| QAnon Says FBI Labeling Them a Terror Threat Just Proves There’s a Deep-State Conspiracy Against Them Posted: 02 Aug 2019 10:51 AM PDT  Scott Olson/GettyOn paper, Thursday was a bad day for followers of the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. A newly revealed FBI report warned that the theory's followers presented a heightened risk for terrorism. Multiple popular predictions by QAnon followers also failed to materialize.But for hardcore Q followers, the rough week won't shake their faith.The FBI memo, which was published in late May and first reported by Yahoo News, warned of the theory's likelihood to "spread and evolve in the modern information marketplace." So far, the warning has proven true. Despite a series of violent QAnon-inspired incidents and failed Q prophecies, movement followers still say they see nothing wrong with it, and even suggest that the FBI report is part of a conspiracy against them.The memo names QAnon supporters, alongside followers of other fringe political conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, as being likely to carry out extremist acts in the name of their beliefs."One key assumption driving these assessments is that certain conspiracy theory narratives tacitly support or legitimize violent action," the memo reads. "The FBI also assumes, but not all individuals or domestic extremists who hold such beliefs will act on them. The FBI assess these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts."What Is QAnon? The Craziest Theory of the Trump Era, ExplainedQAnon followers believe President Trump's opponents are involved in a vast conspiracy of Satanic child sex-trafficking and cannibalism, and that Q, an anonymous poster on the forum 8chan, is actually a high-level military operative feeding them information on mass arrests that are totally coming this time around. The movement has been suspending its disbelief for nearly two years of unfulfilled promises of purges and revolutions.They saved plenty of skepticism for the very real FBI memo. Maybe the FBI report was fake, a prominent Q peddler suggested on Twitter. (When asked about the memo, the FBI told Yahoo it "routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners.")Other Q followers on Twitter accused FBI Director Christopher Wray of acting against Trump, and suggested that he needed to be fired. A third set suggested the memo was actually good. This crowd claimed the memo was an elaborate ruse to trick the media into asking Trump about QAnon. (For reasons not entirely clear, many QAnon supporters believe that Trump supports QAnon but won't speak openly about it unless asked by a reporter.)But QAnon followers have stuck with their conspiracy theory through other rough patches. The theory's followers have gone on to commit violence, including a follower who led an armed standoff at the Hoover Dam last summer, inspired by his frustration that one of Q's clues never materialized. Months later, a vlogger who made QAnon videos was arrested for allegedly threatening a massacre at YouTube, which he believed was censoring him. In January, a Q believer allegedly murdered his brother with a sword over a conspiratorial idea. Leaders of multiple heavily armed groups on the southern border were led by QAnon believers, who were later arrested for various counts of trespassing and weapons violations. A man accused of murdering a New York mob boss scribbled a Q on his hand in court and claimed to have been motivated by his belief in the conspiracy theory.Despite those incidents, major figures in Trump World have still flirted with the conspiracy theory. "Now do ANTIFA," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted after the FBI memo was revealed, in reference to the anti-fascist movement. (In fact, federal agencies have already released memos about anti-fascists, some of them based on right-wing hoaxes, The Daily Beast previously reported. Figures on the right are currently trying to have the FBI classify the anti-fascist movement as a domestic terror group, something it cannot do because anti-fascism is not a group, and the FBI makes no such domestic classifications. The same holds true for QAnon believers.)At Trump's rally in Cincinnati hours after the memo was revealed, warm-up speaker Brandon Straka invoked one of the movement's slogans. The crowd around him was full of Q shirts and signs.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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| Family told dead Chinese scholar's body may be in landfill Posted: 02 Aug 2019 02:27 PM PDT  The family of a visiting Chinese scholar whose body was never recovered after a former University of Illinois doctoral student kidnapped and killed her has been told the woman's remains may be in a landfill in eastern Illinois, an attorney for the slain scholar's family said Friday. In a statement, attorney Steve Beckett said the family of Yingying Zhang was notified by prosecutors that Brendt Christensen's attorneys provided information that led investigators to think the "potential site" of the remains is the landfill in Vermilion County along the Illinois-Indiana border. Christensen was convicted in federal court last month and sentenced to life in prison.
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| Biden 'surprised' at Obama swipes in latest debate Posted: 02 Aug 2019 04:07 AM PDT  Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden said Thursday he was "surprised" at the intensity of debate-night criticism leveled at his onetime boss Barack Obama, saying the popular ex-president has nothing to apologize for. "I must tell you, I was a little surprised at how much the incoming was about Barack," Biden told reporters the morning after a debate in which the former vice president clashed with rivals on multiple issues, including deportation policy when he and Obama were in the White House. Biden throughout his campaign has highlighted his partnership with America's first black president, in part to woo African-American voters and progressive Democrats.
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| Saudi Arabia's reforms to allow some women to travel without men's permission will do nothing to help many of the vulnerable people trapped in the kingdom Posted: 02 Aug 2019 05:12 AM PDT  Many of the 1,000 women who flee Saudi Arabia each year are under 21, and must still escape abuse in dangerous and secretive circumstances.
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| These Cheeky Vases Are Taking Over Our Instagram Feeds Posted: 02 Aug 2019 10:06 AM PDT |
| Salvadoran family mourns death of young father across U.S. border Posted: 03 Aug 2019 02:27 PM PDT ![Salvadoran family mourns death of young father across U.S. border]( "Salvadoran family mourns death of young father across U.S. border") Like many Salvadoran migrants before them, Marvin Gonzalez and his eight-year-old daughter Joselyn set off from their farm surrounded by corn and sugarcane one morning in early July with dreams of better lives in the United States. Gonzalez, 32, planned to reunite the girl with her mother in North Carolina, and later send for his current wife from El Salvador. The two made it across the U.S. border in late July.
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| A Texas police officer accidentally killed a woman while shooting at her dog Posted: 02 Aug 2019 07:05 AM PDT  Police in Texas say a patrol officer accidentally shot and killed a woman when he fired repeatedly at a dog that was charging at him.
