| 'Nowhere for the water to go': Tornadoes, floods hit central US day after 20 tornadoes Posted: 21 May 2019 03:24 PM PDT  A tornado tore through a neighborhood near Tulsa International Airport on Tuesday as a powerful storm triggered flash flooding and washed out roads across parts of Oklahoma.
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| U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over Posted: 20 May 2019 11:49 AM PDT ![U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over]( "U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over") Agent Matthew Bowen sent the messages in November 2017, two weeks before he is accused of deliberately knocking over a Guatemalan man with his Border Patrol vehicle in Nogales, Arizona, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson. Prosecutors Monica Ryan and Lori Price filed the documents on April 30 with a request to use the messages in court to show Bowen's "state of mind" prior to the incident and his "willful" intent to knock over the migrant on Dec. 3, 2017.
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| Secret Service Officers Are Being Sent to the Border Posted: 20 May 2019 06:10 PM PDT  Jose Luiz Gonzalez/ReutersThe U.S. Secret Service is now participating in a not-so-secret undertaking: dealing with the influx of migrants at America's southern border. According to a communication from the Department of Homeland Security's headquarters reviewed by The Daily Beast, the small law enforcement agency has sent personnel to the border already and is looking to send more in the coming weeks. The move came in response to a directive then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sent out earlier this spring asking each component of the department to find volunteers and dispatch them to the border. Even though it's most closely associated with the White House, the Secret Service—along with a host of other entities and agencies—is a component of DHS. And as a result, it's shipping people south. A DHS spokesperson did not dispute this reporting. "As we have consistently said, the Department is considering all options to address the humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border," said the spokesperson. "We will continue to work with our workforce to find dynamic solutions and funding to address this very serious problem. As part of this effort, it is our responsibility to explore fiscal mechanisms that will ensure the safety and welfare of both our workforce and the migrant population, which is also reflected in the supplemental request submitted to Congress."The Daily Beast reported last week that the arm of DHS that handles threats to America's cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has struggled to find enough volunteers to head to the border and fulfill DHS headquarters' request. The agency works to secure election systems, schools, and places of worship—all of which face acute threats. Besides protecting the president, the first family, and other prominent government figures, the Secret Service also conducts criminal investigations. Its focuses include financial crimes and cybersecurity threats. The diversion of law enforcement and national security personnel to the border has concerned some congressional Democrats, who say it may be a misuse of limited government resources. But pushing back against the dramatic increase in people trying to enter the U.S. through the southern border has become has become a singular priority of President Trump. In both March and April, law enforcement officials apprehended more than 100,000 people trying to enter the U.S., according to DHS statistics. During the Obama administration, the agency was beset by scandal: Washington socialites slipped past agents and crashed the president's first state dinner; a Secret Service agent told his counterparts to stand down after a man fired a gun at the White House, thinking the sound came from a car backfiring; an agent who traveled to Amsterdam with the president to protect him got drunk and passed out in a hallway; and more, as NBC News has detailed. 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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| China's Navy Is Growing So Fast Its Running Out of Names For Its Warships Posted: 21 May 2019 03:32 AM PDT  China's navy has a new problem: not enough names for its rapidly growing fleet of warships."China is running out of provincial capitals to name new destroyers, and it might have to turn to other big domestic cities, which reflects the country's rapid naval development in recent years," according to Chinese newspaper Global Times.The People's Liberation Army Navy recently named its first Type 055 destroyer the Nanchang, which is the capital city of East China's Jiangxi Province.One of the three other Type 055 destroyers will be named Lhasa, the capital of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, according to Chinese media. That just leaves Nanning and Taipei as the names of provincial capitals for destroyers (Taipei is Taiwan's capital, though Taiwan has not yet declared independence as a separate nation from China).Which means non-capital cities will have to bequeath their names to Chinese destroyers. The latest destroyer is named Qiqihar, which is a non-capital city in in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A few ships have been named after major cities, such as the Shenzen, a Type 051 destroyer."Chinese destroyers and frigates should be named after big and medium Chinese cities, according to the naval vessels naming regulation," Global Times said. "This means naming of destroyers does not necessarily have to use provincial capitals, as it was a non-binding tradition."
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| Is It Cheaper To Buy A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback From Britain? Posted: 20 May 2019 01:03 PM PDT  This immaculate 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback is estimated to sell at British auction for $95K. It's hard not to whisper Steve McQueen's name when presented with a Ford Mustang 390 GT Fastback, even if it isn't a 1968 model. The American classifieds may provide evidence of eye-watering sums being traded for healthy Fastback specimens, but it's not always the case in Great Britain.
