| Trump attacks on the 'Squad' an electoral gambit Posted: 17 Jul 2019 06:31 PM PDT  Donald Trump tapped into a vein of grievance among white blue-collar and rural Americans to eke out a narrow victory in the 2016 US presidential election. Without a Democratic presidential candidate to focus on yet, the Republican chief executive has sought to make the four minority lawmakers known as the "Squad" the face of the Democratic Party. In tweets and remarks this week decried as racist by his opponents, Trump said the four should "go back" to their countries of origin if they are not happy here.
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| Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:08 AM PDT  Italian and U.S. police have launched a coordinated crackdown on a Sicilian Mafia family that was seeking to rebuild its power base after years of exile in the United States, Italian investigators said on Wednesday. More than 200 police, including officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrested 18 people in Sicily as part of their investigation into the Inzerillo clan in the island's capital Palermo and the allied New York-based Gambino family. A 19th suspect is being sought in the United States.
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| 'What am I supposed to do with you?' Judge bars Roger Stone from social media for breaking gag order Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:40 PM PDT  A federal judge ordered former Trump adviser Roger Stone to stop using social media after saying he had violated a gag order in his criminal case.
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| Asylum ban may further strain immigrant detention facilities Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:51 PM PDT  A new policy to deny asylum to anyone who shows up on the Mexican border after traveling through another country threatens to exacerbate overcrowding at severely strained U.S. immigration detention centers and makeshift holding areas. Photos and video of Vice President Mike Pence's visit Friday to McAllen, Texas, showing men crammed behind chain-link fences offered the latest glimpse into squalid conditions at Customs and Border Protection facilities. The Border Patrol housed 900 people in an area with capacity for 125 in El Paso, Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog report on an unannounced visit in May. Inspectors saw detainees standing on toilets to gain breathing space.
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| Samantha Bee Shocked Kellyanne Conway Somehow Even ‘More Racist’ Than Trump Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:23 PM PDT  TBSSamantha Bee didn't have time to cover all of President Trump's recent "racisms," instead choosing to zero in on his demand that four freshmen Congresswomen of color go back to the countries "from which they came." "Sadly, the only thing that should surprise anyone is that he wrote 'from which they came' to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition," the Full Frontal host joked. "Way to go, Shakespeare, now return your head to the orifice from which it came." "Of course, it wasn't long before spokes-golem Kellyanne Conway leapt to his defense by somehow sounding more racist than her boss," Bee continued before playing the clip of the White House counselor literally responding to a reporter's question with, "What's your ethnicity?" "Fun fact," Bee said, "that's also how she answers the phone." Seth Meyers Tears Into Cowardly Republicans Hiding from Racist Trump TweetsFrom there, she moved onto the resolution condemning Trump's remarks that passed the House with the support of only four Republican members. "So most House Republicans are A-OK with racism," Bee said, "which is great news if Biden is elected because at least he has a history of working with segregationists." The host spent the rest of her opening segment breaking down just how racist Trump's policies are, including his efforts to stop even legal immigration to the United States. "It's almost as if he doesn't like people from certain parts of the world or something," Bee said. "God, if only there were a word for that." For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast below.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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| Woman killed while riding in SUV with husband was just minutes from home before shooting Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:18 PM PDT  'You have taken an angel from us' Saron James and her husband Cleveland had been married for 40 years before someone opened fire on their SUV and killed her.
