| The Latest: Biden offers health plan 'public option' details Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:18 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden will spend much of the coming week talking about his approach to health care. On Monday, Biden is unveiling a plan that would add a "public option" to the 2010 health care overhaul known as "Obamacare," with expanded coverage paid for by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Biden's almost singular focus on former President Barack Obama's health care law has been on display recently in early voting states.
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| China just posted its lowest growth rate in almost 30 years as the trade war hammers the economy — and the 'worst is yet to come' Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:11 AM PDT  "There's no doubt in anyone's minds that the trade war is a major contributing factor here," said one analyst, and China's growth was already slowing.
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| A 60-year-old woman disappeared while camping in a remote area of California with her husband Posted: 15 Jul 2019 07:42 AM PDT  Sheryl Powell was last seen by her husband Joe on Friday afternoon. Joe said he went to re-park their car and when he came back, she was gone.
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| JetBlue flight evacuated at Newark Airport after suicide vest photo AirDropped to passenger iPhones Posted: 14 Jul 2019 06:32 AM PDT  A plane was evacuated after someone sent a photograph of a suicide vest to passengers and flight attendants on board.The unknown sender used Apple's AirDrop feature, which allows users to easily and anonymously transfer files to other iOS devices using Bluetooth.Authorities say the Florida-bound plane was about to take off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey when the image was widely shared on board.A member of the crew on JetBlue flight 573 alerted the captain, who informed authorities at about 7.45am on Saturday.The plane returned to the gate and the 150 people on board were asked to leave the aircraft, and their luggage was re-screened and examined by police bomb-sniffing K-9 dogs."We pull up to the gate and then we pull away and the captain comes on and says there's been a security threat," Thomas Desmond told NBC News."It was nervous when you see Port Authority police officers coming onto your plane and you just have no idea what's going on."The culprit was likely one of those on board, as AirDrop only works with those in close proximity to the sender. However, they were not traced.JetBlue said the additional security screening was carried out due to "an abundance of caution."The flight eventually departed just before 11.30am, with no knock-on effects to other flights departing or arriving at Newark.
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| Democrat Booker unveils plan for Americans to age at home Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:15 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker was set to unveil a plan on Monday to greatly increase funding for elderly Americans needing long-term health care, and also to increase funding for people who look after them. Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey, was due to tell a forum in the early voting state of Iowa that he would make a dramatic investment in care for people with long-term health care needs if he was elected president. One of the core parts of Booker's plan would be to provide funds so that low- and middle-income Americans could have the choice to age in their own homes, and increase pay for care workers to look after them.
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| A NASA Intern Bought Apollo 11 Videotapes for $218. Now They're Going to Auction for Millions Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:45 AM PDT  They are 'the only surviving first-generation recordings of the historic moon walk'
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| Report: A $15 Minimum Wage Would Be an Economic Disaster Posted: 14 Jul 2019 04:01 PM PDT  Just in time for next week's likely House vote on a federal $15 minimum wage, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has come out with a caustic report on the consequences of the policy.The report confirms what even liberal economists caution: A $15 minimum wage would "risk undesirable and unintended consequences" and lead to a survival-of-the-fittest labor market, where only the highest-skilled workers come out on top. Democrats are under the illusion that the government can force employers to artificially increase wages with no adverse consequences for American workers. But that's like saying the government could double families' mortgage and rent payments without any consequence.Here are six ways this new report exposes the minimum wage proposal as bad policy.1\. It would be a job-killer.The Congressional Budget Office report estimated that a $15 minimum wage would lead to 1.3 million lost jobs by the year 2025, with job losses rising over time due to compounding negative impacts.The exact number of job losses are highly uncertain, but the report says losses would most likely range between zero and 3.7 million, with a not-insignificant chance that losses could exceed 3.7 million.A 2011 Heritage Foundation estimate was even bleaker. It estimated a $15 minimum wage would lead to 7 million lost jobs.
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| 'I've had enough': Tom Homan sounds off after being attacked by Democrats at border hearing Posted: 15 Jul 2019 04:02 AM PDT  Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan reacts on 'Fox & Friends' to fighting back against attacks by House Democrats on Capitol Hill.
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| Billionaire Tom Steyer's entrance into the 2020 Democratic race is the perfect example of the rot at the core of the US political system Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  Tom Steyer's entered the 2020 presidential race with a promise to spend $100 million on his campaign, but he should use that money elsewhere.
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| UK says Iran tanker will be freed after guarantees on destination Posted: 13 Jul 2019 12:20 PM PDT  British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to ease tensions with Iran on Saturday, saying a tanker held by Gibraltar would be released if Tehran guaranteed it was not heading to Syria. "I reassured him our concern was destination not origin of the oil on Grace One," a tanker seized off the coast of the tiny British territory of Gibraltar on July 4, Hunt tweeted.
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| Trump Administration Implements ‘Third Country’ Rule to Alleviate Border Crisis Posted: 15 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  The Trump administration on Monday announced a new "safe third country" policy that will drastically reduce the number of Central American migrants eligible to receive asylum in the U.S.The new policy, which will take effect when it is published in the Federal Register Tuesday, requires that migrants first apply for refugee status in Mexico, or whatever country they enter after leaving home, before seeking asylum in the U.S. Under the policy, only those migrants who have been denied asylum in another country will be eligible to seek asylum in the U.S."Ultimately, today's action will reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution, and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profits," Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan said in a statement.The rule change, which is sure to be met with numerous legal challenges, is designed to discourage economic migrants from applying for asylum and includes exceptions for victims of human trafficking and other crimes.Attorney General Bill Barr said the move would stop "forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States—while ensuring that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to be tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground."The policy shift builds on the previously implemented Migrant Protection Protocols, which required that certain asylum-seekers remain in Mexico while their cases are being adjudicated.Federal law allows anyone who enters the U.S. to apply for asylum but includes an exception for those who first travel through a "safe third country."Currently, the U.S. only has a "safe third country" agreement with Canada and administration officials have thus far been rebuffed in their efforts to secure a similar arrangement with Mexico. Central American countries, including Guatemala and El Salvador, are considering adopting a regional compact to strike a similar deal with the U.S., but there is a legal challenge pending in Guatemala that is now preventing the finalization of any such deal.
