| Trump lashes out in televised rant, quizzing room about meeting with 'crazy' Pelosi and insisting he is 'stable genius' Posted: 23 May 2019 01:36 PM PDT  Donald Trump has lashed out at Nancy Pelosi and Democrats in a rant in which he called the House speaker "crazy" and claimed she "lost it" at a meeting he himself has been criticised over.Speaking at an event alongside farmers and ranchers, Mr Trump slammed his democratic rivals before asking his White House staff to reassure him that he was "calm" during a meeting over infrastructure on Wednesday."I'll tell you what, I've been watching her, and I have been watching her for a long period of time, she's not the same person. She's lost it," Mr Trump said of Ms Pelosi. "I think she's got a lot of problems."Mr Trump reportedly left the meeting with Ms Pelosi and senate minority leader Chuck Schumer — who he nicknamed as "Cryin' Chuck" — after, according to Ms Pelosi, he "flipped … because he didn't see a rush to impeachment coming out of our caucus."Ms Pelosi suggested after the meeting that Mr Trump actually wants to be impeached, so that the Republican-controlled Senate can overrule the measure. Ms Pelosi also said that she hopes the president's administration and staff stage an "intervention" for Mr Trump after his "temper tantrum."But, during the Thursday event, Mr Trump insisted it was Democrats who had lost their cool. After asserting that he is an "extremely stable genius", Mr Trump then asked the room to attest to his chill attitude in the immediate aftermath of the meeting."You all saw me minutes later, I was at a news conference, I was extremely calm," Mr Trump said."Kellyanne, what was my temperament yesterday," Mr Trump asked his counsellor Kellyanne Conway, who he claimed was present yesterday."You were very calm," she replied.Mr Trump then asked his senior communications director about his attitude, and she replied: "Very direct."He also asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about his "tone" at the meeting, and she said he was "definitely not angry or ranting."During the course of his insults on Ms Pelosi, Mr Trump said that she was waving her arms about in the air. He likened that to the behaviour of Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.""She reminded me of Beto," the president said.
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| 'Here we go again.' Federal judge blocks Mississippi's 'heartbeat' abortion law Posted: 24 May 2019 05:04 PM PDT  The law would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat is detected.
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| Trump antagonist Avenatti indicted for ripping off Stormy Daniels, extorting Nike Posted: 22 May 2019 07:03 PM PDT  The Nike indictment concerns charges announced in March that Avenatti tried to extort more than $20 million from the athletic wear company by threatening to expose what he called its improper payments to recruits for college basketball teams it sponsored. Avenatti also faces dozens of charges in southern California, where prosecutors on April 11 accused him of stealing millions of dollars from clients to pay for personal and business expenses, and lying to the Internal Revenue Service and a Mississippi bank about his finances. If convicted on all charges, Avenatti could face more than 400 years in prison, but would likely face a lesser punishment.
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| India's ruling party takes 303 of 525 seats in election win Posted: 24 May 2019 07:25 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with leaders of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday following his thunderous victory in national elections.
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| The F-21 Could Be One Tough Fighter (With F-35 DNA). Here's the Problem. Posted: 23 May 2019 01:04 AM PDT  For the purposes of Lockheed's marketing campaign, the F-21 is a new fighter, although it shares many of its major features with the F-16V the company has sold to Bahrain, Greece, Slovakia, South Korea and Taiwan. Lockheed can build new F-16Vs or upgrade older F-16s to the V-standard.Lockheed Martin is developing a new variant of its iconic F-16 single-engine fighter in order to compete in India's 2019 tender for 110 new warplanes.(This first appeared earlier in the month.)But don't count on the American firm's "F-21" to win the contract.According to journalist Angad Singh, the likely winner is French company Dassault's Rafale twin-engine fighter.Singh explains his rationale in the May 2019 issue of Combat Aircraft magazine. India previously ordered 36 Rafales as part of an earlier fighter tender. "With 36 aircraft already on order and the infrastructure in place for an additional 36, a case could certainly be made that training, basing and sustainment costs for additional aircraft would not be an impossible burden."Other candidates for the Indian tender are the Saab Gripen from Sweden, the European Eurofighter Typhoon, the MiG-35 from Russia and the Boeing Super Hornet from the United States. Whichever fighter New Delhi selects, it needs the new jets now, according to Singh.
