Sunday, June 30, 2019

Joe Biden and the Great Awokening

Joe Biden and the Great AwokeningJoe Biden has led the national polls in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination since last year. He’s ahead in the first three contests, also, with leads ranging from seven points (Iowa) to 13 points (New Hampshire) to 28 points (South Carolina). He’s first in fivethirtyeight.com’s endorsement primary. And though he didn’t launch his campaign until the second quarter of 2019, at which point Bernie Sanders had raised the most money, his nonstop fundraising schedule, and great first-24-hours number, suggests that his second-quarter haul will be impressive. Going into tonight’s Democratic debate, there was no reason to doubt Biden’s status as the Democratic frontrunner. Indeed, while head-to-head matchups 16 months before an election are worthless, one might as well have considered him the frontrunner to become the 46th president of the United States, too.And yet there is an air of unreality surrounding the Biden campaign, a widespread expectation that the former vice president just can’t last. He’s run twice before, with terrible results. He’s old. He has a tendency to let his mouth take him places his political advisers would rather not have him go. And he has baggage. Lots of baggage, from his creepy-uncle vibe to his votes for NAFTA, the Iraq war, and the 1994 crime bill, to his devotion to the principles of bipartisanship and civility, including with the segregationist and racist senators with whom he has served. He’s about as Washington as you can get. There might not be an Acela corridor without him. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for one, is not impressed. “He’s not a pragmatic choice,” she says.One of the questions the 2020 Democratic primary will answer, then, is whether the party is more like Biden or AOC. Is a long career, devoted service to Barack Obama, and the purported ability to win the support of working-class whites enough to win the party’s nomination? Or have the Democrats moved so far left in recent years that Biden’s experience is actually a weakness, his geniality a liability, his folksiness a handicap?The evidence is mixed. Biden’s sustained poll position has led some analysts to conclude that, MSNBC and CNN to the contrary notwithstanding, the Democratic party is older and more moderate than people think. Biden doesn’t need to capitulate to Sanders to win the nomination, he doesn’t need to apologize to AOC or to Cory Booker. And Biden hasn’t apologized, not for his sniffing hair or for his remarks about working with segregationists. And his lead remains significant. Maybe the audience for identity politics and far-left social liberalism is small.On the other hand, Biden has had to reverse himself on taxpayer funding for abortion, signaling just how essential unrestricted abortion rights have become to the Democratic electorate. And he’s wishy-washy on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which his former boss, the biggest name in Democratic politics, negotiated. Biden’s performing a high-wire act, in other words. He has to navigate the shoals of the Great Awokening that has turned the Democratic base, white progressives especially, into zealots for social justice. Up until Thursday, his strategy has been to lay low. Focus on donors. Avoid interviews. Wrestle with Trump, not with the other Democrats.No longer. He had to stand on stage with nine of his competitors Thursday, and answer questions from Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, and Chuck Todd. Next to him was Bernie Sanders, whose “democratic socialism” has determined the contours of intra-Democratic debate since 2016. And next to Bernie was Kamala Harris, the freshman senator from California, who basically defines the idea of “woke capitalism.” And next to Harris was Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s executed one of the most remarkable political transformations in American history, from middle-of-the-road congresswoman to feminist warrior in a little more than a decade. Also, there was Andrew Yang, who wants to give every American a universal basic income. And Pete Buttigieg, the trendy multilingual mayor of South Bend, Ind. And a bunch of other people, including Marianne Williamson, who was visiting from the Age of Aquarius.And this debate took place a day after Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio called for eliminating private insurance, Julián Castro called for abortion rights for trans men, and Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke spoke in garbled Spanish. The trend of the Democratic party is to the left. And it’s a trend Biden doesn’t seem all that interested in resisting, as evidenced by his joining all of the candidates on stage in calling for health insurance for illegal immigrants while also saying deportation of illegal immigrants wouldn’t be a priority for his administration.Biden has encountered the Great Awokening, and he doesn’t know what to make of it. His instinct seems to be to go with the flow. Maybe you noticed the weird way he responded to questions where the moderators asked the candidates to raise their hands. In each case Biden was tentative, uncertain, looking at the competition. At one point he asked the moderator to repeat a question, highlighting his age.If you had been dropped into this debate from Mars, you would have thought Kamala “for the people” Harris was the Democratic frontrunner. She brought down the house several times. She got Biden tangled up on the issue of busing. She clearly represents the future of the Democratic party. She’s fourth in the national polls, stuck in single digits. But she went toe to toe with the frontrunner -- something that was studiously avoided for most of the two nights of debates. And she won.Something is happening to the Democratic party. It’s been moving left for years. Since Howard Dean’s insurgency in the 2004 campaign, the number of Democrats who have embraced liberalism, progressivism, and now socialism has been steadily increasing. The reason is partly generational. My cohort, the Millennials, embraced the left position on the issues of Iraq and gay marriage, and if anything, Generation Z seems to be more left-wing still. The number of liberals is not an overwhelming majority of the party -- not according to polls -- but it is a majority. And the number of lefties is so great that it determines the nature of the interest groups that dictate the party’s agenda and talking points. It might even determine the nominee.And if that’s the case, simply judging by his performance on Thursday night, Joe Biden has got to be awfully worried.This piece was originally published in the Washington Free Beacon.




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Does Biden stand a chance in 2020 after Democratic debate?

Does Biden stand a chance in 2020 after Democratic debate?'The Daily Briefing' host Dana Perino reacts to the second night of Democratic presidential debates on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'




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Stephanie Grisham's unlikely path from Arizona politics to Trump's White House

Stephanie Grisham's unlikely path from Arizona politics to Trump's White HouseStephanie Grisham, Trump's new White House press secretary, had a bumpy ride through Arizona politics before ascending to Washington.




