| '45 is a puppet': Can you spot the mistakes in the fake presidential seal behind Trump? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:24 AM PDT  A doctored presidential seal with a double-headed eagle holding golf clubs was displayed before President Trump gave a speech on Tuesday.
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| Family speaks out after girl with special needs was brutally attacked by multiple teens in viral video Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:35 AM PDT  The family of a 15-year-old Chicago girl with special needs said she is doingOK after she was brutally beaten by a group of teenagers in an attack that wascaptured on video, WLS-TV reports
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| Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S. Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:03 AM PDT  Ledy Perez fell to her haunches, a clenched hand covering her face as she wept, an arm clutching her small 6-year-old son, who glared defiantly at the Mexican National Guard soldier blocking them from crossing into the United States. The plight of this mother and son who had traveled some 1,500 miles (2,410 km) from their home country of Guatemala to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, only to be stopped mere feet from the United States, was captured by Reuters photographer Jose Luis Gonzalez as twilight approached on Monday. "The woman begged and pleaded with the National Guard to let them cross ... she wanted to cross to give a better future" to her young son Anthony Diaz, Gonzalez said.
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| Syrian girls captured in viral photo fight for survival Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:41 AM PDT  The picture went viral on social media networks: two dust-covered Syrian girls, trapped in rubble, grab their baby sister from her shirt as she dangles from a bombed-out building. The picture was captured on Wednesday by Bashar al-Sheikh, a photographer working with local news website SY24, moments after warplanes pummelled the town of Ariha in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. Of the three girls shown in the photo, one is dead and two are fighting to stay alive, after regime airstrikes hit their home, said Dr. Ismail, who treated the victims in a nearby hospital but asked that his last name not be revealed.
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| Loose tire rolls down New Jersey highway until crashing into car Posted: 25 Jul 2019 07:34 PM PDT  It was a wild scene in New Jersey when a wayward tire rolled down the highway until it went flying into a moving vehicle.
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| View Photos of the 2020 BMW 2-series Gran Coupe Prototype Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:02 AM PDT |
| Austrian triathlete Nathalie Birli survives kidnapping after convincing man to free her Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:59 AM PDT  An Austrian triathlete survived a kidnapping in which she was first hit by a car, tied up with duct tape and then taken to a remote house where she was held for hours before convincing her abductor to release her, police said. A 33-year-old man has been arrested. Nathalie Birli, 27, was training with her bicycle on a road in Kumberg in southern Austria on Tuesday afternoon when she was abducted, Graz police spokesman Fritz Grundnig said. The attacker, whose name wasn't given according to Austrian privacy rules, was arrested on Wednesday. Birli said that she was on her bicycle when a car rammed into her and knocked her over, according to an interview published in local newspaper Krone on Thursday. She said she broke her left arm in the fall and the driver then beat her with a stick and threw her into the back seat. Birli, who has a 14-week-old son, said that she lost consciousness for a while, and when she woke up she was naked and tied to an armchair, Krone reported. "He was full of hatred," she said. "He blindfolded me, forced me to drink wine and schnapps and he always held a knife in his hand." Birli said at some point he held her nose and mouth and she thought he wanted to suffocate her but then stopped and forced her into a bathtub with cold water "to drown me." She said the situation began to change when she saw that there were a lot of orchids in the house and she expressed her admiration for the plants. "All of a sudden the attacker was nice to me," Birli told Krone. He told her that he was a gardener and started talking about his horrible life - "a dead father, a mother addicted to alcohol and girlfriends who betrayed him," Birli said. Birli said that was the moment when she suggested a "deal" to the man. "'Let's pretend it was an accident,' I offered him, 'and you let me go.'" He agreed, took off the duct tape and drove her all the way home, she said. "I went right into the house, locked the door and called my partner," Birli said. Police managed to track down the suspect and he was arrested early Wednesday by Austria's Cobra special forces. Birli, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, said the experience was like a "bad movie" and thanked all who went out looking for her when she was missing. "Thank God I could liberate myself, and other than a fractured arm and a head injury, I'm fine," she said.
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| ‘Fox & Friends’ Host Brian Kilmeade: Obstruction Part of Mueller Report Just ’Trump Being Trump’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:37 AM PDT  Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that President Trump could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade on Thursday brushed off such alleged criminality as nothing more than "Trump being Trump."At the top of Thursday's broadcast of the president's favorite morning show, the Friends crew immediately spun the lengthy Wednesday House hearing as a complete victory for the president. At the same time, the hosts noted that prominent Democrats felt the former FBI director made the case for impeaching Trump for obstructing justice."Were they watching something else?" Ainsley Earhardt wondered aloud."I think you can sum up the obstruction part—Trump being Trump," Kilmeade said after they aired a clip of 2020 candidates saying Trump was not exonerated by the report.The pro-Trump Fox News host went on to summarize what he felt was the president's mindset."Picture this, you are wrongly accused and you know you didn't collude with Russia as was revealed in the first part [of the report]," he declared. "And then you have 19 lawyers, all of which are on the record hating you and very talented and loaded for bear, and you have an entire—Robert Mueller, with an endless budget, open wallet to investigate you."Kilmeade continued: "Even if you did not rob the bank if they are going to investigate you for robbing the bank you got to wonder: 'Why did they question everyone around me for something I didn't do?' What does Trump do? He fights every step of the way and the biggest reporter, the biggest anchor, the smallest outlet, if you say something wrong he will call you out and that's what this is!"Doocy and Earhardt agreed with Kilmeade, of course, adding that it wasn't Mueller's job to say he "could not" exonerate the president, and that "they could not find something to charge the president with."During the lengthy House hearing, the former special counsel testified that the president could be indicted after he leaves office and that he believes Trump's written answers for the report may have been "generally" untrue.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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| 2 North Carolina bomb squad agents injured in explosion Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:29 AM PDT |
| Dr. Leana Wen's departure from Planned Parenthood exposes the organization's true identity Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Leana Wen's firing captures what pro-life activists have been arguing for years, that Planned Parenthood cares only about maintaining abortion clinics
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| Russia warns of 'consequences' after Ukraine seizes tanker Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:55 AM PDT  Ukraine on Thursday seized a Russian tanker it said was used in a naval confrontation last November amid sensitive prisoner swap talks between the two countries who have been at loggerheads since 2014. Kiev's SBU security service said it stopped the tanker, the Neyma, as it entered the port of Izmail in the southern Odessa region. Investigators seized documents onboard and questioned crew members, an SBU statement said.
