BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's 87-year-old king returned to a hospital in Bangkok on Sunday after spending three weeks at his palace in a coastal resort south of the capital.
An official statement from the Royal Household Bureau said an ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej returned to Siriraj Hospital for a regular checkup. The statement did not say when or if he would return to the seaside city of Hua Hin. Bhumibol, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has resided in Siriraj on and off for years. His last stay lasted seven months after having his gallbladder removed.
Thais hold great affection for Bhumibol, who was crowned on May 5, 1950, after coming to the throne in 1946 following the death of his elder brother.
While he is a constitutional monarch with no formal political role, Bhumibol is widely revered and regarded as the country's sole unifying figure.
Bhumibol has faded from public life over the past several years, though, and on his rare outings looks visibly frail and does not speak publicly.
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President Barack Obama signs the bill S. 535 Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 at the White House in Washington April 30, 2015. GOP lawmakers have targeted for repeal or delay a host of environmental regulations supported by the president. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says a new federal rule regulating small streams and wetlands will protect the drinking water of more than 117 million people in the country.
Not so, insist Republicans. They say the rule is a massive government overreach that could even subject puddles and ditches to regulation.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is promising to “rein in” the government through legislation or other means.
What else are Capito and other Republicans pledging to try to block?
-the administration’s plan to curb carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.
-its proposal for stricter limits on smog-forming pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness
-a separate rule setting the first national standards for waste generated from coal burned for electricity.
The rules are among a host of regulations that majority Republicans have targeted for repeal or delay as they confront President Barack Obama on a second-term priority: his environmental legacy, especially his efforts to reduce the pollution linked to global warming.
WHAT HAS OBAMA PROPOSED?
Last June, Obama rolled out a plan to cut earth-warming pollution from power plants by 30 percent by 2030, setting in motion one of the most significant U.S. actions ever to address global warming. Once completed this summer, the rule will set the first national limits on carbon dioxide from existing power plants, the largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S.
The administration says the rule is expected to raise electricity prices by about 4.9 percent by 2020 and spur a wave of retirements of coal-fired power plants.
The administration also has moved forward on other rules, including the water plan announced last Wednesday. Officials say it will provide much-needed clarity for landowners about which small waterways and tributaries must be protected against pollution and development.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, said the rule only would affect waters with a “direct and significant” connection to larger bodies of water downstream that already are protected.
The administration has proposed stricter emissions limits on smog-forming pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness. Rather than settling on a firm new ozone limit, the EPA is proposing a range of allowable ozone levels that cut the existing level but do not go as far as environmental and public health groups want. The rule is expected to be completed later this year.
In December, the administration set the first national standards for waste generated from coal burned for electricity, treating it more like household garbage than a hazardous material. Environmentalists had pushed for the hazardous classification, citing hundreds of cases nationwide in which coal ash waste has tainted waterways or underground aquifers, in many cases legally.
The coal industry wanted the less stringent classification, arguing that coal ash is not dangerous, and that a hazardous label would hinder recycling. About 40 percent of coal ash is reused.
WHAT DO REPUBLICANS SAY ABOUT THE RULES?
GOP lawmakers criticize the rules as anti-business job killers that go further than needed to protect the nation’s air and water supplies and other natural resources.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the new water rule will send “landowners, small businesses, farmers and manufacturers on the road to a regulatory and economic hell.”
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Obama and the EPA are “aggressively pushing an extreme and costly regulatory agenda” that will harm the U.S. economy and everyday life of Americans. His committee “continues to pursue legislation to take aim at EPA’s costly and harmful regulations,” Inhofe said.
WHAT OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE TO CONGRESSIONAL OPPONENTS?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has led the charge against the power plant rule, which he says amounts to a declaration of war against his home state, a longtime leader in coal production.
McConnell wrote the 50 governors in March urging them not to comply with the rule, which requires implementation by the states. McConnell has encouraged legal challenges to the rule and recently announced a new wrinkle, telling the EPA’s McCarthy that Congress could block the plan by using an obscure section of the Clean Air Act requiring congressional consent for agreements among states.
“The law reads: `No such agreement or compact shall be binding or obligatory upon any state … unless and until it has been approved by Congress,'” McConnell told McCarthy at an April hearing. “Doesn’t seem ambivalent to me. I can assure you that as long as I am majority leader of the Senate, this body will not sign off on any backdoor national energy tax.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Obama, McCarthy and officials are not backing down. At the April hearing, McCarthy told McConnell that the EPA guidelines are reasonable and give states “tremendous flexibility.”
The EPA will produce a rule “that will withstand the test of time in the courts,” McCarthy said.
“You’re going to have to prove it in court,” McConnell said. “As we most often do,” McCarthy replied.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate will continue to hold hearings on the administration’s plans and push bills to block the rules or curb spending on them. The GOP-controlled House passed a bill blocking the EPA water rule on May 12 – two weeks before it was officially announced. Bills to block the power plant rule, ozone limits and coal ash regulation have been filed in both chambers.
“We are going to pursue all avenues,” McConnell told The Associated Press. “The solution is not right here (in Congress), it’s out there – either in the courts or the governors refusing to file plans.”
WASHINGTON — In a forthcoming report triggered by an Associated Press investigation, the top watchdog at the Social Security Administration found the agency paid $20.2 million in benefits to more than 130 suspected Nazi war criminals, SS guards, and others who may have participated in the Third Reich’s atrocities during World War II.
The report, scheduled for public release this week and obtained by the AP, used computer-processed data and other internal agency records to develop a comprehensive picture of the total number of Nazi suspects who received benefits and the dollar amounts paid out. The Social Security Administration last year refused AP’s request for those figures.
