| Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:14 AM PDT ![Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV]( "Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV") The assailants who attacked a state security building northwest of Riyadh on Sunday are Saudi militants who belong to Islamic State, Saudi-owned Arabiya TV said in a tweet, citing its own correspondent. Saudi state media said authorities thwarted the attack by four militants targeting the Mabaheth (domestic intelligence) station in Zulfi, a small city about 250 km (155 miles) northwest of the capital Riyadh. There has been no Islamic State claim of responsibility for the attack so far, and the authorities did not officially identify the assailants.
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| Israeli election may have dimmed hopes for 2-state solution Posted: 20 Apr 2019 11:13 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (AP) — Is the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dead?
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| IS claims deadly attack on Afghan ministry Posted: 21 Apr 2019 06:36 AM PDT  The Islamic State group Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 10 people and trapped around 2,000 for hours inside the communications ministry in the Afghan capital the previous day. Four IS jihadists detonated explosives near the ministry, then entered and "battled Afghan security forces with machine guns and hand grenades for numerous hours", the group said in a statement on its social media channels. The attack in central Kabul killed seven civilians and three members of the security forces, the interior ministry said on Sunday, in a new toll after three people died of their wounds.
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| Giuliani: ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Getting Political Dirt From Russians Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:46 AM PDT  REUTERS/Ronen ZvulunThe Trump campaign's attempt to solicit political assistance from agents of the Russian government was perfectly legal, the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani suggested on Sunday, calling it was a completely defensible political move."There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview on Sunday morning, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner solicited dirt on Hillary Clinton from people they believed to be acting at the behest of the Russian government.Pressed by Tapper on whether it's "okay" to use information stolen by adversarial foreign governments in the service of a presidential candidacy, Giuliani replied, "it depends on the stolen material."The investigative report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller released this week reviewed evidence that Don Jr. and Kushner may have violated campaign finance laws by enthusiastically taking that Trump Tower meeting in anticipation of receiving opposition research from two Russian attorneys with ties to the country's government.Mueller concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to charge anyone on the Trump campaign with soliciting an illegal in-kind contribution from a foreign national.In the interview, Giuliani sought to shift the focus from whether the conduct was ethically defensible to whether it violated the letter of the law."We're gonna get into morality? That's not what prosecutors look at, morality," Giuliani said. "This didn't become an international scandal because of immorality. It became an international scandal because the president was accused of violating the law, falsely."The line of questioning was prompted by a statement this week from Mitt Romney, a senator from Utah and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Romney said he was "appalled" that "fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia."Pressed on the question of morality, and whether such conduct was defensible even putting aside legal questions, Giuliani compared the acceptance of information stolen by a hostile foreign government to any other "immoral" conduct by a political campaign."I'd like to take a good look at Romney's campaign and see if there were any immoral or unethical things done by the people working for him that he didn't know about," Giuliani said. "If there weren't than it was the only campaign in history because he's maybe holier than the holiest one."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| Tiger Attacks Keeper in Topeka, Kansas Zoo Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:36 PM PDT  The keeper is currently in stable condition
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| How the U.S. Navy Sank Imperial Japan's Top Secret Aircraft Carrier Posted: 19 Apr 2019 07:00 PM PDT  "No doubt he intends to act as a decoy at some point to lure away our screening destroyers. That accomplished, his comrades can approach Shinano unopposed. We must guard against any such ploy," grumbled the thoughtful skipper.The first torpedo struck farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier's hull, working their way forward. The explosions and instant flooding immediately killed scores of men, many asleep in their bunks.As tons of seawater cascaded into the wounded colossus, men below deck could see the extent of the damage, were seized with panic, and stampeded topside. The missiles had hit 10 feet below the water line, and on the bridge and upper levels the commander and his officers were not yet aware of how sorely they were hurt. Many had survived earlier torpedo attacks, and aboard less formidable vessels than this one. Even as their gargantuan ship began to list, they remained optimistic."Expressing the Flavor of an Ancient Samurai"
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| SpaceX test accident in Florida sends a massive plume of smoke into the sky Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:08 AM PDT  A SpaceX Crew Dragon experienced an "anomaly" during ground tests that manifested as a column of smoke rising from the spacecraft's thrusters. The Crew Dragons were expected to fly with astronauts aboard later in the year, and it is currently unclear whether recent tests could delay that.> Smoke seen for miles as SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers anomaly at Cape Canaveral https://t.co/W4Cj2bcN6y via @Florida_Today> > -- Code Tripping (@Code_Tripping) April 21, 2019Though few details are available, SpaceX did release a statement to SpaceNews confirming the incident."Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," a spokesperson told SpaceNews. "The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand."Images from Cape Canaveral show a column of smoke visible from local beaches. The ground test anomaly came from an engine test, specifically the SuperDraco engines which provide power for astronauts to get to safety during an aborted launch. Beyond fire and smoke, the anomaly even showed up on radar:> Dragon's static fire anomaly was big enough to show up on radar! ☁️SpaceX CrewDragon FLwx LowCC (Non-meteorological radar signature) pic.twitter.com/WpebHEo6Az> > -- Jabes (@GISRockstar) April 20, 2019NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine also shared a statement to Twitter:> NASA has been notified about the results of the @SpaceX Static Fire Test and the anomaly that occurred during the final test. We will work closely to ensure we safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program. pic.twitter.com/yE2J5yGzA7> > -- Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) April 21, 2019 WATCH: NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine warns India's anti-satellite test could be dangerous for the ISS
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| Protesters punch Turkish opposition leader at funeral Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:03 AM PDT  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Protesters assaulted the leader of Turkey's main opposition party during a funeral held Sunday for a soldier who was slain during clashes with Kurdish rebels. The politician was not hurt, party officials said.
