Trump team braces GOP donors for a potential ‘moderate and short’ recession

In private, they're increasingly worrying about a global economic slowdown triggering a U.S. recession — and weighing options to shore up the economy ahead of an election year. At a fundraising luncheon this week in Jackson, Wyo., headlined by both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged the risks to the GOP elite behind closed doors. If the U.S. were to face a recession, it would be “moderate and short,” Mulvaney told roughly 50 donors, according to an attendee.

Suspect in Utah student Mackenzie Lueck's death is charged in a second case

The man suspected of killing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck was charged Tuesday with the sexual abuse and kidnapping of another woman. Ayoola A. Ajayi, 31, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on a dating app in March 2018 at his home. Lueck disappeared after she returned to Salt Lake City from a trip to her Southern California hometown for the funeral of her grandmother.

The northernmost reaches of the Earth are on fire. Here's what this record-breaking hot summer looks like from space.

The link between fires and climate change Individual wildfires and heat waves can't be directly linked to climate change, but accelerated warming increases their likelihood, size, and frequency. July was the hottest month ever recorded, period. The month prior, meanwhile, was the hottest June ever in Earth's history, with temperatures nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit above average.

CNN Pundit’s Bodyguard Charged with Assault after Removing Reporter Covering Her Speech

CNN pundit April Ryan's security guard has been charged with assault after he forcibly removed a local New Jersey reporter from an event at which Ryan was delivering a speech. Charlie Kravotil, editor of New Brunswick Today, claims that Ryan's bodyguard, 30-year-old Joel Morris, approached him during Ryan's speech at The Heldrich Hotel on August 3 and stole his camera after he refused to stop filming. A video of the incident shows Kravotil, who secured press credentials for the event, following Morris into the lobby of the hotel to retrieve his camera.

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  CNN Analyst April Ryan’s Bodyguard Charged With Assault for Forcible Removal of Journalist

  The Wrap
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  April Ryan Championed the Press and Was Attacked by Trump — Now Her Bodyguard Has Allegedly Assaulted Another Reporter

  People

Boycott the Oven With These Summer Slow Cooker Recipes

For those 'not turning on the oven today' moods. From Delish

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  These Simple Pasta Recipes Make The Perfect Summer Meals

  Delish
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  Use this $15 microwave pasta cooker and never wait for water to boil again

  BGR News

Spain sends navy to save migrants as Italian justice intervenes

Spain on Tuesday deployed a naval patrol boat to pick up migrants on a charity rescue boat that has been stranded off Italy's Lampedusa island for days after numerous people jumped overboard in a desperate bid to swim ashore. Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio also ordered the Open Arms charity vessel preventatively seized after inspecting the Spanish boat on which migrants have spent 19 days and "given the difficult situation on board", a judicial source said. Against the backdrop of a major political crisis in Italy, Patronaggio intervened as part of his probe into alleged kidnapping and refusing to obey orders targeting far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

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  A stranded migrant rescue ship used its route to send a secret message to the world

  Quartz
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  Migrants stranded off Italy rescued after 19 days at sea

  CBS News Videos

Putin says US missile test raises new threats to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty has raised new threats to Russia and will warrant a response. The U.S. tested a modified ground-launched version of a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile that accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. Sunday's test came after the U.S. and Russia withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that banned such weapons.

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  Kremlin: missile test shows U.S. is to blame for demise of nuclear pact

  Reuters
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  Russia accuses US of stoking military tension with cruise-missile test

  The Telegraph

Drivers in Idaho keep harassing busloads of immigrants' children on their way to pre-school

Idaho motorists have reportedly been harassing buses carrying children under the age of five. The buses drive low-income children of migrants or agricultural workers to federally funded educational programs during the day. Idaho drivers have reportedly been harassing busloads of young kids, prompting a local nonprofit to remove signs from the buses that identify the riders as children of migrant workers.

China could ‘render US military bases useless’ within hours of conflict in Asia, report says

China's military could use missiles to overwhelm American military bases in Asia within hours, a think tank has warned. The US defence strategy in the Indo-Pacific is “in the throes of an unprecedented crisis”, according to a report from the United States Studies Center, at the University of Sydney in Australia. The report said China has deployed a “formidable array of precision missiles and other counter-intervention systems to undercut America's military primacy” in the region.

Police Arrest Two Louisiana Men in 39-Year-Old Cold Case Murder of Teen

After nearly four decades, Louisiana police have charged two men they believe brutally raped and murdered an 18-year-old girl before disposing of her body in the woods. Leo Laird, 64, and Gary Haymon, 54, were both charged on Monday in the death of 18-year-old Donna Gayle Brazzell, according to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office. The young woman's skeletal remains were found near Nichols Cemetery Road in 1980, but authorities were unable to identify them until last month.

