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The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah mocked 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., over the controversy surrounding her previously-claimed Native American heritage.

WARREN APOLOGIZES FOR NATIVE AMERICAN CLAIM, SIGNALS THERE MAY BE OTHER DOCUMENTS OUT THERE

Despite her numerous attempts to put the issue to bed, Warren had to apologize again after a 1986 registration card for the Texas state bar showed that she had written “American Indian” as her race, which critics have labeled “cultural appropriation.”

CLASS WARRIOR ELIZABETH WARREN STILL WORTH MILLIONS

“So all I know is during this time period, this is consistent with what I did because it was based on my understanding from my family’s stories,” Warren told reporters. “But family stories are not the same as tribal citizenship.”

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Warren dodged questions about whether there are more documents out there that have her listed as Native American.

Well, Noah had some fun at her expense.

“God damn, so over 30 years ago, Elizabeth Warren said she was American Indian and almost every Virginian politician was in blackface.  Did no one want to be white in the 80s?” Noah asked. “And how many times is Warren gonna keep getting busted for this? Like at some point, even Rachel Dolezal is gonna be like, ‘Girl, enough already! You’re making things harder for us real women of color!’”

ELIZABETH WARREN APOLOGIZES TO CHEROKEE NATION FOR TAKING DNA TEST

This isn’t the first time the Comedy Central star went after Warren for her heritage claims and previously defended President Trump’s attacks towards her.

“Elizabeth Warren did something problematic, the kind of thing we rightfully call each other out for every single day,” Noah said in 2017. “So as weird as it is to say, in his own racially offensive way, Donald Trump was being woke. Yeah, and that’s unfortunately the truth.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/daily-show-host-trevor-noah-rips-elizabeth-warren-for-american-indian-claims

Thomas Fuller
June 8, 2022

With 100,000 votes counted, the San Francisco Board of Elections put votes for the recall of Chesa Boudin, the district attorney, at 61 percent. At the pro-recall watch party, the crowd erupted with elation, shouting, “Sixty-one! Sixty-one!”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/07/us/elections/results-california.html

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans to close state and local beaches in Orange County, calling the images of huge crowds that occupied the beaches over the weekend “disturbing.” 

“Orange County has been on our list of health concern and they’ve done a wonderful job down there, I just think we can tighten that up a little bit. So we’re going to have a temporary pause down there,” Newsom said at a press conference on Thursday. 

Newsom said beaches in the southern part of California, including those in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, have raised alarm bells, including images of people who were congregating there and not following physical distancing guidelines. He said the state wants to work closely with local officials, and if they can create better guidelines, the beaches can “reopen very very quickly.” 

“My job as governor is to keep you safe, and when our health folks tell me they can’t promise that if we promote another weekend like we had then I have to make this adjustment,” Newsom said. 

An additional 95 people died from Covid-19 on Wednesday, he said. The state saw a 5.2% increase in confirmed cases since yesterday for a total of 48,917. 

“Why undo all the great progress? Let’s move this state forward together,” Newsom said.

Previous reports before Newsom’s order indicated he planned to close all of the state’s beaches, which drew widespread criticism from some state officials. When asked what changed his mind on closing all state beaches, Newsom said that they “never did and this is exactly the conversations we were having.” 

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/california-gov-gavin-newsom-to-close-orange-county-beaches-amid-coronavirus-outbreak.html

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Corea del Norte ha realizado tres pruebas nucleares en Punggye-ri en los últimos diez años.

Corea del Norte anunció sorpresivamente que ha realizado exitosamente su primera prueba de una bomba de hidrógeno.

Una presentadora de televisión del canal estatal norcoreano dijo: “La primera prueba de una bomba de hidrógeno del país ha sido realizada exitosamente a las 10 de la mañana del 6 de enero”.

Inmediatamente, la confirmación de este ensayo generó alarma internacional. Estados Unidos llamó a Corea del Norte a acatar sus compromisos y obligaciones internacionales, y dijo que respondería a sus provocaciones.

El primer ministro de Japón, Shinzo Abe, dijo que la detonación era una amenaza a la seguridad de su país y que no podía tolerarse.

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APTN

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Esta presentadora de televisión dio el anuncio de la prueba nuclear en Corea del Norte.

El gabinete de ministros surcoreano tendrá hoy miércoles una reunión de emergencia con el Consejo Nacional de Seguridad para tratar las actividades nucleares de su vecino, según la agencia estatal de noticias surcoreana, Yonhap.

Corea del Sur considera que el experimento fue un serio desafío a la paz mundial y una violación a las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas.

Sospechas previas

Horas antes de esta confirmación, ya había sospechas de que Corea del Norte había realizado una detonación nuclear.

Los rumores corrieron cuando el Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos (USGS, por sus siglas en inglés) detectó un sismo de una magnitud de 5.1 a unos 50 kilómetros de un lugar llamado Punggye-ri y se temió que pudiera haber sido provocado.

