| U.S. Justice Department tells Mueller to limit congressional testimony Posted: 22 Jul 2019 04:18 PM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department told former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Monday he should limit his testimony before Congress this week to discussing his public report on the Russia probe. Mueller completed in March his nearly two-year-long probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.
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| Louisiana police officer's Facebook post says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'needs a round,' report says Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:18 AM PDT  "This vile idiot needs a round," read the officer's post. "And I don't mean the kind she used to serve," he said of the former bartender.
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| Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:21 PM PDT ![Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump]( "Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump") A man charged with killing a reputed New York mob boss was deluded by internet conspiracy theories and thought he was helping President Donald Trump defend Democracy, his attorney said in court papers filed Friday. Anthony Comello is facing murder charges in the March 13 shooting of Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, an alleged leader in the Gambino crime family. In a legal filing, attorney Robert Gottleib said Comello was gripped by an irrational belief that Cali was part of a "deep state" that secretly controls the U.S., and went to the gangster's home on Staten Island with handcuffs with the intention of arresting him.
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| U.S. Navy Identifies Missing Sailor Who Reportedly Went Overboard from Aircraft Carrier Posted: 22 Jul 2019 06:31 AM PDT  The Navy has identified the missing sailor from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Slayton Saldana, who was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, with Carrier Air Wing 7.Saldana has been listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown since July 17. He was reported overboard while the Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea. Search and rescue efforts ended on July 19.He joined the Navy in April 2015 and joined his current squadron in September 2018, according to his official Navy biography. He was promoted to petty officer second class in February.Navy officials have not yet released any information about how Saldana went overboard.His fiancé Lexi Posey posted on Facebook on Monday that the day marked the couple's 38-month anniversary.They had planned to get married in April."Since I'm traveling back to the States and 'traveling back in time' due to time zones, today, our anniversary, will be a very long day," Posey wrote in a message to Saldana. "But I wish I could travel back in time to the start of our relationship over 3 years ago and constantly reassure you how much I have loved you and appreciate all the little things that you did for me."This first appeared in Task and Purpose here.
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| Black Georgia Lawmaker Alleges White Man Told Her to 'Go Back Where You Came From' in Grocery Store Confrontation Posted: 21 Jul 2019 08:18 AM PDT  The man admits he called her lazy, but says he didn't utter the racist phrase
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| Sarah Huckabee Sanders shows up to govs shindig as Arkansas rumors swirl Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:10 AM PDT  Sanders is seen as a possible 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial candidate.
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| French submarine lost in 1968 found at last in Mediterranean Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:45 AM PDT  A French submarine that went missing in the western Mediterranean in 1968 has been found, officials said Monday, ending a 51-year wait for families of the crew who continue to seek answers to the naval disaster. The diesel-electric Minerve submarine was lost off France's southern coast with 52 sailors on board on January 27, 1968. "We found the submarine Minerve last night located 45 kilometres (30 miles) south of Toulon, about 20 kilometres further south than where it was searched for in 1968," the French maritime prefect of the Mediterranean, Vice Admiral Charles Henri du Che, told reporters in Toulon.
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| Millions of Barrels of Iranian Oil Are Piled Up in China’s Ports Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:28 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Tankers are offloading millions of barrels of Iranian oil into storage tanks at Chinese ports, creating a hoard of crude sitting on the doorstep of the world's biggest buyer.Two and a half months after the White House banned the purchase of Iran's oil, the nation's crude is continuing to be sent to China where it's being put into what's known as "bonded storage," say people familiar with operations at several Chinese ports. This supply doesn't cross local customs or show up in the nation's import data, and isn't necessarily in breach of sanctions. While it remains out of circulation for now, its presence is looming over the market.The store of oil has the potential to push down global prices if Chinese refiners decide to draw on it, even as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies curb production as growth slows in major economies. It also allows Iran to keep pumping and move oil nearer to potential buyers."Iranian oil shipments have been flowing into Chinese bonded storage for some months now, and continue to do so despite increased scrutiny," said Rachel Yew, an analyst at industry consultant FGE in Singapore. "We can see why the producer would want to do so, as a build-up of supplies near key buyers is clearly beneficial for a seller, especially if sanctions are eased at some point."See also: Iranian Oil Tanker Daniel Enters Chinese Port: Ship TrackingThere could be more of the Persian Gulf state's oil headed for China's bonded storage tanks, Bloomberg tanker-tracking data show. At least ten very large crude carriers and two smaller vessels owned by the state-run National Iranian Oil Co. and its shipping arm are currently sailing toward the Asian nation or idling off its coast. They have a combined carrying capacity of over 20 million barrels.The bulk of Iranian oil in China's bonded tanks is still owned by Tehran and therefore not in breach of sanctions, according to the people. The oil hasn't crossed Chinese customs so it's theoretically in transit.Some of the crude, though, is owned by Chinese entities that may have received it as part of oil-for-investment schemes. For example, one of the Asian nation's companies could have helped fund a production project in Iran under an agreement to be repaid in kind. Whether this sort of transaction is in breach of sanctions isn't clear, and so the firms are keeping it in bonded storage to avoid the official scrutiny it would if it's registered with customs, according to the people.Nobody replied to a faxed inquiry to China's General Administration of Customs.Lack of ClarityThe build-up of Iranian oil in Chinese bonded storage has yet to be clearly addressed by Washington. The White House ended waivers allowing some countries to keep importing Iranian oil on May 2.There are currently no exemptions issued to any country for the import of Iranian oil, and any nation seen importing cargoes from the Persian Gulf producer will be in breach of sanctions, according to a senior Trump administration official, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the matter."The U.S. will now need to define how it quantifies the infringement of