| Massachusetts police officer charged with repeatedly raping 16-year-old homeless girl while on duty Posted: 28 Jun 2019 08:28 AM PDT  A 49-year-old Massachusetts police officer was arraigned Thursday on twocharges of rape after he allegedly sexually assaulted an underage homelessgirl multiple times while on duty
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| Sanders admits he would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for programs Posted: 27 Jun 2019 07:18 PM PDT  Sen. Bernie Sanders, challenged at Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate on how he would pay for universal healthcare and his other proposed programs, admitted income taxes on the middle class would have to go up.
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| Kamala Harris Just Taught a Debate Clinic. You’re Welcome. Posted: 27 Jun 2019 09:08 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- It's a fool's game to predict how voters will react to nomination debate performances – or, for that matter, how the media will construct the story of any debate. So I won't play that game.What I will say is that Senator Kamala Harris of California put on a clinic Thursday night in how to do these events. From early on in the second Democratic presidential debate until her final statement, she earned her place in the upper tier of candidates who have ever participated in these events. Again, that doesn't guarantee anything; Barack Obama won a nomination despite never really mastering that particular format, while several candidates who were good at debates never went anywhere. But yes, Harris is good at it.The centerpiece is the clip you'll be seeing, in which Harris took on Joe Biden on the issue of, of all things, busing – a policy question that's been out of the news for decades. It was in some ways a fascinating moment in U.S. political history, in which questions of race and ethnicity, generational change, education, political efficacy, and more all came together. But as to executing a plan, Harris pulled it off about as well as anyone could have. (And we know that it was a planned attack, because Harris's media folks had material ready to go once it happened.)The thing is that when Harris interrupted to gain control of the floor in order to launch her attack, it was already (at least) the second time that she had effectively shushed the other candidates. It was a messy night, with lots of cross-talk and interruptions, but Harris was repeatedly effective at seizing moments when she wanted to.Of course, that wouldn't help if she didn't know what to do once people focused on her. But her answers were consistently solid. She's excellent at shifting from anecdotes to policy, excellent at feeling her way to time limits – and excellent at exceeding the time limit without (in my view at least) seeming pushy or obnoxious. And her closing statement, in which she promised to prosecute the case against Donald Trump, was a strong way of labeling what she had been doing all night, and arguing that her particular skills are the right ones for the general election.Again: All of this is essentially theater criticism. We'll just have to wait and see whether it will play well with Democratic party actors, with the media, and directly or indirectly with rank-and-file Democratic voters. What we do know is that Harris doesn't need any immediate polling surge to at least stay in the conversation for the next few months, and she has quite a bit of support from party actors already – suggesting that if she does surge, she'll be in good position to take advantage of it.It's worth mentioning that all Harris would have to do is win the support of some of the undecided members of the California U.S. House delegation to move into first place in the endorsement race, at least according to the FiveThirtyEight accounting.As far as the rest of the night? I thought Pete Buttigieg probably did what his supporters were hoping for. Joe Biden had some solid moments, but all that's going to matter for him is how people are going to read his exchange with Harris, so we'll have to wait on that as well. I didn't see anyone else who entered with a plausible chance and who really helped himself or herself. In particular, it's hard to believe that anyone who wasn't already in the Bernie Sanders camp was persuaded by his performance, which is the exact same thing he's been doing since the 2016 primaries.It will also be interesting whether the candidates who did well during the Wednesday night debate wind up overshadowed by Harris (and Biden) on Thursday, or if they can retain some of the attention they earned.There's going to be one more round very similar to these debates at the end of July. After that, there's a two-month break, and then a September debate with a much more difficult threshold for earning an invitation. We're about to go through a series of second-quarter fundraising disclosures, which not only count as evidence of how the candidates are doing but also generates helpful attention going forward from those who do well. So as far as the horse race is concerned, these debates won't keep anyone in the headlines for long anyway. But for those of us who appreciate political skills, it was impressive to see Harris at work. To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Chrysler Voyager Posted: 27 Jun 2019 07:19 AM PDT |
| NASA plans to send a drone to Saturn's largest moon Posted: 27 Jun 2019 03:05 PM PDT  NASA said Thursday that it's sending a drone called Dragonfly to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Using propellers, the drone will fly and land on several spots on the icy moon to study whether it can support microbial life. The nuclear-powered mission is part of NASA's competitive New Frontiers program, which launched the New Horizons spacecraft that became the first to visit dwarf planet Pluto.
