| Canadian police divers search river for missing teen murder suspects Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:23 PM PDT  Canadian police divers are searching a river for two missing teenagers suspected of a double murder, after finding an abandoned boat on its shores.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been chasing Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, for weeks since the pair were connected to two separate killings in British Columbia earlier this month.Authorities announced on 31 July that they were scaling back the search, which had taken officers to the remote town of Gillam in northern Manitoba.On Friday RCMP officers, travelling in a helicopter, spotted a damaged aluminium boat on the shores of the Nelson River, near Gillam.RCMP divers have now travelled to the town to search a section of the river.Their hunt began on Sunday."RCMP Underwater Recovery Team (URT) will conduct a thorough underwater search of significant areas of interest today," the force said on Twitter.The teenagers have been tracked in a series of stolen cars as they have travelled thousands of miles across Canada, from its Pacific coast in the west all to the way east to rural Manitoba.RCMP units believe the pair have been cornered in this region of rural Manitoba.The manhunt began on 12 July when Mr McLeod and Mr Schmegelsky, childhood friends, left their home in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and travelled 1,500 miles north to Whitehorse, in the Yukon, claiming that they were looking for work.But on 15 July police discovered the bodies of a young couple near Liard Hot Springs, back in British Columbia. The RCMP has said the teenagers are suspects in the case and are wanted for questioning.A few days later a burnt-out truck driven by the pair was discovered, along with the body of Leonard Dyck. Mr McLeod and Mr Schmegelsky have been charged with his murder and chased across Canada by the RCMP ever since.The father of Mr Schmegelsky has told reporters he believes his son is on a "suicide mission" and expects him to eventually die in a confrontation with the police."A normal child doesn't travel across the country killing people," he said. "A child in some very serious pain does."
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| Cory Booker compares Trump 'spouting racism' to segregationists George Wallace and Bull Connor Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:02 AM PDT  Sen. Cory Booker says why he thinks President Trump's remarks are "deeply disturbing" and compares the strategy of "spouting racism" to the infamous segregationists George Wallace and Bull Connor.
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| 31 dead, 62 rescued after boats capsize in Philippines Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:08 AM PDT  Rescuers recovered more bodies in rough seas where three ferry boats capsized after being buffeted by fierce winds and waves off two central Philippine provinces, bringing the death toll to 31 with three missing, the coast guard said Sunday. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the dead were mostly passengers of two ferries that flipped over in sudden wind gusts and powerful waves Saturday off Guimaras and Iloilo provinces. Sixty-two other passengers and crew were rescued.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, spokesman leave her office Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:34 PM PDT  Saikat Chakrabarti to work for climate change non-profit
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| Footage shows Bangkok bombing in mall minutes from ASEAN summit Posted: 03 Aug 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Footage emerged Saturday of the moment a bomb exploded in a Bangkok mall as the city hosted a major summit, the device apparently hidden inside a cuddly toy animal. There were nine successful or attempted bomb blasts on Friday throughout Bangkok which left four wounded as the city hosted a regional summit attended by top diplomats, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Footage showed an explosion in a shopping mall minutes from the summit venue in the early hours of Friday morning, after it was apparently planted by a man dressed in a student's uniform about 12 hours earlier.
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| 25-Year-Old Mom 'Gave Her Life' to Shield Her 2-Month-Old: These Are the El Paso Shooting Victims Posted: 04 Aug 2019 08:29 AM PDT  At least seven of the victims were Mexican nationals
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| Russian opposition plans new protest despite over 1,000 arrests Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:24 AM PDT  Russia's anti-Kremlin opposition said it was planning a nationwide protest next weekend despite police forcibly detaining over 1,000 people on Saturday for attending what they said was an illegal march in Moscow to demand free elections. Saturday's protest, conceived by opposition activists as a peaceful walk to protest against the exclusion of their candidates from a Moscow election next month, was systematically and sometimes violently dispersed by police. Russian investigators had initiated a criminal case against one man, accusing him of injuring a police officer, the TASS news agency reported.
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| Patrick Crusius: El Paso shooting suspect identified as 21-year-old, reports say Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:14 AM PDT  The suspect in the El Paso shooting in which 20 people have been killed, has been named a young white man in his 20s – Patrick Crusius – and investigators are reportedly examining a racist online manifesto he is believed to have written.As the nation reeled from the latest act of mass gun violence to destroy lives and stun communities, multiple reports said police officials had said the 21-year-old, detained after the incident in which more than 20 people were shot, came from the city Texas city of Alen, 650 miles to the west of El Paso.Cell phone footage from the scene showed people running in fear from the Cielo Vista Mall, where a gunman entered a Walmart store armed with a rifle and opened fire.A spokesman for the El Paso police department later said the operation was now becoming a murder investigation after a person had been taken into custody. Sgt Robert Gomez said they did not believe any suspects were "outstanding", but said the situation was fluid. Asked by the media about reports of a manifesto, he said he had no information. He did not name the suspect but said he was a young white man aged in his 20s. "This is unprecedented in El Paso," said Mr Gomez said. The "manifesto" said to have been written by the suspect claimed the attack was a response to the "Hispanic invasion of Texas". It refers to the so-called "Great Replacement", a white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims people of European descent are being overwhelmed."Even if other non-immigrant targets would have a greater impact, I can't bring myself to kill my fellow Americans," it reportedly said. "In short, America is rotting from the inside out, and peaceful means to stop this seem to be nearly impossible. The inconvenient truth is that our leaders, both Democrat AND Republican, have been failing us for decades." It also voiced support for the suspect in the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were killed in two consecutive attacks in March. It also said automation was people taking people's jobs and that immigration ought to be ended.CNN said that Facebook was working with police in the aftermath of the shooting to remove a Facebook and Instagram account associated with the suspect. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," the company said in a statement. "Content that praises, supports or represents the shooting or anyone responsible violates our community standards and we will continue to remove as soon as we identify it."Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said there were at least 15 fatalities and that the number could be higher. "You know that number keeps changing. I hate to pin down a certain number, but I think it was definitely a large number," he said.Asked about the motivate and reports of a manifesto, Mr Paxton said he was not surprised if that was true. It said he was currently being questioned by officers."That would perhaps why he did this," he said.The manifesto said the plan to launch the attack pre-dated the election of Donald Trump."I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump's rhetoric," it said. "The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that."
