's use of Twitter, both parties said in a court filing. The SEC in February sought to have Musk found in contempt of a fraud settlement last year after the CEO tweeted details about Tesla production numbers that were not vetted by the electric vehicle company's attorneys. Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan ordered Musk and the SEC to try to resolve the dispute on their own.
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| Trump fired his way to fame on TV, but shrinks from it in real life Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:29 PM PDT  The president says he didn't tell White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller.
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| Officer fled civil war as a child, resettled in Minneapolis Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:18 PM PDT  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Mohamed Noor fled Somalia's civil war as a child, following a well-worn path with his family to a refugee camp in Kenya, the U.S. and eventually Minnesota. After a difficult start, he "fell in love" with his new city, Minneapolis, and carved out a life in business.
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| Goldman Says How to Avoid Policy-Risk Woes in Health Stocks Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:18 AM PDT  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has a few ideas about how to navigate such a tricky environment. Investors who had been putting concerns about policy risk on the back burner, thinking election season was too far in the future to matter yet, all of a sudden had to focus on it again as of last week. Health-care stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled 4.4 percent last week versus a drop of 0.1 percent for the broader index, fueled by comments from insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s CEO about the "Medicare for All" idea advocated by some progressive Democratic presidential candidates.
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| This Petty’s Garage Ford Mustang Is The Perfect Summer Muscle Car Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:24 AM PDT  Some people mock those who decide to buy a convertible Mustang, making jibes about how it's a 'girl's car' and how it isn't a manly Mustang. Well, prepare to have such shortsighted comments shutdown by this seriously potent pony car. This 2018 Ford Mustang Petty's Garage King Edition packs some power, all while its occupants enjoy the sunshine.
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| Sri Lanka toll revision grim sign of bombings force Posted: 25 Apr 2019 08:04 PM PDT  The dramatic revision of the death toll in Sri Lanka's Easter bombings, which has been cut by more than 100, is a grim indicator of the power of the deadly blasts. The force of the explosions so badly mutilated bodies that parts of victims were wrongly collated and identified in the initial confusion, officials said. "Many of the victims were badly mutilated... There was double counting," the health ministry said in explaining the new death toll of 253, down from 359 announced on Wednesday.
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| Pentagon expected to send about 300 more troops to border Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:43 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon may send about 300 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in roles that could put them in contact with migrants and thus mark a break from current practice, officials said.
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| Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins Bernie in backing voting rights for prisoners Posted: 25 Apr 2019 10:52 AM PDT  Stepping into the debate over whether imprisoned felons should be allowed to vote, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed the idea and advised opponents they risked "looking completely + utterly out of touch with the reality [of] our prison system."
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| Why can't Twitter stop Trump's hateful tweets about Ilhan Omar? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:24 AM PDT  Congresswoman received death threats following video Trump posted – but he didn't technically violate the rules The rules just aren't the same for Donald Trump as they are for the rest of us. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apparently admitted as much this week on a phone call with Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar.As reported by the Washington Post, Dorsey, often criticized for his inaction when it comes removing hateful and threatening content from the platform, was asked by Omar why he hadn't taken down a video posted by Trump earlier in the month. The video, which spliced together misleading and out of context comments from Omar about the issue of Islamophobia with footage of the 9/11 attacks, was clearly targeted harassment to anyone who saw it.Indeed Omar said she saw a sharp uptick in death threats after it was posted. But since it came from Trump, and not an average Twitter user, there was nothing Dorsey could do, he said. The tweet didn't technically violate the rules in any case, he added. (Anyone who has used Twitter will understand the frustration at trying to parse what exactly those rules are.)The call with Omar came the same day Dorsey met with Trump in the White House, a meeting in which the president is said to have largely complained about his follower count."During their conversation, [Dorsey] emphasized that death threats, incitement to violence and hateful conduct are not allowed on Twitter," the social media platform said in a statement to the Post. "We've significantly invested in technology to proactively surface this type of content and will continue to focus on reducing the burden on the individual being targeted."Dorsey has said in the past that the public interest value of Trump's tweets outweigh the harm of his occasional calls for violence or threats against foreign governments or members of the media"Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate," the company explained in statement last year. "It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions."More recently Dorsey declined to say whether a hypothetical direct call from Trump to murder a journalist would be grounds for his banishment.The permissive double standard applied to Trump on Twitter hasn't stopped him from regularly suggesting that he is himself being treated unfairly. This week Trump tweeted that Twitter doesn't "treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory…" In fact it seems more probable that Republicans such as Trump are given much more leeway than others. A recent story from Motherboard reported that one of the reasons Twitter has had trouble removing white supremacist content from the platform, as they have largely done with the Islamic State, is that the algorithms they use might end up affecting Republican politicians."When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything," Trump once said in a prescient boast.When it comes to his behavior as reported in the Mueller report, as well as his social media habits, it seems like Trump behaves like he can get away with anything. So far he's right.
