| White House says bin Laden son killed in US operation Posted: 14 Sep 2019 11:53 AM PDT  The White House announced Saturday that Hamza bin Laden , the son of the late al-Qaida leader who had become an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organization, was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. A statement issued in President Donald Trump's name gave no further details, such as when Hamza bin Laden was killed or how the United States had confirmed his death. Administration officials would provide no more information beyond the three-sentence statement from the White House.
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| Video shows a Model 3 automatically apply the brakes to avoid hitting a cop who ran a red light Posted: 13 Sep 2019 08:07 PM PDT  Tesla's automated emergency braking (AEB) system, which was first introduced in 2017, has improved markedly in a relatively short amount of time. Just a few weeks ago, for example, Tesla demonstrated its next-gen AEB system which can more ably apply the brakes when a pedestrian or cyclist is detected. With that said, we recently stumbled across a new video which shows a Tesla Model 3 abruptly hit the brakes when a police officer on a motorcycle runs a red light and turns left into oncoming traffic. The officer was presumably chasing someone but his sirens were off at the time. As you can see in the video below, the Model 3 owner begins to accelerate at a green light and doesn't see the police officer swooping in from the right-hand side. Luckily, the Model 3 detected the officer and swiftly applied the brakes. https://youtu.be/SZdRTVfRi48 Describing the incident, the Model 3 owner posted the following on his YouTube channel. > Happened this morning; I was rolling about my way when the light turns green, and out of nowhere a cop without their audio on for their sirens runs a red light. If not for Tesla's emergency stop safety features this would not have been a good day. Thank you Tesla and ElonMusk for making the Model3 the safest car ever or I might've scarred myself for life with a horrible accident.Another angle of the incident can be seen below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3D3pzSWVjc&t=46s Of course, this is hardly the first time we've seen a Tesla take evasive action and avoid a potentially serious collision. In the video below, a Tesla that was rear ended quickly swerves to the left to avoid the car directly ahead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=QVdTAwU07Jc
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| US officials warn of danger of feral hogs heading across the border from Canada Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:14 PM PDT  US officials have warned that feral hogs heading across the border from Canada may pose a danger to the local environment. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that sightings of the feral animals on the US-Canadian border have increased in recent years. At least eight of the wild animals have been sighted just north of Lincoln County, Montana, this summer, officials said. Several agencies, including Wildlife Services, the Montana Invasive Species Council, the National Feral Swine Program and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department fear the wild pigs could cause significant damage to the landscape. Officials warned the animals can often be aggressive, breed rapidly, and difficult to catch. The feral pigs pose a risk to the local agriculture industries as they often destroy farm land and crops as they root for food. They also have the potential to spread diseases to domestic livestock, although no disease has been detected in the team in Canada. Female hogs typically have more than a dozen piglets in each litter and full grown hogs can weigh anywhere between 120lb to 400lbs. Dale Nolte, from the USDA's National Feral Swine Program, described the prospect as "a disaster". "Multiple people say that if we were to design an invasive species that would do the most widespread damage, feral swine aren't too far off from being the perfect specimen," he told local newspaper Daily Inter Lake. Ryan Brook, an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, blamed the southern migration of the feral pigs on poor monitoring systems in the province, which are allowing numbers - and the spread of the animals - to grow unchecked. "Saskatchewan is a very high functioning pig factory and the populations are exploding with very minimal efforts to control them," he told the Daily Inter Lake. "Lack of serious action in Saskatchewan is the single greatest threat to Montana." Legit question for rural Americans - How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?— Willie McNabb (@WillieMcNabb) August 4, 2019 The warning of a potential hog invasion prompted amusement on social media, with users highlighting a viral tweet last month by a man arguing assault weapons were necessary to manage the feral populations. "How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?" he asked on Twitter, prompting widespread mockery at the time.
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| Rep. Meadows says Democrats' impeachment investigation already has 'made up conclusions' Posted: 15 Sep 2019 06:05 AM PDT  North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows calls the Democrats' impeachment push 'political theater.'
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| Judge rules Confederate statues will remain in Charlottesville despite deadly white nationalist rally Posted: 14 Sep 2019 10:27 AM PDT  A pair Confederate statues will remain standing in the city of Virginian city Charlottesville where clashes over their removal left a young woman dead.After city officials decided to remove statues of Confederate American Civil War generals Robert E Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, one resident filed a lawsuit to prevent this.
