| Rex Tillerson Secretly Meets With House Foreign Affairs Committee to Talk Trump Posted: 21 May 2019 12:34 PM PDT  Jonathan Ernst/ReutersFormer secretary of state Rex Tillerson spoke with the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs committee on Tuesday in a lengthy session that, an aide said, touched on his time working in the Trump administration, the frictions he had with the president's son-in-law, and efforts to tackle issues like Russian interference in the 2016 election.Tillerson's appearance, first reported by The Daily Beast, took place as virtually every other Trumpworld luminary has been stonewalling congressional oversight efforts. At the same time the former secretary of state was speaking before lawmakers, former White House counsel Don McGahn was ignoring a subpoena to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Tillerson's arrival at the Capitol was handled with extreme secrecy. No media advisories or press releases were sent out announcing his appearance. And he took a little-noticed route into the building in order to avoid being seen by members of the media. Tillerson reached out to the committee and expressed a willingness to meet, a committee aide said. In a more than six-hour meeting, he told members and staffers that the Trump administration actively avoided confronting Russia about allegations of interference in the election in an effort to develop a solid relationship with the Kremlin, a committee aide told The Daily Beast. Tillerson also told members and aides that he had tried to establish a formal and disciplined interagency process at the State Department whereby the president could receive informed briefings on sensitive foreign policy matters, the aide said. That effort never manifested, Tillerson told the committee, in part because of the president's management style, but also because of interference from other aides.Tillerson told the committee that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at times impeded his ability to communicate effectively and introduce to President Trump policy proposals developed by State Department experts on major foreign affairs matters across the globe, not just in the Middle East. Kushner, a White House adviser, has publicly focused much of his international efforts on the Middle East and is set to unveil a Middle East peace plan in the coming weeks.Tillerson had a notoriously prickly relationship with the president, reportedly calling him a "moron" in private. But he was present during critical moments of the administration, including Trump's private 2017 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg, Germany. Since leaving his post, Tillerson has rarely made public appearances, save for speaking at a panel in Houston in December. During that appearance, he said there was "no question" Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. "So often, the president would say, 'Here's what I want to do and here's how I want to do it,' and I would have to say to him, 'Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can't do it that way. It violates the law,'" Tillerson said.Tillerson's interview by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) and ranking member Michael McCaul (R-TX) comes a month after special counsel Robert Mueller published his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, top Democrats on the Hill have demanded that Attorney General Bill Barr and Mueller answer questions related to the report and its publication. Barr has declined to testify before the House, citing the insistence of the committee that staff lawyers be allowed to conduct some of the questioning. Mueller is reportedly in negotiations to testify, though the Department of Justice had previously not agreed on a date for him to do so. On Tuesday, CNN reported that Mueller's team had expressed reluctance about the possibility of a testimony taking place in public for fear that it would appear political. This story has been updated with additional reporting.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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| Trump to Pennsylvania voters: 'Biden deserted you' Posted: 20 May 2019 06:58 PM PDT  President Trump had Joe Biden on the brain during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania Monday.
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| Marlen Ochoa-Lopez: Mother and daughter 'distracted pregnant murder victim with photo album' before strangling her Posted: 20 May 2019 08:05 AM PDT  The pregnant 19-year-old who was murdered in Chicago was allegedly distracted by a mother and daughter with a photo album before being killed, according to court documents.The details surrounding the murder were made public by prosecutors as they sought to convince a judge not to release suspects Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and Desiree Figueroa, 24, who have been accused of executing a plot to kill Marlen Ochoa-Lopez in her ninth month of pregnancy.They reportedly lured the victim into their home by offering free baby clothes and a stroller, which they posted about online. Recently released details indicate the pair first tried to kill her by strangling her with a cord from behind.Prosecutors say that Ochoa-Lopez was able to get her fingers between the cord and her neck when the elder Figueroa first attempted to kill her. The alleged murderer then called for her daughter's help, before then continuing to strangle Ochoa-Lopez for four to five minutes.The elder Figueroa then called emergency services, and said that the child she had just delivered was not breathing. The child is now reportedly in poor health, ad with "zero brain activity".Police did not connect the murders until May, when they were made aware of Facebook communications between Ochoa-Lopez and the women.
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| Is It Cheaper To Buy A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback From Britain? Posted: 20 May 2019 01:03 PM PDT  This immaculate 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback is estimated to sell at British auction for $95K. It's hard not to whisper Steve McQueen's name when presented with a Ford Mustang 390 GT Fastback, even if it isn't a 1968 model. The American classifieds may provide evidence of eye-watering sums being traded for healthy Fastback specimens, but it's not always the case in Great Britain.
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| 'Nowhere for the water to go': Tornadoes, floods hit central US day after 20 tornadoes Posted: 21 May 2019 03:24 PM PDT  A tornado tore through a neighborhood near Tulsa International Airport on Tuesday as a powerful storm triggered flash flooding and washed out roads across parts of Oklahoma.
