| 'Trey is a joke among us': Gowdy is a divisive addition to Trump's legal team Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:08 AM PDT  The president's decision to bulk up his legal team with former Rep. Trey Gowdy amid a widening impeachment inquiry is drawing criticism from one of his high-profile supporters.
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| PHOTOS: California wildfires threaten homes in Los Angeles Posted: 11 Oct 2019 06:28 AM PDT  The Saddleridge fire flares up near a firefighter in Sylmar, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (Photo: Michael Owen Baker/AP) A wildfire fueled by Santa Ana winds has closed two freeways, is threatening homes and has forced evacuations around Los Angeles. Fire officials say the Saddleridge fire had consumed more than 4,600 acres by Friday morning. It broke out after 9 p.m.
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| WWII Lesson for Trump: Turkey Was in Bed With the Nazis Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:42 PM PDT  The Nazis melted gold dental fillings from concentration camp victims and found the best price for it was in neutral Turkey.At the same time, Turkey kept selling Germany the chromium ore it needed to build weapons and continue the war. But in harkening back to World War II in an effort to justify giving Turkey a green light to crush the Kurds, President Donald Trump ignored such damning truths. He instead said of the Kurds, "They didn't help us with Normandy."Never mind that present day Kurds have suffered thousands of casualties as our most effective allies against ISIS.Trump's Crazy Syria Move Will Wipe Out America's Allies and Set Up a Big ISIS ComebackNever mind that the Kurds of 1944 were scattered across a half dozen countries in the Middle East and were in no position to help even themselves.And never mind that Turkey started out World War II pledged to support the Allies only to suddenly switch when it looked like the Nazis would win."Turkey began World War II bound to Britain and France by the military alliance of October 1939, moved to non-belligerency in June 1940 after the fall of France, and adopted a policy of 'active neutrality' in the spring of 1941 after German occupation of the Balkans and the conclusion of a German-Turkish Treaty of Friendship in June 1941," notes a 1998 report on Holocaust restitution by the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services. The report cites a November 1943 assessment by German Munitions Minister Albert Speer "that much of Germany's manufacture of armaments would come to a halt within 10 months if Turkey's chromite exports to Germany were ended."In the meantime, the Germans sold ingots of absolute evil in Turkey."Two German banks with branches in Turkey, the Deutsche Bank and the Dresdner Bank, took advantage of the high prices on the Turkish free gold market to sell looted gold provided by the Reichsbank in return for foreign currency, particularly Swiss francs," the report says. "Some of the gold provided by the Reichsbank came from the infamous 'Melmer account' in which the SS deposited the gold jewelry, coins, bars, and dental fillings robbed from its victims at the killing centers and concentration camps." The Reichsbank was the central financial institution of Germany. Deutsche Bank would go on to become the lone financial institution in the 1990's willing to risk making huge loans to Donald Trump. Even as he condemns the Kurds for failing to do what they could not possibly have done at Normandy without a nation-state of their own, Trump says nothing about Deutsche Bank's Nazi past or about Turkey's continued sales of chromium ore to Germany until April 1944. Turkey finally returned to our side in August 1944—two months after Normandy—when it appeared that the Nazis were going to lose after all.U.S. forces that fought their way from Normandy into Germany recovered ledgers showing that Deutsche Bank had sold at least 998 kilograms of what the congressional report terms "gold looted from individual victims of Nazi persecution."The report adds, "Other German gold acquired by Turkey during and after the War included coins and ingots from the account of German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop at the Reichsbank, which had been stocked with gold looted from occupied Europe."At war's end, Turkey had done exactly nothing to assist the Allies besides no longer selling chromium to the Nazis. Turkey nonetheless argued that since it had been at war with Germany, it should not be expected to turn over whatever Nazi wealth it retained."Turkey, an 11th hour ally, returned no looted gold… and turned over no money," the report notes.Turkey also kept the money it made selling the Nazis chromium ore that kept the war going. The report says Turkey only stopped after President Franklin Roosevelt threatened Turkey with "economic war."Our current president made a similar threat this week, when he tweeted, "As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey."The major difference is that this threat seems to be having no effect.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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| Egypt discovers archaeological industrial zone in Luxor's 'Valley of the Monkeys' Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:29 AM PDT ![Egypt discovers archaeological industrial zone in Luxor's 'Valley of the Monkeys']( "Egypt discovers archaeological industrial zone in Luxor's 'Valley of the Monkeys'") Egypt on Thursday unveiled two archaeological discoveries in Luxor including an industrial zone at the southern city's West Valley, also known as the Valley of the Monkeys. Egyptian archaeologists have discovered 30 workshops in the industrial area, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement. The area is "composed of houses for storage and the cleaning of the funerary furniture with many potteries dated to Dynasty 18," the excavation team's leader, Zahi Hawass, said in the statement.
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| The Latest: Pritzker board member resigns amid senator probe Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:29 PM PDT  An appointee of Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has stepped down from the Illinois Tollway board after he was mentioned as part of a federal investigation into a state senator. Cesar Santoy resigned Friday at Pritzker's request after an unredacted search warrant released Friday indicated that authorities sought information involving Santoy and his architectural firm Studio Arq.
