It may not seem like it, now that we have an 1337 haxor presidential candidate, but we're still in the early days of the internet. Nobody really knows what is going on or what the limits to our behavior in this new virtual space should be.
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"Clarke's presence is almost a walking spoiler alert at this point: If our heroine is married to him in the first act, by the end of the third you can almost guarantee that she'll wind up having sex with another man."
While social media giants crack down and Facebook says it will make changes to stop anti-vaxx content, Instagram's recommendation engine makes it exceptionally easy to come across a waterfall of anti-vaccine accounts.
At the behest of their board, who apparently didn't want to discuss billion-dollar train tunnels without exploring other options, top Virginia transportation officials went to California to ride in The Boring Company's silly car tunnel.
For those who have yet to avail themselves of Kanopy, a streaming service that specializes in independent films and international cinema, here's a guide on how the service works and whether it's worth it.
Enjoy a quick pick-me-up anywhere, anytime with this Hippie Air Vaporizer: made for oil or liquid, it features three different power levels for a custom vaping experience.
He's the perfect everyperson for each presidential candidate, but the spoofs on Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are especially spot-on.
On the day a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sydney Aiello escaped with her life. However, the grief of losing 17 of her classmates and teachers, as well as the long-lasting effects of enduring such a traumatic event, weighed heavily on her.
It's an internet fight and only the funniest meme will emerge victorious. This week's challengers? Shane Dawson's cat, Donald Trump, the TikTok microwave challenge, and more.
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The image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the storms in its southern hemisphere was captured in great detail by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it flew by on February 12.
"This project was born as an act of criticism toward a culture of software product churn," says the creator of Killed By Google, an archive of products lost to the sands of time.
A consumer spyware vendor left a lot of incredibly sensitive and private data, including intimate pictures and private call recordings, for all to see on a server freely accessible over the internet. And it still hasn't taken the data down.
The insane true story of the 1980s mortician who turned his family's funeral home into a nightmare cremation factory — pulling gold teeth, harvesting organs and threatening anyone who got in his way.
Guy Rosen is Facebook's vice president of Product Management. But when the company published an update about the Christchurch massacre in the middle of the night on Wednesday, Rosen got a shiny new title: VP of Integrity. That is, until a journalist called Facebook out on the switch.
As America's obsession with wellness and "clean eating" shows no signs of slowing down, the chain wants to figure out how to change customers' perceptions that convenience food doesn't always have to be deep-fried or nutritionally sketchy.
With queer creators and fans hungry to see themselves in their favorite stories, LGBTQ+ representation is breaking through in comics like never before.
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller has handed in a keenly awaited report on his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election and any potential wrongdoing by U.S. President Donald Trump, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Mueller submitted the report to Attorney General William Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, the department said. The report was not immediately made public - Barr will have to decide how much to disclose - and it was not known if Mueller found criminal conduct by Trump or his campaign, beyond the charges already brought against several aides.
Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining since 2017 whether Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow to try to influence the election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.
Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference.
WNU Editor: We know only one thing. There will be no more additional indictments .... which in itself is big news. As for when will the report be leaked. We will know in the next few days when the Justice Department starts handing out the report to Congress.
* Theresa May left Brussels a day early and has returned to Downing Street to try to get support for her deal * She has summoned key ministers to No 10 and will head to Chequers this weekend to try to save EU divorce * Government said to be considering giving MPs a free vote on seven directions Brexit could go if PM loses vote * Marathon EU summit broke up last night with agreement among EU leaders on the terms of Brexit delay * There are now two dates: Britain can stay in the European Union until April 12 whether or not the deal passes * If MPs pass May's Brexit deal next week then Britain can stay in the bloc until May 22 to pass necessary laws
Theresa May was today accused of 'declaring open war' on her own Eurosceptic MPs by promising a free vote on a second referendum or revoking Article 50 if her Brexit deal is killed off next week.
Downing Street will ask MPs from all parties to help find her a Plan B as Tory rebels said their 'isolated' leader should 'name a date' for her resignation after failing to deliver Brexit for March 29.
Mrs May is expected to hold a vote to gauge support among MPs for the seven main paths for Brexit: The PM's deal, No Deal, a second referendum, Labour's preferred customs union deal, a Norway-plus EEA deal, a Canada-plus free trade deal or revoking Article 50 and staying in the EU.
Brexiteers are furious because it would give control to Parliament, where the majority of MPs are remainers who want the softest possible Brexit or no Brexit at all.
WNU Editor: The problem is that the the people who voted for Brexit are not represented by the majority of the members in Parliament. This is also a classic example of a lame duck Prime Minister who is "at war" with the majority of her own party in Parliament. Prime Minister Theresa May is finished, and this third vote is going to resolve nothing .... Britain's had 3 years to do Brexit. Another 3 weeks won't help (Luke McGee, CNN). What we are seeing now are pro-EU politicians laying the groundwork to either revoke Article 50, or to shelve the entire project for the future, which would essentially mean killing Brexit.
North Korea has abruptly withdrawn its staff from a liaison office with South Korea, a development that is likely to put a damper on ties between the countries and further complicate global diplomacy on North Korea's nuclear program.
The North Korean action came a week after Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui threatened to pull out of nuclear negotiations with the United States, citing a lack of US steps to match disarmament measures it took last year.
Her warning followed a US-North Korea summit in February that collapsed due to disputes over United States-led sanctions on the North.
* President Trump made the abrupt proclamation over Golan on Twitter yesterday * It was immediately welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu * But Syria's foreign ministry said statement was an 'irresponsible' threat to peace * Israel captured the area from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed it in 1981 * The U.N. does not recognize the sovereignty of 'occupying power' Israel
Syria and its allies have condemned Donald Trump's declaration that America should recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
The Foreign Ministry in Damascus vowed it would use 'every possible means' to 'liberate' the region and described the US President's statement as a threat to international peace and stability.