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| US stocks rally on Huawei reprieve as pound gyrates on Brexit news Posted: 21 May 2019 05:37 PM PDT  Global stocks rallied Tuesday as the United States took a step away from imposing crushing restrictions on Chinese telecom company Huawei, while the pound gyrated on fresh Brexit drama.
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| Ford Announces Layoffs, Will Cut 7000 Global White-Collar Jobs Posted: 20 May 2019 08:04 AM PDT  "Smart Redesign" continues at the automaker even as demand for its SUVs and pickups continues to rage.
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| U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over Posted: 20 May 2019 11:49 AM PDT ![U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over]( "U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over") Agent Matthew Bowen sent the messages in November 2017, two weeks before he is accused of deliberately knocking over a Guatemalan man with his Border Patrol vehicle in Nogales, Arizona, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson. Prosecutors Monica Ryan and Lori Price filed the documents on April 30 with a request to use the messages in court to show Bowen's "state of mind" prior to the incident and his "willful" intent to knock over the migrant on Dec. 3, 2017.
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| Apple offered to buy Tesla back in 2013 for more than it’s worth today Posted: 21 May 2019 09:30 AM PDT  For years, analysts have maintained that Apple needs to move past the iPhone and look for additional revenue streams. Consequently, many analysts over the years have proposed that Apple would be well advised to make a blockbuster acquisition and snatch up a company like Netflix or Tesla.Interestingly enough, it turns out that Apple actually did make an effort to acquire Tesla six years ago at a valuation of $240 a share. Incidentally, Tesla's share price has been reeling lately and is currently hovering in the $200 range. Word of Apple's efforts to acquire Tesla was brought to light by analyst Craig Irwin of Roth Capital Partners who revealed the interesting tidbit on CNBC (via Electrek) earlier today."Around 2013, there was a serious bid from Apple at around $240 a share," Irwin said."This is something we did multiple checks on," Irwin added. "I have complete confidence that this is accurate. Apple bid for Tesla. I don't know if it got to a formal paperwork stage, but I know from multiple different sources that this was very credible."Notably, there have been rumblings over the years regarding Apple's interest in Tesla, but this is the first time we've seen a report that Apple was legitimately trying to make a serious play for the electric automaker.You might also recall reports from a few years back which revealed that Elon Musk, sometime in mid-2013 -- sat down for a meeting with Apple's mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica and, rumor has it, Tim Cook himself.Apple, of course, has been busy working on its own car initiative -- known as Project Titan -- for the past few years, though it remains to be seen if anything concrete ever manifests from its efforts. Early reports hinted that Apple was set on designing and building its own car, though a plethora of technical challenges ultimately resulted in a few rounds of layoffs and employees being shifted over to other projects. Last we heard, Apple's Project Titan is still ongoing but is now focused on autonomous systems as opposed to designing a car from the ground up.Interestingly, and somewhat uncharacteristically, Tim Cook confirmed this during an interview a few years ago. "We're focusing on autonomous systems," Cook said in 2017. "It's a core technology that we view as very important."Lastly, with Morgan Stanley recently noting that Tesla shares may sink to $10/share in a worst-case scenario, it will be interesting to see if Apple might swoop in and pick up the company at a huge discount.
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| China's Navy Is Growing So Fast Its Running Out of Names For Its Warships Posted: 21 May 2019 03:32 AM PDT  China's navy has a new problem: not enough names for its rapidly growing fleet of warships."China is running out of provincial capitals to name new destroyers, and it might have to turn to other big domestic cities, which reflects the country's rapid naval development in recent years," according to Chinese newspaper Global Times.The People's Liberation Army Navy recently named its first Type 055 destroyer the Nanchang, which is the capital city of East China's Jiangxi Province.One of the three other Type 055 destroyers will be named Lhasa, the capital of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, according to Chinese media. That just leaves Nanning and Taipei as the names of provincial capitals for destroyers (Taipei is Taiwan's capital, though Taiwan has not yet declared independence as a separate nation from China).Which means non-capital cities will have to bequeath their names to Chinese destroyers. The latest destroyer is named Qiqihar, which is a non-capital city in in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A few ships have been named after major cities, such as the Shenzen, a Type 051 destroyer."Chinese destroyers and frigates should be named after big and medium Chinese cities, according to the naval vessels naming regulation," Global Times said. "This means naming of destroyers does not necessarily have to use provincial capitals, as it was a non-binding tradition."
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| Tornado touched down in Lancaster County, officials confirm Posted: 20 May 2019 05:48 PM PDT  Officials have confirmed that a tornado touched down in Lancaster County as severe storms hit the region.
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| 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback Restoration Is A Work Of Art Posted: 21 May 2019 03:38 AM PDT  The Ford Mustang is an American automotive icon known the world over. Ford's pony car is the four-wheeled embodiment of the American dream. Petty's Garage is well-known for its work on modern Mustangs, enhancing their performance and producing limited edition special models.