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| View Photos of 2021 Toyota Mirai Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| ‘I’m standing here in the middle of climate change’: How USDA fails farmers. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:57 PM PDT !['I'm standing here in the middle of climate change': How USDA fails farmers.]( "'I'm standing here in the middle of climate change': How USDA fails farmers.") Rick Oswald is standing on the doorstep of the white farmhouse he grew up in, but almost nothing is as it should be. "This house is 80 years old," Oswald says, stepping inside the darkened living room, which now smells faintly of mold. American farmers are reeling after extreme rains followed by a "bomb cyclone"—an explosive storm that brought high winds and severe blizzard conditions—ravaged the heartland, turning once productive fields into lakes, killing livestock and destroying grain stores.
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| Could Chelsea Clinton run for a New York House seat? Posted: 11 Oct 2019 12:58 PM PDT  "If you care about what's happening in the world, you have to care about running for and holding elected office," Chelsea Clinton said last year.
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| More hazing complaints hit Ohio University, leading to the suspension of the marching band, 3 sororities, a professional fraternity, and all social fraternities Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:21 PM PDT  After suspending all its social fraternities for hazing allegations, Ohio University received complaints against sororities and the marching band.
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| Kamala’s Fake Lover: Jacob Wohl Told Me It Was for a Spike TV Show Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:27 PM PDT  Inept conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman held another bizarre press conference in Burkman's driveway on Wednesday, this time to smear Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) with obviously fake allegations of an extramarital affair. And like past efforts to manufacture sexual claims against Trump foes—from Robert Mueller, to Pete Buttigieg, to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—the Harris charade fell apart quickly. The pair's bogus accuser—26-year-old Sean Newaldass—told The Daily Beast on Friday that he had no idea the event in which he alleged that he was in a romantic dalliance with the Senate was real. That's because Newaldass had met Wohl and Burkman by replying to an ad posted on Craigslist seeking a "male actor" for "performance art." When he showed up at Burkman's Virginia home and delivered his lines alleging an affair, Newaldass was under the belief that the press conference was actually an audition for a Spike TV show. He said he had no idea that Harris was a politician. Indeed, he assumed she was a fictional person. "I thought I was acting for a role in a movie, like a role in a TV series," Newaldass said. "I thought everything was staged, I'm thinking everyone is an actor." Jacob Wohl Faked Death Threats Against HimselfNewaldass insists that he believed that everyone at the event, from Wohl and Burkman, to the reporters asking questions, and a heckler dressed as a corncob, were all actors. Wohl promised Newaldass $500 to appear at the event—money that Newaldass said he still has yet to receive."I'm thinking this is going to be like The Office," Newaldass said. "The Office has super dry humor."Newaldass's allegations are shocking even by Wohl and Burkman's standards. The duo are known for hamfisted attempts to manufacture smears against political figures and for roping unwitting participants into their schemes. But they have never concocted a fake TV show in order to execute their plans before. As Newaldass realized Wednesday afternoon that the event was real, and that he was being treated as an outright liar on social media, he said he became afraid to leave his home."To me, it was the most hurt I've ever received from anything in the world," Newaldass said.Asked over Instagram direct message whether he had tricked Newaldass, Wohl responded with only a laughing-crying emoji. Burkman, a lawyer and lobbyist whose membership in the D.C. Bar was recently suspended over unpaid dues, didn't respond to a request for comment. Jacob Wohl's Bogus Warren Accuser Exaggerated His Military Service RecordThis isn't the first time one of Wohl and Burkman's fake accusers has turned on them. Their Mueller accuser, Carolyne Cass, failed to show up at a much-hyped press conference and later said Wohl and Burkman had made up the claims. College student Hunter Kelly, whose name Burkman and Wohl used to accuse Buttigieg of sexual assault, turned on the pair even faster than Cass, sending out mocking tweets about their press conference announcing his claims as it happened. Their missteps don't end there. Wohl is set to be arraigned on a felony charge for unlawful sale of securities later this month in California.Newaldass said he first entered Wohl's orbit by replying to the Craigslist ad, which makes no mention of politics, Burkman and Wohl, or Harris. Shortly after responding, according to Newaldass, he was contacted by Burkman and Wohl. The phone number that Newaldass said Wohl used to contact him is the same as a number Wohl has used in the past to text and make phones call to a reporter at The Daily Beast. On Tuesday night, Wohl and Burkman got Newaldass an Uber to Burkman's home in Rosslyn, Virginia. Newaldass said he was told the house belonged to Spike TV, a network that no longer exists after parent company Viacom changed the channel's name to the Paramount Network in 2018. "I was told, 'This is the audition for a TV show that's going to be on Spike,'" Newaldass said. "And I can be a personal trainer on the show, right?" Newaldass said Burkman and Wohl showed him the statement he would read on Wednesday , but described it as a "script." Newaldass found the claims in the statement bizarre, but considered that he had seen similarly strange things in other movies and TV shows."It's hard for me to hold my laughs back because I'm like, 'This is funny,'" Newaldass said. "What kind of comedy is this?" Burkman and Wohl later emailed him the "script," according to Newaldass, but not without their signature ineptness. Newaldass initially received a statement from the pair making a series of different sexual allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden—apparently because Wohl or Burkman mixed up their smears and attached the wrong file to the email. After he asked Wohl for clarification, they sent the Harris statement instead. Newaldass began to practice what he thought would be his lines.Newaldass arrived at Burkman's house around noon Wednesday, a few hours before the press conference. He said two other people—a singer and a purported minister who would perform a blessing at the press conference—were just as nervous as he was, preparing their lines as though they were getting ready for a performance. It wasn't clear to Newaldass whether the other two people were also actors or similarly oblivious to what was actually happening, but the "minister" later told The Daily Dot that he was not actually a reverend and appeared "confused" about the event.As hecklers and a handful of reporters gathered on Burkman's sidewalk, inside, Burkman and Wohl encouraged Newaldass by talking up his future Hollywood career. Newaldass said Wohl claimed to be a "director," and both men encouraged him to sign the statement making allegations against Harris—a signature they would later use as proof that he really believed the claims."They're encouraging me like, 'Man, you're going to be a star, you're a lead actor,'" Wohl said. Newaldass's press conference devolved into farce almost as soon as it began, with a mystery man delivering an apparently fake cease-and-desist notice that Burkman claimed was from Harris' campaign and Wohl threatening to spray hecklers with a garden hose. Newaldass read the statement to the crowd, convinced, he