| Bernie Sanders looks to young voters to help him recapture the magic in New Hampshire Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:53 AM PST  Four years ago, Bernie Sanders scored a resounding victory in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary. This year Sanders urgently needs a repeat performance, and his campaign is turning to young voters to make it happen.
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| 'Sanctuary' battle heats up as Trump kicks New Yorkers from program for expedited entry Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:33 PM PST  The Trump administration's war on so-called sanctuary cities and states is being taken to a new level, with a court battle looming in New York over a rule that may keep hundreds of thousands of residents from enrolling in a program meant to speed reentry in the country from abroad.
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| Parkland father not invited to Trump meeting with victim families after shouting at State of the Union Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:10 AM PST  The father of a student killed during a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida was not invited to Donald Trump's meeting with families of victims after he shouted down the president at the State of the Union address.Fred Guttenburg's 14-year-old daughter Jamie was among the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on 14 February 2018.
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| Arkansas lawmaker calls for changes after police encounter Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:50 PM PST  A black Arkansas lawmaker plans to introduce legislation next year aimed at changing police tactics after officers drew guns on her and another black politician who had called 911 to report that they were being harassed. Democratic state Rep. Vivian Flowers, from Pine Bluff, said the planned legislation would address the use of police body-cameras; police increasingly collecting data; penalties for filing false police reports; and creating limits to police use of force. At a news conference Monday, Flowers recalled the Feb. 3 incident outside of a Little Rock fundraiser for state House candidate Ryan Davis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
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| How China Is Making the Coronavirus an Even Bigger Problem Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:25 PM PST  The International Civil Aviation Organization appears more concerned with doing China's bidding by prioritizing Beijing's political priorities over a global health emergency.
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| As coronavirus spreads on cruise ships, what does it mean for cruisers and cruise lines? 'It's day-by-day' Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:11 PM PST  Coronavirus has forced the cruise industry to take measures to keep the outbreak at bay. But how will it impact the industry and cruisers?
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| These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:39 PM PST |
| Women of color say they were unwittingly used in Warren and Biden campaign ads Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:31 AM PST  Both of the women are climate activists and support the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.
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| Manchin to Trump: I'm no Munchkin, and by the way, you're 'much heavier than me' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:35 PM PST  Sen. Joe Manchin and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg respond to taunts by President Trump in a similar way.
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| Jussie Smollett Indicted by Special Prosecutor over Alleged Hate Crime Hoax Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:56 PM PST  Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday in Chicago by special prosecutor Dan Webb on charges relating to accusations that the actor paid two acquaintances to stage an anti-gay and racist attack on him in January of last year."A Cook County grand jury returned a six-count indictment charging Jussie Smollett with making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers related to his false claims that he was the victim of a hate crime," Webb's office said.The former "Empire" actor is scheduled to appear in court February 24, according to a local Fox affiliate.Smollett, who is a gay African-American, told police last year that two men attacked him as he was walking home around 2a.m. on January 29, 2019, punching him and putting a noose around his neck while shouting, "this is MAGA country," along with racist and anti-gay slurs.Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson later announced that Smollett had hired two acquaintances of his, brothers from Nigeria, to stage the attack in order to raise his public profile. The brothers later sued Smollett's attorneys for defamation, saying the actor, whom they worked with on "Empire" had "directed every aspect of the attack," including throwing a chemical substance on him.In February, Smollett was indicted by a grand jury on sixteen charges, including a felony charge for filing a false police report, after evidence from an investigation suggested he had in fact staged the attack in an attempt to boost his career. However, all charges against him were abruptly dropped and his record wiped clean shortly thereafter, sparking a public outcry."After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett's volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case," the Cook County State's Attorney's office said in a statement.Later in August, a Chicago judge appointed Webb as special prosecutor to probe how local officials handled the case against Smollett.Smollett continues to deny that the attack was fake."I want you to know that not for a moment was it in vain. I've been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one," Smollett said in March.
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| China removes two Hubei leaders as virus crisis deepens Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:06 PM PST  The two most senior health officials at the epicentre of China's deadly virus outbreak have been sacked, state media said Tuesday, as pressure mounts over the way local authorities have handled the epidemic. Zhang Jin, the Communist Party boss of the provincial health commission in Hubei, and its director Liu Yingzi have been removed from their positions, reported state broadcaster CCTV, after a decision by the province's party committee Monday. The area has found itself at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people and infected over 42,000 across China since December.
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| Ginsburg: Equal Rights Amendment backers should start over Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:30 PM PST  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Monday that those like her who support an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution should start over in trying to get it passed rather than counting on breathing life into the failed attempt from the 1970s. "I would like to see a new beginning," Ginsburg said during an event at Georgetown's law school in Washington. Congress sent the amendment, which guarantees men and women equal rights under the law, to the states in 1972.