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| EXCLUSIVE-JPMorgan cuts ties with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma -sources Posted: 23 May 2019 11:08 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-JPMorgan cuts ties with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma -sources]( "EXCLUSIVE-JPMorgan cuts ties with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma -sources") JPMorgan Chase & Co has cut ties with Purdue Pharma LP over the OxyContin maker's alleged role in the U.S. opioid crisis, forcing it to find a new bank to manage cash and bill payments, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The move makes JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, the most high-profile corporation known to have distanced itself from Purdue and its wealthy owners, the Sackler family, amid thousands of lawsuits alleging the company pushed addictive painkillers while downplaying their abuse and overdose risks. JPMorgan's decision also underscores a drive among U.S. banks to reassess their relationships with clients and industries in response to controversy and political debates over matters such as immigration detention and mass shootings.
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| US FAA chief says no 737 MAX fix yet ahead of fence-mending summit Posted: 22 May 2019 07:15 PM PDT  The head of the US air safety agency said on Wednesday his agency hadn't yet evaluated Boeing's patch for its 737 MAX 8 jet, ahead of a Thursday summit of global aviation regulators. The 737 MAX was grounded following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which together with an Indonesian Lion Air crash in October claimed 346 lives and were both blamed on faulty technology in the aircraft. The summit in Fort Worth, Texas is expected to provide clues as to whether global aviation safety authorities will be willing to set aside any hesitation about the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which was the last to ground the plane and has not yet given the green light for the 737 MAX to fly again.
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| Almost 40% of Americans Would Struggle to Cover a $400 Emergency Posted: 23 May 2019 09:13 AM PDT  The Fed's 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, published Thursday, indicated "most measures" of well-being and financial resilience "were similar to, or slightly better than, those in 2017." The slight improvement coincided with a decline in the average unemployment rate to 3.9% last year, from 4.3% in 2017. The statistic, which was a bit better than in the 2017 report, has become a favorite rejoinder to U.S. President Donald Trump's boasts about a strong economy among Democratic politicians, including 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the U.S. senator from California. "Relatively small, unexpected expenses, such as a car repair or replacing a broken appliance, can be a hardship for many families without adequate savings," the report said.
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| The 'AOC primary': Can Warren steal the prized endorsement away from Bernie? Posted: 23 May 2019 12:53 PM PDT  While the Democratic star says she'll support whoever wins her party's nomination, she's leaning toward two candidates.
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| The Democrats' Pointman on Impeachment Posted: 23 May 2019 03:20 AM PDT  Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has a tough job in Congress amid Democrat impeachment pleas and Trump allies denying subpoenas.
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| Across US, women have unequal access to abortion Posted: 23 May 2019 01:20 PM PDT  While abortion is legal nationwide, Americans have unequal access to the procedure, depending on their location in the United States and how much they are able to spend. The disparities are great indeed, from the more than 150 abortion clinics available in the most populous state of California, to only one in states like Mississippi in the South or Missouri in the Midwest. State laws also vary widely on other matters like speed limits for drivers and marriage age requirements, but the Supreme Court has set a "minimum standard throughout the entire country," noted Meg Penrose, of the Texas A&M School of Law.
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| Missouri: destructive tornado leaves three people dead and severe damage Posted: 23 May 2019 05:07 AM PDT  Series of devastating storms led to multiple tornadoes, leaving people injured and trapped in homes as torrid weather pummels parts of midwest A large and violent tornado has left at least three people dead in Missouri as torrid weather continues to pummel parts of America's midwest. A series of devastating storms hit the area on Wednesday night leading to multiple tornadoes. The region has already endured days of torrential rain and flooding. The National Weather Service confirmed that the deadly tornado moved over Missouri's capital, Jefferson City, shortly before midnight. "Across the state, Missouri's first responders once again responded quickly and with strong coordination as much of the state dealt with extremely dangerous conditions that left people injured, trapped in homes, and tragically led to the death of three people," Governor Mike Parson said. Authorities said the three were killed in the Golden City area of Barton county, near Missouri's south-west corner, as the severe weather moved in from Oklahoma, where rescuers struggled to pull people from high water. Kenneth Harris, 86, and his 83-year-old wife, Opal, were found dead about 200 yards from their home, and Betty Berg, 56, was killed and her husband, Mark, seriously injured when their mobile home was destroyed, authorities said. The tornado hit during a week that has seen several days of tornadoes and torrential rains in parts of the southern plains and midwest. No deaths were reported in the capital, but city police officials said about 20 people were rescued by emergency personnel as the tornado caused damage to multiple buildings. Emergency workers reported about two dozen injuries, Williams said, and around 100 people went to shelters. Hospitals reported treating injuries such as cuts and bruises. The weather service reported that a "confirmed, large and destructive tornado" was observed over Jefferson City at 11.43pm local time on Wednesday, moving north-east at 40mph . The capital city has a population of about 40,000 and is located about 130 miles west of St Louis. "It's a chaotic situation right now," said Lt David Williams of Jefferson City police. A car is trapped under the fallen metal roof of the Break Time gas station