Новости за 20.02.2018

A new poll by Quinnipiac University published Tuesday found that a stunning majority of Americans are in favor of more stringent gun laws. A whopping 97 percent of all respondents said they were in favor of universal background checks on all gun purchases, while 67 percent of all respondents said they were in favor of banning sales of assault weapons.

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg, 18, blasted Donald Trump Jr. as "immature, rude, and inhumane" after the president's eldest son "liked" conspiracy theories on Twitter that allege Hogg had been fed talking points by his father, who is a former FBI agent. Hogg movingly called for Congress to act to stop gun violence last week, looking into CNN's cameras directly and insisting: "Without action, ideas stay ideas and children die."

A report published Tuesday by UNICEF found that every year, 1 million newborn babies do not live past their first day. The report also found that 2.6 million babies die before they have lived even a month.

In an interview Tuesday with India's CNBC TV18, Donald Trump Jr. praised the "spirit" of people living in poverty in India. The eldest son of President Trump made the remarks during a press tour promoting luxury Trump Tower apartments being built in New Delhi.

A member of Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish School Board said Tuesday that he is "saddened by the misplaced reaction" to a disturbing meme he posted on Facebook featuring a noose and the text "if we want to make American great again, we will have to make evil people fear punishment again," The Advocate reports.

Our eyeballs apparently contain information that could revolutionize cardiovascular medicine.

Human rights monitors report that nearly 200 people have been killed in the rebel-held region of Eastern Ghouta, Syria, in the past 48 hours, with Monday marking the bloodiest single day since an alleged chemical attack in the region in 2015, CNN reports. "What is a greater terrorism than killing civilians with all sorts of weapons?" one doctor working in the region asked The Guardian. "Is this a war? It's not a war. It's called a massacre."

CNN's Chris Cuomo was barely able to mask his outrage during an interview Tuesday with Republican House candidate Tyler Tannahill, who has refused to suspend his campaign's AR-15 giveaway contest even after the same weapon was used to kill 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school last week. "Help me understand, brother," Cuomo said. "Why, after this, would you want to give away the same weapon used to kill all those kids?"

President Trump had a very busy Tuesday morning — on Twitter, that is.

Press coverage of President Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has often taken the form of a study in contrasts. Kelly is disciplined, orderly, no-nonsense. Trump is impetuous, chaotic, and often nonsensical. Kelly is portrayed not as a Trump enthusiast like policy adviser Stephen Miller, but as a "studiously apolitical" career soldier shouldering the grim duty of taming Trump.

On Tuesday, CNN's Alisyn Camerota had some questions for former Republican Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), who questioned the authenticity of the students who survived last week's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the wake of the shooting — in which 17 people were killed by a 19-year-old wielding a semiautomatic weapon — students across the country have planned anti-gun demonstrations, which Kingston suggested over the weekend was the nefarious work of "left-wing gun control activists.”

On Tuesday... Читать дальше...

In 2012, the government of Dallas struck a deal with the National Rifle Association (NRA): If the organization would host its 2018 annual convention at the city-owned Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, it could rent the space for free. City Hall would offer a $22,840 discount, and the city's tourism bureau would cover the rest, about $387,000. In exchange, Dallas expected city businesses to rake in some $42 million from around 75,000 convention attendees.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has filed charges against lawyer Alex Van der Zwaan, who is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to lying about an interaction with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, the longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, CNN reports. Van der Zwaan is also accused of willfully failing to turn over an email communication that was requested by the special counsel's office.

In the wake of the Florida high school shooting, which left 17 students and teachers dead last week, President Trump has called for tackling "the difficult issue of mental health." His focus has received sharp criticism from experts, including The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik, who writes that Trump's calls say "nothing" because "every country contains mentally ill and potentially violent people. Only America arms them."

It's a familiar story by this point — a powerful lawmaker is accused of groping aides and making sexually inappropriate comments, denies the allegations, faces more corroborated accusations — but this time there's a little twist: She's a fairly prominent voice in the #MeToo movement, featured in Time's "The Silence Breakers" spread. After the second batch of allegations surfaced last week, California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D) took voluntary unpaid leave while the state legislature investigates the sexual harassment allegations. Читать дальше...

The majority of Americans at the prime age to serve in the armed forces are actually ineligible due to obesity, health concerns, education, or criminal records, Politico reports. In total, almost three-quarters of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are not fit to serve, putting a damper on the Trump administration's plans to beef up the armed forces.

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Rite Aid shares soared 23 percent higher in pre-market trading on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported supermarket chain Albertsons was in talks to buy the remainder of Rite Aid not being sold to Walgreens. The partnership would create a company with revenue of $83 billion, and help Idaho-based Albertsons confront increasing competition from Whole Foods owner Amazon. The proposed cash-and-stock deal would give Albertsons shareholders 71 percent of the combined company, with the rest going to Rite Aid investors... Читать дальше...

Russian bots took advantage of America's divisions over gun control and the Second Amendment within an hour of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last week, The New York Times reports.

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President Trump, facing intense pressure to back gun control measures after the Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead, is open to legislation to "improve the federal background check system," the White House said Monday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had spoken to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) to express support for the bill introduced by Cornyn and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) seeking to reinforce requirements on federal agencies to report all criminal... Читать дальше...

There were a lot of stories wrapped into the ice dancing finals on Tuesday at the Winter Olympics in South Korea: French couple Gabriella Padadakis and Guillaume Cizeron scored a record-high 123.35 in their free dance, winning the silver medal despite Padadakis' live wardrobe malfunction during Monday's short program; American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani took the bronze, beating U.S. national champs Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donahue while the third U.S. pair, Madison Chock and Evan Bates... Читать дальше...

When President Trump tweeted about "being, like, really smart," many people took the "like" as evidence to the contrary. It's, like, a meaningless word that brainless people stuff into sentences! A fad among the younglings! As noted grammarian Robert Burchfield wrote, "Its use as an incoherent and prevalent filler" has become "an epidemic," but it is "scorned by standard speakers as a vulgarism of the first order."

1. Chill Sack Beanbag Chair ($380)

A person could get lost in a beanbag chair that's 8 feet across. So add a friend — or two — and sink in. The filling is shredded memory foam, keeping the chair at a weight that won't buckle the floorboards. Buy it at Amazon.

2. Ergonomic Couch Bowl ($35 for two)

Fill your next bowl of Froot Loops right to the top. This handmade ceramic bowl is designed to be held in one hand, with an indented base and thumb notch to improve grip. Buy it at Uncommon Goods. Читать дальше...

The extent to which the presidential campaign of Donald Trump was aware of (and perhaps even colluded with) the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 election remains uncertain. But that the Russian government did interfere with the 2016 election is not.

It's an uncomfortable fact that at the very moment the #MeToo movement advocates for equal treatment in the workplace, women are rushing to theaters to watch the final movie of the Fifty Shades trilogy, in which the female protagonist happily marries her obsessive stalker-cum-employer.

The most notorious government agency under the Trump presidency is surely U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The president may not be able to build his wall, but he can turn a horde of goons loose on America's schools, churches, and homes.