Palm Desert

Trump says sending 'armed soldiers' to US-Mexico border

President Donald Trump said Wednesday the US is sending armed soldiers to the southern border after Mexican soldiers recently "pulled guns" on US troops, escalating his war of words with Mexico on immigration. Trump was apparently referring to an April 13 incident in which Mexican troops reportedly questioned and pointed their weapons at two US troops conducting surveillance on the border.

Neo-Nazi linked to group who said Prince Harry was a race traitor for marrying Meghan pleads guilty

Two teenage neo-Nazis, linked to a group that called Prince Harry a "race traitor"  for marrying Mehgan Markle, are facing jail after admitting terror charges. Polish national, Michal Szewczuk, 19, admitted two counts of encouraging terrorism and five of possessing documents that could be useful to a terrorist, when he appeared at the Old Bailey. His co-defendant, Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, had previously pleaded guilty to encouraging terrorism. The charges relate to a neo-Nazi group called the Sonnenkrieg Division, which posted extreme racist material on the GAB social media platform. In one post, a picture of the Duke of Sussex was set against a swastika with a gun pointing at his head and the slogan: "See ya later, race traitor!" The group is an off shoot of the American Atomwaffen Division, which encourages terrorism and worships Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson. Szewczuk, who used an online pseudonym, posted comments that called for the "systematic slaughter" of women.  He also pleaded guilty to five charges relating to the possession of bomb making documents and other extremist terrorist material. At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Jessica Hart described how Szewczuk and Dunn-Koczorowski had shared the Sonnenkrieg Gab account, with both posting from the same account at different times. Judge Rebecca Poulet QC warned both teenagers they could face custody when they return to court for sentencing on 17 June.

Russian-North Korean relations since the Korean War

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an intriguing twist to the global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea, which appeared to hit a wall after a summit between Kim and President Donald Trump collapsed in February.

Hasan Minhaj Has a Surprising Top Interview Choice For the 2020 Presidential Election

There's just one problem: his preference is not a candidate

Bernie Sanders Got It Right on CNN: Felons Ought to Be Allowed to Vote

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyIn their CNN town halls Monday night, Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg disagreed on whether current prisoners should be able to vote. Sen. Kamala Harris refused to endorse a plan for expanding the franchise to incarcerated people, but supported voting rights for former prisoners.Sanders was specifically asked about Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and “those convicted of sexual assault.” What sane person would want them to vote? Our political system is already run by crooks. Do we want to add murderers and rapists too?In European history dating to Roman times, criminals could be stripped of their legal personality after committing a crime. They could not sign contracts or own property. They were outlaws, banished from the city walls. John Locke and other political theorists argued that criminals broke an implicit social contract: a rule-breaker should lose the right to make rules for others. But Locke lived in a time when only white, male, wealthy landowners could vote. Today, the right to vote is enshrined in democratic constitutions and international treaties. In American history, many states’ exclusions of those with a criminal record from voting date to the post-Civil War period and were clearly aimed at denying the franchise to African Americans. Criminal justice reform advocates argue that suffering a Medieval-style “civil death” dehumanizes prisoners, prevents their reintegration into society, and perpetuates inequalities in our political system. We should not assume that prisoners are less knowledgeable about politics than those outside of prison—that’s a pretty low bar, after all. Encouraging prisoners to feel involved in the political process can have real benefits too. Isolating prisoners from the political process during and after their incarceration further stigmatizes and isolates them, and that can encourage reoffending.Prisoners lose many of their rights when they go to prison. They can’t serve on a jury from a prison cell, or own guns; both of those are probably reasonable proscriptions. They probably should not own guns. But prisoners do not lose all their rights in prison. They are entitled to practice their religion and can challenge the conditions of their confinement. Taking away prisoners’ liberty is already a heavy punishment. Allowing them to cast an absentee ballot is not an unreasonable privilege.The most important consequence of allowing prisoners to vote is that it would remove the incentives for “prison gerrymandering.” In most U.S. states, prisoners are counted by the census based on where they are incarcerated, not where they are registered to vote. Because most large prisons are in sparsely populated rural areas, prison complexes have an important effect on gerrymandering. Many prisoners are racial minorities or people who live in urban areas, which means these places lose voting population, while more conservative areas gain nonvoting population. This advantages Republican congressmen in places like upstate New York, who benefit from inflated populations for redistricting purposes, but have nothing to fear at election time. Prisoner disenfranchisement therefore contributes to a structural disparity that causes Congress and state legislatures to be more conservative than the public at large.While many states are in the process of revising their laws to allow ex-prisoners to vote, voting by current prisoners only exists in Maine, Puerto Rico, and Vermont—the latter represented by Sanders in the U.S. Senate. In addition, the trend across the developed world is to allow at least some prisoners to vote. The supreme courts of South Africa, Canada, and Israel have legalized voting for at least some prisoners. The European Court of Human Rights has also rejected blanket prohibitions on prisoner voting, though it has allowed exceptions.The policy options are far broader than a single audience question would suggest. In Germany, prisoners can vote unless they were convicted of terrorism or political violence, an exception that would encompass Tsarnaev’s marathon attack. Other European countries prevent violent criminals, those serving lengthy or life sentences, or war criminals from voting. Exceptions for crimes of dishonesty or fraud might be reasonable as well. In a few countries, only those convicted of misdemeanors can vote, rather than felonies.These are policy debates we should be willing to have. Even if we allowed only persons serving misdemeanor sentences in local jails to vote, this alone might add nearly 300,000 voters to the rolls. Prisoner voting is already underway in some states and developed countries, so it is hardly a revolutionary position. Overbroad restrictions on voting help ensure that politicians select their own voters, rather than voters electing their own politicians.Andrew Novak is Assistant Professor of Criminology Law and Society at George Mason University.Read more at The Daily Beast.

