| Iran's top diplomat warns US is 'playing with fire' Posted: 15 Jul 2019 07:49 PM PDT  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned Monday that the United States is "playing with fire," echoing remarks by President Donald Trump as the two sides are locked in a standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. The United States quit an international deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program last year, hitting Tehran with crippling sanctions.
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| Serial killer linked to Arkansas woman's 1994 slaying Posted: 15 Jul 2019 11:52 AM PDT  Authorities are investigating whether possibly the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history is behind the death of an Arkansas woman in 1994. Police in Pine Bluff are reviewing the case of Jolanda Jones's death after Samuel Little confessed to her killing, which had been determined to be drug-related. According to a police memo, when Little was in custody in Dallas, Texas, in October 2018, he indicated that he killed Jones, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported .
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| Italy seizes 'combat-ready' missile and automatic weapon stash in raids on far-Right figures Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:08 PM PDT  Italian police have seized a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile, in raids on neo-Nazi sympathisers, they said on Monday. Elite police forces searched properties across northern Italy following an investigation into Italians who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, a police statement said. Three men were arrested, including a customs officer who has previously stood for parliament for an extreme right party. During their raids, police discovered a French-made Matra air-to-air missile that appeared to have once belonged to the Qatar armed forces. Subsequent checks showed the weapon was in working condition but lacked an explosive charge. A big cache of guns and ammunition was seized by the Turin special police force Credit: FRANCESCO AMMENDOLA,HO/AFP/Getty Images Police said the suspects had tried to sell the missile in conversations with contacts on the WhatsApp messaging network. Among other weapons uncovered were 26 guns, 20 bayonets, 306 gun parts, including silencers and rifle scopes, and more than 800 bullets of various calibres. The arms were primarily from Austria, Germany and the United States. Police also seized Nazi memorabilia from the properties. "The police investigation ... came into being because of the activities of some Italian fighters with extremist backgrounds who had taken part in the armed conflict in the Ukrainian region of Donbass," the police statement said. More than 10,000 people have been killed since 2014 in fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine.
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| ICE raids scheduled to take place in SoCal, across country Posted: 14 Jul 2019 05:42 PM PDT  Federal immigration officers are expected Sunday to sweep across a handful of cities, including Los Angeles, to arrest about 2,000 undocumented immigrants.
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| Facing new asylum curb, nerves for those waiting at U.S.-Mexico border Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:49 PM PDT  Number 12,026 - better known as Marcial Artigas, 33, from Holguin, Cuba - waited nervously at a migration office at the U.S.-Mexico border as a Mexican official called out numbers from a long list of hopefuls waiting to cross to the United States. Artigas said he was praying his number would be called next, before a new U.S. policy announced on Monday enters into force that bars almost all immigrants from applying for asylum at the country's southern border. The Trump administration's interim rule, set to take effect Tuesday, requires asylum-seekers to first pursue safe haven in a third country through which they traveled en route to the United States.
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| Police: A 69-year-old Arizona woman is missing in California's Mojave Desert without supplies, cellphone Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:12 PM PDT  Authorities in California are searching for Barbara Thomas, a 69-year-old woman who went missing while hiking in the Mojave Desert.
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| Jeffrey Epstein Reveals His Fortune Includes $56 Million in Cash Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:06 PM PDT  Jane Rosenberg/ReutersA summary of Jeffrey Epstein's assets made public on Monday shows he has $56 million in cash, with another $500 million divided between property and investments.The bare-bones accounting estimates his homes in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one of them on his private island, are worth $85 million.The financier also listed an $8.6 million Paris apartment, a $12 million Palm Beach estate, a $17 million New Mexico ranch, and his Manhattan mansion—which he says is worth $55 million but prosecutors say is worth $77 million.Epstein put $194 million under the heading of "hedge funds and private equity" and another $112 million under "equities." The only other category was unidentified "fixed income" at $14 million.Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro ranch in New Mexico.ReutersIt's not clear if the total of $559 million includes the "piles of cash" or diamonds that prosecutors say they found in a locked safe after they raided the Manhattan mansion—where Epstein allegedly abused underage girls.U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said in court Monday that the one-page summary, submitted as part of a request for bail, was insufficient for him to make a decision.Prosecutors argued in court and in filings that Epstein's "vast" fortune means he has the means to flee if he is released from a federal lockup to await trial.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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| Iran Loves This: The Royal Navy Doesn’t Have Enough Ships to Patrol Persian Gulf Posted: 15 Jul 2019 01:56 PM PDT  The Royal Navy plans briefly to double its number of warships in the Persian Gulf following an attempted attack by Iranian forces on a British oil tanker on June 20, 2019.But the temporary increase in British warships in the region, from one to two, underscores just how few ships the Royal Navy can deploy even in an emergency.Iranian boats tried to "impede" the British oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, "was forced to move between the three boats and the tanker," according to the BBC.The British government claimed the attacking boats belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps militia. The IRGC also allegedly was behind several recent bomb attacks targeting oil tankers in the Gulf and surrounding waters.Tensions have escalated in the Middle East following U.S. president Donald Trump decision unilaterally to withdraw the United States from the 2015 deal limiting Iran's nuclear program. After Trump restored economic sanctions, Tehran resumed stockpiling uranium.The July 2019 tanker incident compelled the Royal Navy to accelerate by several weeks a planned deployment to the Gulf by the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan. Montrose and Duncan together will patrol the Persian Gulf before Montrose returns to U.K. waters for maintenance.Duncan sailed south through the Bosphorus on July 13, 2019. The destroyer had been in the Black Sea region for NATO exercises.