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| No, McConnell Isn’t ‘Moscow Mitch’ Posted: 26 Jul 2019 01:17 PM PDT  As an act of political theater, the Democrats' recent attempt to cast Mitch McConnell in a bad light has been quite successful. The Internet is awash in headlines contending that he blocked election-security reforms despite warnings about ongoing Russian interference from Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee.The reactions are overwrought and unfair. McConnell was right to stop the two bills at the center of the controversy, and the Democrats knew full well ahead of time that he would do so. And "Cocaine Mitch" is a far better nickname than "Moscow Mitch" anyway.The Democrats tried to push these bills by unanimous consent. One of them, a bill giving states hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade their voting systems and requiring the use of paper ballots, had already passed the House — and won only a single Republican vote, meaning its support is far from unanimous. The other would require candidates to report foreign offers of assistance; this would encounter numerous practical difficulties and at minimum cannot simply sail through the Senate unimpeded.Senate Democrats asked for unanimous consent to these bills knowing they would not receive it and pretended to be shocked when they didn't get it. The media then gobbled up a narrative about McConnell stopping action on an issue right after being warned about how serious a problem it was.To be clear, foreign election interference is, indeed, a serious threat. According to the recent Intelligence Committee report, while there's no sign that vote totals have been manipulated, there have been successful efforts to access sensitive information such as voter registration.Less well known, however, is that there's already been immense progress on this issue. The Department of Homeland Security and the states have gotten far better at addressing it since the 2016 election; Congress provided the states $380 million for election security just last year; under McConnell, the Senate has passed bills to further deter and punish those who interfere in elections. Still, additional efforts are warranted, and some of those efforts could require legislation.We share McConnell's hesitance toward federalizing election policy. This is an area traditionally handled by the states, and on those grounds McConnell has held up several efforts, some with bipartisan support, in recent months. But we encourage him to be open to narrow, bipartisan legislation to tackle problems that only the federal government can tackle, and have every reason to believe he will be.These bills were not that.
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| US border patrol chief says she didn’t realise racist Facebook group was racist Posted: 26 Jul 2019 04:22 AM PDT  The revelations over secret Facebook groups popular with US Border Patrol agents were eye-popping.A constant stream of racist, sexist and violent images persisted for years, reporters revealed. Days later, officials said those responsible for posts were previously investigated, with unclear results.Then, in testimony on Wednesday, Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost acknowledged she herself was a member of one of the groups, and had been active since at least autumn 2018, according to images published by The Intercept.Her reason for involvement in the group was to evaluate "how I am representing my workforce", she told lawmakers in a hearing about oversight within her agency.Ms Provost sighed deeply. "I didn't think anything of it at the time," she told the House appropriations subcommittee, and said she was unaware about the nature of the posts until ProPublica published a report on 1 July.The posts contain caustic remarks about the deaths of migrants, sexually explicit images and xenophobic comments.Her admission raised a question: why did she not use her membership in the group to instead measure cultural sentiment among agents, attitudes about migrants or possible concerns she could address at the top?"She either missed it from failure to effectively do her job or actively avoided thinking about it," Josiah Heyman, director of the Inter-American and Border Studies centre at the University of Texas at El Paso, said on Thursday.Part of Ms Provost's duties is to visit facilities and meet agents, where front-line supervisors may downplay realities of a recruiting and morale crisis.Facebook, then, could provide an unvarnished look at how agents view themselves and their duties – or in this case, watch troubling cultural issues rise to the surface as the agency faces intense scrutiny.Ms Provost looked for candid words about her performance, Mr Heyman noted, "but she manifested no curiosity about candid things being said in other regards".More than 60 active and eight former agents are being investigated for their involvement in the group, Associated Press reported.Some posts questioned the authenticity of a photo of a drowned migrant man and his young daughter.Another showed a crudely doctored photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez performing forced oral sex on Donald Trump.Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes Border Patrol, did not return a request for comment about why Ms Provost did not use the group in a manner that could have prevented the organisation's latest black eye.In her testimony, Ms Provost said she is "as outraged as everyone else".She "condemned" the posts in a message to the agency, launched investigations into agents who posted or responded to posts and turned over her passwords to agency oversight officials, who told her she had logged on to Facebook nine times over a one-year period, mostly to keep up with friends and family.Yet Ms Provost said the posts at the private group page "I'm 10-15," after the law enforcement code for "aliens in custody", were not indicative of cultural rot within the Border Patrol.She called offenders "a few bad apples" among about 20,000 agents. The group for current and former agents included about 9,500 members, though other groups exist.Mr Heyman suggested the posts indicate cultural and attitude problems that he said officials have been reluctant to address.He led a survey of about 1,100 migrants deported to Mexico, and nearly a quarter of respondents said they were verbally abused by US immigration agents, primarily Border Patrol. 11 per cent reported physical abuse."The posts are very consistent with that we found," he said. It's not just 'this person is out of status, and I need to apply law ... but I hate this person, I want to humiliate this person'."Washington Post
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| Four people shot dead, two wounded in Los Angeles shooting spree Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:41 PM PDT ![Four people shot dead, two wounded in Los Angeles shooting spree]( "Four people shot dead, two wounded in Los Angeles shooting spree") A Los Angeles police spokesman identified the suspect as Gerry Zaragoza, 26, and said he was held on pending murder charges in the shooting deaths of his father and brother, and the wounding of his mother with a gun shot. The shooting spree started at an apartment the suspect shared with his parents at about 2 a.m. on Thursday in LA's Canoga Park, police said. The man was shot five times and was in critical condition, the Los Angeles Times and other media reported.
