Democrats divided as pressure to impeach builds: ‘What are you waiting for?’

Dozens of Democrats have called for Trump impeachment proceedings in wake of Mueller’s report – but Pelosi has remained steadfast in opposing an inquiryNancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on 27 June. ‘I don’t think we should go down that path,’ she said of impeaching Trump in March. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APIn the House of Representatives the apparently frustrated Democratic congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, had one question for the leadership of her party: when would they impeach Donald Trump?“The thing that we’re struggling with is that we don’t know what we’re waiting for in terms of a caucus. And folks that are saying, ‘No, not yet. Not yet.’ OK – accepting that that’s your position, what are you waiting for?” the New York socialist said to reporters this week. “Are you waiting for some kind of revelation?”That’s a question a growing number of Democrats are asking. Dozens of Democrats on Capitol Hill, including 2020 hopefuls such as Elizabeth Warren, have called for impeachment proceedings in the wake of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s damning report into Russia interference in the 2016 election, which also outlined numerous instances of obstruction of justice on the part of the president.Nor is it just leftwing firebrands like Ocasio-Cortez. One notable recent convert to the impeachment cause was California congresswoman Katie Porter, who announced her support by admitting: “I didn’t come to Congress to impeach the president.” But Porter added: “When faced with a crisis of this magnitude, I cannot with a clean conscience ignore my duty to defend the constitution.”Porter’s support struck a chord in Washington because, as the representative of a swing district, her announcement carried personal political risk. Most others who have called for impeachment hail from safely blue districts. Only one Republican – Michigan congressman Justin Amash – has signed up to the cause.The question now is, will the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, succumb to the growing pressure, or will she stand her ground? It is a fierce debate that is increasingly dividing the party, pitting pragmatists against ideologues, the leadership against its own members and advocates of policy who believe they have a constitutional duty to act against wrongdoing against those who prefer to wage politics and want to remove Trump by thrashing him at the 2020 ballot box.Pelosi has so far remained steadfast in opposing an impeachment inquiry on the grounds such a move would fail in the Republican-controlled Senate and could be politically divisive, potentially jeopardizing Democrats’ chances at ousting Trump via the ballot box in 2020.In March, she said in an interview with the Washington Post that impeachment would be “so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path”.A four-page summary later that month of Mueller’s report by William Barr, the Mueller critic Trump installed as attorney general, made that position seem prescient. Barr wrote in a letter to lawmakers that Mueller did not establish collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and that he’d punted on the issue of obstruction. Barr and his then deputy, Rod Rosenstein, cleared Trump of charges that he sought to interfere with the inquiry.> When faced with a crisis of this magnitude, I cannot with a clean conscience ignore my duty to defend the constitution> > Katie PorterBut in April, Barr released a redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report that revealed his initial summary – and a bizarre, pre-publication press conference in which the attorney general sought to spin the findings like he was a member of Trump’s defense team – to be wildly misleading.On the question of obstruction of justice, Mueller laid out a series of episodes in which Trump personally sought to undermine the investigation, including by firing former FBI director James Comey and attempting to fire the special counsel himself. The reason Trump was not charged with a crime, Mueller implied, is because he did not believe justice department protocol allowed for a sitting president to be indicted.Holding the president accountable, he suggested, would necessarily be Congress, not the criminal justice system.For some Democrats, like the congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Eric Swalwell, that was a call to action.“The congressman is concentrated on protecting our democracy and believes that a fair process will either remove a corrupt president or acquit him but inaction is no longer an option,” a representative for Swalwell said.The momentum behind impeachment may be having some impact. Pelosi has introduced the word into her vocabulary as of late, implying that she was keeping the door open to the possibility. But she has also stayed the course, tamping down criticism from her ranks that it’s Congress’s duty to hold the president accountable – regardless of whether it would succeed or not.Instead, she has called for Democrats to press on with their investigations, as well as to focus on kitchen table issues such as healthcare, which helped them take back the House in the 2018 midterms and can, she hopes, propel them to victory again in 2020.As the 2020 race heats up – the Democrats have had their first televised debate and Trump has officially launched his campaign – it is hard to say what Democrats will, or should, do.On the one hand, impeachment could prove divisive. While a growing majority of Democratic voters support such a move, some polls suggest that Americans overall remain split on the matter. There are fears that impeachment could backfire on Democrats in 2020 and gift Trump another four years in office are not completely unfounded. After all, Republicans lost House seats in 1998 and 2000 as they pursued the impeachment of Bill Clinton – something that has weighed on Pelosi, her colleagues told the Atlantic.Those losses are often overstated, however, and the situations are different, both in terms of the two presidents’ statures in the public’s eye and the nature of their conduct. Clinton, who retained high approval ratings during the course of his proceedings, was impeached over conduct largely unrelated to his presidency.Activists call for the impeachment of Donald Trump in New York City, on 15 June. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Getty ImagesTrump, on the other hand, has seen underwater job approval ratings for the entire duration of his presidency. What’s more, the justification for his potential impeachment cuts to the heart of his duties as president. Trump has not only continued to insist he did nothing wrong and to block oversight investigations – he also said in a stunning interview recently that he would welcome foreign interference in the 2020 election if he thought it could help him win.Though Democrats appear uniformly frustrated and outraged by Trump’s conduct, some aren’t yet ready to greenlight impeachment.“I’m not yet calling to start an impeachment inquiry,” Florida congressman Ted Deutch, a Democrat on the House judiciary committee, told the Guardian. “But I will also not keep waiting as the White House engages in this unprecedented stonewalling. Obstruction of an investigation of obstruction of justice is itself obstruction of justice.”For more than 70 lawmakers and counting, though, it’s time to start moving on the matter – both as a practical way of holding the president accountable and as an ethical and constitutional responsibility to send a message that nobody is above the law, even if they sit in the Oval Office.“The administration has refused to respect the rule of law,” Porter said announcing her support for an impeachment inquiry.“The question is not whether a crisis is in our midst,” she continued, “but rather whether we choose to fight against it.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2FDqTpd

