| 4 assailants, 1 guard killed in hotel attack in SW Pakistan Posted: 11 May 2019 10:09 AM PDT ![4 assailants, 1 guard killed in hotel attack in SW Pakistan]( "4 assailants, 1 guard killed in hotel attack in SW Pakistan") QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Four insurgents armed with rifles and grenades attacked a luxury hotel in the southwestern coastal town of Gwadar on Saturday, triggering an intense, hours-long shootout in which one hotel guard and all the attackers were killed, officials said.
|
| 'Where is my baby?': Car found, but 4-year-old Maleah Davis still missing, police say Posted: 10 May 2019 01:20 PM PDT  Maleah Davis has been missing since last Friday after her stepfather says he was attacked on the side of the road while driving to the airport.
|
| More contempt citations ahead for Trump advisers: senior U.S. Democrat Posted: 10 May 2019 01:34 PM PDT  U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said lawmakers may bundle numerous contempt citations from different committees into a single resolution that the full House of Representatives could then vote on. "There obviously are going to have to be, perhaps from our committee and certainly from other committees, other contempt citations to enforce subpoenas," Nadler told reporters.
|
| Stop Hijacking Students’ Grief after School Shootings Posted: 11 May 2019 12:57 PM PDT  On Wednesday, a vigil was held at the STEM School in Colorado to commemorate and honor the bravery of Kendrick Castillo -- the 18-year-old student who gave his life rushing a shooter who was threatening the lives of his classmates. During the vigil, Senator Michael Bennet (D) and Congressman Jason Crow (D) departed from memorializing Castillo and began to agitate for gun control.Suddenly the vigil erupted. Within moments, hundreds of heartbroken teens began to walk out in protest against the politicization of their trauma.Their bravery is heartwarming. I know all too well from the shooting at my high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, how broken one can be in the aftermath. Nevertheless, the students walking out of the vigil–turned–gun-control rally had the integrity to reject the growing moral disintegration in our country. Increasingly, we are seeing outside political groups and politicians, devoid of any decency, seizing and politicizing tragic events instantly for political gain. On the day the shooting occurred at my school, gun-control groups and politicians waited only hours before politicizing the event for their own profit.This was abhorrent behavior then, and it is abhorrent now. Let kids mourn. Let them grieve. Let them process their trauma before outside forces descend.What is a reasonable amount of time to wait before politicizing an event? I don't know, specifically. But I do know when the timing is wrong. Certainly, it's disingenuous, morally bankrupt, and exploitative for outside groups to push for gun-control policies — which, remember, many victims steadfastly oppose — before the dead have been buried.Let me be clear: There is nothing wrong with students and their parents speaking out in any way they see fit. If those affected by violence want to rise up and push for gun control — or to push to arm teachers — that is their prerogative. That's precisely what my peers and I did: We channeled our grief to enact change (naturally, most of my peers pushed for different policy proposals than I did). By contrast, there is a lot wrong with the hijacking of vigils, memorial services, and funerals for political purposes. If outside forces want to help immediately, they can provide support for the grieving and elevate the names of the heroes and the victims, while ensuring that no notoriety is given to the killer in the media or anywhere else.Kendrick Castillo gave his life to defend his classmates. Elevate this hero's name. Remember him. We can argue about politics later.
