News24/7: June 2019

Sunday 30 June 2019

Beto O'Rourke visits children at migrant housing facility downtown

During his visit to Southwest Key's Casa Sunzal, O'Rourke said the children's situation is like the U.S. turning away Jewish refugees during World War II.

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Biden and school busing: Where he stood, what it means

That Joe Biden, the man picked by America's first black president as his number two, should now be suffering attacks over his record on race might seem surprising. Senator Kamala Harris, the only black woman in the Democratic presidential field, forcefully questioned Biden on his opposition in the 1970s to court-ordered busing programs aimed at integrating public schools. Harris noted, in a quavering voice, that as "a little girl in California" she was "part of the second class to integrate her public schools" in a busing program.

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U.S. federal judge blocks use of some funds for border wall

U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but has so far proven unsuccessful at receiving congressional approval to do so. In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to reprogram $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to build the wall, which groups and states including California had challenged. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of rulings that the Trump administration's proposal to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities was unlawful.

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U.S. federal court delays adoption of healthcare rule on abortion

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its opponents in a California lawsuit agreed on Friday to delay implementing a rule that would allow medical workers to decline performing abortions or other treatments on moral or religious grounds, according to a federal court filing. The move comes after President Donald Trump's administration announced the rule earlier in May. It has also championed several policies to restrict abortion both in the United States and abroad. Delegations of Authority," the measure aims to protect conscience and religious rights surrounding abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide, HHS officials have said.

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Booker: Biden is 'causing a lot of frustration and even pain with his words'

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., criticized 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden on Sunday, saying the former vice president was doing a poor job of healing racial divisions in the country.

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UPDATE 1-Putin says Britain's May tough on Skripal poisoning case

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he wanted to improve ties with Britain after they were strained by the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil, but said Prime Minister Theresa May was taking a tough line on the issue. Putin met May at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday. May's office said she asked Moscow to hand over the Russian suspects Britain blames for poisoning a former double agent and his daughter with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England last year.

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The new and improved Gay Street sign is all over NYC Pride Twitter

This year the New York City Pride March marks 50 years since the Stonewall Riot, and the parade is bigger and more colorful than ever. As the march makes its way to Greenwich Village, one street sign in particular is popping up on social media as a symbol of 2019's much-needed focus on inclusion in the queer community. It's pure coincidence that Gay Street intersects with Christopher Street right near the Stonewall Inn -- the "Gay" of Gay Street is a family name -- but its location on the parade route makes it prime real estate for a statement on what pride means in 2019. Take a look:> The famous Gay Street sign, representing a wide spectrum of gender expression. Near Christopher Park in Greenwich Village, NYCPride pic.twitter.com/8vTUJKsr50> > -- ken ┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴ (@kensadahiro) June 29, 2019The sign was one of many changes made around the city to celebrate Pride Month. > For the LGBT folks in the city today, I hope you all know that New York City will always stand with you. Enjoy PrideNYC today!!!! pic.twitter.com/FKpz1tEXQx> > -- Craig Anderson (@canderson1989) June 30, 2019The temporary changes to the Gay Street sign were part of an "Acceptance Matters" campaign by MasterCard, which raises questions about the place of corporations in New York's Pride Month celebrations. This particular installation seems to be popular on social media, however, for its reminder that every element of the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to feel proud of their identity. WATCH: 'History repeats itself': LGBTQ elders discuss how Stonewall impacted their organizing during the AIDS crisis

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Undocumented immigrants should get health care, Julián Castro affirms

“We're not going to let people living in this country die because they can't see a doctor.“

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Governor Cuomo signs legislation banning 'gay and trans panic' legal defense

The defense had been used to justify violent reaction to finding out the person someone is with is gay or transgender.

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Biden scrambles after slipping in Democrats' debate

A wounded Joe Biden scrambled to defend his frontrunner status Friday after getting pummeled over his record on race relations at a Democratic election debate, throwing the battle for the party's nomination to challenge President Donald Trump wide open. Watching from Japan, where he was attending the G20 summit, Trump licked his chops as the 10 Democrats at the Thursday night debate in Miami veered sharply to the left on immigration, health care, taxes and the ever-emotional subject of gun ownership. Biden, vice president under still highly popular ex-president Barack Obama, came in as the favorite, polling well ahead of Trump and all Democratic rivals.

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GOP senators set to return to Oregon Capitol after prolonged walkout over cap-and-trade bill

Oregon's 11 Republican senators are ending a walkout protest over climate legislation that lasted more than a week and garnered national attention.

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'Back on track': Trump, Xi seal trade war truce

US President Donald Trump on Sunday hailed trade talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as "far better than expected" and vowed to hold off on further tariffs as negotiations continue. The ceasefire that halts damaging trade frictions came after a hotly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world's top two economies on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

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What's happening in the news this week?

This week, Bonnie Tyler makes an appearance, alongside some reconstituted meat products.

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Tunisia - the birthplace of the Arab Spring which lost its hope

Tunisia is seen as one of the few success stories of the Arab Spring so have so many of its people lost hope?

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Medicinal cannabis: The family that changed Australia's debate

Their heartrending story shifted perceptions on medical cannabis - but, they argue, not far enough.

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Greek election: Why frustrated young voters are turning conservative

As Greece goes to the polls on 7 July, many young Greeks are turning from the left-wing Syriza.

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UPDATE 2-Fighting rages across Afghanistan as peace talks continue

Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in an attack on a government office on Saturday night, officials said, in the latest episode of violence in Afghanistan as peace talks continue to end the war. The Taliban, which rejects the election process, claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group's fighters also killed 57 members of the Afghan security forces in the attack and captured 11 others, but Afghan officials disputed the account.

