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Easing tone, US says robust actions deterred Iran

President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday appeared set on easing weeks of escalating tensions with Iran, assuring worried lawmakers it does not seek war and crediting robust US military moves with deterring the clerical regime. After a month of fiery warnings to Iran, top Trump officials delivered a classified briefing to the full US Congress where Democrats have accused the administration of hyping intelligence and pushing the United States dangerously close to war.

Ocasio-Cortez says it is time to open impeachment inquiry against Trump

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far resisted calls for Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings, instead backing continued investigations of Trump and his administration by numerous congressional panels instead. "I think it’s time for us to, at the very least, open an impeachment inquiry ... we’ve been given no choice I think, in this scenario," Ocasio-Cortez said outside the House of Representatives. The report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller stopped short of declaring that the president obstructed justice, but it also did not exonerate him.

'Nowhere for the water to go': Tornadoes, floods hit central US day after 20 tornadoes

A tornado tore through a neighborhood near Tulsa International Airport on Tuesday as a powerful storm triggered flash flooding and washed out roads across parts of Oklahoma.

Murrieta, California residents concerned as illegal immigrants are flown into town

Murrieta resident Bob Kowell speaks out about migrants being relocated to his city on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

Tu-95 Bear: Meet the Old Russian Bomber U.S. F-22s Just Intercepted Near Alaska

It’s old, it’s obvious and it has mechanical problems — facts hard to ignore while the Tu-95 plays a key role in a highly orchestrated and much exaggerated effort by the Kremlin to impress its foreign rivals.(This first appeared several years ago and is being reposted due to reader interest.) At first glance, the Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber looks like a 59-year-old flying anachronism, a Cold War leftover that has outlived its usefulness in a century when stealth is king.The Bear is showing signs of its age. In recent months, two Tu-95 crashes led to the grounding of the entire fleet of more than 50 aircraft to resolve mechanical issues. Besides, there is nothing stealthy about the Bear.Even when the bomber is in top-notch shape, the turboprop-powered Tu-95 is loud … really loud. In fact, it’s so noisy that listening devices on submerged U.S. submarines can hear a Bear flying overhead.Furthermore, it has the radar signature of a flying big-box store. The plane is huge.Photos of lumbering Bear-H bombers intercepted by sleek U.S. or NATO warplanes as they flew toward protected airspace are some of the most recognizable images of the East-West nuclear stand-off during the 1970s and ’80s.

New Feature on 2020 Chevrolet and GMC Models Won't Let Car Move Till Driver Fastens Seatbelt

The new tech is called Buckle to Drive, and it rolls out on several Chevrolet and GMC models for 2020 as part of the Teen Driver package.

Ukraine's New Leader Sets Snap Parliamentary Election for July

(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s new leader started a two-month countdown to snap parliamentary elections as the TV comedian-turned-politician tries to consolidate power after his rapid rise to power.

Panasonic joins firms stepping away from Huawei after US ban

Japan's Panasonic on Thursday said it would stop supplying some components to Huawei, joining a growing list of firms distancing themselves from the Chinese telecoms giant after a US ban over security concerns. Japan's Toshiba also announced it was temporarily halting shipments to Huawei to check whether US-made parts were involved, in order to comply with Washington's new restrictions. The moves came a day after major Japanese and British mobile carriers said they would delay releasing new Huawei handsets, upping the pressure on the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer.

Biden blasts Trump for saying he 'deserted' Pennsylvania: 'I was 10'

The former vice president blasted President Trump for telling the crowd at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this week that he “deserted” them.

Tornado season has been wild, and more storms are coming

The deadly and destructive 2019 tornado season has been above-average, and shows no signs of letting up.

Iran Has Amassed the Largest Ballistic Missile Force in the Middle East

Deterring regional adversaries from threatening Iran is the primary reason Tehran has amassed the largest ballistic missile force in the Middle East.The missile program actually began under the Shah, but it was accelerated during the Iran-Iraq War in order to threaten Saddam Hussein with strikes deep in Iraqi territory. Since then, Iran has worked with countries like Libya, North Korea and China in order to develop a large and diverse arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles that form one part of its three-leg deterrent strategy. With Iran now using missiles in conflict, it’s worth taking a closer look at the weapons in its arsenal.(This first appeared back in 2017.)Shahab-SeriesThe backbone of Iran's missile forces are the Shahab-series of liquid-fueled (mostly) short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM). There are three variants of the missile: The Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Shahab-3. The Shahab-1 was the first missile Iran acquired and is based on the Soviet Scud-B missile. Iran reportedly purchased these initially from Libya and possibly Syria, but North Korea has been its main supplier. The Shab-1 has a reported range between 285–330 kilometers, and can carry a warhead of around one thousand kilograms. Iran is believed to have three hundred Shahab-1 rockets.

