Input: Armenians have long labelled the 1915-17 killings that left some 1.5 million of their people dead as genocide, while Turkey argues it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died (AFP Photo / Ozan Kose) Berlin (AFP) -Germany's parliament votes Thursday on a resolution that brands the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, drawing a clear warning from Turkey's president that it would harm ties. Put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, the resolution entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916" also carries the contested word throughout the text. The vote comes just over a year after President Joachim Gauck became Germany's highest ranking official to describe the massacre as a "genocide", sparking a fierce response from Turkey.

massacre

Armenians


Input: “In the last few days our forces were able to release 500 to 1000 civilians per day, however today the number has increased after we liberated the Al Jazeera road,” the SDF official told ARA News. ISIS militants have been using the trapped civilians as human shield in order to halt the advance made by SDF forces. The group has also killed dozens of people who tried to escape the city of Manbij. The Kurdish-led SDF forces accepted an initiative by the Manbij notable citizens to open a humanitarian corridor, but so far, ISIS did not respond to any initiative to free civilians stranded in the war-torn city. “More than 70 per cent of Manbij is officially liberated.

escape

dozens of people

Manbij


Input: Another number signified the intelligence branch in which the patient had been killed. There were about eleven thousand bodies. Caesar’s team sometimes catalogued more than fifty corpses a day — emaciated, mutilated, cut, burned, shot, beaten, strangled, broken, melted. According to a U.N. report, after Caesar’s team had finished their documentation a doctor at the hospital usually wrote “heart attack” on the death certificate. Then the bodies were loaded onto trucks and hauled away.

strangled

strangled


Input: AUSTRALIA ’S INVOLVEMENT Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia regretted the loss of life and injuries to Syrian soldiers as the result of a bombing raid on Saturday. The prime minister confirmed Australian aircraft were involved in the coalition exercise but pulled out when Russian officials advised the targets may have been Syrian military personnel. “We regret the loss of life and injury to any Syrian personnel affected,” Mr Turnbull told reporters overnight in New York, where he is for the annual United Nations General Assembly. He said Australia’s rules of engagement were to target IS but it is a very complex environment.

advised

Russian officials

prime minister


Input: Others were killed during clashes and protests. In the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian who the military said drove a car at high speed at troops during a raid on a weapons-making workshop. Some members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government openly dismiss the idea of a Palestinian state, suggesting Israel should annex what is known as Area C of the West Bank, which makes up over 60 percent of the territory and is where nearly all Israel's settlements are located. Some others, including Israel's president, talk broadly of a one-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side, with equal rights, in a single country, although it is not clear how Israel would be able to remain both Jewish and democratic in such a set-up." CLOSE TO DAY-DREAMING"

annex

Area C

Israel

Israel


Input: Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Edward Snowden said he believed Russia to be behind the leak The whistleblower Edward Snowden believes Russia is behind a leak of malware allegedly belonging to the US National Security Agency (NSA). Hackers calling themselves Shadow Brokers started an auction for the malware last week. The security firm Kaspersky said it believed the original files were from Equation Group, which is thought to be linked to the NSA. A former NSA worker Dave Aitel pointed the finger at Russian involvement.

auction

Hackers

malware

Shadow Brokers


Input: President Barack Obama authorised the covert arming programme in April 2013, after more than a year of debate inside the administration about the wisdom of using the CIA to train rebels trying to oust Assad. The decision was made in part to try to gain control of a chaotic situation in which Arab countries were funnelling arms into Syria for various rebel groups with little coordination. The Qataris had paid to smuggle shipments of Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired weapons over the border from Turkey, and Saudi Arabia sent thousands of Kalashnikovs and millions of rounds of ammunition it had bought, sometimes with the CIA's help. By late 2013, the CIA was working directly with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other nations to arm and train small groups of rebels and send them across the border into Syria. The specific motives behind the November shooting at the Amman police training facility remain uncertain, and it is unclear when the FBI will officially conclude its investigation.

shipments

Qataris

Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired weapons

Turkey

Syria


Input: One day after praising Putin during NBC's candidates forum, Trump does an interview with the Kremlin's TV network … https://t.co/zVT1n12zgt — Rebecca Berg (@rebeccagberg) September 8, 2016 Anyone who could n’t see the inevitable outcome of this interview should be sued for political malpractice. But Donald Trump only hires the best people." Mr. Trump recorded a segment for Larry King's podcast as a favor – that's it. Mr. Trump was never told it would be shared anywhere else."

hires

the best people

Donald Trump


Input: “Every report of civilian casualties, from either internal or external sources, is scrutinised regarding possible casualties and collateral damage. “Assessments that are determined to be credible are reviewed as to whether the actions comply with the principles of the Law of Armed Conflict.” Amnesty and other groups have also accused the Syrian government and its Russian backers of killing hundreds or thousands of civilians in indiscriminate bombing. Isis and other militant groups are also responsible for killing civilians and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Syrian civil war.

accused

Amnesty and other groups

Syrian government and its Russian backers

killing


Input: Yeah, they are. He’s more conservative than I am.” Sensing an opening, Trump sent out a flurry of tweets criticizing Sanders for shifting his support to Clinton – and urging Sanders supporters to “fight.” “Looks like the Bernie people will fight,” Trump tweeted on Sunday morning. “If not, their BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS was a total waste of time.”

urging

Trump

Sanders


Input: In Cuba the same remedy, and more effective sanitation, also removed the source of many of America’s epidemics. Vaccination campaigns in France’s west African colonies between 1933 and 1961 caused yellow fever virtually to disappear from the continent — until decolonisation, when vaccination rates plummeted and the disease reappeared. In South American cities yellow fever was once kept at bay by mosquito-control measures. But international arrivals add to the threat from travellers who have visited remote jungle areas, in some of which the disease is endemic. For many places now free of yellow fever, a few infected visitors at the height of summer, and some bad luck, could mean its unwelcome return.

fever

South American cities


Input: On Tuesday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov declared at a press conference in the Chechen capital of Grozny that Putin’s critics, allegedly hired by foreign secret services, were jumping all over themselves to oppose Putin. “Such people should be treated as enemies of the people, as betrayers. They should be put on trial,” Kadyrov said. Every Russian knows that Stalin executed “enemies of the people,” so the words sounded life-threatening, especially after one of the high-profile critics of Putin’s politics, Boris Nemtsov, was assassinated outside the Kremlin’s wall last February. “After Nemtsov’s murder, Kadyrov’s words sound like a direct threat,” said Ryzhkov.

trial

They

betrayers

Chechen


Input: Toner began by saying, “There’s always an interagency discussion around any decision like this, and every relevant agency weighs in.” The disclosure that the Pentagon did not participate in the decision-making process also comes after reports that at least some lawmakers were not consulted about other payments to Iran. This week, The Weekly Standard reported that key members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, were not told about wire payments to Iran, even after Obama said the United States had to send cash because such wire payments were not possible. Politico reported this week that the United States had been wiring cash to Iranian banks long before the cash payments were flown to Iran. The disclosure is also the latest example of how US military leaders have been distancing themselves from Kerry’s Middle East diplomacy.

payments

United States

Iran


Input: No one is predicting the shape that US foreign policy would take under Trump – mostly because he is unpredictable, either not detailing his positions or changing them rapidly. But many are already worried. Iranians, for example, are eager to know if the landmark nuclear deal painstakingly negotiated for years and finally agreed to last July between Iran and six world powers will be “torn up,” as some Republican candidates have promised. Kayhan Barzegar, director of the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, Iran, says Trump could endanger US interests “considering the reality that US power ... requires engaging others [in] solving the world’s common problems.” Daniel Friedrich, a teacher in Berlin, has faith that if Trump is elected the American democracy would restrict him so that the world order would remain much as it is now.

negotiated

Iranians

painstakingly


Input: In recent weeks, several leading Republicans have deserted Mr Trump over his outspoken attacks. Most recently, Senator Susan Collins said she would not be voting for him, pointing to a time he seemed to mock a disabled journalist. Time Magazine on Thursday reported that the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, had threatened to withdraw funding from the Trump campaign, and instead direct it to Congressional campaigns. Mr Trump denies that this conversation ever took place. Polls suggest support for the embattled candidate has been falling in key battleground states in recent weeks.

funding

Reince Priebus

campaign

Trump


Input: Its slogan was “Success Distilled.” -- The Associated Press, “Senate candidate bills campaign for family trip,” by Brian Slodysko: “A Facebook page belonging to the wife of [Rep. Marlin Stutzman] touted the family's visit to the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California … Although a caption on one of the photos describes the trip as a ‘family vacation,’ documents obtained by the AP show his Senate campaign paid more than $ 2,000 for the four airline tickets to L.A. and covered expenses for a van rental and Hilton hotel room ... The California visit represents just a small part of the over $ 300,000 in flights, vehicle charges, meals and hotel stays Stutzman's campaign fund has spent since the tea party-backed Republican went to Washington in 2010 on a pledge to oppose special interests … roughly three times more than Rep. Todd Young, his GOP Senate rival in the May 3 primary who joined the House about the same time.” -- The Tampa Bay Times," O.J. Simpson's children have put down roots in St. Petersburg," by Susan Taylor Martin: “In 1994, the siblings were just children when their father ... was arrested on charges of murdering their mother ...

