| Pakistan PM says he'll work with US on Afghanistan accord Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:24 PM PDT  After years of tension between Washington and Islamabad, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan insisted Tuesday the two are now on the same page and said he will do his best to persuade the Taliban to open negotiations with the Afghan government to resolve the war. The U.S. has been engaging with the Taliban, but so far they have refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which it sees as a puppet. Afghans are wary of Pakistan's involvement in crafting a future for their country, but Khan said the Taliban need to participate in the next Afghan presidential election in September.
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| UPDATE 1-Iran observes all U.S. ships in Gulf region: Iran navy chief Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:26 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Iran observes all U.S. ships in Gulf region: Iran navy chief]( "UPDATE 1-Iran observes all U.S. ships in Gulf region: Iran navy chief") Iran observes all U.S. ships in the Gulf region and has an archive of images of their daily movements, the head of Iran's navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said on Tuesday, according to the Young Journalists Club news site. Iran and the United States came to the brink of war last month after the Islamic Republic shot down a U.S. drone, nearly prompting a retaliatory attack which U.S. President Donald Trump called off at the last minute.
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| Sorry, Al Franken: 7 senators regret pushing Franken to resign, as new reporting casts doubt on key allegation Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:09 AM PDT  Seven of former Sen. Al Franken's Democratic colleagues now say they regret calling on him to resign in 2017 before a full investigation was completed.
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| India launches 'historic' flight bound for the moon Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:32 PM PDT  Days after the U.S. celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first human steps on the moon, India launched an unmanned flight bound for the far side.
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| Chris Kraft's Greatest NASA Accomplishments Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:08 PM PDT |
| World Leaders React to Boris Johnson Becoming the UK's New Prime Minister Posted: 23 Jul 2019 10:26 AM PDT  Boris Johnson will succeed Theresa May as the UK's prime minister after he defeating Jeremy Hunt in a Conservative Party leadership race. World leaders have been showing their support on Twitter.
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| Australian clubbers busted in Bali over cocaine Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:44 PM PDT  Two Australian clubbers arrested in Bali for cocaine possession were paraded in front of local media Tuesday as they faced a possible 12-year jail term, police said. William Cabantog, 36, and David Van Iersel, 38, were nabbed Friday night at a nightclub in Canggu, a popular tourist hotspot on the Indonesian holiday island. Police said they found a bag with 1.1 grams of cocaine in Cabantog's trousers during the raid.
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| Trump says he can name 20 more Dems who are like the 'squad' Posted: 23 Jul 2019 01:36 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said Tuesday he can name at least 20 Democrats who, in his opinion, are worse than the "squad" of four Democratic female lawmakers he's been feuding with over their sharp critiques of his administration. Trump brought up his purported list during a wide-ranging address at a conference for conservative teens during which he sharpened his criticism of Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Trump is trying to turn the group into the face of the Democratic Party heading into the 2020 presidential election, using their views and policy positions to paint the party as extreme and its leaders as wrong for the future of the country.
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| House Democrats unveil more 'realistic' climate change plan Posted: 23 Jul 2019 03:52 PM PDT  A group of U.S. House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a climate change plan they said featured a "more realistic" goal to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 rather than by 2030 as envisioned under the Green New Deal introduced early this year. Solar and wind companies have criticized the Green New Deal, introduced by Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey in February, as unrealistic and politically divisive. Representatives Frank Pallone, Paul Tonko, Bobby Rush and others said on Tuesday they would draw up legislation late this year that aimed to avoid the worst effects of climate change including intense droughts, storms and floods.
