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Sen. Elizabeth Warren focused on Attorney General William Barr’s conduct — and not one mentioned impeachment.
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PAUL RATJE/GettyThe FBI arrested a 69-year-old New Mexico man who allegedly illegally detained immigrants crossing the border under the guise of working for the United States Border Patrol.Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who runs The United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), an armed border militia group that spreads far-right conspiracies and rounds up asylum seekers on the border, was arrested by FBI in New Mexico Saturday on charges of possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon. Recent video footage released by UCP shows two members holding what appear to be semi-automatic rifles near immigrants, many of them children. The group also peddles conspiracy theories and produces a radio show where members spread information about QAnon, and accuse migrants of associating with ISIS. Hopkins has also claimed that president Trump has personally asked him about ‘Muslim immigration.’UCP and Hopkins claim to work with Border Patrol, which has publicly denied doing so. Border Patrol agents sometimes appear in the periphery of the groups videos, which show camo-clad UCP members interacting with migrants at the southern border.“There’s no question about whether or not we work with Border Patrol,” said Jim, a UCP spokesperson who declined to give his last name. “That’s all documented, and not just once. It’s documented hundreds and hundreds of times over in the videos that I post.”“U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands,” a Border Patrol official told The Daily Beast.Border Patrol is not supposed to interact with border vigilantes, but has been documented doing so. A Mother Jones reporter who embedded with a border militia in 2016 witnessed the group getting information from Border Patrol agents.UCP is only one of several vigilante groups patrolling the southern border with guns.New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas issued a statement on Saturday, praising the FBI over Hopkins' arrest. “This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families,” Balderas wrote in a statement. “Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”Hopkins, of Flora Vista, N.M., is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Monday. Federal authorities said they would not released additional details about Hopkins’ arrest until after the appearance.The arrest was the latest fallout for the group. On Friday, the UCP Facebook group announced to its members that they no longer accept donations through PayPal, as the service has suspended their account. “TO ALL PATRIOTS, I wish to thank all of you that has donated to the Border Ops mission up till now. We can no longer accept payments thru PAYPAL, they have permanently suspended our account,” the post read. “... And is hold $1300.00 in donations for 180 days. I am looking for another outfit that we can go thru.”PayPal and GoFundMe announced Friday that they would no longer allow UCP to raise funds on their platforms.A PayPal spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement that UCP had been banned from their platform following a video that shows the group rounding up nearly 200 migrants.“The account associated with United Constitutional Patriots has been closed due to a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy,” the spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Air France-KLM is donating travel to assist with the reconstruction of Notre Dame.
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WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina authorities said Friday that the death of a fifth grade girl at school last month was due to natural causes and not a fight with another student, which they described as lasting only seconds. But the family of the girl disagreed, saying she was repeatedly antagonized by the other student.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday called for progress on a stalled buffer zone deal around jihadist-dominated Idlib region ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending his country's eight-year war. Assad met envoy Alexander Lavrentiev from key ally Russia in Damascus to discuss the negotiations due April 25-26 in Kazakhstan. Iran and Russia are the major supporters of the Syrian regime, and along with rebel backer Turkey have sponsored repeated rounds of talks in the Central Asian nation.
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To be worthy of the title of master, a blacksmith in Kresevo in central Bosnia had to perform a delicate task -- shoe an egg without breaking it. It's an Easter tradition requiring a blacksmith to decorate an egg shell by nailing on it a miniature iron horseshoe. Now Stjepan Biletic wants to have this ancient know-how recognised by UNESCO as part of the world's cultural heritage.
