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8,300 | Donald Trump Tweets He Is Ready To Hand Putin The Keys To Our Electoral System | Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning about his visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While most were his standard complaining about the media and trying to bolster his controversial meeting with the Russian strongman, one, in particular, stood out. According to Trump, he s ready to partner, yes, partner, in cyber security. No, that s not a joke.I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I ve already given my opinion .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017Um, sure. We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017The most notable tweet, though, was this one, which essentially said he s giving the fox the key to the hen house:Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017And then more deflection: and safe. Questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI had to ask the DNC 13 times for their SERVER, and were rejected, still don t . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017 have it. Fake News said 17 intel agencies when actually 4 (had to apologize). Why did Obama do NOTHING when he had info before election? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017The irony of partnering with Putin on securing the electoral system he s accused of hacking hasn t even escaped some Republicans. Sen. Marco Rubio is raising alarms:While reality & pragmatism requires that we engage Vladimir Putin, he will never be a trusted ally or a reliable constructive partner. 1/3 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 9, 2017Partnering with Putin on a Cyber Security Unit is akin to partnering with Assad on a Chemical Weapons Unit . 2/3 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 9, 2017We have no quarrel with Russia or the Russian people. Problem is with Putin & his oppression, war crimes & interference in our elections 1/3 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 9, 2017GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher agrees:Coordinating w/ Russia also risks glossing over serious US concerns re: Russian behavior, such as Ukraine invasion & cyber aggression. 6/10 Rep. Mike Gallagher (@RepGallagher) July 9, 2017John McCain handled with snark:During an interview on CBS s Face The Nation, McCain was asked about President Trump s earlier tweet in which the president said he talked with Putin during their meeting about creating an impenetrable Cyber Security unit to guard against election hacking. I m sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since he is doing the hacking, McCain said, laughing.It is somewhat comforting to know that elections are run by states, not the federal government and they are VERY reluctant to hand over that power. That doesn t mean, though, that Trump isn t going to do everything in his power to assist Putin in taking over our government and our internet.Featured image via Getty Images. | 0 |
8,301 | Factbox: Key players in South Africa's ANC leadership race | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress elects a new party leader to succeed President Jacob Zuma at a conference starting on Saturday. The winner will be favorite to become president of the country after a 2019 national election. Below are the main ANC leadership hopefuls. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa are the two front runners. NKOSAZANA DLAMINI-ZUMA The former minister and chairwoman of the African Union Commission has served in the cabinets of every South African president in the post-apartheid era. Dlamini-Zuma was married to President Zuma for over a decade and has four children with him. She is backed by the ANC s influential women s and youth leagues, as well as by Zuma and provincial party leaders close to him. For a profile of Dlamini-Zuma, see. The deputy president and former trade union leader is one of South Africa s richest people. Ramaphosa played an important role in the negotiations to end apartheid and in the drafting of South Africa s progressive 1996 constitution. He is supported by a diverse group of labour unions, communists and ANC members disillusioned with Zuma. For a profile of Ramaphosa, see. The ANC s treasurer general is one of the ruling party s top six senior leaders. A medical doctor by training, Mkhize also served as a party boss in the KwaZulu-Natal province, from where Zuma and Dlamini-Zuma hail. Some analysts see Mkhize as a compromise candidate for ANC leader who could reconcile the opposing factions supporting Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa. For a Reuters interview with Mkhize, see:. The human settlements minister is the daughter of anti-apartheid activist Walter Sisulu, a close friend of Nelson Mandela. Sisulu says Ramaphosa approached her to be his running mate but she turned down the offer. The minister in the presidency has also held senior cabinet positions including public enterprises minister. He served in underground structures of the ANC during white minority rule and was imprisoned on Robben Island, where the apartheid government kept political prisoners. The former premier of the Mpumalanga province has also worked as the ANC s treasurer general. Phosa has demanded that nominations for ANC leader in Mpumalanga be re-run, as he says he has proof that party members were told how to vote. Mpumalanga s current premier is a Zuma loyalist, David Mabuza, who is viewed by some as a kingmaker in the ANC race. The speaker of South Africa s lower house of parliament also briefly served as deputy president. She has said she has held talks with other leadership hopefuls to discuss the possibility of working together. | 1 |
8,302 | is too much screen time hurting your kids mental growth | dakota access pipeline violence grows as militarized police use extreme force tear gas on praying protesters
tuesday november by j d heyes tags dakota access pipeline protestors police violence naturalnews tensions are ratcheting up in a region of north dakota where construction of a pipeline that will take oil to a refinery facility in illinois is being built as protestors objecting to the project are clashing with increasingly militarized police the bismark tribune reported that police and protestors clashed as authorities moved in to break up a camp on private property belonging to the pipeline developersprotestors had initially formed a line of no surrender the paper said but it became a line of retreat in the face of a militarized police presence that overwhelmed hundreds of dakota access pipeline protestors pushing them back from the front line of resistance to their main campfor about five hours on thursday beginning around noon police officers pressed the protesters back about a halfmile on nd highway which was away from a new camp they had built earlier in the week that sat directly atop the pipeline easement rubber bullets bean bags smoke grenades and tasers unrest continued into the evening hours however as police said that two fires were started on a nearby bridge and protestors began lobbing molotov cocktails at officers in addition police reported two incidents where shots were firedthe tribune reported that one woman allegedly fired a handgun in the direction of police as she was being arrested while an armed man who was reportedly run off the road by protesters and was perhaps not connected to the protest had to be treated for a gunshot wound to the handas police moved in some protestors were urging calm and prayer but others threw rocks and water bottles at approaching officers eventually the crowd retreated under a barrage of pepper spray rubber and bean bag bullets smoke grenades and tasersby late afternoon flames and thick plumes of smoke belched out of the cab of one of three dakota access pipeline earth movers while protestors walked back to their main camp on us army corps of engineers landin all police arrested people the local sheriffs department said charging suspects with engaging in a riot maintaining a public nuisance and conspiracy to endanger by fire and explosiona day before the violence as reported by ami newswire opponents of the pipeline barricaded a highway and pitched their camp on private land these actions were led by members of the standing rock sioux tribethe previous weekend some people had been arrestedstanding rock chairman dave archambault ii issued a statement last week in which he blamed the rising militarization of police for the increased tensionsthe militarization of local law enforcement and enlistment of multiple law enforcement agencies from neighboring states is needlessly escalating violence and unlawful arrests against peaceful protesters at standing rock archambault said as quoted by ami newswire we do not condone reports of illegal actions but believe the majority of peaceful protesters are reacting to strongarm tactics and abuses by law enforcement destruction of burial grounds water are chief concerns law enforcement officers countered by saying that for the vast majority of the protest thus far they have shown remarkable patience and restraint and that they only moved after protestors became more aggressivemorton county sheriff kyle kirchmeier ticked off a list of alleged violations by protestors including buzzing a police helicopter with a drone and firing arrows in the direction of officers he also said that journalists had been harassed and security personnel assaultedfor months protesters have described us as an aggressive police force kirchmeier said in a prepared statement ami newswire reported we have done nothing but demonstrate patience and restraintprotestors are angry about the pipeline stretching across ancient burial grounds newstarget reported as well as the potential for pipeline leaks that would pollute local water sources sources | 0 |
8,303 | students to protest mikado for lack of engagement with controversial past | chinese immigrants demand protection from paris muggers david chazan telegraph august
thousands of angry chinese immigrants demonstrated in a paris suburb yesterday sun to demand police protection from muggers who they say prey on them because they are seen as easy targets
the death of a yearold chinese tailor after being badly beaten in a robbery earlier this month has lent new urgency to the long running complaint that asian immigrants are systematically attacked and robbed in the french capital
the chinese community is dying in silence read a slogan on a tshirt splashed with red to symbolise bloodstains worn by one demonstrator maike song
he said he joined the protest in aubervilliers to pay homage to chaoling zhang the father of two who died on august after being punched to ground in the northeastern suburb that is home to some chinese immigrants
no arrests have been made over the attack
about chinese residents of aubervilliers have been attacked and robbed since november according to the francochinese friendship association
it is because of prejudices that chinese people are weak docile and wealthy said fang a young female student ive been attacked three times in three years and my friends are suffering the same thing some have moved away from this area because of it i dont go out with a handbag any more
community workers say many muggings are committed by members of other minorities living in the area generally of arab or african origin
paris officials corroborated the figures but declined to identify the robbers by ethnic origin
many chinese immigrants own restaurants or shops and tend to be relatively welloff but are often reluctant to go to the police some victims have been illegal immigrants said dominique darden a social worker
the chinese community of paris has held other protests in recent years over the attacks
they happen almost every day because of poverty but its unbearable said a spokesman olivier wang no one should have to put up with this | 0 |
8,304 | 23 YR OLD SOMALI REFUGEE TURNED NATURALIZED CITIZEN ARRESTED FOR TERROR PLOT AGAINST US | From the amazing Ann Corcoran s Refugee Resettlement blog: Ho hum! Another of those Somalis we are still bringing into America as refugees at the rate of 800-900 a month has been indicted in Columbus, the city second only to Minneapolis as a city being colonized by a large population of Somali Muslim refugees (thanks to those religious non-profits hired by the federal government to place them!).This latest jihadist came here as a child and your tax dollars helped raise him! (I ll have more tomorrow, just wanted to get the news out while it s hot!) Stay tuned A 23-year-old resident of Columbus, Ohio, who trained with a group affiliated with al Qaeda has been arrested and charged with plotting an attack on American soil, the Justice Department revealed today.Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, a naturalized American citizen of Somali descent, had been instructed by a cleric to return to the United States and carry out an act of terrorism, the indictment said.The Justice Department stated that Mohamud was also an Islamic State sympathizer, and that his brother, Abdifatah Aden, was killed fighting with the group in Syria in 2013.According to court documents, Mohamud left the US a year ago with the intent to go to Syria and train with a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.In April 2014, he purchased a one-way ticket to Greece, but during a layover in Istanbul he failed to board a connecting flight to Athens and instead made his way to Syria.Once he reached his destination, Mohamud stated that he received training in shooting weapons, breaking into houses, explosives and hand-to-hand combat.The 23-year-old Columbus man aloes said that after completing his training, a cleric with the group Jabhat al-Nusrah instructed him to return to the US and commit an act of terror.The 23-year-old returned to the US in June 2014 with a plot to attack a military base or a correctional facility, targeting people in uniform, according to court documents. Mohamud talked about doing something big in the United States, the papers cited by ABC News indicate. He wanted to go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style. On Thursday, Mohamud was indicted on one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to terrorists, one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and one count of making false statements to the FBI.The first two counts, providing material support to terrorists and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization are each crimes punishable by up to 15 years in prison.Making false statements involving international terrorism carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.Mohamud was arrested on state charges February 21, 2015, and is expected to be transferred into federal custody based on today s indictment.Before Mohamud s brother was killed in battle on or around June 3, 2014, the two had exchanged emails discussing the 23-year-old s plans to travel to Syria and fight with Islamic State. In February, Mohamud asked Abdifatah Aden how he could send him money.Later that month, Mohamud was arrested at his Columbus home for allegedly providing a computer tablet an other material support to terrorist organizations abroad.Prosecutor Ron O Brien at the time asked a judge to set Mohamud s bond at $1million saying he was a flight risk and posed a threat to public safety.Mohamud s attorney, Sam Shamansky, insisted that his client was not a terrorist and would not flee because he was taking care of his ailing mother in Ohio.Via: UK Daily Mail | 0 |
8,305 | U.S. senator threatens to curb aid over U.N. resolution on Israel | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. senator who oversees the United States’ UN funding threatened on Friday to pull financial support for the international body if it moves forward with a vote on a resolution over Israeli settlements, and for any nation that backs the measure. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who oversees the Senate subcommittee that controls such assistance, said in a statement: “If the United Nations moves forward with the ill-conceived resolution, I will work to form a bipartisan coalition to suspend or significantly reduce United States assistance to the United Nations.” | 1 |
8,306 | Pope, Jordan's King Abdullah, discuss Trump's Jerusalem move | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis and Jordan s King Abdullah on Tuesday discussed U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, a move that both say is dangerous to Middle East peace. Abdullah and the pope spoke privately for about 20 minutes at the start of the king s visit to the Vatican and France. A Vatican statement said they discussed the promotion of peace and stability in the Mideast, with particular reference to the question of Jerusalem and the role of the Hashemite Sovereign as Custodian of the Holy Places . King Abdullah s Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Amman sensitive to any changes of status of the disputed city. When Trump announced his decision on Dec. 6, the pope responded by calling for the city s status quo to be respected, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts. Among an outpouring of international criticism, Jordan also rejected the U.S. decision, calling it legally null because it consolidated Israel s occupation of the eastern sector of the city. The United States was further isolated over the issue on Monday when it blocked a U.N. Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn. Both the Vatican and Jordan back a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with them agreeing on the status of Jerusalem as part of the peace process. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its united and eternal capital. The statement said both sides wanted to encourage negotiations. | 1 |
8,307 | Bernie Sanders' ghost tweeter keeps his Brooklyn accent | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Last August, Bernie Sanders sat on a Craigslist-bought beige couch in his Washington office plotting to steal the social media spotlight from 10 Republicans taking the stage for the first televised debate of the 2016 presidential campaign. Next to the Democratic presidential candidate, 74, sat 27-year-old Hector Sigala, his digital media director. For the next two hours, Sigala turned Sanders’ sometimes acerbic, sometimes funny running commentary into a stream of 140-character tweets using the hashtag #DebateWithBernie that stole the show - at least on Twitter. Some 17 million people were reached during the debate, according to the campaign’s Twitter data reviewed by Reuters. It was the first in a string of Twitter wins by Sanders during a presidential contest widely viewed as a coming-of-age moment for social media in national politics. Sanders didn’t even stop when the debate was interrupted by commercials. When an ad for a new Tom Hanks film appeared, he tweeted: “Tom Hanks. Finally. Somebody who makes some sense.” Eight months later, Sigala is a key lieutenant in the Sanders campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, one of a new breed of digital media specialists who have become indispensable in an election where platforms like Twitter allow candidates to communicate with supporters easily, bash opponents or swiftly counter-attack. Sigala goes everywhere – on dates, to parties and to restaurants – with his black backpack and MacBook laptop just in case something tweet-worthy breaks. He was driving his cousin to the airport last Wednesday when Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, said women who end pregnancies should be punished if the United States bans abortion, comments that were widely condemned. Sigala pulled the car over and tweeted: “Your Republican frontrunner, ladies and gentlemen. Shameful.” Sanders has close to 2 million followers on his Twitter campaign account and has tweeted nearly 8,000 times. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has tweeted less, 5,000 times, but she has nearly 6 million followers. Sanders, however, has an edge because his tweets are much more personalized than Clinton’s, say some social media strategy experts. “He’s been able to really resonate with (different groups) and connect with them on a level that many other candidates have not been able to do,” said marketing consultant and social media strategy specialist Dr. Kay Green. While Twitter could not provide data directly comparing the 2016 and 2012 presidential races, a spokesman said tweets about the Democrat and Republican primary debates held so far have been viewed 9 billion times. On Facebook, the number of interactions (likes, posts, comments and shares) related to the 2016 election is up exponentially. Facebook users engaged in 411.5 million interactions on average in January and February, up nearly threefold from the nearly 142 million per month average for all of 2015. “The most obvious difference in the social conversations around the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections is, simply put, size,” said Kellan Terry, an analyst with Brandwatch, a company that tracks and analyzes data from social media sites. “The volume of social mentions around this year’s presidential election is massive.” Sigala and Sanders met in 2012 when he interned in Sanders’ Senate office in Vermont. Sanders, he says, bonded with him during a stroll down Church Street in Burlington, discussing a topic only Internet nerds could love: net neutrality. Now, he manages both Sanders’ and his wife Jane’s social media accounts. In practice that means he is the person tweeting comments attributed to Sanders. On Twitter, “I am Bernie Sanders,” Sigala joked. Twitter tends to attract more millennials, who have largely backed the Brooklyn-born Vermont senator. The tweets and posts that get the best reaction are those that appear to be directly from Sanders’ mouth. “He used to come up with a lot of quips himself,” Sigala said of Sanders, but the rigors of the 2016 campaign schedule mean Sigala is now often the one doing the tweeting. Tweets about Sanders’ bread-and-butter issues like climate change, healthcare, race and gender typically roll off Sigala’s fingertips in a tone and style that would be hard to distinguish from the senator’s. Take, for example, a tweet from Sanders’ Twitter handle on March 18 in response to a debate over student tuition that was posted by Sigala in the first person: “Every public college and university in this country should be tuition-free. I know my opponent thinks it’s a radical idea, I don’t,” it said, taking a dig at Clinton. But some news events require Sanders’ sign-off. On the day of the Brussels bomb attacks, in which 32 people were killed, Sigala had to wait hours before getting the go-ahead from a busy Sanders to post a condolence message. On a recent afternoon, Sigala was sitting in a Washington office posting messages to various social media sites while a college basketball game played on a nearby TV. When he isn’t live-tweeting or reacting to breaking news, he’s referring to a Microsoft Word document that contains 54 pages of prepared tweets on a list of issues. When he took over the @BernieSanders Twitter account last May it had 50,000 followers. He would check it obsessively each day to see how many new followers it had attracted. Now, with nearly 2 million followers, Sigala is less focused on the numbers and more interested in figuring out which tweets perform best. For example, he has discovered through trial and error that a tweet reading “We have got to” do something will do significantly worse than a tweet reading “We gotta.” “That’s because it sounds like Brooklyn Bernie,” Sigala said with a laugh. | 1 |
8,308 | DIRTY COP WHO LEAKED Charges Against Former Trump Campaign Manager To CNN From SEALED Grand Jury Information Is Revealed | On June 15, 2016, President Trump warned Americans that we were witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history-led by some very bad and conflicted people! You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017Boy, was Trump ever correct!GP Robert Mueller continued with his now widely reported corrupt and criminal activities last night by leaking information sealed by the courts to CNN. This is just another corrupt and criminal act in Mueller s corrupt and criminal career.Last night we found out from information leaked to CNN that the Mueller investigation has filed charges in the ongoing superfluous investigation into President Trump and the far out possibility that he colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. CNN reported that:A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter. The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge.In typical bad cop form, former FBI Head and current Special Counsel Mueller proved again that he is as dirty as it gets.Trump came out today after the crooked deep-state with these series of tweets:Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 "collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017Finally, President Trump insinuates that this phony Russian collusion talk is coming out as a distraction, when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts and Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017Mueller s career is littered with numerous investigations of major scandals and likely crimes that he did not meaningfully investigate as FBI Director resulting in no arrests and no consequences. All of these resulted in the Clintons and/or Obama Administration getting away with criminal activities:IRS Targeting (2010-2013): the IRS intentionally selected and then delayed or denied tax-exempt 501(c)(3) applications from conservative groups to prevent them from participating in the 2012 election, followed by IRS agent Lois Lerner invoking her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. (No charges have been filed of any wrong doing by any government officials in this case.)Fast and Furious (2010): this ATF program, which seems to have served no rational purpose, allowed over 2,000 guns to be purchased illegally inside the United States and then walked into Mexico for use by criminals, one of which was later used in the 2010 murder of Border Agent Brian Terry by the member of a Mexican cartelAssociated Press Spying (2012): the Department of Justice illegally seized the communications of AP reporters made during April and May 2012, allowing the DOJ to unmask journalists confidential sourcesClinton Foundation Pay-for-Play (2009-2013): during the period in which Hillary Clinton held the office of Secretary of State, the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton received millions of dollars in paid speaking fees and a million dollar gift from countries involved in matters with the State Department, many of which had ties to terrorism and human rights abuses; some of these funds were apparently diverted from charitable causes to personal expenses, such as Chelsea Clinton s 2010 wedding.Russian Uranium Deal (2009-2013): Hillary Clinton s State Department approved a deal allowing a Russian company to control 20% of the uranium mining production capacity inside the United States, which was followed by millions of dollars in donations to the Clinton Foundation from people associated with the transaction. This past week information was reported that prior to the Obama administration approving the very controversial deal in 2010 giving Russia 20% of America s Uranium through the approved sale of Uranium One, the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were involved in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering in order to benefit Vladimir Putin, says a report by The Hill. Mueller was the head of the FBI at this time! He was even hand picked by Hillary Clinton to hand over uranium to Russia on an airport tarmac at this time.Clinton Private Email Server (2009-2013): during her entire tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton dodged Freedom of Information Act requirements by using a private email server to conduct official government business, as well as sent and received classified information that was Top Secret over an unsecured system an extremely reckless (and obviously illegal) act. Mueller s acceptance of the lead role in the investigation into Russia is another obvious example of his corrupt and criminal tendencies. Based on numerous accounts he has obvious conflicts of interest and even liberal publications like the USA Today have called for Mueller to step down as special prosecutor because of his conflicts of interest with the investigation he is carrying on. Now we know he took over the investigation in spite of his criminal activities in covering up the FBI investigation into Uranium One. A person of integrity would easily have seen his conflicts of interest and would recuse himself.Independent UK Donald Trump s former campaign Paul Manafort has said he has not been informed of any possible criminal charges against him, after it was reported the first indictments had been filed by the team investigating Russia s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.Reports said a grand jury working with Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, had approved the first charges to result from the ongoing probe that is looking at possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The reports, which have not specified what the charges are or who they were filed against, said a suspect could be taken into custody as soon as Monday.CNN, which broke the news, said the charges were filed on Friday and placed under a seal by a federal judge. Yet, that has not stopped a flurry of speculation as to who may be the focus of Mr Mueller s charges and the nature of them. | 0 |
8,309 | no title | anatomy lesson published mins ago
editors note do you need something to smile about every day wnd selects the best joke offered up by readers and contributors to its laughlines forum and brings it to you as the wnd joke of the day here is todays offering
a pediatrician in town always plays a game with some of his young patients to put them at ease and test their knowledge of body parts
one day while pointing to a little boys ear the doctor asked him is this your nose
the little boy turned to his mother and said mom i think wed better find a new doctor | 1 |
8,310 | BOOM! HARVARD LAW DEMOCRAT ALAN DERSHOWITZ Destroys The Left’s “Unconstitutional” Argument Against Donald Trump Jr. [Video] | Democrat Alan Dershowitz dismissed a major argument Democrats have been making against Donald Trump Jr., and said it s clearly unconstitutional . This brilliant Harvard Law professor is a Democrat who is FED UP with the left s constant Russia mantra! He knows there s nothing there and tells Judge Jeanine:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjqxLE6thZIDemocrats have been arguing that laws stop campaigns from receiving anything of value from foreign entities, and have said that items of value can also be information.That s their reasoning for why they think Trump s campaign violated election laws when Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer who said she had dirt on Hillary Clinton.Not so fast! Harvard Law s Alan Dershowitz told Judge Jeanine that campaign finance laws have never been prosecuted that way and that using the law to prosecute people who obtain information from non-U.S. sources would violate the First Amendment: Under the campaign finance laws, I mean, there is a claim that if you get something of value, and they re alleging that information from a foreign national could be, you know, stretched out to mean, you know, words. Judge Jeanine asked Is that something that s ever been prosecuted? Dershowitz replied: Of course not, and if it were to be prosecuted, the First Amendment would trump. A candidate has a right to get information from whatever source the information comes. Dershowitz then made the key point that just as newspapers are free to print any information they obtain from others, even when the source obtains it illegally, candidates for office have the same right to get information anywhere they want.He also stressed again there is no legal precedent to treat information as money under U.S. campaign finance laws: You can t include information under the campaign finance law. That would be unconstitutional. These are very key points that the press refuses to make clear for people Have you heard this anywhere? Note that this is coming from a DEMOCRAT who was a Hillary Clinton supporter! Please pass on to anyone who has been listening to the hysteria from the lefty media and even FOX News! Read more: WE | 0 |