pledge

Republican

Washington


Input: "He was adamant that he had not committed a single crime when building his business empire," the cable says, and he "argued that outsiders still failed to understand the period of lawlessness that reigned in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union." At one point during the meeting, Firtash began to talk about "mistakes he might have made," the cable says, but was waved off by an accompanying adviser. Mogilevich was once on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list, has an Interpol Red Notice out for his arrest, and the FBI says publicly he is "involved in weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale." In a posting on the FBI’s website, the man who ran the investigation that eventually led to an indictment against Mogilevich said," What makes him so dangerous is that he operates without borders." In 2014, Firtash was charged by the Justice Department with paying $ 18.5 million in bribes in India to expand his business empire.

trafficking

he

weapons


Input: Rawlings said one of those held was an African American woman." Breaking: The chief said the gunman who engaged in the standoff "said he was upset about the recent police shootings." He was killed when police detonated an explosive. -- Trump just issued a statement calling this "an attack on our country": “It is a coordinated, premeditated assault on the men and women who keep us safe. We must restore law and order.

detonated

police

He

explosive


Input: Aid was delivered to the besieged town of Talbiseh in Homs province on Monday, the Red Cross said, for the first time since July. The convoy brought in food, water and hygiene supplies for up to 84,000 people, it said. But most aid shipments envisaged under the truce have yet to go in. The United Nations said it had received government approval to reach nearly all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas where it sought to bring aid, but access to many areas was still constrained by fighting, insecurity and administrative delays. Already widely violated since it took effect, the ceasefire came under added strain at the weekend when Russia said jets from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in eastern Syria.

shipments

it

aid

United Nations

hard-to-reach areas


Input: The new law ratifies an earlier agreement signed between the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic in August 2015, which first authorized the deployment of Russian military forces in Syria. According to the agreement, the Russian Air Force is considered to be on Syrian territory at the request of the Syrian government, and it shall be allowed to utilize the air base at Hmeimim (Latakia province) and the surrounding infrastructure as necessary. The text of the agreement further states that all arms, ammunition, and equipment necessary to sustain the Russian units shall be imported free of any charge. Russian personnel and their family members are granted diplomatic immunity in the agreement, and all transport means used to ship equipment and ammunition to Syria is to be immune from inspections, searches, or impounding. The agreement also states that the Syrian government will not make any legal claims against the Russian government or the personnel of its armed forces serving in Syrian territory.

imported

Russian units

arms, ammunition, and equipment

transport

Russian Federation

Syria


Input: And the disaster in this case grew until the president ordered the surge in 2006, 2007. But to summarize all of this, we should have had the surge in the beginning of 2003. But that was not the game plan, and when I recommended it, Gen. Franks called Mr. Rumsfeld — as he should have, because I was sort of out of my channel at that point, general to general, not secretary of state to general — and Don’s reaction, according to Tommy Franks in his memoir, is, “Well, I’m glad Gen. Powell has raised this, Secretary Powell has raised this, and let’s discuss it with the president at the next meeting.” And at the next meeting, it was discussed. I do n’t have firm memories of that meeting, but it was discussed, according to Gen. Franks. …

recommended

I


Input: The headquarters of the Democratic National Committee is seen in Washington, U.S. June 14, 2016. REUTERS / Gary Cameron WASHINGTON The FBI is investigating suspected attempts to hack mobile phones used by Democratic Party officials as recently as the past month, four people with direct knowledge of the attack and the investigation told Reuters. The revelation underscores the widening scope of the U.S. criminal inquiry into cyber attacks on Democratic Party organizations, including the presidential campaign of its candidate, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. U.S. officials have said they believe those attacks were orchestrated by hackers backed by the Russian government, possibly to disrupt the Nov. 8 election in which Clinton faces Republican Party candidate Donald Trump.

investigating

FBI

Democratic Party officials


Input: The Paralympics are going ahead as planned, but face major budget cuts as Rio's organising committee has not raised enough to fund the event because of Brazil's struggling economy and poor ticket sales. Cuts will affect venues, workforce and transport. Delayed travel grants will now be paid to athletes, but 10 countries may struggle to get teams to Rio.

grants

athletes

Rio


Input: The suspect is wearing a white shirt and dark shorts and prone on his stomach on the avenue. Police ringed the area as tourists and other onlookers gathered. --By Elaine Ganley and Lori Hinnant _ _ _ 4:20 p.m. Paris police say a security operation is underway in the Champs-Elysees shopping district and are urging people to avoid the area. The police department tweeted the warning Monday without providing further details. The high-end neighborhood is popular with tourists.

urging

police

people

area


Input: Relevant to your professional network? Please share on Linkedin “The Muslim migrants arriving to Europe are for the most part not refugees but job seekers who belong to what is de facto an invasion,” Rom, nee Norbert Kurtzman, told JTA after the Russia premiere of the film “The Children of Tehran” in the city of Kazan during its Limmud FSU conference of Jewish learning. “The attempts to pass off the new arrivals, people who left and in many cases participated in a murderous civil war, as refugees and then to liken their experiences to what Holocaust survivors had to endure is false,” Rom, who survived the Holocaust with his sister, said last month. The rebuke by Rom, a supporter of the left-wing Meretz party and one of the founders of Kibbutz Afikim, followed the publication in August of an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl,” in which the journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof argued that the reasons for the opposition to absorbing Jewish Holocaust refugees in the United States “were the same as they are for rejecting Syrians or Hondurans today. ”While some European Jews have repeated the analogy, others have been careful to avoid it amid the arrival to Europe of 1.5 million immigrants since 2015 from the war-torn Middle East and Africa. While many of those arriving file for refugee status, critics of EU immigration policies have argued for stricter screening against job seekers, citing the heavy presence among the newcomers of work-age men. The Tehran Children trekked a tormented 8,000 miles to Israel through Siberia, Uzbekistan, Tehran, India, Egypt and finally prestate Israel. Rom and his sister, Ziva, were given up for adoption in the Uzbeki city of Samarkand by their parents, Karol and Ethel, who were starving and opted to part with their two older children in the hope of saving their baby brother, Uzi. Karol died of starvation and disease in Samarkand.

Holocaust

Jewish


Input: Japan said Wednesday Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would travel to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin despite a reported request from the White House that Abe cancel his visit." Prime Minister Abe is planning an unofficial visit to Russia at an appropriate time before Putin visits Japan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference, referring to the Russian president's expected trip to the country this year. US President Barack Obama urged Abe to cancel his scheduled trip to Russia in a telephone conversation on February 9, as the United States seeks to isolate Moscow over its actions in Ukraine and Syria, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. In the press conference, Suga declined to comment on the Kyodo report. Japan's Foreign Ministry has not revealed what Abe and Obama discussed regarding the trip to Russia.

urged

President Barack Obama

Abe

White House


Input: I’ll participate, but I do n’t think he should be a moderator. CNN is the Clinton News Network and Anderson Cooper, I do n’t think he can be fair.” On Wednesday, Trump’s wife, Melania, released a letter from her attorney, who attested with “100% certainty” that she had immigrated legally from Slovenia, following several news stories scrutinizing how she entered and worked in the United States before gaining citizenship. With the letter, Trump said, there is no longer a need for his wife to hold a news conference on the topic, as the campaign once promised. He also reiterated his refusal to release his tax returns, as Clinton and all other presidential candidates have done for decades, citing an Internal Revenue Service audit that he says is ongoing.

immigrated

United States

Melania

United States


Input: Of the three leading candidates, only Bernie Sanders has the sound judgment to avoid further war and to cooperate with the rest of the world. Clinton is intoxicated with American power. She has favored one war of choice after the next: bombing Belgrade (1999); invading Iraq (2003); toppling Qaddafi (2011); funding Jihadists in Syria (2011 till now). The result has been one bloodbath after another, with open wounds until today fostering ISIS, terrorism, and mass refugee flows. In her speech, Clinton engaged in her own Trump-like grandiose fear mongering:" [I]f America doesn't lead, we leave a vacuum -- and that will either cause chaos, or other countries will rush in to fill the void.

invading

She

Iraq

America


Input: “In recent years Israel has gained a great diplomatic advantage in that the claim that the source of all troubles in the Middle East is the Israeli-Arab conflict has been disproved by developments, such as the developments in Syria, Iraq and Libya that have no connection to Israel,” Mr. Rabinovich told Israel Radio, adding, “I’m not necessarily coming out against the stand but against this demonstrative act that returns us to the heart of the argument.” The cabinet meeting came a week after Mr. Netanyahu made another unusual declaration acknowledging that Israel had carried out “dozens” of strikes across the Syrian frontier in recent years to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weapons. While Israel has generally hewed to a policy of nonintervention in the internal fighting in Syria, it has acted to prevent weapons shipments from Syria to Lebanon but has rarely admitted responsibility for the strikes, in part to avoid pushing the other side to retaliate.

shipments

weapons

Syria

Lebanon


Input: Even ordering the use of torture — which Trump infamously once said he would do, insisting the military “wo n’t refuse. They’re not gon na refuse me”—imposes more legal constraints on a president than ordering a nuclear attack. If he were president, Donald Trump — who likes to say he doesn't spend a lot of time conferring with others ("My primary consultant is myself," he declared in March)—would be free to launch a civilization-ending nuclear war on his own any time he chose. The “nuclear button” is a metaphor for a complex apparatus that has the president’s brain at its apex. The image of a commander in chief simply pressing a button captures none of the machinery, people and procedures designed to inform the president and translate his or her decisions into coherent action.

