Voter opposition to the Republican healthcare bill is the result of misunderstanding, and lawmakers will be able to "really explain it" once it becomes law, Rep. Chris Collins said Thursday.
"In my district, right now there's a lot of misunderstanding as to what it is we're doing," the New York Republican said on MSNBC. "And once we get it done, and then we can have the chance to really explain it."
A House intelligence committee investigation took a dramatic shift this week after newly disclosed intelligence reports suggested the Obama administration improperly gathered and disseminated secret electronic communications from President Trump and his transition team prior to inauguration.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, indicated that the administration used its foreign intelligence gathering authority to spy on the discussions of Trump and his transition team by improperly unmasking the identity of Americans who were swept up in foreign electronic spying.
"What I've read seems to be some level of surveillance activity, perhaps legal, but I don't know that it's right and I don't know if the American people would be comfortable with what I've read," said Nunes, who uncovered the reports.
The way in which Facebook polices content on its network is under scrutiny again after it was revealed that a post in which a user called for white women to be “hunted and killed” was deemed to not be a violation of community standards.
“White women should be hunted and killed then we won’t get white babies who think the(y) own the world,” the user posted.
More than a third of U.S. jobs could be at “high risk” of automation by the early 2030s, a percentage that’s greater than in Britain, Germany and Japan, according to a report released Friday.
The analysis by accounting and consulting firm PwC focused primarily on the economic outlook in Britain, but it included a section on automation in Britain and elsewhere.
In a Friday email to subscribers listing updated entries for its style manual, the Associated Press is urging journalists to avoid making references in news stories that suggest there are only two sexes in the human race.
The term “gender,” the AP Stylebook says, is “[n]ot synonymous with sex.”
“Gender refers to a person’s social identity while sex refers to biological characteristics,” the style guide explains.
“Not all people fall under one of two categories for sex or gender, according to leading medical organizations, so avoid references to both, either or opposite sexes or genders as a way to encompass all people. When needed for clarity or in certain stories about scientific studies, alternatives include men and women, boys and girls, males and females.”
The Stylebook issued further guidance for use of pronouns under an entry named “they, them, their.” Those third-person plural pronouns are preferred by some transgender or gender fluid individuals who say they are not comfortable with traditional male or female personal pronouns.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli told a gathering of Asian leaders that the world must commit to multilateral free trade under the World Trade Organization and needs to reform global economic governance.
Negotiations on the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an Asia-wide agreement that’s favored by China, should be concluded soon and regional cooperation such as with the Association of South East Asian Nations should be advanced, Zhang said Saturday in a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
for war contractors it is very profitable to keep the death cycle goingA whistleblower from President Obama's drone assassination campaigns tells us whether U.S. drones catalyse the kind of terror we saw in London.
A self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies Inc. was involved in a crash in Tempe, Arizona, the latest setback for a company reeling from multiple crises.
In a photo posted on Twitter, one of Uber’s Volvo self-driving SUVs is pictured on its side next to another car with dents and smashed windows. An Uber spokeswoman confirmed the incident, and the veracity of the photo, in an email to Bloomberg News.
ATLANTA — The toddler daughter of Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk has everything you would expect: a sweet smile, curious nature and finicky tastes.
But, in the eyes of the state of Georgia, the 22-month-old child has no name.
According to Handy and Walk, the Georgia Department of Public Health refused to issue the infant a birth certificate with the last name the couple chose for their daughter: Allah.
The ACLU of Georgia has filed suit on behalf of the couple, who say they can't get a Social Security number for their daughter because they don't have a birth certificate. They also anticipate problems with access to health care, schools and travel. Already, they said, they had to cancel a trip to Mexico.
"We have to make sure that the state isn't overstepping their boundaries," Walk said. "It is just plainly unfair and a violation of our rights."
State officials, however, said the child's name — ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah — does not fit the naming conventions set up by state law. They say that ZalyKha's last name should either be Handy, Walk or a combination of the two.
Napolitano told friends he was on Trump's Supreme Court shortlist
The suspended Fox News personality has claimed the president told him he'd be considered for the next seat that comes open.
Judge Andrew Napolitano may be temporarily sidelined at Fox News, but he’s been telling friends and associates that he could be in for a big promotion — to the Supreme Court.
After meeting with President Trump twice during the transition, first in December and again in mid-January, the Newark, N.J.-born television personality told several people that Trump said he was on the list of judges from whom he was selecting a nominee for the high court.
“He said, ‘Trump said I’m on the list,’” said a source who spoke with Napolitano shortly after one of his meetings with the then president-elect. “He’s been saying that since the transition.”
Friends warned Napolitano not to take the president too literally – or seriously. “He'll take your call and invite you to the Oval Office, but he just wants you to say nice things about him on TV,” the source says he told Napolitano at the time. But that didn’t sink the ambitious judge’s hopes.
Trump released a list of potential replacements for the late Justice Antonin Scalia before the election, vowing to select Scalia’s replacement from that list — and followed through, tapping Tenth Circuit judge Neil Gorsuch for the nomination in January. Napolitano’s name did not appear on any public list.
