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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-27 06:01 1 Clinton makes history as Democratic presidential nominee

(3.15/4) , — became the first woman in history to win the White House nomination of a major US political party Tuesday, securing the backing of Democrats at a 2016-07-27 06:00 5KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 2 French jihadist attacks church, kills priest while under arrest SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France — A French jihadist who (3.13/4) was under house arrest on terror charges took part in a church attack in which a priest was killed Tuesday, further inflaming tensions 2016-07-27 06:00 6KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 3 English Conversation Questions / Debates 14,020 discussion and conversation questions for speaking practice. 701 FREE ESL lesson plans, handouts, worksheets and (1.04/4) downloads. Controversial and mainstream topics. 2016-07-27 03:53 826Bytes www.esldiscussions.com 4 Australian PM denounces treatment at juvenile detention center (1.02/4) Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for a national investigation into allegations of abuse and torture at a juvenile detention center. 2016-07-27 02:25 4KB www..com 5 'Mothers of the Movement' makes case for Hillary Clinton (1.02/4) Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, on Tuesday described watching her daughter being "lowered into the ground in a coffin" at the Democratic National Convention. 2016-07-27 01:25 4KB rss.cnn.com 6 Yahoo to Participate at the J. P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom

(1.01/4) Conference --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question-and-answer session at the J. P... 2016-07-27 03:37 1KB investor.yahoo.net 7 Yahoo Expands Content Marketing Offerings with Yahoo Storytellers

(1.01/4) Helps Brands and Agencies to and Distribute Content That Drives Engagement --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced today... 2016-07-27 03:37 4KB investor.yahoo.net 8 Chi Onwurah MP: I did not want to vote for Trident - but I did The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 (0.19/4) I do believe the use of nuclear weapons is immoral, but there is more to consider than that. 2016-07-27 03:47 11KB www.newstatesman.com 9 Why is BBC Radio Cumbria talking about 1974? Why do the words “soup, swoop, loop de loop” come to mind every time I lift a spoon to (0.07/4) my lips? Tuesday, and yet another shout-out to listeners who might remember the making of the 1974 film of Swallows and Amazons. 2016-07-27 03:47 6KB www.newstatesman.com 10 Yahoo Reports Second Quarter 2016 Results

(0.02/4) "With the lowest cost structure and headcount in a decade, we continue to make solid progress against our 2016 plan. Through disciplined... 2016-07-27 03:37 27KB investor.yahoo.net 11 Locals without borders: governments are using diasporas to shape the migration crisis brings home his dark vision of (0.02/4) America at the Republican convention Governments of countries key to the migration crisis are tapping diaspora influence more than ever before. 2016-07-27 03:47 14KB www.newstatesman.com 12 Why Theresa May is a smuggler's best friend when it comes to child refugees 's powerful speech demolishes Donald (0.02/4) Trump without even mentioning his name Children prefer to disappear than trust the authorities. 2016-07-27 03:47 9KB www.newstatesman.com 13 Caitlyn Jenner: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican” Munich shootings: The bloody drama where (0.01/4) everyone knows their part The reality star endorsed the GOP at an event in Cleveland. 2016-07-27 03:47 6KB www.newstatesman.com

14 DA seeks legal opinion on Gordhan’s request for extension on SAA’s financials The Democratic Alliance said on Monday that it wants “legal opinion regarding Parliament’s authority in law to grant an extension delaying the deadline for the tabling of the SAA annual financial statements (AFS)”. 2016-07-27 06:00 1KB www.timeslive.co.za 15 'Joburg’s advertising spend nearly tripled in an election year': DA The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday claimed the City of Joburg “nearly tripled its advertising spend in an election year”. 2016-07-27 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 16 ‘Bag of bloody knives’ carried by attacker after disabled facility rampage — RT News A suspect detained after a stabbing attack in Japan was carrying a bag full of knives and other sharp tools, according to the latest reports. He was allegedly able to kill and injure a third of the patients at a facility for the disabled near Tokyo. 2016-07-27 06:00 3KB www.rt.com 17 ‘ANC campaign now all-out racial mobilisation’: DA The Democratic Alliance (DA) invoked Nelson Mandela’s name on Wednesday‚ saying President Jacob “Zuma will not distract us from realising Madiba’s vision for a united ”. 2016-07-27 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 18 Parliament hopes CCMA ruling will ‘close chapter of negative engagement’ with Nehawu Parliament said it had been vindicated by the Council for Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration’s (CCMA) dismissal of the National Education Health and Workers’ Union’s (Nehawu) “application in relation to the payment of bonuses in 2015”. 2016-07-27 06:00 3KB www.timeslive.co.za 19 DA picket to get Jackson Mthembu ‘to walk the talk’ on SABC The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants Jackson Mthembu “to walk the talk” and call “an urgent meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications to consider the ongoing crisis at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)”. 2016-07-27 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za

20 Beyonce, Adele lead MTV Video Music Award nods NEW YORK, United States — Beyonce on Tuesday led nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards as she basked in acclaim for her film-album "Lemonade. " The pop diva was in the 2016-07-27 06:00 3KB entertainment.inquirer.net 21 NBA: Champion Cavs ink coach Lue to five-year deal LOS ANGELES, United States — NBA champions Cleveland and head coach Tyronn Lue have completed a five-year contract worth $35 million. The first four years of the deal are guaranteed, and 2016-07-27 06:00 2KB sports.inquirer.net 22 Presidency still mum on woman’s Zuma blessee claims The Presidency is yet to comment on pictures circulating on social media purporting to show President with a young women to whom he is more than just a “blesser”. 2016-07-27 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 23 'Black lives should matter in South Sudan too' South Sudanese supermodel’s quest to build bridges between two worlds. 2016-07-27 05:13 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 24 Video: Group pushes for treatment center on the Key Peninsula Jeremiah Saucier and Vicki Niemann talk about the need for the Hope Recovery Center on the Key Peninsula. 2016-07-27 05:13 1KB www.thenewstribune.com 25 Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. 2016-07-27 04:51 4KB rss.cnn.com 26 More than 50 'Democracy Spring' protesters cited in mass protests outside DNC The revolution will not be improvised. 2016-07-27 04:47 5KB rss.cnn.com 27 MLB Baseball Box Scores NEW YORK -- Jedd Gyorko hit a two-run home run in the third inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated... 2016-07-27 04:43 3KB scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com

28 Child radicalisation: NSPCC to advise concerned parents A charity trains its counsellors to help parents who fear their children are being radicalised. 2016-07-27 03:34 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 29 Fireman Sam episode pulled amid Koran row An episode of Fireman Sam is withdrawn after an "error" which led to a depiction of the Koran being shown. 2016-07-27 03:34 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 30 Bus riders give thumbs up to free Wi-Fi plan Passengers react positively to Pierce Transit's plan to add free Wi- Fi to the agency's 140 local fixed-route buses by year's end. 2016-07-27 03:36 2KB www.thenewstribune.com 31 The tiny restaurants delighting Indians with just one wonder dish The BBC's Vikas Pandey profiles five restaurants which have relied on one signature dish to become legendary among food lovers. 2016-07-27 03:36 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 32 Kentish Town restaurant diners struck by unmarked police car An unmarked police car on an emergency call out crashes into customers sitting outside a restaurant in London, leaving two injured. 2016-07-27 03:36 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 33 Apple sees iPhone sales drop again but beats forecasts Apple reports a second consecutive quarter of falling iPhone sales, but the 15% drop was not as bad as analysts had feared. 2016-07-27 03:37 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 34 Rousseff will not attend Olympic ceremony in Rio de Janeiro The suspended Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, says she will not attend the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics. 2016-07-27 03:37 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 35 Owen Smith to make equality pitch to Corbyn supporters Greater equality must be at the heart of Labour's "mission for Britain", Owen Smith is to say in a direct pitch to supporters of rival Jeremy Corbyn. 2016-07-27 03:37 4KB www.bbc.co.uk

36 The 2016 Democratic National Convention Photos Photos from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. 2016-07-27 03:37 708Bytes abcnews.go.com 37 Carolina Brotherhood riders cycle through Rock Hill to honor fallen A group of police, firefighters and other first responders from North and South Carolina are cycling through the Carolinas in memory of those who died in the line of duty. The ride started Monday morning, heading from Columbia to Greenville. On Tuesday, the group traveled... 2016-07-27 03:37 3KB www.heraldonline.com 38 TUNE IN TODAY: Yahoo Hosts First-Ever Live Stream of Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting Live coverage begins at 10 a.m... 2016-07-27 03:37 2KB investor.yahoo.net 39 Haitian migrant crisis exposes rift in the Catholic Church The BBC's Will Grant reports from the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic on how the issue of migrants and their precarious situation at the border is dividing some in the Catholic Church. 2016-07-27 03:36 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 40 Doping scandals reduce interest in Olympics, says BBC survey Doping scandals have reduced public interest in the Olympics, according to a poll for the BBC World Service. 2016-07-27 03:36 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 41 Turkey coup: Father who died defying rebel troops A bereaved Turkish family feels both pride and grief for a father shot by rebel troops during the 15 July coup attempt, the BBC's Rengin Arslan reports. 2016-07-27 03:36 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 42 Letter from Africa: Malaria, a bedroom battleground In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers a dilemma over possible malaria prevention. 2016-07-27 03:36 4KB www.bbc.co.uk

43 White humpback Migaloo spotted off Australia's Byron Bay A rare white humpback whale has been spotted off Australia's east coast travelling at a leisurely pace not far from the famous holiday town Byron Bay. 2016-07-27 03:36 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 44 Height quiz: Which nationality has grown the most? Test your knowledge of which nations are the tallest and which have grown the most over the past century. 2016-07-27 03:37 690Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 45 Police Aren't Injuring Blacks, Hispanics More Than Whites Police are not more likely to injure blacks or Hispanics than whites during stops, according to a new study released by the journal of Injury Prevention. While blacks and Hispanics are more likely 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 46 Democrat Hands Toxic Algae To Gov. Office Democratic Senate candidate Patrick Murphy drove to Tallahassee Tuesday in a bid to force Florida Gov. Rick Scott to confront the issue of toxic algae in the state -- but Scott wasn't there. "We ha 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB dailycaller.com 47 Celebrities Sign Pledge To Stop Donald Trump Hollywood celebrities have joined together to stop Donald Trump in a pledge called "United Against Hate. " On Tuesday, Lena Dunham, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes, Michael Moore and 100 other celeb 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 48 Hogan Unites With Democrats On Criminal Justice Reform Gov. Larry Hogan is uniting Republicans and Democrats to battle Maryland's heroin epidemic with contentious criminal justice reform aimed at keeping non-violent criminals out of prison. As part of 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB dailycaller.com 49 Popular Bernie Subreddit Closes In Response To Death Threats A Reddit moderator made the decision to end his thread supporting Sen. Monday in response to vicious attacks and death threats. Sanders was a contender for the Democratic nomination 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com

50 Pennsylvania Liquor Laws Essentially Suspended For DNC Attendees of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia are able to drink booze this week -- even if it doesn't comply with Pennsylvania law. State lawmakers approved temporary "natio 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB dailycaller.com 51 CNN: Muslims Target Of France Terror Attack On Catholics Muslims are the true target of the latest terror attack on a Catholic church in France, according to CNN. In the name of the Islamic State, two Muslim men stormed a Catholic mass in Normandy Monday 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 52 Tim Kaine Has A Hilariously Bad Secret Service Codename Make way for the Daredevil. The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned from a source that Democratic vice presidential pick Sen. Tim Kaine's Secret Service codename, undisclosed until this point, 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 53 Feingold Flip-Flops On National Security Issues Former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, who is currently running for his old seat, released a campaign ad touting his plan to defeat Islamic State. He cast multiple votes against defense funding and li 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB dailycaller.com 54 Why The BBC Calls ISIS “So-Called Islamic State” In preparing blog posts for both today’s attack at the Catholic Church in Saint Etienne du Rouvary, France and the weekend suicide bombing outside... 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB spectator.org 55 The ‘Smart’ Party and the ‘Dumb’ Party I guess I’m a — how you spell that there word? “Kon-serve-a-tive.” That’s with a “K,” right? Meaning... 2016-07-27 03:50 4KB spectator.org 56 In Bed With Her Wall Street Cronies In his less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of Hillary Clinton as the Democrats’ choice for President, Sen. Bernie Sanders decried “Greed, recklessness,... 2016-07-27 03:50 8KB spectator.org

57 The Hillary-Alinsky-Lucifer Connection In his speech at the Republican convention last week, made a statement that raised some eyebrows. “Now, one of the... 2016-07-27 03:50 16KB spectator.org 58 Rays Visit the Ravine For only the second time in franchise history, Tampa Bay’s Rays will visit Dodger Stadium. They’re in Tinsel Town for two games beginning tonight... 2016-07-27 03:50 1KB spectator.org 59 Are Democrats the No-Growth Party? Amidst the latest email turmoil inside the Democratic National Committee, another scandal of sorts has emerged. Democrats don’t have any growth message... 2016-07-27 03:50 4KB spectator.org 60 10 Reasons Why I Will Never Vote for Hillary Clinton Under normal circumstances, a Republican wouldn’t feel compelled to explain why he wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. But 2016 is a year like no other... 2016-07-27 03:50 7KB spectator.org 61 Breaking News English Lesson English News Lessons: Free 26-Page lesson plan / 2-page mini- lesson - Boris Johnson - Handouts, online activities, speed reading, dictation, mp3... current events. 2016-07-27 03:53 1KB www.breakingnewsenglish.com 62 The Charlotte Observer Olympic fencer for USA is also a Muslim and will be first American Olympian to compete in a hijab 2016-07-27 03:55 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 63 Indian lunar orbiter hit by heat rise Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft. 2016-07-27 03:55 2KB rss.cnn.com 64 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. 2016-07-27 03:55 6KB rss.cnn.com 65 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. 2016-07-27 03:55 3KB rss.cnn.com

66 Blame it on the Brexit: But is it just an excuse? There is no shortage of companies blaming Brexit for their bad news these days - from job losses to price rises - but is this just a handy excuse? 2016-07-27 03:45 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 67 North Carolina Democrats cast their roll call votes North Carolina got some time in the national spotlight Tuesday as NC Democratic Party Chair Patsy Keever announced its delegate votes in the roll call of the states at the Democratic National Convention. Video by Tim Funk. 2016-07-27 03:45 3KB www.charlotteobserver.com 68 Social divide stays in online learning There are strong social divisions in how young people use digital technology at home, according to international research from the OECD. 2016-07-27 03:45 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 69 Brexit migrant 'spike' warning from MPs There could be a spike in UK migration ahead of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union and the possible end to free movement rights, MPs warn. 2016-07-27 03:45 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 70 NHS consultant paid £375,000 in overtime Growing pressures are leading UK hospitals to increasingly rely on premium overtime pay to get consultants to do extra work, with one paid £375,000 last year, the BBC finds. 2016-07-27 03:45 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 71 1,800 foreign offenders have dodged UK deportation for over 5 yrs – Home Office — RT UK Nearly 6,000 foreign criminals set to be deported are still living in the UK after serving jail sentences, the Home Office revealed, responding to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Keith Vaz. 2016-07-27 03:51 3KB www.rt.com 72 Texan cemetery can no longer enact ‘whites-only’ policy after lawsuit — RT America A grieving widow was told to “go up the road and bury him with the n****** and Mexicans,” when she asked to bury her husband of 40 years in a local cemetery. 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB www.rt.com 73 Michelle Obama's America First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech last night at the Democratic National Convention was as beautiful as she is. In it, she drew a glowing portrait of her husband President and his form 2016-07-27 03:50 5KB dailycaller.com 74 Bad Lip Reading Does [VIDEO] Watching Sen. Ted Cruz's RNC speech is so much more palatable through "Bad Lip Reading. " In this speech, he discusses eating hairballs and even gives a blonde in the audience the "hairy eyeball. " 2016-07-27 03:50 766Bytes dailycaller.com 75 Lewis' Lagniappe July 26 1. Convention disunity in the City of Brotherly Love 2. Clinton hits a new low in the polls 3. "Is the Democrats' New Harmony for Real? " 4. The hypocrisy of Michelle Obama's spe 2016-07-27 03:50 1KB dailycaller.com 76 Mariah Carey Takes Scandalous Magazine Cover Photo Mariah Carey took a scandalous photo for an upcoming magazine cover. In the August/September issue of Complex magazine, the 46-year-old singer is wearing very little clothes for the cover shot. In 2016-07-27 03:50 1KB dailycaller.com 77 DNC Staffers Annoyed At Having To Commemorate Holocaust Internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks reveal Democratic party staffers seemingly annoyed at having to commemorate the Holocaust. [feature] On May 5, 2016, Florida Rep. and then-DNC Chair De 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 78 Green Billionaire Donor Wants Money Out Of Politics A prominent billionaire some analysts say is buying the Democratic Party complained Monday night about the influence money has on American politics. Environmentalist money man Tom Steyer told Bloom 2016-07-27 03:50 3KB dailycaller.com 79 CNN's Van Jones Moved To Tears Over Michelle Obama's Speech [VIDEO] CNN Contributor Van Jones wept over Michelle Obama's DNC speech Monday night. He couldn't hide the fact from , who was anchoring the evening panel. "I've got to call you out," 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com 80 Dealers Use Olympic Logo To Sling Cocaine The white river flows through Rio de Janerio. Police in Brazil seized over 90 bags of uncut Colombian cocaine just miles away from the Estadio do Maracana, which will host opening ceremonies for 2016-07-27 03:50 2KB dailycaller.com

81 Reddit Photoshop Battle, Baby Donald Trump [PHOTOS] The latest victim of Reddit's ongoing Photoshop Battles is none other than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Or, baby Donald Trump that is. Users took this photo: [caption id="" a 2016-07-27 03:50 1KB dailycaller.com 82 Berniacs FREAK At Report Bernie Nominated Supporters of former Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted ecstatically to an NBC Nightly News tweet indicating the Vermont senator had been nominated for president of the United 2016-07-27 03:50 1KB dailycaller.com 83 Creative disruption: a shifting investment backdrop Arjun Bhandari, Analyst within Henderson's Strategic Fixed Income Team, looks at several disruptive trends in the economy and how their interaction may be contributing to the current low growth, low inflation environment. 2016-07-27 03:47 9KB www.newstatesman.com 84 Verizon to acquire Yahoo's operating business BASKING RIDGE, N. J... 2016-07-27 03:45 16KB investor.yahoo.net 85 Viewpoint: The waste mountain of coffee cups Every day hundreds of thousands of Britons put their coffee cup into a recycling bin. They're wrong - those cups aren't recyclable. 2016-07-27 03:43 7KB www.bbc.co.uk 86 PMO: Accusations that Netanyahu mishandled the Gaza tunnel threat are false Sources who have seen the report have charged that cabinet had not been properly briefed on the threat prior to the war. 2016-07-27 02:32 3KB www.jpost.com 87 Baghdad bomb site now a shrine to the dead The site of one of the deadliest attacks to ever hit Iraq has been turned into a shrine to the dead. 2016-07-27 02:14 586Bytes www.bbc.co.uk

88 Prosthetic leg stolen from boy, 4, at California beach RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. (AP) — A 4-year-old Southern California boy visiting the beach for the first time had his prosthetic leg stolen but hundreds o... 2016-07-27 01:43 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 89 Is that you, Mama June? Honey Boo Boo's mother shows off slimmer features as she poses for a selfie The former TLC star, 36, began her weight loss regime in 2013 and in January of 2016 underwent cosmetic procedures after fainting multiple times from strict dieting. 2016-07-27 01:43 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 90 Nomination fatigue? ' jokes fall flat Tough room, Elizabeth Banks. You could've heard crickets in the Democratic convention hall when the "Pitch Perfect" and "Hunger Games" actress attempted a jo... 2016-07-27 01:42 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 91 Elyse Taylor flaunts her slender legs in activewear as she takes daughter Lila for a stroll following the model's split from husband Seth Campbell She split from her husband Seth Campbell earlier this year, but annouced that they would remain on good terms for the sake of their daughter Lila. 2016-07-27 01:41 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 92 'More than 30 people a day' call national rape helpline More than 30 people a day contact Ireland's national rape helpline, latest figures show. 2016-07-27 01:36 2KB www.independent.ie 93 Authorities ID remains as those of missing treasure hunter ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. (AP) — A treasure hunter who disappeared this year while searching for an author's cache of gold and jewels in the New Mexico wilderness wa... 2016-07-27 01:36 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 94 Bouchard earns 3-set victory in Montreal MONTREAL (AP) — Eugenie Bouchard reconnected with her hometown fans with an impressive first-round victory at the women's Rogers Cup on Tuesday. A large crow... 2016-07-27 01:35 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk

95 Inmate who was freed early by mistake ends up heading back to jail after posting a smirking selfie declaring 'I'm home' on An inmate who was mistakenly released from a Georgia jail is now back behind bars after helpfully alerting law enforcement that he was back at home. Joshua Keith Ussery, 27, 2016-07-27 01:34 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 96 Zoe Foster Blake is the envy of ordinary mums as she shares photo of her organised fridge full of pre-prepared meals costing more than $260 She's an author, beauty blogger and mother-of-one. And now Zoe Foster Blake has shared her key to success, showing off a photo of her fridge packed full of expensive pre-pared meals on Instagram. 2016-07-27 01:33 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 97 Perth kung fu champion Graham Samuel Downey 'choked his 11-year-old stepdaughter until she passed out' Graham Samuel Downey, a 43-year-old kung fu champion from Perth, faced court on assault charges after allegedly choking his 11-year-old stepdaughter while in a drug-induced psychosis. 2016-07-27 01:29 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 98 Shocking video shows man defending himself against carjackers by spraying them in the face with a HOSE Michael Davis stopped the theft at a car wash called Oasis in Shreveport, Louisiana, at approximately 2am Wednesday. Davis says he was 'smiling the whole time'. 2016-07-27 01:28 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 99 Democratic convention speeches Day 2: CNN's Reality Check Team vets the claims The Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia on Tuesday for the second night of its convention, and CNN's Reality Check Team put the speakers' statements and assertions to the test. 2016-07-27 01:27 8KB rss.cnn.com 100 Sushi restaurant worker among 93 Hawaii hepatitis A cases HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii outbreak of hepatitis A has grown to 93 cases, including an infected sushi restaurant worker who might have exposed diners, the stat... 2016-07-27 01:24 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk Articles

Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-27 06:01

1 Clinton makes history as Democratic presidential nominee (3.15/4) PHILADELPHIA, United States — Hillary Clinton became the first woman in history to win the White House nomination of a major US political party Tuesday, securing the backing of Democrats at a convention in Philadelphia. The former first lady, senator and secretary of state took a monumental step on her quest to become American’s first female president, by besting party challenger Bernie Sanders. After a tumultuous convention opening which saw Sanders and Clinton supporters trade jeers and chants, Clinton passed the 2,382-delegate threshold needed for the nomination, setting up a showdown with Republican Donald Trump in November. READ: Sanders says Clinton ‘must become’ next US president | Michelle Obama delivers glowing endorsement of Clinton “History,” said a post on her account. Although the outcome was a foregone conclusion, the state-by-state vote saw rowdy displays on the convention floor. Some diehard Sanders delegates expressed frustration with their candidate’s defeat, but the divisions seen were much less pronounced than on Monday. READ: Die-hard Sanders’ backers divided on backing Clinton Clinton’s nomination was formally put forward by Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the longest serving woman in the history of the US Congress. Civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia, seconded the nomination. ‘Show a little class’ The Clinton camp is looking to unite the party’s factions. Monday saw disruptive protests and a rancorous fight over leaked emails that showed party bias against Sanders. Frustration boiled over as his delegates jeered speakers who mentioned Clinton. Vice President , who will address the convention Wednesday along with President Barack Obama, dismissed concerns the party was not uniting behind Clinton. “We’ve got to show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while. It’s OK,” he said of Sanders supporters as he toured the convention arena Tuesday. Sanders meanwhile called on his supporters to get behind Clinton. “What we must do, or forever look back in regret, is defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton,” he said Tuesday while addressing the California delegation. “In my view, it’s easy — it’s easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency,” he said. Trump took the usual shots at Clinton during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Charlotte, North Carolina, calling her “Crooked Hillary” and charging that her use of a private email account as secretary of state “put America’s entire national security at risk.” A Clinton campaign official said Tuesday’s convention events aim to draw a sharp contrast with Trump. The line-up of speakers will talk about her life- long fights to make a difference. Chief among them will be former president , who will take the stage during primetime to hail his wife as a “change-maker,” the official said. But Clinton and the others — including mothers who have lost children to gun violence or in clashes with police — will also have the unstated mission of mending fences with Sanders’ army of vocal young activists. ‘I’m with her’ Michelle Obama appeared to soothe some of the Sanders zealots Monday night, as she delivered a heartfelt endorsement from one first lady to another and hailed the inspirational prospect of a first female US president. “In this election, I’m with her,” Obama said. She also praised how Clinton handled her defeat to Barack Obama eight years ago. “She didn’t get angry or disillusioned. Hillary did not pack up and go home,” she said. “As a true public servant Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments.” From ‘political revolution’ to revolt Despite Sanders calling on his flock to get behind Clinton, his self-styled “political revolution” appears to have transformed into a revolt. Sanders himself was booed by some sections of the audience when he told the crowd Monday: “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight.” Michigan delegate Charles Niswander, 28, said he and other Sanders delegates would never line up behind Clinton. “None of them want her, the people who voted for Bernie,” Niswander said. The party is still reeling from leaked Democratic National Committee emails which show nominally neutral party staff trying to undermine Sanders’ campaign and questioning his Jewish faith. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating the “cyber intrusion,” which the Clinton campaign blamed on Russian hackers it said are bent on helping Trump. Bill Clinton’s highly anticipated address could jump-start the party healing process. The 69-year-old Democratic icon and two-term president remains a powerful force on the national stage, although he is more gaunt and his energy is no longer boundless as it appeared four years ago. At the 2012 Democratic convention, he delivered closing arguments for why Barack Obama should be re-elected, a voice of experience explaining Obama’s policies in clear, cogent detail and why he felt Republican policies were failing. US elections: The moment Hillary Clinton became nominee bbc.co.uk

US election: Clinton makes history as Democratic presidential nominee bbc.co.uk

Sanders helps make Clinton's nomination official cbsnews.com Clinton makes history, secures US Democrats' White House nomination jpost.com 2016-07-27 06:00 Agence France newsinfo.inquirer.net

2 French jihadist attacks church, kills priest while under arrest (3.13/4) SAINT-ETIENNE-DU- ROUVRAY, France — A French jihadist who was under house arrest on terror charges took part in a church attack in which a priest was killed Tuesday, further inflaming tensions over security failures in the violence-weary nation. Adel Kermiche, 19, was one of two attackers who stormed a Catholic church in the northern town of Saint- Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass, slitting the throat of an 86-year- old priest, Jacques Hamel, and leaving a worshipper with serious injuries, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. The attack, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, comes with France still in mourning less than two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300. READ: At least 80 dead in France truck attack | Duterte condemns France attack, vows to join fight vs terror The carnage, the third major strike on France in 18 months, prompted a bitter political spat over alleged security failings and revelations over the church attack were likely to raise further questions. Molins said that Kermiche first came to the attention of anti-terror officials when a member of his family alerted him as missing in March 2015. He was arrested by German officials and found to be using his brother’s identity in a bid to reach Syria. He was charged and released under judicial supervision, but in May fled to Turkey where he was again arrested and returned to France where he was held in custody until March 2016. READ: Be alert, Pinoys in France told Kermiche was released and fitted with an electronic bracelet which allowed him to leave his house on weekdays between 8:00 am and 12:30 pm, said Molins. It was during this time that he and another attacker entered the centuries-old stone Saint-Etienne church, taking hostage the priest, Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers. One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who, upon arrival, tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers. The nun, Sister Danielle, told local radio RMC that Hamel was wearing his white vestments and was at the foot of the altar when “they forced him to get on his knees and not move”. “He tried to struggle, he tried,” she said, adding the men were speaking Arabic and shouting and had “recorded” the attack. Fake explosive devices Molins said police were unable to launch an assault on the church as three hostages were lined up in front of the door. Two nuns and one worshipper then exited the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged at police shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest). One of the attackers was carrying a “fake explosive device covered in aluminium foil” and three knives. The other was holding in his hand a kitchen timer covered in foil, and carrying a backpack containing a similar fake bomb. “The two were neutralized” and killed by police, said Molins. The prosecutor said that a 17-year-old born in Algeria had been taken into custody. He is the younger brother of a suspect “wanted under an international arrest warrant for having left to the Iraq-Syria zone”. ‘Pain and horror’ Grey clouds hung over the town, near-deserted as stores shut down after the attack. Joanna Torrent, a 22-year-old store employee, was stunned to see terror hit her small working class town of 30,000 people, far from bustling tourist hubs like Paris and Nice. “I thought it would only be in big cities, that it couldn’t reach here,” she said. Mohammed Karabila, who heads the regional council of Muslim worship for Haute Normandie, said he was “stunned by the death of my friend (Hamel). He was someone who gave his life to others. We are dumbfounded at the mosque.” Karabila added: “How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack. Where are the police?” Pope Francis voiced his “pain and horror” at the “barbaric killing” of the priest, while European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker pledged the bloc’s “solidarity and cooperation”. Valls had warned earlier this week that France will face more attacks as it struggles to deal with extremists returning from jihad in Iraq and Syria and those radicalised at home. France has been a prime target of ISIS, which regularly calls for supporters to launch attacks against the country, a member of the international coalition carrying out air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria. The ISIS-linked Amaq news agency said the perpetrators were “soldiers of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls to target countries of the Crusader coalition”. It was the fourth attack claimed by ISIS in Europe in two weeks, carried out by a mixed bag of assailants more or less inspired by the group from afar, some of whom are reported to have suffered mental illness. “Strike at any moment, in any place, and any circumstance: such is the criminal and fanatic propaganda of the terrorist organisation Daesh which terrifyingly permeates the minds of people of varied profiles,” said Molins. “It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released” on house arrest, said Federic Lagache, deputy chief of France’s police union Alliance. Call for unity Hollande called for “unity” in the country and rejected opposition calls to further harden anti-terrorism legislation. “Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective,” he said, adding that changes made to legislation in 2015, and the extension of a state of emergency, already gave authorities sufficient “capacity to act”. “What the terrorists want is to divide us, separate us, to tear us apart. We must avoid one-upmanship, arguments, conflation, suspicions,” he said. “This war will be long. Our democracy is the target, and it will be our shield. Let us stand together. We will win this war.”

Newspaper headlines: Priest killing dominates front pages bbc.co.uk

French church attack: 'Priest killer' was being monitored bbc.co.uk

French Priest Killer Was On A Watchlist And Had A Tracker dailycaller.com ‘Killers chanting in Arabic film priest’s throat-slitting’: Details about French church attack — RT News rt.com 2016-07-27 06:00 Agence France newsinfo.inquirer.net

3 English Conversation Questions / Debates (1.04/4) Recommend the site on blogs, forums and other sites. Consider buying my 1,000 Ideas and Activities book. Send me 20 questions on a topic not already here. Mail to info [at] breakingnewsenglish . com Free ESL Materials.com: A site containing links to free materials for ESL teachers and students.

