| Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:06 AM PDT ![Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup]( "Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup") Italian and U.S. police have launched a coordinated crackdown against major crime families who were looking to rebuild their Mafia powerbase in Sicily, Italian investigators said on Wednesday. More than 200 police, including officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have been carrying out 19 arrest warrants since dawn targeting the Inzerillo clan in Sicily's capital Palermo and the New York-based Gambino family. Sicily's organised crime group, known as 'Cosa Nostra' (Our Thing), has been in a state of flux since the death of the feared boss of bosses Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who died in prison in 2017 after spending almost a quarter of century behind bars.
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| An anonymous Democratic group leaked a poll that shows swing voters deeply dislike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the left wing, widening the party's rift Posted: 16 Jul 2019 06:12 AM PDT  The poll found that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a 22% approval rating among 1,003 white non-college-educated voters who knew of her.
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| Jon Stewart Eviscerates Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victim Funding: ‘It’s an Abomination’ Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:00 PM PDT  One month ago, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart went on Fox News to shame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for failing to protect 9/11 first responders. Wednesday afternoon, he was back on that network to give his fellow Republican senator from Kentucky a piece of his mind. In an interview with Bret Baier, Stewart immediately took aim at Rand Paul who, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), blocked a Senate bill that would extend the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, making the case that it should be offset by other spending cuts. Responding directly to Paul, Stewart called his objection "absolutely outrageous," adding, "Pardon me if I'm not impressed in any way by Rand Paul's fiscal responsibility virtue signaling." Jon Stewart Fires Back at Mitch McConnell on 'Colbert': Stop 'Jacking Around' 9/11 First RespondersStewart went on to condemn Paul for supporting President Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut that "added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit" and now trying to "balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community." "Bret, this is about what kind of society we have," a clearly furious Stewart continued. "At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries. And what Rand Paul did today on the floor of the Senate was outrageous." "He is a guy who put us in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt," he said of Paul. "And now he's going to tell us that a billion dollars a year over 10 years is just too much for us to handle? You know, there are some things that they have no trouble putting on the credit card, but somehow when it comes to the 9/11 first responder community—the cops, the firefighters, the construction workers, the volunteers, the survivors—all of a sudden we've got to go through this." Appearing next to Stewart was 9/11 first responder and activist John Feal, who thanked the host and Fox News as a whole for being so "generous" with their time on this issue before calling Senators Paul and Lee "bottom-feeders" who "lack humanity" and "lack leadership."Stewart said survivors like Feal and others shouldn't have to "drag themselves back to Washington, put their hats in their hands and beg for something that this country should have done 14 years ago," adding, "It's an abomination." 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 If America Lost a Carrier in a War with Iran? Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:41 PM PDT  The Navy simply lacks enough ships and aircraft to meet the increasing demands of its global mission. The recent oil tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman reinforce the need to reestablish a highly visible U.S. naval deterrent in the Middle East. For eight months last year, no aircraft carrier strike group plied the region, the longest such interruption this millennium. With the United States needing a more robust posture against Iran and confronting renewed challenges in Asia and Europe, several immediate measures and concerted longer-term efforts are critical to ensure America has the carriers it needs.The requirement to maintain carrier presence in the Middle East is a critical part of a broader national security strategy, in which U.S. global security interests necessitate a worldwide force presence. Indeed, the Navy's mission demands remain as high as those of the Cold War, calling on ships to be everywhere seemingly at once, but today's fleet is less than half the size it was 30 years ago.During the Obama administration, a "rebalance" supposedly allowed the Pentagon to focus on Asia and Europe while washing its hands of the Middle East. In reality, we never effectively rebalanced forces in the Indo-Pacific, and the situation on the ground forced us to remain deeply involved in the Middle East. Now with a growing Iranian threat, it would be imprudent to suddenly abandon the region, even as we face renewed challenges in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean.(This first appeared in June 2019.)
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| Your Kids Won't Have Any Room For Candy After These Halloween Dinner Ideas Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT |
| 'Dangerous': Air Force responds to plans to 'storm Area 51' and 'see them aliens' Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:39 AM PDT  As more than a million people on Facebook say they're "going" to a joke event to "storm Area 51," the U.S. military has responded to the plans.
