August, 2019

When Britain seized an Iranian tanker for violating sanctions, Iran thought it could pressure Westminster for its release by seizing a British-flagged tanker as a hostage. Britain did in fact release the Iranian tanker Thursday — despite a last-minute request from the United States to gain custody over the ship.

FBI and ICE officials said a shooter directly targeted two separate ICE facilities in northeast San Antonio at about 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. Officials report shots being fired into a 14th floor ICE office and another building operated by an ICE contractor... “All the shots that we have found are on the floors where ICE had offices,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. He said there is no question that the incidents were each a “targeted attack” that “could have resulted in the assassination of a federal employee.”The field office director for San Antonio ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations blamed the attack on “political rhetoric and misinformation” from “various politicians, media outlets, and activist groups.”

Tech CEO and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member Scott Borgerson has refuted a Daily Mail report that Jeffrey Epstein's former "best friend" and alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, is living at his "secluded oceanfront property" in New England, according to Axios.

"I'm in Europe right now and there isn't anyone in my house but my cat," Borgerson told Axios, adding that he's asked the local police to check the house for any signs of the 57-year-old Maxwell. He also said that while he knows Maxwell, the two are not dating...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday appeared likely to allow the Trump administration to end humanitarian protections for immigrants from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador. During a hearing, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals expressed skepticism of an injunction handed down last year by a federal judge in San Francisco preventing the administration from lifting the protections...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other civil rights groups obtained the preliminary injunction after arguing that the administration’s decision stemmed from racial bias... But at least two of the 9th Circuit judges who have been asked to remove the injunction appeared unlikely to find racial bias.

NFL announced that it would give the music mogul’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, significant power in choosing the performers for the league’s signature events—including the coveted Super Bowl halftime show. Jay-Z and Roc Nation also will help augment the NFL’s social justice initiatives by developing content and spaces where players can speak about the issues that concern them.

The financial arrangements have not been made public. But whatever the numbers, the NFL’s new partnership with Jay-Z is a huge win for the league. Some of the biggest celebrities in the world have voiced their support of Kaepernick, saying they would boycott the NFL until Kaepernick is back in the league. Now that the NFL has Jay-Z’s blessing, it’s conceivable that some of those entertainers who distanced themselves from the NFL might change their mind. Jay-Z has given the NFL exactly what it wanted—guilt-free access to black audiences, culture, entertainers, and influencers.

..deferral to December. It actually helps China more than us, but will be reciprocated. Millions of jobs are being lost in China to other non-Tariffed countries. Thousands of companies are leaving. Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2019

I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a “tough business.” I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2019

Sen. Kamala Harris faced criticism Wednesday for promoting her campaign's gun control plan during an appearance on CNN that coincided with breaking news about the police standoff in Philadelphia in which six officers were shot... Social media was quick to deride the presidential candidate for “politicizing” the developing situation before most of the relevant facts were known.

How would gun control work in this situation? The officers with the Narcotics Strike Force were serving a warrant, when the suspect opened fire. It doesn't sound like this was a law abiding citizen with responsibly obtained firearms.

Two reproductive health clinics in New York City are preparing for the possibility that they will have to close after withdrawing from Title X, the country’s family planning program. The clinics, both located in Brooklyn, are two of six operated by Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization that is no longer eligible to receive Title X funds because of a recent Trump administration policy.

The change prohibits federal dollars from going to abortion providers or to health centers that provide abortion referrals to their patients. PHS provides referral services—not abortions—as well as gynecological exams, prenatal care, birth control, STI testing, and other reproductive health care. The policy, which was handed down in July, has given the roughly 4,000 clinics that currently receive Title X funds an ultimatum: Stop providing abortions—or referring people to clinics where they can obtain abortions—or give up millions of dollars in funding.

Elizabeth Rowin got the idea from a comedian, who joked that one way to anger President Trump would be to rename the street in front of his signature property after his Oval Office predecessor. So Rowin wrote up a petition and posted it to MoveOn.org... “We request the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets be renamed ‘President Barack H. Obama Avenue,’ ” read her request, addressed to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and the city council. “Any addresses on that stretch of Fifth Avenue should be changed accordingly.” That stretch includes Trump Tower, which would make President Trump’s address there 725 President Barack H. Obama Ave.

An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death. Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.

“Somebody helped him to do that,” Igor Zinoviev — who served as Epstein’s bodyguard and sometimes-driver as the convicted pedophile crisscrossed the country to his various estates — told New York Magazine.

Zinoviev, a former UFC fighter, declined to elaborate on how Epstein allegedly carried out his hanging death Saturday at a Manhattan federal prison, saying, “Listen, you know, that’s going a little too deep.”

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed long-delayed graphic health warnings for cigarette packages, taking a step toward fulfilling a requirement of a decade-old smoking prevention law. The new warning label proposal will now be subject to a public comment period, and is under a court-ordered deadline to be finalized by March 15, 2020.