said, that Harris was a fictional character. "I'm completely oblivious to who this person is," Newaldass told The Daily Beast.While Newaldass was able to read from his statement, he became confused when asked to answer questions from the crowd, since he thought he needed to read lines. In an interview later with a Daily Dot reporter, Burkman and Wohl repeatedly cut in whenever the reporter asked Newaldass a question.Newaldass said he left the event with promises from Burkman and Wohl for future opportunities in Hollywood, and even the prospect of an entire TV series and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Newaldass began to think about how a role on a hit TV show would enable him to provide for his family financially."So that's what really sucked me in, thinking, 'Man, I can take care of everybody,'" Newaldass said.When he got home afterwards, though, Newaldass said he slowly began to realize he had been tricked. His Instagram page filled up with accusations that he was a liar. Newaldass began to doubt Wohl and Burkman's claim that they were just filming a show for Spike TV, and he became afraid to go outside."I was scared out of my mind," Newaldass said.Newaldass felt that he had embarrassed his family, and worried about what his family and friends would think of him. "The people that actually pay attention to this stuff are really judging me," Newaldass said. Newaldass insists that he had never heard of Harris before the press conference. And on that front, he isn't alone—12 percent of respondents in a Morning Consult poll this month said they had never heard of the senator. After researching Harris, Newaldass said he's now likely to vote for her presidential bid. Newaldass said the ruse especially stings because, like Harris, Newaldass is of mixed Indian and Caribbean ancestry. "That's what's hurtful, because I'm hurting my own ethnicity," Newaldass said. 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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| German suspect admits anti-Semitic attack, far-right motive Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  The German suspect in a deadly attack targeting a synagogue has admitted to the shooting rampage, confessing it was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, federal prosecutors said Friday amid government warnings of an "elevated" risk of further attacks. Stephan Balliet, 27, made a "very comprehensive" confession during an interrogation lasting several hours, said a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe. Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned meanwhile in a ZDF television interview that there was now an "elevated" threat of another anti-Semitic or terrorist attack saying around half of 24,000 suspected far-right extremists had an "affinity" with firearms and could engage in violence.
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| GM, UAW clash over how to reach deal to end lengthy strike Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:37 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union clashed late Thursday over how to end a 25-day strike that has cost the company over $1 billion, according to letters seen by Reuters. GM urged the UAW to agree to around-the-clock negotiations to try reach a deal, while the union insisted on dealing with five specific issues first before it responded to a broader proposal from the company. The UAW began strike action on Sept. 16, with the union's 48,000 members seeking higher pay, greater job security, a bigger share of the automaker's profit and protection of healthcare benefits.
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| US to send 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia as it withdraws from Syria Posted: 11 Oct 2019 09:54 AM PDT  The United States is to send an additional 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia "to assure and enhance" the country's security in the wake of the Aramco oil attacks, the Pentagon announced on Friday. Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said the US was sending two more Patriot missile batteries, one THAAD ballistic missile interception system, two fighter squadrons and one air expeditionary wing. It came as Iran claimed yesterday that one of its oil tankers had been struck with missiles off the coast of Saudi Arabia in an incident shrouded in mystery. The new deployment means that, since May, the US has sent an additional 14,000 members of the armed forces into the region. "Secretary Esper informed Saudi Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Muhammad bin Salman this morning of the additional troop deployment to assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia," the Pentagon said. "As we have stated, the United States does not seek conflict with the Iranian regime, but we will retain a robust military capability in the region that is ready to respond to any crisis and will defend US forces and interest in the region." The announcement came just days after Mr Trump declared all US troops would be pulled out of Syria, complaining about "ridiculous endless wars". Mr Trump had campaigned on a promise to get US servicemen out of the Middle East, putting America First, and the decision is unlikely to go down well with his base. Iranian state television said the explosion damaged two storerooms aboard the unnamed oil tanker Credit: twitter Iranian media claimed its vessel was hit on Friday morning about 60 miles from the Saudi port of Jeddah, causing it to leak oil into the Red Sea. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) said the ship was damaged but stable and denied reports it had been set ablaze. Tensions have been high since the Spring after an Iranian tanker suspected of carrying crude to Syria in violation of EU sanctions was seized off Gibraltar. In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guard impounded British-flagged tanker Stena Impero. Then last month Saudi's oil fields were hit by a large-scale missile and drone attack it blamed on Tehran, which saw production plummet and oil prices soar. Iran's foreign ministry claimed the vessel, which was first named as Sinopa before it was identified as the Sabiti, had been "targeted twice" but did not provide further details. On Friday morning, an unnamed source told Iran media the vessel was struck by missiles "probably" originating from Saudi Arabia, but Iran's national oil company later denied the claim. Pictures released on Iranian media later showed no discernible damage and no evidence of any fire. TankerTrackers, which monitors oil exports, told the Telegraph there was no independent evidence to suggest the vessel had been hit. Iranian tanker attack "Had she been struck, they wouldn't be sailing back as fast as they are sailing right now. She's moving at 10 knots an hour," they said. "(Iran is) fishing for higher prices, trying to remind the world that geopolitical risk is its way of controlling the oil market." Oil prices surged two per cent on the news. Publicly available ship tracking records show both ships are currently in the Red Sea. The Sinopa turned its transmitter on earlier this week for the first time in more than 50 days. The Sabiti, meanwhile, turned its tracker on early Friday after nearly 60 days of no transmissions. It is common for Iranian tankers to turn off automatic identification systems (AIS) to avoid detection - often to evade international sanctions or harassment from Saudi Arabia. TankerTrackers said this suggested the Sabiti, laden with one million barrels of oil may have been heading for Syria. However, it declared the Gulf as its destination. Thina Margrethe Saltvedt, an analyst at Nordea Markets, said it was not the particulars of the latest incident that were worrying traders but the fear of worse to come. "The risk premium is rising... not because the tanker per se contains enough oil to squeeze the market," she said. "But the risk that this incident will be retaliated or more attacks would come either in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Iraq."
