France, Germany, and UK say Iran is responsible for attacks on Saudi Arabia…
September 23, 2019
America’s claim received a major boost on Monday as the leaders of three key allies — France, Germany, and the UK — put out a joint statement at the UN saying that there’s no question Iran was behind the apparent drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia. “It is clear for us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack,” they said. “There is no other explanation.”
5 EU nations reach temporary deal on rescued migrants…
September 23, 2019
Five European Union nations agreed on Monday to a temporary arrangement for disembarkation and relocation of migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats, with officials pushing for a wider deal involving more EU countries. During talks in Malta, the interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Malta and Finland decided to share among their five countries migrants trying to cross from Libya...
Emmys Fail: Ratings Hit Record Low…
September 23, 2019
Sunday’s broadcast drew a paltry 5.7 rating and a 10 share in the overnight metered market ratings, down 23 percent from last year’s Monday night show on NBC and down 30 percent from the preliminary rating for the 2017 ceremony, which aired on a Sunday night on CBS, according to Variety. Deadline noted that the figures represent the “lowest rating the annual ceremony has achieved in early metrics.”
GM furloughs 1,200 additional US and Canadian workers as UAW strike enters second week…
September 23, 2019
The latest cuts include roughly 525 hourly employees in Ohio and about 700 people in Canada. The UAW's strike against the automaker, now in its eighth day, has temporarily displaced more than 3,700 of GM's non-union employees.
Courtney Rainey, a Canton Mississippi School Board member, has been sentenced to 15 years with three years suspended in prison for witness intimidation in the Canton voter fraud case…
September 23, 2019
Rainey is one of several people who were charged with trying to influence the 2017 Canton municipal election. Prosecutors said Rainey is accused of bribing voters with Walmart gift cards and cash. She is also accused of improperly helping people fill out absentee ballots...
A deepfake pioneer says ‘perfectly real’ manipulated videos are just 6 months away…
September 23, 2019
Li had previously said that he expected "virtually undetectable" deepfakes to be "a few years" away. hen asked for clarification on his timeline, Li told CNBC that recent developments, including the emergence of the wildly popular Chinese app Zao, had led him to "recalibrate" his timeline...
6,000 veterans have committed suicide each year for a decade…
September 23, 2019
Veterans Affairs' 2019 suicide prevention report highlights the suicide crisis that the department has been trying to stem for years. It found the veteran suicide rate was 1.5 times the rate of non-veterans, with approximately 6,000 veterans killing themselves each year between 2008 and 2017... The report notes that while the number of suicides among veterans rose by 6.1% from 2005 to 2017, the number among the general adult population rose by nearly 44%. VA officials have pointed to this alarming trend in their prevention efforts, emphasizing that the suicide epidemic is a national crisis that affects military and non-military communities.
After a swine disease decimated its pig herd, Chinese demand is driving up beef, pork and poultry prices world-wide…
September 23, 2019
Meat buyers for China are ramping up purchases after a swine disease hit hog farms across the country and reduced its pig herd—the world’s largest—by more than a third. Domestic pork prices have surged and China’s meat imports are swelling in response, straining global supplies and sending ripples across the global economy.
In Brazil, poultry shipments to China have jumped 31% from a year ago and retail prices for chicken breasts, thighs and legs have increased roughly 16%. Shoppers in Europe are on average paying 5% more for pork, because more domestically produced meat is being sent to China. Lamb prices in Australian grocery stores have jumped 14%, while ground beef on shelves in New Zealand now fetches record prices.
President Trump Leads the United Nations Event on Religious Freedom
September 23, 2019
Facial Recognition Meets the Fourth Amendment Test…
September 23, 2019
There may be no way to address the overarching fears all new surveillance technologies raise; however, major concerns can be addressed without slowing the use of facial recognition...
New Hillary listening tour, ‘I’d like to hear what you’re thinking’…
September 23, 2019
Hillary Rodham Clinton made listening tours famous, using them to build buzz for her New York Senate and presidential campaigns. Now, she’s on another. In an email to supporters, the 2008 and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said, “I’d like to hear what you’re thinking.” While she isn’t talking about running for president for a third time, Clinton said that she has been talking to people about key issues, including immigration reform and electing Democrats “at all levels” in 2020.
Stephanie Grisham says press briefings permanently canceled, cites behavior of reporters…
September 23, 2019
During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Ms. Grisham said briefings would not be returning “right now” and wouldn’t come back unless the president felt they were necessary. “He’s doing just fine,” she said, “And to be honest, the briefings have become a lot of theater and I think a lot of reporters were doing it to get famous. They’re writing books now, they’re all getting famous off of this presidency.”