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| Royal baby name odds: what will Meghan and Harry call their first child? Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:46 AM PDT  Last year was one of the most eventful for the Royal family, with the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank, and the birth of Prince Louis. And while 2019 won't be as jam-packed for the Windsors, there's a whole new reason to celebrate on the horizon - the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first child this spring. As royal watchers in the UK and abroad wait for the latest arrival, speculation is mounting as to what he or she could be called - and whether the Queen will allow the child to become a Prince or Princess. Latest predictions on what the Royal baby will be called The duke and duchess may decide to go with a traditional name like Alice, Grace or Victoria for a girl or James, Edward or Arthur for a boy. However, the pair are forward-thinking royals and may decide to surprise everyone when naming their first child. Canadian-born Autumn Phillips, and husband Peter Phillips, opted for a non-traditional name for their daughter Savannah - the Queen's first great-grandchild - in 2010. Princess Charlotte stands next to Savannah Phillips and Prince George at Trooping The Colour 2018 Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage The Duchess may also seek inspiration from her friends. Her confidante and stylist Jessica Mulroney has twin boys Brian and John, and a daughter Isabel Veronica, who is known as Ivy - who were pageboys and bridesmaid at the royal wedding. In the US, the most popular name for a baby girl is Emma and Liam for a baby boy. In the UK, the most popular name for a girl born in 2017 was Olivia, and for a boy Oliver. Harry and Meghan's child, who will be seventh in line to the throne, is extremely unlikely ever to be king or queen, meaning the couple have more freedom with their choices. In comparison, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge chose to give their children traditional names, picking George for their firstborn, who is likely to one day be king. One option - considered a favourite for a girl - is Diana, in honour of Harry's mother. William and Kate paid tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales in 2015 by choosing it as one of Charlotte's middle names. Prince Harry was just 12 when the Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Meghan's mother, to whom she is close, is called Doria, and the ex-Suits star may want to pay tribute to her as well. Royal christenings through the years, in pictures What are the Royal baby name odds? These odds from William Hill were last updated on April 25, 2019. Girls names Diana 4/1 Victoria 7/1 Alice 12/1 Grace 12/1 Isabella/Isobella 12/1 Elizabeth 14/1 Alexandra 20/1 Harriett 20/1 Rose 20/1 April 25/1 Boys names Arthur 16/1 James 16/1 Edward 25/1 Albert 33/1 Alexander 33/1 Christopher 33/1 Daniel 33/1 Henry 33/1 Phillip 33/1 Joseph 40/1 Royal baby | Meghan and Harry expecting their first child What title will the Royal baby have (and why the baby won't necessarily be a Prince or Princess) The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's baby will not be a prince or a princess unless the Queen steps in. King George V - Harry's great-great-grandfather - limited titles within the royal family in 1917. If the child is a boy, he could instead become Earl of Dumbarton - one of the subsidiary titles the prince received from the Queen on the morning of his wedding. The eldest son and heir apparent of a duke can use one of his father's lesser grade peerage titles by courtesy, according to Debrett's. A daughter could be Lady (first name) Mountbatten-Windsor, and any subsequent sons Lord (first name) Mountbatten-Windsor. The 1st Earl of Dumbarton, George Douglas, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier. He was badly injured in a duel with the duc de Normandie in 1669 and papers reported him dead due to the severity of his injuries. History behind the favourite baby names The nation has put its money on the baby being called Diana (presumably after Prince Harry and William's mother). While Diana Spencer was the only member of the royal family with that name, the moniker has regal connotations. In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of hunting and chastity, and daughter of Jupiter, king of the gods. Victoria, the second-favourite name, has a more clear royal history. The most iconic royal who springs to mind is, of course, Queen Victoria - although (as fans of the ITV show will know), this was not her real name. She was born Alexandrina Victoria, but changed her name when she became queen. If the baby is a boy, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may call him Arthur - a name with a similarly impressive heritage. The most recent royal Arthur was Queen Victoria's son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Before him, there was Henry VIII's younger brother, Arthur, who tragically died at the age of just 15. The most famous Arthur, of course, is the one we aren't sure existed: romantic hero King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Edward and James have been popular names for kings in the past, but Philip is more of a rogue contender. The first royal Philip was James VII's brother-in-law Prince Philippe I, Duke of Orleans. Since then, there has not been another royal Philip - until Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Naming their child Philip may be a way for the Duke of Sussex to pay tribute to his grandfather. A look back at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's baby photos Keep up to date with the Royal family by signing up to our weekly newsletter, Your Royal Appointment.