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| Some Iranian women take off hijabs as hard-liners push back Posted: 15 Jul 2019 04:54 AM PDT  The simple act of walking has become a display of defiance for a young Iranian woman who often moves in Tehran's streets without a compulsory headscarf, or hijab. With every step, she risks harassment or even arrest by Iran's morality police whose job is to enforce the strict dress code imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The hijab debate has further polarized Iranians at a time when the country is buckling under unprecedented U.S. sanctions imposed since the Trump administration pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers last year.
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| No charges against NY police in choking death of black man Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:08 PM PDT  Richard Donoghue, the US attorney in Brooklyn, said there was "insufficient evidence" that officer Daniel Pantaleo broke the law or contributed to the death of Eric Garner during an arrest on July 17, 2014. The lawyer told reporters Pantaleo had not deliberately placed Garner in a choke hold although he effectively created one for seven seconds as both men struggled and fell.
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| Anti-Semitism event at Justice Department turns into pro-Israel rally Posted: 15 Jul 2019 02:29 PM PDT  As the public grappled with President Trump's latest insulting tweetstorm, widely condemned as racist, the Department of Justice held a Monday event billed as a summit on combating anti-Semitism.
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| Founder of neo-Nazi website should pay Jewish woman $14m for unleashing antisemitic 'troll storm' on her, judge rules Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:57 AM PDT  The founder and editor of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer should be forced to pay more than $14m (£11.2m) to a Jewish woman targeted by a "troll storm" of abusive messages for months on end, a judge has said.The US magistrate called the campaign, launched by the website's publisher Andrew Anglin, as "egregious and reprehensible" with Tanya Gersh, her husband and her 12-year-old son being flooded with vile phone calls, text messages, emails and social media posts that included death threats and antisemitic slurs.Ms Gersh, from Whitefish, Montana, said that she was told she should have perished in the Holocaust and that voicemails she received contained the sounds of guns firing again and again. The mother was left suffering from panic attacks that left her short of breath and vomiting."I was frightened to the point that we couldn't think straight," Ms Gersh – a real estate agent – said after a recent court hearing. "We talked about waking our children in the middle of the night — to run from Nazis."The abuse began in December 2016 after The Daily Stormer published, under Mr Anglin's byline, a call to arms to readers. "Are y'all ready for an old fashioned Troll Storm?" the post said. "Because AYO — it's that time, fam." Ms Gersh's contact details were posted online and followers were urged to "tell them you are sicked by the Jewish agenda". There were also photographs of Ms Gersh and her son, photoshopped against an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Daily Stormer claimed the posts were protected by free speech laws.Judge Jeremiah Lynch said that Mr Anglin had "acted with actual malice" in posting the contact details.The source of the abuse followed accusations from Mr Anglin and others that Ms Gersh had tried to extort the mother of prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer. Spencer has been widely denounced for telling supporters to "party like its 1933" – the year Adolf Hitler came to power – after the election of Donald Trump. Mr Spencer was also a featured speaker at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a civil rights activist was killed and 19 other people were injured in August 2017.Sherry Spencer, who owned a commercial property in Ms Gersh's town of Whitefish, had faced scrutiny over her son's extreme views and residents had discussed protesting outside the building.According to her lawsuit, Ms Gersh said that Ms Spencer had phoned her for advice after Ms Gersh had contacted friends in the building to tell them protests may be coming.Ms Gersh suggested that Ms Spencer sell the building and disavow her son's views, with the lawsuit saying Ms Spencer had appeared receptive, but that changed.More than 30 articles naming Ms Gersh were then said to have appeared on The Daily Caller, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The suit claims that Ms Gersh and her family received more than 700 hate-filled messages.With Mr Anglin having not appeared at a deposition in April, Judge Lynch recommended a default judgement against the publisher – but he went further. He recommended that Mr Anglin, who is in his mid-30s, be ordered to pay $4,042,438 in compensatory damages and $10 million, the maximum under Montana state law, in punitive damages for "the particularly egregious and reprehensible nature of Anglin's conduct." Judge Lynch's findings and recommendations must be approved by US District Judge Dana Christensen to take effect.Ms Gersh said that she may not receive the money, but Monday's judgement has sent a message to others."A clear message has been sent to Anglin and other extremists: No one should be terrorised for simply being who they are, and no one should ever be afraid for being who they are," she said in a statement."This lawsuit has always been about stopping others from enduring the terror I continue to live through at the hands of a neo-Nazi and his followers, and I wanted to make sure that this never happens to anyone else," she added.Last month, Mr Anglin was ordered to pay $4.1 million after he failed to respond to a defamation lawsuit filed by the Muslim radio host and comedian Dean Obeidallah after The Daily Stormer falsely labelled him a terrorist.