conferring

Donald Trump

others


Input: Thus, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and every other top Democratic leader can act with impunity, and expect The Daily Banters and Beasts of the world to defend them, regardless of whether or not Democrats morph into moderate Republicans. I'm never voting for anyone who believed Bush's intelligence on Iraq, because Bernie Sanders used the same intelligence and voted against the invasion. I'm never voting for a political dynasty that incarcerated more Americans than any presidency in history, because unlike Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders doesn't take prison lobbyist donations and addressed prison reform long before 2016. I'm never voting for a person I consider a liar. If you consider me a liar for my support of Warren, Webb and O'Malley before Sanders, or even an article on a Republican I wrote simply to protest perpetual wars, then don't vote for me when I run for president.

incarcerated

political dynasty

Americans

prison


Input: She called for more profit-sharing, an end to currency manipulation by trading partners, expanding health and child care and hiking the minimum wage -- while also calling for full wage equality for women -- while leading a refrain of "Join Us!" To pay for those plans, she said corporations and higher wage earners must pay more in taxes -- though any such change, as Obama has found, would almost certainly require Democrats to take back control of Congress." Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger,” she said, going after Trump for what Democrats argue is his attempt to drive wedges between blocs of voters and reiterating themes echoed throughout the week that Clinton's party is better able to bring disparate groups together and protect their interests. “None of us can do it alone." Trump has been widely criticized, including by some in his own party, for comments in which he compared Mexicans to rapists and called for banning Muslim immigration into the U.S. at least temporarily, though he has since backed off such a suggestion.

reiterating

voters

themes


Input: Is there a plan F, G, H, that we haven't thought of? '" JUST WATCHED U.S. considers deal with Russia to fight terror Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH U.S. considers deal with Russia to fight terror 01:34 Obama warned that if Russia did not help deliver Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a ceasefire deal in his civil-war wracked country, it would expose itself as an irresponsible actor on the world stage." I'm not confident that we can trust the Russians and Vladimir Putin, which is why we have to test whether or not we can get an actual cessation of hostilities that includes an end to the kind of aerial bombing and civilian death and destruction that we've seen carried out by the Assad regime," he said. Obama additionally offered a survey of diverse military operations around the world, including the fight to support the Afghan government in its civil war with the Taliban and a growing ISIS presence.

ceasefire

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Russia

his civil-war wracked country


Input: The fevered rhetoric on television and pointed deployments of nuclear launch vehicles recalled the height of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, when Russia too sought to guarantee against Western intervention and buttress support for its actions at home. This time, the chances of a real military confrontation between Russia and the U.S. have risen dramatically since Washington indicated it was considering launching airstrikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to halt his brutal bombardment of Aleppo and push Moscow and Assad back to the negotiating table. Russia’s Defense Ministry has bluntly warned the U.S. not to intervene, threatening to shoot down any aircraft targeting Assad’s forces. But still few expect the Obama administration to approve such an intervention, which would abandon years of policy avoiding direct military intervention against Assad, at a moment when it also risked provoking an armed clash with Russia. Lipman warned the two countries ' perilously diverging goals in Syria and an escalating logic in their exchanges, could see that confrontation spiral unpredictably out of control.

threatening

Russia’s Defense Ministry

U.S.


Input: But his response only underscored the schisms between himself and Obama." Did you ask if we had political prisoners? Give me a list of political prisoners and I will release them immediately," Castro said defensively when asked by CNN's Jim Acosta why his government was incarcerating dissidents. Unaccustomed to press conferences, Castro at first appeared confused at whether the question was directed to him and later asked for it to be repeated as he juggled the headphones he wore to hear its translation. Later, Castro delivered a litany of areas where he said the U.S. was failing, from inadequate health care to lower pay for women.

incarcerating

his government

dissidents


Input: She also confirmed that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has hired a cybersecurity firm to conduct an investigation of the breach, purportedly part of a Russian cyber-attack that Pelosi has termed “an electronic Watergate break-in.” Pelosi added that the chief information security officer of the House, in coordination with Capitol Police, has sent communications to those people whose email addresses have been made public about how to address the problem. The chief administrative officer of the House has also sent an email stating that the House computer system has not been compromised, but urged members and staff to be vigilant about opening emails and websites. The DCCC is also issuing similar guidance. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., was also holding a conference call with lawmakers on Saturday evening along with cybersecurity experts who have been investigating and responding to the breach.

urged

chief administrative officer of the House

members and staff

the House


Input: Thousands of Syrian government troops had defected by then, joining ragtag brigades of local farmers, students, and hairdressers. Some fighters made their own explosives and launched grenades from giant slingshots. The Syrian Army bombarded what little territory these rebels controlled. Several of the activists attending the training session in Istanbul lived in besieged areas; Wiley and his colleagues taught them to photograph and measure artillery craters, assess angles of impact, collect shell fragments, identify the types of weapon used, and calculate launching points. But, he said, “the big thing we wanted them to focus on was documentation generated by the regime,” which he called “the king or queen of evidence in international criminal proceedings.”

bombarded

Syrian Army

territory

territory


Input: Were they good people? Yes, I’d say. The father, in spare moments between his three jobs, built a four-bedroom house out of cinder blocks he acquired two or three at a time from Home Depot, working sometimes late into the night. The Trump supporter might, at this point, fall silent, and so might I. In the face of specificity, my interviewees began trying, really trying, to think of what would be fairest and most humane for this real person we had imaginatively conjured up.

built

his

a four-bedroom house

cinder blocks


Input: “The official side paints a nice picture but the reality is commissions, commissions, commissions,” he wrote. What troubles me so much is the way in which I see this situation ending – with the destruction of you Patrick Mahony In the furious exchanges that followed, Mahony accused Justo of blackmail. Mahony presciently told his former colleague: “What troubles me so much is the way in which I see this situation ending – with the destruction of you.” A few months later, over a Chinese meal in London, the journalist who would break open the 1MDB scandal first heard rumours about an extraordinary heist in Malaysia.

blackmail

Justo

Mahony


Input: A bomb is released from a Russian Su-34 strike fighter in Syria. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) Russian airstrikes targeted the base of U.S.-backed Syrian fighters near the Jordanian border earlier this week, according to U.S. defense officials, prompting the most aggressive response from the Pentagon since Russia began its air campaign over Syria last year. New images released Friday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that has monitored the conflict since its start, reportedly shows the aftermath of the strikes on the base at Al-Tanf, a small town near the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan. One of the pictures portrays what appears to be the tail section of a RBK-500 cluster munition, a type of bomb repeatedly seen being used by the Russian air force since the start of its mission in Syria.

airstrikes

Russian

the base

A bomb

Jordanian border


Input: "I do n’t concede the point that we are not great and that we need to be great again." "I think he is a dangerous person because he is unpredictable." "It is naïve to think that somehow we can have a productive relationship with Russia when Russia is engaging in territorial land grabs over the last two years." "Our allies magnify our power.", an Atlantic Council board director who served as the State Department’s number three official in the George W. Bush administration, offered a searing critique of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s April 27 foreign policy speech in an interview with the New Atlanticist’s.

land grabs

Russia

Russia

territorial

Russia


Input: But close inspections of his business legacy unveil a tarnished record filled with blemishes that go far beyond anything Clinton has suffered in her career. It’s undisputed that Trump solicited donations for his foundation — rarely giving his own money to the charity — and then shamelessly benefitted from the organization with gross self-dealing epitomized by purchasing a mural of himself to hang in his for-profit golf club. Trump boasts of playing the political game by donating to politicians to “buy” their favor on his issues. Much of the ugliness that surrounds Trump on this front can be summed up in the $ 2,500 fine he was forced to pay the IRS when his tax-exempt foundation gave $ 25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi during the time Trump University, a shady real-estate program, was under investigation in New York and Bondi’s office was considering jumping in. Trump’s comments surrounding his desire to build a wall along the Mexican border speak volumes.

buy

Trump

politicians


Input: The Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, seemed keen to ease off austerity measures and prove that the country could go it alone. It in fact issued its first bond in 2011, borrowing off the global markets. Hungary borrowed € 20 billion loan to avoid becoming insolvent during the economic crisis in 2008. But the debtee debtor relationship has not been smooth sailing. Many criticised the Prime Minister as making an ill-advised decision in order to win an election, which was due in 2014.

borrowed

global markets

Hungary

becoming insolvent

€ 20 billion

Hungary


Input: In May of this year, China introduced its first homegrown maglev line in Changsha, transporting passengers from the south railway station to the airport at a not terribly impressive top speed of 100 km / h. This all must come as quite the disappointment after a Chinese research team unveiled a prototype for a maglev train that could possibly reach 1,800 km / h back in 2014. In less ambitious news, CRRC also announced plans to develop maglev trains that travel at just 200 km / h, hoping to provide a more energy conscious form of medium to high-speed transport around the globe, as well as high-speed trains that can run at 400 km / h and alternate between different track gauges, making crossing borders a breeze, Xinhua reports. Currently, China leads the world with over 20,000 kilometers of high-speed track. That is projected to expand to 30,000 km by 2020 and then grow to 45,000 km by 2030.