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| Ford to cut 7,000 jobs, 10% of global staff Posted: 20 May 2019 07:21 AM PDT  Ford plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce, as part of a reorganization as it revamps its vehicle offerings, the company said Monday. The reorganization will involve some layoffs and reassignments and should be complete by the end of August, a Ford spokeswoman said. Ford has been phasing out most sedan models in the United States as more consumers have opted for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
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| Bernie Sanders Launches a Deeply Misguided Attack on Charter Schools Posted: 20 May 2019 01:27 PM PDT  One of the great benefits of living life well outside the Beltway is that it's easy to take my eyes off the swamp, look to the states surrounding me, and see places where politics actually function as they're supposed to. I can even, occasionally, see those issues on which Democrats and Republicans might work together, united in common purpose, for the common good.Exhibit A: the charter-school movement. It's granted an invaluable degree of educational choice to families who long lacked the flexibility that prosperous suburban and upper-middle-class parents take for granted, and its extraordinary growth is a bipartisan achievement.There are times when it seems like everyone likes charter schools. The Trump Department of Education has issued hundreds of millions of dollars in charter-school grants. The Obama administration invested in charter schools. As Newark mayor, Democrat Cory Booker "bet big" on charter schools, and athletes and celebrities have personally invested in their success, often with outstanding results.Of course, not every charter school is good. Not every charter school is a success. But if there has ever existed anything like a broad point of left–right agreement in the American education debate, it's that charters represent a vital piece of the educational puzzle, an option that can and does transform students' lives.So why did Bernie Sanders announce last week that, if elected president, he would declare war on charter schools? His poorly named Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education (after all, urban, nonwhite students are among the prime beneficiaries of charter-school choice) would "ban for-profit charter schools," and "halt the use of public funds to underwrite new charter schools" until they complied with a series of federal conditions that would change their governance and facilitate their unionization (many charter-school faculties aren't unionized). In so doing, it would remove many of the distinctive qualities that helped make charter schools truly competitive with conventional public schools.It's tempting to explain the plan as little more than coalition politics, Sanders's effort to cozy up to the teachers' unions at the expense of student welfare. But that's unfair. I know enough people in the greater Bernie orbit to know that they sincerely believe a unionized public-school monopoly in K–12 education represents the best chance for new generations of kids. They believe that, properly funded and led, such a system would facilitate academic achievement and social cohesion.But here's the core problem: The interest in a collective solution to a series of individual educational challenges understates the reality that choice, by itself, is a vital value in a child's education. And the power of choice cannot be measured by test scores alone, even though the best charter schools yield spectacular results.I think about my own parenting experience. Like many millions of American families who take their power over their kids' education for granted, we enjoy multiple privileges a poor family doesn't. We have the job flexibility to live in any number of places, and we can afford housing in a good school district. If we lived in a county or town with a struggling school district, we could afford modest private-school tuition. And back when we lived in Center City, Philadelphia — at a time when we couldn't easily move and couldn't afford private school — we were fortunate enough to win a lottery to put our oldest child in an outstanding charter elementary school.With each of the choices we've made for our kids' education over the years, test scores were among the least important factors we considered. We wanted to know the culture of the school and the character of the teachers. We wondered about athletic opportunities. We were concerned with peer and parental influence. The school was going to play a part in raising our children, and a slight percentage change in a math or language test score was meaningless compared to our concern with the growth and development of their personal characters.The Sanders approach wouldn't take away choice from parents like us. We could still find private schools. We could still move to better school districts. We could still home school. Charter schools exist in the suburbs and in rural America, but they haven't had the same impact there that they've had in American cities. We'd barely feel the effects of the Sanders policy; its brunt would instead be borne by America's most vulnerable families. Sanders's plan tells those families that he knows what's best for them, that his partners in the unions know how to build the schools they need better than they do.This is anything but equity. It's anything but fairness. One of the enduring challenges of American public life is the sad reality that children face fundamentally different educational opportunities through the accident of birth. The existence of choice itself is a luxury. It's a thing of immense value, and many millions of parents can't even comprehend a life where they don't have the true, final word over their child's education.I'm writing these words as I fly to give a series of speeches in Texas sponsored by the Texas Charter Schools Association and the National Review Institute. I've been writing and speaking about school choice for much of my adult life. I've been litigating on its behalf for just as long. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the desire to choose what's best for one's own child crosses racial, religious, and partisan lines. It's a broadly felt human need.Bernie Sanders makes his intentions crystal clear. In his plan, he writes, "We do not need two schools systems; we need to invest in our public schools system." This is exactly wrong. One size does not fit all. Sanders looks at parents and declares that he knows best. Parents should look back at him and respond, quite simply: I know my child, and I want to shape his destiny. Your collective solutions cannot meet my family's needs.Editor's Note: A previous version of this article contained a reference to the success of LeBron James's I Promise school in Akron, Ohio, as an example of celebrity support for charter schools. The I Promise School is not a charter but a nontraditional public school that operates within the Akron public-school system. We regret the error.
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| GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks slide as worries about Huawei fallout mount Posted: 20 May 2019 01:37 PM PDT ![GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks slide as worries about Huawei fallout mount]( "GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks slide as worries about Huawei fallout mount") Global equity markets fell on Monday as a U.S. crackdown on China's Huawei Technologies led chipmaker stocks in Europe and on Wall Street to slide on fears of a widening trade war, while the dollar was steady before fresh insight on the Federal Reserve's interest rates policies this week. China accused the United States of harboring "extravagant expectations" for a trade deal, underlining the gulf between the two sides as the U.S. action last week against Huawei began to hit the global tech sector. Alphabet Inc's Google suspended some business with Huawei, Reuters reported, and Lumentum Holdings Inc, a major supplier of Apple Inc's face ID technology, said it had discontinued all shipments to Huawei.
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| Iran 'threat' has diminished, says US defense secretary Posted: 21 May 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Patrick Shanahan credits US show of forceRemarks appear to be a sign tension is easing This handout picture released by the US navy shows an F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the flight deck of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. Photograph: MC3 Jeff Sherman/AFP/Getty Images The acting US defence secretary has claimed that the alleged threat from Iran has receded as the result of an American show of force in the Middle East. "We've put on hold the potential for attacks on Americans," Patrick Shanahan told reporters before briefing Congress on the situation in the Persian Gulf and the military deployments that the US said were a response to a danger of imminent attack. The arrival of an aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships was recently accelerated, and B-52 bombers were sent to Qatar. Tensions increased with mysterious sabotage attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf, and drone strikes on Saudi oil installations, claimed by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Nerves in the region were put even more on edge on Sunday by Donald Trump's tweeted threat that any conflict with the US would mean "the official end of Iran". The remarks from Shanahan appeared to be a sign that tensions were easing. Asked what he meant by saying that the threat was "on hold", the acting defence secretary said: "There haven't been any attacks on Americans. I would consider that a hold. "That doesn't mean that the threats that we've previously identified have gone away," Shanahan added. "Our prudent response, I think, has given the Iranians time to recalculate. I think our response was a measure of our will and our resolve that we will protect our people and our interests in the region." The Trump administration did not make public the intelligence it claimed showed an imminent Iranian threat to the US in the Middle East. An investigation is under way into the sabotage attacks on four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last week. The UK and Norway are helping the US with the inquiry, which was expected to report on Monday, but has been delayed for reasons that have not made clear. One of the tankers attacked was Norwegian-flagged. The secretary of state, spoke on Tuesday with the country's foreign minister, Ine Søreide, about the incident. A European diplomat said: "We are very careful not to make attribution for recent attacks unless we are certain." Officials briefing the media have also claimed that overhead photography showed missiles being loaded on to dhows on the Iranian coast, and chatter about potential attacks on US facilities and personnel in Iraq. The state department withdrew non-essential staff from its embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil. It was unclear what Iran's aim was supposed to be in loading missiles on to dhows. Experts said that it would be very difficult to fire a missile from a small boat and if the intelligence reports were true, it was more likely they were being shipped to the Houthi movement in Yemen, or moved for safekeeping. Later reports suggested that the Iranian military deployments and discussion of targets could have been contingency measures for a possible response in the event of a US attack on Iran, seen as increasingly likely in recent months with the apparent ascendancy of John Bolton, the ultra-hawk national security adviser, in foreign policymaking. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Joseph Dunford, were expected to brief the House and Senate on Iran on Tuesday afternoon. Bolton was not on the list of speakers. "My take is that the Iranians saw an attack coming and they prepared to strike back and that caused alarm in the White House and particularly with the president," said Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council, who now teaches at Georgetown University. "The line sold to Trump by Bolton and Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman is he could strike Iran, show US dominance, and not risk anything. Iran showed it was preparing to strike back. Trump is smart enough to know that a war would be devastating, and not just for his political interests." Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that the current defusing of tensions showed that the US response had worked. "The entire point behind America's military repositioning in the region was to dampen the prospects of escalation," Taleblu said. "And while it may have worked for now, Washington will need to make sure its message of resolve is similarly interpreted in the future. The Iranians have a habit of continually testing for weaknesses and deficiencies."
