| A look at the 5 federal death row inmates facing execution Posted: 26 Jul 2019 02:35 AM PDT  The Justice Department announced Thursday that it will resume executing death row prisoners for the first time in nearly two decades. At the direction of Attorney General William Barr, the federal Bureau of Prisons has scheduled the executions of five inmates being held on death row at USP Terre Haute, a high-security penitentiary in Indiana. Danny Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, was convicted in the 1996 deaths of an Arkansas family as part of a plot to set up a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest.
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| Trump Supports Labeling Antifa A ‘Major Organization Of Terror’ Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:08 PM PDT  President Donald Trump lent support to labeling Antifa a terrorist organization Saturday, calling the group a collection of "gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs.""Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others)," Trump wrote. "Would make it easier for police to do their job!"It is unclear what prompted Trump's remarks, but he appeared to refer to a resolution proposed earlier this month by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy to label Antifa a terrorist group."Antifa is a terrorist organization composed of hateful, intolerant radicals who pursue their extreme agenda through aggressive violence," Cruz said when announcing the resolution July 19.Cruz and Cassidy were responding to the Antifa attack on journalist Andy Ngo at a protest in Portland June 29. Ngo, an editor for Quillette who has tracked the Antifa movement, had his camera equipment stolen and was bloodied and bruised in the attack, which was caught on film. Ngo also said he suffered a head injury.Cruz was assailed by members of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Antifa at a restaurant last September. After chasing him and his wife out of the restaurant, the group's Twitter account sent the Republican a message warning that he was "not safe."
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| Two dogs escape animal shelter and kill 29 cats in Alabama Posted: 27 Jul 2019 04:11 AM PDT  Two pitbull dogs broke free from their cages at an Alabama animal shelter and mauled 29 cats to death. Workers at the Dothan Animal Shelter found the dead cats on Thursday morning, local media reported.Shelter director Bill Banks told television outlet WTVY that it appeared the two dogs had forced their way out of their cages and pushed against the fence of the cat area to get inside. City mayor Mark Saliba told CNN the incident would be investigated."Unfortunately, tragic events sometimes fuel us to push things forward a little bit faster," he said. "I'm thinking this will do just that.""We are all saddened and surprised by the event that took place," Mr Saliba said. "The safety of our animals is the top priority at the shelter."Officials told local media the dogs were subsequently captured, but did not say whether the dogs would be killed.Members of the public have taken to social media to express their anger at what happened, with many calling for an investigation into the shelter.
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| Woman dies while trying to reach ‘Into the Wild’ bus in Alaska Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:31 PM PDT ![Woman dies while trying to reach 'Into the Wild' bus in Alaska]( "Woman dies while trying to reach 'Into the Wild' bus in Alaska") A Belarusian woman who was trying to hike to an abandoned bus at the edge of Denali National Park in Alaska made famous in the book and movie "Into the Wild" died after being swept away in a river, state troopers said on Friday. Veramika Maikamava, 24, was pulled underwater when she tried to cross the Teklanika River with her husband Piotr Markielau, also 24, in their journey to the site where hiker Christopher McCandless perished in 1992, the troopers said. There is a rope stretched across the river to help hikers, but waters were waist-high and swift-running when the newly married couple tried to cross on Thursday night, said Ken Marsh, an Alaska State Trooper spokesman.
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| Boko Haram kills 23 mourners after Nigeria funeral Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:28 PM PDT  Boko Haram gunmen on Saturday killed 23 mourners in Borno state in Nigeria's restive northeast after they attended a funeral, local militia and residents said. At around 1030 GMT, the attackers on three motorbikes opened fire on a group of men as they walked back from a funeral in Nganzai district near the state capital Maiduguri, local militia leader Bunu Bukar Mustapha said.
