Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here. Black Lives Matter U. K. had called for a nationwide "shutdown" to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing the treatment of immigrants in detention inadequate mental health services and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain's decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union. "We are here because we have no choice," Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. "We are here because this is a crisis. " The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France. On Friday morning, activists unfurled a giant banner and lay down on an access road near Heathrow, bringing traffic to a standstill for several hours. The police arrested 10 people. Five more people were arrested in Birmingham, Britain's populous city, after blocking traffic leading to the airport. Four activists were arrested in Nottingham, a city of more than 300, 000 in the Midlands, after protesters blocked trams and buses by lying down in front of the Theatre Royal. The demonstrations were peaceful but powerful in several cases, the authorities had to use special equipment to cut through the tubes the protesters had used to link their arms. The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary, on Thursday, of the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a unarmed black man, in the Tottenham section of London. His death touched off riots in poorer sections of the capital, as well as in cities including Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. In January 2014, an inquest jury found that the killing of Mr. Duggan had been justified, finding it more likely than not that he had tossed a firearm from a taxi shortly before he was shot. But in October, a judge granted Mr. Duggan's family the right to appeal those findings. The 2011 riots echoed disturbances that shook the Brixton neighborhood of London no fewer than three times — in 1981, 1985 and 1995 — in response to anger at police treatment of black residents. The activists have been upset by three recent deaths of black Britons: Mzee Mohammed, 18, who died last month after he was arrested in Liverpool Sarah Reed, a with a history of mental illness, who died in a jail in North London in January and had previously been the victim of police brutality and Jermaine Baker, 28, who was fatally shot by the police in North London in December, after he tried to free a convict from a police van. "In the U. K. we have exactly the same problems as in America, but in America they're far worse," Kehinde Andrews, an associate professor of sociology and head of the black studies program at Birmingham City University, said in a phone interview. "You're three times more likely to be killed by the police if you're black, but the police don't kill that many people in Britain in general. " So far this year, the police in Britain have shot and killed two people, compared with 571 in the United States. Britain has the largest prison population in Western Europe, and blacks are overrepresented. But even so, the incarceration rate is far lower than in the United States. Gun violence is also relatively rare in Britain handguns were effectively prohibited after a 1996 massacre at a school in Scotland. Most police officers in the country do not carry guns. Because deadly encounters with the police are fairly rare, activists in Britain have tended to focus more on the treatment of black people in custody, like Sean Rigg, a musician who had schizophrenia and who died in a police station in Brixton in 2008 and Kingsley Burrell, a student who died in police custody in Birmingham in 2011. Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated in London last month after the police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. When she took office as Britain's prime minister on July 13, Theresa May pledged to fight "burning injustice" and to "make Britain a country that works for everyone," noting that "if you're black, you're treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you're white. " In her previous position, as home secretary, Ms. May reduced the prevalence of "stop and search" (what Americans call "stop and frisk") a policing practice that she denounced as ineffective and unjust, saying that people were often subject to scrutiny on no other basis than their skin color. But Gus John, a black educator and activist who immigrated to Britain from Grenada as a young man, described Ms. May's speech as "a bit rich," noting that she was in charge of domestic security and policing when Mr. Duggan died. "If society tacitly endorses racial injustice, and doesn't see the matter as one that faces the country as a whole but simply as episodes that the black community has got to deal with, it is not just legitimate but necessary to take the struggle to them," Mr. John said, adding that he "absolutely" supported the protests. Blacks account for about 3 percent of Britain's population, compared with nearly 13 percent in the United States. While people of African origin have lived in Britain for centuries, black migration began with people from the Caribbean after World War II, followed by an influx from former British colonies in Africa, especially Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.


If one were to best describe Donald Trump, especially at one of his campaign rallies, he would be the living embodiment of a Fox News Facebook comment section just full of vile, fear-filled, xenophobic, racist, hate-filled rhetoric.Making sure he lives up to this reputation while on the campaign trail in Delaware, Trump decided he would tell people about his experiences with call centers, primarily those that are overseas. And while these call centers are taking away American jobs, the people who work in these centers overseas are human beings trying to make an honest day s wage for themselves, and should be treated as such.However, Trump decided to do what he always does, and with no regard for who s he s throwing under the bus because he has a point to make, decided to imitate a call center worker from India.Trump said that he called the center to pretend he was checking on his credit card, then asked the worker, Where are you from? and that s when he did the impression, saying We are from India, in his disgusting attempt to pander to his racist and xenophobic crowd. Trump then supposedly said to the call center, Oh, great. That s wonderful. Thank you very much, that s all I need to know, and proceeds to pretend to hang up the phone.Did he make this story up? Probably, but it doesn t make it any less racist.Here s the thing, Trump doesn t care who he s offending as long as he s winning. He s fanning the flames of racism and hatred everywhere he goes, because it s clearly working, and that should terrify all of us.We need to make sure Trump gets nowhere near the Oval Office come November. He s not only bad for the nation, but it would be devastating for the entire world.Donald Trump says he called his credit-card company just to see if an Indian call center answered https://t.co/Cdv0korqNo ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 22, 2016


He has been attacked over countless issues in partisan Washington, but U.S. President Barack Obama drew the line at this one: the idea that he is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump and the attendant Republican Party disarray. "I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they're selecting for their party (nominee) is novel," Obama told a news conference on Thursday. "What I'm not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that's been taking place is ... a consequence of actions that I've taken," the Democratic president said. Obama had been asked how he viewed being identified as the cause of Trump's ascent to front-runner in the Republican race to pick a presidential candidate for the Nov. 8 election. Obama seemed to relish the question, replying with both serious criticism of Republicans and some pointed mockery of Trump. The New York billionaire is well ahead in the Republican race after the first six weeks of primary nominating contests but his bombastic style and statements on Muslims, immigrants and trade have dismayed many in the party establishment. Many party leaders worry Trump would lose to the eventual Democratic nominee in November's election to replace Obama. Obama, whose White House tenure has been marked by steady resistance to most of his policies by Republicans in Congress, has said previously he regretted not being able to reduce the polarization between the two parties in Washington. But he scoffed on Thursday at the suggestion that his presidency had fueled the chaos among the Republicans. Conservative news outlets on television, radio and the Internet had convinced the Republican political base for seven years that cooperation with him was a "betrayal" and that "maximalist absolutist" positions were advantageous, Obama said. He was holding a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a clear dig at Trump, Obama said he had not prompted critics to question his U.S. citizenship or birth in Hawaii. Before he launched his longshot presidential run last year, Trump was a high-profile leader of the so-called "birther" movement, which believed Obama was born abroad and not eligible to be president, until he produced his Hawaii birth certificate to put the issue to rest. "What you're seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive," Obama said. For good measure, he took a swipe at two of Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination, saying the real estate magnate's position on immigration was not much different from that of U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Obama urged conservatives who were troubled by the party's position to "reflect on what it is about the politics they've engaged in that allows the circus we've been seeing to transpire." (Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Frances Kerry) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.


I wonder how many of J.B. Pritzker s children or grandchildren will be forced to share locker rooms or bathrooms at the country club with men or women of the opposite sex? This election has brought out a never-ending supply of elitist liberals with big mouths, who have all kinds of great ideas for the little people to implement A billionaire Democratic megadonor, who is exploring a run for governor, encouraged men to use women s bathrooms on Wednesday sparking criticism from transgender advocates and politicians.J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire heir whose father co-founded Hyatt hotels, floated the idea of switching bathrooms in the wake of President Donald Trump s executive order reversing an Obama policy that could have stripped federal funds from schools that maintain separate bathroom facilities based on sex. As a protest against Trump s rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender s bathroom today! he tweeted at 8:36 a.m.As a protest against Trump's rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender's bathroom today! #protecttranskids JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) February 23, 2017Not everyone on Twitter agreed with Pritzker. Some on the right even used (gasp!) facts to bolster their argument. Like the fact that, a TINY .01% of the population are actually affected by a federal transgender bathroom law:Draconian federal regulation is unneeded. We're talking about a TINY .01% of population. Let schools deal with this directly! Nicole4Trump (@niteowlmom3) February 23, 2017The tweet immediately provoked criticism from liberals. Illinois State Rep. Will Guzzardi (D., Chicago), a supporter of the Obama rule, said that Pritzker s tweet was insensitive and mischaracterized the transgender bathroom and locker room debate. No disrespect @JBPritzker but it s actually about precisely *not* that. We just want to let kids use their own gender s bathroom, Guzzardi tweeted in response. Your idea suggests that we support ppl going into opposite-gender bathrooms, which plays right into transphobic rhetoric. Pritzker has been called the other mayor of Chicago for his political influence and massive campaign spending on behalf of Democratic candidates such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. He has close ties to the Clintons, having served as the national co-chair of Hillary Clinton s failed 2008 presidential bid, as well as the Obama administration. His sister, Penny Pritzker, served as Secretary of Commerce under President Obama from 2013 until he left office. J.B. Pritzker and his wife were two of the largest individual spenders in the 2016 election, shelling out more than $21 million to elect Clinton and other Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Pritzker has now set his sights on the Illinois governor s mansion and is exploring the idea of self-funding a campaign. Rauner self-financed a $40 million campaign run in 2014, which helped him overcome steep Democratic advantages in the deep blue state.Other Democrats vying for the nomination were quick to criticize Pritzker s protest idea. Tom Elliot, communications director for Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar s gubernatorial campaign, accused the billionaire of missing the point entirely Telling people to use the other gender s bathroom is missing the point entirely and a terrible idea. @JBPritzker #protecttranskids, Elliot replied. WFBTelling people to use the other gender's bathroom is missing the point entirely and a terrible idea. @JBPritzker #protecttranskids Tom Elliott (@trelliott) February 23, 2017


