| Trump decries 'Fake Poll' showing his approval rate in the 30s Posted: 10 Sep 2019 11:50 AM PDT  The president bashed an ABC News/Washington Post poll that showed his approval rating falling by 6 points as fears of a recession grow.
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| New US ambassador takes up post at United Nations Posted: 12 Sep 2019 09:32 AM PDT  US Ambassador Kelly Craft took up her post at the United Nations on Thursday, vowing to defend America's values and interests nine months after the departure of her high-profile predecessor Nikki Haley. Craft, 57, served previously as US ambassador to Canada where she was involved in negotiations on a new US Mexico Canada free trade agreement.
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| Young man impersonating 81-year-old caught flying to New York with fake passport Posted: 11 Sep 2019 07:05 AM PDT  A 32-year-old man was detained at an Indian airport on Sunday after he was caught pretending to be an elderly man in a wheelchair.
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| For the first time, a timeline reveals what happened in the minutes and hours after the asteroid crash that killed the dinosaurs Posted: 11 Sep 2019 02:18 PM PDT  The dinosaurs' extinction was spurred by an asteroid that struck Earth. By studying the crater, scientists now know what happened after the impact.
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| Is Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense Really That Impressive? Posted: 11 Sep 2019 08:00 AM PDT  Let's find out.
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| Iran detained 2 travel influencers who were traveling the country trying to 'break the stigma' around it with posts on YouTube and Instagram Posted: 12 Sep 2019 03:23 AM PDT  Jolie King and Mark Firkin were arrested in July near Tehran, accused of flying a drone without a license, the Iranian diaspora Manoto TV reported.
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| Trump news: President revives claim he was at ground zero after 9/11 despite fire chief saying he was 'never' there Posted: 11 Sep 2019 12:12 PM PDT  Donald Trump followed a tweet paying respects to those killed in 9/11 on the 18th anniversary of the terror attack mere moments later with a fresh assault on Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve, calling the economist a "bonehead" and raising questions about the sincerity of his memorial message.The president's decision to appoint Charles Kupperman as his acting national security adviser, replacing the outgoing John Bolton, has come under fire after it emerged he has long-running ties to the Centre for Security Policy, an anti-Muslim think tank.
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| Most of the robocalls you get aren't coming from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile numbers Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:09 AM PDT  Americans received 200 million unwanted calls per day during the first half of the year, according to the report.
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| The Latest: Texas executes inmate for 2010 killing of woman Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:43 PM PDT  A Texas death row inmate has been executed for fatally shooting a 61-year-old grandmother at her North Texas home nearly a decade ago during an eight-day spate of crimes. Mark Anthony Soliz received a lethal injection Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. The 37-year-old Soliz was condemned for the 2010 slaying of Nancy Weatherly during a robbery at her home near Godley.
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| Swimsuit controversy: Alaskan swimmer who was disqualified for 'curvier' figure gets win reinstated Posted: 11 Sep 2019 01:05 PM PDT  The high school swimmer who was disqualified over a controversial "uniform violation" has had her victory reinstated.
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| 10 of the Toughest Math Problems Ever Solved Posted: 11 Sep 2019 02:59 PM PDT |
| Former Dem Gov Labels Warren ‘Hypocrite’ for Shunning Big Donors after Taking Their Money Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:27 AM PDT  Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, slammed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) in the pages of the Washington Post on Thursday for touting her commitment to grassroots fundraising after pocketing millions in donations from the wealthiest people in the country."I like Elizabeth Warren. I like her a lot. Too bad she's a hypocrite," Rendell begins the op-ed.After praising Warren's ideological commitments and her efforts to increase consumer protections in the financial sector, Rendell takes his fellow Democrat to task for "trying to have it both ways" by claiming independence from high-dollar donors while surreptitiously relying on them.He cites a recent New York Times report which revealed that Warren transferred $10.4 million from her senate reelection fund into her presidential campaign fund, $6 million of which came from donations of over $1,000."The senator appears to be trying to have it both ways — get the political upside from eschewing donations from higher-level donors and running a grass-roots campaign, while at the same time using money obtained from those donors in 2018," Rendell writes.Rendell, who is backing Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, goes on to criticize Warren's characterization of a fundraiser he hosted for Biden in April as "a swanky private fund-raiser for wealthy donors" in a fundraising email she sent the day after the gathering."Well, I helped organize that affair, and I thought her attack was extremely hypocritical because nearly 20 of us who attended the Biden fundraiser had also given her $2,000 or more in 2018 at closed-door fundraisers in "swanky" locations," he writes.Warren continues to tout her commitment to grassroots fundraising and has not responded to Rendell's broadside. However, her allies in the media have defended her decision to rely on high-dollar donations as a pragmatic move that will enable her to reform campaign finance laws from within once she wins the presidency.