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| Eiffel Tower climber 'admitted to psychiatric unit' Posted: 21 May 2019 09:38 AM PDT  A man, believed to be Russian, who sparked a mass evacuation of the Eiffel Tower by scaling the iconic Paris landmark has been admitted to a psychiatric unit, legal sources said Tuesday. The man caused chaos Monday and the closure of the monument to tourists by spending six hours clinging to the outer metal framework of the Eiffel Tower. An investigation has been opened for unauthorised entry into a cultural monument, a judicial source said.
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| Alabama man in custody after allegedly killing police officer, injuring two others Posted: 20 May 2019 07:22 AM PDT  Grady Wayne Wilkes, 29, was arrested Monday following a massive manhunt that involved multiple police agencies and aircrafts.
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| U.S. must ensure access to safe abortions: U.N. rights office Posted: 21 May 2019 08:13 AM PDT  Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Parson, could sign a bill into law as early as this week that prohibits women from seeking an abortion after the eighth week of pregnancy, days after Alabama enacted the most restrictive abortion law in the United States. "We are very concerned that several U.S. states have passed laws severely restricting access to safe abortion for women, including by imposing criminal penalties on the women themselves and on abortion service providers," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told Reuters Television in Geneva.
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| Trump says he doesn't want war with Iran. Is John Bolton driving the US into a conflict anyway? Posted: 21 May 2019 11:52 AM PDT  The view that John Bolton is driving Trump into military confrontation with America's principal foe in the Middle East is spreading across the globe.
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| The Latest: Trump claims Biden 'deserted' Pennsylvania Posted: 20 May 2019 10:08 PM PDT  MONTOURSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania (all times local):
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| Could One of America's Allies Take Down the F-35 Program? Posted: 21 May 2019 01:01 AM PDT  What does America need to save its troubled F-35 stealth fighter?Turkey, that's what.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently warned that the multinational F-35 program, of which Turkey is a member, would fail if Turkey were excluded. Turkey is facing sanctions, including being dropped from the F-35 program if it goes ahead with purchasing Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, which has raised Washington's fears that F-35 secrets might be leaked to Russia. The U.S. has stopped shipping equipment to Turkey for that nation's planned purchase of 100 F-35s, while the first two aircraft officially delivered to Turkey are still in the United States.For its part, Ankara is adamant that it has a right to purchase both American stealth fighters and Russian anti-aircraft missiles, despite the fact that the S-400 is one of the most likely Russian weapons to be used against the F-35. "We were surely not going to remain silent against our right to self-defense being disregarded and attempts to hit us where it hurts," Erdogan said at a Turkish defense trade show. "This is the kind of process that is behind the S-400 agreement we reached with Russia.""Nowadays, we are being subject to a similar injustice - or rather an imposition - on the F-35s ... Let me be frank: An F-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is bound to collapse completely."
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| These impossibly sleek Pixel 4 renders look so much better than the iPhone 11 Posted: 21 May 2019 05:17 AM PDT  The Pixel smartphone series began its life as a shameful iPhone copycat. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since the original Pixel and Pixel XL phones were designed by Google in partnership with HTC. Once a market leader, HTC had already fallen quite far at that point, and it had just released its own iPhone 6 copycat in hopes of boosting sales. Google's first-generation Pixel phones were based on the design of that iPhone 6 ripoff, which was called the HTC One A9s. The Pixel was basically an Android-powered iPhone 6, while the Pixel XL was an Android-powered iPhone 6 Plus. The only real difference in designs was the big glass panel the Pixel phones had on the back.Google's current-generation Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL aren't quite as blatant when it comes to copying Apple. Of course, the larger Pixel 3 XL still takes inspiration from Apple's latest iPhone models and includes a big notch at the top of the display. If everything we've heard so far pans out, however, Google's Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones will be nothing like Apple's iPhone XS or the next-generation iPhone 11. Instead, they'll take design cues from Samsung's Galaxy S10 series -- and if the results end up looking anything like the renders you're about to see in this post, there's a very good chance that Google's 2019 Pixel phones will look even better than the iPhone 11 series handsets Apple is planning to release later this year.Thanks to months worth of leaks and rumors, we know almost exactly what Apple's iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max, and iPhone 11R will look like when they're announced this coming September. In a nutshell, the iPhone 11 is going to be a copy of the iPhone XS, but it'll have a huge square camera bump on the back that houses Apple's new triple-lens camera system. Here's what it'll look like when Apple unveils the iPhone 11 series in a few months:It doesn't look bad, not by a long shot, but it also isn't anything special. For the second time, Apple plans to use almost the same exact smartphone design for three straight years instead of two, just like the company did with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7.In contrast to the iPhone 11 series phones set to debut in September, rumors suggest Google's next-generation Pixel 4 lineup will feature a complete design overhaul. Google is said to have ditched the massive, unsightly bezels on its Pixel 3 phones in favor of an all-screen design with hole-punch cameras just like the Galaxy S10 from Samsung. In fact, the Pixel 4 will supposedly have one hole-punch selfie camera like the Galaxy S10 and S10e, while the larger Pixel 4 XL will apparently have dual selfie cameras in an oblong cutout, just like the Galaxy S10+.Graphic designer Jonas Daehnert, who goes by @PhoneDesigner on Twitter, has seen the same rumors as the rest of us. Unlike the rest of us, however, Daehnert has the chops to turn those rumors into reality by mocking up lifelike smartphone designs. He recently turned his attention to the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, and the results are absolutely stunning. Take a look:And here's his vision of the Pixel 4 XL in white:There may end up being a few things here and there that are off the mark. For example, the latest rumor suggests that Google's new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones won't have any buttons on them at all. But for the most part, these renders are likely a very good indication of what we can expect from the real Pixel 4 series phones once Google releases them this coming October.
