🇺🇸 **Supreme Court rules on narrow grounds for baker who refused to create same-sex couple's wedding cake**
*USA Today* - <http://archive.li/HKGxt>

A divided Supreme Court on Monday absolved a Colorado baker of discrimination for refusing to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

The verdict criticized the state's treatment of Jack Phillips' religious objections to gay marriage, ruling that a civil rights commission was biased against him. As a result, the decision did not resolve whether other opponents of same-sex marriage, such as florists and photographers, can refuse commercial wedding services to gay couples.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the court's 7-2 decision against the same-sex couple, departing from his long history of opinions in favor of gay rights dating back a generation. Included among them was the court's 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

During oral argument in December, Kennedy and other conservative justices had expressed concern about the potential effect on other merchants with strong religious objections to same-sex marriage, from chefs to florists.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Dem lawmaker: ‘Looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress'**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/BZ9nct>

A Democratic congressman hammered Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, following a report that the company is sharing large amounts of its users’ data with other companies.

“Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook," Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) tweeted on Sunday.

“This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable,” the top Democrat on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee continued.

Cicilline’s tweet came in response to a Sunday New York Times story that detailed “far-reaching data partnerships” Facebook has established with roughly 60 device manufacturers, including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung over the last decade.

The partnerships allowed device makers to obtain Facebook user data like relationship status, religion and political leanings from users and also allowed for the sharing of the data of users’ Facebook friends.
----------------

🇬🇧 **SEXBOTS 'DANGER' Life-like sex robots could spread STIs, worsen impotence and ‘normalise paedophilia’**
*The Sun* - <http://archive.is/hxo77>

SEX ROBOTS may do more harm than good, leading medics claim.

They warn rising use of “sexbots” could spread sexually-transmitted infections, worsen impotence and normalise “sexual deviancy”.

Fans of the life-like love machines – that sell for up to £11,600 – say they can aid “harm reduction” by offering desperate fellas an outlet.

They claim doll use helps reduce sex crimes against women and children.

But Dr Chantal Cox-George, from St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Susan Bewley, from King’s College London, say there is little evidence this is true.

And raised fears they may make illegal behaviour more socially acceptable.
-------------

🇺🇸 **Family of Stoneman Douglas student advocate David Hogg 'swatted' at home**
*Local 10 ABC* - <https://archive.fo/dufI3>

The family of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was "swatted" Tuesday morning, causing police to respond to their Parkland home.
A call came into the Broward Sheriff's Office claiming a hostage situation at the home in the 7800 block of Northwest 122nd Way.

Coral Springs Fire Rescue arrived at the scene to find there was no hostage situation and the call was a prank.

Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington, DC with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award.

Sky 10 was over the home as units were staged outside as a precaution. BSO responded with multiple crews and a police helicopter.

Hogg said the swatting incident was "evidence of the fact of how many people are trying to stop us from what we're trying to do, which is to stop these kids from dying."

--------------------

🇺🇸 **On the 500th Day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Sessions Announces 311 New Assistant United States Attorney Positions**
*DOJ* - <https://archive.fo/99XSW>

Largest Increase in AUSAs in Decades Allocates Prosecutors to Focus on Violent Crime, Civil Enforcement, and Immigration Crimes
Today, on the 500th day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is taking a dramatic step to increase resources to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis. In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to assist in priority areas. Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors. Many of the civil enforcement AUSA’s will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

"Under President Trump's strong leadership, the Department of Justice is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis—and today we are sending in reinforcements," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is 'the coin of the realm.' When we can eliminate wasteful spending, one of my first questions to my staff is if we can deploy more prosecutors to where they are needed. I have personally worked to re-purpose existing funds to support this critical mission, and as a former federal prosecutor myself, my expectations could not be higher. These exceptional and talented prosecutors are key leaders in our crime fighting partnership. This addition of new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions represents the largest increase in decades."
-----------------

🇮🇱 ** Mueller was investigating Trump adviser as unregistered agent of Israel, his wife says**
🇺🇸 *The Washington Post via Chicago Tribune* - <http://archive.li/kJRQv>

Special counsel Robert Mueller last summer threatened to charge George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, with acting as an unregistered agent of Israel, Papadopoulos' wife said Tuesday.

Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, an Italian lawyer who married Papadapoulos in March, said the special prosecutor's office claimed to have evidence that Papadopoulos had worked on behalf of Israel without registering as a foreign agent while he was serving as an energy consultant before he joined the Trump campaign.

Papadopoulos denied the allegation, she said, but pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his interactions with two Russians and a London professor who had told him in 2016 that the Russians held Clinton-related emails. He has been cooperating with Mueller's probe.
Simona Papadopoulos, who said her husband was not involved in Russia's efforts to interfere in the White House race, said he agreed to plead guilty as a way to acknowledge missteps with the FBI and to avoid a protracted legal battle.

"I know he doesn't have anything to do with Russia," she said in an interview. "We know he was under scrutiny because of his ties to Israel, not his ties to Russia. So what's this about?"

A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
-----------------

🇨🇳 ** US screens more staff in China over mystery health issues**
🇺🇸 *AP* - <http://archive.li/7V4at>
A U.S. medical team was screening more Americans who work at the consulate in southern China as the State Department confirmed evacuating a number of government employees who experienced unexplained health issues like those that have hurt U.S. personnel in Cuba and China.

The evacuations of workers in Guangzhou followed medical testing that revealed they might have been affected. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said “a number of individuals” had been brought to the U.S. but didn’t say how many were affected or evacuated. A previous case in Guangzhou, disclosed last month, prompted the tests.

Nauert also said that remaining U.S. government personnel and their families in Guangzhou would also be able to request testing if they “noted concerning symptoms or wanted baseline screening.”

The incidents have raised fears the unexplained issues that started in Cuba in 2016 have expanded. The U.S. government has deemed those incidents “specific attacks” on American workers but hasn’t publicly identified a cause or culprit. Most of the incidents were accompanied by bizarre, unexplained sounds that initially led U.S. investigators to suspect a sonic attack.

Symptoms have included dizziness, headaches and an inability to concentrate. The American government worker who previously was removed from China reported “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” the Guangzhou consulate reported last month.

Security guards outside the Guangzhou consulate on Thursday told reporters to leave the area and not attempt to talk to consulate staff.
-----------------

🇰🇵 ** Full text of Trump-Kim signed statement**
🇺🇸 *CNN* - <http://archive.li/UrJa2>
Convinced that the establishment of new US-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building cam promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Having acknowledged that the US-DPRK summit -- the first in history -- was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in the joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit.

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new US-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and the security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.
-----------------

🇺🇸 ** Credit service shuts down payments on all gun purchases**
*NY Post* - <http://archive.li/NWWgo>
Several gun-related businesses were suddenly — and without warning — disrupted in recent weeks when Intuit stopped processing credit card payments because sales were gun-related, The Post has learned.

Some of the payments stopped didn’t even involve firearms, but simply T-shirts and coffee mugs and gun safety classes, according to small business owners.

Intuit told Campbell it mistakenly believed firearm sales were being made directly to the customers.

Campbell explained the guns were shipped to a local dealer with a federal firearms license who ran the required background checks. Intuit was unmoved.

Campbell said if he knew of Intuit’s stance, he would have simply moved back to his previous processor. “It’s fine, it’s capitalism, and if you don’t want to do business with us, we don’t want to do business with you,” he said.

Intuit did not return several requests for comment.
-----------------

🇨🇦 ** Canadians boycott US products, cancel vacations to America**
🇺🇸 *NY Post* - <http://archive.li/SZ06Y>

Canadians have taken to practicing pocketbook diplomacy in defense of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is caught in a trade war of words with President Trump, by boycotting American goods and canceling vacations to the United States, according to a report.

Shoppers are shunning Kentucky bourbon, California wine and Florida oranges, and avoiding American companies like Starbucks, Walmart and McDonald’s, Canadian network CTV News reported on Wednesday.

On Twitter, hashtags like #BuyCanadian, #BoycottUSProducts and #BoycottUSA are spreading as outrage over Trump’s trade tariffs grows.

An Ottawa man posted a “Trump-free grocery cart” full of products from Canada or from “countries with strong leadership.”

Vacationers said they would be staying up north this summer instead of booking trips to the US.

“F​–k​ you Trump. We just booked a $3,000 vacation to beautiful British Columbia. Happy anniversary to us. #Canadastrong #BuyCanadian #F***Tariffs,” tweeted ​Supreme Leader Lyna.
-----------------

🇵🇰 ** Leader of Pakistani Taliban killed by U.S. drone strike, Afghanistan says**
🇺🇸 *NBC News* - <http://archive.li/Sz23j>

The Pentagon confirmed U.S. forces had carried out a strike close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, targeting the leader of a terror group.

Mullah Fazlullah Khorasani was Pakistan's most-wanted militant and blamed for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In March, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information on Fazlullah.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told NBC News that Fazlullah died in a strike in the Marawaya district of the border province of Kunar.