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Newark Airport reopens after being shut down due to 'airport emergency'

Newark Airport has reopened after it was shut down Saturday morning due to an "airport emergency."

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Your iPhone will charge from 0% to 80% in under an hour with these two accessories

Here's the good news: all of Apple's iPhones from 2017 and later support 18W fast charging that can charge your phone from 0% all the way up to 80% in about 55 minutes! And now for the bad news: Apple's cheaped out and didn't include a fast charger in the box with any of its iPhone models. Seriously, you can buy a $1,500 iPhone XS Max and Apple still doesn't include a fast charger in the box. Ugh. Getting the charger and cable you need from Apple to fast charge your iPhone costs about $50, which is obscene. Instead, pick up an AUKEY USB C Charger with 18W Power Delivery for $19.99 and an Anker USB C to Lightning Cable for $15.99. AUKEY USB C Charger * High-Speed Charging: Fast charge your iPhone XS/XS Max/XR, Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL, or other compatible USB-C devices that support USB Power Delivery * USB Power Delivery: Next-generation, future-proof fast charging technology that charges your USB Type-C phone or tablet at up to 18W * Compact & Portable: Extremely compact form factor and foldable plug ensure maximum portability wherever you go. Handy for home, office, and vacations * Safe & Reliable: Built-in safeguards protect your devices against excessive current, overheating, and overcharging * Package Contents: AUKEY PA-Y18 18W Power Delivery Wall Charger, User Manual, 45-Day Money Back Guarantee and 24-Month Product Replacement Warranty Card Anker USB C to Lightning Cable * Power Delivery: Use this cable with your USB-C Power Delivery charger (including Apple 18W 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter) to charge your iOS device, and access fast-charging for iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XS, XR, XS Max, and later models. * Charge and Sync: Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to your USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) enabled Mac and iPad Pro to seamlessly sync And charge. * Ultimate Durability: Lasts 12× longer than other cables and proven to withstand over 12000 bends in strict laboratory tests. * MI: MI certification and strict quality testing ensure your Apple devices are charged safely, at their fastest possible speed. . * A Cable for Life: We're so confident about Power line II's long-lasting performance that we gave it a hassle-free, lifetime .

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Trump: If There Was a Wall, Immigrant Dad and Daughter Who Drowned ‘Would Be Saved’

Kevin Lamarque/ReutersPresident Donald Trump said that if the wall along the southern border with Mexico had been built, the migrant dad and daughter who drowned this week “would be saved.”Speaking at a press conference in Osaka, Japan, where world leaders are gathered at the G20 summit, Trump took a moment to offer his take on the global shock in response to the photo of Salvadorian man Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria, who were found face down and clinging to each other in the Rio Grande river. The two were attempting to make it across the river after failing to gain asylum from U.S. authorities.“The father and the beautiful daughter who drowned... if they thought it was hard to get in, they wouldn’t be coming up,” Trump said.Trump then called for tougher border patrol policies, adding that illegal immigration is “very unfair.”“You have millions of people on line for years to get into a country. They take tests, they study... and these people have worked hard, they’ve been on line for seven, eight, nine years, then someone walks in. Honestly it’s very unfair,” he said.Trump’s comments came hours after a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocks his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended to be used for anti-drug activities to instead build a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump said that he is planning to immediately appeal the ruling.In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to use $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to instead be used for constructing the wall. U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of court decisions Friday that the Trump administration’s proposal to transfer the funds was unlawful.“We think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during another press conference at the G20 summit. “There was no reason that that should’ve happened.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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GOP senator: ‘Underestimate Joe Biden at your own peril’

Lindsey Graham also says of Kamala Harris: “She’s got game.”

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O'Rourke visits Mexico, meets turned away US asylum seekers

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke visited Mexico on Sunday and listened to tearful immigrants say they fled Central American violence and turmoil to seek asylum in the U.S., but were turned away at the border. A fluent Spanish speaker, O'Rourke met around a table at a shelter with immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of whom wept as they told of being denied entry into the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed. "We hope, by sharing these stories, that the conscience of our country is awoken right now, and the need to change the policies that we have in place" becomes apparent, O'Rourke said via a livestream on his Facebook page.

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Pandemonium in Panmunjom: Kim and Trump's hasty DMZ date

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's first two summits were highly choreographed affairs but their third date was an unscripted event seemingly arranged on a social media whim -- and threatened at times to descend into chaos. Trump admitted he did not know whether Kim would spurn his advances, delivered via Twitter. "When I put out the social media notification, if he didn't show up, the press was going to make me look very bad," the US president said.

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Saturday 29 June 2019

Yankees thwart Red Sox comeback to win historic London Series opener - Yahoo Sports

WOJ: NEXT UP FOR KYRIE IRVING AND THE NETS? SIGNING ON THE DOTTED LINE - NetsDaily

WOJ: NEXT UP FOR KYRIE IRVING AND THE NETS? SIGNING ON THE DOTTED LINE NetsDaily
Sources -- Irving, Nets moving toward 4-year deal ESPN
Timberwolves, including Karl-Anthony Towns, reportedly meet with D’Angelo Russell Yahoo Sports
Vote: Which point guard will the Phoenix Suns sign in free agency? Bright Side of the Sun
Source -- Nets extend qualifying offer to Russell ESPN
View full coverage on Google News

Sudan: Dying for the revolution

Meet the young protesters in Sudan prepared to die to keep the country's revolution alive.

