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Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/european-parliament-elections-5-takeaways-results-n1010491

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., promotes his Medicare-for-all proposal at the 2017 Convention of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee in San Francisco, Calif., an issue that is dominating the early debate in the 2020 presidential contest.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., promotes his Medicare-for-all proposal at the 2017 Convention of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee in San Francisco, Calif., an issue that is dominating the early debate in the 2020 presidential contest.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Bernie Sanders is back, but one of his signature policies never left.

In 2015, he introduced Medicare-for-all to many Democrats for the first time. Since Sanders’ first run for president, that type of single-payer health care system has become a mainstream Democratic proposal.

Last week, Sanders launched his second presidential campaign, amid a field of presidential candidates who are trying to figure out how to position themselves around the policy. Trying to stand out from the pack, though — especially on health care — poses a problem: Differentiating yourself means getting into the details, and getting into the details can turn voters off.

Over the last few weeks, candidates have been working to show voters the daylight between their respective health care proposals.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has stressed that he supports Medicare-for-all, and that he wants private insurers to have a role in that system. “Even countries that have vast access to publicly offered health care still have private health care,” he told reporters this month.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she wants a public option, in the form of letting people buy into Medicaid. As for single-payer health care, she says it’s a possibility in the long-term.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who says he’s still debating a run, also wants a sort of public option, but only for people above age 50, whom he would allow to buy in to Medicare. “I think Medicare-for-all will take a while, and it’s difficult,” he told CNN’s State of the Union.

Long story short: In a huge Democratic presidential field, health care is the first issue where candidates are really differentiating themselves.

Bumper sticker politics

“Health reform is always more popular as a bumper sticker than as a piece of legislation,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

He points to both the Obamacare and the Obamacare repeal efforts as examples — some ideas behind Obamacare, like insuring pre-existing conditions, were popular. But other aspects that proponents said were necessary to make it work, like the individual mandate, infuriated some voters, helping propel Republicans to big wins in 2010.

Likewise, the Obamacare repeal effort fired up many Republican voters, but the implications of the various repeal plans — fewer people with insurance, lack of protections for pre-existing conditions — ultimately helped doom the effort.

Medicare-for-all may prove to be yet another example of this trend, according to Levitt.

“There’s a huge political benefit for candidates to be in favor of the idea of Medicare-for-all in a primary,” he said. “But the more the details get filled in, the less popular that idea will be.”

When Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced his Medicare-for-all legislation in 2017, he was joined by several other senators now seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.

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When Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced his Medicare-for-all legislation in 2017, he was joined by several other senators now seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

California Sen. Kamala Harris may be the first to face a big lesson in this. At a recent CNN town hall, host Jake Tapper asked her about her support of Sanders’ Medicare-for-all bill, which he said would “totally eliminate private insurance.”

(A quick note here: Sanders’ plan does not totally eliminate private insurance, but it would vastly diminish its role.)

Harris said that she would eliminate private insurance — but after a quick backlash, the next day clarified, with a campaign spokesman saying she also supports more incremental health care overhauls.

Polling also shows how tricky selling Medicare-for-all could be once the details come into play. A January poll from Kaiser shows that nearly 7 in 10 Americans like Medicare-for-all if they hear it will eliminate premiums and out-of-pocket costs. But that support drops to around 4 in 10 if people hear it will mean higher taxes.

Both of those things could be true of a Medicare-for-all system. But trying to sell even this basic trade-off on the campaign trail — especially this early — is tough.

At the other, more moderate end of the spectrum, Klobuchar said she’s for the broad goal of “universal health care,” and did get specific on her support of a public option. But when it comes to Medicare-for-all, she remained vague, saying it could be a possibility. Voters will almost certainly try to pin her down more on that in coming months, but for now her answer may help keep her from alienating some more liberal voters.

For many candidates, keeping health care rhetoric broad might be a smart move for now, says Nadeam Elshami, former chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It’s okay for a candidate to say, ‘Look: This is generally what I believe in. But I’m willing to hear first and then get into specifics later, after I have a deeper discussion of this issue,'” he said.

The “socialist” threat

Progressive health care overhauls will also likely feed into one of President Trump’s main attack lines: labeling Democrats as “socialists” as a way of painting them as extreme.

“It’s a surprising development that 10 years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act and after a massive political backlash against it, and a huge effort to defend it, Democrats are in there immediately swerving so hard to an even greater government role for health care,” said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist who worked for former House Speaker John Boehner and Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign.

Republicans know political backlash well — the backlash to their repeal efforts culminated in the GOP losing the House in 2018. Whatever criticism Trump throws Democrats’ way on health care for 2020, they will likely counter by asking him if he has his own alternative to Obamacare, having failed to fully repeal it.

Until then, Democrats will be doing similar calculations on both health care and a variety of other issues: weighing sweeping, progressive ideas that the president could try to label as “socialist” against incremental policies that might not excite liberal voters — and deciding which choice is most likely to get a Democrat into office.

Voters want sweeping health care changes …maybe

A basic tension underlies Democratic plans to overhauls the health care system: Only 1 in 3 Americans rate health care in the U.S. as “excellent” or “good,” according to Gallup. But at the same time, a large majority — 7 in 10 — view their own personal health care as “excellent” or “good.”