Esta zona de Punggye-ri ya había sido usada por el gobierno de Pyongyang para realizar tres pruebas nucleares en los últimos 10 años, con las que se ganó la condena internacional.

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EPA

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Las pruebas militares de Corea del Norte le han acarreado el rechazo internacional.

La última de ellas, en febrero de 2013, también causó un sismo de magnitud 5,1.

El corresponsal de la BBC en Corea del Sur, Kevin Kim, explica que los expertos van a ver si es posible detectar alguno de los gases emitidos por la explosión subterránea para determinar qué tipo de material nuclear fue usado.

De esta manera sería posible confirmar si se trató de una bomba de hidrógeno.

Este tipo de bomba utiliza el proceso de fusión para crear una explosión mucho más potente que la de la bomba atómica, y con una carga más ligera.

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En diciembre del año pasado, el líder norcoreano Kim Jong-un aseguró durante una aparición pública en Pyongyang que su país “posee una bomba de hidrógeno”.

“Corea del Norte está lista para detonar de forma autosuficiente una bomba atómica y una bomba de hidrógeno”, dijo el mandatario, según informó la agencia norcoreana de noticias KCNA.

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Reuters

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El pasado mes de diciembre, el líder norcoreano Kim Jong-un aseguró que su país “posee una bomba de hidrógeno” (Foto de archivo).

En ese momento varios expertos en seguridad mostraron su escepticismo sobre la veracidad de estas afirmaciones.

Corea del Norte ya había hecho referencia sus capacidades nucleares, pero esa fue la primera vez que se habló de una bomba de hidrógeno.

Antes de esta última prueba, los medios estatales norcoreanos dijeron que el país “merecía tener armas nucleares, para contrarrestar las amenazas nucleares de Estados Unidos”.

Source Article from http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/01/160105_internacional_corea_norte_sismo_zona_nuclear_ppb

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden harshly criticizes President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in remarks Tuesday at Alexis duPont High School in Wilmington, Del.

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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden harshly criticizes President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in remarks Tuesday at Alexis duPont High School in Wilmington, Del.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former Vice President Joe Biden took direct aim at President Trump on Tuesday, saying that Trump, who once called himself a “wartime president” taking on the coronavirus pandemic, seems to have now “surrendered.”

“Remember when he exhorted the nation to sacrifice together in the face of this … ‘invisible enemy’? What happened? Now it’s almost July, and it seems like our wartime president has surrendered,” Biden said in prepared remarks.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee urged Trump “immediately” to adopt his updated plan for dealing with the COVID-19 crisis in the United States.

“American people [didn’t] make enormous sacrifices over the past four months so they could just waste their time,” Biden said. “They didn’t make these sacrifices so you could ignore the science and turn responsible steps like wearing masks into a political statement. And they certainly didn’t do it, Mr. President, so you could wash your hands and walk away from this responsibility.”

Speaking at Alexis duPont High School in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., the former vice president went through his new COVID-19 response, which piggybacks off his original plan released in March.

Among its provisions, Biden’s plan calls for scaling up testing and hiring at least 100,000 Americans to build a national workforce of contact tracers. He’s also seeking to accelerate vaccine plans and implement a coordinated effort to build up supplies.

Biden took issue with the White House’s reopening recommendations, saying that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attempted to push through “guidelines about what the stages of reopening should look like, the administration delayed and scaled back those plans.”

“We need clear, evidence-based steps that states can adopt now — both the standards that must be met in order to safely proceed with further openings, and the reimposition of social distancing rules when cases begin to rise,” Biden added.

The Democrat’s address comes as the country has recorded nearly 2.7 million positive cases of COVID-19 and nearly 130,000 deaths.

In recent days, sharp increases in cases have been seen in several states that originally reported lower totals this spring and had begun to reopen — including Florida, Texas, Arizona and Georgia, according to NPR’s case tracker.

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, warned members of Congress that he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 [confirmed COVID cases] a day if this does not turn around.”

Before Biden’s speech, the campaign released a statement saying that “minutes after [Biden] is declared the winner of the election,” he will ask Fauci to serve in his administration and continue working to combat the virus.

Trump’s reelection campaign briefed reporters before Biden’s remarks. Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s director of communications, said that Biden has attempted to use the coronavirus as a campaign issue and tried to undermine confidence in the federal response to the virus to bolster his political aspirations.

Following his speech, Biden took questions from the press — something that the Trump campaign has criticized him for avoiding in recent weeks.

Biden was asked repeatedly about the allegation that Russia placed bounties on U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and that Trump was made aware of the situation in the spring of 2019.

“If these allegations are true, and he did nothing about any of this, then in fact I think the public should — unrelated to my running — conclude that this man isn’t fit to be president,” Biden responded. He added later that he may ask for a classified briefing on the subject.

