| Trump: U.S. will respond with 'great force' if Iran attacks interests Posted: 20 May 2019 04:43 PM PDT  "I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. "If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will." His comments came as two U.S. government sources said the United States strongly suspects Shi'ite militias with ties to, and possibly encouragement from, Iran fired a rocket on Sunday into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The sources, who are familiar with U.S. national security assessments and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still trying to establish which militia fired the Katyusha rocket on Sunday and the extent, if any, of Iranian involvement.
|
| Abducted Idaho girl found safe in Arizona, suspect jailed Posted: 21 May 2019 04:35 PM PDT  SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — A 17-year-old girl abducted from an Idaho fast-food restaurant where she worked was found safe in Arizona on Tuesday and the man accused of taking her was jailed on a $1 million bond, authorities said.
|
| Researchers say a tiny planet slammed into the Moon a long time ago Posted: 21 May 2019 12:11 PM PDT  Earth's Moon only ever shows us one face. It's locked into its current orientation, with a permanent nearside and farside, but it wasn't until the Apollo missions that scientists were able to see just how different the two sides really are. The nearside, with its sea of dark gray basins standing in contrast to the brilliant white powder that covers the rest of its face, varies dramatically from the farside, which is marked with countless smaller craters in a more uniform distribution.The debate over how the Moon's split personalities developed has raged for decades, but new research seems to indicate that one of the possible explanations does indeed hold water. The theory, that Earth's Moon was struck by a tiny dwarf planet long ago, is the subject of a new research paper published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.Using computer models to simulate what may have happened to the Moon's surface long ago, researchers suggest the most likely scenario seems to be the collision between the Moon and a very large body. The impact of a dwarf planet as large as 480 miles across would have struck what we see today as the Moon's nearside at a speed of 14,000 miles per hour.This theory stands in contrast to other proposed explanations, including the theory that Earth may have once had not one Moon, but two. The two-moon theory suggests that Earth's moon duo may have at one point collided and merged, leaving the Moon as we see it today looking oddly unsymmetrical.The dwarf planet collision scenario assumes that whatever the body that struck the Moon was, it was in its own path around the Sun and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to strike Earth's natural satellite. This, the researchers say, would also explain why the crust on the farside of the Moon is different than that of its nearside."We demonstrate that a large body slowly impacting the nearside of the Moon can reproduce the observed crustal thickness asymmetry and form both the farside highlands and the nearside lowlands," the paper explains. "Additionally, the model shows that the resulting impact ejecta would cover the primordial anorthositic crust to form a two‐layer crust on the farside, as observed."
|
| At Least 8 Injured as 30 Tornadoes Passed Through the U.S. Southern Plains Posted: 20 May 2019 12:27 PM PDT  The region is still reckoning with significant flooding from the storm system
|
| Dog sitter caught walking around naked in customer's home Posted: 21 May 2019 10:50 AM PDT  A dog sitter has been caught on camera walking around her client's house naked. Rosie Brown hired Casey Brengle to look after her two dogs, Penny and Daisy, while she went to a wedding for four days.
|
| Tu-95 Bear: Meet the Old Russian Bomber U.S. F-22s Just Intercepted Near Alaska Posted: 22 May 2019 03:31 AM PDT  It's old, it's obvious and it has mechanical problems — facts hard to ignore while the Tu-95 plays a key role in a highly orchestrated and much exaggerated effort by the Kremlin to impress its foreign rivals.(This first appeared several years ago and is being reposted due to reader interest.) At first glance, the Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber looks like a 59-year-old flying anachronism, a Cold War leftover that has outlived its usefulness in a century when stealth is king.The Bear is showing signs of its age. In recent months, two Tu-95 crashes led to the grounding of the entire fleet of more than 50 aircraft to resolve mechanical issues. Besides, there is nothing stealthy about the Bear.Even when the bomber is in top-notch shape, the turboprop-powered Tu-95 is loud … really loud. In fact, it's so noisy that listening devices on submerged U.S. submarines can hear a Bear flying overhead.Furthermore, it has the radar signature of a flying big-box store. The plane is huge.Photos of lumbering Bear-H bombers intercepted by sleek U.S. or NATO warplanes as they flew toward protected airspace are some of the most recognizable images of the East-West nuclear stand-off during the 1970s and '80s.
|
| House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Hope Hicks and McGahn Aide Posted: 21 May 2019 03:12 PM PDT  The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas to former White House communications director Hope Hicks and an aide to former White House counsel Donald McGahn, requesting more details about what lawmakers see as disturbing information in the special cousel's report on the Russia investigation.The committee's Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, requested documents and public hearings from both Hicks and McGahn's former aide, Annie Donaldson, just a day after the White House directed McGahn to defy a subpoena the committee issued to him."As I said earlier today, the Judiciary Committee's investigation into obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuse of power by President Trump and his Administration will continue," Nadler said in a statementThe Department of Justice issed a legal opinion on Monday stating McGahn is "not legally required" to comply with the subpoena, explaining that, "the immunity of the President's immediate advisors from compelled congressional testimony on matters related to their official responsibilities has long been recognized and arises from the fundamental workings of the separation of powers."McGahn caused alarm among lawmakers when Robert Mueller's final report came out, describing McGahn's statements to the special counsel that President Trump had directed him to have the Justice Department fire Mueller, a possible instance in which the president may have obstructed justice.
|
| New Feature on 2020 Chevrolet and GMC Models Won't Let Car Move Till Driver Fastens Seatbelt Posted: 21 May 2019 12:03 PM PDT  The new tech is called Buckle to Drive, and it rolls out on several Chevrolet and GMC models for 2020 as part of the Teen Driver package.