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O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekers

O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekersDemocratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke visited Mexico on Sunday and listened to tearful immigrants say they fled Central American violence and turmoil to seek asylum in the U.S., but were turned away at the border. A fluent Spanish speaker, O'Rourke met around a table at a shelter with immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of whom wept as they told of being denied entry into the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed. "We hope, by sharing these stories, that the conscience of our country is awoken right now, and the need to change the policies that we have in place" becomes apparent, O'Rourke said via a livestream on his Facebook page.




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Driving Honda's 150-MPH Lawn Mower Is a Scary-Fast Thrill Ride

Driving Honda's 150-MPH Lawn Mower Is a Scary-Fast Thrill RideHonda's Mean Mower V2 is a land-speed landscaping machine.




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Biden scrambles after slipping in Democrats' debate

Biden scrambles after slipping in Democrats' debateA wounded Joe Biden scrambled to defend his frontrunner status Friday after getting pummeled over his record on race relations at a Democratic election debate, throwing the battle for the party's nomination to challenge President Donald Trump wide open. Watching from Japan, where he was attending the G20 summit, Trump licked his chops as the 10 Democrats at the Thursday night debate in Miami veered sharply to the left on immigration, health care, taxes and the ever-emotional subject of gun ownership. Biden, vice president under still highly popular ex-president Barack Obama, came in as the favorite, polling well ahead of Trump and all Democratic rivals.




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UPDATE 1-Ball in Europe's court on nuclear deal's future - Iranian state TV

UPDATE 1-Ball in Europe's court on nuclear deal's future - Iranian state TVIt is up to Europe to shield Iran from U.S. sanctions and prevent it from further scaling back its compliance with its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, Iranian state TV said on Saturday, with only days left on Tehran's ultimatum. Iran's envoy to a meeting of the remaining signatories to the nuclear accord said on Friday that European countries had offered too little at last-ditch talks to persuade Tehran to drop its plan to breach limits imposed by the deal. The United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and has re-imposed sanctions on Iran.




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US Democrats skeptical on Trump-Kim meeting in Korea

US Democrats skeptical on Trump-Kim meeting in KoreaDemocratic White House contenders gave a guarded welcome to Donald Trump's meeting Sunday with Kim Jong Un, with several warning the US president was granting him "legitimacy" despite the lack of progress on curbing North Korea's nuclear arsenal. Senator Bernie Sanders, a leading candidate in the race to face off against Trump in 2020, said he had "no problem" with Trump's decision to meet with Kim, in a moment of high diplomatic drama in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.




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10 deals you don’t want to miss on Sunday: $30 true wireless earbuds, $25 Wi-Fi extender, $20 LED strip, more

10 deals you don’t want to miss on Sunday: $30 true wireless earbuds, $25 Wi-Fi extender, $20 LED strip, moreJune is almost over, but we're just getting started when it comes to killer daily deals. Highlights from Sunday's roundup include awesome new true wireless earbuds with touch control for $29.99 instead of $40 when you use the coupon code I7QWMF5M at checkout, a multi-color LED light strip that does everything the $70 Philips Hue model can do for just $19.99, the faster version of the best-selling Wi-Fi range extender on Amazon for $24.99 when you clip the on-site coupon, super popular Alexa and Google compatible Wi-Fi smart plugs for only $6.75 a piece when you buy a 4-pack and clip the $6 coupon, silicone AirPods covers that fit in the charging case so you don't have to take them off when it's time to recharge, a $15 power scrubber that makes hand washing pots and pans a breeze, SanDisk 400GB microSD cards at their lowest price yet, a crazy expandable portable Bluetooth speaker at its lowest price ever for one day only, massive discounts on the Apple Watch Series 3 starting at just $199 (and all-time low!), almost $100 off the insanely good Sony wireless noise cancelling headphones when you buy renewed, and more. Check out all of today's top deals below.




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DMZ diplomacy: Kim accepts Trump invite to meet at border

DMZ diplomacy: Kim accepts Trump invite to meet at borderPresident Donald Trump will meet Sunday with North Korea's Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the North and South, a day after he issued an unprecedented invitation and expressed willingness to cross the border for what would be a history-making photo op. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that Kim accepted Trump's invitation to meet when the U.S. president visits the heavily fortified site at the Korean border village of Panmunjom. Trump said he looked forward to meeting with Kim, but sought to tamp down expectations, predicting it would be "very short," he said.




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Democrats divided as pressure to impeach builds: ‘What are you waiting for?’