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| Marlen Ochoa-Lopez murder: Baby boy cut from mother's womb opens eyes for the first time Posted: 21 May 2019 07:21 AM PDT  A baby boy, cut from his mother's womb after her murder last month, opened his eyes for the first time on Tuesday as he fights for his life in a Chicago hospital.The mother, 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, was nine months pregnant when she was killed last month. Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter Desiree Figueroa have been arrested as suspects.According to police, the pair had lured Ochoa-Lopez to their home under the pretext of offering her baby clothes.After strangling Ochoa-Lopez, the two allegedly cut the unborn baby out of her womb. Police said that they believe the elder Figuaroa had hoped to raise the child as her own after the recent death of her own son. Both Figueroas have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Clarissa's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, has also been arrested and charged with concealing a homicide.The baby, who was removed from the womb almost two months premature, has been fighting for his life ever since.Sunday however, a picture emerged of the little boy in the arms of his father, Yovany Lopez, apparently taken shortly after he had opened his eyes for the first time, CNN reported."We were just praying and praying and he opened his eyes, and his dad said, 'Oh my God, he opened his eyes!'" Cecilia Garcia, a student pastor who is assisting the family and is the one who took the photo, told CNN.Garcia, said she was horrified when she first heard about the killing, but believes that the country has united in support of the family."She's evoked the whole nation of people, pouring their love out for this family," Garcia said in reference to Marlen. "He's a single dad now, and we're praying this baby makes it."
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| Dog sitter caught walking around naked in customer's home Posted: 21 May 2019 10:50 AM PDT  A dog sitter has been caught on camera walking around her client's house naked. Rosie Brown hired Casey Brengle to look after her two dogs, Penny and Daisy, while she went to a wedding for four days.
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| With shelters at 'max' California border agents drop migrants at bus station Posted: 20 May 2019 08:08 PM PDT  U.S. Border Patrol in the El Centro area of southern California said it began to drop migrants off at San Bernardino's Greyhound Station on Wednesday after it ran out of room to hold them. "It was a decision that was made because they couldn't take any more families and obviously we cannot keep them in custody for much longer because we are at capacity," said Miguel Garcia, acting assistant chief patrol agent. Apprehensions of migrant families in California's El Centro sector rose 383 percent in the seven months through April from a year earlier as record numbers of mainly Central Americans crossed the border, Border Patrol data shows.
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| The Latest: UN rejects Russian attempt to meet on Ukraine Posted: 20 May 2019 02:28 PM PDT  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The latest on Ukrainian politics (all times local):
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| PHOTOS: Gun attack at bar in Brazil Posted: 20 May 2019 06:03 AM PDT ![PHOTOS: Gun attack at bar in Brazil]( "PHOTOS: Gun attack at bar in Brazil") A gang of gunmen reportedly attacked a bar in the capital of Brazil's northern Pará state Sunday afternoon, and authorities said 11 people were killed.
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| Could One of America's Allies Take Down the F-35 Program? Posted: 21 May 2019 01:01 AM PDT  What does America need to save its troubled F-35 stealth fighter?Turkey, that's what.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently warned that the multinational F-35 program, of which Turkey is a member, would fail if Turkey were excluded. Turkey is facing sanctions, including being dropped from the F-35 program if it goes ahead with purchasing Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, which has raised Washington's fears that F-35 secrets might be leaked to Russia. The U.S. has stopped shipping equipment to Turkey for that nation's planned purchase of 100 F-35s, while the first two aircraft officially delivered to Turkey are still in the United States.For its part, Ankara is adamant that it has a right to purchase both American stealth fighters and Russian anti-aircraft missiles, despite the fact that the S-400 is one of the most likely Russian weapons to be used against the F-35. "We were surely not going to remain silent against our right to self-defense being disregarded and attempts to hit us where it hurts," Erdogan said at a Turkish defense trade show. "This is the kind of process that is behind the S-400 agreement we reached with Russia.""Nowadays, we are being subject to a similar injustice - or rather an imposition - on the F-35s ... Let me be frank: An F-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is bound to collapse completely."
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| 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback Restoration Is A Work Of Art Posted: 21 May 2019 03:38 AM PDT  The Ford Mustang is an American automotive icon known the world over. Ford's pony car is the four-wheeled embodiment of the American dream. Petty's Garage is well-known for its work on modern Mustangs, enhancing their performance and producing limited edition special models.
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| Google and Android system start to cut ties with Huawei Posted: 20 May 2019 02:27 AM PDT  US internet giant Google, whose Android mobile operating system powers most of the world's smartphones, said it was beginning to cut ties with China's Huawei, which Washington considers a national security threat. The move could have dramatic implications for Huawei smartphone users, as the telecoms giant will no longer have access to Google's proprietary services -- which include the Gmail and Google Maps apps -- a source close to the matter told AFP. Reports also emerged Monday that several US chipmakers providing vital hardware for Huawei's smartphones have stopped supplying the Chinese firm.