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| Boxy and Beautiful: 2004 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG Posted: 16 Jul 2019 12:45 PM PDT  Tear up the urban jungle in this high-powered SUV!The Mercedes-Benz G-Class was born from a rugged, off-road military truck, but today's versions of this legendary SUV are more likely to terrify unsuspecting sports cars than to traverse rugged terrain. That's especially the case when it comes to the AMG-tuned G-Class SUVs, which is what Dallas Motor Collection is offering up for sale with this lovely 2004 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG.Although the G-Wagen dates back to 1979 and the second-gen model went into production in 1990, the U.S. market didn't get the G-Class until 2002. At the time, the G55 AMG represented the pinnacle for this SUV's performance with a 354-horsepower, 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 under the hood allowing for acceleration times of 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds. The G-Class may have had a throwback design, but it was ahead of its time when it came to performance. And those side-mounted quadruple exhaust outlets leave no guesswork that this was the ultimate performance SUV of its time.The best part about AMGs is opening the hood and seeing the small plaque on the engine cover, which was signed by the craftsman who hand built the engine. Mercedes-AMG continues this impressive trend today. As the G-Class continues to age, it's getting more difficult to find these in such great shape with low mileage. This particular G55 AMG shows just under 100,000 miles on the odometer, and the interior looks as clean as it did back in 2004.This is a super-clean example of a 15-year-old G-Class, and it's hard to beat that classic look, luxurious interior and powerful engine. This G55 even comes with all of the original documentation and two key fobs. Don't miss your chance to own one of the fastest off-road SUVs ever created!Read more about Mercedes-Benz:\- Mercedes-Benz G-Class At 40: Off-Roading the German Way\- All-Terrain Benz: 1965 Mercedes-Benz Unimog
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| What first-hand government reports say about conditions at migrant detention centers Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:38 AM PDT  USA TODAY assembled accounts from government officials as well as pediatricians who have toured border facilities. Here's what they said.
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| Prehistoric city offers glimpse of ancient living near Jerusalem Posted: 16 Jul 2019 05:02 AM PDT ![Prehistoric city offers glimpse of ancient living near Jerusalem]( "Prehistoric city offers glimpse of ancient living near Jerusalem") The 9,000-year-old metropolis, uncovered during a survey before the construction of a new highway, is one of the biggest ever found, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Tuesday. It covered dozens of acres near what is today the town of Motza, some five km (three miles) west of Jerusalem. "This is most probably the largest excavation of this time period in the Middle East, which will allow the research to advance leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today, just by the amount of material that we are able to save and preserve from this site," Lauren Davis, an archaeologist with Israel's antiquities authority, told Reuters.
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| Lightening Deal Alert: MasterChef's 13-In-1 Pressure Cooker Is 47 Off Right Now Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:38 PM PDT |
| Iran Says Missing Tanker Had Problems and Was Towed for Repairs Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:09 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A small oil tanker that had gone missing in the Persian Gulf had technical difficulties and was towed into Iranian waters for repairs, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, according to the ISNA news agency.Further details on the ship, the Panamanian-flagged Riah, will be announced later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to the semi-offficial ISNA. Iran responded after a request for assistance from the tanker, the report said.The Iranian comments did little to clarify exactly what happened to the Riah. The vessel was passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping chokepoint at the mouth of the Gulf, before it went silent more than two days ago in unexplained circumstances, according to the Associated Press. The news agency said the U.S. "has suspicions" that Iran took control of the tanker, citing an unidentified defense official.The disappearance was first reported by CNN, which said U.S. intelligence increasingly believed the tanker had been forced into Iranian waters by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps but that some Gulf sources suggested the ship simply broke down and was towed by Iran.Earlier, a United Arab Emirates official said the ship isn't owned or operated by the U.A.E. and hadn't sent out a distress call.While details are unclear, if the Riah was seized, it would seem an unusual target for Iran. The vessel is 30 years old and tiny. Its capacity is 2,000 dead weight tons, according to the MarineTraffic website. That's only a fraction of the almost 160,000-ton capacity of the British Heritage, the U.K. oil tanker harassed by Iranian ships last week while exiting the Persian Gulf.Why Tanker Attacks Raise Fears Over Strait of Hormuz: QuickTakeWhile Iran has been blamed for attacks on merchant shipping in recent months, it has denied responsibility. The main threats it has made in the past few weeks have been against the U.K. after British Royal Marines helped authorities in Gibraltar seize the supertanker as it carried Iranian crude in the Mediterranean Sea seemingly bound for Syria.In May and June, six tankers were attacked just outside the Gulf. A British Navy frigate intervened this month to stop Iranian boats from blocking the BP Plc-operated British Heritage as it was exiting the waters.U.K. Navy Intervenes After Iran Tries to Stop British Oil TankerThe U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg.\--With assistance from Anthony DiPaola and Golnar Motevalli.To contact the reporters on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai at zfattah@bloomberg.net;Verity Ratcliffe in Dubai at vratcliffe1@bloomberg.net;Zoya Khan in New York at zkhan79@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Bill Faries, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| An Air Force Pilot Tells Us What Flying a B-2 Stealth Bomber Is Like Posted: 16 Jul 2019 12:02 AM PDT  (Washington, D.C.) When B-2 stealth bombers attacked Serbia on the opening night of Operation Allied Force in 1999, destroyed Iraqi air defenses during 2003's "Shock and Awe" and eliminated the Libyan fighter force in 2011 -- the attacks were all guided by highly-specialized pilots trained in stealth attack tactics.Given the dangers of these kinds of missions, such as flying into heavy enemy ground fire from air defenses, confronting the prospect of air attacks and preparing for electronic warfare over hostile territory, B-2 pilots need to be ready."We prepare and train every single day in case we get called up tomorrow," Lt. Col. Nicola Polidor, Commander of Detachment 5 of the 29th Training Systems Squadron, told Warrior in an interview.While performing missions, B-2 pilots need to maintain the correct flight path, align with specific targeting intelligence and load and prepare weapons, all while manning a digital cockpit to control a wide range of additional variables at one time. Polidor, who trains future B-2 pilots at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, says Air Force pilot trainees have adjusted well to learning a seemingly overwhelming amount of new information."The biggest challenge for pilots is being able to manage flying for long periods of time at the same time as managing a communications suite and robust weapons package," Polidor said.Polidor is only the 10th female B-2 pilot in history.Training is broken down into an academic phase and a flight phase, with classroom training as the first step. Trainees, Polidor explained, typically spend about two months working on a simulator, before taking their first flight.
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| The Latest: Epstein says foreign passport needed for safety Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:24 PM PDT  Attorneys for financier Jeffrey Epstein say he obtained a foreign passport under an alias in the 1980s to defend himself from potential kidnappers while traveling in the Middle East. Prosecutors say the foreign passport was found in a safe in Epstein's Manhattan mansion following his arrest on sex trafficking charges. Epstein has pleaded not guilty.
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| Trump declines to criticize Turkey's Russia missile purchase Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:03 PM PDT  President Donald Trump declined Tuesday to criticize Turkey's acquisition of a Russian missile system assailed by the Pentagon and NATO, making no mention of sanctions Washington had threatened over the purchase. In his first comments since Turkey began taking delivery of the S-400 system last Friday, Trump said Turkey was forced into the move by his predecessor Barack Obama, and that he understood why they opted to buy the Russian missiles.
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| Michael Flynn’s Ex-Business Partner Points the Finger at Him in Court Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:07 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/GettyIf there is a question of who worked on behalf of the Turkish government to influence the 2016 Donald Trump campaign, then the court should look no further than former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, lawyers for Bijan Kian, the Iranian-American businessman and former Flynn partner, told jurors in the Eastern District of Virginia Monday. Kian is charged with two felonies—illegally lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government and conspiring covertly to influence U.S. politics about Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who is now living in Pennsylvania. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted. But Kian's team of attorneys said in their opening statements Monday that their client "did not conspire with anyone" to work on behalf of the Turkish government in the U.S. When questioning the Turkish government's influence operations in the U.S., the jury should look at the newly announced cache of evidence the government has on Flynn, said attorney Bob Trout. Kian isn't referenced in any of it, Trout said. Michael Flynn Putting Mueller Deal at Risk in 'Dangerous' New TrialIn the opening statements Monday the Kian legal team spent the majority of their time arguing that their client did not work on behalf of the Turkish government when he attempted to influence public opinion in the U.S. about Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen currently lives in Pennsylvania and is wanted by the Turkish government for allegedly planning a military coup in the country in 2016. Kian instead worked on behalf of a Turkish-Dutch businessman named Ekim Alptekin, Trout said. (Alptekin is named as a defendant in the Kian case but will likely avoid appearance because he is living in Istanbul.) Toward the end of his statements, Trout tried to create a degree of separation between Kian and Flynn who is currently awaiting sentencing in Washington for crimes carried out during his time working with the Trump team. He pointed to the government's evidence, which was mentioned in a hearing last week, and said that prosecutors had all but conceded that Kian was not involved. The jurors have not seen the evidence yet and the details of what the government currently has in its position is unclear.According to a government indictment filed last year, Flynn and Kian worked together throughout the fall of 2016, when Flynn was an advisor to then candidate Trump, on a project to try and extradite Gulen back to Turkey. Prosecutors said the two took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Turkish government to execute the plan. Flynn was also at the time accused of lying about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. He entered into a cooperation deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and admitted to lying about the communications and about his consulting firm's business with the Turkish government. He said that the registration he filed for the Turkey-focused project in 2017 contained several inaccuracies, though his lawyers maintain that Flynn did not intentionally lie on the documents. As part of his deal with the government, Flynn was supposed to testify against Kian and his sentencing in Washington was postponed so he could appear as a witness in Virginia.That all changed last week when the government removed Flynn from the witness list and instead named him as a co-conspirator in the case. The government also said it had extensive information that the Turkish government attempted to influence the Trump campaign through Flynn. It was the first mention of an additional set of materials that show how Flynn was being extensively involved in the Turkish lobbying.It's that evidence that lies at the heart of who really committed the crime of illegally lobbying for Turkey, Kian's lawyers said Monday. Kian "didn't know" about the alleged separate communications between Alptekin and Flynn that are in the government's possession, Trout said.For its part, the government in its opening statement barely mentioned the former national security adviser, instead referring several times to Kian's business team members as "associates." The government focused on Kian's email correspondences, including with Flynn, about the Gulen project and attempted to lay out for the jury how the money that flowed into Kian's account for services rendered connected back to the Turkish government.After nearly an hour and a half of opening statements, both of which were at times tangled and difficult to follow, the jury seemed to fade by 5:30 p.m. Several individuals closed their eyes and appeared to be sleeping.They're due back in court Tuesday morning for testimony, including evidence to be entered into the record and for witness examinations.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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| 'What am I supposed to do with you?' Judge bars Roger Stone from social media for breaking gag order Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:40 PM PDT  A federal judge ordered former Trump adviser Roger Stone to stop using social media after saying he had violated a gag order in his criminal case.
