| Man has life support accidentally cut off by wrong family after being mistaken for someone else Posted: 04 Jul 2019 09:40 AM PDT  A man died without his relatives knowing after a mix up led to another family turning off his life support.Relatives say Elisha Brittman, 69, was misidentified as Alfonso Bennett after he was found naked and unresponsive with serious facial injuries beneath a car in Chicago in April.He was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he was listed as John Doe while his family continued their desperate search for him, according to the CBS 2 news channel.Mr Bennett's family later received a phone call from the hospital, which said he had been identified through mugshots and that he was in intensive care.When he showed no signs of improvement, the Bennett family agreed to have his ventilator removed and he died days later.The family were in the middle of arranging the funeral when the real Alfonso Bennett turned up at a barbecue.Mr Brittman's relatives, who still believed he was missing at the time, learned of his death after he was eventually identified through fingerprints at the morgue.Both families have now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Chicago and Mercy Hospital, accusing them of negligence.They say the mix up, which has been devastating for everyone involved, may never have happened if Mr Brittman had been fingerprinted in the first place.Mr Bennett's sister Rosie Brooks, who received the phone call saying her brother was in hospital, told a press conference on Wednesday: "I said 'how did you all verify this was Alfonso Bennett' –they said 'through the Chicago Police Department'."In my heart I could not recognise him."She added: "If this [the fingerprinting] had been done when they first picked that body up we wouldn't even be here today."State senator Patricia Van Pelt said she would look into introducing legislation which would require an unconscious person to be identified through fingerprints.Anthony Guglielmi, chief communications officer for Chicago Police, said in a tweet last month: "To say that we currently have questions is an understatement."We have detectives looking into every aspect of this incident – from the incident response to the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation and the notification of family members."A spokesperson for Mercy Hospital said it would not be providing a statement at this time.The Independent has contacted Chicago Police Department for comment.
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| Timeline: 'Sewing Circle' to murder case against Navy SEAL Posted: 02 Jul 2019 08:55 PM PDT  The case against Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a sniper and medic accused of stabbing to death a wounded Islamic State fighter, caused fissures in the normally cohesive and secretive community of Navy SEALS, some of the world's best trained troops who often are called on for the most difficult assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. Other SEALS were responsible for providing incriminating information that led to a formal investigation that produced murder and other charges against Gallagher. Just before the trial began, President Donald Trump considered a pardon for Gallagher but demurred as critics said it would undermine the military justice system.
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| 'Ticking time bomb': DHS must fix overcrowding at Texas migrant detention centers Posted: 03 Jul 2019 10:37 AM PDT  The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General warns of a "ticking time bomb" because of overcrowding at migrant detention centers.
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| UPDATE 6-Australian student released from North Korea says he's "very good" Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:39 PM PDT ![UPDATE 6-Australian student released from North Korea says he's "very good"]( "UPDATE 6-Australian student released from North Korea says he's \"very good\"") SYDNEY/TOKYO, July 4 (Reuters) - An Australian student who was detained in North Korea was freed and safely left the country on Thursday, arriving in Tokyo via Beijing later the same day after Swedish officials helped broker his release. Alek Sigley, 29, who was studying in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, had been missing since June 25.
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| A Teen From a 'Good Family' Allegedly Bragged About Raping a 16-Year-Old. Now a Judge Is Under Fire for His Leniency Posted: 03 Jul 2019 11:41 AM PDT  The judge denied a request to try the boy as an adult. An appeals court reversed his decision
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| Woman who 'died' for 27 minutes writes chilling note after she's resuscitated Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:10 AM PDT  An Arizona woman who "died" for a total of 27 minutes asked for a notepadafter she was resuscitated to share an urgent message about the afterlife, herfamily claims
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| 2 charged with vandalizing 'The Bean' in Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park Posted: 04 Jul 2019 11:55 AM PDT  Two people have been charged with the vandalizing of 'The Bean' in Millennium Park and the Cancer Survivor's Garden at Maggie Daley Park, Chicago police said Thursday.
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| Video Alert: Watch an Iranian F-14A Launch a Fakour-90 Air-To-Air Missile Posted: 03 Jul 2019 02:48 AM PDT  The following interesting video is the first known footage that shows an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) F-14A Tomcat firing a Fakour-90 air-to-air missile.The missile is a copy of the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix missile that was sold together with the F-14 to Iran in the late 1970s.The missile was developed by the Iranian Army, Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, and IRIAF. In Oct. 2011, it was announced that the missile had reached the stage of mass production.The U.S. Navy retired the iconic Tomcat on Sep. 22, 2006 and today the F-14 remains in in service with IRIAF.In Jan. 2007, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that sales of spare F-14 parts would be suspended over concerns of the parts ending up in Iran and in Jul. 2007 the remaining U.S. F-14s were shredded to ensure that any parts could not be acquired.However in Oct. 2010 IRIAF commander stated that his country was overhauling its F-14s and mentioned that Iran-made radar system had been installed on the fighter.