See this Aircraft Carrier? It Was One of the Worst To Ever Set Sail.

On September 15th, 1942 USS Wasp was struck by three torpedoes from the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-19. Wasp at first though survivable and was even able to remain under her own power, but gasoline fires swept through the ship and made her recovery impossible. After five hours the order was given to abandon ship, and Wasp was scuttled by three torpedoes fired by the destroyer USS Lansdowne. Of the ship’s 2,247 crew, 193 were killed and 366 wounded.(This first appeared last month.)The U.S. Navy rose to prominence during World War II from just one of many major naval powers to the undisputed greatest in just four short years. This was in large part due to the expansion and effective use of its aircraft carrier fleet. Although most American flattops that fought in the war were highly successful designs one, USS Wasp, was fatally compromised by the need to conform to international treaty obligations. The result was a carrier that was quickly sunk early on in the war, making only a modest contribution to the overall effort.A Treaty Like No Other: One of the most ambitious conventional arms control treaties ever signed was the Washington Naval Treaty. The multinational treaty was negotiated between 1921 and 1922 and resulted in limits in the size of individual warships and the overall tonnage of the navies of the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, and France.

Deutsche Bank handing over Trump loan documents: source

Deutsche Bank has begun to provide documents on financing for some of President Donald Trump's projects to New York State authorities, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday. In mid-March, New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed the German bank, demanding records related to loans and lines of credit granted to the Trump Organization. The money was intended to finance projects such as Trump hotels in Washington, DC, Miami and Chicago, another source told AFP last month on the condition of anonymity.

Battle of Mogadishu veteran responds to Ilhan Omar's criticism of 'Black Hawk Down' mission

In a resurfaced tweet, Rep. Ilhan Omar claims U.S. forces killed 'thousands' of Somalis during the 1993 mission; reaction from retired Sergeant Major Kyle Lamb, who fought in the Battle of Mogadishu.

Sri Lanka shakes up top security posts after deadly bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president shook up the country's top security establishment after officials failed to act on intelligence reports warning of possible attacks before the Easter bombings that killed over 350 people, his office said Wednesday.

Armed border group shuts down camp at border in New Mexico

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (AP) — An armed group that has been patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border left its post in the New Mexico desert Tuesday amid pressure from law enforcement following videos that showed militia members stopping migrants who had illegally crossed into the country.

Putin Confronts New Ukraine Leader With Rebel Zone Passports

“This is yet more proof of Russia’s real role as an aggressor state that’s waging a war against Ukraine,” President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said on Facebook after the order was posted on the Kremlin website Wednesday. Ukraine “is counting on increasing diplomatic and sanction pressure” by the international community against Russia, it added.

NASA probe records first likely 'marsquake' detected on red planet

NASA's robotic probe InSight has detected and measured what scientists believe to be a "marsquake," marking the first time a likely seismological tremor has been recorded on another planet, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reported on Tuesday. The breakthrough came five months after InSight, the first spacecraft designed specifically to study the deep interior of a distant world, touched down on the surface of Mars to begin its two-year seismological mission on the red planet. The faint rumble characterized by JPL scientists as a likely marsquake was recorded on April 6, the lander's 128th Martian day, or sol.

Global groundings of Boeing 737 Max lower company's profit, revenue in first quarter

Boeing's first-quarter revenue and profit took a hit from the global groundings of its 737 Max jets following two fatal crashes.