|
| Detention cells at Mexico border so overcrowded US authorities resort to moving migrants by plane Posted: 11 May 2019 08:11 AM PDT  Overcrowding at Border Patrol stations in South Texas has become so acute in recent days that US authorities have taken the rare step of using aircraft to relocate migrants to other areas of the border simply to begin processing them, according to three Homeland Security officials.The first flight left McAllen, Texas, on Friday, transferring detainees to Border Patrol facilities in Del Rio, Texas.There are daily flights scheduled for the next several days, with two planned for Tuesday, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the operations.The flights are conducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the detainees remain in the custody of Border Patrol, officials said.Though ICE routinely uses aircraft to move detainees among its detention facilities, it is very unusual for Border Patrol to fly recent arrivals from one part of the border to another to perform routine booking procedures.Homeland Security officials requested the aircraft because Border Patrol urgently needs to move single adults out of the lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.The agency is scrambling to make room for the large volume of families and children who have come across the border in dramatically higher numbers in the past several days, officials said.One official said the US government has resorted to using aircraft because all available buses were already in use and authorities needed every available transportation option."This is the worst I have ever seen it, by far," said one veteran Border Patrol agent in South Texas who was not authorised to speak to reporters.The number of people taken into custody along the Mexico border has exceeded 5,500 each day for several days in a row, and Border Patrol currently has more than 17,500 people in holding cells and tent sites set up in parking lots outside stations, officials said.That is a 30 percent increase from late March, when authorities said border agents and infrastructure had hit the "breaking point".Tents have been set up in the parking lots outside Border Patrol stations in the lower Rio Grande Valley cities of McAllen, Brownsville and Rio Grande City to ease overcrowding.Emergency tents for families also have been erected in El Paso and at Camp Donna, a military site in the Rio Grande Valley.To alleviate overcrowding in holding cells, Border Patrol in recent weeks has begun releasing migrants directly from its custody, instead of waiting for ICE to pick them up and either detain or release them.But the sheer volume of people coming across the border in the past several days has swamped the agency's ability to process families and children, so holding cells are filling with single adults because they are a lesser priority.Border Patrol will use the flights to transfer some of those adults to Del Rio, where facilities are less overcrowded, instead of having to conduct releases, officials said. Each flight costs $16,000 (£12,300) and can transport about 135 adults.Homeland Security officials view the direct release of single adults as a red line, because they say that demographic group has the most potential to be deterred by enforcement efforts.Carla Provost, the chief of Border Patrol, told lawmakers on Wednesday that authorities would "lose control" of the border if they had to begin releasing single adults, because that group is the only remaining demographic that can be detained and quickly deported."My greatest concern is that we will no longer be able to deliver consequences and we will lose control of the border," Ms Provost told members of a Senate Homeland Security panel.Adults who arrive with children typically are released from custody after a few days with an appointment to see an immigration judge because US courts have limited the amount of time minors can be held in immigration jails.Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials say this model – which President Trump decries as "catch and release" – is to blame for the border surge.Authorities detained 109,144 migrants along the Mexico border last month, the highest total since 2007. More than 60% of those taken into custody were families or children.Acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan and acting Defence secretary Patrick Shanahan plan to travel to the Rio Grande Valley on Saturday to visit the McAllen border station to call for a "whole of government" approach to addressing the crisis, according to a DHS statement.The Washington Post
|
| Boeing crash payouts would be partly based on how long passengers knew they were doomed Posted: 12 May 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Settlements to the families of 346 people who died in the two catastrophic Boeing Max plane crashes will be calculated, in part, by how long the victims knew they were doomed. Lawyers handling claims against the US aerospace company said the longer the passengers and crew were aware of their desperate fate, the larger the likely payout. "There's a better chance of (financial) recovery if it took minutes rather than seconds for the plane to crash,'' Joe Power, a personal-injury lawyer representing some Ethiopian victims, told Bloomberg this weekend. The first passenger plane, Lion Air Flight 610, ditched into the Java Sea 12 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia on October 29th last year. Six months later on March 10th, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after take off from Addis Ababa. In both cases, the jets were Max 8 models and in both cases, all aboard died. Experts say the Boeing Company could be facing payouts in excess of $1 billion (£770 million) if it can be proved that it had knowledge that the model had safety flaws. Thirty individual law suits have now been filed against Boeing on behalf of families with many more expected. Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER that disappeared from air traffic control screens in 2011 Credit: AP "The bottom line is Boeing's exposure is much more substantial than in any other case that I've been a part of in my quarter-century of representing families'" in plane-crash cases, said Brian Alexander, a New York aviation lawyer for victims of the Ethiopian Airlines jet . "You get into 'What did you know and when did you know it.'" The two disasters, with similar characteristics, led to the worldwide grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 models. Both pilots desperately struggled to take control of the aeroplanes as they intermittently dived while reaching speeds of close to 600 miles per hour. Investigators have zeroed in on the malfunctioning Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, an automated safety feature designed to prevent a stall. Earlier this month Dennis Muilenburg, the Boeing CEO acknowledged its automatic flight control system played a role in the two crashes. "The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports, but, with the release of the preliminary report of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident investigation, it's apparent that in both flights the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information."
