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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-20 06:01 1 Republican National Convention 2016 live updates (4.16/5) Live updates and developments from the 2016 Republican National Convention 2016-07-20 06:00 13KB www.latimes.com 2 RNC delegate count: Donald Trump becomes the nominee (2.39/5) Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman whose outsider campaign has both galvanized millions of voters and divided the Republican Party, is the 2016 GOP presidential nominee. 2016-07-20 03:44 4KB www.cnn.com 3 Trump Officially Wins GOP Nomination Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump obtained more (1.06/5) than the 1,237 delegate votes needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination Tuesday at the Republican National Convention. "New Yo 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 4 Name that tune: The 1960s anthem quoted to nominate Trump (1.05/5) In seconding the nomination of Donald Trump for president, Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina reached back to the 1960s for insp... 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.latimes.com 5 Donald Trump Jr. announced the votes to send his dad over the top "I have the incredible honor of not only being a part of the ride (1.03/5) that’s been this election process and to watch, as a small fly on the... 2016-07-20 06:00 1KB www.latimes.com 6 North Carolina roll call vote during Republican convention

(1.02/5) NC delegates announce the roll call votes for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and others. (Jim Morrill video) 2016-07-20 04:45 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 7 I Feel for Melania Trump I feel for Melania Trump. She was poised and beautiful in delivering her Monday night speech in support of her husband’s (1.02/5) presidential aspirations... 2016-07-20 04:10 7KB spectator.org 8 Black Lives Matter protest becomes a picnic with police — RT America (1.02/5) What began as a planned Black Live Matter protest turned into a pleasant community gathering in Wichita, Kansas. With the nation still reeling from the murder of three police officers in Baton Rouge, hundreds set aside their Sunday to congregate for a barbecue. 2016-07-20 04:07 3KB www.rt.com

9 Shock and sadness as fans react to news of Gugu Zulu's death

(1.00/5) Fans all over the country are mourning the death of race-car driver Gugu Zulu after the Nelson Mandela Foundation announced that he died early on Monday while trying to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 10 Homicide investigation in west Charlotte Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s

(0.01/5) Homicide Unit are conducting a homicide investigation in the 2400 block of Kendall Drive in the Metro Division. The call for service came in at 8:02 a.m. on Monday, July 18, 2016. 2016-07-20 03:11 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 11 Dignitaries arrive in Mthatha for opening of revamped Madiba Museum Mthatha has come to a standstill as government leaders continue to arrive for the official launch of the revamped Nelson Mandela Museum. 2016-07-20 06:00 965Bytes www.timeslive.co.za 12 PSL newcomers Highlands Park, Baroka FC locked in tug-of-war over player It may still be well over a month before the start of the Absa Permiership season but Premier Soccer League (PSL) newcomers Highlands Park and Baroka FC are already going head-to-head in an off the pitch tussle over midfielder Richard Matloga. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 13 Gugu Zulu ‘should have turned back’‚ experts say Gugu Zulu should not have continued his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro after complaining of having flu-like symptoms. 2016-07-20 06:00 4KB www.timeslive.co.za 14 National Freedom Party out of the elections after losing last gasp bid The National Freedom Party (NFP) will not contest the local government elections in August‚ throwing the party’s survival into doubt. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za

15 Grinning terror twins to apply for bail on Monday Within just two minutes‚ magistrate Paul Du Plessis sent smiling terror-accused twins Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie back to prison. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 16 DA: ‘ANC candidates list represents corruption‚ declining service delivery and unemployment’ The Democratic Alliance says the mayoral candidates list announced by the ANC on Saturday night represents corruption‚ declining service delivery and unemployment. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 17 Lack of Parliament antics sees EFF’s media profile dip: survey The African National Congress (ANC) saw an uptick in its media profile‚ but for the wrong reason. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 18 ‘Brexit and the shanty town between France and Britain’ by Maite Nkoana-Mashabane International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has raised eyebrows with yet another display of 2016-07-20 06:00 4KB www.timeslive.co.za 19 Turkish ructions spark new fears in Europe, US A glance at the map of the West's current crises shows that Turkey occupies the neuralgic point where so many international problems meet. 2016-07-20 06:00 5KB www.timeslive.co.za 20 The Big Read: The beasts that wanna catch us all on the Go! Here's what we know so far about Pokémon Go!. It has an accent on the e. Pokémon without an accent is just Pokemon, which is a West Indian nudging you with a stick. 2016-07-20 06:00 5KB www.timeslive.co.za 21 Mandela belongs to all South Africans, and to the world What Nelson Mandela stood for and preached after spending 27 years in jail was yesterday, on Mandela Day, overshadowed by political rhetoric. If only we had used the day to foster unity and purpose in a nation that is losing its bearings. 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za

22 Ibrahimovic wants to be God, not prince Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn't a man to be outdone. Manchester United's big-name summer signing has responded to Eric Cantona's claim that he can be the 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 23 Vilakazi stays put: Wits Bidvest Wits have denied that a deal to sell attacking midfielder Sibusiso Vilakazi to Mamelodi Sundowns has been concluded. 2016-07-20 06:00 1KB www.timeslive.co.za 24 Pasadena Republican gets moment on convention floor Republican Shirley Husar of Pasadena had the honor of announcing that California's delegates were all unanimously bound to Donald Trump... 2016-07-20 06:00 1KB www.latimes.com 25 Why are Rubio and Cruz still getting votes? Here's a refresher on the primary election results. 2016-07-20 06:00 1KB www.latimes.com 26 UFC president, California pro golfer to speak tonight Despite a mix-up that forced former NFL star Tim Tebow to announce that he was not, as rumored, going to be speaking at the convention,... 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB www.latimes.com 27 At California fundraisers, Tim Kaine predicts only that Clinton will choose the running mate she thinks is best By Friday, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine might well be on a Florida stage with Hillary Clinton as her newly announced running mate. But for no... 2016-07-20 06:00 3KB www.latimes.com 28 'Ban Russia from Rio' The World Anti-Doping Agency has called for Russia to be completely banned from the Rio Olympic Games and other international sport after an investigation found rampant state-run doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other events. 2016-07-20 06:00 3KB www.timeslive.co.za 29 Reggie Wayne's mom organizes New Orleans food drive Denise Wayne, president of the Professional Football Players Mothers Association (PFPMA), embodies the giving spirit. She helped to organize a food drive on the West Bank that will serve those in need across the metro area. 2016-07-20 06:00 5KB blog.nola.com

30 Major sewage leak forces closure of Los Angeles beaches LOS ANGELES, United States — Several beaches in the Los Angeles area were shut down on Tuesday after nearly 2.5 million gallons (9.5 million liters) of sewage spilled out from a ruptured line, 2016-07-20 06:00 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 31 North Korea: Missile tests simulated nuke strike on South SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday its latest ballistic missile tests were personally ordered and monitored by supreme leader Kim Jong-Un and simulated nuclear strikes on US targets 2016-07-20 06:00 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 32 Having stomach troubles? Try swallowing an origami robot CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Has your child swallowed a small battery? In the future, a tiny robot made from pig gut could capture it and expel it. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of 2016-07-20 06:00 4KB technology.inquirer.net 33 Peace talks with NDF moved to Aug. 20; 11 rebel leaders to be freed Update MANILA -- Formal peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines will resume on August 20, to give the Philippine government enough time to work on the release of detained rebel 2016-07-20 05:41 4KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 34 Clean Tax Cuts Takes Off at the GOP Convention Just two months have flown by since I first introduced the Clean Tax Cuts policy concept publicly, in writing, here in the pages... 2016-07-20 04:10 19KB spectator.org 35 World Court Decision Won’t Temper China’s Territorial Claims As expected, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines was exultant... 2016-07-20 04:10 4KB spectator.org 36 The American Spectator I have a request, a very humble request, and I mean it with all the respect in the world: please stop talking... 2016-07-20 04:10 4KB spectator.org

37 Daily Chatter Tens of thousands of people congregated on the Promenade des Anglais Monday to observe a moment of silence in honor of the 84 people killed... 2016-07-20 04:16 7KB rssfeeds.usatoday.com 38 Cornell West Speaks at Anti-Police Rally CLEVELAND — “There will be no peace unless there is justice,” Professor Cornell West said Tuesday in a speech to an anti-police rally... 2016-07-20 04:10 1KB spectator.org 39 Forbes Welcome Forbes Welcome page -- Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle. 2016-07-20 04:00 851Bytes www.forbes.com 40 The tech helping Sir Ben's 'flying' boat go even faster Could F1 and aeronautical tech help Sir Ben Ainslie's 'flying' catamaran win the America's Cup? 2016-07-20 04:00 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 41 26 dead in Taiwan tourist bus fire — RT News Twenty-six people are believed killed after a bus carrying tourists caught fire and burst into flames after an accident on a highway in Taiwan, China. The accident happened near Taoyuan City as the bus was heading to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. 2016-07-20 04:07 1KB www.rt.com 42 Texas governor makes bid to extend hate crime protections to cops in Police Protection Act — RT America Texas Governor Greg Abbott is pushing for the introduction of stronger penalties for crimes against police officers and extend hate crime protections to cops through his Police Protection Act, he revealed Monday. 2016-07-20 04:07 3KB www.rt.com 43 Spalding shooting: Three members of family killed Three members of a family are killed in a shooting near a swimming pool in Lincolnshire. 2016-07-20 04:02 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 44 Peaceful unity Stop the Violence march in York Organizer Quisha Bankhead, whose grandfather was a homicide victim, coordinated the York March along with other volunteers to focus on stopping violent crime, unifying people, and love for one another. 2016-07-20 04:02 3KB www.heraldonline.com

45 Obama Admin: Student Debt Is Good For US Economy The Obama administration has released a new report arguing the massive $1.3 trillion student debt load is helping the economy. "Investing in Higher Education: Benefits, Challenges, and the State of 2016-07-20 04:05 3KB dailycaller.com 46 McCain's Primary Challenger: 'Donald Trump Helps Me' CLEVELAND — Dr. Kelli Ward, the former Arizona state senator who is challenging Sen. John McCain in the August Republican primary, said Tuesday that Donald Trump will help in her quest to unseat the 2016-07-20 04:05 1KB dailycaller.com 47 Judge Puts Hold On Wisconsin Voter ID Law A federal court placed an injunction on a Wisconsin law requiring voters to present a state issued identification while voting Tuesday, ruling citizens without an official ID may still cast ballots af 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 48 Govt Employees Believe Clinton Received Special Treatment A majority of federal employees believe Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received special treatment from the Department of Justice during the investigation into her use of a private 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 49 Pompeo: Hillary Cared More About Her 'Legacy' Than Benghazi Republican Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo blasted Hillary Clinton Tuesday arguing that in the events surrounding the Benghazi terrorist attack, she put her "political legacy ahead of the safety and security 2016-07-20 04:06 3KB dailycaller.com 50 Ivanka Trump Defends Her Father's Tweets Ivanka Trump said her father never meant anything anti-Semitic when he tweeted what many thought was a Star of David. In an interview on Good Morning America, the 34-year-old daughter of Donald Tru 2016-07-20 04:05 1KB dailycaller.com 51 Grads With Lower Levels Of Debt Default More Roughly a third of students with $5,000 or less of federally backed student loans defaulted within three years of leaving college, according to a White House report. While roughly 30 percent of stu 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com

52 Anti-Trump Delegates: Expect 'Big Things' To Happen On Floor Tonight CLEVELAND — The fight to release bound state delegates from the results of their state primary is not over yet. Delegates Unbound, an organization, whose mission is to unbind these delegates, hinted 2016-07-20 04:05 1KB dailycaller.com 53 Lee: Senate May Have To Confirm Liberal SCOTUS Justice U. S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah allegedly told a Federalist Society luncheon on Tuesday that the Senate may have to confirm a liberal Supreme Court nominee if Hillary Clinton is elected president in Novemb 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 54 Free Market Groups Blast Obama's 'Arbitrary' Regs A Washington, D. C.-based energy group and a slew of free market organizations announced Tuesday support for a piece of legislation halting what they call President Barack Obama’s “arbitrary” rul 2016-07-20 04:05 3KB dailycaller.com 55 Clinton Campaign Connects Trump To White Supremacy Hillary Clinton's campaign sent out a fundraising email Tuesday that heavily connected Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump to white supremacy. The email started off focused on Iowa Republic 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 56 Kansas Police Captain Killed A Kansas police captain has been fatally shot in a string of attacks on police officers. Kansas City Police Capt. Robert David Melton was fatally shot Tuesday, The Kansas City Star reports. There h 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 57 Romney Wonk Thinks Trump Foreign Policy Is 'Worrisome' Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign policy director and foreign policy expert, Ph. D. Lanhee Chen, finds GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's foreign policy to be "worrisome," he 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 58 Dinesh D'Souza: Democrats Are The Real Racists CLEVELAND -- Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza believes the Democratic Party cannot escape from its historical support for slavery and Jim Crow, and that the party continues that dark l 2016-07-20 04:05 4KB dailycaller.com 59 Dancing Wichita Cop Goes Viral In Video A Wichita, Kan., police officer couldn't help but drop some sick dance moves with Black Lives Matter activists, and now video of the performance has gone viral. Officer Aaron Moses attended a commu 2016-07-20 04:05 1KB dailycaller.com 60 Trump 'Would Dramatically Increase Economic Growth' The Daily Caller News Foundation got the chance to speak with Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), who believes Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's tax plan would 2016-07-20 04:05 2KB dailycaller.com 61 Obama Won't Discipline Possible Clinton VP For Violation Just a day after Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro was found to have violated the Hatch Act, a federal law banning public officials from engaging in political activities on 2016-07-20 04:04 1KB dailycaller.com 62 This App Wants You To Get Money For Delayed Flights A startup is launching a new addition of its app Service called Protect, which allows people to acquire compensation for delayed or cancelled flights. Service acts as a technical liaison between a 2016-07-20 04:04 2KB dailycaller.com 63 Peek inside Clover School District's new elementary school Clover School District will open two new schools this fall, including the new $23 million Oakridge Elementary School across the street from Oakridge Middle School. It features an eight-lane track with an athletic field under construction that also will be open to the community. The... 2016-07-20 04:03 3KB www.heraldonline.com 64 Judge: former Rock Hill assistant principal will stand trial Judge Lewis Daniel Malphrus Jr. ruled probable cause exists to send former Northwestern High School assistant principal Kenneth Andrew Williams to trial for disseminating obscene material to a minor. Williams' defense attorney Twana Burris-Alcide told the judge during a preliminary hearing Tuesday there is not enough... 2016-07-20 04:03 3KB www.heraldonline.com 65 WATCH: Why a young Republican from Washington is voting for Trump Two of the youngest representatives of the Washington delegation at the RNC are working to engage their generation of voters. They see a "bright" future for the GOP, but have concerns about the public perceptions of their party's leaders. 2016-07-20 04:01 2KB www.thenewstribune.com 66 In pictures: Relics of the Soviet era An exhibition examining the landscape and abandoned spaces of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries opens in London. 2016-07-20 03:56 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 67 Are cloned animals born old? Scientists are studying Dolly the sheep's "siblings" in order to study the health of cloned animals. 2016-07-20 03:55 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 68 Hyde Park 'water fight' violence sees police officer stabbed A police officer is stabbed when a "spontaneous water fight" in Hyde Park on the hottest day of the year turns violent, the Met has said. 2016-07-20 03:18 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 69 Gavin Long, Baton Rouge gunman who railed against 'oppression' Gavin Long, the US military veteran who shot dead three US police officers in the city of Baton Rouge, was a prolific social media user. 2016-07-20 03:19 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 70 Why Google DeepMind wants your medical records Google has made headlines for its forays into healthcare but what is its ultimate goal? 2016-07-20 03:19 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 71 Breaking News English Lesson English News Lessons: Free 26-Page lesson plan / 2-page mini- lesson - Turkey Coup - Handouts, online activities, speed reading, dictation, mp3... current events. 2016-07-20 03:21 1KB www.breakingnewsenglish.com 72 Brexit: May hopes for 'frank and open' talks during Merkel visit PM Theresa May says she does "not underestimate the challenges" ahead in negotiating the UK's exit from the EU, ahead of her first talks with Germany's Angela Merkel. 2016-07-20 03:46 4KB www.bbc.co.uk

73 Entertainment week in Pictures: 9 A look at some of the events in the world of entertainment and arts over the past week. 2016-07-20 03:47 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 74 Hot weather: Rail services disrupted on UK's hottest day Commuters faced delays as soaring temperatures of over 33C (92F) disrupted train services on the hottest day of the year so far. 2016-07-20 03:48 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 75 Turkey crisis: Cleric Gulen condemns post- coup 'witch-hunt' Frail US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen rejects Turkish accusations he masterminded a coup attempt - but describes Turkey's leadership as a 'cult'. 2016-07-20 03:46 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 76 The mysterious case of the drug- smuggling fishermen In 2011, five Isle of Wight fishermen were given long prison sentences after being convicted of carrying out a £53m drug smuggling operation. Does new evidence suggest they were innocent? 2016-07-20 03:46 8KB www.bbc.co.uk 77 Pokemon Go: Bosnia players warned of minefields Players of the hugely popular mobile game Pokemon Go in Bosnia are warned to avoid areas where landmines lie unexploded from the war in the 1990s. 2016-07-20 03:22 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 78 Your pictures: Posters Each week, we publish a gallery of readers' pictures on a set theme. This week, we asked for your pictures on the theme of "posters". 2016-07-20 03:23 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 79 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. 2016-07-20 03:23 679Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 80 Fox News boss Roger Ailes 'in talks on his departure' Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes is negotiating his departure from the network, according to US media reports. 2016-07-20 03:34 1KB www.bbc.co.uk

81 and other Brexit lessons for Africa In our series of letters from African journalists, novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at David Cameron's resignation after the vote to leave the European Union and asks whether there are any lessons for Africa. 2016-07-20 03:34 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 82 Mali attack: Gunmen kill 17 soldiers at military base At least 17 soldiers have been killed and 30 wounded in an attack on a military base in Mali, officials say. 2016-07-20 03:34 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 83 Tasting India's coveted holy sweet The BBC's Shilpa Kannan visits the southern Indian town of Tirupati to find out what makes the 'Tirupati laddoo' so special. 2016-07-20 03:34 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 84 Colombia to press for open border with Venezuela after food queues The government in Colombia calls for the permanent opening of its border with Venezuela after crisis-hit Venezuelans flock to buy basic items. 2016-07-20 03:34 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 85 The Mercury 13: Women with the 'right stuff' In the early 60s, 13 women undertook secret tests at Nasa to see if they could become astronauts. 2016-07-20 03:34 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 86 Fire disrupts Paris Gare du Nord rail travel Rail travel including the Eurostar service to Britain is temporarily halted from the Gare du Nord station in Paris after a fire. 2016-07-20 03:34 833Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 87 Taiwan web users join 'Apologise to China' contest Facebook campaign wants people to own up on how they might have wronged the People's Republic. 2016-07-20 03:34 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 88 Woman in Kansas City gives birth to three sets of twins Danesha Couch from Kansas City tells BBC News she feels "blessed" after giving birth to her third set of twins on 17 June. 2016-07-20 03:34 3KB www.bbc.co.uk

89 Hottest June ever recorded worldwide Last month was the hottest ever June worldwide, and the 14th straight month that global heat records have been broken, scientists say. 2016-07-20 03:34 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 90 The threats and abuse outspoken Pakistani women receive After the killing of outspoken social media user Qandeel Baloch, BBC Urdu's female correspondents recount their experiences of threats and abuse online. 2016-07-20 03:34 7KB www.bbc.co.uk 91 Bank of America Stadium shows off security improvements New security buildings, enhanced procedures highlight changes at stadium 2016-07-20 03:41 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 92 What next for the Northern Powerhouse? The former Chancellor George Osborne peppered media interviews with references to the "Northern Powerhouse" but what's next for the project since his departure? 2016-07-20 03:39 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 93 The importance of the Trident decision MPs prepare to debate the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent but is there still a need for a British bomb? 2016-07-20 03:38 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 94 What went on at the hospital that 'experimented' on child patients? Dozens of former child patients at a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s and 70s claim they were experimented on with a so-called truth serum. 2016-07-20 03:37 9KB www.bbc.co.uk 95 NSPCC issues warning over leaving children home alone The NSPCC is urging parents to think carefully before leaving children home alone over the summer holidays. 2016-07-20 03:36 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 96 10 States Sue Federal Government Over Transgender Bathroom Rules KMorgan 1330 posts 2016-07-20 03:31 1KB www.thetribunepapers.com 97 Newspaper headlines: Migration target 'axed' and 'fight for Labour's soul' Controversy over migration targets, the Labour leadership battle and patients being "dropped by GPs for being too healthy" all feature on Wednesday's front pages. 2016-07-20 03:25 713Bytes www.bbc.co.uk

98 Two men and woman dead in Aberdeen tower block 'incident' Three people are killed during a disturbance at a flat in the Tillydrone area of Aberdeen. 2016-07-20 03:26 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 99 International exposure photography award Twelve international photographers have been announced as the winners of the inaugural Magnum and LensCulture Photography Award. 2016-07-20 03:18 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 100 Rabbi Dov Lior: Go protest the parade The notice called for a protest rally in the Bukharin Quarter, a haredi neighborhood which is not close to the pride parade route. 2016-07-20 02:30 1KB www.jpost.com Articles

Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-20 06:01

1 Republican National Convention 2016 live updates (4.16/5) • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter What's so outrageous is that for the rest of her life, Hillary Clinton will never even think about dialing 911. For 30 years, she hasn't taken a walk, a nap or a bathroom break without a good guy with a gun there to protect her. So it's easy for her to dismiss a right she will never have to use. Chris Cox of the NRA went after Hillary Clinton as someone who would not protect the 2nd Amendment if she is elected president. He kept his remarks brief, focusing more on the type of Supreme Court justice Clinton would appoint than specific claims about gun violence. Here's some context about deaths by guns in America over the last 15 years. Former U. S. attorney general and Republican National Convention speaker Michael Mukasey has not been shy about criticizing Hillary Clinton. Last year, George W. Bush's former top lawyer said that if Hillary Clinton was convicted of destroying government records by erasing emails from her private server, she couldn't legally run for president. He eventually walked those comments back . But this year he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying criminal charges against her were justified . Hillary will give you double for your trouble. Find your personalized bingo card here. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan announces the tally: 1,725 Trump 475 Cruz 120 Kasich 114 Rubio 7 Carson 3 Bush 2 Paul The chair announces that Donald J. Trump, having received a majority of these votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States. The mood was celebratory, but also subdued and uneven, around the Republican National Convention as Donald Trump became the party’s official nominee Tuesday evening, a reflection of how divisive this year’s primary contest became. Keiko Orall of Massachusetts, an incoming member of the Republican National Committee, described the feeling as "hopeful. " "People are really excited to do something different," she said. Orall said full acceptance of Trump by the GOP establishment was "going to take some time," but predicted the party would be united in November because of the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. "There's a binary choice," she said. "And there's a long game in the Supreme Court. " New Yorkers were jubilant as their vote pushed their native son over the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the nomination. "Congratulations, Dad — we love you! " Donald Trump Jr. shouted as the band began playing “New York, New York.” Among some delegations, the mood was sour. When Ohio cast its 66 votes for its governor, John Kasich, some near the delegation booed and flashed their thumbs down. Many of its delegates left once Trump was named the nominee. Utah’s state rules dictate that it can only vote for a candidate who is put into contention, yet tried to cast its 40 votes for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Delegates said they were informed only just before the vote that they could not cast their votes for Cruz, even though he won the state's caucus decisively. Chris Herrod, a mortgage officer from Provo, said it felt like a ham-fisted push for party unity. Utahans have been slow to come around to Trump. "We're trying to get behind Trump. We obviously don't want Hillary," Herrod said. But, he added: "It's a lot harder when there's a spear at our back. " He said several delegates had told him they wouldn't have spent the money to travel to the convention if they had known they would not be able to vote for Cruz. "I'm not a 'Never Trump' person," he said. "I just believe in the process. " The Alaska delegation was displeased when party rules dictated that all their votes be given to Trump, and demanded a poll of its vote. Party leaders halted the dispute by saying Alaska was among the states that didn’t allow votes to be cast for candidates who have dropped out of the race. Others appeared to have put their differences aside. As Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced his delegation's votes, he called primary winner Cruz “our dear friend” and “our favorite son” as he announced he had won 104 votes, compared with 48 for Trump, whom Patrick described as “our new friend” and “our latest adopted favorite son.” The California delegation — a 100% pro-Trump delegation since the state primary took place after the contest was decided — was seated in the front row and among the most enthusiastic in the room. “We are rock-solid for Trump," said Shirley Husar, a delegate from Pasadena who announced California's vote. UFC President Dana White may seem like an unconventional choice to speak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland: Just last December he told Yahoo Sports, "I'm not a political guy, at all, not a little bit. " So what is he doing here? He told TMZ this week the speech "will be about my relationship with Trump and the Trump that I know. " That makes sense given that the night's theme is about the economy and that White has spoken about Trump's early support of the ultimate fighting league in the past. "Donald Trump was the first one to have us come out at the Trump Taj Mahal," he told TMZ. "Not only did we host the events there, but he actually showed up and supported the events. You'll never hear me say a negative thing about Donald Trump. " Some know Mike Pence as congressman. Others know him as governor. But back home, most call him Mike. For the first time this week, police threatened a group of demonstrators with arrest, after a rowdy crowd, some wearing masks, sprinted through the streets of downtown Cleveland in a cat-and-mouse game with officers on bicycles. The protest, Tuesday afternoon, which seemed to have splintered from a larger march that started at Public Square earlier in the day, ended shortly before 8 p.m. when officers declared an unlawful assembly just outside the city's convention center. Police Chief Calvin Williams skipped the police department's nightly news briefing to help break up the rally, conversing with protesters, even bantering with a man wearing a bandana who insisted the police had violated the Constitution by asking the demonstrators to go home. "We're free to go wherever we want! " the man yelled at Williams. "You're free to go that way," the police chief replied, pointing away from the convention center. No one was arrested, though protesters defied police barricades and directions several times, at one point sprinting through a parking garage to evade officers on bicycles. The demonstration marked the end to a more chaotic, but still largely non- violent, second day of protests at the convention. A minor melee broke out in Public Square around 4 p.m., when a shoving match erupted near where Alex Jones, the far-right political commentator and founder of InfoWars.com, was chanting through a bullhorn. Williams was bumped into during the fracas, but no one was arrested. In the hour that followed, a number of different groups, including the Westboro Baptist Church and the Revolutionary Communist Party, held dueling demonstrations in the area, but police on bicycles kept opposing groups away from one another. After a brief dust-up over the roll call votes of Alaska, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus took the stage to explain the procedure. Initially, all of Alaska's delegates went to Donald Trump. However, Alaska state rules have a provision that notes that when a presidential candidate drops out, those delegates remain with that candidate. Alaska's vote would have been 12 Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, 11 Trump and five for Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. The discrepancy was eventually alleviated with all delegates going to Trump. I have the incredible honor of not only being a part of the ride that’s been this election process and to watch, as a small fly on the wall, what my father has done in creating this movement – because it’s not a campaign anymore, it’s a movement -- speaking to real Americans, giving them a voice again. It’s my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight.... Congratulations, Dad, we love you. Despite a mix-up that forced former NFL star Tim Tebow to announce that he was not, as rumored, going to be speaking at the convention , Trump has rounded up a couple of figures from the sports world to speak Tuesday. Dana White, president of the wildly popular Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise, will deliver remarks after the roll call votes concludes. White is also an MMA talent scout and reality television star on his UFC Fight Pass/YouTube show, "Looking for a Fight. " White, based in Las Vegas, has previously contributed money to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Also speaking Tuesday is Natalie Gulbis, a professional golfer from Sacramento, Calif. Gulbis, 33, appeared with Trump on the eighth season of "Celebrity Apprentice. " She recently penned an article in Golf Magazine supporting "The Donald Trump I Know. " "I realize he has made his share of controversial remarks, but in my experience, I have found him to be gracious, generous and inspiring," she wrote. "Because of that, I have always found political rhetoric about Trump's misogynistic 'war on women' to be inconsistent with the Trump I know. " Other sports stars previously rumored to be speaking at the convention included Mike Tyson, Mike Ditka and NASCAR chief Brian France. By Friday, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine might well be on a Florida stage with Hillary Clinton as her newly announced running mate. But for now, he is across the country in California, raising money for his own political action committee. This long-scheduled trip has only attracted greater interest given his status as one of the top potential choices to complete the Democratic ticket as Clinton's pick for vice president. "The attention has generated more than you might expect for a Virginia senator in California," said one donor who co-hosted a fundraiser for Kaine, granted anonymity to freely discuss the closed-door event. At one event Monday in West Hollywood, Kaine, a former governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, was questioned repeatedly by donors about his future. According to multiple people familiar with the discussion, Kaine did not tip his hand about his status in Clinton's deliberations. But he described the chance to serve as the No. 2 for the first female president as a unique and historic opportunity. "He was being extremely respectful and diplomatic for the other three or four people" also being considered by Clinton, one donor said. Kaine said he was confident that Clinton would choose who she feels is best for the position, he added. "He discussed it as something of importance to all of us, to him as a senator, to him as a citizen regardless of whether he's on the ticket," said another attendee. In his remarks, Kaine offered a comprehensive overview of domestic and international events, including heightened tensions in the U. S. after a series of racially fraught shootings, Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the attempted coup in Turkey. And he spoke of his interest in finding consensus — his fundraising committee is called the Common Ground PAC — and argued that Donald Trump has demonstrated he is not the bridge-builder that Clinton has promised to be. Kaine had four events Los Angeles and San Francisco this week. He was scheduled to speak Wednesday at an event in Northern Virginia hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce. Clinton is to campaign Friday in Tampa, Fla., one day after the end of the Republican National Convention. Congratulations, Dad! We love you! Donald J. Trump, the New York real estate tycoon and reality TV star, captured the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, ushering him into an uphill fall campaign against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Trump’s victory on the first roll call ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland completed his conquest of the GOP and capped what seemed an impossibly long shot when he launched his campaign a little over a year ago from his headquarters in a Manhattan high-rise. Trump topped a field of 17 candidates, including many with far longer political resumes and considerably more polish, and weathered innumerable controversies to win the nomination on his first run for elected office. As recently as 2011, Trump was not even a registered Republican. Read more

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski casts New Hampshire's votes latimes.com Lewis' Lagniappe July 19 dailycaller.com

Update on: Republican National Convention 2016 live updates: Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president latimes.com

The 2016 Republican National Convention Photos abcnews.go.com Sen. Thom Tillis at the Republican National Convention charlotteobserver.com 2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

2 RNC delegate count: Donald Trump becomes the nominee (2.39/5) The New Yorker's embrace by the Republican National Convention marks a remarkable moment in U. S. political history and validates a campaign that shattered precedent, defied pundits and usurped the GOP establishment. His son Donald Trump, Jr., cast the votes for the New York delegation that put the billionaire businessman over the top of the 1,237 delegates he needed to clinch the nomination, as any talk of disruptive protest votes or walkouts dissipated. "It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight with 89 delegates," Donald Jr. said, surrounded by three of Trump's other children -- Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany. "Congratulations Dad, we love you. " An emotional Ivanka Trump told CNN's Dana Bash immediately after her father was confirmed as the Republican nominee, "It's unbelievable, it's surreal, I am so proud of my father. " "I have never underestimated my father, ever," Eric Trump said. Donald Jr. was tearing up when he told Bash that putting his father over the top was "one of the more surreal moments of my life other perhaps than the birth of my children. To be able to do that is historic, its awesome. " "It's pretty real. " Trump is scheduled to address the convention via remote from New York in the evening, but tweeted shortly after the vote. "Such a great honor to be the Republican Nominee for President of the United States. I will work hard and never let you down! AMERICA FIRST! " Protests fizzle An effort to place the name of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for nomination fizzled late Tuesday afternoon. The effort had no chance of success since most of the delegates won by Trump in his GOP nominating victory were bound to vote for him in the roll call under the rules of the Republican primary process. Cruz's inner circle had adamantly opposed any attempt to involve him in last minute convention floor intrigue, a senior adviser to the Texas senator told CNN. "We're not encouraging it. We're actually trying to stop it," the adviser said. A rebellion would have emphasized the divides in the GOP torn open by Trump's campaign, which was given little chance of success when he descended a golden escalator in Trump Tower with his wife Melania to set his sights on the White House last year. Protests erupt at RNC Trump's name was put into the nomination by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, an early supporter of the businessman, and was seconded by fellow early supporters New York Rep. Chris Collins and South Carolina Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster. "We have gotten off course and the American people know it," Sessions said in his speech, warning that crime is rising, terrorist attacks are proliferating, and Congress is deadlocked, arguing that Trump is the only answer. "The American voters heard his message and they rewarded his courage and his leadership with a huge victory in our primaries," Sessions said, drawing raucous cheers from Trump fans on the convention floor. "He loves his country and he is determined to see it be a winner again," Sessions said. "Donald Trump is the singular leader that can get this country back on track. He has the strength, the courage the will to get it done. " Trump's roll call will be followed by the nomination and vote for Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as the vice presidential nominee. Tuesday's vote passed more smoothly than events on the convention floor Monday when holdouts tried to embarrass Trump by initiating a fight over rules of the gathering. Trump's team monitored delegates to quell any kind of rebellion, with a team of whips on the floor and eyes in the sky. The Trump delegate brain trust was holed up in a skybox inside the convention center where they tracked the movement of delegates as the roll was called. Trump whips wore neon green hats to make it easier for them to spot.

