Trump doubts U.S. needs to send more troops to Middle East

"I would certainly send troops if we need them." If needed, "we'll be there in whatever number we need," he added. Trump, who has been focused on trying to reduce the number of U.S. troops deployed around the world, spoke shortly before he was to be briefed at the White House on a new deployment plan by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Shanahan said the Pentagon was considering sending additional U.S. troops to the Middle East as one of the ways to bolster protection for American forces there amid tensions with Iran.

Conway complains Pelosi treated her like a 'maid'

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is taking verbal jabs at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following a White House meeting that dissolved into rancor, Wednesday. Conway said Pelosi treated her "as she might treat her maid" during the exchange. (May 23)

Download these 5 apps before your next trip

There are millions of apps available for your phone, but you can't take all of them on your next trip. So which travel apps should you pack?

The Latest: Runaway barges cause 'minimal' damage to dam

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on severe weather moving across the central United States (all times local):

In Russia’s Provinces, the Doctor Is in (the Streets)

By ANDREW E. KRAMER from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2Xe16dK

Modi plots course after landslide Indian election win

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met allies and former mentors Friday to plot a course for his second term after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty reeling. A considerable to-do list includes addressing India's lacklustre economic growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken agriculture sector on which 70 percent of households depend. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago and defying predictions of a dip, final results confirmed Friday.

'Julian Assange is no journalist.' Feds charge WikiLeaks founder for revealing U.S. government secrets

The Justice Department filed 18 new charges against the WikiLeaks founder accusing him of conspiring to reveal classified secrets.

Trump news: President 'crying out' for impeachment as he insists he is 'stable genius' in White House rant

Pressure is intensifying on Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. An increasing number of Democrats - and even a Republican congressman \- are openly calling for the measure in response to the Mueller report's findings and the Trump administration's refusal to submit documents to congressional investigations.Mr Trump on Wednesday sabotaged a planned White House meeting with Ms Pelosi on infrastructure, and said he would not work with Democrats until all probes into him were closed.Meanwhile, the president announced a massive $16bn (£12.6bn) aid package for farmers on Thursday, amid an intensifying confrontation with China on trade. US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August and suggested that the US and China were unlikely to have settled their differences by then.“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Mr Perdue said.The latest bailout comes atop $11bn (£8.7bn) in aid Mr Trump provided farmers last year.“We will ensure our farmers get the relief they need and very, very quickly,” Mr Trump said in an unwieldy press conference on Thursday in which he insisted is a "very stable genius."Seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, the president has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminium, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.US trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on U.S. agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartland, where support for Trump runs high.Financial markets slumped Thursday on heightened tensions between the US and China. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 286 points, or 1 per cent, to 25,490. It had been down 448 points earlier in the day.Additional reporting by AP. Check out live updates as the came in below.Please allow the blog a moment to load.

FACTBOX-Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban

Global tech firms, including chip suppliers, are cutting ties with China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd after the U.S. government put the world's largest telecom equipment maker on a trade blacklist citing national security concerns. The United States has effectively banned its companies from doing business with Huawei, exacerbating an ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war. ** ALPHABET INC: Google on May 19 suspended the transfer of hardware, software and technical services to Huawei, except what it has made publicly available via open source licensing.

The U.S. Just Upped the Ante on Julian Assange's Extradition With Espionage Charges

By indicting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 18 charges under the Espionage Act the U.S. has considerably raised the stakes in competing extradition claims.

Should Any Late-Term Abortion Be Illegal? Democrats Won’t Say.

