| Fear, anger as border guards tighten net in southern Mexico Posted: 09 Jun 2019 12:40 AM PDT  Sitting inside a truck at a checkpoint near Mexico's southern border, a soldier is scrolling through images on a screen, looking for human forms hidden in cargo vehicles. The scanning equipment delivering the images to his computer is part of Mexico's new bid to stop undocumented migrants and human traffickers. It is a crackdown that is about to get stronger, under the deal the Mexican government struck Friday with the United States to avoid President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs.
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| Police detail man's threat behind panic at DC LGBTQ parade Posted: 09 Jun 2019 12:32 PM PDT  A man threatened another person with a BB gun during an LGBTQ pride parade in the nation's capital and set off a panic that sent hundreds of people, who mistakenly believed gunshots were fired, running in fear, police said Sunday. Aftabjit Singh, 38, was arrested on weapons possession and disorderly conduct charges after Saturday evening's incident in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where thousands of people packed the streets to celebrate in the city's annual pride parade. Although no gunshots were fired, hundreds of people ran from the area, knocking down metal police barricades and running into stores, fearing that a gunman had opened fire on the crowd of revelers.
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| Pauley Perrette says she won't return to 'NCIS' because she's 'terrified' of Mark Harmon Posted: 08 Jun 2019 09:05 AM PDT  Pauley Perrette says she will never return to "NCIS" – and she says that's because of her former co-star Mark Harmon.
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| Did China Really Test a New Submarine-Launched Nuclear Missile? Posted: 08 Jun 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Last week, world media was abuzz with reports that China had test-fired the JL-3, its most advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile.But did it really happen?Two anonymous Chinese military sources told the South China Morning Post that the test was of an older ballistic missile. "A missile test by the People's Liberation Army on Sunday did not feature the country's next-generation long-range weapon, but instead involved a mid-range Dongfeng missile refitted with improved guidance systems," one source said.The denials are part of a bizarre frenzy that began on June 2, when people in northeastern China reported seeing an object "with a glowing fiery tail streak across the sky" at 4 a.m. on June 2, according to China's state-influenced Global Times news site. Convinced they had seen a UFO, they posted videos and photos on Weibo.But Western defense analysts, noting Chinese maritime authorities had ordered the Bohai Bay area of the Yellow Sea closed to traffic that Sunday, speculated that the Chinese Navy was testing the JL-3. The first JL-3 flight test had also been conducted from Bohai Bay in November 2018. Once completed, the new missile, with an estimated 5,600-mile range, will enable Chinese submarines in the Western Pacific to hit the continental United States.
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| Queens Woman Says She Was Sickened at Dominican Republic Resort Where American Tourists Died Posted: 07 Jun 2019 08:25 PM PDT  A New York woman says she was poisoned at the same Dominican Republic resort where three American tourists died.
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| Google walkout organizer quits, citing retaliation fear Posted: 07 Jun 2019 06:58 PM PDT  A Google worker who helped organize a massive walkout to protest the company's handling of sexual misconduct said Friday she had quit her job. In a post at Medium, Claire Stapleton said her decision to resign was based on her expecting another child but also because she was marked for retaliation by department heads after the walkout late last year. Google told AFP that it thoroughly investigated Stapleton's claims and found no evidence that she was targeted for retaliation in the workplace.
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| In Iowa, Mayor Pete Buttigieg campaigns on the 'power' of being gay Posted: 07 Jun 2019 09:58 PM PDT  The South Bend mayor campaigns at an event honoring the memory of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in 1998.
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| What's the Difference Between AmazonFresh and Amazon Prime Now? Posted: 07 Jun 2019 06:54 PM PDT  If you want to get fresh groceries through Amazon, the main two channels you can try are the delivery services AmazonFresh and Amazon Prime Now. What's the difference? Great question. When we ask...
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| Notorious gangster wrote letter praising Trump and complaining about Mueller investigation Posted: 09 Jun 2019 05:14 AM PDT  As a man who ordered the murder of at least 19 people and spent more than two decades running one of America's most deadly crime gangs, James "Whitey" Bulger is not someone most politicians would want an endorsement from.But the notoriously ruthless Boston crime lord was, it seems, a big supporter of Donald Trump.The gangster – who was murdered, aged 89, in prison last year – praised the US president in a series of letters written from his cell.He called the entrepreneur-turned-commander-in-chief a "man of the hour", and said he admired how he was "tough and fights back instead of bowing" to critics."He has," Bulger wrote, "my vote so far".He meant it metaphorically: in Oklahoma where he served much of his life sentence, prisoners are not on the electoral roll.The letters of praise came to light after their recipient, a nurse from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, named Janet Uhlar, passed them to America's NBC News in an apparent bid to show a different side to the infamous gangster.In one of the missives from August 2018, Bulger comments on Mr Trump's foreign policy: "Feel China respects him and hesitant to try to bully him."In another, he refers to Robert Mueller's investigation into the president's ties to Russia."Sorry to hear Trump is being boxed in by so many," Bulger wrote. "Trump is experiencing what Mueller and company can orchestrate…[Mueller] should observe biblical saying, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'."The passage hints at a possible history between the two men. Mr Mueller was the FBI director when the agency was accused of protecting Bulger from prosecution in return for information on other gangs.In another letter, the convict – once number two on America's most wanted list behind only Osama bin Laden – refers to allegations Mr Trump paid off two women who claim they had extramarital affairs with the businessman."My bet is he's happy with present wife and settled down," writes Bulger. "No way would he wind up in Oval Office with a Monica Lewinsky. That was a scandal! Same media that attacks Trump would cover up for Bill Clinton."The series of letters, sent over six years, also reflect on the gangster's own life of crime and hint at his wish for a peaceful death – something he was denied when he was fatally bludgeoned by a fellow-prisoner at Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia in October.Before he was caught and convicted, Bulger was the head of the ultra-violent Winter Hill Gang which operated in Boston and neighbouring city Somerville from the 1970s to the 1990s, when he went into hiding after receiving a tip from a corrupt FBI agent that he was about to be arrested.He eluded law enforcement for 16 years before finally being arrested in Santa Monica, California, in 2011.Ms Uhlar started her pen-relationship with Bulger after she was a juror on his 2013 trial.
