| Chinese court holds off ruling on Canadian's death penalty appeal Posted: 09 May 2019 02:59 AM PDT  A Chinese court adjourned a hearing on a Canadian man's appeal against his death sentence for drug smuggling without a decision Thursday in a case that has deepened a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Ottawa. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, 36, was sentenced to death in January after a court deemed his previous 15-year prison sentence too lenient. The Liaoning High People's Court in northeast China said in a statement that "all procedural rights of appellant Schellenberg were guaranteed in accordance with the law".
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| McConnell capitalizes on attack with 'Cocaine Mitch' shirts Posted: 09 May 2019 02:46 PM PDT  FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is capitalizing on a fellow Republican's attack by selling "Cocaine Mitch" shirts on his campaign's website.
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| Original iPod hits eBay at insane $20,000 list price Posted: 09 May 2019 04:06 PM PDT  When Apple unveiled the original iPod back in 2001, the reactions weren't universally positive. Indeed, some fan reactions on a MacRumors message board at the time have since taken on a life of their own.As an illustrative example, one outraged Apple fan wrote the following nearly 18 years ago: "I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"Of course, the iPod would go onto become monumentally successful for Apple. In addition to padding Apple's bank account with billions of dollars, the iPod helped upend the music industry and, years later, would serve as the springboard for the iPhone. The iPhone may be a more revolutionary and impactful device, but it simply wouldn't exist had the iPod not paved the way years ahead of time.While some iconic products can still be found for cheap -- with Apple's original Bondi Blue iMac being one such example -- others are wildly expensive. The original iPod falls into the latter category.Hopping on over to eBay, someone is selling a completely unused and factory sealed original iPod for $19,995. And in a testament to how ancient the device is, the iPod in question features a mechanical scroll wheel and a paltry 5GB of storage. To be fair, though, 5GB of storage back then was more than enough for a world where the only media content people cared about was music.Is forking over $20,000 for an original iPod completely unnecessary, if not downright insane? Of course. Then again, never underestimate the power of nostalgia.
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| Venezuela reopens borders with Brazil and Aruba, official says Posted: 10 May 2019 01:05 PM PDT  Venezuela is reopening its borders with Brazil and the Caribbean island of Aruba, Venezuela's Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Friday, though Aruba's government said it did not consider a re-opening "opportune." The government of President Nicolas Maduro shut those borders in February amid an opposition campaign to bring humanitarian aid into the country, which is suffering from a hyperinflationary economic collapse amid a power struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido. "We want to convert it into a peaceful border region," El Aissami said in a state television address.
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| Grieving Students Walk Out of Colorado School Shooting Vigil: ‘This Was Not About Us’ Posted: 08 May 2019 09:50 PM PDT  Rick Wilking/ReutersHIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado—A day after two students shot up a school, survivors walked out of a vigil organized by gun control advocates, saying they felt excluded from what should have been an opportunity to grieve.Team Enough and Moms Demand Action helped promote the Wednesday evening gathering, and more than 100 students and several hundred parents from the STEM School packed into the gymnasium bleachers, hoping to find community and catharsis.But after sitting through remarks by Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and realizing the program was centered around changing gun laws, students who had hoped to speak lost patience and walked out en masse."This was not about us. We can do our own vigil," one STEM student remarked.Students from Team Enough said the event was organized on such short notice they were unable to find a way to include STEM students in the program."I feel terrible. They did not feel represented. I get it," said Laura Reeves, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action who spoke at the vigil."This was put together in such a short time. I know they did their best. Emotions are raw and sad. They are grieving. They need to express their feelings. They need to be together. I am hoping their school can help facilitate that conversation beyond this week."Police have said two STEM students opened fire at the school on Tuesday, killing one and wounding eight before they were arrested. Any motive for the attack—20 years after the Columbine High School massacre just seven miles away—has not been disclosed.Heavy rain had kept surviving students cooped up at home, and many of them were looking forward to the vigil at a neighboring school. Things began to fall apart an hour in when organizers suggested any STEM students who wanted to speak gather in the hall outside the gym.A few rose to speak, but soon the crowd filed out and left. Standing outside the building in the freezing rain, some began chanting. But they quickly dispersed as Douglas County Sheriff's vehicles began arriving at the school.One mom of a STEM student said it was a case of good intentions gone wrong."I really appreciate what they tried to do here tonight, but our kids didn't want to be talked at," she said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
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| Global stock markets fall as trade tensions fester Posted: 09 May 2019 02:34 PM PDT  World stock markets fell again on Thursday as Washington and Beijing worked to avert the collapse of negotiations to end their trade war.
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| US moving Patriot missile battery to Mideast to counter Iran Posted: 10 May 2019 02:55 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will move a Patriot missile battery into the Middle East to counter threats from Iran, the Pentagon said Friday, reflecting ongoing concerns that Tehran may be planning to attack America forces or interests in the region.
