| Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have kicked off their summit in Helsinki, Finland, with the U.S. president saying he hopes it’s the beginning of an “extraordinary relationship” between them. In some brief opening remarks before the main talks, Trump praised Putin and Russia for hosting a “beautiful” World Cup, saying he enjoyed watching the final and semifinals. Trump said the two would be discussing “everything from trade to military to missiles to nuclear to China,” but did not mention Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election. “Frankly, we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years,” said Trump. “I’ve been here not too long, it’s getting close to two years, but I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship. I hope so. I’ve been saying and I’m sure you’ve heard over the years, and as I campaign, that getting along with Russia is a good thing not a bad thing.” The U.S. president hinted that he will be discussing a reduction in the number of nuclear weapons held by the two countries, saying the weapons are “not a positive force, it’s a negative force.” The leaders are due to hold a news conference after their talks later in the afternoon. View this cheat in a browser to see this embedded tweet. |
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| The Chicago Police Department released a snippet of body-camera video Sunday of a fatal shooting that sparked violent clashes between officers and protesters. The video of the deadly Saturday encounter, released without audio, shows police surrounding Harith Augustus, 37, a neighborhood barber who appears in the footage to have a holstered gun in his waistband. Gunfire is heard after Augustus turned, attempted to flee, and seemingly reached for his waist. The footage does not show Augustus pulling the gun out of its holster. The incident provoked protests across the city’s South Side. Unveiling the video at a news conference, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said: “In this particular instance, after seeing what transpired last night, I have an obligation to this city, to the community and to these police officers to make sure this city is safe and calm. And last night after what I saw on video, you know, bottles being thrown, urine being thrown at the police officers, we can’t have another night like that.” He added that the investigation into the shooting remained open, with “tons” of other video still being reviewed. The officer who shot Augustus has not been named. View this cheat in a browser to see this video. |
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| On Sunday after the World Cup final, Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Great World Cup. Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team you play for?” As if to immediately prove her point, the president awoke in Finland ahead of his meeting and blamed U.S. “foolishness” for worsening relations with Moscow, apparently absolving Vladimir Putin of any blame for the hostility despite the Russian president’s annexation of Crimea, support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and his intelligence agents’ successful intervention in the 2016 U.S. election when they hacked into Democratic Party emails. Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” The Russian foreign ministry later quote-tweeted Trump, saying simply: “We agree.” The two men met Monday in the presidential palace in Helsinki, where they’re set to speak one on one, joined only by their interpreters, in the first major bilateral summit between them. |
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| It may be wise never to cross an Indonesian. In what seems like a somewhat disproportionate response, a mob of villagers killed nearly 300 crocodiles as payback for a deadly attack on a local man. The attack happened at a crocodile sanctuary—seemingly not a very secure one—after the villager was killed Friday morning while gathering vegetables at a farm. “An employee heard someone screaming for help, quickly went there, and saw a crocodile attacking someone,” the head of Indonesia’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency in West Papua said. After the funeral Saturday, several hundred angry locals went to the sanctuary, armed with knives, shovels, hammers, and clubs. The mob first attacked the office of the crocodile farm and then went on to slaughter all 292 reptiles at the sanctuary, according to local media reports. Officials and police said they were not able to stop the attack and may now press charges. |
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| Even though we all check the time on our phones now, the watch as an accessory will never die because of its long history as a stylish status symbol. Luckily, not all luxury watches have to cost the same as the down payment on a house. The Reign Gustaf Automatic Watch is a luxury timepiece on sale for an affordable price. This watch’s gears are protected by a surgical-quality stainless steel case, hooked onto your wrist with a leather crocodile-embossed strap and stainless steel clasp. With day, month, and 24-hour subdials expressed with luminous hands, this water-resistant watch holds a 36-hour power reserve. Get it now in your choice of color — gold/black, gold/brown, rose gold/white, or silver/grey —for $179.99, reduced 87% from the original cost of $1,400. Scouted is here to surface products that you might like. Follow us on Flipboard. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales. |