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| American Airlines cancels 737 MAX flights through September 3 Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:31 AM PDT  American Airlines has canceled all scheduled flights with Boeing 737 MAX jets through September 3, extending the grounding of its fleet after two crashes involving the same aircraft model killed 346 people. The airline had previously canceled all 737 MAX flights through August 19 as it awaited recertification of the aircraft in the wake of the crashes. The extension means that American Airlines will have canceled 115 flights since grounding its 14 737 MAX aircraft.
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| NASA set up a webcam so you can watch them build the Mars 2020 rover Posted: 07 Jun 2019 07:05 PM PDT  NASA's mission to Mars in 2020 is a very, very big deal. After the death of Opportunity a number of months back, NASA has just one rover left on the Red Planet and Curiosity isn't exactly a spring chicken. Curiosity's two-year mission has long since lapsed and the rover has spent nearly 2,500 days on Mars since landing back in 2012.Now, with excitement over the Mars 2020 mission at a fever pitch, NASA is offering us all a seat right inside its Jet Propulsion Laboratory where the rover is slowly taking shape. A newly-installed webcam provides a live look at the scientists hard at work testing and assembling all the important parts that will make the new rover tick.The cam is set up in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's clean room, where engineers dressed in white suits add to the rover and ensure its various components are in good working order for its eventual launch.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNiYPglK58NASA describes the stream thusly:> Affectionately called "Seeing 2020," the webcam provides the video feed (without audio) from a viewing gallery above the clean room floor. You can also watch and participate in live webchats with members of JPL's social media team and the Mars 2020 team as they answer questions from the public about the mission. These "Seeing 2020" webchats will occur Mon.-Thu. at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. and 7 p.m. EDT), with additional moderated chats when special activities (like drive tests) occur.At present, NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 mission sometime on or immediately after July 17th, 2020. It won't actually arrive at Mars until 2021, and going by the current schedule it should get there on February 18th of that year.The mission carries a number of scientific objectives, but perhaps the most exciting is the plan for the rover to collect and store samples from the Martian surface in secure containers that will be picked up by a later mission and then brought back to Earth where eager scientists will be waiting to study them.
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| Four men arrested in attack on two LGBT women who refused to kiss on London bus Posted: 09 Jun 2019 07:51 AM PDT  Melania Geymona, one of the victims, says she shared the gruesome image on Facebook to show how common violence is towards marginalized groups.
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| Sudan protesters want civil disobedience to pressure army Posted: 08 Jun 2019 10:21 AM PDT  Pro-democracy protest leaders on Saturday called on Sudanese to take part in acts of civil disobedience in a bid to pressure the military to hand over power after the deadly break-up of their main sit-in in the capital of Khartoum earlier this week. The call came a day after Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met separately with the ruling generals and the protest leaders in an effort to revive talks that were almost dead after the dispersal of the sit-in outside the military's headquarters on Monday. The Sudan Doctors' Central Committee, one of the protest groups, said at least 113 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded since Monday.
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| Crater Of Death: Union Soldiers Tried to Tunnel Beneath Confederate Defenses (It Backfired) Posted: 08 Jun 2019 05:00 PM PDT  It was just after 3 am on Saturday, July 30, 1864. A month of relative quiet along a two-mile stretch of Union and Confederate trench lines immediately east of Petersburg, Virginia, was about to come to an explosive end. In the aftermath of several earlier Federal attacks on the strategically vital city in mid-June, a portion of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's IX Corps picket line lay only 400 feet from Elliot's Salient, a highly fortified position on high ground that formed an angle protruding out from the main Confederate line, commanded by Maj. Gen. Bushrod Rust Johnson.To support the defenders' artillery and mortars, a second line, or "cavalier trench," had been dug close behind the main redoubt. Elliot's Salient boasted four smoothbores of Lt. Col. William Pegram's battery and was backed by two regiments of veteran infantrymen of Brig. Gen. Stephen Elliot's South Carolina Brigade. Across a north-south ravine from Elliot's Salient were trenches occupied by the troops of Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants' 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, many of them coal miners in civilian life.
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| US prosecutors say they won't enforce strict abortion laws Posted: 07 Jun 2019 06:06 PM PDT  A group of American prosecutors pledged on Friday not to enforce strict abortion laws in response to attempts to tighten access to the procedure in parts of the United States. The lawyers added that "many of the laws are so vaguely written" anyone involved in the abortion process could be prosecuted. The attorneys who signed the pledge come from 24 states and the US capital Washington, with 12 being statewide attorneys general and the rest being local elected prosecutors who can make their own charging decisions.
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| Iran unveils new air defence system as it warns Europe to normalise ties Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:34 AM PDT  An increasingly isolated Iran unveiled a new "domestically produced" air defence system on Sunday, hours after urging European countries to uphold commitments made under the nuclear deal, or face the consequences. The new system, the Khordad 15, can trace six targets at the same time – including fighter jets, bombers and drones – and destroy them with missiles. "Iran will increase its military capabilities to protect its national security and interests, and it will not ask permission from anyone on this matter," said Defence Minister Amir Hatami at the unveiling. With the 2015 deal unravelling quickly and relations with the US increasingly frosty, Iran is scrambling to showcase its strength even as it lurches towards potential financial ruin. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking in advance of a visit from his German counterpart Heiko Maas. Mr Zarif said Europeans have "a duty" to ensure that Iran's economic relations return to normal. He criticised European and Western policies as having "only caused damage in the region" and warned that "Europeans are not in a position to criticise Iran for issues outside the JCPOA," using the acronym for the nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has given Europe and China a 60-day deadline to challenge the US Credit: Official President website/Handout via REUTERS "Now some countries like Germany have stopped selling arms to Saudi Arabia for bombarding the people of Yemen, some other countries haven't done so," he added. "In general, the West has allowed the autocratic regimes in our region to commit crimes." The tough talk follows a move by Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, to walk back from various commitments in the deal last month. In early May, he gave Europe and China a 60-day timeline to challenge the US position or risk Iran resuming enriching uranium to a higher degree than that permitted by the accord. Iran on Friday rejected a suggestion by France to re-open nuclear talks, citing an increased risk of total collapse should the existing agreement be broadened. The purpose of Mr Maas's visit to Iran is to explore different means of preserving the fraying nuclear non-proliferation pact. Such a diplomatic coup would offer Iran an economic lifeline and give the deal's western signatories a mechanism for ensuring Iran's ballistic mission development is kept under control and potentially curb its regional military adventures. Iran has long insisted its nuclear activities are peaceful, even as it refuses to discuss its missile programme.
