| Police: Man with rifle, bulletproof vest arrested at Springfield, Missouri, Walmart store Posted: 08 Aug 2019 05:22 PM PDT  Springfield, Missouri, police said the man had body armor and entered the Walmart store carrying a "tactical rifle" and another gun.
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| India's Modi defends powderkeg Kashmir move Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:05 AM PDT  Modi's Hindu-nationalist government imposed direct rule on the Indian held portion of Kashmir on Monday, setting off a new crisis in one of the world's most volatile security flashpoints. Speaking for the first time since the move, and with the people of Kashmir enduring a military lockdown, Modi hailed it as a "historic decision" that would bring peace to the region. "Friends, I have full belief that we will be able to free Jammu and Kashmir from terrorism and separatism under this system," Modi said in a televised address.
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| Chicago mayor calls out Ivanka Trump's 'nonsense tweets' about her city Posted: 07 Aug 2019 12:16 PM PDT  After the president's eldest daughter compares gun violence in Chicago to the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responds.
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| Man in anthem attack convinced Trump ordered it, lawyer says Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:41 AM PDT  A Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do, his attorney said. Attorney Lance Jasper told the Missoulian he will seek a mental health evaluation for Curt Brockway, a U.S. Army veteran who became caught up in the heightened animosity and rhetoric gripping the nation, and convinced himself that he was following the president's orders. Brockway suffered a traumatic brain injury in a vehicle crash in 2000 that has affected his decision making, and Jasper said he plans to raise that in his client's defense.
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| NRSC Suspends Twitter Advertising after McConnell’s Account Is Locked Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:00 AM PDT  The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP's campaign arm, terminated its spending on Twitter advertisements Thursday, expressing outrage that Senator Mitch McConnell's Twitter account was locked after his team shared a video of protesters making threats against him outside his house.The NRSC called the mammoth social-media platform's move "outrageous" and said ad spending would be cut off indefinitely."Twitter's hostile actions toward Leader McConnell's campaign are outrageous, and we will not tolerate it," NRSC spokesman Jesse Hunt said. "The NRSC will suspend all spending with Twitter until further notice. We will not spend our resources on a platform that silences conservatives."The Kentucky Republican's account was locked on Wednesday for posting footage of protesters shouting obscenities and making violent threats outside of his home, which the company said violates its "violent threats policy."A woman identified as Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm can be heard saying in the video that McConnell "should have broken his little, raggedy, wrinkled-a*s neck," in the recent fall that resulted in a broken shoulder from which he is currently recovering. Another woman can be heard talking about stabbing McConnell in the heart."This is a problem with the speech police in America today," McConnell's campaign manager, Kevin Golden, said in a statement. "Twitter will allow the words of 'Massacre Mitch' to trend nationally on their platform but locks our account for posting actual threats against us. We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video.""Silicon Valley is trying to silence conservatives," read a fundraising email from the Committee, adding that supporters should "push back."Other Republican lawmakers expressed their support for the Senate leader, with some pledging to join the NRSC in ceasing to spend money on Twitter ads until his account is restored."Agree with the NRSC. Team Marsha won't spend resources on Twitter until the Team Mitch account is back. StopTheBias," read a tweet from Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn's account.
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| Judge greenlights libel suit against NPR over Seth Rich reports Posted: 07 Aug 2019 06:06 PM PDT  The lawsuit will proceed to the discovery process, including demands for documents and depositions from the journalists involved.
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| Protesters shout death threats at Sen. Mitch McConnell's home Posted: 06 Aug 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Left launches attacks against McConnell, New York Times; reaction from 2008 presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and American Conservative union chair Matt Schlapp.
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| 3 Americans, including married couple, drown while vacationing with children in Turks and Caicos Posted: 07 Aug 2019 08:39 AM PDT  Three American tourists, a Texas couple and their family friend, died in a tragic accident while vacationing with their kids in Turks and Caicos.
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| Badass Planes, Ranked Posted: 07 Aug 2019 06:50 AM PDT |
| American Volunteer Branded 'Enemy of State' and Shot Outside His Home in the Philippines Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:44 AM PDT  He volunteers with a group fighting against a hydropower project
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| Radiation 'spike' and two killed in blast at Russian missile testing base Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:53 AM PDT  Two people have been killed when an engine exploded and burned at a Russian missile testing base, the third major fire involving the country's military this summer. The defence ministry said six employees of the military and a weapons developer were injured in a blast during testing of a "liquid-fuel reactive propulsion system," which then reportedly caught fire. State media have reported that 15 people were injured. The accident took place in the Arkhangelsk region in the far north. Reports placed it at a base near the town of Nyonoksa where the navy tests ballistic missiles. The town is south of Russia's main submarine-building facilities in Severodvinsk. Authorities in the city said radiation levels had shot up briefly on Thursday before decreasing, while the defence ministry said they had remained normal. The Arkhangelsk port said the bay near the base where the explosion occurred would be closed to shipping for the next month. An earlier picture of the missile testing base where the explosion reportedly occurred Credit: AFP/Getty In 2015, a missile fell near a home in Nyonoksa during tests. Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying the incident was caused by safety violations. The incident was only the latest deadly conflagration for Russia's armed forces. On Monday, a massive fire set off explosions in an arms depot at a base in Siberia. One person was killed and 16,000 had to be evacuated. A fireball rises from an ammunition depot in Siberia that caught fire on Monday Credit: Dmitry Dub/Reuters In July, a fire on a nuclear-powered deep-sea submersible killed 14 sailors and nearly caused a "global catastrophe," a naval officer said at their funeral. Russia has been pouring billions of dollars a year into modernising its military, which still relies heavily on Soviet-era equipment.