and convenience store in Jefferson City, Missouri. Photograph: David A Lieb/AP The tornado was described as a "wedge", meaning it was wider than it was tall. According to reports it moved at 40mph at some points, and dispersed debris 13,000ft into the air, including overturning vehicles. The weather service said it had received 22 reports of tornadoes by late Wednesday; some could be duplicate reporting of the same twister. One tornado skirted just a few miles north of Joplin, Missouri, on the eighth anniversary of a catastrophic tornado that killed 161 people in the city. The tornado caused some damage in the town of Carl Junction, about four miles north of the Joplin airport, where several injuries were reported. Storms and torrential rains have ravaged the midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Authorities urged residents of several small towns in Oklahoma and Kansas to leave their homes as rivers and streams rose. Deaths from this week's storms include a 74-year-old woman found early on Wednesday morning in Iowa. Officials there say she was killed by a possible tornado that damaged a farmstead in Adair county. Missouri authorities said heavy rain was a contributing factor in the deaths of two people in a traffic accident on Tuesday near Springfield. A fourth weather-related death may have occurred in Oklahoma, where the highway patrol said a woman apparently drowned after driving around a barricade on Tuesday near Perkins, about 45 miles north-east of Oklahoma City. The unidentified woman's body was sent to the state medical examiner's office to confirm the cause of death. Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma department of emergency management, said she was not yet listed as what would be the state's first storm-related death. Catastrophic flooding in the area even swept some homes into a river. The Associated Press contributed reporting
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| FACTBOX-Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban Posted: 23 May 2019 04:38 AM PDT ![FACTBOX-Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban]( "FACTBOX-Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban") Global tech firms, including chip suppliers, are cutting ties with China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd after the U.S. government put the world's largest telecom equipment maker on a trade blacklist citing national security concerns. The United States has effectively banned its companies from doing business with Huawei, exacerbating an ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war. ** ALPHABET INC: Google on May 19 suspended the transfer of hardware, software and technical services to Huawei, except what it has made publicly available via open source licensing.
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| Chinese carriers seek compensation for Boeing 737 Max groundings Posted: 24 May 2019 04:55 AM PDT  China's official airline association said Friday it will help 13 member carriers seek compensation from Boeing for losses already approaching $580 million due to the grounding of the 737 MAX 8. "As time passes by, related losses will further increase," the China Air Transport Association said in a statement. On March 11, China became the first country to ground the 737 MAX, a day after a deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airways Boeing 737 MAX that killed all 157 people on board.
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| Schiff blasts Trump's authorization to declassify documents related to 2016 campaign surveillance Posted: 24 May 2019 07:15 AM PDT  Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff calls the move 'dangerous' and 'un-American'; Ellison Barber reports from the White House.
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| May to Announce Departure Date Friday, FT Says: Brexit Update Posted: 23 May 2019 12:48 PM PDT  Key Developments:May will inform her advisers Friday morning of the day she plans to stand down, the FT reportedMay's Brexit legislation isn't listed for debate in the first week of June as promised, but the government says it still hopes to put it to Parliament that weekEU elections are under way. The prime minister will meet with her advisers at 10 a.m. to reveal her decision and will also meet Graham Brady, chairman of the rank and file 1922 Committee, it said. May appeared determined to re-write her Withdrawal Agreement Bill to make it palatable to her party when she met with Home Secretary Sajid Javid, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
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| ACLU, Planned Parenthood Sue Alabama over Abortion Bill Posted: 24 May 2019 10:06 AM PDT  Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday seeking to halt the implementation of a new Alabama law -- perhaps the most restrictive of its kind in the nation -- that bans abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is threatened.The Alabama ban conflicts with Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 Supreme Court case that affirmed the constitutional right of women to procure abortions, the lawsuit said, and is hence unenforceable. The plaintiffs write that the law will cause "immediate and irreparable harm" to women seeking an abortion by "forcing them to continue their pregnancies to term against their will.""The Alabama legislature has been pushing abortion care further and further out of reach for years with medically unnecessary and politically-motivated restrictions, and this extreme abortion ban shows us just how far they'll go to push their anti-abortion agenda," read a statement from senior ACLU staff attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas."Along with our partners at ACLU Alabama, we just filed a lawsuit, challenging Alabama's outright abortion ban. We meant it when we said we'd see you in court, Governor Kay Ivey," Planned Parenthood wrote on Twitter.Ivey, Alabama's Republican governor, signed the Human Life Protection Act earlier this month amid extensive media coverage and a firestorm of protests from abortion advocates. The law bans all abortions, with an exception only for those cases where "abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk" to the mother. It makes doctors who perform an abortion subject to up to 99 years in prison, but does not include punishments for women who undergo the procedure.Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Ohio have also passed strict abortion bans, some of which are currently tied up in the courts. The measures are intended to spark legal challenges that would ultimately leave the issue in the hands of the new, conservative Supreme Court majority.