Israeli officials have decided to block U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from entering the country as part of a planned visit, a reversal that comes amid pressure from President Trump and concerns about their support for boycotts of Israel.

The country's deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely announced the decision Thursday... "Israel has decided — we won’t enable the members of Congress to enter the country,” Hotovely told public broadcaster Kan. "We won’t allow those who deny our right to exist in this world to enter Israel. In principle, this is a very justified decision."

At least 23 people have been injured and hundreds of flights canceled as Severe Tropical Storm Krosa unleashes widespread torrential rain and locally damaging winds across Japan. Around 3 p.m. Thursday, local time, Krosa moved ashore near Kure City in Hiroshima, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. This makes Krosa the third tropical cyclone to make landfall across mainland Japan in as many weeks following Typhoon Francisco and Tropical Storm Nari. The large size of Krosa is putting millions at risk for impacts from the storm.

Four cases of severe lung injury in the Twin Cities are being linked to vaping and e-cigarette use, prompting state health officials to warn the public about the harm of these products and to advise doctors to be on the lookout. The Minnesota Department of Health issued the warning Tuesday after receiving four case reports last week from Children's Minnesota. The teenage patients who suffered the illnesses all were hospitalized for more than one week, with some admitted to intensive care.

Two levels within the futuristic building include mission control, a preparation area for pilots and a lounge for paying customers and their friends and families. Company officials will offer the first glimpse Thursday. There's also space behind two massive sliding doors that can accommodate two of Virgin Galactic's carrier planes and a fleet of its six-passenger rocket ships.

Just how soon customers will be filing into Virgin Galactic's newly outfitted digs for the first commercial flights has yet to be determined. Company officials have said a small number of test flights are still needed.

Staff from the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s office (ICIG) witnessed efforts by senior Obama State Department officials to downplay the volume of classified emails that transited former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized server,...
[...]
...the committees’ interview with Rucker and McMillian revealed new information about the classification review process conducted and tightly controlled by senior State Department officials. The interview summary and additional exhibits are being made public today as a part of a joint staff memo to Grassley and Johnson for the investigative record. The documents include a summary of probes by DOJ IG and ICIG into the alleged China hack, as well as additional documentary evidence...

SUMMARY FROM ANON:
Two Intelligence Community Inspector General employees were sent to State to figure out if there was any classified material on Clinton's server. They found classified stuff but they also found something odd.

All but 4 of the 30k emails examined were also being sent to [email protected]. Searching for that looks like it's a Chinese trucking company. So that's just very strange.

They were alarmed and went to the FBI. Well, surprise, surprise, guess who talked to them at FBI. Non other than Strzok himself. Who basically dismissed and stonewalled them. So here they are, telling them highly classified docs, and all those work emails from the Secretary of State were being sent to a Chinese trucking company and Strzok just basically said "k, thx for letting us know, bye, lol"

There was some thinking the server was hacked at first. Then later there is a description how a "dummy" email account was apparently set up on purpose by Paul Combetta (who worked for Platte River Networks, that is, Hillary's private IT guy) to forward email to "back it up" server. Combetta says that it was just a random company name he picked, and he never heard of the Chinese entity before. However him and his friends seemed to have gone out of their way to hide the name of the dummy account from the investigators initially.

Four women who have accused Danny Masterson of raping them filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the actor; the Church of Scientology, to which he belongs; and the church’s controversial leader, David Miscavige. The suit accuses Scientology, which has long been accused of illegal and unethical conduct, and Masterson of engaging in stalking, physical invasion of privacy and a conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other allegations

Chirlane McCray, wife of New York’s Democrat mayor, Bill de Blasio, originally planned to honor women in her “She Built NYC” project, an endeavor meant to balance the male-to-female ratio of the city’s public statues. But despite sponsoring a poll in which the public awarded the most votes to Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the Big Apple’s own patron saint of immigrants, McCray, 64, refused to include the saint among the seven leading ladies of New York. Instead, she chose two males: Marsha P. Johnson (né Malcolm Michaels, Jr.), a drag queen who took part in the Stonewall Riots of 1969, and Silvia Rivera (né José Rivera), another Stonewall rioter and drag queen who, with Johnson, founded the gay liberation group STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries).

Solar roads were promised to be one of the biggest unprecedented revolutions of our time, not just in the field of renewable energy but in the energy sector generally. Covering 2,800 square meters, Normandy's solar road was the first in the world, inaugurated in 2016, in Tourouvre-au-Perche, France... The unfortunate truth is that this road is in such a poor state, it isn't even worth repairing. Last May, a 100-meter stretch had deteriorated to such a state that it had to be demolished.

On top of the damage and poor wear of the road, the Normandy solar track also failed to fulfill its energy-production goals. The original aim was to produce 790 kWh each day, a quantity that could illuminate a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. But the rate produced stands at only about 50% of the original predicted estimates. In its second year, the energy production level of the road further dwindled and the same downward trend has been observed at the beginning of 2019, indicating serious issues with efficiency.