| New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked why officer involved in Eric Garner's death wasn't fired Posted: 31 Jul 2019 07:24 PM PDT  Federal prosecutors announced earlier this month that they would not file charges against Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved Eric Garner's death.
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| What the Protests in Russia Mean for President Putin Posted: 31 Jul 2019 09:30 AM PDT  Protests in Russia were put down brutally. What the response reveals about President Putin's popularity and control.
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| At least 11 people, including an amusement park mascot, have died across Japan in an unexpected heat wave Posted: 31 Jul 2019 03:17 AM PDT  Temperatures in Japan unexpectedly rose after the end of a rainy season this summer, with highs of about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit expected this week.
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| How America Would Win a War Against Russia or China (Think F-35s and More) Posted: 01 Aug 2019 12:23 AM PDT  If land-based precision artillery, maneuvering Air Force fighter jets and Navy destroyers were all able to seamlessly share sensitive targeting information in real time during high-intensity combat, the Pentagon would be closely approaching its currently-envisioned concept of modern joint multi-domain warfare.While elements of this kind of information sharing, of course, already exist, DoD is currently refining and expanding its concept of joint attack with the intention of reaching an entirely new level of modern operational effectiveness. This not only includes incorporating previously less-impactful warfare domains, such as space, cyber and electronic warfare, but also envisions new dimensions of land, air, surface and undersea integrated attack.U.S. Army Futures Command has stood up two multi-domain task force units, addressing threat scenarios in Europe and the Pacific, geared toward advancing a warfare synergy between otherwise disparate spheres of attack, such as air, land or sea. Gen. John Murray, U.S. Army Futures Commander, recently told reporters that the Army is rapidly adapting to how multi-domain combat continues to inform preparations for future war. This, according to Murray, includes efforts to… "start modifying structures, organizations and TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) regarding how you fight based upon multi-domain-capable formations."
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| Boris Johnson’s Belfast Brexit Message Leaves Dublin and EU Cold Posted: 31 Jul 2019 10:02 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson went a long way toward cementing his working majority in the U.K. Parliament with a visit to Northern Ireland on Wednesday, but did little to break the Brexit impasse with Dublin and Brussels.The new prime minister met with the region's main political parties in Belfast on the latest leg of a nationwide tour after taking office last week. He reiterated his plan to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, while promising not to add infrastructure at the Irish border -- the U.K.'s land frontier with the bloc -- in any Brexit scenario.Only the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up the government in Westminster, came out unequivocally in support of Johnson's strategy. Leader Arlene Foster called it "sensible" and echoed his demand for a Brexit deal that both removes the backstop -- a fallback provision in the agreement designed to keep the border with Ireland free of checks -- and doesn't "break up the United Kingdom."Johnson's rejection of the backstop, a key element of the divorce deal his predecessor Theresa May negotiated with Brussels, has put the U.K. on a collision course with the EU and made a no-deal Brexit -- the scenario most feared by businesses -- more likely. The U.K. is due to leave the bloc in just three months' time.Border ProblemJohnson's pledge not to add physical infrastructure on the Irish border, without offering a solution for how customs checks can be done, is particularly challenging to the Republic of Ireland and the EU. It puts the onus on them to find a solution to what will become an external frontier for the bloc's single market, while likely souring any talks on a future trade deal.Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Ireland "isn't going to be bullied" on the backstop and needs to stand firm. There is "total support" from the EU on the issue, he said in an interview with the Irish Mirror newspaper.Johnson's unwillingness to pursue a compromise on the backstop also triggered anger from his opponents in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said Brexit is changing minds on the issue of a united Ireland, and called on the U.K. government to lay out what it sees as the threshold for a referendum on unification."If you are democratically intent on it, who are we to stop you?" McDonald said of Brexit on BBC Radio. "But you can't wreck Ireland in the process."The Ulster Unionist Party, even though it opposes the backstop, also used a meeting with Johnson to raise its opposition to leaving the EU without a deal, the Belfast Telegraph reported, citing leader Robin Swann.Reassuring AlliesThe opposition of some of Northern Ireland's parties won't worry Johnson because he's gained the approval for his "do or die" Brexit stance from the only one that matters in terms of votes in the Westminster Parliament -- the DUP. Even a plunge in the pound hasn't derailed that in the past few days."We are stepping up a gear and increasing the pace of our preparations as we get ready to leave the EU" on Oct. 31, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said in a statement after meeting executives from companies including General Electric, BAE Systems and Tate and Lyle Sugars in London.Nevertheless, Johnson's tour of the four U.K. nations -- which he dubbed the "awesome foursome" -- has not yielded wholly positive headlines. From boos in Edinburgh to a backlash from sheep farmers in Wales and calls for a united Ireland in Belfast, his promise to use Brexit to boost British unity looks a difficult challenge.To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in London at sbiggs3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Alex MoralesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Al Sharpton Is Not a Civil-Rights Hero Posted: 31 Jul 2019 10:31 AM PDT  Imagine David Duke being a regular, esteemed guest and former honored host on Fox News Channel. Imagine every Republican presidential candidate scrambling