Watch: U.S. Navy Warship Successfully Destroys Aircraft Mid-Flight With High-Energy Laser Weapon

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Video shows a U.S. Navy warship successfully shot down an aircraft out of the sky using a high-energy laser weapon. The USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship of the United States Navy based out of San Diego, used a high-energy class solid-state laser to destroy a drone mid-flight.

“Amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) successfully disabled an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) MK 2 MOD 0 on May 16,” the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Friday.

The Navy said that the test was the “first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser.” The 150-kilowatt weapon system has three lasers that were developed by Northrup Grumman.

“By conducting advanced at sea tests against UAVs and small crafts, we will gain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats,” Capt. Karrey Sanders, commanding officer of Portland, said.

(Read more from “Watch: U.S. Navy Warship Successfully Destroys Aircraft Mid-Flight With High-Energy Laser Weapon” HERE)

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Democrats Just Announced Their New Plan to Impeach President Trump

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By CNN. The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Monday told the Supreme Court that the House needs secret Mueller grand jury materials to determine if there is new evidence of impeachable offenses involving President Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee has been attempting obtain the documents prosecutors collected from witnesses about Trump in a back-and-forth legal fight that’s now reached the Supreme Court.

“The Committee’s impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing,” Douglas Letter, the House general counsel, said in a court filing Monday.

“If this material reveals new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses,” Letter said, “the Committee will proceed accordingly — including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment.” (Read more from “Democrats Just Announced Their New Plan to Impeach President Trump” HERE)

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Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President

By Washington Times. Bill Maher, one of President Trump’s fiercest critics on cable television, voiced regret Friday over Congress having conducted the impeachment proceedings he previously championed.

“Impeachment turned out to be a horrible thing,” the liberal comic said during the latest episode of his weekly HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

“If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t, because it just emboldened him,” Mr. Maher said about impeaching Mr. Trump.

Mr. Maher, 64, made the remarks while discussing the president’s recent firing of five inspectors general who had been tasked with conducting oversight of the Trump administration.

Calling it a “war on accountability,” Mr. Maher said the president removed the watchdogs without making too much noise by acting while the media was focused on COVID-19, the contagious disease responsible for the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 100,000 lives across the country and counting. (Read more from “Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President” HERE)

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Biden Denies Fraud in Mail-In Voting: ‘No Evidence Whatsoever’; GOP Groups Sue California Governor, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab’

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By Breitbart. Sunday on WISN’s “Up Front,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said there was “no evidence whatsoever” that mail-in voting is fraud-ridden. . .

Biden said, “I will tell you what, you mean Trump fraud? Look, he’s sitting in the White House filling out absentee ballots to vote in a primary in Florida. Now, why is it not fraud when he does it, and anyone else would do it? There’s no evidence whatsoever.” (Read more from “Biden Denies Fraud in Mail-In Voting: ‘No Evidence Whatsoever'” HERE)

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GOP Groups Sue California Gov. Newsom, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab’

By Fox News. The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party sued Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Sunday, claiming an executive order sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters in the state is an “illegal power grab” that invites potential fraud.

Newsom’s order, aimed at allowing voters to avoid exposure to coronavirus, will send ballots to all registered voters including inactive voters. This has led to concerns that ballots sent to people who have moved or died will end up being filled out and submitted anyway unless voter rolls are inspected and cleaned out before ballots are mailed. Many Republicans have expressed concern that Democrats could try using these ballots improperly, to swing races in their favor.

“In a direct usurpation of the legislature’s authority, Governor Newsom issued an executive order purporting to rewrite the entire election code for the November 2020 election cycle,” read the complaint, filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. “This brazen power grab was not authorized by state law and violates both the Elections Clause and Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

The lawsuit claimed Newsom “has created a recipe for disaster” by ordering ballots be sent to everyone registered to vote including inactive voters, arguing that “it invites fraud.” The Republicans also claimed that by giving Newsom the sole power over determining where and if in-person voting will take place, it will lead to “arbitrary and disparate treatment of individual voters,” violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

As examples of potential foul play, the complaint noted that mailed ballots easily could be intercepted by the wrong parties if they’re mistakenly sent to the wrong addresses or if the recipients lived in large residential buildings. Additionally, the Republicans wrote, voters could be susceptible to pressure from others when voting outside the private, secret confines of a voting booth. (Read more from “GOP Groups Sue California Gov. Newsom, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab'” HERE)

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Report: Texas Naval Base Jihadi Secured U.S. Citizenship Despite Living in Syria

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An accused terrorist who allegedly opened fire on United States Navy personnel in Corpus Christi, Texas, was able to secure American citizenship through a little-known immigration loophole, a former intelligence agent states. . .