It said his comments on Twitter confirm 'the blind bias of the United States to the Zionist entity,' referring to Israel, and added that the statement won't change 'the fact that the Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian.'
* Robert Mueller handed over his report into Russia involvement in the 2016 election to the attorney general, Bill Barr * Newsflash at 5 p.m. Friday means the Mueller probe is over - almost two years after it was started in May 2017 * Trump had blasted it as a 'witchhunt' and repeated his 'no collusion' mantra on Friday morning * White House said it has not seen the report in any form or been briefed on its contents * Barr has thankless responsibility of deciding which portions of Mueller's output can be released in a way that's consistent with federal law * It's possible Barr could delicately thread a political needle by sending an executive summary to Capitol Hill and keeping the rest private * That would be likely to open a war with Democrats
Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered his long-awaited report Friday to Attorney General Bill Barr, setting up a political battle over what's in it and how much will be made public.
The news swept through Washington in the flash of thousands of tweets just before 5:00 p.m. Friday.
The Justice Department notified leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before announcing the end of a 22-month-long saga focused on allegations that President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with agents of Russia to improve his chances in the election.
Trump, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, has not seen any results from Mueller's investigation.
WNU Editor: I did not expect this investigation to end right now. I also expect details of the report will be leaked this weekend, especially if there are explosive details. I also expect the full report to be released to the public in due time.
More News On U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller Ending His Investigation
* White House claims all ISIS-held territory in Syria has been '100% eliminated' * Syrian Democratic Forces have been battling ISIS militants hiding in Baghouz * Last remaining jihadists were said to be holed up in caves along the Euphrates * They were also hiding in trenches as war planes carried out raids against ISIS
All ISIS-held territory in Syria has been '100%' eliminated, the White House said Friday, but President Donald Trump is still warning that the once-strong terror army is still a danger online.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan briefed Trump about developments on the ground, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
The president has been hinting at the victory for days. Sanders gave reporters a look at a before-and-after map of Iraq and Syria that indicated ISIS no longer controls any territory there. Trump showed off the same map Wednesday at the White House as he left for a brief trip to Ohio.
All 27 European Union leaders have signed off on a final communique, issued on Thursday, outlining two options for Brexit that safeguard its own elections for a European Parliament.
The first option will grant Westminster an extension of Brexit to May 22 if the House of Commons passes British Prime Minister Theresa May's deal next week.
Otherwise, Britain would be given until April 12 to inform the bloc whether it will participate in European Parliament elections from May 23 – 26.
When Washington announced the return of economic sanctions against Iran, the main idea was pretty clear: cut exports of vital oil to zero to paralyze the economy and prompt a change in government. Waivers followed, however, as well as reports that, despite the sanctions, Iran was shipping more oil abroad than the amounts allowed under the waivers.
Oil data provider TankerTrackers.com first reported last year that Iranian tankers were turning off their transponders to hide the destination of their journeys. At the time, most tanker tracking data came precisely from transponders and port authorities, which made most Iranian tanker movement reports unreliable. This, in turn, contributed to the October-December oil price drop when it emerged that Iran was shipping more crude abroad than previously believed.
With the possible U.S. military withdrawal from Syria in the news on a daily basis, the mainstream media has been quick to parrot the DOD's claim that 2,000 troops, mostly special operations forces, are to be withdrawn from the country. Although the total number of U.S. special operators deployed to Syria may have approached as many as 5,000, the current headlines have not mentioned that the United States has special operations units deployed not just in Syria, but in a majority of the nations of the world. Over the past seventeen years, the forces at the disposal of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) have grown exponentially, more than doubling in size in numbers, with a budget that has also expanded four fold in that same period of time.
* Kremlin footage showcases robot technology which includes killer robots * These come in the form of cat-sized drones and AI-controlled driverless tanks * For now, the robots will still require to be controlled by a human in the infantry * But Russia's Advanced Research Foundation (ARF) said the ultimate goal is to have an army of robots entirely controlled by Artificial Intelligence algorithms
An army of 'killer robots' that will assist infantry on the battlefield has been unveiled in propaganda footage released by Russia
The video, released by the Kremlin, appears to showcase the state's latest drone technology.
That includes and AI-controlled driverless tank that follow the aim of a soldier's rifle to obliterate targets with its own weaponry.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday complained that flights by U.S. nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bombers across the Baltic Sea near Russia's borders were creating tensions in the region, but Washington said they were needed to deter potential adversaries.
Russia's Defence Ministry said earlier on Thursday that it had scrambled two Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jets to intercept a U.S. B-52 strategic bomber which radar systems indicated was flying toward Russia's borders, albeit at a considerable distance.
The ministry said the fighter jets had returned to base after the B-52 changed course and headed in the opposite direction. It did not say when the incident occurred.
"In general, I will limit myself to only saying that of course such actions by the United States do not lead to a strengthening of an atmosphere of security and stability in the region that directly adjoins Russia's borders," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
"On the contrary, they create additional tensions."
The Air Force increased 2020 budget push takes another step in an aggressive plan to prototype, test and deploy hypersonic weapons on an expedited schedule -- to defend against enemy attacks by fast-tracking an ability to launch high-impact, high-speed attacks at Mach. 5 - five times the speed of sound.
The Air Force increased 2020 budget push takes another step in an aggressive plan to prototype, test and deploy hypersonic weapons on an expedited schedule -- to defend against enemy attacks by fast-tracking an ability to launch high-impact, high-speed attacks at Mach. 5 - five times the speed of sound.
"Hypersonics is such an important area, we have to push it through - soon," William Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, told an audience recently at an Air Force Association Symposium.