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| Italian Police Mistakes May Help American Teens in Cop Stabbing Case Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:13 AM PDT  Ciro De Luca/ReutersOne week has passed since the brutal stabbing death of 35-year-old Italian Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, allegedly at the hands of two San Francisco teens, and the investigation seems to have gone awry. Rome Cops: American Teens Stabbed Police Officer to Death in Drug-Fueled FrenzyReporting that closed camera television footage is missing from the area where 19-year-old Finnegan Elder allegedly stabbed Rega 11 times has raised eyebrows. The manager of the pharmacy directly across from where blood still stains the cobblestones says they only run their cameras when they are open. The stabbing took place around 2:30 a.m. Police now also say the camera on the bank across the street was broken. What we don't know with certainty is who decided where the fateful rendezvous would take place or if it was possible that anyone involved could have known that cameras would not be working. The fatal stabbing took place during a humid Roman night when local residents without air conditioning, of which there are many in Rome, would have been sleeping with their windows open. Italian media reports have already hinted of secret witnesses who may have heard and seen the whole thing. Police contend that they showed their badges and identified themselves as Carabinieri officers before the American teens allegedly launched the attack that would turn fatal. Officer Rega, we now know, forgot his gun that evening. His partner, Andrea Varriale, was unable to access his because Gabe Natale Hjorth, Elder's 18-year-old alleged accomplice, was beating him up. And since it is illegal for police to shoot at suspects running away, Varriale did not use his weapon at all. Natale Hjorth, who is half Italian and speaks the language, allegedly told investigators that he did not know the men who approached them to retrieve a bag they stole over a bad drug deal were cops. In fact, he says he was sure they were not. But without video surveillance tape, it may prove impossible to prove whether the police showed their badges or just how they approached the American teens. Elder told investigators that Rega had grabbed him by the neck. Again, without proper surveillance video, the truth may never come out. Elder's uncle who is acting as a family spokesman confirmed that Elder took part in informal "fight nights" back in San Francisco, so while it is certain he knew how to throw a punch, it remains unclear how he could have so easily overtaken a trained paramilitary police officer who, one would hope, would be equally trained in self defense. Of course the brutal stabbing of anyone is indefensible, but the circumstances leading up to this particular crime will prove crucial as the court drama plays out. If the teens were acting in self defense against older men they did not know were police, as Elder told investigators, they could receive leniency. If footage clearly shows the police showing their badges before the attack, it could prove far worse for the suspects. In a police reconstruction of events presented to the press, investigators say it took only a few minutes for the teens to run nearly two miles from where they allegedly stole a backpack back to their hotel room. That timeline, though, has an empty 24-minute window when the police, the teens and the alleged drug dealer and his interloper were all unaccounted for. Attorneys for both teens are demanding a clearer picture of the evidence. Elder's father Ethan, who is returning to California Saturday after visiting his son in prison Thursday and Friday, said he hoped the video would answer questions about the circumstances of the case. Elder's attorney has so far not tried to deny the confession given during the early hours of the investigation. Natale Hjorth's attorneys now say their client didn't know there was a stabbing at all until after his arrest despite the fact the two teens spent the hours after the attack in the same hotel room. A leaked photo of Natale Hjorth blindfolded before he was interrogated has only further muddied the waters. Police have confirmed they are investigating both why that happened and who leaked the photo. The knife–a seven-inch military-style weapon–was found hidden under the ceiling tile in the Le Méridien Visconti hotel room Elder had rented for his Roman holiday. Natale Hjorth was not listed as a guest at the hotel but was arrested in Elder's room. If Natale Hjorth's claims are true, it would mean that Elder lifted the ceiling tile and hid the knife and both men's bloody clothing without him knowing. Investigators are still collecting forensic evidence from the room which could validate or contradict Natale-Hjorth's claims. Lawyers for Natale-Hjorth have filed an appeal to the court order that will keep the teens incarcerated during the preliminary investigative stage. Under Italian law, police can do so for six months before formally indicting them for a crime and then another six months if they need it. While rarely successful so early in an investigation, the appeal will allow the defense to see certain discovery evidence that they have so far not been provided. Elder's lawyers have not yet filed a similar brief, and given news that the two young Americans are turning agaisnt each other, it seems unlikely that the defense teams will share what they learn. The case continues to draw comparisons to the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher. American student Amanda Knox was at first implicated and eventually convicted and acquitted of that murder, in part because of shoddy police work. In the first days of that investigation, police directed the narrative that Knox had confessed, that there was a bloody knife and that CCTV cameras did not work. That case took nearly a decade to play out. This one could take even longer. 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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| Police: Ohio gunman who killed 9 was stopped in 30 seconds Posted: 04 Aug 2019 04:44 PM PDT  A masked gunman in body armor opened fire early Sunday in a popular entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people, including his sister, and wounding dozens before he was quickly slain by police, officials said. Connor Betts, 24, was armed with a .223-caliber rifle with magazines capable of holding at least 100 rounds of ammunition and squeezed off dozens of shots before he was gunned down no more than 30 seconds after his rampage began, Police Chief Richard Biehl said. Surveillance video shared by police showed officers shot Betts at the doorstep of further destruction, just stopping him from entering a bar where some people took cover when the chaos broke out around 1 a.m. in the historic Oregon District.
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| Bill Maher: Democrats Are ‘Blowing It’ With Open Borders, Free College Talk Posted: 04 Aug 2019 04:36 AM PDT  Comedian Bill Maher said Friday night that Democrats are "blowing" their chances of defeating President Donald Trump in 2020 by proposing open border and free college policies."All the Democrats have to do to win is to come off less crazy than Trump — and, of course, they're blowing it," Maher said in his closing monologue during his HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher."More from The National Interest: This Is the Worst U.S. President EverMake Your Pick for the 6 Best Presidents Ever The Best President Ever: Lincoln Democrats are "coming across as unserious people who are going to take away all your money so migrants from Honduras can go to college for free and get a major in 'America sucks,'" he said.Maher did not identify any specific candidate in his diatribe, but was referring instead to the leftward lurch of the Democratic field.Some Democrats have embraced the idea of forgiving some or all student loan debt, while others back the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. Ten Democrats onstage raised their hands when asked whether they support providing government health insurance to illegal immigrants at a presidential debate in June.
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| Day care worker charged after four toddlers suffer broken legs Posted: 03 Aug 2019 11:27 AM PDT  A Florida day care worker was charged with child neglect two months after fourtoddlers were found with leg fractures, the Northwest Florida Daily Newsreports
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| Chicago shootings leave 40 shot, 3 fatally; Mt. Sinai Hospital closes emergency room Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:01 PM PDT  A West Side hospital is not accepting any more patients to its emergency room after a violent weekend in which 40 people were shot, three fatally, across the city.
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| German far-right party ahead in east before regional votes Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:10 AM PDT  The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken the lead in the east of the country ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), just a month before regional elections there, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The AfD is favored by 23% of voters in the former east, ahead of the CDU on 22%, the far-left Linke on 14%, the Greens on 13% and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) on 11%, according to a poll in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
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| California cliff collapse: Three dead after tons of sandstone plunges onto popular surfing beach Posted: 03 Aug 2019 12:58 AM PDT  Three people have died after a cliff collapsed, forcing a popular surfing beach to close and sending tons of sandstone onto beachgoers in California.A 30-foot-long slab of the cliff plunged onto the sand near Grandview Beach north of San Diego on Saturday.Footage of beach chairs, towels, surf boards and beach toys strewn about the sand was captured by a KNSD-TV helicopter.Other beachgoers and lifeguards at a nearby tower scrambled to the towering pile of debris, which was estimated to weigh tens of thousands of pounds, to help dig out victims."I saw first responders, and I saw lifeguards frantically digging people out of the debris," Jim Pepperdine, who lives nearby, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.Mr Pepperdine said he saw people trying to resuscitate a woman before her body was covered.A woman died at the scene and two more people later died at hospitals. Another person was taken to a hospital and a person who had minor injuries was treated at the scene, according to statements from the city.Their names and ages were not immediately released. All the victims were adults, authorities said.Search dogs were brought in to hunt for other possible victims, and a skip loader was brought in to move the dense, heavy debris. No other victims were found by late Friday night.The beach is reached by wooden stairs from a parking lot above. Homes atop the cliff were not in any danger, Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein said.However, the cliff remained unstable and complicated the search effort, Mr Stein said.Suburbs north of San Diego have contended with rising water levels in the Pacific Ocean, pressuring bluffs along the coast. Some bluffs are fortified with concrete walls to prevent multimillion-dollar homes from falling into the sea.Long stretches of beach in Encinitas, San Diego County, are narrow strips of sand between stiff waves and towering rock walls. People lounging on beach chairs or blankets are sometimes surprised as waves roll past them and within a few feet of the walls.Grandview Beach is fairly narrow, with tides high this week. Surfers lay their boards upright against the bluff.Cliffside collapses are not unusual as the ocean chews away at the base of the sandstone, authorities said. Some beach areas were marked with signs warning of slide dangers.Several people have been killed or injured over the years in bluff collapses. The Tribune reported that Rebecca Kowalczyk, from Encinitas, died near the same area on 16 January 2000, when a 110-yard-wide chunk of bluff fell and buried her.Bluffs give way four to eight times a year in Southern California, but "nothing of this magnitude," said Brian Ketterer, southern field division chief of California State Parks."This is a naturally eroding coastline," Encinitas lifeguard captain Larry Giles said. "There's really no rhyme or reason, but that's what it does naturally ... This is what it does, and this is how are beaches are actually partially made. It actually has these failures."Associated Press
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| Brazil gang leader dresses up as daughter in jail escape bid Posted: 04 Aug 2019 10:57 AM PDT  A Brazilian gang leader tried to escape from prison by dressing up as his daughter when she visited him behind bars and walking out the penitentiary's main door in her place, authorities said Sunday. Rio's State Secretary of Prison Administration released photos showing da Silva in a silicon girl's mask and long dark-haired wig, wearing tight jeans and a pink shirt with a cartoon image of donuts. Authorities say da Silva was part of the leadership of the Red Command, one of the most powerful criminal groups in Brazil that controlled drug trafficking in a large part of Rio.