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| View Photos of our Long-Term 2019 Hyundai Veloster N Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT |
| Trump administration attempt to indefinitely detain asylum seekers blocked by federal judge Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:49 AM PDT  A federal judge has blocked an order issued by the Trump administration that would have kept thousands of migrants detained for an indefinite period while they waited for a resolution to requests for asylum in the United States.The order issued by attorney general William Barr had represented the latest step by the administration to discourage migrants from seeking asylum, but a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the measure could not be enforced.Judge Marsha Pechman of the US district court in Washington DC, said in her court ruling that the order, which would have seen a significant number of migrants seeking asylum denied a bail hearing, was unconstitutional.The judge had issued a preliminary injunction earlier this year that required migrants seeking asylum, who are given a hearing in their proceedings, to be released within seven days after that hearing had been granted.Mr Barr's order, issued in April, had been the latest step by the Trump administration to prevent the release of migrants into the country, and attempt to deter asylum seekers from crossing the border altogether.The Trump administration in recent months has raised fees for migrants applying for asylum seekers and slowed processing at legitimate ports of entry as it fumbles to find a policy that could reduce record numbers of immigration.For over a decade, migrants who have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries have been allowed to request hearings to be released on bail rather than be forced to wait in custody while waiting for their cases to be heard.The order from Mr Barr, would have denied that right to a hearing to migrants who had illegally crossed the border into the country, even after he accepted it would aggravate conditions at overcrowded detention facilities.Ms Pechman, in her ruling, also took issue with an aspect of Mr Barr's measure that would have left open the possibility that migrants could be re-detained by ICE immigration officers after they had been released on bail.The office of the White House press secretary condemned the decision in a statement on Wednesday morning, saying it incentivised smugglers and traffickers. "The district court's injunction is at war with the rule of law," it said.Ms Pechman's ruling comes amid a widespread shortage of immigration judges that has caused unprecedented delays in processing asylum cases. At the end of April, records showed the backlog stood at nearly a million cases.Top officials involved in setting immigration policy have insisted a hard-line approach is necessary to stem the tide of migrants from entering the US, but many of the measures – some blocked by court orders – have largely failed."Hearing dates were being scheduled as far out as August 2023 in New York City, October 2022 in Los Angeles, and April 2022 in San Francisco," the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reported.Michael Tan, a migrant rights lawyer, said in a statement: "The court forcefully rejected the Trump administration's bid to arbitrarily jail asylum-seekers without a hearing."The justice department is expected to appeal the ruling.Additional reporting by agencies
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| Harris picks up new endorsement among divided black caucus Posted: 03 Jul 2019 05:57 AM PDT  Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris picked up another endorsement Wednesday from a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, where she is competing for support with former Vice President Joe Biden. Connecticut Democrat Jahana Hayes posted an op-ed in Essence on Wednesday ahead of the magazine's annual gathering this weekend in New Orleans. Hayes cited Harris' story of being bused as a young girl in Berkeley, California, which the California Democrat spoke about in last week's Democratic presidential debate.
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| Strongest earthquake to hit Southern California in 20 years rattles region, rumbles residents Posted: 04 Jul 2019 04:34 PM PDT  A preliminary magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked Southern California on Thursday, shaking an area for hundreds of miles.
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| UPDATE 1-Dam bursts in India after rains, killing 11 Posted: 03 Jul 2019 05:17 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Dam bursts in India after rains, killing 11]( "UPDATE 1-Dam bursts in India after rains, killing 11") Heavy monsoon rains caused the breach of a small dam in western India, washing away dozens of homes and killing at least 11 people with 13 missing, a government official said on Wednesday. Seasonal rains have crippled India's financial centre of Mumbai this week, disrupting rail and air traffic in the city of 18 million, while wall collapses have killed more than 30 people. Tuesday's breach of the Tiware dam in the coastal district of Ratnagiri, nearly 275 km (170 miles) south of Mumbai, washed away dozens of homes, an official of the Maharashtra state government said.
