Amazonseller center: June 2019

Tens of thousands join gay pride parades around the world

Tens of thousands of people turned out for gay pride celebrations around the world on Saturday, including a boisterous party in Mexico and the first pride march in North Macedonia's capital. Rainbow flags and umbrellas swayed and music pounded as the march along Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma avenue got underway, with couples, families and activists seeking to raise visibility for sexual diversity in the country. Same-sex civil unions have been legal in Mexico City since 2007, and gay marriage since 2009.

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Governor Cuomo signs legislation banning 'gay and trans panic' legal defense

The defense had been used to justify violent reaction to finding out the person someone is with is gay or transgender.

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Defense rests in war crimes trial of U.S. Navy SEAL platoon leader

Defense lawyers in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL rested their case on Friday after three days of testimony contesting accusations that the platoon leader had fatally stabbed a wounded Iraqi captive and shot innocent civilians. The last defense witness called by lawyers for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was Navy Lieutenant Commander Robert Breisch, who testified that no one made a report to him accusing Gallagher of war crimes while his platoon was in Iraq. Breisch, the SEAL Team 7 troop commander during the 2017 Iraq deployment in question, testified that complaints about Gallagher had only involved personal, petty issues or tactical grievances, until months after the troops returned.

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Trump Meets Kim at the DMZ: Useful Symbolism, but Little Substance Yet

The sight of President Donald Trump at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and being the first sitting U.S. president to cross over into North Korea was powerful symbolism indeed. It suggested that the collapse of the Hanoi summit may have been merely a temporary setback and the rapprochement between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was back on track. Whether or not that assumption proves true depends very much on how realistic Washington’s objectives are going forward.Despite partisan sniping back home, Trump deserves credit for making a serious effort to reduce the long-standing hostility between Pyongyang and Washington. Nothing symbolizes that frozen conflict more than the existence of the DMZ between North Korea and U.S. ally South Korea. Despite its ironic name, the DMZ is the most fortified border in the world. One should not dismiss the importance of symbolism; the sight of the two leaders using the DMZ as a cordial meeting place, and seeing an American leader enter the DPRK (however briefly) sends a message that a more peaceful future on the Peninsula is possible.

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Does Biden stand a chance in 2020 after Democratic debate?

'The Daily Briefing' host Dana Perino reacts to the second night of Democratic presidential debates on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

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Stephanie Grisham's unlikely path from Arizona politics to Trump's White House

Stephanie Grisham, Trump's new White House press secretary, had a bumpy ride through Arizona politics before ascending to Washington.

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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.

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Driving Honda's 150-MPH Lawn Mower Is a Scary-Fast Thrill Ride

Honda's Mean Mower V2 is a land-speed landscaping machine.

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Mobile users can now switch providers with one simple text

Phone customers will be able to switch providers with a single free text under new rules.

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DMZ diplomacy: Kim accepts Trump invite to meet at border

President Donald Trump will meet Sunday with North Korea's Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the North and South, a day after he issued an unprecedented invitation and expressed willingness to cross the border for what would be a history-making photo op. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that Kim accepted Trump's invitation to meet when the U.S. president visits the heavily fortified site at the Korean border village of Panmunjom. Trump said he looked forward to meeting with Kim, but sought to tamp down expectations, predicting it would be "very short," he said.

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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."

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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 .

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Joe Biden and the Great Awokening

