For weeks, Facebook has been questioned about its role in spreading fake news. Now the company has mounted its most concerted effort to combat the problem. Facebook said on Thursday that it had begun a series of experiments to limit misinformation on its site. The tests include making it easier for its 1. 8 billion members to report fake news, and creating partnerships with outside organizations to help it indicate when articles are false. The company is also changing some advertising practices to stop purveyors of fake news from profiting from it. Facebook, the social network, is in a tricky position with these tests. It has long regarded itself as a neutral place where people can freely post, read and view content, and it has said it does not want to be an arbiter of truth. But as its reach and influence have grown, it has had to confront questions about its moral obligations and ethical standards regarding what appears on the network. Its experiments on curtailing fake news show that Facebook recognizes it has a deepening responsibility for what is on its site. But Facebook also must tread cautiously in making changes, because it is wary of exposing itself to claims of censorship. "We really value giving people a voice, but we also believe we need to take responsibility for the spread of fake news on our platform," said Adam Mosseri, a Facebook vice president who is in charge of its news feed, the company's method of distributing information to its global audience. He said the changes — which, if successful, may be available to a wide audience — resulted from many months of internal discussion about how to handle false news articles shared on the network. What impact Facebook's moves will have on fake news is unclear. The issue is not confined to the social network, with a vast ecosystem of false news creators who thrive on online advertising and who can use other social media and search engines to propagate their work. Google, Twitter and message boards like 4chan and Reddit have all been criticized for being part of that chain. Still, Facebook has taken the most heat over fake news. The company has been under that spotlight since Nov. 8, when Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th president. Mr. Trump's unexpected victory almost immediately led people to focus on whether Facebook had influenced the electorate, especially with the rise of hyperpartisan sites on the network and many examples of misinformation, such as a false article that claimed Pope Francis had endorsed Mr. Trump for president that was shared nearly a million times across the site. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, has said he did not believe that the social network had influenced the election result, calling it "a pretty crazy idea. " Yet the intense scrutiny of the company on the issue has caused internal divisions and has pushed Mr. Zuckerberg to say he was trying to find ways to reduce the problem. In an interview, Mr. Mosseri said Facebook did not think its news feed had directly caused people to vote for a particular candidate, given that "the magnitude of fake news across Facebook is one fraction of a percent of the content across the network. " Facebook has changed the way its news feed works before. In August, the company announced changes to marginalize what it considered "clickbait," the sensational headlines that rarely live up to their promise. This year, Facebook also gave priority to content shared by friends and family, a move that shook some publishers that rely on the social network for much of their traffic. The company is also constantly its algorithms to serve what its users most want to see, an effort to keep its audience returning regularly. This time, Facebook is making it easier to flag content that may be fake. Users can report a post they dislike in their feed, but when Facebook asks for a reason, the site presents them with a list of limited and vague options, including the cryptic "I don't think it should be on Facebook. " In Facebook's new experiment, users will have a choice to flag the post as fake news and have the option to message the friend who originally shared the piece to tell him or her the article is false. If an article receives enough flags as fake, it can be directed to a coalition of groups that will it. The groups include Snopes, PolitiFact, The Associated Press, FactCheck. org and ABC News. They will check the article and can mark it as a "disputed" piece, a designation that will be seen on Facebook. Partner organizations will not be paid, the companies said. Some characterized the as an extension of their journalistic efforts. "We actually regard this as a big part of our core mission," James Goldston, the president of ABC News, said in an interview. "If that core mission isn't helping people regard the real from the fake news, I don't know what our mission is. " Disputed articles will ultimately appear lower in the news feed. If users still decide to share such an article, they will receive a reminding them that the accuracy of the piece is in question. Facebook said it was casting a wide net to add more partners to its coalition and may move outside of the United States with the initiative if early experiments go well. The company is also part of the First Draft Coalition, an effort with other technology and media companies including Twitter, Google, The New York Times and CNN, to combat the spread of fake news online. In another change in how the news feed works, articles that many users read but do not share will be ranked lower on people's feeds. Mr. Mosseri said a low ratio of sharing an article after it has been read could be perceived as a negative signal, one that might reflect that the article was misleading or of poor quality. "Facebook was inevitably going to have to curate the platform much more carefully, and this seems like a reasonably transparent method of intervention," said Emily Bell, director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. "But the fake cat is already out of the imaginary bag," Ms. Bell added. "If they didn't try and do something about it, next time around it could have far worse consequences. " Facebook also plans to impede the economics of spreading fake articles across the network. Fake news purveyors generally make money when people click on the false articles and are directed to websites, the majority of which are filled with dozens of ads. Facebook will review those links and check for things like whether the page is mostly filled with advertising content — a dead giveaway for spam sites — or to see whether a link masquerades as a different site, like a fake version of The New York Times. Such sites would not be eligible to display Facebook advertising on their pages. Articles disputed by the coalition will also not be eligible to be inserted into Facebook ads, a tactic viral spammers have used to spread fake news quickly and gain more clicks on their websites. Facebook said that in these early experiments it would deal with only fake news content it does not plan to flag opinion posts or other content that could not be easily classified. The changes will not affect satirical sites like The Onion, which often jabs at political subjects through humor. Facebook must take something else into consideration: its profit. Any action taken to reduce popular content, even if it is fake news, could hurt the company's priority of keeping its users engaged on the platform. People spend an average of more than 50 minutes a day on Facebook, and the company wants that number to grow. Executives at Facebook stressed the overriding factor right now is not just engagement. "I think of Facebook as a technology company, but I recognize we have a greater responsibility than just building technology that information flows through," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Thursday. "We have a responsibility to make sure Facebook has the greatest positive impact on the world. "


After the teeny-tiny tenure of Anthony (the Mooch) Scaramucci, the gates of hell have opened. Now that we ve had a foul-mouthed Sopranos extra leading the communications team (even if ever so briefly), pretty much anything goes when it comes to Trump s performance art installation previously known as the White House.Why should it surprise anyone that the poster child for corporate greed and everything everyone hates about Millennials, Pharma-bro Martin Shkreli, now wants Scaramucci s job? Oh, and did I mention that Shkreli is currently on trial for federal securities fraud? Score!While Shkreli hasn t yet appeared to make an official pitch for the job, on Monday, he posted this rather cryptic message on Facebook, In for comms director. Some thought it was a completely appropriate idea:This might be a little premature, though, even by Trump standards. The man who s been dubbed the most hated man in America for price gouging AIDS patients with a 5,000 percent price increase for a drug commonly used to treat AIDS, could be headed to prison, but not for that. he has been accused of defrauding half a dozen investors about the size and performance of his hedge funds, and how well qualified he was to manage them. He was also accused of using his pharmaceuticals company, Retrophin, as a piggy bank to pay investors back and cover personal debt.Source: IndependentIf found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison. If found not-guilty, he could be a natural as the face of the White House. According to a former co-worker, Shkreli shares some of the same *um* personality quirks as BLOTUS:A former co-worker, Caroline Stewart, testified that he was a scam artist and mentally unstable . One of his hedge funds imploded after a short trade failed and he ended up owing Bank of America Merrill Lynch $10 million.And as with Dear Orange Leader, Shkreli suffers from a persecution complex which he defends with accusations of a witch hunt. Do you think he could be the Communications Director from prison?


A Marine Corps service member is facing a while another has been discharged following the "Marines United" nude scandal. ["[Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert] Neller told Senate Armed Services Committee lawmakers that 65 individuals were identified in the scandal — in which service members allegedly shared nude photos of female Marines and veterans in the private Facebook group 'Marines United,' — and that 59 were sent to their commands for possible disciplinary or administrative action," reported The Hill on Thursday. "Of the 59 individuals, seven have received punishment, 20 have received 'adverse administrative actions,' and one Marine has been administratively separated. " "The service is also planning an Article 32 hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a on one suspect, but Neller did not say if it was a Marine," they continued. General Robert Neller also detailed how he and other leaders spoke to "tens of thousands" of Marines to make them understand their responsibility. "I've gone personally, as all of my leaders have gone, and spoken to literally tens of thousands of Marines and made them understand what their responsibilities are," claimed Neller. "The social media things that we've seen have been … were just indicative of a problem within our culture that we did not properly respect or value the contributions of women in our Corps and that's the problem we have to fix. " In April, it was reported that sharing private nude photos had been made a crime in the U. S. Marine Corps and Navy following the scandal, which led to nude images of female Marines ending up for sale on the dark web. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.