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| Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:08 AM PDT ![Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row]( "Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row") Ali usually marks the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha with his family in the Gaza Strip by sacrificing a sheep, a customary annual ritual for those who can spare the cost. Gaza has suffered under years of blockade by Israel and Egypt, which cite security concerns for restrictions the World Bank says have severely damaged its economy. Ali said that in March, the PA cut his monthly salary in half, leaving him with of 1,500 shekels ($431).
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| Wife of US student held in Iran says husband 'not a spy' Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:18 PM PDT  The wife of a Princeton University graduate student imprisoned in Iran said Thursday that her husband is not a spy as she appealed for international cooperation to secure his release. "I plead for the gate of mercy to be opened for him, and I hope he can come back to us as soon as possible," Hua Qu said in a speech marking the third anniversary of her husband's detention. Hua also said there have been no recent productive conversations between the United States and the Iranian government about Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American history researcher who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of "infiltrating" Iran and sending confidential material abroad.
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| Popeyes is launching a new fried chicken sandwich nationwide Aug. 12 Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:24 AM PDT  Fried chicken fans will soon be able to get Popeyes chicken on a brioche bun for $3.99 nationwide.
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| Here are all the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who have qualified for the September primary debates Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:15 AM PDT  The next round of debates have much more strict criteria for candidates looking to secure a spot on stage. As a result, the field could thin out fast.
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| Police shootings are a leading cause of death for young American men, new research shows Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:12 AM PDT  The phrase "leading causes of death" might bring to mind cancer, heart disease, suicide and drug overdose.But new research published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that young American men are at a surprisingly high risk of being killed by a police officer.Among men of all races, ages 25 to 29, police killings are the sixth-leading cause of death, according to a study led by Frank Edwards of Rutgers University, with a total annual mortality risk of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 people.Accidental death, a category that includes automotive accidents and drug overdoses, was the biggest cause at 76.6 deaths per 100,000, and followed by suicide (26.7), other homicides (22.0), heart disease (7.0), and cancer (6.3).The data used in this study do not differentiate between police killings that were later determined to be justified and those that were not. FBI data, which is widely acknowledged to be incomplete, shows that 400 to 500 homicides each year are determined to be justified, which is defined as "the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty". Those deaths represent about half of the roughly 1,000 annual police killings that independent tallies, including those by The Washington Post and The Guardian, have found.For a black man, the risk of being killed by a police officer is about 2.5 times higher than that of a white man. "Our models predict that about 1 in 1,000 black men and boys will be killed by police over the life course," the authors write.In the 20 to 24 age group, black men represent nearly 2 per cent of such deaths, compared with 0.5 per cent for whites. A 40-year-old black man has about the same risk of being killed by a police officer as a 20-year-old white man.Because no reliable federal data exists for police killings, the authors turned to the data compiled by Fatal Encounters, a project that uses news reports, public records requests and crowdsourced information to tally officer-involved fatalities.The authors note that Fatal Encounters was "endorsed as a sound source of data" by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in a 2016 report, but they warn that the data likely undercounts the number of officer-involved killings: "If any death is not covered by news organisations or is not documented in searchable public records," they note, "it will not appear in the data."The study excludes police-involved deaths determined to be a suicide, the result of a car accident or an accident, like an overdose or fall.Police killings are far more common in the United States than in other advanced democracies. That is partly because the US has a much higher homicide rate – "25.2 times higher" – than economically similar countries, according to a 2016 study.One of the prime drivers of that difference, research shows, is the nation's high rate of gun ownership: Americans make up 4 per cent of the global population, but own nearly half the guns in the world.The nation's high rates of violence and gun ownership make many police fearful for their lives, research shows. Data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows that, in recent years, 100 to 200 officers are killed annually in the line of duty. And other research shows that police are more likely to be killed in the line of duty in states with more permissive gun laws.Officers can respond to the threat of violence by using lethal force of their own: more than half of the 544 people shot and killed by police to date in 2019 were found to be carrying firearms, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.The authors of the PNAS report note another factor at play in the country's high rate of police shootings: "Austerity in social welfare and public health programmes has led to police and prisons becoming catchall responses to social problems," they wrote.In his recent book, "The End of Policing," sociologist Alex Vitale of Brooklyn College argues that police often end up being the de facto first responders for mental health issues because of "a decision that's been made by political leaders not to fund adequate community-based mental health services".At least 20 per cent of people fatally shot by police so far this year had documented mental health issues, according to The Post's data.The study's authors say their findings reinforce calls "to treat police violence as a public health issue" with "profound consequences for public health, democracy, and racial stratification".The Washington Post
