Report: Marine population decreasing
WWF International reports that sea mammals, birds, reptiles and fish are decreasing in numbers at an alarming rate. A study says some species people rely on for food are faring even worse, noting a 74% drop in the populations of tuna and mackerel. The report says that sea cucumbers which are a luxury food have seen a significant fall in numbers, ranging between 94% and 98%. The findings are mostly attributed to human activity such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change. The study notes the decline of habitats such as sea grass areas and mangrove cover which are important for food and act as a nursery for many species. Director General Lambertini:
Human activity has severely damaged the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce while also destroying their nurseries.
Identifies two refugee islands
Sawiris says he has identified two Greek islands that could be used to host Syrian refugees. He says talks would depend on whether the owners can secure approval from the Greek government. Ne also suggests setting up a joint-stock company with a capital of $100 million, to ensure that any money invested “will not be completely lost, as the asset (the island) will remain.”
Five month’s emails missing
Judicial Watch President Fitton says mails sent by Clinton and received from her on a private server are missing over periods totaling five months, beginning when she took office as secretary of state in February 2009. Fittons suggests Clinton lied under oath when she said all her emails had been turned over and it suggested government officials had not turned over everything they were required to deliver. Fitton says other State Department officials, including the one in charge of email production, Patrick Kennedy, previously had been informed of the five-month gap.
Returns to work
Davis gives a statement as she returns to work, saying that any licenses issued by her office, with or without her name on the form, would be “unauthorized.”
If any [deputy clerk] feels that they must issue an unauthorized license to avoid being thrown in jail, I understand their tough choice, and I will take no action against them. However, any unauthorized license that they issue will not have my name, my title or my authority on it. Instead, the license will state that they are issued pursuant to a federal court order.
Davis continued to ask for an accommodation for her religious beliefs against having to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
[Having my name on the marriage certificate, whether I sign it or not] authorizes marriage that conflicts with God’s definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman [and] violates my deeply-held religious convictions and conscience. For me, this would be an act of disobedience to my God. I don’t want to have this conflict. I don’t want to be in the spotlight, and I certainly don’t want to be a whipping post; I am no hero. I just want to serve my neighbors quietly without violating my conscience.
Saves puppy
Johnson describes how he saved his puppy when it could not swim in the pool.
https://instagram.com/p/7WKo6fIh2Y/
Wants to meet Putin over gay rights
In an interview with the BBC while in Ukraine, John says he wants to meet Putin to discuss gay rights. Discussing how Putin has said that gays target children:
Give me a break. You are President of Russia, and you go and say stupid things like that?..I would like to meet [Putin]…It’s probably pie in the sky… He may laugh behind my back when he shuts the door, and call me an absolute idiot, but at least I can think I have the conscience to say I tried.
Removes Cosby’s name from building
Central State University in Wilberforce, OH, says the Camille O. & William H. Cosby Communications Center has been renamed the CSU Communications Center. The school had been temporarily covering Cosby’s name since July while it made a final decision. The Cosby family has donated more than $2 million to the university.
Wants Frascatore fired
Blake says that Frascatore should be fired.
I don’t think this person should ever have a badge or a gun again…I don’t think it’s too much to ask…I think that that kind of police officer tarnishes the badge, which I have the utmost respect for and I believe that the majority of police officers do great work and they’re heroes. So this person doesn’t ever belong in the same sentence with the heroes that are doing the right kind of police work and keeping the public safe…I’m sure this isn’t the first time police brutality has happened and I’m sure it’s not the last time. So I want them to apologize to the people that this happens to that don’t have the same voice that I have.”
No indication server was ‘wiped’
Platte River Networks says that even though Clinton deleted her emails form the server, the server itself was not wiped of data. The statement indicates that 31,000 personal e-mails that Clinton has said were deleted could be recovered. Company:
Platte River has no knowledge of the server being wiped. All the information we have is that the server wasn’t wiped.
Tonight Show interview
Trump is interviewed by Fallon on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. On talking without notes:
I’m blessed with a great memory. If you’re reading a speech, it’s much easier, but you don’t get the feeling. When you do it just off the cuff, it’s a riskier thing, but when you get it right, it’s a thing of beauty.
On Kanye West:
Kanye has been so nice to me. He always says great things to me, so I love Kanye. I love people who are nice to me. Kanye is actually, I know him a little bit, he’s actually a much nicer person than people think. Now if he happens to run for office, and I’m running against him, I’m gonna take that back.
Will deport immigrants within two years
In a call to Alabama Republicans Trump says it will take 18 months to two years to get 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to leave the country, and that he would then build a wall running along the border with Mexico. Trump says his two year benchmark could be met with “really good management.”
We have to get them out. If we have wonderful cases, they can come back in but they have to come back in legally.
Trump also criticizes Ben Carson:
It wouldn’t work for him because he has absolutely no management capability.
Crew Dragon capsule images
The company releases interior photos of the Dragon Crew spacecraft, as well as a video showing closeups of its control panels and crew seats. The capsule seats seven and is fitted out with carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth. Video displays in front of the seats will provide information to the astronauts about the vehicle’s position in space and the environment on board.