8,311 | Russia's Lavrov to Tillerson: Moscow readies lawsuits over seized property | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday that Russia was preparing lawsuits to reclaim what Moscow says was illegally seized property in the United States, Russia s foreign ministry said. Lavrov, in a telephone conversation with Tillerson, also said it was unacceptable that U.S. authorities had removed Russian flags from its seized diplomatic buildings in the United States, the ministry said. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, asked about the accusations later, told reporters that U.S. actions at the shuttered Russian facilities were perfectly legal and were carried out with a lot of thought and in a judicious fashion. The flags of the former Russian consular properties in San Francisco were respectfully lowered. They re safely stored within each of the buildings, Nauert said. There s no country in the world that pays greater respect to its own flag and to the flags of other nations. That is something that we take seriously. But Russia s foreign ministry said Lavrov stressed to Tillerson that the lawlessness continued by U.S. officials runs counter to declarations made at the highest level in Washington about intentions to normalize the bilateral relations, which have hit an all-time low. Russian staff left the consulate in San Francisco last month after Washington ordered Moscow to vacate some of its diplomatic properties, part of a series of tit-for-tat actions resulting from a souring of relations between the two countries. | 1 |
8,312 | The Cast Of Hamilton Had An EXTRAORDINARY Message For Mike Pence After Their Audience Booed Him (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is now the president-elect, and he has shown no sign that he has any intention of doing as he says in trying to heal the nation s deep divides over issues of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, or anything else. Indeed, he has thus far picked clearly bigoted cabinet members that will do anything but heal us. Therefore, when Trump s vice president-elect Mike Pence showed up to see the popular Broadway musical Hamilton, it is no surprise that the audience booed him. Even more humiliating for Pence, though, is the fact that the extremely diverse cast had a very pointed message for him regarding his and Donald Trump s ability to represent ALL Americans, and not just the privileged few who look, worship, and think the way they do.After the performance, one of the stars of the show, Brandon Victor Dixon, who acted as a spokesman for the cast thanked Pence for coming to the show, went on to give an inspiring speech urging Pence to remember the many shades of the American rainbow. Dixon reminded Pence of his responsibility to represent every single person in the nation, and to stand up for the rights of all. The speech was not mean-spirited or vindictive, but it was absolutely what Pence needed to hear. Unfortunately, though, knowing Mike Pence, it all went in one ear and out the other, and simply served to make him even more vindictive and hateful than he already is. Dixon said to Pence: Thank you for joining us at Hamilton: An American Musical. We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of ALL of us. Thank you. Without further ado, here is the amazing video, captured by a Twitter user who was in attendance at the show:Amazing night. #hamiltonmusical #MikePence pic.twitter.com/hFhFY1DNae John Bluemke (@JGBluemke) November 19, 2016Of course, the Trump/Pence supporters and transition team will simply brush aside any accusations of bigotry as professional protesters causing trouble, but people who value the melting pot of diversity that is America will know that what was said here is exactly what Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and the rest of the Republican Party need to hear and heed.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
8,313 | RIDICULOUS! MUSLIMS Chant “Allah” And Protest With Call To Prayer Inside Dallas Airport [Video] | Muslims take time away from protest to pray at DFW airport. #MuslimBan #MuslimBanprotest @ldelucaDMN pic.twitter.com/vJboEDYNuW DMN Photo (@dallasnewsphoto) January 29, 2017 | 0 |
8,314 | Republicans raise concerns on visa waiver bill implementation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five U.S. Republican lawmakers raised concerns on Thursday with the Obama administration about implementation of a law meant to make it harder for people to enter the United States if they have visited certain countries, in a letter seen by Reuters. Kevin McCarthy, top Republican in the House of Representatives, and four other House members said in the letter that the Department of Homeland Security is making overly broad exemptions to allow people to skirt the new requirements. The bill was enacted into law in December following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris and the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, California. The law was designed to keep people who have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran and Sudan from coming to the United States except through the normal visa process. Under the existing U.S. Visa Waiver Program, citizens of 38 mainly European countries can travel for up to 90 days to the United States visa free. The new law required that travelers who have been to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan since March 1, 2011, must get a visa to come to the United States. Several of the Islamic State attackers who killed 130 people in France held European passports that would have allowed them to easily enter the United States under the waiver system. According to the letter, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is making exceptions to the new law for people who visited the four specified countries to do humanitarian work, journalism or for “legitimate business-related purposes.” “These exemptions from the travel restrictions were not provided for in the law, are contrary to congressional intent, and are in breach of the agreement we reached with members of your administration,” the letter said. The lawmakers said the Department of Homeland Security must provide Congress with details of every visa waiver for those who have traveled to the listed countries on a monthly basis, including name and nationality of each traveler and the justification for granting the visa waiver. The letter asked the administration to provide no later than Feb. 12 emails and other documents that led them to the decision on making exemptions. “Had your administration complied in good faith with the bipartisan agreement we reached, we would not be writing you today,” the letter said. The letter was signed by Kevin McCarthy, Michael McCaul, Bob Goodlatte, Edward Royce and Candice Miller. | 1 |
8,315 | OBAMA THROWS HILLARY UNDER THE BUS: E-mail Scandal Just Got Real With This Devastating Blow | Obama decides to throw Hillary under the bus Is anyone surprised?The Obama administration leveled a devastating blow to Hillary Clinton on Friday by admitting for the first time that her personal email server contained the highest levels of classified U.S. intelligence.The White House said 22 emails from former secretary of state s home brew server must be censored from public view when the State Department releases its final batch on Friday.Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus will now try to determine if any of the emails were marked classified at the time of transmission.Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge has noted, however, that any discussion about marked or unmarked emails is a legal red herring because trained officials like Clinton can spot such intelligence without blatant indicators. It is the content that is classified not the format it is in, Herridge said Jan. 21, WND reported. To suggest to people that there is somehow a big rubber stamp with classified that s smacked on every document is completely misleading and that s something you only see in the movies. Mrs. Clinton knows better because she had to have special training as secretary of state because she has classification authority. Sources told the network on Friday the emails were too damaging to release under any circumstances. The documents alone in and of themselves set forth a set of compelling, articulable facts that statutes relating to espionage have been violated, a former senior federal law enforcement officer said.What do YOU think? Can Hillary NOT be indicted? Sound off in today s WND pollNearly 100 FBI special agents are attempting to determine whether Clinton violated a subsection of the Espionage Act related to gross negligence in handling government documents. Agents are also trying to discern whether co-mingling of the Clinton Foundation and State Department business violated public corruption laws.Clinton campaign spokesman Brain Fallon called the decision to censor Clinton s emails overclassification run amok. We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails, Fallon said statement, AP reported. Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public. We feel no differently today. The White House s acknowledgment comes just over a week since it was revealed that Clinton s server contained special access programs, or SAP. Read more: WND | 0 |
8,316 | Interactive ‘Trump Hate Map’ Proves How Dangerous He Is For America | There is absolutely no doubt that Republican frontrunner Donald Trump would be an unmitigated disaster if he were elected to serve as president. There is literally nothing good about him, and with each day that passes he only gets worse. Lately, the violence at his rallies have been at the forefront of the conversations about the Republican primaries, especially over the last week or so. But how much brutality has actually been committed in Trump s name? Well, a new interactive map called the Trump Hate Map shows A LOT of violence has resulted from his bombastic rhetoric.Since last September, America s Voice has been tracking instances where Trump, his staff and his supporters have assaulted or harassed immigrants and Latinos. As you can imagine, his special brand of xenophobia and racism has caused a lot of white nationalists to feel comfortable with their hate for others. All you have to do is turn on a Drumpf rally and you can witness firsthand how insane his fanboys and girls are, but the acts of violence extend farther than his events his supporters have hurt random people on the streets, as well.America s Voice writes: We ve seen the proof over the past few weeks. Trump s xenophobic rhetoric hasn t just pushed his fellow candidates to the right on immigration (in what has become known as the Trump Effect ). It s gone beyond the political world and injected itself into everyday life In one incident, a Latino and two Muslim students in Kansas were attacked by a man who yelled racial slurs and warned them that Donald Trump was going to be president before punching one of them.His hate has even extended to elementary schools! A mother in Fairfax County, Virginia posted on Facebook and said that her third-grade son was taunted in school by two of his classmates. Apparently the children were spewing nonsense about immigrants that they d heard Trump say.Those are just two of the many incidents the organization found. The billionaire likens himself to some great unifier, but he is clearly nothing but a divisive asshole who will absolutely destroy this country if he were elected. Our country would probably look like it did in the 1960s with race riots all over the place. Thankfully, there is little chance of this man ever sitting in the Oval Office, but this map proves that it is more important than ever that Democrats put their differences aside after the primary and unite behind whoever our candidate is.Check out the Trump Hate Map:Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
8,317 | Watch Legendary Reporter Ted Koppel Tell Hannity Right To His Face He’s Bad For America (VIDEO) | With the cool, calm authority that comes with decades of being one of the most well-respected newsman in journalism, Ted Koppel flat-out told Sean Hannity that he and his show are destroying America from within. He did it right to Sean Hannity s face. And he didn t even hesitate.In what is perhaps one of the best moments of television in 2017, Koppel sat down with Hannity to discuss journalism and politics during a broadcast of CBS Sunday Morning. Hannity, who has spent the last year or so working as a de facto propagandist for Donald Trump from his chair at Fox News, was clearly not ready for the truthbombs Koppel was about to drop. Hannity s expression goes from amusement to surprise to anger to genuine fear as Koppel laid out why the Fox host is awful.HANNITY: Do you think I m bad for America? KOPPEL: Yeah. HANNITY: You do? KOPPEL (nodding): In the long-haul, I think you and all these opinion shows [are].Hannity starts to interrupt Koppel at several times. Koppel calmly regains control of the interview and continues with this brutal reminder: You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than fact. He s not exaggerating. Fox News viewers have been repeatedly shown to be among the least informed people in the country. A 2014 analysis of Fox News found that over half of all statements said on the network were false. Hannity, in particular, ranks among the worst propagator of fake news in the country. Politifact observed that Hannity lies at least half of the times they checked him. And Trump has actually made Hannity worse.Somewhere around election day something in Hannity s brain finally snapped. Always a right-wing flack, Hannity has taken it upon himself to be Trump s most blindly loyal cheerleader. There is quite possibly no act too depraved for Trump to commit that would make Hannity criticize it. His blatant sycophancy is widely seen as the least subtle on Fox.It s easy to see why a man like that covering for relentless liar Donald Trump is really, really bad for America.Featured image via Twitter / h/t @yashar | 0 |
8,318 | German foreign minister says to meet with Tillerson in Washington | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Wednesday said he would travel to the United States to meet with the newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, underscoring the importance of maintaining trusted relations with Germany’s closest ally outside Europe. Gabriel said he looked forward to meeting with Tillerson, who is to be sworn in his post later on Wednesday, adding that he would be seeking answers about the new U.S. administration’s foreign policies, its relationship to the NATO alliance and other key issues. “The world will not wait for us. There are urgent issues on the global agenda about which Germany and America, as well as Europe and America, should be closely coordinating,” Gabriel said in a statement. | 1 |
8,319 | Egypt says bombs militants responsible for Western Desert attack | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s air force killed a large number of militants responsible for a deadly attack on a police convoy 10 days ago, the military said on Tuesday following an air raid on their base. The raid, the second in a week targeting militants behind the Oct. 21 attack, was coordinated with police and based on intelligence about the location of their hideout, a military statement said. Three security sources said at the time that at least 52 police officers and conscripts were killed on Oct. 21 when their patrol came under attack, but the interior ministry refuted that figure the next day and said only 16 policemen had been killed. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed a new military chief of staff a week after the militants struck and the Interior Ministry dismissed several high-ranking officials. Tuesday s military statement said the air strike was a continuation of the armed forces and police efforts to avenge the martyrs of national duty . A large number of terrorist elements died in the strike, and the air force and police were pursuing several militants on the run, the statement added. Three vehicles loaded with large quantities of weapons, ammunition and explosives were also destroyed in the strike, and the military later posted footage of the attack. An official source in the Giza province security directorate told Reuters more than 12 militants had been killed, though a military spokesman did not confirm any death toll. The military spokesman later said in a statement that a police officer who had been kidnapped during the Oct. 21 attack had been rescued and taken to a military hospital. Egypt has been fighting an Islamic State insurgency concentrated in the northern part of the Sinai peninsula since Sisi led the military overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. Hundreds of members of the security forces have been killed since. No group has claimed responsibility for the Oct. 21 attack in a remote desert area of Giza, about 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Cairo. The latest air strike was the second attack on militants in five days - at least 13 militants died in a raid on a farm hideout in the region on Friday. The vast Western Desert has long been a security headache, with arms flowing across the border with Libya, where militant groups have found shelter since the country fell into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. | 1 |
8,320 | WATCH: This Hilarious Video Is The Only Way Palin’s Trump Endorsement Word Salad Makes Any Sense | Sarah Palin s horrific word salad of an endorsement of Donald Trump on Tuesday evening didn t make sense in any language resembling English, but a viral Vine video puts Palin s praise in the only context where it works: In the mouth of Iggy Azalea.In the video from Lindsey Bieda entitled Iggy s freestyle has gotten quite a bit weaker, the words from Azalea s rap breakdown have been replaced by audio of Palin from the Trump announcement.Instead of the Australia-born Azalea s Fancy, we hear Palin s eardrum piercing rhyme: Right wingin , bitter clingin , proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions. In case you feel like the creator of the Vine took poor Palin out of context, this is the entire paragraph from that section of the speech, which would probably make the most epic rap video in history if it received the same treatment:Well, and then, funny, ha ha, not funny, but now, what they re doing is wailing, well, Trump and his, uh, uh, uh, Trumpeters, they re not conservative enough. Oh my goodness gracious. What the heck would the establishment know about conservatism? Tell me, is this conservative? GOP majorities handing over a blank check to fund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood and illegal immigration that competes for your jobs, and turning safety nets into hammocks, and all these new Democrat voters that are going to be coming on over border as we keep the borders open, and bequeathing our children millions in new debt, and refusing to fight back for our solvency, and our sovereignty, even though that s why we elected them and sent them as a majority to DC. No! If they re not willing to do that, then how are they to tell us that we re not conservative enough in order to be able to make these changes in America that we know need to be Now they re concerned about this ideological purity? Give me a break! Who are they to say that? Oh tell somebody like, Phyllis Schlafly, she is the Republican, conservative movement icon and hero and a Trump supporter. Tell her she s not conservative. How bout the rest of us? Right wingin , bitter clingin , proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions, and our Constitution. Tell us that we re not red enough? Yeah, coming from the establishment. Right.Got that?At least with the Azalea video you don t have to watch Trump off to the side, leering as he watches the grotesque display go on and on and on.Featured image via YouTube/Vine | 0 |
8,321 | Trump’s Stupid ‘Voter Fraud’ Witch Hunt Just ‘Busted’ One Of His Own Top Minions | On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump announced that he would be launching a full-scale investigation into why so many women and minorities were allowed to vote for his opponent voter fraud, including those registered to vote in two states. Depending on the results of his investigation, President Asterisk says he plans to strengthen regulations to ensure that only white, straight men get to vote for the rest of time our elections are fair and only corrupt government officials and brutal foreign dictators have a say.I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017Now, Trump is completely wrong about it being a crime to be registered in two states. Voting in two states is a crime. But let s humor him. Let s say that is voter fraud. He really doesn t have to look far at all to find someone.Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon is a lot of things: he s an anti-semite, a white supremacist, a douchebag, and an alleged domestic abuser. He s also a proud registered voter in the state of New York and in Florida.Bannon registered to vote in New York shortly before the election and cast his ballot for Trump in only that state. But he is also registered to vote at the home of a friend, Andy Badolato, in the Sunshine State. He changed his address in Florida in August, shortly after reports surfaced that he was previously registered at an abandoned house. Bannon did not commit voter fraud in any way, but according to Trump he is a criminal simply because he has an outdated registration in Florida.This must be uncomfortable for Trump, whose false claims about what does and does not constitute fraud has nailed one of his senior minions, but it s likely that he will ignore it because it doesn t quite fit his narrative that millions of people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton, and that is why he lost the popular vote.Did you ever think you would see the President abuse the powers of his office to satisfy his ego and push a debunked conspiracy theory? Yeah, we didn t either, but here we are.Featured image via Getty Images/Mark Wilson | 0 |
8,322 | PROOF Republicans Claiming Obama Shouldn’t Pick Supreme Court Justice Are Hypocrites (QUOTES) | It really seems as if Republicans don t think the things they say and do are recorded. It s as though they only live in the moment and history ceases to exist. Because if they realize the things they say and do are recorded they would know that we could throw what they ve said and done back in their faces, like with what is about to happen.You see, Republicans are hellbent in making sure President Obama doesn t nominate anyone to become the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States after the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even went so far as to say, The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. And don t forget Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley insisting we wait until next year to fill the vacant seat. He said: The fact of the matter is that it s been standard practice over the last nearly 80 years that Supreme Court nominees are not nominated and confirmed during a presidential election year. Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this president, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court justice. However, what both these Republicans fail to realize, alongside all the other conservatives and conservative pundits who share this opinion, is that it is the president s constitutional duty to nominate a new Justice so that order and balance is held within all three branches of government. It is also not their place to say that he can t. Truth is, they don t want him to, because they re terrified of who he might pick to replace the ultra-conservative Scalia.Here s the thing about history, though it will come back to bite you when you least expect it, and prove that you may, in fact, be a huge hypocrite. Here are some quotes from back when former President George W. Bush was trying to get a vote on his nominees. And you may recognize a couple of the names: Because of the unprecedented obstruction of our Democratic colleagues, the Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up -or -down vote. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (5/19/05) I hope that by the end of this session of Congress, my colleagues will give the President s qualified nominees what they, and all current and future nominees deserve: the opportunity to have a fair up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate on their nomination. For the sake of the Senate, the nation, and our independent judiciary, I hope that these partisans will not launch more filibusters, but from what I ve heard today, I won t hold my breath. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (3/26/04) The bottom line has to be that the president has the right to get a vote, an up-or-down vote, on his nominees. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (11/10/04) Let s debate the nominees and give our advice and consent. It is a simple yea or nay, when called to the altar to vote. Filibustering a nominee into oblivion is misguided warfare and the wrong way for a minority party to leverage influence in the Senate. Threatening to grind legislative activity to a standstill if they do not get their way is like being a bully on the school yard playground. Let s do our jobs. Nothing is nuclear about asking the full Senate to take an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees. It is the way the Senate has operated for 214 years. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (5/23/05) But denying these patriotic Americans, of both parties, who seek to serve this country an up-or-down vote is simply not fair, and it certainly was not the intention of our Founding Fathers when they designed and created this very institution. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) (4/20/05) Every nominee deserves a prompt up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Dick Cheney (5/10/04)And if this truly how all these men felt at the moment, then they should still feel that way now. They should abide by the constitution, allowing President Obama to make his picks, as well as give him an up-or-down vote on who he decides would be the best fit. Only reasonable, right? You know, since it s their idea.Featured image: Flickr | 0 |
8,323 | U.S. Senate Democrat leader demands reversal of immigration order | (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday demanded that President Donald Trump reverse an executive order targeting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, saying it makes the United States appear “less humanitarian, less safe, less American.” “It must be reversed immediately, and Democrats are going to introduce legislation to overturn it,” Schumer said in New York. Schumer also said he had been told by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that 42 people now detained at U.S. airports would be processed and allowed to enter the country under a court order issued on Saturday night. Schumer said Kelly also told him Trump’s executive order would not affect green card holders, which contradicts previous administration statements. | 1 |
8,324 | Brazil eyeing presidential visit to White House: sources | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian and U.S. officials are in talks about a White House visit by President Michel Temer to discuss bilateral trade and investment issues, two sources in Temer’s office said on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump invited Temer for a visit during a March 18 phone call, when the two leaders discussed deepening commercial and business ties between the Western Hemisphere’s largest economies, the sources said. Trump’s promises to defend U.S. companies from foreign competition have worried Washington’s partners in much of Latin America, especially Mexico which is under pressure to rework a free-trade deal with its northern neighbor. But the center-right Temer government hopes to see business opportunities opening up with the United States as it struggles to rescue the Brazilian economy from a two-year recession. Industries in Brazil, whose biggest trading partner is China, are benefiting from a weaker real currency. They could potentially increase their U.S. market share, if Trump advances on his threats overhaul or pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. “We are not a threat to the United States and there are plenty of investment opportunities in both countries,” one of the sources, a senior government official, said. The sources asked not to be identified because they had not been authorized to speak about Temer’s possible White House visit publicly. No date for the visit has been set, they said. Temer’s press office declined to comment. | 1 |
8,325 | Lebanese army to deploy along entire eastern border: army chief | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s army will deploy along the country s entire eastern border with Syria and remain stationed there after recently recapturing areas from Islamic State militants, army chief General Joseph Aoun said on Friday. The remarks appeared to confirm comments by the Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah that it was handing over points it had controlled along the border to the military. The army will deploy from now onwards along the extent of the eastern borders, to defend them, Aoun said at a ceremony commemorating Lebanese soldiers killed by Islamic State. An army offensive last month ended with the militants withdrawing from their last foothold along the border under a ceasefire deal. The Syrian army and Hezbollah fought the jihadists separately on the Syrian side. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in July it would be ready to hand over territory it captured if the Lebanese army requested it. Hezbollah led a campaign in the same area that month to oust the Nusra Front jihadist group from their last foothold along the border. Security sources said Hezbollah had begun handing over points it controlled. Iran-backed Hezbollah has played a critical role in vanquishing Sunni Muslim jihadists in the border region during the six-year-long Syrian war, part of its military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group, an ally of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, was key to the defeat of militants in the Qalamoun area further south in 2015, and at the Syrian town of Qusair, in 2013. Lebanon s southern border with Israel, a Hezbollah foe, is patrolled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. | 1 |
8,326 | Syrian, Russian jets bomb residential areas in eastern Ghouta: witnesses, monitor | AMMAN (Reuters) - Jets believed to be Syrian and Russian struck heavily crowded residential areas in a besieged rebel enclave near Damascus, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens in the third week of a stepped-up assault, residents, aid workers and a war monitor said on Monday. Civil defense workers said at least 17 were killed in the town of Hamoriya in an aerial strike on a marketplace and nearby residential area after over nearly 30 strikes in the past 24 hours that struck several towns in the densely populated rural area east of Damascus known as the Eastern Ghouta. Four other civilians were killed in the town of Arbin, while the rest came from strikes on Misraba and Harasta, the civil defense workers said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said the casualties on Sunday were the biggest daily death toll since the stepped-up strikes began 20 days ago. The monitor said nearly 200 civilians were killed in strikes and shelling, including many women and children, during that period. The Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by army troops since 2013 in an attempt to force the rebel enclave to submission. The government has in recent months tightened the siege in what residents and aid workers have said is a deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war, a charge the government denies. The United Nations says about 400,00 civilians besieged in the region face complete catastrophe because aid deliveries by the Syrian government were blocked and hundreds of people who need urgent medical evacuation have not been allowed outside the enclave. Eastern Ghouta is the last remaining large swathe of rebel-held area around Damascus that has not reached an evacuation deal to surrender weapons in return for allowing fighters to go to other rebel-held areas farther north. They are targeting civilians ... a jet hit us there, no rebels or checkpoints, Sadeq Ibrahim, a trader, said by phone in Hamoriya. May God take his revenge on the regime and Russia, said Abdullah Khalil, another resident, who said he lost members of his family in the air strike on Arbin and was searching for survivors among the rubble. The intensified bombardment of Eastern Ghouta follows a rebel attack last month on an army complex in the heart of the region that the army had used to bomb nearby rebel-held areas. Residents said, however, that the failure of the army to dislodge rebels from the complex had prompted what they believe were retaliatory indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the Eastern Ghouta. Government advances since last year have forced people to flee deeper into its increasingly overcrowded towns. The loss of farmland is increasing pressure on scarce food supplies. The Eastern Ghouta is part of several de-escalation zones that Russia has brokered with rebels across Syria that has freed the army to redeploy in areas where it can regain ground. Rebels accuse the Syrian government and Russia of violating the zones and say they were meant as a charade to divert attention from the heavy daily bombing of civilian areas. The Syrian government and Russia deny their jets bomb civilians and insist they only strike militant hideouts. | 1 |