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| What were those protesters saying? Joe Biden's final answer interrupted during debate Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Protesters crashed the final minutes of Thursday night's debate in Houston, though people on Twitter had a tough time understanding what was said.
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| Zimbabwe doctors' labour leader 'kidnapped' during strikes: union Posted: 15 Sep 2019 07:19 AM PDT  Union activists and rights campaigners on Sunday accused Zimbabwe's security forces of kidnapping the leader of a doctors' union, who disappeared during a strike he had helped organise. The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctor's Association (ZHDA) said Peter Magombeyi had not been heard from since he sent a WhatsApp message on Saturday night saying he had been "kidnapped by three men". The ZHDA accused the security forces of abducting him because of his role in organising the work stoppages.
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| Democratic senators seek to block Trump administration end-run on ICE funding Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:32 PM PDT  A group of Senate Democrats are seeking to prevent the Trump administration from unilaterally moving appropriations around to fund immigration detention and border enforcement operations.
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| Anti-Car Groups Call for a Ban on SUVs, Protest at Frankfurt Auto Show Posted: 14 Sep 2019 07:58 AM PDT  Enough! No one needs to drive luxury cars! say German protesters standing on top of SUVs at the Frankfurt auto show.
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| Climate Activists Don’t Know How to Talk to Christians Posted: 15 Sep 2019 01:56 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photo GettyThis story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Religious Christians are the key to America taking action on global warming. And yet, the way climate activists frame the issue often alienates the very people they most need to persuade. First, the math. Seventy percent of Americans say they want the government to take action to combat global warming. But the Republican Party has, in the last two decades, gone from accommodating a wide range of perspectives on climate change to marching lock-step to the energy industry's climate denial tune.Most Republicans, however, don't work for the energy industry. Over half of Republican voters identify as conservative Christians—either evangelicals, Catholics, or others. These voters may be right-wing on social issues, right-wing on immigration, and right-wing on 'big government.' But they're not necessarily right-wing on allowing the Earth's climate to be radically disrupted—and if they move, the Republican Party will have to move too.But according to two new studies conducted by the Yale Program for Climate Communication and published in the journal Science Communication, most religious Christians understand global warming in very different terms from others.The first study "found that 'protect God's creation' is one of the most important motivations that Christians report for wanting to mitigate global warming." Resonant messages included "God made humans responsible for taking care of His creation"; "We can use nature for our benefit, but it is not OK to destroy God's garden that He entrusted to us"; and the language of "stewardship" over the Earth.And the second study found that framing the issue of global warming in moral and religious terms was crucial for Christians to care about it, because it suggested that "people like themselves" care about the issue."People derive values, a sense of self, and social norms from the groups to which they belong," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program and a co-author of the two studies. "Messages that resonate with group identities may be especially effective in influencing people's attitudes."In other words, we think the way our group thinks. If we believe that no one in our group cares about a certain issue, we're less likely to care about it. If we believe that our core values have nothing to do with a certain issue, we're less likely to care about it.Unfortunately, when one turns to how the issue is framed in public, these messaging frames are conspicuously absent.For example, the introduction to next week's U.N. Climate Action Summit reads, in part:> Global emissions are reaching record levels and show no sign of peaking. The last four years were the four hottest on record, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heatwaves and risks to food security.> > The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people's lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow. But there is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies.If you're like me—highly educated, privileged, urban-dwelling, and liberal—that language is probably pretty effective. But according to the new Yale studies, it will probably ring hollow for the constituency that's most central to changing the United States' current intransigence on climate science and climate action.Indeed, the U.N. language doesn't even include the "most important reason to reduce global warming" chosen by both Christians and non-Christians in the Yale studies, namely: "Provide a better life for our children and grandchildren." Instead, it provides a bunch of ecological verbiage about coral reefs and food security.Nor, of course, is the problem confined to the United Nations.The Environmental Defense Fund—one of the more centrist and mainstream of American environmental organizations—likewise only mentions the environmental impacts of global warming on its page "why fighting change is so urgent": "extreme weather events… chunks of ice in the Antarctic have broken apart… wildfire seasons are months longer… coral reefs have been bleached of their colors… mosquitoes are expanding their territory, able to spread