transport

CRRC

maglev trains

around the globe


Input: At a time when US-Russia relations are the worst they've been in decades, that question -- what does Trump have to do with Putin? -- still lingers. Trump has called on Moscow to hack into Clinton's computers, downplayed criticism of Putin's authoritarian tendencies, tried to suggest that Russia hasn't hacked US systems and promoted foreign policy positions that jibe more closely with Moscow's than Washington's. He's relied on aides with ties to Russia and most recently, quoted an incorrect Russian news report to raise questions about Clinton. For its part, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations formally complained last month about a top UN official's criticism of Trump and right-wing European politicians.

suggest

Trump

hacked US systems


Input: Indian officials say a meteorite struck the campus of a private engineering college on Saturday, killing one person. If scientists confirm the explosion was due to a meteorite, it would be the first recorded human fatality due to a falling space rock. According to local reports, a bus driver was killed on Saturday when a meteorite landed in the area where he was walking, damaging the window panes of nearby buses and buildings. Three other people were injured.

explosion

meteorite

campus of a private engineering college


Input: In the years since, some of these rulers have not fared well. Mubarak was swept from power in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring revolutions. Saudi Arabia remains an important American ally but is not entirely trusted — even by the U.S. State Department — and has been cited by Human Rights Watch for cracking down on dissidents, repressing women and religious minorities and subjecting hundreds a year to unfair trials, arbitrary detention and execution by beheading. Assad is embroiled in a bloody civil war that has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern times. At the same time, Clinton’s family foundation has received quite a bit of cash from dictatorial regimes abroad.

execution

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia


Input: These were teeth that would cut through meat. By comparison, the T. rex tooth basically looks like a banana on steroid. It’s a tooth that punctures through meat and bones.” The smaller species also weighed much less — 600 pounds compared to the 7-ton T. rex. Brusatte says advanced technology, like the 3-D printers, are painting a more complete picture of the prehistoric time.

punctures

T. rex

meat and bones

tooth


Input: U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials — including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue. The activities of Trump adviser Carter Page, who has extensive business interests in Russia, have been discussed with senior members of Congress during recent briefings about suspected efforts by Moscow to influence the presidential election, the sources said. After one of those briefings, Senate minority leader Harry Reid wrote FBI Director James Comey, citing reports of meetings between a Trump adviser (a reference to Page) and “high ranking sanctioned individuals” in Moscow over the summer as evidence of “significant and disturbing ties” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin that needed to be investigated by the bureau. Some of those briefed were “taken aback” when they learned about Page’s contacts in Moscow, viewing them as a possible back channel to the Russians that could undercut U.S. foreign policy, said a congressional source familiar with the briefings but who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. The source added that U.S. officials in the briefings indicated that intelligence reports about the adviser’s talks with senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin were being “actively monitored and investigated.”

sanctioned

individuals

Moscow


Input: Czech police said the suspect was traveling in the Czech Republic with his girlfriend and had a luxury car. Upon arrest, the man collapsed and was hospitalized, officials said. Extradition proceedings in Czech courts could see the suspect turned over to face possible charges in the United States. Josh Gerstein and Eric Geller contributed to this report. Authors:

Extradition

Czech courts

Czech


Input: (June 29) 5 of 19 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE SUICIDE ATTACK AT ISTANBUL AIRPORT Raw: Suspects Detained After Istanbul Raids | 0:49 Turkish state media reports 13 suspects were detained in connection with the Istanbul Airport attack. Police in Istanbul conducted raids on Thursday, targeting Islamic State group suspects. (June 30) AP 6 of 19 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE SUICIDE ATTACK AT ISTANBUL AIRPORT Obama, Pena Nieto talk Turkey, immigration | 2:25 The leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico convened a summit Wednesday intended to reaffirm their close cooperation at a time of rising extremist threats around the globe and isolationist calls in the American presidential campaign. (June 2 AP 7 of 19 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE SUICIDE ATTACK AT ISTANBUL AIRPORT Increased airport security coming this holiday weekend | 1:41 After the bombing at an Instabul airport, expect increased security across the United States heading into one of the busiest travel seasons of the year. 8 of 19 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE SUICIDE ATTACK AT ISTANBUL AIRPORT Raw: Video shows moments after Turkey blast | 0:40 Video filmed in the immediate aftermath of the suicide attack on Turkey's Ataturk Airport shows bodies lying on the floor and emergency workers at the scene.

convened

Canada

Mexico


Input: It’s his self-righteous way of doing nothing. There was no substance to any of it. All of the candidates on the stage were just there to continue the Obama project, which has wrecked the country, by another name. Indeed the most devastating attack of the debate was not Bernie Sanders mentioning Hillary’s dirty money, but Hillary Clinton accusing him of trying to find a candidate to primary Obama in front of a heavily black audience. The Democratic Party is married to Obama and his disastrous two terms in office.

wrecked

Obama project

country


Input: Natalia, a 32-year -old doctor carrying a bunch of red carnations, praised Pavlov as "a hero of DPR, a hero of Russia." After the ceremony, militants from the Sparta battallion Pavlov commanded carried his coffin out to brass music as the crowd chanted "We will not forget, we will not forgive!" The coffin was then placed on the gun carriage of an open-topped truck, and the funeral procession slowly moved through streets lined with mourners to a local cemetery. Several people told AFP that state employees including teachers and doctors were "strongly recommended" to be present at the funeral." Lessons were cut for all the teachers to come here.

funeral

state employees

teachers and doctors

Pavlov

a local cemetery


Input: While Abbas two years ago ordered that these salaries not be paid by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs but instead by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Carmon described this as a "deliberately misleading move" to assuage concerns from donor countries worried about their money being funneled to terrorists." The source of the money remains the PA, which receives them from donor countries, and the overseeing body remains none other than the PA," Carmon told lawmakers. He said that countries who provide aid to Palestine, including the United States, are "complicit" in inciting terrorism because the Palestinian Authority uses foreign donations to subsidize terrorists and their families." By providing this support, the PA is encouraging terrorism in violation of its Oslo commitment. Furthermore, the PA has been using money granted by donor countries for this purpose, and by doing so, has made them complicit in encouraging terrorism as well," Carmon said.

provide aid

countries

Palestine

Palestinian Authority


Input: The passages were contained in an internal review of Mrs. Clinton’s paid speeches undertaken by her campaign, which was identifying potential land mines should the speeches become public. They offer a glimpse at one of the most sought-after troves of information in the 2016 presidential race — and an explanation, perhaps, for why Mrs. Clinton has steadfastly refused demands by Mr. Sanders and Donald J. Trump, her Republican rival, to release them. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mrs. Clinton’s campaign would not confirm the authenticity of the documents.

demands

Mr. Sanders and Donald J. Trump

Mrs. Clinton


Input: Together, they could transform our world. Putin already has fostered a current of ruthless, cynical and utterly unprincipled opportunism in what, before his arrival, was thought of as an increasingly cooperative and rational international community. The Russian president has embraced and perfected the use of lies for geopolitical advantage, pursued and murdered his opponents in foreign capitals, invaded neighbors openly as well as by stealth, intervened in other countries’ elections, and flouted the rules governing international trade and sports. For the most part, he has gotten away with it, thereby establishing a model of lawlessness and mendacity that other regimes have begun to follow. Having noticed that one of Putin’s prime opponents, Alexander Litvinenko, was murdered in the heart of London without meaningful consequences, China has taken to abducting dissidents outside its borders, including a British citizen seized in Hong Kong.

lies

Russian president


Input: Related: Trump Says He Doubts U.S. Intel Officials on Russian Hacking The FBI didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Reid's letter. Earlier, Comey said in an internal message to FBI employees that "we don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed." The note added that it would "be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don't know the significance of this newly discovered collection of e-mails, I don't want to create a misleading impression."

testified

Comey

Congress


Input: NATO is obsolete … if we have to walk, we walk.” He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008. TRUMP: “I’ve borrowed knowing that you can pay back with discounts ... I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.” He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture ...

borrowed

I


Input: Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Moscow reserves the right to reciprocate against Washington after President Obama this week renewed sanctions imposed as a result of the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. “We regret to note that the United States continues to enthusiastically play the anti-Russian sanctions game,” the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement published on its website this week. “It is high time Washington comprehended the futility of its policy of sanctions and the danger of the entire line of confrontation with Russia. For our part, we reserve the right to take reciprocal actions to protect our interests.”

sanctions

United States

United States

Russian

Russian


Input: Among the war crimes the American supported terrorists did was the rape of the elderly women held captive. When this crime was first reported it was so shocking and disgusting that most writers decided to not include it with the details and documentation of the destruction of Kessab. However, now after 5 years of war, and 2 years since the massacre at Kessab, the detail of the rape of elderly Armenian women by the American supported and sponsored moderate rebels is now coming forth in loud voices, so that history will not be allowed to repeat itself. The details are coming forth for the entire world to hear from the women in Kessab. On the very same day that the elderly were kidnapped to Turkey, the President of the American supported Syrian National Coalition, based in Istanbul, Turkey, Ahmed Jarba came to Kessab to personally greet his victorious troops on the massacre of Syrian Christians and the destruction of all 3 churches.

rape

Armenian women

rebels

Kessab


Input: They also neglected repeated warnings about the security of the BlackBerry while Clinton and her closest aides took obvious security risks in using the basement server. Senior officials who helped Clinton with her BlackBerry claim they did not know details of the basement server, the State Department said, even though they received emails from her private account. One email written by a senior official mentioned the server. The scandal has pitted those who say Clinton was innocently trying to find the easiest way to communicate against those who say she placed herself above the law in a quest for control of her records. She and her campaign have been accused of confusing matters with contradictory and evolving statements that minimized the consequences of her actions.