8,327 | Trump on Twitter (Feb 9) - U.S. appeals court, Jeff Sessions, John McCain | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : -Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him? [0657 EST] -Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave “service” in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS! [0819 EST] -Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He’s been losing so.... [0826 EST] -...long he doesn’t know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in - bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero.. [0831 EST] -..Ryan died on a winning mission ( according to General Mattis), not a “failure.” Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again! [0852 EST] -Join us live in the Oval Office for the swearing in of our new Attorney General, @SenatorSessions! LIVE: bit.ly/2kqq2f0Sessions [1058 EST] -SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! [1835 EST] -Congratulations Attorney General Jeff Sessions! [1228 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
8,328 | NYC Cop Under Investigation After Being Busted With Instagram Account Full Of Violence (TWEETS) | New York City Officer Matthew Langone sure does love his Instagram account. It is also the reason he is now facing an investigation.While off duty, Langone moonlights as a producer of pro-cop merchandise. There would be nothing wrong with this, except for one little fact: the merchandise blatantly advocates for police violence against members of the community. In fact, at least one t-shirt is the very definition of fascism.The latest shirt from the Langone collection boasts zip tie wrist cuffs shaped like a heart, with the slogan, I [heart] protesters. The OT in protesters is in blue, clearly promoting the widely popular police narrative that they rake in the bucks from all the overtime they get policing the ever-increasing number of protests. Keegan Stephan, an activist against police brutality, discovered the photos on Langone s Instagram account and uploaded them to twitter. Here is the image:Officer Langone of the @NYPD103Pct doesn't think much of free speech, except of course as "OT." pic.twitter.com/SGODDv8Nwh Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) January 12, 2016If you think that s bad, you ain t seen nothing yet. Suspecting more horrible content lay within the confines of Langone s Instagram, Stephan kept looking. He found it to be full of horrible memes and derogatory language directed at the very people this cop is sworn to serve and protect. Here are just a few:In fact, his whole instagram account is pretty unbecoming of an officer, imo, @NYPD103Pct. https://t.co/gABdz1zpHj pic.twitter.com/xM1myPSziZ Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) January 12, 2016To be clear, this appears to be an active duty cop w/the @NYPD103Pct posting this filth: https://t.co/gABdz1zpHj pic.twitter.com/zq9bSlGfNB Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) January 12, 2016It s the last meme, in which Langone refers to community members as hoodrats, that got the attention of Rory Lancman, of the Queens City Council. Lancman called on the 103rd precinct, at which Langone works as an active duty officer, for an investigation. Lancman said of the posts: I m deeply disturbed by the reprehensible Instagram posts of a police officer in the 103rd Precinct, which covers a significant portion of my district. It s completely unacceptable for someone who has sworn to protect our city to post messages advocating violence and referring to community members as hood rats. Such comments erode public confidence in our police and undermine our efforts to improve police-community relations. I urge the NYPD to take immediate disciplinary action and make it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated. But of course, the Blue wall of silence is always more important, than, you know, keeping the community safe from a cop with fantasies of fascism and violence and who clearly has nothing but contempt for the people who live there. The cops at the precinct only had this to say: We want to make sure that the posts are his. How many fake Instagram and Twitter pages are out there? Someone may have been putting this out in his name. How convenient. Even more insidious is that they have now blocked Keegan Stephan from following their precinct on Twitter. Stephan posted the proof:Wow, way to deal with the problem, @NYPD103Pct. pic.twitter.com/Vtugh5V76i Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) January 12, 2016I think, after this, it is safe to say that their investigation, will just be another in a long line of countless cases where they investigate themselves and determine that there was no wrongdoing.Featured image via screen capture from Raw Story | 0 |
8,329 | Republican establishment warms to Trump after big New York win | HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. Republican officials began meeting on Wednesday, a day after Donald Trump’s crushing victory in a New York presidential nominating contest, and said he has been winning growing acceptance within their ranks - but they want to see the billionaire do more to mend fences with the party establishment. Trump, the front-runner to become the Republican presidential candidate in November’s election, was the focus for the party’s spring meeting of 168 Republican National Committee (RNC) members in Hollywood, Florida. The three-day conclave at an oceanside resort will take stock of the race for the White House and prepare for a possible contested convention in July in Cleveland. The New York real estate mogul’s win Tuesday in his home state over rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich was an important milestone for RNC members, who said it could put him on a pathway to acquire the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright without a contested convention. “There are a fair number of RNC members who were discounting his chances of success when we met in January and now see that he’s building a substantial lead and may in fact get to 1,237 before we get to the convention,” said Steve Duprey, an RNC member from New Hampshire. “The New York results were such an overwhelming win,” Duprey said. “It’s impressive. That’s what I’ve heard people talking about.” RNC members said Trump could help improve the climate by taking steps to end the bad blood that has developed between him and the committee’s leadership, including RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. Trump has said that Cruz’s harvest of delegates in Colorado, where rank-and-file Republicans did not vote or caucus, showed that the party’s nominating process is “rigged.” He has wondered whether Priebus, who is popular with the RNC ranks, should continue in his job if Trump is the nominee. “I think it’s time for that rhetoric to end,” said Jeff Essmann, chairman of the Montana Republican Party. Bob Kapel, the RNC member representing Washington, D.C., noted that Trump had toned down his rhetoric in his New York victory speech on Tuesday night, and said he would like to see that continue. Kapel is a delegate for former candidate Marco Rubio and now backs Ohio Governor John Kasich. Nevertheless, Kapel said of Trump and the Republicans: “We’re about winning the White House. Obviously, I have issues with him, but our nominee will be our nominee.” South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore said Trump’s recent hiring of Rick Wiley, a Republican veteran who was former presidential candidate Scott Walker’s campaign manager, was a good sign. “It’s a positive signal despite a lack of general outreach over the past year, and I think the Trump campaign, for all the bluster, recognizes that the RNC will be an integral partner if he is the nominee and it’ll be almost impossible to win the presidency without the RNC as a partner,” Moore said. In a good sign for Trump, there appeared to be no significant move by the Republican leadership, at least at this meeting, to change the rules governing the convention. There has been talk of rewriting the rules in a way that could benefit an establishment-backed candidate like Kasich. Trump, Cruz and Kasich all sent envoys to the meeting to explain their pathways to the nomination. A source familiar with the situation said Wiley and other Trump representatives were meeting with Republican officials from the five Northeastern states that will hold primary elections next Tuesday: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland. Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, held a closed-door briefing with RNC members to explain how Cruz would be a better Republican nominee than Trump, saying the U.S. senator from Texas would energize the party’s grassroots supporters. Roe dismissed talk that Cruz might now be in trouble. Cruz’s pathway to the nomination is now almost entirely dependent on forcing a contested convention and winning the nomination on the second or third ballot. “There’s going to be ebbs and flows to this campaign,” Roe told reporters. “This campaign is going through (the last primary elections on June 7 and likely to the convention.” | 1 |
8,330 | No angst over Turkey's air defense deal with Russia, says NATO chief | CRAIOVA, Romania (Reuters) - NATO ally Turkey is not seeking to antagonize the U.S.-led alliance by purchasing Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles and is in talks with France and Italy to buy similar weapons, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. Ankara s decision to buy the Russian system has been seen in some Western capitals as a snub to the alliance, given tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, while the deal raised concern because the weapons cannot be integrated into NATO defense. But Stoltenberg said it was a sovereign decision and that he had talked it through with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. There hasn t been any request from Turkey to integrate the S-400 into NATO air defense system, Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview on a Belgian military plane returning from Romania late on Monday. I spoke with President Erdogan when I met him in September. I said that the kind of capabilities different nations want to acquire is a national decision, he said of the S-400 system that Turkey has made an advance payment for and hopes to see delivered in 2019. Stoltenberg stressed that top Turkish officials, as well as Erdogan, had told him Ankara remained a strong NATO ally. That was despite the S-400 issue and a dispute with Germany over Erdogan s arrest of German nationals as part of a mass purge following last July s failed coup bid. Stoltenberg said Ankara was ready to brief its allies in the U.S.-led 29-member bloc on the reasons behind its decision to buy the S-400 system. Erdogan has blamed NATO countries for failing to propose a viable alternative to the long-range Russian missiles, but Stoltenberg said Erdogan was now talking to Paris and Rome for similar systems, a move the alliance chief welcomed. He told me that Turkey is in dialogue with France and Italy on possible delivery of air defense systems from them ... on top of the S-400, Stoltenberg said. Stoltenberg did not give more details but said Turkey was familiar with the so-called SAMP-T missiles developed because Italy had stationed them in Turkey as part of NATO efforts to help protect Ankara from rocket attacks. Such weapons are designed to protect battlefields and strategic sites such as airports and sea ports against airborne threats, including cruise missiles and aircraft. The SAMP-T system is produced by Italian-French consortium Eurosam, a joint venture between European missile maker MBDA and Thales. Russia uses different technology, as well as know-how that Moscow is unlikely to be willing to share, experts say. For NATO, the important thing is interoperability, Stoltenberg said, speaking on his return from the launch of a NATO force aimed at deterring Russia in the Black Sea region. We encourage, facilitate allies to develop systems, acquire and operate systems together that will reduce costs and strengthen the defense industries within the alliance, he said. As part of NATO s collective defense pledge, the allies integrate their ships, planes and weapons systems to make them work together, as well as sharing command across the alliance. Some eastern European allies that were once under Soviet rule still rely on Russian-made planes, but integrating Russia s most advanced ground-based missile system would also be highly complicated for political reasons. While Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, took up the NATO post three years ago with a more conciliatory tone toward Moscow than his Danish predecessor Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Russia s Crimea annexation in March 2014 had already badly damaged East-West ties. In the latest dispute, Stoltenberg said Moscow had given misleading information about the size of its war games, known as Zapad, or West, last month. Our assessment so far shows that the scale and geographic scope of the Zapad exercise significantly exceeded what was announced, he said, although he said so far there were no signs Russia had left behind troops or weapons in Belarus during the exercises, as some Baltic nations had feared. Russia said Zapad involved some 13,000 troops and has accused NATO allies of exaggerating the size of the drills. | 1 |
8,331 | AUDIO: Hannity Has RACIST Meltdown, Wants To Send President Obama And His Family Back To Africa | Nobody would have ever said this about any of our previous presidents. Nobody.But because President Obama and his family are black, Fox News host Sean Hannity is trying to get in as much hateful racist talk as possible before the Obamas leave the White House in January.And when President Obama leaves office, Hannity is offering to arrange for a one-way trip to Kenya for him and his family in response to a non-response the White House had to a satirical article claiming that Obama wants to move to Canada if Donald Trump wins the election on November 8th. Remember how Democrats insisted last week that we all need to be united behind whoever wins the election? Hannity began. Well, I guess that only applies if Donald Trump loses because apparently the president cannot bring himself to say that he ll unite behind the Trump presidency. Hannity talked about how a White House aide failed to deny rumors that President Barack Obama was planning to leave the United States if Trump wins the election, and then offered to send President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their two daughters to Africa as long as they don t come back. I ll pay hang on a second, I m offering I ll even rent a plane as big as Air Force One. [ ] I have an offer for the president. I will charter a plane for you and your family. I will make sure it s as big a plane as Air Force One, what you have grown accustomed to, in other words. Taxpayer-funded plane. I don t know where I m going to get Maybe I ll just Maybe I ll ask Trump if I can charter his plane for Obama. That s what I will charter Donald Trump s plane if he ll let me, and I will charter it to the country of your choice. You want to go to Canada? I ll pay for you to go to Canada. You want to go to Kenya? I ll pay for you to go to Kenya. Jakarta, where you went to school back in the day, you can go back there. Anywhere you want to go. I m gonna I ll put the finest food, caviar, champagne, you name it. I have one stipulation: you can t come back. That s fair. Here s the audio via YouTube.First of all, President Obama has already stated that he will peacefully transfer the presidency to Donald Trump in January should he actually win on Election Day. In fact, President Obama will even attend the inauguration.Second, every president in the modern era has had full use of Air Force One no matter where they go during their presidency. And it has always been taxpayer funded. Even when George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan took those 880 days of vacation during their presidencies combined while President Obama has only taken 217 days of vacation. So if Hannity wants to pretend that President Obama is somehow freeloading off of the taxpayers by using Air Force One, he should probably get all of the facts first.Furthermore, President Obama was NOT born in Kenya. His father was, but President Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother and is a natural-born American citizen. His wife Michelle and their daughters were also born in the United States.Hannity s offer is disrespectful and hearkens back to a time when racists wanted to send blacks back to Africa just to keep America white.Fox News should be embarrassed that this jackass is still on their payroll, much less on their airwaves.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
8,332 | Obama, France's Hollande to meet in Washington on Thursday: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande will meet in Washington on Thursday on the sidelines of a nuclear summit, the White House said on Wednesday. The two leaders will hold a “brief bilateral meeting,” the White House said in a statement. Obama will convene leaders from more than 50 countries in Washington this week for his fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit. | 1 |
8,333 | U.S. State Department email restored after global outage | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department’s email service has been restored after an approximately half-day outage, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday. State Department officials worldwide stopped receiving emails on the agency’s unclassified system around 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Friday, officials said. Service was temporarily restored by the early afternoon, Nauert said. “It has been quite a headache today, our email system has been down,” Nauert said at a news briefing. “It was brought up just a short while ago ... there are some glitches that they’re still working out.” The outage was caused by internal human error and not a cyber attack, an official said. | 1 |
8,334 | BREAKING! Ammon, Ryan Bundy, 5 Fellow Patriots: NOT Guilty On ALL Charges Related To Oregon Standoff! [VIDEO] | Who could forget the unbelievable standoff in Oregon between patriots and the government? Who could forget the dramatic shooting of patriot Savoy Finicum who traveled from Arizona to Oregon from to stand with American ranchers against the BLM, an overbearing government agency. Oregon State Police troopers fired the three rounds that killed the Arizona rancher and father of 11 during a confrontation on a remote road, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Bend.An independent investigation by Oregon authorities later found the troopers were justified in shooting Finicum because he failed to heed their commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Masher County District Attorney Dan Norris said.The not guilty verdict of the other members who were involved with Finicum who gave his life for the fight against our government, must be especially stinging for the large loving family this father of 11 left behind.As expected, liberals are freaking out over the verdicts, like this Black Lives Matter crybaby:I have a criminal record for protesting for #FreddieGray meanwhile #oregonstandoff terrorists didn't even get a slap on the wrist. Kwame Rose (@kwamerose) October 28, 2016Here are the verdicts. #oregonstandoff pic.twitter.com/fXW9GoxKUr Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas) October 27, 2016Ammon and Ryan Bundy have been found not guilty of conspiracy. Their five co-defendants Jeff Banta, Shawna Cox, David Fry, Kenneth Medenbach and Neil Wampler have all been found not guilty as well. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on Ryan Bundy s theft of government property charge.The jury returned its verdict after some six weeks of testimony followed by less than six hours deliberations, and the last minute replacement of a juror after an allegation surfaced that he was biased.The jury was instructed to disregard their previous work and to re-consider the evidence. It was a pretty jaw-dropping verdict, said OPB reporter Amelia Templeton of the climate in the courtroom. The jury began by reading out the verdict for Ammon Bundy, ostensibly the leader of the occupation, and when we heard that Ammon Bundy was not guilty, it became clear very quickly that likely no one in the case was going to be found guilty, and indeed, everyone has been acquitted. After the verdict was read, Ammon Bundy s attorney Marcus Mumford was tackled to the ground by five U.S. Marshals. He insisted his client was free to go. Ammon Bundy faces a US Marshall hold and is supposed to be transferred to Nevada where he faces charges for the Bunkerville standoff. There s a hold for Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy out of the district of Nevada, said Matt Schindler attorney for Kenneth Medenbach. There s nothing Judge Brown can do about that. So acquitting him here, all it does is effectively release him to that hold, to be transported to Nevada. And the court that has anything authority to deal with that, is the court in Nevada. Marcus let the emotion of the moment, I think, overtake his better judgement. During the incident, Judge Brown ordered everyone out of the courthouse. Mumford was later detained.United States Attorney for the District of Oregon Billy J. Williams reacted to the decision on Thursday saying, While we had hoped for a different outcome, we respect the verdict of the jury and thank them for their dedicated service during this long and difficult trial. The charges stem from the 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns in eastern Oregon s high desert. The armed protest began Jan. 2 and ended when the final four occupiers surrendered to the FBI on Feb. 11. For many weeks, hundreds of law enforcement officers federal, state, and local worked around-the-clock to resolve the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge peacefully, said Greg Bretzing, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. Although we are extremely disappointed in the verdict, we respect the court and the role of the jury in the American judicial system. Prosecutors initially charged Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy, and 24 others with conspiracy to prevent Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees from doing their jobs at the wildlife refuge in Harney County. Some defendants named in the indictment faced weapons charges for carrying firearms in a federal facility, as well as theft of government property.Only seven defendants went to trial in September. Others have pleaded guilty or are scheduled to go to trial in February 2017. Oregonian | 0 |
8,335 | Embattled Alabama Republican Senate candidate ahead in CBS poll | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore led his Democratic opponent by six percentage points in a CBS News poll released on Sunday, with most Alabama Republicans saying the allegations of sexual misconduct against him are false. Moore was leading Democrat Doug Jones 49 to 43 percent among voters likely to cast ballots in the Dec. 12 special election, CBS said. The contest was even among registered voters, it said. Republican lawmakers in Washington, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, have distanced themselves from Moore and called for him to step down from the race after he was accused by several women of sexual assault and misconduct when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the allegations. But McConnell said on Sunday that if Moore is elected, the Senate will swear him in and then the Senate ethics committee would decide whether to investigate the allegations. “We’ll swear in whoever’s elected and see where we are at that point,” McConnell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We can’t stop him from being seated,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was also interviewed on CBS. “If there was an (ethics) investigation and all six members of the committee said they believe he was a child molester, that would be a problem.” According to the CBS poll, 71 percent of Alabama Republicans say the allegations against Moore are false, and believe that Democrats and the media are behind the accusations. Another poll a day earlier had Jones barely ahead. The Washington Post-Schar School poll said Jones’ support among likely voters stood at 50 percent, versus Moore’s 47 percent. President Donald Trump originally backed Moore’s opponent in the Republican primary, Senator Luther Strange. But Trump has since defended Moore, noting Moore has denied allegations of sexual misconduct. The president says he does not want Moore’s Democratic opponent to win. Trump is slated to travel to a rally in Pensacola, Florida on Friday — a city just across the state line from Alabama — just days ahead of the Alabama election. The timing and location gives Trump an opportunity to express support for Moore. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate and are eager to maintain their advantage to advance Trump’s legislative agenda on taxes, healthcare and other priorities. | 1 |
8,336 | Anthony Weiner checks into sex addiction rehab clinic: Daily Mail | (Reuters) - Disgraced former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner has checked into a rehab facility that treats sex addiction, the DailyMail.com reported on Wednesday. The online version of the British newspaper said electronic devices are banned at the facility, which separates men from women and treats a range of addictions related to cyber sex, exhibitionism and anonymous sex and other acts. The facility was not named in the report. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Weiner could not be reached for comment. Federal prosecutors and New York police announced last month they were investigating Weiner following a separate report by the DailyMail.com that he engaged in sexually explicit cellphone and online messages with a 15-year-old girl from North Carolina. Weiner, 52, did not respond at the time to Reuters’ requests for comment on the texting report but told the Associated Press last month that he had “likely been the subject of a hoax.” An investigation into those messages also triggered a new FBI probe of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, as some of her emails were found on a device related to the Weiner investigation, sources close to the matter said. Once a popular congressman, Weiner resigned in 2011 after saying he had accidentally sent a lewd picture over Twitter. Two years later, his campaign for New York City mayor was derailed after explicit photos he had sent under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger” to a young woman in Indiana surfaced. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s top aides, said in August she was separating from her husband after yet another scandal. Abedin’s announcement followed a New York Post report that Weiner had recently sent photos of his boxer-brief-clad genitals – one while he was in bed with their toddler son – via Twitter to another woman. An attorney for Abedin could not be reached on Wednesday to comment on the DailyMail.com report. | 1 |
8,337 | Conservatives attack proposed U.S. border tax | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative activist groups that generally support Republicans but oppose a pro-export, anti-import Republican tax proposal, released a study on Thursday estimating its impact on individual U.S. states, underscoring the party’s division over taxes. With taxes at the top of Republican priorities, the two groups, backed by the wealthy Koch brothers, reported that seven states won by President Donald Trump in November’s election would be among the 10 hardest hit by the proposal. Freedom Partners and Americans for Prosperity, both based in the Washington area, said the “border adjustment tax,” or BAT, would harm all 50 states, but that those heavily dependent on imports could suffer most. The report predicted economic harm to Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas - all states Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. The list of hard-hit states also includes California, New Jersey and Illinois, which were carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton. The study was sharply criticized by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who intends to include the BAT in tax reform legislation this spring. “That so-called study will be easily discredited and probably fits the definition of fake news,” Brady told reporters. “It takes one provision, pretends the economy freezes ... applies it in our current tax code and comes up with fantasy figures.” BAT, billed as a way to boost U.S. manufacturing, would exempt export revenues from federal tax, while ending the deductibility of import costs by corporations, making imports for production or resale costlier. The plan is part of a tax reform blueprint supported by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump is also working on a tax plan. Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have funded both groups behind the study. The Kochs exert strong financial and ideological influence on the Republican Party. Opposition to BAT from the Kochs and import-dependent industries suggests a rocky road ahead for Trump’s stated priority of tax reform. The proposal is also opposed by a number of Senate Republicans who could prevent its passage, should the House approve a tax reform bill that contains it. Koch organizations, including the brothers’ privately held conglomerate Koch Industries, have warned that BAT could devastate the U.S. economy by raising prices on consumer goods, including gasoline. Refineries owned by Koch Industries rely on oil imports from Canada. The Koch groups say they support tax reform but oppose BAT. | 1 |
8,338 | U.S. will change course on climate policy, says former EPA transition head | LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will switch course on climate change and pull out of a global pact to cut emissions, said Myron Ebell, who headed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team until his inauguration. Ebell is the director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a U.S. conservative think tank, and helped to guide the EPA’s transition after Trump was elected in November until he was sworn in on Jan. 20. Trump, a climate skeptic, campaigned on a pledge to boost the U.S. oil and gas drilling and coal mining industries by reducing regulation. He alarmed nations that backed the 2015 Paris agreement to cut greenhouse gases by pledging to pull the United States out of the global deal agreed by nearly 200 countries. However, Trump told the New York Times in November that he had an “open mind” on the agreement. Trump’s administration has asked the EPA to halt all contracts, grants and interagency agreements pending a review, sources said. “The U.S. will clearly change its course on climate policy. Trump has made it clear he will withdraw from the Paris Agreement. He could do it by executive order tomorrow or he could do it as part of a larger package,” Ebell told reporters in London on Monday. The top energy official for the European Union, meanwhile, said he hoped that Trump would stick to the Paris deal. “I wouldn’t hide that in discussion with our partners; there is a lot of anxiety over future U.S. policies,” said European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who was a key broker in clinching Paris agreement. “If the (U.S) administration decides to go in a different direction, I think sooner or later they will have to come back to the realization that climate change is happening.” The timing of any action by Trump is difficult to predict because government departments are still in transition, Ebell said, adding that he had not met Trump in person. Any country wanting to pull out of the Paris agreement after ratifying it has to wait four years. A source on Trump’s transition team said last year that there were speedier alternatives, such as sending a letter withdrawing from the 1992 international framework accord that is the parent treaty of the agreement; voiding U.S. involvement in both in a year’s time; or issuing a presidential order simply deleting the U.S. signature from the Paris accord. Ebell said the “cleanest way” would be to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change itself. “Whether the U.N. secretariat wants the U.S. to continue to have a seat at the table is up to them. I don’t think Trump cares about that. The people who elected him would prefer not to have a seat at the table,” Ebell said. Trump appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has led 14 lawsuits against the EPA, as the agency’s administrator, though a vote on his nomination has not been scheduled. The President has also drawn heavily from the energy industry lobby and pro-drilling think tanks to build its landing team for the EPA, according to a list of the newly introduced 10-member team seen by Reuters on Monday. Ebell also said he thought the political make-up of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which reviews applications for the construction and operation of natural gas pipelines, will change dramatically under Trump. “Given the way the campaign went, I think you will see very quick executive action to expedite LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals and pipelines,” he said. | 1 |
