| Trump praises Pakistan's role in 'progress' on Afghan peace Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:11 PM PDT  President Donald Trump on Monday hailed Pakistan's help in advancing peace talks in Afghanistan, in a marked shift in tone as the United States seeks an accord with the Taliban to end almost 18 years of war. Trump was speaking from the Oval Office alongside Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is on his first official visit to Washington seeking to revive a fractured relationship. Pakistan was the Taliban's chief sponsor when it took power in neighboring Afghanistan during the 1990s.
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| U.S. Navy Identifies Missing Sailor Who Reportedly Went Overboard from Aircraft Carrier Posted: 22 Jul 2019 06:31 AM PDT  The Navy has identified the missing sailor from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Slayton Saldana, who was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, with Carrier Air Wing 7.Saldana has been listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown since July 17. He was reported overboard while the Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea. Search and rescue efforts ended on July 19.He joined the Navy in April 2015 and joined his current squadron in September 2018, according to his official Navy biography. He was promoted to petty officer second class in February.Navy officials have not yet released any information about how Saldana went overboard.His fiancé Lexi Posey posted on Facebook on Monday that the day marked the couple's 38-month anniversary.They had planned to get married in April."Since I'm traveling back to the States and 'traveling back in time' due to time zones, today, our anniversary, will be a very long day," Posey wrote in a message to Saldana. "But I wish I could travel back in time to the start of our relationship over 3 years ago and constantly reassure you how much I have loved you and appreciate all the little things that you did for me."This first appeared in Task and Purpose here.
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| Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high Posted: 21 Jul 2019 09:24 PM PDT ![Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high]( "Rescued human trafficking victims in Thailand nears record high") The number of human trafficking victims rescued in Thailand is set to hit a record high this year, according to government data, with demand for cheap labour in neighbouring Malaysia causing a jump in the illegal trade. Thai police have rescued 974 trafficking victims - mostly from Myanmar - for the year to date, compared to 622 for the whole of last year and a previous annual high of 982 in 2015, according to data released last week by the Thai government's anti-trafficking division. Thailand has come under scrutiny in recent years for slavery and trafficking, especially in its seafood and sex industries.
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| Report: Pence canceled trip to avoid contact with an alleged drug dealer Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:20 PM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence abruptly canceled a trip to New Hampshire this month to avoid shaking hands with an alleged interstate drug dealer, Politico reported Monday.
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| White man denies saying 'Go back where you came from' Posted: 21 Jul 2019 09:10 AM PDT  Eric Sparkes showed up during a WSB-TV interview with Rep. Erica Thomas of Austell on Saturday, outside the Atlanta-area Publix store where the incident occurred , the station reported . Thomas confronted Sparkes in front of reporters and said he had "degraded and berated" her. In a tearful Facebook video posted Friday, Thomas said she was in the express line because she is nine months pregnant and cannot stand for long.
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| 2020 Candidates Delayed Paying Staff to Look Richer on Paper Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:54 AM PDT  Drew Angerer/GettyFor months, Sen. Amy Klobuchar's (D-MN) presidential campaign made regular payments to its staff and vendors, with varying daily expenditures that never exceeded $335,000. But on April 1, 2019, the campaign's spending exploded.Whereas Klobuchar's campaign spent an average of about $55,000 per day through the end of June, according to FEC filings, it dropped a whopping $624,000 on the first day of April, including a $300,000 payment to the campaign's digital vendor. That massive uptick in expenses was likely due to the fact that April 1 marked the beginning of the new fundraising quarter. By putting off the payments until then, Klobuchar was able to put the best possible spin on her presidential campaign's financial position during the previous three months. If those expenses had come a day earlier, Klobuchar's cash on hand figure would have been roughly $6.35 million. Instead, the campaign was able to claim roughly $7 million in reserves—a sum that placed her among the better-positioned Democrats in the presidential race. A Daily Beast review of campaign finance records indicates that the delayed-expenses strategy has continued through the just completed cycle, and has involved payments to campaign staffers as well.Klobuchar Gets Barr to Defend Trump Over and Over AgainKlobuchar, whose campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment, is one of at least four Democratic presidential candidates who appear to have skipped a staff payday at the end of June, putting off that pay period until the beginning of the following month and hence transferring the expense to the next quarter's balance sheets.Virtually every campaign engages in forms of accounting gimmicks in order to enhance their financial standings. Veterans of past and current races say that it is common to try and delay spending to future quarters in order to bolster cash reserves that have to reported at filing deadlines. That pressure is particularly acute in elections with crowded fields (such as the 2020 Democratic primary) when reporters, donors, and voters are ever attuned to any signs of momentum or lack thereof.For some campaigns, the ability to put off a payroll payment—whether by design or coincidence—made a substantial difference. That's most true for the Klobuchar campaign, which reported $186,000 in salary expenditures on its last reported pay day, June 15.Federal Election Commission records indicate that the campaign was otherwise paying staffers on the 15th and last day of each month. But no paychecks went out at the end of June, according to its second quarter financial filing. Klobuchar didn't simply eliminate those expenses by postponing the last payroll payment of the second quarter. That's because her campaign appears to have put off its last pay period of the first quarter as well after writing salary checks on February 20, February 28, and March 15, the next payments went out on April 1. But her staff, and accompanying payroll expenses, were larger in June than in March. And at some point, she will either have to make all wage payments or simply not pay her staff. And by kicking the can down the road, she has been able to avoid taking the hit on a campaign finance filing for the time being. Three other campaigns also departed from previous payroll schedules by skipping end-of-month paychecks last month, according to a review of campaign finance records. Rep. John Delaney's (D-MD) campaign said the change in schedule was simply a product of switching to a new payroll management service that restructured that schedule.Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) and Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) both attributed it to the fact that June 30 was a Sunday, so checks went out the following day. But it's common practice for employers to send out paychecks on the preceding Friday when paydays fall on a weekend. The decision to do so the following Monday served, intentionally or not, to boost apparent cash-on-hand figures at the end of the quarter in a way that shrouded the campaigns' actual liabilities.There's nothing improper or problematic with structuring campaign payments in order to present the best possible picture of its financial situation. But an understanding that campaigns do so, and how they do so, can give the public a better grasp of the financial standing of the various political camps vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination.Delayed payroll payments can be relatively small fractions of total cash on hand figures. But campaign staffers are not heavily compensated employees to begin with. And the absence of a regular paycheck—even by just a matter of days—can cause life complications. "I haven't heard of this practice before but I am not surprised," said Kim McMurray, an executive council member of the Campaign Workers Guild and a former organizer for 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). "FEC timing deadlines are such an important moment for campaigns to show enthusiasm, support, etc. so campaigns want to show the largest number possible.""It is very disappointing if this came at the expense of the workers," McMurray added.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| American crocodiles thriving near Florida nuclear plant; great white shark nearly bites boy on fishing boat Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:47 AM PDT  Animal expert Jeff Corwin reacts to the week's biggest stories.
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| Millions of Barrels of Iranian Oil Are Piled Up in China’s Ports Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:28 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Tankers are offloading millions of barrels of Iranian oil into storage tanks at Chinese ports, creating a hoard of crude sitting on the doorstep of the world's biggest buyer.Two and a half months after the White House banned the purchase of Iran's oil, the nation's crude is continuing to be sent to China where it's being put into what's known as "bonded storage," say people familiar with operations at several Chinese ports. This supply doesn't cross local customs or show up in the nation's import data, and isn't necessarily in breach of sanctions. While it remains out of circulation for now, its presence is looming over the market.The store of oil has the potential to push down global prices if Chinese refiners decide to draw on it, even as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies curb production as growth slows in major economies. It also allows Iran to keep pumping and move oil nearer to potential buyers."Iranian oil shipments have been flowing into Chinese bonded storage for some months now, and continue to do so despite increased scrutiny," said Rachel Yew, an analyst at industry consultant FGE in Singapore. "We can see why the producer would want to do so, as a build-up of supplies near key buyers is clearly beneficial for a seller, especially if sanctions are eased at some point."See also: Iranian Oil Tanker Daniel Enters Chinese Port: Ship TrackingThere could be more of the Persian Gulf state's oil headed for China's bonded storage tanks, Bloomberg tanker-tracking data show. At least ten very large crude carriers and two smaller vessels owned by the state-run National Iranian Oil Co. and its shipping arm are currently sailing toward the Asian nation or idling off its coast. They have a combined carrying capacity of over 20 million barrels.The bulk of Iranian oil in China's bonded tanks is still owned by Tehran and therefore not in breach of sanctions, according to the people. The oil hasn't crossed Chinese customs so it's theoretically in transit.Some of the crude, though, is owned by Chinese entities that may have received it as part of oil-for-investment schemes. For example, one of the Asian nation's companies could have helped fund a production project in Iran under an agreement to be repaid in kind. Whether this sort of transaction is in breach of sanctions isn't clear, and so the firms are keeping it in bonded storage to avoid the official scrutiny it would if it's registered with customs, according to the people.Nobody replied to a faxed inquiry to China's General Administration of Customs.Lack of ClarityThe build-up of Iranian oil in Chinese bonded storage has yet to be clearly addressed by Washington. The White House ended waivers allowing some countries to keep importing Iranian oil on May 2.There are currently no exemptions issued to any country for the import of Iranian oil, and any nation seen importing cargoes from the Persian Gulf producer will be in breach of sanctions, according to a senior Trump administration official, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the matter."The U.S. will now need to define how it quantifies the infringement of sanctions," said Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. There's a lack of clarity on whether it would look at "financial transactions or the loading and discharge of cargoes by company or entity," she said.See also: China Buying Iran LPG Despite Sanctions, Ship-Tracking ShowsChina received about 12 million tons of Iranian crude from January through May, according to ship-tracking data, versus about 10 million that cleared customs over the period. The discrepancy could be due to the flow of oil into bonded storage. China will release June trade data that will include a country-by-country breakdown of oil imports in the coming days.One of the Iranian tankers that appears to have loaded oil after the U.S. waivers ended is VLCC Horse. It discharged at Tianjin in early-July after sailing from the Middle East, where shipping data showed it signaling its destination as Iran's Kharg Island on May 4.Several other Iran-owned tankers offloaded in China or were heading there, according to ship tracking data. VLCC Stream discharged at Tianjin on June 19, while Amber, Salina and C. Infinity offloaded crude at the ports of Huangdao, Jinzhou and Ningbo. Snow, Sevin and Maria III were last seen sailing in the direction of China.Putting crude into bonded tanks in China also means Iran can avoid having to tie up part of its tanker fleet by storing the oil at sea for months at a time. The Islamic Republic used floating storage in 2012 to 2016 and again in 2018 as buyers shunned its crude due to U.S.