| Hezbollah calls on supporters to donate as sanctions pressure bites Posted: 08 Mar 2019 12:17 PM PST ![Hezbollah calls on supporters to donate as sanctions pressure bites]( "Hezbollah calls on supporters to donate as sanctions pressure bites") Lebanon's Hezbollah on Friday called on its supporters to donate money as it comes under increasing pressure from Western sanctions intended to isolate it financially. The United States deems all parts of Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has been steadily increasing financial sanctions against the Iran-backed movement. "I announce today that the resistance is in need of its (popular base)," Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said, adding that donations were needed to support the group's activities.
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| Manafort penalty sparks outrage among legal experts: '4-year sentence far below the recommended 20 years' Posted: 08 Mar 2019 05:31 AM PST  The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. As a federal judge handed down his sentence in a jam-packed Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom and observers digested the judge's decision - 47 months - Manafort's case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes. "Paul Manafort's lenient four-year sentence - far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction - is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America," said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a tweet shortly after the verdict.
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| Democrats including Ocasio-Cortez condemn US strategy on Venezuela Posted: 07 Mar 2019 07:21 PM PST  Sixteen Democratic lawmakers, among them rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on Thursday sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticizing what they described as "counterproductive" US strategy on crisis-hit Venezuela. "We write to express our deep concern regarding the Trump Administration's handling of relations with Venezuela, particularly its suggestions of military intervention, imposition of broad unilateral sanctions, and recent recognition of an opposition leader as interim president," the legislators wrote.
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| Scientists Think They May Have Found a New Kind of Killer Whale Posted: 07 Mar 2019 11:39 PM PST  The "Type D killer whale" was discovered off the coast of Chile
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| Google warns everyone to update their Chrome browser right now Posted: 08 Mar 2019 07:01 AM PST  It's always smart to keep all of your software up to date, but it's not too often that a developer goes out of its way to stress to all of its users that they should drop everything and apply the latest update as soon as possible. But that is exactly what Google has done this week, as Clement Lecigne of the company's Threat Analysis Group reveals in a blog post that two zero-day vulnerabilities have been discovered in Google Chrome.First reported on February 27th, Google was quick to release an update two days later on March 1st to address the issue. In all likelihood, your Chrome browser updated itself automatically, but if you want to check, go to Help > About Google Chrome, and make sure you're on version 72.0.3626.121. If not, update right away.As Chrome security engineer Justin Schuh explained in a series of tweets on Wednesday, this attack is different from previous attacks on Chrome because, rather than targeting Flash, it targets the Chrome code directly.When Flash was the first exploit in the chain, Google could silently update the Flash plugin behind the scenes, and Chrome would automatically switch over to the updated plugin without any user intervention. On the other hand, this zero-day exploit requires the user to manually restart the browser, so even if the update is installed on your system, you still have to close and reopen the browser for it to take effect.https://twitter.com/justinschuh/status/1103763265119707136The (relatively) good news is that, as of yesterday, Google has "only observed active exploitation against Windows 7 32-bit systems," so if you're on Windows 10 (or even Windows 8), you're probably in the clear. Nevertheless, there's no point in taking any risks, so be sure that your browser is up to date, and if it isn't, update today.
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| 7 Energy Stocks That Don't Need Higher Oil Prices Posted: 08 Mar 2019 09:52 AM PST ![7 Energy Stocks That Don't Need Higher Oil Prices]( "7 Energy Stocks That Don't Need Higher Oil Prices") The best oil stock ideas from Bank of America.
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| PM Khan says no militants will be allowed to attack from Pakistani soil Posted: 08 Mar 2019 05:38 AM PST  Pakistan faces growing international pressure to rein in Islamist groups that carry out attacks in neighboring India. One such attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Feb. 14, claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) Pakistan-based group, killed 40 Indian paramilitary police and led to clashes between the nuclear-armed rivals as India retaliated. Both countries carried out aerial bombing missions last week and even fought a brief dogfight over Kashmir before tensions cooled.
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| Utah teacher on leave after forcing student to wash off Ash Wednesday cross Posted: 08 Mar 2019 09:35 AM PST  A Utah school district has placed a teacher on administrative leave for forcing a student to remove the Ash Wednesday cross from his forehead.