disease." And yet it doesn't provide the primary reasons given by people in general (leaving a better world for our children) or Christians in particular (protecting God's creation). Of course, these omissions make sense in some ways. First, obviously, plenty of atheists, Jews, Muslims, and people of other religious backgrounds care about climate change. Especially anyone with kids or grandkids.But it's also unlikely that the people writing copy for climate change websites are religious Christians themselves, and are using language that "preaches to the choir," which in this case means other secular environmentalists. But if no one speaks in terms that Christians, especially conservative Christians, care about, then climate activists are only going to be talking to themselves.Which is exactly what's happened. Levels of understanding and concern about climate change have more or less plateaued in the last few years. On the political level, nothing is happening. Thirty-four percent of Americans still do not "believe" that global warming is being caused by humans, and only 44 percent of Americans say they "worry a great deal" about it. Another recent Yale study found that voters rank it just 17th among issues of concern.Given the extreme likelihood of an unprecedented refugee crisis brought on by rising seas and changing crop patterns, mass extinctions, and global food shortages, all of those numbers are shocking. According to the World Health Organization, 250,000 people will die each year from 2030-2050 because of increased rates of malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress. Climate denial, meanwhile, is now a billion-dollar industry, with energy-funded think tanks, pseudoscience, lobbying, and media campaigns. The energy industry is using the most persuasive, most effective methods to persuade people about global warming. Why isn't the environmental movement?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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| Teenager sues vaping company Juul after being left with 'lungs like a 70-year-old's’ Posted: 14 Sep 2019 05:06 AM PDT  A teenager who says vaping gave him lungs "like a 70-year-old" is suing a leading e-cigarettes company.Adam Hergenreder, an 18-year-old from Illinois, has accused Juul of marketing e-cigarettes to young people with the message that vaping could boost their social status
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| Might a tropical depression form in the Gulf of Mexico? Posted: 14 Sep 2019 07:55 AM PDT  A non-tropical storm over the Gulf of Mexico, which is helping to steer Humberto east of the United States may evolve into a tropical system and drift toward Texas early this week.The storm is currently situated in the middle levels of the atmosphere and will have to spin down to the surface and acquire tropical characteristics before it can be dubbed a tropical depression or storm. Sometimes systems of this nature evolve into a hybrid or sub-tropical storm.Rapid strengthening of this large system over the Gulf of Mexico is not anticipated before moving onshore. But it is possible it becomes a tropical or sub-tropical depression before moving inland later Monday or Tuesday along the Texas coast.Regardless of classification, the large circulation will stir up the Gulf of Mexico as it drifts westward. Expect seas and surf to build from the upper Gulf coast to the western Gulf coast into Tuesday. An uptick in the frequency and strength of rip currents is likely. Pockets of showers and thunderstorms being produced by the storm already will propagate westward in waves along the northern and western Gulf coast.Boaters, fishing vessels and rig operators should be prepared for increasing squalls and building seas, which will shift westward into Tuesday.There is the potential for enough rain to fall along the Texas and northeastern Gulf coast to trigger urban and flash flooding from Monday to Tuesday. Exactly how significant this becomes will depend on the track and strength of the feature as it moves inland.AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to monitor the system over the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Humberto and other features over the Atlantic Basin.Download the free AccuWeather app to stay alert of tropical weather advisories. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Booker: ‘Demagogues’ Are ‘Fear-Mongering’ about Police Confiscating Assault Weapons Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:12 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker on Friday criticized what he called "fear-mongering" about police showing up to confiscate legally owned assault-style weapons such as the AR-15 rifle."I hate when Democrats use the language that Republicans try to use to scare people away as opposed to the sort of pragmatism and practicality of this," the New Jersey senator said during an interview with CNN. "We've seen around this world, countries that have said enough of these assault rifles. They dealt with the problem that got them off of their streets. These weapons should not be in this country."Booker said he supports the policy proposed by fellow presidential contender Beto O'Rouke, who made headlines during Thursday evening's Democratic debate for pledging, "Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47."The former El Paso congressman supports a so-called "mandatory-buyback program" for AR-15 and AK-47 rifles, a move that goes further than the voluntary-buyback program other Democratic 2020 contenders, including former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, have endorsed."You have to set up a system. Yeah, that is mandatory," Booker said, explaining that he would ban assault-style weapons using the 1986 National Firearms Act as a model. "You have to set up a system to pull them off. But this idea, this imagery that the fear-mongers and demagogues try to say of somehow armed police officers showing up and confiscating weapons, that's the fear-mongering."