Biographies and ESL Lesson Plans famouspeoplelessons.com 2016-07-27 03:53 www.esldiscussions.com

4 Australian PM denounces treatment at juvenile detention center (1.02/4) The allegations, which appeared on Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s " Four Corners " investigative program, showed children as young as 10 being stripped naked, assaulted, tear-gassed and kept in solitary confinement. "Like all Australians, I have been deeply shocked, shocked and appalled, by the images of mistreatment at the Don Dale center" in Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, Turnbull said. "We will get to the bottom of what happened here. ... We want to know why there were inquiries into this center which did not turn up the evidence and the information that we saw on 'Four Corners' last night.' " Turnbull said he had met with the Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles and Australian Attorney-General George Brandis. 'Child torture' The program also showed footage of a teenage boy in a different detention center in the Northern Territory, hooded and strapped to a chair half-naked in what a lawyer described to ABC as Guantanamo Bay-style treatment. Dylan Voller, then 17, had a hood placed over his head, and his ankles, wrists and neck were shackled in a detention center in Alice Springs in 2015 after, authorities say, he threatened to hurt himself, ABC reported. Voller also was one of six teens who the ABC report said were tear-gassed in 2014 at the Don Dale center in Darwin, about 1,290 kilometers (800 miles) northwest of Alice Springs. During that incident, ABC reported, tear-gas canisters were fired into an area after a boy escaped from his cell. The tear gas affected the escapee as well as five boys who still were locked in their cells, ABC reported. Voller's mother, Joanne Voller, told ABC last year -- after allegations of the Alice Springs hood and chair incident first surfaced -- that she believed her son had been mistreated more than once while in custody. 'Those responsible must be held to account' Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, said the news report showed an inquiry was needed into juvenile detention centers. "If one of us were to have been found to have treated our children in this way, we would probably be charged with a criminal offense and the children taken away from us," Triggs said, according to CNN affiliate 7 News . Other politicians have also expressed their outrage at the report. Sarah Henderson, a member of Parliament for Corangamite, said on Twitter that the abuse shown in the "Four Corners" special amounted to "child torture. " "Those responsible must be held to account for these crimes," she said. Mick Gooda, Australia's aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, called for the Northern Territory government to be "sacked. " In a statement, Giles, the Northern Territory chief minister, said he had taken over the Correctional Services portfolio, which includes the Don Dale center, removing John Elferink as minister. Giles added that police have "formed a Special Task Force under its Special References Unit, and the issues raised in the 'Four Corners' program last night (have been) declared a Major Investigation. " "Anybody who saw that footage on television last night on 'Four Corners' would undoubtedly describe it as horrific footage," Giles said at a news conference Tuesday, according to ABC. "I sat and watched the footage and recognized horror through my eyes. " In a statement , Human Rights Watch said it "seemed short-sighted to limit the royal commission purely to one facility," and called on Turnbull to "order an end to the practice of solitary confinement of children. "

Malcolm Turnbull will not broaden inquiry into NT juvenile detention theguardian.com 2016-07-27 02:25 James Griffiths www.cnn.com

5 'Mothers of the Movement' makes case for Hillary Clinton (1.02/4) It was a powerful moment in the DNC program, and came as other speakers, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, focused on the need for policing reforms. Flanked by fellow mothers in the nine-woman "Mothers of the Movement" -- whose unarmed African-American children have been killed by law enforcement or due to gun violence -- spoke Tuesday night, making their case for Hillary Clinton as a reformer. "She was my fourth of five daughters, and she was gone," Reed-Veal said of her daughter, who was found dead in a jail cell after being arrested for a minor traffic violation. "No, no -- not on administrative leave, but on permanent leave from this earth," she said. "Found hanging in a jail cell after an unlawful traffic stop and an unlawful arrest. " She added that "six other women have died in custody that same month," and listed the names of those women. Eric Garner's mother endorses Hillary Clinton Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who was 17 when he was shot and killed in a car after arguing with a man about the volume of his music, said she wants to see Clinton elected and police reforms enacted "so that this group of heartbroken mothers stops growing. " Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, called herself an "unwilling participant in this movement. " "I would not have signed up for this," she said. "I'm here today for my son, Trayvon Martin, who's in heaven. " She touted Clinton's support for gun reforms and plans to bridge gaps between law enforcement and the communities they serve. "This isn't about being politically correct," she said. "This is about saving our children. That's why we're here, tonight, with Hillary Clinton. " The group has been among Clinton's top surrogates and supporters. The former secretary of state has met personally with the group and its individual members. Earlier in the day, McBath praised Clinton's commitment to the cause. "She's been dealing with these kind of systematic issues all along, so her records speak for itself. So she didn't just join the game. She's been doing the work already. She's been in the trenches, so she understands dynamically the way to move forward to be able to change this," she said Tuesday on CNN's "New Day. " The 17-year-old Davis was killed after Michael Dunn shot into an SUV that held Davis and his friends at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station following an argument over loud music from the teens' vehicle. The "Mothers of the Movement" also includes the mothers of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and other men and women who died due to gun violence, while in police custody or as a result of police actions. Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner , said Clinton was the first presidential candidate to reach out to the mothers of these victims. Garner died following a chokehold from police attempting to arrest him for allegedly illegally selling cigarettes. "She was the first candidate that ever reached out to these mothers," Carr told CNN's Alisyn Camerota. "She was genuinely concerned about our pain and about what we were going through. " Carr said the former secretary of state met privately with about a dozen mothers who have lost their children to gun violence. "She listened to our stories," Carr said. "She listens with compassion. She took notes, not her cabinet, not her press people. She didn't even have press with her. " Carr said Clinton understands that community policing is one of the solutions to problems and tensions between African-American communities and law enforcement. "You should always know the people you are policing. If you form a relationship, there would be less violence," she said. "We have to get more respect, more consciousness in the neighborhood. "

Clinton wins support from ‘Mothers of the Movement’ nypost.com 2016-07-27 01:25 Eric Bradner rss.cnn.com

6 Yahoo to Participate at the J. P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (1.01/4) --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question-and-answer session at the J. P. Morgan Global in. The session is scheduled to begin on , at / . A live webcast of the session will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm? CalendarID=5. is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. connects advertisers with target audiences through a streamlined advertising technology stack that combines the power of data, content, and technology. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). and Yahoo Finance are the trademarks and/or registered trademarks of All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Yahoo Announces Board Changes and Agreement With Starboard investor.yahoo.net

Yahoo Appoints IMS as Sales Partner in Spanish-Speaking Latin America investor.yahoo.net 2016-07-27 03:37 investor.yahoo.net

7 Yahoo Expands Content Marketing Offerings with Yahoo Storytellers (1.01/4) Helps Brands and Agencies to and Distribute Content That Drives Engagement --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced today the launch of Storytellers, a full service content marketing studio for brands and agencies that leverages Yahoo's editorial expertise, extensive data, and native advertising through Yahoo Gemini. Now marketers can leverage Yahoo Storytellers to successfully develop, distribute and measure premium branded content that meets consumers' high expectations and drives engagement. "Content marketing continues to be an area of growth for brands and agencies, but they need a better way to create compelling content that's informed by data and reaches the right audience. That's where Storytellers comes in," said , Chief Revenue Officer,. "At Yahoo we're focused on bringing our users the best content available online across our news, sports, finance and lifestyle verticals, and now we're helping our advertisers develop branded content that is even more effective and data-driven. " Yahoo Storytellers offers advertisers a full suite of capabilities to build successful content marketing strategies, including: content consulting services and curriculum-based workshops, development of premium video and a full range of editorial content, influencer activations across social platforms, and partnership extensions. Yahoo Storytellers is based on the powerful combination of content, data and technology. With more than 165 billion daily data signals, helps brands identify consumer insights and inform what type of content opportunities they should pursue to reach their target audience. Yahoo's custom content studio produces premium content for brands, by tapping into leading journalists and -pedigree creators. Yahoo is partnering with top creators including , Endemol Shine Beyond, and many others. With Yahoo's full suite of ad formats and technology platforms, especially native advertising through Yahoo Gemini and content platforms like , brands can deliver engaging content at scale to the right audience and in the most relevant environment. "As one of the original digital storytellers, Yahoo's history in identifying opportunities and creating dynamic stories for brands and audiences alike is extraordinary," said , President,. "We are thrilled to leverage our expertise as a global production company in partnership with to bring relevant stories to the right audiences across platform. " Brands including Dasani, , JetBlue and many others have partnered with on content marketing efforts. JetBlue worked with on a recent content marketing effort that resulted in over 3 million views of their native video ads, 31 million social media impressions, and 27% of people who viewed the JetBlue posts engaging with them. "Working with , we have been able to give people a new way to experience our brand, while driving meaningful results," said , head of brand marketing,. "We look forward to working with Yahoo Storytellers to further develop content that will be useful and engaging to consumers. " is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. connects advertisers with target audiences through a streamlined advertising technology stack that combines the power of data, content, and technology. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). and Yahoo Finance are the trademarks and/or registered trademarks of All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Yahoo Announces Board Changes and Agreement With Starboard investor.yahoo.net

Yahoo Announces Editorial Plans for 2016 Summer Games investor.yahoo.net 2016-07-27 03:37 investor.yahoo.net

8 8 Chi Onwurah MP: I did not want to vote for Trident - but I did The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 (0.19/4) I did not want to vote for the renewal of Trident. I don’t like voting with the Tories, I don’t want to legitimise a dialogue of death and I’d much, much prefer to vote for investment in schools and education than weapons of mass destruction. The fact that I’d recently returned from a commemorating the Centenary of the Somme with veterans of the Tyneside Battalions had highlighted, again, both the horror and the futility of war. As friends in Newcastle and colleagues in Parliament can testify, I spent the days leading up to the vote asking for views. I read constituents’ emails on the subject as well as the (many) briefings. I studied the motion in detail and listened carefully to the arguments of colleagues who were voting against Trident. I did not want to vote for Trident. But I did. Why? The first duty of Government is to protect its citizens. That is a duty I take very seriously. Like all of my colleagues on the Labour benches, I am committed to the twin goals of a safe and secure United Kingdom and a world free of nuclear weapons. In both 2010 and in 2015 I was elected on manifestos that pledged we would retain the minimum necessary nuclear deterrent, whilst at the same time working towards reducing and eradicating nuclear weapons. Last year, Party members reaffirmed that policy at conference. However the Leader of my party and some of my frontbench colleagues voted against that position. For me there were four key questions – cost, effectiveness, morality and making the world safer. 1. Cost Whilst there is not enough transparency on cost, the SNP and Green Party estimates of up to £200bn double count all kinds of in-service costs, most of which would also be applicable to any conventional replacement. The estimate of between £30 to 40bn over 35 years seemed to me most credible. And this does not include the benefits of the 30,000 jobs that depend on building submarines - either directly or in the supply chain - or the value to the engineering and manufacturing sector that they represent. That is why my union, Unite, backed renewal. That is why EEF, the manufacturing association, backed renewal. If Trident were not renewed, the money saved would not go on the NHS, no more than our EU membership fee will. We are a very unequal nation, but we are also a rich one - we should be able to maintain our defence capability and invest in a welfare system and the NHS. 2. Effectiveness I read many reports citing cyber insecurity and potential drone attacks, but the evidence convinced me that, whilst these threats are real, they are not (yet) such as to significantly undermine effectiveness overall. Like Lisa Nandy, I was concerned about the apparently openended nature of the commitment to nuclear weapons but the motion did also emphasise disarmament. Jeremy Corbyn’s argument that nuclear weapons were ineffective because they did not deter the Rwandan genocide, I found more difficult to follow. 3. Morality This was for me perhaps the strongest argument agains renewal. It is one rarely articulated. Many hide behind cost and effectiveness when they believe nuclear weapons are immoral. I am not a conscientious objector but I have a great deal of respect for those who are, and I do believe the use of nuclear weapons is immoral. But if you accept the concept of armed defence and believe in taking armed action to protect UK or global citizens, then the unilateral disarmament argument seems to resolve into 1) hiding behind the American deterrent 2) that it will make the world safer, or 3) that it doesn’t matter whether we end up in thermonuclear destruction as long as our hands are clean. The first and the third I do not accept. 4. A safer world This was the question I ended up wrestling with. Caroline Lucas’ argument that having nuclear weapons encourages other countries to use them would have been an excellent one to make back in 1948. The question now is not whether or not we have them - we do - but whether or not we get rid of them, unilaterally. A world free of nuclear weapons needs countries like the UK to take a lead. It needs stability, balance, and a predictable pace of weapons reductions. It takes years of negotiations. I am proud of my party’s record on nuclear disarmament. The previous Labour Government was the first nuclear-armed power in the world to commit to the goal of a world free from nuclear weapons. We made the decision to decommission all land and air launched missiles. We did it unilaterally, setting an example. But nobody followed. Working with other countries in recent decades, we have halved our own nuclear stockpiles and the US and Russia have reduced their warheads from 60,000 to 16,000 and that is expected to halve again by 2022. The evidence is clear that multilateralism works, although this Government has yet to demonstrate its commitment. So would Britain declaring that it was not going to renew Trident make the world, and the UK, safer? Would it tend to stabilise or destabilise? I spent hours debating that. I considered Britain on the road to Brexit with a new Prime Minister with no plan and an absent Labour leader, Europe between fear of migration and disintegration, Russia at bay, the Turkey coup, Israeli- Iranian relations, the Republican party’s candidate for President and the reality that terrorist massacres are a regular feature all over the world. I thought about my constituents, would declaring that Labour was against Trident make them feel safer and more secure? My conclusion was that it would not make the world more stable and it would not make my constituents feel more secure. And so I voted. There’s a phrase in football that I really hate. It used to be “Thirty years of hurt”. Each time the England team crashes out of a major tournament it gets regurgitated with extra years added. Rather predictably, when England lost to Iceland in Euro 2016, it became “Fifty years of hurt”. We’ve never won the European Championship and in 17 attempts to win the World Cup we have only won once. I’m going to tell you why that’s a record to cherish. I was seven in 1966. Our telly was broken so I had to watch the World Cup final with a neighbour. I sat squeezed on my friend Colin’s settee as his dad cheered on England with phrases like “Sock it to them Bobby”, as old fashioned now as a football rattle. When England took the lead for the second time I remember thinking, what will it feel like, when we English are actually Champions of the World. Not long after I knew. It felt good. Wembley Stadium, 30 July 1966, was our only ever World Cup win. But let’s imagine what it would be like if, as with our rivals, we’d won it many times? Brazil have been World Champions on five occasions, Germany four, and Italy four. Most England fans would be “over the moon” if they could boast a similarly glorious record. They’re wrong. I believe it’s wonderful that we’ve only triumphed once. We all share that one single powerful memory. Sometimes in life less is definitely more. Something extraordinary has happened. Few of us are even old enough to remember, but somehow, we all know everything that happened that day. Even if you care little about the beautiful game, I’m going to bet that you can recall as many as five iconic moments from 50 years ago. You will have clearly in your mind the BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous lines, as Geoff Hurst tore down the pitch to score his hat-trick: “Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over. It is now”. And it was. 4 - 2 to England against West Germany. Thirty minutes earlier the Germans had equalised in the dying moments of the second half to take the game to extra time. More drama we all share: Geoff Hurst’s second goal. Or the goal that wasn’t, as technology has since, I think, conclusively proved. The shot that crashed off the cross bar and did or didn’t cross the line. Of course, even if you weren’t alive at the time, you will know that the linesman, one Tofiq Bakhramov, from Azerbaijan (often incorrectly referred to as “Russian”) could speak not a word of English, signalled it as a goal. Then there’s the England Captain, the oh-so-young and handsome Bobby Moore. The very embodiment of the era. You can picture him now wiping his muddy hands on his white shorts before he shakes hands with a youthful Queen Elizabeth. Later you see him lifted aloft by his team mates holding the small golden Jules Rimet trophy. How incredible, how simply marvellous that as a nation we share such golden memories. How sad for the Brazilians and Germans. Their more numerous triumphs are dissipated through the generations. In those countries each generation will remember each victory but not with the intensity with which we English still celebrate 1966. It’s as if sex was best the first time. The first cut is the deepest. On Colin’s dad’s TV the pictures were black and white and so were the flags. Recently I looked at the full colour Pathe newsreel of the game. It’s the red, white and blue of the Union Jack that dominates. The red cross of Saint George didn’t really come into prominence until the Nineties. The left don’t like flags much, unless they’re “deepest red”. Certainly not the Union Flag. It smacks of imperialism perhaps. In 1966 we didn’t seem to know if we were English or British. Maybe there was, and still is, something admirable and casual about not knowing who we are or what is our proper flag. Twelve years later I’m in Cuba at the “World Festival of Youth” – the only occasion I’ve represented my country. It was my chance to march into a stadium under my nation’s flag. Sadly, it never happened as my fellow delegates argued for hours over what, if any, flag we British should walk behind. The delegation leaders – you will have heard of them now, but they were young and unknown then – Peter Mandelson, Trevor Phillips and Charles Clarke, had to find a way out of this impasse. In the end, each delegation walked into the stadium behind their flag, except the British. Poor Mandelson stood alone for hours holding Union Jack, sweltering in the tropical sun. No other country seemed to have a problem with their flag. I guess theirs speak of revolution; ours of colonialism. On Saturday 30 July BBC Radio 2 will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup Final, live from Wembley Arena. Such a celebration is only possible because on 16 occasions we failed to win that trophy. Let’s banish this idea of “Fifty years of hurt” once and for all and embrace the joy of only winning once. Phil Jones edits the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2. On Saturday 30 July the station celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup Final live from Wembley Arena, telling the story of football’s most famous match, minute by minute. Tickets are available from: www.wc66.org

How Jeremy Corbyn plans to use the leadership race to bring the rebels back into line The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com We spoke to someone behind the scenes on Nick Clegg’s Carly Rae Jepson video The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com

Jeremy Corbyn's campaign speech in full: "I came into politics to stand up against injustice" The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com Cabinet audit: what does the appointment of Sajid Javid as Communities Secretary mean for policy? The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com

Commons confidential: Eagle's wings clipped The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com Theresa May’s mission is to resolve Thatcher’s contradictory legacy The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com

Cabinet audit: what does the appointment of Chris Grayling as Transport Secretary mean for policy? The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com Want to understand Brexit? Just look at Sports Direct The joy of only winning once: why England should be proud of 1966 newstatesman.com 2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

9 Why is BBC Radio Cumbria talking about 1974? Why do the words “soup, swoop, loop de loop” come to mind every time I lift a spoon to my lips? (0.07/4) “I feel I’ve got to mention this because we don’t often get the chance,” trembles the traffic reporter on Radio Cumbria, “but the train from Carlisle to Newcastle is early. Four minutes early!” The 12 July breakfast show highlights also include news of homes “powered by cheese” (generating biogas from Cumbrian creamery residues) and yet another shout-out to listeners who might remember the making of the 1974 film of Swallows and Amazons – in advance of the Keswick premiere of a new adaptation of the story, about children fancying themselves buccaneers on the high seas (ie, Coniston Water) and who view adults as merely actors in a made-up world, creatures to be approached with caution and frowning respect, as one might a local chieftain on a South Sea island. The station’s appeal for tales of the 1974 filming has been going on successfully for a while. They’ve even heard from the granddaughter of the owner of Captain Flint’s parrot. And on Radio Cumbria’s live feed last week, mention was made – as though it were breaking news – of an earlier TV adaptation that Arthur Ransome himself thought a “ghastly mess”. .. Though apparently, at the time, he was living an exhaustingly spartan existence overlooking the Rusland Valley with “his wife, Evgenia, the former secretary to Leon Trotsky” (the ultimate caveat). No doubt all this will run and run, the Lake District being such a strong part of our national understanding of the ideal beauty of our country. Ransome’s book was suffused with a nostalgia for the Lakes even at the moment it was published. I’ve always thought that the most memorable thing about the movie was the slight fuzziness of the actual Seventies film stock – especially when the boats on the water are shot at a distance. That dreamy indistinctness. . . it’s not just touching, it’s profound. It looks like memory. It truly looks like the feeling of journeying back in thought. How many films can claim that? Little wonder Radio Cumbria is so enjoying its appeal. “Though nothing can bring back the hour/Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;” Wordsworth wrote, “We will grieve not, rather find/Strength in what remains behind”. A while ago I was lending a friend the keys to our house. We keep spare keys in a ceramic pot I was given years ago by someone who made it while on an art-school pottery course. “That’s er . . . quite challenging,” the friend said of the pot. “Is it?” I replied. “I’d stopped noticing how ugly it is.” “Then it’s a grunty,” she said. “A what?” I asked. “A grunty. It’s something you have in your house that’s hideous and useless but you’ve stopped noticing it completely, so it’s effectively invisible.” I was much taken with this idea and realised that as well as “grunties” there are also “gruntyisms”: things you say or do, though the reason why you say or do them has long since been forgotten. For example, every time we drink soup my wife and I say the same thing, uttered in a strange monotone: we say, “Soup, swoop, loop de loop.” How we came to say “soup, swoop, loop de loop” came about like this. For a married couple, the years between your mid-thirties and your late forties might be seen as the decade of the bad dinner party. You’re no longer looking for a partner, so the hormonal urge to visit crowded bars has receded, but you are still full of energy so you don’t want to stay in at night, either. Instead, you go to dinner parties attended by other couples you don’t necessarily like that much. One such couple were called Barry and Anita. Every time we ate at their house Barry would make soup, and when serving it he would invariably say, “There we are: soup, swoop, loop de loop.” After the dinner party, as soon as we were in the minicab going home, me and Linda would start drunkenly talking about what an arse Barry was, saying to each other, in a high- pitched, mocking imitation of his voice: “Please do have some more of this delicious soup, swoop, loop de loop.” Then we’d collapse against each other laughing, convincing the Algerian or Bengali taxi driver once again of the impenetrability and corruption of Western society. Pretty soon whenever we had soup at home, Linda and I would say to each other, “Soup, swoop, loop de loop,” at first still ridiculing Barry, but eventually we forgot why we were saying it and it became part of the private language every couple develop, employed long after we’d gratefully ceased having soupy dinners with Barry and Anita. In the early Nineties we had an exchange student staying with us for a year, a Maori girl from the Cook Islands in the southern Pacific. When she returned home she took the expression “soup, swoop, loop de loop” with her and spread it among her extended family, until finally the phrase appeared in an anthropological dissertation: “ ‘Soup swoop, loop de loop.’ Shamanistic Incantations in Rarotongan Food Preparation Rituals” – University of Topeka, 2001.

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Why are people queuing for hours for a 30-second glimpse of some light-up pumpkins? Why do the words “soup, swoop, loop de loop” come to mind every time I lift a spoon to my lips? newstatesman.com Turkey's darkest night: can democracy survive the failed coup? Why do the words “soup, swoop, loop de loop” come to mind every time I lift a spoon to my lips? newstatesman.com

An Amazonian tribe is challenging scientific assumptions about our musical preferences Why do the words “soup, swoop, loop de loop” come to mind every time I lift a spoon to my lips? newstatesman.com 2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

10 Yahoo Reports Second Quarter 2016 Results (0.02/4) "With the lowest cost structure and headcount in a decade, we continue to make solid progress against our 2016 plan. Through disciplined expense management and focused execution, we delivered Q2 results that met guidance across the board and in some areas exceeded it," said , CEO of. "In addition to our efforts to improve the operating business, our board has made great progress on strategic alternatives. We are relentlessly focused on delivering shareholder value. " * See further discussion related to goodwill and intangibles impairment below Our second quarter GAAP revenue and Cost of revenue - TAC were impacted by a required change in revenue presentation related to the Eleventh Amendment to the Microsoft Search Agreement ("Change in Revenue Presentation," as discussed below). Specifically, of GAAP revenue and Cost of revenue - TAC for the second quarter of 2016 was due to the Change in Revenue Presentation. Excluding the impact of this change, GAAP revenue would have been , a 15 percent decline from the second quarter of 2015, and Cost of revenue - TAC would have been , a 7 percent increase from the second quarter of 2015. * The Change in Revenue Presentation contributed to Mavens revenue, to Non-Mavens revenue and to traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2016 Mavens revenue represented 36 percent and 40 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2015 and 2016, respectively. Excluding the impact of the Change in Revenue Presentation, Mavens revenue would have been and represented 38 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2016. * The Change in Revenue Presentation contributed to mobile revenue, to desktop revenue and to traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2016 GAAP mobile revenue for the second quarter of 2015 and 2016 was and , respectively. Mobile revenue represented 22 percent and 30 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2015 and 2016, respectively. Excluding the impact of the Change in Revenue Presentation, mobile revenue would have been and represented 26 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the second quarter of 2016. Gross mobile revenue for the second quarter of 2015 and 2016 was and , respectively. The Change in Revenue Presentation did not impact gross mobile revenue in the second quarter of 2016. During the second quarter of 2016, we determined that there were indicators present to suggest that it is more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. We recorded a non- cash goodwill impairment charge of and a non-cash intangibles impairment charge of related to our reporting unit. The goodwill and intangibles impairment charges resulted from a combination of factors, including decreases in our projected operating results and estimated future cash flows. "I'm pleased that we crossed the first half of the year showing progress on our 2016 plan and the guidance we provided. By continuing to focus on revenue, both GAAP and ex-TAC, and excellent expenditure management of cost and capital, we reported increased cash flow and a strong balance sheet through the second quarter as exemplified by our cash and marketable securities of nearly ," said , CFO of. Pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment to the Microsoft Search Agreement, the Company completed the transition of its exclusive sales responsibilities to Microsoft for Microsoft's paid search services to premium advertisers in , , and on and in its remaining markets (other than and ) on. Following the transition in each respective market, is considered the principal in the sale of traffic to Microsoft and other customers because is the primary obligor in its arrangements with Microsoft and has discretion in how search queries from Affiliate sites will be fulfilled and monetized. As a result, amounts paid to Affiliates under the Microsoft Search Agreement in the transitioned markets are recorded as Cost of revenue - TAC rather than as a reduction to GAAP revenue, resulting in GAAP revenue from the Microsoft Search Agreement being reported on a gross rather than net basis. and will not be transitioned, and TAC in those markets will continue to be reported as a reduction to revenue. will live stream a video broadcast of the Company's second quarter 2016 financial results at / today. The live stream will be broadcast from Yahoo's studio and will be available exclusively on Yahoo Finance at finance.yahoo.com. The Company will provide its business outlook for the third quarter and full year of 2016 during the presentation. Supplemental financial information can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at investor.yahoo.net. The video will be archived after the event at investor.yahoo.net and will be available for 90 days following the broadcast. This press release includes adjusted GAAP revenue and cost of revenue - TAC amounts that exclude the effect of the Change in Revenue Presentation during the second quarter of 2016. We believe providing this additional information to investors is useful because it provides investors with comparable revenue and cost of revenue -TAC measures for comparison to our historical reported financial information. This press release and its attachments also include the following additional financial measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the ("SEC"): gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; revenue ex-TAC; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted; and free cash flow. Gross mobile revenue is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Revenue ex-TAC is GAAP revenue less cost of revenue - TAC. Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted, exclude from the most comparable GAAP financial measures certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of ongoing results, and exclude stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA also excludes taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, other (expense) income, net (which includes interest, among other items), earnings in equity interests, and net income attributable to noncontrolling interests. Free cash flow is GAAP net cash provided by operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. These measures may be different than non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Explanations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations of these financial measures to the GAAP financial measures the Company considers most comparable are included in the accompanying "Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," "Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," and "GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations. " is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. creates value for advertisers with a streamlined, simple advertising technology stack that leverages Yahoo's data, content, and technology to connect advertisers with their target audiences. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). "Ads Sold" consist of display ad impressions for paying advertisers on and Affiliate sites. "Affiliates" are third-party entities that have integrated Yahoo's advertising offerings into their websites or other offerings (those websites and other offerings, "Affiliate sites"). "Alibaba Group" means Alibaba Group Holding Limited. In , Alibaba Group completed its initial public offering of American Depositary Shares ("ADS"), in which was a selling shareholder. "Desktop computer" means a desktop or laptop computer, and "desktop revenue" is revenue generated from search and display ads served on Desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on Desktop computers. "Gross mobile revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Gross search revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from, without duplication: (i) mobile (as defined below), (ii) video ads and video ad packages, (iii) native ads, and (iv) and Polyvore ads and fees. "Microsoft Search Agreement" refers to the Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement between and Microsoft Corporation, as amended. "Mobile revenue" is revenue generated in connection with user activity on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, regardless of whether the device is accessing a mobile-optimized service. Mobile revenue is generated primarily from search and display ads. Mobile revenue also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on mobile devices. "Native revenue" is revenue generated from native ads (search and display) on as well as third-party partner publisher sites and mobile apps. Native ads are visually rich, are positioned as a seamless part of the users' experience, and come in a variety of formats, like text, image, and video. offers native ads through Yahoo Gemini and the BrightRoll Demand-Side Platform (DSP). "Net earnings" means net income (loss) attributable to , and "net earnings per diluted share" means net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted. "Non-Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from search ads and traditional (i.e., non-native, non-video, non- , non-Polyvore) display ads served on Desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on Desktop computers. "Non-traffic-driven revenue" is revenue not arising from user activity on or Affiliate sites, and includes royalty revenue, license fee revenue, amortization under the technology and intellectual property license agreement with Alibaba Group through the third quarter of 2015, and all other revenue that is not traffic-driven. "Paid Clicks" are clicks by end-users on sponsored search listings (excluding native ads) on and Affiliate sites. "Price-per-Ad" is defined as display revenue divided by our total number of Ads Sold. "Price-per-Click" is defined as Search click-driven revenue divided by our total number of Paid Clicks. "TAC" refers to traffic acquisition costs. TAC consists of payments to Affiliates and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. "Yahoo," "Company," and "we" refer to and its consolidated subsidiaries. "Yahoo Properties" refers to the online properties and services that provides to users. We periodically review, refine and update our methodologies for monitoring, gathering, and counting number of Ads Sold and Paid Clicks, and for calculating Search click-driven revenue, Price-per-Ad, and Price- per-Click. Methodology changes are applied consistently to all periods presented. No changes were made in the currently reported period. Additional information about how "Ads Sold," "Paid Clicks," "Price-per-Ad," "Price-per-Click," and "Search click-driven revenue" are defined and calculated is included under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which is on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans (including, without limitation, the quotations from management) and their projected impact, as well as, review of strategic alternatives. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to attract and maintain mobile users and grow its mobile revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to grow Mavens revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to grow users, user engagement and pageviews; risks related to growing advertiser engagement; risk of potential reduction in spending by, or loss of, advertising customers; risks associated with the Microsoft Search Agreement and the Services Agreement with ; risks related to Yahoo's ability to provide innovative search experiences and other products and services that differentiate its services and generate significant traffic; risks associated with Yahoo's ability to manage its operating expenses effectively and improve profitability; risks related to acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to Yahoo's ability to compete with new or existing competitors; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; risks related to acquiring or developing compelling content; security breaches; interruptions or delays in the provision of Yahoo's services; adverse results in litigation; risks related to Yahoo's ability to recruit and retain key personnel; risks related to possible impairment of goodwill or other assets; risks related to Yahoo's ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo's regulatory environment; risks related to international operations; risks related to the calculation of our key operational metrics; and general economic conditions. With respect to Yahoo's exploration of strategic alternatives, there is no assurance any transaction will be consummated, and the process of exploring strategic alternatives will involve the dedication of significant resources and the incurrence of significant costs and expenses. All information set forth in this press release and its attachments is as of. does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , as amended, and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended , which are on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in those sections in Yahoo's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended , which will be filed with the in the third quarter of 2016. !, the family of marks, and the associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of is a registered trademark of Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations This press release includes adjusted GAAP revenue and cost of revenue - TAC amounts that exclude the effect of the Change in Revenue Presentation during the second quarter of 2016. We believe providing this additional information to investors is useful because it provides investors with comparable revenue and cost of revenue - TAC measures for comparison to our historical reported financial information. See "Change in Revenue Presentation" in the accompanying press release. This press release and its attachments also include the non-GAAP financial measures of revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs ("revenue ex-TAC"); gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share; and free cash flow, which are reconciled to revenue (in the case of revenue ex-TAC, gross mobile revenue, and gross search revenue); net loss attributable to (in the case of adjusted EBITDA and non- GAAP net earnings); loss from operations; net loss attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted; and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, which we believe are the most comparable GAAP measures. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "Yahoo," the "Company," or "we") uses these non-GAAP financial measures for internal managerial purposes and to facilitate period-to-period comparisons. We describe limitations specific to each non-GAAP financial measure below. Management generally compensates for limitations in the use of non-GAAP financial measures by relying on comparable GAAP financial measures and providing investors with a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure or measures. Further, management uses non-GAAP financial measures only in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business. These non-GAAP measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, revenue, net loss attributable to , loss from operations, net loss attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP. Revenue ex-TAC is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as GAAP revenue less TAC that has been recorded as a cost of revenue. TAC consists of payments made to Affiliates, and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. TAC is recorded either as a reduction of revenue or as cost of revenue. We present revenue ex-TAC to provide investors a metric used by the Company for evaluation and decision-making purposes and to provide investors with comparable revenue numbers when comparing to our historical reported financial information. A limitation of revenue ex-TAC is that it is a measure we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of revenue and cost of revenue—TAC. Each of gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue is a non-GAAP financial measure. Gross mobile revenue is defined as GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is defined as GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. We present these amounts to provide investors with additional metrics used by the Company for evaluation and decision- making purposes and as an indicator of the size of our presence in the relevant business. To this end, gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue report the total receipts generated on and Affiliate sites by the specified relevant business (i.e., mobile or search), before any TAC or other revenue share is paid to the Affiliates and before any revenue share is allocated to Microsoft or other parties. A limitation of these non-GAAP measures is that they include revenue that is recognized by one or more third parties and not by Yahoo; furthermore, they are measures we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to us, and therefore may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC and revenue sharing differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable financial measure GAAP revenue. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) attributable to before taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, other (expense) income, net (which includes interest, among other items), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results. We present adjusted EBITDA because the exclusion of certain gains, losses, and expenses facilitates comparisons of the operating performance of the Company on a period to period basis. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results reported under GAAP. These limitations include: adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments and such payments reflect a reduction in cash available to us; adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues in our businesses; adjusted EBITDA does not include stock-based compensation expense related to the Company's workforce; adjusted EBITDA also excludes other (expense) income, net (which includes interest, among other items), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results, and these items may represent a reduction or increase in cash available to us; and adjusted EBITDA is a measure that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to other companies in our industry. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of net income (loss) attributable to , which includes taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation expense, other (expense) income, net (which includes interest, among other items), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and the other gains, losses and expenses that are excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Non-GAAP income from operations is defined as income (loss) from operations excluding certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operating results and further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on income (loss) from operations. We consider non-GAAP income from operations to be a profitability measure which facilitates the forecasting of our operating results for future periods and allows for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP income from operations is that it does not include all items that impact our income from operations for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of income (loss) from operations which includes the gains, losses, and expenses that are excluded from non-GAAP income from operations. Non-GAAP net earnings is defined as net income (loss) attributable to (which we sometimes refer to as net earnings) excluding certain gains, losses, expenses, and their related tax effects that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results and further adjusted to exclude stock- based compensation expense and its related tax effects. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on net income and net income per share. We consider non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share to be profitability measures which facilitate the forecasting of our results for future periods and allow for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share is that they do not include all items that impact our net income and net income per diluted share for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of net income (loss) attributable to and net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, both of which include the gains, losses, expenses and related tax effects that are excluded from non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure which provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by business operations, after deducting our net payments for acquisitions and dispositions of property and equipment, which cash can then be used for strategic opportunities or other business purposes including, among others, investing in the Company's business, making strategic acquisitions, strengthening the balance sheet, and repurchasing stock. A limitation of free cash flow is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the net change in cash and cash equivalents as presented in the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows prepared in accordance with GAAP which incorporates all cash movements during the period.

Yahoo to Live Stream Video of Second Quarter 2016 Earnings on Yahoo Finance on July 18, 2016 investor.yahoo.net

Yahoo Reports First Quarter 2016 Results investor.yahoo.net 2016-07-27 03:37 investor.yahoo.net

11 11 Locals without borders: governments are using diasporas to shape the migration crisis Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention (0.02/4) Last month, on 21 June, thousands of Eritreans descended on Geneva and marched across the city, finally stopping at the Place des Nations in front of the UN. The demonstrators had come from across Europe: Italy, Germany, London, and a young man who looked blankly at my French and English questions before exclaiming “ Svenska!” (“Swedish!”). They were here to denounce a recent report by the UN Human Rights Council condemning widespread violations of basic rights in Eritrea. According to the protesters, the report was based on shoddy research and is biased and politically-motivated: “Stop regime change agendas!” said one banner. Two days later, a similarly sized group of Eritreans marched in the same direction, for the opposite reason. This contingent, 10,000-strong according to the organisers, wanted to show their backing for the report, which highlights many of the problems that led them to leave the Horn of Africa in the first place. Forced conscription, extrajudicial killings, and official impunity, all pinpointed by the UN inquiry, have driven a mass exodus to the surrounding region and beyond. In 2015 alone, 47,025 Eritreans crossed the Mediterranean to request asylum in Europe. Two things stood out. First was the sharp polarisation of the Eritrean diaspora community in Europe, which muddies the waters for outsiders trying to make sense of the situation: how can one side say everything is fine while the other claims massive abuses of rights? Second was the sheer engagement of this diaspora, some of whom may never have set foot in Eritrea. They had come from across Europe, with or without the help of funding, to stand on a rainy square and fight for the narrative of their nation. As an Irishman abroad, would I have the commitment to jump on a plane for a political protest with no certain outcome? I probably wouldn’t, but then again my country is not just 25 years old and still struggling to define itself on the international stage. Individual stakes are also much higher for people like Abraham, an Eritrean in Switzerland who told me how he was forced into the army for seven years before managing to escape via Sudan two years ago. With two children still in Asmara, he has significant skin in the game. As for the naysayers, they are also under certain pressure. Some reports suggest that the government in Asmara exercises extensive power in certain diaspora circles, threatening to cancel the citizenship of those who denounce the regime or refuse to pay 2 per cent income tax each year. Ultimately, such a situation can only lead to a committed kind of polarisation where pro-government supporters need to publicly demonstrate their backing, and the anti-government kind have nothing left to lose. But on a more benign level, the idea of states systematically harnessing the power of the diaspora for domestic gains has also been growing elsewhere – including in Ireland. Historically a nation of emigrants, Ireland has seen its diaspora swell even further following the economic downturn: OECD figures estimate that one in six Irish-born people now live abroad. In an age of networks and soft power, this represents a sizeable demographic, and a well-educated and well-off one to boot. The government has clearly recognized this. In 2009, the first Global Irish Economic Forum was held to tap into the business know-how of expats, and has since taken place biannually. More importantly, two years ago the first Minister for the Diaspora was appointed, tasked with taking overall charge of engagement efforts: no longer simply cultural ambassadors operating Irish bars abroad, emigrants are economic and political seeds to be cultivated. A referendum is planned next year on whether to grant them the right to vote from abroad in presidential elections. Elsewhere, in Germany, the 3m-strong Turkish population has attracted renewed interest from the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent years. According to a 2014 paper by think tank SWP, Ankara now explicitly designates these Turks abroad as a “diaspora” rather than a scattered group, and adopts clear public diplomacy efforts, channelled through cultural centres, to tap their influence. This has sometimes rankled in Berlin: although Ankara’s diaspora policy encourages citizens to learn German and integrate into German society, the underlying motivation is one of Turkish self-interest rather than benign assimilation. In a battle for the front-foot, German immigration policy clashes with Turkish emigration policy. Intra-EU movements, largely unhampered by visa questions, have also become substantial enough to warrant attention. For example, hit hard by the economic downturn and austerity measures, many educated Spaniards and Portuguese have flocked to Northern European cities to seek employment. London, a melting pot of diasporas from all over the world, is reportedly home to more French people than Bordeaux: together they would make up the sixth largest city in France. As countries continue to rebuild following the financial crisis, forging a connection to the skills and political power of such emigrants is a policy imperative. And if no other EU country, aside from Ireland, has introduced a dedicated minister for this, the growing economic potentials may spur them to do so. Diasporas have been around for millennia. Why are governments getting so interested now? And what does it mean for the future of citizenship, nationality, and identity? Technology is one obvious game-changer. Diasporas not only have more options to keep in touch with their home country, but with so much of daily life now happening on virtual platforms, they also have less reason to integrate in their host society. It is now almost feasible to ignore the surrounding communities and live quite comfortably in a bubble of media and connections from back home. This then works both ways, with governments increasingly willing to use such communications to maintain links. The “imagined spaces” of nations are morphing into “virtual spaces”, with unpredictable consequences for traditional models of integration. Marco Funk, a researcher at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Brussels, says that the growing ease of mobility compounds the idea of “people moving from one country to another and staying there” as simply out-of-date. The coming years, he says, will be marked by patterns of “circular migration”, where citizens hop from one country to another as whim and economic opportunity arise. Governments, especially in an increasingly stagnant Europe, will likely try to beef up links with this mobile generation, especially since it is often pulled from the more educated classes. Fearing a “brain drain”, yet unable to keep the talent at home, they may foster a more fluid system of “brain exchange”: the diaspora as a mobile resource rather than physical loss. Of course, none of this will be straightforward, especially at a time when a major fault-line around the world is the future of globalisation and migration. An uptick in nationalist tendencies may mean that diasporas will find themselves (once again) unwilling pawns on a political chessboard, protected or manipulated by governments back home while scapegoated by segments of their host societies. But one thing is sure: even as walls are rebuilt, diasporas will not disappear, and governments are recognising their power. All politics may remain local, but the local now knows no bounds. Donald Trump brought home the Republican convention Thursday night with a dark vision of contemporary America – a darkness he claimed only his leadership could lift. It was a lengthy, tightly-scripted speech framed around polarities – insiders and outsiders, criminals and victims, the United States and the rest of the world – and infused with righteous anger. And yet against the darkness, he offered not lightness but “greatness” – a bombastic, personalistic vision of how through sheer force of will he could right the American ship before it plunged irretrievably into the depths. “I alone can solve,” he famously tweeted earlier in the campaign. This was the 80-minute version. Any presidential challenger, of course, has to lay out a set of problems they believe need fixing and a case for why their leadership might make a difference. It was the breathtaking scale and intensity of Trump’s diagnosis, and the lack of optimistic alternative to counterbalance it, that was notable compared to other acceptance speeches. He portrayed the United States as a country riddled with crime and corruption, a “rigged system” in which politicians like Hillary Clinton can evade justice, while police officers trying to protect its citizens become targets; a fearful country, its economy sluggish, its infrastructure crumbling, its security an illusion, and its international stature in freefall For a candidate who has mocked the soaring rhetoric of President Obama (the “hopey-changey stuff,” as Sarah Palin once called it), it was perhaps not surprising that Trump’s speech would be short on uplift. It was at least more disciplined than his other campaign speeches, if in keeping with their tone and content – the much-maligned teleprompter rolling a script to which he largely stuck. (“He sounds presidential,” a lady behind me remarked, though his press conference Friday morning marked a reversion to free- wheeling form). It was short on substance too, though acceptance speeches aren’t designed to be policy laundry lists like a State of the Union. Still, there were few specifics, beyond a pledge to revise tax laws which inhibit religious groups from political advocacy, and a newfound concern with student loans. It was daughter Ivanka’s speech that had the greater substantive heft, promising her father would push for new labour laws to help working mothers, and for affordable childcare in the US. Neither are traditional Republican positions, but the crowd seemed on board for anything Trump might offer. He even had them cheering for LGBTQ rights, after recalling the tragedy in Florida last month, and the need to protect gay Americans from a “hateful foreign ideology” in radical Islam. “It is so nice as a Republican to hear you cheering for what I just said,” he commended the delegates in an unscripted moment. But whether they had really embraced this unexpected message – or if it was the anti-terror chaser that really got them on their feet – remains to be seen. In either case, it was a rare grace note in an otherwise bruising speech. Presenting himself repeatedly as the candidate of “law and order,” Trump evoked Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. At a time when American cities were erupting in race riots and protests over the Vietnam War, Nixon had pitched himself as the face of stability and security. Likewise Trump has reacted to the simmering racial tensions and terrorist attacks this summer with a hard-line stance on “lawlessness.” “Safety must be restored,” Trump said, in one of the eerier lines he delivered. Yet in his convention speech, Nixon had balanced his tough talk with a positive message – speaking of love, courage, and lighting a “lamp of hope” in partnership with the American people. Trump channeled another president in his speech, too, when he promised to give voice to “the forgotten men and women of our country” – drawing on the language of Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt had promised to aid “the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid” during the 1932 campaign. But Roosevelt’s solution to the forgotten man’s distress was economic internationalism – tearing down tariff walls and trading freely with the world – which the Republican Party then opposed. Trump’s solution is the protectionist policies Roosevelt had railed against. Trump’s economic and security philosophy is encapsulated in another, more notorious phrase associated with that era: “America First.” A rallying cry for isolationists seeking to avoid US entanglement in World War II, it acquired an anti-Semitic taint. But Trump has employed it nonetheless, capturing as it does his core argument that America must do more to protect its own citizens against threats from within and without – from illegal immigrants, from radicalized Islamic terrorists, from the downsides of free international trade. Little wonder that former George W. Bush staffer Nicolle Wallace announced that the Republican party she knew “died in this room tonight.” In embracing elements of isolationism, protectionism, and nativism, however, it is perhaps truer to say that Trump’s Republican party reverted to an earlier form. Often disconcerting, at times mesmerizing, the question remains how effective this speech will be. The delegates responded enthusiastically to Trump’s fierce rhetoric, but many prominent Republicans had stayed away from the convention altogether. Combined with Senator Ted Cruz’s non- endorsement, Trump goes into the general election campaign without a fully united party behind him. For both partisans and the public, Trump’s speech offered a cast of villains to rally against, but no positive, unifying vision to rally behind – beyond the much-touted yet elusive “greatness,” of course. In a typical election year, that would seem a critical flaw in a campaign – but Trump loves to confound the naysayers. As his convention speech showed, he thinks the formula that got him this far - showcasing his fame and fanning Americans’ fears – can land him in the White House.

Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention Munich shootings: The bloody drama where everyone knows their part newstatesman.com The closure of small businesses in Calais is punishing entrepreneurial refugees like Wakil Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention newstatesman.com 2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

12 Why Theresa May is a smuggler's best friend when it comes to child refugees Michelle Obama's powerful speech demolishes Donald Trump without even mentioning his name (0.02/4) On Monday, Theresa May abolished the post of minister for Syrian Refugees. On Tuesday, a House of Lords select committee report found there were 10,000 migrant and refugee children missing in the EU, of which Britain is still technically a part. And smugglers across the continent raised a glass. Children do not stay still. In 2013, Missing Children Europe reported that half of unaccompanied children placed in reception centres vanished within the next 48 hours. One explanation is that they fall prey to the usual villains – pimps and gangs. But there is another explanation. Refugee and migrant children have so little trust in the authorities that they would rather disappear and put their faith in the underworld. One reason for this is that under EU law, asylum seekers are returned to their first point of entry, which is likely to be an overcrowded Greek port rather than a city with education facilities and job prospects. Children will go to extreme measures to disappear. The report noted: “We were particularly troubled to hear of children in Italy and Greece burning or otherwise damaging their fingertips in order to avoid registration, in many cases because they were afraid of being detained or forcibly returned to transit countries having reached their final destination.” Children are also desperate to find their families. The EU’s Family Reunification Directive should in theory reunite families who have successfully sought asylum, but the UK has opted out of it (and now the EU altogether). Other EU member states have moved to restrict it. The UK has opted into the Dublin Regulation, which allows for family reunification. This is partly due to a suspicion that family reunification acts as an incentive for families to send children first, alone. But the report found no evidence of that. Rather, it is usually a case of parents trying to protect their children by sending them out of a dangerous situation. The process can be achingly uncertain and slow. Smugglers understand how impatient children are. Two MEPs told the select committee about the port in Malmö, Sweden: "Traffickers await the arrival of minors, telling them that: 'Well, we can get you to your family much quicker than if you go through the system here' and that 'Getting a guardian will take ages, and then they do the age assessment, which is intrusive. Don’t do that. Just go there, call this guy, take this mobile and they’ll take care of you.'” In his brief time as Syrian Refugees minister, Richard Harrington brought the topic of unaccompanied minors to MPs again and again. He promised to improve the speed at which applications under the Dublin Regulation were processed. On 13 June he told MPs: “We are doing our absolute best to speed it up as much as we can.” His role has now been absorbed into the Home Office. No. 10 described it as a temporary position, one no longer needed now the resettlement programme was underway. When the UK finally triggers Article 50 and begins Brexit, it can also leave its EU obligations behind as well. May, the former Home secretary, voted against allowing in 3,000 child refugees. This does not bode well for asylum policy in Brexit Britain. Meanwhile, with no fast legal route to family unification, smugglers can look forward to the kind of bumper profits they enjoyed in 2015. The consequences can be fatal. Masud, a 15-year-old unaccompanied Afghan, travelled to Calais in the hope of reaching his sister in the UK under the family reunification rules. As the report put it: “Masud died in the back of a lorry while trying to reach the UK just before the New Year, having lost hope that his claim to join his sister would ever be heard.” After her stirring speech at the Democratic Convention, Michelle Obama can be sure of one thing - won't be able to copy it. Obama, like her husband, is a fine orator, so much so that the wife of Republican nominee Donald Trump was widely suspected of borrowing from her speeches. But those who crowded into the audience on Monday night could be sure of the real deal. Obama did not mention Trump by name, but in an implicit criticism of him , she spoke passionately about the responsibilities of the Presidency, and how the United States had moved on since the days of slavery and oppression. The Obamas knew their kids were watching them, she said: "We know that our words and actions matter. " And in a reference to Trump's Twitter obsession, she declared: The issues a President faces "cannot be boiled down to 140 characters". Obama, whose husband fought a fierce campaign against Hillary Clinton to clinch the Democratic nomination in 2008, now heaped praise on his former rival. Clinton was a "true public servant" who "did not pack up and go home" after losing to Obama in 2008, she said. She had carried out "relentless, thankless work" to actually make a difference in children's lives. And she reminded the audience the Presidential election was not just about left-right politics: "It is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives. " But the African-American First Lady's most powerful statements were a reflection on race, gender and social mobility - issues far outside of Trump territory. In a reference to Clinton's 2008 concession speech, where she talked of making "cracks in the glass ceiling", Obama declared: "That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. "And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. "And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States. " She also recalled the little black boy who made headlines around the world when he visited the White House and asked the President: "Is my hair like yours? " Obama's calm but intense delivery brought the packed arena to its feet, and earned her several standing ovations. Bill Clinton, former President and husband of Hillary, was seen to say "wow" from his place in the audience. She ended with a final dig at Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again". Obama told the crowd: "Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again. "Because this right now is the greatest country on earth. " Michelle Obama's speech: The best quotes On Obama's 2008 victory I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just 7 and 10 years old, pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns. And I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, what have we done? On bringing up kids We insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. How we explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high. On Hillary Clinton What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. On who shouldn't be President When you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady and measured and well- informed. On equality I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States. On the US Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on earth. You can read a copy of the full speech here .

Which CLPs are nominating who in the 2016 Labour leadership contest? Michelle Obama's powerful speech demolishes Donald Trump without even mentioning his name newstatesman.com Poverty Britain calling Labour: Get radical or lose your heartlands to the right Michelle Obama's powerful speech demolishes Donald Trump without even mentioning his name newstatesman.com 2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

13 Caitlyn Jenner: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican” Munich shootings: The bloody drama where everyone knows their part (0.01/4) On Tuesday, American reality star Caitlyn Jenner reiterated her support for the Republican Party at an event in Cleveland. During the Q&A session organised by American Unity Fund, a conservative LGBT activist group, Jenner said: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican.” Great Q&A this morning with @MargaretHoover at @AmericanUnity #BigTentBrunch #GOPinCLE pic.twitter.com/FXkVZwRCVA — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) 20 July 2016 Jenner’s endorsement comes despite anti-LGBT amendments made last week to the draft Republican manifesto. The Republican Party is also credited with a wave of proposed bills across the US that would ban transgender people from using toilet facilities for the gender with which they identify; such legislation passed in North Carolina. “I get it, the Democratic Party does a better job when it comes to the LGBT community, and Obama has been very good from that standpoint,” Jenner said. “Our best hope to get back to a constitutional government…is in the Republican Party.” Earlier in the nomination process, Jenner had said that she would like to serve as a “trans ambassador” in a Ted Cruz administration. The idea came after the reality star uploaded a video of her using a women’s restroom in Trump Tower. “Thank you Donald. I really appreciate it,” said Jenner. “And by the way Ted, nobody got molested.” Cruz, however, fired back at the remark. “Frankly, the concern is not the Caitlyn Jenners of the world. But if the law is such that any man if he feels like it can go in a women’s restroom and you can’t ask him to leave, that opens the door for predators.” On Tuesday night, another former Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, labelled the transgender community, "the height of absurdity". He compared being transgender to one day deciding to change race. Jenner’s remarks have been welcomed by socially liberal Republicans. However, others have already voiced their opposition, pointing to the anti- transgender sentiment that is rife in the party: True, but Caitlyn Jenner is standing on the shoulders of activists, LGBTQ blood & sweat and Democratic actions. https://t.co/WdG9KIXQAf — Jillian Hurley (@BeautyBind) 21 July 2016 You had a great opportunity @caitlyn_jenner to help so many in the LGBT community and you have betrayed us. — Jacob Gardner (@ThatBoyJacob) 20 July 2016 Jenner has often been criticised for being “out of touch” with the issues faced by transgender people; a criticism initiated by her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine last year. The Republican Convention concluded with Trump accepting the presidential candidacy on Thursday evening. At time of writing, we know only certain facts about the gunman who shot and killed nine people and wounded many more at a shopping centre in Munich. He was 18 years old. He was German-Iranian. He was reported to have shouted: "I am German. " After murdering his innocent victims he killed himself. We don't know his motive. We may never truly understand his motive. And yet, over the last few years, we have all come to know the way this story goes. There is a crowd, usually at ease - concertgoers, revellers or, in this case, shoppers. Then the man - it's usually a man - arrives with a gun or whatever other tool of murder he can get his hands on. As he unleashes terror on the crowd, he shouts something. This is the crucial part. He may be a loner, an outsider or a crook, but a few sentences is all it takes to elevate him into the top ranks of the Islamic State or the neo- Nazi elite. Even before the bystanders have reported this, world leaders are already reacting. In the case of Munich, the French president Francois Hollande called Friday night's tragedy a "disgusting terrorist attack" aimed at stirring up fear. Boris Johnson, the UK's new foreign secretary, went further. At 9.30pm, while the attack was ongoing, he said : "If, as seems very likely, this is another terrorist incident, then I think it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon now and a global sickness that we have to tackle both at source - in the areas where the cancer is being incubated in the Middle East - and also of course around the world. " On Saturday morning, reports of multiple gunmen had boiled down to one, now dead, teenager. the chief of Munich police stated the teenage gunman's motive was "fully unknown". Iran, his second country of citizenship, condemned "the killing of innocent and defenceless people". And Europe's onlookers are left with sympathy for the victims, and a question. How much meaning should we ascribe to such an attack? Is it evidence of what we fear - that Western Europe is under sustained attack from terrorists? Or is this simply the work of a murderous, attention-seeking teenager? In Munich, mourners lay flowers. Flags fly at half mast. The facts will come out, eventually. But by that time, the world may have drawn its own conclusions. Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention Munich shootings: The bloody drama where everyone knows their part newstatesman.com 2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

14 DA seeks legal opinion on Gordhan’s request for extension on SAA’s financials When the 2017 Hyundai Genesis G80 goes on sale this fall it will do so as a car with more passenger space than a Mercedes E Class, more horsepower than a Cadillac CTS and with a raft of active safety systems as standard that even Volvo S90 drivers are offered as...

2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

15 'Joburg’s advertising spend nearly tripled in an election year': DA The party’s mayoral candidate‚ Herman Mashaba‚ said the city had forked out R62-million between May 2015 and April 2016 compared to just R26- million in the previous financial year. This‚ Mashaba alleged‚ was “irrefutable evidence of the ANC-run City of Joburg’s abuse of public resources to promote the ruling party and their mayoral candidate‚ Parks Tau ahead of the upcoming election”. It said this was revealed in “data commissioned from Nielsen”. “It is utterly disgraceful for Tau to think that he can get away with using the people’s money is such a shameless‚ self-serving manner‚” said Mashaba. “Tau’s administration has spent tens of millions of rand promoting his campaign with pointless billboards‚ radio‚ television and newspaper adverts that cast him and his administration in a misleadingly positive light. “Most tellingly‚ the city spent R 10 815 911 in April‚ 2016 and R15 502 739 in May‚ 2016. A total of R 26 318 650 over these two months‚ which amounts to more than the advertising spend for the entire 2014-2015 financial year.” Last week‚ the City of Joburg urged the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to dismiss the DA’s “false and mischievous allegations of misappropriation of public funds to campaign for the African National Congress (ANC)”. http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/07/21/Dismiss- DA%E2%80%99s-dated-advert-complaint%E2%80%9A-City-of-Joburg- urges-IEC The advertisements saying “the City of Johannesburg is in good hands” were aimed at investors not voters‚ and the campaign was launched “long before the date of the local government elections was announced”‚ the city argued. Mashaba on Monday attacked the mayor’s spokesperson‚ Phindile Chauke‚ for going “so far as to say that the advert in question was ‘standard and annual communication of success and achievements’ of the City of Joburg”. “This specific advert and the tripling of advertising expenditure by the city highlights that it had nothing to do with the ‘ordinary course of business’‚ but everything to do with spreading misinformation to promote Tau and the ANC administration in Joburg ahead of the August elections. “Regardless of the ANC’s desperate and unlawful attempts to influence the elections‚ the people of Johannesburg will not be fooled.” 2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

16 ‘Bag of bloody knives’ carried by attacker after disabled facility rampage — RT News The stabbing attack took place at the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) facility in the city of Sagamihara in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture on Tuesday at around 2:30 am local time, leaving at least 19 people dead and 26 injured, 20 critically, local media quoted police and firefighters as saying. READ MORE: 19 killed, 45 injured as knife-wielding man goes on rampage at medical facility near Tokyo The dead victims, who ranged from 18 to 70 years of age, included nine men and ten women, according to reports citing the local fire department. Police arrested Satoshi Uematsu, 26, after he turned himself in stating: “I did it.” “It’s better that the disabled disappear,” the suspect was reportedly quoted by police as saying. When Uematsu turned up at the police precinct, he had bag with him full of knives and other sharp tools, many of which were covered in blood, according to local media reports. He was later identified as a former employee of the facility. During questioning, Uematsu admitted to smashing a window with a hammer to get inside the facility. The police are still looking into the motive behind the attack. One report said that Uematsu had been fired from his job and wanted revenge. However, Kyodo news agency reported that Uematsu resigned from his post at the facility in February, citing personal matters. It also said that he had worked there since December 2012 and after his resignation he had delivered an incoherently written letter to Tadamori Oshima, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan. The 30,000-square-meter facility can accommodate up to 160 people, but only had 149 residents at the time of the attack. One former employee told Japanese television station TBS that the patients at the facility were truly helpless. “They are truly innocent people. What did they do? This is shocking,” she said. Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture Yuji Kuroiwa promised to take measures to ensure that nothing like this could be repeated. “I offer my most sincere apologies and condolences. We will work hard that this does not happen again,” he said at a press conference. Police do not have any evidence indicating that the attacker was connected to any radical Islamic groups, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, told journalists on Tuesday. “Currently, the police did not send over any evidence that would point to the suspect’s connection to any of the Islamist groups,” he said.

2016-07-27 06:00 www.rt.com

17 ‘ANC campaign now all-out racial mobilisation’: DA Opposition leader said the African National Congress’ (ANC) “election campaign‚ as evidenced by the comments made by Zuma last week and today‚ has now descended into all-out racial mobilisation”. “This must be seen for what it is: a last-ditch‚ desperate attempt to cling onto power at all costs‚ because the party faces losing major metros to the DA on 3 August 2016‚” he added. Zuma was quoted as telling supporters in Tembisa on Wednesday: “Where does a black man get the nerve to team up with oppressors of his people‚ even to an extent where he decides to lead them? When you see the DA‚ just know that they are our oppressors.” Maimane said this type of comment showed that the “ANC has effectively thrown in the towel on competing on different plans for local government”. “Jacob Zuma’s remarks today have left me‚ as I am sure many other proud South Africans‚ saddened and deeply concerned‚” he said‚ adding that they are “an affront to so many South Africans‚ including those within the ANC itself‚ who fought and died for a free South Africa; one that belongs to all who live in it”. “My commitment to South Africans today in the face of this dangerous rhetoric by the President is that the DA will never give up on realising Madiba’s vision for our country.”

2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

18 Parliament hopes CCMA ruling will ‘close chapter of negative engagement’ with Nehawu The union had‚ in May‚ threatened to strike if Parliament’s presiding officers do not meets its demands on the payment of bonuses and what the union claims were the “unilateral” reductions in the performance ratings of some employees. In a statement on Monday‚ Parliament said the CCMA’s award stated “it is the legislative duty of the Secretary to Parliament to ensure that the resources of [Parliament] are used efficiently”. “In this regard the fact that [Parliament] as an institution had not achieved its overall targets which [it] found irreconcilable with performance achievements of 91 [percent] of its individual employees‚” the statement further quoted. The CCMA appeared to have accepted Parliament’s argument that the “review of the performance scores was a fair measure and done in accordance with its policies as a result of inconsistency between the performance of the institution based on audited results by the Auditor- General and the individual scores of the employees”. Parliament also noted that the CCMA found there was no “no evidence that [Parliament] had acted irrationally‚ capriciously or arbitrarily‚ with bias‚ malice or fraud or had failed to apply its mind or unfairly discriminated against the applicants when the scores were adjusted in order to achieve the approval of the Secretary to Parliament”. “The ruling by (the) CCMA is a thorough vindication of the position of Parliament in its submissions and public pronouncements. Parliament’s management acted in good faith in its engagement with employee issues. It also exposes the unreasonableness of the local branch of Nehawu and those that joined in the unfair condemnation of Parliament‚” it continued. “Parliament hopes that this ruling will close the current chapter of negative engagement and help solidify a commitment to work together in transforming the institution to offer an even more efficient support service to Parliament in discharging its constitutional responsibility.” The legislature has been beset with Nehawu actions‚ including what it alleged involved “targeted media” being “primed and invited into an internal meeting” which was disrupted in June. The union also occupied the chambers of the Parliament during an unprotected strike of nearly four weeks late last year. The union had said it intended “to begin…rolling mass action” in June‚ and the strike could extend beyond Parliament to the provincial legislatures.

2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

19 DA picket to get Jackson Mthembu ‘to walk the talk’ on SABC The party on Tuesday said that while Mthembu‚ the African National Congress (ANC) chief whip in the National Assembly‚ “has been saying one thing to the media‚ he has done nothing to fix the situation where it matters most: in Parliament”. The DA said it had requested a special meeting “to discuss and find solutions for the governance crisis at the SABC caused by COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng”‚ but “this was turned down as not being urgent”. It said its chief whip‚ ‚ “asked for Jackson Mthembu to support the meeting of the committee‚” but this too “has fallen on deaf ears”. This prompted the opposition party to plan a picket in Plein Street outside Parliament on Tuesday. “The truth is that the ANC simply doesn’t care. Motsoeneng has overseen the degradation of media freedom at the SABC and has consistently and without due regard for the law attempted to capture the public broadcaster to protect the ANC and President (Jacob) Zuma‚” the DA said. Earlier this month‚ Mthembu‚ who also heads the ANC’s sub-committee on communications‚ had appeared to depart from the ruling party’s defence of the embattled broadcaster when he told journalists that the ruling party was distancing itself from the SABC policy banning the coverage of violent protests. Objections to this policy resulted in the suspensions of the “SABC 8”‚ four of whom - journalists Jacques Steenkamp‚ Krivani Pillay‚ Foeta Krige and Suna Venter – were notified by email late on Monday afternoon that they had been dismissed. This was confirmed by trade union Solidarity‚ which is representing them. Said the DA’s Phumzile Van Damme on Monday: “It would appear that the SABC staffers were fired for slighting…Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s fragile ego by allegedly ‘undermining the SABC and the authority of its management’. “It is clear that the wrecking ball that is Hlaudi Motsoeneng is going to continue smashing through the integrity of our country’s public broadcaster and do so‚ with the tacit support of the African National Congress (ANC).” The party will be calling “for the reinstatement of these SABC staffers…and for Parliament’s intervention in the ongoing crisis at the SABC”.

2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

20 Beyonce, Adele lead MTV Video Music Award nods NEW YORK, United States — Beyonce on Tuesday led nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards as she basked in acclaim for her film-album “Lemonade.” The pop diva was in the running for 11 awards at MTV’s annual extravaganza, which will take place August 28 in New York’s Madison Square Garden, a shift from the more common venue in Los Angeles. Adele came in second with eight nominations. All but seven were for the chart-topping English balladeer’s “Hello,” which with more than 1.6 billion views is the fifth most watched video ever on YouTube. “Hello,” filmed by the Canadian director Xavier Dolan, shows Adele on the phone with a younger version of herself and was the first music video created for the high-resolution IMAX format. “Hello” was in the running for Video of the Year against Beyonce’s “Formation,” the most overtly political work of the pop diva’s career as she aligned herself with the Black Lives Matter protest movement. Filmed by Melina Matsoukas, “Formation” at one point shows a row of police officers with their hands in the air and graffiti on a wall that reads, “Stop shooting us.” The video riled some conservative commentators and law enforcement groups who voiced anger when Beyonce performed the song at the Super Bowl, the most watched television event of the year. Shot in New Orleans, “Formation” marked a shift in sound by Beyonce to the southern city’s bounce hip-hop scene. “Formation” was her first single off her album “Lemonade,” which she released in April to accompany a film that she made for HBO. The album and film are full of references to infidelity as well as forgiveness, drawing speculation that Beyonce’s husband, rap mogul Jay Z, had been unfaithful. Other nominees for Video of the Year included Kanye West’s controversial “Famous,” in which the rapper boasts that pop superstar may sleep with him and that he made her famous. Despite her protests over the song, the video features a naked woman in bed with West who resembles Swift as well as nude doppelgangers of other celebrities including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Also in the running for the top prize were two videos dominated by dancing — rapper Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and pop celebrity ’s “Sorry.” Bieber’s “Sorry” is the sixth most watched video ever on YouTube, closely trailing Adele’s “Hello,” which was released on the same day last year. 2016-07-27 06:00 Agence France entertainment.inquirer.net

21 NBA: Champion Cavs ink coach Lue to five- year deal LOS ANGELES, United States — NBA champions Cleveland and head coach Tyronn Lue have completed a five-year contract worth $35 million. The first four years of the deal are guaranteed, and the fifth year is a team option, allowing Lue to easily exceed the $21 million he earned during his playing career as a backup point guard. READ: Cavs fire coach Blatt; promote top assistant Tyronn Lue | Tyronn Lue has perfect coaching touch for unbeaten Cavaliers “Ty took over our team under very trying circumstances and his calm, confident approach was invaluable as we found our way to success,” said Cavs general manager David Griffin. “His vision, leadership and tactical acumen were fundamental to us reaching our goals. We couldn’t be happier to have Ty continue to lead our group into the future.” Lue, 39, led the Cavs to the NBA crown after taking over for David Blatt in January. He never signed a contract as a head coach and was working on a four- year deal worth $6.5 million as Blatt’s top assistant when the Cavaliers won the last three games of the finals to capture the title. Lue reportedly left a three-year, $9.5 million contract offer on the table during the season. “The opportunity to continue coaching the Cavaliers and this very special group of players is tremendous,” Lue said. “I am extremely appreciative of the effort and commitment that Dan Gilbert, Jeff Cohen, Nate Forbes, and David Griffin showed in extending my contract.” Lue compiled a 27-14 record down the stretch in the regular season. The Cavaliers swept the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks in the playoffs and Lue became the first coach to start the playoffs 10-0 before the Cavaliers needed six games to oust the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference finals. In the NBA finals, the LeBron James-led Cavaliers erased a 3-1 deficit against the defending champion Warriors and won the title on the road in the seventh game.

2016-07-27 06:00 Agence France sports.inquirer.net

22 Presidency still mum on woman’s Zuma blessee claims “Okay cool?” asked Floyd Shivambu. “What kind of Grand Fathers and Fathers kiss their Grand Daughters & Daughters like this? Perverts??” That was the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president’s response to the series of selfies that circulated on social media on Tuesday and Wednesday‚ posted by a 19-year-old “Lindokuhle Dlamini”. Shivambu also seemed to suggest that more revelations were to follow. The Facebook page on which the selfies purporting to show the pair kissing were posted – with with a caption reading that Zuma “is not just a blesser‚ we are inlove” - was reportedly deleted. Some media outlets like the Citizen said they had been contacted by readers to say the woman is actually Zuma’s daughter. That prompted Shivambu’s question about the nature of the kissing. He later referenced the sexual harassment case against African National Congress leader in the Marius Fransman‚ when he quoted Scapegoat @AndiMakinana’s tweet: “WC ANCYL to Fransman: Being between the sheets with a 20 year old lady while married is not ... ideal values ANC would like to project. " Shivambu said: “Well‚ they do it all the time and one‚ whom they all learn from‚ will be exposed very soon. Watch the space!” The Presidency indicated on Wednesday that it would investigate the claims before commenting‚ and calls on Thursday morning went unanswered.

2016-07-27 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

23 'Black lives should matter in South Sudan too' Nykhor Paul is a US-based supermodel from South Sudan. She enjoys a life of castings, photoshoots and travel - a world apart from the conflict which has scarred her homeland. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.6 million have been internally displaced since 2013. An uneasy truce is currently in place after hundreds died in a fresh outbreak of violence earlier this month. Paul speaks exclusively to BBC Trending about using social media to campaign for a change and "build bridges" between her two worlds. I live in New York. I'm full time model with Wilhelmina Models , which is one of the top agencies in the world - they represent Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato. My life involves castings, photoshoots and travel. My career has gone well; I used to be the face of Louis Vuitton and I've walked on global fashion shows for labels like Vivienne Westwood. My life now is a whole world away from where I was born and where I came from. I came to the States in 1998 - to Nebraska. It wasn't easy by any means, I was put into foster care and had to get my head around learning English. When I was 14 I got 'discovered' by a modelling agency. I spend every day trying to build a bridge between my two worlds. I've been regularly posting about the recent unrest in South Sudan on my social media platforms, especially Instagram. My posts have got thousands of likes, but there's still so much more to do in terms of awareness - which is my primary aim. Although more than 300 people have been killed this month in South Sudan, and the clear tension between President Salva Kiir and former vice- President Riek Machar has threatened to revive the civil war that my family fled - the one that killed tens of thousands of people - South Sudan stories do not trend. Hashtags like #PrayForSouthSudan don't tend to go viral. I was born in 1989 in Akobo, in the now South Sudan (South Sudan became an independent country in 2011). My family and I left in 1996 when the second Sudanese civil war (which lasted from 1983 to 2005) came near where I lived. The food situation was dire and there was so much chaos. So we left and moved around the border of Ethiopia, trying to find safety and eventually settling in a refugee camp. My parents wanted a better life for me so they sent me with my uncle to America. They remain in the refugee camp to this day. I didn't see them again until I went back to visit them in 2014, until I got my American citizenship so that I could travel more easily. When the modelling took off I got great opportunities to travel, hang out with colleagues, be part of an aspirational life and really enjoy the privilege of it. I've been quite outspoken on social media and I've called out the fashion industry on issues of race and opportunity for black women in the industry. However, recently I've tried to understand the context of the racism that results in the lack of opportunities for women of colour in fashion. Maybe it's the weight of being separated from my family for 18 years and living this American experience without their support and understanding of my reality in my new country. I've been thinking a lot of about how to utilise the privilege I've been lucky enough to have in order to raise awareness of what is happening in South Sudan today. Some people reduce the historic conflict in South Sudan as being ethnic or tribal. President Salva Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, while former vice-President Machar is an ethnic Nuer; this is the experience of all of us South Sudanese people but our tribal differences haven't prevented us from living among each other as one. There are more than 60 tribes in South Sudan and in my experience we are not as tribally divided as the rhetoric of people who aren't from my country would have you believe but it's easier to paint that picture especially towards people in sufferings. And it's not all conflict and war. My childhood was magical and Akobo was beautiful place to grow up. I remember at 5am every morning my grandfather would take me to the Nile with his fishing net. And arriving there we would see all of God's creatures coming to Nile to kneel down and drink water. I's look and say "Oh grandpa, look there's a giraffe! And there's hippo! And there's an alligator! " And he would look at me and say, "They are just like us, they've come here to get their water in peace and go back to their life. " I think back to those words often. When I read about the recent outbreak I thought about my experience and concluded that this conflict is political fuel by tribal minded individuals who are hungry for political positions. The recent outbreak is something personal between powerful men. When I was growing up, Riek Machar and Taban Deng Gai (who has taken over from Machar as vice-President) both used to visit my father's church. I remember them coming to sing hopeful songs about the country. And now they are part of the cause of chaos. I now live in America so I've of course been following the recent racial tension here closely. That's why, when I decided to create social media awareness for South Sudan I include the 'Black Lives Matter' tag on my posts. I got t-shirts printed that said 'South Sudan' in the front to educate and create dialogue so we can learn each other world. In the next coming months I am adding 'Black Lives Matter' at the back because my two worlds are both suffering simultaneously, I want people to link the two and make that bridge. Right now South Sudan is seen as so far away and distant by many who live in America. But what's happening in South Sudan, with unarmed black people being killed by authority figures, is actually very much the same issue as what we've seen happen in America. And the way to help is to create a healthy peaceful dialogue between each other through education and care for our collective wellbeing. It is the 21st century. It's 2016. To reduce problems in Africa as being tribal is short-sighted but it's up to the African Diaspora to bring change. Nykhor Paul was interviewed by Megha Mohan Next story: Olympic opening ceremony outfits likened to erasers Iranians and Georgians appalled by national uniforms designed for Olympics opening ceremony. READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending , and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending .

2016-07-27 05:13 By BBC www.bbc.co.uk

24 Video: Group pushes for treatment center on the Key Peninsula Students take part in a kayaking class near Skansie Brothers Park in Gig Harbor. Two dogs celebrated a wedding for residents at Kensington Gardens Estate Senior Living in Gig Harbor. Donations from the event went to benefit CHEW, a local dog rescue. George King, president of the Burley Community Club, discusses the history of the Burley Community Center. The Gig Harbor Rotary Club has placed a Peace Pole outside of the Gig Harbor Civic Center. Follow along as the Gig Harbor Police Department monitors the waters of Gig Harbor during the busy Maritime Gig Festival weekend. Experience Saturday's Maritime Gig Yo' Ho' Harbor Grande Parade with 3- year-old Lexy Davis. What's a hurdy-gurdy? Budapest West members explain. Peninsula and Gig Harbor High School Students take part in a mock car accident to highlight the dangers of drunk driving and distracted driving.

2016-07-27 05:13 www.thenewstribune.com

25 Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. The mission had been scheduled for launch in the fall of 2009. The Mars Science Lab is a large, nuclear-powered rover designed to traverse long distances with a suite of onboard scientific instruments aboard. It is, according to NASA's Web site, part of a "long-term effort of robotic exploration" established to "study the early environmental history of Mars" and assess whether Mars has ever been -- or still is -- able to sustain life. The delay of the launch, according to NASA, is due to a number of "testing and hardware challenges that must (still) be addressed to ensure mission success. " "The progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Changing to a 2011 launch "will allow for careful resolution of any remaining technical problems, proper and thorough testing, and avoid a mad dash to launch," argued NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler. The overall cost of the Mars Science Lab is now projected to be roughly $2.1 billion, according to NASA spokesman Dwayne Browne. The project originally carried a price tag of $1.6 billion. NASA's entire budget for the current fiscal year, according to Browne, is approximately $15 billion. According to NASA, the Mars rover will use new technologies and be engineered to explore greater distances over rougher terrain than previous missions to the planet. This will be done in part by employing a new surface propulsion system. "Failure is not an option on this mission," Weiler said. "The science is too important and the investment of American taxpayer dollars compels us to be absolutely certain that we have done everything possible to ensure the success of this flagship planetary mission. " Weiler asserted that, based on the agency's preliminary evaluations, additional costs tied to the delay of the Science Lab launch would not result in the cancellation of other NASA programs over the next two years. He did, however, concede that it would result in other unspecified program delays. Critics have charged that the delay and cost overruns associated with the Mars Science Lab are indicative of an agency that is plagued by a lack of accountability and inefficiency in terms of its management of both time and taxpayer dollars. "The Mars Science Laboratory is only the latest symptom of a NASA culture that has lost control of spending," wrote Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator, in a November 24 op-ed in . "A cancer is overtaking our space agency: the routine acquiescence to immense cost increases in projects. " Stern charged that the agency's cost overruns are being fueled by "managers who disguise the size of cost increases that missions incur" and "members of Congress who accept steep increases to protect local jobs. " Browne replied in a written statement saying that NASA administrators are "constantly working to improve (the agency's) cost-estimating capabilities. ... We continually review our projects to understand the true risk in terms of performance, cost and schedule. " "The fact of life at NASA, where we are charged with creating first-of-a-kind missions of scientific discovery, is that estimating the costs of... science can be almost as difficult as actually doing the science," Browne said. NASA's most recent Mars project -- the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander -- came to an end last month after the solar-powered vehicle's batteries ran down as the result of a dust storm and the onset of Martian winter. It had operated two months beyond its initial three-month mission. NASA officials had landed the vehicle on an arctic plain after satellite observations indicated there were vast quantities of frozen water in that area, most likely in the form of permafrost. They thought such a location would be a promising place to look for organic chemicals that would signal a habitable environment. Scientists were able to verify the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, find small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life, and observe snow descending from the clouds, NASA said Thursday.

