| Trump calls Rep. Tlaib a 'crazed lunatic' and rails against 'Squad' in fiery speech Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:44 PM PDT  President Trump took his feud with four progressive congresswomen to a new level in a speech on Tuesday afternoon, with incendiary attacks that included false accusations.
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| Who are the Chinese 'triads' accused of attacks on Hong Kong protesters? Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:56 PM PDT  China's shadowy triads have long been suspected of doing Beijing's dirty work. Perhaps most commonly associated in the West with over-the-top action sequences in kung-fu films, the term "triad" refers to various sects of criminal gangs which often harbour intense rivalries with each other. Hong Kong is a hub of triad activity, a legacy of the Communist era purge of organised crime from the mainland. The ancient gangs have been associated with the suppression of protesters and troublemakers in both Hong Kong and parts of southern China in recent years, where they act as thugs for hire. Sunday's attacks were carried out in plain view of security cameras, and with a mysterious lack of police presence. The most prominent triad gangs in Hong Kong are 14K and Sun Yee On, and there have been claims that the Wo Sing Wo group are behind Sunday's attack. In 2014, triad thugs riding a motorcycle attacked the outspoken editor of a Hong Kong newspaper editor with a meat cleaver, leaving a six-inch wound on his back. Members of the Shui Fong triad, it has been claimed, carried out the attack in exchange for payments of one million Hong Kong dollars (£100,000) each. THREAD: These unsettling HongKong videos going viral speak for themselves. If you knew *nothing* about the HongKongProtests you'd still know this is not right. Local reports say pro-gov't triads beat anti-gov't protestors - and anyone in between - at Yuen Long rail station. pic.twitter.com/qLFp76vUNj— Ramy Inocencio 英若明 (@RamyInocencio) July 21, 2019 In the same year, at the height of the Occupy Movement protests in Hong Kong, suspected triad members beat protesters and destroyed their tents in the Mong Kok district, the gangs' heartland. Local authorities in mainland China have also been accused of paying triads to forcefully evict homeowners from their property. In one case in 2011, a middle-aged woman who refused to move out died after her house was demolished by a gang while she was still inside. As far back as the 17th century, triad gang members were pawns in political struggles, including one attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the preceding Ming dynasty. When the Communist Party took power in China after the Second World War, vast numbers of triad gang members fled to Hong Kong. Later, in the 1960s, the height of triad activity in Hong Kong, police suspected up to one in six people were members of roughly 60 different triad gangs. Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after they attacked pro-democracy activists at a train station, in Hong Kong Credit: Reuters More recently, drug trafficking has become a significant source of the triads' income, along with extortion, money laundering, gambling and prostitution. Gang members are often recruited in their late teens, and must take 36 oaths as part of their initiation ritual. Initiates are warned they will be killed "killed by five thunderbolts" if they fail in their duties.
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| 'Racist'? UPenn Prof. Amy Wax says U.S. better with more white than non-white immigrants Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Amy Wax said more immigration leads to dirtier cities. Penn Law's dean said comments were bigoted and possibly racist, but didn't address her tenure.
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| Sorry, AOC: Moderate House Democrats Have Their Own Climate Plan Posted: 23 Jul 2019 01:03 PM PDT  House Democrats rolled out a climate agenda Tuesday as their caucus attempts to draw a distinction between New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's approach to tackling global warming and a more moderate plan.Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee announced they would pursue legislation calling for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a far less ambitious plan than the Green New Deal, which aims to complete the emissions target by 2030. Democrats criticized Ocasio-Cortez's idea during the roll-out."The majority of the Democratic caucus is behind aggressive, but not socialist, climate policies," Paul Bledsoe, who advised former President Bill Clinton on climate issues, told reporters, according to Bloomberg. "They worry the Green New Deal rhetoric could alienate rather than attract swing voters needed in 2020.""The climate crisis is here, and it requires serious federal leadership that's up for the challenge," Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey told reporters.Reps. Paul Tonko, head of the Environment and Climate Change subcommitee, and Bobby Rush of Illinois, head of the energy subcommittee joined Pallone in the press conference. Ocasio-Cortez didn't attend, Bloomberg reported.The GND, as it has come to be known, sought for a "10-year national mobilization" to shift the country to 100% "zero-emission energy sources" — a lofty mission given that fossil fuels account for more than 80% of U.S. energy consumption in 2018.
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| U.S. coal miners discouraged by black lung meeting with McConnell Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:02 AM PDT  A group of coal miners afflicted with black lung disease met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday as part of an effort to convince lawmakers to restore a higher excise tax on coal companies to help fund their medical care, but several said the meeting left them discouraged. McConnell, the Republican leader who represents Kentucky - one of the states that has seen a rebound in the progressive respiratory illness - told them their benefits would be safe but gave no assurances about the excise tax and left without answering questions or offering details, several of the miners who attended the meeting said. "We rode up here for 10 hours by bus to get some answers from him because he represents our state," said George Massey, a miner from Harlan County, Kentucky who spent two decades in the mines and is on disability.
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| In chaotic scene, ex-judge dragged from Cincinnati courtroom, sentenced to jail Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:01 PM PDT  Chaos erupted in a Cincinnati court when a former judge had to be dragged from the room as she was sentenced to a six-month jail term.
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| Videos of water being dumped on police officers create stir Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:30 PM PDT  Cellphone videos of people brazenly dousing uniformed New York Police Department patrolmen with water have sparked outrage and led police officials to urge the force not to tolerate the behavior. Asked about the dousings in an interview Monday with local news channel NY1, de Blasio responded that "they are two very different incidents, one of which was not confrontational, the other of which was.