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| The sailors trapped on the capsized container ship in Georgia 'were being cooked' inside the vessel as temperatures reached 150 degrees Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:10 PM PDT  The last four crew members were rescued from the toppled ship Monday night in St. Simons Sound, Georgia.
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| Trump reportedly called H.R. McMaster and told him he missed him while getting fed up with John Bolton Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:17 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's reported outreach to McMaster apparently came as a surprise to those closest to the president.
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| Hong Kong Police Ban Mass March After Subway Station Fire Posted: 12 Sep 2019 01:59 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police banned a planned Sunday march and gathering called by the organizer of some of the city's biggest protests, days after demonstrators set fire to a central subway station as the pro-democracy movement carries on into autumn.Police Commissioner Stephen Lo on Thursday cited violence around previous protests in the city -- with some demonstrators vandalizing public installations, blocking roads and setting fires, which caused injuries to protesters, officers and journalists -- in making the decision, according to a letter of objection issued to the Civil Human Rights Front. Police also said Sunday's location was close to "high-risk buildings" that could be subject to violence, including central government offices, the letter said.Co-vice convener Bonnie Leung told journalists that the group was appealing. Police said the result would be made known on Friday afternoon.The ban is the second issued to CHRF by police since it began organizing mass rallies in early June. Their events have been largely peaceful, though smaller groups of protesters have broken off and engaged in clashes with police in the hours following them, while violence has also marred some of the now near-daily protests organized by demonstrators online."In the past three months, most gatherings that were originally peaceful were easily hijacked by violent protesters and turned into large-scale clashes in no time," acting assistant district commander Kwok Chun-kit said at a regular police briefing. "The police has long respected the public's right to peaceful procession and freedom expression, but it also has social responsibility to maintain public security and safety."Some verbal and physical scuffles broke out during an afternoon sing-off between groups singing the Chinese national anthem and others who were pro-democracy and singing "Glory to Hong Kong," which some demonstrators see as Hong Kong's anthem, at the centrally located IFC mall, according to footage broadcast on Cable TV.Hong Kong on Aug. 31 saw one of its worst days of violence since the movement began, as thousands of people came out in defiance of a prior ban on a planned CHRF demonstration. People threw bricks and Molotov cocktails, setting fire to a huge road block in the city center. Police cautioned residents in some areas to stay inside as they used "appropriate force" to disperse the crowds.Small pockets of demonstrators also set fires, vandalized train stations and erected barricades in the city center this past Sunday -- including setting fire to an entrance at Central station, in a glitzy business and shopping area -- after a peaceful march by tens of thousands of people to the U.S. consulate in a bid to appeal to President Donald Trump.To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Colin KeatingeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iran says tanker oil sold at sea, buyer sets destination Posted: 11 Sep 2019 04:35 AM PDT  Iran's envoy to London said on Wednesday the oil cargo of tanker Adrian Darya 1 was sold at sea to a private company, denying Tehran had broken assurances it had given over the vessel, but he insisted EU's Syria sanctions did not apply to Tehran. "At (the) meeting with the British Foreign Secretary, it was emphasized that British authorities' action against the tanker carrying Iranian oil was in violation of international law," ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad said on Twitter after being summoned in London.
