| U.S., Iran tensions unyielding, Europeans reject Iran 'ultimatums' over nuclear deal Posted: 09 May 2019 04:01 PM PDT  European countries said on Thursday they wanted to preserve Iran's nuclear deal and rejected "ultimatums" from Tehran, after Iran relaxed restrictions on its nuclear program and threatened moves that might breach the 2015 international pact. Iran's announcement on Wednesday, related to curbs on its stockpiling of nuclear materials, was in response to U.S. sanctions imposed following President Donald Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the accord with Tehran a year ago.
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| Colorado teen who plans to become Marine tackled suspected shooter Posted: 08 May 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Brendan Bialy, who plans to become a Marine, and other students helped stop one of the suspected shooters at STEM School Highlands Ranch.
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| William Barr: House votes to hold US attorney general in contempt over Mueller subpoena Posted: 08 May 2019 07:17 AM PDT  The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena to provide the Special Counsel's full report on Russian election interference and all of its underlying evidence. Mr Barr defied the subpoena after the Department of Justice claimed there was no basis for the request and threatened to urge Donald Trump to invoke executive privilege over the report in a scathing letter sent to Congress. Holding the attorney general in contempt lays the foundation for Congress to file a civil lawsuit, as well as a criminal referral to be sent to the US attorney's office in Washington. However, the courts could simply order Congress and the Justice Department to solve the inter-branch dispute amongst themselves, constitutional law experts have told The Independent. Wednesday marks the first time the Democratic-led House of Representatives has held a vote on and voted in favour of holding a member of the president's administration in contempt of Congress. More follows…
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| 5 Takes on Porsche's 911 Speedster, Designed by Our Staff Posted: 09 May 2019 08:31 AM PDT |
| Grieving Students Walk Out of Colorado School Shooting Vigil: ‘This Was Not About Us’ Posted: 08 May 2019 09:50 PM PDT  Rick Wilking/ReutersHIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado—A day after two students shot up a school, survivors walked out of a vigil organized by gun control advocates, saying they felt excluded from what should have been an opportunity to grieve.Team Enough and Moms Demand Action helped promote the Wednesday evening gathering, and more than 100 students and several hundred parents from the STEM School packed into the gymnasium bleachers, hoping to find community and catharsis.But after sitting through remarks by Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and realizing the program was centered around changing gun laws, students who had hoped to speak lost patience and walked out en masse."This was not about us. We can do our own vigil," one STEM student remarked.Students from Team Enough said the event was organized on such short notice they were unable to find a way to include STEM students in the program."I feel terrible. They did not feel represented. I get it," said Laura Reeves, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action who spoke at the vigil."This was put together in such a short time. I know they did their best. Emotions are raw and sad. They are grieving. They need to express their feelings. They need to be together. I am hoping their school can help facilitate that conversation beyond this week."Police have said two STEM students opened fire at the school on Tuesday, killing one and wounding eight before they were arrested. Any motive for the attack—20 years after the Columbine High School massacre just seven miles away—has not been disclosed.Heavy rain had kept surviving students cooped up at home, and many of them were looking forward to the vigil at a neighboring school. Things began to fall apart an hour in when organizers suggested any STEM students who wanted to speak gather in the hall outside the gym.A few rose to speak, but soon the crowd filed out and left. Standing outside the building in the freezing rain, some began chanting. But they quickly dispersed as Douglas County Sheriff's vehicles began arriving at the school.One mom of a STEM student said it was a case of good intentions gone wrong."I really appreciate what they tried to do here tonight, but our kids didn't want to be talked at," she said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| Ramaphosa's Economic Revamp at Stake as South Africa Votes Posted: 08 May 2019 03:21 AM PDT  While opinion polls point to the ruling African National Congress extending its quarter-century monopoly on power in Wednesday's vote, Ramaphosa needs a decisive win to quell opposition in his faction-riven party to push through reforms needed to spur growth in Africa's most-industrialized economy. "The margin is extremely important," said Melanie Verwoerd, an independent analyst and former ANC lawmaker. "It will be significantly more dangerous and difficult for Ramaphosa to deal with his detractors within the ANC should the result fall below 55 percent.
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| China holds appeal hearing for Canadian sentenced to death Posted: 09 May 2019 12:18 AM PDT  BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court held an appeal hearing Thursday for a Canadian who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling in a case that has deepened a diplomatic rift between the two countries.
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| Health funding gap means 1,700 in Gaza may face amputations: U.N. Posted: 08 May 2019 04:22 PM PDT  A lack of health funding in Gaza means 1,700 people shot by Israeli security forces may have to have amputations in the next two years, Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters on Wednesday. McGoldrick said 29,000 Palestinians had been wounded in protests in the past year, and 7,000 of them had gunshot wounds, mostly in the lower legs. "You've got 1,700 people who are in need of serious, complicated surgeries for them to be able to walk again," McGoldrick said.