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| Investigators 'discover mysterious 200lb load' on board MH370 after take-off Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:55 AM PDT  Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered a "mysterious 200lb load" added to the flight list after take-off, according to an engineer whose wife and two children were on board. Ghyslain Wattrelos said the cargo was revealed in a report on the passengers and baggage by French investigators. Mr Wattrelos, who believes the flight was deliberately downed, told Le Parisien newspaper: "It was also learned that a mysterious load of 89 kilos was added to the flight list after take-off. A container was also overloaded, without anyone knowing why. It may be incompetence or manipulation. Everything is possible. This will be part of the questions for the Malaysians." MH370 became one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries when it vanished with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. French investigators who examined flight data at Boeing's headquarters in Seattle believe that the pilot was in control of the airliner "right up to the end". A modern mystery | Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Mr Wattrelos said the investigators told him the data "lends weight" to the theory that the pilot crashed into the sea in a murder-suicide, although they stressed that there was no proof. The investigators expect it to take up to a year to examine the data fully. However, some experts believe a hijack by a stowaway is a possibility and the mysterious load could lend credence to the theory. Tim Termini, an aviation security specialist, told Channel 5 earlier this month: "It's highly likely that a hijack took place and again, there's four options for the hijack. "One is the hijack of the aircraft through a crew member. The second is a hijack coming from a passenger. A third option, which is a fairly unusual one, would be a stowaway. And then of course the fourth option is an electrical takeover of the aircraft from a ground-based station." Mr Wattrelos, 54, who has led a campaign to find out what happened to the flight, acknowledged that "there is a risk that I may never learn the full truth." Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.
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| UK raises alarm after mother held by Iran is taken to mental ward Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:38 AM PDT  London demanded the immediate release Wednesday of a jailed British-Iranian aid worker whose husband said she has been transferred to the mental ward of a public hospital in Tehran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case has roiled Britain's relations with the Islamic republic since her 2016 arrest and conviction on sedition charges over which she has held a series of hunger strikes. "We are extremely concrned about Nazanin's welfare and call for her immediate release," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said.
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| Trump unveils immigration and border security bill in Cabinet meeting Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:08 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump presented a bill to his Cabinet on Tuesday aimed at boosting border security and overhauling the current immigration system to make it more merit-based, a senior administration official said. The president will meet with Republican congressional leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy later on Tuesday to map out a way forward, the official added, requesting anonymity. "The goal of this has been to unify the Republicans as much as possible around a plan," he said, noting that divisions with the GOP over policy issues had hindered immigration reform bids in the past.
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| Omar to Introduce Resolution Declaring Support for Anti-Israel BDS Movement Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:06 PM PDT  Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) will introduce a resolution this week declaring support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to elevate the Palestinian negotiating position vis-a-vis Israel through an international pressure campaign."We are introducing a resolution . . . to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our first amendment rights in regard to boycotting," Omar told Al-Monitor. "And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement."The announcement comes on the same day that the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on which Omar sits, plans to vote on another non-binding resolution explicitly condemning the BDS movement as an attempt to "undermine the two state solution" by demanding "concessions of one party alone and encourag[ing] Palestinians to reject negotiations in favor of international pressure."The anti-BDS resolution further notes that the movement's founder, Omar Bharghouti, has openly dismissed the possibility of reaching any settlement that allows the state of Israel to retain its sovereignty.Omar is expected to cast the lone vote against the anti-BDS resolution, further highlighting the divide between herself and the panel's older, more-established lawmakers, who have condemned her comments about Israel in the past.Representative Elliot Engel (D., N.Y.), the committee's chairman, accused Omar of "invoking a vile, anti-Semitic slur" earlier this year after she suggested that pro-Israel American lawmakers' loyalty to the country was suspect. However, he resisted Republican calls to remove Omar from the panel in the wake of her comments.The House also passed a non-binding resolution in March condemning anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in response to Omar's suggestions that support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins."Omar told CBS News's Gayle King this week that she doesn't regret the words she used to cast support for Israel as primarily the product of the Israel lobby's financial influence."So you don't regret your words either?" King asked."I do not. But I have gotten the -- I am grateful for the opportunity to really learn how my words make people feel and have taken every single opportunity I've gotten to make sure that people understood that I apologize for it," Omar responded.