Which is to say, it’s easy to see how voters might want the system massively reformed. In addition, incremental changes that don’t go as far as Medicare-for-all might particularly infuriate progressive voters.

But at the same time, voters will likely bristle if that reform threatens to change their own health coverage, as some major health care overhauls, like Medicare-for-all, might do.

“There is a reason that President Obama’s signature promise on Obamacare was ‘If you like your plan, you can keep it,'” Steel said.

That promise proved untrue — some Americans saw their health care plans canceled under the new Obamacare rules, and Politifact named Obama’s statement the “lie of the year” in 2013.

Should a Democratic candidate’s health care proposal similarly threaten people’s current health plans, it’s a safe bet that it will become a major Republican line of attack.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/25/697095749/beyond-bumper-sticker-slogans-2020-democrats-debate-details-of-medicare-for-all

A nearly 250-year-old mission that has was the inspiration for some early movie projects has been extensively damaged in an early morning fire on Saturday.

The Mission San Gabriel, which was founded in 1771 and contained artifacts dating to that era, caught fire for unknown reasons. Its roof was demolished and interior damage was seen in photos No injuries were reported.

Built with stone, brick and mortar, it’s considered one of the best preserved Missions in California. However, its founder, Franciscan priest Junipero Serra, has come under criticism for his mistreatment of Native Americans. Statues of him were among those toppled during recent protests for social justice.

The mission was the scene of many documentary films over the years and appeared in several early silent films.

Source Article from https://deadline.com/2020/07/southern-california-mission-san-gabriel-fire-damage-1202983513/

Media captionWhy is it so hot and is climate change to blame?

Paris saw a record high temperature of 42.6C (108.7F) on Thursday, amid a heatwave that broke records across Western Europe.

A red alert was issued in north France. Germany also set a new national temperature record of 41.5C – bypassing the figure set just a day before.

The UK recorded a record temperature for July of 38.1C, with trains told to run more slowly to stop rail buckling.

The Netherlands also recorded its highest ever temperature at 40.7C.

“Climate change has increased the likelihood and severity of heatwave episodes across Europe,” the UK’s national weather service said.

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EPA

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A woman cools down near the Eiffel Tower in Pairs

What temperatures was Europe expecting?

French authorities launched a red alert – the highest state of alert – in the Paris region and 19 other districts and said temperatures were expected to reach 42C-43C in parts of the country.

French media said Wednesday night was “probably” the hottest ever recorded in France.

Belgium’s Royal Meteorological Institute issued “code red” warnings across most of the country – urging people to take extra precautions during “extremely high temperatures”.

Media captionMore weather records were expected to be broken. BBC Weather’s Simon King reports

What has been the impact?

In France, officials warned people to avoid travelling to work from home if possible. Some nurseries have been closed.

The chief architect responsible for restoring Notre-Dame warned that the extreme heat could lead to the cathedral’s roof collapsing if the joints and masonry holding up the roof dried out.

French reports suggested five deaths may have resulted from the high temperatures.

Comparisons were drawn to a heatwave in August 2003 which contributed to almost 15,000 deaths in the country.

In parts of north Germany, rivers and lakes have dried up – with warnings that fish and mussels could be “severely threatened”.

In the Netherlands, hundreds of pigs died earlier this week after a ventilator at a farm failed.

On Wednesday, a Eurostar train from Belgium to London broke down, trapping passengers.

Media captionEurostar passengers felt the heat in Belgium on Wednesday

Hasn’t the summer already been hot?

Yes, an intense heatwave swept through areas of Europe last month, making it the hottest June on record.

France set an all-time high-temperature record of 46C, according to the WMO, and new June highs were set in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Andorra, Luxembourg, Poland and Germany.

Is climate change to blame?

While extreme weather events like heatwaves occur naturally, “research shows that with climate change they are likely to become more common, perhaps occurring as regularly as every other year”, the UK’s Met Office says.

Dr Peter Stott from the Met Office told BBC 5Live the latest heatwave is the result of both “weather and climate acting in concert.

“What we have at the moment is this very warm stream of air, coming up from northern Africa, bringing with it unusually warm weather,” he said. “But without climate change we wouldn’t have hit the peaks that we’re hitting right now.”

Media captionBBC colleagues from hot countries give their tips for staying cool

The Met Office conducted a study last year that found that the UK was now 30 times more likely to experience heatwaves compared to the year 1750, because of “the higher concentration of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere”.

Records going back to the late 19th Century show that the average temperature of the Earth’s surface has increased by about one degree since industrialisation.

A climatology institute in Potsdam, Germany, said Europe’s five hottest summers since 1500 were all recorded in the 21st Century.

Scientists have expressed concern that rapid warming linked to use of fossil fuels has serious implications for the stability of the planet’s climate.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49108847


Asked whether it “made sense” for Democrats to be attacking Obama’s tenure instead of President Donald Trump, Sen. Cory Booker insisted that intra-party criticism should not be out of bounds. | Carlos Osorio/AP Photo

2020 elections

08/01/2019 09:14 AM EDT

Updated 08/01/2019 02:32 PM EDT


Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris on Thursday defended their criticisms of former Vice President Joe Biden at Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate, arguing that the presidency of Barack Obama, who remains wildly popular among Democrats, is not above criticism.

