| Mother accused of killing newborn sentenced to time served, gets to go home Posted: 13 Sep 2019 10:20 AM PDT  Brooke Skylar Richardson was sentenced to seven days after being convicted of gross abuse of a corpse. She had already served seven days in jail.
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| Every top Democrat can beat Trump. Their unique strategies will determine who gets that shot Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:43 PM PDT  Each of the five leading 2020 Democratic candidates can beat the president in a general election, according to the latest national match-up polls. But first, they will need to secure the party's nomination in a hotly contested primary season that started with more than two dozen hopefuls. They're each using very different tactics to do so.Those five candidates — Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg — joined each other on Thursday night for the third Democratic debates, along with five additional candidates currently polling beneath them: Cory Booker, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro.
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| Tomi Lahren: We Need Guns to ‘Defend Ourselves’ From Immigrants Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:31 AM PDT  Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren declared on Friday that Americans need guns in order to potentially fight off unlimited immigrants coming into the United States, adding that citizens need the ability to "defend ourselves" because "we don't know" who is coming into the country.Appearing on Fox Business Network's Varney and Co., the conservative firebrand reacted to Democrats' calls for stricter gun control in the wake of several mass shootings. Specifically, she took issue with Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke's call for mandatory buybacks of assault-style weapons like the AR-15 and AK-47."I would also remind those that might not have a use for a gun or don't feel they have a use for a gun, many Americans do," Lahren told Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney. "Many Americans don't live in the suburbs, who are far away from where police can respond, and so that's why that self-defense is so important."And then she brought the threat of "open borders" immigration into the mix."And all the things the Democrats want to put in place—my goodness, if they want to open our borders, you better be sure the people in Texas, the people in South Dakota, the people in the middle of this country, we are going to be armed and ready," she exclaimed. "Because we have to have a means to defend ourselves from—who knows who's coming in? That's the thing, we don't know, and we have to be able to protect ourselves."The right-wing provocateur's insistence that guns are needed to stave off migrants heading into the U.S. comes barely a month after the El Paso mass shooting that left 22 dead. The suspected shooter admitted that he was targeting "Mexicans" and apparently posted a racist manifesto in which he decried the "Hispanic invasion" of America.This also isn't the first time that Lahren has fear-mongered over supposed "open borders" immigration. Earlier this year, she devoted a monologue to warning Fox viewers that an extremely high border wall was needed because immigrants are "shifty and adaptable."After her remarks faced intense backlash that included Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro personally calling her out, Lahren took to Twitter to "apologize" for how her comments "came out.""Not what I meant & I apologize for the way it came out. I simply mean without a secure border we don't know who is coming into our nation & those who wish to do us harm will exploit it," she wrote Friday afternoon. "I'm NOT advocating for violence against any person, regardless of race or immigration status."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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| Will Venezuela Become a Russian Missile Base? Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:23 AM PDT  And how would Trump respond to that?
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| Dominican Republic Announces New Safety Measures After Deaths of 11 American Tourists Posted: 12 Sep 2019 09:38 PM PDT  'American tourists should feel safe and secure,' an official said
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| Liberty students protest in wake of reports about Falwell Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:39 PM PDT  Students at Liberty University in Virginia gathered Friday to protest in the wake of news reports containing allegations that school president Jerry Falwell Jr. improperly benefited from the institution and disparaged students in emails. Students joined together at the private evangelical university known for being an influential hub in conservative politics and held up signs calling for accountability and an investigation. Elizabeth Brooks, a junior majoring in politics and policy, told The Associated Press by phone that a recent Politico Magazine story as well as a Reuters report prompted the protest at the school in Lynchburg.
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| Event cancellations mount in protest-wracked Hong Kong Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:48 AM PDT  One of Hong Kong's most prestigious sporting tournaments on Friday became the latest victim of the huge protests convulsing the city as a growing roster of events and entertainment acts pull out of the financial hub. Organisers of the WTA Hong Kong Open women's tennis tournament said they were postponing next month's competition because of the "present situation" after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. "After extensive discussions with our key stakeholders, we conclude that a smooth running of the tournament can be better assured at a later time," the Hong Kong Tennis Association said in a statement.
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| Scandal-hit UAW agrees to contract extensions with Ford, FCA Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:06 AM PDT  DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union agreed to temporary contract extensions with Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Friday as it grappled with a federal corruption probe that has implicated its president. UAW President Gary Jones and his predecessor were two of the unnamed officials singled out in a federal criminal complaint released Thursday detailing alleged corruption and embezzlement by union leaders, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. The complaint detailed charges against Jones' former second in command and successor as head of the UAW's "Region 5," Vance Pearson.
