Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will authorize $12 billion to $15 billion for a wall spanning the entire U.S.-Mexico border as soon as Sept. 30, the Republican leaders said Thursday. The comments came midway through the Republicans’ annual retreat, this year called “Congress of Tomorrow,” during which lawmakers are plotting the first 200 days of action on such issues as repealing and replacing Obamacare and reforming the tax code. After Ryan was asked several times if he planned to offset the billions for the wall, the speaker said he would “wait and see” what the Trump administration proposed.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks during the Women’s March Los Angeles on Jan. 21. If the “resistance” to President Trump has a headquarters, a nerve center, a ground zero, then California is it — or so the state’s top politicians like to tell us. Pretty much every day since Nov. 8 there’s been yet another news story about yet another left-coast official insisting that he or she won’t let Trump undercut California’s progressive policies or mess with California’s progressive values — or else his or her name isn’t [insert name here].
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande underscored the need for European unity in the face of growing internal and external threats, including the rise of populism across Europe and U.S. threats to abandon free trade. "Europe faces big internal and external challenges which we ... can only master by working together," Merkel told a news conference on Friday with Hollande.
Police in North Carolina believe that what first appeared to be a twisted scheme to carjack would-be good Samaritans may have been a sick prank orchestrated by area kids. In the pre-dawn hours Sunday, the 33-year-old victim was driving in Carteret County
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., found herself in an unusual position after voting to support retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s nomination to President Trump’s cabinet — defending herself to aggrieved progressives. On Wednesday evening, after considerable pushback from supporters, Warren wrote on Facebook that she thinks backing Carson was a reasonable decision despite her “serious, deep, profound concerns” about Carson’s inexperience and the “outrageous things” he said as a Republican presidential candidate. Warren explained that she sent Carson a nine-page letter with detailed questions on a host of issues she considers central for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including providing housing assistance, fighting homelessness, preparing for natural disasters, and protecting the LGBT community.
Citing mounting evidence from recent US executions, a federal judge blocked Thursday the use of lethal injections to put to death three Ohio inmates, saying a proposed drug cocktail was unconstitutional. Federal Magistrate Judge Michael Merz of Ohio focused heavily on the use of one of the drugs, midazolam, citing evidence from multiple other state executions that the drug insufficiently sedated inmates, likely leading to suffering during their executions. Lawyers for the three Ohio inmates claimed such suffering violated the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Despite all the fanfare surrounding voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant, they just don't seem to be catching on much with consumers, according to recent research. While their makers market the devices as a hub for controlling the smart home, less than a third of Amazon Echo and Google Home users list the capability as a reason why they like their device, VoiceLabs found. With 6.5 million so-called "voice first" devices sold in 2016 vs. 1.7 million sold in the prior year, VoiceLabs expects the devices to get more popular in 2017.
If you're a blue state voter who's spent any time on Facebook in the past few months, you've probably been overwhelmed by caps lock Facebook posts begging you to call your representatives. The posts can feel simultaneously redundant and contradictory — call your senator to oppose Betsy Devos..no wait, send Paul Ryan a postcard first! — and render some of us completely impassive. A new site, "5 Calls," aims to make calling that much easier, giving users easy one-minute scripts they can read to their representative each week.
Skeletal remains discovered in Tennessee this week have been identified as those of a Fort Campbell soldier missing since September, officials said. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) on Wednesday confirmed the remains were those of Private First Class Shadow McClaine, who was last seen on Sept. 2. Sergeant Jamal Williams-McCray, McClaine's ex-husband, and Specialist Charles Robinson, who served in the 101st Airborne Division with McClaine, remain in pre-trial confinement pending court-martial on charges of kidnapping, conspiracy and premeditated murder, the fort's public affairs office said in a statement.
The Trump administration's expressed interest in setting up safe zones for civilians in Syria was greeted Thursday with caution by Russia and Turkey, which have taken the lead in the latest peace efforts to end the Mideast country's devastating six-year war. Turkey said it had always supported the idea, but both Ankara and Moscow warned such plans would require careful consideration. The idea of safe zones, proposed by both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton during the U.S. election campaign, was ruled out by the Obama administration for fear it would bring the United States into direct conflict with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia, which has been waging an air campaign to aid Assad's forces since September 2015.
French presidential candidate Francois Fillon vowed Thursday to produce evidence to counter explosive allegations that his wife received half a million euros ($540,000) for "fake jobs". The rightwing Fillon, who polls show is likely to reach the second round of May's election, is facing an investigation into claims he handed his British-born wife Penelope a fictitious paid role as a parliamentary aide. Fillon's campaign manager, senator Bruno Retailleau, said the candidate's lawyer would contact the national financial prosecutor's office and "take them a certain number of documents".