The former president was somewhat of an off-stage target at the debate, as 2020 hopefuls touted their own plans to build on or overhaul his signature health care law and criticized the rate of deportations in his administration. While there was virtually no criticism of Obama by name, attacks on his record were directed regularly at Biden, who served under Obama and is the front-runner for the 2020 nomination.

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Booker (D-N.J.) argued that no politician, no matter how well-liked, should be above reproach. Asked in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether it “made sense” for Democrats to be carping about Obama’s tenure instead of President Donald Trump, Booker insisted that the intraparty criticism should not be out of bounds.

“Well, look, at the end of the day, you’re right, President Obama has been the statesman of our party and has the highest approval ratings, but I don’t think any administration, as you and I both know have been in public life, nothing is without criticism,” he said, adding that there were “really substantive issues to discuss,” especially when it came to immigration.

As the Democratic Party has drifted further left in years since Obama left office, the former president has increasingly come under fire from liberals who decry his policies as incrementalist or more moderate than they would have liked. Despite these criticisms, Obam still enjoys immense popularity among Democrats — a CNN poll from 2018 found he had a 97 percent favorability rating within his own party.

At Wednesday’s debate, the New Jersey senator sparred once again not only with Biden over the former vice president’s criminal justice record, but also over Biden’s role as second-in-command to a president referred to by some critics as the “deporter in chief.”

Biden, who has tied his campaign to his former boss by invoking the work of the “Obama-Biden administration” and touting his friendship with the former commander in chief, bore the brunt of these attacks on Wednesday.

Despite attempts by the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform and executive action to protect so-called Dreamers, his administration’s three million deportations were the subject of protests within the debate hall Wednesday, with hecklers interrupting the debate as Biden tried to outline what he would have done differently.

At one point, Booker interjected, telling Biden: “You can’t have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can’t do it when it’s convenient and dodge it when it’s not.“

While Biden wouldn’t say whether he’d protested the mass deportations carried out under Obama, Booker on Thursday called the current immigration system “savagely broken” and said that “so many things are happening that just aren’t common sense,” though he didn’t specifically lay the blame on Obama.

“Having a substantive conversation about that isn’t distracting from a great administration before,” the senator said Thursday morning, adding that criticisms of Obama should not distract Democrats from being forward-looking through the 2020 primary.

“It’s really trying to give a picture of what we want in the future. I tried to go back time and time again last night on multiple occasions, for us to keep our eyes on the prize, which is unifying as a party and being able to keep Donald Trump, and then do it in a way that doesn’t further divide this country.”

Harris (D-Calif.), whose criticisms of Obama were rooted more in her desire to replace the Affordable Care Act with a transition to a Medicare for All-style health care plan, pointed out that Obama himself had endorsed the general idea and said in an interview on “Morning Joe” that his contributions should not be overlooked.

“What he did and what he accomplished in getting the Affordable Care Act to actually come into being was extraordinary,” she said. “But in his own words, he has said it was a starter house. He has said Medicare for All is a good idea. So when I talk about my Medicare for All plan, it is about building on the success of what President Obama achieved.”

The California senator added that Obama had been an “extraordinary president and probably the best president or one of the best presidents in our lifetimes.” Still, she said, the state of Obamacare under two years of Trump “is not working.”

The friendly fire aimed at Obama on Wednesday split former members of his administration. Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development who has made waves with his call to decriminalize illegal border crossings, at one point zinged Biden by telling the former vice president that his opposition to the idea showed “one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn’t.”

The barrage of criticism prompted Obama’s first attorney general, Eric Holder, to issue a firm warning to his fellow Democrats. “Be wary of attacking the Obama record,” he wrote on Twitter following the debate. “Build on it. Expand it. But there is little to be gained — for you or the party — by attacking a very successful and still popular Democratic President.”

But in an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Booker framed his critiques as mere tough love, and had even more praise for the former president, saying that if Obama could have run for a third term as president, “I wouldn’t be running.”

Still, the former Newark, N.J., mayor said Obama “ain’t perfect,” adding that “nobody’s ever pulled that off,” something he argued he had the authority to say as a former executive. Booker portrayed Democrats’ willingness to criticize the former leader of their party as a strength rather than a weakness, pointing to Republicans’ practice of staying silent in the face of an avalanche of Trump controversies.

“I’m sure if Barack Obama was sitting here — and I hope he’s sleeping this morning — he would tell you I made some mistakes. And to not point them out, to me is, you know, Donald Trump is the guy that my Republican colleagues can’t even criticize when he’s preaching racism,” he said. So “we are having an honest conversation about an administration that was incredible. I would take him back.”

Biden on Thursday expressed surprise at the pile-on the night before but mounted a full-throated defense of his former boss.

“I’m proud of having served with him, I’m proud of the job he did. I don’t think there’s anything he has to apologize for,” he told reporters in Detroit. “And I think, you know, it kind of surprised me, the degree of the criticism.”