Congressional Democrats responded to a spate of state laws aimed at restricting abortion on Thursday by reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act.The measure wouldn’t merely prohibit states such as Georgia and Alabama from banning abortion early in pregnancy if Roe v. Wade were overturned. It would also invalidate most state laws limiting late-term abortion, including Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, under which notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted in 2013 for killing 21 infants in utero (in addition to his conviction for murdering three infants with scissors after they had been born). Indeed, it would wipe almost all state limits on abortion, including mandatory waiting period and ultrasound requirements, off the books.Essentially, congressional Democrats seek to take the standard for late-term abortion proposed earlier this year in Virginia — and shelved after the bill’s chief sponsor Kathy Tran acknowledged it would allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy if a lone doctor asserted it was necessary for mental-health reasons — and impose it on every state that provides greater protection for unborn children late in pregnancy.The federal legislation would require states to permit abortion after an unborn child is viable (that is, old enough to survive outside the womb) if a single doctor asserts that an abortion is necessary to protect the mother’s “health.” The text of the bill explicitly instructs the courts to “liberally” interpret the legislation, and the bill “doesn’t distinguish” between physical and mental health, as its chief sponsor Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has said.Earlier this week in the Capitol building, I asked Blumenthal why it should ever be legal for a physically healthy baby to be aborted when the mother is physically healthy.> National Review: Is there any reason abortion should ever be legal on a healthy fetus/healthy mother — physically [healthy], that is — after viability?> > Blumenthal: I’m not sure what you mean.> > NR: Is there any reason [late-term] abortion should be legal when the mother is physically healthy, and the fetus is physically healthy?> > Blumenthal: I’m really not going to deal with hypotheticals. We’re reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act.> > NR: That’s a real situation though. Is there any reason why that should be legal?> > Blumenthal: I’m not sure I even know what you mean.> > NR: At 23 weeks into pregnancy, should abortion ever be legal if the baby’s healthy and the mother is healthy?> > Blumenthal: You know, I just can’t engage in speculation.> > NR: I mean, there are studies that say that does happen.> > Blumenthal: Send me those studies and I’d be glad to comment.I sent Blumenthal’s office this 2013 study, conducted by professors at University of California at San Francisco, of women who got abortions later than 20 weeks into pregnancy. According to the study, “data suggest most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.” The study points, for example, to one “woman from Illinois discovered she was 23 weeks pregnant and had her abortion the same week.” Given ample time to comment, Blumenthal’s office has not replied.Every Senate Democrat running for president has endorsed the Women’s Health Protection Act. When Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren were asked this week if abortion should ever be illegal, both 2020 presidential candidates dodged the question. Booker told me he’d like to “codify Roe v. Wade,” but when I asked him if any abortion should ever be illegal, he went silent. “You’re a very good, dastardly good, guy,” Booker finally said with a smile when I asked him if his silence should be interpreted as a “no.” Warren simply stuck to her talking point that she wanted to make Roe v. Wade a federal statute when she was asked if any late-term abortion should ever be illegal.Here’s how their colleague Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island responded to a question about elective abortions 23 weeks into pregnancy: “Most of these decisions should be made by doctors, and I don’t know many doctors who are into — what do the extremists call it — infanticide? Never met a doctor who’s for that — never once.”But doctors do perform elective late-term abortions. Dr. LeRoy Carhart was caught on tape saying he’d perform “purely elective” abortions up until 28 weeks into pregnancy. Another doctor named James Pendergraft has said he’d perform even later abortions under an “anxiety and stress” health exception. Dr. Cesare Santangelo said he would let an infant born alive at 24 weeks after an attempted abortion suffocate to death. Dr. Steve Brigham kept a freezer full of aborted babies, one as old as 36 weeks. Some infants born at 22 weeks grow up to be healthy children and adults.And of course there was Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who had likely murdered hundreds of infants born alive, in addition to the three murders for which there was enough evidence to convict him.What’s the moral difference between what Kermit Gosnell did to babies born alive and a legal abortion at 23 weeks? That’s a question Nancy Pelosi could not answer after Gosnell was convicted in 2013. Cecile Richards, then president of Planned Parenthood, defended late-term abortion when the child is suffering from a severe abnormality. But what about when the child and mother are physically healthy? Richards went silent.This isn’t a gotcha question. It’s a question about fundamental human rights. There are likely thousands of elective abortions performed later than 20 weeks into pregnancy each year. If leading Democrats and advocates of a right to abortion are unwilling or unable to defend a right to abort healthy infants late in pregnancy, then why are they so committed to maintaining America’s status as one of seven countries in the world that allows it?

Britain's embattled leader Theresa May resigns premiership amid Brexit deadlock

May lasted three years in office. Her Conservative Party will start a process to replace her. It could take weeks.

Simulator training remains 'possible option' for Boeing 737 MAX pilots in Canada

Simulator training remains a "possible option" for Canadian Boeing 737 MAX pilots, but it's too early to say whether it would be mandatory, a Transport Canada official said on Thursday night, further distancing the regulator from previous remarks by the country's transport minister. "It would be premature not seeing what Boeing has fully proposed yet to determine if simulator training will in fact be included," said Nicholas Robinson, the regulator's director general, civil aviation, told reporters on a conference call following a meeting of global regulators in Texas. Canada's Transport Minister Marc Garneau called in April for pilots to received simulator training for Boeing's software fix.