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| Paul Manafort Was an Agent of Ukraine, Not Russia Posted: 09 Mar 2019 03:30 AM PST  Paul Manafort, the clandestine agent of Russia at the heart of the Trump campaign's "collusion" scand — oh, wait.Have you ever noticed what Paul Manafort's major crime was? After two years of investigation, after the predawn raid in which his wife was held at gunpoint, after months of solitary confinement that have left him a shell of his former self, have you noticed what drew the militant attention of the Obama Justice Department, the FBI, and, ultimately, a special counsel who made him the centerpiece of Russia-gate?According to the indictment Robert Mueller filed against him, Manafort was an unregistered "agent of the Government of Ukraine." He also functioned as an agent of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's president from 2010 to 2014, and of two political parties, the Party of Regions and its successor, the Opposition Bloc.Manafort was not an unregistered agent of Russia. Mueller never alleged that Manafort was a clandestine operative of the Kremlin. He worked for Ukraine, not Putin. Indeed, for much of his time in Ukraine, he pushed his clients against Putin's interests.Mueller's prosecutors looked on glumly Thursday as Manafort was sentenced to a mere 47 months' imprisonment by Judge T. S. Ellis III of the federal court in Alexandria, Va. After rescinding the cooperation agreement they had extended Manafort following his convictions at trial, Mueller's team had pressed for a sentence of up to 24 years for the 70-year-old former Trump campaign chairman. The judge demurred, pointedly observing that Manafort was "not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence [the 2016] election."The prosecutors won't be chagrined long, of course. Against Manafort, one case with a potential century of jail time was not enough. There's a case in Washington, too. There, Manafort will be sentenced next week, by a different judge who will surely impose a sentence more to the special counsel's liking. The knowledge of that, more than anything else, explains Judge Ellis's comparative wrist-slap, which ignored sentencing guidelines that called for a severe prison term.Those guidelines were driven by prodigious financial fraud, not espionage. No one has even alleged espionage -- even though the investigation was aggressive, even though the two indictments charge numerous felonies, and even though Mueller has had as his star informant witness Manafort's longtime sidekick, Richard Gates, a fellow fraudster who was deeply involved in his partner's work for foreign governments.Understand: Paul Manafort would never have been prosecuted if he had not joined Donald Trump's campaign. He would not have been prosecuted if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election and spared Democrats the need to conjure up a reason to explain their defeat -- something other than nominating a lousy candidate who stopped campaigning too early.Manafort's Ukrainian work was not a secret. By the time of the 2016 campaign, he'd been at it for over a dozen years. He wasn't alone. Not even close. An array of American political consultants flocked to post-Soviet Ukraine because that's where the money was. Manafort worked for the Party of Regions, led by Yanukovych. The Obama consultants worked for Yanukovych's rival, Yulia Tymoshenko -- the populist-socialist who sometimes colluded with Putin and other times posed as his opponent. The Clinton consultants lined up with Viktor Yuschenko, Putin's generally pro-Western bête noire, who was nearly assassinated by Kremlin operatives and who navigated between east and west.What you may already notice is that Ukraine is complicated. That collusion narrative you've been sold since November 8, 2016? It's a caricature.The people peddling it know that Americans are clueless about the intricacies of politics in a former Soviet satellite and the grubby bipartisan cesspool of international political consultancy. You are thus to believe that the Party of Regions was nothing but a cat's paw of Moscow; that Manafort went to work for Yanukovych, the party's Putin puppet; and that Manafort's entrée into the Trump campaign was a Kremlin coup, a Russian plot to control of the White House.Sure. But then . . . where's the collusion charge? If that's what happened, where is the special counsel's big indictment of a Trump–Russia conspiracy, with Manafort at its core?There is no such case because the collusion narrative distorts reality.Manafort is not a good guy. He did business and made lots of money with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs who, largely through their organized-crime connections, made their fortunes in the post-Soviet gangster-capitalism era, when the spoils of an empire were up for grabs.Manafort got himself deeply in hock with some of these tycoons. He may owe over $25 million to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate. Deripaska, you've repeatedly been told, is Putin's oligarch. That may be true -- they are close enough for Putin to have intervened on his behalf when the U.S. government imposed travel restrictions. But former senator Bob Dole intervened on Deripaska's behalf, too. So did the FBI, when they thought Deripaska could help them rescue an agent detained in Iran. So did Christopher Steele, the former British spy of Steele-dossier infamy.Having business with Deripaska did not make Manafort a Russian spy. No more than taking $500,000 from a Kremlin-tied bank made Bill Clinton a Russian spy. For a quarter century, the United States government encouraged commerce with Russia, notwithstanding that it is anti-American and run like a Mafia family. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton worked with the Putin regime to develop Moscow's version of Silicon Valley. Business with Russia was like what the Clintons used to tell us about lies about sex: Everybody does it.Manafort's business eventually soured. There is good reason to believe that, once he was installed as chairman of the Trump campaign -- when Trump looked like a sure GOP-nomination winner and general-election loser -- Manafort tried to monetize his position of influence. He hoped to make himself "whole," as he put it, by demonstrating that he was once again a political force to be reckoned with -- offering Deripaska briefings on the campaign, offering his Ukrainian oligarch benefactors polling data showing that Trump had a real chance to win.Manafort likes the high life. Running with this crowd helped him live it, and helped him hide most of his money overseas, in accounts he could stealthily access without sharing his millions with the taxman.But all that said, Manafort was not a Russian agent. Even Robert Mueller, who went after him hammer and tongs, never accused him of that.When his Ukrainian oligarch sponsors asked him to take Yanukovych on as a client, Manafort was reluctant. Yanukovych was essentially a thug who grew up in the Soviet system. The corruption of the 2004 presidential election, which Yanukovych's Kremlin-backed supporters tried to steal, ignited Kiev's Orange Revolution. Manafort, a cold-blooded Republican operative who had cut his teeth fighting off the Reagan revolution in the 1976 Ford campaign, calculated that Yanukovych was damaged goods.But in the shadowy world of international political consultancy, money talks and scruple walks. Manafort's oligarch patrons made the Regions reconstruction project worth his while. He remade Yanukovych from the ground up: Learn English, warm to Europe, embrace integration in the European Union, endorse competitive democracy, be the candidate of both EU-leaning Kiev and Russia-leaning Donbas.This was not a Putin agenda. It was an agenda for Ukraine, a country with a split personality that needs cordial relations with the neighborhood bully to the east as it fitfully lurches westward. Regions was a pro-Russia party, but that is not the same thing as being Russia. What the oligarchs want is autonomy so they can run their profitable fiefdoms independent of Kiev. They leverage Moscow against the EU . . . except when they talk up EU integration to ensure that they are not swallowed up by Moscow. What the oligarchs mainly are is corrupt, which suited Manafort fine.The unsavory business was successful for a time. Regions returned to power. Yanukovych finally won the presidency and immediately announced that "integration with the EU remains our strategic aim." It was a triumph for Manafort, but a short-lived one. While Yanukovych rhapsodized about rising to Western standards, he ran his administration in the Eastern authoritarian style, enriching his allies and imprisoning his rivals.The latter included Tymoshenko, who was prosecuted over a gas deal she had entered when she was prime minister -- with Putin. Russia bitterly criticized her prosecution, and when she was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, the Kremlin blasted Yanukovych's government for pursuing her "exclusively for political motives." Manafort, meanwhile, continued to airbrush Yanukovych's image in the West, scheming with lobbyists and a law firm to help him defend the controversial Tymoshenko trial -- a scheme abetted by lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who eventually pled guilty to making false statements to Mueller's investigators.Yanukovych's moment of truth came in late 2013. He was poised to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, a framework for integration. Putin furiously turned up the heat: blocking Ukrainian imports, drastically reducing Ukrainian exports, bleeding billions of trade dollars from Kiev's economy, threatening to cut off all gas supplies and drive Ukraine into default. Manafort pleaded with his client to stick with the EU. Yanukovych caved, however, declining to enter the Association Agreement and making an alternative pact with Putin to assure gas supplies and financial aid.It was over this decision that the Euromaidan protests erupted. Yanukovych fled the country in early 2014, given sanctuary in Moscow. Subsequently, Regions renounced Yanukovych, blaming him for the outbreak of violence and for looting the treasury. The party disbanded, with many of its members reemerging as the Opposition Bloc, the party to which Manafort gravitated -- along with his partner, Konstantin Kilimnik, and his lobbyist associate, W. Samuel Patten. (Like Manafort, Patten has pled guilty to working as an unregistered agent of Ukraine; Kilimnik, who is in Russia, was indicted by Mueller for helping Manafort tamper with witnesses.)Paul Manafort is a scoundrel. He was willing to do most anything for money -- even offering to burnish Putin's image as he burnished Yanukovych's. But Manafort was never a Kremlin operative working against his own country, except in the fever dreams of the Clinton campaign's Steele dossier. And his crimes notwithstanding, he'd be a free man today if Mrs. Clinton had won. Instead, he'll be sentenced yet again next week. And this time, he'll get slammed.
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| Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez struggles to defend Rep. Omar Posted: 08 Mar 2019 05:57 AM PST  The freshman Democrat lawmaker calls the anti-Semitism controversy a 'learning experience.
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| Maverick Republican William Weld looks to run against Trump's 'malignant narcissism' Posted: 08 Mar 2019 06:27 AM PST  Weld has special credentials to make that judgment: As a young lawyer, he served on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach Nixon, spending five months researching a memo that laid out the legal grounds to remove a president.