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| The Latest: Protesters mark anniversary of Garner's death Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:55 PM PDT  The Latest on the U.S. Justice Department's decision not to prosecute the officer involved in Eric Garner's death. Several hundred people marched in lower Manhattan to mark the five year anniversary of Eric Garner's death. The marchers on Wednesday chanted and held signs saying "I Can't Breathe," a reference to Garner's dying words, as they marched past federal courthouses.
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| Conjoined Twin Girls Successfully Separated After 50 Hours of Operations Posted: 16 Jul 2019 06:26 AM PDT  Surgeons announced on Monday that they have separated conjoined twin sisters after multiple surgeries that took more than 50 hours to complete.
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| New York businesswoman and Jamaican immigrant Scherie Murray launches campaign to unseat Ocasio-Cortez Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:47 PM PDT  "There's a crisis in Queens and it's called AOC," said Scherie Murray, a Republican businesswoman who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez in 2020.
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| Teachers union has become an arm of the abortion-rights left. Conservatives should quit. Posted: 17 Jul 2019 04:00 AM PDT  Why would the NEA go out of its way to take extreme stands on hot-button issues so far removed from the real problems facing our nation's schools?
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| North Carolina father of 7 dies trying to save his drowning children at beach Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:36 PM PDT  A North Carolina father drowned Sunday while rescuing two of his youngchildren who were swept away by a wave while walking on a submerged jetty atWrightsville Beach
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| Australia calls on China to let Uighur mother and son leave Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Australia's government on Wednesday called on China to allow an Australian child and his Uighur mother to leave the country, days after co-signing a letter denouncing Beijing's treatment of the Muslim minority. China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities into re-education camps in tightly controlled Xinjiang region, in the country's northwest. Sadam Abdusalam has campaigned for months for his Uighur wife, Nadila Wumaier, and their son Lutifeier, whom he has never met, to be allowed to come to Australia.
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| 'You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court Posted: 17 Jul 2019 01:34 AM PDT !['You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court]( "'You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court") Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared he will never be tried by an international court for mass killings in his war on drugs, and vowed no let up in a crackdown that he said he was winning and would see through "to the very end". In a television interview with a celebrity pastor, the firebrand leader said the Philippine justice system was working fine, so it would be "stupid" to imagine he would let an international court put him on trial.
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| Over-the-Top Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes That Are Worth Every Calorie Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:07 PM PDT |
| Kellyanne Conway challenges reporter who questioned Trump's tweet: 'What's your ethnicity?' Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:28 AM PDT  The counselor to the president lashed out at a White House reporter who pressed her on President Trump's tweets saying four Democratic congresswomen of color should "go back" to their home countries.
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| Pakistan arrests US-wanted terror suspect in Mumbai attacks Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:12 AM PDT  Pakistan on Wednesday arrested a radical cleric and U.S.-wanted terror suspect implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, officials said, just days ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan's trip to Washington. Hafiz Saeed was taken into custody in Punjab province while traveling from the eastern city of Lahore to the city of Gujranwala, according to counterterrorism official Mohammad Shafiq. Saeed founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
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| 2-year-old girl who disappeared from Michigan campsite found alive Posted: 16 Jul 2019 11:49 AM PDT  Police have found the 2-year-old who went missing from a campsite in Comins Township, Michigan, on Monday. The search lasted more than 24 hours.
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| Boris Johnson rejects EU compromise and pushes Britain towards the no-deal Brexit cliff edge Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:58 AM PDT  The likely next prime minister said he would not accept a time-limit or exit mechanism on the contentious backstop for Northern Ireland.
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| The California hiker who was found after spending 4 days alone in the wilderness says she got lost after fleeing a man with a knife Posted: 16 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT  Sheryl Powell, 60, disappeared on Friday while on a camping trip with her husband. Search teams found her alive and well on Monday.