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| Human sacrifice bridge rumours spark Bangladesh lynchings Posted: 24 Jul 2019 03:29 AM PDT  Eight people have been killed in vigilante lynchings in Bangladesh sparked by rumours on social media of children being kidnapped and sacrificed as offerings for the construction of a mega-bridge, police said Wednesday. The victims -- which include two women -- were targeted by angry mobs over the rumours, spread mostly on Facebook, that said human heads were required for the massive $3 billion project, police chief Javed Patwary said. More than 30 other people have been attacked in connection with the rumours.
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| NAACP calls for impeaching Trump Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:21 AM PDT  Delegates at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention in Detroit voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling for the president's impeachment.
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| Black man trying to propose to his girlfriend interrupted by security guard accusing him of shoplifting Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:21 AM PDT  Cathy-Marie Hamlet started her Facebook post with the good news: She'd gotten engaged.But her fiance kept getting interrupted, she said, as he proposed from the lawn of hard cider company Angry Orchard's tree-filled, 60-acre property in New York's Hudson Valley.Security intruded on the couple's happy moment three times to accuse Ms Hamlet's boyfriend of stealing a T-shirt, including once while he popped the question.Staffers followed Ms Hamlet and her fiance, who are black, to the parking lot as they left, the 32-year-old wrote in her post, which had been shared more than 5,000 times Tuesday afternoon. She believes they were racially profiled."I have never been so humiliated in my life," she said. "[M]yself and some of my friends left Angry Orchard in tears."Angry Orchard has replaced members of the security team involved and removed the manager who was on duty, Jessica Paar, a spokeswoman for Boston Beer Co. – Angry Orchard's owner – told The Washington Post in a statement on Tuesday.The company is also launching new, mandatory training on "security awareness and unconscious bias" for the staff."We badly mishandled the situation and our team overreacted," Ms Paar said, adding, "The situation doesn't reflect our values of respect for all and creating a welcoming environment for all our guests."Ms Paar did not immediately respond to questions clarifying the company's actions against the employees involved.Ms Hamlet wrote on Facebook that she and her fiance, identified by NBC News as Clyde Jackson, had left New York City on Sunday for Angry Orchard's farm in Walden. The occasion: Mr Jackson's 40th birthday. Six friends came along.A woman from security at the cider company approached the couple before they'd sat down at a table outside, Ms Hamlet said. The employee apologised and said she'd have to check Mr Jackson's back pocket, explaining that someone told her Mr Jackson stole a shirt from the gift store.Mr Jackson emptied out his pockets while trying to hide the ring he was about to propose with, Ms Hamlet recalled. No T-shirt was found.Mr Jackson launched into his proposal, she said, but before he could finish, the employee was back – this time saying she needed to check Ms Hamlet's bag because someone told her Mr Jackson gave her the stolen item.Ms Hamlet said she did as asked, even though her bag was too small to fit a shirt. But she questioned the woman's motives: "I know you're just doing your job, but I can't help but wonder if this is because we're Black," her Facebook post said. "We're the only Black people here at your establishment."The woman denied that race was a factor and went away, Ms Hamlet said, leaving Mr Jackson to finish his proposal – and her to accept. People cheered. The friends who accompanied the couple to the farm joined them, hugging and congratulating the newly engaged couple.That's when the Angry Orchard employee came back a third time, Ms Hamlet said. The security woman said that she hadn't realised the friends were a group and that now she'd need to check all of their purses and pockets. More security workers came over, and Ms Hamlet says she found her party facing six employees who claimed patrons, too, had witnessed Mr Jackson stealing a T-shirt."I felt humiliated, especially after one of my white friends made a point of asking them to check her bag for the T-shirt, but they refused to do so," Ms Hamlet told NBC."Call the police! I saw you steal it," Ms Hamlet said one of the security people shouted to another.When Ms Hamlet told the employees to check their security cameras – which the staff said existed – the employees started filming the group and took a picture of Ms Hamlet's license plate, according to Hamlet. Asked whether Angry Orchard had reviewed security footage, Ms Paar said she would have to look into it.With the dispute escalating, the couple and their friends "decided to leave rather than be attacked," Ms Hamlet wrote online, saying she has "no reason to steal a $28 T-shirt."She vowed not to drink Angry Orchard again.Angry Orchard said in a statement tweeted out Tuesday that it began investigating the incident Ms Hamlet described as soon as it learned about the events. The security team involved "approached a group of guests based on what they thought was credible information at the time," Angry Orchard said in an earlier statement to People magazine.Ms Paar said she reached out to Ms Hamlet on Monday and spoke with her on the phone to apologise.Ms Hamlet did not respond to a request for a comment, and Mr Jackson could not be reached.Angry Orchard was the latest company to scramble to address stories of employees singling out black customers. Starbucks faced accusations of racial profiling last year after a store manager called the police on two black men as they waited for a meeting.The incident led the coffee chain to close more than 8,000 US stores for a day-long staff training on racial bias. Companies like Sephora, Saks Fifth Avenue, Old Navy and Walmart have grappled with similar scandals, responding with investigations, new training and firings amid outrage.Eric Yaverbaum, chairman at public relations firm Ericho Communications, said he thinks Ms Hamlet's story should prompt other companies to think more proactively about addressing racial profiling with their employees – to prevent incidents, rather than apologise afterward."The worst time to prepare is when the tide's rising," he added. "The tide's rising on this issue, period ... Address that in your workplace before it becomes a problem."Ms Hamlet's dismay at Angry Orchard was about more than the spoiling of a joyful day, and she closed her Facebook post by telling the company that if they didn't want black patrons, it should "put a sign on the door so that we know we are not welcome."She told NBC: "It's sad that in 2019 we still need to have these conversations."The Washington Post
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| Two men fined for eating raw squirrels to protest veganism as people begged them to stop Posted: 23 Jul 2019 08:38 AM PDT  Deonisy Khlebnikov, 22 and Gatis Lagzdins, 29, ate the squirrels, with the skin and fur still intact, at the Soho Vegan Food Market in late March.