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| Hong Kong police fire tear gas at protesters in tourist district Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:41 AM PDT  Hong Kong riot police fired repeated tear gas rounds on Saturday evening at pro-democracy protesters in a popular tourist district, during the latest violence to rock the global finance hub despite increasingly stern warnings from China. Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing this week signalled a hardening stance. Dozens of protesters were arrested, and the Chinese military said it was ready to quell the "intolerable" unrest if requested.
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| In 1981, a British Submarine Crashed into a Nuclear Russian Sub Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:30 AM PDT  Immediately ordering the boat to periscope depth, the Delta III's sonar team detect propeller noise on a bearing 127 degrees. The contact was judged to be a submarine.On May 23, 1981 the Soviet submarine K-211 Petropavlovsk cruised quietly at nine knots, one hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the Arctic Barents Sea. The huge 155-meter-long Delta III (or Kalmar)-class submarine was distinguished by the large boxy compartment on its spine which accommodated the towering launch tubes for sixteen R-29R ballistic missiles, each carrying three independent nuclear warheads. K-211's mission was hair-raisingly straightforward: to cruise undetected for weeks or months at a time, awaiting only the signal that a nuclear war had broken out to unleash its apocalyptic payload from underwater on Western cities and military bases up to four thousand miles away.British and American nuclear-power attack submarines (SSNs), or "hunter-killers," were routinely dispatched to detect Soviet ballistic missiles subs (SSBNs) leaving from base to discreetly stalk them. The quieter SSNs also awaited only a signal of war, an event in which they would attempt to torpedo the Soviet subs before they could unleash their city-destroying weapons.(This first appeared in July 2019.)
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| Dayton, El Paso, Gilroy and beyond: You're right to be afraid. Mass shootings are more numerous and deadly Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:10 PM PDT  A survey found 41% of Americans fear random mass shootings. FBI data shows a rise in shootings – and victims – so that's not an unreasonable fear.
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| You Probably Forgot All about These Great Performing '90s Cars Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| One More Reason Why Lincoln Is Better Than Trump: His Spies Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:05 AM PDT  Joshua Roberts/ReutersThe resignation of national intelligence director Dan Coats, who publicly contradicted Donald Trump's rosy view of Russian and North Korean threats, opens old wounds. Trump has long publicly denigrated the spy community, which has infuriated seasoned espionage hands. But he isn't the only chief executive who's had run-ins with this nation's intelligence apparatus. Go back to the Civil War and you find that spycraft posed a headache for another Republican president. Although both Abraham Lincoln and Trump struggled to navigate the intelligence landscape during their presidencies, Lincoln ultimately succeeded in piecing together a makeshift information network, while Trump so far has failed, still relying too often on his gut instinct rather than empirical evidence from his spy agencies.Granted it may be a stretch, but there are parallels between these two men. Trump assumed the presidency with no government experience. Lincoln had not much more seasoning—one term in the U.S. House of Representatives and four terms in the Illinois state legislature. Both men inherited a nation deeply divided politically. With members of Congress assaulting one another on the House and Senate floors before the war and 750,000 square miles of the United States cleaved off to form a rebel nation after the fighting started, Lincoln, of course, faced a far worse situation and tried his mightiest to hold the country together at the outset. Trump has been content to further exploit the divisions that existed before he took office.How Lincoln's Compassion for a Gold Star Mom Shames TrumpTrump entered office contemptuous of the CIA, FBI, and the military's intelligence agencies, claiming at campaign rallies that he understood world threats better than the generals or spymasters, and later accusing government agencies of snooping on him when he was a candidate.There was no spy organization for Lincoln to disdain when he became president. At the war's outset, General Winfield Scott, the Union Army's commander, had no intelligence staff and hired off the street a former San Francisco vigilante named Lafayette Baker to spy on the Confederate force gathering at Manassas Junction.In the first year of the war, Lincoln had good reason to be contemptuous of the military intelligence capability that evolved. Neither the White House nor the Union army ever had a centralized spy service. Local commanders, none of whom had any training in the dark arts during their cadet days at West Point, were expected to organize their own spy services for their divisions and corps.The closest to a spymaster the Union force had was Allan Pinkerton, a nationally known Chicago detective who became the secret service chief for the Union's all-important Army of the Potomac commanded by General George B. McClellan. But Pinkerton, who operated under the pseudonym E. J. Allen, ended up being a failure as a military intelligence officer, feeding McClellan wildly inaccurate reports that inflated the number of Rebel troops the Union general faced. Pinkerton also spied on Lincoln for political intelligence he thought might be useful for McClellan.By the winter of 1861, the president suspected McClellan, with Pinkerton's help, was dialing up the Confederate numbers to justify his not moving against the enemy until he had more soldiers. Lincoln reportedly once deadpanned to a visiting New England delegation that he knew the Confederates had a one-million-man army. Why? Because whenever his generals fought the Rebels they always told him they faced two-to-one odds. "Now I know we have a half million soldiers in the field," he said, "so I am bound to believe the rebels have twice that number."Intelligence collection in the Army of the Potomac improved dramatically when it was taken over in February 1863 by Colonel George Sharpe, an erudite New York lawyer who pioneered what spy agencies today call "all source intelligence." Sharpe raked in information not only from his spies but also from prisoner interrogations, aeronauts flying balloons over the battlefield, signal officers intercepting Rebel telegraph messages, and cavalry scouts on reconnaissance patrols—all to produce intelligence reports that outpaced anything the enemy could muster.But even Sharpe had his intelligence failures. In the summer of 1864, he lost track of an entire Confederate corps, whose 12,000 men turned up at the gates of Washington, D.C., embarrassing a president already under fire for lack of progress in the Union war effort.Lincoln and Trump could not be more different in their response to a president's intelligence conundrum. Lincoln checked out books on military strategy from the Library of Congress and paced back and forth in his bedroom at night digesting them for a crash course on how to wage war. Trump doesn't read books.Early in his presidency, Lincoln had the Army begin sending him daily intelligence reports on what it learned about Confederate military movements and throughout his tenure he carved out time in his busy schedule to interview news correspondents on what they learned during visits to the South and to grill Army officers for information they picked up from the front. Trump does not regularly read intelligence summaries that have been prepared for him and sits for relatively few briefings by his spy agencies. He does stay glued to Fox News each morning.When Pinkerton met with Lincoln to milk him for political information McClellan would find useful, the president, realizing what the Chicago detective was up to, turned the tables and pumped the unwitting Pinkerton for intelligence on his general. Such nuance and mental dexterity as president are not Trump's strong suit. Douglas Waller's next book, Lincoln's Spies, will be published by Simon & Schuster on August 6.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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| McDonald's employee fired after allegedly turning away paramedics: 'We don't serve badges here' Posted: 03 Aug 2019 01:31 PM PDT  A McDonald's employee was fired after she allegedly refused to serveparamedics Wednesday night, WFTS reports
