| Israel strikes Syria after rockets fired at Golan Posted: 01 Jun 2019 12:31 PM PDT  BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military said its aircraft struck Syrian army targets on Sunday after rockets were fired at the Golan Heights, and Syria's state media said three soldiers were killed in the second such flare-up in a week. Syrian television reported big explosions near Damascus before dawn and said air defences had "confronted the enemy". The Israeli military said it struck Syrian artillery and aerial defence batteries in retaliation for Saturday's firing of two rockets at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
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| Ocasio-Cortez: $2.13 tipped minimum wage is 'indentured servitude' Posted: 01 Jun 2019 04:28 AM PDT  The New York congresswoman returned to a restaurant in Queens on Friday, seeking to highlight the plight of workers she knows As she returned to New York to waitress and bartend for the first time since being elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the federal tipped minimum wage was tantamount to "indentured servitude". Before she rose to national fame as the representative for New York's 14th congressional district, the 29-year-old from the Bronx worked at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan. On Friday she went back to waiting tables and mixing drinks, in support of One Fair Wage, a policy that would entitle tipped workers to a minimum wage of $15 an hour plus tips. The federal minimum wage for restaurant and bar workers and other tip-reliant jobs such as nail salon workers is just $2.13 an hour. Although the minimum wage in New York is $15 an hour, this does not apply to tipped workers, who can be paid as little as $7.50. Dressed in an apron and standing behind the bar of The Queensboro restaurant in Jackson Heights, Ocasio-Cortez told cheering workers and small business owners the current rate was "unacceptable". The way that we give labour dignity is by paying people the respect and the value that they are worth at minimum "Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job, it's indentured servitude," she said, to loud applause. "All labour has dignity. And the way that we give labour dignity is by paying people the respect and the value that they are worth at minimum. We have to make one fair wage and we have to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, nothing less." In cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago, she said, the minimum wage should be higher, to support the "runaway costs" of living. "Because when our rents are running away, when our food costs are running away, in dense cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, we need to make sure that people are paid enough to live, period," she said. Ocasio-Cortez also described how working in the industry for four years, first as a hostess at an Irish pub while in high school and working at restaurants after college, left her dependent on tips and forced to make compromises. "I remember working in restaurants," she said, "and, you know, you would have someone say something extremely inappropriate to you, or you'd have someone touch you, and the thing is it would be the 28th of the month, the 29th of the month. And the first of the next month was rolling right around and you have a rent cheque to pay. You are more likely to stand up for yourself and to reject sexual harassment on the 15th of the month "And so you are more likely to stand up for yourself and to reject sexual harassment on the 15th of the month, or maybe the 10th of the month, when you could pick up an extra shift to make up for telling that guy to go buzz off." She said women are particularly vulnerable: "As a woman you allow yourself, we allow ourselves, to be more vulnerable than any person should ever be in the United States of America because of economic desperation." I was nervous that I may have lost my touch - still got it! That muscle memory doesn't quit ��Now let's pass #RaiseTheWage and get $15 an hour minimum for every worker in America. pic.twitter.com/FR0ARUB7bd— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2019 Before her speech she took orders from excited guests, speaking English and Spanish, and served pizzas before going behind a bar for the first time since she took office. After successfully making her first margarita – her vigorous shaking was met with cheers – she proclaimed: "I've still got it! I was scared." Larry Obregon, a bartender at the restaurant, sang Ocasio-Cortez's praises. "She's great, she's amazing at the bar," he said. "She made a margarita, she did a couple of mixed drinks with vodka and other spirits. Obviously, it backs up her background, she used to be in the service industry as well, so she knows exactly what she's talking about." Bartenders Serena Thomas, 27, and Nikolas Vagenas, 24, who were served eggplant and mushroom pizzas by Ocasio-Cortez, rated the congresswoman's customer service. Thomas said: "It was great, she still knows how to do it." Vagenas: "Yeah she's still got it, 100%"
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| President says Iran will not be 'bullied' into US talks Posted: 01 Jun 2019 01:17 PM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani stressed Saturday that Tehran will not be "bullied" into negotiations with the United States and laid down the Islamic republic's conditions. "We are men of reason and negotiation ... if one sits at the negotiating table with total respect and in the framework of international law," Rouhani said, quoted by the government's website. Rouhani has repeatedly ruled out negotiations unless Washington lifts sanctions against the Islamic republic and returns to the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Tehran and world powers.
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| The Latest: UK intercepts 74 migrants crossing the Channel Posted: 01 Jun 2019 12:45 PM PDT ![The Latest: UK intercepts 74 migrants crossing the Channel]( "The Latest: UK intercepts 74 migrants crossing the Channel") LONDON (AP) — The Latest on migrants crossing the Channel into Britain (all times local):
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| Virginia Beach gunman gave 2 weeks notice Friday but was in 'good standing' in his job Posted: 02 Jun 2019 01:16 PM PDT  The longtime Virginia Beach public works employee behind the nation's latest mass shooting put in his two-weeks notice Friday, hours ore his rampage.
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| Photos of the Cadillac CT5-V and CT4-V Prototypes Posted: 02 Jun 2019 03:03 PM PDT |
| Europe’s Center Holds, Mueller Speaks, Modi Wins: Weekend Reads Posted: 01 Jun 2019 05:00 AM PDT  Europe proved its resilience again this week. Forecasts that populists would score unprecedented gains in elections to the European Parliament proved unfounded, with the center holding and Greens surging. In the U.K., a conservative drubbing in the vote cast a shadow over the parade of hopefuls vying take the place of Prime Minister Theresa May.
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| Professor who has correctly predicted 9 presidential elections says Trump will win in 2020 unless Democrats impeach him Posted: 01 Jun 2019 05:15 AM PDT  Is this why Democrats are fired up about impeachment? American Conservative Union president Matt Schlapp reacts.