Republican Party nominates Donald Trump for president newsinfo.inquirer.net

Donald Trump officially nominated for president cbsnews.com 2016-07-20 03:44 Stephen Collinson www.cnn.com

3 Trump Officially Wins GOP Nomination (1.06/5) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump obtained more than the 1,237 delegate votes needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination Tuesday at the Republican National Convention. “New York, New York” was played as it was announced he met the mark, having taken in 2,427 winning his home state. Trump received a total of 1,725, followed by former presidential candidates Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 475, Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 120, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 114, Ben Carson with seven, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with three and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul with two. All of Ohio’s 66 delegates went to Kasich. Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Colorado, Washington, D. C., North Dakota, Alaska, Virginia, Utah, Maine and Wyoming all supported other candidates, but despite the lack of support, many still had their entire delegate count allocated toward Trump because he was the only one formally placed in nomination. Despite 10 votes in the District of Columbia having been cast for Rubio and nine having been cast for Kasich, all 19 votes were allocated to Trump – which was met with boos from the delegates. Utah went to Cruz, but all 40 delegates were allocated to Trump. Alaska attempted to contest the state’s delegate count, but Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the shift in delegates was valid due to other candidates dropping out. The “Never Trump” movement unsuccessfully attempted to derail the billionaire’s nomination Monday. They pushed for a rules change that would have freed the delegates to vote as they pleased. The initiative was quickly shot down by GOP officials. Trump is expected to face presumed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election. The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia July 25-28. 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].

Donald Trump officially nominated for president cbsnews.com 2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

4 Name that tune: The 1960s anthem quoted to nominate Trump (1.05/5) • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter In seconding the nomination of Donald Trump for president, Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina reached back to the 1960s for inspiration. "There's something happening here. What it is is precisely clear. We are going to make America great again! " McMaster said, paraphrasing lines from the 1967 Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth. " Written by Stephen Stills, the song was inspired by the Sunset Strip riots of 1966. It would become an antiwar anthem for the era with lyrics including, "What a field day for the heat / A thousand people in the street / Singing songs and carrying signs. " Neil Young, a former member of Buffalo Springfield, made it clear to Trump last year that he didn't want the candidate using his music on the campaign trail. The reaction on social media was almost immediate.

Republican Party nominates Donald Trump for president newsinfo.inquirer.net 2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

5 Donald Trump Jr. announced the votes to send his dad over the top (1.03/5) • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter I have the incredible honor of not only being a part of the ride that’s been this election process and to watch, as a small fly on the wall, what my father has done in creating this movement – because it’s not a campaign anymore, it’s a movement - - speaking to real Americans, giving them a voice again. It’s my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight.... Congratulations, Dad, we love you.

10 Reasons Why I Will Never Vote for Donald Trump spectator.org 2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

6 North Carolina roll call vote during Republican convention (1.02/5) Donald Trump's wife Melania talks about growing up in Slovenia, American citizenship and her appreciation for veterans. "Donald has always been an amazing leader, now he will go to work for you," she said about the Republican presidential nominee. Courtesy of FedNet "Never Trump" delegates push for a roll call vote at the Republican National Convention and confusion ensues after the podium is vacated Monday afternoon on the first day of events. Rose Hamid talks about the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and her plans to hand out flower pens to attendees. Over 2,000 delegates from 50 states and multiple U. S. territories, as well as media, politicians, lobbyists, pundits, and generally curious onlookers descend on Cleveland this week for the RNC. Aside from confirming Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, what three things should Americans be watching for? Charlotte GOP delegate has worked in the Mideast. Observer reporters Jim Morrill and Tim Funk discuss the upcoming DNC. Observer political writers Jim Morrill and Tim Funk answer questions about the RNC and DNC. Observer reporters Jim Morrill and Tim Funk discuss the upcoming Republican National Convention North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory was in attendance at BB Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for North Carolina governor, speaks at CPCC.

New York passes its turn in roll call vote -- for a reason latimes.com 2016-07-20 04:45 www.charlotteobserver.com

7 I Feel for Melania Trump (1.02/5) I feel for Melania Trump. She was poised and beautiful in delivering her Monday night speech in support of her husband’s presidential aspirations. And then her Biden moment — it was found out, as it inevitably would have been — that part of her speech was taken, nearly verbatim, from a 2008 speech given by Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Mrs. Trump emphasized Donald’s business success: “My husband’s experience exemplifies growth and the successful passage of opportunity to the next generation. His success indicates inclusion rather than division. My husband offers a new direction, welcoming change, prosperity and greater cooperation among peoples and nations.” One might quibble over whether Trump’s rhetoric thus far suggests greater cooperation among nations, but there’s no doubt that he offers a new direction from the last devastating seven and a half years. She said that “Donald intends to represent all the people, not just some of the people. That includes Christians and Jews and Muslims, it includes Hispanics and African-Americans and Asians, and the poor and the middle class.” Hillary Clinton on the other hand is a prisoner, albeit in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of way, of identity politics. On day she represents one aggrieved group, the next day another, and never a truly United States. And one sentence that I particularly appreciated: “On July 28th, 2006, I was very proud to become a citizen of the United States — the greatest privilege on planet Earth.” Compare that to Michelle Obama’s reprehensible statement following her husband’s securing the Democratic nomination in 2008 that “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.” The contrast says everything you need to know about the change that so many Americans hope to achieve through this election. But then there’s the part of the speech that everyone’s talking about: “From a young age my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.” Compare this, as countless others have in the past 36 hours, to Michelle Obama’s words in 2008: “And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.” Some in the media are focusing on this as if it somehow tarnishes Mrs. Trump, but they’re wrong. It does, however, tarnish the Trump campaign showing yet another “not ready for prime time” moment, as did Trump’s appearance on Fox News’ “The Factor” on Monday evening, causing that network to miss airing the incredibly moving remarks of Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith who perished in Benghazi. It is more than unlikely that Melania herself cribbed the words of Michelle. Instead, a lazy staffer somehow thought he or she could save a few minutes of writing words on those basic themes and instead simply copy the words of one of the most famous women on earth — during the Internet age when Michelle’s speech can be found in about 10 seconds and when there are websites dedicated to comparing text to other text to sniff out plagiarism. It was an error that was beyond stupid. But even that isn’t the reason this is a big story — and it is, despite many saying the pilfered words represent the proverbial molehill. The issue is the campaign’s reaction. Campaign chairman Paul “I’m hoping to be an extra in Godfather Part IV” Manafort reacted to the discovery by saying “There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values.” He added that the plagiarism story represented “an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks out to demean her and take her down.” Both statements were such obvious lies and misdirection that even Trump supporters must have been cringing. CNN reported Tuesday that “Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has no plans to fire anybody on the campaign or to take any disciplinary action against anyone for the Melania Trump speech plagiarism controversy.” I’ll bet you a beer that that changes within 48 hours, if not within 12. Somebody made Melania look bad and if there’s one thing that seems certain about Donald Trump it is his intense loyalty to his family. It is also something of a test between management judgment and the admirable trait of loyalty which, to give one example, kept Mr. Trump from firing Corey Lewandowski for much too long. This should be a much easier decision, even if it makes Manafort look bad, because the victim here was Trump’s wife and because what was done to her was not just a slight miscalculation but the sort of error that a middle-schooler wouldn’t make. Paul Manafort seems to think that he can make the story go away by refusing to speak about it anymore. He’s wrong, not least because the media’s desire to help Hillary Clinton will keep them focused here for as long as possible. The only way out of this story is really the right way out. Instead of putting up a wall to defend the indefensible, find the perpetrator and fire him (or her). And let it be known that the campaign and any subsequent Trump administration will adhere to the highest standards of professional ethics. Given the debacle that is the Hillary Clinton tenure at the State Department, such an action also serves as a useful contrast to the reprobate Democratic nominee. Melania Trump’s opening night speech at the RNC was everything it needed to be. This plagiarism mini-scandal threatens to derail media coverage of much of the convention unless Donald Trump does the right thing — both ethically and politically — and tells Paul Manafort to stop acting the mafia henchman part he dresses for, protecting his “made man” inside the campaign regardless of that person’s misdeeds. In the meantime, a good woman is paying the price.

Trump campaign denies Melania plagiarism allegations bbc.co.uk 2016-07-20 04:10 Ross Kaminsky spectator.org

8 Black Lives Matter protest becomes a picnic with police — RT America (1.02/5) In an effort to open lines of communication between the community and the police force, organizers of a Black Lives Matter protest met with Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay to try something different. Instead of marching in the streets with police standing to the side, the two groups came together for the barbecue at McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas. The picnic drew a crowd of whites, blacks and Hispanics, spanning a wide age range, the Wichita Eagle reported. At one table, Jarvis Scott, a black man, sat down with Lt. Travis Rakestraw to eat hamburgers, marking the first time that he had sat with a police officer in 24 years. There were two others seated at that same table who had never done so: Ivan Ray, a Hispanic student at the University of Kansas, and a white man. All of this was an effort to re-engage with community policing, that is, when an officer stays in a community and interacts with it. It was a higher priority during the troubled 1990s, as Capt. Rusty Leeds explained to the Wichita Eagle, saying, “ then it was the gang violence, and now it’s the conduct of police. ” However, budget constraints drew the police’s efforts away from establishing themselves as members of the community. While seated at a table with Rakestraw, Scott and the other two gentlemen, they discussed the issues that their sides had been facing. When asked about racial biases, Rakestraw told them, “ Then it was the gang violence, and now it’s the conduct of police, ” adding, “ I don’t think anybody does it intentionally but we fill in the gaps with life experiences, what we read in the paper, and we start to view people as a generalization instead of understanding people as individuals. ” After a few hours, the picnic turned into a public forum to directly question Ramsay. Over the course of the question and answer session, Ramsay reaffirmed his dedication to police body cameras and pledged to review complaints about officer conduct by using the footage with the complainant. “ If you feel mistreated, I want to know about it ,” Ramsay said. “ If they feel they are being mistreated, at the scene is not the time to argue about it, wait until it’s over. ” When asked about officers with racial biases, Ramsay said, “ Loud and clear I have zero tolerance for racial profiling or racial bias. ” All three men seated with Rakestraw confirmed that they were still planning on marching, but appreciated that he seemed to care about what they were saying. When Ray talked about racial disparities, Rakestraw said, “ The community needs more people like you who can see the problems in wide open eyes, ” then asked, “ What should we do about it? ”

Black Lives Matter protesters march through York heraldonline.com 2016-07-20 04:07 www.rt.com

9 Shock and sadness as fans react to news of Gugu Zulu's death (1.00/5) Taking to social media, fans expressed their shock and sadness in the immediate aftermath of the news of his death. Zulu was a celebrated and well-established racing driver for Volkswagen, and the loss to South Africa is tremendous. Gugu Zulu was 'good people' in truest sense of the word. Thoughts goes out to his wife & baby and rest of his loved ones. Absolutely tragic — Kojo Baffoe (@kojobaffoe) July 18, 2016 Rip #guguzulu one of the best racers this country has seen. condolences to his family — Lerato Mahlangu (@uLeerato) July 18, 2016 GUGU ZULU he was so adventures could say he died doing what he loved may his soul rest in peace — Xo Orbit (@AphaneOrbit) July 18, 2016 >So sad to hear of the passing of Gugu Zulu, may his soul rest in peace, condolences to his family and friends...:( — Thando Thabooty (@Thando_Thabethe) July 18, 2016 Zulu was due to climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro on Monday for Mandela Day. This year's Trek4Mandela expedition aimed to raise enough funds to ensure that 350 000 girl children would not miss a day of school due to menstrual challenges. The Nelson Mandela Foundation released a statement confirming the news, saying Zulu had experienced breathing problems. His wife, Letshego, was with him on the trip and they descended the mountain together. "What we do know is that Gugu experienced problems breathing. The medical team supporting the trek put him on a drip and they descended the mountain with him," said the foundation.

WATCH: 5 things you might not have known about Gugu Zulu timeslive.co.za 2016-07-20 06:00 TMG Entertainment www.timeslive.co.za

10 Homicide investigation in west Charlotte (0.01/5) The Pineville Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is investigating a homicide that occurred at 122 Olive Street in Pineville. CMPD Lt. Brian Sanders said at a press conference Thursday "as violent crime increases in the summertime, we can move resources in more of a real-time manner in order to make that happen. " A Cleveland County Sheriff’s deputy was injured and a suspect he was trying to subdue was killed during an altercation Tuesday, authorities said. A college counselor found dying in her burning apartment Saturday was killed by a man who lived in the same complex and who was captured near Las Vegas, police said. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department held a vigil on Monday evening for the victims of the shooting massacre in Orlando. Devon Davis discusses his experiences in solitary confinement and his attempts to get settled after being released from prison. Words from the mother of murder victim Bianca Tanner and the man who was convicted in her death. Julie Mall was arrested at Bald Head Island after police stopped the family for allowing 11-year-old son to drive a golf cart. Julie Mall was arrested after allowing her son to drive a golf cart at Bald Head Island. Raw video footage of McDonalds employees fighting over pies from the Facebook page of Noah Smith III.

Friend of Charlotte homicide victim: 'I'm hurting.' charlotteobserver.com 2016-07-20 03:11 www.charlotteobserver.com

11 11 Dignitaries arrive in Mthatha for opening of revamped Madiba Museum Gordon Igesund has not had any contact with the new owners of Moroka Swallows and is rather looking to a couple of opportunities to coach national teams in Africa‚ with his agent Mike Makaab currently in discussion with interested parties.

2016-07-20 06:00 Sikho Ntshobane www.timeslive.co.za

12 PSL newcomers Highlands Park, Baroka FC locked in tug-of-war over player Baroka‚ who gained promotion to the topflight after winning the National First Division (NFD) title two months ago‚ announced Matloga as one of their new signings for the coming season a week ago. Highlands Park‚ the side the midfielder represented last season on their way to gaining promotion through the promotion-relegation playoffs‚ are adamant that Matloga remains contracted to the Tembisa-based club. Baroka‚ on the other hand‚ claim that they've signed the player as a free agent. “Richard remains our player‚ and anybody who wants the player must come to us – simple‚” Highlands director Sinky Mnisi said. But Baroka remains convinced that they secured Matloga's signature lawfully after their acquisition of the player was approved by the PSL. Highlands took the matter to the PSL and League officials are reviewing the dispute in its Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC). “He (Matloga) is with Baroka [currently]‚ they presumed to have signed him. It is their democratic right to do that‚ but this matter is in the hands of the DRC in the PSL‚” said Mnisi. “Matloga remains a Highlands Park player. We will elaborate the facts at the end because the matter is sub judice at the moment and I cannot be discussing the matter [in public] whilst it is still under review. “I have written a letter to the league to inform them that he is still our player and [his] contract states that. We will wait for the league to deal with the matter. If Baroka wants the player‚ they will have to come and discuss it with us.” Mnisi added that his side did not want to be entangled in a war of words with Baroka‚ given the two sides’ rivalry dating back to their NFD days. “We don’t want to be engaged with Baroka in any fights because in the past we have been accused of lacking sportsmanship‚ they said it was sour grapes (after finishing behind Baroka in the NFD)‚” said Mnisi. The director is pleased with the 12 new signings his side has included for the coming season. “We are more than happy‚” he said. “We had a mini-cheque book‚ and we have used it wisely… People can brace themselves for a war. We are not just going to let anybody go past Makhulong Stadium. "

2016-07-20 06:00 Chumani Bambani www.timeslive.co.za

13 Gugu Zulu ‘should have turned back’‚ experts say Climbing experts told TMG Digital on Tuesday that flu-like symptoms were a cause for serious concern at high altitude. Zulu died while taking part on the Trek4Mandela expedition on Mount Kilimanjaro. He complained of having flu-like symptoms on Saturday and posted on his Instagram account that he was “struggling with the mountain”. The next day‚ he continued walking and was photographed getting acclimatised. Hours later he required medical treatment for breathing difficulties. Climbing experts suspect that Zulu could have succumbed to altitude sickness – although the cause of death is yet to be confirmed - also known as pulmonary oedema‚ which they say is a common cause of death on high mountains. The Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Tuesday said that it did not have any details about the cause of death. “Any such [flu-like] symptoms are a cause for concern whilst at altitude‚” explained Justin Lawson‚ a mountain guide from Climbing ZA. “If you have symptoms of mild AMS (acute mountain sickness)‚ then you should not go any higher for 24 to 48 hours. If the symptoms do not improve or get worse‚ then you should descend immediately‚” he said. “… he should have turned around sooner. However‚ it should be noted that it is very common for climbers to get symptoms associated with acute mountain sickness at some point during their climb‚” said Adam Collins‚ expedition coordinator at Ultimate Kilimanjaro. “So it is really a question of what degree of acute mountain sickness Zulu experienced‚ and what was done to prevent‚ identify‚ and treat altitude related illnesses‚” he said. “Mount Kilimanjaro is commonly described as ‘Everyman's Everest’ because it is one of the seven summits that can be climbed by anyone in decent physical fitness. No technical mountaineering skills are required‚” said Collins. “However‚ at 5895m-tall‚ there is a high probability of developing some degree of acute mountain sickness while on Kilimanjaro. “Therefore it is good practice for those wanting to climb Kilimanjaro to get cleared for high altitude trekking by their doctors‚” said Collins. Collins said Mount Kilimanjaro was not a dangerous mountain to climb‚ but‚ “there is always danger when climbing high mountains”. “It is commonly reported that approximately 10 climbers die every year on the mountain‚ primarily due to acute mountain sickness‚ out of some 35 000 people who attempt it annually. The last image posted on Gugu Zulu's Instagram account “By mountaineering standards‚ this fatality rate is very‚ very low. Some peaks have 50% fatality rates‚” said Collins. Edmund February‚ an ardent climber and an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town‚ however‚ believes there could be more deaths on Kilimanjaro which go unreported. “I would imagine it’s a lot more common than what comes out. Gugu was a famous guy that’s why we hear about it but I have heard of several deaths on Kilimanjaro.” Lawson said that for anyone climbing a mountain above 1500m‚ care had to be taken to acclimatise properly by ascending slowly and descending immediately if one showed any signs of acute mountain sickness. “The more days you allow climbing the mountain‚ the higher the probability of success as your body has more time to adapt and acclimatise‚” he said.

2016-07-20 06:00 Nomahlubi Jordaan www.timeslive.co.za

14 National Freedom Party out of the elections after losing last gasp bid This follows the Electoral Court’s decision to dismiss the party’s bid to be included on the ballot paper‚ after missing the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC’s) payment deadline. The Electoral Court’s decision is a blow for the already embattled NFP‚ the country’s fifth-biggest political party‚ whose leader Zanele Magwaza-Msibi has been out of action for more than a year after falling ill at the end of 2014‚ leading to a vacuum that led to divisions within the party. At the weekend two senior party members‚ secretary-general Nhlanhla Khubisa and national chairman Maliyakhe Shelembe‚ resigned from the NFP. The party approached the Electoral Court last week after treasurer Xolani Ndlovu‚ in what the party called an “administrative error”‚ misread the deadline provided by the IEC and paid the R90‚000 deposit late. The IEC on Monday said the court had dismissed the NFP matter. The order was issued on Saturday. However‚ the NFP made no mention of the court’s decision at a press briefing held in Durban on Sunday. But it did announce that it had decided to suspend deputy chairman Scelo Mabika and Ndlovu. This means the party‚ formed on the eve of the 2011 local government polls‚ will have no representation at local government elections ahead of the next general election in 2019. The NFP was a breakaway party from the Inkatha Freedom Party. It is not clear whether the fracturing party can survive if it cannot contest the August 3 elections. Worsening its position are the suspensions and resignations of party leaders. The party has said it will take the matter all the way to the Constitutional Court in a bid to contest the polls. In 2011‚ the NFP won 644‚917 votes‚ giving it more than 200 councillors‚ mainly in KwaZulu-Natal. The NFP went on to forge a coalition with the ANC in 19 hung municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. Magwaza-Msibi has worked closely with the ANC‚ and is the deputy minister of science and technology‚ but has not been active since her illness.

2016-07-20 06:00 Genevieve Quintal www.timeslive.co.za

15 Grinning terror twins to apply for bail on Monday They appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning on three terrorism-related charges. They include alleged attempts to join the Islamic State movement in Syria as well as alleged plans to attack US and Jewish interests in South Africa. Walking into the dock of courtroom 13‚ the two‚ casually dressed in grey hooded jackets and wearing thick glasses‚ smiled at their mother and sisters who were sitting in the packed public gallery before taking their seats. Listening to Du Plessis‚ they nodded their heads when he ordered that they be remanded back into custody until next Monday for a formal bail application. They left the courtroom waving to family and friends‚ and whispering to their eldest sister‚ Salomi McKuur‚ as they walked back down to the court's holding cells. The case was postponed shortly after the Thulsies’ new legal counsel‚ advocate Annamart Nieman‚ told the court she had only recently been appointed to represent the pair. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Phindi Louw said the postponement was agreed to because neither the state prosecutor nor defence lawyers were ready to proceed with the bail application. She said it was unknown why the Thulsies had replaced their original legal team. "We will be opposing bail next week. The offences are of a serious nature‚" said Louw. She declined to divulge why prosecutors from the NPA's Priority Crimes Litigation Unit were opposing bail. "We will not engage in a trial by media. What we can say is that we as the NPA have reasonable cause to believe offences were committed and we will proceed with the case. " – TMG Digital/The Times

2016-07-20 06:00 Graeme Hosken www.timeslive.co.za

16 DA: ‘ANC candidates list represents corruption‚ declining service delivery and unemployment’ “The ANC cannot bring the change South Africa needs‚ because it is more concerned with putting allies of Jacob Zuma in top mayoral positions. Zuma's pals will‚ like the President‚ put self-enrichment first and the people last‚” DA spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme said in a statement on Sunday. The DA has accused Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate Danny Jordaan of being a “part-time Mayor of broken promises after having faked the launch of a Metro Police‚ introducing 21‚000 more NMB residents to the ranks of the unemployed since December 2015 and losing over R320 million to leaks and electricity theft in the last 9 months. “Additionally‚ Jordaan's criminal pal Linda Mti was recently appointed to the Head of Safety and Security‚” said Van Damme. “In five years Mayor Parks Tau has overseen unemployment in Johannesburg rise to 869‚000. At the same time conditions in the informal settlements of Johannesburg have deteriorated to where the SA Human Rights Commission is now investigating the Johannesburg ANC government for human rights abuses. That the ANC wants to give Tau another term in government shows that the ANC doesn't take service delivery and stopping corruption seriously. “In Tshwane‚ the failure to reaffirm Mayor [Kgosientso “Sputla’] Ramokgopa shows that the ANC recognises that he and his ANC government have failed to deliver‚ including Sputla's PEU smart-meter Billion Rand scandal‚ unlawful broadband contracts‚ undrinkable water in Hammanskraal with 40‚000 more people joining the ranks of the unemployed in Tshwane since January 2016.” The DA said the ANC's inability to select a Tshwane candidate shows “a fractured and broken ANC in Tshwane”. “The voters cannot place trust in a party that fails to even agree on a suitable candidate for Mayor because it is so fractured and factionalised”. Van Damme added that the DA is ready to bring real change to Nelson Mandela Bay‚ Tshwane‚ Johannesburg‚ Ekurhuleni and many other places across the country. “This is the change that will stop corruption‚ deliver better services and create jobs. This is the change we need to move our country forward again.”

2016-07-20 06:00 Nomahlubi Jordaan www.timeslive.co.za

17 Lack of Parliament antics sees EFF’s media profile dip: survey The wrong reason for the ruling party paid off for the official opposition‚ the Democratic Alliance (DA). That Parliament is not in session curtailed the impression the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) made. Those are some of the key findings of Basemedia’s “political tracker” for June. “The violence is Tshwane significantly elevated the ANC’s media profile but also contributed to negativity on the organisation‚” the survey found. It said that “Thoko Didiza emerged as one of the ANC’s most visible members after she was announced as mayoral candidate for Tshwane”‚ but noted that both she and incumbent mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa “faced negativity as a result of the violence that followed the announcement”. The research note‚ however‚ that the party was “gradually able to move away from the critical coverage as the party deployed senior leaders on the campaign trail”. The tracker suggested that the DA had profited from the ANC’s trouble in the country’s capital as the “media reflected on the internal strengths of the DA and the manner in which the party had chosen its candidates”. It also said the DA and leader Mmusi Maimane had scored from the “Jobs not jets” campaign about its disapproval of the widely reported R4-billion price tag for a new presidential aircraft. EFF leader Julius Malema‚ on the other hand‚ “struggled to have any high- impact media exposure” other than that which was “generated…after he stated that ‘South Africa would be a boring place without whites’ ”. The researchers noted that “past analysis has shown that one of the biggest drivers for the EFF has been because of the organisation’s behaviour in Parliament”. “However‚ with Parliament now in recess‚ the EFF has struggled to get media to focus significantly on the party’s local election campaigning.” The study also found that Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi “advanced his media profile while speaking at the IFP’s manifesto launch” in uMlazi‚ during which he acknowledged that his party had lost ground‚ but had regrouped and focused itself for the August 3 municipal polls. 2016-07-20 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

18 ‘Brexit and the shanty town between France and Britain’ by Maite Nkoana-Mashabane Responding to a question at a briefing in Pretoria‚ she said: "Brexit? We don't know about it. We saw it on television. We heard it will impact negatively on trade and relations‚ but we haven't seen any evidence of that. " She recently became the target of ridicule after a rambling interview with Al Jazeera. On Monday‚ she appeared unconcerned by the admission that she knew nothing about the most momentous event in world affairs in recent times. The vote‚ by Britain‚ to exit the EU - SA's largest trading partner - has shaken global markets and sent currencies on a roller-coaster ride. Below is the full transcript of two of her responses‚ as released on Tuesday by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation‚ and published here unedited: Asked by RFI: “Question is on the visit to France. I would like to ask you about the importance of this visit in the context of Brexit and how that's going to change South Africa's relations with France especially accessing the EU market?” Nkoana-Mashabane: "Before I go to this question‚ before I forget even on the things I want to say on a lighter note. For some reason there is something very special between us and France. “When we were campaigning for Mme Dlamini Zuma we were told that: " aren't you aware that you are up against France? "‚ so we wondered‚ France is a member of the European Union. “We are members of the African Union so this can't be true. So Brexit‚ we don't know about it. We saw it on television. We hear that it would impact‚ when it started‚ negatively on our trade and investment relations with countries from that part but we haven't seen real evidence. “Maybe it is still coming but one thing first we are not members there and we can only say viva democracy.” Question by Carien du Plessis from News24:.... Also another question about Brexit. It looks like after Brexit‚ the EU project is crumbling a little bit. A lot of people want to pull out. Do you think this affect negatively the philosophy that the AU is currently chasing the whole integration idea or integrated market. Do you think this could affect the AU negatively? " Nkoana-Mashabane: “The Europeans were never colonised. They colonised others. So whatever we do here starting from the Organisation of the African Union to the African Union we were not mimicking the European Union because we come from two different backgrounds. “If their project failed or is failing we wish it shouldn't fail because people nowadays in 2016‚ if we understood what globalisation was about‚ is that they would follow opportunities. “So if you say we would build high walls to stop them we do not know how practical that is. That even when Brexit or when Britain was exiting‚ people were arriving in boats in Europe so I don't know how immune is the UK from that. “But I know that there is a big shanty town that's building up between the two countries. Am I correct? So those people are in limbo so one day they would have to go somewhere because they would not go back to their home countries. “Of course we focus on protecting and respecting the sovereignty of our individual member states and practically deal with issues of border control that would not necessarily inhibit people‚ genuine travellers who are carrying‚ who are documented‚ to be able to do business with their own backyard market. President Museveni says it takes two weeks to transport cattle by truck in the same region called the EAC from Uganda to Kenya. “So if we had good roads and rail infrastructure it wouldn't be a problem. At a given checkpoint on whether this cattle are healthy and have all their documents they could pass but that which has been an inhibition it's not whether they were healthy or not‚ it's because the roads infrastructure made it difficult. So we are still dealing with basics here. “But we say it's not necessary for me to fly to France in order for me to connect to Nouakchott. I should be able to fly from OR Tambo to Nouakchott so these are the things that we are still dealing with. So really we are not at the level where we can be saying you know the Union on the other side of those who once colonised us is falling apart so stop integrating.”