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| 5 Takes on Porsche's 911 Speedster, Designed by Our Staff Posted: 09 May 2019 08:31 AM PDT |
| Senate decision to subpoena Trump Jr over Russian interference sparks internal Republican conflict Posted: 10 May 2019 06:34 AM PDT  The US Senate Intelligence Committee's decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr has ignited an internal Republican firefight over the fate of the committee's Russia probe, as the panel's GOP chairman showed no signs of backing down despite fierce criticism from many of his colleagues that it was time to move on.The sudden infighting threatened to undermine support for the Senate's Russia investigation, which is the sole bipartisan probe in Congress into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has been widely praised as operating with little public drama.Much of the backlash against the decision by Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina to subpoena Donald Trump's eldest son came from GOP senators who are up for re-election next year and from those closely aligned with the president.The outrage was partially fuelled by Mr Trump Jr and his own allies."This would not go forward without Republican complicity," Senator Rand Paul, an ally of Mr Trump's, told reporters on Capitol Hill. "So I think it's a mistake for Republicans to keep putting the Trump family through this, and I really think they ought to drop it."The abrupt disclosure this week of the Trump Jr subpoena – issued at least a week ago, according to people familiar with the situation – came shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that he considered as closed all matters investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.Yet, until Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee has faced little public pressure to wrap up its investigation, which began in January 2017.And some GOP senators on the powerful but secretive committee made a point to stress publicly that their probe was separate from Mr Mueller's, despite attempts by others to link the two.Marco Rubio, a member of the intelligence panel, said the intense criticism of Mr Burr was in part a misunderstanding of the focus of the committee's investigation, which Senator Rubio said is being inaccurately conflated with the special counsel probe."Mueller is a criminal justice investigation," Mr Rubio said. "Ours is an intelligence investigation about the Russia threat and about the way our agencies performed."Some other Senate Republicans, on and off the Intelligence Committee, also defended Mr Burr."I'm not going to comment on what actions are being taken," said Susan Collins, who sits on the committee. "But I support his leadership and think that he has done a good job."Mitt Romney, who is not on the committee, said: "I have confidence in Chairman Burr, and if he's requesting testimony, I presume he has a reason for that."Still, the conservative resistance against Mr Burr's subpoena continued to intensify Thursday.The president's son is said to be "exasperated" at the subpoena, according to a person who has discussed it with him.And the president repeatedly stressed on Thursday that he was "surprised" by the demand, considering that his eldest son had testified for "hours and hours"."I sure wish Sen Richard Burr was as interested in Biden's cushy deals w/Ukraine & China while VP than he is in the harassment of @DonaldJTrumpJr over a CLOSED witch hunt," tweeted former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, the father of White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.In tweets, Charlie Kirk, the founder of the pro-Trump organisation Turning Point USA and a friend of Mr Trump Jr's, singled out Republican senators who are running for re-election in 2020 and taunted them to fall into line with the Trump family against Mr Burr's subpoena."Conservatives are watching closely how @SenThomTillis responds to his North Carolina colleague @SenatorBurr's senseless targeting of @DonaldJTrumpJr," Mr Kirk said in one of this tweets. "Primaries will not be kind to Republicans who stand silent as government power is...abused to harass the President's family."Mr Tillis, who is already facing a primary challenge from the right, said on Thursday morning that he disagreed with the committee's decision to subpoena Trump Jr."We have a 400-plus page report that was determined after about $30m (£23m) of money spent, dozens of investigators, hundreds of subpoenas and inquisitions that there was no underlying crime and no obstruction," Mr Tillis said."I personally believe Democrats are just trying to keep this thing alive, and it's their latest launch point to do it."But when a reporter noted that it was the committee led by Mr Burr, a Republican, that issued the subpoena, Mr Tillis responded: "I think you'd have to speak to Senator Burr. I stand by my comment."Senator John Cornyn, a member of Mr Burr's committee who is also up for re-election in 2020, said on Thursday morning that he was not aware in advance that a subpoena had been issued for Trump Jr but said: "At some point, this is not about finding facts.""This smacks of politics," Mr Cornyn said, according to CBS News. "And I think we have an important job to do to try to keep the Intelligence Committee out of politics."Asked to clarify, Mr Cornyn said he was not accusing Burr of playing politics.A Cornyn spokesman said he was "saying at some point the congressional investigations smack of politics, not specifically this decision".Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham stressed that he would not second-guess Mr Burr but said in his view, "Mueller's the final word for me"."If I were Don Jr's lawyer, I'd be reluctant to jump back into this circus," Mr Graham added. "It's just crazy. Mueller spent two years and $25m, and to me, he's the final word."The GOP tensions could escalate further if the president's eldest son defies the subpoena and Mr Burr triggers a showdown by insisting on enforcing the summons – leaving it in the hands of Mr McConnell to decide whether to hold Mr Trump Jr in contempt of Congress.Asked whether Mr Burr cleared the subpoena with Mr McConnell in advance, a spokesman for the majority leader said Mr McConnell has not directed Mr Burr or the committee on anything during the probe. The spokesman, David Popp, also declined to say whether Mr McConnell would put a contempt resolution on the Senate floor if Mr Trump Jr defied the demand, calling that scenario hypothetical."I think the good news is Chairman Burr has already indicated the committee will find no collusion," Mr McConnell said in a Fox News interview on Thursday night."I think this is going to have a happy ending...I understand the president's frustration here but I think this is just a blip."Mr Burr repeatedly declined to speak with reporters on Thursday.But at a closed-door lunch of GOP senators, he explained the reasoning behind the subpoena, according to people familiar with the discussion – including the timeline of the negotiations with Mr Trump Jr over his repeat testimony.Also during the Thursday lunch, Mr McConnell told his colleagues he had faith in Burr's leadership, encouraging them to stop their public attacks on his decision to issue a subpoena, according to people familiar with the conversations.In an interview this week conducted before the revelation of the Trump Jr subpoena, Mr Burr – who was elected to a third term in 2016 and has said he will not run again – dismissed any notion that politics is influencing his investigation."My responsibility is to the institution and the equities of the committee, and I'm judged by the product that we produce and how we carry out the investigation," Mr Burr said, adding that he could not let politics "influence what people think of the final report".The panel issued the subpoena after weeks of negotiations with Mr Trump Jr for a second interview that aides to both parties say he had to have known was always part of the deal, since the committee always planned to bring back key witnesses for a second session in which senators would be included.Committee staffers have been conducting most of the interviews in the intelligence panel's probe.Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law, appeared for a second closed-door session in late March.But the panel eventually lost its patience with Mr Trump Jr, issuing the subpoena more than a week ago.The summons became public only a day after Mr McConnell delivered a speech declaring "case closed" in regard to congressional investigations after the completion of the Mueller report.However, Mr McConnell also acknowledged an exception for the Intelligence Committee's probe, which he said should continue."Hopefully Don Jr and his lawyers will believe it's important," said Roy Blunt, who also sits on the committee."I think his brother-in-law came in, in a similar situation, to be sure that every question was clearly understood and clearly answered, and I think he should, too."Mark Warner, the committee's vice chairman, also expressed confidence on Thursday that Burr would hold the line against fresh attacks from within his own party."Since the beginning of this investigation, both of us have faced pressure at times – him to shut down the investigation, me to draw conclusions before we're finished," Mr Warner said. "We're going to do our job."Part of that job, Mr Warner said, was to ensure that the elections were "protected in 2020" – the same cycle in which most of Burr's critics will be facing their next political test.The Washington Post
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| Sister: 9-year-old boy accused of killing mom just 'snapped' Posted: 09 May 2019 08:15 AM PDT  FAWN RIVER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The adult sister of a 9-year-old boy who is charged with killing their mother said he has mental health problems and probably just "snapped" on the day of the shooting.
