| After Auschwitz visit, Pence accuses Iran of Nazi-like anti-Semitism Posted: 15 Feb 2019 11:46 AM PST  After visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Pence said the Nazi death camp had made him more determined to confront Tehran, saying it was "breathing out murderous threats, with the same vile anti-Semitic hatred that animated the Nazis in Europe." Iran's ancient Jewish community has slumped to an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 from 85,000 at the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but is believed to be the biggest in the Middle East outside Israel. Pence, who said he was deeply moved by his Auschwitz visit, cited Iran's stated desire to destroy Israel as justification for singling out the country, rather than focusing on anti-Semitism across the Middle East. Iranian Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in January Iran's strategy was to wipe "the Zionist regime" (Israel) off the political map, Iran's state TV reported.
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| The Latest: Cardinal calls McCarrick punishment 'important' Posted: 16 Feb 2019 03:21 PM PST  VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Latest on the defrocking of former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick (all times local):
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| Honda's pickup trucks recalled because they can catch fire from car wash soap Posted: 15 Feb 2019 09:56 AM PST ![Honda's pickup trucks recalled because they can catch fire from car wash soap]( "Honda's pickup trucks recalled because they can catch fire from car wash soap") The Honda pickup is subject to a new recall to fix faulty fuel pumps that can crack when exposed to acids in car-wash detergents.
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| How Shamima Begum and two other schoolgirls from Bethnal Green became jihadi brides living under a deadly regime Posted: 15 Feb 2019 12:17 AM PST  According to her older sister Sahima, Shamima Begum was like any other 15-year-old girl, with the same hobbies, the same worries and infatuations which preoccupy the minds of most British teens. "She was into normal teenage things," Sahima said. "She used to watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians." At 15, Shamima's young mind was filled with much more than the affairs of the most famous family in Hollywood. Four months before she was due to sit her GCSEs, Shamima — the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, by all accounts a "sensible girl" and a "talented and dynamic" student at the high-flying Bethnal Green Academy — was secretly planning to leave her family and the only home she had ever known in London's East End, and travel to Syria to become a jihadi bride. Two of her school friends, Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, 15, planned to accompany her, with the girls aiming to join another friend, Sharmeena Begum (no relation of Shamima), who had successfully travelled to Syria the year before. In an embarrassment for Scotland Yard, police had pulled a fifth girl from the group off the same flight Sharmeena was on without spotting the other girl. Two months later, it was the turn of the remaining three to make their escape. When CCTV footage emerged of three girls wearing hooded winter coats and thick-rimmed glasses, strolling through Gatwick Airport with smiles on their faces, they appeared so calm and casual they looked as if they might be going on a school trip, not about to board a one-way flight to the most dangerous corner of the world. Their secret plan to leave Britain had been formulated and executed with meticulous precision. The girls stole jewellery from family members which they sold to cobble together the money for flights (it's thought they spent upwards of £1,000 on their one-way tickets — an amount their families said at the time they could have never afforded alone). They bought their tickets from a local travel agent, making sure there was some money left over. They had to make sure there was something left to pay the men who would smuggle them over the border into the Syrian war zone where Isil was carving out its caliphate. The Spring half term began and on the morning of February 17 2015, Shamima, Kadiza and Amira told their families they were going out for the day. One had a wedding, another said she was popping into school to do some work. Instead, they packed a small bag of hand luggage each, and headed to Gatwick, where they would board Turkish Airlines flight TK1966 at 12:40pm to Istanbul. A shopping list found in one of the girls' bedrooms featured a reminder to pack underwear and a mobile phone. British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum in Raqqa Under the noses of the counterterrorism police who had spoken to them two months earlier after their friend Sharmeena fled to Syria, the girls began their journey. Four years later, one of them, Kadiza, is now known to have been killed in a Russian airstrike. Shamima, now 19, is alive and preparing to give birth to her third child (her first two died in infancy) in a refugee camp in northern Syria, having escaped Isil's last remaining stronghold. Amira and Sharmeena were last seen alive in June in the remaining pocket of Isil-held territory. Shamima has lost two babies, her fighter husband is in captivity, and though she says she doesn't regret coming to Syria, she