June 13th, 2019

Down Detector’s map indicates the issues are widespread in the United States, especially on the coasts, but some people in other countries are experiencing problems too.

The office recommends to President Trump that he remove Ms. Conway from her post. In response, the White House rejected the recommendation, calling the actions against Ms. Conway “deeply flawed and violate her constitutional rights to free speech and due process”... Ms. Conway has been reprimanded by the OSC a number of times since Mr. Trump took office, including once for advocating for Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election for Senate in a television interview while appearing in her official capacity.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), the only Republican in Congress to come out in favor of starting impeachment proceedings against President Trump, broke with his party again on Wednesday with a committee vote to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt. Amash joined Democrats to vote in favor of the contempt resolution, which was in relation to subpoenaed documents on the Trump administration’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

But the reality may be worse. According to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News, the F-35 continues to be marred by flaws and glitches that, if left unfixed, could create risks to pilot safety and call into question the fighter jet’s ability to accomplish key parts of its mission.
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The F-35’s list of ongoing technical problems are unlikely to pose an existential threat to the program given the recent progress in fixing issues, driving down the costs of the airframe and continued support on Capitol Hill for the fighter jet.
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The list of deficiencies as a whole is in some ways encouraging, the currently serving aviator said, because it looks like the issues are being identified by the engineers and technicians working on the program...

Speaking on the Today Programme on Thursday, Javid said: “He’s rightly behind bars. There an extradition request from the US that is before the courts tomorrow but yesterday I signed the extradition order and certified it and that will be going in front of the courts tomorrow.”

A startup he cofounded, eGenesis, had made news for its ambitious plans to use CRISPR gene-editing technology to modify pigs so their organs could be safely transplanted into humans without being rejected... But no human test has yet been carried out. Instead, the company is currently testing organs from its pigs in monkeys at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Back in 2014, Nest was acquired by Google... There were fears of Nest thermostats being used to feed data into Google's ad-driven, information-craving, privacy monetization machinery. At the time, users were assured that Nest would remain an independent company and continue to develop products on its own. Then, last year, Google merged Nest into its own hardware development team... When I gave my email address to Nest to set up my account, it was so that Nest could tell me about important things related to that service... now Google is trying to sell me things in my inbox under the banner of Nest, to my email address used by Nest to send me energy-savings updates.

An army of studies have contended for months that President Trump’s import tariffs were costing American families hundreds of dollars a year through higher prices of goods such as washers and dryers. The only problem is, there’s not much evidence. Prices did spike after tariffs took effect in mid-2018 on models manufactured outside the U.S. And it still costs about 6% more to buy a laundry appliance now than it did last year. But the cost of new appliances have started to fall, government data show. At one point last fall, prices for laundry equipment were rising at a 15% annual pace. And now? Prices have fallen 1.2% in the 12 months ended in May, according to fresh government data.

Portland city councilors directed City Manager Jon Jennings on Tuesday night to take emergency action to set up an additional shelter at the Portland Expo to accommodate more than 200 asylum seekers from the southern border who are arriving in the city... 72 asylum seekers had arrived since Sunday and reported to the city’s Family Shelter in Bayside. By the time the 3 1/2-hour meeting concluded, that total had risen to 86. And that does not include another 150 asylum seekers en route from San Antonio, Texas, city officials said. The current number of families, primarily from the sub-Saharan countries of Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo, have put the shelter over its capacity, including a 75-person overflow space at the Salvation Army... “The plan was 350 of them would travel from San Antonio to Portland. When we reached out to Portland, Maine, they said, ‘Please don’t send us any more. We’re already stretched way beyond our capacity”... “He said this is just the beginning as there are currently between 1,500-2,000 African migrants at the border seeking asylum with the probability of more to come,” Jennings said in his email.

Investigators said Mohammad Azharuddin, 32, was friends on Facebook with Zahran Hashim, the alleged ringleader of the attacks, claimed by Islamic State (IS). The arrest followed raids on a suspected IS militant cell in the southern Indian city of Coimbatore...

Former CIA Director John Brennan’s insistence that the salacious and unverified Steele dossier was not part of the official Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election is being contradicted by two top former officials.