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| Yang unveils plan to give $1,000 a month from campaign to 10 families — which may violate election laws Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:26 PM PDT  A Federal Election Commission rule prohibits the use of campaign money for "personal use."
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| AG Barr has received draft report on FISA abuse allegations Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:04 PM PDT  DOJ Inspector General Horowitz sent draft report to attorney general to review; Catherine Herridge reports.
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| People are already getting arrested at Area 51, and of course they're YouTubers Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:39 PM PDT  With only a week to go until the widely memed Area 51 raid, two hopefuls were already arrested for trying to storm the Air Force base. Unsurprisingly, they're both vloggers.Eager to "see them aliens" -- as the original Facebook event put it -- Dutch YouTubers Ties Granzier, 20, and Govert Sweep, 21, ignored the "Do Not Enter" signs and entered anyway. According to a video posted by the Nye County Sheriff's Office, the two were caught when the deputies responded to a report of "foreign national trespassers" at Area 51, which is a National Security Site. Granzier and Sweep's car was parked at a gate approximately three miles into the property."Both individuals told deputies that they speak, write, and read English," the statement continued. "They said that they saw the 'No Trespassing' signs at the Mercury highway entrance to the Nevada National Security Site, but they wanted to look at the facility. Granzier advised deputies that he is a YouTuber."Their car was packed with a laptop, cameras, and a drone. After Granzier and Sweep consented to a search, deputies found footage of Area 51. Both YouTubers were arrested and booked into the Nye County jail and were charged with trespassing. If caught trespassing on a military base, violators can receive a $500 fine, a prison sentence up to six months, or both. SEE ALSO: Storm Area 51 creator calls AlienStock 'a possible humanitarian disaster'. But it's still going ahead.In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Granzier wrote: "It has always been a dream to be here, now to crazy recordings of crazy adventures and ... area 51 ..."He appears to have removed any mention of Area 51 from the caption, but his supports are flooding his comments with FreeTie. > View this post on Instagram> > the grand mother of canyon en de hoover dam toch wel altijd al een droom om hier te zijn nu door naar gekke opnames van gekke avontuurtjs> > A post shared by TIES (@ties) on Sep 10, 2019 at 9:12am PDTAlthough more than two million Facebook users responded to the event, the U.S. government warned against actually attempting to storm the military base on Sept. 20. "The U.S. Air Force is aware of the Facebook post," an Air Force spokesperson told Insider. "Any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous." Ahead of the estimated thousands of eager alien enthusiasts flooding the area, the Nevada Department of Transportation removed the iconic "Extraterrestrial Highway" sign, according to a Fox 5 report on Thursday.Instead of risking the prison sentence or worse, consider going to the corresponding music festival, Alienstock. The Facebook event's original creator backed out and called it a "potential humanitarian disaster," but the festival is still reported to proceed as planned.The moral of this story: Don't storm Area 51, even if you're a YouTuber.
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| Israel's F-35s Are the Uncontested Kings of the Middle East's Skies Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:00 PM PDT  Israel's enemies can't even see them coming.
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| Pope's visit to Thailand will also be a family reunion Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:27 AM PDT  Catholics in Thailand are celebrating the official announcement of the first papal visit in 35 years, but one 77-year-old nun in a far-flung corner of the country has a connection that makes the occasion particularly special. Pope Francis is due to arrive in Thailand on Nov. 20 for a four-day visit, the first leg of an Asia trip that will also take him to Japan, Catholic officials announced Friday. Sister Ana Rosa, originally from Buenos Aires in Argentina, came to Thailand in 1966 and has worked as a missionary in several parts of the country.
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| US-trained bomb-sniffing dogs sent to Jordan are living in horrible conditions and dying from improper care Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:38 AM PDT  More than 10 have died in recent years from potentially preventable health issues. Others were found to be living in "disturbing" conditions.
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| Cubans fear return to 90s austerity amid cuts Posted: 12 Sep 2019 02:23 PM PDT  Havana awoke Thursday to long lines at gas stations and public transportation stops after President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned fellow Cubans to expect fuel shortages and blackouts that he blamed on US sanctions. Terrified!" said Katia Morfa, 36, as she took her seven-year-old daughter to school. It's inevitable that we think of the dark and very sad days of the Special Period," Morfa told AFP.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Cadillac CT4 Posted: 12 Sep 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| 5 things we learned from the 2020 Democratic debate in Houston Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The leading Democratic presidential candidates appeared on stage together for the first time for Thursday night's debate — and the field was feisty.
