| 'Horrific for all': Pentagon intelligence chief says Iran does not want war Posted: 19 Jul 2019 04:19 PM PDT  A U.S. Marines helicopter takes off from the flight deck of the USS Boxer during its transit through Strait of Hormuz. ASPEN, Colo. — As tensions in the Persian Gulf continued to ramp up on Friday afternoon amid news that Iran had seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, concluded that Iran does not want to start a war with the U.S. or its allies. Answering a question posed by CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto in Aspen, Colo., about the latest incident, Ashley declined to give a specific response to the news, but later said that none of the United States' major adversaries or competitors, including Iran, China and Russia, wants to start a war.
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| Alleged American ISIS Sniper Brought Home by the Defense Department to Face Charges Posted: 20 Jul 2019 01:49 AM PDT  An American citizen who allegedly served as a sniper for ISIS and became a leader for the terrorist group is expected to appear in federal court on Friday after being returned to the United States by the Defense Department, officials said.Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, who was born in Kazakhstan and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, the Justice Department announced on Friday.A U.S. official confirmed to Task & Purpose that the Defense Department had transported Asainov from Syria to the United States. Asainov had been in the custody of Syrian Democratic Forces.No further information about the military's role in transporting Asainov, to the United States was immediately available.Asainov is accused of leaving Brooklyn in December 2013 to fight for ISIS in Syria, a Justice Department news release says. After becoming an ISIS sniper, he was promoted to become an "emir" in charge of training fighters how to use weapons and also tried to recruit someone else to leave the United States and become an ISIS fighter.Prosecutors claim Asainov tried to buy a scope for his rile by paying roughly $2,800 to a confidential informant, the news release says."Asainov subsequently sent the confidential informant two photographs depicting the defendant holding an assault rifle fitted with a scope," the news release says. "He messaged one associate exclaiming, in reference to ISIS, 'We are the worst terrorist organization in the world that has ever existed' and stating that he wished to die on the battlefield."
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| Philippine police seek sedition charges against VP, Duterte critics Posted: 19 Jul 2019 06:14 AM PDT  Philippine police have recommended sedition charges against the vice president and other opposition figures, a move slammed Friday as an attempt to stifle dissent under President Rodrigo Duterte. Police allege Vice President Leni Robredo, Catholic Church leaders and opposition politicians plotted to destabilise the Duterte government by implicating him in the narcotics trade. Duterte launched a war against the drug trade when he came into power three years ago.
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| A Group of German Leaders Tried to Kill Hitler in 1944. Here’s Why They Failed Posted: 19 Jul 2019 07:27 AM PDT  The Führer was dead, and Europe was potentially freed from the Nazi scourge. Or so it initially seemed
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| US heatwave: National Weather Service bakes biscuits inside hot car in safety warning about leaving children or pets Posted: 20 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT  The National Weather Service has baked biscuits inside a hot car, in a safety message about the peril of leaving children or pets inside a vehicle.As a heatwave takes grip of large swathe of the US, with up to 200m people expected to be affected by a heat index of up to 115f degrees (46c), the officials performed the experiment inside a car in Nebraska to show how hot vehicles can become when left unattended. To demonstrate the dangers, the NWS staff set about baking the biscuits in the city of Omaha, using only heat from the sun."If you are wondering if it's going to be hot today, we are attempting to bake biscuits using only the sun and a car in our parking lot," NWS Omaha said on Twitter. "We will keep you posted with the progress."CNN said four biscuits were placed on a baking sheet on the dashboard of a car and left to sit in the sun. After 60 minutes, the pan had reached 175.2f (80c) and the tops of the biscuits reached 153f. The back seat registered 120.4f in the shade.It said, four hours later, the tops of the biscuits were nearly finished baking, but the bottoms remained doughy.The car had to be turned around to adjust for the changing angle of the sun.> Biscuits are starting to get a slightly golden tinge to them. pic.twitter.com/ptL24RHQfs> > — NWS Omaha (@NWSOmaha) > > July 18, 2019The experiment was carried out to warn people about the dangers of leaving children or pets inside vehicles, even for for a short period of time. US summers frequently come with stories of tragic deaths as a result of a toddler or baby being left in a car.CBS News said six people had died in connection with the heat – four people in Maryland, one in Arizona, and another in Arkansas.Several events were cancelled in New York City, including OZY Fest and the NYC Triathlon.The NWS said the east coast and midwest are likely to see temperatures in the upper 90s, combined with high humidity. Experts are urging people to limit their time outside and drink lots of water. Cities in Vermont and New Hampshire are opening shelters where people can cool off. Some power outages have been reported in Philadelphia and after storms in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Police in Braintree, Massachusetts, asked residents "to hold off" all criminal activity until the extreme heat is over."Folks. Due to the extreme heat, we are asking anyone thinking of doing criminal activity to hold off until Monday," the department wrote on Facebook. "It is straight up hot as soccer balls out there. Conducting criminal activity, in this extreme heat is next level henchmen status, and also very dangerous."Additional reporting by Associated Press
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| Funeral service held for 86 Muslims killed by Serbs Posted: 20 Jul 2019 10:10 AM PDT  PRIJEDOR, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Several thousand people attended a funeral service in Bosnia on Saturday for 86 Muslims who were slain by Serbs in one of the worst atrocities of the country's 1992-95 war. Relatives of the victims, religious leaders and others gathered at a soccer stadium near the eastern town of Prijedor, standing solemnly behind lines of coffins draped with green cloths. The Serbs later threw bombs onto the bodies, which made identifying the victims difficult.