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| The Latest: Runaway barges cause 'minimal' damage to dam Posted: 23 May 2019 06:03 PM PDT  JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on severe weather moving across the central United States (all times local):
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| Surprise: The ‘AI bot’ people talk to on Google Duplex calls is sometimes actually a person Posted: 23 May 2019 06:36 AM PDT  When Google unveiled Google Duplex last year at I/O 2018, the brand new Assistant feature looked terrific. It was the kind of futuristic technology nobody else had. With a simple voice command, you could instruct the Assistant to make restaurant reservations for you by placing a phone call using an AI bot. But soon after that keynote, it became clear that Duplex is somewhat creepy, as Google failed to identify the robocall to the other person. It was also kind of disingenuous, since the entire demo wasn't live.Google dealt with those issues at the time and Google Duplex deployment continued, culminating with this year's I/O announcement that the feature will be available in 44 states. Also, Google said that Duplex is getting similar functionality for booking reservations on the web. But a brand new report reveals additional details that were previously not known about Duplex, which brings the creepy back. It turns out that Google employees are actively involved in making many of these Duplex calls.A report from The New York Times reveals that about 25% of calls placed through Duplex started with a human. Beyond that, 15% of calls that started off with the Duplex AI bot had a human intervene at some point.The whole point of using the Assistant to make restaurant reservation is to eliminate the human side of things. That's why Google Duplex appeared to be so amazing in the first place. Having humans involved in the whole thing is where things get strange. Yes, maybe Duplex needs human oversight and the best way to train AI is by having it work with a lot of examples to learn from. But Google never really mentioned this human aspect of Google Duplex, which sort of ruins the magic of it all. Yet again, it's somewhat disingenuous.Also, there's user privacy to take into account. A human interacting with a restaurant on your behalf is different from a computer doing it, as the human is also let in on the booking information. It may seem trivial, but where does one agree to involve a Googler in setting up one's dinner plans?Google does say on its support pages that Duplex calls are recorded for quality assurance, which means someone may listen to your reservations:> If the customer wants to book an appointment, the Assistant will confirm specific details like the customer's preferred time, type of service, or size of party. Once this information is confirmed, the Assistant will try to book an appointment with your business by using an online booking partner (if available) or by calling your business using the automated voice-calling technology Duplex (calls are recorded for quality assurance).Also, Google has a tiny note that a manual operator might start calls in the frequently asked questions section, although it's hardly enough (emphasis ours):> At the start of the call, you'll hear the reason for the call and that the call is from Google. You can expect the call to come from an automated system or, in some cases, a manual operator.Google Duplex is clearly a far less polished product that Google led us to believe a year ago. Also, considering its renewed interest in protecting the user's privacy, Google should do a much better job explaining what goes on behind the scenes of a Google Duplex call when it comes to your privacy. The full Times report, complete with examples that explain what a human-made Google Duplex call looks like, is available at this link.
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| Ford, Hyundai, and GM Headline List of Memorial Day Discounts for Military Service Members Posted: 23 May 2019 11:40 AM PDT |
| Trump orders intelligence community to cooperate with review on Russia probe origins Posted: 23 May 2019 10:55 PM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr's review of the events that prompted an investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia. The directive comes as the White House spars with congressional Democrats over the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who led a two-year investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election and if there were any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
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| Download these 5 apps before your next trip Posted: 24 May 2019 04:30 AM PDT ![Download these 5 apps before your next trip]( "Download these 5 apps before your next trip") There are millions of apps available for your phone, but you can't take all of them on your next trip. So which travel apps should you pack?
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| Modi plots course after landslide Indian election win Posted: 24 May 2019 12:57 PM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met allies and former mentors Friday to plot a course for his second term after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty reeling. A considerable to-do list includes addressing India's lacklustre economic growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken agriculture sector on which 70 percent of households depend. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago and defying predictions of a dip, final results confirmed Friday.