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| Trump administration erects another barrier to immigrants seeking U.S. asylum Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:53 AM PDT  NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new rule to bar almost all immigrants from applying for asylum at the southern border, requiring them to first pursue safe haven in a third country through which they had traveled on the way to the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union called the new rule "patently unlawful" and vowed to file a lawsuit against it, while a host of experts also questioned its legality. "The interim regulation violates the clear language of the law in several respects," Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told Reuters in an email.
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| Landlords Sue NYC Over New Rent Caps on a Million Apartments Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:13 PM PDT ![Landlords Sue NYC Over New Rent Caps on a Million Apartments]( "Landlords Sue NYC Over New Rent Caps on a Million Apartments") (Bloomberg) -- New York City's rent-stabilization law is under attack after a group of real-estate trade groups and landlords sued to overturn regulations that cover more than 1 million apartments.The decades-old law that limits rent increases violates the U.S. Constitution by placing an unfair burden on property owners, particularly those who own pre-1974 buildings with six or more units, according to the suit, filed Monday in federal court in Brooklyn.The state legislature, now under full Democratic control, adopted sweeping tenant protections in June that further cap rent increases and restrict landlords' ability to evict residents. The massive rewrite of the rent rules, which cover about 2.4 million residents, aimed to preserve affordable housing by eliminating tools landlords used to remove units from regulation. The package also abolished a "vacancy bonus" that allowed property owners to raise rents 20% when a tenant left.The plaintiffs say the update further eroded their rights and that the law's "irrationality and arbitrariness" and "web of restrictions override core rights of property owners."Read More: NYC Tenants Get a Rent-Law Blessing That Landlords See as CurseThe landlords claim the rules have morphed over the years so that they benefit too many higher earners, while renters who make less than $35,000 a year account for just 38% of rent-stabilized renters. The breakdown is about the same for unregulated apartments, the groups claim, suggesting the law isn't much different from the unregulated market.The trade groups claim that 22% of rent-stabilized tenants make more than $100,000 a year and that married couples without children are over-represented in rent-stabilized apartments despite being less likely to suffer rental hardship than couples with children.The city said the suit threatens ordinary New Yorkers."Dismantling rent stabilization would be a devastating blow to everyday New Yorkers who are working hard to call this great city home," Jane Meyer, the mayor's deputy press secretary, said in a statement. She said the city would review the suit and continue to "fight to protect affordability, prevent harassment and keep this a city for everyone."Supreme Court SnubTenants-rights groups argued the changes were needed to counter decades of abuse by some landlords and a shrinking supply of affordable housing. Tens of thousands of apartments have been removed from rent-stabilized status, sending rents higher as neighborhoods are gentrified. The effort won support from Governor Andrew Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, as well as New York City mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Bill de Blasio.The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the city's rent-stabilization system in 2012, turning away an appeal from landlords who said the city had violated their constitutional rights by limiting rents on three one-bedroom apartments in their Upper West Side brownstone. The state of New York defended the statute, citing previous Supreme Court decisions that judges "should not sit as super-legislatures reviewing matters of economic policy, but should ask only whether a legislature's policy judgments are rational."Among the plaintiffs is the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords. When the law was amended, the landlords said it would cause buildings to fall into disrepair because owners wouldn't be able to afford to maintain them.The case is Community Housing Improvement Program v. City of New York, 19-cv-4087, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).(Updates with second paragraph under Supreme Court Snub)\--With assistance from Gerald Porter Jr..To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net;Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Afghanistan Isn't Worth Dying For Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:13 AM PDT  Army Sgt. Maj. James Sartor was killed in action in Afghanistan's Faryab Province on Saturday. He was "only" the twelfth soldier to die there this year. That makes his death no less inexcusable, no less an unacceptable sacrifice for Washington's failed foreign policy.What do we tell Sartor's family? That he heroically "gave the last full measure" for the defense of our nation? In some conflicts in American history, that might have been true. But in Afghanistan, it is a trite and insulting bromide.This man, like the eleven that preceded him this year, sacrificed his life in an operation that provided no benefit to our country. America is not safer because of this supreme, excruciatingly painful sacrifice. The truth is that hardly any Americans pay any attention to our war in Afghanistan and fewer still genuinely care that another trooper has tragically been killed.Instead, the entire burden of the grief—the unquenchable, searing pain of loss—falls to a tiny number of family members and close friends of those who died. My blood boils in anger when I hear—as I have many times—some callously claim, "Hey man, nobody forced them to sign up. They volunteered and knew what they were getting themselves into." This implies that we service members forfeit the value of our life once we raise our right hand.