Elizabeth Warren calls comedian to give love life advice: 'We have a plan to get my mom grandkids'

Elizabeth Warren is the only presidential candidate with a plan for comedian Ashley Nicole Black's love life.That's at least according to Black, who wrote on Twitter that she had a chat with the Democratic presidential candidate had called her up — making good on a weekend tweet from Ms Warren offering to help."Guess who's crying and shaking and just talked to Elizabeth Warren on the phone?!?!? We have a plan to get my mom grand kids, it's very comprehensive, and it does involve raising taxes on billionaires," Black wrote on Twitter, referencing Ms Warren's campaign mantra that she has a "plan for that".The phone call — which the Warren campaign confirmed took place to The Independent — follows after Black jokingly tweeted on Sunday about the dozens of policy proposals Ms Warren has released, and that have come to largely define her campaign."Do you think Elizabeth Warren has a plan to fix my love life," Black tweeted then.Ms Warren's account replied: "DM me and let's figure this out."Ms Warrens' campaign provided no details of what the phone call included. But Black, a comedian who has worked on Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal" television show, provided some context piecemeal in her replies."I'm literally shaking," she wrote in response to one user.It's "like you're talking to someone super smart, who actually cares," she wrote in response to another user, who asked how it feels to speak with Ms Warren. "It was amazing."Finally, a hint at the advice: She said I've [got to] focus on what I've got going for me... that's when I started crying LOL".

Researchers say a tiny planet slammed into the Moon a long time ago

Earth's Moon only ever shows us one face. It's locked into its current orientation, with a permanent nearside and farside, but it wasn't until the Apollo missions that scientists were able to see just how different the two sides really are. The nearside, with its sea of dark gray basins standing in contrast to the brilliant white powder that covers the rest of its face, varies dramatically from the farside, which is marked with countless smaller craters in a more uniform distribution.The debate over how the Moon's split personalities developed has raged for decades, but new research seems to indicate that one of the possible explanations does indeed hold water. The theory, that Earth's Moon was struck by a tiny dwarf planet long ago, is the subject of a new research paper published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.Using computer models to simulate what may have happened to the Moon's surface long ago, researchers suggest the most likely scenario seems to be the collision between the Moon and a very large body. The impact of a dwarf planet as large as 480 miles across would have struck what we see today as the Moon's nearside at a speed of 14,000 miles per hour.This theory stands in contrast to other proposed explanations, including the theory that Earth may have once had not one Moon, but two. The two-moon theory suggests that Earth's moon duo may have at one point collided and merged, leaving the Moon as we see it today looking oddly unsymmetrical.The dwarf planet collision scenario assumes that whatever the body that struck the Moon was, it was in its own path around the Sun and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to strike Earth's natural satellite. This, the researchers say, would also explain why the crust on the farside of the Moon is different than that of its nearside."We demonstrate that a large body slowly impacting the nearside of the Moon can reproduce the observed crustal thickness asymmetry and form both the farside highlands and the nearside lowlands," the paper explains. "Additionally, the model shows that the resulting impact ejecta would cover the primordial anorthositic crust to form a two‐layer crust on the farside, as observed."

After Huawei, U.S. could blacklist Chinese surveillance tech firm - media

The U.S. administration is considering Huawei-like sanctions on Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision, media reports show, deepening worries that trade friction between the world's top two economies could be further inflamed. The restrictions would limit Hikvision's ability to buy U.S. technology and American companies may have to obtain government approval to supply components to the Chinese firm, the New York Times reported https://nyti.ms/2MfgBS3 on Tuesday. The United States stuck Huawei Technologies on a trade blacklist last week, effectively banning U.S. firms from doing business with the world's largest telecom network gear maker, in a major escalation in the trade war.