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| Facebook accused of leaving 'broken children' in wake of its commercial aims, abuse inquiry hears Posted: 24 May 2019 09:26 AM PDT  Facebook has been accused of leaving 'broken children' as collateral damage in the wake of their commercial aims, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard. Barrister William Chapman, representing the victims of abuse at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said social media companies were not preventing paedophiles reaching children as it was "contrary to their business model" and that their apps needed to be "fundamentally redesigned". Police also warned that tech firms were going ahead with plans to encrypt more features "in the certain knowledge" it would lead to more children being abused. The warnings came as the inquiry's hearing into online child abuse drew to a close yesterday. Over the last fortnight IICSA has heard evidence from Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google about their efforts to combat child abuse online. Giving his closing statement, Mr Chapman singled out Facebook as the "unacceptable face of social media", citing that over half of reported grooming offences in 2017 and 2018 related to the company or its Instagram and WhatsApp apps. William Chapman giving his closing address to the inquiry He said that social networks scanned for evidence of abuse after it happened and that they now needed to change their business model to stop abusers easily contacting children. Mr Chapman said: "What they will not do, because it is contrary to their business model, is to restrict the opportunities for abuse before it takes place." He added: "They leave behind broken children like so much collateral damage. "Money, they say, is no object but none you heard from has a dedicated budget to tackling this problem." Among the recommendations being made to the inquiry on behalf of victims are for tech companies pay compensation to those abused via their services and that a new criminal offence be made of posing online as a child online without a reasonable excuse. Mr Chapman also accused tech companies of not giving the inquiry a "straight answer" about the scale of abuse on their sites and selectively releasing figures without context. Earlier in the hearing Microsoft failed to provide figures for how many children had been groomed on its live chat services Xbox Live and Skype and Facebook was similarly unable to say how many registered sex offenders had been caught using its services. "It is not acceptable to hide the extent of the problem on your platform in a black box out of which you prick pinholes for others to see only hints of the full horror within," said Mr Chapman. Later in the hearing, Debra Powell QC, speaking for the National Police Chiefs Council, warned that tech giants' plans to make ever more services encrypted would lead to more children being abused. Last month Facebook announced plans to add end-to-end encryption to its 1.3 billion-user Messenger service, meaning not even it will be able to see the content of messages. Ms Powell said: "Currently many technology companies are building in and offering to their users ever greater privacy protections, including end-to-end encryption, in the certain knowledge that this will make the detection and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation more difficult. "The inevitable result must be that more children will be abused and exploited and that their ordeals will go on for longer before the perpetrators can be caught, if they are caught at all."
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| Trump Justice Department Crosses New Line, Charges Assange With Publishing U.S. Secrets Posted: 23 May 2019 03:34 PM PDT  Daniel Leal-Olivas/GettyIn a stunning escalation of the Trump administration's war on the press, the Justice Department has indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for revealing government secrets under the Espionage Act. It's the first time a publisher has been charged under the World War I-era law.The indictment charges Assange with 16 counts of receiving or disclosing material leaked by then-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2009 and 2010. The charges invoke broad provisions of the Espionage Act that make it a crime to disclose or retain any defense information knowing it "could be used to injure" the U.S. The act has no exception for reporters or publishers, but prior administrations have balked at invoking the law against journalists for fear of colliding with the First Amendment. The Justice Department immediately sought to draw a distinction between Assange and the press in a briefing for reporters announcing the new indictment."The department takes seriously the role of journalists in our democracy and we thank you for it," said John Demers, head of the department's National Security Division. "It has not and never has been the department's policy to target them for reporting. But Julian Assange is no journalist." Demers cited WikiLeaks' publication of the names of U.S. government sources, saying it endangered people in China, Iran, and Syria.WikiLeaks on Twitter called the prosecution "the end of national security journalism and the First Amendment."Assange is currently serving an 11-month sentence in the U.K. for jumping bail in a Swedish rape investigation, while the U.S. pushes its request to extradite him to the United States on computer hacking charges revealed in April. He was kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London that month after taking refuge there from authorities for seven years. The leaked documents comprised 250,000 State Department cables, 90,000 Army field reports from Afghanistan and 400,000 from Iraq, and 800 detainee assessment briefs from Guantanamo Bay. Assange released most of that material without redaction, and the new indictment claims that the U.S. sources identified in the leaks were put in harm's way as a result. "By publishing these documents without redacting the human sources' names or other identifying information, Assange created a grave and imminent risk that the innocent people he named would suffer serious physical harm and/or arbitrary detention," the indictment alleges. He is also