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| Ex-NRA Ad Firm: Um, Wayne LaPierre is Lying Posted: 19 Jul 2019 10:46 AM PDT  Lucas Jackson/ReutersIn a new filing against the National Rifle Association, lawyers for ad agency Ackerman McQueen suggest that longtime NRA executive Wayne LaPierre is lying about a critical moment in the gun rights group's recent leadership shake up. At issue is multi-million-dollar litigation between the NRA and its ex-ad firm. In court filings of its own, the NRA has alleged that Oliver North, the groups's former president, was ousted in part because he withheld information from the NRA about payments he took from Ackerman McQueen, which had served as the gun rights group's primary ad contractor until just months ago. The NRA claims North kept the nature of his deal with Ackerman McQueen a secret from LaPierre and the gun group's leadership. But in a July 16 filing that was reviewed by The Daily Beast, Ackerman McQueen alleges that LaPierre himself helped negotiate the deal between their firm and North. And they hint that they have documentation to prove it. In a statement, the NRA denied the suggestions. "The facts are clear – Mr. LaPierre and the NRA had no idea that Col. North was negotiating to become an employee of Ackerman McQueen," said Andrew Arulanandam, managing director of NRA Public Affairs. "And to the extent Col. North was pushing a contrived narrative about Mr. LaPierre and the NRA, he was conflicted. He was an employee of Ackerman at the time he was allegedly scheming with the agency to unseat Mr. LaPierre." It's a messy new chapter in the months-long legal battle between the NRA and the ad firm it used for more than three decades. And it comes as the gun group has jettisoned senior staff and faced revolts from grassroots activists and donors. "LaPierre negotiated the terms of the North Contract directly with Lt. Col. North and a detailed term sheet was sent to AMc [Ackerman McQueen] for completion of the formal agreement," the filing reads. The NRA's then-treasurer, Wilson "Woody" Phillips, also reviewed and approved North's contract with the firm, according to the filing, and the NRA board's audit committee green-lit the contract as well. "On at least two occasions, counsel for the NRA has reviewed the North Contract," the filing adds. NRA Pulls the Plug on NRATVAckerman McQueen's insistence that NRA officials were aware of the contract with North is directly at odds with the contention the NRA made in a suit it filed against the ad agency in April. North was ousted from the NRA that month during the group's annual meeting and has since accused LaPierre of gross mismanagement and making highly questionable expenditures. The NRA, meanwhile, has alleged that North tried to oust LaPierre in a coup. And in a separate suit in May, it accused Ackerman McQueen of breach of contract by leaking information about both LaPierre and the NRA's finances. Ackerman McQueen had been a central force behind the NRA's evolution from a gun rights group to a conservative cultural institution. As part of that mission, the ad firm helped launch and manage NRATV, the NRA's recently shuttered internet-video arm. The NRA has alleged in court that Ackerman McQueen had refused to share its analytics with the gun group. But In its July 16 filing, Ackerman McQueen claims that the opposite is true. "Two days before the lawsuit was filed, LaPierre was in AMc's office and was in attendance for the presentation of the NRATV analytics," it reads. "LaPierre walked out of the meeting." A spokesperson for the NRA's legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The filing indicates that the fight between the NRA and Ackerman shows no signs of losing steam. Earlier this week, longtime NRA director of public affairs Jennifer Baker left the group. And a month ago, the group parted ways with its longtime top lobbyist, Chris Cox. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Gabbard, AOC join lawmakers to call on Puerto Rican governor to resign over corruption scandal Posted: 20 Jul 2019 09:19 AM PDT  Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has joined a growing chorus of lawmakers calling for the resignation of the Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
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| Irish, EU governments sound out Johnson to avoid no-deal Brexit: Sunday Times Posted: 20 Jul 2019 03:16 PM PDT  Ahead of Boris Johnson's likely election next week as Britain's prime minister, EU countries are secretly wooing him in a bid to thrash out a new Brexit plan that would avoid a no-deal disaster, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. German and French figures as well as the Dutch and Belgian governments have also established contact with Johnson's team and signaled an intention to do a deal, it added. In a limited extract released on Saturday evening ahead of publication, the paper reported that Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has indicated Dublin is prepared to compromise.
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| US forming 'coalition' of navies to protect ships amid Iran tensions Posted: 19 Jul 2019 05:16 PM PDT  Hours before the hijacking of the British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, America's special representative for Iran was explaining its position to diplomats in Washington. Some 100 envoys took part in the briefing by Brian Hook, who outlined the Trump administration's initiative for maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz. Mr Hook said tensions had risen sharply and necessitated the need for a "coalition" of navies to protect their ships through the strait. His words were underlined by the seizure of the British-flagged Stena Impero in the Gulf. Elaborating on the plans, US Central Command described it on Friday night as "a multinational maritime effort", called Operation Sentinel. "The goal of Operation Sentinel is to promote maritime stability, ensure safe passage, and de-escalate tensions in international waters throughout the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (BAM) and the Gulf of Oman. "This maritime security framework will enable nations to provide escort to their flagged vessels while taking advantage of the cooperation of participating nations for coordination and enhanced maritime domain awareness and surveillance." The US had the day before been forced to down an Iranian drone that had flown too close to one of its navy ships. It could no longer sit idly by, he said. British oil tanker seized in the Gulf It was the first US military engagement with Iran after a series of increasingly serious incidents in the Gulf, and Donald Trump threatened more yesterday if Iranian planes flew too closely to its ships. Before the hijacking on Friday, a bizarre war of words broke out between the US and Iran after Tehran denied the president's claim that one of its drones had been destroyed. "We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS [Unmanned Aerial System] by mistake," Abbas Araqchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, responded in a tweet. Iran tensions | Read more Brig Gen Abolfazl Shekarchi added: "Despite Trump's baseless and delusional claims, all of [Iran's] drones ... have safely returned to their bases." The Revolutionary Guard released footage from what it said was the "downed drone". State TV claimed the timing notations showed it was still filming after Washington said it had been put out of action. The US said it had its own "clear evidence", but did not provide any. Mr Trump announced that the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, "took defensive action" against the Iranian drone. "The US reserves the right to defend our personnel, our facilities and interests and calls upon all nations to condemn Iran's attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce," he said. A journalist aboard USS Boxer suggested that Iran had been harassing the navy ship before the drone was shot down. Iran released footage from what it said was the "downed drone" Credit: AFP The reporter said an Iranian navy helicopter flew alongside them, yards from the deck, before it was chased away by a US helicopter. The convoy of six US warships passed several Iranian speedboats without incident, but was then tailed by a larger Iranian warship which came within 500 yards of Boxer. An Iranian Y-12 surveillance plane was then pursued by US helicopters before a surveillance drone came even closer and was then brought down by electronic warfare jamming. On Friday night, after reports that two British tankers had been intercepted, Bob Sanguinetti, chief executive of the UK's Chamber of Shipping, said the escalation in tensions in one of the world's most important chokepoints made it clear more protection for merchant vessels was urgently needed. He said the action was "in violation of international regulations which protect ships and their crews as they go about their legitimate business".