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| Lou Dobbs Deploys Anti-Semitic ‘Tentacles’ Trope to Smear George Soros Posted: 11 Sep 2019 07:11 PM PDT  Fox Business NetworkDuring a Wednesday night interview with right-wing provocateur Michelle Malkin, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs smeared liberal Jewish financier George Soros with an anti-Semitic trope, claiming Soros' "tentacles reach out into various non-government organizations and nonprofits." Dobbs brought on Malkin, who recently told Fox News that Soros is funding the "illegal alien lawyers lobby," to hawk her latest anti-immigrant book, and it didn't take long for her to portray Soros as a "globalist" bent on destroying America's sovereignty."And George Soros himself… explicitly says the idea of sovereignty, something that so many of us who are children of legal immigrants, for example, respect as a fundamental precept for the survival of a country, sovereignty to George Soros is quote-unquote an obstacle," she said. "And he has created an entire infrastructure of tax-exempt nonprofits to do his bidding."Dobbs then took Malkin's comments a step further."It is extraordinary and I think most people, I'll include myself, cannot conceive of why a man would fund efforts that would work against sovereignty," Dobbs said. "Work against our laws—there are laws against illegal immigration—and to see his tentacles reach out into various non-government organizations and nonprofits that are working with everything from the Koch Brothers to the Southern Poverty Law Center, as you document through this book.""It is stunning to see how pervasive and how successful he has been with his strategy," he added.Last year, the Anti-Defamation League commented on the anti-Semitism behind many of the Soros-related conspiracies the right has spread for years, many of which have recently made their way into the mainstream. "Even if no anti-Semitic insinuation is intended, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes has the effect of mainstreaming anti-Semitic tropes and giving support, however unwitting, to bona fide anti-Semites and extremists who disseminate these ideas knowingly and with malice," the organization noted.Nazi propaganda, meanwhile, used images of a Jewish octopus spanning the globe and wrapping around political institutions during the 1930s. Neo-Nazi groups have continued to promulgate this trope in recent years, specifically referring to Jewish "tentacles."A frequent guest of Dobbs', Judicial Watch's Chris Farrell, was banned from Fox airwaves last year after he claimed migrant caravans from Central America were funded by the "Soros-occupied State Department," parroting the anti-Semitic smear of a "Zionist-controlled government." Two days after Farrell made his comments, an anti-Semite killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The shooter believed that Soros and other Jews were trying to replace whites through immigration.This also isn't the first time the "tentacle" trope has been used by a Fox host. Back in 2015, then-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called Soros the "shadow puppet master" who "has his tentacles into political organizations."Meanwhile, Dobbs—who serves as an informal adviser to the president—was seen entering the White House on Wednesday afternoon.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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| Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden are finally facing off in tonight's debate. Here's how to watch Posted: 12 Sep 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The debate will begin at 8 p.m. ET and feature 10 Democratic candidates. It will also be the first time Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren appear together.
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| Caught on Camera: Woman sneaks item, possibly a wallet, from elderly victim's purse in Walnut Creek store Posted: 11 Sep 2019 12:31 PM PDT  PLEASE SHARE: Surveillance video shows the woman standing behind an elderly woman as she is hunched over, looking intently at the shelves. She waits a few seconds, reaches into the unsuspecting woman's purse, and walks off.
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| Italian region offers €8,000 a year to newcomers prepared to move to dying villages Posted: 11 Sep 2019 07:39 AM PDT  One of Italy's smallest and least famous regions is offering newcomers a bounty of €8,000 a year to settle in villages that are in danger of dying out. The offer has been made by Molise, which is squeezed between the mountainous Abruzzo region and Puglia – the heel of the Italian boot. It is so little known that there is a joke among Italians that "Molise non esiste" – Molise does not exist. It used to be joined with Abruzzo but was carved off as an independent entity in 1963. The region wants to reverse the effects of decades of depopulation, which has left many villages bereft of inhabitants. There are conditions attached – the offer applies to settlements with a population of less than 2,000, and newcomers must set up and run a new business for at least five years. The coastal town of Termoli in Molise Credit: Alamy There is no shortage of places to choose from – of the region's 136 villages, more than 100 now have populations of less than 2,000. The initiative will be funded with €1 million from Italy's ministry of economic development. Approved by the regional government, details will be published in an official gazette on September 16. Prospective candidates will then have 60 days in which to apply. The initiative was dreamt up by Antonio Tedeschi, a member of the centre-Right regional government. "Our villages offer an excellent quality of life from an environmental and social point of view," said Mr Tedeschi. "You can live well here for a lot less than you would have to spend in the city." He wants to help villages like Pizzone, which is now down to just 300 inhabitants. All the shops have closed, leaving just a bar where locals can buy bread and milk along with their morning espresso or cappuccino. "Everyone