Fiorina ‘face’ comments made as ‘entertainer’
In an interview with Susteren, Trump says that his comments about Carly Fiorina and other women were made “as an entertainer.”
Many of those comments are made as an entertainer, because I did The Apprentice. It was one of the top shows on television. I decided not to do it again because I wanted to run for president. But some comments are made as an entertainer. And, as everybody said, as an entertainer [it] is a much different ballgame.
Homo naledi announcement
Two years after a tip off by cavers who found bones in limestone tunnels in the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg, Berger and his team announce the discovery of a new species of human relative, Homo naledi, that appears to have buried its dead. Berger’s team comes up with the theory a few days after reaching an isolated chamber where the fossils — consisting of infants, children, adults and elderly individuals — were found. Homo naledi stood about five feet tall, had long legs, and its feet are almost identical to humans, although its fingers are longer and curved.
There is no damage from predators, there is no sign of a catastrophe. We had to come to the inevitable conclusion that Homo naledi, a non-human species of hominid, was deliberately disposing of its dead in that dark chamber. Why, we don’t know. Until the moment of discovery of ‘naledi,’ I would have probably said to you that it was our defining character. The idea of burial of the dead or ritualized body disposal is something utterly uniquely human. We have just encountered another species that perhaps thought about its own mortality, and went to great risk and effort to dispose of its dead in a deep, remote, chamber right behind us. It absolutely questions what makes us human. And I don’t think we know anymore what does.
Calls Palin ‘a clown’
After sharing the stage with her at an anti-Iran nuclear rally in Washington, D.C, Glenn Beck says:
I’m going to say it. I don’t care what Sarah Palin says any more. Sarah Palin has become a clown. I’m embarrassed that I was once for Sarah Palin. Honestly, I’m embarrassed… I don’t know who she is any more, I don’t know what she stands for. I saw a clip of her talking to Donald Trump. What the hell is that? I don’t even know who she is any more.
Heckled on Late Show
Kalanick appears on the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The interview is interrupted by two protesters in the upper balcony, who accuse Kalanick of destroying taxi-industry jobs. The heckers are cut from the aired segment. Audience member:
Two separate times during the interview with Uber guy, some cabbies in the balcony yelled stuff and interrupted the conversation. They were criticizing Uber’s disruption of the NYC cab system, and they were very aggressive and made everyone rather uncomfortable. I mean, I don’t blame them, their argument is valid. But I initially thought it was a bit, but the crew started looking around frantically. Instead of having the men removed, Stephen acted with complete respect and control. He listened intently to what they had to say.When the guy finished, Stephen said that he was planning on asking a similar question, and politely asked the man to be seated. He then turned back to the interview and addressed exactly what the man had yelled about. It was very smooth. The whole thing was cut, tho. Then five minutes later, another man got up and yelled something else. The Uber guy started to talk back to him, but Stephen calmly touched his arm and quieted both him and the cab driver in the balcony. He said that he would ask the man’s question “in a more respectful way”. Then he again respectfully asked the man to sit down, and he asked exactly what the man had yelled about. Very, very smooth transition.
Fiorina comments ‘about persona’
In a call to The View, Trump says his comments in Rolling Stone about Carly Fiorina were about her persona.
Look, I’m talking about her persona. She failed miserably at Hewlett Packard and ran for the Senate and lost in a landslide and now running for president. I’m talking about her persona.
Later, to CNN, he calls her “one of the worst (CEOs) ever”.
Official campaign announcement
McAfee releases his official campaign announcement video.
It is near certain that the authors of The Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address — texts of agonizing beauty in the face of today’s harsh realities — could not have anticipated a world in which spy cameras are hidden in cactuses; the government surreptitiously parses our verbal communications; and the concept of privacy is fast approaching extinction. They could not have anticipated a world in which information is the prime commodity of exchange, at the expense of grace, compassion, solitude, and the remaining fragile components of the besieged human heart. What they did anticipate is that governments, no matter how powerful, will always hunger for more power, and that power inevitably corrupts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=5&v=4-ZZw5vylx4
Attacks Carson
In an interview with Cuomo on CNN, Trump criticizes Carson’s medical experience.
He makes [Jeb Bush] look like the Energizer Bunny…But Ben Carson, you look at this faith and I don’t think you are going to find so much. And you look at his views on abortion, which were horrendous…Who is he to criticize me on my faith? He was a doctor, perhaps an okay doctor, by the way. You can check that out too. He was an okay doctor, and now because he’s a doctor and he hired one nurse he’s going to be end up being the president of the United States?
Jindal attacks Trump
Jindal attacks Trump in a series of interviews.
We know that Mr. Trump has not read the Bible, and we know this for a simple reason: Donald Trump is not in the Bible. So we know he has not read it.
In reference to Trump’s’ comments on Carly Fiorina:
I think it’s pretty outrageous for him to be attacking anybody’s appearance. He looks like he’s got a squirrel on his head.