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| ‘Whitey’ Bulger Wrote Letters Praising Trump to a Juror Who Convicted Him Posted: 08 Jun 2019 07:34 AM PDT  U.S. Marshals Service/U.S. Dept. of Justice Handout/ReutersJust months before he was bludgeoned to death in a West Virginia prison, notorious Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger poured his heart out in a series of letters praising President Trump (he had his vote) and criticizing Robert Mueller, whom he said should be nicer.The 75 missives were sent to the most unusual of pen pals—a juror who helped to convict him of the 11 murders he carried out during the 1970s and 80s. Janet Uhlar, a nurse from Cape Cod, shared the letters and photos Bulger sent her with NBC News last week. Uhlar, who says she did not doubt Bulger's guilt, told NBC that she was troubled by how the U.S. government handled the case, especially the way they cut deals with criminals to testify in Bulger's trial. Psycho, Gangster, Rat: Whitey Bulger Gets What He Had ComingBulger wrote often about politics and was particularly fond of Donald Trump, writing that he was sure history would look back favorably on the 45th president and unfavorably on former special counsel Robert Mueller. "Sorry to hear Trump is being boxed in by so many," Bulger wrote in 2018. "Trump is experiencing what Mueller and company can orchestrate,"In another letter he wrote, "[Mueller] should observe biblical saying - 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'"Then the convicted killer mused that Trump would might outlast all his critics. "History may show Trump was the man of the hour," Bulger wrote August 2018, adding, "Feel China respects him and hesitant to try to bully him."Bulger also wrote, "Trump is tough and fights back instead of bowing down to pressure—and caving in to press!" The 89-year-old criminal also mused about Trump's marriage. "My bet is he's happy with present wife and settled down," Bulger wrote in one of the letters shared with NBC News. "No way would he wind up in Oval Office with a Monica Lewinsky—That was a scandal! Same media that attacks Trump would cover up for Bill Clinton."Uhlar reached out to the convict in a random letter in 2013, to which he replied, "No disrespect, but I don't trust prosecutors, judges, jurors, FBI agents, CIA..."Bulger went on to write more than 75 letters–some in flowery cursive penmanship and others in tiny block print–to Uhlar over the next five years. "All I want is peace and quiet for these last days and sit out on prison yard in my wheelchair," he wrote just two months before he was murdered in prison. "Good friends 'lifers' went out that way under blue sky."Uhlar did not share what she wrote in the letters to Bulger, which are presumably in the possession of his surviving family members. "I get some strange mail at times—a grandmother from Kansas—hates Trump wants him 'impeached'," he wrote. "She assumes I hate him? Why Because I'm in prison?"Shortly after the two started corresponding, Uhlar's son Josiah died of a drug overdose, to which Bulger showed his softer side. "I'm glad your family are there for you, Janet," he wrote in January 2015. "I'm sure Josiah would want you to understand he loved you and in desperation wanted to have a period free of pain."He also wrote fondly of his long-time girlfriend Catherine Grieg, who is to be released to a halfway house after being convicted of harboring a fugitive when she hid him while he was a fugitive. "My No. 1 interest is Catherine's health and freedom—hurts to see her here and stoic," Bulger wrote. "Catherine love of my life. We loved these beautiful creatures—had a humbling effect on me. Made me feel and in our 16 years on the run Catherine did for me what the police beatings, prisons couldn't—kept me Crime free for 16 years and Happiest of our lives."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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| To deter shootings, Americans shun naming suspects, weigh demolishing sites Posted: 08 Jun 2019 06:32 PM PDT  As the superintendent of Jefferson County School District in Colorado, Jason Glass oversees one of the most troubled pieces of property in the United States: Columbine High School. The site of the one of the first -- and still among the deadliest -- school shootings in the country, Columbine has proved an enduring headache for the school district ever since two students killed 12 of their classmates, a teacher and themselves in 1999. In an open letter published this week, Glass detailed how every year hundreds of people try to get on campus to "reconnect with the 1999 murders," while in the years that followed, many other school shooters took inspiration from the Columbine attack.
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| After backlash for slain giraffe photo, hunter says animal was 'majestic,' 'delicious' Posted: 09 Jun 2019 11:05 AM PDT ![After backlash for slain giraffe photo, hunter says animal was 'majestic,' 'delicious']( "After backlash for slain giraffe photo, hunter says animal was 'majestic,' 'delicious'") The pictures of Kentucky trophy hunter Tess Talley were first posted on Twitter last June sparking outrage over the killing online.
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| Glock 31: Why 1 Expert Says You Will Really Like This Gun Posted: 08 Jun 2019 04:11 AM PDT  In the early 1990s, a handful of calibers emerged to challenge the nine-millimeter as the dominant semi-automatic handgun round. One of these, the .357 Sig, is the caliber of choice for the Glock 31 pistol. The Glock 31 is the company's offering for those into high velocity or long distance handgun shooting. The G31 also comes with a large magazine capacity, making it an excellent self-defense or duty sidearm.The now infamous 1986 FBI Miami shootout was a watershed moment in the history of law enforcement. Eight FBI agents armed with pistols and shotguns engaged two bank robbers armed with superior weapons. Over the course of the gun battle, which saw the federal agents pinned down by suppressive fire from a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, two agents were killed and another five wounded. The two bank robbers were hit multiple times by incoming fire but were both able to continue shooting, contributing to the very high law enforcement casualty rate.In the aftermath of the shootout, the FBI and other government agencies began the search for a new, more powerful handgun round. Nine-millimeter and .38 Special proved ineffective at stopping the robbers, while .357 Magnum was a revolver cartridge that limited the user's carrying capacity to six rounds at a time. Law enforcement wanted a powerful round that could be carried in large quantities.