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| Demonstrators return to immigration jail after attack, death Posted: 14 Jul 2019 05:23 PM PDT  Demonstrators returned to an immigration jail in Washington state a day after an armed man threw incendiary devices at the detention center and later died. Willem Van Spronsen, 69, was found dead Saturday after four police officers arrived and opened fire. Demonstrators returned Sunday to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, KOMO-TV reported.
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| Armed 69-year-old ‘antifascist’ shot dead after firebombing immigration centre Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:55 AM PDT  A rifle-armed 69-year-old has been fatally shot by the police after throwing incendiary devices at an immigration centre in Tacoma, WashingtonOfficers were called to the privately run prison at around 4am where the man, identified in local media as Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, had set a vehicle alight with the explosives.He is also believed to have attempted to ignite a large propane tank outside the building.His target, the Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre, has long served as a holding facility for migrants as they are about to be deported.More recently it has also housed parents separated from their children at the border under Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy towards undocumented immigrants.The incident took place roughly six hours after a peaceful rally against deportations outside the centre.Officers confirmed Van Spronsen was shot dead at the scene, with all four attending officers discharging their weapons.He was described locally as a committed anarchist and antifascist. One friend of twenty years, Deb Bartley, told The Seattle Times she and others had received letters from him which read "just saying goodbye" along with what she described as a manifesto.She added: "I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs... I know he went down there knowing he was going to die."Van Spronsen is believed to have had previous run-ins with law enforcement at the detention centre.In 2018 he was reportedly among ten people to be taken in by police after occupying the perimeter of the site – with the then 68-year-old arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault for jumping on the back of an officer as he attempted to apprehend another activist.
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| Russia’s Election Hackers Are Back—and Targeting George Soros Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:21 AM PDT  Sean Gallup/GettyThe Russian intelligence agency behind 2016's election attacks is training its sights on billionaire financier George Soros, The Daily Beast has learned. The move comes hot on the heels of a surge in U.S.-focused hacking by Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate with similarities to 2016 in targeting and methodology. Laura Silber, chief communications officer for Soros' Open Society Foundations, confirmed the hack attempt, but couldn't provide additional details over the weekend. "We were aware of an attack," Silber told the Daily Beast.Last month Microsoft quietly seized a new batch of 10 deceptive domain names the company says were set up by the hackers known as Fancy Bear, the group intelligence officials and independent analysts have long attributed to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU. Those web addresses imitate genuine domains used for Microsoft services like Sharepoint, an unmistakable sign that they were intended for use in phishing attacks, in which a victim is tricked into typing their password into a fake login page. Mueller Finally Solves Mysteries About Russia's 'Fancy Bear' HackersOne domain targets a Singapore-based investment firm, and another references the Berlin anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which Russia has targeted before. Others are generic or ambiguous in their targeting. But one seized domain, soros-my-sharepoint[.]com, jumps out as a clear reference to Soros, a past GRU target from Russia's 2016 election interference. An additional four phishing domains registered in the same time frame appear to target Soros' Open Society Foundations, said Kyle Ehmke, an intelligence researcher at the Arlington, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect. Those domains haven't been seized and ThreatConnect hasn't found enough evidence to definitively link them to the Russian hackers, said Ehmke. The Kremlin's targeting of Soros and his organization carries echoes of 2016, when the GRU dumped 2,500 files stolen from the Open Society Foundations for the debut of "DC Leaks", the fake leak site the spies created for their 2016 election interference campaign. "SOROS INTERNAL FILES – BIG DATA", the site announced at the time.Some of the stolen files were reportedly altered to create the appearance that Soros was secretly financing Russian opposition candidates, making the leak politically useful to Vladmir Putin. More importantly, the Soros dump earned DC Leaks instant credibility in American right-wing circles, where the 88-year-old Hungarian-American philanthropist plays the role of villainous global puppet-master in countless conspiracy theories. Russia's Internet Research Agency—the so-called "troll farm, later indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller—pushed the same trope on its Facebook and Instagram feeds in the run-up to election day. One meme featured a close-up of Soros against a backdrop of anti-Trump picketers. "No lives matter for those who sponsoring [sic] anti Trump protests," the caption read. Another imagined Soros confronting the late Senator John McCain. "Hey Johnny, I'm paying you a fortune. I don't care how much cancer you have, get back to DC and backstab Trump."The Soros targeting comes in the wave of what one expert describes as a fresh wave of Fancy Bear attempts against political nonprofits in the U.S. that ran from last December to March or April of this year, using similar tactics to the mass phishing campaign that famously ensnared Hillary Clinton's campaign chief in 2016. "It's a similar type of activity to what hit Podesta," said Robert Johnston, the former Marine Corp captain who investigated the 2016 DNC breach, and now heads the financial cybersecurity firm Adlumin. "These were against political organizations and NGOs. The FBI has reached out to of bunch of them."Putin's Hackers Now Under Attack—From MicrosoftIn 2016 Microsoft sued Fancy Bear in federal court in Virginia and won, unopposed, an injunction allowing the company to seize any web addresses registered by the GRU's hackers that imitate a Microsoft product or service. The company has seized over 100 domains so far.Experts caution that Russia's hackers have always cast a wide net, and there's no way to tell what their motives are in revisiting old haunts now. It may be pure intelligence gathering, or the opening salvo of a 2020 election interference campaign."We don't know whether they are ultimately looking to compromise targets for influence operations, internal intelligence uses, or both," said Ehmke.Either way, Russia likely views its 2016 efforts as a success, and is certain to try for an encore. "I think you should absolutely anticipate a very vocal Russian interference in the 2020 elections," said Johnston.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Northern California town of Paradise lost 90% of its population after Camp Fire, data shows Posted: 14 Jul 2019 09:55 AM PDT  The town of Paradise has lost over 90% of its population since the Camp Fire last year, according to data California released Thursday.