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| New fresco with gladiators discovered in Pompeii Posted: 11 Oct 2019 11:36 AM PDT  Archeologists excavating what may have been an ancient Roman drinking den in the ruined city of Pompeii said Friday they have unearthed a well-preserved wall painting of gladiators in action, complete with realistically gory wounds. The 3ft by 4.5ft fresco is located in the Regio V site, in the northern section of Pompeii's archaeological park, in an area not currently accessible to visitors. "Very probably the fresco decorated a place used by gladiators, perhaps a watering hole .
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| 500 Years Later, MIT Proves That Da Vinci's Bridge Design Works Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:59 AM PDT  If accepted at the time, the design would have likely revolutionized architecture.
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| The obscure law that explains why Google backs climate deniers Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Company wants to curry favour with conservatives to protect its 'section 230' legal immunity * Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniersEric Schmidt being interviewing on Bloomberg in 2014. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty ImagesWhen Eric Schmidt was asked on a radio show in 2014 why Google was supporting an ultra-conservative climate-denying pressure group in Washington, the then chairman of the internet giant offered an unequivocal response: it was wrong and Google was not going to do it again."The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we're trying to not do that in the future," Schmidt told NPR. People who opposed or questioned climate science were making the world "a much worse place", he added, and Google "should not be aligned with such people".But five years later, Google still funds more than a dozen organisations that deny the climate crisis and oppose political action to try to solve it. Among them is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the group that launched the notorious Cooler Heads Coalition two decades ago, a group of conservative and libertarian pressure groups dedicated to dispelling the "myths" of global heating.The Guardian has collaborated with leading scientists and NGOs to expose, with exclusive data, investigations and analysis, the fossil fuel companies that are perpetuating the climate crisis – some of which have accelerated their extraction of coal, oil and gas even as the devastating impact on the planet and humanity was becoming clear. The investigation has involved more than 20 Guardian journalists working across the world for the past six months.The project focuses on what the companies have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions they are responsible for, since 1965. The analysis, undertaken by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute, calculates how much carbon is emitted throughout the supply chain, from extraction to use by consumers. Heede said: "The fact that consumers combust the fuels to carbon dioxide, water, heat and pollutants does not absolve the fossil fuel companies from responsibility for knowingly perpetuating the carbon era and accelerating the climate crisis toward the existential threat it has now become."One aim of the project is to move the focus of debate from individual responsibilities to power structures – so our reporters also examined the financial and lobbying structures that let fossil fuel firms keep growing, and discovered which elected politicians were voting for change. Another aim of the project is to press governments and corporations to close the gap between ambitious long-term promises and lacklustre short-term action. The UN says the coming decade is crucial if the world is to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global heating. Reining in our dependence on fossil fuels and dramatically accelerating the transition to renewable energy has never been more urgent.For Google, providing financial backing to groups such as CEI and the Cato Institute – staunch free marketeers – has nothing to do with climate science, and everything to do with its effort to curry favour with conservatives on its most pressing issue in Washington: protecting an obscure section of the US law that is worth billions of dollars to the company.The law – known as section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – was established in the 1990s, at a time when the internet was in its infancy, and helped to give rise to internet giants, from Google to Facebook, by offering legal immunity to the companies for third party comments, in effect treating them as distributors of content and not publishers.Section 230, in effect, allowed Google and Facebook to be shielded from the kinds of libel laws that can ensnare other companies, such as newspapers.The law has important advocates across the political spectrum, from Democrats who hail it as a triumph of free speech, to Republicans who say it has promoted free enterprise and innovation.But now some lawmakers, including Republicans, think it might be time to revise section 230. The senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, has said Google's alleged bias in favour of Democrats means it is not a neutral platform and should not be protected from liability.Google's decision to give to groups such as CEI reflects an attempt to win friends in Republican and conservative circles, and support those lawmakers on the right who are champions of section 230."I think the future of conservatism is up for grabs in the Trump era," said one person who is familiar with the company's thinking on political giving. "We are in a moment where Google has been injected in a lot of culture wars … and there is a lot of hostility in conservative circles."There is little doubt that Google has a loyal friend in CEI. In a recent letter to members of Congress, CEI and other conservative groups called for the protection of section 230, saying it had created "new venues for conservative speech", and that lawmakers who wanted to upend it were "well-meaning but mistaken".CEI has also defended Google in other realms. In a recent op-ed published in the Atlantic, a CEI senior fellow named Mario Loyola argued that the launch of a recent antitrust investigation into Google by 48 state attorneys general, led by the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton – a strong supporter of Ted Cruz – would not do anything to help the public.A CEI spokesperson, who declined to comment on questions about Google, told the Guardian: "CEI is a nonprofit organisation that advocates free-market solutions to public policy issues. CEI's research programmes and positions are developed independently by policy experts and reflect a longstanding, steadfast dedication to principles of economic liberty and limited government."When Google was asked about its support for CEI and groups like it, a company spokesperson said: "We sponsor organisations from across the political spectrum that advocate for strong technology policies. We've been extremely clear that Google's sponsorship doesn't mean that we endorse that organisation's entire agenda – we may disagree strongly on some issues."Google employees have privately spoken out about the company's support for some conservative groups. In a discussion with employees in March 2018 – a recording of which was heard by the Guardian – Adam Kovacevich, who at the time served as head of public policy at Google (he has since left the company), defended the company's alignment with some conservatives.He said he had been directed to forge the relationships after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. It reflected a view that the company was seen as too close to Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democrats.The discussion took place after a controversy over Google's sponsorship of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual meeting of conservatives, where Google hosted a party.To the consternation of many employees, its logo appeared on banners next to the NRA's. In his opening remarks on the call, Kovacevich said it was important to build relationships not only with people in power "but also the people who influence them"."It can be hard sometimes to reconcile our business interests with our stated values, and finding that balance is something our team has to navigate really on a daily basis, and it has gotten more and more complicated," Kovacevich can be heard saying in the recording.While Google staff seemed to accept Google needed to forge ties across the political spectrum, the majority of the employees on the call expressed concern that the company was too far out of step with its values. The Wall Street Journal and Wired have previously reported on the meeting.This year, Google did not sponsor CPAC. But big technology companies were frequently named – and lambasted – by conservative participants in their speeches. In one case, the rightwing provocateur James O'Keefe encouraged tech employees to secretly record colleagues in their offices in order to expose their alleged biases."We will equip you with a camera," O'Keefe said. "If they're lying, cheating, scamming, we're going to find them, make them famous internet celebrities, expose them for all the world to see."
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| Indicted Giuliani associate attended private ‘16 election night party for ‘friend’ Trump Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:16 PM PDT ![Indicted Giuliani associate attended private '16 election night party for 'friend' Trump]( "Indicted Giuliani associate attended private '16 election night party for 'friend' Trump") Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the latest scandal that threatens his presidency on Thursday by saying he didn't know either of the foreign-born Rudy Giuliani associates that his own Justice Department had just indicted for alleged campaign finance violations. In fact, Lev Parnas described himself to a foreign correspondent at the cash-bar event in midtown Manhattan as a friend of the president-elect who didn't live far from his South Florida winter home. Parnas arrived at Trump's November 2016 election night party, which was held in a ballroom at the Midtown Hilton, with two other men in suits and their heavily made-up wives, according to a forgotten but newly relevant dispatch from the event published at the time in Le Figaro, France's oldest daily newspaper.
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| Southwest Airlines flight diverted after intoxicated passenger assaults other travelers, police say Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:40 AM PDT  The Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas was headed to Los Angeles International Airport when it had to make an unplanned stop in Tucson, Arizona.
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| Swath of Atlantic still at risk for tropical development into next week Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT  While the window for tropical systems to brew will soon be closing for some zones in the Atlantic, the risk of tropical development is shifting southward into next week."Two areas we have been monitoring for tropical or subtropical development just off the East Coast of the United States to east of Bermuda are running out of time," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski explained. This image, taken on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, shows much of the tropical Atlantic Basin. There was a non-tropical swirl of clouds well east of Bermuda and a weak, broad area of showers and thunderstorms over the western Caribbean Sea. (NOAA/GOES-East) One such area is a storm located southeast of the New England coast, which has strengthened some Thursday night. Should it continue to gather tropical characteristics into Saturday, it could briefly become a subtropical storm.More long-term, meteorologists are also watching areas in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa over the next week for possible tropical trouble.Tropical disturbances, or tropical waves, continue to move westward off the coast of Africa every three days or so.These waves make up the Cabo Verde season, which is named for the disturbances that originate near the Cabo Verde Islands just off the west coast of Africa.Even though we are past the peak of the Cabo Verde season and the hurricane season in general, these disturbances and other areas can still evolve into tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes over time."A somewhat stronger tropical wave is forecast to move off the Africa coast this weekend and move westward," Kottlowski said. "There is a low chance this becomes an organized system next week," he added.There remains a broad area of weak counterclockwise winds over the western Caribbean and Central America. This feature is called a gyre.Occasionally, as tropical waves move into this gyre, they have a greater chance at becoming a tropical depression or storm, since there is extra moisture in place and there already is a weak circulation to begin with."As a result, the area from the western Caribbean to Central America, including adjacent eastern Pacific waters, could give birth to a tropical system or two through next week," Kottlowski said."However, the chance of tropical storm formation is probably significantly higher on the Pacific side as opposed to the Caribbean side," Kottlowski added. Hurricane season continues until the end of November, and Kottlowski feels there will be another named system or two over the Atlantic Ocean before the season comes to a close. Download the free AccuWeather app to see the exact forecast for your area. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Is The U.S. Navy Planning To Put Hypersonic Missiles On Submarines? Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:11 AM PDT  Russia and China are on notice.
