| Strong earthquake kills 2, injures 19 in southern China Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:16 PM PDT ![Strong earthquake kills 2, injures 19 in southern China]( "Strong earthquake kills 2, injures 19 in southern China") A strong earthquake that hit Sichuan province in southern China late Monday night killed two people and injured 19, officials and news reports said. The U.S. Geological Survey warned there could be significant damage. Authorities in China said the earthquake measured magnitude 6.0 and hit about 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the city of Changning.
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| As promised, Trump slashes aid to Central America over migrants Posted: 17 Jun 2019 11:01 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Monday cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, after Trump blasted the three countries because thousands of their citizens had sought asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico. The plan will likely encounter stiff opposition in Congress. Lawmakers, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have chafed against the president's repeated decisions to disregard spending bills passed by Congress, some of which he has signed into law himself.
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| Nearly 50 Jimmy Buffett fans reportedly fall ill in Dominican Republic Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:48 AM PDT  Nearly 50 members of a Jimmy Buffet fan club got sick while vacationing in theDominican Republic in April, KFOR reports
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| Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong leaves jail, vows to join protests Posted: 17 Jun 2019 07:53 AM PDT  Leading Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong walked free from prison Monday and vowed to join historic anti-government protests rocking the finance hub, as activists kept up pressure on the city's embattled pro-Beijing leader. Organisers said some two million people -- more than a quarter of the population -- marched in tropical heat on Sunday calling for the resignation of chief executive Carrie Lam and protesting against a bill that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland. Police commissioner Stephen Lo said late Monday that only "some people" had rioted on that day, appearing to back down from previous comments from Lam, who described the June 12 protest as an "organised riot".
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| Intense Garlic Hack Has Captivated the Internet and People Have Never Been More Pumped to Peel Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:53 AM PDT  This is a life-changing hack for garlic lovers
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| The Latest: Airbus is ready for autonomous planes; are you? Posted: 17 Jun 2019 09:59 AM PDT  The chief salesman for Airbus says his company already has the technology to fly passenger planes without pilots at all — and is working on winning over regulators and travelers to the idea. Christian Scherer also said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that Airbus hopes to be selling hybrid or electric passenger jets by around 2035. While the company is still far from ready to churn out battery-operated jumbo jets, Scherer said Airbus already has "the technology for autonomous flying" and for planes flown by just one pilot.
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| Iran Warns Europe It Will Breach Nuclear Stockpile Cap in 10 Days Posted: 17 Jun 2019 04:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Iran warned European nations on Monday that it would breach in 10 days the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement unless they take action to alleviate the pressure of tightening U.S. sanctions in the coming weeks.The spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the country would exceed a cap on stockpiles of low-grade uranium on June 27 and threatened to raise enrichment purity beyond a 3.67% limit meant to prevent Iran from making weapons-grade material."This is an important test for Europe. It's to their detriment that the U.S. is making decisions for them," he said in a televised address from Arak heavy water plant. "Meetings and summits won't suffice. Once they take actionable measures, we can return to our previous commitments."The announcement raises pressure on European nations who've urged Tehran to stick with a deal even after it was abandoned by the U.S. but have struggled to come up with a vehicle that would allow the Iranians to keep trading. It will also stoke further friction with the U.S., which has accused the Islamic Republic of being behind a spate of attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint. Iran denies any wrongdoing.The U.K. said security officials were meeting on Monday to discuss the situation and the British government would consider renewed sanctions if Iran violates the nuclear deal.Gulf on Edge as Conflicting Accounts of Tanker Attacks Swirl (1)Tensions in the Gulf have spiked since the U.S. stopped granting waivers to buyers of Iranian oil in early May, tightening sanctions slapped on the Islamic Republic after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord a year ago. Trump says he wants to negotiate a new deal that would also restrict Iran's missile programs and support for regional proxies. Iran says it is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.While China, Europe and Russia have stuck