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| US ends support for Japan crashed fighter jet search Posted: 09 May 2019 03:02 AM PDT  The US Navy has ended operations assisting Japan's search for a stealth fighter jet that crashed in the Pacific, after some of its debris was recovered. "A US Navy salvage team aboard a contracted vessel completed its mission supporting search and recovery operations with the Japan Self-Defense Forces," the US 7th Fleet said in a statement on Wednesday. Japan will continue searching for the remains of the plane, a defence spokesman said.
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| French prosecutor opens investigation over suspected Monsanto file Posted: 10 May 2019 01:16 PM PDT ![French prosecutor opens investigation over suspected Monsanto file]( "French prosecutor opens investigation over suspected Monsanto file") The French prosecutor on Friday said it had opened a preliminary investigation into a suspected file assembled by Bayer's seed maker Monsanto to influence various personalities in France. The probe was opened after a complaint was filed by daily newspaper Le Monde. According to Le Monde and other French media, Monsanto built up a file of some 200 names that includes journalists and law makers in the hope of influencing their positions on pesticides.
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| Shocker! The GoFundMe Campaign to Build the Wall Is a Bust Posted: 10 May 2019 02:09 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyThis story originally appeared in Right Richter, a newsletter by Will Sommer. Subscribe now to see what's happening in right-wing media from the safety of your inbox.Back in December, Washington state Trump supporter Joshua Greene donated a small amount of money to the crowdfunding effort to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He wasn't alone. The GoFundMe page to build the wall, to which he'd donated, was a sensation on the right in late 2018 and raised more than $20 million. Organized by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, the campaign eventually morphed into a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, which promised to build portions of the wall on private land using the money it raised. Months later, there's no evidence that any construction has started, despite claims from Kolfage and his allies that construction would start in April. And now Greene is wondering what ever happened to that wall he was promised his dollars would fund? "The lack of updates is very concerning," Greene wrote in an email to Right Richter. He's not the only GoFundMe donor curious about what happened to the wall money. Since We Build the Wall blew their April deadline, Twitter replies to Kolfage and the group's Facebook page have filled up with angry donors. Greene started tweeting his displeasure, too. We Build the Wall has frequently presented itself as poised to start building portions of the wall on private land. In February, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach—who is a member of We Build the Wall's board of directors—claimed that the group was "getting ready to break ground, probably in April." Kolfage himself went further, saying in a radio interview in March that "we're going to start breaking ground next month." The group had even promised to invite donors to a groundbreaking ceremony.More than a week into May, though, We Build the Wall hasn't shown any proof that any ground has been broken, and donors say they weren't invited to any promised groundbreaking ceremony. Donors to the group have begun taking out their frustrations on the organization's Facebook page, which often hypes the threat of immigrants crossing the border illegally. "Show me video of wall being built and I'll pony up my next donation," reads one angry Facebook comment. "Where is the rest of the money going?" reads another. Making donors more nervous is that Kolfage has a history of participating in questionable endeavors. He was a prolific operator of hoax pages on Facebook, and money he raised in the past to help veterans' programs in hospitals never actually went to those hospitals. Complicating the effort further is that it's not that easy to find private land right on the border where a wall can be built. Kolfage and We Build the Wall's board of directors have spent plenty of time in Arizona, ostensibly scouting private land to build the wall. But The Phoenix New Times reported in March that the "vast majority" of land on the border in the state is owned by the federal government. Meanwhile, many of the people who actually own land on the border told the New Times that they hadn't been contacted by We Build the Wall. We Build the Wall didn't respond to requests for comment. In a Facebook comment this week, the group claimed, once again, that it was very close to building the wall. Conveniently, though, We Build the Wall claimed the information about the private wall's location had to be "secure" in order to confound liberal foes. Want this in your inbox? Subscribe to Right Richter here. "VERY soon we can release the details but have to keep that information secure for the time being as to prevent giving our detractors a heads up to derail our progress," the statement reads. "Soon, everyone will have the update they've been waiting for which we can't wait to share. This updated delay is just the unfortunate process of building a controversial barrier some people don't want to happen."Kolfage has made similar statements in the past, claiming in a March radio interview that he can't say where the wall will be built because Trump critics like the American Civil Liberties Union would try to stop it. "I wish I could name where it's at, but we can't name it because of the ACLU, these other liberal groups that want to sue us and impede our progress," Kolfage said. "But it's actually happening." As for Greene, he's fed up with the lack of information about the campaign he financially supported."I knew Brian had some previous shady GoFundMe campaigns," Greene emailed. "I felt more confident when he brought on other big names to work with him, I haven't seen a tweet from ANY of them."Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| Our Own Private Singapore Posted: 10 May 2019 08:06 AM PDT  The rap on Singapore is that it has fertile capital but a sterile culture -- a great place to do business, but a stultifying place to live.It is the Facebook of countries.The authorities there are sensitive to that kind of criticism. In a 2017 interview with the Straits Times, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasized the diversity of the country and the distinctiveness of its individual cultural components. Singapore, he said, is oriented not toward assimilation but integration."The result has been distinctive Singaporean variants of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian cultures, and a growing Singaporean identity that we all share, suffusing and linking up our distinct individual identities and ethnic cultures," Lee said. "We certainly don't wish Singapore to be a first-world economy but a third-rate society, with a people who are well off but uncouth. We want to be a society rich in spirit, a gracious society where people are considerate and kind to one another, and as Mencius said, where we treat all elders as we treat our own parents, and other children as our own."That is a very nice vision, which the government of Singapore pursues energetically through authoritarianism, bullying, and intimidation. Singapore is an innovator in many fields, and one of the activities toward which it has turned a great deal of attention is one that is of increasing global and domestic significance: censorship.Singapore has just passed a law that would require Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media companies to publish corrections on their sites in response to content that is ruled untrue by the government of Singapore. Facebook executives say they have been looking to governments for guidance in their attempt to suppress certain kinds of speech on their platforms -- and here it is, from the world-beating experts.The government of Singapore is, in fact, not so different in its thinking from Facebook. It is just a little ahead of the curve. Facebook insists (sometimes laughably) that its speech restrictions are not directed at unpopular political ideas but exist to serve the "safety" of the public. Singapore, too, cites safety as it prohibits certain unwelcome political activism and cultural innovation. "Public safety" is, like "national security," an almost infinitely plastic criterion in the hands of an