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Who won the Democrats' second debate? Our panelists' verdicts

A combative Democratic debate saw clashes on race and healthcare policy – and many more attacks on Trump. Our experts weigh in Kate Aronoff: Democrats – and America – need better than BidenJoe Biden has been running for president on the idea that he’s the best equipped to beat Donald Trump. Tonight’s debate shed considerable doubt on that premise. If this is how he performs against his opponents on the same side of the aisle – clinging desperately to the legacy of an administration he didn’t lead – then how do we think he’ll fare against the most talented bully in American politics?Other candidates performed impressively. Bernie Sanders had the clearest ideas on how to improve the lives of people in this country and take on vested interests hoarding wealth and power. But Kamala Harris delivered the night’s and possibly the cycle’s most powerful moment when she challenged Biden on his history of supporting racist policies and politicians. In response, he got as defensive as a grandfather going up against his kids at a Thanksgiving table, taking pains to clarify precisely which type of desegregation he opposed in the 1970s. America deserves better. * Kate Aronoff is a writing fellow at In These Times. She covers elections and the politics of climate change Art Cullen: One of the real winners was actually Elizabeth WarrenKamala Harris wowed early when, during shouting chaos among the 10 candidates, she reminded the other candidates that Americans “don’t want a food fight; they want to know how to put food on the table”. She was powerful, precise and put her formidable legal skills to work on camera attacking Joe Biden’s record on race and bussing.Biden worked hard to tie himself to President Obama and aggressively defend his civil rights record, but he struggled under Harris’s withering prosecutor-style cross-examination.One of the debate’s other winners wasn’t even present: Elizabeth Warren – who, along with Harris, has clearly taken Bernie Sanders’ mantle as flag-bearer for the progressive base. Sanders started the revolution, but Warren and Harris seem poised to execute it. * Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times in Iowa and won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. He is the author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope Moira Donegan: Harris was the only real standoutAt once more scripted, less policy-oriented, and more emptily contentious than Wednesday’s debate, the second Democratic presidential debate was mostly a competition to outshine the current frontrunner, Joe Biden.Kamala Harris succeeded; few of the other candidates managed to convey their message as effectively. Harris emphasized economic justice and conveyed her policy agenda through a series of morally charged anecdotes about struggling families, including her own: she adeptly attacked Biden’s record on race by invoking her own childhood as a beneficiary of school bussing. She also had one of the best sound bites of the night, when the debate devolved into one of several shouting matches: “America does not want to witness a food fight; they want to know how we’re going to put food on the table.”Biden tried to continue coasting on leftover goodwill from his time in the Obama administration, delivering answers thin on details and thick with platitudes. His vague and non-committal description of the country he would build as president seemed to accomplish little aside from reifying the message he gave rich donors at a recent fundraiser: “Nothing would fundamentally change.” * Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Malaika Jabali: No one really wonIn a Democratic debate that was obnoxious, contentious, and spent the first 30 minutes largely setting up socialism and progressive policies – like free healthcare, free education, and taxing the wealthy – as impracticable and not the popular positions that they are, no one really won.Nevertheless, within these confines Kamala Harris succeeded. She was assertive but composed, she forcefully addressed racism, and she pushed Biden on his anti-bussing record. Her prosecutorial record will be scrutinized as the race draws on, but tonight she has much to celebrate. * Malaika Jabali is a public policy attorney, writer, and activist whose writing has appeared in Essence, Jacobin, the Intercept, Glamour and elsewhere Geoffrey Kabaservice: Biden was out of step with his own partyKamala Harris was the standout in tonight’s debate, bringing a force, focus, and fire that had been missing since her campaign rollout.Her gains came directly at Joe Biden’s expense and punctured the image he’d cultivated of an above-the-fray front runner. Their viral clash on bussing as a means of achieving racial balance in schools hammered home not only how out of step Biden is with the Democratic left’s evolving stance on identity issues but also his age – since Harris was a schoolchild when Biden was cutting deals with former segregationists.Harris’s victory may be pyrrhic, however, since bussing is an unpopular subject with a long history of widening divisions between Democrats. * Geoffrey Kabaservice is the director of political studies at the Niskanen Center in Washington DC as well as the author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party Doug Pagitt: Harris won the roomThree candidates clearly had the energy in the room tonight: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris. While the other candidates had their moments, there was no doubt that the applause and focused interest in the room was behind those three.As someone who organizes religious people to vote for Democratic candidates, I found it interesting to hear the enthusiastic and prolonged applause for Pete Buttigieg when he said that the Christian faith calls us to care for kids and not put them in cages and he called out the hypocrisy of the Trump administration. It seemed like an indicator that there is interest and enthusiasm for Democratic candidates who talk about faith.Of all the candidates, Biden issued the most forceful denunciations of Trump, and the crowd ate it up. But by the end of the debate it became clear how much passion there is for Harris. I’m not sure how it came across on television, but to those of us inside the room she projected powerful charisma and confidence. * Doug Pagitt is the founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch, a holistic missional Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Mika Brzezinski on the success of ‘Morning Joe’: ‘I’m the reason it’s still going’

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski says “Morning Joe” was her husband’s idea, but she’s “the reason it’s still going.” Brzezinski explains that when the show first started, she was booking the guests and managing the show. “I did everything from the get-go, tried to make a space for [Joe Scarborough]’s incredible voice.”

