| Palestinians denounce Trump tweets against local hero Posted: 15 Jul 2019 09:59 AM PDT  Palestinians on Monday denounced President Donald Trump's attack on U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, accusing him of racism and saying it once again proves his bias against the Palestinian people. Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was one of four congresswomen of color who were targeted in a Trump Twitter barrage over the weekend. Although Tlaib has never lived in the West Bank, she still has relatives in the area and is widely seen as a local hero for making her way to the highest levels of American government.
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| Joe Biden worried in 1977 that certain de-segregation policies would cause his children to grow up 'in a racial jungle' Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:51 PM PDT  "Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle," Biden said.
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| Neo-Nazi James Fields get life plus 419 years in state court for murder in Charlottesville Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:41 PM PDT  James Alex Fields Jr., a neo-Nazi who rammed his car into counterprotesters of an alt-right rally, was sentenced to life in prison in state court.
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| $800,000 spent in one day on Malaysia ex-PM's cards, court hears Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:03 AM PDT  Credit cards belonging to Malaysia's disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak were used to spend over $800,000 in one day at a luxury jeweller in Italy, a court has heard. The 2014 spending spree is the latest evidence of what critics say is the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by Najib after he and his cronies allegedly plundered state coffers. The claims played a major part in Najib's government losing power at elections last year.
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| Michael Flynn’s Ex-Business Partner Points the Finger at Him in Court Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:07 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/GettyIf there is a question of who worked on behalf of the Turkish government to influence the 2016 Donald Trump campaign, then the court should look no further than former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, lawyers for Bijan Kian, the Iranian-American businessman and former Flynn partner, told jurors in the Eastern District of Virginia Monday. Kian is charged with two felonies—illegally lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government and conspiring covertly to influence U.S. politics about Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who is now living in Pennsylvania. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted. But Kian's team of attorneys said in their opening statements Monday that their client "did not conspire with anyone" to work on behalf of the Turkish government in the U.S. When questioning the Turkish government's influence operations in the U.S., the jury should look at the newly announced cache of evidence the government has on Flynn, said attorney Bob Trout. Kian isn't referenced in any of it, Trout said. Michael Flynn Putting Mueller Deal at Risk in 'Dangerous' New TrialIn the opening statements Monday the Kian legal team spent the majority of their time arguing that their client did not work on behalf of the Turkish government when he attempted to influence public opinion in the U.S. about Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen currently lives in Pennsylvania and is wanted by the Turkish government for allegedly planning a military coup in the country in 2016. Kian instead worked on behalf of a Turkish-Dutch businessman named Ekim Alptekin, Trout said. (Alptekin is named as a defendant in the Kian case but will likely avoid appearance because he is living in Istanbul.) Toward the end of his statements, Trout tried to create a degree of separation between Kian and Flynn who is currently awaiting sentencing in Washington for crimes carried out during his time working with the Trump team. He pointed to the government's evidence, which was mentioned in a hearing last week, and said that prosecutors had all but conceded that Kian was not involved. The jurors have not seen the evidence yet and the details of what the government currently has in its position is unclear.According to a government indictment filed last year, Flynn and Kian worked together throughout the fall of 2016, when Flynn was an advisor to then candidate Trump, on a project to try and extradite Gulen back to Turkey. Prosecutors said the two took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Turkish government to execute the plan. Flynn was also at the time accused of lying about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. He entered into a cooperation deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and admitted to lying about the communications and about his consulting firm's business with the Turkish government. He said that the registration he filed for the Turkey-focused project in 2017 contained several inaccuracies, though his lawyers maintain that Flynn did not intentionally lie on the documents. As part of his deal with the government, Flynn was supposed to testify against Kian and his sentencing in Washington was postponed so he could appear as a witness in Virginia.That all changed last week when the government removed Flynn from the witness list and instead named him as a co-conspirator in the case. The government also said it had extensive information that the Turkish government attempted to influence the Trump campaign through Flynn. It was the first mention of an additional set of materials that show how Flynn was being extensively involved in the Turkish lobbying.It's that evidence that lies at the heart of who really committed the crime of illegally lobbying for Turkey, Kian's lawyers said Monday. Kian "didn't know" about the alleged separate communications between Alptekin and Flynn that are in the government's possession, Trout said.For its part, the government in its opening statement barely mentioned the former national security adviser, instead referring several times to Kian's business team members as "associates." The government focused on Kian's email correspondences, including with Flynn, about the Gulen project and attempted to lay out for the jury how the money that flowed into Kian's account for services rendered connected back to the Turkish government.After nearly an hour and a half of opening statements, both of which were at times tangled and difficult to follow, the jury seemed to fade by 5:30 p.m. Several individuals closed their eyes and appeared to be sleeping.They're due back in court Tuesday morning for testimony, including evidence to be entered into the record and for witness examinations.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran aims to woo 2 million Chinese tourists with visa-free entry ‘within weeks’ Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:29 AM PDT  Iran will waive visas for Chinese visitors as early as the end of July in a bid to boost the economy, faltering under the weight of US sanctions. Tourism officials have said they hope to attract as many as two million Chinese a year to Iran, a massive increase from the 52,000 Chinese visiting last year. Tapping into the Chinese tourism market could pay off in the long run. China has the world's most outbound tourists. Last year the Chinese made nearly 150 million trips abroad, spending a whopping £233 billion overseas. And those numbers are expected to grow as more Chinese apply for passports. Now only nine per cent of the country's 1.4 billion people hold passports. Iran's economy has been sliding toward recession after the US reimposed sanctions last November, heavily targeting vital oil exports and international financial transactions. The country's GDP is expected to shrink by 6 per cent this year, a further slide from last year's 3.9 per cent contraction; inflation could reach 40 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. In response, Tehran has been looking for other ways to boost the government's non-oil revenues. Tourism is seen as an "unsanctionable" sector," tourism board chief Ali Asghar Mounesan told IRNA, a state media agency, in June. In an earlier move to support tourism, Iran announced last August that it would no longer stamp visitors' passports, allowing some to bypass a US entry ban on travellers who have visited the country. China, one of the remaining partners in the nuclear deal that the US withdrew from last year, has openly defied the sanctions and continued to buy Iranian oil. Tehran has threatened to abandon commitments under the nuclear deal, such as uranium stock limits, unless other countries still part of the deal – including the UK – help it to circumvent sanctions.