to praise him whenever he's in the news. Imagine David Duke being given a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention or President Trump welcoming him to the White House and openly soliciting his support. Imagine Duke appearing on White House visitor logs more than 70 times during Trump's administration.Imagine all of this and you'll have some idea of how the right and even, I think, the center of American political thought reacts to seeing Al Sharpton continue to be cosseted by the Democratic party and its allies in the media. Sharpton should long ago have been ruled out of bounds.Employing the morally disastrous logic that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, the Democrats have allowed President Trump to troll them into extolling Sharpton. Trump is incorrect about many things, but he fairly described Sharpton as a racist. Sharpton is a "con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score," Trump tweeted. "Hates Whites & Cops!" That's a lot closer to the truth than the framing of Democrats, who bent the knee to Sharpton as though he were some sort of civil-rights hero rather than a huckster.> .@TheRevAl has spent his life fighting for what's right and working to improve our nation, even in the face of hate. It's shameful, yet unsurprising that Trump would continue to attack those who have done so much for our country.> > -- Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 29, 2019> .@TheRevAl is a champion in the fight for civil rights. The fact that President Trump continues to use the power of the presidency to unleash racist attacks on the people he serves is despicable. This hate has no place in our country. It's beneath the dignity of the office.> > -- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 29, 2019> .@TheRevAl has dedicated his life to the fight for justice for all. No amount of racist tweets from the man in the White House will erase that—and we must not let them divide us. I stand with my friend Al Sharpton in calling out these ongoing attacks on people of color.> > -- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 29, 2019Sharpton holds the position of America's Senior Spokesman for Civil Rights only because it's been some time since he's done anything so egregiously contemptible that it made the front page; the Left simply assumes short memories have sanitized Sharpton's reputation. I almost wrote "inflammatory reputation," but that word might be too literal given the arson attack that followed one of his most notorious hate campaigns.After a black boy, Gavin Cato, was accidentally killed by a motorcade of Jews in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991, Sharpton delivered an incendiary eulogy at the funeral:> All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no coffee klatch, no skinnin' and grinnin'.For extra incendiary effect, he urged the crowd to think of Jews as "diamond merchants" responsible for apartheid in South Africa, and he marched at the head of an angry group of demonstrators on the Jewish sabbath. Rioters subsequently murdered Yankel Rosenbaum, a Jewish youth, in retaliation. Twenty years later Sharpton issued a watery not-quite apology in the form of a Daily News op-ed.Four years later, in 1995, Sharpton inflamed tensions on Harlem's 125th Street that culminated in the murders of seven people in an arson attack. The owner of the building in dispute was actually a black Pentecostal church, whose leaders had asked a Jewish tenant to evict a black subtenant, who enlisted the aid of Sharpton and other race-baiters to whip up street protests. At one such demonstration, Sharpton shouted,> There is a systemic and methodical strategy to eliminate our people from doing business off 125th Street. I want to make it clear . . . that we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.A fellow protest leader said, "We're going to see that this cracker suffers. Reverend Sharpton is on it." One protester, wielding a gun, entered the store in December, crying, "It's on now, all blacks out!" He set fire to the store and killed seven before shooting himself dead. Sharpton didn't apologize.It can hardly be stated often enough that the reason Sharpton first came to prominence was for promoting a vicious lie. In 1987, Tawana Brawley, a black upstate New York teen who wished to conceal from her father the fact that she had run away from home, concocted a story about being raped for four days by six white men, smeared with feces that spelled out racial slurs, and left in a dumpster. At the time, hate-crime hoaxes were all but unknown, and New York was still reeling over a genuine hate-crime attack, of a black youth in Howard Beach, Queens. After a jury ruled that the Brawley case was a hoax, state supreme-court justice S. Barrett Hickman wrote, "It is probable that in the history of this state, never has a teenager turned the prosecutorial and judicial systems literally upside-down with such false claims." A local district attorney accused by Sharpton of being one of Brawley's attackers, Steven Pagones, lost his job. It took him ten years to carry out and win a defamation action against Brawley, Sharpton, and another civil-rights activist. Sharpton never apologized for any of this.A few years ago, progressive reporter Wayne Barrett dug up a detail worthy of Bonfire of the Vanities. He found that Comcast had paid Sharpton's outfit, the National Action Network, some $140,000 as it was preparing to buy NBC/Universal. By remarkable coincidence, Sharpton gave his blessing to the merger, which was being opposed by black leaders such as Jesse Jackson on diversity grounds. By a still-more amazing coincidence Sharpton was, after the merger, given his own hour-long talk show on MSNBC, though today he is merely a frequent guest on the news network. Stuart Stevens at The Daily Beast wrote, "Sharpton is hardly alone in having spent decades vomiting hate, leaving innocent victims in his wake. What distinguishes Sharpton is the willingness of powerful people and organizations to look past the hate when they believe it may benefit them."Al Sharpton is a not a leading voice of anything except anti-Semitism. He seeks only to leverage racial resentment to advance the interests of Sharpton, to go "as far as his bullhorn audacity will carry him," in the words of the New York Post columnist Bob McManus, who took Sharpton out to dinner once but drew the line at paying for the $350 glass of cognac Sharpton indicated he wanted. Making a career out of lies and hate has worked nicely for Sharpton, but only because the media and the Democratic party have served as his public-relations team.