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| Best Gas Grills to Buy at Walmart Posted: 09 May 2019 12:50 PM PDT  You can find some terrific gas grills at your local hardware store and a dizzying array of options at home centers like Home Depot and Lowe's. Then there's Walmart and other discount stores, whic...
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| How UN scrutinises Iran's nuclear programme Posted: 08 May 2019 03:05 AM PDT  Iran's announcement on Wednesday that it would no longer respect limits on nuclear activities under a landmark 2015 deal have raised fresh fears over whether the painstakingly negotiated accord can survive. Tehran's move comes a year to the day since US President Donald Trump dramatically withdrew from the agreement and proceeded to re-introduce sanctions which have hit the Iranian economy hard. The UN's Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has had the delicate task of verifying the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), through regular inspections of Iranian facilities.
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| Prankster poses as Walmart manager and fires employees Posted: 09 May 2019 10:31 AM PDT  "YOU'RE FIRED": A Richmond Walmart employee was brought to tears after a prankster posed as an executive and fired her.
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| House Democrats vote to hold attorney general Barr in contempt of Congress Posted: 08 May 2019 05:06 PM PDT  Panel takes action after Barr refused to provide unredacted Mueller report, as Schiff subpoenas attorney general * Live: follow the latest US politics newsWilliam Barr speaks at a news conference on 18 April 2019. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/ReutersHouse Democrats voted on Wednesday to hold the US attorney general, William Barr, in contempt of Congress, citing his failure to hand over the full, unredacted version of the special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The decision came on a day of escalating tensions between Congress and the White House.Earlier on Wednesday, the White House invoked executive privilege to block the House judiciary committee's request for the full Mueller report and underlying evidence. Later in the day, the House intelligence committee chair, Adam Schiff, subpoenaed Barr for "documents and materials related Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, including all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials produced during the Special Counsel's investigation, the full unredacted report, and the underlying evidence". According to a statement from Schiff's office, the justice department must produce the documents by 15 May.The Senate intelligence committee, meanwhile, has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The panel is calling in the president's son to answer questions about his 2017 testimony to the panel as part of its investigation into Russian election interference.It is the first known subpoena of a member of Donald Trump's immediate family, and a new sign that the Senate panel is continuing with its own Russia investigation even after the release of Mueller's report on the same subject.The Democratic-led House judiciary committee approved the resolution to hold Barr in contempt by a party-line vote of 24-16."No person – and certainly not the top law enforcement officer in the country – can be permitted to flout the will of Congress and to defy a valid subpoena," Jerry Nadler, the judiciary panel's chairman, said of the decision to hold Barr in contempt. "It is our constitutional duty to respond."The contempt vote comes after Barr declined to meet a deadline of 6 May to provide Congress with an unredacted version of Mueller's report, detailing the special counsel's findings after a two-year investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice by the president.Barr has instead made a less redacted version of the report available to select members of Congress, who are prohibited from discussing the document with their colleagues.Members of the judiciary committee spent much of Wednesday morning sparring over the conclusions of the Mueller report, with Republicans accusing Democrats of leading a politically motivated crusade against the president.But Democrats insisted lawmakers had a right to review the Mueller report in full, pointing out that Mueller had squarely placed the findings of his investigation in the hands of Congress.The president's decision to invoke executive privilege and block Democrats' subpoena, Nadler said, "was a clear escalation in the Trump administration's blanket defiance of Congress' constitutionally mandated duties".The hearing was held after a series of 11th-hour negotiations between Nadler's panel and the justice department over the report failed to break the stalemate, prompting Democrats to charge ahead with the contempt vote and the first instance of the party using its House majority to take punitive action against a Trump administration official.In recent years, the justice department has declined to prosecute contempt cases against the attorney general or administration officials.The two most recent efforts to compel action from executive branch officials by holding them in contempt of Congress involved Barack Obama's former attorney general Eric Holder in 2012 and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in 2008. Both cases resulted in lengthy legal battles that outlasted the administration they served.Democrats have voiced frustration with Barr's handling of the report, suggesting the attorney general's actions were designed to protect the president.Barr has on multiple occasions characterized the report in ways that appeared to absolve Trump of wrongdoing, even though a redacted version of the Mueller report released on 18 April showed nearly a dozen instances in which the president or his campaign sought to obstruct justice.Additional reporting by Lauren Gambino
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| Twitter suspended 166,153 accounts for terrorism content in second half 2018 Posted: 09 May 2019 06:36 AM PDT  Twitter is making headway in tackling online terrorism content on its platform as it suspended over 166,000 accounts in the second half of last year, about a fifth less than in the previous period, the social media company said on Thursday. Together with Facebook and Google, Twitter is under pressure from regulators and governments worldwide to remove extremist content more rapidly or face more heavy-handed legislation. Announcing its latest transparency report, the company said its technical tools were producing results, with 91 percent of accounts promoting terrorism content proactively suspended by its internal technology, the majority of which happened before their first tweet because the data used to set them up raised red flags.