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| U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:45 PM PDT ![U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying]( "U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying") (Bloomberg) -- The White House is holding off on a decision about licenses for U.S. companies to restart business with Huawei Technologies Co. after Beijing said it was halting purchases of U.S. farming goods, according to people familiar with the matter.Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department has vetted the applications to resume sales, said last week he's received 50 requests and that a decision on them was pending. American businesses require a special license to supply goods to Huawei after the U.S. added the Chinese telecommunications giant to a trade blacklist in May over national-security concerns.Huawei suppliers Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. declined as much as 2.2% after the news on the delay in license approvals. The Australian dollar and offshore yuan fell versus the greenback and the yen gained.Trade TrucePresident Donald Trump said in late June after agreeing to a now-broken trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan that some restrictions on Huawei would be loosened. But that promise was contingent upon China beefing up its purchases from American farmers, which Trump has complained the country has failed to do.In the past week tensions have escalated further as Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports as of Sept. 1 and his Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator.Still, Trump said last week there were no plans to reverse the decision he made in Japan to allow more sales by U.S. suppliers of non-sensitive products to Huawei. He said the issue of Huawei is not related to the trade talks.The White House had no immediate comment, and the Commerce Department declined to comment.Tech PitchTechnology companies have already made their pitch to the White House for a rapid granting of licenses that would allow them to resume some shipments of components to Huawei.The Chinese company is one of the world's biggest purchasers of semiconductors. Continuing access to that market is crucial to the fortunes of chipmakers such as Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Inc. who sent their chief executives to meet with Trump in July.Companies such as Xilinx Inc. and Micron have publicly said they've applied for licenses and called on the U.S. to allow them to resume doing business with Huawei. They argue that many of their products are easily obtainable from their overseas rivals, making a ban ineffective and also harmful to the industry that the trade dispute with China is supposed to be helping.Some U.S.-based makers of electronic components have already reported earnings and given forecasts that show the negative effects of the trade dispute.(Updates with share price moves in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Adam Haigh and Jeran Wittenstein.To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net;Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, ;Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, ;Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregor, Scott LanmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Google is getting better at making sure you book the cheapest possible flight Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:29 PM PDT  For the past few years, I have been almost exclusively using Google's online travel tools to book flights. It's often the most convenient way to sort through dozens of flight options at once, and the interface is decidedly more manageable than what most competitors have to offer. That said, it does lack some features that other sites provide, but this week, the platform came one step closer to being the ultimate online travel companion.Google has been updating its travel tools rather frequently in recent years, highlighted by the launch of a travel portal in May which unified all of the features and menus into a single webpage. But that was just the beginning, as the new features arriving this week seem built to convince users never to book travel anywhere else.As Google Travel's Richard Holden noted in a blog post on Thursday, Google already shows you if prices for a flight you're about to book are high, low, or typical. But starting today, you will see all the same information for your exact itinerary. Google will also show you how the price has changed over the past few months on some flights, and will even warn you when it expects the price to go up or predicts the price won't go any lower.For a limited time, Google is offering a price guarantee for flights it predicts won't drop in price. If you book a flight on Google Flights between August 13th and September 2nd with Google's price guarantee, and the price drops, Google will refund you the difference. You don't even have to check -- Google will do the work for you.Other new features include recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and activities at destinations you're flying in to, and suggestions for which neighborhoods to stay in depending on how much you'll willing to spend, what you plan to do on your trip, and more. These should all roll out to Google Travel in the coming weeks.
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| India Has Taken Kashmir, But Winning the Hearts and Minds of Kashmiris Will be Harder Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:37 AM PDT  'This is an attack on Indian democracy': On Aug. 5, the Indian government blocked all communication in Kashmir in a bid for greater control.
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| Thailand's fugitive ex-premier gets Serbian citizenship Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in Thailand to five years in prison on graft-related charges, has received Serbian citizenship. State news agency Tanjug reported Thursday that the Serbian government granted her the citizenship "because it could be in the interest of Serbia." Serbian officials did not comment on the reason behind the decision. A government decree confirming she was granted citizenship was published in June in Serbia's official gazette.
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| UN report: Climate change threatens our food supply. Here's how we can fix it Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:53 PM PDT  The report from United Nations scientists describes a cycle in which the problems of land degradation and climate change exacerbate each other.
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| US border detentions plunge in July after Mexico deal Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:39 PM PDT  US southern border detentions plunged for the second straight month in July after a deal with Mexico to block Central American migrants, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday. US Border Patrol agents detained or blocked 82,049 migrants at the frontier with Mexico last month, down from 104,367 in June and a 13-year peak of 144,266 in May, they said. The Department of Homeland Security attributed the fall to a deal signed with Mexico in June to stem the flow of migrants traveling northward to the United States from Central America, mainly Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
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| Russia freezes bank accounts linked to opposition politician Navalny Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:41 AM PDT  Russian authorities on Thursday froze a slew of bank accounts linked to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny as part of a money laundering investigation that his allies say is a trumped-up attempt to cripple his political movement. The move comes ahead of a series of planned nationwide demonstrations on Saturday being organized by Navalny's allies to protest against the exclusion of opposition candidates from a Moscow election next month. Russian investigators said in a statement on Thursday that they had frozen the bank accounts of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, those of another organization, and those of more than 100 linked individuals and legal entities.