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| Cleanup resumes in Bahamas as Humberto swirls away Posted: 15 Sep 2019 08:36 AM PDT  MCLEAN'S TOWN, Bahamas (AP) — Jeffrey Roberts lifted a mustard-yellow curtain from the ground to hunt for passports and other documents at the place where his family's home stood before Hurricane Dorian blasted into Grand Bahama Island. Roberts was one of thousands of people beginning to return to salvage what few scraps they can from the devastation of Dorian, even as the dark storm clouds of Tropical Storm Humberto hovered above to remind that that the storm season has not yet passed. By late Sunday morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm was located about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north-northwest of Great Abaco Island and was moving at 7 mph (11 kph) north-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph).
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| 2020 Vision: A burning AOC offers a scary preview of next year's attack ads Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:12 AM PDT  In a likely preview of Republican messaging for the 2020 election, an ad from a GOP PAC that aired during Thursday night's Democratic debate showed a photograph of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with her face engulfed in flames.
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| Venezuela investigates Guaido over photo with suspected Colombian criminals Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:29 PM PDT  Venezuela's state prosecutor's office said on Friday it would open an investigation into Juan Guaido after the interior minister presented photos on state television showing the opposition leader in the company of two suspected members of a Colombian drug-trafficking group. Guaido on Friday said the two men had asked to take a photo with him when he secretly crossed into Colombia from Venezuela in February via an informal border route after a Venezuelan court had barred him from leaving the country. "We didn't ask for their criminal record to take a photo," he told reporters in Caracas.
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| WTO allows U.S. to hit EU with tariffs over Airbus subsidies Posted: 14 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT ![WTO allows U.S. to hit EU with tariffs over Airbus subsidies]( "WTO allows U.S. to hit EU with tariffs over Airbus subsidies") The ruling ends a decades-long dispute.
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| 'Difficult to see' if Iran breached Syria oil sale agreement, Gibraltar chief minister says Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:45 PM PDT  Gibraltar's leader attempted to deescalate the crisis with Iran over the fate of an oil tanker on Friday, saying it was "difficult to see" whether Tehran breached an agreement not to sell its oil to Syria. Iran made assurances to a court in Gibraltar that it would not deliver the seized supertanker's two million barrels of crude oil to the Syrian regime in order to secure its release. After it was freed on Aug 18, the renamed Adrian Darya 1 sailed around the eastern Mediterranean for over a week before heading towards the Syrian coast and turning off its transponder on Sept 2. Iran claims it sold the oil to an unnamed private company. Maritime trackers say it is likely the Adrian Darya 1's contents were off-loaded to Syria through smaller vessels. Britain and the US have said such a move is in violation of European Union and US sanctions and breaches the agreement. Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar's chief minister, however, said on Friday that "it is difficult to see whose word you'd take for it". The British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero is still being held by Iran Credit: Morteza Akhoondi/Tasnim News Agency via AP "You can see from the images that the oil has ended up in Syria but that's not to say that there's a breach of the undertaking [by Iran]," Mr Picardo said. "We did not have an undertaking that the oil would not end up in Syria. We had an undertaking from the Iranian government that they would not sell the oil to any EU sanctioned entity," he said. British commandos on July 4 seized the vessel, then called the Grace 1, on suspicion that it was en route to Syria in breach of EU sanctions. Officials claim Iran gave as many as five separate undertakings that it would not proceed with its original sales plan. Iran's envoy to the UK, who was summoned by the British foreign ministry over the matter, on Wednesday said Adrian Darya 1's oil cargo was sold at sea to a third party, denying Tehran had broken assurances it gave. He also said the private buyer of the oil "sets the sale destination". "It is now clear that Iran has breached these assurances and that the oil has been transferred to Syria and Assad's murderous regime," a Foreign Office statement said. "Iran's actions represent an unacceptable violation of international norms and the UK will raise the issue at the United Nations later this month." The development came amid heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf. EU diplomats warned yesterday that Britain's decision to join a