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| Photo of mother begging Mexican guard becomes symbol of migrants' struggle Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:15 AM PDT  Viral images show Ledy Pérez sobbing as she pleads with an armed guard to let her and her son aged six cross the US-Mexico borderGuatemalan migrant Ledy Pérez embraces her son, Anthony, while praying to ask a member of the Mexican national guard to let them cross into the US, as seen from Ciudad Juárez. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersLedy Pérez grasped her six-year-old son and sobbed as she begged a Mexican guard to let her bring him across the US-Mexico border and to, hopefully, a better future than the one she faced at home in Guatemala.The image of Pérez embracing her son, Anthony Díaz, as he stares at guards clad in desert fatigues and armed with assault rifles has made headlines in Mexico and gone viral in the US.Through sobs, Pérez repeatedly asks the officers let her pass in a video posted by Mexico's El Universal newspaper. "Don't let them send me back," she says. "I just want to give my son a better life."Ledy Pérez reacts while holding hands with her son, Anthony, while asking to members of the Mexican national guard to let them cross into the US. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersFamilies arrived at the US border from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador at record rates in the spring, fleeing a toxic mix of violence, poverty, food insecurity, climate change and corruption.Under pressure from the US to stem the flow, Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, directed nearly a third of the country's militarized national guard police force to patrol the border. He insists the rights of migrants must be upheld, but the image of Pérez's plight garnered criticism in Mexico.On Tuesday, former Mexican president Felipe Calderón retweeted the photo and wrote: "What a pity! The Mexico government should not have accepted this"The national guard deployment, along with the hot summer weather, saw the number of people apprehended at the border fall in June though the factors driving people out of the region, known as the Northern Triangle, have not been resolved.Pérez embraces her son while facing Mexico's national guard. There was no overt aggression in the nine-minute encounter in Ciudad Juárez, the photographer, José Luis González, told Reuters. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersThe Reuters photographer José Luis González captured the powerful images and said the soldier centered in the photo did not provide his name, but said he was only following orders. There was no overt aggression in the nine-minute encounter in Ciudad Juárez, González told Reuters.Pérez was undaunted by the soldiers' steely response and lunged for the border with her son when the soldier looked away, Gonález said. Sprinting across the riverbank, the pair made it out of the national guard's jurisdiction into US territory, where they were taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).From there, they could be brought to a US detention facility, freed until their immigration case is heard by a judge or returned to Mexico while their asylum claim is processed.Pérez embraces her son as she pleads with Mexican armed police. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersThe crossing Pérez and Anthony eventually made is often characterized as an "illegal" entry, despite the Trump administration making legal crossings for asylum seekers nearly impossible. The difficulty of requesting asylum has driven people to attempt entry at other parts of the border, often with the intent of being apprehended by US border patrol.Under an informal policy known as "metering", asylum seekers must wait months before they are allowed to approach US officials and request asylum. Nearly 20,000 people who have managed to request asylum from a US official have since been returned to Mexico to wait for their case to be processed as part of the Trump administration's opaque Remain in Mexico policy. The returned migrants have told journalists, advocates and courts that they were extorted, assaulted and raped in Mexico.Pérez and Anthony sprinted across the riverbank, made it out of national guard jurisdiction and into US territory, where they were taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersIt is unclear what comes next for Pérez and her son, but the photographer said her face in the photos was "a small reflection of all migrants' suffering".González said: "A lot of people judge migrants, ask why don't they stay in their country, why do they come here or why are they crossing into the United States … Every migrant has a story."
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| Tennessee inmate declines to choose execution method Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:45 AM PDT ![Tennessee inmate declines to choose execution method]( "Tennessee inmate declines to choose execution method") A Tennessee death row inmate has declined to choose the method of his execution scheduled for mid-August, a non-decision that would result in his death by lethal injection. Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Neysa Taylor confirmed in an email Friday that Stephen West declined to pick his method of execution when given the opportunity. Four inmates have been executed in Tennessee since August 2018.
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| Looking for a boost, Beto O'Rourke to try new strategy in second debates Posted: 26 Jul 2019 02:36 PM PDT  Beto O'Rourke will try to make up for what some critics saw as an uneven performance in the first round of debates.