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| In shadow of burned Notre-Dame, Paris Catholics pray for Easter renewal Posted: 20 Apr 2019 05:39 PM PDT  French Catholics on Sunday celebrated Easter mass in Paris in the shadow of the badly burned Notre-Dame Cathedral, praying that the landmark monument -- and along with it the entire Catholic Church -- can be renewed. The fire at Notre-Dame six days earlier destroyed the cathedral's spire and two-thirds of its roof. Deprived of access to Notre-Dame, regular worshippers instead lined up patiently to celebrate Easter Sunday mass a short walk away, on the Right Bank of the Seine at Saint-Eustache church.
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| Northern Ireland leaders urge calm as police arrest two over journalist's killing Posted: 20 Apr 2019 04:09 AM PDT  Lyra McKee, 29, an award-winning journalist who was writing a book on the disappearance of young people during decades of violence in Northern Ireland, was shot dead on Thursday as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid. Northern Ireland's political parties, which are broadly split between Irish nationalists aspiring to unite the British region with Ireland and unionists who want it to remain British, issued a joint call for calm. "This is a time for calm heads." McKee was watching with a crowd of bystanders as local youths attacked police with petrol bombs and set cars on fire, video footage showed.
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| Give Notre Dame a Modern Roof the Alt-Right Will Hate Posted: 19 Apr 2019 07:39 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Photos from GettyWhen the most famous Gothic cathedral in the world burned this week—smoke and flames billowing out from the spire—I took to Twitter to join the chorus of voices who expressed their heartfelt loss. As a historian, I am all too aware of how vulnerable the remains of the Middle Ages are, and a seemingly eternal building such as Notre Dame is no exception.Once the fire was under control, and eventually extinguished, the extent of the damage became clear. The outer roof was destroyed, and the spire had collapsed, crushing the inner medieval mason vault as it fell. But apart from where the spire came crashing through, the medieval structures seem to have held, as have the cathedral's rose windows.The challenge that now lies ahead is restoring what was lost, and the debate about how this should be done has already started. Should the spire be reconstructed? What materials should be used? Should it look like something from the Middle Ages, or not?If you ask me, in honor of Notre Dame's history, the new roof needs to be a brand new design, representative of today and not of the past. Why? Well, the restoration and preservation of historical buildings is based on an idea that there is an original state of things that can be reached if later additions and influences are done away with.The idea of there being an 'original state of things' is also what dominates the worldview of the far right, who use their interpretation of the Middle Ages as a template for how they believe society should be.While Notre Dame was burning, conspiracy theories began to surface, and declarations were made of the fire portending the end of Western civilization and its Judeo-Christian values. Instead, what was happening was the destruction of a medieval past that has, in all honesty, never existed.Western civilization is a term that grew out of the creation of history as a topic of study at the universities in England, Germany, and France in the 19th century. In her book History. Why It Matters, historian Lynn Hunt states that "history grew as an academic discipline in tandem with nationalism and a growing conviction of European superiority over the rest of the world." This conviction led to the West "being portrayed as the source of technical innovation and cultural advancement," also known as "modernity."The origins of "modernity" were found in a distorted interpretation of the Middle Ages, which medievalist Dorothy Kim traces to the German Völkisch movement, also in the 19th century. According to Kim, this movement "rewrote history, drawing from folklore such as that of Brothers Grimm, medieval epics and a dedication to racial white supremacy."From these two developments, the term "Western civilization" emerged in the 1890s, but it didn't come into everyday use until the 20th century was well underway. According to philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, the term "West" is used in contrast to something else. During the age of Imperialism it was used in contrast to Asia; during the Cold War in contrast to Communist Europe and the Soviet Union; and today to Latin America, Africa, and Asia (also known as "the Global South"), and the Muslim world. Looking at the world from this point of view, "West" and "Western civilization" come to mean the United States, Europe, and Christianity.This brings us to the notion of Judeo-Christian values, where once again the Middle Ages are used to make an argument that actually misrepresents the time period. In the eyes of those who promote the ideas of Western civilization and so-called Judeo-Christian values, the Middle Ages stand out as the ideal time period when Europe was a white society united in a homogenous Christian culture led by one single Christian institution.Such a view of the Middle Ages is inaccurate. In fact, what is considered to be European culture, in the past and today, is an amalgamation of impulses from all over the world. During the Middle Ages, Europe communicated closely with Africa, Asia, and the Middle East using networks that were several thousand years old. Important to keep in mind is that at this point in time, Europe was located at the periphery of the world economic system, whose center lay in the civilizations surrounding the Indian Ocean.Even though the Catholic Church was the dominating religious institution in the Middle Ages, it did not have monopoly on religion. Medieval Europe was the home of Orthodox Christians, Jews, pagans, and Muslims. The idea of a shared Judeo-Christian medieval origin is immediately contradicted by what we know of the church's persecution of the Jews living in medieval Europe, perhaps best illustrated by the two sculptures known as Ecclesia and Sinagoga, visible on the façade of Notre Dame itself. These two sculptures represent Christianity's triumph over Judaism and were a common sight during the 12th and 13th centuries.History is