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Emmanuel Macron’s approval ratings have risen to levels not seen since before the “yellow vest” revolt erupted last autumn with most French feeling he “rose to the occasion” over the Notre-Dame fire, a poll out on Friday suggests. President Macron's popularity plummeted last September following a tax rise on pensioners and a backlash over plans to raise fuel taxes. According to BVA, Mr Macron has clawed back three points in the past month and is now on 32 per cent with six out of ten French feeling he did a good job handling the Notre-Dame inferno. Mr Macron had been due to broadcast a key televised address on Monday night to address ”yellow vest” concerns in the wake two months of debates around the country. Leaked details of the speech suggest he was going to announce tax cuts for poor households and a boost to small pensions, among other measures. Instead, he rushed to the famed Gothic building in central Paris and later promised to rebuild the cathedral within five years. A poll out yesterday suggested most of the measures Mr Macron was due to announce “answered” yellow vest demands, although the vast majority were angry at his refusal to instantly reinstate a wealth tax. Mr Macron is expected to detail the measures in person next week. The poll also found that 54 per cent of French think “yellow vest” protests should be put on hold in the name of national unity over Notre-Dame. Due to the fragility of the building and the risk of violence, police are to impose a protest ban on the area around the fire-stricken for Saturday's 23rd consecutive “gilets jaunes” protest. Despite this, police fear fresh protests in the French capital on Saturday with the interior minister warning “some people literally want to trash Paris”. A number of high-profile gilets jaunes figures have called for action with some outraged that almost €1billion (£865 million) was donated to rebuilding Notre-Dame while there was no such gesture for the poor. Yesterday the last artworks inside the cathedral were removed with art conservationists confirming none suffered major damage in the fire. In more good news, the 180,000 bees kept in hives on the monument that were thought to have perished in this week's fire were discovered alive.
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Israeli forces destroyed two apartments in the occupied West Bank on Friday that housed the family of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli woman in February, the army said. Some clashes broke out between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces during the operation, AFP journalists reported.
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The debate, held in a hulking football stadium, was one of the last opportunities for incumbent President Petro Poroshenko to try to overhaul a significant lead in the opinion polls enjoyed by his challenger Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comic. At stake in Sunday's election is the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West's standoff with Moscow following 2014 protests that caused Poroshenko's Kremlin-backed predecessor to flee into exile, and foreshadowed Moscow's annexation of Crimea. Zelenskiy, 41, who plays a fictional president in a popular TV series, tried to cast Poroshenko, 53, as a rich out-of-touch leader who has overseen corruption and failed to end the war.
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Over the course of Mueller's secretive two-year investigation, a mix of online sleuths, Twitter activists and former Trump aides have cashed in on America's obsession with the story.
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![8 Things We Learned Driving the Roush Ford F-150 SC, a Pickup Truck on Steroids]( "8 Things We Learned Driving the Roush Ford F-150 SC, a Pickup Truck on Steroids")
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PARIS (AP) — Tourists, devout Catholics and others looked on mournfully at Notre Dame Cathedral Saturday, regretting that they couldn't get inside the magnificent monument on this Easter weekend because of the damage caused by a violent fire.
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders has defended herself against accusations of lying to the American public after Robert Mueller’s report refuted several statements she previously made to the media.The White House press secretary joined Good Morning America a day after the report was released, where she was grilled about her previous claims that “countless” members of the FBI told her they were dissatisfied with James Comey’s leadership at the agency before he was fired by Donald Trump. The report said those comments were “not founded on anything” and that Ms Sanders told investigators they were a “slip of the tongue.” On Friday, Ms Sanders attempted to clarify her comments in the report, telling ABC’s George Stephanoloulos, “Actually, if you look at what I said, I said the slip of the tongue was in using the word ‘countless.’”“There were a number of FBI — both former and current — that agreed with the president’s decision,” she said. While that may be true, it does not substantiate the claims the press secretary made in May 2017.Ms Sanders said during a 10 May press briefing that the president “had countless conversations with members from within the FBI” and ultimately determined “the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.”She then told reporters the following day, “I have heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision and I think we may have to agree to disagree.”“I can speak to my own personal experience,” she continued. When asked how many members of the FBI she spoke to, Ms Sanders replied, “We’re not going to get into a numbers game here.”The press secretary attempted to shift the focus Friday back to Mr Comey, calling him a “disgraced leaker” and claiming he “used authorisation to spy on the Trump campaign.”The host continued pressing Ms Sanders, asking at one point, “Why can’t you acknowledge that what you said then was not true?”She replied that her statements were made “in the heat of the moment,” adding, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t a robot like the Democrat Party.”
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The STAYUMBL license plate is notorious on the road and social media. Folks say the driver behind the wheel will speed up, cut people off and then slam on her brakes, sometimes causing a crash.
