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Republican Rep. Justin Amash explains his call to impeach Trump

The only Republican so far to call for the president to be impeached fires back at critics.

The Latest: Saudi Arabia won't hesitate to defend itself

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The latest on developments in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere in the Mideast amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran (all times local):

Hospital did not alert authorities about woman charged in Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's brutal murder: child welfare agency

Strokosch claimed the agency was not alerted about the case until May 9, amidquestions about who had custody of the child and could make medical decisionson his behalf, the Associated Press reports

Lori Lightfoot Inauguration: Chicago's first African-American woman, openly gay mayor to be sworn in Monday

History will be made in Chicago Monday when Lori Lightfoot is sworn-in as the city's next mayor.

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

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

HUD Secretary Ben Carson stumped during congressional hearing

The HUD secretary faced a tough hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.

Is It Cheaper To Buy A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback From Britain?

This immaculate 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback is estimated to sell at British auction for $95K. It’s hard not to whisper Steve McQueen’s name when presented with a Ford Mustang 390 GT Fastback, even if it isn't a 1968 model. The American classifieds may provide evidence of eye-watering sums being traded for healthy Fastback specimens, but it’s not always the case in Great Britain.

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

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

AOC renews Trump impeachment calls after McGahn ignores subpoena: 'We have to move forward'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ramping up pressure on her fellow Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, saying that she and her colleagues have “a duty” to hold the president accountable."We have to move forward on impeachment," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday during an interview with CNN.She continued, paying respect to speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who has so far pushed back on impeachment calls.“I trust the speaker's taking a measured approach to ensure that we’re moving everyone forward," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said. “Being a speaker is hard, and holding this party together is a difficult task,” she added, “but I think we have to move forward.”In a separate tweet, Ms Ocasio-Cortez also shot back at arguments that impeachment would be a politically fraught effort with less than two years to go until a presidential election. Not impeaching, she said, is political, too.“It is just as politicized a manoeuvre to not impeach in the face of overwhelming evidence as it is to impeach without cause,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote.She continued: “Congress swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. That includes impeachment. We have a duty to preserve our institutions + uphold the rule of the law.”The statement came in response to a fellow Democrat’s call for impeachment in light of former White House counsel Don McGahn’s decision to refuse a congressional subpoena on Tuesday to testify before the House related to the Mueller report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.Mr McGahn is frequently cited in that report saying that Mr Trump attempted to derail the investigation, which has led Democrats to claim the president obstructed justice.“Stonewalling Congress on witnesses and the unredacted Mueller report only enhances the President’s appearance of guilt, and as a result, he has pushed Congress to a point where we must start an impeachment inquiry,” that Democrat, Mark Pocan, wrote on Twitter.

'All out warfare': Hundreds take the streets in Alabama in abortion ban protest

Alabama Gov. Kay signed the near-total ban Wednesday, a day after lawmakers  declined to add exceptions into the ban for cases of rape or incest.

The Latest: St. Louis airport reopens after storm shutdown

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Latest on severe weather in the central United States (all times local):

Trump: U.S. will respond with 'great force' if Iran attacks interests

"I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. "If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will." His comments came as two U.S. government sources said the United States strongly suspects Shi'ite militias with ties to, and possibly encouragement from, Iran fired a rocket on Sunday into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The sources, who are familiar with U.S. national security assessments and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still trying to establish which militia fired the Katyusha rocket on Sunday and the extent, if any, of Iranian involvement.

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

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

Eiffel Tower climber 'admitted to psychiatric unit'

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

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

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

Prosecutors: Agent called migrants savages before hitting 1

PHOENIX (AP) — A Border Patrol agent in Arizona sent texts calling immigrants "savages" and "subhuman" the month before using his patrol vehicle to knock over a Guatemalan man who was trying to flee, prosecutors say.

China Warns About ‘Unwavering Resolve’ to Fight U.S. ‘Bullying’

Trump upped the ante in his trade dispute with China last week, announcing moves to curb Huawei’s business that are starting to have ramifications for other companies around the world. "This is wrong behavior, so there will be a necessary response," Zhang Ming, China’s envoy to the EU, said in an interview in Brussels on Monday.