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| Lightening Deal Alert: MasterChef's 13-In-1 Pressure Cooker Is 47 Off Right Now Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:38 PM PDT |
| Peter Thiel, Trump's biggest fan in Silicon Valley, says he is 'most scared' of Elizabeth Warren in the presidential race Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:38 AM PDT  Peter Thiel said Elizabeth Warren has the edge over the other Democratic candidates because she is 'actually talking about the economy.'
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| Decorated soldier dies in combat operations in Afghanistan Posted: 14 Jul 2019 01:51 PM PDT  A decorated Special Forces company sergeant major has died during combat in Afghanistan, U.S. military officials said Sunday. James G. "Ryan" Sartor, 40, was killed Saturday during combat operations in Faryab Province, according to Lt. Col. Loren Bymer, spokesman for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Sartor was from Teague, Texas, and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group in Fort Carson, Colorado.
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| Founder of neo-Nazi website should pay Jewish woman $14m for unleashing antisemitic 'troll storm' on her, judge rules Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:57 AM PDT  The founder and editor of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer should be forced to pay more than $14m (£11.2m) to a Jewish woman targeted by a "troll storm" of abusive messages for months on end, a judge has said.The US magistrate called the campaign, launched by the website's publisher Andrew Anglin, as "egregious and reprehensible" with Tanya Gersh, her husband and her 12-year-old son being flooded with vile phone calls, text messages, emails and social media posts that included death threats and antisemitic slurs.Ms Gersh, from Whitefish, Montana, said that she was told she should have perished in the Holocaust and that voicemails she received contained the sounds of guns firing again and again. The mother was left suffering from panic attacks that left her short of breath and vomiting."I was frightened to the point that we couldn't think straight," Ms Gersh – a real estate agent – said after a recent court hearing. "We talked about waking our children in the middle of the night — to run from Nazis."The abuse began in December 2016 after The Daily Stormer published, under Mr Anglin's byline, a call to arms to readers. "Are y'all ready for an old fashioned Troll Storm?" the post said. "Because AYO — it's that time, fam." Ms Gersh's contact details were posted online and followers were urged to "tell them you are sicked by the Jewish agenda". There were also photographs of Ms Gersh and her son, photoshopped against an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Daily Stormer claimed the posts were protected by free speech laws.Judge Jeremiah Lynch said that Mr Anglin had "acted with actual malice" in posting the contact details.The source of the abuse followed accusations from Mr Anglin and others that Ms Gersh had tried to extort the mother of prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer. Spencer has been widely denounced for telling supporters to "party like its 1933" – the year Adolf Hitler came to power – after the election of Donald Trump. Mr Spencer was also a featured speaker at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a civil rights activist was killed and 19 other people were injured in August 2017.Sherry Spencer, who owned a commercial property in Ms Gersh's town of Whitefish, had faced scrutiny over her son's extreme views and residents had discussed protesting outside the building.According to her lawsuit, Ms Gersh said that Ms Spencer had phoned her for advice after Ms Gersh had contacted friends in the building to tell them protests may be coming.Ms Gersh suggested that Ms Spencer sell the building and disavow her son's views, with the lawsuit saying Ms Spencer had appeared receptive, but that changed.More than 30 articles naming Ms Gersh were then said to have appeared on The Daily Caller, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The suit claims that Ms Gersh and her family received more than 700 hate-filled messages.With Mr Anglin having not appeared at a deposition in April, Judge Lynch recommended a default judgement against the publisher – but he went further. He recommended that Mr Anglin, who is in his mid-30s, be ordered to pay $4,042,438 in compensatory damages and $10 million, the maximum under Montana state law, in punitive damages for "the particularly egregious and reprehensible nature of Anglin's conduct." Judge Lynch's findings and recommendations must be approved by US District Judge Dana Christensen to take effect.Ms Gersh said that she may not receive the money, but Monday's judgement has sent a message to others."A clear message has been sent to Anglin and other extremists: No one should be terrorised for simply being who they are, and no one should ever be afraid for being who they are," she said in a statement."This lawsuit has always been about stopping others from enduring the terror I continue to live through at the hands of a neo-Nazi and his followers, and I wanted to make sure that this never happens to anyone else," she added.Last month, Mr Anglin was ordered to pay $4.1 million after he failed to respond to a defamation lawsuit filed by the Muslim radio host and comedian Dean Obeidallah after The Daily Stormer falsely labelled him a terrorist.