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| Iran Accelerates Production of Enriched Uranium as Tensions Rise Posted: 20 May 2019 01:06 PM PDT  The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying that Iran had increased its output of 3.67% enriched uranium as of Monday, and that the United Nations nuclear watchdog had been informed. Crucially, Iran hasn't increased the level to which it is enriching beyond the agreed limit. Tehran has already announced it stopped complying with a 300-kilogram cap on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water imposed by the multilateral accord, and said it would abandon limits on uranium enrichment unless Europe throws it an economic lifeline within 60 days, setting an ultimatum for the survival of the landmark agreement.
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| Alabama man in custody after allegedly killing police officer, injuring two others Posted: 20 May 2019 07:22 AM PDT  Grady Wayne Wilkes, 29, was arrested Monday following a massive manhunt that involved multiple police agencies and aircrafts.
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| Boeing dismissed chance of 'bird strike' that may have caused second 737 Max crash Posted: 21 May 2019 08:25 AM PDT  * US investigators believe bird collision may have triggered crash * Ethiopian Airlines crash occurred months after Lion Air disasterTwo local boys examine debris gathered by workers during the continuing recovery efforts at the crash site in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, in March. Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty ImagesBoeing officials, shortly after the first fatal crash of its 737 Max jet, played down the likelihood that a bird strike could impair the plane's sensor equipment. Now investigators are exploring whether such a situation led to a second deadly accident just five months later.According to the Wall Street Journal, US aviation authorities believe a bird collision may have set off the sequence of events that led to the downing of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max in March, in which 157 people died.American Airlines pilots called a meeting with Boeing last November after a Lion Air Max crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew.The Journal reviewed a recording of the meeting in which Mike Sinnett, Boeing's vice-president of product strategy, raised and dismissed the possibility that a bird strike could trigger a second crash by affecting the Max's controversial sensor system.Sinnett told the pilots he was "absolutely" confident that heightened pilot awareness following the Lion Air disaster had further reduced the chances of another accident.Ethiopian Airlines has been facing criticism of its pilots' conduct in the wake of the crash. At a House hearing into the accidents last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator, Daniel Elwell, said pilot error contributed to the crash.In both crashes, the Max's anti-stall system, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (Mcas), appears to have forced the planes' noses down shortly after takeoff, leaving the pilots struggling unsuccessfully to right the jets before they crashed.The Mcas system may have been reacting to faulty information from sensors that could have been damaged by a bird strike.Ethiopian Airlines has rejected accusations that its pilots contributed to the crash. Officials have said Boeing failed to provide cockpit alerts that would have warned the pilots about sensor errors.Last week, the airline said its pilots followed procedures set out by the FAA and Boeing but "none of the expected warnings appeared in the cockpit, which deprived the pilots of necessary and timely information".Nine countries and the US justice department are currently investigating the crashes.
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| Eiffel Tower climber in custody after daring ascent Posted: 20 May 2019 05:19 PM PDT ![Eiffel Tower climber in custody after daring ascent]( "Eiffel Tower climber in custody after daring ascent") Rescuers successfully talked down a man who scaled the upper heights of the Eiffel Tower on Monday, forcing the monument's evacuation, and handed him over to police. Television channels ran live shots as rescuers perched on the 324-metre (1,063-foot) tower's wrought-iron struts, just below the highest viewing platform, tried to persuade the unknown man to give himself up. The lattice tower, named after its designer and builder Gustave Eiffel, is one of the world's most recognizable landmarks.
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| Prosecutors: Agent called migrants savages before hitting 1 Posted: 20 May 2019 04:26 PM PDT  PHOENIX (AP) — A Border Patrol agent in Arizona sent texts calling immigrants "savages" and "subhuman" the month before using his patrol vehicle to knock over a Guatemalan man who was trying to flee, prosecutors say.
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| Brit Hume praises Pete Buttigieg: The most impressive candidate in the Democratic field Posted: 20 May 2019 03:33 PM PDT  It will be interesting to see how Pete Buttigieg stacks up against Joe Biden on the debate stage, says Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume.
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| Abortion ban: Georgia prosecutors refuse to enforce 'heartbeat' law Posted: 21 May 2019 03:37 AM PDT  District lawyers in Georgia have announced they will not prosecute women for getting an abortion after the US state effectively banned the procedure.Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed the controversial "heartbeat" abortion ban into law earlier in the month – giving the southern state one of the most restrictive laws in the US.The legislation, which has provoked outrage among women's rights groups, bans abortion once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo. This can be as early as six weeks – at which point most women do not yet know they are pregnant. The bill imposes jail sentences for women found guilty of aborting or attempting to abort their pregnancies, with the potential for life imprisonment and the death penalty. It is not scheduled to come into effect until 1 January and is expected to face challenges in the courts – with it potentially being postponed. But anti-abortion activists hope challenges will lead to the US Supreme Court reversing Roe vs Wade – the landmark Supreme Court decision which legalised abortion nationwide in 1973 – especially with new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sitting on the court.The Supreme Court has previously ruled that states cannot ban abortion before a foetus is viable – about 23 to 25 weeks.District prosecutors for Georgia's four most populous counties – Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb – have said they would not, or could not, prosecute women under the controversial new law."As District Attorney with charging discretion, I will not prosecute individuals pursuant to HB 481 [the heartbeat bill] given its ambiguity and constitutional concerns," DeKalb County district attorney Sherry Boston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."As a woman and mother, I am concerned about the passage and attempted passage of laws such as this one in Georgia, Alabama, and other states."She added: "There is no language outlined in HB 481 explicitly prohibiting a district attorney from bringing criminal charges against anyone and everyone involved in obtaining and performing what is otherwise currently a legal medical procedure".According to the publication, the technical language of the bill means that district attorneys could potentially seek a murder charge against someone who breaches the heartbeat law."As a matter of law (as opposed to politics) this office will not be prosecuting any women under the new law as long as I'm district attorney," Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter said. He said he did not think it would be possible to prosecute a woman for either murder or unlawful abortion if she got an abortion after six weeks.John Melvin, acting District Attorney of Cobb County, echoed this position, saying women could "absolutely not" be prosecuted under the unlawful abortion statute.Fulton County district attorney Paul Howard "has no intention of ever prosecuting a woman under this new law", a spokesperson said, adding that he also would not prosecute abortion providers.Georgia's new bill does include exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or in situations where the health of a mother is in danger."Planned Parenthood will be suing the State of Georgia. We will fight this terrible bill because this is about our patients' lives," Dr Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said.Georgia's bill comes after Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a controversial abortion bill into law last week that is the most restrictive abortion bill in the US.Under the law, doctors would face 10 years in prison for attempting to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for carrying out the procedure. The abortion ban, which has been branded a "death sentence for women", would even criminalise performing abortions in cases of rape and incest. Ms Ivey said the new law might be "unenforceable" due to Roe v Wade but said the new law was passed with the aim of challenging that decision.Alabama state lawmakers compare abortions in America to the Holocaust and other modern genocides in the legislation – spurring Jewish activists and abortion rights groups to rebuke the bill as "deeply offensive."Alabama's new bill comes as politicians in several other states propose legislation to restrict abortion – with some 16 other states looking at new measures.More than a dozen other states have passed or are considering versions of Georgia's law. Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have also approved bans on abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected. On Friday, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill banning abortions after eight weeks.Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia vowed to sue on the day the governor signed Georgia's heartbeat bill. It has also fuelled many in the entertainment industry to threaten to boycott Georgia."We're putting lawmakers on notice: Your votes are far outside the mainstream, and we will now spend our time and energy launching a campaign to replace you," Staci Fox, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said at the time.A federal judge blocked a heartbeat bill in Kentucky which was scheduled to come into effect instantly as it could be unconstitutional, while Mississippi passed a six-week abortion law in March that is not due to come into force until July and is also facing challenges.Ohio passed a similarly restrictive law in 2016 which was vetoed by the governor.