The payments are far greater than previously estimated and occurred between February 1962 and January 2015, when a new law called the No Social Security for Nazis Act kicked in and ended retirement payments for four beneficiaries. The report does not include the names of any Nazi suspects who received benefits.
The large amount of the benefits and their duration illustrate how unaware the American public was of the influx of Nazi persecutors into the U.S., with estimates ranging as high as 10,000. Many lied about their Nazi pasts to get into the U.S. and even became American citizens. They got jobs and said little about what they did during the war.
Yet the U.S. was slow to react. It wasn’t until 1979 that a special Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special Investigations, was created within the Justice Department.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., requested that the Social Security Administration’s inspector general look into the scope of the payments following AP’s investigation, which was published in October 2014. On Saturday, she said the IG’s report showed that 133 alleged and confirmed Nazis actively worked to conceal their true identities from the U.S. government and still received Social Security payments.
“We must continue working to remember the tragedy of the Holocaust and hold those responsible accountable,” Maloney said in a statement. “One way to do that is by providing as much information to the public as possible. This report hopefully provides some clarity.”
AP found that the Justice Department used a legal loophole to persuade Nazi suspects to leave the U.S. in exchange for Social Security benefits. If they agreed to go voluntarily, or simply fled the country before being deported, they could keep their benefits. The Justice Department denied using Social Security payments as a way to expel former Nazis.
By March 1999, 28 suspected Nazi criminals had collected $1.5 million in Social Security payments after their removal from the U.S. Since then, AP estimated the amount paid out had grown substantially. That estimate is based on the number of suspects who qualified and the three decades that have passed since the first former Nazis, Arthur Rudolph and John Avdzej, signed agreements that required them to leave the country but ensured their benefits would continue.
The IG’s report said $5.6 million was paid to 38 former Nazis before they were deported. Ninety-five Nazi suspects who were not deported but were alleged or found to have participated in the Nazi persecution received $14.5 million in benefits, according to the report.
The IG criticized the Social Security Administration for improperly paying four beneficiaries $15,658 because it did not suspend the benefits in time.
The report also said the Social Security Administration “properly stopped payment” to the four beneficiaries when the new law banning benefits to Nazi suspects went into effect. The agency did, however, continue payments to one suspect because he was not subject to the law.
The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in informal comments to the IG, the agency and the Justice Department said the pool of 133 suspects included individuals who were not deported and may not have had any role with the Nazis. The Justice Department requested the report only include the names of 81 people it had provided to the IG and who had conclusively determined to be involved in the Nazi persecution.
Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said the Justice Department did what was necessary to get Nazi suspects out of the U.S. But “it’s a travesty,” he added, that so many of them ended up keeping their benefits.
“The issue is the principle here – do you sign deals with Nazis to get them out of the country?” he said Sunday. “The Department of Justice said yes, but who wants to think that taxpayer dollars went to people who served as guards in camps? On the other hand, the government was trying to maximize what it could do with the tools that they had.”
Raw video from LOUDLABS NEWS showing LAFD in action after a car left a transition road in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles early Saturday and became wedged under a highway ramp, killing the driver. News coverage here.
As we were reminded during California's recent measles outbreak, a surprising number of well-educated people decide each year not to have their children immunized against an array of communicable diseases. Trying to discern why they make this dangerous decision is a priority for public health officials, and a perplexing puzzle to the rest of us.
Newly published research shows that cultural anthropology can both help us understand their thinking, and suggest ways of productively communicating the importance of vaccination.
San Diego State University anthropologist Elisa Sobo spent time with a community of parents whose children attended a California Waldorf School. It's part of a large, international network of alternative schools that emphasize independent thinking and creative expression.
These schools are often criticized for having high rates of non-immunized children, and that was clearly true of the campus Sobo visited: Just over half of the parents filed "personal belief exemptions" indicating their child was un- or under-vaccinated.
The desire to "fit in" with a group of self-defined free-thinkers in fact leads to a kind of groupthink, in which dissent is effectively silenced.
Tellingly, she found the percentage of kids who are vaccinated goes down the longer they have been at the school. This suggests that, while parents who choose such schools may be skeptical of vaccines, there's something about the culture of the institution that bolsters this skepticism and effectively discourages the otherwise-common practice.
That's exactly what Sabo found when she interviewed 24 parents and conducted a focus group with a dozen of them. She discovered they were "highly educated, and took seriously their perceived responsibility for child health."
They also prided themselves on being "independent thinkers" who are deeply skeptical of both big government and big corporations. This shared sense of identity, she writes in the journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly, reinforces anti-vaccination attitudes, which gradually coalesce into a cultural norm parents are reluctant to deviate from.
Opposition to vaccination becomes, for many, intertwined with their perception of themselves as intelligently skeptical parents.
One potential source of this skepticism is "anthroposophy," which Sobo describes as "a holistic philosophy promoted by Waldorf education's founder, Rudolf Steiner." Among other things, this school of thought argues that the fevers and inflammation that accompany common childhood diseases "contribute to cell renewal and growth, as well as to overall immune-system strength."
Sabo reports this philosophy is not specifically taught as part of the Waldorf curriculum. But it may have seeped into some parents' thinking, leading them to question the wisdom of immunization.
Besides the purported "benefits of getting a disease naturally," anti-vaccine parents frequently mentioned "the profit motives of those who make, sell, and distribute them."
Other stated concerns included side effects and perceived toxicity of vaccines. This information largely came from alternative-medicine publications and websites, which were widely shared among the Waldorf parents.