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| Justin Amash Quits Republican Party After Backing Trump Impeachment Posted: 04 Jul 2019 03:42 AM PDT  Reuters / Kevin LamarqueJustin Amash—the only Republican who has said publicly that he wants President Trump to face impeachment—is celebrating the Fourth of July in style after announcing that he's quit the GOP.Writing in the Washington Post, Amash made a thinly-veiled attack on Trump in an emotional plea to Americans to reject "the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us." He went on to say that American politics is trapped in a "partisan death spiral," and warned : "If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it."Amash's decision to quit the party comes after he joined Democratic calls for an impeachment inquiry after the publication of the Mueller Report in April. Since then, he's had to deal with the scorn of his colleagues and has been publicly singled out as a "lightweight" by the president, who said Amash was "a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!"Trump welcomed the news of Amash's exit Thursday, calling him "one of the dumbest and most disloyal men in Congress." He added: "[Amash] knew he couldn't get the nomination to run again in the Great State of Michigan. Already being challenged for his seat. A total loser!"In his article, Amash quoted extensively from George Washington's farewell address which warned against the dangers of partisanship. Amash wrote that Washington's fears are coming true and that Americans allowed elected officials to toss the constitution aside for the sake of party unity, and that he's become "frightened" by the two-party system in recent years."Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party," wrote Amash, summing up his announcement. "No matter your circumstance, I'm asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I'm asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system—and to work toward it."Amash's departure will fuel speculation that he's hoping to become the nation's leading anti-Trump conservative and seek the Libertarian Party nomination for the 2020 presidential election. He's been evasive on the question before, telling CNN earlier this year that he can't rule out the move because he feels that "someone" has to shake up two-party politics.The move will also throw open the GOP primaries in Michigan's 3rd District, where several Republican candidates have already announced their intention to challenge Amash for his congressional seat.Providing he does try to keep a hold of his seat—which he didn't mention in the article—he'll now face reelection as an independent.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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| PHOTOS: Where migrants are held in U.S. custody Posted: 03 Jul 2019 12:14 PM PDT  The treatment of migrants in federal custody has come under intense scrutiny following recent reports of unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, and prolonged detention of adults and children at several U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities near the southwest border.
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| Jury to decide SEAL's punishment for posing with corpse Posted: 02 Jul 2019 10:05 PM PDT  The same military jurors who acquitted a decorated Navy SEAL of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017 will return to court Wednesday to decide whether he should serve any jail time for the single charge he was convicted of: posing with the 17-year-old militant's corpse. The final step comes after the verdict Tuesday was met with an outpouring of emotion as the jury also cleared Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of attempted murder in the shootings of two civilians and all other charges. Gallagher could face up to four months imprisonment for the single conviction along with a reduction in rank, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a reprimand.
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| Trump team weighs giving China a get-out-of-jail free card on Iran Posted: 03 Jul 2019 02:02 AM PDT  The move would breach a vow to bring Iran's oil exports to zero.
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| Manslaughter charges for woman who lost baby after being shot in stomach dismissed by prosecutors following outcry Posted: 03 Jul 2019 11:56 PM PDT  A woman indicted for manslaughter after losing her unborn baby when she was shot has had the charge dropped.Marshae Jones, of Birmingham, Alabama, lost the foetus after being blasted in the stomach following a fight in December.The 28-year-old was arrested last week after a grand jury decided she had caused the death by initiating the brawl while knowing she was five months pregnant.But, following a global outcry, a Jefferson County district attorney announced the charges were being discontinued on Wednesday.Lynneice Washington said: "After reviewing the facts of this case and the applicable state law, I have determined that it is not in the best interest of justice to pursue prosecution of Ms Jones. There are no winners, only losers, in this sad ordeal."No further explanation was offered for the sudden change or any rationale given for how grand jurors returned the indictment in the first place.Ms Jones' lawyers said she was pleased with the decision and urged her supporters to now direct their energy to "ensuring that what happened to Marshae won't ever happen again".They had previously called the charge "flawed and twisted", saying it "defies the most basic logic and analysis".The case came shortly after Alabama passed America's most hard-line anti-abortion legislation.The new laws, passed earlier this year, make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a crime punishable by life in prison for the provider. It makes no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.Officials denied Jones' indictment had anything to do with the legislation but her case sparked outrage across the US and wider world among pro-choice campaigners and advocates for women's rights.Many pointed out the charge was another clear example of the state attempting to punish women for so-called crimes related to their pregnancies.Legal scholars said the arrest raised questions about what other scenarios – such as driving a car or swimming in a pool – could constitute putting a foetus in danger.Jeffery Robinson, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed the charges being dropped, saying the decision "represents precisely what we want to see in these critical moments: a prosecutor who is not afraid to use prosecutorial discretion and power to refuse to prosecute when the law and justice demands that charges should be dropped."Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said she was pleased to see the case dismissed but noted it would be a mistake to see it as an outlier.She said: "We hope there are no more cases like this in the future, but our experience in 40 years of cases suggests that we will see many more such misuses of the law in the name of foetal personhood in the future."Ms Jones' attacker, 23-year-old Ebony Jemison, had manslaughter charges against her dismissed earlier this year. She herself had said she felt the indictment of her rival was unjust.
