| Trump unveils immigration and border security bill in Cabinet meeting Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:08 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump presented a bill to his Cabinet on Tuesday aimed at boosting border security and overhauling the current immigration system to make it more merit-based, a senior administration official said. The president will meet with Republican congressional leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy later on Tuesday to map out a way forward, the official added, requesting anonymity. "The goal of this has been to unify the Republicans as much as possible around a plan," he said, noting that divisions with the GOP over policy issues had hindered immigration reform bids in the past.
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| What If America Lost a Carrier in a War with Iran? Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:41 PM PDT  The Navy simply lacks enough ships and aircraft to meet the increasing demands of its global mission. The recent oil tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman reinforce the need to reestablish a highly visible U.S. naval deterrent in the Middle East. For eight months last year, no aircraft carrier strike group plied the region, the longest such interruption this millennium. With the United States needing a more robust posture against Iran and confronting renewed challenges in Asia and Europe, several immediate measures and concerted longer-term efforts are critical to ensure America has the carriers it needs.The requirement to maintain carrier presence in the Middle East is a critical part of a broader national security strategy, in which U.S. global security interests necessitate a worldwide force presence. Indeed, the Navy's mission demands remain as high as those of the Cold War, calling on ships to be everywhere seemingly at once, but today's fleet is less than half the size it was 30 years ago.During the Obama administration, a "rebalance" supposedly allowed the Pentagon to focus on Asia and Europe while washing its hands of the Middle East. In reality, we never effectively rebalanced forces in the Indo-Pacific, and the situation on the ground forced us to remain deeply involved in the Middle East. Now with a growing Iranian threat, it would be imprudent to suddenly abandon the region, even as we face renewed challenges in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean.(This first appeared in June 2019.)
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| The Latest: Construction gear nears Hawaii telescope protest Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:27 PM PDT  Police in riot gear are lined up on a road in Hawaii where an estimated 2,000 people are gathered to protest construction of a telescope on a mountain that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe says officials on Wednesday closed a highway leading to the protest site so a convoy of construction equipment can be brought up Mauna Kea. Protesters are off to the side of the road, singing.
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| Jon Stewart Eviscerates Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victim Funding: ‘It’s an Abomination’ Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:00 PM PDT  One month ago, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart went on Fox News to shame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for failing to protect 9/11 first responders. Wednesday afternoon, he was back on that network to give his fellow Republican senator from Kentucky a piece of his mind. In an interview with Bret Baier, Stewart immediately took aim at Rand Paul who, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), blocked a Senate bill that would extend the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, making the case that it should be offset by other spending cuts. Responding directly to Paul, Stewart called his objection "absolutely outrageous," adding, "Pardon me if I'm not impressed in any way by Rand Paul's fiscal responsibility virtue signaling." Jon Stewart Fires Back at Mitch McConnell on 'Colbert': Stop 'Jacking Around' 9/11 First RespondersStewart went on to condemn Paul for supporting President Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut that "added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit" and now trying to "balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community." "Bret, this is about what kind of society we have," a clearly furious Stewart continued. "At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries. And what Rand Paul did today on the floor of the Senate was outrageous." "He is a guy who put us in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt," he said of Paul. "And now he's going to tell us that a billion dollars a year over 10 years is just too much for us to handle? You know, there are some things that they have no trouble putting on the credit card, but somehow when it comes to the 9/11 first responder community—the cops, the firefighters, the construction workers, the volunteers, the survivors—all of a sudden we've got to go through this." Appearing next to Stewart was 9/11 first responder and activist John Feal, who thanked the host and Fox News as a whole for being so "generous" with their time on this issue before calling Senators Paul and Lee "bottom-feeders" who "lack humanity" and "lack leadership."Stewart said survivors like Feal and others shouldn't have to "drag themselves back to Washington, put their hats in their hands and beg for something that this country should have done 14 years ago," adding, "It's an abomination." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'Dangerous': Air Force responds to plans to 'storm Area 51' and 'see them aliens' Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:39 AM PDT  As more than a million people on Facebook say they're "going" to a joke event to "storm Area 51," the U.S. military has responded to the plans.
