| Steve Mnuchin Has Cost Taxpayers $800,000 For Travel On Military Planes Posted: 06 Oct 2017 12:42 AM PDT  In a matter of months, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin managed to cost American taxpayers more than $800,000 in fees for travel aboard military aircraft, yet apparently, he broke no laws, an official government inquiry found.
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| White House interprets First Amendment for reporters Posted: 05 Oct 2017 01:03 PM PDT  White House press secretary Sarah Sanders lectured reporters on the meaning of the First Amendment Thursday, in defense of President Trump's recent tweets suggesting that the Senate Intelligence Committee investigate national news outlets.
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| Man Claiming To Be From The Year 2048 Says He's Back With A Dire Warning Posted: 05 Oct 2017 09:29 AM PDT  A Wyoming man accused of public intoxication allegedly told police he traveled from the year 2048 to warn mankind of an impending invasion by extraterrestrials.
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| The photographs that tell the full story of the Rohingya refugee crisis Posted: 04 Oct 2017 10:52 PM PDT  They arrive ill and exhausted, having walked for days through jungle, rice paddies and mountains, or having braved dangerous sea and river voyages in ramshackle boats. Some of them are newborn, others in their 80s. Not everyone survives the journey. All that do are desperate. Since 25 August, nearly 450,000 refugees have crossed from Burma (also known as Myanmar) into neighbouring Bangladesh, after long-running tensions between Rohingya Muslims and the predominantly Buddhist Burmese population erupted into violence in the remote western state of Rakhine. By the time you read this, that already staggering figure will have increased. The United Nations, which has described the violence driving the Rohingya from a territory they have lived in for centuries as 'a textbook example of ethnic cleansing', estimates many thousands are still arriving each week. At a glance | Myanmar's Rohingya people 'Every day that I was there,' says American photographer Greg Constantine, who has recently returned from a fortnight in the region, 'I would look across the border into northern Rakhine and see smoke pouring into the sky. [Burmese government leader] Aung San Suu Kyi claims the clearance operations have stopped, but they haven't. Every one of those refugees tells the same story: of mobs and the military torching their homes, killing, raping, terrorising. And the scale of it – I've been here more than a dozen times over the last decade, and every time I think, "It can't get worse than this." And it does.' The three makeshift camps the refugees are headed for – Kutupalong, Nayapara and Balukhali – were established 25 years ago. Even before the most recent exodus they housed around 33,000 people, and many more Rohingya have settled in the wider area too. New arrivals sleep in the open until they can build shelters, which mostly consist of bamboo poles and tarpaulin. 'It's not even a specific place any more,' explains Constantine. 'You drive down the highway from Ukhiya to Teknaf, and it's just mile upon mile upon mile of huts and people sitting on the side of the road.' Refugees continue to stream into Bangladesh from Myanmar 00:40 Violence towards the Rohingya isn't new – it goes back to 1784, when the Burman king Bodawpaya conquered Rakhine and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee to Bengal – but the current crisis is rooted in a belief among many Burmese that the Rohingya, who returned to Rakhine in large numbers during the British occupation of Burma between 1824 and 1948, want to turn Rakhine into a Muslim state. Constantine, 47, who grew up in Indiana and taught himself photography in his 30s, first began documenting the Rohingya in 2006, as part of a series exploring the plight of the stateless. Nowhere People documents individuals and communities all over the world who have no official citizenship, no documentation and no rights. Rohingya babies, for instance, are not given birth certificates. As adults, they can't work or go to a doctor or obtain an education. They are regarded as illegal immigrants by the majority of Burma's citizens and were excluded from the country's most recent census (which did not allow people to register their identity as Rohingya). 'The million-dollar question that everyone grapples with is why,' says Constantine, who has been blacklisted by the Burmese government and banned from re-entering the country. I would look across the border into northern Rakhine and see smoke pouring into the sky. Aung San Suu Kyi claims the clearance operations have stopped, but they haven't 'I've always believed that what is at the heart of it is a deep-rooted racism. Is there a solution? Not unless things change inside Myanmar, and not just at a political level. The international community can put all the pressure it wants on the government but change has to happen among the attitudes of the citizenry for things to even begin heading in the right direction.' Until then, Constantine says, he will keep going back to the camps. 