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| Why No Enemy Would Dare Sink a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:58 PM PDT  Circumstances obviously matter for an attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier. An out-of-the-blue attack from a conventionally armed state actor would enjoy the highest levels of success, but would also have an impact on elite and public opinion in the United States that might drive calls for dire retribution. Since the 1950s, the supercarrier has been the most visible representation of U.S. military power and maritime hegemony. Although supercarriers have participated in nearly every military conflict since the commissioning of USS Forrestal in 1955, no carrier has come under determined attack from a capable opponent. In part, this is because supercarriers are very difficult to attack, but the symbolic grandeur of the massive ships also plays a role; no one wants to know what the United States might do if one of its carriers came under attack.(This first appeared several months ago.)What would happen if a foe attacked a United States Navy (USN) aircraft carrier during a conflict? How would the United States react, and how would it respond?Circumstances:
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| Venezuela Says Widespread Power Outage Caused by Electromagnetic Attack Posted: 23 Jul 2019 05:31 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The lights are returning for millions in Venezuela after a major power failure knocked out electricity to about two-thirds of the country on Monday afternoon.The incident, which the government said was caused by an "attack," was reminiscent of another failure in March which dragged on for as long as 10 days in some areas and prompted Nicolas Maduro's administration to begin power rationing outside of the capital city Caracas to normalize the grid.Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that school and work activities would be suspended on Tuesday in order to keep power demand lower and state-run electricity company Corpoelec said that service had been restored to all of Caracas, with work still to be done in other states nationwide.Maduro and his government have insisted that the country's electrical problems are a product of sabotage and sophisticated attacks by the U.S. and local opposition who are seeking to remove him, while industry experts and critics point to a lack of investment and maintenance.Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has claimed to be the legitimate leader of Venezuela and is recognized as such by more than 50 countries following Maduro's dubious re-election in 2018, said he'll take to the streets on Tuesday to rally people against the government."They tried to hide the tragedy with rationing across the country but their failure is evident," he wrote in a post on Twitter. "They destroyed the electric system and they don't have any response."Power failures in March cut into Venezuela's already flagging oil production, with output falling to zero in some areas for several days. Electricity was cut off at joint venture crude operations involving Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Chevron and Rosneft on Monday afternoon in the east of the country, according to two people with knowledge of the situation who aren't authorized to speak publicly on the issue. PDVSA, as the state producer is known, didn't reply to a request for comment.Since the crippling blackout in March, the government has been rationing electricity in more than 20 states, excluding Caracas from the restriction to avoid spurring protests. Still, for many the only assurance is trying to buy a generator in preparation for the next failure.On Monday, crowds of Venezuelans packed the Caracas sidewalks as shops and restaurants closed. Many trekked home after the buses provided by the city's transit system filled up and with the subway system closed. Amid Internet disruptions, drivers parked along the city's highways seeking a signal from cell phone tower."The only thing that matters to me is getting home as soon as possible to avoid getting robbed," said Julio Penalver, a 52-year-old handyman as he walked home to Petare, the large area of slums in eastern Caracas.To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Vasquez in Caracas Office at avasquez45@bloomberg.net;Fabiola Zerpa in Caracas Office at fzerpa@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Patricia Laya at playa2@bloomberg.net, Jose Orozco, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 7 striking photos show how massive the Puerto Rico protests really are Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:25 AM PDT  Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has been deep in controversy over leaked text messages containing misogynistic and homophobic language.
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| 2021 Cadillac Escalade's Interior Spied for Real Posted: 23 Jul 2019 01:46 PM PDT  The next-gen SUV will be getting a large curved touchscreen atop the dashboard.