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| Militia group 'commander' Larry Mitchell Hopkins attacked in New Mexico jail Posted: 25 Apr 2019 02:46 AM PDT  Officials said they're investigating an assault on Larry Mitchell Hopkins that occurred Monday at the Doña Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces.
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| Putin Confronts New Ukraine Leader With Rebel Zone Passports Posted: 24 Apr 2019 06:26 PM PDT  "This is yet more proof of Russia's real role as an aggressor state that's waging a war against Ukraine," President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said on Facebook after the order was posted on the Kremlin website Wednesday. Ukraine "is counting on increasing diplomatic and sanction pressure" by the international community against Russia, it added.
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| Schools curb students' appetites for Grubhub, Uber Eats deliveries during school day Posted: 25 Apr 2019 11:04 AM PDT  Kids like food delivered via apps such as DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats, but schools worry about safety concerns and class disruptions.
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| The Latest: Sri Lanka revises down death toll from attack Posted: 25 Apr 2019 10:13 AM PDT  COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Latest on the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka (all times local):
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| Trump won't make immigration adviser available to Congress Posted: 25 Apr 2019 01:52 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House blocked adviser Stephen Miller from testifying before congressional committees on immigration and a staff shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security, prompting lawmakers on Thursday to demand internal communications on the topic from Homeland Security officials.
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| Could the inspector general's FISA probe derail Democrats' impeachment plans? Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:02 AM PDT  Former Whitewater Independent Counsel Sol Wisenberg expects a hard-hitting report from Michael Horowitz.
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| UPDATE 3-T-Mobile US profit beats estimates as it signs up more customers Posted: 25 Apr 2019 01:21 PM PDT ![UPDATE 3-T-Mobile US profit beats estimates as it signs up more customers]( "UPDATE 3-T-Mobile US profit beats estimates as it signs up more customers") T-Mobile US Inc first-quarter revenue and profit jumped from a year earlier, beating Wall Street's estimates, as competitive pricing lured new subscribers to its monthly cellphone plans. The company said it added a net 656,000 phone subscribers in the first quarter, up from 617,000 additions a year earlier and substantially more than the 612,000 new subscribers analysts had expected, according to research firm FactSet. T-Mobile, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscriber count, is awaiting approval of its $26 billion deal to buy smaller rival Sprint Corp, which it has said will give it scale to compete with market leaders Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc.
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| 10 Free Public Art Installations on Our Summer Bucket List Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:43 PM PDT |
| AOC joins Bernie in backing voting rights for prisoners Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:39 AM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backs 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders's support for prison voting rights.
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| Mom discovers vomit on daughter's Frontier Airlines seat, gets into altercation with flight attendant Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:12 AM PDT  A 53-year-old North Carolina woman and her teenage daughter discovered vomit in their seating area on a recent Frontier Airlines flight.
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| Want a Bugatti Chiron? Better Hurry Up and Wait Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Fewer than 100 units of this 16-cylinder hypercar are still available.
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| Sri Lankan President Asks Security Chiefs to Resign Posted: 26 Apr 2019 03:45 AM PDT  In a speech on Friday morning, Sirisena said the country's security forces has arrested about 70 people and are still looking for as many as 140 suspects. Sri Lanka's minister for Muslim religious affairs Abdul Haleem urged the community not to gather for Friday prayers at local mosques but to pray inside their homes.
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| Putin says he'll brief US on summit with Kim Posted: 25 Apr 2019 04:17 PM PDT  VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin says he's willing to share details with the United States about his summit on Thursday with Kim Jong Un, potentially raising Russia's influence in the stalemated issue of North Korean denuclearization.
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| Come on a Guided Tour of Where F-35 Stealth Fighters are Born Posted: 24 Apr 2019 07:00 PM PDT  Flynn explained that the stealth engineering contributing to the F-35 has some origins as far back as the Gulf War-era F-117 NightHawk. "With the F-117, we learned how to embed antennas in the leading edge of the airplane. This concept went right into the F-22," Flynn added.(Ft. Worth, Texas) -- Filled with stacks of fuselage panels, engine components and a wide assortment of pipes, electronics and avionics, the sprawling F-35 construction facility in Ft. Worth, Texas, resembles a small city filled with engineers, mechanics, electricians and airplanes at various stages of construction.This first appeared earlier in April 2019.While some stations include vertically-hanging airplane wings, rudders, pipes and intricate collections of wires running through the fuselage, others contain little more than an assortment of seemingly disconnected small parts. Farther along the mile-long construction strip, heavily trafficked by workers, builders and engineers, there are bays with nearly completed F-35 with a light-green exterior. These "about to be finished" F-35s, roll into a separate environmentally-controlled hanger where they await a final coat of blended gray paint - giving the aircraft its color.
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