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| KitchenAid has a new line of cooking utensils exclusive to Walmart, and we want them all Posted: 09 Mar 2019 02:00 AM PST  KitchenAid has a new Walmart-exclusive line of cooking gadgets and tools -- possibly as a tribute to KitchenAid's 100th birthday a few months ago -- and we are psyched. KitchenAid is our jam. There are no new stand mixers in the collaboration (boo), but other gorgeous cooking gear like utensils, strainers, bowls, and more can up the style factor in your kitchen. And that stuff is just as important as the big appliances.SEE ALSO: Walmart just launched a new line of furniture and it's actually really niceNot surprisingly, you can expect premium materials, heat-resistant handles, stainless steel blades, and dishwasher-safe plastic. It's all super affordable like the rest of Walmart's prices (nothing over $40, actually), but still rocks that KitchenAid name and quality. That's a win-win you won't find anywhere else. A few of our favorite pieces are below, but you can shop the whole collection here. KitchenAid 15-piece kitchen tool and gadget set -- $39.97Image: kitchenaidBuying the must-have utensils separately just doesn't make sense when you can snag 'em in a set. New college students, homeowners, or anyone learning to cook more than noodles will appreciate having a slotted spatula, basting spoon, euro peeler, can opener, a set of four measuring cups, and a set of five measuring spoons, all in one box for less than $40. Get it all here. Nonslip ice cream scoop -- $8.97Image: kitchenaidWhy does it seem like there's never an ice cream scoop around when you need one? This stainless steel head was designed to push through even the toughest straight-from-the-freezer ice cream, and the silicone handle won't freeze your hand. Skip the defrosting process, scoop your dessert, and throw it in the dishwasher. Get it here. 4-piece prep bowls and lids -- $9.97Image: kitchenaidConserve some of that precious cabinet space with this set of four bowls that double as meal prep or storage containers. Use the included lids to stack them in the fridge, or nest the set when they're not being used. Get them here. 7-inch stainless steel mesh strainer -- $12.97Image: kitchenaidPasta ain't the only thing you need a clean strainer for -- especially with summer not so far away. Strain your noodles, fresh veggies, and fruits with this premium oval strainer, made with durable stainless steel mesh and a metal lip for hands-free straining over a bowl. Get it here. Stainless steel tongs -- $12.97Image: kitchenaidStop using a spatula to pick up a steak or a spoon to serve salad -- it's time to get tongs like an adult. These stainless steel tongs are topped with silicone grabbers to gently grasp meats, veggies, spaghetti, and more. The silicone is heat-resistant up to 500 degrees (!), and they can go in the dishwasher. Get them here. Image: kitchenaid Shop the Walmart-exclusive KitchenAid collection See Details
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| US-backed fighters could soon resume offensive against IS Posted: 09 Mar 2019 09:34 AM PST  BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — U.S.-backed fighters could soon resume an offensive against the Islamic State group in the last area they control in Syria, an official said Saturday, adding that the battle against the extremists is expected to take three days.
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| Wisconsin man jailed for kidnap-murder confesses in letter -report Posted: 08 Mar 2019 10:24 AM PST ![Wisconsin man jailed for kidnap-murder confesses in letter -report]( "Wisconsin man jailed for kidnap-murder confesses in letter -report") Jake Patterson, 21, wrote to a reporter at KARE 11 News that he had acted "mostly on impulse" but does not "think like a serial killer," according to a copy of the Feb. 28 letter published by the Minneapolis-based television station. Patterson was charged in February with murder for the Oct. 15 shooting deaths of Closs' parents in Barron, Wisconsin, and for kidnapping the girl he is alleged to have targeted seemingly at random after spotting her boarding a school bus. KARE 11 News said the letter from the Polk County jail was sent to one of its reporters who wrote to Patterson asking him whether he had any remorse or regret for the crimes.
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| The Queen Just Gave Meghan Markle a Shiny New 'Vice President' Title. Here's What to Know Posted: 08 Mar 2019 05:24 AM PST  Meghan Markle was named Vice President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust to mark International Women's Day. Here's what that means.