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| Fox News Host Calls for ‘9/11-Style Commission’ to Investigate How AOC Was Elected to Congress Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:58 AM PDT  Reacting to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) call for a "9/11-style commission" to be convened to investigate the Trump administration's child separation policy at the border, Fox News host Pete Hegseth said on Monday that there should instead be an investigation to see how the progressive lawmaker was elected to Congress in the first place.During a town hall in her district on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez called for a lengthy study into the president's zero-tolerance immigration policy, adding that it's what's "required in order to reunify as many children with their parents as possible"On Monday's broadcast of Fox News' early-afternoon chatfest Outnumbered, the panel discussed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's recent visit to border detention centers, noting Schumer and other Democrats called the conditions at the camps "inhumane." Fox News host Melissa Francis then contrasted this with President Trump's weekend tweets about Schumer's visit in which he said Schumer "must have seen how dangerous & bad" the border crisis is now."What's ironic now is both sides are saying the exact same thing which is, it's a mess of the border," she added.Hegseth, serving as the female-centric program's lone male guest host, agreed that the border is a mess and that it's of Congress' making before immediately pivoting to AOC. (Fox News has devoted three times more coverage to the freshman congresswoman this year than the other cable news networks.)"We shouldn't take anything she says seriously," Hegseth said of Ocasio-Cortez while labeling her the "de facto" speaker of the House."You talk about what's happening at the border—she compares it to 9/11," he continued. "She talks about concentration camps where 6 million Jews were killed. And then when she talks about the Green New Deal, she likens it to the challenges of World War II where 70 to 85 million people were killed."He then essentially called the Boston University graduate too stupid to be in the House of Representatives."You know what we need a 9/11-style commission on?" Hegseth asked his colleagues. "How in the heck does someone like her get elected to Congress?! What's happening in our public schools or other schools? What is she learning that gives her a platform to feel like these comparisons should be taken seriously at all?"Later in the segment, after the other hosts debated whether or not a study into the policy was worth Congress' time, Hegseth, who serves as an informal adviser to Trump, took a final shot at AOC."She also doesn't want a commission, she wants to demagogue," he exclaimed.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| When ICE Tried to Arrest an Undocumented Man in Tennessee, Neighbors and a Network of Volunteers Formed a Human Chain to Protect Him Posted: 23 Jul 2019 02:42 PM PDT  The man was with his 12-year-old son
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| Drug kingpin 'El Chapo' appeals life sentence Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:04 PM PDT  Fallen Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, once one of the world's most powerful and notorious criminals, has appealed his life sentence, court documents published on Monday showed. Guzman, the 62-year-old former co-leader of Mexico's feared Sinaloa drug cartel, was convicted in February of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States. A symbolic 30 years was also added to the sentence and he was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture -- a sum based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel's sales in the United States.
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| FBI Director: White-Supremacist Violence Accounts for Majority of Domestic-Terrorism Arrests Since Last October Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:47 AM PDT  FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress on Tuesday that the majority of domestic-terrorism arrests since last October have been linked to white supremacy."I will say that a majority of the domestic-terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white-supremacist violence, but it does include other things as well," the FBI chief said in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.Wray explained that since October, the FBI has arrested about 100 people on international-terrorism charges and about the same number of individuals on charges related to domestic extremism.The FBI director emphasized that his investigators' "focus is on the violence.""We the FBI don't investigate the ideology, no matter how repugnant. We investigate violence. And any extremist ideology, when it turns to violence, we're all over it," Wray said. "We take domestic terrorism or hate crime – regardless of ideology – extremely seriously, I can assure you, and we are aggressively pursuing it using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners."President Trump has repeatedly come under fire for using rhetoric that his opponents say encourages violent, racist tendencies. Critics have warned that violence resulting from white-supremacist ideologies has been on the rise since Trump took office."I don't, really," Trump said in March when asked if he thinks white nationalism is a growing threat. "I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems."The highest-profile act of violence perpetrated by a white supremacist over the last few years occurred at a 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where one of the male rally-goers murdered one counter-protesters and injured dozens of others by mowing them down with his car. The man has received several life sentences for his crimes.
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| After 110 years, a North Dakota bridge yields to a load of beans Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:56 AM PDT ![After 110 years, a North Dakota bridge yields to a load of beans]( "After 110 years, a North Dakota bridge yields to a load of beans") The 56-foot wooden bridge over the Goose River collapsed on Monday as the driver of a tractor trailer truck tried to haul a load of dried beans over it, the Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. While the cab of the 2005 Peterbilt truck made it to the other side, pictures posted online by the sheriff's office showed the trailer "hung up" on the west side of the now V-shaped bridge that had bottomed out in the shallow river about 30 miles southwest of Grand Forks.