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| Australian model sentenced for airline flight disturbance Posted: 15 Jul 2019 12:30 PM PDT  An Australian model was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to community service and probation for slapping a flight attendant and going on an obscene tirade during a flight, with a federal judge saying he believed she was deeply remorseful and did not deserve fines or prison time. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced Adau Mornyang to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors had sought a month in jail for Mornyang.
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| 'Executed' North Korean negotiator is alive, says South Korea's spy agency Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:36 AM PDT  A North Korean nuclear negotiator who was reported to have been executed over the failure of the February Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump is still alive, South Korean intelligence said on Tuesday. News of Kim Hyok Chol's death by firing squad as part of a purge of top North Korean officials was first reported in South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper in late May and generated headlines around the world. However, the National Intelligence Service contradicted that account on Tuesday, telling a closed-door meeting of parliamentarians in Seoul that reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. The meeting between Kim Jong-un and Mr Trump in Vietnam earlier this year had been billed as a landmark summit to make progress on nuclear disarmament, but it ended abruptly without a deal after a disagreement over sanctions. The official in question - Mr Kim, a former ambassador to Spain - and four others who were responsible for laying the groundwork for the summit were alleged to have been charged with espionage on behalf of the US and executed at Mirim airport, near the capital, Pyongyang. The same report claimed that Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief, who travelled to Washington in the run-up to the summit, had been banished to a labour camp. It said that Kim Yo-jong, the leader's sister, had also fallen out of favour and been told to keep a low profile. However, Kim Yong Chol was later spotted at a weekend concert with the North Korean leader and Kim Yo-jong has been seen at ruling party events, casting doubt on the original claims. Hyon Song-wol was reported to have been killed in 2013 but is now one of North Korea's most influential women Credit: Yonhap/Reuters The latest assertion by the NIS would not rule out the demotion of senior aides who were deeply involved in discussions with Americans ahead of the Hanoi meeting. Kim was widely seen to have overplayed his hand in talks with Mr Trump and his inability to secure any form of sanctions relief was a humiliating outcome. The leading officials in the pre-summit negotiations appear to no longer be acting on the frontline of Kim's US strategy, giving way for the rise of Choe Son-hui, the vice minister of foreign affairs, and Kim Myong Gil, the former ambassador to Vietnam who is now reportedly the North's new special envoy. In June, a report on CNN suggested that Kim Hyok Chol was in state custody and under investigation for his role in the summit, along with the chief translator, Sin Hye Yong. Earlier news of his alleged execution highlighted the difficulties of verifying facts from the hermit kingdom, and can now be added to a growing list of high-ranking officials who have been believed to be executed, only to come back from the dead. Another prominent example was Hyon Song-wol, the head of the Samjiyon orchestra, who was alleged to have been shot in a "hail of gunfire" in 2013. She later reemerged as an envoy to the South Korean Winter Olympics in 2018, and is now known as one of the most influential women in North Korea.
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| A NASA official says the explosion of SpaceX's ship during a test 'was a huge gift' for making the vehicle safe to fly Posted: 15 Jul 2019 05:02 PM PDT  A lead SpaceX engineer said an anomaly that destroyed its Crew Dragon capsule, designed to fly NASA astronauts, was caused by a small valve.
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| Royal Caribbean cancels Puerto Rico cruise stop amid protests Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:05 PM PDT ![Royal Caribbean cancels Puerto Rico cruise stop amid protests]( "Royal Caribbean cancels Puerto Rico cruise stop amid protests") A Royal Caribbean cruise ship opted to skip a Puerto Rico call as San Juan protests against Gov. Ricardo Rosselló continue.