'I realised, somewhere along the way over these last 10 years, that what I was doing had changed from reporting on specific events to creating a timeline of slow violence towards a community. I want to show that what is happening now is something that has a history behind it. That all of this should have been expected. That we knew.' The story behind the photographs By photographer Greg Constantine Credit: Greg Constantine Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have flooded into southern Bangladesh over the past month after violence erupted in the Burmese state of Rakhine. The north-south highway between the Bangladeshi cities of Teknaf and Cox's Bazar is a steady flow of refugees. Credit: Greg Constantine A middle-class Bangladeshi tosses small notes of currency into the air for young Rohingya children. At certain moments I get so incredibly frustrated with human beings. This was one of those situations. I couldn't help but photograph it. He might have had the best intentions, but what he was doing was degrading. He wasn't approaching these people as human beings. You see it happening a lot in the camps: well-intentioned people who aren't thinking clearly about the way they go about things. Credit: Greg Constantine Rohingya women and children sit wherever they can find shelter along the road between Teknaf and Cox's Bazar. They can be here for weeks before they are able to get a space on the back of a flatbed truck and move on to one of the refugee camps. The cramped journey takes about two hours, with only a tarpaulin for protection from the rain. The last time I made the journey with a group of them, it rained the whole way. Credit: Greg Constantine These days there are stations in the camps from which humanitarian assistance can be distributed. At any time of day, you see lines of people waiting to get to rice or some other food ration. There are also a lot of intrepid well-wishers, whether Bangladeshi or foreign donors, who drive in in big trucks. It causes these surges of complete mayhem – that's what you see here. There are maybe 2,000 people swarming around the truck here, and the people distributing the food have to keep order by beating some of them back with sticks. It's very inhumane in that sense. Credit: Greg Constantine There's a huge business in bamboo in the camps – it comes in on trucks almost daily, and this is what people use to build their homes. When I first visited, very little was organised, but things are much more coordinated now. Even when the huts are in the middle of being built, so just skeletons really, people still sleep under them. They have no protection from the elements. When you see the size of the camps, you think, "How many people are actually left in Burma when there are so many people here?"
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| Israel to ease holiday restrictions for Palestinians Posted: 06 Oct 2017 10:15 AM PDT  Israel on Friday decided to ease restrictions on Palestinians entering during the Jewish Sukkot holiday, which began Wednesday, the army said. On Tuesday, the army said crossings from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel would be closed to Palestinians for 11 days until midnight on October 14. The decision applies to Palestinians working in agriculture and hospitals, according to media reports.
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| U.S. Gulf oil producers curtail output ahead of Tropical Storm Nate Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:43 PM PDT  Oil and natural gas operators began evacuating staff and halting production at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms on Thursday ahead of Tropical Storm Nate, the second storm in as many months to rattle the Gulf Coast energy corridor. Nate, which has killed at least 10 people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and caused intense rainfall, is forecast to scrape Honduras and Mexico, enter the Gulf and strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall this weekend in Louisiana, near several major refineries.
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| Europe is Betraying Afghanistan By Sending Its Refugees Home Posted: 04 Oct 2017 10:00 PM PDT  Thousands of Afghans have been returned from Europe only to be killed, injured, or left to live in constant fear
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| Congressmen press White House to revoke Jared Kushner's and Ivanka Trump's security clearances Posted: 05 Oct 2017 06:00 AM PDT  Reps. Don Beyer and Ted Lieu sent a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn on Thursday calling on him to revoke the security clearances of two of President Trump's top advisers: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
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| Amazon Is Under Fire For Sale Of Offensive Pro-Anorexia Sweatshirt Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:56 AM PDT  An Amazon retailer is under fire for selling an offensive sweatshirt that makes light of eating disorders.
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| Wisconsin Mom Allegedly Killed 4-Year-Old Son By Setting Him on Fire in Bathtub Posted: 06 Oct 2017 02:14 PM PDT  A 23-year-old woman has been charged in the death of her 4-year-old son who was reportedly set on fire in their apartment's bathtub
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| An Abandoned Factory In Fort Wayne Will Give You Both Nostalgia And The Spooks Posted: 06 Oct 2017 02:46 AM PDT  Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a city that prides itself on its industrial history.
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| VX found on clothes of women accused of Kim Jong-Nam murder: chemist Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:35 AM PDT  Traces of a nerve agent used to murder the half-brother of North Korea's leader were found on the clothes of two women on trial for assassinating him, a chemist testified Thursday. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of smearing VX on Kim's face in February in a Cold War-style hit that stunned the world. The women, who were arrested a few days after the killing and face death by hanging if convicted, have pleaded not guilty to murdering the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-Un as he waited to board a flight to Macau.