A raucous Republican Party debate on Thursday drew the biggest audience for a televised U.S. presidential match-up in 2016, according to early ratings data, but viewership was well below the record set last August. The Fox News Channel (FOXA.O) debate among Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich drew 16.9 million viewers, according to early Nielsen data provided by the network on Friday. That was higher than the last Republican Party debate, which aired on cable channel CNN and Telemundo on Feb. 25 and brought in a TV audience of 14.5 million. Republican debates have drawn much higher TV audiences in this U.S. presidential cycle than those involving Democrats. The debate was the four remaining candidates' first face-to-face encounter since Super Tuesday nominating contests this week gave extra momentum to Trump but did not knock out his rivals.[L2N16C03W] Fox News holds the record for the largest audience for a non-sports cable TV program. Some 24 million Americans tuned in when it hosted the first of the U.S. presidential debates in August 2015. Thursday's debate in Detroit was the second-highest rated telecast in network history, Fox said. At Thursday's debate, Trump's rivals assailed him for shifting positions on the issues but said in the end they would reluctantly support him if he were their party's nominee. (Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Alistair Bell and Bill Trott; For more on the 2016 U.S. presidential race and to learn about the undecided voters who determine elections, visit the Reuters website.; here) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.


President Donald Trump kept up his criticism of Mexico on Friday, saying it "has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough," as a crisis over border security and trade deepened. "Massive trade deficits & little help on the very weak border must change NOW!" Trump wrote on Twitter. On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto scrapped a planned trip to Washington to meet Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Mexico pay for a wall on the U.S. border to halt illegal immigration. The White House also suggested on Thursday that the United States could impose a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for the wall, sending the peso tumbling. Speaking about the scrapped summit, senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway on Friday told Fox News that "the relationship was not imploded. This one meeting has been canceled and that was a mutual cancellation." In a separate interview on CBS News, she said the tax was one funding possibility and waved off the chance of Mexican retaliation that could cost American jobs, telling CBS News: "They can do what they want." "Mexico should pay for that wall because they get an awful lot from this country," Conway told CBS. The White House has said its tax proposal is in the early stages. A plan being weighed by House Republicans would exempt export revenues from taxation but impose a 20 percent tax on imported goods. The idea, known as a border adjustment tax, would be a significant change from current U.S. policy. Retailers and other businesses that sell imported goods are not keen on the idea, and some lawmakers have expressed concern about its impact on U.S. consumers. "The costs for everything from groceries, to cars, to office supplies would go up by 20 (percent), making it harder for middle class families to pay for things they need every day," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.


According to the NRA, we have nothing to fear from gun-toting individuals who have completed a safety course. There is no way, if properly trained, that they can present a danger to themselves or others. Unfortunately, one Texas teenager s family learned the hard way that sending their child off to receive firearms training then giving him a gun probably isn t the best way to go about life.Weatherford High School senior Brennan Weikel dreamed of playing football in college. Unfortunately, he will never be able to do that because his stepfather gave the inexperienced 17-year-old a weapon and took him out in the middle of the night for what was supposed to be a fun Spring Break hog hunting trip. I know everybody says, Oh, my kid s perfect. He really was. He was a good kid, said stepfather James Chambers. Chambers took Weikel out hunting just five days after the teenager had completed a gun safety course one that gives him the legal right to hunt under Texas law, regardless of the amount of experience he has. Chambers also left Weikel by himself to hunt, according to the Weatherford Democrat: They were placed in individual ground blinds, the little wooden ones, [Game Warden Penny Nixon] said. His stepfather shot a hog and called the victim to ask him to help retrieve it. And the stepfather reported that immediately upon hanging up with the stepson, just seconds later, he heard a shot. It came from the blind where the young victim was. After getting no response to a text asking about the shot, the Weikel s stepfather, who was approximately 300 yards away, went over to the stand and found the teen crumpled up in the corner, his feet tangled up in a chair, according to Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin. There may have been some hunter inexperience involved, Nixon explained.Akin says that the teen leaned over the rifle, which had a round chambered and the safety off, when he stood up after receiving his stepfather s text. When he reached for the grip of the rifle, he accidentally squeezed the trigger and fired a single round into his head. It was instantly fatal, Nixon said. It s a real tragedy. Yes, it is a real tragedy but the NRA and its acolytes will simply view this as an accident rather than a symptom of the problem that is gun culture in America. Simply put, this would have never happened if the teen s family had made the responsible decision not to place a gun in his hands. This would have never happened if the NRA and its Republican allies did not present arming teenagers as normal. This would have never happened if we would take reasonable steps to place age restrictions on firearm use, if we required more than a minimal amount of training, or if Weikel s stepfather had at least stayed by his side to make sure that he was using the gun properly.Contrary to the NRA s rhetoric, guns do not keep us safe. If they did, Weikel would still be playing football.Watch a report on the shooting below:


COLUMBUS, Ohio — So here we are, nearing the end of 2016's race to the bottom. Through it all, through his ugly caricatures of Mexicans and Muslims, through her pretzel contortions to explain her emails, through the Russian hacking and the 3 a. m. Twitter rants and the rest, this was always going to be a "hold your nose and vote" election. But at Tommy's Diner, a colorful Columbus institution in a neighborhood once known as The Bottoms, "hold your nose and vote" is giving way, for some people, to "hold your nose and don't vote. " The distaste for the presidential election is obvious almost anywhere you look here in the capital of a swing state where in July 2015 Gov. John Kasich of Ohio (remember him?) became the 16th of 17 Republicans who hoped to succeed President Obama. Aaron Burnside, 23, a law student at Ohio State University, was at the student union that day, listening with optimism as Mr. Kasich declared that "the sun is rising" in America — words that now seem so quaint. Never for a minute did Mr. Burnside, who described himself as a " fiscally conservative, socially liberal" Republican, imagine himself not casting a ballot on Election Day. But on Thursday, with early voting underway here and Mr. Trump and President Obama in town, Mr. Burnside had no idea whether he would vote for president. "It depends on how I feel that morning," he said. He will go to the polls — it's his civic duty — to back his party in races Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, is fending off a challenge from Ted Strickland, a Democrat and former governor. Mrs. Clinton seems too far to the left for him, he said never a Trump fan, he found the Republican nominee's vulgar boasts of grabbing women's genitals "disgusting. " So he feels stuck, as do many voters. As early voting begins in Ohio and elsewhere, many Americans are approaching the election with a sense of dread. In a CBS News poll released earlier this month, just 46 percent of likely voters said they were very enthusiastic about going to the polls, down from 62 percent in late October 2012, according to a New York News poll. What's uncertain this year is how many people will cast reluctant votes and how many won't vote at all. At the diner, Tommy is a gregarious Greek immigrant and American citizen named Tom Pappas, who loves politics but keeps his business nonpartisan. The walls are covered with photos of Democrats and Republicans in equal numbers, and of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Tommy's grandchildren and Ohio State football stars. Mr. Pappas, 63, and his wife Kathy, 57, have owned the diner for 28 years. Kathy Pappas, who bakes the baklava and bread pudding, pays little heed to politics (she leaves that to Tommy) but this year finds it impossible to escape. "I turn on the radio, looking for the traffic or the weather," she said, "and what do they talk about?" Mrs. Pappas said she has always voted. "But I don't know if I'm going to this year," she said. "I just don't care for either one, and I don't trust either one. There's just not a good feeling either way you look, and that's sad. " Every day 400 to 500 people pass through Tommy's customers run the gamut. Breakfast on Thursday brought a group of retirees, white men in red who had spent the morning building tables and chairs at a furniture bank for the needy two retired social studies teachers with their daughter, an acupuncturist (also an herbalist) and her boyfriend, a tattoo artist a group of bus drivers a retired firefighter, plus the usual smattering of lawyers and state workers. The acupuncturist, Keri Ondrus, 31, has given up on voting altogether she has taught English in Costa Rica, and was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, describing herself as a "total idealist" and ''anarchist'' who feels there must be another way to repair the world. Her parents, Charlotte and Bill Ondrus, the retired teachers, will vote for Mrs. Clinton. "You guys are not enthusiastic about Hillary," their daughter said. "I know," her mother replied, "but I'm scared to death of Donald Trump. " Lunchtime brought a team of bail bondsmen an Air Force veteran and gun rights enthusiast wearing one of Mr. Trump's "Make America Great Again" ball caps and a pistol in a sleek, black Velcro case on his belt and a young artists, preparing for a show at Wright State University in Dayton. "Why would I waste my time?" Kyle Steed, 23, a composer with the group, said of voting, adding that he would rather spend his time helping the homeless as a volunteer. His friend Shamere Griffin, 21, another of the artists, shook her head wordlessly, seeming to fight back tears. She said she could never vote for Mr. Trump, given his characterizations of blacks, Muslims, Mexicans and women. She wants an America in which she doesn't have to remind "my little brother, when he walks down the street, to walk with his hood down," and has no confidence that Mrs. Clinton can deliver that. She will stay home. "Let's just be real," Ms. Griffin said. "What has she done for us? That's what I want to know. What has she done for my people?" Ohio is politically engaged in 2012, when President Obama ran against Mitt Romney, 70. 5 percent of registered voters cast ballots, compared with 57. 5 percent nationwide, and one in three voted early. Some election offices reported long lines when early voting began here Wednesday David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, called Mr. Trump a "turnout machine" for Democrats. But an Street Journal poll released Thursday — and conducted after the emergence of a videotape showing Mr. Trump saying he groped women — found the Ohio race virtually tied. "I'm very motivated," declared Robert Tannous, a lawyer in a dark blue suit, as he navigated his way around a waitress during the lunchtime rush. Motivated to vote for whom? "Hillary Clinton," Mr. Tannous said. "And the sad thing is, I'm a lifelong Republican. " George Wolf, a 73, a retired firefighter who owns a small heating and air conditioning business here, comes to Tommy's every morning for the crispy corned beef and a dose of friendship. A longtime Republican, he says he "cannot allow Hillary Clinton to get in," and proceeds to tick off the reasons. "When you mention Benghazi, I get really upset," he said, referring to the 2012 attack on a United States diplomatic mission in Libya. "Four people died she doesn't seem to care. " Then there are her emails. And her paid speeches: "I just don't like the fact that a politician is out to make money," Mr. Wolf said, adding that he would vote for Mr. Trump, which he views as better than not voting at all. He does not feel good about it. "He went bankrupt as a man, that doesn't help me pay my bills," said Mr. Wolf, who added that he did not like Mr. Trump's nasty nicknames — "Crooked Hillary," for example. "That's a child talking," Mr. Wolf said. He backed Mr. Kasich in the primary, but came around to Mr. Trump after the Ohio governor dropped out of the race. Roughly a third of all Clinton and Trump backers say the main reason for their choice is that they oppose the other candidate, a recent Pew Research Center survey found. Millennial voters, ages 18 to 29, are especially discouraged and looking for a political outsider who can inspire them — one reason they rallied around Mrs. Clinton's primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Picking at his chili and sandwich, Mr. Burnside sounded absolutely deflated. His dining partner was his mentor, Steve Fitch, 68, a Clinton supporter. They were talking about Mr. Fitch's work as a commercial litigator Mr. Burnside was seeking guidance on how he could use a career in law to "resolve conflicts. " The 2016 campaign seemed antithetical to the younger man's dreams. Mr. Burnside was asked if he ever thought about that. "Oh," he said. "All the time. "


