White House instructs former counsel Don McGahn not to comply with congressional subpoena according to a letter sent Tuesday from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to McGahn’s attorney William Burck….
May 7, 2019
Earlier Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on ABC News' "The Investigation" podcast “I don’t anticipate that that takes place,” when asked whether the White House would allow McGahn to comply with Democrats’ request. “We consider this to be a case closed and we're moving forward to do the work of the American people.”
Joe Biden: Grandson Asked Him About Internet Meme Accusing Him of Molesting a Child…
May 7, 2019
“‘Pop, you have to run pop,” Biden said, claiming that his grandson Hunter asked him about a photo of the Vice President clutching him at his son Beau Biden’s funeral. “Pop it says: ‘Look at Biden molesting a kid,” Biden recalled about the meme, quoting his grandson... “Pop I know it’s going to be mean, they’re going to say bad things about daddy,” Biden continued, saying that he was quoting his grandson. “Mommy and Daddy had a divorce and they’re going to really go after that.” Biden elicited sympathy from the crowd as he related the story. “My generic point is they know how tough it’s going to be,” he said, referring to his family.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion ban into law…
May 7, 2019
Women may still receive an abortion if the pregnancy is believed to be "medically futile," GPB noted. Exceptions will also be granted to a woman whose life is at risk and if a police report has been filed related to rape or incest.
Planned Parenthood on Tuesday vowed to sue Georgia over the legislation and to work to remove GOP lawmakers who voted for it via the ballot box.
First Lady Melania Trump’s Be Best Anniversary Celebration…
May 7, 2019
The Keith Raniere Trial Has Started …
May 7, 2019
The crowd lined up outside the courthouse was huge – and started gathering several hours before the building opened for business... The jury ranges in age from the mid-20s to the mid-60s – with more older than younger members. Three of the four female members are Caucasian – whereas most of the eight male members are minorities.
Insider Frank Parlato will be updating his post throughout the day.
The Strange Journey of an NSA Zero-Day Vulnerability…
Stolen NSA hacking tools were used in the wild 14 months before Shadow Brokers leak...
May 7, 2019
THE NOTION OF a so-called zero-day vulnerability in software is supposed to mean, by definition, that it's secret. The term refers to a hackable flaw in code that the software's maker doesn't know about, but that a hacker does... one extraordinarily powerful flaw in Microsoft software at one point remained "secret" to Microsoft while at least three active hacker groups knew about it. And both before and after that secret became public in early 2017, it took a long, strange trip through the hands of intelligence agencies around the world, enabling years of espionage and, eventually, mayhem...
Pompeo calls Saudi Crown Prince to discuss bilateral ties, regional and international developments…
May 7, 2019
Robert Mueller spotted dining with ‘NCIS’ actor David McCallum…
May 7, 2019
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has materialized in Washington. On Monday night, he was spotted leaving Martin’s Tavern with actor and writer David McCallum, who plays “Ducky” on NCIS. The strange pairing lit up Twitter, but the two men have been seen together in the past.
Tesla Warns Us Government About The Shortage Of Battery Minerals In The Immediate Future And That It Needs To Secure Supply Chain Of Nickel And Copper…
May 7, 2019
The copper industry has been in a lull in the last few decades and is reportedly suffering from underinvestment that is now rapidly changing. New mines are being developed and older sites being rapidly refurbished to deliver on the increasing demand... Tesla will reportedly look to source cobalt and other minerals from mines in Australia and the United States to avoid supporting unethical work conditions...