2016-07-20 06:00 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za

19 Turkish ructions spark new fears in Europe, US It is the intersection of the West's war with Isil in Syria and Iraq. Nato's concerns about a resurgent Russia loom across the Black Sea. Oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian and beyond crisscross the region. And while the migration crisis may seem to be on the back-burner today, last year's exodus via Turkey to the EU showed that it could be easily reactivated as the launching pad for a renewed destabilising wave of refugees. For decades the US and its European allies got used to relying on Turkey as a bastion of their interests. Ironically, as democracy seemed to bed down in Turkey over the past 14 years under its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan - who is now firmly back in control of the country after the failed military coup - the unpredictability of Turkey only grew. Erdogan has always been irked at being treated like a junior partner. A self- made man, he is very sensitive to snubs - and unforgiving. He came up from the bottom of Turkish society against all the odds to defeat his European- and US-educated opponents in the secular elite again and again. His chip-on-the-shoulder style appeals to his base but makes for an awkward partner for the international community. After years of touting himself as the man who would lead Turkey into the EU, Erdogan has soured suddenly on the idea. Last year his country acted as the funnel for mass migration from the Middle East into the EU, so Brussels came cap (or rather, chequebook) in hand to him. Erdogan showed he could turn off the tap if Brussels played ball with him. But since Brexit, the growing suspicion in Ankara that Turkey would never be welcomed into the Euro-club has become accepted fact. Stalking away from these ambitions, Erdogan suddenly launched a dramatic diplomatic revolution in the month before the coup. In rapid succession, his government repaired its relations with Russia, Egypt and Israel. Overnight Erdogan's descriptions of Putin, Sisi and Netanyahu as murderers were forgotten. Then, on the eve of the coup, Turkey's new prime minister even talked of reviving relations with Syria. At the same time, relations with the US have taken a nosedive. The Pentagon was taken by surprise when the Turkish government included US planes and drones operating out of their Incirlik airbase against Isil in Syria in the "no-fly zone" imposed over Turkey following the coup. Worse still, electricity was cut off to the base. Then the Turkish base commander was arrested, which sparked a flurry of rumours in Turkey that he was the "link-man" between the putschists and the Pentagon. That may be dismissed out of hand abroad, but it is a symptom of how alienated Erdogan's support base is from its US ally. Erdogan's immediate claim that the putsch was plotted by Fethullah Gülen, who is living in the US, added to the tension with Washington. John Kerry, the Secretary of State, has tried to be emollient by suggesting if Ankara has evidence against Gülen then he could be extradited in the normal way. But the State Department has also asked the Turkish authorities to deny charges that the US was in some way involved in the plot. Silence has met that request so far. Noting that Washington has warmed to neighbouring Iran - which Erdogan, as an orthodox Sunni, views as being run by "schismatics" - the president is now presenting himself to Israel as a natural ally against its Shiite mortal enemy and Iran's allies in the crescent from Teheran to Hizbollah in Beirut. The failed coup has not only increased the sense of instability inside Turkey. It has reinforced the factors that have made Erdogan's Turkey an increasing source of, and catalyst for, uncertainty in the sensitive regions around it. If Erdogan's rapprochement with the Kremlin leads him to block support for all Syrian rebels, and not just the West's bête noire, Isil, then a key factor in the US strategy to counter terrorism will go up in smoke. After decades of trying to join the West, it may be that he is prepared to exit it if Washington and the rest of us don't play ball. If Brexit has put Europe's stability into question, then a "Texit" from the West would shatter it. Certainly Erdogan is playing with fire. But that is something at which he is accomplished. Although the West's leaders shy away from the flame, Turkey's crisis is not an internal matter. Like it or not, the shock waves of its political infighting are going to wash across Europe and the Middle East. Erdogan won't be able to control them once they flow out of Turkey. But the West seems unlikely to step into the breach.

2016-07-20 06:00 Mark Almond www.timeslive.co.za

20 The Big Read: The beasts that wanna catch us all on the Go! It also requires an exclamation mark but it's not the end of a sentence, which means sub-editors need to be extra vigilant when journalists mention Pokémon Go! in the middle of a sentence. (Well played, sub- editors of The Times. Safe hands.) Pokémon Go! is also a gigantic stride forward for humanity in that augmented reality is augmenting reality in an augmentative way. What's that you say? How can reality be augmented? Isn't the nature of reality simply that it adjusts to contain the new bits? I mean, isn't "improving reality" a bit like claiming you can make water wetter? Well, it JUST DOES, SO SHUT UP, KILLJOY. Also, Pokémon Go! marks the beginning of the end of our species. In case you know nothing about the most important issue of our times, Pokémon are those disturbing cartoon creatures that we used to not watch in the 1990s. Remember those? They had names that perfectly captured the Japanese affection for impossibly cute toys and unbelievably upsetting porn - Smorgaslube, Pantypoot, Smegmatron - and the animated show taught us valuable lessons about friendship, determination, and the importance of trapping and enslaving every single living creature you found in nature. Now, using the magic of mobile phones and monetised nostalgia, Nintendo has turned the relentless hunt for Pokémon into a game in which you wander about like a Victorian naturalist, muttering "Gotta catch 'em all! " as you snag ephemeral beasts in your digital butterfly-net before heading home to pin them to the vast, blank board of your existential loneliness. The game is proving very popular. According to most media, it has taken over the planet, which means it is being played by at least 5% of Americans and comfortably half a percent of everyone else. Still, once you strip away the hyperbole, the numbers are impressive. Those who criticise Go! on the grounds that "none of it is real" should try and tell that to Nintendo, which has added more than 7-billion very real dollars to its market value in the last few days. Similarly real are the dangers it apparently poses to humanity. Jacobin, a socialist magazine, warned us that "if they wanted to, the game's creators could send people leaping willingly off cliffs, dawdling on train tracks, running into forest fires". (For an ideology that claims to be on the side of the little guy, those socialists sure seem to have a pretty low opinion of the little guy's intellect. I mean, the whole forest fire scenario was already getting a bit creaky by the time we were eight. Remember? "And if Gary told you to jump off a cliff or run into a forest fire, would you? " No, Mom, obviously I wouldn't, because, while Gary can be persuasive, I'm not the total cretin Jacobin thinks I am.) Mind-control isn't the only thing we have to worry about. According to Nigerian writer Bayo Akomolafe, Pokémon Go! is "the tale of Icarus, soaring away from the ground; the tale of the Holy Spirit, brooding over Genesis waters, maybe not quite touching it; it is the Copernican revolution in pixels, our over-saturation with the familiar and lust for heliocentricity. " I don't know what any of that means, but if Pokémon Go! is inspiring that kind of prose, then we really do have a problem. Still, there are clearly some positive spinoffs, mainly for academics in the Humanities, who will now be able to apply for funding to travel to conferences to postulate that Pikachu's frustrated cries of "Pika! Pika! " represent the post-9/11 neoliberal silencing of left-wing dissent. The anxieties, however, will be hard to dispel. People fear the game will turn us into a dehumanised, passive herd, as if alienated labour and state propaganda and the advertising industry and television and the internet hadn't already completed that job years ago. I don't share these worries. For me, Pokémon Go! is simply the newest window through which we'll watch ourselves doing what we always do. And as nice as it is to feel special by pronouncing that reality has never been this great or that our doom has never been more certain, the fact remains that things are ticking along more or less as they always have. There have always been people who stop on roads to have fistfights over ownership of invisible friends. There have always been people who warn us that the new fad is the end of everything. There have always been people who don't really care, either way. And there have always been people who sat back on a pile of money, pat each other on the back, and giggle, "Gotta catch 'em all! "

2016-07-20 06:00 Tom Eaton www.timeslive.co.za

21 Mandela belongs to all South Africans, and to the world Yesterday was also the opening of the International Aids Conference in Durban. The two events are critical to our history and require of us to think beyond political ambitions. Mandela's legacy is being destroyed, distorted and abused by those who want to further their political survival. They used the day to preach their own brand of politics, which if properly scrutinised, is the exact opposite of what Mandela stood for. That is why we fully agree with ANC Gauteng provincial leader Paul Mashatile who yesterday said Mandela was for all of us. But he was a lone voice among those who claim Mandela as their own, belonging to no one else. It is important to take Mandela's legacy beyond the ANC - to the rest of the world. In so doing, his legacy will transcend factional politics and stand the test of time. Instead of being lauded, Mashatile can expect to be vilified by those whose political agenda is narrow and self-centred. South Africa today needs Mandela's guidance more than ever before. We are at a crossroads, not sure who to believe or trust to take the country to the next level. As the local government elections loom, we are being bombarded with promises of a better future. Mandela's vision was of a South Africa free from hatred, prejudice and discrimination. He led the fight against inequality and preached tolerance. Those in charge of our political space today cannot claim to practise the above. Their shortcomings lie in their selfish idea of what Mandela stood for. Let us continue to honour Mandela and respect his politics without adding our own subjective flavour.

2016-07-20 06:00 The Times www.timeslive.co.za

22 Ibrahimovic wants to be God, not prince Cantona welcomed Zlatan to Old Trafford in one of his Euro 2016 video messages for Eurosport, saying his summer switch was the best choice he will have ever made. But having claimed there can be only one king in Manchester, himself, he offered Ibrahimovic the role of prince - something Zlatan wasn't too keen to accept. "I admire Cantona. And I heard what he said," Ibrahimovic said. "But I won't be King of Manchester. I will be God of Manchester. " And he'll get an early chance to stake his claim as the God of Manchester this week when he is expected to return to training ahead of the new season. His arrival has been greeted with elation among Manchester United's supporters, while Jose Mourinho believes he can link up well with Marcus Rashford this season and beyond. But his biggest welcome came from Cantona. He said: "I have a personal message for Zlatan: You decided to go red. It is the best choice you ever made. "When you walk into the Theatre of Dreams. When you can feel the ghosts of the legends that have been here before. When you score that first goal right in front of Stretford End. When you hear the crowd chanting your name. "When your heart beats so strong that it bursts out of your chest. When you feel that you will love them as much as they will love you. "You will know, my friend, that you finally made it home. "Just one last thing, there can only be one King in Manchester. You can be the Prince if you want to. "And the No 7 is yours if you are interested. That is my welcome gift to you. "The King is gone! Long live the Prince! "

2016-07-20 06:00 ©The Daily www.timeslive.co.za

23 Vilakazi stays put: Wits Speculation yesterday was that the sale was complete and that Zimbabwe striker Cuthbert Malajila and Botswana midfielder Mogakolodi Ngele would move in the opposite direction. But Wits CEO Jose Ferreira told The Times that nothing had changed for Vilakazi. The Bafana Bafana star has been embroiled in a long-running transfer saga that has seen all of the so- called "big three" - Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - express an interest. But while Chiefs balked at the reported R10-million asking price, Sundowns have been the keenest to come to a compromise and their inflated squad means they have players to offer to sweeten the deal. The Times can reveal that Ferreira has met Patrice Motsepe, the billionaire owner of Sundowns, over a possible move for Vilakazi. But their clandestine get-together was some 10 days ago, signalling that negotiations are stuck in limbo. Vilakazi, 26, is a key figure in Wits coach Gavin Hunt's arsenal, even if he had a dip in form last season . He had hoped for a move to Europe in the past few seasons, but aside from an offer from Danish side Brondby that was rejected, that door has remained closed. Vilakazi was named the PSL's 2013-2014 player and players' player of the season.

2016-07-20 06:00 Nick Said www.timeslive.co.za

24 Pasadena Republican gets moment on convention floor • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter Republican Shirley Husar of Pasadena had the honor of announcing that California's delegates were all unanimously bound to Donald Trump. "The floor seating is cool! I got a great seat! " she told Capital Public Radio about her proximity to Trump at the convention. "I'm sweating bullets -- aahhhh! I feel good about that! " Husar is well known in California Republican circles and is a columnist for the Washington Times. She was also on the Lifetime reality television program " Living With the Enemy ," where she spent time interacting with proponents of same-sex marriage and told them about the benefits of traditional marriage, she wrote in a blog post .

2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

25 Why are Rubio and Cruz still getting votes? • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter Here's a refresher on the primary election results.

2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

26 UFC president, California pro golfer to speak tonight • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter Despite a mix-up that forced former NFL star Tim Tebow to announce that he was not, as rumored, going to be speaking at the convention , Trump has rounded up a couple of figures from the sports world to speak Tuesday. Dana White, president of the wildly popular Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise, will deliver remarks after the roll call votes concludes. White is also an MMA talent scout and reality television star on his UFC Fight Pass/YouTube show, "Looking for a Fight. " White, based in Las Vegas, has previously contributed money to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Also speaking Tuesday is Natalie Gulbis, a professional golfer from Sacramento, Calif. Gulbis, 33, appeared with Trump on the eighth season of "Celebrity Apprentice. " She recently penned an article in Golf Magazine supporting "The Donald Trump I Know. " "I realize he has made his share of controversial remarks, but in my experience, I have found him to be gracious, generous and inspiring," she wrote. "Because of that, I have always found political rhetoric about Trump's misogynistic 'war on women' to be inconsistent with the Trump I know. " Other sports stars previously rumored to be speaking at the convention included Mike Tyson, Mike Ditka and NASCAR chief Brian France.

2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

27 At California fundraisers, Tim Kaine predicts only that Clinton will choose the running mate she thinks is best • Watch the convention with us live. • House Speaker Paul Ryan will call for unity as he headlines Tuesday's "Make American Work Again" night. • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were officially selected to be the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president. • Trump's campaign denied accusations that a portion of Melania Trump 's first night speech was plagiarized, she used "common words. " Others affiliated with the campaign seemed to concede there were some similarities. • Tales from the streets outside the GOP convention , where thousands are holding their own debate over America’s future. • Sign up for our free daily Essential Politics newsletter By Friday, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine might well be on a Florida stage with Hillary Clinton as her newly announced running mate. But for now, he is across the country in California, raising money for his own political action committee. This long-scheduled trip has only attracted greater interest given his status as one of the top potential choices to complete the Democratic ticket as Clinton's pick for vice president. "The attention has generated more than you might expect for a Virginia senator in California," said one donor who co-hosted a fundraiser for Kaine, granted anonymity to freely discuss the closed-door event. At one event Monday in West Hollywood, Kaine, a former governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, was questioned repeatedly by donors about his future. According to multiple people familiar with the discussion, Kaine did not tip his hand about his status in Clinton's deliberations. But he described the chance to serve as the No. 2 for the first female president as a unique and historic opportunity. "He was being extremely respectful and diplomatic for the other three or four people" also being considered by Clinton, one donor said. Kaine said he was confident that Clinton would choose who she feels is best for the position, he added. "He discussed it as something of importance to all of us, to him as a senator, to him as a citizen regardless of whether he's on the ticket," said another attendee. In his remarks, Kaine offered a comprehensive overview of domestic and international events, including heightened tensions in the U. S. after a series of racially fraught shootings, Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the attempted coup in Turkey. And he spoke of his interest in finding consensus — his fundraising committee is called the Common Ground PAC — and argued that Donald Trump has demonstrated he is not the bridge-builder that Clinton has promised to be. Kaine had four events Los Angeles and San Francisco this week. He was scheduled to speak Wednesday at an event in Northern Virginia hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce. Clinton is to campaign Friday in Tampa, Fla., one day after the end of the Republican National Convention.

2016-07-20 06:00 Los Angeles www.latimes.com

28 'Ban Russia from Rio' An investigation by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren for the agency found the FSB secret service helped "the state- dictated failsafe system", carried out by the sports ministry and covering 30 sports. "Wada calls on sport movement to deny Russian athletes participation at international competition including Rio until 'culture change' is achieved," the agency's spokesman, Ben Nichols, said on Twitter. International Olympic Committee members were to hold an emergency conference today to decide provisional sanctions over what committee president Thomas Bach called "a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. " McLaren's report, released yesterday, says the cover-up started in 2010 after Russia's "abysmal" results at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and continued until last year after the Sochi Games. Russia's President Vladimir Putin made the Sochi Games a showcase event and more than $50-billion was spent putting it on. Russia, which had strongly denied any state involvement, is already banned from international athletics by the governing body, IAAF, because of doping exposed last year. There will now be mounting pressure for that to be extended even though Bach and some international federations have said there has to be a way for athletes proved to be clean to compete in Rio. "The IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated," Bach said. McLaren's report says the Russian sports ministry under Vitaly Mutko organised the subterfuge under which tainted urine samples were replaced and kept away from international observers. "The Moscow laboratory operated for the protection of doped Russian athletes within a state-dictated failsafe system," McLaren said. "The Sochi laboratory operated a unique sample swapping methodology to enable doped Russian athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics. " McLaren didn't make any recommendations on sanctions. But the call by the agency is likely to be followed up by the US and Canadian anti-doping agencies. He dismissed any notion that having less than two months to conduct the investigation or the reluctance of some witnesses to come forward compromised the results.

2016-07-20 06:00 AFP www.timeslive.co.za

29 Reggie Wayne's mom organizes New Orleans food drive Reggie Wayne is one of the most famous West Bank football players of all time. He graduated from John Ehret in 1997 and played with the Indianapolis Colts for 14 years. During his career, he was named to the Pro Bowl six times. He is also known for his generosity off the field. It seems the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Denise Wayne, president of the Professional Football Players Mothers Association (PFPMA), embodies the giving spirit. She helped to organize a food drive on the West Bank that will serve those in need across the metro area. On July 16, over 40 mothers of PFPMA gathered at the Winn Dixie on Belle Chasse Highway in Gretna to help in the fight against hunger. The organization teamed up with Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans and Acadiania to support the Orleans, Jefferson and the Acadiania communities. Each woman wore her son's NFL team's jersey and stood in the hot sun to promote the drive. Some of the attending mothers' who attended in addition to Wayne were (*note some of the players mentioned have retired): Sandra Moore (Mewelde Moore, Pittsburgh Steelers), Wanda Lacy (Eddie Lacy, Green Bay Packers, grew up in Gretna), Sharon Guillory-Reid (Eric Reid, LSU- product, San Francisco 49ers); Sonya Prater (Kyle Prater, New Orleans Saints), Zelda Westbrook (Brian- Philadelphia Eagles and Byron- Washington Redskins); Cheryl Foster (DeShaun Foster, Carolina Panthers), and Dana Byrd (Damiere Byrd, Carolina Panthers), Bernadette Suh (Ndamukong Suh, Miami Dolphins), Burma Colbert (Keary Colbert, Carolina Panthers), Michele Green (Bryant McKinnie, Minnesota Vikings), Sandra Atkins (Geno Atkins- Cincinnati Bengals), Karen Robinson (Don Carey- Detroit Lions), and Sherry Hill, whose son New England Patriot's son Marquise Hill died in a water sports accident in Lake Ponchartrain in 2007. Before the event, these mothers shopped in the store to donate to the cause themselves. Then they handed out flyers and informed customers of the event before they began to shop. As customers walked out of the store and donated to the cause, the mothers cheered as the bins were filling up with donations. "We were hoping to at least make a presentation as far as supporting the food harvest but it's gone beyond that and I'm just ecstatic," Wayne said, "We've received monetary donations and we've already filled one bin and getting ready to fill another bin. It's gone beyond what we expect. " These mothers came from all over country to help to make this event a success. Karen Robinson, mother of Don Carey of the Detroit Lions, said she was having a wonderful time since it was her birthday and a great day to just give back to the community. Sandra Atkins felt the same way. "I'm just happy to be back in New Orleans to support the moms association," Atkins said. She is the mother of Geno Atkins of the Cincinnati Bengals and the wife of former Saints player Gene Atkins. "We are having a ball even though it is hot out here but it's worth the cause. We thank God that we are able to contribute to the community and to help someone in New Orleans," Sandra Moore said. She is the mother of Mewelde Moore, retired player of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Moore was also a standout Tulane running back. "The event is going wonderful and it's definitely being fruitful because as you see a lot of people are willingly going into the store and bringing food out to support the drive," Public relations coordinator Arica Johnson said. She said that PFMA is a nationwide organization that believes in supporting the community through charitable giving; educating and serving those in the community; and supporting their NFL sons. "The organization originated in 1997 and this is our 19 th year," Wayne said. She has been president for the last six years but will step down after this year. "It started with 10 mothers who got together and saw a need for an organization to represent the mothers of NFL players," Wayne said. She said the organization has done food drives, charities for youth, for shelters, and whatever we find a need of, we just reach out into the community. "Next year we will be in Fort Lauderdale and we will do a different type of food drive. Each year we go to a different place in July, which is our preseason conference, and the person responsible for the conference that year will select a charity," Wayne said. Although Reggie was not able to make the event, he sent his best wishes. "He thinks this is great and he told me, 'Mom, do what you need to do, I got your back'," Wayne said. "We are blessed and so we like to give back to the community and that's the way the rest of the moms feel. Words cannot express what I feel right now because it means so much that they think so much of us to come out and support us to help us support others. It's very heart touching," Wayne said. Gina Rivere is the Westwego and Bridge City columnist who writes about people and events of community interest. She can be reached at 504.450.6517 or email her at [email protected]. Her posts and videos can be seen at: http://connect.nola.com/ user/ginababin/index.

2016-07-20 06:00 Gina Rivere blog.nola.com

30 30 Major sewage leak forces closure of Los Angeles beaches LOS ANGELES, United States — Several beaches in the Los Angeles area were shut down on Tuesday after nearly 2.5 million gallons (9.5 million liters) of sewage spilled out from a ruptured line, officials said. The spill — described by one health official as the biggest in recent memory — began Monday afternoon, when the top of a sewer pipe collapsed, sending debris into the pipe and causing overflow. Repair crews managed to stop the leak by evening but the pipe split again on Tuesday, sending sewage into the Los Angeles River which carried it into the Pacific. Officials ordered all beaches in the Long Beach area and a portion of Seal Beach shut down pending testing of the waters. Nelson Kerr, of the Long Beach city health department, told AFP that swimming in those areas was expected to be off-limits until at least Thursday. Long Beach is home to the United States’ second-busiest port after Los Angeles. “This is the biggest spill we’ve had in recent memory,” Kerr said, adding that the pipe that broke is thought to have been damaged during construction in the area. He said officials fear that up to five million gallons of sewage could be released by the time the leak is fixed.

2016-07-20 06:00 Agence France newsinfo.inquirer.net

31 North Korea: Missile tests simulated nuke strike on South SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday its latest ballistic missile tests were personally ordered and monitored by supreme leader Kim Jong-Un and simulated nuclear strikes on US targets in South Korea. Tuesday’s test firing of three missiles in violation of existing UN resolutions was seen as an angry reaction to the planned deployment of a US missile defense system in the South. The launch of the two Scud missiles and one intermediate-range Rodong was condemned by the United States, Japan and South Korea, who vowed a collective diplomatic response. READ: North Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles into Japan Sea — South | South Korea set to disclose a site for US missile defense The tests were monitored by Kim Jong-Un and the range of the missiles was limited to simulate preemptive attacks on South Korean ports and airfields hosting US military “hardware,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said. The tests “examined the operational features of the detonating devices of nuclear warheads mounted on the ballistic rockets at the designated altitude over the target area,” it said. According to the South Korean military, the two Scuds flew between 500 and 600 kilometers (310-370 miles) into the Sea of Japan, while the Rodong was fired about an hour later. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said the tests were “deeply troubling” and undermined efforts to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula. UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from developing ballistic missile technology.

