| Ukraine releases 'key MH17 suspect' ahead of expected prisoner swap with Russia Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:43 AM PDT  A Kiev court has released a "key suspect" in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 shortly before Vladimir Putin said prisoner swap negotiations with Ukraine were in their final stages, raising fears among European politicians that the man will be sent to Russia. That would put him out of the reach of international investigators, as Russia doesn't typically extradite its citizens. Vladimir Tsemakh, a former fighter for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine who was captured and smuggled across the frontlines in June, was released from custody on his own recognisance on Thursday. He is slated to go on trial for terrorism in October but has not been fitted with an electronic tag. Ukrainian nationalists later protested with road flares outside the court, calling it a "terrorist accomplice" and "branch of the FSB". Mr Tsemakh reportedly commanded anti-aircraft defences in the town of Snizhne when a Buk missile fired from the area brought down MH17 in July 2014, killing 298, including 10 Britons. The Dutch-led joint investigative team has said the Russian military deployed the Buk launcher to eastern Ukraine, findings denied by Moscow, and charged three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder in June. Court proceedings are scheduled for March. Nationalists protest outside the court after Mr Tsemakh was released Credit: Sergii Kharchenko/EPA-EFE/REX Discussing the downing of MH17 in a 2015 Russian nationalist video interview, Mr Tsemakh said that he "got that guy out" and "hid" something. Although the exact word was bleeped out, many believe that he was saying he had hid the "Buk" after the plane was shot down. Rumours began appearing in recent weeks that Mr Tsemakh could be included in the prisoner exchange that Moscow and Kiev have been negotiating since Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Mr Putin in July. A Russian newspaper quoted sources on Thursday as saying that Moscow demanded Mr Tsemakh in exchange for freeing Crimean director and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Oleg Sentsov. If true, that would be an unusual level of interest by Moscow in the fate of a foreign national, as Mr Tsemakh is a Ukrainian citizen, and suggest it does not want him to be questioned. In a letter to Mr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, 40 MEPs including Catherine Rowett of the United Kingdom opposed Russia's alleged requests to trade for Mr Tsemakh, calling him a "key suspect" in the MH17 investigation who should testify in the case. Dutch chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said in a leaked letter to his Ukrainian counterparts last week that Mr Tsemakh's status as a suspect meant that "keeping him available for (further) questioning by the joint investigation team is therefore of the utmost importance". A spokeswoman for the team told media on Thursday that it wanted him to remain in Ukraine, as it would be difficult to question him if he was sent to Russia. Vladimir Putin speaks at a forum in Vladivostok on Thursday Credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office also objected to the release of Mr Tsemakh, whom it called "an important element of truth-seeking in this case". Mr Putin breathed new life into the prisoner exchange process on Thursday when he said at the eastern economic forum in Vladivostok that a "fairly large" swap was close to being agreed. "We're approaching the finalisation of the negotiations that we are holding with the official authorities, among others," he said. "I think this will become known in the near future." Ukrainian officials had said the trade of 33 prisoners from each side would happen last Friday, only to have Moscow dismiss this. Among others, Kiev is hoping to bring home 24 sailors captured when their three navy vessels were seized in November trying to pass through the Kerch strait, which since the annexation of Crimea has been controlled by Russia. Several Ukrainian prisoners in Russia have been moved from far-flung prison colonies to Moscow in recent weeks. Mr Tsemakh's dramatic seizure in separatist territory by a grab team of Ukrainian agents who reportedly drugged him and smuggled him across the de facto border in a wheelchair was the first of its kind. Some 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
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| U.S. slaps record fine on Michigan State University over Nassar abuse scandal Posted: 05 Sep 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The U.S. Department of Education has imposed a record $4.5 million fine on Michigan State University for what it called a failure to protect students from sexual abuse and ordered the university to make changes. The Education Department had launched two separate investigations into the university after the former sports doctor for the school and USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar, was accused of sexual abuse by more than 350 women. Nassar was sentenced https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gymnastics-usa-nassar-fallout/sexual-abuse-scandal-weighs-on-us-gymnastics-centres-idUKKBN1FL6L8 in two different trials to 300 years in prison for having abused young female gymnasts.
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| Beto O'Rourke takes on Meghan McCain over gun rights amid gun control debate after mass shootings Posted: 05 Sep 2019 06:53 PM PDT  O'Rourke, a native Texan and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, and McCain, an outspoken conservative voice on "The View," have a difference of opinion when it comes to gun control and gun rights.
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| Florida inmate says beating by guards left her paralyzed Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT  A female inmate at a Florida prison is suing the state corrections agency, saying she was left paralyzed after being beaten by four guards. Cheryl Weimar and her husband, Karl, said in their lawsuit that her civil rights were violated when she was nearly beaten to death by guards last month at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida. Weimar was left with a broken neck and is now a paraplegic because of the guards' use of force, according to the lawsuit.
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| Gun Used in Texas Shooting Was Illegally Manufactured and Sold: REPORT Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:19 PM PDT  Authorities believe the gun used in the drive-by shooting in Midland and Odessa, Texas this past weekend was illegally manufactured and sold by a Lubbock, Texas man, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is currently investigating a man who they believe illegally manufactured and sold the AR-15-style rifle that Seth Ator used to kill seven people and injure 22 more on Saturday, before he was shot and killed by police.Ator, 36, had previously attempted to purchase a gun from a licensed seller in January 2014, but failed the requisite background check because he'd been declared mentally unfit by a local court. A nationwide criminal-background check identified the court order and prevented the purchase, according to local authorities.If Ator did in fact purchase the weapon through a private transaction, its seller was under no obligation to conduct a background check, but could be held criminally liable if evidence emerges that he knew his prospective customer came to him due to a previous background-check failure.Authorities intercepted Ator outside of a movie theater, killing him only after he rampaged down a highway that links Midland and Odessa shooting indiscriminately.Partisan tensions over gun-control legislation have escalated in recent weeks following separate mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Congressional Democrats continue to insist on universal-background-check legislation that would apply to private sales, a version of which passed the House earlier this year.Republicans, meanwhile, remain non-committal as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell refuses to endorse specific legislation.