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| Proud to be an American? Gallup poll hits historic low of 45% ahead of Fourth of July holiday Posted: 03 Jul 2019 05:37 AM PDT ![Proud to be an American? Gallup poll hits historic low of 45% ahead of Fourth of July holiday]( "Proud to be an American? Gallup poll hits historic low of 45% ahead of Fourth of July holiday") The highest readings on record, of 69% and 79%, occurred between 2002 and 2004, according to Gallup.
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| Vietnam asks firms to use local materials as US threatens tariffs Posted: 04 Jul 2019 02:52 AM PDT ![Vietnam asks firms to use local materials as US threatens tariffs]( "Vietnam asks firms to use local materials as US threatens tariffs") Vietnamese manufacturers should use domestically-sourced raw materials to avoid incurring U.S. tariffs, Vietnam's foreign ministry said on Thursday, days after Washington said it would impose large duties on some steel products shipped through the Southeast Asian country. The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it would slap tariffs of up to 456% on certain steel produced in South Korea or Taiwan which are then shipped to Vietnam for minor processing and finally exported to the United States. "The Ministry of Industry and Trade has warned local companies about possible moves by importing countries, including the United States, to apply stricter requirements in trade protection cases," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said at a routine news conference in Hanoi.
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| AOC Releases Plan to Address Immigration Crisis Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:17 PM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday released a plan to address the increasing numbers of migrants crossing the southern border, calling among other things for decriminalizing illegal border crossings.In her four-point plan, the New York Democrat calls on the Trump administration to "reinstate US humanitarian aid in the Northern Triangle, where people are fleeing" as well as "start acting like a real partner in Latin America, & increase visas where we intervene."Secondly, the progressive congresswoman tied in her signature issue, climate change, saying that the refugee crisis is partly due to natural disasters."There is broad consensus from military to activists that resource strains (droughts, famine, etc) & nat disasters are drivers of refugees," she wrote on Twitter. "People are fleeing places that were once livable & are no longer. It will get worse the longer we do nothing."Third, Ocasio-Cortez called for repealing the laws criminalizing crossing into the U.S. without proper documentation, saying the Trump administration is using the statutes to "mindlessly throw people in cages.""We have to take these proceedings out of criminal code & into civil code," she said. "Torture accomplishes nothing."Finally, the congresswoman proposed "large-scale public investment to spur job creation for citizens & immigrants alike." She mentioned climate change again, expressing her hope that the "investment transitions us to a sustainable economy (climate & income-wise)."Ocasio-Cortez's plan rollout comes days after she visited Customs and Border Protection detention facilities, where she said she witnessed migrants being held in disturbing and unsanitary conditions and experienced CBP agents behaving in a "physically & sexually threatening" manner towards her.CBP has also faced outrage and is under scrutiny this week after the discovery of a secret border patrol workers' Facebook group containing offensive content about migrants.
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| Harris clarifies stance on federally mandated school busing Posted: 04 Jul 2019 02:44 PM PDT  Sen. Kamala Harris on Thursday clarified her position on federally mandated school busing, saying it's only necessary in cases where local governments are actively opposing integration. Harris said that in the 1960s and '70s, institutions "were literally working against integration of our schools." That's why she supported busing then, she said, but now thinks it should just be a "tool" available to local governments and school districts to address segregation. "Today it is very rare that we require the courts or the federal government to intervene," Harris told reporters Thursday before a campaign event in Indianola, Iowa.
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| I asked Latinos why they joined immigration law enforcement. Now I'm urging them to leave. Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:04 AM PDT  Latinos make up half of American Border Patrol agents. But it's not self-hatred driving them to work for agencies deporting their communities.
