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9,300 | China jails 21 people for 2015 nursing home fire: Xinhua | SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has jailed 21 people for their roles in a deadly fire that killed 39 elderly people at a private nursing home two years ago, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. Xinhua said the nursing home in the central Henan province had been illegally extended and flammable materials had been used on the extension. Fan Huazhi, legal representative for the nursing home, received a prison term of nine years while contractor Feng Chunjie, who did not have the appropriate work certificate, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison. The other defendants, including firefighting officers and managers at the nursing home, received jail terms ranging from two-and-a-half to eight years. Reuters was unable to reach Fan or Feng for comment. China has had a history of similar disasters as workers are often poorly trained or ill-equipped to protect themselves from accidents. In January, a fire at another nursing home in northeastern China killed seven people. | 1 |
9,301 | Chaotic response to Somali bombing cost lives, medics say | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Medics who rushed to help victims of a huge bomb explosion in the Somali capital Mogadishu that killed more than 300 people say the country s threadbare emergency services have been pushed beyond their limit. From a lack of ambulance drivers to break-downs of the ambulances themselves, to checkpoints blocking routes to hospitals to a shortage of blood, the chaotic response to the deadliest truck bombing in Somalia s history cost additional lives, they said. Officials say that Saturday s bombing, which also wounded at least 400 people, bore the hallmarks of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, but the group has not claimed responsibility. More than three days after the bombing at a busy intersection in the capital, hundreds of people were still searching for relatives in hospitals and trying to access the blast site, Reuters witnesses said. Dr Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulances, a privately-funded ambulance service responding to the attack, described the limitations of his country s emergency system. We have old ambulances and after working 24 hours for days, three broke down. The telephones got jammed and we had no walkie talkies. He said road blocks manned by the security forces delayed ambulances, and there were not enough medics to respond to the devastating attack. Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other. One of the poorest countries in Africa, it faces severe food insecurity and relies on foreign donors to support its institutions and basic services. One ambulance driver said security forces badly hampered efforts at the blast site and even fired at vehicles. Ambulance driver Mohamed Saiid told Reuters: I could see people screaming in a burning public vehicle and police opened fire refusing [help] that could save them. When you want to save a screaming casualty but a soldier denies you access at gun point ... it is a tough work, he said. Such delays caused many injured people to die from blood loss, he said. Another ambulance driver said police stopped him entering the blast scene. I was stopped by forces at gunpoint as I was just some meters away from the blast scene, said Mohamed Howle, a driver from a hospital in the city. A spokesman for Mogadishu s mayor said safety was the top priority in the response and there was no delay in rescuing injured people. Spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane said some injured people may have died while being carried from the scene: No one can save the lives of someone whose brain mucus was oozing. Police officer Mohamed Hussein told Reuters he was at the blast site several times daily since the bombing and ambulances were not fired upon. Soldiers often fire in the air in the city to clear traffic jams, he said, suggesting that guns may have been discharged by security forces to establish order. Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman earlier said Somalia does not have a blood bank. But doctors said the public had responded quickly to calls for blood donations. Countries including Turkey, Qatar and Kenya were providing medical assistance and evacuating wounded. We are requesting blood. We are requesting assistance for verifying the dead in order for their relatives to know, the minister said. Osman said the bodies of more than 100 people buried on Monday were blown beyond recognition . He hoped other bodies could still be identified. Mohamed Nur, head of the emergency unit at Medina hospital in Mogadishu said on Tuesday that doctors and nurses were working around the clock and the number of casualties had overwhelmed the hospital. Turkish doctors, mainly surgeons and specialists in spine injuries, arrived along with Turkey s health minister on Monday and were still treating injured in local hospitals, the minister said. Turkey evacuated 35 critically wounded Somalis to Ankara by plane on Monday, Turkish deputy prime minister Recep Akdag told reporters on returning from Somalia. An increasingly close ally of Somalia, Turkey opened a $50 million military base in the capital last month. Medicine from neighboring nations Djibouti and Kenya arrived by plane on Tuesday, the minister said. Qatar sent a plane with medical equipment and planned to evacuate injured people for treatment outside Somalia, Qatar s state news agency reported. | 1 |
9,302 | Oklahoma lawmaker apologizes for linking Native Americans to alcoholism | TULSA, Okla. (Reuters) - An Oklahoma state legislator has apologized after saying in the legislature last week that Native Americans are pre-disposed to alcohol abuse, officials said on Thursday. State Representative Todd Russ, a Republican, made the apology in a statement issued by his office this week, his office said on Thursday. During floor debate last week on a measure to amend Oklahoma’s liquor laws, Russ said: “The white man took advantage of the Native American people at the rim of an alcohol bottle. “We see the effects of that today in society because they are predisposed physically. Scientifically we know the truth that they cannot process that like other people,” he said. Russ, whose western Oklahoma district includes a portion of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ jurisdictional area, urged members of the legislature’s Native American Caucus to vote against the bill, which would allow supermarkets and convenience stores to sell beer and wine. Instead, he received a rebuke for his comments. “He may not have intentionally done this, but disparaging Native Americans is an uncalled for, inappropriate comment on the House floor,” Representative Dan Kirby, a Republican and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation said during the debate. In his apology, Russ offered contrition “for the unintended pain I have caused Native Americans by my statement that was based upon outdated information.” | 1 |
9,303 | U.S. general backs Germany to host new NATO operations command | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is best suited to host a new NATO military logistics command, the top U.S. Army general in Europe said on Tuesday. NATO allies this month backed plans for two new military headquarters - an Atlantic command and a logistics command - to help protect Europe in the event of a future conflict. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges told the Berlin Security Conference that Germany - already host to many U.S. troops - was well-placed to take on the logistics role given its geographical location in the heart of Europe, and its existing capabilities. I can t imagine any other country being better suited than Germany to take on that responsibility, from a geographical standpoint, a capability standpoint, Hodges said. Diplomats have said that Germany is eager to host the logistics command but no decisions have been made. Hodges, who is due to retire next month, has repeatedly pushed for increased focus on improving the ability to move troops and equipment across Europe in the event of a future conflict. NATO began beefing up its defenses after the 2014 annexation by Russia of Ukraine s Crimea peninsula, deploying troops to the Baltic states and Poland, strengthening its presence in the Black Sea and starting to modernizing its forces. The Kremlin, which denies harboring any aggressive intentions toward Europe, has condemned the moves as an attempt to encircle Russia. | 1 |
9,304 | Gunfire turns U.S. lawmakers' baseball practice into 'killing field' | ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. representatives Ron DeSantis and Jeff Duncan had ducked out of baseball practice early on Wednesday when a middle-aged man in the parking lot asked them if the players in red shirts on the field were Republicans or Democrats. “Republican,” Duncan said before departing. Minutes later, the man, rifle and handgun in tow, opened fire on the congressmen’s teammates - Republican lawmakers gathered on a muggy morning near Washington to prepare for a charity ballgame. “A killing field,” U.S. Senator Rand Paul said in a televised interview, describing the scene in Arlington, Virginia. “We were sitting ducks,” said Representative Roger Williams. Williams, the team coach, told reporters he was hitting ground balls when he heard what sounded like a car engine backfiring. “He’s got a gun! Run for cover,” Williams heard next. He dove into the dugout behind first base. Zack Barth, a staffer shot in the leg, ran in from the outfield and landed in Williams’ arms. Barth texted for help as more bullets flew. U.S. Senator Jeff Flake used his belt as a makeshift tourniquet to stop the staffer’s bleeding, Williams said. Taking cover behind home plate, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks saw a rifle pointing from a chain link fence behind the third base dugout. A scream rang out from second base, Brooks said. Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, had been shot in the hip and fell to the ground. He left a trail of blood as he dragged himself to the outfield, seeking distance from the gunman who said nothing as he fired. On her front porch just across the street from the field in a trendy, family-friendly neighborhood, Reba Winstead heard a dozen shots. “A bullet just came down my street,” she told an emergency dispatcher. Police audio obtained by media recorded a flood of frantic calls: “Shots being fired ... We need medics ... Victim down in the baseball field.” Alexandria police arrived at 7:12 a.m., about three minutes after the first emergency phone call reporting an active shooter. Members of the Capitol Police, serving as security detail to Scalise, were firing at the gunman. By 7:14 a.m., the gunman, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois, was down. Later he died. | 1 |
9,305 | Fox News FINALLY Tells Truth About Itself, Then Immediately Falls Back Into Old Pattern Of Lies | Fox News, purveyor of lies branded as news, has finally decided to drop the act and tell the world who they really are. In a fairly surprising move, they re dropping their fair and balanced slogan. The slogan was Roger Ailes from the time the network was launched, but it s come under increasing fire for sexual harassment and assault allegations. The slogan is too closely tied to the worst harasser there was there Ailes himself so the network s management decided to drop it.And just when you thought they might actually be doing something right, they twisted reality again to fit their own warped view of themselves. The new slogan will be, Most Watched. Most Trusted. Sure most trusted by people who don t know what facts are. When Roger Ailes came up with fair and balanced, it was because he felt doing right-wing news branded as such was a recipe for failure. That slogan had become the nearly-religious mantra behind their ongoing push of conservative ideology, no matter how outrageous (or, dare we say it, false) the stories were.Fox News has always seemed to be anti-fact because of that, and despite their fair and balanced slogan. But most trusted? In 2014, they weren t, at least, not among adults who had heard of them or in comparison to other networks, including CNN. However, earlier this year, Rasmussen found that more Fox News viewers trust Fox News than CNN viewers trust CNN.Maybe that s what they mean by most trusted. Of course, conservatives are allergic to factual reporting and so of course more of them would see Fox News as trustworthy.As for the most watched part? Their ratings have been slipping ever since it came out that there s a serious problem with sexual harassment there. At the end of May, Fox News had fallen to third place behind CNN and MSBNC for prime-time viewership. That was the first time in 17 years that had happened.So Most Trusted? Sure, if you re a right-wing nutjob who s allergic to facts, truth and history. Most Watched? That s a far more difficult claim to make. Maybe they believe they ll regain their top spot, and there s nothing wrong with believing that. But changing their slogan is probably only a tiny step towards convincing any sane person that they re capable of sticking to truth and facts, particularly with people like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity still on the air.Featured image via Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images | 0 |
9,306 | Republican candidate Cruz snares first Senate endorsement | (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz snared his first endorsement from a Senate colleague on Thursday when Senator Mike Lee of Utah backed him for the party’s nomination. “Ted doesn’t believe you have to settle, Ted doesn’t believe you should settle,” Lee said at a Florida news conference ahead of Thursday’s Republican debate in Miami. Cruz, who represents Texas, is known for antagonizing senators from his party. In 2013, he spent more than 20 hours speaking on the Senate floor to protest the Affordable Care Act. Lee was among a handful of senators who helped Cruz during the protest. (Reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
9,307 | Legal Community SCHOOLS Trump’s Lawyer For Claiming Collusion Is Not A Crime | Donald Trump s attorney Jay Sekulow made a fool of himself on Tuesday morning.During an interview with ABC host George Stephanopoulos, Sekulow actually claimed that collusion is not a crime in an effort to defend Trump after his associate George Papadopoulos plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about meeting with Russians. He was a volunteer with the campaign, he served on one of the committees, Sekelow said. He was involved with individuals that purported to be somehow involved with Russia or Russian government it s not clear from the documents. The end result is the meeting doesn t take place. So what you had is you had all this conversation about collusion. Remember this, collusion in and of itself there s no crime of collusion. Even Stephanopoulos knew that claim was bullshit. Collusion is cooperation and that s what he was doing with Russians, Stephanopoulos replied.Here s the video via YouTube.Indeed, collusion is just another word for conspiracy, which is a crime. A MAJOR crime.Sekulow s claim was immediately debunked by prominent members of the legal community.Harvard University law professor John Coates and University of California, Irvine law professor Rick Hasen schooled Sekulow. It is a federal crime to conspire with anyone, including a foreign government, to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services, Coates told Politifact after Fox News host Eric Bolling made the same claim in July. That would include fixing a fraudulent election, in my view, within the plain meaning of the statute. If others participated in the scheme to do this it could be a conspiracy, Hasen added. Whether you want to call that collusion or not seems besides the point. In short, Trump s own attorney doesn t understand the law and apparently thinks that the use of the word collusion absolves Trump and his campaign team of any crimes. But that s simply not the case and any self-respecting judge would laugh at Sekulow in open court if he tried to use such a defense.Featured Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
9,308 | As tricky coalition talks loom, Merkel hopes for regional poll boost | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chastened by their worst result since 1949 in September s national election, Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives are hoping for victory in a regional vote on Sunday to strengthen their hand in thorny three-way coalition talks in Berlin. While victory in the Lower Saxony region might strengthen Merkel s position within her party, a conservative failure to emerge as the strongest party could prompt talk of weakening authority and possible eventual succession, said Berlin-based political expert Gero Neugebauer. Lower Saxony, an agricultural heartland and Germany s second biggest region, offers Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) the prospect of a morale boost as they seek to cobble together an unprecedented Jamaica national coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens. The road to such an alliance, named after the Caribbean nation as the parties colors match those of its flag, is littered with disputes on everything from migrants to tax and the environment. It would be the clunky coalition s federal debut if talks, due to start next week, prove a success. Carsten Nickel, deputy research director at Teneo Intelligence, said Sunday s election - which polls show is set to be a neck-and-neck contest between the CDU and the rival Social Democrats (SPD) - would determine momentum going into national coalition negotiations. The election in the northern state, home to carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), was called after a lawmaker in the Greens party - junior coalition partner to the SPD there - defected to the CDU, robbing the ruling alliance of its one-seat majority. If Merkel managed to steal that state from the SPD, it would probably be a little bit of a boost, he said. It would probably be slightly easier for her to argue internally for the required compromise and for striking the deals and so on that will be required over the next couple of weeks. However, a new poll for broadcaster ZDP released late on Thursday showed the SPD with 34.5 percent, closely followed by the CDU with 33 percent. The Greens and FDP both had 9 percent while the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) was on track to get 7 percent and move into Lower Saxony s state assembly for the first time. The Left party got 5 percent. About 29 percent of voters were still undecided about which party to support or whether to vote at all, it showed. The CDU has dropped far below the 12-point lead it had over the SPD in August at the start of a campaign that has centered on regional issues such as education, as well as an influx of migrants to Germany over the last two years. The latest poll means the SPD and Greens would not have enough support to govern again, even if they joined forces with the Left party. That leaves a coalition of the SPD and conservatives, a coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP, or the Jamaica coalition being pursued on a national level. Merkel s CDU and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) removed a major stumbling block to those coalition talks on Sunday by ending a dispute over migrant policy with an agreement to limit the number of migrants coming to Germany. Merkel s conservative bloc won 33 percent in September s national election, losing 8.5 points compared with 2013, as voters upset with Merkel s 2015 decision to open the borders to more than a million migrants abandoned the party. The result effectively brought an end to the existing national coalition with the SPD, who also performed badly. | 1 |
9,309 | Bosnian suspected of plotting Christmas market attack in Austria's Graz | VIENNA (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Bosnian man has been arrested in the Austrian city of Graz on suspicion of planning an attack on its Christmas market, police said on Thursday. The Muslim man was detained on Dec. 1 at an emergency shelter where others saw him watching videos about last year s attacks in Nice and Berlin on a computer, a force spokesman said. Witnesses heard him talking about Berlin and death, the spokesman added. He had visited mosques, but it was not yet clear whether he had been radicalized or had any accomplices, police said. A Tunisian man killed 12 people by driving a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin a year ago. The failed asylum seeker had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. | 1 |
9,310 | House gives final approval to tax bill, delivering victory to Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature. In sealing Trump’s first major legislative victory since he took office in January, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans. The House approved the measure by 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Republican-led Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday. “We are making America great again,” Trump said, echoing his campaign slogan at a White House celebration with Republican lawmakers. “Ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.” Trump, who emphasized a tax cut for middle-class Americans during his 2016 campaign, said at an earlier Cabinet meeting that lowering the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent was “probably the biggest factor in this plan.” It was uncertain when the bill would be signed. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the timing depended on whether automatic spending cuts triggered by the legislation could be waived. The administration expects the waiver to be included in a spending resolution Congress will pass later this week, a White House official told reporters. Cohn told Fox News Channel on Wednesday night that Trump could sign the bill as soon as Friday if the resolution was passed by then. “If not, most likely we’ll sign it in the first week of the new year,” Cohn said. In addition to cutting the U.S. corporate income tax rate, the debt-financed legislation gives other business owners a new 20 percent deduction on business income and reshapes how the government taxes multinational corporations along the lines that the country’s largest businesses have recommended for years. Wall Street’s main indexes were little changed on Wednesday, taking a breather after a month-long rally ahead of the long-anticipated tax vote. The S&P 500 has climbed about 4.5 percent since mid-November, led by a rally in sectors such as transport, banks and others that are expected to benefit the most from lower taxes. Under the bill, millions of Americans would stop itemizing deductions, putting tax breaks that incentivize home ownership and charitable donations out of their reach, but also making tax returns somewhat simpler and shorter. The bill keeps the existing number of tax brackets but adjusts many of the rates and income levels for each one. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced. The estate tax on inheritances is changed so far fewer people will pay. Once signed, taxpayers likely would see the first changes to their paycheck tax withholdings in February. Most households will not see the full effect of the tax plan on their income until they file their 2018 taxes in early 2019. In two provisions added to secure needed Republican votes, the legislation also allows oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and removes a tax penalty under the Obamacare health law for Americans who do not obtain health insurance. “We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we’ll come up with something that will be much better,” Trump said. Democrats were united in opposition to the tax legislation, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy that will widen the income gap between rich and poor, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the $20 trillion national debt. Trump promised during the campaign that he would eliminate the national debt. “Today the Republicans take their victory lap for successfully pillaging the American middle class to benefit the powerful and the privileged,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. Opinion polls show the tax bill is unpopular with the public and Democrats promised to make Republicans pay for their vote during next year’s congressional elections, when all 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for grabs. “Republicans will rue the day they passed this bill,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We are going to continue hammering away about why this bill is so unpopular.” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the bill, saying support would grow for after it passes and Americans felt relief. “I think minds are going to change,” Ryan said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program. A few Republicans, a party once defined by fiscal hawkishness, have protested the deficit spending encompassed in the bill. But most voted for it anyway, saying it would help businesses and individuals while boosting an already expanding economy they see as not growing fast enough. In the House, 12 Republicans voted against the tax bill. All but one, Walter Jones of North Carolina, were from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California, which will be hit by the bill’s cap on deductions for state and local taxes. Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000. The House was forced to vote again after the Senate parliamentarian ruled three minor provisions violated arcane Senate rules. To proceed, the Senate deleted the three provisions and then approved the bill. Since the House and Senate must approve the same legislation before Trump can sign it into law, the Senate’s vote sent the bill back to the House. | 1 |
9,311 | PROVOCATION? Republican Senators Introduce New Bill to Move US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem | 21st Century Wire says Donald Trump s campaign promise to move the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could trigger a series of events pushing the region back towards serious conflict. Trump s appointment of right-wing Jewish bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman (image, left) as his ambassador to Israel is seen by many as an aggressive move to promote an ultra-Zionist agenda, as Friedman is a supporter of illegal Israeli settlement expansion in Palestine.Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would be in direct violation of numerous other UN resolutions 11 UN Security Council resolutions have ruled that Israel s seizure of East Jerusalem is that of an occupied territory.Hussein Ibish of Foreign Policy Magazine outlines some of the context of this issue in terms of US politics: Among the many alarming ways in which President-elect Donald Trump might upend traditional American foreign policy, one of the most immediate and troubling concerns his pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.Other successful presidential candidates, most notably Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, made the same promise, only, once inaugurated, to emulate all of their predecessors by invoking the executive waiver to the 1995 Congressional Mandate to relocate the embassy. According to Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official and peace negotiator, said that annexing settlements in the West Bank and moving the embassy to Jerusalem might mean the destruction of the peace process as a whole. Naturally, bellicose Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denied it would inflame any conflict, stating in December that is was great step forward to peace. Middle East advocate Camille Mansour, told Al-Monitor that the US move would be devastating to relations between Palestinians and Israel, stating: It is a clear abandonment of the corpus-separatum issue, which Jerusalem has enjoyed since before 1947, he said. A number of consulates were based in Jerusalem US, Italian, English, Turkish, Spanish, French and Belgian based on this separate recognition of the city. NOTE: Corpus-separatum refers to Jerusalem s observed neutral legal and political status, closely related to that of an independent city-state.This comes on the heals of the recent controversy over the recent UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Apparently, the UN also followed up the settlement resolution with a plan to track activities of companies doing business in the illegally occupied West Bank.Either way, this latest push by Republicans on behalf of Netanyahu and the Zionist Lobby seems to be a prelude to increased tensions in the Middle East David Smith The GuardianThree Republican senators have introduced legislation to recognise Jerusalem as Israel s official capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, a plan backed by Donald Trump but likely to ignite fierce protests.After being sworn into the 115th Congress in Washington, Ted Cruz of Texas, Dean Heller of Nevada and Marco Rubio of Florida unveiled the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act.Similar moves by Republican majorities over the past two decades have come to nought, but this time they have a sympathetic president-elect in Trump. He has repeatedly pledged to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem and nominated a US ambassador who shares that view.Critics warn that the move could unleash a wave of violence and further rattle the Israel-Palestine peace process and the future of a two-state solution.Cruz, runner-up to Trump in the Republican presidential primary, said on Tuesday: Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel. Unfortunately, the Obama administration s vendetta against the Jewish state has been so vicious that to even utter this simple truth let alone the reality that Jerusalem is the appropriate venue for the American embassy in Israel is shocking in some circles.[ ] Rubio added: Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state of Israel, and that s where America s embassy belongs. It s time for Congress and the president-elect to eliminate the loophole that has allowed presidents in both parties to ignore US law and delay our embassy s rightful relocation to Jerusalem for over two decades. The US embassy has been located on Tel Aviv s HaYarkon Street for half a century. US state department policy has long held that the status of Jerusalem will only be determined in final talks between Israel and the Palestinians Continue this story at The GuardianREAD MORE ISRAEL NEWS AT: 21WIRE Israel FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
