Trump called supporter to apologize for mocking his weight…
August 16, 2019
During his rally in New Hampshire on Thursday, Trump mocked an attendee as being overweight when a heckler caused a disruption. It turned out that Trump was actually mocking one of his supporters. Dawson, who was wearing a “Trump 2020” T-shirt, told Fox News after the rally that he has no hard feelings against the president.
North Korea fires more missiles as it declares it ‘has nothing to talk’ about while US-South Korea exercises continue…
August 16, 2019
A statement from an unnamed spokesman published by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency says that as a result of South Korea’s participation in the annual military drills, “The implementation of the historic Panmunjom declaration is now at a deadlock,” and “we have nothing to talk any more with the south Korean authorities nor have any idea to sit with them again,” according to an English-language translation.
The N.Y.P.D. Has 82,473 People in a DNA Database. Many Have No Idea…
August 16, 2019
The city’s DNA database has grown by nearly 29 percent over the last two years, and now has 82,473 genetic profiles, becoming a potentially potent tool for law enforcement but one that operates with little if any oversight.
The New York Police Department has taken DNA samples from people convicted of crimes, as well as from people who are only arrested or sometimes simply questioned. The practice has exposed the Police Department to scrutiny over how the genetic material is collected and whether privacy rights are being violated, civil liberties lawyers said...
Coast Guard cutter’s crew makes massive 4,600-pound cocaine bust, 2nd in 5 days…
August 16, 2019
The total of more than 6,700 pounds of cocaine seized in the two operations was worth more than $89 million, the Coast Guard said... According to the Coast Guard, one metric ton of cocaine contains 20 million individual doses in the U.S. Over the last five years, the Coast Guard has seized more than 923 tons -- 2 million pounds -- of cocaine, or about 18.4 billion doses worth more than $27 billion.
"Nearly 80 [percent] of all known illegal narcotics coming into North America are smuggled by international cartels through the Eastern Pacific corridor, an area greater in size than the entire United States," the Coast Guard said. "The profits from cocaine allow drug cartels to diversify and fund other illicit trafficking activities including the smuggling of opioids, synthetics, methamphetamines, persons and weapons."
Walmart CEO: It’s time to debate renewing U.S. assault weapons ban…
August 16, 2019
- Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Thursday called for a national debate on whether an assault weapons ban that Congress let expire in 2004 would be effective "in keeping weapons made for war out of the hands of mass murderers."
- The retailer also released for the first time some of the data for its own gun sales: Walmart estimates it has a 2% share of the U.S. firearms market and 20% of ammunition sales.
- Walmart is declining calls for it to stop selling guns after recent shootings killed more than 20 people at two of its stores in Mississippi and Texas.
China Paper Slams “Dumped Dog” Steve Bannon For Orchestrating Anti-China Sentiment…
August 16, 2019
Well, Bannon hasn't been quite as active lately, though it is clear that he's thrilled the president ultimately decided to embrace his position on China. Which is why the Global Times, the Communist Party's nationalist mouthpiece, has run an editorial attacking Bannon, something that he also probably finds exceedingly thrilling.
[...]
Ultimately, the GT accused Bannon of masterminding what it called "China threat theory", and has used his influence within the West Wing, which lingers on through his loyalists and even his continuing relationship with President Trump, to vilify Beijing and encourage Washington to take a hard tack in the trade war.
The GT also accused Bannon of 'malicious smears' by asserting that Beijing has been waging "economic war" against all Western democracies.
[...]
It also accused him of creating an "anti-China" clique.But with the Trump Administration already backpedaling by delaying tariffs that would send inflation soaring, the question is why is Beijing picking now to go after Bannon? Perhaps it intended to communicate that while Bannon's not a priority deserving of a swift rebuttal (like, say, Mike Pompeo or John Bolton), Beijing doesn't forget an unkind word. That, or it realizes that despite Bannon has been cast away from the close circle of Trump advisors - at least for public consumption - Bannon is still the main puppetmaster in the White House...
NYPD searching for man who placed rice cookers in Subway during rush hour, causing scare…
August 16, 2019
Two suspicious packages reported in a New York City Subway station during Friday's morning rush and a third in another location a short time later were all determined to be empty rice cookers and not explosives, police said. The New York City Police Department is looking to talk with a man who can be seen on surveillance video placing one rice cooker on the mezzanine and another of the platform of the Fulton Street Subway station in Manhattan's Financial District. YPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counterterrorism John Miller said the man, described as white with dark hair and in his 20s or 30s, is "not a suspect, but certainly somebody we want to interview."
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Update 18:00
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Cops believe Larry Griffin II, of Bruno, is the same man caught on CCTV leaving two rice cookers in a subway station, sparking an evacuation in Lower Manhattan around 7 a.m. during the rush-hour commute. According to police in West Virginia, Griffin was charged in 2017 for showing a video to a minor that involved him having sex with a chicken. The case is still pending.Rep. Tlaib Rejects Israel’s New Offer To Visit West Bank…
August 16, 2019
Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me. It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in--fighting against racism, oppression & injustice. https://t.co/z5t5j3qk4H
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
CRISPR breakthrough allows scientists to edit multiple genes simultaneously: “Our method enables us, for the first time, to systematically modify entire gene networks in a single step.”…
The new research was published in the journal Nature Methods...
August 16, 2019
UPS Has Been Delivering Cargo in Self-Driving Trucks in Arizona for Months And No One Knew…
August 16, 2019
The partnership announcement states that TuSimple has been helping UPS understand how to get to Level 4 autonomous driving where a vehicle is fully autonomous and able to reach a particular location. At this point, the TuSimple trucks carrying packages for UPS still have an engineer and a safety driver riding along. When UPS reaches Level 4, it won’t need anyone behind the wheel...
Madoff Whistleblower Harry Markopolos claims of GE fraud ‘could take the company down’…
August 16, 2019
The forensic accounant who revealed Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, Harry Markopolos, published on Thursday a 175-page report that alleges accounting fraud by General Electric (GE). The report sent shares tumbling 11%, the worst single-day loss for GE since April 2008. Markopolos claims the $38 billion he says he and his team found in losses in GE’s insurance business is just the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ saying the alleged cover up is ‘far more serious than either the Enron or WorldCom accounting frauds.’ In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s The Final Round, he went on to reveal he has withheld additional information strictly for the U.S. government.
Trump has expressed serious interest in buying Greenland
August 16, 2019
A new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that Trump has asked his advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, during "meetings, dinners, and passing conversations" because of Greenland's "abundant resources and geopolitical importance," according to White House sources. While some of Trump's advisers support the idea as a "good economic play," others dismiss the inquiry as a "fleeting fascination that will never come to fruition." Coincidentally, the president will be making his first visit to Denmark next month, although the sources say the scheduled trip is completely unrelated.