F.B.I. Arrests U.S. Soldier Who Discussed Bomb Plot, Authorities Say…
September 23, 2019
Federal authorities have arrested a United States soldier who discussed plans to attack a major American news network, shared detailed instructions online about how to build explosives and suggested that Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic presidential candidate, could be a potential target, the authorities said. The soldier, Jarrett William Smith, a specialist assigned to the first infantry division in Fort Riley, Kan., had also once expressed a desire to travel to Ukraine to fight with a far-right paramilitary group, the authorities said.
Apple will build the new Mac Pro in the US…
September 23, 2019
After several months of speculation, Apple today confirmed that it will be manufacturing the latest version of the Mac Pro in the United States. The move is in keeping with earlier versions of the high-end, pro-focused desktop. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple would move production of the long-awaited desktop to a plant outside of Shanghai... This week, however, the company reported that manufacturing will be returning to Austin, Texas, using manufacturers from a variety of states, including Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont.
Jeffrey Epstein’s former ‘sex slave’ visited him 90 times in jail…
September 23, 2019
Nadia Marcinkova — whom Epstein allegedly “purchased” from her family and brought to the US around 2001 at age 15, bragging she was “his Yugoslavian sex slave” — was allowed into the Palm Beach County Jail in 2008 while he was doing time for soliciting sex from a minor, the Daily Mail said, citing local sheriff’s office visitor logs.
Marcinkova was an adult by then — but jail officials should have been aware of allegations that Epstein had sexually abused her while she was underage because the details were in a previous extensive Palm Beach Police Department report on him, the Mail noted.
Pamela Anderson says Julian Assange has been ‘psychologically tortured’…
September 23, 2019
Giuliani Hits Bidens With New $3 Million “Ukraine-Latvia-Cyprus” Money Laundering Accusation…
September 23, 2019
Rudy Giuliani leveled serious new claims at the Bidens in a series of Monday morning tweets. Chief among them is a claim that $3 million was laundered to former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, via a "Ukraine-Latvia-Cyprus-US" route - a revelation he claims was "kept from you by Swamp Media." Giuliani also says that Obama's US embassy instructed Cyprus not to reveal the dollar amount.
Trump's personal attorney then mentioned China...
Juicy. You'll have to read the whole thing.
Nissan Lawyers Worried Internal Ghosn Investigation Marred by Conflicts of Interest involving a Nissan executive and the company’s outside law firm, U.S. legal giant Latham & Watkins LLP…
September 23, 2019
General counsel Ravinder Passi brought the conflict-of-interest issues to Nissan directors by handing them a letter when they gathered Sept. 9 to review the investigation’s results, say people who attended the meeting. The objections by Mr. Passi and others within Nissan lay bare the continuing turmoil at the car maker over corporate governance nearly a year after Mr. Ghosn’s arrest and following the resignation this month of Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa...
The concerns highlighted by Mr. Passi and other Nissan employees center on Hari Nada, a Nissan senior vice president who oversees its legal department, and Latham & Watkins, the law firm that conducted Nissan’s internal investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Mr. Ghosn and others...
Mr. Nada assisted Mr. Ghosn in some of the actions under scrutiny by investigators and signed a deal with prosecutors under which Mr. Nada wasn’t charged in exchange for his cooperation, according to people familiar with the investigations by Nissan and prosecutors. As a result, some within Nissan believed Mr. Nada should have been excluded from having any role in Nissan’s legal affairs after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors...There are quite a few notable attorneys from Latham & Watkins that worked in prominent positions in the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations. During the 2016 election cycle the law firm donated $1.08 million, 83.2% to Democrats.
VICE: A self-proclaimed “psychedelic Nazi” with an LSD habit and suspected ties to a violent neo-Nazi group was arrested earlier this week on federal gun charges…
September 23, 2019
Andrew Jon Thomasberg, 21, of McLean, Virginia, is accused of improperly buying an AK-47 through the gunsmith where he worked, lying on his federal background check forms, and owning guns despite having a penchant for LSD. At the time of the AK-47 purchase, in October 2017, Thomasberg owned three or four guns, and tended to carry a handgun on his person, according to court documents... The “high score” reference is how violent far-right extremists talk about killing as many people as possible during mass shootings...
Pompeo urges resistance to China’s demands to repatriate Uighurs. Pompeo says Beijing’s campaign in Xinjiang is not about fighting ‘terrorism’ but ‘erasing’ its citizens…
September 23, 2019