|
| Fears rise China could weaponise rare earths in US tech war Posted: 22 May 2019 03:53 AM PDT  The US has hit China where it hurts by going after its telecom champion Huawei, but Beijing's control of the global supply of rare earths used in smartphones and electric cars gives it a powerful weapon in their escalating tech war. A seemingly routine visit by President Xi Jinping to a Chinese rare earths company this week is being widely read as an obvious threat that Beijing is standing ready for action. Xi's inspection tour "is no accident, this didn't happen by chance," said Li Mingjiang, China programme coordinator at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.
|
| UPDATE 4-U.S. judge says Qualcomm violated antitrust law; appeal planned, shares plunge Posted: 22 May 2019 03:40 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-U.S. judge says Qualcomm violated antitrust law; appeal planned, shares plunge]( "UPDATE 4-U.S. judge says Qualcomm violated antitrust law; appeal planned, shares plunge") Qualcomm Inc illegally suppressed competition in the market for smartphone chips by threatening to cut off supplies and extracting excessive licensing fees, a U.S. judge ruled, a decision that could force the company to overhaul its business practices. The decision issued late Tuesday night by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, caused Qualcomm shares to plunge 11.4 percent on Wednesday. "Qualcomm's licensing practices have strangled competition" in parts of the chip market for years, harming rivals, smartphone makers, and consumers, Koh wrote in a 233-page decision.
|
| Latest Sign of Beto O’Rourke’s Flameout: Opposition Research Requests Have ‘Died Off’ Posted: 21 May 2019 02:03 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyIn the days leading up to Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign, a top Republican opposition research firm was brimming with requests from political reporters angling for dirt. America Rising, a political action committee that shared details of its internal inquiries with The Daily Beast, said the asks came from a dozen or more reporters and ranged from broad questions to more tailored points of interest. But 10 weeks after O'Rourke's official launch, those requests are virtually nonexistent."The requests for oppo on him have completely died off," a staffer at the oppo group said.The lack of oppo requests suggests a larger problem looming over O'Rourke's campaign: a visible decline in public interest. Once elevated to the top of Democratic watch-lists, the former congressman is now registering in single digits in several national polls, nosediving from 12 percent in a Quinnipiac poll conducted in March to just 5 percent in the same survey in April. And while he's beginning to roll out new hires in key voting states, some say he's already fallen behind other candidates whose field operations have been interfacing with voters for months. Beto O'Rourke Blew ItAmerica Rising, which has cornered the market on opposition research on the nearly two dozen presidential contenders, has tracked what it considers a steady decline in the public's interest in O'Rourke. The Republican National Committee, known for slinging insults about Democrats into mainstream consciousness, has not received any requests from reporters for O'Rourke information in recent weeks, according to a senior official. Typically, a high level of curiosity in revealing a candidate's political past is one indicator of their perceived viability. And a noticeable downtick in interest could signal an enthusiasm gap between where O'Rourke started and where he's ended up in two months. O'Rourke, himself, seemed to acknowledge the flagging interest in a recent interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. "I recognize I can do a better job also of talking to a national audience," O'Rourke said. "I hope that I'm continuing to do better over time, but we've been extraordinarily fortunate with the campaign that we've run so far." His next big chance will be Tuesday night, when he'll appear in his first CNN town hall at 10 p.m. from Drake University in Des Moines. The network has previously hosted such events for several of his rivals, giving a boost to some lesser-known candidates early into their campaigns. On Monday, O'Rourke told reporters he would participate in a Fox News town hall, a general-election strategy favored by some 2020 hopefuls as an attempt to reach voters beyond the traditional Democratic base. But according to an analysis shared with The Daily Beast by Media Matters, a nonprofit that tracks right-wing coverage, even Fox News' daily mentions of O'Rourke online have visibly declined since he announced his bid, indicating that he may no longer be considered a serious threat as a Democratic contender. O'Rourke's campaign sees it differently: "From my perspective there's been no decline of oppo to respond to," a source within the campaign said. Press requests from print and television outlets, including bookers in charge of getting candidates on the air, have not declined since the launch, the campaign source added. While it's still early to plot ad buys—the Iowa caucuses are nine months away—a source who tracks ad information for multiple political campaigns says that O'Rourke's failure to get into that world early coincides with a frenzied campaign that's no longer top-of-mind for voters. "It fits with an overall theme of his campaign being a little disorganized," the source who analyzes political ads said. "He had such a moment in 2018 but it seems to have fizzled out."While no pollsters or ad makers have been hired, a source within O'Rourke's campaign first told The Daily Beast that they have been in initial discussions with various polling, data, and analytics firms, as well as outfits who do campaign ads. Bringing on a pollster had not previously been a top priority, the source said, adding that the campaign has been focused on talking to voters in 154 town halls and traveling to 116 cities.O'Rourke has made recent inroads on the political staffing front, bringing on Jen O'Malley Dillon, Jeff Berman, and Rob Flaherty, top talent from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's campaigns, among other recent national and state hires. But he has missed out on other high-level talent who wandered to other campaigns, multiple sources said.Meanwhile, other presidential campaigns have already hired staffers who previously worked with or expressed interest in O'Rourke. Shelby Cole, a top O'Rourke aide who helped him raise an eye-popping $80 million during his Senate campaign, joined California Sen. Kamala Harris' team as its digital fundraising director. Emmy Ruiz, who served as Clinton's state director in Nevada and Colorado in 2016, was thought to be seriously weighing joining O'Rourke before he announced, according to multiple Democratic sources unaffiliated with current campaigns. She later joined Harris as a senior adviser. One top Democratic operative admitted to eyeing O'Rourke for months, but changed candidate loyalty after reading his announcement article in Vanity Fair. "I was definitely interested in him back in January and February," the veteran operative said, who has since joined another presidential campaign in a top position. "The Vanity Fair story fed a fear I had, which was that he was a little too fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants," the veteran operative said. "I just felt that he hadn't totally thought this through. So that kind of soured me on him."—Asawin Suebsaeng contributed reporting for this article.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.