is leaving. There is no future. The only businesses that are left are small agricultural enterprises that people inherited from their great-grandparents," Anna Laura D'Amico, whose family are from the village, told Corriere della Sera newspaper. "We really hope the project will work. This region deserves a lot better." Molise is Italy's second smallest region after Valle d'Aosta in the northwest, an Alpine pocket on the border with France. Around 40 per cent of Molise is mountainous, offering great hiking opportunities, and there are Roman ruins as well as villages that were settled by refugees from Albania in the 14th century. A medieval tower in Campobasso, Molise Credit: De Agostini Editorial Large parts of Italy struggle with the effects of depopulation, and villages have come up with a number of initiatives to try to address the problem. Some offer abandoned houses for a nominal price of one euro, on condition that buyers restore them to their former splendour, while others have invited migrants and refugees to settle to counter the effects of an ageing population. Across the country, the number of babies being born is at its lowest ebb since the unification of Italy in 1861. Emigration has also had a dramatic effect – there are an estimated 600,000 Italians living in the UK alone.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Paused Their Demonstration to Show Solidarity With 9/11 Victims Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:13 AM PDT  Hong Kong protesters called off their demonstration on Wednesday to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks after the Chinese state newspaper predicted they would mark the day with terrorist attacks of their own.Thousands of protesters have occupied the streets and other public places for months to voice their opposition to Beijing's encroachment on Hong Kong's sovereignty but they stopped those efforts temporarily Wednesday in a show of solidarity with the victims of 9/11."In solidarity against terrorism, all forms of protest in Hong Kong will be suspended on Sept. 11, apart from potential singing and chanting," the protesters said in a statement obtained by Reuters.The decision to pause demonstrations was made after the Chinese state newspaper equated the protesters to the 9/11 attackers and suggested they would employ similar tactics."Anti-government fanatics are planning massive terror attacks, including blowing up gas pipes, in Hong Kong on September 11," the Hong Kong edition of China Daily said in a Facebook post featuring a photo of the attacks at the World Trade Center.The protests began in response to the introduction of an extradition bill that would have allowed the Chinese authorities to extradite Hong Kong citizens suspected of crimes to face trial on the mainland.Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam announced that she would withdraw the bill last week after temporarily suspending it in June in response to the public backlash. But the protests have grown in scope beyond opposition to the extradition bill; demonstrators are now demanding greater protections from police abuses and more democratic control over their government.
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| Paris court finds Saudi princess guilty in beating case Posted: 12 Sep 2019 07:25 AM PDT  A French court found the only daughter of Saudi Arabia's King Salman guilty of complicity in violence Thursday for ordering her bodyguard to detain and strike a plumber for taking photos at the Saudi royal family's apartment in Paris. The prosecution alleged the princess became enraged when she saw the plumber capturing her image at the royal residence near the Champs-Elysees, fearing the pictures could be used to harm her as the Saudi monarch's daughter and the older half-sister of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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| Foxconn Billionaire Clears Path for Taiwan Presidential Run Posted: 12 Sep 2019 02:19 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group, threatened to throw Taiwan's presidential race into turmoil as he took a key step toward running as an independent.Gou withdrew Thursday from the opposition Kuomintang, a necessary precursor to mounting a third-party challenge against President Tsai Ing-wen. The move came despite a last-minute plea from senior KMT leaders including Tsai's predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, for Gou to back their nominee and help return the China-friendly party to power. Gou has until Tuesday to apply to run in the Jan. 11 election."I know I'm doing the right thing, something major that will turn around Taiwan's destiny," Gou said in a statement. Gou's candidacy would shake-up Taiwan's political landscape, undercut KMT challenger Han Kuo-yu's effort to unseat Tsai and potentially weaken both dominant parties. A three-way race could be a hard-fought affair, with Tsai leading with 33.7% of support, compared with 28.9% for Han and 25.6% for Gou, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Apple Daily newspaper.Since both Gou and Han support closer ties with China -- always Taiwan's most contentious wedge issue -- the Foxconn founder could complicate the KMT's bid to oust Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai has been dogged by an increasingly assertive Beijing, which has been angered by her refusal to accept the Communist Party's bottom line that both sides belong to "one China.""The KMT will be substantially impacted by Gou's declaration to run," said Stephen Tan, president of the Taipei-based Cross-Strait Policy Association. "Although Gou will run as an independent, his constituents have been mainly the 'blue' voters and the moderates whom KMT is working hard to seek for support."Taiwan's Tsai Rises From Ashes With a Hand From Hong KongGou has continued to publicly flirt with the idea of a presidential bid despite losing the KMT primary to Han in July. The firebrand Kaohsiung mayor has become one the island's best-known -- and most divisive -- political leaders since his surprise win in the DPP's southern stronghold