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| Investigators 'discover mysterious 200lb load' on board MH370 after take-off Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:55 AM PDT  Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered a "mysterious 200lb load" added to the flight list after take-off, according to an engineer whose wife and two children were on board. Ghyslain Wattrelos said the cargo was revealed in a report on the passengers and baggage by French investigators. Mr Wattrelos, who believes the flight was deliberately downed, told Le Parisien newspaper: "It was also learned that a mysterious load of 89 kilos was added to the flight list after take-off. A container was also overloaded, without anyone knowing why. It may be incompetence or manipulation. Everything is possible. This will be part of the questions for the Malaysians." MH370 became one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries when it vanished with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. French investigators who examined flight data at Boeing's headquarters in Seattle believe that the pilot was in control of the airliner "right up to the end". A modern mystery | Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Mr Wattrelos said the investigators told him the data "lends weight" to the theory that the pilot crashed into the sea in a murder-suicide, although they stressed that there was no proof. The investigators expect it to take up to a year to examine the data fully. However, some experts believe a hijack by a stowaway is a possibility and the mysterious load could lend credence to the theory. Tim Termini, an aviation security specialist, told Channel 5 earlier this month: "It's highly likely that a hijack took place and again, there's four options for the hijack. "One is the hijack of the aircraft through a crew member. The second is a hijack coming from a passenger. A third option, which is a fairly unusual one, would be a stowaway. And then of course the fourth option is an electrical takeover of the aircraft from a ground-based station." Mr Wattrelos, 54, who has led a campaign to find out what happened to the flight, acknowledged that "there is a risk that I may never learn the full truth." Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.
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| UK raises alarm after mother held by Iran is taken to mental ward Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:38 AM PDT  London demanded the immediate release Wednesday of a jailed British-Iranian aid worker whose husband said she has been transferred to the mental ward of a public hospital in Tehran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case has roiled Britain's relations with the Islamic republic since her 2016 arrest and conviction on sedition charges over which she has held a series of hunger strikes. "We are extremely concrned about Nazanin's welfare and call for her immediate release," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said.
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| North Carolina father of 7 dies trying to save his drowning children at beach Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:36 PM PDT  A North Carolina father drowned Sunday while rescuing two of his youngchildren who were swept away by a wave while walking on a submerged jetty atWrightsville Beach
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| From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:10 AM PDT ![From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans]( "From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans") GENEVA/WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - The increased use of drones by Iran and its allies for surveillance and attacks across the Middle East is raising alarms in Washington. The United States believes that Iran-linked militia in Iraq have recently increased their surveillance of American troops and bases in the country by using off-the-shelf, commercially available drones, U.S. officials say.
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| Teachers union has become an arm of the abortion-rights left. Conservatives should quit. Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:00 AM PDT  Why would the NEA go out of its way to take extreme stands on hot-button issues so far removed from the real problems facing our nation's schools?
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| Your Kids Won't Have Any Room For Candy After These Halloween Dinner Ideas Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT |
| Brazil Police Shut Down a Factory Making Fake Ferraris and 'Shamborghinis' Posted: 17 Jul 2019 06:44 AM PDT  Brazilian police say they've shut down a clandestine factory that was producing fake Ferraris and sham Lamborghinis
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| New York businesswoman and Jamaican immigrant Scherie Murray launches campaign to unseat Ocasio-Cortez Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:47 PM PDT  "There's a crisis in Queens and it's called AOC," said Scherie Murray, a Republican businesswoman who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez in 2020.
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| Australia calls on China to let Uighur mother and son leave Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Australia's government on Wednesday called on China to allow an Australian child and his Uighur mother to leave the country, days after co-signing a letter denouncing Beijing's treatment of the Muslim minority. China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities into re-education camps in tightly controlled Xinjiang region, in the country's northwest. Sadam Abdusalam has campaigned for months for his Uighur wife, Nadila Wumaier, and their son Lutifeier, whom he has never met, to be allowed to come to Australia.
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| 'You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court Posted: 17 Jul 2019 01:34 AM PDT !['You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court]( "'You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court") Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared he will never be tried by an international court for mass killings in his war on drugs, and vowed no let up in a crackdown that he said he was winning and would see through "to the very end". In a television interview with a celebrity pastor, the firebrand leader said the Philippine justice system was working fine, so it would be "stupid" to imagine he would let an international court put him on trial.