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| Zimbabwe Reaches ‘Tipping Point’ as Inflation Blacked Out Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:00 PM PDT ![Zimbabwe Reaches 'Tipping Point' as Inflation Blacked Out]( "Zimbabwe Reaches 'Tipping Point' as Inflation Blacked Out") (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's finance minister responded to the country's worsening economic crisis last week by blacking out inflation statistics for the next six months, boosting the price of the little power that's available five-fold and admitting what the International Monetary Fund told him in April: the economy will contract for the first time since 2008.At the same time he spoke of fiscal surpluses and a relaxation in local ownership requirements for the key platinum industry. This all happened in a country with daily power cuts of up to 18 hours and shortages of everything from bread to motor fuel. People are receiving food aid in cities for the first time and a drought has necessitated the import of hundreds of thousands of tons of corn.When Robert Mugabe was ousted after four decades in power in late 2017 his replacement, Emmerson Mnangagwa, promised economic regeneration and declared that Zimbabwe is "open for business." Instead things have gone from bad to worse with the effects of rapidly expanding money supply through the sale of Treasury bills under Mugabe's rule coming home to roost and this year's outlawing of the U.S. dollar in favor of a local quasi currency that can't be traded outside the country causing panic."Zimbabwe is at a tipping point and if it falls over the edge it's going to be quite a long way in coming back," said Derek Matyszak, a Zimbabwe-based research consultant for South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. "The wheels are falling off. There is no way out of a Ponzi scheme other than a massive infusion of cash to pay off your creditors."The country with the world's highest inflation rate after Venezuela also suspended annual consumer-price data for the next six months. The authorities need to collect comparable data since the introduction of the new currency in February. That marked a return to 2009, when the country abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar in favor of the U.S. dollar and other currencies after inflation surged to an estimated 500 billion percent.If the more commonly used black-market exchange rate is used, Zimbabwe's annual inflation is currently 558%, about three times the official rate, while Venezuela's is 35,004%, according to Steve H. Hanke, a professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.Scrapping the official annual rate is "no real loss from an analytical perspective," said Jee-A van der Linde, an economist at NKC African Economics in Paarl, South Africa. "These elevated inflation readings did little more than create panic and damage what little confidence was left."Still, the decision evokes other countries in crisis. Venezuela halted publication of inflation data and while it periodically releases figures, it isn't operating on a regular schedule. In 2013, Argentina was censured by the IMF for tampering with its data.A de-linking of the country's quasi-currencies from parity with the U.S. dollar in February and the re-imposition of the Zimbabwe dollar overnight in June has fueled depreciation with the currency officially trading at 9.28 to the dollar on Aug. 2. The black-market rate was 10.8, according to Marketwatch.co.zw, a website run by analysts. While the government has argued that in the face of foreign-currency shortages it has no choice but to reintroduce its own currency, Hanke disagrees."The Achilles heel is the introduction of the new currency to the exclusion of the dollar," he said. "They have decided to go in the completely opposite direction and claimed it's the best thing since sliced bread and it's going to be an absolute disaster."While the cost of basic services has climbed 400% this year, pay rises have been around 10%, said Japhet Moyo, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which has 130,000 members.Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube tried to highlight the country's first positive current-account balance in a decade as a sign of progress. Since his appointment last year, the government has sold only marginal amounts of Treasury bills. And earlier this year, the Cambridge University-trained economics professor forecast that month-on-month inflation, which surged to 39.3% in June, would be close to zero by year-end.The fundamental problem is that the government has failed to attract significant investment and hasn't substantially changed the policies of the Mugabe era, said John Robertson, an independent economist in Harare, the capital."People are very angry" and even though a quarter of the population has already emigrated, more may follow, said Matyszak."The Zimbabwe I once loved has become a cemetery for my son's future" said Ashley Randen, an unemployed single mother of a 12-year-old boy in Harare.\--With assistance from Daniel Cancel and Carolina Millan.To contact the reporters on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net;Prinesha Naidoo in Johannesburg at pnaidoo7@bloomberg.net;Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Antony SguazzinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Teen arrested in boy's fall from top of London's Tate Modern Posted: 04 Aug 2019 05:29 PM PDT  A teenager was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Sunday after a 6-year-old child was thrown from the 10th floor viewing platform at London's Tate Modern art gallery, police said. The Metropolitan Police said officers and paramedics found the injured child on a fifth-floor roof of the Tate. "A 17-year-old male had remained with members of the public on the 10th floor viewing platform," the statement said.
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| In less than a minute, Ohio gunman kills nine people, including sister Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:38 AM PDT  Police officers on routine patrol nearby were on the scene in less than a minute and shot the attacker dead moments after he opened fire, likely preventing a much higher casualty toll, authorities said. "Officers acted ... instantaneously and effectively ended this in 30 seconds," Police Chief Richard Biehl said during a news conference. Police named the gunman as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old white male from Bellbrook, Ohio, and said he was armed with an assault-style rifle fitted with an extended drum magazine that could hold 100 rounds.
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| Migrants on German NGO ship allowed to disembark in Malta Posted: 04 Aug 2019 04:45 AM PDT  Forty migrants aboard a German NGO rescue ship arrived in Malta on Sunday after Italy refused to let them land and a distribution agreement was made between several EU countries. The Alan Kurdi ship, run by charity Sea-Eye, had rescued the migrants off the Libyan coast on Wednesday but Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini denied the boat the right to use Italian ports. The boat instead travelled to Malta.
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| The DOJ Will Not Prosecute James Comey over Trump Memos Posted: 03 Aug 2019 02:30 AM PDT  A free society cannot stay free for long if the criminal-justice system becomes a political weapon, if that becomes our norm.The most alarming aspect of the Trump–Russia investigation, and of the stark difference between the aggression with which it was pursued and the see-no-evil passivity of the Clinton emails caper, is the way the investigative process was used to influence political outcomes.The way to right that wrong is to prevent it from becoming the new normal, not to turn the tables of abuse when power shifts from one side to the other. We can only make things worse by losing the distinction between rebuking errors in judgment and criminalizing them.Ardent Trump supporters are growling over news that the FBI's former director, James Comey, will not be prosecuted by the Justice Department for the mishandling of memoranda he wrote about his contacts with the president. The news has been reported by The Hill's John Solomon and the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett, among others.Comey's handling of his memos is one aspect of probes related to investigations attendant to the 2016 election, which are being conducted by Justice Department independent counsel Michael Horowitz. Indications are that Horowitz referred the memos issue to the Justice Department for possible prosecution and that, after reviewing the IG's findings, Justice declined to pursue the matter as a criminal case.That is the way things are supposed to work. The inspector general's job is to ensure that colorable allegations of misconduct against Justice Department officials (including FBI officials) are thoroughly examined, so that all of the relevant facts are uncovered. The Justice Department then reviews the IG's report, mindful of two imperatives that are in tension. On one hand, clear criminal misconduct must be prosecuted; otherwise we have a two-tiered justice system in which those we trust to enforce the law can violate it with impunity. On the other hand, poor judgment, while it should be censured and may be the basis for disciplinary action, must not be criminalized; otherwise, we discourage talented, honorable people from taking jobs that are all about excruciating judgment calls.What happened in this instance? We don't know yet -- and that alone calls for restraint. It is no knock on Messrs. Solomon and Barrett, who are excellent reporters with good sources, to caution that we have not yet seen the IG report.To be sure, many relevant facts are known. The Comey memos have been public for some time, the former director has testified about them in congressional hearings, and they were part of the mountain of information from which Special Counsel Robert Mueller's staff derived their final report. Still, there is much we do not know. Past experience informs us that IG Horowitz is thorough and careful. His office has interviewed lots of witnesses and scrutinized government reports to which we do not have access. His report is not expected to be released until September. Until then, we won't know what happened, and why. In the meantime, since I have known both Attorney General Bill Barr and former director Jim Comey for many years, I am confident about two things.First, no one is better suited than Barr to weigh the pros and cons of prosecuting alleged government misconduct. He has prioritized the importance of resisting the politicization of law enforcement and he grasps the stakes involved. He is also a big enough boy to tune out the noise from the Trump–Comey feud: the president's nonstop depiction of Comey as the reincarnation of Lavrentiy Beria, and the former director's worn-thin moralizing about how "Trump eats your soul in small bites" -- including Barr's own. The attorney general is not going to authorize a prosecution in the absence of clear evidence of a serious crime.Second, I do not believe that Jim Comey would willfully leak classified information. Unless and until someone can show me he did it, I am going to continue assuming he did not.That does not mean his handling of the memos was model behavior, though. It seems to me that he played with fire.The existence of the memos became known shortly after Comey was fired on May 9, 2017. It is only natural