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| Students walk out of Colorado school shooting vigil, saying their trauma was being politicized Posted: 09 May 2019 12:23 PM PDT  Students at a vigil honoring Colorado high school shooting victim Kendrick Castillo chanted "mental health" when speakers discussed gun control.
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| New York moves to release Trump’s tax returns and reduce his pardon powers Posted: 08 May 2019 02:29 PM PDT  New York state has steadily passed legislation in recent days that seeks to limit the president's pardon powers and curtail his ability to withhold his tax returns from Congress. The state's senate voted on Wednesday in favour of a bill that requires local agencies to comply with requests for state tax returns from the heads of Congress's House ways and means committee, the Senate finance committee or the joint committee on taxation. New York's senate also voted to support legislation that allows state prosecutors — including attorney aeneral Letitia James — to file charges against certain members of the president's orbit if they have received pardons for federal crimes. Those who received presidential pardons would need to be members of the president's family, former employees, or there must be a clear and present conflict of interest in order for New York state to invoke its new so-called "double-jeopardy loophole".The senate's tax return legislation is expected to pass in the state assembly before governor Andrew Cuomo — a prominent opponent to Mr Trump — signs it into law. That means Mr Trump's home-state could be the first to provide Congressional committees probing the president's financial dealings with copies of his tax returns after the president defied modern precedent by refusing to disclose his returns. It also means the state's attorney general — who sailed to victory in her recent election on a message of holding the nation's most powerful institutions accountable — could soon be able to file new charges against Mr Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the president has suggested he may pardon. Manafort is a former New York state resident currently serving a prison sentence over bank and tax fraud charges, as well as for witness tampering and failing to disclose lobbying work.Discussing the possibility of pardoning his ex-campaign boss in a November interview with the New York Post, Mr Trump said: "It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?"New York has been one of the most important states to have served as a form of checks-and-balances against Mr Trump's administration, launching subpoenas for multiple banks the president has been known to deal with and new investigations into his finances. "Here you have a president who is stonewalling the US Congress, a co-equal branch of government undertaking its important oversight responsibilities," New York state senator Brad Hoylman told CBS News about the tax legislation. He added, "Lo and behold, we have Donald Trump's tax returns here in the state of New York and we can provide them to Congress if the IRS, if the treasury department won't."
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| The Latest: Pope makes reporting child sex crimes mandatory Posted: 09 May 2019 12:41 PM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Latest on new church laws regarding sex abuse reporting issued Thursday by Pope Francis (all times local):
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| Berkshire takes $377 million charge tied to solar company that U.S. linked to fraud Posted: 08 May 2019 07:07 PM PDT  Berkshire said in its first-quarter report on Saturday it had invested $340 million in various tax equity investment funds from 2015 to 2018, before learning that federal authorities had alleged "fraudulent income conduct" by the funds' sponsor. "We now believe that it is more likely than not that the income tax benefits that we recognized are not valid," and took the charge for "uncertain tax positions" related to its investments, Berkshire said. Buffett's assistant Debbie Bosanek confirmed that the charge related to DC Solar.
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| Today’s top deals: $25 true wireless earbuds, $20 Wi-Fi cameras, $79 sous vide, SanDisk microSD sale, more Posted: 09 May 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Thursday's roundup of the best daily deals we can find is a good one, and includes very popular true wireless earbuds for just $25.49 when you use the coupon code FSOVHC7U at checkout on Amazon. Among the other highlights from today's list, you'll find $50 off half a dozen different Apple Watch Series 4 models, the lowest price of 2019 on the most popular Instant Pot in the world, a Wi-Fi home security camera that's somehow on sale for $19.99, Anova's newest sous vide cooker for just $79, $29.99 for the Roku Premiere with 4K and HDR support, all-time low prices on SanDisk microSD cards starting at just $7, a free Echo Dot when you buy a Ring Video Doorbell 2 for $80 off or a Ring Video Doorbell Pro for $100 off, Bose's excellent compact sound bar for just $199, and more. See all of today's best bargains below.