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| Every Angle of the 2019 Range Rover Sport HST Posted: 05 Sep 2019 12:59 PM PDT |
| Business class passenger racially abuses Asian crew member and demands to be served by 'white girl', court hears Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:29 AM PDT  An IT consultant racially abused a female British Airways cabin crew member and demanded he be served only by a "white girl," a court has heard.Peter Nelson, 46, became irate after being woken up by Sima Patel-Pryke while flying business class from London's Heathrow to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, jurors were told.
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| Jeffrey Epstein gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to MIT's Media Lab, and its founder said he would accept the donations again if given the chance Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT  "If you wind back the clock, I would still say, 'Take it,'" MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte reportedly said in an all-hands meeting.
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| 'Bye, Mom. I love you!' Family torn apart in aftermath of Hurricane Dorian Posted: 05 Sep 2019 05:38 PM PDT  On the Abacos Islands of the Bahamas, Alicia Cook held her daughters, Lacy, 8, and Lyric, 4, close -- and then, surrounded by devastation as far as the eye could see, said a heart-wrenching goodbye to her girls.The sisters soon boarded a helicopter with their aunt to be evacuated to Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas. Their parents would be staying behind, as there was no room for them on the helicopter."Bye, Mom. I love you!" one of the girls called from the helicopter."I had to send them with my sister. I couldn't fit. My babies, I had to send them. This is just a disaster. Everything's gone. There's just so much heartache and death everywhere. I just don't know what we're going to do," Cook told AccuWeather correspondent Brandon Clement through tears. "[I'm] leaving my hearts. Don't know when I'll see them again." Alicia Cook hugs her daughter Lyric as they say goodbye. Cook and her husband are having their two daughters evacuated from the Abacos Islands after Hurricane Dorian. (Brandon Clement) The family of four survived Hurricane Dorian, which dealt a historic blow to the Bahamas on Sunday, Sept. 1, when it made landfall as Category 5 hurricane. With sustained winds of 185 mph at the time of landfall, Hurricane Dorian was tied for the second most powerful hurricane by wind speed in the Atlantic basin since 1851 behind Hurricane Allen in 1980 with 190 mph winds.The death toll in the Bahamas has risen to around 30 and is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.Cook told Clement that she had to get her children off of the island, which was in a state of "total devastation." The flight was paid for by the Discovery Land Company, a real estate developer that is currently sharing resources like private helicopters.The powerful winds of Hurricane Dorian had stripped even concrete buildings of their integrity. Supposedly sturdy buildings were broken like pottery pieces, the long bent fingers of rebar stripped of the concrete and exposed."This isn't cheap construction. This is one-inch rebar [reinforcement bar], eight-inch-thick concrete, just pulverized," Clement said while filming.That's just what the buildings in the Abaco Islands are after Dorian: pulverized.A woman stood crying on the second story of a building: the walls and roof having been torn away during the Category 5 storm. Around the skeleton of the house lay the carnage of debris, trees stripped of all leaves and an overturned boat. The beach is nowhere in sight. A pickup truck and an SUV were strapped to a barge to keep them tied down. Though battered, they remain remain in place. The same could not be said of the beached boat. A handful of small boats were deposited on the shore, a few landing at the doorsteps of houses. A pickup truck and an SUV were strapped to a barge to keep them tied down. The vehicles were damaged during the storm, and the boat they were aboard beached. (Brandon Clement) Some of the cars on the island made it out of the storm with just some shattered glass, while others sit partially submerged in ponds of water that have yet to recede. Footage shows residents of the Bahamas walking down a street, their belongings in plastic bags. The still partially flooded road is littered with tree debris and downed power poles."I've been through many, many hurricanes and seen devastation, but nothing ever, ever compared to this," Cook said. "I've never even experienced anything -- I watched movies and I see this on the news, but you don't know it until you go through it. You lose everything in an instant. Just everything you've ever worked for, your whole life's gone," Cook said. "Just what do you do? And nobody should have to go through this. It's like a bad dream. You just can't wake up."The people of the Bahamas pick through what has become marshes of debris, trying to find any of their belongings that they could salvage.Clement stopped to speak with a woman who had been looking around the remains of her home, trying to find a scrap of the life that had been torn from her by Dorian: a backpack with her passport. People in the Bahamas scour through the wreckage that Hurricane Dorian left behind in its wake, trying to find any of their belongings they can savage. This woman was looking for a backpack with her passport in it, which she had lost in the chaos of the storm. (Brandon Clement) "Harbour View Marina collapsed, and the water came to my roof," a woman told Clement, standing in front of the demolished walls of her baby blue house. She, her son, her best friend and two others staying with her escaped out the back window and clung to a Suzuki until the eye passed two hours later."It was awful," the woman said after Clement asked what it had been like. While hanging on for their lives, a young boy with them suffered a five-inch gash in the back of his head and fell unconscious. She said debris beat up against them all, bruising them.When the water subsided and the worst of the wind calmed, Dorian had left behind a skeleton of what she once had."I have nothing. Everything is gone. It's either there," the woman said, gesturing off at the debris to one side of her, "there ..." she gestured to more debris behind her. "And I don't know, it's just awful," she said, beginning to cry. Homes flattened by Hurricane Dorian are seen in Abaco, Bahamas, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. The storm's devastation has come into sharper focus as the death toll climbed to 20 and many people emerged from shelters to check on their homes. (AP Photo/Gonzalo Gaudenzi) "I've been through many of a hurricane, this was, I don't know. A tidal wave, a tornado, a hurricane, everything in one," she said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's just devastating. I don't know if we'll ever come back from it. I don't know if I want to leave, if I want to stay. I don't know."For the Cook family, the aftermath of Dorian brought the most heartache as they said their goodbyes. After the helicopter doors slammed shut, Cook and her husband watched as the craft lifted off, taking their children away from the carnage left behind by Dorian.Reporting by Brandon Clement and Jonathan Petramala in the Bahamas.
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| Meteorologist charged with possessing and distributing child porn: Police Posted: 05 Sep 2019 08:30 PM PDT  60-year-old Mike Davis is accused of possessing what authorities describe as a significant number of child pornography images.