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| Austrian cabinet fractures as Kurz ousts far-right minister Posted: 20 May 2019 02:58 PM PDT  Kurz, a conservative, ended his coalition with the nationalist Freedom Party (FPO) on Saturday after leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was caught in the apparent sting operation offering to fix state contracts for a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece. The fight took a new turn when Kurz told reporters he would propose to Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen removing Interior Minister Herbert Kickl from office after Kickl refused to go voluntarily, as Strache did.
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| Is Iran Testing Trump With Little Attacks in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf? Posted: 20 May 2019 02:51 AM PDT  Anne SpeckhardBAGHDAD—The sound of an explosion echoed through the Green Zone on Sunday night around 9:00 p.m., a reminder that this most secure part of the Iraqi capital is not, in fact, all that safe. The projectile appears to have been aimed at the United States embassy and, after the blast, embassy sirens went off, accompanied by repeated warnings blaring on loudspeakers instructing everyone to take immediate cover. Within the hour the missile was reported to have been fired from the Amana bridge in Baghdad, missing its likely intended target and landing in an empty field near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with no casualties reported.What the Last War With Iran Tells Us About the Next OneBut for a brief and highly fraught moment alarms were going off in Washington, as well, where the much-publicized threat of Iranian "proxy" attacks on U.S. interests and personnel, and the American response positioning bombers and aircraft carriers, have conjured the specter of a new Middle Eastern war. One breaking news service breathlessly reported National Security Adviser John Bolton "just seen arriving at the White House amid rocket attack possibly aimed at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq."President Trump, meanwhile, tweeted: "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!" It is not clear if he was responding to the rocket, a Katyusha that might have been fired by any number of players in Iraq, or to threatening rhetoric by some Iranian officials, or both.In any case, non-essential American personnel at the embassy had already been ordered to depart days earlier, many moving to posts in nearby countries to continue their work, and the U.S. embassy was already expecting a possible attack.Our team of researchers for the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) landed in Baghdad on May 14, 2019, the day before the U.S. State Department issued the security alert to the "non-essentials" in Baghdad and Erbil, recommending they "depart Iraq by commercial transportation as soon as possible, avoid U.S. facilities within Iraq, monitor local media for updates, review personal security plans, remain aware of surroundings." An earlier security alert on May 12 advised all U.S. citizens of heightened tensions in Iraq and the requirement to remain vigilant. It recommended not traveling to Iraq, avoiding places known as U.S. citizen gathering points, keeping a low profile and, once again, being aware of your surroundings.For those of use who have been visiting Iraq since 2006, this seems at once familiar and strange. Is the threat greater now than it was when the U.S. embassy was housed in Saddam's former palace, and frequently underwent mortar fire? In those days none of the 5,000 embassy personnel were ordered home. Despite President Trump saying he does not want war, does this action signal that something more than just mortar fire is about to come? A former senior diplomat who served in Iraq following the 2003 invasion warned that if the U.S. or Israel had decided to launch air strikes on Iran, emptying the embassy might be a smart move. Iran could strike back at a close and convenient target—the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad—and its ballistic missiles would be much more dangerous and difficult to withstand than mortars or Katyushas.According to a senior official in the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Services (CTS) the rocket Sunday night was launched by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah. If it came on Iranian orders, the lone, ineffectual projectile may have been intended as a pin-prick provocation testing reactions without triggering full-fledged war. Other recent incidents—a drone attack on a Saudi pipeline; minor explosions on Saudi and other oil tankers—could fall into the same category.Iraq, liberated from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, has come under increasing Iranian influence ever since, and the Iran-backed militias played a key role fighting the so-called Islamic State after the national army virtually imploded in 2014. They have since become a major element in the Iraqi defense apparatus, even though some 5,000 U.S. military personnel are on the ground training and working with other elements of the Iraqi military.The threat inside Iraq to U.S. personnel was revealed in part to Iraqi leaders during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's surprise visit here on May 7. The secretary is reported to have told Iraqi officials that U.S. intelligence detected that Iranian-backed militias moving missiles near bases housing American forces. Reuters reported that, according to a senior Iraqi official privy to the substance of the talks, Pompeo asked the Iraqi government to rein in the Shiite militias. Pompeo also expressed U.S. concern about these militias' increased presence and influence in Iraq and warned that the U.S. would use force to tackle the security threats if necessary, without first consulting Baghdad. Iraq's pro-Iranian military factions have long been a concern for U.S. personnel deployed in the region. Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a radical Shiite militia in Iraq has, for example, long been cooperating with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a group that was just declared by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The newly appointed IRGC leader, Hossein Salami, replied that his people are proud to be called terrorists by President Trump while also threatening the U.S. and Israel.The Iraqi militia, Nujaba, also was added by the U.S. State Department to the U.S. list of global terrorist organizations on March 7 this year and its leader Akram Kaabi was sanctioned. Iran's Qasem Soleimani is the Mastermind Preparing Proxy Armies for War With AmericaNujaba has been demanding that U.S. troops leave Iraq for quite some time. On May 12, Nujaba's leaders proclaimed, "Confrontation with the United States will only stop once it is eliminated from the region, along with the Zionist entity," while also stating that Iraqi resistance factions are ready to target U.S. interests in Iraq.The Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, which our source says was behind the Sunday night rocket attack, warned in February 2018 that it might engage in armed confrontation with US forces in Iraq at any moment. According to one Iraqi source, the Kataib Hezbollah is one of the militias that recently placed missiles near U.S. military bases. The New York Times reported the the U.S. government was picking up an increase in conversations between the Revolutionary Guards and foreign militias discussing attacks on American troops and diplomats in Iraq.The New York Times also reported that American officials cited intelligence from aerial photographs of fully assembled missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf as cause for the U.S. administration