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| Trump EPA proposes overhaul of lead in drinking water rule, critics call plan weak Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:17 PM PDT  The Trump administration on Thursday proposed retooling a 1991 rule on lead and cooper contamination in drinking water, but critics said the change slows by 20 years the timeline for removing aging lead service lines that could expose children to a toxin known to harm developing brains. Under the rule, community water systems would be required among other things to identify the most impacted areas to find and fix sources of lead when a sample in a home exceeds 15 parts per billion. The EPA said water systems would also have to follow new, improved sampling procedures and adjust sampling sites to better target locations with higher lead levels.
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| Pentagon 'strongly' encourages Turkey to 'discontinue' actions in NE Syria Posted: 11 Oct 2019 07:39 AM PDT  US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has warned Turkey to halt its incursion into northeastern Syria, warning it could have "serious consequences" for Ankara, the Pentagon said Friday. In a phone call on Thursday with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Esper reiterated that the United States opposes Turkey's assault on the mostly Kurdish region because it risks a reversal of the gains made by the coalition fighting to eliminate the Islamic State group, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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| Evidence from ex-Dallas cop's murder trial fuels mistrust Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:20 PM PDT  Evidence from the trial of a former Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor has fueled new questions about whether accused officers are treated differently than other suspects, including testimony that a camera in the cruiser where the officer sat after the shooting was flipped off and that her sexual text messages with her partner were deleted. It also has led Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall to announce the internal affairs department would look into the deleted texts and deactivated camera. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office declined to comment Wednesday on whether it is also investigating.
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| Sasse Condemns Beto O’Rourke’s ‘Bigoted’ Call to Strip Churches of Tax Exempt Status Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:57 AM PDT  Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) released a statement Friday condemning Beto O'Rourke for "extreme intolerance" after O'Rourke advocated revoking tax-exempt status from churches that refuse to perform same-sex marriages."This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims," wrote Sasse. "Leaders from both parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms.""This extreme intolerance is un-American," Sasse went on. "The whole point of the First Amendment is that…everyone is created with dignity and we don't use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren't."O'Rourke touted his LGBT rights platform at a CNN town hall event on Thursday, telling the crowd he supported removing tax-exempt status from churches, religious schools, and charities if they are against same-sex marriages."There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us," O'Rourke told the audience.O'Rourke previously drew condemnation from conservatives after pledging at the third Democratic primary debate to confiscate semi-automatic rifles from their legal owners. O'Rourke is currently polling nationally at just below two percent of the Democratic vote.Meanwhile on Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren released her own LGBT rights platform in which she promises to provide government funding for gender transition surgeries for inmates. In addition, she pledged to incarcerate transgender inmates with prisoners of the opposite biological sex, meaning that a transgender man would be placed in a women's prison.
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| Kia Telluride, Subaru Forester Owners Complaining to NHTSA about Windshields Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:04 PM PDT  NHTSA has received dozens of complaints of broken or cracked windshields on the two vehicles, along with beefs that it takes too long to get replacements.
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| Joe Biden attacked Trump's 'weakness' after the president launched his most brutal attack yet on the Democrat and his son Hunter Posted: 11 Oct 2019 06:01 AM PDT  On Thursday night Trump insulted Hunter Biden as a "loser," and said his father was "never considered smart" during his vice presidency.
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| Lindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russian pranksters Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:37 PM PDT  Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has in the last year become something of a congressional point man for President Trump's negotiations with Turkey, leading discussions on everything from Ankara's purchase of a Russian missile system over the summer to its more recent incursion into northern Syria.
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| Number of black students at Cambridge University rises by 50 per cent as 'Stormzy effect' is cited Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:01 PM PDT  The number of black students at Cambridge has risen by 50 per cent in a year, with a university chief citing the "Stormzy effect". This year 91 black students have been admitted to Cambridge, up from 61 last year. There are currently over 200 black undergraduates studying at the university, which is the highest in the institution's 800 year history. Over a quarter (26.8 per cent) of all undergraduates at Cambridge are now from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Professor Graham Virgo, Cambridge's senior pro-vice-Chancellor for education, said that the rise was partly down to a new scholarship for black students which was launched by the grime artist Stormzy last year. "A number of factors are thought to be behind the increase in black students applying and being admitted," he Prof Virgo said. "One is likely to be the "Stormzy effect". In August 2018, the award-winning British grime artist announced he would fund tuition fees and living costs for two students each year for the duration of their study at Cambridge. "Since then the University has seen an increase in the number of black students engage in its outreach activities and enquire about its courses." In 2018, Stormzy, the rapper, launched a scholarship to Cambridge University which pays for tuition fees and living costs for two young black students. Earlier this year he announced that he will cover the costs of another two students from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. Cambridge University's Afro-Caribbean Society Prof Virgo said that the record number of black students at Cambridge is "a credit to their hard work and ability", adding that the university has not lowered its entry standards. He explained that the university as well as individual colleges and student societies have run a number of successful information campaigns that have encouraged more black students to apply, including a series of short films presented by a You Tube influencer and Cambridge graduate, Courtney Daniella which aimed to "challenge the misconceptions" surrounding a Cambridge degree. Earlier this year, Prof Virgo said that black students were failing to apply to Cambridge due to a lack of Afro-Caribbean hairdressers in the city. He told an event at King's College, Cambridge that the "unexpected" finding arose during research into what deters black students from considering the institution. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, urged other universities to look at "new and innovative" ways to encourage underrepresented groups to apply. "I think we should always be looking at every single way to encourage people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to be going to some of our top universities, going to all of our universities," he said.