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| Russia planned to influence South African elections in favour of the ruling ANC, report suggests Posted: 08 May 2019 12:27 PM PDT  A Kremlin-linked Russian misinformation outfit attempted to sway Wednesday's general election in South Africa in favour of the ruling African National Congress, according to documents obtained by investigators. An organisation with ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, allegedly drew up plans to discredit South African opposition parties, including the pro-western Democratic Alliance. The claims, which emerged as voting was underway in South Africa, are the latest to link Mr Prigozhin to a growing network of Russian influence over the continent's politics. Known as "Putin's chef" because his company provided catering services to the Kremlin, the businessman may have deployed as many as 200 political strategists across the continent to help sitting presidents win elections, Russian newspapers have reported. Mr Prigozhin, who is also linked to the paramilitary Wagner Group, is under US sanctions after he was accused of running an online "troll factory" to bolster Donald Trump in the 2016 election. People queue in the early morning cold to cast their votes in the mining settlement of Bekkersdal Credit: AP Photo/Ben Curtis Attempts to influence South Africa's election were coordinated by Peter Bychkov, a political strategist working for Mr Prigozhin, according to documents obtained by the Daily Maverick, a respected South African newspaper, and the Dossier Centre, a London-based investigative unit. Funded by Mikhail Khordovkosky, a Russian oligarch and Putin critic, the Dossier Centre says it "investigates the criminal activities of various people associated with the Kremlin." Mr Bychkov's team purportedly created a think tank to act as a vehicle to tarnish Mmusi Maimane, the DA leader, and Julius Malema, the populist leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters. The team drew up documents, obtained by the investigators, that listed its proposed tactics, ranging from "generating and disseminating video content" and "coordinating with a loyal pool of journalists" to find ways "to discredit" the opposition. While it is not unusual for political parties to engage foreign political strategists, most spin doctors act on a commercial basis rather than for shadowy outfits linked to foreign governments. Inside Russia's 'troll factory': The agency accused of interfering in the US election There is no evidence to suggest that Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president and the leader of the ANC, was aware of the plans or whether they were ever implemented. Given that opinion polls show the ANC winning an overall majority, it is unclear what the Russian group hoped to achieve. However, the documents show it predicted, disingenuously, that the party would fall short of 50 percent, raising the possibility of Mr Ramaphosa having to rule in coalition with Mr Malema - an attempt, perhaps, to show its indispensability should the ANC achieve a clear win. Other documents suggest that Mr Prighozin also hoped to secure lucrative assets in South Africa's mining sector and to sign a deal to sell the government arms. The allegations may cast a shadow over Mr Ramaphosa's predicted victory. Profile | Cyril Ramaphosa But, despite growing political disillusionment, election day in South Africa still evinces an atmosphere rarely seen elsewhere, with older black voters still revelling in an experience that was denied them so long under apartheid. Emily Sefelane, a 62-year-old domestic worker voting in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, remembered how tough life used to be before white rule ended. "It was so hard here in those days," she said, recalling how she and her friends were often detained by police because they did not have permission to work in Johannesburg. But if voting remains an exciting and moving experience for older black South Africans, the country's younger generation are turning away from politics amid anger over corruption and the government's failure to lower unemployment, lift the economy and reduce inequality. Some six million people, most of them thought to be young, failed to register to vote and although the ANC will win, enthusiasm for the party that Nelson Mandela led to triumph a quarter of a century ago on Friday is arguably more tepid than it has ever been.
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| View Photos of the Buick GL8 Avenir Concept Posted: 09 May 2019 03:13 PM PDT |
| California Police Release Body Camera Footage of Officer Body Slamming Woman Posted: 07 May 2019 08:31 PM PDT  Eight videos were released by the Rio Vista Police Department from a traffic stop that resulted in an officer body slamming a woman over the weekend.
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| The Gloves Are Off in Democrats’ Battle With Trump Posted: 09 May 2019 03:03 AM PDT  The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena to provide the unredacted report of Robert Mueller's investigation into election meddling by Russia. Democrats – from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to high-profile presidential contenders – are increasingly casting their battle with the administration as one between democracy and tyranny. The president, acting on Barr's advice, formally asserted executive privilege yesterday to block the release of more information on Mueller's findings.
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| Older Americans are relying too much on Social Security as a main source of income Posted: 08 May 2019 06:03 AM PDT ![Older Americans are relying too much on Social Security as a main source of income]( "Older Americans are relying too much on Social Security as a main source of income") Older Americans are relying too heavily on Social Security as their main income source. Many are claiming benefits at age 62, lowering monthly payouts
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| Venezuela to prosecute lawmakers who backed failed uprising Posted: 07 May 2019 09:57 PM PDT  Venezuela will prosecute seven lawmakers who backed last week's failed uprising orchestrated by opposition leader Juan Guaido, the country's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, as Washington removed sanctions against Caracas' sacked spy chief for backing the revolt. Soon after the announcement, the Constituent Assembly -- which effectively acts as a regime rubber stamp -- stripped the seven lawmakers of their parliamentary immunity.