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| After Trump fires Bolton, Rand Paul and Liz Cheney go to war over it Posted: 12 Sep 2019 12:34 PM PDT  In the wake of the national security adviser's firing, two Republicans trade barbs over the president's foreign policy.
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| Charles Payne calls out 'irony' of 2020 Dems' racism claims Posted: 13 Sep 2019 04:39 AM PDT  Fox Business host Charles Payne said Friday there is "irony" in the way 2020 Democratic presidential candidates talk about systemic racism in America, as many of them also call President Trump a racist.
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| Vietnam Fights China Moves to Hinder Offshore Energy Exploration Posted: 12 Sep 2019 10:45 PM PDT ![Vietnam Fights China Moves to Hinder Offshore Energy Exploration]( "Vietnam Fights China Moves to Hinder Offshore Energy Exploration") (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam is pushing back harder against China's efforts to isolate it diplomatically on a territorial dispute in an energy-rich part of the South China Sea.The foreign ministry in Hanoi on Thursday called on China to immediately order a state-owned survey vessel along with several Coast Guard escorts to leave Vietnamese-claimed waters in its exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles from its coast. It also said a multi-billion dollar oil and gas project being carried out by state-owned Vietnam Oil & Gas Group and Exxon Mobil Corp. in block 118 of the waters would continue unimpeded."Any activities that hamper Vietnam's oil and gas exploration in Vietnamese water are violations of international laws," Le Thi Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for Vietnam's foreign ministry, told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.The Chinese-owned Haiyang Dizhi 8 has intermittently zigzagged across a Vietnam-demarcated block of water to study the seabed in an active drilling block operated by Russia's state-owned Rosneft Oil PJSC since early July. China claims most of the South China Sea with a map of a nine-dash line stretching far from the mainland, and has sought to negotiate one-on-one deals with countries in the region on sharing energy and fish resources.The latest Vietnamese statements came after China scored diplomatic wins with other South China Sea claimants. On Monday, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed with his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah on the establishment of a bilateral consultation mechanism to "properly handle" disputes in the South China Sea.China also appears to be making progress on a joint exploration deal with the Philippines, with President Rodrigo Duterte saying earlier this week he would ignore an international court ruling affirming his country's territorial claims in order to advance energy cooperation with Beijing. Duterte said the deal would entail a 60-40 revenue-sharing scheme favoring the Philippines."We're seeing a full court press with China to push its nine-dash line, press foreign oil companies and pressure countries into joint development deals," said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia who has written about Southeast Asia security issues for more than two decades..To contact the reporters on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net;Peter Martin in Beijing at pmartin138@bloomberg.net;Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at pheijmans1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Study finds the universe might be 2 billion years younger Posted: 12 Sep 2019 12:11 PM PDT  The universe is looking younger every day, it seems. New calculations suggest the universe could be a couple billion years younger than scientists now estimate, and even younger than suggested by two other calculations published this year that trimmed hundreds of millions of years from the age of the cosmos. The huge swings in scientists' estimates — even this new calculation could be off by billions of years — reflect different approaches to the tricky problem of figuring the universe's real age.
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| US couple 'abandon 11-year-old daughter' and move to Canada Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:22 AM PDT  Indiana prosecutors have charged a couple with abandoning their adopted daughter in 2013 and moving to Canada, renting an apartment in Lafayette for the then-11-year-old girl but otherwise leaving her to fend for herself.Prosecutors in Tippecanoe County, where Lafayette is located, have filed neglect charges against 45-year-old Kristine Elizabeth Barnett and 43-year-old Michael Barnett.
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| Church sex abuse 'far-reaching' in Missouri: attorney general Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:01 PM PDT  The attorney general in the US state of Missouri on Friday accused the Catholic Church of turning a blind eye to church sex abuse and referred a dozen former clergymen for criminal prosecution. "Sexual abuse of minors by members of Missouri's four Roman Catholic dioceses has been a far-reaching and sustained scandal," said the Midwestern state's top prosecutor, Eric Schmitt, after a year-long investigation. "For decades, faced with credible reports of abuse, the church refused to acknowledge the victims and instead focused their efforts on protecting priests," Schmitt told a news conference.
