PoliticsAFPTrump reelection launch heralds political scorched earth campaign
With a 2020 campaign launch painting opponents in almost apocalyptic terms, President Donald Trump showed Democrats the scorched earth treatment they can expect in his fight for reelection. And Democrats -- barring Trump's most fiery leftist rival Bernie Sanders -- showed Thursday how they might respond: with a collective shrug. Even for a showman president renowned for exaggerating achievements, insulting opponents and making wildly inaccurate claims, Trump's speech to 20,000 people at an Orlando, Florida arena stood out.
- WorldAssociated Press
Egypt: UN office tries to politicize Morsi's courtroom death
Egypt said Wednesday that the U.N. human rights office was trying to politicize the death of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, who collapsed inside a Cairo courtroom during his trial this week. Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president who hailed from the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, was buried under heavy security early on Tuesday, a day after his dramatic collapse and death inside a Cairo courtroom. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called Tuesday for a "prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation" into Morsi's death on Monday.
- WorldReuters
Iran talking to Russia and China in case EU nuclear deal efforts fail: TASS
Iran is in talks with Russia and China on a possible settlement mechanism in case discussions with EU over a nuclear deal fail, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security council, Ali Shamkhani, said, according to Russia's TASS news agency. Tehran said in May it would reduce compliance with the nuclear pact it agreed with China, Russia and other world powers in 2015, in protest at the United States' decision to unilaterally pull out of the agreement and reimpose sanctions last year. Iran added that it would start enriching uranium at a higher level unless other European signatories to the deal protected its economy from the U.S. sanctions within 60 days.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Former Interpol chief pleads guilty in Chinese bribery case amid crackdown by authorities
Meng Hongwei, the former president of Interpol, confessed to accepting more than $2 million (£1.6 million) in bribes and expressed regret for his crime, a Chinese court said Thursday. The No. 1 Intermediate Court in the northeastern port city of Tianjin said Mr Meng read a statement containing the confession at a hearing. Admitting guilt and expressing regret can result in slightly lighter punishment, although China has been quick to hand out life sentences as it cracks down on corruption and political disloyalty under a campaign run directly by the president and head of the ruling Communist Party, Xi Jinping.
- U.S.KFSN – Fresno
West Hollywood man who visited Dominican Republic says he fell severely ill
At least nine tourists have died in the Dominican Republic in the last 12 months, several after drinking from hotel minibars.
- NewsYahoo News
9/11 responder who appeared with Jon Stewart on Capitol Hill is now in hospice care
A cancer-stricken 9/11 first responder who testified alongside Jon Stewart at last week's House Judiciary Committee hearing on reauthorizing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund is now in hospice care. Lou Alvarez, a 53-year-old former NYPD bomb squad detective who appeared with other first responders at the Capitol, said in a Facebook post Wednesday that doctors informed him that his condition had worsened and there is “nothing else” they can do for him. Alvarez, who has colorectal cancer, told the House subcommittee on June 11 that he agreed to testify despite having his 69th round of chemotherapy scheduled for the next day.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Interested in TSA PreCheck? It might soon be cheaper and easier to sign up
The Transportation Security Administration is weighing a variety of options, including a new fee structure and mobile enrollment, to attract more travelers to its PreCheck program. "We want to get people into the program and so we'd like to make it easier,'' TSA Acting Deputy Administrator Patricia Cogswell said in an interview with USA TODAY in Chicago this week. "And that means not only make it easier for them to sign up, but also if they just want to try it out, they don't have to feel like, 'Oh, I spent five years worth of my money.
- NewsThe National Interest
The Stealth Sniper: The F-22 Raptor Has a New Job
Robert Beckhusen Technology, Americas And that means bad news for America's enemies. The flying branch only bought 187 operational Raptors — out of an original goal of 381. The F-22 also won't fly into the 2060s without upgrades.
- BusinessBloomberg
NRA Suspends Two Leaders Amid Accusations of Coup Attempt
The NRA confirmed Thursday that it had suspended Chris Cox, the lobbying chief who was viewed widely as a future leader of the group, and his deputy chief of staff, Scott Christman. The moves came after Oliver North, the former NRA board president, was ousted from the organization in April after it accused him of leading an attempted coup against Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA who has long served as the organization's leader. North alleged that LaPierre used the group to enrich himself.
- PoliticsPolitico
'The biggest joke in politics': Trump campaign chief disses 2020 polling
The manager of Donald Trump's reelection campaign declared modern polling “the biggest joke in politics” — perpetuating an effort by the president and his allies to downplay the significance of recent surveys showing him lagging behind several Democratic 2020 rivals. The country is too complex now just to call a couple hundred people and ask them what they think. There are so many ways and different people that are going to show up to vote now,” Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign chief, told CBS News in an interview taped Tuesday.
- NewsAssociated Press
Woman whose dead babies were found in home cleared of murder
A Massachusetts woman who lived in a squalid, vermin-infested home where authorities found the remains of three babies was cleared Thursday of second-degree murder, but was convicted of lesser charges. Judge Janet Kenton-Walker said prosecutors did not prove that 35-year-old Erika Murray caused the death of one of the babies whom she had been charged with killing and hiding in her home filled with rodents, dead animals, dirty diapers and trash. Kenton-Walker called the case "senseless" and "tragic," but said she had to be guided by the evidence rather than her emotions.