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| Dropbox raises full-year revenue forecast as paying users rise Posted: 09 May 2019 03:50 PM PDT  Shares of the company were up 4.6 percent at $24.30 in extended trading after Dropbox said it had 13.2 million paying subscribers at the end of three months on March 31. The total paying subscribers included 100,000 users from electronic signature company HelloSign, which Dropbox acquired for $230 million earlier in the year. Started as a free service to consumers, Dropbox now offers a range of enterprise software services and competes with companies such as Alphabet Inc's Google, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc in the cloud storage space.
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| Did Google just show us a Pixel 4 prototype at I/O 2019? Posted: 09 May 2019 08:44 AM PDT  Google's I/O 2019 keynote brought us several major announcements from the company, most of which focused on exciting innovations on the software front. Google Assistant was one of the show's highlights as Google found a way to reduce the size of the voice recognition software, and make it all happen on-device. The real-time on-device voice recognition demo on stage was easily one of the best things Google showed us. Google Assistant was able to deal with voice commands in rapid succession without missing a beat. But while we focused on the Assistant demo, we might have missed an incredible tidbit — Google may have used a product that's not available to anyone right now during the demo. Is it a Pixel 4 prototype? When Google ended that Assistant demo, a slide told us that the features we just saw are "coming to new Pixel phones later this year." This seemed to indicate that whatever hardware the Assistant needs to deliver all that real-time on-device voice-based magic might not be available on any of the existing Pixel phones, not even the Pixel 3. Looking again at the video and focusing on the hardware that a Googler named Meggie used to demo the Assistant, it's clear that it's covered in some protective gear meant to hide its design. Before we get to that, let's look at Pixel 3's current design. Here's what the rear cameras look like. Now let's look at the rumored Pixel 4 design, from a few weeks ago. Google might be going for a Galaxy S10-like design on the phone, according to some reports. The problem with this renders is that the camera placements aren't accurate. The punch-hole selfie camera and rear camera can't be on the same side of the phone. There's just no way the components would fit. The selfie cam should be placed on the left side of the screen. Here's the phone Meggie used — notice how the rear camera design isn't shown. That's not a lens we see there, it's the flashlight, which Google Assistant turns on and off during the demo. The front of the handset is even more puzzling. It's clear that we have at least one front-facing camera lens in there.
But what's with that strange notch-like cutout towards the left? What if that's a Galaxy S10-style hole-punch camera placed on the left side of the screen there? The phone we see in the demo definitely packs the kind of hardware that's needed to support the new Assistant experience. It's probably the Snapdragon 855 processor that's doing all the heavy lifting. Or maybe it's a special Pixel-banded chip built by Google running alongside the Snapdragon 855. We have no way of knowing, but in either case it's almost certainly not a publicly available Pixel phone being used in that demo. Google is reportedly exploring several Pixel 4 designs, according to a recent report, so we'll have to wait a while to see the final version get leaked.
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| No time to go 'wobbly': Pompeo scolds Britain over China and Huawei Posted: 08 May 2019 10:38 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Britain on Wednesday it needed to change its attitude towards China and telecoms company Huawei, casting the world's second largest economy as a threat to the West similar to that once posed by the Soviet Union. Pompeo questioned the attitude of Prime Minister Theresa May's government towards Beijing and goaded London by saying that the late former British leader Margaret Thatcher, who was known as the Iron Lady, would have taken a much firmer line with China.
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| Officials seek to open major spillway on Mississippi River Posted: 09 May 2019 03:41 PM PDT  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Army Corps of Engineers officials in Louisiana aim to open a historic flood control structure above New Orleans on Tuesday for an unprecedented second time in one year.
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| Donald Trump Jr summoned to testify again to Senate committee over Russia investigation Posted: 09 May 2019 01:13 AM PDT  The body which oversees the US intelligence services has formally summoned the president's son, Donald Trump Jr, to testify again over his alleged dealings with Russia ahead of the 2016 general election.The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is still examining Russian election interference, issued the subpoena after the testimony Mr Trump Jr gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 was later contradicted in a testimony given by his father's former attorney Michael Cohen.It is the first known subpoena of a member of Donald Trump's immediate family, and indicates the Senate panel is continuing with its own Russia investigation even after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the same subject. It is unclear if Mr Trump Jr will comply with the subpoena from the committee, which is chaired by Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. According to CNN the president's son is considering invoking his rights under the US constitution's fifth amendment, which do not compel him to attend unless he is indicted by a grand jury (such a move would indicate a strong legal case against him).Another option may be for him to simply not appear at all, the broadcaster said, citing "one source".A person "close to the president's eldest son", who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, told AP Mr Trump Jr has continued to cooperate by producing documents and answering written questions. The Senate Intelligence Committee has interviewed many of the same witnesses who spoke to Mr Mueller's team, and the committee has recently begun re-interviewing witnesses.These include the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who made a second appearance earlier this year.The committee's renewed interest in talking to Mr Trump Jr comes after Cohen testified earlier this year and said he had briefed Mr Trump Jr approximately 10 times about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow before the presidential election. But Mr Trump Jr had told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 he was only "peripherally aware" of the plans. The panel has also investigated a meeting between Mr Trump Jr, other Trump campaign staff and a Russian lawyer. Emails leading up to the meeting promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Cohen became the first of the president's inner circle to allege that, in 2016, Mr Trump knew in advance his eldest son was meeting Russians who claimed to have compromising information on Ms Clinton.Mr Mueller's report, released last month, said Cohen recalled being in Mr Trump's office "when Mr Trump Jr told his father that a meeting to obtain adverse information about Clinton was going forward".But the report said Mr Trump Jr told the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, that he did not inform his father about the emails or the upcoming meeting. This week Cohen arrived at prison to start a three-year sentence for crimes including tax evasion and campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments made to protect his former boss. A spokeswoman for the Senate Intelligence Committee would not confirm the subpoena. But Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican member of the panel, hinted after Cohen spoke behind closed doors to the Senate intelligence panel that the committee would want to talk to Mr Trump Jr again. She said senators "clearly need to re-interview some witnesses whose accounts [Cohen] contradicts".Additional reporting by AP.