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| How boring your state is, based on its favorite ice cream flavor Posted: 24 Jul 2019 08:10 AM PDT  July is National Ice Cream Month, which means it's time to beat the heat by eating too much ice cream, then feeling kind of sick afterward. When it's time to order, though, you face a harrowing choice: What flavor should you get?To assist you in the most important choice of your summer, the mobile payment company Square collected data from their vendors to determine the most popular ice cream flavor in each state.Image: Bob Al-Greene / MashableSEE ALSO: Some stores are 'protecting' their ice cream from would-be lickersA lot of states enjoy the classics -- 14 of them prefer chocolate and 12 love vanilla. Others have a top pick more in line with the state's particular ethos. Kentucky's top flavor, for example, is bourbon. Thanks for keeping things interesting, Kentucky. Nevada also had an interesting pick: unicorn ice cream. Unfortunately, unicorn ice cream is gross, so we cannot praise its victory in good conscience.Square also delved into some other ice cream trends. The top trending flavor was horchata, which grew in popularity by 257 percent between 2018 and 2019. Non-dairy ice cream also experienced a surge in recent years, with sales growing 220 percent from 2015 to 2018. Additionally, hazelnut, honey, and bacon ice cream might be on their way out -- their sales declined year-over-year from 2018 to 2019. To bacon, at least, we say good riddance.Please enjoy your ice cream this weekend. At least, we assume it will be this weekend. According to Square, 40 percent of ice cream sales happen on either Saturday or Sunday. WATCH: This cooler stores your beer underground -- Future Blink
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| 4 dead in southern Thailand attack on military outpost Posted: 24 Jul 2019 04:41 AM PDT  Four people were killed in an attack on a military outpost in southern Thailand, where Muslim rebels are active, Thai police said. An unknown number of assailants carried out the attack Tuesday night using firearms and explosives, triggering a gunfight that left four dead and three injured, said Pol. A Muslim separatist insurgency has left about 7,000 people dead since 2004 in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.
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| Chris Kraft's Greatest NASA Accomplishments Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:08 PM PDT |
| Australian clubbers busted in Bali over cocaine Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:44 PM PDT  Two Australian clubbers arrested in Bali for cocaine possession were paraded in front of local media Tuesday as they faced a possible 12-year jail term, police said. William Cabantog, 36, and David Van Iersel, 38, were nabbed Friday night at a nightclub in Canggu, a popular tourist hotspot on the Indonesian holiday island. Police said they found a bag with 1.1 grams of cocaine in Cabantog's trousers during the raid.
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| Polish Magazine’s ‘LGBT-Free Zone’ Stickers Stoke Boycott Posted: 24 Jul 2019 05:25 AM PDT ![Polish Magazine's 'LGBT-Free Zone' Stickers Stoke Boycott]( "Polish Magazine's 'LGBT-Free Zone' Stickers Stoke Boycott") (Bloomberg) -- A pro-government newspaper is inflaming Poland's election-year battle over gay rights by distributing "LGBT-free zone" stickers, even as some retailers boycott the publication.The publicity stunt by Gazeta Polska -- which coincided with attacks by far-right groups on a LGBT pride march in eastern Poland last weekend -- has already triggered a litany of criticism and comparisons to Nazi-era propaganda calling for areas free from Jews.Even Poland's populist government, which has repeatedly used the issue of gay rights to polarize the electorate and boost turnout of its more conservative voters, has sought to distance itself from the latest wave of homophobia.BP Plc, which has a network of fueling stations in Poland, said it's blocking sales of the newspaper because "it doesn't support attitudes displaying aversion to any group of people." Other companies that have joined the boycott include Canadian fuel retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and bookstore chain Empik SA."LGBT is not a minority, it's a paradigm which appears to have all the features of a totalitarian ideology," the newspaper said in an editorial Wednesday. Every copy of the weekly included a "LGBT-free zone" sticker.The issue of gay rights is dividing Poland ahead of a general election expected in October and underscores the ruling Law & Justice party's departure from the European Union's liberal, multicultural mainstream. Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has warned that the advancement of gay rights poses a "grave danger" for families across Europe.Government supporters have embraced this message, with about 30 cities -- mostly in the poorer eastern regions -- adopting declarations saying they're "free from LGBT ideology" and against "social engineering foreign to Polish culture and the natural order." Following the attacks on the gay rally in Bialystok, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned "such hooligan, aggressive behavior."To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Wojciech MoskwaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| American Airlines flight attendant bitten by emotional support dog, requires five stitches Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:11 PM PDT  The flight attendant was bitten on the hand during a flight from Dallas to Greensboro, North Carolina, and required five stitches.