|
| 35 Pasta Salads That Will Crush At Your Next Cookout Posted: 10 May 2019 02:48 PM PDT |
| WSJ: Trump Asked Ex-White House Counsel Don McGahn to Publicly Clear Him of Obstruction After Mueller Report Posted: 10 May 2019 03:28 PM PDT  Chris Wattie/ReutersPresident Trump attempted to have former White House counsel Don McGahn publicly state that he didn't view the president's request to have special counsel Robert Mueller removed in 2017 as obstruction of justice just days after the Mueller report was released, The Wall Street Journal reports. While McGahn is said to have rebuffed the request, it would mark at least the second time the president or one of his lawyers allegedly asked McGahn to publicly vouch for Trump amid scrutiny of potential obstruction of justice. When The New York Times first reported in 2018 that Trump had urged McGahn to have Mueller removed, Trump's personal lawyer asked McGahn to publicly dispute the claim, which he declined to do, according to the redacted version of the 448-page Mueller report. Within a day of the release of that report, Trump again sought to have McGahn clear him of suspicions by privately asking Emmet Flood, the White House special counsel, to reach out to McGahn and ask if he would release a statement declaring that he didn't view Trump's request for Mueller's removal as obstruction, according to sources cited by the Journal.Trump has denied publicly that he ever asked McGahn to fire Mueller, though the alleged directive was featured in Mueller's report. The report detailed a June 2017 episode in which McGahn testified that Trump asked him to have Mueller removed from the Russia probe, allegedly urging him to tell then-Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that "Mueller has to go." Trump was said to have talked about "knocking out Mueller" to McGahn on at least two separate occasions in the report. The episode was widely seen as ammunition for any potential obstruction of justice charges against the president. Sources cited by the Journal also say that Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow reached out to McGahn's lawyer, William Burck, during the Russia investigation to inquire about McGahn's testimony to Mueller. John Dowd, who was in charge of Trump's legal efforts, had also reportedly gotten in touch with Burck to ask about the same matter. The revelation that Trump reportedly attempted to have McGahn make a statement on the record after the Mueller report was released comes after the White House reportedly instructed McGahn to eschew a subpoena from lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week. Burck, McGahn's lawyer, told the Journal the latest request from Trump was not seen "as any kind of threat or something sinister." "It was a request, professionally and cordially made," he was quoted as saying.Read more at The Daily Beast.
|
| Buttigieg describes his coming out, need to bridge divides Posted: 11 May 2019 10:18 PM PDT  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg described Saturday his public coming out as a gay man in 2015 and how the exclusion he experienced made him conscious of what it means to belong and the need to overcome divisions.
|
| Police: Explosion and fire at Virginia gas station leaves three people dead Posted: 11 May 2019 04:47 PM PDT  Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause and origin of the explosion.
|
| Venezuelan Opposition Leader Seeks Contact With U.S. Military Posted: 11 May 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Admiral Craig Faller, the head of Southern Command, said on Twitter this week he was open to meeting with Guaido and what he termed the "legitimate" government of Venezuela. "I look forward to discussing how we can support the future role of those @ArmadaFANB leaders who make the right decision, put the Venezuela people first & restore constitutional order," Faller said in the tweet, referring to the Venezuelan armed forces.
|
| Colorado School Shooting Shows Students Aren’t Always Ready to Turn Tragedy Into Politics Posted: 11 May 2019 09:03 AM PDT  Not all shooting survivors are willing to quickly turn their grief into demands for gun control
|
| Judge strikes down Kentucky law restricting abortions after 15 weeks Posted: 11 May 2019 01:50 PM PDT  A Kentucky judge has struck down a law that prohibited a method of abortion commonly used in the second trimester, saying the measure would create a "sustainable obstacle" to a woman's right to choose. US district judge Joseph McKinley Jr ruled on Friday that the state's law violated a woman's constitutional right to privacy. The law, aimed at halting dilation-and-evacuation (D&E) terminations, was found to "unduly burden" women seeking abortions. The state's lawyers argued that the law would still allow use of D&E, but only after doctors used other methods to induce fetal death. Abortion providers breaking the law would be guilty of a felony but patients would not face prosecution.The judge the legislation would require women seeking a second-trimester abortion at and after 15 weeks to "endure a medically unnecessary and invasive procedure that may increase the duration of an otherwise one-day standard D&E abortion".Judge McKinley wrote: "If the act goes into effect, standard D&E abortions will no longer be performed in the commonwealth due to ethical and legal concerns regarding compliance with the law."He noted that under the provision women would lose "the right to obtain a pre-viability abortion anywhere in the commonwealth of Kentucky after 15 weeks".Judge McKinley's decision was celebrated by abortion access advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union. An ACLU lawyer, Alexa Kolbi-Molinas said it "affirms that health, not politics, will guide important medical decisions about pregnancy".The D&E procedure was used in 537 of 3,312 abortions in Kentucky in 2016, according to state statistics.Kentucky's governor Matt Bevin said he would appeal the decision, which came as a wave of restrictive abortion laws known as "heartbeat bills" swept the southern US. These bills, which restrict abortion beyond the point of a detectable foetal heartbeat at roughly six weeks, are effectively backdoor abortion bans as many women do not know they are pregnant at that point. Many states, including Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi have attempted to introduce some form of heartbeat bill.Some celebrities have vowed to boycott work in Georgia due to its recent passage of such a law. Others, like Jordan Peele, have reportedly said they will continue working in the state, but donate fees to the ACLU. Others the new wave of anti-abortion legislation. "For pro-life folks, these are huge victories," said Sue Liebel, who serves as a state director for the Susan B Anthony List, an anti-choice group. "And I think they're indicative of the momentum and excitement and the hope that's happening with changes in the Supreme Court and having such a pro-life president."Additional reporting by AP