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| South Bend police warn of 'mass exodus' under Mayor Pete Buttigieg Posted: 23 Jul 2019 05:00 AM PDT  The South Bend Fraternal Order of Police says morale has tanked over the 2020 hopeful's handling of an officer-involved shooting.
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| Hong Kong arrests men with gang links over mob attack Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:09 AM PDT  Hong Kong police say they've arrested six men, some with links to triad gangs, following a violent attack on pro-democracy protesters at a subway station over the weekend that saw dozens injured. Senior police official Chan Tin-chu said the men, aged 24-54, were held for "unlawful assembly" and are being investigated for taking part in the attack late Sunday night. Police are still investigating the motive for the attack, Chan said, without providing further details on the alleged links to the triads, which refer to powerful organized crime syndicates in Hong Kong.
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| A boy stole two planes for a joyride. Pilots now want to teach him how to fly Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:26 PM PDT  The boy trespassed a small airport in Huzhou, a city in eastern China, piloting and crashing a seaplane onto a guard rail and driving another one.
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| View 2019 Toyota Yaris XLE Photos Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| This Dem Slow-Walked Getting Trump’s Taxes—Now He’s Getting Primaried Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via GettyThe latest 2020 primary challenger has emerged in Massachusetts. Alex Morse, the 30-year-old mayor of Holyoke, announced Monday that he is challenging Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), a 30-year-incumbent representing Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District, citing a lack of urgency from the established member and his acceptance of corporate PAC money. "There's an urgency to this moment in Massachusetts' First District and our country, and that urgency is not matched by our current representative in Congress," Morse said in a statement. "The fact is, the Congressman has been largely silent on the issues that matter most. He's been absent, unaccountable, and unavailable. It's not just that we need new leadership in Washington. We need new leadership that understands that we can no longer settle for small, incremental, and compromising progress. We need to be on offense. We need to be fighting for something, not just against." In his campaign launch video, Morse, Holyoke's youngest and first openly gay mayor, discusses the city's revitalization under his leadership, his parents' struggles with poverty, and his pledge to take no corporate PAC money. Since his election in 2011, at the age of 22, Morse has implemented a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic, become the first mayor in the state to endorse legalizing marijuana, and declared Holyoke a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. Neal, 70, who first assumed office in 1989, has long seemed ripe for a primary challenge. Progressives have pointed to his reticence to call for impeachment hearings, his prior support for the Hyde Amendment, and his relationship with lobbyists and special interests as reasons for his potential vulnerability. Neal also reportedly discouraged the use of the phrase "Medicare for All" for a recent hearing on Medicare for All legislation. Upon becoming chair of the House Ways and Means committee, Neal was faced with immense pressure to immediately subpoena President Trump's tax returns, which included a campaign from billionaire and liberal activist Tom Steyer, who is now running for president. (Morse reportedly had lunch with Steyer earlier this year.) Neal did so in May, and in early July, the committee filed a lawsuit to enforce the subpoena. But the fact that it took months for any kind of action to occur has irked progressives. Recently, a bill passed in New York state with the intended purpose of allowing Neal to request state income tax returns, opening up another potential avenue for the chairman. However, he reportedly expressed concern that doing so could undermine the aforementioned suit. Neal is just the latest established, center-leaning Democrat to face a challenge from a younger, more progressive candidate. Already in 2020, Justice Democrats, the insurgent group that backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), has fielded two challengers: one in Texas and another in New York. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is also staring down multiple primary challengers, as the left has looked to replicate Ocasio-Cortez's success in other districts in New York. And in Illinois, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), a conservative anti-abortion Democrat who narrowly escaped a primary challenge in the last cycle, is facing the same candidate again in Marie Newman. Just last year, Massachusetts was home to a massive primary upset when Pressley defeated Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA), who had served for 20 years in the 7th Congressional District, before being elected to the House.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Haiti's president names new prime minister Posted: 22 Jul 2019 04:30 PM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haiti's President Jovenel Moise on Monday named Fritz-William Michel prime minister, following the resignation of his predecessor who failed to win parliamentary approval for his government. Formerly an executive in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Michel is Moise's fourth head of government in his two-and-a-half years in office. Michel's appointment came after consultations between Moise and the leaders of the two chambers of parliament, signaling a resumption of dialogue between the three political heavyweights after months of turmoil.