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| A woman in Arizona stole a Tesla Model S, but it ran out of battery as she tried to make her escape (TSLA) Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Once the Model S ran out of battery, authorities broke one its windows to remove the suspect, according to the Payson Roundup's report.
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| Emotions Erupt During Court Hearing for DUI Vehicular Homicide Suspect Posted: 07 Aug 2019 02:38 PM PDT  A 62-year-old Washington state woman who has a history of driving while under the influence has pleaded not guilty in the death of a 24-year-old man.
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| The U.S. is Close to a Peace Deal With the Taliban, Officials Say Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:07 PM PDT  American troops could leave Afghanistan by November 2020, but hurdles remain and some critics are skeptical
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| 57 people are dead and 18,000 were hospitalized in Japan as the country grapples with a stifling heat wave Posted: 07 Aug 2019 01:58 AM PDT  Scorching temperatures have plagued Japan for weeks, resulting in scores of heat-related deaths this summer.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Acura NSX in Indy Yellow Pearl Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:00 AM PDT |
| Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in Germany Posted: 08 Aug 2019 06:36 AM PDT  A 92-year-old former SS private will go on trial this fall in Germany on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder, accused of helping the Nazis' Stutthof concentration camp function, a Hamburg court said Thursday. "Surveillance was necessary for the concentration camp to function, and the camp was made to kill people," Hamburg state court spokesman Kai Wantzen said of the prosecution's argument. Wantzen said the suspect did not deny to authorities that he had served in Stutthof and said he was aware people were being killed.
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| Modi's high-stakes gamble with Kashmir Posted: 07 Aug 2019 08:18 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strongarm move to tighten control on Muslim-majority Kashmir is a gamble that could trigger conflict with Pakistan and re-ignite an insurgency that has already cost tens of thousands of lives, experts warn. Revoking Kashmir's special status, stripping away constitutionally guaranteed privileges to land and jobs, is widely seen as Modi's most spectacular effort yet to push his Hindu nationalist agenda after a landslide election victory in May. While many Hindus celebrated, the Kashmir valley -- focus of a 30-year-old Muslim insurgency against Indian rule -- was smothered under one of the heaviest security clampdowns it has seen.
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| Chinese ship heads away from Vietnam in South China Sea standoff Posted: 07 Aug 2019 09:19 AM PDT ![Chinese ship heads away from Vietnam in South China Sea standoff]( "Chinese ship heads away from Vietnam in South China Sea standoff") A Chinese survey ship which has been embroiled in a tense month-long standoff with Vietnamese vessels has headed away from Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a Washington-based think tank said on Wednesday. Since early July, Vietnamese ships have closely tracked Chinese vessels operating within the Southeast Asian country's EEZ, in the latest confrontation in waters that are a potential global flashpoint as the United States challenges China's sweeping maritime claims. "Ship tracking data show that China's survey ship has exited the Vietnamese EEZ for now, but at least two of its coast guard escorts remain in the area of the survey," Devin Thorne, senior analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) told Reuters, citing data from maritime analytics company Windward.
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| New Mexico faces extreme water scarcity on par with the United Arab Emirates. Experts warn more 'day zeros' are looming. Posted: 07 Aug 2019 09:03 AM PDT  The global water crisis will bring more "day zeros," when a city's taps run dry, a new report says. Worldwide, 17 countries face extreme water stress.