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| Michelle Malkin Endorses Racist CPAC Rival Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:14 AM PST  This week: * CPAC gets a racist rival, with help from Michelle Malkin * Fox News leak questions Sean Hannity's guest list * Check out this book! * Seth Rich conspiracy theorists get a big boostCPAC, but for white nationalists: Later this month, conservative operatives from all over the country will head to a hotel outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual mega-confab for all things Trump. But this time, CPAC will face a racist rival conference at an undisclosed location nearby: the "America First Political Action Conference," featuring two speakers who marched in the white supremacist Charlottesville rally in 2017. Ordinarily, a gathering this fringe wouldn't mean much for the right—except for the fact that Michelle Malkin, one of the most prominent conservative columnists in the country, is also speaking. Malkin's headlining role raises questions about how far racist ideas are infiltrating the mainstream right. The backstory here is that a particularly online section of the right has been riven for the past few months between "groypers"—the white nationalist activists and their fellow travelers—and more establishment conservative elements like Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and the organizers of CPAC. Organized around white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the "groypers"—who take their name from an obese toad version of Pepe the Frog—started showing up at Turning Point events and shouting down speakers like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). They claimed that Crenshaw and his allies aren't conservative enough, and many of their questions were aimed at questioning the United States' support for Israel, in an attempt to "red-pill" campus conservatives toward more extreme views.Malkin has gone all-in on the groypers, apparently because of her hardline stance on immigration. She joined the encrypted messaging app Telegram—their preferred social media platform—and even lost her speaker's bureau contract over it. Now Malkin, who had a headlining speech at CPAC just last year, is positioning the racist AFPAC variation as the real conservative conference. She'll appear at the event alongside Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, and Patrick Casey, the leader of a white nationalist group that rebranded after its internal chat logs leaked. Malkin's appearance at AFPAC raises the embarrassing possibility that plenty of CPAC attendees will head over to AFPAC on Friday night, linking the conservative movement's leading conference with white nationalists.Malkin has promoted AFPAC on Twitter and declared that, unlike CPAC, it would have no "swamp lobbyists lurking backstage." Malkin didn't respond to a request for comment. But her appearance at the white nationalist event suggests that the far-right, racist "groyper" ethos is getting more entrenched with conservatives. Want this in your inbox? sign up now!* * *Fox critiques its own Ukraine coverage: Even some of Fox News' own researchers do not believe the claims made by a number of Sean Hannity's most frequent guests, according to an internal Fox document I reported on last week. In a report from Fox's in-house research unit, a researcher blasted guests like John Solomon and Rudy Giuliani, accusing them of pushing a Ukrainian disinformation campaign.* * *Right Richter Reading Corner: If you like Right Richter and its coverage of marginal, bizarre Trumpland characters, you're going to love the new book Sinking in the Swamp. It's the latest from my colleagues Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay, it's coming out on Tuesday, and it's filled with bizarre stories about what the Trump era means for our country. Check it out!* * *Seth Rich conspiracy theories flare anew: It's been a lean couple of years for Seth Rich conspiracy theorists. The people fixated on the 2016 murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer had their high point in 2017, when Hannity and a Fox reporter pushed the baseless idea that Hillary Clinton had Rich killed for leaking hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. Hannity started losing advertisers, Rich's family sued Fox, and the channel ditched the story. Since then, the most prominent Rich conspiracy theorist has been vlogger Matt Couch—a guy with a sizable fringe following but not exactly a household name on the right. That all might be about to change now, though, after redacted emails obtained from the Department of Justice with the subject line "Seth Rich" were released earlier this month.While the emails are all brief and are just about people dismissing the idea that Rich was involved in the WikiLeaks email hack, they've been seized on by Rich conspiracy theorists. And they've made their way over to OAN, the cable network that Trump increasingly praises in an attempt to push Fox rightward. Last week, OAN ran an entire segment about the emails, with the headline proclaiming: "Attorney: FBI Had Been Lying About The Murder Of Seth Rich." The blast of cable news attention has reinvigorated Seth Rich conspiracy theorists, suggesting that the saga the Rich family has long asked speculators to end won't be stopping anytime soon. 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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| Texas Attorney General asks Supreme Court to repeal a California travel ban Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:04 PM PST  The Texas attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a California law prohibiting state employees from using taxpayer-funded business trips to expos or conferences in Texas.