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| Trump slams Democratic debates at G20 summit over healthcare for migrants: ‘That’s the end of that race!’ Posted: 27 Jun 2019 06:34 PM PDT  Donald Trump attacked the first two nights of the 2020 Democratic debates while attending the G20 summit in Japan on Thursday. The president said the first night of debates among leading Democrats in Miami, Florida "wasn't very exciting" and lambasted his opponents for supporting health care for undocumented immigrants during the second night of debates. While meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the US president said, "You know they have a debate going on. They had the first debate last night, perhaps you saw it — it wasn't very exciting, I can tell you that." "They have another going on today," he continued, speaking with the German leader on Thursday night as the debates were going on. "They definitely have plenty of candidates. That's about it.""I look forward to spending time with you rather than watching that," he added. Still, the president reportedly claimed to have passed by a television during Thursday night's summit when he noticed the second round of debates at a moment when politicians were responding to a question about providing health care insurance for undocumented immigrants. Each of the 2020 hopefuls on stage at Thursday night's contentious debate were in agreement over providing health care to migrants who arrived at the nation's borders with documentation. > All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!? That's the end of that race!> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > > June 28, 2019Mr Trump tweeted seemingly in between meetings: "All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare.""How about taking care of American Citizens first!?" he continued, adding, "That's the end of that race!"On Wednesday night, the president tweeted the first night of debates were "BORING!" and did not live-tweet the entirety of the events as some reports suggested he was planning on doing while travelling to the G20 summit. Numerous candidates took a turn to swipe at Mr Trump during their remarks at the multi-day debates, with leading candidates like Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren each portraying themselves as the president's polar opposite in terms of rhetoric, policies and proposals.
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| Stealth vs. Russia: U.S. F-22s and F-35s vs. Russia's S-300 and S-400 (Who Wins?) Posted: 27 Jun 2019 08:00 PM PDT  Physics dictate that a tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft must be optimized to defeat higher-frequency bands such the C, X and Ku bands, which are used by fire control radars to produce a high-resolution track. Industry, Air Force and Navy officials all agree that there is a "step change" in an LO aircraft's signature once the frequency wavelength exceeds a certain threshold and causes a resonant effect—which generally occurs at the top part of the S-band.Russian air defenses may appear formidable as part of Moscow's increasingly sophisticated anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capability, but areas protected by these systems are far from impenetrable bubbles or 'Iron Domes' as some analysts have called them.While it is true that a layered and integrated air defense may effectively render large swaths of airspace too costly—in terms of men and materiel—to attack using conventional fourth generation warplanes such as the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, these systems have an Achilles' Heel. Russian air defenses will still struggle to effectively engage fifth-generation stealth aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.(This first appeared in August 2016.)
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| Ethics panel launches Gaetz investigation over Cohen tweet Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:50 AM PDT ![Ethics panel launches Gaetz investigation over Cohen tweet]( "Ethics panel launches Gaetz investigation over Cohen tweet") Matt Gaetz sent a tweet in February in which he threatened to release embarrassing personal information about Michael Cohen.
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| How did voters react to the first night of Democratic presidential debates? Posted: 27 Jun 2019 02:29 AM PDT  Maslansky and Partners president Lee Carter shares voter dials from the debate.
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| Video: Parents fight off woman trying to kidnap their child at airport Posted: 27 Jun 2019 10:26 AM PDT  Dramatic footage released by police shows every parent's worst nightmare at a busy Atlanta airport.
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| Supreme Court blocks plan to add citizenship question to 2020 census Posted: 27 Jun 2019 09:03 AM PDT  In a ruling with far-reaching political and economic implications, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision today that a citizenship question could not be included on the 2020 census — for now — because the Department of Justice's explanation for seeking to add one was inadequate.