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UK PM May tells Putin to stop destabilizing activities: spokeswoman

Prime Minister Theresa May told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that their countries can only have a different relationship if Russia stops the behavior that threatens to undermine international security, her spokeswoman said. May also Putin to hand over the Russia suspects Britain blames for poisoning a former double agent and his daughter with a nerve agent in Salisbury, southern England last year. "She told the president that there cannot be a normalization of our bilateral relationship until Russia stops the irresponsible and destabilizing activity that threatens the UK and its allies," the spokeswoman said.

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Bernie Sanders claims 'ageism' after Eric Swalwell attacked him and Joe Biden in Democratic debate

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 77, was responding to attacks from Rep. Eric Swalwell, 38. "Judge people on the totality of who they are," he said.

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Boeing shares hit as FAA finds new 737 MAX issue

Shares of Boeing tumbled Thursday, a day after US regulators identified a new issue in the Boeing 737 MAX that will likely slow the plane's return to service following two deadly crashes. The issue -- described by one aviation expert as "another black eye" for the 737 MAX -- came as a major US airline again pushed back the timeframe for returning the planes to service and as Boeing faced fresh questions over its compliance with a 2015 US regulatory settlement intended to improve plane airworthiness. Boeing dropped 2.9 percent to $364.02, pushing the Dow into negative territory.

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Israel and Hamas Reach Truce to Restore Quiet, Army Radio Says

(Bloomberg) -- Israel and Hamas reached a truce on Friday that would halt attacks against Israeli farmland in return for measures to ease the economic blockade on Gaza, according to a report by Israeli Army Radio.Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, would stop launching incendiary balloons that for the past year have torched thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land, and in exchange Israel would expand the enclave’s fishing zone, and return 60 confiscated boats and diesel supplies for the area’s main power plant, according to the radio station.Though the concessions made by Israel are small, they would provide some relief for Gaza and its roughly 2 million residents, who are cut off from other economies by their immediate neighbors, Israel and Egypt.To contact the reporter on this story: Yaacov Benmeleh in Tel Aviv at ybenmeleh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Constantine Courcoulas, Taylan BilgicFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Trump reveals US companies will be allowed to sell to Huawei as China trade talks get ‘back on track’

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have agreed to a new ceasefire in a yearlong trade war between the US and China during their meeting on Saturday at the G20 conference in Japan.Mr Trump said he had agreed with the Chinese president the US would refrain from raising tariffs on China’s imports for now while Beijing would buy more US agricultural products.“We’re holding back on tariffs and they’re going to buy farm products,” Mr Trump told a news conference at the end of a two-day summit in Osaka, claiming relations were “right back on track”.Mr Trump also said US companies can again sell products to the Chinese technology giant Huawei after an effective ban introduced in May. “We send and we sell to Huawei a tremendous amount of product that goes into the various things they make,” he said.“I said, ‘That’s OK that we will keep selling that product.’ I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product so American companies will continue.”When asked whether Huawei would be formally removed from a US Commerce Department list of companies considered to undermines US national security, Mr Trump said that it would be discussed at “the very end” of trade talks. “We’re not discussing that with President Xi yet,” he said.Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, confirmed the leaders had agreed that stalled trade talks would resume and that the US would hold off on threatened additional tariffs on Chinese goods.After posing for photographs with his counterpart at the sidelines of the G20, Mr Xi recounted the era of “ping-pong diplomacy” that helped jump-start US-China relations two generations ago.Since then, he said, “one basic fact remains unchanged: China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose in confrontation ... Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation.”The US president had recently threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $300bn (£236bn) in Chinese imports – on top of the $250bn in goods he has already taxed – extending his import taxes to virtually everything China ships to the US.He has said the new tariffs, which are paid by US importers and usually passed onto consumers, might start at 10 per cent. Earlier, the administration had said additional tariffs might reach 25 per cent.The two countries have been sparring over the Trump administration’s allegations that Beijing steals technology and coerces foreign companies into handing over trade secrets. China denies it engages in such practices.The US has also tried to rally other nations to block Huawei from their upcoming 5G systems, branding the company a national security threat and barring it from buying US technology until Mr Trump’s announcement on Saturday.Under the newly agreed ceasefire scenario, existing tariffs and counter-tariffs on many of each other’s goods would remain in place. But no additional import taxes would take effect. This would buy time for US and Chinese officials to restart talks that stalled last month.Mr Trump said talks with Mr Xi went “probably even better than expected” and claimed the leaders enjoyed “an excellent relationship”.Additional reporting by agencies

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This Is the Battle That Decided World War II (Not What You Think)

While the tactical result of the battle was stunning – the U.S. sunk four Japanese fleet carriers Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Akagi, a heavy cruiser and destroyed 248 enemy aircraft – it is the perilous backdrop of America’s war fortunes in 1942 that make Midway’s tide-turning outcomes all the more significant. Thursday, June 6th saw the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion at Normandy, the amphibious assault phase of Operation Neptune, or what we commonly remember as D-Day. U.S. troops who landed at Normandy – particularly at Omaha Beach – waded ashore amidst a storm of chaos, a blizzard of machine gun fire, and a hail of plunging mortars. Despite great confusion and casualties, at the squad level and below, the men at Omaha rallied and pressed forth with tenacity and nerve to breach sand-berms and barricades, neutralize enemy positions, and salvage their sectors. Losses at Omaha were immense – but American resolve helped establish a foothold on the coast of France – and “the rest,” they say, “is history.”(This appeared earlier in June 2019.)Without doubt, the enormous importance of D-Day as a logistical and operational undertaking – and the gallantry of Allied forces that June morning is unquestioned. It rightfully exemplifies American character, courage, and commitment. However, it is important to note that as far as the battle’s strategic significance is concerned, a strong case can be made that other battles of World War II are more critical than D-Day.The Battle of Midway in 1942 is one.