Roper emphasized that the hypersonics effort is both focused on current emerging weapons, which are testing, being prototyped and quickly nearing operational status, but also on an "idea pipeline" to keep new developments emerging.
* Nearly 20 Russian missiles that the U.S. is currently unable to defend against were recently moved to a military testing site, according to sources with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence reports. * Russia has launched the weapon, dubbed "Kinzhal," meaning "dagger," 12 times from a MiG-31 fighter jet. * The weapon is slated to join the Kremlin's arsenal as early as 2020.
WASHINGTON — Nearly 20 Russian missiles that the U.S. is currently unable to defend against were recently moved to a military testing site, signaling another milestone for the Kremlin's hypersonic weapons program, according to people who have direct knowledge of American intelligence reports.
"This shows they have the ambition to develop these weapons and that they have prioritized this particular program. The Russians have basically determined that they are comfortable with the design and will now focus on fine-tuning the weapon through testing," one person, who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said.
SPECIAL Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted his report on the investigation into allegations of Russian meddling into US President Donald Trump's election campaign.
MH370 crashed in waters just off the coast of Vietnam, according to an oil rig worker who claims he saw a "burning plane" descend into the water, a book revealed.
ANTI-TERROR soldiers could open fire on yellow vest activists during future riots if there is a risk of someone getting killed, the military governor of Paris warned, as France braces itself for another round of protest violence this weekend.
A PASTOR was rushed to hospital after being severely beaten when a group of suspected Hindu radicals attacked Christians taking part in a prayer meeting.
DONALD TRUMP's fierce critic James Comey has surprisingly revealed he is "not rooting" for the US President to be impeached from the White House but instead hopes he suffers a "resounding" defeat in the 2020 Presidential Election race.
Less than a week after a gunman allegedly murdered 50 worshippers inside two New Zealand mosques, the nation’s prime minister announced a sweeping, nation-wide ban on assault weapons. The measure was met with swift praise in the U.S. among gun reform advocates, who have long been pleading for similar restrictions. On Thursday, they renewed their calls for change and urged U.S. leaders to follow in New Zealand’s footsteps.
But would a ban like New Zealand’s even hold up in American courts? It’s difficult to say since the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, has not directly addressed whether semiautomatic weapons are protected under the Second Amendment. But constitutional scholars, pointing to a few legal precedents, say it’s certainly feasible.
“It’s difficult to discern the chances,” says Stanford University law professor David Studdert. “But it could hold up in court. That is definitely a possibility.”
Before last week’s mosque attacks, New Zealand had not experienced a mass shooting in nearly three decades. The speed with which the country enacted change highlights the stark differences with how the U.S. has reacted to its own massacres. For instance, after 58 people were slaughtered at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct. 1, 2017—the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history—it took the federal government more than a year to ban bump stocks—accessories the killer used in the attack to dramatically increase his weapons’ rate of fire. And after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in February 2018, the state raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm, among other measures, yet there were no changes to gun laws on a federal level, despite nationwide marches.
Here’s what experts say could happen if a New Zealand-style assault weapons ban was passed into law in America:
What, exactly, does New Zealand’s assault weapons ban do?
At a news conference Thursday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a new federal law would prohibit the sale and possession of military-style semiautomatic weapons, with exceptions made to police and some farmers. It would also ban high-capacity magazines and accessories that can covert firearms into military-style semiautomatic weapons.
“In short,” Ardern said, “every semiautomatic weapon used in the terror attack on Friday will be banned in this country.”
As part of the new law, which is expected to be in place in a matter of weeks, the prime minister said gun owners would have a “reasonable” amount of time to give up and sell their weapons to the government. The buyback program is estimated to cost New Zealand up to 200 million New Zealand dollars, or $140 million. However, the prime minister said it’s unclear how many of the guns are currently in circulation.
“That is the price that we must pay to ensure the safety of our communities,” she said.
New Zealanders who illegally possess weapons currently face a fine of 4,000 New Zealand dollars ($2,750) and three years in prison. Those penalties could increase under the new law, the prime minister said.
The announcement comes after a white supremacist opened fire inside two mosques in Christchurch on March 15. Ardern said the suspect, who live-streamed the massacre, used at least two assault rifles in the attacks. Purchased legally with a standard firearms license but modified illegally to enhance their capacity, the weapons, Ardern said, “had the power to shoot continuously.”
Would that kind of ban even be legal in America?
It’s unclear for now, but experts say the existence of the Second Amendment on its own is likely not enough to protect semiautomatic weapons. The argument boils down to the Supreme Court’s landmark Heller decision. In 2008, the court upheld that the Second Amendment protects a private citizen’s individual right to possess a firearm that is in “common use,” and to use that firearm for “traditionally lawful purposes,” like self-defense at home.
The ruling says handguns at home are constitutional, but not machine guns. It does not offer guidance on semiautomatic weapons like AR-15-style assault rifles that were used in Christchurch and many U.S. mass shootings. That’s where the issue gets blurry. “The Supreme Court has not said that the Second Amendment protects anything that New Zealand has banned,” says Roger Williams University law professor Carl Bogus. “But nobody knows, when faced with particular questions, how that court would answer.”
On one hand, experts argue that firearms like the AR-15 are commonly used for lawful purposes, like recreation, and therefore protected under the Second Amendment. “The kinds of rifles that are going to be banned in New Zealand are commonly possessed in the U.S. by millions of law-abiding people,” says Stephen Halbrook, an attorney who has represented the National Rifle Association on other issues in federal court. “They’re very widely possessed for sport and target shooting and self-defense. If you applied that test, this type of law would not be permissible here.”
On the other hand, there are some precedents that show how a national ban could be found legal, according to constitutional scholars.