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| Bernie Sanders Launches a Deeply Misguided Attack on Charter Schools Posted: 20 May 2019 01:27 PM PDT  One of the great benefits of living life well outside the Beltway is that it's easy to take my eyes off the swamp, look to the states surrounding me, and see places where politics actually function as they're supposed to. I can even, occasionally, see those issues on which Democrats and Republicans might work together, united in common purpose, for the common good.Exhibit A: the charter-school movement. It's granted an invaluable degree of educational choice to families who long lacked the flexibility that prosperous suburban and upper-middle-class parents take for granted, and its extraordinary growth is a bipartisan achievement.There are times when it seems like everyone likes charter schools. The Trump Department of Education has issued hundreds of millions of dollars in charter-school grants. The Obama administration invested in charter schools. As Newark mayor, Democrat Cory Booker "bet big" on charter schools, and athletes and celebrities have personally invested in their success, often with outstanding results.Of course, not every charter school is good. Not every charter school is a success. But if there has ever existed anything like a broad point of left–right agreement in the American education debate, it's that charters represent a vital piece of the educational puzzle, an option that can and does transform students' lives.So why did Bernie Sanders announce last week that, if elected president, he would declare war on charter schools? His poorly named Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education (after all, urban, nonwhite students are among the prime beneficiaries of charter-school choice) would "ban for-profit charter schools," and "halt the use of public funds to underwrite new charter schools" until they complied with a series of federal conditions that would change their governance and facilitate their unionization (many charter-school faculties aren't unionized). In so doing, it would remove many of the distinctive qualities that helped make charter schools truly competitive with conventional public schools.It's tempting to explain the plan as little more than coalition politics, Sanders's effort to cozy up to the teachers' unions at the expense of student welfare. But that's unfair. I know enough people in the greater Bernie orbit to know that they sincerely believe a unionized public-school monopoly in K–12 education represents the best chance for new generations of kids. They believe that, properly funded and led, such a system would facilitate academic achievement and social cohesion.But here's the core problem: The interest in a collective solution to a series of individual educational challenges understates the reality that choice, by itself, is a vital value in a child's education. And the power of choice cannot be measured by test scores alone, even though the best charter schools yield spectacular results.I think about my own parenting experience. Like many millions of American families who take their power over their kids' education for granted, we enjoy multiple privileges a poor family doesn't. We have the job flexibility to live in any number of places, and we can afford housing in a good school district. If we lived in a county or town with a struggling school district, we could afford modest private-school tuition. And back when we lived in Center City, Philadelphia — at a time when we couldn't easily move and couldn't afford private school — we were fortunate enough to win a lottery to put our oldest child in an outstanding charter elementary school.With each of the choices we've made for our kids' education over the years, test scores were among the least important factors we considered. We wanted to know the culture of the school and the character of the teachers. We wondered about athletic opportunities. We were concerned with peer and parental influence. The school was going to play a part in raising our children, and a slight percentage change in a math or language test score was meaningless compared to our concern with the growth and development of their personal characters.The Sanders approach wouldn't take away choice from parents like us. We could still find private schools. We could still move to better school districts. We could still home school. Charter schools exist in the suburbs and in rural America, but they haven't had the same impact there that they've had in American cities. We'd barely feel the effects of the Sanders policy; its brunt would instead be borne by America's most vulnerable families. Sanders's plan tells those families that he knows what's best for them, that his partners in the unions know how to build the schools they need better than they do.This is anything but equity. It's anything but fairness. One of the enduring challenges of American public life is the sad reality that children face fundamentally different educational opportunities through the accident of birth. The existence of choice itself is a luxury. It's a thing of immense value, and many millions of parents can't even comprehend a life where they don't have the true, final word over their child's education.I'm writing these words as I fly to give a series of speeches in Texas sponsored by the Texas Charter Schools Association and the National Review Institute. I've been writing and speaking about school choice for much of my adult life. I've been litigating on its behalf for just as long. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the desire to choose what's best for one's own child crosses racial, religious, and partisan lines. It's a broadly felt human need.Bernie Sanders makes his intentions crystal clear. In his plan, he writes, "We do not need two schools systems; we need to invest in our public schools system." This is exactly wrong. One size does not fit all. Sanders looks at parents and declares that he knows best. Parents should look back at him and respond, quite simply: I know my child, and I want to shape his destiny. Your collective solutions cannot meet my family's needs.Editor's Note: A previous version of this article contained a reference to the success of LeBron James's I Promise school in Akron, Ohio, as an example of celebrity support for charter schools. The I Promise School is not a charter but a nontraditional public school that operates within the Akron public-school system. We regret the error.
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| Mountain region of Slovakia named best destination in Europe 2019: Lonely Planet Posted: 20 May 2019 02:16 PM PDT  A wild, rugged, mountainous region of Slovakia dotted with plunging waterfalls and lakes and hiking trails has been named the top European destination of 2019 by the travel experts at Lonely Planet.
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| Hospital that treated baby cut from womb investigated Posted: 21 May 2019 03:02 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — The agency that licenses and inspects health care facilities in Illinois has started an investigation of a suburban Chicago hospital where doctors treated a baby brought in by a woman claiming to be his mother, a spokeswoman for the agency said Tuesday. The woman was charged weeks later with killing the actual mother and cutting the child from her womb.
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| The 11 Best Deals During Walmart's Memorial Day Weekend Sale Posted: 20 May 2019 12:31 PM PDT |
| Qatar not invited to emergency Arab summits in Saudi Arabia: Qatari official Posted: 20 May 2019 02:21 AM PDT  Qatar has not been invited to two regional summits called to discuss attacks on Saudi oil assets, a Foreign Ministry official said on Monday. Saudi King Salman on Saturday proposed holding the two meetings in Mecca on May 30 to discuss implications of last week's drone strikes on oil installations in the kingdom and attacks on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed an economic and diplomatic boycott on Qatar since June 2017 over allegations that Doha supports terrorism and is cosying up to regional foe Iran.
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| New Quinnipiac poll shows Biden leading Dems, Trump not getting credit for the economy Posted: 21 May 2019 01:35 PM PDT According to the poll, 71% of the voters say that the economy is "good" or "excellent," but only 38% of voters approve of Trump.
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| Google changes policy to block misleading ads for anti-abortion groups Posted: 21 May 2019 06:07 AM PDT  Announcement comes after Guardian revealed Google gave $150,000 in free ads to opaque anti-abortion groupBeginning in June, Google advertisers will be required to be certified. The company has recently faced scrutiny for providing advertising to an organization that sought to deter women from getting abortions. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesGoogle has changed its advertising policy after facing scrutiny for providing tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising to an anti-abortion group that runs misleading ads designed to deter women from terminating their pregnancies.Google announced this week that starting in June, advertisers running ads "using keywords related to getting an abortion" will first have to distinguish themselves as an organization that "either provides abortions or does not provide abortions", according to the new policy update.The policy change comes after the Guardian revealed the Obria Group ran ads suggesting it provides abortion services at its medical clinics, but actually sought to deter "abortion-minded women" from terminating their pregnancies.Obria runs a network of clinics known as crisis pregnancy centers across the US that provide some prenatal treatment, such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling, but also seek to deter women from seeking abortions and do not offer referrals for alternative treatment.Obria was awarded a $120,000 Google advertising grant in 2015, according to a public filing. In 2011, it received nearly $32,000.The report led to pressure from lawmakers in Washington, who denounced the "intentional misinformation campaigns" of organizations such as the Obria Group.Carolyn Maloney, a senior Democratic congresswoman from New York, said in a letter sent to Google's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, that she was "appalled" by the report in the Guardian that Google awarded $150,000 in free advertising to the Obria Group, which Maloney said had a history of falsely advertising medical services to women."Google should in no way be subsidizing any misinformation campaigns, especially campaigns designed to deceive women about their own reproductive care options," Maloney said in her letter to Pichai."Your continued support of Obria Group's intentional misinformation campaigns denies women access to truthful information about their medical choices," she added.The letter was jointly signed with Suzanne Bonamici, a Democratic congresswoman from Oregon.Google had already come under pressure in the past for running advertisements that appear to violate its own policies against misrepresentation in advertising, yet the company continued to publish ads for clinics that seem to offer abortion services but are actually opposed to terminations and try to dissuade women from seeking them out.Pro-choice groups have welcomed the policy change. "Fake women's health centers have a well-documented history of using lies and deception to push medically inaccurate information and prevent women from accessing essential healthcare," said Adrienne Kimmell, vice president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "People turn to the internet for information at vulnerable moments in their lives, and it's important that women are able to trust Google for access to accurate and safe information, not deceptive websites and advertisements that hide their true ideology and agenda."According to the new Google policy, advertisers must get certified by submitting an application that requires basic information about the organization."Depending on how you're certified, Google will automatically generate one of the following in-ad disclosures for your abortion product or service ads: 'Provides abortions' or 'Does not provide abortions'," the new policy reads."The disclosures will show on all search ad formats. This added transparency will help ensure that users have the necessary information to decide which abortion-related ads are most relevant to them."Adrian Horton contributed to this report
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| State Department warns Iran after rocket attack near US embassy in Baghdad Posted: 20 May 2019 06:36 AM PDT  The U.S. government says there have been no claims of responsibility for the attack and the rocket missed any building with Americans in it; Rich Edson reports from the White House.
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| If You Crash a Mercedes-Benz in the Future, It Could Deploy a Robot to Warn Other Drivers Posted: 21 May 2019 05:30 AM PDT  This cute Roomba-like robot is designed to deploy from the back of a crashed vehicle to warn approaching traffic of danger.
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| The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting Posted: 20 May 2019 09:35 AM PDT ![The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting]( "The Latest: Capital murder charge filed in police shooting") AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — The Latest on shootings of police officers in Auburn, Alabama (all times local):
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| Chips are down: Huawei U.S. blacklisting knocks semiconductor stocks Posted: 20 May 2019 05:59 AM PDT  U.S. and European chipmakers fell sharply on Monday amid worries the Huawei Technologies suppliers may suspend shipments to the Chinese firm due to a U.S. crackdown. The selling came after Nikkei Asian Review reported that Infineon had halted shipments to Huawei after Washington added the world's No. 2 smartphone maker to a trade blacklist last week, imposing restrictions that will make it difficult to do business with U.S. companies. Reuters reported that Alphabet Inc's Google had suspended some business with Huawei and Lumentum Holdings Inc, seen as a major supplier of Apple Inc's face ID technology, said it had discontinued all shipments to Huawei.
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| Dog sitter caught walking around naked in customer's home Posted: 21 May 2019 10:50 AM PDT  A dog sitter has been caught on camera walking around her client's house naked. Rosie Brown hired Casey Brengle to look after her two dogs, Penny and Daisy, while she went to a wedding for four days.
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| Iran Accelerates Production of Enriched Uranium as Tensions Rise Posted: 20 May 2019 01:06 PM PDT  The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying that Iran had increased its output of 3.67% enriched uranium as of Monday, and that the United Nations nuclear watchdog had been informed. Crucially, Iran hasn't increased the level to which it is enriching beyond the agreed limit. Tehran has already announced it stopped complying with a 300-kilogram cap on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water imposed by the multilateral accord, and said it would abandon limits on uranium enrichment unless Europe throws it an economic lifeline within 60 days, setting an ultimatum for the survival of the landmark agreement.
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| Google and Android system start to cut ties with Huawei Posted: 20 May 2019 02:27 AM PDT  US internet giant Google, whose Android mobile operating system powers most of the world's smartphones, said it was beginning to cut ties with China's Huawei, which Washington considers a national security threat. The move could have dramatic implications for Huawei smartphone users, as the telecoms giant will no longer have access to Google's proprietary services -- which include the Gmail and Google Maps apps -- a source close to the matter told AFP. Reports also emerged Monday that several US chipmakers providing vital hardware for Huawei's smartphones have stopped supplying the Chinese firm.
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| Abortion ban: Georgia prosecutors refuse to enforce 'heartbeat' law Posted: 21 May 2019 03:37 AM PDT  District lawyers in Georgia have announced they will not prosecute women for getting an abortion after the US state effectively banned the procedure.Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed the controversial "heartbeat" abortion ban into law earlier in the month – giving the southern state one of the most restrictive laws in the US.The legislation, which has provoked outrage among women's rights groups, bans abortion once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo. This can be as early as six weeks – at which point most women do not yet know they are pregnant. The bill imposes jail sentences for women found guilty of aborting or attempting to abort their pregnancies, with the potential for life imprisonment and the death penalty. It is not scheduled to come into effect until 1 January and is expected to face challenges in the courts – with it potentially being postponed. But anti-abortion activists hope challenges will lead to the US Supreme Court reversing Roe vs Wade – the landmark Supreme Court decision which legalised abortion nationwide in 1973 – especially with new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sitting on the court.The Supreme Court has previously ruled that states cannot ban abortion before a foetus is viable – about 23 to 25 weeks.District prosecutors for Georgia's four most populous counties – Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb – have said they would not, or could not, prosecute women under the controversial new law."As District Attorney with charging discretion, I will not prosecute individuals pursuant to HB 481 [the heartbeat bill] given its ambiguity and constitutional concerns," DeKalb County district attorney Sherry Boston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."As a woman and mother, I am concerned about the passage and attempted passage of laws such as this one in Georgia, Alabama, and other states."She added: "There is no language outlined in HB 481 explicitly prohibiting a district attorney from bringing criminal charges against anyone and everyone involved in obtaining and performing what is otherwise currently a legal medical procedure".According to the publication, the technical language of the bill means that district attorneys could potentially seek a murder charge against someone who breaches the heartbeat law."As a matter of law (as opposed to politics) this office will not be prosecuting any women under the new law as long as I'm district attorney," Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter said. He said he did not think it would be possible to prosecute a woman for either murder or unlawful abortion if she got an abortion after six weeks.John Melvin, acting District Attorney of Cobb County, echoed this position, saying women could "absolutely not" be prosecuted under the unlawful abortion statute.Fulton County district attorney Paul Howard "has no intention of ever prosecuting a woman under this new law", a spokesperson said, adding that he also would not prosecute abortion providers.Georgia's new bill does include exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or in situations where the health of a mother is in danger."Planned Parenthood will be suing the State of Georgia. We will fight this terrible bill because this is about our patients' lives," Dr Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said.Georgia's bill comes after Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a controversial abortion bill into law last week that is the most restrictive abortion bill in the US.Under the law, doctors would face 10 years in prison for attempting to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for carrying out the procedure. The abortion ban, which has been branded a "death sentence for women", would even criminalise performing abortions in cases of rape and incest. Ms Ivey said the new law might be "unenforceable" due to Roe v Wade but said the new law was passed with the aim of challenging that decision.Alabama state lawmakers compare abortions in America to the Holocaust and other modern genocides in the legislation – spurring Jewish activists and abortion rights groups to rebuke the bill as "deeply offensive."Alabama's new bill comes as politicians in several other states propose legislation to restrict abortion – with some 16 other states looking at new measures.More than a dozen other states have passed or are considering versions of Georgia's law. Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have also approved bans on abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected. On Friday, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill banning abortions after eight weeks.Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia vowed to sue on the day the governor signed Georgia's heartbeat bill. It has also fuelled many in the entertainment industry to threaten to boycott Georgia."We're putting lawmakers on notice: Your votes are far outside the mainstream, and we will now spend our time and energy launching a campaign to replace you," Staci Fox, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said at the time.A federal judge blocked a heartbeat bill in Kentucky which was scheduled to come into effect instantly as it could be unconstitutional, while Mississippi passed a six-week abortion law in March that is not due to come into force until July and is also facing challenges.Ohio passed a similarly restrictive law in 2016 which was vetoed by the governor.
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| Scouted: The Sleek, Black Stainless Steel Version of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 Is on Sale for $50 Posted: 20 May 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Right now, you can add the sleek, black stainless steel edition of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 to your kitchen while it's on sale for $50. That's a savings of 50% on a gadget that could easily replace half of the other things you use in your kitchen on a regular basis.What's so great about this Instant Pot? I mean, just look at it. It's like the original Instant Pot's cool teen brother. It's like the original Instant Pot got a makeover montage in an early-Aughts romcom. You get everything the Instant Pot has to offer, from the pressure cooker to the rice cooker to the steamer. It's still the six-in-one gadget you love, just with a black stainless steel outside, and it's on sale. If the original super shiny Instant Pot clashed with your aesthetic, this is the version for you. Want one that makes a bit more of a statement? You can get a red stainless steel version for $60.Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| French widow sues Boeing for at least $276 million over Ethiopian crash Posted: 21 May 2019 11:49 AM PDT  The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 in March killed all 157 passengers and crew aboard and followed the death in October of 189 people on a Lion Air 737 MAX which plunged into the ocean off Indonesia in similar circumstances. Dozens of families have sued Boeing over the Lion Air crash, and several lawsuits have been lodged over the Ethiopian crash near the capital Addis Ababa, which led airlines around the world to ground the Boeing 737 MAX. The lawsuit on behalf of Nadege Dubois-Seex, whose husband Jonathan Seex was a Swedish and Kenyan citizen and chief executive of the Tamarind Group of Companies, was filed in a U.S. District Court in Chicago, her lawyer said on Tuesday.
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| Save Big on These Top Notch Cuisinart Grills and Smokers Posted: 20 May 2019 02:24 PM PDT |
| Prosecutors: Agent called migrants savages before hitting 1 Posted: 20 May 2019 04:26 PM PDT  PHOENIX (AP) — A Border Patrol agent in Arizona sent texts calling immigrants "savages" and "subhuman" the month before using his patrol vehicle to knock over a Guatemalan man who was trying to flee, prosecutors say.
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| GMC Limits the Sierra's New CarbonPro Bed to a Pricey Option Package Posted: 20 May 2019 01:51 PM PDT  The carbon-composite bed in the 2019 GMC Sierra will be available on a limited basis this summer and more widely in the 2020 model.
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| Trump’s Huawei Attack Is a Serious Mistake Posted: 20 May 2019 03:30 AM PDT  The nuclear missile the U.S. just launched at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a case in point. Last week, the Commerce Department placed Huawei and nearly 70 of its affiliates on an "Entity List," which means that U.S. suppliers may now need a license to do business with them. If the ban is applied stringently, it could drive one of China's most high-profile companies — employing more than 180,000 people — out of business.
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| The U.S. Is Outplaying Iran in a Regional Chess Match Posted: 20 May 2019 01:20 PM PDT  In the first two weeks of May, U.S.–Iran tensions appeared to be careening toward war. In an escalating series of warnings, the U.S. asserted that an attack by Iran would be met with unrelenting force. Iran eventually responded with its usual bluster about being prepared for a full confrontation with Washington. But on the ground the Middle East looks more like a chessboard, with Iran and its allies and proxies facing off against American allies. This state of affairs was brought into sharp relief when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launched a drone attack on Saudi Arabia and a rocket fell near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.U.S. media have tended to focus on the role of national-security adviser John Bolton in crafting the administration's policy — and whether America would actually go to war with Iran. Iranian media have also sought to decipher exactly what the Trump administration is up to. According to Iran's Tasnim News, the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Hossein Salami told a closed session of Parliament that the U.S. was involved in a "psychological war" with Iran, predicting the U.S. didn't have enough forces to actually attack Iran yet.In the complex game of wits being played between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, it appears that the U.S. temporarily checked Iran's usual behavior. Iran prefers bluster in rhetoric with a careful strategy of extending its influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, knowing that any real battle with U.S. forces will result in Iranian defeat. Tehran can't risk massive retaliation against its allies or the regime at home for fear that it will lead to instability and the destruction of all it has carefully built up in the last years. Iran is suffering from the effects of recent nationwide floods and from shortages due to sanctions, so it can't afford a total war, and its allies in Iraq and Lebanon are in sensitive positions of power. In the past, Iran benefited from its opaque system of alliances and its ability to threaten western powers and attack U.S. forces with proxies, even seizing U.S. sailors, without fear of reprisal. It learned in the past that the U.S. preferred diplomacy, but the current administration appears to have put Tehran on notice.The question is what can be learned from the escalating tensions. If Iran thinks Washington isn't serious, or if it senses that domestic opposition to Washington's saber-rattling is building, Iran may call America's bluff. But if Iran thinks that Trump's team really will retaliate, it will tread carefully in all the areas of the Middle East where U.S. allies and Iran's proxies rub up against one another.To understand the chessboard, we must look at the Middle East the way Iran does. Since the 1980s, Iran's Islamic revolution has been increasing its influence in the region. This brought Iran into vicious conflict with Iraq in the 1980s, and for a while Iran saw few major geopolitical successes. However, the weakening of the Lebanese state and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 created opportunities for Iran to exploit local militia allies and gain power. It did this in Lebanon through Hezbollah, an armed terrorist organization that has seats in the Lebanese parliament. It also did this in Iraq through a plethora of militias, many of whose leaders had served alongside the IRGC in the 1980s. Today those Shiite militias are called the Popular Mobilization Forces and they are an official paramilitary force of the Iraqi government. They have threatened the U.S., and U.S. intelligence allegedly showed them positioning rockets near U.S. bases earlier this month.In Yemen, meanwhile, Iran has worked closely with the Houthi rebels, who are being fought by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates and the government of Yemen. (That coalition is controversial; in April, Congress attempted to withdraw support for the Yemen war.) The Houthis have fired Iranian-designed ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia and used Iranian-made drones. Iran is also active in Syria, not only in support of the Syrian regime's war against the now mostly defeated rebels, but also using bases to threaten Israel.The U.S. sees Iran as inseparable from its cobweb of allied militia groups and proxies, many of which are supported by the IRGC. The U.S. designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in April and repeatedly has warned Iran that any attack by it or its proxies will be met with a response.Iran now wants to assure its own people that war isn't likely through media stories about how the Trump administration isn't serious. This is in contrast to the usual Tehran bluster and threats, even historic harassment of ships in the Persian Gulf and harassment of U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran's sudden quiet could, of course, be the calm before the storm, but it is more likely a reflection of the regime's sudden confusion about U.S. policy. This is a good thing for American interests. Iran needs to be kept guessing about U.S. intentions. It needs to tell its proxies to stop threatening U.S. forces in Iraq, as the Defense Department says they have done as recently as March. The U.S. gained the upper hand in its recent escalation against Iran by playing Iran's game of bluster and support for allies on the ground. If Washington wants to continue to keep Iran in check, it needs to keep up the pressure.
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| May holds out promise of new Brexit referendum Posted: 21 May 2019 10:21 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Theresa May promised Tuesday to give lawmakers a vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum as part of a last-gasp push to get her deal over the line. The embattled British leader dangled a series of sweeteners that she hopes can resolve the Brexit crisis three years after the country first voted to leave the European Union after 46 years. "The government will therefore include in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill at introduction a requirement to vote on whether to hold a second referendum," she said.
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| 'All out warfare': Hundreds take the streets in Alabama in abortion ban protest Posted: 20 May 2019 08:15 AM PDT  Alabama Gov. Kay signed the near-total ban Wednesday, a day after lawmakers declined to add exceptions into the ban for cases of rape or incest.
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