But the salt-and-pepper-haired Napolitano, 66, who served as a New Jersey Superior Court judge until 1995 and joined Fox News in 1998, was a sleeper candidate, he told his skeptical friends. He claims he’s submitted both academic and personal resumes to Trump aides, and that they’ve pored over the judge’s writings, including several popular non-fiction books.
People familiar with the president’s thinking dismissed the idea that Napolitano is being considered for a Supreme Court nomination. “The president already has a list of highly qualified contenders for future SCOTUS openings, and Judge Napolitano is not on it,” said a person close to the White House.
Since the Gorsuch nomination, Napolitano has continued to maintain that he is in the running for a seat, telling a colleague that Trump promised him the next Supreme Court seat “if I get another one.”
Neither Napolitano nor Fox News responded to requests for comment. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declined to comment, saying it was a personnel matter.
In his transition meetings with the president-elect at Trump Tower, the longtime Fox News personality said he discussed the Supreme Court vacancy. “He was interested in a broad range of ideas and attitudes about the type of person who would best fill Justice Scalia’s seat,”
Google, Facebook and other internet companies could be prosecuted if they do not stop extremist videos from being seen on their websites by people in Britain, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
For the wealthy, and prepper minded elite, hidden fortified layers purchased for insurance will preserve most of the luxuries of life above ground, and in the cities, even as society crumbles and burns to the ground.
Others, without the means to purchase these luxuries, may have still set aside the necessary materials to live and thrive after a great collapse, where anything and everything from the electric grid, to the fuel supply to the food supply will fail.
WASHINGTON
Republicans exulted in November when they won the White House and both congressional chambers, promising aggressive moves on health care, taxes and immigration.
But a spectacular stumble on the first agenda item amid intra-party squabbles begs the question of whether the party will be able to get anything done if it can’t deliver on a promise it has made for nearly a decade.
“We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, faced with the biggest loss of his career. “And now in three months’ time we tried to go to a governing party. We will get there, but we weren’t there today.”
US airstrike on Mosul a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’
AN INVESTIGATION has been opened into an Islamic State-targeted US airstrike on Mosul that witnesses say killed dozens of innocent people.
U.S. officials did not confirm the reports of civilian casualties but opened an investigation. In the days following the March 17 airstrike, U.S. officials had said they were unsure whether American forces were behind the attack.
The statement issued by the U.S.-led coalition said the airstrike had been requested by Iraqi security forces to target IS fighters and equipment “at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties.” U.S.-backed government troops were fighting IS forces in that area of western Mosul, the statement said.
The coalition said it takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and a formal Civilian Casualty Credibility Assessment had been opened to determine the facts surrounding this strike and the validity of the allegation of civilian casualties.
“Our goal has always been for zero civilian casualties, but the coalition will not abandon our commitment to our Iraqi partners because of ISIS’s inhuman tactics terrorizing civilians, using human shields, and fighting from protected sites such as schools, hospitals, religious sites and civilian neighborhoods,” the coalition said.
Altaf Musani, representative of the World Health Organization in Iraq, told The Associated Press in the Jordanian capital of Amman that the organization’s priority was quick treatment for those wounded.
“It is our understanding that there was an incident and we have worked with the local health actors and they have confirmed more than 100 are dead,” Musani said. Musani said that since the operations in Mosul began in October, there have been at least 5,300 people referred to hospitals in and around the city. He added that since the attack on western Mosul began last month, “we have managed to capture more than 1,300” cases.
“When you take a better look at what those numbers mean, what is worrying for the WHO and aid actors is that roughly 30 percent of the total numbers are women,” he said. “Roughly 30 percent of that large number are children under 15, and that is deeply concerning because of the capacities needed to treat those wounded coming out of the front lines.”
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to dramatically ramp up the assault on Islamic State militants and has vowed to eradicate it.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met in recent days with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Ababi and foreign ministers from the coalition partners at the State Department to explore new ideas to expand the fight against IS in Mosul.
Earlier Saturday, senior Sunni Muslim politicians expressed concern over reports of airstrikes that allegedly killed the civilians. Residents reported two airstrikes hitting a residential area on March 13 and 17. The Iraqi Defense Ministry has provided no immediate comment.
In tweets published on his official account, parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri said “we realize the huge responsibility the liberating forces shoulder” and call on them to “spare no effort to save the civilians.”
In a statement issued on his website, Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi, himself from Mosul, described the incident as a “humanitarian catastrophe,” blaming the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and excessive use of force by militarized Federal Police forces. Al-Nujaifi put the number of civilians killed at “hundreds.” He called for an emergency parliament session and an immediate investigation into the incident.
Residents of the neighborhood known as Mosul Jidideh told the AP on Friday that scores of residents were believed to have been killed by two airstrikes that hit a cluster of homes in the area. Resident Ahmed Ahmed said there were over a hundred people within the cluster taking refuge from the missiles.
AP reporters saw at least 50 bodies being recovered from the wreckage of the buildings.
