| In change, Britain says it will escort all UK vessels through Hormuz Strait Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:12 AM PDT  A British warship will accompany British-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz to defend freedom of navigation, a change in policy after the government previously said it did not have the military resources to do so. Tensions have spiked between Iran and Britain since the Islamic Republic seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait last Friday. Its move came after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar which Britain said was heading for Syria in defiance of EU sanctions.
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| Suspect arrested in shooting deaths of four people in LA Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:45 PM PDT  Police arrested Gerry Dean Zaragoza in Canoga Park after a 12-hour manhunt.
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| A Violent Turn in Hong Kong Protests Marks a Dangerous New Phase Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:23 AM PDT  Sparked by a proposed bill that would allow suspected criminals to face trial in China, protests in Hong Kong have turned violent.
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| ‘Fox & Friends’ Host Brian Kilmeade: Obstruction Part of Mueller Report Just ’Trump Being Trump’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:37 AM PDT  Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that President Trump could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade on Thursday brushed off such alleged criminality as nothing more than "Trump being Trump."At the top of Thursday's broadcast of the president's favorite morning show, the Friends crew immediately spun the lengthy Wednesday House hearing as a complete victory for the president. At the same time, the hosts noted that prominent Democrats felt the former FBI director made the case for impeaching Trump for obstructing justice."Were they watching something else?" Ainsley Earhardt wondered aloud."I think you can sum up the obstruction part—Trump being Trump," Kilmeade said after they aired a clip of 2020 candidates saying Trump was not exonerated by the report.The pro-Trump Fox News host went on to summarize what he felt was the president's mindset."Picture this, you are wrongly accused and you know you didn't collude with Russia as was revealed in the first part [of the report]," he declared. "And then you have 19 lawyers, all of which are on the record hating you and very talented and loaded for bear, and you have an entire—Robert Mueller, with an endless budget, open wallet to investigate you."Kilmeade continued: "Even if you did not rob the bank if they are going to investigate you for robbing the bank you got to wonder: 'Why did they question everyone around me for something I didn't do?' What does Trump do? He fights every step of the way and the biggest reporter, the biggest anchor, the smallest outlet, if you say something wrong he will call you out and that's what this is!"Doocy and Earhardt agreed with Kilmeade, of course, adding that it wasn't Mueller's job to say he "could not" exonerate the president, and that "they could not find something to charge the president with."During the lengthy House hearing, the former special counsel testified that the president could be indicted after he leaves office and that he believes Trump's written answers for the report may have been "generally" untrue.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Justice Department will not pursue criminal contempt charges in Census dispute with Congress Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:11 PM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department will not pursue criminal charges against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to hold them in contempt in a dispute over documents concerning whether to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. "Accordingly, the department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General or the Secretary," he added.
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| Ford's "Baby Bronco" Compact SUV Shows Off Its Off-Road Chops Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:00 AM PDT  This Escape-based crossover could be called Bronco Scout, Bronco Sport, or Adventurer.
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| We’re Getting an Idea of Boris Johnson’s Plan A: Deal, Then Election Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson hasn't given much information about his Brexit plans B, C or D, but his statement to Parliament on Thursday gives us an idea of his Plan A:Prepare Britain for No Deal. Posters, TV ads, roads widened and infrastructure installed. The message: "Britain Can Take It"Tell the EU it can either give way, or take its share of the economic hit from a no-deal split. Secure enough concessions to go back to ParliamentGet the deal through Parliament. Britain leaves the EU. Can-do spirit and pluck have won the dayCall an election. Probably around March 2020, because parties don't like campaigning in the winter. Johnson needs a majority in Parliament to do any of the things he wants to do, and this would be his moment of maximum strengthThat's if everything goes well. If things go badly and he can't get enough concessions to satisfy Parliament, the election might be sooner.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ole Miss student from Texas arrested after allegedly killing classmate Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:27 AM PDT  Brandon Theesfeld is charged with the murder of 21-year-old Alexandria Kostial, whose body was found near a lake about 30 miles from campus.
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| No F-35 for You: Iran's Air Force Might Be Dying Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:43 AM PDT  Not good.Two incidents in late August 2018 involving Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-5F Tiger II fighter jets underscored the ongoing crisis in Iran's air force.On Aug. 21, Iran unveiled what it described as a new, fourth-generation fighter jet. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani even sat in the plane's cockpit and posed for photographs.One problem. The aircraft in question was conspicuously an F-5F, one of the 17 Iran bought from the United States during the rule of the Shah. It was not domestically-built."Iran has probably upgraded the electronics systems, originally from the 1960s, and made other upgrades," Iran analyst Nader Uskowi suggested. "But it is not clear why the president of the country should unveil a 40-year-old plane as a new fighter."War Is Boring contributor Sebastien Roblin pointed out that Iran is in fact developing a new plane called the Kowsar-88, another in a long line of modified reverse-engineered F-5s that Tehran will either use as a trainer or light-attack aircraft.But that jet "wasn't ready for display this August, so Tehran simply took an old, very well-known jet fighter and claimed it was a new one, in full view of domestic and international audiences that would know better," Roblin wrote at The National Interest.
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| Gambia ex-president accused of ordering murder of two US businessmen Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:16 PM PDT  Former members of a Gambian death squad known as the Junglers on Thursday accused ex-president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the murder of two US citizens in 2013, having already confessed to the killing of a well known journalist. Since Monday, Gambians have been gripped by live coverage of three ex-Junglers -- Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie -- before the West African country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On the last day of hearings before the commission adjourns until August 5, Badjie, a member of Jammeh's elite hit squad, said the head of state had ordered in June 2013 that two US-Gambian businenessmen, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, who he suspected were planning a coup, should be "chopped into pieces".