8,339 | May nudges UK towards a friendly EU divorce | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s divorce deal with the European Union is the strongest signal since the shock 2016 Brexit referendum that the United Kingdom is heading towards an orderly departure that preserves very close trade ties. May rushed to Brussels before dawn on Friday to secure the European Commission s agreement that sufficient progress had been made to begin talks about trade and a two-year Brexit transition period that will start when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019. Below are some scenarios for Brexit. An orderly Brexit, with a clear transition and the hope of a trade deal to keep the UK and EU economies as close as possible, would cheer investors and business chiefs. Friday s deal appeared to put Britain on course for an orderly Brexit. May largely conceded to the EU on the structure, timetable and substance of the negotiations. At least for now, she has convinced her divided party and the Northern Irish lawmakers who prop up her minority government that she can deliver a deal that is acceptable to them. If all sides stay happy enough to keep the talks on track May is aiming to strike a transition deal early in 2018 and a free trade deal to be signed shortly after exit day. The EU says any transition deal in the next few months will be interim in the sense that nothing is definite until the Withdrawal Treaty is ratified in 2019. The EU thinks a free trade deal would be negotiated during the transition. May is committed to the UK leaving the single market and customs union. But she agreed with the EU that the rules between Northern Ireland and Ireland would stay if they could not work out another way to avoid a hard border on the island. That indicates that the UK will keep significant alignment with EU rules, at least for the first few years after the transition. Brexit negotiator David Davis has said his preferred deal would be similar to Canada s CETA deal with the EU but Canada plus plus plus .[L8N1NL26Q] May has said she wants a bespoke British deal. The Canadian deal focuses on access to goods but services is more important for Britain as it accounts for about 4/5 of the economy. Brexit does look more benign if you think there will be a transition and a trade deal, said Mark Essex, director of Brexit at KPMG. At the very least, Canada, or CETA, plus banking seems a smart move. Such a benign Brexit assumes that May can stay in power long enough to deliver one. The talks came close to collapse in Brussels on Dec. 4 when the Northern Irish party which props up May s government vetoed a draft deal already agreed with Ireland. Many companies fear that events in either Britain or the EU could still derail a final deal. Cliff edge Brexit is still a possibility, said Essex After what we saw in Brussels last week, you have to have a lot of faith to assume it will be plain sailing all the way to next March. The shock Brexit vote on June 23 2016 thrust Britain into its deepest political crisis since the Suez crisis of 1956. May, who pitched her premiership as a way to calm the turmoil, increased uncertainty when she lost her party its majority in a June snap election which strengthened Jeremy Corbyn s position as opposition Labour Party leader. With her authority weakened and her minority government dependent on 10 lawmakers from the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, May has to constantly gauge how far she can bring her party and her allies with her on Brexit. May is like fatigued metal: she is going to break but you just don t know when the collapse will come, said one former British diplomat. The Conservatives will never allow her to fight another general election so the question is whether she lasts until Brexit, if we do indeed (do) Brexit. Foreign diplomats in London are already trying to figure out which candidates could win the top job when she is gone. So far May s survival has been dependent on the absence of a clear successor and fear in her party that if she is toppled then opposition leader Corbyn could win a national election. Betting markets indicate a 29 percent probability of a UK election in 2018. Corbyn has the lowest odds on being the next prime minister after May, followed by Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. A YouGov poll showed May s Conservatives were ahead of Labour in the first time since the June election. A Labour government is now seen as such a real possibility that some major financial services companies are trying to gauge just how radical Corbyn, a lifelong socialist, and his finance chief, John McDonnell, will be. While Labour s official policy is to leave the EU, Corbyn has barely detailed the party s Brexit position. Many of his lawmakers want to stay in the EU but many traditional Labour supporters voted to leave. Labour s Brexit chief Keir Starmer has said Britain should keep the closest possible trading ties with the EU. Brexit doesn t happen: The $2.6 trillion economy stalls, prompting calls for a second EU referendum that - if held during a deep recession - could produce a vote to remain in the EU. Ever since the referendum, Brexit opponents - from French President Emmanuel Macron and former British prime minister Tony Blair to billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind and avoid what they say will be disastrous economic consequences. Reversing Brexit assumes the fall of May, who triggered Article 50 of the treaty on March 29. The legalities of reversing Brexit are unclear as the EU s treaties do not cover such an eventuality. John Kerr, a former British ambassador to the EU, who drafted Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty said Britain could unilaterally scrap its divorce plans. In Brussels, there is no single view on how a reverse Brexit might work. While the EU would be likely to welcome a Brexit reversal, it might require the agreement of all 27 other members and some of Britain s special favors, such as the rebate on its payments could come under attack. Supporters of Brexit have repeatedly said that any attempt to have another referendum, or to undermine Brexit, would catapult the world s sixth largest economy into crisis. | 1 |
8,340 | Trump Jr.'s Russia emails could trigger probe under election law | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who had incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that could help his father’s presidential campaign could lead investigators to probe whether he violated U.S. election law, experts said. Trump Jr. met the woman, lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, on June 9, 2016, after an email exchange with an intermediary. The emails, tweeted by Trump Jr. on Tuesday, could provide material for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. In one of the emails dated June 3, 2016, Trump Jr. wrote: “If it’s what you say I love it.” He released the tweets after the New York Times said it planned to write about their contents and sought his comment. Trump Jr. said in his tweets that nothing came of the meeting. Veselnitskaya told NBC News early on Tuesday she was not affiliated with the Russian government and had passed no information. “In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently,” Trump Jr. said in an interview on Fox News. “For me, this was opposition research.” Collusion itself is not an actual crime under the U.S. criminal code, so prosecutors would look to see if Trump Jr.’s conduct ran afoul of a specific law, legal experts said. Moscow has denied interference in the U.S. election, and President Donald Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia. Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. One law that might come into play is the Federal Election Campaign Act, which makes it illegal for a foreign national to contribute to a U.S. political campaign. The campaign is also prohibited from soliciting such contributions. A contribution does not have to be monetary in nature, according to Paul S. Ryan, an attorney with watchdog group Common Cause. He said incriminating information about Clinton could be considered a contribution under the act. Ryan said Trump Jr.’s “enthusiastic response” to the offer for information and particularly his proposal in his email to have a follow-up call the next week constituted “solicitation.” “That to me is an indication, a concession by Donald Trump Jr. that he wants and is requesting this information,” Ryan said. Joshua Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, said Trump Jr.’s emails made it “more plausible” that there could be a criminal case against him. James Gardner, an election law expert at the University of Buffalo Law School, said the election law was intended to target donations of cash or goods and services. He said he did not believe Trump Jr. would have violated the law if he solicited damaging information about Clinton. A federal law known as the general conspiracy statute that makes it illegal to conspire to commit a crime against or defraud the United States could also come into play if, for example, Trump Jr. tried to help Russians hack into U.S. computer networks. There was no indication that Trump Jr. did such a thing. Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School who was associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said he thought Trump Jr.’s agreeing to meet with someone to discuss an illegal act would be enough to trigger a conspiracy charge. “It’s a very powerful tool,” he said. | 1 |
8,341 | Russia rejects lawsuit to learn fate of Swedish war hero Wallenberg: agencies | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Monday rejected a request to release classified documents about Swedish World War Two hero Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery seven decades after his reported death, Russian news agencies reported. Wallenberg, a former Swedish diplomat, helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War Two before being captured by Soviet forces in 1945. A Russian report claimed he died in 1947 in the Lubyanka prison in central Moscow run by the Soviet security service, but no definitive proof of his fate has been put forward. Relatives of Wallenberg filed a lawsuit against Russia s Federal Security Service (FSB), seeking access to uncensored documents which they said could provide clues to Wallenberg s fate. But a Moscow court rejected that lawsuit out of hand on Monday, saying the documents could not be released because they contained personal information about other individuals, Russian news agencies reported. Wallenberg s relatives were cited as saying they would appeal. | 1 |
8,342 | Turkey's Erdogan blames U.S. envoy for diplomatic crisis | ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan blamed the U.S. ambassador to Turkey on Tuesday for a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and said Ankara no longer considered him Washington’s envoy. In a blunt and personal attack on outgoing Ambassador John Bass, Erdogan suggested Bass acted unilaterally in suspending visa services in Turkey after the arrest of a U.S. consulate worker, and said “agents” had infiltrated U.S. missions. The U.S. State Department defended Bass, saying he had the “full backing” of the U.S. government and his actions were coordinated with the State Department, White House and National Security Council. “Our ambassadors tend not to do things unilaterally,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing. “We have a very close coordination and cooperation with our ambassadors,” she added, saying Bass had done “a terrific job in Turkey.” The dispute has plunged already fragile relations between the two NATO allies to a new low after months of tension linked to the conflict in Syria, last year’s failed military coup in Turkey, and U.S. court cases against Turkish officials. The U.S. embassy said on Sunday night it was suspending visa services while it assessed Turkey’s commitment to the safety of its missions and its staff, a message reiterated in a video released by Bass late on Monday. “An ambassador in Ankara taking decisions and saying he is doing so in the name of his government is strange,” Erdogan said. “If our ambassador did this, we wouldn’t keep him there even a minute.” The embassy said allegations that the arrested employee had links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the failed coup against Erdogan last year, were baseless. Nauert said Turkey, which has arrested two local U.S. embassy staff members this year, summoned a third local staff member for questioning over the weekend, a “deeply disturbing” move. Some of those targeted were responsible for law enforcement coordination between the countries, she said. “Being able to have close security cooperation, especially with a NATO partner, is incredibly important,” Nauert said. “And when they start arresting, detaining our people, our people who are responsible for law enforcement coordination, that is a ... major concern of ours. And so that is why we took these steps.” But Erdogan said the arrest, and a police request to question a second consulate employee, showed “there is something cooking in the U.S. consulate in Istanbul ... How did these agents infiltrate the U.S. consulate?” He said Bass, who is due to leave the country within days to take up a posting in Afghanistan, had been making farewell visits to government offices. “But our ministers, parliament speaker and myself did not accept and will not accept his request because we do not see him as a representative of the United States,” Erdogan told a televised news conference during a visit to Belgrade. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the visa suspension had punished citizens of both countries, and accused Washington of taking an emotional and inappropriate step against an ally. “You are making your citizens and ours pay the price,” he said. “We call on the United States to be more reasonable. The issue must of course be resolved as soon as possible,” he said, describing U.S. behavior as “unbecoming” of an ally. In a speech in Ankara to ruling AK Party parliamentarians, Yildirim also defended Turkey’s decision to retaliate with its own visa suspension after the U.S. embassy announcement. “Turkey is not a tribal state, we will retaliate against what has been done in kind,” he said. | 1 |
8,343 | Prankster, coughing fits mar Theresa May’s speech to activists | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May s bid to reassert her dwindling authority was marred on Wednesday by a calamitous keynote speech interrupted by repeated coughing fits, a prankster and even letters of her slogan falling off the stage. May had wanted to use the Conservative Party s annual conference to bring her divided party together and pitch herself as the only person able to deliver Brexit and keep opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of power. She started by apologizing for her botched bet on a snap June election which stripped her party of its majority in parliament, then pitched a revitalized British Dream for which she proposed fixing broken markets and uniting the country. But her flow was interrupted by British comedian Simon Brodkin, who handed her a P45 letter, a document given to employees when they leave their job. The document had been signed by the comedian using the name of her ambitious Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Then May began a coughing fit and was repeatedly forced to take drinks of water, even coughing into her glass, and was proffered a lozenge from her finance minister, Philip Hammond. While she was speaking, several letters fell off the slogans behind her on the stage. Some Twitter users seized on images of the missing letters to poke fun at the Conservatives: one said their glue was even failing to hold the party together. The 61-year-old May won standing ovations for pressing on with the hour-long address, in which she took a more personal tone - saying she did not mind being called the Ice Maiden and describing her great sadness at not having children. Her speech sought to offer party activists a renewal of Conservative values while making new promises to a younger generation and those just about managing . This is a Conservatism I believe in, a Conservatism of fairness and justice and opportunity for all, a Conservatism that keeps the British dream alive for a new generation, she told the cheering crowd. That s what I m in this for, she said, in a phrase she repeated at least eight times. That s what we must all be in this for. May, who was warmly embraced by her husband on stage after she had finished speaking, later poked fun at her coughing fit by tweeting an image of cough lozenges and medicine laid beside a paper copy of the address and her prime ministerial briefcase. Brexit minister David Davis told Reuters it had been a very good speech, it hit all the issues people care about . Other cabinet ministers also applauded May. Many in the audience said her coughing fit and the sudden appearance by the comedian had helped to win them over. Actually, if all that stuff hadn t happened, it would have just been another kind of wooden presentation, said Pippa Smith, a 26-year-old party member from London. It was a good speech, but I think actually it did her a favor. Opponents were less kind. Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, said May was so useless that if she remained as leader then Labour s Corbyn would soon be in power. Labour lawmaker Seema Malhotra said: It just couldn t get worse than this. What a disaster. It s a shambles, not a government. But there are few obvious successors yet visible besides Johnson, who is unpopular with some Conservative lawmakers. Some activists fear that a divisive leadership contest would pave the way for an election that Corbyn s Labour could win. The conference in the northern English city of Manchester was a somber affair, light on policy and heavy on self-doubt. Despite coming second in the June election, the opposition Labour Party s annual meeting a week earlier was celebratory. After Labour s assault on some elements of capitalism, the backbone of Conservative policy, May sought to make the case for free markets and fiscal prudence. The free market - and the values of freedom, equality, rights, responsibilities, and the rule of law that lie at its heart - remains the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created, she told members. Because there has rarely been a time when the choice of futures for Britain is so stark. The difference between the parties is so clear. She tried to compete with Labour on its pledges to voters, offering 2 billion pounds to build cheaper houses, proposing a cap on what she called rip-off energy prices and to ease the burden of student debt. Labour leader Corbyn said May had simply taken a few Labour policies and watered them down. Business leaders reacted warily to May s plan for more government intervention in power and housing markets, and said big unanswered questions about Brexit would drag on the economy. But most party members said that, rather than policy, they wanted to see a return of May s confidence, crushed in the June election, when she earned the nickname Maybot for repeating catchphrases. We did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short, she told members. I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. And I am sorry. But she also told her party to unite, as divisions over Brexit have come to the fore with a challenge by her foreign minister, Boris Johnson. The run-up to May s speech was again overshadowed by Johnson, who once more dominated the airwaves after stunning some party members at the conference by saying Libya could become a new Dubai if it could clear the dead bodies away . Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs, May said. For, beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. And they must be our focus today. | 1 |
8,344 | Congress must raise debt ceiling by mid-October: CBO | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress will need to raise the nation’s debt limit by early to mid-October to avoid defaulting on loan payments, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has suggested his agency could hit the debt ceiling in September, and has encouraged Congress to raise the limit before the lawmakers go on their August recess. Republican leaders in Congress have begun having bipartisan discussions on the matter in the House. The U.S. government has a statutory limit on how much money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only Congress can raise that limit. The updated deadline will do little to diminish the urgency in Congress to act on the debt ceiling. Lawmakers will be still be pressured to tackle the increase before September, when funding the government will become their primary focus. The CBO report pointed to slower-than-expected tax receipts this year, a factor that Mnuchin has cited as a reason to raise the debt ceiling sooner. Lower tax payments were cited also as a factor in an increase in the deficit estimate. The CBO increased the deficit estimate for the current fiscal year to $693 billion, a $134 billion increase from its January estimate. The report factors in only current law that has been approved by Congress, and does not include proposals that have been made by President Donald Trump in his budget proposal released earlier this year. Congress continues to struggle with completing its hefty to-do list. In addition to raising the debt ceiling, Congress must pass a government spending bill before the end of September or face a government shutdown in October. This aligns the deadlines for the debt limit and the spending bill, creating the potential for them to become intertwined. Congressional leaders have expressed a desire to see the two kept separate to avoid getting the debt ceiling increase caught up in the politics of government spending. Congress also is trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act healthcare law and to overhaul the tax code – two efforts that have stalled and consumed more time than was initially expected. And there still are forces pushing against the effort to find agreement on the debt ceiling, including some Republicans who say an increase in the limit should accompany a cut in spending. And there are Democrats who have warned they will not contribute votes to legislation increasing the level if tax cuts for the rich add to the deficit. | 1 |
8,345 | Trump talks pardons amid probes of Russia role in U.S. election | NORFOLK, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that he has “complete power to pardon,” as his administration confronts ongoing investigations of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia. In a series of early morning Twitter messages, Trump aired renewed frustration with his attorney general, the special counsel leading the Russia probe, and Republicans in Congress who are struggling to advance his legislative agenda. But Trump’s comment about pardons, tucked into an attack on the media, raised the possibility that he was considering his options if the investigations do not turn out the way he hopes. Trump did not specify who, if anyone, he might consider pardoning. His tweets appeared to be written in response to a report by The Washington Post this week that Trump and his legal team have examined presidential powers to pardon Trump aides, family members and possibly even himself. Reuters has not confirmed the newspaper accounts. “While all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS,” Trump wrote. The Washington Post, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported on Friday that Russia’s ambassador to the United States was overheard by U.S. spy agencies telling his bosses that he had discussed campaign-related matters with Trump adviser Jeff Sessions last year, when Sessions was a U.S. senator. Sessions now leads the Justice Department as Trump’s attorney general. “These illegal leaks...must stop,” Trump tweeted. At the Senate confirmation hearings for his Cabinet position, Sessions initially failed to disclose his 2016 contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and later said they were not about the campaign. In March, Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe. During an interview with The New York Times this week, Trump lashed out at Sessions, saying he would not have chosen him for attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself. Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential election but continues to use her as a foil, questioned why Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller were not investigating former FBI Director James Comey or Clinton, for her email practices as secretary of state. “So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Counsel looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 emails deleted...,” he tweeted. Scholars have raised questions about the scope of the president’s legal authority in issuing pardons. If Trump moved to pardon himself sometime in the future, the U.S. Supreme Court might have to decide on the constitutionality, some have speculated. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing by federal investigators who are probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller is looking into any relationships or contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians during the election. Congressional committees also are exploring Russia’s influence on the U.S. election. Trump traveled on Saturday to Norfolk, Virginia, where he spoke at a commissioning ceremony for the aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford, named for the Republican president who held the White House from 1974-1977. In his remarks, Trump made no mention of the Russia controversy, focusing his speech on the need for more robust U.S. military spending. After the trip, Trump retreated to his golf course near Washington and had lunch with his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, policy adviser Stephen Miller and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, a White House official said. Priebus’s presence in the entourage came a day after Trump named a new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, reportedly over Priebus’s objections. The weekend trip comes ahead of a busy week of Russia-related activity. The Senate Judiciary Committee said on Friday that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort had agreed to negotiate whether to be interviewed by the panel in its Russia investigation. Trump Jr., Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and now one of his senior advisers, all met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016. That meeting was held in Trump Tower in New York after the lawyer offered damaging information about Clinton. The White House is also working on Trump’s campaign promise to U.S. healthcare system. In his Saturday tweets, Trump had words for Republican senators who have not been able to agree on a way forward to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, which has become known as Obamacare and which Trump promised to do away with as president. “The Republican Senators must step up to the plate and, after 7 years, vote to Repeal and Replace. Next, Tax Reform and Infrastructure. WIN!” he tweeted. | 1 |
8,346 | House panel approves legislation to speed deployment of self-driving cars | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An influential U.S. House committee on Thursday approved a revised bipartisan bill on a 54-0 vote that would speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles. The bill would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years. Automakers and technology companies believe chances are good Congress will approve legislation before year end. They have been pushing for regulations making it easier to deploy self-driving technology, while consumer groups have sought more safeguards. Current federal rules bar self-driving cars without human controls on U.S. roads and automakers think proposed state rules in California are too restrictive. The measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would require automakers to submit safety assessment reports to regulators, but would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies. The House of Representatives will take up the bill when it reconvenes in September, while senators plan to introduce a separate similar measure. “Our aim was to develop a regulatory structure that allows for industry to safely innovate with significant government oversight,” said Representative Greg Walden, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Initially, authors proposed to allow automakers and others to sell up to 100,000 vehicles immediately. Representative Frank Pallone said the phase-in period was essential so “millions of exempted cars will not hit our roads all at once.” Manufacturers must demonstrate self-driving cars winning exemptions are at least as safe as existing vehicles. Under the House proposal, states could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but could not set self-driving car performance standards. Automakers praised committee passage, while Consumer Watchdog privacy director John Simpson said preempting state laws “leaves us at the mercy of manufacturers as they use our public highways as their private laboratories.” General Motors Co (GM.N), Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and others have been lobbying for legislation to speed deployment of self-driving cars. Consumer advocates want more changes, including giving the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration quicker access to crash data and more funding to oversee self-driving cars. The issue has taken on new urgency since U.S. road deaths rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966. Automakers say that without changes in regulations, U.S. self-driving car testing could move to Europe and elsewhere. | 1 |