House Dems Schedule First Ever ‘Medicare for All’ Hearing

House Democrats have scheduled the first ever hearing for Medicare for All legislation for next week, as the proposal is becoming a litmus test for Democratic 2020 presidential candidates.The "Medicare for All Act" will be considered by the House Rules Committee next Tuesday and by the House Budget Committee at a later date. However, the two primary health care committees, Ways and Means as well as Energy and Commerce, have so far been reluctant to consider the proposal."It’s a serious proposal that deserves serious consideration on Capitol Hill as we work toward universal coverage,” said Representative James McGovern, who chairs the Rules committee.Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell introduced the legislation, which has more than 100 House co-sponsors, fewer than the proposal has had in previous years.  The bill would cover disability, prescription drugs, mental health, maternal care, vision, dental, and substance-abuse care, would scrap Medicare’s age requirement, and would not charge patients copays, premiums, or deductibles. It does not detail how the program’s cost would be covered.Speaker Nancy Pelosi has encouraged committees to hold hearings on Medicare for All but has not attached her name to the proposal.“That is, administratively, the simplest thing to do, but to convert to it? Thirty trillion dollars. Now, how do you pay for that?,” Pelosi remarked in February.Analysts estimated other versions of the legislation, such as Senator Bernie Sanders' Senate bill, would cost in the ballpark of $32 trillion.Sanders was one of the first Democratic heavyweights to back the sweeping health care overhaul, which would transfer all U.S. residents to a government health care plan and essentially eliminate the private health insurance market.The democratic socialist and presidential candidate has since propelled the issue to the front of the 2020 presidential debate, impelling other contenders for the Democratic nomination to state where they stand on the proposal.

Check Out This Picture: You Are Looking at the Greatest Aircraft Carrier Ever

Shortly before USS Enterprise went to the breakers, a new ship bearing the name was laid down; CVN-65, the world’s first nuclear aircraft carrier. The latter USS Enterprise served for fifty years, before decommissioning in 2012. Another USS Enterprise, CVN-80, is scheduled for completion by 2025.In May 1938, the U.S. Navy commissioned the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the seventh ship to bear the name in American service. The second of three sisters, Enterprise made a central—perhaps the central—contribution to the war effort in 1942. The U.S. Navy began 1942 with six fleet carriers (excluding the small Ranger, which served in the Atlantic). Over the course of the year, Japanese aircraft and submarines would sink four of those carriers and put a fifth (USS Saratoga) out of action for long periods of time. Enterprise fought with distinction in most of the major battles of 1942, and survived to contribute for the rest of the war.(This first appeared several years ago.)In short, USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the finest ship ever to serve in the U.S. Navy.Construction

Trump son-in-law calls probe worse than Russian meddling

In a rare public speaking appearance, Kushner dismissed Russia's impact during the 2016 election, saying that credit for the victory lay with the Trump campaign. "You look at what Russia did -- you know, buying some Facebook ads to try and sow dissent and do it.

Today’s top deals: $15 Wi-Fi extender, $8 wireless charger, $20 128GB microSD, $10 Philips Hue bulbs, more

Today's roundup of the best daily deals we could find has some truly outstanding deals, but perhaps none are quite as good as the one-day sale that gets you Amazon's best-selling Wi-Fi range extender for just $14.99 after a discount and a $5 coupon you can clip. It works with any router, it has more than 20,000 5-star ratings, and it has never been anywhere close to this price! Other top daily deals on Tuesday include a terrific fast wireless charger for just $7.99, a SanDisk 128GB microSD card for $19.99, Philips Hue white LED bulbs for an all-time low of $10 a piece when you buy a 4-pack, another all-time low price for Philips Dusk-to-Dawn LED light bulbs that automatically turn on at night and off in the morning, $40 off the best-selling 8-quart Instant Pot, a $140 stand mixer that's just as good as a KitchenAid, a blazing-fast internal SSD with 120GB of capacity for under $26, Avengers: Infinity War for just $9.99, Netgear's most popular Orbi mesh Wi-Fi bundle at an all-time low price of just $159.99, and plenty more. See all of today's best deals below.

California woman charged with dumping puppies in trash

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California woman could face up to seven years behind bars on a slew of charges filed Tuesday after authorities say surveillance video showed her casually tossing a bag of 3-day-old puppies into a trash can on a sweltering day.