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| Amanda Knox faces backlash for crowdfunding her wedding: 'I'm a figure to be demonized' Posted: 24 Jul 2019 05:53 PM PDT  Amanda Knox has shared her space-themed wedding website and receiving criticism for "crowdfunding." Here's what she thinks of the backlash.
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| American Airlines passenger smashes laptop on partner's head in viral clip Posted: 25 Jul 2019 07:13 AM PDT  An unruly passenger was removed from an American Airlines plane at Miami International Airport Sunday after she smashed a laptop over her partner's head.
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| Today's Climate Change Is Worse Than Anything Earth Has Experienced in the Past 2,000 Years Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:25 AM PDT  The global climate is changing faster now than it has at any point in the past 2,000 years.That's the conclusion of a trio of papers published July 24 in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience that examined the global climate over the past two millennia. The researchers showed that none of the past fluctuations -- that is, not the Little Ice Age, the warm period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly or any other famous shift -- had the global reach that modern climate change is having. Past fluctuations tended to be localized, affecting primarily one region at a time. Modern climate change, by contrast, is messing with the entire world."Temperatures did not rise and fall everywhere in step [in the past]," editors wrote in an accompanying opinion piece in Nature Geoscience. "Specifically, early cool or warm intervals that lasted for centuries peaked at different times in different regions."That's a radical departure from modern climate change, Scott St. George, a climate researcher at the University of Minnesota who wasn't involved in the research, wrote in a news and views article for Nature. [10 Climate Myths Busted]"Although the Little Ice Age was the coldest epoch of the past millennium, the timing of the lowest temperatures varied from place to place," St. George wrote. "Two-fifths of the planet were subjected to the coldest weather during the mid-nineteenth century, but the deepest chill occurred several centuries earlier in other regions. And even at the height of the Medieval Climate Anomaly, only 40% of Earth"s surface reached peak temperatures at the same time. Using the same metrics, global warming today is unparalleled: for 98% of the planet's surface, the warmest period of the Common Era occurred in the late twentieth century."That means that almost every part of the planet had its hottest decades in the past 2,000 years at the same time.And the 21st century, which is outside the scope of these papers, has been much hotter than the 20th century so far. In fact, the world is on track to keep warming as greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere.To develop a rigorous picture of global temperatures over the past 2,000 years, the researchers relied on nearly 700 records from the so-called PAGES 2k proxy temperature database. That database rounds up evidence from ice cores, trees, coral and other substances that change their appearance or chemical composition based on global temperatures. The researchers used those records to build a detailed map of climate fluctuations the world over. And none of them look like the consistent, persistent shifts we're seeing today.Of course, the causes are different, too. Evidence from the previous 2,000 years shows that short-lived volcanic events were the main drivers of climate fluctuations, the authors wrote. Human activities were perhaps a very minor secondary factor over that period. Now, humans are the ones driving the bus. And this time, it's headed toward the edge of a cliff. * Images of Melt: Earth's Vanishing Ice Caps * 50 Interesting Facts About Earth * 9 Real Ways the World Could EndOriginally published on Live Science.
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| Judge dismisses Kentucky teen's lawsuit from viral encounter Posted: 26 Jul 2019 03:07 PM PDT ![Judge dismisses Kentucky teen's lawsuit from viral encounter]( "Judge dismisses Kentucky teen's lawsuit from viral encounter") A federal judge has thrown out a Kentucky teen's lawsuit accusing the Washington Post of falsely labeling him a racist following an encounter with a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial. The actions of Sandmann and his classmates were intensely debated after video and photographs emerged of them wearing "Make America Great Again" hats near a Native American man playing a drum. President Donald Trump cheered the lawsuit, posting to Twitter that "Covington student suing WAPO.
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| India farmers shocked as suspected meteorite crashes into rice field Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:29 AM PDT  A suspected meteorite the size of a football plunged into a rice field in eastern India, startling farmers, authorities said Thursday. "The farmers were working in the paddy field when this heavy rock fell from the sky with a very loud noise," Shirsat Kapil Ashok, the magistrate for Madhubani district in Bihar state, told AFP. The find is being analysed by scientists as a possible meteorite.