sanctions," said Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. There's a lack of clarity on whether it would look at "financial transactions or the loading and discharge of cargoes by company or entity," she said.See also: China Buying Iran LPG Despite Sanctions, Ship-Tracking ShowsChina received about 12 million tons of Iranian crude from January through May, according to ship-tracking data, versus about 10 million that cleared customs over the period. The discrepancy could be due to the flow of oil into bonded storage. China will release June trade data that will include a country-by-country breakdown of oil imports in the coming days.One of the Iranian tankers that appears to have loaded oil after the U.S. waivers ended is VLCC Horse. It discharged at Tianjin in early-July after sailing from the Middle East, where shipping data showed it signaling its destination as Iran's Kharg Island on May 4.Several other Iran-owned tankers offloaded in China or were heading there, according to ship tracking data. VLCC Stream discharged at Tianjin on June 19, while Amber, Salina and C. Infinity offloaded crude at the ports of Huangdao, Jinzhou and Ningbo. Snow, Sevin and Maria III were last seen sailing in the direction of China.Putting crude into bonded tanks in China also means Iran can avoid having to tie up part of its tanker fleet by storing the oil at sea for months at a time. The Islamic Republic used floating storage in 2012 to 2016 and again in 2018 as buyers shunned its crude due to U.S.-imposed trade restrictions.Should the Iranian crude leave bonded storage and end up in the market, it could pressure oil prices, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. West Texas Intermediate plunged more than 20% from late April to mid-June as the U.S.-China trade war intensified. It's since recovered some of those losses, partly as a result of the rising tension between Washington and Tehran, and is trading near $57 a barrel."A further escalation in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could jointly drive global economic growth a lot lower and encourage Iran-China cooperation," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a June note. "If Chinese refiners start to purchase Iran oil in large volumes on a sustained basis as U.S. tariffs rise again, WTI could drop to $40 a barrel."(Updates with mention of June trade data in 12th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Nick Wadhams.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Serene Cheong in Singapore at scheong20@bloomberg.net;Sarah Chen in Beijing at schen514@bloomberg.net;Alfred Cang in Singapore at acang@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Serene Cheong at scheong20@bloomberg.net, Andrew JanesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high Posted: 21 Jul 2019 09:24 PM PDT ![Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high]( "Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high") The number of human trafficking victims rescued in Thailand is set to hit a record high this year, according to government data, with demand for cheap labour in neighbouring Malaysia causing a jump in the illegal trade. Thai police have rescued 974 trafficking victims - mostly from Myanmar - for the year to date, compared to 622 for the whole of last year and a previous annual high of 982 in 2015, according to data released last week by the Thai government's anti-trafficking division. Thailand has come under scrutiny in recent years for slavery and trafficking, especially in its seafood and sex industries.
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| This Dem Slow-Walked Getting Trump’s Taxes—Now He’s Getting Primaried Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via GettyThe latest 2020 primary challenger has emerged in Massachusetts. Alex Morse, the 30-year-old mayor of Holyoke, announced Monday that he is challenging Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), a 30-year-incumbent representing Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District, citing a lack of urgency from the established member and his acceptance of corporate PAC money. "There's an urgency to this moment in Massachusetts' First District and our country, and that urgency is not matched by our current representative in Congress," Morse said in a statement. "The fact is, the Congressman has been largely silent on the issues that matter most. He's been absent, unaccountable, and unavailable. It's not just that we need new leadership in Washington. We need new leadership that understands that we can no longer settle for small, incremental, and compromising progress. We need to be on offense. We need to be fighting for something, not just against." In his campaign launch video, Morse, Holyoke's youngest and first openly gay mayor, discusses the city's revitalization under his leadership, his parents' struggles with poverty, and his pledge to take no corporate PAC money. Since his election in 2011, at the age of 22, Morse has implemented a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic, become the first mayor in the state to endorse legalizing marijuana, and declared Holyoke a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. Neal, 70, who first assumed office in 1989, has long seemed ripe for a primary challenge. Progressives have pointed to his reticence to call for impeachment hearings, his prior support for the Hyde Amendment, and his relationship with lobbyists and special interests as reasons for his potential vulnerability. Neal also reportedly discouraged the use of the phrase "Medicare for All" for a recent hearing on Medicare for All legislation. Upon becoming chair of the House Ways and Means committee, Neal was faced with immense pressure to immediately subpoena President Trump's tax returns, which included a campaign from billionaire and liberal activist Tom Steyer, who is now running for president. (Morse reportedly had lunch with Steyer earlier this year.) Neal did so in May, and in early July, the committee filed a lawsuit to enforce the subpoena. But the fact that it took months for any kind of action to occur has irked progressives. Recently, a bill passed in New York state with the intended purpose of allowing Neal to request state income tax returns, opening up another potential avenue for the chairman. However, he reportedly expressed concern that doing so could undermine the aforementioned suit. Neal is just the latest established, center-leaning Democrat to face a challenge from a younger, more progressive candidate. Already in 2020, Justice Democrats, the insurgent group that backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), has fielded two challengers: one in Texas and another in New York. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is also staring down multiple primary challengers, as the left has looked to replicate Ocasio-Cortez's success in other districts in New York. And in Illinois, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), a conservative anti-abortion Democrat who narrowly escaped a primary challenge in the last cycle, is facing the same candidate again in Marie Newman. Just last year, Massachusetts was home to a massive primary upset when Pressley defeated Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA), who had served for 20 years in the 7th Congressional District, before being elected to the House.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| There's a Warning for the Thousands Who Signed Up to 'Storm Loch Ness' Because 'Nessie Can't Hide From Us All' Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:36 AM PDT  "Nessie can't hide from us all"
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| This Is the ATV-Mounted Jammer That Took Down an Iranian Drone Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:47 PM PDT  The drone was less than a mile from the USS Boxer when the Marines caused it to crash.