Democrats divided as pressure to impeach builds: ‘What are you waiting for?’Dozens of Democrats have called for Trump impeachment proceedings in wake of Mueller’s report – but Pelosi has remained steadfast in opposing an inquiryNancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on 27 June. ‘I don’t think we should go down that path,’ she said of impeaching Trump in March. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APIn the House of Representatives the apparently frustrated Democratic congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, had one question for the leadership of her party: when would they impeach Donald Trump?“The thing that we’re struggling with is that we don’t know what we’re waiting for in terms of a caucus. And folks that are saying, ‘No, not yet. Not yet.’ OK – accepting that that’s your position, what are you waiting for?” the New York socialist said to reporters this week. “Are you waiting for some kind of revelation?”That’s a question a growing number of Democrats are asking. Dozens of Democrats on Capitol Hill, including 2020 hopefuls such as Elizabeth Warren, have called for impeachment proceedings in the wake of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s damning report into Russia interference in the 2016 election, which also outlined numerous instances of obstruction of justice on the part of the president.Nor is it just leftwing firebrands like Ocasio-Cortez. One notable recent convert to the impeachment cause was California congresswoman Katie Porter, who announced her support by admitting: “I didn’t come to Congress to impeach the president.” But Porter added: “When faced with a crisis of this magnitude, I cannot with a clean conscience ignore my duty to defend the constitution.”Porter’s support struck a chord in Washington because, as the representative of a swing district, her announcement carried personal political risk. Most others who have called for impeachment hail from safely blue districts. Only one Republican – Michigan congressman Justin Amash – has signed up to the cause.The question now is, will the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, succumb to the growing pressure, or will she stand her ground? It is a fierce debate that is increasingly dividing the party, pitting pragmatists against ideologues, the leadership against its own members and advocates of policy who believe they have a constitutional duty to act against wrongdoing against those who prefer to wage politics and want to remove Trump by thrashing him at the 2020 ballot box.Pelosi has so far remained steadfast in opposing an impeachment inquiry on the grounds such a move would fail in the Republican-controlled Senate and could be politically divisive, potentially jeopardizing Democrats’ chances at ousting Trump via the ballot box in 2020.In March, she said in an interview with the Washington Post that impeachment would be “so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path”.A four-page summary later that month of Mueller’s report by William Barr, the Mueller critic Trump installed as attorney general, made that position seem prescient. Barr wrote in a letter to lawmakers that Mueller did not establish collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and that he’d punted on the issue of obstruction. Barr and his then deputy, Rod Rosenstein, cleared Trump of charges that he sought to interfere with the inquiry.> When faced with a crisis of this magnitude, I cannot with a clean conscience ignore my duty to defend the constitution> > Katie PorterBut in April, Barr released a redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report that revealed his initial summary – and a bizarre, pre-publication press conference in which the attorney general sought to spin the findings like he was a member of Trump’s defense team – to be wildly misleading.On the question of obstruction of justice, Mueller laid out a series of episodes in which Trump personally sought to undermine the investigation, including by firing former FBI director James Comey and attempting to fire the special counsel himself. The reason Trump was not charged with a crime, Mueller implied, is because he did not believe justice department protocol allowed for a sitting president to be indicted.Holding the president accountable, he suggested, would necessarily be Congress, not the criminal justice system.For some Democrats, like the congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Eric Swalwell, that was a call to action.“The congressman is concentrated on protecting our democracy and believes that a fair process will either remove a corrupt president or acquit him but inaction is no longer an option,” a representative for Swalwell said.The momentum behind impeachment may be having some impact. Pelosi has introduced the word into her vocabulary as of late, implying that she was keeping the door open to the possibility. But she has also stayed the course, tamping down criticism from her ranks that it’s Congress’s duty to hold the president accountable – regardless of whether it would succeed or not.Instead, she has called for Democrats to press on with their investigations, as well as to focus on kitchen table issues such as healthcare, which helped them take back the House in the 2018 midterms and can, she hopes, propel them to victory again in 2020.As the 2020 race heats up – the Democrats have had their first televised debate and Trump has officially launched his campaign – it is hard to say what Democrats will, or should, do.On the one hand, impeachment could prove divisive. While a growing majority of Democratic voters support such a move, some polls suggest that Americans overall remain split on the matter. There are fears that impeachment could backfire on Democrats in 2020 and gift Trump another four years in office are not completely unfounded. After all, Republicans lost House seats in 1998 and 2000 as they pursued the impeachment of Bill Clinton – something that has weighed on Pelosi, her colleagues told the Atlantic.Those losses are often overstated, however, and the situations are different, both in terms of the two presidents’ statures in the public’s eye and the nature of their conduct. Clinton, who retained high approval ratings during the course of his proceedings, was impeached over conduct largely unrelated to his presidency.Activists call for the impeachment of Donald Trump in New York City, on 15 June. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Getty ImagesTrump, on the other hand, has seen underwater job approval ratings for the entire duration of his presidency. What’s more, the justification for his potential impeachment cuts to the heart of his duties as president. Trump has not only continued to insist he did nothing wrong and to block oversight investigations – he also said in a stunning interview recently that he would welcome foreign interference in the 2020 election if he thought it could help him win.Though Democrats appear uniformly frustrated and outraged by Trump’s conduct, some aren’t yet ready to greenlight impeachment.“I’m not yet calling to start an impeachment inquiry,” Florida congressman Ted Deutch, a Democrat on the House judiciary committee, told the Guardian. “But I will also not keep waiting as the White House engages in this unprecedented stonewalling. Obstruction of an investigation of obstruction of justice is itself obstruction of justice.”For more than 70 lawmakers and counting, though, it’s time to start moving on the matter – both as a practical way of holding the president accountable and as an ethical and constitutional responsibility to send a message that nobody is above the law, even if they sit in the Oval Office.“The administration has refused to respect the rule of law,” Porter said announcing her support for an impeachment inquiry.“The question is not whether a crisis is in our midst,” she continued, “but rather whether we choose to fight against it.”




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Beto O'Rourke visits children at migrant housing facility downtown

Beto O'Rourke visits children at migrant housing facility downtownDuring his visit to Southwest Key's Casa Sunzal, O'Rourke said the children's situation is like the U.S. turning away Jewish refugees during World War II.




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Biden and school busing: Where he stood, what it means

Biden and school busing: Where he stood, what it meansThat Joe Biden, the man picked by America's first black president as his number two, should now be suffering attacks over his record on race might seem surprising. Senator Kamala Harris, the only black woman in the Democratic presidential field, forcefully questioned Biden on his opposition in the 1970s to court-ordered busing programs aimed at integrating public schools. Harris noted, in a quavering voice, that as "a little girl in California" she was "part of the second class to integrate her public schools" in a busing program.