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

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

1967 Ford Mustang Fastback Restoration Is A Work Of Art

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

Trump tells Pennsylvania voters that trade war has helped economy

Although Trump does not launch his re-election bid officially until next month, his appearance at a raucous rally in an airport hangar in northeastern Pennsylvania, using Air Force One as a backdrop, had the hallmarks of a campaign event. "Sleepy Joe said that he's running to 'save the world.' ... He's going to save every country but ours," Trump said. Trump has waged a high-stakes trade dispute with China, and tariffs imposed by both countries on a range of goods have raised fears of a global economic slowdown.

Comrade Sanders Targets Charter Schools

Few things offend Bernie Sanders as much as people escaping from command-and-control government systems, even minority students whose parents are desperate to get their kids a decent education.The socialist wants to turn George Wallace on his head and not block black children from attending traditional public schools, but block them from exiting those schools for something better.  The New York Times wrote a long, devastating report the other day on the then-Burlington, Vt., mayor’s love affair with the Sandinistas in the 1980s. So many decades later, his reflex is the same: If the Sandinistas wouldn’t favor it, he’s not inclined to like it much either. That goes for charter schools that, yes, are publicly funded, but still too flexible and unregulated for refined socialist tastes. Over the weekend, Sanders unveiled his education plan. He wants to end for-profit charter schools (about 15 percent of all charters) and impose a moratorium on new public funding of charters, while taking steps to impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory regime on existing charters.Sanders thus seeks to kneecap what has been an astonishingly successful experiment in urban education because it doesn’t fit nicely within his ideological preconceptions.That Sanders says he wants to do this to advance the principle that “every human being has the fundamental right to a good education” is hilariously perverse. The comrades will have a good chuckle over that one.Charter schools aren’t the product of a libertarian conspiracy. They fall short of the vouchers favored by conservatives to allow parents to get access to private schools. Charters receive public money but have more leeway to develop policies outside the regulatory and union straitjacket of traditional public schools. Charters had bipartisan support before a Vermont socialist became one of the party’s thought leaders. Bill Clinton won the first-ever lifetime achievement award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Promoting charters was a hallmark of Barack Obama’s education agenda and a signature of Cory Booker’s mayoralty in Newark, N.J.Not all charters are created equal. Some don’t serve their students well, especially online charter schools, and the performance of suburban and rural charter schools hasn’t been very impressive. It’s the charter schools in urban areas with the worst traditional public schools that have excelled. According to a well-regarded 2015 study by Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, students in urban charter schools got the equivalent of 40 additional days of math instruction and 28 additional days of reading annually. The numbers for African-American students in poverty were even better. Charters in Newark and Boston have seen enormous academic gains.In New York City, the Success Academy founded by Eva Moskowitz — one of the foremost education reformers of our time — has eliminated racial and economic achievement gaps.It’s amazing what schools can do when they impose discipline, have the highest expectations, and focus with a laser intensity on instruction. Anyone interested in the education of minority students should seek to build on these oases of excellence, rather than cut them off. But the teachers unions hate charters, and they are a much more powerful potential cadre in the Sanders “revolution” than poor black kids. Sanders suggests that charter schools somehow increase segregation. This is nonsense, as Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine points out. Urban charter schools reflect the segregation of their neighborhoods where they are located — just like traditional public schools do.The polling shows that minority parents get what Sanders (and white progressives) refuses to understand. A solid majority of black and Hispanic Democrats have a favorable view of charters, while white Democrats have an unfavorable view by a 2-1 margin. It is doubtful how much of his anti-charter agenda Sanders would be able to enact if elected, since much of the action is at the state and local level. That he’s hostile to these schools should, regardless, redound to his shame. © 2019 by King Features Syndicate

Huawei to the Danger Zone: Chinese Telecommunications Company Threatens Britain's National Security