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| US sanctions Chinese oil trader for violating Iran restrictions: Pompeo Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:18 AM PDT  The United States is placing a leading Chinese oil importer on its sanctions blacklist for trading in Iranian crude, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday. "As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li," Pompeo said in a speech.
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| 'Outrageous': Convicted criminals serve as Alaskan police amid public safety crisis, investigation finds Posted: 21 Jul 2019 04:09 PM PDT  Dozens of police officers with criminal records have worked in Alaska, despite state law that should have disqualified them, an investigation finds.
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| Huawei secretly helped North Korea build, maintain wireless network: Washington Post Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:57 AM PDT  Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], the Chinese company put on a U.S. blacklist because of national security concerns, secretly helped North Korea build and maintain its commercial wireless network, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing sources and internal documents. The Chinese telecommunications giant partnered with a state-owned Chinese firm, Panda International Information Technology Co Ltd., on a number of projects in North Korea over at least eight years, the Post reported. Sources briefed on the matter confirmed the Commerce Department has been investigating Huawei since 2016 and is reviewing whether the company violated export control rules in relation to sanctions on North Korea.
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| 2020 Candidates Delayed Paying Staff to Look Richer on Paper Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:54 AM PDT  Drew Angerer/GettyFor months, Sen. Amy Klobuchar's (D-MN) presidential campaign made regular payments to its staff and vendors, with varying daily expenditures that never exceeded $335,000. But on April 1, 2019, the campaign's spending exploded.Whereas Klobuchar's campaign spent an average of about $55,000 per day through the end of June, according to FEC filings, it dropped a whopping $624,000 on the first day of April, including a $300,000 payment to the campaign's digital vendor. That massive uptick in expenses was likely due to the fact that April 1 marked the beginning of the new fundraising quarter. By putting off the payments until then, Klobuchar was able to put the best possible spin on her presidential campaign's financial position during the previous three months. If those expenses had come a day earlier, Klobuchar's cash on hand figure would have been roughly $6.35 million. Instead, the campaign was able to claim roughly $7 million in reserves—a sum that placed her among the better-positioned Democrats in the presidential race. A Daily Beast review of campaign finance records indicates that the delayed-expenses strategy has continued through the just completed cycle, and has involved payments to campaign staffers as well.Klobuchar Gets Barr to Defend Trump Over and Over AgainKlobuchar, whose campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment, is one of at least four Democratic presidential candidates who appear to have skipped a staff payday at the end of June, putting off that pay period until the beginning of the following month and hence transferring the expense to the next quarter's balance sheets.Virtually every campaign engages in forms of accounting gimmicks in order to enhance their financial standings. Veterans of past and current races say that it is common to try and delay spending to future quarters in order to bolster cash reserves that have to reported at filing deadlines. That pressure is particularly acute in elections with crowded fields (such as the 2020 Democratic primary) when reporters, donors, and voters are ever attuned to any signs of momentum or lack thereof.For some campaigns, the ability to put off a payroll payment—whether by design or coincidence—made a substantial difference. That's most true for the Klobuchar campaign, which reported $186,000 in salary expenditures on its last reported pay day, June 15.Federal Election Commission records indicate that the campaign was otherwise paying staffers on the 15th and last day of each month. But no paychecks went out at the end of June, according to its second quarter financial filing. Klobuchar didn't simply eliminate those expenses by postponing the last payroll payment of the second quarter. That's because her campaign appears to have put off its last pay period of the first quarter as well after writing salary checks on February 20, February 28, and March 15, the next payments went out on April 1. But her staff, and accompanying payroll expenses, were larger in June than in March. And at some point, she will either have to make all wage payments or simply not pay her staff. And by kicking the can down the road, she has been able to avoid taking the hit on a campaign finance filing for the time being. Three other campaigns also departed from previous payroll schedules by skipping end-of-month paychecks last month, according to a review of campaign finance records. Rep. John Delaney's (D-MD) campaign said the change in schedule was simply a product of switching to a new payroll management service that restructured that schedule.Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) and Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) both attributed it to the fact that June 30 was a Sunday, so checks went out the following day. But it's common practice for employers to send out paychecks on the preceding Friday when paydays fall on a weekend. The decision to do so the following Monday served, intentionally or not, to boost apparent cash-on-hand figures at the end of the quarter in a way that shrouded the campaigns' actual liabilities.There's nothing improper or problematic with structuring campaign payments in order to present the best possible picture of its financial situation. But an understanding that campaigns do so, and how they do so, can give the public a better grasp of the financial standing of the various political camps vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination.Delayed payroll payments can be relatively small fractions of total cash on hand figures. But campaign staffers are not heavily compensated employees to begin with. And the absence of a regular paycheck—even by just a matter of days—can cause life complications. "I haven't heard of this practice before but I am not surprised," said Kim McMurray, an executive council member of the Campaign Workers Guild and a former organizer for 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). "FEC timing deadlines are such an important moment for campaigns to show enthusiasm, support, etc. so campaigns want to show the largest number possible.""It is very disappointing if this came at the expense of the workers," McMurray added.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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| Israeli Air Force's F-35 Stealth Fighter Went Into Iran's Airspace: Report Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:32 AM PDT  As we have already explained, in May 2018 the IAF revealed that it has used its stealth fighters in combat operations, making Israel the first country in the world to carry out an "operational attack" using the F-35.Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) commander Brigadier General Farzad Ismaili, who had been in office since 2010, has been fired by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he kept secret that Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35 stealth fighters had violated Iran's airspace, the Kuwaiti daily Al Jarida reported on Saturday.(This first appeared several weeks ago.)The newspaper emphasized that it was the original media source that exposed the Israeli raids, which had taken place in March 2018. Al Jarida cited senior Iranian military who said that only following its March report did the intelligence services of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian intelligence ministry begin to investigate the case, under Khamenei's direct orders.According to the newspaper's investigation, "the IAF F-35 "Adir" planes penetrated Iran's airspace, circled high above Tehran, Karajrak, Isfahan, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas – and photographed Iran's air defense system."
