USA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were charged Thursday with directing killings and drug smuggling from within California’s most secure prisons, U.S. prosecutors said.

The charges detail five slayings and accuse an attorney of helping smuggle drugs and cellphones to aid the white supremacist gang.

Sixteen Aryan Brotherhood members and associates are accused of running the criminal enterprise using contraband cellphones, encrypted chats, text messages, multimedia messages and email.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is plunging $500 million into an effort to close all of the nation’s remaining coal plants by 2030 and put the United States on track toward a 100% clean energy economy.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — More than two years after voter check-in software failed on Election Day in a North Carolina county, federal authorities will finally conduct a forensic analysis of electronic poll books to see if Russian military hackers who targeted the software provider may have tampered with registration information to disrupt voting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ending a second day of tense negotiations, U.S. and Mexican officials failed Thursday to reach a deal to avert import tariffs that President Donald Trump is threatening to impose as he tries to strong-arm Mexico into stemming the flow of Central American migrants across America’s southern border.

Vice President Mike Pence, monitoring the talks from his travels in Pennsylvania, said the U.S. was “encouraged” by Mexico’s latest proposals but, so far, tariffs still were set to take effect Monday.

The federal government is opening a new mass facility to hold migrant children in Texas and considering detaining hundreds more youths on three military bases around the country, adding up to 3,000 new beds to the already overtaxed system.

The new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will hold as many as 1,600 teens in a complex that once housed oil field workers on government-leased land near the border, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for Office of Refugee Resettlement.

6 June 2019; MEMO: The Israeli government is working to “prevent the Senate from passing a bipartisan resolution endorsing a two-state solution”, according to a report in Axios.

6 June 2019; AFP: YouTube announced Wednesday it would ban videos promoting or glorifying racism and discrimination as well as those denying well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.

The announcement by the Google-owned video-sharing platform was the latest of a series of tech industry moves to filter out hateful and violent content, which have spurred calls for tougher regulation.

Washington, June 5 (IANS/GANASHAKTI) A US aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted three times by a Russian fighter jet in three hours, according to the US 6th Fleet.

"On June 4, 2019, a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted by a Russian SU-35 three times over the course of 175 minutes," the 6th Fleet said in a statement on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The political clock is a significant factor in whether majority House Democrats launch any impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Amazon said Wednesday that it plans to use self-piloted drones to deliver packages to shoppers’ home in the coming months.

The online shopping giant did not give exact timing or say where the drones will be making deliveries.

Amazon said its new drones use computer vision and machine learning to detect and avoid people or clotheslines in backyards when landing.

“From paragliders to power lines to a corgi in the backyard, the brain of the drone has safety covered,” said Jeff Wilke, who oversees Amazon’s retail business.