with the so-called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an Iranian violation would make it harder for them to stand up to U.S. pressure.After waiting a year for action, Iran threatened on May 8 to gradually withdraw from the accord unless the remaining parties throw it an economic lifeline within 60 days.It said it would no longer comply with a 300-kilogram cap on the storage of enriched uranium and a 130-ton limit on stocks of heavy water after the U.S. revoked key waivers that had allowed the Iranians to send excess heavy water to Oman and ship out surplus enriched uranium in exchange for natural, or yellowcake, uranium.The U.S. move left Iran with a stark choice: submit to pressure and stop all enrichment or abandon some of its obligations under the accord.The country has since accelerated more than four-fold the rate at which it is enriching low-grade uranium and said it could hit its cap on heavy water storage in two-and-a-half months, though there were plenty of domestic uses for the material.Why the World Is Worried About Iran's Nuclear Program: QuickTakeKamalvandi said European parties to the deal still had time to save it but the deadline would not be extended. If Europe gives the Iranians a way to maintain access to international oil and financial markets, Iran has promised to resume complying fully.European nations have been working with Iran on a vehicle that would allow it to trade but progress has been slow and the Trump administration is now considering fresh measures that would effectively block that initiative.What Europe Can, Can't Do to Save Iran Nuclear Deal: QuickTakeMonday's announcement was made on the heels of a visit to Tehran by the EU's Helga Schmid, who heads a joint commission that mediates disputes under the nuclear accord.Developments in the Gulf will be discussed "at length during the day," said the EU's top foreign policy official Federica Mogherini. She convened a meeting of the bloc's 28 foreign and defense ministers on Monday.An Iranian violation will turn up the heat on diplomats and monitors at the International Atomic Energy Agency responsible for monitoring compliance. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano confirmed Iran had raised its rate of production last week and warned the nuclear deal was coming under "increasing tensions."Inspectors are on the ground daily in Iran and any violation will be reported to IAEA members, Amano said. Overstepping stockpile limits could result in an extraordinary meeting of the IAEA's board and the start a process that could lead to the re-imposition of broader United Nations sanctions.(Updates throughout.)To contact the reporters on this story: Golnar Motevalli in Tehran at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net;Arsalan Shahla in Dubai at ashahla@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Alaa ShahineFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Power mostly restored after massive blackout in Argentina, but questions remain Posted: 16 Jun 2019 06:07 AM PDT  Power returned to much of Argentina and two neighboring countries following a massive blackout that left tens of millions in the dark on Sunday, but Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the cause of the "unprecedented" outage was still unclear. Argentina's grid "collapsed" around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT), leaving the entire country without power, Argentina's Energy Secretariat said. The outage also cut electricity to much of neighboring Uruguay and swaths of Paraguay, and shut down YPF SA's La Plata refinery, Argentina's largest.
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| Japan protests Chinese activity near disputed islands Posted: 17 Jun 2019 04:54 AM PDT ![Japan protests Chinese activity near disputed islands]( "Japan protests Chinese activity near disputed islands") Japan has protested what is says was an unauthorized Chinese maritime survey within its economic waters near disputed East China Sea islands, officials said Monday. Japan's Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protest with Beijing after a Chinese maritime research ship was seen dropping a wire-like object into the water off the northwestern coast of Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands on Sunday. China also claims the islands, which it calls Diaoyu.
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| VIDEO: Flight attendant, beverage cart smash into ceiling during violent turbulence Posted: 17 Jun 2019 07:40 AM PDT  Passengers on a flight to France got tossed around in the air over the weekend in a terrifying bout of turbulence captured on video.
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| Pompeo: Fox News host's questioning Trump's FBI comments a ‘Washington piece of silliness’ Posted: 16 Jun 2019 04:30 PM PDT  When Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Pompeo Sunday if "accepting oppo research from a foreign government right or wrong?" the former CIA director responded: "Chris, you know, you asked me not to call any of your questions today ridiculous. "President Trump has been very clear that he will always make sure that he gets it right for the American people and I'm confident he'll do that here as well," Pompeo said. Trump in an interview last week with ABC's George Stephanopoulos said that he would take damaging information — which he referred to as "oppo research" instead of as interference in a U.S. election by foreign governments — and that he would do so without necessarily alerting the FBI.