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| US says its has 'clear evidence' it downed Iranian drone Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:26 AM PDT  The United States has "very clear evidence" that it took down an Iranian drone despite Tehran's denial, a US official said Friday. "We have very clear evidence," the US official said, alluding to a possible video. The Pentagon had not confirmed by midday Friday whether or not there is any photographic evidence of the downed drone.
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| A Passenger Was Fined $105,000 and Banned for Life for 'Extremely Disruptive Behavior' on an Airplane Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:09 PM PDT  She was also banned for life by British budget carrier Jet2
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| See the 2020 Chevy Corvette C8 Driving on the Road Undisguised Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:37 PM PDT |
| Iran seizes 2 British oil tankers for 'violating international maritime law' as tensions escalate in Gulf Posted: 19 Jul 2019 04:46 PM PDT  Two British oil tankers were seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Friday night, in a major escalation of tensions in the Gulf.
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| Hong Kong police seize explosives as rival camps rally Posted: 20 Jul 2019 05:37 PM PDT  Police in Hong Kong discovered a stash of a powerful homemade explosive as the semi-autonomous Chinese city readied for another major pro-democracy protest on Sunday following a pro-Beijing rally that attracted thousands. Materials voicing opposition to an extradition bill that has sparked more than a month of demonstrations in Hong Kong were found at the site, local media said, but a police spokesman said no concrete link has been established and that the investigation is continuing. In a rally that aimed to counter the pro-democracy movement, thousands of people filled a park in central Hong Kong on Saturday to support the police, who have been accused of using rough tactics on protesters.
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| Oliver Stone Asks Vladimir Putin to Be His Daughter’s Godfather Posted: 19 Jul 2019 08:13 PM PDT  Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/GettyFilmmaker and conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone has made no secret of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, but now he has taken it to a whole new level by trying to make him his 22-year-old daughter's godfather. "Does she want to become an Orthodox Christian?" Putin asked when Stone floated the idea during a sit-down in the Kremlin. "We'll make her that [Orthodox]," Stone replied, according to a transcript of the interview put out by the Kremlin Friday. Putin appeared to wriggle his way out of the proposal ("You have to ask her," he said) before Stone went on to complain about "American culture," taking particular issue with what he described as a focus on gender identity and people labeling themselves as "transgender" and "cisgender." Stone quickly steered the conversation toward a controversial 2013 Russian law banning "homosexual propaganda" among minors, a law which experts say has prompted a surge of homophobic violence in the country. "It seems like maybe that's a sensible law," Stone said. The interview, transcripts of which were released Friday, took place in mid-June, shortly before Stone announced the upcoming premiere of his new documentary Revealing Ukraine, which purports to "investigate" the "ongoing Ukrainian crisis" but seems instead to serve as a promotional spot for pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk. The "documentary" has been hyped up by Russian state media, where it premiered on Friday. It was also due to air on Ukraine's 112 TV channel, which Medvedchuk reportedly took control of late last year, but the station said it was forced to cancel the broadcast after protests. Stone has claimed his dabblings in Ukraine offer viewers a new perspective on the 2014 Maidan revolution and war in Donbass that he says "Western media has largely ignored," but that "perspective" has relied solely on claims fed to him by pro-Russia politicians, Putin allies, and Putin himself. In his sit-down with the Russian president, Stone vacillated between spouting off common Kremlin propaganda on Ukraine and fawning over Putin as a "peacemaker." After echoing the Kremlin conspiracy theory that the pro-Russian leaders in Kyiv accused of gunning down innocent protesters in the 2014 revolution were actually framed in some vast conspiracy that may or may not have involved former U.S. President Barack Obama, and that Ukraine, not Russia was to blame for interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Stone expressed concerns about Putin's emotional well-being. "You sound very depressed, much more depressed than last time," he said, later adding, "I am very worried about you." The two ended the interview by taking a parting picture together. Oliver Stone's Latest Piece of Pro-Putin Propaganda May Be His Most Shameless Move YetRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| UPDATE 1-Britain says seizure of two vessels by Iran is unacceptable Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:04 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Britain says seizure of two vessels by Iran is unacceptable]( "UPDATE 1-Britain says seizure of two vessels by Iran is unacceptable") Britain said Iran's seizure of a British-flagged vessel and a Liberian-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was unacceptable and called for freedom of navigation in the Gulf. "I'm extremely concerned by the seizure of two vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said. "I will shortly attend a COBR (national security) meeting to review what we know and what we can do to swiftly secure the release of the two vessels - a British-flagged vessel and a Liberian-flagged vessel," he said.