2016-07-27 04:51 Alan Silverleib rss.cnn.com

26 More than 50 'Democracy Spring' protesters cited in mass protests outside DNC More than 50 protesters were detained by police on Monday following a tightly choreographed demonstration at an access point to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, where the Democratic National Convention has been consumed by a series of roiling plot twists and turns. Police did not make any formal arrests, saying those taken into custody were only issued citations for disorderly conduct, as activists from Democracy Spring first attempted to block a convention entrance on Broad Street with a planned sit-in, then in a very orderly process began climbing over barricades toward the arena and into the arms of waiting officers. At one point in the early evening, delegates and attendees, many in formal attire, came within feet of sweat-soaked protesters being led away from the scene in plastic restraints. Organizers posted feet from the scene kept track of potential arrests using a private WhatsApp messaging forum. Hours earlier, the group gathered a little less than a mile north in Marconi Plaza, where protesters willing to risk arrest were asked to fill out paperwork and speakers rallied the crowd of about 150 people to with chants of "This is what democracy looks like" and "I believe that we will win. " One protest leader reminded the crowd to follow instructions from organizers in blue armbands, called "tactical leads," as they arrived at the protest site. A little before 4 p.m. ET, as temperatures neared 100 degrees and the heat index soared higher, they began their march toward the convention hub, blaring a slate of demands that includes the immediate abolition of the system and a series of campaign finance reforms. The group's director, Kai Newkirk, had said on Sunday that the "unity commission" agreed on Saturday by the Clinton and Sanders camps fell short of their demands. "We welcome this concession -- as well as Debbie Wasserman Schultz's decision to step down as party chair -- but it is not enough to justify relenting in the struggle to win fundamental democracy reform both within and outside the party," Newkirk said in an email to CNN. On the eve of the convention, Democracy Spring took the unique step of gathering protesters at a church a block north of Philadelphia's city hall for what amounted to a seminar in nonviolent civil disobedience. More than 100 activists sat in the pews of the Arch Street United Methodist Church for training that included mock arrests and de-escalation role- playing. Lead trainer Kim Huynh asked her pupils to pull each other aside and discuss why they had come here and what they hoped to accomplish. Their plans included ending closed primaries, banning nuclear weapons, getting big money out of politics -- and seeing Rosario Dawson. (She has protested with the group before, but was not involved on Monday.) "The training that Democracy Spring is providing is completely integral to the process of keeping things nonviolent," organizer Andrew Barbato told CNN on Sunday. "We had a huge sit-in in D. C. where over 1,500 people were arrested, and I was one of them, and it was completely peaceful," he said. "This is a different situation because things in the country right now are heated. But that's why we have to come together to acknowledge there is a history of nonviolent civil disobedience in this country and throughout the world. " Lina Blount, one of the three women to run the workshop, said she wanted protesters to face arrest or detention with a feeling of purpose and power. She and her colleagues spent much of the evening discussing with protesters how to manage anxiety, stay physically comfortable ("Lean on each other to save your backs") and what to expect in the event they were jailed (Toilets? Don't bet on it). "That's a lot of what nonviolent direct action is," she said, "Convincing people that their actions have power -- and that's not what our system trains us to believe. And so in these types of training we really try to get the group thinking themselves, reflecting back on the exercise themselves as much as we can. So as trainers we want to created exercises that help that emerge. " Celebrities head to DNC -- some to protest A tumultuous 24 hours for the Democratic Party, which saw its chairwoman resign after emails leaked showing DNC staffers seeming to discuss tactics for undermining Bernie Sanders' campaign, has emboldened the dozens of protest groups who had already made their way into the city for four days of marches, rallies and demonstrations downtown and on the heavily securitized streets outside the convention. Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts, a writer and activist, said she was attracted to Democracy Spring by its "very coherent" set of demands. "There seems to be legislative leverage here," she told CNN before the training began inside the church. "The Democrats are already moving further to the left to accommodate Bernie supporters. "

2016-07-27 04:47 Gregory Krieg rss.cnn.com

27 MLB Baseball Box Scores NEW YORK -- Jedd Gyorko hit a two-run home run in the third inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Mets 3-2 in the opener of a doubleheader Tuesday. The Cardinals opened their 10-game road trip in a mostly empty stadium, and all the runs were scored in the opening four innings. Gyorko's 13th home run of the year and fifth in eight games wound up being the difference for the Cardinals, who have homered in a season-high 16 consecutive games, three shy of the 2006 club record. Tommy Pham scored the other St. Louis run on a second-inning throwing error by Noah Syndergaard. Rene Rivera homered for the Mets, who have 26 long balls in their past 12 home games. St. Louis starter Carlos Martinez (10-6) labored at times through five innings but improved to 6-1 in his last 10 starts. He allowed two runs and five hits, and the Mets stranded eight runners against him. Relievers Tyler Lyons, Kevin Siegrist and Seung Hwan Oh combined on four scoreless innings. Oh highlighted his fifth save in six opportunities by getting Yoenis Cespedes on a warning track fly ball to center field that became a double play when Pham threw Curtis Granderson out at second base. Syndergaard (9-5) allowed three runs (two earned) and seven hits in seven innings. The right-hander had an eventful second inning, and it eventually led to an unearned run. Pham's base hit went off his right leg and deflected to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to load the bases. After throwing one warmup pitch, Syndergaard resumed, and three pitches later, he committed a throwing error when his throw to the plate on Martinez's grounder bounced before a play could be made. The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead when Gyorko drove a first-pitch fastball down the left field line for a 412-foot home run. After leaving the bases loaded in the third, Mets made it 3-2 when Rivera drove a 3-1 fastball over the left field wall with one out in the fourth. St. Louis nearly took a 4-2 lead on Yadier Molina's double in the fifth, but Matt Adams was thrown out at the plate. NOTES: The Cardinals placed RHP Trevor Rosenthal on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. Manager Mike Matheny said Rosenthal asked to have his shoulder looked at over the weekend. ... Both teams will add a 26th player for the second game. St. Louis will include RHP Sam Tuivailala, and the Mets will add LHP Josh Smoker. ... Manager Terry Collins said he has not discussed if the Mets will use a spot starter for Saturday's game against the Colorado Rockies. ... Tuesday was the first doubleheader between the Mets and Cardinals since Aug. 22, 1999, at Shea Stadium. ... ESPN announced New York's home contest against Washington on Sept. 4 will be a night game. The Mets play the next afternoon in Cincinnati.

2016-07-27 04:43 The Sports scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com

28 Child radicalisation: NSPCC to advise concerned parents A charity has trained its counsellors to help parents who fear their children are being radicalised. The NSPCC said its existing support line could now advise parents worried about extremists grooming a child. It said counsellors had been trained to spot warning signs such as a children isolating themselves or "talking as if from a scripted speech". Recent terror attacks "highlighted the growing problem of individuals being influenced by extremism", it added. The charity said it had already started getting calls from people worried about the problem. One caller said: "I'm concerned that someone is trying to force a young boy into having extreme beliefs. He has started acting differently recently and has become more withdrawn. " The training for NSPCC counsellors explained how extremist recruiters "befriend vulnerable targets, feed them ideologies and - in the worst-case scenario - persuade them to commit terrorist attacks". The charity said potential targets often had low self-esteem, were members of gangs, or were victims of bullying or discrimination. Radicals tell them they can be "part of something special, and brainwash them into cutting themselves off from their friends and family", it added. Signs which may "hint at a child being radicalised" include increased anger, becoming disrespectful and asking "inappropriate questions", the charity said. "I'm worried about a child I know," one caller told counsellors. "I fear that they may start holding extremist beliefs because I've heard her saying some worrying things. "She's also showing changes in behaviour and appears to be more aggressive towards her parents. "I'm not sure how to approach this as I know the family well... I don't think staying silent is an option in the current climate. " NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: "The fact that a young person might hold extreme or radical views is not a safeguarding issue in itself. "But when young people are groomed for extremist purposes and encouraged to commit acts that could hurt themselves or others, then it becomes abuse. "That's why we've trained our counsellors to cope with this fresh danger to young people. " The charity's counsellors can also advise parents on how to talk to children who are anxious about terrorism or upset by recent attacks, such as those in France and Germany.

2016-07-27 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

29 Fireman Sam episode pulled amid Koran row An episode of Fireman Sam has been withdrawn after an "error" which led to a depiction of the Koran being shown. A scene in the children's programme shows a fireman slipping on a pile of papers - and as they fly into the air a page from the Koran is "briefly depicted", production firm Mattel said. The episode was first broadcast in October 2014 on Channel 5 but the error has only recently been spotted. Mattel apologised and said it did not believe it was done "maliciously". Channel 5, which broadcasts Fireman Sam, has removed the episode from its website. Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, tweeted : "I have no idea what went through the producers's minds when they thought this was a good idea #baffled". He also said he had identified the page from the Koran as "Surah Mulk (67), verses 13-26". A Mattel spokeswoman told the BBC: "It's just an unfortunate incident where someone from the production company thought they were just putting in random text. "We have no reason to believe it was done maliciously. " In a statement, Mattel said: "The page was intended to show illegible text and we deeply regret this error. "We sincerely apologise for any distress or offence it may have caused. " It said it would "no longer be working with the animation studio responsible", and would take "immediate action to remove this episode from circulation". "We are reviewing our content production procedures to ensure this never happens again," it added.

2016-07-27 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

30 Bus riders give thumbs up to free Wi-Fi plan Sound Transit on Wednesday broke ground on its Tacoma Trestle Signal project. A time lapse look at the moving of the SR 167 Bridge in Puyallup, Washington. Video courtesy of the Washington Department of Transportation. Ride along with Cindy Schaarschmidt as she commutes by bike from her north Tacoma home to her office at the University of Washington Tacoma. The city of Lakewood and the Washington Department of Transportation are working to improve the Freedom Bridge to relieve traffic congestion outside the Madigan gate to JBLM. A new rating of the headlights of more than 30 midsized car models gave only one model "good" rating: the top trim level Toyota Prius V, says The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Cars were rated on a driver's ability to see down a dark road. About half of traffic deaths in 2015 happened at night or during dawn and dusk. Follow Kathy Vatter and Brian Farrar as they cruise the freeways and keep the traffic flowing around the South Sound area. The state Department of Transportation, which has been working on Interstate 5 through Tacoma for what seems like forever, has a little friendly advice for motorists. Most yellow lights in Tacoma, like these at East D and Dock streets, are set at 3.5 seconds. A consultant proposes a parking fee of $2 a day or $40 for a monthly parking pass at the Tacoma Dome Transit Station garages. This video shows the intersection of southbound South Tacoma Way and South Washington Street in Tacoma. There is no turn on red here.

2016-07-27 03:36 www.thenewstribune.com

31 31 The tiny restaurants delighting Indians with just one wonder dish What do you need to run a successful restaurant? Apart from good chefs, many restaurateurs will tell you that an excellent menu boasting many scrumptious dishes is a must. That seems like a good formula but not everyone would agree. Some Indian restaurants have relied on one signature dish to become legendary among food lovers. The BBC's Vikas Pandey profiles five such restaurants across the country. Giri Manjas has established itself as an institution in the southern coastal city of Mangalore. It's a small eatery and people have to often wait patiently for their turn to eat its signature fish fry. Seating only 25 people at a time, Giri Manjas serves around 200-300 portions of fried fish to its customers every day from 11am to 9pm. The restaurant's owner, Nandini M Pai, says the secret of the popularity of her famous dish is "freshness and love". "We always use fresh fish and spices and we still have the same cooks who started this journey with us 40 years ago. And we serve the dish with a lot of love," she says. Ms Pai adds that she has no ambition of opening more branches of her famous restaurant because "it's a tiny place for Mangaloreans and we are happy with that". To find Alamgir restaurant, you literally have to embark on a treasure hunt along the tiny winding bylanes of old Lucknow city in northern India. But the hard - and often confusing - work is worth it just for the mouth- watering taste of bund gosht, which literally translates from the Hindi as "closed meat". The owner of Alamgir Mujeeb Ahmed, 30, claims his father Rasheed Ahmed invented the famous dish in 1963. He explains that the dish is named bund gosht because "the meat, spices and herbs are mixed and then cooked in a sealed pot for hours on a low flame". However Mr Ahmed is not as forthcoming about the actual recipe, saying it is a "closely-guarded" secret. "The recipe stays in the family. I learnt how to cook it from my father when I was 10 years old," he says. This is the 16th article in a BBC series India on a plate, on the diversity and vibrancy of Indian food. Other stories in the series: Tasting India's coveted holy sweet The street food so good, it is waved through airport checks The Indian state that is obsessed with beef fry The dark history behind India and the UK's favourite drink Why this Indian state screams for ice cream The dosa, a crispy, savoury pancake, is a staple dish in most restaurants in southern India. But if you are trying to find one of the best dosas in in the region, do pay a visit to the city of Mysore. More than 80 years have passed since the first Mylari dosa was served in this tiny restaurant, but very little has changed, including the taste. Unlike most other dosa variants, the Mylari is moist and almost melts in your mouth. And the coconut-based chutney that accompanies the dosa also has a unique taste. But when asked what goes into making it, the proprietor M Rajashekar says "let it be a secret". The recipe was invented by his father N Mylareshwara Swamy. "Our recipe hasn't changed. My mother is 74 but she still keeps a very close eye on the ingredients to ensure that our taste remains the same," he says. The samosa, a savoury pastry often filled with potato, spices and onions, is one of the most popular street snacks and is sold in tiny shops across the country. But in the 1920s, Hari Ram gave the snack a radical twist, inventing what is now known as the "Hariram samosa". He used finely-ground spices as the filling and added some herbs to the pastry. The result was a mouth-watering dish which made the shop an instant hit in the entire region. More than 90 years later, his son, Sri Ram, continues his legacy. "Our samosas are different because you can keep them for a month, unlike normal samosas, which you have to eat on the same day," he says. But again, he refuses to reveal the recipe. "Forget the recipe and just enjoy the samosa. I will ensure that my family continues to run this shop even after I am gone and that too without changing the recipe," he says. Babu Bawarchi is a landmark for food lovers in Delhi. The humble shop has been selling its unique biryani, a one-dish meal made of rice, aromatic spices and meat, since 1967. The shop's main chef and owner, Moinudeen, says he is the fourth- generation chef of his family. "My father invented the recipe of our biryani and I learnt it when I was 12- years-old, but only after four years of hard work," he says. "Our recipe is complex and involves several stages of cooking. I don't mind sharing it with you, but you will need at least five years to master it under the watchful eyes of a senior chef," he explains. He adds that he wants to keep the shop small and humble to ensure that "everybody, rich or poor gets to taste the biryani". "If you haven't eaten biryani, you haven't lived," he says. Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring's Aditi Mallya

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

32 Kentish Town restaurant diners struck by unmarked police car An unmarked police car on an emergency call has crashed into customers sitting outside a restaurant in London. Two people were hurt in the collision outside Soho House's Pizza East in Highgate Road, Kentish Town. One man suffered non-life threatening injuries, while a woman was treated for minor injuries, the Met Police said. The crash happened after the police car was in collision with another car, at the junction between Sanderson Close and Highgate Road, at 19:44 BST. Two police officers were treated for whiplash injuries, following the crash. Both victims are believed to be aged in their 30s, police said. Freelance newsreader Zora Suleman tweeted : "One minute everyone was chatting and drinking next sirens then a huge bang and ppl screaming. " The other vehicle involved stopped at the scene and the driver is assisting police with their inquiries, the Met said. No arrests have been made, and local road closures are in place. "As a matter of course, this incident has been referred to the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards," the Met confirmed.

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

33 Apple sees iPhone sales drop again but beats forecasts Apple has reported a second consecutive quarter of falling iPhone sales, but the 15% drop was not as bad as analysts had feared. The US tech giant sold 40.4 million iPhones in its third quarter, slightly above forecasts of 40.02 million. Apple chief executive said the results reflected "stronger customer demand... than we anticipated". The firm said it expected sales to fall again in the fourth quarter to between $45.5bn (£34bn; €41.4bn) and $47.5bn. Demand for Apple's flagship product has been slowing since the second quarter when the firm reported the first drop in iPhone sales since their 2007 launch. The iPhone makes up for around two-thirds of Apple's sales and accounts for even more of its profits. The slowdown in iPhone sales sent profit down 27% to $7.8bn in the three months to 25 June, while revenues fell 14.6% to $42.4bn. Apple's sales in Greater China - defined by the company as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - plunged 33%. The firm blamed economic uncertainty and people not upgrading their phones as often for the drop. China accounts for almost a quarter of Apple's sales, more than all of Europe combined. "It is very clear that there are some signs of economic slowdown in China, and we will have to work through them. "We understand China well and we remain very, very optimistic about the future there," said Apple chief financial officer Luca Maestri. Results were also hit by the impact of a stronger dollar. Nonetheless, shares, which have fallen almost 20% over the past year, rose over 7% in after-hours trading because the firm's overall performance was not as bad as analysts had expected. Mr Maestri said comparisons to the second quarter last year, when iPhone 6 sales surged 35%, made its performance seem worse than it was. He also pointed to its services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and other services, as a bright spot. The division made nearly $6bn in revenue, up 18.9% from the same time last year, and is now the firm's second-largest sales generator after the iPhone. The shift is good news for the firm because it allows it to make more money from its existing users.

2016-07-27 03:37 www.bbc.co.uk

34 Rousseff will not attend Olympic ceremony in Rio de Janeiro The suspended Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, says she will not attend the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics because she does not want to take a secondary position in the Maracana stadium. A spokesman for the interim President, Michel Temer, said she would have been placed in the stand below him and not at his side. Her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has also refused the invitation despite being instrumental in Rio's winning bid to host the games. Both have said they are being politically persecuted by Mr Temer's party and allies. Ms Rousseff faces possible removal from office if she loses an impeachment trial shortly after the games and Lula is facing corruption allegations, which he denies. What went wrong for Rousseff? Who is Michel Temer? What has gone wrong with Brazil? Another former President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has also said he will not attend the ceremony. Ms Rousseff has said that she believes she should be at the ceremony alongside Lula. She told Radio France International on Monday that her government and Lula's had done most of the work to win the Olympics for Rio de Janeiro and find the financing to build the infrastructure for the global sports event. Diplomats have said the presence of both Michel Temer and Dilma Rousseff at the ceremony would have been awkward for foreign dignitaries.

2016-07-27 03:37 www.bbc.co.uk

35 Owen Smith to make equality pitch to Corbyn supporters Greater equality must be at the heart of Labour's "mission for Britain", Owen Smith is to say in a direct pitch to supporters of his rival Jeremy Corbyn. In a speech on Wednesday, Mr Smith will commit to focusing Labour policies on achieving "equality of outcome" rather than "equality of opportunity". He will say he wants the UK to be the "envy of the world" in terms of fair employment and conditions at work. Mr Corbyn's campaign said he had led the way in promoting equality. Mr Smith is seeking to replace Mr Corbyn in a contest that will be decided on 24 September. The first hustings of the campaign will take place on 4 August in Cardiff, Labour said on Tuesday. The Labour leader was overwhelmingly elected last year on a platform of taking the party to the left and breaking with the "economic orthodoxies" of the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Mr Smith has insisted he is "just as radical" as his rival, but more capable of uniting the party and preparing it to form a future government. In a speech at the site of the former Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire, the ex-work and pension spokesman will say Labour has a fine history of delivering social justice but must now refocus its efforts on striving for more equal outcomes for all. Mr Smith - who has said Labour's constitution should be rewritten to explicitly state its commitment to reducing inequality - will suggest that the party in recent years has not done enough to address growing income gaps in society and rein in boardroom excesses. "We need to rediscover a sense of national mission for Britain," he will say. "A faith in our country as having a future as bright as its past. And one where the fruits of our collective success are shared more equally between us. "Where outcomes can be equal, not just the opportunities we create. That is why I am in politics. " In a speech in which he expected to call for both "fair taxes and fair funding" of public services, Mr Smith will say employment rights must be strengthened to ensure workers do not lose out from the UK's exit from the European Union. He will promise to appoint a shadow cabinet-level minister for labour whose remit would be to "make Britain the envy of the world for the quality of our jobs and the protections they have, so workers have access to better terms and conditions". At a rally on Tuesday evening, Mr Smith repeated his call for a £200bn to be pumped into modernising Britain's schools, hospitals, railways and road network, what he has described as a British New Deal to be funded by increased borrowing. He has also said he favours the introduction of individual wage councils to oversee pay settlements in certain sectors of the economy amid concerns that British workers are being undercut by foreign labour. Mr Corbyn has himself pledged to tackle job insecurity and workplace discrimination which he has described as among the UK's "national ills". A spokesperson for his campaign said Mr Smith's focus on equality of outcomes, reindustrialisation and workers' rights echoed policies and speeches set out by the Labour leader, and shadow chancellor John McDonnell. "Owen's speech today shows the leadership that Jeremy Corbyn has demonstrated in placing economic justice and fairness back at the heart of Labour politics," they said. "Under Jeremy, Labour has put restoring dignity and pride in our communities worst hit by decades of neglect at the core of our politics. " The recent collapse of retailer BHS and criticism of working practices at Sports Direct has led to renewed calls for action to tackle "corporate exploitation" and narrow the gap between executive pay rises and rank- and-file increases. The choice of location for Mr Smith's first major policy speech of the campaign will be seen as symbolic in his battle with Mr Corbyn to win the support of party members, trade unions activists and 180,000 or so registered supporters who have applied to vote in the contest. Orgreave was the scene of a major confrontation between police and pickets during the 1984 miners' strike - an incident into which Labour has long demanded a public inquiry. The coking plant closed in 1991 and the site was redeveloped into a business park.

2016-07-27 03:37 www.bbc.co.uk

36 The 2016 Democratic National Convention Photos Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives on stage while the song, 'We Are the Champions' by Queen plays, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016 in Philadelphia. 25.

2016-07-27 03:37 ABC News abcnews.go.com

37 Carolina Brotherhood riders cycle through Rock Hill to honor fallen Fort Mill-based Belevation represents a new generation of textile manufacturing in Fort Mill. The boutique manufacturer has been steadily growing a customer base that includes Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Francis Marion Campbell, 87, from Chester was buried Monday. He played and coached in the NFL, including stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons. His burial was at the Chester Memorial Gardens. Mega MooseCon, a tabletop gaming convention in Richburg, attracted hundreds of gaming hobbyists and designers Saturday. Gamers played from a library of games and sampled "unpublished" prototypes designers brought to the convention to get feedback, along with new games that are not yet offered in stores. The convention, which was previously held at the Moose Lodge in Rock Hill, continues Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Gateway Conference Center in Richburg. Thirteen officers from the Clover Police Department and three deputies with the York County Sheriff's Office made a surprise visit to the D2 Football and Cheerleading Camp in Clover on Friday. Camp organizers invited the officers in the wake of national turmoil surrounding law enforcement. The officers watched a cheerleading performance, played a game of football and enjoyed a pizza party with the 77 campers. Molly Spearman, state education superintendent, talked to Rock Hill educators Thursday at Castle Heights Middle School about changes in education and the challenges faced by educators. York County wants to cut down the giant tree that serves as the city and county's Christmas Tree next to the York County Courthouse, saying it is unsafe and the county has spent almost $10 million on building renovations. Volunteers with the Salkehatchie camp gathered at several Rock Hill homes to repair and fix up homes for people in need this week. Nearly four dozen workers ages 14 and up painted, repaired windows and roofs and held daily devotions at the United Methodist Church camp. Mark Burns of Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Easley delivered the benediction during the Republican National Convention. SC Gov. Nikki Haley in Cleveland visited the SC delegation at the Republican National Convention. After suffering a heart attack in June, Edgemoor resident Gary Williams knew he needed to replace his broken air conditioning unit in his home so he could recuperate after open-heart surgery. Chad Adams, owner of American Air Heating and Cooling in Rock Hill, went to Williams' home to give an estimate to replace the unit, but decided to install a new $6,000 one at no charge. Williams said the cooler house is helping him exercise — something that would have been hard to do in the hot July weather.

2016-07-27 03:37 www.heraldonline.com

38 TUNE IN TODAY: Yahoo Hosts First-Ever Live Stream of Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting Live coverage begins at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday (4/30) Interviews with: , Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; , Series Creator, "Breaking Bad" & "Better Call Saul"; , Chair, CEO and Chief Designer, Kathy Ireland Worldwide; , Sr. Partner, , and many more --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tune in as (Nasdaq:YHOO) hosts the first-ever live stream of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders meeting today, , kicking-off with live coverage and analysis from Yahoo Finance Editor-in- Chief , on-the-ground at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Audiences will be able to watch live on Yahoo Finance - across desktop, tablet and mobile - as Chairman and CEO and his right-hand man share their unscripted views on the company, the markets, the economy, and whatever other topic that may come up. Watch the live stream here: http://yhoo.it/BRKLive Throughout the Preshow and Halftime Report we'll also feature a number of live and pre-taped interviews with the Yahoo Finance editorial team, including: , Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; , BNSF CEO; , CEO; , CEO; , CEO; , CEO; songwriter, and long-time Buffett friend ; author and international speaker ; legendary business journalist ; Sr. Partner, , ; BRK-B shareholder and series creator of "Breaking Bad" & "Better Call Saul" ; Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, ; and many others. The shareholders meeting live stream will be available in both English and Mandarin, and will be delivered in 1080p HD quality. Embeddable VOD replay will be available on Yahoo Finance for 30 days following the meeting. For more information, and to register for regular updates on the Berkshire on Yahoo Finance, go to: http://yhoo.it/BRKLive Follow the conversation on Twitter with @YahooFinance #BRKLiveStream

2016-07-27 03:37 investor.yahoo.net

39 Haitian migrant crisis exposes rift in the Catholic Church Immigration has long been a divisive issue on Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. For decades, large numbers of Haitians have migrated - many of them without papers - to the Dominican Republic, to escape the poverty and lack of employment in their homeland. In 2013, the Dominican Republic's highest court ruled that children born there to undocumented migrants were not automatically eligible for Dominican nationality. An 18-month period followed in which undocumented migrants were asked to "regulate their status". Thousands who did not meet the deadline left the Dominican Republic, with many saying they were forced out by the authorities. As the BBC's Will Grant found, the Catholic Church has played a key role in the migration crisis with some priests defending the rights of the returnees while others have been criticised for promoting what activists describe as a policy of division. Weekly Mass at Parc Cadeau is a simple affair. The church is a small hut made of wicker and palm, the congregation spread out over a few wooden benches. Looking around the camp, one of several along Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, you might think that the parishioners have little to be thankful for. It is surely one of the poorest places in Latin America. A year ago thousands of returning Haitians arrived at Parc Cadeau. Some had been forcibly deported from the Dominican Republic, others left voluntarily to avoid confrontation with the authorities. Today hundreds of families remain on the dusty ranch, living in hastily erected shacks of plastic sheeting, cardboard and rope, trapped in near stateless limbo. Soinicier Giles is typical of many in the camp. He spent 22 years living as a farmer in the Dominican Republic, before being deported last year. He takes me to a ramshackle hut to meet his wife Eleny and six of their eight children. The other two were left behind when he was deported. The conditions are extremely harsh, especially for the youngest. "We sleep directly on the floor and it gets wet inside when it rains," Eleny explains. The children were all born in the Dominican Republic itself. They are showing signs of malnutrition and have developed a skin condition since arriving at the camp. "They're very hungry, we all are, because we can only afford one meal a day," she says in Creole-accented Spanish. One of the few local figures helping the returnees is the parish priest, Father Luc Leandre. With funds from the International Organisation for Migration, he has helped relocate some of the most desperate families to nearby communities in Haiti. "It's a grave crisis, very, very bad," Father Leandre tells me. "The Church is like a mother for everyone and I have a duty to help. Not only that, the Pope told everyone they have to help the refugees wherever they are. " But Father Leandre says the attitude of some conservative priests on the other side of the border, particularly in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, has complicated his work. "The cardinal in Santo Domingo is personally very vocal in his support for the deportations. He supported sending all the Haitians back to their country. " "It's racism," he laments, saying the law specifically targeted black Haitians, a charge denied by lawmakers in the Dominican Republic. The priest Father Leandre was referring to has been the most influential voice in the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic for almost 40 years: the controversial and outspoken Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez. Earlier this month, Pope Francis accepted the cardinal's resignation, which all archbishops are obliged to offer once they reach the age of 75. But he will remain an important figure in the Church and in Dominican public life. The BBC repeatedly requested an interview with Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus so he could respond to the criticisms against him but both he and his press secretary declined. In many ways, the Haitian migrant crisis has exposed greater divisions within the Catholic Church in Hispaniola over where it should position itself in the 21st Century. Pope Francis - both the first Jesuit pope and the first from Latin America - designated 2016 as the "Year of Mercy" and certainly Jesuits have been instrumental in supporting the Haitian returnees. In a video that went viral, the cardinal was filmed in a furious diatribe about a Jesuit priest called Mario Serrano calling him "shameless" and a "leftist". "He's not very accustomed to being publically confronted," Mario Serrano tells me from the northern border region of Dajabon, where he works with undocumented Haitians. "I just said that (his) kind of speech was not according to the Catholic teaching and was not for a priest or a Christian. "I think that really made him mad. " Supporters of the new regularisation law, such as the former Dominican ambassador to the US, Flavio Espinal, deny that the legislation was either cruel or motivated by racism. "Nothing's perfect and the process here has not been perfect. Yet this has been an extraordinary step forward in the direction of regularising close to 300,000 people who were undocumented in this country. "That's not an easy decision to make nowadays. " At night, to avoid detection, the farmer Soinicier Giles leaves Parc Cadeau and slips back into the Dominican Republic, the border marked by the Pedernales River. There he strips the trees for firewood to make charcoal, to sell to Dominican traders for a few dollars. He knows the practice damages the fertility of the soil, but it's the only available source of income. "This is the only way we can survive," he says, motioning at his family, stuck inside the world's forgotten migrant crisis. You can hear more of Will Grant's report on Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service .

2016-07-27 03:36 By Will www.bbc.co.uk

40 Doping scandals reduce interest in Olympics, says BBC survey Doping scandals have reduced public interest in the Olympics, according to a poll for the BBC World Service. A majority of 57%, from 19,000 people surveyed across 19 countries, said doping has had "a lot" or "some" negative effect on the level of attention they will pay the Games. Respondents from Germany and the host nation, Brazil, were least affected. An average of 62% of citizens also said their country's performance has "a lot" or "some" impact on national pride. Olympic success had the greatest impact on national pride among respondents in emerging economies such as Indonesia, Kenya, Russia, Peru and India. National pride in Brazil, Germany, the US and France appeared least affected by Olympic success. GlobeScan, the firm that carried out the survey, said the poll suggested "that the Olympic Games continue to positively stimulate national pride, especially among citizens in emerging economies". The firm's chairman, Doug Miller, said the poll results "also underscore the important role the World Anti-Doping Agency [Wada] plays in protecting the Olympic franchise. " Earlier this week, Wada criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for rejecting its recommendation to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics, due to start on 5 August. An investigation commissioned by Wada claimed this month that Russia has been operating a state-sponsored doping programme across the "vast majority" of summer and winter Olympic sports. A majority of people in 13 of the 19 countries polled said the use of doping would reduce their interest in the Olympics. Citizens of , Peru, Australia and France were most likely to lose interest in the Games because of doping, according to the survey. However, only 35% of Germans and 36% of Brazilians said they would be put off by the Games on that account. The survey was conducted between December 2015 and April this year.

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

41 Turkey coup: Father who died defying rebel troops One of the most dramatic moments of the failed coup on 15 July was when Turkish troops fired at protesters on Istanbul's famous Bosphorus Bridge. Among those shot dead was a 41-year-old taxi driver, whose wife spoke to the BBC's Rengin Arslan. This is her story. "The telephone rang non- stop. His mother was calling. He jumped out of bed and turned on the TV. "He saw our president's call to people to take to the streets. He asked for a Turkish flag, which he then hung outside, then he walked away, still in his pyjamas. He didn't even get dressed, but took his telephone. " That was the last time Sema Sertcelik saw her husband Akin. He walked to the Bosphorus Bridge, where the plotters had deployed tanks that night. It was only 15 minutes from his house, where he left his family. Now along with Akin's flag there are other Turkish flags all around his house, to let people see that "a martyr" who opposed the coup lived there. I met Sema Sertcelik at her flat, with her 17-year-old daughter Irmak and 10- year-old son Hamza. Her husband was among 179 civilians who died when they stood against the tanks and soldiers. The violence that night also claimed the lives of 67 soldiers and police. Akin was among tens of thousands who heeded President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's appeal to confront the troops in the streets. The bridge connecting Europe and Asia was a focal point of resistance to the coup - and the clash was watched live on TV. Several protesters were shot dead when they tried to reach the tanks. President Erdogan accused a Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of masterminding the coup, by inciting supporters in the army and other state institutions. The cleric - a former ally of Mr Erdogan who now lives in self-imposed exile in the US - strongly denied the claim. Sema showed me text messages that she sent one after another to her husband. Then she recalled their last conversation. "He said there was lots of blood on the ground. He said there were many wounded people around him and soldiers were shooting. "I told him to be careful. He was shouting at people to get down. He told me to read the Koran, to pray to God. So I prayed. Then I dozed off. When I woke up again it was 07:26 in the morning. I checked my mobile and called him, but there was no answer. I kept calling - still no answer. " Irmak and Hamza listened to their mother in silence - I could not guess their thoughts. Sema told me Hamza had not cried yet. It was so difficult and painful to tell them that their father was dead, she said. The day after the coup attempt, Sema searched several hospitals and finally found her husband in a morgue, where unidentified victims had been sent. "I got home and Irmak came to me. She asked where her father was. I told her that I had found him asleep. She hugged me, kissed me - and I told her to go to bed. She went, but then came back. Eventually I managed to tell her. " Sema says she is "very proud" because her husband "became a martyr". She wishes she could have died with him. "When I went with my brother to collect his body I saw a 20-year-old man and a very old man who had died that night. There were women among the dead too. " Sema's children smiled as she described a happy and harmonious family life. "We were equal. He supported me at home in every possible way. " She brought the family albums. One picture showed Akin holding his baby boy for the first time. I looked at Hamza, and he avoided my gaze. Then Irmak looked frantically for a picture of all four of them together. When I asked Sema how she remembered Akin she described her last vision of him. "He was smiling, there was a light on his face. When I saw him for the last time, I thought he was in a beautiful place. " She strongly believes there will be revenge for Akin and the others who died opposing the coup. "The people who did this won't get away with it. " Like many others, I have to cross that bridge nearly every day - and its romantic symbolism, connecting two continents, has been damaged forever. I will always remember the tanks on it, the people killed by their own army, and the woman and two kids who were left behind.