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| More than two-thirds of migrants fleeing Central American region had family taken or killed Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:06 AM PST  Study finds 42.5% interviewees leaving Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador reported the violent death of a relativeMore than two-thirds of the migrants fleeing Central America's northern triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – experienced the murder, disappearance or kidnapping of a relative before their departure, according to a new study by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).The MSF study said 42.5% of interviewees reported the violent death of a relative over the previous two years, while 16.2% had a relative forcibly disappeared and 9.2% had a loved one kidnapped.The study – based on interviews with migrants and refugees at MSF medical facilities in Central America and Mexico – once again showed the despair driving migrants to abandon some the hemisphere's poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries."We're speaking of human beings, not numbers," Sergio Martín, MSF general coordinator in Mexico, said at the study's presentation on Tuesday. "In many cases, it's clear that migration is the only possible way out. Staying put is not an option."In 45.8% of the interviews, migrants said that "exposure to violent situations" was a key reason for leaving their home country. Of those fleeing due to violence, 36.4% had become internally displaced in their countries of origin, but were eventually forced to flee.The research was published at a time when the US border is becoming increasingly difficult to reach.Mexico has been launched a crackdown against people trying to cross its southern frontier and deployed its newly created national guard to dismantle large groups of migrants, while the Trump administration has made the asylum process practically impossible for most applicants.US officials are returning asylum seekers to dangerous Mexican border cities – where MSF has found many are kidnapped and preyed upon by drug cartels – under scheme known as migrant protection protocols to await their court cases. Some migrants are now being flown to Guatemala to apply for asylum in the impoverished Central American country."The aggressive migration policies adopted by the US and Mexico mean that more and more people are trapped in a vicious circle," the MSF report stated. "Patients describe an increase in the predatory violence perpetuated by criminal organisations operating along the migrant route."Meanwhile, violence against migrants transit Mexico is escalating, the study found: 39.2% of interviewees were assaulted in the country, while 27.3% were threatened or extorted – with the actual figures likely higher than the official statistics as victims tend not to report crimes committed against them.Nearly 6% of migrants reported witnessing a death during their time in Mexico, according to MSF. In 17.9% of those cases, it was a murder.Members of MSF teams have themselves witnessed kidnappings outside migrant shelters."The physical obstacles to entering the United States are taken for granted. But what surprises [migrants] … is the violence that they experience in Mexico," the report said."Coming from a country where violence is endemic, they decide to make the journey because they have no other option."Violence is just of a range of factors driving migration, and motives vary from region to region and country to country.A 2019 survey from Creative Associates International found violence was the main driver of migration for 38% of Salvadorans, 18% of Hondurans and 14% of Guatemalans. In Guatemala – the main source of migrants detained at the US border with Mexico – 71% of respondents cited "economic concerns" as their main motive.Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a driver of migration – especially from areas in Central America's "Dry Corridor" – as is political corruption."Over the last 20 years in Honduras, the poverty rate hasn't fallen beneath 60%," said Father Germán Calix, Honduras director of the Catholic Church's charitable arm Caritas."The lack of policies and actions in favor of the poor has been such that people have lost confidence that this situation can ever be reversed from Honduras."
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| 'I was scared to death': Patients jailed over unpaid medical debt in rural Kansas Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:42 AM PST  At a time when healthcare policy dominates national debate, a county in Kansas is jailing individuals with medical debt.Judge David Casement is a magistrate judge in Coffeyville, Kansas, where the poverty rate is twice the national average. He presides over cases in which individuals with medical debt are brought to court to face the medical companies they owe. During the hearings, the debtors must make a case for their own poverty during what is known as a "debtors exam."
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| Paul Ryan: Biden is best Democrat for beating Trump but won't be 'getting the nomination' Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:04 PM PST  Paul Ryan said former Vice President Joe Biden would perform well in three battleground states that are needed to beat Trump.
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| Man charged with 'unspeakable abuse' of Sarah Lawrence students for nearly 10 years Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:04 AM PST  Lawrence Ray "subjected his victims to almost unspeakable abuse," the U.S. attorney said. At the core of his conduct "was his ability to psychologically control his victims."
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| WHO warns of 'very grave' global virus threat Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:42 AM PST  The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the novel coronavirus was a "very grave threat" for the planet as it hosted the first major conference on fighting the epidemic. "With 99 percent of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the start of the meeting. The virus, first identified in the city of Wuhan in central China on December 31, has killed more than 1,000 people, infected over 42,000 and reached some 25 countries.
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| Man killed in Tesla crash had complained about Autopilot Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway had complained before his death that the SUV's Autopilot system would malfunction in the area where the crash happened. The complaints were detailed in a trove of documents released Tuesday by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the March, 2018 crash that killed engineer Walter Huang. The documents say Huang told his wife that Autopilot had previously veered his SUV toward the same barrier on U.S. 101 near Mountain View, California where he later crashed.
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| Airbus unveils 'blended wing body' plane design after secret flight tests Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:13 PM PST |
| China's Communist Party is purging local officials as public anger mounts at coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:53 PM PST  China has removed high-ranking officials in the Hubei province amid public outcry over the mounting death toll of the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Nikola announces Badger electric pickup set to compete with Rivian and Tesla Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:16 AM PST  On Monday, Nikola announced the launch of its Badger electric pickup truck, a model said to generate over 900hp and have a range of 600 miles on a single charge. Joining the ranks of Rivian, Tesla, and now GMC with the revival of the Hummer, Nikola will be launching its own rendition of the electric pickup truck. The Badger is a model "designed to target and exceed every electric or petrol pickup in its class" and handle whatever needs a construction company could have for it.
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| Why Is America Still Storing Dozens Of Nuclear Weapons In Turkey? Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:15 AM PST  Isn't it time to bring them home?
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| Coronavirus: More than 20 Americans test positive for deadly virus on cruise ship Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:39 AM PST  Twenty four American passengers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus on-board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan.Nearly 3,700 passengers on the Diamond Princess luxury cruise liner have been held at the port of Yokohama after the first cases of the illness were reported on the ship earlier this month.