"Such sources -- which supported talk of vaccine toxicity, ineffectiveness, needlessness, and developmental inappropriateness for small bodies -- were more likely to be publicized within the school community via social networks than were mainstream scientific materials," Sabo writes. "This was because of (unwritten) community rules favoring alternative perspectives and stigmatizing conventional ones."
Sabo's research identifies two important ironies. First, she writes, "Although Waldorf education has a social mission, participants (in this study) overlooked the plight of disease-vulnerable people."
Second, "the equation between non-vaccination, the independence of mind that it is taken to signify, and Waldorfian identity make it harder and harder to contravene the norm without threatening one's sense of group membership."
In other words, the desire to "fit in" with a group of self-defined free-thinkers in fact leads to a kind of groupthink, in which dissent is effectively silenced.
How can this be countered? "Vaccine promotions should leverage parents' favored ideas and address community concerns," Sabo writes. "Pro-vaccine messages aimed at Waldorf parents should emphasize how vaccination, booster shots included, help children's immune systems naturally (vs. working synthetically)."
In addition, she writes, "Publicizing that about half of Waldorf students are fully vaccinated ... will also be helpful," as it will demonstrate "that vaccinating one's children is not inimical to being free-thinking" or a member of the school community in good standing.
"Because such actions have the potential to dislodge vaccination's social stigma," Sabo writes, '"these could be the most important practical steps of all."
Findings is a daily column by Pacific Standard staff writer Tom Jacobs, who scours the psychological-research journals to discover new insights into human behavior, ranging from the origins of our political beliefs to the cultivation of creativity.
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India’s annual pre-monsoon heat wave has been unusually severe this year, especially in the southeastern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Near-record temperatures have persisted for weeks and the anxiously awaited monsoon rains that cool the country in early summer have not yet arrived.
A woman walks along the road with her face covered to protect herself from sun stroke on a hot summer day in Chandigarh, India, May 28, 2015. Photo by Ajay Verma/Reuters
Temperatures in parts of the country have soared above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, making life miserable for many of India’s 1.25 billion inhabitants and presenting serious health and infrastructure challenges to the South Asian nation.
A man sleeps under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day at a public park in New Delhi, India, May 27, 2015. Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
Due to high humidity, the heat index — a measurement of how a given temperature feels to humans — in some regions exceeded 140 degrees. The extreme temperatures have contributed to over 1,800 deaths, making the heat wave one of the deadliest on record.
A caretaker sprays water on Rajlaxshmi, a female elephant, to keep her cool inside a zoological park in New Delhi, India, May 28. Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
A customer stands beside stacked air coolers kept for sale at a shop in New Delhi, India, May 28, 2015. Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Heavy use of air conditioners has put excess strain on India’s electrical grid, causing power cuts in some areas, including the capital, New Delhi.
A road melt near Safdarjung Hospital after the Temperature rise to 113 degrees. Photo by Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Intense heat in New Delhi even caused road surfaces to melt.
Buffaloes sit in a lake on a hot summer day near Ajmer, India, May 28, 2015. Photo by Himanshu Sharma/Reuters
Across the country, measures have been taken to limit fatalities.
Authorities have cancelled leave for doctors as hospitals struggle to cope with the victims of temperature-related ailments like heat stroke and heart attacks.
Men sleep on a temporary shade built over a drain next to a slum in New Delhi, India, May 28, 2015. Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
Many of the victims are the elderly and people who are forced to spend days outside in the intense heat, such as construction workers and the homeless.
Citizens have been cautioned to stay inside if possible and to drink fluids constantly.
A boy is held by his mother as he slips in the Arabian Sea at a beach in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, May 29, 2015. Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Tại Uber, chúng tôi luôn hướng tới một cộng đồng không có phân biệt giữa người lái và người đi. Ai ai cũng có thể là tài xế Uber.
Tại Mỹ, nhiều doanh nhân hay lái Uber để gặp gỡ khách hàng mới và tìm hiểu thị trường. Tại Toronto, Canada, DJ nổi tiếng Deadmau5 lái cho Uber khi anh không phải đi diễn.
Còn ngay tại Hà Nội, Việt Nam, Phan Anh, một MC thành đạt, một ông bố bận rộn, thường đi Uber nhưng cũng không ngần ngại dùng chính xe của mình để lái Uber.
Vào hôm nay, Chủ Nhật, ngày 31 tháng 05, chúng tôi muốn mời tất cả các bạn có cơ hội gặp gỡ MC Phan Anh để trò chuyện về công việc tay trái thú vị của anh.Làm thế nào để gặp tài xế đặc biệt này?1. Từ 2h đến 5h chiều, trượt vào nút “MC PHAN ANH”
2. Chọn địa điểm đến
3. Tada! Chỉ cần chờ từ 5-10 phút, MC Phan Anh sẽ đến đón bạn Xin hãy lưu ý, để tạo cơ hội cho nhiều người gặp anh Phan Anh nhất, chuyến đi của bạn sẽ chỉ giới hạn trong 15 phút. Xe riêng của MC Phan Anh chở được 4 người. Xe sẽ khởi hành từ khu vực Hoàn Kiếm và sẽ giới hạn trong nội thành.Chưa có Uber?
Hãy tải ứng dụng tại uber.com/app và nhập mã MCPHANANH để được đi chuyến đầu tiên miễn phí trị giá 200,000 VND.Bạn muốn lái Uber?
Hãy đăng ký tại http://www.uberhn.com/dang-ky/ hoặc giới thiệu người thân tại http://www.uberhn.com/gioi-thieu-lai-xe/Hãy trải nghiệm những điều độc đáo và không thể tin nổi với Uber!Đỗi Ngũ Uber Hà Nội
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When Vice President Joe Biden was first sworn in to the U.S. Senate in 1973, he took his oath by the bedside of his son Beau, who'd been injured in a car accident in December 1972 that claimed the lives of Joe Biden's first wife and daughter.