California authorities say they have captured the second of two inmates who walked away from a minimum security facility in Northern California. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says 27-year-old Brian Schueren of Orange County was taken into custody without incident Wednesday near the Alder Conservation Camp.
Disturbing bodycam footage has been released of the arrest of a Texas mother and her teen daughters by a cop who was later disciplined for using unnecessary force. In the video taken last month, Fort Worth Officer William Martin responds to a call made
Hillary Clinton’s email server was the subject of enormous scrutiny, and we discussed it, at the time, as one facet of an enormous security problem. Now, Twitter users have fact-checked Twitter handles associated with the Trump administration, and the results are not just embarrassing, but potentially disastrous and possibly illegal. Checking somebody’s email address tied to their Twitter account is as simple as getting to the password recovery screen.
A British court on Thursday blocked pollution claims against Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell by more than 40,000 Niger Delta residents demanding action over decades of oil spills in the region. Members of the Ogale and Bille communities had applied for the case to be heard in Britain, arguing they could not get justice in Nigeria. King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, ruler of the Ogale Community, told AFP the decision would be appealed, saying: "The battle is not over.
Although millions of people around the world continue to buy iPhones every year, it’s hard to deny that the enthusiasm for Apple’s smartphones has diminished somewhat over the past few generations. The iPhone 6 was the last major upgrade, and in the years since its launch, other vendors have moved on to bigger and bolder designs. Thankfully for Apple fans, the long wait for another overhaul might be nearly over.
Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to President Trump, addresses the March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 27.
A Palestinian uses a sling shot against Israeli troops during clashes following a protest at checkpoint 300 in the West Bank city of Bethlehem; People walk on a street decorated with Chinese lamps to celebrate the Lunar New Year in Bangkok, Thailand;
By John Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Atomic scientists reset their symbolic "Doomsday Clock" to its closest time to midnight in 64 years on Thursday, saying the world was closer to catastrophe due to threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change and Donald Trump's election as U.S. president. The timepiece, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and displayed on its website, is widely viewed as an indicator of the world's vulnerability to disaster. "The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it's ever been in the lifetime of almost everyone in this room," Lawrence Krauss, the bulletin's chair, told a news conference in Washington.
A 69-year-old seaplane that crashed, killing the pilot and his passenger, in front of thousands of onlookers during an aerial display above the city of Perth had flown from the United States to Australia in recent years, an official said Friday. Owner and pilot Peter Anthony Lynch, 52, and his Indonesian partner Endah Cakrawati, 30, were alone in the 1948 Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat when it crashed into the Swan River on Thursday to the horror of up to 60,000 witnesses who were gathering to watch an annual fireworks display. Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said Lynch had "remodeled" the twin-engine plane and had flown it across the United States then across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.
By Lamin Jahateh BANJUL (Reuters) - Thousands of people lined the streets of Gambia's capital Banjul on Thursday to welcome home new President Adama Barrow days after authoritarian leader Yahya Jammeh fled into exile under pressure from regional forces. Barrow, a former real estate agent, won a Dec. 1 election but Jammeh refused to step down, forcing his opponent to be inaugurated at the Gambian Embassy in neighbouring Senegal. Clad in a long white African tunic, Barrow smiled as he stepped out of a small plane and walked down a red carpet to greet hundreds of diplomats and officials lined up to greet him.
Police in Michigan are alleging that a former business executive stabbed his wife to death then turned the blade on himself in an attempted suicide while their three young children were right upstairs. Police later said the caller was the couple's 10-year-old, who reportedly told an operator the father was retrieving a knife. When deputies arrived, they say the former Quicken Loans exec was covered in blood and told them he'd stabbed his wife, according to an Oakland County Sheriff's Office statement.
Another attempt is underway to establish California as a separate nation. Election officials announced Thursday that a proposal has been submitted to the Secretary of State's Office that would ask voters to repeal part of the state constitution that declares California an inseparable part of the United States. If the proposal qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, it could be a step to a future vote on whether California should break away from the U.S.
Boko Haram Islamists raided a village in northeast Nigeria earlier this week, killing three men and abducting seven women, police said Thursday. The militants raided a village in the northeastern district of Askira Uba on Monday, firing weapons and burning buildings to the ground, Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu told AFP. Casting doubt on government claims that Boko Haram is "technically defeated", the police chief said officers had been deployed in the area to forestall further attacks.
Up until now, most of the leaked renders we've seen of the Galaxy S8 have either been speculative or based on cases and screen protectors reportedly designed for Samsung's upcoming phone. Consider the source of this latest leaked image — VentureBeat's Evan Blass, who has a pretty good track record when it comes to revealing details about unannounced smartphones. Blass posted the image to Twitter, along with a March 29 date for the Galaxy S8's unveiling.