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| Lawmaker describes 'unacceptable' border detention conditions, meets with US citizen in Border Patrol custody Posted: 20 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT  A U.S. lawmaker described 'unacceptable' border detention facilities while meeting with a U.S. citizen in Border Patrol custody.
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| 2020 Vision: Democratic candidates raise funds off 'Send her back' chant at Trump rally Posted: 19 Jul 2019 11:48 AM PDT  Amid outrage over the chant, Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke and other Democratic groups are using the episode in their fundraising emails.
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| Will Taiwan Get the New F-16V Fighters It Desperately Wants? Posted: 20 Jul 2019 02:00 AM PDT  On July 8, the U.S. State Department announced it would approve a $2.2 billion arms deal with Taiwan including 108 Abrams main battle tanks and 250 Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missiles—a deal which elicited new sanctions from Beijing on the companies involved. But the announcement was more notable for what the approval didn't include—a nearly done-deal for sixty-six F-16V jet fighters built fresh off the F-16 production line in Greenville, South Carolina.This would have been the first sale of new Western combat jets to Taiwan since 1992—a fact not unrelated to Beijing's claims that sales of jet fighters to the "renegade province" constitute a redline.This stance caused three prior U.S. presidents to shy away from additional jet sales, but from the beginning, the Trump administration has proven consistently willing to disregard Beijing's sensitivities regarding Taiwan. The absence of the F-16V deal from the July 8 approval was likely linked to U.S.-China negotiations to end a simmering trade war. Perhaps the Trump administration delayed or canceled the F-16V approval to avoid sabotaging the talks, or is withholding the jets as a possible bargaining chip to extract concessions from Beijing.For now, the deal's fate remains uncertain as Taipei and its allies in Congress lobby strongly for it to proceed.Taiwan's Precarious Status
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| Journalist reporting on immigration released from ‘inhumane’ US migrant detention centre after 15 months Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:22 AM PDT  There were bugs, and the showers were cold. Air conditioning was not available, but the heat was turned on inexplicably.If you didn't have family in the United States to send money for food, you would go hungry.Those are just some of the conditions Manuel Duran described after he was released from a US immigration detention centre.As a journalist in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr Duran had been reporting on immigration enforcement officials and sordid conditions for more than a decade by the time they took him into custody last year.Now, he says he's experienced the neglect himself."I've seen the cruelty of the mass detention of immigrants firsthand," Mr Duran told reporters in Spanish on Wednesday, "and it is unnecessary and inhumane."Mr Duran, a native of El Salvador, had been working for the Spanish-language news outlet Memphis Noticias.After being released last week from 15 months in detention, Mr Duran, 43, decried what he called the brutal treatment of immigrants by Donald Trump's administration.Detention centres have faced severe overcrowding in the past several months, prompting outrage and calls for change.Unlike many reporters who focus on immigration, Mr Duran has lived through the detention conditions he covers.Migrants did not get enough food at any of the four facilities where Mr Duran was held, he said at the news conference on Wednesday.They had to buy rations with money sent by their families, and if they didn't have relatives in the United States, the migrants would go hungry.The holding facilities were infested with cockroaches and spiders, Mr Duran said. At Etowah County Detention Centre in Alabama, he said he had to bathe with cold water from hoses for two months.The air conditioner was being repaired for most of the spring, Mr Duran said, and the heat was turned on at one point, making it difficult to sleep."I've seen the disastrous effect of Trump's anti-immigrant policy," Mr Duran said. "I've seen working men, businessmen, who have lived their whole lives in this country and who haven't committed crimes crying and longing to reunite with their families."Mr Duran alleged that ICE had singled him out for detention because he was a journalist from El Salvador.His attorneys at the Southern Poverty Law Centre also argued in a court document that law enforcement had arrested and detained Mr Duran in an attempt to suppress his reporting critical of immigration enforcement."In the US, we are made to believe that freedom of the press is valued, but I can tell you all that under the Trump administration, this isn't true," Mr Duran said.He was released from detention on bond on 11 July while the Board of Immigration Appeals considers whether to grant him asylum because journalists face dangerous conditions in El Salvador, his attorneys said.Gracie Willis, a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Centre, said Mr Duran decided to speak to reporters about his experience in detention because he considers journalism a form of advocacy."I think for him, it was important for him to speak to the press, who are his brothers and sisters in his vocation – to inform them about the things that he saw," Ms Willis said.On 3 April 2018, Mr Duran was reporting on a protest of local police helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when Memphis police arrested him while they were trying to clear people from the street, according to Mr Duran's attorneys.Mr Duran was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of a highway, the lawyers wrote in the court document, but the charges were dropped two days later.Instead of releasing Mr Duran from jail, his attorneys said he was turned over to ICE and brought on an eight-hour bus ride