| China and India seen as Europe's last hope to save Iran deal Posted: 09 May 2019 07:56 AM PDT ![China and India seen as Europe's last hope to save Iran deal]( "China and India seen as Europe's last hope to save Iran deal") BRUSSELS/PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union will defend the Iran nuclear accord despite Tehran's decision to backtrack on its commitments in response to U.S. sanctions, diplomats believe, but European powers expect it to collapse without a deal to sell Iranian oil to China or India. Britain, France and Germany, which signed the 2015 deal along with the United States, China and Russia, are determined to show they can compensate for last year's U.S. withdrawal from the accord, protect trade and still prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb. A French diplomat talked of a "negative spiral" in which trade in food and medicines was simply not enough, while another European envoy spoke of Iran's "phased exit" from the deal.
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| Don't send a 'bishop to the crime scene': Church sex abuse survivors blast Pope Francis' new law on reporting Posted: 09 May 2019 10:56 AM PDT  Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking law on reporting of clergy sex abuse. Survivors say the church still doesn't get it.
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| Anger and Sadness — But Little Surprise — as Colorado Suffers Another School Shooting Posted: 08 May 2019 08:31 PM PDT  The state has seen a number of attacks in the 20 years since Columbine
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| The Latest: House panel votes to hold AG Barr in contempt Posted: 08 May 2019 07:54 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report (all times local):
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| These Easy Lunch Ideas Are Perfect For Mother's Day Posted: 09 May 2019 01:45 PM PDT |
| 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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| South Korea: North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning Posted: 09 May 2019 05:50 AM PDT  North Korea fired at least one unidentified projectile from the country's western area, South Korea's military said, the second launch in the last five days.
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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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| 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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| Two students arrested in Colorado school shooting make first appearance Posted: 08 May 2019 10:05 PM PDT  Two teenage students accused of fatally shooting one classmate and wounding eight in a suburban Denver school made separate court appearances on Wednesday, a day after their arrest on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Douglas County District Judge Theresa Slade, who presided over both proceedings, ordered the two suspects to remain held without bond pending their next court hearings, set for Friday, when formal charges are expected to be filed. The two youths are accused of opening fire with handguns on fellow students on Tuesday in two classrooms at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Denver.
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| Pope changes Church law to make reporting sex abuse obligatory Posted: 09 May 2019 10:49 AM PDT  Pope Francis on Thursday passed a landmark new measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors, in a move which could bring countless new cases to light. Every diocese in the world will now be obliged to have a system for the reporting of abuse, under a new law published by the Vatican following a global clerical paedophilia scandal. It is time to learn from the "bitter lessons of the past", Francis said in the text of the legal decree, which comes into effect on June 1.
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| Key moments surrounding Iran's now-threatened nuclear deal Posted: 08 May 2019 03:21 AM PDT  Iran threatened Wednesday to resume higher enrichment of uranium in 60 days if world powers fail to negotiate new terms for its 2015 nuclear deal, an agreement that capped over a decade of hostility between Tehran and the West over its atomic program.
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| The Democrats Go To War Against William Barr Posted: 09 May 2019 08:05 AM PDT  Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee voted on a "resolution recommending that the House of Representatives find William P. Barr, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on the Judiciary." This vote comes after Barr's contentious appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and his skipping of scheduled testimony for the House Judiciary the next day. The contempt charge is in response to Barr's failure to hand over an unredacted version of the Mueller Report. The report, with redactions made to four categories of information, was released last month. The only attorney general in U.S. history to previously be found in contempt, Eric Holder, was for a similar reason: a failure to turn over documents relating to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) gunwalking scandal. Yesterday morning, in response to the expected vote, the Trump administration announced a protective assertion of executive privilege around the report.
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| South Africa's ANC Projected to Lose Ground in National Vote Posted: 09 May 2019 04:14 AM PDT  The ANC is also in danger of losing its majority in the Gauteng province, the nation's richest province, according to the projections from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the public broadcaster. The results threaten to dent President Cyril Ramaphosa's ability to quell opposition in the faction-riven ANC and push through reforms needed to spur growth in Africa's most-industrialized economy. The estimates, which are based on results released by the Independent Electoral Commission from 31.9% of voting districts, show the main opposition Democratic Alliance securing 22.7% support nationally, and the populist Economic Freedom Fighters 10.3%.