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| Japan May Soon Gain a Powerful Trade Weapon Against South Korea Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:36 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Japan could soon gain a powerful new trade weapon against its neighbor South Korea.Tokyo set Wednesday as the deadline for public comments on whether to remove South Korea from a so-called "white list" of trusted export destinations, a bureaucratic process intended to stymie weapons proliferation. Such a move could restrict exports on hundreds of items to South Korea, hamstringing the country's giant tech sector and potentially the production of a swathe of the world's most popular gadgets.A dispute between two of Asia's largest economies escalated this month when Japan slapped curbs on the export to South Korea of three materials vital to semiconductor and display manufacturing. That came after tensions flared over whether Japan has sufficiently compensated Koreans who suffered under Japan's 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula.Stripping South Korea of its white-list designation could deal a further blow to Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The move could affect 97% of Japanese imports, though any disruption should prove short-lived, economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said this week. Specifically, South Korean firms would need to get individual approvals from the Japanese government for exports of 857 non-sensitive products out of 1,120 Japanese strategic materials.The other 263 products are sensitive materials for which Japan already requires approval, Park So-yeon, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said in a note Wednesday. Although it isn't clear which items will be most affected by white-list removal, promising sectors such as semiconductors as well as new energy vehicles might be impacted once blanket approval for products from chemicals to machinery are removed, analysts say.Chip Firms Face CrunchJapan accounts for about 32% or roughly $3.8 billion of South Korea's chip manufacturing equipment imports. The larger nation yields about 83% or $422 million of its smaller neighbor's display manufacturing gear imports, according to Lee Joo-wan, research fellow at Hana Institute of Finance.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government said it's making the moves because it found evidence that South Korea has not offered proper management of sensitive materials -- a charge the government of President Moon Jae-in has denied. Their fight has played well at home for both leaders, with Moon and Abe enjoying climbs in support for their tough stands.U.S. technology companies, however, urged Japan and South Korea to cool tensions, saying too much was at stake globally."Non-transparent and unilateral changes in export control policies can cause supply chain disruptions, delays in shipments, and ultimately long-term harm to the companies that operate within and beyond your borders and the workers they employ," five of America's largest tech industry groups wrote in a joint letter to the trade ministers of Japan and South Korea.Still, economists at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch see little chance of tensions developing into a full-fledged trade war."We do not believe that such a de-listing would necessarily lead to large, sustained disruptions in Japan-Korea trade activities, due to mutual trade dependence," Goldman economists wrote in their note.Colonial ClaimsSouth Korea on Wednesday appealed to Japan to keep it on the list. It would hurt economic ties, the trade ministry said in a statement, as Seoul sought to convince the World Trade Organization's general council that Japan is violating its rules -- a charge Tokyo denies.South Korean deputy trade minister Kim Seung-ho told the WTO on Wednesday that Japan's trade restrictions were being deployed as a political tool to prevent forced-labor victims from asking Japanese companies for compensation stemming from forced-labor practices during World War II, according to an official with knowledge of the remarks, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private.Japanese Ambassador to the WTO, Junichi Ihara, rejected Kim's claim. He said Tokyo's trade restrictions were a national-security matter and were not appropriate for discussion at the WTO.Resolving the export-curbs issue is difficult because it's become entangled with a dispute over South Korean court rulings, ordering the seizure of Japanese corporate assets to compensate Koreans forced to work in colonial-era factories and mines. Tokyo has put pressure on Seoul to accept an arbitration process stipulated in a 1965 treaty that set up basic relations to settle the so-called conscripted labor issue.Japan's decision to remove a country from the white list lies with its cabinet. But before that takes place, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will assess the public comments received and compile a set of responses. An actual decision is expected in August but in theory, Japan could decide as early as this week.The period for accepting public comments on removing South Korea was 24 days, as opposed to most cases where the window is around 30 days. That suggests the cabinet decision may come sooner rather than later. Once a decision is made, the amendment to the relevant law is publicized and comes into force 21 days after its publication.Japan could arguably end up hurting its own economy. A Japanese government official has said that removing South Korea from the white list would mean domestic exporters lose access to general bulk licenses for exporting goods. They would still be able to access special bulk licenses, instead of applying for individual approvals, that require inspection from Japan's economic ministry, the official said.Tokyo still had questions about South Korea's general weapons export screening system, Economy Minister Hiroshige Seko said, giving no clear indication on when Japan might make its next move after the deadline for comments closed."We will put the public comments received in order, and disclose them at the appropriate time," he told reporters in Tokyo Wednesday.(Corrects wording in 13th paragraph to reflect South Korean official's remarks about forced-labor victims asking Japanese companies for compensation.)(Updates with WTO appeal starting in 13th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Yuko Takeo and Bryce Baschuk.To contact the reporter on this story: Sohee Kim in Seoul at skim847@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Basil From Mexico Is Likely Cause of Cyclospora Food Poisoning Outbreak Posted: 26 Jul 2019 12:04 PM PDT  A food poisoning outbreak tied to 132 cyclospora illnesses in 11 states was likely caused by fresh basil imported from Mexico by Siga Logistics de RL de CV, the Food and Drug Administration annou...
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| Should the U.S. Navy Take Iranian Submarines as a Serious Threat? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:00 PM PDT  Four years ago, Iran also launched its own domestically built Fateh-class submarine. The homemade vessel may lack modern features such as antiship missiles or quiet Air Independent Propulsion system, but it does seem to be the genuine article—not something one should take for granted with reports of new Iranian weapons.The Iranian military has long planned for a defensive naval war in the Persian Gulf, in which it would leverage its large fleet of fast attack boats toting antiship missiles to launch swarming hit-and-run attacks on adversaries in along Persian Gulf, with the ultimate goal of shutting down passage through the Straits of Hormuz.Supporting this naval guerilla-warfare strategy are twenty-one indigenously produced Ghadir-class mini submarines, derived from the North Korean Yono class. The 120-ton vessels can poke around at eleven knots (thirteen miles per hour) and each carry two 533-millimeter torpedoes. All in all, shallow littoral waters are very favorable for mini-submarine operations, with interference from rocky shallows and loud surf reducing sonar detection ranges and giving mini submarines abundant opportunities to hide and wait in ambush. On the high end of the capability spectrum, Iran operates three much larger and more capable Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines purchased from Russia in the 1990s. These can comfortably hunt in the waters of the Indian Ocean.(This first appeared in October 2017.)Recommended: Could the Battleship Make a Comeback?
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| Woman shoots 2 Israeli men to death at Mexico City shopping mall Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:52 PM PDT  A woman wearing a blond wig disguise shot two Israeli men to death at a restaurant in an upscale Mexico City shopping mall, and authorities said Thursday they were investigating links to organized crime.
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| No 'day in court': U.S. deportation orders blindside some families Posted: 26 Jul 2019 03:09 AM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Carin, a 39-year-old subsistence farmer from Honduras, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her two sons late last year. Carin said she made sure to check the mailbox regularly at the apartment in Colorado where they were living. It was a deportation order.