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| Couple kiss in photo with lion moments after shooting it dead Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:16 AM PDT  A couple photographed kissing next to a lion they have just killed while on safari has caused outrage.Darren and Carolyn Carter, from Edmonton in Canada, posed for the camera minutes after shooting dead the animal while trophy hunting in South Africa."Hard work in the hot Kalahari sun," they wrote underneath the picture posted online. "A monster lion."Another image shows the couple in front of a second dead big cat. "There is nothing like hunting the king of the jungle," the photo is captioned.But the pictures were widely condemned after being placed on the website of Legelela Safaris – a tour company which specialises in organising big game hunts.> Darren and Carolyn Carter. I hope this kiss makes you famous. pic.twitter.com/V2QUkZq5NB> > — Danny Clayton (@DannyjClayton) > > July 15, 2019Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: "It looks as though this lion was a tame animal killed in an enclosure, bred for the sole purpose of being the subject of a smug selfie."This couple should be utterly ashamed of themselves, not showing off and snogging for the cameras."Australian TV host Danny Clayton said: "More idiots that get their rocks off by pointing a boomstick at a beautiful animal."But the couple have refused to be drawn on the photos. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Mr Carter, who runs a taxidermy business with his wife, said: "We aren't interested in commenting…it's too political."Legelela Safaris charges up to £2,400 for tours which include giraffe, zebra, leopard, elephant, rhino and lion hunts.
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| Rev. Jesse Jackson asks President Trump to pardon former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Posted: 16 Jul 2019 05:39 AM PDT  The Reverend Jesse Jackson and his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., are asking President Donald Trump to release former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from prison.
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| From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:10 AM PDT ![From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans]( "From Iraq to Yemen, drones raise U.S. alarm over Iranian plans") GENEVA/WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - The increased use of drones by Iran and its allies for surveillance and attacks across the Middle East is raising alarms in Washington. The United States believes that Iran-linked militia in Iraq have recently increased their surveillance of American troops and bases in the country by using off-the-shelf, commercially available drones, U.S. officials say.
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| America and Iran: On a Path Towards War? Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:46 PM PDT  Iran's leader has taken a defiant stance against the United States and its allies, signalling a potential "fraying" of the 2015 deal limiting Iran's nuclear program, The New York Times reported.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 16, 2019 denounced "the vicious British" after U.K. forces earlier in the month seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar.In a speech to clerics, Khamenei "appeared to signal his intention to ignore diplomacy for the moment and stoke tensions with the West over the embattled nuclear accord," the Times' Rick Gladstone wrote."Khamenei spoke as unconfirmed news reports suggested Iran's Revolutionary Guards may have seized a United Arab Emirates tanker in the Persian Gulf, possibly in retaliation for Britain's impounding of an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar this month."Iranian militia troops had attempted to retaliate on July 10, 2019 by seizing a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. A Royal Navy frigate intervened and stopped the assault.Khamenei's tone has sharpened of late. "The defiance expressed by the top leader ... contrasted with what seemed like a less confrontational stance taken at the White House," Gladstone added.U.S. president Donald Trump told reporters his administration is "not looking for regime change" in Iran. "They'd like to talk, and we'll see what happens," Trump said.Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, claimed Iran was willing to negotiate over its missile program, which Gladstone pointed out is "an area of Western concern that was not covered in the 2015 nuclear agreement."
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| Arrested reporter slams conditions at US detention centers Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:24 PM PDT  A Spanish-language reporter who was recently released from immigration custody said Wednesday he was held for 15 months in detention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe with cold water from water hoses. During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he called inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last week as immigration courts consider his request for asylum.
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| Wary US swimmers share waves with deadly sharks off Cape Cod Posted: 17 Jul 2019 01:14 AM PDT  At the entrance to Newcomb Hollow Beach, at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula, the picture of a great white shark reminds swimmers that the US shores of the Atlantic must be shared with the ocean's most feared predator. The great whites swim to this region in the northeastern United States to hunt for one of their preferred foods -- seals. Since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972 the number of seals in Cape Cod has grown to more than 50,000.
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| Man who stashed 1,000 guns in Bel-Air mansion charged with 64 felony counts Posted: 16 Jul 2019 12:40 PM PDT  A California man faces 64 felony counts after authorities say they found more than 1,000 guns at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles.