This truth doesn t hurt Donald Trump, it amuses him.That s probably why he flashed a smile after a heckler at a Kissimmee, Florida campaign rally on Thursday called the Republican nominee Putin s b*tch over his ties to Russian oligarchs.Trump paused during his speech after someone in the audience drew his attention and yelled You love Russia. You re Putin s b*tch, before being escorted out of the building by security as Trump said goodbye to the unidentified man several times.A few seconds later Trump asked, Where the hell did he come from? Here s the video via YouTube:I don t know where the heckler came from but I know why he called Trump Putin s b*tch. Donald Trump has borrowed a lot of money from his Russian business pals and they just so happen to be close with Russian President Vladamir Putin. So, let s just say Trump owes them and if he can t pay them back with money, becoming president would give him the power to pay them back in other ways. You know, like lifting sanctions placed on the Russians after they attacked Ukraine, like Trump advisor Carter Page suggested earlier this year, or weakening NATO so that Russia can continue their aggressive stance, or softening the Republican Party s condemnation of Russia s attack on Ukraine which Trump actually fought to make part of the GOP platform.In short, Trump would essentially be Putin s puppet. And it s not like Russia and Putin have not been enthusiastic about this prospect seeing as how Putin directed state media to tout Trump s campaign and Russian hackers broke into the DNC in what amounts to a cyber-Watergate in an effort to hurt Democrats by giving Trump fodder to use to attack Democrats.So the heckler at Trump s rally was absolutely right to call him Putin s b*tch. And Trump could only smirk because deep down he knows it s true.Featured Image: Screenshot


You may think you are discreet about your political views. But Facebook, the world's largest social media network, has come up with its own determination of your political leanings, based on your activity on the site. And now, it is easy to find out how Facebook has categorized you — as very liberal or very conservative, or somewhere in between. Try this (it works best on your desktop computer): Go to facebook. on your browser. (You may have to log in to Facebook first.) That will bring you to a page with your ad preferences. Under the "Interests" header, click the "Lifestyle and Culture" tab. Then look for a box titled "US Politics. " In parentheses, it will describe how Facebook has categorized you, such as liberal, moderate or conservative. (If the "US Politics" box does not show up, click the "See more" button under the grid of boxes.) Facebook makes a deduction about your political views based on the pages that you like — or on your political preference, if you stated one, on your profile page. If you like the page for Hillary Clinton, Facebook might categorize you as a liberal. Even if you do not like any candidates' pages, if most of the people who like the same pages that you do — such as Ben and Jerry's ice cream — identify as liberal, then Facebook might classify you as one, too. Facebook has long been collecting information on its users, but it recently revamped the ad preferences page, making it easier to view. The information is valuable. Advertisers, including many political campaigns, pay Facebook to show their ads to specific demographic groups. The labels Facebook assigns to its users help campaigns more precisely target a particular audience. For instance, Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign has paid for its ads to be shown to those who Facebook has labeled politically moderate. Campaigns can also use the groupings to show different messages to different supporters. They may want to show an ad to their supporters, for example, that is unlike an ad targeted at people just tuning in to the election. It is not clear how aggressively Facebook is gathering political information on users outside the United States. The social network has 1. 7 billion active users, including about 204 million in the United States. Political outlook is just one of the attributes Facebook compiles on its users. Many of the others are directly commercial: whether you like television comedy shows, video games or Nascar. To learn more about how political campaigns are targeting voters on social media, The New York Times is collecting Facebook ads from our readers with a project called AdTrack. You can take part by visiting nytimes. com and searching for "Send us the political ads. "


Paul Lepage, the Tea Party disaster that happens to technically be the governor of Maine, just keeps finding bold new ways to prove he isn t qualified to hold his job. I say he is technically the governor of Maine because the word itself implies governing as in working and doing a job. LePage does virtually none of that.The latest crusade of stupidity he has embarked upon is the outright refusal to perform his constitutional duty and swear in a new state senator, who recently won a special election. This leaves people of his state without representation in their capitol and shows yet again why the phrase tea party automatically disqualifies from any position of authority in any job.Susan Deschambault, a Biddeford Democrat, won a special election for the Senate District 32 seat on Tuesday. She traveled to the capitol with her family to be sworn in, only to be told the governor refused to do it. His reason is even worse than his behavior. LePage won t swear her in because of a totally unrelated issue where the senate has rejected the confirmation of the governor s nominee to the state s unemployment insurance commission.Deschambault literally has NOTHING to do with any of this, but he is denying her the ability to do her job, denying her constituents representation, denying Maine a fully-functional state house and violating his oath of office as governor just because he is an overgrown child who wants to have a tantrum.Tea Partiers are not the brightest bulb in the room normally. However, this move really is beyond reason even for them. We have a sitting U.S. governor who is literally holding his own state s ability to govern itself hostage until he gets his way. Mario Moretto, the spokesman for state senate Democrats, has said that the senate is looking for alternative methods of installing Deschambault into her office. The state attorney general also gave a statement that she is aware of the situation and that alternative methods are being sought, but she declined to comment further on the matter.


Unidentified YouTuber is roaming Australia surviving completely on what he can build with his own hands Nov 14, 2016 0 0  If you've been following the Primitive Technology channel on YouTube, you know that it follows a man around the Far North of Queensland, Australia. The man never identifies himself, but he is constantly building and creating things with nothing more than his hands and the elements around him.  In a recent video, the man, often called "Prim," stumbled upon a method of creating iron. It came after he created a furnace out of clay.  "My intent was not so much to make iron," he says from his blog, "but to show that the furnace can reach a fairly high temperature using this blower. A taller furnace called a bloomery was generally used in ancient times to produce usable quantities of iron and consumed more charcoal, ore and labour."  Still, it is amazing to see him create a method of iron extraction out of nothing but the basics.  He gets to work with his bow-drill blower and clay forge, first collecting orange iron bacteria (iron oxide) from the creek. He mixes it with powdered charcoal and wood ash, forms it into a cylindrical brick and fires it in a charcoal oven. The result is a melted iron ore slag with tiny, 1mm-sized specs of iron in it.  Fascinating.


Washington (CNN) Americans are increasingly unhappy with President Barack Obama's handling of ISIS, and a growing share of the nation believes that fight is going badly, according to a new CNN/ORC survey released Monday. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of his handling of foreign affairs more broadly, and 54% disapprove of how the President is handling terrorism. Another 60% rate Obama negatively on his handling of electronic national security. The declining approval ratings for Obama on national security come as a weekend of international turmoil further underscores the growing threats abroad. Obama issued a statement condemning the killing of the Christians on Sunday night, though Obama's Republican opponents have consistently made the case that the growing Islamic State threat is exacerbated by what they see as his weak leadership. In the poll, Americans increasingly believe the U.S. military action against ISIS is going badly, with 58% saying so in the latest survey, up from 49% who said the fight wasn't going well in October. Even among Democrats, nearly half — 46% — say things aren't going well in the battle against ISIS. And about half of respondents, 51%, say they trust the President as Commander-in-Chief of the military. But with ISIS affiliates continuing to commit brutal, gruesome murders and multiple terrorist attacks abroad grabbing international headlines over the past few months, support for sending ground troops to Iraq and Syria to confront the threat appears to be growing. The survey suggests Americans are warming up to the idea of sending ground troops to combat the terrorist organization. In November, just 43% supported deploying ground troops, while 55% of Americans opposed it; now the number in support has ticked up to 47%, the highest level of support yet measured, with just half of Americans opposed. Still, the parties have become more polarized on the prospect since November, with 61% of Democrats opposed and a similar majority of Republicans supportive of the prospect, an eight-point increase. Independents, meanwhile, are split, with 48% in favor and 50% opposed. The prospect of sending in ground troops remains a sticking point for both congressional Democrats and Republicans in the debate over Obama's Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which would give him legal authority to combat ISIS. But the AUMF, and Obama's decision to go to Congress for the official authority to continue battling ISIS, is widely popular, according to the new poll. Seventy-eight percent of Americans say Congress should give Obama the authority to fight ISIS, a slight decline from 82% who supported it in December. A similarly large majority say Obama was right to ask Congress for the authority, rather than proceeding with the battle unilaterally. The survey was conducted among 1,027 adult Americans from Feb. 12-15, and has a margin of sampling error of 3%.


On May 2, 2011, SEAL Team Six breached Osama bin Laden's Abbottadad, Pakistan compound and ended the life of the most wanted terrorist on earth, and the team member who actually shot bin Laden reportedly did so with a Heckler Koch 416. [Fox News identified the SEAL Team Six member who fired the fatal shots as Rob O'Neill. When the gun type was reported by other outlets, Breitbart News reached out to a former Navy SEAL for verification and he said the HK 416 was "very likely" the gun used to take out bin Laden. The Tribunist reported that the HK 416 used in the raid had "a 10 inch barrel and a list of high dollar accessories. " This means the gun would have been an HK 416 A5 (11″) as seen here: Or an HK 416 with a 10. 4″ barrel, as seen here: The Heckler and Koch website describes the 416 10. 4″ saying: Heckler and Koch developed the HK416 for U. S. special operations forces as a major product improvement of carbines and rifles. Using the gas piston system found on the G36, the HK416 does not introduce propellant gases and carbon fouling back into the weapon's interior, making it the most reliable of any type weapon. The HK416 has been in Southwest Asia and has also gained worldwide attention of military, law enforcement, and security users. In April 2007, the HK416 was selected as the new Norwegian Army rifle. The 10. 4 inch barrel model is the shortest, most compact variant and is widely used by special operations, law enforcement, and military units worldwide. CNN recounted the details of the raid that ended bin Laden's life: May 2, 2011 — In the early morning hours (approximately on May 1 in the United States) a group of 25 Navy Seals raid the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. When gun controllers see either of the above versions of the HK 416, they may be quick to describe them as the same kind of rifles that civilians buy stateside. However, military rifles and civilian rifles are far different. On the sides of both photographs of the 416 you will notice a selector switch that lets the firearm go from — which is the version civilians own — to fully automatic or three round bursts, both of which are used by military personnel. The civilian versions only resemble the military versions in shape and appearance. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com.