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| William Barr Laughs at Homer—but He Doesn’t Get the Joke Posted: 31 May 2019 06:47 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/GettyIt was surprising on Friday to hear Attorney General William Barr use the heroic ethos to explain his decision to spend the twilight of his career obstructing justice. Asked in a CBS interview if he minded very much that a lot of people have come to think a lot less of him, Barr noted philosophically:I am at the end of my career. Everyone dies, and I am not, you know, I don't believe in the Homeric idea that, you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries.William Barr Delivers Chilling Message to FBI for TrumpBarr was laughing by the time he got to the part about Homer—genuinely mirthful, unselfconscious laughter, the sort you expect other people to join in with because they're in on the joke. Up to that point, though, his demeanor had been somber if not downright grave, sitting there up in Alaska, where he was being filmed before a crackling fire in his plaid dress shirt and fleecy vest (the thinking-person's Christmas catalogue model) and speaking in hushed tones carefully laced with vocal fry. Observing that at his time of life and in this partisan climate he didn't care what people thought, he seemed almost sad, or like a man trying to appear almost sad. The subtext, anyway, was that he was taking one for the team. He said he had known all along that he would be criticized for his stance on the Mueller Report and for what he was doing now in terms of launching a series of investigations into the former investigators and their bad-faith efforts to bring this President down. It sounded, oddly, as though Barr was admitting that all along he'd been following a pre-determined script rather than responding dynamically to an evolving situation as it unfolded.It's not clear to me what Barr finds so uproarious about Homeric values. (I thought right-wingers were supposed to set a great store by "the Western canon.") But the dismissiveness and the laughter are on-brand for him. Barr gave exactly the same sort of patronizing laugh during his Senate testimony following the release of the Mueller Report, when Kamala Harris confronted him over whether or not Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein had ever actually been cleared to supervise the Mueller investigation and make charging decisions, given that he was himself a witness in the obstruction probe owing to his role in the firing of James Comey. Barr hedged and evaded and tried to filibuster, and had finally resorted to laughter, saying that that was the acting AG's job. "To be a witness and make the decision on being a prosecutor," Harris had pressed, and Barr had gone back to being flustered.You might say that dismissive mirth (whether voiced or not) is the ruling ethos of the Trump administration. It informs the logic of everything they do: lie, evade, and speechify until, realizing that you just don't care, you say what you really think in a manner that reveals at once how corrupt and dishonest you are and, at the same time, that there isn't a thing anyone can do about it. Which is the whole point: how powerful you are.But to get back to the code of the Homeric hero, Barr has it a little backward. Starting out with the notion that one does something heroic with a view to being granted everlasting fame, Barr notes that he doesn't care about that sort of fame. Ergo, he has no incentive to do the right thing. Barr's value-system though is purely transactional.It's true that the epic hero's fame, his kleos, is what will make him immortal. But that's not his motivation; that's his consolation prize. You don't do what's right or just or courageous so people will sing about you. You do it—despite the risk, although you might not win or survive, even when you know without doubt that you will fall or fail--because it's the right thing to do and because that's who you are. Because doing that thing defines everything that you or your party or the caucus or agency you represent stands for. It's something that perhaps Nancy Pelosi and Bob Mueller would do well to remember, the Speaker of the House who doesn't want to embark on an impeachment inquiry and the former Special Counsel who doesn't want to testify before Congress. You do the right thing not so that people will sing about you but so they may have something to sing about. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Collision sparks fresh debate over cruise ships in Venice Posted: 02 Jun 2019 12:32 PM PDT  A massive cruise ship lost control in Venice Sunday, crashing into a wharf and sparking a fresh controversy over the damage the mammoth vessels cause to one of the world's most famous cities. Footage posted to social media showed people on the harbour fleeing as the 13-deck MSC Opera, which suffered an engine failure, scraped along the dockside before knocking into a luxury tourist boat. "When we saw the ship bearing down on us, everyone began shouting and running," a sailor who was on the River Countess tourist boat was quoted as saying by Italian media.
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| EXPLAINER-The Fed wants ideas on how to target inflation Posted: 02 Jun 2019 03:00 PM PDT ![EXPLAINER-The Fed wants ideas on how to target inflation]( "EXPLAINER-The Fed wants ideas on how to target inflation") The Federal Reserve is convening experts to discuss overhauling how the world's most powerful central bank manages the U.S. economy. Fed policymakers and economists meeting in Chicago for a June 4-5 research conference will weigh options on how to best target inflation, part of a year-long review of the central bank's policy framework. The Fed announced a 2% inflation target in January 2012 but since then inflation has almost always been lower.
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| ''Officer hit! Officer hit!:' How the dramatic Virginia Beach shooting unfolded Posted: 01 Jun 2019 07:41 PM PDT  12 people were killed May 31, 2019, in Virginia Beach when a city employee opened fire in a municipal building.
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| How Monsanto manipulates journalists and academics Posted: 01 Jun 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Monsanto's own emails and documents reveal a disinformation campaign to hide its weedkiller's possible links to cancer Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup, one of the world's most popular herbicides, may cause cancer. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters Over the past year, evidence of Monsanto's deceptive efforts to defend the safety of its top-selling Roundup herbicide have been laid bare for all to see. Through three civil trials, the public release of internal corporate communications has revealed conduct that all three juries have found so unethical as to warrant punishing punitive damage awards. Much attention has been paid to Monsanto conversations in which company scientists casually discuss ghostwriting scientific papers and suppressing science that conflicts with corporate assertions of Roundup's safety. There has also been public outrage over internal records illustrating cozy relationships with friendly regulators which border on – and possibly cross into – collusion. But these once-confidential Monsanto documents demonstrate that the deception has gone much deeper. In addition to the manipulation of science and of regulators, the company's most insidious deceit may be its strategic manipulation of the media, according to the records. We recently learned that a young woman falsely posing as a freelance BBC reporter at one of the Roundup cancer trials was in fact a "reputation management" consultant for FTI Consulting, whose clients include Monsanto. The woman spent time with journalists who were covering the Hardeman v Monsanto trial in San Francisco, pretending to do reporting while also suggesting to the real reporters certain storylines or points that favored Monsanto. Lawyer Tim Litzenburg, who represents several plaintiffs suing Monsanto over claims Roundup causes cancer, told me that he has traced what he calls a "dark money project" by Monsanto aimed at winning favorable public opinion. The project includes planting helpful news articles in traditional news outlets; discrediting and harassing journalists who refused to parrot the company's propaganda; and secretly funding front groups to amplify pro-Monsanto messaging across social media platforms. "We now know they had pet journalists who pushed Monsanto propaganda under the guise of 'objective reporting,'" Litzenburg, a partner with the firm Kincheloe, Litzenburg & Pendleton, told me. "At the same time, the chemical company sought to amass dossiers to discredit those journalists who were brave enough to speak out against them." According to the internal Monsanto documents Litzenburg has received through discovery, pro-Monsanto narratives are disseminated by individuals and groups that promote the work of journalists who follow Monsanto's desired storylines while seeking to smear and discredit journalists whose work threatens Monsanto. For me, a career journalist who spent 17 years covering Monsanto for the international news agency Reuters, the revelations are not surprising. In 2014, an organization called Academics Review published two scathing articles about my work at Reuters writing about Monsanto's genetically engineered crops and its Roundup herbicide business. Monsanto had been unhappy with some of my stories, complaining that I should not be including the views of company critics. Academics Review amplified those complaints under the guise of being an independent association. Internal Monsanto documents have revealed, however, that Academics Review was and is anything but independent. The organization was the brainchild of Monsanto, designed as a vehicle for responding to "scientific concerns and allegations" while "keeping Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information," as one November 2010 email from Monsanto executive Eric Sachs stated. According to a March 11, 2010 email chain, Academics Review was established with the help of a former director of corporate communications at Monsanto who set up his own public relations shop and a former vice president of a biotech industry trade association of which Monsanto was a member. Other internal documents show Monsanto's money and marching orders behind the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), an organization that purports to be independent of industry while publishing articles attacking journalists and scientists whose work contradicts Monsanto's agenda. Articles written by ACSH associates have appeared in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. ACSH has published several articles aimed at discrediting not just me but also Pulitzer-prize-winning New York Times reporter Eric Lipton, who ACSH calls a "science birther", and former New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom, who ACSH accused of "irresponsible journalism" shortly before she left the paper. Both reporters had written articles exposing concerns about Monsanto. The New York Times' Danny Hakim has also been targeted by ACSH for writing about Monsanto. "Danny Hakim Is Lying To You," reads one of several posts by ACSH about Hakim. Internal Monsanto emails show ACSH seeking and receiving financial commitments from Monsanto. One email string from 2015 between the company and ACSH details the "unrestricted" financial support ACSH