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| Mexico president says El Chapo's drug wealth should go to Mexico Posted: 05 Sep 2019 10:47 AM PDT ![Mexico president says El Chapo's drug wealth should go to Mexico]( "Mexico president says El Chapo's drug wealth should go to Mexico") Mexico's president on Thursday welcomed a proposal to give the alleged fortune of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the country's indigenous people, and said the wealth of Mexican criminals in the United States should be returned to Mexico. Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer for Guzman, said this week his client had proposed that billions of dollars in revenue that U.S. authorities had attributed to his business operations should be handed to indigenous communities in Mexico. Speaking at his regular morning news conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who earlier this year announced the creation of a "Robin Hood" institute to return ill-gotten wealth to the Mexican people, gave his approval to the idea.
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| Two Years After DACA Was Rescinded, Hundreds of Thousands of Dreamers Remain in Limbo. Even the Supreme Court Can't Fix the Problem Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:17 AM PDT  Two years after the Trump Administration announced that it was rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Congress has done nothing to help the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have no protections from deportation or path to citizenship.
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| Bernie Sanders Advocates Population Control in ‘Poor Countries’ Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT  During yesterday evening's lengthy climate-change town hall, Democratic candidates proposed a variety of increasingly absurd policies to address environmental issues. California senator Kamala Harris, for instance, continued her theme of promising to arrogate unconstitutional power to herself as president, announcing that she would deal with supposed GOP obstruction on climate change by abolishing the filibuster.Entirely ignored during the course of the event was the fact that all seven Democratic senators running for president have signed on as cosponsors of the Green New Deal in the Senate but, when it came to the floor this spring, refused to vote for it. So much for an "existential threat."The most outrageous comment came from Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who responded to a question about population growth by expressing support for taxpayer-funded abortion in poor countries. Here's the full exchange:> Audience member: Good evening. Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it's crucial to face. Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?> > Sanders: The answer is yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions. The Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control, to me is totally absurd. I think especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it's something I very, very strongly support.Sanders isn't alone in linking abortion rights to concerns about the climate. Some of the most ardent abortion-rights activists routinely lament the choice to have children, on the grounds that doing so is bad for the environment. Pro-abortion organizations, meanwhile, turn that unwarranted concern into a policy agenda, spending their resources foisting abortion and contraception on women in Africa, most of whom want no part of it.Pushing birth control and abortion as a means of lowering population growth, and specifically of eliminating "undesirable" populations, is not a new tactic on the part of progressives. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, for instance, was a pioneer in the eugenics movement's effort to provide contraception to minority communities, largely to limit the continued growth of what she deemed unwanted populations. Sanger put a fine point on this in her writings: "The feebleminded are notoriously prolific in reproduction."In the early 20th century, many medical experts, lawmakers, and activists in the U.S. even went so far as to advocate forced sterilization, which came to fruition in the widespread use of government-sanctioned, federally funded sterilizations targeted at thousands of disabled and mentally ill people, immigrants, minority women, and the poor. This regime was sanctioned by the Supreme Court's decision in Buck v. Bell (1927). Referring to the defendant, who had been sterilized at birth, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that "three generations of imbeciles are enough." That horrific decision has never been overturned.In his 1968 manifesto The Population Bomb, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich turned the concern about minority overpopulation into a broader movement concerned that human reproduction in general would contribute to the apocalypse. Ehrlich swore that the end was nigh, predicting "an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity" within the following 15 years.Adherents of Ehrlich's group Zero Population Growth embraced the notion that childbearing ought to be forbidden, and Ehrlich argued that compulsion would be acceptable. "There's too many people, and we'd like to see people have fewer children and better ones," Ehrlich's disciple Stewart Brand said at the time. "Maybe anybody who's thinking of having a third child ought to go hungry a week."Ehrlich favored creating a blacklist of anyone who impeded population control, imposing taxes on those who had children, and awarding responsibility prizes to childless couples. The worldwide fear about his predictions was acted on most aggressively in India, where the government conducted 8 million sterilizations over a period of two years in the 1970s.But Ehrlich has been proven obviously and dramatically wrong — and not because citizens of the world listened to his cries and ceased reproducing. "I was recently criticized because I had said many years ago that I would bet that England wouldn't exist in the year 2000," he said in a 2014 interview. "Well, England did exist in the year 2000, but that was only 14 years ago."Even so, today's progressives evidently have internalized Ehrlich's theories, despite no longer advocating methods as aggressive as forced sterilization. By advocating taxpayer-funded abortion in "poor countries," Sanders not only exaggerates the environmental threat of overpopulation but also displays grotesque chauvinism in his demand that the world comply with the West's determination to exterminate our future.
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| Scientists discover new 'beaked' whale species off Japanese coast Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:24 AM PDT  A small black whale found in Pacific Ocean waters off the northern coastline of Japan has been identified by scientists as a new species. Whalers based in Japan's northernmost island Hokkaido are thought to have long been aware of the existence of the beaked whales, referring to them by a local name karasu, meaning "crow". Scientists from the National Museum of Nature and Science at Hokkaido University have confirmed that the rare whales are a species that has never been formally identified. Their findings were based on the examination of several deceased specimens, including DNA testing, which led to the cetaceans being officially named the Black Baird's beaked whale, or Berardius minimus (B. minimus). Professor Takashi Matsuishi, from the Fisheries Sciences faculty at Hokkaido University, told Science Daily: "There are still many things we don't know about B. minimus. We still don't know what adult females look like, and there are still many questions related to species distribution, for example. We hope to continue expanding what we know about B. minimus." The animals were known to whalers but had never been formally identified Beaked whales are known to be low profile, with a capacity to dive for long periods and a preference for deep waters, which means their behaviour has not been as well documented as many other cetaceans. Researchers reportedly tapped into the Marine Mammal Stranding networks, which shares information among scientists about stranded or deceased marine mammals. They subsequently collected six stranded beaked whales along the Japan's northern coast off the Okhost Sea before conducting in-depth analysis of their make-up. "Just by looking at them, we could tell that they have a remarkably smaller body size, more spindle-shaped body, a shorter beak, and darker color compared to known Berardius species," added Tadasu Yamada, a member of the research team and curator of the National Museum of Nature and Science. The discovery of the new whale species, suspected to be the same as the "karasu" type long spotted by local whalers, comes shortly after Japan resumed its controversial whaling practices after a 33 year hiatus. Hokkaido has long been known as one of Japan's whaling hubs, with many whalers based in Kushiro port.