US-led naval mission in the Gulf has delayed European efforts to set up a maritime force to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz separate from American patrols. British-Australian citizen Jolie King and her boyfriend Mark Firkin are currently detained in Iran Credit: Instagram Britain and France proposed a European-led maritime force in July that was to be independent of the United States. They won support from Denmark, Italy and Spain, who were wary of an American mission for fear of making US-Iranian strains worse. The proposal was announced after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait, in what was then widely seen as retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar by British marines. The British-flagged Stena Impero is still being held by Iran, although Tehran has signalled it could release it soon. Relations between the UK and Iran have worsened in recent days amid the news two dual British-Australian nationals have been arrested in Iran. Jolie King, a dual citizen, and her Australian boyfriend Mark Firkin, were travelling from western Australia to London through Iran when they were arrested for reportedly flying a drone. A third detainee, a former Cambridge-educated academic, has not been named. Miss King is being held in the same ward of Evin prison as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker charged with espionage. Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, told the Telegraph: "She has been there for a few weeks. She came in from solitary very scared. As that is a very traumatic experience. "She's gradually learning to trust the others. Nazanin told her family that she has a very good sense of humour."
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| Saddam Hussein Thought He Knew How to Sink U.S. Battleships Posted: 14 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Could it have worked?
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| Politico Doubles Down on Fake Turnberry Scandal Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:33 PM PDT  It's tough to be an investigative reporter. Everybody who feeds you a tip has an axe to grind. Or, alternatively, you find yourself going, "I wonder if . . . ?" You put in your research, you talk to lots of people, you accumulate a huge pile of information, but you still haven't proved your hypothesis. A wise reporter says to herself either "I don't have the story yet" or "I guess this didn't pan out." In either event, she doesn't publish. More likely, since reporters always think they have the story and always want to publish, an editor says, "Kid, you haven't got the story."One of the many rules of the road that have changed in the Trump era is that reporters have taken to blasting out their BREAKING NEWS about scandals that they haven't actually proven to be scandals. There is so much hay to be made during this administration, so many reporters are becoming superstars, so many comfy houses in Bethesda are being bought with so many large book deals. Any fresh angle you can find on the iniquity of the administration is going to be lapped up eagerly by everyone you know. But what if your new angle isn't . . . actually. . . the truth?Danger lurks. It's damned annoying how many watchmen there are to watch the watchmen these days. But in the end the temptation wins. The shaky story gets blasted out to everyone, it falls apart, and the soiled and tattered reputation of the news media acquires another stain. Short term, no biggie: Reporters know they won't get fired for being wrong. They get a little dopamine hit of glory from the ersatz scoop, they go on with their lives. They live to fight Trumpism another day. Did Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier of BuzzFeed suffer for falsely reporting that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress? Nope. Their position is merely that maybe the story will turn out to be true someday. They haven't even retracted the story, much less tendered their resignations, much less placed themselves in the stocks of the town square so that passersby can fire tomatoes at them. (BuzzFeed appended a weaselly note to the original story feebly expressing hope that more information would emerge that would back up their story. That ain't how it works. You get it right first, then publish.)Politico reporters Natasha Bertrand and Bryan Bender suspect President Trump has been directing Air Force flights to an obscure Scottish airport and fuel stop in order to generate business for his nearby hotel. Since the Obama-era Air Force also used the fuel point (which Trump has no interest in) scores of times, and since those troops also understandably stayed at the hotel because it's affordable and close to the airport, there is only a scandal here if Trump, or someone operating at Trump's direction, is ordering the Air Force to do things differently than it ordinarily would in order to benefit Trump. The numbers at issue here are paltry. The hotel is charging $130 a night. How much of that winds up in Trump's pocket, 11 cents? Bender and Bertrand inform us in dire tones that Air Force crews have made "at least four stays" at the Trump resort in the last year. How much do four