Earlier, Lt. Col Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement that U.S. forces had carried out an airstrike Thursday in Kunar "which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization."

Fazlullah's death could ease strained ties between Islamabad and Washington even as Afghanistan observes an unprecedented three-day ceasefire with the larger Afghan Taliban.
-----------------

🇮🇱 ** Putin, Netanyahu discuss situation near Syria-Israel border**
🇷🇺 *AP* - <https://archive.li/q2IgG>

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have discussed the situation along Syria's border with Israel.

The Kremlin said the leaders discussed "the situation in Syria in the context of joint efforts to ensure security around the Syrian-Israeli border" on a Friday call. It added they "voiced readiness to strengthen coordination on Syria, including on combating international terrorism."

The conversation follows up on the two leaders' talks in Moscow and the Israeli defense minister's visit to Russia last month.

The Syrian government's plans to recapture rebel-held areas near the border raised Israeli concerns its other backers besides Russia — Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — could reaffirm their presence there. Israel has warned it wouldn't allow Iran to maintain a military presence in Syria.
-----------------

🇮🇹 ** Italy Demands Migrant NGO Boats Leave Mediterranean, Mocks Leftist Crew Members**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.li/miJ9Z>

Matteo Salvini has demanded the Netherlands recall the Dutch-flagged ‘rescue’ ships of open borders NGOs, declaring that Italy refuses to be complicit in the “illegal immigration business”.

Deputy Prime Minister and interior minister Matteo Salvini hit out at German ‘rescue’ charities operating the Lifeline and the Seefuchs on Saturday morning, noting that the vessels were hanging around the Libyan coast, “waiting to pick up their next load of human” brought to sea by criminal and sometimes terror-linked people-smugglers.

“[The NGOs] know that Italy no longer wants to be complicit in the business of illegal immigration, and therefore they will have to find other, non-Italian ports to go to,” he wrote on Facebook.

“As a [government] minister and a father, they can attack me and threaten me as much as they want, but I will not give up and I do this for the good of all.”

Italian transport minister Danilo Toninelli backed the populist Lega leader’s message on Twitter, calling on the Netherlands to recall the vessels, which he accused of being “in violation of the code of conduct” for ‘rescue’ boats on the basis that their insufficient staffing and equipment “could endanger lives”.
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🇺🇸 ** West Point grad who posed with 'Communism will win' in cap discharged**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.li/CMs8s>

The West Point graduate, who last year posed in a picture holding a cap that had “Communism will win” written inside, is officially out of the U.S. Army with an other-than-honorable discharge.

Spenser Rapone rocked the military community last year after his social media posts were revealed, showing him wearing a Che Guevara shirt underneath his military uniform.

He is no longer part of the U.S. military after top brass at Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division accepted his resignation Monday after an earlier warning for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” He’s leaving the military with an other-than-honorable discharge.

Army officials condemned the cadet last year and opened an investigation into his social media activity. “Second Lieutenant Rapone’s actions in no way reflect the values of the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Army,” an Army statement read.

His open advocacy of communism attracted the criticism from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio who then urged the U.S. military to dismiss Rapone for supporting the country’s enemies.

He also remains committed to the far-left causes, saying he considers himself “a revolutionary socialist” and urged others to join him in his revolution,

“I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement,” he said.

Rubio cheered the departure of Rapone. “While in uniform, Spenser Rapone advocated for communism and political violence, and expressed support and sympathy for enemies of the United States,” the Senator said on Monday. “I’m glad to see that they have given him an ‘other-than-honorable’ discharge.”
-----------------

🇺🇸 ** Verizon and AT&T will stop selling your phone’s location to data brokers**
*ARS Technica* - <http://archive.is/uiqUT>

Verizon and AT&T have promised to stop selling their mobile customers' location information to third-party data brokers following a security problem that leaked the real-time location of US cell phone users.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently urged all four major carriers to stop the practice, and today he published responses he received from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint.

Wyden's statement praised Verizon for "taking quick action to protect its customers' privacy and security," but he criticized the other carriers for not making the same promise.

"After my investigation and follow-up reports revealed that middlemen are selling Americans' location to the highest bidder without their consent or making it available on insecure Web portals, Verizon did the responsible thing and promptly announced it was cutting these companies off," Wyden said. "In contrast, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint seem content to continuing to sell their customers' private information to these shady middle men, Americans' privacy be damned."

AT&T changed its stance shortly after Wyden's statement. "Our top priority is to protect our customers' information, and, to that end, we will be ending our work with aggregators for these services as soon as practical in a way that preserves important, potential lifesaving services like emergency roadside assistance," AT&T said in a statement to Ars.

Sen. Wyden recognized AT&T's change on Twitter and called on T-Mobile and Sprint to follow suit.
-----------------

🇮🇱 ** Wife of Israel prime minister charged with fraud over alleged misuse of public funds**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.li/w60QK>

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday was charged with a series of crimes, including fraud, over alleged misuse of public funds.

Netanyahu, 59, was also charged with breach of trust in connection with the "Prepared Food Affair," the Jerusalem Post reported.

Netanyahu was accused of misusing about $100,000 of public funds for catering services at the prime minister's Jerusalem home while falsely stating there were no cooks on staff, the justice ministry stated.

Sara Netanyahu acted "to circumvent the rules and conditions" governing the official residence "in order to fraudulently obtain state funding for various expenses for the accused and her family that were not supposed to be financed in this manner," the indictment said.

If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of five years behind bars. It was not immediately clear when her trial would start.
-----------------

🇺🇸 ** Supreme Court says warrant necessary for phone location data in win for privacy**
*C|Net* - <http://archive.li/iniDe>

In a 5-4 decision on Friday the justices decided that police need warrants to gather phone location data as evidence for trials. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Sixth Circuit court's decision.

Carpenter v. United States is the first case about phone location data that the Supreme Court has ruled on. That makes it a landmark decision regarding how law enforcement agencies can use technology as they build cases. The court heard arguments in the case on Nov. 29.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the government's searches of Carpenter's phone records were considered a Fourth Amendment search.

"The Government's position fails to contend with the seismic shifts in digital technology that made possible the tracking of not only Carpenter's location but also everyone else's, not for a short period but for years and years," he wrote.

Roberts pointed out that allowing government access to historical GPS data infringes on Carpenter's Fourth Amendment protections and expectation of privacy, by providing law enforcement with an "all-encompassing record" of his whereabouts. He added that historical GPS data presents an "even greater privacy risk" than real-time GPS monitoring.
-----------------

triumph of the will when

🇹🇷 ** Turkey's Erdogan victorious in election that grants him unprecedented power**
*CNN* - <https://archive.li/6e5em>

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged victorious in a high-stakes election, seeing off the most serious challenge yet to his political dominance and tightening his grip on the nation he has ruled for 15 years.

Defeating the twin threats of a reinvigorated opposition and a weakened currency, Erdogan declared himself the winner even before official results were confirmed.

With 97.7% of the votes counted, Sadi Guven, chief of Turkey's Supreme Election Board, said Erdogan had won an absolute majority, avoiding a runoff against his principal challenger, Muharrem Ince. State media put Erdogan on 52.5%, well ahead of Ince on 31%.

"The winners of the June 24 elections are Turkey, the Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed (people) in the world," Erdogan said in a victory address from a balcony at the AKP's offices in the capital Ankara in the early hours of Monday morning.

The results were a blow to Ince and his Republican People's Party, known as the CHP, who ran a spirited campaign that threatened to force Erdogan into a damaging runoff and deny his party control of parliament.
-----------------

🇨🇳 ** China says United States domestic opioid market the crux of crisis**
🇺🇸 *Reuters* - <http://archive.li/lLYgc>

China’s drug control agency on Monday said the United States should do more to cut its demand for opioids to tackle the use of synthetic drug fentanyl, but it vowed to step up cooperation after Chinese production of the substance had been blamed for fuelling the U.S. opioid crisis.

A year-long congressional probe into the use of fentanyl in the United States found that the substance could easily be bought online from Chinese “labs” and mailed to the United States due to gaps in oversight in the U.S. Postal Service.

“China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu Yuejin, deputy head of China’s National Narcotics Commission, told a news conference.

“But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids,” he said.

While China accepts that some new psychoactive substances, including fentanyl, manufactured in China are sold in the United States, the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself, he said.
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🇺🇸 ** Appeals court limits once-nationwide sanctuary cities injunction to Chicago**
*Chicago Sun-Times* - <http://archive.li/PSaRJ>

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals limited to Chicago what had once been a nationwide injunction blocking Sessions from applying new conditions to grant money as he tries to force cities to cooperate with immigration authorities.

The limitation will be in effect until the full appeals court can weigh in on whether the injunction should apply nationwide, according to the court’s order. Arguments are set for Sept. 6.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber handed down the injunction last September. The grant at issue is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, used by local governments for law enforcement needs like police cruisers, body cameras and community programs aimed at reducing violence.

Leinenweber’s ruling stopped Sessions from attaching two new conditions to the grant. One of them would require the city to give the feds, when requested, a 48-hour heads up of the scheduled release date and time “of an alien in the jurisdiction’s custody.”