entrepreneurial politician: In March, President Donald Trump blocked the acquisition of Qualcomm by Singapore-based Broadcom, offering only the vague explanation that the company "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Senator Marco Rubio has argued that corporate welfare for Florida sugar barons is a matter of national security, while others make the same argument for their favorite commodities; Democratic party officials have suggested that Second Amendment activists be investigated or suppressed as terrorists; the sniveling cowards who run the University of California at Berkeley cited "public safety" when they forbade conservative polemicist Ann Coulter to speak on campus. Et cetera ad nauseam.In Singapore, "public safety" is the rationale for a remarkably thorough program of official censorship, much of which is directed at the worthy goal of keeping the peace among the city-state's unamalgamated ethnic and religious groups. For example, if a crime has a potentially inflammatory ethnic or religious component, that fact generally will be omitted from media coverage as part of an unspoken agreement between the state and the newspapers. Films or books that are deemed to denigrate an ethnic or religious group are prohibited. The sale of Malaysian newspapers is prohibited. And in the same way that U.S. progressives seek to suppress political speech as a matter of "campaign finance," the authorities in Singapore have prohibited the unlicensed showing of "party political films," which may be the of "any person and directed towards any political end in Singapore." Such films are permitted only if the government considers them objective; the irony of demanding a subjective ruling about objectivity seems to have been lost on Singapore's rulers, who are not famous for their sense of humor.Singapore's censors make the same argument as do Facebook's: that the suppression of certain kinds of unwelcome political speech is necessary for "public safety." Singapore's is a genuinely multiethnic and multireligious society -- and, as it turns out, such societies do not have a very good record for long-term stability and domestic tranquility. If anything, Singapore has a more convincing argument that fanning the flames of communal politics in such a country is likely to actually endanger people than Facebook does that Milo Yiannapoulos is whatever kind of danger it is that he is supposed to be. Singapore's position is more convincing than the jactitations of those ignorant little twerps at Philadelphia's University of the Arts who protested that the presence of Professor Camille Paglia on their campus left them "unsafe." (They should feel grateful. I wonder who is the second-most distinguished intellectual associated with that school.) You will not be surprised to learn that the burdens here fall more heavily on dissidents and critics of the government.But let us give Singapore and Facebook the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are motivated by concerns that are in the main to be admired. The end results are no less risible: If American society is really so fragile that Alex Jones presents an existential threat to the republic, then we should send our British cousins a letter of apology and ask to be readmitted as a colony, if they'll have us. Likewise, if Singapore truly is going to be rocked, and not in a good way, by a Katy Perry song ("I Kissed a Girl" was prohibited as homosexual propaganda) then it is a pitiable little island indeed, to quaver at such a colossus as that.But, of course, almost no one takes seriously these claims, just as no one seriously thinks that Ann Coulter is a "danger" to anybody or that the NRA shares a genre with the Islamic State. These are pretexts, and flimsy ones. They are fig leaves for ochlocracy.But once censorship has been established in principle and accepted in practice, then officiousness, triviality, and vindictiveness are the inevitable outcomes. Bureaucracies -- Singapore's government, Facebook's management -- have interests of their own, and agendas of their own, and tastes of their own, and to take seriously the proposition that Facebook's speech-policing or U.S. "campaign finance" restrictions will be managed with any more objectivity or neutrality than Singapore's official state censorship is to ignore almost everything we know about how bureaucracies actually work. The powers that be at Facebook and Twitter may or may not be acting in good faith, but the more important fact is that they could not be fair and neutral even if they sincerely wished to be. This is a fact of organizational life, one that must be dealt with seriously. The bland little caudillos down in Human Resources are creatures of an insipid little culture all their own.And that is the one that Facebook et al. propose we live under.Facebook is a private company, and it may of course as a legal matter do whatever it pleases with its own platform, and Singapore's censorship is perfectly legal, too, for what that's worth -- which is not very much: Some of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history were carried out under the color of law. The question of what may be done is distinct from the question of what should be done.Singapore's censorship is quite defensible in principle -- if you accept censorship in principle -- and the consequences of its policies have been perfectly predictable. When the prime minister feels himself obliged to go public with his insistence that local cultural conditions are not "third rate," it is an excellent indicator that they are obviously third-rate. Some lies are accidental advertisements for the truth. There is much that is admirable about Singapore, but at its worst it is a kind of splendidly air-conditioned fascist shopping mall. Public safety is one of those good things it is possible to have too much of, and "graciousness" enforced at the point of a bayonet is not graciousness at all.Facebook, Twitter, et al. are houses divided: As businesses they are one thing, as institutions they are another. Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes argued in the pages of the New York Times on Thursday that Facebook should be broken up, in part because of its failure to contain "violent rhetoric and fake news." Facebook and other "gargantuan companies," he argued, are a threat to democracy. That is hysteria, but it contains a measure of truth. Democracy relies on discourse, and healthy discourse relies on a culture of open exchange, which in turn requires a measure of confidence that Facebook's executives lack. Ironically, the problems of Facebook and, especially, of Twitter are not so much threats to democracy but useful illustrations of the shortcomings of unmediated democracy, in which the mob bullies the institutions into submission. In a healthy democratic system, things work in roughly the opposite way, with institutions helping to contain and redirect the excesses of democratic passion. And that is where Facebook and Singapore differ: The government of Singapore -- which, whatever its shortcomings, seems to be run by men who genuinely believe in their own precepts -- serves no mob, but Facebook, lacking the real conviction that can be rooted only in the permanent things, is abject and quickly prone before whatever mob happens to show up at its door.The American settlement under the First Amendment is unusual to the point of being nearly unique. Censorship of different kinds is the norm in civilized countries from Singapore to Germany, where certain political parties, symbols, and ideas are strictly prohibited. The American arrangement is different because it is the product of men who as individuals and as a civilization believed in something, which gave them the confidence to live in a world in which they are likely to hear and read things they did not like from time to time, things that might even be wicked, scurrilous, or wrong. Some men endure winter at Valley Forge, and some tremble at the menace of Katy Perry or poor daft Laura Loomer.There is a wonderful scene in Serenity, a science-fiction film that is something of a libertarian manifesto, in which a fragile, psychologically damaged girl is taken along on what amounts to an Old West-style bank robbery, after which she and her friends are chased and nearly captured by mutant space cannibals who mean to eat them raw on the spot. At the end of a wild ride dodging fire in an open-air conveyance while speeding across a Sergio Leone landscape, she returns to her overprotective older brother, who asks if she is injured. She looks at him, wide-eyed, and says: "I swallowed a bug." Freedom tastes like that, sometimes.