an ongoing process of human activity. Notre Dame is an example of history being a living, breathing thing. History is not static, and neither is Notre Dame. Or as medievalist Lisa Fagin Davis puts it, "Nothing makes it from the Middle Ages to the 21st century without being transformed along the way."Within Notre Dame, we find the accumulation of nine centuries of history. The art, the relics, and the religious objects, whose fate concerned so many while the fire was raging, represent every century of the cathedral's existence. The spire that fell into a sea of flames on April 16 was a 19th-century addition by Gothic revivalist architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc after the roof had been without a spire for 50 years.As a historian who works with material culture, I am well aware of the challenges that come with working on historical buildings, especially those that have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Nevertheless, Notre Dame's new roof should be a representation of the architecture of the first decades of the 21st century, more in the spirit of the pyramid at the Louvre than the spire that no longer defines the Paris city silhouette.An acknowledgement of Notre Dame as the result of worldwide impulses across the centuries can be found in the French government's decision to put out a global call for architects to participate in a competition to rebuild Notre Dame. In the words of French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the new roof of the cathedral needs to be "adapted to the techniques and challenges of our era," and is called for by "the evolution of heritage."A roof of that kind would be a reflection of an event that has added a new scar to an already battle-hardened building.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:32 AM PDT ![The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday]( "The 8 best deals and sales you can get online this Sunday") What better way to relax and recharge than with some retail therapy?
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| Authorities say investigation into murder of two Indiana schoolgirls is going in 'new direction' Posted: 21 Apr 2019 07:13 AM PDT  Indiana State Police say they will announce new information about the deaths of Abigail Williams and Liberty German who were found dead on a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana in 2017.
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| Columbine honors 13 lost with community service, ceremony Posted: 21 Apr 2019 02:18 AM PDT  LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Community members in suburban Denver marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting Saturday with a remembrance ceremony that celebrated the school's survival and by volunteering at shelters, doing neighborhood cleanup projects and laying flowers and cards at a memorial to the 13 people killed.
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| Analysis: Sri Lanka terrorists want sectarian violence, economic sabotage, and political collapse Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:31 PM PDT  The tourist trade calls it "India lite" - a laid-back paradise of perfect beaches and weather with all the culture but a softer pace of life. But the horrific slaughter that unfolded in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter morning seemed designed to wreck that reputation, stoke sectarian tension, and destabilize an already febrile political situation. Perhaps the most worrying thing about the attacks is that they have so little in common with the island's recent, violent history. Whoever carried out the attacks appears not to have been emulating the now defunct Tamil Tigers insurgent group, but the bloodthirsty tactics of militant Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State, neither of which have a previously known presence on the island. Sri Lankan military stand guard inside a church after an explosion in Negombo Credit: STRINGER/REUTERS And it does not take an evil genius to see what the attackers were trying to achieve. The first goal appears to be to spark further violence. There has been a striking uptick in nationalist sentiment among the predominantly Buddhist, Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka, and in recent years tensions with the Christian and Muslim minorities, which each make up no more than ten percent of the population, have been growing. In March last year, the government declared a state of emergency after Buddhist mobs attacked a mosque in the central district of Kandy. In such an atmosphere it would be easy - perhaps tempting - to respond with a state of emergency, cracking down on civil rights and scapegoating whatever community the attackers turn out to hail from. The dangers of doing so are obvious. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said security forces failed to pass on intelligence to government ministers Credit: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/ AFP The second goal is to wreak economic damage. Security experts say they have never seen such a deliberate targeting of civilians by suicide bombings, and certainly not deliberate attacks on big hotels that lure Western tourists. Tourism is a mainstay of Sri Lanka's post-war economic recovery, with visitor numbers more than quadrupling from around 500,000 in 2009 to over two million a year today. With the economy struggling in the aftermath of a recent political crisis, a blow to tourism could be devastating. The attackers will presumably have hoped that the dysfunction in Sri Lankan domestic politics would make a hardline response more likely. Last year, Sri Lanka's government was paralysed by a constitutional crisis as Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president, attempted to replace Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. It left the government looking ineffectual - an impression only heightened when Mr Wickremesinghe made the astonishing claim that security services had received prior intelligence about the attacks but failed to inform him - or anyone else in his government. As Charu Lata Hogg of Chatham House points out, Sri Lanka is not New Zealand. It has suffered thousands of deaths in decades of sectarian warfare, and there are very real sectarian divisions. But there is, she argues, reason for cautious optimism. The first reaction has been universal shock: a coming together of different communities show that, on the surface at least, they all reject the violence.