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| Unruly passenger hits flight attendant, then pukes during Delta flight to Paris Posted: 16 Jun 2019 02:40 PM PDT  A federal complaint says a man struck a flight attendant in the throat and then threw up during a Delta flight to Paris.
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| Mexico's crackdown on migrants sends some heading south Posted: 17 Jun 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Mexico's efforts to slow Central American migration across its territory showed some bite Monday as some people turned around to head south in the face of increased enforcement, while government officials said they would target human smuggling rings. One government official announced Monday that the 6,000 National Guard members who officials had repeatedly said would be sent to the southern border will actually be distributed across the northern border and other areas as well, while another suggested measures were showing results. A senior Mexican official, who requested anonymity to discuss negotiations with the U.S., said that three weeks ago about 4,200 migrants were arriving at the U.S. border daily and that now that number has dropped to about 2,600 per day.
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| Gun Fact: The Glock 18 Fires 1,200 Bullets Per Minute Posted: 16 Jun 2019 08:00 AM PDT  The Glock 18 accepts typical Glock magazines, from ten to seventeen rounds, but a handgun with a rate of fire of 1,200 rounds a minute can empty a standard pistol magazine in a blink of an eye. In order to help feed the Glock 18's voracious appetite the company released thirty-three round magazines. These longer magazines extend far past the magazine well, making the gun difficult to conceal but double available firepower.In December 2003, soldiers of the U.S. Special Operations Command captured the Ace of Spades himself, Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi president, on the run since the capture of Baghdad, had appeared in a deck of playing cards with the profiles of other fugitive war criminals and naturally was the top card. Hussein, bedraggled and bereft, was armed with one of the rarest of handguns: the Glock 18, the full auto Glock.(This first appeared several months ago.)In February 1980 the Austrian Army issued a requirement for a new handgun. Gaston Glock, a knifemaker who made knives and bayonets for the army, decided to try his hand at the gun manufacturing business. After buying and trying many types of existing handguns, consulting with firearm specialists to see what they would like in a handgun, and a presumably a great deal of trial and error, Glock's first pistol, the Glock 17, won the army contract for twenty thousand pistols.
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| See Photos of the Porsche 718 Spyder Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:00 PM PDT |
| 600 people on Monsanto 'watch lists' in Germany, France: Bayer Posted: 17 Jun 2019 06:12 AM PDT  US seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto kept lists of around 600 key pro- and anti-pesticides figures in Germany and France alone, its German parent company Bayer said Monday amid a widening probe. Bayer has admitted the lists covered politicians, journalists and others across seven European countries and in Brussels. "Update on Monsanto stakeholder lists: until the end of last week, the firm hired by Bayer contacted all the people on the German and French lists," Bayer's press department tweeted.
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| AOC's New York office building broken into by man who sprayed police with fire extinguisher Posted: 16 Jun 2019 09:29 AM PDT  A man in New York City broke into an office building where representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has offices, before spraying police with a fire extinguisher and hiding in a utility closet.The trespassing occurred on Saturday afternoon, when the office was closed and the liberal firebrand was in Washington.The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the individual was taken to a nearby hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Officials also said the man was emotionally disturbed."No one broke into her office. I don't know where everyone's getting that," sergeant Brendan Ryan of the NYPD told The Independent, contradicting reports that the individual had breached the actual office space of Ms Ocasio-Cortez.Mr Ryan confirmed that the incident took place at an address associated with Ms Ocasio-Cortez's political operations, but noted that the building was large and that police stopped the 27-year-old suspect before he could enter any office. The suspect, identified as Douala Hashi, provided officers with an address in Washington, DC, during his booking."No burglary, or no breaking and entering into her office or any office," Mr Ryan said He had a dispute with the security guard when he first got there where he grabbed the security guard by the collar and threatened harm getting into the building."Mr Hashi has been charged with menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal trespassing. Ms Ocasio-Cortez's staff has been made aware of the incident, according to Mr Ryan.Ms Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most prominent politicians in Washington since her surprise primary victory last year during the 2018 midterm elections, and represents a surging progressive arm of the Democratic Party.In the process, the 29-year-old has been on the receiving end of death threats since taking office, leading Capitol Police, for instance, to provide threat assessment training for her staff.