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Biden's image as the inevitable nominee, the one to beat Trump, was dinged Thursday

Analysis: The problem for Joe Biden at the Democratic debate, Day 2, wasn't that he was so bad. It was that Kamala Harris was so good.

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Western liberalism is obsolete, warns Putin, ahead of May meeting

Russian president says the Salisbury poisonings are not worth ‘all this fuss’ and that liberals can no longer ‘dictate’ to anyone‘The average person listens and says “who are these Skripals?”’ Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times. Photograph: SPUTNIK/ReutersVladimir Putin has said ahead of his meeting with Theresa May at the G20 summit in Japan that relations between Britain and Russia should not suffer because of last year’s nerve agent attack on the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.The Russian president also used the interview with the Financial Times to claim that the election of Donald Trump as US president and the rise of nationalist-populist movements in Europe signaled the death of liberal policies in the west.“[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades,” he said. “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”The claims brought a short response from European council president Donald Tusk at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday.“I strongly disagree with the main argument that liberalism is obsolete. Whoever claims that liberal democracy is obsolete, also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete,” he said. “For us in Europe, these are and will remain essential and vibrant values. What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”On the Skripals, Putin told the FT in an interview at the Kremlin that: “All this fuss about spies and counterspies is not worth interstate relations. This spy story, as we say here, is not worth 5 kopecks.“I think Russia and UK are both interested in fully restoring our relations – at least I hope a few preliminary steps will be taken.”Bilateral ties between Britain and Russia plummeted to a post-Cold War low last year when London accused Moscow of the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury.The Kremlin denies sending GRU military intelligence agents to Britain to carry out the attack, which triggered scores of diplomatic expulsions between Moscow and western countries.“The average person listens and says ‘who are these Skripals?’” Putin said. “Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished. I am not saying that the Salisbury incident is the way to do it … but traitors must be punished.” Putin has previously called Skripal a “scumbag.”The G20 summit takes place in Osaka on Friday and Saturday. May’s spokesman has said she will use the meeting with Putin to ensure that Britain’s stance on “Russia’s wider pattern of malign behaviour” has been fully grasped by the Kremlin.Putin described German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees – most of whom were fleeing the war in Syria – into Germany as a “cardinal mistake”.In contrast, he was full of praise for Trump’s attempts to prevent migrants from entering the US from Mexico. “This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected.”Putin also tried to defend Russia’s record on LGBT+ rights. “I am not trying to insult anyone because we have been condemned for our alleged homophobia. But we have no problem with LGBT persons. God forbid, let them live as they wish,” Putin said. “But some things do appear excessive to us. They claim now that children can play five or six gender roles.”Moscow has been criticised internationally for its so-called anti-gay propaganda law, which bars the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to children. Human rights groups say the law, which Putin approved in 2013, has sparked a spike in homophobic violence. A UN panel ruled last year that the law was in violation of a legally binding international treaty on human rights.

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18 kidnapping victims found 'enslaved' in Houston home: Police

Authorities arrested and charged five people who allegedly kidnapped, smuggled and sexually assaulted multiple people in Houston.

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Biden responds to attack on his age: 'I'm still holding on to that torch'

Rep. Eric Swalwell went after former Vice President Joe Biden in the second Democratic presidential primary debate. Swalwell said Biden, who is 76 years old, should “pass the torch.” Biden rejected the California lawmaker’s critique.

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Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEAL

An Iraqi general and a U.S. Marine testifying in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL said on Thursday they never saw the platoon leader stab a wounded detainee in the neck, disputing the central allegation in the prosecution's war crimes case. A sworn deposition of Major General Abbas al-Jubouri, videotaped in San Diego earlier this month, was played for the seven-member jury on the second day of defense testimony in the court-martial of Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher. Contrary to prior testimony that Gallagher, or a medic on his team, had acted deliberately to cause the death of a helpless Islamic State fighter in their custody, Jubouri said the Navy SEALs did all they could to save the teenager's life.

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Kamala Harris Is Surging and Birtherism Is Back