Another requires federal access to “any correctional or detention facility in order to meet with an alien … and inquire as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States.”
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🇺🇸 **Federal Judge Orders Migrant Family Reunification Within 30 Days**
*The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.li/1CMSi>

A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to end its migrant family separation policy within 30 days late Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego issued the preliminary injunction, finding the practice likely violates the Constitution. The decision is not a ruling on the merits of the dispute.

“Asylum seekers like Ms. L. and many other class members may be fleeing persecution and are entitled to careful consideration by government officials, particularly so if they have a credible fear of persecution,” he wrote. “We are a country of laws, and of compassion. We have plainly stated our intent to treat refugees with an ordered process, and benevolence, by codifying principles of asylum.”

“The government’s treatment of Ms. L. and other similarly situated class members does not meet this standard, and it is unlikely to pass constitutional muster,” he added.

Although President Donald Trump issued an executive order providing that migrant families in immigration facilities should be housed together on June 20, the proclamation did not affect some 2,000 migrant children currently in federal custody.
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🇺🇸 **Supreme Court deals sharp defeat to public employee unions, banning mandatory fees**
*LA Times* - <https://archive.li/NdWtU>

By a 5 to 4 vote, the justices overturned a 41-year-old precedent and ruled that the 1st Amendment protects these employees from being required to support a private group whose views may differ from theirs. The decision, in Janus vs. AFSCME, strikes down laws in California, New York and 20 other mostly Democratic-leaning states that authorize unions to negotiate contracts that require all employees to pay a so-called fair share fee to cover the cost of collective bargaining.

In 1977, when public sector unions were getting established, the high court said teachers and other public employees may not be forced to pay full union dues if some of the money went for political contributions. But the justices upheld the lesser fair share fees on the theory that all of the employees benefited from a union contract and its grievance procedures.

But today’s more conservative court disagreed and said employees have a right not to give any support to a union. These payments were described as a form of “compelled speech” which violates the 1st Amendment. The anti-union National Right to Work Foundation, which funded the challenge, predicted the ruling would free more than 5 million public employees from supporting their unions.

For the unions, which traditionally support Democrats, the ruling will mean an immediate loss of some funding and a gradual erosion in their membership. Union officials fear that an unknown number of employees will quit paying dues if doing so is entirely optional. The ruling is likely to have a political impact in many states where these unions have been strong supporters of the Democratic Party.
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🇺🇸 **Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says he's retiring; Trump to get 2nd high-court pick**
*Chicago Tribune* - <http://archive.is/5qxis>

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said Wednesday he is retiring, giving President Donald Trump the chance to cement conservative control of the high court.

The 81-year-old Kennedy said he is stepping down after more than 30 years on the court. A Republican appointee, he has held the key vote on such high-profile issues as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, guns, campaign finance and voting rights.

Without him, the court will be split between four liberal justices who were appointed by Democratic presidents and four conservatives who were named by Republicans. Trump's nominee is likely to give the conservatives a solid majority and will face a Senate process in which Republicans hold the slimmest majority, but Democrats can't delay confirmation.

Trump's first high court nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed in April 2017.
-----------------

`.iam film critics`

🇺🇸 ** Massive data leak could affect nearly all American adults, security researcher says **
*The Mercury News* - <https://archive.li/GBgXT>

Exactis, a Florida-based marketing and data-aggregation firm, leaked detailed information on individual adults and businesses, a security researcher says. While the exact number of individuals affected isn’t known, the leak involved about 340 million records on a publicly available server. No evidence has surfaced that anyone with malicious intent actually obtained the Exactis data. That makes it different from the Equifax hack, which was a cyberattack on the company’s data.

“It seems like this is a database with pretty much every U.S. citizen in it,” Troia, who’s also founder of New York-based security company Night Lion Security, told Wired, which also asked Troia to look up names in the database and confirmed the authenticity of some of the information, although some of it was outdated. “I don’t know where the data is coming from, but it’s one of the most comprehensive collections I’ve ever seen.”

Troia told Wired he was curious about the security of ElasticSearch, which the magazine described as “a popular type of database that’s designed to be easily queried over the internet using just the command line.” When he did a search on the database, he found the Exactis database, which was unprotected. He said he also told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his findings.

If the Exactis numbers are accurate, this leak would make it one of the biggest data security breaches in a while, topping last year’s Equifax breach and the number of Facebook users affected by the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, which according to Facebook was up to 87 million.
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triumph of the will

can't get in any trouble for watching it either its public domain

🇺🇸 **Walmart pulls controversial 'Impeach 45' clothing from website after harsh feedback**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.li/68X45>

Walmart has pulled the the controversial anti-Trump “Impeach 45” apparel from its website after receiving harsh feedback online.

The outcry sparked a #BoycottWalmart trend on Twitter as users expressed their distaste for the chain promoting the impeachment of President Trump, echoing some Congressional Democrats.

Ryan Fournier, chairman of the group Students for Trump, was one of the first to discover Walmart was selling the clothing item, according to the International Business Times. He asked the company in a tweet, “What kind of message are you trying to send?”

"These items were sold by third party sellers on our open marketplace, and were not offered directly by Walmart. We’re removing these types of items pending review of our marketplace policies," a Walmart spokesperson told Fox News.

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🇺🇸 **Trump administration is breaking from Obama-era affirmative action policies**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.li/NhALf>

The Trump administration is doing away with a series of affirmative-action policy documents put in place under former President Barack Obama that encourage colleges and universities to use race in admissions processes to promote campus diversity.

The guidelines, implemented under Obama between 2010 and 2016, put forth legal recommendations that officials in the Trump White House say “mislead schools to believe that legal forms of affirmative action are simpler to achieve than the law allows,” according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration contends that the Obama-era guidelines go far beyond what the Supreme Court has decided on in regard to affirmative action. The court has ruled that colleges and universities can use affirmative action to help minority students get into school, but conservatives over the years have argued that these programs hurt the chances of white and Asian-American applicants.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited “improper rulemaking.” He said, “The American people deserve to have their voices heard and a government that is accountable to them. When issuing regulations, federal agencies must abide by constitutional principles and follow the rules set forth by Congress and the President. In previous administrations, however, agencies often tried to impose new rules on the American people without any public notice or comment period, simply by sending a letter or posting a guidance document on a website. That’s wrong, and it’s not good government.”
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🇪🇺 **European Parliament rejects controversial copyright rules in major victory for campaigners**
*Independent* - <https://archive.fo/v2AsG>

The European Parliament has voted against an incredibly controversial new set of copyright rules that campaigners claim could "ban memes".

The law will now be sent for a full reconsideration and debate inside the parliament, during which activists will try and remove the controversial Article 11 and 13.

Article 11 has been referred to by campaigners as instituting a "link tax", by forcing tech companies like Google and Facebook to pay to use snippets of content on their own sites. Article 13 adds rules that make tech companies responsible for ensuring any copyrighted material is not spread over their platforms.

Those rules could force technology companies to scan through everything their users post and check it doesn't include copyrighted material. If it is found, the post will be forced to be removed, which campaigners claim could destroy the kind of memes and remixes that spread across the internet.
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🇺🇸 **Ringleader given 8 years in prison for beating teen with disability in attack livestreamed on Facebook**
*Chicago Tribune* - <https://archive.fo/KtYDl>

The accused ringleader in the racially charged beating of a teen with mental disabilities last year was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday. The case drew national outrage when the attackers livestreamed video of the attack on Facebook.

Jordan Hill, 20, pleaded guilty to one count each of a hate crime and aggravated kidnapping, becoming the third of four defendants to admit wrongdoing. An attorney for the remaining defendant, Tesfaye Cooper, 20, indicated in court Thursday his client is considering a plea deal as well.

Prosecutors on Thursday painted Hill as the instigator of the attack, saying he led the 18-year-old victim to the apartment where the incident took place and demanded money from the victim’s mother in exchange for his return.

Video posted in January 2017 shows the four defendants — all African-American — cutting the white victim’s scalp with a knife, punching and kicking him and laughing as he was bound and gagged in an apartment on Chicago’s West Side.

The gruesome video drew condemnation, including by then-President Barack Obama. Right-wing pundits used it as a rallying cry, tying it without evidence to the Black Lives Matter movement and blaming permissive policing.

-----------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL4OeiMjvtk

🇺🇸 **Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court**
*AP* - <http://archive.fo/r9zKU>

President Donald Trump is nominating influential conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court as he seeks to shift the nation’s highest court further to the right.

Trump chose the 53-year-old federal appellate judge for the seat opened up by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh would be less receptive to abortion and gay rights than Kennedy was.

Kavanaugh is Trump’s second high court pick after Justice Neil Gorsuch. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch served as law clerks to Kennedy at the same time early in their legal careers.

Kavanaugh is a longtime fixture of the Republican legal establishment. He has been a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington since 2006. He also was a key aide to Kenneth Starr during his investigation of President Bill Clinton and worked in the White House during George W. Bush’s presidency.
-----------------

🏳️‍🌈 **Study finds health risks for transgender women on hormone therapy**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/Zscha>

Transgender women on hormone therapy may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular problems, such as stroke, blood clots and heart attack, researchers reported Monday.