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| Ilhan Omar to Maddow: Trump Is ‘Corrupt,’ ‘Inept,’ and the ‘Worst President We’ve Had’ Posted: 15 Jul 2019 08:23 PM PDT  MSNBCHours after Rep. Ilhan Omar and the rest of the so-called Squad hit back after being subjected to two days of President Trump's racist attacks, the Minnesota Democrat appeared on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show to follow up on their fiery Monday press conference.Following a series of racist tweets on Sunday in which the president called for Democratic congresswomen of color to "go back" to where they "came" from, the president doubled down on Monday. Singling out Omar, Trump falsely claimed that the Muslim congresswoman supported al Qaeda while further accusing her of "hating Jews." He also brought up remarks she made earlier this year about the 9/11 terror attacks that sparked intense conservative outrage, prompting an increase in death threats against Omar.After noting during Monday's presser that "every single person who's brown or black in this country has heard" Trump's call to leave the country, Omar was asked by Rachel Maddow how she was able to absorb the president's racist attacks."Look, many of us, as I said today, when we are brown and black in this country have been subjected to the old racist trope of 'go back to where you came from,'" the Minnesota lawmaker replied. "Whether it happens at a school playground or inside the hallway or someone shouting at you in the street, many of us have had our responses."She added: "And now today and yesterday we had to figure out how to respond to it coming from the president of the United States. We were reminded, something that my 7-year-old says, 'Does he know he is the president of the United States?'"Maddow went on to note that Omar and her fellow "Squad" members—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley—now have an "incredibly hot spotlight on them, adding that Trump is obviously targeting them on purpose in an effort to distract."Obviously you have a platform because you are looked to for a response to these attacks from the president that is of his making, but also you get to speak on your own terms once you get that," Maddow wondered aloud. "How do you sort of avoid helping him do his work of distracting from the kinds of things you just described?" Saying that she has an opportunity to both call the president out and talk about the direction she believes the country should be moving in, Omar proceeded to absolutely blast Trump."This is a president who believes it is OK for him to think that people who say something that will move this country forward should be deported," she said. "He's called on us to go back and fight corruption and fight these countries that have worse leaders and inept leaders.""We are living in one," Omar continued. "He is that president. He is corrupt. He is the worst president we have had. He is inept and we are going to call him out for it. We are going to hold him accountable."She concluded the interview by reiterating her belief that Trump needs to be impeached and that it is now time to start that process.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Arrested reporter slams conditions at US detention centers Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:24 PM PDT  A Spanish-language reporter who was recently released from immigration custody said Wednesday he was held for 15 months in detention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe with cold water from water hoses. During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he called inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last week as immigration courts consider his request for asylum.
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| Police: 19-year-old lifeguard attacked during large altercation at pool in Mayfair Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:50 PM PDT  Philadelphia police are investigating after they say a 19-year-old lifeguard was attacked in the city's Mayfair section.
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| Boris Johnson rejects EU compromise and pushes Britain towards the no-deal Brexit cliff edge Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:58 AM PDT  The likely next prime minister said he would not accept a time-limit or exit mechanism on the contentious backstop for Northern Ireland.
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| 2-year-old girl who disappeared from Michigan campsite found alive Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:49 AM PDT  Police have found the 2-year-old who went missing from a campsite in Comins Township, Michigan, on Monday. The search lasted more than 24 hours.
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| Wary US swimmers share waves with deadly sharks off Cape Cod Posted: 17 Jul 2019 01:14 AM PDT  At the entrance to Newcomb Hollow Beach, at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula, the picture of a great white shark reminds swimmers that the US shores of the Atlantic must be shared with the ocean's most feared predator. The great whites swim to this region in the northeastern United States to hunt for one of their preferred foods -- seals. Since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972 the number of seals in Cape Cod has grown to more than 50,000.
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| Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:06 AM PDT ![Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup]( "Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup") Italian and U.S. police have launched a coordinated crackdown against major crime families who were looking to rebuild their Mafia powerbase in Sicily, Italian investigators said on Wednesday. More than 200 police, including officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have been carrying out 19 arrest warrants since dawn targeting the Inzerillo clan in Sicily's capital Palermo and the New York-based Gambino family. Sicily's organised crime group, known as 'Cosa Nostra' (Our Thing), has been in a state of flux since the death of the feared boss of bosses Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who died in prison in 2017 after spending almost a quarter of century behind bars.