Sri Lanka bomber Jameel Mohamed 'under police surveillance' while he plotted attack

The Easter Sunday bomber who lived and studied in the UK was under police surveillance in Sri Lanka in the years leading up to the suicide attacks that killed more than 350 people, according to his friends. Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, who is married with children, is believed to have been the bomber behind the seventh and final attack on a guesthouse in the capital of Colombo on Sunday. Family friends said Jameel Mohamed, who spent a year at Kingston University in 2006, was being monitored by police in Sri Lanka as he plotted the terror attacks with seven other suspected jihadis, raising further questions about security lapses with the Sri Lankan intelligence services. Jameel Mohamed killed two people when he detonated his bomb at a guesthouse near Colombo zoo. His original target was the five-star The Taj Samudra hotel, located close to three other high-end hotels targeted in coordinated attacks. But his bomb failed to detonate and he was forced to returning to a safe house before launching his the attack. As the investigation into the attacks continued in the UK and Sri Lanka, more details were emerging on Thursday about Jameel Mohamed. People who knew the suspected bomber told The Telegraph that the he was an sympathiser of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). “But we never took him seriously when he talked about his views,” said a childhood friend. “Who would have thought we would have maniacs who would commit this kind of atrocity and kill all innocent people?” Sri Lankans are mourning and burying hundreds of victims Credit: Carl Court/Getty Images Some of Jameel Mohamed’s friends and family members have been taken into police custody for questioning, including an older brother and a brother-in-law. A police spokesman confirmed that at least one of his brothers, who runs the family tea trading business, is currently detained and is being interrogated. Friends of Jameel Mohamed's brother said he was under surveillance for "years" leading up to his attack. Police refused to confirm or give further details citing security reasons “during ongoing investigations”. Other friends and acquaintances told The Telegraph that he was “a bit different” from the others. “He was always a bit weird,” a friend, who did not want to be named to The Telegraph. “A bit of a recluse.” The fresh details emerged amid growing public concern about further attacks in Colombo. Tension remained high as it was reported that the mastermind of the bombings may still be alive.  The fate of Zahran Hashmi, an extremist cleric also called Mohamed Kasim Mohamed Zahran, has been unknown since Sri Lankan intelligence accused him of orchestrating the multiple suicide bombings that killed 359 people.  Hashmi, the alleged leader of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) group that the government believe carried out the atrocity, was thought to have been killed. But his death has not been confirmed, BBC Sinhala reported on Thursday.  The report was based on a statement by Ruwan Wijewardene, the deputy defence minister, who declined to comment specifically on the fate of Hashmi. H did say, however, that the 'leader' of the suicide bomber team that struck three churches and three luxury hotels had died. Zahran Hashmi, the alleged mastermind of the plot, may still be alive Previously it had been reported that Hashmi had died after blowing himself up at the Shangri La hotel breakfast buffet, but the police have disputed these claims.  Close to 60 people have been detained in sweeping arrests across the island as the government faces growing anger over its failure to act on crucial Indian intelligence earlier this month about possible attacks on churches.  The public’s nerves were frayed further by a small blast near a magistrates court on Thursday morning in Pugoda town, about 25 miles east of the capital, Colombo. No casualties were reported.  Traffic was also disrupted near the island’s main international airport as the police inspected a suspicious vehicle.  The Indian Ocean island remains under curfew and emergency security measures while the counter-terrorism operation, assisted by experts from the US, UK, Australia and UAE, is underway. All Catholic churches have been instructed to stay closed and suspect services until security improves.  Christians in Jaffna, in the north of the country, issued a statement urging “patience and peace as the truth of these heinous crimes emerges,” adding: “our grief is never a call for retribution.” Their appeal came as Sri Lanka’s minority Muslim community spoke of their fears about retaliation and reported online abuse and stones being thrown at Muslim homes and businesses. Sri Lanka’s government believes that the massacre was carried out with the NTJ, previously an obscure local Islamist group, with assistance from overseas terrorism networks due to its precise and coordinated nature and the use of military-grade explosives used. Sri Lanka is on a heightened state of alert Credit: Eranga Jayawardena/AP The targeting of Christians and hotels popular with westerners bore the hallmarks of global jihadi terrorism.  The Islamic State terrorist group on Tuesday claimed credit for the bloodbath and released a video of the suicide bombers swearing allegiance to the militant group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  It did not provide further proof that it had engineered the attack. However, the Hindu newspaper reported on Wednesday that investigators had found that two of the suspects had recently returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq.  The video released on the Isil’s Aamaq news agency showed Hashmi at the centre of a group of eight attackers in front of an Islamic State flag. He was the only person to keep his face uncovered.  India’s CNN News 18 channel first reported the possible involvement of Hashmi in the massacre, claiming that Indian intelligence sources had indicated to the Sri Lankans that he was planning to attack the Indian High Commission in Colombo in early April. Over the last few years, Hashmi has gained thousands of followers for his incendiary sermons denouncing non-Muslims on pro-IS social media accounts.  A woman mourns her mother, killed in the St Sebastian's church Credit: Carl Court /Getty Images Hilmy Ahamed, the vice-president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, told The Telegraph he had been trying to warn officials about Hashmi’s extremism for three years after it emerged that he was radicalising young pupils in his Koran classes. Hashmi's group began as an offshoot of the Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamaath, which has denied any involvement in the bombings.  Hashmi was reported in the local press as a divisive figure within his own community who incited violence against other Muslims.  According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Hashmi was operating out of southern India, or had links there, in the months before Sunday's bombings. "All his YouTube videos of hate speech were uploaded in India," claimed Mr Hilmy. "He has a base in either Chennai or Bangalore." Hashmi’s Indian ties are expected to come under closer investigation. India's National Investigation Agency had specific intelligence ahead of the serial blasts, which it passed on to Colombo, but no action was taken by the Sri Lankans. The Hindu reported that Indian investigators unearthed the plot during an interrogation of an IS sympathiser in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu six months ago.