A car bomb exploded outside the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday killing the driver, police said, and a witness said there were at least two bodies. The explosion happened around noon in the village of Markaz, just over 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, Police Major Nur Ali told Reuters, adding that police had not reached the scene which he called an area inhabited by hardline Islamists . A witness in the village who gave his name as Ahmed told Reuters by telephone that he had seen two dead bodies. The car was ruined and the dead bodies were cut in halves, he said. The number killed in twin bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu last weekend has risen to 358, the government said late on Friday. It was the deadliest attack in the country s history. The Islamist insurgency al Shabaab was blamed for Saturday s blasts, which happened when a car bomb and a truck bomb headed for the airport detonated prematurely.


Deadly ethnic fighting in Central African Republic could descend into a much larger-scale conflict if nothing is done to disarm combatants and defuse tensions, a U.N. report said on Friday. With a fifth of the population displaced since the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias, U.N. peacekeepers are struggling to contain simmering violence. The U.N. human rights working group on mercenaries and foreign fighters said it strongly senses that the possibility of another armed conflict is likely, if foreign armed actors, along with local armed groups, are not effectively dismantled and suppressed. National security forces are too weak to tackle armed groups and counter the spillover from conflicts in neighboring countries, and U.N. military personnel, who number just over 10,000, have failed to convince locals that they can protect them, the report said. Ugandan and U.S. forces pulled out earlier this year, declaring success against the Lord s Resistance Army, a regional militia notorious for two decades of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves. On Thursday, Amnesty International issued its own report detailing what it said was the systematic rape and murder of civilians in ethnic fighting. If the U.N. s mandate in the Central African Republic is to mean anything, civilians must be better protected, the rights group s Joanne Mariner said. U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the U.N. mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA) had to make changes and was slightly short of the necessary personnel. We have currently a troop ceiling which we think is slightly under what we would need, he said on Friday. MINUSCA s mandate authorizes it to have 10,750 military personnel, a recent U.N. report said there were 10,098 on the ground. We are seeing a surge in ... very negative and antagonistic messages to the effect that foreigners should be eliminated, putting one ethnic or religious component of this country against the other, Lacroix told reporters in Geneva. The working group report said the word foreigners was constantly used to label Muslims.


When you are Black in America, getting pulled over by a cop even for the smallest infraction is a very scary thing. As we have seen repeatedly, this could cost you your life. Usually, when that happens, the cop in question faces no real consequences. Generally, the police department investigates itself and finds it did nothing wrong, naturally. So, to that end, Black Americans tend to act with extreme compliance when it comes to interactions with police. Not being that way could cost us our lives. However, one brave black driver who was pulled over for not using his turn signal properly decided that he s had enough, and confronted the cop who pulled him over and approached with a drawn gun.The whole incident was caught on video, as the man goes all in on the cop, saying: Big f*cking crime right? Big crime. A crime enough for you to come with your fucking gun pulled out, right? A turn signal not made is a big enough crime for you to need to take out your service pistol. Do you have no conscience? You just don t give a f*ck right? Because I would have been just another dead black motherf*cker right? the man tells the officer. And you would have just gone about your business, right? Luckily, the officer didn t shoot, and just accepted this rightfully outraged driver reading him the goods on his racist behavior. It s too bad more encounters with racist cops making unfounded assumptions about the supposed dangerous criminality of Black Americans can t end this way.Now, time to find out who this cop is.Watch the priceless video evidence of America s racist policing problem below:Cop pulls over a black man for failure to signal, walks to his car with his gun drawn Black dude is my fucking hero????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/S8ef8Mx4Kk SIX_FOOT_5 (@Choco_Optimus) September 10, 2017The ending of black dude going ham on cop Left him looking stupid as fuck! ? pic.twitter.com/9oCHBbCBRi SIX_FOOT_5 (@Choco_Optimus) September 10, 2017


Maybe it s time for Muslim citizens and immigrants to start assimilating. What a concept Texas has just made a move that is sure to have many people cheering, and a select few angry. As the march to Sharia Law presses on, it appears Texas is fighting back.Over the past few years, Texas has been quick to take a stand against President Obama and implement the laws necessary to protect its citizens. Now, the Texas legislature has just passed a law designed to permanent bar Muslims from instituting Sharia Law in the Lone Star State.While State Sen. Donna Campbell doesn t specific measure Islamic law in the bill, her measure guarantees that no laws from foreign courts will be admissible by Texas civil court judges. It s just to provide some belt and suspenders to make sure that, with judicial discretion, we don t trump Texas law, American law, with a foreign law regarding family law, Campbell told reporters.Muslim groups have already criticized the bill, calling it a solution looking for a problem. They also argue that the bill will only perpetuate Islamophobia. What do you think? Do you support the measure?


NEW WIKILEAK : Top Clinton Operative Believes "BLACK VOTERS ARE STUPID" NEW WIKILEAK : Top Clinton Operative Believes "BLACK VOTERS ARE STUPID" Videos By TruthFeedNews November 2, 2016  A new email released as part of the Wikileaks Podesta dump features Clinton ally Brent Budowsky exposing Hillary operative David Brock of having a plan that relied upon black voters being "stupid."  Why is their ZERO reporting of this on mainstream news?  Watch the video:  Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.


A Colombian judge sentenced a former vice-minister of transport to five years and two months in prison on Tuesday after the ex-official admitted to taking millions of dollars in bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Gabriel Garcia Morales, who served under former President Alvaro Uribe, accepted $6.5 million in pay-offs to help Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] win a 2010 road construction contract valued at over $1 billion, the attorney general s press office told Reuters. Garcia Morales has promised to testify against other public officials who received bribes, the attorney general s office said on Twitter. The Brazilian firm is at the center of one of the largest corruption scandals in Latin America, and has admitted paying bribes from Peru to Panama. Ecuador jailed its vice president over the scandal and last year the company agreed to pay $3.5 billion in settlements in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland. Colombia s attorney general said Odebrecht paid more than $27 million in bribes in the Andean country. One former and one current lawmaker, the former director of the national infrastructure agency, and others have also been arrested in connection with the case. Morales, who was also fined $21,000, was originally sentenced to 10 years but the sentence was reduced because he accepted responsibility.