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| How a Modified Iraqi Falcon 50 Business Jet Nearly Destroyed a US Frigate Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Following a series of training flights, on the morning of May 17, 1987 Suzanna's crew received the order to load two Exocets and then transfer to Wanda AB for an operation over the Persian Gulf.All through 1985 and early 1986, director of the Iraqi Air Force (IrAF) Intelligence Department, Brigadier-General Mudher al-Farhan, was collecting intelligence about the work of the Iranian tanker-shuttle ('shuttle tankers' were oil tankers equipped with upgrade fire-fighting equipment operated by specially trained crews, they made way in convoys of four ships escorted by warships of the Islamic Republic if Iran Navy). Every day at 1800hrs, he would brief Major-General Sha'ban about related developments.
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| European leaders fail to grasp 'hardening' of UK view on Brexit, Latvia warns Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:27 AM PDT  A hard Brexit could be made more likely because European Union leaders have failed to grasp the hardening of opinion in Britain, Latvia's foreign minister has warned. Edgars Rinkēvičs, who has served as the Baltic state's chief diplomat for eight years, said a mutual gulf of understanding between London and Brussels means revising the Withdrawal Agreement before the October 31 deadline will be "extremely difficult." And he warned that Boris Johnson's plan to use hard Brexit as a "credible threat" in negotiations was based on a false assumption about the European position and the speed with which the EU can move. Speaking during a visit to London, Mr Rinkevics said: "I think that in the European Union we sometimes do not grasp that the UK, after three years of this very tortuous process, has a very hardened stance," he told the Telegraph. "But there is another dynamic that is not well understood here in London, which is very important for me as a representative of a small member state: it is also very important that the unity and solidarity of the European Union is not just words. "When you have a situation where your key national interests are at stake, you count on the support of all the other 26 members. There are key national interests of Ireland at stake here - I don't think anyone can deny that - and I believe that a very similar situation other member states would be counting on the support on all of them," he said. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the candidates in the Conservative leadership race, have both said Britain must leave the European Union by October 31. That will give the new prime minister just three months to negotiate a new Withdrawal Agreement after a winner is declared on July 23. Both candidates have said the threat of a no-deal Brexit should be used to push the European Union to make concessions on controversial areas including the Irish backstop. Mr Rinkēvičs said: "I do not think the [withdrawal agreement] can be revised in just a couple of weeks." Incoming EU leaders | Their views on Brexit Latvia is considered a close ally of Britain inside the European Union. They both take a hard line on Russian sanctions and increasing Nato defence spending, and Mr Rinkēvičs said Riga remains anxious for the EU to maintain the closest possible cooperation on security and law enforcement. A crash-out Brexit on October 31 would jeopardise both European and British security if it also took Britain out of the European Court of Justice, undermining the work of European arrest warrants and cooperation via Europol and Eurojust, the pan-European policing and legal agencies. Britain's absence from the European Union may also raise questions about the endurance of the sanctions regime imposed against Russia following the annexation of Crime and war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Several countries including Hungary and Italy have publicly criticised the sanctions regime. Latvia and neighbouring states were alarmed when the Council of Europe, a human rights body unrelated to the European Union, voted to restore Russia's voting rights last month. Mr Rinkevics said it was widely acknowledged that there will be a "change in dynamic" in the formation of EU foreign policy after Britain leaves, but said it was too early to predict how it would develop. "There are some members states - I don't want to single out any - that could raise [lifting sanctions on Russia]," said Mr Rinkēvičs. "In that case I believe so the consequences are going to be really damaging for the credibility of the European Union," he said. "If we give in, the implications for the security and stability in the neighbourhood will be quite grave."
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| With Iran deal teetering on brink, Europeans assess next steps Posted: 14 Jul 2019 10:03 PM PDT  European foreign ministers will seek to flesh out how to convince Iran and the United States to reduce tensions and initiate a dialogue when they meet in Brussels on Monday amid fears that the 2015 nuclear deal is close to collapse. U.S.-Iranian tensions have worsened since U.S. President Donald Trump decided last year to abandon the nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to curtail its atomic program in return for relief from economic sanctions crippling its economy. In reaction to the re-imposition of tough U.S. sanctions, which have notably targeted Iran's main oil revenue stream, Tehran has scaled back on some of its nuclear commitments under the deal, leading the European parties to the pact, France, Britain and Germany, to warn it about not fully complying with the terms.
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| Zimbabwe inflation rate soars to 175% Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:38 AM PDT  Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate hit 175 percent in June, official data showed Monday, stoking fears of a return of the hyperinflation that wiped out savings ten years ago when the economy collapsed. Official inflation is the highest since hyperinflation forced the government to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009. "The year-on-year inflation rate for the month of June 2019 as measured by the all items consumer price index stood at 175.66 percent while that of May 2019 was 97.85 percent," the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency said in a statement.
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| Peter Thiel slams Google's 'seemingly treasonous' links to China, which he says should be investigated in a 'not excessively gentle manner' Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:18 AM PDT  Peter Thiel gave the opening speech at the National Conservatism conference on Sunday, and took the opportunity to go after Google.
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| Inside Epstein network, layer upon layer to protect the boss Posted: 14 Jul 2019 01:06 PM PDT  A few cells away from drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman at a New York City jail, jet-setting financier Jeffrey Epstein sits accused of running a different kind of criminal network. There was the team of recruiters and enablers bringing Epstein dozens of underage girls to sexually abuse, federal prosecutors allege. There were the mansions in New York and Florida, the sprawling ranch in New Mexico and the private island in the Caribbean that kept prying eyes at a distance, and the forms his employees had to sign swearing they wouldn't speak about him publicly.