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| Travel influencers detail 'dangerous' Dominican Republic experience, respond to backlash Posted: 17 Jun 2019 04:28 AM PDT  Great Escape bloggers Cora and Jay Smith say they are speaking out again about her 2018 sexual assault in the Dominican Republic to warn others.
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| Boeing's embattled chief faces tough crowd at Paris Air Show Posted: 16 Jun 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg will have his work cut out for him at the Paris Air Show this week as he tries to reassure airlines and industry partners over the fate of its flagship 737 MAX plane, indefinitely grounded after two fatal crashes.
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| The Scary Way a Stealth Fighter Could Be Shot Down Posted: 15 Jun 2019 06:00 PM PDT  There is a famous series of videos showing experimentation with "selective attention." Selective attention suggests we focus on certain elements in our environment while other elements disappear into the background. This is the case with the stealth bomber; it disappears into the background of other, higher levels of electronic stimulus. Simply put, the phenomenon of selective attention demonstrates the power of a stealth bomber to delay detection in the current strategic environment.The entire kill chain for bringing down an invading aircraft is not as easy as the horrific shoot down of flight MH-17 might suggest.Seventy years ago today, Col. Paul Tibbets flew the Enola Gay on a mission that would change the course of world history and set the stage for the development of nuclear deterrence. The mission itself was straightforward, but the enormous scientific and industrial activity leading up to it was not. The atomic weapon, "Little Boy," involved a massive industrial effort that is only slightly less difficult today. The development of the B-29 bomber that delivered the bomb was no simple matter either. It required an aircraft that flew higher and faster than any other aircraft could at the time.(This article originally appeared in 2015.)
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| Explosion levels NJ home, no serious injuries Posted: 17 Jun 2019 12:27 PM PDT  A home in northern New Jersey was leveled by an explosion Monday, but the lone person inside the residence escaped serious injury when they were pulled from the burning rubble by an off-duty police officer who lives nearby. (June 17)
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| UPDATE 1-U.S. pedestrian, bicyclist deaths rise in 2018 -report Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:02 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.S. pedestrian, bicyclist deaths rise in 2018 -report]( "UPDATE 1-U.S. pedestrian, bicyclist deaths rise in 2018 -report") U.S. pedestrian and bicyclist deaths rose in 2018 while overall traffic deaths fell 1% in 2018 to 36,750, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a preliminary report Monday. The auto safety agency said it did not know the cause of the overall decline but has said a dramatic increase in traffic deaths in 2016 was the result of more people killed on foot, bicycle or motorcycle. In 2018, the agency said pedestrian deaths were projected please to rise 4 percent and bicyclist deaths by 10 percent.
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| Trump's Mexico tariff threat shows Congress must reclaim trade powers and much more Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:48 AM PDT  From trade to energy to health care to transportation, Trump is exercising legislative powers past Congresses gave presidents. Time to take them back.
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| US releases photos to bolster claim Iran attacked tankers Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:01 PM PDT  In an effort to bolster its public case against Iran, the Pentagon on Monday released new photos that officials said show that members of Tehran's Revolutionary Guard were responsible for attacks last week on two oil tankers near the Persian Gulf. The images, many taken from a Navy helicopter, show what the Pentagon said were Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine from the side of the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The release of the photos came as the U.S. works this week to convince members of Congress and allies that the accusations against Tehran are true.