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

42 Letter from Africa: Malaria, a bedroom battleground In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers a dilemma over possible malaria prevention. About the most exciting news story I have heard in recent times is the report that the scent of chicken keeps malarial mosquitoes away. I ought to probably declare that I have what might easily be described as an obsession with malaria. It is not just that malaria happens to be the greatest killer in Ghana and the biggest reason the majority of people go to outpatient departments in hospitals here - I have a personal problem with malaria. You need to have had malaria to appreciate just how dreadful a disease it is. Thirty years after my last bout, I cannot forget the fever, the flu-like symptoms, the high temperatures, the chills, the headache, muscle aches, tiredness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; and that is when you do not have any complications. To put it mildly, malaria is not a pleasant thing. It is debilitating and it reduces grown men to helplessness and kills the majority of young people in my country. Elizabeth Ohene: "Some have suggested that a monument should be erected for the mosquito because it was deemed to have saved West Africa from the fate of southern Africa and the difficulties that came with the independence struggle" But some say the presence of malaria in our part of the world has had some advantages in our history. According to this theory, malaria played a significant role in the spread of colonialism on the African continent. In the parts of the continent that did not have malaria, Europeans could and did settle. However, in West Africa they could not and this contributed to an easier liberation struggle when the time came. Indeed, some have suggested that a monument should be erected for the mosquito because it was deemed to have saved West Africa from the fate of southern Africa and the difficulties that came with the independence struggle. I have never been persuaded that the deterrence to European settlement in West Africa was a worthwhile trade-off for the havoc caused to us by the presence of the malarial mosquito in our part of the world, but that is an argument that will doubtless continue. It also does not detract from the reality of just how horrible malaria is. How you contract malaria is just as bad as the disease itself. There is nothing more dreadful on this Earth than the "hmmmmnnn" sound which wakes you up and alerts you to the fact that you have been bitten by the dreaded female anopheles mosquito and infected with contaminated blood. I am also in the unfortunate situation that none of the anti-malaria prophylactics work for me. I break out in rashes or I get dizzy and if truth be told, I don't really like sleeping under mosquito nets. In the past 16 years that I have been back in malarial Ghana, I have dealt with the problem by simply trying to avoid being bitten. Thus far, it has worked but it has taken an almighty effort that I would not really wish on anybody. It is with this background that I come to the new scientific discovery that might help eliminate malaria. Ethiopian and Swedish scientists are said to have discovered that the answer to the malaria problem might lie with the lowly chicken. Malarial mosquitoes apparently cannot cope with the scent of chickens . The experiments, conducted in western Ethiopia, are said to have included suspending a live chicken in a cage near a volunteer sleeping under a bed net. Compounds extracted from chicken feathers were also used in the experiments, as well as live chickens. OK, so I adore chicken; the meat, that is, but I am not sure about the scent of chicken in my bedroom. The thought of having to decide between the scent of chickens in my bedroom or the sound of the anopheles mosquito or being ravaged by malaria is most unappealing. More from Elizabeth Ohene:

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

43 White humpback Migaloo spotted off Australia's Byron Bay A famous white humpback whale has been spotted on his annual migration to Australia's north. Migaloo is known for his distinctive colouring and for many years was the only documented all-white humpback whale in the world. He has been sighted off the coast of New South Wales state, including the resort town of Byron Bay. Migaloo's journey up Australia's east coast has attracted large numbers of whale enthusiasts. The 14m-long mammal was spotted with a companion during his venture north but now appears to be travelling solo. A Twitter account run by the White Whale Research Centre provides real- time updates of the whale's whereabouts.

2016-07-27 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

44 Height quiz: Which nationality has grown the most? When it comes to height, Europeans dominate the league tables with Dutch men and Latvian women coming out on top. Test your knowledge of how the world's nationalities measure up. Picture question credits: Thinkstock - 1, 2 ; Getty - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

2016-07-27 03:37 www.bbc.co.uk

45 Police Aren't Injuring Blacks, Hispanics More Than Whites Police are not more likely to injure blacks or Hispanics than whites during stops, according to a new study released by the journal of Injury Prevention. While blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be stopped by the police, the research finds no evidence that minorities were more likely to be injured. This study, published Monday, is at the forefront of research that examines not just lethal use of force by law enforcement, but also injuries “inflicted by the police that do not result in death.” The study examines hospital records from 2011 and 2012. Injuries inflicted by police account for just 3.3 percent of the total number of injuries inflicted via person-on-person attacks. Just 6.6 percent of all deaths by homicides in the U. S. are at the hands of police officers, according to the data. Take, for example, the 2012 data on deaths or injuries from civilian interactions with police. Out of some 55,400 separate occasions, only “1.7 encounters per 10,000 resulted in a hospitalization, and an additional 0.7 incidents ended in death,” reports the Washington Post . The study acknowledges that blacks have nearly three times the rate of stops or arrests compared to whites, and Latinos have double the rate of whites. The authors find that any discrepancy in per capita death rates or “excess appears to reflect exposure” to the police, and thus it follows that the greater the instances of interactions–arrests or stops–with police, the greater the chance of a negative outcome. It concluded that while “per capita death rate of blacks from US police action rightly concerns policy analysts,” blacks are “not more likely than non- Hispanic whites to be killed or injured during a stop/arrest.” The study explained that while the country struggles to reduce police violence, it would be “prudent to train at-risk groups about appropriate behaviour during police stops.” Follow Robert on Twitter Send tips to [email protected] Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

46 Democrat Hands Toxic Algae To Gov. Office Democratic Senate candidate Patrick Murphy drove to Tallahassee Tuesday in a bid to force Florida Gov. Rick Scott to confront the issue of toxic algae in the state — but Scott wasn’t there. “We have repeatedly called on the governor to come down and visit our district to see this first hand, and the governor has refused to see it,” Murphy told reporters in the rotunda outside the governor’s office. Scott was at a scheduled jobs event in Orlando. “So, I decided that I wanted to come to Tallahassee and deliver this bottle of toxic algae to the governor to make sure he sees exactly what we’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” Murphy continued. Since Scott wasn’t there, Murphy was forced to leave the toxin-filled bottles on the desk of Scott’s assistant, who didn’t know what to do with it. Murphy said he thought Scott should declare a state of emergency, clearing the path for federal funds to assist the clean up of the toxic algae. Murphy also wants Florida to use something called “amendment 1 environmental funds.” This fund was created by a Florida constitutional amendment passed in 2014 that reserves a third of tax revenues to create a fund “designed to manage and restore natural systems and to enhance public access and recreational use of conservation lands,” according to Ballotpedia. The algae is growing in waterways in South Florida at an exponential rate. Due to the high amounts of algae, tourism in fishing and water sports, such as kayaking and airboat tours, experienced severe slumps in what is generally considered the height of tourist season. “We wish Congressman Murphy would spend more time in Washington getting Congress and the president to approve funding to repair the federally operated Herbert Hoover Dike, which has caused the algae problem in the Treasure Coast,” Jackie Schultz, Scott’s spokesperson told the Miami Herald. “Time and time again, the state continues to show up and put up funding to help with the water quality in this area and we wish Congress and the president would do the same.” This wasn’t the first time Murphy used the toxic algae’s effect on small businesses in South Florida to score political points. The Small Business Administration announced (SBA) earlier in July it would authorize relief for small business owners who depend on the state’s waterways to earn money. Murphy’s office reportedly emailed back, asking for the SBA to delay announcing so Murphy himself could do it during a press conference. Murphy was also at the center of a CBS investigation that determined his claims of being a small business owner and accountant to be outright false. Murphy ran several ads during his campaign to promote his small business and accounting experience, saying he would be the best candidate to represent small business owners in his district. Follow Phillip On Twitter Have a Tip? Let us Know Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

47 47 Celebrities Sign Pledge To Stop Donald Trump Hollywood celebrities have joined together to stop Donald Trump in a pledge called “United Against Hate.” On Tuesday, Lena Dunham, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes, Michael Moore and 100 other celebrities and artists that work in Hollywood signed an open letter from the group Moveon.org , pleading with voters that they do not vote for Trump. (RELATED: Hollywood Reacts To Trump Becoming The Presumptive GOP Nominee) (photo:REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) “We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy,” the letter reads. “Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law. His rhetoric and policy proposals exclude, degrade, and harm.” “When dangerous and divisive leaders have come to power in the past, it has been in part because those of goodwill failed to speak out for themselves or their fellow citizens,” the letter adds. “Some of us come from the groups Trump has attacked. Some of us don’t.” “But as history has shown, it’s often only a matter of time before the ‘other’ becomes me,” the letter continued. “That is why we need to unite before it is too late–for the sake of our fellow Americans and for the sake of our democracy–and why it is so critical for those of us with the privilege to speak out to do so loudly and forcefully, in our work, online, and in our communities, with all the resources we have at hand.”

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

48 Hogan Unites With Democrats On Criminal Justice Reform Gov. Larry Hogan is uniting Republicans and Democrats to battle Maryland’s heroin epidemic with contentious criminal justice reform aimed at keeping non-violent criminals out of prison. As part of Hogan’s bipartisan push for broader criminal justice reforms in Maryland, non-violent criminals will have a chance to participate in a rehabilitation program to stay out of prison. The efforts broadly aim to reduce recidivism rates, but the reform also comes as a response to the growing heroin epidemic plaguing the state, reports The Washington Post. In the first quarter of 2016, 147 people overdosed on heroin in Maryland. Activists say they are encouraged by the effort to address non-violent crimes through alternative paths. “This is a good effort for change and it is not going unnoticed by the impact people here in the State of Maryland, his [Hogan] bi-partisan approval rating is showing of that,” Lea Green, President of Maryland CURE , told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We are not in the political arena, but we understand that bi-partisan support gets things done.” Following a recommendation from the Hogan Administration’s Heroin and Opioid Emergency Task Force, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a state grant through the governor’s office of $540,000 to launch an adult day-reporting center. A judge can order a non-violent offender to the center to participate in addiction treatment, job training and counseling. (RELATED: Maryland Leads The Way On Criminal Justice Reform) The center will also drug test participants, who must log 92 days at the center over a period of six months to avoid a prison sentence. Participants must also secure a job or be actively seeking one to remain in the program. “As a mother of a LIFER and an advocate for change, this effort is good news for my family,” Green said. “The jails will not be the only solution for this dread[ed] disease that is affecting all of us.” Some state lawmakers have previously expressed concerns over classifying heroin distribution as a non-violent crime. When Hogan signed the Justice Reinvestment Act in May, aimed at reducing prison populations, some detractors feared the law could make the heroin epidemic worse, reports The Baltimore Sun. “Pushing heroin and other opioids isn’t non-violent,” Republican Delegate Herbert McMillan said before the law passed. “Reducing jail time for heroin pushers, during an opioid epidemic, does not send the message heroin pushers need to hear.” Officials from the Hogan Administration argue the adult day-reporting center reform will reduce the rate of repeat criminal offenders. Hogan said in a statement Monday he hopes it will move the state closer to rehabilitating heroin addicts and reducing use of the drug in the state. “Since day one, our administration has been committed to fighting Maryland’s heroin crisis, and today’s announcement is representative of that continued commitment,” Hogan said in the statement . “This pilot program is another step to provide those suffering with addiction with the effective treatment before, during and after incarceration.” Follow Steve on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

49 Popular Bernie Subreddit Closes In Response To Death Threats A Reddit moderator made the decision to end his thread supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders Monday in response to vicious attacks and death threats. Sanders was a contender for the Democratic nomination but conceded when it was clear primary rival Hillary Clinton would win. Subreddit moderator Aidan King made the decision to shut down the 225,000 member pro-Sanders thread because he was tired of dealing with hateful conversations, trolls and death threats. “That does not change how I feel about the current state of this community,” King wrote before the thread was taken down. “I have seen over two dozen death threats aimed at Bernie, in addition to the HUNDREDS of threats, vulgar attacks, and trollish behavior that’s been flying around for the last month or so. Not to mention the hundred or so death threats aimed at me.” King was almost immediately met with all manner of angry attacks and insults. Some commentators called him extremely tasteless and a disgrace. Others added that he sickened them and that he was “dumb as shit.” He was also accused of being paid off by the Clinton campaign. “This is a measure taken at least just for tonight due to trolling and threats that have been made,” King said in an updated post. “We realize that many delegates have been and will be using the page for reporting, among other things, and we acted overly hastily. For that, I apologize. We will proceed through the convention and the roll call.” King originally planned to keep the thread up until after the Democratic National Convention. Vocativ first spotted the announcement before the thread was officially taken down. Nearly every popular thread on the Reddit includes rules of conduct made by the moderator. Political discussion are often required to have some form of civility. Follow Connor on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our soriginal content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

50 Pennsylvania Liquor Laws Essentially Suspended For DNC Attendees of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia are able to drink booze this week — even if it doesn’t comply with Pennsylvania law. State lawmakers approved temporary “ national event permits ,” with temporal parameters limited to this week, despite the fact that the state of Pennsylvania is infamous for being one of the most draconian on liquor. These quasi-official licenses allow chosen Philadelphia venues to sell alcohol later than 2 a.m. and authorizes patrons to purchase liquor outside of state-owned store. The apparent favoritism is sure to upset locals, who are not awarded this privilege because the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), the agency in charge of everything alcohol, essentially operates as a state monopoly. Following the passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933, states were given the power to enact and impose regulations related to alcohol production, consumption and distribution. The governor of Pennsylvania at the time, Gifford Pinchot, decided to implement state laws that would “discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible,” according to an editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer. PLCB has seemingly followed through on making the purchasing of alcohol a more arduous and cumbersome process. There are only a finite amount of liquor licenses available, specifically only one for every 3,000 residents and liquor can only be purchased at PLCB-run stores. Furthermore, taxes are so high that thrifty booze lovers (especially wine enthusiasts) travel across the border of the state for alcohol; an illegal act that can render a person a “ bootlegger.” Approximately six in 10 Pennsylvanians favor privatization, with the most likely supporters being “frequent wine/spirit purchases, Philly suburb residents, and Republicans,” according to a 2013 poll conducted by Heart and Mind Strategies. But when the state House and Senate passed a privatization bill to the governor’s desk, Democrat Tom Wolf vetoed it , because during his administration’s deliberation “it became abundantly clear that this plan would result in higher prices for consumers” and “less competition.” Many Pennsylvanians cannot purchase liquor past a certain time at night and on many holidays because of comprehensive policies that stretch across the whole state. Follow Eric on Twitter Send tips to [email protected] . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

51 CNN: Muslims Target Of France Terror Attack On Catholics Muslims are the true target of the latest terror attack on a Catholic church in France, according to CNN. In the name of the Islamic State, two Muslim men stormed a Catholic mass in Normandy Monday, took two parishioners and two nuns hostage, delivered a sermon in Arabic at the altar and then slit the throat of an elderly Catholic priest before police shot them dead. One of the hostages is in critical condition. At least one Catholic person is dead, but according to CNN it’s Muslims in Europe who should be afraid. “The goal in going after such a provocative target? To trigger a backlash against Muslims in France and drive the country’s Muslims into the recruiting arms of the Islamic State,” CNN surmises. Although France is a deeply secular country, CNN concludes the attack is especially provocative because Catholicism is “still deeply entwined in the national fabric.” By attacking churches, the logic goes, ISIS is hoping to fan the flames of a religious war that will ultimately result in persecution of Muslims, which in turn will drive them right into the arms of ISIS. The tactic is working, according to CNN, which cites a 223 percent rise in the number of anti-Muslim threats and attacks last year reported by the French Human Rights Commission. The publication does go on to discuss at length the genocide ISIS is committing against Christians in its territory, but the clear implication is that Muslims, not Christians, are threatened in Europe. “In urging attacks on churches, ISIS is trying to eliminate what it calls the ‘grey zone’ for Muslims in the West by provoking a far-right backlash,” reports CNN. “A drumbeat of attacks in France has led to a groundswell of anti-Muslim anger, which is being stoked and exploited by far-right politicians.” Follow Rachel on Twitter Send tips to rachel@ dailycallernewsfoundation.org . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

52 Tim Kaine Has A Hilariously Bad Secret Service Codename Make way for the Daredevil. The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned from a source that Democratic vice presidential pick Sen. Tim Kaine’s Secret Service codename, undisclosed until this point, is “Daredevil.” The name is so ill-fitting it comes across as a deliberate self-parody. Kaine is famously moderate and hardly a bold risk-taker in anything at all. In the words of Al Gore , “Tim Kaine is so boring his Secret Service code name is ‘Tim Kaine.'” Beyond boring, Kaine is “milquetoast,” “a nice guy’s nice guy,” “generic,” and more. He’s personally against abortion, but won’t break ranks with his party over it. He supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership Thursday and opposed it by Saturday in order to line up with the party zeitgeist. He responds to even the most cringeworthy Hillary Clinton joke with a laugh and enthusiastic hand-clapping. His path to the nation’s second-highest office has been deeply mundane. Kaine started off on Richmond’s city council, then became it’s mayor. From there, he became lieutenant governor of Virginia, leveled up to governor four years later, and then finally became a senator in 2013. He has never occupied an office for more than four years, or for fewer than three. In short, the typical person probably dares more devils before lunch than Kaine has in his whole life. But on the other hand, Kaine was a lawyer before becoming a politician, just like Marvel’s Daredevil. So there’s that. Send tips to [email protected] . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

53 Feingold Flip-Flops On National Security Issues Former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, who is currently running for his old seat, released a campaign ad touting his plan to defeat Islamic State. He cast multiple votes against defense funding and limiting access to surveillance tools as a senator. In the 30-second TV spot, titled “ Tough ,” Feingold says the country needs to be strategic about how it handles the terrorist organization, but his record indicates he voted multiple times against legislation he initially voted for that expanded the national security director’s ability to go after lone wolf terrorists. “My plan – cut off their oil arms supplies in cash, use special forces and targeted military strikes, better human intelligence, and here at home more resources to track down and break up terrorist cells,” he says. “And the U. S. has to pressure Middle Eastern nations to confront jihadist extremist that’s what it takes to combat terrorism and protect America.” Feingold’s Republican challenger, Sen. Ron Johnson, recently slammed him in a speech at the Republican National Convention for being the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks, alleging he didn’t do enough to help provide the military the resources it needs to conduct terrorist surveillance. Feingold has stood by his decision in a recent fundraising letter, saying he voted against the Patriot Act for not providing enough oversight on the federal government. Johnson attacked Feingold for his decision to vote down the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that funds the military, 11 times. Feingold, who said the country should step up targeted attacks, sponsored legislation to do away with the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the aircraft used in the first airstrikes against ISIS. “Sen. Feingold is once again acting like a typical career politician, saying one thing and doing another – only this time he’s playing political games with our national security,” Johnson said. “Sen. Feingold voted repeatedly against our security and opposed the kind of strong defense it will take to keep local communities safe during his 18 years in Washington, and no amount of lip-service will cover up the fact that it’s simply too dangerous to give him a fourth term.” Follow Juliegrace Brufke on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

54 Why The BBC Calls ISIS “So-Called Islamic State” In preparing blog posts for both today’s attack at the Catholic Church in Saint Etienne du Rouvary, France and the weekend suicide bombing outside a music festival in Reutlingen, Germany, I read the BBC’s account of both attacks and found something peculiar. The BBC refers to ISIS as the “so-called Islamic state”. This struck me as politically correct rubbish. Yet upon further examination, the term “so-called Islamic state” is something of a compromise by the Beeb after then British PM David Cameron led an effort last year to have the BBC stop using the term “Islamic State” altogether. In a BBC4 Radio interview, Cameron stated: I wish the BBC would stop calling it Islamic State because it’s not an Islamic state. What it is, is an appalling, barbarous regime … It’s a perversion of the religion of Islam and many Muslims listening to this programme will recoil every time they hear the words Islamic State. Cameron can deny there’s such a thing as the Islamic State all he wants. He cannot pretend that vast amounts of territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya are under it’s control. Britain might not recognize ISIS’ claims on that territory, but it doesn’t change the facts on the ground. In fact, the amount of territory it controls is larger than Britain itself. Cameron is correct to say that ISIS is an appalling, barbarous regime. So were the Nazis. I think it is safe to say that Churchill never hesitated to use the word Nazi when identifying the Third Reich. I hate to break it to Cameron but appalling, barbarous regimes control territory and ISIS is no exception. Neither he nor his successor Theresa May can wish this fact away. His statement is variation on President Obama’s assertion that “ISIS isn’t Islamic.” What this is really about is bending over backwards not to offend the sensibilities of Britain’s large Muslim population. But in denying ISIS’ Islamic nature, both the British government and British Muslims demonstrate they are angrier at ISIS being called Islamic rather than they are at their murderous acts. Like it or not, there is a critical mass of Muslims in Britain who support ISIS and are prepared to travel to Iraq, Syria and Libya to take up the cause. Indeed, back in 2014, Britain’s Ministry of Defense reported there were more British Muslims fighting for ISIS than for the British military. So while BBC declined the British government’s request to refrain from using the term “Islamic State”, the decision to qualify the term with the use of the phrase “so-called” is still a copout. Above all else, how can we defeat an enemy if we’re worried about what to call it?

2016-07-27 03:50 Aaron Goldstein spectator.org

55 The ‘Smart’ Party and the ‘Dumb’ Party I guess I’m a — how you spell that there word? “Kon- serve-a-tive.” That’s with a “K,” right? Meaning I didn’t do no college and I like to monkey with cars. And I don’t trust them Ivy League folks with all them degrees. And might — you won’t tell nobody, will you, Mister? ’Cause them edjy- cated newspaper folks might get on me — vote for Trump? And meanwhile, ’scuse the auto grease on my overalls. Among the signal (forgive that 10-buck adjective) marks of the 2016 campaign is the intellectual snobbery of the liberals who convene as Democrats in Philadelphia this week to save the country from ignorance and bigotry by nominating Hillary Clinton. A constant meme — that’s a 50-buck word there — of campaign coverage is the education gap. Essentially, it means (according to the Pew Research Center) that people with postgraduate degrees “are far more likely than those with less education to take predominantly liberal positions across a range of political values.” From which data it would appear to follow that liberal positions are the “smart” positions, whereas non-liberal ones (skepticism about immigration or, more broadly, affection for traditional norms and values) are what you’d expect from people who suppose Yale is a door lock. Snobbery is endemic — these big buck words stay with you when you read the modern media — in the human makeup; meaning we all do it. However, its implications in 2016 seem unusually dangerous. Political observers are dividing the political landscape between smart liberals and dumb conservatives: Trump types with their red “Make America Great Again” caps and distaste for learned discourses on the reasons old- fashioned values like patriotism and law and order no longer deserve a serious hearing, having been displaced by diversity, for instance, and the need for “safe spaces.” The non-equivalence, in liberal terms, of academic “safe spaces” and Western ideals like free speech shows what we’re coming to — and how radical, and dangerous, the political divide is this year. On the one hand, sensitive collegians clamor for protection on campus from offensive ideas. On the other hand, universities, the very institutions that shape the views of our self-vaunting thought leaders, are supposed to traffic in ideas of all sorts. You wonder why, if the “smart” people who favor liberal ideas are really so “smart,” they don’t put a stop to the whining and cringing of the anti-free- speech faction that increasingly dominates academia. The “smart people vs. dumb people” divide, as I suppose we are supposed to consider it, does vast harm to the whole notion of democratic politics. When the “smart” decide their own policies are the only ones worth adopting, contrary policies, however seasoned, however well-reasoned, fall into contempt. That’s the kind of contempt already brewing as the smart liberals gather in Philadelphia to show the dumb and unenlightened how America really should be run, by federal edict, if you get down to it. “Facts,” writes Roger Cohen in the New York Times, looking back on the Republican National Convention, “are now a quaint hangover from a time of rational discourse.” The rational — who work for the Times and like institutions — decide what’s rational and what isn’t. The challenge isn’t so much to disentangle Trump’s particularly fantastical claims as it is to discredit the entirety of what the non-smart, non-educated, non-rational party, Trump’s party, might believe. Not always without cause, be it noted. A whole college seminar would fail to root out the causes of intellectual snobbery in politics. The soil of the Garden of Eden would be an attractive place to begin. Nonetheless, the effects, as distinguished from the causes, are destructive enough to warrant investigation. Say the “smart” party and its “smart” candidate win in November (as could certainly be the case): What happens then to all the “dumb” people who voted for the “dumb” party and its ideas? Are they ignored, or ridden out of town on a rail? The challenges of democratic government admit of no such “solutions.” In democratic government, the “smart” solution is supposed to be what the people — never mind the Harvard faculty — want. I hate to be “dumb,” but there it is, folks.

2016-07-27 03:50 William Murchison spectator.org

56 56 In Bed With Her Wall Street Cronies In his less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of Hillary Clinton as the Democrats’ choice for President, Sen. Bernie Sanders decried “Greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior” and declared that we couldn’t let “billionaires buy elections.” Perhaps his opposition research team discovered what we have about Clinton’s connections with the very entities he despises: Wall Street, which he’s accused of “gambling trillions in risky financial instruments.” These “huge financial institutions,” he says, “simply have too much economic and political power over this country.” Wall Street and its “huge financial institutions” are Clinton allies — supporting both her campaign and donating big bucks to the Clinton Foundation. In the batch of Democrat National Committee (DNC) emails WikiLeaks made public on July 23, DNC Research Associate Jeremy Berns tells his colleagues: “She [Clinton] doesn’t want the people knowing about her relationships on Wall Street.” He adds: “She wants to achieve consistency and the best way to do that is to keep the people ignorant.” For the past four years, I’ve collaborated with citizen activist/researcher Christine Lakatos (she’s been at it for six years) on what we’ve called: President Obama’s green-energy crony-corruption scandal. Together we’ve produced the single largest body of work on the topic. In her blog, the Green Corruption Files, she posts her exhaustive research — what I affectionately refer to as the drink-from-the-fire-hydrant version. I, then, use her research to draft an overview that is appropriate for the casual reader. More recently, our efforts have morphed to include the Democrats’ presidential nominee, as Lakatos found the same people are her “wealthy cronies,” too. In Lakatos’ most-recent, and final, Green Corruption File, released on July 19, she states: “While there are numerous ways you can ‘buy access to the Clintons,’ I’m only going to connect the dots to the Green Gangsters, which we’ve already established are rich political pals of President Obama, as well as other high-ranking Democrats and their allies, who were awarded hundreds of billions of ‘green’ taxpayer cash.” Her lengthy report is “devoted to proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the Democrat presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is not on only in bed with Big Money (Wall Street, the Uber-Rich, special interests groups and lobbyists) and Dark Money (Super PACS and Secret Cash), she is also bankrolled and in cahoots with––directly and through her husband and her family foundation––the wealthy Green Gangsters, who are robbing U. S. taxpayers in order to “save the planet.” While the dozens of pages prove the involvement of names you know — like former vice president Al Gore, former Governor Bill Richardson, and billionaire donors Tom Steyer and Warren Buffett — and names you likely don’t know, David Crane, John Doerr, Pat Stryker, and Steve Westly, I’ve chosen to highlight the Clinton’s Wall Street connections that have benefited from the green deals that were cut in the Obama White House and that will continue if Clinton wins. Lakatos points out: “Clinton’s ‘ambitious renewable energy plans’ move far beyond Obama’s green mission that has been rife with crony capitalism, corporate welfare, and corruption.” Along with more climate rules, she “wants an open tab for green energy.” Remember the DNC’s official platform includes “the goal of producing 100 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2050” and “a call for the Justice Department to investigate fossil fuel companies for misleading the public on climate change.” Three Wall Street names of my limited-word-count focus are Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Bank of America. Each is a top-contributing Clinton campaign supporter and a Clinton Foundation donor. They have benefited from the hundreds of billions in taxpayers dollars given out for green energy projects through the Obama administration. All three have expectations that Clinton will continue the green programs put in place by the Obama administration. Goldman Sachs donated between $1 million to $5 million and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund has contributed between $250,000 to $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. As Lakatos pointed out in previous reports, Goldman Sachs is connected, via various roles, to at least 14 companies and/or projects that won green taxpayer cash––a tab that exceeded $8.5 billion. One specific example: Goldman is credited as the “exclusive financial adviser” for the now bankrupt Solyndra ($570.4 million loss). Then there is now-bankrupt SunEdison — an early Goldman Sachs investment. SunEdison received $1.5 billion in federal and state subsidies. And, in 2010, Goldman Sachs handled the IPO of government winner Tesla Motors, which was awarded $465 million from the Department of Energy (DOE) ATVM program — they got much more if you factor in the state and local subsides: $2,406,805,253 to be exact. Also, according to Goldman, “In May 2013, [they] helped raise over $1 billion in new financing for Tesla Motors.” Citigroup/Citi Foundation donated between $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. This big bank is connected to approximately $16 billion of taxpayer money. Lakatos, in 2013, reported that Citi was actively involved in securing the 1703/1705 DOE loans; it was a direct investor in, and/or served as an underwriter for, the initial public offering (IPO) of at least 16 of Citi’s clients that received some form of government subsidies. One green company where Citi is a major investor is SolarCity, which has been subsidized through various stimulus funds, grants, and federal tax breaks at the tune equaling almost $1.5 billion. Billionaire Elon Musk is CEO of Tesla and Chairman at SolarCity. He’s a Clinton Foundation donor ($25 million to $50 million) and Hillary supporter, too. Bank of America/Bank of America Foundation donated between $500,000 to $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Bank of America, among other green efforts, participated in Project Amp — a four-year, $2.6 billion project to place solar panels on rooftops in 28 states. At the time, the Wall Street Journal reported: “Bank of America Merrill Lynch unit will provide $1.4 billion in loans for the project,” of which “the financing is part of Bank of America’s plan to put $20 billion of capital to work in renewable energy, conservation and other clean technologies that address climate change.” In the final days of the DOE loan program (September 2011), DOE awarded a partial guarantee of $1.4 billion loan to Project Amp. According to a press release, Bank of America increased its second environmental business initiative from $50 billion to $125 billion in low-carbon business by 2025 through lending, investing, capital raising, advisory services and developing financing solutions for clients around the world. It’s important to remember that climate change — which is the foundation of the green agenda — is part of the Clinton Foundation’s mission statement: “In communities across the globe, our programs are proving that we can confront the debilitating effects of climate change in a way that makes sense for governments, businesses, and economies.” Additionally, the Foundation’s coffers were enriched when Clinton and her State Department staff solicited contributions from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, as we detailed in our coverage of her clean cookstove campaign. In addition to Clinton’s obvious Wall Street connections, one of the many startling realizations that can be gleaned from the report on “Hillary’s Horrendous Hypocrisy,” is the fact that these companies — some of which would not be in existence without the grants and tax credits and millions in taxpayer dollars — took our money and gave it to the Clinton Foundation and to the Clinton Campaign. As was the case with Clinton Foundation donor/campaign fundraiser George Kaiser, these billionaires are making lucrative profits, at taxpayer expense, from bankrupted green companies like Solyndra. In short, we, the taxpayers, are subsidizing the well-connected millionaires and billionaires — and Hillary Clinton is part of all it. Meanwhile, she admonishes the average American to combat climate change by driving less and reducing our personal use of electricity. Bernie Sanders was right to be alarmed. Huge financial institutions do have too much political power. Wall Street billionaires are trying to buy Clinton the White House. In return, she’ll be sure their green energy investments pay off for them by demanding that America go green.

