Court: case had ‘stunning’ flaws
Italy’s top criminal court issues a 52-page legal motivazioni, explaining why it threw out Knox and Sollecito’s murder case in March. The five-person panel says they did so in part because there was a lack of biological traces and that there was no proof Knox and Sollecito were in the bedroom where Kercher was fatally stabbed.
[The trial] had oscillations which were the result of stunning flaws, or amnesia, in the investigation and omissions in the investigative activity.
Knox:
I am deeply grateful that the Italian Supreme Court has filed its opinion and forcefully declared my innocence. This has been a long struggle for me, my family, my friends, and my supporters. While I am glad it is now over, I will remain forever grateful to the many individuals who gave their time and talents to help me. [I will] now begin the rest of my life with one of my goals being to help others who have been wrongfully accused.
James Bond theme song hint
Smith posts a black-and-white photo of a hand wearing a ring emblazoned with Spectre‘s Octopus logo, a hint that he will sing the theme song for the upcoming James Bond film.
https://instagram.com/p/7VWisvR2Vl/
Breaks silence, resumes work
In his first interview, Palmer says he will return to work after Labor Day,
I have a lot of staff members, and I’m a little heartbroken at the disruption in their lives. And I’m a health professional. I need to get back to my staff and my patients, and they want me back. That’s why I’m back.
He claims he has not been in hiding.
I’ve been out of the public eye seeing family and friends. This has been especially hard on my wife and my daughter. They’ve been threatened in the social media, and again … I don’t understand that level of humanity to come after people not involved at all.
He also says he would not have killed Cecil if he had known more:
If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study, obviously I wouldn’t have taken it. Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion.
Will not allow Israel to be ‘submerged’ by refugees
Netanyahu rejects calls by Mahmoud Abbas and opposition leader Isaac Herzog to let more Syrian refugees enter Israel, and says that a 30-kilometre fence will be constructed across the Jordan border.
We will not allow Israel to be submerged by a wave of illegal migrants and terrorist activists. Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of Syrian and African refugees… but Israel is a small country — very small — without demographic or geographic depth. That is why we must control our borders.
Supports Iran deal
Powell says on Meet the Press that he has looked carefully at the arguments for and against the Iran deal.
My judgment after balancing those two sets of information. is that it’s a pretty good deal. The great concern from the opposition is that we’re leaving open a lane for Iran to create a nuclear weapon in 10 to 15 years. [But] the reality is that they have been on a super highway for the last 10 years to create a nuclear weapon — with no speed limit. I say, we have a deal, let’s see how they implement the deal. If they don’t implement it, bail out. None of our options are gone…Even if we were to kill the deal — which is not going to happen…it’s going to take effect anyway, because all of these other countries that were in it with us are going to move forward.
State of the Union interview
Plain talks to Tapper on CNN’s State of The Union about Alaska, Trump, and being the parent of a Down’s Syndrome child. Referring to Trump’s interview with Hugh Hewitt:
I think I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit. But I don’t think the public gives a flying flip if somebody knows who, today, is a specific leader of a specific region or a religion or anything.
She also says she’d be interested in the position of Energy Secretary
I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations…I’d get rid of (the Energy Department). And I’d let the states start having more control over the lands that are within their boundaries and the people who are affected by the developments within their states. If I were in charge of that, it would be a short-term job, but it would be … really great to have someone who knows energy and is pro-responsible development to be in charge.
Says European parishes should host migrant families
Francis says that every European parish and religious community should take in one migrant family each in a gesture of solidarity he said would start in the Vatican state. There are more han 25,000 parishes in Italy, and more than 12,000 in Germany. The Vatican’s two parishes will take in two families.
I appeal to the parishes, the religious communities, the monasteries and sanctuaries of all Europe to … take in one family of refugees…Every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe, take in one family.