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| 2 women who say they were abused by Jeffery Epstein have asked a judge not to release him from jail Posted: 16 Jul 2019 08:03 AM PDT  Courtney Wild and Annie Farmer attended Jeffrey Epstein's bail hearing on Monday, and asked a federal judge not to release him as he awaits trial.
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| Police: A 69-year-old Arizona woman is missing in California's Mojave Desert without supplies, cellphone Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:12 PM PDT  Authorities in California are searching for Barbara Thomas, a 69-year-old woman who went missing while hiking in the Mojave Desert.
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| Imagine If Russia and China Built Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carriers Together Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:07 PM PDT  China could partner with Russia in order to develop nuclear-powered icebreakers.While the vessels would be useful in their own right, the main benefit could be to help Beijing refine reactor technology for use in a future nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post.The Chinese navy already possesses two conventionally-powered flattops and is building a third.But naval expert Li Jie told the newspaper that to be truly competitive, the Chinese navy needs a ship capable of generating lots of power and high speeds in order to launch large aircraft. "China really needs a more powerful, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to catapult its superheavy carrier-based fighter jet, the J-15," Li said."While China has good experience in the development of nuclear reactors for use on land, it has yet to master the miniaturisation process that is needed to make a nuclear power unit suitable for an aircraft carrier," South China Morning Post reported."China has strong naval building capabilities, but it is still very weak in nuclear miniaturisation. So it can learn from Russia," Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming told the newspaper.The Chinese fleet already possess nuclear-powered submarines. But the subs' reactors are poor candidates for transfer to a surface ship as large as an aircraft carrier. France learned that lesson a quarter-century ago, Zhou pointed out.> In a bid to cut costs in the development of the Charles de Gaulle – France's first and only nuclear-powered carrier – its designers used two K15 submarine pressurised water reactors as the main propulsion system.
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| Italy seizes 'combat-ready' missile and automatic weapon stash in raids on far-Right figures Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:05 PM PDT  Italian police have seized a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile, in raids on neo-Nazi sympathisers, they said on Monday. Elite police forces searched properties across northern Italy following an investigation into Italians who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, a police statement said. Three men were arrested, including a customs officer who has previously stood for parliament for an extreme right party. During their raids, police discovered a French-made Matra air-to-air missile that appeared to have once belonged to the Qatar armed forces. Subsequent checks showed the weapon was in working condition but lacked an explosive charge. A big cache of guns and ammunition was seized by the Turin special police force Credit: FRANCESCO AMMENDOLA,HO/AFP/Getty Images Police said the suspects had tried to sell the missile in conversations with contacts on the WhatsApp messaging network. Among other weapons uncovered were 26 guns, 20 bayonets, 306 gun parts, including silencers and rifle scopes, and more than 800 bullets of various calibres. The arms were primarily from Austria, Germany and the United States. Police also seized Nazi memorabilia from the properties. "The police investigation ... came into being because of the activities of some Italian fighters with extremist backgrounds who had taken part in the armed conflict in the Ukrainian region of Donbass," the police statement said. More than 10,000 people have been killed since 2014 in fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine.
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| Italy's far-right Salvini moves to clear 'illegal' Roma camps Posted: 16 Jul 2019 07:30 AM PDT  Italy's anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini ordered a report Tuesday on the country's Roma population, with a view to shuttering overcrowded, "illegal" camps, provoking an angry response from rights campaigners. The head of the far-right League ordered the country's regional prefects to draw up "a report on the presence of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti" within two weeks, the interior ministry said in a statement. The Roma, Sinti and Caminanti are traditionally nomadic ethnic groups who have lived in Europe for centuries.
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| 'You're better than that:' Geraldo Rivera hits back at Trump for telling progressive freshman congresswomen to 'go back' to 'broken and crime infested' countries Posted: 14 Jul 2019 07:45 PM PDT  "Sad to watch my friend @realDonaldTrump take low road," Rivera tweeted. "Let's stick to issues & steer clear of language that's xenophobic even racist."