in November.Han said he regretted Gou's move to withdraw from the KMT. Ma, the former president, and KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih were among several senior opposition figures who published advertisements in newspapers earlier Thursday urging Gou to support their nominee.Gou built Foxconn from a maker of television knobs into a global powerhouse that is now Apple's biggest supplier and China's largest private employer. He also has ties to President Donald Trump, meeting the U.S. leader at the White House in May, weeks before stepping down as chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Foxconn's main listed arm.Shares in companies Gou controls rose after he quit the party Thursday, with FIH Mobile Ltd. surging more than 15% in Hong Kong and the group flagship Hon Hai rising 2% in Taipei.Hong Kong Immigration to Taiwan Surges as Protests Grind OnGou has been sending signals that he might mount an independent run for weeks, although he'll still need to collect around 280,000 signatures to get on the ballot. After assembling a campaign team, he confirmed last month that he was considering breaking from the KMT for a stand-alone bid."This conservative, hidebound party leadership is putting their own interests ahead of their party's and the party's interests ahead of the nation's," Gou's spokesman, Evelyn Tsai, told reporters Thursday. "Mr. Gou won't miss this party."(Updates with Gou quote in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Adela Lin.To contact the reporter on this story: Samson Ellis in Taipei at sellis29@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, ;John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Phase out nuclear power? Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders locked in absurd arms race Posted: 11 Sep 2019 03:11 PM PDT  Candidates playing anti-nukes card while claiming to care about climate change can't be serious. It is America's third largest energy source: Our view
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| Iran 'wants to swap British-Australian women for Iranian jailed in US' Posted: 11 Sep 2019 08:24 AM PDT  Iran is believed to be holding two British-Australian women captive in the hope of exchanging one of them for an Iranian imprisoned in the US on charges of evading American sanctions. Tensions between Britain and Iran escalated dramatically after it emerged the women were being held in the first recent case of Tehran arresting British citizens who do not also hold Iranian nationality. One woman, a travel blogger, was arrested this summer while visiting Iran with her Australian fiancée. The second woman, a university lecturer, was seized earlier and has reportedly already been sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Telegraph is not naming them at the request of the Foreign Office. Sources said Tehran sees the women as bargaining chips to secure the release of Negar Ghodskani, a 40-year-old Iranian woman facing jail in the US after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to export prohibited technology to Iran. Ghodskani was arrested in Australia in 2017 at the request of US government and gave birth to a baby boy while in custody in Adelaide. She was extradited to the US and now faces five years in federal prison. Iran's government has repeatedly called for her release. Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, publicly suggested she could be swapped in exchange for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother imprisoned in Tehran. Negar Ghodskani is in prison in the US Credit: Sherburne County Sheriff's Office via AP "Nobody talks about this lady in Australia who gave birth to a child in prison, whose child is growing up outside prison with the mother in prison," Mr Zarif said in April. "I put this offer on the table publicly now: exchange them." Iran is believed now to be considering leveraging at least one of the British-Australian women in an effort to free Ghodskani from US prison. Australia's government is taking the lead in dealing with Iran on the case. Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, called for the women's release on Wednesday and said Iran "should behave like any other civilisation in the world" by following the rule of law. The travel blogger and her fiancée were arrested in July after entering Iran as part of a months-long trip across Asia, which they chronicled on Youtube and Instagram. They were arrested after flying a drone in Tehran without a license, according to Manoto, a UK-based Iranian news site associated with Iranian opposition groups. Both women are understood to be being held in Evin Prison, the Tehran facility where Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been imprisoned since 2016. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is also being held by Iran Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, accused Iran of pursuing "state-sponsored kidnap". "The British government must do more to stop our citizens being used as political pawns by the Iranian government," he told The Telegraph. Alistair Burt, the former Foreign Office minister, described the turn of events in Iran as "deeply worrying". He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think Iran does work on a basis of putting the pressure on those countries that are hostile to it, or it believes are hostile to it, and hostage-taking appears to have become part of the practice. "It's deeply worrying because those who are seeking a new relationship with Iran, those who recognise that Iran reacts under pressure not very well and are looking for an opportunity to change the nature of the relationship having secured the nuclear deal a couple of years ago, in which Iran had to make serious concessions. Iran now finds that broken by the United States, it looks to hit back." The Foreign Office declined to comment. It states on its website: "There is a risk that British nationals, and a higher risk that British-Iranian dual nationals, could be arbitrarily detained in Iran. All British nationals should consider carefully the risks of travelling to Iran."