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| Joe Biden supports health care coverage for undocumented immigrants Posted: 09 May 2019 03:51 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden, considered one of the more centrist members of the Democratic presidential primary field, calls for a controversial new entitlement; Peter Doocy reports.
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| US seizes North Korean ship amid tense moment in relations Posted: 09 May 2019 11:10 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. said Thursday that it has seized a North Korean cargo ship that was used to violate international sanctions, a first-of-its kind enforcement action that comes amid a tense moment in relations between the two countries.
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| STEM School was urged to investigate concerns over 'a repeat of Columbine' months before shooting Posted: 09 May 2019 11:53 AM PDT  A woman claiming to be a parent of a STEM School student warned school district administrators in December about her fears of a 'a repeat of Columbine.'
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| Trump calls for prosecuting John Kerry for talking to Iran Posted: 09 May 2019 11:48 AM PDT  He's talking to Iran and...has many meetings and many phone calls and he's telling them what to do.
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| Israel lifts Gaza fishing ban as calm returns Posted: 10 May 2019 03:44 AM PDT  Israel lifted a ban on Friday on Palestinian fishing boats operating off Gaza, an Israeli military body said, ending a measure imposed during a deadly flare-up of violence earlier this month. The fishing union in Gaza confirmed the lifting of the ban, saying the new limits imposed by Israel were 12 nautical miles in the southern half of Gaza, and six nautical miles in the north.
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| Windows 10 update brings us closer to a world without passwords Posted: 09 May 2019 03:04 PM PDT  Microsoft is one step closer to fulfilling the passwordless Windows 10 dream, as the latest Windows 10 update will make it even easier to log into devices and online services without having to worry about passwords.That's because Microsoft's Windows Hello has received FIDO2 certification, which means Hello biometrics and PINs are now seen as secure authenticators."FIDO2 is a set of standards that enables easy and secure logins to websites and applications via biometrics, mobile devices and/or FIDO Security Keys. FIDO2's simpler login experiences are backed by strong cryptographic security that is far superior to passwords, protecting users from phishing, all forms of password theft and replay attacks," the FIDO Alliance explained in a press release.Microsoft said in its own announcement to mark the FIDO2 certification that "no one likes passwords (except hackers).""People don't like passwords because we have to remember them," Microsoft said. "As a result, we often create passwords that are easy to guess -- which makes them the first target for hackers trying to access your computer or network at work."With Windows Hello, you'll now be able to use facial authentication, fingerprints, or a PIN to "leave the world of passwords behind," although, technically, you won't drop the passwords for any of these devices or services anytime soon. But you won't have to fill them in with each login.You'll have to update your Windows 10 computer to version 1903 to take advantage of the feature. What that means, in practice, is that browsers including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox will support Windows Hello biometrics. Similarly, several of Microsoft's own products, including Office 365, Skype, Xbox Live, and others will also authenticate users with Windows Hello rather than a password.
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| Federal judge keeps UAW lawsuit over plant closings in Ohio Posted: 10 May 2019 12:26 PM PDT ![Federal judge keeps UAW lawsuit over plant closings in Ohio]( "Federal judge keeps UAW lawsuit over plant closings in Ohio") A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the United Auto Workers against General Motors over the closing of three plants should be heard in Ohio. The Warren Tribune Chronicle reports U.S. District ...
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| Abortion bill delayed as Alabama Senate falls into chaos Posted: 09 May 2019 11:38 AM PDT  The lieutenant governor agreed to remove amendments creating exceptions for rape and incest, leading to anger and arguments on the Senate floor.
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| Trump says senior adviser wants to get him ‘into a war’ in Venezuela after failure to oust Maduro Posted: 09 May 2019 12:55 AM PDT  Donald Trump is questioning his administration's aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a US-backed effort to oust Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist president with a young opposition figure, according to administration officials and White House advisers.The president's dissatisfaction has crystallised around national security adviser John Bolton and what Mr Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.Mr Trump has said in recent days that Mr Bolton wants to get him "into a war" – a comment he has made in jest in the past but that now belies his more serious concerns, one senior administration official said.The administration's policy is officially unchanged in the wake of a fizzled power play last week by US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó.But US officials have since been more cautious in their predictions of Mr Maduro's swift exit, while re-assessing what one official described as the likelihood of a diplomatic "long haul".US officials point to the president's sustained commitment to the Venezuela issue, from the first weeks of his presidency as evidence that he holds a realistic view of the challenges there, and does not think there is a quick fix.But Mr Trump has nonetheless complained over the last week that Mr Bolton and others underestimated Mr Maduro, according to three senior administration officials who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.Mr Trump has said Mr Maduro is a "tough cookie", and that aides should not have led him to believe that the Venezuelan leader could be ousted last week, when Mr Guaidó led mass street protests that turned deadly.Instead, Mr Maduro rejected an offer to leave the country and two key figures in his government backed out of what Mr Bolton said had been a plan to defect.Mr Maduro publicly mocked Mr Trump in response and said he wasn't going anywhere, saying the United States had attempted a "foolish" coup.Late on Wednesday, masked Venezuelan intelligence police detained National Assembly Vice President Edgar Zambrano in a dramatic operation in Caracas, marking the first senior opposition official taken into custody by the socialist government in retaliation for the failed military uprising.Mr Zambrano is one of 10 opposition officials charged with treason, conspiracy and rebellion by the pro-Maduro Supreme Court in connection to the plot.Mr Bolton publicly revealed the defection plan to apply pressure to Mr Maduro, which US officials said has worked.They claim Mr Maduro is sleeping in a bunker, paranoid that close aides will turn on him.But Mr Trump has expressed concern that Mr Bolton has boxed him into a corner and gone beyond where he is comfortable, said a US official familiar with US-Venezuela policy.Mr Bolton's tweets egging on Mr Maduro to begin an "early retirement" on a "nice beach" and urging for mass defections have been widely viewed as cavalier, raising unrealistic expectation for how quickly his ouster can be engineered, the US official said.Despite Mr Trump's grumbling that Bolton had gotten him out on a limb on Venezuela, Mr Bolton's job is safe, two senior administration officials