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| North Korea: A Submarine Superpower or Total Joke? Posted: 23 Jul 2019 07:05 AM PDT  North Korea's latest submarine is a step in a different direction, the so-called Sinpo or Gorae ("Whale") class ballistic-missile submarine (SSB). The SSB appears to blend submarine know-how from previous classes with launch technology from the Soviet Cold War–era Golf-class ballistic-missile submarines; North Korea imported several Golf-class subs in the 1990s, ostensibly for scrapping purposes. Both the Golf and Gorae classes feature missile tubes in the submarine's sail. The tubes are believed to be meant for the Pukkuksong-1 ("Polaris") submarine-launched ballistic missiles currently under development. If successful, a small force of Gorae subs could provide a crude but effective second-strike capability, giving the regime the opportunity to retaliate even in the face of a massive preemptive attack.North Korea should by all rights be a naval power. A country sitting on a peninsula, Korea has a long naval tradition, despite being a "shrimp" between the two "whales" of China and Japan. However, the partitioning of Korea into two countries in 1945 and the stated goal of unification —by force if necessary—lent the country to building up a large army, and reserving the navy for interdiction and special operations roles. Now, in the twenty-first century, the country's navy is set to be the sea arm of a substantial nuclear deterrent.Recommended: America Has Military Options for North Korea (but They're All Bad)
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| Iran is ready to negotiate but not if negotiations mean surrender: Iran president Posted: 24 Jul 2019 01:14 AM PDT  Iran is ready for "just" negotiations but not if they mean surrender, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, without saying what talks he had in mind. Rouhani seemed to be referring to possible negotiations with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran last year but has said he is willing to hold talks with the Islamic Republic.
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| How Elizabeth Warren would cancel student loan debt Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:01 AM PDT  "Student loan debt in this nation has reached crisis proportions," Warren said.
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| Hawaii governor visits those blocking telescope construction Posted: 23 Jul 2019 09:34 PM PDT  The governor of Hawaii on Tuesday visited protesters blocking the construction of a giant telescope on the state's tallest mountain while acknowledging that their grievances were not just about a new observatory but also about the treatment of Native Hawaiians going back more than a century. Activists met the governor with a nose-to-nose greeting called honi as he approached a tent where Native Hawaiian elders have been blocking a road prevent to construction equipment and crews from reaching the summit of Mauna Kea. Some Native Hawaiians consider the summit sacred and believe building the Thirty Meter Telescope there will only do more harm to a site that already hosts more than a dozen observatories.
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| China Says It Will Not Rule out Using Force to Reunify Taiwan With the Mainland Posted: 24 Jul 2019 01:38 AM PDT  China said it will not renounce the use of force in efforts to reunify Taiwan with the mainland and vowed to take all necessary military measures to defeat "separatists."
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| China says it will 'not tolerate foreign forces' in Hong Kong Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:14 AM PDT  China on Tuesday slammed the US and Britain for interfering in Hong Kong affairs after the two countries voiced concerns about a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters. The savage beating of the Hong Kong protesters by a mob of suspected gangsters on Sunday has deepened fears about the use of shadowy hired muscle to defend China's interests. "China will not tolerate any foreign forces intervening in Hong Kong affairs, nor will it allow any foreign forces to disrupt Hong Kong," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.
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| FBI Director: White-Supremacist Violence Accounts for Majority of Domestic-Terrorism Arrests Since Last October Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:47 AM PDT  FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress on Tuesday that the majority of domestic-terrorism arrests since last October have been linked to white supremacy."I will say that a majority of the domestic-terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white-supremacist violence, but it does include other things as well," the FBI chief said in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.Wray explained that since October, the FBI has arrested about 100 people on international-terrorism charges and about the same number of individuals on charges related to domestic extremism.The FBI director emphasized that his investigators' "focus is on the violence.""We the FBI don't investigate the ideology, no matter how repugnant. We investigate violence. And any extremist ideology, when it turns to violence, we're all over it," Wray said. "We take domestic terrorism or hate crime – regardless of ideology – extremely seriously, I can assure you, and we are aggressively pursuing it using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners."President Trump has repeatedly come under fire for using rhetoric that his opponents say encourages violent, racist tendencies. Critics have warned that violence resulting from white-supremacist ideologies has been on the rise since Trump took office."I don't, really," Trump said in March when asked if he thinks white nationalism is a growing threat. "I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems."The highest-profile act of violence perpetrated by a white supremacist over the last few years occurred at a 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where one of the male rally-goers murdered one counter-protesters and injured dozens of others by mowing them down with his car. The man has received several life sentences for his crimes.