2016-07-20 06:00 Agence France newsinfo.inquirer.net

32 Having stomach troubles? Try swallowing an origami robot CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Has your child swallowed a small battery? In the future, a tiny robot made from pig gut could capture it and expel it. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are designing an ingestible robot that could patch wounds, deliver medicine or dislodge a foreign object. They call their experiment an “origami robot” because the accordion-shaped gadget gets folded up and frozen into an ice capsule. “You swallow the robot, and when it gets to your stomach the ice melts and the robot unfolds,” said Daniela Rus, a professor who directs MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “Then, we can direct it to a very precise location.” It’s still a long way before the device can be deployed in a human or animal. In the meantime, the researchers have created an artificial stomach made of silicone to test it. Rus said one of the robot’s most important missions could be to save the lives of children who swallow the disc-shaped button batteries that increasingly power electronic devices. If swallowed, the battery can quickly burn through the stomach lining and be fatal. The robots could seek out and capture the battery before it causes too much damage, pushing it down through the gastrointestinal tract and out of the body. The robot’s flexible frame is biodegradable, made of the same dried pig intestine used for sausage casing. The researchers scoured markets in Boston’s Chinatown before finding the right material to build an agile robot body that could dissolve once its mission was accomplished. “They tried rice paper and sugar paper and hydrogel paper, all sorts of different materials,” Rus said. “We found that sausage casing has the best properties when it comes to folding and unfolding and controllability.” Embedded in its meaty body — it wouldn’t be hard to make a kosher version, Rus said — is a neodymium magnet that looks like a tiny metal cube. Magnetic forces control its movement. Researchers use remote-control joysticks to change the magnetic field, allowing the robot to slip and crawl through the stomach on the way to the object it is trying to retrieve or the wound where it must deliver drugs. Would it hurt to ingest a robot? Probably not, said research team member Steven Guitron, an MIT graduate student in mechanical engineering. “I’m sure if you swallowed an ice cube accidently, it’s very similar,” he said. MIT’s team has a patent pending and presented its research at a robotics conference in Sweden this spring. Rus said medical companies have expressed interest in clinical applications, which require going through the regulatory process of conducting animal and human studies. “It’s a nifty idea,” but it could be a decade or so before hospitals could use such a device, said William Messner, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University in Massachusetts who is not involved with the project. He said it could also have promise in performing biopsies. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration “has to get involved with anything like this and they’re rightfully very careful about any kind of medical instrument,” Messner said. “The big problem is: What if it gets stuck? Now you’ve really got a problem.” The multidisciplinary project fits into the growing field of soft robotics that coalesced with the 2013 founding of the peer-reviewed Soft Robotics Journal, based at Tufts. The Boston region is a hub for research into the moving machines made of flexible materials that can change shape and size, making them useful for surgery and other complex environments. TVJ

2016-07-20 06:00 Associated Press technology.inquirer.net

33 Peace talks with NDF moved to Aug. 20; 11 rebel leaders to be freed Update MANILA — Formal peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines will resume on August 20 , to give the Philippine government enough time to work on the release of detained rebel leaders, according to government peace process adviser Jesus Dureza. Dureza said on Tuesday, talks were moved back a month from the original schedule in July. The talks have been scheduled to take place from August 20 to August 27 , in Oslo, Norway, Dureza said. “This is a milestone because as you know, the peace talks had broken down for about four years. They had never moved. We are now on the verge of a milestone, which is the resumption of the formal negotiations with the CPP/NPA/NDF,” Dureza said in a press briefing. He said President Rodrigo Duterte directed the justice department to work for the release of detained Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) members who would be included in the panel participating in the peace talks. He declined to identify the prisoners or say how many would be freed. But a statement from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said 11 detained leaders are expected to be freed. With the impending release of the prisoners, a bigger group would sit on the panel on the side of the CPP, Dureza said. Dureza said the formal reopening of the talks would be followed by the reaffirmation of signed agreements and discussions on interim ceasefire, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, and the possible release of other political prisoners who were not included in the peace negotiations. They might also begin discussions on substantive political, social and economic issues, he said. Dureza said that he and CPP founder Jose Maria Sison would be in the peace talks in Norway even if they were not members of the panel. Heading the Philippine panel is Silvestre Bello III, while Luis Jalandoni chairs the panel for the National Democratic Front (NDF). Sison is a “consultant” and plays a key role in the negotiations, according to Dureza. The other members of the Philippine government side are Hernani Braganza, Rene Sarmiento, Angela Librado-Trinidad, and Noel Felongco. For the NDF, the other members of the panel are Fidel Agcaoili, wife Coni Ledesma, and Sison’s wife Juliet de Lima. Braganza on Tuesday said that in the month-long extension, the government wished to look at all the details first to ensure that these would not become problems in the future. One of those being looked at is the proposed release of detained NDF consultants so that they can freely participate in the peace process. “Mas maganda sa umpisa magkakasama na kami (It would be better if at the outset we were united),” Braganza told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview. He said the military as well as local governments would be consulted “to avoid possible irritants in the future.” In the past, clashes often marred the talks. Braganza said the three remaining substantive agenda—the social economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces—would be tackled simultaneously. SFM

2016-07-20 05:41 Karlos Manlupig newsinfo.inquirer.net

34 Clean Tax Cuts Takes Off at the GOP Convention Just two months have flown by since I first introduced the Clean Tax Cuts policy concept publicly, in writing, here in the pages of The American Spectator. Now it turns out I’ve just been invited to speak on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention, at the Sustainability Forum, hosted by the American Sustainable Business Council. So tomorrow, I’ll be introducing key members of the Republican Party to a new (and greatly improved) conservative idea that can deliver broad supply-side tax cuts, a boost the economy, and cure climate change. How on earth did I get here? Well, I got lucky. A handful of really smart people were kind enough to give me very good advice and suggestions. Some have challenged me to push the idea into new territory, make it broader, more neutral. Their comments have shaped the clean tax-cut idea in just the last two months, and made it better. I should give credit where credit is due, to faithfully witness the process whereby new ideas grow up, make friends, meet challengers, and grow stronger for it. The first of those smart people to reach out to me, simultaneous with the publication of my column, was Eli Lehrer, President of the R Street Institute. Eli kindly invited me to lunch with his Energy Policy Director, the impressive Catarina Rorke (who will, btw, be on the same panel with me in Cleveland, along with Jerry Taylor and others… should be fun! We are streaming live.). While Eli clearly liked much about the idea, both he and Catarina encouraged me to make it better. Catarina urged me to work out the question of pay-fors: how exactly will clean tax cuts be financed, using dynamic scoring. While I am still hoping Catarina will someday oversee the actual computer modeling, her suggestion did produce a back-of-the-envelope answer: 2004 research by Harvard professor Greg Mankiw indicates that half of a capital income tax cut (which is exactly what clean tax cuts are) is about 50% self-financing by expanding investment and economic growth. So if you follow that formula, then 2$ clean tax cut should equal the pay-for: $1 new revenue from growth, plus 1$ clean spending cuts, from reducing existing subsidies and regulation. That should pay for itself, while reducing government, boosting GDP and helping the environment. So, depending on the nature of the subsidies, the value of a clean tax cut could be 1 to 2X the value of all the 1,149 separate energy subsidies (see below) that it phases out and replaces, plus 2X the value of the regulatory cost it replaces. And, pursuant to suggestions below, if the clean tax cut can be really broad and apply to the entire economy, and can be used to justify eliminating most tax breaks from the tax code, then the clean tax cut could increase greatly by 1 to 2 times the value of those eliminated tax breaks, depending on their nature. So that is a pretty big number, worthy of further study (Catarina?). Eli encouraged me to figure out how to avoid picking individual winners and losers, a question that troubled him, and has dominated my thinking ever since. The answer to that concern was suggested by comments from two other very smart gentlemen, who, as fate would have it, sometimes don’t agree with each other: Ted Nordhaus, co-founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, and (a month later) Amory Lovins, co-founder and chief scientist for the Rocky Mountain Institute. In addition, a handful of cleantech entrepreneurs, fossil fuel innovators, scientists and venture capitalists helped fill in important gaps. Ted got in touch with me at Eli’s suggestion. Over dinner, Ted challenged me — he actually said “I challenge you…” — to extend my discussion of the clean tax cuts concept to nuclear and hydro, because in his view climate change cannot be addressed quickly enough without those technologies in the mix. Ted was right that my Spectator column had mostly focused on the declining cost of utility scale solar and wind, and how that made clean tax cuts newly relevant for those technologies. I only briefly mentioned hydro, and nuclear not at all. In so doing, I followed cautious advice from some careful economists to study and make the case for clean tax cuts one industry at a time, to be very careful to get the facts right about each industry. I was certainly not opposed to broader applications. Wind and solar is just where GRF and our research partner, The Jack Kemp Foundation, started. But Ted made some good points as to why the industry-by-industry rollout of the concept might not be such a hot idea. It smacked of picking winners and losers, he said, echoing Eli’s concern. Clean Tax Cuts should be technologically neutral, said he. He would favor that, if clean tax cuts treated all low or zero carbon energy sources equally according to the same metric. To do that I’d have to include everything from the get-go, including nuclear and hydro and clean low carbon fossil fuel innovation, or risk the perception that I was picking winners and losers. Besides, Ted pointed out, nuclear and hydro are popular among some conservatives. Ted also urged me to broaden my clean deregulation argument right along with broadening clean tax cuts. In an email a few days later he wrote: “conservatives could cobble together a pretty credible decarbonization agenda largely centered on deregulation.” He had in mind deregulation in order to ease research, development and deployment of a new generation of smaller and hopefully safer and cheaper modular nukes, adding low impact power capacity to existing hydro dams, and preventing new over- regulation of already declining methane emissions in the natural gas industry. To Ted, over-regulation in these areas was, as he put it “largely a sop to the environmental movement,” to the detriment of actual GHG reduction, when you looked at the hard facts. As I considered Ted’s challenging arguments, one thing became clear to me. If Ted was right that technological neutrality was key to avoid picking specific winners and losers, and therefore that I should broaden clean tax cuts and deregulation — and he made very good arguments — then by his own logic, he was only partially right, and both the challenge and potential benefit was even greater than what he proposed. Why? To be really technologically neutral, I had to be much broader than just clean energy. To really avoid picking winners and losers, I had to be neutral with respect to all decarbonization investments, including efficiency, land-use, sequestration and maybe more than that. That greatly increased the challenge for me personally, because either I would have to become an expert in all of that stuff very quickly, or I would need to very quickly develop a coalition of think tanks and scholars and industry analysts who were experts in all these sectors, who could help me figure out simple decarbonizing metrics that made sense across the board. But this also greatly increased the benefit and power of the argument. Because not only would total technological and investment neutrality overcome the problem with picking winners and losers, it would also make clean tax cuts a very broad economy wide supply side tax cut, since decarbonization and energy efficiency are profitable and easily attainable goals for every corporation and tax payer in America and globally. Such a broad clean tax cut would have huge political appeal to both the right and left, and would be even more powerfully pro-growth than just a niche tax-cut just for clean energy. It could be encompassed in any existing GOP tax plan fairly easily, broadening the bipartisan support as the tax rate cuts would being earned by good citizenship, in terms of energy efficiency, decarbonization and pollution reduction. Ted believes nuclear hydro and gas deregulation are politically achievable in the current Congress. However, it seems to me such deregulation will only make palatable sense to the environmental movement, and indeed the broader public consensus, if it is combined with clean tax cuts that reward nuclear, hydro and gas investors for making each technology ever cleaner and safer, for following best practices without fail. That could help give the public significant peace of mind that corporate interests were aligned with public and environmental safety… and that would make some sensible deregulation OK, and political consensus smoother. Further, I had a hunch that if clean tax cuts expanded economy-wide, then that would (a) turn up lots of other opportunities for clean deregulation to remove regulations blocking decarbonization and efficiency, and (b) justify new clean spending cuts from eliminating other distorting subsidies and tax breaks. Jimmy Kemp agreed. The best way forward was to broaden the idea economy-wide, and simultaneously seek out a broad coalition of scholars, think tanks, funders, and policymakers, with plenty of sector expertise, to help us figure out how to apply clean tax cuts to their concerns in a way that was as simple and technologically neutral as possible across the entire economy. We could not have done that in a mere two months without the help of two of the best eco-policy connectors I know: my 007esque cousin, Bill Stetson, a fellow alumnus of the Smith Richardson Foundation’s Reagan-era grants board and natural born transpartisan diplomat; and his friend, Chip Commins, chairman and CEO of the American Renewable Energy institute and founder of the institute’s annual gathering of cleantech VCs, entrepreneurs, policy wonks, heavy hitter donors and politicians, both conservatives and liberals, known as AREDAY, set in beautiful Aspen, Colorado. Their one brilliant simple piece of advice? Come speak at AREDAY! In fact, Bill introduced us in March. When Chip first heard the clean tax cut idea, he remarked “Dude [he actually said dude] when you took the words “carbon tax” and added “cut,” I realized that — with three simple letters — you had just won the world energy policy Scrabble game.” He then immediately asked me to come introduce the idea for the first time publicly, at AREDAY. I absolutely did not get what his event was all about and put him off for a couple of weeks. But Chip kept calling and Bill insisted I would be an idiot not to go. So I went. Good thing too! Trammell Crow, Texas gazillionaire and Republican founder of Earth Day Texas, who was on the “token” conservative panel with me, loved the idea, and how it might shift Texas Republican politics. T. Boone Pickens, who spoke right after me, was intrigued with how clean tax cuts could make the natural gas industry ever cleaner, and accelerate the shift of trucking fleets to compressed natural gas. Here are video excerpts from our lively Conservatives & The Green Agenda panel. (To skip intro, jump to 1:15.) Here is the first public presentation of the Clean Tax Cuts concept at AREDAY: Paul Walker, Executive Director of ConservAmerica, pointed out to me, “You know Rod, one of the strongest points about clean tax cuts is that it actually simplifies the tax code. If you can wipe out the 1,149 energy subsidies that are mostly counterproductive and highly distortionary, and replace it with a technologically neutral clean tax cut that treats everyone equally, that alone would be a huge tax code simplification — and simplification of government too. And if you can go beyond that…” In short, Paul and ConservAmerica President Rob Sisson were “in,” delighted to partner with GRF and the Jack Kemp Foundation to research and develop this aspect of the clean tax cuts further. I was blown away by all the other really impressive folks who wanted “in” and kindly offered to help me shape the policy and think through the metrics: Prof. Klaus Lackner, Director, Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, ASU, as well as his colleague, Bill Brandt Director of Strategic Integration, ASU Lightworks; David Orr, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sciences & Politics, Oberlin College; Connor Platt, CEO of Etho Capital, a sustainability investor; Henk Rogers, President of the Blue Planet Foundation; Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, The Evangelical Environmental Network; Gueta Mezzetti, energy security and advanced technology consultant; Aaron Berger, Co-Chair, Nexus Working Group on Climate Change; John Rutherford Seydel, III, Founder, Revolution Nation Network (RNN); Ray Gwin and Ryan Brown, with Earth Day Texas, Elizabeth “Hallie” Halliday (who feeds me the best jokes), Kinga Jones (did this radio interview with me: show: Aspen/ starting 21:50), and many others. Including of course, Richard Eidlin with the American Sustainable Business Council, who kindly invited me to Cleveland. Some of the most important feedback came from cleantech entrepreneurs, fossil fuel innovators and VCs whom I Interviewed at AREDAY. Space does not permit including those interviews here, but in a column soon. But some of these guys, like Sierra Energy and ZHRO, have amazing working technologies right now capable of producing carbon negative energy, as well as cleaning up and transforming the fossil fuel Industry into clean energy plus carbon materials business, while potentially earning more profit per pound of fossil fuels than by just burning the stuff. Every one of them said, to the man, that clean tax cuts would allow them to capitalize and grow their decarbonizing businesses much much faster. In other words, this was important evidence that Clean Tax Cuts could: (a) help the fossil fuel industry become cleaner, and perhaps even transform into a clean energy/carbon materials industry; and (b) help promising new cleantech innovators, with technologies possibly better in some way than current cleantech (wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, etc.), but who are not receiving the same level of subsidy support. When I first laid eyes on Amory Lovins, the godfather of the energy efficiency movement, he was complaining to General Wesley Clark, with a twinkle in his eye, about too much regulation preventing the deployment of solar energy and resilient energy-efficient electrical hook ups. I knew right then this was a man I could talk to. Indeed he talked to me for two hours, as he gave me a tour of his ultra– energy efficient home, and the new headquarters of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The man is a genius. He grows bananas in his living room, at over a 6,000-foot elevation with -30°F winters, in a nifty hobbit hole with no heat source except a stunningly great design. The proudest feature of his new office? The nega-mechanical room, an empty space where all the completely unnecessary heating and cooling equipment… is not. The entire time, he kept bringing up annoying regulations that prevented him from achieving even greater energy efficiency for no good reason. Amory did not challenge me quite the way Ted had. Instead he just kept pointing out really cool but very subtle thought-provoking stuff. Like his plumbing pipes. Most homes use thin plumbing pipes with T-head junctions. Amory’s house uses wide pipes with gentle angles. And that means less friction in the system, which uses 30% less electricity. In other words, simple low tech design is a decarbonizing investment as much as any high technology, with a higher and faster return on investment. For days after I kept thinking about those plumbing pipes. I didn’t know why. Just something about those pipes. And then it hit me. Those wide pipes with gentle angles are very nearly the same thing as clean tax cuts. Capital wants to flow, wants to grow. High taxes are like narrow pipes, T head junctions causing friction, blocking the flow. Tax cuts are like wide pipes with gentle angles that remove the barrier and divert the flow gently, so more capital can flow more easily to where it is supposed to go. So it’s more efficient to unblock the flow than to block it. Less friction. Less conflict. Clearly Amory was as attracted to something about clean tax cuts as I was to the elegance and efficiency of his home design. I think it’s because clean tax cuts is a similar design concept: rather than fighting the flow of capital, which is what most climate policy tries to do, it merely drops the barriers to the flow and diverts it gently in the direction we need it to go. It is efficient friction-reducing socio-economic design. Of course, it probably did not hurt that clean tax cuts could vastly accelerate the shift to energy efficiency and decarbonization, deep and abiding interests for Amory. I told Amory flat out that I needed his help to figure out how to apply clean tax cuts to energy efficiency and decarbonization economy-wide. We needed to figure out simple metrics that could be easily applied in a neutral manner. Could he help me? He said yes. Our brainstorming on this front has been entirely preliminary. But a few interesting ideas have bubbled up so far. One possibility: we really do not need to come up with our own metrics, because well accepted metrics are already out there, widely used right now. For instance, More than 5,500 corporations voluntarily disclose GHG accounting data to CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project). CDP scores corporations on GHG reduction using the Corporate Standards developed by the World Resources Institute GHG Protocol, which is widely considered the global standard for GHG accounting. CDP issues grades, 1 – 100, grading disclosure practices, and A through E, measuring how effectively a company is addressing climate risk. A corporation’s tax rates could be lowered according to their CDP score. This method has the advantage of simplifying all decarbonization considerations for a complex corporation (fleet efficiency, energy intensity of operations, use of renewable energy, etc.) into one final score. And we know it is not overly burdensome, as 5,500 corporations already voluntarily disclose this information. Alternatively, if some corporations and taxpayers find it simpler to receive tax rate reductions for separate components of decarbonization at the project or product level, the EPA’s well known Energy Star Program, measuring efficiency for homes, buildings, industrial plants and consumer products, could be used to set benchmarks for energy efficiency gains that merit tax rate reductions at that level. Doubtless there are other metrics that may be even more useful. The good news is that it seems, following Ted’s challenge to be completely technologically neutral, and Amory’s invitation to explore simple, objective metrics for energy efficiency and decarbonization, we can satisfy Eli’s concern the Clean Tax Cuts should not pick specific winners and losers. At the end of our tour, Amory proposed that RMI and GRF should convene a clean tax cut forum of scholars, think tanks, funders and policymakers to explore the structure and implications of the clean tax cuts idea, and for those so inclined, to form an ongoing working group committed to shaping and developing the concept wisely. I said yes. Of course.

2016-07-20 04:10 R. spectator.org

35 World Court Decision Won’t Temper China’s Territorial Claims As expected, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines was exultant. Beijing responded angrily. Territorial disputes pose a perennial international problem. Great powers, including the U. S., typically refuse to be bound by the decisions of others when they believe important interests to be at stake. The existing order in the Asia-Pacific was established at a time when China was unable to effectively assert its claims or defend its territory. Understandably, Beijing is dissatisfied with the status quo. Nor is Beijing the first rising power to challenge a system seemingly biased against it. The young American republic responded truculently in border disputes with both Great Britain and Mexico, even invading the latter and seizing half of that country. In recent years the PRC has challenged territorial claims of Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Manila lacks an effective military and turned to the arbitration panel for support. The decision reaffirmed the position of the Philippines and nearby states, which will embolden them to take a tougher position against China. Unsurprisingly, Beijing rejected the ruling and promised “to protect its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.” The PRC also won’t be inclined to step back. The U. S. insists it takes no position in the ongoing disputes, but Washington has clashed with China over the former’s right to collect intelligence. If war erupted in the region, America’s alliance with Japan and ambiguous commitment to Manila could drag the United States into combat with nuclear-armed China. All parties have an obligation to dampen tensions. They should start by recognizing that none of the disputed claims are worth war. The resources in surrounding waters could be substantial but still would pale compared to the cost of conflict. In peacetime navigation would continue largely unimpeded. Wartime navigation would depend upon on the capabilities of the respective navies. Calls on the U. S. to confront China are misguided. The PRC’s stake in securing its coast is vital and the waters beyond substantial. America’s interests are more diffuse and distant. Dominating China’s borders might be theoretically desirable but isn’t necessary to protect American security. Navigational freedom is important but not directly threatened. Peaceful dispute resolution by others is welcome but not a matter for the U. S. military. Of course, many in Washington believe that the sight of a few American ships would deter aggressive action by China. Alas, the PRC is not likely to respond by abandoning interests viewed as essential. Rather, it would do what the U. S. almost certainly would do if similarly provoked: increase military outlays. Although the U. S. will remain wealthier and more powerful than China for years to come, the former cannot forever afford to maintain military forces strong enough to have a reasonable certainty of defeating the PRC in the latter’s home waters. Once the entitlement tsunami begins to overwhelm the federal budget, Americans will sacrifice Scarborough Reef and the Senkakus to protect Social Security. In contrast, Chinese citizens likely would spend and risk whatever is necessary to ensure the disputed territories remain Chinese. As I point out in National Interest: “the best outcome for Washington would be for events to take their natural course, that is, the PRC’s neighbors rearm and coordinate to counter Beijing’s aggressiveness. The participation of both India and Japan would make a serious regional coalition possible.” Only mutually agreed solutions, not disputed legal rulings, can settle the region’s territorial disputes. In fact, the PRC peacefully resolved 17 of 23 previous border disputes. Overall the parties should to “seek common ground while reserving differences,” as Wu Shicun of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies put it. The U. S. and its friends should demonstrate that China’s interests would be respected by adapting to changed circumstances. The tribunal decision may prove to be a Pyrrhic victory for America’s allies. Despite the court ruling, they still will have to negotiate to settle the issue. This item first ran on Cato at Liberty.

2016-07-20 04:10 Doug Bandow spectator.org

36 The American Spectator I have a request, a very humble request, and I mean it with all the respect in the world: please stop talking. There’s an old expression that everything after but, and I am saying this nicely, is manure. And you sir are spreading enough of it, and in language you can understand, your manure leaves its own carbon footprint. It’s obvious at this point that you have a very different agenda from that of your fellow countrymen. No it’s not an Islamic agenda, and no I don’t believe it’s a black agenda, nor any other conspiratorial agenda, but rather an agenda to systematically change and destroy a nation you so despise. A nation that has given you everything no other country would have ever afforded you, yet a nation you inherently hate. I’ll be generous: I don’t think you realize what you are doing. Your ideas and thoughts were essentially hijacked by radical, and communist, and fascist professors on the college campuses you attended. Your needing a father figure, and their needing a patsy was the perfect coupling. It’s not unusual. Many a lost man and woman have succumbed to radical ideologies. Oh wait! Many are doing so right now, and leaving waves of destruction in their wake. But in your behavior I see something dangerous. You do not know the difference between right and wrong. You only know to instinctively sabotage this great nation. I don’t hate you, Mr. President, I feel bad for you. I feel bad that you are so filled with hate for a country that has given you so much. I feel bad that again, you can’t see the difference between right and wrong, and good and evil. This isn’t a black thing, and it’s not a white thing. Many people of all colors and religions share this sickness, and yes I do believe that it is a disease. A father’s job is to teach his kids these basic tenets, and you didn’t have that, and for that I’m terribly sorry. I know your professors taught you that there is a moral equivalency between police killing civilians, in the line of duty, and civilians killing police. I know they taught you that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. What they taught you, Mr. President, is, was, and will always be wrong, and you, sir, have been their most successful student. Tonight, Mr. President, when you go to bed, I beg of you to think not about the shooter and his plight, and how the killer could have been your son. Instead, think about the officers and their families’ plights. Instead of putting yourself in the shoes of the killer, put yourself in the shoes of the victims. Imagine, as you are saying good night to your daughters, that there are daughters tonight who can’t say good night, and never will again be able to say that to their fathers. Think of the wives, the parents, the men in uniform whose next call might be their final call. How about saying tonight, those policemen could have been me, and their children could have been my children. We’re all civil servants and we all run risks. Their risk cost them their lives and their families’ happiness. Don’t they deserve some meaningful sympathy? Not criticism of the killings. Criticism of an evil cast of mind that led to the killings. I write this, Mr. President, to console myself, since you have decided that it is not your job to console a whole country. I write this, Mr. President, because of the anger I feel inside for your lack of leadership. I write this as an American, and I write this as a scared American. It is not too late to change, Mr. President. As you have asked us to look into our hearts and minds, I beg of you to do the same. Since I have been offering my suggestions, Mr. President, I offer one more. The next time this happens, and sadly it will, when you stand up and address the whole country, simply say if anyone is even thinking about causing harm to our men and women in uniform of all races, creeds, and religions, who make nothing and give everything, we will hunt you down, we will find you and your conspirators, and the rumor is Guantánamo Bay has many vacancies. God bless you Mr. President, and God bless the whole United States. 2016-07-20 04:10 Judah Friedman spectator.org

37 Daily Chatter Tens of thousands of people congregated on the Promenade des Anglais Monday to observe a moment of silence in honor of the 84 people killed when an angry young man drove a 19-ton truck through a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks last week. When French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stood to speak, people booed and cried “resign, resign.” Some in the crowd exhorted the hecklers to show respect. But others asked, who could blame the catcallers? Since January 2015, Islamic State-inspired killers have staged the Charlie Hebdo attacks, shot up the Bataclan music hall and other venues in Paris, masterminded the Brussels explosions and assaulted and beheaded the manager of a Lyon chemical factory. Valls and his boss, French President Francois Hollande, are clearly doing something wrong, some believe: The French internal intelligence services were notoriously inadequate to the task of rooting out terrorism when the Charlie Hebdo attacks occurred, a parliamentary inquiry found. Still, French prosecutors on Monday also suggested that Hollande and Valls could have done little to stop the Nice attack. The driver of the truck, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was surfing Islamic State propaganda websites a few days before the July 14 massacre. His seized computer yielded images of corpses and Islamic State fighters. A smoking gun that is not. Bouhlel was an unsavory character who reportedly beat his wife and flouted Islamic dietary laws, but little about his life suggests he was more than a pathetic man who sympathized from afar with jihadists. For some reason, however, he crossed the line. "What we want to know now is what were the links between the man who was behind this dreadful attack and the terrorist networks," said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, according to CNN. "Those links, for the moment, have yet to be established by the investigation. So we must still be prudent with what we say on that subject. " From France to Cleveland – where Republicans are now meeting to tap Donald Trump as their candidate for president of the United States – citizens are disappointed in leaders who can’t stop the violence that’s taking lives from Dallas to the French Riviera to the Middle East. Yet, in a world where Americans can easily obtain firearms and move about freely and an angry young man can log onto the Internet and drive a truck through a road barricade, it’s arguably unrealistic to expect leaders to change anything unless they change everything. Most folks aren’t prepared or willing for everything to change. In the meantime, they’re dying amid the same old same old. A 17-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan injured several people with a hatchet and a knife on a train in southern Germany Monday evening before being shot dead by police as he fled the train. One witness said the train carriage where the attack occurred "looked like a slaughterhouse. " Two of the victims are currently in critical condition, authorities say. German authorities later found a hand-painted flag of the Islamic State among the attacker's belongings, said the state of Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Hermann early Tuesday. Police say that are still investigating whether the teenager radicalized himself individually or was part of a larger Islamic group. He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) during the attack. The assailant traveled to Germany as an unaccompanied minor two years ago and claimed asylum afterward. He had been living with a foster family since he moved out of a refugee center earlier this year. Germans have grown increasingly nervous about attacks by Islamist extremists following the wave of violence that has occurred in neighboring France. More than a million refugees arrived from mainly Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan last year. A top Filipino diplomat announced Tuesday that the country was rejecting an offer from China to hold negotiations "outside of and in disregard to" a ruling from an international tribune in The Hague last week that dismissed Beijing's claims to ownership of the South China Sea. The Philippines' Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that China's offer "was not consistent with our constitution and our national interests. " Wang reportedly added that "we might be headed for a confrontation," should the Philippines insist that China complies with The Hague's decision. The Hague ruling invalidated China's sprawling territorial claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas: It said China violated the treaty by creating artificial islands in the South China Sea that destroyed coral reefs and impeded the Philippines' right to fish there. The US and other countries welcomed the ruling. China refused to participate in the process and called the tribunal's July 12 decision "null and void. " Turkey's initial crackdown on plotters following a botched military coup expanded into a sweeping purge Monday that reached deep into the country's security services, civil servants and business and political elite. A total of nearly 18,000 people were detained or dismissed from their jobs Monday – including 6,000 members of the military, 9,000 police officers and even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's personal military attaché. The numbers suggest that support for the coup was either greater than initially believed, or that Erdogan is using the failed putsch as a pretext to dismiss other adversaries, writes the NY Times. Followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen – a former ally of Erdogan now living in exile in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan has accused of trying to overthrow the government from abroad – came under particular scrutiny as the purges widened. Meanwhile, Erdogan addressed supporters outside his Istanbul home early Tuesday and said he would reinstate the death penalty "if the people demanded it. " Western nations have already expressed alarm at what they believe to be score-settling: US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Turkey to "show restraint" and uphold the rule of law, while EU officials warned that the reinstatement of the death penalty would end Turkey's bid for EU membership. Parents of young children are constantly pulling their children’s thumbs out of their mouths, believing, usually correctly, that the kids’ hands are filthy and covered in germs. Yet many of those same parents often ask themselves why kids do that in the first place if it’s an unsanitary habit that could lead to illness, the Star Tribune reported . Now scientists have found that children who suck their thumbs are less likely to have allergies later in life, suggesting that thumb-sucking is nature’s way of introducing allergens to the body, thus giving the tots’ immune systems a chance to grow stronger, according to research published in the journal Pediatrics. The same goes for another bête noire of parents far and wide: nail-biting. The scientists did not assess whether the children suffered any detrimental effects from the social stigma associated with the so-called bad habits. Accordingly, they said they don’t necessarily suggest that parents encourage thumb-sucking and nail-biting.

2016-07-20 04:16 rssfeeds.usatoday.com

38 Cornell West Speaks at Anti-Police Rally CLEVELAND — “There will be no peace unless there is justice,” Professor Cornell West said Tuesday in a speech to an anti- police rally here organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Speaking through a megaphone amid a crowd of protesters gathered at Public Square in downtown Cleveland, West invoked “the legacy of white supremacy in this country that goes back 400 years” to condemn police. West spoke in front of a giant RCP banner declaring, “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution. STOP MURDER BY POLICE.” Activists with the RCP held aloft signs that read, “America Was NEVER Great! We Need to OVERTHROW This System!” The Revolutionary Communist Party is a Maoist splinter group that emerged from the radical debris of the 1960s New Left. The RCP’s critics have called the group a cult. At their website, RCP on Monday called for “A Week of Powerful Struggle — That Must Be Built Toward Revolution.” Tuesday’s rally in a Cleveland park, just blocks from the arena where the Republican National Convention is meeting, was followed by a march down Euclid Avenue where about 150 protesters chanted: “Arrest, convict and put killer cops in jail! The whole damned system is guilty as hell!” They brandished signs with slogans like, “No allegiance to white supremacy” and “The Trump campaign is a crime against the mind.”