Read More

Beto O'Rourke visits children at migrant housing facility downtown

During his visit to Southwest Key's Casa Sunzal, O'Rourke said the children's situation is like the U.S. turning away Jewish refugees during World War II.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/300WkRQ

Read More

Biden and school busing: Where he stood, what it means

That Joe Biden, the man picked by America's first black president as his number two, should now be suffering attacks over his record on race might seem surprising. Senator Kamala Harris, the only black woman in the Democratic presidential field, forcefully questioned Biden on his opposition in the 1970s to court-ordered busing programs aimed at integrating public schools. Harris noted, in a quavering voice, that as "a little girl in California" she was "part of the second class to integrate her public schools" in a busing program.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Jez6B3

Read More

U.S. federal judge blocks use of some funds for border wall

U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but has so far proven unsuccessful at receiving congressional approval to do so. In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to reprogram $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to build the wall, which groups and states including California had challenged. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of rulings that the Trump administration's proposal to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities was unlawful.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2YgXVCK

Read More

Saudi Arabia intercepts two Yemen rebel drones: coalition

Two Yemeni rebel drones targeting southern Saudi Arabia were intercepted on Saturday, a Riyadh-led military coalition said, the latest in a series of assaults on the kingdom. The first drone targeted the province of Jizan and the second was aimed at a residential area in Asir province, the coalition said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. The rebels earlier claimed drone attacks on the airports in Jizan and Abha, the capital of Asir, according to the group's Al-Masirah TV.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NwHvWa

Read More

U.S. federal court delays adoption of healthcare rule on abortion

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its opponents in a California lawsuit agreed on Friday to delay implementing a rule that would allow medical workers to decline performing abortions or other treatments on moral or religious grounds, according to a federal court filing. The move comes after President Donald Trump's administration announced the rule earlier in May. It has also championed several policies to restrict abortion both in the United States and abroad. Delegations of Authority," the measure aims to protect conscience and religious rights surrounding abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide, HHS officials have said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/300WHvX

Read More

Childcare might become 'available only in rich areas'

MPs warn that childcare in England risks becoming accessible only to the wealthy.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2Lw9a6L

Read More

New top story on Hacker News: Porting Wine to amd64 on NetBSD, first evaluation report

Porting Wine to amd64 on NetBSD, first evaluation report
6 by fcambus | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Read More

2019 Home Run Derby field tracker: Christian Yelich, Ronald Acuna, Pete Alonso among confirmed hitters - CBS Sports

2019 Home Run Derby field tracker: Christian Yelich, Ronald Acuna, Pete Alonso among confirmed hitters  CBS Sports

On July 8, the 2019 Home Run Derby will be held at Cleveland's Progressive Field. The Home Run Derby is, basically, a meaningless spectacle, but gosh, it is ...