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| Can the Pentagon Find a Way to Stop Chinese and Russian Hypersonic Missiles? Posted: 11 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT  A grave danger?
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| Man who lost mother on 9/11 blasts Rep. Ilhan Omar during memorial service Posted: 11 Sep 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A man whose mother died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar during a memorial service held at Ground Zero.
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| Protests planned after Republicans hold surprise vote to override Gov. Cooper's budget veto Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:17 AM PDT  Protesters plan to rally outside the North Carolina General Assembly on Thursday morning after Republicans legally, but surprisingly, pushed through a budget veto override.
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| GOP holds N Carolina House seat but shows frailty in suburbs Posted: 11 Sep 2019 07:28 AM PDT  Conservative Republican Dan Bishop won a special election for an open House seat in North Carolina, averting a demoralizing Democratic capture of a district the GOP has held for nearly six decades. Bishop, a state senator best known for a North Carolina law dictating which public bathrooms transgender people can use, defeated centrist Democrat Dan McCready on Tuesday. Bishop tied himself tightly to Trump, who staged an election eve rally for him in the district, and Tuesday's voting seemed no less than a referendum on the Republican president, who quickly took credit for the triumph.
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| Florida teen tried to kill parents in murder-for-hire plot with money stolen from them, police say Posted: 12 Sep 2019 03:21 AM PDT ![Florida teen tried to kill parents in murder-for-hire plot with money stolen from them, police say]( "Florida teen tried to kill parents in murder-for-hire plot with money stolen from them, police say") A 17-year-old from Florida stole $1,400 from her parents to buy drugs and hire someone to kill them, according to an arrest affidavit.
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| Indulgent Salmon Recipes for a Healthy Dose of Omega-3 Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:05 PM PDT |
| Kamala Harris’s ‘Apology’ to the Disabled Won’t Cut It Posted: 11 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  A man at a Kamala Harris rally last weekend described the president's agenda as "mentally retarded." Harris laughed, twice calling the man's remarks "well-said."She insists now that she "didn't hear" the comment, lucidly made into a microphone before a quiet audience that seemed to have no such trouble hearing it. Indeed, mere seconds after he described the president as "mentally retarded," his fellow attendees broke into uproarious applause.Harris maintained that she is "sorry." "I didn't hear the words the man used in that moment, but if I had I would've stopped and corrected him. I'm sorry," she told a CBS reporter. She does not seem sorry enough, however, to tell the truth about what happened. Watch the video. There is no conceivable way she "didn't hear" the remark.Harris's "apology" included an invocation of her "long-standing relationship with advocacy for our disability community." "Advocacy" and holding a tangential "relationship" thereto apparently cover a multitude of sins. That Harris has interacted with self-appointed "advocates" — who deign to speak on behalf of all persons with disabilities even as they lend their indignant support to legislation that would harm the most profoundly impacted among such persons — is presumed to be exculpatory. She has a "relationship with advocacy," so who cares if she cackled in delight as a man mocked the developmentally disabled at her rally?Harris went on to cite the fact that her campaign has "a whole policy proposal" dedicated to the disabled — a whole policy proposal! — "that we rolled out weeks ago." It sounded promising. What's in it? Among other things, it includes support for the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, which would amend Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Waivers available under Section 14 (c) have historically allowed businesses to hire persons with mental or physical disabilities at a rate commensurate with their output, even if that rate of output falls below the federal minimum wage. They were made available in an effort to ensure that persons with severe disabilities were not priced out of the labor market and resigned to perpetual