Message from @w7
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🇺🇸 **David Hogg to ‘Old’ Nancy Pelosi: ‘Move the Fuck off the Plate and Let Us Take Control’**
*Breitbart* - <https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/20/david-hogg-old-nancy-pelosi-move-let-us-take-control/>
NYMag indicates Hogg is wearied by the “old” Democrats who keep hanging onto their offices. He mentioned Pelosi in particular, and said pointedly, “Nancy Pelosi is old.”
🇺🇸 **UNC students knock down Silent Sam Confederate statue**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/bEWwU>
A crowd of about 250 protesters on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's campus knocked over the controversial Silent Sam Confederate statue, according to the university.
A video and pictures from a student shows the statue coming down as students chant "I believe that we will win."
Video footage from CNN affiliate WRAL-TV shows students putting up poles and banners around the statue during daylight. By nightfall, video from WRAL shows the statue falling down and students cheering. Students could also be seen kicking Silent Sam's head and putting dirt on the statue.
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🇿🇦 **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.
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🇰🇵 **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.
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🇺🇸 **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.
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🌎 **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.
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🇺🇸 ** Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 YEARS - compared to four years in schizophrenics, major study finds**
Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 YEARS - compared to four years in schizophrenics, major study finds
(archive.is and archive.fo are down)
dailymail .co .uk/health/article-6086073/Smoking-cannabis-ages-brain-average-2-8-YEARS.html
Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 years, new research suggests.
This is compared to four years in schizophrenia patients, according to the largest study of its kind. Brain ageing is defined as reduced blood flow through the organ.
Excessive alcohol also ages the organ by 0.6 years, the research adds.
Lead author Dr Daniel Amen, founder of Amen Clinics, said: 'The cannabis abuse finding was especially important, as our culture is starting to see marijuana as an innocuous substance. This study should give us pause about it.'
Reduced brain blood flow has previously been linked to stroke and dementia.
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🇨🇭 **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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**KFC restaurant hid Arizona-Mexico drug smuggling tunnel, officials say**
🇺🇸 *FOX News* - <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/23/kfc-restaurant-hid-arizona-mexico-drug-smuggling-tunnel-officials-say.html>
Hidden beneath the bleak exterior of a fried chicken restaurant in the Southwest lurked the infrastructure of a sophisticated drug organization shipping meth, cocaine and heroin to the Arizona streets, officials said Wednesday.
No, this is not the original pitch for "Breaking Bad."
🇺🇸 **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.
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🇺🇸 **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.
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<:trump:284711336934375425> **McCain died**
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1033509445127598083
S
🇻🇳 **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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🇺🇸 Girl Loses NASA Internship Over Insult to ‘October Sky’ Legend—He’s Still Helping Her
The Observer - <http://archive.li/MIg9X>
It’s not clear what Naomi H’s full last name is (she has since locked her Twitter account). The poster likely assumed she was a furry because of the anime in her Twitter avatar (which has since been replaced with a photo of a real life deer).
But regardless, Naomi didn’t tell just any member of the National Space Council to “suck [her] dick and balls.” Homer Hickam is a NASA engineering legend.
He started out building rockets in his backyard before serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Hickam then worked as an aerospace engineer for NASA, designing spacecraft and training crews.
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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.
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**U.S. and Mexico Agree to Preliminary Nafta Deal**
*New York Times* - https://archive.is/8NZ1q
The United States and Mexico have reached agreement to revise key portions of the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and a preliminary deal could be announced on Monday, a crucial step toward revamping a trade pact that has appeared on the brink of collapse during the past year of negotiations.
Reaching an agreement on how to revise some of the most contentious portions of what President Trump has long called the worst trade pact in history would give Mr. Trump a significant win in a trade war he has started with countries around the globe, including Mexico, Canada, the European Union and China.
Still, a preliminary agreement between the United States and Mexico would fall far short of actually revising Nafta. The preliminary agreement still excludes Canada, which is also a party to Nafta but has been absent from talks held in Washington in recent weeks.
The agreement with Mexico centers on rules governing the automobile industry, resolving a big source of friction, but leaves aside other contentious issues that affect all three countries.
🇺🇸 **Jacksonville shooter had history of mental illness and police visits to family home**
*CNN* - <http://archive.li/bwGlJ>
David Katz, the shooter who killed two people and wounded 10 others before taking his own life at an e-sports tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday, was in treatment for psychiatric issues at least as early as the age of 12, according to family divorce records.
Katz, who was 24, was prescribed a number of psychiatric medications, including an antipsychotic, and saw "a succession of psychiatrists," according to a 2006 letter from the father's attorney. A separate 2006 court filing states that a therapist said David had experienced a "psychiatric crisis."
CNN also obtained police records that show 26 calls for service to the police from the Katz family home in Columbia, Maryland, from 1993 to 2009, for issues ranging from "mental illness" to domestic disputes. At least two of those calls involved Katz arguing with his mother, though none of the reports provided to CNN show any physical violence. The Howard County Police Department declined to release the reports from a number of the incidents, citing statutory restrictions.