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| Greek conservatives scrap plans to take clergy off state payroll Posted: 16 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Greek conservatives scrap plans to take clergy off state payroll]( "Greek conservatives scrap plans to take clergy off state payroll") Greece's newly-elected conservative government on Tuesday scrapped plans to remove priests from the state payroll, reversing a decision by its leftist predecessor that aimed to carve a clearer distinction between church and state. Priests in the powerful Greek Orthodox Church have been treated as civil servants in Greece and their salaries - estimated at about 200 million euros annually - have therefore been paid directly from the state budget. The deal also foresaw a settlement of a decades-old dispute over property rights between the Greek state and the Church, which is one of Greece's largest real estate owners.
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| Man sentenced to 2nd life term in Charlottesville car attack Posted: 15 Jul 2019 03:23 PM PDT  An avowed white supremacist was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years Monday for deliberately driving his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Virginia, killing one woman and injuring dozens. James Alex Fields Jr., 22, remained stoic as Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore formally imposed the recommendation of a state jury that convicted him in December of murder and malicious wounding charges for his actions in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Fields showed no visible emotion as victims of the car attack described severe physical and psychological injuries — broken bones, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression — inflicted by Fields when he plowed his car into them.
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| Land crabs infest Florida man's house after heavy rainfall Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:11 PM PDT  A man in Florida recently received hundreds of crabs as unexpected house guests.Heavy rain fall in south Florida forced hundreds of land crabs, which burrow underground, out of their holes and into the property of Dan Skowronski, a resident of of Port St Lucie. In a video shared to Facebook, the Florida man witnessed the home invasion with a surprising calm."They must have got rained out of their holes," he said while filming the crabs, which were scurrying all over his house and property. "All land crabs. Their homes got wiped out by the rain, and they're all over.""They're more scared of me than I am of them," he said, adding that "sometimes it happens once a year".Florida saw heavy rainfall as Hurricane Barry geared up in the Gulf Coast throughout last week, before making landfall in Louisiana on Saturday. The storm left heavy flooding throughout New Orleans, but was downgraded to a tropical storm upon hitting the city, and did less damage than anticipated. Still, much of the city experienced rampant flooding, which is expected to continue and spread this week.In the Florida panhandle, far north above the crab invasion, the storm stirred up a mass influx of jellyfish, washing up on the sand as the water picked up into dangerous riptides. Public beaches were closed to swimmers while the fish and waves persisted.WPTV reports that the crabs in South Florida were gone by Friday.
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| Macron Sticks to Demand for Deep EU Reform Before New Expansion Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:03 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron stuck to his demand for deep reforms in the European Union before it accepts new members, telling biggest candidate Serbia that premature entry would benefit no one.Leaders across the Balkans have expressed frustration at what they say is stalling by the EU over when they can become part of the world's biggest trading bloc. While most member are wary of taking in new members, Balkan leaders are struggling to explain the delay to their 18 million citizens who see entry as a guarantee toward higher pay and less corruption.Concerns flared two weeks ago when, after a marathon session of wrangling over who will take the EU's top jobs, Macron said there would be no further enlargement unless "deep reform" of the EU happens first. During a visit to Serbia Monday, where he met President Aleksandar Vucic, Macron again said that "Serbia is destined to join" but that expanding the bloc without changing the way it makes decisions would cause problems for everyone."Entering too quickly wouldn't be good for Serbia, nor would it be for the EU," Macron said, adding that even setting an entry timetable could backfire. "We must not lock ourselves in to a calendar with a date, because if we fail it would be seen as a failure."The last country to become an EU member was Croatia, in 2013. Outgoing Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the earliest that any of the six remaining aspirants would be able to join is around 2025.For Serbia, the biggest hurdle is resolving relations with Kosovo. Backed by Russia and China, it refuses to recognize its neighbor's unilaterally declared independence since 2008 and has blocked its efforts to join the United Nations and other international organizations.EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo all but collapsed last year when the latter imposed punitive 100% tax on products from Serbia and from Bosnia-Herzegovina, retaliating for Serb lobbying against its international recognition. Kosovo has ignored calls from EU states to lift the barrier.Vucic said he expected France's help "in the search for a compromise." He also said that Serbia embraced the changes that it had committed to as part of EU entry."For us, it's important to reform ourselves, to do our part of the work, for the sake of our people to do good and that our economy makes progress."Macron's visit followed France-based Vinci Airports venture into Serbia with a 25-year concession for Aerodrom Nikola Tesla, while a unit of Suez Groupe SAS won an equally long contract in Belgrade, the capital. Alstom SA is also vying to build a subway in Belgrade, where the two first lines may cost $4.5 billion.(Updates with map of EU aspirant states.)To contact the reporters on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net;Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade at gfilipovic@bloomberg.net;Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, ;Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 2-year-old girl who disappeared from Michigan campsite found alive Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Police have found the 2-year-old who went missing from a campsite in Comins Township, Michigan on Monday. The search lasted more than 24 hours.