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| Susan Rice Calls Chinese Diplomat a ‘Racist Disgrace’ on Twitter Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:19 AM PDT ![Susan Rice Calls Chinese Diplomat a 'Racist Disgrace' on Twitter]( "Susan Rice Calls Chinese Diplomat a 'Racist Disgrace' on Twitter") (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice sparred with a senior Chinese diplomat on Twitter in an unusual and heated dispute over race in Washington.In a series of Tweets apparently aimed at making a broader point about diplomatic divisions over the mass detention of Muslims in China's Xinjiang province, Lijian Zhao, a diplomat posted in Islamabad, said on Sunday that if "you're in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go" to the southeastern part of the U.S. capital."You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too," Rice told Zhao on Twitter. Likely assuming that Zhao was posted in China's mission in Washington, she then addressed her next comment to China's ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai. "Ambassador Cui, I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home."Zhao, who is deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embassy in Pakistan's capital, is often vocal on Twitter against critics of China's infrastructure-building projects in Pakistan and other parts of Asia. Beijing has invested tens of billions of dollars in Pakistan, whose leader Imran Khan has previously dodged questions about the issue.'Shockingly Ignorant'"You are such a disgrace, too. And shockingly ignorant, too. I am based in Islamabad. Truth hurts. I am simply telling the truth," Zhao fired back at Rice on Monday. "To label someone who speak the truth that you don't want to hear a racist, is disgraceful & disgusting."Read More: How China Is Defending Its Detention of Muslims to the WorldZhao didn't immediately respond to phone calls, an email and a direct message on Twitter seeking comment.In a string of messages that appeared aimed at highlighting U.S. hypocrisy on human rights, Zhao referred to everything from income inequality and school shootings in the U.S. to immigration officers separating children from parents.He tweeted a list of mostly-Western nations that condemned China for its actions in Xinjiang as well as a separate list of other countries -- including Pakistan, Cuba, Tajikistan and Nigeria -- that wrote a joint letter to the United Nations supporting Beijing, which Zhao called "a big slap on the face of U.S. & its western cohorts."Outspoken DiplomatsChina's diplomats have become increasingly vocal and outspoken. This month, China's ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, gave a rare televised statement accusing the British government of meddling in Hong Kong, the scene of mass protests against Beijing's rule.Earlier this year, China's envoy to Canada publicly accused his hosts of "white supremacy," while the country's chief envoy in South Africa said President Donald Trump's policies were making the U.S. "the enemy of the whole world."Asked about the Twitter dispute on Monday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang didn't comment directly."I don't know the specific situation," he said. However, he added, "we resolutely oppose the interference of the U.S. and individual Western countries in interfering in China's internal affairs with the Xinjiang issue."To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in New Delhi at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay, Gregory TurkFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Man 'shot polar bear and left its body outside his home for five months' Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:29 AM PDT  A man has been charged with killing a polar bear and leaving the body to rot outside his home in Alaska for five months.Christopher Gordon, 35, allegedly shot the animal dead when it ventured into his front yard to try and eat some butchered whale meat.He then failed to report the polar bear carcass or attempt to "harvest" it for food between December 2018 and May this year.Gordon also allowed the bear to be covered with snow, which resulted in one of its legs being ripped off by a passing snowplough.Finally, on 22 May, he burned the carcass at the village dump in Kaktovik.He is now facing up to one year in prison and a $100,000 (£80,000) fine if convicted of the federal crime of "knowingly taking a polar bear in a manner unlawful under the Marine Mammal Protection Act".Prosecutors say that the killing of the bear was not done in legal self defence and that he "left the harvestable remains to waste"."Gordon allegedly left butchered whale meat outside in front of his yard of his residence for a substantial period of time, which attracted polar bear, as well as other animals to his front yard," said federal prosecutor Ryan Tansey."He then allegedly shot and killed the polar bear because it was trying to eat the improperly stored whale meat."Gordon has also been charged with the state offence of wasteful taking of a marine animal.The investigation was carried out by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.Gordon declined to comment about the case and is scheduled to appear in court in Fairbanks in August.Kaktovik, with a population of just over 250, has experienced increasing encroachment by polar bears in recent years due to the disappearing Arctic sea ice.As a result it has become a popular tourist destination, with more than 2,000 people visiting the village during 2017."These bears are getting used to people," said council member Mike Gallagher. "They're domesticated."Additional reporting by Associated Press
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| Why are you running for president? Drumbeat grows for some 2020 Democrats to shift sights Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Steve Bullock, John Hickenlooper and Beto O'Rourke bids for the White House have failed to gain steam. They are still seen by party leaders as strong candidates to take on incumbent Senate Republicans.
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| In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons) Posted: 13 Jul 2019 08:30 PM PDT ![In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons)]( "In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons)") On May 23, 1981 the Soviet submarine K-211 Petropavlovsk cruised quietly at nine knots, one hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the Arctic Barents Sea. The huge 155-meter-long Delta III (or Kalmar)-class submarine was distinguished by the large boxy compartment on its spine which accommodated the towering launch tubes for sixteen R-29R ballistic missiles, each carrying three independent nuclear warheads. K-211's mission was hair-raisingly straightforward: to cruise undetected for weeks or months at a time, awaiting only the signal that a nuclear war had broken out to unleash its apocalyptic payload from underwater on Western cities and military bases up to four thousand miles away.British and American nuclear-power attack submarines (SSNs), or "hunter-killers," were routinely dispatched to detect Soviet ballistic missiles subs (SSBNs) leaving from base to discreetly stalk them. The quieter SSNs also awaited only a signal of war, an event in which they would attempt to torpedo the Soviet subs before they could unleash their city-destroying weapons.Mindful of this threat, at half past seven that evening K-211's commander halted his sub and pivoted it around so that its MGK-400 Rubikon bow sonar array could attempt to pick up any submarines sneaking behind it in the 'blind spot' of its wake—a maneuver known as "clearing the baffles." However, the SSBN's hydrophones did not report any contact.
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| Apollo 11 moon landing had thousands working behind scenes Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:34 AM PDT  It took 400,000 people to put Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon a half-century ago. Amid the sea of white shirts, black ties and pocket protectors inside NASA's firing room for the liftoff of Apollo 11 sat JoAnn Morgan. Morgan, 78, who began working for NASA in 1958 while in college, typically got the overnight shift before launches.
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| Plane at Newark Airport evacuated after attendant spots suspicious item Posted: 13 Jul 2019 12:01 PM PDT  About 150 passengers were taken off Jet Blue flight 573 bound for Tampa after a flight attendant noticed a suspicious item.