joblessness. If, as Harris advocates, Section 14 (c) is amended to eliminate the FLSA's disability exemption, pockets of the population with profound intellectual disabilities will be displaced from their current special work programs and rendered permanently unemployable. She also wants to ban plastic straws, utensils which many people with physical and developmental disabilities rely on to drink or eat (if they require a pureed diet for dysphagia) in public.Harris maintains that she could "never condone anyone using" the word "retarded;" her "long-standing relationship with advocacy" has taught her that no person of goodwill could use the term — let alone laugh along with or publicly congratulate those who do so! "Mental retardation" has taken on variously demeaning and derogatory connotations since it first replaced "feeble-mindedness" and "idiocy" as the demotic term for what is now called intellectual or developmental disability. But not all parents and loved ones of persons with severe disabilities agree with Harris — one parent I spoke to, who has two children with severe developmental disabilities, tells me that "both [her children] have mental retardation — that is the term that most accurately describes [their condition]." She worries that other terms do not adequately capture the profundity of their challenges. Another parent, Carole Sherman of Arkansas, finds "mental retardation" descriptively necessary: Her son is "a large, mobile, and nonverbal man who functions on the level of a young toddler and who has slight or little awareness of danger." She tells me that the "lack of specificity" inherent in the "intellectual disability" euphemism has cost families like hers "the ability to accurately and quickly describe our loved ones and their realities."These sentiments aren't necessarily indicative of the majority opinion of families with disabled members; when the federal government solicited comment on its proposal to change "mental retardation" to "intellectual disability" in all federal statutes, 71 letters were written in favor with a mere five in opposition. I do wonder, though, what moral authority Kamala Harris has to lecture those five people — and the thousands of Americans in the same position who share their feelings — about the relative propriety of the term they use to describe the medical conditions of their loved ones.Particularly if she herself laughs at that term when it's employed to mock her political opponents in public.
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| Britain looks to restore ship-building industry with new frigates Posted: 11 Sep 2019 02:30 PM PDT ![Britain looks to restore ship-building industry with new frigates]( "Britain looks to restore ship-building industry with new frigates") Britain will announce on Thursday the preferred bidder for the design of the new Type 31 frigate, the government said, as it looks to rebuild its once-mighty shipbuilding industry. Babcock, BAE Systems and Atlas Elektronik UK have all submitted designs for the frigate. "(The) UK is an outward-looking island nation, and we need a shipbuilding industry and Royal Navy that reflect the importance of the seas to our security and prosperity," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.
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| Lifestyle Changes Aren’t Enough to Save the Planet. Here’s What Could Posted: 12 Sep 2019 04:14 AM PDT  When it comes to climate change, we can't just focus on individual choices. We need to give people better options. Michael E. Mann explains why.
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| On anniversary of 9/11, al-Qaida leader pushes for attacks on the U.S., slams ex-jihadis Posted: 11 Sep 2019 02:17 PM PDT  On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, al-Qaida's leader called on Muslims to carry out similar attacks on Western targets.
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| Catholic diocese in upstate New York files for bankruptcy Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:58 AM PDT ![Catholic diocese in upstate New York files for bankruptcy]( "Catholic diocese in upstate New York files for bankruptcy") A Roman Catholic diocese in upstate New York has become the latest to declare bankruptcy amid a wave of lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse of children. New York passed a law this year giving victims of childhood sexual abuse one year to file lawsuits that had previously been barred because the allegations were too old. The state court system reports that as of Monday, there were 639 cases filed statewide under the Child Victims Act.