9,312 | Watch Megyn Kelly Prove She Has No Idea How The First Amendment Works (VIDEO) | On Friday night, Megyn Kelly decided to weigh in on the protest in Chicago that sent Donald Trump packing. She, like must conservatives, accused the protestors of denying Trump and his supporters their first amendment rights. His First Amendment free speech rights have been shut down, Kelly said. The right of those to listen to him, and as that one gentleman put it so well: I just want to hear him for myself, wanna hear him for myself. That was shut down by folks who have an agenda and that s fine. You can oppose Donald Trump. Go for it. But, is this the way? Kelly continues. Is this the way to shut down the ability of Chicagoans and those, in some cases, who have traveled for miles and miles and waited for hours and hours to get in, to have their say and hear him for themselves. For all these people know, they weren t Trump supporters. Maybe they would have walked away saying, You know what? He s not for me. We ll never know now. Well, seems that Kelly has forgotten a very key component to the First Amendment. Freedom of assembly is a right granted to everyone. That means that the protestors had just as much of a right to go protest Trump, as Trump has a right to go spew whatever hateful rhetoric he wants.No one forced Trump to run away. The Chicago police did not advise Trump s campaign to cancel the rally. This wasn t a safe space for Trump and his supporters to preach hate against minorities and make jokes about how big their d*cks are, it was an event open to the public. The public showed up and let everyone know how they feel. Trump couldn t handle that.It s important to keep in mind that earlier that day on Friday, a Trump rally in St. Louis nearly turned into a full blown race war. When protestors show up and practice their right to freedom of assembly, they are met with violence from Trump supporters. If we are going to talk about denying people their rights, let s talk about the Trump Youth s use of violent intimidation tactics to shut down peaceful protest against their leader.You can watch Kelly s commentary below.Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
9,313 | Trump blasts PGA Tour for plan to move golf tournament to Mexico | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a golf resort developer who has railed against Mexico in the 2016 campaign, lost an important golf tournament to that country on Wednesday when the PGA Tour said it would leave his Trump Doral course in Miami. Although the PGA Tour said it was not a political decision, Trump said in a statement the move was akin to decisions by some U.S. companies to move jobs to Mexico, which has been a refrain of his presidential campaign. “The PGA Tour has put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs, millions of dollars in revenue for local communities and charities and the enjoyment of hundreds of thousands of fans who make the tournament an annual tradition,” he said. “This decision only further embodies the very reason I am running for president of the United States.” The PGA said the World Golf Championship event would move from Trump National Doral to a site in Mexico City and be sponsored by the Grupo Salinas conglomerate. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said the move was necessary “once it became apparent that we would not be able to secure sponsorship at levels that would sustain the event and help it grow at Trump National Doral.” “From a golf standpoint, we have no issues with Donald Trump. From a political standpoint, we are neutral. The PGA Tour has never been involved or cares to be involved in presidential politics,” Finchem told a news conference in Dublin, Ohio. Cadillac has been the title sponsor for the event in recent years including this year’s tournament in March. Cadillac representatives did not respond to a request for comment. Trump’s son Eric Trump said Cadillac had been willing to continue. “Cadillac is ready, willing and able to continue as title sponsor for the tournament,” he told Reuters. “And I also can say that Cadillac is an amazing company and a longtime partner to the Trump Organization and we have an impeccable relationship.” The Doral tournament is one of the biggest pro golf events of the year, drawing top golfers from around the world competing for a $6 million purse. The Doral course has hosted a PGA tournament since 1962. Trump, whose golf empire includes 18 courses, purchased the golf resort in 2012 and led a $250 million renovation of its Blue Monster course where the PGA tournament has been played. The news about Doral surfaced on the same day that Trump announced he would step away from the campaign trail later this month to travel to Scotland for the reopening of the Turnberry golf resort, which he bought in 2014. | 1 |
9,314 | Young girl who tweeted from Aleppo asks Trump to help Syrian children | LONDON (Reuters) - The seven-year-old Syrian girl who gained a global following last year with her Twitter updates from Aleppo has written an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump asking him to help other children her war-torn country. Bana Alabed drew some 363,000 followers after she joined the micro-blogging site in September where she uploaded messages and pictures of daily life in Aleppo on the @AlabedBana handle, an account managed by her mother Fatemah. Last month, the young girl and her family were evacuated from the rebel-held eastern part of the city following a government offensive. They arrived in Turkey, where they met President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On her own @FatemahAlabed Twitter account, Fatemah posted a picture of the handwritten letter where the young girl introduces herself to Trump as “part of the Syrian children who suffered from the Syrian war”. “...Can you please save the children and people of Syria? You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you,” the letter reads. “If you promise me you will do something for the children of Syria, I am already your new friend.” Britain’s BBC quoted Fatemah as saying Bana penned the letter before Trump’s inauguration last Friday. In the letter, Bana also talks about losing friends in the nearly-six-year conflict and her new life outside Syria. “Right now in Turkey, I can go out and enjoy. I can go to school although I didn’t yet. That is why peace is important for everyone including you,” she said. “However, millions of Syrian children are not like me right now and suffering in different parts of Syria. They are suffering because of adult people.” On Wednesday, Trump said he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for refugees fleeing violence, without giving further details. His comments came after Russia, Turkey and Iran on Tuesday backed a shaky truce between Syria’s warring parties. | 1 |
9,315 | quiz how many of these home remedies for a cold have you tried | email
as a parent you always have to be aware of what lessons your child is learning from the world around him or her i know that i wont be able to protect my yearold james from every bad thing out there but on a recent trip to the grocery store i was utterly appalled by a disturbing trend our country has become desensitized to violence in hotsauce names and its a big problem
you cant walk down your grocers sauce isle without being bombarded by hotsauce names that romanticize violence tears of blood nuclear bombardment chile extract and death on the toilet have become standard fare in the hotsauce industry an innocent trip to purchase a simple bottle of ketchup now subliminally exposes shoppers and our impressionable children to dozens of gruesome descriptions of burning flesh brutal deaths and massive ass damage
as soon as the hotsauce industry agreed it was okay to allow names like cremation in a bottle pepper sauce and ass grave cajun sauce to appear on store shelves any shred of decency went out the window an arms race began to see who could come up with the most violent and gory sauce name society be damned and it needs to stop before our children internalize these sorts of brutal names as the norm for hotsauce labels
hot sauce has always been hot but the names used to imply the hotness without going into the graphic detail you see today
i took my son james to my favorite mexican restaurant this past weekend and he didnt even blink when he saw a bottle with volcanic crucification written out in flames if he isnt bothered by this whos to say if he would even think twice if he one day saw a hot sauce called ghost pepper throat thresher
i pray that we correct course in this country before anyone decides to make that hot sauce
it wasnt always like this hot sauce has always been hot but the names used to imply the hotness without going into the graphic detail you see today names like franks red hot let you know you were in for some serious heat but left something to the imagination but there is no longer a moral standard for hotsauce names now all it takes to begin leading a child down a bad path is for them to glance at a sauce bottle in a friends refrigerator door
whether its screaming suicide moruga scorpion sauce or habanero holocaust sauce the lengths to which todays sauces are going to outdo one another with disturbingly violent names has gotten out of control and if youre a parent you know that we must do something to stop this before its too late for our children | 0 |
9,316 | SHOCKING MOB SCENE Caught On Video: Men With Mexican Flags ATTACK Female Trump Supporter, Throw Objects At Her Face And Head | What is amazing about this video is that it captures the unimaginable positive attitude of the female Trump supporter in the face of an angry mob of Trump haters. These men waving Mexican flags and shouting expletives can be seen throwing eggs and other unknown objects at her face and head while yelling Mexico ! This brave woman just smiles and flashes a peace sign at the angry mob. Talk about composure!These men waving Mexican flags are more than likely illegal aliens. They are becoming increasingly more violent as the prospect of being sent back to Mexico or Latin America is becoming closer and closer to a reality. The gravy is train is pulling out and these uninvited criminals who have been living in our country under the cover of progressivism are scared to death they re about to get the boot. This will only get worse before it gets better. If America is serious about sending these lawbreakers back to their homeland, we need to use the woman in this video as an example of courage and steadfast commitment to saving our nation.Watch: The moment a Trump supporter, surrounded by protesters, is egged in the face, hit by other food. pic.twitter.com/qYFdwJWvrS Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Here is a view from another angle of the mob of Mexican men assaulting the lone female:https://twitter.com/JaredWyand/status/738645772409970688 | 0 |
9,317 | Spain's constitutional court annuls Catalan declaration of independence | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s Constitutional Court officially annulled the Catalan parliament s Oct. 27 unilateral declaration of independence on Wednesday, a widely expected ruling after the move was suspended by the court. The Madrid government sacked Catalonia s president and dismissed its parliament hours after the region declared itself independent with 70 votes for, 10 votes against and after lawmakers from three national parties walked out of the vote. | 1 |
9,318 | CONFUSED.GOV: Obama’s Imperial Mideast Policy Unravels, Still Backing Terrorists in Syria | 21st Century Wire says We just learned this week that US President Barack Obama will meet with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at this week s G20 summit in China. The White House claims that this is to discuss the two nations Anti-ISIL efforts, but is this really to be believed, considering the facts on ground in Syria?As 21WIRE reported this past weekend, Turkey has effectively invaded northern Syria. Initially, it claimed its military operation was to support Syrian rebels who aimed to recapture territory from ISIS around the town of Jarabulus, but it quickly became apparent that this was only a cover story. During its illegal invasion of its neighbor Syria, Turkish military were flanked by moderate rebel group Faylaq al-Sham a extremist terrorist organization and more amazingly both Turkish forces and their moderate rebel partners received air support from the United States. That s right: the USA is giving air cover to Al Qaeda in Syria. Consider the Turkish-US invasion along these lines: all along the Syrian Conflict, the US, Turkey, the NATO confab and entirety of the George Soros NGO Complex have all been crying out for one thing: a No Fly Zone or Safe Zone , which is really a western euphemism for carving-out their long-desired militant safe-havens inside of Syria. An interesting follow-on report to the US side of this drama is featured below by Daniel Lazare from Consortium News.This would be the first meeting between Obama and Erdogan since the infamous failed coup attempt in Turkey in July. Both countries claim to be ensconced in Syria in the gallant fight against ISIS (ISIL, IS, Daesh etc), but facts on the ground indicate that neither country has made fighting ISIS or any other Sunni-based Islamist extremist fighting group operating in Syria a genuine priority. It s as if they are both attempting to buy time for their own strategic objectives to develop.What s becoming ever clearer by the day, however, is that Washington is prepared to do almost anything in order to cover-up and obfuscate its central role in the promotion and strategic backing of all militant rebel forces trying to destroy the nation of Syria, including Al Nusra Front and all its affiliates, and also ISIS itself.Note below, the henchman role of US Vice President Joe Biden, delivering the death blow to Kurdish YPG militias in Syria Daniel Lazare Consortium NewsIn the 1930s, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeased his enemies. Today, U.S. President Barack Obama appeases his friends.Barack the Appeaser is the key to unlocking the mysteries of U.S. policy in the Middle East and beyond. Confusing to begin with, U.S. actions reached new heights of absurdity last week when the Obama administration abandoned its long-standing Kurdish allies with virtually no notice and announced that it was backing a Turkish thrust into northern Syria instead.Although the Turks claimed to be targeting ISIS (also known as Islamic State, IS, ISIL, and Daesh), it was plain from the outset that the real aim was to counter an offensive that had carried Kurdish forces some 20 miles west of the Euphrates River and put them in a position to control nearly the entire Syrian-Turkish border.But there was a problem. Not only had the U.S. approved the same Kurdish offensive, but it had provided arms, money, and air support plus military advice in the form of some 250 US Special Operations forces embedded among members of the Kurdish militia known as the YPG.Indeed, the Syrian Democratic Forces, a multi-ethnic militia anchored by the YPG, was a real success story, just about the only one Washington has had in the course of its disastrous five-year Syrian intervention. As one analyst put it: Since the creation of the SDF last November, the U.S.-backed coalition was able to roll back IS advances in northern Syria at an unprecedented pace. An effective mixture of multi-pronged offensives and U.S. air support led to the capture of key IS strongholds, including the city of Shaddadi in eastern Syria, the strategic Tishrin Dam along the Euphrates, and more recently IS s former bastion of Manbij, south of the Turkish border. But now the U.S. had decided to drop the Syrian Democratic Forces despite their sterling anti-ISIS record and back Turkey even though it didn t seem very concerned about ISIS at all. Vice President Joe Biden laid down the law during a visit to Ankara on Wednesday. We have made it absolutely clear, he said, that Kurdish forces must move back across the river. They cannot, will not, and under no circumstances get American support if they do not keep that commitment, period. Why the About-FaceWhat is the reason for such a remarkable about-face? What makes the U.S. think it can get away with cultivating an alliance one moment and dropping it like a hot potato the next?The answer has to do with the phenomenon of liberal appeasement that Obama represents.Appeasement became a dirty word as a result of the 1938 Munich Crisis when Britain and France decided that allowing Hitler to dismember Czechoslovakia would somehow allay his appetite for more conquests. But in Obama s hands, it has come to mean something different: an endless attempt to satisfy conflicting demands by a growing number of client states.The states include not just Turkey but Israel, the Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms, plus the dozen East European states that have entered NATO since 1999. If America were an old-fashioned empire, it would issue orders and expect such dependents to fall into line. But as a democratic empire, it relies on cajoling, bargaining, and other inducements to achieve voluntary consent Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 0 |
9,319 | Violence prompts U.S. Congress to discuss militant threats | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional panel next month will hold a hearing on violent extremism, including threats from domestic militants, following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned deadly. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Republican Michael McCaul, announced the Sept. 12 hearing in a letter to the panel’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson. The committee holds a hearing once a year, around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to discuss worldwide threats. A committee aide said the Charlottesville protests had prompted the decision to broaden the hearing to include threats from domestic militants. But Thompson said the move was “not adequate or appropriate” to address his request for a hearing on threats from white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups. “The September 12 hearing to cover worldwide threats is an annual hearing that was already scheduled prior to the domestic attacks this weekend,” Thompson said. “It will not allow us to go into the depth necessary to address the far-ranging and multifaceted aspects of the threat posed by domestic terrorist threats from white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.” The Homeland Security Committee will invite leaders of the Homeland Security Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Counterterrorism Center, McCaul said. “We must stand together and reject racism, bigotry, and prejudice, including the hateful ideologies promoted by neo-Nazis, the KKK, and all other white supremacy groups,” McCaul wrote in his response to Democrats’ request for a hearing. A 32-year-old woman was killed on Saturday in Charlottesville when a car plowed into a rival protest to white supremacist demonstrators. A 20-year-old Ohio man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies has been charged with murder. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said both sides were to blame for the violence, drawing condemnation from both fellow Republicans and Democrats for failing to single out the white nationalists. | 1 |
9,320 | Pence offers solace as Las Vegas police puzzle over shooter's motive | LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Las Vegas on Saturday stressing unity and offering solace as police appealed to the public for help in uncovering a wealthy retiree s motive for massacring 58 people at an outdoor concert this week. We are united in our grief, in our support for those who have suffered and united in our resolve to end such evil in our time, Pence said, joining Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and other local leaders at a City Hall commemoration for victims of the shooting. Participants trod seven miles (11 km) along four separate paths to the event amid tight security. President Donald Trump paid a visit to Las Vegas earlier in the week. Las Vegas Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus was the only speaker who touched on the subject of gun violence and politics, saying, Let us also pray for those who have power that they will have the wisdom, the courage, and the resolve to find ways to end the gun violence that plagues our nation. The commemoration came as Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators remain largely in the dark about what drove retired real estate investor and high-stakes gambler Stephen Paddock to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. We have looked at everything, literally, to include the suspect s personal life, any political affiliation, his social behaviors, economic situation, any potential radicalization, McMahill told reporters late on Friday. We have been down each and every single one of these paths, trying to determine why, to determine who else may have known of these plans. McMahill said investigators had uncovered no nexus between Islamic State and Paddock, even though the militant group had repeatedly claimed responsibility for the attack. A piece of paper found in Paddock s room at the Mandalay Bay hotel appeared to calculate the distance and height from his window to help target victims below, the CBS News show 60 Minutes said in a news release on Saturday ahead of a broadcast on Sunday of interviews with Clark County Sheriff s officers, including one who said he saw the paper. The Sheriff s Office could not be immediately reached for comment. Investigators have stressed that no suicide note had been found. In an unusual bid to cast a wider net for tips, the FBI and police have arranged with communications company Clear Channel to post billboards around Las Vegas urging citizens to come forward with any information that might help investigators. The billboards will bear the slogan, If you know something, say something, and carry a toll-free number to an FBI hotline, said Aaron Rouse, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office. Paddock, 64, unleashed a torrent of gunfire onto an outdoor music festival from the windows of his 32nd-floor hotel suite overlooking the concert on Sunday night, then shot himself to death before police stormed his room. In addition to the 58 people who died, nearly 500 were injured, some by gunfire and some trampled or otherwise hurt while running for cover. Unlike so many other perpetrators of deadly mass shootings before him, Paddock left behind no suicide note, no manifesto, no recordings and no messages on social media pointing to his intent, according to police. McMahill said investigators remained certain Paddock acted alone in the shooting. But police have said they suspect he had help before the killings, based on the large number of guns, ammunition and explosives found in the hotel suite, his home, his car and a second home searched in Reno. Authorities have said that 12 of the weapons recovered from Paddock s hotel suite were equipped with so-called bump-stock devices that enable semi-automatic rifles to be operated as if they were fully automatic machine-guns. Paddock s ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute over the course of his 10-minute shooting spree was a major factor in the high casualty count, police said. The bloodshed might have lasted longer, with greater loss of life, but for a hotel security officer who was sent to check an open-door alarm on the 32nd floor, and discovered the gunman s whereabouts after the shooting started, McMahill said. The security officer, Jesus Campos, was struck in the leg as the gunman strafed the hallway with gunfire from behind his door, apparently having detected Campos via surveillance cameras Paddock set up outside his hotel suite. Campos, though wounded, alerted the hotel s dispatch, which was absolutely critical to us knowing the location as well as advising the responding officers as they arrived on that 32nd floor, McMahill said. He s an absolute hero. In a new disclosure, authorities said two bullets Paddock fired struck a large jet fuel storage tank at the edge of the city s main airport, about a block from the concert grounds, indicating an apparent attempt by the gunman to create even greater havoc. There was no explosion or fire from the two rounds, one of which penetrated the tank, as jet fuel in storage is almost impossible to ignite with gunshots, airport officials said on Friday. Paddock s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, was questioned by the FBI on Wednesday and said in a statement she never had any inkling of Paddock s plans. Danley, who returned late on Tuesday from a family visit to the Philippines, is regarded by investigators as a person of interest. The Australian citizen of Filipino heritage is cooperating fully with authorities, her lawyer said. | 1 |
9,321 | Watchdog sues Trump EPA pick to disclose contact with companies | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A media watchdog group filed suit on Tuesday to force U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency to release records detailing his communications with energy companies ahead of a Senate vote to confirm his nomination. The lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma court by the Center for Media and Democracy and accuses Scott Pruitt, who is Oklahoma’s attorney general as well as Trump’s nominee to become the top U.S. environmental regulator, of violating the state’s Open Records Act by failing to release those emails to the public. It also seeks to force him to respond to nine open-records requests dating to January 2015 to publish emails between his office and energy companies. Pruitt’s office has received more than four dozen similar requests from other groups. “His inaction denies the public ‘prompt and reasonable’ access to public documents and violates Oklahoma’s Open Records Act,” said Robert Nelon, a first amendment lawyer with Hall Estill, the law firm representing the Center for Media and Democracy along with the American Civil Liberties Union. The media watchdog’s first request sought access to more than 3,000 emails. Pruitt’s office has not told the group how many records it has identified for the other eight requests it has pending. “We are doing this because these emails should be released so that people can properly vet his record before the Senate votes to confirm him,” said Nick Surgey, the center’s director of research. Pruitt, 48, sued the agency he intends to run 14 times on behalf of Oklahoma to weaken or gut its key regulations, earning him strong support from energy companies and Republican lawmakers who have accused the Obama administration’s EPA of regulatory overreach. On Thursday, the Senate environment committee approved Pruitt despite a boycott of his nomination by the panel’s Democratic members. The full Senate, which is under Republican control, is expected to confirm him but has not set a date for the vote. The lawsuit submitted on Tuesday calls on the court to stop Pruitt from denying access to requested public records and to prevent his office from destroying any documents relevant to the requests. Surgey said Pruitt was seemingly unapologetic during the confirmation hearings about his “strong relationships with Oklahoma’s oil and gas companies” and that the public should be aware his ties to the types of companies he would need to regulate as EPA administrator. Pruitt’s office said it had contacted the Center for Media and Democracy last week to inform the group that “release of their request was imminent.” “The fact that they have now filed suit despite our ongoing communications demonstrates that this is nothing more than political theater,” Lincoln Ferguson, the attorney general’s press secretary said in a statement. “The office of attorney general remains committed to fulfilling both the letter and spirit of the Open Records Act.” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a member of the Senate panel that held Pruitt’s hearing, accused the nominee of stonewalling the request for information about his relationships with industry. “I hope this lawsuit forces Attorney General Pruitt to stop the cover-up and disclose these emails immediately so the American people know what conflicts of interest this nominee has,” Whitehouse said in a statement to Reuters. | 1 |
9,322 | Exclusive: From cyber unit to troops, South Korea adds extra layer of Olympics security amid tensions | SEOUL (Reuters) - Rattled by rising tensions with North Korea, South Korea is taking extra measures to try to ensure the safety of the 2018 Winter Games, including setting up a crack cyber defense team and doubling the number of troops, according to officials and documents reviewed by Reuters. The Games take place next February in the mountainous resort town of Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea. They come after a series of missile and nuclear tests show the North making rapid advances in its weapons program and as inflammatory rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington stirs up concerns about another conflict on the Korean peninsula. South Korea s Defense Ministry will deploy some 5,000 armed forces personnel at the Games, double the 2,400 on duty during the 2002 World Cup, which South Korea co-hosted with Japan, according to government officials and documents reviewed by Reuters. Pyeongchang s organizing committee for the 2018 Games (POCOG) is also selecting a private cyber security company to guard against a hacking attack from the North, tender documents show. The committee is seeking to fast-track the selection as tensions rise in the wake of South Korea s controversial deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system, and as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tests weapons at an unprecedented rate. Cyber threats have increased due to external factors such as the THAAD deployment and recent North Korean missile launches, the committee said in the document. The committee will make all-out efforts to ensure the Pyeongchang Olympics are the safest ever, it said. We strongly believe we can host the Olympics successfully as we have invested a lot and prepared well for cyber security, it said in a statement in response to queries from Reuters. South Korea has blamed the North for a series of hacking attempts in the last few years, including a 2013 cyber attack against South Korean banks and broadcasters that froze computer systems for more than a week. Pyongyang denied any responsibility. While South Korea faces unique challenges with its hostile and nuclear-armed neighbor, the level of threats and security to counter them have escalated globally since South Korea last hosted a major international sporting event. The POCOG is hiring a private security contractor, stipulating the firm should be capable of running around 500 personnel to operate X-ray screening each day during the event, a separate document seen by Reuters shows. It has earmarked 20 billion won ($17.6 million) for the screening security measures and another 1.3 billion won for the cyber security protection, according to the documents. An official from the National Intelligence Service, South Korea s spy agency, is in charge of security operations, working with the government s anti-terrorism center, the organizing committee s spokeswoman told Reuters. South Korea has also created a new Special Weapons and Tactics team to guard against terrorism around the Games, Asia s first Winter Olympics outside Japan. We will search Olympic venues to check for bombs, protect athletes and visitors, and guard against any attempts to assassinate key figures, Jin Jeong-hyeon, a police inspector from the SWAT team, told Reuters. In late August, the POCOG held a two-day briefing with major Olympic sponsors including McDonald s Corp (MCD.N) and Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) to talk about the measures being put in place, according to a government statement. It gave them a look at emergency evacuation facilities during the briefing, though further details were not disclosed. While some observers view Pyongyang s threats as bluster, others point to instances of North Korean aggression during the 2002 World Cup and ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics as reasons to be concerned. In June 2002, as South Korea prepared to play Turkey in the playoff for third place at the World Cup, North Korean patrol boats crossed the disputed maritime border and exchanged fire with South Korean vessels, killing six South Korean sailors. In November 1987, just nine months before South Korea was set to host the Summer Games in Seoul, North Korean agents detonated a bomb on Korean Air Flight 858, killing all 104 passengers and 11 crew. One of the agents later told investigators the order had come from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and one of the aims had been to frighten international athletes and visitors from attending the Seoul Olympics. Other Olympics have also been affected by violence, most notably the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich Games. Mexican police and military killed hundreds of civilians during a protest just days before the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. South Korea s sports minister Do Jong-whan said this week Seoul was very concerned about aggressive remarks traded between Pyongyang and Washington but did not believe Kim would risk a war against countries participating at the Olympics. The International Olympics Committee is encouraging the participation of North Koreans as athletes, judges or wild cards to help ensure the safety of the Olympics, Do added. Chang Ung, North Korea s IOC member, said earlier this month that the Pyeongchang Olympics will not be affected by the escalating crisis on the peninsula and North Korea will hopefully be able to send athletes. Figure skating, short track speed skating and Nordic skiing could potentially feature North Korean athletes, he said. Despite the heightened security measures, there isn t a lot South Korea can do to reassure participants, said Lee Soo-hyuck, a former foreign affairs presidential secretary. This issue is more about whether North Korea would decide to carry out hostile actions or not. | 1 |