Donald Trump: Minnesota Has 'Suffered Enough' Accepting Refugees Tessa Berenson, TIME, November 6, 2016  In a pitch to suspend the nation's Syrian refugee program , Donald Trump said Minnesotans have "suffered enough" from accepting Somali immigrants into their state.  "Here in Minnesota you have seen firsthand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state, without your knowledge, without your support or approval," Trump said at a Minneapolis rally Sunday afternoon.  He said his administration would suspend the Syrian refugee program and not resettle refugees anywhere in the United States without support from the communities, while Hillary Clinton's "plan will import generations of terrorism, extremism and radicalism into your schools and throughout your communities."  {snip}


LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Talks among the United States, Russia and critical Middle East states aimed at brokering a new pause in Syria's war broke up after a few hours on Saturday without signs of progress, or a break in the Syrian government's ferocious assault on parts of the city of Aleppo. Secretary of State John Kerry began the talks in the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne, meeting one on one with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov. Their encounter, described as "businesslike" by a State Department spokesman, John Kirby, came 12 days after Washington suspended bilateral contacts with Moscow and called for a war crimes investigation into Russian actions in Syria. Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov then headed into talks with the foreign ministers from regional powers involved in the conflict, including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, along with the United Nations mediator, Staffan de Mistura. The diplomats left about four hours later with terse comments that gave away nothing of substance. Before the talks began, both sides played down prospects of a breakthrough. Mr. Kerry, who was expected to leave Sunday for talks in London with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, told reporters that discussions with Russia and the Middle Eastern states would resume on Monday. Mr. Lavrov went into the talks saying he would focus on fulfilling an earlier agreement that called for separating rebels in Syria from jihadist groups like the Nusra Front, which is linked to Al Qaeda and now calls itself the Levant Conquest Front. He emerged from the meetings saying only that the parties had discussed "some ideas" and had agreed to meet in coming days, "expecting certain agreements which would help promote" a settlement, the news agency reported. That brought no prospect of early relief for the beleaguered quarter of a million residents of eastern Aleppo, who are facing what international aid agencies have called the heaviest bombardment since the collapse of a truce three weeks ago. Syrian and Russian aircraft bombed four hospitals in Aleppo on Friday, causing severe damage to a major trauma facility, Doctors Without Borders reported, calling it the worst damage inflicted on already battered health facilities since the end of September. An ambulance driver was killed and two doctors were wounded on Friday, Doctors Without Borders said. At least 62 people were killed, and more than 465 people were wounded in the bombing and shelling over the previous three days, the group said. United Nations agencies say several hundred residents of eastern Aleppo desperately need medical evacuation, and the agencies have prepared hospitals in Syria and Turkey to receive them. However, efforts to get the wounded and sick out, or to provide the city with food and medical supplies, have been blocked by the fighting. "The indiscriminate bombing campaign has taken a clear turn for the worse," Carlos Francisco, the head of the Syria mission for Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement on Saturday. "By damaging the few remaining places where lives can be saved, it is clear that Syria and Russia are squeezing the life out of eastern Aleppo. "


.@Nigel_Farage tells the #CPAC2017 crowd his favourite part of 2016. https://t.co/DLpxYP8rPW CPAC 2017 (@CPAC) February 24, 2017FULL SPEECH:


Hillary and Bill Clinton have no shame! They ve both been lying to the American people for 30 years! From Bill s sexual exploits to Hillary s e-mails, they both have told the BIGGEST WHOOPERS that would have gotten any normal person in much more trouble! It s like the Clintons get a pass and that the rules don t apply to them ever! Sooo fast forward to Hillary s DNC acceptance speech where she tells yet another tall tale. You won t believe how she basically throws a town under the bus to make herself look like a compassionate humanitarian. The problem is that some sharp people busted her for the lie LOL! From The New Bedford Standard Times April 17, 2015 in an article by Steve Urbon:The idealistic young woman with the long hair and huge eyeglasses had just graduated from Yale Law School, the future holding nothing but potential. But instead of shipping off to a New York or Washington law firm, she joined Marian Wright Edelman s fledgling Children s Defense Fund (which Edelman, Yale Law Class of 1963, still leads).Hillary Rodham Clinton apparently would have you believe that, in 1973 she had forgone a career at a lucrative Washington D.C. law firm to instead, serve the public at Yale University s Children s Defense Fund (CDF). Not exactly the truth..but that s not the whopper I speak of yet. While she did indeed work at the CDF in New Bedford in 1973, it seemed more like Plan B than her passion, but this was her fate and it served her well. Hillary Rodham actually went for the big bucks at that dreamy law firm in D.C .but she failed to pass her bar exams in the District of Columbia, instead eventually passed them in Arkansas. In last night s acceptance speech, Secretary Clinton told a story of her experience on the South Coast of Massachusetts in the City of New Bedford as an attorney for the CDF that didn t all add up according to my radio colleague Chris McCarthy: My mother, Dorothy, was abandoned by her parents as a young girl. She ended up on her own at 14, working as a housemaid. She was saved by the kindness of others. Her first-grade teacher saw she had nothing to eat at lunch and brought extra food to share the entire year. The lesson she passed on to me, years later, stuck with me: No one gets through life alone. We have to look out for each other and lift each other up. And she made sure I learned the words from our Methodist faith: Do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can. So, I went to work for the Children s Defense Fund, going door-to-door in New Bedford, Mass., on behalf of children with disabilities who were denied the chance to go to school. I remember meeting a young girl in a wheelchair on the small back porch of her house. She told me how badly she wanted to go to school it just didn t seem possible in those days. And I couldn t stop thinking of my mother and what she d gone through as a child. It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action. So we gathered facts. We built a coalition. And our work helped convince Congress to ensure access to education for all students with disabilities. Of all the mill cities in all the world..she had to pick on ours? As Chris McCarthy observed, this story has B.S. written all over it . I was coming to WBSM a bit late from my Boston Herald Radio appearance earlier this morning and by the time I had pulled into the parking lot at 10:07 a.m., Chris opened the show and had already impeached the WHOLE Hillary whale of a story (New Bedford is known as the Whaling City).Now, Chris is extremely sharp and the local reference in her story caught his attention as he watched her speak last night. We hashed over the odds of plausibility an possibilities over the next two hours. When we departed, I decided to investigate. You may see Chris on national tv later on this weekend or next week. Who knows? Here s what I learned; The Mayor of New Bedford in 1973 was a guy I happen to know, Mayor John Markey (81 years old and a lifelong Democrat now living in Dartmouth, MA. Mayor Markey is also a retired judge and a man whose credibility and character are beyond reproach. Jack as he is known, is eligible for both court and municipal pension but only accepts one. He is not one to double dip . I called Jack and asked him a few questions about handicap services in 1973 at the New Bedford Public Schools, including wheelchair accessibility. I took over as Mayor in January of 1973. We had a budget for vans with drivers and provided services to students with disabilities. It was Tremblay Bus. They would pick them up and drop them off at their homes. Now, they may not have been able to go to the local school, depending on whether or not the schools were accessible for wheelchairs but there were many schools then which could and did accommodate our handicapped students in wheelchairs . In fact, we had a local guy who was a paraplegic, injured in a diving accident who came to my office many times to advocate for the disabled and I actually spent an entire day in 1973 in a wheelchair to better understand the challenges they face everyday. Soon after that we were cutting out sidewalks for wheelchairs and doing things in New Bedford before the laws ever compelled us to. So despite the progressive and good works of the New Bedford leadership in 1973 to make the city schools and streets more handicap accessible, Hillary (no pun intended) rolled New Bedford local government under the bus last night in front of the world. And needed to lie to do it. It just didn t seem possible in those days Hillary, because it wasn t true in 1973 New Bedford. *While she did important work to expose the needs not yet met in some school districts, this was not a city without wheelchair accessible schools and services to get the students to the schools. Maybe today s Mayor Jon Mitchell will offer to find this girl in the wheelchair on that porch as he did when challenging MA Governor Charlie Baker s New Bedford anecdotal about a New Bedford fisherman, a mountain of a man who last made Baker cry. with a hardship story..which turned out to actually be true. And you thought she changed silly you.


Wednesday was not a good day to be Donald Trump. In the aftermath of the disastrous Comey hearing where it was confirmed that The Donald s team was indeed being investigated and of Rep. Nunes decision to skip informing his fellow congressional Russia investigators of perfectly legal incidental collection of information about Trump associates and possibly the President* himself and run to The Donald with it instead Trump has been flailing, attempting to distract from the whole Russia thing as much as possible.That s going to be very hard now, as U.S. officials have now confirmed that the facts suggest that members of his team were indeed working with the enemy. CNN reports:The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton s campaign, US officials told CNN.