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| The Polaris ACE 900 XC Is the Ultimate Bug-Out Buggy Posted: 09 Jun 2019 12:00 PM PDT  Whether you consider it an ATV with a steering wheel or a single-seat side-by-side, the ACE 900 is a lot of fun on the trails.
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| US mayor apologises for saying LGBT+ people and abortion rights campaigners should be killed Posted: 09 Jun 2019 02:03 AM PDT  A US mayor has been forced to apologise amid calls for his resignation after suggesting "killing out" gay people, abortion campaigners and "socialists".In a since-deleted post on Facebook, Mark Chambers, who is mayor of Carbon Hill, Alabama, said killing off minority groups would be necessary in a coming "revolution"."We live in a society where homosexuals lecture us on morals, transvestites lecture us on human biology, baby-killers lecture us on human rights and socialists lecture us on economics," the mayor posted on Facebook.Mr Chambers has been its mayor since 2004 in the town in the north west of Alabama. Despite Carbon Hill having just 2,000 residents, the public post attracted a much wider backlash.This was enflamed further when one of Mr Chambers' friends on the site responded, saying: "Society is giving the minority more rights than the majority."I hate to think of the country my grandkids will live in unless somehow we change and I think that will take a revolution."In a reply the mayor said: "The only way to change it would be to kill the problem out. I know it's bad to say but without killing them out there's no way to fix it."Mr Chambers initially denied that he had been responsible for the post when challenged on it by local news channel WBRC-TV, claiming it had been written by someone else.However he subsequently posted an apology to his Facebook page, which is no longer publicly available."I and I alone am responsible for the comment that was made," Mr Chambers wrote."Although I believe my comment was taken out of context and was not targeting the LGTBQ community, I know that it was wrong to say anyone should be killed."I am truly sorry that I have embarrassed our city, I love this city and while in office I have done everything in my power to make this a better place for our families."Responding to the story, the National Centre for Transgender Equality highlighted the case of Dana Martin, a trans woman in nearby Montgomery who was the first trans person murdered in 2019.Alabama also has some of the strictest abortion legislation in the country. A bill passed in May outlawed the procedure even in the case of rape.Mr Chambers was reportedly asked to resign by at least one member of a subsequent town council meeting. However, other city leaders said they supported the mayor, who hired the town's first black police chief and raised budgets in his time in office.Since taking office Donald Trump has regularly championed the idea that white, working class Americans are losing out as a result of migration or equality measures aimed at helping marginalised groups.International Pride month, in June, has started with controversy over te US banning its embassies from flying the LGBT+ pride flag.
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| 10 deals you don’t want to miss on Saturday: $20 off PlayStation Plus, $26 headphones, $17 Wi-Fi extender, more Posted: 08 Jun 2019 04:27 AM PDT ![10 deals you don't want to miss on Saturday: $20 off PlayStation Plus, $26 headphones, $17 Wi-Fi extender, more]( "10 deals you don't want to miss on Saturday: $20 off PlayStation Plus, $26 headphones, $17 Wi-Fi extender, more") Welcome to another special weekend edition of our daily deals roundups. Highlights from Saturday's list include the return of a Black Friday sale that shaves $20 off 12-month PlayStation Plus codes (they're stackable so you can buy several and add multiple years to your balanace!), hot new true wireless earbuds for just $26.39 when you use the coupon code BGRSPTFP at checkout, the best-selling Wi-Fi range extender on Amazon for just $16.99, $50 off Bose's awesome compact sound bar, the lowest price ever on the Ring Video Doorbell 2, $5 off Fire TV Sticks, $20 off Echo Dots, $14 off AirPods 2, soft white LED light bulbs for just $1 a piece, a massive 50% discount on a top Blendtec blender, and more. Check out all of today's top deals below.
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| Raytheon and United Technologies in merger talks: WSJ Posted: 08 Jun 2019 11:17 PM PDT  United Technologies Corp and US arms giant Raytheon are in talks over a merger deal that could create one of the world's biggest aerospace and defense companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The new entity would be the world's second-largest defense company by sales after Boeing. A person familiar with the matter told the newspaper that United Technologies is likely to own a majority of the combined company.
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| U.S. Treasury's Mnuchin says Mexico immigration deal fixes problems Posted: 08 Jun 2019 03:50 AM PDT  U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday that the U.S.-Mexico immigration deal met President Donald Trump's objectives of fixing immigration problems on the southern U.S. border, but Trump will retain the authority to impose tariffs if Mexico fails to live up to it. The deal averts a 5% tariff on all Mexican goods that was due to start on Monday, with Mexico agreeing to rapidly expand a controversial asylum program and deploy security forces to stem the flow of illegal Central American migrants. "We now have an agreement that we believe is going to fix the immigration issue.
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| Asteroid nearly the width of a football field has small chance of hitting Earth this year Posted: 09 Jun 2019 11:11 AM PDT ![Asteroid nearly the width of a football field has small chance of hitting Earth this year]( "Asteroid nearly the width of a football field has small chance of hitting Earth this year") An asteroid called 2006 QV89, which has a diameter slightly smaller than the width of a football field, is set to pass by Earth in September.
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| Biden flips his stance on the Hyde Amendment Posted: 08 Jun 2019 10:40 AM PDT  Democratic strategists Robin Biro and Max Burns weigh in on the impact Joe Biden's flip on the Hyde Amendment will have on his presidential campaign.