For one, fully automatic weapons, including machine guns—which fire in rapid multiple rounds with a single trigger pull—are illegal under the National Firearms Act. Experts say that law, originally enacted in 1934, shows that it would be legal to limit civilian possession of some guns.
More significantly, under a law passed by Congress that went into effect in 1994, assault weapons were temporarily banned in the U.S. While constitutional scholars say the law, which had a 10-year expiration date, was riddled with loopholes, it still shows the such a ban was not struck down by the courts.
On a local level, although the laws have been challenged in court, seven states and Washington, D.C. have put their own restrictions on assault weapons or large-capacity magazines, according to gun safety groups Brady and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
And at least three U.S. Circuit Courts have also said bans on assault weapons are lawful.
“The reality is [assault weapons bans] do exist right now,” Studdert, the Stanford professor, says. “It’s not completely theoretical.”
Because the Supreme Court decided not to hear those lower court appeals, it has been considered a win for gun-control advocates. “It suggested some hesitancy on the part of the court to overturn these laws,” according to UCLA School of Law professor Adam Winkler, who wrote Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America.
But that might all change. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court decided to take on its first big gun rights case in nearly a decade. The nine justices, five of whom are considered to be conservatives, agreed to weigh in on whether it’s constitutional for New York City to restrict gun owners from transporting their licensed, locked and unloaded handguns to second homes or shooting ranges outside of the city. It’s the only law of its kind in the country, according to Halbrook and Winkler.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case could expand Second Amendment rights. At a minimum, experts say it’s a sign that the ambiguity surrounding gun laws could become clearer.
“The court for years has refused to take a bunch of gun cases,” Winkler says. “Now the justices may be more willing to grapple with these questions.”
(BEIRA, Mozambique) — With the flooding easing in parts of cyclone-stricken Mozambique on Friday, fears are rising that the waters could yield up many more bodies. The confirmed number of people killed in Mozambique and neighboring Zimbabwe and Malawi climbed past 600.
Eight days after Cyclone Idai struck southeast Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, touching off some of the worst flooding in decades, the homeless, hungry and injured slowly made their way from devastated inland areas to the port city of Beira, which was heavily damaged itself but has emerged as the nerve center for rescue efforts.
“Some were wounded. Some were bleeding,” said Julia Castigo, a Beira resident who watched them arrive. “Some had feet white like flour for being in the water for so long.”
Aid workers are seeing many children who have been separated from their parents in the chaos or orphaned.
Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the relief efforts so far “are nowhere near the scale and magnitude of the problem,” and the humanitarian needs are likely to grow in the coming weeks and months.
“We should brace ourselves,” he said.
Helicopters set off into the rain for another day of efforts to find people clinging to rooftops and trees.
Pedro Matos, emergency coordinator for the World Food Program, said rescuers are sometimes spotting “just a hut completely surrounded by water.”
With water and sanitation systems largely destroyed, waterborne diseases are a growing concern.
“The situation is simply horrendous. There is no other way to describe it,” As Sy said after touring camps for the growing number of displaced. “Three thousand people who are living in a school that has 15 classrooms and six, only six, toilets. You can imagine how much we are sitting on a water and sanitation ticking bomb.”
The death toll in Mozambique rose to 293, with an untold number of people missing and the mortuary at Beira’s central hospital already reported full. Deaths could soar beyond the 1,000 predicted by the country’s president earlier this week, As Sy said.
The number of dead was put at 259 in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi.
Thousands made the trek from inland Mozambique toward Beira, some walking along roads carved away by the raging waters. Hundreds of others arrived by boat, ferried by fishermen who plucked stranded people from patches of land that had been turned into islands. Many of the arrivals were children.
In Beira, people salvaged the metal strips of roofs that had been peeled away like the skin of a fruit. Downed trees littered the streets.
And yet there were flashes of life as it used to be. White wedding dresses stood pristine behind a shop window that hadn’t shattered.
A downtown sidewalk was Marta Ben’s new home. The 30-year-old mother of five clutched a teary child to her hip as she described the sudden horror of the storm that destroyed their home in Beira.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said, barefoot, a cooking pot bubbling nearby. “We were not warned. Suddenly the roof flew away.”
She and others now homeless begged passers-by for help, saying they had received nothing from the government or aid groups, not even bread.
In Zimbabwe, where roads began to open and some basic communications were set up, a fuller picture of the extent of the damage began to emerge.
The victims included a mother buried in the same grave with her child; headmasters missing together with dozens of students; illegal gold and diamond miners swept away by raging rivers; and police officers washed away with their prisoners.
In the city of Mutare, Maina Chisiriirwa said she buried her son-in-law, who had gone to the diamond fields to mine illegally.
“There are no jobs and all he wanted was to feed his family. He was with his colleagues. They thought it would be easier to mine since the rains would keep the guards and the police away from patrolling,” Chisiriirwa said.
His colleagues survived, but her son-in-law was swept away, she said.
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — All remaining territory has been wrested from the Islamic State group in Syria, President Donald Trump announced Friday, though officials said sporadic fighting continued on the ground between coalition forces and the group’s holdouts.
The complete fall of the last IS stronghold in Baghouz, Syria, would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate, which at its height stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq. Controlling territory gave the group room to launch attacks around the world.
Trump said Friday “it’s about time” that the group no longer controlled territory in the region, after a campaign by U.S. and coalition forces that spanned five years and two U.S. presidencies unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of civilians.
The IS “territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One.
U.S. officials familiar with the situation in Syria said Friday that the Syrian Democratic Forces were still battling the last remaining IS fighters who were holed up in tunnels along the river cliffs in Baghouz and had refused to surrender.
The SDF has not announced any declaration of victory, and there was no announcement planned for Friday, officials said.