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| Libya Hit Haftar Forward Airbase After Receiving Turkish Drones Posted: 26 Jul 2019 08:18 AM PDT ![Libya Hit Haftar Forward Airbase After Receiving Turkish Drones]( "Libya Hit Haftar Forward Airbase After Receiving Turkish Drones") (Bloomberg) -- Libya's internationally-recognized government said it conducted airstrikes for the first time against the main forward airbase for eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar, destroying a hangar containing drones and a Russian-made military transport plane.The strike on the airbase in Jufra, Haftar's central Libyan staging ground for a three-month offensive on Tripoli, came days after the strongman's forces announced a renewed attempt to seize the capital in a battle that has stalled at the city's outskirts and drawn in increasing foreign intervention.The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord was not known to have aircraft capable of conducting precision nighttime strikes. It has improved its capabilities with the receipt of armed Turkish Bayraktar drones in recent weeks, according to three senior GNA officials, who asked not to be named because the weapons supplies aren't public. Libya has been under a United Nations arms embargo since 2011.Bayraktar, the drone company, is owned by the family of a son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Officials at the company declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg. Facing opposition criticism in parliament for alleged arms shipments to Libya, Emrullah Isler, Erdogan's envoy to the country, said earlier this month that Turkey supports the legitimate, UN-backed government in Tripoli, without elaborating.On the other side of the battle, Haftar's forces have been supported by U.A.E-owned and Chinese-made Wing Loong drones, according to two Western diplomats.The strike on the Jufra airbase destroyed "a hangar containing drones and an Ilyushin 76 transport plane used to supply the armed groups," the GNA military statement said, referring to Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army.Libya splintered in the aftermath of the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011. Haftar's eastern-based forces swept through the south earlier this year before setting their sights on the capital.To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| No 'day in court': U.S. deportation orders blindside some families Posted: 26 Jul 2019 03:09 AM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Carin, a 39-year-old subsistence farmer from Honduras, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her two sons late last year. Carin said she made sure to check the mailbox regularly at the apartment in Colorado where they were living. It was a deportation order.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro Posted: 26 Jul 2019 11:51 AM PDT |
| Never-released photos of James Dean's fatal crash up for auction Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:05 PM PDT  RR auction says there are about 30 photos and they expect them to bring in $20,000.
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| Mob of teens surrounds police station, tries to break out their drunken friend Posted: 26 Jul 2019 08:53 AM PDT  The incident occurred Thursday night in the town of Starnberg after a boy was denied entry to a high school graduation party.
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| Son of Iraq's late Yazidi prince takes over as leader Posted: 26 Jul 2019 05:31 PM PDT  Baghdad (AFP) - Hazem Tahsin Bek on Saturday succeeded his late father as prince of the Yazidi religious minority that was brutalised by the Islamic State group in northern Iraq.
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| Everything You Wanted to Know About the New Sniper Rifles the Military Is Getting Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:00 AM PDT  While a handful of lucky Marines with 1st Marine Expeditionary Force units are already rocking the Mk 13 Mod 7 (the Corps' first new sniper system since the adoption of the M40 during the Vietnam War) in their kits, there are plans to field the rifle to II MEF and II MEF units through 2019 — and Marines already love it. With the fiscal year 2019 defense budget put to bed without a bloody fight among lawmakers for the first time in recent memory, there are plenty of goodies for rank-and-file U.S. service members tucked into the massive appropriation measure — and not just their largest pay raise in more than a decade.Here's a brief overview of all the new gear headed into the waiting hands of soldiers and Marines downrange in 2019.An M4 replacement — for Marines, at leastWhile the Army continues to hash out the details of its next-generation rifle, the Marine Corps in April announced plans to snag up to 15,000 M27 infantry Automatic Rifles produced by Heckler & Koch as a replacement for the M4 carbine, with additional plans to actually field the new rifles to active and reserve infantry platoons at the beginning of 2019. Given some of the problems that cropped up during testing of the platform, time will tell if the Army's decision to stick with its homegrown rifle was the right one.(This first appeared in December 2018.)New sniper systems for Marines