Since Sunday's shooting, the family has told investigators that David Katz suffered from mental health issues, according to a law enforcement source who described the family as being very cooperative with investigators. Both parents have worked for the federal government. Richard Katz is a NASA engineer employed at the Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington, DC, according to an agency spokesperson. Elizabeth Katz was listed as an employee of the Food and Drug Administration at the time of her divorce.
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🇺🇸 **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.
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🌍 **South Africa withdraws white farmland redistribution bill six days after Trump warned he was closely studying the situation**
Dailymail - http://archive.is/vEOp5
South Africa has withdrawn its white farmland redistribution bill - six days after Donald Trump warned he was closely studying the situation.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill passed by parliament in 2016 enabling the state to make compulsory purchases of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership needed further consideration.
It comes after Trump criticised the country's land reform plans in a tweet that touched on the overwhelmingly white ownership of farmland in South Africa - one of the most sensitive issues in the country's post-apartheid history.
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🇺🇸 **Louis C.K. is Welcome Back at More Popular Comedy Clubs in NYC**
💩 *TMZ* - <http://archive.li/Z7UEe>
Louis C.K.'s surprise return to stand-up -- to the delight of some and dismay of others -- has full support from some very important people in the comedy world ... the guys running the clubs.
TMZ's learned several comedy hot spots in NYC would gladly welcome Louis back, despite his fall from grace last year after he copped to sexual misconduct.
Louis Faranda, talent exec of Carolines on Broadway, tells us ... the comedian is like a son to him -- they personally go back to the beginning of C.K.'s career -- and he's a longtime friend of the club.
Faranda adds ... "We all make bad mistakes in life and everyone deserves the right to be forgiven ... I totally understand the plight of the women he offended, [but] I also love Louie C.K. and CANNOT turn my back to him ever!!"
Likewise -- Al Martin, owner of Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwich Village Comedy Club, says ... "Everyone is entitled to a second chance. I would book Louis." C.K. has performed at his clubs in the past.
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🇲🇽 **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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🇺🇸 **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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🇺🇦 **Leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic killed in E. Ukraine blast**
*RT* - <https://archive.fo/TPtlh>
An explosion that rocked a cafe in central Donetsk city, in eastern Ukraine, has killed Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, and injured several other top officials.
Media reports said that Zakharchenko was severely injured as a blast hit a restaurant called ‘Separ’ in Donetsk city center. He died later in a local hospital.
“The head of the DNR, Alenksandr Zakharchenko, has died as a result of a terrorist act,” a spokesperson of the self-proclaimed republic’s administration told journalists, revealing no details of the incident.
Moscow condemned 42-year-old Zakharchenko’s murder, adding that it could be detrimental to the whole peace process in Ukraine. The death of the DNR leader could have a particularly negative impact on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Senate’s International Affairs Committee, said.
There is “every reason to believe” that Zakharchenko’s murder was orchestrated by Kiev, which “has repeatedly resorted to such methods to get rid of dissidents and undesirables,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.
“Instead of abiding by the Minsk Agreements and seeking ways to resolve the internal [Ukrainian] conflict, the Kiev warmongers opted for a terrorist scenario, thus exacerbating an already tense situation in the region,” she added. The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, has denied involvement in the killing of the DNR head.
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🇺🇸 **People are threatening to boycott In-N-Out after large donation to Republican party**
🇬🇧 *MashableUK* - <http://archive.li/On4gR>
Despite its California roots, In-N-Out is far from liberal.
On Wednesday, journalist Gabe Schneider uncovered a contribution of $25,000 that the famous California-based fast food chain made to the California Republican Party just this week — and it's safe to say that some folks were not happy to learn about the political leanings of their family owned go-to burger joint.
Schneider shared a document on Twitter that details the company's contributions, which were filed on August 28. While many on Twitter stood in support of the burger chain because of their political beliefs, In-N-Out was called out by some customers.
Eric Bauman, chair of the California Democratic Party, was one of the folks online urging people to boycott the chain under the inventive hashtag #BoycottInNOut. "Let Trump and his cronies support these creeps ... perhaps animal style!," he wrote.
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🇺🇸 **FBI arrests five New Mexico compound suspects days after multiple charges were dropped**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/VJCpF>
The FBI announced Friday that it had arrested all five New Mexico compound suspects, days after multiple charges were dropped. The suspects were now being charged with violating federal firearms and conspiracy laws.
The announcement comes after local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the compound site. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday his office would now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. Gallegos said seeking indictments would allow more time to gather evidence.
"The defendants, Jany Leveille, 35, a Haitian national illegally present in the United States, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Lucas Morton, 40, are charged in a criminal complaint that was filed earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico," the bureau said in a statement.