|
| Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Becomes Youngest Woman Ever to Preside Over the House of Representatives Posted: 11 May 2019 11:46 AM PDT  Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Becomes Youngest Woman Ever to Preside Over the House of Representatives
|
| Rouhani calls for unity to face 'unprecedented' US pressure Posted: 12 May 2019 04:54 AM PDT  Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has warned of a wave of coming economic hardships worse than in the 1980s as "unprecedented" pressure from international sanctions brings the country to its knees. "During the war we did not have a problem with our banks, oil sales or imports and exports, and there were only sanctions on arms purchases," Mr Rouhani said. "But I do not despair and have great hope for the future and believe that we can move past these difficult conditions provided that we are united," he said. The leader's comments, made to activists in Tehran, come as US-Iran relations, frosty since President Donald Trump pulled out the nuclear deal a year ago, hit a new low. Last week, the US deployed forces including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to counter what it says is a rising threat from Iran to US forces there. The presence of USS Abraham Lincoln, replacing a carrier rotated out last month, has been seen as a clear provocation by Iran's security establishment. "An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past but now... the threats have switched to opportunities," said Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Iranian Guards' aerospace division. "If (the Americans) make a move we will hit them in the head," he said. In a parliament session on Sunday, the commander of the Guards accused the US of starting a "psychological war" in the region. The regional sabre-rattling is picking up pace, with an Israeli cabinet minister on Sunday warning that Israel may be in the line of Iranian fire if the standoff escalates. "Things are heating up," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said of the Gulf. "If there's some sort of conflagration between Iran and the United States, between Iran and its neighbours, I'm not ruling out that they will activate Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, or even that they will try to fire missiles from Iran at the State of Israel," he told Israel's Ynet TV. Both Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are Iranian-sponsored militant groups active on Israel's borders. Back in Tehran, Mr Rouhani's warning of hard times to come appears designed to rally support for his embattled government, which has been criticised by hardliners since Mr Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal a year ago. Despite the increasingly loud voices of hawkish members of his administration including national security advisor John Bolton, who led the military expansion into the Gulf, Mr Trump, at least, appears open to discussion. "What I'd like to see with Iran, I'd like to see them call me," he said.
|
| India is going forward with an antitrust case against Google’s Android Posted: 10 May 2019 08:07 PM PDT  Google has lost a number of antitrust cases in recent years, which netted the tech company three record-setting fines in Europe. The European Commission looked at Google's Search, Android, and online ads practices and found that Google abused its position in the market.Separately, Russian regulators investigated the same alleged Android abuse, which resulted in a different fine, albeit not comparable to the EU's. In each case, Google had to make several concessions regarding Android. And now India appears to be Google's next nightmare when it comes to antitrust investigations.Google has allegedly abused its dominant position in the market to block rivals, two sources familiar with India's antitrust watchdog's actions told Reuters. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the local regulator that started looking at a complaint against Google last year. The CCI determined in mid-April that the complaint had merit, ordering its investigation unit to launch a full probe into the matter."It is a strong case for the CCI, given the EU precedent," a source said. "The CCI has (preliminarily) found Google abused its dominant position."The EU hit Google with a €4.34 billion ($5 billion) fine in the Android case. Google said it'd fight the ruling, but at the same time decided to modify Android in Europe to give users more choice when it comes to internet browsing apps and default search engines. The EU found that Google's contracts with Android vendors forced them to install Google Search and Chrome browsers on devices, alongside Google Play.The CCI's investigation could take about a year, and Google execs might be summoned before the Commission in the coming months, Reuters reports. Indian regulators could impose fines of up to 10% of the relevant turnover of Google's last three financial years. However, it's unclear how much money Google makes from Chrome and Search in the region.Google meanwhile said via a spokesman that the company is working with the CCI "to demonstrate how Android has led to more competition and innovation, not less." He said that Android had enabled millions of Indians to connect to the internet by making mobile devices more affordable.
|
| Hearing in Colorado school shooting put off until next week Posted: 10 May 2019 07:30 PM PDT  DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors investigating the case against two students suspected of shooting nine classmates, one fatally, in a suburban Denver charter school have until next week to decide what charges to pursue, a judge ruled Friday.