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| Trump lashes out after NYT obtains tax returns showing he lost $1 billion years ago Posted: 08 May 2019 04:42 AM PDT  President Trump on Wednesday fired back at the New York Times after the newspaper obtained tax returns from 1985 to 1994 showing his businesses lost more than $1 billion.
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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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| 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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| Best Gas Grills to Buy at Lowe's Posted: 09 May 2019 12:55 PM PDT  Walk into any home improvement center and you'll see an armada of grills—a sure sign of spring. Home Depot and Lowe's alone account for more than 50 percent of gas grills sold in the U.S. Consume...
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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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| Mueller’s Preposterous Rationale for Tainting the President with ‘Obstruction’ Allegations Posted: 08 May 2019 07:51 AM PDT  In gross violation of Justice Department policy and constitutional norms, a prosecutor neither charges nor recommends charges against a suspect, but proceeds to smear him by publishing 200 pages of obstruction allegations. Asked to explain why he did it, the prosecutor says he was just trying to protect the suspect from being smeared.This is the upshot of the Mueller report's Volume II. It might be thought campy if the suspect weren't the president of the United States and the stakes weren't so high.The smear-but-don't-charge outcome is the result of two wrongs: (1) Mueller's dizzying application of Justice Department guidance, written by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), holding that a president may not be indicted while he is in office; and (2) the media-Democrat complex's demand that only laws they like -- those that serve their anti-Trump political purposes -- be enforced.On the matter of the OLC guidance, the Mueller report exhibits the same sleight-of-hand that I detailed in Monday's column regarding its account of the George Papadopoulos saga -- in which Mueller obscures the fact that the FBI's counterintelligence investigation ("Crossfire Hurricane") was opened on the false pretense that a Russian agent named Joseph Mifsud confided to Trump adviser Papadopoulos that Russia had thousands of Clinton emails, which Papadopoulos told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer the Kremlin planned to publish in a manner timed to damage Clinton for Trump's benefit. To the contrary, if you wade through the fine print of Mueller's report, you learn that Mifsud was not a Russian agent; there's a good chance he did not tell Papadopoulos anything about emails; in relating to Downer that Russia might have damaging information on Clinton, Papadopoulos said nothing about emails or about Russia trying to help Trump; but, two months after they spoke and the hacked DNC emails were published, Downer (in consultation with the Obama State Department) leapt to the overwrought conclusions that Papadopoulos must have been referring to those emails (he wasn't) and that Russia and the Trump campaign must be collaborating to undermine the election (they weren't).The narrative head fakes and legal mumbo-jumbo make you wonder what's going on here. Who is running this show, Mueller -- or some of his notoriously aggressive staffers, recruited from the Obama Justice Department and private practice stints representing the Clintons?On the matter of the OLC guidance, if you can follow his reasoning, the special counsel twists himself into the position that it would have been unfairly prejudicial to Trump to recommend charges when the president would not have been able to defend himself in a judicial proceeding -- but, somehow, it was perfectly fair to Trump for Mueller to publish his evidence in a document manifestly written for exploitation by congressional Democrats and the media.Flaws in the OLC Guidance For what it's worth, I have always thought the OLC guidance is wrong. I do not believe the Framers intended to insulate a sitting president from indictment.The Constitution presumes that the check on a rogue president will be impeachment. It elaborates, however, that impeachment is no impediment to indictment. Further, the Constitution does not say that indictment must await either impeachment or other departure from office. (Article I, Section 3, says a "party convicted" of impeachment is liable to court prosecution, but this does not necessarily mean prosecution may occur only after a president either has been convicted in a Senate impeachment trial, or his term otherwise ends.)While there was significant discussion of impeachment when the Constitution was being drafted in 1787 (I outlined much of it in Faithless Execution), I doubt the Framers gave much thought to the timing of a president's indictment. There were no federal prosecutors to speak of at the time (there was no Justice Department until 1870 and no FBI until 1908), and the federal Constitution would not have barred action by state prosecutors. The Constitution presumes it is Congress's job to check a wayward president -- and not a job to be delegated to a prosecutor.More to the point, it makes no sense that a president should be spared