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The children of a California couple sentenced to life in prison for torturing them in a case that has shocked the US said they "forgive" their parents as they begged the judge for a more lenient sentence. David and Louise Turpin's 13 children were discovered malnourished, shackled to their beds and living in filthy conditions when their 17-year-old daughter escaped the home and raised the alarm last January. "I love both of my parents so much," said one of the daughters, in a statement read by her brother at a sentencing hearing on Friday. The comments were echoed by some of the other children, with one asking for a lighter sentence because "they believed everything they did was to protect us". The couple, who pleaded guilty to 14 charges including child abuse and torture in February, have been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. Investigators said all but one of the children - the baby - was abused Credit: UPI / Barcroft Images The California "house of horrors" case, as it came to be known, shocked the US after the scale of the abuse was laid bare last year. When police entered the property in Perris, California they said it was covered in filth and the stench of human waste was overwhelming. The Turpins' offspring, who ranged from 2 - 29 years old at the time, were so severely malnourished they required urgent treatment for severe muscle wastage and neurological conditions. At least two girls have been left unable to bear children. The deeply religious couple told the court they believed God had called on them to have so many children. Louise Turpin, left, listens to her attorney, Jeff Moore, during a sentencing hearing Friday Credit: AP Mrs Turpin, 50, wept as the first public statements from some of the children, who alternately spoke of love for their parents and what they had suffered. None of the children were publicly identified. One of the girls pleaded for a lenient sentence, saying her parents believed "God put it into their hearts" to home school the 13 children but were unable to cope. Another said: "Life may have been bad but it made me strong. I fought to become the person that I am. I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me, but I realised what was happening. ... I'm a fighter, I'm strong and I'm shooting through life like a rocket." David Turpin, left, listens to his attorney during a sentencing hearing Friday Credit: AP Ahead of his sentence, Mr Turpin, 57, told the judge he never intended to harm his children, saying: "My homeschooling and discipline had good intentions". "I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children. I love my children so much," Ms Turpin said. Judge Bernard Schwartz told the couple they had delayed their children's "emotional, mental and physical development" as he jailed them on Friday. "You have severed the ability to interact and raise the children that you created and brought into this world," he said. The court had previously heard how the children were only allowed to shower once a year and were mainly kept in their rooms except for meals, which had been reduced from three to one per day. Other than an occasional family trip to Las Vegas or Disneyland, they rarely left the home. They slept during the day and were active a few hours at night. Although the couple filed paperwork with the state to home school their children, learning was limited. "We don't really do school. I haven't finished first grade," the 17-year-old said, according to Deputy Manuel Campos. Investigators found that the toddler had not been abused, but all of the children were hospitalised after they were discovered. The seven adult children were living together and attending university in February when their parents pleaded guilty.
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Depending on whom you believe, Huawei is either a key provider of cellular equipment in the transition to 5G, or a Chinese agent of espionage
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NEW YORK (AP) — Daniel. Rachel. Isaiah.
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Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the communications ministry in central Kabul on Saturday, officials said, in a deadly, hours-long assault that destroyed weeks of relative calm in the capital. The Taliban said it had "nothing to do" with the attack, which left some 2,000 people stranded in the tall office building for hours at the start of the Afghan work week. "As a result of today's explosion/attack in Kabul city, two people have been martyred (killed) and 6 others are wounded," the health ministry spokesman wrote in a tweet, adding 3 of the injured were women.
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In 2017 and 2018, Cobb played a pivotal role in organizing the White House response to the Mueller investigation, negotiating agreements to turn over documents and allow interviews with White House officials.