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| North Korea says missile test was 'solemn warning' to South Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:19 PM PDT  A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that it had tested a "new-type tactical guided weapon" that was meant to be a "solemn warning" about South Korean weapons development and its rival's plans to hold military exercises. The message in the country's state media quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and was directed at "South Korean military warmongers." It comes as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to provide a step forward in stalled nuclear negotiations. Although the North had harsh words for South Korea, the statement stayed away from the kind of belligerent attacks on the United States that have marked past announcements, a possible signal that it's interested in keeping diplomacy alive.
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| Far-Right Groups Embrace ‘Straight Pride Parades’ to Win Recruits, Media Attention Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:14 AM PDT  Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/ReutersFar-right groups looking to put a friendlier face on their politics are increasingly organizing so-called "Straight Pride Parades" in an attempt to both garner media attention and new recruits. The "Straight Pride" trend kicked off in Boston last month, when a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America announced plans for a Straight Pride Parade at the end of August. News reports and Twitter chatter focused on the novelty and strangeness of a parade celebrating "straight pride," imagining a group of particularly aggrieved heterosexual men in cargo shorts. Much of that coverage missed the fact that Super Happy Fun America's goals aren't so innocent—its lead organizer has been involved in far-right group Resist Marxism, and praised a Chilean dictator for executing liberals. Rather than representing any sort of "straight pride," the Boston Straight Pride parade turned out to be just another attempt at right-wing trolling. Now another set of far-right activists thousands of miles away are trying the same tactic. An explicitly anti-gay group calling itself the "National Straight Pride Coalition" announced plans this week for a Straight Pride Parade in Modesto, CA on August 24 to defend "Western Civilization." While the Boston Straight Pride Parade at least pretended not to be an attack on gay rights, with openly gay anti-Muslim activist Milo Yiannopoulos as its grand marshal, the Modesto event is clearly a vehicle for racial and homophobic hate. On its website, the group describes homosexuality as "evil," and adds that it was created in part to defend "whiteness." Still, participants in the Modesto parade were quick to paint criticism of the event as an attack on straight people. The event permit request describes it as merely a "cultural celebration event." "The moment you have a straight pride parade, everyone goes crazy," said Ryan Schambers, who describes himself as a member of the National Straight Pride Coalition. Mark Ricci, the head of Modesto Progressive Democrats, said the Straight Pride Parade is just a cover for organizers' extremist politics."It's like a front for what their real intentions are," said Ricci, whose group plans to participate in a counterprotest to the Modesto event. The Modesto Straight Pride event hasn't received a permit yet. Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for the city of Modesto, said the permitting process should be settled by the end of the week. "The city of Modesto cannot deny a permit based on an organization's values, the content of speeches, or the views of speakers," Reeves said in a statement. "The approval of the permit would not be an endorsement or sponsorship of any particular message by the city, but a recognition of the free speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment." The National Straight Pride Coalition is the creation of Don J. Grundmann, a longtime anti-gay activist and perennial failed Senate candidate in California. Grundmann said presenting his event as a "Straight Pride Parade" has earned it more attention that it would have received if he had billed it as another right-wing rally."It can be publicity, naturally," Grundmann said. "Straight pride—it shouldn't be a term which is controversial." Super Happy Fun America did not respond to a request for comment on the Modesto event. But Grundmann said his group doesn't have anything to do with the Boston Straight Pride march, and criticized their comparative openness to gay rights, which he described as "completely opposite from what we would do." Grundmann then proceeded to go on an anti-Semitic rant about a secretive, wealthy cabal controlling world events, down to the counterprotest to his own event. Asked if he was attacking Jewish people, Grundmann said, "you can figure it out."The Straight Pride Parade in Modesto has already attracted support from at least one local Republican official. Schambers is listed as a member of the local Stanislaus County GOP's central committee leadership on its website, although he insists he's no longer a county Republican official. The Stanislaus County GOP didn't respond to a request for comment.Schambers' involvement in the parade was first noted by a left-wing "digital community center" called It's Going Down. In an interview with The Daily Beast, he vaguely criticized the anti-gay language on the National Straight Pride Coalition, but then said he's participating in the event in part because he thinks it'd "probably be better" if gay people were instead straight. Ricci said Modestans aren't fooled by Grundmann posing as a support of "straight rights" and pointed out that Grundmann is a resident of the Bay Area—nearly 100 miles away from the planned site of the Straight Pride Parade. "We're just deeply disappointed that there are people out there who continue to use this thinly veiled hate speech under the guise of equality," Ricci said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Conspiracy theories, excusing Russians, attacking Mueller: How low can Republicans go? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:50 AM PDT  Mueller Day was a day of shame for the former party of national security. Republicans rehashed fever-swamp theories aimed to please Trump and Fox News.
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| SpaceX 'Starhopper' rocket test ends in spectacular flames Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:21 AM PDT  SpaceX's Starhopper – a prototype of the rocket it hopes will one day fly around the solar system – had a failed launch test that ended with it being surrounded by flames.The company was aiming to try the first "untethered" test of the rocket, which was intended to allow it to jump up into the air and then come back down again, without the restraining ties that have held it down in previous attempts.But as the test began, the rocket failed to launch and it stayed on the ground as flames poured out of its rocket. Another flame flew out of the top of the rocket, as can be seen on the video.The rocket itself appeared to survive without problems, but it is just the latest in a run of issues. It came a week after the Starhopper craft flew a fireball out of its bottom during another test.It was the first time that SpaceX has allowed one of the tests to be streamed. Previous attempts have happened in private – with spectacular descriptions of the launches leaking out after."It appears as though we have had an abort on today's test. As you can see there, the vehicle did not lift off today," SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said on a live stream provided by the company. "As I mentioned before, this is a development program, today was a test flight designed to test the boundaries of the vehicle."While the Starhopper is just a test vehicle, SpaceX hopes that it will one day turn into a rocket known as Starship. It aims to use that one day to carry people to Mars, with the help of a huge array of rocket engines.