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| 'Unprecedented': more than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst ever season Posted: 26 Jul 2019 12:08 PM PDT  Huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska are producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from spaceThe Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space.The Arctic region has recorded its hottest June ever. Since the start of that month, more than 100 wildfires have burned in the Arctic circle. In Russia, 11 of 49 regions are experiencing wildfires.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations' weather and climate monitoring service, has called the Arctic fires "unprecedented".The largest blazes, believed to have been caused by lightning, are located in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Buryatia. Winds carrying smoke have caused air quality to plummet in Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia.In Greenland, the multi-day Sisimiut blaze, first detected on 10 July, came during an unusually warm and dry stretch in which melting on the vast Greenland ice sheet commenced a month earlier than usual.In Alaska, as many as 400 fires have been reported. The climatologist Rick Thomas estimated the total area burned in the state this season as of Wednesday morning at 2.06m acres.Mark Parrington, senior scientist with the Climate Change Service and Atmosphere Monitoring Service for Europe's Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, described the extent of the smoke as "impressive" and posted an image of a ring of fire and smoke across much of the region.Thomas Smith, an environmental geographer at the London School of Economics, told USA Today fires of such magnitude have not been seen in the 16-year satellite record.The fires are not merely the result of surface ignition of dry vegetation: in some cases the underlying peat has caught fire. Such fires can last for days or months and produce significant amounts of greenhouse gases."These are some of the biggest fires on the planet, with a few appearing to be larger than 100,000 hectares," Smith said."The amount of [carbon dioxide] emitted from Arctic circle fires in June 2019 is larger than all of the CO2 released from Arctic circle fires in the same month from 2010 through to 2018 put together."In June alone, the WMO said, Arctic fires emitted 50 megatonnes of CO2, equal to Sweden's total annual emissions.
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| Ex-Host Krystal Ball: MSNBC’s Russia ‘Conspiracies’ Have Done ‘Immeasurable Harm’ to the Left Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:46 AM PDT  A former longtime MSNBC anchor lashed out this week at her former employer over its coverage of the Russia investigation.In a Thursday segment on The Hill's online streaming service, Krystal Ball, the former host of MSNBC's now-cancelled midday show The Cycle, admonished the network for its incessant coverage of the Russia investigation. "MSNBC built segment after segment, show after show on building anticipation for a big reveal when we would learn the true depths of Trump's fealty and direct conspiracy with Putin," she said.She later argued that the network's left-leaning anchors and personalities have wasted their time making Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe the primary focus of MSNBC coverage over the past several years—in effect diverting attention away from policy issues like health care and wages. As Ball spoke, an over-the-shoulder graphic blared "Immeasurable Harm.""Consider this whole setup has done more damage to the Democrats chances at winning the White House than anything that Trump could ever have dreamed up," Ball declared."Trump really is the crook that we said all along," she continued, "but by trying to make this spectacular case, we set the bar unimaginably high and made Trump's actual corruption, broken promises, and casual cruelty seem ordinary by comparison."Elsewhere in the six-minute monologue, Ball accused MSNBC of cynically following the Russia story in pursuit of ratings, making journalistic compromises along the way.She directly criticized hosts like Rachel Maddow ("You've got some explaining to do," Ball said to her) and on-air analysts like Mimi Rocah (a Daily Beast contributor) for leading viewers to believe that there was a strong possibility that Trump and his family would be indicted. Ball also suggested that the "fevered speculation" of guests like New York columnist Jonathan Chait and former British MP Louise Mensch would have been more at home on conspiracy network Infowars."Russia conspiracy was great for ratings among the key demographic of empty nesters on the coasts with too much time on their hands," said Ball, who now hosts an inside-baseball streaming political talk show for The Hill.This is not the first time Ball has knocked her former employer.During a segment on her program last year, Ball criticized the cancellation of former host Ed Schultz's show following his death."I find it really ironic that they took this incredibly pro-working-class voice off the air right before the Trump era when obviously you had a lot of working class voters who didn't feel like they had a home in the Democratic party any more," she said.MSNBC declined to comment. 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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| Alexandraia Ocasio-Cortez can't get very far without Nancy Pelosi, says Run for America co-founder Posted: 26 Jul 2019 11:37 AM PDT  Hoover Institute fellow Lanhee Chen and Run for America co-founder David Burstein weigh in on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's meeting.
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| Trump says he does not blame Turkey for buying Russian air defense system Posted: 26 Jul 2019 01:16 PM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he does not blame Turkey for buying a Russian missile defense system, which prompted his administration to remove the NATO ally from the F-35 fighter jet program. Trump, who was speaking to reporters at the White House, did not say when he would decide on imposing sanctions on Turkey for doing business with the Russian military, as required by a 2017 U.S. sanctions law. "We're looking at the whole Turkey situation," Trump said.
