(CNN)Less than 24 hours after delivering a call for national unity, President Donald Trump is headed to Arizona for a campaign rally Tuesday night. It's a major test for Trump -- particularly given that there appears to be such a marked difference between Teleprompter Trump who was on display Monday night in his Afghanistan speech and Campaign Trump. Previous attempts at restarting a new -- and more politic -- version of the Trump Administration have been dashed along the rocks of the President's desire to be applauded and loved by his base. It's a reality that has caused the Republican party -- and, really, the entire political world -- to suffer from a permanent case of whiplash. So, if Trump is actually -- gasp! -- trying to sustain the momentum and calls for unity from his speech on Monday night, what topics should he avoid in Arizona tonight? Here's seven big ones! 1. Charlottesville Read More … [Read more...]

Robert Spencer, the director a Jihad Watch, says he will no longer do business with PayPal after the financial services platform briefly banned his account this week. The author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam” told fans late Monday that advocates of free speech were victorious — this time — in their efforts to push back at attempts to silence his work. Jihad Watch had its Paypal account temporarily suspended after an Aug. 19 article titled ‘Despite Disavowals, Leading Tech Companies Help Extremist Sites Monetize Hate’ was released by ProPublica. Mr. Spencer’s website, along with Pamela Geller’s of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, both had accounts frozen until supporters rallied on social media. “Congratulations, lovers of freedom: your messages to PayPal and your cancellations of your account worked: PayPal has restored the Jihad Watch account,” Mr. Spencer said after receiving an email from the … [Read more...]

PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on protests of President Donald Trump’s visit to Phoenix (all times local): 11:35 a.m. Organizers of protests planned during President Donald Trump’s visit to Phoenix say they’re gathering to stand up against what they call “the politics of hate.” Tucson vice mayor Regina Romero told reporters at a Tuesday morning news conference organized by the Mi Famila Vota organization that the groups “refuse to idly stand by while Trump destroys everything America stands for.” Romero says Arizona Latinos are gathering to show their opposition to what she called “Trump’s racism, assaults on civil rights, horrific border wall and attacks on public lands, our environment and working families.” Trump’s Tuesday evening campaign-style rally in reliably-Republican Arizona comes as he tries to reinvigorate his presidency after months of controversy. The problems were topped by comments he made last week … [Read more...]

(CNN)Vice President Mike Pence offered a defense of Confederate Civil War monuments in an interview on Fox and Friends Tuesday, declaring that he's "someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments." Pence also referred to the various campaigns seeking the monuments' removal as a "contemporary political cause" when asked about President Donald Trump's much-criticized response to the recent racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the debate over Civil War monuments that followed. In a wild, impromptu press conference last week, Trump bemoaned the loss of monuments marking the Confederacy, suggesting that the campaign for their removal is a slippery slope: "I wonder, is it George Washington next week?" he said. On Fox and Friends Tuesday, the Vice President answered with typically measured rhetoric but offered an unmistakable endorsement for those advocating the preservation of Confederate Civil War monuments. "I hold the view that it's … [Read more...]

Story highlights Errol Louis: Paul Ryan's performance at Monday's town hall reflects the challenge congressional Republicans face this fall They need to distance themselves from the President while maintaining White House support on key political issues, writes Louis Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. (CNN)House Speaker Paul Ryan used his televised town hall meeting Monday to gingerly walk across the tightrope congressional Republican leaders will face this fall: how to put distance between themselves and President Donald Trump without alienating the White House. The goal of this Republican political unity, Ryan also made clear, is passage of a federal budget full of tax cuts for the wealthy and deep reductions in social service programs. … [Read more...]

Philippe Wojazer | Reuters Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The United States has decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million because of its failure to make progress on respecting human rights and democratic norms, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as frustration with Cairo's stance on civil liberties, notably a new law that regulates non-governmental organizations that is widely seen as part a growing crackdown on dissent, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials were especially unhappy that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in May allowed the NGO law to go into effect. Human rights groups and activists have said that it effectively bans their … [Read more...]