email

senior official


Input: Chris Christie had said that all refugees, including “orphans under 5,” should be banned from entry until proper vetting procedures had been put in place. This rhetoric appeared to frustrate Obama immensely. “When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims; when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted,” Obama told the assembled reporters, “that’s not American. That’s not who we are. We do n’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

torn

country

war


Input: This morning, at around 6:00 GMT, the Pulse nightclub, a popular gay bar in Orlando, was attacked by a lone gunman. Currently there are 50 confirmed fatalities, including the gunman, and 53 injured. This is now the worst mass shooting in US history. Ordinarily, /r / worldnews does not cover US news, and that rule remains.

fatalities

gunman

shooting

Orlando


Input: "Shoulda gotten it," Trump interjected. A post-debate poll from CNN / ORC found viewers overwhelmingly considered Clinton the winner, by a substantial 53-39 margin. It's a wider lead than her win in the second debate but not as strong as her first debate win. A YouGov poll showed a narrower 49-39 win for Clinton. Trump is currently trailing by double-digits in many nationwide polls and is facing a landslide loss unless his campaign can turn things around in the final weeks of the election.

debate

her


Input: Trump was shrewd to recognize the dissatisfaction felt by many that a changing economy has passed them by, and that government is riddled with cronyism and self-interest, but he does n’t have solutions to address either. Some ideas — like a tax policy that will explode the deficit and increase taxes on many middle-class Americans — will only make things worse. Clinton’s proposals — such as raising the minimum wage, improving paid family leave, refinancing student loans, and expanding the child tax credit — reflect her desire to expand opportunity for all Americans. We also like her positions on sensible gun controls, large infrastructure investments, criminal justice reforms and immigration reform with a detailed path to citizenship. She has waffled on trade policy to satisfy the national mood but agrees in principle that well-crafted trade deals are good, or so it seems from the WikiLeaks disclosure of her Goldman Sachs speeches.

loans

student

student


Input: Absolutely false,” Bolton declared. “Her worldview is the same as Obama’s, and I think Trump made that point very clearly as part of that discussion. When he talked about how Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and Obama were out-negotiated by the Russians in terms of the New START nuclear arms treaty, how they’ve been out-maneuvered by Russia in Syria ever since the conflict began there, right after the Arab Spring in 2011 – that’s what I think Trump means when he talks about Putin being a strong leader, compared to Obama and his foreign policy, which is weak, and which Hillary would continue.” Bolton thought that Trump “made more points on national security in this debate than he was able to make in earlier debates.” “I think that he demonstrated convincingly, and Hillary did n’t back away from, the fact they will follow the same policies in a Clinton administration as in Obama’s.

treaty

the Russians

Russia


Input: Warren wondered aloud how Trump’s tax returns could be any worse than the Republican nominee’s repeated praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Donald Trump praises brutal dictators and murderers,” Warren said. “He threatens our allies, he denigrates democracy right here at home. So what is so bad that Donald Trump has to hide it? Would his tax returns show how deeply Donald Trump’s personal financial interests run counter to the national interests of the United States of America?”

threatens

He

our allies


Input: During the presidential debates with Mr. Trump, she tried to avoid the subject and accused Mr. Trump of putting national security at risk by inviting Russian hackers to meddle in the election. Mrs. Clinton and her staff expressed relief in July when Mr. Comey announced that the F.B.I. had closed the investigation after determining that no one should face criminal charges. But he did criticize Mrs. Clinton and her aides for what he termed the “extremely careless” handling of sensitive information, leaving an opportunity for Republicans to continue hammering her for bad judgment. The involvement of Ms. Abedin and Mr. Weiner in Mrs. Clinton’s case was an unforeseen twist.

investigation

F.B.I.

Clinton


Input: A man walks on the wreckage of a plane that crashed southeast of Damascus, Syria in this still image taken from video said to be shot April 22, 2016. Social Media Website via Reuters TV BEIRUT Islamic State fighters have captured the pilot of a Syrian warplane which crashed southeast of Damascus on Friday, a news agency affiliated to the militant group said." The pilot, called Azzam Eid, from Hama was captured after he fell by parachute near the site where his plane crashed east of Damascus," the news agency Amaq said. Citing a Syrian military source, Russian news agency Interfax said the plane belonged to the Syrian Air Force and crashed because of a technical fault.

captured

Islamic State fighters

Syrian warplane

pilot

Damascus


Input: So why did America really drop the atomic bombs? According to historians the Americans had cracked the Japanese and Russian codes. Japan had begun negotiating a surrender with Russia and Washington found that unacceptable. America had already lost the whole East bloc and China to Communism, Washington wasn't about to lose the whole South Pacific or even a small handful of islands. Remember, Vietnam?

negotiating

Japan

Russia


Input: Although a little less fulsome about Russia’s Vladimir Putin than in the past, he nonetheless hoped for a better relationship, dismissing the current tensions between the two countries as “drama.” Even ousting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, for all that he is “a bad man,” in Trump’s words, ought to be a lower priority than fighting ISIS. Finally, as befits the co-author of The Art of the Deal, Trump moves America’s treaty commitments from the realm of diplomacy to the world of business. Repeatedly, he made it clear that he felt the United States needed to be financially reimbursed for its support and protection. When asked specifically about whether he would fulfill America’s commitment to help defend the Baltic States in the case of Russian aggression, he replied: “Have they fulfilled their obligations to us? If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes.” In general terms, his view is that “[i]f we can not be properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost of our military protecting other countries … [t]hen yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, ‘Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.’”

reimbursed

the Baltic States

the United States


Input: “If we win North Carolina, we’ve got this thing, folks,” the Virginia senator said at a microbrewery in Charlotte's downtown. “The bigger we can win by, the harder it is for him to whine and have anyone believe him.” Kaine made the remarks on the first day of North Carolina's early voting period, and prefaced them by attacking the state legislature's passage of a voter ID bill that was struck down by federal courts after a lawsuit found evidence that its advocates wanted to suppress the black vote. In a news conference here, Kaine said that early voting, a post-2000 election innovation available in 34 states and the District, could also limit the risk of voter suppression on Nov. 8. (Three other states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — exclusively use a vote-by-mail system.)

advocates

state legislature

North Carolina


Input: Though the news that Putin purged the 50 senior naval officers is just hitting many of the world’s media outlets, The Moscow Times announced that it occurred on June 29. The newspaper stated that “the Russian Defense Ministry” was behind the sacking of “the entire senior and mid-level command of the Baltic Fleet.” The purge of the 50 senior officers who were members of the Baltic Fleet, according to The Maritime Executive, “followed a month-long audit by the Kremlin” in the wake of the collision between a Polish patrol boat and a Russian submarine. The 50 officers who were purged also demonstrated, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, “serious shortcomings in the organisation of combat training, daily activities of their forces, failure to take all necessary measures to improve personnel accommodations, inattention to their subordinates and distorted reports on the real state of affairs in the fleet.” Many have speculated that the reason Vladimir Putin purged the 50 officers of the Baltic Fleet was because they were not aggressive enough towards Western ships during NATO exercises last April, though it could be that Putin saw it was high time to end the widespread corruption and incompetence he had witnessed.

collision

boat

submarine


Input: The UK and US governments have repeatedly criticised Russian air strikes, which they say have often targeted moderate opponents of the Syrian government rather than the Islamic State militant group. A temporary ceasefire in Syria was agreed last week, which Western leaders hope may ease the flow of refugees to Europe. In the run-up to the ceasefire Russia was accused of deliberately hitting hospitals and civilian infrastructure. Russia has insisted that it attacks only "terrorist" targets.

accused

UK and US governments

Russia

deliberately hitting hospitals and civilian infrastructure

Syria


Input: Still it’s quite clear they were riffing off the same basic idea — the idea of a conservative restoration: Trump promises to “make America great again,” but in that same VFW speech, Reagan pledged to unite “a great crusade to restore the America of our dreams.” The fundamental thrust of their politics is the same, but the ideological / rhetorical vehicle for it is falling to pieces faster than anyone can put it back together. Trump is notorious for his lack of conservative orthodoxy, but people forget how badly Reagan himself would have failed any such test, had more recent powerful gatekeepers been around to check his credentials. He raised taxes 11 times after his initial tax cuts caused the deficit to explode; he struck a deal to save Social Security, which he had previously wanted to undermine by making it voluntary; he struck an immigration deal with amnesty for almost 3 million “illegal immigrants;” he negotiated with the Soviets, even coming close to abolishing nuclear weapons. None of this means he was n’t a conservative, of course. Litmus tests can be very misleading, especially once they proliferate like rabbits.

negotiated

he

Soviets


Input: His lawyer, Young J. Kim, declined to comment after the arraignment. According to the FBI, during 10 days of interviews Marquez revealed plots he and his friend, Syed Rizwan Farook, discussed but never carried out to slaughter students at a community college and murder motorists on a congested freeway. The Dec. 30 indictment superseded charges he originally faced when arrested two weeks after the Dec. 2 shootings carried out by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, at a building where Farook's colleagues from the San Bernardino county health department were meeting. The couple killed 14 people and wounded 22 others before being killed hours later in a dramatic shootout with police. Authorities said Marquez was not involved in the killings, but that his failure to warn authorities about Farook and his purchase of the guns had deadly consequences.