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Brands sometimes go too hard during Pride season. Every once in a while, however, they get it right.The year 2019 has already brought us one *actually good* example. Converse recently introduced its LGBTQ Pride sneaker line, which now includes sneakers modeled after the Transgender Pride flag.This is the first time Converse has ever had a trans-specific sneaker.SEE ALSO: Mapping state-by-state tech trends: Most popular dating appsThe trans-specific sneakers currently retail for $80. Customers can also customize their own rainbow Pride shoes and add Trans Pride flair.Regardless of how you feel about corporate participation during gay Pride, this is a huge symbolic step forward. Advocates for the trans community have long complained that gay and lesbian people dominate the LGBTQ movement. Recognizing the trans community as a separate -- though equally sneaker-worthy community -- is emblematic of a larger cultural shift. Trans people are clearly moving into the public spotlight, and they can show that (if Converse is their thing) on their feet.Twitter was largely enthusiastic about the move.> TransIsBeautiful > Thank you @Converse for making a trans PRIDE shoe this year! > My 11 year-old-son is ECSTATIC! ️ pic.twitter.com/E6lcqIEvfA> > -- Rachel Q. Lyons (@RachelQLyons) April 15, 2019> CONVERSE HAS A NEW PRIDE COLLECTION THAT INCLUDES TRANS PRIDE SNEAKERS FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!! > > SHOP HERE: https://t.co/afn0Gc9nwy (affiliate link) pic.twitter.com/TptVcjY87E> > -- Alysse Dalessandro (@readytostare) April 19, 2019> I thought "which of my trans friends would rock Converse decked out in the colors of the trans flag," and then immediately realized the answer was "all of them." pic.twitter.com/E5NPDfPgMY> > -- Aram Vartian (@vartian) April 19, 2019> Me, looking at the chuck taylor pride collection for this year: *not super impressed* > Converse: we have trans shoes now > Me, out loud: DAMMIT pic.twitter.com/oqzpDUqaOD> > -- Rowan Adventurezone (@politebotanist) April 20, 2019> Y'all let me know when @converse lets me put trans flags on these (and they come in my size). pic.twitter.com/3ZOq9Y6rss> > -- Xan (@AlexandriaDVine) April 20, 2019> Look! You can make them with the pride base but then add trans pride touches. I'm in love! pic.twitter.com/bGtajM2QjF> > -- We'll Have A Gay Old Time (@IssaMeBrianO) April 19, 2019This Twitter user perhaps said it best.> Fuckin converse put the Trans flag on some shoes like.....yes fine I will buy them you stupid brand, ill bow to capitalism just this once> > -- Thank you gay dad (@Darius_lives) April 19, 2019Happy incredibly early Pride, everyone! WATCH: Meet the 10-year-old drag kid shaping the future of drag youth
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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:
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![Reuters US Domestic News Summary]( "Reuters US Domestic News Summary")
A judge on Thursday ordered banks to comply with a request from Puerto Rico's federally created financial oversight board to disclose customer information related to certain debt issued by the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth. The ruling boosts a potential effort by the board to recover billions of dollars in payments made to bondholders should a federal court hearing Puerto Rico's bankruptcy cases choose to invalidate disputed debt issued by the government and its agencies. Last month, Kaylee Tyner and other students at Columbine High School launched a campaign dubbed #MyLastShot, asking students across the country to pledge to publicize images of their deaths if they became victims of a mass shooting.
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Every year, Samsung releases two versions of its flagship phones: One with a Qualcomm processor, and one with its own Exynos processor. This is once again the case for the Galaxy S10, which comes equipped with the Snapdragon 855 in the United States, and the Exynos 9820 in several other regions around the world.In past years, the Exynos chipset has often outperformed Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon, but there were signs early on that Samsung's new processor might struggle to match Qualcomm's in 2019. As it turns out, the Snapdragon 855's impressive benchmark scores did indeed translate over to real-world usage, as PhoneBuff shows in a video featuring a speed test that pits the Snapdragon Galaxy S10 against the Exynos Galaxy S10.As in his other speed test videos, the self-proclaiming PhoneBuff has both phones open sixteen apps consecutively, while waiting for each of them to load before moving on to the next. Although most of the apps opened at about the same speed on both phones, the Snapdragon S10 was never slower than the Exynos S10. Any time there was a discrepancy, the phone with the Snapdragon processor came out on top:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts6DWsktKxYAgain, due to the benchmarks, this shouldn't surprise anyone, but after lagging behind in previous years, it's nice to know that American Android fans are getting the "better" version of the phone this time around. That said, phones are so ridiculously fast at this point, that the differences between top-of-the-line processors are going to be minuscule (as demonstrated by the twelve second difference above), but at least we know we're not missing out this time.
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![How To Build a Wind Tester]( "How To Build a Wind Tester")
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![Meghan McCain goes after anti-vaxxers, slams their 'stupidity' for endangering children]( "Meghan McCain goes after anti-vaxxers, slams their 'stupidity' for endangering children")
Meghan McCain isn't mincing words when it comes to her take on anti-vaxxers, taking to Twitter Friday to send a message about their "stupidity."
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LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado community changed forever by the attack that killed 13 people at Columbine High School moved ahead Thursday with ceremonies marking the anniversary of the tragedy while awaiting more details on what led a Florida teen "infatuated" with the shooting to buy a shotgun and kill herself in the snowy foothills nearby.
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A US appeals court on Thursday upheld a California "sanctuary state" bill that blocks state and local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities. The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in San Francisco, unanimously ruled to uphold Senate Bill 54, which prohibits police and sheriffs from collaborating with immigration authorities. "SB 54 may well frustrate the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts," said Judge Milan Smith in the ruling.