The news that the United States has put Huawei on the Entities List comes as the Henry Jackson Society publishes a report on the prospect of including Huawei into the United Kingdom’s build of 5G. I coauthored this report alongside Member of Parliament Bob Seely and Professor Peter Varnish. My job was to look into claims around Huawei’s place within China’s foreign-policy strategy. We have all seen claims around it being too close to the PLA or China’s security services, but were they actually true? Were these claims just an overly-protectionist America seeking to discredit a successful Chinese tech competitor to Apple and Silicon Valley? This whole discussion took place in the wake of a UK National Security Council meeting in late April, during which time—if the Telegraph newspaper is to believed—the council decided that Huawei could take part in a limited part of the UK’s 5G network.Our findings were absolutely clear: Huawei was constrained, influenced and directed by the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese state in a multiplicity of ways.Economic Direction

Ford to cut 7,000 jobs, 10% of global staff 

Ford plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce, as part of a reorganization as it revamps its vehicle offerings, the company said Monday. The reorganization will involve some layoffs and reassignments and should be complete by the end of August, a Ford spokeswoman said. Ford has been phasing out most sedan models in the United States as more consumers have opted for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Google’s Pixel 3a has a serious problem for some users, and there’s no fix in sight

Google has been making phones for quite a few years now, both during the Nexus era when other smartphone vendors designed its devices, and especially in the Pixel era where it creates its own hardware. But even so, its Pixel phones still come with flaws, and the Pixel 3a is no exception. Some users are already reporting a pretty serious issue -- the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL have been shutting down randomly, and there doesn't appear to be a fix in sight.No smartphone is perfect, some will say, and many new models exhibit some problems after launch. But it's something that happens time and again with Pixel phones. Just last week, shortly after the Pixel 3a series went on sale, people who purchased first-gen Pixel phones that came with built-in microphone manufacturing defects learned they're entitled to up to $500 in compensation from Google.That doesn't mean the current Pixel 3a problem is as serious, but it's still not a good sign for a phone that Google pits against the iPhone, which is a silly comparison to make in the first place.Several users posted on Reddit their accounts of how it all went down. "I received my pixel 3a 3 days ago, and once a day it just turns off by itself, while I don't use it," wrote DeazyL.Realtimeanalytics, meanwhile, says the issue might have to do with Wi-Fi connectivity:> Whenever I connect to my work Wi-Fi and let the phone sit for ~10 minutes it will require a reboot. It will do the normal lock and then after some time just shutdown, requiring me to hold the power button for ~30 seconds to restart it. For the most part when I'm connected to my home Wi-Fi it will not duplicate this although it has crashed once or twice now at home in the 5 days I have had it. Leaving the phone with Wi-Fi off seems to prevent the crashing altogether.Placing the phone in Safe mode will not make the issue go away according to Ravoz, who has experienced the problem on both the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL:> Several people, including myself, have been having random shutdowns with our new Pixel 3a's. It is happening with both models, the 3a as well as the XL.> > The phones just die, and require a hard reset of holding the power button down for like 30 seconds before they turn back on.> > I had 3 shutdowns yesterday, including overnight, causing me to miss my wake alarm. And another shutdown tonight. Today I used my phone in "Safe Mode" to eliminate any chance of a third party app causing it. Unfortunately, it did, so unless its an issue in the OS, it's hardware related.Google will surely identify and fix the problem. If you've been experiencing the same error, the only thing you can do about it is reboot the phone once it switches off. You can always ask for a replacement unit and hope for the best, but it's unclear if Google is swapping out affected units at this time.