The study was done by reviewing eight years of medical records of nearly 5,000 transgender patients in the Kaiser Health system, and looked at patients over the age of 18 who took hormones for gender transition. Over 97,000 cisgender patients — people whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity — with similar age and health characteristics were studied for comparison.

“This is the largest study of the health of transgender individuals on hormone therapy ever done,” Dr. Darios Getahun, an author of the study and research scientist at Kaiser Permanente, told NBC News. “Doctors and patients need to be aware of the possibility for increased health risks for transgender women.”

The study found that transgender women, who are assigned the male sex at birth, were twice as likely as cisgender men or women to have the blood clot condition venous thromboembolism. Transgender women on hormone therapy were also found to be 80 to 90 percent more likely to have stroke or a heart attack than cisgender women.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Stormy Daniels arrested at Ohio strip club. Her attorney calls it a setup.**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/BWZjS>

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels was arrested early Thursday at an Ohio strip club for allegedly touching patrons on stage in violation of state law.

Daniels, who gained notoriety after suing President Donald Trump following an alleged affair, faces three misdemeanor counts of illegally touching a patron and will be arraigned Friday morning, court records show. She posted a $6,054 bail and was released Thursday morning.

Daniels will plead not guilty to the three misdemeanor charges, her attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted. Avenatti said his client was taken into custody while performing at a strip club in Columbus.

Under Ohio law, an employee who regularly appears nude or seminude is prohibited from touching patrons on the premises of a sexually oriented business -- unless it's a family member.
-----------------

🇰🇵 **N. Korea announces amnesty to celebrate 70th founding anniversary **
*YONHAP/KCNA* - <https://archive.fo/aKF7k>

North Korea plans to implement a general amnesty next month before celebrating its 70th founding anniversary on Sept. 9, Pyongyang's media said Monday.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that amnesty will be granted to those who were convicted of crimes against the country and people on the occasion of the North's 70th founding anniversary.

The amnesty will take effect on Aug. 1, the report said, noting the cabinet and relevant organs will take practical measures to help the released people settle down to a normal working life.

In this regard, the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly promulgated a decree on July 12, the KCNA said.

According to a full text carried by the Rodong Sinmun on the same day, the decree said it is the intrinsic demand of a Korean-style socialist system and the consistent principle of state activities to protect the independent and creative life of the popular masses and make selfless, devoted efforts for them by thoroughly applying the people-first principle.

The North last carried out a general amnesty in 2015 in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan's colonial rule and the founding of the Workers' Party.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **'Trump Baby' protest blimp is coming to America**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/2YuyY>

Activists from various states including California, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Utah have already reached out to get involved in the 'Trump Baby' tour.

A GoFundMe page to bring the giant blimp of ‘Baby Trump’ — from the recent protests in the U.K. — to the United States has raised more than $10,000 in just three days, doubling its original goal.

"This effort is our commitment to opposing Donald Trump in any way we possibly can," activist Jim Girvan, the co-creator of the fundraising page, told NBC News. "This is an opportunity to get even a little bit closer and even more annoying to the president."

The 20-foot-tall inflatable orange baby with the face of Donald Trump floated over Britain’s parliament as tens of thousands of protesters took the streets in response to the president’s visit. A failed petition to fly the blimp over Trump's golf course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, prior to his visit, garnered more than 16,000 signatures.

Girvan and Jimenez plan to do a nationwide tour with the blimp starting in August and are hoping to use the money they raised to create an American-made version, instead of transporting the original one from the U.K.

"Some of the plans we are keeping under wraps, but we are looking at Mar-a-Lago, there will be a Trump Baby flying off of his golf course, because he uses it as a hideaway from his job," Girvan said. "He doesn’t like doing his job, he doesn’t even know how to do his job."
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Mandalay Bay owners sue victims of Las Vegas mass shooting**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/updYm>

The corporate owners of the Mandalay Bay casino filed suit against the victims of last year’s Las Vegas concert mass shooting, claiming it has no liability for the massacre, according to a published report on Monday.

MGM Resorts International went to federal courts in Nevada and California and took on more than 1,000 shooting victims, saying claims against the hotel giant “must be dismissed.” “Plaintiffs have no liability of any kind to defendants,” the complaints argue, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Las Vegas lawyer Robert Eglet, who is representing several victims, told the paper that the hotel’s unusual action is a pre-emptive strike to get the cases heard in federal court instead of state court. Englet said MGM must believe it has better chances of victory in a federal case.

The MGM lawsuits are a “blatant display of judge shopping” that “quite frankly verges on unethical,” according to Eglet. “I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like,” the lawyer continued. “It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”

An MGM spokeswoman said Monday of the company’s lawsuits: “The Federal Court is an appropriate venue for these cases and provides those affected with the opportunity for a timely resolution. Years of drawn out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing.”
-----------------

🇪🇺 **Google fined £3.8bn ($5bn US) by EU over Android antitrust violations**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/r23i0>

Google has been hit with a record €4.34bn (£3.8bn) fine by the European Union for abusing its market dominance in mobile phone operating systems.

The EU imposed the multibillion-euro penalty after finding that the US tech firm required smartphone manufacturers to pre-instal Google’s search and browser apps devices using its Android operating system, otherwise they would not be allowed to use its Google Play online store and streaming service.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said Google has used its Android mobile phone operating system “to cement its dominance as a search engine”, preventing rivals from innovating and competing “and this is illegal under EU antitrust rules”.

Vestager added: “The vast majority of users simply take what comes with their device and don’t download competing apps. “Or to slightly paraphrase what [US free market economist] Milton Friedman has said ‘there ain’t no such thing as a free search.’”

Wednesday’s verdict ends a 39-month investigation by the European commission’s competition authorities into Google’s Android operating system. Laying out the statement of objections in April 2016, the commission accused the company of abusing its market dominance on three counts. First, by installing Google search as the default search engine on Android devices; second, preventing smartphone manufacturers from running competing systems; third, denying consumer choice, by giving financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile phone operators to pre-install Google Search.
-----------------

🇮🇱 **Israel approves controversial 'Jewish nation state' law**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/X77VM>

Israel's parliament has passed into law a controversial bill that defines the country as an exclusively Jewish state.

The "Jewish nation state" bill downgrades Arabic as an official language and says advancing Jewish settlement is a national interest. It also states that the "whole and united" Jerusalem is its capital.

Israeli Arab MPs condemned the legislation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised it as a "defining moment".

The bill, backed by the country's right-wing government, says that "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it".

It was passed after a stormy session in the Knesset that lasted more than eight hours. Sixty-two MPs voted for the bill, with 55 against. However some clauses were dropped following objections by Israel's president and attorney-general, including a clause that would have enshrined in law the creation of Jewish-only communities.
-----------------

🇸🇾 **Jordan takes in Syrian 'White Helmets' evacuated with Israeli help**
🇮🇱 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/vNPzq>

Jordan said on Sunday 800 people including members of Syria’s “White Helmets” civil defense group had been evacuated from southwest Syria where Damascus’ forces are advancing against rebels, with Israeli officials saying they facilitated the mission.

The Israeli military said that overnight it had completed “a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families ...due to an immediate threat to their lives”.

It said they were transferred to a neighboring country, which it did not identify.

On Saturday, Israeli security forces closed down roads in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian frontier, ahead of the evacuation operation.

A Jordanian foreign ministry spokesman said the kingdom had allowed the UN to arrange the entry and passage of 800 Syrian civil defense workers. said their lives were in danger after a government offensive that regained rebel-held parts of southern Syria.

The kingdom agreed to a request by Britain, Germany and Canada to give the White Helmet workers temporary asylum in the kingdom before settlement in the West on humanitarian grounds, spokesman Mohammad al Kayed said.

He said the aid workers would remain at a “closed” location and that Britain, Germany and Canada had agreed to resettle them within three months.
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🇨🇦 **Dramatic moment gunman dressed all in black opens fire into a restaurant in Toronto, injuring nine people including a child, before he is killed at the scene**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/15jXw>

This is the horrifying moment a gunman opened fire on a restaurant in Toronto in a mass shooting that left nine injured before he was killed.

Witnesses say that a man dressed in black opened fire in Greektown on Danforth, a popular area of the city full of restaurants and stores, at around 10pm on Sunday evening. Between 15 and 20 gunshots were heard.

Police have confirmed that the shooter is now dead.

A cellphone video, which appears to have been shot by someone in an apartment above the street, appeared to capture the shooter, in a black hoodie, walking down the street. Suddenly he turned as he passed by what appeared to be a store or restaurant front, whipped out his gun and opened fire.

Three gunshots were heard before the person filming quickly pulled back in and stopped the video. Victims reportedly suffered 'significant injuries'.