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| Storm Area 51: US Air Force warns alien-hunters against breaking into top-secret base Posted: 18 Jul 2019 12:37 AM PDT  The US Air Force has urged people not to invade Area 51 in search of aliens.Anyone attempting to do so will have to deal with highly developed defence measures, the military has said.A widespread internet joke – joined by more than a million people – suggests that people attempt to run into the Area 51 base on 20 September. If enough people do so, then at least some will be able to get through and storm the base, the Facebook group suggests."They can't stop all of us" it says. "Let's see them aliens."Officials say they will not discuss the details of the security measures that are built to keep people out of the base. But they stressed that they are powerful and suggested soldiers are trained for this kind of situation.The range provides "flexible, realistic and multidimensional battlespace" for testing and "advanced training in support of US national interests", it said.Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement that officials are aware of the Facebook posting and "any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged".After decades of government officials refusing to acknowledge Area 51, the CIA released declassified documents in 2013 referring to the 8,000-square mile installation by name and locating it on a map near the dry Groom Lake bed.The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.Secrecy surrounding the site has fuelled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts and sprouted a small, alien-themed tourist industry in surrounding desert communities, including cafes, a motel and even a brothel.Additional reporting by agencies
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| California’s Sanctuary City Nightmare: 6 Reasons This Policy Is a Disaster Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:55 PM PDT  Illegal immigrants released by local police in California after their arrests for minor offenses go on to be charged with more serious crimes such as murder, rape, and assault, according to a new government report.Those crimes could have been prevented if these sanctuary jurisdictions had turned over those accused to federal immigration officials for deportation, the report suggests.In one case, police in San Francisco arrested an illegal immigrant from Honduras again and again over nine months as he repeatedly was released and then booked again for more offenses rather than turned over to federal officials.The cases are documented in the newly published quarterly Declined Detainer Report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement covering January, February, and March 2018. The report focuses solely on California jurisdictions, although most large municipalities across the country adopted "sanctuary" policies that prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration authorities. California is a sanctuary state. When ICE determines an illegal immigrant accused of a criminal offense is in police custody, the agency issues a detainer. The paperwork is supposed to ensure the alleged offender will be transferred to federal authorities at the conclusion of his or her time in the local jail, instead of being released. But sanctuary jurisdictions—as a matter of policy—ignore the detainers, which in some cases means the criminal illegal immigrants are released and able to commit new crimes rather than be deported. The report says:
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| North Carolina father of 7 dies trying to save his drowning children at beach Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:36 PM PDT  A North Carolina father drowned Sunday while rescuing two of his youngchildren who were swept away by a wave while walking on a submerged jetty atWrightsville Beach
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| Pakistan arrests US-wanted terror suspect in Mumbai attacks Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:12 AM PDT  Pakistan on Wednesday arrested a radical cleric and U.S.-wanted terror suspect implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, officials said, just days ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan's trip to Washington. Hafiz Saeed was taken into custody in Punjab province while traveling from the eastern city of Lahore to the city of Gujranwala, according to counterterrorism official Mohammad Shafiq. Saeed founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
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| Your Kids Won't Have Any Room For Candy After These Halloween Dinner Ideas Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT |
| Epstein Says Friend Gave Him Fake Foreign Passport Used in 4 Countries Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:34 PM PDT  Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers said Thursday that the fake, foreign passport found in his safe was given to him by a friend and had already been used when he got it.Their claim, in a letter to the judge who will decide if Epstein gets bail, came in response to a prosecution filing that revealed the passport contained stamps from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia.Prosecutors have cited the passport—which was issued in Austria but had a Saudi Arabia address, a fake name and Epstein's photo—as evidence that the accused sex trafficker is a flight risk.Jeffrey Epstein Had 'Piles of Cash,' Diamonds, Austrian Passport in Safe"Epstein was given the passport at issue by a friend," defense lawyer Marc Fernich wrote."Some Jewish-Americans were informally advised at the time to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally in case of hijacking."He never used the document to travel internationally and never presented it to any immigration or customs authority. The passport stamps, predating his receipt of the document, do not reflect Mr. Epstein's entries or exits."The letter did not disclose who gave the passport to Epstein or why he still had the travel document, which was from the 1980s and had long expired.Also found in the safe was $70,000 in cash and 48 small diamonds that prosecutors contend are often kept on hand by someone who needs to make a quick getaway.U.S. District Judge Richard Berman is set to decide Thursday afternoon whether Epstein should stay locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center or be put on house arrest at his mansion, which prosecutors have derisively called his "gilded cage."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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| Ex-chairman of Vietnam's BIDV bank dies in detention Posted: 18 Jul 2019 12:22 AM PDT ![Ex-chairman of Vietnam's BIDV bank dies in detention]( "Ex-chairman of Vietnam's BIDV bank dies in detention") A former head of Vietnam's second largest listed bank, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), died in detention on Thursday, state media and three sources with direct knowledge of the situation said. Tran Bac Ha was arrested in November last year in a widening crackdown on corruption in the Southeast Asian country, which has seen its Communist-ruled government launch investigations into hundreds of public officials and several executives at state-owned enterprises jailed. Ha had not stood trial and was being held at a military detention center near Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