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| Surgical plate found inside stomach of 4.7m long crocodile in Australia Posted: 01 Aug 2019 02:43 AM PDT  An Australian crocodile farmer who found an orthopaedic plate inside a crocodile's stomach said on Thursday he had been told the surgical device was from a person's body and had been contacted by relatives of missing people anxious for clues. Koorana Crocodile Farm owner John Lever found the plate inside a 4.7-metre (15-foot- 5) croc called M.J. during an autopsy in June at his business near Rockhampton in Queensland state. He initially wasn't sure if the unusual find had been part of an animal or human. But he said since making photos of the plate public, he had been told it was a type used in human surgery. Lever estimated that M.J. was 50 to 70 years old when he died. M.J. could have eaten the bone that the plate had been attached to by six screws 50 years ago, he said. All remnants of human tissue attached to the plate had been long digested before M.J. died several months after losing a fight with another croc. Koorana Crocodile Farm owner John Lever found the plate inside MJ Lever is continuing to make inquiries in the hope of discovering what decade the type of plate was used and perhaps who it had belonged to. "I wouldn't call it an investigation, we're making inquiries because we're fascinated by this whole thing," Lever said. "Obviously this crocodile has chomped on something and that plate has been left in its stomach complete with screws." Lever bought M.J. from a farmer in Innisfail, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), north of Rockhampton, six years ago. Sometime earlier, M.J. had been trapped in the wild. Crocodiles are protected in Australia and are only trapped if they are a threat to humans. "We've had a couple of people get in touch with us about their relatives that have gone missing in the northern Queensland area and they're anxious to find out - there's been nothing heard of these people, they've just disappeared," Lever said. "We'll certainly keep these people informed of any new news that we can get." MJ the crocodile was estimated to be 50 to 70 years old when he died The last fatal crocodile attack in Australia was in October when a woman was snatched while gathering mussels with her family in a waterhole in a remote part of the Northern Territory. The last fatal attack in Queensland was a year earlier, when a 79-year-old dementia patient was killed after wandering from a nursing home at Port Douglas. The crocodile population has exploded across the country's tropical north since the 1970s. Because saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years and grow throughout their lives - reaching up to 7 meters (23 feet) in length - the proportion of large crocodiles is also rising.
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| Top Navy SEAL commander writes scathing letter saying the force has a problem in the wake of SEAL scandals Posted: 01 Aug 2019 12:02 PM PDT  Rear Adm. Collin Green wrote a scathing letter to his forces, saying special operators need to shape up in the wake of SEAL scandals.