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| UPDATE 3-Apple moves Mac Pro production to China from U.S. - WSJ Posted: 28 Jun 2019 07:03 AM PDT ![UPDATE 3-Apple moves Mac Pro production to China from U.S. - WSJ]( "UPDATE 3-Apple moves Mac Pro production to China from U.S. - WSJ") Apple Inc is shifting manufacturing of its new Mac Pro desktop computer to China from the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The move comes at a time when the Trump administration has threatened to impose new levies to cover nearly all imports from China and pressured Apple and other manufacturers to make their products in the United States if they want to avoid tariffs. Last week, Apple asked its major suppliers to assess the cost implications of moving 15% to 30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia, according to a Nikkei report.
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| US sanctions Maduro's son as it raises pressure on Venezuela Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:54 AM PDT  The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions on the son of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a move to increase pressure on family members of top officials backing the socialist leader and suspected of corruption. The action by the U.S. Treasury Department freezes any U.S. assets belonging to Nicolas Maduro Jr. and prohibits American from doing business with him. "Maduro's regime was built on fraudulent elections, and his inner circle lives in luxury off the proceeds of corruption while the Venezuelan people suffer," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
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| First Democratic Debate Shows What the Party Stands For Posted: 27 Jun 2019 10:07 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- If nominations are about defining the party to itself, the Democrats on Night One of the first round of debates made it pretty clear who they are. Demographically diverse. Pragmatic. Liberal. Programmatic. Group-oriented. Competent.Yes, Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that, but so do Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker. Some of the others, too, but those are the four who stood out to me. Yes, Klobuchar is relatively moderate, and Warren is relatively more progressive, and the other eight can probably be arrayed on an ideological spectrum based on their answers; still, however, they were very much of the same approach to politics. Take policy seriously. Show solidarity with various party-aligned organized groups and demographic groups: Moms Demand, unions, climate activists, women and more – and demonstrate it with concrete, specific policy solutions.What Democrats are really like was, I think, best demonstrated by the candidate who in my view had the worst night, Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Inslee is supposedly running on climate. In his closing statement, he tried to differentiate by arguing that he alone is pledging to make it his number one priority if he is elected. And yet Inslee utterly failed to do what a candidate with that kind of plan is supposed to do: Connect every question back to "his" issue to demonstrate that in fact he really would govern that way. Instead, he wound up talking about unions when he got an economy question, and immigrant communities when he got an immigration question – and then, most embarrassingly, he was not among the four candidates who volunteered climate as the nation's biggest geopolitical threat. Inslee said "Trump," which is a perfectly good Democratic answer. All his answers were perfectly fine Democratic answers. They just weren't about climate, and so instead of standing out he faded in with the rest of the candidates who may not qualify for the September debates.In other words, Democrats aren't really very good at running single-issue campaigns because they are trained, as Democratic politicians, to take policy seriously in all the areas in which Democratic groups want something.Whether this is good or bad, I suppose, depends on one's sense of what politics is supposed to be about and what one wants from a president. I tend to think it's very healthy for a party, and a very nice contrast to the bluster and ideological preening that tends to dominate Republican debates even when Donald Trump isn't one of the candidates.But whether that's correct or not, what was on display tonight is what the Democrats are.I counted six very plausible nominees going into the evening – Warren, Castro, Klobuchar, Booker, Inslee and Beto O'Rourke. Of those, I suspect that fans of all except Inslee and perhaps O'Rourke will believe their candidate did very well. None of the other four did anything to make me think that they are anything other than distant longshots. But that's mostly guesswork. As several pre-debate pieces have emphasized, it's what happens next that determines the winners – what the pundits say, which clips get used on TV news, and which clips go viral on social media. That may take