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| Ruth Bader Ginsburg Insists She’s Not Going Anywhere Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:28 AM PDT  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed this week that she dreams of serving on the Supreme Court for another decade.Ginsburg, age 86, traveled to Portugal with Justice John Paul Stevens — who died July 16 at the age of 99 — during the last week of his life. She recounted a story from the trip at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by Duke Law School on Wednesday night: "As we were leaving the U.S. ambassador's residence our last evening in Lisbon, I said to John, 'My dream is to remain on the court as long as you did.' His immediate response? 'Stay longer!'"Ginsburg would need to serve until 2028, when she would be 95, to surpass Stevens's nearly 35-year tenure on the court.It may be a bit morbid, but given the nature of lifetime appointments and the outsize role of the Supreme Court in American political life, there is intense interest surrounding Ginsburg's health. She has spent the week making public appearances and pointedly insisting that she isn't going anywhere."There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months," Ginsburg told NPR in an on-camera interview Tuesday, the day of Stevens's funeral, referring to former Kentucky senator Jim Bunning. "That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I am very much alive."On Wednesday night, Ginsburg delivered a 30-minute speech looking back at the 2018 Supreme Court term and Stevens's life, before participating in an hour-long question-and-answer session with Duke Law professor Neil Siegel, one of her former clerks. When Siegel asserted during the Q&A that "nominees for the Supreme Court are not chosen primarily anymore for independence, legal ability, [and] personal decency, and I wonder if that's a loss for all of us," Ginsburg immediately defended Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. "My two newest colleagues are very decent, very smart individuals," she said.She expressed delight over the fact that she had assigned two opinions to Gorsuch and one to Kavanaugh during the last term, something she was only able to do only because the two justices senior to her on the court (Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas) were in the minority."The Court remains the most collegial place I have ever worked," Ginsburg said. She lamented how divisive Supreme Court nominations have become. "I had a history of being a flaming feminist," Ginsburg said, before noting that she was confirmed 96–3. "I was general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union." Ginsburg pointed out that her "buddy," the late Justice Antonin Scalia, also had well-known constitutional views when he was confirmed by a unanimous vote. "My hope is we will return to the way it once was," Ginsburg said of the confirmation process."Nowadays, when people divide into 'I'll talk to my own kind, and the others I have nothing to do with,' that's very sad because that hasn't been the way it was and isn't the way this country should be," Ginsburg said. She added that Americans should go "beyond just mere tolerance of different views" to "welcoming different views because they enrich our society."To NPR, Ginsburg also expressed concern about the perils of packing the Supreme Court, a policy that has gained the support of several Democratic presidential candidates. "Nine seems to be a good number. It's been that way for a long time," she said. "I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.""If anything would make the court look partisan," she added, "it would be that: one side saying, 'When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.'"Despite Ginsburg's dream of staying on the court for another decade, she sounded a more realistic note at the end of Wednesday night's Q&A session. "I'll stay on this job as long as I can do it full-steam. That means, at my age, 86, you have to take it year by year," she said. "I was okay this last term. I expect to be okay next term. And after that, we'll just have to see."
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| View Photos of the 2020 Lexus RX Crossover Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| Putin allies' oil feud spills into public view Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:11 PM PDT  The blame game over a contamination scandal in Russia's oil industry has breached President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, the world's biggest publicly-traded oil company, and Nikolai Tokarev, the boss of Transneft, the world's largest pipeline network, are embroiled in an unusually public and rancorous dispute over their companies' responses to the contamination of Russia's Druzhba ("Friendship") pipeline, an episode that disrupted exports and tarnished Moscow's image as a reliable energy supplier.
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| Lightfoot faces fallout over comment picked up by hot mic, calling police union official a "clown" Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:03 PM PDT  Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a remark about a Chicago police union official that was caught on a hot mic Wednesday.
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| Brazil judge orders Petrobras to refuel Iran ships: source Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:35 AM PDT  Brasília (AFP) - A Supreme Court judge on Thursday ordered Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras to refuel two Iranian ships stranded off the country's coast, a source involved in the dispute and a report said. The order came after Iran's top envoy to Brazil told Bloomberg that Tehran could suspend imports from the Latin American country if the issue was not resolved. Petrobras has refused to provide fuel to the vessels, which have been stuck at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana since early last month, for fear of breaching US sanctions.
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| Rep. Tlaib Compares BDS Movement Against Israel To U.S. Boycotting Nazi Germany Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT  Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib compared the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to Americans' boycott of Nazi Germany during a Tuesday floor speech.The Michigan congresswoman was speaking against a House resolution passed Wednesday that opposes the movement because it "does not favor a two-state solution and that seeks to exclude the State of Israel and the Israeli people from the economic, cultural, and academic life of the rest of the world," the text of HR 246 states.Tlaib started by saying she would not allow Congress to attack the right to "boycott the racist policies of the government and state of Israel.""The right to boycott is deeply rooted in the fabric of our country," Tlaib said. "What was the Boston Tea Party but a boycott? Where would we be now without the boycott led by civil rights activists in the 1950s and '60s, like the Montgomery bus boycott and the United Farm Workers grape boycott?"She continued that some of the country's "most important advances in racial equality and equity and workers' rights" have been achieved through constitutional, collective action.
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| The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:33 PM PDT ![The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck]( "The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck") A medical examiner in Georgia ruled a man died of natural causes. Then funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck.