has abandoned Isil at the 11th hour in an attempt to protect herself and her unborn child. For four years she has lived the life of a jihadi bride, witnessing the casual brutality of the regime on a daily basis and somehow escaping death herself. Now, she wants the ordeal to be over. She wants to come back home to Britain. Four years ago, almost to the day, the girls arrived in Istanbul and took a bus to the southern town of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border. CCTV footage taken from a bus station showed them waiting with their bags. Another video, filmed by a smuggler called Mohammed Rashid (an Isil double agent who reportedly passed intelligence to the British and Canadian governments and was subsequently arrested by Turkish authorities), showed the girls clad in long black tunics trudging through a snowy landscape and clambering into a car. Renu, eldest sister of Shamima Begum, 15, holds her sister's photo Credit: PA Calling one of the girls "Sis", Rashid gave them Syrian passports and tested codenames they had apparently been given. "Who is Um Ahmed?" he asked, before telling them to "hurry" and assuring them they would be in Syria in "one hour". They were taken to an illegal crossing point known as Abu Zella, north of Tal Abyad, where they were handed to a Saudi jihadist known as Abu Mohareb al-Jazrawi. He was part of an Isil cell charged with helping transport would-be foreign jihadists into Raqqa. He took the girls to a safe house which was used for new volunteers who had yet to be vetted. There, they checked the girls' papers and confiscated their passports and identity cards. They stayed in the house for a day or two before another Isil smuggler, calling himself Abu Fahad, transferred them to Raqqa. The girls spent their first days in Isil's caliphate under lock and key in an apartment in what was then the jihadists' stronghold city. They were put in the care of a woman handler known as Um Laith — "Mother of the Lion" — tasked with "purifying their Western minds" by instilling the practices of Isil's hardline vision of sharia law. Kadiza Sultana 16, Amira Abase 15 and Shamima Begum 15 Credit: Metropolitan Police In their first weeks in the city the girls were not trusted by Raqqa's Isil rulers, and were forbidden to leave their apartment without their chaperone. An Isil leader confirmed to the Telegraph at the time that they were being kept together and watched. "Until now we don't trust them," he said. Speaking to The Times from the refugee camp where she is now awaiting the birth of her baby, Shamima recalled asking to be taken to the maqar – the female-only communal lodging for unmarried or widowed women where they believed their old school friend was living. "We kept asking his wife 'why are we here?' We want to go to the house of women, we want to see our friend. She didn't say anything to us and then afterwards we found out it was because they suspected we were spies." All three girls were quickly married off. Kadiza is said to have wed a western Isil fighter of Somali heritage, but after he was killed in battle decided to try to return to the UK. Shortly after, however, in May 2016, she was reported killed in a Russian airstrike, aged 17. Amira married an 18-year-old Australian jihadist, Abdullah Elmir, in July 2016. Elmir, who was described in Australian media as the "Ginger Jihadi", was later reported by intelligence agencies to have been killed in coalition airstrikes. Shamima, meanwhile, married a Dutchman who had converted to Islam. For a while, she says, life was "normal". "Like the life that they show in the propaganda videos. It's a normal life but every now and then there are bombs and stuff." She didn't witness any executions, but she did see "a beheaded head in the bin", she told a journalist calmly from the refugee camp on Wednesday. "Yeah, it didn't phase me at all." The young woman who can be heard talking on the interview recording is composed and unemotional. She is asked if it was hard to lose two children. "It came as a shock," she replies, calmly. "It just came out of nowhere, it was so hard." It's why she is "really overprotective of this baby", she says. "I'm scared that this baby is going to get sick in this camp, that's why I really want to get back to Britain because I know it will be taken care of, like healthwise at least." She talks about her school friend Kadiza, who is now known to have died in a Russian airstrike. "Her house was bombed because underground there was some secret stuff going on and a spy had… they figured out that something was going on so her house got bombed. And other people got killed as well." Kadiza's elder sister, Fahmida Khanam refused to discuss her suspected death in an air raid, or the fate of her surviving companions. Abase Hussen, father of Amira, who was last seen in June, said he hoped his daughter was still alive. "She could always make us laugh," he said. "That's how I want to think of her, not what happened after. I hope she is still alive, but I don't really know whether she is." Islamic State losing its grip on Syria Mr Hussen has said before that he cannot understand his daughter's descent into radicalisation, telling MPs in 2015 that he could think of "nothing" to explain the change in her. After she travelled to Syria, video emerged of Mr Hussen beside a burning US flag at the front of a rally organised by the hate preacher Anjem Choudary. In