There s a major problem with Trump considering Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, for official positions in the White House. It s not that they re likely to be too close to his business ties, but rather, it s because ignoring the nepotism law and giving family members plum jobs like this is the act of a king, not a democratic president.The very opposite of America.While positions for them in Trump s White House are not yet set in stone, one of Trump s advisers has hinted loudly at Ivanka and Jared having formal positions in his administration. Economist Robert Reich sees a serious problem here as anyone should and said on his Facebook page: Is anyone else uneasy about Trump s daughter and son-in-law becoming White House advisors to President Trump? It s not just their extensive Trump business holdings and conflicts of interest that worry me. It s also their family ties.We ve elected a president, not a king.A president hires advisors. A king bestows privileges and titles on his family.A president wants advice from experts who will tell him what s in America s best interest. A king wants advice from people who will tell him what s in his own personal best interest.A president assembles a White House staff. A king assembles a court.A president dismisses advisors who don t perform. A king doesn t get rid of family members, except when he cuts off their heads. And that s it, in a nutshell. That s the difference between the elected president of a democracy, and a man who would crown himself king like Cheetolini seems to want to do.What has the dark side of America done in electing this autocratic demagogue? Trump supporters are brainwashed; that much is clear. There are so many conflicts of interest with Trump as president that it s insane. Now, those conflicts involve him giving his daughter and son-in-law jobs like a king bestowing lands and titles on his family. Just like Reich said.Of course, there are people close to Trump who believe that the nepotism law doesn t apply, like Kellyanne Conway. She recently said that the law has exceptions that can open up a realm of possibilities. She then tried to assure us that there will be complete distinction and separation, without any ambiguity.Sure. Right. And Trump canceled the press conference where he was supposed to explain when and how he was divesting from his businesses because reasons.People whined up one side and down the other about the Bush dynasty and the Clinton dynasty during the election. But who sees a problem with the dynasty that Trump is literally setting up, one that is unlike either the Bushes or the Clintons? Trump s ensuring that his family has the ties they need to to take over after he s gone (whether he s gone via election or death).Reich is right. We ve elected someone who s going to behave more like a king than a democratic president. If Trump saw himself as president, he d stick by the nepotism law and the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution like they were etched in concrete, rather than looking for loopholes and exceptions to both.Featured image by Mark Wilson via Getty Images


At 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016, Scott Michael Greene, a 46-year-old father of three, would change Urbandale, Iowa, forever. Officer Justin Martin and Sargent Tony Beminio were found shot and killed 20 minutes apart, Wednesday morning. Per authorities, Greene ambushed both Martin and Beminio while in their police cruisers, at two separate locations. Ambush-style shootings on police officers have been a common story on local and national news outlets. On July 17, Gaven Long took the lives of three Baton Rouge police officers. His motives were uncertain but his anger toward white police officials was clear. Recordings of Long ranting and raving about racial injustice surfaced on social media websites days prior to the shootings. Also, Long wore a self-made body camera and visited Dallas, where five officers were killed less than two weeks before his own rampage. There is no physical connection between Long and the Dallas shooter, their mental states were similar. Micah Xavier Johnson, who fatally shot five Dallas officers, believed racial injustice was out of control. Despite his feelings toward police and the black community, Johnson's stepmother was white and he was not known to "pick particular sides with race." Johnson was killed by police officers who used a bomb-wearing robot, following the shootings. This left his motivation for the shootings a mystery. Not all police ambushes are incited by racial discrimination. On Sept. 12, 2014, Eric Frein opened fire on the Blooming Grove state police barracks, in Pennsylvania. One officer died and another was severely wounded. U.S. Marshals would later find Frein, 50 days later, in an airport hangar. He was discovered 23 miles from the barracks. Frein had expressed anger toward law enforcement but the reason for his anger has not been understood. What drives people such as Frein, Johnson, Long, and Green to go and act out such heinous crimes? Perhaps a mental illness can be blamed for such disturbing behavior. The mourning continues for the two officers who lost their lives early Wednesday morning. When a tragedy strikes a community, historically, the people come together. This is what is happening in Urbandale, Iowa. By Amy Weins Edited by Jeanette Smith Sources: Des Moines Register: Suspected police killer had history of run-ins with authorities The Advocate: Before Bloodshed: Where Gavin Long stayed, what he preached, odd encounters all on video Dallas News: Ousted from army, Dallas shooter used military skills for murder Pocono Record: Suspected State Police killer Frein Caught near abandoned airpark Image Courtesy of Brandon Anderson's Eric Frein , Gavin Long , Micah Johnson , Scott Greene , shooting


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he hoped the United States would continue to support Ukraine in its stand-off with Russia following the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. "The President looks forward to a continuation of U.S support in two important areas: Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression ... and also assistance in the realization of major reforms," Poroshenko was quoted as saying in a statement on Wednesday.


Malaysia has asked Interpol to try to locate a Malaysian financier for questioning over his suspected involvement in a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the deputy prime minister said on Monday. The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to seize $1.7 billion in assets that it said were bought with misappropriated funds from 1MDB, according to dozens of civil lawsuits filed by the department in the past two years. The assets include a private jet, a hotel and real estate in New York, and a $107 million interest in EMI Music Publishing bought by Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, the lawsuits said. Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, has not been charged with any crime. But U.S. authorities have said they are pursuing a criminal probe into 1MDB-linked transactions. We are confident Interpol will act professionally, but the police have yet to receive any detailed information (on Low s whereabouts), Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in parliament. A spokesman for Low could not be reached for comment. Low has previously denied any wrongdoing, saying that the U.S. Justice Department s actions were a further example of global overreach in pursuit of a deeply flawed case . Interpol did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. 1MDB, founded by Prime Minister Najib Razak, is facing money laundering probes in at least six countries including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. A total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by high-level officials of the fund and their associates, according to the U.S. lawsuits. Low is accused in the lawsuits of using 1MDB-linked funds to buy Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio a $3.2 million Picasso painting, and giving about $9 million in jewelry to Australian model Miranda Kerr. DiCaprio and Kerr have turned over the items to U.S. authorities and promised to cooperate in the 1MDB probe. The lawsuits also said $681 million from 1MDB was transferred to the account of Malaysian Official 1 , which U.S. and Malaysian sources have previously identified as Najib. Najib has denied any wrongdoing and a Malaysian government investigation has also cleared him of any wrongdoing. A Malaysian police probe into 1MDB is under way.


Part FOUR Twenty Thousand Dollar Wire Transfer Returned # soundcloud.com 0  How The Project Establishing the Cover of The Investigator.Setting up the Business Relationship by an Investment of $20,000 got them access to Robert Creamer and the rest of AUFC .After getting a member of The Projects Team an Internship with the DNC Voter Registration Team subsequent meetings occurred and planning began for further opportunities. Thus opening the Door for The Team to Investigate Further. When News of The Projects Videos got out the DNC Voter Registration Team wanted to return the Money because of concerns that "The Money may be from Foreign Investment". But why did they take the Money in the first place and Why did hey need the Money so badly that First month??? Tags


If sane Americans have done one stupid thing over the last year, it s not take Donald Trump seriously. Unfortunately, there s a lot of discontent among the right toward the changing face of the United States and on the left, there s discontent over the fact that the United States isn t changing fast enough, and that discontentment could easily land Donald Trump in the White House, according to FiveThirtyEight s statistical guru, Nate Silver.While the polls are in a virtual tie, a breakdown of electoral college votes paints a much bleaker picture. According to Silver, Trump is ahead of Clinton by a whopping 15 points.Silver s now-cast, updated with fresh surveys on Monday, shows Trump s current likelihood of winning at 57.5 percent, compared with Clinton s 42.5 percent. In the 11 battleground states, Colorado, Virginia and Michigan would go to Clinton, while Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa would go to Trump.The breakdown shifts a bit between the Electoral College and the popular vote. Silver s model currently predicts the popular vote going 45.4 percent to Trump vs. 45.1 percent to Clinton, but the Electoral College giving Trump a wider margin of victory, 285 votes and Clinton 252.6.Source: PoliticoThis warning alone should be enough to wake up some who are on the fence and some Bernie Sanders supporters, but not all is lost. Silver notes that polling during conventions is notoriously inaccurate.On the one hand, the conventions are not a particularly good time to sweat every tick in the polls. Instead, they tend to be one of the less accurate times for polling. Historically, it s unusual for candidates not to at least pull into a rough tie after their party convention John McCain and Sarah Palin did so in 2008, for example, and even Walter Mondale led a couple of polls in 1984. But those bounces do not always turn out to be predictive.Silver has another hand, though, and he s saying that Clinton has had a very bad July. She could get a convention bump this week, but with Wikileaks email dump and Sanders supporters protesting every single speaker, it s doubtful. In other words, be afraid, but vote and drive people to the polls if necessary.