View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2YtOL6c

Read More

Leg fat 'better than belly fat' for older women

Carrying fat on legs instead of the belly protects postmenopausal women from heart disease, a study suggests.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2FH2gI0

Read More

Childcare might become 'available only in rich areas'

MPs warn that childcare in England risks becoming accessible only to the wealthy.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2Lw9a6L

Read More

'Every day has been hell' since 'honour killing' of Banaz Mahmod

Payzee Mahmod speaks out about her sister's murder in 2006 and a planned TV drama on the case.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2Jg2G9p

Read More

Leg fat 'better than belly fat' for older women

Carrying fat on legs instead of the belly protects postmenopausal women from heart disease, a study suggests.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2FH2gI0

Read More

UPDATE 2-Fighting rages across Afghanistan as peace talks continue

Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in an attack on a government office on Saturday night, officials said, in the latest episode of violence in Afghanistan as peace talks continue to end the war. The Taliban, which rejects the election process, claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group's fighters also killed 57 members of the Afghan security forces in the attack and captured 11 others, but Afghan officials disputed the account.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Xideih

Read More

Newark Airport reopens after being shut down due to 'airport emergency'

Newark Airport has reopened after it was shut down Saturday morning due to an "airport emergency."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Xjjm9Z

Read More

Your iPhone will charge from 0% to 80% in under an hour with these two accessories

Here's the good news: all of Apple's iPhones from 2017 and later support 18W fast charging that can charge your phone from 0% all the way up to 80% in about 55 minutes! And now for the bad news: Apple's cheaped out and didn't include a fast charger in the box with any of its iPhone models. Seriously, you can buy a $1,500 iPhone XS Max and Apple still doesn't include a fast charger in the box. Ugh. Getting the charger and cable you need from Apple to fast charge your iPhone costs about $50, which is obscene. Instead, pick up an AUKEY USB C Charger with 18W Power Delivery for $19.99 and an Anker USB C to Lightning Cable for $15.99. AUKEY USB C Charger * High-Speed Charging: Fast charge your iPhone XS/XS Max/XR, Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL, or other compatible USB-C devices that support USB Power Delivery * USB Power Delivery: Next-generation, future-proof fast charging technology that charges your USB Type-C phone or tablet at up to 18W * Compact & Portable: Extremely compact form factor and foldable plug ensure maximum portability wherever you go. Handy for home, office, and vacations * Safe & Reliable: Built-in safeguards protect your devices against excessive current, overheating, and overcharging * Package Contents: AUKEY PA-Y18 18W Power Delivery Wall Charger, User Manual, 45-Day Money Back Guarantee and 24-Month Product Replacement Warranty Card Anker USB C to Lightning Cable * Power Delivery: Use this cable with your USB-C Power Delivery charger (including Apple 18W 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter) to charge your iOS device, and access fast-charging for iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XS, XR, XS Max, and later models. * Charge and Sync: Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to your USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) enabled Mac and iPad Pro to seamlessly sync And charge. * Ultimate Durability: Lasts 12× longer than other cables and proven to withstand over 12000 bends in strict laboratory tests. * MI: MI certification and strict quality testing ensure your Apple devices are charged safely, at their fastest possible speed. . * A Cable for Life: We're so confident about Power line II's long-lasting performance that we gave it a hassle-free, lifetime .