8,347 | Republican tax fight complicates plan to pass budget in House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A budget plan crucial to President Donald Trump’s hopes for large-scale tax cuts looked set for a close vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday after some Republicans vowed opposition in an effort to protect a popular tax break. The rebellious faction is resisting a proposal to eliminate a federal deduction for state and local income taxes, which would hit middle-class voters in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California. The idea is one of several that have been floated as Republicans craft a tax-cut plan. The budget blueprint, which has already been approved by the Senate, is central to their efforts to push tax legislation through Congress in the face of staunch opposition from Democrats. The proposal “is obviously an issue of concern to a group of members, and the shared goal is to work together to address the issue and move forward,” an aide to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said on Wednesday. With the clock ticking toward a vote, the impasse had yet to be settled. Republican lawmakers had planned to meet in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office at 9 p.m. to try to hammer out a resolution, but the meeting was postponed until after the budget vote, which was set for 10:30 a.m. (1430 GMT). Republican Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey told reporters it was possible there were enough votes to block the budget plan. “It’s got to be close,” he said. Scalise predicted victory. “We’re going to get it done,” he told Fox News Channel. Republicans have sketched out a tax package that independent analysts say would cut taxes for businesses and individuals by up to $6 trillion over the next decade, but detailed legislation is not expected to be unveiled until next week. If Congress approves a tax-cut plan, it would hand Trump his first major legislative win since he took office in January. “I am urging Republicans who have questions about SALT (the state and local tax deduction) to vote no tomorrow, and keep voting no until we get some compromise we can live with,” Republican Representative Peter King of New York told Reuters. An aide to Republican Representative Tom Reed of New York said there was discussion of a compromise that would call for a tax credit up to a certain income amount to replace the deduction, and that he would support it. Republican Representative Leonard Lance of New Jersey told Reuters he was not interested in a compromise at this time, and instead wanted the repeal provision taken off the table. “I will be voting no on the budget tomorrow,” he said. | 1 |
8,348 | Hurricane Irma will 'devastate' part of U.S.: emergency services head | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anticipating that Hurricane Irma will devastate part of the United States, U.S. officials were preparing a massive response to the storm, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Friday. With Irma set to hit Florida as early as Saturday night, parts of Florida was expected to lose electricity for days, if not longer, and more than 100,000 people may need shelter, FEMA Administrator Brock Long warned at a news conference. Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States in either Florida or some of the southeastern states, Long said. Irma was a Category 5 hurricane, the most dangerous measure by the National Hurricane Center, before being downgraded to Category 4 early Friday after pummeling islands in the Caribbean. The United States has experienced only three Category 5 storms since 1851 and Irma is far larger than the last one to hit the United States in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to Long. He warned people not to ignore evacuation orders. They need to get out and listen and heed the warnings, Long said. Officials have thousands of personnel ready to respond and millions of meals and liters of water in place nearby, Long said. The National Weather Service said that Friday was the last day to evacuate before winds would start to reach unsafe speeds in Florida. Airlines added extra flights from Florida on Thursday before announcing plans to halt service from some southern Florida airports starting Friday afternoon. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price called Irma a remarkably dangerous storm and the window to get yourself in the right spot ... is closing rapidly. Price said the main hospital in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands was closed after being damaged by Irma, and critically ill patients were being evacuated to Puerto Rico or other islands. On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 316-90 to approve a measure to more than double funding to $15.25 billion for FEMA and local block grants to handle natural disasters after the Senate passed the measure Thursday, 80-17. FEMA s disaster assistance fund could have run out of money Friday without action. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure Friday. The measure also extends the life of the National Flood Insurance Program through Dec. 5. It had been set to expire Sept. 30. | 1 |
8,349 | UNIV Of GA PROFESSOR Allows Students To CHOOSE THEIR OWN GRADES To Help Alleviate Stress | A University of Georgia professor has adopted a stress reduction policy that will allow students to select their own grades if they feel unduly stressed by the ones they earned.According to online course syllabi for two of Dr. Richard Watson s fall business courses, he has introduced the policy because emotional reactions to stressful situations can have profound consequences for all involved. As such, if students feel unduly stressed by a grade for any assessable material or the overall course, they can email the instructor indicating what grade [they] think is appropriate, and it will be so changed with no explanation being required. If in a group meeting, you feel stressed by your group s dynamics, you should leave the meeting immediately and need offer no explanation to the group members, the policy adds, saying such students can discontinue all further group work with their remaining grade being based totally on non-group work. Similarly, when it comes to tests and exams for Watson s Data Management and Energy Informatics courses, all will be open book and open notes and designed to assess low level mastery of the course material (the Stress Reduction section has been removed from both syllabi, but an archived version of the Data Management syllabus has been provided here).Finally, for in-class presentations, Watson will allow only positive comments to be made, while comments designed to improve future presentations will be communicated by email. For entire story: Campus ReformPerhaps someone should give the good professor a ticket to Afghanistan so he can spend time with some of our young, brave, college-age troops who don t get to chose their next assignment because it might be too stressful for them.Parents of these students need to start speaking up. We are raising a generation of marshmallows who will have no idea how to handle stress in real life situations. We as a nation, will have no one to blame but ourselves for raising an entire generation of coddled snowflakes with absolutely no coping skills. | 0 |
8,350 | Donald Trump’s Security Agents Just Brutally Choke Slammed Reporter To Ground (VIDEO) | What we ve witnessed over the past several months coming from the Donald Trump campaign is something very reminiscent of a fascist regime that once tried to take over Europe. No one dare say anything bad about Trump, because if it doesn t get you physically tossed from a rally, it will get you verbally taunted in front of thousands of onlookers. Because of this behavior, his minions are following suit and feeling it is equally as okay to be both verbally and physically abusive.Recently, Trump even said if he were to be president, he wouldn t allow the press to say negative things about him. Now, following through already with this proclamation, Trump s Secret Service detail has just brutally choke slammed reporter Christopher Morris from TIME to the ground who was there covering the Radford University event in Radford, Virginia.Watch it all unfold here, as posted by Joe Perticone, a Congressional reporter for the Independent Journal: Secret Service agent choke slams reporter pic.twitter.com/jdsHOlylSB Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) February 29, 2016And an even more horrifying view:New video shows Secret Service agent brutally choke slamming a photographer at Trump rally https://t.co/OkvQdWfH8r pic.twitter.com/G6dArHxoKE Mashable (@mashable) February 29, 2016 With Trump s vitriolic rhetoric getting worse by the day, more and more folks are showing up to protest his events, and rightfully so. According to Perticone, this most recent rally has been interrupted by protesters (who have been escorted out) 7 times this rally. Thats more than usual. People are sick and tired of Trump s horrific language, and if you dare try to protest it, you re taken away. Now, if you dare try to report on it in a way Trump doesn t see fit, you get taken away.A Donald Trump America, everyone. First Amendment be damned.Featured image: screengrab | 0 |
8,351 | Rebel Honduran police ignore curfew order, election protesters rejoice | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Hondurans spilled into the streets of the capital on Monday night, banging pots and pans and joining rebel police in defiance of a curfew imposed after a presidential election that was heavily criticized by the Organization of American States. Some police officers abandoned their posts and joined carnival-like demonstrations that erupted across the city hours after night fell and the curfew was supposed to have begun. A statement issued in the name of the National Police said the officers were upset with the government over a political crisis that was not their responsibility. Our people are sovereign, said a member of the elite Cobra riot police, reading the statement. We cannot confront and repress their rights. Authorities finished counting votes on Monday after a week of increasingly widespread criticism about the Nov. 26 election, with Organization of American States (OAS) lending credence to opposition claims the government manipulated the results to ensure a win. The tight margin, along with the irregularities, errors and systematic problems that have surrounded this election, does not allow the mission to be certain about the results, said former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga, heading the OAS election observation mission in the Central American country. Electoral authorities said President Juan Orlando Hernandez won 42.98 percent of the vote, compared with opposition challenger Salvador Nasralla s 41.39 percent, based on 99.96 percent of ballot boxes tallied. However, authorities refrained from declaring a winner, with Nasralla s center-left opposition Alliance demanding a wide recount of nearly a third of votes, a request backed by the OAS and European Union election observers. Lending more support to that view, a leader of rebellious Cobra riot police told reporters the country wanted a vote-by-vote recount to clarify the results, and called on the armed forces to come out in support of the police protest. The Alliance, which claims that results sheets from ballot boxes were altered, is expected to formally contest the results. President Hernandez, who has been praised by the United States for his crackdown on street gangs, also refrained from calling himself the winner on Monday, despite claiming victory several times since the election. I make a call for peace, for brotherhood, for sanity, for national unity, he told reporters. In a striking sign of support for Hernandez, 49, the U.S. State Department cleared the way for Honduras to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid two days after the election, certifying that the government has been fighting corruption and upholding human rights, a document seen by Reuters showed. The government was struggling to contain the fallout from the chaos on Monday evening. Even former TV star Nasralla joined a crowd of boisterous supporters, jumping up and down in a tan suit while flashing peace signs and joining a chant of the dictatorship will fall, a video posted on Twitter showed. The additional powers granted to the army and police including the nighttime curfew from Friday were intended to stem the protests and have led to more than a thousand arrests. Up to 12 people have been killed in the protests or during the curfew. Tens of thousands peacefully took to the streets on Sunday in a show of force for the opposition. The police revolt began when more than 200 members of the Cobras refused to carry on battling protesters, saying it was tantamount to taking sides. Nasralla has repeatedly called on the security forces to ignore orders. We are rebelling, said one of the policemen, who covered his face in a ski mask and declined to give his name. We call on all the police nationally to act with their conscience. They soon had the support of other units, with reports that their protests had spread to other cities. The police also said they were angry about the death of two colleagues shot while they were enforcing the curfew on Sunday night, an attack a spokesman said was unrelated to the election protests. Two civilian protesters were killed in the capital overnight, their relatives said, although authorities did not confirm the deaths. The OAS called for peaceful protests, said politicians must not incite violence and that security forces must respect human rights. Last week, at least three people were killed as soldiers broke up protesters blockades. One police source and local reports said five more had been shot dead in the north of the country on Friday. The deaths have not been confirmed by authorities. Early last week, Nasralla, a 64-year-old former sportscaster and game show host, appeared set for an upset victory, gaining a five-point lead with more than half of the ballots tallied. The counting process suddenly halted for more than a day and began leaning in favor of Hernandez after resuming. Opposition leaders on Monday showed a sample of their own records of polling that did not match with the tribunal s. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the United States of backing vote fraud in Honduras, while the U.S. embassy on Monday called for a transparent, impartial, and opportune election result. Honduras struggles with violent drug gangs, one of world s highest murder rates and endemic poverty, driving a tide of its people to migrate to the United States. | 1 |
8,352 | AS ISIS HAS CELEBRATORY PARADE IN W. ANBAR PROVINCE OF IRAQ: Pathetic Obama Regime Asks Networks To Stop Using “B-loop” ISIS Footage | A Pentagon spokesman claims it s more like One Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off. Um Unless I m mistaken Barry, I see more than one Toyota Really? Because just the other day ISIS rolled into the W. Anbar province and actually held a parade to celebrate their victory. All of this pomp and circumstance took place in a country where Obama pulled our troops and declared he ended the war in Iraq. Here is Barack Hussein Obama bragging about ending the war in Iraq and then wonders aloud to the press why they keep asking him about pulling out of Iraq like as if it was my decision. Here is President George W. Bush in 2007 warning that if we pulled out of Iraq on a whim before our commanders told us we were ready, it would be dangerous and warned about mass killings on a horrific scale. https://youtu.be/6ZkExYK_YWkInstead of fighting a war in Iraq, Obama and his regime are busy crafting a lie about the strength of ISIS and openly demanding that our state-run media comply with his propaganda. And now: Frustrated that coverage of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant isn t reflecting reality on the ground, senior Obama administration officials are urging television networks to update their footage of the radical militant group.Senior State Department and Pentagon officials have begun contacting television network reporters to ask them to stop using B-roll stock footage that appears on screen while reporters and commentators talk showing ISIL at the peak of its strength last summer. We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc, said Emily Horne, spokeswoman for retired Gen. John Allen, the State Department s special envoy leading the international coalition against ISIL. It s inaccurate that s no longer how ISIL moves, Horne said. A lot of that footage is from last summer before we began tactical strikes. The effort is ad hoc for now, with U.S. officials approaching correspondents from several networks in informal settings. Representatives from CNN, NBC, Fox, or ABC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A source at CBS said they hadn t heard from the administration yet regarding their footage. Since the U.S. began conducting air strikes against ISIL positions and convoys last August, America and its allies have dropped thousands of bombs against the group in Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials say ISIL fighters can no longer congregate in daylight or move in large convoys that are easily spotted and struck from above.A more accurate image, said Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, would be one Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off. Via: Politico | 0 |
8,353 | Saudi deputy crown prince, Trump meeting a 'turning point': Saudi adviser | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a meeting on Tuesday that Iran represents a regional security threat, a senior adviser to the deputy crown prince said The adviser also said the talks marked a “historical turning point” in U.S.-Saudi relations. Saudi Arabia had viewed with unease the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, whom they felt considered Riyadh’s alliance with Washington less important than negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. It has been encouraged by the Trump administration’s hardline stance on Iran and its nuclear program. “The meeting today restored issues to their right path and form a big change in relations between both countries in political, military, security and economic issues,” the senior adviser said in a statement. | 1 |
8,354 | U.S., Vietnam agree to allow Peace Corps into Vietnam for first time | HANOI (Reuters) - The United States and Vietnam on Tuesday signed an agreement allowing the U.S. Peace Corps to work in the country for the first time. The signing, which comes amid a historic three-day visit by President Barack Obama, follows more than a decade of negotiations between the two countries to establish a Peace Corps operation in Vietnam. The program, which is expected to begin over the next two years, allows Peace Corps volunteers to teach English in schools in the country’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, said Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, who signed the agreement with Vietnam’s ambassador to the United States, Pham Quang Vinh. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was present for the signing, said the agreement marked a further normalizing of relations between the United States and Vietnam. “For 20 years now we have had what we call a normal relationship,” said Kerry, who in 1968 served as a young U.S. naval officer in the Vietnam War. “This is normal, having the Peace Corps being able to move forward, having young Americans come here, not always young, to be able to teach English in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh is the next step forward to building the relationship between the United States and Vietnam,” he added. After the signing, Hessler-Radelet turned to Kerry saying: “You’ve waited for this for a long time.” | 1 |
8,355 | Trump administration debates designating Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A debate is under way in the Trump administration about whether the United States should declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and subject it to U.S. sanctions, according to U.S. officials and people close to President Donald Trump’s transition team. A faction led by Michael Flynn, Trump’s National Security Advisor, wants to add the Brotherhood to the State Department and U.S. Treasury lists of foreign terrorist organizations, the sources said. “I know it has been discussed. I’m in favor of it,” said a Trump transition advisor, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. The advisor said Flynn’s team discussed adding the group to the U.S. list of terrorist groups but said it was ultimately unclear when or even if the administration ultimately would go ahead with such a move. Other Trump advisors, as well as many veteran national security, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence officials argue the Brotherhood has evolved peacefully in some countries, according to officials and people close to Trump’s entourage. They worry that a U.S. move to designate the entire Brotherhood a terrorist group would complicate relations with Turkey, a key American ally in the fight against Islamic State, and where the Islamist-rooted AKP Party that dominates the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in power. Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda Party has also participated in democratic elections. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the country’s oldest Islamist movement, was designated as a terrorist organization in that country in 2013. It is not clear which faction within the U.S. administration has the upper hand, and Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart this month introduced legislation to add the Brotherhood to the terrorist list. There was no immediate comment from the White House. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates among others have designated the group on their terrorist lists, and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, described the Brotherhood an “an agent of radical Islam”, during his Senate confirmation hearing. U.S. criminal law prohibits people in the United States from knowingly providing “material support” to designated terrorist organizations, and members of such groups are banned from entering the United States.Some conservative and anti-Muslim activists have argued for years that the Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 and sought to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate by peaceful means, has been a breeding ground for terrorists. Some branches of the Brotherhood, including the Palestinian group Hamas, have engaged in anti-government violence and provoked violent government reactions. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, was once a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Other offshoots in Turkey and Tunisia have forsworn violence and come to power by democratic means. Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Mursi became Egypt’s first freely elected president in June 2012 in the aftermath of the ousting of long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak. An army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Hundreds of Islamists have since been killed and arrested. Sisi and Trump spoke by phone this week and the two leaders discussed ways to boost the fight against terrorism and extremism. A U.S. official who declined to be identified told Reuters there had been discussions at the State Department which looked at intelligence and information on the group in which it was thought “it would be difficult to justify legally, in terms of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, to meet the criteria”. “It’s one thing to say one group’s ideology has been used to influence a terrorist organization and another thing to say that this group is a terrorist organization,” said the U.S. official. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States, the George W. Bush administration launched investigations into the Brotherhood and related Islamist movements. After years of investigations, however, the U.S. and other governments, including Switzerland’s, closed investigations of the Brotherhood leaders and financial group for lack of evidence, and removed most of the leaders from sanctions lists. A British government review into Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood published in December 2015 concluded that membership of or links to the political group should be considered a possible indicator of extremism but stopped short of recommending that it should be banned. | 1 |
8,356 | NC GOP Rep. Makes Outrageously Racist Statement In Response To Charlotte Protests (VIDEO) | We are heading into yet another day of unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, and one GOP congressman is blaming the victims of systemic racism that lead to the deaths of so many black people at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect in the most blatantly racist way yet. North Carolina GOP Congressman Robert Pittenger had some extraordinary opinions to express here, but he swears he is not racist. Pittenger said that the protesters: The grievance in their minds, the animus, the anger. They hate white people because white people are successful and they re not. Yes, he actually said that. Here is video of the statement, via BBC NewsNight on Twitter:Protesters in #Charlotte "hate white people" North Carolina Congressman Pittenger tells #newsnight https://t.co/q6ELYD01QV BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 22, 2016As if that weren t bad enough, Pittenger went on to say: We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we ve put people in bondage, so they can t be all they re capable of being. Of course, the backlash was swift, leading the fool who should never be allowed to hold any position of power whatsoever to quickly try and pretend that isn t what he really meant, that he isn t really a racist. He insisted that he is simply upset, that what is taking place in my hometown right now breaks my heart. He also said, My anguish led me to respond to a reporter s question in a way that I regret. Pittenger, a die-hard Trumpkin, insists that he isn t racist eh? No, Rep. Pittenger, you ARE racist. Anyone who isn t would even think such a thing in response to these protests, much less say it. Face it you re a racist. You and the rest of the GOP can whine and complain anytime someone calls you on your ignorance and bigotry all you want we all know the truth, right from your own mouths.Those of us who are aware know the truth, even though you don t want to look in the mirror and see yourselves for what you are: flaming racists. Run along now, I m sure your sheet and hood are ready to be picked up from the dry cleaners.Featured image via video screenshot | 0 |
8,357 | Russia shrugs off Sessions uproar, says has daily contacts with U.S. partners | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian embassy to the United States said on Thursday it was in regular contact with “U.S. partners” after the Washington Post reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had failed to disclose meetings with Russia’s ambassador. Citing Justice Department officials, the Post said Sessions spoke twice last year with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador, while he was still a U.S. senator. U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called on Sessions to resign over the issue. The question of how much contact there was between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Russia prior to his election has dominated the early days of his presidency along with allegations from U.S. intelligence officials that Moscow ran an influence campaign to try to sway the election’s outcome. Russia categorically denies meddling and Russian officials say the issue is being deliberately used by Trump’s opponents to derail chances of a swift warming in U.S.-Russia ties. “The embassy doesn’t comment on numerous contacts with local partners, which occur on a daily basis in line with diplomatic practice,” Russian embassy spokesman Nikolai Lakhonin told Russia’s Interfax news agency, when asked to comment on meetings between Sessions and Kislyak. Sessions has denied discussing details of the U.S. presidential campaign with Russian officials. Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired last month after he discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama who has himself met Kislyak, said he was bemused by what he said was the Trump administration’s secrecy about its contacts with Russian officials. “I just don’t get why Trump folks are so secretive about meetings/calls with Russians. If nothing to hide, just tell the truth!,” McFaul said on social media. Alexey Pushkov, a Russian senator, said the uproar over Sessions showed how paranoid U.S. politicians had become about any links with his country. “Almost the entire U.S. elite is, it turns out, linked to Russia. Including the attorney general,” Pushkov wrote on social media. “Paranoia knows no bounds.” | 1 |
8,358 | Obama asks U.S. insurers for help enrolling the young and healthy | (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday urged U.S. insurers offering coverage next year under his national healthcare law to step up their efforts to enroll those who remain uninsured, especially younger and healthier Americans. Several big insurers, including UnitedHealth Group Inc, Aetna Inc and Humana Inc, have announced they will pull back from the Obamacare individual insurance market in 2017, citing financial losses due to the costs of covering members who are sicker than expected. Their planned exit has prompted new questions over whether Obamacare can survive over the long-term if insurers cannot create a viable business from the market. Insurance premiums for consumers have jumped each year since Obamacare plans took effect in 2014, and those price increases are expected to grow steeper as fewer insurers participate. Obama, in a letter to all insurers selling health plans next year on the exchanges, noted that the program has helped reduce the percentage of Americans without health insurance to a record low, and acknowledged that it could still be improved to benefit insurers and consumers. His administration will help find and enroll those who still lack coverage, with a particular focus on enrolling young adults. “Since the remaining uninsured are disproportionately younger and healthier, signing them up improves the risk pool and consequently the affordability of coverage for all enrollees,” Obama said in the letter. Obama, Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and other top health advisers on Monday met with executives from several leading insurance companies, including Cigna Corp Chief Executive David Cordani and Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, to discuss ways to strengthen the marketplace ahead of its fourth open enrollment period, which begins Nov. 1, according to a White House official. A spokeswoman for industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans said the meeting’s focus included increasing enrollment. “As health plans are preparing for open enrollment, today’s meeting was focused on how to build on the continued progress in reducing the uninsured rate and moving forward with policy solutions that will support a stable, affordable market for 2017 and beyond,” AHIP spokeswoman Clare Krusing said. | 1 |
8,359 | Senate to vote on Russia sanctions bill later on Thursday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea later on Thursday, Senator Mike Enzi said in remarks on the Senate floor. The measure has already passed the House of Representatives by a 419-3 vote. It is also expected to garner very strong support in the Senate, despite concerns about it from President Donald Trump. | 1 |
8,360 | Russia says Trump stance on Iran deal 'extremely troubling': RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday it was “extremely troubling” that U.S. President Donald Trump was raising questions that had been settled when an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program was signed, RIA news agency reported. Ryabkov was quoted as saying that Russia sees its main task now as preventing the Iran nuclear deal from collapsing. He called on all sides to stay committed to the deal, the news agency reported. | 1 |
8,361 | President Xi says China will not export its political system | BEIJING (Reuters) - China will not export its political system, President Xi Jinping told a forum for foreign political groups on Friday, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to boost its global image and take a more assertive international role. China s state media has this year touted the annual inter-party meeting as a high-level dialogue with Xi speaking at it for the first time. Xi told the forum s opening session China was struggling for the cause of human progress and it would bring benefits to every country in the world, according to state television. We will not import other countries models, and will not export the China model, Xi said. We will provide more opportunities for the world through our development, he said. The official Xinhua news agency has said that representatives from hundreds of political parties in more than 120 countries have registered for the four-day meeting, though it has not provided a full list. Myanmar s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Tony Parker, treasurer of the U.S. Republican National Committee, were among attendees who spoke at the forum s opening. At a Chinese Communist Party (CPP) congress in October, where Xi cemented his power, he laid out a confident vision for a proud and prosperous China in a new era under his leadership. At the time, he also called on the Communist Party, as the world s biggest political party with 89 million members, to have a big image . China has expanded the reach of its foreign policy and military under Xi, whose diplomatic thought has been credited domestically with transcending 300 years of Western international relations theory and serving as a marker of China s growing soft power. But concern abroad about China using its influence to sway foreign business, academic, and political institutions have grown in tandem. Some foreign business has been alarmed by the increased push for influence by Communist Party units in their operations and joint ventures, and international publishers have sparked academic freedom controversies by pulling content that offends Beijing. Jude Blanchette, an expert on China s Communist Party at The Conference Board s China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, said Xi and the party had been re-articulating the idea of a China solution for governments around the world. In isolation, the meeting will be forgotten by next week, but it s a small piece in a much larger strategy to rebrand the CCP from a reactive organization on the wrong side of history into a political force at the center of the global conversation, Blanchette said. | 1 |