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| Chappaquiddick 50 years on: The car crash that forever tarnished Ted Kennedy Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:03 PM PDT  He was the handsome young senator from an American political dynasty, widely tipped to win the White House. Heavily favoured to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Ted Kennedy looked set to square-off against Republican incumbent Richard Nixon at the 1972 election.But his hopes of emulating his older brother John F Kennedy were irreparably damaged 50 years ago.A car crash in Chappaquiddick would claim the life of a young female political campaigner and forever tarnish his reputation. Here The Independent examines the incident. What happened?On 18 July, 1969, Kennedy, aged 37 at the time, had been attending a party on Chappaquiddick Island, part of the affluent Massachusetts resort Martha's Vineyard.The Massachusetts senator had left the party with Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old political campaign specialist. He later testified at inquest that she had asked him to drop her back at a hotel.At around midnight, Kennedy's car swerved off a narrow, unlit bridge with no guardrails and plummeted into the Poucha Pond.He escaped the sinking saloon. Kopechne did not. Kennedy claimed he made several attempts to save her before giving up and returning to the party on foot.Later, he said he returned with two friends for another rescue attempt but that was foiled by the strong tide.Ten hours passed before the senator reported the incident to the police, minutes before Kopechne's body was recovered from the vehicle. John Farrar, the diver who recovered the corpse, said he believed she died from suffocation rather than drowning, trapped potentially for hours in a small air pocket inside the car. What action was taken?Just a week after the crash on 25 July, Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended two-month prison sentence, the statutory minimum for the offence.His attorneys had argued he should be granted a lenient sentence by the judge, due to his age, character and prior reputation. That night the senator made a speech in which he insisted he had not been driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, as well as denying "widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" surrounding his relationship with Kopechne.He described his decision not to immediately report the incident to the police as "indefensible", stating that he was overcome by a "jumble of emotions—grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion, and shock."An inquest would later conclude there was "probable cause to believe" Kennedy had been operating the vehicle negligently. A tarnished figureKennedy's inaction caused significant damage to his reputation.Prior to the incident, he was popular throughout the country and was seen by many to follow in the footsteps of his brothers, John and Robert, by running for the presidency. Five years before the crash, Kennedy had been re-elected to the senate with 75 per cent of the vote. In an election 15 months after the crash, his margin of victory was reduced to 64 per cent. He did not run in the 1972 or 1976 presidential race, a decision likely taken as a result of Kopechne's death. When Kennedy decided to run in 1980, renewed interest in the Chappaquiddick incident hindered his campaign.His Democratic primary opponent, then-president Jimmy Carter, frequently called into question Kennedy's character by alluding to the events on the resort island. After a failed campaign, Kennedy abandoned his White House dreams. He went on to serve in the Senate for another four decades until his death.In Kennedy's posthumous memoir, True Compass, he called the incident a "horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of life." The Edward M Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a body created in honour of his 47 years of service in the Senate, has no plans to commemorate the incident and the death of Kopechne.
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| Buzz Aldrin has landed -- for the Apollo 11 anniversary Posted: 17 Jul 2019 10:40 PM PDT  The suspense had been building for 24 hours: would Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, show up Wednesday night in Huntsville, Alabama -- nicknamed "Rocket City" for the nearby NASA space flight center? Aldrin declined to join him at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the two were supposed to appear together on NASA TV to mark the 50th anniversary of their mission (Neil Armstrong died in 2012).
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| Los Angeles police officer charged with multiple rapes after DNA links him to cold case Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:40 AM PDT  A LAPD officer is facing life in prison after an investigation into an accusation of rape led to the discovery of another victim.
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| Another military veteran joins Kentucky US Senate race Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Democrat Mike Broihier, a political newcomer with a broad resume as a Marine officer, farmer and small-town newspaperman, ventured into a high-stakes Senate race as the latest military-tested candidate aiming to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell next year in Kentucky. Former fighter pilot Amy McGrath entered the race last week to a rocky start while showing immediate fundraising prowess. Broihier set his sights on McConnell in his campaign announcement video, saying the Republican leader "refined the art of obstruction" and "weaponized the filibuster to his own political purposes.
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| India to make new bid to launch Moon rocket on Monday Posted: 17 Jul 2019 11:48 PM PDT  India will make a new bid to launch a landmark mission to the Moon on Monday, a week after aborting lift-off at the last minute because of a fuel leak, officials said.