Associated Press journalists in Baghouz, in eastern Syria, said coalition fighters were still conducting mop-up operations in the village after seizing an encampment Tuesday where the extremists had been holed up for months.
SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told AP earlier Friday that there were still IS fighters and women and children hiding in caves near Baghouz. He said final operations were ongoing and there appeared to be several hundred people still inside. Other SDF officials said the camp was full of corpses, and that some civilians and IS fighters were still handing themselves over.
At least two airstrikes were carried out on Baghouz earlier Friday, sending black smoke rising in the village.
According to the officials, the SDF is moving slowly and carefully, and is willing to wait out the IS fighters who are out of food and low on water. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss mission details.
Sanders told reporters that Trump was briefed about the development by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan who was traveling with him to Florida. “We got the information from the DOD,” she added.
Trump showed reporters a map of Iraq and Syria that indicated the terror group no longer controlled any territory in the region. “Here’s ISIS on Election Day,” he said, linking coalition gains since then to his presidency. He pointed to a swath of red signifying the group’s previous territorial hold, and then to one without any red, “Here’s ISIS right now.”
But Trump appeared to be overstating his administration’s contribution to the anti-IS fight. A close-up of the map showed that Trump was displaying a depiction of the group’s footprint at a high-point in 2014, not Election Day 2016, by which point the U.S.-backed campaign was well underway.
Trump has been teasing the victory for days, most recently Wednesday when he said the milestone would be achieved by that night. But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten to continue an insurgency.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking in Jerusalem, said Thursday the U.S.-led coalition had achieved “amazing” results in Syria.
But he said, “The threat from radical Islamic terrorism remains.”
Trump tweeted a warning Friday to those who may be recruited by IS online, saying, “They will always try to show a glimmer of vicious hope, but they are losers and barely breathing.” He added: “Think about that before you destroy your lives and the lives of your family!”
ISIS uses the internet better than almost anyone, but for all of those susceptible to ISIS propaganda, they are now being beaten badly at every level….
….There is nothing to admire about them, they will always try to show a glimmer of vicious hope, but they are losers and barely breathing. Think about that before you destroy your lives and the lives of your family!
If history is a guide, the reconquering of IS-held territory may prove a short-lived victory unless Iraq and Syria fix a problem that gave rise to the extremist movement in the first place: governments that pit one ethnic or sectarian group against another.
The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks and the encampment had proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.
The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January, according to Kurdish officials — took the Syrian Democratic Forces by surprise.
(BRUSSELS) — Isolated at home and abroad, British Prime Minister Theresa May was laboring against the odds Friday to win backers in Parliament for her unloved Brexit deal — to a timetable dictated by the European Union.
Almost three years after Britons voted to walk away from the EU, the bloc’s leaders seized control of the Brexit timetable from May to avert a chaotic departure at the end of this month that would be disruptive for the world’s biggest trading bloc and deeply damaging for Britain.
“We are prepared for the worst but hope for the best,” said European Council President Donald Tusk. “As you know, hope dies last.”
May’s mantra since Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum in 2016 has always been about “taking back control” of U.K. affairs from the EU. But the process has seen her lose control — of the U.K. Parliament, which has twice rejected her Brexit deal, and now of the date of departure.
In a move that underlined their loss of confidence in May, EU leaders set two deadlines for Britain to leave the bloc of nearly half a billion people or to take an entirely new path in considering its EU future.
At marathon late night talks in Brussels, they rejected May’s request to extend the Brexit deadline from March 29 until June 30.
Instead, the leaders agreed to extend the Brexit date until May 22, on the eve of EU Parliament elections, if she can persuade the British Parliament to endorse the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Failing that, May now has until April 12 to choose between leaving the bloc without a divorce deal and a radically new path, such as revoking Britain’s decision to leave, holding a new British referendum on Brexit or finding a cross-party consensus for a very different kind of Brexit.
Ending a two-day summit, Tusk said there was now nothing more the EU could do to help May.
“The fate of Brexit is in the hands of our British friends,” he said.
The EU’s choice of deadline aims to ensure that Britain doesn’t take part in the May 23-26 elections for the EU parliament if it is leaving. Britain is legally required to announce its intention of participating by April 12. As of now, Britain’s seats in the next EU Parliament have been redistributed to other nations.
The EU-wide elections are being held amid deep concerns that mainstream parties could lose seats to anti-immigrant groups and populists. EU leaders are also fearful that the contagion of Brexit — its chaos, populism, political instability and uncertainty— could spread to their nations.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Brexit offered a “political lesson” to all that trying to leave Europe without a plan “leads to an impasse.” Macron slammed the architects of Brexit, saying the referendum had been won by “lies.”
But he also said governments should listen to their people if they want to avoid a “disaster.”
“We should respect what the British people have decided,” he said. “We need to hear our people, we need to address their fears. We can’t play with fears, or simply tear up pages without offering anything else.”
The EU leaders seized hold of the Brexit process when May — after repeated questioning — proved unwilling or unable to tell them what she planned to do next week if she fails yet again to convince a skeptical British Parliament to endorse her Brexit deal, EU officials said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said some EU nations, especially those far from the U.K., were against giving Britain a Brexit delay because they “are sick of” the interminable Brexit process.
Varadkar said, after hours of discussion, the EU leaders reached a compromise that “gives a little breathing space” for Britain to decide among three options: “no deal, the withdrawal agreement or a much closer relationship with the EU.”
“I honestly don’t know what the most likely option is,” he told reporters. “Prime Minister May believes that there is a pathway to victory, to getting a majority in the House of Commons (for her deal), and I hope that she can achieve that.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the EU hoped British lawmakers would make “a rational choice, that it will be a choice to maintain close economic and security links with the European Union.”