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2KR1so7

Read More

Trump: If There Was a Wall, Immigrant Dad and Daughter Who Drowned ‘Would Be Saved’

Kevin Lamarque/ReutersPresident Donald Trump said that if the wall along the southern border with Mexico had been built, the migrant dad and daughter who drowned this week “would be saved.”Speaking at a press conference in Osaka, Japan, where world leaders are gathered at the G20 summit, Trump took a moment to offer his take on the global shock in response to the photo of Salvadorian man Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria, who were found face down and clinging to each other in the Rio Grande river. The two were attempting to make it across the river after failing to gain asylum from U.S. authorities.“The father and the beautiful daughter who drowned... if they thought it was hard to get in, they wouldn’t be coming up,” Trump said.Trump then called for tougher border patrol policies, adding that illegal immigration is “very unfair.”“You have millions of people on line for years to get into a country. They take tests, they study... and these people have worked hard, they’ve been on line for seven, eight, nine years, then someone walks in. Honestly it’s very unfair,” he said.Trump’s comments came hours after a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocks his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended to be used for anti-drug activities to instead build a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump said that he is planning to immediately appeal the ruling.In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to use $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to instead be used for constructing the wall. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of court decisions Friday that the Trump administration’s proposal to transfer the funds was unlawful.“We think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during another press conference at the G20 summit. “There was no reason that that should’ve happened.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/320pdj1

Read More

GOP senator: ‘Underestimate Joe Biden at your own peril’

Lindsey Graham also says of Kamala Harris: “She’s got game.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2XxkwxZ

Read More

O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekers

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke visited Mexico on Sunday and listened to tearful immigrants say they fled Central American violence and turmoil to seek asylum in the U.S., but were turned away at the border. A fluent Spanish speaker, O'Rourke met around a table at a shelter with immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of whom wept as they told of being denied entry into the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed. "We hope, by sharing these stories, that the conscience of our country is awoken right now, and the need to change the policies that we have in place" becomes apparent, O'Rourke said via a livestream on his Facebook page.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2YpdKas

Read More

Pandemonium in Panmunjom: Kim and Trump's hasty DMZ date

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's first two summits were highly choreographed affairs but their third date was an unscripted event seemingly arranged on a social media whim -- and threatened at times to descend into chaos. Trump admitted he did not know whether Kim would spurn his advances, delivered via Twitter. "When I put out the social media notification, if he didn't show up, the press was going to make me look very bad," the US president said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/320maaG

Read More

Brookfield clinches $9 bln deal to buy Genesee & Wyoming -sources

Investment firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc has agreed to acquire U.S. freight railroad owner and operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc for close to $9 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

from Reuters: Company News https://ift.tt/2J3ne6l
via IFTTT

Read More

PRESS DIGEST- British Business - July 1

The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

from Reuters: Company News https://ift.tt/2XepWJU
via IFTTT

Read More

Ten people confirmed killed when small plane crashes into Texas hangar

All 10 people aboard a small airplane were killed on Sunday when their aircraft crashed into a hangar during takeoff from an airport in Addison, Texas, near Dallas, an airport official said.

from Reuters: U.S. https://ift.tt/2NjLSn8

Read More

This Is the Battle That Decided World War II (Not What You Think)

While the tactical result of the battle was stunning – the U.S. sunk four Japanese fleet carriers Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Akagi, a heavy cruiser and destroyed 248 enemy aircraft – it is the perilous backdrop of America’s war fortunes in 1942 that make Midway’s tide-turning outcomes all the more significant.  Thursday, June 6th saw the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion at Normandy, the amphibious assault phase of Operation Neptune, or what we commonly remember as D-Day.  U.S. troops who landed at Normandy – particularly at Omaha Beach – waded ashore amidst a storm of chaos, a blizzard of machine gun fire, and a hail of plunging mortars.  Despite great confusion and casualties, at the squad level and below, the men at Omaha rallied and pressed forth with tenacity and nerve to breach sand-berms and barricades, neutralize enemy positions, and salvage their sectors.  Losses at Omaha were immense – but American resolve helped establish a foothold on the coast of France – and “the rest,” they say, “is history.”(This appeared earlier in June 2019.)Without doubt, the enormous importance of D-Day as a logistical and operational undertaking – and the gallantry of Allied forces that June morning is unquestioned.  It rightfully exemplifies American character, courage, and commitment. However, it is important to note that as far as the battle’s strategic significance is concerned, a strong case can be made that other battles of World War II are more critical than D-Day.The Battle of Midway in 1942 is one.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2RJd7WU