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| America could be on the verge of war - watching the Democratic debates you'd never know it Posted: 31 Jul 2019 09:26 PM PDT  For the second night in a row, the Democratic debate included only a few minutes of discussion on foreign policy. And even those few minutes did not involve much debate. It consisted of a few general questions that demanded short answers. Jon Wolfstahl, a former National Security Council official in the Obama administration, tweeted: "War could break out at any time with Iran, Russia or North Korea. Nuclear arms race happening, UK collapsing, China trade war. Watching CNN debate you would never know it."Even when Democratic candidate and New York mayor Bill de Blasio asked, in a very loud voice, why they don't talk about a potential war with Iran, CNN moderators cut him off and explained that they had to move on to the next subject. Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, who took part in the first Democratic debate in Detroit the night before, tweeted: "Well the 2 1/2 minutes on the US's upcoming catastrophic war is done let's move on."It was not only foreign policy wonks in Washington who were surprised and disappointed at the short amount of time allocated to foreign policy. Asal Rad, a California-based researcher for the National Iranian American Council, tweeted: "After four debate nights with over 20 candidates we have barely had a discussion on a policy that may have consequences for a generation to come. But please, more about Mueller."It is not clear why CNN decided to allocate such little time to foreign policy at a time when the US is dealing with a few serious international issues, mainly the potential of a military conflict with Iran. But after two nights in a row, viewers have started raising the question more vocally. Maria Afsharian, a former television journalist, told me: "When I worked at NBC, I was told that most Americans don't have the time to understand, or can't relate to foreign policy."Foreign policy is important to people like us, but not to the majority of Americans - they are worried about feeding and supporting themselves and their families."Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the only war veteran on the debate stage, who served in Iraq, was the only Democratic candidate to address foreign policy at any length. She said that the American people were lied to about that war, and she committed to bring back American soldiers."The leadership I will bring to do the right thing to bring our troops home within the first year in office. Because they shouldn't have been there this long."
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| Chief apologizes over hiring of officer who shot black man Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:35 PM PDT  A Louisiana police chief apologized Thursday to his city and to the family of a black man shot and killed by a former police officer in 2016, saying the officer never should have been hired, at the same time his office announced a settlement reversing the officer's 2018 firing and allowing him to resign instead. At a news conference in Baton Rouge, Police Chief Murphy Paul and a police lawyer detailed repeated problems with Officer Blane Salamoni that they said should have raised red flags long before Alton Sterling was shot and killed. In particular, the lawyer, Leo Hamilton, said Salamoni had been arrested for a physical altercation prior to joining the police department, which normally would have prevented him from being hired.
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| The 20 Most Stolen Late-Model Cars, Trucks, and SUVs Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT |
| Police say 1 baby dead, 1 in hospital after twin newborns were found near a dumpster in Fairfield Posted: 30 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Police say one baby has died and the other has been hospitalized after twin newborns were found near a large outdoor trash container in Fairfield.
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| U.S. set to push security strategy as Chinese maneuvers rattle region Posted: 31 Jul 2019 01:11 AM PDT  Recent incidents involving Chinese ships in Southeast Asian waters are testing regional faith in Beijing's sincerity about maritime peace, and aiding a renewed U.S. push to build alliances with countries unnerved by China's assertiveness. Chinese maneuvering in energy-rich stretches of the South China Sea, including a standoff in Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone, will figure on Friday when top diplomats of Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN attend a security gathering with world powers. Among those is a United States that has laid out an "Indo-Pacific Strategy" challenging Chinese maritime hegemony and seeking stronger ties with nations pushing back against Beijing.
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| 44 injured as freak wave pool accident causes 'tsunami' at Chinese water park Posted: 01 Aug 2019 08:16 AM PDT  Giant, crashing waves injured dozens at a Chinese water park on Tuesday, as awave pool malfunction sent multiple people to the hospital with broken bones
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| Tim Ryan: Democrats will 'lose 48 states' on a 'Medicare for All' platform Posted: 31 Jul 2019 08:20 AM PDT  Ryan called the "Medicare for All" proposals a "potential disaster" for the party.
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| US Air Force orders all units to stand down for one day as suicide rate skyrockets Posted: 01 Aug 2019 10:10 AM PDT  The Air Force has seen 78 suicides so far this year, significantly more than this time last year, and the service is scrambling for answers.
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| 5 key takeaways from the 2nd Democratic debate Posted: 31 Jul 2019 09:20 PM PDT  Wednesday night's Democratic primary debate saw the two highest-polling candidates on the stage — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris — take fire from all sides.
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| Florida man who knowingly spread HIV gets 10 years in prison Posted: 31 Jul 2019 02:54 AM PDT  A Pensacola man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex without notifying his partners that he was HIV positive.
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| Trump and Epstein's friendship reportedly soured after they fought over a $41 million Palm Beach mansion. 2 weeks after the home's auction, cops received a tip about underage women at Epstein's house. Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:53 AM PDT  The formerly friendly New Yorkers both wanted to buy the Maison de l'Amitie at a bankruptcy auction in 2004, the Washington Post reported.