|
| May expected to clarify resignation timetable: senior MP Posted: 11 May 2019 09:17 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to set out her departure plans within days, the leader of backbench lawmakers in her governing Conservative Party said Saturday. Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of rank-and-file Conservative MPs, said he expected May to provide clarity on her exit timetable at a meeting with him on Wednesday. "I find it very hard to see how that route can lead to any sensible resolution," Brady told BBC radio.
|
| The Right Way to Wear Sunscreen Posted: 11 May 2019 03:17 AM PDT  Like brushing, flossing, and eating vegetables, it's important to wear sunscreen—whether we like it or not. When you let your sun safety habits slide, you leave your skin vulnerable, not only to ...
|
| Trial date set for Elon Musk's 'pedo guy' tweet Posted: 10 May 2019 01:56 PM PDT  The judge had on April 26 denied Musk's bid to dismiss the lawsuit brought by diver Vernon Unsworth, without explaining his reasoning. Unsworth, who said in his lawsuit he shared a house in the Thailand countryside with a 40-year-old woman who owned a nail salon, was part of a team that helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thailand cave last July 10.
|
| Trump-China Trade Fight Unfolds as Deeper Conflict Takes Shape Posted: 10 May 2019 05:00 PM PDT ![Trump-China Trade Fight Unfolds as Deeper Conflict Takes Shape]( "Trump-China Trade Fight Unfolds as Deeper Conflict Takes Shape") China and the U.S. ended talks in Washington on Friday with no deal after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on more than $200 billion in goods from the country and China vowed to retaliate. The moves create new barriers between the world's largest economies and further complicates a relationship which is increasingly strained over flashpoints that include trade, technology, Taiwan and the South China Sea. On Monday, two U.S. warships sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea, challenging Beijing's claims for the third time this year while the U.S. on Thursday barred China Mobile Ltd. from the U.S. market citing espionage concerns.
|
| 3 Ways To Make A Glock Gun Even Better Posted: 11 May 2019 02:30 AM PDT  The Glock Safe Action Pistol is the most popular Pistol in the United States. Gaston Glock's plastic fantastics came about in a time where most guns featured metal frames and were hammer fired. Polymer striker fired guns had been done before, but never succeeded like the Glock.Since then the Glock has gone on to become an insanely popular handgun. Part of that popularity is modularity. Glock pistols in general have three different frame sizes, the standard, the larger, and the single stack. By frame size I don't mean length and width, I mean compatibility.For example, the Glock 26 and Glock 17 are the same standard frame. There are differences in overall size, but they can accept the same magazines and the same internals. This makes it very easy to find upgradeable parts for any Glock.Today, we are looking and talking about the most popular Glock upgrade out there, the trigger. The compatibility we mentioned is important, because you have to be selective about your trigger, and ensure it fits your Glock frame.
|
| Pope gives church 19 new priests in Vatican ceremony Posted: 12 May 2019 05:20 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has given the church 19 new priests, ordaining the men in an elaborate ceremony Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica, as the credibility of the Vatican and many of its clergy is threatened by widespread scandals of pedophile priests and systematic efforts at cover-ups.
|
| Anti-abortion rally outside Planned Parenthood after Sims' video Posted: 10 May 2019 03:04 PM PDT  A group of anti-abortion activists and religious leaders rallied outside of Planned Parenthood in Center City Friday to protest Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims.
|
| Rebels set to begin pullout from Yemen aid port Posted: 10 May 2019 11:35 PM PDT  Yemeni rebels confirmed Saturday they were beginning a unilateral withdrawal from the lifeline port of Hodeida in a bid to kickstart implementation of a December truce brokered by the UN. Hodeida is the main entry point for the bulk of Yemen's imports and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions of civilians who have been pushed to the brink of famine by more than four years of devastating conflict. The head of the rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed al-Huthi, said fighters would start pulling back at 10 am (0700 GMT).
|
| US deployments across Mideast factor in Iran tensions Posted: 11 May 2019 11:10 AM PDT  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group rushes toward the Persian Gulf. Decades-old B-52 bombers rumble down runways at desert air bases. The Pentagon, meanwhile, routes a Patriot missile battery and an amphibious supply ship to return to the region.