Contrasting with the Trump campaign, Biden said he doesn’t plan to hold rallies but will continue traveling to states to campaign. He also disclosed he has not been tested for the coronavirus.

Looking ahead to the rest of the summer and into the fall, Biden was asked about his preparation for upcoming debates against Trump.

“I can hardly wait,” he responded.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/06/30/885249881/trump-seems-to-have-surrendered-on-the-pandemic-biden-says

“Had that law not been passed that allowed these people to be armed, I fear we could have lost hundreds,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an interview with Fox News.

But gun safety advocates argued that the shooting itself wouldn’t have happened if the U.S. — and Texas — had stronger gun regulation.

“Media referencing the White Settlement shooting owe the public a nuanced discussion; we need watchdogs to make sure it’s so,” tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of gun safety group Moms Demand Action.

“Two are dead due to Texas’ lax gun laws; a man with a long criminal history was able to access a long gun,” she added.

According to media reports, the assailant’s criminal history includes charges of assault, theft, arson and possession of an illegal weapon in Texas, Oklahoma and New Jersey.

Texas had the 25th highest rate of gun homicides in the U.S. from 2008 to 2017, according to research compiled by Everytown, the gun safety group that runs Moms Demand Action.

Divisions around the shooting in Texas come amid a broader political debate over gun safety in the U.S. The issue is a major topic among Democratic presidential candidates who are running for the right to take on Trump next November. Leading candidates, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Vice President Joe Biden, have advocated for universal background checks and closing loopholes that allow people to buy guns more easily from unlicensed sellers or online.

Mike Bloomberg, a late entrant to the race, has made gun safety a seminal issue in his campaign. Bloomberg helped found Everytown and he remains a major financial backer of the organization. His financial support helped Democrats in Virginia take back state government in November, in an election that featured gun regulation as a leading issue.

In addition to closing loopholes and requiring universal background checks, Bloomberg has said that if elected president he would pour $100 million a year into local violence intervention programs and spend at least $100 million on public health research into gun violence.

Trump, whose White House bid benefited from $30 million from the NRA in 2016, has said he wants to ensure the gun-rights lobby’s views are “represented and respected” in evaluating gun legislation, including H.R. 8, a bill that mandates background checks.

H.R. 8 passed the Democratic-controlled House in February but has yet to come to a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will not put any bill up for a vote unless he is sure that Trump would sign it.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump praised the benefits of allowing guns in church.

“If not for the fact that there were people inside of the church that were both armed, and highly proficient in using their weapon, the end result would have been catastrophic,” he wrote.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/deadly-texas-shooting-a-rallying-cry-for-both-sides-of-gun-control-debate.html

Quito inicia la jornada de este viernes con una intermitente lluvia, acompañada de largas filas de usuarios en las estaciones que aglutinan unidades de transporte municipal. Estas unidades utilizan los cinco corredores que cruzan la ciudad. 

Personas caminando, en bicicleta o movilizándose en cualquier tipo de vehículos para llegar a sus destinos son las realidades que se viven en la capital de Ecuador debido al paro de transporte público desde la madrugada. Varios también expresaron su molestia por la situación.

En el sector de alta concentración La Marín, en el centro de Quito, hubo largas filas de personas para tomar una unidad metropolitana de transporte. Algunos buses escolares ofrecieron el servicio.

La medida de paralización de actividades se toma luego de que ayer, jueves 24 de agosto, se suspendió la sesión en la que se buscaba definir un alza de pasajes de $0.25 a $0.30.

Pese a que el alcalde de Quito, Mauricio Rodas, ha señalado que el análisis y las conversaciones del tema no se han cerrado, dirigentes del gremio del transporte capitalino sostienen que con ese nivel de alza en los pasajes no pueden sostener sus operaciones.

Plan operativo municipal

Como medida para garantizar la movilidad de los usuarios en Quito, la municipalidad anunció cambios:

– Suspendió la medida del pico y placa

– Ordenó la operación máxima de sus más de 200 unidades (trolebuses, articulados, biarticulados)

– Habilitó cerca de 1.500 unidades de transporte escolar.

– Habilitó también unidades de taxirruta.

Al momento también estarían laborando ciertas unidades ubicadas en las rutas que alimentan los cinco corredores municipales.

Detenidos y quejas ciudadanas

Dario Tapia, secretario de Movilidad de Municipio de Quito, informó que existen cerca de doce personas detenidas por agredir e intentar impedir la circulación de transportes que colaboraban en el traslado de usuarios. Explicó que en las próximas horas irán hasta la Fiscalía para colocar una denuncia contra los autores de esta medida de hecho.

En zonas rurales del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito como El Quinche, Pifo y Tumbaco se ha reportado falta de transporte público, mientas que por la autopista general Rumiñahui, que conecta a la capital con el cantón Rumiñahui, solo transitan con normalidad unidades de transporte intercantonal.