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| Asylum seekers anxiously cross into U.S. as new policy kicks in Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:20 PM PDT  Fear over new U.S. curbs on almost all asylum seekers spread this week among migrants at its southern border, but some on waiting lists in Mexican cities found the gates to the United States stayed open, despite a much higher bar to stay. Migrants in Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border towns were cautiously optimistic as the policy took effect on Tuesday, with U.S. officials still calling those on lists of asylum seekers to cross the bridge into the United States and apply.
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| ‘Quite phenomenal’: Arctic heatwave hits most northerly settlement in world Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:09 AM PDT  The planet's most northerly human settlement is in the midst of an "unprecedented" heatwave as parts of the Arctic endure one of their hottest summers on record.Canada's weather agency confirmed on Tuesday that temperatures in Alert, Nunavut, peaked at 21C at the weekend – far exceeding the July average for the area of around 5C.Overnight temperatures on Sunday remained above 15C; again, well in excess of nighttime lows that usually hover around freezing in a settlement that lies less than 900km from the North Pole.The previous temperature record for the town, of 20C, was set in 1956.In a further alarm bell for the region, the mercury climbed above 20C for a second day on Monday – the first time Alert's climate station has recorded two consecutive days of 20C-plus temperatures in its history.Alert is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world – with a population numbering less than 100 – and is far to the north of the Arctic Circle.David Phillips, Environment Canada's chief climatologist, said the weather in the far north of Canada was "quite spectacular" and "unprecedented".He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "It's nothing that you would have ever seen." Armel Castellan, a meteorologist at the Canadian environment ministry, told AFP the extreme weather was "quite phenomenal"."It's an absolute record, we've never seen that before," he said.Unusually, Victoria, 4,000km south of Alert, enjoyed cooler temperatures of 20.6C while the Arctic settlement baked.Tyler Hamilton, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, said: "These two communities have a staggering amount of lines of latitude in between them, with the City of Victoria situated at 48°N, while Alert is plopped north of 82°N."This is in fact the first time a temperature warmer than 20C has been measured north of 80° on the planet."Alert's heatwave comes as nearby Alaska saw its own record temperatures earlier this month.Anchorage, the state's largest city, sweltered in 32C on 4 July – shattering the seasonal high of around 24C.Other local records were set across southern Alaska and came after five weeks of above average temperatures in the outlying US state.Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska, said at the time that exceptionally warm weather events would only become more frequent because of the loss of sea ice and warming in the Arctic Ocean."These kinds of extreme weather events become much more likely in a warming world," he said."Surface temperatures are above normal everywhere around Alaska. The entire Gulf of Alaska, in the Bering Sea, in the Chukchi Sea south of the ice edge, exceptionally warm waters, warmest on record, and of course record-low sea ice extent for this time of year off the north and northwest coasts of the state."Research published at the start of the year found Arctic summers may be hotter than they have been for 115,000 years.Evidence that this century is the warmest the region has faced for millennia came from plants collected in the remote wilderness of Baffin Island.As glaciers melt in the Canadian Arctic, landscapes are emerging that have not been ice-free for more than 40,000 years."The Arctic is currently warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe," said Simon Pendleton, a PhD student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who led the research.