He indicated that he would continue to have Obama’s back, but echoed Booker in calling for more forward-looking debates, and argued that changes in policy were necessary because “the world has changed since Obama.”

“The next debate, I hope we can talk about how we fix our answers, to fix things that trump has broken,” Biden said. “Not how Barack Obama made all these mistakes. He didn’t. He didn’t.”

While declining to criticize Democratic candidates who teed off on Obama’s record, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended Obama’s record on Thursday when asked about the debates.

“President Obama is a very popular figure in America to this day because he did a very good job. Did he accomplish everything? No,” Schumer said. But “you compare the Obama Administration to this administration it’s night and day and Americans are realizing that.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/01/cory-booker-obama-presidency-criticism-1444314

The former top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine described a “crisis” at the State Department during her public impeachment testimony on Friday, voicing concern that the agency’s failure to protect foreign service officials who faced attacks for their work overseas put U.S. interests at risk.

Marie YovanovitchMarie YovanovitchLive coverage: Ex-Ukraine ambassador testifies in public impeachment hearing Ex-Trump Russia expert told lawmakers she’s gotten death threats Giuliani lawyers up amid impeachment inquiry MORE, who privately testified to House investigators last month, described a smear campaign led by Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiTrump knocks testimony from ‘Never Trumpers’ at Louisiana rally Jordan calls Pelosi accusing Trump of bribery ‘ridiculous’ Giuliani under investigation for alleged campaign finance, lobbying breaches: report MORE, corrupt Ukrainian officials and disreputable media figures who successfully facilitated her removal as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in May.

“[T]he attacks are leading to a crisis in the State Department as the policy process is visibly unravelling, leadership vacancies going unfilled, and senior and mid-level officers ponder an uncertain future and head for the doors,” Yovanovitch testified.

“This not a time to undercut our diplomats,” she emphasized.

Yovanovitch also painted her removal as a “dangerously wrong” precedent in which private interests can remove an American diplomat is who seeking to faithfully carry out U.S. foreign policy.

“What continues to amaze me is that they found Americans willing to partner with them, and working together they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a U.S. Ambassador.”

“How could our system fail like this? How is it that foreign corrupt interests could manipulate our government,” Yovanovitch testified, adding that this played into the hands of “autocrats” like Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinThe analysts are wrong: Putin’s aggression exposes Russia’s decline Pelosi: Trump bribed Ukraine, makes Nixon’s offenses ‘look almost small’ Scarborough: Trump is either ‘an agent of Russia’ or ‘a useful idiot’ MORE.

And Yovanovitch said she remains disappointed that the top brass of the State Department declined to defend her against these attacks, even after senior State Department officials pressed Secretary of State Mike PompeoMichael (Mike) Richard PompeoJudge rules American-born woman who joined ISIS not a US citizen Human rights: Help or hindrance to toppling dictators? The Hill’s Morning Report – Fallout from day one of Trump impeachment hearing MORE and other top officials to issue a statement of support.

“At the closed deposition, I expressed grave concerns about the degradation of the Foreign Service over the past few years and the failure of the State Department leadership to push back as foreign and corrupt interests apparently hijacked our Ukraine policy,” she said in her opening remarks.

“I remain disappointed that the Department’s leadership and others have declined to acknowledge that the attacks against me and others are dangerously wrong,” Yovanovitch continued.

The career civil servant, who has served for more than three decades, said this issue is trickling down to affect other foreign officers who are seeking to represent U.S. interests abroad.

“This is about far more than me or a couple of individuals. As Foreign Service professionals are being denigrated and undermined, the institution is also being degraded. This will soon cause real harm, if it hasn’t already,” she said.

Yovanovitch also expressed dismay that corrupt Ukrainians, who were upset about her anti-corruption efforts, could find Americans willing to work with them to facilitate her removal.

 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/470617-yovanovitch-state-department-is-in-crisis-after-failing-to-fight

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Time Warner Cable News NY1 Noticias, New York City’s only 24-hour
Spanish language local news network, announced it will commemorate the
10-year anniversary of Pura Política, with a special documentary
with highlights from the past decade of the longest-running local
Spanish language political talk show in New York City, on Friday, June 5th
at 6 p.m. and 11p.m.

The documentary special will feature guests including, Congresswoman,
Nydia Velazquez, State Senator, Adriano Espaillat, and City Council
Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito,
who will explore the highs and lows
for Latinos during the past decade. The commemorative program will also
include an exclusive sit-down interview with New York City Mayor Bill
de Blasio
where he is asked to name one Latino politician he
believes would be a strong candidate for New York City Mayor in the near
future.

Pura Política first premiered as a weekly political talk show on
June 3, 2005, with then Mayor Michael Bloomberg as its first guest.
Bloomberg had just kicked off his re-election campaign with a
Spanish-language commercial.

“Since we aired our first program, Hispanic influence has grown
tremendously and the Spanish language has become ubiquitous in city
politics. Pura Política is a key platform for political leaders looking
to engage Latinos and talk about their issues. We look forward to many
more decades of great interviews and political analysis,” said program
host, Juan Manuel Benitez.