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| Every police officer in Stebbins, Alaska, has pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:38 AM PDT  There are seven police officers in Stebbins, Alaska, and all of them have beenconvicted of domestic violence
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| Kyoto Animation arson killings didn't get much attention because we couldn't demonize guns Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:39 AM PDT  The Kyoto Animation killing left 34 dead, but it didn't have much impact because we don't pay attention to mass killings without guns. We should.
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| Mexico sets 1st half murder record, up 5.3% Posted: 22 Jul 2019 04:51 PM PDT  Mexico set a new record for homicides in the first half of the year as the number of murders grew by 5.3% compared to the same period of 2018, fueled partly by cartel and gang violence in several states. Mexico saw 3,080 killings in June, an increase of over 8% from the same month a year ago, according to official figures. The 17,608 killings in the first half of 2019 is the most since comparable records began being kept in 1997, including the peak year of Mexico's drug war in 2011.
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| Airbus designed a plane prototype to look like a 'bird of prey' – take a look Posted: 23 Jul 2019 05:13 AM PDT  Airbus is working to inspire the latest and greatest in flight innovation – and using a "bird of prey" conceptual design to do so.
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| What It Was Like To Be a Pilot During the Hellish Iran-Iraq War Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:04 AM PDT  'Meanwhile, my wingman had engaged another MiG-21 and shot it down using two Sidewinders. He later reported that after seeing my F-14 exiting on the other side of the explosion, he was sure that it was badly burned and the crew dead.Retired by the U.S. Navy on Sep. 22, 2006 the iconic F-14 Tomcat remains the backbone of Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) interceptor fleet.However, as told by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop in their book Iranian F-14 Tomcat units in combat, the F-14's service in Iran is characterised by an implausible series of controversies and 'educated guesstimates' that are completely wrong.(This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2019.)
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| France, Germany Refuse Italy's Demand to Open Ports to Migrants Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:39 PM PDT ![France, Germany Refuse Italy's Demand to Open Ports to Migrants]( "France, Germany Refuse Italy's Demand to Open Ports to Migrants") (Bloomberg) -- France and Germany widened the group of countries willing to accept asylum seekers arriving by boat across the Mediterranean, but made no move to accept demands by Italy's Matteo Salvini that they accept migrant ships directly in their ports.Salvini, in his capacity as Italian interior minister, said Monday's meeting of European interior ministers was a "flop" that "basically said Italy must continue to be the refugee camp of Europe," according to a statement.France and Germany had organized the informal meeting in Paris to try to improve Europe's ad-hoc system for dealing with humanitarian aid ships that collect migrants from rickety boats leaving North Africa and attempt to deliver them to Europe.Salvini has largely shut Italian ports to humanitarian ships, meaning that each approach of a migrant-laden boat has set off negotiations across Europe that eventually result in the boat being allowed to dock in Malta and sometime Italy, but only once other countries, mostly France and Germany, have signed up to accept asylum seekers. Boats have spent weeks at sea while these agreements are hashed out.French officials said Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal , Lithuania, Croatia and Ireland had committed to accepting asylum seekers. And they pledged financial and technical assistance to facilitate the swift return of migrants not entitled to asylum protection, without providing details.'Legal and Practical'But France has refused to waver from the principle that those saved at sea should be taken to the nearest safe port, which is almost always Italy or Malta for boats leaving North Africa. Nor has it agreed to share the majority of migrants who do not qualify for asylum protection."We must respect humanitarian and maritime law, which means that once a boat is in international waters it must find refuge in the nearest safe port," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the meeting. "This a