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| Korean Peninsula awaits typhoon; dozens of flights canceled Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:24 AM PDT  Dozens of flights were canceled and parks were closed in South Korea on Friday as powerful Typhoon Lingling gained momentum on its path toward the Korean Peninsula. The Korea Meteorological Association said the typhoon is expected to pass off the west coast of South Korea on Saturday afternoon before making landfall in North Korea on Saturday evening. The agency warned of possible flooding, landslides and structure damage caused by strong rains combined with very strong winds expected nationwide until early Sunday.
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| Trudeau says China uses detentions as political tool Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:06 PM PDT  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday accused Beijing of using "arbitrary detentions" as a tool in pursuit of political goals -- the latest broadside in a diplomatic and trade row with China. Canada's relations with China soured after its arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant last December. Nine days later, Beijing detained two Canadians -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- accusing them of espionage in a move widely viewed as retaliation.
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| Southern US to feel like middle of summer as record heat builds into this weekend Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:45 AM PDT  Record-challenging heat will make it feel like the middle of summer across the southern United States through the weekend.Dry conditions and plenty of sunshine will stretch from eastern Texas to Georgia on Friday as an area of high pressure settles over the region.Temperatures across much of this area will climb into the middle to upper 90s F, while farther west in Louisiana and eastern Texas, highs are expected to peak near 100 F. "In fact, record highs may be challenged in several locations, such as Dallas, Houston and Shreveport, Louisiana, just to name a few," AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson said.Houston is expected to reach 101 F on Friday, breaking the record of 99 F, last reached in 1909.Sweltering heat will spread farther north across the Southeast by Saturday in the wake of Hurricane Dorian moving away from the mid-Atlantic coast.Heat will peak in most places on Saturday with high temperatures ranging from the middle 90s along the Southeast coast to the lower 100s in eastern Texas.Normal highs for the beginning of September across this region range from the middle 80s to lowers 90s.It will feel even hotter across the region as AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures reach above 100 F. It may even feel as hot as 110 F away from the coast. Several record highs were tied or broken across the south on Thursday. In Vero Beach, Florida, which had been at risk from impacts from Dorian earlier in the week, the high temperature of 97 broke the old Sept. 5 record of 96 set back in 1996. New Orleans tied its record of 97; the last time the city hit 97 on Sept. 5 was in 2000.Those along the Southeast coast left without power in the wake of Dorian will need to take extra precautions, such as drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated and taking frequent breaks in the shade during strenuous activity.While Sunday will still be hot, the arrival of some spotty showers and thunderstorms can help to keep temperatures a couple of degrees lower from eastern North Carolina to the panhandle of Florida.Temperatures will remain on the higher side into the beginning of next week, but more widespread showers and thunderstorms will knock temperatures down by a couple degrees in most locations."Temperatures should fall below 100 degrees in most areas by Sunday and Monday," added Adamson, "but it will still likely be above normal for early September, with widespread mid-90s."Download the free AccuWeather app to keep track of temperature trends in your area. 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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| Blind father carries disabled son to safety as their house is destroyed by Hurricane Dorian Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:52 AM PDT  The roof had blown clean off. Outside, the ocean surged, swallowing the land.Brent Lowe knew he had to escape — and take his 24-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy and cannot walk, with him.
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| Police: Fotis Dulos Was ‘Lying in Wait’ for Estranged Wife the Day She Vanished Posted: 05 Sep 2019 08:16 AM PDT  New Canaan Police DepartmentConnecticut investigators working to get to the bottom of what happened to missing mother Jennifer Dulos say a truck her estranged husband used on the day she vanished was found to have a "bloodlike substance" inside it—and he allegedly went to great lengths to conceal it by having the vehicle professionally cleaned, according to an arrest warrant application. Police took Fotis Dulos into custody Wednesday afternoon and charged him for a second time with tampering with evidence. According to the The Hartford Courant, he posted a $500,000 bond and was released Wednesday evening. Upon his release, Dulos apparently made no mention of his estranged wife, who has been missing since May 24, telling the Courant, "It's an exhausting fight, I love my children, that's about it."In an arrest warrant application detailing the evidence behind his arrest, investigators said Dulos "has declined to cooperate with this investigation in any way" since refusing to provide an interview with police the day after Jennifer Dulos went missing. The warrant application paints a detailed picture of what investigators say happened on the day the mother of five dropped her kids off at school only to never be seen again. After borrowing an employee's Toyota Tacoma, Dulos is believed to have traveled to his estranged wife's New Canaan home where he was "lying in wait" when she returned home, the warrant application says. At the home, investigators later found signs of a "serious physical assault," including "multiple areas within the garage which tested positive for human blood as well as evidence of attempts to clean the scene," according to the arrest warrant application. Surveillance cameras in Hartford reportedly picked up a man resembling Fotis Dulos driving a large pickup truck and "stopping at multiple locations to dumb garbage bags in several trash cans" the night Jennifer Dulos went missing, according to the warrant application. Two Arrested in Case of Missing Mom Jennifer DulosThe 43-page document says cell phone records and surveillance footage indicate that Dulos, who was involved in a volatile divorce battle with Jennifer, drove off with her vehicle after first arriving at her home in the borrowed Toyota Tacoma that was "used in the commission of the crime." When Dulos allegedly drove off in his estranged wife's car, it was believed to be carrying "the body of Jennifer Dulos," the warrant application said. Investigators reportedly learned of the role the Toyota Tacoma truck allegedly played after Pawel Gumienny, an employee of Dulos' home-development business, told them he had replaced the rear seats in the vehicle at Dulos' insistence. Gumienny later told police that Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis had used his truck on the day Jennifer went missing and taken it to get washed without his knowledge or permission five days later. Over the next several days, he said Dulos became "pushy" about urging him to swap out the seats in the vehicle, and later asked him if he had "seen anything" on the day Jennifer vanished. Police later found Dulos' blood on one of the seats in the vehicle. Troconis, who was allegedly with Dulos when he had the truck cleaned, allegedly told investigators he claimed to be cleaning up "coffee" in the truck. When pressed by investigators to explain why the vehicle needed to be cleaned, however, she allegedly said the "evidence" presented to her by police suggests "it's because the body of Jennifer at some point was in there." Investigators also said they found "alibi scripts" in Dulos' business office— handwritten notes that Troconis is said to have told detectives were meant to "help them remember" their activities on the day Jennifer Dulos vanished. Much of the information, including alibi witnesses, turned out to be false, investigators said. Norm Pattis, Dulos' lawyer, told the Courant the arrest didn't "even rise to the level of a jab" and said his client would plead not guilty. As for the new details revealed in the arrest warrant application, he told The New York Times, "There's not much here that we hadn't heard before, and I question the wisdom of these charges at this late date."Dulos and Troconis were initially arrested on tampering with evidence charges in early June before being released on $500,000 bail. Clothes, Sponges Stained With Missing Mom Jennifer Dulos' Blood Found in Trash Cans: PoliceRead 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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| Pentagon chief says he currently has no plan to seize Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1 Posted: 05 Sep 2019 04:04 PM PDT  U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Thursday he currently had no plan on his desk to seize the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, which is at the center of a dispute between Tehran and Western powers. The vessel, formerly named Grace 1, was detained by British Royal Marine commandos off Gibraltar on July 4 as it was suspected to be en route to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions. "We do not talk about plans, but currently I have no plan right now sitting on my desk to do such a thing," Esper told reporters in London when asked if there was any plan to seize the ship.