show chapters Trump takes good first step approaching Afghanistan: Fmr. Deputy National Security Advisor    1 Hour Ago | 04:42 President Donald Trump's strategy on Afghanistan is a "good first step," former Ambassador Nancy Soderberg told CNBC on Tuesday. In a speech Monday night, Trump said the United States will ramp up military engagement in the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan. He also blasted Pakistan for supporting terrorists. Soderberg, a former ambassador to the United Nations and deputy … [Read more...]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The high-profile case of a former Oklahoma City police officer convicted of raping women while on duty focused the public's attention on the problem of sexual misconduct on the force, but his appeal raising questions about DNA evidence is playing out in secret.Daniel Holtzclaw, now 30, was sentenced to 263 years in prison for preying on black women he encountered while patrolling poor neighborhoods of the city in 2013 and 2014. Defense attorneys appealed the conviction in February, arguing prosecutors' faulty analysis of DNA from one of his accusers helped secure convictions on 18 counts involving eight women.Holtzclaw's case became a rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement and a cause célèbre for some conservatives. A 2015 Associated Press investigation highlighting it found about 1,000 officers in the U.S. lost their licenses for sexual misconduct over a six-year period — an undercount … [Read more...]

The Latest on efforts to remove Confederate monuments and the nationwide fallout from a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (all times local):3:50 p.m.The mayor of Charlottesville says an outbreak of anger at a city council meeting shows how deeply traumatized the community was by a violent white nationalist rally.Mayor Mike Signer told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the outbursts at the meeting a night earlier were the "beginning of the process of catharsis."The protests forced the council to abandon its agenda, and members instead took comments from the crowd.Toward the end of the meeting, the council voted to cover two Confederate statues with black fabric to signal the city's mourning for Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car slammed into a crowd protesting the rally.Signer says city staff are sorting … [Read more...]

MADRID (AP) — The Latest on news relating to the Spanish attacks (all times local):9:40 p.m.A judge has ordered two of the four surviving suspects in last week's extremist attacks in Spain held without bail, another detained for 72 more hours and one freed.National Court Judge Fernando Andreu issued his orders after hearing the four answer questions on Tuesday about the vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that killed 15 people.Andreu said there was enough evidence to hold 21-year-old Mohamed Houli Chemlal and 28-year-old Driss Oukabir on preliminary charges of causing homicides and injuries of terrorist nature and of belonging to a terrorism organization.The judge also said in a document seen by The Associated Press that Houli Chemlal also was held for dealing with explosives.Sahl El Karib, the owner of a cybercafé in Ripoll, the Pyrenees hometown to most of the members of the cell, will remain in custody under arrest for … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday commended North Korea for recent restraint in its provocations and said it could point the way to a possible dialogue with the U.S.It was rare positive expression from the U.S. toward the authoritarian government in Pyongyang and comes amid a slight easing in recent tensions between the adversaries that had flared after President Donald Trump pledged to answer North Korean aggression with "fire and fury." North Korea, for its part, had threatened to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam.Addressing reporters at the State Department, Tillerson said that North Korea had "demonstrated some level of restraint that we have not seen in the past" by not conducting missile launches or provocative acts since the U.N. Security Council adopted tough sanctions on Aug. 5."We hope that this is the beginning of this signal that we have been looking for, that they are … [Read more...]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for tighter European Union rules to protect workers in France and other prosperous countries in Western Europe from cheaper labor stemming from the continent's eastern nations.Macron is set to raise concerns over so called "posted workers" with several leaders in Central Europe as he makes his first visit to the region this week. His stance threatens fresh tensions in a bloc already strained by competing national interests after disputes over migrants and Britain's vote last year to leave the European Union.During a three-day tour starting Wednesday, Macron will seek to get an agreement on posted workers, those who are temporarily posted by companies in their home country to a second country. While abroad, they continue to pay into the tax and social security … [Read more...]

FAYETTEVILLE, NC—Saying he “never could have imagined” he would have the opportunity to follow directly in his father’s footsteps, 19-year-old U.S. Army Pvt. Tyler Corcoran was reportedly excited Tuesday to take over his dad’s old patrol route in Afghanistan. “It’s just so incredible that I’ll soon be walking the very same footpath as my old man, securing the perimeter of Camp Chapman in Khost Province just like he did so many years ago,” said Corcoran, who explained how, throughout his childhood, he had heard his father’s stories of guarding the forward operating base but never once considered that he would one day be traversing along the exact walls and securing the identical checkpoints his father had during his tours of duty. “To think that I’ll be monitoring the road between the airstrip and detention facility that Dad always talked about, keeping an eye out for IEDs and any suspicious activity the same way he … [Read more...]