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| Since When Are Liberals against Investigating the CIA and FBI? Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Was there ever a time when Americans had unquestioning faith in federal law-enforcement agencies? Maybe in the days before Vietnam and Watergate, most citizens did believe that those in charge of the nation's fate could be trusted. Before World War II, the FBI's formidable public-relations machine actually produced a popular radio and television program lauding its efforts "in peace and war." After the war, when the CIA became the country's first full-time foreign-intelligence agency, few Americans understood much about what it was doing, and what little they did know was colored by the government's propaganda efforts.But ever since the upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s seemed to make cynicism about government our new national pastime, the notion that the intelligence community is above politics has been as outdated as the adulation once accorded to J. Edgar Hoover. It's in that context that we should understand the recent debate about whether it's appropriate to scrutinize the CIA and FBI's role in the origins of the Russia probe. Though Democrats are now treating criticism of federal law enforcement as beyond the pale, their newfound faith is every bit as partisan as Republicans' newfound skepticism. A sober look at the history of the past few decades reveals that, to paraphrase Clausewitz, in Washington, intelligence has always been a matter of politics by other means.Attorney General William Barr's decision to launch an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation has caused some predicable anger among Democrats and other Trump-administration critics. This discomfort stems from what they regard as an attempt to flip the narrative from Trump's alleged collusion with Russia to a dubious decision by the FBI to begin spying on the political opponents of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.Given the failure of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to prove the collusion allegations, Barr's attempt to determine whether the unprecedented probe of a presidential campaign was an abuse of power seems reasonable. But Barr's decision is a huge problem for Democrats who are hoping to pursue the impeachment of Trump by picking up the case that Mueller failed to make after two years of effort.So we saw CNN crime-and-justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz this week telling host Don Lemon that it is "troubling" that the Department of Justice is questioning the work of CIA agents. "You don't do this," Prokupecz said. "The CIA kind of operates in their own world." Indeed the CIA does, but that never stopped Democrats or the press from going all out to probe its activities as long as said activities were perceived to further their opponents' political agenda.Prokupecz and the House Democrats who are rushing to the barricades to defend the actions of former CIA director John Brennan at the beginning of the Mueller probe are acting as if the agency's reputation has never before been called into question. Some of them may be too young to have experienced the political ferment of the 1970s and'80s, in which congressional committees led by Democrats such as Frank Church and Otis Pike conducted far-reaching investigations that embarrassed the intelligence establishment. But surely they have some memory of the debates about intelligence after the 9/11 attacks and the heated run-up to George W. Bush's Iraq War. The only difference between those episodes and this one is that the political parties have switched sides.In the past, it was Republicans defending the FBI and the CIA against Democrats' charges that these agencies were out of control. But since the summer of 2016, when the intelligence establishment seemed to join forces to raise alarms about Russian meddling in the presidential election and, more important, to raise concerns about untrue allegations of Trump-campaign collusion in that meddling, Democrats have acted as if Langley and Quantico are beyond reproach.Once Trump started criticizing the intelligence agencies' consensus about Russians' election interference, and then after it became known that the FBI and CIA had begun probing his campaign in the summer of 2016, Democrats became unstinting in their defense of the agencies. By contrast, Republicans who had been stalwart CIA and FBI defenders suddenly became bitter critics, demanding transparency and sometimes floating the same sort of conspiracy theories about the intelligence community's activities that used to be the province of the Left.Sensible people of either party will always seek to mix deference to the intelligence community's mission, which often requires a fair degree of secrecy, with an understanding that all government officials and agencies must be kept on a tight leash lest they abuse the awesome power vested in them.To those who have followed past controversies involving the FBI and CIA, it should seem entirely plausible that some federal law-enforcement agents could let their distaste for Trump get the better of them. That Democrats no longer care and Republicans suddenly do testifies to the fact that in Washington, most things always boil down to politics.