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| China Is Drafting Urgent Plan to Resolve Hong Kong Chaos, SCMP Says Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Chinese officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs are working on an urgent strategy to solve the city's political chaos and have ruled out the use of military force, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions.They will soon present top leaders in Beijing with both an immediate plan to handle the mass protests and a longer-term strategy that could result in China overhauling its management of the former British colony, the newspaper said, without elaborating on a date.Beijing maintains that the crisis is best left for Hong Kong authorities to resolve and doesn't want to get directly involved, according to the report. Beijing has expressed public support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam throughout weeks of unrest and political gridlock, saying this week that it "firmly supports" her leadership.On Thursday, China condemned a joint motion for a resolution in the European Parliament that called on EU member states and other nations to investigate export controls "to deny China, and in particular Hong Kong, access to technologies" that could be used to violate human rights."China strongly opposes this," spokesman Lu Kang said. "China does value its relations with Europe, but maintaining a healthy relationship requires joint efforts."Lam on Monday vowed she would remain in office, after a Financial Times report said she had offered to resign but that Beijing insisted she stay and clean up "the mess she created."The Chinese officials also see Hong Kong's police force as key to maintaining stability, the newspaper said. Officers' tactics have come under fire after they used rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and pepper spray in dispersing the protests. Demonstrators have demanded an independent investigation into what they deem a use of excessive force, while opposition lawmakers have called for the resignation of security chief John Lee.Earlier: Hong Kong Police Tactics Under Fire as Legislature ResumesMainland officials want to avoid bloodshed and ensure the financial hub remains largely stable, the newspaper reported, citing the people familiar. China's approach will be to "lure the snake from its hole," according to one adviser cited by the SCMP, taking a defensive position until the opposition reveals its strategy.They're also considering whether the current environment makes it too risky for President Xi Jinping to visit another former European colony, Macau, later this year for 20th anniversary celebrations of its return to Chinese rule, the paper reported.Crowds of Hong Kong protesters have turned out in unprecedented sizes every week since mid-June. In recent gatherings, their anger has focused on China. More protests are being planned in neighborhoods across the city by demonstrators vowing to spread the word until Lam responds to their demands, including the official withdrawal of legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland and first sparked the rallies.There are indications that Xi and his top officials are preparing for their annual summer conclave in the seaside city of Beidaihe, which this year will bear even closer watching than usual as China faces growing risks at home and abroad, including Hong Kong's unrest and an ongoing trade war with the U.S.(Updates in fourth paragraph with China foreign ministry comments)\--With assistance from Dandan Li.To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net;Dominic Lau in Hong Kong at dlau92@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, James Mayger, Iain MarlowFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| New Jersey brother charged in family's murder accused of insurance fraud Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:56 AM PDT  Paul Caneiro is now charged with insurance fraud on top of the murder, aggravated arson and other charges he previously faced in connection with the death of his brother Keith, his sister in law Jennifer, and their two kids, 11-year-old Jesse and 8-year-old Sophia.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Nissan GT-R NISMO Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:00 AM PDT |
| Trump Rally Crowd Launches Into ‘Send Her Back’ Chant Over Ilhan Omar Posted: 17 Jul 2019 05:02 PM PDT  Fox NewsWe now have a new gross Trump rally crowd chant to replace "Lock Her Up!"During President Trump's Wednesday night rally in Greenville, North Carolina, he took aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of the Democratic congresswomen of color he told to "go back" to where "they came" from."Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds," the president said.The MAGA crowd knew just what to do next."Send her back! Send her back! Send her back," the audience chanted as Trump soaked it in for a few moments.Omar is a United States citizen. She moved from Somalia as a child and gained her citizenship as a teenager.Trump's rally occurs just days after he blasted off a series of racist tweets at the so-called Squad, a group of four progressive Democratic lawmakers that include Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). Following widespread outrage over the bigoted tweetstorm, the president has continued to double-down on his remarks and has repeatedly called out Omar by name, falsely accusing her of supporting Al Qaeda and hating Jewish people.As Republicans have largely stood by the president as he ramps up his racist attacks, the House of Representatives voted to condemn Trump over his comments. While the vote was largely down party lines, four Republicans and one independent (Justin Amash, who recently left the GOP) joined the Democrats in passing the resolution.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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| Teachers union has become an arm of the abortion-rights left. Conservatives should quit. Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:00 AM PDT  Why would the NEA go out of its way to take extreme stands on hot-button issues so far removed from the real problems facing our nation's schools?
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| Argentina still waiting for 1994 Jewish center bombing justice Posted: 17 Jul 2019 10:57 PM PDT  Argentina marks the 25th anniversary of the bomb attack on a Jewish center that left 85 people dead with a day of mourning on Thursday, but the relatives of victims are still waiting for justice. "This attack, even if there was a large anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic component -- of course -- was an attack on Argentina and Argentine society," said Weinstein, who worked at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), where the attack was carried out. A truck loaded with explosives was driven into the AMIA center in a densely populated central area of Buenos Aires, also leaving 300 people wounded.
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| Arrested reporter slams conditions at US detention centers Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:24 PM PDT  A Spanish-language reporter who was recently released from immigration custody said Wednesday he was held for 15 months in detention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe with cold water from water hoses. During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he called inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last week as immigration courts consider his request for asylum.