June 2015, Amira spoke to an undercover reporter from a Sunday newspaper after 30 Britons were shot dead by an Isil jihadist in Tunisia, mocking the victims. She appeared to be grooming the reporter, giving tips on how to reach Syria and what to bring. Last summer her mother, Fetia Hussen, said she had lost contact with her and feared she had died, but Shamima has confirmed to The Times that she was seen alive last June, along with Sharmeena Begum. On Wednesday night, Shamima's sister Renu — who in 2015 said her sister was "young" and "vulnerable", and she hoped she had gone to Syria to bring back Sharmeena, not to join Isil herself — pleaded with the government to allow her to come home. "She's pregnant and vulnerable, and it's important we get her out of al-Hawl camp and home as soon as possible," she said. "We hope the British Government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs. "I'm so relieved that my sister has been found, safe and sound. We are aware that she has been trying to get out. We lost contact with her for the longest of time. We are happy to know that she is okay." The father of Sharmeena Begum told the Telegraph yesterday [THURS] that his family had been left distraught by her decision to travel to join Isil. Mohammad Nizam Uddin said he had been unable to reconcile himself to her disappearance from home. Speaking from his flat on the top floor of a tower block overlooking London's East End, the 42-year-old told The Telegraph: "We have heard nothing from her since she left. We do not know where she is. "As a father I urge the British Government to let these girls back into the country. Please let them come back. I want to see my daughter again. It is terrible she is not here, it is terrible for us." Mr Uddin added: "I think they should be allowed to come home. When they went to Syria they were not mature and they had been radicalised." They travelled out to Syria together, but as Isil loses its remaining grip on the region, just one of the girls from Bethnal Green is living in relative safety. Taken on a coach filled with fleeing Isil families to the camp in al-Hawl, Shamima is now waiting to deliver her third baby, and to learn of her fate, desperate to return to Britain. "The caliphate is over," she says. "There was so much oppression and corruption that I don't think they deserved victory." Her friends would be "ashamed" of her if they are alive and have learnt that she has fled. "They made their choice as single women. For their husbands were already dead. It was their own choice as women to stay." Now, she says, her priority is her baby. "I know what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online. But I just want to come home to have my child. That's all I want right now. I'll do anything required just to be able to come home and live quietly with my child."
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| Sarah Huckabee Sanders Interviewed by Special Counsel’s Team Posted: 15 Feb 2019 02:33 PM PST  White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, she revealed Friday."The president urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them," Sanders said.While the details of the interview are not public, one area investigators are interested in is how Trump crafted his public statements on the investigation, a matter Sanders would have knowledge of. As a public face of the administration, Sanders has made numerous statements defending the president's conduct as it pertains to the investigation.Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer, and other White House officials have also answered questions from Mueller's team.Mueller is expected to soon wrap up his investigation into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election. Then-acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker said in January that the investigation is "close to being completed."
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| Amazon's New York City Deal Was Killed By a Cocktail of Hubris and Miscalculations Posted: 15 Feb 2019 05:52 AM PST  It's a huge loss for Amazon
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| BofA Says a ‘Real’ Trade Deal Could Vault S&P 500 to Record High Posted: 15 Feb 2019 10:23 AM PST  The firm's model on corporate earnings and equity valuations suggests that the market has priced in "a partial deal," one where only some of the issues get resolved in favor of corporate America, according to strategists led by Savita Subramanian. In a best-case scenario, the S&P 500 could climb 5 percent to 10 percent when a "real deal" is struck. Companies from 3M Co. to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. have slashed their guidance this year, citing either trade tensions or weakening demand in China.
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| North Koreans pay tribute to Kim's father in freezing cold Posted: 16 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST  The Day of the Shining Star dawned bitterly cold in Pyongyang. Kim, the son of the isolated North's founder Kim Il Sung and the father and predecessor of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on February 16. According to Pyongyang's orthodoxy, he came into the world in 1942, in a snow-covered hut at a secret camp on the slopes of Mount Paektu, the spiritual birthplace of the Korean people, where his father was fighting occupying Japanese forces.