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U.S. federal judge blocks use of some funds for border wall

U.S. federal judge blocks use of some funds for border wallU.S. President Donald Trump has sought to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but has so far proven unsuccessful at receiving congressional approval to do so. In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to reprogram $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to build the wall, which groups and states including California had challenged. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of rulings that the Trump administration's proposal to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities was unlawful.




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Saudi Arabia intercepts two Yemen rebel drones: coalition

Saudi Arabia intercepts two Yemen rebel drones: coalitionTwo Yemeni rebel drones targeting southern Saudi Arabia were intercepted on Saturday, a Riyadh-led military coalition said, the latest in a series of assaults on the kingdom. The first drone targeted the province of Jizan and the second was aimed at a residential area in Asir province, the coalition said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. The rebels earlier claimed drone attacks on the airports in Jizan and Abha, the capital of Asir, according to the group's Al-Masirah TV.




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U.S. federal court delays adoption of healthcare rule on abortion

U.S. federal court delays adoption of healthcare rule on abortionThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its opponents in a California lawsuit agreed on Friday to delay implementing a rule that would allow medical workers to decline performing abortions or other treatments on moral or religious grounds, according to a federal court filing. The move comes after President Donald Trump's administration announced the rule earlier in May. It has also championed several policies to restrict abortion both in the United States and abroad. Delegations of Authority," the measure aims to protect conscience and religious rights surrounding abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide, HHS officials have said.




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UPDATE 2-Fighting rages across Afghanistan as peace talks continue

UPDATE 2-Fighting rages across Afghanistan as peace talks continueTaliban suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in an attack on a government office on Saturday night, officials said, in the latest episode of violence in Afghanistan as peace talks continue to end the war. The Taliban, which rejects the election process, claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group's fighters also killed 57 members of the Afghan security forces in the attack and captured 11 others, but Afghan officials disputed the account.




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Newark Airport reopens after being shut down due to 'airport emergency'

Newark Airport reopens after being shut down due to 'airport emergency'Newark Airport has reopened after it was shut down Saturday morning due to an "airport emergency."




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Your iPhone will charge from 0% to 80% in under an hour with these two accessories

Your iPhone will charge from 0% to 80% in under an hour with these two accessoriesHere's the good news: all of Apple's iPhones from 2017 and later support 18W fast charging that can charge your phone from 0% all the way up to 80% in about 55 minutes! And now for the bad news: Apple's cheaped out and didn't include a fast charger in the box with any of its iPhone models. Seriously, you can buy a $1,500 iPhone XS Max and Apple still doesn't include a fast charger in the box. Ugh. Getting the charger and cable you need from Apple to fast charge your iPhone costs about $50, which is obscene. Instead, pick up an AUKEY USB C Charger with 18W Power Delivery for $19.99 and an Anker USB C to Lightning Cable for $15.99. AUKEY USB C Charger * High-Speed Charging: Fast charge your iPhone XS/XS Max/XR, Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL, or other compatible USB-C devices that support USB Power Delivery * USB Power Delivery: Next-generation, future-proof fast charging technology that charges your USB Type-C phone or tablet at up to 18W * Compact & Portable: Extremely compact form factor and foldable plug ensure maximum portability wherever you go. Handy for home, office, and vacations * Safe & Reliable: Built-in safeguards protect your devices against excessive current, overheating, and overcharging * Package Contents: AUKEY PA-Y18 18W Power Delivery Wall Charger, User Manual, 45-Day Money Back Guarantee and 24-Month Product Replacement Warranty Card Anker USB C to Lightning Cable * Power Delivery: Use this cable with your USB-C Power Delivery charger (including Apple 18W 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter) to charge your iOS device, and access fast-charging for iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XS, XR, XS Max, and later models. * Charge and Sync: Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to your USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) enabled Mac and iPad Pro to seamlessly sync And charge. * Ultimate Durability: Lasts 12× longer than other cables and proven to withstand over 12000 bends in strict laboratory tests. * MI: MI certification and strict quality testing ensure your Apple devices are charged safely, at their fastest possible speed. . * A Cable for Life: We're so confident about Power line II's long-lasting performance that we gave it a hassle-free, lifetime .




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Trump: If There Was a Wall, Immigrant Dad and Daughter Who Drowned ‘Would Be Saved’

Trump: If There Was a Wall, Immigrant Dad and Daughter Who Drowned ‘Would Be Saved’Kevin Lamarque/ReutersPresident Donald Trump said that if the wall along the southern border with Mexico had been built, the migrant dad and daughter who drowned this week “would be saved.”Speaking at a press conference in Osaka, Japan, where world leaders are gathered at the G20 summit, Trump took a moment to offer his take on the global shock in response to the photo of Salvadorian man Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria, who were found face down and clinging to each other in the Rio Grande river. The two were attempting to make it across the river after failing to gain asylum from U.S. authorities.“The father and the beautiful daughter who drowned... if they thought it was hard to get in, they wouldn’t be coming up,” Trump said.Trump then called for tougher border patrol policies, adding that illegal immigration is “very unfair.”“You have millions of people on line for years to get into a country. They take tests, they study... and these people have worked hard, they’ve been on line for seven, eight, nine years, then someone walks in. Honestly it’s very unfair,” he said.Trump’s comments came hours after a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocks his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended to be used for anti-drug activities to instead build a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump said that he is planning to immediately appeal the ruling.In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to use $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to instead be used for constructing the wall. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of court decisions Friday that the Trump administration’s proposal to transfer the funds was unlawful.“We think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during another press conference at the G20 summit. “There was no reason that that should’ve happened.”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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GOP senator: ‘Underestimate Joe Biden at your own peril’

GOP senator: ‘Underestimate Joe Biden at your own peril’Lindsey Graham also says of Kamala Harris: “She’s got game.”