El alcalde Rodas desde esta mañana se mantiene monitoreando el funcionamiento del transporte municipal. Él aseguró que no cederá a presiones y aclaró que este no es un tema que se queda en el incremento de pasajes, sino que se trata de mejorar la calidad del servicio. (I)

Source Article from http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2017/08/25/nota/6347656/paralizacion-transporte-publico-quito-genera-malestar

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has acted wisely in telling FBI Director Christopher Wray that he has some explaining to do, but the chairman should slightly broaden his inquiry.

Graham sent a Jan. 30 letter to Wray demanding a “briefing” to the committee about why the Bureau used such apparently disproportionate force in its pre-dawn raid on longtime political consultant Roger Stone, who stands accused of perjury by special counsel Robert Mueller. Graham’s specific questions of Wray are good, but they seem focused too heavily on the Stone arrest alone. The bigger questions should be about FBI arrest methods more broadly.

Some of us thought the Stone arrest methods were abusive, but they weren’t unique. The FBI used similar tactics on Stone’s former business partner, Paul Manafort, and they and their Drug Enforcement Agency brethren use such raids dozens of times each year not just on people thought to be violent but on low-level offenders and on doctors suspected of overprescribing painkillers.

When such heavily armed force is used, innocents get terrorized and hurt. Wives of suspects, in their nightgowns, awake to find semiautomatic weapons in their faces; an elderly orchard hobbyist watches his furniture smashed while agents look for evidence of flower “smuggling”; doors at wrong addresses get chain-sawed open; children get injured by flash grenades or even killed by clumsy agents.

No matter what some FBI defenders might say, most people suspected of low-level crimes such as perjury are not likely to try to shoot their way out of an arrest. Four or six agents with holstered pistols, not 29 heavily armed agents in full riot gear, should be perfectly able to take Roger Stone into custody.

Graham is surely right to question Wray about the raid on Stone’s house, but question 2 in his letter to the FBI chief is the one that is the most relevant, and that should be expanded: “Was the manner of Stone’s arrest consistent with the arrests of, and procedures for the arrests of, similarly charged individuals?”

The further questions should be: What factors determine how many agents are used? What determines how heavily armed they should be? What criteria govern how much time should be allotted before doors are broken down? Or how rough the agents are to the suspect once inside? Or how careful they are to use the least disruptive means of searching the house for evidence?

What data, if any, supports the use of riot gear for suspects never known to be violent? How many times have suspects or, worse, innocent bystanders or people subject to mistaken identity, been injured or killed in heavily armed raids? And how often, conversely, have FBI agents been injured or killed, and under what circumstances? Have agents been badly injured or killed by white-collar suspects with no record of violence, and did any neutral analysis determine that the agent’s injury or death would have been avoided if the Bureau had made a greater show of force?

In other words, if there is objective justification for heavy use of force — real evidence that it does more good than the downside risks it carries, rather than just a macho sense that efficacy and safety are bolstered by “overwhelming presence” — then let’s see it. Maybe there is. If so, it should not be difficult for Wray to produce.

Despite what some might say, these concerns amount to substantially more than mere “pearl clutching.” We live in a nation founded on the idea of maximum liberty under law, of limited government, and of protections against state overuse of force. We wisely exclude the military from domestic law enforcement, and we at least look with suspicion at turning domestic law enforcement into a quasi-military function.

Yet not only with the Stone arrest, but all too often, we see federal agents who are overarmed and for no good reason, and who act abusively toward citizens they are supposed to protect. The difference this time was that the raid was televised for all the world to see. It led several conservative, pro-law-enforcement people I know — including those who dislike Stone, Manafort, and Trump — to use expressions like “jackboots” and “thugs” in conversations when they offered their impressions of the Stone raid.

One can fully support Mueller’s investigation and think the Trumpist effusions about a “deep state” are overblown nonsense and yet still see that the FBI’s conduct with regard to Trump and Hillary Clinton has been unprofessional and tawdry enough to suggest the bureau needs a thorough housecleaning. The housecleaning should begin with the examination of rules concerning use of force, in the “briefing” Graham is holding with such appropriate dispatch.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/lindsey-graham-is-right-to-put-fbi-between-a-stone-and-a-hard-place

A media tarde, en el panteón de las Fuerzas Armadas en el Cementerio del Norte, Barneix, nacido en Paysandú en 1946 y que pasara a retiro como general del Ejército en 2008, recibió las últimas exequias.

Además de sus familiares cercanos, su anciana madre, la esposa y su hijo varón, varios generales en actividad y otros oficiales del Ejército despidieron los restos de Barneix. Asistió a la ceremonia el excomandante en jefe de la fuerza, general retirado Jorge Rosales, quien comandó al Ejército entre 2006 y 2011 y por ende fue compañero del fallecido en el generalato.