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| Hong Kong Braces for Another Weekend of Protests Despite Extradition Bill Withdrawal Posted: 06 Sep 2019 02:56 AM PDT  Protesters say that the extradition bill's withdrawal was too little, too late
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| 2019 Honda Civic Type R vs. 1991 Acura NSX in Photos Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| Joe Biden's eye fills with blood during climate town hall Posted: 05 Sep 2019 05:53 PM PDT  Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel on concerns over Biden's health.
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| Zimbabwe's Catholic Church launches bid to make British missionary its first saint Posted: 05 Sep 2019 08:56 AM PDT  A British lay missionary could be declared Zimbabwe's first ever saint, as the Catholic Church on Thursday began a three-day ceremony to determine whether John Bradburne qualifies for canonisation on the 40th anniversary of his death. Bradburne worked among lepers in what was then known as Rhodesia, and refused to leave his post even as the civil war intensified. The country's Catholic Church will hear arguments for and against Bradburne's sainthood. Many Catholics from Zimbabwe and beyond make an annual pilgrimage to the site where he lived, worked and died, and several people say they have been healed after praying to him. Bradburne arrived in Rhodesia in 1969, just before the war began and became warden of the Mutemwa mission station about 90 miles north east of Harare, not far from the border with Mozambique. Supporters claim Bradburne's miracles include curing brain tumour patient Credit: John Bradburne Memorial Society He worked at the Mutemwa Leprosy and Care Centre which was established 30 years earlier. Even after the Catholics evacuated its white priests from north eastern Zimbabwe earlier in the year, Mr Bradburne, a tall, thin, long-haired man, who colleagues say spoke like a British aristocrat, refused to leave, and continued to attend to lepers, write poetry and play his harmonium in the tin hut in which he lived. He was abducted and shot dead on a road in the bush. John Bradburne was killed in Zimbabwe Credit: Paul Grover Earlier this year, one of Bradburne's colleagues at that time, Father Fidelis Mukonori, said he was in Mutemwa about two weeks before Bradburne was killed. "I never thought at that time that this could happen," he said. "It was the most shocking news." Father Mukonori was a senior Jesuit who had a special relationship with former President Robert Mugabe, and ended up mediating during the coup d'état in 2017. Mr Mugabe, 95, who is a Catholic, was leader of guerrilla forces in Mozambique that killed Bradburne. Other senior church leaders were also killed by both sides in the war.
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| Walmart’s Retreat on Guns Means Woke Capitalism Is Here to Stay Posted: 04 Sep 2019 11:09 AM PDT  My first job was selling guns at Walmart. I was a clerk in the sporting-goods department at our local store in Georgetown, Ky. Georgetown was a much smaller place then. This was years before Toyota came to town, put an immense car plant in a field not far from my house, and started producing Camrys by the tens of thousands. The population was less than 10,000, tobacco farms dotted the countryside, and Future Farmers of America was one of the largest clubs in my high school.This was also the era when students would roll into class in the morning still wearing hunting camouflage, with their rifles in the trunks of their cars or mounted in their pickups. So when I started my work life selling guns, the only thing that was notable about my job was the wage — $3.70 per hour, a full 35 cents more than minimum wage.I can't tell you how many rifles, pistols, and handguns I sold during my brief Walmart career. It was the same procedure every time. The customer would fill out a form, I'd take their money, and either hand them the firearm at the counter, or — if they bought ammunition at the same time — walk them to the front of the store before I gave them their new gun. It was a fun job for a teenager, and I learned a great deal about guns.So I was more interested than most to read about Walmart's latest retreat from the firearms business. Responding to the recent string of mass shootings — including one in a Walmart store in El Paso — the company announced that it was ending sales of handgun ammunition and ammunition for AR-style rifles. The company's CEO also called for a debate on renewing an assault weapons ban and for strengthened background checks. Walmart had already largely stopped selling handguns and so-called "assault weapons," and now a company born and bred in deep-red America was decisively breaking with the culture that was indispensable in making Walmart the mightiest retailer in the land.Woke capital is here to stay, and Walmart proves it. At first glance, Walmart's decision is mystifying. What's next? NASCAR going all-Prius to save the planet? Even if you grant the reality that Walmart has grown far beyond its original red-state base, why would the company want to alienate half their customer base?But that's old America-style thinking. This is new America, and new America is in the grips of profound negative polarization. "Negative polarization" means, simply, that Americans who participate in politics are motivated more by distaste (more like disgust) for the other side than they are by any particular affection for their own. Indeed, affection for politicians on your own side is often dependent on the level of disgust they can display for your opposition.In this new America, the calculus has changed. It used to be that if you spoke as a corporation you risked alienating customers. Now, you also risk alienating customers if you don't speak. Silence has costs. In an article last year about Walmart's corporate turn to the left, Walmart officials cited marketing data indicating that the overwhelming majority of Walmart customers wanted it to "take a stand on important social issues."Now, in a closely divided nation, whose values will the corporation champion? All other things being equal, the answer is obvious — the company will stand for the values of the people making the decision. This is the most human thing in the world. Once the decision is forced on a corporation, how many people of conviction will choose to advance ideas they loathe? At best, they'll stay silent and ride out the backlash from failing to take a stand. A corporate ethos that used to say to leaders, "Keep your head down and do your work," is being replaced by an ethos that declares, "You have power and a platform. Use them."And the values at issue become self-reinforcing. Corporate executives compete for top talent, and the biographies of these people tend to look a lot like the