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| Trump Administration To Propose Scrapping Major Obama-Era Climate Change Policy Posted: 05 Oct 2017 04:27 AM PDT  The Trump administration is poised to scrap a policy limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, furthering its attack on the United States' efforts to combat climate change.
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| New U.S. rule on payday loans to hurt industry, boost banks: agency Posted: 05 Oct 2017 02:55 PM PDT  By Lisa Lambert and Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revenues for the $6 billion payday loan industry will shrivel under a new U.S. rule restricting lenders' ability to profit from high-interest, short-term loans, and much of the business could move to small banks, according to the country's consumer financial watchdog. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a regulation on Thursday requiring lenders to determine if borrowers can repay their debts and capping the number of loans lenders can make to a borrower. Republican lawmakers, who often say CFPB regulations are too onerous, want to nullify it in Congress, and the industry has already threatened lawsuits.
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| DC officials won't appeal ruling against strict gun law Posted: 05 Oct 2017 01:00 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia officials said Thursday they won't appeal a court ruling striking down a portion of the city's gun laws, a decision that means it will soon be easier for gun owners to get concealed carry permits in the nation's capital.
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| Ferocious battle between jaguar and yellow anaconda captured by wildlife photographer Posted: 06 Oct 2017 07:42 AM PDT  A jaguar's brutal battle with a yellow anaconda has been captured by a wildlife photographer along a riverbank in South America. Chris Brunskill was on a boat along the Cuiabá River in the western Brazil state of Mato Grosso when he witnessed the rare encounter. The UK-based photographer said he was "very fortunate" to witness the "incredible" jaguar v snake encounter. "This is by far the rarest of rare events in the life of the jaguar and I know of several people who have spent twenty years or more on the river and not had the good fortune to see what I saw last week," he recalled. "On this day we had left the hotel late due to rain and only pulled off from the jetty just after 9:30am on a cold, cloudy day. The jaguar attacks the yellow anaconda Credit: Chris Brunskill Ltd/ Getty "Ten minutes up river we spotted a jaguar walking in the open along the top of the riverbank when something in a patch of long grass caught her attention. I was only half paying attention at this point when she flicked her paw into the grass and out came an anaconda!" He explained the rivals fought for around 90 seconds in a battle to the death, with the "snake lunging at the jaguar several times" during the confrontation. The cat spotted the snake resting on the riverbank and chased it into the shallow waters Credit: Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty "It immediately fled from the jaguar who promptly chased it down the bank into the shallow water at the river's edge," he added. "With both the cat and the snake clearly visible, I had the unique opportunity to shoot as they fought for close to ninety seconds in the open, in good light on a fairly calm river, just metres from my boat." The jaguar eventually won the battle Credit: Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty But the jaguar was the winner of the contest after several ferocious bites to the snake's mid-section. "The snake managed to bite it on the nose more than once before it was eventually subdued by the big cat," he added. "With the reptile's strength fading, the jaguar bit through its tail before jumping back up the riverbank with the stunned anaconda dangling from its mouth." You can follow Chris Brunskill on Facebook. Crocodile v crocodile: Reptile slam-dunks rival before devouring it
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| Trump suggests Senate Intel Committee should investigate U.S. news media Posted: 05 Oct 2017 04:59 AM PDT  In a tweet Thursday, President Trump urged the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate "fake news" in the U.S. rather than possible Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
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| Couple Announces The Sex Of Their Baby With Help From 'Stranger Things' Posted: 06 Oct 2017 12:47 PM PDT  An expectant couple in California announced the sex of their baby to their friends and family with inspiration from "Stranger Things" ― just in time for the hit Netflix show's impending return.
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| 2017 BMW X6 M Posted: 06 Oct 2017 01:15 PM PDT  The M is for Mighty Quick.
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| Pink Slams Dr. Luke In Interview: ‘He’s Not A Good Person’ Posted: 05 Oct 2017 12:56 PM PDT  Luke" Gottwald, who has been embroiled in a legal battle with Kesha since 2014, in a recent interview for The New York Times.
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| Pope meets French cardinal accused of paedophilia cover-up Posted: 05 Oct 2017 08:20 AM PDT  Pope Francis met Thursday with French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who is awaiting trial over allegations he covered up for a paedophile priest in his diocese. It was the first time Francis has met with Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon, since the cardinal learned last month that he would have to appear in court in April in connection with priest Bernard Preynat's abuse of boy scouts in the 1980s. Public prosecutors ruled last year that Barbarin did not have a case to answer but he and six other co-defendants have been directly indicted by some of Preynat's victims.