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| Russia's Su-35 Fighter: So Good No Stealth Fighter Needed? Posted: 08 May 2019 06:30 PM PDT  As it currently stands, there is even a chance that the two fighters may use the same AL-41F1 engine.(This first appeared earlier this year.)"A unique machine, a deadly aerial fist," is how the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense introduced the Su-35S superiority fighter earlier this week.TV Zvezda's three-minute clip of a recent Su-35S training sortie over Syria provides close-up shots of the fighter jet being prepped for flight, taking off, cruising over the Syrian coast, and firing flares. On their youtube account, they published slightly extended footage of the same exercise.The first Su-35S fighters arrived at Russia's Khmeimim Air Base in 2016, relatively late into the Syrian Civil War. They performed well in their role of covering for Russian ground-strike aircraft during bombing missions against Syrian opposition targets, but then again-- there were no immediate airspace threats facing the Russia's Syrian forces in early 2016. The Su-35S was therefore limited to an air deterrence role amid an ongoing diplomatic row between Moscow and Ankara that wound down only in the latter half of 2016.
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| New York prosecutors allege sex cult leader was 'predator' Posted: 07 May 2019 07:06 PM PDT  "The defendant took advantage of them emotionally and sexually," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar said in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. ... He compared himself to Einstein and to Gandhi." But defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told jurors that all the women joined Nxivm voluntarily and that Raniere was merely a tough taskmaster, not an abusive criminal mastermind. Control can make gold medal winners." Raniere, 58, is accused of recruiting women to join his group, Nxivm, and then exercising total dominion over them - forcing them to have sex with him, restricting their diets and branding them with his initials.
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| Chevron bows out of battle over Anadarko Petroleum Posted: 09 May 2019 02:05 PM PDT  Chevron said Thursday it will not raise its bid for Anadarko Petroleum, ending a battle for choice US shale assets and clearing the way for an offer by Occidental Petroleum that is backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth, who had touted the deal with Anadarko last month, said it was now walking away because it did not want to overpay. The announcement came three days after Anadarko characterized Occidental's bid as "superior" to Chevron's, putting the onus on Chevron to either pony up more money or raise a white flag and walk away.
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| T-Mobile is the exclusive carrier of the OnePlus 7 Pro in the US Posted: 09 May 2019 12:34 PM PDT  Now that the Pixel 3a announcement has come and gone, OnePlus is next up to the plate with a phone reveal. But before the Chinese company takes the stage next week in New York City to formally unveil the OnePlus 7 series, T-Mobile has jumped the gun with an announcement of its own. According to a press release on Thursday, the OnePlus 7 Pro will be exclusive to T-Mobile in the United States. Launch events will be held in NYC on May 14th, with general availability set to follow at T-Mobile stores and on T-Mobile's website on May 17th.T-Mobile's launch events will begin on May 14th at the T-Mobile Signature Store in Times Square, beginning right after the OnePlus reveal event at Pier 94. On May 15th, OnePlus 7 Pro sales will open at all the Signature Stores in Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco and Santa Monica. The first 200 customers at all of these launch events will receive a OnePlus gift with purchase, as well as drinks, snacks, and limited-edition swag.Here's the full schedule for T-Mobile's OnePlus 7 Pro launch events next week in cities all across the US:> May 14th from 2pm-10pm ET> > * NYC T-Mobile Signature Store: 1535 Broadway St. Ste 161A New York, NY, 10036> > > May 15th, starting at 2pm local time> > * Chicago T-Mobile Signature Store: 700 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611> * Las Vegas T-Mobile Signature Store: 3791 S Las Vegas Blvd S. Ste 1300, Las Vegas, NV 89109> * Miami T-Mobile Signature Store: 738 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139> * San Francisco T-Mobile Signature Store: 1 Stockton St. San Francisco, CA 94108> * Santa Monica T-Mobile Signature Store: 1410 3rd St Promenade. Santa Monica, CA 90401> > > May 17th> > * OnePlus 7 Pro is available to pick up at any T-Mobile store and on T-Mobile.com> OnePlus will reveal the full details and pricing of its OnePlus 7 lineup at 11 a.m. ET on May 14th. You can head to this link on OnePlus's website to follow along live, and we'll have all the information here as well.