Un efectivo hizo el toque de silencio y luego atronaron los 21 cañonazos. Los restos del general retirado llegaron al cementerio en una cureña del Ejército tirada por jinetes del Regimiento “Blandengues de Artigas” de Caballería Nº 1, acompañado de un largo cortejo fúnebre.

Dolor.

“No estábamos preparados para esto, y eso se nota porque esta muerte nos llega a lo más hondo de nuestro sentimiento. Por eso no es fácil abstenerse de recordar las circunstancias que han rodeado la muerte del general Barneix”, dijo el coronel retirado González, compañero de promoción del militar fallecido.

Pero advirtió que no tiene la “representatividad” para emitir opiniones que lo apartarían del recuerdo del compañero. González dijo que el grupo de esa promoción se formó en el año 1963 en la antigua Escuela Militar de la avenida Garibaldi, donde hoy se encuentra el Comando General del Ejército.

“Qué lejos que estábamos en esos tiempos de pensar que la vida nos llevaría a momentos como el de hoy”, añadió González.

“¿Cómo podíamos pensar que las acciones y resoluciones de personas que nos eran totalmente ajenas podían entreverar tanto nuestras vidas como para traernos a esta realidad?”, preguntó.

González valoró los orígenes de Barneix y sus condiciones para generar amistad con sus compañeros de la Escuela Militar.

“Hemos venido a expresar nuestro dolor, a acompañar a su familia, a su madre, a su esposa y a su hijo, a trasmitirles nuestro apoyo y comprensión”, agregó.

Berneix tomó la misma decisión que hace ocho años adoptó el coronel (r) Juan Antonio Rodríguez Buratti tras ser notificado que sería procesado con prisión por la desaparición de Adalberto Soba y Alberto Mechoso. Rodríguez Buratti se suicidó en el estacionamiento de su casa.

Barneix fue junto al excomandante en jefe del Ejército Carlos Díaz integrante de una comisión interna del Ejército a la que el presidente Tabaré Vázquez durante su primer mandato (2005-2010) le encomendó investigar sobre el destino de los detenidos desaparecidos en la dictadura.

Los resultados no fueron lo auspicioso que Vázquez esperaba por falta de datos.

Source Article from http://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/barneix-sepultado-honores-varios-generales.html

President Biden referred to the late baseball player Satchel Paige as “the great negro” before correcting himself during his Veterans Day address at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.

Biden was honoring former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken, an Army veteran and father of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his speech when he launched into a story about Paige, who played in the so-called “Negro leagues” before moving to Major League Baseball in the late 1940s.

BIDEN PRESSED ON ‘YOU AIN’T BLACK’ COMMENT DURING TOWN HALL

“I’ve adopted the attitude of the great negro at the time, pitcher of the Negro leagues, who went on to become a great pitcher in the pros — in Major League Baseball — after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige,” Biden recalled.

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President Biden salutes before placing a wreath during a centennial ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery Nov. 11, 2021, in Arlington, Va. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

“And Satchel Paige on his 47th birthday pitched a win against Chicago,” Biden continued. “And all the press went in and said, ‘Satch is amazing. Forty-seven years old. No one’s ever, ever pitched a win at age 47. How do you feel about being 47?’ He said, ‘Boys, that’s not how I look at it.’ And they said, ‘How do you look at it, Satch? And he said, ‘I look at it this way: How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?’”

Biden, 78, went on to joke that he’s only 50 years old and the 95-year-old elder Blinken is 47.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-satchel-paige-great-negro-gaffe

Attorney General Bill Barr testified Wednesday that he believes “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign in 2016, as he vowed to review the conduct of the FBI’s original Russia probe — and the focus of a related internal review shifted to the role of a key FBI informant.

“I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated. … I think it’s my obligation. Congress is usually very concerned with intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies staying in their proper lane,” he testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, while noting that “spying on a political campaign is a big deal.”

BARR VOWS MUELLER REPORT RELEASE ‘WITHIN A WEEK,’ AS DEMS RIP ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ HANDLING AT HEATED HEARING

The comments follow a new report that the Justice Department’s internal watchdog also is scrutinizing the role of an FBI informant who contacted members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, as part of a broader review of the early stages of the Russia investigation. The New York Times reported that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is looking into informant Stefan Halper’s work during the Russia probe, as well as his work with the FBI prior to the start of that probe.

BARR REVEALS HE IS REVIEWING ‘CONDUCT’ OF FBI’S ORIGINAL RUSSIA PROBE

Halper, an American professor who reportedly is deeply connected with British and American intelligence agencies, has been widely reported as a confidential source for the FBI during the bureau’s original investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. That official counterintelligence operation was opened by then-senior agent Peter Strzok, who has since been fired from the bureau.

During the 2016 campaign, Halper contacted several members of the Trump campaign, including former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and former aide Carter Page. Page also was the subject of several Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants during the campaign — which is an issue at the heart of the IG’s investigation. Republicans, including President Trump, have alleged misconduct in the bureau and Justice Department’s handling of those FISA warrants.