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| Yes, There’s a Crisis at the Border Posted: 08 Mar 2019 03:30 AM PST  We interrupt the talk of the president "manufacturing" a crisis at the border with this hair-raising report about the crisis at the border.Alarming new numbers about border apprehensions from U.S. Customs and Border Protection should puncture the lazy conventional wisdom about the border being under control, except in the lurid imagination of President Donald Trump.More than 76,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the southern border last month, the highest February in more than 10 years and the highest month of the Trump administration. The number of apprehensions tops any month during the 2014 border surge under President Barack Obama, which no one had a problem calling a crisis at the time.Every indication is that the situation is going to get worse. We could be about to experience a migrant surge worthy of Angela Merkel at her most openhanded, even though, in immigration terms, Viktor Orban — the Hungarian prime minister who favors tough border enforcement — is president.Yes, there were more overall apprehensions in the 2000s. But it was a different population, made up overwhelmingly of adult males from Mexico who might be apprehended trying to cross multiple times and were reliably returned home when they were caught. Now, we are apprehending people but not returning them.Migrants are coming in greater numbers from Central American countries instead of Mexico, and are primarily families and children. In an astonishing shift, in 2012, 10 percent of apprehended migrants were families and children; in recent months, it's been 61 percent.The rules for dealing with migrants from noncontiguous countries and with family units make it all but impossible to swiftly return or detain them, not to mention that our physical facilities were built with single adults in mind.There is no mechanism to return these migrants home, to hold them after they cross the border, or to remove them once they are in the interior. And word has gotten out. There's a reason that the subset of migrants that we can't stop from getting into the country is growing so rapidly.Needless to say, a spiraling border crisis is maddening for a president committed to controlling the border, which is why we've seen such frenetic activity from Trump.He's tried to prosecute all adults crossing the border illegally, and had to abandon it in the (understandable) firestorm over the resulting family separations. He's tried to jawbone Mexico into helping, with some success, although migrants are still traveling through Mexico in large numbers. He's tried to tighten up asylum policy but been blocked in the courts. He's tried to get Congress to fix the rules for dealing with migrants, to no avail. And, of course, he's tried to build a wall.Trump's rhetoric may be over the top, but the impulse to get a handle on this is absolutely correct.First, there's the question of basic sovereignty. If we are going to welcome a large number of migrants from three or four foreign countries, we should make that decision as a conscious policy, rather than slip-sliding into it unawares.Then there's the matter of assimilation and legality. Poorly educated immigrants, like the ones coming from Central America, have the hardest time assimilating, and they will lack legal status on top of it.Finally, there's the humanitarian question. Migrant families show up needing medical attention that we aren't well prepared to provide. We'd be much better positioned to tend to the migrants under our care if the numbers weren't overwhelming.But we are at a stalemate. The New York Times editorialized the other day that Trump declared "that there's a crisis at the border, contrary to all evidence." Then, the paper ran a news story headlined, "Border at 'Breaking Point' as More than 76,000 Migrants Cross in a Month."Both of those pieces can't be right. There's manufacturing a crisis, and then there's ignoring one for fear of conceding anything to Trump.© 2019 by King Features Syndicate
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| In Gaza, women walk thin line between hope and despair Posted: 07 Mar 2019 11:54 PM PST  Amid the poverty and deprivation of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian women struggle to find a taste of normality that is taken for granted in much of the rest of the world. Nada Rudwan used to work in digital marketing, but as her work slowed - unemployment in Gaza stands at nearly 50 percent - she decided to put her tech skills towards one of her passions: cooking. "It is an attempt to beat the physical blockade of Gaza by finding a job that just needs some talent, a camera and internet connection," she said.
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| Canadian man behind mosque massacre appeals sentence: reports Posted: 08 Mar 2019 03:38 PM PST  A Canadian man sentenced to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole for the killing of six worshippers at a Quebec mosque in January 2017 has launched an appeal, local media reported Friday. Alexandre Bissonnette was convicted on February 8 to life imprisonment for the murders, the deadliest attack on a Muslim place of worship in the West. In their appeal at the Quebec courthouse, Bisonnette's lawyers argued that Judge Francois Hout had imposed "an illegal punishment, manifestly unreasonable and not indicated in ordering 40 years imprisonment before being eligible for parole," according to the public Radio-Canada.
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| Trump investigation designed to 'impeach or embarrass' president, furious leading Republican claims amid fury at Manafort sentence Posted: 08 Mar 2019 01:26 PM PST  President Donald Trump has again attacked the "witch hunt hoax" embroiling his administration following the sentencing of ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, declaring the outcome proved "no collusion" with Russia as Democrats decried the lenience of Manafort's 47-month sentence as a "miscarriage of justice". Departing for Alabama to tour the state's devastation by a recent tornado, the president found time to denounce his opposition as an "anti-Israel, anti-Jewish" party over Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's comments on the influence of Israeli interest groups in Washington, despite the House having passed a resolution condemning prejudice of all kinds by 402 to 23.