|
| The 10 Best Travel Apps for Exploring the World Posted: 11 May 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| South Korea orders arrest of two Samsung Electronics officials over affiliate's accounting scandal Posted: 10 May 2019 11:37 AM PDT ![South Korea orders arrest of two Samsung Electronics officials over affiliate's accounting scandal]( "South Korea orders arrest of two Samsung Electronics officials over affiliate's accounting scandal") A South Korean court said on Saturday it had approved warrants to arrest two senior officials at Samsung Electronics in relation to an alleged accounting fraud at the tech giant's biopharma affiliate. The Seoul Central District Court said in a statement it had granted warrants to arrest the officials suspected of destroying evidence in the case. Prosecutors accused the two Samsung Electronics officials of ordering employees at biopharmaceutical firm Samsung BioLogics to destroy internal documents, as authorities looked into an alleged violation of accounting rules at the BioLogics, according to local media reports.
|
| Comey reflects on Clinton investigation: 'I think I'd likely do it the same way' Posted: 10 May 2019 11:04 AM PDT  Comey said that he wouldn't have changed the way he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's usage of a private email server
|
| Nike’s app will use augmented reality to determine your shoe size Posted: 11 May 2019 06:01 AM PDT  Do you know your own shoe size? You might think you do, but there's a good chance you're walking around in shoes that aren't actually a perfect fit. Nike thinks it can change that with a new addition to its smartphone app that leverages the power of augmented reality to perform a super-accurate scan of your feet, matching you with the ideal size, depending on the kind of shoe you're shopping for.In a new blog post, Nike calls out the current system of shoe sizing as "antiquated," calling it "a gross simplification of a complex problem." That's where Nike Fit, the new sizing feature, comes in.Nike describes Nike Fit as "a new scanning solution that uses a proprietary combination of computer vision, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and recommendation algorithms."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMXc_1qCa8EThat's a whole bunch of flashy terms that don't mean a whole lot to the average shoe shopper, but the gist of it is that the app will allow you to take a scan of your feet when you're about to buy a pair of kicks. Nike Fit will be an option alongside the traditional sizing list, but the company is obviously promoting this as the ideal way to get the perfect fit."Using your smartphone's camera, Nike Fit will scan your feet, collecting 13 data points mapping your foot morphology for both feet within a matter of seconds," Nike explains. "This hyper-accurate scan of your unique foot dimension can then be stored in your NikePlus member profile and easily used for future shopping online and in-store."Your Nike Fit scan will be stored and can be accessed by the app whenever it needs to guide you to your perfect pair of new shoes. Perhaps most interesting, this new sizing system may actually change its size recommendation for you based on the kind of shoe you're shopping for.Nike says "different shoes are made with different performance intent," meaning that you'll probably want something like a running shoe to be a little bit tighter than the kind of everyday sneaker you wear in casual situations. The app handles all those decisions on the backend, and Nike seems pretty sure it knows exactly how to set you up with the size you need.The feature isn't available just yet but it should be available sometime in July in the U.S. and August in Europe.
|
| The Latest: Dispute meant no officer at school during attack Posted: 10 May 2019 07:29 PM PDT  DENVER (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a Colorado school that killed one student and injured eight (all times local):
|
| Polish far-right protests US law on Jewish restitution Posted: 11 May 2019 12:43 PM PDT  Several thousand nationalists rallied in Warsaw on Saturday against a US law on the restitution of Jewish properties seized during the Holocaust, an issue which has surfaced ahead of parliamentary elections later this year. The latter refers to the US Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act which requires the US State Department to report to Congress on the progress of countries including Poland on the restitution of Jewish assets seized during World War Two and its aftermath. Pre-war Poland was a Jewish heartland, with a centuries-old community numbering some 3.2 million, or around 10 percent of the country's population at the time.
|
| Judge Steps Aside from Decision on Special Prosecutor in Jussie Smollett Case Posted: 10 May 2019 11:52 AM PDT  A Cook County judge has denied a motion to recuse himself from the latest aspect of the Jussie Smollett case. However, Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. said he will "transfer" the case to another judge in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, as his son works for the Cook County State`s Attorney`s Office.
|
| 20+ Delicious Cakes To Bake For Mother's Day Posted: 10 May 2019 12:20 PM PDT |
| India's marathon election reaches next-to-last phase Posted: 12 May 2019 09:04 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (AP) — Indians voted Sunday in the next-to-last round of a six-week-long national election marked by a highly acrimonious campaign that has seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi blame opposition party chief Rahul Gandhi's family for the country's ills.
|
| Bodum sues Starbucks for product disparagement over French press recall Posted: 10 May 2019 02:52 PM PDT ![Bodum sues Starbucks for product disparagement over French press recall]( "Bodum sues Starbucks for product disparagement over French press recall") Bodum Holding AG sued Starbucks Corp on Friday for alleged product disparagement in connection with the coffee company's recent recall of 230,000 co-branded French presses made from recycled materials. In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, Bodum said Starbucks had no basis to "unilaterally" conduct the May 1 recall because the Bodum + Starbucks presses were not defective and met required specifications. Bodum also accused Seattle-based Starbucks of creating the impression that Bodum French presses in general are defective, causing a media backlash and "significant brand damage" to the Lucerne, Switzerland-based company.