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| Hannity: No matter what Pelosi says, the radical Democrats are in charge Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:40 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal isn't about climate change, it was about control.
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| US military chiefs ordered to reveal if Pentagon used diseased insects as biological weapon Posted: 16 Jul 2019 04:04 AM PDT  US lawmakers have voted to demand the Pentagon discloses whether it conducted experiments to "weaponise" disease-carrying ticks – and whether any such insects were let loose outside the lab.A bill passed in the House of Representatives requires the Defence Department's inspector general to investigate whether biological warfare tests involving the tiny arachnids took place over a 25-year period.It follows claims that Pentagon researchers implanted diseases into inspects to study the potential of biological weapons in the decades after the Second World War.A tick-related amendment, first reported by Roll Call, was added to the fiscal 2020 defence authorisation bill by Republican congressman Chris Smith prior to its passing in the House.The New Jersey politician said the inspector general's office should "conduct a review of whether the Department of Defence experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975."If the experiments did take place, the office must provide a report explaining "whether any ticks or insects used in such experiments were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design", the amendment also stated.A book released earlier this year, entitled Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, sets out the case that the Defence Department did conduct research on biological warfare.Author Kris Newby also suggests a possible relationship between the experiments and the spread of Lyme disease – an infectious disease spread by ticks causing fever, headaches and fatigue."We need answers and we need them now," said Mr Smith, a founding co-chairman of the Congressional Lyme Disease Caucus, which advocates for greater understanding of the disease.Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association, said uncovering past experiments might help with current work trying to tackle the illness."We need to find out: is there anything in this research that was supposedly done that can help us to find information that is germane to patient health and combating the spread of the disease," she said.The defence authorisation bill still needs to pass in the Senate before heading to Donald Trump's desk at the White House.
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| June was the warmest June ever recorded, but there's a bigger problem Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT  In 139 years of record-keeping, this June was the warmest June ever recorded. But June 2019 also revealed a deeper warming reality. The first half of 2019, January through June, finished up as the second warmest half-year on record, newly released NASA data shows. On top of that, each of the last five January through Junes are now the five warmest such spans on record. Only 2016 started off hotter than 2019. "At this point, the inexorable increase in global temperatures is entirely predictable," said Sarah Green, an environmental chemist at Michigan Technological University. She noted that NASA's updated data is added proof that climate models have accurately predicted Earth's continued warming as heat-trapping gasses amass in the atmosphere."As we have shown in recent work, the record warm streaks we've seen in recent years simply cannot be explained without accounting for the profound impact we are having on the planet through the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations," added climate scientist Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University.Indeed, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, already at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years, are now accelerating at rates that are unprecedented in both the historic and geologic record."The latest numbers are just another reminder that the impacts of human-caused warming are no longer subtle," said Mann. "We're seeing them play out in terms of both unprecedented extreme weather events and the sorts of planetary-scale temperature extremes betrayed by these latest numbers."The warmest January through Junes on record.Image: nasa gissThe well-predicted consequences of this heating are now unfolding. Here are some, of many, examples: * Warming climes have doubled the amount of land burned by wildfires in the U.S. over the last 30 years, as plants and trees, notably in California, get baked dry. * Greenland -- home to the second largest ice sheet on Earth -- is melting at unprecedented rates. * The last 12 months have been the wettest 12 months in U.S. history, leading to widespread flooding around the nation (For every 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming, the air can hold 7 percent more water.) * The Arctic is on fire. * Ocean temperatures are going up, and up, and up. * Since 1961, Earth's glaciers lost 9 trillion tons of ice. That's the weight of 27 billion 747s. * Heat waves are increasing in duration and frequency, while smashing records. * Daily high record temperatures are dominating daily low records. Overall, the atmosphere is experiencing an accelerated upward temperature climb, though there are some ups and downs within the greater warming trend. This is due to natural climatic influences, particularly from events like El Niño, which can give global temperatures an added kick. > NASA global mean June temperature is out! Guess what - it's been the hottest June on record. Definitely felt like that in Germany... climatecrisis FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/vkOFP22NNM> > -- Stefan Rahmstorf (@rahmstorf) July 15, 2019"The year-to-year variations of the global temperature may be affected by El Niño, etc., but in the long-term [global temperature] keeps increasing steadily," said NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist Makiko Sato, who helped prepare the June climate observations. SEE ALSO: This scientist keeps winning money from people who bet against climate changeThis June was "easily" the warmest June on record, NASA noted, and overall, this year's January through June temperatures were 1.4 degrees Celsius (or 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average temperatures in the late 1800s. Seasonal temperature trends.Image: nasa Giss2019 will almost certainly end up being one of the hottest years on record. This is in line with another stark trend. Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 -- and the five hottest years have occurred in each of the last five years. (It's not just the first half of each year setting records.)"This is further evidence that temperatures will keep rising until government policies that decrease greenhouse gas emissions are actually implemented," emphasized Green. WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?