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| Atlanta's confederate monuments: how do ‘context markers’ help explain racism? Posted: 02 Aug 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Symbols dedicated to the south's soldiers have come under debate for not mentioning their roots in racial segregationThe Peace monument in Piedmont Park in Atlanta depicts a Confederate soldier halted by an angel. It was defaced in 2017 after the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photograph: David Goldman/Associated PressAtlanta's monuments to its Confederate past cannot be taken down by law. But the city is now moving to provide much-needed historical context on the realities of slavery, the civil war and the era of Jim Crow segregation that followed.Homages to Atlanta's history crop up in many cemeteries and parks. Little context accompanies those stone memorials with engraved plaques referring to "heroic efforts" and the south's soldiers' efforts to "unite" the country after the civil war. There is no mention of racism or slavery and segregation.But now, Atlanta is placing four new context markers near some of the statues and monuments that will offer a fuller and more honest accounting of the south's history and its legacy of slavery and racism.One marker will go up near the 1935-constructed Peachtree Battle Avenue monument, a simple stone engraved memorial commemorating an 1864 civil war battle stressing peace between the north and south. The new additional panel next to it will point out flaws in the monument's inscription by saying: "[It] describes the United States after the civil war as a perfected nation. This ignores the segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans and others that still existed in 1935."Another marker, at the Peace monument, built in 1911 in the midst of one of Atlanta's most popular parks, is a large statue of a Confederate soldier halted by an angel. The original plaque explains how a Confederate-era city militia was on a peace mission to unite America after the civil war. The added marker explains how it excludes 200,000 African Americans who served in the US army.Both monuments stress unity between the north and south in the wake of the civil war, but neither plaque commemorating the Confederacy mentions the reason for the war: pro-slavery southern states advocated for secession, wanting to continue the enslavement of African Americans.Both were erected not during the civil war or shortly after, but during the era of Jim Crow laws, enforcing racial segregation."There's a lot of people don't understand these monuments were not really put up right after the civil war," Heidi Bierich, the director of the Innocence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained. "[Confederate monuments] were assertions of when white people were gaining more power under Jim Crow, or the Klan in the 1920s. So it was a big old, you know: 'I reject civil rights, I reject black rights.'"Two other monuments in the Oakland cemetery – the Confederate obelisk and the Lion of the Confederacy – will also have markers to contextualize their continued placement on state-owned property. Both are some of the oldest Confederate symbols in the city, with the latter built in 1895 placing an enormous lion statue in the middle of a cemetery of thousands of unmarked Confederate graves. The Confederate obelisk, a looming stone pillar, is the tallest, most prominent focus of the Confederate part of the cemetery.Advocates for these new markers, like Bierich, say the new information panels are more truthful because now visitors won't see a Confederate monument without having some other narrative.They are necessary because a local political struggle over the fate of the monuments ended with them being protected by law, even as some other southern communities took down their Confederate statues.However, Atlanta's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president Richard Rose said the city shouldn't have compromised on the monuments. "You can't contextualize racism or compromise on racism," he said, adding that these markers "establish that racism is valid".In 2017, the city's then mayor Kasim Reed formed a committee to review street names and city-owned monuments, just months after white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville in protest at the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee. Some of those marching had carried white power symbols as a car smashed into anti-racism protesters, killing Heather Heyer.Though the debate around memorials to Confederate history has continued since the violent rallies in Virginia, the 2015 shooting by Dylann Roof at a black church in South Carolina ignited the debate after the gunman posted pictures with the Confederate flag. South Carolina removed the flag from its statehouse grounds, but kept its monuments.The committee advised that Confederate monuments in Georgia be moved to storage, but a recent law signed by Republican governor Brian Kemp makes it illegal to remove any monument on property owned by the state. The NAACP denounced the law, saying the monuments "glorify treason and a hateful history of black subjugation, reinforced through domestic terrorism".Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, according to the SPLC, also have similar laws in place to protect Confederate monuments from removal.Of the seven states banning the removal of Confederate monuments, Atlanta is the only city within them to add context via plaques.Sheffield Hale, president and chief executive of the Atlanta History Center, said the markers – paid for in part by the center – help address the issue, but they are not a permanent solution."I do think it gives [people] a starting point, which is sorely needed right now, in our society, as a way to deal with contentious issues. Let's argue about the facts, let's put them down on paper – or on a marker – and have a conversation about them," he said.The final line to be added alongside the Peace monument is certain to do just that."This monument should no longer stand as a memorial to white brotherhood; rather, it should be seen as an artifact representing a shared history in which millions of Americans were denied civil and human rights," it says.But just miles from downtown Atlanta, the largest memorial of the Confederacy in the US still looms over the city with no context and a laser light show highlighting the state's most visited attraction. That is Stone Mountain, where families picnic under the gaze of a gigantic carving of Confederate leaders.
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| 'She Went Back With Me.' Ilhan Omar Trolls Trump by Posing With Pelosi in Ghana Posted: 01 Aug 2019 11:54 PM PDT  The Congresswoman posted photos of herself and Nancy Pelosi in Ghana
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| Democratic candidate attacks on Obama legacy rankle party Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:42 PM PDT  Barack Obama slashed US unemployment, protected child migrants and delivered health care to millions. With party divisions over ideology laid bare, progressive rivals to centrist frontrunner Joe Biden challenged the former vice president's record -- and by extension several Obama-era policies on deportation, coal, Afghanistan and health care. Despite the strategy being a clear play by rivals to undercut Biden, who has made his eight-year partnership with America's first black president a centerpiece of his candidacy, it alarmed Obama loyalists concerned about repelling the very voters who Democrats need to motivate to the ballot box next year.
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| Police chief says officer faked shooting, distress call Posted: 02 Aug 2019 01:51 PM PDT  An Alabama police officer staged a shooting last month to make it appear as though he was under attack, a police chief said Thursday.