legal and practical necessity. The only way to handle this is through cooperation."Salvini, who didn't attend Monday's meeting, had asked without success for other EU countries to agree to rotate arrival ports throughout Europe for migrant vessels, arguing that maritime laws about nearest safe ports were written for shipwrecks, not migration flows.Read more: Italy to Push for New European Plan to Control MigrationSalvini has seen his popularity grow in Italy ever since his coalition government with Luigi Di Maio's Five Star Movement came to power last year because of his success in stemming immigration to Italy, even if the previous government had already greatly reduced flows.Since the start of this year, 3,353 migrants have arrived by boat in Italy and 1,048 in Malta, according to United Nations figures. That's a much slower pace than the 24,000 that arrived in Italy for all of 2018 or the 120,000 that came in 2017 and 180,000 in 2016.The Italian government estimates it spent 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) aiding migrants in 2017, while receiving only 77 million euros in EU aid.To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Yemen rebel long-range arsenal grows lethal Posted: 22 Jul 2019 06:44 PM PDT  From ballistic missiles to unmanned drones, Yemen's Huthi rebels appear to have bolstered their fighting capabilities, posing a serious threat to mighty neighbour Saudi Arabia. In June alone, the Iran-aligned Shiite Huthis launched at least 20 missile and drone attacks on the oil-rich kingdom, Iran's regional foe, some resulting in casualties and damage. Saudi advanced air defences successfully intercepted most of the strikes but failed to deal with some, including a drone attack on the vital airport of Abha, in the south, that killed one person and injured 21 others.
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| Georgia mother allegedly drops, kills her 3-month-old baby during a fight Posted: 23 Jul 2019 09:42 AM PDT  A Georgia mother is accused of dropping and killing her baby during a fight ata beauty supplies store on Friday
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| U.S. military took defensive action against second Iranian drone last week Posted: 23 Jul 2019 10:15 AM PDT ![U.S. military took defensive action against second Iranian drone last week]( "U.S. military took defensive action against second Iranian drone last week") A U.S. Navy ship took defensive action against a second Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz last week, but did not see the drone go into the water, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The United States said on Thursday that a Navy ship had "destroyed" an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz after the aircraft threatened the vessel, but Iran said it had no information about losing a drone. "This was a defensive action by the USS Boxer in response to aggressive interactions by two Iranian UAS platforms in international waters," Lieutenant Colonel Earl Brown, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said.
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| Thousands Have 'Signed Up' to 'Storm Loch Ness' and Find 'That Big Boy.' Here's the History Behind the Mythical Sea Monster Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:39 AM PDT  Everything you need to know before searching for Nessie
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| New US facility to hold immigrant children already closing Posted: 23 Jul 2019 10:02 AM PDT  The U.S. government's new holding facility for migrant youth will close as early as this week, less than one month after it was opened in response to the squalid conditions in which children were being detained by the Border Patrol, according to the nonprofit operating the facility. The last children at the camp at Carrizo Springs, Texas, are on track to leave by Thursday, said Kevin Dinnin, the CEO of the nonprofit BCFS. Dinnin, whose nonprofit was contracted by HHS to operate Carrizo Springs, said his staff was to leave by the end of the week.
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| Trump reportedly eyeing big spending cuts if reelected Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:44 AM PDT  The president has reportedly instructed White House aides to look for ways to slash the federal budget if he wins a second term.
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| Thanks to climate change, parts of the Arctic are on fire. Scientists are concerned Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:42 PM PDT  Satellite images are showing that areas of the Arctic have been catching fire. These wildfires, while not uncommon, are concerning scientists.