Brazilian police on Friday said they arrested former minister Geddel Vieira Lima on new charges after a corruption probe found his fingerprints in bags hiding more than 51 million reais ($16.52 million) in cash. Vieira Lima was in charge of President Michel Temer s relations with Congress until November. He had been under house arrest since July, accused of obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to deter entrepreneur L cio Funaro, who worked for politicians close to Temer, from striking a plea bargain deal with prosecutors. Judge Vallisney de Souza Oliveira said in a ruling authorizing the arrest that it was necessary to stop Lima from committing other crimes. Police took hours to calculate the exact amount of money found in boxes and bags earlier this week at an apartment in Salvador, in the nation s biggest-ever cash seizure. When Lima resigned from his cabinet post in November, he was the fifth minister to leave the administration over graft allegations. Temer himself was later charged by the country s top prosecutor of corruption, an accusation he managed to defeat through a lower house vote in August. Lima s lawyer, Gamil Foppel, said his client had no access to the court documents about the evidence found by police, in clear violation of the law. ($1 = 3.0875 reais)


Top officials of the Cruz campaign are convinced there is one specific step that could have stopped Trump -- and they blame Sen. Marco Rubio for not taking that step. In early March, it became clear that Trump was well on his way to the nomination and would even likely defeat Rubio in his home state of Florida's March 15 primary. According to several sources close to Cruz, the Cruz campaign conducted several secret polls to see what the impact would be if Rubio joined Cruz as his running mate, with Cruz at the top of the ticket. Politico reported in March that Rubio rejected the idea of a "unity ticket." But the sources close to Cruz and Rubio are now offering a much fuller picture of the extent of Cruz's polling, the reasons why Rubio said no, and the resentment the Cruz people have about Rubio's rejection of the idea. The Cruz campaign polled in three March 15 primary states, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina -- though not in Ohio, home to Kasich, or in Florida. They also tested the matchup in a poll in Arizona, which would hold its contest on March 22, and in Wisconsin, which would hold its primary on April 5. What did polls suggest a Cruz-Rubio ticket would do in those states? "Blowout," said a source close to Cruz. "65%-35%," with Trump losing. Through friends and emissaries, the Cruz campaign tried to get Rubio on board. But Cruz could not reach him on the phone, and others reported back to the Cruz campaign that Rubio did not seem interested in having a discussion about this at all. "He went off the grid," said a source close to Cruz. Cruz campaign officials speculated that Rubio was interested in preserving his political viability for a contested GOP convention or the 2020 race. A source familiar with Rubio's thinking says there never really was a concrete offer from the Cruz campaign to team up -- just vague discussions from donors about polls and the potential for such a move -- but either way, he was not interested. For one, the source said, Rubio thought the notion of two senators from Washington, D.C., teaming up against Trump would fit all too easily into the Trump outsider narrative. Second, Rubio was concerned that as a fellow Cuban-American freshman senator, he didn't think he complemented Cruz particularly well. Lastly, Rubio felt that the nominee should have the freedom to pick whomever he or she wants at the convention to help win in November and not be bound to a short-term decision made in the thick of the primaries. The lack of bounce after Cruz attempted such a move with Carly Fiorina reinforced his belief that he was right, the source said. A source close to Kasich reported that the Ohio governor tried to broach the subject with Rubio as well, and the campaigns discussed it as well, before and after the March 8 Michigan primary. Kasich's team did not conduct any polling but they are also convinced if the two men had teamed up, "we would have swept the rest of the primaries." What the result would have been in these alternate universes where a Cruz-Rubio ticket was on the ballot, or a Kasich-Rubio team, is unknown. Trump, in this reality went on to win in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Arizona. He was not stopped.


On Friday's broadcast of HBO's "Real Time," Jane Fonda stated she won't call President Donald Trump "by his name. I call him the . " Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett


We are 308 days into 2017, and so far there have been 378 mass shootings most done by angry white men with too many guns and with domestic violence issues. It s difficult to spin that fact in any way that doesn t spit in the face of our nation s gun lust, but conservatives try. One even says it s a good thing.Donald Trump called it a mental health issue, one that has no proposed solutions, just days after he called for a complete policy change after an ISIS connected terrorist plowed into people in New York.Even Trump s tone-deaf reaction seemed compassionate compared to a conservative blogger and Lutheran pastor who says that God was answering the victims prayers by taking them to heaven.Hans Fiene wrote his column in The Federalist in response to liberals who say that thoughts and prayers are not enough to quell the mass shooting epidemic. God wanted them dead, he said, and that s what prayer is all about.When we pray these words, we are certainly praying that God would deliver us from evil temporally that is, in this earthly life. Through these words, we are asking God to send his holy angels to guard us from those who would seek to destroy us with knives and bombs and bullets. It may seem, on the surface, that God was refusing to give such protection to his Texan children. But we are also praying that God would deliver us from evil eternally. Through these same words, we are asking God to deliver us out of this evil world and into his heavenly glory, where no violence, persecution, cruelty, or hatred will ever afflict us again. Just like those who put Christ to death, and just like those who have brought violence to believers in every generation, this man only succeeded in being the means through which God delivered his children from this evil world into an eternity of righteousness and peace. Perhaps instead of eternal damnation, the shooter who murdered 26 parishioners should receive sainthood.


On May 9, Pastor David Reynolds, formerly of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church in Sherwood, Arkansas, was arrested on 70 counts of child pornography.According to the Sherwood Police Department, Reynolds arrest followed a lengthy investigation which began with a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in December.KARK reports that Reynolds had at least three social media accounts which were registered under assumed names. He used those accounts to distribute and receive child pornography.Sgt. Keith Wilson of the Sherwood Police Department told KARK that police also found a large number of pictures on Reynolds computer. One of the photos was of a 13-year-old girl who was identified as a member of Reynold s church. The girl was able to help police identify other children who were in photos stored on Reynold s computer.Reynolds was removed from all duties with the church on March 7, after he admitted to church members that he had a problem with pornography. Church elders released a statement regarding his removal, saying:On March 7th the elders of Cornerstone removed Dave Reynolds from all responsibility at Cornerstone. Dave had informed two of the elders that he was engaged in pornography and thought the elders might learn of this from another party, hence he decided to inform us of his involvement in this sin. Those two elders specifically asked Dave if he had viewed under age pornography to which he replied that he had not knowingly done so.Reynolds plead not guilty to the charges and is currently being held on a $250,000 bond.Queerty reports that Reynolds sermons were often vehemently anti-gay. According to the website, the former pastor preached against same-sex marriage and consensual same-sex relationships of any kind, saying that all LGBTQ relationships are sin. How anyone can preach that a relationship between two consenting adults is sin while at the same time sending and receiving images of innocent children for their own sick sexual gratification is beyond comprehension.Image credit: Marine Glisovic KATV via Twitter


President Donald Trump is trying to determine how keeping his promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem could affect his hopes of brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, his secretary of state said on Sunday. Since taking office in January, Trump has shown signs of shelving his campaign pledge to move the embassy from Tel Aviv, while vowing to do what is necessary to clinch a Middle East peace agreement. "The president is being very careful to understand how such a decision would impact a peace process," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told NBC's "Meet the Press." He spoke just days before Trump starts a Middle East trip that includes meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all foreign countries to base their embassies there. The relocation is strongly opposed by many U.S. allies as the Palestinians also claim the city as their capital. Tillerson said Trump's decision would depend greatly on how it is seen by governments in the region, including "whether Israel views it as being helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction." His comments drew a quick response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Israel's position has been stated many times before to the American administration and the world," Netanyahu's office said in a statement. "Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem will not harm the peace process, it will do the opposite. It will advance it by righting a historical wrong and by shattering the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel."


Well, as a Catholic the act of the Pope of my church accepting a gruesome hammer and sickle with Christ affixed to the front was wholly offensive Pope Francis has said he wasn t offended by the communist crucifix given to him by Bolivian president Evo Morales during his South American pilgrimage.Morales surprised the pontiff with the unusual gift, a crucifix attached to a hammer and sickle, when Francis arrived in La Paz on Wednesday.The crucifix was a replica of one designed by a Jesuit priest, the Reverend Lu s Espinal, who was tortured and killed by Bolivian paramilitary squads in 1980. Francis prayed at the site of Espinal s assassination upon his arrival in Bolivia.The modified crucifix immediately raised eyebrows, with some questioning whether Morales, whose socialist and anti-church rhetoric is well-known, was trying to score a political point with a questionable, and possibly sacrilegious, melding of faith and ideology.Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, said Espinal was well-known among his fellow Jesuits as a proponent of the Marxist strain of liberation theology. The Vatican opposed it, fearing that Marxists were using liberation theology s preferential option for the poor as a call for armed revolution against oppressive rightwing regimes that were in power in much of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.During a news conference en route home to Rome on Sunday, Francis said he interpreted Morales gift through the prism of Espinal s Marxist bent and viewed it as protest art.After taking into consideration the time in which he lived, Francis said: I understand this work. For me it wasn t an offense. Francis added that he brought the crucifix home with him.


Saudi Arabia s King Salman will begin a visit to Russia on Thursday at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, Saudi state news agency SPA said, the Gulf ruler s first trip to Moscow since becoming king in 2015. During the visit the two countries plan to set up a $1 billion fund to invest in energy projects as part of efforts by two of the world s biggest oil producers to expand cooperation, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier on Monday. SPA said the two leaders would discuss bilateral and regional issues, but gave no details. Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Russia helped forge a deal between OPEC and other producers to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day from January to lift crude prices.


Get short URL 0 5 0 0 A strong energy sector will serve as an economic driver for the UK's economy, Britain's former minister for energy and climate change told Sputnik.  MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United Kingdom is interested in a strong energy sector as an economic driver for the whole British economy, and consequently in the stabilization of prices on the global oil market, Charles Hendry , a former UK Minister for Energy and Climate Change, told Sputnik on Wednesday. "Oil consumers have enjoyed low oil prices, that's been good, but ultimately we need strong oil and gas sector because the economic driver which it creates and provides. So for the United Kingdom we have seen both the upside and the downside. … There is a beginning consensus of people [in the United Kingdom] recognizing that action needs to be taken [to stabilize oil market]," Hendry said.  He added, however, that few countries could take steps that would contribute to stability of the global oil market, among them are Saudi Arabia and Russia . © AP Photo/ Vahid Salemi Russian Companies Set to Get a Slice of Iranian Oil Pie The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which comprises Saudi Arabia among other 13 major oil producers, is in ongoing consultations on finalizing a preliminary agreement on oil output cuts reached in late September and aimed at stabilizing oil prices, that may see non-OPEC oil producers also joining the deal. The agreement, which is expected to be finalized on November 30 during OPEC's next meeting in Vienna, was reached against the backdrop of decline in oil prices, which have dropped from some $110 a barrel to the below-$50 mark since mid-2014. ...