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| De Blasio Says Justice Given to Eric Garner—Family Says No Posted: 02 Aug 2019 11:20 AM PDT  REUTERSNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday a measure of justice had finally been served for the death of Eric Garner after an NYPD judge recommended the police officer who killed him in 2014 be fired."Until today, the Garner family has been failed by this entire process," he said. "Today we finally saw a step towards justice and accountability," Daniel Pantaleo was immediately suspended without pay by the NYPD on Friday after a department judge recommended his termination for the death of Garner in 2014. The recommendation came after an NYPD trial this summer that heard Pantaleo violated department policy by using a prohibited chokehold on Garner—who cried out "I can't breathe" before dying. NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill will decide whether to fire Pantaleo.NYPD Judge Recommends Firing Officer Who Killed Eric GarnerGarner's mother, Gwen Carr, blamed de Blasio for waiting so long. "My family and I have been fighting for five long years for justice and accountability for Eric's murder—and Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD have put up roadblocks and delays every step of the way," she said.Carr said she feels "some relief" to learn of the recommendation, but bemoaned she can't read the judge's report—owing to a new interpretation of a longstanding state law protecting the privacy of civil servants that the city found shortly after Garner's death."It's past time for Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD to end their obstruction, stop spreading misleading talking points, and finally take action for my son. My son deserves more than recommendations; he deserves justice."De Blasio blamed the Justice Department for why it took so long to begin the NYPD trial of Pantaleo, saying officials in Washington asked the city not to move ahead while federal prosecutors evaluated whether Pantaleo violated Garner's civil rights. The investigation languished in the department across two administrations before finally ending earlier this month with a decision not to not to charge Pantaleo, one day before the statute of limitations ran out.While the mayor said he did not read the judge's 47-page decision, he declined to say whether he agreed with the recommendation on Pantaleo, citing the "ongoing" legal process. Instead, de Blasio insisted the "fair and impartial" trial was the first step toward healing for the Garner family."I know the Garner family. They've gone through extraordinary pain," de Blasio said. They are waiting for justice and are going to get justice. There's finally going to be justice. I have confidence in that, in the next 30 days, in New York."Panteleo's lawyer said his client is "disappointed," saying he only "acted the way he was taught to act." The head of the city's largest police union unloaded on de Blasio, who he said has "lost the confidence" of police officers after his Friday remarks. Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, also called Garner protesters "criminal advocates," claiming that they have "frozen" the police department."The decision that was passed down today saying that this police officer was reckless is ludicrous. The New York City police officers now will be considered reckless every time they put their hands on someone," he said in a press conference."This is not just a fluke that happened one time in Staten Island, this can happen several times a tour," he added. "When you call 911, what do you expect us to do?"O'Neill is expected to make a decision within the next two weeks.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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| Nigel Farage says Trump’s racist attack on Democratic congresswomen was ‘genius’ Posted: 02 Aug 2019 03:23 PM PDT  Nigel Farage has enthusiastically praised Donald Trump's "go back" comments, directed at four congresswomen of colour.The US president's remarks were widely condemned as racist after he told Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, to return to the "broken and crime infested places from which they came".All of the Democrats, known as the Squad, are American citizens. Three of the four were born in the country.Ms Omar, the fourth, arrived in the US as a child refugee.The president described the women as people"who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world"."Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?" he asked.Despite the significant controversy generated by the remarks, Mr Farage said the comments were shrewd."I thought, 'Dear, oh dear, oh dear'. You realise, 48 hours on, it was genius because what's happened is the Democrats gather round the Squad, which allows him to say, 'Oh look, the Squad are the centre of the Democratic Party'," he said."He's remarkably good at what he does," Mr Farage added, in an interview with The Times."He does things his way. But he is a remarkably effective operator."Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had condemned Mr Trump's remarks as "racist" at the time, challenging Boris Johnson to do so too during the Conservative leadership contest.Mr Johnson, now the prime minister, refused to, but did describe the comments as "totally unacceptable".Former Ukip leader Mr Farage has also found himself mired in race-related controversy at times in the past.In May 2014, he was accused of a making a "racial slur" against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them.Later that year, he used an interview with radio station LBC to defend a Ukip candidate who had used the word "ch**ky" to describe a Chinese person."If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" Mr Farage asked presenter Nick Ferarri.Mr Ferarri responded by saying he "honestly would not" use the phrase in such a context."A lot would," Mr Farage replied.
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| Celebrities, royals and politicians brace themselves as court orders release of explosive Jeffrey Epstein files Posted: 03 Aug 2019 11:07 AM PDT  In Room 270, the records management unit, on the second floor of an imposing granite and marble courthouse in lower Manhattan, 167 documents totaling more than 2,000 pages are being kept under lock and key. But they are about to be unsealed and made public - making a host of important people around the world, including celebrities, politicians and royals, very nervous. The files contain explosive allegations in the case of Giuffre v Maxwell, in which Virginia Giuffre, a woman who claims to have been Jeffrey Epstein's teenage "sex slave", sued Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and the billionaire's former girlfriend, for defamation. The case was settled in May 2017 on the eve of the trial but the details were not disclosed and the final judgment and supporting documents were sealed, with the court noting the "highly sensitive nature of the underlying allegations." According to other court documents that have been published, Ms Giuffre has made allegations of sexual abuse against "numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well‐known Prime Minister, and other world leaders." An appeal to unseal the rest of the documents was launched by the Miami Herald newspaper, which has spearheaded media investigations into Epstein. It was rejected three times. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell became a fixture on the New York social scene after she moved to the city in 1991 Credit: Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images But last month the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered their release, ruling that the public's right to know outweighed the privacy rights of the high-profile individuals named. It what may be an indication of the fame of those individuals, the judges made a striking plea to the media to "exercise restraint" in reporting the allegations about to come to light. They also allowed parties involved to apply for minor redactions, delaying the release. Another delay is possible as Miss Maxwell has launched an appeal to keep the documents sealed, her lawyers arguing that a full release would trigger a "furious feeding frenzy." They wrote: "Plaintiff Giuffre made numerous allegations of sexual, if not criminal, conduct against a wide range of third parties. Because of the media no reference to anyone in this case is benign: a reference to any person is toxic and lethal to that person's reputation. Facts and truth are all but irrelevant." The legal battle between Ms Giuffre and Miss Maxwell began in late 2014 when Ms Giuffre claimed that Epstein sexually abused her starting in 2000 when she was 16, with the "assistance and participation" of Miss Maxwell. She also made allegations against the Duke of York, which were categorically denied by Buckingham Palace. Miss Maxwell described the claims as "obvious lies," and Ms Giuffre then sued her for defamation. Buckingham Palace has categorically denied any misconduct on the part of Prince Andrew, who was pictured with Virginia Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001 In a recent statement Josh Schiller, a lawyer for Ms Giuffre, said the appeal court was unlikely to overturn an unsealing decision, and he believed Miss Maxwell's appeal would cause only a "short delay" in releasing the documents. He added: "There is an overwhelming public interest." The appeal court's decision to release the documents came just three days before Epstein was arrested last month, charged with sex trafficking. Prosecutors in New York have accused him of assaulting dozens of girls as young as 14. The case has thrown the Marlborough College and Oxford-educated Miss Maxwell, 57, back into the spotlight. She moved to New York in 1991, the year her father - disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell - died. In New York, herself and Epstein became a fixture on the social scene. Miss Maxwell was well-connected. Guests including Donald Trump had partied on her father's yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, as far back as 1989. She is a private helicopter pilot and a deep water submarine pilot. In 2012 she founded the TerraMar Project in New York, aimed at creating a "global ocean community" to protect international waters, and spoke about it at the United Nations. Last month, six days after Epstein's arrest, the TerraMar Project announced it would "cease all operations." Miss Maxwell sold her Manhattan townhouse for $15 million in 2016, and her current whereabouts are unclear.
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| Exiled Thai critic attacked with chemicals in Japan Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:11 AM PDT ![Exiled Thai critic attacked with chemicals in Japan]( "Exiled Thai critic attacked with chemicals in Japan") An exiled Thai critic of the country's military and monarchy said he was attacked in his home in Japan last month and believes Thai authorities were behind the incident, an accusation that was ridiculed by the kingdom's army chief. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a 48-year-old associate professor at Kyoto University, said he was asleep with his partner when a man broke into their home last month at about 4 a.m. and sprayed the couple with a substance that burned their skin. Neither was seriously hurt, but Pavin said they have been told by police not to return home.
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| Almost 30 people jump off boat into shark-filled waters after fire: 'All hell broke loose' Posted: 02 Aug 2019 09:58 AM PDT  About 30 passengers and crew members on a small boat in the Galapagos had to jump into shark-filled waters last month after a fire broke out on board.