Recently retired National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers stated in a classified letter to Congress that the Clinton campaign-funded memos did factor into the ICA. And James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence under President Obama, conceded in a recent CNN interview that the assessment was based on “some of the substantive content of the dossier.” Without elaborating, he maintained that “we were able to corroborate” certain allegations.

....She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas - she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019

Rice's H.R. 7099 bill, otherwise known as the Prevent Impaired Driving Child Endangerment Act would force anyone convicted of a DWI with a child in the car, to undergo a mental health assessment.

"Offenders would also be required to undergo an alcohol, substance abuse and mental health assessment and receive treatment if necessary. The case would be added to state child abuse registries and states that fail to comply could have certain federal funding withheld by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation."
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And if that wasn't bad enough, Rice's bill would turn drunk drivers into instant child abusers.

“(E) A law that requires, if the individual is convicted of the offense and is the parent, guardian, or custodian of the child passenger or is otherwise legally responsible for the child passenger, the law enforcement agency that charges the individual with the offense or the appropriate court to file with the appropriate State register of child abuse a report on the individual concerning the offense.

Progressive liberal Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) has introduced a couple of bills that carry serious Constitutional implications. The bills she introduced encourages law enforcement into a mentality that will be impossible to undo.

The Kokuka Courageous was carrying 25,000 tons of methanol from Saudi Arabia to Singapore when it was attacked with what appeared to be artillery shells... The other ship, the Marshall Islands listed Front Altair, was chartered by Taiwanese oil refiner... The incident unfolded during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's landmark visit to Iran for talks with the country's Supreme Leader Khamenei...

UPDATE: Iran has been blamed for the incident. Pompeo expected to raise the issue at the UN Security Council. Will Iran's leader be forced to come to the negotiation table now?

... according to tests from the Environmental Working Group. EWG said the tests found glyphosate levels above what it considers safe for children in all but four of the products. The 21 products that were tested are made by General Mills, including six varieties of Cheerios and 14 of General Mills' Nature Valley products, such as Nature Valley granola bars... The two highest levels of glyphosate were detected in Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch and Cheerios, at 833 parts per billion and 729 parts per billion, respectively, the group said. It considers anything over 160 parts per billion to be unsafe for children.

Keep an eye on Clapper’s recent trips to New Zealand and Australia. He’s trying to cover his tracks along with those two governments which were willfully interfering in our democratic process! The transcripts of my meeting with Downer are ready to come out. America is ready.

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) June 13, 2019

No country has joined since Croatia, in 2013... the European Commission wants the EU’s governments to open membership talks with North Macedonia, along with Albania. It was the promise of accession to the EU... To start membership talks with a candidate country, every EU government must agree. Until now France and the Netherlands were the stumbling blocks... Most of all, last year Mr Zaev’s government signed the Prespa agreement with Greece, ending an absurd but destabilising dispute over the country’s name by adding a geographical signifier to it... Moreover, by autumn Greece is likely to have a new centre-right government that will face pressure from anti-Prespa voters to veto the talks...

The Rothchilds are in a rush to open lending to more poor countries of the Balkans. China has learned from them and are applying the same strategies within their Belt & Road Initiatives. Let's also not forget that the Bank of China has a stake in Europe as well through partnerships with the Rothschilds. Although the partnerships between Bank of China and LCFR supposedly fell through in 2008, their relationships carried over since then.

Ethan, a 20-year-old San Francisco Bay Area college student, used Snapchat's gender-switch filter to become Esther and posed on Tinder as a 19-year-old because Tinder does not allow juveniles to open accounts, according to NBC Bay Area... San Mateo Police Officer Robert Davies, 40, began talking with who he thought was Esther on Tinder on May 11, before the two switched to Kik messaging app, where Ethan said Esther was 16, which "Davies acknowledged," according to a release from the San Jose Police Department.

The new Star Market, first announced by President Xi Jinping in November, is expected to be a key fundraising avenue for tech companies from an array of stages, given its criteria (link in Chinese) are less stringent than other domestic boards.. Other Chinese firms that want to be closer to home now have another option to raise equity. Through the new tech board, China will allow loss-making companies to list on an exchange for the first time. This will likely draw promising, pre-profit tech firms that would have otherwise chosen to list in New York for more lax regulations...