The legally binding Brexit agreement that May signed with her EU partners last November has been twice rejected by British legislators, once by a historic margin, and she angered lawmakers earlier this week by suggesting they are responsible the Brexit impasse.
May was more conciliatory Friday, saying that she had “expressed my frustration. I know that MPs are frustrated too. They have difficult jobs to do.”
“I hope we can all agree, we are now at the moment of decision,” May said.
The battle now shifts back to the British Parliament, where May plans to hold a third vote on her deal next week, though there are few signs of a big shift in opinion.
Pro-EU lawmakers said the bloc’s decision showed that May needed to change course and consider alternatives to her rejected Brexit deal. They plan an attempt starting Monday to force a change of direction by setting out a series of votes in Parliament on alternatives, including a plan to keep close economic ties with the EU.
“We need to open up this process because we have rejected her deal, we’ve rejected no-deal, the EU has decided to give us a little more time and we’ve really got to get on with it,” said Labour Party lawmaker Hilary Benn, who chairs the House of Commons Brexit committee.
“This won’t work if the prime minister is not prepared to move an inch,” he said. “I’m afraid that’s the story of the last two and three-quarter years.”
For years now, the country’s real political power has lain in the hands of the military, backed by the country’s monarchy. The country maintained a democratic façade over the years by holding elections from time to time leading to the election of political leaders with varying degrees of actual power, often heading weak coalition governments.
However, whenever the military deemed a civilian government too much of a threat to itself, the elite establishment or to the royal family, it would overthrow the government and attempt to seize the reins for itself. Since 1932, the country has seen 19 coup attempts, a dozen of which were successful.
In 2006, the junta ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, an ambitious populist who was particularly beloved by the country’s rural poor for his generous welfare handouts and who briefly introduced majoritarian politics into the country. After he was run out of the country, he was eventually succeeded by his sister Yingluck, whose government was overthrown by the military in 2014. Both remain in exile to this day, but their main political party, the Puea Thai Party, is expected to do well in Sunday’s elections.
Another party that is expected to do well is Future Forward, a group led by 40-year-old billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit that appeals both to youth voters as well as the country’s urban electorate. And while the Puea Thai party is also anti-military, Future Forward appeals to Thais looking to cast a general anti-establishment vote against both the military and the Shinawatra’s.
Yet anti-junta parties face an uphill battle to secure enough votes to take control of Thailand’s premiership, both individually and in any type of coalition. Part of that has to do with the fact that the country’s military-backed courts have the power to ban parties and candidates from running on the flimsiest of pretexts.
But anti-military parties also have constitutional obstacles in their way; the Thai military wrote a new constitution in 2017 that stacks the odds perpetually in its favor. For example, to appoint a prime minister, any party of coalition must control a majority of the entire congress —not only of the 500-seat House of Representatives, but also of the 250-member Senate. But since the country’s senators are all appointed by the army, anti-junta parties must win at least 376 seats in the House in order to seize power, whereas pro-military parties (including the one headed by junta leader and current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha) need to secure just 126 seats.
What Happens Next:
Credible polls are hard to come by and given the dozens of parties in play, the political math is hard to work out on this side of elections; it doesn’t look likely that any one party will command an absolute majority in the house.
But beyond that, it’s looking like the military junta will end up with a prime minister it approves of, either by pro-junta parties securing 126 seats or, in case an anti-military coalition gets cobbled together, by using the courts to rejigger the numbers in its favor through disqualifications. There are already cases pending against Future Forward and its leaders accusing them of spreading “fake news”, and the indictments are scheduled to come a couple of days after the election, which gives the military time to survey the political landscape before deciding what course of action to take.
There is a long shot that anti-junta parties perform well enough that the King orders the military to let the new government stand — but in any case, the military last year unveiled a National Strategy document intended to act as a blueprint for the country for the next 20 years. Should any Thai government deviate too substantially from the plan, they can be removed from office and even have their leaders face jail time. So significant political change isn’t coming to Thailand anytime soon.
The Key Number That Explains It:
376: the magic number of seats that anti-junta parties need to win together in the 500-seat House of Representatives in order to offset the 250 military-appointed senate votes and elect the country’s next prime minister.
The One Thing to Read About It:
Not every country can make military juntas work. A look at how Thailand has managed the feat thus far, via The Atlantic.
The One Major Misconception About It:
That because the Thai military has been in power for so long and has stacked the rules so overwhelmingly in their favor, there’s no real drama here. The military still needs to make sure that social unrest doesn’t spiral out of control following elections. Much depends on how the Thai people respond to the results and the army’s perceived intervention into those results, if any. In other words, even authoritarian politics pack plenty of drama these days.
The One Thing to Say About It:
Of all the political systems out there, there’s a case to be made that “democratically-elected” juntas are among the worst—combining some of the worst elements of authoritarianism (limited accountability, repression of political speech and democratic participation) with some of the worst elements of democracy (unstable coalition politics, perpetual indecision and horse-jockeying). Still, it’s better than the “murderous and genocidal” junta varieties at least.
Women across New Zealand are wearing headscarves in a show of support for the Muslim community, one week after 50 people were shot dead in two mosques in the city of Christchurch.
Women and children have posted pictures of themselves wearing headscarves on social media Friday, with words denouncing last week’s violence and expressing solidarity with victims of the shooting. “I stand with our Muslim community today and against hate and violence of any kind,” one Twitter user wrote.
Auckland physician Thaya Ashman told Reuters she thought up the “Headscarf For Harmony” event after seeing a Muslim woman on the news say she was too afraid to go outside wearing a hijab. “I wanted to say: We are with you, we want you to feel at home on your own streets, we love, support and respect you,” she said.
Last week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was praised for wearing a black headscarf during her meeting with members of the Muslim community.