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| The 2020 BMW M8 Will Have Adjustable Brake-Pedal Feel Posted: 09 May 2019 10:20 AM PDT  The brakes are just one of the M8's long list of configurable settings and features.
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| N. Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning Posted: 09 May 2019 04:34 PM PDT  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.
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| Democrats elevate faith – and forgiveness – on campaign trail Posted: 08 May 2019 04:35 PM PDT ![Democrats elevate faith – and forgiveness – on campaign trail]( "Democrats elevate faith – and forgiveness – on campaign trail") Dear reader: Our top story today looks at how some of the Democratic presidential candidates are trying to reclaim religion from the far right, by openly discussing their faith on the campaign trail. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been at the forefront of this trend. At a forum last month, the openly gay mayor took on the religious right's opposition to gay marriage, saying he wishes the "Mike Pences of the world" would understand "that if you've got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me – your quarrel, sir, is with my creator." Yet some of Mr. ...
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| Alabama postpones draconian abortion law after 'fight breaks out' in assembly chamber Posted: 09 May 2019 03:42 AM PDT  Alabama politicians have postponed efforts to pass a draconian abortion measure after shouting and chaos erupted in the legislative chamber.Legislators were poised to pass what would have been the toughest restrictions in the United States and would have placed Alabama residents on a par with those in many parts of the developing world in terms of access to abortion.The measure already passed by the state's lower chamber only permitted abortion in cases where proceeding with a pregnancy seriously risked harming the health of the mother. The legislation would also make it a felony offence for doctors to carry out the procedure, with a maximum punishment of 99 years in jail.This week, an amendment was added that would have also permitted access to abortion in cases of rape and incest.Reports suggest that shouting and arguing broke out in the legislative chamber, located in the city of Montgomery, after Republicans sought to have those exemptions removed.The move shocked senate minority leader Bobby Singleton, a Democrat, who could be seen on video taken inside the chamber, calling for a roll call on every measure concerning the bill. "At least treat us fairly and do it the right way," said another Democrat, Vivian Davis, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. "That's all I ask….that's all women in this state ask, both Democratic and Republican."Feeling emboldened by Donald Trump's appointment to the US Supreme Court two conservative justices who may be open to challenges to Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that guarantees a woman's right to a safe, legal abortion, anti-abortion activists have helped push restrictions in more than two dozen states this year. > Here are the minutes following complete chaos on the Senate floor on abortion ban bill: pic.twitter.com/sr0zhfWl2Z> > — Lauren Walsh (@LaurenWalshTV) > > May 9, 2019On Tuesday, Georgia became the latest of a succession of states to impose an abortion ban after the sixth week of pregnancy – the so-called "heartbeat ban"."I realise that some may challenge it in a court of law but our job is to do what is right not what is easy," Georgia governor Brian Kemp, a conservative Republican said as he signed the bill into law.The push in Alabama has been led by state senator Terri Collins, who has said she hopes the legislation would trigger a legal battle that could force the Supreme Court in Washington DC reconsider the Roe ruling.She told local reporters this week, she opposed the amendments that would allow abortion in cases of rape or incest. "To accept another amendment that weakens the argument, or diverts the message of the argument, which is the baby in the womb is a person, dilutes the whole message," she said.The Associated Press said Thursday's hearing was brought to a halt by Republican Del Marsh, the second highest ranking member of the senate. He said legislators should go home for the weekend and resume debate on Tuesday. Mr Marsh is among those Republicans who support the additional exemptions for cases of rape and incestGovernor Ivey has not commented on the legislation as it made its way through the two chambers of legislature.She does, however, consider herself "pro-life", and supporters of the bill, which was approved by the lower chamber last week 74-3 last week, are confident she will sign it.Last week, the debate in the lower chamber became highly controversial and was seized on by conservatives across the country, after an opponent of the bill, used startling language as he spoke of his support for a woman's right to choose.Democrat John Rogers said he was not "about to be the male tell a woman what to do with her body"."Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or kill them later," he said. "You bring them into the world unwanted, unloved, then you send them to the electric chair. So you kill them now or you kill them later. But the bottom line is that I think we shouldn't be making this decision."