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyKamala Harris broke out from the other nine Democrats onstage during the second Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, calling on her personal experiences of racial injustice as a black woman.“As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said.That’s when she was attacked on Twitter by a conservative provocateur for not being an “American black.” It’s a play straight out of the racist birther playbook used against Barack Obama when he ran for president a decade earlier. This time, though, those kinds of allegations don’t have to circulate for years on obscure right-wing forums before they reach a mainstream audience. On Thursday night, spammers and even one of President Trump’s sons spread the attack to millions of people within hours. Kamala Harris Shows She’s Here to Capture the CrownHarris, 54, was born in Oakland, California to a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She spoke of her experience growing up black in the debate, recalling a story about neighbors who wouldn’t let their children play with Harris and her sister because of the color of their skin.The attacks on Harris’s background started Thursday when Ali Alexander tweeted she is not an “American black.” “She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” Alexander wrote. “I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting. Now using it for debate time at DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”Alexander’s claim was picked up by Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted it to his nearly 3.6 million followers. “Is this true?” Trump Jr. wrote. “Wow.”Trump Jr., who later deleted his tweet, wasn’t the only one using Alexander’s tweet to question Harris’s ethnicity. Harris’s team denounced the comment as racist. “This is the same type of racist attacks his father used to attack Barack Obama. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” a Harris spokesperson told The Daily Beast.More Twitter users copied and pasted Alexander’s message verbatim and tweeted it as their own, according to screenshots posted by writer Caroline Orr. Some of those accounts, like “@prebs_73,” have copy-pasted other popular right-wing tweets verbatim. Other accounts with right-wing references in their usernames and biographies piled on, accusing Harris of not being black.“Ummmmm @KamalaHarris you are NOT BLACK. you are Indian and Jamaican,” wrote a Twitter user with a cross emoji, the word “CONSERVATIVE,” a red “X” emoji (a right-wing Twitter trope), and three stars (a QAnon symbol) in their username.At least one known network of bot accounts was found spreading Alexander’s original tweet, BuzzFeed reported.Shireen Mitchell, a technologist and founder of the group Stop Online Violence Against Women, said the accusation against Harris plays into a long-running debate that has been used to drive a white nationalist wedge through black communities.“We are and have always been, for centuries in this country, having this little fight about who gets opportunities as black people and who doesn’t,” Mitchell said. “That includes colorism; that includes distinctions of where the ship actually landed; it includes if you are (and I am) a descendant of a slave who was born here versus a descendant of slavery from another country. Those distinctions, from my perspective, make no sense ever. But what it does is allow for white nationalist and nativist conversations to be planted in my community.”A spokesman for Trump Jr. said Trump sent the tweet originally because he had not known that Harris’s mother was Indian. “Don’s tweet was simply him asking if it’s true that Kamala Harris was half-Indian because it’s not something he had ever heard before and once he saw that folks were misconstruing the intent of his tweet he quickly deleted it,” the spokesman said. Alexander, who describes himself as black and Arab, said that Harris has a “nasty, lying history with Black people.” “Me pointing out that Kamala Harris has a mother from India and a father from Jamaica went viral last night because many people assume she descends from Black American Slaves,” he said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “She does not. I corrected Kamala Harris last night because she stole debate time under the premise that she is an African-American when she is in fact a biracial Indian-Jamaican who is a first generation American.”This isn’t the first time pro-Trump activists have tried to undermine Harris and her authority to speak on issues of race based on her parents. In January, right-wing operative Jacob Wohl, an associate of Alexander, argued on Twitter that Harris was ineligible to be president because her parents weren’t from the United States, even though she was born in California. Wohl’s claims were circulated by other right-wing figures online, in an attempt to create a birther-style question about whether Harris could legally run for president.Mitchell, who has monitored harassment campaigns against black women since 2013, said Harris is facing a new, digital permutation of the birther conspiracy theory attacks President Trump levied against Obama.“It’s a different iteration of birtherism: ‘where were you born?’ She was born in Oakland!” Mitchell said, referring to the conspiracy theory that falsely accused Obama of being born outside the U.S. “The conversation is, no matter who we are, our blackness should be challenged because what we look like is not ‘American enough.’”Mitchell draws a distinction between two kinds of fraudulent accounts that try to discredit black people online. Botnets, an automated network of fake accounts, often tweet the same message. The technique allows a message to spread far and fast, with little effort. Some of the copy-paste accounts sharing Alexander’s message appear to be operated by real people. Mitchell also monitors a trend called “marionetting,” in which someone will falsely pose as a black person online to push ideas that many black people might otherwise find objectionable. Recent examples of marionetting include a troll who stole a black transgender activist’s picture to pose as a Trump supporter, and Russian-run accounts like “Blacktivist” that impersonated black Americans to sway black voters away from Hillary Clinton in 2016.“I actually thought the botnet was going to die, because I felt like more marionetting was happening ... After this debate, I saw more botnets responding again, versus just marionetting.”Fraudulent accounts often rely on stereotypes that trolls hope to apply to a collection of fake accounts, Mitchell said.“The ‘black enough’ line has been a stereotypical frame,” she said. “It has always been a systemic narrative. It’s just being expanded in this national debate”‘Digital Blackface’: Pro-Trump Trolls Are Impersonating Black People on TwitterRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Landfill Investigated Amid Search for Missing Virginia 2-Year-Old

The search is still on for a Hampton toddler who went missing Monday morning. Hampton Police focused on the city landfill on Thursday four days days after 2-year-old Noah Tomlin went missing.

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Biden wounded as Democratic tensions boil over at debate

For months, the 2020 Democratic campaign seemed mostly placid, even cordial. At Thursday’s presidential debate, those frictions came to the fore – and Joe Biden bore the brunt. The former vice president, 76, entered the debate as the front-runner, having led the pack of more than 20 Democratic candidates since he joined the race in April.

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Senate fails to limit Trump war powers amid Iran tensions

Political unease over the White House's tough talk against Iran is reviving questions about President Donald Trump's ability to order military strikes without approval from Congress. The Senate fell short Friday, in a 50-40 vote, on an amendment to a sweeping Defense bill that would require congressional support before Trump acts.

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Indian mother, daughter have heads shaved after resisting gang rape

An Indian mother and her daughter were beaten and had their heads shaved by a group of men after they resisted a gang rape attempt, police said on Friday, in the latest attack to highlight the dangers facing women in the country. Seven men, including a local government official, barged into the women's home late on Wednesday in northeastern Bihar with the intent of raping the teenage daughter, senior police officer Sanjay Kumar said. "When the mother and daughter protested, the men got angry and called a local barber, who shaved their heads," Kumar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.

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MacKenzie Lueck case: Utah police arrest man on suspicion of kidnapping, murder of SoCal college student

Police took a person into custody as the search continues for missing Southern California college student MacKenzie Lueck, authorities said.