2016-07-20 04:10 Robert Stacy spectator.org

39 39 Forbes Welcome "Everything that happens is a small part of our journey. We can choose to be passive or we can be proactive and overcome our fears, set our own goals and do the best to reach them. For better or for worse, we always have a choice. " Giorgio Pautrie

2016-07-20 04:00 Giorgio Pautrie www.forbes.com

40 The tech helping Sir Ben's 'flying' boat go even faster I'm clinging for dear life onto the back of a high-speed catamaran as it skims above the Solent near Portsmouth. Hydrofoils dipped into the sea have lifted both hulls clean out of the water and we're flying along at about 30 knots (35mph; 55km/h) in just a light breeze, the wind howling in my ears. When the wind is stronger, these catamarans can top 50mph powered by the huge sail that looks and behaves more like the wing of a passenger jet. As we take a tight turn around a buoy it feels like a powerful sports car hugging a bend. Only wetter. I've joined four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie and his team as they practise hard for the next leg of the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series race, which begins on Friday. The sailors are highly skilled and very fit, but their success will depend as much upon technology as human ability. "Technology is critical to the America's Cup," Sir Ben tells me as we take a breather between exercises. "It's a design race as much as it is a sailing race... the balance between design and actual sailing skill will be pretty much 50-50. " Britain has never won the trophy, despite the competition's 165-year history, although Sir Ben did help Oracle Team USA win in 2013 - a feat he's aiming to recreate with his own crew. These boats are laden with sensors, hydraulics and composite materials taken from F1 motorsport and the aeronautics industry. They are designed to be as lightweight and aerodynamic as possible, even down to the suits of the crew, but they also have to withstand forces that are "significantly higher than F1 motorsport", says Martin Whitmarsh, former team principal of the McLaren Mercedes F1 team and now chief executive of Sir Ben's Land Rover BAR team. "The America's Cup is now the Formula 1 of sailing," he tells the BBC back at the team's purpose-built headquarters in Portsmouth harbour. "These are high-speed, dynamic, foiling multi-hulled boats with systems that help them fly and manoeuvre quicker that other boats. "They are inherently quite a lot more dangerous because they are travelling very fast and bearing enormous loads. " The huge wing-sails can generate three times the speed of the wind, and the trick is to make the boats fly across the water without actually taking off. Hundreds of sensors dotted around the sail, hulls and foils measure the strains and pressures on the boat, as well as wind speeds and direction. All this data is sent back in real time to the technology centre where it is analysed to see how the team can squeeze even more speed from the equipment. Rob Lamb, cloud business director for EMC UK & Ireland - Land Rover BAR's data partner - says: "Telemetry data is transferred ashore using packet technology - like SMS - and then when the boat returns to shore a full download of all the data captured, including from the boat's high definition cameras, is downloaded and stored virtually. " Given that legs of the America's Cup take place across the world, from Japan to Bermuda, a reliable data stream and storage facility is essential for all the teams. Jaguar Land Rover then applies machine learning techniques to this vast sea of data, perceiving patterns that humans could not and deriving insights that could lead to improved performance. Foil technology is not new - it's been used on ferries for years. Lifting the hull off the water using the lift created by the foil reduces drag and helps the boat go faster - that's simple physics. But now we have the materials, actuators, hydraulic and electronic control systems to operate them dynamically, responding to weather and sea conditions, argues Mr Whitmarsh. "Hydrofoils provide the opportunity for huge efficiency gains, not just on our boats but on many other waterborne vessels, so I think we're going to see something develop out of the America's Cup that's of benefit to the entire maritime industry. " Follow Matthew on Twitter @matthew_wall Click here for more Technology of Business features

2016-07-20 04:00 By Matthew www.bbc.co.uk

41 26 dead in Taiwan tourist bus fire — RT News The passengers are believed to be from mainland China, according to Taiwan News, while the accident took place at around 1pm local time. The bus was traveling on the main highway which links the city with the airport. Television footage showed that a red-and-white bus was lying on its side, with the front right side stuck in the railings in the central reservation. Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising into the sky, while large flames were coming from the wreckage. A total of 26 people are believed to have died in the accident, while it has been reported that the group of tourists, who were from the Chinese province of Liaoning in the northeast, were heading to the airport to return home. The tourist group consisted of 23 travelers and two guides, Taiwan News reports. A preliminary report by the local authorities says the fire started near the front of the bus. The driver, who also died in the accident, lost control of the vehicle and it slammed into the railings. Passengers were unable to escape because the doors were wedged against the barrier, which prevented the emergency doors from opening. Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is around 40km west of the capital, Taipei, and is the biggest passenger transportation hub on the island. 2016-07-20 04:07 www.rt.com

42 Texas governor makes bid to extend hate crime protections to cops in Police Protection Act — RT America The proposed law would make it a hate crime if someone acts criminally against a cop out of bias against police. It would also increase penalties for all crimes against law enforcement regardless of whether it falls under the label of hate crime. An assault on an officer, which is currently a third degree felony, in line with assaults on other public servants, would be bunked up to a second degree felony under the proposed legislation. Republican Governor Abbott’s bill comes in the wake of the fatal shootings of five police officers in Dallas, Texas earlier this month and a surge, generally, in violence against police. READ MORE: ‘Striking that killing of US police officers happened in Southern states’ Three more policemen were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sunday, less than two weeks after police in the area shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling. His killing, which was captured on video, along with the police shooting of Philando Castille triggered protests and subsequent violence against the force. “While our state and the nation continue to mourn the heroes lost in Dallas, it is time for us to unite as Texans to say no more,” Governor Abbott said in a statement . “The men and women in uniform risk their lives every day to protect the public, and it is time we show them the State of Texas has their back. Texas will no longer tolerate disrespect for those who serve, and it must be made clear to anyone targeting our law enforcement officials that their actions will be met with severe justice,” he continued. Abbott also proposed launching a campaign to educate young Texans on the value police officers bring to their communities and foster a culture of respect for the force. The bill has been praised by a number of law enforcement organizations across the state including the Texas, Houston and Dallas police associations as well as the Sheriff’s Association of Texas. “Every Texas Sheriff feels this should be a precedent for the leadership in other states to follow, and we support our Governor,” said Grimes County Sheriff and President of the Sheriff's Association of Texas, Donald Sowell. Governor Abbott signed the Texas Open Carry Bill for Concealed Handgun Holders, which became effective from the start of this year, into law last June. READ MORE:Right to ‘bare’ arms: Open carry to become legal in Texas He has been a vocal critic of President Obama’s proposals on gun control even posting a defiant tweet last January in response to Obama’s plans for executive actions on firearms. Abbott will seek to pass his Police Protection Act in next year’s legislative session.

2016-07-20 04:07 www.rt.com

43 Spalding shooting: Three members of family killed Three members of a family have been killed in a shooting near a swimming pool in Lincolnshire. The BBC understands Lance Hart, 57, his wife Claire Hart, 50, and their daughter Charlotte Hart, 19, were killed in the shooting in Spalding. Lincolnshire Police had earlier said the suspected gunman was among the dead and said they were not looking for anyone else over the incident. Police said they believed a shotgun was used. The shooting happened near the Castle Swimming Pool in Pinchbeck Road at about 09:00 BST. Latest updates on shooting in Spalding Police also searched a house in the village of Moulton, five miles (8km) from the centre of Spalding. Speaking on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, the leader of South Holland District Council said he had been told it was believed to be a "domestic incident". "This looks by all accounts to be a very tragic family incident", Councillor Gary Porter said. East Midlands Ambulance Service said paramedics were told to approach the scene with caution and fought to save the three people, who had gunshot wounds. The air ambulance was also called to the swimming pool. "Despite the best efforts of everyone at the scene the patients were pronounced dead", an ambulance spokesperson said. Any witnesses have been asked to contact police. The leisure centre said it had closed because of the shooting. Lincolnshire County Council said pupils were being kept inside local schools for safety, but the lockdown had since been lifted. One local woman, who asked not to be named, said: "We heard all the police cars earlier this morning - they were absolutely everywhere, tearing around. "We didn't hear any shots, nothing at all, only the dozens, literally dozens, of police cars. " District councillor Gary Taylor, who represents Spalding Castle ward, said: "It's terrible news and local people are very shocked. It's a very quiet place, gun crime does not exist in this area at all. " Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: "Shocking events in Spalding, Lincolnshire. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. " Are you in Spalding? Have you been affected by this story? Please email [email protected] Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: Or use the form below

2016-07-20 04:02 www.bbc.co.uk

44 44 Peaceful unity Stop the Violence march in York To celebrate her 7th birthday, Leah Ackerman organized a lemonade stand to raise money for Rock Hill’s Project HOPE. Clover School District will open two new schools this fall, including the new $23 million Oakridge Elementary School across the street from Oakridge Middle School. It features an eight-lane track with an athletic field under construction that also will be open to the community. The school will have an estimated 600 students when it opens Aug. 15, and a capacity for 900. Catherine Muccigrosso/Lake Wylie Pilot More than 300 people took part in a Black Lives Matter march through York, SC, on Sunday. After the march concluded downtown, protesters heard from organizers of the event, family members of homicide victims and local officials. About 700 high school football players from around the country took part in a renowned training camp at South Pointe High on Saturday. Football University gives athletes a chance to hone their skills to compete for a chance at the next level. Members of First Baptist Church in Lincolnton, N. C. traveled to York County this week on a mission trip. The students painted walls and lockers at Renew Our Community, cleared debris from a property near York and spruced up areas at the Catawba Indian Reservation. York Police and Black Lives Matter Stop the Violence march organizers worked together in planning the March on Sunday, July 17 from Jefferson Field to downtown York. During a scorching hot day in the high 90s, firefighters came to the rescue by dousing Victory Sports campers at Springfield Elementary School in Fort Mill Thursday. Pastor C. T. Kirk of Sanctuary of Life Outreach Center in Rock Hill has collected 40,000 books since April through the Reading Roundup 2016 book drive and has distributed thousands since June. Church volunteers plan to distribute more to area schools, daycare centers, communities and door-to-door. Kirk is holding a teacher appreciation event from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at McGirt Auditorium at the Emmett Scott Center in Rock Hill to hand out books to elementary schools and daycare centers. Twenty Rock Hill school district teachers did job shadowing this week to learn how the lessons they teach are used in the workplace. The program was a collaborative effort through a Comporium STEM grant. The teachers job shadowed in architecture and engineering, financial services, geographic information systems, water treatment and surveying.

2016-07-20 04:02 www.heraldonline.com

45 Obama Admin: Student Debt Is Good For US Economy The Obama administration has released a new report arguing the massive $1.3 trillion student debt load is helping the economy. “Investing in Higher Education: Benefits, Challenges, and the State of Student Debt” is the work of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). The 78-page report argues that, despite the widespread belief student loans are dragging down young U. S. workers, the surge in debt has actually been a boon for the United States. “Federal student loan programs help expand access to high-quality education, which has long-lasting benefits to individuals as well as the overall macroeconomy through higher labor productivity and faster GDP growth,” the report says . Student debt has nearly doubled during President Barack Obama’s tenure, surpassing credit card debt as the second-largest source of debt in the U. S., behind home mortgages. Polls and other measures of economic activity indicate that many millennials have delayed marrying, buying a home, or starting a family because of their student loan burdens. Such analyses have it all wrong, the new report says. In fact, people with student debt are far better off than those going without it, and on balance the debt is boosting the American economy. “Additional student debt, as an investment in education, is associated with additional income, putting many households in a better position to buy homes or start businesses,” it says. “By age 26, households with student debt are more likely to buy a house than those that did not attend college. By age 34, college attendees with and without student debt are equally likely to buy a home, and both much more likely than those without a college education.” CEA’s analysis is backed up with a comparison of current student debt levels with the expected dividends of getting a tertiary degree. While the average student leaves school with less than $50,000 in debt, a person with a bachelor’s degree is expected to earn about $500,000 more than a high school graduate over the course of their working career. Interestingly, the report goes against a major theme in Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Clinton has touted a plan to make public college in the U. S. a debt-free endeavor. More recently, she has proposed a plan to make public college completely free for all families earning below $125,000. The report does focus on one group of borrowers who are being harmed disproportionately by student debt: those who borrowed for school but never graduated. This group of people is experiencing severe economic dislocation, because they lack the improved income offered by a college degree but are still trying to pay off thousands in debt. Ironically, the White House report notes, it’s people with the smallest debt amounts who are most likely to default on their payments. 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

46 McCain's Primary Challenger: 'Donald Trump Helps Me' CLEVELAND — Dr. Kelli Ward, the former Arizona state senator who is challenging Sen. John McCain in the August Republican primary, said Tuesday that Donald Trump will help in her quest to unseat the five-term incumbent. In an interview with The Daily Caller’s Scott Greer, Dr. Ward said, “I think that Donald Trump helps me. I think he harms Senator McCain, which is why he’s fighting so fiercely against them.” She paused for a second before amending, “Well, not fiercely – I don’t know how fierce he can even fight at this point.” Ward said that Arizona deserved better representation than its two senators, McCain and Jeff Flake. Flake, a first-term senator, recently called for the purging of GOP members that support Trump. Calling for new leadership, Ward said, “If the same people get into Washington, D. C., we’re going to have the same, or worse, results with our border. There is a large contingency on the people on both the Republican and Democrat side that want an open border: one side for votes, one side for cheap labor.”

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

47 Judge Puts Hold On Wisconsin Voter ID Law A federal court placed an injunction on a Wisconsin law requiring voters to present a state issued identification while voting Tuesday, ruling citizens without an official ID may still cast ballots after signing an affidavit affirming their identity. The ruling was issued by Judge Lynn S. Adelman of the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The challenge to Wisconsin Act 23 was first brought in 2011. Adelman struck down the law at the time, finding it violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and section 2 of the 1964 Voting Rights Act. On appeal, a panel of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit led by Judge Frank Easterbrook reversed Adelman’s ruling. The Seventh Circuit divided 5-5 on whether to rehear the case en banc, remanding the case back to Adelman for further proceedings. Adelman documented the challenges encountered by voters attempting to obtain an official identification at some length. He cited a particular case in which a Wisconsin woman, who had lost her birth certificate, could not obtain a duplicate copy from the hospital of her birth without paying a fee (a uniquely problematic fact posture in that the Constitution forbids charging citizens fees to vote.) If Wisconsin does not accept Adelman’s remedy, the state may appeal to the Seventh Circuit. Rick Hasen, a professor of law at University of California Irvine Law School who specializes in election law, wrote on his blog that the Seventh Circuit could overturn Adelman’s ruling if it feels it was issued too close to an election or if they feel it is too dramatic. “And then if the 7th Circuit reverses and time is getting shorter, what does a 4-4 SCOTUS do?” he wrote. “That’s an interesting question.” 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

48 Govt Employees Believe Clinton Received Special Treatment A majority of federal employees believe Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received special treatment from the Department of Justice during the investigation into her use of a private email server, according to a new poll. Two-thirds of federal workers and government contractors agreed Clinton may have been let off easy when the Justice Department decided not to bring charges for sending and receiving classified and top secret documents on an unsecured email server. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said her email practices constituted an “unacceptable security breach for a presidential candidate,” the poll found. Only 16 percent of respondents to the Government Business Council survey , released Monday, believe Clinton received unfair scrutiny for her email practices. The DOJ chose not to charge the former secretary of state after an FBI investigation revealed her email practices put classified material at risk. FBI Director James Comey decried Clinton’s email practices as “ extremely careless.” Even though the majority of respondents believed Clinton breached security protocol with her emails, 43 percent supported Clinton for president, compared to 37 percent who would vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The 768 people polled included employees of all branches of the military, the Justice Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the White House, and other federal agencies. The same survey found 45 percent of federal employees think Trump is a bigot . The Government Business Council, a research division of the Government Executive Media Group , conducted the survey of federal employees and government contractors from July 12 to July 18, 2016, just a week after the Justice Department declined to prosecute Clinton. Follow Thomas Phippen 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

49 Pompeo: Hillary Cared More About Her 'Legacy' Than Benghazi Republican Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo blasted Hillary Clinton Tuesday arguing that in the events surrounding the Benghazi terrorist attack, she put her “political legacy ahead of the safety and security” of the Americans on the ground. In an interview with The Daily Caller from the Republican National Convention, referring to Clinton’s testimony before the House Benghazi Committee in October 2015, Pompeo said, “I am completely convinced that she told known falsehoods. That’s perjury in legal terms.” (RELATED: Issa On Perjury Charge For Hillary: ‘It’s Very Clear’ She Knew She Wasn’t Telling The Truth) Clinton “didn’t tell us the truth, she ought to be held accountable,” Pompeo said. The former secretary of state “told us that she didn’t send information marked classified, well we now know, you don’t have to take my word for it, you can look at the documents and listen the director of the FBI, Mr. Comey. He knows that she did and she knew it too.” (RELATED: Comey Confirms Hillary Clinton Lied To The Public About Her Emails [VIDEO]) “She told the American people a story about a video and a protest and we now know there was no evidence of that and at no time did she truly believe that,” Pompeo said, “Indeed, we saw the email to her daughter, where she told her daughter it was a terrorist attack within hours of the incident. And then you know they continued to deceive the American people about their efforts to rescue these four brave men.” Regarding the Obama/Clinton response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Pompeo said, “Look, we were 56 days out from a presidential election and Secretary Clinton had a political legacy to protect. It was her policy in Libya that she was trying to defend. And so a terrorist attack on US soil that killed four Americans was something that she had to try and avoid talking about.” Clinton “knew almost immediately this was Ansar Al Sharia, a radical Islamic terrorist group and yet she said privately something different. I think for one reason and one reason only: to protect her political legacy, that of her boss President Obama and for that she should absolutely should be held accountable. Putting your own political legacy ahead of the safety and security of the people you send into harm’s way is abhorrent and I’ve said this before, I find her actions that day morally reprehensible.” Pompeo also shared with The DC his meeting with one of the Benghazi heroes John Tiegen, Pompeo said, “I just had a chance to be handed a dog tag to commemorate the four who were killed that night. It is still emotional for me in that sense. These were four folks who America didn’t move heaven and earth to go save and for that President Obama and Secretary Clinton need to be held accountable to.” Follow Steve on Twitter and Facebook

2016-07-20 04:06 Media Reporter dailycaller.com

50 Ivanka Trump Defends Her Father's Tweets Ivanka Trump said her father never meant anything anti-Semitic when he tweeted what many thought was a Star of David. In an interview on Good Morning America, the 34- year-old daughter of Donald Trump, who’s a Jewish convert, answered questions about her father’s tweet towards Hillary Clinton using a six-pointed star, which many believed was the Star of David. (RELATED: What Donald Trump’s Like Behind Closed Doors, According To Ivanka) WATCH: “He clearly did not think that was the Star of David,” Trump said. “So, I think it should have been taken at face value. That clearly was not the intention.” “My father’s track record of supporting and advocating for Jewish people and for Israel is unimpeachable,” she added. “Whether it being the grand marshal of the Israel Day Parade to the support he has offered my husband, myself and our family as a young Jewish couple. I know my father and I know his intent.” “I think that was really rather ridiculous.” Trump also talked about the presumptive Republican nominee’s use of social media. “The only filter is himself,” she said. “He’s able to communicate exactly what he wants to say. It has gotten him into trouble occasionally.” “But I think, much more powerful is the fact that he speaks from the brain, he speaks from the heart,” she added. He’s the messenger of the people–he’s the people’s candidate.”

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

51 Grads With Lower Levels Of Debt Default More Roughly a third of students with $5,000 or less of federally backed student loans defaulted within three years of leaving college, according to a White House report. While roughly 30 percent of students who had between $5,000 and $10,000 in loans defaulted, and around 18 percent of those with between $10,000 and $20,000 defaulted within three years of leaving school. What’s also surprising is those with the highest levels of student debt defaulted at a much lower rate. Just 4 percent of students with over $40,000 in loans defaulted on their debt. (RELATED: Obama Admin Announces New Rules That Will Forgive Billions In Student Loans) Students with under $10,000 in loans comprise roughly two-thirds of student loan defaults, reports the White House. Those with lower levels of debt comprise a much greater portion of overall borrowers, and therefore default more frequently. Additionally, borrowers with high debt burdens often have graduate and advanced degrees, and thus have a greater likelihood of getting a job with a high salary. The White House found those with relatively small amounts of student loans “are often an indication that a borrower didn’t complete their program.” With no degree and student debt, it is likely that they “may struggle to get a job that pays decently enough to repay their loans.” 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

52 Anti-Trump Delegates: Expect 'Big Things' To Happen On Floor Tonight CLEVELAND — The fight to release bound state delegates from the results of their state primary is not over yet. Delegates Unbound, an organization, whose mission is to unbind these delegates, hinted to reporters late Tuesday after noon via text message, “Big thing happening in the arena later. We’ll see you there.” The cryptic message comes on the day Donald Trump expects to be nominated through a roll call vote of all 56 delegations from the convention floor of the Quicken Loans Arena. “As has been our goal all along, we want delegates to simply follow their conscience on the floor tonight,” said M. Dane Waters, co-founder of Delegates Unbound in an e-mail statement. The Daily Caller has learned that some bound delegates may cast their vote for a candidate other than the individual who they are bounded to vote for on the first ballot. Additionally, TheDC spoke with a Texas delegate who said he is privy to “concerning a select few people walking around” that a delegate-walk out may happen during a floor vote on a specific issue, but the plans to do so, the delegate said, keep falling through. Some GOP delegates became angry on Monday night when a motion to call a roll call vote to decide whether to adopt the convention committee rules, which may have led to the unbinding of delegates, was crushed. Follow Kerry on Twitter

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

53 Lee: Senate May Have To Confirm Liberal SCOTUS Justice U. S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah allegedly told a Federalist Society luncheon on Tuesday that the Senate may have to confirm a liberal Supreme Court nominee if Hillary Clinton is elected president in November. According to professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University Law School, Lee told the lunch time crowd at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cleveland, near this week’s Republican National Convention, that it would not be politically tenable for Senate Republicans to hold a seat open on the Supreme Court for four years should Clinton prevail in the presidential election. However, an event organizer denied the senator made comments to that effect. “He did not say that,” the organizer told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I don’t recall Clinton even being mentioned during his speech.” Lee’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time. The remarks carry special consequence as Lee sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel tasked with evaluating Supreme Court nominees and making recommendations to fellow senators. Another Republican senator made a similar admission. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake told reporters in May that the Senate should confirm Judge Merrick Garland, the president’s nominee to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court, in a lame duck session after the election if Hillary Clinton is elected. “But I don’t think my view is shared by too many of my colleagues,” Flake said. “Or enough of my colleagues to do it.” Lee himself is an accomplished lawyer. A former clerk to U. S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, he practiced with Sidley Austin’s appellate and Supreme Court practice group before joining Utah Governor Jon Hunstman’s administration as general counsel. Garland, tied Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis for the longest pending nomination at 125 days on Tuesday. 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

54 Free Market Groups Blast Obama's 'Arbitrary' Regs A Washington, D. C.-based energy group and a slew of free market organizations announced Tuesday support for a piece of legislation halting what they call President Barack Obama’s “arbitrary” rules regulating methane and carbon emissions. Energy industry group American Energy Alliance and conservative and libertarian groups Competitive Enterprise Institute and Heritage Action for America praised Republican legislation seeking to stop the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) and the “social cost of methane” (SCM) rules. SCC and SCM are products of a group of designees from Obama’s administration collectively called the Interagency Working Group (IWG). “The problems with these calculations are many, but the most important are that these calculations are ‘wholly arbitrary,’ that the IWG refuses to follow OMB’s guidelines for economic analysis, and that these are economic models which are calibrated to follow climate model projections, not actual, real-world data,” the groups wrote in a letter to Republican Rep. Evan Jenkins of West Virginia, who presented the legislation Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act of 2016 (THERA). Criticisms against the methane rules are coming mainly from states that rely heavily on natural gas development. North Dakota, for instance, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Environmental Protection Agency over methane emission rules the state called the regulations “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law.” The lawsuit, filed in the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals , argues the arbitrary nature of the rules will significantly affect North Dakota’s large shale oil operations. The rule was made in May and requires natural gas producers dramatically reduce methane leaks at drilling sites. The rule is part and parcel to Obama’s mission to reduce methane emissions 40 to 45 percent by 2025. The SCC and SCM model are used to inflate the climate model numbers, thereby adding to the arbitrary nature of the rules, the letter states. “If the calculations are re-run using empirical data, according to one SCC model the numbers should be 30 to 50 percent lower and according to another SCC model, the SCC should be over 80 percent lower,” according to the group. “In fact, if the IWG only used this second model, there is a 40 percent chance that the SCC would be negative, i.e., carbon dioxide actually turns out to be a benefit to the economy.” The letter notes that the numbers are inflated to justify the existence of the rules and the government agencies administering them. “Your bill recognizes that the government has been playing ‘fast and loose’ with the SCC and SCM,” the group concluded, “in what can fairly be described as an attempt to generate numbers that justify their administrative actions in pursuit of their political.” 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

55 Clinton Campaign Connects Trump To White Supremacy Hillary Clinton’s campaign sent out a fundraising email Tuesday that heavily connected Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump to white supremacy. The email started off focused on Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King’s comments Monday night. The congressman was responding to claims that Trump’s candidacy is the “last time that old white people will command the Republican Party’s attention.” King said, “This ‘old white people’ business does get a little tired… I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?” The Clinton campaign pounced on this saying, “King’s comments were widely reported as a textbook example of white supremacy, and it wasn’t the first time the Party of Trump has had a disturbing connection to white supremacy in recent months.” This came in a fundraising email titled “This is literally white supremacy, [fill in name of recipient].” The email went on to say, “We’re going to keep calling Trump out on the deplorable ideas he perpetuates, and we’re going to keep fighting to win the White House this November — not just by a few votes, but by an overwhelming majority — to show Trump, white supremacists, and the world in no uncertain terms that here in America, we don’t stand for hatred.” “I’m asking you to draw a line in the sand. Send a message to Donald Trump and the white supremacists who stand with him that we will not allow them to poison our country with their disgusting, bigoted beliefs,” the email concluded before asking for one dollar.

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

56 Kansas Police Captain Killed A Kansas police captain has been fatally shot in a string of attacks on police officers. Kansas City Police Capt. Robert David Melton was fatally shot Tuesday, The Kansas City Star reports. There have been recent fatal cop shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Melton was a veteran who went to Afghanistan. He responded to a call about someone firing a gun Tuesday afternoon. When officers, including Melton, arrived at the scene, they saw three or four suspects jump from a car and flee. Police made an arrest, but one of the fleeing suspects allegedly fired a shot that hit Melton, killing him. The Kansas City Police Department posted a statement on Facebook mourning the loss: Condolences don’t seem enough anymore. Our friends and neighbors across the state line, the Kansas City Kansas Police Department – KCKPD, lost another officer in the line of duty today – their second this year. Another protector’s family is grieving. Another police department is hurting. We all are. We stand ready to assist our neighbors in any way possible. Also, we appreciate all the support we’ve received from members of our community lately. That’s what we need to get through moments like this. As you saw on Chief Forté’s blog that we posted here earlier today, these are scary times for police and their families. Your prayers and support really mean the world right now. And they mean a lot to our friends and colleagues in KCK, Baton Rouge, Dallas and around the country, as well. Send tips to [email protected]. Follow Casey on Twitter and like him on Facebook. 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

57 Romney Wonk Thinks Trump Foreign Policy Is 'Worrisome' Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign policy director and foreign policy expert, Ph. D. Lanhee Chen , finds GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s foreign policy to be “worrisome,” he told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Language supporting arming Ukraine was removed from the GOP 2016 policy platform. The former Romney policy guru and current Hoover Institution David and Diane Steffy research fellow stated that “we’ve [Republicans] got a party that traditionally has stood very firmly in favor of freedom and certainly as a check against Russia in the [European] region, [so] this is very worrisome. “Time and time again, Russia has stood opposed to U. S. interests. If you look at: Syria, if you look at Iran, you look around the world, and the different things that Russia has done, it’s one thing to sort of say, ‘Look, we’ve got to go along to get along,’ that’s not the case with Russia. Russia has proven to be, as Governor Romney said, a significant, in fact, maybe our [the United States’] top geopolitical foe.” In Chen’s opinion, “to accede to them [Russia] in some way, I think is highly problematic, not just for the future of Republican foreign policy thinking, but also for the country more generally.” Follow JP 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 Foreign Affairs dailycaller.com

58 Dinesh D'Souza: Democrats Are The Real Racists CLEVELAND — Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza believes the Democratic Party cannot escape from its historical support for slavery and Jim Crow, and that the party continues that dark legacy in its current policies. In a video interview with The Daily Caller at the Republican National Convention Tuesday, D’Sousa explained that the purpose of his latest documentary and book, “ Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party ,” was to expose the Democratic Party’s “crimes” throughout history. “I think that progressive historiography has done a very sneaky job of covering up the crimes of progressivism and the Democratic Party. Many of the worst abuses of American history were done by the Democrats. But in a kind of ingenious scheme, what the left has done is taken the crimes of the Democratic Party and blamed them on the South, blamed them on the Republican Party, blamed them on America. ‘America did this and America did that.’ No. America didn’t do it, you did,” he told The Daily Caller. As an example of the alleged crimes of Democrats alone, D’Souza points to slavery. “You take the debate about slavery. If you read textbooks today and you listen to people talk, you get the idea that slavery was a fight between the North and the South,” he explained. “But most Southerners didn’t own slaves. Most people who fought on the confederate side did not own slaves. The Northern Democrats protected slavery, as did the Southern Democrats. So the real slavery debate, prior to the Civil War, was between the anti- slavery Republican Party and the pro-slavery Democratic Party.” The filmmaker told TheDC that these points are not known among the general population, especially by those who typically vote Democratic. But he thinks that communicating those points to a larger audience — as he hopes to do with his new movie — will convince average people to think twice about their political affiliation. “The ordinary guy, and the ordinary black guy, thinks the Democratic Party is the party that fought slavery, the Democratic Party secured civil rights and human rights and basic rights,” D’Souza said. “So if you were to tell the ordinary black guy: ‘Hey listen. Which is the party of slavery? The Democrats. Which is the party of segregation? The Democrats. Which is the party of the Ku Klux Klan? The Democrats. Which is the party of lynching? The Democrats.’ Most people don’t know that. And, so, it is eye opening for them and it makes them begin to rethink their assumption. So that’s what we’re trying to do with this film.” To critics who say that that’s the distant past and the political parties are completely different from their 19th century selves, D’Souza says Democrats still operate on a “plantation” model. “If you walk today through Oakland, Detroit, inner city Chicago, even inner city Dallas. What do you see? You see the same thing. Ram-shackled dwellings, the family structure all broken down, illegitimacy is a normal condition of life. People get a meager living. They get free healthcare and they might get food stamps, but no hope, no opportunity. Even though America has spent trillions of dollars on the inner cities, they’re pretty much the same as they were in 1965. So, the plantation, the old, rural plantation has now been transplanted into an urban plantation. And the same Democratic Party that ran the old plantations is running the new ones,” D’Souza argued. The commentator believes Hillary Clinton is the embodiment of this Democratic hypocrisy, as he insists her career has been tainted with “gangsterism” and a pay-for-play mentality. “Hillary tries to redeem herself by saying ‘well yeah, but you know, I stand for the party that supports women’s rights.’ So the moral capital of the Democratic Party comes from the idea that it’s the party of emancipation and social justice. So our film, by blowing the lid on this, we strip away the moral claim of the Democratic Party,” he said. Follow Scott on Twitter

2016-07-20 04:05 Deputy Editor dailycaller.com

59 Dancing Wichita Cop Goes Viral In Video A Wichita, Kan., police officer couldn’t help but drop some sick dance moves with Black Lives Matter activists, and now video of the performance has gone viral. Officer Aaron Moses attended a community cookout and began dancing with Black Lives Matter activists Sunday, KSN reports. Video of the cookout shows Moses doing the “Cha Cha Slide” and dancing with children. He said now he is being called “ Officer Brown with the get down.” “I hit the ‘Whip and the Nae Nae ,'” Moses told KSN. “I got some lessons on that.” WATCH: “If I need to dance a little goofy and do the ‘ Cha Cha Slide ‘ to help people see that I’m a real person, that I do care and that I trust you, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Moses told ABC13. “Until we build an atmosphere of trust, care and compassion with the people we serve and those people accept that and trust in us, nothing is going to get better.” WATCH: Send tips to [email protected]. Follow Casey on Twitter and like him on Facebook. 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 dailycaller.com

60 Trump 'Would Dramatically Increase Economic Growth' The Daily Caller News Foundation got the chance to speak with Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), who believes Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s tax plan would “dramatically increase economic growth.” Norquist was particularly excited about the fact that Trump’s economic agenda would, “take the top corporate [tax] rate from 35 percent in the United States, to 15 [percent].” Norquist “absolutely” believes that top U. S. Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies with large amounts of cash overseas would reinvest in the American market because of Trump’s economic agenda. “We’re growing so slowly, that by comparison, had we grown at Reagan rates, at 4 percent a year, instead of Obama rates, 2 percent a year, we would today have 14 million more Americans working,” the tax man told TheDCNF. According to Norquist, “Trump has made it clear that he wants to go in Reagan’s direction on questions of tax policy.” The one issue which seemed to particularly concern Norquist was that the GOP presumptive nominee has not signed on to his organization’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge , in which the signatory promises in writing, “to oppose any and all tax increases.” Norquist informed TheDCNF he had run into Trump’s head of business outreach a couple of days ago, who told Norquist Trump is receptive towards the idea of signing the pledge. Follow JP 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].