arrested

the FBI

Syed Rizwan Farook


Input: "This is a really big deal, and the Russians are going to have a cow," said Evelyn N Farkas, who until October was the Pentagon's top policy official on Russia and Ukraine." It's a huge sign of commitment to deterring Russia, and to strengthening our alliance and our partnership with countries like Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia." While the increase in funding for Europe is significant, the administration is proposing that the money come out of a separate war-funding account that is meant to pay for operations in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, as well as the continued US military presence in Afghanistan. That means it is a one-time request, not necessarily a continuing commitment, built in to budget requests beyond 2017, officials said." It's a way to get around the budget caps "imposed on the Pentagon, said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. But, Harrison added, the budget workaround may not succeed in reassuring fretful Eastern European allies because it leaves the decision on what do about future military spending in Europe for the next administration.

proposing

administration


Input: "For more than a week, we have urged Moscow to fulfill the commitments it made in Geneva to facilitate the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people," the department said in a statement." And for more than a week, the Syrian regime repeatedly denied entry to these UN convoys, preventing them from delivering urgent food, water and medical supplies to desperate Syrian citizens." The Kremlin said there was little hope for the ceasefire's renewal, state television Russia 24 reported. David Butter, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, called the latest development a "severe setback" and said the prospects for peace "look very poor" at this point. He said that while the details of exactly who did what were likely to remain unclear, the idea of allowing humanitarian aid into besieged areas would go against the Syrian regime's "starvation strategy" to win back territory.

ceasefire


Input: Clinton has called Kissinger, who according to one conservative estimate may be responsible for anywhere in the range of 3-4 million deaths, a “friend,” and he in turn called her an “outstanding appointment” for secretary of state and predicted she would be a “good president.” This week, Clinton demonstrated exactly why such a wide assortment of neocons and right-wing war hawks have been so quick to compliment her over the years. In a widely panned speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual meeting on Monday, Clinton pledged her undying loyalty to Israel, promised to go to war with Iran if necessary, and implied the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement was anti-Semitic. The speech was interpreted as an attempt to move to the right of Trump on Israel. Perhaps nothing sums up Clinton’s foreign policy better than a recent photo of her warmly hugging George W. Bush at Nancy Reagan’s funeral — an almost too-perfect metaphor for Clinton’s embrace of neocon policies.

Boycott

Clinton

American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual meeting


Input: BRENNAN: Well, I would maybe challenge the premise. There are a lot of terrorists who are being killed on battlefields of Syria and Iraq, as well as other areas, Yemen. But also, there are a lot of individuals who have been captured, arrested, have been detained, have been debriefed. A lot of times, some of those things do not make the headlines like a strike will. But I think there is a effort to try to capture as many individuals as possible, because of the intelligence take that you get, whether or not it's from the debriefings of an individual, or the material, the electronic media, whatever, that the individual might have on them at the time, so that you can sort of unlock some of those secrets that they have.

detained

individuals

Syria and Iraq, as well as other areas, Yemen


Input: Finally, Clinton hung up in frustration and placed the call again through the State Department Operations Center — “like a proper and properly dependent secretary of state,” as she later wrote to one aide in a mock-chastened tone. “No independent dialing allowed.” The Afghan troop debate, a three-month drama of dueling egos, leaked documents and endless deliberations, is typically framed as a test of wills between the Pentagon’s wily military commanders and an inexperienced young president, with Joe Biden playing the role of devil’s advocate for Obama. While that portrait is accurate, it neglects the role of Clinton. By siding with Gates and the generals, she gave political ballast to their proposals and provided a bullish counterpoint to Biden’s skepticism.

advocate

Joe Biden

Obama


Input: After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 his family fled to the Syrian capital, where he was educated. He founded the Fatah movement with the late Yasser Arafat in 1959 and became a key figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) after its creation in 1964. Although the biographical details are correct, the BBC's Thomas Fessy in Jerusalem notes that the document does not say how and when Mr Abbas would have been recruited, whether he was paid, and how long he might have worked for the KGB. Palestinian officials also said the PLO was openly working with Moscow in the early 1980s. Mr Abbas, they added, did not need to be a Soviet agent to liaise with it.

recruited

Mr Abbas

KGB


Input: This dramatic footage shows how two Syrian women risked their lives using a hidden camera to film life in Raqqa under the brutal rule of ISIS extremists. Video taken inside the terror group's Syrian stronghold shows armed guards patrolling deserted streets and landmark buildings reduced to rubble after years of civil war. The women describe gruesome public executions with extremists shooting their victims, decapitating them and putting their heads on sticks and leaving their bodies in the road to be run over. The women describe gruesome public executions with extremists shooting their victims, decapitating them and putting their heads on sticks and leaving their bodies in the road to be run over (file picture) In one scene, video shows how the faces of female models used to advertise hair products have been scribbled out with black marker pens by shopkeepers terrified of their hard line ISIS rulers.

decapitating

extremists

victims

Syrian stronghold


Input: Clinton, the front-runner in the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee, delivered her speech as she seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 election against likely rival Trump and away from Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, who is continuing his long-shot bid for the nomination. Clinton was speaking in San Diego ahead of California's June 7 primary election. Democratic Party leaders have fretted about how to best oppose Trump, who managed to knock out all 16 rivals for the Republican nomination in part with his uninhibited style of assailing them with personal insults. Trump revels in referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" and dredging up the infidelities of her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president. Clinton's remarks were intended in part to show she would not be cowed and that she could go toe-to-toe with him in scornful put-downs.

assailing

Trump

all 16 rivals for the Republican nomination

uninhibited style


Input: .. or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law,” he added. The intensified and highly personal attacks come as the rival campaigns enter the crucial window between Labor Day and Election Day. And they followed a round of polls for Clinton suggesting that the national advantage she has held for much of the summer has diminished slightly.

destroy

evidence


Input: So would Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May could follow her predecessors in seeking parliamentary approval, and while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would certainly oppose any intervention, there are enough rebel Labour MPs who would support it and ensure a majority. The third key ally would be Turkey, which has repeatedly demanded a no-fly zone. Turkey has a large and well-equipped air force, including over 200 advanced F-16 fighters and support aircraft, and more importantly, it borders Syria to the north. So it would provide nearby air bases including Incirlik, which is already used by the United States and other countries for anti-Islamic State operations.

demanded

Turkey

no-fly zone


Input: A kindly worded letter from Gyorgy Matolcsy, the head of Hungary’s CentralBank, asked Managing Director, Christine Lagarde of the International Misery Fund, as some have fondly nicknamed it, to close the office as it was not necessary to maintain it any longer. The Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, seemed keen to ease off austerity measures and prove that the country could go it alone. It in fact issued its first bond in 2011, borrowing off the global markets. Hungary borrowed € 20 billion loan to avoid becoming insolvent during the economic crisis in 2008. But the debtee debtor relationship has not been smooth sailing.

borrowing

global markets

It

It

€ 20 billion loan

Hungary


Input: Unquestionably, the e-mails demonstrated that the DNC operated as an arm of the Hillary Clinton campaign, planting information in the media to flatter Clinton and damage opponent Bernie Sanders. The revelations were particularly damaging because the DNC was obligated to behave neutrally, and had repeatedly denied the demonstrated favor toward Clinton existed. Following a contentious and later debunked claim Sanders supporters “incited violence and chaos” at a Nevada caucus (and threw chairs), former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz both reiterated the now-debunked “chair” claim and at the thirty-second mark stated that campaign neutrality was part of the DNC’s charter: The National Chairperson shall serve full time and shall receive such compensation as may be determined by agreement between the Chairperson and the Democratic National Committee. In the conduct and management of the affairs and procedures of the Democratic National Committee, particularly as they apply to the preparation and conduct of the Presidential nomination process, the Chairperson shall exercise impartiality and evenhandedness as between the Presidential candidates and campaigns.

reiterated

Wasserman Schultz


Input: The Whitewater investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr began in 1994 with accusations of impropriety against the Clintons and others concerning improper campaign contributions, political and financial favors, and tax benefits. Its initial subject was a failed Arkansas real-estate venture involving the Clintons in the 1980s that was linked to the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, a Little Rock savings bank run by the Clintons’ Whitewater business partners. Clinton friends James and Susan McDougal went to jail for fraud (James died while serving his sentence), as did former Arkansas Gov. Jim Tucker and municipal judges David Hale and Eugene Fitzhugh. The probe eventually expanded to include the death of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster, the dismissal of White House travel office employees, receipt by the White House of a number of FBI files and the issue of whether President Clinton lied or obstructed justice to hide an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

jail

James and Susan McDougal


Input: Here is why he should not be president. Trump is vindictive. So far, the unifying theme of Trump’s convention is that the leader of the opposition party should be thrown in jail. Trump did n’t like the Washington Post’s coverage of his campaign, so he barred its reporters from his rallies and threatened to use the power of the presidency to bring an antitrust suit against the Post's owner, Jeff Bezos. He was upset that Ohio did n’t vote for him, so he sat its delegation in the cheap seats, even though the state is hosting the convention.