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| UPDATE 1-U.S. removing Turkey from F-35 program after its Russian missile defense purchase Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:44 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.S. removing Turkey from F-35 program after its Russian missile defense purchase]( "UPDATE 1-U.S. removing Turkey from F-35 program after its Russian missile defense purchase") The United States said on Wednesday that it was removing Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program, a move that had been long threatened and expected after Ankara began accepting delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system last week. The first parts of the S-400 air defense system were flown to the Murted military air base northwest of Ankara on Friday, sealing Turkey's deal with Russia, which Washington had struggled for months to prevent. "The U.S. and other F-35 partners are aligned in this decision to suspend Turkey from the program and initiate the process to formally remove Turkey from the program," said Ellen Lord, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.
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| The U.S. Marine Corps Has Lost More Than 25,000 Marines to Misconduct Posted: 18 Jul 2019 12:42 AM PDT  The Marine Corps has lost more than 25,000 Marines to misconduct over the past decade, according to Commandant Gen. David Berger.In his 2019 Commandant's Planning Guidance, Berger said that the Corps "continued loss of 8,000 Marines per year to non-EAS attrition is unacceptable," using an acronym to describe the end of active service in an enlistment.A total of 25,336 Marines were booted from the Corps between 2009 and 2019; 11,765 were for drug and alcohol offenses, while 13,571 were over unspecified misconduct."This must change," Berger wrote, noting that the cost to replace that many Marines was in excess of $1 billion.Interestingly, that number should be even higher, as its section on drug use reveals. Since Oct. 2017, 2,410 Marines tested positive for illegal drug use, but only 1,175, or 48.8%, had been separated. "I am deeply troubled by the continued retention of Marines failing to adhere to our standards related to drug use.""We are an elite institution of warriors, and will remain so on my watch," Berger wrote. "It is our shared responsibility to ensure the continued health of our collective soul and identity."Toward the end of the 26-page document, which largely focused on changes Berger intended to implement as the top Marine officer, the new commandant talked about misconduct in the force and what he called "destructive" behavior.Of sexual assault, for example, Berger said that despite the Corps' efforts, "the continued rise in reporting leads me to conclude that we still do not fully understand the scope and scale of this issue, or that we can say with any confident that the measures we have taken to date are preventing sexual assaults."
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| Teenage girl making sexual abuse claim sexually assaulted by detective dealing with case Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:29 AM PDT  A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of "witness intimidation by threat of force".But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said that Kimball's pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball's plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she "let him make love to you gently"."His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high," she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was "a fine detective" and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote."And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists," Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh's post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff's department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor's memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney's Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff's department told The Los Angeles Times it would "conduct a review of the internal process" related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime."There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child," he said. "It's something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault."New York Times
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| Kellyanne Conway Snaps Back at Reporter: ‘What’s Your Ethnicity?’ Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:45 AM PDT  When White House reporter Andrew Feinberg posed a question to Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday about the president's racist tweets against the four congresswomen known as the "Squad," he found himself taken aback by her response. Feinberg, a reporter for the website BeltwayBreakfast.com, asked the White House counselor which countries President Donald Trump was referring to when he suggested Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar—all U.S. citizens—should "go back" to where they came from. Instead of answering that question, Conway asked him, "What's your ethnicity?" "Uh... why is that relevant?" Feinberg asked before Conway interrupted him to say, "Because I'm asking you a question."Kellyanne Conway Calls AOC a Liar for Claim That Migrants Are 'Drinking Out of Toilets'After Conway shares that her ancestors are from Ireland and Italy, the reporter said, "My ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking you." Conway still would not answer Feinberg's question, instead insisting that he question was relevant because Trump said "originally" from—he didn't—and going on a rant about how "a lot of us are sick and tired in this country of America coming last," echoing comments she made on Fox News earlier in the day about the "Squad" representing a "dark underbelly in this country." In that same Fox interview, Conway distanced herself from her husband George Conway, whose latest Washington Post column is headlined: "Trump is a racist president." Reached for comment, Feinberg told The Daily Beast, "It's not the first time she's responded to one of my questions with an irrelevant question, but this time was particularly bizarre.""I just wanted to get back to what I was asking her about," he added, "so I was glad she was able to confirm the president's thinking on the matter."