Group seeks $100M for woman killed by US border agent

HOUSTON (AP) — Advocates demanded $100 million in damages Thursday on behalf of the family of a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

Stunning new video shows off Apple’s leaked iPhone 11 design

There's no such thing as a surprise anymore in the smartphone industry. There are simply too many hands in the pie and too much hype surrounding big smartphone launches. As a result, there's no way that all the people involved with building flagship smartphones can keep things secret. It's just not going to happen. Leaks also tend to follow the same pattern time and time again. When it comes to Apple and its upcoming new iPhone models, the first details always come from plugged-in Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kui, who now works for TF International Securities. He has multiple contacts deep in Apple's supply chain, and the information he gets from them is almost always accurate. Then, a few months later, schematics for the unreleased iPhone models are stolen off of Foxconn's servers in China. Third-party accessory makers use these files to build protective cases that are ready in time for release, and graphic designers use them to mock up accurate renders of upcoming iPhone models. That's the phase we're in right now, and a recently released video gets up close and personal with Apple's new overhauled iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design. Despite the fact that Apple's upcoming iPhone models will carry a new number in their names, they won't introduce a new design. iPhone users had been trained to expect a new iPhone design every other year, with "S" upgrades in between that introduce new marquee features alongside big performance improvements. But that's not how Apple operates anymore. Beginning in 2016 with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple now uses the same design for three consecutive years instead of two. So in 2019, we're going to get new iPhone 11 models with the same general design as the iPhone XS from last year and the iPhone X from back in 2017. As we've seen in countless leaks at this point, there are a few main design differences that we'll see when Apple announces the iPhone 11 series in September. The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will both feature a large square camera bump on the back that houses a new triple-lens camera system. The iPhone 11R, or whatever Apple ends up calling it, will sport a dual-lens rear camera that's still contained within a square camera bump. Also new is the mute switch on the side of the phone, which will now be a small round switch like the one on Apple's newest iPad tablets. A new video published recently by a YouTube channel called Techy Paradise does a good job of mocking up the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design. For example, here's a great shot of the new rear camera array and the updated mute switch design: The video does make a couple of big mistakes, however. First, it suggests that the iPhone 11 series phones might have an in-display fingerprint reader. They definitely will not. On top of that, the video shows a black area surrounding the triple-lens camera on the silver iPhone 11 model, as you can see at the top of this post. According to information from Ming-Chi Kuo, however, the iPhone 11 series will actually have a camera array that's color-matched to the back of the phones. It'll look more like this earlier render: It's still a fantastic video despite those errors, however, and it does a great job of showing us Apple's leaked iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design from every angle. The video is embedded below, and we definitely recommend watching it while we wait for Apple to unveil its new iPhone 11 series smartphones this coming September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjYiW8xkXH0

Earthquake causes Tokyo buildings to shake ahead of Trump visit

A medium-strength earthquake hit eastern Japan on Saturday, NHK national television said, causing buildings to shake in Tokyo hours before the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2M9oXuk

On Politics: The Biggest Stories of the Week

By ISABELLA GRULLÓN PAZ from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2JFQp0G

How the Math Behind Roger Federer’s Clay Season Helps His World Ranking

By STUART MILLER from NYT Sports https://nyti.ms/2Qnmafh

A Buzzer-Beater Sinks the Liberty in Their Opener

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT Sports https://nyti.ms/2wj7kNZ

5 Home Runs Aren’t Enough for the Mets Against the Tigers

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT Sports https://nyti.ms/2WoYnBh

What’s on TV Saturday: ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Perfection’

By SARA ARIDI from NYT Arts https://nyti.ms/2YJ6oyg

John Bolton Says North Korean Missile Tests Violated U.N. Resolutions

By MOTOKO RICH from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2K4q7om

Man Convicted in Deadly Church Shooting in Tennessee

By CHRISTOPHER MELE from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/30EU9Vj

In Shift, Trump Will Pick Kenneth Cuccinelli to Oversee Legal Immigration

By MAGGIE HABERMAN and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2HALMCP