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'Madrid Central' protest: Thousands oppose suspension of anti-pollution plan

Protesters are calling on Madrid’s conservative mayor to reimpose strict car pollution restrictions.

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Friday 28 June 2019

China's Xi to present Trump with terms for settling trade fight: WSJ, citing Chinese officials

Beijing is insisting that the U.S. remove its ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the Journal said, citing Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan. Beijing also wants the U.S. to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more U.S. exports than Beijing said it would when the two leaders last met in December, the WSJ said.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker's Spanish is 'humorous'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the Spanish being spoken on stage by presidential candidates including Cory Brooker and Beto O’Rourke at the first Democratic primary debate as “humorous”.The youngest ever congresswoman said there was “a lot of Spanglish in the building” as 10 presidential hopefuls sparred on policies and Donald Trump at the debate in Miami on Wednesday night.Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, said:“I loved it, because, I represent the Bronx and there was a lot of Spanglish in the building.”“I thought it was humorous sometimes, at times. Especially because, sometimes, of the content of the question.”The Democratic congresswoman, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, added that she thought the candidates might start saying “I will not give you an answer to your question” in Spanish."But it was good,” she added. “I thought it was a good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country.” Ms Ocasio-Cortez also compared the candidates to unprepared "high school students". "I think sometimes with the debate stage this big, it can kind of seem like a high school classroom, and so there are some folks that, like, didn’t seem like they read the book, and then they got called on," she said.Asked who she think will make the next debate, Ms Ocasio-Cortez first praised Elizabeth Warren’s performance.“I think Elizabeth Warren really distinguished herself, I think Julian Castro really distinguished himself,” she said. “I think Cory Booker did a great job in talking about criminal justice. ”Looking ahead to the next debate on Thursday, the Democratic congresswoman warned that Joe Biden was not a “safe choice”.“I think it’s dangerous to assume that any candidate is a quote-unquote ‘safe choice,’” she said. “That you pick one candidate and that’s just going to deliver an election for you. But with respect to vice president Biden, it’s more about an overall electoral strategy.”I think there’s this idea that we have to sacrifice everything,” she continued. “That we can’t talk about working class issues, that we can’t talk about criminal justice issues, that we can’t talk about immigration because it isolates this very small sliver of Obama-to-Trump voters."Ms Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted concerns she had over the way climate change is being disused during the debates.The Bronx congresswoman, who introduced Green New Deal proposal supported by a number of Democratic presidential candidates, said: “‘Is Miami going to exist in 50 years?’ we need to say, ‘What are you going to do about this?’”

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Supreme Court blocks plan to add citizenship question to 2020 census

In a ruling with far-reaching political and economic implications, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision today that a citizenship question could not be included on the 2020 census — for now — because the Department of Justice’s explanation for seeking to add one was inadequate.

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'Liberalism Is Obsolete,' Russian President Vladimir Putin Says Amid G20 Summit

He also spoke about Europe's migrant crisis and LGBTQ rights in Russia

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Did Biden’s debate performance help narrow polling gap between front-runner and the rest of 2020 Democratic field?

Reaction and analysis from Republican strategist Ned Ryun and University of Maryland lecturer Jason Nichols.

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Sparks fly as Kamala Harris challenges Joe Biden's record on race

The California senator sharply criticized the former vice president for his fond recollection of serving with two segregationist senators, and for opposing integration through busing in the 1970s.

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Democrats unite at debate in endorsing health care to undocumented immigrants

All 10 candidates on Thursday night’s Democratic debate stage said their health care plans would provide coverage for people in the country illegally, a show of unity on what had been a contentious night between the candidates.

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Family of Slain University of Utah Student Lauren McCluskey Files $56 Million Lawsuit Against School