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| To Defeat Trump, Democrats Should Nominate Michael Bennet Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:30 AM PDT  Washington -- With a disgust commensurate with the fact, Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat, says that during 40 percent of his ten Senate years the government has been run on "continuing resolutions." Congress passes these in order to spare itself the torture of performing its primary function, which is to set national priorities. Bennet is too serious a person to be content in today's Senate, and if Democrats are as serious as they say they are about defeating Donald Trump, Bennet should be their nominee.The painfully revealing first phase of the Democratic presidential sweepstakes culminated with two remarkably efficient debates. This phase clarified the top four candidates' propensity for self-inflicted wounds. When replayed in Trump's negative ads, what they have already said might be sufficient to reelect him.Bennet checks a requisite number of progressive boxes: He is impeccably (as progressives see such things) alarmed about the requisite things -- the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, climate change, Mitch McConnell, etc. And he has endorsed -- perfunctorily, one hopes -- other candidates' gesture-legislation to "study" reparations for slavery (Senator Cory Booker) and for same-sex couples who lived in states where same-sex marriages were legal but who could not file joint tax returns before the Supreme Court's 2013 decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (Senator Elizabeth Warren).Bennet has, however, refrained from frightening and mystifying voters with plans (Senators Harris, Warren, Sanders) to eliminate their private health insurance. Or with nostalgia for forced busing that shuffled children among schools on the basis of race (Harris). Or with enthusiasm for the institutional vandalism of packing the Supreme Court. Or with disdain (expressed by advocating decriminalization of illegal entry) for the principle that control of borders is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. And because Bennet, 54, was eight when Joe Biden came to the Senate, Bennet has not had to conduct a Bidenesque Grovel Tour to apologize for deviations, decades ago, from today's progressive catechism.If, as Bennet believes, the Democratic nomination competition has become "more fluid," it is because Harris, Sanders, Warren, and Biden have imprudently spoken their minds. And they probably are not done shooting themselves in their already perforated feet.Unlike them, Bennet has won two Senate races in a swing state that is evenly divided between Democrats, Republicans, and independents. He can distinguish between what he calls "the Twitter version of the Democratic Party" and the "actual" version.Bennet's father, a descendant of a Mayflower passenger, earned a Harvard Ph.D. (medieval Russian history), and was an aide to a U.S. ambassador to India, and later worked for Democrats Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie, and Tom Eagleton. Bennet's mother, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in a Warsaw suburb, reached New York -- via Stockholm and Mexico City -- where her parents opened an art gallery. The city was the center of the postwar art world, and they did well. Bennet says that in second grade he won both ends of the competition to see who had the oldest and newest American family branches.He edited the Yale Law Journal, became an associate at the Washington firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, then prospered working for a Denver investment firm before entering public service, which included four years as superintendent of Denver's public schools, in which 67 percent of the pupils were poor enough to be eligible for free or subsidized lunches.Bennet believes that Trump is more a symptom than a cause of political dysfunction, and he regrets that "the capitalists have lost control of the Republican party," which now is controlled by Trump cultists. China's perfection -- and exporting -- of the "surveillance state" makes American democracy more important, and therefore its current degradation especially alarming. American politics has become a dialectic of "preemptive retributions" of "do it to them before they do it to us." Trump's politics of "I alone can fix it" has, Bennet says, "stripped the American people of their agency."In his new book (The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics), he quotes Thucydides on the civil war in the city of Corcyra: "With public life confused to the critical point, human nature, always ready to act unjustly even in violation of laws, overthrew the laws themselves and gladly showed itself powerless over passion but stronger than justice and hostile to any kind of superiority." Such hostility is the essence of populism. Fortunately, the Democratic field includes one person familiar with Thucydides' warning and who is unafraid to assert its contemporary pertinence.© 2019 Washington Post Writers Group
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| New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized for his absence during the city's partial blackout Saturday night: 'You have to be on site' Posted: 14 Jul 2019 12:34 PM PDT  Governor Andrew Cuomo and other New Yorkers were annoyed de Blasio was campaigning for his long-shot presidential campaign, and not in the city.
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| Police officer who killed Ethiopian-Israeli released on bail Posted: 15 Jul 2019 07:03 AM PDT  A police officer who shot dead a 19-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli, sparking nationwide protests, was freed on bail from house arrest on Monday, Israel's justice ministry said. The officer, who was off-duty and said he felt his life was in danger at the time of the June 30 shooting, will be subject to a series of restrictions while the investigation continues. The bail amount was not made public by the ministry following the closed-door court hearing over the shooting of Solomon Teka in Kiryat Haim near the northern port city of Haifa.
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| Huawei to invest $3.1 billion in Italy but calls for fair policy on 5G: country CEO Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:58 AM PDT  China's Huawei Technologies said it would invest $3.1 billion in Italy over the next three years, as the Chinese telecoms giant called on Rome to ensure the "transparent, efficient and fair" use of its 'golden power' on 5G network development. Speaking at an event in Milan on Monday, the chief executive of the telecoms giant's Italian unit, Thomas Miao, said Italy's golden power - which allows the state to intervene in the private sector in the defense of national security - should be extended to all vendors in the European Union. Italy recently beefed up the measure due partly to concerns over the potential involvement of Huawei and fellow Chinese company ZTE Corp <000063.SZ> in the development of 5G networks, a government source said on Friday.
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| India cancels launch of second moon mission hours before blast-off Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:13 AM PDT  The launch of India's second ever lunar mission has been cancelled less than an hour before its blast-off due to technical issues. The Chandrayaan-2 – which cost $150 million (£119 million) – was set to become the first satellite to land on the Moon's south pole. It was scheduled to launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which is situated on an island off the coast of the south-east state of Andhra Pradesh, at 2.51 am local time. However, with just 56 minutes until take-off it was suddenly postponed with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirming a "technical snag was observed in [the] launch vehicle system." The ISRO is expected to give more detail about the issue and announce a new launch date in due course. A soft landing on the Moon refers to the touchdown and deployment of a device on the Moon's surface which can be used to relay information back to the Earth. Only three nations have completed a "soft landing" so far. The former Soviet Union was the first country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon in 1966, followed mere months later by the United States. The two nations rivaled one another through their exploration of the Moon until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in a period known as the "Space Race". The Chandrayaan-2 as it prepared for lift off this morning Credit: Rex Rapid economic growth in China saw the country fund its first successful "soft landing" in 2013 and India has been keen to follow suit, seeing the landing of a craft on the moon as evidence that it has joined the global elite. An Israeli "soft landing" attempt in April was also unsuccessful. In total, there are now 72 different government space agencies - increasingly in developing countries like Algeria, Bolivia and Sri Lanka - as nations place more importance on establishing a presence in space and defending their interests, such as through spy satellites The Chandrayaan-2 contained two key research components. An orbiter was planning to circle the moon for around a year, taking pictures of its surface and sending back detail about its atmosphere. A solar-powered rover was then to explore the surface around the Moon's unknown south pole, looking for the existence of water and other minerals. The Indian space programme has long attracted criticism since its inception in 1962. Critics argue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have spent the money used to construct the Chandrayaan-2 on alleviating penury in the country. Some 270 million people – 22% of the population – still live below the poverty line according to the World Bank. Yet, for many Indians the programme is seen as a great source of national pride with almost all of the Chandrayaan-2's components built in India. In March, Modi announced that the country had become a 'space superpower' after his forces successfully shot down a low-orbit satellite. The Prime Minister also promised he would launch a manned mission into space by 2022 and land a probe on Mars.