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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| House Vote to Repeal Obamacare Tax Shows Health Care Tension Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:58 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The House voted overwhelmingly to repeal a tax Wednesday intended to fund the Affordable Care Act, preserving tax breaks for employer-sponsored insurance plans favored by large corporations.In a reversal of the usual partisan roles, Democrats rather than Republicans led the charge to kill a key part of Obamacare.The bill to repeal the levy commonly known as the "Cadillac tax" passed 419-6 with bipartisan support. The 40% excise tax on the most generous and expensive employer health-insurance plans was included in Obamacare as a measure that economists said would help curb health costs.Congress kept delaying its implementation so the tax has never actually been collected. Had it gone into effect, it would have hit about one in five employers that offer health benefits to their workers, according to estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation.The vote to repeal the tax highlights the conflicting forces pulling at Democrats when campaigning versus legislating.Several of the party's presidential candidates led by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren support replacing nearly all private insurance with a government-run system financed by tax increases. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner in the race, has a less sweeping plan to bolster Obamacare, but it still would offer a public health insurance option funded by tax hikes on the wealthy.But in Congress, Democrats and Republicans are facing pressure from labor unions and large companies to move in the opposite direction by keeping tax advantages for employer-sponsored plans. Supporters of repealing the tax say keeping it in place would force employers to offer less generous health insurance to their workers.Employers can reap large tax savings by compensating their employees in the form of more extensive health insurance, rather than wages, which are subject to payroll taxes. Employer-paid premiums are exempt from federal income and payroll taxes, and the premiums employees pay are also often excluded from taxable income.Changing Minds"I've been a supporter of the Cadillac tax because I thought it would" lower health care costs, said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. "But I've read some additional material on it and it's obviously overwhelmingly thought this will not have the effect in terms of raising money or controlling cost that I thought it would have."The dissonance among Democrats about whether to expand or shrink employer-sponsored health coverage makes them look like "gymnasts," said Representative Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican."Where are you on this stuff?" he said. "Wait a minute, you're all advocating that there be no such thing as employer-sponsored coverage."The repeated delays in imposing the Cadillac tax delays mean that Congress was never able to test whether it would curb the explosion of health care spending, which has risen an average 4.2% every quarter between 2010 and 2018, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.The repeal also would mean that the Treasury Department won't collect the $201 billion the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated it would raise over a decade.Obamacare TaxesObamacare included several other tax increases, including a 3.8% tax on investment income and a 0.9% levy on wages for top-earners. The portion of the law that was supposed to be financed through the Cadillac tax instead would be paid for through deficit spending, unless lawmakers propose a last-minute tax increase to offset the cost.Democrats have generally opposed measures to chip away at President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, but the Cadillac tax has been unpopular since it became part of the code.The measure to repeal it, H.R. 748, was passed under a fast-track procedure requiring two-thirds support among House members.Yet popularity doesn't necessarily mean good policy, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Politicians don't like the tax on health benefits, but nearly every economist thinks the Cadillac tax or a similar measure is necessary to help slow the rise in health-care costs and curb overuse of health services, he added."Just because it's bipartisan doesn't mean it's good," he said.Not all Democrats are on board with eliminating the tax. Representative Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he opposes the repeal because the cost isn't offset and there wasn't any discussion about how scuttling the tax would affect the Affordable Care Act overall."I think we are lapsing into some very bad habits in the majority," he said. "We need to start instilling some fiscal discipline in this place and making some tough decisions."Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, hasn't committed to addressing the issue in his chamber. Because the repeal effort is led by Democrats, it sets up a path for McConnell to use it as a vehicle to attach Republican tax priorities, such as correcting errors in the 2017 tax law or extending several expired tax breaks that benefit the biodiesel and energy industries."We've kicked the can down the road for so long on this one that the assumption is that it's never going to go into effect," said Representative Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat. "There's a certain inevitability to this one getting repealed."\--With assistance from Emily Wilkins.To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'I miss their laughter': Grieving crash dad slams 'shameful' Boeing Posted: 17 Jul 2019 10:40 PM PDT  Paul Njoroge, whose wife, three children and mother-in-law died in the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines disaster, testified before the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee during a hearing on the state of aviation safety. "I miss their laughter, their playfulness, their touch," Njoroge said in his written testimony. The congressional hearings follow the global grounding of US manufacturer Boeing's MAX fleet after the Ethiopian crash and an earlier Lion Air MAX disaster in Indonesia.
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| Police: 19-year-old lifeguard attacked during large altercation at pool in Mayfair Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:50 PM PDT  Philadelphia police are investigating after they say a 19-year-old lifeguard was attacked in the city's Mayfair section.