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| North Korea’s 13,000 Deadly Artillery Pieces: The Real Threat Trump Should Fear? Posted: 02 Aug 2019 12:28 AM PDT  "Even without using nuclear weapons, North Korea has the capacity to unleash a devastating level of violence against a significant portion of the ROK population through some mix of conventional artillery and possibly chemical munitions," according to a January 2019 report from RAND, a California think tank with close ties to the U.S. military.North Korea on May 4, 2019 test-fired a short-range ballistic missile \-- its first major launch in the 18 months since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un suspended missile testing ahead of a summit with U.S. president Donald Trump.Pyongyang on May 9, 2019 launched a second "projectile," South Korean officials said.(This first appeared in May.)The May tests of at least one apparently nuclear-capable short-range missile startled foreign observers and threatened to elevate tensions between the United States and its allies South Korea and Japan on one side and, on the other side, North Korea and its main patron China.But a less dramatic test of North Korea's heavy artillery that occured at the same time as the May 4 rocket launch arguably is more important.
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| Three journalists slain in Mexico in a week Posted: 02 Aug 2019 05:01 PM PDT  Two journalists were shot dead in Mexico Friday, bringing to three the number of journalists killed in the country this week, officials say. Jorge Celestino Ruiz, who worked for the newspaper El Grafico de Xalapa, was killed on Friday night in the violence-plagued state of Veracruz, the mayor of the state's capital Paulino Dominguez told AFP. Ruiz's house was shot at in October and bullets were also "fired at his vehicle to intimidate him," said a police source, who asked for anonymity, and did not give further details.
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| Missing Oregon 2-Year-Old Found Dead in Montana Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:14 AM PDT  Police said an autopsy confirmed the two-year-old was Aiden Salcido, who had been missing since his parents were found dead in July.
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| 15 Fun, Affordable Cars That Aren't Likely to Depreciate Posted: 03 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| El Salvador’s new president celebrates country’s first day without a murder for two years Posted: 02 Aug 2019 03:23 AM PDT  El Salvador's new president has touted a rare day without a homicide in the small Central American nation where such violence is a part of daily life. The last day of July proved somewhat of an exception, when not a single killing was recorded – only the eighth murder-free day in 19 years.The last time it went a full day without was more than two years ago – on 13 January 2017, and again two years previously on 22 January 2015, with another in 2013 and two in 2012, Al Jazeera previously reported. President Nayib Bukele, who is in his second month in office, announced the occasion for his often violent-riddled nation. The attorney general's office and the mortuary confirmed the president's comments that there were no homicides on Wednesday 31 July. Justice minister Rogelio Rivas said there were a total of 154 killings in July – down from 291 during the same month last year.Criminologist Ricardo Sosa said a murder-free day has only been witnessed eight times since the year 2000.Mr Sosa said while this could be seen as a sign that Mr Bukele's efforts against gang violence were working, the challenge would be sustaining the results.The new president, who announced he'd won the elections in February this year, ahead of assuming office in June, has pledged to improve security and encourage youth away from a path of crime. In July, he launched a new security strategy called "Secure El Salvador" to tackle crime and violence. The plan, which Mr Bukele had flagged earlier in the year, has five objectives; to prevent crime and violence; improve the justice system; do more to rehabilitate criminals; provide greater protections for victims; and strengthen institutions keeping citizens safe. The security plan would be carried out over the next few years, starting in Ciudad Delgado where it was launched, before expanding into other cities and municipalities. El Salvador has what Human Rights Watch has described as one of the world's highest homicide rates. The organisation said gangs played a large part in this as they exercised territorial control. "Gangs kill, disappear, rape or displace those who resist them, including government officials, security forces, and journalists," it said. "Security forces have been largely ineffective in protecting the population from gang violence and have committed egregious abuses, including the extrajudicial execution of alleged gang members, sexual assaults, and enforced disappearances."The government attributes the cause of the violence on turf wars between the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang and its rival gang Barrio 18, who it said were involved in drug trafficking and organised crime.It also estimated there are about 60,000 gang members across El Salvador.Additional reporting by Associated Press
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| Hong Kong arrests eight protesters including prominent activist Posted: 02 Aug 2019 01:55 AM PDT  Hong Kong police arrested eight people, including a prominent political activist, suspected of possessing offensive weapons, fuelling further anger among the millions of anti-government protesters who have taken to city streets all summer. Police raided an industrial building on Thursday and arrested seven men and a woman, including Andy Chan, the founder of the Hong Kong National Party, a political group banned by city authorities last September. Supporters gathered late at night at a police station in the neighbourhood of Sha Tin, where the suspects were thought to be held, egging the building and chanting, "Free the martyrs!" Officers also raided a flat and seized 30 smoke bombs, though it remains unclear what the explosives were for and whether the cases were related. Earlier this week, someone shot fireworks at protesters gathering outside another police station in a drive-by attack. Hong Kong is embroiled in its worst political crisis since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Protesters first called for the formal withdrawal of an extradition proposal that would send suspects to face trial in mainland China, where the ruling Communist Party influences the courts. Despite a pledge from city leaders to suspend the bill, demands have grown to include wider political reforms and ire is also being directed at the police for using increasing force. Tensions are running high and many in the city are growing weary, including protesters, public transit workers, police officers, health workers and first responders. But the demonstrations show no sign of waning – the territory is going into its ninth consecutive weekend of mass rallies, which now often end with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the crowds. The turmoil has led many to become more politically engaged, reflected in a surge of registered voters this year – nearly 386,000 people signed up to vote, the most since at least 2003, according to official figures. More than four million people are registered to vote in the city of about seven million. The unrest has also galvanised young people, many of whom have been on the frontlines. Those aged 17 to 35 registering to vote spiked more than 12 per cent in 2019. Hong Kong is gearing up for district council elections in the fall, the first citywide polls to be held since the city erupted in protests. More rallies are planned for this weekend, starting with civil servants gathering Friday night in the main business district. The government issued a statementon Thursday reminding civil servants to remain politically neutral. "At this difficult moment, government colleagues have to stay united and work together to uphold the core values of the civil service and not to affect the effective operation of the government because of personal beliefs as this may undermine public confidence in the impartial discharge of duties by civil servants," authorities said in a statement.
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| Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter killed himself, coroner says Posted: 02 Aug 2019 05:54 PM PDT  The gunman who opened fire on unsuspecting festival-goers at the Gilroy Garlic Festival just days ago died by suicide, the Coroner's Office found.