Fears rise China could weaponise rare earths in US tech war

The US has hit China where it hurts by going after its telecom champion Huawei, but Beijing's control of the global supply of rare earths used in smartphones and electric cars gives it a powerful weapon in their escalating tech war. A seemingly routine visit by President Xi Jinping to a Chinese rare earths company this week is being widely read as an obvious threat that Beijing is standing ready for action. Xi's inspection tour "is no accident, this didn't happen by chance," said Li Mingjiang, China programme coordinator at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.

Abducted Idaho girl found safe in Arizona, suspect jailed

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — A 17-year-old girl abducted from an Idaho fast-food restaurant where she worked was found safe in Arizona on Tuesday and the man accused of taking her was jailed on a $1 million bond, authorities said.

Trump Storms Out of Infrastructure Talks with Dems after Pelosi Comments

President Trump stormed out of infrastructure talks with Democratic congressional leaders Wednesday, railing against House speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that he is "engaged in a cover-up."“I don’t do cover ups,” the president told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. “I walked into the room and I told Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it. I’d be really good at that. That’s what I do. But you know what, you can’t do it under these circumstances.'""Get these phony investigations over with," Trump added. “I’ve said from the beginning that you probably can’t go down two tracks. You can go down the investigation track or you can go down the investment track."The president's ire was piqued by a meeting of the House Democratic caucus earlier Wednesday, in which members discussed the possibility of impeaching him.During the closed-door meeting, Pelosi reportedly clashed with rank-and-file members who are upping the pressure on her to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. She was said to have argued that most of the party is against impeachment, a divisive and cumbersome process, as well as a political risk for Democrats. But she emerged from the meeting with harsh words for the president."We believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up," Pelosi said told reporters afterward. "We believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States."Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of planning the dramatic exit from the infrastructure meeting.“To watch what happened in the White House would make your draw drop,” Schumer said back on Capitol Hill. “It’s clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president’s part. It was planned.”

Uber and Lyft to turn the wheels on car ownership - industry experts

Ride-hailing apps like those of Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc are expected to alter the state of car ownership towards subscription-based services and shared ownership, auto industry experts said at a conference on Wednesday. "Your phone will be your car," said Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing company that enables users to rent their cars out to others. Haddad said that while car sales have never been higher globally, people are realizing that owning a vehicle is increasingly becoming unaffordable due to car payments, insurance, and parking.

'Horrifying': Kirsten Gillibrand denounces anti-abortion bills in Georgia

Gillibrand vowed to champion abortion rights in her campaign for president, calling the recent bans "horrifying" and "discriminatory."

Could One of America's Allies Take Down the F-35 Program?

What does America need to save its troubled F-35 stealth fighter?Turkey, that’s what.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently warned that the multinational F-35 program, of which Turkey is a member, would fail if Turkey were excluded. Turkey is facing sanctions, including being dropped from the F-35 program if it goes ahead with purchasing Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, which has raised Washington’s fears that F-35 secrets might be leaked to Russia. The U.S. has stopped shipping equipment to Turkey for that nation’s planned purchase of 100 F-35s, while the first two aircraft officially delivered to Turkey are still in the United States.For its part, Ankara is adamant that it has a right to purchase both American stealth fighters and Russian anti-aircraft missiles, despite the fact that the S-400 is one of the most likely Russian weapons to be used against the F-35. “We were surely not going to remain silent against our right to self-defense being disregarded and attempts to hit us where it hurts,” Erdogan said at a Turkish defense trade show. “This is the kind of process that is behind the S-400 agreement we reached with Russia.”“Nowadays, we are being subject to a similar injustice - or rather an imposition - on the F-35s ... Let me be frank: An F-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is bound to collapse completely.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she'd be 'hard pressed' to back Biden in primary