Images of Biden's swearing-in circulated on Twitter Saturday night after the vice president announced Beau had died from brain cancer. Beau Biden was 46.
In this Jan. 5, 1973 black-and-white file photo, four-year-old Beau Biden, foreground, watches his dad, Joe Biden, center, being sworn in as the U.S. senator from Delaware, by Senate Secretary Frank Valeo, left, in ceremonies in a Wilmington hospital. Beau was injured in an accident that killed his mother and sister in December. Mrs. Biden's father, Robert Hunter, holds the Bible. (AP Photo/File)
Joseph H. Biden Jr., left, offers words of encouragement to his bedridden son, Beau, before Bidden was sworn in as the United States Senator from Delaware in ceremonies in Wilmington hospital on Jan. 5, 1973. Biden's other son, Hunter, talks with Robert Hunter, Biden's father-in-law. Beau is still in traction from an auto accident on Dec. 18, in which the Senator's wife and daughter were killed. (AP Photo/Brian Horton)
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Here's a message to all the celebs currently giving graduation speeches: he's gonna let you finish, but Kanye West just gave one of the best graduation speeches of all time. Well, he gave the most Kanye West graduation speech, anyway.
West made an appearance at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College's Gold Thimble Fashion Show on Friday and reportedly addressed the graduating class, saying, "Usually, when you're the absolute best, you get hated on the most." Preach, Kanye!
After an issue with the paparazzi in 2013, West was sentenced to some community service and fulfilled his hours by teaching at the school in 2014. Though all his hours are up, he still decided to make the trip for the show, giving a speech and even smiling.
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Don't worry, Tidal subscribers: Queen Bey isn't going anywhere.
On Thursday, a Bloomberg story critical of Jay Z's Tidal reported that all of Beyonce's discography might soon disappear from the audio streaming service. According to Bloomberg's report, Sony and Warner had been asking for large sums of money in exchange for Tidal's streaming rights to their artists' songs. While Warner has reportedly reached an agreement with Tidal, things didn't sound good for Bey or other Sony artists. One can only imagine the tension that might have caused in Beyonce and Jay Z's marriage.
However, Sony Music CEO Doug Morris confirmed to Rolling Stone on Saturday that nothing of the sort is happening just yet.
The removal of Beyonce's catalog from the streaming service, which she co-owns with her husband and a number of other artists, wouldn't have helped improve Tidal's image in the media. The lossless audio service has repeatedly been skewered by critics and artists alike, prompting Jay Z to defend Tidal on Twitter. The rapper also threw shots at competitor Spotify, as well as YouTube and Apple, in a freestyle during a special Tidal show in New York earlier this month.
If Morris is right, then maybe we can still look forward to that rumored joint Beyonce and Jay Z album that will allegedly debut exclusively on Tidal.
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A general view of the former monitoring base of the U.S. National Security Agency in Bad Aibling, south of Munich, August 13, 2013. Three post-Sept. 11 surveillance laws used against spies and terrorists are set to expire as Sunday turns into Monday. Photo by Michael Dalder/Reuters
WASHINGTON — Barring a last-minute deal in Congress, three post-Sept. 11 surveillance laws used against spies and terrorists are set to expire as Sunday turns into Monday.
Will that make Americans less secure?
Absolutely, Obama administration officials say.
Nonsense, counter civil liberties activists.
That heated debate may recede to a simmer if senators, set to meet in an unusual Sunday session, decide to accept a House-passed bill that extends the programs and then send the measure to President Barack Obama to sign before midnight.
While there are compelling arguments on both sides, failure to pass legislation would mean new barriers for the government in domestic national security investigations, at a time when intelligence officials say the threat at home is growing.
“If these provisions expire, counterterrorism investigators are going to have greater restrictions on them than ordinary law enforcement investigators,” said Nathan Sales, a Syracuse University law professor and former Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration.
Until now, much of the debate has focused on the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ telephone calling records. This collection was authorized under one of the expiring provisions, Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Independent evaluations have cast doubt on that program’s importance, and even law enforcement officials say in private that losing this ability would not carry severe consequences.
Yet the fight over those records has jeopardized other surveillance programs that have broad, bipartisan support and could fall victim to congressional gridlock.
The FBI uses Section 215 to collect other business records tied to specific terrorism investigations. A separate section in the Patriot Act allows the FBI to eavesdrop, via wiretaps, on suspected terrorists or spies who discard phones to dodge surveillance. A third provision, targeting “lone wolf” attackers, has never been used and thus may not be missed if it lapses.
Government and law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, have said in recent days that letting the wiretap and business records provisions expire would undercut the FBI’s ability to investigate terrorism and espionage.
Lynch said it would mean “a serious lapse in our ability to protect the American people.” Clapper said in a statement Friday that prompt passage by the Senate of the House bill “is the best way to minimize any possible disruption of our ability to protect the American people.”
And President Barack Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to accuse opponents of hijacking the debate for political reasons. “Terrorists like al-Qaida and ISIL aren’t suddenly going to stop plotting against us at midnight tomorrow, and we shouldn’t surrender the tools that help keep us safe,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
Civil liberties activists say the pre-Sept. 11 law gives the FBI enough authority to do its job. To bolster their case, they cite a newly released and heavily blacked out report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog that examined the FBI’s use up to 2009 of business record collection under Section 215.
“The government has numerous other tools, including administrative and grand jury subpoenas, which would enable it to gather necessary information,” in terrorism investigations, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
Section 215 allows the FBI to serve a secret order requiring a business to hand over records relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation. The FBI uses the authority “fewer than 200 times a year,” Director James Comey said last week.