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| North Korea 'to test first missile capable of hitting America' Posted: 06 Oct 2017 09:56 AM PDT  A Russian politician says he has seen a North Korean missile that could reach the US west coast, and that Pyongyang plans on testing a long-rage missile "in the nearest future". Anton Morozov told Russian state-backed news agency RIA Novost that he and two colleagues had visited North Korea, where they were shown the North Korean calculations that the missile could hit America. The North Koreans showed him the "mathematical calculations which they say prove that their missile is capable of reaching the US west coast," he said.
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| The Latest: Russia says it fired 10 missiles at IS in Syria Posted: 05 Oct 2017 11:30 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):
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| 20 Totally Life-Changing Margarita Recipes Posted: 06 Oct 2017 03:49 PM PDT |
| Texas Father Cleared of Killing 2-Year-Old Daughter After 7-Year-Old Son Confesses to Crime Posted: 06 Oct 2017 01:31 PM PDT  On Thursday, a Texas father was cleared of a murder charge in the asphyxiation death of his 2-year-old daughter after prosecutors learned that his 7-year-old son admitted being responsible, PEOPLE confirms
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| Melania Trump sparks Twitter outrage over her sunglasses following Las Vegas trip Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:16 AM PDT  Melania Trump's latest fashion move is raising some eyebrows.
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| Seth Meyers Has A New Method For Demanding Gun Control Laws Posted: 04 Oct 2017 11:01 PM PDT  Seth Meyers assumed that Congress and the gun lobby were merely ignoring pleas for reasonable gun safety regulations.
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| The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week Posted: 06 Oct 2017 03:16 PM PDT  The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom.
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| Mexican photojournalist found dead after kidnapping Posted: 06 Oct 2017 11:50 AM PDT  A photojournalist who had received threats over his work in the northern Mexican state of San Luis Potosi has been found dead, the government said Friday, a day after he was kidnapped. The federal Mechanism to Protect Journalists and Rights Activists called for an "immediate and effective investigation" into the killing of Edgar Daniel Esqueda, who was reportedly kidnapped Thursday by gunmen disguised as police officers. Local media reported that Esqueda's body was found dumped by the San Luis Potosi airport, bound and bearing signs of torture.
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| The Fight Over Gun Control Isn’t Really About Guns Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:48 AM PDT  Will the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history change the debate over gun rights?
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| Alabama execution put on hold after court issues stay Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:01 PM PDT  Jeffrey Borden was convicted of shooting to death his estranged wife, Cheryl Borden, and his father-in-law, Roland Harris, in Gardendale in front of the former couple's children. "It will not be tonight," Alabama Department of Corrections spokeswoman Samantha Banks said by phone.
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| Amnesty: Europe returning more Afghans despite violence Posted: 05 Oct 2017 09:28 AM PDT  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — European countries are returning many more Afghan asylum seekers to their homeland even as violence in the war-torn country escalates, Amnesty International said in a new report Thursday.
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| 4,000 Year Old Climbing Gear Discovered Posted: 05 Oct 2017 04:09 AM PDT  The new finds show that even 4,000 years ago, hunters, shepherds and traders were using the route.
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| Russia explodes our social media myths Posted: 05 Oct 2017 02:00 AM PDT  It's not too much to demand that the big tech companies slam the door on governments and political infiltrators who would like nothing more than to destroy our faith in a free society.
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| Arizona Diamondbacks defeat Colorado Rockies in one-game Wild Card playoff, move on to NLDS Posted: 04 Oct 2017 09:01 PM PDT  The Arizona Diamondbacks are heading to the National League Division Series.
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| Ford may be prepping a hotter performance package for the Mustang GT Posted: 06 Oct 2017 03:00 PM PDT ![Ford may be prepping a hotter performance package for the Mustang GT]( "Ford may be prepping a hotter performance package for the Mustang GT") It looks like Ford may be preparing a one-two punch on the Chevrolet Camaro. After it announced the 2018 Mustang GT would arrive with 460 horsepower from the 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 engine—not so coincidentally 5 hp greater than the output of the Camaro SS—now Ford might tackle the Camaro SS 1LE given mounting evidence pointing to a new performance package. Various postings to the Mustang6G forum point to what documents call the Performance Package Level 2, which will likely build upon the Mustang GT's previously announced Performance Pack.