President Trump Warns Iran Not to Threaten U.S. Or it Will Face its 'Official End'

Amid escalating tensions between the two countries

Abortion ban protests: Thousands demonstrate against new restrictive laws across America

Massive protests opposing a series of bans against abortions have continued for several days after one of the most stringent abortion laws in the nation was signed into law in Alabama last week. Crowds of demonstrators on Capitol Hill were joined by prominent women’s rights activists and politicians on Tuesday, including 2020 presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand, for a rally titled StopTheBans. “Our democracy only works when the people of this country stand up and demand it,” the New York senator said to cheers. “Do not allow this moment to pass without putting everything you have behind it … organise, advocate and vote.” Across the country, Americans from all walks of life marched in major cities and small towns to oppose bans like the one in Alabama, which makes performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases. The bill, signed by Republican Governor Kay Ivey, is effectively designed to set up a lengthy legal battle that could result in the Supreme Court revisiting a decades-old decision for Roe v. Wade, which deemed abortion a Constitutionally-protected right. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” the governor said in a statement while signing the bill on Wednesday.Hundreds of demonstrators then marched to the Alabama Capitol on Sunday to protest the state’s newly approved abortion ban, chanting “my body, my choice!” and “vote them out!”In a statement addressing the cheering crowd, Planned Parenthood Southeast President Staci Fox said “Banning abortion does not stop abortion. It stops safe abortion.”Governors in Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have also approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as the sixth week of pregnancy.But none of the laws have actually taken effect, and all are expected to be blocked by the courts as the legal challenges play out with an ultimate eye on the Supreme Court.Marchers have said the measures are energising supporters of legalised abortion, and they say they are digging in for a legal and political fight. Along the route they took, the protesters passed by scattered counter-demonstrators raising signs against abortion.The Alabama law would make it a felony, punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison to perform an abortion. There would be no punishment for the woman receiving the abortion.But the protest outside the Alabama Capitol on Sunday occurred in a state where a majority of voters recently agreed to put anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution. Fifty-nine per cent of state voters in November approved the constitutional amendment saying the state recognises the rights of the “unborn.”> As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan. We have come very far in the last two years with 105 wonderful new.....> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > > May 19, 2019Donald Trump, while not mentioning Alabama’s law, wrote in a weekend tweet that he is strongly “pro-life” but favours exceptions.“As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” The president wrote in a series of tweets.Alabama’s abortion ban would go into effect in six months if it isn’t blocked by legal challenges.Additional reporting by AP

Severe weather strikes Louisiana and Oklahoma

Louisiana's governor toured a community where a possible weekend tornado damaged or destroyed at least 50 homes and businesses. People in areas of eastern Oklahoma are also dealing with severe weather damage. (May 20)

Austria's Kurz hopes to sidestep scandal to stay in power

It just might work if the public believes his disavowal of his former allies in the Freedom Party (FPO) and the maths go his way in September, when Austrians are expected to vote in a snap election brought about by the latest FPO transgression. The only other party that could have given him a majority in parliament are the Social Democrats, with whom a coalition appears highly unlikely for now.