jail

Trump

leader


Input: Mostly he hammered at his main themes: Islamic State (IS), which he mentioned repeatedly, and his supposed plans to close tax loopholes exploited by tycoons such as him, while “bigly” using his beautiful knowledge of the tax code to help the middle class. (In fact his ruinous proposals would favour the rich enormously.) He made a couple of passable quips and managed a decent response to a corny, tail-end question about what he liked in Mrs Clinton, even if his answer — that she never quit — contradicted his claim that she lacked the stamina to be president. (She said she admired his children.) On the substance of foreign policy, one of the issues raised in the time left-over after groping, tweeting and e-mails, his ignorance would have been laughable had it not been so terrifying.

quit

she


Input: Fighting began between the militia and the Kurdish Asayish police force. The Syrian army supported the militia with heavy weapons and the YPG counter-attacked successfully and surrounded the city. The Syrian Air Force then bombed YPG targets, killing several Kurdish civilians while others fled the city. For over a year the Syrian Army had been co-operating in Aleppo and elsewhere against Isis and the Syrian armed opposition, but both sides now swiftly emphasised their deep-felt and undying hostility. Mr Dibo says the Kurds simply want a decentralised federal system giving them autonomy while the government is a “traditional dictatorship” that has carried out dozens of massacres.

bombed

Syrian Air Force

YPG

city


Input: NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: -- The Wizards lost to the Hawks 114-99. -- An ex-National Guardsman from Northern Virginia pleaded guilty to attempting to provide support to Islamic State militants. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 27, said he drew inspiration from the Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. He also transferred money to the organization, and purchased a handgun in January.

guilty

ex-National Guardsman

attempting to provide support to Islamic State militants

Virginia


Input: My expectation that Hillary Clinton would be indicted for her criminal mistreatment of classified information was the same as my expectation that the world would suddenly stop spinning on its axis. So why was I filled with such nausea, such deep unease when I (and nearly everyone else writing about the case, from both political sides), was proven correct? Two reasons.

indicted

Hillary Clinton

her criminal mistreatment of classified information


Input: / AFP / Scanpix / Jens Astrup / Denmark OUT (Photo credit should read JENS ASTRUP / AFP / Getty Images) April Ross looks at a makeshift memorial outside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for the mass shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub June 13, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The American gunman who launched a murderous assault on a gay nightclub in Orlando was radicalized by Islamist propaganda, officials said Monday, as they grappled with the worst terror attack on US soil since 9/11. The Islamic State group claimed slain shooter Omar Mateen was acting as ' one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America ' when he attacked the Pulse club in the Florida resort city, an assault that ended when police stormed the venue. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images) People lay flowers and light candles to commemorate victims of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando in front of the US embassy in Warsaw on June 13, 2016. / AFP / AFP PHOTO / WOJTEK RADWANSKI (Photo credit should read WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP / Getty Images) People commemorate victims of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando in front of the US embassy in Warsaw on June 13, 2016.

slain

Omar Mateen

Florida


Input: If you encourage the Department of Justice and the FBI to continue slow-walking the investigation, there is a good chance the truth will come out anyway. As you are aware, the Justice Department, the FBI, and NSA have all yielded recent patriots who, in such circumstances, decided that whistleblowing – rather than silence – was the only way to honor the oath we all swore – to support and defend the Constitution. To sum up our concern regarding how all this plays out, if you order the Justice Department and FBI to pursue the investigation with “all deliberate speed,” so to speak, and Secretary Clinton becomes president, the juicy email secrets in the hidden hands of the NSA and FBI are likely to give those already powerful institutions a capacity for blackmail that would make J. Edgar Hoover’s mouth water. In addition, information hacked by foreign intelligence services or Guccifer-like hackers can also provide useful grist for leverage or blackmail. Taking Care the Laws Are Faithfully Executed

blackmail

powerful institutions


Input: The number of retired generals and admirals endorsing Hillary Clinton for president has grown to 110. The Democratic presidential nominee announced her newest supporters Friday. Clinton stressed that she has more military backing than rival Donald Trump, who touted endorsements from 88 retired U.S. generals and admirals earlier in the week. The new endorsements include former Democratic Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral. Clinton is continuing to promote herself as the best choice for commander-in-chief, questioning Trump credentials and judgment.

retired

U.S. generals

military


Input: But the prospects are dim, with the last peace talks held in 2014. The Egyptians, the French and the Quartet-made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- are working to bring them the sides together but so far without success." At this stage to say they will come back to negotiate tomorrow would be close to day-dreaming ... The collapse of trust has been really dramatic," said Mladenov. (Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Gareth Jones)

negotiate

they

they


Input: (Tom Jackman) -- “Kane Show” radio host Peter Deibler (on 99.5) was arrested in Maryland after his soon-to-be ex-wife accused him of second-degree assault. According to a protective order petition, Deibler reportedly grabbed her and threw her into a wall, resulting in a sprained knee, head injury, bruises and a black eye. (Emily Heil and Dan Morse) -- Testimony has concluded in the trial of Caesar Goodson Jr., a former Baltimore police officer, in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.

bruises

Deibler

her

second-degree assault

Maryland


Input: I do n’t like calling people names and being unkind. However, I believe in redemption and he has surrounded himself with some incredibly smart and well-spoken people. This should probably be near the top [of the list]: Donald Trump has posted the list of people he would recommend for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is not a legislative body. If Hillary becomes the president and picks three or four justices, our country will be gone.

recommend

Donald Trump


Input: Even without the Kremlin's direct involvement, its specter looms large over the vote. Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, has said the referendum has made the Dutch, possibly unwittingly, Putin's pawns and "hostages in a political game." During a recent visit to the Netherlands, Vladimir Klitschko, the brother of Kiev's mayor and a central figure in the Maidan protests, urged the Dutch not to turn their backs on those who had "given their lives" for Maidan. Back in the Netherlands, a media campaign that never strays too far from Moscow is reaching its peak. A local company named Rasputin spent tens of thousands of euros producing toilet paper printed with arguments against the EU deal.

urged

Vladimir Klitschko, the brother of Kiev's mayor and a central figure in the Maidan protests

the Dutch

Netherlands


Input: And he turned and went out the door. Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta said following the Trump press conference: ' Trump is desperate he’s trying to take this race to a place in the gutter and we’re not going there. ' Bill's spokesman, Angel Urena, declined to comment Thursday on the ongoing protests. He tweeted out a Bloomberg article earlier in the day though that said, ' Whether acting as a pawn for the Russians or for his campaign henchmen who've made a career going after @billclinton, one thing is clear:" Donald Trump is doubling down on his strategy of focusing on Bill Clinton's accusers." '

protests


Input: The odds of Republicans retaining their Senate majority have dropped precipitously since Friday morning. There is a conference call for House Republicans at 11 a.m. Eastern and another for the 168 members of the Republican National Committee at 5 p.m. “Trump is a battered, bruised and angry candidate, and therefore more unpredictable than ever,” Dan Balz writes. “For Trump, this is a final roll of the dice. For Republicans this is about more than the presidency and they know they will be living with the fallout from this campaign long after the results of this election are known on the night of Nov. 8.”

battered

Trump


Input: * On the new global “free trade” treaties: US leadership in negotiating and advocating passage of the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and other corporate-privileging trade deals has made passage of these agreements far more likely. A Sanders Doctrine would recognize the danger of such deals, particularly in the way they empower corporate “rights” even over national sovereignty of countries around the world, and would immediately end its support and pull out of the negotiations. “Free trade” agreements would be replaced by “fair trade” agreements based on protection of workers, the environment, indigenous communities, and democracy. * On negotiations with opponents: A Sanders Doctrine would recognize that former President Jimmy Carter was right in his willingness to meet with any world leader, any time, any place. It would make good on the principle that talking is always better than fighting — and that US democracy should abandon the notion that simply talking to a leader we disagree with — even one we adamantly oppose because of human rights violations or other issues — somehow represents a reward.

agreements

Sanders

around the world


Input: Interestingly the USTR’s report praises the fact that “a Russian court shut down Rutracker.org”, when in fact the site was only blocked and remains fully operational today. Nevertheless, it appears that court orders are not enough for the United States. “Issuing injunctions against infringing websites does not address the root of the problem; Russia should be investigating and prosecuting the operators of such sites. The overall number of raids, criminal charges, and convictions have declined in recent years,” the report reads. Finally, Ukraine remains on the Priority List in 2016.

injunctions

Russia

websites


Input: After news of Johnson's selection broke, the Trump campaign clarified that his inclusion was an accident and disclaimed responsibility: Johnson is a white nationalist true believer who calls explicitly for a forced population transfer of all nonwhites off US soil. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports," Johnson had been advocating for the deportation of all non-white immigrants and U.S. citizens, including anyone with any ' ascertainable trace of Negro blood, ' since 1985, when he wrote a book arguing for a constitutional amendment to do just that." The platform of Johnson's group, the American Freedom Party, describes it as "a nationalist party that shares the customs and heritage of the European American people," declaring," White Americans should push back!" Its homepage is littered with headlines like," Jews and Their Effect on Russian-American Relations."

advocating

Johnson


Input: Washington has sold weapons and provided training, targeting information, and aerial refueling support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. It has also sold Riyadh millions of dollars’ worth of cluster bombs in recent years. Asked about the hold on the shipments, a senior U.S. official cited reports that the Saudi-led coalition used cluster bombs “in areas in which civilians are alleged to have been present or in the vicinity.” “We take such concerns seriously and are seeking additional information,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The hold applies to CBU-105 cluster bombs manufactured by the U.S.-based firm Textron Systems, a subsidiary of Textron.

shipments

U.S.