An atheist group has found a truly genius way to troll christian conservatives over their $101m Noah s Ark being built in Kentucky by crowdfunding mock billboards for the christian theme park. Author and columnist Dan Arel writes in Pathos that a group called the Tri-State Freethinkers are raising $2,000 to place billboards which name the Ark Adventure Genocide and Incest Park. Image via IndiegogoThe Indiegogo page for the project states:The billboards are likely to serious annoy the Ark Adventure team, who have lurched from one crisis to another in their attempts to set up the site.Australian-born Creationist Ken Ham and his fundamentalist Christian organization Answers in Genesis (AiG) are looking to build a $101m Ark Adventure in Kentucky, with the centerpiece of a reconstructed Ark. The problem is, they want you the taxpayer to pay for it.According to Newsweek, AiG purchased a 99-acre plot of land just outside Williamstown, Kentucky got the city for just a dollar five years ago. But since then, the project has hit one hurdle after another. Many, of Ham s own making.The principal issue at stake now, is that Ham and AiG want the taxpayer to pick up the bill for around a quarter of the construction costs of the project in the form of tax rebates. The group sought to exploit subsidies provided by the state to boost tourism through the Tourism Development Incentive program. Projects of $1 million and upwards can recover 25% of project development costs by recouping their sales taxes.After much debate on their initial application, Kentucky approved the site for the scheme so long as AiG agreed to non-discriminatory hiring practices. This means, they could only recover the cash if they recruited people of all faiths and none. They could not specifically hire Creationists.A few bumps down the road later, and Ham and AiG had to significantly strip back their pans for the park. They were unable to gather together the funds and investment to create the full theme park. Due to the substantial changes to the plans, they had to resubmit their application to Kentucky for the tax rebate. This time is was denied. Why? Because apparently, honesty and integrity mean nothing to this group of creationists.Despite their reluctant agreements to get their hands on state cash, AiG had released a decidedly discriminatory recruitment policy for the Ark Adventure. The website demanded a salvation testimony and a creationist statement of faith from all prospective job applicants clearly ruling out non-believers.So now, Ken Ham and AiG are suing Kentucky for the money claiming religious discrimination. Greg Lipper, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State points out the muddled-thinking that AiG is applying in this case. AiG is confusing what they have the right to do as a private organization with what taxpayers are required to fund, They re saying Kentucky taxpayers should pay for them to expand a religious ministry. That kind of argument would make Thomas Jefferson turn in his grave. No one is telling Ham as a private citizen, who or how he can hire. It is only as a recipient of state funds, an agreement which he is free to enter or not, that he is required to follow the stipulations that would be applied to any organization or individual doing the same. Just like chances of his theory of genesis being true, Ham s chances of getting his lawsuit through are slim to none.And his Ark hasn t escaped the attention of social media users either I just realised that America's immigration policy doesn't weed out Australian Ark Building Lunatics. #kenham Michael (@gotapulse) January 3, 2016If #KenHam could get a 500 yr old dude & his kids to build the Ark themselves w/o modern technology I would give the park more credit. Uncle John (@azmoderate) January 18, 2016If the universe was capable of giving Ken Ham and his cohorts a sign that their project was doomed to failure, this comedy of errors and public embarrassments would be it.


Many new minimum wage increases took effect on Friday, and Fox was quick to lose their sh*t over it.Fox Business host Stuart Varney discovered that $15 minimum wage laws go into effect today in 15 cities across five states, and proceeded to wax nostalgic along with his panel of guests about the days when there were no minimum wage laws or child labor laws in this country.Panelist Tammy Bruce warned that it will a cause a march towards robotics as if robots taking over a jobs is something that s never happened before. You re going to have kiosks that are going to be able to sell things to people, she continued. This we ve learned from Seattle, and some other cities that have already implemented it, that jobs are lost. That this, it s the burden is put on the back of other struggling people. You will fire individuals in order to maintain that the salary requirement of the others that you have there. And others, of course, are putting fast-food places are putting in robotics, and kiosks, so you can order your own food. This is what s going to happen. In fact, the Seattle minimum wage increase has not caused the sky to fall as Bruce and her Fox colleagues have been claiming since it was first passed. Many workers are bringing home more money to pay bills and take care of their families. Prices for products have not shot up as conservatives warned and it s still too early to tell if the wage increase is slowing job growth.Varney then turned to WWE has-been John Layfield, who makes a living being a loudmouth on television. Layfield spoke from the nation of Bermuda, and giddily explained that Bermuda does not have a minimum wage and that children work for tips.LAYFIELD: There actually isn t a minimum wage here, right now. You see some of these young kids I run a program for at-risk kids down, sacking groceries, about age 12, and they work off tips. So there isn t actually a minimum wage here.BRUCE: That s how it used to be.LAYFIELD: And it actually works fine. The problem I have with this $15 minimum wage is why 15, because it looks good on a bumper sticker? You re not talking about fixing anything. Tie it to inflation, or a basket of wages, so you take it out of politics and union hands. That s all it is.Except that it s really not working fine. As it turns out, there is a significant income gap in Bermuda and poverty affects many locals because unskilled workers from overseas are willing to work for very little which means great wealth for those who don t have to pay their workers very much because there is no minimum wage law. And children are forced to help out by working for nothing more than the hope of a decent tip.But Varney continnued to whine about the wage increases here in the states because people in poverty will now be able to bring in $30,000 a year. Panelist Elizabeth McDonald complained because she thinks anyone in an entry-level job should be in poverty, even if they have a family to support. She even claimed that college tuition will go up because young workers are making more.VARNEY: $15 an hour, for a forty hour week, is $30,000 a year. I mean, what ELIZABETH MACDONALD: It s supposed to be an entry-level job, it s not supposed to be a career. And, by the way, AWOL in this debate when you have things in the [Obama] administration like raising overtime pay depending on the skill set, and minimum wages, watch out college tuition goes up.VARNEY: That s right, because of all those people who work minimum wage in the colleges. You ve got that right.Of course, college prices were going up long before the minimum wage increase came into being. But don t tell that to Fox Business. The truth will hurt their feelings, if they have any.Here s the video via Media Matters.The bottom line is that increasing the minimum wage is not only fair it helps the economy in general.Every year, corporate fat cats receive salary increases of millions of dollars while the workers who make the business successful see their wages stagnate. This forces many workers to apply for federal aid to make ends meet. Raising the wage helps workers take care of their families and makes it unnecessary for a lot of them to apply for aid. It also helps boost the local economy because workers will use their increased earnings to buy goods, thus pumping more dollars into area businesses that will use those extra profits to pay their own workers a higher wage and hire extra workers if there is more demand.In other words, Fox hosts are fearmongering again and if they had their way, Americans would work for pennies and children would work for even less.


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump assured gun owners on Friday he would protect their constitutional right to bear arms and eliminate gun-free zones if elected, accusing Democrat Hillary Clinton of wanting to weaken gun rights. Trump, who will almost certainly be the Republican presidential nominee, picked up the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, a politically powerful lobbying group which claims more than 4 million members. Trump's remarks at the NRA's national convention in Louisville, Kentucky, were not a surprise, but they could solidify his status among conservatives who see protecting the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment as a top priority. Trump also planned to meet on Monday with U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, a source close to the Trump campaign said. The two are expected to consult on foreign policy. The source said Corker remains on Trump's list of potential vice presidential running mates. Clinton, who is close to clinching the Democratic Party's nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has vowed to take on the gun lobby and expand gun control measures to include comprehensive background checks for gun buyers, including at open-air gun shows and online. Trump, who is trying to unite the Republican Party behind him after a brutal primary battle, accused Clinton, a former secretary of state to President Barack Obama, of wanting to end the 2nd Amendment, which says in part that the people's right to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed." "Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment, not change it; she wants to abolish it," Trump said. Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Maya Harris said Trump is peddling falsehoods and denounced "Donald Trump's conspiracy theories." She said Clinton believes there are "common-sense steps we can take at the federal level to keep guns out of the hands of criminals" while protecting the Second Amendment. Trump told the NRA he would eliminate gun-free zones imposed in some areas, noting that the 2015 shooting deaths of four U.S. Marines at an armed forces recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, took place in a gun-free zone. "The Second Amendment is on the ballot in November," he said. "The only way to save our Second Amendment is to vote for a person you know: Donald Trump." The NRA's convention took place on the same day that a man brandished a gun at a checkpoint near the White House in Washington and was shot and wounded by a law enforcement officer. The New York billionaire's NRA speech was another step in his drive to make more conservatives comfortable with his candidacy. Earlier this week, he released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees who are conservative jurists, a step well-received on the right. Many conservatives, who had backed other Republican candidates in the 2016 race, worry that Trump is a closet liberal on many issues. But Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, said it was time for them to get over their qualms about the 69-year-old candidate. "If your preferred candidate is out of the race, it's time to get over it," Cox told the NRA audience. "Are there valid arguments in favor of some over others? Sure. Will any of it matter if Hillary wins in November? Not one bit." In another step toward trying to unify the party, Cox has invited members of Congress to a "small roundtable discussion" with one of Trump's sons, Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club near the U.S. Capitol, a copy of the invitation said.


BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Gildardo Ramírez reached Mocoa on Sunday, only to find a scene of rubble where his Aunt Claudia's neighborhood had been. He looked desperately through the ruins for his missing aunt, who he said had not been seen since a flood of mud and debris plowed through Mocoa the night before. "I arrived to the house, and it was destroyed," he said by telephone from Mocoa, a small city in the southern mountains of Colombia near the border with Ecuador. "The only thing I found was a backpack. " Anxious relatives like Mr. Ramírez and more than 1, 500 rescue workers raced on Sunday to find anyone who might still be alive and trapped in the wreckage in Mocoa, where parts of the city have been wiped off the map by a deluge of mud and floodwaters. In the air of the town, witnesses said they could already smell the dead under the rubble. Cadavers lay unburied in a cemetery while those in the town focused on search and rescue. "We have a huge challenge to find the missing people," Carlos Ivan Márquez, the head of Colombia's natural disaster unit, told reporters. The Colombian Red Cross said on Sunday that at least 234 people had died some news outlets reported higher tallies from other sources. Mr. Márquez said that in addition to the deaths, the authorities believed that more than 200 people had been injured. Some 600 residents were evacuated to temporary shelters. The destruction began with an overnight downpour of rain that lasted for hours, causing rivers around Mocoa to overflow their banks while most residents were sleeping. The resulting flood surged through the city on Saturday, carrying tons of debris, leveling houses and sweeping away cars and even large trucks. "The avalanche startled me when I was sleeping, and I went out to the street," said Carolina Garreta, 20, a firefighter. "People were running and yelling the names of family members. Others were screaming at God. " Ms. Garreta said that night she had found a boy clinging to a washing machine that had been carried away by the waters. "He told me that his mother and father were still in the home," she said. "But where he pointed to, there was nothing. " Torrential rains have pummeled other parts of the region as well, including Peru, where at least 80 people have been killed in mudslides in recent weeks. Roads and bridges throughout Peru have been damaged, and some 120, 000 people have been left homeless. After Wilson Carrera heard the news of the disaster in Mocoa, he traveled 50 miles on treacherous roads from the Colombian town of Puerto Asis to search for his parents. He said he had found his father, who told him that his mother may not have survived. "They had managed to get out of the house when they started to hear noise," he said in a telephone interview. "But the water caught up to them in the street, and my mother let go of his hand. " The city was cut off from many services on Sunday, leaving nearly all residents without electricity, clean water or gasoline many people huddled in shelters. Survivors used car batteries to recharge cellphones in hopes of contacting loved ones in other towns. "There's not a single drop of drinkable water — we need water, that's what's urgent — and there's nothing to eat," Marisol González, the head of a nearby technological institute, told the newspaper El Tiempo. President Juan Manuel Santos visited Mocoa on Sunday for the second time since the disaster struck. He said more help was on the way, while acknowledging that there had been "bottlenecks" in the response. He promised that electric power would be restored soon, that water would be brought in and that destroyed parts of the city would be rebuilt. "The idea is that Mocoa will be better than it was," he said. Colombia's Weather Service predicted light rains on Sunday, far less extreme than those that hit the region earlier in the weekend. Dr. Herman Granados, a surgeon at a hospital in Mocoa, said the medical staff there was overwhelmed and that blood supplies were running very low. Many people were still missing, he said: "Under the mud, I am sure there are many more. "


"Take off your clothes, step into the pod and shut the top. And be really careful not to get any of the salt in your eyes. " Those were the instructions I was given recently just before I entered a sensory isolation tank in Seattle. Finally, I would have my chance to see what it would be like to be a brain in a jar. Lying in a supersaturated solution of magnesium sulfate — better known as Epsom salts — cranked up to body temperature, I pulled the top down over me and pushed the button to extinguish the violet light illuminating the pod. Cut off from the world of sensory stimuli, my brain had free rein to invent any experience it had up its sleeve. So I floated in pitch blackness and waited for a profound experience to wash over me. This is what adherents paid $89 a pop to feel. I'd heard it was better than meditation, yoga and drugs — perhaps because it promised nirvana without any effort or side effects. But I felt nothing. After some time, I became acutely aware that I could not feel my body, which I suppose was the whole point of depriving the brain of any connection to the physical world. I started to slowly move my hands and legs to reassure myself they were still there. Check. I had a vivid image of my phantom body I knew intellectually that it was present, but couldn't detect it in the normal sense. Just then, I made the error of letting my head drop too low in the salt broth and got some into my eyes. The sting was immediate and distinctly unpleasant. The brief period of nothingness had ended, and over the next few minutes, my mental state moved from curiosity to boredom to annoyance. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. My stomach rumbled. My brain was bombarded with all kinds of physical sensations. I was beginning to feel sympathy for pickled fish. Instead of a transcendent excursion into an altered consciousness, sensory deprivation had hilariously underscored the primacy of my body it was almost a purely physical experience from start to finish. It was like being at a meditation retreat with a runny nose. My brain was simply incapable of escaping the signals my body was sending it. When the hour was up, I showered and came down to the receptionist to pay. There were three women there who were like me, and they all looked blissful. "How was it?" one of them dreamily asked me. Not wanting to be a downer, I replied that it was lovely and interesting. At least it was half true. The experience made me wonder about a question that has never let go of me: Are you more than your brain? Hardly a week goes by, it seems, without an enthusiastic report in the popular media about intriguing neuroscience research linking some human behavior to the function of a particular brain circuit. So you might hear that the insula lights up when you're sad, another region when you're happy and still another when you're enjoying a drink or an orgasm. For some reason we love to hear our mental experiences described in the language of neuroscience, yet what does it actually add to our understanding of ourselves to learn that our brain shows activity when we think and feel one thing or another? By itself, not a lot, except to encourage the erroneous and simplistic idea that the brain is an independent sovereign, calling all the shots. Of course, the brain gives rise to our mind, which then tries to understand and manipulate the very neural apparatus that brought it about. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. Some very smart neuroscientists and philosophers like to say that the very notion of mind is an illusion, a trick of the brain — something they have been carrying on about for rather a long time. Don't get me wrong. I'm a neuroscience junkie. But we are not just a brain in a jar we are also bodies, and what we do with those bodies can influence the brain. You can easily alter your thinking and mood by manipulating your body: by, for example, injecting your forehead with Botox, shining light into your eye, exercising — or floating in an isolation tank. In the end, whether or not we are more than our brain is less important and less interesting than the fact that our brain does not just give orders it takes them, too. An isolation tank can turn the body weightless and invisible, but your brain knows better.


North Carolina's replacement on Thursday of a law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identity could be the death knell for similar restrictions still being considered in about a dozen other states. Measures similar to North Carolina's House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill, were filed in 16 states this legislative session. Momentum had already slowed for most of the bills and some of them had failed. "Republicans in the state that was in vanguard, North Carolina, are now signaling that this legislation was not, in the end, in the best interest for their state, either for its economy or its reputation," said Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University in Houston. North Carolina lawmakers said they acted to replace the law in hopes of ending boycotts by businesses and sports leagues that considered the year-old measure discriminatory. The boycotts cost the Southern state's economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Supporters of the restrictions have said the measures offer common-sense solutions that will help keep sexual predators out of bathrooms and changing facilities. Opponents say the measures are unenforceable and promote discrimination against an already marginalized group of people. None of the states that proposed similar legislation this session has enacted a version into law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks statehouses. Proposals introduced in South Dakota, Virginia, Montana and Wyoming failed to pass, according to the organization and news reports. In Tennessee, a bathroom bill died in a Senate committee without a debate. The state's Republican lieutenant governor questioned the need after Republican President Donald Trump's administration in February revoked the former Obama administration's landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. On Wednesday, Arkansas state Senator Linda Collins-Smith, a Republican, withdrew the bathroom bill she had proposed in that state. She instead recommended the issue for study in committee after facing pressure from the state's pro-business governor and business groups to drop it. After North Carolina, a similar measure proposed in Texas, the most populous Republican-controlled state, has drawn the closest attention. It has already cleared the Texas Senate and moved further than the similar legislation proposed this session in the other states, the National Conference of State Legislatures said. A key backer of Texas' bathroom measure that restricts bathroom access for transgender people and is known as Senate Bill 6, was undeterred by North Carolina's change of course. "The actions in North Carolina do not affect what we have done in Texas," Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in a statement. He previously said the law would have no economic impact on the state. But the Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives said last week the bill would face a tough time in that chamber because of worries over economic fallout. Alabama Republican state Senator Phil Williams said North Carolina's action would not affect similar restrictions he proposed for his state. Bathroom bills will remain on the legislative landscape this year in many states, analysts said. "There are people for whom this is part of their constituency and their agenda and they campaigned on it," said Sherri Greenberg, a clinical professor at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.


The situation on the Korean peninsula is at a very dangerous stage, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told counterparts from the BRICS group of nations, China s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The urgent task is to prevent North Korea s nuclear and missile programs progressing and to avoid a further escalation in tensions and to especially prevent resorting to arms, Wang said, speaking in New York on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting.