said, and Mr Trump has told his national security adviser to keep focusing on Venezuela.The open threat of US military involvement in Venezuela has grown alongside the administration's increasingly confrontational approach to Iran, with Mr Bolton announcing last weekend that a US aircraft carrier battle group would be deployed to counter Iranian plots to harm US forces in the Middle East.In both cases, the administration has adopted a get-tough policy that appeals to Mr Trump's instincts to project American power abroad but that also echoes the kind of military adventurism he has long ridiculed.Mr Trump appears more comfortable with the Iran policy, which is grounded in his own strong belief that the former president, Barack Obama, miscalculated in striking a nuclear bargain with Tehran.He is less comfortable with the escalating rhetoric on Venezuela, which does not pose a direct military threat to the United States.Any US military involvement there risks a proxy fight with Russia, which backs Mr Maduro and has sold him arms.Mr Trump spoke approvingly of Russian actions in Venezuela following a lengthy phone call with Vladimir Putin on Friday, saying the Russian president "is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela. And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid".His comments stood in contrast to earlier statements from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mr Bolton, who accused Russia of propping up Mr Maduro with money and military equipment.During the Putin call, Mr Trump expressed his concern about the security and humanitarian situation on the ground in Venezuela, said a person briefed on the call.Mr Putin agreed with Mr Trump's assessment but said that the US position has solidified Mr Maduro's grip on power in Venezuela.Mr Putin also told Mr Trump that Moscow was not selling new weapons to Venezuela but maintaining existing contracts and he downplayed Russia's financial investments in the country.The events of 30 April have effectively shelved serious discussion of a heavy US military response, current and former officials as well as outside advisers said.Rather, US officials think time is on their side and that Mr Maduro will fall of his own weight.That waiting game poses its own risk, however, if Mr Guaidó asks for US military assistance.Mike Pompeo brushed off criticism from Jeremy Corbyn about US "interference" in Venezuela during an interview Wednesday in London."Providing food to starving children isn't interference. It's support; it's what we do," Mr Pompeo said."It's in our deepest traditions of humanitarian assistance. The interference has taken place; the Cubans are there. They've interfered. So I hope Mr Corbyn will ask the Cubans to cease their interference in Venezuela."Vice President Mike Pence was measured in his threats to Mr Maduro during remarks at a gathering of Latin American leaders in Washington on Tuesday, saying that "Maduro must go," but also signalling that it might not happen quickly.Mr Pence announced deployment of a Navy hospital ship to the region in June, and said the United States would lift sanctions on one senior Maduro aide who had switched sides.That was a shift from previous rhetoric about the tightening yoke of sanctions, and meant to emphasise that there are carrots in the US policy as well as sticks, one senior official said.The famously hawkish Mr Bolton has been the loudest voice within the administration in support of a potential military response to the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, where escalating US sanctions have not forced Mr Maduro to cede power.He was not the first, however.Mr Trump mused about invading or bombing Venezuela last year, comments that were at first dismissed as fanciful.He is now not inclined to have any sort of military intervention in Venezuela, two officials and an outside adviser said.Mr Trump has, in Oval Office meetings and phone calls with advisers, questioned his administration providing such strong support of Mr Guaidó.Some White House officials said Mr Trump likes the charismatic leader, whom he has called courageous, but has wondered aloud whether he is ready to take over and about how much the administration really knows about him.Mr Guaidó's many supporters within the administration say he has proved himself as the first Venezuelan opposition leader to unite factions and pose a credible threat to Mr Maduro.His standing within the country is borne out by the fact that Mr Maduro has not seized or harmed him, fearing a backlash, some officials said.Senator Lindsey Graham said he has no concern that the United States is making a bad bet on Mr Guaidó."Oh God, no. Smart money," Mr Graham said. "I think he's the future of Venezuela. He's young, he's the solution – not the problem."Mr Graham also said Mr Trump has been well served by his advisers, including Mr Bolton.Mr Pompeo was also bullish about Mr Maduro's ouster last week, saying after the plan faltered that Mr Maduro had been heading to the airport before Russian advisers talked him out of leaving. Mr Maduro denied it.Senator Marco Rubio, who has been influential in shaping the administration's Venezuela response, said Mr Trump and Mr Bolton are on the same page.Mr Rubio, who said he spoke to Mr Trump about Venezuela on Tuesday evening, backs the policy of waiting out Mr Maduro."He's in the same mind-set that I'm in, and that is that we've got to stay the course, it's working," Mr Rubio said in an interview.Mr Rubio said some of the harshest US sanctions are only now having full effect, including sowing dissension among Mr Maduro's aides."Only now are you starting to see it burn and I think that's what's causing some of this internal friction in the regime."US defence leaders regard any military scenario involving boots on the ground in Venezuela as a quagmire, and warn that standoff weapons such as Tomahawk missiles run a major risk of killing civilians.The White House has repeatedly asked for military planning short of invasion, however.Officials said the options under discussion while Mr Maduro is still in power include sending additional military assets to the region, increasing aid to neighbouring countries such as Colombia, and other steps to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced Venezuelans outside of Venezuela.More forward-leaning options include sending naval ships to waters off Venezuela as a show of force.Other steps under discussion are intended for after Mr Maduro is gone, when US military personnel might be permitted inside Venezuela to help with humanitarian responses.John Feeley, a former US ambassador and Univision political analyst, said there is another reason that military intervention is unlikely."It runs counter to Donald Trump's 2020 re-election narrative. At a time when you're pulling people back from Syria, back from Iraq, back from Afghanistan, how do you say we're going to commit 50-, 100-, 150,000 of our blood and treasure to a country where you can't tell the bad guys from the good guys?" Mr Feeley said.The Washington Post
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| Twitter suspended 166,153 accounts for terrorism content in H2 2018 Posted: 09 May 2019 06:49 AM PDT  Twitter is making headway in tackling online terrorism content on its platform as it suspended over 166,000 accounts in the second half of last year, about a fifth less than in the previous period, the social media company said on Thursday. Together with Facebook and Google, Twitter is under pressure from regulators and governments worldwide to remove extremist content more rapidly or face more heavy-handed legislation. Announcing its latest transparency report, the company said its technical tools were producing results, with 91 percent of accounts promoting terrorism content proactively suspended by its internal technology, the majority of which happened before their first tweet because the data used to set them up raised red flags.