The shooter was pronounced dead at the scene, while six of his victims were rushed to a trauma center. One child was taken to a pediatric trauma center, and two others were taken to hospital.
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🇺🇸 **Judge says Pakistan-born terrorist convicted of helping Al-Qaeda can KEEP his US citizenship after government tried to take it away over his plot to 'cut the cables' on the Brooklyn Bridge**
*Daily Mail/AP* - <https://archive.fo/O5d9r>

The government can't strip a terrorist of his U.S. citizenship, a federal judge ruled this month in a decision siding with a Pakistan-born man serving the last few years of a 20-year prison sentence for his guilty plea to plotting to destroy New York's Brooklyn Bridge.

The case involves Iyman Faris, who was sentenced in 2003 for aiding and abetting Al-Qaeda by scoping out the bridge as part of a plot to cut through cables that support it.

His case was among the first and highest-profile terrorism cases after the September 11 attacks.

Faris met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and worked with Sept. 11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although some critics questioned how realistic the plot was, given post-Sept. 11 security in New York.

A court filing last year in U.S. District Court in southern Illinois argued that Faris lied on immigration papers before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1999 and that his terrorist affiliations demonstrated a lack of commitment to the U.S. Constitution.

'The U.S. government is dedicated to ... preventing the exploitation of our nation's immigration system by those who would do harm to our country,' Chad Readler, acting assistant attorney of the Department of Justice's civil division, said in a statement at the time.
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🇮🇱 **Syrian state television says Israel struck military post in Hama province**
🇸🇾 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/MFBLm>

Syrian state television said on Sunday an Israeli air strike had hit a military post in the city of Misyaf in Syria’s Hama province but caused only material damage.

The newsflash did not elaborate on what exactly had been targeted. An intelligence source said a major military research center for chemical arms production was located near the city and believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.

When asked about the reports of the air strike, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Last week, Syrian state media said Israeli rockets had struck a Syrian military position near Nairab airport on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo.

Opposition sources said several Iranians were killed at a logistics site used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards near the airport.

Some of Iran’s military bases in Syria are next to Syrian military compounds or within army barracks, according to the intelligence source adding this complicated the task of singling out Iranian military assets from Syrian army units.
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🇮🇱 🇺🇸 **In recording, Netanyahu boasts Israel convinced Trump to quit Iran nuclear deal**
🇮🇷 *The Times Of Israel* - <https://archive.fo/hdfrA>

In a video clip aired Tuesday by Israeli television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel was responsible for US President Donald Trump’s decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal.

In the video, which the Kan public broadcaster said was filmed two weeks ago, Netanyahu can be seen speaking to activists and senior members from his Likud party.

“We convinced the US president [to exit the deal] and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,” Netanyahu says in the video. “And we didn’t give up.”

The prime minister then begins to speak about the Iranian regime — “not the Iranian people, I have nothing against them” — before he is interrupted by an unidentified person off-screen who says, “It will disappear with the help of God.”

“You said it. From your mouth to God,” Netanyahu says in response as the clip ends.
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🇩🇿 **Algeria abandons hundreds more African migrants in desert**
*Deutsche Welle/AP/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/ZXDED>

A UN migration official has accused Algeria of leaving hundreds of African migrants stranded in the desert. A report said migrants from 16 African countries are among those ditched in the Sahara with little water.

A rescue official in neighboring Niger said on Sunday that nearly 600 African migrants in Algeria were abandoned in the desert with hardly any food or water before being rescued.

This comes after a report from a UN migration official who said on Saturday that Algeria's government has resumed expelling migrants into the Sahara Desert. Recently they left 391 people in some of the world's most hostile terrain in the middle of summer when temperatures can reach over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

According to a tweet from Giuseppe Loprete, the head of the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Niger, migrants from 16 different countries were abandoned at the border with Niger.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that Algeria has left more than 13,000 migrants in the desert of Niger and Mali since May 2017, forcing them to walk or die in the searing heat.

After the AP report came out, the expulsions appeared to have been suspended. IOM in Mali said the normally secretive Algerian government seemed to be trying to make an effort to communicate the movement of the migrants.
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🇺🇸 **Philadelphia will no longer let ICE access arrest database**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/APgh3>

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced Friday that has stopped allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to access a key city law enforcement database.

Kenney plans to formally announce the decision to terminate the city’s contract with ICE Friday afternoon, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I cannot in good conscience allow the agreement to continue,” Kenney told the paper.

Kenney’s decision comes after several incidents that he says gave him reason to be concerned that the agency was using its access to the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, or PARS, in “inappropriate ways.”

The mayor’s office claimed that ICE would search the database to find Philadelphia residents born outside of the U.S. and target them for investigation, even if they had not been accused or convicted of a crime.

According to the mayor, Philadelphia ICE officials confirmed earlier this month that the agency’s access to the database could result in immigration enforcement against residents without criminal convictions.

The database, which is a real-time database of arrests, does not list immigration status, according to the Inquirer, but does include country of origin and Social Security number.
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🇺🇸 **More than 450 people in Florida ordered to give up guns under new law, report says**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/M7Vwg>

Hundreds of gun owners in Florida have been ordered to give up their guns under a new law that took effect after the deadly Parkland shooting in February, according to a report published Monday.

The Risk Protection Order, signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott just three weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Stoneman Douglas, aims to temporarily remove weapons from gun owners who have been deemed by a judge to possibly be a threat to themselves or others.

Roughly 200 firearms have been confiscated in the state since the law was enacted, Sgt. Jason Schmittendorf, of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, told WFTS-TV. "Around 30,000 rounds of ammunition" were also taken, he said.

A five-person team in the county that's worked solely on the risk protection law reportedly has filed 64 risk protection petitions in court. Broward County, according to the news outlet, has filed 88 risk protection petitions since March.

"It’s a constitutional right to bear arms and when you are asking the court to deprive somebody of that right we need to make sure we are making good decisions, right decisions and the circumstances warrant it,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the station in defense of the task force.

Every petition filed under the order in Pinellas County has so far been granted by the judge, according to the report.
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🇺🇸 **Portland Police Refused To Help ICE Agents Who Called 911, Agents Say**
*Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/tCxSA>

Portland, Oregon, police refused to respond to at least two 911 emergency calls from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees inside their offices where violent protesters held week-long demonstrations.

The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union representing ICE employees, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler, asking him to ensure the police enforce the law equally and protect innocent people.

“Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says.

Demonstrators, some affiliated with the domestic terrorist organization Antifa, set up a city of tents outside the ICE offices. After setting up camp, they became violent and incited violence several times.

“Every person in law enforcement knows there are few things as dangerous or as unpredictable than an angry mob,”said Chris Crane, president of the national union, WWeek reported Monday. “No one could have responded quickly enough to protect our employees who were trapped inside this building. All of this because the Mayor of Portland has a beef with the president of the United States.”
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🇬🇧 **Tommy Robinson, Anti-Muslim Activist, Is Freed on Bail in U.K.**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/INBFc>

LONDON — Tommy Robinson, the jailed British far-right activist who has gained the support of figures like Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Trump, was ordered released on bail on Wednesday, after challenging his conviction for contempt of court.

Mr. Robinson was arrested in May after he broadcast live video from outside a criminal trial in Leeds, England, which had a news media blackout.

He was sentenced to 13 months in prison for contempt of court, provoking an international outcry in far-right circles.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal ordered his release, pending a new hearing in his case.
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🇺🇸 **Details Surface About Chinese Spy Who Worked For Sen. Feinstein**
*5KPIX CBS SF BayArea* - <https://archive.fo/HoXmc>

New details emerged Wednesday about how a mole for the government of communist China managed to stay by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s side for nearly 20 years.

It happened five years ago, but additional information is just surfacing about how the Bay Area senator’s office was infiltrated by a Chinese spy.

Now, all eyes are on Chinese intelligence in the Bay Area after the website Politico reported last week that a staffer for Senator Feinstein turned out to be a Chinese spy who reported back to the government officials about local politics.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle uncovered additional details in a column written by reporters Phil Matier and Andy Ross.

The column revealed that the Chinese spy was Feinstein’s driver who also served as a gofer in her Bay Area office and was a liaison to the Asian-American community.
-----------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gEw3PFjFF8

good race

if you're into that kinda thing

🇺🇸 **Liberal Hero Chomsky Admits "Israeli Intervention In US Elections Overwhelms Anything Russia Has Done"**
🇮🇱 *ZeroHedge/Democracy Now* - <https://archive.fo/W6FNb>

As the mainstream media (and even the leftist politicians) begin to back quietly away from the "collusion" narrative, they remain increasingly focused on Russia's "evil" efforts at "meddling" in the US election and "interfering with our democracy," or some such hysterical phrase.