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| Jeffrey Epstein: diamonds, cash and fake passport found in raid, prosecutors say Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:01 PM PDT  Accusers ask judge not to release him before trial and prosecutors say 'many individuals' have come forward who say they are victimsIn response papers filed on Friday, prosecutors said Jeffrey Epstein is dangerous and poised to flee. Photograph: Handout/ReutersTwo Jeffrey Epstein accusers offered emotional entreaties in court on Monday, asking a judge not to release the financier before his trial on sex trafficking charges.One alleged victim, who identified herself as Courtney Wild, said: "I was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein, starting at the age of 14."The financier has been detained in an especially secure part of Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal jail in lower Manhattan, since his arrest earlier this month for the alleged sex trafficking of minors.Epstein, 66, pleaded not guilty last week. He appeared in court on Monday over his request for house arrest while awaiting trial – which prosecutors vehemently oppose. Judge Richard Berman did not issue a decision, saying he would do so on Thursday.Prosecutor Alex Rossmiller said the case was getting stronger. Since the investigation, which he described as a "covert" effort that took months, was unsealed, he said "many individuals" who have identified themselves as victims or witnesses have come forward.Rossmiller, who has repeatedly said Epstein's wealth would make it possible for him to flee, also cited unknown factors surrounding Epstein's finances.During a search of Epstein's Manhattan home, authorities found a "locked safe" containing cash, diamonds and an expired passport apparently with Epstein's picture but a "name that was not his". The passport, from the early 1980s, was from a "foreign country" and listed Epstein's country of residence as "Saudi Arabia".It was also revealed in court that Epstein's financial information disclosure, necessary for his bail request, ran to just one page.Rossmiller said the document lacked information on Epstein's assets, such as diamonds and art, "both of which were [found] in abundance" at his home.The one-page document was unsealed. It listed Epstein's net worth as $559,120,954, comprised of nearly $195m in hedge funds and private equity, $113m in equities, $57m in cash and $14m in fixed income, with six properties comprising the remainder.The document also said the market value of his East 71st Street mansion was just under $56m, not $77m, as prosecutors have claimed.Wild said publicity had not necessarily made it easier to come forward, as Epstein's attorneys have argued in court."He's a scary person to have walking the streets," she said, with a reserved air, wearing a white shirt and black trousers as she addressed the judge.The second accuser, Annie Farmer, stood and said: "I was 16 years old when I had the misfortune of meeting Jeffrey Epstein here in New York."She said it was difficult to come forward because of Epstein's "wealth and privilege". Berman asked if she was saying that Epstein engaged in sexual contact with her.She said: "He was inappropriate with me."The judge asked if she would go into details.She said: "I would prefer not to go into the details at this time."The attorney David Boies, who represents some Epstein accusers, told the Guardian: "This is a good judge and I know he will do what he considers the right thing."Lawyers for Epstein, who is a registered sex offender following a case in Florida 11 years ago, insist home detention and electronic monitoring and a mortgage-backed bond on his Manhattan mansion will be enough to stop him fleeing the country.Since his 2008 guilty plea to state prostitution charges and subsequent 13 months behind bars, he has been a law-abiding citizen, they have argued.Pressed by Berman on whether his clean post-incarceration record really indicates that he will stay out of trouble, Epstein lawyer Martin Weinberg said: "It's not like he's an out-of-control rapist."He does not fit within the paradigm," Weinberg added.Epstein's legal team said they would offer his private jet as collateral and a trustee or trustees could be appointed to live in Epstein's residence and report any violation. Weinberg also said Epstein would be willing to back his pretrial release with $100m.Prosecutors cited the potentially thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young females authorities found while searching his home as proof that Epstein remained dangerous. Rossmiller said authorities had identified at least one person in those photos "who has identified herself as a victim".Prosecutors maintained that electronic monitoring would just shorten a head start if Epstein decided to flee and dismissed his house arrest pitch as a request to live in a "gilded cage".They also alleged that Epstein wired several hundred thousands of dollars "to influence" two possible witnesses.Multiple accusers have asked prosecutors to seek Epstein's detention throughout his case, prosecutors said.Epstein, who purportedly had ties to Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other powerful men, is charged in a 13-page indictment with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy. It is alleged that some victims were just 14 years old.Prosecutors contend that from 2002 to 2005, Epstein "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls" and paid some victims to recruit others "in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims".These accusers were lured to provide massages "which would be performed nude or partially nude", the indictment claimed, saying these massages would turn "increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts".Prosecutors have also claimed that at Epstein's New York home, "the massage room is still set up the same way it was 15 years ago", with sex paraphernalia and a massage table.The New York case comes amid increasing scrutiny of Epstein's prior case that was spurred by a bombshell Miami Herald investigation.In 2007, Epstein and the US attorney's office in Miami, then led by Alexander Acosta, brokered a deal that ended a federal investigation into allegations involving at least 40 teenage girls.Acosta resigned as Trump's labor secretary on Friday, following extensive criticism. Weinberg said the deal was approved by the justice department's former criminal division head, as well as a former deputy attorney general.
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| Prosecco Grapes, Kiwi Pops, and More Easy Fruit Desserts Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:31 PM PDT |
| Resolution introduced in the House of Representatives condemning Trump's 'racist comments' directed at progressive freshman lawmakers Posted: 15 Jul 2019 09:57 PM PDT  "President Donald Trump's racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color," the resolution states.