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O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekers

O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekersDemocratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke visited Mexico on Sunday and listened to tearful immigrants say they fled Central American violence and turmoil to seek asylum in the U.S., but were turned away at the border. A fluent Spanish speaker, O'Rourke met around a table at a shelter with immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of whom wept as they told of being denied entry into the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed. "We hope, by sharing these stories, that the conscience of our country is awoken right now, and the need to change the policies that we have in place" becomes apparent, O'Rourke said via a livestream on his Facebook page.




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Pandemonium in Panmunjom: Kim and Trump's hasty DMZ date

Pandemonium in Panmunjom: Kim and Trump's hasty DMZ dateDonald Trump and Kim Jong Un's first two summits were highly choreographed affairs but their third date was an unscripted event seemingly arranged on a social media whim -- and threatened at times to descend into chaos. Trump admitted he did not know whether Kim would spurn his advances, delivered via Twitter. "When I put out the social media notification, if he didn't show up, the press was going to make me look very bad," the US president said.




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Saturday, June 29, 2019

Bernie Sanders Says He Would ‘Rotate’ Conservative Judges Off the Supreme Court

Bernie Sanders Says He Would ‘Rotate’ Conservative Judges Off the Supreme CourtDuring the second Democratic primary debate Thursday night, Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) raised the possibility of rotating justices off of the Supreme Court so that they could be replaced with jurists whose philosophy aligns more closely with his own.Sanders dismissed the idea that Democrats should erode the Conservative majority on the High Court by adding additional justices, arguing instead that the number of justices should remain the same but the composition of the court should change.“I do not believe in packing the court,” Sanders said. “We’ve got a terrible 5-4 majority conservative court right now. But I do believe constitutionally we have the power to rotate judges to other courts and that brings in new blood into the Supreme Court and a majority I hope that will understand that a woman has a right to control her own body and that corporations cannot run the United States of America.”Sanders was referring to the possibility that the High Court's conservative majority might overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which codified abortion as a right. He also noted Democrats' opposition to the 2010 Citizen's United v. FEC decision, which held that corporations are entitled to engage in unabridged political speech.The Constitution holds that Supreme Court justices may retain their seat on the court “during good behavior,” which has been widely understood as an effective life term.The former Burlington, Vt. mayor emphasized his support for abortion rights by declaring that he would “never nominate any Supreme Court justice to the Supreme Court unless that justice is 100 percent clear he or she will defend Roe v. Wade.”Sanders' comments come after President Trump vowed to appoint a third justice to the court if another vacancy opens before the 2020 election.“We have the Senate. We have a great Senate,” Trump told the Hill. “We have great people. If we could get him approved, I would definitely do it. … If there were three days left [before the 2020 election], I’d put somebody up hoping that I could get ’em done in three days, OK?”




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DMZ diplomacy? Trump outreach to Kim for border rendezvous

DMZ diplomacy? Trump outreach to Kim for border rendezvousPresident Donald Trump issued a Twitter invitation Saturday to North Korea's Kim Jong Un to meet for a handshake at the Demilitarized Zone that separates the North and South, and expressed a willingness to cross the border for what would be a history-making photo opportunity. Presidential visits to the DMZ are traditionally carefully guarded secrets for security reasons. White House officials couldn't immediately say whether Kim had agreed to meet with Trump.




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Western liberalism is obsolete, warns Putin, ahead of May meeting

Western liberalism is obsolete, warns Putin, ahead of May meetingRussian president says the Salisbury poisonings are not worth ‘all this fuss’ and that liberals can no longer ‘dictate’ to anyone‘The average person listens and says “who are these Skripals?”’ Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times. Photograph: SPUTNIK/ReutersVladimir Putin has said ahead of his meeting with Theresa May at the G20 summit in Japan that relations between Britain and Russia should not suffer because of last year’s nerve agent attack on the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.The Russian president also used the interview with the Financial Times to claim that the election of Donald Trump as US president and the rise of nationalist-populist movements in Europe signaled the death of liberal policies in the west.“[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades,” he said. “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”The claims brought a short response from European council president Donald Tusk at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday.“I strongly disagree with the main argument that liberalism is obsolete. Whoever claims that liberal democracy is obsolete, also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete,” he said. “For us in Europe, these are and will remain essential and vibrant values. What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”On the Skripals, Putin told the FT in an interview at the Kremlin that: “All this fuss about spies and counterspies is not worth interstate relations. This spy story, as we say here, is not worth 5 kopecks.“I think Russia and UK are both interested in fully restoring our relations – at least I hope a few preliminary steps will be taken.”Bilateral ties between Britain and Russia plummeted to a post-Cold War low last year when London accused Moscow of the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury.The Kremlin denies sending GRU military intelligence agents to Britain to carry out the attack, which triggered scores of diplomatic expulsions between Moscow and western countries.“The average person listens and says ‘who are these Skripals?’” Putin said. “Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished. I am not saying that the Salisbury incident is the way to do it … but traitors must be punished.” Putin has previously called Skripal a “scumbag.”The G20 summit takes place in Osaka on Friday and Saturday. May’s spokesman has said she will use the meeting with Putin to ensure that Britain’s stance on “Russia’s wider pattern of malign behaviour” has been fully grasped by the Kremlin.Putin described German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees – most of whom were fleeing the war in Syria – into Germany as a “cardinal mistake”.In contrast, he was full of praise for Trump’s attempts to prevent migrants from entering the US from Mexico. “This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected.”Putin also tried to defend Russia’s record on LGBT+ rights. “I am not trying to insult anyone because we have been condemned for our alleged homophobia. But we have no problem with LGBT persons. God forbid, let them live as they wish,” Putin said. “But some things do appear excessive to us. They claim now that children can play five or six gender roles.”Moscow has been criticised internationally for its so-called anti-gay propaganda law, which bars the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to children. Human rights groups say the law, which Putin approved in 2013, has sparked a spike in homophobic violence. A UN panel ruled last year that the law was in violation of a legally binding international treaty on human rights.