Read More

Biden's image as the inevitable nominee, the one to beat Trump, was dinged Thursday

Analysis: The problem for Joe Biden at the Democratic debate, Day 2, wasn't that he was so bad. It was that Kamala Harris was so good.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2RGzA70

Read More

Western liberalism is obsolete, warns Putin, ahead of May meeting

Russian president says the Salisbury poisonings are not worth ‘all this fuss’ and that liberals can no longer ‘dictate’ to anyone‘The average person listens and says “who are these Skripals?”’ Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times. Photograph: SPUTNIK/ReutersVladimir Putin has said ahead of his meeting with Theresa May at the G20 summit in Japan that relations between Britain and Russia should not suffer because of last year’s nerve agent attack on the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.The Russian president also used the interview with the Financial Times to claim that the election of Donald Trump as US president and the rise of nationalist-populist movements in Europe signaled the death of liberal policies in the west.“[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades,” he said. “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”The claims brought a short response from European council president Donald Tusk at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday.“I strongly disagree with the main argument that liberalism is obsolete. Whoever claims that liberal democracy is obsolete, also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete,” he said. “For us in Europe, these are and will remain essential and vibrant values. What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”On the Skripals, Putin told the FT in an interview at the Kremlin that: “All this fuss about spies and counterspies is not worth interstate relations. This spy story, as we say here, is not worth 5 kopecks.“I think Russia and UK are both interested in fully restoring our relations – at least I hope a few preliminary steps will be taken.”Bilateral ties between Britain and Russia plummeted to a post-Cold War low last year when London accused Moscow of the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury.The Kremlin denies sending GRU military intelligence agents to Britain to carry out the attack, which triggered scores of diplomatic expulsions between Moscow and western countries.“The average person listens and says ‘who are these Skripals?’” Putin said. “Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished. I am not saying that the Salisbury incident is the way to do it … but traitors must be punished.” Putin has previously called Skripal a “scumbag.”The G20 summit takes place in Osaka on Friday and Saturday. May’s spokesman has said she will use the meeting with Putin to ensure that Britain’s stance on “Russia’s wider pattern of malign behaviour” has been fully grasped by the Kremlin.Putin described German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees – most of whom were fleeing the war in Syria – into Germany as a “cardinal mistake”.In contrast, he was full of praise for Trump’s attempts to prevent migrants from entering the US from Mexico. “This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected.”Putin also tried to defend Russia’s record on LGBT+ rights. “I am not trying to insult anyone because we have been condemned for our alleged homophobia. But we have no problem with LGBT persons. God forbid, let them live as they wish,” Putin said. “But some things do appear excessive to us. They claim now that children can play five or six gender roles.”Moscow has been criticised internationally for its so-called anti-gay propaganda law, which bars the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to children. Human rights groups say the law, which Putin approved in 2013, has sparked a spike in homophobic violence. A UN panel ruled last year that the law was in violation of a legally binding international treaty on human rights.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2LtkzEg

Read More

18 kidnapping victims found 'enslaved' in Houston home: Police

Authorities arrested and charged five people who allegedly kidnapped, smuggled and sexually assaulted multiple people in Houston.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Lrhwwz

Read More

Facebook page of Australian missing in North Korea mysteriously reappears

The Facebook page of an Australian man missing in North Korea reappeared then disappeared again on Saturday hours before Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia is still trying to find out what has happened to him.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2YopslI

Read More

Cameroon opposition leader released after abduction in Anglophone region

The leader of one of Cameroon's main opposition parties was released by his captors on Saturday after being abducted by unidentified gunmen in the country's restive Anglophone region a day earlier, his party said.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Ym2snB

Read More

New top story on Hacker News: PiHole-Google: Completely Block Google and Its Services

PiHole-Google: Completely Block Google and Its Services
10 by Jerry2 | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Read More

With Little to Celebrate, Mets Honor a Title-Winning Team

By TYLER KEPNER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2XdK8vi

Read More

'Madrid Central' protest: Thousands oppose suspension of anti-pollution plan

Protesters are calling on Madrid’s conservative mayor to reimpose strict car pollution restrictions.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2JbRTwZ

Read More

New top story on Hacker News: Protest in Madrid as conservatives suspend ban on most polluting cars

Protest in Madrid as conservatives suspend ban on most polluting cars
4 by pseudolus | 1 comments on Hacker News.