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| Economist: New Trump farm aid may be distributed more fairly Posted: 26 Jul 2019 02:52 PM PDT ![Economist: New Trump farm aid may be distributed more fairly]( "Economist: New Trump farm aid may be distributed more fairly") The Trump administration's decision to base new handouts to farmers hit by the trade war with China on how many acres they've planted might be a fairer way to distribute the cash than the previous system of payments per bushel heavily skewed toward soybean growers, an agricultural economist said Friday. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the administration will pay another $16 billion more in aid to farmers affected by the president's trade war with China.
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| Photos of the 2020 Lotus Evora GT Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:55 AM PDT |
| Jogging woman chases down, attempts to detain man who flashed her, police say Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:04 AM PDT  Surveillance video released by Massachusetts state police shows the woman turning around and running after the man.
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| The Trump border wall's slow march towards reality Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:37 PM PDT  The Supreme Court has given President Donald Trump the go-ahead to divert Pentagon funds to build a border wall with Mexico, a big boost for the US leader's pet project that has faced controversy since its inception. Announcing his candidacy for president at Trump Tower in June 2015, Trump made derogatory statements about immigrants from Mexico. Building the southern border wall became a central campaign promise as Trump found success in the primaries, and ultimately won the general election.
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| Epstein case: judge agrees to keep documents on 2008 plea deal secret Posted: 27 Jul 2019 11:22 AM PDT  Court grants prosecutors' request amid concern that releasing materials could hinder investigation of financier's associatesJeffrey Epstein, left, looks on during a bail hearing, in a 15 July court sketch. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/ReutersA judge in New York has granted a request from prosecutors to keep secret documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein's controversial 2008 sexual abuse plea deal, on the grounds that the materials could hamper their investigation of others in the financier's milieu.The documents, which will be shared with Epstein's attorneys, are believed to concern not only the deal itself, which allowed Epstein to plead guilty to low-level state solicitation charges, but also a clause that granted immunity to any and all potential co-conspirators and named four women suspected of facilitating or participating in alleged crimes against minors.The documents may also shed light on the 2008 deal, which was kept secret from accusers for nearly a year in what some claim was a violation of the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Controversy over the deal forced the resignation earlier this month of the US labor secretary, Alex Acosta, who was US attorney in Miami at the time.In a court filing, prosecutors with the southern district of New York argued that the materials could "affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals … [and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the government's ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals".The order is only one of several signals that prosecutors plan to widen their investigation into what they allege was a years-long scheme to recruit and sexually abuse dozens of girls.Epstein, denied bail and remaining in custody pending trial, has pleaded not guilty to federal sex-trafficking charges. He is on suicide watch in a Manhattan detention facility, after being found unconscious with marks on his neck.On Friday, it was revealed that pilots of Epstein's private jets, including a Boeing 727 that carried high-profile friends to and from his home in the Virgin Islands, have been served with subpoenas.According to court filings, the pilots were responsible for keeping flight logs of passengers on the jets. Their testimony could be used by prosecutors to corroborate accusers' accounts and provide details of Epstein associates.Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, who was named in a civil suit brought by Epstein accuser Victoria Giuffre in 2003, are regularly named among associates of Epstein.Clinton has denied flying with the financier as many as 26 times, as has been reported, although he did say he took "a total of four trips" with him in 2002 and 2003.In a statement, the former president said he "knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York".Buckingham Palace has repeatedly denied the accusations against Prince Andrew.In 2015, Giuffre brought a defamation suit against Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late press baron Robert Maxwell, for publicly calling Giuffre a liar after she claimed Maxwell participated with Epstein in sexually abusing her for two years starting in 2000, when she was 16 years old.This month, Maxwell, who has long denied allegations that she played a central role in the procuring of young women, told a three-judge panel in New York a media "feeding frenzy" justified keeping documents from the defamation suit secret.But Josh Schiller, one of Giuffre's lawyers, argued: "There is an overwhelming public interest both in getting access to these documents as well as the indictment of Mr Epstein and his prosecution."The judicial panel agreed. As soon as next week, 2,000 pages of documents relating to that case, which was settled in 2017, will be made public.In its ruling, the panel said the documents included descriptions of alleged abuse by Epstein and other individuals "including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders".In April, Giuffre filed a defamation suit against the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Epstein's longtime lawyer and friend, after he denied her claim that he abused her.The shockwaves from Epstein's arrest on 6 July could travel further still. Central to the mystery of his operations is how he acquired his wealth, which was listed at his bail hearing as more than $550m.Last week, Deutsche Bank confirmed that Epstein moved millions of dollars through dozens of private accounts. Executives said they had believed they had severed the relationship with Epstein but had discovered accounts still controlled by him as recently as June."Deutsche Bank is closely examining any business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and we are absolutely committed to cooperating with all relevant authorities," a spokesman said.Authorities in Florida, meanwhile, have launched an investigation into whether Epstein was properly monitored during the 13-month sentence for soliciting prostitution from underage girls that was the product of the controversial 2008 deal.