|
| Man who threatened to kill ‘as many girls as I see’ because he was repeatedly rejected set to be spared jail Posted: 22 May 2019 07:11 AM PDT  A man who threatened to murder "as many girls" as he could see may escape a jail sentence, despite pleading guilty to a charge of attempted threat of terrorism.Christopher Cleary wrote a detailed Facebook post about how he planned to become "the next mass shooter" in January 2019.The 27-year-old described himself as a virgin who had never had a girlfriend.He also said he wanted to make the fact that so many women had turned him down "right" by going on a shooting spree, according to documents filed by Provo Police.Cleary was arrested on 19 January after publishing the Facebook post.Cleary then struck a deal with Utah prosecutors, pleading guilty to a reduced criminal charge.Attempted threat of terrorism is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.But Utah prosecutors agreed to recommend him for probation, despite his extensive criminal record.A judge will decide whether or not to accept the deal at a hearing on Thursday.The 27-year-old has been accused of stalking multiple times, with at least eight alleged victims contacting the authorities about his behaviour since 2012, according to police and court records.He was on probation following a marijuana conviction in 2016 when he was charged with stalking two teenagers he had met online.Cleary was put on probation for the stalking cases but in 2017 was charged with stalking and harassing his case worker.In 2018 judges in Jefferson County, Colorado sentenced him, once again, to probation for all three stalking cases.In one of the cases a 19-year-old woman said she lived with Cleary for a fortnight in a hotel room. She said that he strangled and urinated on her during that time, court records show.Cleary was out on probation for the three cases when he was arrested in a McDonald's in January, after publishing his Facebook post.Pam Russell, a spokeswoman for the Utah's county prosecutor's office, said once the case was concluded Cleary would be returned to Colorado.Prosecutors in Denver will seek to revoke his probation and send him to prison in relation for the stalking and harassment cases, she added."All I wanted to be was loved," Cleary wrote in his Facebook post."Yet no one cares about me, I'm 27 years old and I've never had a girlfriend before and I'm still a virgin, this is why I'm planning on shooting up a public place soon and being the next mass shooter cause I'm ready to die."It is unclear how truthful the Facebook post was, as at least two of Cleary's accusers have said they had a sexual relationship with him.Some news reports have speculated that Cleary could be part of the "incel movement", which promotes the misogynistic idea that men are entitled to have sex with women.But a Colorado police detective, who investigated two accusations against the 27-year-old, said there as no evidence he was part of the movement."I truly think he's just wired differently," he said. Additional reporting by agencies
|
| Is It Cheaper To Buy A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback From Britain? Posted: 20 May 2019 01:03 PM PDT  This immaculate 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback is estimated to sell at British auction for $95K. It's hard not to whisper Steve McQueen's name when presented with a Ford Mustang 390 GT Fastback, even if it isn't a 1968 model. The American classifieds may provide evidence of eye-watering sums being traded for healthy Fastback specimens, but it's not always the case in Great Britain.
|
| Farage's Brexit Party to Trounce May, Sporting Index Says Posted: 21 May 2019 09:03 AM PDT  Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives will win seven, while Labour will take 13 and the Liberal Democrats 12, Sporting Index predicted in an email in London on Tuesday. Sporting Index has had a consistently strong record in predicting some of the key twists and turns of the Brexit saga. Last month, about two hours before the latest vote on May's Brexit deal, the spread betting firm forecast she'd lose by 60 votes.
|
| DOJ Office of Legal Counsel Concludes Congress Can’t Force McGahn to Testify Posted: 20 May 2019 01:51 PM PDT  In an opinion released Monday, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel ruled that former White House counsel Donald McGahn is "not legally required" to testify to Congress on matters related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report."The immunity of the President's immediate advisors from compelled congressional testimony on matters related to their official responsibilities has long been recognized and arises from the fundamental workings of the separation of powers," the opinion stated.McGahn featured prominently in Mueller's final report, released last month. His assertion that President Trump directed him to have the Justice Department fire Mueller drew particular attention as an instance in which Trump may have attempted to obstruct justice. In the days following, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler subpoenaed him for documents and testimony related to that claim.Mueller ultimately found that the Trump campaign had not colluded with Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election, but refrained from reaching a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice during the investigation.White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the memo Monday and said the administration has directed McGahn to "act accordingly" with the DOJ's statement."This action has been taken in order to ensure that future Presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the Office of the Presidency," Sanders said in a press release. "The Democrats do not like the conclusion of the Mueller investigation - no collusion, no conspiracy, and no obstruction - and want a wasteful and unnecessary do-over."
|
| View Photos of the 2020 Land Rover Discovery Sport Posted: 21 May 2019 03:30 PM PDT |
| Alabama rape victim speaks out against anti-abortion bill Posted: 20 May 2019 10:06 AM PDT  After being raped by a co-worker two years ago, Samantha Blakely had an abortion. The 25-year-old Blakely is among women speaking out after the conservative southern US state adopted the toughest anti-abortion legislation in the country. The Alabama bill, which takes effect in November unless it is blocked in the courts, places a near-total ban on ending a pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest.
|
| U.S. Justice Department : ex-White House counsel McGahn has 'immunity from testifying' Posted: 20 May 2019 12:58 PM PDT  The legal opinion by the Justice Department was released one day before McGahn had been due to appear before the Democratically controlled House panel by order of a subpoena to discuss matters outlined in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigative report. "Congress may not constitutionally compel the president's senior advisers to testify about their official duties," the opinion said, citing the Constitution's separation of powers provisions.