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| Head-To-Head: Russia, Japan, South Korea, and China Face-Off in the Skies over the Pacific Posted: 02 Aug 2019 03:26 AM PDT  The South China Sea cauldron has been at a full boil now for nearly a dozen years, chiefly over the significance of various obscure reefs and rocks. But, thankfully, the occurrence of shooting among the claimants and external powers has been extremely rare, underlying the obvious risks that such a course would entail. Thus, it came as a surprise to many that South Korean interceptors fired warning shots at a Russian military aircraft over the Sea of Japan on the morning of 22 July.With four major powers suddenly appearing to lock horns in that same dispute, the incident would seem to be further evidence of the "great unraveling" in the world order. Indeed, the episode is bizarre in numerous respects, not least because the Russia-South Korea dyad has been one of the least conflictual in this volatile region over the last decade. In fact, as a symbol of these strengthening ties, President Moon Jae-in took the unusual step of making the long trip to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin last summer. Moreover, the dangerous aviation encounter last week had the similarly strange effect of, at least temporarily, stealing the thunder from Pyongyang's recent missile tests that were apparently intended as "a warning to South Korean warmongers."
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| Erick Erickson, It’s Time to Get Out of Pete Buttigieg’s Bedroom Posted: 02 Aug 2019 02:22 AM PDT  William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via GettyErick Erickson really doesn't like that presidential primary candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg is gay, and refuses to "repent" for his sin of having gay sex.Erickson has much to say about it, an exhausting amount. For all that they profess their disgust about it, isn't it strange, the amount of time anti-gay folks like to spend obsessing about the sex gay people have?The conservative blogger, radio host, and former CNN commentator was back on his anti-gay, anti-Buttigieg crusade again Wednesday in a column on his blog Resurgent, where he also made the startling claim that Buttigieg has less humility than that well-known trepidatious wallflower President Trump.Why Does Anyone Take Erick Erickson Seriously?Noting that Trump "has said more than once he has never felt the need to repent for anything," and why this should lead evangelicals to question their cheering "everything he does," Erickson added: "Pete Buttigieg is a practicing homosexual who willfully refuses to recognize Holy Scripture identifies that as a sin."On Friday, Erickson will be joined by Vice President Mike Pence on stage at the Resurgent Gathering in Atlanta, for a conversation "about the Trump administration's policies and plans for a second term." Whether Buttigieg and LGBT-related matters will be raised remains to be seen.According to my colleague Adam Rawnsley, Erickson has written at least 19 tweets referencing Buttigieg since April—it's hard to tell how many precisely because he has deleted his recent Twitter history. On Resurgent Erickson has written six times about Buttigieg since April, with five columns written on April 8 and April 9, and the sixth this week. (He has written about Joe Biden seven times.)The tweets, columns, and condemnation suggest Erickson is truly vexed not just by Buttigieg and his sexuality, but also furious that he invokes his own faith when challenging Trump and his supporters.Buttigieg's resonant faith message is to remind fellow Christians what the meaning of that faith is in terms of their duty to treat fellow humans decently. What really rankles Erickson, and others like him, is that it is a gay man doing the truth-telling. When it comes to homosexuality, evangelical Christians like Erickson hate gay sex (which they seem bizarrely focused on), and like the sinner to know their place. Buttigieg is a total mind-scramble for them: out, proud, partnered, married, and using his own Christian faith to call out faith-based prejudice, and to question evangelicals' support of Trump.This week, Erickson said Trump was different from Buttigieg in that he "does not lecture Christians about their faith and Buttigieg has made it a central part of his campaign."Erickson also tweeted about it, in case we hadn't heard: "Trump has said he has never felt the need to repent. Buttigieg doesn't feel the need to repent of his sexual sins. Between them, only Trump possesses the humility to not lecture Christians about their faith given his unrepentant state."Erickson also linked to a clip from the first Democratic debate this week, where Buttigieg said: "The minimum wage is just too low. And so-called conservative Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage when scripture says that 'Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.'"Cue more Erickson pique: "Hey Mayor Pete, you know what else scripture says?" he tweeted. If this wasn't yet another tired yowl about sinful gay sex, maybe Erickson could enlighten us otherwise.The April flurry of homophobic spite came after Buttigieg had spoken about the anti-LGBT Pence: "If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade. And that's the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: that if you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me—your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."Buttigieg had also queried evangelicals' support of the president. "It's something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable," he told NBC's Meet the Press on April 7. "Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture in church."On April 8, all this seems to have made Erickson's head start spinning wildly. He accused Buttigieg of hypocrisy, because apparently as a gay man, he had no business lecturing anyone else about Christian anything. Or as Erickson put it: "Buttigieg wants to use the social obligations as Christians against the President, but wants to avoid any implication on the personal obligations of Christians in terms of clear Biblical sexual ethics." On the same day, under the drily disingenuous headline,"I Actually Wasn't Going To Say This Because I've Offended Enough People Today, But…", Erickson opined: "No sin is immutable. Buttigieg has decided his sin is and, in trying to reconcile his faith to his sexuality, has departed from orthodoxy in determining his sin is therefore not sin despite the very plain and clear teachings of scripture." And then, in a third column in one day, he puzzlingly accused Buttigieg of "trying to have it both ways" around abortion, and refugees, and the poor.On the same day—April 8 seems to have been a really big bad gay day in Erickson-ville, our embattled protagonist buffeted by rainbow flags—in a now-deleted tweet, Erickson began defending poor defenseless Pence. "Mike Pence has said nothing about Buttigieg. Pence lives rent free in the man's head. His willingness to use Pence as the basis for his unprovoked attacks on orthodox Christianity suggests Buttigieg is not really the Christian he claims to be."Mike Pence's animus towards LGBT people is well-documented. Buttigieg wasn't attacking his faith; he was questioning Pence's use of that faith to rationalize prejudice and enact harmful laws against LGBT people. In his anti-LGBT prejudice, Pence, Buttigieg said, was also challenging God.Erickson wasn't done that day. "I mean if Buttigieg thinks evangelicals should be supporting him instead of Trump, he fundamentally does not understand the roots of Christianity. But then he is an Episcopalian, so he might not actually understand Christianity more than superficially."For Erickson, being Episcopalian seems to count as Christianity lite, and as such is another useful weapon to attack Buttigieg with.When Buttigieg said, "The Vice President is entitled to his religious beliefs. My problem is when those religious beliefs are used as an excuse to harm other people," Erickson responded via Twitter: "Declining to bake a cake for a wedding isn't harming anyone, particularly when the business will bake the same person anything else." On that basis, presumably, Erickson would be fine about cake shops, hotels, whoever, refusing service to straight people, just because they feel like it. So, any business that wants to refuse service to Erick Erickson, go ahead—he supports your right to do so, and he's happy to buy whatever it is he needs someplace else.On April 9, Erickson wrote a column, his fourth in two days about Buttigieg, accusing him of being intolerant about Mike Pence's "faithful" Christianity. "Buttigieg is just another in a long line of Democrats who are willing to punish Christians