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From the Trump Tower meeting to James Comey's firing
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Two top deputies to the Chicago prosecutor whose office handled the Jussie Smollett case are resigning.
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PARIS (AP) — For many yellow vest protesters, the stinging sadness that came with the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral has quickly given way to boiling anger.
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![Four Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with PKK - ministry]( "Four Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with PKK - ministry")
Four Turkish soldiers were killed on Friday in clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraq, Turkey's Defence Ministry said on Saturday. Demiroren News Agency said a military base had been attacked in the mountainous Cukurca district of Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari, prompting the Turkish military to respond with a "large-scale" military operation. "As part of ongoing operations in the Turkey-Iraq border, two soldiers were killed in clashes with terrorists despite all efforts to save them," the ministry said, adding a total of four soldiers were killed and six wounded.
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We've known for a while now that Google offered Android users in Europe a different experience than international customers, and that's because the European Union really wants Google to behave a lot less like a monopoly than before. Google lost three major anti-trust cases in the region, including one that concerns Android.The European Commission slapped Google with three multi-billion fines in each case, which Google has contested. But the company agreed to make changes to its business models, and the changes also concern its mobile operating system. We know now what changes are in place for Android in Europe.Google explained in a new blog post on the matter that Android users in Europe will get search app and browser options, and showed the world what those prompts will look like.The new screens will be shown the first time a user opens Google Play after receiving an update. We're looking at two screens, one for search and one for browsers, as follows below.Each screen will present the user five apps, including the ones that are installed. The apps that are not installed will show up based on their popularity, but they'll show up in a randomized order.A third screen will be shown to users when they install a search app. Google will ask whether they want to change Chrome's default search engine the next time they open the browser.These screens will show up on both existing and new Android phones in Europe in the coming weeks, Google explained, and their implementation will "evolve" over time.
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Unless you stop them, weeds are going to grow in your lawn. Here's what you need to do.
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![Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.]( "Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.")
If you forget a key ingredient for your Easter meal, you have some options. Walmart is open, but Target is closed.
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FUNCHAL, Portugal (AP) — Relatives of some of the 29 German tourists who died in a bus crash in Madeira arrived on the Portuguese island on Friday as investigators pushed on with the task of finding out why the bus veered off the road and plunged down a slope.
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Chicago Bears defensive back Ha Ha Clinton-Dix tweeted Thursday that the University of Alabama is holding his degree, which he earned in 2018, over a $1 unpaid debt. It's unclear why Clinton-Dix owes Alabama a single dollar but he should have no problem finding the pocket change as he recently signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Bears in the offseason.
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![Here Are All of the 2020 Hyundai Sonata's Available Colors—Including Yellow]( "Here Are All of the 2020 Hyundai Sonata's Available Colors—Including Yellow")
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The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway believes the Mueller report is so “damning” for President Trump that he should be impeached immediately.
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For their 23rd consecutive Saturday protest, France's yellow vests have been told they will be banned from the area around Paris's fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral. The ban will be in place all day Saturday, a police statement said, following Monday's devastating fire at the world famous landmark. "No protest demonstration can be held" in the area due to the fragility of the building, the statement said.