For almost an entire year Donald Trump insulted, berated, bastardized and scrutinized everything that wasn t a white, Christian male. Republicans barely flinched.Then he makes a comment about a Mexican judge s heritage when it pertains to his fraud lawsuit. Republicans lose their minds (and rightfully so).It appears that Trump s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel has hit a special nerve in one state legislator.The Des Moines Register has broken the news that David Johnson, who has served in the Iowa General Assembly for 18 years as a Republican, will be leaving the GOP over the party s bigot nominee, Donald J. Trump.Johnson told the Register: I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot. The now former Republican will be registering as a member of no party preference, and said he will never support Hillary Clinton for president. However, Johnson has also stated that he is not sure he will caucus with the Republicans in the Legislature, feeling that members of the GOP have become too timid to take on Trump and his supporters. Johnson did say that if a formidable Republican steps up to the plate and challenged Trump nationally, he may rejoin the party, but said: If Mr. Trump is the nominee, he becomes the standard bearer for a party that s on the verge of breaking apart. He simply cannot unify the GOP. If there is a profound split, I ll gladly rejoin Republicans who are dedicated to equality and justice for all, and let Trump lead his supporters over the cliff. And that s exactly what Mr. Trump will do. Johnson also knows how this will hurt him politically, but says he doesn t care, citing his record of often going against the Republican establishment in the state when it comes to education funding and Medicaid program.One thing is for sure we will see many more Republicans follow Johnson s lead in he coming months.


President Donald Trump has a plan to deal with former President Obama's executive amnesty for children of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally. ["We'll be coming out with policy on that over the next period of four weeks," Trump explained when asked about the "DREAMers" in an interview with ABC News anchor David Muir. In 2012, Obama instituted DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) allowing these children to stay in the country legally. During the campaign, Trump vowed to repeal DACA and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) a promise that activists are watching closely. During the ABC interview, however, Trump urged the "DREAMers" not to worry. "They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody," he said, promising to restore a strong border. "Where you have great people that are here that have done a good job, they should be far less worried. " Trump added that his administration would focus on criminal illegal immigrants first. "Those people have to be worried 'cause they're getting out," he said. "We're gonna get them out. We're gonna get 'em out fast. "


Tensions continued in North Dakota on Monday afternoon as law enforcement officials arrested 16 people at a demonstration, one day after hundreds clashed with the police over the Dakota Access Pipeline. During a news conference on Monday, officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the weather. "Some of the water was used to repel some of the protest activities that were occurring, and it was used at a time where they were aggressive towards the officers," the Morton County sheriff, Kyle Kirchmeier, said at the news conference. In a statement late on Sunday, the Morton County Sheriff's Department characterized the demonstration as an "ongoing riot," releasing photos that it said showed protesters "setting fires and using aggressive tactics" while trying to dismantle a police barricade on Backwater Bridge, which has for months been the site of a protest against the pipeline. The statement did not address what dispersal methods the department had used against what it estimated to be a crowd of 400 protesters. Rob Keller, a spokesman for the department, told The Bismarck Tribune that water was being used for crowd control, adding that water cannons had also been used to douse the fires. The paper reported that protesters had started a dozen fires and that officers from the sheriff's department had said that rocks and logs were being thrown at them. One officer was struck on the head, it said. The Associated Press reported that at least one person was arrested. Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Oceti Sakowin medical team, which had been working in tandem with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had reported that nearly 200 people were injured and 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries. One protester went into cardiac arrest and was revived by the medic team, he said. The medical teams attributed many of the injuries to rubber bullets, pepper spray and shrapnel from concussion grenades, according to Mr. Goldtooth, and said that water sprayed from cannons caused early signs of hypothermia. The air temperature in the area was about 23 degrees at 10:15 p. m. according to the National Weather Service. "I would love to emphasize here that this entire situation is ripe with irony," Mr. Goldtooth said, adding that on Friday, Sheriff Kirchmeier had urged the protesters to leave their camps because they might be unfamiliar with the harshness of North Dakota winters. Late last month, tensions boiled over at a protest camp near Backwater Bridge when law enforcement officials forced demonstrators out of the area. That confrontation led to the arrests of more than 140 protesters and resulted in the setting of multiple fires. Reports coming out of the conflict have been highly contested, with law enforcement officials and protesters leveling substantive accusations of violence at each other. Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in a phone interview Monday that the measures law enforcement officials took on Sunday represented a clear escalation of violence. "The use of water in freezing temperatures just goes to show that they're being more aggressive and they're actually trying to hurt people," he said. "This is far more threatening to human life than any other time of confrontation with law enforcement. " A live video of Sunday's protests was posted by a demonstrator named Kevin Gilbertt, who identifies himself on Facebook as a poet and videographer. Early Monday morning, the and unclear video had been viewed over three million times. Senator Bernie Sanders shared Mr. Gilbertt's video on his Facebook page and called for President Obama to "take all appropriate measures" to protect the protesters. Senator Sanders also reposted a tweet that said that law enforcement officials were spraying Native Americans with water cannons in weather. The conflict over the $3. 7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline has lasted for months, as Energy Transfer Partners, a company, attempts to finish construction of the project In an interview with The Associated Press published on Friday, Kelcy Warren, the company's chief executive, said that the company had no alternative but to stick to the plan for construction. "There's not another way. We're building at that location," Mr. Warren said. Native Americans, environmental activists and others have said that the pipeline, which would carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois, threatens the local water supply and would also harm sacred Native American grounds. In an interview with NPR last month, Mr. Archambault, the tribal chairman, said that while protesters were asked to "remain prayerful and peaceful," it was "hard to resist reacting" given the dual pressures coming from Energy Transfer Partners and law enforcement. "Our purpose is to protect the water," he said. "And no matter what we do, nobody cares. They're going to force this down our throats again. "


Didn t America have to suffer through a high profile perjury case for another Clinton not so many years ago? Oh yeah that was Bill Clinton who was actually IMPEACHED for LYING to a grand jury. Is there a more corrupt, self-serving power-driven couple in America? WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (UT-03) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (VA-06) sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia requesting an investigation into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed perjury and made false statements when testifying under oath before Congress.The letter states: The evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Secretary Clinton s use of a personal email system appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony. In light of those contradictions, the Department should investigate and determine whether to prosecute Secretary Clinton for violating statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress, or any other relevant statutes. Background:During a July 5, 2016 hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey stated the truthfulness of Secretary Clinton s testimony before Congress was not within the scope of the FBI s investigation. According to Director Comey the Department of Justice requires a criminal referral from Congress to initiate an investigation into Secretary Clinton s congressional testimony.Additionally, Chairman Chaffetz sent a letter to Director Comey requesting the FBI s full investigative file from its review of former Secretary Clinton s use of an authorized private email server.Chairman Goodlatte sent a letter to Director Comey pressing for more information about the FBI s investigation and also led a letter signed by over 200 members of Congress demanding answers from FBI Director Comey regarding the many questions surrounding his announcement that he does not recommend federal prosecution against former Secretary Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information through private email servers.Full text of letter:The Honorable Channing D. Phillips U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia 555 Fourth Street NW Washington, D.C. 20530Dear Mr. Phillips:We write to request an investigation to determine whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed perjury and made false statements during her testimony under oath before congressional committees.While testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on July 7, 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey stated the truthfulness of Secretary Clinton s testimony before Congress was not within the scope of the FBI s investigation. Nor had the FBI even considered any of Secretary Clinton s testimony. Director Comey further testified the Department of Justice requires a criminal referral from Congress to initiate an investigation of Secretary Clinton s congressional testimony. We are writing for that purpose.The evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Secretary Clinton s use of a personal email system appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony. In light of those contradictions, the Department should investigate and determine whether to prosecute Secretary Clinton for violating statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress, or any other relevant statutes.Thank you for your attention to this important matter. oversight.house.govWatch Hillary caught in lies during testimony in video here:Watch the impeachment of Hillary s serial sexual abuser husband, Bill for lying before a grand jury about his affair with young intern Monica Lewinsky:


ST. LOUIS Former St. Louis police Officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty Friday of murdering a man while on duty.St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson s highly anticipated verdict found the white former St. Louis police officer not guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of a black drug suspect after a high-speed pursuit and crash.Activists, with support from some of the city s black clergy, had pledged disruptive protests ahead of Wilson s verdict.Wilson addressed such statements in his order: A judge shall not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism. Immediately after the verdict was issued, protesters gathered downtown near Tucker Boulevard and Market Street. They blocked a ramp to Interstate 64 off Clark Street, but were blocked by police from entering the highway. Protesters then headed to police headquarters.St. Louis Police reminded protesters that blocking traffic is illegal and is not protected by the First Amendment: Per Ord. 17.16.275, it is unlawful for a person to obstruct & impede the reasonable movement of vehicular or pedestrian traffic. #STLVerdict St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) September 15, 2017As the protests grew, Wells Fargo and Nestle Purina PetCare sent their nearly 7,000 employees home for the day.Police officers were seen preparing for potential riots:Bike cops are seen amassing in #DowntownSTL. #JasonStockley has been found NOT GUILTY https://t.co/eLmJAKkagx pic.twitter.com/Kvd7aThPZe KMOV (@KMOV) September 15, 2017Damone Smith, 52, an electrician headed to work, was among the motorists being rerouted from the protest area. I think the verdict is disgusting, said Smith, who is black. I m proud of these people protesting. If you look like me, then you feel like there is no other way to express yourself in the face of this kind of verdict. Time and time again, African American men are killed by police and nobody is held accountable. The judge explained his rationale for the verdict in a 30-page document filed about 8:30 a.m. Friday. No one promised a rose garden, and this surely is not one, he wrote of the case. This court, as the trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of defendant s guilt. Agonizingly, this court has pored over the evidence again and again This court, in conscience, cannot say that the state has proven every element of murder beyond a reasonable doubt or that the defendant did not act in self-defense. Because the state did not prove Stockley did not act in self-defense, Wilson wrote that he could not address lesser charges of homicide or manslaughter. St. Louis Police Department called for peace:We know emotions are running high, however we ask that those who choose to protest, do so peacefully. #STLVerdict St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) September 15, 2017The fiance of the victim Anthony Lamar Smith, Christina Wilson, bravely stood in front of a microphone just prior to the court s announcement and asked for protesters to not resort to violence. Inspired by your courage, Christina. Honored to stand with you and call for peace in #STL. https://t.co/ucUlKuWorO pic.twitter.com/4HjKvPtIwJ Eric Greitens (@EricGreitens) September 15, 2017Meanwhile, on social media, people who have become famous for doing absolutely nothing but race-baiting, like Tariq Nasheed, are stirring the pot, and totally disrespecting the wishes of Smith s fiance. The unconstitutional #JasonStockley verdict is further proof that LE & the court systems have been fully infiltrated by white supremacists Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) September 15, 2017The Mayor of St. Louis used her opportunity to call for peaceful protests in her city to instead, stir the pot by suggesting that justice was not served, potentially leading angry protesters to believe it is now their responsibility to deliver justice:Mayor Lyda Krewson released a statement following the verdict saying, I am appalled at what happened to Anthony Lamar Smith. I am sobered by this outcome. Frustration, anger, hurt, pain, hope and love all intermingled. I encourage St. Louisans to show each other compassion, to recognize that we all have different experiences and backgrounds and that we all come to this with real feelings and experiences, she wrote.Krewson s comment drew a rebuke from Neil Bruntrager, Stockley s lawyer. How do you promote all those things by creating distrust in a system that clearly worked under these circumstances? Bruntrager said. It is irresponsible and a disservice to the community to make statements like that. It s an insult to Judge Wilson to make statements like that. And it falsely encourages the belief that an injustice was done here when in fact justice was done. St. Louis Dispatch


On this Thanksgiving, I would like to address an open letter to the multimillionaire National Football League players who continue to take a knee when The Star-Spangled Banner is played.Dear kneeling brothers,As a proud Army veteran, mom and black American, I thank God that I live in the greatest nation on Earth. For me, Thanksgiving doesn t just come once a year. I m thankful 365 days a year.You make far, far more money than almost all Americans regardless of race. Kids look up to you as heroes. You appear on TV and in the media.Yet, you keep on protesting refusing to rise and respect our national anthem and respect the men and women like me who serve or have served in our military.I was willing to die for my country when I put on the Army uniform. And you re not even willing to stand up for a short song? This is too much of a sacrifice for you?One of the many lessons I ve learned along the way is that there is no place on the planet like America. She is not perfect, because we are not perfect. Yet, she is a consummate beacon of light, set upon a hill, for nations who look to her for hope, dignity and direction.You big guys should appreciate that and pause for a few moments to express your patriotism and love for our great nation when our national anthem is played and our flag flies before thousands of people who have paid good money to see you run around a field chasing a little ball.Let me tell you about me. I m not as big and strong as you, but I stepped forward to join the Army to fight for your right to play games in peace.Weeks before I graduated from the Army s basic training program, I had an epiphany: I could be deployed to war. Would I go? Would I put my life on the line for someone else?It didn t take me long to come to a resounding Yes! If called, I would go.But I gave myself an assignment. If I was going to potentially give life or limb to defend this great country, I would need to know what, exactly, I was defending. I am still learning.One of the lessons I ve learned about America is more of a personal lesson. I am not a victim. My two beautiful black babies are not victims. Black Americans are not victims.We are victors not so much because of anything we have done, but because of those who came before us. Slaves in chains, treated like farm animals, to be owned by others. And after Emancipation, those who endured the humiliation of drinking out of the dirty water fountain or taking their child into the colored restroom.Those who were spat upon or cursed out solely because they were deemed the wrong color. Those who had to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to be eligible to vote, notwithstanding their college education.Those who were hosed down, billy-clubbed across the head or attacked by trained dogs just because they walked across a bridge.Those who were aroused from their sleep to see hate-filled men covered in white sheets, a cross burning in their front yard and their neighbor calling out for their son.Those who, oftentimes, paid the ultimate sacrifice not for their own benefit, but for the joy that was set before them.We, today, are the joy that was set before them. And, how do you repay them for their sacrifice to be treated as equal under the law? You have chosen to take a knee.If you followed the rhetoric we hear today, America is not far removed from those Jim Crow days of legalized discrimination against black people.If you closed your eyes and just listened to the blistering speeches coming from Antifa, the Black Lives Matter folks and many politicians, you would think we re not even 40 years removed from slavery itself.The narrative behind Hands Up, Don t Shoot perpetuates the storyline that around every street corner there s a police officer waiting to shoot a black man. It is these narratives that have given life to you NFL players kneeling during our national anthem.If there was truth behind these narratives, then I would readily support you black millionaire athletes using your national platform to shine a bright light on the systemic racism against the black community.But we re not living in 1850 or 1950. Racism is certainly not dead, but it s not the powerful monster backed by all the resources of government either. And you guys are not exactly downtrodden, going hungry, being shoved to the back of the bus, or used for target practice by Ku Klux Klansmen dressed up like cops.Allow me to make a few suggestions to you as an alternative to continuing to disrespect our country and flag. If you want to make a real difference that extends beyond getting your picture on a magazine cover, please consider doing the following.First, invest in black urban schools, to help them pay for the educational programs and enhanced learning opportunities that wealthy suburban schools have to help their students succeed.Second, commit to providing mentoring and college scholarships for 20, 10 or even just one child in the inner city, from elementary school through high school and into college. You will change their futures.Third, take $1 million or $2 million not all of your vast wealth and invest it into creating jobs, businesses and entrepreneurial internships to help black people achieve the American Dream. Find ways to personally take your millions directly into a distressed community and invest.Fourth, take a family out of the inner city by giving them a mortgage-free home. Consider the ripple effect of good this stand would have on the lives of an entire family for generations to come.Fifth, educate yourselves and then others on what the Democratic Party has done to the black community. I have yet to find an inner city run by conservatives. Yet I see one Democratic politician after another representing some of the most distressed communities. These politicians themselves usually do not live in those distressed communities and often live in expensive homes while their kids attend private schools.Teach yourselves and others to hold elected officials accountable. Be determined to no longer fall prey to their sleight-of-hand manipulations that only serve to distract you from their lack of effort to make real changes in the black community.Doing just one of these things would make an indelible imprint on any community, especially the black community.So instead of taking a knee, take a stand to stomp out poverty by investing in businesses, by creating an environment that promotes family stability, and by fanning the flames of hope, dignity and direction into the lives of some of our most depressed citizens.By the grace of God, I was never called into war during my Army service. I know many others who were. Some did not return whole. So, while I can t play pro football, I have two legs, two arms and a brain that tells me to appreciate and love the United States of America.For all this I am thankful, and I think you should be too.Happy Thanksgiving,Kathy Barnette