to the LaSalle detention centre in Jena, Louisiana – without access to a bathroom and with his wrists, ankles and waist in shackles.Mr Duran migrated to the United States in 2006, when his television reporting in El Salvador subjected him to death threats, his attorneys wrote.He missed an immigration court hearing the next year because he was not told about it, according to his lawyers, causing a judge to issue a removal order for him.ICE on Thursday did not respond to a request for information about his case and for a response to his criticisms of the detention centres.Mauricio Calvo, the executive director of advocacy group Latino Memphis, said many other immigrants face the same conditions that Mr Duran described.Attorneys from Latino Memphis, an organisation that provides services and advocates for policies that benefit Latinos, were part of Mr Duran's legal team."This guy had a lot of support because he's a journalist and all these different things," Mr Calvo said, "but we have 500 cases at Latino Memphis, and most people cannot get the attention that Manuel did."Mr Duran is not the first foreign-born journalist to be detained by ICE.Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, a Mexican reporter, migrated to the United States in 2008 after he says soldiers broke into his home and took his identity documents.He and his son Oscar were denied asylum in 2017 and temporarily detained. Their immigration cases are ongoing.Washington Post
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| Scarlett Keeling's Goa killer jailed for 10 years as mother welcomes 'closure' after long wait for justice Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:03 PM PDT  A Indian former bartender was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting and killing British teenager Scarlett Keeling on a beach in Goa in 2008. Scarlett's mother, Fiona MacKeown, 55, said she felt "relieved" and it was a "kind of closure" after waiting 11 years for justice. The Bombay High Court at Goa sentenced Samson D'Souza, 39, after convicting him on Wednesday of administering drugs to 15-year-old Scarlett, sexual assault, culpable homicide and destruction of evidence. He had previously been acquitted of the crime along another man. Scarlett's body was found on Anjuna beach in Goa in February 2008. At the time D'Souza was a 28-year-old bartender at Luis' Shack, but he has since become a scuba diving instructor. Local police initially said Scarlett Keeling had drowned accidentally after taking drugs but her mother pushed for a second autopsy which revealed she had been raped and murdered Credit: Reuters "It is rigorous imprisonment which is what I really wanted. I think it means he has to do eight hours' hard labour a day. He should have been given life because he took her life," Miss Mackeown told The Telegraph from her home near Bideford in Devon. "I don't know if he will stay in prison that long. I am aware he can appeal." On Wednesday night she celebrated D'Souza's conviction with two bottles of champagne surrounded by her seven children. Her eldest son killed himself with an overdose in 2016. "He never got over Scarlett dying," she said. "I am starting to feel relieved this could be the end of it. I never knew anything would come of it. To have a result is good. I am glad he is going to suffer a bit as we have done," she said. Police initially dismissed the teenager's death as an accidental drowning but opened a murder investigation after her mother pushed for a second autopsy which proved she had been drugged and raped. The case was taken over by federal police who accused D'Souza and the second man of plying Scarlett with a cocktail of drink and illegal drugs, including cocaine, before leaving her to die by dumping her unconscious in shallow water where she drowned. Samson D'Souza had previously been acquitted of the crime along with another man Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Scarlett's mother still wants to know the full truth about her death. "He gave her LSD, cocaine and ecstasy and tried to have sex with her, then pushed her face in the water. But I don't know exactly what happened and my final request is to know: why did he end up killing her?" Miss MacKeown, who milks cows for a living, has racked up thousands of pounds in credit card debt travelling back and forth to India for the court cases. "I wanted to go for the sentencing but I did not have enough notice. There are only two buses a day where I live. Whilst this is good news, it does not take away the fact the Goa police are so corrupt and are not investigating these crimes properly. There are many other families whose relatives have been killed on holiday in Goa still fighting for justice." Several other foreigners have been murdered in Goa over the past decade. In March 2017, the naked body of a 28-year-old Irish woman was found dumped near a tourist hotspot, and a local guide was later arrested for her rape and murder.
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| EU plans to offer Boris Johnson no-deal Brexit extension: The Guardian Posted: 19 Jul 2019 11:02 AM PDT  "It will be described as a technical delay to save Boris from political embarrassment but then we will have time to find an agreement," a senior EU diplomat told the newspaper http://bit.ly/2xWScq9. Johnson could maintain the stance of being on course to leave EU without an agreement while keeping open the option of coming to a deal with the bloc, according to the proposal cited by the Guardian. EU leaders are discussing steps to be taken in the event Johnson presses ahead with exiting the European Union without a transition deal on Oct. 31, the newspaper said.
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| Kentucky host Matt Jones yanked amid speculation he'll challenge Mitch McConnell Posted: 20 Jul 2019 08:27 AM PDT ![Kentucky host Matt Jones yanked amid speculation he'll challenge Mitch McConnell]( "Kentucky host Matt Jones yanked amid speculation he'll challenge Mitch McConnell") Sports radio host Matt Jones is being pulled from his "Hey Kentucky!" anchor job until he makes a decision on running for U.S. Senate in 2020.