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| Mom wants health industry to focus on protein-packed diet after daughter’s unexpected death Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:17 PM PDT  A heartbroken Australian mother is speaking out about the potential dangers of protein shakes and supplements after she says her 25-year-old daughter's diet triggered an undiagnosed condition which ultimately contributed to her death two years ago.
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| Some Iranian women take off hijabs as hard-liners push back Posted: 15 Jul 2019 04:54 AM PDT  The simple act of walking has become a display of defiance for a young Iranian woman who often moves in Tehran's streets without a compulsory headscarf, or hijab. With every step, she risks harassment or even arrest by Iran's morality police whose job is to enforce the strict dress code imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The hijab debate has further polarized Iranians at a time when the country is buckling under unprecedented U.S. sanctions imposed since the Trump administration pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers last year.
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| ICE raids: Top immigration official admits he ‘does not know details’ of controversial arrests Posted: 15 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services has said he does not have details about the ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants, even though he has spoken about the operation in recent days.Ken Cuccinelli said during a CNN appearance on Monday he did "not have operational details", including how many arrests were made during the operation that began on Sunday.Last week, Mr Cuccinelli discussed the operation and said there were approximately one million people in the US with removal orders."I told you, I don't have details about any arrests that have taken place so far with respect to that operation," Mr Cuccinelli said, explaining his lack of knowledge about specifics by saying "operational details are kept contained within the agency".The raids were expected in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.But, there were no reports of the raids in several cities, according to immigrant advocacy groups that are monitoring the situation.Mr Cucinelli's agency is in charge of legal immigration, and it is left to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants for deportation.The US has conducted raids previously, including raids on workplaces where undocumented immigrants have allegedly been hired.Donald Trump's administration has overseen a spike in the number of those kinds of raids, compared to during the Obama administration.
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| Iranian bread permanent guest at Kuwaiti tables Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:09 AM PDT  Khalil Kamal makes sure he regularly visits Kuwait's popular Souq Al-Mubarakiya, where he enjoys his favourite kebab meal with onion, rocket and freshly baked Iranian bread. The smell of the bread wafts through the market as it bakes in a traditional oven at the Al-Walimah restaurant in downtown Kuwait City. For decades, Iranian bread -- known as taftoon -- has been a staple of Kuwaiti breakfast, lunch and dinner tables.
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| A New Jersey cop overdosed on heroin in a patrol car while on duty. He was fired Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:38 PM PDT  A New Jersey police officer has pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and driving while intoxicated while on duty in April.
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| Iran Loves This: The Royal Navy Doesn’t Have Enough Ships to Patrol Persian Gulf Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:56 PM PDT  The Royal Navy plans briefly to double its number of warships in the Persian Gulf following an attempted attack by Iranian forces on a British oil tanker on June 20, 2019.But the temporary increase in British warships in the region, from one to two, underscores just how few ships the Royal Navy can deploy even in an emergency.Iranian boats tried to "impede" the British oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, "was forced to move between the three boats and the tanker," according to the BBC.The British government claimed the attacking boats belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps militia. The IRGC also allegedly was behind several recent bomb attacks targeting oil tankers in the Gulf and surrounding waters.Tensions have escalated in the Middle East following U.S. president Donald Trump decision unilaterally to withdraw the United States from the 2015 deal limiting Iran's nuclear program. After Trump restored economic sanctions, Tehran resumed stockpiling uranium.The July 2019 tanker incident compelled the Royal Navy to accelerate by several weeks a planned deployment to the Gulf by the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan. Montrose and Duncan together will patrol the Persian Gulf before Montrose returns to U.K. waters for maintenance.Duncan sailed south through the Bosphorus on July 13, 2019. The destroyer had been in the Black Sea region for NATO exercises.