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Takeaways from night 2 of the Democratic debate

Takeaways from night 2 of the Democratic debateThe roster for Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate demonstrated some of the party's major divisions — even before candidates started talking. Former Vice President Joe Biden entered Thursday's debate with the most to lose. Kamala Harris of California, a former prosecutor, invoked race and identity, challenging Biden to apologize for working with segregationist senators and for opposing aspects of school busing in the 1970s.




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Missing-mother defendant told to stay away from girlfriend

Missing-mother defendant told to stay away from girlfriendA judge on Friday ordered the estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mother of five to stay away from his girlfriend. Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, are free on bond, charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution in connection with the May 24 disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, of New Canaan. Police say the couple disposed of items found in Hartford that contained Jennifer Dulos' blood.




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Ethics panel launches Gaetz investigation over Cohen tweet

Ethics panel launches Gaetz investigation over Cohen tweetMatt Gaetz sent a tweet in February in which he threatened to release embarrassing personal information about Michael Cohen.




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Conservative organization using claims of 'secret list' of liberal judges to rally Republican base

Conservative organization using claims of 'secret list' of liberal judges to rally Republican baseThe Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative organization instrumental in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight, is calling on 2020 Democratic candidates to release what it says is a secret list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court.




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Israel and Hamas Reach Truce to Restore Quiet, Army Radio Says

Israel and Hamas Reach Truce to Restore Quiet, Army Radio Says(Bloomberg) -- Israel and Hamas reached a truce on Friday that would halt attacks against Israeli farmland in return for measures to ease the economic blockade on Gaza, according to a report by Israeli Army Radio.Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, would stop launching incendiary balloons that for the past year have torched thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land, and in exchange Israel would expand the enclave’s fishing zone, and return 60 confiscated boats and diesel supplies for the area’s main power plant, according to the radio station.Though the concessions made by Israel are small, they would provide some relief for Gaza and its roughly 2 million residents, who are cut off from other economies by their immediate neighbors, Israel and Egypt.To contact the reporter on this story: Yaacov Benmeleh in Tel Aviv at ybenmeleh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Constantine Courcoulas, Taylan BilgicFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.




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Long Island Mother Allegedly Admitted to Killing Twins with Her 'Bare Hands'

Long Island Mother Allegedly Admitted to Killing Twins with Her 'Bare Hands'A mother allegedly admitted to killing her twins with her "bare hands" before attempting suicide by cop, court documents and officials revealed Friday.




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10 Must-Read Car Books for Your Summer Vacation

10 Must-Read Car Books for Your Summer Vacation




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This Is the Battle That Decided World War II (Not What You Think)

This Is the Battle That Decided World War II (Not What You Think)While the tactical result of the battle was stunning – the U.S. sunk four Japanese fleet carriers Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Akagi, a heavy cruiser and destroyed 248 enemy aircraft – it is the perilous backdrop of America’s war fortunes in 1942 that make Midway’s tide-turning outcomes all the more significant.  Thursday, June 6th saw the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion at Normandy, the amphibious assault phase of Operation Neptune, or what we commonly remember as D-Day.  U.S. troops who landed at Normandy – particularly at Omaha Beach – waded ashore amidst a storm of chaos, a blizzard of machine gun fire, and a hail of plunging mortars.  Despite great confusion and casualties, at the squad level and below, the men at Omaha rallied and pressed forth with tenacity and nerve to breach sand-berms and barricades, neutralize enemy positions, and salvage their sectors.  Losses at Omaha were immense – but American resolve helped establish a foothold on the coast of France – and “the rest,” they say, “is history.”(This appeared earlier in June 2019.)Without doubt, the enormous importance of D-Day as a logistical and operational undertaking – and the gallantry of Allied forces that June morning is unquestioned.  It rightfully exemplifies American character, courage, and commitment. However, it is important to note that as far as the battle’s strategic significance is concerned, a strong case can be made that other battles of World War II are more critical than D-Day.The Battle of Midway in 1942 is one.




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States poised to take up fight over partisan gerrymandering

States poised to take up fight over partisan gerrymanderingThe battle for political advantage in state capitols is poised to become more intense after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that federal judges have no role in settling disputes over partisan gerrymandering. It could shift legal challenges against partisan gerrymandering to state courts and prompt more efforts to reform redistricting procedures through amendments to state constitutions. Ultimately, it also could mean that voters upset with the party in power must seek change the old-fashioned way — by electing different lawmakers, no matter how difficult that might seem in heavily gerrymandered districts.




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Mika Brzezinski on the success of ‘Morning Joe’: ‘I’m the reason it’s still going’

Mika Brzezinski on the success of ‘Morning Joe’: ‘I’m the reason it’s still going’MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski says “Morning Joe” was her husband’s idea, but she’s “the reason it’s still going.” Brzezinski explains that when the show first started, she was booking the guests and managing the show. “I did everything from the get-go, tried to make a space for [Joe Scarborough]’s incredible voice.”




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Apple's star designer Jony Ive to set up own firm

Apple's star designer Jony Ive to set up own firmApple's longtime design chief Jony Ive, who played a key role in the development of the iPhone and other iconic products, is leaving the tech giant to set up his own firm, Apple said Thursday. Ive will depart later this year "to form an independent design company which will count Apple among its primary clients," Apple said in a statement. Ive will pursue "personal projects" but also continue to work closely "on a range of projects with Apple," the California tech company said.