Read More

Russia agrees with Saudi Arabia to extend OPEC+ oil output deal

Russia has agreed with Saudi Arabia to extend by six to nine months a deal with OPEC on reducing oil output, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, as oil prices come under renewed pressure from rising U.S. supplies and a slowing global economy.

from Reuters: Business News https://ift.tt/2KQbZzV
via IFTTT

Read More

Bernie Sanders open to new busing policies - Washington Examiner

1. Bernie Sanders open to new busing policies  Washington Examiner
2. Harris dropped a bomb on Biden that's bigger than politics  CNN
3. LISTEN: Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To End Mandated Busing In 1975  NPR
4. President Donald Trump Suggests Busing Is Just a Way "To Get People to Schools"  Newsweek
5. Biden draws more flak on busing opposition, as rivals question his views on states’ rights  The Washington Post
6. View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FDQONq

Read More

UPDATE 1-Proxy adviser Glass Lewis recommends EQT shareholders vote for company's nominees

Proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co has recommended that investors in natural gas producer EQT Corp vote in favor of the company's board nominees, putting it at odds with another proxy advisory firm which recommended voting in favor of a competing slate of directors proposed by Toby and Derek Rice.

from Reuters: Company News https://ift.tt/2XJayt8
via IFTTT

Read More

Biden responds to attack on his age: 'I'm still holding on to that torch'

Rep. Eric Swalwell went after former Vice President Joe Biden in the second Democratic presidential primary debate. Swalwell said Biden, who is 76 years old, should “pass the torch.” Biden rejected the California lawmaker’s critique.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2XzHuoa

Read More

Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEAL

An Iraqi general and a U.S. Marine testifying in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL said on Thursday they never saw the platoon leader stab a wounded detainee in the neck, disputing the central allegation in the prosecution's war crimes case. A sworn deposition of Major General Abbas al-Jubouri, videotaped in San Diego earlier this month, was played for the seven-member jury on the second day of defense testimony in the court-martial of Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher. Contrary to prior testimony that Gallagher, or a medic on his team, had acted deliberately to cause the death of a helpless Islamic State fighter in their custody, Jubouri said the Navy SEALs did all they could to save the teenager's life.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ITsUzp