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| Uber drivers go on strike in London and U.S. ahead of IPO, early protests sparse Posted: 09 May 2019 02:37 PM PDT ![Uber drivers go on strike in London and U.S. ahead of IPO, early protests sparse]( "Uber drivers go on strike in London and U.S. ahead of IPO, early protests sparse") Protests were sparsely attended in London, New York and California, and rides appeared easily available in some cities where strikes were called. Drivers and regulators around the world have long criticized the business tactics of Uber Technologies Inc . The Uber app indicated fares were higher in London during a rainy morning rush hour due to increased demand.
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| Solar Drones Are Filling the Skies, But There's Still No Clear Winner Posted: 09 May 2019 10:32 AM PDT |
| Hey Google, stop trying to redefine privacy Posted: 08 May 2019 02:02 PM PDT  Privacy was one of the themes of Google's I/O keynote this year, and that's understandable given what the competition has been doing all these years. Yes, Apple -- but also the various privacy-related scandals that affected Facebook over the last year as well as Google. Sundar Pichai then doubled down on privacy by penning an opinion in The New York Times that seems to be redefining privacy in a way that fits Google's interests.The CEO also makes it all sound like Google has been protecting the user's privacy all this time, seemingly pretending that all those privacy offenses it had to deal with in recent years never happened.From the get-go, Pichai makes it sound like Apple is turning privacy into a luxury good -- Apple's name isn't used, but it's abundantly clear what he meant when he said that Privacy Should Not Be a Luxury Good.Nobody said that privacy should be a luxury good, and it's absolutely fine that Google is doing more to improve user privacy. The only reason Pichai can make that argument is because previous versions of Google products didn't offer the cheap privacy he envisions to everyone, which is what Pichai's Google wants to do now.Comparatively, privacy and security have been core Apple product features for a few years now. Before that, Apple never dealt in user data.The only reason you would say Apple's privacy is expensive is because you had no alternative from Google. Just last year, it was discovered that Google logged location data without explicit user permission, which is probably the number one reason why location privacy is now a priority for Google.And we could easily go back in time to point out many other privacy-related scandals that affected Google, including privacy-related fines that company "won" over the years. The last one came from France regulators back in January, by the way, for Google breaking the same GDPR rules that Pichai praises in his piece. We can't erase, or forget, any of that just because Pichai is now trying to redefine privacy in a direct relationship with how much you spend on it.> People today are rightly concerned about how their information is used and shared, yet they all define privacy in their own ways. I've seen this firsthand as I talk to people in different parts of the world. To the families using the internet through a shared device, privacy might mean privacy from one another. To the small-business owner who wants to start accepting credit card payments, privacy means keeping customer data secure. To the teenager sharing selfies, privacy could mean the ability to delete that data in the future.Privacy, to me, also means Google not hoarding all my data.By the way, all those privacy features coming in Android Q will not be available to 2.5 billion users when Q launches. People will need to spend money on new hardware to get them, wait many months for their device to get the update, or just deal with an Android version that's not as concerned with privacy.So yes, Google, by all means, improve privacy and security across all your services. But don't make it sound like you've always done it. Don't pretend you've never abused user data or breached the privacy of your users, and don't act as if your way of interpreting user privacy is a new thing. People have been worrying about the way you, Google, have been collecting all that data and potentially infringing on our privacy for years.You should read Pichai's op-ed in full at this link, and familiarize yourself with Google's privacy features, whether it's Android Q, Google Maps, Search, or YouTube.
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| Volkswagen's New EVs Will Officially Wear ID Names, Starting with the ID.3 Posted: 08 May 2019 07:16 AM PDT  This ID.3 electric hatch will launch in Europe first, while other ID models are coming to the U.S. starting next year.
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| Nine-Year-Old Boy in Michigan Accused of Killing His Mother Posted: 08 May 2019 07:32 PM PDT  A nine-year-old boy in St. Joseph County is facing murder charges, accused of killing his mother.
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| Trump: White House considering asserting executive privilege to hinder congressional probes Posted: 09 May 2019 12:34 PM PDT  In Washington Post interview, Trump said Democratic-led investigations are unnecessary given results of special counsel Robert Mueller's report.
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| Venezuela Supreme Court chief rebuffs Pence's threats of sanctions Posted: 08 May 2019 04:27 PM PDT  Venezuela's Supreme Court head, Maikel Moreno, on Wednesday rebuffed the U.S. government's threats to sanction members of his court if they did not reject President Nicolas Maduro's government and back opposition leader Juan Guaido. The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions in 2017 on Moreno and the seven principal members of the court's constitutional chamber for rulings that "usurped the authority" of the opposition-controlled legislature, the National Assembly, now headed by Guaido.
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