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| U.S. Rushes to Ready New China Tariffs as Companies Fear Damage Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:38 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The Trump administration is rushing to finalize a list of $300 billion in Chinese imports it plans to hit with tariffs in a few weeks' time, as U.S. companies make a last-ditch appeal to be spared from the latest round of duties.President Donald Trump's announcement last week on adding a 10% tariff as of Sept. 1 to virtually every Chinese import that's not yet subject to punitive duties took U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer by surprise, people familiar with the discussions said. Lighthizer and his staff are now under pressure to revise an initial list targeting more than 3,800 Chinese product lines based on issues raised during a public comment period and hearings.The USTR is planning to publish the final list this week or early next, the people said. In that meantime, companies are making a final attempt at convincing the Trump administration not to impose duties or to drop items they import from the tariff list.In a meeting shortly before the president announced the new duties, Lighthizer argued against them. He instead urged patience to allow more time for a tariff increase in June to 25% from 10% on an earlier round of $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to inflict pain on the Asian economy, the people said.A USTR spokesman disputed that account, and said the agency was following the same legal process as it had in previous tariff rounds. Trump decides when the tariffs will go into effect and USTR will publish the final list before the effective date, the spokesman said.Still, companies are complaining about the lack of certainty for their business decisions and say a couple weeks' notice isn't enough time."Companies don't plan by tweet," Jon Gold, of the National Retail Federation, said. "These are all contracts that are already executed and cargo is on the water."After Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed on yet another tariff truce in late June, businesses didn't expect another escalation this soon and felt like they had more time to plan, Gold added. Companies and trade associations are still trying to weigh in with the administration to make their case and potentially get their products taken off the list.The proposed list of goods, which USTR published in mid-May, includes consumer items like smart-phones, laptops, clothes and toys. Since this batch extends tariffs to nearly all imports from China, there appears to be less flexibility than previous rounds to lobby for products to be excluded, as companies such as Apple Inc. had done with the Apple Watch and AirPods headphones.Even some products that were removed from previous tariff lists are back on the latest list.Imaginary ElvesJay Foreman, the chief executive of Basic Fun! toy company in Florida, which makes the Lite-Brite and other products, said he'll have no choice but to reduce employees by the same percentage as the duty."We are not making toys here using imaginary elves from the from North Pole," Foreman said Wednesday on conference call with reporters arranged by Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, a campaign of trade groups opposed to the tariffs. "American workers are designing, developing, selling, shipping and trucking our toys."White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow this week signaled the tariffs could be called off before Sept. 1 if Beijing shows goodwill on buying American agriculture goods and getting back to the negotiating table."The president and our team is planning for a Chinese visit in September," Kudlow said Tuesday on CNBC. "Movement toward a good deal would be very positive and might change the tariff situation. But then again, it might not."It's not clear if businesses are able to submit requests for product exclusions once the duties are imposed. For previous lists, such an option was only available once the tariff rate was bumped up to 25%.It also hasn't been clarified whether Sept. 1 applies to the date when the item arrives in the U.S. or when it leaves China -- a critical question for importers because of the amount of product that is already on the water traveling to America.Of the almost 13,750 exclusion requests submitted for the initial tariffs imposed last year on $50 billion in goods, only 23% have been approved as of Aug. 2. About 60% were rejected and the rest are still being revised, government data show. Companies can file for exclusions in the last round of tariffs on $200 billion of products until Sept. 30.Wait-and-SeeWin Cramer, the chief executive officer of California-based JLab Audio, said he was in Minneapolis on Wednesday visiting with two retailers -- and instead of talking about holiday plans, they were discussing tariffs. It's impossible to plan because of the uncertainty of what Trump will do next, he said."The answers aren't there yet because we don't know what we don't know," Cramer said on the conference call. "These decisions are made with a tweet, they can also as easily be reversed with a tweet. So we're kind of in wait-and-see mode."(Updates throughout)To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net;Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregor, Jeffrey BlackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Police should prioritise animal welfare over protesters' rights, says Countryside Alliance after activists accused of killing thousands of pheasant chicks Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:52 AM PDT  The police should prioritise animal welfare over the rights of protesters who storm farms and upset livestock, the Countryside Alliance has said, after activists were accused of causing the deaths of thousands of pheasant chicks. Direct action from animal rights campaigners, in which they storm farms, is on the rise, according to Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the organisation. Over the last year, activists have been accused of disturbing and even killing animals including piglets and turkeys. Last month, pheasant farmer Eloise McDonald, 23, found dead chicks with hundreds of birds huddled together after a raid on her family farm near Ashford, Kent. She wrote on Facebook: "Some lowlife scumbag so-called 'animal lovers' let out 20,000 of my birds, cut all the fencing, cut gas pipes, hundreds of week-old birds dead, gasping for water and starving!" Ms McDonald estimated that around 3,000 birds had perished. Mr Bonner said that while hunt saboteurs have engaged in forms of direct action for decades, there is a new wave of vegan activists who storm farms in order to get pictures for social media and raise awareness of their cause. He told The Telegraph: "It's a relatively new phenomenon, the farm invasions isn't something we've seen much of before. "Another prominent one is vigils at abattoirs and I understand people take views and don't like animals being killed but all they are doing is increasing the amount of time they are spending on the vehicle and are making things more stressful. "Obviously people can protest about whatever they want, but when animal welfare is impacted that is not acceptable." While the Countryside Alliance had found that police took the game farm vandalism seriously, the chief executive said there are issues with farm invasions. He explained: "With the farm invasion sometimes the policing does tend to be slightly biased towards ensuring people can protest - but if those protests are having an impact on the welfare of animals, if suffering is caused by that "There's a level of cynicism among the hardcore extremists and among the new generation of activists there's a level of ignorance. Making your views known - there's nothing wrong with that - but make sure you demonstrate in a way that doesn't impact the welfare of animals."