2016-07-20 04:05 Foreign Affairs dailycaller.com

61 Obama Won't Discipline Possible Clinton VP For Violation Just a day after Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro was found to have violated the Hatch Act , a federal law banning public officials from engaging in political activities on government time, the Obama administration announced there would be no consequences for that finding. Castro, who is reportedly on the short-list for a vice-presidential picks by Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, was given a pass by the White House for the violation, with Press Secretary Josh Earnest saying, “I think to his credit, Secretary Castro acknowledged the mistake that he made.” Continuing, Earnest said, “He owned up to it, and he’s taken the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.” The matter is now dropped.

2016-07-20 04:04 dailycaller.com

62 This App Wants You To Get Money For Delayed Flights A startup is launching a new addition of its app Service called Protect, which allows people to acquire compensation for delayed or cancelled flights. Service acts as a technical liaison between a business and a consumer when expectations for services have not been met. It now has a feature to deal with a specific area that has a highly testy customer-to- company relationship: the airline industry. Airliners are consistently ranked as the most hated companies , and the prevalence is apparent due to the extensive litany of consumer complaints. The app automatically scans users’ email account in search of flight receipts and itineraries, according to TechCrunch. The functionality allows any issue to be immediately filed with the tap of a button. Protect also has capabilities that will monitor future flights for potential delays or cancellations. After parsing an email inbox, the app’s interface will reach out to help obtain compensation before formally filing anything. Customer satisfaction doesn’t always have a negative affect on profitability. Spirit Airlines, according to Bloomberg , is the leader in customer complaints, but is also the most successful airliner in the U. S. in terms of “operating margin and return on invested capital.” While the hostility between airliners and patrons has been a consistent theme for years, the animosity trend continues to grow. Fortune Magazine reports airline complaints went up roughly 30 percent last year. Service and Protect co-founder and CEO Michael Schneider explained the business plan is to maintain its service free of charge and to explore monetary benefits through direct engagement with businesses instead, according to TechCrunch. 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].

2016-07-20 04:04 dailycaller.com

63 Peek inside Clover School District's new elementary school The York County Sheriff’s Office and Lake Wylie Marine Commission partnered to bring life jacket and boater safety to local schools, starting with Fort Mill High School and Clover High School. John Marks/Lake Wylie Pilot Five homes, including the contemporary statement Huntley-Ward home on Lake Wylie will be part of the April 30 Clover-Lake Wylie Republican Women’s Club’s Home and Garden Tour. The event raises scholarship money for students in the Clover School District, South Carolina, area. Catherine Muccigrosso/Lake Wylie Pilot Troop 333 in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, hosted the 2016 district Pinewood Derby for Scouts in York County and Indian Land, which is in Lancaster County. Clover School District’s Oakridge Middle School retired No. 27 soccer jersey to honor Alex Lamparter in a ceremony with players, friends and families April 12 at the school in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. Alex lost her battle against bone cancer in February 2015 at the age of 16. Kenya Orphanage Project, a nonprofit started in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, in 2002, now operates with help from its first graduate Sharon Odemba. Odemba is visiting Lake Wylie for three weeks to share stories of success. John Marks/[email protected] Jason Klugh of Charlotte, N. C., near Lake Wylie, seeks pledges through KickStarter to help get his invention for travelers flying. The FreeHand is a cup holder, plus optional mobile pack, that attaches to luggage. To find out more and to back Klugh’s invention, visit bit.ly/freehandtravel. Kaia Morey, a Clover Oakridge Middle School student, came in second place overall in the South Carolina State Gymnastics competition March 13 at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. Morey had a 9.525 on Vault for second place; 9.375 on Bars for second place; 9.125 on Beam for third place; 9.000 on Floor Exercises for fourth place with a total of 37.025 Overall for second place. Video provided by Ed Lindsey Lake Wylie Rotary Club is putting up three Little Free Libraries in the community. The national effort to "Build a Literacy-Friendly Neighborhood' is a “take a book, return a book” free book exchange. The club has installed libraries at Good Samaritan United Methodist Church parking lot, 5220 Crowders Cove Road; Stateline Road school bus stop; and a third still to be determined. Catherine Muccigrosso/Lake Wylie Pilot The Georges family in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, routinely travels to Belgium, and was in a Brussels airport when it came under attack March 22 from two bombs. John Marks/Lake Wylie Pilot Echo Consignment Boutique co-owner Chrissy Pellegrino talks about the stores expansion as it celebrated March 24 with giveaways and more at its Landing Station location at 164 Highway 274 in Lake Wylie, SC. Along with clothing and accessory consignments, the store now offers more new clothing merchandise, specialty gifts and more jewelry. Nearby Echo Attic at Shoppes at the Landing now sells discounted clothing. Catherine Muccigrosso/Lake Wylie Pilot

2016-07-20 04:03 www.heraldonline.com

64 Judge: former Rock Hill assistant principal will stand trial Organizer Quisha Bankhead, whose grandfather was a homicide victim, coordinated the York March along with other volunteers to focus on stopping violent crime, unifying people, and love for one another. To celebrate her 7th birthday, Leah Ackerman organized a lemonade stand to raise money for Rock Hill’s Project HOPE. Clover School District will open two new schools this fall, including the new $23 million Oakridge Elementary School across the street from Oakridge Middle School. It features an eight-lane track with an athletic field under construction that also will be open to the community. The school will have an estimated 600 students when it opens Aug. 15, and a capacity for 900. Catherine Muccigrosso/Lake Wylie Pilot More than 300 people took part in a Black Lives Matter march through York, SC, on Sunday. After the march concluded downtown, protesters heard from organizers of the event, family members of homicide victims and local officials. The activist group, Concerned Black Men of the City of Rock Hill, delivered a letter with a list of demands to the police department Saturday afternoon. Organizers are hoping they can increase communication and understanding between the black community and law enforcement. About 700 high school football players from around the country took part in a renowned training camp at South Pointe High on Saturday. Football University gives athletes a chance to hone their skills to compete for a chance at the next level. Members of First Baptist Church in Lincolnton, N. C. traveled to York County this week on a mission trip. The students painted walls and lockers at Renew Our Community, cleared debris from a property near York and spruced up areas at the Catawba Indian Reservation. York Police and Black Lives Matter Stop the Violence march organizers worked together in planning the March on Sunday, July 17 from Jefferson Field to downtown York. During a scorching hot day in the high 90s, firefighters came to the rescue by dousing Victory Sports campers at Springfield Elementary School in Fort Mill Thursday. Pastor C. T. Kirk of Sanctuary of Life Outreach Center in Rock Hill has collected 40,000 books since April through the Reading Roundup 2016 book drive and has distributed thousands since June. Church volunteers plan to distribute more to area schools, daycare centers, communities and door-to-door. Kirk is holding a teacher appreciation event from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at McGirt Auditorium at the Emmett Scott Center in Rock Hill to hand out books to elementary schools and daycare centers.

2016-07-20 04:03 www.heraldonline.com

65 WATCH: Why a young Republican from Washington is voting for Trump Save Tacoma Water supporters submitted about 6,000 signatures for one of its two initiatives to the Tacoma city clerk. Sheriff Paul Pastor talks about the need for more deputies. Protesters with signs and flags shout outside the Donald Trump rally at Selland Arena on May 27, 2016. WARNING: Graphic language. Pierce County uses bacteria found naturally in wastewater to reduce nitrogen. During the multi-stage treatment process oxygen is used to grow "good" bacteria that breaks down and removes "bad" bacteria. At congressional district caucuses on May 21, 2016, Democrats in Washington state chose most of their delegates who will attend the Democratic National Convention in July. Participants were happy to chat about the process, as well as which candidate they support and why. The congressional district caucuses also finalized how many of the state's 101 delegates will be awarded to each Democratic presidential candidate. Statewide, Bernie Sanders received 74 delegates while Hillary Clinton received 27, mirroring the results of earlier precinct-level caucuses. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to an overflow crowd at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in Lynden, Wash., on Saturday, May 7, 2016. Donald Trump signed a onesie worn by 14-month-old Liberty Anne Owen at his Saturday, May 7, 2016, rally in Lynden, Washington. Her parents Tiffany Linhart and Clay Owen of Ferndale were excited and also got their hats signed by the presumptive Republican nominee. The Gig Harbor attorney, who is a Bernie Sanders supporter, says the lack of superdelegate support for Sanders, who won the state's caucus overwhelmingly, tramples the rights of voters. Sharon Hanek, Pierce County Charter Review Commission chairwoman, explains what's next for the 21-member body proposing charter alterations to submit to voters on the Nov. 8 ballot. Tacoma Public Utilities Director Bill Gaines is encouraged by recent water test results that show replacing the water service line and lead gooseneck reduces lead in the water supply to homes.

2016-07-20 04:01 www.thenewstribune.com

66 In pictures: Relics of the Soviet era A new exhibition showcasing the work of three artists focusing on abandoned spaces - Dead Space and Ruins - has opened at Calvert 22 Foundation in London. Taking inspiration from the vast landscape of the former Soviet Union, the works aim to "explore the theme of 'Dead Space', left in the wake of the quest for progress". It is the second exhibition from Calvert 22’s Power and Architecture season. Danila Tkachenko's Restricted Areas series captures brutalist ruins looming out of the mist and snow of frozen vistas. Part wreckage, part monument, the scenes show the decaying architectural memories of a Soviet vision. This image shows the world’s largest diesel submarine. Tkachenko travelled to locations that had been off-limits in the former Soviet Union, such as this deserted observatory. By looking at these pictures, Tkachenko says, “we can imagine one possible future and look at it in an abstracted way”. "Those places lost their significance together with the utopian ideology, which is now obsolete," says Tkachenko. "Secret cities that cannot be found on maps, forgotten scientific triumphs, abandoned buildings of almost inhuman complexity. The perfect technocratic future that never came. " Eric Lusito’s series, Traces of the Soviet Empire and Vahram Agasian's Ghost City, also feature in the show. Dead Space and Ruins is part of the Power and Architecture season at Calvert 22 Foundation and will run until 7 August 2016.

2016-07-20 03:56 www.bbc.co.uk

67 Are cloned animals born old? Scientists are studying Dolly the sheep's "siblings" in order to study the health of cloned animals - and resolve a puzzle over whether they age normally. "I'm feeling the joints for any kind of heat or swelling. " Veterinary surgeon Dr Sandra Corr puts Daisy the sheep through a very hands- on physical examination. "I'm looking for any signs of crepitus or lameness," she says, "Anything that might indicate the onset of disease or osteoarthritis. " But Daisy is not just any sheep. She's a clone. One of a flock of 13 cloned sheep currently living out their lives on a farm owned by the University of Nottingham, and one of only four (the others are Debbie, Denise and Diane) cloned from the same adult ewe as Dolly the sheep - the first cloned mammal born in 1996. This, despite the passage of a couple of generations in sheep-years, says Kevin Sinclair, professor of developmental biology at Nottingham and lead author on the study, makes them Dolly's - and that original ewe's - identical twin sisters. "Where there was one Dolly, with these four girls, now there are five," he says. We're standing in a straw-lined pen in a barn on the university's Sutton Bonington Campus and one-by-one all 13 sheep are put through the same set of exacting, methodical tests. As far as I can tell it's a process the sheep seem well used to. If not exactly enthusiastic, they stoically endure the joint manipulations with something approaching world weary resignation. But if the sheep seem unfazed by all the attention, that may be because they are among the most closely monitored and studied animals anywhere in the world. According to Prof Sinclair, the fate of the whole science of cloning may hang on the results. He tells me: "One of the big questions that surrounded the creation of Dolly, and all the cloning work that has gone on since, is: do these animals age in a normal way and how healthy are they? " Underpinning this question is a fundamental concern about the cloning process. Because it involves extracting DNA from the cell of an adult animal - a cell that is fully differentiated and has been through multiple cell divisions - some "age-memory" might be transferred into the next generation. "That would mean that the cloned animal was somehow much older that you might expect," says Prof Sinclair. "A new born clone might look like a lamb, but in terms of cellular senescence it would be much older, and the animal would start to develop diseases associated with aging at a much younger age. " The original Dolly died at the relatively modest age for a sheep of six-and-a- half. Along with several other members of her flock she had contracted a virus that caused lesions to develop in her lungs and she had to be put down. But by then Dolly was already suffering from osteoarthritis which, although not unheard of in a sheep of her age, did raise concerns about premature aging. The decision was taken to go back to the original cell line and to produce more clones. "We wanted to know if Dolly's untimely death was just unlucky", recalled Prof Sinclair, "or if it was something to do with the cloning process itself. If illnesses like arthritis that are associated with old age were more common in cloned animals. " Getting the answers to those questions has involved putting the dollies, and nine other sheep cloned from different cell lines, through an exhaustive battery of tests and assessments including regular joint X-rays and a series of full-body fMRI scans. Prof Sinclair said: "We focused on three co-morbidities: cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis - the three co-morbidities most associated with aging. Were these animals any different from the wider population of sheep with regard to these particular co-morbidities. " The results of the study, which could have profound implications for the future of cloning, will be published next week. But for now, the dollies, which are approaching their ninth and tenth birthdays, seem to be in rude health. Follow Tom on Twitter.

2016-07-20 03:55 By Tom www.bbc.co.uk

68 68 Hyde Park 'water fight' violence sees police officer stabbed A police officer was stabbed when a "spontaneous water fight" on the hottest day of the year so far turned violent, the Met has said. Bottles and other items were thrown at officers in London's Hyde Park after the "increasingly large crowd became hostile to police" at about 20:40 BST. Another officer was hit with a bottle, Scotland Yard said, while two members of the public suffered stab wounds. All four injured people are being treated in hospital, police said. The gathering had been attended by police since 15:00. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information has been urged to contact police or Crimestoppers.

2016-07-20 03:18 www.bbc.co.uk

69 Gavin Long, Baton Rouge gunman who railed against 'oppression' The man who shot dead three police officers in the US city of Baton Rouge has been identified as a black military veteran who released a series of videos railing against the treatment of African-Americans by police. Gavin Long was killed in a gun battle with police on Sunday, on what was his 29th birthday. Long served in the US Marines from 2005-2010, including a seven-month Iraq tour in 2008. He attained the rank of sergeant and received several awards, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. More recently he appears to have tried to reinvent himself as a self-help guru. On the website Convoswithcosmo.com, registered to Long, he describes himself as a "freedom strategist, mental game coach, nutritionist, author and spiritual advisor". AFP reported that Long had his name legally changed to Cosmo Ausar Setepenra last year, claiming to have Native American ancestry. On the site, Cosmo says he travelled extensively in Africa, where he was taught by "native spiritual practitioners and elder holistic healers". Books written by Cosmo Setepenra are still available on Amazon. But it is the long trail of social media postings linked to Long that will be most closely scrutinised by investigators. "Let's go with the numbers, let's go with the history. 100% of revolutions, of victims fighting their oppressors... have been successful through fighting back, through bloodshed," he says in a YouTube video published on 10 July. "Zero have been successful over simply protesting. It has never worked and it never will. You gotta fight back. " He posted an earlier video, now taken down, describing himself as a former Christian and a Nation of Islam member, but he then repeatedly stated he had no affiliation to any group. "I thought my own thoughts, I made my own decisions," he says. "I'm the one who's gotta listen to the judgment. " In one tweet, Long wrote that Micah Johnson , who shot dead five US police officers in Dallas, was "one of us! My Religion is Justice". Like Long, Johnson was an army veteran. The authorities are yet to comment on Long's motive. At least one of the officers he killed was black. Long was married for two years and studied briefly at the University of Alabama. His home in Kansas City, Missouri, was searched by police. A final tweet from his account reads: "Just bc you wake up every morning doesn't mean that you're living. And just bc you shed your physical body doesn't mean that you're dead. "

2016-07-20 03:19 www.bbc.co.uk

70 Why Google DeepMind wants your medical records Google's DeepMind has moved on from playing Go to more serious matters - attempting to solve some of the world's biggest health problems. Projects include a tie-up with London Moorfields eye hospital, which will see it using one million eye scans to train its artificial intelligence system to diagnose potential sight issues, and development of an app to help doctors spot kidney disease. Google's entry on to the healthcare scene has been welcomed by some, notably doctors who are desperate to apply some cutting-edge technology to antiquated NHS systems. But less so by privacy groups and some patients, who have been surprised and concerned that their data - in some cases not anonymised - can be shared with the tech giant's AI division. So what does Google want with our health data and should we be worried? In May it was revealed that Google's DeepMind, had been given access to the healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by London's Royal Free Trust in order to develop an app, called Streams, that would notify doctors should someone be at risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI). The deal had been announced in February but at the time got little press attention. The biggest question mark was over why so much data was being shared, especially as only a tiny percentage of people would actually benefit from the app. Some were also bemused when it became apparent that the deal with Google's AI firm would not actually involve any artificial intelligence. The reality, explained Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founder, is that AI is simply not yet ready for direct patient care. "Finding a fit between an algorithm and training data is difficult. People expect the algorithm to do too much," he said. But, he added, DeepMind wanted to do the project because it wanted to try to make a difference in the NHS, particularly when it came to one of the most fundamental issues it faces - sharing and storing data. "The system is crying out for more innovation and hopefully that is something we can pioneer," he said. And, he noted, it was the hospital that sought out DeepMind rather than the other way round. Dr Chris Lang, a kidney doctor, approached the firm to see if a collaboration was possible. "We went for coffee and ended up chatting for four hours. " Although it has got far more publicity than any others, in fact this deal is a pretty standard one in the NHS. It emerged that the organisation has similar deals with 1,500 different third parties. The NHS claims that it would not be practical to ask every patient to consent to every one of these arrangements. In the tie-up with Moorfields, the data was anonymised and the rules here are that data can be shared for "ethically approved projects". Patients can opt out of any data-sharing system by emailing their NHS Trust's data protection officer. In the case of the Royal Free, the BBC understands that 148 people have withdrawn their consent, a tiny fraction of the patients involved. For DeepMind, yes but Google has been looking at healthcare for much longer. From Calico, Alphabet's research and development company whose mission is to "tackle ageing", to Verily which is currently developing a smart contact lens that can help diabetics monitor glucose levels, the search giant is investing heavily in healthcare. According to Mr Suleyman, "making the world a better place" has always been part of DeepMind's somewhat lofty ambition to "solve intelligence". Two years ago he decided that it was a good time to "make good the second part of that mission" and set about looking for ways where the company could make a difference. "We looked at nano-materials, synthetic biology, renewable energy, transport trying to figure out how tech could make a difference and I realised that healthcare - it we could get it right - then the margin for beneficial impact was enormous. " The firm seemed genuinely surprised when the announcement created some negative headlines and often reminded journalists that the point of the project was to help save lives. On reflection, Mr Suleyman realises that there was bound to be a backlash. "I can completely understand why there was surprise about what we were doing. We have learned a lot and there is a lot we can do to improve - we take that feedback," he said. DeepMind had already been in the process of setting up a panel of independent reviewers, nine technical and clinical experts who have the right to scrutinise what the firm is doing and interview members of the team. "We recognise there is still more that we can do," said Mr Suleyman and so the firm has decided to host a patient engagement forum. It will be held on 25 September and will be streamed on YouTube with a Twitter Q&A. It plans to host four such meetings every year. Although Google has always loved experimenting with projects that benefit humankind, it is ultimately in the business of making money and its healthcare work is no exception. It is currently in discussion with the NHS about how to do that and will remain doing so for "several years", said Mr Suleyman. "Right now it is about building the tools and systems that are useful and once users are engaged then we can figure out how to monetise them," he said. The firm has some radical ideas about how it can shake up the commercial relationships between the NHS and third parties. "The vast majority of payments made to suppliers in healthcare systems are not often as connected to outcomes as we would like. "Ultimately we want to get paid when we deliver concrete clinical benefits. We want to get paid to change the system and improve patient outcomes. "

2016-07-20 03:19 www.bbc.co.uk

71 Breaking News English Lesson The Turkish government is increasing its efforts to detain those it deems responsible for the weekend's failed coup attempt. It has arrested around 6,000 members of the judiciary and military, including top judges and senior-ranking generals. It has also suspended nearly 8,000 police officers suspected of having links to the coup attempt. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to purge all government institutions of what he calls the "virus" that caused the uprising. The president is taking a very hard line with all those suspected of wrongdoing and has announced that Turkey would consider reinstating the death penalty. This would hurt Turkey's efforts to join the European Union. Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that: "There are currently around 6,000 detentions. It will surpass 6,000. The legal process on these will continue. " He added that: "Suspects are being charged with membership of an armed terrorist organisation and of attempting to overthrow the government of the Turkish Republic using force and violence, or of attempting to completely or partially hinder its function. " At least 290 people were killed and thousands wounded in the coup attempt. President Erdogan addressed the country via mobile telephone, urging people to "take to the streets" to defeat the coup and to reclaim democracy. Forces loyal to the president soon retook control of the country.

2016-07-20 03:21 www.breakingnewsenglish.com

72 Brexit: May hopes for 'frank and open' talks during Merkel visit Discussions about the UK leaving the EU must be "frank and open", Theresa May has said as she prepares to embark on her first tour of European capitals. The prime minister will have a working dinner with Germany's Angela Merkel on Wednesday before talks with France's Francois Hollande on Thursday. Mrs May said maintaining strong trading links in Europe was vital to ensuring the UK "made a success" of Brexit. Before the trip, Mrs May will face her first Prime Minister's Questions. She will cross swords with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons for the first time at just after midday in what will be the last PMQs before Parliament breaks up for the summer recess on Thursday. Mrs May has already spoken to both Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande on the phone but their first face-to-face meetings over the next two days are seen as highly important in setting the tone for the long and hard negotiations over EU exit that lie ahead. The prime minister has said she does not expect to commence formal negotiations before the end of the year as she consults with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments as well as business, industry and other stakeholders about the way ahead. While the German and French leaders have said the UK's vote to leave must be respected and Britain must be given time to formulate its negotiating strategy, both are facing re-election next year and under domestic political pressure to drive a hard bargain. They have suggested no special exceptions can be made for Britain in terms of continued access to the EU's single market if, as Mrs May has insisted, the UK absents itself from freedom of movement rules. Ahead of the visit, Downing Street said Mrs May would underline the importance of establishing strong personal relations with her European counterparts and emphasise the value that the UK placed on its economic, trading and security relationships with the two countries and its commitment to continued strong ties outside the EU. "These visits will be an opportunity to forge a strong working relationship that we can build upon and which I hope to develop with more leaders across the European Union in the weeks and months ahead," she said. "I do not under-estimate the challenge of negotiating our exit from the European Union and I firmly believe that being able to talk frankly and openly about the issues we face will be an important part of a successful negotiation. "I also want to deliver a very clear message about the importance we attach to our bilateral relationship with our European partners, not just now but also when we have left the European Union. "These relationships have been vital in the past and they will be vital in the future as we continue to work together to keep our people safe and to support economic growth that benefits people across our countries. " The German government said the two leaders would also discuss the refugee crisis in Europe and the political situation in Turkey following last Friday's attempted coup. Mrs Merkel was a strong ally in David Cameron's unsuccessful bid to renegotiate the UK's membership as part of his goal of remaining in a "reformed Europe", although French support for the former PM's effort to secure a special status for the UK in the EU was more lukewarm. The first time that Mrs May will face all 27 other EU leaders at the same time will be at October's European Council meeting, by which point the UK's strategy and the likely timeframe for talks should be much clearer. Government lawyers told a court in London on Tuesday that Mrs May had made clear she did not intend to deploy Article 50 before the end of 2016, although Downing Street stressed that this was a decision for the government to make.

2016-07-20 03:46 www.bbc.co.uk

73 Entertainment week in Pictures: 9 Beyonce and Jay Z watched Serena Williams become Wimbledon Champion on Saturday, before jetting off to Ireland for a concert. On Sunday, meanwhile, Benedict Cumberbatch and Bradley Cooper provided the star power in the audience as Andy Murray won the male title. Sunday saw Ellen DeGeneres (left) come to London for the English premiere of Finding Dory, the sequel to Pixar's 2003 hit Finding Nemo. British Olympians Rebecca Adlington and Tom Daley (right) were on hand to assess the animated film's underwater action. A Stay Puft Marshmallow Man went on display at Waterloo Station in London to publicise the UK release of Ghostbusters. The female reboot of the franchise opened to mainly good reviews. Call the Midwife star Helen George took to the boards at the Richmond Theatre in After Miss Julie, a version of August Strindberg's play Miss Julie by Patrick Marber. Richard Flood co-stars in the production, which transfers to the Milton Keynes Theatre next week. Pop singer Taylor Swift made a surprise visit to a children's hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Sam, one of the patients she met, posted this picture on Facebook. Marvel made the bold decision to kill off The Hulk's human alter-ego Bruce Banner, having introduced a new "totally awesome" Hulk in the form of Korean-American teenager Amadeus Cho (top right). The shocking twist in Marvel's Civil War II comic followed the news that a 15-year-old black girl (bottom right) would be seen donning Iron Man's metal armour. Benedict Cumberbatch also made headlines after he was revealed consulting a canine companion in the first photo released from the fourth series of Sherlock, which he and Martin Freeman are currently filming. Idris Elba - soon to be seen as a villainous alien in Star Trek Beyond - overcame a fear of heights to add the finishing touches to a giant mural of the sci-fi film's poster which artist Jim Vision painted on the side of a pub in Clerkenwell, London. Sir Paul McCartney marked the 10th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love by posting this picture with Ringo Starr (left) and going to Las Vegas with wife Nancy Shevell for a birthday celebration. And it was announced that Stephanie Beacham (left) is to play Princess Margaret in a new play inspired by real events. A Princess Undone, which premieres in Cambridge in October, will be set in Kensington Palace in 1993 - the same year the picture of the Princess on the right was taken.

2016-07-20 03:47 www.bbc.co.uk

74 Hot weather: Rail services disrupted on UK's hottest day Commuters faced delays as soaring temperatures affected train services on the hottest day of the year so far. The highest UK temperature was 33.5C (92F) in Oxfordshire, while it reached 32.4C in Wales and 29C in Scotland . Heat buckled a rail in North Yorkshire, and speed limits were put in place on some lines due to "high rail temperatures". In Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, on Monday, a 46-year-old man died after reportedly jumping into a canal to "cool off". A yellow warning of rain is in place from Tuesday evening onwards covering most of the UK apart from south Wales and southern England. The Met Office has also warned of the risk of flash flooding. Some rail companies announced train speeds had been reduced, because of fears of hot rails buckling. Great Western Railway made a series of changes to timetabled services as track temperatures threatened to exceed 50C in parts of London. The train operator warned many of its services would take 10-15 minutes longer because of the hot conditions. The high summer temperatures were blamed for delays on First Transpennine's Express service between Hull and York. The company said a rail buckled in the heat at Selby, North Yorkshire, and trains were delayed by up to 60 minutes. The Met Office said at about 16:15 BST that 33.5C had been recorded at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. It became the hottest day of the year so far in the UK at about 11:30 BST, when 30.2C was recorded in London's St James' Park, and 30.1C was recorded at Charlwood in Surrey, Heathrow and Northolt in Greater London. On Twitter, #hottestdayoftheyear trended throughout the day. The highest reading recorded in the UK in July was 36.7C (98F) in 2015. Though many described Tuesday's conditions as a heatwave, the Met Office said it uses the World Meteorological Organization definition - that the daily maximum temperature exceeds the average maximum temperature by 5C for five consecutive days. However, it declared a level three heatwave alert, meaning there was a 90% probability of heatwave conditions until Thursday morning. London Ambulance Service said it had received 300 more calls than usual on Tuesday and Public Health England urged people to take care, with advice to drink plenty of water, and wear sunscreen and loose clothing. St John Ambulance also issued advice, urging people to be aware of headaches, dizziness and cramp, which can be signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The RSPCA said it had also seen a spike in calls from members of the public concerned about dogs left in hot cars, conservatories, sheds and caravans. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK was 38.5C (101.3F) in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003. BBC Weather's Carol Kirkwood warned the high temperatures could spark isolated thunderstorms in Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening, which would travel across north and west Wales, northern England and Scotland through the evening and overnight. "Some of those could be torrential; we'll see a lot of rain in a short amount of time, lots of lightning flashes and big hail and gusty winds. It's going to be a humid night as well," she said. Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, MPs proposed employers should be legally forced to provide water, breaks or air conditioning to combat "uncomfortably high" temperatures. There is no law for minimum or maximum working temperatures, but guidance suggests a minimum of 16C (61F), or 13C, if employees are doing physical work. There is currently no guidance for maximum working temperature, but an early day motion tabled in the House of Commons called for a legal limit of 30C or 27C for those doing strenuous work.