Elizabeth Warren's plan for student loan forgiveness: Don't bank on it

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to roll out a broad plan to cancel up to $50,000 of college debt for lose making less than $100,000.

Iranian Foreign Minister Proposes a Prisoner Swap With the U.S.

"Let's have an exchange. I'm ready to do it," he said.

Amazon customers can now return their items at Kohl's

Kohl's announced Tuesday that Amazon customers will be able to return items atall of its stores beginning in July

Trump praises AOC about VA healthcare — before completely contradicting her

Donald Trump has praised Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter over comments she made last week about the Department of Veterans Affairs — while simultaneously undermining her stance on the issue of privatising health care for US veterans. The president claimed the agency “is doing great” thanks to his administration in a tweet, seemingly undermining the fundamental point the 29-year-old lawmaker was making during a town hall event in New York. Mr Trump supported at least a portion of the congresswoman’s statements surrounding veterans’ health care in America, writing Wednesday, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is correct, the VA is not broken, it is doing great. But that is only because of the Trump administration.” Ms Ocasio-Cortez was speaking out against efforts by the Republican Party to privatise the VA — the second largest federal department following Defence — when she said at a town hall event in New York, “When it comes to the VA, all I can think of is that classic refrain that my parents always told me growing up, which is that, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’” “That is their opening approach that we have seen when it comes to privatisation,” she continued. “the idea that this thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides the highest quality care to our veterans somehow needs to be fixed, optimised, tinkered with, until — until we don’t even recognise it anymore.”More follows...

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold might already have a new release date – and that’s awful news