stays at a cheap hotel really mean to a billionaire?When Politico or any other outlet whips up a fake scandal, the predictable next stage is that even more specious and disgusting things get said by pundits joining the pile-on. Rachel Maddow, in her gonzo throw-everything-at-the-wall way, falsely claimed the other night that the fuel stop was charging more for fuel, as though that were a scandal. It turns out the fuel stop is charging ordinary rates, and Trump doesn't own it anyway. John Hirschauer calls B.S. on her. Maddow slandered the military in an absolutely vile manner when she declared the "U.S. military is in on it now," meaning corruption. Bertrand called Maddow's take on the matter "perfect."Here's how this story ought to be reported. If Trump ordered the Air Force to prop up his failing resort, there must be a long chain of intermediaries who took this directive from the president and passed it down the line. Find one of those flunkies and get him to spill the beans. Did Bender and Bertrand do so? No. Do they even exist? Until Bertrand and Bender find them and get them to talk, the story isn't there. Yet Bertrand blathers on this morning with this tweet: "BREAKING: Preliminary results of the Air Force's review of its use of Trump Turnberry shows that the service has lodged crews at the resort up to 40 times since 2015, a figure far higher than previously known." Oh, since 2015, eh? Who was president then? The only numbers that might matter are the ones since January 20, 2017, and she doesn't even have those yet. You might as well run a headline saying, "Hate crimes surged in Trump Era, or Obama Era, Maybe Both, Whatever, We're Not Sure."Bertrand and Bryan's own story undercuts the scandal suggested by her tweet: "The figure does not indicate how many of the stays have occurred since Trump became president. But the Air Force has significantly ramped up its overnight stops in Scotland under Trump after signing a contract with the Prestwick Airport — situated 20-plus miles from Turnberry — in the waning months of the Obama administration." The Obama-era Air Force made deals with the airport near Turnberry and this somehow earns Trump a flag for violating the emoluments clause? True, there are more Air Force flights refueling at the little airport these days, but there are perfectly plausible reasons for that: Unlike Shannon Airport in Ireland, it's got relatively good weather and is a low-traffic spot. Easy in, easy out. This argument apparently made sense to Team Obama, since they're the ones who signed the deal to use the airport more. But this does not obviously have anything to do with Trump. Hey, take it from the man himself! "NOTHING TO DO WITH ME," the president tweeted on Monday. So far, this looks like the truth. Miracles can happen!The most hilarious and self-defeating detail in this morning's BREAKING news from Politico is this: "Since 2015, the [Air Force] has lodged crews in the area 659 times, meaning up to 6 percent of those stays were at Turnberry." Wow, 6 whole percent? I can only imagine what the president's directive on this matter might have been. "Get Mark Esper in here now, dammit! Esper, my Scottish resort is in trouble. Take a break from saving the world and save Trump Turnberry! I want you to make sure up to 6 percent of your Air Force guys making those fuel stops in Scotland are staying at my hotel. Make it happen or you'll be playing shuffleboard with Mattis!"
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| Over 2,000 fetal remains found at ex-abortion doctor's home Posted: 14 Sep 2019 03:43 PM PDT  More than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains have been found at the Illinois home of a former Indiana abortion clinic doctor who died last week, authorities said. The Will County Sheriff's Office said in a news release late Friday that an attorney for Dr. Ulrich Klopfer's family contacted the coroner's office Thursday about possible fetal remains being found at the home in an unincorporated part of Will County in northeastern Illinois. The sheriff's office said authorities found 2,246 preserved fetal remains but there's no evidence medical procedures were performed at the home.
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| Exclusive: New documents reveal impact of US sanctions on Iran Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:20 PM PDT  Internal documents show the crippling effects of sanctions designed to get Iran to make concessions with its nuclear program; State Department correspondent Rich Edson reports.
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| W.African leaders agree billion-dollar anti-jihadist plan Posted: 14 Sep 2019 12:34 PM PDT  West African leaders on Saturday announced a billion-dollar plan to fight the rising problem of jihadist violence in the region, at a summit in Burkina Faso. The plan, to be funded from 2020 to 2024, was announced at end of the Economic Community Summit of West African States in Ouagadougou, where the ECOWAS nations were joined by Mauritania and Chad. ECOWAS had decided to mobilise "the financial resources of up to a billion dollars for the fight against terrorism", said Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou.