|
| Could One of America's Allies Take Down the F-35 Program? Posted: 21 May 2019 01:01 AM PDT  What does America need to save its troubled F-35 stealth fighter?Turkey, that's what.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently warned that the multinational F-35 program, of which Turkey is a member, would fail if Turkey were excluded. Turkey is facing sanctions, including being dropped from the F-35 program if it goes ahead with purchasing Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, which has raised Washington's fears that F-35 secrets might be leaked to Russia. The U.S. has stopped shipping equipment to Turkey for that nation's planned purchase of 100 F-35s, while the first two aircraft officially delivered to Turkey are still in the United States.For its part, Ankara is adamant that it has a right to purchase both American stealth fighters and Russian anti-aircraft missiles, despite the fact that the S-400 is one of the most likely Russian weapons to be used against the F-35. "We were surely not going to remain silent against our right to self-defense being disregarded and attempts to hit us where it hurts," Erdogan said at a Turkish defense trade show. "This is the kind of process that is behind the S-400 agreement we reached with Russia.""Nowadays, we are being subject to a similar injustice - or rather an imposition - on the F-35s ... Let me be frank: An F-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is bound to collapse completely."
|
| Accused Thief Taunted Disney World With Photo of Stolen Robot’s Mutilated Head Posted: 22 May 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast/Photos GettyIf you're accused of stealing an animatronic child from Disney World, maybe don't make a wildly popular Disney-related Twitter account and post a picture of the stolen robot child with its eyes gouged out."Buzzy," an animatronic boy from an abandoned Disney World attraction, has been missing for months. Online, Disney superfans treated the disappearance like a kidnapping. But the investigation into the theft led police to someone in the online Disney fandom: a Disney blogger who taunted Disney about their security, posted conspiracy theories about Buzzy's disappearance and, in the final days before his arrest, uploaded a picture of the robot's decapitated and eyeball-less head.Patrick Spikes, 24, was arrested last week. He worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, until last year. But Spikes didn't completely part ways with the theme park after he stopped working there. Instead, he started churning out videos, podcasts, and tweets under the username "BackDoorDisney." His Twitter account, which amassed more than 17,000 followers before going dark last week, promised to give fans an inside view of Disney World. In its seven months of operation, the account uploaded pictures of Disney control rooms, secret maps, and Disney cast members pretending to have sex while dressed as characters from Toy Story.Soon, Spikes was posting about an even more salacious Disney World story. In August, Disney told police that someone had stolen clothes off Buzzy. The 300-pound animatronic child used to sit inside the "Cranium Command" exhibit, in Epcot's Wonders of Life Pavilion. But the building, which hosted somewhat dated attractions, had been closed for years. The stolen clothes (including a miniature bomber jacket) were worth nearly $7,000, Disney claimed, according to an affidavit from Florida's Orange County Sheriff's Department. Later, the entire robot was stolen, an operation that required the thief to cut through electric cables.Spikes and other Disney bloggers posted about Buzzy's rumored disappearance. But Spikes and a crowd of Disney fans who broke into the park soon came under suspicion. Spikes routinely boasted of secret trips through Disney World, including with a friend who climbed the park's Thunder Mountain roller coaster."Good job filling the holes under the Mk back fence this morning," Spikes wrote in a January tweet directed at Disney. "I told you guys about this issue 2 months ago but it took somebody going in and climbing one of your coasters for you to care."On his personal Twitter account, Spikes taunted Disney, advising them to buy a bulk box of security cameras from Best Buy. As the search for Buzzy continued, Disney fans speculated that an urban explorer might have snatched the robot.Eventually, police began narrowing in on Spikes and his scene. Investigators found an October picture of Buzzy on Spikes' @BackDoorDisney account. The picture does not appear to have been taken inside the Cranium Command exhibit. In texts with investigators, Spikes allegedly let slip that Buzzy's clothes were sold on the black market for $8,000.Police got a warrant for Spikes' cellphone and called him in for questioning in December. The meeting went poorly when Spikes tried to cut it short."The defendant stated he felt sick and felt that he was going to vomit," police alleged in an affidavit. "A short time later, he began to make strained breathing noises, and stated he couldn't breath. He requested water, which was given to him, and also was allowed to lay on the floor. The fire department responded and all vitals were normal." Spikes was taken to a hospital. Police charged him with non-violently resisting arrest. He has pleaded not guilty.Spikes later made a video about a police search on his house, and professed his innocence."I said 'really? The entire thing got stolen?' I didn't really believe it," he said in the March video. "It blew my mind. I was like, you can't be serious right now."Later in the video, Spikes suggested that Disney had staged Buzzy's disappearance in order to shut down his BackDoorDisney account."There's a theory someone talked about that Imagineering [a Disney team] removed Buzzy and didn't tell anyone else. So when Operations, the part of the company that runs the Pavillion noticed he was missing, they filed him as 'stolen,'" he said. "Did Disney willingly file a report, knowing the thing wasn't stolen, just to run me down? Because obviously I had been posting a lot of backstage photos and stuff, and information … It almost seems like they wanted my phones because they knew I had a lot of backstage photos on them."But BackDoorDisney kept implying inside knowledge of Buzzy's disappearance.In a May 12 tweet, he tweeted a picture of Buzzy's fate. The tweet showed a picture of Buzzy's decapitated head, with its eyeballs scratched off. The image was included in a screenshot of a text Spikes received, which meant someone else might have stolen the robot.TwitterFive days later, police arrested Spikes. Although Buzzy's disappearance featured prominently in an arrest affidavit (police appear to have started investigating him over Buzzy's theft), Spikes was actually charged for a different series of alleged thefts from Disney World. His lawyer did not return The Daily Beast's request for comment.In July, police alleged, Spikes printed a fake Disney employee card for his cousin and snuck him into the park. The pair allegedly snuck into the Haunted Mansion, a popular ride, and stole a collection of wigs and outfits from backstage. The clothes, which were designed for the ride's animatronic ghosts, cost between $40 (a tiara) and $1,746 (a robot's jacket), adding up to more than $7,000.Spikes and his cousin allegedly took pictures throughout the heist, and posed in the wigs at a nearby 7-Eleven. A video from shortly after the theft allegedly shows Spikes' cousin's girlfriend wearing a robot's stolen dress.Disney may have priced the clothes at just over $7,000, but they allegedly went for four times that price on the black market. Days after the alleged burglary, Spikes allegedly received a combined $29,451 payment from two people over Paypal. One of the people, whose name is redacted in the affidavit, told police he paid Spikes $8,890 for 18 items from various Disney heists, including $1,000 for a Haunted Mansion dress.Shortly before his arrest, Spikes teased a forthcoming video about the black market for stolen Disney gear.Police haven't charged Spikes with Buzzy's disappearance. But they say his video about the raid on his house raised questions about his involvement. In the video, he showed part of a search warrant for his house. Police say he edited the document to remove references to two pieces of evidence police sought."The fact that Spikes altered the warrant for his video and only removed these two items indicate that he was aware these items were used in a crime," the affidavit reads.In that same video, Spikes tells viewers he'll keep his lips tight about Buzzy's disappearance until the investigation is over."If things are still under investigation, I'm not going to get on YouTube and run my mouth about it," he said. "That would be dumb."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.