Samsung's Galaxy Fold launch is now nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. Who could have seen this coming... 7 months ago? The last thing a company wants to do when it's about to release a first-of-its-kind product is give consumers any doubt that it's a high-quality product. Well, Samsung went far beyond giving consumers a bit of doubt -- it showed us in the clearest possible light that the Galaxy Fold is a piece of junk. We have now lost count of how many Galaxy Fold review units broke shortly after being sent to bloggers to review, but suffice it to say the figure is painfully high. It was so high, in fact, that Samsung decided to cancel the phone's release this Friday so it can investigate the issues that have been causing the Galaxy Fold's display to break. That's right, we said "issues," as in plural. It's not just one problem that has been causing the screens to malfunction, it's several.The biggest problem appears to be the fact that the phone's foldable OLED screen has a thin plastic layer on top with exposed edges, so it looks like a screen protector you would find pre-applied on many Android phones. It's not a screen protector though, and if you pull it off the display will break. You read that correctly: this is a $2,000 phone with an exposed display layer that peels right off. But the displays on some review units broke even with that top layer intact, so Samsung clearly has some work to do before the Galaxy Fold can see the light of day again. As it turns out, however, the Galaxy Fold might already have a new release date... and that could be very bad news for anyone who plans to buy one.With the Galaxy Fold release date having been scheduled for this Friday, April 26th, Samsung has undoubtedly manufactured quite a few handsets at this point. Our guess is the figure is well into the hundreds of thousands. On top of that, many of those phones have likely already been shipped to Samsung's various partners in launch markets around the world. Now, we know that all those phones are junk, but we still don't know exactly why. Neither does Samsung, since the company is still in the process of collecting all the broken review units and investigating potential causes of the various different failures we saw.And yet despite the fact that Samsung doesn't yet know why its Galaxy Fold phones were breaking, the company may already have shared an updated release date with partners. If true, Samsung is putting the cart ahead of the horse and we have little to no confidence that the company is truly doing everything in its power to fix the phone's problems ahead of release.https://twitter.com/mighty_droid/status/1120820338965630976As you can see in the tweet embedded above, AT&T has been sending emails to customers who had pre-ordered the Galaxy Fold to let them know it will not ship on time. That is obviously a good thing. What's not so good, however, is the fact that there is already a revised ship date in that email: June 13th. How can AT&T tell customers when their orders will ship if Samsung doesn't even know what it has to do in order to fix all the Galaxy Fold units that have already been built?Either AT&T pulled a random date out of thin air and decided to share that fake ship date with its customers, or Samsung as already supplied an updated release date (which appears to be Friday, June 14th) with its partners. If the latter is the case, it will have done this without knowing for certain that it can fix the Galaxy Fold's problems and have the modified units shipped back to partners in time for the phone's new release.It's crazy to think that Samsung rushed out a product that it has been working on for many years at this point, but that's exactly what happened -- and now it looks like it might be happening again. The company already has a horrible track record with first-generation products, as we've said time and time again. This is doubly true when it doesn't have a similar product from Apple that it can copy. Just look at how terrible the company's smartphones were before Samsung decided to copy the iPhone pixel by pixel. In fact, rumor has it that Samsung rushed out the Galaxy Fold before it was ready in an effort to prove that it can innovate and release exciting new products without copying Apple. Oops.The Galaxy Fold is a brand new device in a brand new category. It's poised to be the first widely available smartphone in the world with a foldable display. If this AT&T email is legitimate and Samsung already has a new release date despite not yet knowing what it'll have to do to fix the phone's poor design and shoddy construction, the Galaxy Fold is also poised to still be a piece of junk when it hits store shelves in June.

Two more defendants agree to plead guilty in college admissions bribery case

A former women's soccer assistant coach at USC and another parent have agreed to plead guilty in the nation's college admissions bribery case.

Modi among tens of millions to vote in India's 'Super Tuesday' polls

Tens of millions of Indians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, voted on India's "Super Tuesday" in the latest round of polls when the biggest number of seats are decided in the country's marathon election. Nearly 190 million voters were eligible to vote on 117 seats spread across 15 Indian states, stretching from the Himalayas to the Indian ocean, in the third of the seven phases of the mega polls. Heavy security has been put in place, with violent clashes erupting between rival groups in eastern India's West Bengal state, killing one political worker.

United Airlines employee accused of racial discrimination

A United Airlines employee is accused of calling a Houston actress a 'monkey' and other racial slurs.

JPMorgan's Bob Michele Says ‘Enjoy the Ride’ as Risk Assets Rally

The chief investment officer at JPMorgan Asset Management said money managers are sitting on too much cash and should be boosting their allocations to high-yield assets after the Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot. The firm is putting its weight behind emerging markets as investors from BlackRock Inc. to Fidelity International warn of a break in the rally.

Putin-Kim summit sends message to U.S. but sanctions relief elusive for North Korea

"When Kim meets Putin, he is going to ask for economic assistance and unilateral sanctions relaxation. Moscow is unlikely to grant his wishes," said Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. "Being a veto-holding U.N. Security Council member, Moscow can hardly afford to undermine its authority even for the sake of friendship with Kim," Lukin said.

Elizabeth Warren's plan to end student debt is glorious. We can make it a reality