that they raised alarm. One would expect that if a president and an FBI director met several times, memos documenting those conversations would contain at least some classified information. Comey, moreover, brazenly acknowledged that he had orchestrated the leak of at least a portion of one memo to the New York Times. That is not normal.Nevertheless, Comey is very smart. And you don't have to agree with his politics or like his style to realize that he has spent much of his career protecting national security. By definition, when information is classified, that means its unauthorized disclosure could damage American national security. Might Comey mishandle classified information? Sure, it's possible -- plenty of smart, patriotic public officials have done that. But to me, it is implausible that Comey would knowingly do that, much less intentionally transmit classified intelligence to the media.That said, the classified-information facet of this episode has been exaggerated. There were seven memos in all, totaling 15 pages. Our understanding is that Comey tried to avoid putting classified information in them, and believed he had succeeded. Yet after obtaining and accounting for all of them, the FBI designated two of them as "confidential," the lowest level of classification. We do not know at this point (or, at least, I don't know) whether the memo leaked to the Times -- regarding the February 2017 Trump–Comey discussion of the investigation of former national-security adviser Michael Flynn -- was one of the classified ones. But we can easily deduce that Comey neither intended it to be classified nor thought it was. At one point in the memo, Comey wrote, "NOTE: Because this is an unclassified document, I will be limited in how I describe what I said next."We know that Comey shared this memo with a friend (who is also a friend of mine, and who was his intermediary with the Times), and that he shared at least some of the memos with his lawyers (who are also friends of mine). From a classified-information standpoint, however, we are talking about a small number of documents, and it is unclear that Comey knew anything in them was classified. Even if he turned out to be wrong about that, it is highly unlikely that prosecutors could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was grossly negligent in mishandling them, much less that he willfully mishandled them.To my mind, the issue here has never been criminal misconduct in connection with classified information. The relevant matters are the non-criminal but serious impropriety in the handling of non-public government information, and the failure to protect the confidentiality of communications as to which the president has a presumptive privilege -- a privilege that subordinate executive officials are obliged to respect, regardless of whether they respect the president himself.There is no problem with Comey's having chosen to write the memos. Much is made of the fact that he did not trust President Trump and that he felt compelled to document their communications, even though he did not do that when he spoke with President Obama. So what? He is entitled to feel that way. He was under no duty either to write or to refrain from writing memos. As long as he recorded events fairly and honestly when he chose to report them, nothing more was required.The problem, however, is that the former director seems to have regarded the memos as his own property, rather than the government's. To the contrary, these were clearly accounts of government business compiled by a government official using government property on government time. The memos were not Comey's to keep; and they were certainly not his to disseminate to the media.Reports of non-public government business are sensitive, regardless of whether they contain classified information. Conversations between the president and top national-security officials are among the most sensitive. Top executive officers, such as the FBI director, are well aware that those communications are presumptively privileged, and that the privilege belongs to the president. The director can be cut some slack for keeping memos he wrote in his home rather than in his office -- an FBI director is never off duty. But he's got no business leaking government files of any kind to the media, and that goes double for memoranda about communications with the president -- any president, end of story.It makes no difference that, at the time of the leak, Comey was no longer the FBI director. A public official, particularly of such high rank, has continuing fiduciary duties upon leaving government service -- even when the departure is against his will. Of course it was wrong for the administration to give conflicting rationales for Comey's firing. It was also wrong for the president to goad the former director with a farcical, shades-of-Watergate tweet, suggesting there might be White House recordings of their conversations. There are many ways the former director could appropriately have responded to these provocations; leaking a government memo was not one of them.Comey has said he was hoping to trigger the appointment of a special counsel. But he could have done that, in his new capacity as a private citizen, by arranging a press conference at which he called for the appointment of a special counsel. It would have gotten plenty of attention. Comey, a gifted public speaker, would have made a forceful presentation that would have gotten significant traction on Capitol Hill, where Democrats were already clamoring for a special counsel.The former director's decision to proceed by leaking to the media a government memo, documenting a sensitive but probably not classified meeting with the president, was wrong. It was the kind of behavior it is impossible to imagine that Comey, as FBI director, would abide if one of his subordinates had done it. Indeed, in Comey's memo about the Flynn conversation, he describes speaking at length with Trump about the menace of leaks, about how they undermine the president's capacity to do his job. He even recounts telling the president that he was "eager to find leakers and would like to nail one to the door as a message."To leak the memo was unbecoming conduct. It is worthy of censure. That does not make it a felony.The ongoing Justice Department and congressional inquiries into the investigations attendant to the 2016 election are wide-ranging. In assessing investigative overreach, it is vital to remember that the remedy for politicized law enforcement is not more politicized law enforcement. If officials with a commendable record of service to the country took steps they should not have taken out of lapses in judgment -- including lapses driven by overwrought suspicions of impending danger to the nation -- then there needs to be an accounting. We will also need to implement better oversight procedures to insure against a repetition.That, however, does not mean crimes were committed. The president's fans should remember that their main complaint has been that Donald Trump and his campaign were treated as suspects in heinous, traitorous crimes despite the absence of credible incriminating evidence. The investigators, too, are entitled not to be presumed guilty of crimes, even by those of us who are convinced that there were investigative irregularities.Let's get the facts first, and then we can decide whether laws were broken, and whether there has been misconduct worthy of prosecution. And when we decide, let's bear in mind that a norm against criminalizing political disputes cannot be reestablished unless we commit to reestablishing it. That means keeping the political vendettas out of the investigations.
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| Nuon Chea, ideologue of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies at 93 Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:37 AM PDT  Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, died Sunday, the country's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal said. Nuon Chea was known as Brother No. 2, the right-hand man of Pol Pot, the leader of the regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Researchers believe Nuon Chea was responsible for the extremist policies of the Khmer Rouge and was directly involved in its purges and executions.
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| Man, nanny found dead in double murder at suburban New Jersey home Posted: 04 Aug 2019 11:13 AM PDT  Police confirmed that they started investigating the murders of a man and a woman at a home on Walton Road near Jefferson Avenue in Maplewood around 6 a.m.
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| Trump said 'perhaps' more needs to be done on gun control following two mass shootings Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:34 PM PDT  President Trump did not discuss specific ideas but said "a lot" is already being done to keep guns out of the wrong hands, and he has spoken to many governors and members of Congress about the issue.
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| America's New AC-130J Ghostrider Gunship Is a Beast Posted: 03 Aug 2019 06:30 AM PDT  The 30mm cannon in particular "almost like a sniper rifle. ... It's that precise, it can pretty much hit first shot, first kill," then-1st SOW commander Col. Tom Palenske told Millitary.com back in 2017, adding that the Ghostrider is "going to [be] the most lethal, with the most loiter time, probably the most requested weapons system from ground forces in the history of warfare."Brace yourselves: the Air Force's newest gunship is officially on the prowl downrange.The AC-130J Ghostrider gunship flew its first combat mission in Afghanistan in late June, deploying to relieve the AC-130U Spooky aircraft following the latter's final combat sorties, an Air Force Special Operations Command spokesman confirmed to The War Zone on Wednesday.According to the Northwest Florida Daily News, which first reported the news of the combat deployment, the mission took place "just days before" the June 28 change of command ceremony for new AFSOC commander Air Force Lt. Gen. James Slife at Hurlburt Field in Florida.This first appeared in Task and Purpose here.