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| Ultimate Showdown: America's F-15C Eagle vs Russia's Su-57 Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  The Su-57—especially once it receives its new second stage engines—will be a handful for any fourth generation fighter given its combination of speed, maneuverability, stealth and electronic warfare capability. However, the U.S. Air Force does have a plan to defeat enemy stealth aircraft and a counter is already in the works.The venerable Boeing F-15C Eagle has long been hailed as the world's greatest air superiority fighter given its lopsided combat record of 104 kills to zero losses, however, the aging jet is likely near the end of its operational life. Nonetheless, it remains a potent fighter even as it likely heads toward retirement.(This first appeared last year.)The U.S. Air Force is deferring planned upgrades to the Eagle—such as the addition of new electronic warfare systems—until it decides if it wants to keep the increasingly aged airframe. Indeed, as the Air Force has discovered, the F-15C will need an extensive airframe overhaul and structural modifications to remain in service past the mid-2020s. In all likelihood, given that the Congress has refused to allow the service to retire the A-10 Warthog, the Air Force will have little choice but to divest itself of the F-15C to free up funding for more pressing projects. The F-15E Strike Eagle interdictor aircraft, though, will remain in service indefinitely.Recommended: The World's Most Secretive Nuclear Weapons Program.Recommended: The Fatal Flaw That Could Take Down an F-22 or F-35.
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| Polish rights campaigners gather in Warsaw to condemn homophobic violence Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:02 AM PDT |
| Paris Digs in on Digital Tax as Trump Floats Wine Tariffs Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:57 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- France stuck to its plan to tax big multinational tech companies, defying U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that he might impose tariffs on French wine."It's in all of our interest to move toward a just taxation worldwide for digital companies," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in Paris. Wine tariffs and the digital tax are "completely different issues" and shouldn't be lumped together, he told reporters on Saturday.It's the latest face-off between the self-proclaimed "Tariff Man" in the White House and a major European Union economy. The French tax and Trump's response threaten to further strain trans-Atlantic ties as the U.S. and EU prepare to negotiate a limited trade agreement on industrial goods.Trump on Friday raised the possibility of "substantial" retaliation against France. "It might be on wine, it might be on something else," he later told reporters in Washington.The law signed by President Emmanuel Macron imposes a 3% tax on the revenue of technology giants such as Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc."We tax our companies, they don't tax our companies," Trump said.The tax, retroactive to January, affects companies with at least 750 million euros ($845 million) in global revenue and digital sales of 25 million euros in France. While most of the roughly 30 businesses affected are American, the list also includes Chinese, German, British and French companies."I've always liked American wines better than French wines, even though I don't drink wine," the president said Friday. He said he may impose the wine tariffs before a meeting of the Group of Seven meeting in late August.Trump has imposed or threatened to levy tariffs on several countries to force changes in their trade or immigration policies. Last month, he promised to do "something" about French wine that he said is allowed into the U.S. virtually tariff-free while France imposes duties on U.S. wine, calling the arrangement unfair.Wine is France's second-biggest export after aerospace equipment. The U.S. is the biggest market, accounting for about a quarter of France's 13.2 billion euros in wine exports last year.Trump has complained about France charging tariffs on U.S. wine in the past without taking action. He tweeted in November that it's too hard for American wine producers to sell in France but that the U.S. makes it "easy" to import French wines, which he said "must change."The U.S. charges a tariff of 5 cents per 750 milliliter bottle of imported still wine and 14 cents for sparkling wine, according to the Wine Institute, an advocacy group for California winemakers. European Union tariffs for imported wine range from 11 cents to 29 cents per bottle, according to the group.France hasn't backed off from its planned digital tax even after the U.S. suggested it may use trade tools against the levy.The U.S. has said it will examine whether the tax would hurt its tech firms, using the so-called 301 investigation, the same tool Trump deployed to impose tariffs on Chinese goods because of the country's alleged theft of intellectual property.France isn't alone among European nations in arguing that internet companies aren't paying their fair share into public coffers.Because they're often domiciled in other countries -- including low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland or Bermuda -- and shift money seamlessly across borders, companies that sell online can easily avoid paying taxes in nations where they nevertheless make significant sales.France argues that the structure of the global economy has shifted to one based on data, rendering 20th-century tax systems archaic. According to 2018 figures from the European Commission, global tech companies pay a 9.5% average tax rate compared with 23.2% for traditional firms.While France is the first EU country to impose such a levy, it say it would prefer an EU-wide digital tax. Some other European countries are considering similar taxes.