WorldAFPAs Gulf tensions rise, Israel's Netanyahu warns 'enemies'
With tensions rising between Israel's ally the US and its archfoe Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Jewish state's enemies not to test it Wednesday, his office said. "I hear our neighbours from the north, south and east threatening our destruction," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office after he observed a large-scale military excercise in the north of the country. "I say to our enemies: The Israeli army has very great destructive power.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
The 17 Most Beautiful Highways for Road Trips
From South Africa's oceanfront Chapman's Peak Drive to the Atlantic Road connecting tiny archipelagos in Norway, AD covers the most breathtaking road trips Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- BusinessReuters
Airbus demands chance to bid for IAG's surprise Boeing 737 MAX order
Airbus called on Thursday for a chance to compete for a blockbuster plane order by British Airways owner IAG, which stunned industry executives at this week's Paris Airshow by ordering 200 of Boeing's grounded 737 MAX. Airbus announced a new version of its best-selling A321 with close to 240 orders and commitments in Paris, only to see its grip on IAG's European short-haul networks damaged by the Boeing deal which analysts said shores up the embattled 737 MAX. Boeing's top-selling aircraft has been taken out of service worldwide since an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed in March, five months after a Lion Air 737 MAX plunged into the sea off Indonesia.
- ScienceBGR News
Mars has a brand new crater, and it sure is pretty
That's exactly what seems to have occurred, and a new image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals a brand new impact site that might only be a few months old. The image, which was captured by the HiRISE camera built into the orbiter, shows a bold dark patch of material surrounding a circular crater on the Martian surface. Researchers believe it might have been created as recently as February 2019.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Starving polar bear found in Russian city after traveling hundreds of miles
An emaciated polar bear was spotted in a Russian industrial city this week, just the latest account of polar bears wandering far from their hunting grounds to look for food. Officials in the Russian city of Norilsk warned residents about the bear Tuesday. They added that it was the first spotted in the area in over 40 years. Anatoly Nikolaichuk, who heads the city's hunting department, said that officials haven't decided whether the bear can be airlifted back to its original habitat.
- WorldThe National Interest
It's Time for America to Break with Beijing
Xi Jinping has rejected the concept of comparative advantage, the very notion underpinning the system of international commerce. For more than four decades, American presidents sought a closer relationship with China, working to “engage” that country so as to “enmesh” it into the international system. Richard Nixon, in his landmark Foreign Affairs article in 1967, provided the rationale for engagement, arguing the Chinese state could not be isolated.
- WorldBloomberg
Echoing Beijing, Duterte’s Government Now Calls Boat Collision an ‘Accident’
The Philippine government has fallen in with Beijing's explanation that a Chinese vessel didn't intentionally hit a Filipino boat in the South China Sea on June 9. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday described the incident as "just an accident," adding the Chinese vessel may have left after hitting and sinking a Philippine boat with 22 fishermen out of fear of being “besieged” by other boats near Reed Bank. Maybe the other side didn't mean to brush against our boat,” Lorenzana said at a televised briefing in Manila on Wednesday.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Candidates reveal their — very slightly — embarrassing moments to the Times
Presidential candidates are thrown all sorts of hardball questions about their positions, policies and past. In a recent set of video interviews, the New York Times had tough questions for 21 Democratic presidential candidates, but one was fairly innocent: When was the last time you were embarrassed? Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was ready with an anecdote that was both embarrassing and endearing.
- NewsAssociated Press
Georgia set to execute inmate for man's 1996 shotgun slaying
Georgia is set to execute an inmate Thursday for a shotgun slaying more than two decades ago, but his lawyers argued in court challenges that the condemned man didn't play an active role in the shooting and shouldn't be put to death. Marion Wilson Jr., 42, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection of pentobarbital at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. The parole board is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence.
- LifestyleDelish
Grilled Pizza Recipes That Let You Skip the Stove All Summer Long
Come summer, ovens are out. From Delish
PoliticsAFPUS official pressed to say Iran not behind 9/11
After Al-Qaeda extremists killed some 3,000 people in 2001, the US Congress authorized then president George W. Bush to go to war in Afghanistan, where the group's leader Osama bin Laden had found shelter. The authorization has since been cited by administrations to justify operations in countries as diverse as Yemen and the Philippines where Al-Qaeda militants are found to be present. Pompeo, in his April appearance before a Senate committee, said there was "no doubt" of a connection between Iran's Shiite clerical regime and Al-Qaeda, which is militantly Sunni.
U.S.Yahoo News Video2 killed when semitrailers explode on Wisconsin interstate
Two semitrailers exploded into flames Wednesday on an interstate in southeastern Wisconsin, killing both drivers and setting other vehicles on fire, authorities said.
- BusinessTime
'Sully' Sullenberger Tells Congress Deadly Boeing 737 Max Crashes 'Should Never Have Happened'
Retired airline captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot best known for safely landing a disabled plane on the Hudson River in 2009, told Congress on Wednesday that a pair of recent Boeing 737 Max jetliner crashes “should never have happened”—and possibly could have been avoided with better safety processes and pilot training. “These crashes are demonstrable evidence that our current system of aircraft design and certification has failed us,” Sullenberger said during a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing. The two Boeing 737 Max crashes—one in Indonesia last October and one in Ethiopia in March—appear to be related to an automated system that causes the plane's nose to point down if it senses the aircraft's pitch is dangerously high, according to investigators.
- TechnologyBGR News
Galaxy Note 10 leak reveals a futuristic feature you won’t find on any iPhone
The Note 10 will come in two sizes, both featuring the same Infinity-O display that will have curved edges with tiny top and bottom bezels. In many ways, the Galaxy Note 10 will be similar to the Galaxy S10 when it comes to specs, but an insider now claims the phone will have a futuristic feature that no other popular smartphone has — not even the iPhone. If this rumor is accurate, it will give Samsung an advantage over almost all competitors out there when it comes to design.