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| Phoenix could feel more like Baghdad by 2050, a new climate study says Posted: 14 Jul 2019 09:50 AM PDT  Scientists projected temperatures ahead 30 years then compared major cities with conditions from today. The upshot: The heat is moving north.
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| I Went to a Socialism Conference. Here Are 6 Shocking Things I Learned. Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:57 AM PDT  While you were enjoying your Fourth of July weekend, I was attending a national conference on socialism.Why? Because socialism is having its moment on the left.Since there's often confusion as to what socialism really is, I decided to attend the Socialism 2019 conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend.The conference, which had the tag line "No Borders, No Bosses, No Binaries," contained a cross-section of the most pertinent hard-left thought in America. Among the sponsors were the Democratic Socialists of America and Jacobin, a quarterly socialist magazine.The walls of the various conference rooms were adorned with posters of Karl Marx and various depictions of socialist thinkers and causes. Most of the conference attendees appeared to be white, but identity politics were a major theme throughout—especially in regard to gender.At the registration desk, attendees were given the option of attaching a "preferred pronoun" sticker on their name tags.In addition, the multiple-occupancy men's and women's restrooms were relabeled as "gender neutral," and men and women were using both. Interestingly enough, the signs above the doors were still labeled with the traditional "men's" and "women's" signs until they were covered over with home-made labels.One of the paper labels read: "This bathroom has been liberated from the gender binary!"While the panelists and attendees were certainly radical, and often expressed contempt for the Democratic Party establishment, it was nevertheless clear how seamlessly they blended traditional Marxist thought with the agenda of what's becoming the mainstream left.
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| Biden cancer nonprofit suspends operations indefinitely Posted: 15 Jul 2019 10:26 AM PDT  A nonprofit foundation set up by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that relied on health care world partnerships to speed a cure for cancer has suspended its operations, it announced Monday. The Biden Cancer Initiative's sudden move to cease its activities comes two years after it was founded in 2017 by the former vice president and his wife, Jill, as a philanthropic extension of Biden's stewardship of the White House Cancer Moonshot program. Biden, who on Monday was detailing his health care plan , headed the Obama administration effort to accelerate a cancer cure in tribute to his son Beau, who died of the disease in 2015.
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| Jeremy Corbyn Faces a Crisis of His Own Making Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:36 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As Britain's Conservative Party tears itself apart over Brexit, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn might be expected to be enjoying a big lead in the opinion polls.Instead, the opposition is embroiled in a crisis every bit as deep as that facing the embattled government. At the European election, the Labour party put in its worst national performance in almost a century. A recent poll by YouGov put the party in fourth place, trailing not only the Conservatives but the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats, too.Corbyn, a lifelong euroskeptic socialist, has been reluctant to oppose Brexit, leaving the party unable to capitalize on the unpopularity of leaving the European Union. At the same time, his party has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism – a scandal that has prompted lawmakers and supporters to resign in disgust.Given the continued impasse in parliament over Brexit, an early general election is no longer a remote possibility. Many Labour supporters are wondering if Corbyn is best-placed to lead his party into a vote – especially if his opponent is Boris Johnson instead of the more wooden Theresa May. He may, though, be almost impossible to dislodge.Labour has struggled to find a policy on Brexit that doesn't alienate at least part of its base: Most of the party's MPs represent leave-voting constituencies, yet the majority of Labour voters wanted to remain in the EU.The policy of "constructive ambiguity," in which Labour both promised to deliver on the Brexit referendum and leave all options open, had been an attempt to bridge this divide. But the grim opinion polls have finally forced Corbyn to take a position. Many disaffected Labor voters are lending their support, at least temporarily, to the remain-supporting Liberal Democrats.Pushed by the five largest Labour-affiliated unions last week, Corbyn has pledged to hold a second referendum on any Brexit put forward by a Tory government. In that scenario, Corbyn's party would campaign to remain in the EU. But if Labour were to get elected, the leader won't say what the party would do. This about-face feels too little, too late.Corbyn's problems run deeper than just Brexit; they go to questions of trust and competence. Back in May, Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission began an investigation into anti-Semitism in the Labour party. Last week, the BBC's Panorama program broadcast an hour-long investigation into the issue. The party claimed it was a hatchet job, but viewers will draw their own conclusions from the chilling testimonies of party insiders who claimed that anti-Semitism isn't only rife, but institutionalized. Following the program, a group of leading Jewish intellectuals published a letter saying the party faces "a taint of international, historic shame." It's hard for Labour to be credible on any other issue if it can't move beyond this one.It's not hard to see why this issue has dogged Corbyn since he became leader. He has, at times in his political career, seemed more interested in Palestinian causes than British voters; his presence at a wreath-laying ceremony in Tunisia in 2014 (in which individuals believed to have been behind the 1972 Munich Olympic killings were also honored) offended and infuriated many.The persistence of the anti-Semitism charges suggest either he has very limited real control over his party or he has cared too little. Removing him, however, would be difficult.Corbyn faced down a leadership challenge after the Brexit referendum, where at least part of the blame for the result was laid at the feet of a leader who had barely bothered to campaign for his party's Remain position. He brushed aside resignations from his shadow cabinet and a non-binding no-confidence vote that saw 172 Labour MPs vote against him to only 40 in favor.While Corbyn has come under increasing criticism from within the parliamentary party (including from Deputy Leader Tom Watson), anyone seeking to challenge him needs the support of 20% of Labour MPs to be nominated. Even if a challenger cleared that hurdle, beating Corbyn in a vote of party members would be an even bigger ask.Corbyn has remade the party in his image after becoming leader, building up the membership with loyalists from the Momentum group, a powerful left-wing grassroots movement that is increasingly independent and aggressive. On Friday, the group announced a nationwide campaign to oust Labour MPs that don't meet with its approval and replace them with local activists.That is the heart of the Labour crisis: Its moderate parliamentary party is at odds with its hard-left base of members and socialist affiliates. These latter groups hold the leader's fate in their hand, but aren't representative of the wider voting public. The party has always been a broad church, but that unity presupposes a leader who can appeal across the various divides in a way Corbyn hasn't.Corbyn's politics of grievance may have worked well against May – at the 2017 election, Labour saw its largest increase in vote share since 1945. They might have worked well against May again; but against Johnson's message of exuberant optimism, they risk looking dour and defeatist.For all Corbyn's shortcomings, the party looks to be stuck with him. Just as the Brexit party has benefited from the turmoil in the Conservative party, so the Liberal Democrats are likely to benefit from Labour's crisis of leadership.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump tells progressive freshman congresswomen to 'go back' to their 'broken and crime infested' countries Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:09 AM PDT  President Trump, in a Sunday Twitter thread, called out Democratic Congresswomen, saying, "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