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| Google Assistant is getting an update that makes it easier to talk to Posted: 08 Mar 2019 06:03 PM PST  Having a conversation that feels natural with a digital assistant is still not in the same league as a person-to-person interaction, but there are certainly some assistive technologies that do a reasonably good job of mimicking it. We'd put Google Assistant in that category, thanks to the natural-sounding voice and the assistant's ability to understand a wide range of the complexities of human conversation.Still, that's not to say certain things can't be improved, which is why Google is starting to add support for its "Continued Conversation" feature to smart displays like the Google Home Hub. Basically, it's a way to not have to keep prompting the assistant with a "Hey, Google" trigger so that you can keep a conversation going.According to Google Assistant product manager Bibo Xu, this is an optional setting that can be turned on to enable you to have a more natural back-and-forth exchange with the assistant. "After you initially trigger the Assistant with a request, the Assistant will stay active for long enough to respond to follow up questions so you don't have to say 'Hey Google' as often," Bibo explains in a Google blog post.The feature can be turned on within the Google Assistant app by going to Settings, then Preferences, then Continued Conversation where you just hit the toggle.Meantime, Google is also taking this opportunity to actually add a number of other related enhancements to smart displays, such as "Interpreter mode." Say you have family members or some friends who speak different languages. With this new mode that's now available, all you have to do is say "Hey Google, be my French interpreter," and you can have a natural, easy-flowing conversation in dozens of languages.Other fun additions and improvements include some small touches that are still useful, like making it easier to dismiss some cards on the display's home screen when you no longer need them (just swipe up). It's also easier to manage multi-room audio with the displays, as well.Google's new update means you can add your smart display to a speaker group, and play music throughout the house. There are also new controls for adjusting the volume of any device in the group. All you have to do is tap on the group name of the player on the screen, and that will get things started.
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| Elizabeth Warren Calls to Break Up Amazon, Facebook, and Google Posted: 08 Mar 2019 08:41 AM PST ![Elizabeth Warren Calls to Break Up Amazon, Facebook, and Google]( "Elizabeth Warren Calls to Break Up Amazon, Facebook, and Google") The plan would unwind several of the last decade's high-profile mergers.
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| How Florida police snared nearly 300 — including Robert Kraft — at spas used for sex trafficking Posted: 08 Mar 2019 01:46 PM PST  The investigation, which ensnared nearly 300 alleged suspected johns, including New England Patriots' Robert Kraft, sparked a national conversation.
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| Fact: South Korea's Army Is Armed with Russian T-80 Main Battle Tanks Posted: 07 Mar 2019 06:00 PM PST  North Korea's worst nightmare?
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| ICE makes more arrests at decoy university Posted: 09 Mar 2019 07:42 AM PST  Federal immigration authorities made more arrests at a decoy university created to catch illegal immigrants.
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| Every Toyota-Built Hybrid You Can Buy (Lexuses Included!) Posted: 08 Mar 2019 11:25 AM PST |
| India slams Pakistan action against militants Posted: 09 Mar 2019 12:10 AM PST  India said Saturday that its army is on a "strict vigil" for new attacks from Pakistan and renewed warnings to its neighbour to take concrete action against militant groups. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman responded with scepticism to reports of scores of militants being rounded up in Pakistan this week. Islamabad was in "a state of denial" over its support for groups accused of staging attacks in India, the spokesman, Raveesh Kumar, said at a specially convened media briefing.
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| Where the investigations related to President Trump stand Posted: 08 Mar 2019 09:14 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — A look at where the investigations related to President Donald Trump stand and what may lie ahead for him:
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| China warns of repeating history's mistakes with Venezuela Posted: 08 Mar 2019 02:17 AM PST  The Chinese government's top diplomat issued a stern warning on Friday against interfering in Venezuela and imposing sanctions, saying history offered a clear lesson about not "following the same old disastrous road". China has repeatedly called for outsiders not to interfere in Venezuela's internal affairs and has stuck by embattled President Nicolas Maduro. Most Western countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state.
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| Women divided by race over key issues, but with areas of overlap Posted: 07 Mar 2019 09:01 PM PST  American women of all races want many of the same things, but they don't necessarily agree on what their biggest issues are, or the best way to solve them, according to the results of a new poll conducted by Langer Research Associates for Yahoo, HuffPost, Makers and other Verizon media brands, in partnership with Care. Two years into the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, most women agree that sexual harassment is a problem, but there's a significant difference between the races over how big: 80 percent of women of color call it a "serious" problem, compared to 63 percent of white women. In the fight for equal rights, one in five white women think it has gone too far or far enough, but that drops to 7 percent among black women.