“It was an illegal investigation. … Everything about it was crooked,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday, describing it as an attempted “coup” and reiterating his interest in digging into the probe’s origins. “There is a hunger for that to happen.”

Professor Stefan Halper
(Voice of America, File)

The Times, in its report, noted that Halper also contacted former Trump campaign aide Sam Clovis. It is unclear whether Halper had the FBI’s permission to contact Clovis, according to the report.

Horowitz, more broadly, is probing alleged wrongdoing related to the issuance of FISA warrants to surveil Page during the election. During a prior hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Barr testified that Horowitz’s investigation is expected to be complete by May or June.

While vowing to release Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s now-completed Russia report in a matter of days, Barr also announced Tuesday that he was reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation at the FBI and the Justice Department, amid mounting calls for scrutiny of the probe’s beginnings from Trump and prominent congressional Republicans.

“More generally, I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all of the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted in the summer of 2016,” Barr told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

BARR ASSEMBLES ‘TEAM’ TO LOOK INTO COUNTERINTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATION ON TRUMP CAMPAIGN IN 2016, OFFICIAL SAYS

Also on Tuesday, Fox News reported that a source said Barr had assembled a “team” to investigate the origins of the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.

On Wednesday, Barr testified that he hasn’t technically “set up a team” but has colleagues helping him as he reviews the case.

“This is not launching an investigation of the FBI,” he stressed. “Frankly, to the extent there were issues at the FBI, I do not view it as a problem of the FBI. I think it was probably a failure of the group of leaders—the upper echelons of the FBI. I think the FBI is an outstanding organization and I am very pleased Director Chris Wray is there.”

He added, “If it becomes necessary to look over former officials, I expect to rely on Chris and work with him. I have an obligation to make sure government power is not abused and I think that’s one of the principal roles of the attorney general.”

The FBI’s 2016 counterintelligence investigation, formally opened by Strzok, began with a “paucity” of evidence, according to former FBI counsel Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was romantically involved. During a closed-door congressional interview, Page admitted that the FBI “knew so little” about whether allegations against the Trump campaign were “true or not true” at the time they opened the probe, adding that they had just “a paucity of evidence because we [were] just starting down the path” of vetting allegations.

Page also said in her interview that it was “entirely common” that the FBI would begin an investigation with just a “small amount of evidence.”

Barr’s team will also review the FISA warrants issued against Carter Page. The issuance of the FISA warrants relied, in part, on the unverified anti-Trump dossier authored by ex-British Intelligence Agent Christopher Steele, who worked on behalf of Fusion GPS—a firm paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through law firm Perkins Coie to do opposition research against the Trump campaign. In the dossier, Steele accused Page of conspiring with Russians. Page was not charged with any wrongdoing in either the FBI’s Russia probe or Mueller’s.

Fox News exclusively obtained internal FBI text messages last month showing that just nine days before the FBI applied for the Page FISA warrant, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had “continued concerns” about the “possible bias” of a source pivotal to the application.

Barr’s review could also dovetail with the work U.S. Attorney John Huber has been doing. In 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Huber to review not only alleged surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and the FBI but also the handling of the probe into the Clinton Foundation and other matters.

The day following Barr’s release of his summary of the Mueller report, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said his panel also would investigate alleged FISA abuses at the start of the Russia investigation and called on Barr to appoint a new special counsel to investigate “the other side of the story.” Graham has been calling for a second special counsel since 2017 to investigate “whether or not a counterintelligence investigation was opened as a back door to spy on the Trump campaign.”

Also, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said over the weekend he was preparing to send eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department this week regarding alleged misconduct by DOJ and FBI officials during the Trump-Russia investigation. It is unclear whom Nunes will refer for investigation, and what the process at the Justice Department might be.

When asked Tuesday about Nunes’ referrals, Barr said he hasn’t seen them yet, but, “Obviously, if there is a predicate for investigation, it will be conducted.”

Fox News’ Gregg Re and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-watchdog-fbi-informant-in-russia-probe

NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Authorities in North Las Vegas released further information on this weekend’s deadly crash that took the life of nine people.

North Las Vegas Assistant Police Chief Jacqueline Gravatt, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown spoke to the media on Sunday evening:

Originally, North Las Vegas police said the nine people were killed Saturday in a “mass casualty” traffic collision on Cheyenne Avenue near Commerce Street.

RELATED: North Las Vegas police investigate ‘mass casualty’ crash; at least 9 dead

A Dodge Charger was speeding northbound on Commerce approaching Cheyenne around 3 p.m. and ran a red light. The Charger hit multiple vehicles, according to the North Las Vegas Police Department

In total, 15 people were involved in the incident. One person remained in critical condition at the University Medical Center.

NLVPD Officer Alexander Cuevas called it a “chaotic event.”

Six vehicles total were involved in the crash.