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| Trevor Noah on Why Those Racist Trump Rally Chants Against Ilhan Omar Were ‘Extra-Disturbing’ Posted: 18 Jul 2019 07:25 PM PDT  Comedy CentralOn Thursday night, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah addressed President Trump's bordering-on-fascist rally the night before at Williams Arena in Greenville, North Carolina—you know, the one where Trump worked up his crowd into a lather till they unleashed a racist chant against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). "And obviously and importantly, Omar has a history of launching vicious, anti-Semitic screeds," offered Trump, to loud chants of "SEND HER BACK!" from the crowd. (Note: Omar has no such history.) "Wow. Send her back. A U.S. citizen, send her back," offered a defeated Noah. "It almost makes you miss the innocent days when all Trump's crowd wanted to do was imprison a woman without trial. Lock her up! Lock her up! Because that was horrible, but at least Hillary would be able to stay in the country.""There have been several disturbing moments in the Trump presidency, but for some reason, this one moment felt extra-disturbing," the comedian continued. "It's the same way I felt when Ted Cruz grew a beard: I didn't think it could get any worse, but here we are. And I'm far from the only one who felt that way about this moment in the rally. Pretty much everyone who watched this thing was sickened by what they saw." Trump, for his part, later told reporters he "felt a little bit badly" about the racist chants and claimed that he tried to cut them off during the rally by "speaking very quickly" (he did exactly the opposite—pausing for effect). "Wait, what?!" Noah exclaimed. "Sometimes I think this guy thinks, like, cameras don't exist. How is Trump going to say he wasn't happy with that chant? He inspired the chant. He's the one who tweeted they should go back." Seth Meyers Grills Meghan McCain: Your Rep. Ilhan Omar Comments Are 'Dangerous'"I don't know what's a worse lie: Trump saying that he didn't like the chant or that he quickly stopped the crowd from chanting," added Noah. "He didn't stop anything. He was basking in that moment like an iguana soaking up racist sun. He let that chant go on for so long, Usain Bolt could have won a gold medal in that time." "Here's the thing: We've seen this before from Trump… he gets his supporters worked up, he pretends to be shocked, and then it becomes one of his greatest hits when he's on the road." The late-night host then left all Republican politicians silent over the racist chant with a message: "Grow some balls." 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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| Secrets: Everything You Wanted to Know About Israel's Nuclear Weapons Posted: 20 Jul 2019 12:00 PM PDT  The Iranian nuclear nonproliferation agreement has been the top foreign policy issue throughout Washington for the past two months. Approving or disapproving the deal was the first order of business for the U.S. Congress until the very last day of congressional action under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (September 17). Hours of debate have been conducted on the floors of the House and Senate, both chambers have held roll call votes, and Senate Democrats bonded together to filibuster a motion of disapproval — a resolution that would have prevented President Obama from providing the Iranians sanctions relief.The Obama administration's main selling point for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is based on the theory that forcing Tehran to downgrade its nuclear program will make the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East — the world's most frenetic and violent region even without nuclear weapons— far less urgent. Yet we should remember that there is in fact a state in the region that already possesses nuclear weapons. That state happens to be Washington's closest ally in the Middle East: Israel.(This first appeared in September 2015.)There are a lot of mysteries surrounding Israel's nuclear arsenal. That is partly due to the Israeli security establishment's unwritten rule of never speaking about the country's nuclear weapons program in public in order to preserve the principle of deterrence. But there are indeed some basic elements of Israel's nuclear program that are acknowledged by defense analysts in the United States and around the world.1. The Number is in Doubt:
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| 41 Low-Carb Breakfasts You'll Actually Want To Eat Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:20 PM PDT |
| Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Charged With Three Murders — Two Were Children Posted: 20 Jul 2019 01:10 AM PDT  An illegal immigrant from Guatemala, who has twice been deported, was arrested Tuesday in connection to the murders of an Iowa woman and her two children.Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana, 31, was arrested after he allegedly shotthe family with which he lived in Des Moines, Iowa, and called 911 on himself. Orellana is the suspect in the murder of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez and her two children, Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores, 11, and Ever Jose Mejia-Flores, 5, according an Associated Press report.Orellana was deported in both 2010 and 2011, and convicted of illegal entry. He crossed the border around Laredo, Texas, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and ordered not to return — a command by which he did not abide, ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer confirmed with AP. (RELATED: ICE Released List Of Illegal Immigrants Accused of Crimes After Local Police Ignored Detainers)Orellana allegedly killed the family after an argument ensued in their shared home, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. He then dialed 911 and allegedly fabricated a story about Rodriguez killing the two children, saying he had to kill her in self-defense, the AP reports.Investigators are uncertain about why the murders occurred, but they did not buy Orellana's story.
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| Pittsburgh marks its 4th alligator sighting since May Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:09 PM PDT  A baby alligator was found far from the tropics in the parking lot of a grocery store outside Pittsburgh on Friday morning, the fourth alligator discovered near the city since May. An employee found the 2-foot-long (60-centimeter-long) creature near a garbage can at the Giant Eagle grocery store in Shaler, about 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh. "It looks like a little baby alligator," Shaler Township Police Lt. Dave Banko told the Tribune Review newspaper.
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| Dozens of whales wash up on Icelandic beach Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:07 AM PDT  Dozens of beached whales have been discovered on a secluded stretch of sand in west Iceland where people rarely tread. The eerie photographs show what appears to be around 20 pilot whales, partially buried in the sand and rotting on Löngufjörur beach. A pilot from Reykjavík took the photographs while ferrying American tourists around the island. The morbid discovery was only made this week by air as the area is inaccessible by car and has few visitors, except the occasional hiker. Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir, a marine biologist and whale specialist, told local news website Iceland Monitor that it was hard to confirm when the mammals washed up on the beach. "The most important thing to look at is that these are deep-sea whales, common at the continental margin," she said. "They mainly feed on squid, which is why they're good at diving deep. When they enter shallow waters, most of them have a tendency to become disoriented. They use echolocation for orientation, for finding one another, estimating the depth, and so on. "But a sloping, sandy bottom appears to increase their disorientation. There are numerous examples of them having beached where there is such a sandy, sloping bottom." She added that pilot whales tend to swim in close-knit groups, which increases the risk of a large number being beached at once. It comes after 145 pilot whales were found stranded on an island in New Zealand, of which half were already dead. The other half had to be put down.
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| Bernie Sanders campaign reportedly resists unionized staff demands for $15 per hour Posted: 19 Jul 2019 05:55 AM PDT  Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has pledged that he will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour if he wins the White House in 2020.
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| D-Day flag that flew at Normandy landing gifted to US 75 years later. Trump accepts flag from Netherlands PM Posted: 19 Jul 2019 07:48 AM PDT  The flag, pierced by German bullet holes, flew aboard one of the landing crafts troops used to storm the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
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| BA suspends flights to Cairo on security grounds Posted: 20 Jul 2019 05:13 PM PDT  British Airways said Saturday it had suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precautionary measure following a security review. German carrier Lufthansa also said it was suspending flights to Cairo from Munich and Frankfurt just for Saturday without giving any reason. A Lufthansa spokesman said normal service should return on Sunday.