to escalate its warnings about a threat from Iran. This created concerns that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would fire them at United States naval ships or American commercial ships.An Iraqi source confirmed on May 18 that ExxonMobil was evacuating its personnel of 30 to 50 employees from Basra, Iraq, and that the Bahrain embassy had also evacuated its employees from both Iraq and Iran. And U.S. embassies disseminated a warning from the Federal Aviation Agency that U.S. commercial airliners flying over the waters of the Persian Gulf risk being misidentified and by implication shot down amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran.A potential conflict much larger than Iranian-backed Shia militias throwing mortar fire at the now fortress-like U.S. Embassy appears to be brewing amid credible intelligence coupled with heated anti-American rhetoric. Yet, security threats to U.S. personnel serving in Iraq are nothing out of the ordinary and date back to the 2003 U.S. invasion. At the height of its activities, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had thousands of personnel, including contractors. They regularly suffered all sorts of threats from IED attacks when they ventured out on the road, RPG fire when they used helicopters, snipers when they were out in public view and intermittent but regular mortar fire that rained down on the temporary trailers that served as housing near the old Saddam palace where they worked. One mortar penetrated a window to the bathroom of the Deputy U.S. Ambassador's office, situated inside the palace, destroying the brick wall around the window. It was later bricked up completely. The walkway from the trailers to the palace was mortared so often and so hard that it was nicknamed "death alley" by embassy personnel serving there.While embassy personnel received danger and hardship pay, none were ordered home during those years, and danger was considered a part of the assignment. IED's and mortars occasionally killed embassy personnel, but that did not stop the mission. At present, the U.S. Embassy Baghdad is housed in a complex on a closed street that only badged officials can enter. The grounds are heavily walled walled and difficult to enter and inside, the buildings appear strongly built to withstand assault. In Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, which also fell under the non-essential personnel evacuation order, a restaurant nearby was attacked by a car bomb in 2015, killing three non-Americans. But, while less robustly built, the consulate also is behind a concrete walled-off security space.U.S. Embassy diplomatic personnel posted in both Baghdad and Erbil infrequently leave their fortresses and when they do travel around Iraq, their security requirements require using armored cars, wearing bullet proof vests and flack helmets and traveling with armed security guards, sometimes with chase and lead cars in a convoy.Likewise, U.S. Embassy Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil are not family postings—diplomatic personnel serve for one or two years, leaving their family members behind. The new embassy building, not far from the old one, was planned during the time of frequent attacks and was undoubtedly built to withstand mortar storms. Long and short-range ballistic missiles however constitute a whole different threat and it's not publicly known if the new embassy has bomb-hardened resistant bunkers to protect embassy personnel.Whether U.S. embassy non-essential personnel will return to post anytime soon remains to be seen, and given the dangers such personnel have faced in the past and the fortress in which they currently serve, why they were really ordered home is also still an unanswered question. With ships coming to the region and troops readying for potential travel, serious troubles may well be on the horizon.While the saber rattling on both sides continues, Baghdad has also made clear that it doesn't want to become the battlefield.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| These impossibly sleek Pixel 4 renders look so much better than the iPhone 11 Posted: 21 May 2019 05:17 AM PDT  The Pixel smartphone series began its life as a shameful iPhone copycat. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since the original Pixel and Pixel XL phones were designed by Google in partnership with HTC. Once a market leader, HTC had already fallen quite far at that point, and it had just released its own iPhone 6 copycat in hopes of boosting sales. Google's first-generation Pixel phones were based on the design of that iPhone 6 ripoff, which was called the HTC One A9s. The Pixel was basically an Android-powered iPhone 6, while the Pixel XL was an Android-powered iPhone 6 Plus. The only real difference in designs was the big glass panel the Pixel phones had on the back.Google's current-generation Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL aren't quite as blatant when it comes to copying Apple. Of course, the larger Pixel 3 XL still takes inspiration from Apple's latest iPhone models and includes a big notch at the top of the display. If everything we've heard so far pans out, however, Google's Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones will be nothing like Apple's iPhone XS or the next-generation iPhone 11. Instead, they'll take design cues from Samsung's Galaxy S10 series -- and if the results end up looking anything like the renders you're about to see in this post, there's a very good chance that Google's 2019 Pixel phones will look even better than the iPhone 11 series handsets Apple is planning to release later this year.Thanks to months worth of leaks and rumors, we know almost exactly what Apple's iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max, and iPhone 11R will look like when they're announced this coming September. In a nutshell, the iPhone 11 is going to be a copy of the iPhone XS, but it'll have a huge square camera bump on the back that houses Apple's new triple-lens camera system. Here's what it'll look like when Apple unveils the iPhone 11 series in a few months:It doesn't look bad, not by a long shot, but it also isn't anything special. For the second time, Apple plans to use almost the same exact smartphone design for three straight years instead of two, just like the company did with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7.In contrast to the iPhone 11 series phones set to debut in September, rumors suggest Google's next-generation Pixel 4 lineup will feature a complete design overhaul. Google is said to have ditched the massive, unsightly bezels on its Pixel 3 phones in favor of an all-screen design with hole-punch cameras just like the Galaxy S10 from Samsung. In fact, the Pixel 4 will supposedly have one hole-punch selfie camera like the Galaxy S10 and S10e, while the larger Pixel 4 XL will apparently have dual selfie cameras in an oblong cutout, just like the Galaxy S10+.Graphic designer Jonas Daehnert, who goes by @PhoneDesigner on Twitter, has seen the same rumors as the rest of us. Unlike the rest of us, however, Daehnert has the chops to turn those rumors into reality by mocking up lifelike smartphone designs. He recently turned his attention to the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, and the results are absolutely stunning. Take a look:And here's his vision of the Pixel 4 XL in white:There may end up being a few things here and there that are off the mark. For example, the latest rumor suggests that Google's new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones won't have any buttons on them at all. But for the most part, these renders are likely a very good indication of what we can expect from the real Pixel 4 series phones once Google releases them this coming October.