Racists and bigots believe that diverse societies don’t work. Frustrated that their howling at the moon wasn’t enough, they’re now picking up weapons in an attempt to prove themselves right.
We can’t keep expressing shock and then moving on until the next outrage. We watched in astonished horror last year when a white supremacist entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot dead 11 worshippers. And yet after the initial horror, the world carried on like before.
These haters are destabilizing our societies and concerted action needs to be taken before things get even worse.
To be clear, this isn’t just about Western societies. For many Muslims, the attacks on March 15 on Christchurch mosques that left 50 dead, represent just a tiny part of a global rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry perpetrated by insecure majorities. From east to west, there are countless examples.
In Myanmar, decades of hate speech and persecution culminated in 2017 with over 700,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya having to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh after a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing. The implicated military in Myanmar has been given plenty of diplomatic cover by China, whose authorities are currently holding up to 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in euphemistically titled “transformation-through-education” camps in Xinjiang. It’s one of the stories of our age, subjugation on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, India’s historic multi-faith character has taken a hit under the leadership of Narendra Modi, a man who was chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Muslims. His brand of Hindu nationalism has led to divisiveness rather than unity, leading to growing phenomena such as “cow-related violence”.
The biggest beneficiary of ballot box Islamophobia though is Donald Trump with his campaign promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” He said that this ban would stay in place until the country’s representatives “can figure out what the hell is going on”. Trump arrived on the back of a generation of Islamophobia that went hand-in-hand with the controversial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—wars that resulted in the still barely acknowledged deaths of hundreds of thousands of Muslims.
When the global picture is this grim, it’s little wonder that many Muslims feel embattled. Especially when they are also being told that despite these tragic numbers, they are actually the aggressors.
This is not, however, a religious conflict. The millions of Muslims who have lost their lives, been put in detention, or repressed in other multifaceted ways, have not been treated this way as part of a religious war. These are not the new crusades. The perpetrators are too diverse and too disparate for this to be case. So are the victims. Christians are also repressed in China, Pakistan and Indonesia. Christian and Muslim Palestinians face violence and discrimination every day. France and Germany reported disturbingly sharp rises in anti-Semitism last year; who can forget the distressing images of swastikas daubed across graves in Jewish cemeteries in Herrlisheim and Quatzenheim in eastern France? In light of the evidence, a “War on Islam” thesis doesn’t add up.
This is about how nation states treat their minorities. In this respect, Muslim-majority states are also often found wanting. Infamously there are no churches in Saudi Arabia. Given these circumstances, it was no surprise to see Saudi Arabia’s crown prince giving endorsement to China’s treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Harmony isn’t going to be achieved if only we had more interfaith dialogue and more mosque open days. Tackling this threat effectively requires a radical rethink about how we talk about freedom, equality and respect for all.
The strength of a nation lies in how well you treat all your people. It’s a mark of strength when you celebrate everyone who lives alongside you. We move forward when everyone has the freedom to live their lives as they wish, to contribute to their society as they see fit, and to be the people they want to be.
I grew up in Scotland and am proud of my nationality and my faith. We used to say that it takes many different colored threads to make tartan, just as it takes many different types of people to make Scotland. Every culture around the world must find their language to bring people together, rather than to drive them apart. In 1945, the Nazis were defeated through war. This time, we’ll beat the haters through the force of our love, compassion and shared humanity.
Indonesia’s flag carrier said it plans to meet Boeing officials next week to discuss the airline’s request to cancel its $4.8 billion order for the troubled 737 Max 8 jet.
PT Garuda Indonesia, which told Bloomberg last week it wants to cancel its order for 49 Boeing 737 Max jets, has informed the U.S. aircraft maker of its plans and is scheduling to hold the meeting in Jakarta, President Director I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra said on Friday. Still, the airline has yet to reach a decision on the cancellation of the Boeing 737 Max order, the company said.
Garuda, like Indonesia’s Lion Air and a number of airlines, are wavering on the Max jetliner after two of the planes crashed in the past months, prompting regulators worldwide to ground the Boeing’s best-selling plane, which sells for an average of $121.6 million each.
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Salman Khan is all set for yet another Eid release, Bharat in June. The actor has wrapped up the film and it is currently under post production. It will mark the return of Ali Abbas Zafar and Salman after Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai. Katrina Kaif is the leading lady of the film. As the fans are eagerly waiting to catch a glimpse of the film, we know when the first trailer will be out.
As per sources, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer Bharat's trailer will be out in the first half of April 2019. As the film is currently three months away from its release, the makers want to give a glimpse of the film way ahead of the release. This will be exciting for the fans who are excited to see Salman Khan sporting different looks which they got to see in the teaser. Interestingly, in April, Salman Khan will begin shooting for Dabangg 3.
The actor will be seen sporting five different looks spanning over 60 years, including a crucial part which will showcase the actor in his late 20s, looking much leaner and younger. Including stellar performers like Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, Jackie Shroff, Tabu, and Sunil Grover, the Ali Abbas Zafar directorial boasts of an ensemble cast promising power-packed performances.
Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Bharat is produced by Atul Agnihotri's Reel Life Production Pvt. Ltd and Bhushan Kumar's T-Series releasing Eid 2019.
New Delhi: Actor and BJP leader Paresh Rawal on Saturday announced that he is not keen on contesting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. Rawal is a sitting Member of Parliament from Ahmedabad East constituency.
"I had told the party 4-5 months ago that I do not want to contest the elections. But, ultimately it is the party's decision," Rawal said. Rawal's statement comes shortly after his name was not seen in the first list of candidates released by the BJP on Friday. Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held from April 11 and will go on till May 19 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
New Delhi: With electioneering in full swing, political parties are not missing any chance to take a dig at their rivals. On Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by comparing him with Adolf Hitler and accusing him of using the force to curb dissenting voices.