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| U.S. Indicts Chinese Billionaire on Charges of Evading $1.8 Billion in Tariffs Posted: 01 Aug 2019 12:44 AM PDT  He is accused of disguising aluminium as pallets to avoid paying duties
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| Uighurs challenge China to prove missing relatives are free Posted: 31 Jul 2019 09:51 PM PDT  China's claim that "most" inmates have been released from re-education camps in its Xinjiang region has been met with anger and scepticism by the Uighur diaspora which has launched a social media campaign challenging Beijing to prove it. Rights groups and experts say more than one million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in internment camps in the tightly-controlled northwest region, home to China's Uighur population. "It's absolutely not true," said Guly Mahsut, a Uighur based in Canada.
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| Dubai sheikh posts cryptic poem as wife Princess Haya attends court for start of custody battle Posted: 31 Jul 2019 04:10 PM PDT  The ruler of Dubai published an online poem about "shining swords with sharp blades" on the day his estranged wife asked a British judge to make an arranged marriage protection order. The billionaire Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 70, posted a verse online called "Swords of the Excellencies" as Princess Haya attended the High Courts of Justice in London for the start of their bitter legal battle over their two children She was seen in public for the first time on Tuesday after fleeing United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the youngsters earlier this year while apparently "in fear for her life". The vice-president and prime minister of the UAE has applied to the British courts for the "summary return" of his two children from Britain. On Tuesday afternoon - the first day of the preliminary hearing - Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Courts Division, allowed the media to report how the princess was applying for a "forced marriage protection order." The 45-year-old Jordanian princess is also asking seeking a non-molestation order, it emerged. As those details became public triggering headlines around the world, the sheikh, a self-proclaimed poet, posted his latest poem. The verse was uploaded at 4.06pm British time. Princess Haya bint Al-Hussein (R) and her husband Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (L) arrive for the Epsom Derby Credit: Rex The sheikh has earlier published a poem which accused an unnamed woman of "treachery and betrayal". The verse, called 'Live or Die', includes the line: "You no longer have a place with me. I don't care if you live or die." However, in the latest poem released on Tuesday, it has locally been interpreted as an ode to the UAE's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, or MBZ as he is known in the region. "He (his Excellency) has shining swords with sharp blades. In their sheaths, they can cut if drawn," he wrote on his official Instagram page. "For confronting and keeping away the enemies, he has many soldiers. He has protected heroes so that nobody will conspire against them." In Arabic, he appears to be speaking figuratively but it could be viewed as a veiled threat, possibly to regional enemies such as Iran or Qatar, with whom the UAE has had strained relations in recent years. Sheikh Maktoum suggests the UAE has not shown its true power and asks what would happen if this sword were ever to be used. The sheikh, thought to have more than 20 children by six wives, is known regularly to write poetry. Before he and his sixth wife split earlier this year, they were often photographed together with the Queen, a friendship cultivated from their shared passion for horses. The Queen greets Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Credit: AP As the founder of the Godolphin horse racing stable, the Sheikh this year received a trophy from the Queen after one of his horses won a race at Royal Ascot. The break up - likely to result in a £4 billion divorce battle - has become increasingly acrimonious in recent months. It is understood the Princess, the sheikh's youngest wife, flew on a private jet with her children to the UK in April. It is not known why she left, but speculation has focused on how two of the sheikh's children - Princess Shamsa and Princess Latifa - had tried unsuccessfully to flee the emirate. Full details about the orders applied for and the identities of the children discussed in the two-day preliminary hearing, which ended yesterday, cannot be reported for legal reasons. The trial is due to start properly in November.
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| Woman, 65, tasered by police after fleeing then kicking officer who stopped her over broken light: 'You're not placing me under no arrest' Posted: 01 Aug 2019 02:49 AM PDT  A 65-year-old woman was tasered after fleeing then kicking out at a police officer who stopped her over a broken light. Debra Hamil, from Oklahoma, has been charged after body camera footage showed her resisting arrest during the confrontation in the town of Cashion last month. "I don't think that I deserve to pay $80 for something that is fixable and I can fix it," Ms Hamil is heard telling the officer after he issues her a ticket for a broken tail light.After being asked to step out of her pick-up truck, she repeatedly refuses and eventually drives away, prompting a brief pursuit. After pulling over in a car park, the officer approaches her with his gun pulled and drags her out of the vehicle when she again refuses to step out.Following a brief struggle in which Ms Hamil kicks out, the officer fires his stun gun at her and places her under arrest. "Do you realise you just got yourself in a whole lot more trouble?" the officer says.Ms Hamil replies: "Yeah, I tried to kick you because I'm a country girl." Local media reported Ms Hamil was taken to hospital for a medical assessment despite refusing treatment. She was subsequently charged with one count of assault against a police officer and one misdemeanour for resisting arrest.