-imposed trade restrictions.Should the Iranian crude leave bonded storage and end up in the market, it could pressure oil prices, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. West Texas Intermediate plunged more than 20% from late April to mid-June as the U.S.-China trade war intensified. It's since recovered some of those losses, partly as a result of the rising tension between Washington and Tehran, and is trading near $57 a barrel."A further escalation in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could jointly drive global economic growth a lot lower and encourage Iran-China cooperation," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a June note. "If Chinese refiners start to purchase Iran oil in large volumes on a sustained basis as U.S. tariffs rise again, WTI could drop to $40 a barrel."(Updates with mention of June trade data in 12th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Nick Wadhams.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Serene Cheong in Singapore at scheong20@bloomberg.net;Sarah Chen in Beijing at schen514@bloomberg.net;Alfred Cang in Singapore at acang@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Serene Cheong at scheong20@bloomberg.net, Andrew JanesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US army chief for Mideast in first visit to northern Syria Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:03 AM PDT  US Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie on Monday visited Kurdish-led allies in northern Syria for the first time since taking up the post. McKenzie -- who oversees US operations in the Middle East -- succeeded General Joseph Votel in late March. Votel's departure came just days after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptured the last patch of territory from the Islamic State group in eastern Syria with US support.
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| Trump has not built single mile of new border wall since taking office Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:43 AM PDT  It was the controversial campaign promise that Donald Trump built his 2016 electoral success on: to build what he called a "big beautiful wall" on the US border with Mexico.But, two and half years after he took office, supporters – who were so enamoured by the idea, they regularly chanted in favour of the structure – may be forgiven for wondering where exactly it is.Now, it has emerged that not a single new stretch of border wall has been built since Mr Trump took office in January 2017.A statement released by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency confirmed the 51 miles of fencing completed since Mr Trump took power has simply replaced barriers that already existed.No original wall or fencing has been created in areas that previously did not have any, it said.That is despite the fact that a total of 205 miles of both new and replacement wall and fencing has already been budgeted for since Mr Trump took office – including via the Treasury Forfeiture Fund which the president redirected through controversial executive action in February.Speaking anonymously to the Washington Examiner, a senior official in the Trump administration said engineers could move faster on so-called replacement projects than entirely new stretches of fence because the approval process for environmental and zoning permits was less extensive.Another official blamed Democrats for obstructing progress. He told the newspaper: "The wall projects are moving along as quickly as practicably possible given the unprecedented obstruction from Democrat lawmakers to protect and prolong open borders."Yet it seems the lack of progress will not deter Mr Trump from making the wall a central part of his 2020 election campaign.When crowds took up their now familiar refrain of "build that wall" at a recent rally in El Paso, Texas, Mr Trump responded by telling them: "Now, you really mean 'finish that wall,' because we've built a lot of it."The CBP recently said it will be continuing to build the approximately 205 miles of wall that have been funded so far this year, using Treasury Forfeiture Fund money that Mr Trump seized in February after the partial government shutdown.The Trump administration was sued for taking $6.6bn from the military and other departments to be used for building the border wall after Congress refused to grant the president the money he had requested.
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| Kenyan finance minister arrested on graft charges Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:08 AM PDT  Kenyan Finance Minister Henry Rotich was arrested on Monday on suspicion of financial misconduct related to the construction of two dams, an unprecedented detention of a sitting minister for corruption in a country notorious for graft. Rotich denied any wrongdoing in a large newspaper advertisement in March. Rotich and 27 co-accused face eight charges, ranging from conspiring to defraud and financial misconduct, said Noordin Haji, the director of public prosecutions.
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| Sarah Huckabee Sanders shows up to govs shindig as Arkansas rumors swirl Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:10 AM PDT  Sanders is seen as a possible 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial candidate.
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| Correction: Military-Hyperfit Women story Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:13 AM PDT  In a story July 21 about a U.S. military study of "hyperfit" women, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a vo2 Max score measures how many millimeters of oxygen are used per kilogram of body weight per minute. ARMY SOLDIER SYSTEMS CENTER, Mass. (AP) — In the nearly four years since the Pentagon announced it was opening all combat jobs to women, at least 30 have earned the Army Ranger tab, two have graduated Marine infantry school and three have passed the grueling initial assessment phase for Green Beret training. "We're really interested in those elite women that are the first to make it through physically demanding training," said Holly McClung, a nutritional physiologist at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Massachusetts.
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| Miss Michigan stripped of title over 'offensive' social media posts Posted: 21 Jul 2019 12:53 PM PDT  Kathy Zhu received an email Thursday dismissing her as a Miss World America pageant participant and revoking her Miss Michigan World America title.
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| This Is the ATV-Mounted Jammer That Took Down an Iranian Drone Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:47 PM PDT  The drone was less than a mile from the USS Boxer when the Marines caused it to crash.