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| South Korea Is Working on a Stealth Fighter Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:43 AM PDT  Be skeptical. The world's biggest economies barely can support the development and acquisition of a true radar-evading fighter. South Korea is unlikely to join that exclusive club.
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| Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:53 AM PDT ![Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing]( "Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing") MATAMOROS-BROWNSVILLE BRIDGE, U.S.-Mexico border, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said. Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence. Many of those camped out are awaiting court dates for hearings in the United States weeks or months later under a U.S. policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
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| Outrage in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo over Handke's Nobel win Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:05 PM PDT  Austrian writer Peter Handke's Nobel literature prize win on Thursday sparked outrage in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo, where he is widely seen as an admirer of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. In the 1990s, Handke emerged as a vocal defender of the Serbs during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia, even comparing them to Jews under the Nazis, a remark he later retracted. "Never thought would feel to vomit because of a Nobel Prize," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter.
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| Get the Look of the Commune Principals' Apartments Posted: 10 Oct 2019 05:00 AM PDT |
| ICE, sheriff say immigration ruling threatens public safety Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT  The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday criticized a judge's ruling barring his agency from relying solely on databases that have at times led to the wrongful detention of American citizens. Speaking Thursday at the White House, Matthew Albence called the September ruling an example of "judicial overreach" that threatened public safety. Following Albence was a Texas sheriff who suggested the ruling would require releasing jailed immigrants who were "drunks" and would "run over your children," a comment that was immediately denounced by advocates.
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| The Royal Caribbean has named the world's next biggest ocean liner, set for China Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:31 PM PDT  Make that five: Royal Caribbean's Oasis class, which is synonymous with some of the biggest cruise ships in the world, will officially welcome in 2021 its newest creation, the name of which was unveiled on October 10, during a keel-laying ceremony held at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. Come 2021, the Royal Caribbean cruise line will be the proud owner of a new ocean liner, dedicated to the Chinese market. It will also be the first of the Oasis class to cruise the waters of the Asia-Pacific.
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| Gabbard Threatens to Boycott Debate, Alleges DNC ‘Rigging Election Again’ Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:22 AM PDT  Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) announced Thursday that she is "seriously considering" a boycott of the upcoming Democratic debate on Oct. 15, alleging that "the DNC and corporate media are trying to hijack the entire election process.""They are attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods which are not transparent or democratic, and holding so-called debates which are not debates at all but rather commercialized reality television meant to entertain, not inform or enlighten," Gabbard said in the statement.Gabbard's campaign, which is currently polling at just over half a percentage point, has focused in recent weeks on grassroot efforts in early primary voting states."There are so many of you who I've met in Iowa and New Hampshire who have expressed to me how frustrated you are that the DNC and corporate media are essentially trying to usurp your role as voters in choosing who our Democratic nominee will be," Gabbard says in the announcement, before stating that she will announce her final decision in the coming days.Gabbard qualified for the upcoming debate but missed out on the last one this past month, after reaching the donor threshold but falling two DNC-approved polls short of clearing the public support threshold. Gabbard's campaign slammed the committee's decision-making, arguing that the standards were arbitrary and lacked transparency."It creates a lack of faith and trust in the process," Gabbard told Fox News' Tucker Carlson in August. "… Really what [the voters] see is a small group of really powerful political elites, the establishment making decisions that serve their interests and maintaining that power while the rest of us are left outside. The American people are left behind."Gabbard was the most-searched candidate after the first and second Democratic debates earlier this year.
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| A week inside the Fox News bubble: From daytime sanity to prime-time Hannity Posted: 11 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  One of the most startling things about Fox News is just how quickly it managed to embed itself in American culture.Despite being younger than, say, Logan Paul, it has an outsized level of clout which has only increased with the election of Donald Trump.
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| Felony charge for girl, 13, who pointed finger-guns at other students, officials say Posted: 11 Oct 2019 01:10 PM PDT  There were previous encounters involving the student that resulted in classmates being "fearful" of her, according to police.
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| India Really Regrets Buying This Aircraft Carrier from Russia Posted: 09 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  A total lemon?
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| Photos of the 2019 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Lightning Lap Posted: 11 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT |
| Go home, Tanzanian President tells Burundian refugees Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  Refugees in Tanzania must go home, President John Magufuli said on Friday, a week after officials began mass repatriations of Burundians despite concerns that they may face political persecution. Tanzanian officials have said that all repatriations will be voluntary but Magufuli warned in his speech that refugees in Tanzania, most of whom are Burundians, cannot stay indefinitely and will not be granted citizenship. "Go back to your home ... don't insist on staying in Tanzania as refugees or expect citizenship while Burundi is now stable," Magufuli said during a rally in Katavi region near a large refugee camp in northwestern Tanzania.