"Goons of Hitler use to beat and kill innocent people. Later, police use to file cases against the victims. Modiji is also doing the same. He is following Hitler's tactics to grab the power, but his supporters are not able to see in which direction India is going," tweeted Kejriwal. The scathing attack by Delhi's chief minister came hours after a video went viral that showed members of a Muslim family in Gurugram's Dhamaspur village being beaten up with sticks and rods, by a group of men.
The incident took place after some of the accused allegedly approached the boys from the family, who were playing cricket outside, and said that they "go to Pakistan and play." The Delhi Chief Minister also re-tweeted the video of the incident and stated, "Look at this video. In which holy book it is written that one should beat Muslims. Is it in Gita? Or in Ramayan? Or in Hanuman Chalisa?"
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India]: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Commissioner L Venkateshwar Lu said that over Rs 37 crore worth of cash and 6,92,519 litres of liquor has been seized in the state by the district administration. Besides this, over four lakh licensed weapons from across the state have been submitted on the orders of the Election Commission.
The administration has also taken action against 22,28,602 wall writings, posters and banners since the Model Code of Conduct is in force. The dates of polling in Uttar Pradesh are April 11, 18, 23, 29 and May 6, 12 and 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. There are 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Uttar Pradesh.
Washington: US President Donald Trump removed additional "large-scale" US Treasury sanctions on North Korea on Friday (local time). "It was announced today by the US Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!" Trump tweeted.
This move is largely being viewed as Trump's bid to keep denuclearisation talks with North Korea on track after the Hanoi summit ended abruptly last month without any agreement. The White House refused to comment on Trump's move, according to CNN, but added that the President took the step because he "likes" North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
"President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, without revealing the exact sanctions which have been removed. While it is still unclear as to which sanctions were stopped, the US Treasury Department had recently targeted two Chinese shipping companies for helping Pyongyang skirt UN-imposed sanctions.
Despite the breakdown of the second USA-North Korea summit, Trump had maintained that the relationship with the elusive state continues to be "good". Meanwhile, the process of denuclearisation has come to a halt in the Korean Peninsula, as North Korea's demand to ease sanctions was turned down by the US in Hanoi.
Paris: France's "yellow vests" are expected to stage further anti-government protests Saturday despite the authorities vowing a "zero tolerance" approach after major riots in Paris last week. Paris police have banned the protesters from a large area in the west of the city, including the famed Champs-Elysees avenue, scene of last week's rampage by hundreds of anarchists, as well as the presidential palace and National Assembly.
Similar bans have been announced in the centres of Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rennes and the southern city of Nice where Chinese President Xi Jinping is to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron this weekend. Macron is under pressure to avoid a repeat of last week's sacking of the Champs-Elysees, where over 100 shops were damaged, looted or set alight during seven hours of rioting by mainly masked, black-clad protesters. The government has announced plans to redeploy soldiers from its Sentinelle anti-terror force Saturday to guard public buildings to free up the police to tackle the radicals.
The announcement has drawn howls of protest from the opposition who have accused the government of playing with fire. On social media, "yellow vest" leaders, who have been accused of whipping up the violence with incendiary rhetoric, urged caution Saturday. In a YouTube post, truck driver Eric Drouet called on protesters not to try to return to the Champs-Elysees. "It's a very very bad idea. You know what image they're trying to create of us," he said, predicting a "quiet Saturday".
Macron's government drew fierce criticism over its handling of last week's protests. The police appeared to hang back in the face of sustained attacks, after being accused of using excessive force during several previous such protests. The Paris police chief was fired over the violence. On Friday, clean-up operations continued on the Champs-Elysees. Shattered panes were being removed from a Swarovski crystal store, which was ransacked after neglecting to board up its windows.
Work was also being carried out on six news kiosks that were torched, leaving several newspaper vendors out of work. Sylvain, the leader of a team of repair workers, who did not wish to give his full name, backed the use of the army to help restore order. "Either they do that, or Macron resigns." "He needs to show the world that the government has a handle on the country and on the capital," he said. The protests began in rural France on November 17 over fuel tax increases and quickly ballooned into a full-scale anti-government rebellion that two months of public policy debates have failed to defuse.
In recent weeks, the protesters' numbers have dwindled, falling from 282,000 nationwide on the first Saturday to just 32,000 last week, according to official estimates. Those still on the streets appear more determined than ever to make their presence felt, however. In a Facebook video this week, Maxime Nicolle, explained the periodic rioting in Paris and other cities as the result of "40 years of being beaten psychologically and financially" by successive governments.
"It's a bit as if a battered woman beats up her boyfriend and you say she's the violent one," he argued. The violence has cost the protesters, who want higher taxes on the rich and a greater say for ordinary people in the running of the country, public support, according to a poll published Wednesday.Some 53 percent of respondents said they either supported or felt a degree of sympathy towards the movement, down eight points in a week.
Two dead after landslip hits truck in JK's Doda The landslip hit the vehicle, burying alive two of its occupants - driver Shahzad Hussain (27) of Bhadarwah and conductor Arif Hussain (22) of Kishtwar district a police official said.
2019 Lok Sabha polls: BJP releases third list of candidates It contains 36 names — six candidates from Maharashtra, five from Odisha and one each from Assam and Meghalaya
Jayavardhan files his nomination papers A total of 23 nomination papers were filed by candidates in tehe city's three Parliamentary constituencies and Perambur Assembly constituency on Frid
BJP releases second list of LS candidates The Bharatiya Janata Party released a list of 36 candidates from four States for the upcoming 2019 general elections in the wee hours of Saturday.
'Anbumani has no immovable assets' Former Union Minister and PMK MP Anbumani Ramadoss does not own immovable assets and the value of his movable assets are lower than that of his depend