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| Tensions Between Bernie Sanders and MSNBC Boil Over Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:06 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast/Photos GettyThe mounting tension between a leading progressive presidential campaign and a leading progressive cable news network has reached a new peak. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and MSNBC have always had a complicated relationship. Sanders, a top-tier contender for the Democratic nomination, has long questioned the news media's biases, while pundits have taken fresh shots at the Vermont senator this cycle. But officials in Sanders' campaign contend that leading up to the 2020 election, the network is one of several cable news outlets directly contributing to a media climate where false claims go unchecked and requests for progressive voices on-air are frequently turned down. "More often than not these commentators are injecting their opinion without any policy discussions," Nina Turner, the national co-chair of Sanders' campaign, told The Daily Beast. "They're not there to tell the gospel truth."The backlash from Sanders-world reached a new high on Sunday, when MSNBC analyst Mimi Rocah, a former assistant U.S attorney for the Southern District of New York and occasional contributor to The Daily Beast, launched a personal critique of Sanders during a segment with host David Gura, saying that he makes her "skin crawl" and that he's not a "pro-woman candidate." "Bernie Sanders makes my skin crawl," Rocah started when discussing the lineup for the upcoming Democratic debate in Detroit, where Sanders will share a stage with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). "I can't even identify for you what exactly it is. But I see him as sort of a not pro-woman candidate," she continued. "So, having the two of them there—like, I don't understand young women who support him. And I'm hoping having him next to her will help highlight that."Rocah's comments—which multiple campaign officials contended went too far—were part of a larger issue they see brewing, where the fact-checking process appears to be largely removed from the day-to-day political discourse among some commentators and hosts. "It takes a certain kind of woman to ignore that education, healthcare, and the economy are women's issues too. privilegedmuch? This is not what intersectional feminism looks like. It's corporate feminism at its finest. Full stop," Sanders' national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray wrote on Twitter."Here we go again.. It is so belittling to constantly tell young women that they HAVE TO vote for someone JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE A WOMAN. Mam, we have brains, we're voting on policy and a candidates vision + work, not their sex. This is WhiteFeminism at its finest," Belén Sisa, Sanders' Latino press secretary, tweeted.A senior campaign aide said the campaign believes there are possible biases in the network, but instead of shunning MSNBC they've been aggressive in getting their people booked. Sanders has been on the network at least nine times this cycle, granting multiple interviews to hosts Chris Hayes, Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle, and Al Sharpton, among others. He has done at least the same amount of appearances on the network as he did in the first six months of the 2016 election. 2020's Underdogs Are Attacking Bernie Sanders at Their Own PerilStill, a separate campaign official said there's only a small handful of guests closely aligned with Sanders who regularly appear on the network, and that while they're hopeful more will be added as the field narrows, their suggestions thus far have been largely turned down.To help supplement that, his campaign has taken steps to create new chances for independent public exposure, including creating a live-streamed show, "The 99," that runs twice per week and a new podcast called "Hear the Bern" produced by Gray. Officials agreed that the more Sanders appears on major news networks, the better chance he has to make his case to the public. But that increased exposure also comes with a perceived bias among hosts and commentators, officials cautioned. "It doesn't even have to be 'rah rah rah, Bernie Sanders!'" Turner said, pointing to Zerlina Maxwell, an MSNBC political analyst and former official on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign who shared the segment with Rocah. "Just someone who would push back." After the segment aired, Turner personally asked women to share stories detailing why they support Sanders, saying that while she wasn't surprised in the volume of responses she received, the depth of personal accounts women chose to divulge connected to Sanders' policy platform was compelling."Their voices matter just as much as Mimi's," Turner said. "They may not have a platform on MSNBC, but their voices matter." A spokesperson for MSNBC seemed to dismiss the campaign's claims, without mentioning Sanders by name. "A presidential campaign complaining about tough questions and commentary speaks for itself," the spokesperson said. "Our anchors and analysts are doing their jobs: discussing day-to-day developments that have an impact on the race."But Sanders' campaign argues the incident was not isolated. "There's no effort to push for fact-based analysis," one campaign official told The Daily Beast. "Cable news allows that sort of spin to exist in the world in a way that doesn't get checked."The official said that when contributors on the network engage in more robust policy discussions, including shortly after Sanders gave a speech on Medicare-for-all, the campaign reached out to the network to push for several fact-based corrections, a standard practice among presidential campaigns. "It's a full-time job," the official said of the back-and-forth dialogue with the network. For all the campaign's gripes with the left-leaning news network, there's early indication that his message is going over better with an ideologically opposite cable news network. A recent Morning Consult poll found that Fox News viewers are more likely to support Sanders than those who prefer to watch MSNBC. According to the survey, 22 percent of Fox News viewers who identified as possible Democratic primary voters said they would back Sanders, as opposed to 13 percent of MSNBC viewers. That statistic was bolstered further by Sanders' ratings during his own town hall appearance on Fox News, where more than 2.5 million viewers tuned in to hear Sanders make his case, according to Nielsen data. A source with direct knowledge told The Daily Beast that Sanders recently called Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to have an off-the-record talk. This comes as the top MSNBC hosts said Sanders' Democratic socialist platform would give Trump an upper hand in a possible match-up. "My God if you're afraid to say you're a capitalist," Scarborough, who recently criticized Sanders' general tone and temperament, said. "Let me let you in on a little secret. If that is a crisis for your party, you're gonna lose in 2020."Addressing Scarborough's comments directly, frequent MSNBC guest Donny Deutsch said he wanted to "take it one step further" with his own hypothesis: "A socialist candidate is more dangerous to this country as far as the strength and wellbeing of our country than Donald Trump," he said. —Additional reporting by Lloyd Grove and Maxwell Tani.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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| View Photos of the 2019 BMW X2 and 2020 Range Rover Evoque Posted: 23 Jul 2019 01:14 PM PDT |
| Pakistan remands militant accused of Mumbai attacks for 14 days Posted: 24 Jul 2019 03:42 AM PDT ![Pakistan remands militant accused of Mumbai attacks for 14 days]( "Pakistan remands militant accused of Mumbai attacks for 14 days") A court in Pakistan on Wednesday remanded to custody Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding a four-day attack on India's financial capital in 2008, after a hearing following his arrest last week on terrorism financing charges, his lawyer said. Saeed's arrest came just ahead of a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Imran Khan and was widely seen as a move by the Islamabad government to smoothe the way before a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The United States has offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to the conviction of Saeed, who has been arrested and released several times over the past decade.