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| A Meditation after Easter Posted: 20 Apr 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Editor's Note: This article was first published in the April 24, 1987, issue of National Review.* * *And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.—Luke 22: 10–12There is a strange agency at work here. The Scripture might be haunted. That pitcher-bearer. This goodman. They spook me. Who are they, what special order of grace do they belong to? And, elsewhere, those men who surrender the colt "whereon yet never man sat." Nameless, equivocal shapes. "Hey," they shout, "why loose ye the colt?" The Lord has need of it, His disciples explain. Oh, well. In that case. Why didn't you say so? Take our expensive animal. And has their free will been taken also? It is as if a casual, weird cast of accomplices inhabited Jerusalem. Men or suchlike who know, often better than fumbling Peter or over-literal Thomas, just how to ornament the Passion.Were they perhaps made of some angelic stuff? I don't think so: it is the Lord's habit, thank God, to enlist men wherever convenient. He has an economical disposition. And Man was, after all, what this grand enterprise had been about from the first. But how then did Jesus, so to speak, make His room reservation in advance? Were these men sensitized by dreams? Did the Holy Spirit, foraging like a quartermaster sergeant, requisition their possessions through sign and vision? It is possible. The Lord had been known to trouble sleep. "And being warned of God in a dream . . . " Was there fitfulness before the Passover?Again, I think not. God prefers, when He can, to conserve terrestrial order. He has a dramatic instinct. And His own peculiar unities. The Passion is as naturalistic as frail wrist tissue shredded by a spike. Jesus could ferment water. He could infinitely divide the loaf and the fish. But here He had need of a furnished apartment. His colt might have come about providentially, as Abraham's ram came about, caught in some thicket. But God wanted a known colt: one that had memorable references in Jerusalem. It was His purpose to leave a clear and historical track behind — evidence that might stand up in court. The presence of transcendent power among modest instruments is more persuasive than any bullying miracle could be.I suppose it this way, then. That these — pitcher-bearer and goodman and colt-owner, these first acolytes of the Eucharist — were men given sudden and heightened perception. An abrupt seeing Into. Spirit came upon them as Jesus came upon Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom: "Follow me. And he arose, and followed Him." Simply that. Next Window Please. We are so habituated to reason and a precious carefulness that Christ's people seem, well, irresponsible. But grace is first the law-breaker. It can be brutal: "Let the dead bury their dead." Brutal and rash and unfair. Because there is no ground whatever for believing that these were righteous men. They didn't earn their cameo roles in the Passion through good work. I suspect they were chosen rather for an openness to potential. They were, above all, ready men.Simon of Cyrene, recruited by grace and some Roman to lug Jesus' cross, is my paradigm in this. He had, it would seem, no previous experience for the work. No moral credentials that we hear about. Just a man "who passed by, coming out of the country." To trade, to sightsee, to window-shop: another tourist in the Big Fig. And, all at once, he is absorbed by that rubbernecking mob. Elbow to the front — what have we here? And it's you, yes you. Bozo, pack that wood. We know nothing about Simon, except that his children, Rufus and Alexander, became Christians. On Good Friday, Simon was what we all are, a passerby. And shanghaied by the Holy Spirit. I take comfort in this thought, whose life otherwise does not much recommend itself to God. That I may be granted, through His fierce randomness and my mere availability, a walk-on moment of redemption.Return to the Passion now. Imagine, say, a man in his workshop room alone. For best effect, I'd fancy him preoccupied: revising some device of his craft, in thought, whatever. Suppose it hot and ordinary out. Then, all of one rush, as weather can change, there should be an importance in the air. Let that cheap pitcher interpose itself across his attention here. For this instant it should have more pitcherness. The way common objects astound and please when we are full of joy. This is, you know, not his regular time to fetch water in. But the thought of "pitcher," the very surprising idea that it can hold water, contains aptness and fascination for him. It has been infused by grace. And he rises at a call — not from God as such, nor from any impending event — but to honor the perfect nature of one created thing. There is elevation all around.Returning from the well he happens upon two men. After that, unaware, they will become a procession of three.It is not through war and celebrity that God has most advanced His will. It is through the commonplace: room, colt, manger, fisherman — thunderous Easter, atrocity and miracle, are prepared for in them. Open a window. Pick up anything. Inhale. These are moments and incidents without moral import except for this: that reverence and special shining can inhere. We are admonished to be alert. And certainly we have lost just that measure of openness and heightening and expectation. This is, I suspect, what those shadowy men are about. If they didn't know, they felt, felt at some proper instant, that even in the filling of a pitcher one might lead great strangers to magnificence.
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| Trump lawyer attacks Mueller report, sees nothing wrong in taking Russian info Posted: 21 Apr 2019 11:25 AM PDT  Donald Trump's top lawyer on Sunday attacked "calumny, lies and distortions" in the Mueller investigation report, and said there is "nothing wrong" with taking hacked information from Russia. Rudy Giuliani mounted a combative defense of the president in Sunday talk show appearances that took aim at Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, the evidence they amassed and the witnesses they cited.