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| How Kim Jong Un Got Mercedes-Benz Pullman Limos Home to North Korea Posted: 16 Jul 2019 03:30 PM PDT  Researchers tracked the luxury cars all the way from the Netherlands, in apparent defiance of sanctions.
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| Ukraine's Russian-speaking president gives glimmer of hope to war-torn east Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:00 AM PDT ![Ukraine's Russian-speaking president gives glimmer of hope to war-torn east]( "Ukraine's Russian-speaking president gives glimmer of hope to war-torn east") DONETSK/SLOVYANSK, Ukraine, July 17 (Reuters) - In one of his first acts as Ukrainian president, comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy held out a symbolic olive branch to people in Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking Donbass region, by switching from Ukrainian to Russian. Language was a factor in the outbreak of the conflict in 2014, with Russian speakers in Donbass saying they feared Kiev would impose the Ukrainian language on them.
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| Schumer on ending filibuster: 'Nothing's off the table' Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:08 PM PDT  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer opened the door on Tuesday to ending the procedural rule that requires 60 votes to steer most bills through the chamber if Democrats take the Senate and White House in 2020 — a boon to presidential candidates and activists in his party who have called for that change. Schumer told reporters that "nothing's off the table" if Democrats defeat President Donald Trump and take back the Senate in 2020. It wasn't the first time Schumer has signaled that he would be open to ending the filibuster, which allows 41 senators to block approval of legislation if they vote as a bloc.
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| Buzz Aldrin explains why Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon Posted: 16 Jul 2019 06:14 AM PDT  July 20, 2019, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person ever to plant boots on the dusty lunar surface. Buzz Aldrin followed about 20 minutes later.
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| At least 1 dead, 15 injured — including 3 firefighters — in California house explosion Posted: 16 Jul 2019 09:05 AM PDT  A California gas company reports one of its employees died in an explosion Monday afternoon in Murietta, California.
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| Capo no more, Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' set to learn sentence Posted: 15 Jul 2019 06:45 PM PDT  As a child living in poverty in Mexico, he peddled fruit just to eat. A lifetime later, as the world's most wanted drug lord, his empire was so vast he commanded a fleet of submarines to move his wares. While in prison for the last three-and-a-half years Guzman, 62, has lost much of the aura of the feared and, for many in Mexico, beloved drug kingpin he once enjoyed.