Migrant ‘Rents’ a Boy to Cross Border as Fake Family…
May 7, 2019
When questioned by Homeland Security Investigations, Velasquez reportedly claimed that “he had looked for a child in Guatemala to cross the United States/Mexico international border with as he was told that it was easier to get into the United Stats with a child,” read the complaint. The illegal migrant allegedly paid the boy’s father roughly $130 — or 1,000 quetzales — to rent the child for the trip and paid $130 to another individual to produce a fake birth certificate for the child. The two then traveled together by bus to the U.S. southern border.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancels meeting with Merkel due to ‘pressing issues’…
May 7, 2019
But Pompeo “looks forward to being in Berlin soon” to hold the meetings that were originally supposed to be held regarding "issues of mutual concern" such as Russia, China, and Syria. According to Maas’ office, he and Pompeo have been in touch and said they "agreed to quickly find a new date for a meeting." Merkel’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
Christian persecution close to ‘genocide levels,’ largely ignored due to ‘political correctness’…
May 7, 2019
The interim findings of a report, which was released last month and commissioned by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, shows that anti-Christian hostility is not only spreading geographically but also in severity, in some areas "coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide."
CNN Sheds 100-Plus Employees in Buyouts…
May 7, 2019
CNN is the latest division of AT&T’s WarnerMedia to feel the effects of company-wide restructuring, with voluntary buyouts being taken by more than 100 seasoned workers at the cable new network. A network spokesperson tells Deadline the exits are purely related to the buyouts and do not involve any layoffs, contrary to a press report earlier on Monday...
suspected cop killer arrested…
May 7, 2019
The 19-year-old accused in the brazen murder of a decorated, veteran cop flashed a smirk as he walked a gauntlet of law enforcement officials who'd gathered to watch him booked into the same Biloxi police station outside of which he's believed to have killed Robert McKeithen.
China’s Navy Will Soon Have Aircraft Carriers Like America (In At Least 1 Key Area)…
May 7, 2019
The Chinese navy could possess as many as six aircraft carriers by the mid-2030s, experts told state media. As many as four could have catapults--and that is huge..
From camps to factories: Muslim detainees say China using forced labor…
May 7, 2019
More than a million people from Muslim minorities — mostly ethnic Uighurs, but also Kazakhs like Auelkhan, Kyrgyz and Hui — are being held in internment centers across Xinjiang, according to a United Nations panel of experts... life in the camps was brutal, with residents struck over the head with electrified batons for spending more than two minutes in the bathroom...
Scientists Think They’ve Found the Ancient Neutron Star Crash That Showered Our Solar System in Gold…
May 7, 2019
The researchers found that a single neutron star collision, starting about 100 million years before our solar system formed and located 1,000 light-years away, may have provided our cosmic neighborhood many of the elements heavier than iron, which has 26 protons. This includes about 70% of our early solar system's curium atoms and 40% of its plutonium atoms, plus many millions of pounds of precious metals like gold and platinum. In total, this single ancient star crash may have given our solar system 0.3% of all its heavy elements, the researchers found — and we carry some of them around with us every day... He added that, if you wear a gold or platinum wedding ring, you're also wearing a bit of the explosive cosmic past...
The Sun Is Stranger Than Astrophysicists Imagined…
May 7, 2019
The sun radiates far more high-frequency light than expected... Gamma rays, the highest frequency waves of light, radiate from our nearest star seven times more abundantly than expected. Stranger still, despite this extreme excess of gamma rays overall, a narrow bandwidth of frequencies is curiously absent...
Microsoft aims to modernize voting with a new platform it calls ElectionGuard that promises to make elections more secure and transparent – and yes, it’s free and open source…
May 7, 2019
Set to be made available this summer and piloted during the 2020 elections, ElectionGuard is not a complete voting machine, but rather a platform for handling voting data that can either empower existing systems or have new ones built on top of it. It’s part of the Defending Democracy Program and sister product to the similarly named NewsGuard and AccountGuard, which appeared last year.
The basic idea is to let voters track their votes securely and privately, while also allowing authorities to tabulate, store and, if necessary, audit them.
U.S. begins return of $200 million in 1MDB funds to Malaysia…
May 7, 2019
The U.S. government has begun returning to Malaysia some $200 million recovered from asset seizures linked to state fund 1MDB, with about a quarter of the amount already repatriated, the two countries said on Tuesday.