indictment under seal. This is how the Justice Department routinely deals with cases in which (a) a crime must be charged to prevent the statute of limitations from lapsing, but (b) the indictment should not be publicized for some good policy reason (usually, because the accused is at large and, if put on notice, could flee and destroy evidence). The OLC guidance's objective is simply to delay prosecution in deference to the chief executive's weighty responsibilities; it is not supposed to put the president above the law by giving him a statute-of-limitations defense that would not be available to the rest of us.Consequently, if there is a truly serious offense and enough evidence to support prosecution, a president should be indicted under seal (i.e., under court-supervised secrecy). Then the indictment could be unsealed once a president is out of office, and the criminal case could proceed in the normal course.Whether I am right or wrong about this, it is indisputable that we are talking only about timing. The OLC guidance does not say a president may never be indicted; just that he can't be indicted while serving.Indefensible Decision Not to Decide That means the OLC guidance should be irrelevant to the prosecutor investigating the case. Even if we stipulate, for argument's sake, that a president may not be indicted in the here and now, he may still be prosecuted for any indictable offense at some future point. Therefore, someone must decide if there is a crime worth charging. That someone, obviously, is the prosecutor assigned to investigate the case. Since there is no bar on investigating a sitting president, it makes no sense to refrain from making the prosecution judgment -- to charge or not to charge -- until later (potentially, years later) when witnesses' memories have faded and evidence has gone stale or missing.If there is sufficient evidence, then it is the prosecutor's job to recommend indictment. The question of whether the OLC guidance should then be invoked to delay indictment should then be up to the attorney general. The guidance should not burden the prosecutor's analysis of whether there is an indictable case.Yet Mueller chose not to see it that way. His thinking on the matter, it appears, was muddled, evolving over a few weeks' time as he groped for a way to rationalize his failure to make a decision about whether obstruction should be charged.In recent Senate testimony, Attorney General Bill Barr related that he and his staff met with the Mueller team a couple of weeks before the report was completed. Mueller surprised them with the news that he would not be resolving the obstruction question. When asked to explain, Mueller said his rationale for this non-decision was not yet fully developed -- such temporizing, of course, is often the sign of handwringing as one tries to rationalize a determination one knows is wrong. Nevertheless, Barr reports that Mueller was emphatic that the OLC guidance was not what drove his decision to abdicate.Yet when we finally saw the Mueller report, we found that the obstruction volume begins with a discussion of the OLC guidance. It is, by turns, vaporous and preposterous. It is no wonder Barr has said he does not know exactly what Mueller was thinking.Here's my take.Mueller deduces that the guidance (a) prohibits indictment in order to avoid a public charge that would undermine the capacity of a president to govern, but (b) permits investigation with an eye toward post-presidency prosecution. The special counsel pretends that this gives him "fairness concerns" over the president's due-process rights: If, after a thorough investigation, a prosecutor made a judgment that the president had committed a crime but did not charge him, Mueller reasons that the poor president would bear all the stigma of a criminal accusation but would have no opportunity to clear his name in formal court proceedings. That is, the OLC guidance denies him his day in court.Mind you: Mueller says this as a précis to pouring out over 200 pages' worth of obstruction evidence -- and, implying that this evidence is quite serious indeed, he is at pains to tell you he will not "exonerate" the president, even though he hasn't charged him. That is, Mueller's report is designed to taint the president when he does not have the constitutional protections of a criminal defendant -- exactly the thing Mueller claimed to be avoiding by not making a decision on obstruction.Of course, there would be no such danger if the report had been kept confidential, as federal regulations require. There would be no such danger if Mueller had simply done his job, made the required binary decision about whether or not the evidence supported indictment, and left the application of the OLC guidance to the attorney general. And there would be no such danger if the OLC guidance provided for a sealed indictment, such that the question of whether prosecution is warranted could be resolved now, and the timing of prosecution could be tabled -- for the president sake, and the country's -- until the end of Trump's term (or terms).This would have had no bearing on Congress's ability to consider impeachment.It would also have allowed for internal Justice Department deliberation over the law of obstruction. Right now, the report has been publicized when it should not have been. Moreover, Attorney General Barr had to know that if he had tinkered with the report's legal