ONLY two of the reporters who covered the presidential campaign for The New York Times were black. None were Latino or Asian. That's less diversity than you'll find in Donald Trump's cabinet thus far. Of The Times's newly named White House team, all six are white, as is most everyone in the Washington bureau. Traveling to other departments, Metro has only three Latinos among its 42 reporters, in a city with the second largest Hispanic population in the country. Sports has one Asian man, two Hispanics and no among its 21 reporters, yet blacks are plentiful among the teams they cover and the audience they serve. In the Styles section, every writer is white, while American culture is anything but. The executive editor, Dean Baquet, is . The other editors on his masthead are white. The staff with the most diversity? The news assistants, who mostly do administrative jobs and get paid the least. The Times can be relentless in questioning the diversity at other institutions it has written about the white ranks of the technology sector, public schools, police departments, Oscar nominees, law firms, legislatures, the major leagues and the Ivy League. Fixing its own problems comes less easily. The newsroom's blinding whiteness hit me when I walked in the door six months ago. It's hardly a new problem here, but it's one that persists even as the country grows more diverse and The Times grows more global. The head of that global expansion, Lydia Polgreen, was one of The Times's editors until she left last week to lead The Huffington Post. Her departure hit the whole newsroom hard, but it was especially a blow to many minority journalists here. In the past three months, I have interviewed people across the newsroom about the issue of race (and to some degree gender, which I'll address in a future column). I've spoken with journalists of all racial and ethnic identities, in jobs high and low: white men and black women, editors and reporters, department heads and news assistants. It left me believing there is a level of frustration bordering on anger that would be institutionally reckless not to address. Many journalists hoped a new era was beginning two and a half years ago, when Baquet became the first to oversee the newsroom. But whatever progress has been made is only beginning to show up on a scorecard. Overall, newsroom diversity is at 22 percent, up slightly but below newsrooms in most big metropolitan areas. And of those who head departments here, only three are people of color. I asked Baquet what he believes minorities in the newsroom would say about his senior team's dedication to diversity. "I think they'd say we have a problem," he said. "We're not diverse enough. But I think they'd say I have a commitment to it and that it's gotten better in the past year. " He added, "My effort to diversify has been intense and persistent. " By that, Baquet particularly means the handful of prominent black journalists he's helped attract or promote, stars like Nikole Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham, all coveted by The Times's competitors. Their writing styles offer a refreshing break from The Times's rather institutional voice, which — as one black editor put it to me — is older, white, male, Ivy League and authoritative. "That's who The Times is at a dinner party," she said. Many of those I spoke with, including Latinos and Asians, said the arrival of a few stars can take the focus away from the real issue of bringing in and retaining diversity across the room. In other words, while big names are rightfully celebrated, they can give the appearance of more diversity than there really is. What's more, just because an is at the helm, it doesn't mean all is well in the newsroom he runs. "We can't look to Dean as proof that everything is O. K. and we also can't look solely to him for solutions," said Nikita Stewart, a Metro staff reporter. When you ask managers about the issue individually, everyone genuinely seems to care. Collectively, however, not much changes. They begin by saying this is an industrywide problem, not just a New York Times problem. That is true, unquestionably. On the other hand, it's also true that data from the American Society of News Editors shows that The Times is less diverse than large papers like The Washington Post (31 percent) The Los Angeles Times (34 percent) and The Miami Herald (41 percent). The Times is more diverse than The Boston Globe (17 percent) and The Philadelphia Inquirer (14 percent). Given The Times's ambitions across global cultures and languages, it would seem that instead of being a lagger, it would insist on being a leader — and make that an explicit goal. I see no sign that this is happening. Nor do I get the impression from many journalists of color I spoke with that they believe progress is on the horizon. "There's always a reason for such little diversity in newsrooms. Over the course of time, the reasons always change, but the underrepresentation never does," said who writes for the Times Magazine, one of the few notably diverse staffs in the building. Ernesto Londoño, who sits on The Times's editorial board — and on an Opinion staff lacking both gender and racial diversity — believes the problem lies in a failure of editors to step outside their circles. "It takes a concerted effort to break out of that habit and tap talent pools that are more diverse," Londoño said. Which means that unless the pattern breaks, the whiter the newsroom is, the whiter it will stay. Mark Thompson, The Times chief executive officer, told a group of top leaders across the corporate and news sides last spring that managers could face dismissal if they failed to diversify their staffs. Baquet, who was at the meeting, didn't sound that militant in our conversation, saying that his editors feel the most pressure through a stringent expectation to bring forth a diverse applicant pool for every job opening. No one has been punished, he says. I can tell diversity isn't a priority here by looking at what is. Think digital transition or global expansion or subscriber growth or visual innovation. Those are mandates that really power up the engines. Diversity is not at that level, at least yet. This issue has challenged most every newsroom manager, myself included. The newsroom I came from, The Washington Post, is quite diverse, but its leadership is heavily white and male. At The Times, on the other hand, people of color seem shut out of all sorts of coveted jobs: the top digital strategists, the top managers, the precious ranks of cultural critics, the White House press corps, the opinion columnists, the national politics jobs — all are overwhelmingly white. It is possible to change this. But The Times will need more humility, introspection and openness than has been its habit in the past. Note: This column explores The Times's diversity crisis, primarily through race. Future columns will address the struggles to fix this issue, news coverage, the widening gender gap, and the limited geographic, religious and ideological diversity. Stay tuned.


Mike Hagan has a used car dealership and repair shop in Rochester, New Hampshire and is running a very odd and frankly irresponsible promotion. He s offering a free AR-15 to people who come buy a car from him, because Murika.Hagan is a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan. He knows what these kinds of guns can do, and yet, according to WFTV 9, he s not worried about whether any of these guns might be used to murder people later on. Thus far, he s given away four of the weapons, along with a 9mm Beretta, which is an alternative for people who don t want an AR-15, and he thinks his promotion is a wild success.This kind of promotion is bad enough, and to refuse to end it following a horrific tragedy like Orlando is just plain insensitive and cruel. The gun nuts apparently don t see it that way, though. They ve taken to Facebook to celebrate Hagan s promotion, lest the evil libruls finally come to confiscate everyone s guns. There has been some backlash, though, not just on social media, but also from a couple of people that NH1 TV spoke to. At least there are least still some sane people out there: To me that s just getting more of the nut jobs out there doing harm to more people that don t deserve it. My opinion, military and police are the only ones that should have them. Hagan has partnered with a local gun dealer to run his promotion, and customers have to go there to go through a background check and get the weapons. Apparently, that makes it all okay because it means he knows he can t give them out like they re candy.Besides that, he believes that the people who take advantage of this promotion will be fully responsible, because everyone knows that all the people who obtain their guns legally are very responsible gun owners oh wait. Omar Mateen, and so many other mass shooters, bought their guns legally, not to mention all the idiots who have no clue what gun safety is, and end up accidentally shooting someone to death.Hagan claims he won t extend the offer to someone from whom he gets a bad feeling. So, what, he s telepathic and knows who has bad intentions? Horse hockey. This is still sick, it s still irresponsible, and it s still cruel and insensitive. It also demonstrates just how sick as a society we ve become where this kind of thing is seen as something to celebrate by so many.


Facebook is appealing an order to impose Austria's social media laws against hate speech on the platform worldwide. ["The court case involves comments posted to Facebook about the leader of Austria's Green Party, which the party claims are illegal under the country's hate speech laws," reported Fortune. "An appeals court in Vienna agreed and ordered Facebook to take them down not just in Austria but everywhere else as well. " According to Reuters, the court also said that "merely blocking them in Austria without deleting them for users abroad was not sufficient. " The order would mean that citizens of other countries where "hate speech" laws are could have their free speech restricted under Austrian law to stop negative posts being made and shared. "Should Facebook comply globally with Russia's laws, or Thailand's laws against insulting the king, or Saudi Arabia's blasphemy laws?" asked Daphne Keller, a lawyer at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. "Would Austria want those laws to dictate what speech its citizens can share online? This ruling sends a signal to courts around the world that they, too, can enforce their national laws to ban speech around the world. " Keller also added that since the post was a political comment, the court order is particularly "troubling," raising questions as to whether political censorship is being enforced. "There is no place for hate speech on Facebook and this post was removed from our platform last year as requested," said a Facebook spokesman to Fortune. "However, we will appeal this particular case before the Austrian Supreme Court to have better legal clarity around this specific post and the categorization as 'unlawful' as the new decision substantially reversed the original court decision. " Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.