desires while laying out the "impacts" across social media ACSH is achieving. "Each and every day we work hard to prove our worth to companies like Monsanto…" the ACSH email states. A separate email chain among Monsanto executives states "You WILL NOT GET A BETTER VALUE FOR YOUR DOLLAR than ACSH." Tom Philpott, a longtime journalist with Mother Jones magazine who has written critically about genetically modified crops for several years, has also felt the sting of industry harassment. "These are vicious and utterly unfounded attacks on a journalist's credibility, well designed to undercut him with his employer," he told me. While harassing reporters whose coverage it deems negative, Monsanto has also found ways to cultivate certain journalists to carry its messaging. Monsanto's internal documents show that when the company wanted to discredit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) after the group classified Monsanto's glyphosate weed killer as a probable carcinogen, Monsanto turned to a London-based Reuters reporter with specific story suggestions. The emails show that a controversial story published in June 2017 by Reuters, raising questions about the integrity of the IARC's review of glyphosate, was secretly fed to the news agency by Monsanto executive Sam Murphey. Murphey gave the reporter documents that had not yet been filed publicly in court along with a desired story narrative and a slide deck of suggested points to make in the story. The story, which did not disclose Monsanto as the initial source, closely followed Monsanto's suggestions, the emails show. Another newly released email details how Monsanto's fingerprints were on at least two other Reuters stories about the IARC. A 1 March 2016 email speaks of the involvement of Monsanto's "Red Flag" campaign in a Reuters story critical of IARC and Monsanto's desire to influence a second, similar story Reuters was planning. Red Flag is a Dublin-based PR and lobbying firm. According to the email, "following engagement by Red Flag a number of months ago, the first piece was quite critical of IARC." The email goes on: "You may also be aware that Red Flag is in touch with Reuters regarding the second report in the series…" A little over a month later, Reuters published a story headlined "Special Report: How the World Health Organization's cancer agency confuses consumers." The stories in question were shared by ACSH, the American Chemistry Council, Monsanto and others In Europe, French prosecutors are now probing Monsanto's campaign to manipulate journalists and others, including secret files on influential individuals compiled by Monsanto public relations firm FleishmanHillard. Bayer AG, the German company that acquired Monsanto last June, has admitted that FleishmanHillard created lists of people in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom on behalf of Monsanto. The company has apologized for the secret files and said it is hiring an external law firm to investigate the matter. In the United States, Raymond Kerins, Bayer's head of communications, told me that the company "stands for openness and fair dealings, with all of our audiences, including the news media." The comment rings hollow as the character attack pieces on me and other journalists continue to circulate and Monsanto's history of harassment and media manipulation seems to be growing – just as the number of plaintiffs alleging Roundup causes cancer also grows. It's time for the dishonesty to end. Carey Gillam is a journalist and author, and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group
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| Leadsom Unveils Brexit Plan in Bid for Tory Leadership: Sun Posted: 01 Jun 2019 04:35 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Andrea Leadsom, a prominent Leave campaigner who has thrown her hat in the ring to replace Theresa May as U.K. Prime Minister, has finally unveiled her three-step plan to leave the European Union, according to her commentary in the Sun newspaper.Says its vital to leave the EU by Oct. 31 without any further extension to that deadlineFirst step is to introduce two bills to protect U.K. citizens and enshrine agreed-upon measures between U.K. and EUFirst bill is a citizen rights bill for EU citizens living in the U. ...
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| US yanks funds for anti-Iran Twitter feed after complaints Posted: 01 Jun 2019 09:27 AM PDT ![US yanks funds for anti-Iran Twitter feed after complaints]( "US yanks funds for anti-Iran Twitter feed after complaints") WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has suspended funding for an online project aimed at fighting Iranian disinformation after it tweeted harsh criticism of individual human rights workers, academics and journalists, some of whom are U.S. citizens.
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| Mueller Screwed Up by Staying Silent So Long Posted: 01 Jun 2019 06:58 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photo Alex Wong/GettyThe United States is experiencing a cognitive dissonance heretofore familiar only to those living under authoritarian regimes. Despite Robert Mueller's catalogue of President Trump's abuses of power that dwarf Richard Nixon's in culpability, the nation remains locked in a debate over whether the Trump did anything wrong. Some claim that Mueller is to partially blame for this allowing this dissonance to develop, because he did not expressly label the president a felon. Mueller did err, but not in that decision; in fact expressly assigning criminal liability to Trump in the absence of an indictment could have subjected Mueller to damning accusations of bias. Rather, Mueller erred in failing to anticipate the sheer willingness of Trump and his minions to brazenly lie about his report. As a consequence, he remained silent for two months after his investigation concluded, allowing the presidential mendacity to fester. It may be the singular mistake of Mueller's otherwise exemplary, indeed historically successful, investigation.Mueller: My Hands Were Tied on Charging TrumpA gap between fact and lived experience has permeated the Trump presidency from the outset, but it reached a crescendo with the release of the Mueller Report. The document details the willing acceptance by Trump and his campaign of criminal assistance from the Russian government during 2016, as well as the president's brazen efforts shut down the investigation of the attack on our democratic system. Even so Trump's culpability remains contested, based not on any substantial challenge to the facts detailed in the report, but by repeated lies. The primary blame for the situation therefore, rests with the president and his minions-associates, most notably Attorney General William Barr who pursued a disinformation campaign to misrepresent Mueller's findings before they were released. Mueller erred, however, because he (like so much of the nation) suffered from a failure of imagination. The lifelong law enforcement officer failed to comprehend that the United States under Trump has actually taken on certain attributes of an authoritarian state, requiring those seeking to uphold democratic principles to respond accordingly.Throughout their investigation, Mueller and his team hewed to a single-minded rule: speak only in court, and in the documents they produced. Mueller's stoicism during the pendency of his investigation was actually remarkably successful. Despite Trump's relentless, defamatory attacks, Mueller and his investigation remained popular, a fact that is all the more remarkable given the polarization that has come to permeate our national public life. Most of the public consistently favored the continuation of Mueller's investigation and rejected Trump's claim it was a "hoax." That public support was likely critical to the failure of Trump's recently disclosed efforts to engineer Mueller's firing and the shuttering of his investigation.Barr Is Wrong: Mueller Was Dead Right on Trump and ObstructionFurthermore, Mueller was also aware of prior examples of investigators whose volubility had undermined them.Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had a full blown public relations operation. Prosecutors, including Brett Kavanaugh, systematically leaked to the press; and Starr himself served as the primary advocate in favor of Bill Clinton's impeachment before Congress, for which he was relentlessly attacked by the Democrats' outside counsel, Abbe Lowell. Starr's credibility was in left in shambles, even as the effort to remove Clinton from office failed, with the public rejecting any pretense that he was an objective law enforcement officer. More recently, James Comey, unintentionally, but perhaps decisively, contributed to Trump's election, first by gratuitously describing Hillary Clinton as "extremely careless" in her handling of classified information in a news conference he arranged behind the back of the Justice Department; and second by disclosing the reopening of the investigation on the virtual eve of the election, in breach of longstanding DOJ policies. By remaining silent throughout his investigation, Mueller successfully avoided such pitfalls. But perhaps the isolation that Mueller maintained during the course of his investigation contributed to his apparent failure to imagine the consequences of failing to speak at the probe's conclusion. Mueller could well have provided the very same type of public summary of his report and its significance that he gave to the nation last week soon after delivering his report to the attorney general. While Barr might have opposed such a presentation, as a practical matter, he couldn't have prevented it. Furthermore, such statements by prosecutors at the conclusion of investigations are hardly unusual—and need not be as destructive as the actions of Starr and Comey. The last special counsel to investigate White House misconduct was Patrick Fitzgerald (named by then-Deputy Attorney General Comey) to investigate the leak of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. In announcing the indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide "Scooter" Libby (whom Trump recently pardoned) for perjuring himself during grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald sought to preempt expected excuses for Libby's misconduct by stating: "Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens. The requirement to tell the truth applies equally to all citizens, including persons who hold high positions in government."Had Mueller similarly delivered his statement of last week soon after delivering his report to Barr, he likely could have blunted, if not preempted entirely, the Trump efforts to misrepresent his office's findings and their significance. For example, Mueller could have made plain that his decision not to make charging decision regarding Trump was grounded in a Justice Department rule against indicting a sitting president, and had nothing to do with Trump's culpability (as Barr later suggested). As a recently released letter to Barr indicates, Mueller simply didn't contemplate that Barr would also embark on a weeks-long campaign to outright lie about the report and its findings, commencing with Barr's own mendacious letter of March 24, 2019, and continuing through a press conference held minutes before the report itself was released.It was only after Barr announced that he taking up the president's demand for a full-blown investigation of the law enforcement officers who successfully uncovered the Russian attack that Mueller