for living out their faith," Erickson concluded.No, people who object to "religious liberty" being used as a battering ram against LGBT people are doing so because it is precisely that: It uses faith to blanket-justify discrimination. It uses faith to exclude and demean people. "Religious liberty" is an abuse of good faith.On the same day, in his fifth column in two days about Buttigieg, Erickson wrote in response to a religion-based inquiry from my colleague Scott Bixby (who went on to write this piece): "Buttigieg attacks the President for not governing as a moral person on one hand and on the other claims we cannot govern morally when it comes to abortion. He has married another man, which runs contrary to scripture, and he not only thinks it is not sin, but thinks God made him that way, all of which is contrary to Christian orthodoxy."Again, all that Erickson has are mythical Bible passages—there are none about marriage equality—and poisonous, personal insults about Buttigieg's sexuality and beliefs. Cheap, ungodly insults at that."Opposition to Buttigieg should not be about his religion or his sexuality," Erickson wrote (how kind and reasonable—even though that is what he had been relentlessly invoking himself!), "but should be because he masks his far left positions behind a smile."Another spurious insult. Of all the candidates, Buttigieg, whether you agree with him or not, states his views with sober clarity.On July 27, Erickson tweeted a video clip and article from The Hill, in which Buttigieg opined, utterly calmly: "My generation saw this country elect its first black president and then turn around and elect a racist to the White House and we ought to call that what it is."Erickson's tweet read: "Notice how Butter Judge is getting more heated in his rhetoric as he starts getting left behind in the polls." There is nothing "heated" about Buttigieg's delivery in the clip; quite the opposite.For many years, and now in the Trump administration with Pence at their vanguard, evangelical Christians have sought to influence anti-LGBT law-making. The Trump administration has, as The Daily Beast has reported, been very receptive to them—President Trump wants the evangelical vote, and for him LGBT people and rights are necessary casualties in securing it.Trump and Pence are fully signed up to the "religious liberty" agenda, which seeks to deny LGBT rights and equality via the weird notion that by according LGBT people equal access in the buying of wedding cakes and other goods and services, this somehow counts as persecution against anti-LGBT Christians who should have every right—by dint of their faith—to discriminate against LGBT people.What seems to upset Erickson and his ilk is that a gay man of faith is calling them out on these hypocritical perversions of faith. And Buttigieg is using his own faith and his beliefs to call them out. Rarely are religious bigots challenged so squarely on their own turf by someone they're usually so comfortable in condemning. If they bothered listening to Buttigieg, they would realize that he—with an impressive amount of patience and open-heartedness, given the bigotry he has faced from the likes of Erickson—was reminding them what the true meaning of faith and Christianity is.Possibly, this is the first salvo in a wider Republican Party return to the old dirty playbook of using someone's sexuality against them. But sadly for Erickson and Co., Buttigieg is open not just about who he is but also who he loves. Indeed this openness has been questioned by some LGBT people, who have wondered if Buttigieg is "gay enough." Perhaps those critics of Buttigieg, when they read the words of authors like Erickson, will realize that now is not the time to fight over slices of liberal-piety cake. The more immediate bogeyman is, sadly, an old and all-too-familiar one: pure and simple prejudice. Pete Buttigieg is the target of those who seek to hurt people, to diminish them, to encourage people not to vote for them, because they are gay. That's it. This hoary, dusty relic is one apparently we must confront again. You may not want to vote for Buttigieg, you may disagree with him about his policies, you may wish he was "gayer" on and off the debate stage. But he is also a gay man in public life having to put up with crude, homophobic attacks. Hopefully that is "gay enough" to count as a reason to speak up for him—alongside common decency.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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| Joe Biden defends his former boss Posted: 03 Aug 2019 08:20 AM PDT  After 2020 Democrats attack former President Barack Obama's policies on debate stage.
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| Raccoon trapped in drain cover freed after two-hour firefighter rescue Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:10 AM PDT  A team of firefighters spent two hours freeing a trapped racoon from a grate covering a drain.A passer-by spotted the animal in Massachusetts while travelling to work on Thursday and called the fire brigade.The team tried several methods to free the trapped animal, according to NBC News.Firefighters attempted to lubricate the racoon with soap, to allow it to slip through the grate.They also pulled the grate loose, compressed the racoon's neck with medical gauze and called for an animal control officer.Every attempt failed.Eventually a vet arrived at the scene and sedated the animal, after which it was freed."We were able to rescue a juvenile racoon today with help from Waltham's Animal Control," a fire department spokesperson said on Twitter."He had been stuck for a while but we are happy to report he is free!!!"We rescue citizens both big and small!!!"The fire department said the racoon was doing well following its dramatic rescue.
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| US to pull out thousands of troops under Taliban deal Posted: 02 Aug 2019 04:34 AM PDT  America could withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan in the coming months as part of an initial peace agreement with the Taliban. American and militant envoys meeting in Qatar's capital said they were optimistic of soon clinching a deal to end America's 18-year-old conflict. An initial deal would see US troop numbers fall to as low as 8,000 from their current level of 14,000, the Washington Post reported. In return the Taliban would have to give guarantees Afghan soil would not become a launchpad for transnational terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. They would also begin negotiating with the Afghan government to find a wider political settlement to the world's deadliest conflict. "I would say that they are 80 or 90 percent of the way there," one official told the paper. "But there is still a long way to go on that last 10 or 20 percent." Sources familiar with the talks said argument among the Taliban may still scupper a deal. The militants have until now demanded a full US withdrawal before they talk to Ashraf Ghani's government and it is unclear if hardliners will accept a partial withdrawal to start. Details of how and agreement might be monitored or verified were also still being hammered out. The conflict is now the deadliest in the world Credit: Reuters "Dissension in the Taliban ranks may yet throw spanners in the works. But overall it's positive," said one official. It was not immediately clear if there was progress on the other element of talks, the Taliban's agreement to a ceasefire. Zalmay Khalilzad, Donald Trump's peace envoy, has said until now that a deal cannot be finalised until all the elements, including a truce, are agreed. Casualties have continued to mount steeply as sides in the conflict have continued to fight while negotiating. Mr Khalilzad is under intense pressure to find Mr Trump a way out of the war, which the US president has dismissed as a costly failure. The talks are also overshadowing campaigning for September's the Afghan presidential elections, with candidates unsure whether an election will even be held in the event of a deal.
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| US prosecutors accuse Honduran president of drug conspiracy Posted: 03 Aug 2019 05:18 PM PDT  U.S. federal prosecutors have accused the Honduran government of essentially functioning as a narco-state, with the current and former presidents having received campaign contributions from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection. The filing comes just months after other U.S. federal court documents showed the current president and some of his closest advisers were among the targets of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, casting further doubt on the United States' assertion that Honduras has helped stop the flow of drugs.