a few days to sort out, especially with a second debate coming Thursday night.Hey, for all I know, the contentious argument between Tulsi Gabbard and Tim Ryan over war in Afghanistan could wind up getting plenty of attention and help one of them (or both) to move up in the polls a little. It was, for whatever it's worth, one of only two real active arguments, along with Castro and O'Rourke debating immigration policy. It's not always predictable what the media will do or which clips people will find appealing. What I would say is that neither Gabbard nor Ryan appears to have the support from party actors to take advantage of any surge. Castro and O'Rourke, and Klobuchar, Booker and Warren, are in much better position to leverage a small uptick into something more substantial.Other than that, I'll stick by my initial sense that this Wednesday group is in fact at least as strong as the Thursday group, even though their polling numbers are far weaker at this point. As a group, they were reasonably impressive despite the difficult logistics of a 10-candidate debate, in which all of them have to fight for time and candidates tend to go missing for half an hour here or fifteen minutes there.And with that, on to the second night.(Corrects spelling of Senator Booker's name in second paragraph. Corrects name of group in second paragraph.)To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia's Putin says liberal values are obsolete: Financial Times Posted: 27 Jun 2019 11:41 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Thursday that liberal values were obsolete because they had been rejected by the majority of the people in Western nations. Putin told the Financial Times newspaper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made a cardinal mistake by adopting a liberal policy towards immigration from the Middle East. Every crime must have its punishment," Putin said in the interview.
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| A U.S.-China Trade Deal Would Do Little To Fix 1 Big Issue Posted: 27 Jun 2019 06:50 AM PDT  When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 economic summit in Japan, hopes aren't all that high that they will conclude with a comprehensive trade deal.Nonetheless, most U.S. business leaders and investors are optimistic that the two countries will eventually reach a trade agreement – and when they do, it will pry open Chinese markets and create a wealth of opportunities for U.S. companies.Specifically, American negotiators are pushing for a deal that could end forced technology transfers, improve intellectual property protection and widen access to China's markets – all with the ultimate goal of creating a "level playing field" for U.S. businesses.
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| Mourning dog pictured at former owner's hospital bed finds new home Posted: 27 Jun 2019 03:30 PM PDT ![Mourning dog pictured at former owner's hospital bed finds new home]( "Mourning dog pictured at former owner's hospital bed finds new home") Moose, a 3-year-old lab mix, was recently photographed waiting at his former owner's hospital bed, spurring an adoption rush for the dog.
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| Shot American woman who miscarried faces homicide charge Posted: 27 Jun 2019 04:30 PM PDT  An American woman who miscarried after being shot five times has been charged by Alabama authorities in the death of her fetus, a move abortion rights groups condemned on Thursday. The arrest of Marshae Jones came amid heightened tensions around abortion after more than a dozen states in the southern and midwestern United States, including Alabama, passed restrictive abortion laws that are currently being challenged in court. "Marshae Jones was indicted for manslaughter for losing a pregnancy after being shot in the abdomen five times.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learns to play the insider’s game Posted: 27 Jun 2019 02:02 AM PDT  The freshman firebrand isn't tormenting party leaders — she's working with them.
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| Biden, Harris spar over desegregation at Democratic debate Posted: 27 Jun 2019 09:34 PM PDT  The senator from California said she was personally impacted as she was bused to school as a girl.
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| Supreme Court allows partisan districts, blocks census query Posted: 27 Jun 2019 08:23 AM PDT  In two politically charged rulings, the Supreme Court dealt a huge blow Thursday to efforts to combat the drawing of electoral districts for partisan gain and put a hold on the Trump administration's effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. On the court's final day of decisions before a summer break, the conservative justices ruled that federal courts have no role to play in the dispute over the practice known as partisan gerrymandering. The decision could embolden political line-drawing for partisan gain when state lawmakers undertake the next round of redistricting following the 2020 census.