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| Mexico, US to launch plan against arms smuggling at border Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:56 AM PDT  The Mexican government said Monday it has reached agreement with the United States for a joint operation to combat gun smuggling along the U.S. border after seeing a spike in the number of illegal firearms detected. Seizures of assault rifles in Mexico are up 122% so far this year. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico's military would coordinate with U.S. authorities to launch anti-gun-smuggling operations in five Mexican border cities — Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.
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| Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan’s Deception Posted: 21 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan's Deception]( "Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan's Deception") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan visits Washington this week, he will have the benefit of meeting an American president with a short memory.Just a year and a half ago, Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. "has foolishly given Pakistan 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit." He then announced a suspension of that aid until Pakistan ended its relationship with various terrorist groups.Now Trump is changing his tune. Last week he welcomed Pakistan's arrest of the leader of the terrorist group that went on a four-day killing spree in Mumbai in 2008, despite the fact that he has been arrested and released several times before. Trump tweeted that the arrest was the result of pressure building over the last two years.Some of this change in tone is to recognize the baby steps Islamabad has taken to address longstanding U.S. concerns. Khan's government recently announced that it was investigating the funding of some terrorist groups the U.S. has long accused Pakistan's military intelligence service of sponsoring.Nonetheless, these steps are not nearly enough. Dr. Shakil Afridi, the heroic Pakistani physician who helped the CIA identify Osama bin Laden before the 2011 raid that killed him, remains in a high-security prison. According to recent reports, he is severely underweight.A more powerful reason that Trump is changing his tune is that he needs Pakistan's cooperation for his plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Since the fall, U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad has been negotiating what he says will be a peace agreement with the Taliban, whereby the group shares power with the elected government in Kabul. Nonetheless, the Taliban have continued a terror rampage against civilians and the military, killing a U.S. service member this month. The Pakistanis have enough short-term leverage with the Taliban to get them to allow an orderly exit of U.S. forces fighting America's longest war.In this respect, one might argue that a little amnesia can go a long way. Isn't the pageantry of a White House visit a small price to pay for tamping down the Taliban?Maybe so — but this logic also exposes the foundational problem with the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies play a double game. Its leaders give lip service to the wider war on terrorism when in Washington. Meanwhile its operatives in Southeast Asia continue to supply and fund the terrorists the U.S. has been fighting. Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Pakistan's support for the Taliban is evident even in the peace negotiations. The planes that fly Taliban leaders to negotiations in Doha, he said, are provided by Pakistan's military intelligence service.Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and co-founder of the Long War Journal, said the olive branch from Trump counts as a reversal of his administration's policy. "The strategy that Trump endorsed in August 2017 was intended to put pressure on Pakistan to try to change their behavior," he said. Yet to this day, the Pakistani military continues to support senior Taliban leaders as well as the deadly Haqqani network in the border region near Afghanistan.All of which raises the question: Why should anyone believe the Pakistanis this time around?Trump's advisers would say that the meeting offers an opportunity for Pakistan to get out of the president's doghouse. A senior administration official told reporters Friday that Khan could agree to make permanent his government's recent gestures toward counterterrorism. What's the harm in trying a softer touch after taking a hard line? The Pakistanis have proved they can be spoilers when it comes to Afghanistan. A little pomp and flattery could persuade them to be more constructive.That's the positive spin, anyway. The deeper problem is that the U.S. has no real leverage in Afghanistan. Khan knows this, and so does the Taliban. Trump has made it clear that he wants U.S. forces out of the country, the sooner the better. Even if the Pakistanis can coerce or persuade their Taliban allies to back off until the U.S. leaves, what will stop them from violating a peace agreement after the U.S. is gone?To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| NASA Finally Completes the Orion Crew Capsule Posted: 22 Jul 2019 02:17 PM PDT  NASA hopes the capsule will take astronauts back to the Moon, and Mars after that.