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| See the McLaren 600LT Pikes Peak Collection Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:10 AM PDT |
| North Carolina woman who hurled racial slur at black diners in viral video: 'I would say it again' Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:29 AM PDT  A woman whose profane, racist rant inside a North Carolina restaurant wascaught on camera says she will not apologize for the incident
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| 27 children removed from Montana treatment facility over allegations of 'egregious' abuse Posted: 26 Jul 2019 03:22 PM PDT  The allegations include physical and psychological abuse and assault at the Ranch for Kids in Rexford, Montana health officials said Tuesday.
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| Hong Kong protesters rally at airport to 'educate' visitors Posted: 26 Jul 2019 04:46 AM PDT  Thousands of Hong Kongers, including flight attendants, held a rally in the airport's arrivals hall on Friday to "educate" visitors about the demonstrations currently gripping the international finance hub as it braces for another weekend of protests. The rally is the latest bid to keep pressure on Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leaders after seven weeks of largely peaceful mass demonstrations followed by violent clashes, an unprecedented challenge to Beijing's authority since the city's 1997 handover. The protests were triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but they have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.
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| Honduras: Where climate change and mass migration have created a village of women Posted: 26 Jul 2019 05:04 AM PDT  They call it the village of women, but the name is not entirely accurate.There are some young boys and older men, along with a handful in their prime. But officials say women now make up at least 75 per cent of La Cumbre, with dozens of their husbands, brothers and sons having left in search of work in the US. More depart every day, their first stop being the border with Guatemala, marked by the Motagua River, which flashes over the hills like a necklace of jewels.Life amid these coffee plantations has never been easy. But in recent years, a new challenge has beset villagers: climate change. Locals say that for the last decade there has been insufficient rainfall to ensure a decent harvest. This, on top of fungal blight and the low price of beans, has pushed many to the edge. Thousands have borrowed the $5,000 demanded by a coyote, or people smuggler, to mule them to the United States. That fee is said to be good for three attempts.Vincente Madrid Norrriega, deputy mayor of Trascerros, the municipality 60 miles west of San Pedro Sula to which La Cumbre belongs, estimates the area's total population has fallen from 10,000 to 7,000 in the last couple of years. La Cumbre's has been slashed to 450, from 700 in 2012. "The migration always used to happen, but over the last two years it's really increased," he says, sitting in his office in the neat town centre. "We are worried. We can't be without people in this area."The impact of the sudden departure of 30 per cent of the population has been dramatic. Businesses have shut, shops have closed. "This last year, we had 52 school teachers. Now it's down to 22 - this is because there are fewer students."The migration has been felt in other ways. Parents are upset when their children declare they are leaving, fearful about the dangerous, sometimes deadly journey they are about to undertake. People are saddened when they no longer see their friends. Business owners fear they could be next to go under. And a general sense of ill anxiety hangs over town.Of those who left, perhaps 200 have returned to the area around Trascerros, either voluntarily or having been deported. In 2018, the US immigration enforcement agency, known as ICE, deported 28,894 Hondurans – the equivalent of 80 people a day."The government has abandoned the city. For years we have been asking them to build roads, but they don't want to help," says Norrriega.Honduras is at the very nexus of Central America's migration crisis. A series of human caravans that last year made their way towards the southern US border were made up overwhelmingly of citizens of this country of 10m people, along with some from El Salvador and Guatemala.Donald Trump, who has placed a tough anti-immigration policy at the centre of his race-baiting re-election strategy, termed the caravan "an invasion" and warned the people of Honduras via Twitter "our military is waiting for you".Such words have not deterred people who sense they have nothing to lose in leaving a place beset by economic problems, with a dire lack of opportunities for young people, and endemic gang violence. This part of the country has always depended on coffee for its income, but it can no longer do so. Firstly, six years ago, the coffee was struck by fungal blight, then in 2016 the world price for beans plummeted to its lowest since 2006, the result, according to industry experts, of an over production of lower grade coffee, especially by countries such as Brazil.Now, people are also having to confront extreme weather.Norrriega says for nine years the weather pattern has shifted, and there has not been enough rain for the beans to completely grow, and they can remain hard. Farmers now need double the amount of beans they previously required to fill a sack to take to market. "It's climate change. People are talking about it a lot." On a shaded terrace above the town, Jorge Ardon, a 40-year-old coffee farmer, reveals what the beans look like when they do not get enough water – hard, and tough to the point of being shrivelled.Ardon believes one reason for the drop in rainfall was the logging of trees several decades ago. "Another factor is climate change." One unforeseen impact on the industry on which "100 per cent of people depend on", has been an increase in gang activity in a town that previously had none. "There are groups that try to do extortion. This has only been the last couple of years."A 2017 report by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said the "impacts of climate variability are already significant in Honduras". It said this had triggered "acute food insecurity, malnutrition and mass migration to poorly prepared urban areas". The problem created by climate change and extreme weather is not unique to Trascerros, or indeed, Honduras. In Lempira, a coffee growing area in western Honduras that is part of the "dry corridor" that reaches from southern Mexico to Panama and is the focus of international efforts to counter the lack of rainfall, thousands of farms have reportedly closed. Left with no alternative work, huge numbers have migrated. Last year, a report by the World Bank said the amount of land suitable for growing coffee in Central America could fall by 40 per cent by 2050, and that 1.4m people may be forced to leave their homes. In Honduras, perhaps one million people work in the coffee industry, according to Dutch food security researchers at Wageningen University."Climate migration will not occur in isolation, and the subregion will also see a marked increase in the number of other internal migrants driven by economic, social, or environmental reasons," said the World Bank report.Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, has been interviewing migrants who joined the caravans and compiling data on where they come from. She says many spoke of unpredictable weather as the reason they left the land. "They talk about climate change like it's a tax." She says data released by the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) of people apprehended by agents at the US-Mexico border shows that the number of people from Lempira, Honduras' main coffee region, had more than doubled from 2017 to 2018. Others unable to make a living from the land move to cities such as Tegucigalpa.La Cumbre is accessible only by a jarring, rutted track. It feels as hushed as a cathedral. There is little traffic, barely any movement. There is none of the bustle usually associated with a community in this region. Many homes are empty, their doors bolted shut. The small church sees far fewer people at its services than even a few years ago.Since her husband left a year ago, entering the US with the help of a coyote, Marcia Elena Pineta has been taking care of their small shop, and caring for three daughters, aged five, seven and 13. Her husband works in construction and sends money home, but life is not easy. "He left because you can work here and never see the benefits. He said: 'I need to go there and work to help my family'," she says, her youngest daughter Roxanne perched on a knee.She says she speaks to her husband every day using WhatsApp, but it was not the same as having him there. His life in the United States is also difficult."We don't talk about how long he will stay. It's up to God," she says. "It's very hard, but with God's help you carry on. The community feels very different. I don't think people will stop leaving."Another woman, Antonia Reaz, says her husband left two weeks ago with their 14-year-old son. People in the village say they believe having a child with them increases their chances of being permitted to enter the US if they are stopped. The woman's husband and son, Madondo Lopez, were detained almost immediately. She sobs as she holds a photograph of her boy, a bright smile on his face, as he graduated from the school's sixth grade, a couple of years ago. She says she has not heard from them and is gnarled with worry.Somehow, she has to find a way to take care of her three daughters. "Right now, I have all the responsibility because he went away," she says, her eyes locked downwards."At the beginning, I did not want him to go. I said: 'We have no relatives there'. But then some of our relatives reached there, so we took the decision."Asked if she too wishes to go the US, her answer comes back rapid-fire fast. "I don't want to go. That is not my dream."Freddie Vasquez, 56, is among the few men of working age in La Cumbre and he is considering leaving. He is married and has eight children – six sons and two daughters. Some are working in Guatemala."If you go to the US, you can make money to buy land or cattle," he says. "But there are a lot of challenges there; if you lose your focus, you can lose your way."Vasquez and other villagers say La Cumbre has changed dramatically. There are fewer boys in school. Women now in charge of the family's land have to pay men to do work previously carried out by their husbands or relatives.The physical appearance of the village has also changed. It is easy to tell the homes of people whose relatives have made it to the US and send money back. Fresh paint, new doors, even new rooms. These families eat better food.Among the nicest homes is that of Belsis Lopez. Her husband travelled to the US in the summer of 2016 with a brother, and lives in a state where it appears many men from this village ended up. He works building roofs and sends money home regularly – something that has enabled her to improve their house.But she says she had her three children – two daughters aged 12 and 17, and 14-year-old son – would rather their father was back with them."Every day I talk to him. He needs to return," she says quietly, standing outside their brightly painted home."He went because of the economic situation, but I was rather he was here."Additional reporting: Paulo Cerrato in La CumbreRead the first part in the Beyond the Border series, here: Honduras: Inside ground zero of the Central American migrant crisis
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| Gunmen dressed as police steal £24 million of gold destined for New York and Zurich from Sao Paulo airport Posted: 26 Jul 2019 01:29 AM PDT  Eight armed men carried out a sophisticated heist at Sao Paulo's main international airport and managed to escape with some 750 kilos of precious metals, airport authorities said Thursday. GRU Airport, which holds the Guarulhos operation concession, said the thieves hauled away gold destined for Zurich and New York by using two cars that looked like police patrol vehicles. They also dressed as officers, covered their faces and carried long weapons before making their getaway, according to security camera footage shown on Globo TV. The television outlet said the vehicles were later abandoned in Jardim Pantanal, a neighborhood located 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the airport. The operator said there were no shootings or injuries during the assault. But a police officer said an airport official and eight members of his extended family, including four minors, had been kidnapped for 12 hours. They were expected to give testimony in the next few hours, he added. The officer requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Sao Paulo police said they had reinforced surveillance around the area and were searching for the stolen cargo. GRU Airport said flights continue to operate normally.
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| Donald who? Pelosi, Democrats vow to 'own August' on issues Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:07 PM PDT  Congressional Democrats on Thursday pivoted away from questions of impeachment by saying they are going to "own" the upcoming August recess on issues like health care and prescription drug costs. Not emphasized was the testimony a day earlier by former special counsel Robert Mueller, which dulled some Democratic hopes of moving closer to formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. In private, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi advised members of her caucus to talk about impeachment if they must to advance their prospects of winning re-election next year — but not in a way that challenged other members' views.
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| Russia warns UK media of consequences after London fines one of its TV channels Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:50 AM PDT ![Russia warns UK media of consequences after London fines one of its TV channels]( "Russia warns UK media of consequences after London fines one of its TV channels") Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday warned British media operating in Russia that they should be ready to face the consequences after a British regulator fined Russia's RT state-financed TV channel. Moscow was responding after Ofcom, Britain's media regulator, earlier on Friday fined RT 200,000 pounds ($248,740) for breaching broadcasting impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, the policies of Ukraine and the conflict in Syria.
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| Father of slain Mississippi student Ally Kostial shares heartbreaking photo on day of her vigil Posted: 26 Jul 2019 12:35 PM PDT  The father of murdered University of Mississippi student Ally Kostial took to Facebook to share a photo of his daughter taken when she was a small child.
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| Paris sets new temperature record at 108 as Europe heat wave continues to sizzle Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:32 AM PDT  Paris soared to a record high of 108 degrees as most of Europe sizzled under its second heat wave of the summer.