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| US sanctions Chinese oil trader for violating Iran restrictions: Pompeo Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:18 AM PDT  The United States is placing a leading Chinese oil importer on its sanctions blacklist for trading in Iranian crude, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday. "As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li," Pompeo said in a speech.
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| At the scene of a fatal car crash, I saw Americans reveal their fundamental decency Posted: 22 Jul 2019 02:00 AM PDT  American media and politics today focus on divisions and wounds. But what I witnessed after a terrible traffic accident shows we're better than that.
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| Israeli Air Force's F-35 Stealth Fighter Went Into Iran's Airspace: Report Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:32 AM PDT  As we have already explained, in May 2018 the IAF revealed that it has used its stealth fighters in combat operations, making Israel the first country in the world to carry out an "operational attack" using the F-35.Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) commander Brigadier General Farzad Ismaili, who had been in office since 2010, has been fired by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he kept secret that Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35 stealth fighters had violated Iran's airspace, the Kuwaiti daily Al Jarida reported on Saturday.(This first appeared several weeks ago.)The newspaper emphasized that it was the original media source that exposed the Israeli raids, which had taken place in March 2018. Al Jarida cited senior Iranian military who said that only following its March report did the intelligence services of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian intelligence ministry begin to investigate the case, under Khamenei's direct orders.According to the newspaper's investigation, "the IAF F-35 "Adir" planes penetrated Iran's airspace, circled high above Tehran, Karajrak, Isfahan, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas – and photographed Iran's air defense system."
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| Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:21 PM PDT ![Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump]( "Lawyer: Man who killed mob boss thought he was helping Trump") A man charged with killing a reputed New York mob boss was deluded by internet conspiracy theories and thought he was helping President Donald Trump defend Democracy, his attorney said in court papers filed Friday. Anthony Comello is facing murder charges in the March 13 shooting of Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, an alleged leader in the Gambino crime family. In a legal filing, attorney Robert Gottleib said Comello was gripped by an irrational belief that Cali was part of a "deep state" that secretly controls the U.S., and went to the gangster's home on Staten Island with handcuffs with the intention of arresting him.
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| Putin gives Russian citizenship to Novatek's finance chief, a U.S. national Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:38 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin handed Russian citizenship to gas producer Novatek's veteran finance chief Mark Gyetvay on Monday, a move that could potentially help the U.S. national bypass some sanctions restrictions. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 ban U.S. nationals and companies from helping organize long-term funding for some major Russian firms, including Novatek. When the U.S. and the EU imposed sanctions on Russia, executives with foreign passports at companies affected including Novatek - the country's largest non-state natural gas producer - and state bank VTB handed over responsibility for organizing new debt or equity issuance to colleagues without EU or U.S. passports.
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| Democratic Senator Takes Shot at DeVos: ‘I Think We Should Send Her Back’ Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Senator Debbie Stabenow attacked Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a speech Monday, saying "I think we should send her back.""Too many of our children languish in inadequate, ill-equipped schools. Thank you, Betsy DeVos," Stabenow said during her address to the NAACP convention in Detroit. "I really wish she was not from Michigan. I think we should send her back."Stabenow was referencing the chant of "send her back" that Trump supporters launched into during the president's campaign stop in North Carolina last week, aimed at Democratic representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who was born in Somalia.> Sen. Stabenow on Sec. DeVos while discussing Michigan schools at the NAACP convention: "I really wish she was not from Michigan. I think we should send her back." pic.twitter.com/loH0BNdWV7> > -- MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 22, 2019The chant, which Trump later said he was "not happy" with, followed on the heels of Trump's controversial criticism of Omar and three of her fellow congresswomen of color who were born in the U.S., Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. The president had suggested that the four freshmen should "go back" to the countries their families immigrated from if they are not happy with America.The House condemned Trump's remarks as racist last week, with four Republicans joining the entire Democratic caucus to vote for a resolution asserting that the president had "legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.""Trump has given permission to people who used to stand in sheets in the middle of night to stand in the light in front of the microphones. This is wrong," Stabenow said Monday.
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| Rare new shark species squirts glow-in-the-dark liquid from its pockets Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:42 AM PDT  Scientists from various universities and research groups identified the 5½-inch shark as the American Pocket Shark, or Mollisquama mississippiensis.