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| China Says Its Demands for a Trade Deal With the U.S. Haven't Changed Posted: 27 Jun 2019 01:01 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- There's no change to China's conditions for making a trade deal with the U.S. as the two nations' leaders prepare to meet this weekend, a government spokesman said."China's core concerns must be addressed properly," Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said at a regular briefing in Beijing Thursday, when asked about the three demands laid out by Vice Premier Liu He in May.In order to reach an agreement the U.S. must remove all extra tariffs, set targets for Chinese purchases of goods in line with real demand and ensure that the text of the deal is "balanced" to ensure the "dignity" of both nations, according to Liu."We hope the U.S. side could drop its wrong practices, and we can solve the problems through equal dialogue and cooperation," Gao said.The trade teams are in contact to prepare for the meeting, and the respective negotiators had a good phone call earlier in the week, Gao said, without clarifying whether the trade teams will meet in Osaka before the leaders' encounter.Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also briefed reporters in Beijing on Thursday."The U.S.'s threat to add tariffs cannot scare us," Geng said. "The Chinese people refuse to be misled and will not be intimidated. So I would like to offer a piece of advice to the U.S. -- starting a trade war and adding tariffs harms itself and others."To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net;April Ma in Beijing at ama112@bloomberg.net;James Mayger in Beijing at jmayger@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Sharon ChenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser Is Incredibly Active Right Now, and We Don't Know Why Posted: 27 Jun 2019 06:09 AM PDT  Yellowstone National Park's Steamboat Geyser blasted steam and water into the air at 12:52 p.m. local time on June 12. Then, three days, 3 hours and 48 minutes later -- at 4:40 p.m. on June 15 -- it blasted steam and water into the air again, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS)'s Volcano Hazards Program. That's a new record for the geyser, according to the Billings Gazette: the shortest time ever recorded between eruptions.But don't worry. Increased activity at a single geyser doesn't indicate any new threat from the Yellowstone caldera -- the "supervolcano" hiding under the park -- according to USGS."Geysers are supposed to erupt, and most are erratic, like Steamboat," the agency wrote. [Infographic: Yellowstone Geology, Geysers, and Volcano]Additionally, records of Steamboat's eruptions go back only to 1982, the Billings Gazette noted. Yellowstone's history is much older than that.The newspaper also reported that the eruptions were especially dramatic, large and loud, with one ejecting a rock that shattered a wooden post. Researchers don't have good, tested theories to explain why geysers like one this slip in and out of active periods, according to the Gazette.Mostly, the eruptions suggest that now is a particularly good time to go see Steamboat Geyser blow its lid. The geyser set a record for total number of eruptions in 2018, with 32 in the calendar year, according to USGS. Already in 2019 there have been 24 eruptions, six of them in June as of this writing. * Yellowstone and Yosemite: Two of the World's Oldest National Parks * All Yours: Top 10 Least Visited National Parks * The Grand Canyon in PicturesOriginally published on Live Science.
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| As second Democratic debate wraps, Trump camp focuses on Biden Posted: 27 Jun 2019 09:57 PM PDT  President Trump's campaign team and allies clearly had their sights set on former Vice President Joe Biden during the second Democratic primary debate on Thursday night.
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| Volcano, dormant for almost 100 years, erupts in 'spectacular' fashion Posted: 28 Jun 2019 05:25 AM PDT  Smoke billowed from the volcano on Raikoke in satellite images as the uninhabited island saw its first volcanic eruption since 1924.
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| 14 Refreshing Hard Ciders To Drink This Fall Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:12 AM PDT |
| The 1985 Case That Sets the Rules for How Government Can Treat Migrant Children Posted: 27 Jun 2019 08:30 PM PDT  What are the basic rules that determine how immigrant children are treated in U.S. immigration detention?The Trump administration's detention of migrant children in poor conditions along the U.S./Mexico border has repeatedly raised this question. The answer is a decades-old court case known as the Flores settlement. The settlement establishes the rules that the U.S. government must follow when it detains migrant children in enforcing immigration laws.Litigation over enforcement of the Flores settlement has exploded in recent weeks. That includes a court case brought by immigrants' rights and civil liberties groups in response to what they called the "imminent threat to the health and welfare" of migrant children in detention. U.S. border officials should have "promptly released children to their relatives and provided safe and sanitary detention conditions for all children in its custody," said an attorney representing the groups that brought the action.