"The criminal complaint charges Jany Leveille with being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition in the District of New Mexico from Nov. 2017 through Aug. 2018," the bureau said. "The criminal complaint charges the other four defendants with aiding and abetting Leveille in committing the offense, and with conspiring with Leveille to commit the offense."
On Wednesday, three of the suspects were released from custody, just hours after a judge dismissed all of the charges against them.
District Judge Emilio Chavez on Wednesday dismissed charges against Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahhaj, ruling that authorities violated the state’s “10-day rule.”
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🇺🇸 **U.S. halts funding to U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees**
🇵🇸 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/SPDu5>
The United States on Friday halted all funding to a U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees in a decision further heightening tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the decision as “a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of U.N. resolutions.”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) made it an “irredeemably flawed operation.”
“The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA,” she said in a statement.
Nauert said the agency’s “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years.”
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🇺🇸 **California lawmakers send strict 'net neutrality' laws to governor**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/5y0it>
California lawmakers sent to the governor’s desk for final approval strict “net neutrality” laws on internet providers that would defy sweeping Federal Communications Commission rules seen as a boon for the companies.
The Democrat-controlled California Senate voted 27-12 to pass the bill, known as SB 822, with just hours left in the legislative session. The measure was approved by their colleagues in the state Assembly one day earlier.
Governor Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, has not yet said if he would sign the bill into law. He has 30 days to act but does not typically signal his intentions before legislation lands on his desk.
Members of the California Assembly voted 58-17 to send the bill to their colleagues in the state Senate, who have until midnight to pass so-called SB 822 on the final day of the legislative session or wait until next year.
If the measure passes both chambers of the Democrat-controlled state legislature it would still require approval from Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, who has not said if he would sign it into law.
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🐍 **20th Anniversary of Metal Gear Solid**
https://twitter.com/LordBalvin/status/1036380646879440896
🇯🇵 **Typhoon Jebi: Japan hit by strongest storm of 25 years**
*The Guardian* - <http://archive.li/jT2Ki>
Japan bracinghas braced itself for flooding and landslides after what could be the strongest typhoon to hit the country in a quarter of a century made landfall.
Local media reported that seven people died and more than 100 others were injured when Typhoon Jebi caused violent winds in the west of the country.
According to public broadcaster NHK, the casualties included a 71-year-old man who was killed in western Shiga prefecture after being trapped under a warehouse that collapsed in strong wind. NHK said 164 people had suffered mostly minor injuries.
Several people were injured at Kyoto station when part of a glass ceiling collapsed, according to police. A number of vehicles were blown on to their sides on a motorway, while a truck narrowly escaped being swept off a bridge connecting the island of Shikoku and the main Japanese island of Honshu.
Television networks showed dramatic footage of a 2,591-tonne tanker that collided with the side of a bridge linking the mainland with Kansai International airport, which stands on an artificial island in Osaka Bay.
The tanker and bridge were damaged but the ship’s crew were unhurt. The airport’s runway and the basement floor of a terminal building were flooded, according to local authorities.
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🇪🇬 **'Man detained' after blast near US embassy in Cairo**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/UHVcV>
Egyptian security forces have reportedly detained a man suspected of trying to detonate a bomb near the US embassy in the capital, Cairo.
A security source said the man was carrying a bag that exploded outside the compound in the Garden City area.
The embassy said police had "finished their investigations at the scene" and that it had resumed normal business.
Egyptian academic Adel al-Adawy earlier tweeted photos appearing to show a small fire and a man being led away.
Another witness told Reuters news agency she had heard a blast and then seen a man with a backpack that had caught fire across the road from the embassy.
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🇺🇸 **'Daily Caller Ex-Editor Secretly Wrote for Richard Spencer’s Alt-Right Journal: Report**
*Daily Beast/Atlantic* - <https://archive.fo/yj9GP>
Former Daily Caller Editor Scott Greer published anti-black, anti-Semitic rhetoric at the alt-right Radix Journal under the pseudonym Michael McGregor while simultaneously working at the Caller between 2014 and 2015, according to a report by The Atlantic. Radix Journal was founded by Richard Spencer, the alt-right leader who has advocated for turning America into a white ethno-state. Under his pseudonym, Greer espoused racist and sexist views, including “The current campaign against tough policing, if successful, would effectively turn any city with a large percentage of Blacks into a third-world hellhole,” The Atlantic reports.
Greer left the Daily Caller in June to write a book, retaining a “contributor” status. But after The Atlantic confronted Greer about leaked chat logs that proved he had written under the pseudonym, he cut all ties with the Caller. “In my early twenties when it appeared our only mainstream options were Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, I was attracted to more radical ideas and expressed them under the name Michael McGregor at Radix Journal,” Greer said in a statement. “As the political situation has evolved in recent years, so have my views. That said, I do not apologize for honestly stating what I believed to be correct at the time, unless everyone must apologize every time they change their opinion.”
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