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| 40+ Halloween Desserts That'll Thrill Everyone At Your Holiday Party Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:19 PM PDT |
| Mueller said Trump was 'not exculpated' for obstruction of justice. The dictionary responded Posted: 24 Jul 2019 08:04 AM PDT  Merriam-Webster tweeted the definition of 'exculpate' in response to Mueller's remarks
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| The Latest: Judge blocks asylum policy at US-Mexico border Posted: 24 Jul 2019 04:35 PM PDT  A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco came hours after a judge in Washington decided to let the rules stand while lawsuits played out in court. The policy would prevent most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first.
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| Glaciers Are Melting Underwater. It's Worse Than Previously Thought Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Underwater glacier melt could be happening faster than previously thought, a dangerous finding as melting ice and glaciers raise sea levels
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| Star orbiting massive black hole lends support to Einstein's theory Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:17 PM PDT  Observations of light coming from a star zipping in orbit around the humongous black hole at the center of our galaxy have provided fresh evidence backing Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity, astronomers said on Thursday. Researchers studied a star called S0-2, boasting a mass roughly 10 times larger than the sun, as it travels in an elliptical orbit lasting 16 years around the supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* residing at the center of the Milky Way 26,000 light years from Earth. The famed theoretical physicist proposed the theory, considered one of the pillars of science, to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.
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| Co-conspirator in ex-India PM's assassination released on parole Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:40 AM PDT  India's longest-serving female prisoner, who was convicted over the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, walked out of prison Thursday on a 30-day parole to arrange her daughter's marriage. Nalini Sriharan was granted parole earlier this month by the Madras High Court after spending nearly three decades in jail over her role in Gandhi's murder by a female suicide bomber in 1991.
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| US sanctions Venezuela emergency food 'corruption network' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT  The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's stepsons, a Colombian businessman and six others for running a "corruption network" that profited from emergency food imports. The US has in recent months escalated sanctions against Venezuela, which is struggling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of its 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. The new restrictions target Maduro's stepsons Walter Jacob Gavidia Flores, Yosser Daniel Gavidia and Yoswal Alexander Gavidia Flores, whom the US says collaborated with Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran to profit off importing emergency food into the country as it struggled with rising malnutrition.
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| Fake Tweets Put Israel in Bed With Iranian Exile ‘Terrorists’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:14 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyTEL AVIV—It was already late afternoon Tuesday local time when a call came in from a contact several time zones away. "A strange story is making the rounds in the Iranian press," said the contact, who tracks such things. The leader of the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile group often described by critics as a cult, had secretly traveled to Israel last week for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. Rudy Giuliani, a long-time supporter of the group, had apparently been a go-between.A Shady Facebook Campaign Is Stoking the Iran-U.S. ConflictEven stranger was the source for the report: the French consul general in Jerusalem, Pierre Cochard, who had publicized the news a few days prior via his personal Twitter account, citing a former colleague whom he had worked with in Tehran. In a long five-tweet thread, Cochard lamented the fact that the MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi, a political refugee in France, had not received official approval from Paris for such sensitive talks with the Israeli government. "You may want to look into this on your end," my contact said.The intriguing report hadn't really gained traction yet, although a few Iran-focused journalists and analysts on Twitter had begun credibly highlighting the consul's tweets and bombshell revelations. The news value was obvious. A quasi-Marxist group that fell afoul of the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, the MEK has been in exile for most of the last four decades. Both the U.S. and European Union used to consider the group a terrorist organization, a designation lifted just a few years ago after a high-profile lobbying campaign by many allegedly well-paid supporters like former CIA chief James Woolsey, Howard Dean, and, yes, Giuliani. More to the point the MEK was simply weird, with a cult of personality reportedly built around its husband-wife leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. While their actual base of support inside Iran is extremely suspect, the MEK does on occasion deliver. In the early 2000s they were the source for several major revelations regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program. Which is where Israel may come in. According to a 2017 report likely attributable to the Obama administration, Israel had teamed up with the MEK to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. More recently, an Iranian terror plot out of Austria and Belgium in 2018 reportedly was foiled by the Mossad. The alleged target? An MEK rally in Paris. In short, there were plausible reasons for Rajavi to make a trip to Jerusalem, although such a move would be hugely controversial—sending a message, as it was sure to do, that the MEK is an Israeli partner in the service of regime change in Iran. "The Iranians always suspect a hidden hand supporting any of the anti-regime groups, inside or outside the country, rightly or wrongly," one U.S-based analyst that covers Iran told The Daily Beast. The French consul in Jerusalem would surely have known all of this when he went public. The Cochard profile, on the face of it, looked like a legitimate French diplomat's personal account. It retweeted the French foreign ministry, it issued official-sounding platitudes about Bastille Day and the Franco-Israel relationship, it spotlighted highlights from French President Emanuel Macron. Established in 2013, the account had over 2,000 followers, including the verified profiles of several prominent Israeli journalists, the French ambassador in Israel, and the French embassy in Tel Aviv. A picture of the consul general visiting a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem was tweeted out around the same time as the MEK thread; a cursory search on Google brought up no other hits for the image, lending further credence to the account's legitimacy. An initial inquiry made to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office for comment dished up what often is a classic non-denial denial. Responding to the question of whether Ms. Rajavi indeed visited Israel last week to meet with Netanyahu, a spokesman told The Daily Beast that "[I] have not seen those media reports and have nothing to offer on query." When pressed on the fact that these weren't media reports, but rather (ostensibly) the online postings of a senior European diplomat working across town in Jerusalem, the spokesman declined to comment further. Intriguing. And yet, going back further in the account's timeline, things began to look very different. The consul was in the past apparently a major fan of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Homages