Bernie Sanders appears to be the favorite to secure Ocasio-Cortez’s prized endorsement in the Democratic presidential primaryCongresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez told the Guardian: ‘I’m not close to an endorsement announcement any time soon.’ Photograph: Joshua Roberts/ReutersAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive US congresswoman and social media sensation, has said she would be “hard pressed” to endorse the frontrunner, Joe Biden, in the Democratic presidential primary.The statement is the latest sign of the left’s apathy towards the former vice-president, who has surged ahead of the Senator Bernie Sanders and other rivals in recent polls.Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, appears to be the favourite to secure 29-year-old Ocasio-Cortez’s prized endorsement but she said she was still some way off making a decision.“I’m not close to an endorsement announcement any time soon,” she told the Guardian on Tuesday. “I’m still trying to get a handle on my job. It seems like ages but I’m just five months in and we have quite some time. The debates are in the summer and our first primary election for the entire country isn’t until next year.” Asked if she would consider endorsing Biden, widely seen as a centrist, Ocasio-Cortez replied: “I’d be hard pressed to see that happen, to be honest, in a primary.”Biden, comfortably leading every opinion poll, came under fire last week when Reuters reported he was pursuing a “middle ground” approach to the climate crisis. He later distanced himself from the implication.Ocasio-Cortez criticised politicians seeking “a middle-of-the-road approach to save our lives”. Sanders, running second in most polls, tweeted that there was “no ‘middle ground’ when it comes to climate policy”.If and when Ocasio-Cortez does endorse a candidate, Sanders probably remains the favourite to secure her support. She was an organiser for his 2016 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. The pair appeared at a rally in Washington last week to support the Green New Deal climate plan.In a short interview on Tuesday the congresswoman, who has more than 4 million Twitter followers, also reiterated her demand for Donald Trump’s impeachment. “I think that the grounds have been there for quite some time but the case is really getting to a larger point that we haven’t seen before,” she said.Democratic leaders are putting the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, under pressure to move ahead with the process. Ocasio-Cortez added: “I know that the conversation is really changing this week in the caucus and so we’ll see where the speaker lands.”

The Latest: Tornadoes move through southwest Missouri towns

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Latest on storm damage in the Southern Plains and Midwest (all times local):

Google unveils a fresh new look for Search on mobile devices

Google unveiled a new look and feel today for the way it presents Google Search results on mobile, and the update has been regarded in a few corners now as somewhat News Feed-like.It's easy to see why that's the case, as the search giant's changes include putting emphasis on a website name and favicon above the search results. Whereas the source of results had previously not been so clearly emphasized, which makes the new design for showing results feel a little like scrolling through a feed of posts from publishers and the like."With this new design, a website's branding can be front and center, helping you better understand where the information is coming from and what pages have what you're looking for," explains Google Senior Interaction Designer for Search Jamie Leach in a company blog post today. "The name of the website and its icon appear at the top of the results card to help anchor each result, so you can more easily scan the page of results and decide what to explore next."The post notes that the refreshed look for what's arguably Google's most important product will start showing up to users over the coming days. As part of the changes, Leach continues, when you search for a product or service and Google feels like it's got a relevant, "useful" ad that would be worth including in the results, you'll now see an ad label in bold at the top of a search results card. The web address will also be included, so you can quickly determine where the information you're seeing is coming from.The other important thing to note about the Google Search refresh on mobile is that this also lays the foundation for Google to add more action buttons and information previews to search results cards, with Google wanting you to be able to now do everything from buying movie tickets to playing podcasts right there from within the results. "Our goal with Search always has been to help people quickly and easily find the information that they're looking for," Leach says. "Over the years, the amount and format of information available on the web has changed drastically -- from the proliferation of images and video to the availability of 3D objects you can now view in AR." Which is why the company thought a "visual refresh" of Search on mobile would do a better job of helping people find the information they need and quickly determine where it came from.

US stocks rally on Huawei reprieve as pound gyrates on Brexit news

Global stocks rallied Tuesday as the United States took a step away from imposing crushing restrictions on Chinese telecom company Huawei, while the pound gyrated on fresh Brexit drama.

Dog sitter caught walking around naked in customer's home

A dog sitter has been caught on camera walking around her client’s house naked. Rosie Brown hired Casey Brengle to look after her two dogs, Penny and Daisy, while she went to a wedding for four days.

Half of American adults expect war with Iran 'within next few years': Reuters/Ipsos poll

While Americans are more concerned about Iran as a security threat to the United States now than they were last year, few would be in favor of a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian military. Historically tense relations between Washington and Tehran worsened in May after U.S. President Donald Trump hardened his anti-Iran stance and restored all sanctions on Iranian oil exports following his decision a year ago to pull the United States out of a 2015 international nuclear accord with Tehran. The United States moved an aircraft carrier and forces to the Gulf region in response to intelligence that Iran may be plotting against U.S. interests, an assertion Iran denies.