Joe Biden has led the national polls in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination since last year. He’s ahead in the first three contests, also, with leads ranging from seven points (Iowa) to 13 points (New Hampshire) to 28 points (South Carolina). He’s first in fivethirtyeight.com’s endorsement primary. And though he didn’t launch his campaign until the second quarter of 2019, at which point Bernie Sanders had raised the most money, his nonstop fundraising schedule, and great first-24-hours number, suggests that his second-quarter haul will be impressive. Going into tonight’s Democratic debate, there was no reason to doubt Biden’s status as the Democratic frontrunner. Indeed, while head-to-head matchups 16 months before an election are worthless, one might as well have considered him the frontrunner to become the 46th president of the United States, too.And yet there is an air of unreality surrounding the Biden campaign, a widespread expectation that the former vice president just can’t last. He’s run twice before, with terrible results. He’s old. He has a tendency to let his mouth take him places his political advisers would rather not have him go. And he has baggage. Lots of baggage, from his creepy-uncle vibe to his votes for NAFTA, the Iraq war, and the 1994 crime bill, to his devotion to the principles of bipartisanship and civility, including with the segregationist and racist senators with whom he has served. He’s about as Washington as you can get. There might not be an Acela corridor without him. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for one, is not impressed. “He’s not a pragmatic choice,” she says.One of the questions the 2020 Democratic primary will answer, then, is whether the party is more like Biden or AOC. Is a long career, devoted service to Barack Obama, and the purported ability to win the support of working-class whites enough to win the party’s nomination? Or have the Democrats moved so far left in recent years that Biden’s experience is actually a weakness, his geniality a liability, his folksiness a handicap?The evidence is mixed. Biden’s sustained poll position has led some analysts to conclude that, MSNBC and CNN to the contrary notwithstanding, the Democratic party is older and more moderate than people think. Biden doesn’t need to capitulate to Sanders to win the nomination, he doesn’t need to apologize to AOC or to Cory Booker. And Biden hasn’t apologized, not for his sniffing hair or for his remarks about working with segregationists. And his lead remains significant. Maybe the audience for identity politics and far-left social liberalism is small.On the other hand, Biden has had to reverse himself on taxpayer funding for abortion, signaling just how essential unrestricted abortion rights have become to the Democratic electorate. And he’s wishy-washy on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which his former boss, the biggest name in Democratic politics, negotiated. Biden’s performing a high-wire act, in other words. He has to navigate the shoals of the Great Awokening that has turned the Democratic base, white progressives especially, into zealots for social justice. Up until Thursday, his strategy has been to lay low. Focus on donors. Avoid interviews. Wrestle with Trump, not with the other Democrats.No longer. He had to stand on stage with nine of his competitors Thursday, and answer questions from Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, and Chuck Todd. Next to him was Bernie Sanders, whose “democratic socialism” has determined the contours of intra-Democratic debate since 2016. And next to Bernie was Kamala Harris, the freshman senator from California, who basically defines the idea of “woke capitalism.” And next to Harris was Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s executed one of the most remarkable political transformations in American history, from middle-of-the-road congresswoman to feminist warrior in a little more than a decade. Also, there was Andrew Yang, who wants to give every American a universal basic income. And Pete Buttigieg, the trendy multilingual mayor of South Bend, Ind. And a bunch of other people, including Marianne Williamson, who was visiting from the Age of Aquarius.And this debate took place a day after Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio called for eliminating private insurance, Julián Castro called for abortion rights for trans men, and Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke spoke in garbled Spanish. The trend of the Democratic party is to the left. And it’s a trend Biden doesn’t seem all that interested in resisting, as evidenced by his joining all of the candidates on stage in calling for health insurance for illegal immigrants while also saying deportation of illegal immigrants wouldn’t be a priority for his administration.Biden has encountered the Great Awokening, and he doesn’t know what to make of it. His instinct seems to be to go with the flow. Maybe you noticed the weird way he responded to questions where the moderators asked the candidates to raise their hands. In each case Biden was tentative, uncertain, looking at the competition. At one point he asked the moderator to repeat a question, highlighting his age.If you had been dropped into this debate from Mars, you would have thought Kamala “for the people” Harris was the Democratic frontrunner. She brought down the house several times. She got Biden tangled up on the issue of busing. She clearly represents the future of the Democratic party. She’s fourth in the national polls, stuck in single digits. But she went toe to toe with the frontrunner -- something that was studiously avoided for most of the two nights of debates. And she won.Something is happening to the Democratic party. It’s been moving left for years. Since Howard Dean’s insurgency in the 2004 campaign, the number of Democrats who have embraced liberalism, progressivism, and now socialism has been steadily increasing. The reason is partly generational. My cohort, the Millennials, embraced the left position on the issues of Iraq and gay marriage, and if anything, Generation Z seems to be more left-wing still. The number of liberals is not an overwhelming majority of the party -- not according to polls -- but it is a majority. And the number of lefties is so great that it determines the nature of the interest groups that dictate the party’s agenda and talking points. It might even determine the nominee.And if that’s the case, simply judging by his performance on Thursday night, Joe Biden has got to be awfully worried.This piece was originally published in the Washington Free Beacon.

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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.

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Childcare might become 'available only in rich areas'

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

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Syrian state media: Israeli missile strike kills four civilians

Israeli warplanes fired missiles targeting Syrian military positions in Homs and the Damascus outskirts in an attack that killed at least four civilians and wounded another 21, Syrian state media said.