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| Jeff Bezos is worth over $160 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money Posted: 15 Jul 2019 09:06 AM PDT ![Jeff Bezos is worth over $160 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money]( "Jeff Bezos is worth over $160 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money") Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $156 billion. He's the richest person on earth and one of the country's largest land owners.
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| Taiwanese president courts ally Haiti during Caribbean tour Posted: 13 Jul 2019 10:27 PM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen made a brief visit to Haiti on Saturday without unveiling new spending commitments, as she courts Taipei's dwindling allies in the Caribbean in a diplomatic struggle with China. Since Tsai became president, Beijing -- which considers Taiwan part of its territory -- has poached five of the island's shrinking roster of allies, including Haiti's neighbor the Dominican Republic. Taipei has allocated $150 million to the country to help electrify its territory but the funds have not been allocated because they have yet to be ratified by the Haitian parliament.
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| Brittany Zamora: Teacher who had sex with 13-year-old boy jailed for 20 years Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:36 AM PDT  A teacher has been jailed for 20 years after she admitted having sex with a 13-year-old boy multiple times.But Brittany Zamora, 28, insists she's a "good and genuine person" who is "not a threat to society".Police say she had sex with the boy multiple times, both in her car and her classroom, including one occasion when an 11-year-old pupil was in the room acting as lookout.She admitted 10 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, two counts of molestation, two of furnishing sexually explicit material to a minor and one of public sexual indecency.She cannot be released early for good behaviour and must serve the entire two-decade term behind bars.The former sixth-grade at Las Brisas Academy in Arizona was caught when the victim's parents noticed he was acting unusually, and installed monitoring software on his phone.The boy's mother told the court: "Before, he was an innocent child, and now she stole his innocence from him. I hate Brittany Zamora for what she did to my son and family."Now you'll spend the rest of your youth and most of your adulthood in jail... I will not allow you to interfere in my son's life further."When she was arrested, Zamora told police she feared she would not survive behind in jail, saying: "I'm little. They're gonna tear me apart."Zamora and her husband Daniel appear to still be on good terms, he told the court: "She is the best person I've ever known."
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| Curiosity rover is seen creeping up a rugged Martian mountain Posted: 13 Jul 2019 12:27 PM PDT  A satellite zooming around Mars spotted a lone machine, the Curiosity Rover, exploring the rugged Martian terrain. The car-sized rover, which has traveled almost 13 miles on Mars over the last seven years, is now carefully inching up the base of Mount Sharp, a 3.5-mile tall mountain sitting in the middle of the sprawling Gale Crater. The rover has been busy scouring rock samples in an area that planetary scientists suspect was once blanketed in wet clay."It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp," NASA wrote on Friday.The Curiosity Rover on Mars.Image: NASA / JPL-CaltechA prominent ridge, called the Vera Rubin Ridge, can be seen cutting to the left (or northwest) of the rover, while ripples of dark sand are on found the right of the six-wheeled robot. The rover looks like a shiny speck because the sun glinted off Curiosity at just the right angle as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter swooped overhead.SEE ALSO: The secretive lab that built 'the bomb' now scours Mars for signs of lifeNASA plans for the nuclear-powered machine to inch up Mt. Sharp over the coming years to investigate the landscape and improve our understanding of what the now-desert terrain was like billions of years ago, when the Martian planet was a wetter, bluer place. In 2020, a more advanced car-sized rover will join Curiosity on the Martian ground. The new rover will scour the Jezero Crater, a 30 mile-wide bowl about 1,640 feet deep. It's believed to have once held an 800-foot deep lake some 3.5 billion years ago. WATCH: Meet Katie Bouman, one of the scientists who helped capture the first black hole image
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| The B-2 Stealth Bomber Is Now 30 Years Old. Take a Look Inside. Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:37 AM PDT  (Washington, D.C.) Slicing through the sky with bat-like wings, eluding enemy radar with stealth technology, quietly destroying enemy air defenses from 50,000 ft and using computers to merge sensor data with targeting information -- the Air Force's B-2 bomber … has been in the air attacking targets for "30-Years.""You pull up the weapons suite screen, align the right weapon with the target and provide input into the DEP - Digital Entry Panel. Then, you enter text into the computer," Lt. Col. Nicola Polidar, Commander of Detachment 5 of the 29th Training Systems Squadron, told Warrior in an interview.As this happens….the air attack begins.The B-2 took its first flight July 17, 1989 -- so now is the "30-Year Anniversary." B-2 pilots have operated the sleek, curved air-defense-defying platform for sensitive, highly-dangerous missions many times in recent decades. After blasting onto the scene in the early 90s, the B-2s combat debut came in the late 90s when the aircraft destroyed Serbian targets over Kosovo. Three decades ago, the Air Force and Northrop Grumman thought to massively advance the paradigm for stealth attack, and create a first-of-its kind leap ahead bomber. It was conceived of as a Cold War weapon, engineered to knock out Soviet advanced air defenses. The intent was to build upon and surpass the F-117 Night Hawk's stealth technology used in the Gulf War.The B-2s stealth configuration, buried engine, low heat signature and "radar absorbent" coating, is meant to not only avoid being hit by enemy weapons, but complete missions without enemies ever knowing it is there. Its core mission: launch secret, quiet, undetected attacks over heavily defended enemy territory to create a safer "air corridor" for less stealthy planes to operate within extremely lethal,otherwise uninhabitable airspace.