8,362 | Bill Maher Acts Out Trump SOTU Address And PERFECTLY Shows Trump Can’t Ever Be POTUS (VIDEO) | Imagining what Donald Trump would be like as the next president of the United States is terrifying for every level-headed American. In fact, most of us don t even want to think about what it would be like.Bill Maher gave us an awful dose of reality on Real Time last night, when he imagined what a State of the Union address from the current Republican presidential front runner might look like. The enactment was prefaced with Maher pointing out the irony of Trump s complaints that former Mexican President Vicente Fox had used foul language to fire back at him after he pledged to make Mexico pay for the construction of his beloved U.S.-Mexico border wall if he became president. Fox s amazing response to that was I m not going to pay for the f*cking wall and he refused to comply when Trump demanded an apology for the comment.Amused with Trump s complete lack of self-awareness, Maher quipped on his show: Donald Trump must admit that, of all his reversals, hypocrisies, and 180s, his condemnation this week of Vicente Fox for using foul language is the most ridiculous of all. Talk about the pot calling the kettle orange. As Maher rolls footage of the Republican front runner cursing in several public speeches, the fact that Trump is pretending to be offended by Fox becomes even more hilarious.Maher then moved on to tackle Trump s disturbing popularity with the use of his alias, Andrew Dice Trump . Maher commented that the reason Trump had risen so high was because voters like his crass way of speaking. Maher remarked, They kind of like it when a politician drops the facade and talks the way we all really talk. And to explore just what a future Trump presidency might look like, Maher acted out a State of The Union address to show just how political discourse could go if America doesn t wake up soon and realize that we re better than bigotry and outlandish comments. Assuming the position of Trump in the scene, Maher cursed his entire way through the distasteful address and announced that the state of our union is f*cking awesome. Sadly, Maher captured Trump perfectly and this is probably a very realistic representation of what a speech by President Trump might look like. You can watch Maher s enactment below: Featured image is a compilation from Gage Skidmore and a screenshot | 0 |
8,363 | Exclusive: Trump complains Saudis not paying fair share for U.S. defense | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was not treating the United States fairly and Washington was losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom. In an interview with Reuters, Trump confirmed his administration was in talks about possible visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel in the second half of May. He is due to make his first trip abroad as president for a May 25 NATO summit in Brussels and could add other stops. “Frankly, Saudi Arabia has not treated us fairly, because we are losing a tremendous amount of money in defending Saudi Arabia,” he said. Trump’s criticism of Riyadh was a return to his 2016 election campaign rhetoric when he accused the kingdom of not pulling its weight in paying for the U.S. security umbrella. “Nobody’s going to mess with Saudi Arabia because we’re watching them,” Trump told a campaign rally in Wisconsin a year ago. “They’re not paying us a fair price. We’re losing our shirt.” The United States is the main supplier for most Saudi military needs, from F-15 fighters to control and command systems worth tens of billions of dollars in recent years, while American contractors win major energy deals. The world’s top oil exporter and its biggest consumer have enjoyed close economic ties for decades, with U.S. firms building much of the infrastructure of the modern Saudi state after its oil boom in the 1970s. Saudi officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Trump’s latest comments. But Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir rejected similar comments from Trump during his election campaign, telling CNN during a visit to Washington last July that the Islamic kingdom “carries its own weight” as an ally. Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Trump last month in a meeting that was hailed by a senior Saudi adviser as a “historical turning point” in relations. The talks appeared to signal a meeting of minds on many issues, including their shared view that Iran posed a regional security threat. Riyadh and other Gulf allies see in Trump a strong president who will shore up Washington’s role as their main strategic partner and help contain Riyadh’s adversary Iran in a region central to U.S. security and energy interests, regional analysts said. Asked about the fight against Islamic State, which Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies are confronting as a coalition, Trump said the militant group had to be defeated. “I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation,” Trump said, when asked about what the endgame was for defeating Islamist violent extremism. “There is an end. Otherwise it’s really tough. But there is an end,” without detailing a strategy. A visit to Israel would reciprocate a White House visit in February by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Trump next Wednesday in Washington. Trump has set a more positive tone with Israel than his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, who often clashed with the right-wing Israeli leader, and has raised concerns among Palestinians that their leaders may not get equal treatment. Trump has also asked Israel to put unspecified limits on its building of Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for a state, and has promised to seek a Middle East peace deal that eluded his predecessors. However, he has offered no new diplomatic prescriptions. “I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” he said. “There is no reason there’s not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever.” Trump brushed aside a question of whether he might use a possible trip to Israel to declare U.S. recognition of the entire city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a reversal of longstanding U.S. foreign policy likely to draw international condemnation. “Ask me in a month on that,” he said, without elaborating. If Trump ties an Israel visit to next month’s Brussels trip, it would be around the time Israelis are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, when Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. Successive U.S. administrations as well as the international community have not recognized Israel’s annexation of the eastern part of the city, and the future status of Jerusalem remains one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Israel claims all of Jerusalem, which contains sites sacred to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths, as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state of their own. | 1 |
8,364 | Obama Teams Up With Stephen Colbert For Brutal Trump Diss; Trump LIVID (VIDEO) | President Barack Obama hasn t exactly kept his disgust and disdain for Republican nominee Donald Trump a secret, but he made it hilariously obvious when he appeared on Monday night s Late Show With Stephen Colbert, as the two men brutally mocked the GOP s sorry excuse for a presidential candidate.On the show, Obama sat down with host Stephen Colbert, who tries to disguise himself so he can subtly ask the President how he feels about this election s presidential candidates. Because he couldn t flat-out ask Obama how he really felt, Colbert found an interesting way to get the information out of our commander-in-chief: by asking him to choose between two snacks.Colbert asked Obama to make a decision between an extra fiber nutrient bar which has traveled to more than 100 countries, or this shriveled tangerine covered in golden retriever hair, filled with bile, that I wouldn t leave alone with the woman I love. By the description alone, we all know just which snack represented what candidate but the visual made the whole thing even more hilarious. In all honesty, the tangerine wasn t too far off from being an exact replica of Trump anyway.You can watch the clip below to see Colbert and Obama both poke fun of America s worse presidential candidate to date:Wherein @POTUS makes an important snack decision. (Watch the rest tonight on #LSSC!) pic.twitter.com/Wkeqs6tMU8 The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) October 17, 2016Judging by Trump s Twitter activity over the last few hours, the business mogul may have already seen this clip because he was caught dissing Obama shortly after Colbert tweeted the clip (and Obama s decision):TwitterBitter, much? Trump s emotions are running high right now, and he must be terrified to face off with Clinton again during Wednesday night s debate. He s unraveling fast, and I m sure having the President of the United States insult you only adds insult to injury.Featured image via screenshots | 0 |
8,365 | Taiwan president visits U.S. territory of Guam despite Chinese ire | HAGATNA, Guam (Reuters) - Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrived on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam on Friday on her way back from visiting diplomatic allies in the Pacific - a trip that caused strong objections from China, which claims Taiwan as its own. Beijing had urged the United States not to allow Tsai to transit its territory on her trip, which included two days in Hawaii before she headed on to Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands. The timing is particularly touchy as U.S. President Donald Trump is due in Beijing next week. China regards self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its sovereign territory and regularly calls it the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States, strongly objecting to transit stops by Taiwanese presidents. While the office of Guam Governor Edward B. Calvo described Tsai s visit as private and unofficial , she was provided with a police escort upon her arrival. Speaking at a banquet, Tsai said that Taiwan and Guam share a unique friendship. She described Guam as the closest part of the United States to Taiwan, adding: The people of Taiwan are grateful for your support. James F. Moriarty, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the U.S. mission in Taiwan, said Hawaii, Guam and Taiwan were bound together not only by the Pacific Ocean but also by an expectation of democracy. Guam is home to a large U.S. military base and would be key to any U.S. assistance to Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China. Beijing has never renounced the possible use of force to bring the island under its control. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since Tsai was elected last year; China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. For her part, Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s democracy and security. The U.S. State Department had said Tsai s transits through U.S. soil would be private and unofficial and based on long-standing U.S. practice consistent with our unofficial relations with Taiwan . Last December, Trump angered Beijing by taking a telephone call from Tsai shortly after winning the presidential election. Tsai has been in the United States twice this year. In January, she stopped over in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America. | 1 |
8,366 | herbal teas with highest antioxidants | fight inflammation with these vitamins and minerals and where to get them httpblogsnaturalnewscomfightinflammationvitaminsmineralsget
by twain yobra
posted monday october at pm edt
vitamins and minerals play vital roles in the body and one of their most important role is fighting inflammation and this can reduce risk of diseases like arthritis heart disease and so on
here are antiinflammatory vitamin and minerals you should include in your diet
vitamin e
this antioxidant will fight inflammation you can get vitamin e from natural sources seeds and nuts like almonds peanuts and so on avocado and spinach are also great sources
magnesium
research shows that magnesium will keep you relaxed increases energy improves heart health and much more unfortunately most people are magnesium deficient good food sources of magnesium include beans nuts leafy greens whole wheat bread carrots and meat
vitamin b
low levels of b vitamins increase risk of inflammation natural sources include broccoli kale cauliflower bell pepper chicken tuna and chickpeas
glutathione
this antioxidant will definitely fight inflammation you can get it from garlic apples tomatoes apples grapefruit and avocado
vitamin c
vitamin c is known to strengthening the immune system reducing toxicity and even fights cancer lemon water tomatoes and oranges are great sources of vitamin c
vitamin d
vitamin d deficiency plus poor nutrition can lead to chronic inflammation sunlight is the most popular sources of vitamin d other sources including avocado spinach seeds and nuts
vitamin k
vitamin k prevents the body from heart disease osteoporosis get vitamin k eggs liver cabbage cauliflower spinach and kale
coenzyme q
this antioxidant has antiinflammatory properties you can get it from natural sources like olive oil walnuts peanuts spinach mackerel beef liver and sardines
vitamin a
vitamin a protects the body against free radicals you can increase levels of vitamin a by eating carrots broccoli sweet potato kale collard greens cantaloupe dandelion and spinach
for more information on eating healthy and staying fit download your free weeks flat stomach guide to help you improve your health and physique and like our facebook page you might also like | 0 |
8,367 | Cuba calls Trump's U.N. address 'unacceptable and meddling' | HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump s latest comments about the island as disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling, while reiterating it was not involved in the alleged incidents that had harmed U.S. diplomats in Havana. The sharply worded Foreign Ministry statement came after U.S. and Cuban delegations met in Washington to discuss bilateral relations, the first such high-level meeting between the Cold War foes since Trump took office in January. Their meeting took place on the same day Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, calling Cuba corrupt and destabilizing. He also said he would not lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba until it made fundamental reforms. Cuba said it had voiced strong protest against his comments, as well against his new policy toward the Communist-run nation. The Republican president announced in June a partial rollback of the U.S.-Cuban detente forged by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. In the wake of the disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling statements made by President Donald Trump in his address to the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the U.S.-Cuba Bilateral Commission was sitting in session, the Cuban delegation voiced a strong protest, the Foreign Ministry statement said. U.S.-Cuban relations have become especially strained since the State Department said last month its personnel in Havana had experienced physical symptoms from what it could only describe as incidents. The symptoms ranged from hearing loss to mild brain injury, a State Department official said last week, adding that the toll of victims had risen to 21 people linked to the U.S. Embassy. Several Canadians were also affected. Cuba has denied any involvement and the United States has not blamed it, although Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday it could close its embassy in response. Cuba has never perpetrated or will ever perpetrate actions of this nature, and has never permitted or will ever permit any third-party use of its territory for this purpose, Cuba s Foreign Ministry said. The Cuban authorities have shown keen interest in both clarifying this matter. | 1 |
8,368 | REPORT: Trump Still Seething Like A Child Because Bannon Gets More Attention Than He Does (DETAILS) | We all remember how, in February, TIME Magazine ran a cover with the face of Stephen K. Bannon, Trump s chief strategist, on it instead of the face of Trump himself. Of course, Trump s massive ego doesn t allow one iota of attention to go to anyone else, so this definitely got under his skin. However, that was a long time ago, and one would think that Trump is over that little irritation, right? Wrong. New reporting suggests that here we are in April, months after TIME ran the Bannon cover, and Trump is still irritated over it.The Hill reports that a New York Times cover says the following of how Trump feels about the Bannon cover, and his employees in general getting more attention than he does: Mr. Trump remains annoyed by a February cover of Time magazine labeling Mr. Bannon The Great Manipulator, telling one visitor this month, That doesn t just happen a favored Trump expression for anger at subordinates who tend to their interests ahead of his. It probably doesn t help that this particular issue of TIME definitely added fuel to the fire on the President Bannon meme, which suggests that it is really Steve Bannon who is pulling the strings in the West Wing, and that Trump is just a puppet. This may have been true at the time; however, Bannon s power and influence in the West Wing has been greatly diminished as of late. He may even be on his way out of the White House altogether. Here is the cover that has gotten under Trump s oh so thin skin:TIME s new cover: How Steve Bannon became the second most powerful man in the world https://t.co/EJpO6Qqg9K pic.twitter.com/BdpY4Hw9Xb TIME (@TIME) February 2, 2017If Trump is indeed still seething about the Bannon cover and the President Bannon narrative, indeed this is good for the country, as petty as it is. After all, anything that hastens the exit of the head white supremacist from the White House should be A-OK with any reasonable American citizen.Featured image via Mario Tama/Getty Images | 0 |
8,369 | House Speaker Ryan attacks Obama trip to Cuba | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday condemned President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba, saying the trip legitimizes the “tyrannical dictatorship” of Cuban President Raul Castro. Ryan made his remarks to reporters in Washington as Obama was wrapping up his historic visit to Havana - a trip that was marked by clashes between the American and Cuban leaders over human rights abuses. | 1 |
8,370 | EU states see Britain failing to meet Brexit divorce terms | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU envoys discussed on Wednesday delaying into next year the launch of talks with London on a post-Brexit relationship, raising the risk of businesses shifting out of Britain due to lack of clarity on what will happen after March 2019. A meeting of ambassadors from the other 27 EU states had been due to start discussing how to negotiate a transition that would start when Britain quits the bloc in 17 months. But instead, people familiar with the talks told Reuters, the discussion was dominated by concern that London would fail to meet EU conditions next month for opening future negotiations. Once again, lead powers Germany and France insisted British Prime Minister Theresa May agree in principle to pay an exit bill in the tens of billions of euros to Brussels before EU leaders agree to open a second phase of Brexit negotiations on the future relationship. They told May at a summit last month that they were ready to do that when they next meet, on Dec. 14. But British negotiators, who will be in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for more talks on that financial settlement, as well as rights for EU citizens and the Irish border, should not think they are sailing ahead into the next phase , an EU official familiar with the envoys discussions said. While the transition and future relationship were formally on the agenda, what ambassadors focused very much on was real concern that the UK does not realize that the EU27 are deadly serious about the need to meet the sufficient progress mark on the three first-phase issues. With May struggling with the loss of a second scandal-hit cabinet minister in a week, Germany, France and others are ramping up pressure on her to cut a deal in the knowledge that businesses are piling on their own demands for clarity before making investment decisions in the new year. The focus was very much on the here and now and the fact that the UK is so far away from meeting the sufficient progress point and that we are rapidly running out of time, the official added. Several diplomats gave similar accounts of the meeting. We should not be pressured or rushed. They really must come with the money, one senior EU diplomat said. The European Parliament, which must approve any withdrawal treaty, added its voice on Wednesday. Its Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt said May s suggestion that agreement was close on citizens rights was wide of the mark and that major issues remained unresolved to guarantee rights for EU nationals. The EU official said the ambassadors agreed that without sufficient progress on divorce issues in the next month, the talks would simply be extended into 2018 with no discussions on the future talks that London is keen to start immediately. If they don t move until early December, we ll have to think again what to do next, the senior diplomat said. Then there could be a take it or leave it offer from us, which would clearly not be very nice to Britain and at home they would fall under immense pressure to walk away from the talks. Some Brexit backers in her own government have urged May to walk out without a withdrawal deal, arguing that the EU also has an interest in an orderly split and that the British economy can stand any disruption a view not shared by many businesses. Several EU officials said Britain would have to abide by all EU laws in the transition period, even if they are changed during that time, but would have no vote on them. And that such a transition, which both sides have said should last less than two years, might have to be extended to give time for a trade pact. It s impossible to get any bespoke trade deal in two years or so, said an EU parliament official who deals with Brexit. And for all that time the UK would be an EU colony forced to accept all our laws with no say. This is what I call a definition of colony. | 1 |
8,371 | HOLLYWEIRD LIB SUSAN SARANDON Compares Muslim Refugees To Jesus’ Family | There are two small problems with your analogy Susan Jesus was NOT a Muslim and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem with Mary. For anyone who s not paying attention there don t appear to be many female refugees accompanying male Muslim refugees to Greece.Susan Sarandon spent the Christmas holiday on the Greek island of Lesbos assisting international organizations with the mounting Syrian refugee crisis a crisis, she says, that recalls the travails of Joseph and Mary on their way to the Inn in Bethlehem.In a column for the Huffington Post and RYOT, the 69-year-old Oscar-winning actress described meeting a 16-year-old girl who had apparently given birth shortly before arriving on the island. I smile and approach her, but without a translator, our conversation is basic-friendly, Sarandon wrote of her experience. She takes the bundle next to her and opens it to me. Inside is a perfect, rosy, newborn. The actress continues:She is beaming, so proud. How did this young girl, just having given birth, manage that trip at sea? How did she do all that walking? Where did she give birth?Wasn t Mary just a kid too when she and Joseph took to the road? So far, there is no manger for this Syrian baby, no room at the inn.Sarandon s short column is part of a new collaborative series with the Huffington Post and the virtual reality network RYOT called The Crossing, which will see the actress host a series of reports chronicling the refugee crisis as it unfolds in Greece. The actress also criticized the political discourse surrounding the refugee crisis in the United States: It seemed like people who had the loudest voices were the most xenophobic and un-American, she said.Sarandon isn t the only actor to have visited the Greek island to assist international aid efforts for refugees; Homeland star Mandy Patinkin recently spent time there assisting the International Rescue Committee after wrapping production on the fifth season of the hit Showtime drama. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
8,372 | BOEHNER ANNOUNCES HIS FINAL ACT OF COWARDICE As He Steps Down Before Being Ousted As Speaker | In his final act of putting Americans dead last, John Boehner will stand with Democrats in their rabid desire to keep the abortion industry humming. Because government funding for baby part harvesting businesses is exactly where American taxpayers want to see their hard earned money being spent. Well done John .U.S. House Speaker John Boehner vowed on Sunday that Congress will avoid a government shutdown this week and he would push through as much unfinished legislation as possible before leaving at the end of October.Speaking on CBS Face the Nation two days after his surprise resignation, he said the House this week would pass a government funding bill now moving through the Senate, which does not meet conservatives demands to cut off money for Planned Parenthood.Asked if passage would require Democratic votes, he responded: I m sure it will, but I suspect my Democratic colleagues want to keep the government open as much as I do. Boehner resigned amid deep divisions among House Republicans over a range of issues including the handling of a Sept. 30 deadline to approve new funding for federal agencies and programs from education to national parks.Conservative Republicans, some of whom have called for his ouster, have insisted on punishing Planned Parenthood by withholding funds over allegations that the non-profit group improperly sold tissues harvested from aborted fetuses.But Boehner and more moderate Republicans have argued that such a move would not halt the bulk of the group s $500 billion in funding, which comes from reimbursements through the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor. Via: Reuters | 0 |
8,373 | no title | surely you josh | 1 |
8,374 | Putin to meet with security council after U.S. missile strikes on Syria | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting of his security council later on Friday to discuss the U.S missile strikes on Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Russia has suspended its Syria air safety agreement with the United States following the missile strikes. Peskov said Russia would keep technical and military channels of communication open with Washington, but would not exchange any information through them. “In light of the missile strikes, risks (of collisions between Russian and U.S. aircraft) are significantly higher,” the spokesman told reporters. The strikes were carried out in interests of Islamic State and other radical groups operating in Syria, Peskov added. | 1 |
8,375 | Trump Tweets His Dumbest ‘Sweden’ Garbage Yet And Gets Torn APART By The Internet (TWEETS) | I m sorry I lied. Those four magic words would have done a lot to prove to the American people that he is, indeed, capable of taking some small step toward redeeming himself after his administration s third fake terrorist attack. Unfortunately, this is Donald Trump we re talking about and he will not be deterred from believing whatever crazy bullshit he decides to believe at any given moment not by facts, not by reality, and certainly not by those goddamn Swedes.Trump recently baffled the world by referencing a terrorist attack in Sweden that didn t happen after misremembering a Fox News report. Trump didn t say what happened (though we imagine the perpetrators of the Bowling Green and Atlanta massacres are behind it), but if there was a three strikes and you re out rule when it comes to an administration completely making up f*cking massacres Trump d be out. Nevertheless, he just kept banging away at Sweden on Monday morning. Give the public a break The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully, he tweeted, adding (because he s twelve) NOT! Give the public a break The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2017So, what s happening in Sweden? The Independent reports that immigration has helped ful the largest economic boon Sweden has seen in five years:The Swedish government, whose policies saw the country take in more refugees per capita than any other in Europe last year, helped lower unemployment rates by increased spending on welfare for asylum seekers from war torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.The move helped the Nordic region s largest economy expand 4.5 percent on an annual basis in the fourth quarter of 2015, the most in almost five years and more than twice the growth of Germany, according to Bloomberg.Increased consumer spending and borrowing and high house prices also contributed to the boom which, although projected to fade, has consolidated Sweden as one of Europe s success stories.Also, a moose fell in love.Trump s decision to continue babbling about Sweden (and, of course, the L genpresse FAKE NEWS) led to widespread mockery:.@realDonaldTrump Sweden is even confused by your allegations. Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) February 20, 2017.@realDonaldTrump are you the president of Sweden now? Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) February 20, 2017@realDonaldTrump But you said there was an incident on Friday. There wasn't. That was weird. Evan Dashevsky (@haldash) February 20, 2017.@realDonaldTrump It's almost like the US has no President we are a rudderless ship heading for a major disaster. Good luck everyone! pic.twitter.com/KJ2fFWQPxd Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) February 20, 2017.@realDonaldTrump You are the one making up FAKE NEWS saying that Sweden is falling apart because of Immigration. The Swedes know better Donald Trump Exposed (@DTrumpExposed) February 20, 2017@realdonaldtrump Actually, they re just saying you lied about a terrorist incident there. Which you did, Donald. Dan Howdle (@DanHowdle) February 20, 2017@realDonaldTrump don't you dare talk about fake news when you claimed an actual event happened three nights ago Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) February 20, 2017@realDonaldTrump We cannot let the Viking hordes succeed! Erich McElroy (@erichmcelroy) February 20, 2017I dunno, @realdonaldtrump Sweden looks pretty gd to me (you do have Google Search on the your Android phone, right?) pic.twitter.com/H0ABlbhsFc boB Rudis (@hrbrmstr) February 20, 2017.@realDonaldTrump @jpublikYou've done it again.Apologies ( for lying ) usually include the words, "sorry", "regret" or "apologise" British Sceptic (@ElNuevoOtroMio2) February 20, 2017@realDonaldTrump dude, you're only making it worse. Kristina Poe (@Kpoepoe) February 20, 2017@realDonaldTrump How many more fake terrorist attacks are you going to make up before you open the camps? Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) February 20, 2017Trump s unabashed aversion to facts was troubling when he was leading a movement that thought Barack Obama was a Muslim Kenyan or suggesting that vaccines cause autism or even when he was leading lock her up chants as his rabid followers called for Hillary Clinton s death. But now he s President. He has the power to destroy every relationship the United States has built with his ridiculous statements, arrogance, and f*cking moronic tweets.featured image via Getty Images(Alex Wong)/screengrab | 0 |