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| Another tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic. Here's when it could hit Florida Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:23 PM PDT ![Another tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic. Here's when it could hit Florida]( "Another tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic. Here's when it could hit Florida") The system headed toward Florida, now "Tropical Depression Nine," will almost certainly become Tropical Storm Humberto within next 24 hours
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| Could Iran's Old F-5s Take Down the Mighty F-35 Stealth Fighter? Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:00 PM PDT  Top of the line or down in the dirt?
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| MIT Students and Alumni Call for President L. Rafael Reif to Step Down Over Epstein Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:38 PM PDT  Brian Snyder/ReutersWith any hope of plausible deniability over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal dissolving, MIT President L. Rafael Reif is facing down his own illustrious institution and alumni as current and former students call for him to step down. In a statement Thursday, Reif revealed that senior MIT administration members knew that the Media Lab had accepted money from Epstein's foundation as recently as 2017. Reif also disclosed that MIT's own investigation surfaced a 2012 thank-you letter to Epstein bearing Reif's own signature. The note thanked Epstein for a gift to MIT Physics Professor Seth Lloyd. In his statement, Reif described the gift as the first—"as far as we know now"—that MIT accepted following the billionaire pedophile's 2008 conviction for procurement of minors for prostitution. "Although I do not recall it, it does bear my signature," Reif wrote.Calls for the MIT president's resignation bubbled up less than 24 hours after Reif came clean about the administration's involvement with Epstein.In an MIT women's alumni Facebook group, former students expressed outrage at the news, asking the group's administrators where they should direct their demands for Reif's resignation. The group's administrators directed the members to write to MIT Corporation, the research university's board of trustees. On Friday afternoon, current students and alumni held a protest event called "They Knew: Speak-out against MIT-Epstein Scandal." At the time of writing, almost 100 people had RSVP'd to the event, held at MIT's Stratton Student Center. "Accepting money linked to Jeffrey Epstein wasn't just disgusting and immoral," the group's organizers wrote. "It violated MIT's own donor policies. Any senior administrators who knew about these donations MUST RESIGN IMMEDIATELY."The event's speakers included MIT alum and Cambridge City Council member Quinton Zondervan and MIT Media Lab Research Assistant Arwa Michelle Mboya.Another speaker calling for Reif's resignation drew a surprising comparison, likening the venerated research university's enlightened public image—versus its shady behind-the-scenes dealings—to the NFL. 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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| Correction: Sikh Killed-Anniversary story Posted: 15 Sep 2019 08:05 AM PDT  In a story Sept. 15 about the anniversary of an Indian Sikh immigrant gunned down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press reported erroneously that he died in 2011. PHOENIX (AP) — Indian Sikh immigrant Rana Singh Sodhi still preaches love and tolerance 18 years after his brother was gunned down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by a man who mistook him for a Muslim because of his turban and beard. "I want there to be more awareness, more peace in the world," said Sodhi, who spent much of the first year after his brother Balbir Singh Sodhi's death speaking at schools and houses of worship.
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| ‘He had lovely parents, I don’t know what went wrong with him’: Trump’s distant Scottish cousin blasts president as selfish man who stole pancakes Posted: 15 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  A distant cousin of Donald Trump has described him as a selfish man who stole pancakes and "wouldn't give a penny" back to his mother's native community in Scotland.The US president last visited his late mother's former home of Tong on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for around three hours in 2008.
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| French group to open two hotels in Damascus as airstrikes kill civilians Posted: 14 Sep 2019 11:17 AM PDT  Louvre Hotels Group, owned by China's Jin Jiang, has signed an agreement to open two hotels under its own name in Damascus, it said on Saturday, a day after the UN announced an internal investigation into the bombing of hospitals in Syria. The confirmation of the two hotels opening, after recent media reports, also came as at least six civilians were killed by the Syrian regime and Russian fire in northwestern Idlib province in the past days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate controls most of Idlib as well as parts of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces.
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| View Photos of Volkswagen Microbus with Civil Rights History Posted: 15 Sep 2019 08:01 AM PDT |
| Surveillance video allegedly shows 2 people moving carpet with body in Harlem; victim identified Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:59 PM PDT  Surveillance video shows two men in baseball caps casually pushing a shopping cart that apparently contained a body wrapped in a rolled-up carpet in Harlem during the overnight hours on Thursday morning.