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| Baked Alaska: record heat fuels wildfires and sparks personal fireworks ban Posted: 02 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Anchorage sees 80F weather with nearly 120 fires blazing across the statePeople cooling off in Wasilla Lake in Wasilla, Alaska, last month. Photograph: Mark Thiessen/APRecord-breaking heat across Alaska is pushing tourists to beaches, and sending flames across the unseasonably hot, dry state.Anchorage experienced higher than average temperatures nearly every day of June, reaching a balmy 80F on days that once maxed out at a mild 67.The weather is forecasted to heat up further through and after the Fourth of July, with temperatures expected to climb to nearly 90F in Fairbanks and Anchorage over the weekend.If the forecasts are correct, the state could set several new local heat records before the week is out.Alaska's heating has a cascading effect. As ocean temperatures rise, the coasts heat up, with potentially catastrophic consequences on land and in the water. And all that local heat contributes to faster planet-wide warming.The Rainbow 2 fire, burning near Delta Creek, Alaska, late last month. Photograph: Handout/ReutersAlaska is no stranger to large wildfires, and so far this year's fire season is only slightly worse than average. But with about a quarter-million acres burned in roughly the last week, nearly 120 fires still uncontained, and the heat still rising, authorities aren't taking any chances.With resources spread thin and fearing further sparks, the state fire marshal's office issued a statewide ban on the sale and personal use of fireworks ahead of the holiday.Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, forest destruction and other human activities are trapping heat and putting more energy into the climate system. Hotter air means heatwaves are much more likely. For example, scientists now say the unprecedented heat and wildfires across the northern hemisphere in 2018 "could not have occurred without human-induced climate change". In Australia, the scorching summer of 2016-17 in New South Wales was made at least 50 times more likely by global heating, linking it directly to climate change.Hotter air can also carry more water vapour, meaning more intense rain and more flooding. Another important factor in the northern hemisphere is the impact of changes in the Arctic. The polar region is heating more rapidly, reducing the temperature difference with lower latitudes. There is strong evidence that this is weakening the planetary waves (including the jet stream) that normally meander over Europe, Asia and North America.When these waves stall, weather gets fixed over regions and becomes extreme. This has been linked to past floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Russia and drought in California. Most of the planet's trapped heat goes into the oceans and rising sea temperatures mean more energy for hurricanes and typhoons. Record-breaking cyclones hit Mozambique in March and April. The deluge delivered in the US by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was made three times more likely by climate change. Rising sea level also means storms cause more coastal damage.Global heating does not influence all extreme weather – natural variability still exists. Carbon Brief analysed more than 230 studies and found 95% of heatwaves were made more likely or worse by climate change. For droughts, 65% were definitely affected by our hotter world, while the figure for floods was 57%. It is now undeniable that global heating is causing more extreme weather.Alaska is trapped in a kind of hot feedback loop, as the arctic is heating up much faster than the rest of the planet. Ocean surface temperatures upwards of 10F hotter than average have helped to warm up the state's coasts. When Bering and Chukchi sea ice collapsed and melted months earlier than normal this spring, the University of Alaska climate specialist Rick Thoman characterized the water as "baking"."I intentionally try to not be hyperbolic, but what do you say when there's 10- to 20- degree ocean water temperature above normal?" Thoman told the Guardian. "How else do you describe that besides extraordinary?"> The northern Bering & southern Chukchi Seas are baking. Large areas away from land with ocean surface temperatures more than 5C (9F) above the 1981-2010 average. Impacts to the climate system, food web, communities and commerce. akwx ClimateCrisis @Climatologist49 @amy_holman pic.twitter.com/HkrHpZGs8g> > — Rick Thoman (@AlaskaWx) June 24, 2019The hot water has affected sea birds and marine life, with mass mortality events becoming commonplace in the region. The National Park Service characterizes Alaska's increasingly frequent sea bird die-offs, called "wrecks", as "extreme". "The folks in the communities are saying these animals look like they've starved to death," said Thoman.Accelerating ice melt stands to put the state's coastal communities at risk, reshaping food sources the people rely on and the very land on which they live. Where there are no built roads, Alaskans rely on frozen ground as infrastructure for traveling. Less ice means less of the life that's evolved to depend on that ice, both animal and human.A general view of the mountain valley obscured by smoke taken from the Glen Alps trailhead of Chugach state park in Anchorage, Alaska, on 29 June. Photograph: Yereth Rosen/Reuters"It's really affecting people's ability to provide for themselves and their families," said Brendan Kelly, a University of Alaska marine biology professor and executive director of Study of Environmental Arctic Change. "The amount of time people have to fish, to hunt, to trap is shrinking from both ends."Dozens of towns in Alaska are now or will soon be in need of relocation from eroding land and rising oceans."Things are changing so rapidly in Alaska right now we just can't keep up," said Thoman.