belatedly spoke. While all of the facts Mueller recited came straight out of his report, it was only after he appeared before the cameras that the full import of his account of the president's misconduct finally began to hit home.Heaping blame upon Mueller for failing to anticipate the willingness of the president and his associated to lie is not productive. Learning from the experience is, nonetheless, essential. We have clearly learned that institutional norms must sometimes give way when the president himself is embarked upon a challenge to our democratic system of government. Comey actually recognized this following the election, when he insisted upon informing Congress of the then-ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign with regards to the Russian attack and (after he was fired) forced Rosenstein to name a special counsel by leaking memos recounting presidential misconduct. While Comey's volubility, and breaches of institutional norms, likely assisted Trump in winning the election, they were also essential to ensuring that Trump's misconduct was fully investigated. Now that Mueller has provided a detailed account of the president's abuses of power, it falls to the Congress to find a way to indelibly present those facts to the public, thereby counteracting the dissonance that has gripped the nation for months. It's unlikely that following the Starr model by bringing Mueller before Congress (over his objection) to become the face of the next stage of the investigation would be wise. Rather, as Mueller himself indicated, the most effective means of counteracting the lies would likely be through the testimony of the witnesses, and presentation of the other evidence Mueller assembled. Though the White House has set out to deny Congress access to those witnesses and evidence, Congress simply cannot let that stand. As a judge recently stated, the formally opening of an impeachment inquiry should not be required to conduct such an investigation. But if there proves to be no other way to move forward, Congress may ultimately be forced to take that step. The survival of the democratic system that Trump seeks to undermine depends upon it.Mueller Means We're Headed for the ApocalypseRead 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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| UPDATE 2-Airlines want joint lifting of 737 MAX ban, but EU cautious Posted: 01 Jun 2019 09:28 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Airlines want joint lifting of 737 MAX ban, but EU cautious]( "UPDATE 2-Airlines want joint lifting of 737 MAX ban, but EU cautious") Airlines urged regulators on Sunday to coordinate on software changes to the Boeing 737 MAX in a bid to avoid damaging splits over safety seen when the aircraft was grounded in March. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose 290 carriers account for 80 percent of world flying, said trust in the certification system had been damaged by a wave of separate decisions to ground the jet, with the U.S. last to act. Boeing's best-selling jet was grounded after two crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, over five months killed a total of 346 people.
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| Turkey's Erdogan absent from Mecca Islamic summit: AFP Posted: 31 May 2019 07:48 PM PDT  Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was notably absent from a key summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi holy city of Mecca early Saturday, an AFP photographer said. Turkey, a regional heavyweight, was instead represented by its Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Erdogan's visit would have been his first to the kingdom since the brutal murder last October of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which tarnished the international reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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| Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bartends in Queens to push for higher minimum wage Posted: 01 Jun 2019 04:53 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York returned to her roots to push for a higher minimum wage.
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| Cruise ship collides with Venice tourist boat, injuring four people Posted: 02 Jun 2019 03:36 AM PDT  A towering cruise ship collided with a dock and a tourist boat in Venice on Sunday, injuring four people and reigniting calls for large vessels to be banned from the lagoon city. MSC Cruises said the 2,679-passenger Opera, a 54-metre high and 275-metre long liner which dwarfed the Venice skyline, was approaching a passenger terminal on the Giudecca canal when it hit the dock and a nearby ferry after a technical problem. "I thought the ship was going to crash into my house," a resident living nearby told Italy's state television.
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| Virginia Beach shooting: 12 victims and gunman named after 'horrific crime' Posted: 01 Jun 2019 01:14 PM PDT  Eleven killed were city staff members, one was contractorPolice say additional weapons found at suspect's home A law enforcement official stands at an entrance to Municipal Building Two, in Virginia Beach. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP America was reeling on Saturday after 12 people were shot dead at a government building in Virginia Beach late on Friday afternoon. It was the deadliest mass shooting this year and prompted fresh demands for gun control reform. The 12 who died were named. Describing a "horrific crime scene", police and city leaders said they would name the gunman only once, preferring to focus on those he killed. Four people remained in hospital, seriously injured. Virginia Beach city manager Dave Hansen struggled to suppress sorrow and anger as he described "a senseless, incomprehensible act of violence". As he listed the dead, his co-workers, he referred to them in the present tense. Eleven were city employees who worked in Municipal Building Two. One was a contractor trying to get a permit. All but three lived in Virginia Beach. Details began to emerge, in tributes from friends and family. Christopher Rapp was a member of a local bagpipe group. In a Facebook post, bandmates said he was quiet but passionate. He had only been working for the city for 11 months. Robert "Bobby" Williams, a special projects coordinator, had worked for the city for 41 years. Laquita C Brown was remembered as someone who lit up any room. "It still doesn't feel real," Sinda Price wrote of the public works employee of nearly five years. "I can't believe she's gone." Ryan Keith Cox's brother, Ervin Ray Cox Jr, wrote: "My heart is hurting because my baby brother was murdered today. I won't hear his beautiful singing voice at church or home anymore. I loved my brother and will truly miss his caring soul. Until we meet again in heaven." The other victims were Tara Walsh Gallagher, Mary Louis Gayle, Alexander Mikhail Gusev, Katherine A Nixon, Richard H Nettleton, Joshua O Hardy, Michelle "Missy" Langer, and Herbert "Bert" Snelling. They left, Hansen said, "a void we will never be able to fill". Top row from left: Laquita C Brown, Ryan Keith Cox, Tara Welch Gallagher and Mary Louise Gayle. Middle row from left: Alexander Mikhail Gusev, Joshua A Hardy, Michelle 'Missy' Langer and Richard H Nettleton. Bottom row from left: Katherine A Nixon, Christopher Kelly Rapp, Herbert "Bert" Snelling and Robert "Bobby" Williams. Photograph: AP The injured were not named. Martin O'Grady, head of trauma at Sentara Virginia Beach hospital, told reporters one person had returned to intensive care and two needed operations "to get injuries repaired". One person did not require urgent care, he said, "but if the injury were a little further over he probably wouldn't be here today". One policeman was hurt, saved by a bulletproof vest. Police chief James Cervera said officers responded "within minutes" of the first call from Municipal Building Two. There was no verbal exchange with the gunman. "Once he identified them he immediately opened fire," Cervera said. "They returned fire. This was a long-term, large gunfight." The gunman was killed by police. The shooting stunned this resort city of 448,000 residents and 3 million annual tourists, and renewed national debate about gun violence. Joe Biden, the former vice-president running for the Democratic nomination, said he and his wife, Jill, were "heartbroken". "When will we finally say enough is enough?" he tweeted. "It's long past time to hold our leaders accountable." Cervera named the gunman as DeWayne Craddock, 40, a 15-year employee of the public works department. According to the Associated Press, Craddock spent time in the national guard and received military training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He graduated from Old Dominion University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Police confirmed on Saturday that he was a current employee and had not been recently terminated, as had been reported by some news outlets. The gunman gained access to the building with an active security pass. Authorities said the gunman used a .45 caliber handgun with a suppressor and "extended" magazines. On Saturday, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Ashan Benedict told reporters the gunman carried two pistols which were purchased legally in 2016 and 2018. An unidentified firearm recovered from the gunman's home was also purchased legally. Megan Banton, an administrative assistant, said she heard gunshots, called 911 and barricaded herself and about 20 colleagues inside an office, pushing a desk against a door. She texted her mother to say there was a gunman in the building. "We tried to do everything we could to keep everybody safe," Banton told the AP. "We were all just terrified. It felt like it wasn't real, like we were in a dream. You are just terrified because all you can hear is the gunshots." Virginia Beach is the biggest city in its eponymous state. Mayor Bobby Dyer called Friday "the most devastating day" in the history of his city. It was the deadliest instance of US gun violence since November 2018, when a dozen people were killed at a bar and grill in Thousand Oaks, California. Other recent death tolls include 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016; 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas in October 2017; 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018; and 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October. On Saturday, Donald Trump tweeted that he had spoken to Virginia governor Ralph Northam and city leaders "to offer condolences to that great community. The federal government is there, and will be, for whatever they may need. God bless the families and all!" The president is a close ally of the National Rifle Association, which is headquartered in Virginia. Democrats competing to take on Trump were quick to demand reform. Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, wrote on Twitter: "The days of the NRA controlling Congress and writing our gun laws must end. Congress must listen to the American people and pass gun safety legislation." In a statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed to a bill passed in February when she said the House had "passed common sense, bipartisan gun violence prevention legislation". But the prospect of an end to business as usual still appears remote. "The Senate must bring these bills to a vote," Pelosi said. As the upper chamber is controlled by Republicans, that remains unlikely.