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| Warren Fellowship Applicants: Campaign Program Was a ‘Great Scam’ Posted: 26 Jul 2019 01:34 AM PDT  Stephen Lam/ReutersSen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has built much of her political career as a champion of workers and consumers against the deceptive and exploitative practices of corporations and employers.But as she navigates the latest chapter of that career arc—a run for the Democratic nomination for the presidency—the Massachusetts Democrat faces criticism from several of her own supporters who said the lowest tier of her campaign structure doesn't match the image she projects. Two early converts to Warren described the process for entry into her campaign's volunteer fellowship program as deceptive and at times exploitative in interviews with The Daily Beast. They said they were pushed toward unpaid positions over paid ones, misled over the availability of financial assistance, and asked to sign highly restrictive nondisclosure agreements that worker advocacy groups concede are irregular. Both applicants verified their accounts with emails and text messages from the Warren campaign. The complaints from those offered unpaid fellowships could raise new questions for Warren as she seeks to put her lengthy history of advocating for consumer and worker rights at the center of her rising campaign. "What was sold to me was very different than it actually was," said Jonathan Nendze, a rising senior at Seton Hall University who was offered a volunteer fellowship position on Warren's campaign. "It was kind of a great scam of getting people to show up and work in the capacity of volunteer, but to function as a paid intern in the amount of work they're doing," he said.Like other Democrats running for the White House, Warren's campaign offers paid internships. But unlike many others, the campaign also offers volunteer fellowships and volunteer fellowships for academic credit. Earlier this month, The Daily Beast reported that some workers' rights groups and activists worried that having an unpaid option could lead to a loophole for campaigns to exploit free labor. In the aftermath of that report, two applicants who were offered positions in Warren's volunteer fellowship program in early-voting states came forward to say that they felt their experiences illustrated those fears. Nendze told The Daily Beast that he drove about five hours from Little Falls, New Jersey, to Manchester, New Hampshire, for what he hoped would be an exciting entryway into the field of political campaigns. Prior to arriving in Manchester, he said, he had multiple communications with Warren campaign workers over the fellowship program. But as those talks continued, it became increasingly unclear what the difference between volunteer fellow and paid intern was."The way they always communicated it was always fellow/intern, like they were synonymous," he said. "Their application kind of took advantage of people who were really eager to get experience."Prior to orientation, Nendze said he was told multiple times that an organizer would get back to him about possible payment. "I was getting super-concerned," Nendzes said. "I had no information about where to go, if I was being paid. If they had told me upfront that I was unpaid, maybe I would have been able to prepare better."Ultimately, Nendze was offered a position as a volunteer fellow. As part of the on-boarding process, he was sent a mandatory non-disclosure agreement—to sign upon accepting the offer and passing the campaign's vetting process—stating that volunteer fellows would "not communicate with any member of the press" or "make any statement that may impair or otherwise adversely affect the goodwill or reputation" of Warren for President, Inc., among other provisions. The Campaign Workers Guild, a group focused on improving working conditions on campaigns, said providing NDAs to unpaid volunteers on campaigns is not a common practice, though it occasionally happens in large-scale races. Former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the only Democratic 2020 campaigns to offer a similar unpaid fellowship program, does not require volunteer fellows to sign NDAs, a campaign official confirmed. Nendze said he did not sign the agreement. The emails sent to Nendze were reviewed by The Daily Beast. Warren's campaign, which brought in $19.1 million in fundraising during the second quarter of 2019, declined to comment specifically on the use of NDAs for volunteer fellowship positions. Additionally, it has defended the use of unpaid volunteer fellowships on grounds that many fellows "receive stipends from educational institutions or other third-parties" and that those in the intern and fellowship programs have "access to cost-free supporter housing while they're working in-state." But according to internal campaign emails obtained by The Daily Beast, the campaign has not always clearly conveyed this to the fellows themselves. In one email to Nendze and other incoming fellows, Eleanor Wood, the campaign's New Hampshire's deputy organizing director, wrote that the team would "do our best" to provide housing, rather than guarantee it."If you are moving to NH, we will do our best to provide summer supporter housing," Wood wrote in an email dated on May 31, describing "a cohort of 50+ volunteer fellows and paid interns" in New Hampshire. The Warren campaign reiterated that all fellows and interns receive free housing. The promise of free housing was the biggest draw for Cole, a political science major who recently graduated from the University of Chicago and initially agreed to a volunteer fellowship position with the Warren campaign in Des Moines, Iowa. Cole, who asked that his last name not be used, recalled telling Grace Smith—a Polk County field organizer with the Warren campaign—that he didn't believe he could cover living expenses without being paid. "She said it's totally understandable," he said, describing their conversation. "There's this great housing program," Cole said Smith stressed.Cole was offered the position by Smith over the phone on May 24. The following night, she sent a text message saying she was "hoping to hear back" from Cole about a decision that day. It was just a few hours before midnight, according to records reviewed by The Daily Beast."She was really, really selling me on it in a way that she just wanted me to say yes to add another person," Cole said. He ultimately texted back that would commit to joining the campaign for the summer.Cole's initial excitement over the post—Warren was his first choice in the Democratic field of nearly two dozen contenders—soon dissipated, as he became increasingly concerned about the demands and benefits of the fellowship program.In one email exchange, Cole asked Smith about the ease of getting around Des Moines without a car, which he made clear he would not have for the program. He was told that it was not necessary but "may require a fair amount of Ubers" and that he could "probably snag a good amount of rides from other fellows and/or staff here and there," according to internal emails. Cole said he immediately became concerned with the potential costs associated with taking frequent Uber rides when he was not being paid. Like Nendze, Cole was also concerned about the availability of housing while he volunteered for the Warren campaign. Those fears were assuaged somewhat when Anna Kucher, the campaign's regional