charged with two counts of conspiracy for allegedly working with Manning to violate the Espionage Act and the anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The FBI and federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, first began investigating Assange in 2010 and amassed a wealth of internal WikiLeaks chats and documents from informants and subpoenas. But the Obama administration was reluctant to indict Assange. A former senior Justice Department official told The Daily Beast last month that the Trump administration saw Assange's case as a way to pursue its war on leaks. "There was renewed interest under the new administration to revisit issues of what qualifies as the media and to look back at the Assange case," said Mary McCord, who was acting head of DOJ's National Security Division. Despite the barrage of leaks in the years following the Manning disclosures, there were signs as early as 2017 that the Justice Department was still focused on the leaks that first put WikiLeaks on the map. A witness at the grand jury proceedings that produced Thursday's indictment told The Daily Beast that prosecutors were specifically probing Assange's reluctance to redact his leaks for any reason."They showed me chat logs in which I was arguing vehemently with him about releasing documents that would leave people vulnerable and put people's lives at risk," said David House, a former WikiLeaks volunteer, in an interview last March. "That was the only thing they put in front of my face that made me think, 'This may be what they're going after him for.'"No U.S. sources are known to have come to harm as a result of the leaks, likely in part because of a massive remediation effort launched in the weeks before Assange published the material. The indictment takes pains to distinguish WikiLeaks from conventional journalism outfits in other ways as well, quoting Assange's own description of his site as an "intelligence agency of the people" and lingering on Assange's chats with Manning in which he encouraged and guided the soldier in the leaking. It also claims Manning deliberately sought out military secrets that were listed on a "most wanted leaks" section on WikiLeaks' website.None of this is strictly relevant to the Espionage Act. If the Justice Department included these details to make the Assange prosecution more palatable to journalists and free speech advocates, it's not working. "Any government use of the Espionage Act to criminalize the receipt and publication of classified information poses a dire threat to journalists," said Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in a statement. "This is an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on journalism, and a direct assault on the First Amendment," said the ACLU's Ben Wizner. "It establishes a dangerous precedent that can be used to target all news organizations that hold the government accountable by publishing its secrets."How Assange Could Beat the U.S. and Stay Out of JailRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| India's Modi begins talks for new cabinet after big election win Posted: 23 May 2019 09:20 PM PDT  Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party had won 296 of the 542 seats up for grabs and was ahead in seven more, up from the 282 it won in 2014. The BJP would have the first back-to-back majority in the lower house of parliament for a single party since 1984. After a rancorous and a polarizing election campaign, the focus shifts back to an economy that is slowing, even as the U.S.-China trade war rages and global oil prices tick higher.
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| Bodies in submerged Missouri vehicle bring storm toll to 9 Posted: 24 May 2019 03:58 PM PDT  OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered Friday in a submerged vehicle near the Mississippi River in Missouri, bringing the death toll to nine from storms that have ravaged the central U.S. this week and threaten major flooding through the holiday weekend.
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| AT&T is the first major US wireless carrier to let you pay via cryptocurrency Posted: 24 May 2019 01:48 PM PDT  If you're an AT&T mobile customer, and you have some extra bitcoin lying around that you're not doing anything with, you can now use it to pay your phone bill.AT&T just became the first big US wireless carrier to announce that its customers can now use cryptocurrency to make payments, as greater acceptance of this digital medium of exchange can be seen at companies ranging from AT&T to cable provider Dish, which also lets its customers pay via cryptocurrency. Likewise, Facebook on Friday garnered headlines over a report that it's set to launch its own cryptocurrency for use on the social network early next year.About AT&T's move, all customers need to do is select the BitPay option at MyAT&T. BitPay is an Atlanta-based bitcoin payment service provider, and it's also worth noting: This is an option that only currently works online and via the myAT&T app, so it's not as yet available for in-store payments."We're always looking for ways to improve and expand our services," said Kevin McDorman, vice president, AT&T Communications Finance Business Operations, in a statement about the new payment option. "We have customers who use cryptocurrency, and we are happy we can offer them a way to pay their bills with the method they prefer."There are of course a slew of different cryptocurrency options out there, and AT&T's announcement doesn't specify a particular kind. BitPay's website, though, notes that currencies it supports include Bitcoin, Gemini USD, and Paxos, to name a few.As of now, it's a safe bet to assume that crypto payments will probably remain a small minority of AT&T's customer payment mix for the near future. That's thanks to everything from the general public's unfamiliarity with the digital asset to obstacles like its fees and high volatility, the latter being two of the most frequent criticisms you hear.Still, expect to keep hearing more announcements like this as companies keep experimenting. Just a few weeks ago, for example, retailers like Whole Foods and GameStop likewise announced they'll be getting in on the act too, accepting cryptocurrency through the Flexa payment network.