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| Tulsi Gabbard's unique campaign brought people together – but looks to be coming apart Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:36 AM PST  Hawaii congresswoman made a noble effort to bring together voters with different beliefs, but her poll numbers are lowIf Tulsi Gabbard drops out of the Democratic race in the coming days, her unique campaign is likely to be remembered more for her spats with the Democratic party, accusations of being a Russian operative, and the imagery of her promise to "bring a soldier's heart to the White House" than a realistic bid for president.The Hawaii congresswoman's unusual political journey, which has seen her go from a rising progressive star to a regular Fox News guest supported by Republicans and libertarians, has so far not endeared her to supporters in New Hampshire, which goes to the polls Tuesday.While Iowa traditionally holds the first caucuses in the presidential election, New Hampshire has held the first primary since 1920. The goal for presidential candidates is to win early-voting states and create name recognition and a sense of momentum, as well to pick up their first delegates, who will eventually choose the nominee in summer.Sometimes a clear favorite for the nomination emerges quickly, but the last two major Democratic primary contests, pitting Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton and then Bernie Sanders against Clinton, have lasted from the Iowa caucuses in January through to late spring.After more than a year campaigning and holding more than 130 events in the Granite state alone, Gabbard is currently at 3.3% in the polls. She held 70 events in Iowa, an effort that won her the votes of 342 people on caucus night."As president I will have your back," she told a crowd in Rochester this weekend. "I promise I will treat every American with respect."In all likelihood, Gabbard will not get the opportunity to prove that. The Democratic contest has not been kind to the long-shot candidates so far. The businessman and former congressman John Delaney, after spending two and a half years and more than $25m campaigning, dropped out days before the Iowa caucus.Joe Sestak, a three-star admiral and two-term congressman, pulled out at the end of 2019. Bigger names such as Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris and Beto O'Rourke have all fallen to the whims of the Democratic electorate.Gabbard's rally in Rochester had gotten off to an inauspicious start, when the Elk's Lodge venue misspelled her name: a TV screen displaying a "Tulsie" rally alongside listings for "western night" and "meat raffle".Gabbard is 38 and has made physical vitality – along with her military service in the Hawaii national guard – a central feature of her campaign. She has posted videos of her surfing, taking part in push-up contests and working out in the gym.Yet for all that she has run a strangely joyless campaign.At rallies she speaks slowly, using lingering pauses, more like a university lecturer than a politician inspiring a crowd. In Greenland, it didn't bother the crowd."I met Tulsi on New Year's Day," said Spiro Paras, an ardent Gabbard supporter. "With direct personal contact I realized she has a soul and means what she says. That's visible in her eyes and face."The rally came amid a busy weekend for Gabbard. On Saturday she went on Fox News to defend Donald Trump's decision to fire key impeachment witnesses Lt Col Alexander Vindman and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland.On Sunday, she went on Fox News again, this time appearing on Sean Hannity's show. Hannity, a friend and informal adviser to the president who has promoted conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the dead DNC staffer Seth Rich, praised Gabbard for her courage."I think she's taken politically brave acts that have blacklisted her with the Democratic party leadership," Paras said.He was referring not just to Gabbard's Fox News sojourns. Gabbard bucked her party's elders to back Bernie Sanders over Clinton in 2016, and in December did not vote to impeach Trump. In January, Gabbard sued Clinton for $50m in retaliation for Clinton suggesting the Hawaiian was a Russian asset, months after Gabbard filed a $50m lawsuit against Google for allegedly suspending her campaign's advertising.Despite all evidence to the contrary, Gabbard's campaign believes she can outperform expectations in New Hampshire. One aide pointed to polls that show her with more than 5% support here – those polls exist, they are just few and far between – and Gabbard's supporters seem just as optimistic."Definitely top three, possibly even the top one," was Paras's prediction for Tuesday's vote.Gabbard does have some reason to feel aggrieved at her treatment. Along with Clinton's Russia accusations, Gabbard was left out of a pair of CNN town halls last week, even as the former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick – polling even lower than Gabbard – was invited. She has regularly complained that her campaign hasn't received enough coverage from the press.That was the case at her rallies on Saturday and Sunday, where there were comparatively few journalists. They missed Gabbard, whose central theme is ending wars and diverting military funding to social programs, playing up the political diversity of her supporters, who are often male and skew conservative.Gabbard asked the Democrats in the crowd to raise their hands, then the Republicans to raise their hands, and then the "libertarians or independents" to put their hands in the air.Kevin Frost, 38, who was at the Greenland event with his wife and daughters, fitted into the independent camp."I feel like some of the field is a little bit far left for where I feel we are as a country," Frost said.He voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012, and for John McCain in 2008. In 2016, Frost said he voted "against Clinton, but not for Trump"."The idea that [Gabbard] stepped out and held off the impeachment fiasco, that speaks volumes," Frost said. "To me it seems like if she's going to do that now, then when she's president she'll maybe think of things a a little bit more too."If the vote on Tuesday reflects the polling, Gabbard will probably not be president.To her fans, her attempt to bring people with different political beliefs together might have been a noble effort, but it just isn't clear how it helps in winning the Democratic nomination.
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| US open jobs fall sharply for 2nd straight month Posted: 11 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST  U.S. businesses sharply cut the number of jobs they advertised in December for the second straight month, an unusual sign of weakness in an otherwise healthy job market. The number of available positions dropped 5.4% to 6.4 million, a historically solid number, the Labor Department said Tuesday. There are still more open jobs than there are unemployed people, an unusual situation that has persisted for nearly two years.
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| Migrants raped and trafficked as U.S. and Mexico tighten borders, charity says Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  Central American migrants are being kidnapped, raped and trafficked in Mexico as they seek to enter the United States amid a migration crackdown, a medical charity said on Tuesday. In Mexico's Nuevo Laredo city - separated from the United States by the Rio Grande - almost 80% of migrants treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the first nine months of 2019 said they had been victims of violence, including kidnapping. "They're treated as if they aren't really people," Sergio Martin, Mexico coordinator for MSF, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| 2 Russian spacecraft are trailing a US spy satellite and could create a 'dangerous situation in space' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:50 AM PST  A US satellite used to capture images of Earth is being followed by a pair of Russian satellites, the commander of the Space Force said.