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Man charged with murder, kidnapping in case of missing Utah student Mackenzie Lueck

Man charged with murder, kidnapping in case of missing Utah student Mackenzie LueckA man has been charged in connection with the disappearance of missingUniversity of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck, CBS News reports




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Biden responds to attack on his age: 'I'm still holding on to that torch'

Biden responds to attack on his age: 'I'm still holding on to that torch'Rep. Eric Swalwell went after former Vice President Joe Biden in the second Democratic presidential primary debate. Swalwell said Biden, who is 76 years old, should “pass the torch.” Biden rejected the California lawmaker’s critique.




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Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEAL

Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEALAn Iraqi general and a U.S. Marine testifying in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL said on Thursday they never saw the platoon leader stab a wounded detainee in the neck, disputing the central allegation in the prosecution's war crimes case. A sworn deposition of Major General Abbas al-Jubouri, videotaped in San Diego earlier this month, was played for the seven-member jury on the second day of defense testimony in the court-martial of Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher. Contrary to prior testimony that Gallagher, or a medic on his team, had acted deliberately to cause the death of a helpless Islamic State fighter in their custody, Jubouri said the Navy SEALs did all they could to save the teenager's life.




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Kamala Harris Is Surging and Birtherism Is Back

Kamala Harris Is Surging and Birtherism Is BackPhoto Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyKamala Harris broke out from the other nine Democrats onstage during the second Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, calling on her personal experiences of racial injustice as a black woman.“As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said.That’s when she was attacked on Twitter by a conservative provocateur for not being an “American black.” It’s a play straight out of the racist birther playbook used against Barack Obama when he ran for president a decade earlier. This time, though, those kinds of allegations don’t have to circulate for years on obscure right-wing forums before they reach a mainstream audience. On Thursday night, spammers and even one of President Trump’s sons spread the attack to millions of people within hours. Kamala Harris Shows She’s Here to Capture the CrownHarris, 54, was born in Oakland, California to a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She spoke of her experience growing up black in the debate, recalling a story about neighbors who wouldn’t let their children play with Harris and her sister because of the color of their skin.The attacks on Harris’s background started Thursday when Ali Alexander tweeted she is not an “American black.” “She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” Alexander wrote. “I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting. Now using it for debate time at DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”Alexander’s claim was picked up by Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted it to his nearly 3.6 million followers. “Is this true?” Trump Jr. wrote. “Wow.”Trump Jr., who later deleted his tweet, wasn’t the only one using Alexander’s tweet to question Harris’s ethnicity. Harris’s team denounced the comment as racist. “This is the same type of racist attacks his father used to attack Barack Obama. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” a Harris spokesperson told The Daily Beast.More Twitter users copied and pasted Alexander’s message verbatim and tweeted it as their own, according to screenshots posted by writer Caroline Orr. Some of those accounts, like “@prebs_73,” have copy-pasted other popular right-wing tweets verbatim. Other accounts with right-wing references in their usernames and biographies piled on, accusing Harris of not being black.“Ummmmm @KamalaHarris you are NOT BLACK. you are Indian and Jamaican,” wrote a Twitter user with a cross emoji, the word “CONSERVATIVE,” a red “X” emoji (a right-wing Twitter trope), and three stars (a QAnon symbol) in their username.At least one known network of bot accounts was found spreading Alexander’s original tweet, BuzzFeed reported.Shireen Mitchell, a technologist and founder of the group Stop Online Violence Against Women, said the accusation against Harris plays into a long-running debate that has been used to drive a white nationalist wedge through black communities.“We are and have always been, for centuries in this country, having this little fight about who gets opportunities as black people and who doesn’t,” Mitchell said. “That includes colorism; that includes distinctions of where the ship actually landed; it includes if you are (and I am) a descendant of a slave who was born here versus a descendant of slavery from another country. Those distinctions, from my perspective, make no sense ever. But what it does is allow for white nationalist and nativist conversations to be planted in my community.”A spokesman for Trump Jr. said Trump sent the tweet originally because he had not known that Harris’s mother was Indian. “Don’s tweet was simply him asking if it’s true that Kamala Harris was half-Indian because it’s not something he had ever heard before and once he saw that folks were misconstruing the intent of his tweet he quickly deleted it,” the spokesman said. Alexander, who describes himself as black and Arab, said that Harris has a “nasty, lying history with Black people.” “Me pointing out that Kamala Harris has a mother from India and a father from Jamaica went viral last night because many people assume she descends from Black American Slaves,” he said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “She does not. I corrected Kamala Harris last night because she stole debate time under the premise that she is an African-American when she is in fact a biracial Indian-Jamaican who is a first generation American.”This isn’t the first time pro-Trump activists have tried to undermine Harris and her authority to speak on issues of race based on her parents. In January, right-wing operative Jacob Wohl, an associate of Alexander, argued on Twitter that Harris was ineligible to be president because her parents weren’t from the United States, even though she was born in California. Wohl’s claims were circulated by other right-wing figures online, in an attempt to create a birther-style question about whether Harris could legally run for president.Mitchell, who has monitored harassment campaigns against black women since 2013, said Harris is facing a new, digital permutation of the birther conspiracy theory attacks President Trump levied against Obama.“It’s a different iteration of birtherism: ‘where were you born?’ She was born in Oakland!” Mitchell said, referring to the conspiracy theory that falsely accused Obama of being born outside the U.S. “The conversation is, no matter who we are, our blackness should be challenged because what we look like is not ‘American enough.’”Mitchell draws a distinction between two kinds of fraudulent accounts that try to discredit black people online. Botnets, an automated network of fake accounts, often tweet the same message. The technique allows a message to spread far and fast, with little effort. Some of the copy-paste accounts sharing Alexander’s message appear to be operated by real people. Mitchell also monitors a trend called “marionetting,” in which someone will falsely pose as a black person online to push ideas that many black people might otherwise find objectionable. Recent examples of marionetting include a troll who stole a black transgender activist’s picture to pose as a Trump supporter, and Russian-run accounts like “Blacktivist” that impersonated black Americans to sway black voters away from Hillary Clinton in 2016.“I actually thought the botnet was going to die, because I felt like more marionetting was happening ... After this debate, I saw more botnets responding again, versus just marionetting.”Fraudulent accounts often rely on stereotypes that trolls hope to apply to a collection of fake accounts, Mitchell said.“The ‘black enough’ line has been a stereotypical frame,” she said. “It has always been a systemic narrative. It’s just being expanded in this national debate”‘Digital Blackface’: Pro-Trump Trolls Are Impersonating Black People on TwitterRead 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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Landfill Investigated Amid Search for Missing Virginia 2-Year-Old