The deceased range from at least one juvenile to middle-aged adults, according to authorities. The driver of the Dodge Charger is among the nine who died.

Source Article from https://www.ktnv.com/news/north-las-vegas-authorities-update-mass-casualty-crash-where-9-people-died

Un centenar de personas fallecieron este martes luego de que México se viera estremecido por
un poderoso terremoto de magnitud 7.1, que derrumbó varios edificios en la capital y dejó a personas en varios estados atrapadas entre los escombros.

Sigue aquí el minuto a minuto

Las autoridades han reportado
un total de 120 muertos, aunque la cifra podría aumentar mientras buscan sobrevivientes entre las estructuras caídas. En la tarde del martes, el jefe de gobierno de la Ciudad de México anunció que había
9 fallecidos en el estado de México,
1 en Oaxaca,
54 en Morelos,
26 en Puebla y
30 en Ciudad de México.

“Es el peor terremoto que he sentido en mi vida”, lamentó Carlos Leal, un mexicano que vive al sur de la capital y que dio uno de
varios testimonios sobre la intensidad del sismo a Univision Noticias. “Me tenía que levantar de mi escritorio a detener las cosas y al mismo tiempo llamaba a mi esposa sabiendo que estaba trabajando en un edificio”.









200 km

EEUU

100 mi

Golfo

de México

MÉXICO

Ciudad de México

Puebla

Intensidad: 7.1

Epicentro:

55 km al suroeste

de Puebla

Océano

Pacífico

Intensidad

2

3

4

5

6

7



200 km

EEUU

100 mi

Golfo

de México

MÉXICO

Ciudad de México

Puebla

Intensidad: 7.1

Epicentro:

55 km al suroeste

de Puebla

Océano

Pacífico

Intensidad

2

3

4

5

6

7



EEUU

200 km

100 mi

Golfo

de México

MÉXICO

Ciudad de México

Puebla

Intensidad: 7.1

Epicentro:

55 km al suroeste

de Puebla

Intensidad

Océano

Pacífico

2

3

4

5

6

7



EEUU

Golfo

de México

MÉXICO

Cancún

Guadalajara

Ciudad de México

Puebla

Intensidad: 7.1

Epicentro:

55 km al suroeste

de Puebla

200 km

100 mi

Intensidad

Océano

Pacífico

2

3

4

5

6

7








Irónicamente el sismo se dio en
el aniversario de otro muy poderoso que ocurrió en 1985, y por el cual se realizan simulacros en todo el país cada 19 de septiembre. De hecho, el sismo real del martes ocurrió casi una hora después del simulacro anual: “Pero
esta vez no hubo alerta, solo sentimos el temblor: el terremoto nos tomó por sorpresa”, contó Janet Cacelín, una periodista de Univision que envió
una crónica desde la capital.

Las fachadas de algunas edificaciones en Ciudad de México se vinieron abajo, destrozando autos que se encontraban en las calles adyacentes. Una escuela en la zona de Coapa se derrumbó, dejando a los vecinos preocupados por los alumnos que podrían quedar atrapados. Y se reportaron
evacuaciones masivas de edificios a lo largo del Paseo de la Reforma.

De un momento a otro, la capital se vio llena de viviendas agrietadas y de casas derrumbadas, imágenes que pronto recorrieron las redes mientras los mexicanos buscaban a sus seres queridos y pegaban listas en las calles con los nombres de los rescatados. Los rescatistas pedían silencio a lo largo de la tarde mientras intentaban detectar cualquier alerta de algún atrapado.

Las fugas de gas son una de las preocupaciones de las autoridades por los potenciales peligros que traen consigo. Residentes de la capital han reportado en redes sociales un fuerte olor a gas en áreas muy localizadas.

Según informó la agencia de noticias española EFE, en el estado de Puebla
se vinieron abajo las torres de la Iglesia de Cholula. En
Morelos y Oaxaca también se reportan daños.

El sismo de la tarde de este martes ocurre poco más de una semana después del que estremeció Oaxaca, Chiapas y Tabasco, que dejó unos 100 muertos.

Source Article from http://www.univision.com/noticias/terremotos/al-menos-79-muertos-tras-el-poderoso-terremoto-de-71-que-sacudio-mexico

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine said its military had launched a counteroffensive in its capital, Kyiv, and other key cities, as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the U.S. Congress to provide more weapons and increase economic pressure on Russia.

The thump of distant shelling echoed through the center of Kyiv overnight, while Ukrainian forces appeared to counterattack in the outlying towns of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have been severely damaged in weeks of street fighting and artillery exchanges. The city and the surrounding region were under an all-day curfew Wednesday.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-mounts-counteroffensive-to-drive-russians-back-from-kyiv-key-cities-11647428858

With a little more than a fortnight to go before the government shuts down once more in the absence of a budget deal, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has publicly touted bringing a debt ceiling deal into the mix of border security negotiations. This should really go without saying, but adding even more brinkmanship into Republicans’ common sense compromise is a terrible call.