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| The Best Dog Car Seat Covers for When Muddy Paws Strike Posted: 08 Jun 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| Navy-Killers: Russia is Deploying New Anti-Ship Missiles in Crimea Posted: 07 Jun 2019 06:00 PM PDT  During the Cold War, when the Crimean peninsula was part of the Soviet Union, Russia built an elaborate coastal defense system of underground anti-ship missile launchers.That system lapsed after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine, which owned Crimea. But after Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014, the Russian military began refurbishing the region's defenses.Now, Russian officials hint that the next step may be deploying advanced anti-ship missiles to the region. "The point at issue is the possible rearming of this system with new types of missiles," Alexander Leonov, CEO of missile maker Tactical Missile Corporation, told Russian news agency TASS.The coastal defense system is known as Utyos ("cliff"), or Object 100 to its Soviet builders. It comprised a series of bunkers and underground missile launchers armed with the P-35, a variant of the 1950s Shaddock missile that armed Soviet surface ships and submarines. With a range of about 200 kilometers (125 miles), the thirty-three-foot-long Shaddock was a large, turbojet-powered ship-killer.
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| This 100 Year Old Gun Ages Like Fine Wine: Best 1911s for 2019 Posted: 08 Jun 2019 09:00 AM PDT  The 1911 is the most ubiquitous and recognizable handgun in existence today.You've seen the 1911 in hundreds of movies, and it's probably the first gun that comes to mind when you think of a pistol.Before we take a look at our top picks for cheap 1911s, let's explore the history of this iconic gun.HISTORY OF THE 1911The 1911 pistol is an American icon. It has been in the the hands of 5 generations and its popularity is still rising. This pistol has become synonymous with power, durability and the American military.Military and law enforcement quickly adopted the original design by John Moses Browning (JMB) as a sidearm. The high versatility of the perfect and straightforward design of the gun made it appropriate for different purposes from self-defense to hunting, target-shooting or competitions.At the end of the 1800's, there was a huge demand for a more reliable gun, a self-loading pistol.The standard back then was the .38 Long Colt, but a more reliable .45 was required. This was exactly what JMB had in mind when he crafted the semi-automatic pistol that would pass the most rigorous US military tests.Simulations included shooting the gun after it has been thrown in mud, submerged in acid or loaded with deformed cartridges. Over 6000 test rounds were performed at the time on this piece of metal, which was the only one to emerge from the competition with other notable brands such as Smith & Wesson and Savage.
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| Missouri health officials seek answers on abortion clinic Posted: 07 Jun 2019 06:27 PM PDT ![Missouri health officials seek answers on abortion clinic]( "Missouri health officials seek answers on abortion clinic") The state Department of Health and Senior Services said a March health inspection of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic "identified serious concerns, one of those involving the handling of fetal tissue extracted from abortions." The agency said that led it to investigate Boyce and Bynum Professional Services, which handles fetal tissue from abortions at Planned Parenthood. The agency declined to provide additional details about allegations that some women remained pregnant after receiving abortions at Planned Parenthood and did not specify how many instances it reviewed, citing the ongoing investigation.
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| Joe Biden’s lead slips as Elizabeth Warren surges, Iowa poll shows Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:02 AM PDT  Former VP at 24% and Sanders second on 16%, but Massachusetts senator and Buttigieg close behind as race tightens Presidential Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. Photograph: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images On the heels of a major Iowa poll which showed a big slip in his big lead over the Democratic field, Joe Biden was conspicuous by his absence from the guest list for a big party event in the state on Sunday. Nineteen candidates for the presidential nomination are due to speak at the Democratic Party Hall of Fame dinner in Cedar Rapids, among them leading contenders Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris. Biden, who is attending his granddaughter's graduation, will not be among them. He is due to visit Ottumwa, Iowa, on Tuesday – the same day Donald Trump will visit Council Bluffs and Des Moines. In the poll released by CNN and the Des Moines Register on Saturday night, the former Delaware senator and vice-president led the 23-strong field in the early voting state by eight clear points. But he only polled at 24%, down from his usual 30%-plus. Sanders was second with 16%, ahead of Warren with 15% and Buttigieg with 14%. Harris was the only other candidate above 5%, with half as much support as Buttigieg. That's a strong showing for Elizabeth Warren … there are people who are paying attention and that's step one Ann Selzer The former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke and the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar were the only other candidates to get more than 1% support among likely caucus participants. Both attracted 2%. Higher-profile candidates attracting no support whatsoever included New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. The poll also showed that voters who identify as liberal now favour Warren, and that the primary concern among respondents is who will be best placed to beat Trump. "That's a strong showing for Elizabeth Warren," Ann Selzer, president of the eponymous company which conducted the poll, told the Des Moines Register. "I think that all of the publicity lately and all of the polls lately are so Biden-heavy that for her to have any metric that shows her on par [with him] … it says to me there are people who are paying attention [and] in a field this big, that's step one. First, you have to get people to pay attention." On Sunday, Sanders sought to deflect questions about his disagreements with Biden or the importance of any poll so far out from the caucuses, which will be held on 3 February next year. "We're not going to get 50% of the vote in Iowa," the Vermont senator told CNN's State of the Union, comparing the contest to 2016, when he went toe-to-toe with the narrow winner, Hillary Clinton. "I don't think anybody will. I think we have an excellent chance to win here, we're going to win in New Hampshire, and I think we have a very strong chance of being the candidate who will defeat the worst president in the modern history of this country, Donald Trump." The fact we can bring Texas and its 38 electoral votes with us shows that we are best prepared to take on Donald Trump Beto O'Rourke One of the candidates with 2% in Iowa, Klobuchar, told CBS's Face the Nation she could build support by being a midwestern senator "running on a track record of getting things done". "I'm clearly on the debate stage and expect to be there in the fall," she said. "And I think that's going to give opportunity to voters in Iowa and all across the country to really narrow it down." Her fellow two-percenter, O'Rourke, a charismatic candidate whose polling numbers have nonetheless gone into reverse, also played down the Iowa poll. "If I relied on polls in any race that I'd run," he told ABC's This Week, "I never would have been able to serve in the United States Congress. We never would have tried to take on Ted Cruz." Beto O'Rourke stretches before the Pride Fest Fun Run 5K in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images That was a reference to the 2018 Texas Senate race which O'Rourke lost to a Republican incumbent. Asked why he thought he was the man to beat Trump, the former congressman focused on his roots in a strongly Republican state and his stance against the president on the hot-button issue of immigration. "The fact that we can bring Texas and its 38 electoral votes with us shows that we are best prepared to take on Donald Trump," he said, "to defeat him in November of 2020 and then to bring this very divided country back together again in January of 2021." Biden has so far focused on states where he polls strongly against Trump, including his native Pennsylvania and the post-industrial "rust belt" where the president beat Hillary Clinton on his way to victory in the electoral college despite a near-3-million-ballot defeat in the popular vote. In an interview with the Guardian published on Sunday, Bruce Haines, a former steel executive and Trump supporter from Northampton county, Pennsylvania, pointed to a main issue of contention in Democratic ranks nationwide. Should the party pick a progressive with bold policy ideas, such as Sanders or Warren, or should it opt for Biden or O'Rourke, centrists with high name recognition in blue-collar or Republican-leaning states away from the liberal coasts? "So I think support [for Trump] is going to strengthen as we get closer to the election," Haines said. "And as we sort out who he's going to run against – will it be a socialist, or will it be Biden?"