Carson says he had 'difficulty hearing' during viral Oreo testimony, defends HUD proposals

Carson said he "was having difficulty hearing” during the committee testimony that went viral when he appeared to mix up a real estate term and Oreos.

China's Navy Is Growing So Fast Its Running Out of Names For Its Warships

China’s navy has a new problem: not enough names for its rapidly growing fleet of warships.“China is running out of provincial capitals to name new destroyers, and it might have to turn to other big domestic cities, which reflects the country's rapid naval development in recent years,” according to Chinese newspaper Global Times.The People’s Liberation Army Navy recently named its first Type 055 destroyer the Nanchang, which is the capital city of East China's Jiangxi Province.One of the three other Type 055 destroyers will be named Lhasa, the capital of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, according to Chinese media. That just leaves Nanning and Taipei as the names of provincial capitals for destroyers (Taipei is Taiwan’s capital, though Taiwan has not yet declared independence as a separate nation from China).Which means non-capital cities will have to bequeath their names to Chinese destroyers. The latest destroyer is named Qiqihar, which is a non-capital city in in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A few ships have been named after major cities, such as the Shenzen, a Type 051 destroyer.“Chinese destroyers and frigates should be named after big and medium Chinese cities, according to the naval vessels naming regulation,” Global Times said. “This means naming of destroyers does not necessarily have to use provincial capitals, as it was a non-binding tradition.”

Gloria Allred Opens Up About Nearly ‘Bleeding to Death’ From Her Illegal Abortion

Kyle Grillot/ReutersAttorney Gloria Allred took the stage at a pro-choice rally in Manhattan on Tuesday and told a harrowing story about nearly “bleeding to death” after she was forced to get an illegal abortion following a rape in the 1960s.Describing herself as “living evidence of what happens if abortion is criminalized,” Allred said recent anti-abortion legislation in Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri will effectively condemn women and girls to death by leaving them no options other than illegal abortion. While Alabama’s near-total abortion ban stipulates up to 99 year prison sentences for doctors performing abortions, Allred said, “The truth is, the victims are the women and the girls who have to get a back-alley abortion and who are going to be left to die.” The women’s rights lawyer told the crowd in Foley Square that she’d seen firsthand what it was like for women who had no access to abortion in the 1960s. After being raped at gunpoint in Mexico, she said, she traveled back to the United States, found out she was pregnant, and discovered that it was a crime in many states for doctors to perform abortions. “I had to get a back-alley abortion in a bathtub from a person who was not licensed, they were just doing it for the money,” she said. Once she began hemorrhaging, she said, the person who performed the procedure told her it was “[her] problem now.” Allred recalled suffering from a 106-degree fever and being packed in ice once she was hospitalized, all while she was surrounded by other women who were “suffering” from illegal abortions. “The only time a hospital would admit a woman like me was if she was bleeding to death from an abortion,” she said. But even then, she said she was vilified for having gotten the procedure done. “The nurse told me, ‘This should teach you a lesson,’” Allred said. “It taught me abortion should be safe, legal, and accessible!” New Laws in Georgia and Alabama Have Women Panicking They Can’t Get AbortionsAllred told the crowd of demonstrators that women under the jurisdiction of the new anti-abortion laws in Alabama, Missouri, and Georgia will also likely have to turn to back-alley abortions as a means of terminating their pregnancies, claiming the laws will force women into “no-win situations.”“More women died from illegal abortions than men in Vietnam,” Allred said. “Most of these lawmakers signing these bills will never have to get an abortion.”New York mayor and 2020 contender Bill de Blasio also spoke at the rally, describing the lawmakers passing the bills as “right-wing extremists” ignoring the American majority and trying to take the U.S. back to a time of equality “disparity.”“The only person who gets to decide is the woman herself. That is what the American people believe,” de Blasio said. “Women will die because these laws were passed, and that shouldn’t happen in our America… The rights of women are what matter most.”Earlier this month, Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill that would punish doctors for performing abortions with a maximum sentence of 99 years. The law outlaws abortion in all stages of pregnancy and makes no exception in cases of rape or incest. Missouri lawmakers also recently passed a bill that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, and Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp signed a similar bill.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

May’s Desperate Gamble on a New Brexit Referendum Falls Flat

Theresa May made a desperate final gamble to get her Brexit deal through the British Parliament before she’s thrown out of office -- but her efforts looked doomed. In a hastily arranged speech on Tuesday, the embattled prime minister promised to give members of Parliament a vote on whether to call another referendum to ratify Britain’s divorce from the European Union. It’s something many MPs -- including scores in the opposition Labour Party -- have been calling for, but she made it conditional on them backing her deal first.