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| The U.S. Army Is Building a Smarter Land Mine Posted: 16 Jul 2019 07:06 AM PDT  The mines must take commands from long ranges, threaten "peer threats" such as the Russian Army, but minimize harm against civilians.
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| Israeli minister accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-hatred Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:57 AM PDT ![Israeli minister accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-hatred]( "Israeli minister accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-hatred") An Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn of Jew-hatred on Tuesday, remarks likely to fuel acrimony in and around the opposition party as it struggles with anti-Semitism probes. A BBC Panorama expose aired last week said Corbyn's office had interfered in independent party discipline processes aimed at rooting out anti-Semitic conduct.
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| Russia bars opposition candidates from Moscow city ballot Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:54 AM PDT  Russian officials on Tuesday refused to register nearly 30 candidates for elections to Moscow's local parliament, including prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin despite protests over the move. Opposition politicians have been fighting to get on the ballot for September's elections to the Moscow city legislature as they seek to capitalise on growing public discontent over falling living standards and unchecked corruption. On Tuesday, Moscow election officials definitively rejected most of the prominent opposition figures from participating, citing lack of viable signatures.
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| India Says Russia's Missiles Don't Work (And Wants to Buy Israeli Ones Instead) Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:00 AM PDT  India is now looking to Israel, from whom it has purchased numerous weapons, such as the Heron drone and the Derby, a radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile with a range of 50 kilometers (31 miles).After losing one of its fighters to Pakistani jets armed with American-made missiles, India is not happy with its Russian-made missiles.In fact, it wants to replace its Russian air-to-air missiles with Israeli weapons, according to Indian news site NDTV."In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year," NDTV said.During air battles along the Kashmir border on February 26 and 27, an Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-21 was shot down, apparently by a U.S.-made AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) fired by one of Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) American-built F-16 fighters. India claims to have downed a Pakistani fighter – which Pakistan denies – but India was still embarrassed by the capture of its MiG-21 pilot, who was shown on Pakistani television and later returned.
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| Donors suspend funds for Poland's Jewish museum Posted: 16 Jul 2019 07:25 AM PDT  A Jewish association says some private donors to Poland's renowned Jewish history museum have suspended funding out of concerns about the government's failure to renew the term of its director. A special commission in May approved Dariusz Stola for another five-year term, but Culture Minister Piotr Glinski hasn't yet officially reappointed him. Glinski said recently he was still weighing the decision, because Stola had allegedly refused to make the museum available for a conference that was to be dedicated to the late twin of ruling conservative party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
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| New York Times Reporter Leaves Following Implosion of Trump Taxes Team Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:13 AM PDT  Jennifer Graylock/GettyOne of the reporters on the New York Times' Pulitzer-winning exposé of President Donald Trump's finances is leaving the publication following a falling out with the paper's investigative team. David Barstow, one of three authors of last year's blockbuster investigation, is leaving the paper at the end of the month to lead the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's investigative reporting program. "We are sorry to see him go but we hope that we get to work together on future projects," Executive Editor Dean Baquet said in a memo to staff. "And we think he will be a great teacher for a new generation of investigative journalists."New York Times' Trump Tax Team Imploded When Star Reporter David Barstow Went RogueBarstow, 56, won a record four Pulitzer Prizes during his career as an investigative reporter at the Times, most recently with the Trump taxes story that exposed how the president and his siblings avoided paying taxes for years with efforts that the paper described as "outright fraud."The story wasn't all good news though.As The Daily Beast reported last month, the investigative team imploded in the months after publishing the major story after Barstow attempted to team up with one of the paper's top-secret sources to ghostwrite a book. Barstow previously told The Daily Beast he was even considering leaving the Times to pursue the project, as ghostwriting is strictly forbidden under the paper's ethical rules. But the plan went sideways.Editors caught wind of Barstow's interest and told him not to pursue it. Barstow said he decided not to ghostwrite a book, but did try to help the source write a book proposal. The reporter sent multiple messages to the source and went so far as to make an unannounced visit to the person's residence that left them "freaked out." Barstow did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.Baquet previously told The Daily Beast that Barstow did not violate the paper's ethical guidelines, emphasizing that Barstow ultimately did not ghostwrite the book. Barstow denied any wrongdoing, saying it was not against the rules to consider it. Nevertheless, Barstow's pursuit of the source alienated his co-authors on the original Times story, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, who refused to work with him, sources said. Barstow said they pursued different tips. His byline did not appear on several subsequent Times investigative stories about Trump's finances and taxes.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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| View Photos of the Lotus Evija Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:06 AM PDT |
| Lyft broke the law when it failed to tell Chicago about a driver it kicked off its app. A month later he was accused of killing a taxi driver while working for Uber. (LYFT, UBER) Posted: 15 Jul 2019 11:36 AM PDT  Lyft could be fined up to $10,000 for failing to report the driver, who has since been charged with murder.