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| The 25 Best-Selling Cars, Trucks, and SUVs of 2019 (So Far) Posted: 03 Jul 2019 07:30 AM PDT |
| Update: City officials fill giant Edison Park pothole after residents raise concerns Posted: 03 Jul 2019 12:01 PM PDT  City officials have filled a giant pothole on Touhy Avenue after residents complained pothole caused homes to shake.
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| Hong Kong police vow action over parliament storming Posted: 03 Jul 2019 10:55 AM PDT  Hong Kong authorities vowed Wednesday to hunt down the protesters who stormed parliament in an unprecedented challenge to the Beijing-backed government. The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by massive anti-government demonstrations since last month, sparked by a proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. China has appeared irked by former colonial power Britain's public rebukes over the protests, and on Wednesday London summoned the Chinese ambassador.
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| After deadly NH biker crash, thousands of out-of-state traffic notices found untouched by Massachusetts RMV Posted: 03 Jul 2019 08:44 AM PDT  Tens of thousands of notifications detailing traffic incidents involving Massachusetts drivers in other states sat untouched.
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| UPDATE 1-Europe trade channel with Iran close to 1st deal in days - France Posted: 04 Jul 2019 10:54 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Europe trade channel with Iran close to 1st deal in days - France]( "UPDATE 1-Europe trade channel with Iran close to 1st deal in days - France") French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday he hoped a special trade channel set up with Iran would complete a first, limited transaction in the coming days. Set up by France, Britain and Germany, Instex is a barter trade mechanism that aims to avoid direct financial transfers by offsetting balances between importers and exporters on the European side. The mechanism is aimed at making it possible for trade between European Union members and Iran to continue in the face of stiff U.S sanctions since Washington quit a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers last year.
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| Putin signs bill to suspend Russia's participation in nuclear treaty Posted: 03 Jul 2019 12:30 PM PDT  Vladimir Putin has signed a bill suspending Russia's participation in a pivotal nuclear arms pact with the United States.The Russian president's decree formalises his country's departure from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, from which the US announced its withdrawal earlier this year.Donald Trump's administration gave notice in February of its intention to pull out on 2 August, citing Moscow's development of a missile that was in breach of the pact.Russia has denied any violations and accused the US of breaking the accord.In a tit-for-tat response, the Kremlin followed Washington in announcing in February it would also suspend its INF treaty obligations The pact, signed by US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned the production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 310 to 3,410 miles.The intermediate-range weapons were seen as particularly destabilising as they take a short time to reach their targets compared to the intercontinental ballistic missiles.That would leave practically no time for decision-makers to gauge how to respond, raising the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict over a false launch warning.Mr Gorbachev has said it was "mistake" for Mr Trump to withdraw from the treaty, telling Russia's Interfax news agency last year: "Under no circumstances should we tear up old disarmament agreements ... Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?,"
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| China's Navy is Going Blue Water (Starting With 6 Aircraft Carriers) Posted: 03 Jul 2019 08:00 PM PDT  China's rush to rival the United States as an aircraft carrier superpower reflects Beijing's conviction, inculcated after the perceived humiliation of the Third Taiwan Crisis, that China can neither defend its eleven-thousand-mile-long coastline nor project seapower throughout the East Asia region without fielding a modernized carrier fleet; specifically, six of them by 2035.China is forging ahead with the construction of its third aircraft carrier in under a decade, highlighting the scale of Beijing's maritime ambitions.A series of satellite images from the Jiangnan shipyard, recently published by a China-focused think tank, shed light on the ongoing construction of China's Type 002 carrier. The images reveal a typical military vessel construction site, replete with a floodable basin and multiple sluice gates. While the haziness of the photos makes it difficult to discern the carrier's dimensions, the hull appears to measure forty meters in width by forty-eight meters in length. If prior reports are accurate, Type 002 will be larger and much heavier than its predecessors at a displacement of up to eighty-five thousand tons versus the sixty thousand to seventy thousand tons. The carrier is widely expected to feature a conventional propulsion system, though other technical details remain scant.
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| Bad news for Bernie has his backers getting antsy Posted: 04 Jul 2019 05:02 AM PDT ![Bad news for Bernie has his backers getting antsy]( "Bad news for Bernie has his backers getting antsy") His campaign says his organization will win out and that predictions of his demise are way premature.
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| Social Media Influencers Have to Pay Double at This Soft Serve Truck Because the Ice Cream Man Has Reached His Melting Point Posted: 03 Jul 2019 08:13 AM PDT  Joe Nicchi is going viral for taking a stand against influencers asking for freebies.