9,323 | Republican Presidential Candidate Reveals Their New Plan To Starve The Poor | Jeb Bush just unveiled a key component of his welfare reform package. The Republican presidential candidate wants to completely scrap the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. It should be noted that Right to Rise is the name of Bush s Super PAC.Bush wants to replace those programs with one that gives states Right to Rise grants, to support state-run programs aimed at alleviating poverty. Bush refers to the current programs in place as failed programs of the war on poverty, on account of there being 47 million people who are still poor in the United States. In the place of these failed programs, states will be given Right to Rise Grants. These grants will allow states to meet the needs of poor families, in the way that makes most sense in each state. As governor of Florida, I saw first-hand how states could be the laboratories of democracy. I know that giving states more flexibility will open the door for transformative ideas to eliminate poverty and increase opportunity, Bush wrote on his campaign website, on Friday.Bush does not have any interest in reforming welfare to help fight the war on poverty. He wants to further the Republicans war against the poor. This proposal is just an attempt to dismantle the welfare system in the United States, in order to create a less efficient government.If Bush cared at all about the poor, he would support raising the federal minimum wage to a point where working people no longer need to go on assistance programs. Bush doesn t want to raise the minimum wage. In fact, he has publicly stated that opposes the very concept of the minimum wage. As with welfare, Bush thinks that the minimum wage is a matter for the states to work on, not the federal government. There is disagreement between economists on what effect raising the minimum wage might have on job creation, yet almost every economist agrees that raising the minimum wage would lift many people out of poverty. Now, if a candidate, Republican or otherwise, seriously wanted to reform welfare in a way that acts as scheme to lift people out of poverty, they should be looking at what Finland is doing.Featured Image Credit: USDA via Flickr | 0 |
9,324 | CONSERVATIVE Women DESTROY Crybaby, Safe Space Feminists Over Women’s March Against Trump’s Inauguration…And It’s HILARIOUS! | Anyone who is sick and tired of social justice warriors using the feminist movement to push every leftist agenda known to modern man will definitely enjoy reading these:https://twitter.com/peddoc63/status/820284848925511682Go nuts! Don't take accountability. Instead, simply blame all of your failures and mistakes on straight white males. #RulesForWomensMarch Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) January 14, 2017It wouldn t be a proper feminist march against Trump without has been celebrities like Rosie and Madonna:#RulesForWomensMarch I would be wonderful if you continued your march all the way to Canada..Make sure Rosie is leading your pack #MAGA TRM (@trm10trm) January 14, 2017Loudly announce your support of slaughtering offspring in utero while screaming about gun control. #RulesForWomensMarch Leah the Boss (@LeahRBoss) January 14, 2017#RulesForWomensMarchWhile marching for the protection of your daughters make sure to avoid topics like Chicago, Uranium One, Bill Clinton Star (@starmlw) January 14, 2017Be insanely critical of any man you come into contact with. Unless he's dressed as a woman and peeing beside you. #RulesForWomensMarch Leah the Boss (@LeahRBoss) January 14, 2017#RulesForWomensMarchNo speaking out of turn. From any body part. pic.twitter.com/uBNdOtSefY Lizzy Lou Who (@_wintergirl93) January 14, 2017https://twitter.com/andieiamwhoiam/status/820143718011465728#RulesForWomensMarch Real women don't need/have time for a 'march' we're too busy raising our children and working RealFeminist2.0 (@els1023) January 14, 2017Since you wanna keep the govt out of your uterus let's keep govt money out of it too.. BYOB..Buy Your Own Birth-Control #RulesForWomensMarch LiLBitOfSass (@xmssweetnessx) January 14, 2017#RulesForWomensMarch be hypocritical when you cry about rape but don't believe in a woman's right to carry a gun to prevent rape. ChristinaBistes (@PlainUnamerican) January 14, 2017#RulesForWomensMarchBe sure to swoon over the elitist celebrities that haven't contributed a dime to women/child causes but expect you to Star (@starmlw) January 14, 2017Remember to respect the 53% of fabulous white women who voted Trump. #MAGA #RulesForWomensMarch StupidKant (@stupid_kant) January 14, 2017Body positive marchers must bring a doctor s note to clear them for physical activity. No exceptions. #RulesForWomensMarch Liars Never Win (@liars_never_win) January 14, 2017Pick up your George Soros pay, but only 80% of what the men marchers make, after the march, not before. #RulesForWomensMarch Paulsy (@Paulsy01) January 14, 2017Please don t look the celebrities in the eyes without prior permission #RulesForWomensMarch Liars Never Win (@liars_never_win) January 14, 2017#RulesForWomensMarch1 Burn Trump effigies 2 exibit hormonal rage3 Forget to blame 6 mil Obama Dems who stayed home instead of voting HRC Surfin with the Dude (@petite_lk_dude) January 14, 2017Showers are not provided or encouraged #RulesForWomensMarch Liars Never Win (@liars_never_win) January 14, 2017 | 0 |
9,325 | Food security in Middle East, North Africa deteriorating, says U.N. agency | CAIRO (Reuters) - Food security in the Middle East and North Africa is quickly deteriorating because of conflict in several countries in the region, the United Nations said on Thursday. In those hardest hit by crises Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Sudan an average of more than a quarter of the population was undernourished, the U.N. s Food and Agriculture Organization said in its annual report on food security. A quarter of Yemen s people are on the brink of famine, several years into a proxy war between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi that has caused one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent times. The report focused on changes to food security and nutrition across the region since 2000. It said that undernourishment in countries not directly affected by conflict, such as most Gulf Arab states and most North African countries including Egypt, had slowly improved in the last decade. But it had worsened in conflict-hit countries. The costs of conflict can be seen in the measurements of food insecurity and malnutrition, the FAO s assistant director-general Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said. Decisive steps towards peace and stability (need to be) taken. Several countries in the region erupted into conflict following uprisings in 2011 that overthrew leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Syria s civil war, which also began with popular demonstrations, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and made more than 11 million homeless. | 1 |
9,326 | House Financial Services chairman sees Dodd-Frank reform this year | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reform of Wall Street rules and consumer protects imposed after the 2008 financial crisis is likely this year, and much of the law could be undone through a number of ways, the Republican chairman of a key House of Representatives committee said. “Dealing with Dodd Frank is a this-year priority. Clearly it comes behind Obamacare, clearly it comes behind tax reform,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday. | 1 |
9,327 | reasons why you should try photography as a hobby | home badge abuse parents on a date were asleep in car when cops arrived and killed them both parents on a date were asleep in car when cops arrived and killed them both matt agorist february comments
inglewood ca on sunday police responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle parked on manchester boulevard around am when police arrived they engaged in a minute long standoff before opening fire on the man and woman inside the vehicle killing them both
in the news release on monday following the shooting police claimed that the woman in the car had a gun scott collins a spokesman for the inglewood police department said that the couple refused to obey the officers commands to exit the vehicle the officers then feared for their safety and opened fire on the car killing the couple
the woman was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting and the man succumbed to his injuries after paramedics transported him to a local hospital according to the la times
the shooting seemed like an open and shut case until the next day mayor james butts while responding to questions about the shooting opened up a huge can of worms both the man and the woman were unconscious
for at least minutes police attempted to rouse them in an effort to deescalate the situation said butts
after admitting that the couple was asleep butts quickly defended the officers noting obviously at some point they were conscious because somebody felt threatened
however that notion has yet to be proven and is particularly unlikely due to the fact that not a single officer received so much as a scratch nor did the couple have any reason to be violent
both of the victims were parents kisha michael a single mother of three sons and marquintan sandlin a single father of four daughters
michaels twin sister trisha stated the obvious when she said that its possible that kisha merely passed out on the way home from their night out
families for both described them as devoted parents who made arrangements for care of their children while they took a night off according to nbc los angeles
the police aint telling us nothing said trisha michael after being met with tight lips from the department
he was a loving father said sandlins sister leandra faulkner all he cared about was his girls getting them right
of course as is standard procedure for all those killed by police their arrest records were released to shame them michael was on probation for a misdemeanor last year and years ago sandlin was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm in los angeles
according to his relatives sandlin had a rough life but had turned it around and was working as a successful truck driver
sadly these children will now grow up knowing that their parents were taken from them by cops scared of a sleeping couple share google concerned citizen
perhaps the mother had the gun on her lap for protection while they slept at least they didnt drive drunk these parents did not deserve to die mary hagerty
did she really have a gun or did the cops just say that to excuse the murders of two sleeping people lying about weapons is a known police tactic to get out of trouble sometimes they go as far as to plant a weapon conscious
lets say they had a gun how did the police see it if they were asleep hmmm that makes it irrelevant john and linda robel
who gives a fuck about driving drunk it is determined by an arbitrary number that is extorted by the united states congresswe encourage people everyday to annul this police statist horseshit a felony can be expunged but not a fucking misdomeanor dui get a grip this nothing but a government racket and proffiteering of the dui industry kevin burnett
sounds like more blackliesmatter twits alan lammle
sounds more like bluethugliesmatter twits duryea l williams
smhignorance is contagious talisha harris
no where in the article talks about that movement from the article it sounds like innocent people who were not armed and who were sleep were killed did i miss something anon ymous
they may or may not have had a gun but having a gun is no reason for the police to shoot kill someone nikkia bailey
maybe they were too drunk to drive anon ymous
black lives matter also what part of that is so hard to understand kburnett isanidiot
stop being an ignorant fuckwad racist troll kevin turdnett philip williams ryan robbins
marie laveaux im not disagreeing with you i just always like to see some real info before i jump to conclusions not just a headline i have no idea what happened and will not put blame on either side unless i see some hard evidence julie asperger
on los angeles local news report they said the vehicle was stopped in the middle of manchester blvd not parked on the side of the road both are illegal seemed strange the way it was presented to us this makes it even weirder i passed by and seen there is a large memorial for them to bad there is no video to see what really happened
cops dont like being filmed
for obvious reasons julie asperger
yea i was harassed by some a few years back on hollywood blvd and intimidated into deleting video of them using excessive force on cooperating men i even showed them my press id and tried to be allowed to keep the video they said fuck the press kimberly reichard emerson
the intelligent of us know were not i cant even comprehend whats wrong with the people here that still believe were in the land of the free and home of the brave its frightening to say the least shawn soto
this is so fucked upwtf is wrong with people why cant any one just act right all you fuckers carrying so much hate on raceits ridiculous im sick of it an alot if peeps an i mean alot are following an feeding this shit through media an all i hve mad love for all race in the world am does any one even hve a pure blood line now a days i think not so dont be fooled by just the way your skin looks
we all belong to the human race theres no other race than that thom prentice
nice infotisments colin parker
i never understood why their prior arrest recods are released its not admissible in any court for a current charge so why are the police allowed to use it alan lammle
to help soften the public in their attempt to make them look like they did nothing wrong in shooting people in cold blood gary harryman
shouldnt the records of every cop at that scene also be released tray pressley
to label them as criminals so they can justify the murder markymark ndahouse
to demonize the dead jamesawyatt
as long as bureaucrats are allowed to hire with little or no supervision those who seek to be employed as cops many of whom have a history of being bullies going back through their childhood and who seek this means of furthering their bullying lust now armed with impressive uniform shiny new badge and deadly weapons and with the presumptions that they now have a license to beat cripple and shoot when ever and whom ever they please atrocities are expected to be the norm and will be expected to grow at an exponential rate it is forever hoped that one or more law firms will come into being that will relentlessly undertake the filing of suits and not only agains the involved jurisdiction and the individual rogue cop or cops but those who were involved in the hiring of the cop or cops the impression always being that these who are responsible for the hiring and thus are as guilty as the involved rogue cops they have to be faced with the harsh reality by having levied against each and every offender hugh awardsfines not just on the jurisdiction ie the city county state or feds but also against each of the individual involved in their being hirsd as well as the rogue cop or cops themselves as individuals the awards to be paid by the individuals by their prorated award share payment out of their own pockets and only a prorated share by the jurisdiction as what the jurisdiction pays will invariably come out of the pockets of that jurisdictions tax payers stiff penalties in the form of huge financial judgement awards should go a long long way in fostering an awareness by these who have escaped accountability for so so long of the potentially very expensive folly of this their irresponsible actions which results in so much suffering and many time crippling injury andor death mary hagerty
i agree but please dont use all caps to write its way harder to read roberto carlos moscoso
sadly the government insists that they want to take guns away from civilians for only police officers have training and are responsible enough to handle guns yet ive seen more mass shootings and innocent people dying in the hands of cops than in the hands of irresponsible citizens crazy ah tracy walling otis
is that true marco emilio giovanni maltese thats truly horrifying if so if you have a source of those statistics i would appreciate the link for it i know its bad im not denying that but i am even more disgusted if it is that bad
ive read that cops killed more than people in the usa in the last years but im sorry i dont have the link you can search and you will find it easily i think usa people should be more scared of cops than of terrorists alain vosselman
im stunned i can no longer believe this this is going to be talked about in the future if we still have one just as we talk now about stalins regime or sadam husseins or pol pot from now on even if we discover new life triljon lightyears away traveling by megasuperfreakaliesh tech vehicles well still be the most amazing embiciles of the universe aaron beedle
the fact that there are enough of these stories coming from america for several to be posted everyday proves how messed up the place is i would not want to be a black person living in america today i wouldnt live there at all nothing will happen to the officers they should be sentenced for murder and receive a full sentence police officers over there intruding on peoples property and killing pets killing people just walking down the street or washing their car id i was an american the only reason id want to own a gun was to defend my self against police officers ryan robbins
you shouldnt believe everything you are reading online its bad right now but its not nearly as bad as many are making it out to be all of these innocent victims are not nearly as innocent as they are initially made out to be when the truth finally comes out on most of these stories its on page and nobody takes the time to post it because it does not fuel there agenda to spread hate and prejudice aaron beedle
it is true everyone has agendas im sure there are a lot of people in general dying in america but i know from life that the people with the power are usually the assholes i would say that at least of all male human beings struggle to handle power reasonably females would be close too when it is appointed rather than earned such as when someone is called a police officer and given a weapon that can kill people with ease people tend to not handle it well i heard a while ago that some parts of the world do not use equipment they would not fire at themselves and they are made to it teaches people restraint christopher rawson
the police across america are being demonized by a sickness in the system that wants to put us against one another that human is a human none of us our without fault or live life without ever feeling in over our headpossibly there is another way tim walker
i suppose if everyone voted for that one independentlibertarian candidate then maybe we would have a fighting chance sadly that will never happen the vast majority of people have been brainwashed by the two main parties with the division they have created they can easily put in any candidate they choose how can anyone prove that it wasnt predetermined
i just watched a news video of this story the mayor said the couple were passed out when police arrived police spent minutes trying to rouse them and deescalate the situation how is there a situation to deescalate if they are passed out ?? ????
ryan said nowhere in his comment that they deserved what happened all he said was that another source had different information if another source has clashing info of course one of them is going to be wrong no need to bash him vanessa white
some groups must be trying to start to a race conflict and some are just happy with anarchy i would never call them for anything they dont seem to know who or when to shoot or maybe they are all amped up on steroids all the time pitiful i will keep the children in prayer blue thugs
all cops are cowards never seen one that wasnt a coward and bully one of the cops got tired of waiting and said gun that was all the excuse they needed to open fire what if that was a white couple with a gun in the carnearly everyone has a gun on person or in the car these days what if they have a permit or concealed carry permit do you fucking think the cops would have fired rounds into that car and killed the white couple well do you if one of the thug cops did holler gun no one can ever say anything to contradict them cops know if only one side is left alive no one can say otherwise better to be judged by than carried by that is every cops motto as they know they are above the laws for mere mortal humans linda brown
chickenshit bullies this bs has to stop i belive all you say as i have been targeted in canada first nations peopledrunk drive teens and pot smokers are all targets where i live every skin color fair game on last two for sure these peace officers should be heald accountable face an open hearing open to public a fair trial and then deal with courts decision im not sure if this happened to my friends it would not end in graveyard these murders must face charges and hopefully murder one usn veteran
bt i respect your opinion however do not fully agree with you i do know a few leos good stock adult scout leaders and there was an officer from my childhood past whom mentored me however i can not defend other leos actions i firmly believe that an armed society is a polite society
arizona state constitutional provision article section
the right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize maintain or employ an armed body of men
arizona respects the right of all us citizens to carry a concealed handgun with or without a permit or to carry openly while in this state an arizona resident permit can be obtained for the purposes of carrying concealed while in other states that offer recognition or reciprocity
castle doctrine enacted right to carry confidentiality provisions enacted right to carry in restaurants legal right to carry laws no permit required right to carry reciprocity and recognition outright recognition right to keep bear arms state constitutional provisions with provisions
as such arizona has fewer crimes per capita committed with a firearm as does california how does extrapolate these facts perhaps as arizonians have come to accept firearms as a know factor in their daily lives whereas californians do not perhaps californias draconian laws encroach upon human mental health whereby inhibiting residents of the state of california to live in fear rather than confidence
i for one shall leave this contemptuous state seeking solitude of which only a truly free society can bring i shall make arizona my final resting place i expect in this forum environment there may be egregious comments to the final resting place
i respect all of my fellow american citizens and their constitutional right to express their opinions as protected by the united states constitutional first amendment
usn veteran margie campbellthreadgill
maybe i missed something in the article but does it state that the cops fired rounds in the car if so i missed it fed xxx
department of justice has statistics on police killings and being white doesnt make you immune in fact more whites were killed by police than blacks in the last years doesnt excuse this horrible murder of an innocent couple but please dont fall prey to deluded thinking that being white makes a difference look for yourself
how is anyone white or black ever supposed to trust a police officer these days blue thugs
fuck you dude my dad is a good cop and i judge his actions too you are biased im not and leave ppl alone they never bother with flat tires so fuck off chris cochran
every single one of these cops needs to be charged with murder and the police need to pay to make those kids end up having a good life since they will never have their parents to give them one gary harryman
yes every cop at that scene is guilty of the same crime since they acted as a gang they should stand trial as a gang and all be charged with the same crime murder terri spanjer
i wish people would stop and think for a minute about how the government is allowing police to murder citizens and that over the last years these incidents are occurring a hundred times a year its all part of the big plan to remove all your rights and terrify you ps yes was an inside job think
american cops have been given free rein to do whatever they want the government encourages police brutality lucas vegen
i dont understand maybe im to young maybe the uk is completely different
black lives are being slaughtered even in their sleep and we sit and watch idol
i learned at a young age the country will only change when its forced to black people need to stand up we are not shooting practice and we will raid stores court rooms and banks in the s or s if money and property is all they care about
more may die but we all die eventually and will die sooner if we watch idol this is the world you want to live and raise your kids in really
this is not hate talk but black lives matter marches and speeches should be the calm before the storm if they continue to kill us and our children in our sleep i dont think talking should be our last effort how many more will die
it wont theyre killing everyone now desiree m mondesir
insane i know all cops are not like this but the ones who aregod help them or rather god help the people they senselessly murder and their remaining loved ones how on earth does a sleeping couple threaten you causing you to fear for your life b alan eisen
i fell asleep in my truck on a very cold night in front of my house a police officer wanted to arrest me for sleeping in it but the night was so cold he got numb hands and left ross thompson laurie choate
this of course will be swept under the rug as quickly as possible they messed up bad on this one i would love to see the dash cams vids but im sure that too is now gone very sad that we can no longer trust any person in uniform
how does one deescalate a situation where the occupants of the car are asleep david lynn courtney
freaking terrible and shameful roomtempiq
the entire legal system is skewed in favor of those who have money no doubt black folks are unfairly targetedabusedkilled by cops but us poor white folks get cop abuse as well but us poor whites dont seem to be killed by cops as often as black folks
that being said i recently moved to a very rural county and the sherriffs deputies here are standup good guys they are not cowards or bullies that is one reason i moved here b alan eisen
i wouldnt compare rural life with inner city life at all rural people respect each other they help each other the police are neighbors you can explain inner city hell to yourself ?? ??????
in the police in usa murdered black people and white people total killed of all was
so far in the police in usa murdered black people and white people total killed so far as of february is
but more whites than blacks you say simple only black lives matter to the main stream media their mission is to promote an agenda to put us common folk against one another also imagine if us whites acted like blacks when we have one of our own killed by police when are whites going to loot and riot thomas headen iii
you riot when your sports teams lose or win for that matter percentages sir say that black men are times more likely to be killed by police than white men i think if the percentage were reversed you would be alarmed as well god bless michael mcmaster
to put it in perspective if police were shooting people in a colourblind fashion then youd expect that for every people shot of them would be black and would be white or to put it another way left handed people are about of the population if it turned out that year after year they were of the people killed by police it would be fair to ask why they were being singled out disproportionally anna black
whites loot and riot during sports the real question is where is the all lives matter when this happens daniel robins one yahoocom
woops they did it again todd schacherl
so now sleeping while black is a capital offense if only they had cooperated while sleeping they wouldnt have been shot is that what we are to believe deloren tucker
wtf john and linda robel
the blue code of silence is well established and routinely used tim egan wrote breaking blue a book that documents the historical corruption of these big brave heroes orwell was right big brother is watching and the pigs are running the farm line these pos up for the firng squad and make their families watch john and linda robel
keep voting for democrats all you stupid sons of bitches and kaliforniacators im sure gov moonbeam feels your pain
must have broke the lawblue lives matter every cop apologist dickhead on the internet
whats wrong with the cops they couldnt wake them up its a shame nancy keys
they had me confused when they said the womans twin sister name kisha blue thugs
everyone in america needs to watch the documentrymovie called peace officers i bet a thousand to a cops doughnut there was no gun even in the car if so it was planted after killing them probably stayce
wow i didnt know things were this bad it just seems that being black is so wrong anymore why do these things keep happening i just ask that all cops and law enforcement be mindful of what they are doing and double check their situation before over reacting now kids are without parents this is ridiculous bless the babies and their parents lincoln kirby
huh i always thought the conscious scared the police more ie us oh wait they cant tell whos conscious and who isnt why was i born with less rights than my parents and my younger family member born with less freedoms than i was born with the fuck happened did we stop thinking ?????? ???????