\--With assistance from Helene Fouquet, Hamza Ali, William Horobin and Aoife White.To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Williams in Paris at rwilliams323@bloomberg.net;Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Emily McGuire thought her husband ordered a box from Amazon for her birthday. Then she took a closer look Posted: 25 Jul 2019 07:49 PM PDT  Emily McGuire's husband surprised her with a birthday cake decorated like an Amazon package, much to the delight of avid shoppers on Facebook.
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| Iran tells Oman neighbours have made talks impossible Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Iran's neighbours have made talks impossible through their "hasty and arrogant moves", a top security official told Oman's foreign minister in Tehran on Saturday amid a tanker crisis. Oman, a past mediator between Iran and its foes, sent its top diplomat to the Islamic republic amid amplified tensions between Iran and the United States and its allies, including in the Gulf.
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| Russia detains more than 600 people over election protest: monitor Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:27 AM PDT  Russian police arrested more than 600 people on Saturday, including prominent activists, around a political protest in Moscow to demand that members of the opposition be allowed to run in a local election later this year. The protest, which authorities declared illegal beforehand, did not represent a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin and his allies who have the resources to break up such demonstrations and jail people. With several thousand people present, however, it showed how many activists and especially younger people are unafraid to challenge authorities on the streets and intend to keep pressing for the Kremlin to open up Russia's tightly-choreographed political system to competition.
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| AP Explains: How big a threat is an electromagnetic attack? Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:29 AM PDT  When much of Venezuela was plunged into darkness after a massive blackout this week, President Nicolás Maduro blamed the power outage on an "electromagnetic attack" carried out by the U.S. Blackouts are a regrettably frequent part of life in Venezuela, where the electric grid has fallen into serious disrepair. "In Venezuela, it's a lot easier for him to say we did something to him than he did it to himself," said Sharon Burke, senior adviser at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, and former assistant secretary of defense for operational energy at the Department of Defense.
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| Sorry, AOC: Socialism is the Zombie Ideology of Our Time Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:30 PM PDT  Socialism is the zombie ideology of our era: It fails everywhere, and yet it keeps rising back from the dead.Despite embarrassing socialist failures in China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and now Venezuela, the true believers march onward. Good intentions are unassailable. The revolution must go on.Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., arguably has done more than any other living American to market socialism to the next generation. And with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., following closely in his wake, rest assured we'll be contending with socialism for years to come.A recent Gallup survey shows that their message is resonating with more and more Americans.While 51% say socialism would be bad for America, 43% say it would be good. And notably, among the 18-34-year-old cohort, 58% favor socialism while 37% disfavor it.Those numbers hang like a dark cloud over America's future, but they don't tell the whole story.Interestingly, according to Gallup, Americans still favor the free market over government in multiple areas, including technological innovation, health care, and even basic things like wages, distribution of wealth, and the economy overall. And the comparison isn't even close.By contrast, Americans favor government over free markets when it comes to protecting consumers' online privacy and environmental protection.This creates quite a mixed picture, even a contradictory one. As a matter of simple math, there have to be millions of Americans who say they favor some form of socialism, yet favor the free market in general when it comes to certain aspects of their lives.How can that be?