And that is what makes the comments by mainstay of world-renowned political dissident and liberal-thinking hero Noam Chomsky's comments in the following interview with Democracy Now so 'awkward' for the Trump-hating members of society.

```...so, take, say, the huge issue of interference in our pristine elections. Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that’s almost a joke.
First of all, if you’re interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support.
Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done...
I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies - what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015....```-----------------

🇺🇸 **Facebook denies claims it's after users' financial data after report reveals the firm has been asking US banks to share information, including account balances and card transactions**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/ERKqX>

Facebook is weighing partnerships with U.S. banks to offer services on Messenger.

The social media giant has approached JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp in the past year about sharing customers' financial data, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources close to the situation.

Data would reportedly include things like users' card transactions and checking account balances.

However, Facebook has since denied that it's interested in obtaining consumers' financial data. Instead, it hopes enhance its payment and commerce features within Messenger.

Since the report was published, Facebook had already been criticized for the rumored bank partnerships, in large part due to its poor track record of protecting user data.

'A recent Wall Street Journal story implies incorrectly that we are actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data - this is not true,' Facebook spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana told TechCrunch.
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🇺🇸 **Anonymous vows to take down, expose QAnon**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/c9M5V>

The hacking collective Anonymous is pledging to expose the people behind the "QAnon" conspiracy theory.

The anarchist hacking group slammed the QAnon conspiracy as potentially dangerous and driven by a “brainless political agenda” in a video posted Sunday to what is widely considered the most reliable Anonymous Twitter account.

“We will not sit idly by while you take advantage of the misinformed and poorly educated,” the group said in the video, which was posted with the hashtags #OpQ and #OpQAnon.

The video depicts various figures with Anonymous masks acting out certain aspects of the QAnon conspiracy against a constant backdrop of the letter “Q.”

The video claims that Anonymous “knew who was responsible for Q” and thought it was funny at first. However, the group now believes the conspiracy theory has gone too far.

“Someone is going to get hurt, so we have to put our foot down and start some shit with you all,” the group said in the video.
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🇩🇪 **German couple jailed for selling son to paedophiles on dark net**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/4M8yM>

A woman who sold her son to paedophiles on the dark net for sex has been jailed for 12 years and six months by a court in southern Germany.

The Freiburg court also jailed her partner, the boy's stepfather, for 12 years. The boy was nine when the trial began in June.

Berrin T, 48, and Christian L, 39, are both German nationals, living in Staufen near Freiburg.

The dark net is an internet area beyond the reach of mainstream search engines.

On Monday the court jailed a Spanish man for 10 years for sexually abusing the boy repeatedly.

Five other men have also been prosecuted in connection with the abuse.

The couple were found guilty of rape, aggravated sexual assault of children, forced prostitution and distribution of child pornography.
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🇺🇸 **Eric Clanton takes 3-year probation deal in Berkeley rally bike lock assault case**
*Berkeleyside* - <https://archive.fo/R4oHt>

A former East Bay college philosophy professor who was charged with four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, causing great bodily injury, has taken a deal resulting in three years of probation for an attack at a Berkeley protest last year, court records reveal.

Eric Clanton had been linked by police to violent assaults with a metal bike lock during a “free speech” rally in Berkeley on April 15, 2017. Before his arrest, Clanton had been “outed” online, on the website 4chan, as someone who used a bike lock to strike a man in the head. The assault was captured in a video clip (below) that drew widespread attention and anger after it was posted on YouTube.

Wednesday, Clanton was supposed to have had his preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether there’s enough evidence in a case for it to move ahead to trial. Instead, there was no hearing, and information about Clanton’s plea deal became available online.

According to Alameda County Superior Court records, Clanton entered a “no contest” plea Wednesday to one misdemeanor battery charge. The felony charges against him were dismissed, and an allegation that he had caused serious bodily injury was stricken. A misdemeanor charge that Clanton wore a mask during the commission of the crime also was dropped.

Clanton’s three years of probation begin Wednesday and last through Aug. 8, 2021.

Police said, previously, that Clanton attacked at least three people with a metal U-lock during the April 15 rally in and around Civic Center Park. Court papers later revealed that Clanton struck at least seven people in the head, according to authorities. One person received a head laceration that required five staples to fix. Another was uninjured but had a piece of a helmet broken off. A third was struck across the neck and back, police wrote.
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🇺🇸 **Google tracks your movements, like it or not**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/qc9dG>

Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.

An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so.

Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information. An app like Google Maps will remind you to allow access to location if you use it for navigating. If you agree to let it record your location over time, Google Maps will display that history for you in a “timeline” that maps out your daily movements.

Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects — such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company lets you “pause” a setting called Location History.

Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .)
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🌎 **Hackers ‘to steal MILLIONS from cash machines within days’: FBI warns of imminent mass attack on world’s ATMs**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/7t27R>

America's intelligence chiefs have warned banks of a major hacking threat to cash machines worldwide in the next few days.

The FBI sent out a confidential alert on Friday to warn that cyber criminals are planning a global 'cash-out scheme' using malware to take over ATMs and steal millions of dollars.

Banks were warned that they could fall victim to an 'unlimited operation' in which millions of dollars could be withdrawn from cash machines.

Smaller banks with less sophisticated security systems are thought to be most vulnerable to an attack using the 'jackpotting' technique, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The warning said: 'The FBI has obtained unspecified reporting indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days, likely associated with an unknown card issuer breach.'
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🇺🇸 **A growing number of California detainees are Indians crossing through Mexico to seek asylum**
*LA Times* - <https://archive.fo/dIhsK>

On a recent visit to the federal prison in Victorville, U.S. Rep. Mark Takano was caught by surprise. Of the hundreds of immigrants detained there, he learned, possibly 40% had traveled from India seeking asylum.

“They said they were often bullied into doing things that were immoral,” Takano said. “They would have to carry drugs, perpetrate violence against others.”

According to immigration officials and attorneys, there has been an increase in recent years of Indian nationals crossing into the U.S. through Mexico — although they represent a small percentage of those detained overall. Indian citizens are among thousands of migrants from Haiti, Africa and Asia now trekking across Latin America, taking advantage of travel routes forged by Latino immigrants.

By early August, about 380 of the 680 migrants at the Victorville facility were Indian nationals, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, sent there as civil rather than criminal detainees pending the outcome of their immigration cases.

In addition, about 40% of the detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Imperial Valley facility are from India, a spokeswoman said. Nearly 20% of detainees at ICE’s Adelanto processing center are Indian.

So far during the 2018 fiscal year, 4,197 of those arrested by Border Patrol agents have been Indian nationals, according to data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Christine Hallquist, a Transgender Woman, Wins Vermont Governor’s Primary**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/5ksEL>

On a cloudy afternoon this summer, Christine Hallquist, a former utility executive from Vermont, listened closely as Danica Roem, the Virginia state delegate who won national recognition when she became the first transgender person elected to her state’s Legislature, offered tips as the pair canvassed a stark residential neighborhood here.

Ms. Hallquist is transgender, too, but Ms. Roem’s advice had nothing to do with gender identity. Try a light, rhythmic knock. Leave a handwritten note with campaign literature if no one is home. Try to earn every vote.

“I have so much to learn,” Ms. Hallquist said, duly incorporating Ms. Roem’s lessons with each new knock.

On Tuesday, those lessons paid off, and Ms. Hallquist, a Democrat, made history of her own. She became the first transgender candidate to be nominated for a governorship by a major party, beating three other candidates in Vermont’s Democratic primary, according to The Associated Press.

“Tonight, we made history,” Ms. Hallquist said, addressing supporters at an election night party in Burlington. She added, “I am so proud to be the face of the Democrats tonight.”

It is a remarkable milestone, even for an election year already dominated by an influx of women and a record number of candidates who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender or queer.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Christian baker vindicated by SCOTUS back in court for not baking a gender transitioning cake**
*Washington Times* - <https://archive.fo/b5TmD>

The Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and was vindicated by the Supreme Court earlier this year is mounting another legal challenge this week after refusing to bake a gender-transitioning cake.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission discriminated against baker Jack Phillips for his religious beliefs, an attorney requested he create a cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside to represent a gender transition from male to female.

As a Christian, Mr. Phillips would not make the cake since it conflicted with his beliefs, which was his same reasoning for refusing to bake the same-sex couple’s wedding cake.

The state of Colorado has come after Mr. Phillips again, suggesting state law requires him to bake the gender change cake.

It’s the newest complaint mounted against him, which has forced Mr. Phillips to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday.

“The state of Colorado is ignoring the message of the U.S. Supreme Court by continuing to single out Jack for punishment and to exhibit hostility toward his religious beliefs,” said Kristen Waggoner, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty law firm defending Mr. Phillips.
-----------------

🇨🇳 **Chinese bombers likely training for US strikes: Pentagon**