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| House Vote to Repeal Obamacare Tax Shows Health Care Tension Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:58 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The House voted overwhelmingly to repeal a tax Wednesday intended to fund the Affordable Care Act, preserving tax breaks for employer-sponsored insurance plans favored by large corporations.In a reversal of the usual partisan roles, Democrats rather than Republicans led the charge to kill a key part of Obamacare.The bill to repeal the levy commonly known as the "Cadillac tax" passed 419-6 with bipartisan support. The 40% excise tax on the most generous and expensive employer health-insurance plans was included in Obamacare as a measure that economists said would help curb health costs.Congress kept delaying its implementation so the tax has never actually been collected. Had it gone into effect, it would have hit about one in five employers that offer health benefits to their workers, according to estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation.The vote to repeal the tax highlights the conflicting forces pulling at Democrats when campaigning versus legislating.Several of the party's presidential candidates led by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren support replacing nearly all private insurance with a government-run system financed by tax increases. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner in the race, has a less sweeping plan to bolster Obamacare, but it still would offer a public health insurance option funded by tax hikes on the wealthy.But in Congress, Democrats and Republicans are facing pressure from labor unions and large companies to move in the opposite direction by keeping tax advantages for employer-sponsored plans. Supporters of repealing the tax say keeping it in place would force employers to offer less generous health insurance to their workers.Employers can reap large tax savings by compensating their employees in the form of more extensive health insurance, rather than wages, which are subject to payroll taxes. Employer-paid premiums are exempt from federal income and payroll taxes, and the premiums employees pay are also often excluded from taxable income.Changing Minds"I've been a supporter of the Cadillac tax because I thought it would" lower health care costs, said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. "But I've read some additional material on it and it's obviously overwhelmingly thought this will not have the effect in terms of raising money or controlling cost that I thought it would have."The dissonance among Democrats about whether to expand or shrink employer-sponsored health coverage makes them look like "gymnasts," said Representative Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican."Where are you on this stuff?" he said. "Wait a minute, you're all advocating that there be no such thing as employer-sponsored coverage."The repeated delays in imposing the Cadillac tax delays mean that Congress was never able to test whether it would curb the explosion of health care spending, which has risen an average 4.2% every quarter between 2010 and 2018, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.The repeal also would mean that the Treasury Department won't collect the $201 billion the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated it would raise over a decade.Obamacare TaxesObamacare included several other tax increases, including a 3.8% tax on investment income and a 0.9% levy on wages for top-earners. The portion of the law that was supposed to be financed through the Cadillac tax instead would be paid for through deficit spending, unless lawmakers propose a last-minute tax increase to offset the cost.Democrats have generally opposed measures to chip away at President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, but the Cadillac tax has been unpopular since it became part of the code.The measure to repeal it, H.R. 748, was passed under a fast-track procedure requiring two-thirds support among House members.Yet popularity doesn't necessarily mean good policy, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Politicians don't like the tax on health benefits, but nearly every economist thinks the Cadillac tax or a similar measure is necessary to help slow the rise in health-care costs and curb overuse of health services, he added."Just because it's bipartisan doesn't mean it's good," he said.Not all Democrats are on board with eliminating the tax. Representative Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he opposes the repeal because the cost isn't offset and there wasn't any discussion about how scuttling the tax would affect the Affordable Care Act overall."I think we are lapsing into some very bad habits in the majority," he said. "We need to start instilling some fiscal discipline in this place and making some tough decisions."Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, hasn't committed to addressing the issue in his chamber. Because the repeal effort is led by Democrats, it sets up a path for McConnell to use it as a vehicle to attach Republican tax priorities, such as correcting errors in the 2017 tax law or extending several expired tax breaks that benefit the biodiesel and energy industries."We've kicked the can down the road for so long on this one that the assumption is that it's never going to go into effect," said Representative Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat. "There's a certain inevitability to this one getting repealed."\--With assistance from Emily Wilkins.To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Over-the-Top Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes That Are Worth Every Calorie Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:07 PM PDT |
| McConnell says Trump is 'not a racist' and calls for Washington to 'tone down' rhetoric Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:18 PM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he doesn't believe Donald Trump is a racist despite the president's calls for four Democratic lawmakers to "go back" to the "crime infested places from which they came."