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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.

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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.

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What's happening in the news this week?

This week, Bonnie Tyler makes an appearance, alongside some reconstituted meat products.

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Medicinal cannabis: The family that changed Australia's debate

Their heartrending story shifted perceptions on medical cannabis - but, they argue, not far enough.

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Israel and Hamas Reach Truce to Restore Quiet, Army Radio Says

(Bloomberg) -- Israel and Hamas reached a truce on Friday that would halt attacks against Israeli farmland in return for measures to ease the economic blockade on Gaza, according to a report by Israeli Army Radio.Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, would stop launching incendiary balloons that for the past year have torched thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land, and in exchange Israel would expand the enclave’s fishing zone, and return 60 confiscated boats and diesel supplies for the area’s main power plant, according to the radio station.Though the concessions made by Israel are small, they would provide some relief for Gaza and its roughly 2 million residents, who are cut off from other economies by their immediate neighbors, Israel and Egypt.To contact the reporter on this story: Yaacov Benmeleh in Tel Aviv at ybenmeleh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Constantine Courcoulas, Taylan BilgicFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Mika Brzezinski on the success of ‘Morning Joe’: ‘I’m the reason it’s still going’

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski says “Morning Joe” was her husband’s idea, but she’s “the reason it’s still going.” Brzezinski explains that when the show first started, she was booking the guests and managing the show. “I did everything from the get-go, tried to make a space for [Joe Scarborough]’s incredible voice.”

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Kamala Harris Uses Her Story to Force Dems to Really Consider Race

It took a while to get there, but as anticipated, former Vice President Joe Biden’s record on race led to one of the most heated moments of Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate.Sen. Kamala Harris, who demonstrated her fierce prosecutorial acumen throughout the night, came at Biden for his “hurtful” comments about his friendly relations with segregationist senators in the 1970s, and then deftly pivoted to Biden’s own opposition to busing during that era, revealing that she was one of the young African-Americans who benefited from that desegregation program.Kamala Harris Hammers Biden for His Past Work With RacistsTrue to form, Biden reasserted his personal history on civil rights — ignoring the fact that Harris opened her attack by conceding that he is not a racist — and refused to apologize for his remarks about how “we got things done” with segregationists Democrats in the 1970s or renounce his now politically untenable old position on busing.He condescendingly told Harris that it was her local City Council’s fault that she had to participate in busing in the first place, but his answer betrayed no empathy or compassion, just a stern defense of his own controversial record. When it comes to Biden’s long record in the Senate, he has failed to acknowledge how the compromises he is so proud of having forged frequently resulted in bad policy — ones whose impact often disproportionately landed on the backs of African-Americans. As Harris said of Biden’s old political allies in a post-debate interview, again stressing that she did not see Biden himself as a racist: “The consequences of their actions were very real, and on the shoulders of a history in our country of — really a very bad awful dark dangerous and lethal time.”This is not a problem singularly for Biden. The Democratic Party has been disappointing black voters for decades—and they may not be able to afford to come up short for them again.In a debate full of interruptions, forced talking points and uncomfortable exchanges, it may have been the discussion of racial matters that knocked a few of the top tier candidates off their game.Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was smoother than many of the more seasoned politicians on stage for the most part, didn’t navigate a question well about the racial tensions back home in South Bend, Indiana where a police shooting has resurrected past complaints about his sensitivity on race.Buttigieg, who has struggled to connect with black voters, at first seemed to take total responsibility for his local department’s lack of diversity (just 6 percent black, even though South Bend is about 26 percent black), but he also absolved himself of making a judgment call, since an investigation was still ongoing.Rep. Eric Swalwell, who spent most of the night trying to remind viewers how young he was, goaded the mayor by saying he should “fire the police chief,” by the end of the exchange Buttigieg could only shoot Swalwell an exasperated stare.Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose own struggles with winning over African-Americans are well-documented, also failed to seriously address a question about a previous comment he’d made which seemed to dismiss the significance of representation of women and minorities in the race.Meanwhile, Sen. Harris was able to steal focus repeatedly, and in this case she pulled rank on race as the often overpowered MSNBC moderators had to helplessly seed the floor to her. These exchanges laid bare the challenge before the Democratic contenders, who fate in the primaries and eventually the general election will have a lot to do with how much they can inspire and appeal to voters of color.There was plenty of talk about systematic racism, voting rights and even reparations, but there was only one person on stage who consistently was able to weave an accessible narrative around these issues.Harris spoke about race in very personal terms — pointing out that there isn’t a single black man she knew who hadn’t experienced some form of racial profiling. And she talked about being told by a white neighbor as a child that they could no longer play together because she was black.It was a different side of the senator than the no-nonsense Senate committee questioner that those who are casually familiar with her might have previously seen. And her performance tonight should earn her a second look or first look from Democratic voters.Arguably the greatest hinderance to her candidacy to date, may be the perception that a black woman may be deemed less electable than established white politicians like Sanders or Biden, but the rapturous applause that greeted her reference to the president and “her hand,” suggests that previously held perceptions of electability can and should be thrown out the window.Tonight, the most coherent compelling candidate onstage was a black woman and a distant second was a gay man. Electability is the eye of the beholder. And when Biden’s camp released a statement saying that the debate was “exactly what Trump wants,” it failed to see that this kind of reckoning on representation is actually exactly what Democratic voters want..Read 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.