to Lebron James were interspersed with ruminations about NBA basketball generally. Following the patois of modern social media there were purposeful spelling mistakes and online American slang. Not exactly the public profile of a pedigreed French diplomat and graduate of the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration. At a certain point earlier this year, it turned out, the account was re-branded—or bought, or potentially hacked. Gone were the references to the Razorbacks and King James. In their place, under the profile of Pierre Cochard, the account was now churning out, in fluent French, tweets about high diplomacy and French foreign policy hyperspecific to what a real consul general sitting in Jerusalem would be occupied with. Until, at the height of an escalating standoff between Tehran and Washington (and Jerusalem), it tweets out an elaborate story regarding the MEK, Rudy Giuliani, secrets flights from Talinn, the Mossad, and more. The story did succeed in gaining some traction online before this reporter finally reached the French consulate for comment, bringing L'affaire Rajavi to its attention. A spokesman rejected the veracity of the profile, telling The Daily Beast it was a fake and that they were contacting Twitter about the matter. The consulate added that Cochard had been the victim of an identity theft on the popular social media platform. Twitter took down the Pierre Cochard account a few hours later. Giuliani to Speak Beside Leader of Accused Iranian 'Cult'The story, a classic case of fake news and disinformation, was luckily stopped before it was able to travel halfway around the world—although the Iranian media is likely still flogging the "report." Yet the real moral is just how much time, effort, and resources were invested to make this particular profile seem like the real personal account of the French consul general in Jerusalem. This is the new face of psy-ops and cyber-ops in our hyperconnected, digitized world, and it all too often resembles the real thing. As if on cue, on Wednesday the Israeli intelligence services said they had scuttled a wide-ranging Iranian online recruitment campaign targeting Israeli nationals, primarily via the use of fake social media profiles on Facebook."The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem calls internet users to remain vigilant," read the conclusion of the official statement issued Tuesday. 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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| 'Enraged' wife hits husband with laptop during argument over other women on plane in Miami Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:26 PM PDT  A woman on an American Airlines plane about to take off from Miami threw a laptop at her husband, hitting a flight attendant and a passenger.
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| Democrats ask Mueller if Trump could avoid criminal charges if he serves a 2nd term Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:14 PM PDT  After testifying that the president could be charged with obstruction of justice after he leaves office, former special counsel Robert Mueller is asked about the statute of limitations.
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| Governor acknowledges Native Hawaiian plight on Mauna Kea Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:39 PM PDT  After a week of tension and dozens of arrests, Hawaii's governor is vowing to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing stalemate with Native Hawaiian activists who are trying to prevent the construction of another telescope atop a Big Island volcano. Gov. David Ige visited the protest site Tuesday evening after acknowledging that their grievances were not just about the new observatory but also the treatment of Native Hawaiians going back more than a century. Activists welcomed Ige with a nose-to-nose greeting called honi as he approached a tent where Hawaiian elders have been blocking a road prevent to construction equipment and crews from reaching the summit of Mauna Kea.
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| Maine Confirmed Its First Case of a Rare Tick-Borne Virus in Years. Here's What to Know About Powassan Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:24 AM PDT  What to know about the tick-borne illness
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| Indonesia pardons woman sentenced to jail for exposing lewd boss Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:57 AM PDT  An Indonesian woman sentenced to six months in jail for exposing her lecherous boss won a parliamentary pardon Thursday after the case sparked an outcry over victim's rights. Loud applause broke out in the House of Representatives as lawmakers unanimously voted to quash the prison sentence handed to Baiq Nuril Maknun over a recording she made of her former employer's sexual harassment. Rights groups had condemned the sentence and the high-profile case sparked fears it would discourage victims of sexual harassment from speaking out in the conservative Muslim majority nation.
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| Point Break: Is Iran Ready to Retaliate Against America? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  The United States and Iran remain locked in a tense standoff, punctuated by periodic escalations, that could easily transition into a full-blown conflict. Following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran has been subjected to crushing sanctions that have contracted its economy and put pressure on its leadership. Rather than concede, Iran has responded with increasingly provocative moves—sabotaging several oil tankers, shooting down a U.S. drone, and openly violating the uranium enrichment and storage thresholds in the JCPOA. Many in Washington want the United States to launch military strikes on Iran because they believe the prospect of a war that it would lose would force Iran into submission. Military action is much more likely to backfire, however, since it would only legitimize Iran's nuclear program and make a nuclear arsenal essential to defend itself from the United States.Iran has clearly telegraphed that it would restart uranium enrichment unless America's European allies—who want to remain in the JCPOA—defy U.S. sanctions and continue to import Iranian oil. Iran's recent moves are a desperate effort to recapture some of the economic benefits of the deal in exchange for its continued compliance. So far, modest European efforts to that end have done little to ease Iran's economic crisis. Iran's recent seizure of a British oil tanker—retaliation for the Royal Navy's seizure of an Iranian vessel—is likely to make the Europeans even less willing to risk angering the United States on Iran's behalf.
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| Girl tossed into the air by charging Yellowstone National Park buffalo Posted: 24 Jul 2019 03:34 AM PDT  The girl, from Odessa, Florida, was in a group of roughly 50 people who were standing near the bison for about 20 minutes in the Old Faithful Geyser area on Monday before it charged, Yellowstone officials said in a written statement. The victim, who was not identified, was treated by emergency personnel at Old Faithful Lodge and released. In June 2018, a Yellowstone bison gored a woman after a crowd surged within feet of it, according to the park.
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| US warship sails through Taiwan Strait, China 'concerned' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:13 AM PDT  An American warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy and Taiwanese authorities said Thursday, triggering concern in Beijing. The transit came as China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, unveiled a defence white paper Wednesday stressing its willingness to use force to thwart any move towards the self-ruled island's independence, and accusing the United States of undermining global stability. According to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, the USS Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, conducted a routine transit through the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan during July 24-25.