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![UPDATE 1-Ukrainian presidential candidates trade insults in rowdy stadium debate]( "UPDATE 1-Ukrainian presidential candidates trade insults in rowdy stadium debate")
The two men vying to be Ukraine's next president traded insults in a raucous debate on Friday in front of thousands of supporters before an election that could put a comedian with no political experience in charge of a country at war. The debate, held in a hulking football stadium, was one of the last opportunities for incumbent President Petro Poroshenko to try to overhaul a significant lead in the opinion polls enjoyed by his challenger Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comic. At stake in Sunday's election is the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West's standoff with Moscow following 2014 protests that caused Poroshenko's Kremlin-backed predecessor to flee into exile, and foreshadowed Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
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Remember a little over 7 months ago when I told you that you shouldn't get excited about Samsung's first foldable phone? Well, here we are.Samsung has plenty of strong suits. It is the top-selling smartphone vendor in the world, after all. It makes gorgeous AMOLED screens for mobile devices. The company also makes some of the best components in the world and has a booming chip business. One thing Samsung is not good at, however, is first-generation products. In fact, "not good" is far too kind... Samsung is awful at designing first-generation products.We've seen it time and time again. Samsung's strength is refinement, as evidenced by its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphone lines. Early generations were terrible, plasticky iPhone copycats. Now Samsung's current-generation flagship phones are market leaders in so many ways. The Galaxy S10+ might be the best all-around Android phone I've ever tested, and the Note 10 sounds like it will be even more impressive. But the Galaxy Fold is nothing short of an absolute disaster, just like I said it would be. In fact, the only way the Galaxy Fold launch could possibly be any worse is if batteries start exploding like they did back in 2016 when Samsung had to cancel production of its Galaxy Note 7 and recall every single phone it sold.It's official: the first widely available smartphone with a foldable display is a piece of junk. Feel free to check it out when it hits store shelves next Friday. But for the love of whatever or whomever you pray to, don't buy one.Yesterday I briefly touched on the huge new issues facing Samsung's Galaxy Fold. The company gave out phones to bloggers for review, and a shockingly high percentage of those phones are breaking. Anything above a 0% failure rate would be shocking for review units of a new smartphone, to be frank, and a quick search yielded more bloggers complaining of broken phones than bloggers who said their Fold units were working fine. That's insane.Many of the issues we've been hearing about stem from the fact that the Galaxy Fold appears to have a screen protector pre-applied on the display. As with all Android phones that ship with cheap plasticky screen protectors, the first thing reviewers did when they got the phones was peel it off. The problem, as we now know, is that Samsung failed to tell most of them that the plastic layer in question is actually an integral part of the display. Long story short, peeling it off breaks the phone.https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/1118580472576118787Now, there are a few glaring issues here. First, can you imagine a company being so horrible at design that it's going to sell a $2,000 smartphone with an integral plastic film on the screen that can easily be peeled off? Can you imagine a company being so naive as to think that some customers won't end up peeling it off even with better messaging? And what happens when the phone has been used for a while and the adhesive at the edges of that film inevitably begins to peel on its own?This is one of the worst smartphone design decisions I have ever seen. It's absolutely unforgivable.Then there were other bloggers who found that the screens on their Galaxy Fold review units were malfunctioning without having touched that stupid film at all. That's right, the displays are spontaneously breaking on a new smartphone that has one major selling point: the display. The foldable OLED screen on the Galaxy Fold is literally the only thing about the phone that is exciting. And it's breaking for no discernible reason.Here's the thing: the Galaxy Fold would be a horrible phone even if it didn't have these issues. The design is terrible, with a giant notch bitten out of the top corner for the front-facing cameras. And I do mean GIANT, as you can see in the image above. On top of that, the crease at the center of the display is visible while you use the phone, it doesn't fold all the way closed, it's uncomfortably thick in your pocket, and the outer screen is ridiculously tiny with giant bezels above and blow it.This phone is junk.The idea of foldable smartphones is cool and exciting, but it absolutely is not ready for primetime right now. The Galaxy Fold never should have seen the light of day. Samsung rushed to be the first company with a widely available foldable smartphone, which is nothing new for Samsung. It often rushes to be first with a new type of product, and the results are garbage each and every time.Maybe Huawei will have better luck in a couple of months when it releases the Mate X. It certainly sports a far better design than the Galaxy Fold, and the construction seemed vastly superior when we played with it briefly at MWC 2019. But we won't know for certain until we get our hands on a review unit.In the meantime, do yourself a favor and keep your wallet in your pocket when the Galaxy Fold is released next week.
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A former US Marine who was allegedly involved in a raid of the North Korean embassy in Madrid has been arrested, according to sources familiar with the case.Christopher Ahn was arrested on Thursday in connection with the incident, when a group of at least 10 people stormed into the embassy, restrained and physically beat some personnel and held them hostage for hours in February.Spanish investigators have said the group stole computers and hard drives before fleeing to the United States, where they shared the stolen material with the FBI.US federal agents also reportedly raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, the leader of self-styled human right group Cheollima Civil Defence, this week in relation to the investigation.Cheollima Civil Defence, which is seeking to overthrow North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has claimed responsibility for the incident but denied that they used violence.Mr Ahn is thought to be the first person arrested in relation to the raid.A Spanish judicial source said the stolen material has been returned to the North Korean embassy, two weeks after the FBI sent it to the Spanish court investigating the raid.The incident came just days before the second summit between Donald Trump and Mr Kim, which resulted in a failure to come to agreement about the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.North Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the incident as a “grave terrorist attack” and suggested that the FBI was involved.The US State Department has denied that accusation.Cheollima Civil Defence has said the incident was not an attack and claimed it had been invited into the embassy.“We were invited into the embassy, and contrary to reports, no one was gagged or beaten,” the group wrote on their website.“Out of respect for the host nation of Spain, no weapons were used. All occupants in the embassy were treated with dignity and necessary caution.”The group also claimed that the US government was not involved with the incident until after the event.However, a judge for Spain’s National Court has accused the group of violently beating embassy officials and putting them in “shackles and flanges”.The judge also said three members of the group took an official into the embassy basement and tried to persuade him to defect from North Korea.Although documents released by the Spanish court said several members, including Mr Hong, had fled to the United States, their whereabouts are unclear.The court is seeking their extradition.Agencies contributed to this report
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![These are the restaurants open Easter: Starbucks, McDonald's, Denny's and more]( "These are the restaurants open Easter: Starbucks, McDonald's, Denny's and more")
National chains including Starbucks, McDonald's and Dunkin' will be open Easter Sunday along with Waffle House. But it's best to call and confirm.