|
| Kashmir group seeks UN probe into torture by India troops Posted: 20 May 2019 05:51 PM PDT  SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A prominent rights group in Indian-controlled Kashmir is advocating for the United Nations to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate what it calls the endemic use of torture by government forces amid a decades-long anti-India uprising in the disputed region.
|
| China Surveillance Giant Hikvision Slumps on U.S. Ban Report Posted: 21 May 2019 07:00 PM PDT  The White House will make a final decision in coming weeks on whether to limit exports of U.S. components to Hikvision, as it's done with Huawei Technologies Co., the Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Such a move would escalate tensions with China and raise questions about whether the U.S. is going after more of the country's technology champions. Hikvision has grown into a surveillance giant, selling its cameras around the world after cashing in on China's obsession with monitoring its citizens.
|
| Bigger cuts expected: 23,000 more Ford layoffs needed, analysts say Posted: 22 May 2019 08:14 AM PDT  Ford CEO Jim Hackett plans for layoffs won't deliver savings the company has said it wants. An analyst says another 23,000 layoffs are needed.
|
| The U.S. Is Outplaying Iran in a Regional Chess Match Posted: 20 May 2019 01:20 PM PDT  In the first two weeks of May, U.S.–Iran tensions appeared to be careening toward war. In an escalating series of warnings, the U.S. asserted that an attack by Iran would be met with unrelenting force. Iran eventually responded with its usual bluster about being prepared for a full confrontation with Washington. But on the ground the Middle East looks more like a chessboard, with Iran and its allies and proxies facing off against American allies. This state of affairs was brought into sharp relief when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launched a drone attack on Saudi Arabia and a rocket fell near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.U.S. media have tended to focus on the role of national-security adviser John Bolton in crafting the administration's policy — and whether America would actually go to war with Iran. Iranian media have also sought to decipher exactly what the Trump administration is up to. According to Iran's Tasnim News, the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Hossein Salami told a closed session of Parliament that the U.S. was involved in a "psychological war" with Iran, predicting the U.S. didn't have enough forces to actually attack Iran yet.In the complex game of wits being played between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, it appears that the U.S. temporarily checked Iran's usual behavior. Iran prefers bluster in rhetoric with a careful strategy of extending its influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, knowing that any real battle with U.S. forces will result in Iranian defeat. Tehran can't risk massive retaliation against its allies or the regime at home for fear that it will lead to instability and the destruction of all it has carefully built up in the last years. Iran is suffering from the effects of recent nationwide floods and from shortages due to sanctions, so it can't afford a total war, and its allies in Iraq and Lebanon are in sensitive positions of power. In the past, Iran benefited from its opaque system of alliances and its ability to threaten western powers and attack U.S. forces with proxies, even seizing U.S. sailors, without fear of reprisal. It learned in the past that the U.S. preferred diplomacy, but the current administration appears to have put Tehran on notice.The question is what can be learned from the escalating tensions. If Iran thinks Washington isn't serious, or if it senses that domestic opposition to Washington's saber-rattling is building, Iran may call America's bluff. But if Iran thinks that Trump's team really will retaliate, it will tread carefully in all the areas of the Middle East where U.S. allies and Iran's proxies rub up against one another.To understand the chessboard, we must look at the Middle East the way Iran does. Since the 1980s, Iran's Islamic revolution has been increasing its influence in the region. This brought Iran into vicious conflict with Iraq in the 1980s, and for a while Iran saw few major geopolitical successes. However, the weakening of the Lebanese state and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 created opportunities for Iran to exploit local militia allies and gain power. It did this in Lebanon through Hezbollah, an armed terrorist organization that has seats in the Lebanese parliament. It also did this in Iraq through a plethora of militias, many of whose leaders had served alongside the IRGC in the 1980s. Today those Shiite militias are called the Popular Mobilization Forces and they are an official paramilitary force of the Iraqi government. They have threatened the U.S., and U.S. intelligence allegedly showed them positioning rockets near U.S. bases earlier this month.In Yemen, meanwhile, Iran has worked closely with the Houthi rebels, who are being fought by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates and the government of Yemen. (That coalition is controversial; in April, Congress attempted to withdraw support for the Yemen war.) The Houthis have fired Iranian-designed ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia and used Iranian-made drones. Iran is also active in Syria, not only in support of the Syrian regime's war against the now mostly defeated rebels, but also using bases to threaten Israel.The U.S. sees Iran as inseparable from its cobweb of allied militia groups and proxies, many of which are supported by the IRGC. The U.S. designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in April and repeatedly has warned Iran that any attack by it or its proxies will be met with a response.Iran now wants to assure its own people that war isn't likely through media stories about how the Trump administration isn't serious. This is in contrast to the usual Tehran bluster and threats, even historic harassment of ships in the Persian Gulf and harassment of U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran's sudden quiet could, of course, be the calm before the storm, but it is more likely a reflection of the regime's sudden confusion about U.S. policy. This is a good thing for American interests. Iran needs to be kept guessing about U.S. intentions. It needs to tell its proxies to stop threatening U.S. forces in Iraq, as the Defense Department says they have done as recently as March. The U.S. gained the upper hand in its recent escalation against Iran by playing Iran's game of bluster and support for allies on the ground. If Washington wants to continue to keep Iran in check, it needs to keep up the pressure.