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| China reports the most coronavirus deaths in one day as total surpasses 1,000; US confirms 13th case Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  The one-day death toll of 103 pushed the total past 1,000 and provided an ominous warning that the coronavirus epidemic was accelerating.
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| The Army's New Interceptor Missiles Are The Swiss Army Knives Of Anti-Air Fire Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:53 PM PST  The Multi-Mission Launcher has already performed well in tests.
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| EU Won’t Budge on Open Borders, Switzerland’s Government Warns Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST |
| New Hampshire exit polls: Defeating Trump tops issues for Democratic voters Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:08 PM PST  By nearly 2-to-1, respondents put November prospects at the top of their wish list, according to early exit poll data.
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| The FBI Makes a Bizarre Claim About Pro-Choice Terrorism Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:55 PM PST  The FBI is expanding its focus on domestic terrorism, and that includes pro-choice violence—even though such violence is so vanishingly rare, it's all but nonexistent. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray disclosed that the bureau has recently "changed our terminology as part of a broader reorganization of the way in which we categorize our domestic terrorism efforts." It's part of a much-heralded reinvigoration of the bureau's domestic terrorism focus after a rising tide of mostly white-supremacist terrorism.Among four broad categories of domestic terrorism that the FBI confronts, Wray said, is "abortion violent extremism." But Wray wasn't only talking about the pro-life extremism that murders abortion providers in their churches, he hastened to add, but "people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic."His questioner, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), was puzzled at Wray's seeming equivalence: "People on either side of that issue don't commit violence." In fact, the FBI pointed The Daily Beast to just one episode of pro-choice-inspired terrorism—one that did not involve an actual act of violence, but rather a threat in an online comments section.But Wray persisted: "Well, we've actually had a variety of kinds of violence under that, believe it or not. But at the end of the day." Bass asked, "Really, that blow up buildings and threaten doctors?" Rather than responding, Wray moved on to detailing the FBI's next domestic-terrorism category, one about "animal rights and environmental extremism."Wray's comments weren't the first instance of the bureau promoting the idea of pro-choice violence as a real threat. In 2017, the FBI distributed a brief "Abortion Extremism Reference Guide" at a counterterrorism training for local law enforcement, listing "pro-choice extremists" as a group of domestic terrorists. The document, first reported by Jezebel, claimed that these extremists "believe it is their moral duty to protect those who provide or receive abortion services"—though even this document noted that only one "pro-choice extremist" had ever been prosecuted. Additionally, an earlier FBI training document obtained by the ACLU in 2012 referenced pro-choice violence but did not "provide a single example of violence against abortion opponents," the ACLU wrote. "Abortion violent extremism" of any sort accounts for a only small percentage of FBI domestic terrorism cases. Wray on Wednesday that the "top threat" of domestic terrorism comes from what he called "racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists." Out of approximately 850 current cases that a senior FBI official cited in congressional testimony last May, about half concern anti-government extremism and another 40 percent concern racist terrorism. That leaves around 85 cases of violence motivated by animal rights, ecological degradation, abortion and miscellaneous cases. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the total caseload and the breakdown are still current.But abortion extremism doesn't have an "either side." The primary case of pro-choice violent extremism that the FBI pointed The Daily Beast toward—the same one cited in the 2017 FBI document—is the 2012 conviction of Theodore Schulman, who had a long history of threatening anti-abortion activists. Schulman's ultimate downfall was the result of posting a threat in the comments section of religious conservative outlet First Things: "if Roeder is acquitted, someone will respond by killing" Princeton's Robert George and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, he wrote. That itself spoke to the discrepancy in violence between the two sides. "Roeder" was a reference to Scott Roeder, who murdered abortion provider George Tiller in the foyer of a Wichita church in 2009. Other instances of anti-abortion violence include a trio of bombings at Florida abortion clinics in 1985, a string of arson attacks on a Washington clinic in 1983, and a 2015 shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that killed three. Between 1993 and today, anti-abortion activists murdered 11 people and attempted to kill another 26, according to the National Abortion Federation."Anti-choice violence as we know it is constant, pervasive, and escalating dramatically, and it threatens the civil liberties as well as the lives of our patents, our members, our society," NAF President Katherine Ragsdale told The Daily Beast. Wray's comments, she added, are a "danger to public perception.""It tars everyone with the same brush when in fact pro-choice folks simply are not doing this," she said.The Daily Beast has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI to document the extent of its focus on alleged pro-choice violent extremism.Mila Johns, a domestic terrorism researcher affiliated with the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database, said violence was "very much lopsided in the other direction," the anti-abortion side, and called Wray's equivalence "a very political statement." The database, which tracks terrorist attacks across the world since 1970, records about 300 incidents related to anti-abortion violence and none for pro-choice violence. However, an Austin woman in 2016 was charged with throwing a crude Molotov cocktail at anti-abortion protesters. And last year, an 85-year old anti-abortion protester in San Francisco was knocked to the ground after he attempted jamming the bicycle spokes of a man who appears to have stolen a pro-life group's banner. Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue—a radical anti-abortion group that moved its headquarters to Wichita, Kansas, specifically to target Dr. Tiller—said his movement has been on the receiving end of threats. He estimated he had made between 20 and 50 complaints to federal law enforcement over the last two decades, for everything from anthrax scares to online intimidation. Wichita resident Christopher Thompson, he noted, was sentenced to 12 months in jail last year for making menacing calls to Operation Rescue's office and employees.But when asked about specific instances of pro-choice violence, Newman cited only the murder of James Pouillon, an Operation Save America activist who was shot while protesting abortion outside a high school in 2009. (The judge in that case said the killer's motivations were not tied to abortion.) Newman declined to give examples of abortion-rights violence of the scale and magnitude of that enacted by the anti-abortion movement. "You got your scorecard and I got mine," he said. "All of them are terrible."The FBI's position is that pro-choice activists and groups not concerned with violence don't need to worry about the new domestic terrorism categorization. "We don't investigate ideology or rhetoric or anything of that sort," Wray testified. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed to comments from the bureau's former assistant director for counterterrorism, Mike McGarrity, from last June. "It is important to remember that in line with our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States, no FBI investigation can be opened solely on the basis of First Amendment-protected activity," McGarrity testified to a House panel in June. "Rather, domestic terrorism investigations on individuals are opened on the basis of information concerning the occurrence or threat of violent criminal actions by the individual in furtherance of an ideology."However, prior episodes during the 18-year-old war on terror show the FBI does not always hold a rigid distinction between ideology that isn't to be investigated and violence that is. In 2011, its counterterrorism training at Quantico included instructional material that held Islam was an ideology, rather than a religion, with violence baked into its doctrines. The point of the training was to portray Islam itself as a threat to national security—which, for an investigative entity with broad domestic powers, was ominous enough for the Obama administration to order the training materials removed. Michael German, a former FBI special agent who investigated domestic terrorism, said the FBI was not only engaging in a false equivalence but "the manufacturing of an imaginary violent movement," reminiscent of its now-discarded "black identity extremism" category. Anti-Abortion Violence at All-Time HighThe bureau "seems to be grasping a tiny number of unrelated incidents that are not part of any organized effort to falsely imply that such a 'domestic terrorist' movement exists," said German, now with the Brennan Center for Justice. "This is a misleading analysis of dubious purpose, apparently to satisfy some political constituency, which is not what an objective law enforcement agency should be doing." But for some in the reproductive rights space, the threat posed by anti-abortion violence is enough that they are willing to accept dubious FBI categorization to ensure it gets investigated."Those of us in this movement have lost friends and family," Ragsdale said. "By all means, investigate the escalating violence.""And if politics requires you to have a category that says pro-choice violence, go right ahead," she added. "I'd be interested to see if anything ever pops up."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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| Virginia House of Delegates Passes Sweeping Gun-Control Bill Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:23 PM PST  In a raucous session on Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed gun-control legislation that would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and make the possession of magazines holding more than twelve rounds a felony.The House voted to approve the legislation 51–48, with all Republicans and some Democrats voting against. Capitol police removed gun-rights supporters from the chamber due for the manner in which they protested the bill's passage.The bill would require any owner of a semi-automatic rifle it classifies as an "assault weapon," including AR-15 rifles, to register the weapon with government authorities by 2021. It would also make magazines of over twelve rounds and silencers illegal. It will now head to the state Senate, where previous legislation that would have enacted an "assault weapons" ban failed to get out committee.Democrats in November won control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1994. In concert with Democratic governor Ralph Northam, state lawmakers are attempting to pass a flurry of liberal-leaning laws on gun control, abortion, and other issues. The Washington Post on Tuesday noted that Democrats have introduced so much legislation after years out of power that the legislature has been working late-night hours trying to process the backlog. Democrats have also struggled to take control of the legislative process due to their inexperience holding power.
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| Federal report faults Southwest Airlines and FAA on safety Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:07 PM PST  Southwest Airlines continues to fly airplanes with safety concerns while federal officials do a poor job overseeing the airline, a government watchdog said Tuesday. The airline has flown more than 150,000 flights on 88 jets it bought on the used-plane market and which had unconfirmed maintenance histories, the Transportation Department's inspector general said in a report. In 2017, FAA inspectors began finding "potentially serious gaps" in Southwest's process for verifying the condition of the planes, including major repairs that weren't documented and maintenance records that didn't meet FAA standards.