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| One of the photographers behind the iconic Tiananmen Square image has died. He once said he wrapped the film up and stashed it in the toilet to hide it from Chinese security. Posted: 12 Sep 2019 11:35 PM PDT  Cole was one of four photographers who captured the iconic 1989 standoff which became a defining image of the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre.
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| 'When I listened tonight, I felt like it was like eating leftovers': Marianne Williamson on debates Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:58 PM PDT  "When I listened tonight, I felt like it was like eating leftovers," she told a group at a Beverly Hills, Calif. party.
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| In a sign of what’s to come, Trump trolls Democrats as they debate Posted: 13 Sep 2019 08:44 AM PDT  An airplane above Thursday's Democratic debate venue trailed a banner: "Socialism will kill Houston's economy! Vote Trump 2020." The plane was hired by the Trump campaign in a likely preview of how the president will treat his opponent: as a dangerous leftist.
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| Sanders Distances His Democratic Socialism From Venezuela’s ‘Vicious Tyrant’ Maduro Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:12 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said during Thursday night's primary debate that his brand of democratic socialism has nothing to do with Venezuela's socialism, calling Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro a "vicious tyrant.""Anybody that does what Maduro does is a vicious tyrant," Sanders said in response to ABC moderator Jorge Ramos. "What we need now is international and regional cooperation for free elections in Venezuela so that the people of that country can make, can create their own future.""In terms of democratic socialism, to equate what goes on in Venezuela with what I believe is extremely unfair," the Vermont Independent said. "I agree with [what] goes on in Canada and Scandinavia, guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on earth not to provide paid family and medical leave.""You got three people in America owning more wealth than the bottom half of this country. You got a handful of billionaires controlling what goes on in Wall Street, the insurance companies and in the media. Maybe, just maybe, what we should be doing is creating an economy that works for all of us, not 1 percent," Sanders said. "That's my understanding of democratic socialism."Obama administration Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro was more blunt in his take."I'll call Maduro a dictator. Because he is a dictator," Castro said from the debate state.Venezuela has been in the throes of a political and humanitarian crisis which has resulted in clashes between opposition forces and Maduro's regime. Earlier this year, clashes broke out in the streets of the capital, Caracas, and armored military trucks of troops loyal to Maduro have been caught on video in May plowing into crowds of opposition protesters.The U.S. has levied heavy sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to cripple Maduro's regime. The Trump administration has also pledged nearly $56 million in additional aid to partners in the region working to aid the Venezuelan people, many of whom are starving.
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| 'Gun violence in America is not inevitable': CEOs of Uber, Twitter, and 143 other major companies signed a letter urging the Senate to take action on gun control Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:07 AM PDT  "We need our lawmakers to support common sense gun laws that could prevent tragedies," the letter said.
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| The Chinese Navy Put on a Massive Display of Live Fire Drills for This One Reason Posted: 12 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  To scare America.
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| Zimbabwe's Grace Mugabe regains prominence for husband Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:49 PM PDT  The controversy swirling around the burial of Zimbabwe's founding leader, Robert Mugabe, centers on his widow, Grace, who has remained dramatically cloaked behind a heavy black veil as she succeeded in getting the country's president to scrap his plans for the ex-leader to be buried in a simple plot alongside other national heroes and instead build a grand new mausoleum for her husband. Known as a strong-willed woman with political ambitions, Grace Mugabe has made the most of her role as the grieving widow — and some in Zimbabwe think she is using the issue to reassert herself as a force to be reckoned with in the country. When the 54-year-old Grace objected to the funeral plans for Mugabe, who died last week at 95, President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to her palatial 25-bedroom residence in Harare's posh Borrowdale suburb to consult her about how the interment should proceed.
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| Catholic priest jailed for abusing altar boy 27 years after fleeing to Morocco Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:35 PM PDT  A former Roman Catholic priest who fled to Morocco after it was discovered he had sexually abused a child in the US has been sentenced to 30 years in prison almost three decades on from his crime.Former Air Force chaplain and colonel Arthur Perrault was found guilty of sexually abusing an altar boy in New Mexico in the early 1990s.