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| Democrats criticise Julian Castro's 'low blow' in questioning Joe Biden's memory Posted: 13 Sep 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Julian Castro, the Democratic presidential hopeful, was facing a backlash on Thursday night after calling into question his rival Joe Biden's memory during a debate. Mr Castro, the former housing and urban development secretary, repeatedly accused Mr Biden of forgetting details of his healthcare plan in a heated exchange on stage. The comments forced the spotlight onto the age of the former US vice president. Mr Biden would be 78 on day one in the White House if he wins the contest - the oldest person ever elected to the US presidency. Mr Biden's campaign released a fundraising email on Friday accusing Mr Castro of pulling off a "cheap shot" and a "low blow". A number of other candidates seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination for the 2020 election also criticised Mr Castro's remarks, saying they were "not cool" and "not right". Mr Biden also endured criticism over claiming credit for the achievements of Barack Obama, the former president whom he deputised for eight years, with Mr Castro claiming he was the one really carrying on Mr Obama's legacy. The clash over memory between the two men was one of the standout moments of the third Democratic debate in Houston, Texas, which saw the leading 10 candidates square off for the first time. Here's video of that Castro-Biden clash over health care — with Castro repeatedly saying "are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?" Already heard from several Dems who called it an ugly + disrespectful exchange. pic.twitter.com/AcOAtX808U— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) September 13, 2019 Mr Biden, the clear front-runner, has faced questions about whether his age would affect his ability to carry out the job of president after a string of recent verbal slip-ups. At one point on Thursday evening Mr Castro challenged Mr Biden over his healthcare plan. He said Mr Biden's proposal would not automatically enroll people who were uninsured, unlike his plan. When Mr Biden denied that, Mr Castro said: "Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?" He went on: "Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? I can't believe that you said - two minutes ago - that they had to buy in and now you're forgetting that." It was not their only fiery exchange. At another point Mr Castro, who is three decades younger than Mr Biden, claimed he was carrying the flame of the Obama administration, which he also served in. "I am fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama and you are not," Mr Castro told Mr Biden. The latter shot back: "That will be a surprise to him." The debate saw the 10 leading candidates go head-to-head Credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake After the debate, other candidates who were on stage questioned the tone of the attacks, especially over Mr Biden's memory. Republicans have questioned the former vice president's age and suitability for office. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, said Mr Castro's attack was "not cool" and "so personal and so unnecessary". She said: "It feels like something that Donald Trump might tweet." Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, said it was "not right" to go after Mr Biden personally. Beto O'Rourke, the former Texas congressman, also criticised the "personal attack". Mr Castro denied he had been too personal. "I wouldn't do it differently," he told CNN after the debate. "That was not a personal attack, this was about a disagreement over what the vice president said regarding healthcare policy."
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| NJ mayor says he was asked whether he met with terrorists upon return from Turkey Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:07 PM PDT  Mohamed Khairullah, the longtime mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, was questioned at JFK Airport, and his phone was seized and held for 12 days.
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| 2 arrested in racist attack on black student at U of Arizona Posted: 13 Sep 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Several dozen students at the University of Arizona on Friday protested campus police handling of a physical and racist attack on a black student this week. University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins said in a statement Thursday that he was angered and disappointed by the incident.
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| Greta Thunberg marches in front of White House with American students over climate change crisis Posted: 13 Sep 2019 10:12 AM PDT  Climate activist Greta Thunberg has taken her fight for the planet's future to Donald Trump's front door, marching along with American students outside the White House in Washington with fellow students as a part of a weekly school strike.Ms Thunberg, a 16-year-old who arrived in the US last month on a carbon emission free sailboat, joined her American peers in a demonstration that at one point included an 11-minute "mass extinction" die-in to highlight the dire predictions of the changing climate.
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| Hong Kong activist seeks U.S. support for pro-democracy protests Posted: 14 Sep 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong said on Saturday he was seeking the support of U.S. lawmakers for the demands of his fellow protesters who have led months of streets demonstrations, including a call for free elections. Wong, who spoke to Reuters in New York ahead of a planned visit to Washington, led Hong Kong's pro-democracy "Umbrella Movement" in 2014. The latest protests, which began over a now-withdrawn extradition bill but grew into demands for greater democracy and independence from mainland China, are mostly leaderless.
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