President Trump hinted that it is "possible" that the FBI's top post will be filled by Friday, according to a White House press pool report released Saturday. [Trump mentioned that he might even make the final decision on who gets the top FBI post before he leaves for Saudi Arabia Friday, saying "even that is possible. " "We can make a fast decision," Trump said, explaining the FBI's vetting process. Trump spoke highly of the candidates for the position, describing them as "very " and " " people with a lot of talent, according to the pool report. The president did not say whether these candidates are being vetted for the interim director or permanent director position. "Almost all of them are very well known," he said. "They've been vetted over their lifetime, essentially. But very well known, highly respected, really talented people. And that's what we want for the FBI. " Four candidates for the permanent position to replace former FBI director James Comey are being interviewed Saturday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Fox News reported. The four candidates include Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Sen. John Cornyn ( ) and New York Court of Appeals Judge Michael J. Garcia. Trump said he would have fired Comey "regardless" of the recommendations he received from Sessions and Rosenstein in an interview with NBC Nightly News Thursday. The White House told Breitbart News Wednesday that Comey's inability to handle the FBI's tendency to leak to the media "was one of many" reasons why Trump was dissatisfied with his performance.


Jesse Jackson thinks he s Heaven s gatekeeper The arrogant reverend proclaimed that President Trump might not qualify to enter Jesus Kingdom. How dare he!Jackson made the comments at the Ministers March for Justice : Trump says you must be able to speak the language of English, be qualified, and have a job skill. Jesus would not qualify to come in Trump s country he would not qualify to get into Jesus kingdom. Jackson used religion to bash Trump during the event: He quoted part of a passage from the gospel of Matthew: I was hungry, you fed me; naked, you clothed me; captive, you set me free. Jackson was referring to the fact that he believes in open borders and welcoming arms for everyone. Nice try, it s just not true that a nation can survive without borders. This is typical of the pandering reverend who s been using minorities his entire life to profit off of. He s a grifter along with Sharpton who was in attendance of course. These shysters detest Trump because they know he s the real deal and will REALLY help all Americans.


In this image provided by the Pairi Daiza park, giant panda holds her newborn baby in her mouth at the park in Brugelette, Belgium, on June 2, 2016. © AP  Belgium and China have celebrated 45 years of diplomatic relations with a panda themed painting contest. An award ceremony marked the 45th anniversary of bilateral relationship between China and Belgium as well as the birth of a giant panda in the latter.  The ceremony held by Belgium Pairi Daiza Zoo included a contest on giant panda-themed artworks to strengthen friendship and people-to-people exchange between the 2 countries.  After speeches circling around Sino-Belgian relations, the event concluded by announcing the 10 winners of the contest. The competition had accepted 980 entries including 431 paintings and 549 photos of outstanding artistic quality. Loading ...


DAVAO CITY, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte relishes the image of . He boasts of killing criminals with his own hand. On occasion, he calls for mass murder. Speaking of the drug addicts he says are destroying the Philippines, he said, "I would be happy to slaughter them. " Mr. Duterte and his friends have long cultivated legends of his sadistic exploits, like throwing a drug lord from a helicopter and forcing a tourist who violated a smoking ban to eat his cigarette butt at gunpoint. It is a thuggish image that Mr. Duterte embraces. Whether Mr. Duterte has done what he says — the killings he claims to have carried out are impossible to verify — he has realized his gory vision in national policy. First as a mayor, now as president of the Philippines, he has encouraged the police and vigilantes to kill thousands of people with impunity. While his draconian justice and coarse manner have earned him widespread condemnation outside the Philippines, an look at his rise to power and interviews with many people close to him reveal a man of multiple contradictions. He has alienated many with outrageous comments and irrational behavior, yet remains wildly popular. He is an antidrug crusader, yet has struggled with drug abuse himself. And he grew up a child of privilege, the son of a provincial governor, yet was subjected to regular beatings. His mother whipped him so often for his misbehavior that she wore out her horsewhip, according to his brother, Emmanuel Duterte. At parochial school, he was caned by Jesuit priests and, the president says, molested by one. By his teenage years, he was known as a street brawler. "Violence in the house, violence in the school and violence in the neighborhood," Emmanuel Duterte said. "That is why he is always angry. Because if you have pain when you are young, you are angry all the time. " Years later, a psychological assessment of Mr. Duterte, prepared in 1998 for the annulment of his marriage, concluded that he had "narcissistic personality disorder" and a "pervasive tendency to demean, humiliate others and violate their rights. " Nonetheless, his ailing campaigned for his presidential bid last year. That act of devotion only begins to unravel the paradox that is Mr. Duterte. Behind his brutish caricature, according to interviews with dozens of Mr. Duterte's friends, family members, allies and critics, is a man who can be charming and engaging. He has many loyal friends and a soft spot for sick children. As mayor of Davao City, he was known to help people in need by digging into his pocket and handing them a wad of cash. To many, his vulgar jokes only burnish his bona fides as a man of the people. When he appears in public, he is swarmed by adoring fans. Still, the bodies have been piling up. Since Mr. Duterte took office last June and declared a "war" on drugs, the police and unknown assassins have killed more than 3, 600 people, the police say, mostly in the slums of Philippine cities. Some put the toll at more than 7, 000. "I might go down in the history as the butcher," he acknowledged unapologetically in January. In less than nine months, he has already surpassed the death toll of President Ferdinand Marcos, whose forces killed about 3, 300 political opponents and activists during his harsh rule. Yet his gangland approach to combating crime and drugs has largely endeared him to Filipinos who have suffered high rates of violent crime and who see him as a refreshing change from the sophisticated but elite who have ruled this country for most of the last three decades. The dissonance between the image of the gentle, caring grandfather and the brutal strongman spilling blood on the streets is just one of many in a president who was born to the elite and has lived a life surrounded by violence. Rodrigo Roa Duterte grew up in Davao City, in the southern Philippines, the oldest son of the governor of Davao Province. As a teenager, he hung out with the toughest kids, got into fights and learned the rude expressions he uses today. By 15, he was carrying a gun, his brother said. As a freshman at the Ateneo de Davao high school, he was fondled by an American priest, an experience he revealed only in 2015. He identified the priest as the Rev. Mark Falvey, who later moved to California and died in 1975. The Jesuit order agreed in 2007 to pay $16 million to nine people Father Falvey molested as children at a Hollywood church. Mr. Duterte retaliated against another priest who had punished him by filling a squirt gun with ink and spraying the priest's white cassock, his siblings said. For that, he was expelled. He often skipped classes and likes to tell audiences that it took him seven years to finish high school. His misbehavior was often overlooked because of his status, family members say. "He was known as the governor's son," said his older sister, Eleanor Duterte. A daredevil, he took flying lessons at 16. On his first solo flight, he buzzed the family home and hit a treetop with the wheel of his Piper Cub, Emmanuel Duterte said. Later, a car accident put him in a coma for two days, his sister Jocellyn Duterte said. The first time he killed a man, he says, was in a drunken beach brawl at age 17. "Maybe I stabbed somebody to death," he told an interviewer two years ago. His reputation as a womanizer is well founded, but it was often women who sought him out. "Being the governor's son," Jocellyn Duterte said, "the women were always available. " His father told him that since he was always in trouble, he could save legal fees by becoming a lawyer, his brother recalled, so Rodrigo went to law school. In his final year, he shot and wounded a fellow student whom he accused of bullying him. Mr. Duterte graduated anyway and became a prosecutor. "One thing about my brother is he is hardheaded," Emmanuel Duterte said. "The more you tell him not to do it, the more he will do it. He needs to tone down on his anger. He needs anger management. " In the 1980s, his mother led frequent marches against President Marcos's dictatorial rule. After his ouster, President Corazon Aquino offered her the post of Davao's vice mayor. She asked that Rodrigo be appointed instead, friends and family said. Two years later, in 1988, he ran for mayor and won, starting a lifelong streak in which he has never lost an election. When he took office, much of Davao was a war zone. The iron rule of the Marcos era had ended, and Communist rebels held a large part of the city. Armed groups operated with impunity and assassinations of police officers were common. Making the city safe was Mr. Duterte's biggest challenge, and one he accepted personally. Jesus G. Dureza, a high school friend who is now a adviser, recalls seeing him late one night in the taxi he often drove to patrol the city. Mr. Duterte said he was hunting for a man who had been robbing cabdrivers. Mr. Dureza noticed that his pistol was cocked. "He had a death wish," Mr. Dureza said. Shortly after he became mayor, crime suspects started turning up dead on Davao's streets. Mr. Duterte and his supporters have long denied the existence of a death squad in Davao City. But in September, Edgar Matobato, 57, came forward and told a Senate committee that he worked as an assassin on the squad for 24 years, killing about 50 people. In an interview with The New York Times, he said the death squad was founded in 1988 at a lunch he attended at the old Menseng Hotel with Mr. Duterte, several police officers and six other recruits. They were told their job was to hunt down criminals. A police officer passed around a covered basket, and each recruit took out a weapon. Mr. Matobato considered it good fortune that he drew a . 45. "The only one who could command the Davao Death Squad was Mayor Duterte," he told The Times. "If there was an order to kill, it had to be with his clearance. Without his orders, we kill no one. " Mr. Duterte took part in at least one killing, Mr. Matobato said. In 2007, a chance encounter on the road with a man named Vicente Amisola led to a shootout. After Mr. Amisola ran out of ammunition, Mr. Matobato said, Mr. Duterte arrived, grabbed an Uzi and emptied two magazines at the defenseless Mr. Amisola. When they checked Mr. Amisola's body, the squad discovered that he worked for the National Bureau of Investigation. Arnold Rosales, the bureau's acting regional director in Davao, said that Mr. Matobato's account of Mr. Amisola's killing matched the findings of the bureau's investigation except for one detail: the allegation of Mr. Duterte's involvement. Investigators concluded that the death was a result of miscommunication, and no charges were filed, Mr. Rosales said. The investigative report is missing, he said. In February, a former police officer, Arthur Lascañas, 56, came forward and confessed to having led the death squad. He said that he received orders to kill directly from Mr. Duterte and that he had killed 200 people. "All the killings that we committed in Davao City, whether they were buried or thrown in the sea, were paid for by Mayor Duterte," he said. Of the more than 1, 400 people the Davao Death Squad is believed to have killed, at least one was not a crime suspect. Jun Pala, a journalist and outspoken critic of Mr. Duterte's, was gunned down near his home in 2003. Mr. Lascañas said the mayor ordered the killing, and that Mr. Lascañas helped carry it out. Mr. Duterte has never directly addressed the accusations made by Mr. Matobato or Mr. Lascañas, and he declined to be interviewed for this article. After Mr. Matobato's testimony, Mr. Duterte accused the senator who led the committee of taking payoffs from drug lords. She was arrested and jailed last month. Mr. Duterte's personal death toll is harder to substantiate. If he stabbed someone on the beach, there is no record of it. In boasting that he hunted down suspects by night, he offered no specifics. His claim to have killed "about three people" probably refers to a 1988 hostage raid in which he says he fired an at three kidnappers. But he recently acknowledged, "I may have hit them all or none at all. " Becoming president has been an adjustment for Mr. Duterte, who is 71. For months, he still thought of himself as mayor and often called himself that. He prefers to go home to Davao City rather than stay in the sprawling presidential palace complex in Manila. In a land that is notoriously corrupt and where government officials often live like kings, he has lived for decades in the same modest house where he only recently installed . Pomilda Daniel, a neighbor, calls him "a simple man. " She said that Mr. Duterte once admired her large new television and asked if he could have it if it ever broke so that he could fix it and use it. Yet when he discovered during a visit to the House of Hope, a child cancer treatment center in Davao, that the children had no televisions, he returned the same day with nine TV sets and had them installed, said Dr. Mae Dolendo, a pediatric oncologist who heads the center. "He is very, very compassionate," she said. "We have had presidents who conducted themselves like we would expect presidents to conduct themselves, but they haven't solved the country's problems. He's not perfect. He curses. But he gets things done. " Mr. Duterte has no official first lady and boasted during his campaign that he had two wives and two girlfriends. Later, he said that he should give Pfizer an award for creating Viagra. In 1973, he eloped with Elizabeth Zimmerman, a former flight attendant, after courting her for a month. The marriage lasted until 2000, when it was annulled. The psychological assessment of Mr. Duterte prepared for the annulment, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, was based on an examination of Ms. Duterte and is not a diagnosis. In addition to the finding of narcissism, it described Mr. Duterte as a "control freak" and womanizer who began having affairs soon after he was married and flaunted his infidelity by bringing girlfriends to public functions. While still married, Mr. Duterte met Cielito Avanceña, a teenage contestant in a beauty pageant who goes by Honeylet. She is 25 years his junior. He has described her as his second wife, although they never married. Ms. Duterte and Ms. Avanceña declined to be interviewed. Perhaps some of the president's mercurial behavior stems from the constant pain he suffers and his use of narcotics to treat it. Mr. Duterte has made a political career of fighting drugs but acknowledged in December that he had been abusing the opioid fentanyl, the powerful and addictive drug that killed the musician Prince last April. Mr. Duterte began using fentanyl to treat back pain and migraines from a spinal injury, apparently a result of a motorcycle accident a few years ago. His doctor prescribed a quarter of a fentanyl skin patch, the president said, but he began using an entire patch at a time. When his doctor discovered that, he ordered him to quit. "He said: 'Stop it. The first thing that you would lose is your cognitive ability,'" the president recounted. "'You are, you know, abusing the drug. '" Mr. Duterte has not said publicly when he started using fentanyl or whether he has stopped. In December, he denied being addicted. His communications director, Martin Andanar, said that Mr. Duterte had stopped using fentanyl "way before he was elected president" last May. But a person with knowledge of his condition told The Times in September that Mr. Duterte was using the drug then. Mr. Duterte's energy and hair belie his age, but his afflictions have taken their toll. During public appearances, he often presses his fingers against a nerve on the side of his face to reduce the pain. He has skipped several public events because of illness. In his speeches, he sometimes suggests he will not live to serve out his term. He has not explained why. Decades ago, Mr. Duterte learned that he had two rare conditions, Barrett's esophagus and Buerger's disease, which prompted him to quit drinking and smoking. As mayor, he enforced a strict public smoking ban, and he is now considering a similar measure nationwide. He dislikes being questioned about his health. After a reporter asked for his medical report, he publicly rebuked the journalist, demanding, "How is your wife's vagina?" Mr. Duterte's outrageous remarks have left many with the impression that he is unhinged. He says God speaks to him and made him president of this heavily Roman Catholic country. He has compared himself to Hitler. He used a term that translates as "son of a whore" to describe both Pope Francis and President Barack Obama. Antonio Trillanes, a senator, recalled that when they met in 2015 to discuss a political alliance, Mr. Duterte only wanted to talk about people he had killed and "how the brains were splattered all over the place, gangland style. " He seems never to have questioned the proposition that shooting people on the street is the best remedy for crime and addiction. "I have my own political philosophy," he said recently. "Do not destroy my country, because I will kill you. " He scoffs at complaints about lack of due process for people killed by his police force and has threatened to kill human rights activists. On numerous occasions, his aides have had to walk back his comments. Press secretary Ernesto Abella cautioned journalists that they should use their "creative imagination" to understand him and not be "too literal. " That Mr. Duterte's violent boasts should not always be taken literally matters little to his zealous supporters and is of little consolation to the families of the thousands killed by his policies. "He is a child of privilege, but he became a champion of the little guy," said Ken Angeles, Mr. Duterte's college roommate and lifelong friend. "He's a very passionate guy. " Senator Trillanes, now a leading critic of Mr. Duterte, has another name for him: "mass murderer. "