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| Vatican formally opens debate on married priests in Amazon Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:38 AM PDT  The Vatican formally opened debate Monday on letting married men be ordained as priests in remote parts of the Amazon where priests are so few that Catholics can go weeks or months without attending a Mass. The call for study on the proposal was contained in the working document, released Monday, for an October meeting of South American bishops on the Amazon. The document, prepared by the Vatican based on input from the region, affirmed that celibacy is a gift for the Catholic Church.
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| Saudi Arabia committed to Aramco IPO: crown prince Posted: 16 Jun 2019 12:53 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia remains committed to selling shares in national oil conglomerate Aramco through an initial public offering but only at the right time, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said. "We are committed to the IPO of Saudi Aramco based on appropriate conditions and at the right time," Prince Mohammed told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published on Sunday. Saudi Arabia plans to sell up to five percent of the world's largest energy firm and hopes to raise up to $100 billion.
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| Meet the Army's 'New' M1 Abrams Tank: The Best on the Planet? Posted: 16 Jun 2019 02:10 AM PDT  The U.S. Army is on an intensive quest for an array of new technologies with which to design and build new armored fighting vehicles, particularly a replacement for the long-serving Bradley. However much it might yearn for a new tank, the Army lacks the critical technologies that would justify the time and expense pursuing such an objective. Moreover, it doesn't need to make the effort. The Army's current main battle tank, the Abrams, is the tank of the future.The Army is just beginning to receive the first of the latest Abrams upgrade, the System Enhancement Package Version 3 (SEPv3), with additional upgrades in development. Instead of searching for the elusive Holy Grail of ultralight armor or laser weapons, technologies that would justify building a brand new tank, the Army would be best served by aggressively pursuing a major redesign and improvement program for the Abrams, an M1A3.The leadership of the U.S. Army is taken with the idea of transforming how and with what the Army fights. They particularly want new armored fighting vehicles. And not just another family of metal boxes with a turret and cannon. Technology enthusiasts, including many in the Army's new Futures Command, wax eloquently about the potential for hover tanks that shoot laser beams and are autonomously guided by artificial intelligence housed in quantum computers.
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| Drunk woman drives Power Wheels toy truck down road, South Carolina police say Posted: 17 Jun 2019 06:27 AM PDT  A South Carolina woman who police say was driving drunk will not be cited with a DUI because her vehicle of choice was a toy truck.
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| New blow to Boeing from engine delay, Airbus long-range rival takes off Posted: 16 Jun 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Boeing suffered a fresh setback at the opening of the Paris Airshow on Monday as the U.S. planemaker's engine supplier revealed a delay affecting its all-new 777X jet, while Airbus targeted the middle of the market with a rival plane. GE Aviation said it had found unexpected wear in a component for the GE9X engine it is making for Boeing's 777X, the world's largest twin-engined jet, forcing a delay of several months while it redesigns and tests the part. The aerospace industry's biggest annual event, which alternates with Britain's Farnborough Airshow, is traditionally a slugging match between Airbus and Boeing in the $150 billion a year commercial aircraft market.