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| View Photos of the 2020 BMW Alpina B7 Sedan Posted: 01 Aug 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| Democratic debate on CNN sees steep ratings drop Posted: 31 Jul 2019 11:55 AM PDT  The first night of CNN's Democratic debate in Detroit drew 8.7 million television viewers.
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| UK, France and Germany condemn North Korea missile launches Posted: 01 Aug 2019 11:56 AM PDT  The United Kingdom, France and Germany on Thursday condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches as violations of U.N. sanctions and urged Pyongyang to engage in "meaningful negotiations" with the United States on eliminating its nuclear weapons. The three countries also urged North Korea "to take concrete steps toward its complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" and said international sanctions should remain in place and be fully enforced until its nuclear and ballistic missile programs are dismantled.
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| U.S. Fighter Jet Crashes in Death Valley National Park, Injuring 7 People Posted: 31 Jul 2019 11:12 PM PDT  A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts routinely watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon.
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| Ex-Boyfriend Allegedly Confessed to Killing Russian Influencer After She Called Him ‘Sexually Unworthy’ Posted: 01 Aug 2019 01:53 PM PDT  InstagramThe ex-boyfriend of a Russian Instagram influencer whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase last week has confessed to her murder, saying he snapped after feeling "repeatedly insulted and humiliated" by her disparaging remarks, Russian authorities allege. Maxim Gareyev, 33, admitted to authorities that he stabbed 24-year-old Ekaterina Karaglanova "at least five times in the neck and chest" last week, BBC reported. He has been charged with murder, but has not yet formally entered a plea in Russian court."She constantly put me down and said that I am sexually unworthy and ugly. She lowered my financial opportunities and I couldn't stand it," Gareyev said in a video released by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which was translated from Russian by The Daily Beast. "I stabbed her at least five times with a knife in her neck and chest. I regret it."Karaglanova—who was studying dermatology at a Moscow medical school— was found Friday night by her landlord in the hallway of her apartment. Gareyev told police in the video recording that he fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend, then took off her clothes and stuffed her body inside a suitcase, according to Russia's Moskovsky Komsomolets. It was not immediately clear whether the 33-year-old had a lawyer present when the police interview was recorded.Instagram Influencers Dupe Their Fans With 'Free' ProductsAuthorities allege Karaganova was murdered on June 22, the last day her family heard from her. Four days later, when her landlord opened her front door, police found a large suitcase with the 24-year-old's legs sticking out in the hallway. Police previously said there was no evidence of a struggle at Karaglanova's apartment and no murder weapon was found at the scene.Gareyev was arrested on Tuesday after CCTV footage showed a man briefly visiting her apartment, prompting authorities to question him, the BBC reported. According to Moskovsky Komsomolets, Gareyev told police he started dating Karaglanova several weeks earlier, although they had recently stopped seeing each other after she began a new relationship. The Instagram influencer was reportedly planning to celebrate her 25th birthday with her new boyfriend in the Netherlands on July 30.Gareyev appeared Thursday in court, where he apologized to her parents and told reporters that he was "ashamed," the Komsomolskaya Pravda reported."I am ashamed of myself," he reportedly said.While he admitted to being millions of rubles in debt, Gareyev allegedly said the slaying was not financially motivated but "spontaneous." The Russian outlet also reported that Gareyev's lawyer said his client will be evaluated by a mental-health expert.Hot Tub Murder Leads to Witness Suicide and Boyfriend's ArrestRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Here are the winners and losers for Wednesday's Democratic debate Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:45 AM PDT  Sen. Cory Booker and entrepreneur Andrew Yang stood out. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris struggled under withering attacks. And the health care discussion was more heat than light.
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| Here's how the locked-down Saudi Arabia-Qatar border became one of the tensest places on earth, sparking outrageous plans to build a 37-mile-long canal and turn Qatar into an island Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:02 AM PDT  In June 2017, Saudi Arabia turned the Gulf against Qatar, cutting it off, and accusing its leadership of backing Iran and terrorists.
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| Can Kazakhstan be America's New Partner in Central Asia? Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:37 AM PDT  Change has come to Kazakhstan, at last.The former Soviet republic's first president, seventy-nine-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, stepped down in March after nearly thirty years in power. His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, won the post in last month's elections, racking up 70 percent of the vote.The election process, albeit imperfect, was Kazakhstan's most legitimate yet. (In the previous election, for example, Nazarbayev won with a reported 97.7 percent of the vote.) Just as Important was what didn't occur. Many had expected the Nazarbayevs to attempt a family power grab; it never transpired.President Tokayev has a full in-box. His country suffers from corruption, social unrest and a weak economy. Keenly aware of these problems, his inauguration speech outlined not just three, or five, but ten priorities for reform.