NY1 Noticias’ Pura Política’s 10th
Anniversary Special
will air Friday, June 5th at 6 p.m.
and 11p.m. on channel 95 and channel 831 on Time Warner Cable in New
York, and channel 194 on Cablevision in New York City.

Time Warner Cable News (TWC News) provides in-depth local news
programming exclusively for Time Warner Cable video customers. Time
Warner Cable’s 17 news networks operate in Texas (Austin, San Antonio);
New York (Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Hudson Valley, Central New York
and the Southern Tier); North Carolina (Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro,
Wilmington); Antelope Valley, CA, and the group’s flagship network NY1
and Spanish language network TWC News NY1 Noticias in New York City. NY1
Noticias is also available online at http://ny1noticias.com.
Viewers can follow the news team on twitter @NY1Noticias or visit www.ny1noticias.com
for the latest news coverage on NY1 Noticias including real-time
updates.

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is among the largest providers of
video, high-speed data and voice services in the United States,
connecting 15 million customers to entertainment, information and each
other. Time Warner Cable Business Class offers data, video and voice
services to businesses of all sizes, cell tower backhaul services to
wireless carriers and enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting, managed
applications and services. Time Warner Cable Media, the advertising
sales arm of Time Warner Cable, offers national, regional and local
companies innovative advertising solutions. More information about the
services of Time Warner Cable is available at www.twc.com,
www.twcbc.com
and www.twcmedia.com.

Source Article from http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150604006481/en/Time-Warner-Cable-NY1-Noticias%E2%80%99-%E2%80%9CPura-Polit%C3%ADca%E2%80%9D

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes.

The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

The report, unusual even by the sometimes bellicose standards of Russian state TV, was broadcast on Sunday evening, days after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the United States wanted one.

With tensions rising over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe as a Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels, Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near U.S. waters.

The United States says it has no immediate plans to deploy such missiles in Europe and has dismissed Putin’s warnings as disingenuous propaganda. It does not currently have ground-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles that it could place in Europe.

However, its decision to quit the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty over an alleged Russian violation, something Moscow denies, has freed it to start developing and deploying such missiles.

Putin has said Russia does not want a new arms race, but has also dialled up his military rhetoric.

The Pentagon said that Putin’s threats only helped unite NATO.

“Every time Putin issues these bombastic threats and touts his new doomsday devices, he should know he only deepens NATO’s resolve to work together to ensure our collective security,” Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

Some analysts have seen his approach as a tactic to try to re-engage the United States in talks about the strategic balance between the two powers, for which Moscow has long pushed, with mixed results.

In the Sunday evening broadcast, Dmitry Kiselyov, presenter of Russia’s main weekly TV news show ‘Vesti Nedeli’, showed a map of the United States and identified several targets he said Moscow would want to hit in the event of a nuclear war.

The targets, which Kiselyov described as U.S. presidential or military command centers, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training center in Maryland closed in 1998, McClellan, a U.S. Air Force base in California closed in 2001, and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.

Kiselyov, who is close to the Kremlin, said the “Tsirkon” (‘Zircon’) hypersonic missile that Russia is developing could hit the targets in less than five minutes if launched from Russian submarines.

Hypersonic flight is generally taken to mean traveling through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound.

“For now, we’re not threatening anyone, but if such a deployment takes place, our response will be instant,” he said.

Kiselyov is one of the main conduits of state television’s strongly anti-American tone, once saying Moscow could turn the United States into radioactive ash.

Asked to comment on Kiselyov’s report, the Kremlin said on Monday it did not interfere in state TV’s editorial policy.

Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth and Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Dan Grebler

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear-russia/after-putins-warning-russian-tv-lists-nuclear-targets-in-u-s-idUSKCN1QE1DM?feedType=RSS&

CORAL GABLES, FLA. (WSVN) – Four people, including a UPS driver, have died after a police chase ended with gunfire in Miramar after officers pursued alleged armed robbery subjects from Coral Gables, according to the FBI.

Coral Gables Police responded to a shooting outside of a jewelry store along the 300 block of Miracle Mile at around 4:15 p.m., Thursday.

7SkyForce HD flew over the scene were police tape was wrapped around Regent Jewelers and markers were placed along the alleyway behind the store, Thursday afternoon.

According to police, two subjects allegedly robbed Regent Jewelers in the area of Le Jeune Road.

Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said the subjects fled north in a U-Haul to the area of 1261 Mariana Ave. where they abandoned the vehicle and abducted a UPS truck and its driver. The driver was making a delivery at the time of the carjacking, police said.

Shortly after the call went out, police found the alleged armed robbery subjects driving along the northbound lanes of the Florida Turnpike in a UPS delivery truck and gave chase.

The high-speed chase ended on Miramar Parkway just east of Flamingo Road in Miramar.

7Skyforce HD flew over the scene where the alleged subjects could be seen exchanging gunfire with officers.

FBI Special Agent in Charge George Piro said in a news conference that the two subjects and two innocent civilians have died.

UPS has released a statement upon learning of the death of one of their employees.

“We are deeply saddened to learn a UPS service provider was a victim of this senseless act of violence. We extend our condolences to the family and friends of our employee and the other innocent victims involved in this incident. We appreciate law enforcement’s service and will cooperate with the authorities as they continue the investigation.”