1967 Ford Mustang Fastback Restoration Is A Work Of Art

The Ford Mustang is an American automotive icon known the world over. Ford’s pony car is the four-wheeled embodiment of the American dream. Petty’s Garage is well-known for its work on modern Mustangs, enhancing their performance and producing limited edition special models.

Eiffel Tower climber 'admitted to psychiatric unit'

A man, believed to be Russian, who sparked a mass evacuation of the Eiffel Tower by scaling the iconic Paris landmark has been admitted to a psychiatric unit, legal sources said Tuesday. The man caused chaos Monday and the closure of the monument to tourists by spending six hours clinging to the outer metal framework of the Eiffel Tower. An investigation has been opened for unauthorised entry into a cultural monument, a judicial source said.

Oklahoma reels, Missouri declares state of emergency from storm, floods

Rescue crews using boats pulled at least 50 people from rising water as heavy downpours inundated roads and homes, Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Keli Cain said, although there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries. Only the tops of cars engulfed by water were could be seen in video footage of roadways near Oklahoma City, and some houses were entirely surrounded by floods. "It's real dangerous," said Ross Reuter, a spokesman for Canadian County, where 10 people were rescued.

Apple offered to buy Tesla back in 2013 for more than it’s worth today

For years, analysts have maintained that Apple needs to move past the iPhone and look for additional revenue streams. Consequently, many analysts over the years have proposed that Apple would be well advised to make a blockbuster acquisition and snatch up a company like Netflix or Tesla.Interestingly enough, it turns out that Apple actually did make an effort to acquire Tesla six years ago at a valuation of $240 a share. Incidentally, Tesla's share price has been reeling lately and is currently hovering in the $200 range. Word of Apple's efforts to acquire Tesla was brought to light by analyst Craig Irwin of Roth Capital Partners who revealed the interesting tidbit on CNBC (via Electrek) earlier today."Around 2013, there was a serious bid from Apple at around $240 a share," Irwin said."This is something we did multiple checks on," Irwin added. "I have complete confidence that this is accurate. Apple bid for Tesla. I don't know if it got to a formal paperwork stage, but I know from multiple different sources that this was very credible."Notably, there have been rumblings over the years regarding Apple's interest in Tesla, but this is the first time we've seen a report that Apple was legitimately trying to make a serious play for the electric automaker.You might also recall reports from a few years back which revealed that Elon Musk, sometime in mid-2013 -- sat down for a meeting with Apple's mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica and, rumor has it, Tim Cook himself.Apple, of course, has been busy working on its own car initiative -- known as Project Titan -- for the past few years, though it remains to be seen if anything concrete ever manifests from its efforts. Early reports hinted that Apple was set on designing and building its own car, though a plethora of technical challenges ultimately resulted in a few rounds of layoffs and employees being shifted over to other projects. Last we heard, Apple's Project Titan is still ongoing but is now focused on autonomous systems as opposed to designing a car from the ground up.Interestingly, and somewhat uncharacteristically, Tim Cook confirmed this during an interview a few years ago. "We're focusing on autonomous systems," Cook said in 2017. "It's a core technology that we view as very important."Lastly, with Morgan Stanley recently noting that Tesla shares may sink to $10/share in a worst-case scenario, it will be interesting to see if Apple might swoop in and pick up the company at a huge discount.

I'm the same age as Elizabeth Warren. We 70-somethings have no business being president.

I have nothing against old people — I'm one of them. But maybe it's time to add a maximum age limit to our minimum age requirement for our presidents.

Trump says he doesn't want war with Iran. Is John Bolton driving the US into a conflict anyway?

The view that John Bolton is driving Trump into military confrontation with America's principal foe in the Middle East is spreading across the globe.

Will FAA's plan for 737 MAX fly outside US?

