- NewsThe National Interest
California’s Sanctuary City Nightmare: 6 Reasons This Policy Is a Disaster
Illegal immigrants released by local police in California after their arrests for minor offenses go on to be charged with more serious crimes such as murder, rape, and assault, according to a new government report. In one case, police in San Francisco arrested an illegal immigrant from Honduras again and again over nine months as he repeatedly was released and then booked again for more offenses rather than turned over to federal officials. The report focuses solely on California jurisdictions, although most large municipalities across the country adopted “sanctuary” policies that prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration authorities.
- NewsThe Independent
Storm Area 51: US Air Force warns alien-hunters against breaking into top-secret base
The US Air Force has urged people not to invade Area 51 in search of aliens. A widespread internet joke – joined by more than a million people – suggests that people attempt to run into the Area 51 base on 20 September. Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement that officials are aware of the Facebook posting and “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged”.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Samantha Bee Shocked Kellyanne Conway Somehow Even ‘More Racist’ Than Trump
Samantha Bee didn't have time to cover all of President Trump's recent “racisms,” instead choosing to zero in on his demand that four freshmen Congresswomen of color go back to the countries “from which they came. Sadly, the only thing that should surprise anyone is that he wrote 'from which they came' to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition,” the Full Frontal host joked. Way to go, Shakespeare, now return your head to the orifice from which it came.
- LifestyleDelish
Over-the-Top Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes That Are Worth Every Calorie
No basic 'wiches here. From Delish
- WorldThe Telegraph
Investigators 'discover mysterious 200lb load' on board MH370 after take-off
Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered a “mysterious 200lb load” added to the flight list after take-off, according to an engineer whose wife and two children were on board. Ghyslain Wattrelos said the cargo was revealed in a report on the passengers and baggage by French investigators. Mr Wattrelos, who believes the flight was deliberately downed, told Le Parisien newspaper: “It was also learned that a mysterious load of 89 kilos was added to the flight list after take-off.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
DNC tells 2020 presidential candidates to stop using FaceApp as Schumer calls for investigation
WASHINGTON – FaceApp went viral again this week, as pictures of people aging themselves and altering their faces with filters spread across social media. The Democratic National Committee, however, still smarting from the Russia-linked 2016 cyberattacks that resulted in the leaking of DNC emails, sent an email to Democratic presidential campaigns telling them not to use the app, CNN first reported on Tuesday. "This app allows users to perform different transformations on photos of people, such as aging the person in the picture.
- NewsAssociated Press
Hawaii expands power to block telescope protesters
Thousands of protesters have joined a swelling effort to stop construction of a telescope they have long tried to keep off a mountain considered sacred to some Native Hawaiians, but state officials doubled down Wednesday on their commitment to ensure the project will be completed. After a day of growing crowds and arrests of elderly demonstrators, Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed an emergency proclamation giving law enforcement more options to end the blockade. The state hadn't decided whether to remove protesters from the mountain, but the proclamation makes that an option, Ige said.
WorldAFPArgentina still waiting for 1994 Jewish center bombing justice
Argentina marks the 25th anniversary of the bomb attack on a Jewish center that left 85 people dead with a day of mourning on Thursday, but the relatives of victims are still waiting for justice. "This attack, even if there was a large anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic component -- of course -- was an attack on Argentina and Argentine society," said Weinstein, who worked at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), where the attack was carried out. A truck loaded with explosives was driven into the AMIA center in a densely populated central area of Buenos Aires, also leaving 300 people wounded.
- NewsAOL.com
North Carolina father of 7 dies trying to save his drowning children at beach
A North Carolina father drowned Sunday while rescuing two of his young children who were swept away by a wave while walking on a submerged jetty at Wrightsville Beach. Johnny Lee Vann Jr., a 35-year-old father who recently moved to Durham from Detroit, Mich., with his family, did not hesitate to jump into the rough waters after watching two of his seven children go under, his widow, Dawn Vann, told WNCN. Vann Jr. successfully brought one child to shore but struggled to stay afloat after heading back out for the second, Capt. Jason Bishop of the Wrightsville Beach Police Department told ABC News.
- PoliticsPolitico
Senate Republicans pray Trump will take budget deal
Congress and the White House are moving toward an ambitious budget deal, but the big question still remains: What will President Donald Trump do? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican senators are pushing Trump to accept an agreement with Democrats that would avoid stiff budget cuts, steer clear of a potential default and provide a huge measure of certainty through the presidential campaign. Trump has been warm to the proposal as it's taken shape, according to multiple senators who have spoken with him in recent days.
- NewsReuters
Mexican president vows to bring down violence after 'El Chapo' sentencing
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he expected violence in Mexico to fall after the U.S. sentencing of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, vowing to create a society less obsessed with making money at any cost. Guzman will spend the rest of his days behind bars in the United States after a judge sentenced him on Wednesday to life in prison plus 30 years. When asked during his regular morning conference whether he expected violence to rise over the coming weeks following the sentencing, Lopez Obrador said: "No, on the contrary.
PoliticsFOX News VideosNew bill would guarantee free legal representation for illegal immigrants seeking asylum
A Democrat lawmaker introduces the Equal Justice for Immigrants Act to guarantee the right to counsel for illegal immigrants. Judge Alex Ferrer reacts.
- BusinessCar and Driver
How Kim Jong Un Got Mercedes-Benz Pullman Limos Home to North Korea
Researchers at a Washington, D.C., think tank, cited by the Wall Street Journal, have offered explanations as to how a pair of Mercedes-Benz limousines ended up in North Korean hands. Kim Jong Un must be used to convoluted means of getting at luxuries that the repressed populace he rules over cannot hope to touch. How else to explain why the North Korean dictator would pay a million dollars for a couple of 10-year-old Mercedes-Benz limousines?