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| Northern Irish Police: Journalist’s Murder Sign of a ‘New Brand of Terrorism’ Posted: 20 Apr 2019 02:38 PM PDT  Northern Irish police said a "new brand of terrorism" was responsible for the death of a well-respected journalist who was killed last week as they announced the arrest of two teenagers in connection with the killing.Twenty-nine-year-old journalist and LGBT activist Lyra McKee was fatally shot on Thursday while covering a clash between police and nationalist rioters in Londonerry. She was standing near police officers when rioters fired gunshots and threw petrol bombs at police. During a press conference on Saturday, police in Northern Ireland announced that they had arrested two men, 18 and 19 years old, under the country's terrorism act in connection with McKee's murder. They have been taken the two to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite for questioning.On Friday, police blamed McKee's murder on gunshot wounds fired indiscriminately, and released footage of a masked gunman firing during the riots. "What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation," Police Service of Northern Ireland Superintendent Jason Murphy said.Violence has flared in Northern Ireland over the past several months as the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union has once again raised questions about the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland's borders. Law enforcement on Friday blamed the killing on members of the New Irish Republican Army. The small group rejects the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which put an end to the unrest of the period dubbed the Troubles and years of sectarian civil war between Irish nationalists and UK loyalists. According to the Associated Press, the group has also been blamed for a car bombing in Londonderry earlier this year, as well as several killings over the past several years. The group also claimed it sent mail bombs across the UK.McKee, an independent journalist whose work covering the conflict in Northern Ireland once earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, was just weeks away from publishing her first book about young people who disappeared during the Troubles.Her death sparked an outpouring of grief from journalists and many local and international political figures. "This cannot stand," her partner Sara Canning said during a vigil on Friday. "Lyra's death must not be in vain because her life was a shining light in everyone else's life, and her legacy will live on in the light that she's left behind."Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians Posted: 20 Apr 2019 08:44 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians]( "UPDATE 2-Syria's Assad discusses peace talks, Tartus port with Russians") BEIRUT/MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met senior officials from his strongest ally Russia in Damascus on Friday and Saturday to discuss upcoming peace talks, renting out Tartus port and trade between the two countries, state media in Syria reported. Russia has helped Assad's forces to take back most of the country but the eight-year-long war continues. Swathes of the northeast and northwest are out of his control, while sanctions and a fuel shortage are constricting the economy.
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| This tiny RC car could absolutely destroy your car in a race Posted: 20 Apr 2019 10:27 AM PDT  A 0-to-60 mph time of under three seconds is something that all but the most wealthy supercar owners are ever likely to enjoy. A 0-to-100 mph time of just over five seconds? Well now we're in territory that few production automobiles have ever dared tread, but it's all in a day's work for RC enthusiasts who seek to achieve the most ludicrous speeds with their high-tech toys.A recent video posted by YouTuber Innovation RC clearly demonstrates just how insane RC cars can be, with one of the pint-sized speed demons hitting an absolutely absurd speed of 124 mph in less than eight seconds, all while hauling a not-super-light action camera and traveling over what seems to be a fairly rough surface.Radio-controlled vehicles used to be near the top of every kid's wishlist, and perhaps some of them still are, but these aren't your grandfather's RC toys. These tiny cars are built with performance in mind, and enthusiasts regularly modify them in an effort to push the hardware to its absolute limit. They can set you back several hundreds of dollars, and that's without any additional tuning or upgrades. But they're fast... really, really fast.Just check this out:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpdRrPYcEVsThat's 124 mph while hauling a camera that, if I had to guess, doesn't look like the most aerodynamic thing in the world. Not to mention the fact that the pavement being raced on here appears to be anything but smooth. It's easy to imagine this little car topping out at much higher speeds under ideal conditions, but it's still an incredibly impressive run considering the circumstances.In fact, in a subsequent video the same car can be seen hitting a top speed of 133 mph, though without a GoPro on board it's a little bit less interesting to watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo_oCzCHCxMI want one. No, no. I need one.
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| Army Vet Sues Company That Made 'Defective' Earplugs for the Military Posted: 20 Apr 2019 04:00 PM PDT  A Texas veteran is suing the company he says knowingly produced and sold defective earplugs which were issued to the U.S. military, leading him and many others to develop hearing problems, including tinnitus.(This article by Haley Britzky originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2018.)Sgt. Scott D. Rowe, who served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003 to 2004, told the Houston Chronicle that he's "never at peace" from the "high-pitched frequency" he hears every day, as a result of the earplugs he received from 3M Company. Rowe told the Chronicle that 3M "lied," and "took our well-being for jeopardy while we're out there protecting the country."Rowe says in his lawsuit that 3M was aware of the defects in earplugs when it acquired the company that originally developed them, Aearo Technologies, in 2008. He says, according to the Chronicle, that the earplugs were made too short, which makes them difficult to be put deeply into the ear canal, causing the earplug to loosen and sound to get in around them.
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| Tourists, Easter worshippers lament closure of Notre Dame Posted: 20 Apr 2019 01:37 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — Tourists, devout Catholics and others looked on mournfully at Notre Dame Cathedral Saturday, regretting that they couldn't get inside the magnificent monument on this Easter weekend because of the damage caused by a violent fire.
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| 110 Kosovars, mostly children and women, returned from Syria Posted: 20 Apr 2019 07:34 AM PDT  PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo authorities announced Saturday they have brought back from Syria 110 Kosovar citizens, mostly women and children, with the assistance of the United States.