fuck these kind of mother fucking piece of shit police who are just bullys with a badge and a gun hope they all die horrible painfull deaths pieces of shit broke a whole fucking family for what pussy bitch ass trigger happy pussy ass pigs smfh deloren tucker
when r we going to start fighting back deloren tucker
police are only human like us anthony georgeson
this has to stop this is insane orphans unarmed people killed by those who are supposed to serve and protect crazed gunmen killing indiscriminately this isnt the wild west this is a war zone i know guns can be a tool as much as a wepon a knife a stick a rock a fist can be a deadly wepon how do we fix this start making every stich of clothing out of kevlar replace fluoride with prozac can we learn anything from places that dont have a problem like iceland it has to stop the officers involved should have been interviewed by civilians before the went to police academy maybe they werent good with serve and protect
show me the video dksman
wtf this article is full of major inaccuracies they werent parked on the side of the road they were in the middle of a major street right in front of an intersection they didnt pull over and go to sleep all you have to do is loom at the crime scene photos and see this article is full of false information they had a gun on them as well catherine durnfordwang
so for that they deserve to be shot and they had a gun so what again arent guns allowed under the second amendment zatanique
how does a sleeping couple put anybody into a state of fear for their lives i smell a cover up of monumental proportions by the cops involved i cant believe that they could possibly find a plausible reason to justify opening fire on these two people not only do i want to see a special grand jury called to deal with these cops police department and city i want to see a wrongful death suit brought against them the police department and the city because of these cops children are without their parents no amount of money is going to make that better or make up for what they did
on what planet could you possibly justify what happened smh for real
i cannot even grasp this if they were not conscious why didnt they try to make sure they were not suffering from co poisoning oh no lets just shoot them and make up any story we like huh david sbraga
if you only had the courage to say that to someone face and not while th were hiding behind a kevlar and screen id pray for you but i dont believe in prayer and i dont believe it would do you any good mark nasia
parents on a date were asleep in their car does this headline make sense i mean two people shot while sleeping in their car makes more sense that date would have happened before they decided to sleep where are the editors these days
jevez robinson paul myers
surely the same laws should be used and policemen and the hiring officials as is used against gangs and organised crime lets face it the police force is the biggest organisation of organised criminals in the world
blacks latinos asians and progressives must compete and vie for every civil service job once on rise in rank and change the system genevieve friday king
two exhausted parents falling asleep in a car in and of itself not news hell ive been at work and college and found parents zonked out from exhaustion from parentingbut to be executed like this uh were the cops afraid the parents would wake up and ground them for a week or a stern talking to johndca marible
these cops need to stop it so were suppose to believe that this woman and this man with children between them are in a car that late at night just waiting to threaten cops with a gun were really suppose to believe that story i dont understand how cops can be so afraid when they have a license to carry a gun training on top of that a partner and access to call for backup i just dont get it if youre that afraid of a black person on sight then you dont need to be a police officer you need to seek help last time i checked it was black people getting killed by the police and not the other way around yeah the cops have a handful of tragedies but it cannot compare to the numbers when you talk about deaths of blacks by police not by a longshot im getting really tired of this and the whole usa needs to revamp its law enforcement system you can give guns to cops who are suppose to protect and serve but where is the protection for the rest of us jeff putterman | 1 |
9,328 | Pope prays for nuclear disarmament | MILAN (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday called on world leaders to work in favor of nuclear disarmament to protect human rights, particularly those of weaker and underprivileged people. The pontiff said that there was a need to work with determination to build a world without nuclear weapons , speaking from the window of the papal apartment overlooking St. Peter s Square and citing his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si (Praised Be). His remarks came on the day that the group which won this year s Nobel Peace Prize urged nuclear nations to adopt a U.N. treaty banning atomic weapons. With rising tensions between the United States and North Korea, the pope has repeatedly warned against the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of nuclear devices and has called for a third country to mediate the dispute. At his weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Francis added that men and women in the world had the liberty, the intelligence and the capacity to guide technology, limit their power, at the service of peace and true progress . Speaking aboard the plane back from his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the pope suggested that some world leaders had an irrational attitude toward nuclear weapons. Last month he appeared to harden the Catholic Church s teaching against nuclear weapons, saying countries should not stockpile them, even for the purpose of deterrence. Pope Francis, a strong defender of environmental protection, also hoped that an upcoming Paris summit would adopt efficient decisions to contrast climate change. | 1 |
9,329 | Kenya court: opposition didn't show presidential campaign used state resources | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s chief justice said on Wednesday that the opposition did not provide sufficient evidence to show that President Uhuru Kenyatta broke the law by using state resources during his re-election campaign. In response to those allegations of ... use of public resources ... we are unable to deal with that in the absence of any evidence, said Chief Justice David Maraga, as the court delivered a detailed ruling on last month s annulled presidential elections. | 1 |
9,330 | Mitch McConnell: 'The man in the middle' of U.S. healthcare war | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For seven years, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell vowed to slay Obamacare if only his Republican Party controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House. Pull it out “root and branch,” he pledged. The 75-year-old Senate majority leader now has that luxury. But instead of basking in the glow of his first major legislative victory in the Donald Trump era, McConnell is what a source close to the majority leader calls “the man in the middle in an impossible spot.” Late on Monday and again on Tuesday, after a long struggle, McConnell’s efforts to repeal all or portions of former President Barack Obama’s landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act and replace them with less expensive healthcare came crashing down. With 52 Republican senators in the 100-member chamber, McConnell could lose only two of his colleagues on any bill that was opposed by Democrats and still win with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote. Three times, he failed to muster the 50 supporters needed. The man who epitomized “the party of no” in Democrats’ eyes during Obama’s presidency, especially when he slammed the door in February 2016 on Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination, fell victim to the “no” of fellow Republicans. “We finally get a chance to repeal and replace, and they don’t take advantage of it,” Trump, six months into his four-year presidential term, said on Tuesday. Across Washington, there was dismay Republicans could not deliver on a promise they assert helped them to assume control in January of Congress and the White House. “I am kind of shocked,” said Republican Representative Dave Brat, of the conservative firebrand House Freedom Caucus that has been a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment. His hand weakened, McConnell could be heading into fierce budget battles, a tax reform fight and a storm over legislation avoiding a government debt default that could shake global financial markets. The result has Democrats feeling emboldened 16 months before the next congressional elections. Around town, the sphinxlike McConnell is known as a master of Senate rules, able to outfox opponents, giving nothing away until he can strike at just the right moment. The senator’s leadership job, a position he yearned for in the years leading up to his 2015 ascension, does not appear to be in jeopardy. But this rocky run calls into question McConnell’s reputation as a master tactician and deal-maker that he earned as Republican minority leader under the Democratic Obama. It is “a real blow to Republicans in Congress generally and to leadership,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican. More of the blame sits with the rank-and-file, Lott said. “The problem in Washington today is not lack of leadership. The problem is lack of followership.” Had McConnell succeeded, Lott said he would have been “considered a magician” given the inability of Republicans to coalesce around healthcare legislation for so many years. A Republican operative with ties to McConnell saw a possible silver lining: Failure to pass healthcare could boost chances for tax reform or infrastructure investment if Republicans felt it a more urgent political imperative to rack up a win for Trump before the November 2018 congressional elections. McConnell, a courtly Kentuckian who can appear at pains to speak to reporters nipping at his heels, won accolades in years past for cutting deals with Democrats to keep the government operating and making permanent most of former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Those deals involved giving voters government services and lower taxes. But Republican healthcare legislation involves taking something away from millions of lower-income people - their medical coverage. “In part they (Republicans) misunderstood how difficult it will be” to repeal and replace Obamacare, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, said in a phone interview. Republican rhetoric against Obamacare was so “hyperbolic” it had to take priority early in Trump’s presidency, but senators lacked enthusiasm for legislation, said Daschle, who like Lott lobbies on behalf of healthcare interests. Once boxed into healthcare, McConnell took another controversial step, one that many Republicans questioned. Instead of developing a healthcare bill in public, McConnell and his top aides, with the advice of a 13-member group of male senators, called the shots. McConnell said hearings were unnecessary, as healthcare policy had been intensively debated since Obama took office in 2009. He said he was listening to suggestions of all of his 51 fellow Republican senators. Many senators felt disconnected and tensions boiled over. As Monday wore on, matters only got worse for McConnell. Republican Senator Ron Johnson publicly accused him of “a real breach in trust” in hard-charging back-room negotiations. He threatened to withhold support for the bill. McConnell supporters argued that no matter how he handled the private negotiations, the Republican leader was dealt a difficult hand from the outset. “The majority leader is trying to keep all the frogs in the wheelbarrow and it’s a tough job but he’s doing a good job,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. And then there was Trump. As McConnell struggled, the president was in France last week celebrating Bastille Day before jetting back to the United States to attend a tournament at his New Jersey golf course. He tweeted about his excitement at the tournament, his disgust with “fake news” and an investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Trump boasted that the White House “is functioning perfectly” and “I have very little time for watching T.V.” Missing, some Senate aides said, was Trump traveling the country in a serious effort to bolster support for McConnell’s efforts. | 1 |
9,331 | Ted Nugent’s Latest Racist Rant May Cost Him The One Thing He Loves, His Precious NRA Membership | Ted Nugent is a mentally unstable man with almost as many insecurities as guns. His frequent rants run the gamut of violent and racist talking points. He s threatened to kill Hillary Clinton. He s threatened to kill President Obama. There isn t a minority group that he hasn t tried to incite his rabid all-white, all-conservative fanbase into attacking (verbally or otherwise).But something is happening that may finally make Nugent shut the hell up.Following his latest racist rant, this time focused on Jewish liberals, calling them soulless sheep to the slaughter (and posting a picture of holocaust victims, just to make sure his low intelligence followers really got it), the backlash came not only from liberals who are constantly calling Nugent out for his disgusting views but also from the people who typically defend him: Fellow conservatives.Nugent must have assumed this was just another mundane backlash so he characteristically told his critics eat me. He may want to rethink that. Instead of just shouting at him on social media, they did something far more terrifying for the gun-obsessed lunatic: They are calling on the NRA to kick him out.Up until now, the NRA could be forgiven for having tolerated Nugent s excesses. He is, after all, a rock star rather than a politician, and his passion for the Second Amendment has been admirable. It takes all sorts to make a movement those who can offer the visceral case are just as important as those who can crunch the numbers and parse the laws. But there is always a line somewhere, and Nugent has unapologetically leaped across it.As Media Matters documented, even far-right gun groups have spoken out against Nugent s latest anti-Semitic smears. If the NRA had hoped to be able to weather this storm and continue to keep Nugent as one of the members of their board (yeah, he s a board member of the organization.), it doesn t look like they are going to get any defense from their allies. EVERYONE wants him gone.His haters were even more adamant. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence released a strong statement condemning Nugent and started a petition to have the NRA drop him from their ranks. Tell the NRA: The repeated racist statements of NRA board member Ted Nugent are grossly offensive and intolerable. Remove him from your Board of Directors. Which probably terrifies Nugent who, underneath his tough talk, has always been a coward.For him, the NRA represents the last vestige of respectability. As more and more of his former supporters distance themselves from his ugly behavior, he needs the NRA to be on his side. Without them he will look like what he is: A has-been musician who needs serious psychiatric help. He s not an ambassador for gun rights. He s not a board member of a large organization. Just a sad, angry racist shouting into an increasingly empty room.While it s frustrating to watch Nugent repeatedly slur minorities, it will feel extremely gratifying to watch one of these unhinged rants finally destroy the only thing he loves: His NRA membership card.Feature image via Flickr | 0 |
9,332 | Clinton warned U.S. would 'ring China with missile defense': hacked email | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a private speech to bankers three years ago that the United States had warned Beijing it would “ring China with missile defense” unless it did more to rein in North Korea’s missile program, according to hacked emails. According to a purported Clinton campaign document attached to an email published by Wikileaks, Clinton said in a speech to Goldman Sachs on June 4, 2013, that the message to China had been, “You either control them, or we’re going to have to defend against them.” It was not possible to confirm the authenticity of the leaked email. The Clinton campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of hacked emails. The State Department on Friday declined to comment on “alleged leaked documents.” When asked whether such a message had been delivered to China, an official said it was not department policy to comment publicly on diplomatic discussions. Although Clinton’s reported comments raised a stir in Asia, they are consistent with U.S. efforts to convince China to help restrain North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which so far have borne little fruit. According to the hacked email, Clinton said in the speech, which was delivered after she left her position as secretary of state, that Washington could not accept a situation in which North Korea developed an inter-continental ballistic missile able to carry a miniaturized warhead. She said this not only could threaten treaty allies Japan and South Korea, but also theoretically could reach Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States. “We’re going to ring China with missile defense. We’re going to put more of our fleet in the area,” Clinton said, according to the email. “So China, come on. You either control them, or we’re going to have to defend against them.” China has been angered by plans announced this year by the United States and South Korea to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to protect against the threat posed by North Korean missiles. The United States has argued THAAD is not aimed at containing China, but Beijing is concerned that the system’s powerful radar would compromise its security. Current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in February that the United States had made clear that the way to prevent THAAD deployment was to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. According to the leaked emails and in other paid speeches, Clinton also praised Chinese leader President Xi Jinping as a “more worldly, somewhat more experienced” politician than his predecessor Hu Jintao, and one who had worked to assert his authority over the People’s Liberation Army. Clinton said she also told her Chinese counterparts that the United States had as much a claim to the Pacific as China, given that U.S. forces had liberated it in World War Two. China had “a right to assert themselves,” but the United States needed to “push back to create a balance” to prevent China taking a chokehold on sea lanes and countries bordering the South China Sea, she said. | 1 |
9,333 | Trump's 'big announcement' on tax to be broad principles: official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s promised “big announcement” next week on overhauling the U.S. tax code, a top campaign pledge, will consist of “broad principles and priorities,” an administration official said on Saturday. The president unexpectedly said on Friday at a Treasury Department event that there would be “a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform.” In a Twitter message on Saturday, he wrote: “Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday.” Asked for details, the administration official, who asked not to be identified, said, “We will outline our broad principles and priorities” on Wednesday. Trump has struggled as president to advance his domestic policy agenda, including on taxes, even though his Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress. With his 100th day in office only a week away, he has yet to offer any formal legislation or win passage of a major bill he favors. Most recent presidents had legislative wins under their belts by this time in their administrations. Under U.S. law, only Congress can make significant tax law changes, though the president often drives the tax agenda by offering legislation. The administration official said, “We are moving forward on comprehensive tax reform that cuts tax rates for individuals, simplifies our overly complicated system and creates jobs by making American businesses competitive.” As a candidate, Trump raised high expectations in financial markets and the business community for changes in the complex, loophole-riddled tax system. In his “Contract with the American Voter,” he vowed to work with Congress on tax legislation “within the first 100 days of my administration.” The action plan promised large tax cuts for the middle class and businesses, a reduction of tax brackets to three from seven, simplified tax forms and an offshore profits repatriation tax holiday. Since then, no legislation or formal tax plan has been presented by Trump. He has at times expressed support for a plan drawn up by House of Representatives Republicans, but his views are unclear on a section that deals with taxing imports. In February, Trump promised a “phenomenal” tax plan within a few weeks, without offering details. No plan followed. Last month when an attempt supported by Trump to repeal the healthcare law known as Obamacare collapsed in Congress, Trump said he would refocus on taxes. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday he expected Congress to approve a tax plan this year. | 1 |
9,334 | McPain: John McCain Furious That Iran Treated US Sailors Well | 21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported earlier this week, the unlikely mishap of two US Naval vessels straying into Iranian waters just hours before the President s State of the Union speech, followed by the usual parade of arch-neocons coming on TV in real time to declare the incident as an act of aggression by Iran against the United States is no mere coincidence.24 hours after the incident, the Iranians returned all 11 US sailors, unharmed and in good spirits. The only remaining casualty from this event was an incident of a common condition in Washington known as Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder suffered by a certain US Senator was mortified by the uneventful outcome which followed Daniel McAdams Ron Paul Institute The two US Navy riverine command boats intercepted in Iranian territorial waters yesterday were sent on their way along with the crew of 10 US sailors after brief detention on Iranian soil.According to news reports, the well-armed warships either suffered mechanical or navigational difficulties which caused them to enter Iranian territory (although it may well have been a game of cat-and-mouse to test the Iranian response). The US sailors were apparently treated well, enjoyed what appeared a decent meal in relaxed surroundings, and in the end apologized for the mistake and praised their treatment by the Iranians. Thanks to President Obama s policy shift on Iran toward engagement and away from isolationism, Secretary of State John Kerry was able to telephone his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Zarif and quickly defuse what just months ago would have been a far more serious situation.This should be a good-news story about the value of diplomacy and reducing tensions with adversaries, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was having none of it. That Kerry expressed his appreciation to the Iranians for swiftly releasing the American sailors only showed the Obama Administration s craven desire to preserve the dangerous Iranian nuclear deal at all costs evidently knows no limit, said McCain in a press release.McCain was furious that Obama administration officials seem to be falling over themselves to offer praise for Iran s graciousness and was outraged that the Iranians dared interfere with the actions of US military vessels operating in Iranian waters.In the world of John McCain, only the United States has the right to national sovereignty. The US military has the right to act anywhere and everywhere and the rest of the world dare not raise a question.According to McCain, sovereign immune naval vessels are exempt from detention, boarding, or search. Their crews are not subject to detention or arrest. Imagine the tune McCain would have been singing if a well-armed Iranian naval vessel had been spotted in US territorial waters off the coast of New York. Would he have so rigorously condemned any US interference in the actions of Iran s sovereign naval vessels?Leave it to some clever Twitterers to post an example of the difference between US and Iranian detention.Copyright 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.READ MORE JOHN MCCAIN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire McPain Files | 0 |
9,335 | U.S. Justice Department, Latin American countries charge 3,800 gang members | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department and officials from three Latin American countries announced criminal charges against more than 3,800 members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on Friday, including 70 people in six U.S. states. MS-13 coordinates across our borders to kill, rape and traffic drugs and underage girls; we ve got to coordinate across our borders to stop them, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, joined by his counterparts from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. | 1 |
9,336 | Kurdistan region asks international help to spur dialogue with Baghdad | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq welcomed on Thursday a call by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for talks to resolve a crisis triggered by a Kurdish referendum on independence last month. Abadi spoke on Tuesday, saying he considered the Sept. 25 referendum, in which Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence despite Baghdad s opposition, a thing of the past . The day before, the Iraqi army retook the oil-producing Kirkuk area from Kurdish Peshmerga forces on his orders. It will not be possible to resolve the issues through military operations, the KRG cabinet said in a statement after a meeting in the Kurdistan region capital Erbil. (We have) asked the international community to help both sides start a dialogue to solve the outstanding issues based on the Iraqi constitution, the statement said. Abadi had asked that the KRG cancel the outcome of the referendum as a precondition for negotiations to begin. The statement made no mention of the referendum, for which Baghdad retaliated with a series of punitive measures including the recapture of Kirkuk, which lies just outside KRG boundaries but had been in Peshmerga hands since 2014. | 1 |
9,337 | Redacted Brexit reports spark new tug-of-war with UK parliament | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s attempts to keep her Brexit plans secret provoked a new row on Tuesday when lawmakers criticized her for failing to hand over complete studies on the economic impact of Britain leaving the European Union. The government had promised to share more than 50 studies on how Brexit would affect different economic sectors, but on Monday it gave lawmakers a hard copy of a report running to around 850 pages with parts redacted because of what ministers called commercial and confidential information. Lawmakers hit back, saying the government was riding roughshod over a democratically elected parliament - the latest tug of war over who should have influence over talks that will shape Britain s future standing in the world by unraveling more than 40 years of union with the bloc. This is not a game. This is the most important set of decisions that this country has taken for decades, Keir Starmer, Brexit policy chief for the opposition Labour Party, told parliament. In my experience the biggest mistakes are made when decisions are not scrutinized. With much redacted, Scotland s Brexit minister Michael Russell said the report did not contain any actual impact analysis which could offer an insight into what May s government had concluded over the likely impact of leaving the EU s single market and customs union. It is essential that people across the UK fully understand the consequences of decisions being taken about their future, he said in a letter sent to Damian Green, May s deputy, that was made public by the Scottish government. Arguments that the economy would suffer if Britain left the EU were rejected by many voters at last year s referendum when the country backed Brexit. But with the economy struggling with lower growth since the vote, some of those who argue that Britain should reverse its decision or at least strive for a softer Brexit that maintains close ties say knowledge of the impact could change minds. The government has been reluctant to share its impact assessments, with May saying she has to play her cards close to her chest to win the best available deal with the EU. Earlier this month, parliament used an archaic rule to force the government to hand over 58 impact studies, which earlier Brexit minister David Davis had referred to as 57 studies (that) cover 85 percent of the economy - everything except sectors that are not affected by international trade . Late on Monday, Davis wrote to a parliamentary committee on Brexit that the papers had been redacted because he had not been given guarantees that lawmakers would keep the details secret, possibly undermining Britain s negotiating hand. A junior minister for Brexit, Robin Walker, told parliament the government had been as open as possible and had met the terms of parliament s demand despite lawmakers misunderstanding over what the analysis was. It is not a series of 58 impact assessments, he said. But the move to limit the information, Labour and the Scottish National Party say, could place the government in contempt of parliament, which could lead to the suspension or expulsion of Davis from the House of Commons. Asked whether a charge of contempt could move forward, the parliamentary Speaker, John Bercow, said any attempt should take place after a meeting between Davis and the head of parliament s Brexit committee. | 1 |
9,338 | Senators push Trump to release White House, Mar-a-Lago visitor logs | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Monday urged President Donald Trump to release logs of visitors to the White House and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida under a policy that made public the names of nearly six million visitors to the White House during the administration of Barack Obama. If Trump continues the policy, under which visitor logs were released 90 to 120 days after they were created, the public could learn who has been visiting the Trump White House as soon as April 20, according to the lawmakers’ letter. Two of its eight signatories, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Udall, received no reply to a Feb. 3 request that Trump publicize visitor lists from Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has described as the “Winter White House” and visited four times since becoming president, according to Monday’s letter. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A page on the White House website’s “Disclosures” section entitled “Visitor Access Records” says the page will post records of White House visitors on an ongoing basis, once they become available. It does not mention Mar-a-Lago. Photos taken by private guests at the Florida resort in February showed Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe conferring after North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test, prompting a Republican-led congressional oversight committee to ask the White House whether security protocols were followed. “One way to provide assurances that your Administration is listening to the voices of all Americans, not just friends and donors who have a financial self-interest to influence government policy, is to let everyone know who is meeting with you and your staff,” Monday’s letter to Trump read. The senators sent a similar letter on Monday to William Callahan, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, asking how the agency will conduct background checks on people who will be present during Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower in New York City, Trump’s golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, or other Trump properties where he may conduct official business. The Secret Service declined to comment. | 1 |
9,339 | TV HOST CRACKS UP As Protester Shows Up During Live Segment…Screams “Bill Clinton Is A Rapist!” [VIDEO] | Apparently this protester believes Americans should think twice before putting an accused serial rapist back into our White House:Protestor on Fox & Friends shouts "Bill Clinton is a rapist!" #BasementDwellers pic.twitter.com/9DPsTLanQu Asa J (@asamjulian) October 1, 2016Hillary has a different name for these women that most of us consider victims : | 0 |
9,340 | Top Senate Republican rejects Trump filibuster idea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion that his party change the chamber’s rules to undercut the ability of Democrats to block legislation with filibusters. “There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis that is not interested in changing the way the Senate operates on the legislative calendar,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. McConnell was responding to a question about a tweet in which Trump suggested changing the rules so that legislation could pass on a simple majority vote. Currently, the rules require a super-majority of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. (This version of the story corrects third paragraph to say “require a super-majority” instead of “request a super-majority”) | 1 |