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| Mountain region of Slovakia named best destination in Europe 2019: Lonely Planet Posted: 20 May 2019 02:16 PM PDT  A wild, rugged, mountainous region of Slovakia dotted with plunging waterfalls and lakes and hiking trails has been named the top European destination of 2019 by the travel experts at Lonely Planet.
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| If You Crash a Mercedes-Benz in the Future, It Could Deploy a Robot to Warn Other Drivers Posted: 21 May 2019 05:30 AM PDT  This cute Roomba-like robot is designed to deploy from the back of a crashed vehicle to warn approaching traffic of danger.
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| The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting Posted: 20 May 2019 09:35 AM PDT ![The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting]( "The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting") AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — The Latest on shootings of police officers in Auburn, Alabama (all times local):
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| Boeing Had Big Plans to Build Its Very Own F-35 (And Flopped) Posted: 20 May 2019 02:59 PM PDT  The fundamental issue with the Joint Strike Fighter was that is was always an overambitious program to replace multiple specialized types with one aircraft in the hope that it could perform every role equally well. The result is predictably a jack-of-all-trades but master of none.On October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin's X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing's X-32.(This first appeared in late 2015.)The win secured Lockheed's future as the manufacturer for all of America's fifth-generation fighter platforms. But Lockheed's resultant F-35 has suffered myriad delay, technical glitches, unrecoverable technical shortfalls and massive cost overruns. Already the largest ever defense program with an estimated price tag of $233 billion in 2001 for a total of 2,866 aircraft, the F-35 program is now estimated to cost more than $391 billion for 2,457 jets, according to the Government Accountability Office.Moreover, while the short-takeoff vertical landing F-35B was originally projected to achieve initial operational capability with the U.S. Marines in 2010, it only reached that milestone in 2015—five years late. Meanwhile, the conventional F-35A and the F-35C carrier variant were both slated to achieve initial operational capability with Block 3 software in 2012—but that software block is now scheduled to be delivered for operational testing in 2017 at the earliest.
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| How Democrats can win the abortion war: Talk about Roe's restrictions as well as rights Posted: 20 May 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Republicans are lying when they paint us as the party of death and infanticide. Fight back by championing both the right to abortion and limits on it.
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| Trump tells Pennsylvania voters that trade war has helped economy Posted: 20 May 2019 06:53 PM PDT  Although Trump does not launch his re-election bid officially until next month, his appearance at a raucous rally in an airport hangar in northeastern Pennsylvania, using Air Force One as a backdrop, had the hallmarks of a campaign event. "Sleepy Joe said that he's running to 'save the world.' ... He's going to save every country but ours," Trump said. Trump has waged a high-stakes trade dispute with China, and tariffs imposed by both countries on a range of goods have raised fears of a global economic slowdown.
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| US lawmakers clash on Iran intelligence before briefing Posted: 20 May 2019 04:04 PM PDT  US lawmakers clashed Monday over intelligence on Iran, with an ally of President Donald Trump accusing Tehran of provocations that could draw a military response, ahead of a classified briefing on the tensions. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, will head Tuesday to the US Capitol to apprise lawmakers from both chambers on the latest developments, an administration official said. Senior officials already briefed a key group of eight lawmakers on Thursday but Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, called for a wider meeting with all elected lawmakers.
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| Six video games for the 'Game of Thrones' fan Posted: 20 May 2019 09:22 AM PDT  Can't wait for HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel in 2021 or thereabouts? Cast your eye over these video game alternatives, from two of the better official tie-ins to board game "For the King," empire builder "Endless Legend," and action adventures "Dragon Age: Inquisition" and "Skyrim."
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| Walmart Offering Tires at Huge Savings for Memorial Day Posted: 20 May 2019 11:37 AM PDT  Act quickly to get savings up to 40 percent off.
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| Hospital that treated baby cut from womb investigated Posted: 21 May 2019 03:02 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — The agency that licenses and inspects health care facilities in Illinois has started an investigation of a suburban Chicago hospital where doctors treated a baby brought in by a woman claiming to be his mother, a spokeswoman for the agency said Tuesday. The woman was charged weeks later with killing the actual mother and cutting the child from her womb.
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| You'll never be able to drive this rare 2019 Range Rover Sport — but I did Posted: 20 May 2019 09:35 AM PDT  Land Rover's Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid has luxury and performance but its range may not justify the price.
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| Scouted: The Sleek, Black Stainless Steel Version of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 Is on Sale for $50 Posted: 20 May 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Right now, you can add the sleek, black stainless steel edition of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 to your kitchen while it's on sale for $50. That's a savings of 50% on a gadget that could easily replace half of the other things you use in your kitchen on a regular basis.What's so great about this Instant Pot? I mean, just look at it. It's like the original Instant Pot's cool teen brother. It's like the original Instant Pot got a makeover montage in an early-Aughts romcom. You get everything the Instant Pot has to offer, from the pressure cooker to the rice cooker to the steamer. It's still the six-in-one gadget you love, just with a black stainless steel outside, and it's on sale. If the original super shiny Instant Pot clashed with your aesthetic, this is the version for you. Want one that makes a bit more of a statement? You can get a red stainless steel version for $60.Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| China's Tariff List Advertises Its Trade War Weakness Posted: 20 May 2019 10:31 AM PDT  Unless Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his advisors are completely incompetent, there's only one way to interpret Beijing's list of U.S. products that will be slapped with retaliatory tariffs on June 1 if the trade war with the United States isn't somehow deescalated pronto: China increasingly realizes that it's playing a losing hand in the trade war, and its counter-moves have been made mainly for public consumption in China.After all, the ostensible purpose of retaliation is inflicting enough pain on the target to change behavior. Therefore, you'd think that most of the new China tariffs would hit products that generate major earnings either for the entire U.S. economy or for key political constituencies (as with the previous import taxes on soybeans). But according to a compilation by Quartz.com, few of the goods scheduled by China to take the biggest (25 percent) tariff hits merit these definitions. Indeed, many aren't even made in the United States anymore, or certainly not in meaningful quantities, much less exported to any measurable extent to China.If you doubt that such items are found on China's list, then check out the following American-made products that Quartz contends will get hit by those steepest Chinese tariffs, and the dollar value of their exports to the People's Republic in 2018. They are ostensibly judged to contain the greatest economic and/or political shock potential.Women's swimsuits: $2,542.Miscellaneous knitted or crocheted fabrics: $2,893.Men and boys' underwear: $229,455.Men and boys' wool/animal hair trousers: $49,629.Men and boys' overcoats: $4,900.