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| Turkey says it has 'neutralized' 43 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq Posted: 08 Jun 2019 02:03 AM PDT ![Turkey says it has 'neutralized' 43 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq]( "Turkey says it has 'neutralized' 43 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq") Turkey's Defence Ministry said on Saturday a total of 43 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" as part of an operation Ankara launched in northern Iraq 13 days ago. The Turkish military launched what it dubbed "Operation Claw" in northern Iraq's Hakurk region on June 27 with artillery and air strikes followed by operations by commando brigades. The PKK militant group is based in northern Iraq, notably in the Qandil region to the south of Hakurk.
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| Tory Prime Minister Candidate ‘Deeply Regrets’ Cocaine Use Posted: 08 Jun 2019 04:58 AM PDT  Days before Conservative members of parliament open nominations for candidates to be their new leader, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said he used the Class A drug on several occasions when he was working as a journalist. The revelations emerged in a Gove biography by the journalist Owen Bennett due to be published next month, and were subsequently confirmed by the Daily Mail newspaper. The 51-year-old is the second favorite to replace May and one of the figureheads of the leave campaign, while Boris Johnson remains the front-runner, according to OddsMonkey.
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| What is an eternity ring? Meghan Markle appears to be wearing one Posted: 08 Jun 2019 06:02 AM PDT  On Saturday, June 8, Meghan Markle made her first public appearance sincegiving birth to son Archie Harrison at the queen's Trooping the Colour
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| This Lifted Honda Civic Type R Is a Rally Fantasy Come to Life Posted: 09 Jun 2019 07:00 AM PDT  Everything's better with big flares and all-terrain tires.
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| Microsoft gives glimpse of new Xbox console Posted: 09 Jun 2019 05:01 PM PDT  Microsoft on Sunday gave the world a first glimpse of a powerful next-generation Xbox gaming console that it aims to release late next year. No pricing plans for the new console were revealed at a gala event ahead of the opening of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game industry gathering. The new Xbox was promised to be released in time for the Christmas holiday shopping season in 2020.
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| Despite Trump Administration Request Denials, U.S. Embassies Are Displaying Pride Flags Around the World Posted: 09 Jun 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Trump's State Department has denied requests by U. S. embassies around the world to fly rainbow flags on embassy flagpoles
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| Boeing's 'New' AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter Might Just Be a 'Re-Run' Posted: 09 Jun 2019 12:44 PM PDT  The new Block II Compound would increase aircraft speed to 185 kts, increase payload to 5,900 pounds hover-out of ground effect (HOGE) on takeoff, and increase the range to 460 nm.Boeing has released concept footage of a high-speed Apache attack helicopter during the Vertical Flight Society's 75th Annual Forum & Technology Display- and it looks awfully familiar.(This first appeared last month.)Known as the Advanced AH-64 Block 2 Compound, the concept will serve as an interim solution in the U.S. Army Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.Interestingly enough, the high-tech mode doesn't seem so high-tech, when one looks back at the AH-56 Cheyenne, which first flew in 1967.Derived from the Army's Advanced Aerial Fire Support System program, which ultimately ended in only ten being built.Advanced before its time, the Cheyenne was an impressive helicopter that was limited only by the technology of the era.While the AH-64 Apache technology partially came from the Cheyenne, the development has seemingly come full-circle. In addition to powerplant and control changes, the weapons "wings" and 30mm chain gun have also undergone changes.With a rear-mounted pusher propeller, a large vertical fin and a new engine exhaust setup, the new Block 2 Compounds are rather futuristic.According to Defence Blog, Boeing is dead set on keeping the Apache fleet "capable on the highly complex multi-domain battlefield of the future through 2060."