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| Trump official blames migrant father for drowning with daughter Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:11 AM PDT  Ken Cuccinelli, acting USCIS head, said he wasn't concerned photos would be emblematic of hardline immigration policyKen Cuccinelli in Roanoke, Virginia, in June 2014. Photograph: Steve Helber/APA Trump administration immigration official has blamed a migrant father for his own drowning death and that of his young daughter, which was captured in widely circulated images that highlight the peril and desperation faced by migrant families blocked from entering the US at the border with Mexico.Ken Cuccinelli was named earlier this month as acting head of US Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS), the agency that handles immigration administration. He told CNN he was not concerned the photo would become emblematic of the Trump administration's hardline immigration policy."The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn't wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well," Cuccinelli said on Thursday night.The photographs, taken on Monday, show Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 26, and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria lying face down in shallow water after dying in the Rio Grande, the river that divides Mexico from Texas. The image has been compared to the 2015 image of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who drowned off the Greek island of Kos after being en route there with other refugees fleeing conflict.The bodies of the young father and daughter have been repatriated to their native El Salvador, accompanied by Martínez's wife, Vanessa Ávalos, 21, who was standing on the riverbank when her husband and daughter were swept away by the current.As part of a broader crackdown on migration, the Trump administration has further restricted asylum and the backlog of legal cases. Migrants are routinely forced to wait for months south of the US border in order to start the asylum process, which has in turn driven people to make more dangerous border crossings such as trying to wade or swim across the treacherous Rio Grande.Cuccinelli is the latest immigration hardliner the Trump administration has appointed to a senior government role, despite warnings from his own Republican party in the US Senate that Cuccinelli was unlikely to be confirmed to the permanent role.In the past decade, Cuccinelli has said homosexual acts are "intrinsically wrong," been tied to anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ campaigners and was criticized for a comment that seemed to compare immigrants to rats.In 2018, he advocated for using "war powers" against migrants in an interview with the conservative website Breitbart News. He also said the US was not required to "keep" migrants, including asylum-seekers. "You just point them back across the river and let them swim for it," Cuccinelli said.Cuccinelli is also facing opposition from Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and the union that represents about 13,000 USCIS workers. The union's president, Danielle Spooner, said the appointment of Cuccinelli "spells the end of legal immigration as we know it".In June, House committee leaders said they had "deep concern" about Cuccinelli's appointment because it circumvents rules about federal vacancies in a letter to the acting homeland security secretary.
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| Pope responds 'with immense sadness' to death of father and daughter who drowned at US-Mexico border Posted: 27 Jun 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Pope Francis says he is "profoundly saddened" by the deaths of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, who drowned in the Rio Grande River while trying to reach America."With immense sadness, the Holy Father has seen the images of the father and his baby daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande River while trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States," the Vatican's interim spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said in a statement on Wednesday."The pope is profoundly saddened by their death, and is praying for them and for all migrants who have lost their lives while seeking to flee war and misery," he added.The photograph of the bodies of the 25-year-old father and his young daughter face down in the Rio Grande has been published around the world, inciting horror and shame over America's current immigration policy.The pair, along with Tania Vanessa Ávalos, wife of Mr Ramírez and mother to Valeria, were attempting to cross the river at the border crossing between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. They'd fled poverty in El Salvator with a humanitarian visa in Mexico two months earlier, and had been awaiting asylum in the US.The pope's official statement came after off-the-cuff comments during his weekly audience in St Peter's Square, during which the pontiff complimented the people of Mexico for being "so welcoming to migrants. God bless you." A group of Mexicans attending reportedly cheered and waved a Mexican flag in response.It's not the first time Pope Francis has shown his support for Mexico's immigration policy, or his criticism for America's. In 2016, Pope Francis criticised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, suggesting that anyone who wanted to build a wall along the border was "not a Christian."(Outside of Catholicism, the president's immigration policy was warmly received at an evangelical Christian conference in DC yesterday.)On Twitter, the pope appeared to offer a third statement on Thursday morning, writing from his official account, "Blessed are those who believe and who have the courage to foster encounter and communion."