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| Largest housing-fraud case in O.C. history allegedly carried out by mother-daughter duo Posted: 03 Aug 2019 12:40 AM PDT  A mother and daughter are under arrest for what's being called the largest housing fraud case in Orange County history.
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| El Paso shooting: 20 dead in ‘evil act of violence’ at Texas Walmart as police probe ‘hate crime’ Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:19 AM PDT Authorities in Texas are quizzing a 21-year-old white man – suspected of posting a racist "manifesto" online – believed to be responsible for a gun attack on a shopping centre that killed 20 people and which police said was the "nexus of a hate crime".Video phone footage taken inside a mall in El Paso showed people running in fear for their lives after the shooter entered a Walmart store with a semiautomatic weapon and opened fire. In addition to the 20 fatalities, at least two-dozen people were injured in the latest incident of gun violence to scar the nation.It appears the suspected shooter – named by multiple media accounts as Patrick Crusius – drove up to ten hours from Alen, a town near Dallas, to target the store in El Paso, a city on the border with Mexico that has long been a home to immigrants. An online posting apparently written several days ago, said the attack was a response to the "Hispanic invasion of Texas"."Even if other non-immigrant targets would have a greater impact, I can't bring myself to kill my fellow Americans," it said. "In short, America is rotting from the inside out, and peaceful means to stop this seem to be nearly impossible. The inconvenient truth is that our leaders, both Democrat AND Republican, have been failing us for decades." CNN said that Facebook was working with police in the aftermath of the shooting to remove a Facebook and Instagram account associated with the suspect. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," the company said in a statement. "Content that praises, supports or represents the shooting or anyone responsible violates our community standards and we will continue to remove as soon as we identify it."At a press conference, Texas governor Greg Abbot who has long been a supporter of gun rights and and an opponent of effort to regulate the sale or carrying of weapons, described the incident as one of the of the "deadliest days in history of Texas".On Twitter, he wrote: "Now in the beautiful city of El Paso. Texans grieve today for the people of this wonderful place. We ask God to bind up the wounds of all who've been harmed."Meanwhile Donald Trump, who has placed anti-immigration rhetoric at the centre of his reelection campaign who was recently formally condemned by the House of Representatives for a series of racist tweets in which he told four Democratic congresswomen to "go back", said the incident was "terrible"."Working with state and local authorities, and law enforcement," the president wrote. "Spoke to governor to pledge total support of federal government. God be with you all!"The document believed to have been written by the suspect claimed the president's words had not been his inspiration. It also spoke in support of the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were killed in two consecutive attacks in New Zealand in March."I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump's rhetoric," it said. "The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that."El Paso police chief Greg Allen said authorities the manifesto from the suspect indicated "there is a potential nexus to a hate crime". He said the suspect was taken into custody without incident, when confronted by police and was currently being questioned.Democrat congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who repents El Paso, said: "The manifesto narrative is fuelled by hate, racism, bigotry and division. El Paso is a community that has shown nothing but generosity and kindness to the least among us: those people arriving at America's front door."
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| EU must change its negotiating terms for Brexit, says Britain's Barclay Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:36 AM PDT  The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, must go back to the bloc's leaders to change the terms of the talks because Britain's parliament will not accept the current deal, British Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said on Sunday. Writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Barclay said the "political realities" had changed since Barnier's instructions were set after Britain voted to leave the EU more than three years and that his mandate should reflect those differences. Britain's new prime minister Boris Johnson has pledged to leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, and has told the bloc there is no point in new talks unless negotiators are willing to drop the so-called Northern Irish backstop agreed with his predecessor Theresa May.
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| Egypt displays restoration of Tutankhamun gilded coffin Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:19 AM PDT  Egypt displayed on Sunday the gilded coffin of Tutankhamun, under restoration for the first time since the boy king's tomb was discovered in 1922. The restoration process began in mid-July after the three-tiered coffin was transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo from the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, southern Egypt. "We are showing you a unique historical artefact, not just for Egypt but for the world," Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany told a press conference at the new museum, which overlooks the famed Giza Pyramids.
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| Iraq's Yazidi women must abandon kids born in IS captivity Posted: 03 Aug 2019 09:44 AM PDT ![Iraq's Yazidi women must abandon kids born in IS captivity]( "Iraq's Yazidi women must abandon kids born in IS captivity") Yazidi women and girls who were enslaved and raped by Islamic State militants have few choices. Five years ago Saturday, IS militants launched attacks on Yazidi villages in northern Iraq, kidnapping, enslaving and massacring thousands. In April, a month after the final military defeat of IS, Yazidi religious leaders made an apparent bid to protect the insular and still-grieving community by decreeing that they will embrace survivors of militant attacks.
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| Malaysia Voices Trust in South China Sea Pact Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT ![Malaysia Voices Trust in South China Sea Pact]( "Malaysia Voices Trust in South China Sea Pact") (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia is confident it can reach an agreement with China to settle tensions in the South China Sea after its neighbors warned that incidents in the disputed waters had "eroded trust."The country is "very hopeful" that a code of conduct for the area will be completed within the three-year deadline or earlier, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Haslinda Amin."We are very hopeful that within three years or perhaps even earlier we can come up with a better understanding of things," Saifuddin said in the interview in Bangkok after the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting. "We are also hopeful that the U.S. and other superpowers will respect the CoC once its implemented."Saifuddin said he had not seen an increased presence of Chinese navy vessels in the disputed region, which includes a waterway that carries more than $3 trillion in trade each year.His comments come after a joint communique from Asean aired concerns on the same day that China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi touted a preliminary draft of the code of conduct to end the decades-long conflict over the area. Activities in the South China Sea, including land reclamation, "increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region," the 10-nation bloc of Southeast Asian countries said in the statement.Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's stance on China has warmed ever since he stepped into power last year and quickly put Chinese-backed projects on hold for review. He has since resumed some of the contracts and looked to Chinese companies from Huawei Technologies Co. to SenseTime Group Ltd. for cooperation in artificial intelligence and transport.As trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, Saifuddin is concerned that possible U.S. sanctions against Malaysia could prevent it from trading with China. Vietnam is a cautionary tale, with the U.S. imposing duties on steel imports from the country in July."We are a small player and we would like to trade with both the U.S. and China," Saifuddin said. If Malaysia were to be punished for its trade surplus with the U.S., then "we just have to tell the U.S. that you are just being very unfair and you are being a big bully," he added.To contact the reporters on this story: Anisah Shukry in Kuala Lumpur at ashukry2@bloomberg.net;Haslinda Amin in Singapore at hamin1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Yudith Ho at yho35@bloomberg.net, Ruth PollardFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump tweets as gun violence and white nationalist terrorism stalk America Posted: 04 Aug 2019 10:45 AM PDT  Domestic terrorism now results in more deaths than the foreign kind but the president shows no sign of toning down his rhetoricDonald Trump takes part in a listening session on 21 February 2018 on gun violence with teachers and students after the mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo menaces have stalked America throughout its history. One is gun violence. The other is white supremacy. In El Paso, Texas, on Saturday they collided.A 21-year-old gunman with a hatred of Hispanic immigrants killed 20 people in a shopping mall in the eighth deadliest mass shooting in American history. The suspect is believed to have posted online an anti-immigrant screed that praised the killing of 51 people in Christchurch mosques in New Zealand in March.Less than 13 hours later, nine people were killed in Dayton, Ohio, in a second mass shooting.The chilling reality of domestic terrorism – which now results in far more deaths than foreign terrorism – was acknowledged by political analysts, Democratic candidates for president and George P Bush, nephew of former president George W Bush.But there was no televised appearance from President Donald Trump, who attempted to wash his hands of the hate crime in a few tweets. His acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, toured TV studios on Sunday expressing righteous indignation. "I blame the people who pull the trigger," Mulvaney told NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. "Goodness gracious, is someone really blaming the president? People are sick, until we address why people think this way."There is a need for caution when drawing a direct line between politicians and heinous acts: the Columbine high school massacre happened under President Bill Clinton, the Orlando nightclub shooting under Barack Obama. But the lone gunman theory is often a way of refusing to grapple with underlying motives. For those who live with violence and its consquences in their communities every day, context matters.Trump has spent the past month stoking racial resentments, tweeting that four US congresswomen of colour should "go back" to their countries, holding a rally where the crowd chanted "send her back!" and deriding the majority African American district that contains part of Baltimore as "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess".Inflammatory words matter in a country that has more guns than people. Tragically, shootings have become as American as apple pie. Dayton was the 22nd mass killing in America this year, according to an AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database, which tracks all attacks involving four or more people killed. America has by far the highest gun ownership rate in the world.Time and again Congress refuses to act. Not even the shooting that killed 20 students and six teachers at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 led to meaningful reforms, even though a sympathetic president, Barack Obama, was in the White House.Then came Trump. The National Rifle Association (NRA) was a key part of his coalition, spending $30m to help him beat Hillary Clinton. He has resisted basic measures such as signing background checks for gun sales into law. A promise to defend the second amendment, the right to bear arms, always rouses one of the biggest cheers at his campaign ralles. Trump wildly exaggerates Democrats' plans for gun control.In addition, Trump has fomented a toxic discourse around immigration and race. He questioned Obama's birthplace, launched his election campaign with talk of Mexican "criminals" and "rapists" and drew moral equivalence between white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has used the word "invasion" numerous times when tweeting about the US-Mexico border; the gunman in El Paso, in a "manifesto" being linked to him, complained of a "Hispanic invasion of Texas".White nationalist terrorism is now a real danger, yet it receives a fraction of the attention of Islamist extremism. The FBI director, Christopher Wray, testified last month that the bureau has recorded about 100 arrests of domestic terrorism suspects in the past nine months; many were linked to white supremacist violence. Trump's critics say he is fanning the flames of bigotry.Presidential candidate Cory Booker told CNN's State of the Union: "I want to say with more moral clarity that Donald Trump is responsible for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry. He is responsible because he is failing to condemn white supremacy, and seeing it as it is.Trump believes the rhetoric worked for him in 2016, not with a majority of Americans (he lost the popular vote), but with the white-majority states that were crucial to his victory in the electoral college. The past month – where has doubled down on race baiting and launched unprecedented racist attacks on Democrat politicians of color – strongly implies he will try the same approach in 2020 but perhaps go even further. The election looks set to be the most explosive in living memory.But, gun control activists say, this is no time for despair or surrender. The NRA is currently in a state of disarray, plagued by internal feuding and financial strife. House Republicans suffered a hammering in last year's midterm elections, driven by an anti-Trump backlash. Voters can make a difference in 2020, not only in the White House but, crucially, in the Senate. As Nelson Mandela once observed, it always seems impossible until it is done.
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| Floating nuclear power plant to be towed across Russian Arctic despite 'Chernobyl on ice' concerns Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:59 AM PDT  The wind and rain whipped by at several feet per second as crew members stepped outside for a quick smoke, but the world's only floating nuclear power plant barely shifted in the choppy waves of the Kola bay. The length of one-and-a-half football pitches, the Academic Lomonosov looks the part as the vanguard of Russia's "nuclearification" of the Arctic, at least now that its rusty hull has been repainted in the white, red and blue of the national flag. Later this month it will be towed 3,000 miles from the northwestern corner of Russia to the Chukotka region next to Alaska, where it will provide steam heat and eventually electricity to the coastal gold-mining town of Pevek, population 4,000. The state corporation Rosatom is trumpeting the Academic Lomonosov as the next big step in nuclear energy and a solution to electricity needs in Africa and Asia. "This is like launching the first rocket into space because it's a pilot project, the first in the world," Vladimir Irimenko, senior engineer for environmental protection, said before showing journalists the reactor control room. But the floating plant took more than a decade to build at high cost and has been dubbed the "nuclear Titanic" over safety concerns. It has been fuelled up and tested in Murmansk rather than its home port of St Petersburg after 11,000 signed an angry petition and Norway objected to two reactors full of enriched uranium being dragged along along its entire coastline. A dinghy of Greenpeace activists unfurled a "no to floating Chernobyl" banner next to the plant on the 31st anniversary of the disaster in 2017. This group and others have wondered about the wisdom of sending what is essentially a giant nuclear barge into some of the harshest and most remote conditions on earth, where any cleanup operation would be exceedingly difficult. Greenpeace Russia activists rolled out a banner before the floating nuclear power plant in St. Petersburghttps://t.co/7d6OPmRdQipic.twitter.com/ApMGOfoEtK— Greenpeace Russia (@greenpeaceru) April 26, 2017 "If there's a storm or something, it can't move anywhere, it's helpless," said activist Konstantin Fomin. "We did an action and boated up to it to show that if we can boat up to it, then terrorists can boat up to it." It's not exactly true that this floating nuclear power plant is the "first in the world," as a US army reactor installed on an immobilised cargo ship provided electricity to the Panama Canal zone in 1968-75. The Academic Lomonosov, however, is the first floating nuclear power plant designed for regular production, as Rosatom has claimed that southeast Asian countries are interested in buying such stations for electricity and South American and Middle Eastern countries for desalination. It has argued that the floating station meets higher safety standards than land-based nuclear plants and said any allusion to Chernobyl is like "comparing a 100-year-old automobile to one today". To be fair, while flammable graphite slowed down the neutrons for fission in the Chernobyl reactors, water performs this function in most reactors today, including on the Academic Lomonosov. Its KLT-40 reactors are similar to those that power three of Russia's five atomic icebreakers. A crew member monitors the reactors in the floating plant's control room Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph After previously complaining that it was only allowed on board to check the plant once a year during construction, Russia's technology oversight agency issued it a 10-year operating license in June. The floating plant will be protected from waves and ice by a pier, and national guardsmen will be deployed against intruders, Rosatom said. After the Fukishima nuclear disaster in 2011, all Russian nuclear power plants including the Academic Lomonosov were upgraded with new safety systems, it added. The company has declared that the floating plant's reactors are "invincible for tsunamis and other natural disasters". Yet overweening statements like this, as well a Rosatom official's promise last year that the reactors would be tested "at 110 per cent" of their capacity, hardly alleviate safety concerns. (The company later said the official misspoke.) During construction in 2017, a fire started on the Academic Lomonosov and spread over 170 square feet, according to state media. Asked about the incident, director Kirill Torkov said sparks from welding had caused a diesel generator to "start burning," but claimed that what resulted was "smokiness" rather than a fire. "There are several systems for fire safety on the vessel," he said. Hazard tape was stretched across several areas with signs instructing crew to access them through different corridors Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph But safety precautions can never completely eliminate the risk of human error or natural disasters, and Russia has had a spotty nuclear record in the Arctic. In Soviet times, 14 reactors were simply sunk in the Kara Sea, and thousands of iron containers of spent fuel were dumped overboard. "They might not sink right away, so we'd take a rifle and shoot them," recalled Andrey Zolotkov, who worked for Atomflot for 35 years before joining the environmental group Bellona in the 1990s. The nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Arctic 2000 and K-159 sank in 2003, and last month a fire on a nuclear deep-sea submersible near Murmansk almost caused a "catastrophe of a global scale," an officer said at the funeral of the 14 sailors killed. While a mishap in Pevek could result in local contamination, what observers really fear is