9,341 | Pastor Shot And Killed In The Middle Of Church Service In Ohio | A routine church service at the St. Peter s Missionary Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio turned violent when a gunman walked in and shot the pastor. Rev. William Schooler was in the pulpit when he was murdered in cold blood as his choir sang behind him. According to local station WDTN, the pastor s brother, 68-year-old Daniel Schooler, is in custody due to suspected involvement in the killing of his brother. No motive is known at this time.There were roughly 20 attendees at the service, and they all ran to flee the gun violence. The event happened at about 12:22 Eastern Time. The victim was a retired and celebrated member of the city s school system as both a teacher and a principal in addition to being a figure of the religious community.Now, to hear the gun lobbyists and gun nuts tell it, this would have been prevented if there had just been one good guy with a gun to make sure that the shooter was taken down prior to killing anyone. But, honestly? Who is expecting to be shot down in a church, of all places? No matter what one might think of organized religion, churches are places that most people go for peace, worship, community, and ultimately salvation. It s likely the last place most reasonable people feel the need to go packing heat. However, the NRA would have us believe otherwise.No, the solution is not MOAR GUNS! This man died because a deranged lunatic came into his church and gunned him down in cold blood. The solution is not more guns, and more armed people in more places, or the extinguishing of gun-free zones. The solution is putting policies in place that make sure such people don t get their hands on weapons in the first place.It really has gotten so bad that we cannot go about our normal activities like, say, going to church without fearing for our lives. And that s a damn shame.Rest in peace, Rev. Schooler. You didn t deserve this.Featured image via screen capture from WDTN | 0 |
9,342 | Hillary Breaks Silence On GOP Health Care Bill, Brilliantly Shuts It Down (TWEETS) | The Senate Republicans unveiled their disastrous health care bill on Thursday, and it was immediately shot down by everyone from Republicans to Democrats to former President Barack Obama. Now, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has broken her silence to weigh in on the bill and the GOP is going to HATE it.On Friday, Clinton urged her supporters to speak out against the Obamacare replacement plan, encouraging them to choose people over politics. As the Republicans health care plan will strip tens of millions of Americans of their life-saving health coverage, her message is surely an important one.Clinton took to Twitter to take her message public. In solidarity with the words of former President Barack Obama, Clinton slammed the GOP bill: @BarackObama is right. This is a critical moment about choosing people over politics. Speak out against this bill. The Senate Republicans have been creating this bill in absolute secrecy, and it s no wonder why. This health care bill is a monstrosity and an assault on the lives of most Americans. Thanks to the GOP s proposal, cuts would be made to Medicaid and federal funding for Planned Parenthood would be prohibited, which has made even conservatives voice their concerns.Yesterday, Obama called the Senate s pathetic attempt at replacing his health care bill a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. He also said it was not a health care bill at all. Clinton called the GOP out even more viciously by following up her first tweet with this: Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they re the death party. We could not have said that any better. The GOP s health care bill proves that they don t give a sh*t about the lives of Americans, and this measure must be stopped in its tracks.Featured image via Bryan Thomas / Getty Images | 0 |
9,343 | Arrested Myanmar reporters: Two book lovers dedicated to their craft | YANGON/BANGKOK (Reuters) - In many ways Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists arrested in Myanmar, symbolize their country s emergence after decades of isolation. Both from modest, provincial backgrounds, they worked hard to pursue careers that would have been impossible in the junta era into which they were born. Following are profiles of the two journalists, who were arrested on Dec. 12 and have been held since then without contact with their families or a lawyer, accused of breaching the country s Official Secrets Act: Wa Lone, 31, grew up in Kin Pyit, a village of some 100 households in the Shwe Bo district north of Mandalay, on Myanmar s dry central plain between the mighty Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers. One of five children, his parents were rice farmers and there was little money. His mother died from cancer when he was young. But he was a good student, according to friends and family, and took a keen interest in news from an early age. One of his brothers, Thura Aung, remembers Wa Lone, aged around 10, watching bulletins on a shared TV in their village. Sometimes he would play at being an anchor, said Thura Aung, 26. He always said he wanted to be a reporter in the future. After finishing school at 16 he enrolled as a student at a government technical university, but left after a couple of semesters because his family could not afford the tuition. Around 2004 he went to Mawlamyine, Myanmar s fourth biggest city, living in a Buddhist monastery where his uncle was a monk. In exchange for a place to stay, he would get up at 5 a.m. to clean and prepare food for the monks before going to work at a photo services business. Wa Lone showed a talent for design and photography, and soon set up a small photo services shop of his own, which he ran with Thura Aung. In December 2010, having saved a little money, the brothers moved back to Yangon, where Wa Lone could pursue his boyhood dream. Living in North Okklapa township, near the city s airport, they re-established their photo services business, while Wa Lone also enrolled in a media training school and later began taking English classes. Mindy Walker, an American teacher who met him in 2012, recalls a skinny kid from the village who had little interaction with foreigners . He was so nervous he fled her English class the first time he was called on to answer a question. We still joke about that moment and he tells every new student in our class that story so that they feel more confident, said Walker in an email. His heart is huge and he is always encouraging others to succeed. Within five or six months Wa Lone had landed his first job in journalism on the weekly People s Age in Yangon, where his editor was Pe Myint - now Myanmar s Minister of Information. In 2014, he joined the English-language daily, Myanmar Times, covering the historic 2015 general election that swept Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power. As soon as I met Wa Lone, I knew we had to hire him, said the paper s former editor, Thomas Kean. He was thoughtful, articulate and clearly cared deeply about journalism. As well as providing a platform for him to excel as a journalist, the two years he spent at the Myanmar Times was a significant period in Wa Lone s life - it was there that he met his wife Pan Ei Mon who works in the paper s sales and marketing department. The couple married in April last year. Despite the long hours chasing stories and studying, Wa Lone has still found time to write a children s book, The Gardener, a story in Burmese and English with an environmental message that draws on his own rural roots. He co-founded the Third Story Project, a charitable foundation that produces and distributes stories that aim to promote tolerance between Myanmar s different ethnic groups, and is involved in projects working with orphans. Many of his weekends off have been spent visiting poor rural villages - much like the one where he grew up. He brings story books from Third Story and gives them to children, said Pan Ei Mon. He reads to them and does painting competitions and sings with the children. Wa Lone joined Reuters in July 2016 and quickly made his mark with in-depth stories on sensitive subjects including land grabs by the powerful military and the murder of prominent politician Ko Ni, as well as uncovering evidence of killings by soldiers in the northeast. His reporting on the crisis that erupted in northwestern Rakhine state in October 2016 won him a joint honorable mention from the Society of Publishers in Asia in its annual awards. He returned to Rakhine this year, after attacks by Rohingya Muslim militants on security forces in August triggered a crackdown by the army. Covering such subjects is not easy in a country where the transition from decades of junta rule is proving painful. His bravery over the past year, and particularly since Aug. 25, has been incredible. It s hard to describe the tide of ill-feeling towards journalists who question the military-government narrative on Rakhine, said Kean, his former editor. As soon as one of my colleagues said, Have you heard about Wa Lone? , I knew he d been arrested. His reporting has undoubtedly made him a target. It s heartbreaking, infuriating and completely unsurprising. Family and friends of Kyaw Soe Oo say he has always had a love of writing, and composed poetry before becoming a journalist. Min Min, the founder of the Root Investigative Agency, where Kyaw Soe Oo worked after starting his reporting career with the online Rakhine Development News, described the 27-year-old as a joyful person who had many friends. When I first met him in 2013, he was a poet not a journalist and not interested in journalism yet, said Min Min. An ethnic Rakhine Buddhist, Kyaw Soe Oe grew up in the state capital Sittwe, and was one of five siblings. He is a good elder brother, said his sister, Nyo Nyo Aye, adding that her brother always stood out from the crowd. He was always with books. He went to the book store or second-hand booksellers. He spent all his money buying books. . Childhood friend Zaw Myo Thu said he avoided becoming caught up in the communal tensions between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims that have seethed in the city since the upheavals in 2012. He wrote poems. He loved to read, he said. He never fought with anyone. But it was that conflict which drew him into journalism, covering Rakhine issues. He had been with Reuters since September, reporting on the army s crackdown in the aftermath of militant attacks on security forces on Aug. 25. As a journalist, he will cover news, but I think he will do it fairly because he does not discriminate between races, said his sister Nyo Nyo Aye. He just realises all are human. For Reuters, Kyaw Soe Oo worked on an investigative story about Myanmar s plan to harvest the crops of Rohingya farmers who fled to Bangladesh, and reported on how some Buddhists were enforcing local-level segregation in central Rakhine. He didn t tell me about the work and I never asked, said his wife, Chit Thu Win, with whom he has a three-year-old daughter. I believed in him that he is doing the right thing and he s just following his passion. He wanted to be a writer. | 1 |
9,344 | WOW! OBAMA Just DESTROYED Hillary With This Tweet…From 4 Years Ago! | Here s the video clip that captured Hillary insulting and writing off nearly half the country. And here s Mitt Romney s comments at a private event that was secretly recorded. Many will argue that his 47% of Obama supporters are entitled comment helped to sink his candidacy. We actually think Romney was unfairly targeted for these comments, because he facts and figures to back up his assertion. Barack Obama was very vocal about the fact that all of America should be outraged by Romney s insensitive comments. Will Barack Obama hold Hillary to the same standard as he held Mitt Romney? You don t need to answer that question.Here s Obama s tweet from 4 years ago. Only 4 short years later, the same could undoubtedly be said about Hillary s basket of deplorables comment.RT if you agree: We need a President who is fighting for all Americans, not one who writes off nearly half the country. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 18, 2012 | 0 |
9,345 | VIEWERS ARE SHOCKED To See American Flag Fall When Democrat Party Leader Mentions Hillary Clinton’s Name During Live MSNBC Interview [VIDEO] | Radical Democratic Chair Tom Perez was being interviewed by MSNBC s Joy Reid about what Democrats need to do to ensure they win more seats in Congress. Joy Reid asked her viewers, How do Democrats turn enthusiasm and better vibes, along with real anger at Donald Trump into the only thing that matters, winning elections? Reid then turned to DNC Chair Tom Perez for answers. As Perez started to speak from a location in Portland Oregon, where he was appearing with Bernie Sanders for an event, viewers can see people in the background setting up for an apparent event. (Only Democrats would have people setting up their stage who have absolutely no respect for our American flag.) Watch the people tasked with setting up the Americans flags, as they drag the flag (on right side of the screen) across the ground before attempting to set it up. As the interview continues, it s only fitting that while Perez is talking about the email list Hillary Clinton gave the DNC from her campaign, that our American flag (after being dragged across the ground) would fall onto the stage. Perez goes on to discuss Democratic values. Sorry Tom, but for most of us who ve been witnessing the childish, violent and unAmerican behavior of Democrats following Hillary s loss to President Trump, we all became keenly aware of your Democratic values. When our American flag fell to the ground, almost on cue while mentioning Hillary s name that pretty much summed up your party.Here s the Perez interview in its entirety. The Tom Perez interview happens at about 25-30 seconds into the show:Here s a tweet showing the moment the flag fell while Perez was speaking:Metaphor alert. pic.twitter.com/RAJU5qmdke T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) April 18, 2017DNC Chair Tom Perez was clearly not the best choice for the fractured Democrat Party following Hillary s blistering loss to President Trump. The day before his interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC Tom Perez was introduced by the leader of the Maine Young Democrats Claire Cumming. The video shows Cumming attempting to get the crowd excited by the mere mention of socialist Bernie Sanders, Regardless of why you showed up today, you showed up for a reason. Something compelled you to find the space and time to be here, and I want you to ask yourself what that reason is. The excitement quickly fell flat when she mentioned Tom Perez to the crowd. Watch the millennials boo Perez as Cumming appears to be surprised by their reaction to this name: | 0 |
9,346 | Paul Ryan’s New Economic Plan Is Just Gawd Awful (VIDEO) | While the media is focused on the horserace that will help determine politics for the next eight years, they re pretty much ignoring the fact that Washington is still in business and Republicans are busy being Republicans, which is to say that the rich will be getting richer while everyone else will be getting poorer.Ryan, who s not sure he can back Donald Trump, likely because Trump dares say the things that Republicans generally say behind closed doors, has released a new domestic plan, called, A Better Way. Ryan calls it his antidote to anger and division. The only problem is that if anyone pays attention to the plan, they will be angry at how he divides Americans into tax brackets, and as usual, the top tax brackets win.His plan includes a lot of Republican staples, like more military, less regulation, repealing Obamacare and deep cuts for poor people. In other words, same old cold-hearted Ayn Rand I got mine, now f*** you GOP themes. Perhaps the worst part, though, is the tax plan. There are a lot of tax cuts (mostly at the cost to poor people) and nearly all of those 99.6 percent go to the top one percent.A typical Republican tax cut will give about 40 percent of its tax cuts to the richest one percent. Ryan s plan, according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, will give three-quarters of its tax cuts to the richest one percent in the first year. And that s only because the cuts are slowly phased in. By 2025, the highest-earning one percent will enjoy 99.6 percent of the tax cuts. The remaining 0.4 percent will be divided up among the other 99 percent of the country. The new Paul Ryan tax cuts make the Bush tax cuts look like socialism.Source: NY MagazineHere s the video:While Ryan likes to separate himself from Donald Trump, his plan proves his policies are no less racist and classist than the worst Trump can imagine. He s just hoping we won t notice.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images. | 0 |
9,347 | House bill aims to identify lawmakers in sex harassment cases | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced legislation requiring the disclosure of sexual harassment case settlements involving members of Congress and their staffers. The move came amid a snowballing number of revelations about harassment of co-workers and others by members of Congress, as well as high-profile entertainment and media figures’ being accused of workplace improprieties. If the legislation were to become law and such settlements came to light they potentially would have a ripple effect on politicians and elections. Republicans control the House, but it was not clear whether Speaker Paul Ryan would throw his weight behind the legislation. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A House committee hearing on overhauling existing procedures dealing with harassment cases is set for Dec. 7. Ryan called reports that Democratic Representative John Conyers was involved in a settlement over allegations of sexual impropriety “extremely troubling.” An aide to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi noted that she has indicated she would support legislation such as the bill offered on Wednesday, although it would have to respect the wishes of victims who want to remain anonymous. Under current practice, the names of lawmakers and aides who settle sexual harassment cases at taxpayer expense have not been divulged. The bipartisan “Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Act” was introduced with at least 21 co-sponsors. It would require disclosure within 30 days of all settlement payments, the reason for the payment and nature of the allegation, as well as the lawmakers and staffers implicated. The public disclosure of lawmakers would be retroactive under the bill and any payments as a result of settlements would be the responsibility of members of Congress and staff involved, instead of taxpayers. Over the years, more than $15 million in taxpayer dollars have been paid out in an array of settlement claims, including those involving sexual harassment, noted Representative Ron DeSantis, a Republican and one of the bill’s authors. Separate legislation has been introduced on tightening procedures for Congress handling sexual harassment cases. On Wednesday the full House approved a resolution requiring lawmakers and their aides to take courses aimed at preventing harassment. | 1 |
9,348 | Macron expects casualties, after Hurricane Irma hits French territories | PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that there would be casualties in two of its Caribbean territories, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, after Hurricane Irma hammered the islands. At this moment, it is too early to have a total figure, but I can already say that the impact will be hard and cruel, Macron said after a crisis meeting to assess the situation. There will be casualties and the material damage on both islands will be considerable. He gave no further details. | 1 |
9,349 | New Unfiltered Video Shows That Trump Supporters Are, In Fact, F**king Deplorable (VIDEO) | The only mistake Hillary Clinton made when saying half of Trump s supporters are a basket of deplorables would be in the fact that the number was too low. It would be safe to say at least two-thirds of Trump supporters are deplorable, racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, and just outright horrible human beings deserved of reprimand.If you need further proof of this fact because maybe you ve been living in an underground bunker away from any and all ability to gain access to the news, just take a gander at this video compilation of unfiltered Trump supporters being the terrible people that they so naturally are.In this video you will hear racial slurs, derogatory language against women and minorities, as well as those going directly after President Obama, etc. etc. etc.Trump has made being a bigot socially acceptable to so many in our nation right now that it should make every person who has a soul in their body nauseous.Should Hillary have said what she said? Probably not, but she wasn t wrong.Watch how absolutely deplorable Trump supporters are here: de plor able very bad in a way that causes shock, fear, or disgust : deserving censure or contempt pic.twitter.com/opU89omvRh shauna (@goldengateblond) September 10, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
9,350 | ORRIN HATCH Shuts Down Liberal Hack Comparing Neil Gorsuch To Merrick Garland: “It’s total B.S.!” [Video] | Judge Napolitano explains what s going on as only he can do He does a great job! The Senate has a rule they can force the senate to raise the majority to 60 that s called a filibuster. Napolitano goes on the explain that the Dems are furious because Obama s pick for the court wasn t given his day. They also obviously feel Gorsuch is too conservative. The hypocrisy of the Democrats and Chuck Schumer is exposed when a video of past approval for Gorsuch is shown. Schumer, Blumenthal and Nelson are voting no. Democrats who are up for reelection are voting yes.Orrin Hatch on Democrats: They re politicizing this whole process. This is a guy who is a mainstream conservative, which they hate. They don t like that. And of course, they are still upset about my other friend, Merrick Garland. But the Republicans had every right to delay that within a presidential election year. I can t go back in time and show you any case where in a presidential election year they allowed a Supreme Court justice to be nominated unless both sides agreed. And both sides didn t agree. | 0 |
9,351 | Maldives investigation alleges two suspects were planning suicide attack in capital | MALE (Reuters) - Two Maldivians suspected of having links to Islamic State (IS)militants were planning to carry out a suicide attack in the country s capital, government officials said on Wednesday. The two, in their 20s, have been in detention since September but officials are now asking for them to be charged in criminal court. The police investigation found out that they are affiliated with IS and they had planned to carry out an attack in Male, Adam Thaufeeq, a spokesman at the Prosecutor General s office told Reuters. He declined to elaborate on specific location or the time of the planned attack. Male City, a two square mile island with a population of 150,000, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Maldives authorities made several arrests in September, after the United Kingdom updated its Maldives travel advisory, saying militants were very likely to carry out an attack in the country. Officials have also told Reuters that the authorities detained two Maldivians in Turkey en route to Syria to join IS fighters in September. Significant numbers of radicalised Maldives youths have enlisted to fight for Islamic State in the Middle East and President Abdulla Yameen s government has brought some new laws to arrest Maldivians joining the group. | 1 |
9,352 | House Democrats rally to protect Special Counsel Mueller | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives rallied behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday, after recent attempts by Republicans and conservative news outlets to discredit him and his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In a letter sent to Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, 171 of the 193 Democrats in the House said they support Mueller’s probe, and urged Rosenstein to let it continue “unfettered by political influence or threats to his authority.” “We will not stand by and allow Fox News and right-wing Republicans to defy the rule of law and create their own rules to interfere with the legitimate investigation under the Constitution of the United States,” California Democrat Maxine Waters said during a press conference Thursday. “There is an organized effort by Republicans ... to spin a false narrative and conjure up outrageous scenarios to accuse Special Counsel Mueller of being biased,” she added. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as Special Counsel in May, after President Donald Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey for what Trump later said was “this Russia thing.” Critics promptly accused the president of trying to obstruct the probe. Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the election. Russia has denied meddling and Trump has said there was no collusion. Republican criticism of Mueller, himself a member of their party, has intensified in recent months since he charged four of Trump’s close associates, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Republicans and talk show hosts on Fox News have accused Mueller’s team and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of bias, citing issues including anti-Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI staffers who previously worked on Mueller’s team. House Republicans have launched their own investigation into the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails, and questioned whether she received favorable treatment after no charges were brought. Recently, rumors have flown around Washington that Trump may be seeking to have Mueller fired. Trump’s lawyers have said that is not true. Rosenstein, also a Republican, oversees Mueller’s team. He can only fire Mueller for good cause, and he told Congress last week he sees no legitimate basis for doing so. “This investigation must continue unimpeded,” House Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Jerrold Nadler said Thursday. Nadler said Republicans were trying to “provide cover for the President as the walls close in on him.” | 1 |
9,353 | Saudi Arabia swapping assets for freedom of some held in graft purge: sources | BEIRUT/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi authorities are striking agreements with some of those detained in an anti-corruption crackdown, asking them to hand over assets and cash in return for their freedom, sources familiar with the matter said. The deals involve separating cash from assets like property and shares, and looking at bank accounts to assess cash values, one of the sources told Reuters. Dozens of princes, senior officials and businessmen, including cabinet ministers and billionaires, have been detained in the graft inquiry at least partly aimed at strengthening the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These include billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom s most prominent businessmen. One businessman had tens of millions of Saudi riyals withdrawn from his account after he signed. In another case, a former senior official consented to hand over ownership of four billion riyals worth of shares, the source said. The Saudi government earlier this week moved from freezing accounts to issuing instructions for expropriation of unencumbered assets or seizure of assets, said a second source familiar with the situation. There was no immediate comment from the Saudi government on the deals and the sources declined to be identified because these agreements are not public. Analysts said the deals may help end uncertainty about the anti-corruption crackdown but could have an impact on Saudi Arabia s risk perception among investors. Eliminating uncertainty about what the Saudi authorities are going to do goes a long way toward giving the market comfort that the regime is getting its house in order, and plugging its deficit, said Louis Gargour, founder and senior portfolio manager at London-based hedge fund LNG Capital. Riyadh has been cutting spending while raising taxes and fees to curb a state budget deficit caused by low oil prices. The deficit, which hit $98 billion in 2015, is shrinking but at a high cost to the economy - data in late September showed Saudi Arabia in recession during the second quarter. The Saudi government has in recent years been pressing wealthy individuals to invest more in the kingdom and bring home some of their wealth from overseas. The United States is closely watching the situation in Saudi Arabia, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday. Asked about agreements to hand over wealth for detainees freedom, Mnuchin told CNBC: I think that the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman) is doing a great job at transforming the country. Gargour said: From a civil liberties point of view obviously incarcerating people doesn t give us comfort, and that s why we ve seen spreads on Saudi bonds go 50 basis points or so wider. Funds started selling Middle East bonds early this month after Saudi Arabia detained dozens of senior officials and businessmen in an unprecedented crackdown on graft. Credit spreads and the cost of insuring debt against default have increased not only for Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, but across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. From a trading point of view you want to identify the private companies most impacted and short or sell them, and conversely public sector companies will benefit, said Gargour. The market value of the portfolio of Saudi equities held by the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom s sovereign wealth fund, has gained, even as the arrest or questioning of more than 200 people in the inquiry caused stocks in many privately controlled firms to slump. Reuters could not immediately verify a Financial Times report that in some cases the government is seeking to appropriate as much as 70 percent of suspects wealth to channel hundreds of billions of dollars into depleted state coffers. The Saudi authorities have help from international auditors, investigators and people with experience in tracing assets. Bank representatives are on hand to execute the decisions immediately, one of the sources said. Saudi authorities have said they have questioned 208 people in an anti-corruption investigation and estimate at least $100 billion has been stolen through graft, an official said last week as the inquiry expanded beyond the kingdom s borders into the United Arab Emirates. Those detained include other high-profile businessmen such as Mohammad al-Amoudi, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $10.4 billion, with construction, agriculture and energy companies in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia; and finance and healthcare magnate Saleh Kamel, whose fortune is seen at $2.3 billion. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to use the anti-corruption purge as a way of boosting his popularity with the Saudi population, said Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics. But he may have realized that by doing this he s gone a step too far and ruffled too many feathers, and he is maybe trying to find a way out that means these people don t end up in prison forever and can carry on their business operations as before. | 1 |
9,354 | Florida nuclear plants to shut ahead of Hurricane Irma | (Reuters) - Electricity generator Florida Power & Light said on Thursday it will shut its two nuclear power plants before Irma comes ashore as a very powerful hurricane. FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc, generates enough power for about 1.9 million homes at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants, which are both along Florida s Atlantic Coast, about 20 feet (6 meters) above sea level. We will safely shut down these nuclear plants well in advance of hurricane-force winds, and we ve finalized plans for that shutdown, FPL spokesman Rob Gould told a news conference. The company will adjust the plans as necessary, depending upon the path of the storm, Gould said. He would not comment on exactly when the plants would be taken down or how long they could be shut. The Energy Department said late on Thursday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects Turkey Point to close on Friday evening and St. Lucie to shut about 12 hours later, depending on the storm s path. Irma, a Category 5 hurricane at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, is packing winds of up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour. Present forecast models are showing it hitting the tip of Florida on Sunday morning and raking the whole state as it moves north over the peninsula the following couple of days, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. FPL says it has invested $3 billion to protect its electricity grid since 2005, when the last major hurricane damaged power facilities in Florida. But no grid is hurricane-proof, and if Irma stays on its path, many FPL customers will lose power, Gould said. The company, which serves about 10 million power customers across nearly half of Florida, may have to physically rebuild parts of the power system, Gould said. This could take weeks or longer if Irma s worst fears are realized, he said. Gould said FPL might have to turn off some substations ahead of any major flooding, a technique that could help the company restore power faster once any floodwaters recede, rather than keeping them on and allowing the storm to damage them. FPL s nuclear plants are protected by thick concrete and reinforced steel and like many plants around the world were bolstered further after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Gould said. A series of explosions and meltdowns occurred at the Fukushima nuclear plant after a massive earthquake unleashed a powerful tsunami that shut the facility s cooling systems and led to meltdowns. | 1 |