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| McDonald’s manager 'offered customers side of cocaine with meals' Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:48 AM PDT  A McDonald's manager working the night shift at a restaurant in New York sold cocaine alongside burgers and fries, police allege. Authorities say Frank Guerrero, 26, was arrested after selling $10,900 (£8,200) worth of the drug to an undercover police officer over the course of eight occasions, at a restaurant in the Soundview area of the Bronx. At least two times, it is alleged Mr Guerrero placed the cocaine into a bag containing a cookie, which he then concealed in a larger bag with cheeseburgers, fries and a drink.
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| Kazuo Ishiguro Wins the 2017 Nobel Prize For Literature Posted: 05 Oct 2017 04:58 AM PDT  British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature
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| Erdogan says Turkey will close Iraq border and air space soon Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:40 AM PDT  By Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey would soon close its border with northern Iraq and shut its air space in response to last week's Kurdish independence referendum. Erdogan, who held talks in Tehran on Wednesday with Iranian leaders, also said Turkey would decide jointly with Iran and Iraq's central government in Baghdad whether to cut oil exports from Kurdish northern Iraq.
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| EU pauses inquiry into Bayer-Monsanto takeover Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:41 AM PDT  The EU said Thursday it had "stopped the clock" on its probe into German chemical firm Bayer's proposed mega-takeover of US agri-giant Monsanto while it waits for the companies to provide information. Brussels launched an in-depth investigation in August into the $66 billion (56-billion-euro) deal, which would create the world's largest integrated pesticides and seeds company. The European Commission, which serves as the powerful anti-trust regulator for the 28-nation European Union, cited concerns it could reduce competition in key products for farmers.
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| Why Are U.S. Special Forces in Niger? Posted: 05 Oct 2017 01:50 AM PDT  Surrounded by Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram militants, the country will soon be home to a $50 million U.S. drone base.
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| This Is How Different Brunch Looks In Different Countries Posted: 06 Oct 2017 09:23 AM PDT |
| San Juan mayor wears 'nasty' T-shirt on live TV in response to Donald Trump criticism Posted: 05 Oct 2017 01:59 AM PDT  The mayor of Puerto Rico's capital San Juan wore a T-shirt with the word "nasty" on live TV in response to criticism from Donald Trump in an ongoing dispute over relief efforts on the hurricane-hit island. Carmen Yulin Cruz again criticised the president, accusing him of lacking "common courtesy" and labelling him a "miscommunicator-in-chief" in an interview. Mayor Cruz has repeatedly attacked the federal response to Hurricane Maria's devastation of the US island territory, claiming it has been too slow, after millions were left without power and basic necessities. President Trump tweeted the mayor of San Juan had shown a "nasty" attitude to him and claimed she was showing "poor leadership ability". Hitting back at the president, she told Univision while wearing the statement T-shirt: "What is really nasty is that anyone would turn their back on the Puerto Rican people. President Donald Trump shakes hands with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Credit: AP "When someone is annoyed by someone claiming lack of drinking water, lack of medicine for the sick, and lack of food for the hungry, that person has problems too severe to be explained in an interview." She also criticised the president's recent visit to Puerto Rico in which he threw paper towels into a crowd of people. "This terrible and abominable view of him throwing paper towels and throwing provisions at people, it really does not embody the spirit of the American nation," she said in another interview with MSNBC. "That is not the land of the free and the home of the brave, the beacon of democracy that people have learned to look up to." Mayor Cruz also called the president's conference with officials a "PR meeting" and said his comments about the disaster throwing the US budget "out of whack" was "insulting to the people of Puerto Rico". Hurricane Maria pummels the Caribbean, in pictures When they met face-to-face earlier this week, Ms Cruz told the president: "Sir, it's all about saving lives. It's not about politics." In an earlier interview, mayor Cruz wore a T-shirt saying "help us, we are dying" after Hurricane Maria hit. "What we are going to see is something close to a genocide," she said. "We are dying here. I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles. So, mayday we are in trouble." President Trump tosses rolls of paper towels to people in San Juan Credit: Reuters President Trump tweeted in response: "The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort." Trump said his tour of storm damage in Puerto Rico was a "terrific visit" and that residents on the island "are so thankful for what we've done". "The job that's been done here is really nothing short of a miracle," he said.
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| 'Tonight Show' Writers Pen Touching Thank You Notes To Hillary Clinton Posted: 05 Oct 2017 12:33 AM PDT  The "Thank You Notes" penned on "The Tonight Show" Wednesday were something special.
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