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| Asylum ban may further strain immigrant detention facilities Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:43 PM PDT  A new policy to deny asylum to anyone who shows up on the Mexican border after traveling through another country threatens to exacerbate overcrowding at severely strained U.S. immigration detention centers and makeshift holding areas. Photos and video of Vice President Mike Pence's visit Friday to McAllen, Texas, showing men crammed behind chain-link fences offered the latest glimpse into squalid conditions at Customs and Border Protection facilities. The Border Patrol housed 900 people in an area with capacity for 125 in El Paso, Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog report on an unannounced visit in May. Inspectors saw detainees standing on toilets to gain breathing space.
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| Big Guns: Army Prototypes Range-Doubling New Artillery Weapon to Outgun Russia Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:02 AM PDT  The Army is building prototypes of a new artillery cannon that can more than double the range of existing weapons and vastly alter the strategic and tactical landscape shaping land war into the future.The Army program, called Extended Range Cannon Artillery, has been developing for several years; it is now entering a new phase through an Army deal with BAE Systems to build "Increment 1" prototypes."This prototype phase will address capability gaps in the Army's indirect fire systems and improve the rate and range of fire with the development of power distribution software and hardware integration solutions," a BAE Systems statement said.During testing thus far, the Army has successfully fired a 155mm artillery round 62 kilometers - marking a technical breakthrough in the realm of land-based weapons and progressing toward its stated goal of being able to outrange and outgun Russian and Chinese weapons.Currently, most land-fired artillery shot from an M777 Towed Howitzer or Self-Propelled Howitzer are able to pinpoint targets out to 30km - so hitting 62km dramatically changes Army offensive attack capability. As part of an effort to ensure the heavy M777 is sufficiently mobile, the Army completed a "mobility" demonstration of ERCA prototypes last year.
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| At least 1 dead, 15 injured — including 3 firefighters — in California house explosion Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:05 AM PDT  A California gas company reports one of its employees died in an explosion Monday afternoon in Murietta, California.
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| Couple kiss in photo with lion moments after shooting it dead Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:16 AM PDT  A couple photographed kissing next to a lion they have just killed while on safari has caused outrage.Darren and Carolyn Carter, from Edmonton in Canada, posed for the camera minutes after shooting dead the animal while trophy hunting in South Africa."Hard work in the hot Kalahari sun," they wrote underneath the picture posted online. "A monster lion."Another image shows the couple in front of a second dead big cat. "There is nothing like hunting the king of the jungle," the photo is captioned.But the pictures were widely condemned after being placed on the website of Legelela Safaris – a tour company which specialises in organising big game hunts.> Darren and Carolyn Carter. I hope this kiss makes you famous. pic.twitter.com/V2QUkZq5NB> > — Danny Clayton (@DannyjClayton) > > July 15, 2019Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: "It looks as though this lion was a tame animal killed in an enclosure, bred for the sole purpose of being the subject of a smug selfie."This couple should be utterly ashamed of themselves, not showing off and snogging for the cameras."Australian TV host Danny Clayton said: "More idiots that get their rocks off by pointing a boomstick at a beautiful animal."But the couple have refused to be drawn on the photos. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Mr Carter, who runs a taxidermy business with his wife, said: "We aren't interested in commenting…it's too political."Legelela Safaris charges up to £2,400 for tours which include giraffe, zebra, leopard, elephant, rhino and lion hunts.