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| Trade-War Winner Vietnam Is Now a Target for Trump’s Tariffs Posted: 27 Jun 2019 01:05 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a coming daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Vietnam's recent fame as a big winner of the U.S.-China trade war may be bringing it unwanted attention from President Donald Trump.When asked in an interview with Fox Business Network if he wanted to impose tariffs on Vietnam, Trump said: "Well, we're in discussions with Vietnam. Vietnam is almost the single worst -- that's much smaller than China, much -- but it's almost the single worst abuser of everybody."Just last month, the U.S. Treasury added Vietnam to a watchlist of countries it's monitoring for possible currency manipulation. The nation's benchmark VN Index slumped 1.7% Thursday, to the lowest since Feb. 12.Vietnam has benefited from a surge in exports and foreign investment as businesses look to scale back their China operations or relocate to avoid higher U.S. tariffs. But it's also fighting claims that Chinese exporters are routing their goods via Vietnam and slapping fake labels on their products to bypass the tariffs.Greater scrutiny from the Trump administration could be uncomfortable for trade-dependent Vietnam. Its trade surplus with the U.S. has exceeded $20 billion since 2014, reaching $39.5 billion last year for the highest in records going back to 1990, according to U.S. Census Bureau data."There is a risk to Vietnam," said Nestor Scherbey, a licensed U.S. customs broker and consultant based in Ho Chi Minh City. "Thirty percent of Vietnam's imports are Chinese material and components used for manufacturing in final products that are then exported. That's an area of risk."The Southeast Asian nation has been taking steps to avoid U.S. ire. Vietnam said earlier this month it will impose higher penalties on Chinese goods transferred to the country and illegally relabeled as made-in-Vietnam for export to the U.S.Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn't immediately respond to questions seeking its view on Trump's comments.(Updates with the closing level of the VN Index in the third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: John Boudreau in Hanoi at jboudreau3@bloomberg.net;Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net, Nasreen SeriaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Doing this one thing with your Social Security could mean losing $100,000 in retirement Posted: 27 Jun 2019 09:01 PM PDT  Americans will lose $111,000 per household by taking Social Security benefits too early into their retirement, rather than using their own savings.
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| Kevin Durant Sells Oceanfront Malibu Beach House for $12.15 Million Posted: 27 Jun 2019 01:08 PM PDT  The NBA star bought the sleek four-bedroom home just last April for $12.05 million
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| Democratic debate 2019: Schedule, candidates and what to know ahead of first night Posted: 26 Jun 2019 06:36 PM PDT  Ten presidential candidates, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, converged on the debate stage on Wednesday.
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| Palestinians protest on Gaza-Israel fence after truce Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:36 AM PDT  Thousands of Palestinians protested along the volatile Gaza-Israel frontier on Friday, hours after Israel and the territory's Hamas rulers confirmed an agreement to honor a past cease-fire. The unofficial truce, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations, emphasizes calm in exchange for Israeli measures to improve living conditions in the blockaded Palestinian enclave. Gaza's health ministry said 19 of them were wounded by live fire.