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| 2020 Vision: Buckle up, America! It’s gonna be a long, crowded campaign Posted: 15 Feb 2019 07:13 AM PST  Candidates are crowding into the race, and to judge by this week's developments, the 2020 presidential cycle will make the last one seem tranquil.
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| `Going Away Party` for School Shutting Down Because of Student`s Death Causes Controversy Posted: 15 Feb 2019 08:00 PM PST  Some parents are outraged a California school for kids with special needs is holding a "going away party" after one of its own students died after being restrained by staff.
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| Five killed as gunman opens fire at Illinois warehouse Posted: 15 Feb 2019 03:48 PM PST  A gunman opened fire in an industrial warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was slain, law enforcement officials said. Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said the gunman, identified as Gary Martin, 45, was an employee at the industrial complex. Please avoid the area," the Aurora Police Department said in a tweet shortly after 2 p.m. CST, adding that additional details would be forthcoming.
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| AP Interview: Karzai worries Pakistan talks risk peace pact Posted: 16 Feb 2019 04:36 AM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that previously unscheduled peace talks between the Taliban and the United States in Pakistan risk engulfing the country in regional rivalries.
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| US Facebook fine over privacy could be in billions: reports Posted: 15 Feb 2019 08:03 AM PST  A US investigation into privacy violations by Facebook could result in a record fine running to billions of dollars, media reports said Friday. The Federal Trade Commission is negotiating the terms of the penalty stemming from its investigation into whether Facebook violated a 2011 settlement with the regulator on protecting user data, the Washington Post and New York Times said, citing unnamed sources. The FTC reopened its investigation following revelations last year that personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users was hijacked by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica as it worked on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
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| Trump to Invoke Broad Powers in High-Risk Bid to Build His Wall Posted: 15 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST ![Trump to Invoke Broad Powers in High-Risk Bid to Build His Wall]( "Trump to Invoke Broad Powers in High-Risk Bid to Build His Wall") Trump plans to unilaterally shift about $7 billion in federal resources to construct physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, a White House official said, a maneuver sure to provoke a legal challenge. The move is expected to come as the president signs a compromise spending package Friday that includes $1.375 billion for border fencing, bringing the total to about $8 billion.
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| U.S. court dismisses Energy Transfer Partners lawsuit against Greenpeace Posted: 14 Feb 2019 07:07 PM PST  ETP had sued https://reut.rs/2SASoIv Greenpeace and other environmental groups in 2017, accusing them of racketeering and defamation with the aim of blocking the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the lawsuit, ETP argued that the environmental groups' actions and negative publicity against it, its sister company Energy Transfer Equity LP and other firms caused billions of dollars in damages.
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| Isil bride Shamima Begum has a legal right to return to the UK, head of MI6 says Posted: 15 Feb 2019 06:45 AM PST  The British Islamic State (Isil) bride Shamima Begum has a legal right to return to the UK the Head of MI6 has said. The Director General of MI6 has said that British citizens have a right to return home from Syria, even though they may still present a threat to national security. Alex Younger, the head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service - better known as MI6 - said he was "very concerned" about returning British nationals that had fought for or supported the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Speaking ahead of the Munich Security Conference which started on Friday, Mr Younger said: "All experience tells us that once someone's put themselves in that sort of position they are likely to have acquired both the skills and connections that make them potentially very dangerous. "Anyone who has put themselves in this situation can expect to be questioned and investigated and potentially prosecuted if they return to our jurisdiction." When asked about the case of Ms Begum, the heavily pregnant 19-year-old Londoner who travelled to Syria four years ago to become an Isil bride and who now wants to return to the UK to have her baby, Mr Younger said: "British nationals have a right to come to the UK." Kadiza Sultana, left, Shamima Begum, center, and Amira Abase going through security at Gatwick airport Credit: Metropolitan Police Britain's intelligence chief cautioned about showing triumphalism at the demise of Isil, saying such an approach led to hubris. "The military defeat of the caliphate does not represent the end of the terrorist threat that we face," he said. "You can't use military force to kill and idea." Mr Younger warned that Isil was already in the process of trying to grow elsewhere around the world, even as its fighters are defeated in Syria, and that the threat from al-Qaeda