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| Vladimir Putin—known for asserting his dominance over other politicians by arriving late for meetings—appears to have played the same trick on Donald Trump in Finland. The two men were due to start their bilateral summit at 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) but the Russian president didn’t even land in Helsinki until a few minutes after that time. However, Trump then delayed leaving his hotel—the Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorpp—for the Presidential Palace, where the meeting was set to take place, making Putin arrive at the venue first. Checkmate. Both men were at the venue by 2 p.m., just under an hour behind schedule. In the past, Putin has been late for meetings with Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis, and, in 2014, he was hours late for meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two men were due to hold a press conference around 9:50 a.m. ET, but that schedule may be knocked back due to Putin’s tardiness. View this cheat in a browser to see this embedded tweet. |
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| An Oregon woman survived for a week after driving her car over a coastal cliff in California before she was discovered by chance by a couple on a camping trip. Chelsea and Chad Moore were hiking Friday when they spotted a Jeep Liberty at the bottom of a 200-foot cliff, the Sacramento Bee reports. They gathered items from the scene, including the Jeep’s license plate, to bring to authorities and then located the driver, 23-year-old Angela Hernandez, who was discovered injured but in stable condition. Authorities used climbing gear to reach Hernandez, who told authorities that she lost control after swerving to avoid hitting an animal. To stay hydrated, Hernandez told officials she used a radiator hose from her vehicle to siphon water from a stream. “My sister is alive, she’s talking, and she’s still trying to come to understand everything,” Angela’s sister, Isabel, wrote on Facebook on Saturday. “She’s a fighter and she fought this long and she will continue to. It’s not going to be an easy recovery. I hope everyone will have patience for her and her recovery.” |
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| President Trump has already amassed $88 million for his 2020 re-election campaign, according to financial reports, handing him a huge early advantage over any prospective Democratic challengers. Trump’s campaign committee, combined with two joint committees formed with the Republican Party, ended June with $53.6 million in the bank, according to finance reports filed Sunday evening with the Federal Election Commission. The reports also showed the largest single donation in the second quarter came from Andrew Beal, a Texas-based banker who once squared off against Trump in a bankruptcy case—and who donated $339,000 to Trump Victory. The committee also received $169,500 from real-estate developer Stanley Chera, who partnered with the company owned by the family of Jared Kushner on a $1 billion deal to sell the retail space at 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan. The financial reports also reveal the three committees spent nearly $1.2 million on legal fees in the second quarter, bringing their total legal spending to more than $8.6 million since the beginning of 2017. |
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| Just hours before Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Finland, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse launched a brutal attack on the Russian president, calling him a crook, a liar, and a murderer. Sasse, one of the more frequent critics of the president within the GOP, wrote a string of savage tweets late Sunday night criticizing Putin and saying Trump should not reward him with the bilateral summit. In the thread, Sasse accused Putin of assassinating adversaries, overseeing the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and describes him as “a KGB thug who jails political opponents.” He went on: “I don’t think President Trump should be dignifying Putin with this meeting. When Reagan met with Gorbachev, he did so from a position of strength & moral clarity about the evil empire that the Soviet Union was, and w/ a clear purpose to end the Soviet Union’s threat to the U.S.. President Trump should have only one message for Putin tomorrow: Quit messing with America.” View this cheat in a browser to see this embedded tweet. |
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| More than a dozen residents of a Kushner Cos. building in Brooklyn say relentless noisy construction and rent hikes of $500 a month were part of a concerted campaign to push tenants out of rent-stabilized apartments and bring in high-paying condo buyers. According to the Associated Press, more than 250 rent-stabilized apartments—75 percent of the building—were emptied or sold over the past three years as the Kushner Cos. was converting the building to luxury condos, bringing in more than $155 million in sales. Current and former residents said hammering and drilling began shortly after the company bought the building—it would start early in the morning and go on until nightfall, regardless of complaints. “They won, they succeeded,” said Barth Bazyluk, who left an apartment with his wife and baby daughter in December. “You have to be ignorant or dumb to think this wasn’t deliberate.” In a statement, the Kushner Cos. acknowledged it received complaints about construction during major renovations, which ended in December 2017, but said that it responded to them immediately and that “tremendous care was taken to prevent dust and inconvenience to tenants.” It said many tenants moved out when their rent was increased to the maximum allowed under rent-stabilization rules. |
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