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| Volkswagen Type 20 EV Microbus Concept Is the Hippie Classic, Reimagined as an Electric Vehicle Posted: 03 Jul 2019 11:15 AM PDT  For VW Bus lovers everywhere, this concept was built to celebrate 20 years of VW's presence and technology in Silicon Valley.
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| 10-foot-long great white shark surfaces off east coast, headed north Posted: 03 Jul 2019 10:08 AM PDT  A great white shark pays a visit to the waters off the east coast of the United States, including the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland and Virginia.
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| A Funky Pool Float Is the Perfect Summer Accessory Posted: 04 Jul 2019 05:00 AM PDT |
| Putin, after three days, says fire-hit Russian submarine was nuclear-powered Posted: 03 Jul 2019 11:49 PM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed on Thursday for the first time that a secret military submarine hit by a fatal fire three days ago was nuclear-powered, prompting the defense minister to assure him its reactor had been safely contained. Moscow's slow release of information about the incident has drawn comparisons with the opaque way the Soviet Union handled the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster, and another deadly submarine accident -- the 2000 sinking of the nuclear-powered Kursk, which claimed 118 lives. Russia, which says the details of the submarine involved in the latest accident are classified, said the fire took place on Monday, though it was only officially disclosed late on Tuesday.
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| Trump defends cost of having tanks and military planes at his July 4 celebration Posted: 03 Jul 2019 08:42 AM PDT  On the eve of his planned July 4 celebration in Washington, D.C., the president pushed back against criticism over the amount of money it is costing American taxpayers.
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| Look Closely: Is This Picture the Future of the U.S. Navy? Posted: 04 Jul 2019 01:36 AM PDT  Boeing is also looking to convince the Navy that the CMV-22 could fulfill all sorts of secondary roles that S-3 Vikings or helicopters used to fulfill, such as anti-submarine patrols, search-and-rescue of downed airmen, special ops insertion, and electronic warfare.Only time will tell whether the pricy CMV-22B brings about the revolution in logistics the Navy is hoping for.For over fifty years, the Navy has operated C-2A Greyhound cargo haulers with twin turboprop engines to ferry personnel, supplies, mail and spare parts to its massive aircraft carriers at sea—a mission known as Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD). The Greyhound, which is derived from the Navy's E-2 Hawkeye radar planes, can haul up to five tons of cargo or 26 passengers while still managing to land and takeoff from the three-hundred-meter-long carrier flight deck—and then fold its wings to fit in the hangar deck below.(This first appeared last year.)In the late 2000s, however, the Navy began looking to replace the aging Greyhound. Candidates to take up the COD mission included modernized C-2s and the Navy's recently retired S-3 Viking anti-submarine jets. In the end, though, the Navy gave in to urging from the Marines and decided to pursue the most expensive option—the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
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| Trump’s Census Tweet Shows the U.S. Government Is Led by a Madman Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:53 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyThis is what it's like working for a madman:Suppose you're a lawyer at the Department of Justice. You've worked there for 16 years, serving Democrats and Republicans alike. And, in a contentious lawsuit about the census, you tell the judge that, following last week's landmark Supreme Court decision, the government has abandoned its plans to change the census to ask about citizenship and is printing the forms without the question now. Everyone verifies this is true: the Commerce Department, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross himself, the Census Bureau, and your colleagues at the DOJ. Then, when you're away for July 4 vacation, the president says that's fake news.What do you do?If you're Joshua Gardner, special counsel at the Department of Justice, you tell the judge—on the phone, after the judge read the tweet and asked for an impromptu hearing—that "I've always endeavored to be as candid as possible with the court. What I told the Court yesterday was absolutely my best understanding of the state of affairs… The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President's position on this issue…. I am doing my absolute best to figure out what's going on."So are we all.Meanwhile, Gardner added, "the Census Bureau is continuing with the process of printing the questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that process has not stopped."The census controversy has officially degenerated from (averted) tragedy to farce.The controversy, to briefly review it, centers on the Trump administration's effort to add a question about citizenship status to the census form. That may seem innocuous on its surface, but the government itself estimated it would decrease Hispanic participation by more than five percent, leading to fewer government resources and less congressional representation in areas with large Latino populations—most of which just happen to be in predominantly Democratic states and districts.Last week, the Supreme Court called Trump's bluff. The court held that a citizenship question could, in theory, be valid, legal, and constitutional. However, Chief Justice Roberts continued, the government had lied, over and over again, about the real reason for adding the question to the census. That violated the law.In Surprise Census Decision, Supreme Court Finally Calls BS on the Trump AdministrationAs