executives' own — often from elite institutions, frequently from America's economically dynamic urban centers, and, failing that, still highly educated.That's the American demographic that's blue -- and getting bluer every year.Moreover, aside from a few exceptional moments, companies don't truly face meaningful market penalties for taking controversial stands. Sure, some consumers may boycott, but others will seek them out. The vast bulk of the dissenters may grumble, but they'll still shop. After all, if they truly like a Nike shoe, or if they have piles of frequent-flyer points at American Airlines, or if Walmart is far closer and more convenient than any other comparable store, the vast majority of consumers won't sacrifice convenience, price, or perks for their politics.In the final analysis, the incentives are clear. Corporate executives are motivated by their own values (and the peer pressure of like-minded colleagues) to take progressive political stands, and the market doesn't materially punish their choice. As for consumers? They still shop, but their polarization proceeds apace — they're embittered (or thrilled) by decisions that have nothing at all to do with the products they seek.
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| Israeli-Palestinian peace deal architect Greenblatt resigns Posted: 05 Sep 2019 09:23 AM PDT  Jason Greenblatt, a key architect of President Donald Trump's much-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, announced his resignation Thursday. Greenblatt, who worked alongside Trump's powerful son in law Jared Kushner, said in a statement it had been "the honor of a lifetime" to work in the White House.
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| 'We owe it to them': Bahamian ships prepare for relief missions Posted: 04 Sep 2019 03:45 PM PDT  As a humanitarian crisis unfolded in the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, a flotilla of ships and boats was preparing on Wednesday to begin ferrying relief supplies to areas of the island-nation hardest hit by the Category 5 storm. Tens of thousands of people on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco need food, water and medical supplies after Dorian pulverized their homes and sent storm waves crashing through communities. Not enough helicopters were available to get the aid to where it was needed, with the main airport on Grand Bahama not yet operating, according to a Reuters photographer, making it impossible to get fixed-wing aircraft in and out.
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| A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt accidentally fired off a rocket over Arizona Posted: 06 Sep 2019 06:14 AM PDT  It happened again. This is the second time this year an A-10 has unintentionally released munitions in an area where it shouldn't have.
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| Woman sets herself on fire after being charged for illegally entering football match in Iran Posted: 04 Sep 2019 12:44 PM PDT  An Iranian woman has set herself on fire outside a court in Tehran after being tried for resisting arrest by morality police for trying to enter a football stadium disguised as a male spectator. According to Rokna news agency, the woman, named only as Sahar, has been taken to a local hospital with life-threatening burns. A spokesperson for Iran's judiciary has said the woman "had been engaged in a physical confrontation with security forces in February" after resisting arrest on charges of and insulting police and bad-hejabi, refusing to abide by strict Muslim dress codes. She had been detained but later released to appear in court on charges of "insulting the public by defying the dress code for women", according to court papers. Ahead of a court hearing on Monday she says she was told by a source that she faces six months in prison. She asked the judge to postpone her trial so she could attend a funeral. When she came out of the building she set herself on fire in front of the usually crowded complex that houses several courts. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 Iranian women have been banned from attending football stadiums as the clerical regime regards watching men playing football in shorts "promoting promiscuity". Dr. Mustafa Dehmardi, the head of accident and emergency at Motahari hospital in Tehran, told Rokna news agency that Sahar had burns caused by petrol fire on 90 per cent of her body. She is currently in the hospital's intensive care unit. Iranian women's rights activists have long been campaigning to enter sports stadiums, and in recent years they have been allowed to attend volleyball matches only if accompanied by their spouses in designated areas.
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| Confrontation between ICE and suspect leads to shots fired Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:54 PM PDT ![Confrontation between ICE and suspect leads to shots fired]( "Confrontation between ICE and suspect leads to shots fired") An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent opened fire in a grocery store parking lot in Tennessee early Thursday during an attempted apprehension, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox said. ICE called Nashville police about the weapons discharge just after 7 a.m., but the suspect had not been apprehended as of midafternoon. Nashville Mayor David Briley released a statement saying police were looking for the man so that he could receive medical assistance.
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| NASA Stumped by Weird Green Blobs Posted: 06 Sep 2019 08:25 AM PDT  What are they doing up there?
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| Boris Johnson’s Brother Quits Parliament And Everyone Cracks The Same Gag Posted: 05 Sep 2019 05:39 AM PDT  Twitter users are flipping an age-old excuse on its head to troll Britain's prime minister.
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| Merkel in Beijing says Hong Kong freedoms must be 'guaranteed' Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:45 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong "must be guaranteed" after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Hong Kong has been plunged into months of pro-democracy protests, and ahead of her three-day visit to China this week demonstrators in the semi-autonomous city appealed to the German chancellor to support them in her meetings with China's leadership.
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| Hurricane Dorian is lashing North Carolina, with Virginia and other states in its path. Here is where and when it's due to go next Posted: 06 Sep 2019 02:23 AM PDT  Hurricane Dorian is bringing winds "near hurricane force" and "life-threatening" storm surge to North Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said.