The Center for Immigration Studies’ Todd Bensman, a former intelligence agent, reports that Alsahi was able to secure American citizenship through a little-known immigration loophole that depended on his father’s naturalized citizenship:

Adam Alsahli, 20 at the time of his death Thursday, was already a U.S. citizen when he moved from the Middle East to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2014 with his mother (and likely several siblings) at the height of the Syrian civil war, by virtue of his father’s American citizenship, according to two sources familiar with the family’s immigration status. The attacker’s 75-year-old father, Salim Alsahli, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1984, the sources told CIS, and subsequently seems to have sired a family back in Syria that included Adam Alsahli’s birth in 1999. [Emphasis added]

Although his children and their mother were born in and resided in the Middle East, the father’s U.S. citizenship conferred U.S. citizenship on Adam Alsahli, since he properly registered a declaration at a U.S. embassy or consulate office overseas. That apparently happened with Adam Alsahli because by the age of three, in the year 2002, [Alsahli] was granted an American passport that was repeatedly renewed over the years, sources said. [Emphasis added]

In 2014, at the height of the civil war inside Syria, Adam and at least his mother moved to the United States. The mother is currently a legal permanent resident who has a pending application for U.S. citizenship, the sources said. [Emphasis added]

(Read more from “Report: Texas Naval Base Jihadi Secured U.S. Citizenship Despite Living in Syria” HERE)

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Trump Suspends Travel From Brazil

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President Donald Trump is suspending travel from Brazil to the U.S. as the coronavirus pandemic worsens in Latin America’s largest nation and economy.

The president’s order, published Sunday, denies entry to “all aliens” who were in Brazil two weeks prior to their attempted entry into the United States. The order takes effect May 28 at 11:59 pm ET.

Brazil has rapidly become one of the hardest hit countries in the world as the World Health Organization warns that the epicenter of the pandemic has shifted from Europe and the U.S. to South America. . .

Brazil has more than 347,000 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 22,013 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At this point only the United States is harder hit in terms of total positive cases. (Read more from “Trump Suspends Travel From Brazil” HERE)

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MUST WATCH: Biden Says ‘You Ain’t Black’ If You Can’t Decide Between Him and Trump

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By National Review. Joe Biden said in a Friday interview that a black voter who can’t decide between him and President Trump in the 2020 elections isn’t really black.

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden told radio DJ Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club. (The comments come at around the 17:15 mark.)

“It don’t have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact — I want something for my community,” Charlamagne responded.

The comments came after Biden said his campaign was looking into “multiple” African-American women to pick as his running mate.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Republican African American senator currently in office, slammed Biden’s remarks. (Read more from “Biden: ‘You Ain’t Black’ If You Can’t Decide Between Me and Trump” HERE)

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Joe Biden Expresses Regret Over ‘You Ain’t Black’ Comments: ‘I Shouldn’t Have Been so Cavalier’

By Fox News. Joe Biden expressed regret Friday during a call with black business leaders for suggesting in an earlier interview that African-Americans unsure about whether to support him or President Trump “ain’t black.”

“I shouldn’t have been so cavalier,” Biden said in an afternoon phone call with the U.S. Black Chambers, addressing the controversy within seconds of the session starting.

The public attempt to walk back the remarks underscored how explosive the issue became for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign in a matter of hours, at a time when he’s working to unite the party and avoid the kind of internal divisions that helped Trump win in 2016.

Biden said he understands the comments sounded like he was taking the black vote “for granted” but insisted that wasn’t the case.

“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” Biden said. “… No one should have to vote for any party, based on their race or religion or background.” (Read more from “Joe Biden Expresses Regret Over ‘You Ain’t Black’ Comments: ‘I Shouldn’t Have Been so Cavalier'” HERE)

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1 in 5 Adults Think the Coronavirus Is a Hoax; COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.

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By NPR. About 1 in 5 adults in England believe the coronavirus is to some extent a hoax, according to research on conspiracy theories by the University of Oxford.

In addition, researchers found nearly 3 out of 5 adults in England believe the government is misleading them to some extent about the cause of the virus, and nearly 1 in 10 strongly agree that China developed the coronavirus to destroy the West — which is utterly false. . .