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| Praying for a Conversion Miracle for Dr. Leana Wen and Other Pro-Choice Women Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  One of the most beautiful, under-the-radar things I have seen in the passing political frenzies of the summer thus far was one doctor's response to the upheaval at Planned Parenthood: "I am an Obgyn like you, and I just wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss."Dr. Monique Ruberu reached out to Dr. Leana Wen after news hit that Wen was no longer the president of Planned Parenthood. The news came not too long after Wen had an op-ed published by the Washington Post explaining that her recent miscarriage made her more committed to her Planned Parenthood work.So Ruberu reached out to Wen with compassion: "I have lost two little ones in the past and I believe that they are in heaven and we will meet again." She went on:> Until then they are praying for us as saints in heaven. I believe the same of your little one. With such huge changes in your life, loss of job, loss of child you may be in a difficult place know that I and many others are praying for you for your healing. When things look darkest God can create something beautiful and new. I pray that one day we can serve women on the same side and provide them with what they need so they don't have to choose abortion.She signed off with "God bless you!"This is the way Ruberu operates. "When a loving peaceful prayerful person is present," she has said, "offering life-saving resources, we have a shot at saving lives." When a Pennsylvania elected official harassed a pro-life woman praying outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia recently, Ruberu was outside at a rally days later praying for a "Saul-to-Paul-like conversion" for him. Saint Paul, of course, was as far away from being a Christian before his conversion, when he persecuted Christians.But it's far from just one bright shining tireless Philadelphia doctor. Abby Johnson also had dramatic conversion story. She's the former Texas Planned Parenthood director who left the industry after having to participate in an ultra-sound-guided abortion, where it became all too undeniably clear about what happens in an abortion, especially a late-term one. Johnson implored people to avoid being snarky to or about Wen, writing to the pro-life community in a tweet:> Our job is to reach out to Dr. Leana Wen in love. Snarky memes and words will not bring about conversion. Let us also remember that she is a woman grieving the loss of a miscarried child. Let us treat her with care, not callousness. Let's be the people we say we are.It all echoes the spirit of one of the most unifying documents of recent decades. Pope John Paul II's "Gospel of Life" calls upon our better angels to be wholly committed to a civilization of love that will help people see the possibilities of life more than the problems, in no small part by receiving all fears with love and resources:> You are called to bear witness to the meaning of genuine love, of that gift of self and of that acceptance of others which are present in a special way in the relationship of husband and wife, but which ought also to be at the heart of every other interpersonal relationship. The experience of motherhood makes you acutely aware of the other person and, at the same time, confers on you a particular task. "Motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the woman's womb. . . . This unique contact with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude towards human beings not only towards her own child, but every human being, which profoundly marks the woman's personality.And I've got to say, rereading it, I think it's not very far away from Wen, who in her Post op-ed on her miscarriage talked about how excited she and her husband had been to be welcoming a second child into their lives: "We measured the spare room to turn it into a nursery. We started teaching Eli to be more gentle. I began to plan my maternity leave." About her heartbreaking miscarriage she wrote:> As I recover . . . with my family, I decided to write about my experience because I want to break the silence and shame that often come with pregnancy loss. I also write because my miscarriage has made my commitment to women's health even stronger. If we truly care about the health of women, children and families, we must commit to policies that provide pregnant women with the care, humanity and dignity that all people deserve.Planned Parenthood insists it is about women's health, but abortion rips at what's most wondrous about a woman: motherhood, a reality that many women, including Wen long for (she and her husband had been trying for months for a second child). The pro-life movement is its most authentic when it puts out a welcome mat out for anyone who wants to genuinely join in the cause of helping women embrace life. The more converts, the healthier this culture of ours will be. To Dr. Leana Wen, and anyone else: We have more in common than much of politics or Planned Parenthood would have you believe.This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal's Newspaper Enterprise Association.