2016-07-20 03:48 www.bbc.co.uk

75 Turkey crisis: Cleric Gulen condemns post- coup 'witch-hunt' Rural Pennsylvania is not the sort of place you would think to look for someone accused of throwing the Middle East into further turmoil. But this is where you find the alleged mastermind of Turkey's failed coup, the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. And he has broken his customary seclusion to give rare interviews defending himself against the accusations levelled by his nemesis, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Who was behind Turkey coup attempt? Turkey police and officials purged How mobiles beat tanks and saved Erdogan We were greeted at the Golden Generation Worship & Retreat Center by polite, well-spoken men who serve as the first line of gate- keepers to the revered preacher and writer. They belong to organisations inspired by Mr Gulen, not run by him, a testament to the strength of his personality and the appeal of his message. He advocates a Sufi-based Islam of tolerance that emphasises education and promotes business. In Turkey, though, critics view this style of leadership as a threat, saying he wields much unelected political influence through followers who have heavily penetrated the bureaucracy and have links to media and business. The retreat sprawls over 25 lush green acres (10 hectares) in the foothills of the Poconus Mountains. But the cleric, it was emphasised, occupies only a single, spartan bedroom in one of the buildings. We were shown a desk, a small bed and a small mat. He met us in an adjacent room, seated beneath a framed admonition to "Continue to Love", written in Arabic calligraphy. He rose to greet us but his strength failed him and he fell back onto the sofa. The real gatekeeper is Mr Gulen's doctor, who gave him medication so he could manage the interview. Although his heart condition and diabetes have made him very frail, his language was anything but. He condemned the coup attempt as treason, claiming that "even if at the helm of the country there are people who would like to replace me and suppress me and oppress me at the level of blood-sucking vampires, even then I do not want to remove them with anti-democratic means". "This is my attitude toward any and even the idea of the consideration of a military coup. " It may be that he sees President Erdogen as a vampire after his blood. The two men once banded together to curb the power of Turkey's secular military. But a few years ago Mr Erdogan became suspicious that Mr Gulen's followers were driving a corruption investigation that targeted his inner circle. He moved to stamp out any alternative power centre, even if it was another Islamic one. Since then he has been purging them from state institutions. Mr Gulen called this a "witch-hunt" which accelerated after the failed coup. "It's not possible to talk about democracy any more," he said of reported excesses. "This kind of regime resembles more of a clan and a tribal administration. " Without naming Mr Erdogan, he compared him to dictators such as Hitler and Saddam Hussein. But he counselled his followers to remain peaceful because "society is already polarised enough, don't make it worse". Ironically Mr Gulen fled to America in 1999 amid accusations of trying to overthrow the secular government. Now it is an Islamist one demanding that the US send him back. He seemed unfazed by Mr Erdogan's plan to lodge a formal extradition request. He declared it would be politically motivated rather than legally sound, and therefore would not get much attention in a country where "the rule of law reigns supreme". The issue, however, is getting much attention: already it's led to some sharp exchanges between Turkish and American officials. And it could create further headaches for the US government, especially if the evidence provided does not stand up in an American court. Once again Mr Gulen sought to rise above the political to the spiritual. "I will die one day," he said. "Whether I die in my bed or in prison I don't care. "

2016-07-20 03:46 By Barbara www.bbc.co.uk

76 The mysterious case of the drug-smuggling fishermen In 2011, a group of men from the Isle of Wight was given a combined 104- year prison sentence for masterminding a £53m drug smuggling operation. Does new evidence suggest they were innocent? "It's like living in a ridiculous police drama," Sue Beere says. Her husband Jonathan Beere is serving 24 years in a high-security prison in the Midlands, convicted of organising a complex operation to smuggle a quarter of a tonne of cocaine into the UK. She vividly remembers the day police came to arrest him in January 2011: "They literally came through the door in the morning... a troop of men. " All she could think was that they had made "some stupid mistake" over his identity, and found the wrong man. She says local police stopped to comfort her young son, saying: "Don't cry nipper, be brave, daddy will be home tonight. " But Jonathan Beere has not been back home since that day, and has so far served five years in jail. Find out more Watch video journalist Jim Reed's full film about this case on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme website. Two of the other men, skipper Jamie Green and Zoran Dresic, also received 24-year sentences, while Daniel Payne received 18 years and Scott Birtwistle 14. They had been charged with conspiring to import Class A drugs. Now a new lawyer, Emily Bolton, is working on their case. She founded the Innocence Project New Orleans in the US, which has so far freed 25 prisoners, and has recently set up a new charity in the UK - the Centre for Criminal Appeals - to specialise in miscarriage of justice investigations. On 29 May 2010, a small fishing boat - the Galwad-Y-Mor - left the Isle of Wight on what her crew claim was a routine trip to catch lobster and crab in the Channel. That night, a large drugs operation led by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) - known as Operation Disorient - was taking place, involving surveillance planes, a Border Agency patrol boat and police lookouts along the coast. The authorities had intelligence that cocaine was being smuggled to Europe from South America on giant cargo ships, such as the container vessel MSC Oriane - which was one of nine from Brazil that appeared to be of particular interest. At around midnight, the ship and the fishing boat briefly came close together - though exactly how close is disputed. The ship went on towards the European mainland, and the Galwad continued home, past Freshwater Bay - the western tip of the Isle of Wight. The next day, at this same bay, a member of the public spotted 11 sacks tangled around a buoy - each packed with a pure form of cocaine. The prosecution's case was that the sacks were pushed off the side of the container ship for the fishermen to retrieve from the sea, before taking them to the bay to hide or be picked up by another vessel. But Ms Bolton disputes this. "What the police are alleging [is that the Galwad] was able to pinpoint and locate 11 bags of cocaine in the English Channel, in shipping lanes, in the middle of the night in a storm," she says. "We think we now have the evidence proving this simply couldn't have taken place. " At the trial, the prosecution relied on navigational data taken from on-board computers on the two vessels, which purported to show that - around midnight - the Galwad crossed the Oriane's wake. There would have been a short window for the 11 sacks of cocaine to be transferred to the fishing boat. However, Ms Bolton says the prosecution's expert witness left out key plot points and used damaged data. Her new analysis suggests the paths of the boats were never closer than 100 metres from one another, and that the sea's drift would have taken the drugs away from the fishermen's boat. "If that intersection between the vessels never took place, there is no case," she says. The prosecution also points to a series of calls made to and from the satellite phone on the Galwad while it was in the Channel, suggesting someone on shore was coordinating the drugs drop. The defence said the timing was a coincidence and someone was just checking on the health of one of the other fishermen who was seasick - a migrant from Eastern Europe. No traces of cocaine were ever found on the fishing boat, despite it being searched with specialised equipment. The container ship, the Oriane, was also searched when it next touched British shores a few days later, but no trace of drugs was ever found. No- one on the Oriane was arrested. The Galwad spent 18 hours sailing back to its home port of Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight. On the way it stopped for about an hour in Freshwater Bay - its crew say to fish for mackerel. That evening, the first arrests were made. At this point though, the drugs had not been discovered. This happened the following day, when a member of the public called to say he had spotted 11 multicoloured bags floating in Freshwater Bay. This time frame, Ms Bolton says, was crucial. At the time the fishing boat was said to have hidden the drugs in Freshwater Bay, two officers from Hampshire police were watching from the cliff tops as part of the police operation. In the officers' logs before the drugs were found, they recorded someone on the fishing boat throwing six or seven items overboard at intervals - which the fishermen say could have been rubbish bags full of old bait. But the next day, after the drugs were discovered, the police lookouts changed the official log - as they are allowed to do - to clarify what they saw. In the new version they reported 10 to 12 items the size of a holdall, tied together in a line and deployed from the boat followed by a red floating buoy - a description that almost exactly matched the drugs that were picked up by the police boat. The two police surveillance officers then told different accounts in court. One said he was convinced of the significance of the holdalls at the time; the other said he thought little of it until after the drugs were found the next day. As a result, the new defence team claims the accounts cannot be relied upon. "These are officers that are trained to get the details right every single time - and we are not talking about small details," Ms Bolton explains. "We are talking about big changes, about what they saw and also where they saw it from. " At trial, both police lookouts were adamant they had seen 10 to 12 sacks thrown off the fishing boat along with a buoy. After making the first log entry, they said they had seen extra bags thrown off the boat, so the amended version was the full picture of everything they had recorded that day. The Independent Police Complaints Commission did look into the case and, though it found inconsistencies in the officers' evidence, decided it was not enough to show they had fabricated their accounts. Complaints against the two officers were dismissed. Hampshire Police also said they had no ongoing complaints relating to this investigation. SOCA, now rebranded as the National Crime Agency (NCA), said at the time that the operation had stopped a huge amount of cocaine from reaching the streets of the UK. Ms Bolton's new evidence has been passed to the criminal cases review commission, which will decide if the five men can launch a fresh appeal. She believes there was a motive for SOCA to implicate the five men. "At this stage in the investigation it appears Operation Disorient really needed to get a result. They had committed a lot of resources to this investigation and needed someone to be responsible, and they started focusing on the fishing boat. "From then on, they interpreted all evidence that came before them as pointing to guilt, and meanwhile ignored or didn't seek other evidence which pointed in the opposite direction. " The NCA said it could not comment while that investigation was ongoing. Hampshire Police said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on operational matters led by another agency [the NCA]. "

2016-07-20 03:46 By Jim www.bbc.co.uk

77 Pokemon Go: Bosnia players warned of minefields Bosnians playing the hit mobile game Pokemon Go are being warned to avoid straying into areas still sown with landmines from the war in the 1990s. A Bosnian demining charity, Posavina bez mina, issued its warning after hearing reports of Pokemon Go users venturing into risky areas. Players use their smartphones to hunt for cartoon monsters in the real world. At least 600 people have been killed in landmine accidents in Bosnia since the end of the war in 1995. About 120,000 mines remain undiscovered, a Bosnian demining group estimates . As the popularity of Pokemon Go has soared, there have been numerous incidents and accidents involving gamers. "We received information that some users of the Pokemon Go app in Bosnia were going to places which are a risk for mines, in search of a pokemon," Posavina bez mina said on Facebook. "Citizens are urged not to do so, to respect demarcation signs of dangerous mine fields and not to go into unknown areas," it added. Earlier this week, two teenagers in the US state of Florida were shot at by a householder who mistook them for burglars. The game, however, has had some unexpected positive effects: in one UK town police said players reported a theft while hunting for monsters.

2016-07-20 03:22 www.bbc.co.uk

78 Your pictures: Posters Clive Finnis: "I took this picture whilst on holiday with friends in Giarre, Sicily. I saw these posters on a building and thought that the bright colours contrasted with the drab and uncared for buildings. " Mike Finn: "The view to promote a fabulous quirky very English/Wales border pub. It worked for me. " Maja Ostojic: "I took this picture in summer 2012 on the high line in New York. " Peter Ware: "This is an example of Trompe L'Oeil. Only the woman is real. The rest is a painting on the side of a wall surrounding a construction site in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. " Joanne Smith: "Bill posting, Victorian-style, at Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum, in Telford, Shropshire. " Russell Wood: "I took this last year on holiday. It transported me back in time, I liked the saturated colours, the straight grid lines and the posters pinpointed a certain era in history. " Anna Heath: "Everyone - including me - on the platform at Lewisham station was engrossed in what this man was doing, taking down an old advertising poster and putting up a new one. I loved the layers of past posters that were revealed underneath. " Patrick O'Connor: "China on the cusp of change. " Alan Hayes: "I took this at Moorgate Tube Station - there were 10 of these posters along one of the platforms. I like how they have all been partially ripped, exposing several layers of previous posters. I took this on my phone as a tester and went back two days later with my SLR but the posters and wall tiles had been completely removed for refurbishment. " Brian Anderson: "A memorial to David Bowie in posters is pasted to boards in Bradford just a few days after his death. " Ruth Moucharafieh: "Volunteers stick posters on Beirut walls to publicise a charity street fair, they worked through the night and everyone went home well splattered with glue. " And, finally, a picture by Aleksandra Sniezek. The next theme is "From above" and the deadline for your entries is 19 July. If you would like to enter, send your pictures to [email protected]. Further details and terms can be found by following the link to "We set the theme; you take the pictures" at the bottom of the page.

2016-07-20 03:23 www.bbc.co.uk

79 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. The BBC News Channel is available in the UK only. Don't forget, to watch TV online as it's being broadcast, you still need a TV licence. You can send comments and pictures to the BBC News Channel by texting 61124, or emailing [email protected] 2016-07-20 03:23 www.bbc.co.uk

80 Fox News boss Roger Ailes 'in talks on his departure' Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes is negotiating his departure from the network, according to US media reports. It comes less than two weeks after former presenter Gretchen Carlson sued Mr Ailes for sexual harassment and wrongful termination , claims he denies. The New York Times, citing a source, said Mr Ailes and parent company 21st Century Fox were in the advanced stages of talks on his departure. The company would only say Mr Ailes was at work and a review was ongoing. A report in New York magazine , citing anonymous sources, says lawyers for 21st Century Fox have given Mr Ailes a deadline of 1 August to resign or face being fired. The lawsuit filed by Ms Carlson claims she was fired after refusing his sexual advances. She worked for the conservative-leaning US network for 11 years before her contract expired in June. Mr Ailes strongly denies the allegations and says Ms Carlson filed the suit in retaliation for not having her contract renewed. "This defamatory lawsuit is not only offensive, it is wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously," he said. Further allegations have since surfaced in US media that Mr Ailes sexually harassed another Fox News presenter, Megyn Kelly. According to New York magazine, Ms Kelly has told investigators that Mr Ailes made unwanted advances towards her about 10 years ago when she was a correspondent. A lawyer for Mr Ailes, Susan Estrich, denied those claims in a statement on Tuesday.

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

81 and other Brexit lessons for Africa In our series of letters from African journalists, novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at the spate of resignations in the UK after the vote to leave the European Union and asks whether there are any lessons for Africa. After failing to convince the British people of the need to Remain in the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron knew that his time was up. He felt he was not the right person to lead the country. Without waiting for street protests or endless appeals from the United Nations, Mr Cameron announced his resignation, giving way to someone better equipped to manage the new situation that Britain found itself in. Africans can now appreciate that there is no need for melodramatic performances when it comes to leaving office and importantly, not unusual for a leader to step down before his term ends. It is even possible to go out on a jaunty note, as Mr Cameron did, whistling to the tune of D'Banj's Olorun Maje. Immediately after Britain voted to leave the EU, the country's political establishment was thrown into chaos. The uncertainty in the currency markets led to the pound falling to a 30-year low. And confidence in doing business in the UK seemed to be ebbing. The UK's unity was in jeopardy, with the possibility of Scotland pulling out of the union. Britain was facing a crisis. But the country did not accuse the international media of presenting an exaggerated impression to the world of how bad things were. They did not sit back and watch their country fall completely apart, before they took action. As quickly as possible, the ruling Conservative party did away with the prospect of a prolonged leadership battle, recognising that collective energy was better expended on tackling the looming crisis head on. Experts who had warned of turmoil if the Leave campaign won rehashed their predictions but they started offering solutions on how the UK would cope with life outside the EU. The Chancellor of the Exchequer who had campaigned for the Remain side quickly changed gear and declared that Britain was "open for business". Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: "Theresa May has not ordered that Larry be thrown out on suspicion of being a witch in cat form sent by political enemies to spy on her or pull her down" And as soon as Theresa May took over, she announced her cabinet without much ado, everyone expected to begin work immediately. No time for lengthy, and televised, courtesy calls from her villagers and church members and the market women association and the traditional rulers and her old girls association and her husband's villagers - all of them wanting her to know, via hours-long speeches, that they support her and wish her well. As far as we know, Mrs May spent her first night in office at Number 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, never mind that she may have stayed awake all night drawing up her cabinet list. How many African leaders would dare do such a thing? Occupy a residence just vacated by a predecessor without first inviting native doctors or shamans or pastors to sanctify the place and cleanse it of any spiritual booby traps, while commanding the witches and wizards lurking in the woodwork to either return to sender or fall down and die. And Larry the cat is being allowed to stay. The stray feline has lived in Downing Street since 2010, playing the role of chief mouse chaser. Mrs May has not ordered that Larry be thrown out on suspicion of being a witch in cat form sent by political enemies to spy on her or pull her down. You need only watch a random selection of Nollywood films, which are immensely popular all over Africa, to understand that a stray cat in this part of the world is never just a stray cat. Not to talk of a stray cat inherited from a political predecessor. The UK is not in any way a perfect place. The country itself can learn a few things from the diverse ways of the African people. But, when it comes to the matter of Mr Cameron's handover to Mrs May, we would do well to sit at the feet of Britain and learn. More from Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani:

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

82 Mali attack: Gunmen kill 17 soldiers at military base At least 17 soldiers have been killed and 30 wounded in an attack on a military base in Mali, officials say. Heavily armed men overran the base, in the central town of Nampala, and set parts of it on fire. Two separate groups have claimed responsibility for the attack. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita called a security meeting with the prime minister, defence minister and commanders of the armed forces after being made aware of the deaths. There are a number of armed groups in Mali, encompassing ethnic and jihadist concerns. A recently formed group said it attacked the base in response to the Malian army attacking the Fulani ethnic group. But the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine also said it was responsible. Last year, three different jihadist groups said they were behind a deadly attack on a hotel in the capital, Bamako. The French military intervened in the country at its government's request in 2013, and UN peacekeepers have also been present there.

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

83 Tasting India's coveted holy sweet Getting your hands on a Tirupati laddoo is not easy. To eat the famous holy sweet, given as an offering at one of India's holiest Hindu shrines, Tirumala Tirupati, you don't need to shell out a lot of money. The temple in southern Andhra Pradesh state provides two laddoos at a subsidised cost of 10 rupees ($0.5; £0.1) each, and customers are allowed to buy another two at 25 rupees each. But "allowed" is the key word here. Actually getting your hands on the coveted sweet involves braving long queues, and procuring a high tech coupon complete with its own security code and biometric details like face recognition. Volunteers from various banks man counters where they check the validity of each ticket and money changes hands only after potential customers pass the facial recognition tests. The laddoo itself is a roughly fist-sized ball, made of chickpea flour, clarified butter, sugar, cashew nuts, raisins and cardamom. The recipe is a closely guarded 300-year-old secret, and only a few cooks are given the honour and responsibility of actually making it. They do so in a secret temple kitchen called "potu", where they make around 300,000 laddoos every day. These high security measures are in place to check bootlegging of the holy sweets. This is the 14th article in a BBC series India on a plate, on the diversity and vibrancy of Indian food. Other stories in the series: The dark history behind India and the UK's favourite drink The Indian state that is obsessed with beef fry Why this Indian state screams for ice cream The street food that silences even the most heated debate How home chefs are helping uncover India's food secrets Amma canteen: Where a meal costs only seven cents Production is standardised. Each of the laddoos looks the same and even the weight of each sweet is precise - the small laddoo, as soon as it is taken out of the vats and shaped into a ball, should weigh precisely 178 grams (6.2 ounces). As it cools down, this weight will reduce to 174 grams. In 2009, the Tirupati laddoo got its own Geographical Indicator (GI) tag. Like other GI items Champagne and Darjeeling Tea, having the tag helps in preventing others from copying the sweet or exploiting the name. But the laddoo is not the only thing you get to eat in Tirumala. The temple also has one of the world's largest kitchens that feeds nearly 120,000 pilgrims every day. All day, more than 1,100 staff work in the solar-powered kitchen to make piping hot breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything in the kitchen is massive - the pans alone are capable of frying hundreds of kilos of vegetables each. The huge steel containers fitted on trolleys can hold 1,000 litres of curry each. With a donation corpus of over $100m, the temple kitchen trust has been running for over three decades. The devotees who wait in endless queues for a glimpse of the god say eating here completes their pilgrimage.

2016-07-20 03:34 By Shilpa www.bbc.co.uk

84 Colombia to press for open border with Venezuela after food queues The government in Colombia has called for the permanent opening of its border with Venezuela after crisis-hit Venezuelans flocked to buy basic items. Colombia said it would not allow any further temporary openings of the border, which Venezuela shut last year. More than 100,000 people went to Colombia last weekend, the second time the border was open in a year. They crossed to buy basic goods that are in short supply in their country because of a severe economic crisis. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure to fight cross- border crime. He said the area had been infiltrated by Colombian paramilitaries and gangs. The UN human rights office called on Venezuela to consider accepting "humanitarian aid" to ensure food and medicine supplies were distributed. Colombia's Foreign Minister, Maria Angela Holguin, said a decision had been made to not allow any further temporary reopening of the border. "Let's work so that the opening, the next opening, is definitive," she said after meeting officials from the region neighbouring Venezuela. She added that work needed to be done to make the frontier safer and to prevent criminal activities in the area. Many in Venezuela say they have struggled to feed their families as the country has suffered severe shortages for months. This is a result of the falling price of oil which is Venezuela's prime source of income. Supermarkets have empty shelves and people spend days in queues to buy basic goods. The Venezuelan opposition blames the government for the economic crisis, saying its policies have left businesses unable to import raw materials and essential parts. President Maduro argues that his leftist government is the victim of an economic war. Expressing concern about "severe shortages" of basic goods in Venezuela, the UN human rights office also warned about deteriorating human rights and growing violence in the country. The body urged the authorities to ensure the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Venezuela: Economy on the brink?

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

85 The Mercury 13: Women with the 'right stuff' In the early 60s, 13 women undertook secret tests at Nasa to see if they could become astronauts. Were it not for rules which prevented them from flying missions, the first woman in space could have been an American. When Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins recently became the 60th woman to go into space, Wally Funk was watching. There are two televisions in her Texas living room. One is tuned permanently to Nasa TV. Space is one of her passions. The other is flying. Funk was America's first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector and it was her skills as a pilot that, in 1961, led her to become one of 13 women who passed secret medical tests to become an astronaut. The Mercury 13, as they are now known, undertook the same tough mental and physical tests as the famous silver-suited Mercury 7. Those latter all-American heroes included John Glenn and played an important part in the space race against the Soviet Union, eventually placing a man on the Moon. The Mercury 7 tests, memorably detailed in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff (later a film), pushed the men to their physical limits. The doctor who devised them, William Randolph Lovelace, was also head of Nasa's Special Committee on Bioastronautics. Lovelace had successfully tested one female pilot, Jerrie Cobb, in 1960 and now wanted to see if it was a one off or if other women could pass. Aviatrix Jackie Cochran helped fund it and the chosen women were all accomplished pilots, some with more flying hours than Glenn, and they were prepared to attend at a moment's notice. Funk's mother was denied an aviation career - after her father and husband said her duty was to be a good wife and mother - so she was not going to let her own opportunity pass. "Lovelace said be there on Monday and I left right away with $10 in my pocket," she says. Funk, the youngest, excelled. In one particular test she was off the scale and beat everyone - male and female - after remaining in an isolation tank without any ill effects for an incredible 10 hours and 35 minutes To be honest it's hard to imagine Funk being silent for that long. A vivacious, loquacious, determined powerhouse, she is rarely still, loves to chat - loudly - and has energy levels that defy her 70 plus years (though she will only ever admit to being 45). Despite a built up shoe on one foot as a result of a botched hip operation, she walks as fast as she talks. During our mini-road trip for the BBC World Service documentary, Women with the Right Stuff , I struggled to keep up. She's a joyously colourful character, wearing blue flight suits and Nasa mission patches. Funk, who I suspect is not used to being in the passenger seat of any vehicle, also has the disturbing habit of refusing to wear a seat belt and jumping out of our rental car before it came to a halt. With me not wanting to see her flying through the windscreen, and in an effort to stop the seatbelt warning sounds, she complied reluctantly. The next day, after her usual exit from a moving car in a parking lot, I discovered why the beeping had stopped. On her empty seat lay a fastened seat belt. She was simply sitting on top of it. The Mercury 13 did not make it into space. The programme, never officially sanctioned by Nasa, lost its funding and the space agency insisted on jet experience as criteria for astronaut training, even though no women were allowed to fly jets at the time. Funk and the 12 other successful women pilots and wannabe astronauts are now rightly known as trailblazers. People write expressing their thanks and admiration or send pictures requesting autographs, which she's stopped signing after discovering them on sale for $200 on eBay. Jerrie Cobb Myrtle Cagle Janet Dietrich - deceased Marion Dietrich - deceased Wally Funk Sarah Gorelick (later Ratley) Jane Briggs (later Hart) - deceased Jean Hixson - deceased Bernice Trimble (later Steadman) - deceased Jerri Sloan (later Truhill) Rhea Hurrle (later Woltman) Gene Nora Stumbough (later Jessen) Irene Leverton Since 1961, Funk has not only continued flying and inspiring others, her ambition to become an astronaut remains. She took additional tests with Lovelace and, more recently, spent a week training with cosmonauts in Russia. As a pilot who also did aerobatic flying when she was younger, the centrifuge and microgravity flights were a doddle. During the making of our programme, Funk was delighted to meet so many women involved in all aspects of the space industry. At the Nasa Johnson Space Center in Houston we met Jessica Meir, who is currently awaiting her own spaceflight, as well as the newly trained flight director, Mary Lawrence - who has a job once as macho as they come. Nasa flight surgeon Dr Shannan Moynihan was particularly thrilled to meet an original Mercury 13 member. Many of the tests Funk encountered, while nowhere near as extreme, were familiar. "This is amazing," said Moynihan when Funk showed her the original medical list. "Pretty amazing that back in 1961 when they were first thinking through this, they came up with the same tests. " The Soviet Union beat America in 1963 with the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. It could so easily have been Funk. Nasa did not allow women into the astronaut corps until 1978 and it's not over yet. Funk has bought a ticket for the first commercial flight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. And she's busting to go up. Towards the end of our recordings, back in her home town of Dallas, Wally relished being back in the driver's seat. Heading down a motorway at 60 miles an hour, in a vehicle whose license plate states "A woman's place is in the cockpit", I squealed in fear after noticing that neither hand was on the wheel. Funk laughed loudly, something she does often, and said innocently: "Have you never driven with your knee before? "

2016-07-20 03:34 By Sue www.bbc.co.uk

86 Fire disrupts Paris Gare du Nord rail travel Rail travel including the Eurostar service to Britain has been temporarily halted from the Gare du Nord station in Paris after a fire. The SNCF rail operator said vandals were responsible for the blaze at an electrical station. It has urged passengers to seek alternative routes. Gare du Nord is a key national and international hub, with trains departing to Brussels, Amsterdam and other European capitals.

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

87 Taiwan web users join 'Apologise to China' contest Thousands of people from Hong Kong and Taiwan have signed up to a satirical Facebook event to offer "apologies" to China. The "First Annual Apologise to China Contest" allows people to send in their regrets on how they might have wronged the People's Republic, the Hong Kong Free Press news website reports. According to the website, one person has apologised for having three children in the face of Beijing's now abandoned one-child policy; while another on the Facebook page is sorry for wearing New Balance shoes, the global brand which was ruled to be infringing upon the Chinese brand "New Barlun" in a Chinese court. It's apparently a reaction to videos released by celebrities recently, apologising for actions and comments deemed to be insulting to China. One of these apologies features Taiwanese pop singer Chou Tzu-yu, whose apology for waving a Taiwanese flag during an online broadcast - an act deemed offensive on the Chinese mainland - has been viewed on YouTube over seven million times. Hong Kong actor Wong He made a similar apology in January after suggesting former Chinese leader Zhou Enlai "may be gay" and for posting a picture of the Dalai Lama on his Facebook page. Such apologies are an important business. Actors and artists who don't send their regrets for actions deemed "anti-China" are often boycotted or sacked. US singer Lady Gaga was reportedly added to the "banned list" after meeting with the Dalai Lama last month. The apology idea has struck a nerve with Chinese-language readers, with the Facebook campaign page attracting over 12,000 likes and thousands of comments. One Taiwanese user taunts mainland Chinese readers, saying : "The Taiwanese people are holding their first contest to apologise to the Chinese people, but you'll have to bypass the internet censors before you can see it. We are so sorry! "; while another says "In Taiwan we can freely and openly criticise our President Tsai Ing-wen, and the leader from our neighbouring country Xi Jinping. So sorry, China! " Web users in mainland China have taken to the Weibo messaging service to snipe back : "I'm sorry that you're seeing all those actors and actresses apologising to China so that they can keep making Chinese yuan! " says one. Another sends his apologies for not falling for phone scams originating in Taiwan: "I have received many messages from my Taiwanese compatriots wanting to give me free iPhones and gifts, but I have never replied. I apologise for not accepting your goodwill! " See also: Why a US-Japanese actress apologised to Chinese audiences Next story: South Korea tackles baffling menu translations Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

2016-07-20 03:34 By News www.bbc.co.uk

88 88 Woman in Kansas City gives birth to three sets of twins A mother in the United States has given birth to three sets of fraternal twins in a little over two years. Danesha Couch, 20, from Kansas City, gave birth to daughters Darla and Delanie on 17 June - just 26 months after her first set of twins were born. All six babies, she told the BBC, were conceived without fertility drugs and delivered by caesarean section. She gave birth to her first set of twins - sons Danarius and Desmond - on 13 April 2014. Desmond died shortly afterwards because of a placental abruption. Danesha was left devastated: "Losing a child hurts, and it's mentally damaging to anyone that has a heart. "All I could do was pray. It was a really tough time. " A few months later Danesha met her current partner, Jeffrey Pressler, and on 29 May last year she gave birth to her second set of twins, Delilah and Davina. "It was a blessing," she said, especially after the death of Desmond. "My mum started calling me double trouble," she said, laughing. "When Danesha gave birth to the first of twins [we had together], our families were very excited. The second time around they were like 'What? It's another pair of twins!'" But Danesha said both of their families had been incredibly helpful since the birth of Delilah and Davina. "I'm grateful for every bit of help that I can get! " she added. A few months later, in late 2015, Jeffrey and Danesha received the news that Danesha was expecting twins for a third time "When I got the news, I pretty much knew that we had to step up," the mother-to-be explained. "I knew that I had to buck up and put on my big girl panties. " The couple began making preparations for the new arrivals, selling both of their cars to buy what Jeffrey refers to as their 7-seater "van". And on 17 June this year Danesha gave birth to daughters Darla and Delanie. So how are Danesha and Jeffrey finding life looking after their five healthy children, all of whom under the age of three? "It's definitely my second job," says Jeffrey, who has taken on extra hours at work to help provide for the family while Danesha is on maternity leave. "It's changed both of us. We have been maturing and working harder to provide for our kids. " "It's tough sometimes, but Jeff and I try my best," says Danesha. "They are my top priority. They keep both of us awake all through the night. " She says that meeting other people who have had twins has been very helpful: "I've been to various parenting groups, and it's been good to hear that I'm not alone in these things. " "It's tough enough to wake up and smile in the world at the moment. But as long as I know that my children are safe, I'm happy. "

2016-07-20 03:34 By Daniel www.bbc.co.uk

89 Hottest June ever recorded worldwide Last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide, and the 14th straight month that global heat records were broken, scientists say. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says global sea temperatures were fractionally higher than for June last year while land temperatures tied. Its global temperature records date back 137 years, to 1880. Most scientists attribute the increases to greenhouse gas emissions. They also say climate change is at least partially to blame for a number of environmental disasters around the world. The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for June was 0.9C above the 20th Century average of 15.5C, the NOAA said in its monthly report. Last year was the hottest on record, beating 2014, which had previously held the title.