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| State Department stops publishing data on crimes against Americans in Jamaica – but why? Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:09 AM PDT  For the first time in seven years, the State Department has stopped publishing crime stats involving U.S. tourists in Jamaica. But it won't say why.
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| Gun group wants judge to block ammunition background checks Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:27 PM PDT  A California affiliate of the National Rifle Association has asked a U.S. judge to block a new law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition. The California Rifle & Pistol Association asked San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez to halt the checks and related restrictions on ammunition sales.
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| Embattled Puerto Rico governor poised to resign: report Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:16 AM PDT  Puerto Rico's embattled governor was reportedly preparing to resign Wednesday, yielding to huge street protests in the US territory triggered by the release of a chat exchange in which he and others mocked gays, women and hurricane victims. Governor Ricardo Rossello has recorded a video to be released sometime during the day in which he announces his resignation, the newspaper El Nuevo Dia reported. The government denied that Rossello had already resigned and also shot down reports that he has left the island -- but left his future in the post open to question.
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| Georgia woman gets cold fries at McDonald's, barges into kitchen and fires gun Posted: 23 Jul 2019 08:50 AM PDT  A Georgia woman who reportedly fired a gun into the floor of a McDonald'skitchen Monday afternoon had a pretty wild motivation for her crime: coldfrench fries
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| Trump could be the clown who solves the 70-year Kashmir crisis. India and Pakistan should let him try Posted: 23 Jul 2019 10:54 AM PDT  Few places so mesmerising carry the pain of Kashmir. The Himalayan region, contested for seven decades by India and Pakistan, has been a hideout for Islamabad-backed militants; witnessed the forced expulsion of a Hindu community as authorities did nothing; and seen a Muslim-majority area become home to 500,000 Indian troops reportedly responsible for widespread abuses. It is place burdened both by history and the desire for something better. Into this mix now steps Donald Trump. Meeting this week in the Oval Office with Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, Trump offered to act as a mediator between the two neighbours. He claimed was asked to perform such as role by India's Narendra Modi. "I was with prime minister Modi two weeks ago and he actually said, 'Would you like to be a mediator, or an arbitrator?' And I said, 'Where?' And he said 'Kashmir'," said Trump. "If I can help, I would love to be a mediator." For those with any knowledge of India or Pakistan, it was a moment when jaws dropped. Why would India, which since 1972 has insisted the status of Kashmir can only be resolved by the two countries alone, have asked Trump to become involved? Within an hour, Delhi made clear it had not requested Washington's assistance after all. Immediately, scorn was heaped on Trump. What did this joker know about Kashmir/cashmere, other than the fitted sweaters worn by the First Lady? Why would Trump risk antagonising a democratic Asian giant the US wants as a counterweight to China? And what in heaven's name could Donald Trump actually do about Kashmir anyway? There's another way to view this, and it starts with a record of failure. For 70 years, India and Pakistan have mutually obsessed over this region, with its mountains, apple orchards and walnut trees. Three times they have gone to war. At the same time, both have largely ignored the concerns of the people of Kashmir, of which there are five distinct areas, not one. On the Pakistan side, Islamabad has dismissed the requests of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, which want to become full provinces and secure more rights. On India's part, in the late 1980s Delhi did nothing as countless thousands of Hindu Pandits were forced from the Kashmir Valley while an insurgency against the state by the Muslim community, furious over a fixed election, gathered force. http://players.brightcove.net/624246174001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6011646175001Military convoy in the streets of Srinagar, Kashmir Since then, half a million troops and paramilitaries have set up razor wire and bunkers across towns such as Srinagar, frequently killing stone-throwing youths. The military is protected by a shameful piece of legislation, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which effectively gives them a free hand. Attendant to this, Delhi and Islamabad have used Kashmir as a strategic pawn — Pakistan in its appeals to the UN about alleged Indian human rights abuses; and India by choosing to ignore local demands for greater autonomy by writing them off as Pakistan-produced propaganda. It's not a great record. Up to 75,000 soldiers, civilians and police officers have lost their lives, in attacks, explosions or cross-border bombing. All this in a land of houseboats and poetry, that until the mid-1980s was a tourist's dream, as well as the location for numerous Bollywood movies. It is not as though large numbers in both countries do not want peace. In 2001, Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf and India's Atal Bihari Vajpayee almost brokered a deal that would have seen demilitarisation in Kashmir, free movement, and the recognition of what is currently termed the Line of Control as the recognised border. We have seen @POTUS's remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India & Pakistan, on Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by PM @narendramodi to US President. It has been India's consistent position...1/2 — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) July 22, 2019