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| Exclusive: U.S. congressional probe finds possible lapses in Deutsche Bank controls - sources Posted: 06 Sep 2019 12:10 AM PDT  LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. congressional investigators have identified possible failures in Deutsche Bank AG's money laundering controls in its dealings with Russian oligarchs, after the lender handed over a trove of transaction records, emails and other documents, three people familiar with the matter said. The congressional inquiry found instances where Deutsche Bank staff in the United States and elsewhere flagged concerns about new Russian clients and transactions involving existing ones, but were ignored by managers, two of the people said. Lawmakers are also examining whether Deutsche Bank facilitated the funneling of illegal funds into the United States as a correspondent bank, where it processes transactions for others, one of the sources said.
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| States, politicians back gun-maker in Sandy Hook appeal Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:17 AM PDT  Ten states and nearly two dozen members of Congress are joining the National Rifle Association in supporting gun-maker Remington Arms as it fights a Connecticut court ruling involving liability for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Officials in the 10 conservative states, 22 House Republicans and the NRA are among groups that filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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| So...Why Did This Underwater Data Station Suddenly Just Disappear? Posted: 05 Sep 2019 12:01 PM PDT  The scientific instruments have vanished. Only questions remain.
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| The 102 Most Delish Ways To Eat Potatoes Posted: 05 Sep 2019 01:21 PM PDT |
| At Clark Air Base in the Philippines, Ghosts of U.S. Power Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:16 AM PDT  Bullit Marquez/APCLARK FREEPORT, Philippines—The tarnished carcasses of old fighter planes litter the landscape here, relics of what once was the biggest American air base outside the United States. In the Cold War days, combat aircraft and transports would take off in their hundreds, heading for targets from the Middle East to Vietnam to Korea. But these days, as new Cold Wars loom on the horizon with Russia and especially China, this historic former base is a symbol of emptiness in American defense policy.The storied parade ground is still here, an expanse of greensward over which generals once presided as the base grew from an old Spanish cavalry post in 1898 to a symbol of global U.S. power. As tremors in mid-June 1991 shook Mount Pinatubo, looming ominously 10 miles to the west, a U.S. Geological Survey team warned of one of history's most dramatic volcanic blasts. The American commander, Air Force Major General William Studer, ordered the withdrawal of all 14,500 troops and civilians along with almost all the planes two days before the first of 42 eruptions in three days coughed up a firestorm of lava, mud and dust.Trump Once Said He Could Get Away With Murder. In the Philippines, Duterte Does That All The Time.The Americans would never return—but not because the base, covered by ash and volcanic mud was beyond repair. The reason was rejection three months later of a new bases treaty by a Philippine senate eager to defy the "imperial power" that had ruled the Philippines as successor to the Spanish until the Japanese in 1942 inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats in U.S. military history. True, the Americans, having recovered the country in terrible battles with the Japanese in 1945, granted independence to the Philippines in 1946, appropriately on July 4. But over the years Philippine "nationalists," as they called themselves, resented the close ties between the Americans and Philippine leaders, notably the long-ruling Ferdinand Marcos, deposed in 1986 in a bloodless "People Power" revolution. In 1991 the senate president, Jovito Salonga, proudly cast the deciding ballot as the senate spurned the treaty, 12 to 11, a triumph recounted by Salonga in his book, The Senate that Said No.* * *THE CHINESE SEA* * *The Americans were gone for good—and not only from Clark but from Subic Bay, their biggest overseas naval base, on the other side of Pinatubo, 47 miles southwest in the South China Sea. Today, the Chinese Communist Party is claiming more of those waters as its own. And this place that is now a tawdry Philippine Air Force base is a sad symbol of misplaced nationalism at a time when officials in Manila watch with consternation as Beijing marauds.China purports to rule virtually all the South China Sea, menacing Philippine forces still clinging to tiny enclaves in the Spratly Islands where the Chinese have built an air strip and facilities for warships. As if that weren't enough, Chinese boats, buoys and a floating chain keep Philippine fishermen from the fish-rich Scarborough Shoal, long claimed by the Philippines, 165 miles west of Subic.President Rodrigo Duterte, best known for his brutal crackdown on drug dealers and users, has been trying to curry favor with China's President Xi Jinping, whom he saw last week on his fifth trip to Beijing since his election three years ago.Talk of a revival of the old relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines, still bound by a mutual defense treaty with the United States dating from 1951, has faded since Duterte stopped American warships from paying courtesy calls at Subic. Several thousand U.S. and Philippine troops do stage annual Balikatan—"shoulder to shoulder"—exercises but stay clear of the Chinese, a force the Americans are in no position to challenge without their historic bases.Reminders of a bygone era are visible around the Clark Freeport in the form of old buildings that once served the Americans. Some are hollow shells, others rebuilt after a wave of looting in which Filipinos, with the connivance of high-ranking military officers, stripped the base of just about anything that might be sold on the open market, including copper wiring, pipes, and plumbing, as well as weapons and expensive electronic gadgetry. That era of massive thievery, an epidemic that officials prefer not to discuss, appears forgotten while planners welcome new investment, and headlines proclaim the dangers posed by the Chinese.* * *ANGELES CITY* * *The contrast between old and new times is nowhere so clear as in the transition of Clark Field from a strategic military base to a civilian airport. The Philippine Air Force, reduced to a handful of helicopters, old transports and jet trainers, manages only occasional flights off a single strip serving a dozen airliners packed with hard-charging passengers in pursuit of all the fun on offer at both Clark and in adjacent Angeles City."We say there's not just life after the bases," says Noel Tulabut, communications manager of the Clark Development Corporation, "There's new life, period." That includes factories and shops on the base, two 18-hole and two 9-hole golf courses and four casinos.In a society said to have emerged from 400 years in a convent and 50 years in Hollywood, beyond the guarded entries to Clark the city of Angeles throbs to the beat of one of Asia's most raucous, wide-open entertainment districts. Young women, clad in brief but not overly revealing attire, as required by law, prance and dance on stages while still more women saunter up and down Fields Avenue and nearby streets ogled by men from around the world. Lingerie shops and massage parlors are interspersed among