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| Diver Has Epic Nose-to-Nose Encounter with One of the Most Elusive Sharks Lurking in the Deep Sea Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:33 AM PDT  You may have heard of megalodon, the massive prehistoric shark, but what about the bluntnose sixgill? This enormous, ancient shark was lurking in the deep long before its extinct cousin -- and still exists today at the bottom of the ocean. It's rarely seen even by scientists. But on a recent submarine dive shark expert Gavin Naylor caught amazing footage of one on camera cozying up to his research vessel, seeming to almost flirt and play with the vessel."I'm literally nose to nose with this animal," Naylor, who does research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told Live Science, referring to his trip in a submersible.Bluntnose sixgills are the oldest living shark lineage, said Dean Grubbs, a deep-sea ecologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Although Grubbs wasn't on board the submarine that night, the dive was part of his ongoing research on the behavior and biology of these sharks. [Photos: Orcas Are Chowing Down on Great-White-Shark Organs]"This is like studying dinosaurs," Grubbs told Live Science.In fact, the sixgill predates most dinosaurs -- the species has been around for roughly 200 million years. Some scientists even believe they may have survived the largest mass extinction event, the Permian-Triassic, which killed 96% of sea life.Diver comes nose-to-nose with a huge six gill shark. OceanXThe 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) female sixgill was spotted about 3,250 feet (1,000 m) beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Cape of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. She appeared to show off for Naylor, opening her massive mouth ("big enough to swim into," Grubbs said) and blinking huge blue eyes. She seemed curious about the submarine, Naylor said, nudging it with her nose."She was quite gentle," Naylor added.That is, until she started tearing into the bait that was attached to the sub, shaking the entire vessel."They seem really slow and really graceful," Lee Frey, a deep-sea engineer who was piloting the submarine at the time, told Live Science, "but then, boy, when they go after a meal, they are just really powerful."Naylor's dive was the fourth attempt during a mission to track down and tag a sixgill shark in its deep-sea environment -- a tricky feat from the submarine.Tagging a sixgill shark in its natural environment poses an unusual challenge because they live so deep in the ocean -- between 2,500 and 3,500 feet (800-1,100 m) below the surface. In the past, researchers had pulled sharks to the surface to tag them. But that method didn't always paint a clear picture of shark behavior -- after surfacing, the tagged sharks would act erratically. So the researchers equipped a vessel with a dart gun that could shoot tags at the sharks. If they succeeded, they would be the first team of scientists to successfully tag an animal from a submarine.When Naylor saw this particular sixgill, it became clear that she was far too close to the research vessel to tag with a dart gun. But he wasn't about to miss a great camera shot. Luckily, a better opportunity to tag a shark arose later that night, when he spotted a male sixgill at perfect range; he pointed and shot.The tag, which will track the shark's movement, will help Grubbs' team better understand the behavior of these seldom-studied prehistoric creatures.The dive was part of an OceanX mission, an organization that conducts ocean research, sometimes alongside institutions. * 7 Unanswered Questions About Sharks * In Photos: Baby Sharks Show Off Amazing Ability * Photos: Great White Shark Mysteriously Washes Up on a California BeachOriginally published on Live Science.
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| Gambian soldier names ex-president in reporter's 2004 murder Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:49 PM PDT  A Gambian army officer on Monday accused ex-president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the 2004 murder of journalist Deyda Hydara and admitted he was involved in the killing. Hydara, who was editor and co-founder of the independent The Point daily and a correspondent for AFP and Journalists Without Borders (RSF), was killed by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of the Gambian capital Banjul in December 2004. The murder was widely condemned locally and abroad as another sign of Jammeh's despotic rule and his stifling of all opposition in the former British colony.
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| These Versatile Corn Recipes Are Perfect for Any Meal Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:46 PM PDT |
| F-35s Go to War: Why Israel's Strike on Syria Was so Successful Posted: 20 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  The Israeli Air-force had apparently been waiting for a provocation as the resulting counterattack against the launchers and the Iranian military infrastructure was an overwhelming one. On May 9th the Iranian Quds force that belongs into the Revolutionary Guards Corps launched a rocket salvo against the Israeli forces in the Golan heights. The IDF had anticipated the move and placed several Iron Dome batteries to protect the region, so the attack did very little damage and several rockets were shot down.There have been conflicting reports on whether the weapon used to attack Israel was a Russian built BM-27 Uragan or an indigenous Iranian Fajr-5.The Fajr-5 system is an indigenous Iranian 333 mm artillery rocket that is mounted on Mercedes-Benz 2624 trucks in 4-tube launchers. System has a maximum range of 75 km and rather abysmal accuracy with a 3 km CEP. Combination of a 900 kg class conventional warhead and the low accuracy makes the FAJR-5 more of a terror weapon than any kind of precision battlefield instrument.The Israeli Air-force had apparently been waiting for a provocation as the resulting counterattack against the launchers and the Iranian military infrastructure was an overwhelming one. Unlike in the response for the February drone incident, the IAF was well prepared with a large strike package that had a sizable SEAD element on hand.
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| Mexico, US to launch plan against arms smuggling at border Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:56 AM PDT  The Mexican government said Monday it has reached agreement with the United States for a joint operation to combat gun smuggling along the U.S. border after seeing a spike in the number of illegal firearms detected. Seizures of assault rifles in Mexico are up 122% so far this year. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico's military would coordinate with U.S. authorities to launch anti-gun-smuggling operations in five Mexican border cities — Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.
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| Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT ![Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper]( "Turkey seizes $271 mln in counterfeit U.S. currency -newspaper") The raid was carried out on Friday in Istanbul's Esenyurt neighbourhood and five people were arrested, it said. Hurriyet said one of those arrested was previously released after being detained for suspected membership in a network that Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed military coup in 2016. Turkish authorities accuse the leader of this network, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, of masterminding the attempted putsch in July 2016.