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| Diver Has Epic Nose-to-Nose Encounter with One of the Most Elusive Sharks Lurking in the Deep Sea Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:33 AM PDT  You may have heard of megalodon, the massive prehistoric shark, but what about the bluntnose sixgill? This enormous, ancient shark was lurking in the deep long before its extinct cousin -- and still exists today at the bottom of the ocean. It's rarely seen even by scientists. But on a recent submarine dive shark expert Gavin Naylor caught amazing footage of one on camera cozying up to his research vessel, seeming to almost flirt and play with the vessel."I'm literally nose to nose with this animal," Naylor, who does research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told Live Science, referring to his trip in a submersible.Bluntnose sixgills are the oldest living shark lineage, said Dean Grubbs, a deep-sea ecologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Although Grubbs wasn't on board the submarine that night, the dive was part of his ongoing research on the behavior and biology of these sharks. [Photos: Orcas Are Chowing Down on Great-White-Shark Organs]"This is like studying dinosaurs," Grubbs told Live Science.In fact, the sixgill predates most dinosaurs -- the species has been around for roughly 200 million years. Some scientists even believe they may have survived the largest mass extinction event, the Permian-Triassic, which killed 96% of sea life.Diver comes nose-to-nose with a huge six gill shark. OceanXThe 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) female sixgill was spotted about 3,250 feet (1,000 m) beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Cape of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. She appeared to show off for Naylor, opening her massive mouth ("big enough to swim into," Grubbs said) and blinking huge blue eyes. She seemed curious about the submarine, Naylor said, nudging it with her nose."She was quite gentle," Naylor added.That is, until she started tearing into the bait that was attached to the sub, shaking the entire vessel."They seem really slow and really graceful," Lee Frey, a deep-sea engineer who was piloting the submarine at the time, told Live Science, "but then, boy, when they go after a meal, they are just really powerful."Naylor's dive was the fourth attempt during a mission to track down and tag a sixgill shark in its deep-sea environment -- a tricky feat from the submarine.Tagging a sixgill shark in its natural environment poses an unusual challenge because they live so deep in the ocean -- between 2,500 and 3,500 feet (800-1,100 m) below the surface. In the past, researchers had pulled sharks to the surface to tag them. But that method didn't always paint a clear picture of shark behavior -- after surfacing, the tagged sharks would act erratically. So the researchers equipped a vessel with a dart gun that could shoot tags at the sharks. If they succeeded, they would be the first team of scientists to successfully tag an animal from a submarine.When Naylor saw this particular sixgill, it became clear that she was far too close to the research vessel to tag with a dart gun. But he wasn't about to miss a great camera shot. Luckily, a better opportunity to tag a shark arose later that night, when he spotted a male sixgill at perfect range; he pointed and shot.The tag, which will track the shark's movement, will help Grubbs' team better understand the behavior of these seldom-studied prehistoric creatures.The dive was part of an OceanX mission, an organization that conducts ocean research, sometimes alongside institutions. * 7 Unanswered Questions About Sharks * In Photos: Baby Sharks Show Off Amazing Ability * Photos: Great White Shark Mysteriously Washes Up on a California BeachOriginally published on Live Science.
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| Gambian soldier names ex-president in reporter's 2004 murder Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:49 PM PDT  A Gambian army officer on Monday accused ex-president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the 2004 murder of journalist Deyda Hydara and admitted he was involved in the killing. Hydara, who was editor and co-founder of the independent The Point daily and a correspondent for AFP and Journalists Without Borders (RSF), was killed by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of the Gambian capital Banjul in December 2004. The murder was widely condemned locally and abroad as another sign of Jammeh's despotic rule and his stifling of all opposition in the former British colony.
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| 2 inmates in New Mexico charged with attempted murder after attack on prison guards Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:39 AM PDT  The Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility remains on lockdown after two prison guards were attacked by several inmates Tuesday evening.
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| Conservative beauty queen defends tweets after being dethroned for 'offensive' remarks Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:26 AM PDT  20-year-old Kathy Zhu is fighting back after being stripped of her Miss Michigan title and dismissed from the Miss World America pageant; Matt Finn reports.
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| Putin gives Russian citizenship to Novatek's finance chief, a U.S. national Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:38 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin handed Russian citizenship to gas producer Novatek's veteran finance chief Mark Gyetvay on Monday, a move that could potentially help the U.S. national bypass some sanctions restrictions. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 ban U.S. nationals and companies from helping organize long-term funding for some major Russian firms, including Novatek. When the U.S. and the EU imposed sanctions on Russia, executives with foreign passports at companies affected including Novatek - the country's largest non-state natural gas producer - and state bank VTB handed over responsibility for organizing new debt or equity issuance to colleagues without EU or U.S. passports.
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| F-35s Go to War: Why Israel's Strike on Syria Was so Successful Posted: 20 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  The Israeli Air-force had apparently been waiting for a provocation as the resulting counterattack against the launchers and the Iranian military infrastructure was an overwhelming one. On May 9th the Iranian Quds force that belongs into the Revolutionary Guards Corps launched a rocket salvo against the Israeli forces in the Golan heights. The IDF had anticipated the move and placed several Iron Dome batteries to protect the region, so the attack did very little damage and several rockets were shot down.There have been conflicting reports on whether the weapon used to attack Israel was a Russian built BM-27 Uragan or an indigenous Iranian Fajr-5.The Fajr-5 system is an indigenous Iranian 333 mm artillery rocket that is mounted on Mercedes-Benz 2624 trucks in 4-tube launchers. System has a maximum range of 75 km and rather abysmal accuracy with a 3 km CEP. Combination of a 900 kg class conventional warhead and the low accuracy makes the FAJR-5 more of a terror weapon than any kind of precision battlefield instrument.The Israeli Air-force had apparently been waiting for a provocation as the resulting counterattack against the launchers and the Iranian military infrastructure was an overwhelming one. Unlike in the response for the February drone incident, the IAF was well prepared with a large strike package that had a sizable SEAD element on hand.