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| Trump Flirts With $15 Billion Bailout for Iran, Sources Say Posted: 11 Sep 2019 03:48 PM PDT  NICHOLAS KAMMPresident Donald Trump has left the impression with foreign officials, members of his administration, and others involved in Iranian negotiations that he is actively considering a French plan to extend a $15 billion credit line to the Iranians if Tehran comes back into compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal.Trump has in recent weeks shown openness to entertaining President Emmanuel Macron's plan, according to four sources with knowledge of Trump's conversations with the French leader. Two of those sources said that State Department officials, including Secretary Mike Pompeo, are also open to weighing the French proposal, in which the Paris government would effectively ease the economic sanctions regime that the Trump administration has applied on Tehran for more than a year.The deal put forward by France would compensate Iran for oil sales disrupted by American sanctions. A large portion of Iran's economy relies on cash from oil sales. Most of that money is frozen in bank accounts across the globe. The $15 billion credit line would be guaranteed by Iranian oil. In exchange for the cash, Iran would have to come back into compliance with the nuclear accord it signed with the world's major powers in 2015. Tehran would also have to agree not to threaten the security of the Persian Gulf or to impede maritime navigation in the area. Lastly, Tehran would have to commit to regional Middle East talks in the future. While Trump has been skeptical of helping Iran without preconditions in public, the president has at least hinted at an openness to considering Macron's pitch for placating the Iranian government—a move intended to help bring the Iranians to the negotiating table and to rescue the nuclear agreement that Trump and his former national security adviser John Bolton worked so hard to torpedo.At the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France last month, Trump told reporters that Iran might need a "short-term letter of credit or loan" that could "get them over a very rough patch."Why Trump Wants the Ayatollah's CashIranian Prime Minister Javad Zarif made a surprise appearance at that meeting. To Robert Malley, who worked on Iran policy during the Obama administration, that visit indicated that "Trump must have signaled openness to Macron's idea, otherwise Zarif would not have flown to Biarritz at the last minute." "Clearly, Trump responded to Macron in a way that gave the French president a reason to invite Zarif, and Zarif a reason to come," he said.The French proposal would require the Trump administration to issue waivers on Iranian sanctions. That would be a major departure from the Trump administration's so-called "maximum pressure" campaign to exact financial punishments on the regime in Tehran. Ironically, during his time in office, President Barack Obama followed a not-dissimilar approach to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table, throttling Iran's economy with sanctions before pledging relief for talks. The negotiations resulted in the Iran nuke deal that President Trump called "rotten"—and pulled the U.S. out of during his first term.Trump's flirtations with—if not outright enthusiasm toward—chummily sitting down with foreign dictators and America's geopolitical foes are largely driven by his desire for historic photo ops and to be seen as the dealmaker-in-chief. It's a desire so strong that it can motivate him to upturn years of his own administration's policymaking and messaging.And while President Trump has not agreed to anything yet, he did signal a willingness to cooperate on such a proposal at various times throughout the last month, including at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France, according to four sources with knowledge of the president's conversations about the deal.Several sources told The Daily Beast that foreign officials are expecting Trump to either agree to cooperate on the French deal or to offer to ease some sanctions on Tehran. Meanwhile, President Trump is also considering meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September. "I do believe they'd like to make a deal. If they do, that's great. And if they don't, that's great too," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "But they have tremendous financial difficulty, and the sanctions are getting tougher and tougher." When asked if he would ease sanctions against Iran in order to get a meeting with Iran Trump simply said: "We'll see what happens. I think Iran has a tremendous, tremendous potential."Spokespeople for the State Department, White House, and Treasury did not provide comment for this story. A spokesperson for the National Security Council simply referred The Daily Beast to Trump's Wednesday comments on Iran. Bolton didn't comment on Wednesday, either.Trump's willingness to discuss the credit line with the French, the Iranians and also Japanese President Shinzo Abe frustrated Bolton, who had for months urged Trump not to soften his hard line against the regime in Tehran. Bolton, who vociferously opposed the Macron proposal, departed the Trump administration on explicitly and mutually bad terms on Tuesday. On Bolton's way out of the door, Trump and senior administration officials went out of their way to keep publicly insisting he was fired, as Bolton kept messaging various news outlets that Trump couldn't fire him because he quit. The former national security adviser and lifelong hawk had ruffled so many feathers and made so many enemies in the building that his senior colleagues had repeatedly tried to snitch him out to Trump for allegedly leaking to the media. On Tuesday afternoon, Bolton messaged The Daily Beast to say that allegations about him being a leaker were "flatly incorrect."At a press briefing held shortly after Bolton's exit on Tuesday, neither Secretary of State Mike Pompeo nor Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin showed much sympathy for Bolton's falling star in Trumpworld. "There were many times Ambassador Bolton and I disagreed," Pompeo told reporters. "That's to be sure, but that's true with a lot of people with whom I interact."According to those who know Pompeo well, the secretary's public statement was a glaring understatement.Trump Approved Iran Strikes Knowing Body Count Would Be High"By the end he viewed [Bolton] as an arsonist hell bent on setting fire to anyone's agenda that didn't align with his own—including the president's," said a source close to Pompeo who's discussed Bolton with the secretary in recent weeks. Pompeo "believes him to be among the most self-centered people he's ever worked with. A talented guy, no doubt, but not someone who was willing to subordinate his ego to the president's foreign-policy agenda." Whether or not the president follows through with supporting Macron is unclear, as Trump is known to consider or temporarily back high-profile domestic or foreign policy initiatives, only to quickly backtrack or about-face. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? 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