analysis, this would have resulted in cries that he was protecting the president, so he had to stay his hand. As a result, the Mueller report's construction of federal obstruction law appears to stand as a definitive Justice Department position, even though Mueller's interpretation is controversial -- the attorney general has indicated that he and the deputy attorney general have disagreements with it; I suspect OLC would have qualms, too.A live debate over the correct construction of unsettled law, or its novel application, is something the Justice Department is supposed to sort out internally before publicizing a voluminous set of allegations. Here, the special counsel's legal argument almost surely does not reflect the Justice Department's position.But the politics have landed us in the place, not the law. Democrats and their echo chamber have insisted that Mueller must write a report because the special-counsel regulations require one. Yet the same regulations require the report to be confidential: just between the special counsel and the attorney general, to resemble how charging decisions are always made in the Justice Department -- non-publicly, by prosecutors and their supervisors. If Barr had followed those supposedly binding federal regulations, House Democrats would already have impeached him -- just as they now ridiculously propose to hold him in contempt for redacting from Mueller's report grand-jury information he is legally obligated by congressional statute to withhold.The closer you look at this fiasco, the worse it seems.
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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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| The Latest: US ready to shift military assets in Middle East Posted: 08 May 2019 04:06 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the United States and Iran (all times local):
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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 |
| 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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| Hate paying for internet service at 35,000 feet? Delta to test free in-flight Wi-Fi Posted: 09 May 2019 07:25 AM PDT ![Hate paying for internet service at 35,000 feet? Delta to test free in-flight Wi-Fi]( "Hate paying for internet service at 35,000 feet? Delta to test free in-flight Wi-Fi") Delta passengers on select flights beginning May 13 will receive free high-speed Wi-Fi. The initial test will last two weeks.
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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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| UPDATE 2-European shares pressured by U.S.-China trade jitters Posted: 09 May 2019 02:00 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-European shares pressured by U.S.-China trade jitters]( "UPDATE 2-European shares pressured by U.S.-China trade jitters") European shares slid on Thursday, with investors exiting positions in favor of safer assets as they waited to see if U.S.-China talks will yield tangible results and help avert worsening trade ties which threaten to slow global growth. An increase in U.S. tariff on imports from China is set to be triggered on Friday, while Chinese Vice Premier Liu He starts two days of talks in Washington on Thursday.
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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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| View Photos of the Buick GL8 Avenir Concept Posted: 09 May 2019 03:13 PM PDT |
| Attorney General William Barr faces being held in contempt of Congress amid showdown with Trump Posted: 08 May 2019 08:37 PM PDT  A Democratic-led House panel on Wednesday approved a measure to hold US Attorney General William Barr in contempt for refusing to hand over an unredacted copy of the Mueller report on Russian election interference even as Donald Trump invoked the legal principle of executive privilege to block its disclosure. Throwing down another challenge to the US president, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to recommend that the full House cite Mr Barr, the top US law enforcement official and a Trump appointee, for contempt of Congress after he defied its subpoena for the complete report and underlying evidence. "We are now in a constitutional crisis," Jerrold Nadler, the committee's Democratic chairman, told reporters after the panel approved the contempt resolution on a party-line 24-16 vote, with Democrats in favour and Republicans opposed. The confrontation escalated a clash between the Democratic-controlled House and Republican president over congressional authority under the US Constitution to investigate him, his administration, family and business interests. The vote came hours after the White House took its own provocative step, asserting executive privilege to block the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russian actions to boost Mr Trump's candidacy in the 2016 US election and related evidence such as investigative interviews. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler speaks as the House Judiciary Committee meets to vote on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt Credit: Reuters "It is deeply disappointing that elected representatives of the American people have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, adding that no one would force the department "to break the law" by handing over documents that cannot be disclosed such as secret grand jury material. A House vote to hold Mr Barr in contempt was likely to trigger a court battle, with fines and possible imprisonment at stake for him. Mr Nadler said the full House vote would come "rapidly," without being more specific. Executive privilege is only rarely invoked by US presidents to keep other branches of government from getting access to certain internal executive branch information. Mr Trump had not previously taken such a step in his showdown with Congress. The White House said Democrats forced the move. "Faced with Chairman Nadler's blatant abuse of power, and at the attorney general's request, the president has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. Mr Nadler said Mr Trump's stonewalling of Congress in various investigations was "an assertion of tyrannical power by the president and that cannot be allowed to stand," although the congressman tiptoed around the question of launching the impeachment process to try to remove Mr Trump from office. In a letter to Mr Nadler, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said Mr Barr could not comply with the subpoena "without violating the law, court rules, and court orders, and without threatening the independence of the Department of Justice's prosecutorial functions." Mr Trump, seeking re-election in 2020, is pushing back against numerous probes by House Democrats, ranging from Mueller's inquiry to matters such as Trump's tax returns and past financial records. On Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he had issued a subpoena to Mr Barr for documents related to the Mueller investigation after the Justice Department responded to the panel's requests "with silence or outright defiance." Mr Schiff said he had set a deadline of May 15 for Mr Barr to produce the materials. Contempt of Congress is an offence that can be enforced several ways, most likely by a civil lawsuit, which could lead to a judge ordering imposing daily fines on the defendant or even arrest and imprisonment, according to legal experts. The next step will be a floor vote by the full House. No action in the Republican-led Senate is needed. Mr Barr, who released a 448-page redacted version of the report on April 18, missed two deadlines to turn over the requested material after Mr Nadler subpoenaed it last month. Mr Nadler said lawmakers needed the material to determine whether Mr Trump obstructed justice by trying to impede Mr Mueller's inquiry. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said Mr Trump's moves to thwart House subpoenas were obstructing oversight by lawmakers and inquiries into Russian election interference. "Every single day the president is making the case. He's becoming self-impeachable," Ms Pelosi told the Washington Post. Ms Pelosi added that Mr Barr, who last week also refused to testify before the House panel, should be held in contempt of Congress. She accused Barr last week of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers. Trump has filed lawsuits meant to block House subpoenas seeking some of his financial and business records, and his administration refused to disclose his subpoenaed tax returns. In a lengthy Judiciary Committee meeting, Republicans condemned the move to hold Mr Barr in contempt. "What a cynical, mean-spirited, counterproductive and irresponsible step," said Doug Collins, the panel's top Republican. Other Republicans accused Democrats of paving the way for impeachment. Democrats said the Trump administration waived executive privilege when it allowed some senior Trump advisers, including former White House counsel Don McGahn, to talk to Mueller's team during the investigation. The Justice Department said allowing such cooperation did not mean Mr Trump relinquished the right to assert executive privilege now. When the House was controlled by Republicans, it voted in 2012 to hold Eric Holder, attorney general under Democratic President Barack Obama, in contempt for failing to turn over subpoenaed Justice Department documents about a gun-running investigation. It was the first time Congress had held any Cabinet member in contempt. A 1974 Supreme Court ruling made clear the contours of the doctrine of executive privilege. In the case U.S. v. Nixon, President Richard Nixon was ordered to deliver tapes and other subpoenaed materials to a judge for review. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a president's right to privacy in his communications must be balanced against the power of Congress to investigate and oversee the executive branch. Nixon resigned as president. Mr Mueller's report detailed extensive contacts between Trump's campaign and Moscow, as well as the campaign's expectation of benefiting from Russia's efforts to tilt the election in Trump's favour. But Mr Mueller concluded there was insufficient evidence to show a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the campaign. The report also described numerous actions by Mr Trump to try to impede Mueller's investigation, but Mr Mueller offered no conclusion on whether Mr Trump committed criminal obstruction.
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| Nike's plan for better-fitting kicks: Show us your feet Posted: 09 May 2019 04:48 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Nike wants to meet your feet.