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| These Versatile Corn Recipes Are Perfect for Any Meal Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT |
| Trump has not built single mile of new border wall since taking office Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:43 AM PDT  It was the controversial campaign promise that Donald Trump built his 2016 electoral success on: to build what he called a "big beautiful wall" on the US border with Mexico.But, two and half years after he took office, supporters – who were so enamoured by the idea, they regularly chanted in favour of the structure – may be forgiven for wondering where exactly it is.Now, it has emerged that not a single new stretch of border wall has been built since Mr Trump took office in January 2017.A statement released by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency confirmed the 51 miles of fencing completed since Mr Trump took power has simply replaced barriers that already existed.No original wall or fencing has been created in areas that previously did not have any, it said.That is despite the fact that a total of 205 miles of both new and replacement wall and fencing has already been budgeted for since Mr Trump took office – including via the Treasury Forfeiture Fund which the president redirected through controversial executive action in February.Speaking anonymously to the Washington Examiner, a senior official in the Trump administration said engineers could move faster on so-called replacement projects than entirely new stretches of fence because the approval process for environmental and zoning permits was less extensive.Another official blamed Democrats for obstructing progress. He told the newspaper: "The wall projects are moving along as quickly as practicably possible given the unprecedented obstruction from Democrat lawmakers to protect and prolong open borders."Yet it seems the lack of progress will not deter Mr Trump from making the wall a central part of his 2020 election campaign.When crowds took up their now familiar refrain of "build that wall" at a recent rally in El Paso, Texas, Mr Trump responded by telling them: "Now, you really mean 'finish that wall,' because we've built a lot of it."The CBP recently said it will be continuing to build the approximately 205 miles of wall that have been funded so far this year, using Treasury Forfeiture Fund money that Mr Trump seized in February after the partial government shutdown.The Trump administration was sued for taking $6.6bn from the military and other departments to be used for building the border wall after Congress refused to grant the president the money he had requested.
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| Internal Probe Reveals SEAL Team 10 Operators’ Cocaine Use Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:15 PM PDT  AFPSome SEAL Team 10 special warfare operators allegedly used cocaine or spiked their alcohol with it, according to an internal investigation obtained by the Navy Times following a Freedom of Information Act Request. In Little Creek, Virginia, six SEALs were caught using cocaine and other illicit substances, the report says. SEALs told investigators that the urinalysis tests were easy to beat, as they were not screened very often, and when they were, they'd often switch out tainted urine for clean urine samples, according to the report. No SEALs went to court-martial in the wake of the urinalysis screening, in Virginia, Naval Special Warfare Command spokeswoman Commander Tamara Lawrence told Navy Times, adding that four were administratively separated from the sea service. The urinalysis program has now been updated, said Lawrence, and will be given more often. The test administers will also be retrained. A command report obtained by the Navy Times shows that in mid-2018, the testing program "suffered from serious deficiencies, which did not maintain accountability for substance abuse and adversely affected readiness." 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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| British-Iranian woman transferred back to Tehran prison Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:25 AM PDT  A British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran since 2016 has been returned to prison after being held in the mental ward of a public hospital for nearly a week, her husband said Monday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was kept chained and under heavy guard for six days which she says left her "broken", according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe. The 40-year-old detainee, who is serving a five-year term for sedition, was returned to Tehran's notorious Evin prison -- used to hold political prisoners -- on Saturday, he said.
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| 538's Nate Silver on early 2020 polls versus fundraising: Which matter more? Posted: 21 Jul 2019 09:52 AM PDT  Nate Silver analyzes the significance of fundraising in the Democratic primary.
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| Thousands without power after explosion, fire at Madison Gas and Electric Posted: 21 Jul 2019 11:58 AM PDT  Two fires are burning at downtown Madison properties of the Madison Gas and Electric company.
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| Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT ![Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper]( "Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper") The raid was carried out on Friday in Istanbul's Esenyurt neighbourhood and five people were arrested, it said. Hurriyet said one of those arrested was previously released after being detained for suspected membership in a network that Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed military coup in 2016. Turkish authorities accuse the leader of this network, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, of masterminding the attempted putsch in July 2016.
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| Why America and Iran Came Within Minutes of War Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:51 AM PDT  If America wants Iran to change its behavior, it will have to re-establish ruptured lines of communication and re-create genuine incentives for diplomacy, rather than leading with threats of war and crushing sanctions. After all, the danger of devastating and messy regional war already underpins Iran's own deterrence-based security strategy in the Persian Gulf—and games of chicken where neither side de-escalates end badly for everyone involved.By most accounts, the United States and Iran came within minutes of armed conflict with each other on June 20, 2019. (This first appeared last month.)Around 4:30 AM that morning, a U.S. Navy RQ-4N Global Hawk spy drone flying a routine circuit over international airspace in the Persian Gulf was shot down by an Iranian Ra'ad surface-to-air missile system.Later that day, U.S. forces were ostensibly "ten minutes" away from striking three Iranian bases likely with air- and sea-launched missiles when President Donald Trump changed his mind and canceled the attack. He later cited concerns that killing an estimated 150 Iranians over the loss of an unmanned drone was a disproportionate response.