8,376 | BENGHAZI PANEL CALLS HILLARY TO TESTIFY UNDER OATH AS WHITE HOUSE ASKS FOR MORE TIME TO “REVIEW” (DELETE) HER E-MAILS | Does anyone really think Hillary Clinton will come clean about ANYTHING? She dug herself such a huge hole that I could see her digging an even deeper one to get herself in the clear. She s going to lie you know it.Gowdy had this to say today about the possibility of retrieving some of Hillary s e-mails:House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy said Tuesday it may still be technically possible to retrieve thousands of emails to and from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the private server her lawyer said was wiped clean. BENGHAZI PANEL CALLS HILLARY TO TESTIFYA House panel Tuesday formally requested Hillary Clinton to testify about the private server and email account she used while serving as secretary of state.Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi, sent a request to Clinton s personal attorney, David E. Kendall, requesting that Clinton appear before the committee no later than May 1 for a transcribed interview about the server and email.The request comes after Kendall told Gowdy that the server had been wiped clean and that it would be impossible to recover the 30,000 emails Clinton deleted last year.Gowdy, in his request to Kendall, also asked Clinton to reconsider her refusal to turn over the server to a neutral third party, which he called highly unusual, if not unprecedented. Clinton said she only deleted personal emails and turned over every work-related message to the State Department, which is reviewing the data to filter out classified information. Because of the Secretary s unique arrangement with herself as it relates to public records during and after her tenure as Secretary of State. Gowdy wrote, this Committee is left with no alternative but to request Secretary Clinton appear before this Committee for a transcribed interview to better understand decisions the Secretary made relevant to the creation, maintenance, retention, and ultimately deletion of public records. WHAT S THERE TO REVIEW???As you read the following media report it is important to remember: Hillary Clinton has previously stated, unequivocally, that no classified communication traveled through her self-created personal communication network.So what exactly is there to review? Either the U.S. government believes the statements by the Secretary of State to be true, or they do not.Second, the government knowingly allowed the secret communication network to exist and allowed all the construction issues therein to take place. Therefore the burden of any administrative compliance issue should reside upon them to reconcile expeditiously.The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs several months more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton s government emails, saying it s proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,Justice Department lawyers also bristled at accusations that the government perpetrated a fraud by hiding the existence of the emails, as Mr. Obama s team begins to fully grapple with the legal complications Mrs. Clinton has left them.Read more: Washington Examiner | 0 |
8,377 | Brazilians toil for gold in illegal Amazon mines | CREPURIZAO, Brazil (Reuters) - Informal mining in Brazil is seen by many as a scourge polluting the Amazon rainforest, poisoning indigenous tribes and robbing the nation of its wealth. For others it is a way of life. Brazilian garimpos, or wildcat mines, are operated by small crews of men, often caked in red-brown mud and working with rudimentary pans, shovels and sluice boxes that have been used for centuries. More sophisticated operations use water cannons and boats sucking mud from the bottoms of rivers. Regardless of the method, searching for gold and other minerals like cassiterite and niobium is dirty, dangerous and often illegal. Looking for gold is like playing in a casino, said a 48-year-old miner. Miners asked not to be named, saying they feared the police as much of their work is illegal. He started in the wildcat mines as a teenager in the area around Crepurizao a ramshackle frontier town of 5,000 with a dirt landing strip that is a gateway for informal mining in the region. Garimpos are in the spotlight as Brazil debates opening an area known as Renca in the northern Amazon forest to mining, which has met with stiff resistance from environmentalists. Mines and Energy Minister Fernando Coelho Filho argues that licensed mining will be an improvement over the estimated 1,000 people currently mining in the reserve illegally. Crepurizao lies hundreds of miles south of Renca, but gives a window into life in the garimpos caught up in the debate. Living in makeshift homes of wood and plastic, miners in the area ship some 60 kilograms (132 lbs) of gold per month, according to traders. That much pure gold is worth millions of dollars on the global market, but high costs and layers of traders in the local market leave most miners living on the brink of poverty. Basic staples can cost four or five times the price in the nearest city, an eight-hour bus ride away. Fuel stations, a general store, a bar, an evangelical church and prostitutes vie for the income and attention of the miners, known as garimpeiros, when they aren t working or lazing in hammocks. There are 2,113 licensed garimpo sites in Brazil, according to ministry data, but environmental experts and two government officials, who asked not to be named, said far more small-scale mines skip the licensing and ignore regulations altogether. In Crepurizao, where mines often cluster close together, it was unclear which operations were licensed. The total area worked by garimpeiros in Brazil is thought to be small. But chemicals like mercury, which miners in Crepurizao dump to separate gold from grit, can leave a large footprint of contamination. In March last year, a government-backed study of indigenous villages in the northern state of Roraima revealed alarming levels of mercury. One group of villagers had more than double the level of mercury considered to be a serious health risk - such as damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, heart and reproductive process - detected in their hair. The Mining and Energy Ministry said a new oversight agency created in a decree by President Michel Temer, now pending congressional approval, would allow more effective government coordination and inspections to restrict illegal mining. Congressman Leonardo Quintao, who sits on the committee considering the new agency, said it will be able to raise more funding for oversight. He said the regulations target licensed miners, while illegal mining remains a matter for the police. Still, one Ibama enforcement officer, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said the government had left miners like those in Crepurizao in a precarious limbo. You can t just pull them out of the garimpos and the cities that are living off gold. And the government does not offer them structure and decent conditions, said the officer. So they re stranded there without the minimum conditions for survival. (Click on reut.rs/2f6E5c2 for related photo essay) | 1 |
8,378 | DETROIT: IMMIGRANT STEALS $132 MILLION From Medicare…Owns $7 Million Mansion With Indoor Basketball Court…Defense Lawyer Mohammed Nasser Says He’s “Not a flight risk” | A health care executive cheated Medicare out of $132 million and blew the money on a $7 million Franklin mansion and courtside NBA tickets, and stuffed secret storage units with cash, prosecutors allege.Federal court records and prosecutors provided new details about the inner workings and riches of a health-care fraud conspiracy that ranks among the largest in Detroit history, orchestrated by 37-year-old businessman Mashiyat Rashid. Prosecutors say the conspiracy involved recruiting homeless people as patients, sending phony bills to Medicare, subjecting drug addicts to unnecessary back injections and prescribing powerful pain medication that ended up being sold on the street.The conspiracy generated so much money that Rashid withdrew $500,000 from a bank this month and stuffed the cash in a duffel bag, the government said. A surveillance team of federal agents watched him enter and leave the bank. This was a crime of deceit. His fraud was brazen, Justice Department trial attorney Jacob Foster said Wednesday during Rashid s bond hearing. This was about the thousands and thousands of beneficiaries who were taken advantage of in order for (Rashid) to line his pockets. Rashid, who lives in West Bloomfield Township, faces up to life in federal prison if convicted of crimes including health-care fraud conspiracy, money laundering and receiving kickbacks.Rashid is not a flight risk or a criminal, defense lawyer Mohammed Nasser said. He is a venture capitalist and business owner who paid $2.4 million in taxes last year. Rashid moved to the U.S. from Bangladesh when he was 3 years old, graduated from the University of Michigan, is married and has two young children. He doesn t have as much as a speeding ticket, Nasser said. He has had absolutely no involvement with the criminal justice system. This is his first parlay into the gamut of criminal law. We are confident this will be resolved. Rashid is a flight risk, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford said, noting his international travel, ties to Bangladesh and assets. She ordered Rashid held without bond pending an Aug. 22 trial. This is a uniquely troubling case in a lot of ways, Stafford said. The allegation is he basically forced people who may have been addicted to drugs to have unnecessary injections in their back as part of this scheme things of that nature are very troubling. For entire story: Detroit NewsThe indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges the seven defendants conspired in a scheme involving $131.8 million.The alleged scheme involved paying kickbacks and bribes for services billed to Medicare.Only one of the seven people charged is an Ohio resident, the other six are MI residents. It has not yet been reported if the other six men are also immigrants: Mashiyat Rashid of Oakland County. Yasser Mozeb of Oakland County. Spilios Pappas of Ohio. Abdul Haq of Washtenaw County. Joseph Betro of Oakland County. Tariq Omar of Oakland County. Mohammed Zahoor of Oakland County. | 0 |
8,379 | U.S. Air Force awards contracts to Boeing, Northrop for ICBM replacement | (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp separate contracts to continue work on the replacement of the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Pentagon said on Friday. Though the award for the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) comes amid rising tensions with North Korea, the Air Force had asked the defense industry last summer for proposals to replace the aging ICBM system and its nuclear cruise missiles as the military moved ahead with a costly modernization of its aging atomic weapons systems. “The Minuteman III is 45 years old. It is time to upgrade,” Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said in a statement on Monday. Northrop Grumman was awarded $328 million, and Boeing $349 million over the three-year contract. The relatively small award is a milestone that would allow Boeing and Northrop to continue parallel detailed development and prototyping for the Minuteman replacement. The Pentagon’s office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) has said the total could cost the United States $85 billion. The Air Force has estimated $62 billion. Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop and Boeing were all competing for the contract which is needed to perform the three-year technology maturation and risk reduction (TMRR) phase of Minuteman replacement. A Lockheed representative said the company was “disappointed” and looked “forward to a debrief about the selection.” Boeing’s Strategic Deterrence Systems Director, Frank McCall, said in a statement, “Since the first Minuteman launch in 1961, the U.S. Air Force has relied on our technologies for a safe, secure and reliable ICBM force.” Boeing provided the Minuteman III missile for the current ground-based nuclear ICBM system. Northrop Grumman’s chief Wes Bush said in a statement, “We look forward to the opportunity to provide the nation with a modern strategic deterrent system that is secure, resilient and affordable.” Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson said, “We are moving forward with modernization of the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad.” Modernization of the U.S. nuclear force was expected to cost more than $350 billion over the next decade. The United States plans to replace its aging systems, including bombs, nuclear bombers, missiles and submarines. Some analysts estimated the cost at $1 trillion over 30 years. “Our missiles were built in the 1970s. Things just wear out, and it becomes more expensive to maintain them than to replace them,” Wilson said. | 1 |
8,380 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Sept 1) - Texas, Louisiana, stocks | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over...and so much more. A rigged system! [0756 EDT] - General John Kelly is doing a great job as Chief of Staff. I could not be happier or more impressed - and this Administration continues to.. [0835 EDT] - ...get things done at a record clip. Many big decisions to be made over the coming days and weeks. AMERICA FIRST! [0847 EDT] - Texas is healing fast thanks to all of the great men & women who have been working so hard. But still so much to do. Will be back tomorrow! [0858 EDT] - 'President Donald J. Trump Proclaims September 3, 2017, as a National Day of Prayer' #HurricaneHarvey #PrayForTexas (link: 45.wh.gov/PrayForTexas) 45.wh.gov/PrayForTexas [1547 EDT] - Stock Market up 5 months in a row! [1947 EDT] - I will be going to Texas and Louisiana tomorrow with First Lady. Great progress being made! Spending weekend working at White House.[2003 EDT] - On behalf of @FLOTUS Melania & myself, THANK YOU for today's update & GREAT WORK! #SouthernBaptist @SendRelief, @RedCross & @SalvationArmyUS bit.ly/2wZvajV [2034 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
8,381 | Saudi businessman in debt dispute released from detention: sources | DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian businessman whose family s commercial empire is involved in a multi-billion dollar debt dispute has been released from detention in the kingdom s Eastern Province, according to sources familiar with the matter. Abdulaziz al-Sanea s release comes as the government steps up efforts to find a company to run a struggling 750-bed hospital owned by his family, a search that has turned the spotlight on the kingdom s effort to bring overseas investors into the healthcare sector. Al-Sanea was freed late last week after being detained in October for unpaid debts, related at least in part to the hospital, according to the sources. An arrest warrant, issued in October for his brother Mishal for the same reason, was also lifted, according to the same sources. At the same time, the authorities approved a plan intended to restart operations at Saad Specialist Hospital in the city of Khobar in Eastern Province, which has been closed in recent weeks after being unable to pay staff and contractors, according to the sources. A special committee, formed by the government to find solutions for the hospital s future, concluded that the facility should be operated under the guidance of the Ministry of Health for seven years, the sources said. The revenue would be deposited into the account of the court handling the liquidation of Saad Group, the family s company that owns the hospital, the sources added. The Ministry of Justice did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. London-listed NMC Healthcare is among companies in talks with the government to take over the running of the hospital, one of the top cancer treatment facilities in the Gulf, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Maan al-Sanea, the owner of Saad Group and the father of Abdulaziz and Mishal, is still in a civil detention center in Khobar, according to the sources. He was also detained by authorities in October for unpaid debts. Saad Group, which at its height employed about 12,000 staff and has interests in sectors spanning banking to healthcare, ran into difficulties in 2009 because of heavy debts, unleashing a series of long-running legal battles and a Saudi court-enforced liquidation of the company. Reemas Group, a financial consultancy hired by Saad Group, last month outlined a proposed settlement covering $4 billion in debt under a plan to repay part of the money owed to creditors. The legal action against the family is believed to be separate from a crackdown on corruption by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which dozens of Saudi princes and businessmen are being held. The kingdom has released 23 of the 200-or-so powerful individuals detained since November on corruption charges after they reached deals with the government, Okaz newspaper reported on Tuesday. | 1 |
8,382 | U.S. weighs sanctions on countries doing business with North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is weighing imposing sanctions on countries that do business with North Korea and looking for ways to revive strained relations with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday. At a committee hearing, he also defended President Donald Trump’s plans for steep reductions in U.S. spending on diplomacy and foreign aid. Senators from both major parties charged that such cuts would ultimately hurt America. At the start Tillerson told lawmakers that North Korea had released Otto Warmbier, a U.S. university student held captive for 17 months, and the United States was seeking the release of three other detained Americans. Washington has sought to increase economic and political pressure on Pyongyang because of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The North has conducted five nuclear tests and is believed to be making progress toward an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the United States. Tillerson said Washington is discussing North Korea with all of its allies, and seeing some response from China, its biggest trading partner. He said North Korea would top the agenda at next week’s high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials. Tillerson said the United States would have to work with other countries to deny North Korea access to basics such as oil and will have to consider whether to impose sanctions on those doing business with North Korea. “We are in a stage where we are moving into this next effort of, ‘Are we going to have to, in effect, start taking secondary sanctions because countries we have provided information to have not, or are unwilling, or don’t have the ability to do that?’” Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because the United States has no trade with the North, its strongest way to impose economic pressure is through “secondary sanctions” that threaten companies from third countries with losing access to the U.S. market if they deal with Pyongyang. Asked whether the United States wanted to see an Iran-style global embargo to deny exports of petroleum and other products to North Korea, Tillerson said that this would only work if Russia and China, the North’s main suppliers, cooperated. Tillerson repeated his view that U.S. relations with Russia were at an all time-low and still deteriorating. Ties have been strained by differences over Syria, Ukraine and allegations, denied by Moscow, of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He said the administration was trying to find a way to re-establish a working relationship, notably on Syria. It took years of diplomacy with Russia and China to achieve consensus among major powers to impose the sanctions on Iran and a similar result with the North seems unlikely given Beijing’s reluctance to destabilize its neighbors. Asked if China had lived up to its pledges to crack down on the North, Tillerson said its actions had been “uneven,” but added: “They have taken steps, visible steps that we can confirm. We are in discussions with them about entities inside of China.” The purpose of Tillerson’s appearance, his first of four congressional hearings this week, was to discuss the budget. In all, the Trump proposal cuts about 32 percent from U.S. diplomacy and aid budgets, or nearly $19 billion. Committee members, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, spoke sharply against the plan. Republicans control both houses of Congress, which sets the federal government budget. Separately, 16 retired senior generals and other ex-military officers said they would submit joint testimony to the Senate on Wednesday about the importance of foreign aid to national security. | 1 |
8,383 | DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ Planned To Continue Pay For Muslim IT Aide Charged With Multiple Counts of Bank Fraud, While Living In Pakistan…Didn’t Tell Authorities Muslim Wife Left Country While Under Criminal Investigation | Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz seemingly planned to pay cyber-probe suspect and IT aide Imran Awan even while he was living in Pakistan, if the FBI hadn t stopped him from leaving the U.S. Monday. Public statements and congressional payroll records suggest she also appears to have known that his wife, a fellow IT staffer, left the country for good months ago while she was also a criminal suspect.In all, six months of actions reveal a decision to continue paying a man who seemingly could not have been providing services to her, and who a mountain of evidence suggests was a liability. The man long had access to all of Wasserman Schultz s computer files, work emails and personal emails, and he was recently accused by a relative in court documents of wiretapping and extortion.Imran Awan is seen here with Bill Clinton in February of 2017:Imran Awan and Bill Clinton Feb '17 pic.twitter.com/ZdWJvt9H2q archiebird (@archiebird) May 27, 2017Records also raise questions about whether the Florida Democrat permitted Awan to continue to access computers after House-wide authorities banned him from the network Feb. 2. Not only did she keep him on staff after the ban, but she also did not have any other IT person to perform necessary work that presumably would have arisen during a months-long period, according to payroll records.Wasserman Schultz employed Pakistani-born Awan and his wife Hina Alvi, and refused to fire either of them even after U.S. Capitol Police said in February 2017 that they were targets of the criminal investigation. She said police wouldn t show her evidence against the couple and, without it, she assumed they might be victims of anti-Muslim profiling.Heavy Awan, 37, was at Dulles International Airport trying to leave the country when he was arraigned and surrendered his passport, Chad Pergram of Fox News reported. Awan was charged with bank fraud, according to Fox. The U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, and Customs and Border Protection were all involved in the arrest. According to the complain, he had bought a ticket to fly to Doha, Qatar and then Lahore, Pakistan, and had a return flight booked for January.Awan pleaded not guilty to one count of bank fraud on Tuesday, and he was ordered to turn over his passports. A hearing is scheduled for August 21 at 1:45 p.m.Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, along with several other related IT staffers had been under investigation since February, Politico reported. Officials accused them of stealing equipment from House members offices, along with committing other possible violations. Details about the investigation were vague at first. Politico described the investigation in this way: The employees allegedly stole equipment from members offices without their knowledge and committed serious, potentially illegal, violations of House IT policies. In March, Fox News went into a little more detail, saying that at least five contractors, including Awan and his brothers Jamal and Abid Awan, were being investigated for possibly removing equipment from offices, including computers and servers. Fox News reported in March that the allegations included running a procurement scheme that involved buying equipment, then double-billing the House administrative office, and possibly having unauthorized access to the House computer system. Items that may have been double-billed included computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards, and routers.According to Politico, Awan earned nearly $2 million since 2004 as an IT support staffer for House Democrats. Alvi began working for House Democrats in 2007 and earned more than $1.3 million since then. Their salaries were split among multiple lawmakers offices. None of the staffers under investigation had access to classified information, Politico reported.Awan booked a round-trip ticket to Pakistan in July and planned to depart Monday, July 24 with a return ticket in six months. He was arrested at Dulles Airport during his attempt to leave.The Associated Press reported that Awan s lawyer, Chris Gowen, said Awan had informed the House of his plans to visit his family. Wasserman Schultz s spokesman cited Awan s Monday arrest as the reason for ending his employment on Tuesday: Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated. The office s insistence that his termination was prompted by the Monday arrest and not the House Sergeant at Arms banning him and his wife from touching congressional computers or his six months in Pakistan suggests that had he boarded the flight without incident he would still be on payroll.Awan s wife, Hina, left the country under similar circumstances March 5, after withdrawing the couple s three kids from school without telling Virginia education officials, packing up all of her possessions, and hiding $12,000 in cash, according to an FBI affidavit. She allegedly had hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting in Pakistan for her money the FBI says Awan had obtained partly through mortgage fraud and had wired overseas using a false explanation.Two days later, on March 7, House records show Hina was cut from Wasserman Schultz s payroll.Though Hina bought a round trip ticket with a return in six months, the FBI said it does not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States. Wasserman Schultz spokesman David Darmrom did not respond to a DCNF IG request to explain why Hina had been terminated two days into a trip she claimed was temporary, while her husband had not been terminated for a six-month move. Between the part-time nature of her work and the ban, her absence was unlikely to have been noticed in two days without someone telling the office her plans.Wasserman Schultz s office also didn t answer if the office knew Hina s round trip was a permanent move.Hina and Awan were both IT aides whose jobs required access to the network, but the House Sergeant-At-Arms banned them from accessing it beginning Feb. 2. Awan and Hina were her only IT staffers, and payroll records through the latest available period, March 31, indicate that no other IT staffer or vendor was added to the payroll after their ban.A House source said Awan was seen in the House office building multiple times after the network ban. Imran Awan is working in an advisory role for Wasserman Schultz, her spokesman said, providing advice on technology issues. The spokesman wouldn t say who did the office s computer work after the ban, if not Awan.As IT administrators, the suspects could read all emails sent and received by the lawmaker and see all files on the staff members computers, numerous House IT aides said. Wikileaks shows that Awan also had the password to Wasserman Schultz s iPad.In public court documents filed in Fairfax, Va., Awan s stepmother accused him of wiretapping and extortion. Imran Awan did admit to me that my phone is tapped and there are devices installed in my house and Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful and if I ever call the police again, [he] will kidnap my family members back in Pakistan, his stepmother, Samina Gilani, claimed in the documents (p. 21) filed April 14.Despite her professed concern of stereotyping, all other colleagues who employed Awan, Hina or their other relatives on House payrolls fired them, including Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, who is Muslim and has criticized Wasserman Schultz for blocking police from examining a laptop tied to Imran.That laptop was found in an unused crevice of a House office building and seized as evidence by the Capitol Police, but Wasserman Schultz appeared determined to not let police see its contents, threatening consequences for the police chief if he didn t release it. The exchange was captured on video. Daily Caller | 0 |
8,384 | Lebanon's Hariri holds talks with Egypt President Sisi in Cairo | CAIRO (Reuters) - Lebanon s Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as prime minister on Nov. 4, met Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for talks in a brief Cairo stopover before a planned return to Lebanon, Egypt state media said on Tuesday. Hariri had been in Paris since Saturday when he met French President Emmanuel Macron. He has said he will return to Lebanon by Wednesday for the country s Independence Day celebrations, where he said he will clarify his position. His surprise resignation announced from Riyadh triggered a political crisis in Lebanon s power-sharing government and drew his country deeper into a regional power struggle between Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Islamist Iran. A Saudi ally, Hariri said he quit over interference in Lebanon by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a Shi ite group, which is part the government. But President Michel Aoun and others say Hariri may have been coerced into resigning. Sisi, a former military commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militancy, has stressed his backing for Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies who have helped with aid since he ousted a government led by the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. But he has also said Egypt is not considering measures against Hezbollah despite Saudi demands for sanctions against the Lebanese group. He has received calls from Macron and from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over the crisis. Hariri arrived at Cairo International Airport, where he was received by Egypt s health minister, the Lebanese ambassador to Cairo and Egypt s ambassador to Beirut, his press office said. He went immediately to the presidential palace, it said. A message on Hariri s Twitter account said the meeting would be followed by a dinner in his honor. Saad Hariri arrived in Cairo on Tuesday evening from Paris to meet President Sisi, and he is scheduled to return to Lebanon on Wednesday, MENA state news agency said. Egypt s presidency said Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, also spoke with Sisi to discuss developments. Sisi and Aoun underscored the importance of preserving Lebanon s stability as well as upholding Lebanon s national interest. | 1 |