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| The Curious Case of a Black Man Wanted for Murdering a White Child in Small-Town America Posted: 23 Jul 2019 05:00 PM PDT  HBOOral "Nick" Hillary is a military veteran and All-American collegiate soccer player (and Division III national champion) who, in 2011, became the prime suspect in the murder of his former girlfriend Tandy Cyrus' older son, 12-year-old Garrett Phillips. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, nor any rational motive, but police zeroed in on him almost exclusively from the start. In the tiny upstate New York town of Potsdam, Nick soon became notorious for supposedly committing this heinous slaying. Almost three years later, on February 2, 2015, he was indicted for the crime, this despite the case against him being completely circumstantial.Nick, by the way, is black. And the Potsdam community is predominantly white.Race is the prime factor of Liz Garbus' excellent new two-part HBO documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? (premiering July 23 and 24), since numerous elements of its story suggest that the color of Nick's skin played a big part in his eventual prosecution. Yet while the latest from director Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?) is, first and foremost, a saga about criminal justice system inequity, it's also something more: an unsolved mystery about the death of a young boy that's woefully short on concrete answers.What's known for certain is that on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, between approximately 4:55 p.m. and 5:08 p.m., Garrett Phillips was fatally strangled and suffocated in his apartment at 100 Market Street (he passed away from his injuries approximately two hours later at the hospital). Hearing disquieting noises from Garrett's place, neighbors called the police. The responding officer thought he heard sounds coming from inside. Once he gained entry, however, all he found was Garrett, as well as signs that the perpetrator had jumped out a rear window to the street below.'Behind Closed Doors': How a 13-Year-Old Girl's Murder Ignited Class WarfareThe Wildly Popular TV Host Accused of Killing People to Boost His RatingsThere were no eyewitnesses, but trace amounts of DNA were discovered beneath Garrett's fingernails. After speaking to the Phillips family, detectives quickly focused on Nick, a father of five who'd begun dating Tandy after meeting her at a bar, and whose relationship with her had ended over reported tensions between him and Tandy's two boys. Nick had an alibi (he was at home with his eldest daughter, and then beginning at 5:21 p.m., with his friend/colleague Ian), and his DNA didn't match what was found on Garrett. He also had no reason to commit murder, unless one believed that he wanted revenge against Garrett because he blamed the boy for his split with Tandy.Nonetheless, rather than chasing any other leads or considering other possible suspects, the Potsdam cops made Nick their sole target. In damning video presented by Who Killed Garrett Phillips?, local and state police officers call Nick in for an interview under false pretenses, then grill him on his culpability, and finally physically bar him from leaving—and, shortly thereafter, force him to strip nude for photos. They do this to see if he has injuries consistent with a scuffle with Garrett or a fall from a tall window. But given that cops later testify that such a practice was never used before, it reeks of demonizing intimidation. The fix is in, it seems, and that impression only mounts when District Attorney Nicole Duvé decides to not arrest Nick (due to lack of evidence)—and, as a result, loses an election to new DA Mary Rains, who campaigned on the promise of bringing Nick to justice.That it takes nearly 30 months to indict Nick—this after a first indictment is thrown out because Rains harassed Nick's daughter during a deposition—is merely one of many signs that something crooked is being perpetrated in Potsdam. Guided by interviews with nearly all of the principals involved (save for Tandy), Who Killed Garrett Phillips? is a real-time portrait of a racially charged railroading. The DA's office refuses to recognize the flimsiness of their circumstantial case, which is almost wholly predicated on security camera footage of Garrett skateboarding in the school parking lot minutes before his death, and Nick leaving the same area moments later in his car. Their central argument: because Nick turned left out of the lot, in the direction of Garrett, rather than turning right to return directly home (which is where he claimed he went), he was clearly "hunting" the boy minutes before the murder.Nick's inability to properly explain this behavior/discrepancy is certainly suspicious. As Garbus' film elucidates, though, it's the only thing that casts doubt on his innocence; even a late DNA test that links him to the homicide (after numerous prior exculpatory ones) proves inadmissible in court. Consequently, reasonable doubt is pervasive, and that's underscored by numerous scenes, shot over years, of Nick caring for his kids with devotion and compassion, even in the face of enormous community vilification.Nick Hillary, one of the subjects of the HBO documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? HBOWho Killed Garrett Phillips?'s access to Nick, his lawyers, Garrett's relatives, news reporters and the trial itself is comprehensive, and its timeline-centric storytelling is lucid and nerve-wracking. If the film feels like it sides with Nick's position, it's because of both the time it gets to spend with him, and his persuasive declarations of innocence. No matter how often police officers and prosecutors contend that Nick is a cold-blooded murderer, the person seen through Garbus' lens comes across as a Wronged Man. Which means, per The New York Times' Albany Bureau Chief Jesse McKinley, that either Nick is a pathological fiend, or there's still a killer on the loose—two options that are equally chilling.Like many recent true-crime series, Who Killed Garrett Phillips? is a tale without a definitive conclusion. Still, there's no escaping the fact that, in this instance, police bias seems to have heavily influenced the circus that erupted in and around Potsdam. Nowhere is that more evident than with regard to John Jones, a sheriff's deputy who had dated Tandy until she left him for Nick, and whose role in immediate post-murder events—calling dispatchers to get intel on what was happening; staying with Tandy overnight and then accompanying her, hand in hand, to police interviews—was more than a bit fishy. Jones had a clear motive to both kill Garrett and frame Nick—namely, his furious resentment at having been replaced by a black man—but he barely registered on his fellow cops' radar. And when Jones was photographed by cops, you won't be surprised to hear, he was allowed to keep his clothes on.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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| How NASA Got the Apollo 11 Astronauts Home Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Landing astronauts on the moon is hard...getting them back home is harder.