Bernie Sanders Launches a Deeply Misguided Attack on Charter Schools

One of the great benefits of living life well outside the Beltway is that it’s easy to take my eyes off the swamp, look to the states surrounding me, and see places where politics actually function as they’re supposed to. I can even, occasionally, see those issues on which Democrats and Republicans might work together, united in common purpose, for the common good.Exhibit A: the charter-school movement. It’s granted an invaluable degree of educational choice to families who long lacked the flexibility that prosperous suburban and upper-middle-class parents take for granted, and its extraordinary growth is a bipartisan achievement.There are times when it seems like everyone likes charter schools. The Trump Department of Education has issued hundreds of millions of dollars in charter-school grants. The Obama administration invested in charter schools. As Newark mayor, Democrat Cory Booker “bet big” on charter schools, and athletes and celebrities have personally invested in their success, often with outstanding results.Of course, not every charter school is good. Not every charter school is a success. But if there has ever existed anything like a broad point of left–right agreement in the American education debate, it’s that charters represent a vital piece of the educational puzzle, an option that can and does transform students’ lives.So why did Bernie Sanders announce last week that, if elected president, he would declare war on charter schools? His poorly named Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education (after all, urban, nonwhite students are among the prime beneficiaries of charter-school choice) would “ban for-profit charter schools,” and “halt the use of public funds to underwrite new charter schools” until they complied with a series of federal conditions that would change their governance and facilitate their unionization (many charter-school faculties aren’t unionized). In so doing, it would remove many of the distinctive qualities that helped make charter schools truly competitive with conventional public schools.It’s tempting to explain the plan as little more than coalition politics, Sanders’s effort to cozy up to the teachers’ unions at the expense of student welfare. But that’s unfair. I know enough people in the greater Bernie orbit to know that they sincerely believe a unionized public-school monopoly in K–12 education represents the best chance for new generations of kids. They believe that, properly funded and led, such a system would facilitate academic achievement and social cohesion.But here’s the core problem: The interest in a collective solution to a series of individual educational challenges understates the reality that choice, by itself, is a vital value in a child’s education. And the power of choice cannot be measured by test scores alone, even though the best charter schools yield spectacular results.I think about my own parenting experience. Like many millions of American families who take their power over their kids’ education for granted, we enjoy multiple privileges a poor family doesn’t. We have the job flexibility to live in any number of places, and we can afford housing in a good school district. If we lived in a county or town with a struggling school district, we could afford modest private-school tuition. And back when we lived in Center City, Philadelphia — at a time when we couldn’t easily move and couldn’t afford private school — we were fortunate enough to win a lottery to put our oldest child in an outstanding charter elementary school.With each of the choices we’ve made for our kids’ education over the years, test scores were among the least important factors we considered. We wanted to know the culture of the school and the character of the teachers. We wondered about athletic opportunities. We were concerned with peer and parental influence. The school was going to play a part in raising our children, and a slight percentage change in a math or language test score was meaningless compared to our concern with the growth and development of their personal characters.The Sanders approach wouldn’t take away choice from parents like us. We could still find private schools. We could still move to better school districts. We could still home school. Charter schools exist in the suburbs and in rural America, but they haven’t had the same impact there that they’ve had in American cities. We’d barely feel the effects of the Sanders policy; its brunt would instead be borne by America’s most vulnerable families. Sanders’s plan tells those families that he knows what’s best for them, that his partners in the unions know how to build the schools they need better than they do.This is anything but equity. It’s anything but fairness. One of the enduring challenges of American public life is the sad reality that children face fundamentally different educational opportunities through the accident of birth. The existence of choice itself is a luxury. It’s a thing of immense value, and many millions of parents can’t even comprehend a life where they don’t have the true, final word over their child’s education.I’m writing these words as I fly to give a series of speeches in Texas sponsored by the Texas Charter Schools Association and the National Review Institute. I’ve been writing and speaking about school choice for much of my adult life. I’ve been litigating on its behalf for just as long. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the desire to choose what’s best for one’s own child crosses racial, religious, and partisan lines. It’s a broadly felt human need.Bernie Sanders makes his intentions crystal clear. In his plan, he writes, “We do not need two schools systems; we need to invest in our public schools system.” This is exactly wrong. One size does not fit all. Sanders looks at parents and declares that he knows best. Parents should look back at him and respond, quite simply: I know my child, and I want to shape his destiny. Your collective solutions cannot meet my family’s needs.Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article contained a reference to the success of LeBron James’s I Promise school in Akron, Ohio, as an example of celebrity support for charter schools. The I Promise School is not a charter but a nontraditional public school that operates within the Akron public-school system. We regret the error.

Mountain region of Slovakia named best destination in Europe 2019: Lonely Planet

A wild, rugged, mountainous region of Slovakia dotted with plunging waterfalls and lakes and hiking trails has been named the top European destination of 2019 by the travel experts at Lonely Planet. 

Boeing acknowledges flaw in 737 MAX simulator software

Boeing acknowledged Saturday it had to correct flaws in its 737 MAX flight simulator software used to train pilots, after two deadly crashes involving the aircraft that killed 346 people. "Boeing has made corrections to the 737 MAX simulator software and has provided additional information to device operators to ensure that the simulator experience is representative across different flight conditions," it said in a statement. Boeing's statement about the flight simulator marked a first acknowledgement of shortcoming since the two accidents led to the grounding of the top-selling 737 MAX plane.