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| Smollett's lawyer cites 'overkill' after actor indicted on 16 counts of lying to police Posted: 08 Mar 2019 06:47 PM PST  The "Empire" star's legal woes deepened after a Chicago grand jury indicted him on 16 felony counts of lying to police about alleged hate-crime attack.
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| Captain Marvel and Today’s Exhausting Feminism Posted: 08 Mar 2019 03:30 AM PST  Gird your loins, America, for I have a bone-rattlingly powerful tale to tell: In case you haven't heard, there is a new movie hitting theaters, and it will reportedly change the way you look at the world forever. It is called "Captain Marvel," and it is based on a comic-book superhero, and the superhero is played by . . . here, you might grab your smelling salts, because this is super groundbreaking and wildly controversial in the year 2019 . . . A WOMAN.Whoa! I know! It's mind-boggling! This has never happened before, except when it happened two years ago, when Wonder Woman came out, which was also when an impressively large press cohort collectively and conveniently forgot the countless strong female leads that had occurred even before then! Remember those fevered days? Remember when an alarming number of movie critics simultaneously lost their minds over the sheer raw feminism of Wonder Woman, documenting how they cried at the theater and declaring that viewing Wonder Woman might have been the most powerful experience of their life, which should deeply worry us all if that is indeed really true?It's okay if you don't remember: The Internet appears to be melting all of our brains. Anyway, I liked Wonder Woman, and I'm sure Captain Marvel is fine, despite the web of semi-hysterical press surrounding its release. The women in the film, intones one review at Forbes, "are pilots, they are scientists, they are warriors, and while some of the men around them might not understand that or accept it, the women don't frankly need them to and aren't going to wait around for the myopic men to catch up to the facts."Ah, yes! Those daft, myopic men, always fouling things up! But wait, there's more: "That's not to say, however, that Captain Marvel doesn't remind us of the sorts of daily frustrations, struggles, and inequalities women face in society — being told to smile more . . ."Wait. What? Let's stop here, shall we? Out of the world's massive crab bucket of problems, let us stop and consider the modern scourge among American women of being told to smile more. Has it been two seconds? Okay, that's probably enough time — although if you google "Captain Marvel" and "smile more," you will discover that many people fervently disagree.For the record, I have never been told to smile more. This deeply worries me, because perhaps it means I am smiling too much. Truly, it keeps me up at night, brooding like a superhero in anguish! Just kidding. It doesn't worry me at all, because it doesn't matter. I don't care, and neither should you, and nobody should be in a tizzy about this particular subject in general, because life is precious and very short.With that in mind, here's what does worry me a bit, even if it is a bit tangential: Captain Marvel, or at least the reception of it, might be a subtle indicator of how suffocating modern feminism has become.At a base level, the very idea of a superhero is innately goofy or farcical, or at least it should be. But Captain Marvel, by most accounts, is almost perfect: Strong. Beautiful. Driven. Ultra-powerful. According to Slate, she is a "serious, stolid type whose steel will and laser-focused commitment to her mission make her a formidable foe even when her fists aren't glowing orange with photon-blasting superpowers," which is impressive indeed.But what does it say about our culture that influential people take a movie like this — and similar so-called "representations" of women, which, as a reminder, are based on fictional comic-book characters with alien superpowers — so seriously? Perhaps it's because modern feminism has morphed into a crazed culture of unforgiving, humorless, and ultimately atomized workaholism. But hey, that's just my theory.On February 24, The Atlantic published a fascinating essay by Derek Thompson on the rise of American "workism," which he describes as a "kind of religion" that promises "identity, transcendence, and community" by centering one's life around work. While traditional religious faith has declined in America, Thompson notes, "everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants." Morph workism with feminism and boy, oh boy, you've got something to behold.I have a fairly old-school view when it comes to female empowerment: Women should be free to pursue their dreams, whether that involves being an astronaut or an accountant or a farmer or a stay-at-home mom. I've also been around long enough to see that American culture relentlessly pushes high-achieving young women to obsessively put their careers first in their lives, no matter what their ultimate personal goals might be — even if those goals involve having a family.As Thompson notes in The Atlantic, "having a job or career they enjoy" is noted as "extremely or very important" for 95 percent of teens. Only 47 percent rank getting married with the same importance. Between men and women, guess who loses more from this cultural phenomenon? (Hint: It's the half with the shorter biological clock.)Don't get me wrong: Work can be very good! I've done a lot of it myself. I'm as big a fan of free-market capitalism as the next red-blooded American who grew up during the Reagan administration, trust me. Unfortunately, the modern feminist vision somehow morphs that capitalism into its worst caricature, or a Hobbesian war of all against all. Weirdly, it also simultaneously suggests that we all should be getting up at 5 a.m. daily to prep for, say, three Ironman races a year — or, even better, as the Los Angeles Times recently put it, "train like a noble Kree warrior hero" based on Captain Marvel star Brie Larson's nine-month pre-movie workout plan. Right.Alternatively, you could just go running a few times a week and call it a day. Forget "leaning in," America — lean out with me! Let's start a movement together! You won't get to be a proverbial Captain Marvel, but that's okay. Like much of today's pop feminism, that sounds kind of exhausting and not very fun.