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| Iran oil tanker crisis: Mike Pompeo says ‘responsibility falls to UK to take care of its ships’ Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:54 AM PDT  Mike Pompeo has called on the UK to "take care of their ships" in the Strait of Hormuz amid increasing tensions between Tehran and the West since Iran seized a British oil tanker .The US secretary of state said in an interview with Fox News on Monday "the responsibility in the first instance falls to the United Kingdom"."This is a bad regime, it's not honouring the people of Iran, they've not conducted what amounts to national piracy — a nation state taking over a ship that's travelling in international waters — this is the kind of behaviour we've seen out of Iran for 40 years."The United States has a responsibility to do our part, but the world has a big role in this too to keep those sea lanes open," said Mr Pompeo.Confrontation between the United States and Iran has spiralled since last year when President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement signed by his predecessor Barack Obama which guaranteed Iran access to world trade in return for curbs to its nuclear programme.Since then, Iran has stepped up its nuclear activity beyond limits in the deal and Washington has accused Tehran of attacking ships in the Gulf. In June, after Iran shot down a US drone, Trump ordered retaliatory air strikes, only to abort them minutes before impact, the closest the United States has come to bombing Iran in their 40 year history of animosity.Last week the United States said it had shot down an Iranian drone, which Tehran denied.Washington's major European allies Britain, France and Germany opposed Trump's decision to quit the nuclear deal and have tried to remain neutral. But Britain was drawn more directly into the confrontation on 4 July when its Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar, accused of violating European sanctions on Syria.Iran repeatedly threatened to retaliate for that incident and has made little secret that its capture of the Stena Impero two weeks later was intended as a retaliatory move. It says the ship is being held over safety concerns and the 23-member crew, including 18 Indians and no British citizens, are safe.On Monday, Mr Pompeo also dismissed Iran's announcement it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA and sentenced some to death.Iran made the announcement in state media, saying the alleged spies had been arrested in the year before March 2019. Such announcements are not unusual in Iran, but the timing has raised concerns that Tehran is hardening its position in its standoff with Western powers."The Iranian regime has a long history of lying ... I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertion about actions that they've taken," Mr Pompeo said.Mr Pompeo declined to comment about any specific cases, but added: "There's a long list of Americans that we are working to get home from the Islamic Republic of Iran."Donald Trump also refuted the reports in a tweet on Monday morning, writing, "The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false.""Zero truth," the president wrote. "Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do.""Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse," he added. "Iran is a total mess!"Additional reporting by Reuters
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| Kenyan finance minister arrested on corruption charges over mega dam project Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:57 AM PDT  Kenya's Finance Minister Henry Rotich and other treasury officials were arrested on Monday on corruption and fraud charges over a multi-million dollar project to build two mega dams, police said. Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji had ordered the arrest and prosecution of Rotich and 27 other top officials on charges of fraud, abuse of office and financial misconduct in the latest scandal to rock graft-wracked Kenya. Mr Rotich, his principal secretary and the chief executive of Kenya's environmental authority then presented themselves to the police. Mr Haji claimed the conception, procurement and payment processes for the dam project - part of a bid to improve water supply in the drought-prone country - was "riddled with irregularities". The arrests are part of a drive by President Uhuru Kenyatta to combat corruption in the poverty-plagued country, which has seen hundreds of millions of dollars disappear due to fraud. A string of top officials have been charged since last year, when a damning report from the auditor general showed that the government could not account for $400 million (£321m) in public funds. But it is unprecedented for a sitting minister to be arrested for corruption. Detailing the charges, the chief prosecutor pointed to the awarding of the contract to Italian firm CMC di Ravenna in a manner that he said flouted proper procurement procedures, and despite financial woes that forced the company into liquidation and had led to it failing complete three other mega-dam projects. According to the contract, the project was to cost a total of $450 million (£361m), but the treasury had increased this amount by $164 million "without regard to performance or works," said Mr Haji. Some $180 million has already been paid out, with little construction to show for it, while a further $6 million was supposedly spent on resettlement but without the acquisition of any land. "Under the guise of carrying out legitimate commercial transactions, colossal amounts were unjustifiably and illegally paid out through a well-choreographed scheme by government officers in collusion with private individuals and institutions, Mr Haji said. Mr Rotich has previously denied any wrongdoing, as has CMC di Ravenna.
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| 'Send her back' chants 'very, very painful, extremely divisive': Rep. Elijah Cummings Posted: 21 Jul 2019 04:21 AM PDT  House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings discusses President Trump's comments and supporter chants on "This Week."
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| Microsoft invests $1 billion in artificial intelligence lab co-founded by Elon Musk Posted: 22 Jul 2019 02:47 PM PDT  Microsoft has agreed to invest $1 billion in OpenAI, a lab co-founded by Elon Musk, to develop advanced artificial intelligence technologies.
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| British-Iranian woman transferred back to Tehran prison Posted: 22 Jul 2019 07:25 AM PDT  A British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran since 2016 has been returned to prison after being held in the mental ward of a public hospital for nearly a week, her husband said Monday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was kept chained and under heavy guard for six days which she says left her "broken", according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe. The 40-year-old detainee, who is serving a five-year term for sedition, was returned to Tehran's notorious Evin prison -- used to hold political prisoners -- on Saturday, he said.