|
| Giuliani Scores a New Client: an Authoritarian, Middle Eastern Regime Posted: 10 May 2019 10:53 AM PDT  Charles Krupa/AP/ShutterstockAs Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was concluding, Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney for the probe and other legal woes, landed a new client: the Kingdom of Bahrain.On Thursday, the former New York City mayor confirmed to The Daily Beast that his security and consulting firm, Giuliani Security and Safety, had officially secured a contract with the Gulf nation's Ministry of Interior to help train their police force. "They are contracting with my company to do security consulting for them, with specific emphasis on things that appear to be perpetrated by terrorists…specifically in regard to [alleged] terrorist acts perpetrated in large part by Iran or Iranian proxies," Giuliani said in an interview.Talks between Giuliani's "global security services" company and the government in Bahrain began in August or September 2018, he said. They took place even as Giuliani was representing President Trump as the Mueller investigation was ongoing, and while he was serving as one of President Trump's more regular advisers and confidants. Giuliani is still working as the president's lawyer, even though the redacted Mueller report has been delivered to the Department of Justice and made public.While the Bahraini government was enlisting Giuliani for help with its police force, it was also attempting to influence Trump administration policy. Bahrain officially employs half a dozen lobbying and public-relations firms in the United States, according to the Justice Department's database of registered foreign agents. They work on issues ranging from counterterrorism efforts to trade and foreign investment promotion to more vaguely defined advocacy and public affairs initiatives. Specific goals in Washington, D.C., include stepping up military cooperation and an effort to win an exemption to Trump administration steel and aluminum tariffs.Bahrain's Ministry of Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Giuliani was spotted in Bahrain last December at a royal palace in Manama, meeting with the king of the critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. At the time, the Bahrain News Agency, a government-run news service, reported that Giuliani and King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa talked about "Bahraini-U.S. relations," and characterized Trump's personal lawyer as the leader of a "high-level US delegation." The New York Times reported on that visit in December, and indicated that Giuliani was seeking business with the Bahraini government. But the official establishment of that business relationship has not been previously reported.Asked by The Daily Beast if he and the king discussed Trump during their December photo op, Giuliani said, "I can't recall," and insisted that the discussion was "pretty strictly for us [to] train the police." Giuliani said that his firm's official work with Bahrain "doesn't involve any lobbying," and doesn't involve "giving policy advice" or legal work. "I never discussed Bahrain with anybody in the [Trump] administration including the president," he said. "[Our] contract has clauses in it that say no lobbying, no foreign representation… I provide you a service. I don't get involved in trying to solve your problems with the U.S. government."Giuliani did not provide The Daily Beast with a copy of the contract as of press time. In his role as a member of President Trump's outside legal team, Giuliani isn't a government employee and thus not bound by laws that bar U.S. government officials (including White House attorneys) from simultaneously working for a foreign government. Still, the distinction hasn't stopped government ethicists and watchdogs from calling into question the virtue of Giuliani's foreign work, and pursuit of work in several countries, as he holds such a close working and personal relationship with President Trump. "Giuliani getting paid by a repressive foreign government while he acts as the president's personal attorney and advisor looks really bad," said Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reforms at the Campaign Legal Center. "Even if Giuliani's contract with Bahrain doesn't include lobbying, it is easy to imagine that the Bahraini government anticipates that giving money to the president's close advisor is going to help Bahrain promote its interests inside the White House."Giuliani's work for could raise additional eyebrows owing to the country's highly-criticized human rights record, which has included brutally suppressing protesters and political opposition, allegations of torture committed by the police, and stripping activists of their citizenship. Asked about this track record, Giuliani said he views Bahrain as "one of the more progressive Muslim countries," and that "I actually think they're one of the better Gulf countries on human rights," citing the number of women elected to parliament, for instance.Giuliani's work abroad has been a common—and routinely controversial—feature of his time within Trump's inner sanctum. In addition to scoring a contract with Bahrain, the president's lawyer has plans to travel to Ukraine on Sunday morning to help encourage investigators in the country to look into both the origins of the Mueller probe and dealings involving Joe Biden.As The New York Times reported, Giuliani has been actively seeking information on the involvement of Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son, in an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. In the Obama era, the former vice president had pushed for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor whose office controlled the investigations of the company, on which Hunter Biden sat on the board.Giuliani, the president, and various sectors of conservative and pro-Trump media have framed this as the next big Democratic scandal to emerge in a presidential race, on par with Hillary Clinton's emails. However, a Bloomberg story published this week said that a former Ukrainian official and official documents had presented a timeline that undercut the notion that Biden had intervened on his son's behalf."I'm doing this as part of my role as the president's lawyer to follow up on [leads]," Giuliani told The Daily Beast. "This is what a defense lawyer does…I'm going after it like a hound dog." Trump's attorney also noted that he's been briefing the president on his progress, and that they've had multiple conversations on the topic, though he wouldn't go into further detail.Giuliani did say that, based on their private chats, he believed he had the full blessing of President Trump to pursue this private investigation—one now explicitly designed to yield potentially damaging information on one of the president's a top 2020 challengers. "The president has expressed the same level of interest in this that he's expressed in the Steele affidavit," he said. "I'm just trying to investigate this and trying to figure this all out. I don't have electronic surveillance, or a grand jury." "I'm having too much fun," Giuliani added, letting out a couple of chuckles. "One day, I'm gonna have to go back to boring lawyer work."Read more at The Daily Beast.