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| Spying, treason and politics: President Trump ups the stakes in Russia probe battle despite scant evidence Posted: 01 Jun 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Trump is escalating his battle with the law enforcement agencies that investigated him, accusing them of treason and spying despite scant evidence.
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| NASA spots explosion of X-rays glowing in the universe Posted: 01 Jun 2019 07:37 AM PDT  NASA peers deep into the cosmos at the bright, leftover cinders of exploded stars, called pulsars. Now, the space agency has released a map-like image showing loops and arcs of X-ray energy — invisible to the naked eye — radiating from these dense cores of once massive stars. The most radiant spots are the suspected pulsars, repeatedly blasting X-ray energy into space. These trails of energy, or electromagnetic radiation, reveal the powerful sources of these X-rays. "Even with minimal processing, this image reveals the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant about 90 light-years across and thought to be 5,000 to 8,000 years old," said NASA's Keith Gendreau, who leads the imaging mission called NICER, in a statement. "We're gradually building up a new X-ray image of the whole sky, and it's possible NICER's nighttime sweeps will uncover previously unknown sources." Locations of pulsars. Image: nasa / nicer NICER, short for Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a cube-shaped instrument attached to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA focuses on specific pulsar targets, so NICER repeatedly follows similar tracks through the sky, ultimately creating prominent arcs of X-ray radiation on this sky map. In total, this image is an X-ray map showing 22 months of radiation traveling through space. SEE ALSO: The secretive lab that built 'the bomb' now scours Mars for signs of life NICER will continue to scan the cosmos for blasts of X-rays so they can better understand the sources of this energy — pulsars. Astronomers suspect these stars act like lighthouse beacons in the universe, regularly emanating or "pulsing" blasts of X-ray light as they spin. Grasping how different pulsars "pulse" may serve quite useful for future deep space travel through the solar system. NASA plans for a coherent map of pulsars to essentially act like a "GPS system in space." "When mature, this technology will enable spacecraft to navigate themselves throughout the solar system — and beyond," NASA said. WATCH: Meet Katie Bouman, one of the scientists who helped capture the first black hole image
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| DR Congo's Tshisekedi laid to rest as his son looks on Posted: 01 Jun 2019 01:23 PM PDT  Veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was laid to rest Saturday as his son, the president, looked on, following three days of ceremonies honouring his memory. President Felix Tshisekedi was visibly moved as he watched the final ceremony for his father, who died in February 2017 in Brussels at the age of 84. The former prime minister turned opposition leader was buried in a private plot at Nsele, on the outskirts of the capital Kinshasa.
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| We Can Tell You All of the Ways to Kill a Hypersonic Missile Posted: 01 Jun 2019 11:00 PM PDT  At a time when existing missile defenses can't guarantee success against the ballistic missiles, a whole new challenge has been posed by hypersonic vehicles. Many people believe that after a certain time period the effectiveness of ballistic missile defenses will grow. In that situation, hypersonic weapons' deployment is important. However, as of now, the Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCMs) are solutions looking for a problem.What's New in Hypersonic WeaponsSpeed, maneuverability, and low-altitude travel are major traits of hypersonic weapons which are not comparable to the existing ballistic or cruise missiles. Cruise missiles lack speed while the ballistic missiles can't maneuver. Hypersonic weapons travel normally at speeds greater than Mach 5 at lower altitudes with maneuverability making them harder to detect and kill than the legacy ballistic and cruise missiles.Major global powers are engaged in building, testing and deploying hypersonic weapons. Among them are the United States, Russia, and China. India and France are also working on hypersonic research and development. Russian's demonstration of "Avangard" in 2018 added urgency to the U.S. plans to expedite hypersonic developments. The United States is also looking at various options to defend against Russian and Chinese hypersonic threats with parallel developments of its own weapons. Russia and China would also be considering options of defensive capabilities after the United States has rushed to develop this capability.
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| China's defence minister says Tiananmen crackdown was 'correct' ahead of 30th anniversary Posted: 02 Jun 2019 01:56 AM PDT  Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe said Sunday that the deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago was "correct" and that it had ensured years of stability in the country. Mr Wei was responding to questions posed by the Telegraph at an annual security summit in Singapore. It is extremely rare for Chinese officials to acknowledge the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, which ended when soldiers opened fire on thousands. Even three decades later, the crackdown remains one of the most sensitive topics in China, and is subject to extensive government efforts to erase it from history. "Everybody is concerned about Tiananmen after 30 years," Mr Wei said Sunday at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. "China under the Communist Party has experienced many changes in those 30 years – how can we say that China did not handle the Tiananmen incident well? There was a conclusion to the incident. The central government took measures to stop that political turbulence." "Due to that, China has enjoyed stability and development. If you visit China, you can better understand that part of history." In the weeks leading up to the 30th anniversary this Tuesday, Chinese authorities have launched "pre-emptive strikes" by detaining, interrogating, and placing under house arrest former protest leaders and their relatives, according to the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of human rights groups. Muslims in China have faced a long battle against discrimination Credit: Guang Niu/Getty Images Mr Wei also defended China's policies in Xinjiang as "absolutely right," where US officials estimate three million Uighur Muslims are being held in internment camps. His remarks echoed what the government has said – that the authorities are running "vocational education centres to help these people deradicalise and learn skills to better reintegrate into society." Eight former detainees interviewed by the Telegraph however have said they didn't learn "skills," and were subjected to physical and psychological torture, such as body-cavity searches, electrocution by cattle prods, and solitary confinement. In a strong, sweeping speech, a uniformed Mr Wei spoke regarding China's position, making clear Beijing stood ready to defend its interests on all fronts, from trade to territories to Taiwan. "On the trade friction started by the US: If the US wants to talk, we will have the door open; if they want to fight, we are ready," he said. Chinese Minister of Defence General Wei Fenghe salutes Credit: WALLACE WOON/EPA-EFE/REX He also stressed that Huawei didn't cooperate with the Chinese military, echoing the government's long-held position despite allegations from the US of espionage risks if nations were to continue using the Chinese telecoms firm's equipment in its mobile and data networks. Under Chinese law, even private firms like Huawei are obliged to assist the government. China will also "fight at all costs" if anyone attempted to separate Taiwan, a democratically self-ruled island that Beijing has long regarded as a runaway renegade province. He exercised the same hardline tone on issues in the South China Sea, where China has claimed disputed islands as their own, and intimidating US and UK warships when they sail through the region. Mr Wei is the first defence minister to attend the Shangri-La dialogue since 2011, and met with his counter part, US acting defence secretary Patrick Shanhan on the sidelines Friday.