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| The top 10 Memorial Day sales we are shopping this weekend Posted: 24 May 2019 07:41 AM PDT  To help make your shopping experience a little bit easier, we have narrowed down the endless amount of sales out there to 10 that are worth your time.
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| Trump's $16 Billion Farmer Trade Aid Package Leaves Few Happy Posted: 23 May 2019 01:36 PM PDT  The Trump administration unveiled its latest package Thursday to help farmers hurt by the trade war with China, including $14.5 billion in market facilitation payments directly to producers and $1.4 billion in government purchases to be distributed through school lunch programs and local food banks.
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| Georgia police K-9 dies chasing suspect in 90-degree weather Posted: 24 May 2019 06:20 AM PDT  A police K-9 in Gwinnett County, Georgia, died Thursday after chasing a suspect in 90-degree heat.
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| Rape and incest account for hardly any abortions. So why are they now a focus? Posted: 24 May 2019 12:07 PM PDT  Just 1% of women obtain an abortion because they became pregnant through rape, and less than 0.5% do so because of incest.
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| UN agency for Palestinians rejects US call to dismantle it Posted: 23 May 2019 04:41 AM PDT  The head of the United Nations organisation for Palestinian refugees on Thursday rejected a US call to dismantle the agency, saying it cannot be blamed for stalled peace efforts. UNRWA's commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl rebuffed the criticism from US envoy Jason Greenblatt during a visit to the Gaza Strip. "I unreservedly reject the accompanying narrative that suggests that somehow UNRWA is to blame for the continuation of the refugee-hood of Palestine refugees, of their growing numbers and their growing needs," he said in response to a question about Greenblatt's comments.
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| Trump appeals ruling allowing banks to hand his financial records to Congress Posted: 24 May 2019 11:52 AM PDT  "We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations," Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Kerrie McHugh said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for the Intelligence Committee declined to comment on the appeal. Capital One and the House Financial Services Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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| Modi Strengthens Grip on Power, Pulling India Further to Right Posted: 23 May 2019 01:00 PM PDT  If anyone had any doubts about Narendra Modi's popularity, India's masses just put them to rest. A combination of economic populism, Hindu nationalism and air strikes against arch-rival Pakistan earlier this year proved unbeatable. "This is a stunning reaffirmation of Modi and the BJP and, conversely, a sharp rebuke of the opposition," said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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| Tesla may set a quarterly record for deliveries, according to leaked Elon Musk email Posted: 23 May 2019 05:08 PM PDT  It's sometimes hard to make sense of what's going on with Tesla. Is the company on the verge of going bankrupt, or poised to set new records for deliveries? Well, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the answer to both questions could be "yes."A few days ago, an internal email from Musk to Tesla employees claimed that the company was in danger of running out of cash in just 10 months time. As a result, Musk said that the company was going to implement "hardcore" cost-cutting measures, an initiative Musk claims is the only way for the company "to become financially sustainable and succeed in our goal of helping make the world environmentally sustainable."In the following days, a pair of research reports from analysts laid out rather dire bear-case scenarios for Tesla, with Morgan Stanley noting that Tesla, in a worst case scenario, might only be worth $10 a share. As a point of reference, Tesla was trading at $376 less than six months ago.All that said, demand for Tesla vehicles appears to be growing and on the verge of setting new records. According to a new internal email from Musk (via CNBC), the Tesla CEO relayed that the company was on pace to set a new record for deliveries for the June quarter."As of yesterday," Musk said, "we had over 50,000 net new orders for this quarter. Based on current trends, we have a good chance of exceeding the record 90,700 deliveries of Q4 last year and making this the highest deliveries/sales quarter in Tesla history!"Of course, Musk's statement was tempered with the qualification that Model 3 production needs to remain steady at 1,000 units per day, at a minimum."We've averaged about 900/day this week," Musk added, "so we're only about 10% away from 7,000/week. If we rally hard, we can do it."The larger takeaway from all of this Tesla hoopla is that demand, contrary to some analyst opinions, does not appear to be a huge issue for the company. Still, the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate and, as Musk notes, needs to pick up production to meet swelling demand.