Getting Boeing's top-selling 737 MAX back in the skies faces a critical test this week as the company and US regulators each seek to restore their reputations after two deadly crashes. The US Federal Aviation Administration convened a summit of global aviation regulators on Thursday to walk through the steps taken to address concerns with the MAX following criticism the agency dragged its feet on the decision to ground the jets. Most agencies around the world have said little or nothing about the situation since the 737 MAX was grounded following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which together with a Lion Air crash in October, claimed 346 lives.

Meghan McCain Demands to Be Taken Seriously by ‘The View’ Co-Hosts

During Tuesday’s broadcast of The View, co-host Meghan McCain seemed a bit irritated and annoyed with her colleagues for not taking her viewpoints on politics seriously enough, insisting at one point that she comes to the show every day to give a “different perspective” even though it is an “unpopular one.”With the show hitting the air just moments after a House Judiciary Committee hearing adjourned following former White House counsel Don McGahn defying a congressional subpoena, the hosts jumped right into a debate over impeachment and whether the president attempted to obstruct justice.This prompted outspoken liberal co-host Joy Behar to take aim at the Republican Party as a whole for circling the wagons around Trump, insisting that if Richard Nixon were president today he “would have gotten away with everything just like this corrupt president is getting away with.” She went on to say that Republicans taking Trump’s side should all “be thrown into jail” to raucous applause from the audience.McCain eventually pushed back, saying Behar should hold Democrats who aren’t currently pushing for impeachment to the same standard before telling her colleague (and frequent sparring partner) that she recognized she’s “clearly frustrated,” but that Behar’s rhetoric is “dangerous.”“Well, you know, it’s what you call hyperbole,” Behar said, causing McCain to say that it “doesn’t sound that way to the Republican at the table.”Adding that it felt a “little aggressive,” McCain brought up that there were 10,000 people at Trump’s Monday night rally in a Pennsylvania town as proof of Trump’s popularity. Behar and co-host Sunny Hostin, meanwhile, joked that the president must have “imported” the rally attendees due to the town’s small population of 4,000 people.“Fine,” McCain huffed, rolling her eyes, demonstrating clearly that she was “clearly frustrated.”Howard Stern Defends Meghan McCain on ‘The View’: ‘Give the Woman a Chance!’Co-host Whoopi Goldberg then jumped in to suggest that ignoring subpoenas should equal jail time, drawing cheers from the audience. This appeared to get on McCain’s nerves. “I’ll wait until everyone is done applauding,” she said.McCain insisted she was simply trying to talk about the political ramifications of impeachment and congressional investigations, portraying herself as taking the only truly principled stand.“The other thing I would like to make clear is I come here every day trying to show a different perspective and basically when I walk out of my apartment, it’s an unpopular one but it’s important to explain what’s going on in Montoursville and why people would travel to see [Trump],” she declared. “He’s still incredibly popular in states that matter and I’m trying to give you a warning shot of how you can blow this.”In the following segment, the hosts had a wider discussion about Democrats challenging Trump in 2020, and Behar picked back up on McCain’s purported concern about Dems seemingly blowing it against the president.“I’m fascinated also that you’re so concerned about the Democrats,” Behar said. “Are you—do you want a Democrat to win?”Noting that in her “fantasy, Paul Ryan is president,” McCain added that she “can’t get behind any of these Democrats,” prompting Behar to point out: “You seem worried about the Democrats because you bring that up.”This caused the panel to highlight that McCain likes Joe Biden, resulting in the ex-Fox News host to say “everyone knows” that because he helped her through her father’s cancer fight. She then seemingly wanted to continue to push the discussion before ultimately shutting down.“I’m not changing your minds this morning, and honestly, I’ve said all I have to say,” McCain concluded.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Elon Musk hires man behind 'absolute unit' sheep meme to run Tesla's social media