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LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — The Latest on the investigation of a woman believed to have posed a threat to schools in Colorado (all times local):
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Will India’s next aircraft carrier be a British design?British defense contractor BAE Systems is offering a Queen Elizabeth-class design as a contender for India’s third aircraft carrier, which will be built in India.“BAE Systems has begun discussions with India regarding the potential for basing development of the second Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-2) project on the successful Queen Elizabeth Class design,” said a BAE statement. “The design is adaptable to offer either ski jump or catapult launch and can be modified to meet Indian Navy and local industry requirements.”India currently operates one aircraft carrier, the 45,000-ton Vikramaditya, which is actually the former Soviet carrier Admiral Gorshkov. That ship has been plagued by engine problems as well as reliability issues with its MiG-29K fighters.Under construction is India’s first indigenous carrier, the 40,000-ton Vikrant, while is scheduled to go to sea in 2020. But as is often the case with Indian-built defense projects, the vessel has suffered from problems such as massive cost overruns and disputes with Russian contractors who are supplying materials for the Indian-built ship.
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KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Five years after one of the deadliest disasters on Mount Everest, three people from Nepal's ethnic Sherpa community are preparing an ascent to raise awareness about the Nepalese mountain guides who make it possible for hundreds of foreign climbers to scale the mountain and survive.
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President Trump's new attorney general is facing sharp criticism for his handling of the release of the special counsel's final Trump-Russia report.
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Israel on Friday struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip with tank and aircraft fire after troops were shot at on the Israeli side of the border, the army said. The Israeli military said in a statement that "no injuries to soldiers were reported" after its troops came under fire. Palestinian security sources in Hamas-ruled Gaza told AFP that the Israeli strikes hit Hamas military observation posts at three locations along the frontier.
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And paleontologists aren't happy about it.
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The race among consumer electronics giants to develop all manner of screens that flex and fold -- and to attach them to phones, tablets and more -- is starting to get a bit extreme.We saw over the past 24 hours, for example, the results of Samsung rushing to be the first with a foldable smartphone, with reports from several high-profile reviewers and journalists that their Galaxy Folds easily broke after just a day of usage. We've also covered myriad plans and patents from other tech companies that likewise want to rush into the flexible game, and now along comes Sony with a patent for a flexible display that can be attached to a bag -- like a handbag, or backpack.Ladies and gentleman, we've either reached peak flexible display or are very close to it.The Sony patent, published towards the end of March, was spotted by Dutch tech news blog LetsGoDigital, which reports that it depicts a bag with a flexible display module. The display also uses the same kind of "electronic paper" screen found in e-readers, which tends to require less power and background lighting. It's also thinner and more flexible than a typical LCD display.In terms of other aspects of the design, the bag is shown including a switch that can either be a button or a slider. It would allow the user to change what's shown on the display.The design also calls for both an "automatic" and "manual" mode, which are exactly what those suggest. Those would control what's shown on the display. Additionally, the screen connects to the bag through multiple removable contact points, so you can use the bag for, you know, things that don't involve screens.As the LetsGoDigital report notes, this is not the first example of a bag with a display. Last year, for example, the Pix backpack was released that showed animated patterns on it. Whether or not Sony ever does anything with this patent, meanwhile, it does serve as one more reminder that we're going to start seeing flexible screens pretty much everywhere now, even if manufacturers don't totally know what to do with them yet.
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