The inspector general’s report said it was used in “investigations of groups comprised of unknown members and to obtain information in bulk concerning persons who are not the subjects of or associated with an authorized FBI investigation.”
But from 2007 to 2009, the report said, none of that material had cracked a specific terrorism case.
“The agents we interviewed did not identify any major case developments that resulted from use of the records obtained in response to Section 215 orders,” the report said.
The report analyzed several cases, but most of the details are blacked out. In some cases, the FBI agent pronounced the 215 authority “useful” or “effective,” but the context and detail were censored.
In 2011, Bob Litt, the general counsel for the director of national intelligence, testified before Congress that the business records provision was used to obtain information “essential” in the investigation of Khalid Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi-born resident of Lubbock, Texas, who was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to bomb American targets in 2011.
In another case, Litt said, “hotel records that we obtained under a business records order showed that over a number of years, a suspected spy had arranged lodging for other suspected intelligence officers.” Those records gave the FBI the information it needed to get a secret national security eavesdropping warrant, he said.
Sunday’s Senate session became necessary after the chamber failed to act before leaving town early on May 23 for a holiday break. The USA Freedom Act, which passed the House passed overwhelmingly, fell three votes short of the 60 needed to proceed in the Senate, and efforts to extend the current law also failed.
If the Senate proceeds to debate the House bill, there still could be a two-week delay before it passes. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a 2016 presidential candidate who opposes the Patriot Act, has pledged to do all he can to prevent a vote. But if backers get 60 votes without him, he cannot stop the bill forever.
If the USA Freedom Act becomes law, the business records provision and the roving wiretap authority would return immediately. The NSA would resume collecting American telephone records for a six-month period while shifting to a system of searching phone company records case by case.
If no agreement is reached, all the provisions will expire.
A third possibility is a temporary extension of current law while lawmakers work out a deal, but House members have expressed opposition.
More than 4,200 migrants trying to reach Europe were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea over the past 24 hours, the Italian Coast Guard said Saturday.
Migrants wait to disembark from the Irish navy ship LÉ Eithne as they arrives in the Sicilian harbour of Palermo, Italy, May 30, 2015. Photo by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
In what was one of the biggest day for rescues in recent years, a total of 4,243 people were saved from fishing boats and rubber dinghies after being found adrift during 22 separate naval operations led by Italy, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Britain, Reuters reported.
The Godetia logistical support ship of the Belgian Navy is docked on May 30, 2015 upon its arrival in the port of Crotone in the Italian southern region of Calabria after rescuing some 200 migrants, as part of Frontex-coordinated Operation Triton off the Italian coast. Photo by Alfonso di Vincenzo/Getty Images.
Adding to the growing humanitarian crisis, the Italian Navy on Friday reported 17 dead bodies were found in one of the boats off Libya.
Belgian sailors distribute water to migrants aboard the Godetia logistical support ship of the Belgian Navy on May 30, 2015. Photo by Alfonso di Vincenzo/Getty Images
The migrants were taken ashore at Sicily where they will be processed and taken to temporary housing.
A woman is helped by medical staff as she disembarks from the Irish navy ship LE Eithne in the Sicilian harbour of Palermo, Italy, May 30, 2015. Photo by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Scattered at sea, the migrants face extreme weather changes, hunger, thirst and violence while crammed aboard the flimsy vessels.
Belgian sailors help migrant children and women off the Godetia logistical support ship of the Belgian Navy on May 30, 2015. Photo by Alfonso di Vincenzo/Getty Images.
In April, about 800 migrants drowned off the coast of Libya when their 20-meter-long fishing boat capsized and sank, Reuters reported.
Fleeing war, poverty and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, the migrants are trying to sail to Europe, where more than 80,000 have landed so far this year. The United Nations says more than 35,000 migrants have arrived in Italy alone since January.
Italian officer Gianluca D’Agostino of the Italian Coast Guard, looks at a map of the Mediterranean Sea, in the control center at the headquarter of Italian Coast Guard, on May 28 2015, in Rome. Photo by Andreas Solaro/Getty Images.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Saturday that he would block the Senate from passing an extension of the Patriot Act, which is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
"Forcing us to choose between our rights and our safety is a false choice and we are better than that as a nation and as a people," Paul said in a statement Saturday that was first reported by Politico. "So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program."
Paul also opposes the USA Freedom Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House. The legislation would reauthorize key provisions in the Patriot Act, but require the government to stop collecting and storing the bulk metadata from phone records of Americans, and transition over six months to a system in which it must ask telecommunications companies for that data instead. The bill did not earn enough votes in the Senate to move to a final vote last week.
Politico reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was likely to move to another vote on the bill on Sunday.
If the Patriot Act expires, the government will no longer be able to force telecommunication companies to hand over bulk call records with little cause. It's unclear what will happen to all of the information that has already been collected.
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SINGAPORE, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday that China's island-building in the South China Sea was undermining security in the Asia-Pacific, drawing a scathing response from the foreign ministry in Beijing.
Carter, speaking to top defense officials from the Asia-Pacific at the annual Shangri-La Dialog in Singapore, acknowledged that several countries had created outposts in the region's disputed islands, but he said the scope of China's activity created uncertainty about its future plans.
"China has reclaimed over 2,000 acres, more than all other claimants combined ... and China did so in only the last 18 months," Carter told the Shangri-La Dialog security forum. "It is unclear how much farther China will go."
He said the United States was "deeply concerned" about the scale of China's land reclamation and the prospect of further militarization of the islands, saying it would boost "the risk of miscalculation or conflict."