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| 'Mind-blowing': Stranded for 4 days, 73-year-old man and his two dogs survive in remote Oregon desert Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:29 AM PDT  In a stunning tale of survival, Oregon police say Gregory Randolph, 73, and his dogs miraculously survived after being stranded in an Oregon desert.
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| Iran ships stranded in Brazil are set to depart: officials Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:48 PM PDT  Two Iranian ships stranded off the coast of Brazil for weeks were setting sail Saturday, officials said, after a court ordered state oil giant Petrobras to fuel up the vessels. The bulk carriers had been stuck at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana since early last month after Petrobras refused to provide fuel for fear of breaching US sanctions on Iran. The ships dragged Brazil into a global standoff which has seen rising tensions and fears of a military clash involving Tehran and Washington, which imposed a raft of punitive measures on Iran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic.
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| 2020 Vision: Trump blasts Fox News over poll showing him losing to Biden Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:25 AM PDT  A month after he was attacked by Sen. Kamala Harris over his record on race at the first Democratic presidential debate, the former vice president appears to have steadied himself.
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| Man accidentally shot dead by own passenger in ‘failed drive-by attempt’ Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:06 PM PDT  A man has died after being accidentally shot by his own passenger as he attempted to fire out of a car window, police say.Matthew Gibson, 26, was pronounced dead on 22 July after being shot in the head during the incident which prosecutors portrayed as a drive-by shooting gone bad in Park Manor, Chicago.Video footage from 21 July showed Gibson pulling alongside a white SUV that was waiting to make a left turn at around 5:40am, according to reports from the Chicago Sun-Times.As the car slowed his passenger, Jake Lee, opened fire on the vehicle with a .40-caliber handgun.However Lee, 27, accidentally shot his driver in the head during the incident. Despite his injuries Gibson was able to drive two miles from the scene.A 22-year-old man was also wounded during the shooting. Prosecutors for Cook County added that there did not appear to be any sign of shots being fired from the white SUV.Gibson was found to be brain dead on Monday, and was kept alive only to have his organs harvested. His death was ruled as a homicide.His death was the 271st recorded homicide in Chicago this year, a figure that has risen to 277 since the incident. Of those deaths, 243 were killed in shootings.Lee, from the city's Englewood area, now faces a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm, and is expected to face a count of murder.He was placed on parole in April 2017 after having served an eight-year sentence for aggravated battery with a handgun, a period that was set to end in 2020.Lee was denied bail at a hearing on 23 July.
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| Eight killed as quakes hit far northern Philippines Posted: 27 Jul 2019 12:45 AM PDT  Eight people were killed and dozens injured when a series of earthquakes struck islands in the far northern Philippines early Saturday, toppling historic buildings and sending terrified locals fleeing their homes. The tremors hit the province of Batanes, a group of sparsely populated islets north of the nation's largest Luzon island, tearing deep cracks in roads and forcing the evacuation of a hospital.
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| Ex-UK finance minister, Labour plot ways to block no-deal Brexit -paper Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:35 PM PDT ![Ex-UK finance minister, Labour plot ways to block no-deal Brexit -paper]( "Ex-UK finance minister, Labour plot ways to block no-deal Brexit -paper") Former British finance minister Philip Hammond, who quit the government last week before Boris Johnson took over as prime minister, has held secret talks with the opposition Labour Party about how to stop a no-deal Brexit, a newspaper said. Hammond, who has long opposed leaving the European Union without a transition deal to soften the economic shock, met Labour's top Brexit official, Kier Starmer, shortly after he quit the government, the Observer said. The newspaper said Hammond and Starmer agreed to work with other senior lawmakers including former Conservative minister Oliver Letwin to thrash out how best to use parliamentary votes to torpedo a no-deal outcome.
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