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| NY state police lag behind agencies nationwide on camera use Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:16 AM PDT  A highway shoulder is where New York state troopers spotted Luke Patterson, walking by himself around 2 a.m. after his car became disabled. Unlike many other police shootings across the U.S., no video of the May 23 confrontation exists to help determine what happened. Four of those states — Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts — are in the Northeast.
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| Little Boy Is OK After Fish-Stealing Great White Shark Leaps at Him to Steal Fresh Caught Fish Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  "It had come up and it lunged out of the water"
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| 'Let me guess, you want to nuke them all': Trump constantly baiting John Bolton in front of officials, report says Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:57 AM PDT  Donald Trump likes to goad his national security adviser John Bolton about his lust for military action, according to officials who have spoken out on their relationship.As Iran claims to have captured spies working for the US and accuses Mr Bolton of trying to start "war of the century", new details have emerged of the president's fondness for baiting his adviser in the company of top officials – including foreign dignitaries.During a White House Situation Room meeting last year, Mr Trump reportedly said to his hawkish national security chief: "Ok, John, let me guess, you want to nuke them all?"According to the report by the Axios website, Mr Trump turned to Mr Bolton in an Oval Office meeting with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and said: "John, is Ireland one of those countries you want to invade?"Quoting unnamed senior administration officials, the account claimed the president recently joked that "John has never seen a war he doesn't like", repeating sentiments made in public. "If it was up to him he'd take on the whole world at one time, okay?" Mr Trump recently told NBC's Meet the Press.Yet the president is said to get "quite touchy" if critics of Mr Bolton complain the national security adviser could pull the US into unnecessary conflict against Mr Trump's will. "He doesn't want anyone to believe he's anybody's pawn."Sources said Mr Trump likes to keep Mr Bolton on his team because his aggressive reputation gives the president the opportunity to play "good cop" to his adviser's "bad cop" routine."He thinks that Bolton's bellicosity and eagerness to kill people is a bargaining chip when he's sitting down with foreign leaders," said one official. "Bolton can be the bad cop and Trump can be the good cop. Trump believes this to his core."On Sunday Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif tweeted about the White House hawk as Tehran's dispute with both the UK and US threatened to escalate over the seizure of a British oil tanker."Make no mistake. Having failed to lure Donald Trump into a War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his B Team, John Bolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire."> Make no mistake: > > Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire. > > Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys.> > — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) > > July 21, 2019On Monday Iran announced it had arrested 17 people allegedly recruited by the CIA to spy on the country's nuclear and military sites.Intelligence chiefs said some of the group have already been sentenced to death following arrests made over the past few months. Iranian media published pictures purportedly showing intelligence "officers" working for the US."The identified spies were employed in sensitive and vital private sector centres in the economic, nuclear, infrastructure, military and cyber areas ... where they collected classified information," read a ministry of intelligence statement.The US has yet to respond to the claims.
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| Hong Kong actor stabbed in mainland China Posted: 21 Jul 2019 08:43 PM PDT  Hong Kong actor Simon Yam was stabbed in the stomach while appearing on stage for a promotional event in southern China on Saturday. A man ran onto the stage and stabbed and slashed the veteran actor, video broadcast on local media showed. "We are extremely shocked by this incident," Yam's management company said Saturday evening in a statement released on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
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| 10 Spectacular Abandoned Places of Worship Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:14 PM PDT |
| Report: Pence canceled trip to avoid contact with an alleged drug dealer Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:20 PM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence abruptly canceled a trip to New Hampshire this month to avoid shaking hands with an alleged interstate drug dealer, Politico reported Monday.
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| 2020’s Free College Promises May Be Deadly to Private Schools Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT ![2020's Free College Promises May Be Deadly to Private Schools]( "2020's Free College Promises May Be Deadly to Private Schools") (Bloomberg) -- New York touted its free college tuition program as a first-of-its-kind plan that would eliminate the burden of student loans. But the zero-dollar price tag came at a cost: It tore a hole in the finances of Clarkson University, an upstate private college of more than 4,300 students.In 2017, right as high-school seniors were preparing to declare where they'd enroll in the fall, New York officials said they would eliminate tuition for thousands of students at the state's public universities. More than 100 prospective students changed their minds to instead enroll in public schools, according to Clarkson estimates."The timing was really tough," said Anthony Collins, president of the university, which is located near the Canadian border. The shift deprived the college of $47,950 in tuition and fees those students each would have paid in the 2017-18 school year. "For four years, it creates a financial strain."Collins isn't alone in his concern as the rising cost of college becomes a 2020 campaign issue. U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, two leading Democratic presidential candidates, have said they want to make public college free -- a major threat to the survival of some of the country's 1,700 private, nonprofit institutions if $0-public tuition becomes the national solution to the $1.6 trillion student-debt crisis.Competing With FreeIn New York, private college administrators warned that the Excelsior Scholarship could put them at a competitive disadvantage in an already-tough environment. In the Northeast, the number of high-school graduates is projected to drop by 72,000 students between 2013 and 2030, according to a report by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. There's also a large number of private institutions -- more than 100 -- competing with each other for students, according to figures from a state lobbying group for them.The Excelsior program allowed residents making as much as $125,000 per year to attend City University of New York and the State University of New York system schools for free. The state estimated there were about 940,000 families with college-aged children that met the income