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| Get 100,000 Amex Platinum points with this exclusive offer Posted: 07 Jun 2019 08:14 PM PDT  BGR has partnered with The Points Guy for our coverage of credit card products. BGR and The Points Guy may receive a commission from card issuers.You don't have to look far to discover some pretty lucrative credit card welcome bonuses that are available right now and open to anyone, as long as certain conditions are met. But when it comes to the most sought-after offers in the realm of credit card rewards, it really doesn't get much better than this incredible 100,000-point targeted offer from the Platinum Card® from American Express.The key word being "targeted," because that reward is only open to a select group of consumers. And even then, Amex only makes it available within a brief window of time, so if you're eligible, you really can't delay at all in applying for it. In this post, we'll talk about a way you can do so -- by checking the CardMatch Tool, where we've seen the return of the 100,000-point offer in recent days, which comes with a spending requirement of $5,000 within the first three months of opening the account to earn that six-figure bonus.A few important points to note about Amex welcome bonuses: It's worth keeping in mind that they're "not available to applicants who have or have had this product," a once-per-lifetime limitation that's found on this 100,000-point offer. And in addition to finding that offer via the CardMatch Tool, another newly available offer that's possible to find via the tool is an almost as sweet 50,000-point welcome offer for the American Express® Gold Card, which comes with a spending requirement of its own -- at least $2,000 within the first three months of card ownership. This is yet another reason why it's definitely worth checking out the CardMatch Tool, because even that 50,000-point offer is still 15,000 points sweeter than the current publicly available offer for the Amex Gold (35,000 points after spending $2,000 in the first three months). We should also point out that using the CardMatch Tool, which we'll walk you through next, generates a so-called "soft" inquiry on your credit report. That's another way of saying that the inquiry will show up on your report, but it will have no impact on your credit score, the same way as if you checked your credit report yourself via the free annual check that everyone is allowed. How to use the CardMatch Tool:The service is pretty straightforward to check out. From the CardMatch homepage, enter your first and last name, home address and the last four digits of your social security number. There's a box into which you can enter your email address if you want to be contacted by CardMatch \-- if you'd prefer not to be contacted, just proceed to the "Get Matches" prompt. Click it, then check the box to accept the terms & conditions, and after hitting "Submit," you're all done. If you are eligible for any pre-approved offers, they'll be displayed after about 60 seconds or so.If you don't see that you've been targeted for the 100,000-point offer, don't fret, because there still may be a chance for you to nab a solid Amex Platinum offer. The current publicly available welcome bonus offer for the card is a 60,000-point offer that's available once you spend $5,000 within the first three months. Of course, it's that six-figure offer everyone will want, so about that: Is the top-tier Platinum offer actually worth it?On an empirical basis, most definitely. Using the valuation of 2 cents per Membership Rewards point as calculated by The Points Guy, that makes the welcome bonus alone worth $2,000, which helps take a bit of the sting out of the card's $550 annual fee. Setting aside the welcome bonus, the Amex Platinum will reward frequent travelers with benefits like 5x points on airfare purchased directly through either the airline or American Express Travel, in addition to 5x earnings on prepaid hotels that are booked through Amex Travel. On top of all that, the card will reward you with up to $200 in credits each year for Uber rides, as well as $100 in credits for Saks purchases. Cardmembers can also enjoy access to nine existing Centurion Lounges, with more coming in major markets like New York and Los Angeles. When traveling with Delta, cardholders can also access Delta Sky Clubs plus more than 1,200 lounges and 28 airport restaurants around the country through a Priority Pass membership. But remember, to get all of these benefits with the 100,000-point offer, don't wait -- check out your status now, and act fast to claim your reward.
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| Memo to Trump: Your NASA chief is all in on going to the moon — with good reason Posted: 08 Jun 2019 04:00 AM PDT  It can't have been easy to be NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine on Friday, when his boss Donald Trump — the man who appointed him with a specific mandate to return the agency to the moon — appeared to reverse the course of U.S. space policy in a tweet. "NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon," Trump wrote indignantly. He shifted focus to the agency's next planned destination, Mars. In fact, Trump himself had been talking up NASA's planned lunar mission, called Artemis, as recently as last month. Bridenstine, an avid Twitter user, took a couple of hours before making the best of a confusing situation. As @POTUS said, @NASA is using the Moon to send humans to Mars! Right now, @MarsCuriosity and @NASAInSight are on Mars and will soon be joined by the Mars 2020 rover and the Mars helicopter. pic.twitter.com/Br1sTYfNzd — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) June 7, 2019 A week before the fateful tweet, however, Bridenstine could not have been more hands-on in pushing Artemis — the moon mission which aims to send at least one female and one male astronaut to our rocky satellite's South Pole in 2024. (Trump's own National Space Council is so keen to get to the moon soon, it recently brought the date forward from 2028.) "We're going back to the moon, and we're going to stay," he told me. "Not just flags and footprints this time, a real presence. Bridenstine is such a hands-on kind of guy, in fact, he was practicing landing on the lunar surface himself when he said that. A small group of journalists and the local Democratic congressional representative had been invited to NASA Ames in Silicon Valley for one-on-one rides and chats about Artemis, a relatively new plan which we're all just starting to get details on, while we flew. It seemed, shall we say, a weird flex (Bridenstine is a former Navy pilot), but OK. Bridenstine in NASA Ames' Vertical Motion Simulator. Image: NASA / Dominic Hart NASA administrators normally come across as colorless bureaucrats. Maybe this new-broom flyboy has the moxie necessary to sell a moon plan to an ever-skeptical Congress, which will need to sign off on funding it; maybe the agency's long-adrift space policy will finally be going somewhere. I was no great fan of Bridenstine's going into the meeting (as a GOP Congressman, he was a climate change denier, though he has since recanted). But during our short lunar trip, he helped make me a believer in Artemis. And it seems I'm not alone. "He's a breath of fresh air at NASA," says Clive Neal, a Notre Dame professor who has been both an adviser to and a skeptic of the agency for many years. Bridenstine's tireless advocacy for the new moon plan within NASA, Neal adds, "is just what the agency needs to get back to doing what it was designed to do." Whether he can keep his boss convinced, however, is another question. Trump vs. Trump: presidential tweets on the moon, one month apart. Image: twitter Fly me to the moon I've had some fairly odd interview settings in my time; questioning Steve Jobs inside the cramped confines of a Pixar artist's cubby hole usually comes to mind. But none had ever required me to wear a crotch