observers noted at the time, that was a temporary victory, not a permanent one. Activists had hoped that the question would be deemed unconstitutional, because depressing the count would violate the constitution's requirement that all persons in the United States be counted—the "enumeration clause." But they lost on that count.So, the door was left open just a crack. The problem is, the government has said throughout this litigation that it needed to start printing the census forms by July 1. So, even if it could come up with a valid, truthful reason for adding the question, there was basically no time to do it.That's why, as soon as the Supreme Court decision was announced, the Census Bureau said they'd start printing the forms, citizenship question omitted.Even Tuesday, when major news media outlets reported the Trump administration had dropped its plans, that wasn't quite true. What various lawyers had said (there are actually two major lawsuits, the one in New York which went to the Supreme Court, and another in Maryland where Wednesday's absurd hearing was held) was that the forms were being printed. That's not the same as "we give up, now and forever."So, in a way, Trump was right. Perhaps the 2020 forms are being printed now, but the administration will continue the fight. Or perhaps the White House thinks it can spend additional money to print a new set of 2020 forms in a few months, after it's had time to concoct a new rationale for the change. That's not really possible—any new justification would be challenged, just like the last one was, and the court battle would stretch into 2020 itself. It's a logistical impossibility.But trying anyway would prolong the political battle, allowing Trump to score more points with his base. Revealed: Memo Shows Trump Officials Trying to Rig Elections for WhitesRemember, the citizenship question seems like commonsense. Why not ask for this information? There's an easy answer to that, but numerous Republican members of Congress have kept asking it anyway, insinuating that Democrats have something to hide, or are soft on illegal immigration, or whatever. Moreover, as some advocates have noted, just having the president tweet about the citizenship question could, itself, deter some people from responding to the census. It's entirely reasonable for folks to wonder: What are they asking? Would that get my family in trouble? And why risk it?So, prolonging this battle makes political sense, even if there is no way to actually win it.The lawyers in the New York case have been tap-dancing just like the ones in Maryland. In a letter filed with the judge in that case, they said that, yes, the forms are being printed, but:> The Departments of Justice and Commerce have now been asked to reevaluate all available options following the Supreme Court's decision and whether the Supreme Court's decision would allow for a new decision to include the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census. The agencies are currently performing the analysis requested, and, if they determine that the Supreme Court's decision does allow any path for including such a decision, DOJ may file a motion with the Supreme Court seeking further procedural guidance…Notice that passive tense—the departments "have now been asked to reevaluate." Asked by whom? By the president on Twitter?Where to now?In terms of the census, there is no way on God's green earth that a citizenship question will be on the 2020 form. Notice that even today's filing is conditional—if there's a way to do this, the government may file a motion. Because everyone knows there's no way.But the government will "perform the analysis requested" anyway, because doing so is politically expedient, and might just scare a few Latinos from responding. And most of all, because the president just tweeted that they would.Welcome to the madhouse.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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| Chinese police arrest man who allegedly poured water over Baidu CEO's head Posted: 03 Jul 2019 10:57 PM PDT  Chinese authorities have detained a man in connection with an investigation of an incident in which a man poured a bottle of water over Robin Li, chief executive of Chinese search giant Baidu Inc, at a conference, police said on Thursday. Li was making a keynote address on Wednesday at the opening of an annual Baidu event to promote its advances in artificial intelligence (AI), when a man approached the stage and emptied a bottle of water over Li's head. Baidu alerted police about the incident, Beijing police said.
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| Delta crew detains passenger; plane returns to Puerto Rico Posted: 03 Jul 2019 07:21 AM PDT ![Delta crew detains passenger; plane returns to Puerto Rico]( "Delta crew detains passenger; plane returns to Puerto Rico") A Delta Air Lines crew detained a passenger who tried to enter the cockpit in an incident that forced a New York-bound plane to return to Puerto Rico on Wednesday, authorities said. Puerto Rico police said that 30-year-old Carlos Ramírez Rodríguez became aggressive and tried to enter the cockpit. Delta said the Boeing 737-900ER aircraft with more than 160 passengers and six crew members continued to New York and was expected to arrive two hours late.
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| DNA is Being Used to Crack Decades-Old Crimes in Growing Number of Cases Posted: 03 Jul 2019 10:02 AM PDT  The Golden State Killer, the NorCal Rapist and now another man accused of 1990s Sacramento-area rape cases are all behind bars thanks to genetic genealogy.
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| 'Unbelievable:' All-time record heat set to bake Alaska Posted: 03 Jul 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Think Alaska is always cold and snowy? Think again. Most of the nation's biggest state is forecast to bake under record-breaking heat over the next few days.
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