|
| The Latest: Police: blood in man's apartment linked to girl Posted: 11 May 2019 07:57 PM PDT  Houston police say they found "blood evidence" in the apartment of Derion Vence that matches that of the missing 4-year-old girl, Maleah Davis. In a statement on the arrest of Vence, Houston police say that he has been charged with tampering with evidence. The laundry basket was found in the trunk of Vence's silver Nisson Altima, which was recovered in Missouri City, Texas, Thursday.
|
| Women are now in charge of NASA's science missions Posted: 11 May 2019 12:01 PM PDT  When the next car-sized rover lands on Mars in 2020, the ultimate head of this extraterrestrial endeavor will be physicist Lori Glaze. She's leads NASA's Planetary Science Division. And she's not alone. For the first time in history, three of NASA's four science divisions are now run by women, a milestone announced by NASA on Friday. "I am proud to say that for the 1st time in #NASA's history, women are in charge of 3 out of 4 #NASAScience divisions. They are inspiring the next generation of women to become leaders in space exploration as we move forward to put the 1st woman on the Moon," NASA's associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted Friday. If NASA is able to fulfill President Trump's ambitious (and still not funded) directive that the U.S. return to the moon by 2024, NASA has committed that the first women will land on the moon. In every instance, we hire based on excellence and merit, nothing else. These leaders are incredibly qualified in their fields. — Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) May 10, 2019 What's more, of the latest class of 12 astronauts, almost half, five, are women. Still, a woman has never led the entire space agency, as NASA's administrator. This is not surprising. Women still have a stark minority representation in the most powerful positions of U.S. government. Of the 21 members of President Trump's cabinet, four are women. Though females make up nearly 51% of the U.S. population, just 24 percent of Congress is represented by women. NASA, though, is a clear leader in recognizing the leadership abilities and scientific savvy of the agency's female researchers. What are these three women in charge of? 1. Nicola Fox, director of NASA's Heliophysics division Nicola Fox Image: nasa Fox leads NASA's efforts to understand the sun, a science known as heliophysics. It's a weighty task. NASA is in the midst of a mission that sent a heavily-armored solar probe into the sun's outer atmosphere to gain a markedly improved idea of how our star behaves. This is critical to understanding how solar radiation — and solar storms — will impact our lives, communications, electrical grids, satellites, and astronauts in space. "Ever since people first looked up, they've been looking at the bright light in the sky," Fox said in a statement. "We are really the oldest science branch." 2. Sandra Cauffman, acting director of NASA's Earth Science Division Sandra Cauffman Image: nasa Cauffman heads what many believe to be NASA's most critical mission: understanding our home planet. "What we do in observing Earth as a system gives us the additional benefit of helping humans here on Earth survive hurricanes, tornadoes, pollution, fires, and help public health," Cauffman said. "Understanding the oceans, the algae blooms — all of those things help humans right here on Earth." The work of the Earth Science Division grows increasingly relevant as the planet experiences changes — stoked by human carbon emissions — that are unprecedented in both human and geologic history. 3. Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science division. Lori Glaze Image: nasa Glaze heads the NASA division that explores other worlds — like Mars, Jupiter, and beyond. This is the NASA department that seeks one of humanity's most pressing questions: Is there life in the solar system outside of our planet? As of now, there's zero evidence that life exists elsewhere. But Glaze — and the team she oversees — are looking. WATCH: Meet Katie Bouman, one of the scientists who helped capture the first black hole image
|
No comments:
Post a Comment