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Atlanta airport to expand security checkpoint

The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport plans to expand a security checkpoint within the next year to help alleviate a crowded waiting area, officials said. Officials expect to open five additional lanes at the South Security Checkpoint within the next year, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . This would provide nine lanes for TSA screening near Delta Air Lines' check-in counters.

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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.

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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.

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China warns of 'severe threats' to global order at G20

China warned on Friday that protectionism and "bullying" were threatening the world order as President Xi Jinping met other leaders at the G20 summit ahead of high-stakes talks with Donald Trump. Xi met three of his African counterparts Friday morning on the sidelines of the G20 summit of major world economies, which opened in Osaka amid the US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions, and divisions over climate change. "All leaders in the meeting stressed that unilateralism, protectionism, and bullying practices are on the rise, posing severe threats to economic globalisation and international order, and severe challenges to the external environment of developing countries," Chinese foreign ministry official Dai Bing told reporters.

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Man charged with murder, kidnapping in case of missing Utah student Mackenzie Lueck

A man has been charged in connection with the disappearance of missingUniversity of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck, CBS News reports

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Your pictures on the theme of 'pathway'

Each week, we publish a gallery of readers' pictures on a set theme. This week it is "pathway".

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The Killers bring out the Pet Shop Boys and Johnny Marr at Glastonbury

The Killers put on a triumphant headline show, putting to rest the memory of their flawed 2007 set.

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Sudan: Dying for the revolution

Meet the young protesters in Sudan prepared to die to keep the country's revolution alive.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Biden wounded as Democratic tensions boil over at debate

For months, the 2020 Democratic campaign seemed mostly placid, even cordial. At Thursday’s presidential debate, those frictions came to the fore – and Joe Biden bore the brunt. The former vice president, 76, entered the debate as the front-runner, having led the pack of more than 20 Democratic candidates since he joined the race in April.

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Senate fails to limit Trump war powers amid Iran tensions

Political unease over the White House's tough talk against Iran is reviving questions about President Donald Trump's ability to order military strikes without approval from Congress. The Senate fell short Friday, in a 50-40 vote, on an amendment to a sweeping Defense bill that would require congressional support before Trump acts.

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5 takeaways from Thursday night’s Democratic debate

A tense exchange between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden highlighted the 2020 cycle's second Democratic primary debate.

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US deploys F-22 stealth fighters to Qatar amid Iran tensions

The US has deployed F-22 stealth fighters to Qatar for the first time, its military said Friday, adding to a buildup of US forces in the Gulf amid tensions with Iran. The Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters have been deployed "to defend American forces and interests," the US Air Forces Central Military Command said in a statement that did not specify how many of the hi-tech planes had been sent. A photo handout showed five of the jets flying above the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

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MacKenzie Lueck case: Utah police arrest man on suspicion of kidnapping, murder of SoCal college student

Police took a person into custody as the search continues for missing Southern California college student MacKenzie Lueck, authorities said.

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China's Xi to present Trump with terms for settling trade fight: WSJ, citing Chinese officials

Beijing is insisting that the U.S. remove its ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the Journal said, citing Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan. Beijing also wants the U.S. to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more U.S. exports than Beijing said it would when the two leaders last met in December, the WSJ said.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker's Spanish is 'humorous'

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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Supreme Court blocks plan to add citizenship question to 2020 census

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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