The research was based on surveys of 2,500 adults earlier this month and published in the journal, Psychological Medicine.

Lead researcher and psychology professor Daniel Freeman said the pandemic has the necessary ingredients to fuel conspiracy theories, including sustained threat and enforced change. He added that those who believe conspiracy theories are less likely to follow government guidance designed to save lives. (Read more from “1 in 5 Adults Think the Coronavirus Is a Hoax” HERE)

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COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.

By NBC News. The United States plans a massive testing effort involving more than 100,000 volunteers and a half dozen or so of the most promising vaccine candidates in an effort to deliver a safe and effective one by the end of 2020, scientists leading the program told Reuters.

The project will compress what is typically 10 years of vaccine development and testing into a matter of months, testimony to the urgency to halt a pandemic that has infected more than 5 million people, killed over 335,000 and battered economies worldwide.

To get there, leading vaccine makers have agreed to share data and lend the use of their clinical trial networks to competitors should their own candidate fail, the scientists said.

Candidates that demonstrate safety in small early studies will be tested in huge trials of 20,000 to 30,000 subjects for each vaccine, slated to start in July. (Read more from “COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.” HERE)

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U.S. Billionaires Got $434 Billion Richer Since Coronavirus Pandemic Began

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Even as the coronavirus pandemic plunges the U.S. economy into the worst downturn since the Great Depression, some of the wealthiest Americans have seen their collective fortunes increase exponentially, according to a new report.

U.S. billionaires’ wealth has grown by $434 billion since March 18, when the majority of the nation shut down to slow the spread of the virus, findings from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality show. The report, released Thursday, is based on Forbes data for America’s more than 600 billionaires. . .

The five wealthiest Americans — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Elison — saw their combined fortune surge by $75.5 billion, or roughly 19 percent. Together, they represent about 21 percent of the total wealth growth of all 600 billionaires in the last two months.

The combined net worths of Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, grew by nearly $60 billion, or 14 percent of the $434 billion.

With millions of Americans stuck at home in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, consumers are increasingly relying on technology for basic needs like groceries. (Read more from “U.S. Billionaires Got $434 Billion Richer Since Coronavirus Pandemic Began” HERE)

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Pastor Urging Nationwide Reopen to Preach at Church Met With Chicago ‘Thuggery’

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The pastor urging churches nationwide to reopen in defiance of coronavirus shutdown orders is traveling to Chicago this Sunday to stand with a church the city fined $500 for holding service this week.

Brian Gibson, pastor of His Church, a megachurch with locations in Owensboro, Ky., and Amarillo, Texas, is going to Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, one of three the city fined for violating Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order, according to the Chicago Police Department. . .

His Church pastor points out Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “double standard” for getting a haircut, but then using government force to block church parking lots and fine congregations: “There’s a ruling caste and you are peasants,” the pastor characterized her actions.

“This is a refugee population that came here from a totalitarian government, had no religious liberties … and what do they find when they get in Chicago?” Gibson added. “They find thuggery, they shut down the streets around their church. These people are harassed … It’s un-American. It’s unacceptable. This is not Romania. This is not China … This is America. . .

Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman representing Elim and Logos Baptist Ministries, also slammed the governor and mayor’s actions as being “reminiscent of mob-like thuggery.” (Read more from “Pastor Urging Nationwide Reopen to Preach at Church Met With Chicago ‘Thuggery'” HERE)

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China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status

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China’s statistics agency acknowledged that as early as 2017 the nation’s economy was larger than that of the United States when measured by purchasing power, but it has insisted it remains a “developing country” as per capita output is still only 85 per cent of the average global level.

The World Bank released its new purchasing power parities (PPPs) report for 2017 this week, which showed that China’s PPP-based gross domestic product (GDP) stood at US$19.617 trillion in 2017, while the United States’ GDP was US$19.519 trillion.

The calculation of GDP by purchasing power, using the price of a common basket of goods and services, instead of using the US dollar, provides a more accurate basis to compare economic development levels. If measured by the US dollar, China’s GDP was about US$12 trillion in 2017 and US$14 trillion in 2019, which was still below the US.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said China’s number one ranking in PPP-based GDP does not change the fact it remains “the world’s largest developing country”.

Xu Xianchun, a former deputy head of the NBS, published an article on the agency’s website on Tuesday saying that the World Bank study had overestimated China’s economic might. (Read more from “China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status” HERE)

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