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

90 The threats and abuse outspoken Pakistani women receive The apparent "honour killing" of Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch has led to renewed debate over women's rights in the country, including the freedom to speak out online. Ms Baloch, 26, was frequently abused in cyberspace and had received death threats for her outspoken and controversial posts. But Pakistani women, including journalists, often face vitriol and denigration for speaking their minds. Here, four BBC Urdu journalists describe their experiences. WARNING: Some readers may find the language used below disturbing. Some months ago, I published a story on Qandeel Baloch for BBC Urdu in which I identified her as a cultural landmark of sorts, a provocateur. Inevitably, the abuse followed. BBC Urdu and I were accused of having "nothing better to cover" for giving space to a "slut" who was disgracing the country. The problem was not the story or even Qandeel Baloch - who had to deal with her own share of online nastiness. In the larger scheme of things, it represented the kind of abuse women have to face online. As a female journalist, harassment becomes personal and well beyond questioning the credibility of the work. Popular insults include "slut", "prostitutes", or worse. I was sent pictures of daggers when I did a story on the sectarian violence in Pakistan. And aside from the journalism, being a woman in the public eye can have another downside - sexually explicit messages. These can range from invitations for sex, to descriptions of rape fantasies to graphic images. Even though I control the privacy of my Facebook account as much as I can, memes about me have been made and circulated on the internet using my personal information gleaned from Facebook. The fear in Pakistan always is that the digital hate could quickly become very real. I was trying to tell the story of two Zeenats. One became ashes, and the other disappeared into thin air. As I covered the stories of Zeenat Rafique from Lahore , who was burnt to death by her own mother in the name of honour, and Zeenat Shahzadi, a young journalist , who was allegedly abducted by security forces for doing her job - it became clear to me what women are up against in Pakistani society. As I tried to tell the story, I found myself in danger of becoming one. Suddenly I was the target of systematic trolling on Twitter and Facebook. The attacks were not critiquing my story. They felt raw and personal. It started off with the usual words of abuse for women - "bitch" and "whore". Then someone posted my phone number with the implicit advice to "teach me a lesson". I was left reeling from attacks that had nothing to with my journalism and everything to do with my gender. Then I received a message: "You are so fond of reporting. I am going to do an investigative report on your background. Let's see what we find. " I felt distinctly threatened and feared for my privacy, my family and friends. I became almost obsessive about checking the security settings on my social media accounts, terrified someone would get hold of my personal pictures and information. It's almost suffocating, the combination of fear and fury. I wanted to respond, to rationalise this onslaught that felt like such a violation. I wanted the online attackers to understand that I was a human being, but I was afraid to provoke them further. So I became silent. Recently I got a phone call. A man I didn't know said he didn't like what I did and threatened to throw acid on my face. He recited my address for me. He said: "You report on acid attacks on women. Let's give you a first hand taste of what it's like. " I know scores of women are disfigured by acid every other day in Pakistan. I know how cheaply it can be bought from any drug store. I know how easy it is to follow through on violence threatened. Now I look ahead to the stories I cover. But I also can't stop looking over my shoulder. As a journalist, I've been ogled head to toe while sitting in a government office waiting for an interview to begin. In another instance, a police officer was staring at my breasts while answering questions. I have also been groped by a young man while covering a political rally. Over time, I have gained the confidence to call out the abusers and shame them. But now I'm abused online as well. I've been recently trolled on Facebook for posting a status on how we, as a society, failed Qandeel Baloch. One user said I didn't have a "good family background'. Another asked how I could come from a reputable family if I wore sleeveless shirts. For the same reason, another user said I was wearing "dirty" and "un-Islamic" clothing. This kind of online abuse doesn't bother me much as I have grown a thick skin but it's another story when someone declares you an infidel. I've been called this several times because I report on the plight of the Ahmadi minority group. After reporting on someone accused of blasphemy I faced threats. I was told they knew where I lived and where my office was. I was scared. Every time I would enter the office or my home, I was full of fear. I feel helpless when people hate me just because I'm reporting the other side of a story. I feel especially vulnerable in the online world. I do fear death for commenting or even talking about religion online. And the worst part is I'm not a coward. I fought all my battles to get where I am but these issues still leave me shaken up sometimes. Some time ago, I did a story on the minority Ahmadi sect in Pakistan. Although persecution affects all minorities in Pakistan, the degree to which Ahmadis are vilified is particularly fervent; in part due to the fact that they are the only minority the state has officially promulgated laws to suppress. I made video, radio and online versions of my stories about experiences of survival and self-preservation in a hostile environment. Despite interviewing both sides - the persecuted Ahmadis and members of the mainstream religious authorities against them, I began receiving threatening messages and calls from all over the country for having painted the Ahmadis in a purportedly over-sympathetic light. When my story was published in English it didn't receive much backlash. But the response to the stories in Urdu, the local language, well that was a different story. When the story was posted on social media, it had to be taken down about an hour later because of the influx of threatening comments. They ranged from threats of murder, to declarations of apostasy and accusations of treason and disloyalty to both religion and the state on behalf of a foreign media outlet. At the end of the day these kinds of experiences make you feel helpless, and for a time, paranoid, lest someone decides to take "justice" into his own hands.

2016-07-20 03:34 www.bbc.co.uk

91 Bank of America Stadium shows off security improvements Jackson Gibbs, the grandson of legendary Washington Redskins head coach and NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs, is the starting quarterback for Hough High School. Gibbs was recently offered a scholarship to play QB at the University of Michigan. Duo from Spartanburg, S. C., talks about cleaning and polishing Panthers mascot statues. Carolina Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart - a graduate of Timberline High in Olympia, Wash., - returned for his annual Samaritan's Feet shoe giveaway. Jonathan Jones tries out the Panthers virtual reality equipment .... The team has joined a handful of other NFL franchises in introducing virtual reality technology to its players as a different way to educate and train. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton surprised shoppers at the Target at Stonecrest in south Charlotte Thursday night. The NFL MVP acted as a personal shopper for three families, helping to pick out gifts like Beats by Dre and a gas grill. Carolina Panthers quarterback Bene Benwikere speaks out after the third day of the team's minicamp about his rehab. Benwikere suffered a season- ending ankle injury in the Panthers' Week 14 win over the Atlanta Falcons, nearly two months before Carolina lost to Denver in Super Bowl 50. With an offseason full of activities, here's how Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton remains focused on football. Carolina Panthers wide receiver Devin Funchess discusses the possibility of having a breakthrough season. Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera talks about rookie cornerbacks making plays. Veteran punter Mike Scifres has played most of his career with the San Diego Chargers but feels like he's found a new home with the Carolina Panthers.

2016-07-20 03:41 www.charlotteobserver.com

92 What next for the Northern Powerhouse? The former chancellor George Osborne peppered media interviews with references to the "Northern Powerhouse", but what's next for the idea since his departure? In a 2014 speech, Mr Osborne said: "I'm here to talk to you today about what we can do to make the cities of the north a powerhouse for our economy. " The project, which he branded as his own initiative, was aimed at ending the UK's economic reliance on London. Following Theresa May's Cabinet Reshuffle, Conservative MP Andrew Percy has been appointed as the new Northern Powerhouse minister. So what's the future of this key Conservative manifesto pledge? "We're not going to miss George Osborne's personal leadership on the Northern Powerhouse," said Julie Dore, Labour leader of Sheffield City Council. "What people forget is that northern council leaders have been working on this idea long before the former chancellor came up with the slogan. " It's certainly true that councils in the North have a chequered history of trying to work together, but Mr Osborne's slick promotion of the Northern Powerhouse as a brand resonated widely. Graham Robb, chairman of the North East Institute of Directors, said it had become an internationally-useful "marketing tool". He said: "That slogan has had a big impact, especially with businesses buying into it. "In March we commissioned a survey of people across the North and found that only 20% had a negative opinion of the concept. "I think this underlines the strength of the idea and the brand and I hope we don't lose that. " So has the Northern Powerhouse policy made a difference? The government says foreign investment in the north of England has doubled over the past two years, with the number of unemployed dropping by 127,000. But Irwin Mitchell research found that only two of the fastest growing towns and cities in England are in the North. Mr Percy, MP for Brigg and Goole, heard of his new ministerial role while attending a Bar Mitzvah and proceeded to celebrate with a McDonald's meal. He said: "I'm a proud northerner. I've lived here all my life and for me when you get out of London it's clear that our economy hasn't been working for everyone. "I want to work with the Department for Transport on getting High Speed Rail 3 to connect Liverpool to Hull and I want to ensure more people have got access to a proper high speed broadband connection. " At the moment, 11 areas across England have signed deals with the government to devolve powers away from Westminster with big city regions such as Manchester and Liverpool set to elect new mayors. Mr Percy expects all those deals to be honoured, but he wouldn't be drawn on whether the 27 other areas who have submitted bids for their own devolution packages will get the same treatment. "I've just got the job so I can't comment in too much detail, but what I can say is that I want to see as many people as possible benefit from the process of devolution," he said. Talking to those within the corridors of power, they say they expect the current devolution plans to be implemented, while the rhetoric about the Northern Powerhouse will now be quietly dialled down. Shortly before Mrs May was told she was going to be prime minister, she called for a plan "to help not one or even two of our great regional cities but every single one of them". "I'll be relieved if the government stops just talking about Manchester," said Ms Dore. The Northern Powerhouse 2.0 lives on. You might just not hear the government talk about it as much in the future.

2016-07-20 03:39 By David www.bbc.co.uk

93 The importance of the Trident decision As MPs consider the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent, James Jinks, an expert on the history of the submarine service, examines the prospects for a replacement to Trident. Early in any new premiership, a new prime minister is asked to write "the last resort letters". This is a set of instructions for the commanding officers of the Royal Navy's four Vanguard class ballistic missile carrying submarines, which are only to be opened in the event that the prime minister is wiped out in a nuclear attack. "It's a very big moment," admitted Theresa May's predecessor, David Cameron, in an interview with me and my colleague Peter Hennessey . "It's the oddest in a way. You've seen prime ministers drive up to Buckingham Palace. You've seen them walking through the door of No 10. "You can't really believe you're doing it yourself, but that bit in your office, writing out the letters... it is such an extraordinary thing to have to do, you can't really imagine it until you do it. " On Monday, Mrs May will ask the House of Commons to approve a motion on the United Kingdom's independent nuclear deterrent and to support a "decision to take the necessary steps required to maintain the current posture by replacing the current Vanguard-class submarines with four successor submarines". The debate will mark the culmination of a process that started in December 2006, when Tony Blair's cabinet met and agreed, without a single dissenting voice, to sustain the nuclear deterrent over the period 2020 to 2050 and beyond, by building four new submarines. That's the minimum number required to ensure one submarine is always at sea, providing what is known as continuous at sea deterrence. The decision was endorsed by parliament in 2007, and in two Strategic Defence and Security Reviews (SDSR) in 2010 and 2015. The scale, complexity and cost of the acquisition programme is vast. The government describes it as "a national endeavour… one of the largest government investment programmes, equivalent in scale to Crossrail or HS2". It is estimated to cost £31bn (including inflation), with a contingency of a further £10bn, spread over 35 years. Mrs May's views are well known. "It would be sheer madness to contemplate even for a moment giving up Britain's independent nuclear deterrent," she wrote a few weeks ago. Opponents argue that the UK no longer needs nuclear weapons, that the cost is too high and that emerging capabilities, such as cyber attacks, autonomous underwater vehicles or underwater drones, will make submarines vulnerable. The government, which devotes considerable resources to assessing the threats from emerging capabilities, rejects such arguments. "The submarines that carry our Trident missiles will not be rendered obsolete by new technologies," said Philip Dunne, minister of state for defence procurement on 19 May. Given the Conservative majority in the House of Commons, the motion will almost certainly pass. But Mrs May cannot count on the support of some in the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn, a unilateralist and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, has spent his life campaigning against nuclear weapons. He believes that ridding Britain of nuclear weapons is a moral issue. Many Labour MPs disagree. Mr Corbyn is expected to offer Labour MPs a free vote. "We are going to have a discussion about it," he said last week. "I recognise there are big differences of opinion on it. "My views are very well known on this, the views of others are well known on this, and so there may well be MPs voting in different lobbies. " If the motion passes work on the "successor" submarines will almost certainly continue until the 2020 election, due under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. By that time the first submarine will be taking shape and steelwork for the second will be in full production in the BAE shipyard in Barrow. In addition a multitude of components and sub-assemblies will be being manufactured for all four boats by hundreds of suppliers. It will be very difficult for a future government to cancel the programme. There will almost certainly be a British bomb with, as Attlee's foreign secretary Ernest Bevin said in 1946, a "bloody Union Jack on top of it", somewhere in the grey wastelands of the North Atlantic in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s. When faced with the nuclear question, Mrs May is the latest in a long line of British prime ministers, who as primary guardians of national security, seem, knowingly or unknowingly, to have been disciples of Cicero, who wrote in De Legibus: Salus populi suprema est lex - The safety of the people is the chief law. James Jinks is the co-author with Peter Hennessey of The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service Since 1945 (Penguin/Random House, 2016).

2016-07-20 03:38 www.bbc.co.uk

94 What went on at the hospital that 'experimented' on child patients? Dozens of people who were child patients at a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s and 70s claim they were experimented on with a so- called truth serum. It has left them with disturbing memories and troubling questions. "I was your typical 60s teenager," says Marianne, a softly-spoken woman in her sixties. Framed posters of musicians like Bob Dylan and John Lennon still hang on the walls of the living room in her quiet semi in Derby and a feathered dream-catcher twirls in the window. "I liked fashion, I liked music. It was a good time to be young. " But Marianne's memories of the time aren't all so idyllic. At the age of 14, she found out from a teacher that she was adopted. Things became difficult at home and after getting into trouble with the police, she was given probation and sent to Aston Hall, a "mental deficiency hospital" treating adults and children. All that's left today of the complex in Derbyshire is a grand white house where the hospital's staff once lived. The site of the patient dormitories is being redeveloped to make way for new homes. File on 4: What happened at Aston Hall Hospital? is on BBC Radio 4, 19 July at 20:00 BST - catch up on BBC iPlayer Radio But before the hospital was demolished, a group of urban explorers photographed the derelict site and posted eerie photos online. Former patients like Marianne (not her real name) found the forum and started leaving comments about their experiences there. They set up a support group for former patients, and more started coming forwards with troubling stories about the drugs they were given, the treatments they were subjected to and the long-term effects which still plague them today. Many claim they were experimented on by the hospital's medical superintendent Dr Kenneth Milner using a drug called sodium amytal. It is known as a "truth serum" for its supposed ability to retrieve locked-away memories. Marianne recalls a session with the doctor where she was stripped, made to wear a stiff white gown and told she would be asked some questions. Then he injected her with a drug that heavily sedated her. "I can remember equating it to being drunk and I was going: 'I feel like I've had about a bottle of gin, I feel like I've had about two bottles of gin'. And I can remember going: 'Happy Christmas, doctor'. " Her account is similar to those of other former patients at the time, who remember being locked in a small treatment room with a mattress on the floor. Some say their hands were tied with bandages before they were injected. Their medical records show the typical dose of sodium amytal was 60mg. Standards of institutional care for children during the 1960s and 70s have come under close scrutiny in recent years, as accusations of abuse at the time have grown. So what was going on under Dr Milner at Aston Hall? One expert believes Dr Milner was practising "narcoanalysis", a therapy used during World War Two to treat soldiers with shell-shock. It was thought men who had experienced the horror of battle sometimes repressed what had happened to them. And this turned the trauma into severe physical paralysis or depression. Traditional psychotherapy, where patients were asked to talk about their dreams in the hope of uncovering the hidden trauma, took too long. Soldiers were needed back on the frontline. So psychiatrists began using sodium amytal, which made the traumatised servicemen less inhibited. Dr Norman Poole, a psychiatrist from St George's Hospital in London, sets out the theory: "Once you'd found this traumatic event and the patient was able to express this, then almost like a psychic abscess, you could prick it and the trauma, the grief, the emotions that were connected with it would come out and then the symptoms would resolve. " A 1946 documentary by the Hollywood director John Huston follows the rehabilitation of traumatised US servicemen, and shows narcoanalysis at work. In one scene, a soldier is treated with sodium amytal, questioned by a medic and then seen walking around the room unaided, having entered it unable to stand. Narcoanalysis quickly fell out of fashion after the war, says Dr Poole, as alternative treatments emerged and psychiatrists became concerned about the lack of supporting evidence. However, evidence from Aston Hall shows it was being used into the late 1970s - not on grown male soldiers but vulnerable children and adolescents. The UK's first-ever professor of child psychiatry, Michael Rutter from King's College London, was practising in the 1960s. The treatment, he says today, was not standard practice. "As far as I knew nobody was using [sodium amytal] with children at that time," he says. He is concerned by the use of the drug on children and the way it was administered. And he says he "would have been concerned even in those days". Other experts say Dr Milner should have published research if he was using treatment on young patients that wasn't being widely used elsewhere. We weren't able to find any. It wasn't just the use of the drug itself that was questionable, but what Dr Milner is alleged to have done when patients were under its influence. Marianne says she had an internal examination in the room, which was embarrassing and unnecessary, and other patients have alleged sexual abuse by Dr Milner. Dr Milner died in 1975, making it impossible to put these allegations to him. However, his family point to another former patient who says she was treated with sodium amytal by Dr Milner after seeking his help voluntarily in the 1950s. She describes him as "wonderful" and says the treatment had made her life worth living. Whatever the truth of these allegations, nearly all the patients we spoke to agreed Dr Milner asked very personal sexual questions during treatment. "He asked me who'd interfered with me, and I went: 'Nobody'. And he said: 'Somebody's interfered with you'. " She remembers a young friend at the hospital having a similar experience, and asking Marianne to tell Dr Milner "my dad didn't abuse me". "For her to have said that about her dad, I think it really hurt her, but I can understand it because he coerced you into thinking these things. " Some experts believe Dr Milner was trying to help his young patients talk about a sexual trauma they had either repressed or were uncomfortable talking about when fully conscious. But because patients under the influence of sodium amytal are semi- conscious, in a highly suggestible state, there is a danger that asking leading questions can make them believe something happened that, in fact, didn't. In the 1980s and 90s, the drug was at the centre of a number of law suits of so-called false memory, where patients mistakenly believed they had been the victims of abuse. In one notorious case, an executive from California sued a psychotherapist and was awarded half a million dollars after his daughter accused him of sexually abusing her following therapy. Sodium amytal had been used as part of the treatment. "It is not a truth serum," says Prof Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in memory from the University of California, Irvine. "When it comes to the recovery of pristine, accurate, allegedly repressed memories, it's a danger. " Another former patient of Aston Hall, Sandra, thinks she may have been encouraged to develop false memories. After nine or 10 sessions at the hospital, Dr Milner told her: "We've got to the bottom of it, you were a hard nut to crack! " During treatment, he said, she had revealed her father had sexually abused her as a child. This floored her. "I was just so upset, totally devastated. " Sandra's sister thought words had been put into her mouth. But she disagreed. "You believe what the doctor says don't you? " she explains. The accusation caused a rift with her family. Her sisters doubted it could have happened as they looked after her when she was little and say she was never alone with her father. Eventually, though, Sandra changed her mind. "It came to me, that perhaps this only did happen under treatment, and for 51 years I have been accusing my father of maybe doing something he did not do. And the worst part about it, if it didn't happen, I've got to live the rest of my life knowing that I've told people that he's done this. And accused him of doing it. " The authorities are now investigating what happened at Aston Hall Hospital. A police inquiry has been launched and the Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Board, a multi-agency body including police, health and social services, says it is working to ensure the allegations are thoroughly investigated and the appropriate support is in place for people who need it. While former patients search for answers about what really happened to them, they may have to live with the harmful effects of the treatment for the rest of their lives. If there is a story you would like File on 4 to investigate then please email [email protected] File on 4: What happened at Aston Hall Hospital is on BBC Radio 4, 19 July at 20:00 BST - catch up on BBC iPlayer Radio Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

2016-07-20 03:37 By Phil www.bbc.co.uk

95 NSPCC issues warning over leaving children home alone As schools break up for the holiday, a children's charity is urging parents to think carefully before leaving children home alone over the summer. The NSPCC says last summer its helpline received 453 calls and emails from adults concerned about youngsters being left unattended during the holidays. More than three-quarters - 366 - were serious enough for information to be passed to police or social services. The law does not specify an age at which children can be left unattended. However, laws in England and Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland say children must not be neglected or abandoned "in a manner likely to cause [them] unnecessary suffering or injury to health". The NSPCC says leaving children at home without adult supervision puts them at greater risk of accident or injury. The charity offers the following advice for parents deciding whether it is appropriate to leave a child alone: One woman who called the NSPCC 24-hour helpline said: "I'm really worried about a young girl who's been in the house by herself for a whole day now. "This has been going on for months but I felt as if I couldn't say anything as I'm related to them and I didn't want to compromise our relationship. But I just can't keep quiet anymore. " Another said: "I'm worried about some children who live nearby and are left alone all day. I feel sorry for the mum because she's working full-time. She used to have a babysitter for them but even she's stopped coming around. "Sometimes I pop over to check up on the children but they don't always open the door to me even though I can hear them inside. I'm worried something dangerous could happen to them while their mum's at work. It makes me really sad. " Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC said: "Summer holidays can be a fun time for children but it's also when they are more likely to be left home alone as parents face increasing childcare pressures. "Leaving your child home alone can be a difficult decision as children mature at different ages - there is no one-size-fits-all answer. "But it could put them at greater risk of accident or injury. So I would urge parents to use their common sense when deciding if their child could cope. "They should also ask them how they feel about being left alone and talk to them about what to do in an emergency. Parents are best placed to know what is right for their child so it vital there is flexibility for them to decide. " The NSPCC's warning comes as a survey by the Family and Childcare Trust finds that parents in Britain pay an average of £120 per child a week for holiday childcare. The Trust's annual Holiday Childcare Survey also found there are not enough places to meet demand, with 88% of local authorities in England, 78% in Scotland and all in Wales reporting that they do not have enough holiday childcare places. The NSPCC's 24-hour helpline offers adults advice and support if they have concerns about a child on 0808 800 5000 or by texting 88858. Its separate 24-hour ChildLine service provides a safe, confidential place for children to talk on 0800 1111.

2016-07-20 03:36 www.bbc.co.uk

96 10 States Sue Federal Government Over Transgender Bathroom Rules Ten states are suing the federal government over rules requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms conforming to their gender identity. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Nebraska. The other states involved are Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson says in a news release that the U. S. Education Department and Justice Department have circumvented established law and the process for changing existing laws. Peterson also says the rule takes away the authority of local school districts to deal with such issues on an individualized basis.

2016-07-20 03:31 www.thetribunepapers.com

97 Newspaper headlines: Migration target 'axed' and 'fight for Labour's soul' Patients face being deleted from GP surgery lists if they have not visited or been in touch for five years, the Mirror reports. Two letters will be sent to the patients, who will be removed from lists if there is no reply, the paper says.

2016-07-20 03:25 By Alex www.bbc.co.uk

98 Two men and woman dead in Aberdeen tower block 'incident' Two men and a woman have died during a disturbance at a tower block in Aberdeen, police have said. Officers are investigating whether one of the men fell from a window of the 19- storey Donside Court, in the Tillydrone area of the city. Emergency services were called to reports of a disturbance in a domestic flat at around 20:15 BST. Police Scotland said it believed the incident was contained and there was not a threat to the wider community. A blue forensics tent had been erected inside a police cordon at the foot of the building, close to the main entrance. An eyewitness said they saw a man fall from the 12th floor of the building, which police confirmed they were pursuing as a line of inquiry. Det Supt Dave McLaren said further information would be released in due course. "At this time the investigation is in its very early stages," he said. "However, the circumstances as they present at this time would indicate that this is a contained incident and we are not looking for any other person in relation to the deaths. " Police dismissed reports on social media that a police officer had been physically injured.

2016-07-20 03:26 www.bbc.co.uk

99 International exposure photography award Twelve international photographers have been announced as the winners of the inaugural Magnum and LensCulture Photography Award. The jury selected the winners for series and single images from Documentary, Street, Portrait, Fine Art, Photojournalism and Open categories. The Documentary Series winner was Mauricio Lima, for a body of work made in Idomeni, Greece, titled Refugees. Cris Toala Olivares was the Single Image winner in Documentary for this photo of tear gas shot at demonstrators during a protest over a controversial barrier near the village of Nilin in the West Bank. The Street Series winner was Dougie Wallace for Harrodsburg. The work is an "expose of the emergence of an ultra-affluent elite who have turned London into a global reserve currency, changing the face of our city". Wallace gets close to his subjects, a flash in one hand and a camera in the other, catching them in accidental, often unaware moments. Mea Shearim is an Ultra Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Ofir Barak's Street-winning shot captures a moment of everyday life in the city within a city. Jens Juul of Denmark was the Portrait Series winner for his work Six Degrees of Copenhagen, which includes this shot of a woman smoking a cigarette. Juul portrays random people whom he engages on the streets of Copenhagen. These chance meetings end up with him taking highly personal photos of the people he has met. "I want my pictures to leave the feeling of vacuum, timelessness and the people's love for nature, all of which hit me during my time in St Charles in the Appalachian Mountains," says Hannah Modigh, the winner for a Single Image in the Portrait category. Sandra Hoyn, winner of the Photojournalism Series Award, focused on the female sex workers of the Kandapara brothel in the district of Tangail, Bangladesh, in a project titled The Longing of the Others. Civilians escape from a fire at a house destroyed by an air attack in Donbass, Luhanskaya, eastern Ukraine, in Valery Melnikov's first-placed shot in the Photojournalism Single Image category. The Open Series category was won by Julian Baron Garcia of Spain for C. E. N. S. U. R. A. which presents an alternative view of the political landscape. "In the end, my work examines how the state the politicians defend so stubbornly vanishes by their actions - their images and all the paraphernalia that surround them are simply an ivory tower in which they believe they can live. " The Single Image winner in the same category was Asger Ladefoged of Denmark for Daesh. The image shows Ahmad, a young man in his early twenties, who is a member of Isis, following his arrest by Kurdish YPG militia based in Syria. Aaron Hardin's project The 13th Spring examines his feelings on fatherhood. "I wondered if my daughter would be marred by the world, like her father and her father's father. " The work won the Fine Art Series category. You can see all the award-winning images and complete projects at www.lensculture.com. All photos courtesy Magnum and LensCulture Photography Awards 2016. (Kyle Weeks photo Palm Wine Collector, Kunene Region, Namibia. 2015)

2016-07-20 03:18 www.bbc.co.uk

100 Rabbi Dov Lior: Go protest the parade Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the most senior rabbinical figures in the conservative wing of the national-religious movement, gave explicit backing Tuesday to the extremist Lehava organization for its protest against the Jerusalem Pride Parade slated to take place Thursday. “I find it correct to back your protest against the parade which the Torah calls ‘an abomination’ in the Holy City of Jerusalem, which harms the holiness of Jerusalem and its inhabitants,” said Lior. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. In addition to Lior’s comments, public notices have been posted in haredi neighborhoods across Jerusalem calling on the public to protest the parade. “Those who despise God plan to conduct a march of abomination as a massive international event in the courtyards of Jerusalem to defile and desecrate the Holy City, with the support of the municipal authority and funding from the regime,” reads a notice, first reported by Channel 2 Online. The notice called for a protest rally in the Bukharin Quarter, a haredi neighborhood which is not close to the pride parade route, and “for all Jews who tremble for the dignity of our holy Torah and of the holy city of Jerusalem to protest against this abomination in all over the Holy Land and especially in Jerusalem.”

2016-07-20 02:30 JEREMY SHARON www.jpost.com

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-07-20 06:01