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| Trump news: President 'fires pollsters' over results as Fox News survey has him trailing every single major Democratic candidate Posted: 17 Jun 2019 06:45 AM PDT  Donald Trump's re-election team have cut ties with several pollsters after survey results were leaked to the press indicating the president would lose to his Democratic rivals in four key battleground states in 2020.Those leaks have been accompanied by some more worrisome news for the incumbent: a new poll from Fox News finds him 10-points behind Joe Biden, nine behind Bernie Sanders and also forecast to lose in hypothetical match ups with Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.Mr Trump spent his weekend attacking the "Corrupt News Media" on Twitter, and accusing The New York Times of "a virtual act of treason". Meanwhile, he was honoured by Israel, which renamed a settlement in the Golan Heights in his honour.As those troubling 2020 stats have trained eyes in Washington, the US State Department announced that it would no longer provide aid to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatamala until those countries take "concrete actions" to deter migrants from making their way north to the US.And, comedian Jon Stewart has continued his fight to get funding for 9/11 victims to pass Congress, with his most recent spat coming with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
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| New leak may confirm Samsung’s massive Galaxy Note 10 redesign Posted: 17 Jun 2019 05:17 AM PDT  It's still far too early to say for certain whether the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, and Galaxy S10+ have truly been a success for Samsung. The second quarter of 2019 will be the first full quarter of sales for the company's new flagship phones series, so we should find out sometime next month whether the Galaxy S10 series gave Samsung's mobile division the boost it so sorely needed after last year's Galaxy S9 series was a flop. What we can say for certain, however, is that the Galaxy S10 series is a massive step in the right direction for Samsung. While last year's Galaxy S and Galaxy Note flagship phones were uninspired and boring, this year's Galaxy S10 phones finally feature the elegant redesign and all-screen display that Samsung fans have been craving.Thankfully, there's more good news on the way for Samsung fans, and it's much-needed considering the current Galaxy Fold disaster (though we totally warned you more than a year before it was announced that the Galaxy Fold would end up being a piece of junk). It turns out that the upcoming new Galaxy Note 10 is getting the same type of massive redesign that the Galaxy S10 got earlier this year, and now a new series of leaks may confirm Samsung's new design... or should we say, "designs."That's right, Samsung fans: for the first time ever, it appears as though Samsung will release not one but two different Galaxy Note phones. Just as Samsung followed Apple's lead with the Galaxy S10 series and added a (slightly) less expensive entry-level model, the Note 10 will seemingly have an entry-level model as well. This time around, the "Galaxy Note 10" will have slightly less impressive specs and a slightly lower price point, while the "Galaxy Note 10 Pro" will be the ultra high-end model with upgraded features and a price tag that's sure to make you cringe. An earlier report suggested that the Note 10 Pro model could start as high as $1,200 for the lowest amount of built-in storage.We've seen digital renders of both the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Pro already, and they came from Twitter user @OnLeaks, a source who regularly posts accurate renders of unreleased smartphones since the drawings are based on actual design files taken from the factory where these phones are manufactured. Here's a quick refresher that was posted last week:If previous leaks haven't been enough to convince you that this is what the upcoming Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Pro will look like, we now have another set of leaks that further confirm the designs. A Twitter user named Sudhanshu Ambhore has posted photos of smartphone cases in the past that turned out to accurately depict the designs of unreleased smartphones. Now, he's back with two more cases.First, we have a case designed for the Galaxy Note 10, pictured first on its own and then a second time with a render of the Note 10 behind it.https://twitter.com/Sudhanshu1414/status/1139943092251795456Then, in a separate post on Twitter, we can see a Galaxy Note 10 Pro case from four different angles.https://twitter.com/Sudhanshu1414/status/1139942454122041345Samsung isn't expected to announce the Galaxy Note 10 or the Galaxy Note 10 Pro until sometime in early August, but don't expect the new design to be much of a surprise when the new phones are finally unveiled.