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| Elderly woman jailed for feeding stray cats that kept her company Posted: 31 Jul 2019 03:18 AM PDT  A 79-year-old woman has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for feeding the stray cats she said brought her comfort and companionship.Nancy Segula, of Ohio, began feeding the cats about two years ago when they were left behind after her neighbour moved."There's been about six to eight adult cats and now there's kittens coming over, too," Ms Segula told cleveland.com."I miss my own kitties. They passed away, my husband passed away. I'm lonely. So the cats and kitties outside help me."Garfield Heights Municipal Court magistrate Jeffrey Short handed Ms Segula the 10-day sentence after she received more than $2,000 in fines, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.Under a city ordinance, it is illegal to feed stray dogs and cats in Garfield Heights.Mr Short was covering for Judge Jennifer Weiler on the day of the sentencing. She told the Washington Post she would like to hear all sides of the case with everyone in the room, including the defendant and her lawyer, the prosecutor and a representative from animal control, to decide whether the jail sentence is fair."I'll try to find out what's going on, what's happening and then try and make a decision that makes sense for the circumstances," Ms Weiler said.Ms Segula said she did not know there was a city ordinance against feeding cats, Fox 8 reported."The cats keep coming over to my house," she said. "I just feel bad so then I will give them something to eat."Segula's son, Dave Pawlowski, was in disbelief when his mother told him about the sentence."I'm sure people hear about the things that happen downtown in that jail," Mr Pawlowski told Fox 8. "And they are going to let my 79-year-old mother go there?"Ms Segula was told to appear at the Cuyahoga County Jail on 11 August.
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| Mother of man charged in missing brothers case speaks out Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:29 PM PDT  The mother of a Missouri farmer charged with tampering with a truck used by two missing Wisconsin brothers said they came to the farm to look at cattle but that she can't see her son being involved in their deaths. Tomme Feil told The Kansas City Star that the two men — Nicholas Diemel, 35, and his 24-year-old brother Justin — came to look at calves owned by the family. Feil said she has no idea why her son, Garland Nelson, would have moved their vehicle.
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| Can Chicago's new mayor stop the bloodshed from gun violence? Posted: 31 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Some are hopeful that Lori Lightfoot can succeed where her immediate predecessors did not – but others are concerned she has reverted to failed 'get tough' policies'People cannot and should not live in neighborhoods that resemble a war zone,' Lightfoot told CBS News before the Fourth of July weekend. Photograph: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Getty ImagesHeading into a long Fourth of July weekend last month, Lori Lightfoot, the new Chicago mayor, outlined a broad plan to cut gun violence in her city.Lightfoot, who succeeded Rahm Emanuel in May, said she and the police chief, Eddie Johnson, would put 1,500 more officers on the street and work on confiscating weapons as a short-term effort to curb the shootings – which spike during the summertime and plague the city."People cannot and should not live in neighborhoods that resemble a war zone," Lightfoot told CBS News before the long weekend. But it was another bloody holiday in Chicago: 63 people were shot over the course of the holiday weekend, including a 14-year-old girl, and six were killed. The intense violence is continuing as Chicago's summer wears on. On Monday, six people were shot. The seemingly endless incidents underscore the mammoth undertaking Lightfoot faces in seeking to stop the bleeding in America's third-largest city.Some people in Chicago say they are hopeful Lightfoot can succeed where her immediate predecessors – Emanuel and Richard M Daley – did not. But others say that despite promises during her campaign, inauguration, and as mayor to address the systemic problems driving the violence, they are concerned Lightfoot seems simply to have mirrored previous administrations' proposals.The Rev Ira Acree, a pastor in Chicago's west side Austin neighborhood, is among those who support Lightfoot and believes she has made addressing the complex institutional problems behind the bloodshed a priority."You have to give them a grade A for effort," Acree told the Guardian. "But probably you can say an 'incomplete' overall."Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot walks during the 50th annual Pride Parade in Chicago on 30 June. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczyński/ReutersHowever, Louisa Manske, the policy and communications coordinator at the Workers Center for Racial Justice, sees Lightfoot veering away from the promises she made during her campaign.Manske said: "What we heard was sort of this same 'law and order' narrative that has found a comfortable home in the public discourse around community safety that's both false and incredibly destructive."Where Emanuel's efforts to combat gun violence may be remembered as centered around the hiring of more police officers, Lightfoot vowed to treat the shootings as a "public health crisis" that would require addressing issues of economic disinvestment, lack of access to resources, and distrust between communities of color and the police department to solve.She appointed a deputy for a new office of public safety, as promised. She has continued to talk up neighborhood investments on the predominantly black and brown south and west sides, which have been neglected by previous administrations and where most of the city's deadly violence occurs. She has personally appeared in the communities, including earlier this summer, when she attended an annual peace march at Father Michael Pfleger's St Sabina church on the south side."She's actually been on the ground," said Lance Williams, a sociologist at Chicago's Northeastern Illinois University. "She's been out in the community, talking to real people … That's really good."But some, including the Workers Center for Racial Justice, have raised concerns that she has reverted to failed "get tough" on crime policies. Such policies "drive up mass incarceration, fracture communities, and point the public attention away from the actual issue", Manske told the Guardian.Whether she can succeed in reducing the violence here remains to be seen.Manske said groups like hers would work to "guide" her toward neighborhood investment, greater police accountability, and reforms of the state's criminal justice system. But even Lightfoot's supporters say a holistic, multifaceted approach to tackling both the immediate and deeper problems is likely to take time."We know it's gonna be a heavy lift," Williams said. "It takes massive coordination. It takes massive resources. It's not something that's gonna happen in the next five years. This is long-term strategic planning … This is a cultural change. It's gonna take a dynamic person to be able to pull this thing off. The mayor seems to be up to the task."But even if systemic reform doesn't happen overnight, communities here are hoping for some victories along the way, as the death toll continues to grow."It's gonna take a long time because we've had the collaborative failure of multiple institutions," Acree said, citing schools, the government, the judicial system and long-term economic disinvestment from poorer neighborhoods."It's gonna take some time to turn things around, but we want to see some small victories. We do want these numbers to go down."We don't expect them to disappear," Acree added, "but we do expect them to dissipate."
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| Chinese envoy in NZ lauds students in anti-HK scuffle Posted: 01 Aug 2019 04:02 AM PDT  China's consulate general in Auckland on Thursday praised the "spontaneous patriotism" of pro-Beijing students who reportedly manhandled a Hong Kong-supporting protester on a university campus in New Zealand's largest city. In a statement, the Chinese mission also criticised pro-Hong Kong democracy activists in New Zealand for using "so-called freedom of expression" to spread falsehoods. The statement, which attracted criticism from New Zealand lawmakers and academics, was issued after a scuffle on Monday at a University of Auckland demonstration supporting democracy in Hong Kong.
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| Trump adviser Stone loses bid to dismiss indictment stemming from Mueller probe Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:52 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's longtime political adviser Roger Stone on Thursday lost a long-shot bid to overturn a seven-count indictment against him stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Stone's attorneys had failed to identify any legal grounds that would support dismissing the indictment, which accused him of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
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| 'You owe them an apology': Tulsi Gabbard ripped into Kamala Harris at the Democratic debate over her controversial record on criminal justice Posted: 31 Jul 2019 06:56 PM PDT  "When you were in a position to make a difference and an impact in these people's lives, you did not," Gabbard told Harris at the Democratic debate.
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| Texas mom who allegedly left her baby in a running car at a nightclub flashed a big smile in her booking photo Posted: 31 Jul 2019 09:56 AM PDT  Samantha Grace Vaughan allegedly left her infant in a running car while she took shots at a Texas nightclub, police said in an arrest affidavit.
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| Ex-McConnell staffers lobbied for Russian-backed Ky. project Posted: 31 Jul 2019 02:54 PM PDT  Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department for the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.
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| Poland remembers failed 1944 revolt against Germans Posted: 01 Aug 2019 08:55 AM PDT  Maria Mostowska was a young pediatric nurse when the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi Germans occupying Poland broke out on Aug. 1, 1944. Seventy-five years on, she still vividly remembers how German troops put her against a wall and aimed a machine gun. Some 50,000 fighters of Poland's clandestine Home Army — most of them poorly armed — fought the Germans for 63 days before surrendering, in the biggest single act of resistance in occupied Europe during World War II. Some 18,000 insurgents were killed and another 25,000 were injured.
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| Texas police rescue 9-year-old boy from human trafficker trying to sell him Posted: 01 Aug 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Texas police officers rescued a 9-year-old boy who they say was kidnapped by asuspect allegedly looking to sell the child into human trafficking
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