Two other people suffered minor injuries from a motor vehicle crash, were not shot and refused transport, according to fire rescue.

Hudak held a press conference outside of the jewelry store after the chase ended. He said the subjects exchanged gunfire with the store’s owner.

According to Hudak, a female employee in the store was injured during the robbery. She was transported to a local hospital with injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening. Police said they cannot confirm if the woman was shot.

Hudak said at least one bullet hit Coral Gables City Hall, which is located across the street from the jewelry store. The building was placed on lockdown, and no injuries were reported at city hall.

Miami-Dade Police, the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Miramar Police, Pembroke Pines Police and Coral Gables Police are investigating the case.

Police are asking drivers to avoid the area due to a large police presence on the scene.

Miramar Police said no law enforcement officers were injured.

The FBI has since taken the lead on the investigation.

Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

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CLEVELAND, OHIO- Luego de un primer día cargado de tensiones, la segunda jornada de la Convención Nacional Republicana comenzó y con él las votaciones de los estados que convertirían a Donald Trump en el candidato presidencial del partido.

El hijo del empresario, Donald Trump Junior, fue el quien anunció los 89 votos de Nueva York para su padre, con lo que logró oficialmente la nominación republicana.

En el largo proceso de votación, durante el cual cada delegación de estado expresó cómo depositava sus votos a viva voz, el estado de Michigan también se abstuvo de votar

Pero fue sólo una movida de teatro político para garantizar que los votos del estado garantizaran que Trump pasara los 1,237 delegados necesarios para obtener la nominación.

Pasadas las 5:30 PM, el jefe de la convención y presidente de la Cámara de Representantes del Congreso de EEUU, Paul Ryan, explicó al incio de la votación que los delegados votarían en”en orden alfabético” y “según las normas” del partido.

Esta esperada votación llega luego de que el lunes un grupo de delegados que aún rechaza a Trump como el candidato republicano protagonizaran, con gritos y abucheos en la apertura del evento, un intento de cambiar las reglas del partido para liberarse de su obligación de votar al magnate.

Representantes de algunas delegaciones asistentes a la convención que se realiza en el Quicken Loans Arena de Cleveland, Ohio, hicieron saber a Univision Noticias que no dejarán que la votación se realice sin que ellos expresen la inconformidad con el nominado y con la manera como el partido ha manejado sus quejas.

Kristie Brown, una de las delegadas de Colorado, estado que el lunes protagonizó la rebelión para intentar cambiar las reglas del partido para no tener que votar al magnate, dijo a Univision que varios integrantes de su delegación estaban planeando acciones para manifestarse aunque no confirmó si implicaba interrumpir o suspender completamente el procedimiento.

La mayoría silenciosa

El lunes un grupo de estados presentó una moción para modificar las reglas del evento y permitir que los delegados votaran según su conciencia y no como los fuerza las leyes de cada estado que representan.

Una posibilidad es que se vuelva a presentar la iniciativa y que la asamblea vuelva a caer en el caos que se vivió cuando los proTrump ahogaron a gritos a los que expresaban su descontento con el magnate

La mayoría de las delegaciones han expresado su disgusto con la manera como se llevó a cabo la propuesta y algunos culpan de intrasigencia por partes iguales a la presidencia de la convención y a los delegados rebeldes.

La sesión empezará a las 5.50 pm, hora del este de EEUU, con la apertura formal de la ceremonia y hacioa las 6:00 se realizará la votación a voz alzada para la postulación formal de Trump.

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Source Article from http://www.univision.com/noticias/elecciones-2016/convencion-republicana-de-cleveland-se-prepara-para-una-segunda-jornada-de-caos

But as Mr. Trump attacked that sentencing recommendation on Twitter, the department began to work on a new, more lenient recommendation to the judge meting out Mr. Stone’s punishment. The four prosecutors quit the case, and the request was submitted without their signatures.

Ms. Kupec said that Mr. Barr had not discussed the sentencing request with the president and that he had decided to intervene before Mr. Trump tweeted about it.

Mr. Zelinsky will say that a supervisor working on the case told him there were “political reasons” for more senior officials to resist and then override prosecutors’ recommendation to follow the sentencing guidelines and that the supervisor agreed that doing so “was unethical and wrong.”

Mr. Zelinsky did not say in his written statement who specifically told him about what was going on. Jonathan Kravis, another prosecutor who quit the case in protest — and, unlike Mr. Zelinsky, also resigned from the Justice Department — has written in an op-ed in The Washington Post that he “resigned because I was not willing to serve a department that would so easily abdicate its responsibility to dispense impartial justice.”

The intervention came days after Mr. Barr had maneuvered the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie K. Liu, out of her role and installed Mr. Shea, who had been a close aide from his own office.

Mr. Zelinsky planned to say he was told that Mr. Shea “was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break” and complied because he was “afraid of the president.” He and other line prosecutors were told that the case was “not the hill worth dying on” and that they could lose their jobs if they did not fall in line, according to the statement.