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| As Battle for Tripoli Rages, Libyan Premier Demands New Dialogue Posted: 16 Jun 2019 11:11 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Libya's internationally recognized premier called for a national conference to end a war that threatens to rip apart the North African oil producer, but stressed he wouldn't back down in the face of an offensive by eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar.Fayez Al-Sarraj, in a press briefing Sunday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, proposed the conference be held with the help of the United Nations and that it decide on a road map for elections to take place in 2019.Sarraj's overture came after the UN's Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, said Security Council members that include the U.S., Russia and France now agree that the violence that's killed more than 600 people and displaced tens of thousands since April must stop.But the prime minister's suggestion fell short of outlining cease-fire lines or a way to include Haftar in negotiations -- something the strongman's backers say is necessary.Sarraj proposed that the meeting include "all Libyan parties and members from every area who call for a peaceful solution," as Haftar's forces struggle to advance beyond Tripoli's outskirts.The effort marks the latest bid by the embattled premier, whose government is backed by the international community, to end the ongoing crisis in the OPEC member country. Haftar's Libyan National Army launched its offensive after securing the country's east and south.Proxy WarHaftar, who heads the country's most organized militia and describes his fight against armed groups in western Libya as a battle against terrorism, has received backing from Egypt and United Arab Emirates. Sarraj is getting support from Turkey and Qatar, creating a form of proxy war between Middle Eastern rivals. President Donald Trump had also signaled support for the strongman in a phone call, U.S. officials said.Sarraj stressed anew that there was no military solution to the current crisis and that only a political road map would bring stability. But he pledged to continue fighting against Haftar's forces and demanded a probe into what he said could be war crimes committed by them.The Tripoli government has insisted that Haftar withdraw before a cease-fire, something that he's unlikely to accept. Abdullah Thinni, the prime minister of a Haftar-aligned government in the east, told Sky News the proposal was a "failed attempt in light of the LNA's advances towards Tripoli."Haftar's backers in the U.A.E and Egypt have continued to support him, although they don't believe he can take Tripoli, an official with knowledge of their stance told Bloomberg.On Sunday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met the U.A.E's foreign minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They repeated their support for the LNA's self-proclaimed fight against terrorism, but also urged a return to stability so Libya can hold elections, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tarek El-Tablawy at teltablawy@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Day after a nationwide register outage, Target's tech troubles continue on a smaller scale Posted: 16 Jun 2019 04:19 PM PDT ![Day after a nationwide register outage, Target's tech troubles continue on a smaller scale]( "Day after a nationwide register outage, Target's tech troubles continue on a smaller scale") The great Target outage of 2019 continued on a smaller scale Sunday with shoppers reporting some stores were unable to process credit card purchases.
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| Instant Pot Owners: Here Are 40+ Recipes To Make In Your New Baby Posted: 17 Jun 2019 10:51 AM PDT |
| Saudi crown prince accuses rival Iran of tanker attacks Posted: 16 Jun 2019 09:08 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in remarks published Sunday that the kingdom will not hesitate to confront Iranian threats to its security. Tensions in the Persian Gulf have escalated since the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets to the region in what it says is defensive posturing against alleged Iranian threats. The crisis takes root in the Trump Administration's decision to re-impose punishing economic sanctions on Tehran and its oil exports, after unilaterally withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
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| Whoops — The U.S. Army Owns Potentially Hundreds of Thousands of Faulty Guns Posted: 17 Jun 2019 03:55 AM PDT  It's an inescapable reality that in big institutions, people will sometimes overlook memos and misplace equipment.But that's cold comfort to the U.S. Army, which is struggling to select a new handgun while also dealing with the fallout from its last, controversial pistol choice.That's right — overlooked memos and misplaced equipment.This first appeared in 2016.In August 2015, the ground combat branch inspected its Beretta M-9 pistols to make sure the guns had key safety fixes. The Army was supposed to have finished upgrading all the guns … more than two decades ago."During a training exercise, a soldier was injured when a slide failure resulted in the rear portion of the slide separating from the receiver and struck him in the face," an official warning explained."'WARNING': DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY TO SOLDIERS, OR DAMAGE TO ARMY EQUIPMENT WILL OCCUR IF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS MESSAGE ARE NOT FOLLOWED."
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| Lockheed Martin announces $142M expansion of Arkansas plant Posted: 17 Jun 2019 01:40 PM PDT ![Lockheed Martin announces $142M expansion of Arkansas plant]( "Lockheed Martin announces $142M expansion of Arkansas plant") Lockheed Martin said Monday that will spend $142 million and hire 326 new workers over the next few years as it expands its southern Arkansas facility. The Maryland-based company announced the expansion of its plant in Camden, about 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock. The facility currently employs about 700 workers.
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