organizing director based in Iowa, sent an email sent to interns and fellows introducing herself on May 26. About two weeks later, she sent a follow-up note. "I know you are all anxious to receive your housing details, and I will be sending out emails on a rolling basis based on when you submitted your request from Today - Thursday," she wrote on June 10. "Don't worry about not having a bed to sleep in, we have enough hosts confirmed and are just putting together the puzzle pieces of folks timeline here in IA, allergies, etc. Once you receive your host contact info, it's very important that you reach out to the immediately within 24 hours to confirm logistics and details of your arrival!"But six days before the fellowship was slated to begin, Cole said he had still not yet heard anything about his free supporter housing assignment. He said he ultimately felt relieved that he was offered a paid position at a firm elsewhere, which he decided to accept, after not hearing about the housing arrangements days before he was expected to relocate."Before you start a campaign you should have these basic processes done," he said. "To be treated the way I was is disheartening." Just under a week after The Daily Beast contacted Warren's campaign to detail multiple specific complaints from applicants offered volunteer fellowship positions, it appears someone decided the campaign's most junior members could use rallying. On July 24, Warren hosted a call featuring campaign manager Roger Lau to thank interns and fellows in her program. After the call, an outpouring of praise surfaced on social media, with about a dozen people tweeting their gratitude for the candidate's outreach. "HI @ewarren CALLED ALL OF THE FELLOWS AND INTERNS ON HER CAMPAIGN TODAY AND I ONLY CRIED A LITTLE!!! FEELING SO SO SO BLESSED TO WORK FOR OUR NEXT PRESIDENT AND FEELING SO LUCKY THAT SHE'S SO WONDERFUL AND SMART AND CARES SO MUCH ABOUT EVERY PERSON ON HER TEAM!!! BRB CRYING AGAIN," one person tweeted. "REAL PIC OF ME LISTENING TO @ewarren AS SHE CALLS EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF HER CAMPAIGN FELLOWS AND INTERNS TO THANK US FOR OUR WORK IN THE FIELD!!!!!!!!! ������������������" another tweeted. 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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| ‘A level of chaos not seen in Britain since the war’: US TV presenter delivers devastating assessment of Boris Johnson Posted: 25 Jul 2019 07:39 AM PDT  A leading US television news host has delivered a brutal assessment of the new prime minister Boris Johnson, saying Britain now faces a "level of chaos … not seen since World War II."Lawrence O'Donnell, host of the MSNBC network's The Last Word, could barely contain his astonishment at the "crazy" process that allowed the Tory MP to take power after "just over one-tenth of one per cent of the British population" voted in the leadership contest.The veteran anchor attacked Mr Johnson for offering "impossible" promises and said he was someone who did not "distinguish between fact and fiction".Explaining the prime minister's Brexit strategy to US viewers, he said: "Boris Johnson says he will simple lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union without any exit deal at all, which would instantaneously bring a level of chaos to Britain not seen since World War II."British viewers who shared the clip on social media expressed their surprise at such honesty. "Quite remarkable views of our new PM from American news media," wrote one."If you think the [US] electoral college is crazy, the United Kingdom has just outdone it," said Mr O'Donnell at the beginning of his segment."Boris Johnson just become the British prime minister without even having an election," he added, describing the leadership contest – which allowed teenagers as young as 15 to take part – as a "private vote" of Tory party members."Voters included children, because there are no real laws about this kind of private voting within a party, and the voters were obviously dominated by people who, like Boris Johnson, do not distinguish between fact and fiction."Referring to the "gloom" greeting Mr Johnson's arrival at No 10, he added: "No British prime minister has even been more unpopular on his very first day in office than Boris Johnson."Like his predecessor Boris Johnson is promising to do the impossible and negotiate a new exit deal with the European Union, but unlike his predecessor he is also promising to do the impossible when he fails to negotiate a new exit deal."Comparing Mr Johnson to Donald Trump, Mr O'Donnell's guest Brian Klaas, a political scientist and columnist, said there was "disbelief" in London at Mr Johnson's arrival at No 10."You now have on both sides of the Atlantic a narcissistic, serial liar who has larger than life hair, who was born in New York [and] who has made racist statements," he said.
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| ICE picks up man at Orange County jail. His fiancée, supporters will speak out Friday Posted: 26 Jul 2019 02:45 AM PDT ![ICE picks up man at Orange County jail. His fiancée, supporters will speak out Friday]( "ICE picks up man at Orange County jail. His fiancée, supporters will speak out Friday") Immigrant groups are accusing Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood of "double-speak" on the department's immigration policy.
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| Are Catholic politicians in Washington doing more harm than good? Posted: 26 Jul 2019 08:30 AM PDT ![Are Catholic politicians in Washington doing more harm than good?]( "Are Catholic politicians in Washington doing more harm than good?") Despite Catholic teachings being some of the most outspoken when it comes to defending the unborn and standing against abortion, statistics show that when speaking about Catholic politicians on Capitol Hill, there is a wide disconnect between their faith and their politics. Matthew Schmitz, the editor of First Things magazine, is here to discuss his recent article that claims the unborn would have less to fear, 'if every Catholic were removed from Congress tomorrow.'
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| View Photos of the 2020 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Star orbiting massive black hole lends support to Einstein's theory Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:26 PM PDT  Observations of light coming from a star zipping in orbit around the humongous black hole at the center of our galaxy have provided fresh evidence backing Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity, astronomers said on Thursday. Researchers studied a star called S0-2, boasting a mass roughly 10 times larger than the sun, as it travels in an elliptical orbit lasting 16 years around the supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* residing at the center of the Milky Way 26,000 light years from Earth. The famed theoretical physicist proposed the theory, considered one of the pillars of science, to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.
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| Supreme Court allows border wall spending in battle between President Donald Trump and liberal opponents Posted: 26 Jul 2019 04:44 PM PDT  The Supreme Court approved President Trump's effort to use $2.5 billion in military funding to build a portion of his long-sought border wall.
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