had not been completely extinguished. He said: "Daesh [Isil] is a resilient organisation and it is reorganising, returning to its natural state as an asymmetric transnational terrorist organisation. We see it morphing, spreading out. "Al-Qaeda...has undergone a certain resurgence as a result of the degradation of Daesh and it is a force that should also be taken seriously. It is definitely not done out, and is something we should remain focused on." Mr Younger was keen to stress the "strength and unconditional nature of the UK security offer" and said Brexit would not harm enduring partnerships. "Britain's commitment to the security of the European continent is unconditional," he said. "Our aim is to strengthen our security partnerships in Europe, alongside our other intelligence partnerships across the globe, because that is the inescapable logic of a world of increasingly international hybrid threats." The ability to "operationalise" partnerships with other intelligence organisations was critical in preserving our way of life, he said, and was used to great effect after the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury last year. Referring to the intelligence sharing relationships with France and Germany he said: "There are people alive in our three countries today because of terrorist attack plans that we have successfully disrupted, showing the value and importance of cooperation to all sides. This is not a one-way street." "Even in the past year...people's lives have been saved in all of our countries as a result of this cooperation. The counter terrorist machine is working as it should. Bombs haven't gone off as a result of our capacity to exchange data with each other. "Brexit doesn't fundamentally alter those relationships."
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| Police: 2 persons of interest released in Jussie Smollett case confirmed to have been on scene; police investigating if attack staged, sources say Posted: 16 Feb 2019 09:46 AM PST  Chicago police confirmed Friday that detectives are talking to two possible suspects in connection with the alleged attack on ''Empire'' actor Jussie Smollett.
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| The Latest: Extremist attack in Nigeria kills 4 civilians Posted: 16 Feb 2019 09:11 AM PST  YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — The Latest on Nigeria's postponed presidential election (all times local):
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| Iran general says Pakistan backs group behind suicide bomb Posted: 16 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST  Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused "Pakistan's security forces" of supporting the perpetrators of a suicide bombing that killed 27 troops on Wednesday, in remarks state TV aired Saturday. "Pakistan's government, who has housed these anti-revolutionaries and threats to Islam, knows where they are and they are supported by Pakistan's security forces," said Revolutionary Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, referring to jihadist group Jaish al-Adl ("Army of Justice").
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| U.S. sanctions five Venezuelans, ratcheting up pressure on Maduro Posted: 15 Feb 2019 07:32 AM PST  Along with PDVSA head Manuel Quevedo, Treasury targeted three top Venezuelan intelligence officials and Rafael Bastardo, who U.S. officials say is the head of a national police unit responsible for dozens of extrajudicial killings carried out in masked nighttime raids on Maduro's behalf. Washington has disavowed Maduro's government and backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who last month invoked articles of the Venezuelan constitution and declared himself president. Also targeted was Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala, commander of Maduro's Presidential Guard, which Treasury says has tortured Maduro's opponents and carried out other human rights abuses.
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| Trump declares national emergency to access border wall funding, setting stage for legal battles Posted: 15 Feb 2019 08:41 AM PST  Donald Trump is signing a federal funding bill to avoid another government shutdown and announcing a series of executive actions along the US-Mexico border, including the declaration of a national emergency – setting the stage for a major legal showdown. The border security compromise was approved by congress on Thursday afternoon as the president threatened to declare a national emergency if the billions of dollars he requested to go towards building a wall was not included in the bill. "It's a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, an invasion of gangs, an invasion of people, and it's unacceptable," Mr Trump said while announcing the national emergency he declared along the US-Mexico border on Friday.
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| Southwest declares operations 'emergency' amid labor dispute with mechanics Posted: 15 Feb 2019 06:00 PM PST  The airline sent a strongly worded memo to mechanics ordering all hands on deck in response to a higher than usual number of planes out of service.
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| Cardinal expects 'significant progress' at sex abuse summit Posted: 15 Feb 2019 06:18 AM PST  DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. archbishop helping to organize next week's summit of the world's bishops at the Vatican on sexual abuse by clergy said Thursday he expects to make "significant progress" in responding to the scandal that's riven the church, and that lay Catholics will help to hold the hierarchy accountable.
