February, 2019

"I am reminded of the cruel religious practice, once widespread in certain cultures, of sacrificing human beings - frequently children - in pagan rites," Francis said Sunday.

He was speaking at the close of the summit of the church's top bishops and leaders, called to design a plan on how to deal with the predatory priests who have sexually abused children and adults for decades.

Wielding a weapon made of dollar bills, tackling Barack Obama, challenging George Soros to an arm wrestle -- Donald Trump is the hero of a Tirana art show by an Albanian painter who considers the US president an “idol.”

The 61-year-old artist, Avni Delvina, says the work is his response to international media’s broadly negative reaction to the Republican president’s unorthodox approach to politics.

“It is the product of two years of work from my strong anger about the reactionary attack on Trump,” Delvina told AFP, describing the former reality TV star and real estate tycoon as a “free spirit.”

he U.S. Navy has hired Boeing to build four Orca extra-large unmanned undersea vehicles, or XLUUVs. The service plans to use the Orcas to explore and refine future concepts of operation for underwater drones of this size, which could include gathering intelligence, emplacing or clearing naval mines, attacking other ships or submarines, conducting stand-off strikes, and more.

HOLD THE DATE! We will be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C., on July 4th. It will be called “A Salute To America” and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2019

China committed to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Twitter.

The commitments are a “show of good faith by the Chinese” and “indications of more good news to come,” Perdue wrote.

Natacha Jaitt, a model from Argentina, was found dead this morning in the town of Villa La Ñata. She was 41 years old. Jaitt gained international notoriety when she when went public with accusations of human trafficking against Gustavo Vera, a close friend of Pope Francis.
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After her appearance on Mirtha Legrand’s talk show and the resulting controversy over her accusations against Vera, Jaitt tweeted, “Notice: I will not commit suicide. I won’t be bought off or drown in a bath tub, nor will I shoot myself in the head. So, if that happens: I wasn’t me. Save this tweet.”

Here's the video of her discussing the sex trafficking network:

On February 21, Breitbart News reported that six counties had adopted “Second Amendment Sanctuary” status, but that number has now increased by eight. And the Albuquerque Journal reported that the number will likely climb.

The gun controls being pushed at the state level include universal background checks, a red flag law allowing gun confiscation, and an expansion of the “prohibited purchasers” list. The New Mexico Sheriff’s Association has planned to sue the state if the new gun controls are enacted.

The discovery of narcotics by CBP officers within a commercial shipment of fresh pineapples has an estimated street value of $19,114,940.00 and this seizure remains under investigation.

From the start of 2019 through Sunday, there have been 48 murders in New York City, compared to 31 in the same seven-week time frame in 2018, the New York Daily News reported.
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In addition, reports of rape are up in New York City, with 239 cases reported city-wide compared to 198 in the same time last year. Officers reportedly believe this correlates with the rise of the #MeToo movement, which has emboldened women to come forward and report alleged rapes.

But Khatami didn't face the same grinding economic pressure, or an American president like Donald Trump, whose administration has taken a maximalist approach toward pressuring Tehran. Analysts say that only further weakens Rouhani's hand.

"The CIA expert in false flag operations, Pompeo, thinks he can fool the world with a truck set ablaze by his own agents in Colombia," said Arreaza over Twitter on Saturday.

President Donald Trump's job approval rating varied widely across the U.S. states in 2018, with 17 states giving him ratings of 50% or higher, and 16 states giving him ratings below 40%. The states most approving of Trump were generally in the South and Mountain West areas of the country, while he fared most poorly in New England and on the West Coast.

The number of states where liberals outnumber conservatives has dropped more than 30 percent, with just six now in that category: Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont, Washington, New York, and New Hampshire.

According to the latest Gallup survey, in every other state but California, where conservatives and liberals split 29 percent to 29 percent, conservatives lead.

She has no district office and no local phone number, unlike the state’s three other freshman members.
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Ocasio-Cortez has used her deceased father’s Bronx condo on her voter registration since 2012, and even posed in the one-bedroom Bronx flat for celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz in a Vogue magazine profile after her stunning November election. But The Post could find little indication she continues to live there.

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Last Friday, PepsiCo announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is expected to incur $2.5 billion in pretax restructuring costs through 2023, with 70% of charges linked to severance and other employee costs. The company is also planning to close factories, with an additional 15% tied to plant closures and "related actions."
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Being leaner and more agile seems to be linked to cutting jobs, with chief financial officer Hugh Johnston confirming to CNBC that the company plans to lay off workers in positions that can be automated. Laguarta said on Friday that PepsiCo is "relentlessly automating and merging the best of our optimized business models with the best new thinking and technologies."

Microsoft workers released a letter on Friday addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, in which they voiced opposition to the $479 million contract that aims to equip the US Army with up to 100,000 augmented reality headsets to be used in combat and for training. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will be based on a preexisting Microsoft technology called HoloLens. Released in March 2016, HoloLens is capable of interposing digital images on whatever its wearer sees.

Signed by more than 50 employees, the letter states that the IVAS contract marks the first time that Microsoft has “crossed the line into weapons development.”

On behalf of workers at Microsoft, we're releasing an open letter to Brad Smith and Satya Nadella, demanding for the cancelation of the IVAS contract with a call for stricter ethical guidelines.
If you're a Microsoft employee you can sign at: https://t.co/958AhvIHO5 pic.twitter.com/uUZ5P4FJ7X

— Microsoft Workers 4 Good (@MsWorkers4) February 22, 2019

Zimbabwe could run out of bread in a week after flour stocks dwindled due to the country's failure to pay for imported wheat, according to a confidential letter written to bakers by the country's grain millers' group on Monday.

The southern African nation is in the grip of a severe shortage of U.S. dollars that has sapped supplies of fuel and drugs, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa struggles to live up to pre-election promises to quickly revive the troubled economy.

Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in a ruling late Friday afternoon that the North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members do not truly represent the state's residents and thus should never have proposed a voter ID amendment in the first place.
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Collins also tossed out a second Republican-backed amendment implementing a cap on the state's income tax.