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| This Dem Slow-Walked Getting Trump’s Taxes—Now He’s Getting Primaried Posted: 22 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via GettyThe latest 2020 primary challenger has emerged in Massachusetts. Alex Morse, the 30-year-old mayor of Holyoke, announced Monday that he is challenging Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), a 30-year-incumbent representing Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District, citing a lack of urgency from the established member and his acceptance of corporate PAC money. "There's an urgency to this moment in Massachusetts' First District and our country, and that urgency is not matched by our current representative in Congress," Morse said in a statement. "The fact is, the Congressman has been largely silent on the issues that matter most. He's been absent, unaccountable, and unavailable. It's not just that we need new leadership in Washington. We need new leadership that understands that we can no longer settle for small, incremental, and compromising progress. We need to be on offense. We need to be fighting for something, not just against." In his campaign launch video, Morse, Holyoke's youngest and first openly gay mayor, discusses the city's revitalization under his leadership, his parents' struggles with poverty, and his pledge to take no corporate PAC money. Since his election in 2011, at the age of 22, Morse has implemented a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic, become the first mayor in the state to endorse legalizing marijuana, and declared Holyoke a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. Neal, 70, who first assumed office in 1989, has long seemed ripe for a primary challenge. Progressives have pointed to his reticence to call for impeachment hearings, his prior support for the Hyde Amendment, and his relationship with lobbyists and special interests as reasons for his potential vulnerability. Neal also reportedly discouraged the use of the phrase "Medicare for All" for a recent hearing on Medicare for All legislation. Upon becoming chair of the House Ways and Means committee, Neal was faced with immense pressure to immediately subpoena President Trump's tax returns, which included a campaign from billionaire and liberal activist Tom Steyer, who is now running for president. (Morse reportedly had lunch with Steyer earlier this year.) Neal did so in May, and in early July, the committee filed a lawsuit to enforce the subpoena. But the fact that it took months for any kind of action to occur has irked progressives. Recently, a bill passed in New York state with the intended purpose of allowing Neal to request state income tax returns, opening up another potential avenue for the chairman. However, he reportedly expressed concern that doing so could undermine the aforementioned suit. Neal is just the latest established, center-leaning Democrat to face a challenge from a younger, more progressive candidate. Already in 2020, Justice Democrats, the insurgent group that backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), has fielded two challengers: one in Texas and another in New York. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is also staring down multiple primary challengers, as the left has looked to replicate Ocasio-Cortez's success in other districts in New York. And in Illinois, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), a conservative anti-abortion Democrat who narrowly escaped a primary challenge in the last cycle, is facing the same candidate again in Marie Newman. Just last year, Massachusetts was home to a massive primary upset when Pressley defeated Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA), who had served for 20 years in the 7th Congressional District, before being elected to the House.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| India launches moon mission a week after it was aborted Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:58 AM PDT  India successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the moon Monday, a week after aborting the mission because of a technical problem. Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of India's space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.
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| Huawei secretly helped North Korea build, maintain wireless network: Washington Post Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:57 AM PDT  Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], the Chinese company put on a U.S. blacklist because of national security concerns, secretly helped North Korea build and maintain its commercial wireless network, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing sources and internal documents. The Chinese telecommunications giant partnered with a state-owned Chinese firm, Panda International Information Technology Co Ltd., on a number of projects in North Korea over at least eight years, the Post reported. Sources briefed on the matter confirmed the Commerce Department has been investigating Huawei since 2016 and is reviewing whether the company violated export control rules in relation to sanctions on North Korea.
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| Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan’s Deception Posted: 21 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan's Deception]( "Trump Makes His Peace With Pakistan's Deception") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan visits Washington this week, he will have the benefit of meeting an American president with a short memory.Just a year and a half ago, Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. "has foolishly given Pakistan 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit." He then announced a suspension of that aid until Pakistan ended its relationship with various terrorist groups.Now Trump is changing his tune. Last week he welcomed Pakistan's arrest of the leader of the terrorist group that went on a four-day killing spree in Mumbai in 2008, despite the fact that he has been arrested and released several times before. Trump tweeted that the arrest was the result of pressure building over the last two years.Some of this change in tone is to recognize the baby steps Islamabad has taken to address longstanding U.S. concerns. Khan's government recently announced that it was investigating the funding of some terrorist groups the U.S. has long accused Pakistan's military intelligence service of sponsoring.Nonetheless, these steps are not nearly enough. Dr. Shakil Afridi, the heroic Pakistani physician who helped the CIA identify Osama bin Laden before the 2011 raid that killed him, remains in a high-security prison. According to recent reports, he is severely underweight.A more powerful reason that Trump is changing his tune is that he needs Pakistan's cooperation for his plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Since the fall, U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad has been negotiating what he says will be a peace agreement with the Taliban, whereby the group shares power with the elected government in Kabul. Nonetheless, the Taliban have continued a terror rampage against civilians and the military, killing a U.S. service member this month. The Pakistanis have enough short-term leverage with the Taliban to get them to allow an orderly exit of U.S. forces fighting America's longest war.In this respect, one might argue that a little amnesia can go a long way. Isn't the pageantry of a White House visit a small price to pay for tamping down the Taliban?Maybe so — but this logic also exposes the foundational problem with the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies play a double game. Its leaders give lip service to the wider war on terrorism when in Washington. Meanwhile its operatives in Southeast Asia continue to supply and fund the terrorists the U.S. has been fighting. Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Pakistan's support for the Taliban is evident even in the peace negotiations. The planes that fly Taliban leaders to negotiations in Doha, he said, are provided by Pakistan's military intelligence service.Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and co-founder of the Long War Journal, said the olive branch from Trump counts as a reversal of his administration's policy. "The strategy that Trump endorsed in August 2017 was intended to put pressure on Pakistan to try to change their behavior," he said. Yet to this day, the Pakistani military continues to support senior Taliban leaders as well as the deadly Haqqani network in the border region near Afghanistan.All of which raises the question: Why should anyone believe the Pakistanis this time around?Trump's advisers would say that the meeting offers an opportunity for Pakistan to get out of the president's doghouse. A senior administration official told reporters Friday that Khan could agree to make permanent his government's recent gestures toward counterterrorism. What's the harm in trying a softer touch after taking a hard line? The Pakistanis have proved they can be spoilers when it comes to Afghanistan. A little pomp and flattery could persuade them to be more constructive.That's the positive spin, anyway. The deeper problem is that the U.S. has no real leverage in Afghanistan. Khan knows this, and so does the Taliban. Trump has made it clear that he wants U.S. forces out of the country, the sooner the better. Even if the Pakistanis can coerce or persuade their Taliban allies to back off until the U.S. leaves, what will stop them from violating a peace agreement after the U.S. is gone?To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'Outrageous': Convicted criminals serve as Alaskan police amid public safety crisis, investigation finds Posted: 21 Jul 2019 04:09 PM PDT  Dozens of police officers with criminal records have worked in Alaska, despite state law that should have disqualified them, an investigation finds.