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| Nigeria president condemns latest killings in northwestern Sokoto state Posted: 20 Jul 2019 02:23 PM PDT  Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari condemns the killing of 37 people by bandits in the northwestern state of Sokoto, his spokesman said in a statement. Armed gangs have killed hundreds of people in northwest Nigeria this year and forced at least 20,000 to flee to neighboring Niger, adding to security problems in a country also struggling with an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and clashes between farmers and herders in central states. "President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemns the killing of 37 innocent people by bandits in the Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State," the presidency said in the statement.
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| Iran tanker crisis 'ominous' for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, husband says Posted: 20 Jul 2019 11:59 AM PDT  The husband of jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said he is worried her future has become "more uncertain and ominous" after Iran's seizing of a UK tanker in the Gulf. Richard Ratcliffe has expressed concerned for his wife, whom he has not heard from since she was moved on Monday from Tehran's Evin prison to a psychiatric hospital. Mr Ratcliffe said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, who had recently ended a 15-day hunger strike, has not been allowed contact for almost a week. "We were hoping now it is the start of a new week in Iran that we might at least get access. Nazanin's dad is going down today again to try," Mr Ratcliffe told the Telegraph. "I told the Foreign Office yesterday that in my view we should now regard Nazanin as held incommunicado." He said it was not known what treatment she was receiving or how long she was expected to remain in hospital. At Evin prison, she had been allowed regular phone calls to Mr Ratcliffe and her lawyer. "With the tankers, obviously everything feels rather more uncertain and ominous," he said. "It reminds me of the very earliest days when she disappeared under IRGC control," he added. "But I have promised myself I will wait a full week before really panicking." Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose British nationality is not recognised by Tehran, is serving a five-year sentence for espionage, charges she denies. Days before she was transferred, she told relatives: "Three and a bit years later (...) look at me now - I ended up in an asylum. It should be an embarrassment. "Prison is getting harder and harder for me. I hate being played in the middle of a political game. I just hate it." Mr Ratcliffe said he was concerned what the decision by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to move her to hospital meant, as when they were involved "bad stuff happens". It was the powerful Revolutionary Guard which on Friday seized the British-flagged Stena Impero after warning it would retaliate the UK's "unlawful" impounding of an Iranian ship. Amid statements on the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, tweeted on Saturday that he was "very concerned about this week's transfer of Nazanin to an IRGC (Revolutionary Guard Corp) hospital. "We'd hoped this meant she was getting medical treatment she needs but the fact that she has been cut off from contact with her family is giving us huge cause for concern." The Foreign Office has tried to keep separate Mrs Zaghar-Ratcliffe's case and the military manoeuvrings in the Persian Gulf, but there are concerns they are being linked by the Islamic Republic.
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| For Planned Parenthood, No Doctors Need Apply Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Poor Leana Wen. She took Planned Parenthood's propaganda a little too seriously. And now she's out of a job.For the longest time, Planned Parenthood has insisted that it's a health-care organization, and it only cares about abortion — supposedly a tiny share of its business — insofar as it's a function of health care.Whenever Republicans have threatened Planned Parenthood's funding over abortion, the response was, Abortion? Don't be silly. We are all about Pap tests and breast exams.The hiring of Wen as president seemed the natural extension of this line of argument. How serious is Planned Parenthood about health care? For the first time in a half a century it had a physician, with "Dr." in front of her name, one who was once the health commissioner of Baltimore, leading the organization.BuzzFeed wrote a mostly favorable piece on Wen's ascension eight months ago headlined, awkwardly in order to honor the trope that abortion is health care, "Planned Parenthood's New President Wants to Focus on Nonabortion Health Care."The first sign of trouble should have been that Wen felt compelled to immediately tweet that the headline misconstrued her vision. "Our core mission," she wrote, presumably under internal pressure, "is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care."But Wen, it turns out, wasn't single-mindedly devoted to abortion enough. With her ouster, Planned Parenthood's mask, never very firmly in place to begin with, has slipped. No matter its political spin during fights over its funding, no matter what its glossy printed materials say, no matter how dishonestly it presents the statistics related to its services, the organization is about abortion first and last, now and forever.In a letter tweeted after her firing, Wen cited "philosophical differences" with the leadership of the board. Namely, she had come to Planned Parenthood "to run a national health care organization." The board wanted "to double down on abortion rights advocacy."It's truly extraordinary to have this breach out in the open, given how vested Planned Parenthood has been in its image as a mere health-care provider. When Barack Obama became the first — and one hopes, the last — president to address a Planned Parenthood conference in 2013, he talked almost entirely about health care. In fact, he didn't mention the word "abortion" once.Planned Parenthood always says abortion is only 3 percent of its services, an absurd factoid designed to mislead. Providing pregnancy tests and performing abortions are both Planned Parenthood services, although one is obviously much more consequential and central to its mission than the other.The more telling way to look at it is that Planned Parenthood performs roughly a third of all abortions in the country, about 330,000 a year, according to its annual report.If performing a significant share of the country's abortions were merely incidental to its mission, it would gladly give it up. If you told any other federally funded group that it might have to forswear a small sliver of its business to continue to get public dollars, it wouldn't be a difficult choice. Or, if Walmart had to decide between, say, selling Bounty paper towels and everything else on its shelves, it wouldn't be a close call.The internal complaint about Wen was that she was too concerned with what is, if we take Planned Parenthood's spurious accounting seriously, 97 percent of its business. So what's wrong with that? The context of her ouster is the continued pressure on Planned Parenthood from the Trump administration and in Republican states, which, if nothing else, is smoking Planned Parenthood out. The firing of Wen, coupled with the decision to forgo Title X funding rather than stop providing abortion referrals in keeping with a new Trump administration rule, makes the group's true priority obvious, if there were any doubt.An interim president has been named, and the implicit guideline for filling the permanent role will surely be: No doctors need apply.© 2019 by King Features Syndicate