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| Iran FM demands EU 'uphold obligations' in nuclear deal Posted: 09 May 2019 10:38 AM PDT  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday blamed the EU for the decline of Tehran's nuclear accord with world powers and insisted the bloc "should uphold" its obligations under the pact. "EU statement today is why JCPOA is where it is: the US has bullied Europe—and rest of world—for a year and EU can only express 'regret'," Zarif tweeted in response to the European Union rejecting Tehran's threat to resume nuclear work.
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| Uber valued at $82 billion in IPO as market jitters, Lyft woes weigh Posted: 09 May 2019 03:50 PM PDT  Uber Technologies Inc priced its initial public offering on Thursday at the low end of its targeted range for a valuation of $82.4 billion, hoping its conservative approach will spare it the trading plunge suffered by rival Lyft Inc. It is an underwhelming result for the most anticipated IPO since Facebook Inc's market debut seven years ago. Uber raised $8.1 billion, pricing its IPO at $45 per share, close to the bottom of the targeted $44-$50 range.
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| Ingraham: If Dems take the White House Posted: 09 May 2019 07:59 PM PDT  Joe Biden announces plan to provide health care to illegal immigrants.
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| 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Has Survived Unscathed Posted: 09 May 2019 01:19 PM PDT  It has been tastefully preserved for future generations to enjoy. Classic 'Vettes are great, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find any that haven't been adulterated with different modifications. This beautiful machine, America's sports car, is being offered a lucky future owner by Savannah Classic Cars.
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| The Latest: 1 victim still in hospital after school shooting Posted: 10 May 2019 05:27 PM PDT  DENVER (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a Colorado school that killed one student and injured eight (all times local):
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| View Photos of the Buick GL8 Avenir Concept Posted: 09 May 2019 03:13 PM PDT |
| Americans' support for impeaching Trump rises: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 09 May 2019 01:39 PM PDT  The number of Americans who said President Donald Trump should be impeached rose 5 percentage points to 45 percent since mid-April, while more than half said multiple congressional probes of Trump interfered with important government business, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. The opinion poll, conducted on Monday, did not make clear whether investigation-fatigued Americans wanted House of Representatives Democrats to pull back on their probes or press forward aggressively and just get impeachment over with. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi re-emphasized that the leaders of the investigative committees in the Democratic-controlled House were taking a step-by-step approach.
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| Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams says she is considering White House run Posted: 09 May 2019 04:45 PM PDT  Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, a rising party star who narrowly fell short of becoming the first female African- American governor last year, said on Thursday she is still considering running for president.
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| Three party leaders seeking to win S.Africa election Posted: 09 May 2019 03:24 AM PDT  South Africa was counting votes on Thursday following national polls with the leaders of the three main parties hoping to come out on top. Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the ruling ANC party, took the country's reins last year after a dramatic and varied career intertwined with the birth of modern South Africa. When Mandela walked out of jail in 1990, Ramaphosa was standing beside him.
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| U.S. House could slap $25,000 per day contempt fines on Trump advisers: Democrat Posted: 10 May 2019 04:49 PM PDT  Expanding on an idea floated days ago by Democrats as a way of putting some teeth into various inquiries of Trump, his turbulent presidency, his family and his business interests, Representative Adam Schiff spoke in two interviews about reviving the "inherent contempt" power of Congress. "We would levy fines on those who are not cooperating," Schiff, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee told Axios in an interview published on Friday. Republicans have accused Democrats of grandstanding for progressive voters, but even the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the president's son, Donald Trump Jr. Congress can subpoena testimony and documents, then enforce these formal requests by holding recalcitrant subpoena targets in contempt of Congress.
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| Tesla CEO Elon Musk faces trial for 'pedo' insult of diver Posted: 10 May 2019 04:10 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk will have to go to trial to defend himself for mocking a British diver as a pedophile in a verbal sparring match that unfolded last summer after the underwater rescue of youth soccer players trapped in a Thailand cave.
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| CVS, Payless and Victoria's Secret are just some of the brands closing stores in 2019 Posted: 10 May 2019 03:33 AM PDT ![CVS, Payless and Victoria's Secret are just some of the brands closing stores in 2019]( "CVS, Payless and Victoria's Secret are just some of the brands closing stores in 2019") While 2019 is on track to be a record year for store closings, it's not expected to bring the same amount of empty retail space as last year.
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| Chelsea Manning: Jailed US analyst walks free after refusing to testify to WikiLeaks grand jury Posted: 09 May 2019 08:45 PM PDT  The former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been released from prison after she was jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.Ms Manning spent 62 days in jail on contempt charges but was released as the term of the grand jury she was supposed to give evidence to expired.However the ex Army employee, who served seven years of a 35-year sentence for handing a huge trove of confidential documents to WikiLeaks, could be back in jail within a week.She has received another subpoena demanding she testify to a new grand jury, opening on 16 May.Under US federal law, a person subpoenaed by a grand jury can be jailed on a civil contempt charge if judges believe it has a chance of coercing them to give evidence.Earlier this week, Ms Manning's lawyers filed court papers arguing that she should not be jailed again because she has proven that she will stick to her principles and will not testify no matter how long she is jailed.If a judge were to determine that incarcerating Ms Manning were punitive rather than coercive, she would not be jailed."At this point, given the sacrifices she has already made, her strong principles, her strong and growing support community, and the disgrace attendant to her capitulation, it is inconceivable that Chelsea Manning will ever change her mind about her refusal to cooperate with the grand jury," her lawyers wrote.Ms Manning filed an eight-page statement with the court on Monday outlining her resolve.She wrote that "cooperation with this grand jury is simply not an option. Doing so would mean throwing away all of my principles, accomplishments, sacrifices, and erase decades of my reputation - an obvious impossibility," she wrote.She also said she was suffering disproportionately in jail because of physical problems related with inadequate follow-up care to gender-reassignment surgery.Ms Manning was working for the Army in Iraq in 2010 when she was arrested and accused of leaking 700,000 documents, diplomatic cables and videos.She was accused of putting the lives of American soldiers at risk, but said she acted in order to open up debate about US foreign policy.Her 35-year sentence was the longest for leaking in US history, and president Barack Obama referred to it as "disproportionate" to her crimes. He commuted the remainder of her sentence in 2017, just before leaving office.Additional reporting by agencies
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| The Mercedes-Maybach GLS Will Be the Most Expensive Car Built in America Posted: 10 May 2019 11:10 AM PDT  Mercedes has confirmed plans for an ultra-luxurious Maybach version of the third-gen GLS.