U.S.

Riyadh


Input: 3/11 Torture Torture is prevalent in prison camps, as well as in police and security service custody. AP 4/11 Freedom of religion American missionary Kenneth Bae was one of the many people detained after trying to practice their religion. The DPRK Constitution claims to protect freedom of religion but not if it as alleged of being used a a pretext for ' drawing in foreign forces or for harming the state and social order '. Christianity is frequently considered a political crime

detained

DPRK

people

trying to practice their religion

DPRK


Input: News that WikiLeaks is offering an award raised questions that he may have been connected to the hacked emails, but Washington, D.C., police have said that there is no evidence that his death was connected to the DNC hack. The victim’s mother told NBC Washington that police initially told her that her son may have been the victim of an attempted robbery. Police later backtracked on that theory, with the New York Daily News quoting police as saying that, “there is no immediate indication that robbery was a motive in this attack.” The victim’s body showed signs of a significant struggle, and the assailants did not take his watch, wallet, phone or credit cards. Gizmodo reported that authorities have not yet been able to determine if the DNC email hack was part of standard espionage or if the Russians are deliberately attempting to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has stated publicly his organization has additional material set to be released in the coming weeks and months.

robbery

son

Washington, D.C.


Input: The setup By March of 2009, Bryan Pagliano — who ultimately joined the State Department himself, working on IT programs related to mobile computing, teleworking and Bluetooth security vulnerabilities — had assembled all the components for the Clinton email server. He rented a minivan in Washington, loaded it full, and drove north on I-95, meeting Cooper at the Clinton residence in Chappaqua. The two men then lugged load after load of computers into the basement. When he got into the basement for the first time, Pagliano laid eyes on the system that had been running the Clinton email until then: a basic Apple computer, connected to an HP printer used by Bill Clinton’s staff to print documents remotely for him from his primary post-presidential office in Harlem, which sat about 35 miles south.

rented

He

Bryan Pagliano

Washington


Input: He added that Moscow is ready to develop large-scale military-technical cooperation with Ankara and the sides are now studying various projects. Read more The Turkish military operation in Syria and ways to cooperate in providing aid to civilians in the city of Aleppo were discussed during the talks in Istanbul on Monday, Erdogan said. The Russian and Turkish militaries, as well as intelligence services and diplomats from the two countries, will continue to work together on the provision of humanitarian aid in Syria, he added. “We thoroughly discussed the Syrian issue.

providing aid

Russian and Turkish militaries

humanitarian aid

civilians

Aleppo


Input: — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) October 10, 2016 The former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library: Trump's threat to use federal power to hurt an opponent is very Nixonian but Nixon preferred firing special prosecutors to hiring them! — Tim Naftali (@TimNaftali) October 10, 2016 This was not some random aside -- the Trump campaign is pushing the idea on Facebook after the debate:

firing

special prosecutors

Nixon


Input: Over the next many months, Donald Trump would be attacked and criticized by the media – but were these criticisms legitimate? What is the Untruth About Donald Trump? Freedomain Radio is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by signing up for a monthly subscription or making a one time donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate Get more from Stefan Molyneux and Freedomain Radio including books, podcasts and other info at: http://www.freedomainradio.com

funded

viewers

donation

Freedomain Radio


Input: Prohibitionist drug policies have had serious adverse consequences in the US, too. “The USA is perhaps the best documented but not the only country with clear racial biases in policing, arrests, and sentencing,” the commissioners write. “In the USA in 2014, African American men were more than five times more likely than white people to be incarcerated for drug offences in their lifetime, although there is no significant difference in rates of drug use among these populations. The impact of this bias on communities of people of colour is inter-generational and socially and economically devastating.” The commission cites examples of countries and US states that have moved down the decriminalisation road.

incarcerated

USA

African American men

drug offences

USA


Input: In 2010, the same base was penetrated by peace activists. The activists climbed the perimeter fence and wandered around the base for more than an hour, videotaping their escapade. When they were finally caught, base security did n’t even confiscate the videotape! The peace activists visited the base a second time, and this time got all the way to the bunkers containing the nuclear weapons. They came and went without meeting any security.

confiscate

they

base security


Input: Ultimately, the Progressive Media poll asked respondents whether they’d be less inclined to support Obama because he “described his former use of cocaine as using ‘a little blow.’” The “a little blow” question was included in the poll among 10 possible attacks against Obama, and respondents were asked to choose which two would make them less likely to support him. While there were several policy-based attacks on Obama’s record, there were other attacks that called into question his religion, (“ Obama’s father was a Muslim and (Obama) grew up among Muslims in the world's most populous Islamic country”), his patriotism (“ Obama did not cover his heart during the national anthem”), and his integrity (“ Obama benefited from a land deal from a contributor who has been indicted for corruption”). The cocaine attack was rated as the least effective attack in the poll. The attacks tested on Clinton and McCain were different than those tested on Obama.

indicted

a contributor

corruption


Input: (Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post) At another point, Trump complained about the costs of defending South Korea and protecting the Pacific. He asked why the United States is n’t fully reimbursed for the costs of such endeavors. When asked whether he thought, apart from the financial obligations, the United States gained something of value from having bases in such areas and by implication projecting power around the world, he replied, “I personally do n’t think so.” “So you do n’t think the U.S. gains by being the force that helps keep peace in the Pacific?” he was asked.

reimbursed

United States

United States


Input: Nicole Colson examines impact of the execution of a dissident cleric in Saudi Arabia -- and the hypocrisy of the U.S. government's support for Saudi Arabia's executioners. THE CRUEL violence of one of the U.S. government's staunchest Middle East allies was on full display at the start of the month when the government of Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 prisoners on January 2. At least some of the state killings were carried out by beheading -- the same method that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is reviled for using.

execution

executioners

dissident cleric

Saudi Arabia


Input: We’ve long crossed the line at which false claims of “racism” are just a matter of crying wolf; we’ve reached the point where it has transformed into a blatant attack against white people, plain and simple. And when we look to events in Europe, we see that “political correctness” is actually concretely ruining peoples’ lives, and we realize how much we actually stand to lose if we do n’t stand up to it. Child sexual exploitation rings were actually allowed to continue abducting, raping, and torturing hundreds of children undisturbed for fifteen years — why? Because the police were afraid of being called “racist” if they prosecuted the Pakistanis responsible for it. [31] The lesson seems to be that if we do n’t act preemptively, we’ll be headed for the same ultimate fate.

raping

Child sexual exploitation rings

children

Europe


Input: “President Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act is shameful and will go down as one of the low points of his presidency,” he said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENT “This bipartisan legislation was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and would have allowed the families of the nearly 3,000 people slaughtered by radical Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001, the opportunity to seek justice in an American court of law.” Trump added he would approve the controversial legislation if he were occupying the White House instead of Obama. “That President Obama would deny the parents, spouses, and children of those we lost on that horrific day the chance to close this painful chapter in their lives is a disgrace,” the GOP’s presidential nominee said.

slaughtered

Islamic terrorists

3,000 people


Input: Others have even urged him to step down. What will his deeply religious, conservative running mate Mike Pence Mike (Michael) Richard PenceDems threaten to gum up Senate over ' secret ' ObamaCare bill This week: Senate plots path on healthcare Pence family adopts new kitten, puppy MORE do? GOP Speaker Paul Ryan Paul RyanRepublicans and the lost promise of local control in education Ryan seeks manufacturing muscle for tax push Overnight Finance: Ryan seeks manufacturing muscle for tax reform | Warren targets Wells Fargo board | Senators raise concerns over Russian takeover of Citgo | Pelosi hits GOP for budget delays MORE said he was sickened by what he heard from Trump, saying women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. But curiously, he gives Trump an out by also saying “he hopes Mr. Trump will work to demonstrate that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.” Overnight, we got a Trump apology.

promise

RyanRepublicans

education


Input: Isis insists that women be fully veiled, wear loose or baggy trousers, socks and gloves, and be accompanied by a male relative whenever they step outside their homes. Fatima said that a month after the use of this metal tool to punish her sister “the bruises and scars are still visible on her arm.” She quoted her sister as saying that “the biting punishment is more painful than labour pains.” Other witnesses describe the Biter as operating like an animal trap, or a metal jaw with teeth that cut into the flesh. It is difficult and dangerous to escape from Mosul, which Isis has held since capturing it from the Iraqi army in June 2014. But people from the city, who have had themselves smuggled across the border to Syria and then to Kurdish-controlled territory known as Rojava in the past two months, all confirm that living conditions have deteriorated sharply. There are serious shortages of almost everything including food, fuel, water and electricity.

capturing

Isis

Iraqi army

Mosul


Input: He gives this interview at a time when he is now talking about retaking the entire country and winning the war, just four days before peace talks are due to be renewed in Geneva and with it not yet known whether a ceasefire announced by the United States and Russia on February 12 will have an effect after the deadline to implement it expired on Friday without success. He says that his next mission is to pursue Islamic State (ISIS) in the heart of its operations, in its self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa. “The embargo is not on the Syrian government, it is against the Syrian people” The Syrian president tells the refugees that they can return to the country without fear of reprisals and accuses the Islamist governments of Qatar and Turkey of having promoted the war in Syria – a stage on which, he admits, not only the interests of a state are being measured, but also those of an entire region, with Saudi Arabia and Iran as powers in the conflict. Question.

embargo

Syrian people

Syrian