We fully support the 2020 nominee’s student debt relief proposal. But to make it happen, we’ll need to kick our efforts into higher gear ‘Elizabeth Warren’s proposal is a stunning, visionary plan that would transform our educational system and dramatically improve millions of people’s lives.’ Photograph: Rick Bowmer/AP This week, Elizabeth Warren, who is running for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, announced a proposal to cancel student debt for millions of people and make public college free. This is a stunning, visionary plan that would transform our educational system and dramatically improve millions of people’s lives. But like every other progressive proposal now being touted by presidential hopefuls, from Medicare for All to the Green New Deal, the call for debt relief and free education first came from the grassroots. And if we want a real student debt jubilee to actually happen – to go from policy paper to reality – the grassroots will need to continue to push for it. Fortunately, it’s a battle that can be won. Raising our voices is how we got this far. Ten years ago, student debt, even as it soared, was not seen as a serious issue. Writers including Tamara Draut and Anya Kamenetz were early to sound the alarm, exposing young people’s disproportionate indebtedness as a structural issue. Scholars such as Darrick Hamilton and Tressie McMillan Cottom would later go on to document the racially disparate impact of student loans, which burden women and people of color most of all. But it took the Occupy Wall Street movement to make public how profoundly the pinch of monthly payments was felt by an entire generation. Sign up to receive the latest US opinion pieces every weekday In April 2012 a group of Occupiers organized a “1T Day” protest to mark the day student debt in America surpassed $1tn. Seven years later, that number has ballooned to more than $1.5tn. That protest represented a watershed moment, the point when student debt went from being a personal problem to a political one, the result of decades of disinvestment in public colleges and universities that turned education into a consumer product instead of a public good. Some of the organizers of that event would go on to help launch the Debt Collective, a union for debtors that I co-founded. We kicked things off with the Rolling Jubilee fund, a public education campaign that bought and cancelled more than $30m in medical, student debt, payday loans and private probation debts. Then, in 2015, the Debt Collective launched the country’s first student debt strike. Since the strike was announced, we have won more than $1bn (and counting) in student debt cancellation for people who attended fraudulent for-profit colleges. Our team accomplished this by building a membership base of for-profit borrowers themselves. These debtors, a multiracial group of working-class people from across the country, led a campaign to pressure the Department of Education to cancel their loans. Their victory – and the fact that our primary demand of a debt jubilee and free college is now on Warren’s platform – demonstrates the power of grassroots organizing. The precedent-setting significance of the Debt Collective’s work is clear and cannot be overstated: Warren knows that student loans can be cancelled because they already have been on a smaller scale for for-profit college borrowers. That said, Warren’s plan, as bold as it is, is hardly inevitable. Her proposal of canceling student debt and ensuring free college seems contingent on the passage of a millionaire’s tax that, barring a miracle, is likely to be stymied by an intransigent Congress. In order to win a jubilee, then, we will have to kick our grassroots efforts into a higher gear. Debtors must continue to fight for their rights and advocate for the best possible solutions. We are preparing to do just that. Since 2016, along with our partners at Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending, we have been working out a roadmap that would allow all federal student loans to be cancelled without waiting for Congress to act. Congress, it turns out, has already given administrative agencies the power to cancel debts. Just as the Securities and Exchange Commission can cut low-dollar deals with banks that break the law, for example, the secretary of education can settle with debtors for a fraction of what they owe or suspend the collection of student debt altogether. When it was first given the power to issue and collect student loans in 1958, the Department of Education also received the power to “compromise, waive, or release any right” to collect on them. And when the Higher Education Act of 1965 made student loan authorities permanent, it solidified their power to compromise. Nothing in the law prevents the secretary of education from using compromise and settlement authority to address the worst effects of decades of failed higher education policy. But only a movement with that as its goal can get us there. Student debt abolition and free college would be a win-win for the entire country To win a jubilee, we need a movement focused on motivating candidates to commit to using the full powers available to them in office to address this emergency and stop collections on all student loans. While millionaires and billionaires should be taxed at a much higher rate, in the short term we should not let a Congress bought off by the super-rich prevent us from doing what’s right and legal – and economically beneficial. Indeed, student debt abolition and free college would be a win-win for the entire country. Not only would debtors get relief, academic research shows it would be a significant stimulus that might “supercharge” the economy and help address the racial wealth gap. Money currently used to pay back loans with interest would be redirected to other goods and services. But the win would be more profound than just an economic boost. Education could finally be a public good and not a commodity (or worse, a debt trap). This transformation would help inaugurate a new political vision that redefines liberty as the ability to freely access the social services that we all need to survive and thrive. The Debt Collective has been leading this fight for years – and our growing membership will continue to do so. Grassroots organizing is what got us this far, and it’s the only thing that can get us to the finish line: an end to student debt and free public college for everyone, once and for all. Astra Taylor is a writer, organizer, and documentarian. Her books include the American Book Award winner The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age and Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone. Her most recent film is What Is Democracy?

Clinton: Trump Would Have Been Indicted If He Weren’t President

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that President Trump would have been indicted over the actions described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report had he not been a sitting president."I think there’s enough there that any other person who had engaged in those acts would certainly have been indicted," Clinton said during her remarks at the Time 100 Summit. "The whole matter of obstruction was very directly sent to the Congress. And if you read that part of the report, it could not be clearer."Mueller concluded in the report that Trump and his associates had not engaged in collusion with Russia but declined to weigh in on whether a number of Trump's actions during the investigation -- including his decision to fire FBI director James Comey and his attempts to have Mueller fired -- constituted obstruction of justice. The report instead left that determination up to Congress."With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," the report read.The details of the report have split Democrats on the question of impeachment. Party leaders in the House have continued to insist that no impeachment proceedings are forthcoming, while several 2020 presidential candidates, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, have called for such proceedings to be initiated since the redacted version of the report was released last week.In her remarks Tuesday, Clinton echoed House speaker Nancy Pelosi's view of the matter, saying impeachment should "be something undertaken in a really serious, diligent way, based on evidence," and adding that Pelosi is "right to be cautious" about it.