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| US Navy sails ship close to islands claimed by China Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:24 AM PDT  The US Navy said that one of its destroyers had sailed close to the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Friday, asserting international freedom of navigation rights in the contested waters. The USS Wayne E. Meyer guided-missile destroyer passed through the area of the Paracels east of Vietnam and South of China's Hainan Island without requesting permission from Beijing, or from Hanoi or Taipei, which also claim ownership of the archipelago. The move could add to the tensions between the US and China, now bogged down in a grinding trade war, as Beijing pushes to expand its military reach globally.
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| Father of Colorado State student in blackface says his daughter is 'not a racist' Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:41 PM PDT  Les Kaplan said his daughter, Leana, has been fired from her job, received death threats since an Instagram post of her wearing blackface went viral.
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| Tax Cut 2.0 Looks Different to Trump Than to GOP Lawmakers Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:32 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- One of President Donald Trump's favorite political promises is a second tax cut. But lawmakers in Congress -- who would need to develop and pass another reduction -- are more focused on making their first tax cut permanent.Trump on Thursday promised House Republicans another middle-class tax cut that he said would be "very substantial" and "very, very inspirational," without giving details. Republican leaders say they support the idea, but they haven't detailed what a plan would look like. Trump has said his proposal will be released next year, in time to be a campaign issue ahead of the 2020 election."We will gather together the best ideas from the Hill and the administration and the outside groups to provide a significant new round of middle-class tax relief," White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters Friday. "This is not a recession measure at all. The economy is very strong."Congressional tax writers, led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and the House Ways and Means panel's top Republican, Kevin Brady, are focused on a different Tax Cut 2.0: Preserving the individual rate reductions from their 2017 law that are set to expire in 2025."The first and most important step is we can make the cuts for families and small business permanent," Brady told reporters Friday at a House GOP policy retreat in Baltimore. He was referring to the lower rates for individuals and pass-through companies that were made temporary in the GOP's signature tax law to avoid running afoul of budget rules.Because of the projected $1 trillion-plus deficit impact of the GOP's tax code overhaul, only the corporate rate cuts and some of the structural changes were made permanent. Even before the temporary individual tax cuts run out, some breaks for companies purchasing new equipment will expire in 2022, and those for the beer and wine industry will expire at the end of this year.Congress -- with a Republican-led Senate and a Democratic-led House -- would have to pass another law to extend those cuts.Campaign PromiseBrady led an effort to make all the temporary tax cuts permanent last year when the Republicans still had the House majority. However, his Republican colleagues in the Senate, who only had a slim majority, didn't bring up the matter on fears it wouldn't get the 60 votes required to pass.That inaction suggests that more piecemeal extensions of provisions that expire at different times are more likely, rather than preserving the whole law with one vote. Lawmakers, regardless of which party controls Congress, have often voted to extend tax breaks just before they're scheduled to disappear.Trump made a similar promise to cut middle-class taxes before last year's midterm election as House Republicans struggled to counter Democratic talking points that the 2017 overhaul mostly benefited the wealthy. The president's proposal caught Republicans off guard, and nothing ever advanced as Brady tried to cast it as part of a unified GOP plan to extend the 2017 cuts.For now, an additional tax cut would be nearly impossible as Republicans and Democrats remain diametrically opposed, said Adam Michel, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. With the 2020 election likely to deliver a still-divided government, further tax cuts are unlikely unless the economy takes a serious turn for the worse, he said."But if we actually entered a recession, the conversation would be very different," Michel said.(Updates with Kudlow comments in the third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net;Erik Wasson in Baltimore at ewasson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 2020 presidential debates: Joe Biden baffles with answer to question about slavery reparations Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:18 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden was asked about slavery reparations during Thursday's 2020 presidential debate, and his answer left some viewers confused.