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| The Latest: Denver teachers back at work after 3-day strike Posted: 14 Feb 2019 09:28 PM PST  DENVER (AP) — The Latest on the Denver teachers strike (all times local):
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| Amazon invests in electric vehicle startup Rivian Posted: 15 Feb 2019 11:45 AM PST  Electric vehicle startup Rivian on Friday announced a $700 million investment round led by Amazon, which recently pumped money into a young self-driving car technology firm. Details of Amazon's stake in US-based Rivian were not disclosed, but the company said it will remain independent. The potential Tesla rival late last year unveiled an electric pickup truck and an electric sport utility vehicle at an auto show in Los Angeles.
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| U.S. raises pressure on Maduro via sanctions, aid airlift Posted: 15 Feb 2019 05:29 PM PST ![U.S. raises pressure on Maduro via sanctions, aid airlift]( "U.S. raises pressure on Maduro via sanctions, aid airlift") The U.S. Treasury said it sanctioned PDVSA chief Manuel Quevedo, three top intelligence officials and Rafael Bastardo, who U.S. officials say is the head of a national police unit responsible for dozens of extrajudicial killings carried out in nighttime raids on Maduro's behalf. Separately, the U.S. State Department said on Friday it was working with the Pentagon and U.S. aid agency to fly humanitarian assistance on Saturday to Cucuta, Colombia, on the Venezuelan border. The steps are part of a wider effort by the United States to undermine Maduro, whose 2018 election it views as illegitimate and whose government it has disavowed, and to strengthen opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaido.
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| Papa John's serves up college tuition benefit to employees of pizza chain Posted: 15 Feb 2019 05:57 AM PST  Troubled pizza chain Papa John's will pay college tuition for its employees and assistance for franchisees.
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| Sasse Warns Trump That National Emergency Could Set Dangerous Precedent Posted: 15 Feb 2019 03:25 PM PST  Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Friday warned President Trump that his national emergency declaration may set a dangerous precedent that will be exploited by a future Democratic administration.In a statement provided to National Review, Sasse endorsed President Trump's claim that a lack of attention to security has created a "crisis" at the southern border, but warned that resolving the issue through a national-emergency declaration would prove counterproductive for conservatives in the future."We absolutely have a crisis at the border, but as a Constitutional conservative I don't want a future Democratic President unilaterally rewriting gun laws or climate policy," Sasse said in the statement. "If we get used to presidents just declaring an emergency any time they can't get what they want from Congress, it will be almost impossible to go back to a Constitutional system of checks and balances. Over the past decades, the legislative branch has given away too much power and the executive branch has taken too much power."On Thursday, Sasse joined ten fellow conservative senators in voting against the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, which provided just $1.375 billion for the construction of new barriers on the southern border, prompting Trump to declare a national emergency on Friday. In doing so, he moved to secure $3.6 billion in discretionary military funds to construct additional barriers but, as Trump acknowledged during his address, it is sure to be challenged in court.Asked after his address about conservative critics who have argued the national-emergency declaration cedes too much power to the executive and paves the way for constitutional abuses by future Democratic administrations, Trump argued that the scale of the crisis at the border should override any concern about future implications."We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming in to our country," he said.
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| France plans to impose stricter regulations on social media platforms Posted: 15 Feb 2019 09:15 AM PST  France is to impose stricter regulation of abusive posts on social media to end "online impunity" and compel platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to take down hateful posts. The move follows a scandal over a macho "boys' club" of male media executives who trolled female colleagues online. Eight journalists and public relations executives have have resigned or been suspended this week after they admitted anonymously hounding feminists and minority colleagues online. All eight belonged to a closed Facebook group called "The League of LOL". More than 20 others faced calls to resign after they were also accused of bullying women with pornographic memes and off-colour jokes about rape. Mounir Mahjoubi, the digital affairs minister, said the government was considering changing the legal status of social networks to make them more accountable for user-generated content. They could be reclassified in somewhere between social media platforms and publishers, making them liable to heavier fines and tighter regulation, which is already the case in Germany. At a glance | Facebook's moderation rules The current status of networks such as Facebook and Twitter as content-sharing platforms "significantly limits their responsibility" for online abuse and harassment, Mr Mahjoubi said. A bill which is to be presented to the French parliament by the end of June will be partly inspired by existing German legislation, said Marlène Schiappa, the minister for gender equality. The bill will also aim to speed up the identification of those who put up hateful messages, and foster more public awareness of the "duty of care" of social networks, Mr Mahjoubi said. "It's unacceptable to have them dictating the rules all by themselves… The authors of hateful content must understand that we will find them wherever they are and we will make them stop their violence." Britain is also planning a legal crackdown on harmful content online. Margot James, the digital minister, said last week that voluntary codes had failed and platforms should be made legally responsible for user-generated content on their sites. She was speaking after the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who killed herself after watching self-harm images and suicide posts on Instagram.