Tesla Model S and X get new drivetrains, longer range

Without changing or upgrading the battery, Tesla has updated the Model S and Model X to increase each vehicle's driving range to 370 miles and 325 miles respectively. On Tuesday, Tesla announced that it has upgraded the powertrains of the Model S liftback and Model X SUV to increase the range by 10 percent for each, and significantly improve the power and torque for all model variants. The new drive unit technology increases the drivetrain efficiency by 93 percent, according to Tesla.

The Latest: Hearing about missing boy's brother continued

CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the missing suburban Chicago 5-year-old boy (all times local):

Student sues Apple for $1 billion, claims face-recognition caused false arrest

Apple is being sued for $1 billion by a college student who blames the company's facial recognition software for his wrongful arrest.

Iranians brace for harder times as US oil sanctions close in

Iranians, already hard hit by punishing US economic sanctions, are bracing for more pain after Washington abolished waivers for some countries which had allowed them to buy oil from Iran. "In the end the pressure (America) is putting out is on the people," said a 28-year-old technical instructor in Iran. In 2015 when Iran struck a landmark nuclear deal with world powers, hopes were high that it would end the country's years of crippling economic isolation.

High-resolution Pixel 3a leak reveals the design of Google’s next phone

Much like the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold before it, Google's Pixel 3a appears to have leaked in full ahead of its unveiling next month. On Wednesday morning, VentureBeat's Evan Blass piled on with a leak of his own -- a high-resolution Pixel 3a render that gives us our clearest look yet at the midrange phone.As previous leaks revealed, the Pixel 3a is a blast from the past, with a design more reminiscent of the phones that came before the iPhone X than the phones that have made their debut over the last 12 to 18 months. No notches, no triple-lens camera, no in-display fingerprint sensor -- the Pixel 3a forgoes all of the modern design advances that the industry has adopted in favor of a classic design that basically mirrors that of the Pixel 3.The design alone won't entice any smartphone fanatics that want to owe the latest, greatest device (providing it isn't so flawed that it has to be delayed indefinitely). But with a simple design and midrange specs, Google will be able to offer a quality Android phone for a competitive price, as Samsung does with its Galaxy A series.https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/1120938099318693888Due to various leaks over the past several months (including one from Google itself), we think we know what will be contained within the Pixel 3a and the larger Pixel 3a XL as well. The Pixel 3a is expected to feature a 5.6-inch display at 2,200 x 1,080 and a Snapdragon 670 CPU, while the Pixel 3a XL will boast a 6-inch display at 2,160 x 1,080 and a Snapdragon 710 CPU. Both phones will have 4GB of RAM and the Pixel Visual Core software.Google will announce the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL on May 7th, which is the date Google I/O 2019 kicks off.

This 1965 Superformance Shelby Cobra Will Break All The Necks

This may be a replica, but it’s the only one licensed by Shelby. This 1965 Superformance Shelby Cobra has the sleek, instantly recognizable looks of the original Shelby Cobra, making it a standout in a sea of cool cars.

Twitter not amused by long wait for Tesla earnings

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter was ablaze on Wednesday with humorous commentary and speculation over why Tesla Inc's first-quarter earnings release was so late. As of 5:05 p.m. ET (2105 GMT), one hour after the market close, the results still had not been released.

Watch: Man uses grocery bag as mask during robbery, removes it to carry loot

An Australian criminal has internet users scratching their heads after surveillance video caught him outing himself during an armed robbery.

Jared Kushner: Russia investigations 'more harmful' than 'a couple of Facebook ads'

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner believes the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election have had “a much harsher impact on our democracy” than the interference itself.

Radicalization among Sri Lanka's Muslims was slow and steady

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Attacks against mosques, shrines and followers of Sufi sheikhs in Sri Lanka more than a decade ago point to early warning signs of fundamentalism taking root among a sliver of the country's Muslims.

Flying Southwest to Hawaii: Coconut rum, snack packs and 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'

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'Its Always About Mom.' Nancy Pelosi Praises Her Mother at the TIME 100 Gala

"Its always about mom"