8,385 | Watch out frontrunners, over 1,500 candidates vying for White House | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Michael Petyo is a carpenter, a U.S. Navy veteran, a grandfather and Russian Orthodox church cantor who likes to boast about his homemade nut rolls. He also happens to be a candidate for president of the United States. The 66-year-old Indiana man has no big financial backers, little political experience outside of two failed runs for Congress and his odds of winning are almost nil. But that has not stopped him from thinking he is the one to succeed President Barack Obama. Petyo is among a rising number of Americans who aspire to be president, due to what psychology experts describe as growing narcissism, distrust of leadership and the power of social media to reach the public. Joining more than 1,500 others, according to the Federal Election Commission, Petyo admits he is a long shot, but figures he just needs some attention: “How do they know I’m not the next guy waiting in the wings?” The number of candidates seeking the White House has more than tripled from 417 in 2012, though some entrants have penned in possibly fictitious names such as “Disco Daddy” and “Darth Vader.” Their ranks include Susan Young, a California social studies teacher aiming to give her students a lesson in democracy, Terry Jones, the Florida pastor known for organizing Koran burnings, and anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee. Another candidate, Edie Bukewihge, included her grandma’s chili recipe on her web site: www.vote4edie.org, along with the promise that the last two years of her term could be boring because she will have repaired the country’s “damages.” These hopefuls are not a factor in polls that show businessman Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas battling for the Republican nomination and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic field ahead of next month’s Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. But a lack of attention has not diminished Petyo’s enthusiasm. He frequently compares himself to the Bible’s David, the shepherd who God chose to be king. Like David, “words flow from my lips like honey from a hive,” Petyo said. Petyo meets the Constitutional requirements for the job - he’s at least 35 and a natural born U.S. citizen. “I don’t see how anybody can represent the people unless they’re one with the people,” said Petyo, who owns a construction company and has been handing out business cards at political events around the Midwest. He posts policy positions at www.petyoforpresident.com In an interview, Petyo espoused conspiracy theories, claiming the Internal Revenue Service’s home is in Puerto Rico, al Qaeda members who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks had help from inside the U.S. government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is setting up detainment camps around the country. For candidates like Petyo, the important thing is finding Americans who will listen to them, said Bart Rossi, a political psychologist. “They want to get their thoughts and ideas out there,” said Rossi. “They want to be on the playing field even if they’re not going to win the game.” Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst and leadership expert, said the world is going through deep changes, and more people distrust current leaders. “It’s understandable that you have a lot of people thinking they’ve got the answer,” he said. Petyo is a Republican, but shuns party labels as he supports unions, a typical Democratic position, while espousing the belief that U.S. companies should pay little or no taxes. He should receive at least one vote. His long-time friend and supporter Jim Wright, a 65-year-old retired engineer who hands out flyers for the candidate, said he will vote for Petyo even though he doesn’t have a “snowball’s chance in hell.” | 1 |
8,386 | Hezbollah dismisses U.S. rewards for arrest of its operatives | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Hezbollah group dismissed multi-million-dollar rewards offered by the United States for the arrest of two of its senior members, saying on Wednesday they would have no impact. Washington has offered up to $7 million for information leading to the detention of Talal Hamiyah, head of Hezbollah s foreign operations, and up to $5 million for Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military operative. The move on Tuesday came as the Trump administration prepared to unveil a strategy to step up pressure on Hezbollah s main backer Iran. Nicholas Rasmussen, the head of the U.S. National CounterTerrorism Center, blamed the group for a series of attacks around the world. These accusations from the American administration against Hezbollah and its mujahideen are rejected and void ... They will not affect the work of the resistance at all, a senior Hezbollah official told Reuters. The official, who declined to be named, said the U.S. threat came as a reaction to Hezbollah s recent gains in the region. Shi ite Hezbollah has played a major role in backing President Bashar al-Assad in the six-year Syrian war. It has sent thousands of its fighters into Syria, helping the Damascus government recover territory from rebels and militants. Hamiyah has been on the U.S. State Department s foreign terrorist list since 2015 and Shukr was added in 2013. Washington named Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. | 1 |
8,387 | A MUST READ! JUDGE NAPOLITANO: HILLARY’S SECRET WAR | Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress in a venue where the law required her to be truthful. JUDGE NAPOLITANOIn the course of my work, I am often asked by colleagues to review and explain documents and statutes. Recently, in conjunction with my colleagues Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, I read the transcripts of an interview Ms. Browne did with a man named Marc Turi, and Ms. Herridge asked me to review emails to and from State Department and congressional officials during the years when Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state.What I saw has persuaded me beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress in a venue where the law required her to be truthful. Here is the backstory.Mr. Turi is a lawfully licensed American arms dealer. In 2011, he applied to the Departments of State and Treasury for approvals to sell arms to the government of Qatar. Qatar is a small Middle Eastern country whose government is so entwined with the U.S. government that it almost always will do what American government officials ask of it.In its efforts to keep arms from countries and groups that might harm Americans and American interests, Congress has authorized the Departments of State and Treasury to be arms gatekeepers. They can declare a country or group to be a terrorist organization, in which case selling or facilitating the sale of arms to it is a felony. They also can license dealers to sell.Mr. Turi sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms to the government of Qatar, which then, at the request of American government officials, were sold, bartered or given to rebel groups in Libya and Syria. Some of the groups that received the arms were on the U.S. terror list. Thus, the same State and Treasury Departments that licensed the sales also prohibited them.How could that be?That s where Mrs. Clinton s secret State Department and her secret war come in. Because Mrs. Clinton used her husband s computer server for all of her email traffic while she was the secretary of state, a violation of three federal laws, few in the State Department outside her inner circle knew what she was up to.Now we know.She obtained permission from President Obama and consent from congressional leaders in both houses of Congress and in both parties to arm rebels in Syria and Libya in an effort to overthrow the governments of those countries.Many of the rebels Mrs. Clinton armed, using the weapons lawfully sold to Qatar by Mr. Turi and others, were terrorist groups who are our sworn enemies. There was no congressional declaration of war, no congressional vote, no congressional knowledge beyond fewer than a dozen members, and no federal statute that authorized this.When Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, asked Mrs. Clinton at a public hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 23, 2013, whether she knew about American arms shipped to the Middle East, to Turkey or to any other country, she denied any knowledge. It is unclear whether she was under oath at the time, but that is legally irrelevant. The obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to Congress pertains to all witnesses who testify before congressional committees, whether an oath has been administered or not. (Just ask Roger Clemens, who was twice prosecuted for misleading Congress about the contents of his urine while not under oath. He was acquitted.)Here is her relevant testimony:Mr. Paul: My question is is the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons buying, selling anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?Mrs. Clinton: To Turkey? I will have to take that question for the record. Nobody s ever raised that with me. I, I .Mr. Paul: It s been in news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that they may have weapons and what I d like to know is the [Benghazi] annex that was close by . Were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons and were any of these weapons transferred to other countries any countries, Turkey included?Mrs. Clinton: Senator, you will have to direct that question to the agency that ran the annex. And I will see what information is available and ahhhh .Mr. Paul: You are saying you don t know .Mrs. Clinton: I do not know. I don t have any information on that. VIDEO OF THIS TESTIMONY IS BELOW: This secret war and the criminal behavior that animated it was the product of conspirators in the White House, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, the CIA and a tight-knit group of members of Congress. Their conspiracy has now unraveled. Where is the outrage among the balance of Congress?Read more: WT | 0 |
8,388 | Egyptian air force strikes arms convoy at Libyan border | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Thursday its air force had hit 10 four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying arms, ammunition and contraband at Egypt s western borders with Libya. Egyptian security forces have been battling an insurgency by Islamic State that was until recently concentrated in the Sinai Peninsula but has extended to other parts of the country. A number of criminals gathered and prepared to sneak into the Egyptian border, using a number of four-wheel-drive vehicles, the Egyptian military said in a statement that gave no details of casualties. | 1 |
8,389 | Governor-Elect Of Kentucky Tells The EPA To Go ‘Pound Sand’ – Cites 10th Amendment | States have rights too! We love the new conservative governor of Kentucky! He means business and it s about time someone stood up to the bloated and over regulated EPA! | 0 |
8,390 | Police union: Open carry of guns should be suspended at Republican convention in Cleveland | CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The head of the Cleveland police union on Sunday urged Ohio’s governor to declare a state of emergency and to suspend laws allowing the open carrying of firearms during the Republican National Convention, after the shooting of six police officers in Louisiana. “I don’t care what the legal precedent is, I feel strongly that leadership needs to stand up and defend these police officers,” Steve Loomis, the head of the police union, told Reuters in an interview at the union’s headquarters on Sunday. The four-day convention is due to begin on Monday. | 1 |
8,391 | EU workers drift from Britain just as restaurateurs need them most | LONDON (Reuters) - Business is booming for Paul Murphy s recruitment agency in northwest England. Clients are rolling in with more jobs in restaurants, bars and hotels than ever before, but finding workers to fill them has become tricky. Britain s vote to leave the EU has complicated life for Murphy. A steady stream of continental Europeans who for years have taken up hundreds of thousands of positions in the hospitality business and other industries has started to dry up. It s definitely getting worse. The lead time to fill a chef vacancy at the moment ... could be anything between two and six months, said Murphy, whose Knight Benton Recruitment agency is based in the small town of Cleator Moor. By contrast finding a chef last year would take two months at most, he told Reuters. Citizens of the remaining European Union states - from Italians and Spanish to Poles and Romanians - face losing their automatic right to live in Britain when it leaves the bloc in March 2019. Murphy believes the government must produce an alternative immigration regime that ensures employers get the workers they need. Without a proper plan in place, they could crash the economy, he said. The hospitality sector, like farming and construction, has relied heavily on Europeans, and particularly on people from the poorer ex-communist states which began joining the EU in 2003. Citizens of other EU countries could make up as much as a quarter of the 3 million workers in hospitality, according to a KPMG report based on a survey of British Hospitality Association (BHA) members. That includes 75 percent of waiting staff, 37 percent of housekeepers and 25 percent of chefs. Last June s referendum has affected both the supply of labor and demand for it. European workers are starting to leave Britain or having second thoughts about coming in the first place, worried about their uncertain status after Brexit. On top of this, the pound has fallen more than 15 percent against the euro and about 21 percent against the Polish zloty since the referendum. That means Europeans sterling pay does not stretch nearly so far when they send money home, encouraging them to seek work elsewhere. But Murphy s clients need more staff. Cleator Moor lies on the edge of the Lake District national park, a top tourist draw. The weak pound has encouraged many Britons to holiday at home and attracted growing numbers of foreign visitors to places like the Lake District. They need feeding and accommodating. Smaller firms are particularly affected. Some are paying agencies to recruit for roles they used to fill easily themselves, raising salaries and offering more part-time hours. At a national level, big brands like the Pret a Manger sandwich chain and pizza restaurant group Franco Manca have warned about the impact on their businesses. Hospitality alone accounts for around 4.3 percent of the British economy, the BHA estimates, but the problem is wider. Numerous recruitment and sentiment surveys have suggested that firms across the economy are struggling to fill vacancies. Prime Minister Theresa May s government has to balance these concerns with those of the many Britons who say they voted for Brexit primarily to clamp down on migration from the EU. The government wants to keep the right of Irish citizens to work in Britain, an arrangement which long pre-dates the EU. But a leaked document last week showed it is considering restricting migration from other EU states to all but the highest skilled workers. The government has said only that it would set out its proposals later this year. Employers fear too hard a line will make matters worse. Already they raised salaries at the fastest pace for two years in August as the fall in EU migration aggravates the labor shortage, according to a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Hospitality needs to recruit 200,000 people every year to make up for natural staff turnover and power its growth, according to the BHA. Without any new EU migration or an increase in applications from Britons, it estimates the industry could face a shortfall of more than 60,000 jobs every year. Since 2003 the number of people born in other EU states living in Britain has jumped from 1.26 million to 3.68 million in 2017, according to Oxford University s Migration Observatory. Eastern Europeans accounted for almost all the increase. But that trend has slowed sharply. In the 12 months to March, net migration from all countries was 246,000, down 81,000 from the previous year, official data show. More than half that drop was due to EU citizens leaving and fewer arriving since the Brexit vote. The biggest fall was among citizens of eight eastern European countries. Up-market fast food chain Leon, which runs 52 restaurants mostly in London and southeast England, is feeling the consequences. What we ve seen this year, particularly in the last quarter, is a significant drop in applications from EU nationals, said Marco Reick, the firm s people director. With staff from other EU states making up around 60 percent of Leon s 1,000-strong workforce, the firm has responded by splitting full-time roles into part-time positions. While more expensive initially, this makes them more attractive to British candidates who tend to want more casual work. Indian fine-dining restaurant group MW Eat says job applications from EU nationals are down around 80 percent since the referendum. We ve had to increase wages by in excess of 10 percent, said chairman Ranjit Mathrani. Even then, the group is taking on less qualified candidates, raising training costs. As a result, it is having to increase menu prices. Finding British replacements isn t easy. Mathrani said MW Eat would prefer to hire more locally-born workers, but many see hospitality as an unattractive career choice. On top of that unemployment is its lowest in decades, at 1.46 million people or 4.3 percent of the workforce in the three months to July. Peter Gowers, chief executive of the Travelodge budget hotel group, says there simply aren t enough available Britons. Even if the hotel industry recruited virtually every person on the unemployment register there wouldn t be enough people to fill all the roles needed in the 10 years following Brexit, he told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Gowers called on the government to consider a guest worker program to avoid price rises and investment cuts. Other large firms say they have avoided the impact so far. One such is the Gordon Ramsay Group, which operates restaurants under the name of one of Britain s most outspoken celebrity chefs. CEO Stuart Gillies said that with two thirds of its workforce from other EU states, the firm has brought forward steps to retain staff including offering more flexible shifts. The government s ambition is to cut annual net migration to the tens of thousands . For some employers, the prospect of further falls in migration is unsettling. That really makes me very uncomfortable, because we re struggling as it is, said Reick. | 1 |
8,392 | Senator Warren aide said to be in running for SEC job: sources | WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Bharat R. Ramamurti, a legislative aide for Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, is a contender for one of the vacancies on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. Ramamurti is senior counsel to Warren on banking and economic policy and she is staunchly backing him for the SEC job, one of the sources told Reuters. The sources spoke anonymously because deliberations on candidates for the SEC, which is the primary regulator that polices and writes rules for Wall Street, are not public. Ramamurti declined to comment. A source said a decision on the post was not imminent. In prior instances with President Donald Trump’s administration, candidates in the running for positions were sometimes dropped after their names became public. Other names that are in the mix include Vermont Law School professor Jennifer Taub, the AFL-CIO’s office of investment director Heather Slavkin Corzo and Andy Green, a managing director at the Center for American Progress who previously worked for SEC Democratic Commissioner Kara Stein, the sources told Reuters. Taub and Green declined to comment and Slavkin Corzo could not be immediately reached. A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment, saying he could not discuss personnel matters. Trump must nominate three people to fill out the five-member panel, which currently is down to two commissioners - Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar, a Republican, and Stein. The nomination of Wall Street deal-making attorney Jay Clayton, Trump’s choice to lead the SEC, was approved by the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month. Clayton, an independent, is still awaiting confirmation by the full Senate, which is currently away for Easter recess. Trump has not yet formally nominated anyone else for the remaining SEC spots - one Democrat and one Republican. Warren, a progressive Democrat, has been critical of the Trump administration’s plans to roll back the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. She voted against Clayton’s nomination, saying his employment as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell representing large banks creates too many conflicts of interest and may prevent him from being a tough regulator. As her counsel on the banking committee, Ramamurti has played a prominent role in shaping Warren’s policy agenda. He helped steer her investigative efforts into the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal and worked on bipartisan efforts to broker a deal on housing reforms for mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. | 1 |
8,393 | Central African Republic children starve as aid workers flee fighting | GENEVA (Reuters) - Children are starving to death in Central African Republic because violence has forced aid workers to pull out, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the country said on Tuesday. Four years after a conflict began between Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian anti-balaka militias, Central African Republic had seemed calm in the early part of the year. But violence has flared since May, turning the southeast into a virtual no-go area. There is no humanitarian assistance there. It s not even half, it s nothing, because it was just not possible for humanitarians to stay there, coordinator Najat Rochdi said. We started already seeing children dying from severe malnutrition. Lack of funds had already forced aid workers to halve food aid and in some places stop it completely, despite widespread malnutrition in children under five-years-old. What I heard - but we have not been able to confirm it is that so far we had 10 kids who died from malnutrition. But as long as we don t have humanitarians going there, it s very difficult for us to confirm that, Rochdi said. The violence is often ethnically based and tinged with suspicions of witchcraft. The latest U.N. humanitarian report said four children had been abducted and killed in the town of Bambari, their bodies found with their organs removed. In the town of Kembe, about 40 people were reportedly killed or wounded in a clash between armed groups on Oct. 10, it said. The number of displaced people has jumped by 50 percent to 600,000 this year, in addition to 500,000 who have fled into neighboring countries. Rochdi said 400,000 children were not going to school. Overcrowded camps averaging 30,000 displaced people are fertile recruiting grounds for armed groups, so the United Nations is trying to clear out weapons and fighters and get people back home wherever possible. The U.N. peacekeeping force is only 11,600 strong, in a country the size of France and Belgium combined, and the government is struggling to create an army that can hold territory against marauding gunmen. The United States and Uganda withdrew their forces after declaring victory in April against the Lord s Resistance Army (LRA), a marauding gang notorious for abducting and recruiting child soldiers. Rochdi said their withdrawal left a vacuum and LRA attacks had continued sporadically. | 1 |
8,394 | NRA Gets Blasted For Live-Tweeting Obama’s Town Hall Meeting Instead Of Actually Attending (TWEETS) | On Thursday night, CNN s Guns In America town hall meeting on gun violence attracted the attendance of several gun legislation opponents, but strangely enough the most outspoken pro-gun group wasn t there to counter President Barack Obama on his executive action. Host Anderson Cooper said that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had definitely been invited, but chose not to attend. Proving that it was all talk and no action, the gun advocacy group had declined the opportunity to participate in the live Q&A session with the President, and basically forfeited their right to complain about the issues going forward. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the reason the association declined was because the meeting was just a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House. However, that didn t stop the NRA from whining and giving their opinion during the town hall meeting anyway. As the organization watched Obama talk about tightening background checks and closing loopholes for gun sales, the NRA decided to live-tweet the event a choice it would immediately regret.NRA TwitterNRA TwitterNRA TwitterAs Guns In America went on, the NRA made up for its lack of physical presence by filling its Twitter feed with criticisms of Obama and shared several equally ridiculous posts from gun rights advocates. Thankfully, not everyone on Twitter is as thick-headed and came to Obama s rescue to set the NRA straight:TwitterTwitterSome even chose to remind the association to shut the f*ck up since it couldn t be bothered to confront Obama in person.TwitterObama also took some time out of the town hall to blast the NRA for backing out of the discussion and expressed his disappointment in an organization that has been so vocal against gun legislation. He said: Part of the reason I welcomed this opportunity by CNN to have a good discussion debate about it is because our position is consistently mischaracterized. There s a reason why the NRA is not here. They re just down the street. And, since this is the main reason they exist, you d think they d be prepared to have a debate with the president.I m happy to meet with them. I m happy to talk to them, but, the conversation has to be based on facts and truth, and what we re actually proposing, not some you know, imaginary fiction in which Obama s trying to take away your guns. Featured image courtesy of Joe Crimmings via Flickr | 0 |
8,395 | U.S., Russia military communications channel still open: U.S. officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has not suspended a military communications channel meant to help U.S. and Russian forces to avoid inadvertent clashes in Syria, despite a U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase that has angered Moscow, senior U.S. officials said on Friday. The senior U.S. military officials, who spoke to Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity, also said U.S. military operations against Islamic State in Syria were unchanged following the cruise missile strike. The officials said there had been no retaliatory action by Syria or Russia taken against American forces in Syria since the strikes against the Syrian airbase. | 1 |
8,396 | Navy Set To Honor Major Civil Rights Icon, And The Right Will Hate It | The United States Navy is about to name a ship after gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.The Secretary of the Navy s office is deferring releasing additional information until the naming announcement, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.The designation is part of a new class designation for the service, called the John Lewis-class after civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA). Other ships in the class will be named after Chief Justice Earl Warren (school desegration), Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Lucy Stone (women s rights activist) and Sojurner Truth (abolitionist, women s rights).Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California where he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During his 11 months in office he passed a major gay rights ordinance for the city.He was assassinated on November 27, 1978 by Dan White, a former city supervisor.Milk has been described as the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States. In 2009, President Obama awarded Milk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama said:His name was Harvey Milk, and he was here to recruit us all of us to join a movement and change a nation. For much of his early life, he had silenced himself. In the prime of his life, he was silenced by the act of another. But in the brief time in which he spoke and ran and led his voice stirred the aspirations of millions of people. He would become, after several attempts, one of the first openly gay Americans elected to public office. And his message of hope hope unashamed, hope unafraid could not ever be silenced. It was Harvey who said it best: You gotta give em hope. Featured image via US Navy | 0 |
8,397 | Trump, Japan's Abe agree to work together on North Korea before Asia visit | TOKYO (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to work together on steps to counter North Korea s nuclear and missile development, ahead of the U.S. leader s visit to Asia, the Japanese government said late on Monday. In a 20-minute phone call, Trump and Abe discussed the schedule of the president s coming visit, which includes a Nov. 5-7 stop in Japan, and agreed to remain in close contact over North Korea, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters. Trump told Abe he is looking forward to his visit to Japan, that Japan and America are 100 percent together and there is no room to doubt the Japan-U.S. alliance, Nishimura said. They agreed to deepen their discussions on the North Korean situation and other matters during Trump s visit, he said. | 1 |
8,398 | Trump hits back at Clinton, with a golf ball, on Twitter | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday retweeted a doctored video of himself taking a golf swing and hitting former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who then stumbles as she boards a plane. Clinton had been back on the Republican president’s Twitter feed in recent days as she promoted “What Happened,” her new book about the 2016 presidential election, with Trump resuming his campaign attack of “Crooked Hillary.” The video, retweeted by several users, shows Trump on a golf course hitting a ball before segueing to the doctored shot of a golf ball hitting then-Secretary of State Clinton in the back as she is boarding a plane. The original video of Clinton, from 2011, does not show a golf ball. “Donald Trump’s amazing golf swing #CrookedHillary,” the tweet read. Trump attacked Clinton directly last Wednesday in a pair of Twitter posts. “Crooked Hillary Clinton blames everybody (and every thing) but herself for her election loss,” he said. “She lost the debates and lost her direction! The ‘deplorables’ came back to haunt Hillary. They expressed their feelings loud and clear. She spent big money but, in the end, had no game!” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said later that day that Clinton was pushing “false narratives” in the book. Clinton admits mistakes during the campaign in the book but gives a harsh account of factors she believes led to Trump’s victory, including alleged interference by Russia on his behalf and former FBI Director James Comey announcement that investigators were looking at a new trove of emails related to Clinton. Clinton, who has been giving a series of interviews promoting the book, responded to Trump’s earlier criticism on Twitter with a suggestion that he read her earlier book, “It Takes a Village,” a picture book for children. A senior Democrat, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, said the retweet did not make him question Trump’s recent outreach to Democrats but was disturbing. “It is distressing, though, to have a president that frankly will tweet and retweet things as juvenile as that,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “It doesn’t help, I think in terms of his stature, it doesn’t help in terms of the stature of our whole country.” | 1 |
8,399 | Bahrain rejects Amnesty report citing crackdown on dissent | DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain condemned as inaccurate a report by the Amnesty International rights group accusing the Bahraini government of crushing dissent and violently cracking down on protests over the last year. Amnesty said in a report on Thursday that it had documented how the Bahraini government, from June 2016 to June 2017, had arrested, tortured, threatened or banned from travel at least 169 activists and opponents or their relatives. It also accused in particular Britain and the United States, who both have military facilities in Bahrain, of turning a blind eye to abuses. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Kingdom of Bahrain regrets inaccuracies contained in Amnesty International s report, the ministry said on its twitter account. It gave no details. MoFA stresses commitment of Kingdom of Bahrain to respect and promote freedoms and human rights principles. Amnesty International said it had documented security officers beating protesters, firing tear gas, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles directly at protesters and driving armored vehicles and personnel carriers into protests. Bahrain has been a flashpoint since the Sunni-led government put down Arab Spring protests in 2011. The kingdom, most of whose population is Shi ite, says it faces a threat from neighboring Shi ite theocracy Iran. Entitled No one can protect you: Bahrain s year of crushing dissent , the Amnesty report said at least six people had been killed, including a child, in the crackdowns. Bahrain has intensified a crackdown on critics, shutting down two main political groups, revoking the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the Shi ite Muslim community and jailing rights campaigners. | 1 |
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