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| Here’s the clearest evidence yet of why Huawei can’t be trusted, and it involves North Korea Posted: 22 Jul 2019 02:03 PM PDT  Up to this point, Huawei has made a valiant effort at defending its reputation against a US-led opposition campaign that's stoked fears the company is basically a proxy for the Chinese central government and security apparatus. Pressed to defend its actions and ban of the company's products, the Trump campaign has offered up a kind of pre-emptive war defense -- that just the threat alone justifies the actions taken. That's the same sentiment former US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge shared with me in a phone call in recent days. But now, finally, news has emerged that will offer Huawei's critics the strongest evidence yet of why they'll argue the company can't be trusted, and it involves the company helping build a wireless network inside North Korea.New reporting from The Washington Post makes clear that Huawei helped North Korea build and launch its internal Koryolink wireless network a decade ago, a project for which Huawei teamed up with China's state-owned Panda International Information Technology company. It's also a project that got underway after North Korea's then-supreme leader Kim Jong II made a visit to Huawei's headquarters in China, which led the company to contribute things like wireless network infrastructure and encryption services to the repressive regime's plans.This is disturbing news on a number of levels. Koryolink is one way North Korea keeps tabs on its citizens, with the new reporting making it clear that the network includes eavesdropping mechanisms made possible by the Huawei technologies. Among other things, North Korean officials can use the network to intercept calls and texts, in addition to capturing screenshots of user activity at random so that authorities can see what they're up to.In response to the newspaper's reporting, Huawei said it "has no business presence" in North Korea. A defense that clearly relies on a present tense formulation of the answer, while saying nothing about the past. Meanwhile, there are two concerns here. In addition to the obvious (providing material support to a dictatorship), much of the commentary out Monday about this news speculates that Huawei may have done an end-run around myriad sanctions to perform this work.> "Huawei is fully committed to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries and regions where we operate, including all export control and sanction laws and regulations" of the United Nations, United States and European Union, Huawei told the newspaper.Relations between the US and China still remain frosty, at best, and the Huawei ban is still no closer to being resolved by US officials. Suffice it to say, today's revelations make the issue infinitely more complicated and offer evidence that will likely help ostracize Huawei even more than it is already.
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| Trump offers to mediate Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:58 PM PDT  US President Donald Trump on Monday said he had been asked to mediate the decades-long Kashmir conflict by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would be happy to help, but his claim was swiftly denied by New Delhi. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three full-scale wars over the Himalayan former kingdom since gaining their independence from Britain in 1947. "I was surprised at how long it's been going on, I think they would like to see it resolved and I can help, I would love to be a mediator," said Trump, who prides himself on being a dealmaker.
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| Georgia woman gets cold fries at McDonald's, barges into kitchen and fires gun Posted: 23 Jul 2019 08:50 AM PDT  A Georgia woman who reportedly fired a gun into the floor of a McDonald'skitchen Monday afternoon had a pretty wild motivation for her crime: coldfrench fries
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| EXCLUSIVE-Britain wins early European support for Hormuz naval mission Posted: 23 Jul 2019 11:28 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-Britain wins early European support for Hormuz naval mission]( "EXCLUSIVE-Britain wins early European support for Hormuz naval mission") France, Italy and Denmark gave initial support for a British plan for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, three senior EU diplomats said on Tuesday after Iran's seizure of a British-flagged tanker. The backing at a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels contrasts sharply with the lukewarm response shown by European allies to a similar American call first voiced at NATO in late June, when countries feared they could make U.S.-Iranian tensions worse. "Britain's request, rather than Washington's, makes it easier for Europeans to rally round this," one senior EU diplomat said.
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| Gun group wants judge to block ammunition background checks Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:27 PM PDT  A California affiliate of the National Rifle Association has asked a U.S. judge to block a new law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition. The California Rifle & Pistol Association asked San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez to halt the checks and related restrictions on ammunition sales.
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| 40+ Easy-To-Make Halloween Cookies That Taste Scary Good Too Posted: 23 Jul 2019 12:52 PM PDT |