harness — standard operating procedure for NASA Ames' Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS), just in case it crashes, which it never has — and a pilot's headset. We could actually hear each other pretty well inside the makeshift lunar module, but Bridenstine — whose appearance and persona can best be described as "boyishly enthusiastic" — takes his sims seriously. So much so that we did the trip twice: one time with the VMS pretending to be the original 1969 Apollo Lunar Module and one time as the lander planned for Constellation in the 2000s. Constellation was the previous moon mission planned by the last GOP president. It was scrapped by the last Democratic president, who preferred we go to the asteroids, then Mars. (You can see NASA's perennial problem.) Both landings, on what appeared to be a virtual launchpad surrounded by solar panels, were pretty much flawless. "I've never done it before today," said Bridenstine, a distinct note of geek pride in his voice. The VMS operators had done to him what NASA used to do to the Apollo astronauts. They threw unexpected anomalies into the simulation the second time around, but thruster and drift problems were all corrected, and we touched down with the mildest bump. "Welcome to the moon," Bridenstine said, beaming. The whole experience reminded me of nothing so much as Space Camp for adults. We are going to the Moon — to stay.Today, I am revealing the American companies who will deliver science & technology to the lunar surface. Congratulations to @Astrobotic, @Int_Machines & @OrbitBeyond! Learn more about @NASA's #Moon2024 plans: https://t.co/Aw71qcs15a pic.twitter.com/LgMJjDtGCd — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 31, 2019 Earlier that day, Bridenstine had made another smooth touchdown with another new part of Artemis. He announced $250 million in contracts had been signed for delivery of small payloads to the lunar surface. Contracts made not with the usual suspects, big defense contractors like Lockheed Martin or Boeing or even Elon Musk's SpaceX, but three venture-funded space startups whose names you're unlikely to know. "Some of them will fail, but the return on investment when one is successful is going to be huge," Bridenstine said. "It's a very Silicon Valley story." So far, so uncontroversial; Bridenstine's plan to reward scrappy small businesses has been widely applauded. The deal could effectively fund more of a launch infrastructure in cis-lunar space, which is the kind of thing we need to do to grow an asteroid mining economy, which would be enormous ROI. (Bridenstine brought up the prediction that Earth's first trillionaires will be asteroid miners.) SEE ALSO: How asteroid mining will save the Earth — and mint trillionaires The controversy currently rocking the space geek community is the next part of Artemis, known as Gateway. This is a space station designed to orbit the moon pretty much permanently, at which any vehicle (not just NASA's) can park before hopping to the surface. The cost of Gateway is still uncertain — as is the cost of Artemis overall, unofficially estimated to be in the $6 billion to $8 billion range beyond NASA's current budget. Some critics call Gateway a boondoggle, pointing out it's only necessary because NASA's upcoming Space Launch System is a far bulkier system than is strictly needed for a moon landing. (Because, ironically, the SLS was designed to go to Mars.) "This idea that you're going to put your base for the moon in lunar orbit, rather than on the surface, makes no sense at all," Dr. Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer, author and veteran advocate for Mars missions, said on the podcast Mars Talk. "It takes more propellant to get from there to the surface than it can pick up." (Part of the point of going to the South Pole is to explore the ice there, and ice can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.) Clive Neal, the NASA adviser/critic, concurs. "I don't like the Gateway," he says. "The high orbit in particular is ridiculous." But he adds that it's too late to redesign the SLS and its Orion capsule before the 2024 due date, and we have to work with what we've got. NASA has to fit its square Mars pegs into round moon holes, if you will. Ultimately, the experts agree that we just don't know enough about what we'll find on the moon (is that lunar ice in a form we can dig up, or is it too mixed up with all the moon dust?) to make long-term plans about our presence there. More study is needed, in short, so we just need to get there any which way the NASA budget will allow. "The SLS doesn't have the guts to get to lunar orbit," Neal says. "In the long-term, we need to think about making our space hardware destination-agnostic." But maybe, Neal adds, building the Gateway is part of the process of learning how to do that. Even if it isn't necessary for lunar landers, a Mars version of the Gateway will be more useful. "It's a necessary evil," he says. "You've got to infuse Mars ideas early in the process — because it's not the moon or Mars, it's the moon and Mars." Bridenstine gets that. Whether Congress and Trump do too — and whether the necessary funding materializes — remains to be seen. But the flyboy will do his damnedest to bring Artemis in for a smooth landing. Welcome to the moon. WATCH: Take a look inside the 3D printed habitat that could be home for astronauts living on Mars
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| Mother calls for investigation after she says officer pulled gun on her black son Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:28 AM PDT  A mother wants an independent investigation Friday after she says a Utah police officer pointed a gun at her 10-year-old son's head in what she calls a racially motivated incident.
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| Sri Lanka president sacks intelligence chief over Easter attacks probe Posted: 08 Jun 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's president has sacked the national intelligence chief and will not cooperate with a parliamentary investigation into security lapses before the Easter suicide bombings, officials said Saturday. Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday night to oppose a parliamentary select committee probe into the April 21 attacks that killed 258 people, including 45 foreigners, and wounded nearly 500. Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis was sacked after testifying to the inquiry last week that the attacks could have been averted.
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| See This Missile? It Might be the Navy's Most Crucial Weapon in Years Posted: 09 Jun 2019 02:12 AM PDT  The open-versus-closed seeker dichotomy explains why the Navy uses closed-seeker SM-2s and SM-6s for interceptions in the atmosphere, and special, open-seeker SM-3s for interceptions above the atmosphere. Modifying an SM-6 to hit ballistic missiles in space pretty much would make it an SM-3.The U.S. Navy in late January 2019 confirmed the designation of its newest cruise missile, in the process clarifying its long-term plan for arming its growing fleet of warships.The plan heavily leans on one missile, in particular. It's the SM-6, an anti-aircraft weapon that quickly is evolving to perform almost every role the Navy assigns to a missile.(This first appeared earlier in the year.)The Navy dubbed the newest version of the venerable Tomahawk cruise missile the "Block V" model, Jane's reported. There are two separate variants of the Block V missile, one with an anti-ship warhead and another with a warhead the Navy optimized for striking targets on land.Raytheon's Tomahawk has been the subject of controversy in Washington, D.C. In order to save money the Obama administration wanted to pause production of the long-range missile, which since the 1980s has been the Navy's main weapon for striking land targets from the sea.
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