* Adam Koszary’s tweet of giant sheep went viral last year * Musk adopted image and description for his Twitter profileElon Musk is legally obliged to have his tweets checked by lawyers. ‘My Twitter is pretty much complete nonsense at this point,’ he observed last month. Photograph: Mike Blake/ReutersElon Musk has reportedly hired the man responsible for a viral tweet about a giant sheep to be Tesla’s social media manager.Adam Koszary, programme manager for the UK’s Reading Museum and Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL), run by the University of Reading, will join Tesla in July, according to his Twitter account.The @TheMerl account went viral in April last year when it tweeted an old picture of a large ram with the caption: “Look at this absolute unit.” The tweet has now been retweeted more than 31,000 times and has over 111,000 likes.> look at this absolute unit. pic.twitter.com/LzcQ4x0q38> > — The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) April 9, 2018Last month Musk changed his Twitter bio to “absolute unit” and his picture to the image of the sheep. @TheMerl returned the compliment by changing its bio photo to one of Musk.The tweet led to a series of messages from Musk ending with one reading: “My Twitter is pretty much complete nonsense at this point.”> My Twitter is pretty much complete nonsense at this point> > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2019Tesla was not immediately available for comment. It is not yet clear whether the sheep tweet was instrumental in Koszary’s hiring.Musk has a troubled history with Twitter. The Tesla founder now has to have his tweets checked by lawyers after incorrectly claiming on social media that his company was close to a large investment from Saudi Arabia’s largest investment fund.Tesla’s share price has slid in recent weeks as investors worry the company is running out of cash.

College Admissions Scandal: 13 parents, 1 coach to plead guilty

Thirteen parents and one university athletic coach will plead guilty to charges in the college admissions scandal that has been rocking the nation. Of the parents who intend to plead guilty, five of them are from the Bay Area.

Tale of suicidal 'Handmaid' in New York goes viral

A red-cloaked "Handmaid" ready to hurl herself off a Manhattan building, possibly unhinged by recent legislative assaults on the right to abortion? For months now, amid the #MeToo movement and challenges to the right to abortion in the United States and elsewhere, demonstrations by women dressed in costumes inspired by "The Handmaid's Tale" have multiplied. The hit television series based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel evokes a world in which the United States has become a religious dictatorship where fertile women are enslaved and their rape is institutionalized.

Backlash as Trump set to shun tradition with his own ringside seat at sumo tournament in Japan

Sumo fans and traditionalists have reacted with disappointment to reports that Donald Trump will have a ringside seat at a sumo tournament in Japan - eschewing hundreds of years of tradition of sitting cross-legged on a cushion. Mr Trump is set to step centre stage into Japan’s sumo world this weekend as he presents a trophy dubbed the “Trump Cup” to the winner of a major tournament during his visit to Japan. But the planned visit is already sending ripples through the deeply traditional sumo community. In a sport steeped in rituals dating back 1,500 years, reports of Trump's seat has prompted controversy at the special treatment, with one fan, Masaru Tomamoto, 73, telling Reuters: “I also want to sit on a chair as we watch sumo wrestling. “But if (Trump) watches a Japanese traditional sport, sumo, I think that it would be much better for him to sit cross-legged with the cushion on the floor, rather than on chair.” Trump has developed a close relationship with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe Credit:  Susan Walsh/AP Another sumo fan Izumi Chiba, from Sapporo in northern Japan, added: “As we say, when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Mr Trump is expected to watch the final three bouts of the last day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament – a highly awaited climax of the sumo calendar – alongside Mr Abe and their respective wives at the Ryogoku Kokugikan hall in Tokyo on Sunday. The US president, who said last month that he had always found sumo “fascinating”, will then present a special trophy custom-made in the US to the champion wrestler – triggering fevered media speculation as to whether he will wear slippers in the sumo ring as he hands it over, as shoes are not typically permitted. Mr Trump is expected to sit in a chair among the most prized seats that immediately encircle the ring known as masu seki, which sell for around £71 (10,000 yen) each and normally involve sitting on flat cushions known as zabuton on the floor. Security is another key issue flagged up by Japanese media, with almost an eighth of the 11,000 seats reserved for the president, Mr Abe and their security teams. There are concerns that around 1,000 people who have already bought coveted ringside seats face being security vetted. There were also reports that organisers were considering the ban of canned beer sales in the same seating area, apparently in a bid to minimise potential security dangers to Mr Trump. Mr Abe, who famously shares a love of golf with his “friend” Mr Trump, has apparently pulled out all the stops for the president’s state visit, having also arranged for him to become the first foreign leader to meet the new Emperor Naruhito.

Ukraine's parliament snubs new president on election law

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian lawmakers on Wednesday turned down the new president's proposal to amend the election law in a blow to his hopes to get more of his supporters into parliament.

Mississippi governor signs 'heartbeat' abortion ban into law. Here's what you need to know

The ban would be among the strictest in the country, but is expected to quickly be challenged in federal court.