Austria and Germany open borders
Germany opens borders to thousands of refugees from Hungary. About 4,300 people arrive in Germany, escaping Syria and Iraq. Austria says it received at least 6,500 refugees and migrants who flooded across the Hungarian border, where charity workers provided hospitality and much-needed bedding and food. Merkel:
The right to political asylum has no limits on the number of asylum seekers. As a strong, economically healthy country we have the strength to do what is necessary.
Paid staffer to maintain private email server
After a campaign appearance in New Hampshire, Clinton says she and her family paid State Department technology specialist Pagliano to maintain her private email server. The Clintons paid Pagliano $5,000 for computer services before he joined the State Department, and after he joined. A campaign official says the arrangement with Pagliano ensured that taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server. Clinton:
With respect to personal services that he provided to me and my family, we obviously paid for those services and did so because, during a period of time, we continued to need his technical assistance. And I think that’s in the public record.
Campaign spokesman:
Bryan was hired by the Clinton family as a consultant in order to help out periodically with the management of the system in Chappaqua that hosted the family’s emails.
Offers to buy island for refugees
Sawiris says “there is no limit” on what he is willing to spend to buy an island from Italy or Greece to provide 100,000 to 200,000 refugees with a new home. He says the new country could be called “Hope.” He says people would be free to return home at any time or stay on the island. Greek and Italian officials were not available to comment on the proposal.
It’s a very simple solution. They sell the island to me and I’ll make a temporary shelter for these people. I’ll make a small port or marina for the boats to land there. I’ll employ the people to build their own homes, their schools, a hospital, a university, a hotel. I sometimes think the politicians don’t have a heart. All I need is the permission to put these people on this island. After that I don’t need anything anymore from them. I’ll pay them for the island, I’ll provide the jobs, I’ll take care of all the logistics. I know I can do that.
In Style interview
In an interview with InStyle magazine Ratajkowski says that she is tired of people talking about her appearance in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video.
[Whenever] anyone comes up to me about Blurred Lines, I’m like, ‘Are we seriously talking about a video from three years ago?’
She adds that she does not see why a “woman’s naked body is so controversial in our culture”.
My mum taught me to never apologize for my sexuality. My dad never made me feel embarrassed. I also don’t think I’ve ever had an awareness of my own body as being super-sexual. It was always just my body.
Product Hunt AMA
Horowitz hosts an AMA on Product Hunt. On his mentors:
At this point in my life, I would probably refer to them as friends rather than mentors. Bill Campbell and Andy Grove are probably the two that I have learned the most from. Andy’s whole life is a great lesson in how I should live mine. The way that Bill listens to people is so advanced that I learn something every time I’m with him. There are other people on other fields. Like Nas. Nas has the ability to see the world in such a radically different perspective. We can listen to the same song and he’ll hear 30 things that I didn’t.
On a Silicon Valley bubble:
Having been CEO in 2001, I don’t think that we’re anywhere near where we were then. Valuations have gotten high in certain tech sectors in the private markets only, but they have actually corrected themselves pretty quickly. For example, enterprise software started to get over valued privately, but after several companies went public at lower valuations than their last private rounds, the private markets corrected as well. I don’t see a massive crash on the horizon like 2001. In 2001, Nasdaq lost 80% of its value. I’ll bet any bubble believer everything that I have that Nasdaq won’t drop 80% in the next 5 years.
Breaks Spotify record
Bieber’s What Do You Mean? breaks the record for biggest first week on Spotify, with more than 21 million globally listens., even though only five days have passed. The previous record — 20 million streams — was set last month by One Direction for Drag Me Down. The company says Bieber had a spike in streams after he performed at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Hugh Hewitt Show interview
Trump appears on Hewitt’s radio show. He appears to mishear “Quds” as “Kurds” and complains of gotcha questions:
Hewitt: On the front of Islamist terrorism, I’m looking for the next commander-in-chief, to know who Hassan Nasrallah is, and Zawahiri, and al-Julani, and al-Baghdadi. Do you know the players without a scorecard, yet, Donald Trump?