Mr. Zelinsky, a prosecutor in Baltimore, had been detailed to Washington to continue work on the Stone case that was begun while he worked for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Stone, citing the spread of the coronavirus in federal prisons, asked a federal judge Tuesday for a two-month delay before he is forced to begin serving his sentence, which he was due to report for next week. His motion said that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington had told his lawyers that based on the department’s guidance about handling pandemic-related issues, the government was not opposed.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/us/politics/roger-stone-sentencing-politicized.html

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) – The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Sunday defended his agents’ handling of two sick children who died in their custody, saying they did everything they could to get medical help for them in difficult circumstances.

The deaths have intensified the debate over U.S. immigration policy as President Donald Trump holds onto his demand that lawmakers give him $5 billion to fund a wall along the border with Mexico.

The impasse over Trump’s border wall resulted in a partial government shutdown that entered its ninth day on Sunday.

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told ABC’s “This Week” it had been a decade since a child had died in the agency’s custody and that the loss of two Guatemalan children in three weeks was “just absolutely devastating for us on every level.”

RELATED: A day in the life of the migrant caravan in Mexico

Denzel, 8, holds his brother Adonai, 5, near their mother Glenda Escobar, a migrant from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the United States, as they walk to Pijijiapan from Mapastepec, Mexico, October 25, 2018. Picture taken October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino




Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, died on Christmas Day. In early December, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal died after being detained along with her father by U.S. border agents in a remote part of New Mexico.

On Saturday, Trump blamed Democrats for the deaths of the two children in a Twitter post, drawing criticism that he was politicizing the tragedies.

The standoff over his demand for wall funding will be a test for Congress when it returns this week with Democrats in control of the House of Representatives.

Trump sees the wall as vital to stemming illegal immigration, while Democrats and some Republicans see it as impractical and costly.

After the death of the second child, the CBP said it will conduct secondary medical checks on all children in its custody, with a focus on those under 10.

Caal was 94 miles (150 km) from a Border Patrol station when she began vomiting on a bus ride to the station, McAleenan said on ABC. He said a Border Patrol agent who was a paramedic revived her there and she was taken to a children’s hospital in El Paso, where she died.

In the boy’s case, McAleenan said, it was a Border Patrol agent who first noticed he was ill and sent him and his father to a hospital. State officials in New Mexico said on Friday that Felipe had the flu before he passed away.

“Our agents did everything they could, as soon as these children manifested symptoms of illness, to save their lives,” McAleenan said.

 

‘VULNERABLE POPULATIONS’

McAleenan said the number of families and children crossing the border illegal has increased steadily in recent months and made up 65 percent of crossings in December. Those families and children are entering a system set up for adults.

“We don’t want them in border patrol stations. We want them in a better scenario for these vulnerable populations that we are seeing,” he said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would hold hearings on the deaths and “the policies that entice people to come.”

A border wall was the last measure listed by McAleenan as necessary to address what he called a crisis at the southern border – after new legislation in Congress, investing in Central American nations to help improve life there, and working with Mexico on a joint plan for handling migrants.

“We need a sober-minded nonpartisan look at our immigration laws to really confront and grapple with the fact that children and families are coming into this cycle,” he said. “That’s first and foremost.”

Before it can hope to tackle complex immigration legislation, Congress must reach a deal on the critical spending measure.

Graham on Sunday proposed enticing Democrats into supporting Trump’s border wall by offering in return a measure providing legal status for 700,000 so-called Dreamers, children who were brought to the United States illegally.

“So to my Democratic friends, there will never be a deal without wall funding and many Republicans are going to offer something as an incentive to vote for wall funding that you have supported in the past,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

However, fellow Republican Senator Richard Shelby warned on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that negotiations were at an impasse and the shutdown “could last a long, long time.”

Democratic U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries said the country needs comprehensive immigration reform and border security.

“But we are not willing to pay $2.5 billion or $5 billion and wasting taxpayer dollars on a ransom note because Donald Trump decided that he was going to shut down the government and hold the American people hostage,” Jeffries said on ABC. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Daniel Wallis)

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/12/30/border-patrol-chief-defends-agents-in-child-border-deaths/23630013/

A new section of the border wall is seen in November 2019 south of Donna, Texas. Trump’s 576-mile border wall is expected to cost nearly $20 million per mile, which is more expensive than any other wall under construction in the world.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR


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Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

A new section of the border wall is seen in November 2019 south of Donna, Texas. Trump’s 576-mile border wall is expected to cost nearly $20 million per mile, which is more expensive than any other wall under construction in the world.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

The pricetag for President Trump’s border wall has topped $11 billion — or nearly $20 million a mile — to become the most expensive wall of its kind anywhere in the world.

In a status report last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is overseeing wall construction, reported that $11 billion has been identified since Trump took office to construct 576 miles of a new “border wall system.”

And the Trump administration is on the hunt for funding to build even more. The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Defense Department to come up with money for 270 additional miles of border wall that DHS says is needed to block drug smuggling routes on federal land. The Pentagon is studying the request, which did not come with a dollar figure.

If the Trump administration completes all of the wall projects it has set in motion, three-quarters of the U.S. southern border would be walled off from Mexico. The government inherited about 650 miles of border structures erected under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“You’re going to have a wall like no other. It’s going to be a powerful, terrific wall,” President Trump said at a rally in Milwaukee last week. “A very big and very powerful border wall is going up at a record speed, and we are fully financed now, isn’t that nice?”

To get an idea why the government is spending so much on Trump’s border wall, look no further than the construction sites down in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

On one side of a caliche road, you can see the pedestrian fence that was erected more than a decade ago. At 18 feet, it looks downright puny. On the other side of the road are massive steel bollards topped with an “anti-climbing plate” that rise 30 feet above the cotton fields, surrounded by men in hardhats and heavy equipment.

Bush’s fence averaged $4 million a mile; Trump’s wall costs five times that—$20 million a mile. The overall cost of $11 billion is approaching the price of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

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Customs and Border Protection spokesman Christian Alvarez points out there’s a lot more to Trump’s barrier.

“The border wall system will include a 150-foot enforcement zone, lighting, cameras, other technology, and most importantly an all-weather access road making it easier to respond to (undocumented immigrant) traffic,” Alvarez said. “So it’s not just gonna be the barrier itself.”

There’s more steel — an expensive commodity — in a 30-foot structure. Also, there are powerful floodlights, and every mile will have conduit for electric power and fiber optics that connect the surveillance cameras. Electronic gates that allow passage through the wall cost up to $1 million a piece. And there’s a graded, graveled enforcement zone as wide as a six-lane highway.

“The border wall system will include a 150-foot enforcement zone, lighting, cameras, other technology, and most importantly an all-weather access road making it easier to respond to traffic,” Christian Alvarez, a Border Patrol spokesman, says.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR


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Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

“The border wall system will include a 150-foot enforcement zone, lighting, cameras, other technology, and most importantly an all-weather access road making it easier to respond to traffic,” Christian Alvarez, a Border Patrol spokesman, says.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

Trump’s border wall is now the tallest and most expensive in the world, said Reece Jones, a geographer at the University of Hawaii who studies border walls.

“The cost of almost $20 million per mile cost is four times as much as the most expensive other walls being built,” Jones said.

Border walls are much in vogue in the post-Cold War era, he said, and there are now at least 60 around the world. Israel’s wall on the West Bank ranks as the second most expensive — at a paltry $1 million to $5 million a mile.

Congress appropriated funds to build the wall in the Rio Grande Valley, but the government now says it needs more. CBP is dipping into $600 million of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, which holds money seized in criminal investigations.

Some of the extra money will be used to build the wall higher and 10 miles longer. There have also been “increased project costs due to unforeseen site conditions” — to wit, serious seepage problems where the levee wall crosses a canal that empties into the Rio Grande.

These extra costs came to light in a recent deposition made by Loren Flossman, CBP’s wall chief. He also said the agency needs more money to cover the ballooning expense of acquiring the strips of private property under the wall.

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Taking private land through eminent domain involves multiple agencies, including the Department of Justice, and can lead to lawsuits. The process “significantly increases the hurdles that the government has to face,” said Scott Nicol, a longtime wall opponent with the Sierra Club in the Rio Grande Valley.

“Where you have private property and the government has to go through the courts to get that property, it takes a lot longer and it drives the cost up because you have to pay for that land,” Nicol said. “You have to send DOJ lawyers in to get that land.”

By mid-January, the government had constructed 101 miles of border wall. A hundred miles of this is replacement or secondary wall; only one mile has been built where no barriers previously existed.

Contrary to President Trump’s claims, the wall is not “going up at a record speed.” In fact, construction has fallen months behind schedule because of the complexities of acquiring private land in the South Texas.

The massive wall projects that are currently underway are fully financed, primarily because of the president’s willingness to sidestep a defiant Congress.

Over the last two budget cycles, a Democrat-controlled House authorized $2.75 billion for the wall — much less than Trump asked for. So Trump shut down the government, declared a state of emergency and diverted billions more from the Defense Department to pay for his wall.

Pro-immigrant groups promptly sued, and initially succeeded in getting federal injunctions to block military funding for the wall. But conservative majorities on both the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal appeals court in New Orleans stayed the injunctions and let the administration proceed with construction.

“I mean, with all due respect to the president, he’s obsessed with this wall,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. “It’s a campaign promise, and what happened to that Mexico was going to pay for this?”

Democrats say they do want border security, but the way to do it is with manpower and technology, not steel and concrete.

“I live on the border. I don’t want to see chaos. I want to see law and order at the border,” Cuellar continued. “But I don’t want to just be spending billions of dollars to those federal contractors.”

The federal contractors are mostly giant construction companies with experience handling complex federal projects.

Then there’s Fisher Sand & Gravel. The North Dakota company snagged a $400 million wall contract after CEO Tommy Fisher went on Fox News — a channel Trump frequently watches — to boast how he could build the wall faster and cheaper out on the California border.

“So that current fence they’re building right now in Calexico, the government has been given basically 300 days to build two miles. With one crew, we can build 15 miles in one year,” Fisher told a Fox interviewer.

Now, the Pentagon inspector general is reviewing the contract. Auditors want to know if the White House steered it to Fisher, who maintains his bid was the best.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797319968/-11-billion-and-counting-trumps-border-wall-would-be-the-world-s-most-costly

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