Trump wants to buy Greenland. Only one-third of Americans would be willing to offer more than $12 for the island.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of buying Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. While officials from Greenland and Denmark have publicly lambasted the idea, the American public doesn't seem to be a fan of it either. Sixty-one percent of respondents in a new INSIDER poll of Americans said they would not pay anything to acquire Greenland, and just one-third of respondents said they would pay more than $12.

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  Trump Shares His Favorite Greenland Meme And It Backfires Spectacularly

  HuffPost
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  Denmark reacts with shock and anger as 'disrespectful' Trump cancels trip over Greenland sale row

  The Telegraph

Ford's "Mustang-Inspired" Mach E Electric SUV Steps Out in Prototype Form

These spy photos give us our first look at the upcoming Ford Mach E electric crossover in the flesh. While we can't see much through the heavy camouflage, we can see glimpses at the Mustang-inspired front end. The Mach E will debut sometime in 2020, likely as a 2021 model.

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  Car Warriors: 1990 Fox Body Ford Mustang

  Internet Video Archive
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  2016 Ford Mustang Roush Stage 3 Is A Wild Pony

  motorious

Teens swept up in night raids in Kashmir clampdown

Ali Mohammad Rah sat on the pavement outside a police station in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Tuesday, waiting to see his teenage sons, who were swept up in government raids overnight. "Soldiers violently banged windows of our home while we were sleeping," Rah told AFP, saying his sons -- aged 14 and 16 -- were taken away before dawn in the Srinagar neighbourhood of Mehjoor Nagar. Government sources say at least 4,000 people have been detained in Kashmir since India revoked the restive Himalayan region's autonomy on August 5 and imposed a massive security lockdown on the restive region.

Farmer Behind the U.S.'s Largest Organic Food Fraud Scheme Dies by Suicide

A Missouri farmer blamed for running the largest organic food fraud scheme in U.S. history has died by suicide, weeks before he was to report to federal prison to begin serving a 10-year term, a coroner said Tuesday.

U.S. removed almost 2.7 million barrels daily of Iranian oil from market: Pompeo

The United States has removed nearly 2.7 million barrels of Iranian oil from global markets daily as a result of Washington's decision to reimpose sanctions on all purchases of Iran's crude, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. In an interview with MSNBC, Pompeo said the U.S. government was confident it could continue with its strategy. The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and six world powers.

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  US Secretary of State Says Crypto Should Be Regulated Like SWIFT

  Coindesk
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  US-China Trade War to End by 2020? Pompeo Thinks So

  Market Realist

Hong Kong police in standoff with protesters after sit-in

Hong Kong riot police faced off briefly with protesters occupying a suburban train station Wednesday evening following a commemoration of a violent attack there by masked assailants on supporters of the anti-government movement. Near the end of the event, the police began what they called a "dispersal operation, using minimum force" after some protesters blocked roads and flashed laser pointers at officers. Police with riot shields faced off at the station entrance against a group of remaining protesters, who sprayed a firehose and spread soap on the floor to slow a police approach, while piling up trash bins, a wheelchair and umbrellas in a makeshift blockade.

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  Exclusive: Alibaba postpones up to $15 billion Hong Kong listing amid protests: sources

  Reuters
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  Hong Kong leader hopes peaceful rally presages 'return to calm'

  AFP

Here's How Aliens Might See Earth

Cornell researchers have released a working concept of what Earth may look like from other exoplanets. The two-dimensional alien map in the image above depicts Earth as an exoplanet. To make the map, the researchers captured about 10,000 images of Earth from NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.

We can't trust police to protect us from racist violence. They contribute to it

As mass violence continues, many of us have become rightly afraid for the people we love. One idea we must reject is the idea of trusting law enforcement to protect us from white nationalist violence, given how much they contribute to it. If people in law enforcement want to be seen as experts on defeating white nationalism, shouldn't they have to get rid of all the white nationalists in their own ranks first?

See the 2020 Audi RS6 Avant from Every Angle

The 591-horsepower RS6 wagon is coming to America. From Car and Driver

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  Audi RS Q8 spied nearly undisguised

  Autoblog
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  Audi finally brings the RS6 to the US

  CNET

Albania bulldozes restaurant after owner attacks tourists

Albanian officials on Wednesday razed a beachfront restaurant whose owner was captured on camera attacking a car rented by Spanish tourists, as the country scrambles to clean up its reputation as a burgeoning holiday destination. The incident, filmed by the victims' tour guide from inside their vehicle, took place at the weekend in Porto-Palermo on the Ionian coast in southern Albania, a popular tourist spot. The restaurant owner, 51-year-old Mihal Kokedhima, was arrested and faces trial for "verbally assaulting a group of Spanish tourists for futile reasons", damaging their car and causing minor injuries, police said.

Governor Newsom signs law to limit shootings by police

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a measure aimed at deterring shootings by police.

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  California tightens restrictions on police use of lethal force

  Reuters
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  New California law tightens rules for police use of force to only when necessary

  USA TODAY