Trump: No, you know, I’ll tell you honestly, I think by the time we get to office, they’ll all be changed. They’ll be all gone. I knew you were going to ask me things like this, and there’s no reason, because number one, I’ll find, I will hopefully find General Douglas MacArthur in the pack. I will find whoever it is that I’ll find, and we’ll, but they’re all changing, Hugh. You know, those are like history questions. Do you know this one, do you know that one. I will tell you, I thought you used the word Kurd before. I will tell you that I think the Kurds are the most under-utilized and are being totally mistreated by us. And nobody understands why. But as far as the individual players, of course I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. I haven’t been, you know, in a position to meet them. If, if they’re still there, which is unlikely in many cases, but if they’re still there, I will know them better than I know you.
Signs loyalty pledge
Trump meets with Priebus and signs the RNC loyalty pledge.
The best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge. So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and for the conservative principles for which it stands. We will go out and fight hard, and we will win.
The RNC has been absolutely terrific over the last two month period and as you know, that’s what I’ve wanted. I don’t want to be treated any differently. [In return for signing] I got an assurance that I will be treated fairly.”
Will sign loyalty pledge
According to sources, Trump has agreed to sign the GOP loyalty pledge that will bind him to endorse the GOP, and would preclude a third-party run. Source:
The rationale is that they have treated him fairly. He’s willing to sign it to avert any problems with is state filings – South Carolina asked for a pledge to support the nominee if you’re on the ballot. He’s been treated fairly, like any candidate. … And it takes away a line of attack for debates.
Recode podcast
Andreessen talks with Swisher on Re/code Decode about bubbles, politics and parenting.
When I first came out here [Silicon Valley] I thought that I had missed all the excitement. I thought that the PC had happened and I thought that was it, and I thought that we were just going to play cleanup after the PC. And then the internet supernova happened and this new universe has opened up. For me that was a big shock. The opportunities for this industry are just so much bigger than they used to be. We see kids coming here in their early 20s and every now and then they’ll say ‘Boy, I wish I was here in the old days when everything was happening’ and I think they’re all going to be sitting in these chairs 20 years from now, saying the same thing, ‘Oh it was so crude an primitive back then’.
Counters ‘colonial fantasy’ criticism
In response to critics who have complained that Swift’s Wildest Dreams video is a”colonial fantasy” Kahn says there were black Africans in the video in background shots but that it would have been “historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history.” He also notes that the video’s producer and editor are both African-American.
There is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography.
Texts revealed
Investigators say Fryberg sent a series of text before the shooting, including his funeral plans. At 10:25am, he sent via Facebook Messenger a photo of a pistol between his legs and asking that an unidentified person call him ‘before he did “this thing”.’ At 10:27 a.m., he spoke with a friend for two minutes and then sent a message to his father saying
read the paper on my bed. Dad I love you.
Four seconds after that he sent a group text with his funeral plans.
I want to be fully dressed in Camo in my casket. I don’t want my family to cancel there (sic) trip in December. Put my hat with the S on it on me in my casket. Make sure all of my trust money or whatever goes to my brother. Also apologize to Andrews fam and xx fam for me taking them with me. But I needed to ride or dies with me on the other side…Make sure everyone’s family goes to grams for dinner….You guys need to cook all that deer meat gram canned and the meet (sic) that’s in the downstairs freezer at our house.
Apologizes after employee refuses to serve police officer
Arby’s apologizes to Florida’s Pembroke Pines Police Department after Kenneth Davenport, 19, allegedly refuses to serve one an officer at the drive-thru. When the officer drove to the pickup window, the store manager told him that the clerk “doesn’t want to serve you because you are a police officer.” The manager had to order Davenport to process the officer’s credit card. The officer expressed displeasure and concern about the safety of the food to the manager and was given a refund. The manager also allegedly told the officer that the clerk “has the right to refuse to serve” you. Arby’s:
We take this isolated matter very seriously as we respect and support police officers in our local communities. We will be following up with our team members to be sure that our policy of inclusion is understood and adhered to.