A Chinese delegate at the forum initially gave a measured response, in which he said Carter's comments were not as hostile as those made at the Shangri-La Dialog in previous years, but the foreign ministry reacted strongly.
"The United States disregards history, legal principles and the facts," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "China's sovereignty and relevant rights were established a long time ago in the South China Sea.
China's island-building is "legal, reasonable, conforms to the situation and neither impacts nor targets any country."
Despite the rhetoric, Carter said there was no military solution to the South China Sea disputes. "Right now is the time for renewed diplomacy, focused on a finding a lasting solution that protects the rights and interests of all," he said.
Admiral Sun Jianguo, the head of Beijing's delegation, addresses the conference on Sunday.
China took a measured tone after bilateral meetings with Japan and Vietnam on Friday, two of the states it is embroiled with in maritime sovereignty disputes.
COMPETING CLAIMS
China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines have overlapping claims in the resource-rich South China Sea. Japan and China both claim islands that lie between them in the East China Sea.
But earlier this week, Beijing was assertive about the disputes. In a policy document issued by the State Council, the country's cabinet, China vowed to increase its "open seas protection," switching from air defense to both offense and defense, and criticized neighbors who took "provocative actions" on its reefs and islands.
Carter's remarks in Singapore came a day after the Pentagon confirmed reports that China had put mobile artillery at one of its reclaimed islands in the South China Sea.
The U.S. defense chief insisted U.S. forces would continue to "fly, sail and operate" in the region to ensure the freedom of navigation and overflight permitted by law.
"America, alongside its allies and partners ... will not be deterred from exercising these rights...," Carter said. "Turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on international air or maritime transit."
Japan's defense minister said China and other parties in the dispute had to behave responsibly.
"If we leave any unlawful situation unattended, order will soon turn to disorder, and peace and stability will collapse," Gen Nakatani told the forum. "I hope and expect all the countries, including China, to behave as a responsible power," he said.
Malaysia's defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, urged all parties in the South China Sea dispute to exercise restraint or face potentially dangerous consequences.
"This has the potential to escalate into one of the deadliest conflicts of our time, if not history," he said. "Inflamed rhetoric does not do any nation any good." (Additional reporting by Rujun Shen, Masayuki Kitano, Siva Govindasamy and Sue-Lin Wong in Shanghai; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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BEIJING — China’s new national security law, released in draft form this month, has little to say about such traditional security matters as military power, counterespionage or defending the nation’s borders.
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CAIRO, May 30 (Reuters) - An Egyptian-American jailed in Egypt for nearly two years for involvement in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has been released and is headed for the United States, his family said on Saturday.
Mohamed Soltan was among thousands detained after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was toppled in 2013 by the military under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president.
An Egyptian court had condemned Soltan's father, Salah, to death.
"By the grace of God, we are incredibly happy to confirm that Mohamed is on his way home after nearly two years in captivity," wrote Soltan's sister Hanaa on Facebook.
"After extensive efforts, the U.S. Government has successfully secured Mohamed's deportation back home to the U.S., mercifully concluding this dark chapter for Mohamed and our family."
The family has run a campaign to free her 27-year-old brother, who had been on hunger strike in detention and has appeared emaciated in photographs. His U.S. citizenship meant U.S. officials had called for an end to his detention, citing concerns about his health.
The United States welcomed his release on Saturday, with a State Department official saying: "We believe this step brings a conclusion to this case and we are glad Mr. Soltan will now be reunited with his family in the United States."
A court said Mohamed had supported the Islamist movement and transmitted false news. His family denies he was a member of the Brotherhood, unlike his father, who was a senior figure in the group.
"As you can imagine, after spending several hundred days on hunger strike, and many months in solitary confinement, Mohamed's health is dire," said Hanaa.
"He will receive medical treatment as soon as he arrives on U.S. soil and will spend the immediate future with his family recovering."
After toppling Morsi, Sisi launched the toughest crackdown on Islamists in Egypt's history. Security forces killed hundreds at street protests and jailed thousands of others.
The White House had condemned Mohamed's life sentence, which in Egypt would typically mean 25 years.
Hanaa told Reuters in April that her brother, who had studied at Ohio State University, had hoped for peaceful change in Egypt following the 2011 overthrow of long-term president Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group and accused it of carrying out bombings. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement committed to democracy.
(Reporting by Michael Georgy; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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QUETTA, Pakistan, May 29 (Reuters) - Gunmen disguised as members of the Pakistani security forces killed at least 22 passengers on Friday night after forcing them off buses traveling from the western city of Quetta to Karachi on the southern coast, officials said.
The assault in the province of Baluchistan occurred in the town of Mastung, around 40 km (25 miles) south of Quetta.
"Fifteen to 20 armed men in three pickup trucks and wearing security uniforms kidnapped around 35 passengers," Sarfaraz Bugti, Baluchistan's home minister, told Reuters.
He said the bodies of 22 passengers were later found around two km away from the main Quetta-Karachi highway in foothills. Seven of the assailants have been killed in an operation involving hundreds of soldiers and police, he added.
The circumstances of the passengers' deaths could not immediately be established and the motives of the assailants were unclear.
The attack will be a concern for the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif because it raises further questions about the feasibility of a new economic corridor Pakistan wants to build with billions of dollars of Chinese investment.
The much-vaunted project, announced when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan in April, envisages an eastern and western route, with the latter passing from Gwadar port in the south through Quetta and beyond.
RELATIVES PROTEST
Separatists have been waging an insurgency in Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital, for more than a decade. They are demanding an end to what they see as the exploitation of their resources by people from other parts of Pakistan.