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| June was the warmest June ever recorded, but there's a bigger problem Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT  In 139 years of record-keeping, this June was the warmest June ever recorded. But June 2019 also revealed a deeper warming reality. The first half of 2019, January through June, finished up as the second warmest half-year on record, newly released NASA data shows. On top of that, each of the last five January through Junes are now the five warmest such spans on record. Only 2016 started off hotter than 2019. "At this point, the inexorable increase in global temperatures is entirely predictable," said Sarah Green, an environmental chemist at Michigan Technological University. She noted that NASA's updated data is added proof that climate models have accurately predicted Earth's continued warming as heat-trapping gasses amass in the atmosphere."As we have shown in recent work, the record warm streaks we've seen in recent years simply cannot be explained without accounting for the profound impact we are having on the planet through the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations," added climate scientist Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University.Indeed, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, already at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years, are now accelerating at rates that are unprecedented in both the historic and geologic record."The latest numbers are just another reminder that the impacts of human-caused warming are no longer subtle," said Mann. "We're seeing them play out in terms of both unprecedented extreme weather events and the sorts of planetary-scale temperature extremes betrayed by these latest numbers."The warmest January through Junes on record.Image: nasa gissThe well-predicted consequences of this heating are now unfolding. Here are some, of many, examples: * Warming climes have doubled the amount of land burned by wildfires in the U.S. over the last 30 years, as plants and trees, notably in California, get baked dry. * Greenland -- home to the second largest ice sheet on Earth -- is melting at unprecedented rates. * The last 12 months have been the wettest 12 months in U.S. history, leading to widespread flooding around the nation (For every 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming, the air can hold 7 percent more water.) * The Arctic is on fire. * Ocean temperatures are going up, and up, and up. * Since 1961, Earth's glaciers lost 9 trillion tons of ice. That's the weight of 27 billion 747s. * Heat waves are increasing in duration and frequency, while smashing records. * Daily high record temperatures are dominating daily low records. Overall, the atmosphere is experiencing an accelerated upward temperature climb, though there are some ups and downs within the greater warming trend. This is due to natural climatic influences, particularly from events like El Niño, which can give global temperatures an added kick. > NASA global mean June temperature is out! Guess what - it's been the hottest June on record. Definitely felt like that in Germany... climatecrisis FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/vkOFP22NNM> > -- Stefan Rahmstorf (@rahmstorf) July 15, 2019"The year-to-year variations of the global temperature may be affected by El Niño, etc., but in the long-term [global temperature] keeps increasing steadily," said NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist Makiko Sato, who helped prepare the June climate observations. SEE ALSO: This scientist keeps winning money from people who bet against climate changeThis June was "easily" the warmest June on record, NASA noted, and overall, this year's January through June temperatures were 1.4 degrees Celsius (or 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average temperatures in the late 1800s. Seasonal temperature trends.Image: nasa Giss2019 will almost certainly end up being one of the hottest years on record. This is in line with another stark trend. Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 -- and the five hottest years have occurred in each of the last five years. (It's not just the first half of each year setting records.)"This is further evidence that temperatures will keep rising until government policies that decrease greenhouse gas emissions are actually implemented," emphasized Green. WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?
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| Ukraine says transport organizer of missile that shot down MH-17 plane in jail Posted: 17 Jul 2019 07:25 AM PDT ![Ukraine says transport organizer of missile that shot down MH-17 plane in jail]( "Ukraine says transport organizer of missile that shot down MH-17 plane in jail") Ukraine said on Wednesday a rebel who organized the trailer carrying the missile that shot down a Malaysian airliner in 2014 had been captured two years ago and was now serving a sentence in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine during a rebellion by Russian-backed separatists, killing all 298 people on board. A Dutch-led team of investigators has blamed Russia for supplying the surface-to-air missile that shot it down.
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| Dilemmas for West as Iran's arrests of dual nationals mount Posted: 17 Jul 2019 09:51 AM PDT  Notorious for its conditions, Tehran's Evin prison is proving to be a headache for Western governments as a rising number of dual nationals are detained in what many see as a ruthless diplomatic strategy. Fariba Adelkhah, a well-known academic with French and Iranian nationality, has been held in the prison in north Tehran since early June on charges that have not been disclosed.
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| 'Today we can't breathe.' DOJ will not bring civil rights charge against NYPD officer in death of Eric Garner Posted: 17 Jul 2019 06:11 AM PDT  Garner died after an NYPD officer tried to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes. His dying gasp of "I can't breathe" inspired nationwide protests.
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| Kellyanne Conway challenges reporter who questioned Trump's tweet: 'What's your ethnicity?' Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:28 AM PDT  The counselor to the president lashed out at a White House reporter who pressed her on President Trump's tweets saying four Democratic congresswomen of color should "go back" to their home countries.
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| 10 Hyundai Palisade Features Its Rivals Wish They Had Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:03 AM PDT |
| Parkland suspect allowed to skip hearings ahead of trial Posted: 17 Jul 2019 01:01 PM PDT  Parkland school shooting defendant Nikolas Cruz will be allowed to skip many future court hearings as his planned trial draws closer in the 2018 massacre that left 17 people dead, a judge ruled Wednesday. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer granted the hearing waiver request by lawyers for Cruz, who faces the death penalty if convicted. In his most lengthy comments in court to date, Cruz told the judge he agrees with the decision.