requirements, according to the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation.When it launched in 2017, private colleges that primarily serve students living in New York saw an estimated 5% drop in enrollment, an "unusually sharp decline," said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in Albany."When you put that in terms of the impact on a college's bottom line, that's probably $120 million over four years," Labate said. "It's a difficult thing for colleges to accommodate."The impact of the New York program has since been muted, with enrollments recovering the following year, she said. College administrators say the restrictions to the program, such as the requirement to work in the state after graduation, has minimized the number of students they've lost. Clarkson has since met its enrollment targets, according to Collins.But some administrators see concerning parallels with New York's program and those proposed by Democratic presidential candidates."If they would tether aid to the student, and allow the student and the student's family to choose where to go, they would come a long way to accessibility," said Gary Olson, president of Daemen College, a liberal arts college with more than 2,500 students in Amherst, New York. "They wouldn't have half of their higher education system in the U.S. collapse."Private Schools StruggleTo help rein in the country's $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, Warren said she wants to create "universal free public college" by taxing households with a net worth of $50 million or more. "We must ensure that we never have another student debt crisis again," she said in her proposal. "We can do that by recognizing that a public college education is like a public K-12 education — a basic public good that should be available to everyone with free tuition and zero debt at graduation."Sanders says if elected he'll seek to enact a law providing at least $48 billion per year to eliminate tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and community colleges by taxing stock, bonds and derivative trades. He's proposed similar legislation in Congress, the College for All Act.Such programs are unlikely to cause much harm to elite universities like Yale University, which is armed with a $29.4 billion endowment. But the finances of small, private colleges are more precarious as they tend to have few revenue sources besides tuition. The median enrollment at public universities rose 9% in the last five years at such universities rated by S&P Global Ratings, while enrollment was flat at private schools, according to the company. Some private schools have shuttered completely or struggled to stay open.States Step UpIn an analysis of 15 states' free college programs, the Education Trust found that most of them don't provide support for four years of college, according to a 2018 report by the group that advocates for low-income and minority students. More states will likely enact such policies, regardless of who wins in 2020, as a way to encourage students to attend college, said Tiffany Jones, the organization's director of higher education policy.Campuses have stepped up affordability efforts too. The University of Texas at Austin, which has more than 51,000 students, on July 9 said it would cover tuition and fees for students whose families make as much as $65,000 per year. That's an estimated 8,600 students per year. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall will cover tuition and fees for state residents whose families have an income of $61,000 or less.That could pressure Indiana's DePauw University: the liberal arts college recruits students from the neighboring state. The proposals for nationwide free public college also remain a threat, said Robert Andrews, vice president for enrollment management."Obviously, it puts institutions like DePauw and thousands of other private schools in a dangerous situation for our long-term viability," he said.Return on InvestmentPrivate college leaders argue that lower- and middle-income students rarely pay the listed price of attendance. Tuition discounting, or the amount of tuition revenue offset by institutions' grants and forms of aid, reached a record level in the 2018-19 year, according to a study of more than 400 private colleges by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. And private, not-for-profit institutions offer other advantages, such as smaller class sizes. They have a higher six-year graduation rate than public universities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.The debate over free college nationwide may be a wake-up call for private colleges, leading to affordability efforts or new programs. That's what happened in New York: Siena College, a liberal arts college in Loudonville, started a program this year that guarantees $52,000 in scholarship money to both in-state and out-of-state students. If students don't graduate in four years, Siena will pay the rest.Even when private schools offer aid, it's hard to compete with free. Noah McMullin, a student at the State University of New York at Fredonia, said the free tuition program helps him focus more on his classes. McMullin, who is working on his bachelor of fine arts in acting, turned down a private college offer that included some aid."I don't see any reality in which it's fair to charge $60,000 a year to go to school," he said. "It's crazy to me."To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Albright in New York at aalbright4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Campbell at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net, Michael B. MaroisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Four Inmates Faked a Fight to Escape Florida Juvenile Detention Center Posted: 21 Jul 2019 08:31 AM PDT  Jacksonville Sheriff's Office HandoutFour teenage inmates staged a fight inside their dorm-style cell late Saturday night at a Florida juvenile detention center as a ruse to escape, overpowering staff and stealing a staff member's car and a cell phone as they fled.Two of teens who escaped from the Florida Department of Juvenile justice facility in Jacksonville, remained at large Sunday and a manhunt was underway to apprehend them.According to a tweet from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the four inmates faked a brawl in their room and then attacked the staff who responded to the scuffle. The boys were then able to overpower staff in the center's control room and pushed several buttons until one released the jail's main door. The boys then stole car keys from the handbag of one of the staff members and made off in the dark of the night with the a four-door Infiniti Q50 with Florida license plate LANE19.The foursome also took the staff member's county-issued cellphone and wallet with an unknown amount of cash. The Jacksonville Sheriff's office named the escapees still at large as Tajah Bing, 16, Davione Baldwin, 17. Tyjuan Monroe, 16, and Marcus Ledbetter, 17, were captured early Sunday morning. The inmates were serving jail time for offenses ranging from grand theft auto to robbery with a firearm and are considered dangerous, though are not known to be armed. One was serving time for "lewd and lascivious" behavior with a child under the age of 12-years-old. The Jacksonville sheriff's office has offered an award up to $3,000 for information that leads to the capture of the escaped individuals noting that the boys "could be anywhere."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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