🇺🇸 *Daily Mail/AFP* - <https://archive.is/5v1Xh>

Chinese bombers are likely training for strikes against US and allied targets in the Pacific, according to a new Pentagon report that also details how Beijing is transforming its ground forces to "fight and win."

The annual report to Congress, released Thursday, highlights China's growing military, economic and diplomatic clout and how Beijing is leveraging this to rapidly build its international footprint and establish regional dominance.

In the case of China's air power, the report states that Chinese bombers are developing capabilities to hit targets as far from China as possible.

"Over the last three years, the PLA (People's Liberation Army) has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets," the document states, noting how China is pushing its operations out into the Pacific.

The PLA may demonstrate the "capability to strike US and allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean, including Guam," the report says. With nearly a million troops, the PLA is the largest standing ground force in the world.
-----------------

🇮🇳 **ATM hackers steal £10m (~$13m USD) across 28 countries in audacious bank heist**
🌎 *Independent* - <https://archive.is/iBELd>

Hackers with suspected ties to North Korea have syphoned more than 940 million rupees (£10.5 million) from ATMs around the world in a highly-coordinated attack.

The heist on Cosmos Bank took place across several days, beginning on 11 August, just a day after the FBI warned cyber criminals could be planning a highly-coordinated attack on cash machines.

Hackers carried out the attack by infecting the bank's debit card payment system with malware, which allowed them to self-approve transactions. Fake cards were then used to withdraw money through roughly 14,800 ATM transactions across 28 countries.

Indian media, who first reported the breach, linked the attack to similar hacks previously carried out by Lazarus, a prolific hacking group with ties to North Korea.

"In two days, hackers withdrew [funds] from various ATMs in 28 countries, including Canada, Hong Kong and a few ATMs in India," Cosmos Bank chairman Milind Kale told local reporters.
-----------------

🌎 **Google clarifies location-tracking policy**
*Associated Press* - <https://archive.is/px1Pw>

Google clarified how it tracks users even if they’ve disabled a “location history” setting, revising a help page that erroneously said turning off that setting would stop the tracking.

The change came three days after an Associated Press investigation revealed that several Google apps and websites store user location even if users have turned off Location History. Google has not changed its location-tracking practice in that regard.

But its help page for the Location History setting now states: “This setting does not affect other location services on your device.” It also acknowledges that “some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps.”

Previously, the page stated: “With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.” The AP observed that the change occurred midday Thursday, a finding confirmed by Internet Archive snapshots taken earlier in the day.

The AP investigation found that even with Location History turned off, Google stores user location when, for instance, the Google Maps app is opened, or when users conduct Google searches that aren’t related to location. Automated searches of the local weather on Android phones also store the phone’s whereabouts.

In a Thursday statement to the AP, Google said: “We have been updating the explanatory language about Location History to make it more consistent and clear across our platforms and help centers.” The statement contrasted with a statement Google sent to the AP several days ago that said in part, “We provide clear descriptions of these tools.”
-----------------

🇿🇦 **South Africa begins seizing white-owned farms**
*News.com.au* - <https://archive.fo/suD7H>

Local newspaper City Press reports two game farms in the northern province of Limpopo are the first to be targeted for unilateral seizure after negotiations with the owners to purchase the properties stalled.

While the government says it intends to pay, owners Akkerland Boerdery wanted 200 million rand ($18.7 million) for the land — they’re being offered just 20 million rand ($1.87 million).

“Notice is hereby given that a terrain inspection will be held on the farms on April 5, 2018 at 10am in order to conduct an audit of the assets and a handover of the farm’s keys to the state,” a letter sent to the owners earlier this year said.

Akkerland Boerdery obtained an urgent injunction to prevent eviction until a court had ruled on the issue, but the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs is opposing the application.

“What makes the Akkerland case unique is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires,” AgriSA union spokeswoman Annelize Crosby told the paper.
-----------------

🇰🇵 **North Korea to let U.N. aviation agency officials conduct on-site missile safety inspection**
*The Japan Times* - <https://archive.fo/65BEB>

North Korea has agreed to allow International Civil Aviation Organization staff to conduct an on-site inspection to ensure the safety of international flights from the country’s missile launches, according to officials with the Montreal-based U.N. agency.

An official with North Korea’s General Administration of Civil Aviation gave the assurance when high-ranking ICAO representatives visited the country in May, ICAO officials said.

The 192-member ICAO is now planning to send its personnel next year in order to verify what measures North Korea, which is a member of the group, has taken to keep unannounced missile launches in check as it pledged, they said.

After last May’s trip, the ICAO said North Korea had promised to suspend activities that represented a danger to civil aviation, including the test-firings of long-range missiles without prior notice. Pyongyang conducted numerous unannounced missile tests last year, posing an enormous threat to airplanes flying in the region.

This danger was highlighted in July last year, when an Air France airliner flying from Tokyo to Paris flew past an area where a ballistic missile splashed into the Sea of Japan off Hokkaido just several minutes later.

North Korea’s nod to an on-site inspection is seen as an effort by the isolated country to win credibility for its pledge to halt such launches as it works to improve ties with the international community.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Russian hackers targeted U.S. conservative think-tanks, says Microsoft**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/50PCX>

Hackers linked to Russia’s government tried to target the websites of two right-wing U.S. think-tanks, suggesting they were broadening their attacks in the build-up to November elections, Microsoft said.

The software giant said it thwarted the attempts last week by taking control of sites that hackers had designed to mimic the pages of The International Republican Institute and The Hudson Institute. Users were redirected to fake addresses where they were asked to enter usernames and passwords.

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities, but the Kremlin was expected to address the report later on Tuesday. It has regularly dismissed accusations that it has used hackers to influence U.S. elections and political opinion.

Casting such allegations as part of an anti-Russian campaign designed to justify new sanctions on Russia, it says it wants to improve not worsen ties with Washington.

The International Republican Institute has a roster of high-profile Republican board members, including Senator John McCain of Arizona who has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s interactions with Russia, and Moscow’s rights record.

The Hudson Institute, another conservative group, has hosted discussions on topics including cybersecurity, according to Microsoft. It has also examined the rise of kleptocracy, especially in Russia and has been critical of the Russian government, the New York Times reported.
-----------------

🌎 **Facebook is rating the trustworthiness of its users on a scale from zero to 1**
*Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/xmc9p>

Facebook has begun to assign its users a reputation score, predicting their trustworthiness on a scale from zero to 1.

The previously unreported ratings system, which Facebook has developed over the past year, shows that the fight against the gaming of tech systems has evolved to include measuring the credibility of users to help identify malicious actors.

Facebook developed its reputation assessments as part of its effort against fake news, Tessa Lyons, the product manager who is in charge of fighting misinformation, said in an interview. The company, like others in tech, has long relied on its users to report problematic content — but as Facebook has given people more options, some users began falsely reporting items as untrue, a new twist on information warfare for which it had to account.

It’s “not uncommon for people to tell us something is false simply because they disagree with the premise of a story or they’re intentionally trying to target a particular publisher,” Lyons said.

Users’ trustworthiness score between zero and 1 isn’t meant to be an absolute indicator of a person’s credibility, Lyons said, nor is there is a single unified reputation score that users are assigned. Rather, the score is one measurement among thousands of new behavioral clues that Facebook now takes into account as it seeks to understand risk. Facebook is also monitoring which users have a propensity to flag content published by others as problematic and which publishers are considered trustworthy by users.
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🇨🇳 **BuzzFeed reporter 'effectively' ejected from China: Foreign media**
*Channel News Asia* - <https://archive.fo/QWtuT>

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said on Wednesday (Aug 22) that the foreign ministry had "effectively" ejected BuzzFeed News's Beijing bureau chief from the country after declining to renew her visa.

Megha Rajagopalan, who is American and had been in China for six years, said on Twitter that the foreign ministry had "declined to issue me a new journalist visa" in May.

"They say this is a process thing, we are not totally clear why," wrote Rajagopalan, who left the country in late February.

Rajagopalan has reported extensively on China's security crackdown in the far-west region of Xinjiang, where rights groups say hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs are held in re-education camps.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said in a statement that she had "conducted herself according to the highest journalistic standards while in China".

The foreign ministry "declined to give a clear and transparent reason for denying her a visa", it said.
-----------------

🇨🇭 **Credit Suisse freezes $5 billion of Russian money due to U.S. sanctions**
🇷🇺 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/JTtjw>

One of Switzerland’s largest banks, Credit Suisse, has frozen roughly 5 billion Swiss francs ($5 billion) of money linked to Russia to avoid falling foul of U.S. sanctions, according to its accounts, further increasing pressure on Moscow.

The move by Credit Suisse, which owned aircraft surrendered by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska and had lent money to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg before the sanctions, underscores a widespread fear among banks of reprisals from Washington for working with targeted Russian individuals and entities.

For Russia’s elite, such steps could close off an important avenue for finance as well as a safe haven for billions of rubles of their wealth.

“Credit Suisse works with international regulators wherever it does business to ensure compliance with sanctions, including compliance with sanctions involving Russia,” said a spokeswoman for the bank, which did not identify the owners of the money.

Long popular with wealthy Russians for its combination of bank secrecy, political stability and glitzy ski resorts such as Zermatt and St. Moritz, Switzerland has become one of the most important destinations for money leaving Russia.