2016-07-27 03:50 Marita Noon spectator.org

57 The Hillary-Alinsky-Lucifer Connection In his speech at the Republican convention last week, Ben Carson made a statement that raised some eyebrows. “Now, one of the things that I have learned about Hillary Clinton is that one of her heroes, her mentors, was Saul Alinsky,” said Carson. “And her senior thesis was about Saul Alinsky. This was someone she greatly admired….” So far so good. Nothing most political junkies haven’t heard before. “And let me tell you something about Saul Alinsky,” continued Carson. “He wrote a book called Rules for Radicals. It acknowledges Lucifer, the original radical who gained his own kingdom. Now think about that.” That certainly got a lot of people thinking. “This is our nation where our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, talks about certain inalienable rights that come from our Creator, a nation where our Pledge of Allegiance says we are ‘One nation under God,’” added Carson. “This is a nation where every coin in our pockets and every bill in our wallet says, ‘In God We Trust.’ So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer? Think about that.” In response, the liberal media predictably went bonkers. “Ben Carson rails against Hillary Clinton, Lucifer,” howled the headline in USA Today. “Ben Carson Ties Hillary Clinton to Lucifer as GOP Swaps Campaign for Witch Trial,” scowled the Daily Beast. “She’s one-degree of separation from a devil-lover!” wailed the Daily Mail. I must say that I shouldn’t be too critical of the liberal media’s apoplectic reaction, because I was likewise incredulous the first time I heard this claim. It was 2007, and I was finishing a book on the faith of Hillary Clinton. One morning I heard a local radio talk-show host make an amazing claim: that Alinsky’s 1971 classic Rules for Radicals began with a dedication to Satan. Oh, I can’t believe that, I said. I was angry at the host. This kind of hyperbole gives conservative talk-radio a bad name! And yet, it couldn’t be hard to check. I had better do so as author of a biography of Hillary Clinton in which I had a section on Hillary and Saul Alinsky. As part of the promotion for the book, I would likely appear on this same talk-show, and the host surely would ask me about the Lucifer acknowledgment. I quickly emailed one of the staffers at our library at Grove City College. Did we have a copy of Rules for Radicals on our shelves? We sure did. Please pull it, I said. I’ll be right there. I opened the book and couldn’t believe my eyes. Alinsky offered this acknowledgment: Yes, there it was. Saul Alinsky commenced his magnum opus — the one for which he is hailed by the left, a book not only read by Hillary Clinton but used as a text by Barack Obama as a teacher of community organizing — with an acknowledgement of the Devil. Like Ben Carson, the reaction I’ve had when pointing this out to liberals has been one of hysterical disbelief. And if I’m able to get them to look at what Alinsky wrote, they retreat to handy excuses. “Oh, that was tongue-in- cheek,” one liberal confidently told me. Really? I asked her. How did she know that? She didn’t. Now, a crucial clarification: I don’t think it’s technically accurate to say that Rules for Radicals is “dedicated” to Lucifer, as is often claimed by Alinsky’s detractors. (It’s also hard to criticize them for making that assumption.) Looking at the book carefully, it appears to be dedicated to one person: There is a page that says simply “To Irene,” and nothing else. On the page prior to the Irene dedication is a list of “Personal Acknowledgements,” where Alinsky lists four friends: Jason Epstein, Cicely Nichols, Susan Rabiner, and Georgia Harper. Following the Irene page is another page, the controversial one, in which Alinsky offers three quotes, the first from a Rabbi Hillel, the second from Thomas Paine, and the third from Alinsky himself, giving his nod to Lucifer. One well-known fact-checker source (Snopes) describes this as “three epigraphs on an introductory page.” I suppose that’s an acceptable way to characterize it. And the third of the three is an “epigraph” (if you will) to Satan. But we shouldn’t let Alinsky off the Lucifer hook so easily. Alinsky, for one, was asked about the Lucifer acknowledgment in his March 1972 interview with Playboy magazine near the end of his life, a swan-song that every Alinsky aficionado knows about. Here’s the exchange, which came at the very end of the interview, with Playboy apparently judging it a fittingly provocative close to the extremely lengthy interview: “They’re my kind of people,” said Alinsky. “Hell would be heaven for me.” For the record, when I googled the Alinsky-Playboy interview this week I found the aforementioned excerpt posted at (among other places) a Satanist website. There, the author, in an article titled, “Saul D. Alinsky: A role model for left-wing Satanists,” writes of the exchange: “I’m not sure whether Alinsky really was a Satanist/Luciferian of some sort or whether he was just joking. He may well have been just joking.” When fact-checking Ben Carson’s statement on this, PolitiFact added this caveat: “The rest of the book [Rules for Radicals] includes no real discussion of Lucifer or Satan, though it does talk about the way people demonize political opponents so that others see their opponents as ‘devils.’” Indeed it does. And that isn’t particularly amusing either. One of Alinsky’s most infamous rules is to isolate the target and, in effect, demonize it. (The talk-show host I mentioned also used the word “demonize.”) This was the thrust of Alinsky’s final and most egregious rule for radicals (no. 13): “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” He advised cutting off the support network of the person and isolating the person from sympathy. He cruelly urged going after people rather than institutions because people hurt faster than institutions. Get out the torch, dear tolerant progressive, rain hellfire on thy enemy! To be sure, Rules for Radicals sometimes gives mixed signals to many Christians. The book is interspersed with a sprinkling of Biblical/church references (some neutral, some not) beyond its hefty radical politics and juvenile profanity. My Grove City College colleague Lee Wishing interprets this as Alinsky’s method of trying to reach the younger ’60s generation. “He wanted to give them meaning,” says Wishing. It was as if Alinsky had penned the radical’s version of a purpose-driven life. On the last page of Alinsky’s manual, the godfather of community organizing imparts his wisdom on his army of organizers: “The human cry… is one for a meaning, a purpose for life — a cause to live for and if need be die for…. This is literally the revolution of the soul.” Alinsky said that the young “are searching for an answer, at least for a time, to man’s greatest question, ‘Why am I here?’” In short, observes Wishing, Alinsky was telling his followers to find life’s meaning and salvation in a “conflict-based community organizing” (Wishing’s description). Wishing’s take is that Alinsky was actually a “metaphysical rebel, a spiritual man who, whether he realizes it or not, was trying to address man’s fallen nature.” Thus, Alinsky gets his opening acknowledgment (to Lucifer) wrong. Says Wishing: “Jesus is the kingdom winner, the real revolutionary…. The fatal flaw of Alinsky’s book is literally the fatal flaw of mankind: failure to recognize that Jesus has defeated Satan and, that although this world is fallen, our hope is in Him — following Him faithfully, the True Radical, not Satan.” Wishing’s take is insightful, and also charitable to Alinsky. That said, Rules for Radicals is not a charitable book. Any Scripture references are deep-sixed by far more frequently used words like target, weapon, threat, pressure, tactic, revolution, rebellion, enemy, the devil (albeit not in a Satan-worshipping way), and, most of all, attack, attack, and attack. It’s damned sure not an epistle of forgiveness and grace. This isn’t the Peace Prayer of St. Francis. What Alinsky advised, no matter how many Biblical quotations he sprinkled it with, certainly wasn’t the Christian gospel. Speaking of which, and bringing this back to Hillary Clinton, it’s thus very ironic how Hillary Clinton met Saul Alinsky. Ben Carson would not know this, nor would most fact-checkers and Hillary fans. A young Hillary Rodham was first introduced to Alinsky in Chicago by the Rev. Don Jones, the liberal “social justice” Methodist youth minister who was a mentor to her in the early 1960s in Park Ridge, Illinois at Park Ridge United Methodist Church. He’s the one who started tugging Hillary to the left and away from her father’s “Goldwater Girl” roots. Hillary would later describe Alinsky as a “great seducer” of young minds, as did Jones, which was apparently the reason that Jones brought his wide-eyed teens to meet with the radical whose politics Jones liked. Jones succeeded. Hillary was taken in. The Rev. Jones’s point in bringing the youngsters to Alinsky could not have been religious, since Alinsky was a well-known and committed agnostic who proudly declared his “independence” from any affiliation, including Christianity. The youth minister’s goal was social-political. Like Jones, Alinsky was dedicated to advancing the interests of the Proletariat, or what Alinsky called the “Have-Nots.” For Hillary, that first encounter was just the beginning. Hillary Rodham headed off to the Northeast for college, where her conservative father paid handsomely for her left-wing indoctrination. In 1968, Hillary wrote her undergraduate thesis at Wellesley on — of all subjects — Saul Alinsky and his tactics. She quite literally studied Alinsky, and not merely distantly from the pages of a book. At Wellesley, Hillary sought out Alinsky. She was thinking about her place in the world. She envisioned greater things, and thus decided that she needed more than a bachelor’s degree — namely, a degree in law. She shared that opinion with no less than Saul Alinsky himself, directly asking his advice. And her outreach paid dividends. Quite remarkably, the veteran radical offered Hillary a job in the spring of 1969 as a community organizer. He also that year re-released his classic manifesto, Reveille for Radicals, updated with a new introduction and afterword. Hillary decided against the job, informing Alinsky that she felt law school was the better choice for the moment. She told Alinsky that she saw a “real opportunity” at Yale Law. Alas, these are things we’ve known about Hillary and Alinsky for a while now, as reported by biographers (myself included) and with a few details by Hillary herself, though she has been very tightlipped. In her 2003 book, Living History, Hillary mentioned Alinsky, but only surrendered one paragraph, keeping a political safe-distance as she sought elected office. But what she said in that one paragraph is telling. “We had a fundamental disagreement,” she wrote. “He [Alinsky] believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn’t.” Correct. Hillary is changing it from the inside. In September 2014, however, came somewhat of a biographical game- changer, a small but meaningful revelation in our knowledge of Hillary and Alinsky, one that the fact-checkers still haven’t caught up to. The Washington Free Beacon obtained two previous Hillary-Alinsky letters that hadn’t been published before. Here was the context: It was July 1971, and Hillary Rodham was interning in the law offices of communist rabble-rousers Robert Treuhaft and his British-born wife Jessica “Decca” Mitford, the one-time muckraking journalist. Treuhaft and Mitford had married in 1943, several years after Mitford’s previous husband died fighting for the Soviet Comintern in the Spanish Civil War. They eventually moved to San Francisco and lived near Saul Alinsky. Both Treuhaft and Mitford had joined Communist Party USA, and for many years were denied passports and investigated by government officials. Yes, this was Hillary’s big internship — working for two notorious Bay Area communists. Her father must have been appalled. Saul Alinsky, a self- described democratic socialist who proudly admitted working with communists, must have been pleased. (“Anybody who tells you he was active in progressive causes and never worked with the Reds is a goddamn liar,” Alinsky once said.) And so, on July 8, 1971, Clinton reached out to the aging Alinsky in a letter she marked “Personal” and sent via airmail adorned by two stamps with the face of Franklin Roosevelt. “Dear Saul,” she began warmly, on a first-name basis. “When is that new book coming out — or has it come and I somehow missed the fulfillment of Revelation?” The new book of Revelation that Hillary was excited about was Rules for Radicals. Hillary told Alinsky that she had just had her “one-thousandth conversation about Reveille” (his other classic) and “need some new material to throw at people.” She was hopeful that Rules for Radicals would be providing that material. She also informed the father of community organizing that she (Obama-like) was pumped up to do some community organizing, telling him that she had “survived law school, slightly bruised, with my belief in and zest for organizing intact.” The letter says more, including the intriguing disclosure that Clinton and Alinsky had kept in touch regularly since she entered Yale Law School. “If I never thanked you for the encouraging words of last spring in the midst of the Yale-Cambodia madness, I do so now,” said Clinton. She told Alinsky, “I miss our biennial conversations,” and asked him, “Do you ever make it out to California?” The future Democratic Party presidential nominee wanted to see Alinsky. “I am living in Berkeley and working in Oakland for the summer and would love to see you,” Clinton wrote. “Let me know if there is any chance of our getting together.” Alinsky, it turns out, happened to be on a trip to Southeast Asia at the time, where America was mired in war. But that did not stop Alinsky’s secretary from opening the letter and responding to Hillary on his behalf. Why would the secretary take that liberty? Because, she explained to Hillary: “Since I know [Saul’s] feelings about you I took the liberty of opening your letter because I didn’t want something urgent to wait for two weeks,” the secretary, Georgia Harper, wrote back to Clinton on July 13. “And I’m glad I did.” She informed Hillary that Saul’s new book, titled Rules for Radicals, had just been released. She included several copies of reviews of the book. Harper also informed Hillary that Alinsky was indeed coming to San Francisco. He would be “staying at the Hilton Inn at the airport on Monday and Tuesday, July 26 and 27. I know he would like to have you call him so that if there is a chance in his schedule maybe you can get together.” She suggested Hillary call first thing Monday morning. Did Hillary call? Did she and Saul get together in San Francisco? She has never told us. It’s hard to imagine they didn’t. What was that meeting like, if it occurred? Did Saul hand her a copy of the book she wrote to him about, Rules for Radicals, maybe with an inscription to Hillary on the dedication page, or acknowledgments page? Dare we ask? I don’t know that anyone has, or has recorded Hillary’s answer. Nonetheless, this much we can certainly say: Saul Alinsky clearly had an influence on the future Democratic nominee for president. And further, we must add that Alinsky’s influence was not only on the current Democratic nominee. He impacted the previous nominee as well. As noted, a young man named Barack Obama would read and teach Alinsky’s tactics during his community-organizing days in Chicago — Saul’s haunting grounds. Alinsky’s influence on the Democratic Party today is so pronounced that his son, David, boasted eight years ago that the “Democratic campaign in 2008… is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky.” He beamed: “the Democratic National Convention had all the elements of the perfectly organized event, Saul Alinsky style.” The 2016 Democratic National Convention likewise will owe something to Saul Alinsky. Hillary and crew may not give an open acknowledgment to Lucifer, but they ought to give an admiring nod to the lingering presence of Saul Alinsky.

2016-07-27 03:50 Paul Kengor spectator.org

58 Rays Visit the Ravine For only the second time in franchise history, Tampa Bay’s Rays will visit Dodger Stadium. They’re in Tinsel Town for two games beginning tonight. The Rays’ season is beyond hope and prayer. They have an iron grip on last place in the AL East. So when action begins at 10:10 Right Coast Time, I’ll be in the upright and locked position in my office chair. And — though it will have no effect on the outcome — I’ll be pulling for the Dodgers. Sure would be nice for Vin Scully to call one more World Series before he retires at the end of this season, bringing a marvelous chapter of baseball history to a close. Speaking of Vin, Rays Gold Glove center fielder Kevin Keirmaier, aware of L. A.’s rich baseball history, spoke to the Tampa Bay Times on the thrill and honor of playing there, and being mentioned by Vin: “You see it (Dodger Stadium) on TV all the time and it looks beautiful… I’m excited to play there. It’s pretty cool that Vin Scully has called games for thousands of guys, and now I can be part of that group.… Just to know that at some point he will say my name in pretty cool to think about.” Cool indeed, young Kevin. You’re not only a fine ballplayer, but an insightful and thoughtful lad with an appreciation for the finer things.

2016-07-27 03:50 Larry Thornberry spectator.org

59 Are Democrats the No-Growth Party? Amidst the latest email turmoil inside the Democratic National Committee, another scandal of sorts has emerged. Democrats don’t have any growth message. None. My friends at the American Enterprise Institute reported last week that the Democratic platform is silent on “economic growth.” Every poll shows that the economy and jobs are the voters’ top two priorities, yet growth somehow isn’t a priority for the Democrats. The Washington Post reports that the marching orders for the Democrats in Philadelphia is to be upbeat on the economy and the country. But that’s clearly a hard sell because during the past eight years under Obama we have had less than 2 percent growth in GDP and no growth in wages and salaries, while poverty rates have barely budged. More than 94 million Americans over the age of 16 are outside the labor force. How do you put lipstick on that pig? Perhaps one reason the Democratic party platform is silent on economic growth is that for modern left, growth isn’t what we should aspire to. Instead, they want redistribution of wealth. If you’re not for growth, you probably aren’t going to produce it, just as if you’re not even trying to get in shape, it’s a good bet you’re not going to shed those extra 16 pounds. Amazingly, the last great growth hawk of the Democratic Party of modern times, John F. Kennedy, ran against Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 on the issue of the “growth deficit.” The economy in the 1950s was fairly prosperous and much more so than over the last eight years. But JFK said we can “do bettah” and convinced Americans we could see much faster wage gains with greater opportunities. We are witnessing an austerity-worship within the Democratic Party. Growth is undesirable because it might make the rich richer. Employers are exploiters in the “you didn’t build that” mindset. Radical environmentalists, a bedrock of the party, are anti-growth and believe that when people get richer, it’s worse for the planet. (They should go live in India or Mexico City and see how well the environment is doing there.) They ridicule what they call “growth-mania” on the right. Human economic activity, they warn, is causing catastrophic global warming. Perhaps this explains the litany of economic failures during the Obama years. We have had $8 trillion of new debt, minimum wage increases, Obamacare, an $800 billion stimulus plan with “shovel-ready” projects, tax increases on the rich, more than $100 billion in green energy subsidies, auto company and union pension bailouts, re-regulation of the financial industry and banks, and a Fed that has manufactured near zero short term interest rates for seven years with up to $4 trillion of bond acquisitions. All of these were designed primarily to redistribute income, and so is it a shock that they haven’t produced growth? Here’s a question that Donald Trump and should be asking every day: what would Hillary offer that is any different? She is promising minimum wage increases, tax hikes on the rich, and more infrastructure spending. This is new? This is change? The left’s defense of growth anemia is that 2 percent growth is the new normal, so get used to it. The Democrats are trying to sell “Morning in America” rhetoric at a time when two-thirds of voters think the country is on the wrong track. Donald Trump’s convention speech in Cleveland is being attacked by Democrats as dark and dreary. But maybe he was just being realistic about the direction of the country. I’ve been attacked of late for suggesting that we could easily achieve 4 percent growth for the next five years with a change of economic policy and personnel. But it really isn’t that hard to super-charge the economy. A pro- America energy production policy, including putting coal back in business, could produce $150 billion more output each year. Another percentage point of growth could come from tax reform with reductions in business taxes to spur investment and hiring, according to the folks at the Tax Foundation. But if Democrats are content with 2 percent growth, and want to celebrate that as an achievement, then this is the best we will get from them. The party that once stood for growth for the working class now says Americans have to work more and settle for less. Now there is a message that’s dark and dreary.

2016-07-27 03:50 Stephen Moore spectator.org

60 10 Reasons Why I Will Never Vote for Hillary Clinton Under normal circumstances, a Republican wouldn’t feel compelled to explain why he wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. But 2016 is a year like no other. And in this year like no other, it has become an article of faith among supporters of Donald Trump that a refusal to vote for their man is a vote for Hillary Clinton. This is utter nonsense. Such logic implies that Trump is entitled to our vote without earning it. While it is true that some Republicans who object to Trump will vote for Hillary, I will not be among them. Last week, when I wrote my 10 reasons why I would never vote for Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention, I promised I would also list my 10 reasons why I could never vote for Hillary Clinton during the Democratic National Convention. Well, promises made, promises kept. Hillary Clinton’s conduct in setting up a private e-mail server which transmitted top secret information and the FBI declining to recommend criminal charges demonstrates that she is above the law. Worse, Hillary acts like there is one law for her and her family and one law for everyone else. Oh, she takes “full responsibility” for her e-mails while saying other Secretaries of State have done the same. So when Hillary takes full responsibility for something, she is really taking no responsibility at all. This is a very dangerous quality for someone who seeks the office of President of the United States to possess. Any government official who feels the need to ask, “At this point what does difference does it make?” where it concerns the deaths of four Americans including our Ambassador to Libya is unfit to be President of the United States. Mind you she asked this question after publicly blaming an internet video for the attack on the consulate, an attack that just happened to occur on the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Of course, her e- mail correspondence with daughter Chelsea on the attack indicated it was carried out by an “al Qaeda like group.” Again, Hillary takes full responsibility, but as she told Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, “It was not my ball to carry.” We’ve come a long way from “The Buck stops here” to “It was not my ball to carry.” In this case, a long way isn’t a good way. Is Donald Trump correct to say that Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her family’s personal hedge fund by using the Clinton Foundation to sell access to foreign governments, many of which have dubious human rights records? Well, Trump ought to know. He helped fund the Clinton Foundation. At the very minimum, there is the appearance of impropriety. At worst, there’s enough corruption to put the UN to shame. Hillary Clinton has got Russia wrong from the moment she gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a red button that was supposed to say reset in Russian. But instead of saying ‘perezagruzka’ it read ‘peregruzka,’ which means overcharged. It is nevertheless somehow fitting. Hillary may be the only person who actually believes the Russian reset worked. She claimed this because it brought the Russians around on sanctions against Iran. Well, where are those sanctions now? Also the people of Ukraine and Crimea might disagree with that assessment. Oh, things have been reset all right when a 3-Star Russian general can walk into the U. S. Embassy in Iraq and tell our military to get the hell of the sky. Let’s put it another way. How well has the Russian reset worked if Hillary’s surrogates are blaming Russia for the leak of the DNC e-mails in order to help Trump? If there’s a position, Hillary Clinton has held it. She’s been for the War in Iraq and she has been against it. She has been against gay marriage and she has been for it. She was pro-Israel, then anti-Israel, and now she’s pro-Israel again. She was for TPP and then along came Bernie Sanders and now she’s against it. Ditto for the Keystone Pipeline. Hillary has wrapped herself in the Second Amendment and has praised Australia’s gun confiscation program. Now Hillary Clinton isn’t the first politician to flip-flop and she won’t be the last, but she has turned flip-flopping into her default position. Combine this with her propensity for lying, there’s no reason anyone should believe a word that traverses her lips. During a Democrat Town Hall meeting last March, Hillary said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” This did not amuse Bo Copley, a laid off coal miner from West Virginia, who had the rare opportunity to publicly take her to task during a round table discussion in early May. Fighting back tears, Copley asked, “I just want to know how you can say you’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of, out of jobs, and then come in here and tell us how you’re going to be our friend, because those people out there don’t see you as a friend.” Well, when people hear someone use the word “we’re,” that means Hillary intends to actively put coal miners out of business. Coal miners don’t need her kind of help. Hillary’s contempt for working people is plain to see as is her eagerness to insult people’s intelligence. In February 2011, while appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation then hosted by , she incredulously claimed that Syrian dictator Bashar al- Assad was “a reformer.” As soon as she made that claim, Schieffer reminded her that his father had killed tens of thousands of people. Hillary countered the younger Assad was “a different leader.” An estimated 400,000 people have died during the Syrian Civil War. Some difference. Hillary’s treatment of Assad contrasts with that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In July 2014, she boasted in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that she was the Obama Administration’s designated yeller. Most of this yelling came over the question of settlements. It’s too bad she couldn’t have the Administration’s designated yeller at Assad (or for that matter the Iranian Mullahs) for murdering their own people. Put the pressure where it belongs. In her 60 Minutes interview alongside Tim Kaine, she boasted about her success in working with Republicans. Yet last October when Anderson Cooper asked which enemy she was proudest of making, she listed Republicans and the NRA (along with the drug and health insurance companies) alongside Iran. Say what you will about Republicans, the NRA or the drug/health insurance companies, but I don’t recall any of them chanting “Death to America!!!” During her first White House bid in 2008, Hillary told a tall tale about being under sniper file with daughter Chelsea in Bosnia in 1996. Although she was criticized for it at the time, it didn’t force her to withdraw from the race. Let’s remember that it was only last year that Brian Williams was suspended for six months and lost his position as NBC news anchor because of his false claim that he had been under sniper fire while in Iraq in 2003. As I asked at the time, “If Williams can no longer be the face of NBC, then can Hillary no longer be the face of the Democratic Party?” As much as I loathe the prospect of Donald Trump being elected President, I take no comfort in Hillary being sworn into by Justice Roberts next January either. It is for these 10 reasons (among many others) that I shall not cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton in November.

2016-07-27 03:50 Aaron Goldstein spectator.org

61 Breaking News English Lesson The new British Prime Minister Theresa May has caused a stir around the world with her appointment of the UK's new Foreign Secretary. She has chosen the controversial former Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson led the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union and has now been given the job of Britain's top diplomat. This has surprised many as Mr Johnson has a track record of being very undiplomatic to world leaders and countries. He once referred to Hillary Clinton as a "sadistic nurse in a mental hospital". He compared Russian President to a creature from Harry Potter. He also made racist comments about African countries and the nation of Papua New Guinea. The British newspaper 'The Independent' said Mrs May, "had managed to unite the international community in bewilderment by her appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary". France's foreign secretary said Mr Johnson had lied to the British people during his campaign to get Britain to leave the EU. TV presenters and journalists in Germany speculated whether British politics was becoming a farcical comedy show. The Washington Post asked how Mr Johnson could become Britain’s top diplomat after having offended much of the world. Mr Johnson shrugged off comments that he was not the person for the job. He said his task was to reshape Britain's identity as a "great global player".

2016-07-27 03:53 www.breakingnewsenglish.com

62 The Charlotte Observer Trey McRae enters this weekend at the US Olympic Trials with a shot at making the US team in the high jump. Matt Josa of SwimMAC's team Elite trains at Queens University for Olympic swimming competition. SwimMac Carolina CEO/Director of Coaching David Marsh discusses swimmers need to have their best performance at the right moment. Four years ago, Duke student Abigail Johnston won a silver medal in synchronized diving at the 2012 London Games. Now, the medical student looks to earn another chance to compete in the Olympics, this time in the 3​meter springboard event. Matt Damon returns to his most iconic role in "Jason Bourne. " The next chapter of Universal Pictures’ Bourne franchise finds the CIA’s most lethal former operative drawn out of the shadows. Based on characters created by Robert Ludlum, the film is written by Paul Greengrass and Christopher Rouse. Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, isolated from society, a devoted father (Viggo Mortensen) dedicates his life to transforming his six young children into extraordinary adults. But when a tragedy strikes the family, they are forced to leave this self-created paradise and begin a journey into the outside world that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent and brings into question everything he's taught them. The 20-year Army vet says Trump lacks the maturity and empathy to lead, and she left the VFW convention hall minutes before the Republican took the stage. About 40 5-6 year-old campers at the Johnston YMCA found a way to exercise while staying cool in the high heat hovering over Charlotte. Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump, and his running mate, Mike Pence, spoke to veterans about the need for VA reform at the 117th Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Charlotte on July 26, 2016. Veterans Robert Ollis and Adan Ontiveros share their thoughts about Trump's speech at the VFW Convention today in Charlotte.

2016-07-27 03:55 www.charlotteobserver.com

63 Indian lunar orbiter hit by heat rise NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft. Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director for the lunar mission, told CNN that temperatures onboard Chandrayaan-1 had risen to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit). The increase occurred as the craft, the moon -- which it is orbiting -- and the sun lined up, a phenomenon which Annadurai said was not unexpected and which would likely last until the end of December. "We have switched off the systems (aboard) that are not needed to be on," Annadurai said, ruling out the possibility of damage and adding that the temperature was now down to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat on board the Chandrayaan-1 should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Annadurai said -- but insisted the orbiter is designed to withstand up to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). The Chandrayaan-1 -- Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in Sanskrit -- was successfully launched from southern India on October 22. Watch the launch of India's first lunar mission » Its two-year mission is to take high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the moon's surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions. It also will search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical composition of certain lunar rocks, the group said. Earlier this month the Moon Impact Probe detached from Chandrayaan-1 and successfully crash-landed on the moon's surface. Officials say that the TV-size probe, which is adorned with a painting of the Indian flag, hit the moon's surface at a speed of 5,760 kilometers per hour (3,579 mph). It transmitted data to Chandrayaan-1 ahead of impact but was not intended to be retrieved after that. Chandrayaan-1 is carrying payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria. India plans to share the data from the mission with other programs, including NASA.

2016-07-27 03:55 Harmeet Shah rss.cnn.com

64 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? (CNN) -- From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. Her ears are 42 large and sophisticated radio telescopes, spread across several acres, that scan the cosmos for signals of extraterrestrial origin. If intelligent life forms do exist on other planets, and they try to contact us, Tarter will be among the first to know. Are we citizens of Earth alone in the universe? It's a question that has long fascinated astronomers, sci-fi authors, kids with backyard telescopes and Hollywood executives who churn out spectacles about alien encounters. Polls have found that most Americans believe that some form of life exists beyond our planet. "It's a fundamental question," said Tarter, the real-life inspiration for Jodie Foster's character in the 1997 movie "Contact. " "And it's a question that the person on the street can understand. It's not like a... super-collider or some search for neutrinos buried in the ice. It's, 'Are we alone? How might we find out? What does that tell us about ourselves and our place in the universe?' "We're trying to figure out how the universe began, how galaxies and large- scale structures formed, and where did the origins of life as we know it take place? " Tarter said. "These are all valid questions to ask of the universe. And an equally valid question is whether the same thing that happened here [on Earth] has happened elsewhere. " Watch a preview of CNN's "In Search of Aliens" series » Thanks to advancements in technology, scientists hope to get an answer sooner rather than later. Rovers have snapped photographs of the surface of Mars that show fossil-like shapes. NASA hopes to launch within a decade a Terrestrial Planet Finder, an orbiting observatory that would detect planets around nearby stars and determine whether they could support life. Such developments are catnip to scientists like Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California-Berkeley who has discovered more extrasolar planets than anyone else. "It wasn't more than 13 years ago that we hadn't found any planets around the stars, and most people thought that we never would. So here we are not only having found planets, we are looking for habitable planets, signs of biology on those planets," Marcy told CNN. "It's an extraordinary explosion of a field of science that didn't even exist just a few years ago. " Then there's Tarter, whose quest for signs of extraterrestrial life kept her on the fringes of mainstream science for decades. While pursuing her doctorate at UC-Berkeley, Tarter came across an engineering report that floated the idea of using radio telescopes to listen for broadcasts by alien beings. It became her life's work. In 1984 Tarter founded the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in California. Using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico, she conducted a decade-long scouring of about 750 nearby star systems for extraterrestrial radio signals. None was found, although Tarter had some false alarms. In 1998, she intercepted a mysterious signal that lasted for hours. Tarter got so excited she misread her own computer results: The signal was coming from a NASA observatory spacecraft orbiting the sun. Today, Tarter listens to the heavens with the Allen Telescope Array, a collection of 20-foot-wide telescopes some 300 miles north of San Francisco. The dish-like scopes are a joint effort of SETI and UC-Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Lab and have been funded largely by Microsoft co- founder Paul Allen, who donated more than $25 million to the project. Unlike previously existing radio telescopes, which scan the sky for limited periods of time, the Allen Telescope Array probes the universe round the clock. Each of the 42 scopes is aimed at a different area of the sky, collecting reams of data that are continually studied by computers for unusual patterns. Then the listeners must filter out noise from airplanes and satellites. "We're listening for something that we don't think can be produced by Mother Nature," Tarter said. "We're using the radio frequency, other people are using optical telescopes... and in both cases we're looking for an artificial nature to a signal. "In the case of radio, we're looking for a lot of power being squished into just one channel on the radio dial. In the optical, they're looking for very bright flashes that last a nanosecond... or less, not slow pulsing kinds of things. To date we've never found a natural source that can do that. " Signals that any extraterrestrials might be transmitting for their own use would be difficult to detect, Tarter said. Astronomers are more likely to discover a radio transmission broadcast intentionally at the Earth, she said. Astronomers at SETI, however, are not sending a signal into space in an attempt to communicate with aliens. University of California professor Marcy is skeptical about the existence of intelligent alien life and believes our galaxy's vast distances would make communication between Earth and beings on other planets almost impossible. "The nearest neighbor might be halfway across our galaxy, 50,000 light- years away. Communicating with them will take a hundred thousand years for a round-trip signal," he said. Still, Tarter remains undaunted. The Allen Telescope Array already does in 10 minutes what once took her scientists 10 days. When the project is completed, it will have 350 telescopes that, combined, can survey tens of thousands of star systems. "We can look in more places and more frequencies faster than we ever could. And that will just get better with time. We're doing something now we couldn't do when we started, we couldn't do five years ago," she said. "Think of it as a cosmic haystack. There's a needle in there somewhere. If you pull out a few straws, are you going to get disappointed because you haven't found the needle yet? No. We haven't really begun to explore. " All About Astronomy • UFOs and Alien Abductions • SETI Institute

2016-07-27 03:55 By Brandon rss.cnn.com

65 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base (CNN) -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. The shuttle, steered by commander Christopher Ferguson, landed at 1:25 p.m., ending a mission that lasted more than two weeks. Wind, rain and reports of thunderstorms within 30 miles of the shuttle landing facility at Florida's Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to cancel the landing attempts there. Those had been scheduled for 1:19 p.m. and 2:54 p.m. ET. After determining Monday's weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center was equally unpromising, flight controllers decided they would try to land the shuttle and its seven astronauts at Edwards AFB, about 100 miles from Los Angeles, California, where Sunday's forecast was sunny. Flight controllers prefer landings at Kennedy Space Center because of cost and schedule. NASA has estimated it costs about $1.7 million to bring a shuttle home to Kennedy Space Center from California. Watch Endeavour's Sunday landing in California » It also takes at least a week to get the shuttle ready for the trip, but schedule is not a major factor for the Endeavour; it is not scheduled to fly again until May. Endeavour's 15-day mission to the international space station began on November 14 and included four spacewalks. During that time, the crew brought key pieces -- including exercise equipment, more sleeping berths and a urine recycling system -- for a project to double the capacity of the station from three in-house astronauts to six. The recycling system was installed to turn urine and sweat from the astronauts into drinking water. Other modules are scheduled to arrive on a February shuttle flight. The goal of expanding the station's capacity to six astronauts is expected to be reached by the summer. The crew also worked on a joint that helps generate power for the space station. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen spent hours cleaning and lubricating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which is designed to allow the solar panels on the left side of the station to rotate and track the sun. The astronauts also removed and replaced several trundle bearing assemblies. The mission went according to plan, despite a minor interruption on the first spacewalk when a grease gun in Stefanyshyn-Piper tool's bag leaked, coating everything inside with a film of lubricant. While she was trying to clean it up, the bag -- with $100,000 in tools -- floated away. CNN's Kate Tobin and Miles O'Brien contributed to this report.

2016-07-27 03:55 rss.cnn.com

66 Blame it on the Brexit: But is it just an excuse? There is no shortage of companies blaming Brexit for their bad news these days. Recent headlines have suggested Britain's decision to leave the EU is the cause of job losses in many parts of the UK, price rises for technology companies, the world's largest uncut diamond failing to sell at auction and even a major media group cancelling its staff party. But is Brexit being blamed for a slew of bad news that was going to be released anyway? That's the view of many Vote Leave supporters - a suggestion that is heavily disputed by leading figures in the Remain campaign. Making the case for Brexit being an easy thing to blame for wider problems is the former director of the big business lobby group, the CBI, Digby Jones. Lord Jones, who was Gordon Brown's trade minister, is himself a Brexit supporter. He believes the real impact of Brexit will be tiny: "There's not going to be any economic pain. If there are job losses, they will be very few. "One of our customers was thinking last week that they might not do a certain deal. Today they've said they won't and the reason is Brexit. "It's got nothing to do with Brexit - but it's a very convenient thing to blame. " That view leaves the people who ran the unsuccessful campaign to persuade Britain to stay in the European Union shaking their heads in despair. Roland Rudd runs one of the UK's most influential PR companies, Finsbury, and was heavily involved in the Remain campaign. He says there is very little truth in the "Brexit as an excuse" theory. "Of course, if a company has got a bad news story, and part of the reason is to do with Brexit, and part of it is to do with its own problems, they'll try and shift some of it onto Brexit. "But the analysts aren't fools, the market can't be deluded like this. And so most companies will not do that, because it simply isn't credible. " Lucy Thomas, who was the deputy director of the Remain campaign agrees, and argues that the business implications of Brexit are obvious. "Businesses hate uncertainty. That is exactly what we have now, we are going to have at least two years of uncertainty while a deal is negotiated. " Because businesses do not know what the UK's terms of trade will be with the EU once it eventually leaves, investment is being frozen, she says. "Businesses are reconsidering all of their decisions - to dismiss that is frankly dishonest. " The financial markets are still making up their minds as to which side to believe. The pound fell heavily against the US dollar immediately after the vote, before making up some ground. Yet the UK's main share index, the FTSE 100, has reached levels not seen so far this year. Meanwhile there has been a dramatic fall in economic activity , not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis. Both manufacturing and service sectors saw a decline in output and orders, though exports picked up, driven by the weaker pound. Digby Jones says the big drop in the value of the pound should be taken with a pinch of salt. "It wasn't a signpost to the British economy at all. It was a signpost of an immediate reaction to a decision. " He wants to focus on real economic data: "What's it going to do to the European economy, including us? "It's not in the interests of 520 million people to indulge in the 'Great Remain Sulk'," he says. This view is supported by seasoned market commentator, David Buik of Panmure Gordon. He says the market gyrations that follow some headlines can often lead traders towards buying opportunities. "As long as they're on the right side of the trade, whoopee! There is money to be made whichever way the market is going. "It's a little harder than it used to be a few years ago. It requires tremendous resolve, great character and quite a lot of guts," he says. It will be some time before we know for sure which side is right when it comes to Britain's post-Brexit performance. Which means that until a clear pattern emerges, we can expect each new set of data to be argued over by both sides for what it may say about the UK economy.

2016-07-27 03:45 By Alex www.bbc.co.uk

67 North Carolina Democrats cast their roll call votes Sen. Bernie Sanders ended the first night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention by pleading with supporters to rally around Hillary Clinton in November. Hecklers disrupted much of the first day of the convention in Philadelphia, despite Sanders pleas. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions in an exclusive interview prior to taking the stage in Winston-Salem's Dixie Classic Fairgrounds Annex on Monday, July 25, 2016. In an emotional speech on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Michelle Obama focused on the important role the next president will have on America's children and how Hillary Clinton is the one for the job. Bernie Sanders fan and comedian Sarah Silverman called on DNC hecklers to unite together behind Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. Sanders supporters disrupted day one of the DNC inside and outside of the Philadelphia arena. Credit: FedNet Hillary Clinton fired up Charlotte campaign volunteers Monday in NoDa. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spoke for 20 minutes to hundreds of volunteers at NoDa’s Neighborhood Theatre. Presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton spoke at the VFW convention on Monday, July 25 at the Charlotte Convention Center. She told veterans that she deeply cared about problems affecting them and expressed her disappointment with the VA scandal. She also brought up the fact that her father was a veteran and that she has a much more optimistic view of America than does her competitor, Donald Trump, while never mentioning him by name. RoseAnn Clark, AFW Department Commander for the District of Columbia, reacts to Hillary Clinton's speech at the convention Monday. James R Spiker, a Vietnam veteran from Virginia, walked out of the VFW Convention moments after Hillary Clinton took the stage. North Carolina GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse addresses the media at a press conference outside the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood on the morning of July 25, 2016. The press conference was held on the same day Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was scheduled to visit Charlotte, including a stop at the theater later in the day to meet with campaign volunteers. Mayhem met U. S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday morning when she made her first public appearance in Philadephia after being forced out as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

2016-07-27 03:45 www.charlotteobserver.com

68 Social divide stays in online learning There are strong social divisions in how young people use digital technology, according to international research from the OECD. The economics think tank found that in many countries wealthy and poor pupils spent similar amounts of time online. But richer youngsters were much more likely to use the internet for learning rather than games. The study argues that even with equal access to technology a "digital divide" persists in how the internet is used. The OECD report, based on data from more than 40 countries mostly in Europe, Asia and South America, looked at how teenagers used online technology at home. Access to the internet and digital technology are seen as important to educational achievement. But this study shows significant differences in how teenagers spend their time online - and suggests that new technology does not stop old social divisions. It also suggests that encouraging strong reading skills is the key to making the most of the internet. The researchers found online activity was directly linked to "socio-economic status", with wealthier students more likely to use the internet for educationally advantageous activities such as gathering information and reading news. Poorer students were more likely to use the internet for games or chatting online. The information was gathered as part of the international Pisa tests and it shows how teenagers might be using the internet to help their studies. The research suggests that inequality emerges, even in countries with near- universal internet access. "Equal access does not imply equal opportunities," says the report, and a lack of familiarity with using the internet for information will have a negative impact in areas such as studying or looking for jobs. This happens within countries, but the study also reveals big differences between countries - with teenagers in wealthier northern European countries more likely to use the internet for getting information, rather than playing or socialising. Finland and Iceland have the highest levels of teenagers using the internet for information, followed by Estonia, Norway and Slovenia. There were also higher-than-average educational uses of the internet in Denmark, Hong Kong, Poland, Germany and Singapore. In Mexico, Jordan and Turkey young people were much more likely to go online to play games and much less for news or information. Those spending the longest time online were also from Nordic countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. And in a number of more affluent European countries, including Belgium, Finland, Denmark and Germany, poorer families spent longer online than wealthy ones. The UK did not take part in the section of the survey comparing types of computer use, but it did provide data for overall internet access. This showed very high levels of online access in the UK for both rich and poor. It was among a group of countries including the Nordic nations, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Hong Kong, where the wealthiest and poorest quarter of the young population almost all had the internet at home. This was in contrast to countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and Peru where poorer families were much less likely to have internet access. In such countries, the report says school plays a much more important role in ensuring that young people have access to information and communications equipment. The report says that there have been efforts to narrow such gaps in access, but a more valuable response might be to focus on making sure that all young people have strong literacy skills. "Ensuring that every child attains a baseline level of proficiency in reading will do more to create equal opportunities in a digital world than will expanding or subsidising access to high-tech devices and services. " But the findings were criticised as "simplistic" by Mark Chambers, chief executive of Naace, the UK body supporting the use of computers in schools. He rejected the idea that it should be a choice between either improving reading or focusing on digital skills, as both were mutually beneficial. Mr Chambers said it was no surprise that the wealthy would have the most confidence and take the most advantage of new technology. And he questioned whether internet access at home was really the same for rich and poor, suggesting that it did not mean that all young people had equal access to broadband and their own computer. "In the UK, homes of students from a low economic, social and cultural background often don't have landline phones and internet access through them, relying instead on mobiles," he said. Schools should work to reduce social divisions, he said, rather than "retrenching to Victorian approaches".

