| President Donald Trump walked back remarks he made in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, saying that he has “full faith and support” in his intelligence agencies. “In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word would instead of wouldn’t. The sentence should have been...‘I don’t see any reason why it WOULDN’T be Russia.’ Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in, and I think that probably clarifies things,” the president read from a typed statement Tuesday. “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” however, he added, “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.” Trump then continued: “Once again, full faith and support for America’s intelligence agencies. I have a faith full faith in our intelligence agencies.” This comes after Trump shed serious doubt on the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russians did meddle in the 2016 election, saying that Putin’s denial was convincing. View this cheat in a browser to see this embedded tweet. |
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| The nation’s top voting-machine maker has admitted installing remote-access software on election-management systems that it sold over a period of six years, in what one U.S. senator described as “the worst decision for security short of leaving ballot boxes on a Moscow street corner.” In a letter sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April and obtained by Motherboard, Election Systems and Software admitted that it had “provided pcAnywhere remote connection software… to a small number of customers between 2000 and 2006,” which was installed on the election-management system ES&S sold them. Election-management systems are not the voting terminals used to cast ballots: They stay in county election offices and contain software used to program the voting machines and count up final results from the voting machines. The remote-access software created an opportunity for hackers to breach the machines. Election-management systems and voting machines are supposed to be disconnected from the internet and from any other systems that are connected to the internet for security reasons. ES&S customers who had pcAnywhere installed also had modems on their election-management systems so ES&S technicians could dial into the systems and use the software to troubleshoot. |
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| In one of his first high-profile appearances since 2016, ex-President Barack Obama delivered a powerful rebuke of the “utter loss of shame among political leaders” and “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment” while giving a speech to honor former South African President Nelson Mandela. While Obama didn’t criticize President Donald Trump by name, his remarks came only a day after Trump’s embarrassing summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the Associated Press reports. Obama began his speech, which honored the 100th anniversary of the anti-apartheid leader’s birth, by referencing the “strange and uncertain” world in which “each day’s news cycle is bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines.” “We see much of the world threatening to return to a more dangerous, more brutal, way of doing business,” he said. Obama went on to attack “strongman politics,” arguing that “those in power seek to undermine every institution ... that gives democracy meaning.” He ended positively, however, reminding the audience: “We’ve been through darker times. We’ve been through lower valleys.” “I say if people can learn to hate, they can be taught to love,” said Obama, who received a standing ovation and widespread praise after the speech. “Yesterday we had Trump and Putin standing together,” one Johannesburg professor said, “now we are seeing the opposing team: Obama and Mandela.” |
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| Prosecutors have charged rapper T.I. with simple assault, public drunkenness, and disorderly conduct after he was arrested outside of his gated community in Atlanta in May. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the accusations were filed by the county solicitor general’s office on Friday. The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, reportedly lost his key and got into an altercation with a security guard who “wouldn’t let him in the neighborhood” earlier this year. He was arrested on May 16 and released on bond shortly after. His attorney called the filing “baseless, ill-founded and unjustified.” |
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| This Friday, July 20, Orbitz is giving John Collins (also known as the Paper Airplane Guy) the opportunity to break his own record for the world’s longest paper airplane throw. The current record stands at 226 feet, 10 inches. That’s more than five school buses long. That’s ⅗ the distance of a football field! And on Friday, John is going to design an airplane that (hopefully) goes even further. Head to Facebook at 11:45 AM ET, July 20th, to watch the attempt. And book your next trip on Orbitz and experience the most rewarding travel – just like that. |
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| Papa John’s founder John Schnatter doubled down in his fight against media consulting agency Laundry Service last Saturday in a letter to the board of directors, according to a Tuesday report from CNBC. In the letter, Schnatter claims that during his now-infamous call with media consulting agency Laundry Service this May, he refused to partner with Kanye West for promotions because “he uses the N-word in his lyrics,” apparently citing that refusal as evidence that he is not a racist. “I then said something on the order of, Colonel Sanders used the word ‘N’ (I actually used the word,) that I would never use that word and Papa John’s doesn’t use that word,” he said to the board. “Let me be very clear: I never used the ‘N’ word in that meeting as a racial epithet, nor would I ever.” He also lambasted the board for forcing him to resign without fully investigating the contents of last Wednesday’s Forbes article, in which Schnatter admitted to using the racial slur on the call. “The board asked me to step down as chairman without apparently doing any investigation,” he wrote. “I agreed, though today I believe it was a mistake to do so. I have checked with corporate governance experts who tell me that this was not a proper action by the Board.” Schnatter’s lawyer echoed her client, CNBC adds, noting that Schnatter is “not going quietly.” |
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| Former New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was found guilty of “bribery, extortion and conspiracy” in his retrial Tuesday, The New York Times reports. Federal prosecutor have said Skelos “wielded his political clout” over business executives to get his son, Adam Skelos, “no-show or low-show jobs” that netted him around $300,000. Dean Skelos and his son were found guilty of the same charges in 2015, but their convictions were overturned last year. Earlier this year, former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was also found guilty of federal corruption charges at his retrial. |
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| Usain Bolt, an eight-time Olympian known for his impressive sprinting speeds, is trying out for an Australian soccer team. The New York Times reports that Bolt, who has “dream[ed] of becoming a professional soccer player,” will start a six-week trial period with the Central Coast Mariners, a team that’s based outside of Sydney. If all goes well, Bolt is “expected to start a season-long deal” with the team in October. Despite critics calling the move a public-relations stunt to aid a disappointing season for A-League soccer in the country, the “world’s fastest man” insists that he’s the real deal. “For me, it’s a big deal,” he told a local paper. “Everyone feels like I’m just kidding around, just joking, but I’m serious.” Bolt currently holds three world records in track and field, and previously tried out for soccer teams in Germany and Norway. |
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| Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), one of the Senate’s leading progressives and a name often mentioned as a prospective 2020 presidential candidate, officially has a book coming out next year. Penguin Press announced on Tuesday that it will publish her book The Truths We Hold: An American Journey on January 19, just months after this year’s midterm elections. In March, The Daily Beast reported that the senator had been shopping around a potential book entitled Speaking Truth: Hard Facts and Hope for America’s Future. This will be her second book, following 2009's Smart on Crime, published before Harris successfully ran for California attorney general. |
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| A man told Reveal he has seen children bathing in sinks on multiple occasions at an office space leased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor MVM Inc. The company uses this office building in Phoenix, Arizona, and another nearby to house separated immigrant children overnight while they’re being transported, Reveal reports. The witness, Bill Weaver, said he has seen babies, children, and teenagers in the building for the past two years. He said MVM is leasing about 2,000 square feet of space, with no kitchen or shower. He said the space also has no private bathroom and that he has seen the children bathing in sinks that are shared by several office suites. “One time, I walked in and saw two kids washing themselves in their underwear in the sinks,” Weaver said. “MVM would throw away all their clothes and even throw away the brush they combed their hair with and then reclothe them in sweatsuits and crocs.” He called the building “completely inappropriate for what they were doing.” An MVM spokesman admitted to Reveal that the company housed children in another office building overnight in violation of its own policies, and acknowledged that it also keeps children in a second building. ICE said its agreement with MVM permits the company to use the offices as “waiting areas.” |
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