9,355 | EU praises constructive spirit of May speech, wants more clarity | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s Brexit negotiator praised on Friday the speech of British Prime Minister Theresa May for a constructive spirit in divorce talks with the EU, but said he needed more clarity on what some of her declarations meant. The speech shows a willingness to move forward, as time is of the essence, Michel Barnier said in a statement. Prime Minister May s statements are a step forward but they must now be translated into a precise negotiating position of the UK government. Barnier, who is conducting negotiations on Britain s exit form the EU in March 2019 on behalf of the 27 governments remaining in the bloc, noted May did not address the issue of the future of Northern Ireland s relations with Ireland. He also said he would need to discuss further May s pledge that Britain recognized that no EU country would have to pay more in to the EU budget or receive less from it because of Brexit. We stand ready to discuss the concrete implications of this pledge. We shall assess, on the basis of the commitments taken by the 28 Member States, whether this assurance covers all commitments made by the United Kingdom as a Member State of the European Union, he said. He said that Britain s request for a two-year transition period after it leaves the EU, during which London would still be part of the EU s single market, could be discussed as soon as there was agreement on the principles of the divorce. | 1 |
9,356 | U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan: U.S. military | KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. service member was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the military said, without giving details of his identity or the circumstances of his death, which occurred as American forces have stepped up operations against the Taliban. A statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan Command in Kabul said the service member had died of wounds sustained during operations in Logar, the eastern province where another service member was killed last week after a helicopter crash. Despite this tragic event, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the Afghan people and to support them in our mutual fight against terrorism, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said in the statement. The latest death comes after President Donald Trump ordered a boost in the number of U.S. troops assisting Afghan forces against the Taliban as part of a new strategy to try to break the stalemate with the insurgents. Although most U.S. troops are not in combat, the new strategy will give them greater authority to engage the Taliban and will involve some acting as advisers at brigade and battalion level, bringing them much closer to the front line. Up to Aug 23, 10 U.S. service members had been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to figures published last week by the Congressional watchdog SIGAR, more than double the number killed in the same periods in 2015 and 2016. Separately, the U.S. military said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties caused during a combined operation in the northern city of Kunduz on Friday and was assessing the facts surrounding the incident. | 1 |
9,357 | WATCH: Tony Awards Gives Hateful Bigots The Middle Finger In Opening Number | Overwhelmed by the sadness of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida where 50 people were killed, the 70th Annual Tony Awards and host James Corden sent a message to hateful bigots everywhere.Conservatives are applauding the mass shooting, which occurred at an LGBT night club. But the Tony Awards countered the hate with an opening number celebrating diversity.In his opening remarks, Corden declared that hate will never win and sent support and condolences to the victims and their families. Good evening. All around the world, people are trying to come to terms with the horrific events that took place in Orlando this morning. On behalf of the whole theater community and every person in this room, our hearts go out to all of those affected by this atrocity.All we can say is you are not on your own right now. Your tragedy is our tragedy. Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, embraced and loved. Hate will never win. Together, we have to make sure of that. Tonight s show stands as a symbol and a celebration of that principle. Here s the video via YouTube.Indeed, it was exactly that as Corden then launched into a number featuring himself singing in every Broadway play imaginable, including The Lion King, Grease, and Les Miserables just to name a few.And then he sang about how any kid could be on Broadway some day no matter what they look like or who they are. To the theatre kids of any place with stardust in their eyes, Corden sang as children of all ages and ethnicities took the stage. Of every color, class and race, and face, and shape and size. To the boys and girls, transgenders too, to every Broadway would-be. Don t wonder if this could be you. It absolutely could be! Here s the video via YouTube.And the diverse Tony Awards wouldn t be complete without a shot at the Oscars and Donald Trump, which James Corden also provided. Think of tonight as the Oscars, but with diversity, Corden joked. It s so diverse, Donald Trump has threatened to build a wall around this theater. Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
9,358 | Caribbean residents fend off looters after Irma; Branson urges 'Marshall Plan' | SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Food shortages and looting on Caribbean islands hammered by Hurricane Irma sparked growing criticism of the government response, prompting British billionaire Richard Branson to call for a Marshall plan to help the region recover. Irma ripped through the tiny easterly Leeward Islands last week as one of the Atlantic s strongest ever storms, killing two dozen people, uprooting trees, tearing down power cables and severely damaging the homes of poor locals and the global jet-set alike. Across the whole of the Caribbean, Irma killed nearly 40 people and devastated basic services, tearing cracks in law and order. Looting erupted on some Caribbean islands where residents and tourists were stranded with little food, shelter or drinking water. Jenn Manes, who writes a blog on U.S. Virgin Island St. John, detailed a list of robberies and break-ins on the island after Irma struck, saying she had to install a bar on the inside of her door to keep out would-be burglars. This is not St. John anymore. I m not sure what it is. What I do know is that I am scared. My friends are scared. And we don t know what to do, she wrote. Despite sending reinforcements and ships to deliver help, France, Britain and the Netherlands have been criticized for not doing enough for the islands that they oversee. Britain s Defence Minister Michael Fallon at the weekend said his government s effort was as good as anybody else s. The Dutch government on Sunday described the situation as fragile on its half of the island of St. Martin, where an undisclosed number of arrests of looters were made after Irma damaged or destroyed 70 percent of the local housing stock. Alex Martinez, a 31-year-old American trapped on the Dutch part of St. Martin by Irma, said looters tried to raid his near-deserted hotel before he and others chased them off. We had to fend for ourselves, he told Reuters. Struggling to get answers about loved-ones, many people resorted to sharing information and making pleas on a Facebook page set up to help people on St. Martin. Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk on Monday visited St. Martin, reviewing the damage done to the battered island with local leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron was expected in the Caribbean on Tuesday. Following the passage of Hurricane Luis in 1995, which killed at least 15 people in the Caribbean and damaged 60 percent of housing on St. Martin, the U.S. National Hurricane Center estimated the cost to St. Martin alone at $1.8 billion. Businessman Branson, who has lived in the British Virgin Islands for the past 11 years, said in a blog post on www.virgin.com that the region needed a Disaster Recovery Marshall Plan to rebuild and revitalize its economy - a reference to the multibillion-dollar U.S. program that helped rebuild Western Europe after the devastation of World War Two. We must get more help to the islands to rebuild homes and infrastructure and restore power, clean water and food supplies, said Branson, head of the Virgin Group conglomerate. He said he was writing from Puerto Rico, where he was mobilizing aid efforts, and that he would be returning to the Virgin Islands soon for recovery work. Branson said the British government had a massive role to play in rebuilding its territories, including the British Virgin Islands, an offshore financial center. The premier of the British Virgin Islands, Orlando Smith, also appealed for urgent aid from Britain, saying the situation was critical and calling for a comprehensive package. The plan should include the possibility of more extreme weather as the effects of climate change continue to grow, he said. Still, on Monday, blogger Manes on U.S. Virgin Island St. John reported the situation was improving, saying police were patrolling the streets and that a Navy ship had arrived to help. | 1 |
9,359 | Peru opposition leader skeptical president's victory will last | LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski s political troubles will likely continue despite his surprise victory over a bid in Congress to oust him this week, a key opposition leader said on Saturday, citing ongoing graft probes and opposing demands from allies. Jose Chlimper, secretary general of the right-wing Popular Force, said his party could eventually emerge stronger from this week s political crisis, despite failing to garner enough votes in the 130-member Congress to remove Kuczynski from office. For us having 71 lawmakers was an asset but also a liability. Because whatever Congress did was our fault, Chlimper told Reuters in a rare interview. The party, which grew out of the populist movement of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, sought to remove Kuczynski from office this week over business links he once denied having to a company at the center of a massive graft scandal. Ten Popular Force lawmakers broke ranks to keep a presidential vacancy motion from succeeding. Chlimper called the defections a painful betrayal but said the rest of Popular Force lawmakers have reaffirmed their commitment to staying in the party and voting as a bloc. Kuczynski, on the other hand, could see the cross-party alliance that defended him this week evaporate going forward, said Chlimper. I don t see how he can come out stronger, he said. Chlimper said Kuczynski lured the rebel Popular Force lawmakers with a promise to free their movement s political leader, Fujimori, from prison - an accusation denied by Kuczynski s government. The dissident faction was led by Fujimori s youngest son, Kenji, who has challenged his sister Keiko s leadership of their father s following and who could receive a boost if the once-popular patriarch is released from prison. Kuczynski would lose the support of Fujimori s left-leaning foes if he makes good on the deal to secure the elder Fujimori s release, said Chlimper. In coming days, the left may have achieved what Fujimori s supporters have been unable to: a pardon for Fujimori, Chlimper said. At the same time, ongoing probes in Congress and in the attorney general s and comptroller s offices threaten to implicate Kuczynski in new allegations of wrongdoing, he added. His allies are going to have to explain themselves for the documents that will keep coming out, said Chlimper. This isn t a picture. It s a video. And we re going to keep seeing the scenery change in coming weeks and months, Chlimper said. | 1 |
9,360 | South Korea expects more provocative acts by North Korea in mid-October | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea expects more provocative acts by North Korea next month, to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean communist party and China s all-important Communist Party Congress. During a meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Thursday, national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said he expected Pyongyang to act around Oct. 10 and 18, but gave no details. The South Korean security adviser s report also pointed to the risk that a military conflict could by sparked by accidental incidents, said Park Wan-ju, a lawmaker and head spokesman of the ruling Democratic Party. The president said the United States speaks of military and diplomatic options, but South Korea can t go through war again, said Park. Tension on the Korean peninsula has risen in recent weeks as North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged war-like threats and insults over the North s nuclear and missile development program. The North has accused Trump of declaring war after he warned Kim s regime would not last if he persisted in threatening the United States and its allies, having earlier warned North Korea would be totally destroyed in such an event. Asked if China had a plan to respond to an emergency in North Korea, such as securing nuclear and missile sites, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said, Military means cannot become an option, and urged talks to resolve the issue. The Chinese military will make all necessary preparations to protect the country s sovereignty and security and regional peace and stability, he added, without elaborating. China has vowed to uphold U.N. sanctions against North Korea, besides seeking to get stalled talks restarted with Pyongyang. On Thursday, China s commerce ministry said North Korean firms or joint ventures in China would be shut within 120 days of the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions passed on Sept. 12. Overseas Chinese joint ventures with North Korean entities or individuals will also be closed, the ministry said in a statement on its website, without providing a timeframe. The ministry had issued similar rules after a previous set of U.N. sanctions in August. Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched dozens of missiles this year as it accelerates a program aimed at eventually targeting the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. China, the North s main ally, would probably be extremely unhappy if Pyongyang tested a missile or carried out some other act during its Communist Party Congress, held every five years. Park said President Moon told the meeting that Washington and Seoul agreed that pressure needed to be applied to North Korea, with the door to talks still open. In a separate speech on Thursday, Moon said cooperation with the international community to curb the North s nuclear ambitions was at its highest ever and called for the strengthening of South Korea-U.S. defenses to rein in the North. Expulsion of North Korean diplomats has been among the measures countries have taken against the reclusive state since its latest nuclear test. Malaysia banned citizens from traveling to North Korea, citing the escalating tension on the Korean peninsula. South Korean lawmakers said Chung had told them the United States and South Korea had agreed on the rotational deployment of U.S. strategic assets to South Korea, possibly as soon as year-end. The nature of the assets was not specified. President Moon added it was inappropriate to discuss the deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea, the lawmakers said. Moon said he had opposed the deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea, but rapid improvement in North Korea s missile capabilities prompted the decision. China opposes the deployment of THAAD because it believes its powerful radar could be used to look inside its territory. South Korea and the United States have said it is only to curb North Korea s missile threats. | 1 |
9,361 | SUPREME COURT: VIOLENT THREATS ON FACEBOOK MAY BE OK | Art is about pushing limits. I m willing to go to jail for my constitutional rights. Are you? Anthony ElonisThe Supreme Court struck another blow for free speech Monday, ruling that threats made over the Internet are protected unless they are malevolent or reckless.The decision was a temporary victory for Anthony Elonis and those like him whose threatening words on Facebook or similar social media sites may instill fear in their targets. But it was a defeat for the government and groups that defend victims of domestic violence.Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the decision for a near-unanimous court. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, and Justice Samuel Alito dissented in part.Elonis was 27 and recently unemployed in Pennsylvania five years ago when he began posting threats against his estranged wife and others, from a generic kindergarten class to the FBI agents who came to his door. He was convicted on four counts of transmitting threats and sentenced to 44 months in prison. He completed his term a year ago.The question that has split federal appeals courts is whether the threats must be intentional, or whether they are illegal just because a reasonable person such as those on the receiving end takes them seriously. Elonis was convicted under the latter standard; a majority of justices ruled that s not sufficient.Elonis might not be off the hook, however. The high court s ruling means his case will be sent back to a lower court to determine whether he meant what he posted or, as he claimed, was just exercising his right to artistic expression. If the court rules that his posts were intentionally threatening, his conviction will stand.The case represents a critical test of free speech in the Internet age, when words that seem threatening emanate from violent spouses and video game-players alike. The justices were seeking a rule that could result in locking up the former and letting the latter off the hook.Elonis case offered a perfect test. After his wife, Tara, left him and took their two children, he lost his job at an Allentown, Pa., amusement park and began a series of dark posts containing explicit references to violence against his wife, coworkers, kindergartners, police and the FBI.Sometimes, he imitated rap lyrics. Other times, he referred to his First Amendment rights. His lawyers said it was a form of therapy as well as art. Did you know that it s illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife? Elonis wrote in one of many posts. It s illegal. It s indirect criminal contempt. It s one of the only sentences that I m not allowed to say. The lengthy diatribe copied nearly word-for-word a satirical sketch by the Whitest Kids U Know comedy troupe, concluding with Elonis own summation: Art is about pushing limits. I m willing to go to jail for my constitutional rights. Are you? Read more: DFP | 0 |
9,362 | France to make armed street patrols more random, nimble | PARIS (Reuters) - France will make the armed soldiers patrolling its streets against jihadi attacks more mobile and their deployment less predictable but will not cut their numbers, ministers said on Thursday. Some 10,000 soldiers, including 3,000 reservists, have been patrolling the streets of Paris and other French cities since the Islamic State attacks in early 2015 in what is known as Operation Sentinelle . But although opinion polls show people are reassured by soldiers on show at home, military chiefs said the operation has overstretched the army, soldiers have become targets for militants and some critics see it as no more than a PR exercise. There is no change in the size of the Sentinelle force, Defence Minister Florence Parly said in a news conference. What is changing, is the way we will organize these troops. We have to become more unpredictable, she said. Soldiers will continue to patrol the most sensitive sites such as airports, stations and areas popular with tourists, and will intervene during specific sport or cultural events. But other patrols will become more random and reactive, ministers said. Making the soldiers less static will reduce the risks of them becoming targets and improve troops morale, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. In February last year, a French soldier who was part of Operation Sentinelle shot an Egyptian man armed with machetes who attacked him near the entrance to the Louvre museum shouting Allahu Akbar. | 1 |
9,363 | EU leaders to give mandate for next phase of Brexit talks: Lithuanian president | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will agree on Friday to move forward with Britain s exit negotiations to prepare a future trade deal, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said. We will give the mandate for preparation for the Commission and ourselves for the negotiations for the future of our relations, that will probably start in March, she said. Asked if Britain might agree a trade deal with the European Union going beyond the bloc s deal with Canada, sometimes described as Canada Plus , she said: We hope to have a lot of pluses for all sides. | 1 |
9,364 | Catalan separatists take to the streets ahead of referendum | BARCELONA (Reuters) - Demonstrators calling for Catalan independence gathered in hundreds of towns across the region on Sunday following Madrid s actions last week to try to block a referendum on self rule that it considers illegal. Spanish police have arrested Catalan officials who were involved in organizing the Oct. 1 vote and they also seized electoral material, including ballot papers and ballot boxes. This led to several days of protests in Barcelona. But Carles Puigdemont, the head of the Catalan regional government, has said the referendum will go ahead. Several thousand protesters gathered in central Barcelona on Sunday chanting We will vote! and handing out ballot papers. The crowds began whistling and booing a police helicopter during speeches by the protest organizers, showing growing anger among the referendum supporters about the increased police presence. Between 3,000 and 4,000 state police officers from other regions of Spain have arrived or are on their way to Catalonia. We feel occupied by the Spanish police, 56-year-old interior designer Nuria Gimenez said. We ve been protesting for 10 years, we re not going to stop now with one week to go. We need to keep going until the end. On Saturday, the state prosecutor in Catalonia told all local and national police forces they would be placed temporarily under a single chain of command and report directly to the interior ministry in Madrid. The Catalan government initially said it would refuse the order, though the head of the Catalan regional police, known as the Mossos d Esquadra, later said he would comply with prosecutors. Speaking to the crowd in Barcelona, president of the Catalan Parliament Carme Forcadell said that separatists must resist provocations by the central government. They see violence in Catalonia. There has been none, nor will there be. We are a peaceful people and all we want is to exercise our rights, Forcadell said. Although polls show less than half of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want self-rule, most in the wealthy northeastern region want the chance to vote on the issue. | 1 |
9,365 | CNN Segment Turns Into A Shouting Match As ‘Apprentice’ Alums Spar Over Trump (VIDEO) | To say that Donald Trump is a divisive figure is quite the understatement. His racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all-around assholery have been on full display ever since he announced that his candidacy for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination. At this point, even former contestants from his reality show, The Apprentice, have turned against him, and are saying so publicly. Three alumi from the show appeared on CNN in a segment with host Don Lemon on Friday night, and things quickly turned ugly, because two of the former contestants, both of whom are black men, were openly criticizing the business mogul, while a contestant who is a supporter also came on and expressed his support for Trump for president.Kwame Jackson and Randal Pinkett lit into Trump at the beginning of the segment, calling out his many frightening qualities and all the reasons he d make such a terrible president. Pinkett commented on the fact that while on the show, the contestants had no clue that Trump was such a bigoted extremist, saying: We ve seen the campaign evolve from when Donald announced and talked about Mexicans as rapists and criminals to what we ve seen more recently with the violence at his campaign rallies. We ve all grown increasingly concerned that the Donald we knew when we competed is not the Donald we know as a candidate. Pinkett continued on with his criticism, saying that while Trump continues to be the same bombastic personality that they came to know as their host on The Apprentice, that there s a side that has come out during his presidential campaign that they were unaware of before, saying, What we didn t see was how extreme his views have evolved as he has become a political candidate. That was when Jackson joined the fray and said what all sane people have been thinking, which is that We are bordering on the precipice of fascism. Andy Dean then spoke up as a Trump supporter, and insisted that nobody in Trump s camp is responsible for the violence at the rallies. He went on to accuse the former contestants of not being appreciative of Trump s putting them on his television show. Dean then pivoted to the go-to Trump talking point, which is that The Donald is a rich, successful businessman. Jackson, countered that remark and said, Being rich don t make you right, Andy. The thing is, Trump s supporters, be they the backwoods, ignorant types who act as if they couldn t pass an eighth grade civics class or the rich assholes like Andy Dean, seem to be completely oblivious to how dangerous Donald Trump really is. He s a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, and really just an out and out fascist. That is the LAST thing this country needs, and his rise to the top is nothing short of terrifying to those of us who see what he is doing to the nation, even without so much as securing the GOP nomination.These contestants are right. Trump needs to go. Opportunities he gave them aside, they were right to say what they said.Watch this trainwreck of a segment below, via Raw Story and Mediate:https://youtu.be/fXqjEhNopCkFeatured image via video screen capture | 0 |
9,366 | Manafort tried to pen positive op-ed on Ukraine work: special counsel | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Monday accused President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of working with a Russian colleague to draft an opinion piece about his political work for Ukraine. In court filings, a prosecutor working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team said Manafort was working on the article as recently as Nov. 30. Had it been published, prosecutors say it would have violated a Nov. 8 court order not to discuss the case publicly. The Russian colleague who was working with Manafort allegedly to shape public opinion about his work for a Ukrainian political party has ties to Russian intelligence agencies, according to the filing. Manafort ultimately never published the opinion piece, after prosecutors reached out to his attorneys to alert them, they said in the filing. Due to Manafort’s actions, prosecutors said the judge should reject his request to modify his bail conditions. Manafort has proposed an $11.65 million bail package in exchange for lifting him from house arrest and electronic monitoring. As part of that deal, he would forfeit four of his real estate properties if he violated his bail conditions. “Even if the ghost-written op-ed were entirely accurate, fair and balanced, it would be a violation of this court’s November 8 order if it had been published,” wrote prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. A spokesman for Manafort did not have any immediate comment. Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates were both indicted in October in a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury. They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. Initially, Manafort’s lawyers had said in their court filing that the special counsel’s office was willing to accept the proposed terms of his release. But prosecutors wrote that they can no longer trust Manafort, and cannot accept his proposed terms. “Because Manafort has now taken actions that reflect an intention to violate or circumvent the court’s existing orders, at a time one would expect particularly scrupulous adherence, the government submits that the proposed bail package is insufficient,” the filing said. | 1 |
9,367 | Zimbabwe court postpones U.S. citizen's subversion case to January | HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean court has postponed to Jan. 4 the trial of a U.S. citizen accused of attempting to undermine the authority of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe s government. Martha O Donovan, 25, who is currently free on bail, denies the charges which center on a Twitter post the state says she wrote in October calling 93-year-old Mugabe a selfish and sick man . Mugabe resigned a few weeks later in the wake of a de facto military coup and was succeeded by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who Mugabe had sacked as his deputy only a week before. The state said it needed more time to complete its investigations into the allegations against O Donovan, who works for Magamba TV, which describes itself as Zimbabwe s leading producer of political satire. When he released her on bail last month, High Court Judge Clement Phiri said there was patent absence of facts in the state s case against her. | 1 |
9,368 | Factbox: U.N. sanctions on North Korea currently in force | (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council has issued a wide range of sanctions against North Korea, including entities and individuals in the reclusive country, for pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of U.N. resolutions. The United States, Japan and South Korea have also issued sanctions on North Korea, but they are not binding on other countries. The United Nations has blacklisted 39 North Korean individuals and 42 entities, which are subject to a travel ban and asset freeze. U.N. member states are obliged to enforce the sanctions, which are far-reaching and comprehensive. However, many include gray areas and exceptions which are subject to interpretation. The following U.N. sanctions are currently in force: North Korea is under a total U.N. arms embargo. The sale of all arms and related materiel is banned. Any financial transactions related to the procurement of North Korean arms are also included under the sanctions. The embargo has been in place since 2006 and was expanded in 2009 to include small arms and light weapons. North Korea is also prohibited from selling helicopters under U.N. sanctions. Under U.N. sanctions, North Korea is banned or partially banned from selling coal, iron, iron ore, gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore, copper, nickel, silver, zinc and rare earth minerals. Coal exports are allowed up to a maximum of $400.87 million or 7,500,000 metric tonnes a year, whichever is lower, provided U.N. member states do not purchase the coal from a sanctioned entity, and can prove that the coal is for “livelihood purposes”. China, North Korea’s biggest trade partner, said in February it would suspend all imports of coal from North Korea for the rest of the year as part of its efforts to implement the sanctions. Externally-sourced coal which transits through the North Korean city of Rason, where Russia maintains a warm-water port, is exempt from the ban. Sales of North Korean copper, nickel, silver and zinc are completely banned under U.N. sanctions. Only sales of aviation fuel, jet fuel and rocket fuel to North Korea are banned under U.N. sanctions. The ban does not apply to North Korean civilian aircraft, including state airline Air Koryo. There are no restrictions on crude oil or other oil products. Any financial services which contribute to North Korea’s banned missile and nuclear programs, or help Pyongyang evade sanctions, are banned by the United Nations. Member states are prohibited from opening branches, subsidiaries or offices of North Korean banks. Joint ventures, ownership, or correspondent banking relationships with North Korean banks is banned. Member states are required to expel and repatriate any individuals working for a North Korean bank or institution on their territory, and limit the number of bank accounts for North Korean diplomatic missions. U.N. member states are required to de-register any vessel which is owned, operated or crewed by North Korea, meaning North Korean-owned ships cannot fly the flag of another country, which has been one way of evading detection. Member states are also not allowed to provide insurance services to North Korean ships. North Korea is prohibited from selling its ships under U.N. sanctions. It also cannot provide North Korean crews to ships from other countries. The U.N. has not sanctioned North Korea’s state-owned airline, Air Koryo. It has, however, banned the sale of aviation fuel, jet fuel and rocket fuel to North Korea, but Air Koryo and any North Korean civilian aircraft refueling overseas are exempt from this. U.N. member states are required to prohibit, inspect or deny landing of any North Korean aircraft within their territory they suspect to be carrying banned items, or taking part in any prohibited activities. Separately, the United States has unilaterally sanctioned Air Koryo, banning its citizens from doing business with the airline. It is unclear, however, if the sanctions cover U.S. citizens using the airline to travel to North Korea for tourism. U.N. member states are required to inspect any cargo destined for, coming from or brokered by North Korea, whether by air, sea, road or rail. This includes the inspection of checked or carry-on baggage of people traveling to or from North Korea. It is illegal under U.N. sanctions to directly or indirectly supply luxury goods to North Korea. In the case of North Korea, the U.N. defines luxury goods as: Jewellery and precious stones, yachts, luxury cars, racing cars, luxury watches, snowmobiles, jet skis, recreational sports equipment, tableware worth more than $100 and rugs or tapestries worth more than $500. The resolutions require member states to reduce the number of staff at North Korean diplomatic missions. North Korean diplomats or consular officials are only allowed one bank account each. The use of real estate for any non-diplomatic or consular activities in member states’ territories is banned. The training of or by North Koreans in military, police and paramilitary techniques is banned. With the exception of medical exchanges, U.N. member states are not allowed to provide training or cooperation in the fields of nuclear science, aerospace, advanced manufacturing and advanced aeronautical, chemical, mechanical, electrical or industrial engineering. The sale of North Korean statues is banned under U.N. sanctions. | 1 |