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| June was the warmest June ever recorded, but there's a bigger problem Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT  In 139 years of record-keeping, this June was the warmest June ever recorded. But June 2019 also revealed a deeper warming reality. The first half of 2019, January through June, finished up as the second warmest half-year on record, newly released NASA data shows. On top of that, each of the last five January through Junes are now the five warmest such spans on record. Only 2016 started off hotter than 2019. "At this point, the inexorable increase in global temperatures is entirely predictable," said Sarah Green, an environmental chemist at Michigan Technological University. She noted that NASA's updated data is added proof that climate models have accurately predicted Earth's continued warming as heat-trapping gasses amass in the atmosphere."As we have shown in recent work, the record warm streaks we've seen in recent years simply cannot be explained without accounting for the profound impact we are having on the planet through the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations," added climate scientist Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University.Indeed, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, already at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years, are now accelerating at rates that are unprecedented in both the historic and geologic record."The latest numbers are just another reminder that the impacts of human-caused warming are no longer subtle," said Mann. "We're seeing them play out in terms of both unprecedented extreme weather events and the sorts of planetary-scale temperature extremes betrayed by these latest numbers."The warmest January through Junes on record.Image: nasa gissThe well-predicted consequences of this heating are now unfolding. Here are some, of many, examples: * Warming climes have doubled the amount of land burned by wildfires in the U.S. over the last 30 years, as plants and trees, notably in California, get baked dry. * Greenland -- home to the second largest ice sheet on Earth -- is melting at unprecedented rates. * The last 12 months have been the wettest 12 months in U.S. history, leading to widespread flooding around the nation (For every 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming, the air can hold 7 percent more water.) * The Arctic is on fire. * Ocean temperatures are going up, and up, and up. * Since 1961, Earth's glaciers lost 9 trillion tons of ice. That's the weight of 27 billion 747s. * Heat waves are increasing in duration and frequency, while smashing records. * Daily high record temperatures are dominating daily low records. Overall, the atmosphere is experiencing an accelerated upward temperature climb, though there are some ups and downs within the greater warming trend. This is due to natural climatic influences, particularly from events like El Niño, which can give global temperatures an added kick. > NASA global mean June temperature is out! Guess what - it's been the hottest June on record. Definitely felt like that in Germany... climatecrisis FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/vkOFP22NNM> > -- Stefan Rahmstorf (@rahmstorf) July 15, 2019"The year-to-year variations of the global temperature may be affected by El Niño, etc., but in the long-term [global temperature] keeps increasing steadily," said NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist Makiko Sato, who helped prepare the June climate observations. SEE ALSO: This scientist keeps winning money from people who bet against climate changeThis June was "easily" the warmest June on record, NASA noted, and overall, this year's January through June temperatures were 1.4 degrees Celsius (or 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average temperatures in the late 1800s. Seasonal temperature trends.Image: nasa Giss2019 will almost certainly end up being one of the hottest years on record. This is in line with another stark trend. Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 -- and the five hottest years have occurred in each of the last five years. (It's not just the first half of each year setting records.)"This is further evidence that temperatures will keep rising until government policies that decrease greenhouse gas emissions are actually implemented," emphasized Green. WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?
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| The U.S. Army Is Building a Smarter Land Mine Posted: 16 Jul 2019 07:06 AM PDT  The mines must take commands from long ranges, threaten "peer threats" such as the Russian Army, but minimize harm against civilians.
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| Lyft broke the law when it failed to tell Chicago about a driver it kicked off its app. A month later he was accused of killing a taxi driver while working for Uber. (LYFT, UBER) Posted: 15 Jul 2019 11:36 AM PDT  Lyft could be fined up to $10,000 for failing to report the driver, who has since been charged with murder.
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| View Photos of the 2019 Porsche Cayenne S Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:00 AM PDT |
| Workers recover hundreds of bodies from Syrian mass grave Posted: 15 Jul 2019 09:26 AM PDT  In an open field on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, workers in black uniforms, surgical masks and red hardhats toil under a scorching sun to dig up bodies from a large mass grave discovered last month. All of the dead are men, women and children believed to have been killed or died during the Islamic State group's rule over the northern city, once the de facto capital of the extremist group's so-called Islamic caliphate and the site of atrocities committed by the group against residents who opposed its extremist ideology. The group at the time commanded large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq that it administered based on its own radical version of Islamic rule.
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| Former congressman Sanford considering challenge to Trump: newspaper Posted: 16 Jul 2019 08:39 AM PDT  Mark Sanford, a Republican former U.S. congressman from South Carolina, said on Tuesday he is considering mounting a primary challenge to President Donald Trump. Sanford, 59, a longtime Trump critic who lost his seat in the House of Representatives last year after he was challenged by a Trump supporter in the Republican primary, will decide in the next month whether to make a long-shot bid against Trump for the 2020 presidential nomination, he told the Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina. Sanford, who is also a former South Carolina governor, could not be reached immediately by Reuters for comment.
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| Marshall Plan for Central America would restore hope, end migrant border crisis Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Food is essential for solving the migrant crisis in Central America. We need a new Marshall Plan to restore hope and stability in the region.
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| Man armed with rifle, fire bombs attacking ICE detention center fatally shot by police Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:03 AM PDT  Police shoot and kill Willem Van Spronsen who was allegedly armed with a rifle and throwing 'incendiary devices' at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.
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| A Lawmaker Wants to Know If the Pentagon Ever Exposed the American Public to Ticks Infected with Bioweapons Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:34 AM PDT  President Richard Nixon announced in 1969 that the United States would unilaterally end its offensive biological weapons program. If you've ever wondered if the Pentagon has ever exposed the American public to ticks infected with biological weapons, you're not alone.Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) authored an amendment to the House version of the Fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act would require the Defense Department Inspector General's Office to find out if the U.S. military experimented with using ticks and other insects as biological weapons between 1950 and 1975.If such experiments took place, the amendment would require the inspector general's office to tell lawmakers if any of the ticks or other bugs "were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design."Smith is the founding co-chair of the House Lyme Disease Caucus. In a news release, Smith said he was inspired to write the amendment after reading books and articles about U.S. military experiments meant to use ticks and other insects to infect enemies.
