🇺🇸 **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.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Turkis Lira Crashes, Trump Slaps Tariffs on Steel Aluminum, Roach Sultan Erdogan Praises Allah**
*Breitbart* - <https://www.breitbart.com/news/turkey-lira-crashes-as-trump-piles-on-pressure/>

Compounding the lira’s agony, President Donald Trump said he had doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey, noting that relations between the NATO allies were “not very good”.

The lira was trading at 6.6 to the dollar at 1335 GMT, a loss on the day of 19 percent. A month ago the Turkish Lira was 4.50 per USD , now currently 6.48 to 6.63 per USD.

Erdogan had raised eyebrows Thursday when he appeared to invoke divine intervention, saying: “If they have dollars, we have our people, we have our right and we have Allah!”

🇺🇸 **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 .)
-----------------

🌎 **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.'
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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.
-----------------

🇬🇧 **IT'S HAPPENING WESTMINSTER TERROR ATTACK, DRIVER MOWS DOWN PEDESTRIANS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT**
*InfoWars* - <https://www.infowars.com/watch-live-westminster-terror-attack-driver-mows-down-pedestrians-outside-parliament/>

A vehicle struck multiple people outside Westminster Tuesday morning and UK police say they are treating the incident as a terrorist act. One witness said, “It was, in my opinion, something planned and something very sinister.”

<:trump:284711336934375425> **Turkey to Boycott U.S. Electronics in Retaliation Against Sanctions**
*WSJ* - <http://archive.is/Bkhh3>

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would boycott U.S. electronic goods, the latest move in escalating jousting between Ankara and Washington that has sent the Turkish lira to record lows.

The boycott, which Mr. Erdogan announced in a speech celebrating the 17th anniversary of his ruling party, is part of a wider campaign Turkey has launched to retaliate against U.S. sanctions, and which has spread to places from the advertising market to beauty parlors.

“We are going to enforce a boycott on U.S. electronic goods,” Mr. Erdogan said. “If they have iPhones, there is also Samsung,” he said, referring to the South Korean cellphone maker.

Turkey and the U.S. are locked in a bitter dispute over the fate of an American pastor. The White House has vowed to pile pressure on Turkey until the Presbyterian minister, Andrew Brunson, who faces terrorism charges and as much as 35 years in prison, had been allowed to return home.

Turkish authorities say justice must run its course and have slammed tariffs that the U.S. introduced this week on some Turkish imports as an “act of economic war.”
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Wake County man sentenced for illegally voting in U.S. elections**
*ABC11* - <http://archive.is/p6ciA>

A Wake County man was sentenced to four months in prison for illegally voting in the 2012 and 2016 elections.

Roberto Hernandez-Cuarenta, 57, of Zebulon, was convicted on two counts of voting by alien.

Although Hernandez-Cuarenta is a legal resident of the United States, the native of Mexico is not a U.S. citizen, rendering him ineligible to cast ballots in U.S. elections.

According to authorities, Hernandez-Cuarenta, "knowing he was not a United States citizen, did knowingly vote in two elections held in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the Office of President, Vice President, and Member of the House of Representative."

"The right to vote is a precious privilege available only to citizens of the United States," said Robert J. Higdon Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. "When a non-citizen votes in a federal election it serves to dilute and devalue the vote of American citizens and places the decision-making authority of the American electorate in the hands of those who have no right to make those choices."

Hernandez-Cuarenta was sentenced to time served on both counts which is four months of imprisonment.
-----------------

🇸🇪 **Gang of masked “youths” rampaged through Sweden’s second-largest city Monday night, setting cars ablaze in an attack described as “extremely organised”**
*Breitbart* - <https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/08/14/military-operation-masked-gangs-set-100-cars-ablaze-across-swedish-no-go-zones/>

Police chose not to arrest the “young people” at the scene and have since contacted their parents, reports state.

“We have already started talking to parents of the young people who were active in the morning. We chose not to seize someone on the spot but have identified them, and talked with them.”

Fires were also reported on a smaller scale in Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city.

🇺🇸 **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.
-----------------

Why dont they just go to a different fucking bakery?

you're a biggit and I want to cause problems <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401> <:REEE:281041868056166401>

<https://sputniknews.com/news/201808151067221648-Trump-Revokes-Brennan-Security-Clearance/> **White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday that US President Donald Trump is revoking the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan**

**LIVE** <https://video.foxnews.com/v/5822530293001/?%23sp=watch-live#sp=watch-live> Sarah Huckabee

<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1029798446650277888/video/1> **Chuck Schumer, I agree! - Trump** Tweet

🇺🇸 **Dow surges more than 350 points on resumption of China trade talks, Walmart 10% jump**
*CNBC* - <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/us-markets-us-china-trade-developments-earnings-data-in-focus.html>

Stocks traded sharply higher on Thursday on renewed hope that a resolution to a trade dispute with China could be on the horizon. Investors also cheered strong quarterly results from Walmart.

Weekly jobless claims totaled 212,000 last week, slightly below than the Reuters estimate of 215,000. Meanwhile, housing starts totaled 1.168 million in July, well below the expected 1.26 million.

*China this China that, the US holds all the cards when it comes with negotiating trade with China, China holds 2tril in dollars, can't even dump or sell them off, their currency will strengthen against the dollar. Chinese banks are ready to implode as housing prices have dropped in all but 2 cities in China. Trump is a business negotiating genius.* -comment from some a'hole on OH Discord ikillu

🇨🇳 **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.
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🇮🇳 **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.”
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🇯🇵 Tokyo men getting foot massages from cute anime VR girls – but they’re actually being rubbed by GUYS
🇬🇧 The Sun - <http://archive.li/bUvyT>

Tokyo's Toranoana VR Relaxation massage shop is set to open within the next year.

But a trial location has already been opened in the city's seedy Akihabara district, as spotted by tech blog Panora.

The paid-for offering lets you don a virtual reality headset, simulating a computer-generated massage parlour.

In walks a cartoon woman, ready and waiting to give your feet a good seeing to.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Website Promised Free Anti-Antifa Shirts. Alt-Right Signed Up. It Was a Trap.**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://www.thedailybeast.com/website-promised-free-anti-antifa-shirts-alt-right-signed-up-it-was-a-trap>

Posing as an ally of the ‘National March Against Far-Left Violence,’ someone convinced far-right supporters to give up their personal information—then doxxed them.

Now the far-right is trying to get their apparent anti-fascist trolls arrested.

Privacy-savvy marchers might have known to avoid a web form asking for their information. The far right and its opponents often wage controversial doxxing campaigns against each other, with fascists and anti-fascists posting their rivals’ personal details online in attempt to intimidate them or reveal their identities.

<:trump:284711336934375425> @realDonaldTrump - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030777074959757313

https://youtu.be/0sdziX-Q_Lo

🇺🇸 **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.

https://twitter.com/RyMiko/status/1031714613962985473

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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.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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.
-----------------

https://youtu.be/XYjqBqrZVTY

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1032023888748851200

🌎 **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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