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| Syrian state TV reports Israeli attack in southern Syria Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:45 PM PDT ![Syrian state TV reports Israeli attack in southern Syria]( "Syrian state TV reports Israeli attack in southern Syria") Syrian state television said on Wednesday that Israel struck a strategic area in southern Syria overlooking the Golan Heights where Western intelligence sources previously said Iranian-backed militias are known to be based. The newsflash on state-owned Ikhbariyah did not give details, but said the strike was directed on Tel Haraa, which had long been an outpost for Russian forces but was later taken by Iranian-backed militias, according to Western intelligence sources. Diplomatic sources familiar with Syria said at the time these overnight attacks outside Damascus on Iranian-backed forces, including bases of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group, were among the largest strikes attributed to Israel in recent years.
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| Fact: U.S. and Israeli F-15s Went to War in a Simulated Fight. Who Won? Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:58 PM PDT  Noteworthy according to Times of Israel IAF Red Air gave the Blue forces a tough time during defensive missions to protect Blue forces and installations.Twelve F-15Es assigned to 494th Fighter Squadron from Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath, England recently completed biannual training in Israel in support of exercise Juniper Falcon. As told by Tech. Sgt. Matthew Plew, 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, in the article U.S. Forces complete Juniper Falcon 17-2, the Strike Eagles flew missions with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) accomplishing training on Defense Counter Air (DCA), Interdiction, Large Force Exercise (LFE), and Electronic Warfare (EW) range work.
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| Mother claims she and her family were kicked out of community pool due to color of their skin Posted: 22 Jul 2019 06:00 PM PDT  She claims the racial profiling began within 15 minutes of their arrival, when a lifeguard tried to tell her she had too many guests.
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| Thanks to climate change, parts of the Arctic are on fire. Scientists are concerned Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:42 PM PDT  Satellite images are showing that areas of the Arctic have been catching fire. These wildfires, while not uncommon, are concerning scientists.
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| See Photos of the 2020 Audi Q3 Sportback Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Mother in Myanmar girl rape case says wrong man charged Posted: 24 Jul 2019 05:37 AM PDT  The mother of a toddler raped at her nursery school in Myanmar told a court Wednesday that she believes the man charged with the crime is not the perpetrator. The mother of the girl, who was 2 years, 11 months old when she was allegedly raped in May, said at the Dakkhina Thiri District Court that when her daughter watched security video from the school, she identified two other individuals as the ones who assaulted her. The case has triggered protests, including at Wednesday's hearing, not only because of the nature of the crime but also because of the widespread belief that the suspect who has been charged, Aung Kyaw Myo, is a scapegoat.
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| Gambia's ex-president accused of ordering migrant slaughter Posted: 23 Jul 2019 05:32 PM PDT  Gambia's former president Yahya Jammeh ordered the massacre of some 30 migrants he said were "mercenaries" sent to topple him in 2005, a member of the former strongman's hit squad told a truth commission on Tuesday. The testimony comes a day after another army officer accused Jammeh of ordering the murder of a leading journalist who worked for an independent newspaper and wrote articles about corruption that marked Jammeh's iron-fisted rule for 22 years. Omar Jallow, a former officer in the Presidential Guard, said about 45 Europe-bound migrants comprising nationals from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, were arrested on a beach while trying to get to Europe.
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| Internal Probe Reveals SEAL Team 10 Operators’ Cocaine Use Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:15 PM PDT  AFPSome SEAL Team 10 special warfare operators allegedly used cocaine or spiked their alcohol with it, according to an internal investigation obtained by the Navy Times following a Freedom of Information Act Request. In Little Creek, Virginia, six SEALs were caught using cocaine and other illicit substances, the report says. SEALs told investigators that the urinalysis tests were easy to beat, as they were not screened very often, and when they were, they'd often switch out tainted urine for clean urine samples, according to the report. No SEALs went to court-martial in the wake of the urinalysis screening, in Virginia, Naval Special Warfare Command spokeswoman Commander Tamara Lawrence told Navy Times, adding that four were administratively separated from the sea service. The urinalysis program has now been updated, said Lawrence, and will be given more often. The test administers will also be retrained. A command report obtained by the Navy Times shows that in mid-2018, the testing program "suffered from serious deficiencies, which did not maintain accountability for substance abuse and adversely affected readiness." 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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| Poll: Percentage of Americans Who Cite Immigration as Nation’s Top Problem Hits Record High Posted: 23 Jul 2019 01:46 PM PDT  The percentage of Americans who cite immigration as the nation's "most important problem" has hit a record high as the Trump administration continues to struggle with an unprecedented influx of migrants streaming across the southern border.27 percent of Americans said they saw immigration as the "most important problem" facing the country in the latest Gallup poll, up four points from the previous month's poll. Immigration has loomed larger in Americans' minds this year as the crisis at the border has escalated. During the spring months when it becomes easier to travel, illegal crossings of undocumented migrants tend to spike and did so at particularly high rates this year.As might be expected, there was a pronounced partisan split in poll responses, with 42 percent of Republicans citing immigration as the most pressing problem compared to only 20 percent of Democrats.The government and poor leadership ranked second among voters' concerns, with 23 percent of people citing those as the most important problems the country faces. About 7 percent of people said race relations and racism were the most important problems, and another 7 percent cited health care.The Gallup poll surveyed 1,525 people and was conducted from July 1 to 12.
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| U.S. to pay $15 minimum per acre to farmers hurt by China trade war Posted: 23 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  The U.S. government will pay a minimum of $15 per acre to farmers hurt by President Donald Trump's trade war with China under an aid package to be unveiled before the end of the week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday. "We'll have information for you before the week ends," Perdue told reporters when asked about the aid, which is planned to total about $16 billion. U.S. farmers, a key Trump constituency, have been among the hardest hit in the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
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