Jill McCluskey/University of UtahUniversity of Utah track star Lauren McCluskey was gunned down on campus in October, and—according to her parents—nobody has been held accountable.Now, McCluskey’s family filed a $56 million federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school on Thursday over its “repeated failure” to respond to the student-athlete’s “multiple and continuing pleas for help” in the days leading up to her death.The 21-year-old was on the phone with her mother, walking home from a Monday night class, when she was “hunted down” and shot seven times by her ex-boyfriend, the lawsuit states.“Suddenly, I heard her yell, ‘No, no, no!’ I thought she might have been in a car accident,” Jill McCluskey said at the time, reported The Salt Lake Tribune. “That was the last I heard from her.” Police later discovered her body in a parked car.The shooter, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland, killed himself hours after Lauren’s death. Her family has said that McCluskey dated Rowland—a convicted sex offender—for about a month before discovering that he had lied about his name, age, and criminal history.Shortly after the two began dating, the relationship “began to sour,” and Rowland became “possessive, controlling, and manipulative,” according to the lawsuit. McCluskey’s friends said at the time that she had stopped paying attention to her studies, “seemed defeated,” and had developed several bruises, the complaint states.When Lauren discovered Rowland’s deception, she ended the relationship, the lawsuit claims.“He attempted to blackmail Lauren,” the McCluskey family said in a press release. “He tried to intimidate Lauren when she contacted the police in an attempt to scare her into withholding information regarding his criminal behavior. And he impersonated a police officer in an attempt to lure Lauren away from her dormitory. Lauren reported this all to the police, but her reports, in practicality, were ignored.”McCluskey and her friends reported Rowland’s “abusive,” “dangerous,” and “threatening” behavior more than 20 times before the shooting, according to the 51-page complaint filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Utah.Despite those reports, “no investigation occurred, no plans were developed or implemented and no effort was made to take any meaningful action reasonably calculated to end the harassment or to otherwise prohibit Melvin Rowland from having ongoing access to the university’s campus,” the complaint claims.The McCluskeys contend in their lawsuit that the University Department of Public Safety “acted with deliberate indifference and conscious disregard of the deadly situation” and “failed to use any reasonable means to protect Lauren.”“Rather than investigating the allegations [made by] Lauren and treating them with the urgency that they deserved, the detective in charge of Lauren’s case went on vacation and returned to find that Lauren had been murdered,” the lawsuit states.In December, a scathing independent review of the case pointed out multiple missteps in the course of the university’s response to McCluskey—and outlined 30 recommendations to improve safety at the school, including hiring more officers, bringing on a victim advocate, improving domestic violence training, better communication between departments on campus, training from outside law enforcement agencies, improved background checks, and more.University President Ruth Watkins said at the time that the review “does not offer any reason to believe” that McCluskey’s death could have been prevented but that it “offers weaknesses, identifies issues and provides us with a road map for strengthening security on our campus.”The university also noted that no one would be disciplined or fired over the case.In June, the university released an update to the campus safety improvements in which it acknowledged that there were “gaps and mistakes” in the case and noted that the university is now “acting on its commitment to take steps to reduce the likelihood of such a terrible tragedy happening again on campus.”Watkins said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon that, although there are “differences” in how the university would characterize the events leading to McCluskey’s murder, “let me say again that we share the McCluskey family’s commitment to improving campus safety.”“We continue to address the recommendations identified by the independent review of the university’s safety policies, procedures and resources, and we are making ongoing improvements designed to protect our students and our entire campus community,” she added.McCluskey’s mother said on Wednesday that any money collected from the case will go toward a foundation the family set up in her daughter’s name.“Lauren’s death was preventable,” said Jim McConkie, an attorney for the family. “The university repeatedly ignored multiple concerning reports of stalking, physical abuse, emotional abuse, intimidation, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual harassment, gender based discrimination and other dangerous and abusive behaviors.”The lawsuit is “a last resort to affect positive change,” her mother said on Thursday. “Women must be believed and taken seriously when they ask for help.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Report: Apple to shift assembly of Mac Pro from US to China

Apple will manufacture its new Mac Pro computer in China, shifting away from a U.S. assembly line it had been using for that product in recent years, according to a report published Friday. The company intends to assemble the new Mac Pro in a factory near Shanghai, according to The Wall Street Journal , which cited unidentified people familiar with the plan. Apple issued a statement saying the new Mac Pro will be designed and engineered in California, but wouldn't say where it will be assembled.

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Pope responds 'with immense sadness' to death of father and daughter who drowned at US-Mexico border

Pope Francis says he is “profoundly saddened” by the deaths of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, who drowned in the Rio Grande River while trying to reach America.“With immense sadness, the Holy Father has seen the images of the father and his baby daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande River while trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States,” the Vatican’s interim spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said in a statement on Wednesday."The pope is profoundly saddened by their death, and is praying for them and for all migrants who have lost their lives while seeking to flee war and misery,” he added.The photograph of the bodies of the 25-year-old father and his young daughter face down in the Rio Grande has been published around the world, inciting horror and shame over America’s current immigration policy.The pair, along with Tania Vanessa Ávalos, wife of Mr Ramírez and mother to Valeria, were attempting to cross the river at the border crossing between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. They’d fled poverty in El Salvator with a humanitarian visa in Mexico two months earlier, and had been awaiting asylum in the US.The pope’s official statement came after off-the-cuff comments during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square, during which the pontiff complimented the people of Mexico for being “so welcoming to migrants. God bless you.” A group of Mexicans attending reportedly cheered and waved a Mexican flag in response.It's not the first time Pope Francis has shown his support for Mexico's immigration policy, or his criticism for America's. In 2016, Pope Francis criticised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, suggesting that anyone who wanted to build a wall along the border was “not a Christian."(Outside of Catholicism, the president's immigration policy was warmly received at an evangelical Christian conference in DC yesterday.)On Twitter, the pope appeared to offer a third statement on Thursday morning, writing from his official account, “Blessed are those who believe and who have the courage to foster encounter and communion.”

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As second Democratic debate wraps, Trump camp focuses on Biden

President Trump’s campaign team and allies clearly had their sights set on former Vice President Joe Biden during the second Democratic primary debate on Thursday night.

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2020 Election Meddling by China, Iran, N. Korea Likely, Administration Officials Warn

China’s government finances English-language media outlets in the United States to influence U.S. perceptions on various issues, such as trade, the senior intelligence official told reporters during a briefing on election security. Russia isn’t the only threat to election security going into 2020, as Trump administration officials say they are preparing for meddling from Iran, China, and North Korea. The federal government anticipates that Russia will again meddle in the U.S. election in 2020 through “Russian-controlled or influenced English-language media, false-flag operations, or sympathetic spokespersons,” a senior intelligence official said. China’s government finances English-language media outlets in the United States to influence U.S. perceptions on various issues, such as trade, the senior intelligence official told reporters during a briefing on election security. “No surprise to you: Iran is increasing their use of social media to promote strategic goals and perspectives to the American public,” the official continued. “Its influence campaigns have included denigrating U.S. decisions to leave [the Iran nuclear deal], downplaying the effectiveness of sanctions, and promoting pro-Iranian interests.”Administration officials asked reporters that the conference participants’ names not be used.

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Democrat debate recap: Are the candidates' values in line with American voters?

2020 presidential hopefuls call out climate change, China and President Trump as the biggest threats facing the U.S.

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