2016-07-27 03:45 By Sean www.bbc.co.uk

69 Brexit migrant 'spike' warning from MPs There could be a spike in UK migration ahead of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union and the possible end to free movement rights, MPs have warned. The Home Affairs Committee urged the government to state an "effective cut-off date" for when EU citizens in the UK would be granted the right to stay. It added there could be fresh delays and backlogs in the immigration system if more people tried to enter the UK. Ministers said it would be "wrong" to set out details before exit talks. The government has confirmed it will seek curbs on free movement rules that currently give EU nationals the right to live and work in other member states. But it has said it is not possible to give a firm guarantee about the status of EU nationals currently living in the UK without a reciprocal pledge from other nations about British nationals living on the continent. The committee's report said the outcome of the 23 June referendum, in which Britain voted to leave the EU, had placed EU nationals living in the UK "in a potentially very difficult and uncertain position". "Past experience has shown that previous attempts to tighten immigration rules have led to a spike in immigration prior to the rules coming into force," the MPs said. "EU citizens living and working in the UK must be told where they stand in relation to the UK leaving the EU and they should not be used as bargaining chips in the negotiations. " By Danny Shaw, home affairs correspondent Every three months, the Home Affairs Committee meticulously documents the progress made by immigration officials in dealing with asylum cases, processing visa applications and removing foreign national offenders. It's usually a depressing read, with examples of inefficiencies, backlogs and delays. Today's report is no exception - but with an extra complication. Britain's looming exit from the European Union raises the possibility of a sudden influx of EU citizens to the UK anxious to claim their right to residence. If, as the report suggests, a "cut-off date" months or two years into the future is identified it's hard to see how a "surge" in arrivals can be prevented. Name a date in the past - 23 June for example - and there'll be howls of protest from those who arrived afterwards. The report said the most obvious cut-off period would be the time of the referendum, the date Article 50 - the formal mechanism to leave the EU - is triggered, or when the UK actually leaves the bloc. It said the first step to establishing where EU nationals in the UK are living and working is through National Insurance numbers or a system of registration and the process needs to start quickly. Responding to the report, a government spokesman said: "We have been clear that we want to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn't be possible is if British citizens' rights in European member states were not protected in return. "We are about to begin these negotiations and it would be wrong to set out further unilateral positions in advance. But there is clearly no mandate for accepting the free movement of people as it has existed up until now. "

2016-07-27 03:45 www.bbc.co.uk

70 NHS consultant paid £375,000 in overtime Growing pressures are leading UK hospitals to increasingly rely on premium overtime pay to get consultants to do extra work, the BBC has found. Spending on high-cost overtime has risen by more than a third in the past two years, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggest. One doctor made an extra £375,000 last year on top of their salary. Hospitals blamed a consultants shortage amid rising demand, but ministers said the way doctors were paid must change. Payments of about £600 overtime for a four-hour shift are common - three to four times what consultants get normally - but there was some evidence of payments around the £1,000 mark. It is up to individual hospitals to negotiate payments. The BBC found examples of hospitals that did not pay any high rates and others that had managed to negotiate much lower rates for shifts relating to urgent and emergency work. Hospitals said that originally consultants had been able to negotiate higher rates for routine work because their contracts allowed them to opt-out of such work at weekends. But they said the rising cost seen in recent years was down to shortages of consultants and rising demand. The BBC investigated the issue using the Freedom of Information Act and follow-up interviews with hospitals and doctors. Some 140 trusts and health boards out of 186 asked provided information, although not all of them were able to answer all the questions. The investigation just focused on overtime paid at higher rates. It did not capture extra shifts done for normal pay. It found: 1.£374,999: Unnamed consultant at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 2.£205,408: Unnamed consultant at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust 3.£183,204: Unnamed consultant at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Source: BBC investigation Professor Mark Pugh, medical director of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for paying the £375,000, acknowledged the situation was "clearly not sustainable". "There is an acute shortage of consultants for some of these specialities and as we have not been able to source the additional staff we need as demand has risen, we have paid overtime to the existing workforce to deliver extra clinics so that patients can be seen and treated as quickly as possible. " The trust refused to name the doctor who earned £375,000 or what speciality they work in or how they managed to rack up so much in overtime. It said the doctor had done "significantly more hours than usual at an enhanced rate" because of a shortage of consultants and high demand. Andrew Foster, chief executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, which stopped paying premium overtime rates in 2010, said such payments were not right. "I don't think it is very defensible to pay a huge premium to one group of staff and not to other groups of staff. "No other member of staff gets triple pay for doing extra shifts. " The Department of Health in England said it was looking to tackle the issue in England by renegotiating the consultant contract. It wants to remove the opt-out that allows consultants to refuse to do non- emergency work at weekends. Ministers blame this for creating a situation where doctors can command high rates for extra shifts. A spokesman added: "Consultants do a vital job and should be properly rewarded, but this analysis shows why we are working with the BMA to replace a unique evening and weekend 'opt-out' in the existing contract. "This will allow us all to promise patients urgent and emergency care of a consistently high standard across the week, and - as the hospitals themselves say - make better use of operating theatres while reducing big overtime bills. " But Keith Brent, the British Medical Association consultants leader, denied the situation was linked to the contract. He said the overtime payments highlighted were a "clear sign" of doctor shortages. "There are also lots of consultants working extra hours for nothing or for normal pay. These payments are made because there simply are not enough doctors and hospitals are under pressure to meeting waiting time targets. " Danny Mortimer, head of NHS Employers, who is helping negotiate the new consultant contract on behalf of the government, agreed there were plenty of doctors doing overtime for no pay, or for normal rates. But he said the information obtained by the BBC "challenges NHS organisations and teams about what arrangements they have in place". He said he hoped the result of the contract negotiations would be a much more "standardised basis" for extra work. Read more from Nick Follow Nick on Twitter

2016-07-27 03:45 By Nick www.bbc.co.uk

71 1,800 foreign offenders have dodged UK deportation for over 5 yrs – Home Office — RT UK The former domain of British Prime Minister Theresa May – who served as home secretary and was known as an ardent advocate of a more stringent approach to the deportation of foreign offenders – shows an extremely poor record in implementing its own policy, Vaz argued. "These are extraordinary figures. To have failed to deport nearly 1,800 people after five years shows that there is something seriously wrong with the system,” he said, as quoted by The Telegraph. Vaz added that the system is inherently flawed and called on policymakers to “take urgent action to ensure that when sentences have been completed people are returned to their countries of origin immediately.” Vaz, who serves as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, pointed to the extreme ineffectiveness of the established procedure, stating that when foreign criminals “convicted of a criminal offence in this country have been allowed to stay for up to half-a-decade with apparently no prospect of removal, ” it “can’t be right.” In total, 5,895 foreign nationals who have already served their prison sentences in the UK are still not being deported to their home countries. Among those, 344 people have been awaiting deportation between four and five years, while 574 criminals are still residing in the UK two to three years after being released. Another 843 convicts have been living in the country for one to two years after their release. READ MORE: Brexit: UK could retain control of migration from EU for up to 7yrs while staying in single market Theresa May, then still home secretary, hailed the country's deportation campaign a success back in June, stating that in 2015 the government managed to remove “a record number of foreign national offenders from this country, including a record number of EU criminals.” However, the discouraging statistics indicate there are issues with the existing system. Earlier, the prime minister acknowledged her ministry’s failure to place all former prisoners due to be deported under state supervision, as only 493 out of 5,789 foreign criminals were tagged. She stressed, however, that the government would proceed with the deportation of all who are eligible. “We do not give up trying to deport these individuals,” May stated in a letter provided in response to Keith Vaz’s inquiry last month. Despite her claims, only 102 foreign criminals were deported between February 2015 and June 2016. “Despite firm commitments to improve, and a massive ten-fold increase in resources, the system appears to be totally dysfunctional,” Vaz said in response to the letter. May has always been a strong supporter of more robust deportation guidelines against non-British nationals, saying that all foreign convicts should be automatically deported once they are released from jail. However, she was forced to revise her tough stance after a ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in February, in a case which significantly diminished the Home Office’s powers pertaining to deportations. READ MORE:UK economy must suffer over ‘mad’ Brexit decision, insists EU divorce clause autho

2016-07-27 03:51 www.rt.com

72 Texan cemetery can no longer enact ‘whites- only’ policy after lawsuit — RT America Dorothy Barrera, a white woman, was denied the right to bury the ashes of her husband, a Latino man named Pedro, in San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna, Texas, due to a “ whites-only ” policy. READ MORE: New history books in Texas downplay slavery's role in Civil War, omit KKK and Jim Crow laws Cemetery operator Jimmy Bradford told Barrea to “ go up the road and bury him with the n****** and Mexicans ” when she questioned why her burial request was denied by “ the board ,” according to court documents . The federal lawsuit was brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) against the Normanna Cemetery Association following the February incident. On Friday, the cemetery admitted defeat. In a Corpus Christi court, MALDEF accepted the cemetery association’s “ offer of judgement ,” which proposed that a judge enter a ruling against them for the discriminatory policy and declare the rule “ void .” The cemetery association has since granted Barrera’s request to bury her spouse on the grounds. However, as of May, Dorothy had still not laid her husband’s ashes to rest, according to Mint Press News. READ MORE: Texas governor calls for states to amend Constitution, offers 9 amendments “ Separation after death is one of the cruelest and most wholly inexplicable of all historical policies of racial exclusion ,” stated Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF President and General Counsel. “ MALDEF is pleased to have placed one more of these anachronistic policies in the realm of antiquity, where they belong ,” he added. Segregated cemeteries, which were common in Southern states due to Jim Crow laws that segregated blacks and whites, were made illegal by the US Supreme Court in 1948.

2016-07-27 03:50 www.rt.com

73 Michelle Obama's America First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech last night at the Democratic National Convention was as beautiful as she is. In it, she drew a glowing portrait of her husband President Barack Obama and his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on her way to accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet, she fell short of capturing the full reality of the America we live in — not to mention the house she lives in. “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,” she said in line she used previously at her commencement speech this year to graduates of the City College of New York. Yet, the truth is, those who built the “White House” in the late 18 th century — so named, in 1901, by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, the same year he invited African-American Booker T. Washington to dine with him in a protocol-breaking first — included free and enslaved African Americans, plus Virginia and Maryland-based laborers, skilled and non- skilled — not to mention European immigrants predominantly from Ireland and Scotland, the ancestral home of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump. “Stonemason Collen Williamson trained enslaved people on the spot at the government’s quarry at Aquia, Virginia. Enslaved people quarried and cut the rough stone that was later dressed and laid by Scottish masons to erect the walls of the President’s House,” according to the White House Historical Association. That Obama only got a slice of the story right perfectly comports with the concluding sentence of this passage, designed to deliver a blistering blow to Trump, when she said, “So, don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again, because this right now is the greatest country on Earth.” A greatness that includes, she said, her daughters, “two beautiful, intelligent, black young women,” being able to “(play) with their dogs on the White House lawn,” and to envision, along with all Americans, a ‘woman as president.’ It is a poignant story. But, it’s not the whole story. Under President Barack Obama, the “greatest country on Earth” co-exists with millions of out-of-work and impoverished African-American teens who cannot put enough food on the table, let alone imagine themselves playing with their dogs in a rarified setting — to say nothing of running for president. Instead, they often become entangled in a life of crime and other bad and debilitating circumstances. That’s not greatness but degradation. Dinesh D’Souza lays out a major reason for it in his film, “ Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party .” In it, he unpacks this history, illuminating how African Americans are enslaved in drug-infested, crime- ridden urban ghettos of Democrats’ making in what are essentially the 21 st century version of antebellum plantations where Democrats of yore enslaved their ancestors. By contrast, not one Republican politician participated in the “peculiar institution,” as slavery was known, their raison d’être being to dismantle it. After the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, setting free our enslaved brothers and sisters, the Democrats blocked Republican-sponsored Civil Rights legislation, established the Ku Klux Klan as the Party’s military wing, and championed segregation. How “the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation” that Obama called out last night, existed, and still exists, albeit in a different form, is the secret the Democratic Party desperately wants to keep under wraps, perhaps even more than the Wikileaks’ revelations. Given the ideological bubble Obama was formed, and has lived, in, compounded by the White House’s cloistered setting, of which Ronald Reagan said, “You’re a bird in a gilded cage,” her incomplete narrative is understandable. Yet, Americans are unsatisfied. Making America safe again. Making America work again. Making America strong again. That’s what Trump means by making America great again. Including cutting the roughly 50 percent unemployment rate among young, drifting African Americans. Which is why, come January 2017, it’s a good bet, an American businessman of Scottish descent named Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated next president of the United States of America. Mary Claire Kendall is a Washington-based writer and author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends. She served four years in the George H. W. Bush Administration as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Health.

2016-07-27 03:50 Conversion Stories dailycaller.com

74 Bad Lip Reading Does Ted Cruz [VIDEO] Watching Sen. Ted Cruz’s RNC speech is so much more palatable through “Bad Lip Reading.” In this speech, he discusses eating hairballs and even gives a blonde in the audience the “hairy eyeball.” If you like Ted Cruz a lot, probably best not to watch this.

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

75 Lewis' Lagniappe July 26 1. Convention disunity in the City of Brotherly Love 2. Clinton hits a new low in the polls 3. “Is the Democrats’ New Harmony for Real?” 4. The hypocrisy of Michelle Obama’s speech 5. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is booed off stage on opening night of DNC 6. Evan Perez for CNN : “US officials warned DNC of hack months before party acted” 7. Did Soviets intervene in the 1984 elections? 8. Eric Holcomb replaces Mike Pence in gubernatorial race this fall 9. No mentions of ISIS or terrorism on first night of the DNC 10. Beloved French priest murdered by ISIS members in church 11. Jonathan Rauch for The Atlantic : “How American Politics Went Insane ” 12. Matt and Ross Douthat map out the intellectual Christian landscape

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

76 Mariah Carey Takes Scandalous Magazine Cover Photo Mariah Carey took a scandalous photo for an upcoming magazine cover. In the August/September issue of Complex magazine, the 46-year-old singer is wearing very little clothes for the cover shot. In the photo shared by the magazines Instagram account Carey is shown sitting in a large chair flanked by two shirtless men. In the photo she is wearing high heels, fish-net stockings, no pants and just a red satin lace corset that shows an insane amount of cleavage. (RELATED:Mariah Carey Wore Nothing But A Leather Jacket And Lingerie In Las Vegas) The caption next to the photo read, “@MariahCarey covers our AUG/SEPT 2016 issue. Read her cover story ‘Eyes Wide Open.’ Link in bio @MicaelaRossato.” A photo posted by COMPLEX (@complex) on Jul 26, 2016 at 7:03am PDT In another post, the magazine shares a full length shot of the cover photo featuring the singer. @MariahCarey covers our AUG/SEPT 2016 issue. Read her cover story “Eyes Wide Open.” LINK IN BIO. 2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

77 DNC Staffers Annoyed At Having To Commemorate Holocaust Internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks reveal Democratic party staffers seemingly annoyed at having to commemorate the Holocaust. On May 5, 2016, Florida Rep. and then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz sent an email to two of her Congressional staffers as well as two DNC employees — newly- hired director of Jewish engagement Aaron Weinberg and senior communications director Ryan Banfill . Yes No Completing this poll entitles you to Daily Caller news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Banfill forwarded Schultz’s email to another DNC staffer, Kate Houghton. “Flagging for you. The chair is asking for a statement on Yom Hashoah,” Banfill wrote. “We aren’t going to do statements for every Jewish holiday unless she wants to do them for every religious holiday and trust me, this Catholic can give you a list of them,” Houghton replied. “Also when she does an official statement it makes very little sense to have two statements out there in her voice.” Banfill appeared to send a tongue-in-cheek response: “This is about remembering the Holocaust. Never forget.” “Yup… or Darfur or Armenia or Rwanda or Bosnia (which PS is where my husband served),” Houghton replied. “Does she want us to do one for each other those remembrance days as well?” Elsewhere in the WikiLeaks email dump, DNC CFO Brad Marshall accused Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders of being an atheist who skates by on his Jewish heritage. “It might may [sic] no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist,” Marshall wrote. Marshall ultimately apologized for his “insensitive, emotional emails”. “I deeply regret that my insensitive, emotional emails would cause embarrassment to the DNC, the Chairwoman, and all of the staffers who worked hard to make the primary a fair and open process,” Marshall wrote in a Facebook post, according to Politico . “The comments expressed do not reflect my beliefs nor do they reflect the beliefs of the DNC and its employees. I apologize to those I offended.” Follow Peter Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson

2016-07-27 03:50 Reporter Associate dailycaller.com

78 Green Billionaire Donor Wants Money Out Of Politics A prominent billionaire some analysts say is buying the Democratic Party complained Monday night about the influence money has on American politics. Environmentalist money man Tom Steyer told Bloomberg TV that the country needs financial reform, if not to restore the political system to the people, than at least to make certain that “self-interested” businessmen can’t purchase the government. “And let me say one thing about campaign finance. We believe that Citizens United was a terrible decision,” Steyer said. “We believe that it should be overturned. We believe that there is too much emphasis on money in politics.” Steyer deflected his influence on Democratic politics, telling the Bloomberg TV anchors that his money is based on strong values, not self-interest, and plays a smaller role than other billionaire organizations. “When you look at money in politics — this is a David and Goliath situation; the other side has a lot more money. And that money is not transparent, self-interested, and it is much more sizeable,” Steyer added. Conservative groups claim Steyer is a hypocrite on the issue. “For Tom Steyer to criticize money in politics despite funneling millions to Democrats is just more hypocrisy from someone who advocates for ‘green’ energy after profiting massively from investments in fossil fuels,” Jeremy Adler, Communications Director for AR Squared, said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. Steyer’s comments came shortly after the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute, or E&E Legal, published a report Monday showing former hedge fund manager using tens of millions of dollars in donations to environmental groups, candidates and political parties in an effort to make the U. S. coal- free. Steyer, according to E&E Legal , transitioned from taking out millions in advertisements – which he tried in to use during the 2014 elections, with little success – to shoveling millions in donations to political candidates in an effort to cajole them into doing his bidding. His donations are contingent on the candidates accepting his global warming agenda, according to the report. The Democratic donor’s political action group, NextGen Climate Action, spent about $20.7 million in independent expenditures in 2014, mostly opposing Republican candidates. Steyer has spent more than $13 million so far this election year, according to OpenSecrets.org. E&E Legal also uncovered emails from the DNC leak showing a NextGen report titled, “Fact Sheet: Powering America With More Than 50 Percent Clean Energy by 2030,” which essentially mirrors the Democratic National Committee’s position on climate change. In fact, the DNC “adopted the Steyer agenda word for word,” according to the group’s report. Adler, for his part, added that the leaked emails “have proven that Steyer’s huge political contributions have bought him special access to elected officials, dictating public policy with his checkbook.” Follow Chris on Facebook and Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

79 CNN's Van Jones Moved To Tears Over Michelle Obama's Speech [VIDEO] CNN Contributor Van Jones wept over Michelle Obama ‘s DNC speech Monday night. He couldn’t hide the fact from Anderson Cooper , who was anchoring the evening panel. “I’ve got to call you out,” Cooper said. “I saw you crying during this.” Jones explained his unraveling emotions. “Goodness, I mean, first of all, if you weren’t moved by that, go see the doctor,” he replied. “I mean, every American has to appreciate what it means for a woman like her to have grown up in chicago, dark skinned, not particular — you know, not the classically, you know, beautiful woman according to the theme of that time.” Wait…what? He called the first lady unattractive in the same breath that he was dying over her speech? “To be able to come out here, she gave a clinic how to connect to the American people, how to talk,” he said, continuing to blast her with praise after that whopper about her looks. “There are politicians, professional politicians who came up here tonight who did not connect with the crowd, and the very first time that Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned, not one boo. The very first time Tim Kaine’s name was mentioned, not one boo.” (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Jones stressed that Obama was not here speaking as a professional politician. Rather, she was there as a mother. Phew! Thankfully he didn’t return to insulting her looks. Which was actually undeserved, as the first lady was having an especially good hair night.

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

80 Dealers Use Olympic Logo To Sling Cocaine The white river flows through Rio de Janerio. Police in Brazil seized over 90 bags of uncut Colombian cocaine just miles away from the Estadio do Maracana, which will host opening ceremonies for the 31st Olympiad. The bags were adorned with the Olympic rings under a “Rio 2016” tagline. The arrests came in Rio’s Lapa district Monday night, a sprawling den of samba and cheap Brahma beer. Authorities also seized 28 bags of crack and.40 caliber ammunition. “Not for use near children,” the baggies helpfully advised. Depravity of the highest order is intrinsic to the games — the International Olympic Committee reports it has furnished 450,000 condoms for the athlete’s use during the two weeks. Drugs in particular appear to be the preferred vice of the Rio games. A World Anti-Doping Agency probe recently uncovered damning evidence of massive steroid abuse among Russian Olympic athletes, enabled by a state-sponsored interagency steroid task force which encompassed the Russian sports ministry and the FSB, the Russian internal security service. At least 85 members of the 387 man Russian delegation have been banned thus far, and further expulsions may soon follow. The athletes include practically every member of the track and field, crew, swimming, and pentathlon teams. The dealers also face significant civil liability exposure, as the Olympic seal enjoys trademark protection which has no peer. According to the International Trademark Association (IOC), the insignia is “protected by a statute over and above ordinary trademark protection.” The standard for prevailing in an infringement action is also much lower in Olympic trademark litigation. IOC attorneys need only demonstrate that a retailer’s use of the insignia “tends to confuse, deceive or to falsely suggest a connection” as opposed to the more stringent Trademark Act standard. Follow Kevin on Twitter Send tips to [email protected] . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

81 81 Reddit Photoshop Battle, Baby Donald Trump [PHOTOS] The latest victim of Reddit’s ongoing Photoshop Battles is none other than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Or, baby Donald Trump that is. Users took this photo: (Reddit) … and added a little Interwebs magic to produce the following offerings. That baby has flow (Reddit) Homeland Security Alone (Reddit) Apparently Donald Really Looks Like Macaulay Culkin (Reddit) “ I Have The Best Baby Photos “ (Reddit) Baby-Faced (Reddit) “ Exxxcellent “ (Reddit) Mr. Donald “Bean” Trump (Reddit) Head over to Reddit to see the entire thread. Follow Datoc on Twitter and Facebook

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

82 Berniacs FREAK At Report Bernie Nominated Supporters of former Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted ecstatically to an NBC Nightly News tweet indicating the Vermont senator had been nominated for president of the United States. While technically true, the tweet’s language is imprecise. Sanders’s name was placed into nomination for president Tuesday afternoon at the Democratic National Convention, but the tweet leaves readers with the impression he had prevailed in the roll call vote and was the party’s nominee. Bernie lovers on Twitter were elated. The placement of his name into nomination preceded a roll call vote of the entire convention, which presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton will win. Clinton will formally accept the Democrat nomination for president Thursday evening. Follow Kevin on Twitter Send tips to [email protected] . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

2016-07-27 03:50 dailycaller.com

83 Creative disruption: a shifting investment backdrop It has been eight years since the financial crisis and the global economic engine is still struggling to get out of first gear. Growth and inflation both remain low, in spite of rock bottom interest rates and massive coordinated global quantitative easing programmes. Why is this the case and what are the implications for investors? Debt trauma Many have subscribed to the 'balance sheet recession' school of thought, a thesis developed by Japanese economist Richard Koo, which suggests consumers retrench and try to shore up their balance sheets by paying down debt and spending less following periods of excessive borrowing. This “debt trauma” description has a proven history, not only in Japan but also in the US proceeding the great depression. The chart below shows the savings rate in the US; the proportion consumers save of their income. With each percentage point change in the rate potentially equivalent to $100bn in consumer spending 1 , the general rise since 2005 signifies a reversal of the tailwind that has been driving the economy since the 1970’s. US savings rate - trend reversal? Source: Bloomberg, December 1949 to December 2015. Millennial headwinds One particular demographic group, so-called “millennials” (those born between 1980 and 2000), have borne the brunt of the crisis. Youth unemployment rocketed to its highest level ever in the US (peaking in 2010 at 19.5%) 2 and remains stubbornly high in Southern Europe. Millennials typically completed their education saddled with high levels of student debt and found themselves in a job market that was anaemic at best. This coincided with central bankers attempting to stimulate global growth and creating extraordinary asset price inflation. As a result, many millennials have tempered, or at least delayed, their desires of home ownership and pared back traditional durable goods spending in favour of saving for short term goals like trips abroad. Millennials represent the largest demographic group in the US and are forecast to be the biggest spenders by 2030. With US consumers responsible for more than three quarters of US GDP growth since 2001, the challenges faced by millennials and the subsequent stagnation of retail sales have been a significant headwind on the path to a rejuvenated economy. While partly attributable to this widespread deleveraging, there are also other drivers at work. Digital natives One advantage millennials have over their parents’ generation is being at the forefront of the rapid technological advancement and industrial disruption facilitated by the internet age. They not only have access to more information and choice than ever before, but they also stand to reap the most benefits from the 'sharing' or 'gig' economies heralded by this increased connectivity. New platforms have made it easy for anyone to exchange capital and labour and this is already wreaking havoc upon a number of traditional business models. This well informed “smarter consumer” has again been in the spotlight following the poor results of retailers Gap, Macy’s and Nordstrom in the US. The new generation of consumers are forsaking traditional department stores in favour of fast fashion retailers, which are able to quickly supply the latest trends, manufactured cheaply and offer convenience through strong online channels and smart logistics. This fact is not lost on Amazon; the retail giant can claim a large responsibility for the continued disinflationary trend of durable goods (see chart below) - the vast economies of scale it enjoys allows it to sell goods at razor thin margins. Disinflationary trends in durable goods Source: Bloomberg, January 2002 to May 2016 Amazon’s apparel sector is among its fastest-growing categories and in 2017 it is expected to debut its own fast fashion line, supported by a 46,000ft 2 photography studio in Shoreditch, London. As Amazon takes aim at another industry saddled with overcapacity, today’s shop assistants may soon find themselves tomorrow’s stock pickers. Service sectors and the sharing economy It is not only the apparel and durable goods industries that are under threat. Segments of the service sector have also felt the impact of the sharing economy, which we have published on previously. Given that users of services such as Uber and Airbnb typically belong to the higher income strata (see chart below), the rise of these services is disproportionately hitting spending on higher cost alternatives. Moreover, when focusing on the supply side of these labour platforms (such as Uber) it is apparent that the lack of strong employer contracts enables an almost endless supply of jobs with no fixed hours. This may serve as a great tool for people to supplement their income, or as some would argue, may only serve to continue to suppress wages in their respective sectors as cheaper foreign workers are able to meet the increasing demand at lower prices. US adults (at different income ranges) using the sharing economy Source: Pew Research Center, survey conducted 24 November to 21 December 2015, May 2016 Creative disruption Given all of the above, it is difficult to forecast a meaningful pickup in inflation sufficient to stimulate wage growth. The economies of scale enjoyed by firms such as Amazon and Alibaba mean traditional retailers with their costly overheads are unlikely to be able to wrest back market share. Technological disruption is threatening to change the face of more and more industries, from banking to telecoms to manufacturing, mostly to make them cheaper and more accessible. To add further pressure, the rise of autonomous vehicles and 3D printing are also projected to threaten jobs in other sectors. And this importantly comes at a time when consumers are increasing their savings for the longest sustained period in four decades. It is not, however, all bad news. As wider engagement with these new connected platforms takes hold, spending on them should continue to increase. This should provide more primary and secondary job opportunities for society, albeit at lower wages for now. These opportunities have mostly presented themselves at the lower end of the skill spectrum, but we may see them proliferate in other areas as people try and leverage their skillsets to maximize their earnings (or convenience), such as doctors providing ad-hoc online consultations. Another factor to consider is the rapidly growing “experience economy”. 78% of all millennials would rather spend money on a desirable experience or event rather than a “thing” 3. Perhaps this is why the services price level has remained robust as this group of consumers favours spending money on these rather than durable goods. Travel among this demographic has also increased at more than twice the rate of retail sales, as these consumers are travelling further and spending more than their predecessors. All of these trends might persist and become permanent structural changes and attitudinal shifts. Or, in conjunction with advances in healthcare and longer life expectancies, millennials may simply be responding to the current uncertain economic climate by shifting consumption to later in life. In our view, the result is likely to be somewhere in the middle. The trend of increasing disruption is not a new phenomenon; the average age of a firm in the S&P has fallen from over 60 years in 1958 to just 12 years in 2015 4. Creative destruction is truly alive but the difficulty lies in anticipating these changes while remaining cognisant of timing and the surrounding regulatory environment. Our approach to these structural uncertainties is to remain cautious if a firm is exposed to a pro-consumer cycle, preferring to invest in sensible large cap companies with a reason to exist and reliable revenue streams. 1 Source: McKinsey, 2009, “The economic impact of increased US savings” 2 Source: Bloomberg data, US Bureau of Labour Statistics 3 Source: FT.com, 12 February 2016, Eventbrite 2014 Survey 4 AEI & Credit Suisse Research, "The Sharing Economy", 18 September 2015 Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested. The information in this article does not qualify as an investment recommendation.

2016-07-27 03:47 Julia Rampen www.newstatesman.com

84 Verizon to acquire Yahoo's operating business BASKING RIDGE, N. J. , and SUNNYVALE, Calif. , July 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Communications Inc. ( NYSE , Nasdaq: VZ) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announce they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Verizon will acquire Yahoo's operating business for approximately $4.83 billion in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments. Yahoo informs, connects and entertains a global audience of more than 1 billion monthly active users** -- including 600 million monthly active mobile users*** through its search, communications and digital content products. Yahoo also connects advertisers with target audiences through a streamlined advertising technology stack that combines the power of their data, content and technology. Lowell McAdam , Verizon Chairman and CEO, said: "Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising. " Yahoo will be integrated with AOL under Marni Walden , EVP and President of the Product Innovation and New Businesses organization at Verizon. Marissa Mayer , CEO of Yahoo , said: " Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL. The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social. " Mayer added, " Yahoo and AOL popularized the Internet , email, search and real-time media. It's poetic to be joining forces with AOL and Verizon as we enter our next chapter focused on achieving scale on mobile. We have a terrific, loyal, experienced and quality team, and I couldn't be prouder of our achievements to date, including building our new lines of business to $1.6 billion in GAAP revenue in 2015. I'm excited to extend our momentum through this transaction. " Tim Armstrong , CEO of AOL, said: "Our mission at AOL is to build brands people love, and we will continue to invest in and grow them. Yahoo has been a long-time investor in premium content and created some of the most beloved consumer brands in key categories like sports, news and finance. " Under Armstrong, AOL has invested in and grown global premium brands, including The Huffington Post , TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com , and market-leading programmatic platforms -- including ONE by AOL for both advertisers and publishers. Armstrong added, "We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished: this transaction is about unleashing Yahoo's full potential, building upon our collective synergies, and strengthening and accelerating that growth. Combining Verizon , AOL and Yahoo will create a new powerful competitive rival in mobile media, and an open, scaled alternative offering for advertisers and publishers. " The addition of Yahoo to Verizon and AOL will create one of the largest portfolios of owned and partnered global brands with extensive distribution capabilities. Combined, AOL and Yahoo will have more than 25 brands in its portfolio for continued investment and growth. Yahoo's key assets include market-leading premium content brands in major categories including finance, news and sports, as well as one of the most popular email services globally with approximately 225 million monthly active users****. Additional technology assets in the advertising space include Brightroll , a programmatic demand-side platform; Flurry, an independent mobile apps analytics service; and Gemini, a native and search advertising solution. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, approval by Yahoo's shareholders, and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in Q1 of 2017. Until the closing, Yahoo will continue to operate independently, offering and improving its own products and services for users, advertisers, developers and partners. Verizon will generally issue cash-settled Verizon RSUs for Yahoo RSUs that are outstanding at the close. The sale does not include Yahoo's cash, its shares in Alibaba Group Holdings , its shares in Yahoo Japan, Yahoo's convertible notes, certain minority investments, and Yahoo's non-core patents (called the Excalibur portfolio). These assets will continue to be held by Yahoo , which will change its name at closing and become a registered, publicly traded investment company. Yahoo will provide additional information about the investment company at a future date. Yahoo intends to return substantially all of its net cash to shareholders and will determine and communicate a specific capital return strategy at an appropriate time. LionTree Advisors, LLC, Allen & Company LLC , Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are acting as financial advisors to Verizon. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP , Covington & Burling LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP are acting as legal advisors to Verizon. Goldman, Sachs & Co., J. P. Morgan Securities LLC and PJT Partners are acting as financial advisors to the Yahoo Board and its Strategic Review Committee. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP , Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP are acting as legal advisors to Yahoo. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is independent legal advisor to Yahoo's Strategic Review Committee. Yahoo will hold an investor call at 5:30 a.m. Pacific/ 8:30 a.m. Eastern today. Investors can dial in at (866) 593-9949 and investors outside the U. S. can dial in at (973) 935-8154, using the conference ID 55971720. The call will be hosted by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman. Yahoo will also make the Chair of the Strategic Review Committee, Tom McInerney , and Yahoo Chairman of the Board Maynard Webb available for questions. Verizon will announce second-quarter 2016 results tomorrow, July 26. To provide further context for investors about this transaction and other strategic initiatives, McAdam will participate in Verizon's earnings webcast beginning 8:30 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. Access instructions and presentation materials, including Verizon's earnings release, will be available at 7 a.m. on Verizon's Investor Relations website, www.verizon.com/about/investors/ . *B ased on Yahoo internal metrics, Jan. 2016 and AOL Internal, June 2016 ** Yahoo internal user metrics, Jan. 2016 *** Yahoo internal user metrics, Jan 2016 **** Yahoo internal user metrics, Jan. 2016. Mail monthly active users includes 58M IMAP/POP only users - ie. Yahoo monthly users that access their mail using other companies mail application About Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( NYSE , Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York City , generated nearly $132 billion in 2015 revenues. Verizon operates America's most reliable wireless network, with 112.6 million retail connections nationwide. The company also provides communications and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. About AOL AOL is a media technology company with a mission to connect consumers and creators through open marketplaces. AOL uses data to disrupt content production, distribution and monetization. The company connects publishers with advertisers across its global, programmatic platforms, tapping into Microsoft inventory and original content brands like TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and MAKERS, which reach over 500 million monthly global consumers. Within its mobile advertising network alone, AOL has a reach of roughly 600 million users. A subsidiary of Verizon , AOL is shaping the digital future. About Yahoo Yahoo is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, Yahoo helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. Yahoo connects advertisers with target audiences through a streamlined advertising technology stack that combines the power of Yahoo's data, content, and technology. Yahoo is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California , and has offices located throughout the Americas , Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe , Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom ( pressroom.yahoo.net ) or the Company's blog ( yahoo.tumblr.com ). Yahoo!, the Yahoo family of marks, and the associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Important Additional Information and Where to Find It. Yahoo will be filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC ") a proxy statement regarding the proposed sale of Yahoo's operating business to Verizon Communications Inc. , the definitive version of which will be sent or provided to Yahoo stockholders. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION, YAHOO'S STOCKHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO READ YAHOO'S PROXY STATEMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION OR INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE THEREIN BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and stockholders will be able to obtain (when available) a free copy of Yahoo's proxy statement, any amendments or supplements to the proxy statement, and other documents filed by Yahoo with the SEC (when available) in connection with the proposed transaction for no charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov , on the Investor Relations page of Yahoo's website investor.yahoo.net or by writing to Investor Relations, Yahoo! Inc., 701 First Avenue , Sunnyvale, CA 94089. Yahoo and its directors and executive officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from its investors and stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information concerning the ownership of Yahoo securities by Yahoo's directors and executive officers is included in their SEC filings on Forms 3, 4 and 5, and additional information is also available in Yahoo's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 , as amended, and Yahoo's proxy statement for its 2016 annual meeting of stockholders filed with the SEC on May 23, 2016. Information regarding Yahoo's directors, executive officers and other persons who may, under the rules of the SEC , be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction, including their respective interests by security holdings or otherwise, also will be set forth in the definitive proxy statement relating to the proposed transaction when it is filed with the SEC. These documents may be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Verizon Forward-Looking Statements In this communication Verizon has made forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our estimates and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include the information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations. Forward- looking statements also include those preceded or followed by the words "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "hopes" or similar expressions. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward- looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following important factors, along with those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC "), could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward- looking statements: adverse conditions in the U. S. and international economies; the effects of competition in the markets in which we operate; material changes in technology or technology substitution; disruption of our key suppliers' provisioning of products or services; changes in the regulatory environment in which we operate, including any increase in restrictions on our ability to operate our networks; breaches of network or information technology security, natural disasters, terrorist attacks or acts of war or significant litigation and any resulting financial impact not covered by insurance; our high level of indebtedness; an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited ratings organizations or adverse conditions in the credit markets affecting the cost, including interest rates, and/or availability of further financing; material adverse changes in labor matters, including labor negotiations, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact; significant increases in benefit plan costs or lower investment returns on plan assets; changes in tax laws or treaties, or in their interpretation; changes in accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC , may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings; and the inability to implement our business strategies. Yahoo's Forward Looking Statements This press release (including, without limitation, the quotations from management) contains forward-looking statements concerning the proposed sale of Yahoo's operating business. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others: (i) the inability to consummate the transaction in a timely manner or at all, due to the inability to obtain or delays in obtaining the stockholder approval, necessary regulatory approvals for the transaction or satisfaction of other conditions to the closing of the transaction; (ii) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the purchase agreement; (iii) the potential adverse effect on Yahoo's partner, advertiser, vendor and customer relationships, operating results and business generally resulting from the announcement of the transaction; (iv) the implementation of the transaction which will require significant time, attention and resources of Yahoo's senior management and others within Yahoo , potentially diverting their attention from other aspects of Yahoo's business; (v) risks related to Yahoo's ability to retain or recruit key talent; (vi) the costs, fees, expenses and charges related to or triggered by the transaction; (vii) potential adverse effects on Yahoo's business, properties or operations caused by Yahoo implementing the transaction; (viii) the anticipated benefits of transaction to Yahoo's stockholders may not be realized; and (ix) the initiation or outcome of any legal proceedings or regulatory proceedings that may be instituted against Yahoo relating to the transaction. More information about other potential factors that could affect Yahoo's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Yahoo's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 , as amended, and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 , which are on file with the SEC and available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All information set forth in this communication is as of July 25, 2016. Yahoo does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. MEDIA CONTACTS: AOL Caroline Campbell 404-444-7970 [email protected] Verizon Bob Varettoni 908-559-6388 [email protected] Yahoo Anne Espiritu 408-349-4040 [email protected] IR CONTACTS: Verizon Mike Stefanski 908-559-8018 [email protected] Yahoo Joon Huh 408-349-3382 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160527/373129LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/verizon-to-acquire-yahoos- operating-business-300303133.html SOURCE Verizon