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| Man wins mega millions jackpot to tune of $273m after stranger returns lost lottery ticket Posted: 09 Mar 2019 09:28 AM PST  An unemployed New Jersey man won a $273m (£210m) Mega Millions lottery jackpot last week after a stranger found and returned the winning ticket he had left behind on a shop counter. The man, Michael J Weirsky, told reporters on Thursday he lost two tickets immediately after he bought them at a QuickChek in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, on the day before the lottery draw. Mr Weirsky had spent hours searching for the tickets when he got to his home in Alpha, New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania border.
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| 9 Interior Design Trends to Look Out for in 2019 Posted: 08 Mar 2019 06:43 AM PST ![9 Interior Design Trends to Look Out for in 2019]( "9 Interior Design Trends to Look Out for in 2019") An October 2018 report from the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University projected that remodeling spending is expected to grow to more than $350 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Whether you're renovating your home for yourself, updating your home to sell or looking to spice up a living space that you rent, you'll see some new trends entering the interior design field this year -- and others easing out of the spotlight. An interior design trend, by definition, is the temporary popularity of a style, pattern, color or approach to decor.
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| Trump brands Democrats as 'anti-Jewish' party Posted: 08 Mar 2019 10:57 AM PST  US President Donald Trump blasted Democrats as "anti-Israel" and "anti-Jewish" Friday after they passed a congressional measure opposing hate speech in general instead of specifically condemning alleged anti-Semitic comments by a Muslim congresswoman. "I thought yesterday's vote by the House was disgraceful," Trump told reporters at the White House. The resolution was originally intended to deliver a direct rebuke of anti-Semitism following controversial comments by a Muslim Democratic congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, that were deemed anti-Semitic and offensive by many colleagues.
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| Vietnam says investigating cause of boat's sinking in contested waters Posted: 09 Mar 2019 04:01 AM PST ![Vietnam says investigating cause of boat's sinking in contested waters]( "Vietnam says investigating cause of boat's sinking in contested waters") Vietnam is seeking clarification of how a fishing boat came to sink this week in the contested South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, days after a local rescue agency said it was rammed by a Chinese vessel. Vietnam and China have long been embroiled in maritime disputes in the potentially energy-rich stretch of water, called East Sea by Vietnam. It said all five fishermen on board were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat.
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| Duck reportedly survives after getting swallowed by Lake Berryessa's 'Glory Hole' spillway in Napa County Posted: 08 Mar 2019 06:13 AM PST  Did the duck survive or not? One man says the bird made it out alive after getting swallowed by Lake Berryessa's famous spillway. Some experts, however, are skeptical.
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| February Jobs Report Weakest in 30 Months Posted: 08 Mar 2019 02:15 PM PST  The economy produced only 20,000 new jobs in February for its weakest showing since September 2017, according to the Labor Department's monthly report.While unemployment declined from 4 percent to 3.8 percent and employment in wholesale trade, professional and business services, and health care trended upward in February, construction jobs declined by 31,000, a possibly worrisome sign.Economic analysts offered a range of reactions to news of the weak job-creation numbers. Some, citing projections of slower economic growth in the first quarter of 2019, expressed concern over the report's lackluster numbers, pointing out that economists had expected around 180,000 jobs to be added in February. Others speculated that the economy may be close to job saturation. And others argued that the economy was still resetting from the 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, which lasted from the end of December to January.Yet others pointed to the long-term trend -- a record 101 consecutive months of positive job-creation numbers -- as a better indication of the direction of the economy.On Twitter, President Trump was quick to downplay economists' concerns after the report's release.> "This is as good a time as I can remember to be an American Worker. We have the strongest economy in the world." Stuart Varney @foxandfriends So true!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2019
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| After Ryan Adams expose, Mandy Moore chops her hair: I'm 'shedding dead weight' Posted: 08 Mar 2019 02:49 PM PST  After a difficult and emotional few weeks, Mandy Moore is ready to power forward.
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