Roughly $6.2 billion, or 14 percent of total Russian cross-border outflows, went to Switzerland in 2017 — almost three times as much as went to the United States, according to Russian central bank data.
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🇺🇸 **UNC Board of Governors Member: Toppled ‘Silent Sam’ Confederate Statue Will Be Reinstalled**
*The Daily Beast/WNCN* - <https://archive.fo/vKvs1>

Three people have been charged in connection to the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue that was toppled Monday on the University of North Carolina’s campus. The three individuals are reportedly “not affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill” and will face “charges of riot and defacing a public monument,” WGHP reports. Meanwhile, a member of the UNC System Board of Governors said the statue would be reinstalled within 90 days. Thom Goolsby, a member of the board, posted on Twitter Thursday saying that the statue of the Confederate solider will return to campus “as required by state law,” WNCN reports. “Criminals who destroyed state property at UNC and police who did nothing will be held accountable,” Goolsby wrote. In a YouTube video, Goolsby said that the school “will make sure the laws of our state are enforced... We will not allow anarchy to reign on our campuses.” Goolsby is referring to a 2015 law that states an “object of remembrance” can only be moved for restoration or for “construction, renovation, or reconfiguration of buildings, open spaces, parking, or transportation projects.” On Thursday, the state’s historical commission also reportedly “voted to keep Confederate monuments on the North Carolina Capitol grounds.”
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🇺🇸 **John McCain Ends Treatment for Brain Cancer**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/wCVcZ>

Sen. John McCain has stopped medical treatment for brain cancer, his family said in a Friday statement. “Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: He had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment,” the statement declared. “Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.” McCain, 81, has served as a Republican senator from Arizona since 1987, when he replaced Barry Goldwater.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **T-Mobile breach may have impacted 2 million customers**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/pQmD5>

T-Mobile is warning of a security breach that may have exposed the data of millions of customers.

The hack, which occurred Monday, may have compromised information including names, zip codes, phone numbers, email address, account numbers and account types, the nation's third-largest wireless provider said in a statement.

The company's security team shut down the intrusion, and financial information such as credit card and Social Security numbers was not exposed.

Affected customers have either been notified or would be shortly, T-Mobile stated.

A spokesperson confirmed in an email that the breach affected about 3 percent of T-Mobile's 77 million customers, or 2 million people.

The security incident is only the latest at T-Mobile. In May, researchers detected a bug in the company's website that allowed anyone to access the personal data of customers with just a phone number.
-----------------

🇻🇳 **Vietnam demands Monsanto compensate Agent Orange victims after US cancer ruling precedent**
*RT* - <https://archive.fo/LPMcw>

Following the unprecedented $289mn verdict against Monsanto in California, Hanoi is seeking justice for victims of exposure to the Agent Orange – the notorious chemical the firm supplied to the US military during the Vietnam War.

After a San Francisco jury proved Monsanto not invincible and ordered the chemical giant to pay $289 million to a school worker who argued he got terminal cancer after using its Roundup herbicide, Vietnam has also demanded compensation from the St. Louis-based company.

“The verdict serves as a legal precedent which refutes previous claims that the herbicides made by Monsanto and other chemical corporations in the US and provided for the US army in the war are harmless,” deputy foreign ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Tra said Thursday. “Vietnam has suffered tremendous consequences from the war, especially with regard to the lasting and devastating effects of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange.”

Around three million people in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange during a brutal chemical warfare campaign between 1961 and 1971, in which 12 million gallons of herbicide produced by Monsanto Corporation, among others, were dropped over the jungle to defoliate it. Because of such a high level of exposure to dioxin, a byproduct found in Agent Orange, millions of Vietnamese continue to suffer health conditions, often resulting in deformities which are passed through gene mutations to future generations.

Monsanto, which has never acknowledged its role in the devastation, argues that Agent Orange “was only produced for, and used by, the government,” noting that Monsanto was just one of nine wartime government contractors who manufactured the same toxin from 1965 to 1969.
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🇦🇫 **Head of Islamic State in Afghanistan killed, government says**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/RYvhn>

The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, was killed in a strike on the group’s hideouts in Nangarhar province on Saturday night, authorities said on Sunday.

Ten other members of the militant group were also killed in a joint ground and air operation by Afghan and foreign forces, the National Directorate of Security in Kabul said in a statement.

A large amount of heavy and light weapons and ammunition were destroyed during raids on two Islamic State hideouts.

The jihadist group’s Amaq’s news agency carried no comment on the issue.

Lieutenant-Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the United States carried out a strike in Afghanistan on Saturday against a “senior leader of a designated terrorist organization.”

The provincial governor of Nangarhar said Erhabi was the fourth Islamic State leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2017.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **SOURCES: China Hacked Clinton’s Private Email Server**
🇨🇳 *Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/eUwRR>

A Chinese-owned company operating in the Washington, D.C., area hacked Hillary Clinton’s private server throughout her term as secretary of state and obtained nearly all her emails, two sources briefed on the matter told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Chinese firm obtained Clinton’s emails in real time as she sent and received communications and documents through her personal server, according to the sources, who said the hacking was conducted as part of an intelligence operation.

The Chinese wrote code that was embedded in the server, which was kept in Clinton’s residence in upstate New York. The code generated an instant “courtesy copy” for nearly all of her emails and forwarded them to the Chinese company, according to the sources.

The Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) found that virtually all of Clinton’s emails were sent to a “foreign entity,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, said at a July 12 House Committee on the Judiciary hearing. He did not reveal the entity’s identity, but said it was unrelated to Russia. (RELATED: Gohmert: Watchdog Found Clinton Emails Were Sent To ‘Foreign Entity’)

Two officials with the ICIG, investigator Frank Rucker and attorney Janette McMillan, met repeatedly with FBI officials to warn them of the Chinese intrusion, according to a former intelligence officer with expertise in cybersecurity issues, who was briefed on the matter. He spoke anonymously, as he was not authorized to publicly address the Chinese’s role with Clinton’s server.
-----------------

@BranFlakes 👍🏻

🇲🇽 **Mexican Cartel Boss Offers $100K for Assassination of Breitbart Texas Writer—Arrested Within Days**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/NsbKk>

Only 48 hours after a top cartel boss in Mexico placed an assassination hit on one of the contributing writers for Breitbart Texas’s Cartel Chronicles project, Mexican military forces captured him.

This week, Cesar “El Boto” or “El Marrueco” Sepulveda Arellano, a leading member of Los Viagras Cartel, placed a $100,000 USD hit on Breitbart Texas’s Jose Luis Lara. The former founding member of the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacan writes about terrorist actions by cartels and their corrupt government enablers in that state and beyond.

The assassination order was posted on social media through various Facebook accounts. A similar threat was also spread via audio recording where El Boto declared Lara a spy for the United States.

Only 48 hours after El Boto issued the threats, the Mexican Army and Navy followed an anonymous tip to a house in Morelos–where they arrested him.

Almost immediately after authorities arrested El Boto, members of Los Viagras began signaling each other on social media with orders to delete any Facebook accounts in contact with those previously used by their captured leader.
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🇺🇸 **He’s been studying in the U.S. legally for 7 years. Bank of America froze his account anyway**
*Miami Herald* - <https://archive.fo/BJ7v2>

Saeed Moshfegh woke up earlier this month to discover the strangest thing: though he had plenty of money in his Bank of America account, he couldn’t access it.

An Iranian getting his Ph.D in physics at the University of Miami, Moshfegh used the account for everyday transactions. All he had to do to maintain the account was show proof of legal residency every six months.

“This bank doesn’t know how the immigration system works, so they didn’t accept my document,” said Moshfegh, 36.

Locked out of his account, Moshfegh couldn’t pay his rent, which was due that week. Credit card payments were suddenly rejected.

His case isn’t unique. In recent months, Bank of America has been accused of freezing or threatening to freeze customers’ accounts after asking about their legal status in the U.S.. In July, the Washington Post reported that multiple customers had been locked out of their accounts after Bank of America questioned whether the account holders were U.S. citizens or dual citizens.
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/7139674/nasa-leak-international-space-station-meteorite/

🇺🇸 **Trump escalates his threats to blow up trade deals: 'I would withdraw from the WTO'**
*USA Today* - <https://archive.fo/kppMG>

President Donald Trump threatened to upend the rules of global trade on Thursday, saying he would pull out of the World Trade Organization unless it adopts rules more favorable to the United States.

“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump told Bloomberg News.

Trump has long been frustrated with the WTO, which sets the standards and rules that govern other international trade agreements, and provides a forum for resolving disputes. He specifically wants the Geneva-based body to take a tougher stance on China's steel dumping and theft of U.S. intellectual property.

But Trump's remark on Thursday marks his most explicit threat to withdraw from the WTO yet.

Just last month, he expressed a desire to work with other countries to reform the WTO from within the organization. "WTO has treated the United States very badly, and I hope they change their ways," he said then. "And we're not planning anything now, but if they don't treat us properly, we will be doing something."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later explained that while the president is frustrated by the organization, "that is not accurate that the U.S. is leaving the WTO."
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https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/08/30/i-spoke-out-sex-abuse-and-lay-people-kicked-me-out-mass

lololol

what planet is this bitch living on

but at least he has a license and can vote

for

https://www.rt.com/news/437357-head-donbass-republic-killed/

they made their own self declared seperatist state

i guess you could say that

depends who you ask?