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| Does Melania ‘Really Care’? In Her Birthplace Women Blast Her ‘Shameful’ Complicity With Trump Agenda. Posted: 16 Jul 2019 01:59 AM PDT  Phtoo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty/ReutersLJUBLJANA, Slovenia—What were first faint rumors turned into palpable buzz: Melania Trump, the most famous daughter of Slovenia, might finally visit her homeland. Her father, Viktor Knavs, was seen here driving a white Maybach with Florida plates between the capital and Melania's hometown of Sevnica preparing the way, it was said, for a spectacular homecoming. But as the rumors multiplied, so did a widespread sense of disappointment that America's first lady has not been back to her motherland for 15 years. Young Melania, From Model Student to Cover GirlSeveral of Slovenia's leading women decided the time might be ripe to invite Melania Knavs Trump back here for a bit of dialogue about some major global issues. Members of Femmes Sans Frontières (Women Without Borders) brainstormed at the elegant villa of Jerca Legan, the organization's president, in the old town of Ljubljana. They were environmentalists, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, lawyers and business developers, who decided to issue a formal invitation.Some, like Slovenian fashion diva Maja Ferme, have known Melania for several years, as a friend and benefactor for various charities; others had expected Melania to be more assertive in the international arena. "Frankly, I have not heard a single strong statement by Melania in years, which is kind of embarrassing, if not shameful," said communications consultant Darinka Pavlic Kamien.Nena Cresnar Pregar, who advises foreign investors interested in Slovenian regions, said she respected Melanja Knavs, the young ambitious model who first escaped her provincial socialist Sevnica to Slovenia's capital, then to Western Europe, and finally to the United States. "She had more courage in her youth, I would inspire her to speak out for equality," Cresnar Pregar said, and that would be in contrast to her husband who is "spreading hatred in every Twitter post.""We would also want her to be more engaged on freeing immigrants' children from prisons, on global climate change issues. Otherwise she'll be remembered for her 'Don't Care' jacket," said Cresnar Pregar.Last October, on her way to visit a detention center for immigrant children in Texas, Melania Trump made headlines wearing a $39 Zara jacket that said in splashy white letters across the back, "I Really Don't Care Do U?" She subsequently said the reference was not supposed to be to the children but to the ever-prying, often critical press. "I wore the jacket to go on the plane and off the plane," Mrs. Trump explained to ABC News. "And it was for the people and for the left-wing media to show them that I don't care. You will not stop me to do what I feel is right.""It was kind of a message," said the first lady. "I would prefer that they would focus on what I do and my initiatives, than what I wear."Her Slovene compatriots would like to give her just that chance. Slovenia's former state secretary, Tico Zupancic, embraced the initiative coming from the Slovenian civil groups. "Melania might realize she's been a puppet on invisible strings, recalculate her position and decide that her bank accounts are not as important as her reputation," Zupancic told The Daily Beast. "The group of brilliant women would like to invite her to her homeland, she should use this chance to break free, grow vocal." From Melania's hometown of Sevnica, to the resort town of Piran, to the capital Ljubljana, when she first became first lady she was the object of tremendous pride. But now, many wonder why Melania does not seem to care about Slovenia as she balances on top of the world in her high heels.A local artist, Ales Zupevc, placed a wooden statue of America's first lady in her blue inaugural dress on the bank of the Sava River. The rough-hewn wooden Melania is waving to her hometown of Sevnica, which is just a few kilometers away, as if to say, "Hello, here I am." Inside the Cult of Melania TrumpBut in real life all that people have heard from her are calls from her lawyers coming to sue those who publish scandalous articles about the ex-model's past, on the one hand, or who name their businesses or merchandise after her. "No word of congratulations arrived from the White House on June 25, the Statehood Day," Melania Trump's biographer, Bojan Pozar, said in an interview. "The way Melania's treated Slovenia has been fundamentally wrong." (The State Department did issue a pro forma congratulations on Statehood Day.) The vice chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Europe, Ajsa Vodnik, defended Melania, blaming the hostility of journalists for keeping her away from Slovenia. Vodnik, who befriended Melanja Knavs when she was 17, remembers "a really modest girl" in the late 1980s. Vodnik said in a recent interview she has been in touch with the first lady's staffers, and, "She really wants to come." Vodnik says she is proud that the Slovene language is spoken at the White House. "Her son speaks Slovene with his grandparents in the White House," she said. "The language is very important." News reports about the U.S. President's alleged cheating on his wife sounded disturbing but were not the point, Vodnik said. "We should not be thinking who they sleep with," she insisted, meaning the world's male leaders. "We women should preserve peace and security today, as the world is not in a great position." Vodnik added that the two most well known names of world leaders today are Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Looking back at Slovenia's history, Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport, cannot not think of a single woman leader who has a chance to make a difference. She is calling for women leaders to learn from the past. On one of her visits in Washington, Bulc tried to meet with Melania Trump, but it didn't happen. "I would tell her: 'Embrace humanity at its best, help people, give people a chance,' although I am not sure how much power Melania has. She seems to be strong, but quiet. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she'd become the First Lady of the United States." Trump once said that his years with Melania had been his most successful years.Slovenia's leading environmentalist, Gaja Brecelj, believes that during the years left of Trump's presidency Melania could help. "If Trump does not believe in global climate change, it does not matter. It's time for Melania to become her own person, think with her own head," Brecelj said."Hello, Melania, do this for Barron, for his children, push your husband: we need to change the world's energy system, traffic system—what we all do now will show in 100 years."The last time America's first lady visited her homeland, in July 2004, was to introduce her future husband to her parents. The Grand Hotel Toplica at Lake Bled still has a picture of Melania and her boyfriend Donald from that last visit. It is tacked on a wall in the hallway between pictures of other significant visitors, including a Russian ballerina, Anna Plisetskaya, and a former Russian parliament member, Alexander Rozenbaum.If Melania Trump comes back now, the atmosphere would be rather different. "We invite Melania to join our movement of women without borders, we'd empower her," Jerca Legan said at the gathering of Slovene women. "She still has time to make the difference, if she does not want to live in a world of hate, where kids sit terrified on the bare floor of prisons. If she cares."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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| ‘Quite phenomenal’: Arctic heatwave hits most northerly settlement in world Posted: 17 Jul 2019 03:09 AM PDT  The planet's most northerly human settlement is in the midst of an "unprecedented" heatwave as parts of the Arctic endure one of their hottest summers on record.Canada's weather agency confirmed on Tuesday that temperatures in Alert, Nunavut, peaked at 21C at the weekend – far exceeding the July average for the area of around 5C.Overnight temperatures on Sunday remained above 15C; again, well in excess of nighttime lows that usually hover around freezing in a settlement that lies less than 900km from the North Pole.The previous temperature record for the town, of 20C, was set in 1956.In a further alarm bell for the region, the mercury climbed above 20C for a second day on Monday – the first time Alert's climate station has recorded two consecutive days of 20C-plus temperatures in its history.Alert is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world – with a population numbering less than 100 – and is far to the north of the Arctic Circle.David Phillips, Environment Canada's chief climatologist, said the weather in the far north of Canada was "quite spectacular" and "unprecedented".He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "It's nothing that you would have ever seen." Armel Castellan, a meteorologist at the Canadian environment ministry, told AFP the extreme weather was "quite phenomenal"."It's an absolute record, we've never seen that before," he said.Unusually, Victoria, 4,000km south of Alert, enjoyed cooler temperatures of 20.6C while the Arctic settlement baked.Tyler Hamilton, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, said: "These two communities have a staggering amount of lines of latitude in between them, with the City of Victoria situated at 48°N, while Alert is plopped north of 82°N."This is in fact the first time a temperature warmer than 20C has been measured north of 80° on the planet."Alert's heatwave comes as nearby Alaska saw its own record temperatures earlier this month.Anchorage, the state's largest city, sweltered in 32C on 4 July – shattering the seasonal high of around 24C.Other local records were set across southern Alaska and came after five weeks of above average temperatures in the outlying US state.Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska, said at the time that exceptionally warm weather events would only become more frequent because of the loss of sea ice and warming in the Arctic Ocean."These kinds of extreme weather events become much more likely in a warming world," he said."Surface temperatures are above normal everywhere around Alaska. The entire Gulf of Alaska, in the Bering Sea, in the Chukchi Sea south of the ice edge, exceptionally warm waters, warmest on record, and of course record-low sea ice extent for this time of year off the north and northwest coasts of the state."Research published at the start of the year found Arctic summers may be hotter than they have been for 115,000 years.Evidence that this century is the warmest the region has faced for millennia came from plants collected in the remote wilderness of Baffin Island.As glaciers melt in the Canadian Arctic, landscapes are emerging that have not been ice-free for more than 40,000 years."The Arctic is currently warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe," said Simon Pendleton, a PhD student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who led the research.
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| Teachers were told their student loan debt would be cancelled after 10 years of payments, but that didn't happen. Now they're suing Betsy DeVos. Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:05 AM PDT  Eight public school teachers filed a lawsuit against Betsy DeVos, criticizing the Department of Education for mismanaging their student loan debt.
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