- PoliticsThe Independent
Turkey considering 'alternatives' to US fighter jet amid Russian offer
A defiant Turkey said it was considering “alternatives” to US fighter jets that could include Russian models or building its own aircraft a day after the United States suspended it from its programme to build and deploy advanced warplanes. The US punished Turkey for its purchase of a Russian air defence system by pushing it from a long-term programme to upgrade NATO warplanes with F-35 advanced fighter jets. The Kremlin quickly attempted to exploit the disagreement, which has already drawn Ankara closer to Moscow, offering to sell Turkey Russian fighter planes.
- NewsUSA TODAY
New York City removed 110 trash cans. Now garbage is overflowing and the rats are 'running wild'
New York, like other metropolitan cities including Philadelphia and Chicago, faces a major rat problem. According to the New York Times, rat complaints have risen from 12,617 in 2014 to 17,353 last year. "As a result, we saw a 9% decline in rat complaints across the city last year, the biggest drop in 12 years," Seth Stein, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, told USA TODAY.
- WorldAssociated Press
Pakistan arrests US-wanted terror suspect in Mumbai attacks
Pakistan on Wednesday arrested a radical cleric and U.S.-wanted terror suspect implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, officials said, just days ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan's trip to Washington. Hafiz Saeed was taken into custody in Punjab province while traveling from the eastern city of Lahore to the city of Gujranwala, according to counterterrorism official Mohammad Shafiq. Saeed founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
- WorldBloomberg
China Is Drafting Urgent Plan to Resolve Hong Kong Chaos, SCMP Says
Chinese officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs are working on an urgent strategy to solve the city's political chaos and have ruled out the use of military force, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions. They will soon present top leaders in Beijing with both an immediate plan to handle the mass protests and a longer-term strategy that could result in China overhauling its management of the former British colony, the newspaper said, without elaborating on a date. Beijing maintains that the crisis is best left for Hong Kong authorities to resolve and doesn't want to get directly involved, according to the report.
WorldAFPCyprus new route for migrants prepared to 'die at sea'
For 26 hours, Mustafa hid on a ferry from Turkey to Cyprus, joining thousands of other refugees now looking to the divided Mediterranean island as their gateway to the European Union. In two years, the number of first-time asylum applications in Cyprus has more than tripled, rising from 730 people at the beginning of 2017 to 3,015 at the beginning of 2019. The number of refugee and migrant arrivals to Cyprus is low compared with those in Italy or Greece.
- CelebrityThe Daily Beast
Meghan McCain Blasts George Conway, Claims She Wouldn’t Let Her Husband Say Racist Comments
The View's Meghan McCain made it clear on Wednesday that she is not a fan of George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. And she brought up her own marriage to The Federalist's publisher Ben Domenech as a comparison point. With the panel discussing Kellyanne Conway bizarrely asking a White House reporter what his ethnicity is after he asked a question about President Donald Trump's racist attacks on congresswomen of color, McCain immediately targeted the top Trump aide's husband, who has been an outspoken critic of the president on Twitter and op-ed pages.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Los Angeles police officer charged with multiple rapes after DNA links him to cold case
A ten-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department is facing life in prison after the department's investigation into a rape accusation linked him to another unsolved sexual assault from 2015. William Rodriguez, 33, was arrested and charged with two counts of forcible rape, with a special allegation of multiple victims Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a press release. Rodriguez is accused of sexually assaulting a female acquaintance at his home last November.
- WorldReuters
Ex-chairman of Vietnam's BIDV bank dies in detention
A former head of Vietnam's second largest listed bank, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), died in detention on Thursday, state media and three sources with direct knowledge of the situation said. Tran Bac Ha was arrested in November last year in a widening crackdown on corruption in the Southeast Asian country, which has seen its Communist-ruled government launch investigations into hundreds of public officials and several executives at state-owned enterprises jailed. Ha had not stood trial and was being held at a military detention center near Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Big Guns: Army Prototypes Range-Doubling New Artillery Weapon to Outgun Russia
The Army is building prototypes of a new artillery cannon that can more than double the range of existing weapons and vastly alter the strategic and tactical landscape shaping land war into the future. “This prototype phase will address capability gaps in the Army's indirect fire systems and improve the rate and range of fire with the development of power distribution software and hardware integration solutions,” a BAE Systems statement said.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Russia considers joining EU payment system meant to save Iran nuclear deal
Russia has said it may join a European Union payment system aimed at salvaging the Iran nuclear deal if it is expanded to include oil purchases. The system, called Instex, is designed to facilitate payments to Iran despite the US trade sanctions reimposed on the country after Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark agreement in 2018. With its economy reeling from the US blockage of crucial oil exports, Iran said this month it would begin enriching more uranium than allowed by the “joint comprehensive plan of action”.
- PoliticsPolitico
Flynn had $4.6M unpaid legal tab, records show
Michael Flynn built up unpaid legal bills of more than $4.6 million during the Trump-Russia investigation, before parting ways with his attorneys last month, according to records introduced at a federal court trial this week. Law firm Covington & Burling appears to have billed Flynn about $5 million after he became a client in early 2017, when his lobbying and consulting work came under Justice Department scrutiny. Covington partners Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony initially helped the retired three-star Army general and his Flynn Intel Group consulting firm navigate a Justice Department inquiry into the firm's work on Turkey-related issues.
- NewsAssociated Press
Arrested reporter slams conditions at US detention centers
A Spanish-language reporter who was recently released from immigration custody said Wednesday he was held for 15 months in detention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe with cold water from water hoses. During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he called inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last week as immigration courts consider his request for asylum.