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| Understanding the Surge in Tensions with Iran Posted: 09 May 2019 03:17 PM PDT  Over the weekend, the White House announced it was sending an aircraft-carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to "troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" related to Iran. These warnings reportedly were Israeli intelligence reports indicating Iran was planning attacks against U.S. personnel and allies in the Middle East.Press reports differed on the nature of the planned Iranian attacks. There were reports that Iranian officials gave a green light to its terrorist proxies to attack U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria. Other reports said Iran planned to orchestrate drone attacks in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. There also was a report that Iran had moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores.There has been speculation that Iran was planning these attacks in retaliation for damage done to the Iranian economy by sanctions the U.S. reimposed after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). These attacks may also have been planned in response to the Trump administration's recent designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization.President Trump's critics are claiming that a surge in tensions with Iran in response to his withdrawal from the JCPOA prove the U.S. withdrawal from this agreement was a mistake and increased the threat from Iran. But the facts suggest otherwise. Iran is desperately trying to reverse the effects of President Trump's successful Iran policy, known as the maximum-pressure strategy.The Trump administration recently toughened its sanctions against Iran. Last month it ended exemptions to oil sanctions. Nuclear sanctions also have been strengthened, including a demand that Iran cease uranium enrichment. Yesterday, the Trump administration extended U.S. sanctions on Iran's steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors.The Obama administration told the American people that the JCPOA would improve relations with Iran and bring it into the international community. However, Iran's behavior actually worsened after the JCPOA, especially with its decision to send troops to Syria. President Trump decided not to rely on the weak nuclear deal to restrain Iranian behavior and protect American interests in the region. Reminiscent of President Reagan's "Peace through Strength" dictum, the deployment of military forces is a show of U.S. force to prevent hostilities, not to start a war with Iran.In addition, although European governments still oppose President Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA and new U.S. sanctions against Iran, European corporations are honoring U.S. sanctions and have left Iran in droves, including Air France, British Airways, KLM, Total, Siemens, and Volkswagen.Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced yesterday that in response to European companies' cooperating with reimposed U.S. sanctions, Iran will soon violate elements of the JCPOA by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water, which is needed for a plutonium-producing reactor. Rouhani also said Iran would increase uranium enrichment above the limit of 3.67 percent enriched uranium set by the JCPOA if European firms do not cease honoring U.S. sanctions. Rouhani's threats to withdraw from the nuclear deal probably will further dissuade European companies from doing business in Iran.Rouhani's threats to partially withdraw from the JCPOA will have a negligible effect on Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons because the agreement is so weak. The nuclear deal already allows Iran to pursue nuclear-weapons-related activities, permitting it to enrich uranium with 5,000 centrifuge machines while the agreement is in effect. Its inspection provisions are likewise very weak and Iran has violated them by not permitting inspections of military sites. Iran also has refused to fully account for its past nuclear-weapons work.Israeli intelligence discovered last year from a trove of Iranian documents (the "Iran nuclear archive") the existence of a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran that may have contained 300 tons of equipment and 15 kilograms of radioactive material. Rouhani's threats are therefore absurd because he is threatening to withdraw from an ineffective nuclear agreement that Iran is already cheating on.Iran's attempt to blackmail Europe over President Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA is also likely to backfire. An EU statement issued today said "We reject any ultimatums and we will assess Iran's compliance on the basis of Iran's performance regarding its nuclear-related commitments." Rouhani's ultimatum will alienate European leaders who were already concerned about Iran's belligerent behavior, including its troop presence in Syria, meddling in Iraq and Yemen, and sponsorship of terrorism.In response to Iranian assassination squads operating in Europe to kill Iranian dissidents, the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran in January 2019, the first EU sanctions since the JCPOA was implemented. The EU is also considering sanctioning Iran over its ballistic-missile tests. Rouhani's blackmail threat and new reports that Iran is planning attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East could push Europe closer to the Trump administration.Iran's recent threats and alleged plans to attack U.S. interests reflect the success of President Trump's maximum-pressure strategy on Iran. U.S. sanctions have isolated Iran and deprived its ruling mullahs of funds to spend on the military, terrorism, and meddling in regional disputes. The sanctions also have caused Iran's oil exports to drop to about 1.3 million barrels a day, down from 2.8 million before the U.S. left the JCPOA. Iran's oil exports probably will drop much further due to the Trump administration's recent decision to end all exemptions to U.S. oil sanctions. Iran's economy is expected to shrink by 6 percent in 2019 after having shrunk 3.9 percent in 2018. Inflation could reach 50 percent this year.At the same time, President Trump remains open to dialogue with Iranian leaders. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a list of twelve U.S. requirements for a new agreement with Iran on nuclear and regional issues in a May 2018 speech at the Heritage Foundation. So far, Iranian officials have shown no interest in dialogue with the U.S. and are sticking to hostile rhetoric to divide and threaten America.While a new agreement that addresses the full range of threats from Iran is not on the horizon, the current maximum-pressure strategy has yielded many important achievements, including delegitimizing Iran's nuclear program, strengthening America's relationships with Israel and the Gulf states, and repairing the damage done to these relationships by the Obama administration. President Trump's Iran policy has also revived longstanding U.S. policies to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles worldwide.The bottom line: terrorist and blackmail threats from Iran are not going to save Obama's fraudulent nuclear deal or deter the U.S. from standing up to Iran's ruling mullahs.
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