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| How Trump Would Take Out North Korea's Nuclear Missiles in a War Posted: 03 Aug 2019 12:30 AM PDT  The intercept, taking place over the Pacific Ocean, used X-band radar to track the target for using a fire control solution to destroy the ICBM.A US military upgraded Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV, a kinetic-force weapon that slams into its targets, destroyed an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time during a Missile Defense Agency test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system several months ago.The Missile Defense Agency's first-ever successful intercept of an ICBM target using a Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, using the kinetic force of an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to destroy the target, is paving the way toward advanced future kill vehicles able to discern and attack multiple approaching threats, industry and Pentagon officials said.This first appeared in Scout Warrior here.During the test, an ICBM-class target was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a Missile Defense Agency statement said."Multiple sensors provided target acquisition and tracking data to the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communication (C2BMC) system," the statement added.The intercept, taking place over the Pacific Ocean, used X-band radar to track the target for using a fire control solution to destroy the ICBM.
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| 'There was no way that they could've survived': A Boeing 737 Max victim’s mom and brother are demanding justice from the FAA (BA) Posted: 02 Aug 2019 10:27 AM PDT  Samya Stumo was 24 years old when the Boeing 737 Max she was on crashed in Ethiopia. Now her family is demanding justice from the FAA.
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| U.S. Headed Toward Blockade of Venezuela, Trump Official Says Posted: 02 Aug 2019 12:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump is serious about a possible U.S. blockade of Venezuela, a senior administration official said Friday, saying that the country's president Nicolas Maduro has a short window to voluntarily leave power.Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was considering a blockade or quarantine of the Latin American country, where the U.S. has been trying for months to unseat Maduro. He didn't elaborate.But the official said Trump's statement should be taken seriously and is the direction U.S. policy is headed with regard to Venezuela. The official asked not to be identified as a condition of participation in a briefing for reporters.The Trump administration has thrown its support behind National Assembly head and opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by about 50 nations as the rightful interim leader of the South American country.The U.S. will participate in a conference next week in Lima, Peru for countries backing Guaido, the official said.Talks between the Maduro regime and the opposition have made little progress due to an impasse over Guaido's demand for fresh elections. Despite Venezuelans' widespread dissatisfaction with their government, divisions within the opposition are complicating the push toward a post-Maduro administration.U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross outlined plans to rebuild Venezuela's financial institutions and infrastructure on Thursday in a speech to Latin American business executives in Brasilia."Venezuela will continue to deteriorate until the internationally recognized government of Juan Guaido implements needed economic, political and social reforms," Ross said.\--With assistance from Samy Adghirni.To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Navy identifies Lemoore pilot killed in crash in Death Valley National Park Posted: 02 Aug 2019 07:11 PM PDT  The Navy has identified the Lemoore pilot killed in a crash in Death Valley National Park earlier this week.
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| A$AP Rocky arrives back in US after release from Swedish prison amid looming assault verdict Posted: 03 Aug 2019 03:09 AM PDT  Rapper A$AP Rocky has returned to the US amid a looming verdict in an assault case against him in Sweden. The 30-year-old, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was released from jail in southern Sweden on Friday by judges who are mulling a verdict against him and two other Americans that is expected on 14 August. Nearly a month after his arrest in Stockholm, Los Angeles media reported the artist was among a number of people shown emerging from a private plane at Los Angeles International Airport. Along with David Rispers Jr and Bladimir Corniel, the rapper is accused of beating 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari on 30 June outside a fast food restaurant in central Stockholm. Mayers, who had been jailed since his 3 July arrest, pleaded not guilty at the start of the three-day trial on Tuesday. One of the witnesses to the assault revised her story from initial police reports, testifying Friday that she did not actually see Mayers hit Jafari with a bottle – a key focus of the trial. She and a friend, testifying anonymously at Stockholm District Court, both maintained they did see Mayers and his partners assaulting Jafari, however. "Everything happened very quickly. We were scared for our lives," the first woman told the court in Swedish. "He (Jafari) was bleeding. He showed his injuries on his hand. He also said he had a sore back." Mayers said he acted in self defence when Jafari and another man would not leave them alone. Mayers' bodyguard, Timothy Leon Williams, also testified Friday, sharing a story similar to what the rapper told the courtroom when he took the stand earlier in the week. Williams said he asked Jafari to "go away" when he approached the group a second time outside the restaurant. "I knew something's not right about him. I'm noticing it because I'm a bodyguard," Williams said in English. "And now, I'm looking at him like, 'Yo, what's wrong with you?' I'm looking at him and saw that his eyes were really glossy, like he's on something." Mayers had also testified earlier this week that he suspected Jafari and his friend were under the influence of some drug, which officials have not yet commented on. The case has attracted the attention of prominent figures, from Justin Bieber to Donald Trump. Mr Trump, who caused a stir in US-Swedish diplomatic relations after publicly offering support to the Grammy-nominated artist, celebrated the temporary release. "It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!" the US president said in a tweet. Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven heard an appeal from Mr Trump in July, but said he could not interfere in a legal case. Robert O'Brien, a US special presidential envoy sent to monitor the court proceedings, stressed that Washington was "grateful that I got to attend and observe the judicial process" in Sweden. But in a leaked diplomatic letter sent to the Swedish Prosecution Authority on 31 July, obtained by CNN, Mr O'Brien was rather more threatening, when he warned of "potentially negative consequences" if the case failed to be resolved "as soon as possible". The letter requested Mayers be immediately released from prison and instead placed under house arrest at a local Stockholm hotel.After learning they would be released, the three suspects shared hugs as some of the public gathered inside the courthouse loudly cheered. Mayers' mother, Renee Black, was present throughout court proceedings and was with her son when he was released. The rapper shared an emotional post on Instagram after he was released, thanking his fans for their support during this "very difficult and humbling experience". "Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of my fans, friends and anyone across the globe who supported me during these last few weeks," Mayers wrote."I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for all of you. This has been a very difficult and humbling experience. I want to thank the court for allowing me, Bladi and Thoto to return to our family and friends. Thanks again for all of the love and support."Additional reporting by AP
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| Maldives police arrest ex-vice president who fled to India Posted: 03 Aug 2019 07:11 AM PDT  Maldives police said Saturday that they arrested a former vice president who had sought asylum in India after fleeing the Indian Ocean archipelago nation to avoid questioning over the alleged embezzlement of state funds and were bringing him back to the Maldives. Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb fled the Maldives and arrived by boat at southern India's Tuticorin port on Thursday. On Saturday, Maldives police confirmed that Adeeb had been arrested.
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| '#ThanksObama': 2020 Democrats walk back Obama criticisms Posted: 02 Aug 2019 07:52 PM PDT  Several 2020 Democrats took aim at former President Barack Obama during the primary debates this week but seemed to have a change of heart in the days since.