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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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| Google’s new accessibility features might be the most exciting highlight of I/O 2019 Posted: 08 May 2019 10:21 AM PDT  The main I/O 2019 keynote was filled with announcements and demos, but it was pretty dull. Google unveiled Android Q's main features as well as the mid-range Pixel 3a phone and the Nest hardware rebrand, and it explained the various innovations it's packing into Google Assistant. The company also talked at length about machine learning and artificial intelligence, giving practical examples of what it all means. On top of all that, Google made clear to everyone in the audience that privacy is now a core focus at Google HQ. One other theme that was pretty clear during the conference was Google's renewed focus on making technology accessible to everyone, and the related announcement from the keynote might be the most exciting stuff we saw at I/O 2019.Google came up with a few new accessibility features that should make smartphones and Google services even easier to use -- so here they are: Google Lens text-to-speechWhile demoing Google Lens for Google Go, the search app for entry-level devices, Google revealed that the app will be able to read any text aloud and even translate it into the user's native language. The code needed for the feature supposedly measures 100KB, so the feature can be included in very cheap smartphones. Google gave a practical example of what that might mean for people who struggle to read:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePwKgKp69GE* * * Live TranscribeLive Transcribe is easily one of the greatest features Google, or anyone else could spend money developing. The feature will help people who are deaf "hear" what someone else is saying in real time. The app will transcribe everything it hears, so anyone hard of hearing can follow the conversation and reply. Live Transcribe is coming soon in beta version, first on Pixel 3 and then on other devices.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCwjIaPXwA* * * Sound AmplifierSound Amplifier is also meant to help people with hearing disabilities. The feature lets you adjust the sound settings of the phone to make it easier to hear. The feature only works on devices running Android 9 Pie or higher.* * * Live Caption and Live RelayLive Caption is like Live Transcribe, but for videos -- any video -- and phone calls. With Live Caption enabled, anyone will be able to understand what's happening in a video, from the web or a phone, without turning on the sound. That's because subtitles will appear in real-time on top of the video that's currently playing. The feature is meant to help people who are hard of hearing first and foremost. Similarly, Live Relay will work during calls, if that's something you want to do, turning the whole conversation into a chat-like experience. Live Caption doesn't need the internet to work, but you'll need an Android Q device.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL-8Xfx6S5o* * * Project EuphoniaMaybe one of the boldest accessibility announcements from Google I/O, Project Euphonia is meant to help people suffering from ALS, people who had a stroke, and people with other speech impediments speak. Google is using machine learning to turn hard-to-understand speech and facial expressions into text so that people can have conversations.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAdegPmkK-
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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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| 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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| 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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| Trump Asserts Executive Privilege over Mueller Report as House Prepares to Hold Barr in Contempt Posted: 08 May 2019 08:11 AM PDT  President Trump on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over the unredacted Mueller report, just moments before the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance a contempt resolution against Attorney General William Barr due to his refusal to turn over the full report.Citing Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler's "blatant abuse of power," the White House said the president "has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege."The contempt resolution passed the Judiciary Committee 22–12 along party lines, and the full House is expected to vote on it Wednesday afternoon. Moments before the contempt vote, Nadler announced that the president had taken the "dramatic step" of asserting executive privilege."The Department's decision reflects President Trump's blanket defiance of Congress's constitutionally mandated duties," Nadler said in a statement. "In the coming days, I expect that Congress will have no choice but to confront the behavior of this lawless Administration. The Committee will also take a hard look at the officials who are enabling this cover up."Barr sent a letter to Trump Wednesday morning asking that he assert executive privilege over the full Mueller report and the evidence underlying it in order to protect sensitive grand-jury information and evidence related to other ongoing criminal probes."The Committee therefore demands all of the Special Counsel's investigative files, which consist of millions of pages of classified and unclassified documents bearing upon more than two dozen criminal cases and investigations, many of which are ongoing," Barr's letter reads. "These materials include law enforcement information, information about sensitive intelligence sources and methods and grand jury information that the department is prohibited from disclosing by law."Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Nadler of rushing through the oversight process and demanding the full unredacted report because he and his colleagues cannot accept that Mueller's findings do not further their partisan interests."I ask you to recognize that craven and insincere politics yield anemic dividends for Americans who have asked us to legislate," Collins said. "As I have told you on multiple occasions and proved at last week's pharmaceuticals markup, I stand ready to work with you to promote solutions. I will not, though, become a bystander as you assail the attorney general and this committee. Our democracy deserves better."
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