Hospital that treated baby cut from womb investigated

CHICAGO (AP) — The agency that licenses and inspects health care facilities in Illinois has started an investigation of a suburban Chicago hospital where doctors treated a baby brought in by a woman claiming to be his mother, a spokeswoman for the agency said Tuesday. The woman was charged weeks later with killing the actual mother and cutting the child from her womb.

How real is Iran threat? Democrats fear Trump administration using intel to justify conflict

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Tuesday briefed members of the House and Senate behind closed doors.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy calls early elections as he disbands parliament in first act as president

Ukraine’s new president dismissed parliament and called a snap election just moments after being sworn into office on Monday. Volodymyr Zelensky, whose Servant of People party has no representation in the current parliament, also used his inaugural address to promise an end to the war in the east of the country and asked MPs to fire several key officials including the current defence minister.  “All my life I tried to do all I could so that Ukrainians laughed,” Mr Zelensky, a television comedian, told MPs during a ceremony in the parliament in Kiev. “Now I will do all I can so that Ukrainians at least do not cry any more.” Mr Zelensky, 41, won the presidency last month with a landslide run-off victory against incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who had been in power since 2014. He had no prior political experience, and he was mostly known for his role in a television comedy ‘Servant of the People’, in which he played a school teacher who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine after ranting against corruption. He named his party after the TV show.  Zelenskiy greets his supporters as he walks to take the oath of office ahead of his inauguration ceremony Credit:  REUTERS Critics say he has given few specific details about his plans for presidency and have questioned his links to Ihor Kolomoisky, a billionaire oligarch who had fallen out with the previous government.   On Monday he dispensed with the traditional motorcade and arrived at the parliament building on foot, he stopping to pose for selfies and high-five his cheering supporters who gathered outside. Inside, he delivered a punchy and at times confrontational speech in which he said his priority would be ending the war, which has claimed at least 13,000 lives since Russia sent troops across the border to support a separatist uprising in 2014.  "I'm ready to do everything so that our heroes don't die there," he said. "I'm ready to lose my popularly and, if necessary, I'm ready to lose my post so that we have peace," he said. He said he would begin by demanding Russia release Ukrainian prisoners.  When one MP heckled for switching from Ukrainian into Russian in an appeal to residents in the east, he snapped back: "Thank you for continuing to divide our people". He also spoke against a deep-rooted culture of corruption among the government officials, saying politicians themselves had created “the opportunities to bribe, steal and pluck the resources.” He suggested the MPs should lift their own right to immunity from prosecution and demanding the dismissal the defense minister, the head of the Security Service, and the prosecutor general.  The next elections for the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s single-house parliament, were scheduled to take place in October. Mr Zelensky said they would be brought forward to July.  The move appears designed to help his party win a majority of seats before the surge of popularity on which he rode to office dissipates.  In a symbolic move Volodymyr Groysman, the current prime minister, said he would resign Wednesday, inviting Mr Zelenskiy to take full responsibility for the country. If parliament accepts his resignation, he will remain as a caretaker prime minister until the snap election.  Russian media reported that no officials were invited to the ceremony from Moscow. The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin would not congratulate Mr Zelensky on his electoral victory until there was progress in ending the war.

Chips are down: Huawei U.S. blacklisting knocks semiconductor stocks

U.S. and European chipmakers fell sharply on Monday amid worries the Huawei Technologies suppliers may suspend shipments to the Chinese firm due to a U.S. crackdown. The selling came after Nikkei Asian Review reported that Infineon had halted shipments to Huawei after Washington added the world's No. 2 smartphone maker to a trade blacklist last week, imposing restrictions that will make it difficult to do business with U.S. companies. Reuters reported that Alphabet Inc's Google had suspended some business with Huawei and Lumentum Holdings Inc, seen as a major supplier of Apple Inc's face ID technology, said it had discontinued all shipments to Huawei.