Small Plane Crashes Off Florida Coast After Losing Communication

By MIHIR ZAVERI from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2JZFfDn

Federal Judge Blocks Part of Trump’s Plan to Build Border Wall

By JOSE A. DEL REAL from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2YGiE2K

Quotation of the Day: Toughness Became Trap for May in Brexit Crisis

By Unknown Author from NYT Today’s Paper https://nyti.ms/30LjFsi

Nike Says It Will End Financial Penalties for Pregnant Athletes

By KEVIN DRAPER from NYT Sports https://nyti.ms/2QpIN2F

Rocco Commisso, Cosmos Owner, Is Said to Be Close to Buying Italy’s Fiorentina

By RORY SMITH and TARIQ PANJA from NYT Sports https://nyti.ms/2Xccc3j

Corrections: May 25, 2019

By Unknown Author from NYT Corrections https://nyti.ms/2Ex8z0n

How Trump Wins Next Year

By BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://nyti.ms/2wk6HUo

Geneviève Waïte, 71, Star of the Swinging-’60s Film ‘Joanna,’ Dies

By RICHARD SANDOMIR from NYT Obituaries https://nyti.ms/2YNjnPv

‘Heartbroken’: Weinstein Accusers Say $44 Million Settlement Lets Him Off the Hook

By JAN RANSOM and DANIELLE IVORY from NYT New York https://nyti.ms/2K3dhGL

Epic Narratives

By CAITLIN LOVINGER from NYT Crosswords & Games https://nyti.ms/2Jzm4AI

E.P.A. Experts Objected to ‘Misleading’ Agency Smog Decision, Emails Show

By LISA FRIEDMAN from NYT Climate https://nyti.ms/2JDw1NC

$2 Million in 27 Games: James Holzhauer’s in a ‘Jeopardy!’ League by Himself

By LARRY BUCHANAN and KEVIN QUEALY from NYT Arts https://nyti.ms/30HbQDP

The Real Green New Deal Doesn’t Belong to AOC

Climate change has long been a disaster in the making, but until recently the American public tended to treat it as an afterthought. The Green New Deal brought climate change front and center, and made Americans think about big bold solutions instead of technical tweaks and half measures. The think tank Data for Progress has a plan that actually predates Ocasio-Cortez’s, but which goes into much greater detail about how to combat climate change both at home and abroad.

Tesla may set a quarterly record for deliveries, according to leaked Elon Musk email

It's sometimes hard to make sense of what's going on with Tesla. Is the company on the verge of going bankrupt, or poised to set new records for deliveries? Well, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the answer to both questions could be "yes."A few days ago, an internal email from Musk to Tesla employees claimed that the company was in danger of running out of cash in just 10 months time. As a result, Musk said that the company was going to implement "hardcore" cost-cutting measures, an initiative Musk claims is the only way for the company "to become financially sustainable and succeed in our goal of helping make the world environmentally sustainable."In the following days, a pair of research reports from analysts laid out rather dire bear-case scenarios for Tesla, with Morgan Stanley noting that Tesla, in a worst case scenario, might only be worth $10 a share. As a point of reference, Tesla was trading at $376 less than six months ago.All that said, demand for Tesla vehicles appears to be growing and on the verge of setting new records. According to a new internal email from Musk (via CNBC), the Tesla CEO relayed that the company was on pace to set a new record for deliveries for the June quarter."As of yesterday," Musk said, "we had over 50,000 net new orders for this quarter. Based on current trends, we have a good chance of exceeding the record 90,700 deliveries of Q4 last year and making this the highest deliveries/sales quarter in Tesla history!"Of course, Musk's statement was tempered with the qualification that Model 3 production needs to remain steady at 1,000 units per day, at a minimum."We've averaged about 900/day this week," Musk added, "so we're only about 10% away from 7,000/week. If we rally hard, we can do it."The larger takeaway from all of this Tesla hoopla is that demand, contrary to some analyst opinions, does not appear to be a huge issue for the company. Still, the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate and, as Musk notes, needs to pick up production to meet swelling demand.