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| U.S. Intel Officials Eye Disinformation Campaign Targeting John Bolton’s Family Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:38 AM PDT  GettyAmerican intelligence officials are monitoring a social media disinformation campaign that attempted to falsely implicate the White House National Security Adviser in a global money laundering and drug trafficking operation.On Monday, a Twitter user claiming to be a high-ranking Canadian law enforcement official posted records supposedly showing a $350,000 wire transfer from a Canadian children's apparel company to a Swiss bank account owned by National Security Adviser John Bolton's daughter. "Police investigations show [the company] and its CEO are accused of laundering and transferring dirty money between Canada and some European countries, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States," the Twitter account claimed.The claims are clearly fabricated, and the effort does not appear particularly sophisticated. But a U.S. official familiar with the apparent disinformation campaign said intelligence community officials were aware of the effort. And Lee Foster, an information operations intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, told The Daily Beast that the hoax's techniques are "consistent with what we've seen with previous pro-Iranian influence operations."Foster emphasized that there wasn't enough information to attribute the Bolton hoax to Iran or any other specific party yet, but said the incident did share some similarities with other campaigns documented by FireEye.The Twitter account at issue impersonated a high-ranking Toronto police officer named Donald Belanger. Twitter suspended the fake Belanger account and Toronto Police Service spokesman Alex Li confirmed to The Daily Beast that it was "a fraudulent" persona. The real police official the account had impersonated has never had a Twitter account and Toronto's Police Service does not tweet out information naming witnesses, victims, and other sensitive information in the course of criminal investigations, Li said. The tweet from the fake police official also made another mistake when the supposed wire transfer record in "Belanger's" tweet misspelled Bolton's daughter's name.The operator of the account first registered it in 2013 and appears to have originally tweeted in Arabic before repurposing the account into a fake Toronto police service official. The account, under the now defunct handle @BelangerPolice, retweeted an unremarkable stream of content from Canadian police accounts and mentioned nothing about Iran or Bolton until Monday.A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to questions about the "Belanger" account.Bolton is among the Trump administration's most aggressive critics of the Iranian regime. The U.S. official, while not commenting on this week's disinformation campaign specifically, said Bolton has been the target of state-sponsored influence operations designed to weaken his standing in the administration.Though Twitter quickly removed the tweet on Monday and suspended the account, it had already been picked up and covered by a handful of websites with editorial positions sympathetic to the Iranian government. News outlets such as Iran Front Page blared "Belanger's" claims that a Canadian business had supposedly transferred the funds at issue had been caught smuggling "a significant amount of opium" and "has close ties with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group."The outlet attributed its story to a tweet from a "senior Canadian law enforcement agent from the Toronto Police Drug Squad"—the fake police account—but has not updated or corrected its story to reflect the account's suspension or the Toronto Police Service's confirmation that the account was fake. "John Bolton," the "exclusive" article added, "is a fervent supporter of MKO terror group," using one of several acronyms for the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization, or MEK. Bolton has earned tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees for appearances at MEK conferences. The MEK participated in the 1979 revolution which installed Iran's theocratic government, but eventually sought exile in Iraq, where it carried out terrorist attacks in Iran on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government. The United States removed the MEK from its list of designated terrorist groups in 2012, but critics claim the organization, which has paid influential former American officials thousands of dollars to speak at events, is a cult bent on pushing the U.S. to war with Tehran. In May, FireEye assessed with "low confidence" that a series of fake Twitter accounts impersonating U.S. and Israeli political candidates and reporters "was organized in support of Iranian political interests." The fake accounts published content in line with Iranian foreign policy, but FireEye was unable to pinpoint the identity or location of those behind it. In other cases, FireEye has found more direct ties between social media influence campaigns and Iran. An August 2018 report from the company cited a network of interconnected fake news websites and Facebook pages echoing "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes" tied to Iranian state-run media outlets. Send The Daily Beast a TipFoster noted that one of the Iran-linked fake news websites identified in that FireEye report, "US Journal," published a story based on the fake account's tweet. In contrast to the other stories, which summarized the fake Torono police account's tweet, U.S. Journal also claimed to have "other documents we got our hands on," in addition to the @BelangerPolice tweet. The apparent disinformation campaign comes as the feud between Iran and the Trump administration over U.S. sanctions and a 2015 nuclear agreement have grown increasingly personal. In late July, the Trump administration sanctioned Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif "because Zarif acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Zarif has spent the past few months blasting Bolton as part of a so-called "B_team" bent on war with Iran and undermining President Trump's attempts at diplomacy with the Islamic Republic. The Daily Beast was initially alerted to "Belanger's" tweets by a Twitter user claiming to be a U.S.-based freelance journalist covering the Middle East. The Twitter account was created in June, and has posted numerous tweets in broken and grammatically incorrect sentences consistent with someone whose first language is not English.Of the account's 63 tweets, 47 were devoted to promoting the "Belanger" story. Another 11 attacked Bolton by name.The Daily Beast could not identify any bylines by the purported Middle East freelance reporter. 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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| Former Boy Scout leader had 10,000 photos and 600 videos of child porn Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:55 AM PDT ![Former Boy Scout leader had 10,000 photos and 600 videos of child porn]( "Former Boy Scout leader had 10,000 photos and 600 videos of child porn") A former Boy Scout leader was sentenced Wednesday for possession of thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child pornography.