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| WRAPUP 2-Southwest Airlines mechanics dispute ends just as American's heats up Posted: 21 May 2019 10:46 AM PDT ![WRAPUP 2-Southwest Airlines mechanics dispute ends just as American's heats up]( "WRAPUP 2-Southwest Airlines mechanics dispute ends just as American's heats up") Southwest Airlines Co's mechanics union said on Tuesday its members had overwhelmingly voted to ratify a tentative contract agreement with the airline, ending seven years of labor negotiations fraught with legal disputes and flight disruptions. The agreement, which brought to a close one of the most disruptive labor disputes to hit a top-four U.S. airline in more than a decade, came a day after rival U.S. carrier American Airlines Group Inc said it was filing a labor-related lawsuit against its mechanics. Mechanics at both American and Southwest have complained that the airlines are moving to outsource maintenance work that has traditionally been done in-house.
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| PHOTOS: Vivid Sydney 2019 Posted: 20 May 2019 01:34 PM PDT ![PHOTOS: Vivid Sydney 2019]( "PHOTOS: Vivid Sydney 2019") An illuminated trail of almost 300 lit lanterns of endangered species will glow every night at the zoo during Vivid Sydney which runs from May 24 throughout Sydney with hundreds of lit buildings and exhibits which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
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| Trump tax returns: Judge orders accounting firm to hand over president's financial records Posted: 20 May 2019 02:25 PM PDT  A federal judge on Monday denied President Donald Trump's bid to quash a House subpoena for years of his financial records from his accounting firm and stayed his order seven days to give the president's lawyers time to appeal.The ruling handed an initial defeat to Trump's vow to defy subpoenas by House Democrats and came in one of the first courtroom challenges to a series of lawmakers' investigative demands for his bank records, accounting statements and tax returns.District Judge Amit Mehta of Washington refused to block the records request to Mazars USA from the House Oversight and Reform Committee while litigation continues. Attorneys for Mr Trump and associated businesses filed suit 22 April, arguing that Congress is not entitled to investigate his past personal financial dealings for potential corruption."So long as Congress investigates on a subject matter on which 'legislation could be had,' Congress acts as contemplated by Article I of the Constitution," Judge Mehta said in a 41-page opinion. Mr Mehta ruled that the committee's assertions that Trump's records will help it consider strengthening ethics and disclosure laws and enforce a constitutional ban on acceptance of foreign gifts by a president were "facially valid," saying, "It it is not for the court to question whether the Committee's actions are truly motivated by political considerations."In court, Douglas Letter, general counsel of the House of Representatives, has charged that the lawsuit would dismiss Congress' constitutional oversight powers as "a nuisance . . . getting in (Trump's) way while he's trying to run the country."Meanwhile, Trump's private attorney Jay Sekulow said when the lawsuit was filed that the president's team "will not allow Congressional Presidential harassment to go unanswered."An appeal would test decades of legal precedent that have upheld Congress' right to investigate, arguing the novel theory that a president's past dealings are irrelevant to the legislative branch's fundamental job of writing bills. The legal battle comes as House Democrats seek to probe Trump's finances, his campaign and allegations he sought to obstruct justice in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.Donald Trump, his three eldest children and companies raised similar arguments in a bid to block a subpoena by the House Financial Services Committee for Mr Trump's bank records issued to Deutsche Bank and Capital One, which a federal judge in Manhattan will hear Wednesday.The White House is also resisting House demands for former White House counsel Donald McGahn's records and testimony pertaining to federal investigations of Trump, as well as by testimony by Mr Mueller himself over his recently concluded report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election.Democrats have said the lawsuits are long-shot bids to delay the unearthing of politically damaging information about Mr Trump until after the 2020 election, and to obscure from the public ongoing conflicts of interest by officials charged with executing the nation's laws.President Trump's attorneys say Democrats' true goal is not governance but political advantage, to expose the Trumps' "private financial information for the sake of exposure, with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the President."In the Mazars case, Judge Mehta cut down Mr Trump lawyers' arguments that the oversight committee's inquiry into whether Donald Trump misled his lenders by inflating his net worth violated the Constitution's separation of powers, by having Congress assume the Justice Department's powers to investigate "dubious and partisan" allegations of private conduct.Washington Post
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| Iraqi Shiite figures warn US-Iran war could 'burn' Iraq Posted: 20 May 2019 08:43 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Leading Iraqi Shiite figures warned Monday against attempts to pull their country into a war between the U.S. and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield yet again, just as it is on the path to recovery.
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| Ring doorbell video captures man kidnapping Texas girl, 8 Posted: 20 May 2019 07:50 AM PDT  The kidnapping was caught on Ring doorbell video, showing the man pull up and take Salem from her mother's arms.
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| U.S. eases curbs on Huawei; founder says clampdown underestimates Chinese firm Posted: 21 May 2019 03:49 PM PDT  The U.S. Commerce Department blocked Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from buying U.S. goods last week, a major escalation in the trade war between the world's two top economies, saying the firm was involved in activities contrary to national security. The two countries increased import tariffs on each other's goods over the past two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump said China had reneged on earlier commitments made during months of negotiations. On Monday, the Commerce Department granted Huawei a license to buy U.S. goods until Aug. 19 to maintain existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones, a move intended to give telecom operators that rely on Huawei time to make other arrangements.
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