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| Three dead in China bridge collapse Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:12 PM PDT  Three people were killed and two injured in eastern China when a highway overpass collapsed and crushed cars below it, local officials said Friday. Videos posted online showed a large section of the bridge in Jiangsu province swaying before falling on top of moving vehicles on Thursday night. Other images showed crushed cars, with only their front sections or headlights visible under a huge block of grey concrete.
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| Trump’s Immigrant Wealth Test Blocked, Called ‘Repugnant’ Policy Posted: 11 Oct 2019 05:16 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A new U.S. Department of Homeland Security rule to screen out immigrants deemed at risk of becoming dependent on government benefits was put on hold by judges on both coasts until there's a final decision on whether the so-called green card wealth test is legal.U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan called the rule "repugnant to the American Dream of the opportunity for prosperity and success through hard work and upward mobility." In a decision issued Friday, he blocked it from taking effect nationwide. Separately, a judge in Oakland, California, prohibited the policy from being implemented in four states and the District of Columbia.The rule -- which was announced in August and was set to go into effect Oct. 15 -- replaces a current policy that says immigrants shouldn't receive more than half their income from cash benefits, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income from Social Security.Under the new more expansive definition, immigrants aren't supposed to use public benefits like Medicaid, public housing assistance or food stamps for more than 12 months over a 36-month period. Immigration officials will consider an immigrant's age, health, education and wealth to see if they are at risk of becoming a "public charge."Asked about the ruling by reporters Friday, Trump cited a Supreme Court ruling last year upholding the final version of his travel ban and pointed to his success appointing judges to the courts.Read About Another Judge's Ruling This Week Calling Trump's Position 'Repugnant'"We lost on immigration? I haven't heard that," the president said. "We'll win. You know how many cases I've lost and then we win? Remember, they said -- I lost the ban, the travel ban. And then they said I lost it again, then I ended up winning it. So I've had a great track record and right now, within a couple of weeks, we will have 160 judges."White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, in a statement, called the ruling "extremely disappointing" and said it will prevent the government officials "from ensuring that immigrants seeking entry to the United States will be self-sufficient." Instead, it will "allow non-citizens to continue taking advantage of our generous but limited public resources reserved for vulnerable Americans," she said. Immigrant rights advocacy groups and several states argued that the new immigration rule conflicts with existing immigration laws and would drive up the cost of providing health care and other services to immigrants.Daniels blocked the rule following an August lawsuit filed by New York, Connecticut and Vermont and the city of New York, which alleged that the policy specifically targets immigrants of color. He ruled that the Department of Homeland Security went beyond its authority under federal immigration law."Defendants do not articulate why they are changing the public charge definition, why this new definition is needed now, or why the definition set forth in the rule -- which has absolutely no support in the history of U.S. Immigration law -- is reasonable," Daniels said."This rule would have had devastating impacts on New Yorkers and our nation, and today's decision is a critical step in our efforts to uphold the rule of law," New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted Friday.The New York case is State of New York v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 19-cv-07777, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The California case is City and County of San Francisco v. Department of Homeland Security, 3:19-cv-4717, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).(Updates with press secretary comment)\--With assistance from Justin Sink.To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Peter JeffreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Sondland to Testify Under Subpoena Next Week Despite State Department Order Not to Appear Posted: 11 Oct 2019 07:18 AM PDT  U.S. ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland announced Friday that he will testify before House committees next week despite being ordered by the Trump administration on Tuesday not to appear for the scheduled depositions, a prohibition House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) called an act of "obstruction of a coequal branch of government.""Notwithstanding the State Department's current direction not to testify, Ambassador Sondland will honor the Committees' subpoena, and he looks forward to testifying on Thursday," a statement released Friday reads. "Ambassador Sondland has at all times acted with integrity and in the interests of the United States. He has no agenda apart from answering the Committees' questions fully and truthfully."Sondland is of interest to the House impeachment inquiry due to his dealings with former special representative to Ukraine, Kurt Volker. Text messages between Volker and Sonland suggest that State Department officials were working at the behest of the White House to coordinate investigations into Hunter Biden's business dealings.The House had scheduled Sondland to testify this past Tuesday, but the State Department decided to block the move, before a letter from the Trump administration told the House it won't cooperate with the "unconstitutional" impeachment inquiry.In the statement, Sondland also stated that he is prohibited "from producing documents concerning his official responsibilities.""Ambassador Sondland does not control the disposition of his documents. By federal law and regulation, the State Department has sole authority to produce such documents, and he hopes the materials will be shared with the Committees in advance of his Thursday testimony," the statement read.
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| Washington Post Editorial: Trump has entered a 'new stage in an already dangerous presidency' Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:08 AM PDT  The Washington Post editorial board explained in an editorial published Wednesday why it believes Donald Trump's presidency has entered a "new stage in an already dangerous presidency."
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| Former California police officer convicted of sexually assaulting five women while on duty Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:07 PM PDT ![Former California police officer convicted of sexually assaulting five women while on duty]( "Former California police officer convicted of sexually assaulting five women while on duty") A California jury on Wednesday found former police officer Noah White Winchester guilty of sexually assaulting five women while on duty.
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| Explained: Why 6th Generation Fighters Will Crush the F-35 and F-22 Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:00 PM PDT  The future of high-tech warfare is nigh.
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| NRA troubles: A hunter targets the world’s most powerful gun lobby Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:44 AM PDT  NRA corruption allegations have weakened the group. Plenty of gun rights advocates are ready to step in.
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