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| Coronavirus expert says he knows when the virus 'will burn itself out,' according to leaked analysis Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:48 PM PST  A traffic policeman adjusts his mask on a street in Beijing, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. China's coronavirus death toll on Sunday has surpassed the number of fatalities in the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, but fewer new cases were reported in a possible sign its spread may be slowing as other nations step up efforts to block the disease. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) With the death toll climbing each day, fear and uncertainty have spread farther and farther around the globe as coronavirus continues to captivate the world's attention. However, John Nicholls, a pathology professor at the University of Hong Kong, says he knows when the virus will become inactive.In a private conference call organized last week by CLSA, a brokerage firm based in Hong Kong, investment analysts had a chance to ask Nicholls, one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, questions about the novel coronavirus. News of the private conference call was first reported by The Financial Times, and in the days since the call, more details of Nicholls' analysis have surfaced on social media and elsewhere online, including a transcript of the call.The transcript of the call showed Nicholls believes weather conditions will be a key factor in the demise of the novel coronavirus. Referencing the SARS outbreak from 2002 and 2003, Nicholls said he thinks similar weather factors will also shut down the spread of the novel coronavirus."Three things the virus does not like: 1. Sunlight, 2. Temperature, and 3. Humidity," Nicholls said in response to a question about when he thinks confirmed cases will peak, the transcript showed."Sunlight will cut the virus' ability to grow in half so the half-life will be 2.5 minutes and in the dark it's about 13 to 20 [minutes]," Nicholls said. "Sunlight is really good at killing viruses."For that reason, he also added that he doesn't expect areas such as Australia, Africa and the Southern hemisphere to see high rates of infection because they are in the middle of summer. Tourists wearing face masks line up to a departure gate at Bali airport, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. Thousands of Chinese tourists are reportedly stranded in Bali following suspending all flights to and from China amid growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati) Regarding temperatures, Nicholls said the warmer the better for stopping the spread of the virus, according to the transcript of the conference call."The virus can remain intact at 4 degrees (39 degrees Fahrenheit) or 10 degrees (50 F) for a longer period of time," Nicholls said, referring to Celsius measurements, according to the transcript. "But at 30 degrees (86 degrees F) then you get inactivation. And high humidity -- the virus doesn't like it either," he added, the transcript of the call showed.However, Nicholls also said that he doesn't consider SARS or MERS, a Middle Eastern novel virus that spread in 2012, to be an accurate comparison for this year's outbreak. Rather, the novel coronavirus most closely relates to a severe case of the common cold.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"Compared to SARS and MERS, we are talking about a coronavirus that has a mortality rate of eight to 10 times less deadly to SARS to MERS," Nicholls is quoted as having said on the conference call. "So, a correct comparison is not SARS or MERS but a severe cold. Basically, this is a severe form of the cold."Similar to a common cold, the surrounding environment of the outbreak plays an important role in determining the survivability and spreadability of the virus, he continued. Because of the impending shift in seasons, Nicholls said he expects the spread of the virus to be curbed in a matter of months."I think it will burn itself out in about six months," Nicholls said. A woman with a face protection mask walks along the high street in Brighton, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. Britain has declared the new coronavirus that emerged from China a "serious and imminent threat to public health'' and announced new measures Monday to combat the spread of the disease.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) According to the transcript, Nicholls elaborated on exactly when he expects the novel coronavirus to subside as investment analysts posed more questions."The environment is a crucial factor. The environment will be unfavorable for growth around May," Nicholls said. "The evidence is to look at the common cold -- it's always during winter. So the natural environment will not be favorable in Asia in about May."Average temperatures typically reach as high as 86 F in Wuhan, the outbreak's epicenter, on June 17. The AccuWeather forecast calls for temperatures ranging from a high of 64 F to a low of 30 F over the next seven days.When asked about the probability of the novel coronavirus becoming endemic, Nicholls responded, "If it is like SARS it will not be endemic. It most likely will be a hit and run just like SARS," according to the transcript.Experts that AccuWeather has spoken to previously have stopped short of linking weather to the spread of the virus.Earlier this month, Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D. professor and vice chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Johns Hopkins University, told AccuWeather cooler weather provides more favorable conditions for the spread of most respiratory viruses."Many respiratory viruses transmit better at low temperature and humidity, but we have no data on how this might affect 2019-nCoV transmission," Pekosz said in an email to AccuWeather on Feb. 4."Respiratory coronaviruses do appear more frequently in cooler months (late fall, winter). Since we don't know how this virus was transmitted within its natural host, it's difficult to predict if it will have the same pattern as human respiratory coronaviruses," Pekosz said at the time.Nicholls' comments, while made privately, represent the most definitive tie to the weather a health expert has made yet.At the University of Hong Kong, Nicholls has spent the past 25 years studying coronavirus and he served as a key member of the team that characterized SARS. The Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine's Clinical Research Centre also created the world's first lab-grown copy of novel coronavirus, according to CNN correspondent Kristie Lu Stout, giving researchers a major breakthrough in understanding the behavior of the virus.However, in an interview with Lu Stout, Nicholls said there is one key difference between prior outbreaks and the current spread of the novel coronavirus. Unlike previous versions of coronavirus, the novel coronavirus has been able to be spread before symptoms present themselves in patients. A personnel wearing protective suit waits near an entrance at the Cheung Hong Estate, a public housing estate during evacuation of residents in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health evacuated some residents from the public housing estate after two cases of novel coronavirus infection to stop the potential risk of further spread of the virus. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) But despite that frightening trait, Nicholls' long-term optimism hasn't changed in other public remarks that he's made recently."My feeling is that this is going to be just like SARS, that the world is going to get a very bad cold for about five months," Nicholls told CNN last week.AccuWeather reached out to Nicholls on Tuesday for comment and is waiting to hear back.The World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated the virus COVID-19 on Tuesday, adding that the first vaccine could be available in 18 months, according to Reuters.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios
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| Air Force One may soon get its first new paint job since the Kennedy years — here's what it was like on JFK's version of the presidential airliner Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:20 PM PST  The SAM 26000 arrived in 1962 and would carry eight presidents, numerous dignitaries, and countless diplomats during its 36 years in service.
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| Joe Biden continues to slip, while Bloomberg climbs to 2nd among black Democrats: poll Posted: 11 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST  A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday had universally bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden, right as he heads into the New Hampshire primary. Nationally, the poll found, Biden dropped into second place at 17 percent, the new frontrunner being Sen. Bernie Sanders, with 25 percent.