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| Iran Watch: Should Trump Fear Tehran's Last Missile Test? Posted: 03 Aug 2019 05:00 AM PDT  Iran does test medium-range ballistic missiles, although not commonly. What HappenedFor the first time since a standoff between the United States and Iran escalated into attacks on oil tankers, Iran has conducted a medium-range ballistic missile test. According to U.S. officials, Iran test-fired a Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile earlier this week that traveled 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) — distance enough to hit Saudi Arabia and come close to Israel.Iran's strategy in carrying out the test is likely twofold. For one, Tehran is engaging in a show of force against the United States as part of the aggressive regional strategy it has pursued over the last three months. At the same time, the launches provide Iran's engineers and missile designers an important opportunity to test technical and operational designs as part of the country's wider ballistic missile program. Iran's Missile Motivations
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| The Day That Obsessed Adolf Hitler Posted: 03 Aug 2019 02:48 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyThis summer marked the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, on June 28, 1919. The treaty put a formal end to World War I, one of the deadliest military conflicts in history. Yet the anniversary went mostly unnoticed.That's a shame because the treaty's contents, and the reaction that they caused, were essential to paving the way for the ascent of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe.World War I broke out in the late summer of 1914, when the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Serbian separatist Gavrilo Princip. Their deaths triggered a set of byzantine military alliances across Europe and Russia that were the result of grievances that had been building throughout the 19th century. The main combatants at the beginning of the war were the Allied Powers (France, Great Britain, and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). In 1917, the Russian Revolution forced Russia out of the war. That same year, the United States joined the conflict.When the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, after negotiations led by President Woodrow Wilson, the four empires that had dominated east and central Europe for centuries—Germany, Austria-Hungary, Czarist Russia, and the Ottomans—were all gone. Millions of people were displaced and without a country. States had collapsed and national borders had ceased to exist. Out of this chaos, the peace congress that convened in Paris needed to create order.How WWI Produced the HolocaustThe treaty that was signed on June 28, 1919 was considered a missed opportunity before the ink of the signatures had dried on the page. The negotiations that took place between Great Britain, France, the United States, and Italy (known as the Big Four) were without structure and with no list of priorities. Germany and Austria-Hungary were excluded from the negotiations, as was Russia, mainly because no one really knew what to make of its new Bolshevik government. None of the Big Four was happy with the outcome of the peace congress, and Germany was shocked by the terms of its defeat.This shock came to set the course for much of Germany's domestic and foreign policies during the 1920s and 1930s. The German people were unprepared for the armistice deal when it was signed in November 1918. German war propaganda claimed they were winning the war right up to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the declaration of defeat by the government that took his place.According to historian Sally Marks, in order to handle their confusion, the Germans latched on to the use of the word "armistice," which to them came to mean that the war had ended in a draw. When the Treaty of Versailles treated Germany as a defeated aggressor, there was a backlash. Or, as Marks puts it, "the real difficulty was not that the Treaty was exceptionally unfair, but that the Germans thought it was, and in time persuaded others that it was."GettyThe unfair conditions of the treaty that Germany objected to, but in the end was forced to accept, included the demilitarization of the Rhineland, which is a border region with France; the re-creation of Poland as a self-governing state; the constraint of German forces to a certain size; and the transformation of German border regions into minority enclaves in newly created nation states, such as the Sudetenland, which became part of Czechoslovakia.The most crushing blow to Germany was the article of the treaty that made Germany and its allies responsible for the war. As a result, Germany was expected to pay reparations to France and Great Britain. They saw this as an opportunity to make Germany pay for all their war costs, rather than just paying damages.One of the people who took Germany's defeat and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles particularly hard was Adolf Hitler. A failed artist without a direction in life, Hitler found a purpose in the German army during World War I. When Germany lost the war and signed the treaty, Hitler felt personally betrayed.In response to the humiliating nature of the treaty, Hitler had his political awakening. In his biography on Hitler's formative years, Ian Kershaw shows that the Treaty of Versailles was at the forefront of Hitler's rhetoric early on, and he blamed the Jews for Germany's misfortunes. Major steps in Hitler's domestic and foreign policy after the Nazis took power in 1933 were taken with the intention of removing "the shackles of Versailles."Nazi Germany's remilitarization of the Rhineland, its annexation of the Sudetenland, the creation of the Luftwaffe and the conscript-based army are all examples of this policy, as was the invasion of Poland in 1939, which sparked World War II. The Germans saw Poland as a failed state that should be under German rule. The cease-fire agreement between France and Nazi Germany in 1940 was, in effect, a reversal of the armistice of 1918.A common conclusion whenever the two world wars are discussed in relation to each other is that World War I caused World War II to happen. This is only partially correct. With Hitler's political career in mind, it is more accurate to say that World War II wouldn't have happened without the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler's intention from the beginning, says historian Alan Sharp, was to nullify the outcome of World War I and Versailles.GettyWhen Hitler deliberately violated the clauses of the treaty, he continued the work of the Social Democratic and Liberal governments of Germany's interwar Weimar Republic. The difference between the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany is that the Republic used negotiation to achieve its goals; Hitler used force.In other words, had it not been for the Treaty of Versailles there would not have been a breeding ground for Nazi Germany to take shape. And without Nazi Germany there wouldn't be a modern neo-Nazi movement glorifying Hitler's actions. The problem with our selective amnesia regarding World War I is that by not commemorating the Treaty of Versailles we are disregarding a crucial moment in the creation of the modern world.Because even though one of the consequences of the treaty turned out to be a totalitarian ideology we are still forced to combat, in the treaty the Big Four also described the world they wanted to see in the future. In this world, women had the right to vote. People didn't have to work more than eight hours a day, and they were given one day off per week. They were also allowed to join unions, earn a living wage, and men and women received equal pay for equal work. Before the end of the 1920s all of these points had come true. Except for one.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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| Nissan, Renault eye restructuring for Fiat merger: report Posted: 02 Aug 2019 08:20 PM PDT  Nissan and Renault are considering changes to their partnership in order to reinvigorate merger negotiations with US-Italian automaker Fiat Chrysler, US media reported on Friday. Negotiations for a tie-up between Renault and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) collapsed in June, with Renault's chairman blaming the French government for blocking a vote on the deal that would have upended the global automotive industry and created the world's third-largest automaker. The French government has denied the allegation, while Nissan has characterized its relationship with Renault as unequal and said the French automaker kept it in the dark over its merger plans with FCA.
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| Beijing says progress on China-Australia ties 'unsatisfactory' Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:51 PM PDT  The progress of repairing China-Australia ties, strained over Canberra's concerns about Chinese influence in its domestic affairs, has been "unsatisfactory," said China's top diplomat after meeting his Australian counterpart. "During our diplomatic and strategic dialogue in Beijing last November, we agreed to calibrate and relaunch China-Australia relations, but the process of improving our ties has not been satisfactory," said State Councillor Wang Yi after the Bangkok meeting on the sidelines of a regional security forum. Beijing says it never interferes in the internal affairs of another country.
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| How President Trump Is Undercutting Pompeo in a Dispute Over Turkey's Purchase of a Russian Missile System Posted: 02 Aug 2019 12:04 PM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has publicly stated that Turkey's purchase of a Russian S-400 ran afoul of a 2017 law meant to punish Russia.
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