Trump Gives Barr Green Light to Declassify Docs Related to FBI Campaign Surveillance

President Trump issued a memo on Thursday granting attorney general William Barr the authority to declassify all documents related to the FBI's surveillance of his campaign in 2016.The memo also instructs all intelligence-community officials to cooperate with Barr in his investigation into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and its alleged ties to Russia.“The heads of elements of the intelligence community . . . and the heads of each department or agency that includes an element of the intelligence community shall promptly provide such assistance and information as the Attorney General may request in connection with that review," the memo reads.In a statement released on Thursday evening, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders argued that the declassification was both in keeping with precedent and necessary to provide the public with answers about whether the FBI's probe was tainted by partisanship.“The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information," the statement read. “Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions."House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff lashed out at Trump in response to the memo, which he cast as part of the administration's concerted effort to distract from the Mueller report itself by impugning the motivations of the investigators who eventually produced it.> While Trump stonewalls the public from learning the truth about his obstruction of justice,> > Trump and Barr conspire to weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.> > The coverup has entered a new and dangerous phase.> > This is un-American.> > -- Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 24, 2019Top Democrats have lambasted Barr for his use of the term “spying” to describe the surveillance the FBI conducted on the Trump campaign.“I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated,” Barr testified last month, after announcing that he had formed a team within the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.

3 dead, state capital battered as storms rake Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An outbreak of nasty storms spawned tornadoes that razed homes, flattened trees and tossed cars across a dealership lot, injuring about two dozen people in Missouri's capital city and killing at least three others elsewhere in the state.

China slams US 'lies' about Huawei's government ties

China ramped up a war of words with the United States over Huawei on Friday, accusing Washington of spreading "lies" about the telecom giant thrust to the centre of their trade war. The fiery response came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Huawei's denials that the Chinese company works with the Communist government. The Trump administration has infuriated Beijing by blacklisting the smartphone and telecommunications company over worries that China uses it as a tool for espionage, and allegations of breaking sanctions on Iran.

China says U.S. needs to fix 'wrong actions' as Huawei ban rattles supply chains

China said the United States needs to correct its "wrong actions" in order for trade talks to continue after it blacklisted Huawei, a blow that has rippled through global supply chains and battered technology shares. Japanese conglomerate Panasonic Corp joined a growing list of global companies that is disengaging from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's second-largest seller of smartphones and the largest telecom-gear maker, saying it had stopped shipments of some components. Its move came a day after British chip designer ARM said it had halted relations with Huawei to comply with the U.S. supply blockade, potentially crippling the Chinese firm's ability to make new chips for smartphones.

U.S. Sends 1,500 Troops to Mideast After Blaming Attacks on Iran

The U.S. will bolster forces in the region by about 1,500 troops, though Trump and the Pentagon said that the deployment is for defensive purposes with a focus on missile defense, surveillance and keeping open shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. “We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops to the Middle East,” Trump said as he departed the White House on Friday for Japan.

ACLU, Planned Parenthood Sue Alabama over Abortion Bill

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday seeking to halt the implementation of a new Alabama law -- perhaps the most restrictive of its kind in the nation -- that bans abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is threatened.The Alabama ban conflicts with Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 Supreme Court case that affirmed the constitutional right of women to procure abortions, the lawsuit said, and is hence unenforceable. The plaintiffs write that the law will cause "immediate and irreparable harm" to women seeking an abortion by "forcing them to continue their pregnancies to term against their will."“The Alabama legislature has been pushing abortion care further and further out of reach for years with medically unnecessary and politically-motivated restrictions, and this extreme abortion ban shows us just how far they’ll go to push their anti-abortion agenda,” read a statement from senior ACLU staff attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas."Along with our partners at ACLU Alabama, we just filed a lawsuit, challenging Alabama's outright abortion ban. We meant it when we said we'd see you in court, Governor Kay Ivey," Planned Parenthood wrote on Twitter.Ivey, Alabama's Republican governor, signed the Human Life Protection Act earlier this month amid extensive media coverage and a firestorm of protests from abortion advocates. The law bans all abortions, with an exception only for those cases where "abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk" to the mother. It makes doctors who perform an abortion subject to up to 99 years in prison, but does not include punishments for women who undergo the procedure.Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Ohio have also passed strict abortion bans, some of which are currently tied up in the courts. The measures are intended to spark legal challenges that would ultimately leave the issue in the hands of the new, conservative Supreme Court majority.

U.S. seen reining in 'radicals' to prevent war, Iranian general says

"Rational Americans and experienced U.S. commanders" are likely to rein in Washington's "radical elements" and prevent a war with Iran, the country's semi-official news agency Mehr reported on Saturday, quoting a senior military commander.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2WmItqV