Read More

Kamala Harris Is Surging and Birtherism Is Back

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyKamala Harris broke out from the other nine Democrats onstage during the second Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, calling on her personal experiences of racial injustice as a black woman.“As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said.That’s when she was attacked on Twitter by a conservative provocateur for not being an “American black.” It’s a play straight out of the racist birther playbook used against Barack Obama when he ran for president a decade earlier. This time, though, those kinds of allegations don’t have to circulate for years on obscure right-wing forums before they reach a mainstream audience. On Thursday night, spammers and even one of President Trump’s sons spread the attack to millions of people within hours. Kamala Harris Shows She’s Here to Capture the CrownHarris, 54, was born in Oakland, California to a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She spoke of her experience growing up black in the debate, recalling a story about neighbors who wouldn’t let their children play with Harris and her sister because of the color of their skin.The attacks on Harris’s background started Thursday when Ali Alexander tweeted she is not an “American black.” “She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” Alexander wrote. “I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting. Now using it for debate time at DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”Alexander’s claim was picked up by Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted it to his nearly 3.6 million followers. “Is this true?” Trump Jr. wrote. “Wow.”Trump Jr., who later deleted his tweet, wasn’t the only one using Alexander’s tweet to question Harris’s ethnicity. Harris’s team denounced the comment as racist. “This is the same type of racist attacks his father used to attack Barack Obama. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” a Harris spokesperson told The Daily Beast.More Twitter users copied and pasted Alexander’s message verbatim and tweeted it as their own, according to screenshots posted by writer Caroline Orr. Some of those accounts, like “@prebs_73,” have copy-pasted other popular right-wing tweets verbatim. Other accounts with right-wing references in their usernames and biographies piled on, accusing Harris of not being black.“Ummmmm @KamalaHarris you are NOT BLACK. you are Indian and Jamaican,” wrote a Twitter user with a cross emoji, the word “CONSERVATIVE,” a red “X” emoji (a right-wing Twitter trope), and three stars (a QAnon symbol) in their username.At least one known network of bot accounts was found spreading Alexander’s original tweet, BuzzFeed reported.Shireen Mitchell, a technologist and founder of the group Stop Online Violence Against Women, said the accusation against Harris plays into a long-running debate that has been used to drive a white nationalist wedge through black communities.“We are and have always been, for centuries in this country, having this little fight about who gets opportunities as black people and who doesn’t,” Mitchell said. “That includes colorism; that includes distinctions of where the ship actually landed; it includes if you are (and I am) a descendant of a slave who was born here versus a descendant of slavery from another country. Those distinctions, from my perspective, make no sense ever. But what it does is allow for white nationalist and nativist conversations to be planted in my community.”A spokesman for Trump Jr. said Trump sent the tweet originally because he had not known that Harris’s mother was Indian. “Don’s tweet was simply him asking if it’s true that Kamala Harris was half-Indian because it’s not something he had ever heard before and once he saw that folks were misconstruing the intent of his tweet he quickly deleted it,” the spokesman said. Alexander, who describes himself as black and Arab, said that Harris has a “nasty, lying history with Black people.” “Me pointing out that Kamala Harris has a mother from India and a father from Jamaica went viral last night because many people assume she descends from Black American Slaves,” he said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “She does not. I corrected Kamala Harris last night because she stole debate time under the premise that she is an African-American when she is in fact a biracial Indian-Jamaican who is a first generation American.”This isn’t the first time pro-Trump activists have tried to undermine Harris and her authority to speak on issues of race based on her parents. In January, right-wing operative Jacob Wohl, an associate of Alexander, argued on Twitter that Harris was ineligible to be president because her parents weren’t from the United States, even though she was born in California. Wohl’s claims were circulated by other right-wing figures online, in an attempt to create a birther-style question about whether Harris could legally run for president.Mitchell, who has monitored harassment campaigns against black women since 2013, said Harris is facing a new, digital permutation of the birther conspiracy theory attacks President Trump levied against Obama.“It’s a different iteration of birtherism: ‘where were you born?’ She was born in Oakland!” Mitchell said, referring to the conspiracy theory that falsely accused Obama of being born outside the U.S. “The conversation is, no matter who we are, our blackness should be challenged because what we look like is not ‘American enough.’”Mitchell draws a distinction between two kinds of fraudulent accounts that try to discredit black people online. Botnets, an automated network of fake accounts, often tweet the same message. The technique allows a message to spread far and fast, with little effort. Some of the copy-paste accounts sharing Alexander’s message appear to be operated by real people. Mitchell also monitors a trend called “marionetting,” in which someone will falsely pose as a black person online to push ideas that many black people might otherwise find objectionable. Recent examples of marionetting include a troll who stole a black transgender activist’s picture to pose as a Trump supporter, and Russian-run accounts like “Blacktivist” that impersonated black Americans to sway black voters away from Hillary Clinton in 2016.“I actually thought the botnet was going to die, because I felt like more marionetting was happening ... After this debate, I saw more botnets responding again, versus just marionetting.”Fraudulent accounts often rely on stereotypes that trolls hope to apply to a collection of fake accounts, Mitchell said.“The ‘black enough’ line has been a stereotypical frame,” she said. “It has always been a systemic narrative. It’s just being expanded in this national debate”‘Digital Blackface’: Pro-Trump Trolls Are Impersonating Black People on TwitterRead 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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2JdmL09

Read More

Landfill Investigated Amid Search for Missing Virginia 2-Year-Old

The search is still on for a Hampton toddler who went missing Monday morning. Hampton Police focused on the city landfill on Thursday four days days after 2-year-old Noah Tomlin went missing.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2XezmFq

Read More