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| CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Confronts Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Trump’s Tantrum Posted: 23 May 2019 08:54 AM PDT  It's been 73 days since Sarah Huckabee Sanders last held a "daily" White House press briefing. For the most part, she has chosen to bring the Trump administration's message to Fox News and Fox News only. But on Thursday morning she stepped out of her comfort zone and was quickly reminded what it feels like to be questioned by a real reporter. Sanders' interview with CNN's Alisyn Camerota on New Day started out all smiles as the two women exchanged pleasantries. But as soon as the host began to dig in on President Trump's ultimatum to Democrats in Congress that he will not work with them on infrastructure until they stop investigating him, things went south.Alisyn Camerota Loves Doing Journalism at CNN, After Doing the Opposite at Fox News"Congress say they can do two things at once, the Democrats is Congress say this isn't a problem," Camerota said. "So is the president saying that he cannot do infrastructure while he's being investigated?" "I think it's a complete lie that Democrats in Congress think they can do two things at once," Sanders replied. "So far we haven't seen them do anything. Nancy Pelosi has had the majority in the House for months and is yet to accomplish a single thing. They literally haven't gotten anything done since she took over." When Camerota pointed out that since January, the House has passed 248 bills and the Senate has passed 161, Sanders laughed it off as insignificant. "I just want to say, it's the president who is saying that he can't do infrastructure while he's being investigated," Camerota reiterated. "He is the one who walked out of the meeting. So just so that we're clear, he's saying that bridges are not going to be fixed until he's no longer investigated, is that what we hear from the White House?" Instead of answering that question, Sanders stammered a bit as she once again accused Democrats of being "incapable of doing anything other than investigating this president.""They spend all of their time attacking him and the fact that they would have a meeting an hour before they are set to arrive at the White House where Nancy Pelosi literally accuses the president of a crime and then wants to walk into his office and sit down as if nothing happened, that's just—that's lunacy," she continued. "That's not even in the realm of possibility. The president absolutely wants to get infrastructure done, he wants to secure our border, he wants to do things that help our veterans, he wants to improve our education system, he wants to do all of those things but Democrats have been unwilling to work with him."Fox News' Chris Wallace Shuts Down Sarah Huckabee Sanders' Claim About Terrorists Crossing BorderLater, after confirming that Trump's "merit-based" immigration plan will not prioritize DREAMers, Sanders returned to her attacks on Pelosi for suggesting the president may have committed a crime. "That would be like John telling you that he thought you were stealing from the network and then sitting down in the chair next to you and saying, but no big deal, let's just move forward," she said, referring to Camerota's co-host John Berman. "John would never accuse me of something like that," Camerota said with a smile. "I would hope not," Sanders added. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Everything You Need to Know About 5G Posted: 23 May 2019 03:38 AM PDT  Are you wondering about how much faster 5G will be than 4G? Will you need a new phone to use 5G? Or, what is 5G? We have all the answers.
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| China bemoans US 'bullying' of Huawei Posted: 22 May 2019 08:54 PM PDT  China's foreign minister has slammed US moves against telecom giant Huawei as "economic bullying", and warned that Beijing was ready to "fight to the very end" in its trade war with Washington. The trade spat between the world's top two economies escalated after President Donald Trump issued orders on grounds of national security last week that have prompted several foreign firms to distance themselves from Huawei.
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| Deutsche Bank plans cuts in U.S. equities, prime unit -sources Posted: 23 May 2019 11:27 AM PDT ![Deutsche Bank plans cuts in U.S. equities, prime unit -sources]( "Deutsche Bank plans cuts in U.S. equities, prime unit -sources") Deutsche Bank is planning cuts at its U.S. equities business, including prime brokerage and equity derivatives, to win over shareholders unhappy about its performance, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing told shareholders at the bank's annual meeting on Thursday it was prepared to make "tough cutbacks" at its investment bank. The bulk of the anticipated U.S. cuts will come from its money-losing equities business, which includes cash equities trading.
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| Trip bundling is growing: Here are 6 places you can plan a trip from start to finish Posted: 23 May 2019 06:07 AM PDT  Trip bundling is becoming more popular as it saves time and often money.
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| The Cadillac CT4 Is the Brand's Future Entry-Level Sedan—and There Will Be a CT4-V Posted: 23 May 2019 07:20 AM PDT  Replacing the ATS, it will do battle with the Audi A3 and the Mercedes-Benz A-class.
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| Theresa May is latest Conservative leader swamped by Europe Posted: 24 May 2019 04:04 AM PDT  LONDON (AP) — Theresa May has joined the ranks of Conservative prime ministers whose time in office has been overwhelmed — and cut short — by the issue of Europe.
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