A spectacular explosion of a SpaceX rocket on Thursday destroyed a $200 million communications satellite that would have extended Facebook's reach across Africa, dealing a serious setback to Elon Musk, the billionaire who runs the rocket company. The blast is likely to disrupt NASA's cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, exposing the risks of the agency's growing reliance on private companies like SpaceX to carry materials and, soon, astronauts. The explosion, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. intensified questions about whether Mr. Musk is moving too quickly in his headlong investment in some of the biggest and most complex industries, not just space travel but carmakers and electric utilities. This is not the first problem Mr. Musk has suffered as he tries to create space travel that is cheap and commonplace. Each of his companies, including Tesla and SolarCity, has hit major stumbling blocks recently. The owner of a Tesla car died in May in a crash using the company's autopilot software, and SolarCity faces major financial challenges. "SpaceX is running a punishing schedule," said Scott Pace, the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a former NASA official. "There is probably some human factor involved here. To what extent was human error part of this? And if so, why? Are you running your people too hard? What are your safety requirements?" Dr. Pace said an internal investigation would have to look at the company's operations as it tried to ramp up the pace of launches. The company's president, Gwynne Shotwell, said in a statement, "Our No. 1 priority is to safely and reliably return to flight for our customers, and we will carefully investigate and address this issue." The Falcon 9 rocket burst into flames in a violent series of blasts starting at 9:07 a. m. spewing plumes of dark smoke around the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and sending vibrations felt by residents nearby. The rocket had been set to launch on Saturday, carrying a satellite for Spacecom, an Israeli company. The explosion was particularly painful news for Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who is touring Kenya, promoting a program reliant on the satellite, known as with entrepreneurs in the country. He had promised them connectivity. Just hours after the news of the explosion broke, Mr. Zuckerberg expressed disappointment on his Facebook page "that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite," a swipe at Mr. Musk and his team, who were still trying to figure out what went wrong. Mr. Musk did not respond publicly to Mr. Zuckerberg. But he posted a brief explanation on Twitter: "Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation. Originated around upper stage oxygen tank. Cause still unknown. More soon. " The Falcon 9, developed by SpaceX with NASA financing, has had previous problems. In June 2015, a rocket carrying NASA cargo to the International Space Station fell apart when a strut holding a helium bottle snapped, setting off a chain of events that destroyed the rocket moments later. This latest episode is likely to push back the timetable NASA had after hiring SpaceX and Boeing to carry astronauts to the space station by the end of next year. NASA said it was too soon to say how the explosion would affect its space station operations, asserting that it remained "confident" in its commercial partners. "Today's incident — while it was not a NASA launch — is a reminder that spaceflight is an incredible challenge, but our partners learn from each success and setback," the agency said. SpaceX's next cargo mission to the space station is scheduled for November. Coincidentally on Thursday, a report released by NASA's inspector general, Paul K. Martin, said SpaceX and Boeing were likely to face additional delays in their launch schedules anyway. Launches with crews will probably not lift off before the second half of 2018, three years later than planned, the inspector general said. Changes that SpaceX is making to the design of the capsule, to allow landing in water instead of on land, are causing the latest delays, Mr. Martin said. In addition, NASA has been slow in examining safety reviews submitted by the companies, and as a result, late and costly redesigns might be needed, Mr. Martin said. SpaceX lists about 40 launches of satellites and other cargo on its manifest for commercial companies, NASA and the Air Force. Space industry experts say that Mr. Musk faces risks in balancing SpaceX's backlog of contracts — spanning the next few years — without cutting corners to stay on the company's busy schedule. "Whenever you have a failure along these lines, you of course face delays, which inevitably sets back some of your commercial and government satellite contracts," said Marco Cáceres, senior space analyst and director of space studies at The Teal Group, an aerospace research firm. "They have to fight the temptation to keep to a schedule, even if that means setting back their launches into next year. " SpaceX had hoped for 18 rocket launches this year so far, eight have occurred. Over all, SpaceX has had 27 successful launches of Falcon 9 rockets. An episode like Thursday's is rare. Jonathan McDowell of the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. who tracks rocket history, said the last time such an explosion happened on a Cape Canaveral launchpad, before the ignition of engines for liftoff, was in 1959. SpaceX is rebuilding a separate launchpad, one of the two formerly used for NASA's space shuttle missions, for the astronaut launches. That launchpad is scheduled to be ready by the end of the year. Business analysts were mixed on the effects of the explosion on Mr. Musk's other investments at a time when he is under considerable financial pressure with the planned merger of Tesla and SolarCity. Mr. Musk draws vocal admirers and detractors, some of whom are "short" investors betting that Tesla cannot execute on its business plan. Trip Chowdry, a senior analyst at Global Equities Research who studies Tesla's performance, described Mr. Musk's situation as a " sword. " "When things work out well, people believe Musk to be a superstar," Mr. Chowdry said. But when things go wrong like an explosion at a separate company, Tesla investors tend to make more general inferences, too. "When all is said and done, does it have any impact on Tesla stock? No," he said. "But events at SpaceX do create headline risk for Tesla stockholders. " The demise of the satellite, called puts a significant damper on Facebook's Internet. org initiative, a grand plan spearheaded by Mr. Zuckerberg to provide wireless connectivity to nations across the world that do not otherwise have easy internet access. In a partnership with Eutelsat, a French satellite provider, Facebook planned to use to offer internet coverage to large parts of Africa. Along with satellite coverage, Facebook is teaming with local internet providers to offer access, and is also building its own drones — the first of which is named Aquila — to beam internet connectivity down to cities. Its Internet. org initiative had already sustained a setback when the company's aggressive overtures were rejected by local regulators in India earlier this year. On Thursday, Mr. Zuckerberg struck an upbeat tone in his post about the rocket failure, noting that the company has other strategies in the works to expand internet connectivity across the world. Aquila, the drone, he noted, recently undertook its first successful flight in the desert. Still, the setback will delay Facebook's ambitious plans and even more ambitious timetable. Shortly after his SpaceX comments, Mr. Zuckerberg struck a cheerier note by posting some "good news" from the region: A family of baby giraffes was seen on his safari.


Pakistan s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif attended an anti-corruption trial on Friday ordered by the country s Supreme Court when it removed him from office earlier this year. Sharif, 67, arrived at the court with his daughter, Maryam, who is also on trial over the family s wealth and financial dealings. The family has called the case a political conspiracy but opposition leaders who pushed it before the courts have hailed it as accountability for the rich and powerful. The charges in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court are linked to London properties the family owns that were revealed in the 2016 Panama Papers leaks involving offshore companies owned by prominent international figures. Allies of Sharif, who has served as prime minister twice and was toppled in a military coup in 1999, have called the proceedings a political vendetta and hinted at intervention by elements of the powerful army. The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from office in July over unreported sources of annual income of about $10,000, a salary the former premier denies ever receiving. The high court also ordered the NAB to investigate and conduct a trial into the Sharif family s wider finances, including the London properties. Sharif maintains control of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which elected close ally Shahid Khaqi Abbasi as prime minister after Sharif was disqualified.


CHARLESTON, S. C. — They sat on the same courtroom bench, but worlds apart — the parents of Walter L. Scott, a black man shot to death in 2015, and Michael T. Slager, the white police officer who killed him as he fled after a traffic stop. And the arguments they heard from lawyers were just as disparate as they pleaded with jurors to settle a bitterly divisive case in their favor: for the government, a rare conviction of a police officer, and for the defense, an acquittal of an officer seen on tape shooting a fleeing man. "Our whole criminal justice system rides on the back of law enforcement," Scarlett A. Wilson, the chief prosecutor for Charleston County, told the jury of 11 white people and a black man. "They have to be held accountable when they mess up. It is very, very rare, but it does happen. " But Mr. Slager's lawyer, Andrew J. Savage III, pressed jurors to resist "a false narrative" — that the officer malevolently opened fire toward Mr. Scott's back on April 4, 2015, when he fled a traffic stop for a broken taillight — and to find that Mr. Slager had acted in . "This shooting didn't happen in a vacuum," Mr. Savage said. "Mr. Scott did not get shot because he had a broken taillight. Mr. Scott was shot because of what he did on April 4. " Jurors, who began their deliberations on Wednesday evening, must reach a unanimous decision, and they have three options if they are to avoid a mistrial: a conviction for murder, a conviction for voluntary manslaughter or an acquittal. The difference between murder and manslaughter — charges with vastly different potential penalties in this state — revolves around whether someone had "malice" toward the person who was killed. Under South Carolina law, a conviction for murder carries a prison term of 30 years to life the penalty for manslaughter is between two and 30 years in prison. Mr. Slager has also been charged in Federal District Court with violating Mr. Scott's civil rights. Like the federal case, the state's case, tried over four grueling weeks in a courtroom here, turns on a matter of minutes on the Saturday before Easter last year, when Mr. Slager stopped Mr. Scott for an equipment violation. It was a stop, virtually everyone agrees, that began normally. But Mr. Scott soon decided to flee on foot — his family and prosecutors believe he did so because of outstanding child support obligations — and Mr. Slager chased him. The men became involved in a fight, and, according to Mr. Slager, who testified on Tuesday, Mr. Scott took control of the officer's Taser, leaving him in "total fear. " Near the end of their physical struggle, a switched on his cellphone's camera and began to record a video of the moments that soon rocketed into the national consciousness: when Mr. Slager fired eight shots and Mr. Scott, wounded, collapsed to the ground. Mr. Scott was at least 17 feet from Mr. Slager, and running away, when the officer began to shoot. Mr. Savage, during a presentation when he argued that Mr. Slager had been maligned by the news media, failed by his department and victimized by a shoddy investigation, said Mr. Scott had left Mr. Slager with little choice after he "made decisions to attack a police officer. " "Should he have assumed that an unarmed man would have attacked a police officer?" Mr. Savage said of Mr. Slager, who he complained had been made a "poster boy" of alleged police misconduct because of controversial killings in other parts of the country. Ms. Wilson unambiguously and furiously denied that other cases had affected the prosecution here, and she told jurors that there could not "let your decision be based on things going on elsewhere. " Rather, she contended, investigators had at first sided with Mr. Slager. "They bought everything he said hook, line and sinker," she said. "They believed him until they didn't, until they knew better. " Winding down a criminal case that has drawn enormous attention here, Ms. Wilson accused Mr. Savage of relying on a defense strategy she said was intended to confuse jurors and shift blame for Mr. Scott's death. The defense's approach, she argued, could be summarized simply: "Look at everything else — everybody else — but don't look at that video. " She said that Mr. Slager, who is now 35, had embellished the nature of his confrontation with Mr. Scott, who was 50. She characterized one of Mr. Slager's wounds, cited by his lawyers as evidence of a struggle, as "a glorified paper cut," and she hailed the role that video had played in the case. "Thank goodness we have a camera," she said, "because it's not just memory that matters. " Eventually, as Ms. Wilson neared the end of her argument, she played the video of the shooting again. As the eight shots echoed the courtroom one last time, Mr. Scott's parents, still in their seats, embraced, looking away from the killing.