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| 2nd ex-New Orleans cop takes plea deal in Hispanic beating Posted: 07 Aug 2019 02:48 PM PDT  WDSU-TV reports that Spencer Sutton pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace. John Galman, the other officer in the case, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in February. Both officers, who are white and were off-duty at the time of the incident, had been on the force less than a year and both were fired a day after the July 24, 2018, beating.
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| Top opponent suspends campaign to unseat Afghan president Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:38 AM PDT  An Afghan politician once seen as a top contender to stop President Ashraf Ghani winning a second term suspended his campaign on Thursday amid worsening violence and problems on his team. Hanif Atmar, the former national security advisor to Ghani, had hoped to beat his former boss in elections set for September 28. Official campaign season started July 28 but was immediately beset by deadly violence, when Ghani's running mate Amrullah Saleh was targeted in an attack in Kabul that killed at least 20 people.
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| Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:32 AM PDT ![Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency]( "Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency") U.S. weather forecasters expect "above normal" activity in the current Atlantic hurricane season, revising an earlier forecast of "near normal" activity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday. The earlier forecast in May reflected the presence of El Nino, the climate phenomenon that warms the Pacific Ocean and tends to prevent storms from developing in the Atlantic. Since then, El Nino has abated, making for conditions that increase the likelihood of hurricanes forming, forecasters at the NOOA's Climate Prediction Center said in a statement issued as the hurricane season enters its peak months.
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| U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:10 AM PDT ![U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures]( "U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures") (Bloomberg) -- Efforts by the U.S. Senate to hamper a controversial natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany have probably come too late.The Senate is yet to vote on a bill to impose sanctions on construction of the undersea part of the 750-mile Nord Stream 2 link under the Baltic Sea, but the project is already almost complete and scheduled to be finished this year.The faltering U.S. attempt to prevent the pipeline mimics similarly unsuccessful moves to limit Soviet gas exports to Europe during the Reagan era in the early 1980s, according to Jonathan Stern, a senior research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies."They were resisted and ineffective then and I think we can expect the same result today," he said. "This all looks likely to be too late to be very significant since most of these pipelines have already been laid, unless the U.S. attempts retroactive sanctions, which I think could really raise a storm on this side of the Atlantic."The project has split the European Union, with nations including Poland concerned about Russia's Gazprom PJSC, already the region's dominant supplier, boosting its influence in the region when the link is finished. It also raised trade tension with the U.S., with President Donald Trump warning that the project would boost dependence on Russia and Energy Secretary Rick Perry touting "freedom gas" from North America.It's not so much that this year's attempts by the senators will stop the project, but there "might be a bit of disruption," said Wayne Bryan, a trader and analyst at Alfa Energy Ltd. in London. Gas prices for 2020 in the Netherlands are 55% higher than for delivery next month, signaling the market's assessment of heightened supply risk next year.Germany and other backers of Nord Stream 2 say the pipeline is needed to replace coal and nuclear plants being shuttered across Europe in order to help back up intermittent renewable supply and meet climate goals.The legislation creating the sanctions sponsored by Texas Republican Ted Cruz and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen would target vessels that lay the pipeline and sanction executives from companies linked to those vessels. Shaheen said that the only companies that would be affected are Allseas Group SA of Switzerland and Saipem SpA."Saipem does not believe this legislation as drafted applies to Saipem's existing contractual commitments for this project," said Vincenzo Romeo Tramontano, a spokesman for the Milan-based company. "Saipem understands that this legislation is aimed at imposing future sanctions on certain vessels providing construction support" to the pipeline.Allseas, which is laying the twin pipelines, declined to "speculate on potential impacts of proposed sanctions," the company said by email.While the U.S. had few objections to the first, almost identical, Nord Stream link that started operations in 2011, two subsequent events may help explain the current opposition.The first is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a key transit nation for Gazprom's gas that stands to lose billions of dollars if supplies go via Nord Stream 2 instead, which culminated in the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the imposition of sanctions by the U.S. and European Union. The second is the start of U.S. shale gas exports in 2016, which have since boomed to make the nation the third-largest liquefied natural gas exporter.With plunging renewable-energy costs the U.S. may be worried about the future of global gas demand, said Laurent Segalen, a former commodities banker who is now a partner at Megawatt-X in London, advising on financing wind and solar projects."In Asia, U.S. LNG is undercut by the Qataris and the Aussies -- Germany is the prize, and the U.S. LNG industry want to snap it from the Russians," he said. "If Nord Stream 2 goes through, the U.S. LNG exporters can kiss goodbye to hundreds of LNG cargoes to Germany in the coming years."\--With assistance from Daniel Flatley.To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Rob Verdonck, Lars PaulssonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Gaez: Democrats are trying to relitigate Kavanaugh confirmation after failing with Mueller hearing Posted: 07 Aug 2019 04:55 PM PDT  Nadler demands Kavanaugh emails from Bush White House; Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera and Rep. Matt Gaetz react.