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

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

Scouted: The Sleek, Black Stainless Steel Version of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 Is on Sale for $50

Right now, you can add the sleek, black stainless steel edition of the 6QT Instant Pot LUX60 to your kitchen while it’s on sale for $50. That’s a savings of 50% on a gadget that could easily replace half of the other things you use in your kitchen on a regular basis.What’s so great about this Instant Pot? I mean, just look at it. It’s like the original Instant Pot’s cool teen brother. It’s like the original Instant Pot got a makeover montage in an early-Aughts romcom. You get everything the Instant Pot has to offer, from the pressure cooker to the rice cooker to the steamer. It’s still the six-in-one gadget you love, just with a black stainless steel outside, and it’s on sale. If the original super shiny Instant Pot clashed with your aesthetic, this is the version for you. Want one that makes a bit more of a statement? You can get a red stainless steel version for $60.Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Mercedes-Benz launches X-Classes Element Edition pickup in the UK

On Monday, Mercedes-Benz announced the launch of a limited-edition Element trim for its turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine-equipped X-Class Progressive pickup. A new trim based on the Progressive model trim has become available for the X-Class pickup featuring a handsome collection of cosmetic enhancements and extras. The Element Edition pickup will feature a new black roof liner, a set of 19-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels, an Element livery, and a Sports bar in addition to the added Sports Pack which includes LED head- and taillights, privacy glass running boards and roof rails.

Australia's conservatives secure majority government: ABC

Australia's ruling conservative coalition is set to secure a governing majority in its shock election victory over the centre-left Labor Party, the national broadcaster ABC projected Monday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal-National coalition will hold at least 77 seats in the 151-member lower house, one more than needed to govern on its own, ABC's election analysts projected. A number of close races across the vast island continent were still to be officially decided following Saturday's vote, with the formal count by the Australian Electoral Commission not expected to conclude until later this week.

New laws bring confusion, uncertainty for abortion clinics

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Abortion clinics are facing protesters emboldened by a flurry of restrictive new state laws as they reassure confused patients that the laws have yet to take effect, abortion providers said.

House Democrats subpoena former White House communications director Hope Hicks

The subpoenas come a day after the White House instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to not testify before Congress.

InterDigital expects to be able to license 5G tech to Huawei, despite U.S. ban

InterDigital and Qualcomm are the two major American holders of patents for wireless networking technology, including the 5G networks rolling out this year in China. Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order restricting the ability of U.S. firms to sell technology to Huawei, though officials on Monday eased some of those restrictions for 90 days. InterDigital, which generates revenue by developing wireless technologies and then licensing out the patents, said it believes it can continue its efforts to strike a 5G deal with Huawei because export control laws do not cover patents, which are public records and therefore not confidential technology.

2 charged after video shows man urinating on New Jersey boy's memorial

Police in South Jersey are investigating after a video shows a man urinating on a memorial for a boy who died from cancer back in 2012.

DOD: Iranian Threats ‘Put on Hold’ Thanks to U.S.

The Department of Defense said Tuesday that potential threats from Iran have been "put on hold" thanks to precautionary measures taken by the U.S.“We have put on hold the potential for attacks on Americans,” Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan said at the Pentagon.The U.S. deployed four B-52 bombers, Patriot air-defense missiles, and the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier-strike group to the Persian Gulf earlier this month amid fears that Iran was transporting short-range ballistic missiles in the region. Shanahan cited “indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces” in justifying the move.The State Department last week ordered all non-critical government employees to leave Iraq, saying the tensions with neighboring Iran could endanger Americans in the area. Additionally, a rocket was fired Sunday night which landed less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, and no casualties occurred."There haven't been any attacks on Americans," Shanahan confirmed. "That doesn't mean that the threats that we've previously identified have gone away. Our prudent response, I think, has given the Iranians time to recalculate. I think our response was a measure of our will and our resolve that we will protect our people and our interests in the region.""I just hope Iran is listening,” Shanahan added, vowing that any attack by Iran on U.S. assets "will be met obviously with great force."