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| What Rare Earths Tell Us about China's Competitive Strategy Posted: 17 Jul 2019 09:27 AM PDT  The recent debate over whether or not China will carry through on its threats to stop exporting rare earth minerals to the United States is an important one. It raises deeply unsettling questions about the strength of America's defense industrial supply chain. But Beijing's monopolization of the global rare earths industry gives it far more than a card to play in an escalating trade war. The game is far bigger and the stakes higher than even many national-security experts seem to realize.In the minds of Chinese strategists, this issue is ultimately about which nation, China or America, wins the central struggle of the twenty-first century, the race for world leadership. Obviously, they intend to win and to win big.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) considers rare earths to be essential for growing China's power and eclipsing the United States. Official Chinese propaganda outlets recently called rare earths "strategic resources" for the "six new technology groups" that Beijing sees as engines of China's future strength. These include information technology, medical technology, new materials, new energy sources, space technology, and advanced shipbuilding. According to the report, a major breakthrough in the application of rare earths is being made every five years, and one out of every six new inventions involves these minerals.
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| US military chiefs ordered to reveal if Pentagon used diseased insects as biological weapon Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:04 AM PDT  US lawmakers have voted to demand the Pentagon discloses whether it conducted experiments to "weaponise" disease-carrying ticks – and whether any such insects were let loose outside the lab.A bill passed in the House of Representatives requires the Defence Department's inspector general to investigate whether biological warfare tests involving the tiny arachnids took place over a 25-year period.It follows claims that Pentagon researchers implanted diseases into inspects to study the potential of biological weapons in the decades after the Second World War.A tick-related amendment, first reported by Roll Call, was added to the fiscal 2020 defence authorisation bill by Republican congressman Chris Smith prior to its passing in the House.The New Jersey politician said the inspector general's office should "conduct a review of whether the Department of Defence experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975."If the experiments did take place, the office must provide a report explaining "whether any ticks or insects used in such experiments were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design", the amendment also stated.A book released earlier this year, entitled Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, sets out the case that the Defence Department did conduct research on biological warfare.Author Kris Newby also suggests a possible relationship between the experiments and the spread of Lyme disease – an infectious disease spread by ticks causing fever, headaches and fatigue."We need answers and we need them now," said Mr Smith, a founding co-chairman of the Congressional Lyme Disease Caucus, which advocates for greater understanding of the disease.Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association, said uncovering past experiments might help with current work trying to tackle the illness."We need to find out: is there anything in this research that was supposedly done that can help us to find information that is germane to patient health and combating the spread of the disease," she said.The defence authorisation bill still needs to pass in the Senate before heading to Donald Trump's desk at the White House.
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| Southwest and Boeing had a 'reckless, greedy conspiracy' to keep the 737 Max flying despite knowing about its flaws, a new lawsuit alleges Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:20 AM PDT  The lawsuit alleges Southwest has a unique relationship with Boeing, and that both companies knew about a fatal defect in 737 Max planes.
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| AOC: ‘Business as usual’ in Washington not serving the public Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:05 AM PDT  In an interview with Gayle King on "CBS This Morning," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says "business as usual" is not serving the public, and asks, "Why would I learn a broken playbook?"
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| Afghan colonel killed in 'insider attack' near US forces Posted: 17 Jul 2019 11:40 AM PDT  American troops opened fire after an "enemy insider" shot and killed an Afghan commander in central Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said, in yet another deadly Taliban-claimed infiltration. According to the Afghan defence ministry, Colonel Mateen Mujtaba, who headed the 3rd army division in Ghazni province, was conducting a security assessment in Qarabagh district when an Afghan soldier started shooting. Mateen was "killed by an army soldier who was in fact an enemy insider," the defence ministry said in a statement.
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| MS-13 gang members indicted after 'medieval-style' killing spree in Los Angeles Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:22 PM PDT  Federal racketeering, murder and other charges were filed against 22 alleged MS-13 gang members linked to a series of grisly killings in Los Angeles.
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| Trump’s better deal with Iran looks a lot like Obama’s Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:05 AM PDT  Trump has repeatedly urged Iran to negotiate, saying that Tehran's nuclear ambitions are his chief concern, talking points that experts say echo the 2015 deal.
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| Citing Brexit, Ireland to oppose EU move to scrap spring/autumn time change Posted: 17 Jul 2019 09:43 AM PDT  Ireland will oppose an EU proposal to stop moving the bloc's clocks forward by an hour in spring and back again in the autumn, as it fears Brexit could otherwise leave the island split into two time zones. The European Union has observed the practice of daylight saving time since 2001.
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