Landfill Investigated Amid Search for Missing Virginia 2-Year-OldThe search is still on for a Hampton toddler who went missing Monday morning. Hampton Police focused on the city landfill on Thursday four days days after 2-year-old Noah Tomlin went missing.




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Biden wounded as Democratic tensions boil over at debate

Biden wounded as Democratic tensions boil over at debateFor months, the 2020 Democratic campaign seemed mostly placid, even cordial. At Thursday’s presidential debate, those frictions came to the fore – and Joe Biden bore the brunt. The former vice president, 76, entered the debate as the front-runner, having led the pack of more than 20 Democratic candidates since he joined the race in April.




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Senate fails to limit Trump war powers amid Iran tensions

Senate fails to limit Trump war powers amid Iran tensionsPolitical unease over the White House's tough talk against Iran is reviving questions about President Donald Trump's ability to order military strikes without approval from Congress. The Senate fell short Friday, in a 50-40 vote, on an amendment to a sweeping Defense bill that would require congressional support before Trump acts.




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Indian mother, daughter have heads shaved after resisting gang rape

Indian mother, daughter have heads shaved after resisting gang rapeAn Indian mother and her daughter were beaten and had their heads shaved by a group of men after they resisted a gang rape attempt, police said on Friday, in the latest attack to highlight the dangers facing women in the country. Seven men, including a local government official, barged into the women's home late on Wednesday in northeastern Bihar with the intent of raping the teenage daughter, senior police officer Sanjay Kumar said. "When the mother and daughter protested, the men got angry and called a local barber, who shaved their heads," Kumar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.




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MacKenzie Lueck case: Utah police arrest man on suspicion of kidnapping, murder of SoCal college student

MacKenzie Lueck case: Utah police arrest man on suspicion of kidnapping, murder of SoCal college studentPolice took a person into custody as the search continues for missing Southern California college student MacKenzie Lueck, authorities said.




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Friday, June 28, 2019

Here's the one thing Democratic candidates want you to remember about them after tonight's debate

Here's the one thing Democratic candidates want you to remember about them after tonight's debateOn Thursday, people will set summer relaxation aside and turn their attention to politics, since this is the debate at which most top-tier candidates will appear.




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US sanctions Maduro's son as it raises pressure on Venezuela

US sanctions Maduro's son as it raises pressure on VenezuelaThe Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions on the son of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a move to increase pressure on family members of top officials backing the socialist leader and suspected of corruption. The action by the U.S. Treasury Department freezes any U.S. assets belonging to Nicolas Maduro Jr. and prohibits American from doing business with him. "Maduro's regime was built on fraudulent elections, and his inner circle lives in luxury off the proceeds of corruption while the Venezuelan people suffer," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.




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Iran delays threat to breach terms of nuclear deal ahead of signatories' summit

Iran delays threat to breach terms of nuclear deal ahead of signatories' summitIran delayed a threat to breach its nuclear deal commitments while it waits for Europe to put the finishing touches to a multimillion-pound credit line to help it circumvent US sanctions.  The Islamic Republic had said its stocks of low enriched uranium would breach the 300 kilogram limit allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA, on Thursday. But officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency said enrichment had gone more slowly than expected and that Iran was not likely to hit the limit until the weekend.  Representatives of Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union, the remaining signatories of the agreement, are expected to meet to discuss a possible Iranian violation of the agreement in Vienna on Friday.  The three European nations are expected to use the meeting to announce a new credit instrument designed to facilitate trade with Iran.  The mechanism, called Instex, is meant to allow European companies to sell essential goods to Iran without falling foul of US financial sanctions. Britain, France, and Germany are expected to put up a small amount of money to kickstart it.   It is unclear whether the instrument, which has taken months of complex legal work to prepare, will be enough to defuse the brewing confrontation in the Gulf.  The JCPOA offered Iran sanctions relief and trade opportunities in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activity. The United States withdrew from the agreement last year and has imposed punishing sanctions on Iran in a bid to force it to accept more restrictive agreement.  Iran has said it will abandon its commitments, starting with the 300 kg uranium limit, unless the Europeans find a way for it to access economic benefits the deal promised. Iranian officials have said they will not be satisfied with requests for patience. But European diplomats say the instrument may take time to gain the confidence of private companies, and are unable to name the firms likely to make use of it. The US has been critical of the initiative. Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, said this week he did not think Iran would meet the transparency standards Europe will demand in order to make the mechanism functional.




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NBC hot mic mars first Democratic debate

NBC hot mic mars first Democratic debateA persistent technical issue forced NBC’s moderators to take an unscheduled commercial break during the first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night.




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