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| A healthy lifestyle may offset genetic risk for Alzheimer's Posted: 14 Jul 2019 10:28 AM PDT  A healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia even if you have genes that raise your risk for these mind-destroying diseases, a large study has found. People with high genetic risk and poor health habits were about three times more likely to develop dementia versus those with low genetic risk and good habits, researchers reported Sunday. Regardless of how much genetic risk someone had, a good diet, adequate exercise, limiting alcohol and not smoking made dementia less likely.
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| Top Puerto Rico officials resign in group chat scandal that ensnares governor Posted: 13 Jul 2019 06:57 PM PDT  Two of Puerto Rico's top government officials resigned on Saturday following the publication of a bombshell group chat in which Governor Ricardo Rossello and his closest allies exchanged controversial messages that have led to widespread calls for Rossello to also step down. The political turmoil comes at a critical stage in the U.S. commonwealth's historic bankruptcy and as its officials seek billions of dollars in funding from the federal government for healthcare and for recovery efforts following devastating hurricanes in 2017. It also follows a 32-count federal indictment and arrests on Wednesday of six people, including two former high-ranking Puerto Rico government officials, who were charged with conspiracy and other crimes in connection with millions of dollars in federal Medicaid and education funds.
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| JetBlue flight diverted to JFK Airport after some on board felt sick Posted: 14 Jul 2019 09:05 PM PDT  The airline says flight 1203 from Newark to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic was diverted "out of an abundance of caution."
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| Saudi Arabia, Russia and North Korea were among 37 countries that signed a letter praising China's 'remarkable achievements in the field of human rights' over its Uighur Muslim oppression Posted: 15 Jul 2019 04:40 AM PDT  The Friday letter, signed by 37 ambassadors to the UN, praised China for making "remarkable achievements in the field of human rights."
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| Tombs riddle could see Vatican efforts to find teen backfire: analysts Posted: 14 Jul 2019 05:50 PM PDT  The Vatican's attempts to help the family of an Italian teenager who went missing 36 years ago have merely deepened the mystery surrounding her fate, and risk backfiring, analysts say. Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, was last seen leaving a music class in Rome aged 15, and theories have circulated for decades about who took her and where her body might lie. Two tombs at the Teutonic Cemetery in the Vatican were opened last week after an anonymous tip-off that they might contain her remains.
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| Amazon Warehouse Workers Walk Out on Prime Day Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:21 AM PDT  Jason Alden/Bloomberg via GettyAmazon warehouse workers in a suburb of Minneapolis are striking Monday, the first day of a two-day Amazon online sales event, to protest their working conditions. Workers at an Amazon Fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota are walking out for a six-hour period on Monday that will overlap with the morning and evening warehouse shifts. They say Amazon has only accelerated the pace of their work despite prior complaints that demands on them were so high as to be unsafe. Amazon employs more than 600,000 people around the world. In a statement, a company spokesperson said Amazon did not expect any disruptions in its operations due to the strike. The warehouse in question employs roughly 1,500 people full-time, according to the statement."The fact is Amazon offers already what this outside organization is asking for," the statement read.Some Amazon employees working from Seattle headquarters have come out in support of the strike and are joining the temporary workers in Minnesota, according to a statement from the group Amazon Employees For Climate Justice signed by dozens of employees. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined a similar rally in December. A spokesperson for Omar told The Daily Beast the congresswoman could not attend Monday's rally due to a scheduling conflict. An East African immigrant workers' association, the Awood Center, coordinated the rallies in conjunction with the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a local chapter Service Employees International Union. 'Colony of Hell': 911 Calls From Inside Amazon WarehousesThe same day as the strike, a coalition of activists that includes former Amazon workers will deliver a sheaf of petitions to Jeff Bezos' $80-million-dollar New York City apartment in protest of conditions in the company's warehouses and its working relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Current Amazon employees have made similar demands of the company that have gone unheeded.Amazon created Prime Day, a global two-day discount of hundreds of products, five years ago to tout Amazon Prime, its membership program that offers free shipping on online orders and a laundry list of other perks. According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Prime had 100 million paying members in April 2018. Amazon spends lavishly to promote Prime Day, covering its delivery packages with advertisements for discounts and paying Taylor Swift to anchor a high-profile concert. Consumers have reciprocated in the past, buying more than 100 million items in 24 hours in 2018.Unions of Amazon workers in European countries like Spain and Germany have staged strikes on Prime Days in the past, but the walkout in Minnesota represents the first major action of its kind in the U.S. during the sales event.Amazon's relationship with its warehouse workers has become contentious in recent years, with workers describing long, backbreaking hours and being fired for taking bathroom breaks. The company has come under fire from critics who say its treatment of low-level workers contributes to income inequality: Jeff Bezos is the world's wealthiest person thanks to Amazon, but his low-level workers often rely on food stamps. Amazon has attempted to ameliorate tensions with its workforce of late by committing to a $15-an-hour minimum wage in 2018 and promising this week to invest $700 million in technical training for employees over the next six years.The Awood Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike.—Sam Brodey contributed reporting.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| A Texas grandmother fell three years ago. Her daughter let her decay on the floor, police say Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:42 PM PDT  Delissa Crayton lived with her mother's decaying remains for three years after she fell in their shared residence, police in Seguin, Texas said.
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