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| M.R. James Wrote the Scariest, Not-So-Holy Ghost Story for Easter Posted: 20 Apr 2019 08:20 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily BeastThough we never think of Easter as a day pocked by any kind of fear, it's certainly the holiday that represents the most macabre event out of any of them. Skinny, sage dude, who was trying to revolutionize the world with love, gets his hands and feet nailed to a cross, then spends the afternoon up there until he dies. Upon which, he is stuck in a cave with a rock jammed into its mouth, only to rise from the dead, get out, and find his friends to see if they need to test their belief in him by sticking their fingers in his nail holes. Now let's eat the crap out of some Peeps and Cadbury Eggs!Easter is so vernal, with a color scheme of pinks, light blues, and yellows to match, which enlivens everything from little girls' dresses to ubiquitous Easter eggs. But what has always produced a frisson of fear in me is one of our greatest ghost stories—let's call it top 20—written by a man who normally reserved his frights for Christmas but saw an opportunity in the soft pastel spring of Easter. Montague Rhodes James—M.R. to his friends and to us—was born in 1862, living until 1936. He was a scholar and provost, working at a number of universities in England. But it was while he was at King's College from 1905 to 1918 that he did what he became most famous for. Each year, at Christmas, James would write a ghost story. These dispensed with the trappings of the spirit yarns of the Victorian age, in favor of more modern sensibilities—an emotionally hidebound, sexually repressed professor taking a holiday and encountering something otherworldly that causes him to confront who he is in this world, for instance. James invited his professor buddies and some favorite students to his rooms on Christmas Eve, and he would then commence to scare them witless. These spectral soirees were legendary. When I point people to a horror writer, if they're looking to get into the real good stuff—which is not Stephen King—James is one of my go-to people. But for all of his Christmas jolts, the best ghost story he ever wrote is centered on Easter. We don't expect to be frightened at Easter, unless an endless parade of Christian iconography gives you the creeps, which I totally get. James must have known that readers—and future readers—would be ripe for petrified plucking when he composed "A Warning to the Curious." He was judicious in what he would write and would not pen something unless he was certain he could get it into the gem-like fashion he favored. Still, "A Warning" is as close as he got to the perfect ghost story. It is the time of the Easter Moon—which, for this story, is a bit like Echo and the Bunnymen's "Killing Moon"—and two buddies are having a golfing holiday together in an English coastal town. The narrator buddy remarks that his golfing buddy is dead—for it is many years later—so he can't corroborate what happened here, but he's got a tale to tell. The story begins with more than a page of description and scene-setting. James does this nowhere else in his canon of 30 or so stories. "Well, at the top of my little hill, a line of these firs strikes out and runs towards the sea, for there is a ridge that goes that way; and the ridge ends in a rather well-defined mound commanding the level fields of rough grass, and a little knot of fir tree crowns it. And here you may sit on a hot spring day, very well content to look at blue sea, white windmills, red cottages, bright green grass, church tower, and distant Martello tower on the south."These aren't old guys on a golfing holiday. They feel about 26. They're staying at a place which is like a dorm for adults. Old school style. You're not supposed to be out super late. Maybe that made it cheaper. I don't know. They're not rich guys, but they're certainly good guys, fair guys. And one night, as the friends sat in the lounge, one of them, Long—the man we know is dead—is playing solitaire, the narrator is writing, when a third man named Paxton joins them. This is a story where we must note the configurations of numbers. Easter Moon out in the sky, three fellows coming together. Paxton hangs for a bit, but he's fidgeting, and he is prevailed upon by the other two to unburden himself. Until this point, we've felt cozy. James pulled us in with that description, which all but produced the smell of brine and newly-dewed grass in our nostrils. We've felt as if we were in this room by the fire having a nice lounging session, and now that we are fully immersed, something is going to happen. Paxton begins by asking if the two friends are aware of the legend of the three crowns. A second trinity, then. They are, but James is going to signpost this road for us and walk us down it. The legend was that three royal crowns were buried at strategic beachheads in England, to ward off invaders. To weaken them, confuse them, scatter them. One family took it upon itself to guard one of the burial spots. They did this through the generations. The last guardian was a sickly young man in his late twenties, who nonetheless camped out at night in cold and rain, guarding the crown, until he died before his time in his devotion. Paxton, who is relocating to Sweden and has a couple weeks to kill, has an easy time of learning, from simple townsfolk, where this man stationed himself, and with no remarkable effort, he dug up the crown. He also dug up something of a problem. A delicious idea, right? Sometimes you have an idea as a writer where you think, "Wait, that's almost too perfect, did someone hit on this before?" Not unlike what happened with Paul McCartney when the melody to "Yesterday" came to him. This was one of the best ideas of James' compact ghost story-writing career. The two friends are stoked—they are going to see a real deal Anglo-Saxon crown. "But our man gazed at us with a rueful eye," the narrator plaintively informs us. "'Yes, he said, 'and the worst of it is I don't know how to put it back." That is the plot's mechanism—the restoration—the re-interring/re-tombing—of the vaunted symbol that has been made visual and manifest. We are playing off of a New Testament conceit—entombed human-saving king—with Old Testament fury, for Paxton is being followed by something, though he is not sure exactly what. Which is rather worse. The friends and Paxton inspect the crown in the latter's room. He's careful not to let their skin come in direct contact with it. That's very important to him. Regarding what it is following him, he expresses the beyond-creepy, pithy line that it seems to have some control of your eyes. He's like a student coming to learn a lesson, and his first foothold in that lesson is already sufficiently terrifying in its fullness of knowledge that there is greater, unremittable fear for what must be waiting to come. Before courage fades in the cold light of deliberation, the three agree to a plan. They will make some excuse to leave the venue they are staying at that night—it's like you need permission from an RA—and return the crown to its barrow. As the two friends go off to get ready, Paxton asks them to make sure that the hallway coast is clear. It's those unexpected details