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| 'You can't do that': Video shows ICE officers smash window, drag man out of car in front of his family Posted: 24 Jul 2019 07:57 AM PDT  Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were seen smashing a man's car window and dragging him to the ground in a now-viral video.
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| The Shady Connections of a Retired U.S. General Who Made It Rain in Iraq Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:15 AM PDT  Mohammed Ameen/ReutersLieutenant General Frank Helmick was a decorated U.S. Army officer. In 2004, he led the raid that killed the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's murderous sons, Uday and Qusay. Later, Helmick commanded NATO's training mission in Iraq, then spent a year as Deputy Commanding Officer of all American forces in the country.But in December 2011, the U.S. military withdrew from Iraq. A few months later, after 36 years in the Army, Helmick retired, too. At the ceremony, then-CIA Director David Petraeus called him an "exceptional officer."Since then, Helmick's actions have won him fewer accolades. By the end of 2012, he was back in Iraq. The war had privatized and Helmick privatized with it. U.S. Paid $1B to Contractor Accused of Bigotry at Iraq Air BaseAfter the American withdrawal, Iraq had a gold rush. Billions of dollars of leftover U.S. military equipment was free for the taking and huge contracts were available as the country struggled to rebuild. Helmick used his contacts to take advantage of this. He joined a military contractor that struck deals with Iraqi oligarchs who are steeped in corruption and have at least superficial ties to some notorious Iranian operatives.Some might say that's just the price of doing business in Iraq over the last few years, but that doesn't make the business any less ugly.In late 2012, Helmick became Vice President of SOS International LLC (SOSi). At that time, SOSi was a small family-owned company focused on translation and training, and Helmick, as the saying goes, was a rainmaker.A retired general joining a military contracting company isn't unusual. But many former high-ranking officials cash out simply by joining the board of a large company, earning tens of thousands to attend meetings and lobby old friends. Helmick, for his part, took a more hands-on role than his retired peers, overseeing SOSi's "Mission Solutions Group" and managing the company's Iraq work. His qualifications were obvious. As one former SOSi employee told us, "Helmick was hired specifically for his contacts in Iraq."Before Helmick joined SOSi, the company had never received a large government security or logistics contract, according to government contract databases.Since Helmick signed on, SOSi has won nearly $2 billion in base protection contracts in Iraq and expanded into commercial work. But the deals Helmick helped to make have the potential to land SOSi in legal trouble.A Government Accountability Project investigation for The Daily Beast uncovered substantive ties between SOSi, an Iraqi oligarch who has been linked to Iranian terrorist networks, and a criminal group backed by Iraq's former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. All these connections were developed after Helmick joined the company.The FBI is conducting interviews relevant to at least one of the resulting deals, according to sources who were questioned by federal agents about SOSi activities.The FBI declined to comment and Helmick did not respond to our inquiries.Although we submitted detailed questions to SOSi regarding every aspect of this story and allowed weeks to respond, the company declined to address most of the specific issues raised:"The business of SOSi is to support critical activities of the United States government—often in hostile and dangerous environments," SOSi said in a statement. "The company has been a federal contractor for more than 30 years and has effectively served the U.S. military in Iraq since 2003. In performing this work, SOSi consistently complies with all U.S. and applicable foreign laws. The company likewise carries out extensive programs to ensure that its employees do the same, while also observing the highest professional and ethical standards. … SOSi has no knowledge and is aware of no credible evidence to suggest the existence of any investigation of the company by any federal law enforcement agency." * * *The Oligarch* * *Helmick joined SOSi with an important relationship: he knew Iraq's then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki personally. In December 2012, Helmick met with al-Maliki on SOSi's behalf, according to an interview he gave to the conservative website Human Events. "When I was [in Iraq], I had the opportunity to speak to Prime Minister Maliki, who I have a great relationship with," said Helmick. "It was Julian Setian, the [SOSi] CEO and myself, and we sat down for 45 minutes."Helmick also met with other high level Iraqi officials. "I went to see all these guys because I do have pretty good relationships with many of the senior Iraqis," Helmick said. "I went to see my old buddies."Helmick said in the Human Events interview that al-Maliki told him Iraq was open for business.At that time, doing business in Iraq meant working with al-Maliki's people.A key figure in al-Maliki's orbit is an oligarch named Essam al-Asadi. Several diplomatic and intelligence officials spoke on background about al-Asadi's connections to al-Maliki, summed up by one source as "extensive and deep." And by late 2012, al-Asadi and SOSi were working together, thanks to Helmick.Al-Asadi also has at least a passing acquaintance with some of the shadier characters in al-Maliki's orbit, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was sanctioned as a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Daily Beast obtained photos of a 2015 meeting among al-Asadi, al-Maliki, and al-Muhandis.Al-Muhandis is an advisor to Qassem Soleimani, the infamous commander of Iran's Quds Force who was blamed for many deadly attacks on Americans and is now preparing for a proxy war against the United States. In 1983, as part of the Iranian backed campaign against Saddam Hussein and his allies during the Iran-Iraq war, al-Muhandis allegedly helped bomb the American and French embassies in Kuwait and in 1985 tried to assassinate the emir of that country.Today, al-Muhandis is the operational commander of Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, a predominantly Shia, quasi-governmental paramilitary network that formed to fight the so-called Islamic State after the virtual collapse of much of the American-trained Iraqi Army in the summer of 2014.Al-Muhandis also commands Kata'ib Hizbollah, a Shia militia in Iraq accused of war crimes by Amnesty International, including torturing and murdering Iraqi Sunnis. The group also has killed American and coalition forces in Iraq. In 2015, Kata'ib Hizbollah kidnapped and ransomed 26 members of the Qatari royal family.Al-Asadi and al-Muhandis may have no financial ties or working relationship, but as the photograph suggests, they travel in the same al-Maliki circles. Essam al-Asadi's ties to another