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| Reuters Science News Summary Posted: 02 Jun 2019 05:57 AM PDT ![Reuters Science News Summary]( "Reuters Science News Summary") Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, the space company founded by late billionaire and Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen, is closing operations, cutting short ambitious plans to challenge traditional aerospace companies in a new "space race," four people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The company, a unit of Allen's privately held investment vehicle Vulcan Inc, had been developing a portfolio of launch vehicles including the world's largest airplane by wingspan to launch satellites and eventually humans into space.
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| 8 Portable Camping Kitchens for the Wilderness or the Tailgate Party Posted: 02 Jun 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| This 1994 Toyota Has Been Turned Into Thunderbird 2 Posted: 01 Jun 2019 02:50 PM PDT  It's not often that Thunderbird 2 comes up for sale at £35k ($45k). Well, it's sort of Thunderbird 2...
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| Captain charged over Budapest boat tragedy Posted: 01 Jun 2019 02:23 PM PDT  The captain of a river cruise ship that collided with a smaller sightseeing vessel was charged Saturday over the accident in Budapest that killed seven South Korean tourists and left 21 missing. The Mermaid carrying mainly South Korean tourists overturned and sank late Wednesday, seconds after colliding with the Viking Sigyn cruise ship on a busy stretch of the Danube in the heart of Budapest. Strong currents have hampered the search for those missing -- 19 South Koreans and two Hungarians -- preventing divers from reaching the submerged boat.
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| Turkey, Russia face conflicts over Syria's push into Idlib Posted: 01 Jun 2019 12:20 PM PDT  ISTANBUL (AP) — Ankara and Moscow are again facing an escalation of violence in Syria's last rebel-held territory, a development that puts their cooperation to the test even as they support opposing sides in the eight-year war that has devastated Syria.
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| More part-time, small business workers could build retirement savings accounts under bill Posted: 02 Jun 2019 10:45 AM PDT ![More part-time, small business workers could build retirement savings accounts under bill]( "More part-time, small business workers could build retirement savings accounts under bill") The legislation would let more small employers to band together to create collective 401(k)s. Part-timers also would get more access to plans.
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| Ava DuVernay on the Central Park Five Case and Why She Treated Trump as a ‘Footnote’ Posted: 02 Jun 2019 04:14 AM PDT  Roy Rochlin/Getty"It's just disgusting," sighs Ava DuVernay. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker and TV showrunner is discussing the role of President Donald Trump in the Central Park Five case, wherein five teenage boys of color—Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, and Raymond Santana—were falsely convicted of the 1989 rape and vicious assault of Trisha Meili, a white investment banker, and subsequently spent up to 14 years in prison.At the time Trump, then a PR-hungry NYC real estate baron who occasionally served as his own publicist, sensed an opportunity for some headlines and inserted himself into the case, inflaming racial tensions with frequent comments to news programs along with newspaper ads, purchased for $85,000, calling the boys "crazed misfits" and urging the state of New York to "bring back to the death penalty," essentially calling for their pre-trial execution. He concluded: "Maybe hate is what we need if we're gonna get something done." Of course, after having their youth snatched from them through years in prison, the five men—whose confessions were coerced by police after 30 hours of interrogation—were exonerated for the crime in 2002 when Matias Reyes, a serial rapist, confessed to it, and DNA evidence taken from the victim confirmed it was him (to a factor of 1 in 6,000,000,000 people). The charges were completely vacated and the five men were subsequently awarded $41 million from the city in 2014. The settlement prompted Trump to pen a Daily News op-ed railing against the settlement, claiming that he was still convinced of their guilt and that "these young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels." When They See Us, DuVernay's four-part Netflix series on the famous case, provides a riveting—and maddening—portrait of the five boys, chronicling their lives from that fateful night in the park through their respective troubles reacclimating to society. And instead of focusing on Trump, who is relegated to a couple of news clips, it places the spotlight squarely on the boys whose lives were forever changed by an iniquitous system and a media all too ready to feed it. Co-Director Ken Burns On the New 'Central Park Five' DocumentaryMichael K. Williams Almost Didn't Survive to Be This AngryThe Daily Beast spoke with the prolific DuVernay, whose Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma helped inspire the OscarsSoWhite movement, and documentary 13th examined the racist history of America's criminal justice system, about her latest eye-opening work. Before we get into your excellent new miniseries, I'm curious when you knew that you wanted to be a change agent? I definitely never made a decision and said "I want to be a change agent," I just was always interested in the world of justice. As a teenager, my Aunt Denise introduced me to Amnesty International when I was very young, based on things that I was hearing were happening in other parts of the world. I remember going to my first Amnesty International concert as a young teenager, 14 or 15, and seeing U2 for the first time. And I remember, I had my Amnesty International card and jacket. I felt like there was something more to be a fan of than boy bands, and that's the earliest thing I can remember in terms of that kind of "formal" activism. But in terms of the community in which I lived, there was always a lot going on in front of me, and I think I was trying to make connections between what I was seeing and ways to remedy them. And overpolicing must have been one of those things you witnessed in Compton growing up.Yes, certainly. I did read that you initially started out in journalism, which is one way of bringing about change. How did your experiences in journalism lead you to fall out of love with it? I was an intern on the O.J. Simpson unit. As a junior at UCLA, I'd really pursued this internship that was really hard to get at CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung. It was a tough one, because they were one of the only networks that had real active bureaus in Los Angeles. So I got it, and was thrilled. I got it maybe two weeks before the O.J. trial began, was assigned a juror, and my job was to be outside the juror's home all day. I was never told to dig through the trash or any of that, but it was certainly a competitive environment, because there was an intern on every juror's house. And I just thought, is this it? Obviously it's not—there are great journalists out there doing amazing work—but it felt to be the beginning of a tabloid era, even though I couldn't articulate it at that point. I just knew this wasn't what I though it was, or wanted to do, and didn't think it was completely ethical. So, I found other ways to engage with news and fell into publicity. Ava DuVernay directs actor Jharrel Jerome, who plays Korey Wise, on the set of 'When They See Us'Atsushi Nishijima/NetflixLet's talk When They See Us. The project was first announced in July 2017, and I'm curious if you were at least in part inspired to tackle it by Trump's presidential run. No, no. Trump wasn't even thought of when we first started this—it was in early 2015 that I first started engaging with this, and engaged the men for their life rights. This started with me and Participant Media, which helped me secure the life rights, so it's been a four-year process and I don't even remember thinking about Trump other than his minor involvement in this case at that time. He hadn't even said his 2016 comments about thinking that they were still guilty, and he hadn't announced [his presidential run] yet. This sort of began on Twitter, right? I followed an account called 'The Central Park 5' after seeing the documentary, so this was maybe early 2015 or 2014. And the account had tweeted me, "What's your next film" after Selma? CP5? So then, I direct-messaged the account and found out it was run by Raymond Santana and asked, "Does no one have your life rights?" It turns out they didn't, and that began a conversation where I met the men one by one and became passionate about telling their story. So the project gets rolling in early 2015, and then in June 2015 Trump announces his presidential candidacy. Did it feel like kismet at that point? No, Trump was never the focus. When Trump announced his presidency, first, I thought it was a joke; and I never would have connected it to this, because he's not my primary signifier, barometer, or signpost. He's really a minor part of the story. It's their story. It's the story of five boys ripped out of their youth, and the story of their families, which was always my priority. He's an interesting footnote, but from what you'll see in the piece, we treat him that way—because that's what he was in the eyes of the boys as they were going through this chaos and terror. And that wasn't the chaos and terror of being called names by this guy that owns a bunch of buildings, it was the chaos and terror of having to walk into adult prisons in the moment and