that make James so Jamesian. They provide the fillip—that powerful flick of nerves—to your heart. They have no problem finding the clearing in the bower by the sea where the crown had been laid. The friends stand back as Paxton works swiftly, like he's some master archeologist going in reverse. He packs down the earth with great care after, then ushers his new friends away with celerity. That duo looks over their shoulders to see that Paxton has left his dark coat behind, and it appears to be propped up on something. "Yet, in all this quiet, an acute, an acrid consciousness of a restrained hostility very near us, like a dog on a leash that might be let go at any moment," has been felt, and so it is both with no surprise and legitimate surprise—again, exceedingly Jamesian—that Paxton, not bothering to turn around to look, remarks that that is not his coat. The next day, "on as beautiful an April morning as you could desire," the two friends find Paxton in slightly better spirits. They are off to play a game of golf, and say they will reconnect with him after. They return from their outing to learn that Paxton just went out and seemed to be following them. The friends, naturally, don't understand this at all, in one way, but in another, they do. On a shingle high above the sea, they race, seeing Paxton below, running to catch up with what they realize Paxton thinks is them. He catches up with something. When the friends descend down to find his corpse, they see that his mouth is rammed with sand and broken bits of seashell. They're fortunate that a nearby caretaker had witnessed everything and comes running to help, or else they'd be accused of murder. There's a cool reading by Michael Hordern—the actor who played Jacob Marley in 1951's Scrooge—that is excellent, plus a BBC short film adaptation worth screening. But there is nothing like leaning over the pages of this story, eyes traveling along the shapes of sentences like those of the friends looking down on the racing Paxton below, to remind us of powers beyond ourselves. James has them go the way of darkness rather than light. It's like what Easter might have been, minus a resurrection. Or, maybe, a different kind of resurrection. Hide those eggs well. Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| Egyptians vote for second day in referendum on keeping Sisi in power Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:33 PM PDT  Egyptians voted on Sunday for a second day on whether to back constitutional amendments that could see President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stay in power until 2030. The three-day referendum was called last week, a day after Egypt's parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the proposals, which would also bolster the role of the military and expand the president's power over judicial appointments. Sisi's supporters argue that he has stabilized Egypt and needs more time to reform the economy, but critics say they fear that the changes will stifle debate.
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| 'House of horrors': California couple sentenced to life in prison for torturing their children Posted: 21 Apr 2019 10:49 AM PDT  David and Louise Turpin, who pleaded guilty in February to torture and false imprisonment, are eligible for parole after 25 years.
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| United Constitutional Patriots: Border Patrol pushes back against armed civilians policing border Posted: 20 Apr 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Customs and Border Protection "does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands."
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| Galaxy Fold units keep mysteriously breaking, while the iPhone XS survives a shark bite Posted: 19 Apr 2019 06:03 PM PDT  If you've paid attention to tech industry news to any degree over the past day or two, you're no doubt aware that Samsung is dealing with a bit of unpleasant scrutiny at the moment over reports of early units of its forthcoming Galaxy Fold phone mysteriously breaking. Definitely a bad look for Samsung and suggestive that the company may have rushed its first foldable handset into production, or that there may at least have been some issues around quality control. It was hard not to be reminded of those reports about Galaxy Folds breaking after a day or so of normal usage while watching the behind-the-scenes video that complements Apple's latest "Shot on iPhone" commercial. At one point in the behind-the-scenes footage, which you can watch above, one of the filmmakers is shown basically helpless when a shark snatches up his iPhone. With the phone secure in the shark's jaws, the filmmaker swims after him and ends up successfully retrieving it. And the phone appears to be fine after that. For the new commercial, titled Don't Mess with Mother, Apple hired production company Camp4 Collective to showcase the iPhone XS's video capabilities while capturing scenes from mother nature. The outtakes video includes scenes from a volcano, in the water with sharks and on mountains, the whole thing giving off a thrilling, "you are there" vibe. At one point, we see a monkey playing with and scrutinizing an iPhone. The idea is apparently that iPhones can capture images and video of stunning quality in nature, with the inadvertent reminder that they can withstand some tough elements too. Just something to think about as we get closer to the April 26 launch date that Samsung has decided to stick to for its ridiculously expensive foldable phone that it's still hoping people will take a chance on, despite the easy breakage some reviewers have experienced.
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| Take a Look at the SW1911 Gun: Smith & Wesson’s Very Own 1911 Pistol Posted: 20 Apr 2019 02:37 AM PDT  One of the oldest gun companies in America produces its own take on one of the most exemplary handgun designs in U.S. history.Smith & Wesson's series of handguns based on the 1911 platform stays true to the gun's roots while adding in a number of features desirable to modern firearms enthusiasts. The company produces a full line of 1911s, from traditional to contemporary, catering to collectors and duty carriers, in a full range of sizes.The 1911 pistol was invented by prolific small arms designer John Moses Browning in the early twentieth century. Browning paired the pistol with his new .45 Automatic Colt Pistol cartridge, a large, heavy subsonic cartridge that delivered upwards of 400 foot-pounds of energy on target. The pairing of a semi-automatic pistol capable of holding eight rounds with the .45 ACP manstopper round was in response to reports that U.S.-issue revolvers in .38 Long Colt often failed to stop Filipino insurgents in close quarters combat.Although the 1911 missed the Philippine Insurrection, it was well positioned to enter World War I on the side of the U.S. military. The American Expeditionary Force issued the 1911 in large numbers where they fought in the trenches of World War I. Minor changes in the design resulted in the 1911A1 designation during the 1920s. More than a million pistols were produced for U.S. and allied forces during World War II, enough that the armed services kept the 1911 in frontline service well into the 1980s.