|
| At least 19 tornadoes touched down from Texas to Oklahoma, causing widespread damage Posted: 21 May 2019 05:20 AM PDT  The biggest threat appeared to be flash flooding from torrential rains that accompanied the storms, forecasters said.
|
| Eiffel Tower climber 'admitted to psychiatric unit' Posted: 21 May 2019 09:38 AM PDT  A man, believed to be Russian, who sparked a mass evacuation of the Eiffel Tower by scaling the iconic Paris landmark has been admitted to a psychiatric unit, legal sources said Tuesday. The man caused chaos Monday and the closure of the monument to tourists by spending six hours clinging to the outer metal framework of the Eiffel Tower. An investigation has been opened for unauthorised entry into a cultural monument, a judicial source said.
|
| Mid-Engined Corvette Spied without Rear Wing Posted: 21 May 2019 09:48 AM PDT |
| House panel, Justice Dept end standoff over Mueller documents Posted: 22 May 2019 08:14 AM PDT  The House Intelligence Committee pulled back on Wednesday from threats to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department agreed to turn over materials relating to an investigation into Russian election interference. The decision ended a standoff between the Democratic-led committee and the Justice Department for access to counterintelligence reports generated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his probe of President Donald Trump and his associates. The dispute, one of many between the Republican administration and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, has come as Trump refuses to cooperate with numerous congressional probes into matters ranging from his personal finances and business dealings to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
|
| Hospital that treated baby cut from womb investigated Posted: 21 May 2019 03:02 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — The agency that licenses and inspects health care facilities in Illinois has started an investigation of a suburban Chicago hospital where doctors treated a baby brought in by a woman claiming to be his mother, a spokeswoman for the agency said Tuesday. The woman was charged weeks later with killing the actual mother and cutting the child from her womb.
|
| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she'd be 'hard pressed' to back Biden in primary Posted: 21 May 2019 05:35 PM PDT  Bernie Sanders appears to be the favorite to secure Ocasio-Cortez's prized endorsement in the Democratic presidential primaryCongresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez told the Guardian: 'I'm not close to an endorsement announcement any time soon.' Photograph: Joshua Roberts/ReutersAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive US congresswoman and social media sensation, has said she would be "hard pressed" to endorse the frontrunner, Joe Biden, in the Democratic presidential primary.The statement is the latest sign of the left's apathy towards the former vice-president, who has surged ahead of the Senator Bernie Sanders and other rivals in recent polls.Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, appears to be the favourite to secure 29-year-old Ocasio-Cortez's prized endorsement but she said she was still some way off making a decision."I'm not close to an endorsement announcement any time soon," she told the Guardian on Tuesday. "I'm still trying to get a handle on my job. It seems like ages but I'm just five months in and we have quite some time. The debates are in the summer and our first primary election for the entire country isn't until next year." Asked if she would consider endorsing Biden, widely seen as a centrist, Ocasio-Cortez replied: "I'd be hard pressed to see that happen, to be honest, in a primary."Biden, comfortably leading every opinion poll, came under fire last week when Reuters reported he was pursuing a "middle ground" approach to the climate crisis. He later distanced himself from the implication.Ocasio-Cortez criticised politicians seeking "a middle-of-the-road approach to save our lives". Sanders, running second in most polls, tweeted that there was "no 'middle ground' when it comes to climate policy".If and when Ocasio-Cortez does endorse a candidate, Sanders probably remains the favourite to secure her support. She was an organiser for his 2016 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. The pair appeared at a rally in Washington last week to support the Green New Deal climate plan.In a short interview on Tuesday the congresswoman, who has more than 4 million Twitter followers, also reiterated her demand for Donald Trump's impeachment. "I think that the grounds have been there for quite some time but the case is really getting to a larger point that we haven't seen before," she said.Democratic leaders are putting the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, under pressure to move ahead with the process. Ocasio-Cortez added: "I know that the conversation is really changing this week in the caucus and so we'll see where the speaker lands."
|
| China's Navy Is Growing So Fast Its Running Out of Names For Its Warships Posted: 21 May 2019 03:32 AM PDT  China's navy has a new problem: not enough names for its rapidly growing fleet of warships."China is running out of provincial capitals to name new destroyers, and it might have to turn to other big domestic cities, which reflects the country's rapid naval development in recent years," according to Chinese newspaper Global Times.The People's Liberation Army Navy recently named its first Type 055 destroyer the Nanchang, which is the capital city of East China's Jiangxi Province.One of the three other Type 055 destroyers will be named Lhasa, the capital of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, according to Chinese media. That just leaves Nanning and Taipei as the names of provincial capitals for destroyers (Taipei is Taiwan's capital, though Taiwan has not yet declared independence as a separate nation from China).Which means non-capital cities will have to bequeath their names to Chinese destroyers. The latest destroyer is named Qiqihar, which is a non-capital city in in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A few ships have been named after major cities, such as the Shenzen, a Type 051 destroyer."Chinese destroyers and frigates should be named after big and medium Chinese cities, according to the naval vessels naming regulation," Global Times said. "This means naming of destroyers does not necessarily have to use provincial capitals, as it was a non-binding tradition."
|
| T-Mobile-Sprint deal clears FCC hurdle: Will you pay more for your cellular plan? Posted: 20 May 2019 03:25 PM PDT ![T-Mobile-Sprint deal clears FCC hurdle: Will you pay more for your cellular plan?]( "T-Mobile-Sprint deal clears FCC hurdle: Will you pay more for your cellular plan?") The pending $26-billion T-Mobile-Sprint merger cleared a major regulatory hurdle when the FCC gave its blessing. Will consumers embrace the union too?