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| Private Investigator Says He Shared Two Epstein Female Fixer Names with Feds Posted: 20 Jul 2019 07:28 AM PDT  Private investigator Michael Fisten first started digging into financier Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex trafficking crimes more than a decade ago when attorney Brad Edwards hired him. After Epstein signed a non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors in 2008, Edwards had sued Epstein in civil court on behalf of a number of alleged victims who had been blindsided by the plea deal (which a judge later ruled to have violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act). Fisten was tasked with finding as much incriminating information on the financier as he could.Fisten, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, said he was shocked and disgusted by what he uncovered. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN, the P.I. said that he was able to identify two young women who have arranged access to girls for Epstein in recent years. He and Edwards have handed over the names and "associated information" over to federal authorities, he said, though he did not name the alleged fixers to CNN.Judge Who Denied Bail to Jeffrey Epstein Calls Him 'Uncontrollable' and a 'Danger'Fisten also said that his investigations led to the discovery of countless lapses in security during the time Epstein was on work release from the Palm Beach county jail—in a cushy deal that allowed the convicted sex offender out of confinement 12 hours a day, six days a week. On Friday, the Palm Beach sheriff's office announced that it had opened its own internal investigation into whether deputies, who often referred to Epstein as a "client" instead of an inmate in logs kept at the sheriff's office, had broken with procedure. Fisten told CNN that he was angered that Epstein was allowed to go to a luxury office instead of remaining behind bars. Fisten said he was disgusted when he saw "lavish lunches being brought into the office and a parade of young females going in and out of the place."The Palm Beach sheriff's office now admits that Epstein was also allowed to go to his luxury mansion and spend time there unsupervised. Fisten tried to obtain the sheriff's office logs that should have documented the names and ages of everyone who came into contact with Epstein during work release, but the logs "have inexplicably vanished," he said to CNN. "We wanted to get those logs so we could see who the girls were," Fisten said. "They're missing. No one knows where they are."Fisten also repeated previous claims that Epstein wielded his power to silence his accusers during and after his incarceration, even hiring his own private investigators who were paid to harass his victims. "They were former Miami cops," Fisten told CNN. "He paid an extremely large retainer to them and all their job to do was to follow the girls around and intimidate them."Fisten even ran into Epstein's private investigators first hand. Once, when driving one of Epstein's accusers home, he told CNN he saw one of Epstein's detectives parked across from her house filming her comings and goings. Fisten said the father of another of Epstein's accusers was "run off the road" by one of the former cops in Epstein's employ.Of Epstein's alleged victims, Fisten noted, "Once these girls lost their braces and their pubescent look and started becoming 16-years old or 17-years old, they were too old for him.""So then he started using them as recruiters to bring the younger girls." Epstein was denied bail on Thursday as he faces federal sex trafficking charges in New York. Fisten says the victims finally feel that justice could be served. "They couldn't be happier," he told CNN. "It's all they ever wanted."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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| Venezuelan teen blinded by police fire still wants to study Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:50 PM PDT  A Venezuelan teenager who lost his eyesight when he was hit by police buckshot during a protest said Friday that he wants to continue studying. Wearing reflective sunglasses, 16-year-old Rufo Chacón also spoke about difficult living conditions in his home state of Táchira, where he was injured during a demonstration over a lack of cooking gas early this month. "You see continuous darkness," Chacón told journalists outside the Caracas office of Foro Penal, a human rights group.
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| Facebook’s Former Security Chief Says It’s ‘Reasonable’ To Assume China Is Infiltrating Google Posted: 20 Jul 2019 02:32 AM PDT  Facebook's former security chief Alex Stamos suggested Tuesday that it is very possible that China and Russia have subverted Google's employees."It is completely reasonable to assume that MSS and SVR have subverted employees at all the major tech companies," Stamos said in a Twitter threadTuesday, noting tech billionaire Peter Thiel's accusations that China's Ministry of Security "likely" infiltrated Google."This is part of the threat model for all competent tech security teams when building internal controls, monitoring and response," he added. Thiel, a high-profile supporter of President Donald Trump, criticized Google's work with the Chinese during a speech Sunday to the inaugural National Conservatism Conference."How many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI? Does Google's senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?" Thiel asked at the conference.He added: "Is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the U.S. military." Thiel, who sits on the board of Facebook, suggested his questions warrant the attention of federal investigators.
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| NASA imagines a 1969 webpage for the Apollo 11 landing Posted: 20 Jul 2019 09:20 AM PDT  On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of Earth's moon. Now, 50 years later, NASA has imagined what the space mission's website would have looked like.It's a cute tie-in for the U.S. space agency's ongoing 50th anniversary celebration of the moon landing. The "website" is really more of a screenshot mock-up. It doesn't really have 1969 internet vibes because there was no internet in 1969. But it does look like an old-ass landing page from the World Wide Web.Here, see for yourself:Image: NASA / Gary DainesThere was, of course, an online world before websites like the one imagined above existed. I'm calling back to the era of services like Prodigy, America Online, and CompuServe, and to the Bulletin Board Systems that inspired those services.SEE ALSO: Where are the lost Apollo 11 Moon landing tapes?But this is, as NASA describes it, nothing more than "a little thought experiment." An imagining of what the agency's information-providing homepage might have looked like, "with a style that reflected the changing artistic (and other) standards of the day." WATCH: Before Apollo 11, we almost went to the moon with the Russians
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