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| Russia's Tsar Bomba Nuke Is So Destructive That It Was Only Tested Once Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:45 AM PST  And never used.
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| Israel ex-PM Olmert defiantly rallies behind Palestinian leader Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:17 PM PST  Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas a partner for peace, defiantly rejecting efforts by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sideline the veteran leader. Olmert, Netanyahu's centrist predecessor who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, met with Abbas in New York hours after the Palestinian leader went before the UN Security Council to denounce US President Donald Trump's Middle East plan.
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| New York man who posted photos of dead teen online pleads guilty to her murder Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST  "I've thought about Bianca and how she didn't deserve what happened to her," Brandon Clark said in court.
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| Trump’s Iran Man Met With a Former Terror Group’s Rep After Soleimani Strike Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:12 PM PST  The Trump administration's top official overseeing Iran policy met with a representative of a controversial Iranian dissident group weeks after a U.S. strike killed Iran's top military leader.Brian Hook, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, met on January 31 with Robert G. Joseph, a former senior State official who now represents the National Council of Resistance of Iran, according to a foreign agent filing that Joseph submitted to the Justice Department this week. The NCRI is the political arm of the People's Mujahedin of Iran—commonly known by Farsi acronym, MEK—a group that seeks regime change in Iran and was on the U.S. government's official list of foreign terrorist organizations until 2012.Joseph's meeting with Hook came just a few weeks after a U.S. airstrike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top military commander. The MEK had long seen Soleimani as one of Iran's foremost villains. In a blog post hailing his death, the NCRI described him as "an infamous symbol of the regime's intimidation and murder." Rudy Giuliani Calls Former Iranian Terrorists 'My People'Soleimani was "directly responsible for killing some of my MEK people," Rudy Giuliani, a long-time ally of the group, told The Daily Beast in January. "We don't like him very much."Yet, in the wake of that strike, Pompeo circulated a memo barring American officials from meeting with representatives of the MEK, citing its controversial history—it allegedly played a role in the assassination of three U.S. Army officers and three more civilian contractors—and poor public standing in Iran.Neither Hook nor the State Department press office responded to requests for additional information on the meeting. Joseph also did not respond to a request for comment.The meeting with Hook was one of three of U.S. government contacts reported in Joseph's semi-annual filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, but the only one that took place after the Soleimani strike. Joseph also reported meeting with Hook in September, and the following month with Tim Morrison, a former White House National Security Council official who oversaw policy in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Morrison declined to comment on the meeting.Joseph's FARA filing does not include any details on what was discussed at each of those meetings. In general, he told the Justice Department, he worked to "provide advice to NCRI officials on a range of issues, including: how best to counter false narratives about NCRI; how to improve the reach and effectiveness of the NCRI work on Iran's sponsorship ofterrorism, regional aggression and its nuclear program; and how to advance the cause of building a free and democratic Iran."'OK, Now What?': Inside Team Trump's Scramble to Sell the Soleimani Hit to AmericaJoseph also "provid[ed] advice to strengthen the protection and security of former Iranian refugee residents from the former U.S. military camp at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq, who are now residing outside Tirana, Albania," according to his Justice Department filing.The NCRI is headquartered in Paris and staffed by Iranian expatriates and exiles, many of whom have faced brutal treatment by the Iranian regime. The group's website describes it as the MEK's "umbrella coalition."The MEK has long worked to ingratiate itself with key U.S. policymakers, chiefly foreign policy hawks who share a distrust of the Iranian regime. It has forged ties with a number of officials who have served in or advised the Trump administration, including Giuliani and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.Pompeo himself spoke at an event that included MEK representatives last year. But in January, after Soleimani was killed, he cautioned diplomats against engaging with either the MEK or the NCRI. "Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior," Pompeo wrote in a memo sent to every U.S. embassy.Days later, State appeared to walk back those comments. It sent a cable to U.S. diplomats, as reported by The Daily Beast at the time, that did not mention the MEK or the NCRI by name, but left the door open to engagement with the groups. It simply advised U.S. officials to "use good judgement" in taking such meetings."Posts should welcome opportunities to meet with and learn from members of the Iranian diaspora community," advised the cable, which explicitly superseded Pompeo's memo. "After 40 years of repression and violence at the hands of the Ayatollahs, the Iranian people's pride in their history has not diminished nor has their resolve to celebrate it in the face of the Islamic republic's abuses."Meet the General Who Ran Soleimani's Spies, Guns and AssassinsJoseph is a longtime NCRI ally, and signed up to lobby directly for the group in January 2019. He told DOJ at the time that he planned to "interact with Albanian officials, U.S. Embassy, State Department staff, White House, and any other U.S. personnel as required, as well as UN officials." He's being paid $15,000 per month for his services.Prior to his private sector work, Joseph oversaw nuclear nonproliferation and arms control policies as a senior official in George W. Bush's State Department. He took a hard line on Iran in that position, according to contemporaneous reports.More recently, at an NCRI event in March 2019, Joseph expressed his hope that Tehran's government would soon fall. "The efforts that are being made by...many in this room, I am confident, will result in the rebirth of the great Persian nation and light replacing the darkness," he said. "The darkness that is brought to us by the brutal, repressive dictatorship of the Mullahs."—with additional reporting by Erin BancoRead 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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