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| Netflix lockdown ends without injuries, no gun found on suspect Posted: 14 Feb 2019 06:37 PM PST ![Netflix lockdown ends without injuries, no gun found on suspect]( "Netflix lockdown ends without injuries, no gun found on suspect") A lockdown at Netflix ended Thursday afternoon without injuries after police detained a suspect without a gun, authorities said.
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| Denver teachers back at work after winning deal with raises Posted: 14 Feb 2019 09:30 PM PST  DENVER (AP) — Denver teachers ended a three-day walkout and returned to their classrooms Thursday, greeted by hugs and high-fives, after their union reached a tentative deal raising their pay, the latest win in a national movement by educators to raise their wages and advocate for changes in schools.
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| Shell buys German battery maker Sonnen Posted: 15 Feb 2019 09:10 AM PST  Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell agreed Friday to buy German rechargeable battery maker Sonnen, as the sector eyes growing demand for cleaner energy. Shell, which already invested in the German start-up in May 2018, revealed in a statement that it will buy 100 percent of Sonnen for an undisclosed amount. Sonnen, which makes lithium-ion batteries for storing wind and solar power, was founded in 2010 and has since grown rapidly to become a dominant player in Europe.
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| New 2020 Porsche Taycan EV Details Revealed in Spy Photos Posted: 15 Feb 2019 06:46 AM PST |
| Monster mudslides ravage California Posted: 15 Feb 2019 05:51 AM PST  Parts of California are bracing for yet more flooding after a powerful storm unleashed historic levels of rainfall earlier this week. Floods and mudslides across the state have triggered evacuations and sent homes tumbling down hillsides. Linda So reports.
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| Iran rejects anti-Semitism allegation by Pence Posted: 16 Feb 2019 07:15 AM PST  Iran on Saturday rejected accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against it by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, saying it respected Judaism but opposed Israel, which Tehran said was acting like a "killing machine against the Palestinians". Pence accused Iran of Nazi-like anti-Semitism on Friday after visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, maintaining his harsh rhetoric just a day after attacking European powers for trying to undermine U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. "Iran's historic and cultural record of coexistence and respect for divine religions, particularly Judaism, is recorded in reliable historic documents of various nations," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.
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| Push on last IS enclave blunted by discovery of civilians Posted: 15 Feb 2019 10:23 AM PST  AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE, Syria (AP) — The offensive on the last enclave held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has been blunted by the discovery of hundreds of civilians still living there, a commander with the Kurdish-led force fighting the extremists said Friday.
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| In America, high-speed train travel is off track Posted: 14 Feb 2019 07:36 PM PST  California's suspension this week of a high-speed rail project underscores the up-hill battle the modern mode of transport faces in the United States -- including myriad cultural, political and economic obstacles. Long gone are the days of the 19th century gold rush, when Americans raced to build transcontinental rail links and conquer the nation's vast expanse. "We have a Congress polluted by special interest money ... that has been working for years to stop/prevent any rail investment," said Andy Kunz, head of the US High Speed Rail Association, pointing to the oil, aviation and auto industries in particular.
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| NASA mulls buying new rides to space from Russia amid program delays Posted: 15 Feb 2019 11:00 AM PST  The U.S. space agency has since had to rely on Russia's Roscosmos program to ferry astronauts to the orbital space station at a cost of roughly $80 million per seat, NASA has said. After 2019 there are no seats available on the spacecraft for U.S. crew, and a NASA advisory panel recommended on Friday that the U.S. space program develop a contingency plan to guarantee access to the station in case technical problems delay Boeing and SpaceX any further. A NASA spokesman on Friday characterized a solicitation request NASA filed on Wednesday as a contingency plan.
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