Islamist militants also regularly target civilians and the security forces, and earlier this month at least 43 commuters were killed on a bus in Karachi by a group that has declared allegiance to Islamic State.
All of the victims in that attack were Ismailis from Pakistan's minority Shi'ite community, but one security official said the Mastung attack did not appear to be sectarian.
Officials in Mastung said a major operation involving four helicopter gunships and around 500 security personnel on the ground was underway to hunt down the remaining assailants believed to be hiding in mountainous terrain.
"The kidnappers and terrorists are surrounded by security forces," Bugti said.
In Quetta, where the bodies of the slain passengers were taken, hundreds of people gathered outside the governor's house and staged a protest over the lack of security in Baluchistan.
Among the demonstrators were relatives of 16 of the victims, whose bodies were laid out in a line wrapped in cloth. (Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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Last week, Ireland made history by becoming the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote, giving gay people the right to marry once the law is written into the legislature in the next couple of months.
The European country is now one of 19 international territories that have legalized gay marriage, along with 37 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
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Helmet-cam video from Brian Christenson taken during a fire early Thursday at the candy store/coffee shop known as Meagan’s Candy Cottage in Rochester, Washington. News coverage here.
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Scientists shined X-rays on the bums of bombardier beetles to determine how they make noxious butt sprays for defense. Illustration by DEA picture library/Getty Images.
Scientists are pointing X-rays at the butts of bombardier beetles. Why, you ask?
A closer look into the bug’s behind is revealing how the insect conducts chemical warfare on its enemies, according to a new video by the American Chemical Society.
As producer Matt Davenport describes in this 3-minute explainer, when the beetle is threatened, it tightens muscles in its abodmen, causing droplets of its arsenal — harsh chemicals like hydrogen peroxide and p-hydroquinones — to leak from its “reservoir chamber.” Only 5 nanoliters of liquid — or 17 millionths of an ounce — squeezes free each time.
The compounds drip into a second “room” closer to the tail — a water-filled “reaction chamber” — where they brew into a deadly mixture of compounds called p-benzoquinones. Meanwhile, the muscle contraction increases the pressure in the reaction chamber, which consequently elevates temperature and vaporizes the water. When pressure reaches the tipping point, the beetle’s bum sprays its unexpecting victim
“Some beetles spray up to 700 times a second,” says Davenport.
Bombardier beetles aren’t the only chemical wizards. Armyworms create a defensive poison by eating corn, while “rasberry crazy ants” (actual name) make spit out of chemical neutralize venom from fire ant bites.
Not many people have the luxury of taking days off of work and giving up money. However, despite your willingness to work, you may not have a choice if your work shuts down. If your employer shuts down the...
Why aren't we surprised that model and actress Lily-Rose Depp just celebrated her milestone of a birthday with a "Sour Sixteen" party? It might have s...
Antigas tradições ou a festa mais badalada do momento? Não importa, nós te levamos para todas as opções de atividades que Belo Horizonte tem para te oferecer neste final de semana.
Sábado é dia de festa e de curtir o pôr do sol com muita música boa na primeira rooftop party de BH. O bar Cosmopolitan Rooftop, localizado na cobertura de um prédio no centro da capital, inaugura nesse sábado com uma grande festa que contará com DJs especialmente selecionados, drinks, cervejas e uma vista maravilhosa.
Para ninguém ficar de fora a Uber oferece uma viagem de R$50 para novos usuários. Use o código ROOFTOP para ter acesso ao benefício.Data: 30/05 – 15h Local: R. Timbiras, 2674 – Centro Quanto: R$ 35 Mais informações no site
Já no domingo, dia 31 de maio, das 11h às 21h, acontece a 9ª edição da Festa Tradicional Italiana na Avenida Getúlio Vargas. A festa contará com shows, apresentação da Banda Oficial da Polícia Militar de Minas Gerais, grupos de danças folclóricas e uma programação exclusiva para crianças, além das várias opções das tradicionais comidas italianas.
Novos usuários da Uber podem utilizar o código promocional ITALIAEMBH para ganhar uma viagem de até R$40 para ir ou voltar do evento.Data: 31/05 – 11h às 21h Local: Avenida Getúlio Vargas, entre as ruas Tomé de Souza e Professor Morais, na Savassi Quanto: gratuita, mediante doação de 1 kg de alimento não perecível Mais informações no facebook
Vanya Shivashankar at left and Gokul Venkatachalam at right lift the trophy after becoming co-champions the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Until last year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee hadn’t seen a tie for more than five decades. Last night’s 88th championship marked the second year in a row that ended in a tie.
The competition began with 283 young spellers and left two standing in the final moments.
Cole Shafer-Ray of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, forgoes the “writing” out a word on his name card, for “typing” in the air. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters
After 13-year-old Vanya Shivashanker of Olathe, Kansas, correctly spelled “scherenschnitte”, 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, was informed that if he correctly spelled the next word, a tie would be declared. There were no more words left on the competition’s list for an additional face-off round.
Dev Jaiswal of Jackson, Mississippi, reacts after correctly spelling his word during round seven. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
With that, Venkatachalam correctly spelled the word “nunatak”, which means a rocky ridge.
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Dictionaries everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.
Ankita Vadiala of Manassas, Virginia, reacts to the word “ballabile”, which she correctly spelled. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The culture war against biking and walking continues in Wisconsin under the guise of fiscal conservatism.
Wisconsin DOT’s current headquarters. The state is going to spend $200 million for a new DOT building but it supposedly can’t afford bike lanes. Photo: Google Maps
James Rowen at the Political Environment relays the news that state lawmakers are preparing to put the kibosh on funding for walking and biking trails. That’s in addition to a proposal to nix the state’s complete streets policy. Rowen writes:
There is apparently a move underway by GOP legislators to insert language in the budget that would end the use of state funding, or federal funding passed through the state to localities, for various pedestrian and bike projects and trails.