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| Obama administration officials called Elizabeth Warren ‘sanctimonious’ and a ‘condescending narcissist’ Posted: 12 Sep 2019 06:07 PM PDT  Some former Obama economic policy staffers still describe Warren as "a self-serving grandstander who cast them as villains," Politico reported.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Wave the American Flag, but Is It Too Late? Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:48 AM PDT  To state the obvious, everyone paying attention here in the States loves the Hong Kongers. Truly. I think we see our best selves in them. And the Hong Kongers waving American flags still see something in us, something that they want to be.In fact, that's what's bothering me. But we'll get to that in a minute.Have you heard Hong Kong's new anthem? Perhaps it is a national anthem in the making. Don't tell some of your more squeamish conservatives, but Hong Kongers — innovative though they are — are sticking to the old standbys when trying to rouse fellow feeling; the anthem includes prominent mentions of "blood" and "soil." Martyrs for freedom tend to make it into anthems. Due process not so much, though that is what they are fighting for.Last year 54 percent of foreign direct investment into China came through Hong Kong. Why? Because Hong Kong provides security and comfort. British and American firms have been doing business there longer than they have on the Mainland. English speakers are concentrated in Hong Kong. And the financial system there runs on principles similar to those in the U.K. and U.S.A., at least providing a level of comfort.Working with Hong Kong made the Chimerican economic model work so well; it's a testing ground. China has gotten used to collaborating with a territory that in law and commercial spirit was closer to the Anglosphere. I suppose, though, that as mainland China gets stronger, its relationship with Hong Kong was bound to be less "working with" Hong Kongers and more working them.We have a lot in common with Hong Kong. I recently learned that for the past decades, Hong Kong and the United States have been the two largest markets for Swiss luxury watches. That makes a lot of sense, when you consider that Hong Kong is where Mainlanders come to shop for luxury goods. Calvin Coolidge said that the business of America is business. And it's true as well for Hong Kong, which, like New York City, is a polity for high finance and the white-gloved shopkeepers who serve them.Actually, Coolidge would have been more correct if he were talking about modern-day Hong Kong. Half the seats on the Legislative Council, which helps run Hong Kong, along with the executive, are indirectly elected by "functional constituencies," these formalized special-interest groups, most of them coming directly out of the most important business sectors in Hong Kong: finance, logistics, tourism. Business interests can be coolly indifferent about liberty. Well-ordered liberty and a limited-government power is a great environment. But an unlimited government that loves business and is willing to subsidize it like crazy is sometimes more attractive to business. Resistance to that kind of government might mean giant protests that disrupt the shops, slow down tourism, and get reported in Switzerland as a giant threat to the sales of greater luxury items. Business interests like predictability. In recent years, the functional constituencies have been voting in a pattern that increasingly conflicts with and overrides those legislators directly elected by the people of Hong Kong. The direct election of all members of the Legislative Council by the people has been the most important issue in Hong Kong since about 2002.And I'm starting to worry. I see Hong Kongers out in the streets, protesting for their liberties against an impassive, grinding, inscrutable party regime in Beijing, a regime that is willing to openly put a million people into re-education camps. And yet that regime has kept most of the global corporate world rooting for it to get relief in a trade war with a free country, the United States, in which those global corporations make most of their money. I look at the American flags aloft in Hong Kong and I think about our best and brightest foreign-policy minds. They also want relief for China, and they seem to think the real threat to the liberal world order is in places like Hungary. They make resigned noises about Beijing. It's all so sad for the Hong Kongers, they imply. They give rather little thought to the possibility that determined and concentrated resistance — the desire to be ungovernable — actually makes a people ungovernable. These experts move back to their alarmist noises about Budapest, a national capital whose supposed "strongman" leader is so limited in geopolitical power, he pretty regularly has to convince his legislature to rewrite labor laws at the behest of a single German car manufacturer, and then watch the German press criticize him for imposing slavery on Hungarians.When Lord Acton said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," he was referring not only to those who wield absolute power, but to the intellectuals and historians whose judgment is corrupted by the sway of power. Is something like that already happening? It's ironic to recall that Acton was writing about the influence of the papacy. But in the 2010s, it is people in the papal court who praise Xi Jinping thought for providing China with a "positive national conscience."I'm worried that Hong Kongers have been deluding themselves the last 22 years. Or at least, not thinking too hard about the potential downsides of facilitating China's rise, while they do business and hope for the best. And to state the obvious, I'm worried everyone here in the United States has done the same. The Hong Kongers see something in us. And I see something of us in them. I see Hong Kongers wave American flags and I think it is a sign: We're next.