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| Iraq summit brings together rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran Posted: 20 Apr 2019 09:33 AM PDT ![Iraq summit brings together rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran]( "Iraq summit brings together rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran") BAGHDAD (AP) — A summit organized by Iraq brought together regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran on Saturday as part of a broader effort by Iraqi leaders to fashion the country's image as a friend among neighbors.
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| Pakistan says gunmen behind killing of 14 based in Iran Posted: 20 Apr 2019 03:55 AM PDT  The gunmen who killed 14 members of Pakistan's security forces in the country's southwest earlier this week came from Iran to carry out the attack, officials said Saturday. Some 20 people wearing uniforms from the paramilitary Frontier Corps stopped buses in Balochistan province, which were travelling along the coast to megacity Karachi, before gunning down the security officials. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan had evidence the "terrorist outfits" that carried out the attack have "training and logistic camps inside Iranian areas bordering Pakistan".
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| 'Panic mode': Witness describes aftermath of Sri Lanka bombs Posted: 21 Apr 2019 02:48 PM PDT  Bhanuka Harischandra was running a little late for his meeting Sunday.
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| Vulnerable House Democrats tread carefully in wake of Mueller report Posted: 20 Apr 2019 11:54 PM PDT  More than 30 Democratic representatives, many of whom are in their first term, represent districts that supported Trump in 2016. The party's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives likely hinge its ability to defend those seats.
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| Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop. Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:11 PM PDT ![Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.]( "Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.") If you forget a key ingredient for your Easter meal, you have some options. Walmart is open, but Target is closed.
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| Incident on SpaceX pad could delay its first manned flight Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:06 AM PDT  A mysterious but apparently serious incident occurred Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Florida involving the SpaceX capsule intended to carry American astronauts into space late this year, the private company and NASA announced. "Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," a SpaceX spokesman said in a statement.
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| Sri Lanka explosions: Media says at least 129 dead, more than 500 wounded on Easter Sunday Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:14 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's state-run newspaper has reported that 129 people have died in a series of Easter Sunday blasts targeting three churches and three hotels.
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| Israeli F-16 Jets Blew Up a Syrian Missile Factory (And Russia’s Air Defense Missiles Didn’t Strike) Posted: 20 Apr 2019 06:00 PM PDT  At 2:30 in the morning on April 13, 2019, around a dozen missiles tore over the night sky of Hama province, Syria, launched by Israeli F-16 jets flying over Lebanon.In response, short-range Syrian air missiles arced into the night sky trailing plumes of fire from their rocket motors. One or two can be seen exploding mid-air, possibly having have hit their target.However, as has happened in over 200 other Israeli air strikes on targets in Syria, the defensive fire proved inadequate. The weapons struck three Syrian targets.The first was a training base called the "Academy." A second site was reportedly a storage facility for surface-to-surface missile launchers located near the Masyaf National Hospital. Afterward, the pro-Assad Al-Masdar news agency published a picture of an annihilated M-600 Tishereen ballistic missile launcher.The M-600 is a Syrian license-manufactured version of the Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile, a type Tehran has used for missile strikes on targets in Syria, Iraq and Israel since 2017.
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| Cardi B rejects plea deal in strip club brawl case, facing up to one year in jail Posted: 21 Apr 2019 10:51 AM PDT  Cardi B rejected a deal to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count in strip club brawl, even though it would keep her out of jail.
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| Ukrainian TV Comic Wins Presidency in Landslide, Exit Poll Shows Posted: 21 Apr 2019 12:03 PM PDT  Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old TV comic who's tapped into fury at the political class, got 73 percent of ballots, an exit poll showed. Incumbent Petro Poroshenko garnered 26 percent and conceded defeat. Zelenskiy's triumph owes a lot to his newcomer status and comes despite a campaign that's been heavy on style with only a sprinkling of policy proposals.
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| Yellow vest anger burns in France, fueled by Notre Dame fire Posted: 20 Apr 2019 11:09 AM PDT  PARIS (AP) — French yellow vest protesters set fires Saturday along a march through Paris to drive home their message to a government they believe is ignoring the poor: that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn't the only problem France needs to solve.
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| Khamenei appoints new chief for Iran's Revolutionary Guards Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:03 AM PDT ![Khamenei appoints new chief for Iran's Revolutionary Guards]( "Khamenei appoints new chief for Iran's Revolutionary Guards") Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has replaced the chief commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state TV reported on Sunday, days after the United States designated the group a foreign terrorist organization. The TV station did not give a reason for the change when it announced the appointment of Brigadier General Hossein Salami. "The Supreme Leader has appointed Salami as the new commander-in-chief of the Guards, who will replace Mohammad Ali Jafari," it said.
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