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| Vietnam, China embroiled in South China Sea standoff Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:53 PM PDT  Vietnamese and Chinese ships have been embroiled in a weeks-long standoff near an offshore oil block in disputed waters of the South China Sea, which fall within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, two Washington-based think-tanks said on Wednesday. China's U-shaped "nine-dash line" marks a vast expanse of the South China Sea that it claims, including large swathes of Vietnam's continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions. One of the oil blocks it surveyed is licensed by Vietnam to Spanish energy firm Repsol , which was forced last year and in 2017 to cease operations in Vietnamese waters because of pressure from China.
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| 7,800 police in Philippines punished for deadly drug raids Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:43 AM PDT  Thousands of Philippine police officers have received administrative punishments with more than 2,000 dismissed for wrongdoings during raids where drug suspects were killed under the president's crackdown, officials said Thursday. Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael Banaag told a news conference that 14,724 police were investigated for their involvement in police drug operations that led to deaths from July 2016 until last April. A tally presented by Banaag showed that 2,367 police officers have been fired, 4,100 suspended while the rest were reprimanded, demoted, had their salaries forfeited or deprived of certain privileges.
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| Here's Why, in 1986, Gaddafi's SAMs Couldn't Touch America's SR-71 Blackbirds Posted: 16 Jul 2019 08:58 AM PDT  "We are a roaring express now, and as we roll through the enemy's backyard, I hope our speed continues to defeat the missile radars below."On Apr. 14, 1986, Operation El Dorado Canyon launched air-strikes against Libya in response to Libya's bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by US military personnel. The attack was performed by a strike-group of 18 U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-111s supported by numerous U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) A-6, A-7 and F/A-18 aircraft.On Apr. 16, 1986 after the raid, SR-71 64-17960 piloted by Maj. Brian Shul with RSO Maj.Walter Watson, entered Libyan airspace at a blistering 2,125 mph to photograph the targets for bomb damage assessment (BDA). As they neared the end of their sweeps, they started receiving launch indications from Libyan surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites below.The story of how the SR-71 incredible performance allowed them to hold their course and outrun the missiles before returning home safely to RAF Mildenhall is told by Shul himself in his book Sled Driver.
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| Fewer kids die from guns in states with stricter laws, study says Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:54 PM PDT  Children living in states with more restrictions on firearms are less likely to die from them, a new study says.
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| White-collar prosecutions and corporate fines drop under Trump Posted: 18 Jul 2019 04:56 AM PDT  A drop in white-collar crime prosecutions and corporate fines during the Trump administration has prompted a warning from a leading law firm.New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz issued a memo to its clients noting the "significant" decrease in both the number of cases and the scale of penalties over the last two years.The lawyers advised businesses not to relax their approach to laws and regulations, adding: "Our experience suggests that succumbing to such temptation would be a mistake."It comes after data from the US Department of Justice revealed white-collar prosecutions – including offences of fraud, antitrust violations and identity theft – hit a 20-year low earlier this year.Prosecutions peaked in 2011, during Barack Obama's first term in office, and have steadily declined since, according to Syracuse University's TRAC reports."White-collar prosecutions since President Trump assumed office generally have been lower than in previous administrations," researchers said. Corporate fines from criminal prosecutions also plunged by more than 90 per cent, according to a study comparing the last year of the Obama administration and the first year under President Trump.The "lighter touch" approach towards the banking industry is further demonstrated by a large drop in the number of cases pursued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to analysis by The New York Times."In such an environment, companies might be tempted to think that having an effective compliance programme is less urgent and less important than the past," Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz told its clients on Wednesday."In fact, now is arguably the best time for corporations to continue investing in their compliance programmes to ensure they have in place an effective and comprehensive set of compliance policies, procedures and internal controls."> Extraordinary memo from Wachtell tonight conceding that white collar enforcement in Trump era is way down pic.twitter.com/2ljocRQOlr> > — Sujeet Indap (@sindap) > > July 18, 2019The Department of Justice has previously tried to deny suggestions that white-collar prosecutions are decreasing, claiming a three per cent rise during the year to September 2018, with more than 6,500 suspects charged nationwide."President Donald Trump is a law-and-order president—and this is a law-and-order administration," said attorney general Jeff Sessions, less than three weeks before he resigned at Mr Trump's request.
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| Poll: Two-thirds of country favors statehood for Puerto Rico Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT  The 66 percent support for admitting the island as the 51st state is consistent with polling dating back to the early 1960s.
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