|
| Scouted: The Sleek, Black Stainless Steel Version of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 Is on Sale for $50 Posted: 20 May 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Right now, you can add the sleek, black stainless steel edition of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 to your kitchen while it's on sale for $50. That's a savings of 50% on a gadget that could easily replace half of the other things you use in your kitchen on a regular basis.What's so great about this Instant Pot? I mean, just look at it. It's like the original Instant Pot's cool teen brother. It's like the original Instant Pot got a makeover montage in an early-Aughts romcom. You get everything the Instant Pot has to offer, from the pressure cooker to the rice cooker to the steamer. It's still the six-in-one gadget you love, just with a black stainless steel outside, and it's on sale. If the original super shiny Instant Pot clashed with your aesthetic, this is the version for you. Want one that makes a bit more of a statement? You can get a red stainless steel version for $60.Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Iraq caught in the middle of US-Iran face-off Posted: 21 May 2019 10:02 AM PDT  Scarred by two decades of conflict, Iraq finds itself caught in the middle of a US-Iranian tug-of-war, fearing it could pay the price of any confrontation between its two main allies. Analysts say third parties may seek to exploit the latest spike in tensions between Tehran and Washington to spark a showdown that serves their own interests. Iraq "pays a disproportionate tax on Iranian-American tensions and (has) an unenviable front-line position in any future conflict between the two," said Fanar Haddad, an Iraq expert at the National University of Singapore.
|
| On impeachment, can the GOP evolve?: Today's Toon Posted: 20 May 2019 04:50 PM PDT  Want to keep up with USA TODAY's editorial cartoons? Bookmark this page. We'll update it frequently.
|
| Ministers Plot to Thwart May as PM Keeps Fighting: Brexit Update Posted: 22 May 2019 09:33 AM PDT  May's chief whip will meet the executive committee that represents rank-and-file Conservative MPs at 5:30 p.m, according to people familiar with the situation. At its meeting on Wednesday, the influential 1922 committee of Conservative backbench members of Parliament will discuss whether to change the party's rules to allow an earlier leadership challenge to May, according to a person familiar with the matter.
|
| The 11 Best Deals During Walmart's Memorial Day Weekend Sale Posted: 20 May 2019 12:31 PM PDT |
| Comrade Sanders Targets Charter Schools Posted: 21 May 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Few things offend Bernie Sanders as much as people escaping from command-and-control government systems, even minority students whose parents are desperate to get their kids a decent education.The socialist wants to turn George Wallace on his head and not block black children from attending traditional public schools, but block them from exiting those schools for something better. The New York Times wrote a long, devastating report the other day on the then-Burlington, Vt., mayor's love affair with the Sandinistas in the 1980s. So many decades later, his reflex is the same: If the Sandinistas wouldn't favor it, he's not inclined to like it much either. That goes for charter schools that, yes, are publicly funded, but still too flexible and unregulated for refined socialist tastes. Over the weekend, Sanders unveiled his education plan. He wants to end for-profit charter schools (about 15 percent of all charters) and impose a moratorium on new public funding of charters, while taking steps to impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory regime on existing charters.Sanders thus seeks to kneecap what has been an astonishingly successful experiment in urban education because it doesn't fit nicely within his ideological preconceptions.That Sanders says he wants to do this to advance the principle that "every human being has the fundamental right to a good education" is hilariously perverse. The comrades will have a good chuckle over that one.Charter schools aren't the product of a libertarian conspiracy. They fall short of the vouchers favored by conservatives to allow parents to get access to private schools. Charters receive public money but have more leeway to develop policies outside the regulatory and union straitjacket of traditional public schools. Charters had bipartisan support before a Vermont socialist became one of the party's thought leaders. Bill Clinton won the first-ever lifetime achievement award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Promoting charters was a hallmark of Barack Obama's education agenda and a signature of Cory Booker's mayoralty in Newark, N.J.Not all charters are created equal. Some don't serve their students well, especially online charter schools, and the performance of suburban and rural charter schools hasn't been very impressive. It's the charter schools in urban areas with the worst traditional public schools that have excelled. According to a well-regarded 2015 study by Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, students in urban charter schools got the equivalent of 40 additional days of math instruction and 28 additional days of reading annually. The numbers for African-American students in poverty were even better. Charters in Newark and Boston have seen enormous academic gains.In New York City, the Success Academy founded by Eva Moskowitz — one of the foremost education reformers of our time — has eliminated racial and economic achievement gaps.It's amazing what schools can do when they impose discipline, have the highest expectations, and focus with a laser intensity on instruction. Anyone interested in the education of minority students should seek to build on these oases of excellence, rather than cut them off. But the teachers unions hate charters, and they are a much more powerful potential cadre in the Sanders "revolution" than poor black kids. Sanders suggests that charter schools somehow increase segregation. This is nonsense, as Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine points out. Urban charter schools reflect the segregation of their neighborhoods where they are located — just like traditional public schools do.The polling shows that minority parents get what Sanders (and white progressives) refuses to understand. A solid majority of black and Hispanic Democrats have a favorable view of charters, while white Democrats have an unfavorable view by a 2-1 margin. It is doubtful how much of his anti-charter agenda Sanders would be able to enact if elected, since much of the action is at the state and local level. That he's hostile to these schools should, regardless, redound to his shame. © 2019 by King Features Syndicate
|
| Boeing Had Big Plans to Build Its Very Own F-35 (And Flopped) Posted: 20 May 2019 02:59 PM PDT  The fundamental issue with the Joint Strike Fighter was that is was always an overambitious program to replace multiple specialized types with one aircraft in the hope that it could perform every role equally well. The result is predictably a jack-of-all-trades but master of none.On October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin's X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing's X-32.(This first appeared in late 2015.)The win secured Lockheed's future as the manufacturer for all of America's fifth-generation fighter platforms. But Lockheed's resultant F-35 has suffered myriad delay, technical glitches, unrecoverable technical shortfalls and massive cost overruns. Already the largest ever defense program with an estimated price tag of $233 billion in 2001 for a total of 2,866 aircraft, the F-35 program is now estimated to cost more than $391 billion for 2,457 jets, according to the Government Accountability Office.Moreover, while the short-takeoff vertical landing F-35B was originally projected to achieve initial operational capability with the U.S. Marines in 2010, it only reached that milestone in 2015—five years late. Meanwhile, the conventional F-35A and the F-35C carrier variant were both slated to achieve initial operational capability with Block 3 software in 2012—but that software block is now scheduled to be delivered for operational testing in 2017 at the earliest.