experience actual physical danger—and the violations to your life as a free citizen. He didn't figure prominently in that moment, and to be honest, never really did for us. What sort of research did you do for this project? And how did you gain the men's trust?I got to know them really well. Much more than dinners, I consider them all friends—I've been in their homes, they've been in mine. Over the course of the four years, I've developed personal relationships with each of them that are separate and apart from them as a group. I know their families, have spoken with their families, their wives, various girlfriends over the years, and really had to become immersed in their lives in order to really understand what I could expect and put into a story that best represented them; that, in addition to reading the court transcripts and all the paperwork on the case. Did you reach out to Trisha Meili for this?Yes, I reached out to Ms. Meili, I reached out to Ms. Fairstein, I reached out to Ms. Lederer, I reached out to Mr. Sheehan—a lot of the key figures on the other side. I informed them that I was making the film, that they would be included, and invited them to sit with me and talk with me so that they could share their point of view and their side of things so that I could have that information as I wrote the script with my co-writers. Linda Fairstein actually tried to negotiate. I don't know if I've told anyone this, but she tried to negotiate conditions for her to speak with me, including approvals over the script and some other things. So you know what my answer was to that, and we didn't talk. And Trisha Meili also declined to talk?Yes. There were a lot of big creative choices to make in this film, many of which pay off. Why did you decide to almost immediately thrust viewers into the night of the alleged attack in the park? I explored a lot of ways of how to get in. You can get in after, like, something happened in the park—let's go back and find out. You can do it completely backwards, where the men are exonerated and then do it through the case and their redress with the city. You can do it through an investigator who's looking at the crime, or a lawyer. But for me, it just came down to the boys—to stay with the boys, because it's their story. When I really committed myself to that point of view it became easy to, even when tempted to follow different people, return to the mission of telling their story. We thought, no, we wouldn't go have an actor play Trump to go see what he's doing, because he is not them. We stay with them. And we need to deal with him and others in the way that they were, so he only figures into the story in the way that they feel him, and their parents feel him. I'm just using him as an example, but that's the way that we addressed every kind of story point that might have taken us down another path.Although Trump is, like you said, a bit of a "footnote" in this story, he also was one of the people who led the charge in shaping public opinion around these boys. I have to say, you know, he actually wasn't the hugest ringleader at the time. Right now he's the president of the United States, so it figures in when he's tweeting about the 1994 crime bill and his "staunch advocacy" for African-Americans—all this ridiculousness that we know to be opportunistic, contrived, and manufactured for political gain. But at the time, he wasn't the only one. Pat Buchanan said that they should be tried, convicted, and hung in a public square; and in 1989, Pat Buchanan was a huge figure. So there were a number of them, and I wouldn't say Trump was the ringleader. It was New York, he was a businessman, he was looking to get on the map nationally, and it was a sensationalistic thing to do. He was one of many players, he saw an opportunity—he's an opportunist—and he went for it. The full-page newspaper ad taken out by Donald Trump calling for the execution of the Central Park Five boysWhat were your big takeaways from spending time with Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, and Raymond Santana? They're broken people. Yes, they can get in on a panel and talk about their experience, but they're not all completely well-adjusted. There are different levels of that, based on the support that they have in their lives and based on the level of trauma that they've experienced, all of which are different. I think the two that are having the most challenging time, even now, are Korey Wise and Antron McCray. Korey Wise lost more than his youth—it was 14 years; he goes in at 16; he was the one in there the longest; he goes straight into Rikers at 16 and never comes out; he's still in while the others are out; and he endured great abuse and great trauma at the hands of the state of New York. And Antron McCray's family was fractured in those precinct interrogation rooms. He basically lost his father in that room, and the family broke apart. That family never recovered. And now that both of his parents have passed away, and his mother passed away just over a month ago—she never got to see the film, and she worked on it with me pretty closely—he's in a state of brokenness. There's great trauma there that $41 million from the city, split between the five, with no acknowledgement of what was done, doesn't really fix. The film is an indictment of many things and the media is one of them, as the media at the time played a large role in helping convict these boys in the court of public opinion—going as far as printing their names and addresses even though they were underage. The press coverage was biased. There was a study done by Natalie Byfield, one of the journalists at the time for the New York papers who later wrote a book about covering the case, and it saw that a little more than 89 percent of the press coverage at the time didn't use the word "alleged," that we had irresponsibility in the press corps at the time not to ask second questions and literally take police and prosecutor talking points and turn those into articles that people read as fact, and proceeded to shape their opinions about this case that essentially spoils the jury pool, so that these boys were never given a chance. The real-life Central Park Five, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam, attend the premiere of 'When They See Us' at the Apollo Theater on May 20, 2019, in New York City.Dimitrios Kambouris/GettyTrump's comments in his ads that he took out in 1989 were taken out just two weeks after the crime was announced—they hadn't even gone to trial, so it was impossible for them to have an impartial jury pool. The printing of their names in the papers for minors, and where they lived, was a jaw-dropper. All of this was done by "reputable" papers in New York that we still read, so I'm curious how these papers take responsibility for their part in this, and also possibly use this to review the part they play in other cases that may not be as famous as this. Your Oscar-nominated documentary 13th also tackled racial inequality and criminal justice reform, and I'm curious what your thoughts are on the Trump administration's actions concerning criminal justice reform, with legislation like the First Step Act. I recently had a semi-contentious conversation with one of the subjects of 13th, Van Jones, about the Trump administration's work in this area.It's been a disaster. It's been an upsetting backslide from any of the small gains that were being made prior to him taking power, is what this is. There's been no instance of legislation protocols, of personnel put in place, any pronounced intention that there is any goal to really create change to build a just system. And so, conversation about it seems to be silly games on a Ferris wheel, because you'll keep going round-and-round if you take anything that's been proposed seriously. The context with which it's being proposed—in an administration that's done nothing but harm to people of color, to women, to LGBTQ people, to anyone that's outside of the dominant culture of cis white men—to have serious conversations with serious people wasting breath on debating the merits of any of it is not my focus. Not my focus. So, I leave it to you and Van to have those convos and I wish you well. But to me, it's pointless.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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| Gun Owners Are Passionate About Glock: 3 Ways to Make Them Better Posted: 01 Jun 2019 06:00 PM PDT  A better Glock trigger will take a seasoned shooter and do a few things for you. Someone who's mastered the stock Glock trigger knows they are only chasing fractions of an inch and fractions of a second. First it will make you shrink your groups, you'll gain that fraction of an inch through a better trigger.Since then the Glock has gone on to become an insanely popular handgun. Part of that popularity is modularity. Glock pistols in general have three different frame sizes, the standard, the larger, and the single stack. By frame size I don't mean length and width, I mean compatibility.For example, the Glock 26 and Glock 17 are the same standard frame. There are differences in overall size, but they can accept the same magazines and the same internals. This makes it very easy to find upgradeable parts for any Glock.Today, we are looking and talking about the most popular Glock upgrade out there, the trigger. The compatibility we mentioned is important, because you have to be selective about your trigger, and ensure it fits your Glock frame.HOW THE GLOCK TRIGGER WORKS
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| Thirty years after Tiananmen, protesters' goals further away than ever Posted: 01 Jun 2019 05:08 PM PDT  Three decades after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, increased government suppression of rights activism has pushed the demonstrators' original goals further away than ever.