terror-linked figure are clearer. Al-Asadi has a business relationship with a banker facing Treasury Department sanctions, Aras Karim Habib, who allegedly helped finance the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon's Hezbollah. In 2004 the CIA reportedly believed Habib was a paid agent of Iran, working closely with the late financier and politician Ahmed Chalabi to draw the U.S. into Iraq. Habib has denied the charges.Habib now runs Al-Bilad Islamic Bank, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018 because of very specific allegations stating "Aras Habib, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Al-Bilad Islamic Bank" had been "assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force]."The Treasury Department went on to say that Habib "enabled" the Quds Force's "exploitation of Iraq's banking sector to move funds from Tehran to Hizballah, jeopardizing the integrity of the Iraqi financial system. Habib, who has a history of serving as a conduit for financial disbursements from the IRGC-QF to Iranian-backed Iraqi groups, has also helped provide IRGC-QF financial support to Lebanese Hizballah. Al-Bilad Islamic Bank is being designated for being owned or controlled by Aras Habib."Put more simply, as one source told us, "His bank served as a big vehicle for facilitating the movement of money to Iran, Lebanon and Syria."Previously, Al-Bilad Islamic Bank held shares of Baghdad Soft Drinks Co., Pepsi's Iraqi affiliate, which is controlled by none other than Essam al-Asadi. Aras Habib served on Baghdad Soft Drinks Co's board. Al-Asadi's relationship with Habib was also confirmed by four sources.Neither Nouri al-Maliki's office, which was sent questions via the Iraqi Embassy in Washington D.C., or al-Asadi responded to requests for comment about their relationship, business deals or connections to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. SOSi did not respond to questions about its relationship with al-Asadi and al-Maliki.But despite al-Asadi's unsavory associations, for SOSi, partnering with him was worth the risk.* * *Taji* * *In April 2013, al-Asadi's network hooked SOSi up. The Iraqi prime minister's office awarded SOSi an exclusive land use agreement for four Iraqi military bases: Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, Forward Operating Base Hammer in Besmaya, the Umm Qasr Naval Port, and Balad Air Base. This agreement meant only SOSi, and no other contractors, could freely do business on those bases.The land use agreement was signed by an Iraqi government official who worked closely with a corruption network built up around a business originally known as Afaq Umm Qasr Marine Services Company, but eventually referred to simply as Afaq. The broader network's leadership includes Essam al-Asadi and al-Maliki, according to four sources.Afaq developed into a system of shell companies, businessmen and current and former Iraqi government officials associated with al-Maliki and used by his cronies for organized corruption. Afaq companies partner with foreign companies doing business in Iraq and take a share of the profits, allegedly in return for paying off Iraqi politicians. They also obtain exclusive subcontracts to deliver supplies, like fuel and water, from the companies they're partnering with for extra profit.During "the Maliki administration [Afaq] was the corporate arm" of the prime minister's operations center, said a former U.S. government official. Working in Iraq required "some sort of agreement with Afaq," they said.SOSi is listed as a partner on the website of Afaq Umm Qasr Marine Services, which also goes by AUMS. DOJ Is Investigating Whether U.S. Payoffs to Iraqi Officials Opened the Door for ISISAfaq's existence and its connections to another military contractor, Sallyport Global Services, were exposed in a Government Accountability Project investigation for The Daily Beast earlier this year. After The Daily Beast published that article, which revealed Sallyport was under federal investigation for alleged payments to Iraqi government officials via a partnership with Afaq, the contractor's parent company, Caliburn International, canceled a $100 million IPO. Caliburn attributed the cancelled IPO to "variability in equity markets."But even before that, Caliburn International's S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States devoted several pages to its problematic relationship with Afaq, noting: "We have voluntarily disclosed to the [Department of Justice] a potential violation of the [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] and other U.S. laws by Afaq, our former subcontractor, relating to alleged promises made by Afaq to pay Iraqi government officials in exchange for those officials naming Sallyport as a provider of services at the Balad Air Base."According to our sources, SOSi's arrangement with Afaq is similar to that of Sallyport. The network considered itself entitled to a portion of SOSi's net profits and subcontracts at Iraqi military bases. A detailed investigation of the LinkedIn pages of SOSi and Afaq employees revealed Afaq was working with SOSi at Camp Taji through another Afaq controlled company, Shahed al Sharq. Confidential sources confirmed this is the main business name Afaq is using at Taji.The Daily Beast obtained Iraqi corporate records which showed Shahed al Sharq is owned by a figure in the Afaq network, who is also a board member of an Afaq bank, the World Islamic Bank, owned by Sami Shannan Zuwaid al-Asadi, an Afaq leader whose history The Daily Beast documented in our Sallyport exposé. Shahed al Sharq is also registered to the same address as another Afaq company, an entity called Peace Wings for Security Protection and Demining. Peace Wings shares a phone number with Afaq Umm Qasr Marine Services.A former SOSi employee, speaking of Afaq's deal with SOSi, notes that, "You don't get an exclusive contract from the Iraqi government having never done that type of work before because you're good guys."Today, SOSi's relationship with Afaq at Taji is the subject of FBI inquiries, according to sources who were interviewed about the ties.Certainly the deal has been lucrative for the company.In May 2013, SOSi received a contract for security and logistics at Balad Air base from the U.S. Army. SOSi lost that contract after generating $79 million in revenue.Despite losing Balad, at Taji SOSi was still making money. The company received sole-source contracts for operations that have collectively paid out over $500 million so far. In December 2018, SOSi won a five-year contract renewal valued at over $1.1 billion at the base. Because al-Maliki and Afaq granted SOSi the exclusive land use agreement, no other companies were allowed to compete with SOSi for this massive contract.Meanwhile, because of the nature of the agreement, SOSi's profits at Taji aren't limited to its military contract. Unlike contractors working on Iraqi bases without an agreement with the Iraqi government, SOSi is allowed to restrict other businesses' access to Taji and charge them rent.SOSi didn't respond to any questions about its land use agreement or any contracts or subcontracts with Afaq and its allied operations at Camp Taji or other Iraqi bases. The Department of Defense is upset with SOSi's exclusive control at Taji, according to a 2019 letter written by the State Department and obtained by The Daily Beast through an information request.The letter explains the Department of Defense tried to convince the Iraqi government to allow competition for contracts at Camp Taji. "Embassy Baghdad has continuously and on all occasions declared its support of the Department of Defense request that the exclusive license agreement currently held by SOSi at Camp Taji be rescinded," said the letter. "All such efforts have been met with resistance from senior [Government of Iraq] leaders."Afaq wouldn't allow the U.S. government to take the contract away from SOSi.