Faced with their toughest fight yet against IS, Iraqi and coalition forces have increasingly turned to airstrikes and artillery to clear and hold territory in Mosul’s densely populated western neighborhoods. Humanitarian and monitoring officials warned of increased civilian casualties in western Mosul due to the increased reliance on airstrikes and artillery.
Backed by U.S.-led international coalition, Iraqi forces launched an operation in February to drive IS from the western half of Iraq’s second-largest city, after declaring eastern Mosul “fully liberated” the previous month. The city is divided by the Tigris River.
ISIS fanatics used the secretive messaging site Telegram to call for a “lone wolf” attack on Parliament just weeks before Khalid Masood struck.
A Sunday Mirror probe has uncovered chilling messages in which jihadi masterminds urged terrorists to mount atrocities in the UK.
The conversation started off on the wrong foot, with Bannon adopting a tone the report characterized as authoritative.
"Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill," Bannon reportedly said to members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
But those in the Freedom Caucus weren't buying into Bannon's opening gambit. " You know, the last time someone ordered me to something, I was 18 years old. And it was my daddy. And I didn't listen to him, either," said one member of the caucus.
Iraqi military leaders have halted their push to recapture west Mosul from Islamic State as international outrage grew over the civilian toll from airstrikes that killed at least 150 people in a single district of the city.
The attack on the Mosul Jadida neighbourhood is thought to have been one of the deadliest bombing raids for civilians since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Saturday, more than a week after the bombs landed, when the US-led coalition confirmed that its aircraft had targeted Isis fighters in the area.
They carried out the attack on 17 March “at the request of the Iraqi security forces”, and have now launched a formal investigation into reports of civilian casualties, the coalition said.
A Portland student has become the first American to gain legal designation as “genderless”, following a ruling by a Multnomah County judge.
The March 10 decision, reported for the first time on Thursday, involved a 27-year-old who was born male but claimed to identify with no gender whatsoever. Judge Amy Holmes, who approved the petition, also last year approved a “non-binary” gender designation for another Portland resident.
The 27-year-old formerly known as Patrick Abbatiello, now legally designated agender, also got legal approval to change names, now going only by “Patch,” no surname. That name also serves as a pronoun, Patch explained to the local NBC affiliate this week.
“Even gender-neutral pronouns don’t feel as if they fit me,” Patch said. “I feel no identity or closeness with any pronouns I’ve come across. What describes me is my name.”
On Thursday Governor Doug Burgum (R) signed legislation allowing North Dakota residents to carry a handgun concealed for self-defense without a permit.
The legislation–House Bill 1169–passed the House on February 21 by a vote of 83-9. It passed the Senate on March 21 by a vote of 34-13.
USNews reports that the permitless carry law allows law-abiding citizens 18 and over to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense as long as they “have a valid ID and notify law enforcement of the weapon during instances such as a traffic stop.”
The public outrage toward the illegal alien suspects accused of raping a 14-year-old freshman at Rockville High School has been “racist” and “xenophobic,” according to Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith.
Illegal aliens and Rockville High School student Sanchez Milian, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, allegedly forced the female victim into a bathroom stall on March 16 and “proceeded to raped her orally, vaginally, and anally,” Breitbart News reported.
Reaction to the alleged horror has been fierce. Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan slammed immigration enforcement and Montgomery County Public Schools in an interview with WTTG-TV.
“Why is an 18-year-old man in a class with 13- or 14-year-old girls?” Hogan asked. “Why was his status not known to those folks? Why was he allowed to enter the country after he was picked up for illegally crossing the border — both of them?”
The public outrage toward the illegal alien suspects accused of raping a 14-year-old freshman at Rockville High School has been “racist” and “xenophobic,” according to Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith.
Illegal aliens and Rockville High School student Sanchez Milian, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, allegedly forced the female victim into a bathroom stall on March 16 and “proceeded to raped her orally, vaginally, and anally,” Breitbart News reported.
Reaction to the alleged horror has been fierce. Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan slammed immigration enforcement and Montgomery County Public Schools in an interview with WTTG-TV.
“Why is an 18-year-old man in a class with 13- or 14-year-old girls?” Hogan asked. “Why was his status not known to those folks? Why was he allowed to enter the country after he was picked up for illegally crossing the border — both of them?”
Amber Rudd has vowed to “call time” on internet firms who give terrorists “a place to hide” as it emerged security services are powerless to access Westminster attacker Adrian Ajao’s final WhatsApp message.
The Home Secretary said it was “completely unacceptable” that Whats App – which is owned by Facebook – was enabling terrorists to communicate “in secret”, knowing the police and security services will not be able to read their encrypted communications.
She has summoned WhatsApp, Facebook, Google and a host of other online firms to showdown talks at the Home Office on Thursday, where she says she will “call time” on extremists “using social media as their platform”.
The self-styled ‘bad boy of Brexit’ along with his political donor Arron Banks have joined the fight to split the American state in two to isolate the Hollywood elite.
“Calexit” as it’s being dubbed, was first drummed up by liberals and the Hollywood elite in Los Angeles who became disgusted with US President Donald Trump and suggested they break away from the rest of America.
However after the everyday man and woman in the state got wind of it, they got angry at the liberals, and now want the state to be divided to get away from them.