Another disturbing teen melee broke out inside a Brooklyn McDonald s Friday, and this time, the brawlers turned their violence on an innocent man trying to break the fracas up and on employees of the fast food joint.The brutality began at the McDonald s on Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn at about 3 p.m., just as schools were letting out. In the video, a teen girl can be seen standing on a table taking off her top, apparently preparing herself for the fight.Two young girls begin trading blows, and people try to tear them apart. An older gentleman in a hat tries to diffuse the situation, but is turned on by the teen boys crowding around, who seemed to have been enjoying the fight. The narrator, Don Balmain, can be heard gleefully yelling, Kill him! interspersed with laughs.Total chaos breaks out in the restaurant, with teens fighting with cashiers over the counter.The teens eventually chase the older man outside, with the goon behind the camera screaming, Kill him right now! A woman stands in front of him to shield him from the mob. The cameraman shouts, They can t help you! Balmain later posted the video on his Facebook page and sardonically commented, They put that old man in the hospital I feel bad for telling them to kill him. 911 was called, and a woman was taken to Brooklyn Hospital, officials told PIX11. Another man was aided at the scene, but refused medical attention.


Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been the object of some serious concern in the White House due to her potential as a 2020 presidential challenger, despite the fact she has said she will not run.The White House is teaming up with the Republican National Committee (RNC) to dig up whatever they can on Warren and whatever they can fabricate so they can circulate condemning memos to reporters.Meanwhile, aides in the White House are keeping tabs on Warren s criticism of Trump and have used the media to aggressively hit back. Last month The Hill published the Senator s criticism of America s largest non-nuclear bomb being dropped in Afghanistan, the White House quickly scrambled with a rebuttal an unusually high level of concern over one senator. As somebody who is probably, in the hearts and minds of liberal activists, a leader of the party, that voice carries some weight, and we have to respond, said a White House official who wishes to remain anonymous.In an effort to put down the Senator, Trump brought back his favorite and most offensive Warren insults last month, referring to her as Pocahontas while delivering a speech to the National Rifle Associate. I have a feeling that in the next election, you re going to be swamped with candidates, said Trump. It may be Pocahontas, remember that. Many see Warren as a likely 2020 presidential candidate, and when Trump can t find legitimated faults with his adversaries, he cowardly resorts to racial insults as attempts to make them look bad. Warren has abstained from engaging in name calling, despite what the Trump administration has to say about her. Elizabeth Warren is the perfect foil for the Trump administration, says former Trump aide Sam Nunberg. I always thought she would be the new Rosie [O Donnell]. Our base hates her; we think she s a joke. She s somebody to galvanize us. It was very smart for the president to bring her up at the NRA. The White House claims they are focused on governing but believe they also need to brand the Massachusetts Senator as out of touch and unfit for the presidency, while she holds a 56 percent approval rating nationwide in a recent survey by Morning Consult.It seems the White House isn t very good at hiding the fact they are seriously afraid of Warren s momentum and her potential to reach the blue-collar voters who backed Trump. Luckily, Trump s racist name calling makes him look bad, not her.Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images