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| Martian clouds sail above NASA's Curiosity rover Posted: 01 Jun 2019 09:42 AM PDT  While traversing across rocky plains in the shadow of Mount Sharp, the Mars Curiosity rover captured wispy clouds hovering in the sky. The car-sized robot — which landed on Mars in 2012 — captured these lofty clouds on May 17, 2019, which translates to the 2410th sol, or Martian day, of its mission. From millions of miles away, NASA scientists suspect these clouds hovered some 19-miles above the red Martian surface. NASA also notes the clouds are "noctilucent," meaning they're high enough for sunlight to pass through the floating mass of water and ice. Wispy Martian clouds. Image: nasa Earlier in May, the rover captured other high-altitude clouds, too, sailing over the nuclear-powered, six-wheeled rover. High Martian clouds. Image: nasa When the rover isn't gazing up at the Martian atmosphere, it's primarily interested in the ground. In May, the rover spent time drilling into soil of particular interest, because it's rich in clay minerals — and clay forms in water-rich environments. NASA scientists suspect this area (on the lower slope of Mt. Sharp) once supported a watery, Earth-like environment. SEE ALSO: The Trump admin really, really doesn't want you to see this climate science There's still zero evidence that primitive life ever existed on Mars, or anywhere other than Earth. But life — as we know it, anyway — needs water to survive. But Mars certainly has an abundance of Earth-like clouds, sailing high overhead. WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?
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| Here’s a state-by-state look at the fastest mobile network speeds in the US Posted: 02 Jun 2019 06:02 AM PDT  Opensignal has released a new report today about mobile network speeds in the US, offering an overview of how smartphone download speeds haven't improved all that much from this time last year. The report goes into greater detail about that, in addition to ranking each state and the top 50 US cities with the fastest speeds.Among the key findings of the report, tech hub cities surprisingly don't excel when compared to the 50 largest cities. For example, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin are all ranked in the bottom half of that list of 50 when measuring download and upload speeds, plus overall video experience.Across all 50 states, the report continues, smartphone users experienced download speeds that range from 12.1 Mbps in Mississippi to 32.9 Mbps in New Jersey. States with the fastest speeds are mostly concentrated in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions, while the two fastest cities are Cleveland and Minneapolis, according to the report. There's also a wide divergence in speeds between the top and bottom of that list of 50 cities, with the fastest cities offering speeds that are almost twice as fast as Oklahoma City, which ranks at the bottom.High upload speeds in New York and Salt Lake City mean you'll have the best experience there when sharing smartphone photos and videos. Interestingly, Los Angeles (the home of Hollywood) comes in at a middling 30th place when ranked for mobile video experience.5G offers significant promise in these areas, but, of course, it will still be a while longer before most ordinary customers get to experience that level of connectivity. "In even the lowest-scoring US city for 4G availability," Opensignal notes in the report, "smartphone users spend 94.7% of the time connected to 4G rather than older technologies such as 3G. Opensignal expects it will be years before smartphone users spend as much time connected to 5G networks as they do 4G networks and hence measures of 4G mobile experience such as 4G availability will continue to be important."
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| US preparing antitrust probe of Google: report Posted: 31 May 2019 07:58 PM PDT  The US Department of Justice is preparing an antitrust investigation of Internet titan Google, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Journal cited unnamed sources close to the matter as saying the department would look into Google practices related to web search and other businesses. Justice department officials share antitrust oversight with the Federal Trade Commission, which conducted a wide-ranging investigation of its own into Alphabet-owned Google that ended in 2013 with no action taken.
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| UPDATE 2-Israel strikes Syria after rockets fired at Golan Posted: 01 Jun 2019 06:05 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Israel strikes Syria after rockets fired at Golan]( "UPDATE 2-Israel strikes Syria after rockets fired at Golan") BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, June 2 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said its aircraft struck Syrian army targets on Sunday after rockets were fired at the Golan Heights, and Syria's state media said three soldiers were killed in the second such flare-up in a week. The Israeli military said it struck Syrian artillery and aerial defense batteries in retaliation for Saturday's firing of two rockets at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. An Israeli military spokeswoman said it was still unclear who had fired the rockets but the Syrian army was held responsible for any attack launched from Syrian territory.
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| Clearing up confusion on payments: If a retailer takes Apple Pay, it also takes Google Pay Posted: 02 Jun 2019 10:04 AM PDT  As New York City's MTA adopts contactless payments on some transit lines, people are still confused about who takes Apple, Google and Samsung Pay.
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| Scouted: Take Up to 75% Off Hundreds of Kate Spade Styles and Dive Into Summer With a New Bag Posted: 01 Jun 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Bags, like shoes, are seasonal. There's no need to carry a heavy, black leather bag in the summer the same way that you wouldn't wear a pair of shearling-lined boots to the beach. Sometimes, you just need to change it up. Thankfully, Kate Spade is here to help out with a massive Summer Splash Surprise Sale. Like the previous Surprise Sales, for the next few days, you can get up to 75% off over 400 styles. But wait, there's more. Use the code EXTRAEXTRA and get an additional 10% off any order of $150 or more. That means the Sam Large Pocket Satchel and the Reiley Straw Large Dome Satchel are each down to $143. Want to try something a bit different this time around? The California Dreaming Cloud Dot Midi Dress is $129 and has an adorable collar and a breezy silhouette. Or go for the Down Breezy Floral Laptop Sleeve that will protect a 15" laptop. The Summer Splash Sample Sale from Kate Spade is your accessories oyster.Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Trump Fires the First Shot in Mexico Tariff War Posted: 01 Jun 2019 05:37 AM PDT  Whether on China, Iran, or Venezuela, the Trump administration's consistent refrain is "maximum pressure." Mexico is no different. Thursday evening President Donald Trump announced a new series of tariffs on all imports from Mexico. This is in response to the ongoing migrant crisis along the southern border which has seen over a hundred thousand people enter the United States every month. "Mexico's passive cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States," the president claimed in an official statement.To incentivize the Mexican government into preventing migrants from reaching the U.S. southern border, a 5 percent tariff will be placed on all imports starting on June 10. Trump is doing this by invoking presidential authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which became applicable after his declaration of a national emergency in February. The tariff will subsequently increase 5 percent every month until it reaches 25 percent in October. It will remain at that level until the Trump administration decides the Mexican government is acting enough to prevent migration.
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| Virginia Beach officials detail 'long gun battle' with shooter Posted: 02 Jun 2019 09:35 AM PDT  Virginia Beach city officials are still investigating the motive behind Friday's mass shooting at a municipal building that claimed the lives of 12 people.
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| China announces South China Sea military training exercises Posted: 02 Jun 2019 12:48 AM PDT  BEIJING (AP) — China began two days of military training in the South China Sea Sunday, as its defense minister warned that China's armed forces would "resolutely take action" to defend Beijing's claims over the area.
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