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| Ancient Handholding Skeletons Are Men but Italy Won’t Say Gay Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:45 AM PDT  Archeo ModenaROME—In 2009, the straight world swooned when archaeologists discovered two ancient skeletons from between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. holding hands in a grave in Modena, Italy. They were dubbed the "Lovers of Modena" and have become synonymous with heterosexual romance, their image now often used in Italy to symbolize undying love.When they were discovered, archeologists said the bones were in such a state of decay that the usual genetic-based methods used in confirming the biological sex of ancient remains was of no use. Still, one of the figures was slightly smaller than the other, so it was assumed they were male and female. The individuals did not die in situ—their hands were placed holding each other's by whoever buried them, most likely to represent a relationship between the two people. Eleven people were buried in the cemetery where they were found, all initially thought to be soldiers and victims of an ancient war, based on wounds consistent with battles. The consensus among anthropologists was that the presumed female hand-holder was the lover of one of the warriors.This week, scientists with the University of Bologna announced the "Lovers of Modena" were actually both biologically male, thanks to a revolutionary process they used to examine tooth enamel. A certain peptide that is present only in males was present in all 16 teeth extracted from both skeletons. The scientists also found that only one of the 11 individuals buried in the cemetery was female, and she wasn't holding anyone's hand. Then, suddenly, the hand-holders weren't lovers at all: Italian archaeologists insisted that surely they were brothers or cousins who died in battle. Archaeologist Federico Lugli, who led the Bologna study, conceded that while it was impossible to know if the two men were lovers, he highly doubted it. "In late-ancient times it is unlikely that homosexual love could be recognized so clearly by the people who prepared the burial," he told The Daily Beast by email. "Given that the two individuals have similar ages, they could be relatives, probably siblings or cousins."Homosexuality was well documented in Roman times. Emperor Nero married women to bear children, but he had sex with men for pleasure. He publicly married two men, Pythagoras and, years later, Sporo, who was castrated and made to wear a woman's gown during the ceremony, according to historical accounts by Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio, whose writings account for much of what we know about ancient Rome. The ancient Roman Empire legal tome Lex Scantinia sets out a series of regulations for men having sex with other men, including that freeborn Romans—that is to say those who were not slaves or war prisoners—could not take a passive role when having sex with a man. But by no means did it make same sex relationships illegal and it was quite common for noble Romans to have male lovers in addition to wives who fulfilled the traditional role of childbearing. In the case of the skeletons of the Lovers of Modena, it seems historians are not willing to concede that two individuals who were once thought to be romantically linked when they were presumed to be male and female are likely not now that their biological sex is the same. "The burial of two men hand in hand was certainly not a common practice in the late-ancient era," Lugli says. "We believe that this choice symbolizes a particular relationship between the two individuals, but we do not know the nature of it."There are plenty of examples of ancient figures buried in all manner of embrace—most of which have been positively identified through genetic sampling as male and female, but not all. The embracing skeletons found in Petrykiv village in western Ukraine are thought to be from a woman who committed suicide to be buried with her man, but the analysis was made based on jewelry and size. In 2015, a couple of 6,000-year-old spooning skeletons were found in Greece, though no one has any idea yet why they were in such a position. Their bones were identified as biologically male and female. Usually, when couples are found buried together, the first question is why they died at the same time and if one was sacrificed to be buried with the other. Now, thanks to the new dental enamel science, archaeologists can go back to other ancient lovers to find out more about who they were. "At present there are no other burials of this type," Lugli says of the two male hand-holders. "In the past several graves were found with pairs of individuals laid hand in hand, but in all cases it was a man and a woman. The link between the two individuals of the Modena burial, instead, remains a mystery." Or perhaps the evidence is right in front of them. 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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| U.S. fighter jets smashed an island ISIS was using 'like a hotel,' and troops found rockets and bombs stashed in caves Posted: 12 Sep 2019 11:06 AM PDT  On Sept. 10, US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles and F-35 Lightning II aircraft dropped 80,000 pounds of ordnance on 37 targets on Qanus Island in Iraq's Tigris River. Approximately 25 Islamic State fighters were killed in the operation, according to Sabah Al-Numaan, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service.
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| Texas capital of Austin approves first-in-the-nation funding for abortion transportation, lodging, child care Posted: 12 Sep 2019 06:27 PM PDT  Austin, Texas, has become the first city in the nation to approve funding for abortion access services such as transportation, advocates said.
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| Voters rank how much they trust 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to handle international crises and war Posted: 12 Sep 2019 08:35 AM PDT  Having foreign policy experience or time in uniform did not necessarily elevate 2020 Democratic candidates to the top of the list.
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| Teenager’s memory resets every two hours after being kicked in the head, meaning she wakes up thinking every day is 11 June Posted: 12 Sep 2019 02:21 AM PDT  A teenager wakes up every morning thinking it is 11 June as her memory "resets" every two hours after she was kicked in the head.Riley Horner, 16, has no recollection of the day she suffered a traumatic head injury after she was hit by a student crowdsurfing at a dance.
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