|
| US firms rethink China presence because of trade war: survey Posted: 22 May 2019 02:58 AM PDT  Most US businesses in China are hurting from the tariffs war between the two countries, forcing some companies to relocate abroad or refocus their business, a survey showed Wednesday. The recent poll by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and its sister organisation in Shanghai paints a gloomy picture of the business environment for American companies. Nearly half said they have experienced non-tariff retaliatory measures in China since last year, with one in five reporting increased inspections and a similar amount enduring slower customs clearance.
|
| In hometown, Macron battles disillusion and apathy ahead of EU election Posted: 20 May 2019 11:07 PM PDT  Blue-collar workers on its outskirts are tempted by protest votes, while a disillusioned, conservative middle-class in its pretty center is contemplating other right-leaning candidates or not even voting at all, spelling bad news for the president in his battle against the far-right. "We've been abandoned," Antonio Abrunhosa, 49, a former welder, told Reuters on the deserted parking lot of the former Whirlpool tumble-dryer factory. It was at the plant in the 2017 presidential election campaign that Macron tried to convince workers angered about the plant's relocation to Poland that far-right leader Marine Le Pen's protectionist, Eurosceptic views were misguided.
|
| Google’s secretive chip design team just lost three prominent members Posted: 20 May 2019 07:05 PM PDT  With each passing year, Apple takes hardware performance on the iPhone to the next level, a feat made possible by the series of A-x chips the company designs in-house. Specifically, Apple's A-x processors can be engineered and customized to run far more efficiently than what we'd otherwise see from third-parties. Indeed, the success Apple has enjoyed with its A-x processors underscores the company's insatiable appetite for owning as much of the iPhone's underlying hardware as possible. To this point, there are even rumblings that Apple is busy working on its own 5G modems.All that said, Google in recent years has been angling to take a page out of Apple's playbook and design its own chips, an initiative that reportedly began all the way back in 2017 when the search giant began hiring veteran chip designers away from Apple.Following that, Google went on something of a hiring spree as it continued to poach chip experts from the likes of Qualcomm and Intel. More recently, Reuters a few months ago revealed that Google had already hired 16 highly-regarded chip experts and that the entire team could reach 80 people before 2020.The assumption, all along, has been that Google wanted to use custom-designed chips on its own line of premium Pixel devices.In light of that, a new report from The Information relays that Google's somewhat nascent chip team recently lost some prominent members, a few of whom formerly worked for Apple.> But recently, some of those same engineers have left Google's chip team, in a potential setback to its ambitions to build key ingredients in its own devices.> > Three chip engineers--Manu Gulati, John Bruno and Vinod Chamarty--departed Google's consumer chip team recently, The Information has learned. Mr. Gulati and Mr. Bruno joined Google from Apple, while Mr. Chamarty is a Qualcomm veteran. Google confirmed the departures, but declined to comment further.The departures -- and Gualti's in particular -- appear to be quite significant. Gulati, a former Broadcom veteran, formerly led Apple's chip design efforts and was one of the more prominent hires Google made back in 2017. His LinkedIn profile about his tenure at Apple reads:> Lead SOC architect of several Apple iPhone and iPad SOCs; most prominently A5X, A7, A9, A11, A12, A12X. Guided these industry-leading chips from concept to production, starting with architecture specifications and culminating in silicon bringup and debug.Google, though, is far from giving up on proprietary chip designs. Recall, the company has seen some success with less complex chip components, with the Pixel Visual Core being an obvious example.Notably, the report adds that Google is not looking to move away from in-house chip design but may simply be focusing on components for "lower-end, simpler products, rather than [its] high-end Pixel phones and other premium devices."As a final point -- and speaking to the benefits of a custom-designed chip -- it's worth noting the following results from a speed test which pitted the iPhone XS Max against Google's Pixel 3XL. As we noted this past October: "The iPhone XS Max didn't just beat Google's new Pixel 3 XL in the speed test, it completely wiped the floor with it."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usvx_rJogxg
|
| How real is Iran threat? Democrats fear Trump administration using intel to justify conflict Posted: 22 May 2019 06:15 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Tuesday briefed members of the House and Senate behind closed doors.
|
| Wedding boutique in Fresno's Tower District give brides different gown options Posted: 20 May 2019 05:22 PM PDT  Daughters of Simone opened just a week ago, specializing in non-traditional wedding dresses.
|
| UPDATE 2-Chip designer ARM halts work with Huawei after U.S. ban Posted: 22 May 2019 04:29 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Chip designer ARM halts work with Huawei after U.S. ban]( "UPDATE 2-Chip designer ARM halts work with Huawei after U.S. ban") British chip designer ARM has halted relations with Huawei in order to comply with a United States blockade of the company, potentially crippling the Chinese company's ability to make new chips for its future smartphones. Huawei, in common with Apple and chipmakers such as Qualcomm, uses ARM blueprints to design the processors that power its smartphones. It also licenses graphics technology from the Cambridge-based company.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment