| AOC to DHS chief: Border agents shared 'images of my violent rape' in secret Facebook group Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:02 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan about the whereabouts of Border Patrol agents who threatened her in a secret Facebook group.
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| Cyprus detains 12 Israeli men over allegations of gang rape of British teenager Posted: 18 Jul 2019 09:58 AM PDT  Twelve Israeli tourists were remanded in custody for eight days by a court in Cyprus for the alleged gang rape of a 19-year-old British woman at a popular holiday resort on the island. The Israelis were arrested on Wednesday after the British teenager told police that she had been raped at the hotel where she was staying in the beach resort of Ayia Napa. Doctors who treated the woman said they found bruises and scratches on her body. The suspects, aged 16 to 18, were staying in the same hotel. The young men covered their faces with their t-shirts as they arrived handcuffed at the court in the nearby town of Paralimni, in the southeast of Cyprus. One broke down in tears. Some were accompanied by their parents. The hearing was held behind closed doors because some of the suspects are minors. The suspects covered their faces as they arrived at court Credit: Petros Karadjis/AP A judge accepted a request by Cypriot police to remand the men in custody for eight days while an investigation is launched into the rape allegation. They have not yet been charged with any offence. Three of the men allegedly raped the British tourist while others filmed the attack on their mobile phones, local media reports said. Ioannis Habaris, a lawyer representing four of the suspects, told The Associated Press it was unclear exactly how many of the men were implicated in the alleged rape. He said there was "some evidence" the British woman was involved in a "relationship" with one of the suspects. Tourists on a beach on the outskirts of the resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus Credit: Amir Makar/AFP Nir Yaslovitzh, an Israeli lawyer representing three other suspects, said the 12 teenagers had arrived in Ayia Napa in three separate groups. Some were having a holiday prior to being drafted into the Israeli army for compulsory military service. He said police were trying to flush out the perpetrators among the group by arresting all 12 and having them detained. "I think it's a trick," Mr Yaslovitzh told AP. "They want to know how my clients will (react)." The Foreign Office said British authorities were "supporting a British woman who was assaulted in Cyprus and are in contact with local police". Cyprus's sandy beaches, bars and nightclubs attract around 1.3 million British tourists a year. Ayia Napa has a reputation for being a party town, with booze cruises and pub crawls.
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| Germany honors resisters who tried to assassinate Hitler Posted: 18 Jul 2019 11:28 PM PDT  Germany is marking the 75th anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Adolf Hitler, honoring those who resisted the Nazis — who were stigmatized for decades as traitors — as pillars of the country's modern democracy amid growing concerns about the resurgence of the far-right. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will speak Saturday at an annual swearing-in ceremony for some 400 troops before addressing a memorial event, paid tribute ahead of the anniversary to executed plot leader Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators and highlighted their importance to modern Germany. Von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944, during a meeting at his headquarters in East Prussia.
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| The Man Who Started the Area 51 Raid Says Things Have Gotten a Little Spooky Posted: 18 Jul 2019 10:56 AM PDT  He hopes everyone knows it's a satirical page
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| Brazil's Petrobras refuses to refuel Iran ships due to US sanctions Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:03 AM PDT  US-listed Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras said Friday it will not refuel two Iranian vessels that have been stuck for weeks at a Brazilian port for fear of violating American sanctions. Washington has imposed a slate of sanctions on Tehran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear pact last year. The ships Bavand and Termeh, which reportedly belong to Iranian company Sapid Shipping, arrived at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana early last month, an official at the port told AFP.
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| California city votes to ban gendered words as 'manhole' becomes 'maintenance hole' Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:47 PM PDT  Legislators in Berkeley, California, voted Tuesday to ban some gender-specific words in its city code and replace them with gender-neutral options.
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| Navy warship sunk by German sub in WWII finally located Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:15 PM PDT  A private dive team has located the last U.S. Navy warship to be sunk by a German submarine in World War II, just a few miles (kilometers) off the coast of Maine. The sinking of the USS Eagle PE-56 on April 23, 1945, was originally blamed on a boiler explosion. The patrol boat's precise location remained a mystery — until now.
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| House Dem impeachment support gains new momentum Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:26 PM PDT  The spike in public backing for impeaching Trump could cause headaches for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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| UPDATE 4-Mexico president calls 'El Chapo' sentence inhumane, vows better society Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:40 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Mexico president calls 'El Chapo' sentence inhumane, vows better society]( "UPDATE 4-Mexico president calls 'El Chapo' sentence inhumane, vows better society") Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday called the jail conditions of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman inhumane, while vowing to bring down violence stemming from drug violence by create a society less obsessed with material wealth. Guzman will spend the rest of his days behind bars in the United States after a judge sentenced him on Wednesday to life in prison plus 30 years. Lopez Obrador said at his regular morning conference that sentences like the one for El Chapo - "a sentence for life in a hostile jail, hard, inhumane" - made a life no longer worth living.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Who Stormed Legco Seek Asylum in Taiwan: Report Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Dozens of Hong Kong protesters involved in the ransacking of the city's Legislative Council this month have arrived in Taiwan to seek asylum, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.About 30 protesters have already landed in Taiwan, while as many as 30 others -- and possibly more -- are planning to try soon, the Hong Kong newspaper said, citing unidentified people who assisted them.The fleeing activists were part of the group that smashed into the legislature on July 1, the paper said. The people who assisted the protesters told the paper they had been in contact with Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles the island's relations with Beijing, to seek help.The council hasn't received any formal asylum applications from Taiwan's National Immigration Agency, its deputy minister Chiu Chui-cheng said in a text message. If Taiwan receives any applications, authorities will handle them appropriately based on existing regulations and the principle of protecting human rights, Chiu added.Read more: Pain From Hong Kong Protests Spreads as Luxury Names Get HitA flight to Taiwan by Hong Kong asylum seekers would be fraught with geopolitical risk. It threatens to raise tensions between the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, a China critic who's up for re-election in January, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has already faced embarrassment over the global attention paid to Hong Kong's anti-government protests.Hong Kong's historic demonstrations over legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland for the first time have resonated widely in democratically run Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province.Seeking RefugeThe Taiwan Association for Human Rights, a top local non-governmental organization, wouldn't comment on the case. "We cannot divulge any information regarding any individual case," said Secretary-General, Chiu E-ling. "If there are individuals who approach us for help, we'll interview these people and help them get in touch with government officials if that is what they wish."Earlier: China Drafting Urgent Plan to Resolve Hong Kong Chaos, SCMP SaysProtesters used a metal cart as a battering ram to break their way into the legislative building on the anniversary of Hong Kong's return from British rule, spray-painting slogans on its chamber's walls and draping a Union Jack-emblazoned colonial flag across the dais.At the time, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam condemned the "extreme use of violence and vandalism" and supported the police's decision to leave it undefended in the face of a small group of protesters.Emily Leung, a spokeswoman for Lam, referred queries on the report to the Hong Kong police, who declined to comment on Friday.who didn't immediately respond to a call and an email Friday for comment.(Updates with police comment in final paragraph.)\--With assistance from Ina Zhou, Kari Lindberg and Debby Wu.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Adela Lin in Taipei at alin95@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Navy's 6th Generation Fighter Could Put the F-35 in a Museum Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:47 AM PDT  New much-longer range sensors and weapons, incorporating emerging iterations of AI, are expected to make warfare more disaggregated, and much less of a linear force on force type of engagement. Such a phenomenon, driven by new technology, underscores warfare reliance upon sensors and information networks. All of this, naturally, requires the expansive "embedded ISR" discussed by the paper. Network reliant warfare is of course potentially much more effective in improving targeting and reducing sensor-to-shooter time over long distances, yet it brings a significant need to organize and optimize the vast, yet crucial, flow of information.The Navy is currently analyzing air frames, targeting systems, AI-enabled sensors, new weapons and engine technologies to engineer a new 6th-Generation fighter to fly alongside the F-35 and ultimately replace the F/A-18.(This first appeared earlier in the year.)The Navy program, called Next-Generation Air Dominance, has moved beyond a purely conceptual phase and begun exploration of prototype systems and airframes as it pursues a new, carrier-launched 6th-Gen fighter to emerge in 2030 and beyond, service officials explained."Some important areas of consideration include derivative and developmental air vehicle designs, advanced engines, propulsion, weapons, mission systems, electronic warfare and other emerging technologies," Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lauren Chatmas told Warrior earlier this year.A formal Analysis of Alternatives, expected to complete this year, is weighing the advantages of leveraging nearer-term existing technologies such as new variants or upgrades to cutting edge weapons, sensors and stealth configurations - or allowing more time for leap-ahead developmental systems to emerge.
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| 13 Philadelphia police officers to be fired following Facebook post investigation Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:27 AM PDT  Thirteen Philadelphia police officers will be fired following an investigation into racist and offensive Facebook posts, Commissioner Richard Ross said.
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| Squeezed by sanctions, Iranians seek day jobs in Kurdish Iraq Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:51 AM PDT  When the car pulled up to the curb in Iraq's Arbil, a half-dozen Iranian labourers swarmed around it. Squeezed by US sanctions on Tehran, they were hunting for work across the border. Mostly Kurds themselves, they have sought day jobs in construction and other menial labour in Iraq's northern Kurdish region to make up for the deteriorating economic situation at home.
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| Ukraine's president says he backs prisoner swap with Russia Posted: 19 Jul 2019 06:29 AM PDT  Ukraine's president on Friday outlined the details of an impending prisoner swap with Russia, saying that Kiev is willing to release a jailed Russian journalist in exchange for a Ukrainian film director. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's statement comes at the end of the week of shuttle diplomacy, with the Russian and Ukrainian human rights ombudswomen holding talks both in Moscow and in Kiev. The flurry of activity around imprisoned Russians and Ukrainians follows last week's first telephone call between Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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| After census debacle, White House to knock out senior Commerce official Posted: 18 Jul 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Senior Trump aides have sparred with the policy director for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the census, 5G and other issues.
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| Fox News Host to Geraldo Rivera: I Can Tell You to Go Back to Where You Came From Posted: 19 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Defending Donald Trump's repeated racist taunts at Democratic congresswomen of color, Fox News host Pete Hegseth told correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera on Friday morning that it would be perfectly fine for him to utilize the president's "go back to where you came from" message on him.A day after Trump sorta disavowed the racist "send her back!" chant his rally crowd launched at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rivera appeared on Fox & Friends and said he was "glad the president has said" he didn't like the chants. At the same time, Rivera noted that the president's original tweets targeting the "Squad" tapped into an "old racist trope," something the longtime Trump pal had criticized the president for days earlier."Geraldo, but you, like many, have accused him of racism," Hegseth replied. "But if you go back and look at that tweet, he's not talking about race, he's talking about whether or not you love this country and appreciate it. And if you don't appreciate it and don't love it, and don't want to work to make it better, then maybe you could consider going somewhere else. There's plenty of countries on Earth."How the Ilhan Omar Marriage Smear Went From Fever Swamp to TrumpRivera, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, shot back at his colleague, yelling "what the hell" before pointing out that all four congresswomen—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Omar—are citizens of the United States. Hegseth, meanwhile, said he would have no problem if someone personally told him he could love it or leave it."Intolerable—you cannot say that," Rivera responded."You could totally say it," Hegseth, an informal adviser to Trump, asserted."You can't say it to me," Rivera fired back."Well, I could say it to you," the Fox & Friends host countered.Rivera went on to recount the number of "street fights" he had in his younger years because he's Puerto Rican, claiming he routinely heard people telling him to go back to where he came from even though he was born in New York. Hegseth brushed that off while continuing to insist that Trump is not referencing race but instead the lawmakers' "principles" and "lack of gratitude.""A lot of people aren't grateful to be here," Rivera declared. "Gratitude is not a requirement of citizenship."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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| Wasp spray leads to 3 deaths in West Virginia after being used as alternative meth Posted: 19 Jul 2019 08:34 AM PDT  West Virginia state police are cautioning residents against using wasp sprayas an alternative form of methamphetamine after three people purportedlyoverdosed
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| 'Go back to their country:' Naperville Bucky's cashier fired after questioning customers' citizenship Posted: 18 Jul 2019 10:25 AM PDT  A cashier no longer works at a Naperville gas station after a video showed him questioning Hispanic customers' citizenship.
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| Why the Air Force's F-15 EX Fighter Would Get Crushed by Russia In a War Posted: 17 Jul 2019 06:00 PM PDT  While an F-35 can carry 22,000 pounds of munitions to a ceiling of 50,000 feet and a distance of 670 miles at a top speed of Mach 1.6, the F-15EX can haul 29,500 pounds of weapons as high as 60,000 feet and as far as 1,100 miles at a top speed of Mach 2.5.The debate continues over the Pentagon's proposal to buy new F-15EX Eagle fighters from Boeing to complement Lockheed Martin-made F-35 stealth fighters.As lawmakers weigh the military's request, Air Force magazine has published an infographic comparing the two fighters.Both fighters cost roughly $80 million apiece, according to Air Force. But the similarity ends there. The F-35 is stealthier but the F-15 flies higher, farther and faster and carries more weaponry.(This first appeared in April 2019.)A Russian-made S-400 air-defense system could detect an F-35 at 20 miles, Air Force estimated. It could pick up an F-15EX 200 miles away.While an F-35 can carry 22,000 pounds of munitions to a ceiling of 50,000 feet and a distance of 670 miles at a top speed of Mach 1.6, the F-15EX can haul 29,500 pounds of weapons as high as 60,000 feet and as far as 1,100 miles at a top speed of Mach 2.5.An F-35 costs $35,000 per hour to operate. An F-15EX costs $27,000 per hour.The new Eagle's main advantage, however, is that existing F-15 squadrons quickly and cheaply can convert to the type, Air Force's John Tirpak explained."The F-15EX, USAF argues, is essentially an in-production aircraft. It has upward of 70-percent parts commonality with the F-15C and E already in USAF service and can use almost all the same ground equipment, hangars, simulators and other support gear as the Eagles now in service," according to Tirpak.
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| U.S. amphibious group patrols Arabian Sea as Iran tensions simmer Posted: 18 Jul 2019 04:14 AM PDT  At a thumbs-up sign from a sailor, a U.S. Harrier fighter jet takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea as an oil tanker passes, a nautical mile away. The patrol is "standard" but the situation - growing tension between the United States and Iran - is not. "We want to make sure that we assure allies in the region and to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce," says Colonel Fridrik Fridrikson, commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
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| The 12 Best Home Decor Deals from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:30 AM PDT |
| 'My entire world was gone': floods devastate northern Pakistan Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:15 AM PDT  Now only jagged rocks and a few damaged homes remain after torrential rains wreaked havoc on the picturesque mountain village in the Laswa Valley. More than 270 people have been killed in recent days across South Asia as monsoon rains deluged large swathes of the subcontinent, flooding waterways and destroying communities. "I was holding the hand of my mother trying to save her, but unfortunately I lost her hand and she was swept away by the floodwater," says Amin Butt, who was visiting his family in Kashmir.
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| 'Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:02 PM PDT !['Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit]( "'Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit") The teen's mother sued the school district in May, alleging a bus driver intentionally closed the door on her 13-year-old biracial son's backpack.
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| How Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution Was Resurrected—and Betrayed Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:45 AM PDT  Courtesy Bill GentileBill Gentile covered the Central American wars of the 1980s that haunt the United States to this day. In the first chapter of this series he wrote about the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. In the second, he looked at the U.S.-backed counter-revolution. Here he looks at what has become of the region, and of journalism.* * *Return Trips* * *MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Journalists follow the news. So when peace came to Central America at the beginning of the 1990s, I knew it was time for me to leave. The story there that had dominated front pages and nightly news for more than a decade dissipated almost overnight. In any case, I was ready to expand my work from Latin America and the Caribbean to more distant frontiers and Claudia, my Nicaraguan wife, was glad to escape the pressure cooker of a country mired in perpetual crisis. So we moved to Miami, a blend of developed and developing countries, where I still could cover major national and international stories, where my experience in conflict reporting and fluency in Spanish would be assets, and from where I could cover not just the region but stories far beyond.Central America's Wars of the '80s Still Haunt the U.S.It was a difficult transition. The logistics made sense, but the profession itself faced growing threats. By the end of the 1980s and especially at the beginning of the 1990s, the craft of photojournalism was contracting. Digital photography was becoming accessible to everyone; social media began to compete with the old mainstream operations, and 24/7 cable meant legacy outlets like Newsweek, my employer, became the platforms of old news before they even hit the stands.A peasant walks past a cotton plantation in western Nicaragua.Courtesy Bill GentileI moved to Philadelphia and began working for Video News International (VNI), the first company in the nation to use the new digital "prosumer" cameras to generate television content. Claudia and I separated and eventually divorced. When VNI fell apart, I turned to freelancing with video. By the year 2000 I had begun teaching as my main gig and freelancing as much as time and energy would allow.But Nicaragua never left me. And I never left Nicaragua.* * *'The World Stopped Watching'* * *White Pine Pictures is a Canadian documentary film production company whose members in 1986 produced The World Is Watching, about the coverage of the Contra War in Nicaragua by Western media. I was one of the featured journalists. In 2002, some 16 years later, White Pine contacted me to ask whether I would be willing to return to Nicaragua to film a sequel."Absolutely."I proposed we scan a handful of images from my book, Nicaragua, and publish them in the country's newspapers. We'd ask people to contact our producer in Managua if anyone recognized the people in the pictures, then we'd follow up on their stories since the Sandinista victory on July 19, 1979. A peasant man and daughter make adobe blocks for building their new home.Courtesy Bill GentileIt worked. Sandinista soldiers. Contra fighters. Peasants. Workers. Our producer's phone rang off the hook. And in the end? I found myself trying to explain how terrible those days had been, in large part because they failed to advance the Sandinistas' plan for a more equitable Nicaragua than the one they inherited from the Somoza dictatorship.'Terrible and Glorious Days' Covering the Contra War of the 1980sCalling their sequel The World Stopped Watching, the White Pine filmmakers produced a documentary explaining how the absence of international media loosens the restraints on the bad guys, who can do whatever they want because we, the international observers and watchdogs, are not around to hold them accountable. And that's exactly what has happened.At their electoral defeat in 1990, the Sandinista government accepted the process and, with no small amount of urging by former President Jimmy Carter, handed over power to a new government. It was the first time in Nicaragua's history that a sitting government peacefully handed over power as the result of a legitimate, internationally recognized election.At a news conference recognizing their landslide loss, Sandinista leaders, including ousted President Daniel Ortega, showed up with pallid, drawn faces. Most of the international press corps was stunned by the results as well.A mural of famed guerrilla fighter and liberator Augusto Cesar Sandino in the northern mountains.Courtesy Bill Gentile"El cuadro esta pintado," one high-ranking Sandinista official declared just days before the vote. "The painting is finished," he said, assuring me with blind confidence that the Sandinistas would crush the opposition. The result was a measure of how deeply the Sandinista leadership was disconnected from the people.But at a rally not long after the vote, Ortega promised his followers that, "We will rule from below." In other words, the highly organized Sandinista party would flex its muscles and get its way no matter who was president.* * *Malign Neglect* * *Anthony Quainton is Distinguished Diplomat in Residence in the School of International Service (SIS) at American University in Washington, D.C. He spent 38 years in the U.S. foreign services as a diplomat in Nicaragua, Peru, Kuwait and the Central African Republic. He also served as Coordinator of the Office for Combating Terrorism. At a recent conference, Quainton delivered a keynote speech titled, "Managua and Washington in the Early Sandinista Revolution," calling his his assignment in Nicaragua in the early 1980s "Mission Impossible."He argued that had the United States made a major and long-term commitment to the social and economic development of the region and backed off its support for corrupt regimes, "some of the problems we are now encountering might have been avoided or at least ameliorated. Unfortunately when the Sandinistas were eventually voted out of power in 1990, the United States largely lost interest in the region. We are reaping the whirlwind of that neglect in the refugee and gang crises we are now facing," he said."Opportunities to create a more stable Central America existed four decades ago," said Quainton. "They were lost. Both sides could not see beyond their ideologies. Neither could escape from its history. The Sandinistas believed that they were a vanguard party and that history had entrusted them a revolutionary mission. … They could not escape from the troubled history of Yankee intervention. We could not escape from Vietnam and the experiences of the Cold War. Bridging the historical, ideological and emotional divide between us was more than I or my colleagues could do. Try as we could, the Mission was always impossible."Quainton's argument is balanced and cogent, but it presumes there was some kind of parity in 1979 between a little country devastated by earthquakes and wars with no tradition of good governance, and a stable, global, functional democracy and superpower some 200 years old. Prior to 1979 much of the Sandinista leadership lived in La Montaña and in clandestine cells. They had little or no institutional foundation to build on. No Harvard or Oxford background to draw from. No Jefferson, Washington or Lincoln to emulate.A young woman washes clothes in Lake Managua, which borders the capital, Managua.Courtesy Bill GentileInstead, they were forced to cope with political, economic and military aggression by the single most powerful nation on the planet. To justify that action, Ronald Reagan warned a group of conservative supporters that defeat of the contras would create "a privileged sanctuary for terrorists and subversives just two days' driving time from Harlingen, Texas." He warned that "feet people" trudging north would be "swarming into our country" to escape communism.But if, as the Trump administration claims, Central Americans are now headed north in huge numbers, it's because of the complete failure to address their hopes, their needs, and their safety.* * *Rule and Ruin* * *Yet none of this justifies what Sandinista rule has become.Today, most of the original Sandinista leadership has abandoned the Ortega regime, viewing it as a betrayal of the organization's original promises to the Nicaraguan people. Daniel Ortega has been president, once again, for the past 10 years. His wife, Rosario Murillo, is vice president.Facing Down the Death Squads of NicaraguaDuring anti-government protests in the spring of 2018, Sandinista police and Sandinista-backed armed thugs killed an estimated 300 people. Media outlets are constantly harassed and shut down. Even international non-governmental organizations whose only agenda is to help the poor and underprivileged have abandoned the country because of government restrictions and intervention. Nicaragua continues to be rated as the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.So where do journalists and journalism fit into all this? How do we see our role? Four decades after my first arrival in Managua, have I helped bring about positive change? Did I do any good here?I certainly hope so. I hope the images I created and published via UPI, Newsweek magazine, my Nicaragua book and other outlets, have contributed to the visual record of that time and that place in history. It's important to remember that, at the time when I was covering the region, there was no Facebook, no Google, no Instagram, no email. There was no internet! Television was limited to ABC, CBS and NBC. CNN was just beginning. Fox did not exist. So most of the world relied on a handful of magazines including Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report, Life and National Geographic, for its visual explanation of the globe. Major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post published only black and white pictures back then.A tiny handful of women and men, including myself, were privileged to be part of a small cadre of photojournalists entrusted with the mission of providing the world with a visual explanation of itself. And we did so sometimes despite great peril.But there is another dimension to what we do, perhaps more important than our impact on the wider world. And that is the mere act of practicing our craft defines and validates us. Like La Montaña for the guerrillas, journalism is the anvil upon which we test, forge and mold ourselves into what we aspire to be.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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| Hand signals and Post-its: The Hong Kong protester playbook Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:05 AM PDT  Hong Kong's youth are no rookies when it comes to protests. Using a range of new tactics, they have helped rally hundreds of thousands of fellow Hong Kong residents to take to the streets over the past month. The Hong Kong-based web forum LIHKG and Telegram, the encrypted messaging app, have served as crucial organizing platforms for the largely leaderless protests.
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| Five guys arrested for fighting at Five Guys burgers in Florida Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:09 AM PDT  An appropriate number of guys were arrested when a fight broke out at a FiveGuys restaurant in Florida on Wednesday
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| Trump and progressive Democrats want the same thing – and Pelosi is in the way Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:08 AM PDT  The president and the Squad are happy to push the Democratic party further to the left – but Pelosi disagrees'They believe that this transformation not only will lead to progressive legislative victories, it will also win elections.' Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APAmerican politics makes some extremely odd bedfellows. That's worth keeping in mind when trying to understand why Donald Trump Twitter-trolled four progressive, first-term congresswomen of color – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – in his now-infamous "go back" tweet. Although Trump and "the Squad" (the collective nickname for the congresswomen) have venomously denounced each other, the reality is that they both want the same thing: to make the women the public face of the Democratic party. And their greatest obstacle is the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.The Squad have welcomed and sought out public attention because they want to use their celebrity to push the party to the left, just as the conservative movement pushed the Republican party to the right in decades past. They believe that this transformation not only will lead to progressive legislative victories, it will also win elections. As Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, recently told the Washington Post:"The whole theory of change for the current Democratic party is that to win this country we need to tack to the hypothetical middle. What I think that means is, you don't take unnecessary risks, which translates to: you don't really do anything. Whereas we've got a completely different theory of change, which is: you do the biggest, most badass thing you possibly can – and that's going to excite people, and then they're going to go vote."One implication of this approach, obviously, is that progressives should advance ambitious leftwing policies – like Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal, pulled directly from the demands of the Democratic Socialists of America – without negotiating or compromising with moderate Democrats, let alone Republicans. Another is that moderate Democrats who object to progressive policies have to be shamed and pressured into getting with the program – as Chakrabarti tried to do by comparing moderates to segregationists – or removed through primary election challenges from the left, as Ocasio-Cortez has threatened. These policies worked for the Tea Party on the Republican side, so the thinking goes, so why shouldn't they work for progressives?Yet another implication of this approach is that progressives shouldn't attempt to win over swing voters – particularly white voters – but instead should maximize turnout from minorities, who lean Democratic by wide margins but typically don't vote at the same rates as whites. The model here is Stacey Abrams, who in her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial campaign nearly became the first African American woman to be elected governor of any state, largely on the strength of her success in getting minorities to the polls and driving voter turnout to record highs. According to this theory, the rising prominence of Ocasio-Cortez and her cohort, who embody the Democrats' growing diversity and progressivism, can excite minority turnout to such a level that the country's move toward majority minority demographics finally translates to Democratic political dominance.For all these reasons, progressives want the Squad to be the new face of the Democratic party. Pelosi, however, disagrees. The San Franciscan is a progressive herself but also an adept political calculator, who understands that Democrats regained the House in 2018 by running moderate candidates in Republican-held districts. She has skillfully held her caucus together so far by uniting them around policies with wide appeal and avoiding actions (such as pursuing Trump's impeachment) that could split moderates and progressives. She fears that the majority making districts – and the Democratic House majority – will revert to Republican control if their college-educated, mostly suburban and mostly white swing voters who were repelled by Trump in 2018 turn out to be even more repelled by the Democrats' most extreme members in 2020.Pelosi is also well aware that while the Squad have an intense following among leftwing activists and on social media, overall they are some of the most unpopular politicians in America. A recent poll of swing district voters found that Ocasio-Cortez was recognized by nearly three-quarters of voters but viewed favorably by only 22%. Ocasio-Cortez's self-proclaimed ideology of socialism was viewed favorably by only 18% of those surveyed – which still made it twice as popular as Omar, who was viewed favorably by only 9%. Those are toxic levels of unpopularity. Many Democrats worry that if the party becomes defined by the Squad, they could lose not only the House but the presidency.> The Squad make even better foils for Trump's 'America first' approach than Pelosi ever didWhich of course is why Trump has every incentive to make the Squad his principal target, and to achieve maximum publicity by doing so in a calculatedly xenophobic and (at least) borderline racist way that's guaranteed to provoke widespread condemnation. It verges on surreal to see Trump defending Pelosi – who has been demonized by Republicans since she first wielded the speaker's gavel in 2007 – against supposed charges of racism by the Squad. But the Squad make even better foils for Trump's "America first" approach than Pelosi ever did, given the broader range of rage buttons they push among many culturally conservative Americans. And the more media attention the Squad receives, according to many Republican strategists, the more Democratic presidential candidates will feel pressured into embracing progressive positions on issues such as open borders, abortion, racial reparations and healthcare for undocumented migrants that are unpopular with the overall electorate.Trump's attack on the Squad of course damaged the schemes of those Republican strategists who hope that, in an America where the Republican's base of non-college-educated whites continues to shrink, the party might build a majority on racially and ethnically inclusive populism. But Trump's major strategic error may have been to have strengthened Pelosi's hand. Already Trump's tweets seem to have restored Democratic unity behind Pelosi and reinforced her message that the party's internal divisions are fodder for Trumpian mischief. The Congressional Black Caucus' emphatic backing of Pelosi against the Squad may have taught them something about the limitations of identity politics and the realities of political power. But Trump's intervention has also given Pelosi and Squad a golden opportunity to publicly reconcile without anyone losing face.The fact that some of the usually supine Republicans in Congress spoke out against Trump's slurring his opponents' patriotism pointed out that many Americans – perhaps a majority – oppose his efforts to divide the country. It's possible that Trump's abdication of the role of unifier-in-chief may have handed it to Pelosi since, unlike Trump, she is visibly striving to find common ground among contending factions. Trump isn't the first politician to have underestimated Pelosi, but in the long run it may cost him more than whatever he gains by attacking the Squad. * Geoffrey Kabaservice is the director of political studies at the Niskanen Center in Washington DC as well as the author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party
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| Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo's 'Rambo' ex-PM and Serbian antagonist Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:50 AM PDT  Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned as Kosovo's prime minister on Friday, is hailed as a hero at home -- where he is nicknamed "Rambo" -- but considered a war criminal by Belgrade, which has long sought to see him behind bars. The controversial 51-year-old, who was a wartime commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), stepped down after being summoned as a suspect by a war crimes court in the Hague. It is the second time he has resigned after being called before a war crimes court over crimes allegedly committed by the ethnic Albanian KLA separatists during the 1998-99 war.
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| The U.S. Marines Might Be Souring on Amphibious Assault Ships. Here's Why. Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:55 PM PDT  The incoming commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps is backing away from the service's longstanding requirement for 38 dedicated amphibious assault ships.The move could signal the beginning of a new approach to amphibious warfare for the world's leading marine force.New commandant Gen. David Berger is "willing to shed some key tenets of the Marines' amphibious force-planning in recent years – including the demand for 38 amphibious warships to support a two Marine Expeditionary Brigade-sized forcible entry force," Megan Eckstein reported for the U.S. Naval Institute.Force-structure assessments in 2009 and 2016 affirmed the Marines' requirement for 38 assault ships including LHA and LHD big-deck vessels and small-deck LSDs and LPDs.The Navy in 2019 was short of the 38-amphib goal. The 32 ships currently in the fleet together can carry hundreds of jump jets, tiltrotors, helicopters, ACV armored vehicles, LCU landing craft and LCAC hovercraft as well as thousands of Marines."We will no longer use a '2.0 MEB requirement' as the foundation for our arguments regarding amphibious ship building, to determine the requisite capacity of vehicles or other capabilities, or as pertains to the Maritime Prepositioning Force," Berger wrote. "We will no longer reference the 38-ship requirement memo from 2009, or the 2016 Force Structure Assessment, as the basis for our arguments and force structure justifications."A new force-structure assessment due to end in 2019 could reduce the number of traditional assault ships in the Marines require and instead include alternative vessels in the tally of ships that can support a beach assault.
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| Surprise — The Future of Planned Parenthood Is Abortion Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Planned Parenthood's board has fired the organization's president, Leana Wen, after less than a year on the job. According to reports, Wen was dismissed because the board deemed her insufficiently dedicated to expanding Planned Parenthood's political advocacy, particularly on abortion.The news comes as a shock for a few reasons. For one thing, Wen was appointed just last fall to replace Cecile Richards, who resigned on good terms after leading the institution for twelve years.But it's surprising, too, if Wen's ouster was due to her reluctance to focus more on politics than on public health, as several reports suggest was the case. In June, after all, Planned Parenthood announced a six-figure ad campaign, "Bans Off My Body," to oppose recent state laws regulating abortion. Judging from Wen's Twitter account, she was perfectly comfortable promoting what the group frequently calls "reproductive rights."Why, then, was she forced to depart so unceremoniously, and what does her abrupt exit say about the future of Planned Parenthood?Wen's dismissal is perhaps best understood in light of the escalating national fight over abortion policy. As blue states have codified the right to abortion on demand, in many cases deeming it a "fundamental right," red states have passed limitations like heartbeat bills to protect unborn human beings earlier in pregnancy.Planned Parenthood has long sought to downplay its commitment to abortion, calling itself a health-care organization and spreading the lie that abortion is only 3 percent of its business, even as its clinics perform between one-third and half of all abortions in the U.S. annually. The group's leadership evidently believes this political moment demands more aggressive advocacy.And Wen wasn't up to the task. Considering her record thus far, she was hired for the "M.D." beside her name, and little else. She came across in interviews like a placid physician repeating rote talking points drilled into her on the drive to the studio. She consistently inserted the phrase "as a doctor" into her messaging to give the organization the gloss of medical legitimacy, and she never sounded like the polished, sure-footed political advocate Richards had.Plenty of turmoil, meanwhile, was taking place behind the scenes. "Wen had tried to refocus the organization's mission and image as a health provider offering a wide array of services, including abortions," sources told the Washington Post this week. "Those close to Wen said she was opposed by some board members and others who wanted to emphasize the organization's commitment to abortion rights."In January, Wen told BuzzFeed News she wanted to restructure the organization's goals, noting that people aren't going to Planned Parenthood to make a political statement. "What we will always be here to do is provide abortion access as part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care," Wen said. "But we also recognize that for so many of our patients we are their only source of health care."The day BuzzFeed published its profile, though, Wen backtracked. "I am always happy to do interviews, but these headlines completely misconstrue my vision for Planned Parenthood," Wen tweeted that morning. "Our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. We will never back down from that fight."Wen's termination sheds some light on this quick reversal. It's easy to imagine that she faced internal backlash for appearing to have shied away from abortion advocacy, and that her public about-face was an effort to pacify critics within the organization.It didn't work. In February, top political staffers left Planned Parenthood, reportedly amid ongoing conflict over Wen's management style. Now that tension seems to have boiled over. Six sources told BuzzFeed this week that "significant management issues [were] part of the board's decision to oust Wen," and one "said her removal was accelerated by the intensifying battle over abortion rights, saying that she was not the right leader in this climate."Perhaps the most revealing detail from Buzzfeed's report? Two sources said Wen angered staffers by refusing to use "trans-inclusive" language, "for example saying 'people' instead of 'women' and telling staff that she believed talking about transgender issues would 'isolate people in the Midwest.'"This anecdote might well be the key to understanding what happened to Wen and where Planned Parenthood's leaders intend to go from here. Surely she wasn't fired for her recalcitrance on preferred pronouns. But with a national spotlight on the abortion debate, Planned Parenthood's leaders are ready to take off the kid gloves.Wen's firing suggests that, instead of claiming to be just a normal health-care organization, Planned Parenthood intends to capitalize on its status as an influential left-wing interest group. To do that, it must become a purveyor of the entire progressive agenda, to the point of embracing the "intersectional" language promoted by transgender activists. So the mild-mannered Wen had to go.Pro-lifers have long known what Planned Parenthood itself appears to be admitting: The group's ultimate goal is to wield its political influence within the progressive movement to continue profiting from abortion.
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| Lawsuit: North Dakota officers used 'violence' on protester Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:08 PM PDT  Marcus Mitchell, 24, filed the lawsuit Thursday against Morton County, the city of Bismarck and state Highway Patrol officers. Highway Patrol spokesman Wade Kadrmas declined comment, citing pending litigation. A Morton County official didn't immediately respond to the Bismarck Tribune's request for comment Thursday.
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| A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:20 AM PDT ![A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time]( "A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time") Chester Hollman III, 48, was freed Monday from a state prison in Pennsylvania and a formal dismissal of the charges is expected later this month.
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| Samantha Bee Shocked Kellyanne Conway Somehow Even ‘More Racist’ Than Trump Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:27 PM PDT  TBSSamantha Bee didn't have time to cover all of President Trump's recent "racisms," instead choosing to zero in on his demand that four freshmen Congresswomen of color go back to the countries "from which they came." "Sadly, the only thing that should surprise anyone is that he wrote 'from which they came' to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition," the Full Frontal host joked. "Way to go, Shakespeare, now return your head to the orifice from which it came." "Of course, it wasn't long before spokes-golem Kellyanne Conway leapt to his defense by somehow sounding more racist than her boss," Bee continued before playing the clip of the White House counselor literally responding to a reporter's question with, "What's your ethnicity?" "Fun fact," Bee said, "that's also how she answers the phone." Seth Meyers Tears Into Cowardly Republicans Hiding from Racist Trump TweetsFrom there, she moved onto the resolution condemning Trump's remarks that passed the House with the support of only four Republican members. "So most House Republicans are A-OK with racism," Bee said, "which is great news if Biden is elected because at least he has a history of working with segregationists." The host spent the rest of her opening segment breaking down just how racist Trump's policies are, including his efforts to stop even legal immigration to the United States. "It's almost as if he doesn't like people from certain parts of the world or something," Bee said. "God, if only there were a word for that." For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast below.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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| I was a military doctor. The Pentagon's plan to cut doctors will make whole system worse. Posted: 18 Jul 2019 04:00 AM PDT  As an Army physician, I earned my patients' trust by serving side-by-side with them. Now,
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| Earthquakes repeatedly striking proposed US nuclear waste site Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:01 AM PDT  Repeated earthquakes could risk releasing deadly radioactivity into the earth if plans for a nuclear waste site in go ahead in Nevada's desert, the state's governor has warned.Tens of thousands of tons of highly radioactive used nuclear reactor fuel are due to be transferred from 35 US states to a new facility in the Mojave Desert.The Yuka Mountain nuclear waste repository is set to store this material deep within the earth. But a series of recent earthquakes in the Mojave Desert has raised concerns about the safety of storing radioactive waste at the facility. On 4 July, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake ruptured the earth in the desert, which stretches across the California-Nevada border.The force of the quake cracked buildings, sparked fires, damaged roads and caused several injuries in southern California. It was followed by a 6.4-magnitude temblor two days later.In the wake of the earthquakes, the governor of Nevada Steve Sisolak said he was committed to "fighting any continued federal effort to use Nevada as the nation's nuclear dumping ground"."These significant recent earthquakes so near to Yucca Mountain show one of the many geologic problems with the site as a nuclear waste repository," he said.Mr Sisolak sent a letter to the energy secretary, Rick Perry, urging him to reconsider the location of the facility.The US government began considering sites for storing radioactive waste that is produced as old nuclear fuel is reprocessed into nuclear weapon materials in 1982.In 2002, Yuka Mountain was designated as the only site in the country to receive the radioactive material. But Nevada has fought the proposed nuclear waste repository at every step, arguing that US government studies downplayed the risk of earthquakes damaging the repository and releasing deadly radioactivity. The project was shelved in 2010 under pressure from then-Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Barack Obama. They said nuclear waste should be stored in a state that wants it. But in March 2019, Mr Perry, the Trump administration's energy secretary, set aside $116m to push forward the project and restart licensing hearings.In governor of Nevada's letter to Mr Perry, he included the opinions of James Faulds at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and Graham Kent at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada.They urged for more research to be conducted into the seismic activity at the Yuka Mountain site. "The Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, which began July 4 and has yet to subside, clearly highlights the importance of such studies," Mr Faulds and Mr Kent said. A recent ranking compiled by the US Geological Survey found Nevada was the US state with the fourth highest level of seismic activity after Alaska, Wyoming and Oklahoma.Additional reporting by AP
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| Protests continue in Puerto Rico amid calls for governor to resign Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:22 PM PDT  Hundreds of pages of online chats between Rossello and members of his administration leaked, revealing the men mocking women, the handicapped and victims of Hurricane Maria.
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| End Syria hospital attacks, Russia told at UN Posted: 19 Jul 2019 08:09 AM PDT  Russia on Thursday opposed a United Nations Security Council declaration calling for an end to attacks on health facilities in Syria's Idlib region, diplomats said after the latest meeting over violence in the country's last major opposition bastion. Russian and regime aircraft have since late April ramped up deadly bombardment of the Idlib region of about three million people in northwest Syria, despite a deal to avert a massive government assault. Kuwait, Germany and Belgium asked for the hastily called closed-door session, the latest of many they have sought since May in response to worsening fighting in Syria's northwest.
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| UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official Posted: 19 Jul 2019 04:50 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official]( "UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official") The European Union cannot ignore China's National Intelligence Law, which requires Chinese citizens to support state information-gathering, as Brussels seeks rules for super-fast mobile networks, a senior EU official said on Friday. EU governments are debating ways to protect next-generation mobile networks from any possible Chinese interference, caught between a U.S. demand they shun China's Huawei and growing Sino-European business ties.
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| From Soup to Salmon: Slow-Cooker Recipes for a Fast and Healthy Dinner Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:21 PM PDT |
| Charges dropped in case alleging girl's forced birth control Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:44 PM PDT ![Charges dropped in case alleging girl's forced birth control]( "Charges dropped in case alleging girl's forced birth control") Charges were dropped Friday against a woman accused of forcing her friend's 12-year-old daughter to get a birth control implant without the mother's permission. Online court documents show two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children and a misdemeanor charge of recklessly endangering another person were withdrawn against 29-year-old Valerie Fullum. Fullum's attorney, Steve Townsend, said that the girl was never forced to get the implant, and that story was fabricated by others who wanted to discredit his client.
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| Los Angeles police officer charged with multiple rapes after DNA links him to cold case Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:45 AM PDT  A LAPD officer is facing life in prison after an investigation into an accusation of rape led to the discovery of another victim.
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| Baby chimp born in front of visitors at Chester Zoo Posted: 19 Jul 2019 07:54 AM PDT  A critically endangered chimpanzee was born in front of delighted visitors at Chester Zoo earlier this week. The new baby was safely delivered in front of a handful of zoo guests at around 5pm on Saturday following a seven-and-a-half-month pregnancy for mother Alice. One onlooker described the birth as "honestly one of the most amazing things I've ever seen" while another said it was "pretty epic." Zoo conservationists say the new baby, a female which is yet to named, is in good health and is spending her time bonding with her mother and other members of the 21-strong group of chimpanzees. Primate experts said the birth was a boost to the conservation breeding programme for the West African species. The chimp, who hasn't been named yet, with mother Alice Credit: Chester Zoo It is estimated that as few as 18,000 West African chimpanzees remain in the wild and it is the first subspecies of chimpanzee to be added to the list of critically endangered apes. Mike Jordan, Collections Director at the zoo, said: "This new baby is a significant addition to this multi-generational chimpanzee group at the zoo - and a vital boost to the conservation breeding programme for the critically endangered species. "Alice and her daughter have bonded well and she's doing a wonderful job of caring for her so far. A new baby always creates lots of excitement and Alice has plenty of support from some of the other experienced mums in the group, who are all keen to lend a helping hand. "The youngster provides particular cause for celebration given the plight of chimpanzees in Africa. More chimpanzees are hunted for the illegal bush meat trade than are born each year, causing populations to plummet in the wild. "Couple that with the fact that humans are destroying their habitats and it's easy to see why these fantastic animals – one of our closest cousins – are being pushed towards extinction. "This new arrival is a step towards changing the fortunes for the species." There are only 18,000 West African chimps left in the wild Credit: Chester Zoo Conservationists at the zoo have been working in Africa to protect some of the world's rarest chimpanzee species for more than 20 years. The expert teams have helped protect one of the last major strongholds of the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee in Gashaka Gumti National park in Nigeria.
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