the nightclubs while drugs are available on back streets and narrow alleys despite Duterte's war on dealers, said to have cost 10,000 lives in police raids and vengeance killings.U.S. military people who once lit up "the red light district," as it's widely known, may no longer be around, but greying retirees, most of them living with Filipinas, hang out in the bars and clubs. Some of them congregate at Margarita Station, a legendary restaurant and pool hall run by a retired U.S. air force officer near what was once the main gate to the former base. Old-timers at Margarita Station complain authorities are imposing new rules for the gaudy clubs, but visitors from South Korea and other Asian countries, plus Europe, Australia and the U.S., keep the place humming. The district flourishes decades after American GIs crowded the strip, rivalled only by the wild nightclubs of Olongapo by Subic Bay, a 90-minute drive to the west.These days the goal is "to make Clark the main airport for the Philippines," says Augusto Sanchez at the Clark International Airport Corporation. By the time Duterte steps down when his six-year term ends in 2022, says Sanchez, "a whole new infrastructure will be in place, all part of the Clark Freeport managed by the Clark Development Corporation."Now the most numerous visitors to Clark are Koreans, who fill the flights from South Korea in pursuit of all Clark and Angeles City have to offer. The three G's of golf, gambling and girls lure so many visitors that the airport is adding another terminal and two more strips. After all that's done, maybe by next year, Clark should be poised to surpass Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport as the Philippines' main gateway. Befitting its rising stature, it's even getting a new name, Lipad, which means "fly" in Tagalog and also is the acronym for Luzon International Premier Airport Development—Luzon being the name of the Philippines' main island.* * *A PRETENSE OF DEFENSE* * *If Clark is already a center for business plus entertainment, what's left of the Philippine Air Force shows the futility of standing up to Chinese claims to the entire South China Sea.The weakness of the Philippines militarily was evident in the rhetoric of the Philippines foreign affairs secretary, Teodoro Locsin Jr., as he protested the encroachment of a Chinese vessel among Philippine islands far to the south. "Fire diplomatic protests over the Chinese warship," Locsin inveighed before an indignant Philippine senate committee. "Drop the diplomatic crap. Say it is ours, period. Say they are trespassing."Sure, as if the big talk would have the slightest impact on the Chinese, building new bases of their own on the Spratly Islands in defiance of claims by not only the Philippines but also Vietnam, Malaysia and even the small sultanate of Brunei, on the southern fringe of the sea. Forty Years After U.S. Recognition, China Is 'America's Greatest Foreign Policy Failure'Such remarks appear all the more absurd considering that President Duterte has assiduously cozied up to China. He's repeatedly implied that China may be a more reliable friend than the U.S. as a result of the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1991 and 1992 from Clark and SubicDuterte, sensitive to criticism that he's been overly friendly to Beijing, believes the latter-day Americans simply won't do much, if anything, to defend the Philippines in a showdown. In a commentary dripping with sarcasm he told a local TV audience, "I would like America to gather all their Seventh Fleet in front of China." Were that to happen, he said, "I will join them."More seriously, in Beijing last week, Duterte raised the issue of Chinese poaching in Philippine waters with President Xi—and even dared to say a ruling in 2016 by a U.N.-backed panel in The Hague rejecting China's claim to sovereignty over the entire South China Sea was "binding," not subject to appeal. Good luck with that. Xi brushed aside Duterte's claim, restating the oft-repeated Chinese position that the panel has no jurisdiction over anything China does. Rather, said the New China News Agency, reporting not a word about the ruling, the two preferred to "set aside disputes, eliminate external interference, and concentrate on conducting cooperation, making pragmatic efforts and seeking development."For Duterte, the payoff might lie in a deal for sharing the bounty of the sea, perhaps agreeing to a code of conduct for all competing claimants. But there's a lot more at stake than fishing rights. "I'm most interested in the extraction of the natural resources," oil and natural gas, Duterte told reporters. In another rhetorical flourish, a spokesperson said bravely, "Either we get a compliance in a friendly manner or we enforce it in an unfriendly manner." In fact, the weakness of the Philippine armed forces is manifest. Its 170,000 troops have to defend the country's 8,000 or so islands against not only external threats but also twin Muslim and communist revolts.Among Duterte's foes is the country's vice president, Leni Robredo, a lawyer whose husband, a former cabinet minister, died in a plane crash seven years ago. The winner in a separate vote for vice president in the 2016 elections, Robredo accuses Duterte of "selling out" to China."The president has made a lot of statements which give a sense we are acquiescing to what China wants," she said in an interview with Bloomberg. "We might wake up one day, and many of our territories are no longer ours."At Clark, such dire verbiage causes little concern. The civilian airport here passed a milestone of two million passengers in the first half of this year, and Texas Instruments and Samsung Electronics spin out semiconductors and other electronic products inside the zone. Three hours from Manila by a congested expressway and teeming city streets, the airport will in a few years be connected by a railroad, bringing it within an hour of the swarming capital.Robert Brady, a pilot for FedEx who spent five years living on Clark while his father was based here in the 1970s, recalls the good old days with mixed feelings. "There used to be houses here," he says, taking pictures by the old parade ground in between flights. "My old house was destroyed." But he's hopeful about the future: "The base is looking better. I wish them well. The Koreans are investing. The Koreans are everything." As for the danger posed by the Chinese in the South China Sea, that's a bad dream on a distant horizon. In Air Force City, a corner of the sprawling former base still dedicated to the armed forces, decrepit cement barracks still show signs of the damage inflicted by Pinatubo's cinder and ash. On the grass outside, signs warn, "Watch Out for Low-Flying Golf Balls," nothing about enemy planes or missiles. 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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| New video raises questions about Kavanaugh accuser's testimony Posted: 05 Sep 2019 07:19 AM PDT  Newly uncovered video shows Christine Blasey Ford's lawyer saying Roe v. Wade was a motivation for her coming forward.
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| Stunning satellite images show Hurricane Dorian's floodwaters engulfing The Bahamas Posted: 05 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT ![Stunning satellite images show Hurricane Dorian's floodwaters engulfing The Bahamas]( "Stunning satellite images show Hurricane Dorian's floodwaters engulfing The Bahamas") A satellite image taken Monday shows the floodwaters that engulfed Grand Bahama Island after Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas.
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