9,369 | Muslims Respond To Republican Mess By Bringing 30,000 Bottles Of Clean Water To Flint Residents | Muslims care more about the people of Flint, Michigan than Republicans do.The Republican-caused disaster unfolding in Michigan is incredibly infuriating. In a penny-pinching scheme, Governor Rick Snyder and his emergency management henchmen decided to switch Flint s water supply from Lake Huron to the nearby river, which has been undrinkable for decades due to high levels of lead and other industrial chemicals.For well over a year, the residents have been forced to drink and bathe in this water all while Republicans insist that the water is perfectly safe.So far, Republicans have done very little to fix their mess. Instead, they been busy trying to absolve themselves of any responsibility, which is why President Obama stepped in to do their job for them. And now, Muslims are coming to the rescue as well. Who is Hussain? is an organization honoring the memory of Imam Hussain ibn Ali, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed by extremists by speaking out against violence. He died by being denied water over the course of several days. The organization believes that denying water to any human being is unacceptable and bringing water to those who need it is part of their campaign.And the organization has already collected 30,000 bottles of fresh drinking water for the Red Cross to distribute to the residents of Flint, even though Republicans and conservatives across the state and the nation have demonized Muslims repeatedly. Despite the hatred and racism hurled against them, they have chosen to help anyway. Prophet Mohammad taught us Your neighbor comes before your own household. As a resident of Detroit this is not only a Flint problem this is a Michigan problem and I feel obligated to help to the best of my ability, said Mohammed Almawla, who helped collect water for Flint. We saw what needed to be done and we decided to do it, said event organizer Dr. Aziza Asakari. We reached out to schools, neighbors, friends, mosques, anyone and everyone to help us by donating a case of water, or money towards a case. This inspiring story is the very definition of American values. A group of people coming together for the purposes of helping a community in need. No one would blame these Muslims for turning their backs on their fellow citizens for the way they have been treated recently, but they chose to come to their aid despite the discrimination they have faced by the right-wing in recent months.Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. They poisoned the citizens of Flint, Michigan and have failed to take responsibility. Governor Rick Snyder should have resigned by now but he refuses to do so. Now Muslims are working to provide clean water to the residents in an act of humanity that proves once and for all that conservatives are full of shit whenever they talk about Muslims. Muslims are helping the American citizens that Republicans willingly chose to harm. It s pretty easy to recognize that it is Republicans, and not Muslims, who are the real threat to our safety and security.Featured Image: Washington Times | 0 |
9,370 | Trump to visit Arizona town on U.S.-Mexican border | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will visit a border protection facility in a town along the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona on Tuesday as he seeks congressional funding for the wall he wants built, administration officials said on Monday. Trump, who has struggled to persuade the Republican-led Congress to approve funding for a project many see as unnecessary, is to visit the facility in Yuma, Arizona. The border area at Yuma is considered a success story for the U.S. Border Patrol because illegal crossings have slowed as a result of the border installation. Trump will not go to the border wall at Yuma as officials had said earlier in the day. Instead, he will tour a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol hangar and see some of the equipment used to monitor the border, including a Predator drone, a patrol boat and a surveillance truck, the officials said. During his visit, Trump will be briefed on border patrol efforts in the region and the need for more funding for immigration and border officials to carry out the Republican president’s desire for sharp limits on illegal immigration, the officials said. The proposed border wall, aimed at preventing illegal immigration to the United States, was one of Trump’s major 2016 campaign promises. His vow that Mexico would pay for the wall, which the Mexican government has insisted it will not do, has strained relations between the two neighbors. Trump has since said he will find a way for Mexico to repay the United States for construction of the wall but that Congress would need to fund it first. | 1 |
9,371 | Brazil's Temer makes concessions to survive in office | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s President Michel Temer has made policy and spending concessions in an effort to survive a congressional vote on corruption charges Wednesday that has put his reform agenda at risk, analysts and political actors said. To please the powerful farm lobby that has two-fifths of the votes in the lower house, Temer agreed to lower fines for environmental damage. He attempted to relax a definition of slave labor but was forced to backtrack after an outcry. In the clearest move to favor an ally, the Republican Party that has 37 seats in the 512-seat chamber and runs the Transport Ministry, Temer removed Sao Paulo s busy and lucrative Congonhas airport from a list of airports to be privatized. The party has appointees in the ministry and state airport operator Infraero. Critics and political observers say Temer has sacrificed austerity policies to save his presidency but will emerge from Wednesday s vote a weakened leader unable to pass substantial measures, such as an overhaul of the pension system. Temer faces charges in a bribery case based on testimony by an owner of the world s largest meatpacker JBS SA that has implicated several of his cabinet ministers. The lower house decides whether a president should stand trial before the Supreme Court, which can only take place if two-thirds of deputies vote for it. He will survive because he has a majority, though not my vote because I believe there is enough evidence to put him on trial by the Supreme Court, said Fabio Sousa, a lawmaker of the centrist the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), a member of Temer s governing coalition. Temer managed to block a first corruption charge in August. Now he faces charges of obstruction of justice and criminal organization for allegedly receiving bribes from JBS. Temer has met with dozens of lawmakers in recent days to secure their votes. Presidential aides said he hopes to widen his margin of support so that he can move ahead with his reforms, paralyzed for six months by the political crisis. Those votes come at a cost, in pork-barrel spending. According to public spending watchdog Contas Abertas, Temer fast-tracked spending in congressional districts worth 4.4 billion reais ($1.3 billion) to help win the first vote, and is now hitting the 2 billion real mark ahead of Wednesday s vote. O Globo newspaper estimated the cost of Temer s handouts to taxpayers at 12 billion reais, half of which would have come from the planned airport concession auction. Yet most analysts believe Temer will get less votes this time, because lawmakers have started to distance themselves from his government ahead of next year s general elections. After this vote, Temer will become a lame duck president. It will be very difficult for him to pass any reforms, said David Fleischer, politics professor emeritus at Brasilia University. Investors are waiting to see if Temer can deliver a pension reform to tackle a budget deficit that cost brazil its investment grade credit rating. If he does get social security reform approved, it will be badly watered down, Fleischer said. | 1 |
9,372 | Serbian, U.S. paratroopers to earn 'wings' during bilateral military exercise | BERLIN (Reuters) - Serbian and U.S. paratroopers will jump side-by-side during a joint exercise aimed at strengthening military ties with Serbia, the U.S. general in charge of NATO s Allied Air Command said, a move that could trigger protests from Moscow. In the exercise, which is taking place at the invitation of the Serbian government, paratroopers from both countries will jump side-by-side from 2 C-130J transport planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp in a so-called insertion exercise. About 100 U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army personnel will participate in the event, General Tod Wolters, who also oversees U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, told Reuters. They will actually get their paratroop wings as a result of these activities. These are confidence-building activities - relationships that will last for a lifetime. And they will certainly enhance the technical expertise of the Serbs, he said. It was not immediately clear how many Serbian forces would participate. Wolters said tensions in the Balkans remained a challenge for NATO and the U.S. military, but engagement was key. It will continue to be a challenge, but we ve got the right command focus. We ve got the right resources. We ve got the right dialogue and time will tell what unfolds, he said. Any NATO-related activities in Serbia are a red flag for Russia, which worries about NATO expansion in the former communist east. Moscow has also sought to bolster military ties with Belgrade with the donation of six MiG-29 fighter jets. Serbia has been performing a delicate balancing act between Russia and the West, rejecting calls by U.S. officials to pick a side. The largest of the states to emerge from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Orthodox Christian and Slavic Serbia has natural affinity with Moscow, but it is keen to join the European Union. Although the EU is Serbia s single largest trade partner and investor, Russia controls its oil and gas supplies. | 1 |
9,373 | Republican leader plans Senate vote on healthcare next week: media | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell plans to bring his party’s latest legislative effort to replace Obamacare up for a vote in the Senate next week, a number of media outlets reported on Wednesday. “It is the leader’s intention to consider Graham/Cassidy on the floor next week,” a spokesperson for McConnell said, according to Politico. | 1 |
9,374 | Eurofighter jet crashes in Spain, killing pilot | MADRID (Reuters) - A Eurofighter combat jet plane crashed near a military base in southeastern Spain on Thursday, killing its pilot, an emergency services spokesman said. Local emergency services received a call at 1009 GMT informing them that the plane had crashed on farmland around the Los Llanos base near the town of Albacete, the spokesman said. The jet had been taking part in a military parade to commemorate Spain s national holiday and crashed on its return, a defence ministry spokesman said. The causes of the accident were being investigated, the ministry added in a note. | 1 |
9,375 | spa enfermé depuis trois jours dans une cage rémi gaillard sera euthanasié demain sil nest pas adopté le gorafi | australia to hunt down antivax nurses and prosecute them for disobeying the medical police state
vicki batts tags vaccination australia medical police state naturalnews is there some sort of race to see which country can eliminate the rights of its people first it is certainly beginning to feel like there must be something going on since government overreach looks like it is reaching an alltime high across the worldwhile countries like australia demonize other nations for their lack of progressiveness recent developments suggest that its government is taking away peoples freedom to think for themselves slowly but surely chipping away at those who have dissenting opinions the evidence the newly released vaccination standards provided by the nursing and midwifery board of australia in response to what the organization described as a small number of nurses and midwives promoting antivaccination via social mediain their statement they wrote that the board was merely taking the time to make its expectations in regards to vaccination and vaccination advice very clear to registered nurses enrolled nurses and midwives the board expects all registered nurses enrolled nurses and midwives to use the best available evidence in making practice decisionsthis sentiment might have been acceptable if it wasnt coupled with the organization also prompting people to tattle on each other you see the board is also urging members of the public to come forward and report nurses and midwives who may be expounding antivaccination beliefs surely anyone who goes against the grain deserves to be punishedif the medical industry was as strictly regulated as it purports itself to be perhaps so many people wouldnt be dying each year from medical errors an estimated to people in australia lose their lives to medical mistakes each year but the industry continues to insist that its those pesky thoughts that are really putting people in jeopardy how dare anyone want to help people and think for themselves at the same timein their statement the board noted that any reports will not be taken lightly the board will consider whether the nurse or midwife has breached their professional obligations and will treat these matters seriouslyto make matters worse not only will these brave nurses and midwives be reported by people who may once have been their friends or colleagues but the promotion of what the government deems misleading or deceptive information is a serious offenseand boy will they take it seriously under national law the australian health practitioner regulation agency is able to prosecute anyone who commits such an act while we all know that the true deception lies in the promotion of vaccines as a public health necessity we also know that mainstream medicine will do anything to protect their precious immunizationsdr hannah dahlen a professor of midwifery at the university of western sydney and the spokeswoman for the australian college of midwives told the guardian that nurses and midwives are respected individuals who play an important role in society and that she believes that people take their advice quite seriously she went on to say i agree that they have a very serious obligation to provide the best available evidence and it is of course concerning that some are taking to social media in order to express a position not backed by sciencebut are concerns about whats in vaccines really not backed by science many people might say that continuing to ignore the evidence that there are horrible toxins like glyphosate and mercury in vaccines is what goes against science in a rather ironic statement dahlen declared the worry is the confirmation bias that can occur because people might say there you go this is proof that you cant even have an alternative opinion it might in fact just give people more fuel for their belief systemslegislating dissenting opinions into extinction and persecuting those who are raising awareness about a very real problem is proof that alternative opinions are not allowed thats really all there is to it its biased unjust and frankly more befitting of the very governments australia speaks out against sources | 0 |
9,376 | Trump says he has narrowed potential running mate picks to five or six: AP | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he had narrowed his potential vice presidential choices to five or six experienced politicians, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, told AP in an interview that he had not ruled out New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former rival now supporting Trump’s bid for the White House. “I have a list of people that I would like,” Trump was quoted as saying, adding he wanted his running mate to have political experience to help him “with legislation, getting things through” Washington if he wins the Nov. 8 presidential election. The New York billionaire businessman also said choosing someone who previously held elected office would make it easier to do background checks, in part because that person would have already been checked out by voters, the news media and to some extent, the government, according to the AP. “For the most part, they’ve been vetted over the last 20 years,” it quoted him as saying. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is heading up the vetting effort, a campaign aide said on Tuesday. The vetting group includes former rival Ben Carson and Trump himself, the AP quoted the billionaire businessman as saying. | 1 |
9,377 | SHOCKER! WHY BERNIE SUPPORTERS At DNC Overwhelmingly Say They’ll Vote TRUMP…[VIDEO] | It s only logical that the people who supported Bernie Sanders, the anti-establishment candidate would be more attracted to a successful business man who s never spent a day of his life as a politician. Making the decision to support Donald Trump, who said he would only run if our nation got so bad he couldn t take it any longer, to a woman who s spent her entire life scratching and clawing her way to the top, and harming anyone who got in her way of her ultimate goal seems like a no-brainer. The $21 million Hillary pulled down from speaking engagements on Wall Street over a 2 year period might have something to do with it as well .This week at the Democratic National Convention, much of the focus was not on nominee Hillary Clinton, but on Bernie Sanders and his enthusiastic contingent of young supporters.While some had speculated that Sanders supporters would fall in line after his endorsement of Clinton, it appears that this consolidation has yet to gain any momentum.Bernie supporters, emboldened by the recent DNC email leak, took to the streets in Philadelphia to voice their displeasure with Hillary and the Democrat party as a whole.With chants of Hell no DNC, we won t vote for Hillary and Lock her up, the protesters made it clear they would not be casting their votes for Hillary Clinton. But who would they be voting for instead?Campus Reform went to the DNC to speak with these protestors about how they planned to vote in November, and the results will be shocking to many. I m throwing this race to Trump! said one protester I was strong for Bernie, and now I m taking a stand for Trump, said another.When asked why he would be voting for Donald Trump, one protester noted that, as he spent time talking to Trump supporters, we agree on a lot of the major issues that we re facing in this country. We re both mad about the same things. Citing the anti-establishment nature of the Sanders and Trump campaigns, one protester pointed out that, for some people, Bernie is the person they stuck with, but there are some anti-establishment things they want, and they ll go with Trump. Via: Campus Reform | 0 |
9,378 | Italy breaks up Libyan fuel smuggling ring involving mafia | ROME (Reuters) - Sicilian police on Wednesday sought the arrest of nine people, including a suspected mobster, for running a Libyan fuel-smuggling ring in which at least 30 million euros ($35 million) of diesel was sold in gas stations in Italy and Europe. A Libyan, nicknamed the boss , used small boats to steal fuel from a refinery in Zawiya, a port city west of Tripoli, a statement from the finance police said. The fuel, stolen from Libya s National Oil Corporation (NOC), was then transferred to a larger ship off the coast of Malta and brought to Italy. Police from the Sicilian city of Catania documented in detail 30 voyages in which more than 80 million kilos of diesel fuel was imported, the statement said. For the first time, the Catania court authorized the use of technology capable of listening in on satellite phone calls during the investigation, police said. Six of the nine have been arrested and an international arrest warrant has been issued for the other three, who are abroad. One of the men arrested, Nicola Romeo, has been accused of being a member of the Santapaola clan of the Sicilian mafia, while the Libyan, Fahmi Mousa Saleem Ben Khalifa, is already in custody in Libya on accusations of fuel smuggling. Another Italian man headed a seemingly legitimate company used to distribute the stolen fuel in gas stations in Italy, France and Spain, police said. The Italian company offered its diesel to distributors for up to 60 percent less than market prices. Though the quality of the diesel, which was meant for ships engines, was of a lower standard than that used by vehicles in Italy, it was sold at the same price. ($1 = 0.8499 euros) | 1 |
9,379 | morgen in pams kommt die nächste flüchtlingswelle aus dem westen | hände weg vom alkohol schreiner rührt nach arbeitsunfall keine spirituosen mehr an an den maisbietenden hamster versteigert laufrad da hat er kurz gestutzt friseur nicht sicher ob er dauerwelle gehört hat einschneiendes erlebnis tourist sitzt in bergdorf fest wurde geleimt frau ließ sich geflickte vase als neuware andrehen schmatzt bei messen ministrant hat kein benehmen schwächeanfall erlitten karltheodor maria nikolaus johann jacob philipp franz joseph sylvester buhlfreiherr von und zu guttenberg musste an waldorfschule seinen namen tanzen kopadl sta sod oga tsc kol sch jetzt bestellen der postillonnewstickerkalender nur der postillon newsticker artikel teilen | 0 |
9,380 | Russia denies it killed civilians in air strikes on Syria's Idlib | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday denied allegations that its air strikes had killed civilians in Syria s Idlib province, saying that in recent days it had only bombed Islamist militant fighters in the area. Moscow said it was responding to assertions from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which on Monday said six civilians had been killed in the province, including a woman and a child. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized Moscow on Monday for the same reason, saying that recent Russian bombing in Idlib had killed civilians and moderate rebels and that this would be discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visited Turkey this week. Putin is expected to meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday for talks on Syria. Major-General Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Russian and Syrian air forces did not bomb residential areas and accused the observatory of making up allegations and of sympathizing with radical Islamist militants. In the last few days, after drone reconnaissance and confirmation via other channels, Russian planes struck 10 terrorist targets in Idlib Province, Konashenkov said. These were militant bases, ammunition stores, armored vehicles, rocket systems, and workshops fitting out jihad jeeps which were located a long way from residential areas, he said. Konashenkov said Russia had data to confirm the accuracy of its attacks and the ministry on Tuesday published video of the strikes on Idlib to back its assertions that it had only bombed militant targets. The targets struck had taken part in a militant offensive on Sept. 18 which had surrounded 29 Russian military policemen who then had to be broken out in an operation backed by air power, he added. | 1 |
9,381 | Like Zimbabwe, South Africa needs leadership change: ANC official | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress (ANC) should get President Jacob Zuma to stand down as head of state after a party conference next month because like Zimbabwe the country urgently needs a change of leader, a senior ANC official said. The ANC has been dogged by infighting for much of this year as a series of corruption scandals have tarnished its image ahead of the December conference at which it will elect Zuma s successor. The party is split between factions backing Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former minister and ex-wife of Zuma, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa for the ANC s top job. ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu told Reuters that whoever the party chooses next month, the incoming leadership should tell Zuma to go to allow the ANC to clean up its act. You can t keep him there, he said. Mthembu said the ANC could learn from what was happening in Zimbabwe, where the ruling ZANU-PF party is pushing for President Robert Mugabe to leave his post. In Zimbabwe they call that bloodless corrections ... We need to make the corrections immediately after the conference. How do you effect those corrections in government when the same person who might have contributed to a better degree still sits? Mthembu asked. Mthembu is in the camp that backs Ramaphosa for ANC president and said it was important for the ANC to regain the trust of South African people after news reports that the Gupta brothers, business friends close to Zuma, had influenced government appointments and secured contracts from state firms. Both Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing. Zuma s second term as president expires in 2019, but he could be forced out as head of state by the ANC s new leadership before his term ends, as was the case with former president Thabo Mbeki. In May the ANC said its executive committee backed Zuma after calls for him to resign, and in August Zuma survived a no-confidence motion in parliament. Zuma still has strong support in the party, including from the influential women s and youth leagues as well as in rural areas, where several tribal chiefs back the traditionalist leader. The ANC has seen its electoral majority shrink over recent years, and some analysts predict it could lose the 2019 election. Until recently that was unthinkable for a party that has led comfortably since sweeping to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994. Mthembu said if the ANC failed to emerge from its December conference with a new image it was doomed . It s us who got South Africa into this mess by electing Zuma to be president. We should have looked closely into the man. With hindsight we made a terrible error of judgment, he said. | 1 |
9,382 | Republican Party chairman confident in Cleveland convention security | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Party chief Reince Priebus expressed confidence on Saturday that security will be able to handle any protests at the party’s convention later this month in Cleveland, where Donald Trump is to be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told Reuters in a telephone interview that the tragic shootings in Texas, Minnesota and Louisiana in recent days may lead to a more peaceful discourse in general across the country. Cleveland police on Friday tightened their security plan for the July 18-21 Republican National Convention in the wake of the shootings. They also increased surveillance and intelligence operations. The outpouring of grief among Americans after the bloodshed could lead to a “more understanding and polite discourse and a feeling of support in communities and with police,” Priebus said, and that this same feeling of understanding could also take place in Cleveland. “We’ve been working really hard on security. I’m very confident that things are going to go very well in Cleveland. The police are there in full force to be helpful to protesters, but also to keep the event safe and free from incident,” he said. Priebus, who has worked to rally Republicans behind Trump, said the convention should serve as a vehicle to unify more party loyalists behind the New York businessman whose incendiary rhetoric and policy positions have troubled some Republicans. Priebus added that the “never Trump” movement has ebbed and that he did not believe any rebellion among Republican delegates at the convention against Trump would succeed. “It’s one thing to be unhappy because your person didn’t win. I get that part. But it’s another step to now say because I don’t like the way this is going, I’m going to take something away from someone who won it fair and square. There’s just not a lot of people that are willing to do that,” he said. Priebus, who has privately counseled Trump, said it is important for him to continue making the case against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton after the FBI concluded she had been “extremely careless” in handling some sensitive emails as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state. Trump, at a campaign rally in Ohio on Wednesday, had sharply criticized Clinton at the outset, but then diverted to attacking the news media for how it is covering his campaign. “In a 45-minute rally, he spent a long time on Hillary and I think it’s OK for him to divert here and there, but I do think focusing on Hillary is important and a vision for America is important,” Priebus said. | 1 |
9,383 | Russia says accusations it was behind DNC email hack are insulting - Ifx | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that U.S. accusations that Moscow was behind a hack of Democratic National Committee computers were insulting and unworthy, the Interfax news agency reported. The ministry also said that Washington had not made the accusations through official channels, according to Interfax. | 1 |
9,384 | FANTASTIC! TRUMP’S 7 POINT PLAN To Reform Healthcare Begins With A Bombshell! | Since March of 2010, the American people have had to suffer under the incredible economic burden of the Affordable Care Act Obamacare. This legislation, passed by totally partisan votes in the House and Senate and signed into law by the most divisive and partisan President in American history, has tragically but predictably resulted in runaway costs, websites that don t work, greater rationing of care, higher premiums, less competition and fewer choices. Obamacare has raised the economic uncertainty of every single person residing in this country. As it appears Obamacare is certain to collapse of its own weight, the damage done by the Democrats and President Obama, and abetted by the Supreme Court, will be difficult to repair unless the next President and a Republican congress lead the effort to bring much-needed free market reforms to the healthcare industry.Congress must act. Our elected representatives in the House and Senate must:1. Completely repeal Obamacare. Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate. No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.2. Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines. As long as the plan purchased complies with state requirements, any vendor ought to be able to offer insurance in any state. By allowing full competition in this market, insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up.3. Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system. Businesses are allowed to take these deductions so why wouldn t Congress allow individuals the same exemptions? As we allow the free market to provide insurance coverage opportunities to companies and individuals, we must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance. We must review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it.4. Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate. These accounts would become part of the estate of the individual and could be passed on to heirs without fear of any death penalty. These plans should be particularly attractive to young people who are healthy and can afford high-deductible insurance plans. These funds can be used by any member of a family without penalty. The flexibility and security provided by HSAs will be of great benefit to all who participate.5. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure.6. Block-grant Medicaid to the states. Nearly every state already offers benefits beyond what is required in the current Medicaid structure. The state governments know their people best and can manage the administration of Medicaid far better without federal overhead. States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources.7. Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America. Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers. | 0 |
9,385 | Malaysian PM Najib says will use all means to fight Trump's Jerusalem move | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed on Friday to use every means to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, a tough stand likely to win him support among Muslim voters. Najib has been embroiled in a graft scandal over a state-run fund, and has faced unprecedented criticism from former ruling party stalwarts, making the support of members of the Muslim, ethnic Malay majority vital in a general election next year. We will continue to fight on this issue, using every available means, through political and diplomatic channels, through discussion and prayer, until one day, God willing, Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian people, Najib told a rally of about 1,500 in the administrative capital of Putrajaya. He said he would not sacrifice the sanctity of Islam despite his friendship with Trump. Najib visited the White House in September. It is our first duty as Muslims to uphold the religion. If Jerusalem is a sacred land for Muslims, then it is upon us to free it from the grasps of Zionists, Najib said. Najib and his ruling party have been burnishing their Islamic credentials with the aim of boosting their chances in the general election, which must be held by mid-2018. About 60 percent of Malaysia s population is ethnic Malay Muslim, with most of the rest ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian. Najib, who did not mention the election in his speech at the rally, is hoping to win a third term despite the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that has dogged his premiership for two years. U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions this month described the scandal at the sovereign fund set up by Najib as the worst form of kleptocracy. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed several lawsuits to seize more than $1.7 billion in assets believed to have been stolen from 1MDB. Sessions did not identify any officials he thought were corrupt. Najib, who served as chairman of 1MDB s advisory board, has consistently denied any wrongdoing at the fund, and Malaysia s attorney-general has cleared him of any wrongdoing. The ruling party united behind Najib at a conference this month, letting him stand unopposed in a party leadership contest due next year. A rebounding economy and currency have also helped him improve his image. Four years ago, the ruling party crept back into power despite losing the popular vote and registering its worst ever election performance. This time, the challenge is coming from the veteran former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who gave up the premiership in 2003 after 22 years in power and had been Najib s mentor. Mahathir, the chairman of the opposition coalition, last week called Trump an international bully and a villain for his recognition of Jerusalem. Mahathir said on Twitter the Friday rally could only be meaningful if it results in the BN government acting against Donald Trump and the United States , referring to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Malaysia was one of the 128 countries that defied Trump on Thursday and voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. | 1 |