Legislators who do not represent big cities often do not appreciate the extent of non-vehicle commuting and recreation. These legislators ‘thinking’ is: if localities want these facilities, they have to pay 100% of the cost — though state-imposed spending caps make that outcome difficult-to-impossible, and no such one-dimensional approach is required when a street or highway expansion is planned.
Walker’s budget already repeals the Complete Streets Act, which called for the addition of bike lanes or sidewalks on street projects above a certain expenditure level; the potential prohibition of spending on separate bike or pedestrian trails extends this one-sided ‘transportation’ model in Wisconsin.
In case there was any confusion about where the state government’s priorities lie, Rowen also reports that the retrograde highway builders at Wisconsin DOT are in line to get a new, $200 million headquarters:
Scott Walker and his GOP legislative/budget-writing water carriers are cutting programs, raising state park entrance and camping fees, erasing bike trails and sidewalks from road projects, firing DNR scientists and refusing federal funds to help poor people obtain health insurance — all in the name of fiscal restraint also termed “crap” by a GOP legislator — but, by God,there shall be a new, $200 million palace built on Madison’s West side for state transportation officials and their client road-builders who write politicians nice checks.
And to make sure this new WisDOT facility is built, GOP legislators are adding to the budget a provision that exempts the project from City of Madison zoning codes.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Mobilizing the Region reports that New Jersey’s most dangerous street is in line for some much-needed improvements. And Greater Greater Washington says canceling Maryland’s Purple Line would cost more than it would save.
With the temperature rising in Edmonton, we’re lowering uberX fares by 10% so you can enjoy the safest rides on the road at our best prices to date.
HOW DO THE RATES COMPARE?
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If you or your friends have yet to try uberX, now is the time. Request an uberX and take a ride with a neighbour like Karen, who also happens to earn some additional income by partnering with Uber!
Karen – an early driver partner in Edmonton tells us “I love people, I love my car, and I love driving — this is the ideal job for me!”
How does this affect drivers? As we have seen in Canadian cities before, when prices are lowered, demand among riders increases. But what we have found is that the increased demand turns into more efficiency for the driver, more trips for every hour, and more earnings for every hour on the road.
We are so confident with the prices cuts that we are implementing an earnings guarantee during peak hours for our partners. We feel that it is important for drivers to have this level of certainty and comfort going into a price cut.
These prices are temporary and the more you ride, the more likely we can keep prices low (and wallets happy) in the long term. We expect these price cuts to bring lower costs for riders, higher earnings for drivers, shorter wait times for both, and a better experience for all.
A Lille, Uber compte aujourd’hui près de 100 000 utilisateurs qui effectuent chaque mois plusieurs dizaines de milliers de trajets. Plusieurs centaines de chauffeurs et conducteursoccasionnels bénéficient de revenus complémentaires.
Comme dans les 310 villes du monde où le service est disponible, Uber révolutionne la mobilité urbaine à Lille en offrant une alternative innovante, sûre et accessible au plus grand nombre.
Mercredi 27 mai, la Préfecture du Nord a émis un arrêté visant à interdire la solution de transport entre particuliers uberPOP. Insistant sur la concurrence déloyale potentiellement faite aux taxis, cet arrêté va clairement à l’encontre de la décision pourtant univoque du 30 avril 2015, rendue par le Tribunal de Commerce de Lille.
Prenant note de cet arrêté, Uber rappelle que trois décisions de justice sont intervenues à ce jour en France : par le Tribunal de Commerce de Paris, la Cour d’Appel de Paris et le Tribunal de Commerce de Lille. Toutes ont exclu l’interdiction du service uberPOP et souligné la fragilité constitutionnelle de la loi Thévenoud.
Le 30 avril 2015, le Tribunal de Commerce de Lille confirme qu’il n’y a pas lieu d’interdire uberPOP
Il souligne que l’artisan taxi, partie adverse, n’apporte en aucun cas la preuve d’une éventuelle perte d’activité
Uber démontre formellement l’absence d’impact négatif de son activité sur les autres acteurs du secteur
La loi Thévenoud, dans son ensemble, apparaît comme constitutionnellement fragile et questionnable
Aussi, en toutes circonstances, Uber reste déterminé à promouvoir l’accès du plus grand nombre à la mobilité.
A new project just fell on your desk and that one coworker keeps complaining about, well, everything. Home won't feel any better. There's laundry, dinner, and the your daughter needs to finish her science project asap. So it's just another day filled with little stresses.
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It’s pretty clear if you want to reduce the number of church fires, get rid of the steeple. Even 16-year-old Carl Bouley, a junior member of the Grand Isle (Maine) VFD, has seen the steeple at St. Gerard Catholic Church across from his home twice get hit by lightning. The first time was on his birthday in 2007. During a storm Wednesday evening, young Bouley, apparently out to prove that lightning does strike the same place twice, was ready with the video camera.
Bouley and his father, also a volunteer firefighter, joined other Grand Isle firefighters in checking out the church after the strike. There was no fire this time. The steeple caught fire in the 2007 strike. Read news coverage here.
Xin hãy lưu ý, để tạo cơ hội cho nhiều người gặp anh Phan Anh nhất, chuyến đi của bạn sẽ chỉ giới hạn trong 15 phút. Xe riêng của MC Phan Anh chở được 4 người. Xe sẽ khởi hành từ khu vực Hoàn Kiếm và sẽ giới hạn trong nội thành.Chưa có Uber?