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| Texas fossil uncovers new species of duckbilled dinosaur Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:23 PM PDT  The fossil discovered at the Big Bend National Park in Texas led to the classification of the Aquilarhinus palilmentus.
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| Geraldo Rivera on Trump's controversial tweets: It pains me to watch Trump take the low road Posted: 15 Jul 2019 04:32 PM PDT  Trump embroiled in feud with progressive Democrats following tweet about congresswomen of color; reaction from Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera and Fox News contributor David Webb.
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| Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit unveiled at Smithsonian Posted: 16 Jul 2019 12:26 PM PDT  The spacesuit astronaut Neil Armstrong wore during his mission to the moon went on public display for the first time in 13 years on Tuesday, at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum exactly 50 years to the day when Apollo 11 launched into space. Armstrong's son Rick unveiled the suit along with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who recalled how the country was deeply divided in the late 1960s but came together in pride when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. "On top of the contributions to science and human understanding, for that brief moment, the man who wore this suit, brought together our nation and the world," Pence said.
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| Odd Man Out: How the Independent Justin Amash Could Shake Up the 2020 Presidential Election Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Washington circles are abuzz with the suggestion that Justin Amash, the ex-Republican congressman from Michigan, may mount a third-party presidential campaign in 2020. In the few days since leaving the GOP, he's talked about "room for a third party" and refused to rule out running for president. But sources close to Amash and the Libertarian Party deny that a presidential run is in the works—although the door is still open. For the time being, the Libertarian-leaning representative is looking to build a fiscally conservative, pro-restraint coalition across party lines.Michigan representative Justin Amash has made waves in recent weeks with his challenges to the Republican establishment. He first suggested that President Donald Trump should be impeached, then he contested the president's authority to attack Iran without congressional approval, and finally left the party.Amash seemed to send mixed signals about his next move, telling CNN that he's planning to run for re-election to the House of Representatives, but confirming that he still "wouldn't rule anything like [a Libertarian presidential run] out."
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| Saudi Arabia Set for 24-Hour Trading Amid Prayer Time Confusion Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:34 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia said it will allow some businesses to stay open 24 hours a day, an announcement that triggered puzzlement over whether it was ending rules that require shops to shut for Islam's five daily prayers.A cabinet decision on Tuesday permitted stores and restaurants to operate all day in exchange for paying a fee, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs will determine the charge, as well as which commercial activities will be affected, it said."This is positive news that I expect will increase consumption and create jobs," said Mazen Al-Sudairi, head of research at Al-Rajhi Capital in Riyadh. "Fast-food restaurants, cafes and cinemas will be the primary beneficiaries."The decision to allow all-day trading was welcomed by many in a society that skews nocturnal despite businesses currently closing around midnight. But there was confusion over whether the conservative Islamic kingdom was ending its practice of forcing stores to close during prayers. Doing so would amount to another substantial loosening of regulations since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began an overhaul of the economy to reduce its reliance on oil.Saudi-owned television channel Al-Arabiya initially published a tweet saying shops would now be allowed to stay open during prayers, but that was later deleted and an official subsequently rejected the idea in an interview with the same network.The cabinet decision "doesn't include carrying out commercial activities during prayers and it doesn't touch any previous decision related to prayer times," said Khalid Al-Degaither, a deputy at the ministry implementing the change.Pressed repeatedly by the presenter about whether a shop that opened during prayers would be violating the law, Al-Degaither didn't commit either way.A government document last year had called for an end to mandatory prayer closures, though the recommendation was buried on page 156 of the document and removed in a later version. Over the past year, many shops and restaurants in Riyadh have relaxed their approach, quietly keeping their doors unlocked during prayers or openly directing their customers to enter through side doors.Muted BacklashIn the past two years, the government has lifted a ban on women driving, allowed cinemas to open and sponsored gender-mixed concerts in a country where music was rarely heard in public.The changes haven't been without controversy, but the backlash from more conservative citizens has been muted -- out of deference to the kingdom's rulers and also due to a climate of fear that grew as the government cracked down politically, detaining dozens of domestic critics.The prayer closures have long been part of the rhythm of life in Saudi Arabia, with cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls and pharmacies shutting down for 30 minutes at a time, sometimes even locking their doors with customers inside. The practice contrasts with neighboring Muslim-majority states, many of which close businesses for a special Friday prayer but otherwise continue commerce as usual.(Updates with quotes from analysts and context from third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Algethami in Riyadh at salgethami@bloomberg.net;Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump administration blasts WTO ruling on China Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:34 PM PDT |
| El Chapo expected to get life sentence from US judge Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:44 PM PDT  After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world's most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. The hearing is more or less a formality: Guzman, the 62-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was convicted in February of crimes spanning a quarter of a century including trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana to the United States. El Chapo is considered to be the most powerful druglord since Colombia's Pablo Escobar.
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| Trump’s Cabinet has become severe headache for his White House Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:04 AM PDT  The president who promised an all-star cast instead faces the highest Cabinet turnover in recent history.
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