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| 'Snakes and other critters' join flooding, tornadoes as Barry's latest threat Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Hurricane Barry, quieted to a tropical depression Monday, remained a dangerous storm that threatened flooding, tornadoes and snakes.
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| Babysitter charged with homicide over death of two-year-old at unlicensed day care Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:14 PM PDT  A man has been charged with homicide after a toddler died at an unlicensed day care in Wisconsin.Hunter Jones was charged earlier this month with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of 2-year-old Matthew Bolinski.A criminal complaint said Mr Jones called 911 on 27 March to say the child had jumped out of his playpen and hit his head. The complaint also said Mr Jones was on the phone with a dispatcher for four minutes before he revealed the child wasn't breathing.Katherine Bolinski, the little boy's mother, told local news outlets she feels like she is living in an "ongoing nightmare". "I still pretend like he's sleeping in the other room," Ms Bolinski told WITI."Now it's just like an ongoing nightmare of waking up and there are moments where I just wish he could be with me still." Mr Jones' wife, an in-home day care provider, told investigators she left the child and others in her husband's care while she went out to pick up dinner.An autopsy listed the cause of the child's death as undetermined, but also said the toddler had 18 contusions on his head and likely died of asphyxia. "That day I dropped him off, he threw a fit like no other fit and I obviously regret having to do that now because of the outcome, but that's my last memory of him alive," Ms Bolinski told the local news outlet.The mother said she was "confused," "hurt" and "angry" after her son was found to have multiple injuries to his neck and head.Mr Jones did not have a defence attorney listed in court records. Additional reporting by AP
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| 'Forever chemicals' have been found in bottled water brands sold at Whole Foods and CVS, and it’s part of a larger contamination problem Posted: 15 Jul 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Massachusetts recommended that pregnant women and bottle-fed infants avoid drinking the bottled water "out of an abundance of caution."
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| Mexico’s Ambassador to Leave WTO in Major Blow to the Trade Body Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:18 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's ambassador to the World Trade Organization is preparing to leave his post, according to three officials familiar with his plans, in what could be a significant blow to both the organization and to the Latin American nation's ability to help shape the rules for global commerce.Roberto Zapata Barradas, who became Mexico's main envoy to the WTO in 2017, will soon step down as its permanent representative in Geneva, said the three officials, who asked not to be named because the decision hasn't been made public.Zapata declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News, and Mexican economy ministry's media office didn't immediately provide a comment. The WTO oversees trading regulations and resolves disputes among its 164 members, which include the U.S., China and the European Union.The move comes as leftist Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's party is pushing through domestic legislation that will largely shutter the nation's economy ministry offices to reallocate government resources for social programs. Opponents argue this will leave Mexico without adequate representation to defend itself in economic controversies including trade disputes with the U.S. and cases in the WTO.The move also threatens to scuttle the WTO's most promising multilateral trade talks since Zapata is the current chairman of its negotiating group on rules, which is overseeing discussions aimed at eliminating fishery subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity.Critical TalksZapata's abrupt departure may delay those negotiations during a critical period, according to the officials. A new negotiating chairman will need to be selected quickly to be able to complete the agreement this year, they said.The fishery talks are entering their fourth year and remain ensnared in deep disagreement over what role the WTO should play in governing the world's oceans. The aim is to fulfill a key target of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals by eliminating harmful government fishery subsidies by 2020.A WTO fisheries deal would be symbolically important for an organization that's struggling to retain its relevancy in an environment where the world's top economies brazenly flout the basic rules of trade.The WTO is facing a separate threat over its appellate body, which carries out its arbitration functions, and could be rendered useless by the end of the year."The organization is in deep crisis," European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said during an event hosted by the French government in Paris on Tuesday. "If the appellate body collapses, which probably it will in December, at least temporarily, we would have no enforcement.""And then if you have no rules everyone can do what they want and that would be really, really bad, not least for the smaller and developing countries," she said.(Updates with Zapata contact attempt in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Eric Martin and William Horobin.To contact the reporter on this story: Bryce Baschuk in Geneva at bbaschuk2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Juan Pablo SpinettoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Four dead, 12 feared trapped after Mumbai building collapse Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:03 PM PDT  Four people were killed and at least others 12 feared trapped under rubble after a building collapsed as heavy monsoon rains lashed India's financial capital Mumbai on Tuesday, officials said, the second such tragedy in two weeks. "Four people are dead and over 12 people are still stuck under the rubble," disaster management spokesman Tanaji Kamble told AFP of the building collapse in southern Mumbai's congested Dongri area. Two teams from India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as well as local volunteers, the fire department and police officials were scouring the rubble for survivors.
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| Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:04 AM PDT  A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. Justice Antonio Carpio added that Duterte's recent statement that he had a verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping that effectively allows Chinese to fish in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone will "substantially diminish the arbitral award, a self-inflicted blow to our sovereign rights" in the South China Sea.
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