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| China's Debt Debacle Posted: 22 Jul 2019 05:09 AM PDT  On Friday, China Minsheng Investment Group announced that its subsidiary, Boom Up Investments, will not make principal or interest payments on August 2 on $500 million of three-year, dollar-denominated bonds.The default will be the first for the firm's dollar-bond creditors. CMIG, as the former high-flyer investment conglomerate is known, failed to make payments on renminbi-denominated obligations in January.CMIG's Friday announcement, although not a surprise, is nonetheless significant. As Bloomberg News reported, the firm was once thought to become "China's answer" to American giant JPMorgan Chase.The troubles of CMIG mirror problems at other companies and follow the shock failure of Baoshang Bank, which the government took over last month.Bond defaults are rocking China. This year, they will almost certainly top those in 2018, which itself set a record. The failures suggest, among other things, that the Chinese economy is in severe distress.
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| Little Boy Is OK After Fish-Stealing Great White Shark Leaps at Him to Steal Fresh Caught Fish Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  "It had come up and it lunged out of the water"
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| French submarine lost in 1968 found at last in Mediterranean Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:45 AM PDT  A French submarine that went missing in the western Mediterranean in 1968 has been found, officials said Monday, ending a 51-year wait for families of the crew who continue to seek answers to the naval disaster. The diesel-electric Minerve submarine was lost off France's southern coast with 52 sailors on board on January 27, 1968. "We found the submarine Minerve last night located 45 kilometres (30 miles) south of Toulon, about 20 kilometres further south than where it was searched for in 1968," the French maritime prefect of the Mediterranean, Vice Admiral Charles Henri du Che, told reporters in Toulon.
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| New German defence chief pledges to speed up race to Nato 2pc spending target Posted: 21 Jul 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Germany's new defence minister has picked an early fight inside the country's troubled coalition, pledging to beef up military spending against the will of junior partners the Social Democrats. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will make it a priority to allocate a budget equivalent to 2 percent of the German economy to the Bundeswehr, the 56-year-old told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper in an interview published on Sunday. The woman known as "mini-Merkel" due to her loyalty to the Chancellor, took over as leader of the Christian Democrats from Angela Merkel at the end of 2018 and is set to take a run at the Chancellery in 2021 at the latest. "We made a clear commitment to NATO's two percent goal. I know that we can't get there from one day to the next, but I'm just as clear on the fact that we must get there in the end," she said. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, who took over as defence minister on Wednesday, is likely to ignite yet another fire under Berlin's tinder-dry coalition with her first concrete pledge in the role. After she struggled for popularity and recognition early on though, Ms Merkel parachuted her into the defence ministry after it was vacated by new European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen last week. Nato defence expenditure and major annual exercises involving US troops The defence ministry is a notoriously tricky portfolio in Germany. Chronic under-spending on equipment has left the Bundeswehr overstretched, while the army has been dogged recently by allegations it has done too little to tackle extremism in its ranks. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer appears to have come to the conclusion that a bigger budget is the only way to avoid embarrassing headlines about malfunctioning helicopters while also appeasing the US over defence targets. Germany committed itself to spending 2 percent of GDP on defence at a Nato conference in 2014. But its actual spending stills lags back at 1.3 percent with the Social Democrats reluctant to support a significant increase. Berlin's foot dragging has been a source of fury for Donald Trump, the US president, who has repeatedly lambasted his NATO ally on Twitter. The Social Democrat-run treasury has set out the defence budget up until 2023 and plans to lower spending by a billion euros to €44 billion at the end of that timeline. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer said she would use her influence "as party leader and defence minister" to fight for more spending at an autumn debate in the Bundestag on the budget.
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| 10 Spectacular Abandoned Places of Worship Posted: 22 Jul 2019 01:14 PM PDT |
| Iran claims arrest of 17 CIA spies; Pompeo: Iran has 'long history of lying' Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:31 AM PDT  Iran claims its authorities arrested 17 spies recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the Middle East nation's nuclear and military sites.
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