For one thing, Democrats successfully called President Trump’s bluff in the shutdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., simply waited out the five-week political faux pas, banking on the fact that the public would blame Trump for making what essentially amounted to an eleventh hour demand. Although Trump’s actual demands were sensible enough, just one billion dollars more for border security than Democrats pushed for in the Gang of Eight bill in 2013, Pelosi successfully framed the narrative not as Democratic obstruction but Republicans holding the government hostage. And she won.

The debt ceiling issue will arise on its own in March, and Congress will have to vote on authorizing the government to borrow money and pay back its debts. Our skyrocketing national debt is a ticking time bomb of its own, one now much greater than our annual gross domestic product and reaching a proportion of our economy not seen in almost a century. Social security, which Trump has foolishly promised not to touch, will become insolvent in just 15 years, and Medicare is currently spending more than three times per capita of what its recipients paid into it.

But the solution to our egregious national debt is not to default on our loans, or even to threaten to.

Any further manipulation of the debt ceiling would backfire. Republicans want a physical barrier along the southern border as well as extra funding for courts and personnel, but they’ve made clear that they’re open to issuing major concessions to the Democrats to get it. And if you support both letting the people already here stay and preventing new illegal immigrants from coming in, Trump’s compromise makes sense. Granting a sizable DACA extension — a constitutional one this time — or amnesty cannot be done so long as the border remains so permeable without incentivizing further illegal immigration. And Democrats would be dumb to give Trump his key campaign promise without demanding a permanent and legal solution to the fates of DACA recipients and temporary protected status holders.

Trump’s problem right now is one of messaging. He’s logically correct in his compromise, or at least the direction that he’s going in. He’s no longer withholding pay from 800,000 federal workers. If Pelosi refused to name her price when Trump has made his inelasticity of demand so apparent, it means one of two things: She’s an actual open borders extremist who’s made a full 180 on the importance of sovereignty and law enforcement, or she cares about “Dreamers” so little that she’d rather blow a once-in-an-administration opportunity to secure their destinies forever.

This is the story Republicans need to be telling. But to add an issue as economically threatening and politically toxic as the debt ceiling into the mix would only complicate the story, not clarify it.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dont-bring-the-debt-ceiling-into-border-negotiations

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax reacted Saturday to the controversial photo that appeared on Gov. Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page, which showed a man dressed in blackface and another in a KKK hood and robe, saying the imagine had  “shocked and saddened” him.

While Fairfax did not explicitly call for the Northam’s resignation — several other lawmakers, including multiple 2020 presidential candidates, have done so since the photo emerged — he said he couldn’t “condone the actions from his past.” He also said Northam had personally reached out to him to express regret.

The yearbook image is “an example of a painful scourge that continues to haunt us today and holds us back from the progress we need to make,” Fairfax, whose great-great-great grandfather was a slave in Virginia, said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax speaks during an interview in his office at the Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday. Fairfax answered questions about the controversial photo in Gov. Ralph Northam’s yearbook page.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM HAD QUESTIONABLE NICKNAME IN 1981 YEARBOOK

“As we commemorate 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia, it is painful to experience such a searing reminder of the modern legacy of our nation’s original sin,” he continued. “And, as someone whose great-great-great grandfather was enslaved in Virginia, this episode strikes particularly close to home.”

The embattled Democratic governor during a news conference Saturday said he was not in the racist photo, despite apologizing for appearing in the photo a day earlier. However, he did acknowledge darkening his face for another occasion that same year, when he dressed as singer Michael Jackson as part of a talent contest.

“When I was confronted with the image, I was appalled that it appeared on my page, but I believed then and I believe now that I am not either of the people in that photograph,” he told reporters at the governor’s mansion.

RALPH NORTHAM YEARBOOK PHOTO BACKLASH: 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRGINIA GOVERNOR

He apologized for the picture appearing on his page, calling the image “offensive” and “racist,” but said that he had nothing to do with the preparation of the yearbook, and that he did not purchase it.

In regard to his “Michael Jackson costume,” Northam said he regrets “that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that.”

The photo was first published by Big League Politics on Friday and led to numerous officials calling on him to resign. The governor on Saturday continued to say that he would not step down from his post amid the controversy.

Fairfax on Saturday wrote that he was pleased Northam apologized, adding that the governor, with whom he has long worked with, contacted him “to express his sincere regrets and to apologize.”

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“While his career has been marked by service to children, soldiers, and constituents, I cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia’s darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation,” Fairfax said of the governor.

He added that Virginia and the country needed “leaders with the ability to unite and help us rise to the better angels of our nature.”

Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Alex Pappas and Alexandra Pamias contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lt-virginia-gov-condemns-racist-photo-in-ralph-northams-yearbook-i-cannot-condone-the-actions-from-his-past