* * *Beginning of the Partnership* * *The deal at Taji was just one of several. SOSi's relationship with Afaq and Essam al-Asadi appears to have started with a deal to distribute fuel to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad negotiated by Helmick and Setian a month before Helmick officially joined the company."Iraq Oil Technology: A new SOSi venture, new partners," said a December 2012 SOSi tweet.Iraqi Oil Technology is a subsidiary of a company called Al-Essam United Group, according to an archived copy of Al Essam's website from 2011. Essam al-Asadi owns Al-Essam United Group."Iraq Oil Technology existed long before SOSi decided to do commercial work," said a former SOSi employee, who confirmed Iraq Oil Technology had been an Al-Essam subsidiary. "Somewhere down the line it became a joint venture," they said. Using a pre-existing subsidiary was the "easiest path," the former employee said, because the company already "had a commercial business license in Iraq." Al-Essam provided the political connections SOSi needed to move oil within Iraq, said another former SOSi official.It appears Helmick officially joined the Al-Essam subsidiary. At the time of publication, Helmick's Twitter biography still listed him as Director of International Operations for Iraq Oil Technology."Iraq Oil Technology was dissolved shortly after it was formed and was never active," said a SOSi spokesperson in part of the company's statement. "Any published reports to the contrary would be plainly false."It's true Iraq Oil Technology appears to have been short lived. "We didn't manage to get anything started with them," said one source involved with the project. "But we understood [SOSi] had strong ties to Iraq." Sources said the partnership had been created to compete for contracts, including a major contract to supply the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in 2013, which SOSi failed to win. In 2013, SOSi was also doing business with the Babylon Hotel, a Baghdad hotel where Essam al-Asadi is chairman, three former SOSi employees said. "Babylon Hotel will be the perfect option for contractor lodging," Helmick wrote on Twitter in 2013. "Will be available through SOSi."In response to questions about the Babylon Hotel, a SOSi spokesperson said the company had never held any direct or indirect "ownership interest" in the hotel. They didn't address whether the company had a business relationship with the Babylon Hotel.No specific accusations of corruption were made regarding SOSi's Babylon Hotel and Iraq Oil Technology deals, but given the situation at Taji and Essam al-Asadi's connections, these deals raised eyebrows among former SOSi employees. While some of the ties are worse than others, none of them are a good look for a retired American general and an American military contractor.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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| US long-term mortgage rates fall; 30-year average at 3.75% Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:06 AM PDT  U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell this week, edging toward three-year lows amid signals from Federal Reserve officials that they could cut their benchmark interest rate at their meeting next week. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the key 30-year mortgage dipped to 3.75% from 3.81% last week. On Thursday, the European Central Bank joined the Fed in making clear that more stimulus could be coming soon to support an economy weakening in the face of global trade tensions.
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| WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S. Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:00 AM PDT ![WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S.]( "WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S.") Lety Perez fell to her haunches, a clenched hand covering her face as she wept, an arm clutching her small 6-year old son, who glared defiantly at the Mexican National Guard soldier blocking them from crossing into the United States. The plight of this mother and son who had traveled some 1,500 miles (2,410 km) from their home country of Guatemala to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, only to be stopped mere feet from the United States, was captured by Reuters photographer Jose Luis Gonzalez as twilight approached on Monday. "The woman begged and pleaded with the National Guard to let them cross ... she wanted to cross to give a better future" to her young son Anthony Diaz, Gonzalez said.
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| California college student Harrison Duran has long been 'obsessed' with dinosaurs. He just found a real one Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:29 PM PDT  Harrison Duran, a fifth-year biology student from the University of California, Merced, found the 65-million-year-old fossil in North Dakota.
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| Trump Might Launch an Amphibious Assault Against Iran If a War Starts Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:06 PM PDT  If tensions with Iran continue to heat up, one option would be to stage an amphibious raid against a land or sea-based Iranian military facility. One of the greatest truisms of life is that land wars in Asia are futile. The continent's vastness allows defenders to trade space for time, extending the logistical lifelines of invaders to the breaking point. This argument holds for Iran, which at a population of one quarter that of the United States and the size of the West Coast is too large for even the largest of modern armies to occupy. But what about an amphibious raid against select targets on Iran's coastline? Military action against the Islamic Republic is by no means imminent or even on the horizon, but it's important for the public to understand the tools the Pentagon—and the White House—believe they have in their toolboxes. As The National Interest noted last week, Iran has a sprawling coastline. At 1,550 miles, Iran's southern coastline is longer than that of California, Oregon and Washington combined. While such a long sea border is useful for projecting power into the narrow Persian Gulf, it is also a double-edged sword. The downside is that Iran has 1,550 miles of coastline it must defend from a highly capable amphibious force such as the U.S. Marine Corps.(This first appeared in July 2019.)
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