2016-07-27 03:45 investor.yahoo.net

85 Viewpoint: The waste mountain of coffee cups Every day hundreds of thousands of Britons put their coffee cup into a recycling bin. They're wrong - those cups aren't recyclable, and the UK throws away 2.5bn of them a year. It must stop, writes Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall. One chilly morning last March - exactly the sort of morning when a warming cafe latte could seem appealing - I took to the streets of London in a double decker bus adorned with 10,000 empty take-away coffee cups. It might have looked like a piece of dodgy conceptual art, but it was actually designed to illustrate the vast volume of take-out cups we throw away daily in the UK. My bus didn't represent all of them, though - 10,000 is the number of cups the UK gets through in just two minutes. The British - like the Americans and Italians - are a nation of caffeine addicts. Walk down any busy street and you'll see people clutching coffee- filled cardboard vessels. That adds up to a huge number of used cups - more than seven million a day, or 2.5 billion a year. The sorry truth is, next to none of them are recycled - and the even sorrier fact is that no one's taking responsibility for that, least of all the big coffee retailers who have created this take-out trash mountain. During my War on Waste battle, I've looked at all kinds of issues related to food waste, such as the heinous "cosmetic standards" applied to supermarket fruit and veg that lead to mountains of perfectly good produce being dumped. Hugh's War on Waste: The Battle Continues is on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Thursday 28 July or catch up later via iPlayer The coffee cup crisis is somehow even more glaring - a wanton waste going on right under our noses. Most consumers wrongly assume that paper cups are a "green" choice. It's an assumption coffee companies are happy not to challenge. They know differently, but they're keeping that to themselves. They're not going to tell conscientious consumers that putting a used coffee cup in a recycling bin is pointless. But it is. The take-out cups that are the stock-in-trade of High Street coffee giants such as Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Costa, are currently almost impossible to recycle. To make these cups waterproof, the card is fused with polyethylene, a material that cannot be separated out again in a standard recycling mill. What's more, the cups are not even made from recycled material in the first place - the way they are designed means one thin seam of card inside the cup comes into contact with the hot drink, so they have to be made from virgin paper pulp. And of course, they have very brief lives - just the time it takes to down a macchiato. The millions of coffee cups we use every day are, in effect, virgin materials with a single use, thrown almost immediately into the bin - a horrendous waste, with a hefty carbon footprint. These poly-lined cups are, technically, capable of being recycled - a fact that enables coffee companies to describe them as "recyclable". However, the reality is this is only possible in a highly specialised recycling facility - of which there are only two in the UK. One of these sites has never actually dealt with a single paper cup - the other has processed a very tiny number. In every meaningful sense, conventional paper coffee cups are not recyclable in Britain. There is nothing, of course, on the average take-out cup to let you know this. Some cups even sport the little Mobius-loop symbol - the three arrows in a triangle - which communicates a pleasant whiff of eco-friendliness to the hard-pushed coffee consumer. But this symbol is not necessarily an indication that the object can be easily recycled. If you go to the websites of the big coffee brands, you'd be forgiven for thinking they've got sustainability completely covered. But their claims are about as substantial as the froth on a poorly-made cappuccino. "Watching 20 tonnes of freshly dug parsnips consigned to the rubbish heap in a Norfolk farmyard - purely because they didn't look pretty enough - is still one of the most shocking things I've ever seen," wrote Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall. The rejected vegetables that aren't even wonky On the Costa website, for example, under the misleading headline "great taste without the waste", the company has the sheer brass neck to describe their cups as "eco-friendly" - perhaps the least accurate use of the term I've ever heard. By way of justification, Costa explain that the card for their cups comes from sustainable wood pulp, before claiming that said cups "are recyclable in a number of locations across the UK". The number of locations, as I've said, is two - max. And Costa sends less than 1% of its cups for this treatment. Starbucks, meanwhile, are uselessly vague. "We're working on a solution to the challenges of paper cup waste," they say, before adding reassuringly that "paper cups make up a small proportion of the waste produced in our stores". That's a statement that means little without hard figures - though it does suggest they are being ridiculously wasteful in other ways too. These are just a couple of the companies keeping the UK awash with discarded coffee cups - there are, of course, many more. All of them are silently passing the responsibility for recycling cups on to their customers without fessing up to the fact that it is an all but impossible task. What's the alternative to eco-unfriendly cups? Reusable ones are an option and Starbucks do offer customers a small incentive to choose these. But that incentive should be substantially increased and adopted by all the major coffee chains - reusable cups are not currently making any kind of dent in the problem. A change in coffee cup design is the second obvious answer. And the frustrating fact is that a recyclable paper coffee cup already exists. I visited inventor Martin Myerscough who demonstrated his version of the take-out cup which can be made from recycled paper and recycled after use in standard paper recycling facilities. Starbucks have announced that they are interested in testing out these new cups - but why aren't other coffee retailers snapping at his heels for the blueprint? When I challenged some of these retailers on camera, they earnestly expressed their commitment to "look into" the cup waste problem. That's not the same as doing something about it. If we're to see genuine progress, not just kneejerk PR responses, these companies need to feel the heat from the only people who can actually hurt them - that's you, the coffee-drinking public. Consumer pressure can make change happen very quickly. Following my War on Waste programmes last year, more than 300,000 people signed a letter to the UK's big retailers demanding they do something to reduce the waste they generate. Since then, many supermarkets have begun stocking more of the "imperfect" vegetables they had previously rejected, and increasing the amount of surplus stock they donate to charities, rather than to landfill. These are small steps, but encouraging and certainly cast-iron proof that the voices of customers ring in retailers' ears. If enough people make a noise, these companies will have no choice but to step up and start dealing with their woeful waste issue. The German city of Hamburg has banned coffee pods from state-run buildings as part of an environmental drive to reduce waste. Should others follow suit? Is there a serious problem with coffee capsules? Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

2016-07-27 03:43 www.bbc.co.uk

86 86 PMO: Accusations that Netanyahu mishandled the Gaza tunnel threat are false Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been falsely accused of not dealing with the military threat from the tunnels that Hamas dug between Gaza and Israel’s southern border prior to the war during the summer of 2014, his office said late Tuesday night. "Claims that Israel was unprepared to meet the tunnel threat are without foundation,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in response to charges to that effect which were leveled by Netanyahu’s political opponents Bayit Yehudi Party head Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. Bennett and Lapid have spoken out in advance of the publication of a state comptroller’s report on the matter that is expected to be highly critical of Netanyahu’s actions with regard to the tunnels. Sources who have seen the report have charged that cabinet had not been properly briefed on the threat prior to the war, also known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. Such charges are “false,” the PMO said, as it listed the actions Netanyahu took to defend the country from the tunnels. “From 11 November 2013 until 3 July 2014, the tunnel threat was presented, in its full severity, at nine separate Cabinet meetings. The protocols show this beyond all doubt,” the PMO said. “Moreover, for six months prior to the operation, from 16 January 2013 until 9 July 2014, the Prime Minister convened six professional discussions on the issue of the tunnels,” the PMO said. “The Defense Minister, IDF Chief-of-Staff, GOC Southern Command, head of the IDF Engineering Branch, head of the IDF Technology Branch and field commanders were among the participants in these meetings,” the PMO said. “At these discussions, Prime Minister Netanyahu directed that operational and technological solutions be advanced to meet the tunnels threat,” the PMO said. “On 3 July 2014, before the start of operations and two weeks before the ground incursion, the Prime Minister ordered the IDF to prepare for a ground incursion to neutralize the tunnels,” the PMO said. “It is regrettable that there are those who have misled the public on substantive security issues when the facts are unequivocal and well known to those who are distorting them,” the PMO said. The threat of Hamas or other Palestinian militants entering Israel from Gaza through underground tunnels had existed for a long time prior to the 2014 war. Gilad Schalit was kidnapped on the Gaza border in 2006 by Palestinian militants who made use of an underground tunnel, Still, Hamas only began using tunnel warfare in 2014, when its militants attempted multiple failed infiltrations into Israeli communities that bordered Gaza.

2016-07-27 02:32 TOVAH LAZAROFF www.jpost.com

87 Baghdad bomb site now a shrine to the dead The site of one of the deadliest attacks to ever hit Iraq has been turned into a shrine to the dead. Two hundred and ninety-two people were killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad's Karrada district.

2016-07-27 02:14 www.bbc.co.uk

88 Prosthetic leg stolen from boy, 4, at California beach RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. (AP) — A 4-year-old Southern California boy visiting the beach for the first time had his prosthetic leg stolen but hundreds of people have reached out to help him replace the limb. Liam Brenes of Rancho Santa Margarita and his parents went to Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County on Sunday. The family left the custom leg, which had a "" decoration, and other items on the beach while Liam, wearing an older leg, explored the tide pools. "We were in the water for two hours and came back and everything was gone," Liam told KABC-TV (http://abc7.ws/2a5TB0l). "They stole my leg. " Also taken were his clothes and shoes, a camera and other items, including a pair of eyeglasses belonging to one of his brothers, Aiden Brenes. Liam was born without a fibula, or calf bone, in his right leg. It was amputated below the knee when he was about 1 year old. It hasn't slowed him down, though. Liam takes karate lessons and plays soccer. After the theft of his leg became known, offers of help poured in. A family friend started a GoFundMe account that as of Tuesday had raised more than $15,000 dollars to pay for a new leg. "Both parents will have to take multiple days out of work as well as traveling to and from Los Angeles for the doctor visits, fittings, molding, etc. This is going to be a very hefty expense to replace such an important and desperately needed prosthetic," said the funding page established by Ann-Marie Brasil. It was unclear whether insurance would cover the expense, the page said. Any donations that are left over will pay for future expenses for Liam, such as sending him to a mountain camp for child amputees, and for future surgeries that the boy might need, the page said. In addition, several prosthetics crafting firms have offered to help, and Robert Herjavec of ABC's "Shark Tank" also offered to buy a replacement, which can run $10,000 or more. "It's amazing that one act of selfishness has brought out so much selflessness," Liam's mother, Amanda McFarland, told the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/2a5fEVh) on Tuesday. "The amount of good because of that action is tenfold. It's definitely restored my faith. "

2016-07-27 01:43 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

89 Is that you, Mama June? Honey Boo Boo's mother shows off slimmer features as she poses for a selfie Her weight loss journey has been a slow one. But it seemed 'Mama June' Shannon had turned a corner as she shared a selfie showing off her new frame, with her Twitter followers. The 36-year-old looked slimmer than ever as she struck a confident pose in a slashed dark blue blouse. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO June's facial features were noticeably trimmer in the photo, and were touched up with a coat of makeup on. She had her light blonde hair slicked back in a stylish and chic 'do. The former TLC star, who has said she has shed 150 pounds, began her weight loss regime in 2013 and in January of 2016 underwent cosmetic procedures after fainting multiple times from strict dieting. TMZ reported in mid-March that the reality star was looking to undergo gastric sleeve surgery that same month. The website states that the former Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star is hoping the procedure will help her shed another 80 pounds. Gastric procedure is done via keyhole surgery and the result leads to a restriction on the amount of food that can be eaten. It leaves you feeling full sooner than normal when eating. Starting at the debut of Mama June's TLC show, she went down from 365 pounds to 100 lbs in 2013 and then lost a further 45 lbs in the summer of 2015. In November, June told Daily Mail Online that walking helped her shed some weight. '[I'm] just walking. Once you get started with the kids you don’t think about,' she said. 'You're walking and you’re like ''I've already walked three miles.''' And in January she revealed she will be appearing on E! reality show Botched, which returns to TV in May, as she attempts to get a full body makeover. She bumped into Entertainment Tonight host Kevin Frazier who snapped a selfie with the mother-of-four and revealed on his Instagram: 'She has lost so much weight she is now gonna get the extra skin removed.... #goodluck [sic].'

2016-07-27 01:43 Christine Rendon www.dailymail.co.uk

90 Nomination fatigue? Elizabeth Banks' jokes fall flat Tough room, Elizabeth Banks. You could've heard crickets in the Democratic convention hall when the "Pitch Perfect" and "Hunger Games" actress attempted a joke or two in introducing a short video about Hillary Clinton. Delegates barely laughed or clapped. Nomination fatigue? Clinton had just received the party nod. Banks walked to the podium in white fog to Queen's "We Are the Champions," mocking a similar entrance at the Republican convention by Donald Trump. "The Trump campaign is hard up for money. I just bought their fog machine on eBay for 30 bucks," she attempted. "I don't feel good about it. I don't. " Nothin'. Also taking the stage Tuesday was "Girls" creator Lena Dunham, who praised Clinton for making it easier for sexual assault survivors like herself in New York to access emergency room care. She was joined by "Superstore" star America Ferrera, who spoke of her Honduran parents and their struggles raising a family on meager salaries. "Occasionally I needed a free meal to get through the school day," she said, citing what she called Clinton's commitment to immigrant families like hers. Tony Goldwyn, who isn't president but plays one on "Scandal," introduced "mothers of the movement," women of color who lost children to gun violence or excessive force in police custody. He said these mothers "have turned their pain into power and their outrage into action," adding: "They understand that we must reach out to each other because of our diversity, because we are stronger together. " Debra Messing, who co-starred on "Will & Grace," introduced a first responder and a victim from the 9/11 terror attack. And singer Andra Day performed her "Rise Up," accompanied by United Percussion, a drumline and marching band. Actress Meryl Streep and singer-activist were due to close out the evening. Dunham and Ferrera joined in a panel discussion earlier in the day hosted by Glamour magazine. Asked whether they looked forward to Trump's tweets in response to their appearances, favorite Trump target Dunham wasn't worried. "He's already called me a B-lister with no mojo, so what's coming next? " she smiled. Ferrera said she's fared better with Trump: "He's talked a lot about America. He keeps trying to make me great again. I don't know why. I've been great for years. " Ferrera urged young voters not to sit out the election, and both pledged to support Hillary Clinton and urged Bernie Sanders supporters to come on board. Ferrera recalled watching Clinton gracefully turn over supporters to Barack Obama in 2008, saying Sanders supporters should do the same. Bryan Cranston, who played President Lyndon B. Johnson on Broadway and HBO, appeared on a civil rights panel with 1960s-era activists and signed on to an anti-Donald Trump campaign with more than 100 other celebrities at the Democratic National Convention. Cranston was joined by Julianne Moore, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Patrick Harris, Shonda Rhimes and Macklemore in calling on Americans to deny Trump the White House. It's part of MoveOn.org's "United Against Hate" effort.

2016-07-27 01:42 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

91 91 Elyse Taylor flaunts her slender legs in activewear as she takes daughter Lila for a stroll following the model's split from husband Seth Campbell The sighting came months after close friends confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that the bombshell and her husband Seth Campbell had called time on their marriage. The pair had been married for over a year after tying the knot in August 2014 in the US. According to the source, the pair, who share two-year-old daughter Lila Louise, separated many months ago, though remain on amicable terms following the split. 'Elyse's main priority is the happiness and well-being of Lila,' a source said of the Victoria's Secret model. After giving birth to daughter Lila in March 2014, Elyse soon after returned to work as one of Australia's most successful international beauties. Discovered at age 18, she moved to New York where she was immediately booked by major labels such as Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta, Tommy Hilfiger, Moschino and Trussardi. Since then she has featured in campaigns for Estee Lauder and Victoria’s Secret, having also starred in the lingerie brand's highly coveted annual fashion show with the likes of Miranda Kerr.

2016-07-27 01:41 Monique Friedlander www.dailymail.co.uk

92 'More than 30 people a day' call national rape helpline More than 30 people a day contact Ireland's national rape helpline, latest figures show. Almost 12,000 callers sought help from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's helpline last year, it has revealed in its annual report. More than half of the contacts are first time callers looking to speak about rape or sexual abuse. The numbers calling for the first time rose 16% from the previous year. This has had a knock-on rise in demand for face-to-face therapy which is already over-subscribed, the support group has warned. Incoming chief executive Noeline Blackwell said around two-thirds of the centre's funding came from the State, with the rest coming from fundraisers. "While the grants received are essential, they only partially cover the costs," she said. "Recession cuts to funding have not been reversed which means that we cannot do all we would like to do. " Nearly a quarter (23%) of callers to the national helpline are men, with the majority (76%) women. Less than 1% were transgender. Slightly more calls last year related to adult sexual violence compared to childhood sexual abuse, the centre said. Face-to-face therapy was provided to 499 people as well as accompanying victims to the Rotunda sexual assault treatment unit, court and Garda stations. Head of clinical services Angela McCarthy said: "Compared with 2014, 2015 saw a resurgence in calls relating to childhood sexual abuse with a small decrease in calls relating to adult sexual violence. "We have seen an increase in adults in mid-life looking for therapy for childhood sexual abuse, often after many years of suffering and silence".

2016-07-27 01:36 www.independent.ie

93 Authorities ID remains as those of missing treasure hunter ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. (AP) — A treasure hunter who disappeared this year while searching for an author's cache of gold and jewels in the New Mexico wilderness was confirmed dead by authorities Tuesday after his remains were discovered west of Santa Fe. Santa Fe Police spokesman Greg Gurule said medical investigators confirmed the remains found along the Rio Grande north of Cochiti Lake were those of Randy Bilyeu, a 54- year-old grandfather from Colorado. Gurule said the investigation into the death remains active and declined further comment. Bilyeu disappeared in early January while searching for antiquities dealer and writer Forrest Fenn's $2 million trove in northern New Mexico. Fenn dropped clues about the treasure in a cryptic poem in his 2011 memoir, "The Thrill of the Chase. " The self-published work spurred tens of thousands to search for Fenn's loot. An eccentric 85-year-old from Santa Fe, Fenn has inspired a cult following since his announcement that he stashed a small bronze chest somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Amid the craze, he has tried to dissuade people from searching in the winter, saying the treasure is not hidden in a dangerous place. He also tells followers not to look "any place where an 80-year-old man couldn't put it. " Treasure hunters have searched in vain through remote corners of New Mexico, Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere in the mountains. They share their experiences on blogs and brainstorm about the clues. The mystery has been featured on national networks, igniting even more interest. Family and friends say Bilyeu, who would have turned 55 in February, bought a raft and set out on Jan. 5 after scouting for two weeks along the river west of Santa Fe. He had a GPS device, a wetsuit and waders. He brought along his little white dog, Leo. More than a week passed before a worried friend reached out to Bilyeu's ex-wife in Florida, Linda Bilyeu, who filed a missing person's report on Jan. 14. His raft and dog were found the next day. Authorities called off the official search for Bilyeu in January, citing a lack of evidence to point them in the right direction. But Bilyeu's friends, fellow treasure hunters and family, including his ex-wife, continued their own search. Fenn also joined in what became an increasingly desperate mission last winter to find Bilyeu. He wasn't the first "Fenner" whose disappearance spurred a search. Three years ago, a woman from Texas — drawn by a national television report about the treasure — got lost searching the mountains near Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. She spent a March night in rugged terrain and was walking out the next day when rescuers found her.

2016-07-27 01:36 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

94 Bouchard earns 3-set victory in Montreal MONTREAL (AP) — Eugenie Bouchard reconnected with her hometown fans with an impressive first-round victory at the women's Rogers Cup on Tuesday. A large crowd at Uniprix Stadium was solidly behind the Quebec native throughout her 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3) win over Lucie Safarova, the pre- match favorite ranked No. 28. They roared as Bouchard came back from a 3-1 deficit in the tiebreaker with six straight points, securing victory on Safarova's 10th double-fault of the match. Bouchard has faced criticism, mostly to do with losing touch with her home fan base since her spectacular 2014 season when she reached the Wimbledon final and rose to No. 5 in the world. It did not go over well last week when, after losing her first match in Washington, D. C., she talked about visiting museums in the U. S. capital rather than go home to the "craziness" in Montreal. No. 41-ranked Bouchard had a change of heart because she not only headed north right away, but participated in off-court events with fans and ended uncertainty over her Olympic plans by saying she will represent Canada in Rio de Janeiro. Then she pulled off a thrilling and unexpected win on center court. Bouchard will next face the winner of a match between Dominika Cibulkova and Mariana Duque-Marino. It did not go so well for Aleksandra Wozniak, another local favorite, who lost 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Sara Errani of Italy. Errani's next opponent is 14th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who got past Kateryna Bondarenko 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. A matchup of the Madisons looms as 10th-seeded Madison Keys breezed by Elena Visnina 6-4, 6-0 and will face fellow American Madison Brengle in the second round. Keys has won all three previous meetings. Lucky loser Christina McHale of the U. S. posted a 6-4, 3-0 win over qualifier Shuai Zhang, who retired in the second set. McHale will next face 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Andrea Petkovic of Germany downed Alize Cornet of France 7-6 (1), 6-3 to advance to a second-round meeting with 12th-seeded Petra Kvitova. Daria Kasatkina beat Misaki Doi 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to set up a meeting with 13th- seeded Samantha Stosur, while Monica Niculescu beat Jelena Ostapenko 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 to advance against fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. French Open champion and third-seeded Garbine Muguruza withdrew with a digestive illness in another setback for the women's draw.

2016-07-27 01:35 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

95 Inmate who was freed early by mistake ends up heading back to jail after posting a smirking selfie declaring 'I'm home' on Facebook An inmate who released by accident from a Georgia jail is now back behind bars after announcing his miataken release on Facebook. Joshua Keith Ussery, 27, was set free from the Crawford County jail last Tuesday morning. The crook, who was in prison on burglary charges was re- captured shortly after posting a photo of himself smirking with the caption 'I'm home' on his Facebook profile. Ussery had been behind bars since March until last Friday, when a Crawford County detention officer accidentally released him 'due to an oversight.' The Crawford County sheriff's office realized their error within an hour of his release and sent a number of tracking dogs and Georgia Department of Corrections officers to scour the area in search of the convict. The officers looked near route U. S. 80 and Sandy Point Road after Ussery was spotted there by a deputy not long after release. But he Ussery helpfully told police exactly where he was after posting a selfie letting the entire world know, he was at home.

2016-07-27 01:34 Dailymail.com www.dailymail.co.uk

96 Zoe Foster Blake is the envy of ordinary mums as she shares photo of her organised fridge full of pre-prepared meals costing more than $260 If the secret to good parenting is being organised, then Zoe Foster Blake is a model mum. The mother-of-one and wife of radio and TV personality Hamish Blake last night shared a photo of her fridge stocked-full of meals, the envy of any ordinary mum. A total of 27 pre-packed meals sit in the fridge, with the beauty blogger, from Melbourne, using her Instagram account to spruik the work of fresh meal company Youfoodz. But while a full fridge of food ready to be consumed is the goal for most mums, it seems that with Foster- Blake's pre-prepared meals believed to have cost more than $260, it's only a realistic dream for some. Sharing the image of her organised lifestyle with her 360,000 followers, the 35-year-old said her 'chockers' fridge was essential as she balanced looking after two-year-old son Sonny and many media commitments. 'This is our fridge. Look! It's a bloody TV ad fridge!' she wrote on Instagram. 'Chockers with cheaty delivery meals because quite frankly, with such an interstatey husband this week, and a beastload of work, cooking can suck a doz. 'We try different companies but I like @youfoodz cos they're fresh not frozen, they taste REAL, and there are lots of gluten and dairy free meals for my fussy gut.' Insisting that she hadn't been paid by the company for her promotion, Foster-Blake described how she, like many mothers, struggled in the kitchen. However the luxury of being able to afford the exclusive pre-packaged meals seemingly solved that problem. 'Sure, I feel like a loser watching the heroes on Masterchef get perfect scores as I eat food someone else prepared, but you gotta sneak some life-cheats in every now and then,' Foster-Blake wrote. 'This isn't sponsored by the way. Just a recommendation. I don't do sponsored posts. Unless it's Go-To and then I pay myself with almond croissants and kisses on the hand. 'Recommend your best food cheat below, why donya (sic). #recommendnation' But according to commenters on the photo, Hamish had also promoted meals from Youfoodz on his radio show earlier that day, leading them to ask whether her post was coincidental or not. 'Hamish and Andy were promoting them on radio this afternoon! Coincidence?' one woman wrote. 'Anyway I love Hamish so don't really care. I would rather see Sonny in every photo. Super cute.' Daily Mail Australia contacted Youfoodz for comment but had not received a reply at the time of publishing.

2016-07-27 01:33 Josh Hanrahan www.dailymail.co.uk

97 Perth kung fu champion Graham Samuel Downey 'choked his 11-year-old stepdaughter until she passed out' A kung fu champion who was high on a cocktail of crystal meth, cannabis and alcohol choked his stepdaughter so hard that she passed out and blood vessels in her eyes burst, a court has heard. Graham Samuel Downey, 43, appeared in Armadale Magistrate's Court on Tuesday after being held in custody on charges relating to the alleged assault against his stepdaughter earlier this year. The court heard that Mr Downey was in a heavily drug-induced psychosis when he crept into his 11-year-old stepdaughter's room while she was fast asleep at 3am, the West Australian reported. Police allege that after violently choking the girl around her neck and chin, Mr Downey came to his senses and called his partner to let her know what had happened. When police arrived at his house in Armadale, Perth, they found the 43-year-old dressed in a wetsuit, allegedly in possession of a starting pistol, illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia. Mr Downey sobbed in court as the allegations were made public. He said he was worried about the state of his tropical fish. Defence lawyer Jeremy Scudds told the court Mr Downey was extremely remorseful and was very close to his stepdaughter, who had written to court saying she forgave her stepfather. 'He realises that something went wrong, and he wants to do something about it,' Mr Scudds said. 'And the fact he was arrested in a wetsuit goes to illustrate the state he was in.' Magistrate Stephen Wilson granted Mr Downey $6000 bail with a number of strict conditions, including that he not contact or go within 100 metres of his stepdaughter. Mr Downey competed in the 2014 World Wushu Kung Fu Championships in China, receiving silver medals in the nanquan and double weapon disciplines, according to results published online. He will appear in court next month.

2016-07-27 01:29 Daniel Peters www.dailymail.co.uk

98 Shocking video shows man defending himself against carjackers by spraying them in the face with a HOSE A man thwarted carjackers by spraying a hose at them last week. The theft was stopped by Michael Davis at a car wash called Oasis in Shreveport, Louisiana, at approximately 2am Wednesday, according to a report from KSLA. Scroll down for video Video of the incident was posted to YouTube on Monday. Davis wrote on the website: 'Carjackers in Shreveport, LA tried to jack my car and money while I was washing my car. 'Dashcam caught the whole thing. I sprayed them in the face, smiling the whole time and did not even drop my cigarette. I protected myself, my car and my disabled veteran brother.' Davis told KSLA in an interview: 'A guy had come around the corner with a gun pointed at me.' He said: 'You know, he said "Give me your keys and your money. "And I just took the sprayer and was I like "What'd you say? " And then I just sprayed it right in his face.' Davis said: 'And I went to hit him and his friend came to run, you know, I guess and get my backside. And I turned around and I sprayed him in the face and hit him. 'And they took off running. The whole situation to me was almost surreal.' Davis told KSLA: 'I wish it was a fun little acting video or skit or something like that but our lives were really in jeopardy, that's why we called police as soon as we could and got them to come out here and we made a report.'

2016-07-27 01:28 Zoe Szathmary www.dailymail.co.uk

99 Democratic convention speeches Day 2: CNN's Reality Check Team vets the claims The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the speeches and selected key statements, rating them true; mostly true; true, but misleading; false; or it's complicated. New York Sen. Charles Schumer Reality Check: Clinton fighting to prevent NY factory closure By Lisa Rose, CNN Schumer suggested Clinton single-handedly convinced the executives at a nuclear engineering company to keep open their plant in Schenectady, New York, preventing local layoffs. "Hillary listened to the factory worker at the Bechtel plant in Schenectady, worried sick that his company was leaving town," Schumer said. "Hillary got tough. She read the corporate honchos the riot act until they agreed to keep their plant open, saving his job and many others. " Fact-checking the DNC speeches from Day 1 Clinton was very active in lobbying Bechtel but Schumer overstated Clinton's role. The campaign to help the workers was actually a group effort. Schumer himself lobbied Bechtel Plant Machinery management. So did Rep. Michael McNulty, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton. Eventually, they convinced executives to keep the facility open but the compromise involved staff reductions. Bechtel agreed to keep 130 workers employed in Schenectady but another 130 jobs were cut through retirements and transfers to the company's campus in Pennsylvania. Schumer's claim that Clinton saved the plant is true, but misleading. She played a role in convincing the company to stay in Schenectady but she had help from other politicians, including Schumer himself. There's another asterisk: a year after the compromise was reached in 2007, a Bechtel spokesman said that the company was still transferring jobs from Schenectady to Pennsylvania but the moves would occur "over time," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Ex-NYPD Det. Joe Sweeney Reality Check: Clinton's record on 9/11 first responders By Sonam Vashi, CNN Sweeney focused on Clinton's record caring for the 9/11 first responders. "Within 48 hours of the towers falling, Hillary introduced a bill -- signed into law -- that helped first responders get the benefits they earned easier and faster," Sweeney said. "Then, she pressured the (Environmental Protection Agency) to launch a new task force and led Congressional hearings until the EPA admitted the air hadn't been safe. " Two days after the 9/11 attacks, then-New York Sen. Clinton introduced a bill that expedited payments of benefits to public safety officers killed or severely injured in the terrorist attacks. The bill was unanimously passed on the same day and became law on November 18, 2001. Clinton also led criticism of the EPA for its reassurance about the air quality near the World Trade Center after the attacks, when it was later found that hazardous toxins were released by the towers' destruction. Five months after the attacks, Clinton and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman held hearings in New York to examine the possible health hazards from the dust at the disaster site. Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg organized efforts to address public complaints about environmental issues around Ground Zero, and Clinton pressured the EPA to join the task force. Soon after, it became clear that the EPA had downplayed the risks of the air quality around the World Trade Center just after the 9/11 attacks. Clinton clearly pursued care for her constituents affected by the 9/11 attacks, so Sweeney's statement is true . New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez Reality Check: Velazquez on women-owned businesses By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney On the historic day when Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major party, Velazquez hailed America's female entrepreneurs. "Women-owned and women-operated small businesses are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in America today," Velazquez said. Women are creating new firms at a rapid clip. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of women-owned businesses grew at a rate 2.5 times the national average, while employment in women-owned companies increased at a rate 4.5 times that of all firms, according to the most recent statistics available from the National Women's Business Council, a federal advisory council. The rate of growth for women-owned businesses is almost four times the rate of men-owned companies. The number of businesses owned by women of color has been soaring. In 2002, there were fewer than one million minority women-owned firms, or 14% of women-owned firms. A decade later, there were nearly 3.8 million firms or 38% of women-owned businesses. Over that decade, non-minority women-owned firms grew by 9% in number, while minority women-owned business increased by 315%. An annual report conducted by American Express backs up these statistics. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of women-owned firms has grown at a rate five times faster than the national average, according to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report. So we rate Velazquez' statement as true . Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark Reality Check: Clark on gun violence By Chip Grabow, CNN In remarks supporting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Clark spoke to Clinton's ability to take on special interests, including what she called "the big money gun lobby. " Clark cited a statistic that "91 Americans are killed by gun violence every day. " According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2010 and 2014 (the latest year for which the CDC has data), an average of 32,964 people were killed by firearms each of those years. That equates to about 90 people killed by a firearm each day. However, that average includes suicides, unintentional deaths and incidents with undetermined intent as well as violence-related firearm deaths (homicide and legal intervention). In 2014, 11,409 people were killed in gun violence-related deaths by homicide or legal intervention. The CDC reports 586 unintentional deaths by firearms that year, and they also report 270 deaths where the intent was undetermined. Suicides in 2014 accounted for almost two-thirds of the deaths by firearms. So, more than 90 people did die each day on average in 2014 from a firearm injury, not all of those deaths were what the CDC classified as "violence-related. " Verdict: True, but misleading. Former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin Reality Check: Harkin on disability employment By Ali Foreman, CNN When the Americans with Disabilities Act passed the Senate, Harkin spoke loudly -- without saying a word. The Iowan senator famously delivered his 1990 floor speech on inclusivity and discrimination in American Sign Language. During the second night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, an audience of delegates and spectators signed along with him. Harkin taught the crowd how to sign "America" while drawing attention to a continued lack of employment for disabled Americans. Harkin praised the 1990 act's successes, but noted its failings, saying, "When, 26 years later, 70% of adults with disabilities in America aren't in the workforce, it's time to take action. " The Department of Labor confirms that Harkin's claim about employment disparity for the disabled is true. However, his 70% statistic is low. In the month of June, nearly 80% of all disabled Americans did not participate in the workforce. This percentage is noticeably high, particularly when compared to the 31% of non-disabled Americans who last month weren't part of the workforce. Since 1991, disabled Americans have seen a sharp decline in labor force participation and employment. Analysts attribute this slip, in part, to an aging population. However, discrimination still plays a role in employment for the disabled. Data from the 2010 Census show an increasing wage gap for disabled workers, who on average get paid $9,000 less annually than their non-disabled coworkers. We rate Harkin's claim as true but note that the 70% of disabled Americans out of the workforce that he cited should be upped to 80%.

2016-07-27 01:27 CNN's rss.cnn.com

100 Sushi restaurant worker among 93 Hawaii hepatitis A cases HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii outbreak of hepatitis A has grown to 93 cases, including an infected sushi restaurant worker who might have exposed diners, the state's Department of Health said Tuesday. No source has been identified for the outbreak on the island of Oahu. But the health department warned people who ate at the sushi restaurant on the island of Hawaii on dates the employee worked this month that they could have been exposed. The restaurant was identified as Sushi Shiono at the Waikoloa Beach Resort. The department said the employee recently worked there three five-day stretches — July 5-8, July 11-15 and July 18-21. The department said in a statement that the risk of diners having been infected was low but said diners not vaccinated against hepatitis A who ate there on those dates should contact doctors as a precaution to determine whether they should get the vaccine or immune globulin, which could protect them if taken within two weeks of exposure. A telephone message left for the sushi restaurant's manager seeking comment was not immediately returned. Hepatitis A is usually spread when a person ingests contaminated fecal matter, which can happen when a food handler doesn't practice proper hand-washing. It can also spread by close personal contact. Symptoms can include fever, fatigue, appetite loss, abdominal discomfort and diarrhea. "Preventing exposure from infected food handlers is difficult because patients with hepatitis A are most contagious one-to-two weeks before symptoms start," said Hawaii's state epidemiologist, Dr. Sarah Park. "It is possible that other food service establishments will be affected with new additional cases. " The department has confirmed infections of a Baskin- Robbins ice cream store employee and a Taco Bell worker, both at Oahu locations, since the outbreak began in mid-June. Health officials stressed that the businesses were not sources of the outbreak. The long incubation period of the disease complicates efforts to find the outbreak's source, Park said. When symptoms emerge, they can show up two to six weeks after exposure — making it difficult for people to remember what they ate and where after so much time has passed. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week officials were unaware of any other U. S. hepatitis A outbreak or cases that might be linked to Hawaii's outbreak. The state health department said officials have heard reports of some Hawaii restaurants offering the vaccine to workers. ___ Follow Jennifer Sinco Kelleher at http://www.twitter.com/JenHapa. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jennifer-sinco-kelleher.

2016-07-27 01:24 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-07-27 06:01