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| Conservative U.S. Justice Gorsuch again sides with liberals in criminal case Posted: 27 Jun 2019 03:04 PM PDT  The court ruled that the right of Andre Haymond to face a jury trial under the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment was violated when a judge unilaterally imposed an additional prison sentence after Haymond violated the terms of his supervised release. Haymond originally was sentenced to just over three years in prison and 10 years of supervised release after being convicted by a jury in 2010 of possessing pornographic images involving children. After completing his sentence, Haymond was found in 2015 in possession of 59 additional images.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker's Spanish is 'humorous' Posted: 27 Jun 2019 12:07 AM PDT  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the Spanish being spoken on stage by presidential candidates including Cory Brooker and Beto O'Rourke at the first Democratic primary debate as "humorous".The youngest ever congresswoman said there was "a lot of Spanglish in the building" as 10 presidential hopefuls sparred on policies and Donald Trump at the debate in Miami on Wednesday night.Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, said:"I loved it, because, I represent the Bronx and there was a lot of Spanglish in the building.""I thought it was humorous sometimes, at times. Especially because, sometimes, of the content of the question."The Democratic congresswoman, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, added that she thought the candidates might start saying "I will not give you an answer to your question" in Spanish."But it was good," she added. "I thought it was a good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country." Ms Ocasio-Cortez also compared the candidates to unprepared "high school students". "I think sometimes with the debate stage this big, it can kind of seem like a high school classroom, and so there are some folks that, like, didn't seem like they read the book, and then they got called on," she said.Asked who she think will make the next debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez first praised Elizabeth Warren's performance."I think Elizabeth Warren really distinguished herself, I think Julian Castro really distinguished himself," she said. "I think Cory Booker did a great job in talking about criminal justice. "Looking ahead to the next debate on Thursday, the Democratic congresswoman warned that Joe Biden was not a "safe choice"."I think it's dangerous to assume that any candidate is a quote-unquote 'safe choice,'" she said. "That you pick one candidate and that's just going to deliver an election for you. But with respect to vice president Biden, it's more about an overall electoral strategy."I think there's this idea that we have to sacrifice everything," she continued. "That we can't talk about working class issues, that we can't talk about criminal justice issues, that we can't talk about immigration because it isolates this very small sliver of Obama-to-Trump voters."Ms Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted concerns she had over the way climate change is being disused during the debates.The Bronx congresswoman, who introduced Green New Deal proposal supported by a number of Democratic presidential candidates, said: "'Is Miami going to exist in 50 years?' we need to say, 'What are you going to do about this?'"
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| Section 1325 of U.S. Immigration Law Was a Hot Topic in Wednesday's Debate. Here's Why It's a Big Deal Posted: 27 Jun 2019 07:56 AM PDT  Section 1325 is the part of U.S. immigration code that made the Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" family separation policy possible.
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| Controversial 'Straight Pride' parade gets approval from Boston to be held in August Posted: 27 Jun 2019 12:02 PM PDT  The city approved the event application for the group Super Happy Fun America to host the parade Aug. 31.
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| The Story of How America's Mach 3 SR-71 Spy Plane Out Ran Missiles Posted: 27 Jun 2019 12:42 PM PDT  "The spikes are full aft now, tucked twenty-six inches deep into the nacelles. With all inlet doors tightly shut, at 3.24 Mach, the J-58s are more like ramjets now, gulping 100,000 cubic feet of air per second. We are a roaring express now, and as we roll through the enemy's backyard, I hope our speed continues to defeat the missile radars below."On Apr. 14, 1986, Operation El Dorado Canyon launched air-strikes against Libya in response to Libya's bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by US military personnel. The attack was performed by a strike-group of 18 U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-111s supported by numerous U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) A-6, A-7 and F/A-18 aircraft.On Apr. 16, 1986 after the raid, SR-71 64-17960 piloted by Maj. Brian Shul with RSO Maj.Walter Watson, entered Libyan airspace at a blistering 2,125 mph to photograph the targets for bomb damage assessment (BDA). As they neared the end of their sweeps, they started receiving launch indications from Libyan surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites below.
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| Boeing shares hit as FAA finds new 737 MAX issue Posted: 27 Jun 2019 10:22 PM PDT  Shares of Boeing tumbled Thursday, a day after US regulators identified a new issue in the Boeing 737 MAX that will likely slow the plane's return to service following two deadly crashes. The issue -- described by one aviation expert as "another black eye" for the 737 MAX -- came as a major US airline again pushed back the timeframe for returning the planes to service and as Boeing faced fresh questions over its compliance with a 2015 US regulatory settlement intended to improve plane airworthiness. Boeing dropped 2.9 percent to $364.02, pushing the Dow into negative territory.
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| 'A colossal mistake': GOP-controlled Senate votes down measure blocking Iran military strike Posted: 28 Jun 2019 02:09 PM PDT  The GOP-controlled Senate defeated a bill that would have required Donald Trump to get explicit congressional approval for a military strike on Iran.
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