9,386 | Kenya election board head: elections will go ahead Thursday as scheduled | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s repeat presidential elections will proceed as planned on Oct. 26, said the head of the election board on Wednesday, after a tumultuous day in which a no-show by most Supreme Court judges prevented the hearing of a petition to delay the poll. The elections as scheduled will go on tomorrow, said Wafula Chebukati. In cases where there will be problems (delivering materials)... the polling officer will have the right to inform us and polling can be suspended to another day. | 1 |
9,387 | Good News for Silver in 2017 | James Burgess Oil PricePrecious metals are an important component of every investor s portfolio, and while gold often gets all the hype, another precious metal will be a much better bet in 2017: Silver.The market for silver continues to tighten as supply has failed to keep up with demand for much of the past decade. Silver is used in all facets of modern life, including electronics, medical devices, engines, batteries, solar panels, LED lighting, semiconductors, touch screens, dentistry, and nuclear reactors. The list goes on.Demand for silver is up by more than 35 percent since 2009, while supply only grew by a little more than 10 percent. In 2015 alone, global demand for silver exceeded supply by roughly 129 million ounces, or about 11 percent of overall demand. With silver consumption set to expand indefinitely, the supply deficit will continue to put upward pressure on prices in the years ahead.The set-up here is fantastic because indications are that we are on the edge of another bull run at a time when silver mining stocks are significantly undervalued. Silver prices had a good run for most of 2016, but have fallen back in recent weeks as the dollar has strengthened and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential election abated. But the pause in the run up in prices will be brief, offering investors an appetizing entry point for a crucial commodity in today s globalized economy.Silver may be down 10% from its peak of $20.67 in Q3, but the sell-offs were based on sentiment, not fundamental reality and this is exactly where smart investment finds opportunity. The strongest documented indication of this is the Q3 earnings of silver miners, which only the savviest of investors are picking up on. Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) reported Q3 earnings of an impressive US$43.4 million up US$9.2 million over the previous quarter just for starters.[ ]1. The Global Silver Lining: A Precious Metal PremiumGlobal investors are magnetically drawn to precious metals in times of uncertainty and instability. Global tensions are as high as they were in the 9/11 aftermath, when precious metals soared phenomenally as everyone hedged bets against global instability Continue this article at Oil PriceREAD MORE FINANCIAL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Financial Files | 0 |
9,388 | Tech privacy ally Feingold leads in Wisconsin Senate race | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Next month’s Senate election in Wisconsin could gain Silicon Valley a key ally in Washington in the high-tech industry’s battle against the U.S. government’s growing appetite for more access to private data. Democrat Russ Feingold, 63, the only lawmaker to vote against the USA Patriot Act in 2001, leads incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson in the state in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Johnson, 61, rode a wave of support from conservative Tea Party activists to victory six years ago, sweeping Feingold out of office. But polls this year have consistently shown Feingold ahead, although recent surveys show a tighter race. Privacy advocates and former Feingold staffers said they expected Feingold, if returned to office, to be sympathetic to the privacy concerns of technology companies and civil liberties groups on issues such as encryption and domestic spying, at a time when many lawmakers are being pressured to confront security threats from Islamic State and other militant groups. The Feingold campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and other tech giants have tussled in recent years with government agencies over how much user data the companies should be forced to retain and share with investigators hunting for criminal suspects or national security threats. Those tensions grew after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked secrets about U.S. surveillance practices in 2013. They reached a crescendo earlier this year when the FBI tried to force Apple to unlock an iPhone tied to one of the shooters in a San Bernardino, California, attack that killed 14 people. Chief among the goals of many companies and privacy advocates is reforming a foreign intelligence authority used to justify once-secret broad internet surveillance programs exposed by Snowden that will expire in December 2017 unless Congress reauthorizes them. Should Feingold return to Capitol Hill, former staffers said he would probably seek a seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he would have privileged access to classified information about government spying. Feingold’s campaign has received far more contributions than Johnson’s from donors employed by tech companies including Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O) and Intel Corp (INTC.O), a review of U.S. Federal Election Commission records showed. Digital privacy activists have long regarded Feingold as an ally and aggressive overseer of the intelligence community, a reputation he burnished as the sole vote against the USA Patriot Act, which was passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, expanding the government’s surveillance capabilities. In a speech from the Senate floor at the time, Feingold raised concerns that one provision would allow the government to “go on a fishing expedition and collect information on virtually anyone.” Leaks from Snowden in 2013 showed the provision Feingold questioned was later secretly interpreted to conduct bulk surveillance on U.S. phone metadata. That program was curtailed by Congress in 2015. Feingold “was a true leader in fighting indiscriminate mass surveillance of innocent Americans,” U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who also is among congressional skeptics of government spying, said in a statement. Wisconsin typically leans Democratic during high-turnout presidential election years, a problem for Johnson, who won by nearly 5 points in 2010 running as a small-government outsider. “It was pretty clear that 2010 was a wave election and there was nothing that (Feingold) could have done to fend off the challenge from Ron Johnson,” said Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Johnson has attempted to use Feingold’s 18-year Senate record to portray him as soft on national security. William Allison, a Johnson campaign spokesman, added that Feingold had been “willing to completely mislead Wisconsinites about his weak record on national security.” | 1 |
9,389 | Watch Trump Campaign Try To Spin Their Way Out Of ‘I Love War’ Comment (VIDEO) | A new ad by the Hillary Clinton SuperPac Priorities USA was released on Tuesday. It s perhaps the most frightening of all because it directly quotes Trump saying, I love war, and specifically, he loves nuclear war.Here s the ad:FactCheck did their due diligence with the ad and the biggest complaint they could find is that the direct quotes from Trump came from two different times. Still, here are his entire quotes:Trump, Nov. 12, 2015: This is the Trump theory on war. But I m good at war. I ve had a lot of wars of my own. I m really good at war. I love war, in a certain way, but only when we win.And then the second half, a few months later he talked about nukes:Trump: It s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them.So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.Wallace: With nukes?Trump: Maybe they would be better off including with nukes, yes, including with nukes.So, now that we ve confirmed that yes, Trump does love war, how is his campaign going to spin that?Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway appeared on Good Morning America on Wednesday and it was clear she was out of her league, even though most of the questions weren t that hard hitting.At first, she deflected:Conway responded that what is actually irresponsible is taking little, cherry-picking little snippets of what he said and not giving the full context of the sentence let alone the speech. This woman was secretary of state for four years. And I think the reason she s struggling in the polls part is because aren t really fond of that record and she will be held account for that record, Conway said, ripping into Clinton over her recent polling troubles. She s actually been in control of many aspects of our national security and our troops and our defense and I think that given all of her advantages, including her super PAC including her campaign hang spent over $200 million most in paid advertising one wonders why is she not at 50, 60 percent in the polls. Why isn t she at 60, 65 percent among women? Hillary Clinton has a Hillary Clinton problem. Source: PoliticoWhen pressed further, she still had no explanation: I d have to see the entire snippet there but obviously many commanders in chief have made the very difficult decision to go to war, Conway responded. You have Hillary Clinton as secretary of state calling a Russia reset that didn t work, she was wrong on Libya, she was wrong on Syria, she was certainly wrong on Benghazi and I think they ll both be held to account for that. Here s her spin: ABC Breaking News | Latest News VideosThe fact is that Trump does love war and he has no concept whatsoever of the ramifications of his actions. In a national security briefing, Trump asked three times why we can t use nuclear weapons. If you aren t frightened by Trump s racism, sexism or xenophobia, please be frightened by the fact that he has complete disregard for the damage war, and in particular, nuclear weapons, can inflict. Be frightened over his dangerous stupidity.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images. | 0 |
9,390 | cypriot leaders to continue talks in november un | interviews a protester throws a glass bottle containing paint at a police armored personnel carrier during antiregime demos in the village of sitra south of manama february photo by reuters
the fourth high criminal court of bahrain has sentenced political opponents to long jail terms and also revoked the citizenship of all of them while several international rights groups have criticized the al khalifa regimes harsh crackdown on the bahraini opposition the western powers turn a blind eye to the arab states violations of human rights
edward corrigan an international human rights lawyer told press tvs top program that the western powers are trying to whitewash the crimes committed by the arab dictatorships in the persian gulf region because such regimes are considered the wests lap dogs
there is a double standard corrigan said explaining that western powers say if you are a friend of ours and do what we want and give us oil and invest your money into european or american economy we wont question your human rights violations
according to the analyst there is hypocrisy double standards and this is really a big political game our dictatorships and allies are ok but somebody else that we dont like for whatever reason we magnify their crimes and even create false flags and do other things to try to discredit them
elsewhere in his remarks corrigan said the definition of terrorism in bahrain covers any kind of opposition because the regime does not want to allow any sort of political movements there to try to reform the system to redress this massive discrimination against the shia population and to have any sort of voice for democracy so all of that is terrorism
he added it is against the international law to remove peoples nationality from them and this is an extreme sort of punishment very draconian as theyre condemned by the international human rights organizations and other organizations
manama has been cracking down on dissent since february when an uprising began against the regime scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of al khalifah regimes harsh crackdown on antiregime activists loading | 1 |
9,391 | North Carolina Republicans Panic As Bathroom Law Makes Them Fear Their Political Doom | North Carolina Republicans should have listened when they were told there would be a backlash if they passed HB2. Now they are learning the consequences of being bigots.As soon as the anti-LGBT bill was jammed through the state legislature and signed by Governor Pat McCrory, outrage ensued.Corporations such as Paypal and Deusche Bank cancelled projects that would have meant new jobs. Entertainers cancelled concerts that would have boosted local economies. Conventions were cancelled.HB2 has become the last straw for many North Carolina voters. Ever since Republicans took control of the state government for the first time since 1896, they have let the power go to their heads by passing every wet dream piece of legislation conservatives have ever wanted.In just the last six years, Republicans have used their power to turn a state that had been traditionally moderate into one of the reddest states in the nation. The list is incredibly embarrassing, but it includes looser gun laws, highly restrictive and insulting anti-abortion laws, attempts to turn North Carolina into a declared Christian state, a war on food stamps, voter suppression laws, education funding cuts, and tax cuts for the wealthy.Perhaps no other state has been transformed as much or as fast as North Carolina, but that s exactly what happened once Republicans gained control. And North Carolina has paid a heavy price. The progress it has made since the Civil War and Jim Crow is being erased as conservatives take the state backwards.But voters are now fed up, especially since they are now facing terrible repercussions from a single law that demonstrates once and for all that Republicans are not the small government advocates they claim to be. Along with being ridiculed for trying to be the bedroom police, Republicans are now being slammed for trying to be the bathroom police.It also doesn t help that they passed this law on a lie by claiming that it was needed to protect women and children from being sexually assaulted in bathrooms. As it turns out, the only men who have gone into a women s restroom were actually sent in there by a conservative Christian group as a stunt in order to scare people when, in fact, there have been zero real instances of transgender people doing anything but using the facilities. In 17 states and over 200 cities that have transgender protections, there hasn t been a single instance of a person using the protections as a shield to excuse preying on women and children in bathrooms, a fact that even Governor McCrory was forced to acknowledge during an interview with Fox host Chris Wallace on Sunday.And now North Carolina faces the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding and perhaps more as tax dollars are spent by Republicans in their effort to defend their bigotry in court.All of this has put targets on the backs of every Republican in the state legislature and state Senate as well as Governor Pat McCrory. Voters are angry and if Republicans continue to defend HB2 they will be fired in November and replaced with lawmakers who are not insane bigots.Republicans are already beginning to panic over the prospect of losing power for another 120 years. The reality is that HB2 hurts, GOP state Rep. Charles Jeter told Politico. It doesn t matter that I m opposed to it or that I ve called for its repeal because the mailer to voters [in my race] is going to say that I was a part of the Republican majority that passed the most discriminatory bill in the state. HB2 is going to have reverberations for our party no matter what we do, in November and probably beyond that. A Republican strategist surmised that the GOP could very well lose in November over the passage of HB2. The question that will be answered in November is whether the Republicans in the General Assembly overplayed their hand, after feeling empowered by impressive gains in the last three election cycles. Republicans could lose their veto-proof majority in one or both [legislative] chambers, with a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the governor s race. And one Republican even compared what could happen to Republicans in November to the devastating 2010 midterm election when conservatives successfully vilified Democrats over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. It s like Obamacare with Obama, which so defined everything about Democrats who were in office when it passed in 2009. And you saw what happened to them in 2010. I think you always have concerns if perception boils down to one thing equaling another. In short, political doom is looming over the heads of Republicans across North Carolina and let s hope voters keep the GOP from having power for at least another 120 years. After all, it could take that long to fix what Republicans broke.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
9,392 | Kremlin says Donald Trump pre-election clip demonizes Russia | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday condemned a pre-election video in the United States promoting Republican front-runner Donald Trump at Hillary Clinton’s expense, complaining that it unfairly “demonized” Russia. The Kremlin did not spell out what its exact objection to the political attack video was. But its portrayal of President Vladimir Putin as one of Washington’s toughest opponents alongside Islamic State, a group the Kremlin says it is fighting in Syria, is likely to have stirred anger among officials. “I saw this clip. I do not know for sure if Vladimir Putin saw it. (But) our attitude is negative,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a teleconference with reporters. The video tries to cast doubt over the ability of Clinton, the Democratic Party’s likely presidential candidate, to contend with Putin in the event of her winning the November election. Presenting what it suggests are the United States’ toughest opponents, it shows Putin throwing an opponent in a judo bout before cutting to footage of Mohammed Emwazi, the late Islamic State executioner nicknamed “Jihadi John”. It then shifts to a clip of Clinton which has been edited to make it appear as if she is barking like a dog. Putin is then shown laughing. “It’s an open secret for us that demonizing Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America’s election campaign,” said Peskov. “We always sincerely regret this and wish the (U.S.) electoral process were conducted without such references to our country.” Until now, the Kremlin has largely held off criticising Trump. Putin and Trump have lavished praise on one another in the past after the Republican front-runner spoke out in favour of building bridges with the Kremlin and of working together to fight terrorism. Russian state TV, which usually closely reflects the Kremlin’s world view, has also generally been more positive about Trump than the other presidential candidates, suggesting his policies are more Russia-friendly. But state TV has at the same time complained about what it says is the anti-Russian tenor of the overall campaign, criticising most candidates for what it has described as their hysterical Cold War-style statements on Russia. The United States has accused Russia during its aerial bombing campaign in Syria of not targeting Islamic State targets with the same ferocity or frequency it has demonstrated against what Washington says are more moderate groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow, an ally of Assad, has denied that charge, declaring Islamic State a dangerous threat to its own national security. | 1 |
9,393 | Stephen Colbert’s Send Off For Antonin Scalia Is Refreshingly Touching (VIDEO) | Stephen Colbert left his Comedy Central character behind to replace David Letterman on The Late Show, and he has been absolutely phenomenal at it. Therefore, it was inevitable, and only fitting, that he gave an amazing tribute to recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.However, unlike what would have likely been expected, Colbert did not mock Scalia. The man was universally despised by many decent human beings due his outrageous homophobia, misogyny, and other various bigotries, but, apparently, there was a good side to him that most of us never got to see. Colbert, instead of using Scalia s death as a point of comedy with which to insult his memory, chose to humanize the man most of us are glad to see go from both the Supreme Court and the planet.Colbert recalled his one meeting with Scalia at a White House Correspondents Dinner, in which Scalia revealed that he had a dazzling sense of humor. The Late Show host also pointed out that Scalia had an amazing friendship with his fellow, and notoriously liberal, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.I ll never give Scalia or any other awful right-winger a pass on bigoted behavior. However, amidst all of the hatred we are rightfully slinging Scalia s way, and at the glee we feel now that he can no longer sully the Supreme Court with his disgusting ideas, Colbert s tribute was refreshingly touching.Watch the video below:Featured image from YouTube screen capture | 0 |
9,394 | Trump says Puerto Rico has thrown budget 'out of whack' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump praised federal officials and the governor of Puerto Rico during a visit to the territory in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, but jokingly chastised the island for jeopardizing budget resources. I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you ve thrown our budget a little out of whack, said Trump as he introduced his budget director Mick Mulvaney. | 1 |
9,395 | The Trump presidency on Feb 15 at 8:29 p.m. EST | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday: A crisis over the relationship between Trump’s aides and Russia deepens as a growing number of Trump’s fellow Republicans demand expanded congressional inquiries into the matter. The Trump administration offers the job of national security adviser to U.S. Vice Admiral Robert Harward, sources say, but it is not clear if he accepted. The Kremlin says U.S. media reports about Russian intelligence connections to Trump’s presidential campaign are groundless. Russia also says it will not return Crimea to Ukraine or discuss the matter with foreign partners after the White House says Trump expects the annexed Black Sea peninsula to be returned. Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, withdraws his name from consideration amid concerns that he could not garner enough Senate votes to be confirmed. Trump’s choice of Representative Mick Mulvaney to become White House budget director on Wednesday appears to pick up enough Republican votes to vault him into the job. Trump drops U.S. insistence on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a long-standing bedrock of Middle East policy, even as he urges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb settlement construction. Trump says tax code revisions are a critical way to boost the nation’s economy as he kicks off a White House meeting with chief executive officers of Target Corp, Best Buy Co Inc and six other major retailers. Trump’s defense secretary seeks to reassure NATO of steadfast U.S. support at talks in Brussels as nervous European allies try to look past the president’s rhetoric and the turmoil within his administration. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is heading to Bonn to interact with counterparts from the Group of 20 top economies at a time many are wondering how strongly Trump’s “America First” message will reshape U.S. foreign policy. Vice President Mike Pence also is bound for Europe this week to meet with allies seeking clarity on the administration’s foreign policy strategy and its stance toward Russia. Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been told that Trump is preparing a handful of executive orders to reshape the agency, to be signed once a new administrator is confirmed, two sources say. The Trump administration proposes changes to the Obamacare individual insurance market that insurers welcome as a good start but that others say could raise consumers’ out-of-pocket cost. | 1 |
9,396 | Exclusive: China's border city with North Korea eases tourism curbs - sources | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese tourists are still visiting Pyongyang from China s border city of Dandong, tourism sources say, even after authorities unofficially halted the tours just ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump s visit to China last month. A group of 40 Chinese tourists left on Friday from the border city of Dandong to Pyongyang, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, a sign local authorities have not been strongly enforcing curbs on tourist flows. This is the largest group to go in from Dandong since the curb, a tour operator said, adding the tourists traveled by train into North Korea for a four-day tour. The Dandong Tourism Bureau declined to be interviewed for this story. When asked for comment, China s foreign ministry said they did not understand the situation. Local businesses in China are known to find ways around policies introduced by local authorities or Beijing, whether in good times or bad. There s always a way around government policies, said one Dandong-based tourism source. You know how Chinese people are. I think the central government will be very annoyed at Dandong for lifting the travel restriction, the tour operator said. MONEY-MAKER FOR NORTH Tourism to North Korea is not banned by the United Nations and is one of the few remaining ways that North Korea earns hard currency. The Korea Maritime Institute, a South Korean think-tank, estimates that tourism generates about $44 million in annual revenue for North Korea. The U.N. has ramped up sanctions over North Korea s accelerating missile program over the past year, curbing key export industries including coal, seafood and textiles. Simon Cockerell, head of Beijing-based Koryo Tours which organizes travel to North Korea, said he saw 3 to 4 busloads of Chinese tourists in Pyongyang in mid-November. But I m not sure where they entered from or what visas they were on, he said. If you have a visa to North Korea, it doesn t say where you can and can t go. So once you enter into Sinuiju or Rason, you could travel onwards to Pyongyang. The North Koreans wouldn t care, Cockerell said. Sinuiju and Rason are popular entry points for Chinese tourists traveling overland into North Korea. China never publicly announced a ban on Chinese tourists visiting Pyongyang and strongly opposes unilateral sanctions, which it says undermines U.N. unity. But the day before U.S President Donald Trump s first official visit to China in early November, Reuters exclusively reported that the Dandong Tourism Bureau had told Chinese tour operators based in Dandong to halt trips to North Korea s capital of Pyongyang. Trump has frequently praised Chinese President Xi Jinping Trump with whom he has been working to exert pressure on North Korea through strict enforcement of sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Dandong, a city of 800,000 people in northeastern Liaoning province, is the main trading hub on the Chinese side of the border and most tour companies that take Chinese tourists to North Korea are based there. The U.N. sanctions have particularly hit Dandong s economy this year. Almost all tours to North Korea have stopped and many Dandong-based companies who traditionally conducted business with North Korea are struggling, sources told Reuters. A lot of the more successful Chinese businessmen have gone on holidays because there s nothing for them to do around here at the moment, said one Chinese businessman in Dandong. China s trade with North Korea has already fallen to its lowest in months. Beijing has repeatedly said it is rigorously enforcing U.N. resolutions aimed at reining in Pyongyang s missile and nuclear programs. North Korea has accelerated the pace of its missile tests this year. Pyongyang said its latest test on Nov. 28 was an intercontinental ballistic missile that it said could deliver heavy nuclear warheads anywhere in the continental United States. | 1 |
9,397 | VERY FUNNY VIDEO: SARAH PALIN ADVISES TRUMP TO SELL ENERGY INSTEAD OF BODY PARTS | Just released hysterical video of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump having a phone conversation about his candidacy | 0 |
9,398 | Florida senators seek funding for Hurricane Irma in Harvey bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson of Florida asked Senate leaders to include additional funding for Hurricane Irma in a $7.85 billion disaster aid package for Hurricane Harvey passed by the House of Representatives earlier on Wednesday. Rubio, a Republican, and Nelson, a Democrat, said in a statement they made the request to cover costs expected to be incurred by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as Irma, a powerful Category 5 hurricane, approaches Florida. | 1 |
9,399 | Contenders, picks for key jobs in Trump's administration | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he would nominate retired Marine Corps General James Mattis for defense secretary, the latest of about a dozen picks he has announced for high-level positions since winning the Nov. 8 presidential election. Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles as Trump works to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and media reports. See the end of list for posts already filled. * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Republican President George W. Bush * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, former leader of Southern Command * David Petraeus, retired general and former CIA director who pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information he shared with his biographer, with whom he was having an affair * Michael McCaul, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee County sheriff and vocal Trump supporter * Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, former leader of Southern Command * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state * Frances Townsend, homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Republican former President George W. Bush * Jeff Holmstead, energy lawyer, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Leslie Rutledge, Republican Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Scott Pruitt, Republican Oklahoma attorney general * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota * Joe Manchin, Democratic senator from West Virginia * Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and House Republican Conference chair * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor * Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor * Ray Washburne, chief executive of investment company Charter Holdings * U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, former Republican U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, former Republican mayor of New York City * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp * Andrew Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants * Lou Barletta, Republican U.S. representative from Pennsylvania * Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration * Dr. Ben Carson, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon * Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc * Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jeff Miller, former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee The Trump transition team confirmed he would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. * Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus * Steve Bannon, former head of the conservative website Breitbart News * Jeff Sessions, Republican U.S. senator from Alabama and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (subject to Senate confirmation) * Republican U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo from Kansas (subject to Senate confirmation) * Michael Flynn, retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency * Nikki Haley, Republican South Carolina governor (subject to Senate confirmation) * Betsy DeVos, Republican donor and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party (subject to Senate confirmation) * Tom Price, Republican U.S. representative from Georgia, orthopedic surgeon (subject to Senate confirmation) * Elaine Chao, former labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary under Republican Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, respectively. (subject to Senate confirmation). Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman (subject to Senate confirmation) * Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor, chairman of Invesco Ltd subsidiary WL Ross & Co (subject to Senate confirmation) * James Mattis, retired Marine Corps general (subject to Senate confirmation) | 1 |
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