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| Trump uses Dayton and El Paso visits to attack critics and boast mass shooting victims showed him ‘love and respect’ Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:59 AM PDT  Donald Trump used his flight time between visiting the cities of two mass shootings to attack his critics and boast on Twitter about how victims had shown him "love, respect & enthusiasm".The US president visited El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday – cities reeling from two massacres which left 31 people dead and dozens more wounded last weekend.Mr Trump was greeted by protesters as he visited the hospitals where victims were treated, who accused him of stoking tensions with his anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric.As he flew between Ohio and Texas on Air Force One, Mr Trump lashed out at Joe Biden, the former vice president, who had given a speech denouncing the president for "fuelling a literal carnage" in the US.Mr Trump tweeted to say the speech was "Sooo Boring!" and warned "The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks" if Mr Biden became the next US president.At least 200 protesters gathered outside Dayton's Miami Valley Hospital, blaming Mr Trump's incendiary rhetoric for inflaming political and racial tensions in the US and demanding action on gun control.Mr Trump also received mixed praise from local Democratic politicians.Democratic senator Sherrod Brown said: "He was comforting. He did the right things and Melania did the right things. It's his job to comfort people." But he went on to say he was "very concerned about a president that divides in his rhetoric and plays to race in his rhetoric"."I think the victims and the first responders were grateful that the president of the United States came to Dayton," added Mayor Nan Whaley. However, she said she was glad Mr Trump had not stopped at the site of the shooting: "A lot of the time his talk can be very divisive, and that's the last thing we need in Dayton."Mr Trump, responding from aboard Air Force One, described his visit as "warm & wonderful" with "tremendous enthusiasm & even love", but went on to criticise the two Democrats for their comments."Then I saw failed Presidential Candidate (0%) Sherrod Brown & Mayor Whaley totally misrepresenting what took place inside of the hospital," he tweeted."Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud. It bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!"Mr Trump also took time out from posting about his visits and his political opponents to deride the media and promote the right-wing One America News Network, tweeting: "Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith, the lowest rated show on @FoxNews. Actually, whenever possible, I turn to @OANN!"The US president then tweeted photos and a video of himself and Melania Trump, the first lady, visiting wounded patients at a hospital in Dayton.He posed with medical staff and law enforcement officials, in which he could be seen giving the "thumbs up" gesture, and tweeted: "The people I met in Dayton are the finest anywhere!"In El Paso, Mr Trump's motorcade passed protesters holding "Racist Go Home" signs.Beto O'Rourke, a potential Democratic 2020 presidential rival and El Paso native who has denounced Mr Trump as a racist instigator, said Mr Trump had "helped create the hatred that made Saturday's tragedy possible" and thus "has no place here".Later, on the flight home from El Paso, Mr Trump sent out a tweet targeting Joaquin Castro, the Democrat brother of presidential hopeful Julian Castro, who had shared a list of 44 names in his district of Texas who had donated the maximum amount to Mr Trump's campaign this year."I don't know who Joaquin Castro is other than the lesser brother of a failed presidential candidate (1%) who makes a fool of himself every time he opens his mouth," he tweeted."Joaquin is not the man that his brother is, but his brother, according to most, is not much. Keep fighting Joaquin!"He sent out a second tweet blasting the media: "The Fake News worked overtime trying to disparage me and the two trips, but it just didn't work."The love, respect & enthusiasm were there for all to see. They have been through so much. Sad!"He followed that with another post attacking his political opponents: "The Dems new weapon is actually their old weapon, one which they never cease to use when they are down, or run out of facts, RACISM! They are truly disgusting!"Mr Trump said he would be "putting out a list of all people who have been so (ridiculously) accused!"Democrats have argued Mr Trump's anti-immigrant and racially charged language at rallies and on Twitter has fanned white nationalist sentiments across the US.The massacre in the predominantly Hispanic city of El Paso is being investigated as a hate crime and act of domestic terrorism, and the FBI has said the Dayton attacker also explored violent ideologies.
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| The US Air Force grounded over 100 workhorse C-130 transport planes after discovering unusual wing cracks Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:21 AM PDT  The Air Force is grounding nearly a third of its C-130 fleet at a time when the service is struggling to keep its planes ready for missions.
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| Airline pilot flies dad's remains home from Vietnam 52 years after seeing him off at same Dallas airport Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:53 PM PDT  When Air Force Maj. Roy Knight, Jr., left Dallas for Vietnam 52 years ago, his 5-year-old son, Bryan, came to Dallas Love field to see him off. On Thursday, Bryan, now a captain for Southwest Airlines, brought back his father's remains aboard a flight to the same Dallas airport.
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| Cambodian rescued after 4 days wedged in mountain rocks Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:58 AM PDT  A man who became wedged between rocks while collecting bat droppings in the Cambodian jungle was rescued after being trapped for almost four days. Bat droppings — guano — are used as fertilizer and sold for supplementary income by poor farmers, who sometimes try to attract bats to their property. About 200 rescue workers carefully extricated the trapped man by destroying bits of the rock that had pinned him in an effort that took about 10 hours, Police Maj. Sareth Visen said.
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