when the Academic Lomonosov is towed the 3,000 miles back to Murmansk for maintenance and refuelling 12 years from now. It will enter the Barents Sea, the source of much of the cod and haddock for British fish and chips shops, full of spent nuclear fuel. "In case of an accident, the reactor can be shut down, but the storage of spent fuel on something like an unpowered vessel is wild to me," Mr Zolotkov said. "That object can't be completely airtight." Steam turbines next to the reactor compartment will provide heat and electricity Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph Perhaps the most serious issue facing Rosatom's plans to sell floating nuclear power plants around the globe is not "Chernobyl on ice" protests but rather cost. While Rosatom has refused to put a price tag on the Academic Lomonosov as a pilot project, insurance filings and media reports have revealed that it took at least £360 million to build including coastal infrastructure. "The coastline of Siberia is a wonderful spot for developing wind power, during the summer there are 24 hours of sun a day, and there's geothermal energy like Iceland and China are developing. So there are alternatives, and they are probably much cheaper to develop than to build the Academic Lomonosov plant," said Thomas Nilsen, editor of the Norway-based Barents Observer news site. Such alternatives are unlikely, however, now that Rosatom has been put in charge of all new infrastructure along the "northern sea route". Smoking is allowed only on the port deck of the vessel Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph As global warming melts the sea ice, Russia hopes this route can challenge the Suez Canal for a share of shipping to and from China, and Vladimir Putin has promised its atomic icebreaker fleet will increase to nine by 2035. It's all part of Moscow's grand plans to conquer the Arctic on the back of nuclear power: An extensive new report by the Barents Observer estimated that in the next 15 years, the number of military and civilian reactors in the Russian Arctic would double from the 62 in operation today. Other plans under consideration include autonomous nuclear reactors installed on the sea floor to power gas and oil drilling. Perhaps the greatest nuclear threat to the Arctic environment is posed by the secretive Poseidon underwater nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered drone announced by Mr Putin last year, which has been photographed on a ship near Arkhangelsk. Given its small size, the drone almost certainly can't hold a closed-circuit reactor and will emit nuclear waste directly into the water. A crew member passes through a hatch inside the Academic Lomonosov Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph In this atmosphere, the Academic Lomonosov looks more like a geopolitical PR stunt than an market-beating power source. Mr Irimenko said six floating nuclear power stations and one replacement would have to be produced for the project to be profitable, but admitted that this was not the most crucial aspect. "A military ship isn't profitable, a space rocket isn't profitable," he said, "but it's important for the country's development."
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| Russia’s Military Admits It Needs Western Technology Posted: 03 Aug 2019 01:00 PM PDT  When Western nations imposed economic sanctions after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Moscow had an answer: Russia would substitute domestic products for foreign imports.But Russia's defense industry is still using imported parts despite the government ban, according to Russia's top prosecutor."Import substitution in the defense industry remains a problem," warned Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika. "Instances of non-compliance with the ban to purchase foreign equipment whose counterparts are manufactured in Russia continue to be revealed.""In the framework of import substitution in the defense industry, it is vital to ensure compliance with the deadlines for replacing components," said First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman. "Raw and [other] materials produced by NATO countries and Ukraine, used to manufacture machines, arms, military and special equipment, prevent non-compliance with the ban on the budget-funded purchase of foreign equipment, analogues of which are produced in Russia."Unfortunately, the problem is that equivalents to Western goods are often not produced in Russia. "Russia produces few high value goods that can compete with imports," noted a 2017 Moscow Times article. "Thanks to oil inflating the value of the ruble it has always been cheaper and easier to import finished goods than go through the process of investing money into expensive production and development lines that produce goods that are, at the end of the day, inferior to the imports."
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| HOA tells veteran's widow American flag has to go. It doesn't fit neighborhood's 'look.' Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:01 AM PDT  An 82-year-old grandmother doesn't look like your typical rebel. But she's standing up for Old Glory against her HOA and their overbearing rules.
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| A$AP Rocky arrives back in US after release from Swedish prison amid looming assault verdict Posted: 03 Aug 2019 03:09 AM PDT  Rapper A$AP Rocky has returned to the US amid a looming verdict in an assault case against him in Sweden. The 30-year-old, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was released from jail in southern Sweden on Friday by judges who are mulling a verdict against him and two other Americans that is expected on 14 August. Nearly a month after his arrest in Stockholm, Los Angeles media reported the artist was among a number of people shown emerging from a private plane at Los Angeles International Airport. Along with David Rispers Jr and Bladimir Corniel, the rapper is accused of beating 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari on 30 June outside a fast food restaurant in central Stockholm. Mayers, who had been jailed since his 3 July arrest, pleaded not guilty at the start of the three-day trial on Tuesday. One of the witnesses to the assault revised her story from initial police reports, testifying Friday that she did not actually see Mayers hit Jafari with a bottle – a key focus of the trial. She and a friend, testifying anonymously at Stockholm District Court, both maintained they did see Mayers and his partners assaulting Jafari, however. "Everything happened very quickly. We were scared for our lives," the first woman told the court in Swedish. "He (Jafari) was bleeding. He showed his injuries on his hand. He also said he had a sore back." Mayers said he acted in self defence when Jafari and another man would not leave them alone. Mayers' bodyguard, Timothy Leon Williams, also testified Friday, sharing a story similar to what the rapper told the courtroom when he took the stand earlier in the week. Williams said he asked Jafari to "go away" when he approached the group a second time outside the restaurant. "I knew something's not right about him. I'm noticing it because I'm a bodyguard," Williams said in English. "And now, I'm looking at him like, 'Yo, what's wrong with you?' I'm looking at him and saw that his eyes were really glossy, like he's on something." Mayers had also testified earlier this week that he suspected Jafari and his friend were under the influence of some drug, which officials have not yet commented on. The case has attracted the attention of prominent figures, from Justin Bieber to Donald Trump. Mr Trump, who caused a stir in US-Swedish diplomatic relations after publicly offering support to the Grammy-nominated artist, celebrated the temporary release. "It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!" the US president said in a tweet. Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven heard an appeal from Mr Trump in July, but said he could not interfere in a legal case. Robert O'Brien, a US special presidential envoy sent to monitor the court proceedings, stressed that Washington was "grateful that I got to attend and observe the judicial process" in Sweden. But in a leaked diplomatic letter sent to the Swedish Prosecution Authority on 31 July, obtained by CNN, Mr O'Brien was rather more threatening, when he warned of "potentially negative consequences" if the case failed to be resolved "as soon as possible". The letter requested Mayers be immediately released from prison and instead placed under house arrest at a local Stockholm hotel.After learning they would be released, the three suspects shared hugs as some of the public gathered inside the courthouse loudly cheered. Mayers' mother, Renee Black, was present throughout court proceedings and was with her son when he was released. The rapper shared an emotional post on Instagram after he was released, thanking his fans for their support during this "very difficult and humbling experience". "Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of my fans, friends and anyone across the globe who supported me during these last few weeks," Mayers wrote."I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for all of you. This has been a very difficult and humbling experience. I want to thank the court for allowing me, Bladi and Thoto to return to our family and friends. Thanks again for all of the love and support."Additional reporting by AP
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| Kashmir turmoil rises as India restricts movement, regional leaders fear arrest Posted: 04 Aug 2019 05:55 AM PDT  SRINAGAR/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The disputed region of Kashmir was thrown into further turmoil in the early hours of Monday as regional leaders said they feared being arrested and Indian officials imposed restrictions in the city of Srinagar and suspended mobile data services in parts of the state. Tensions in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, had risen since Friday when local Indian officials issued an alert over possible militant attacks by Pakistan-based groups. Pakistan has rejected those assertions, but thousands of Indian tourists, pilgrims and workers left the region in panic over the weekend.
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