AUSTIN -- After nearly a solid week of non-stop broadside attacks on Texas House Republicans by Gov. Greg Abbott, a common refrain we've heard at Buzz Central from lawmakers and the lobby goes something like this: "Is this just posturing or is he seriously going to pick targets in the primaries?" Well, any possible attempt by Abbott to seek retribution against rank and file House members would be random and out of spite by a governor who has not learned to govern. Make no mistake, Abbott is already effectively targeting all Republican members who unanimously voted to elect Speaker Joe Straus in January and similarly all gave their presiding officer a standing ovation at the House GOP Caucus meeting last week at the behest of Rep. Matt Schaefer, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, who thanked Straus for his years of service. When Abbott was profiled by Texas Monthly in October of 2013, the cover story began by highlighting his skills with a 12-gauge shotgun. The metaphor is … [Read more...]

With Congress on recess, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is taking full advantage of the time away from Washington, D.C. by crisscrossing Texas and focusing on a familiar message: it's past time to repeal Obamacare. Even though the U.S. Senate in late July rejected the latest so-called "skinny repeal," Cruz is continuing to tell Texans during stops over the last two weeks that the fight goes on. "We have to deliver on our promise to repeal Obamacare," the Republican said during a speech to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Earlier on Monday he had been in New Braunfels meeting with employees of Sysco Central Texas, Inc. And already on Tuesday, Cruz has delivered speeches to agriculture workers in Edinburg and to workers at a business in Mission. Later Tuesday, Cruz has stops planned for Pharr and Brownsville. Last week Cruz made similar comments during stops in Lubbock, Amarillo, Katy and Addison. After touring a business in Amarillo Cruz said he's optimistic that the Senate … [Read more...]

Photo A New Balance store in Shanghai. The sportswear company’s victorious trademark infringement case is also a win for other foreign companies that have long complained that the Chinese government has not done enough to protect their brands. Credit Imaginechina, via Associated Press BEIJING — A Chinese court has ruled that three domestic shoemakers must pay New Balance $1.5 million in damages and legal costs for infringing the American sportswear company’s signature slanting “N” logo, in what lawyers said was the largest trademark infringement award ever granted to a foreign business in China.It is a victory not just for New Balance, but also for many other foreign companies that have long complained that Beijing has not done enough to protect their brands. And while the size of the ruling — issued … [Read more...]

MADRID (AP) — An extremist cell in northeastern Spain was preparing bombs for an imam who planned to blow himself up at a Barcelona monument, a key suspect in the attacks that killed 15 people in northeastern Spain told a judge Tuesday, according to a judicial official.The suspect, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, was one of four men brought before Spain's National Court in Madrid on Tuesday to testify about the Islamic extremist cell that attacked pedestrians in Barcelona and the nearby seaside town of Cambrils last week.National Court Judge Fernando Andreu is scheduled to rule later Tuesday on the prosecutor's request to send the four to jail without bail for preliminary accusations of being part of a terrorist organization, homicide, causing havoc and dealing with explosives.A Spanish judicial official says Houli Chemlal and … [Read more...]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens halted Tuesday's scheduled execution of condemned killer Marcellus Williams after DNA raised questions about his guilt.The Republican governor said in an email just hours before Williams was to be put to death that he was issuing a stay of execution. Williams was convicted of fatally stabbing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a burglary at her suburban St. Louis home in 1998. Williams' execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.The governor's decision comes after Williams' attorneys cited DNA evidence found on the murder weapon that matched another unknown person, but not Williams. But St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said there was ample other evidence to convict Williams, and said there was "zero possibility" he was innocent."A sentence of death … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh off a speech on Afghanistan that moved him in a different direction than many of his core voters, President Donald Trump is highlighting his pledge to combat illegal immigration by heading to a Marine Corps base along the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday and inspecting a Predator drone used to patrol the region.Trump also scheduled a nighttime rally in Phoenix, which left local officials concerned that emotions may run hot among those inside and outside of the hall so soon after Trump blamed "both sides" for violence at a rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.Trump's first scheduled stop was a base in Yuma that is a hub of operations for the U.S. Border Patrol. He planned to inspect equipment used on the southern border, including the drone and other aircraft.Administration officials briefing reporters on the trip said the area had seen a 46 percent drop in apprehensions of people … [Read more...]

Survey finds 66 percent of workers think they would be more productive telecommuting than working in a traditional workplace Boulder, CO (PRWEB) August 22, 2017 According to FlexJobs’ 6th annual survey of more than 5,000 respondents interested in work flexibility, 66% of workers think they would be more productive telecommuting than working in a traditional office environment. Fewer interruptions from colleagues (76%), fewer distractions (76%), reduced stress from commuting (70%), and minimal office politics (69%) are the top reasons people prefer their home office. “In the survey, we asked people where they go to be the most productive at work--only 7% of workers say they are most productive in the office during regular hours. Only 7%! There is something clearly broken with the traditional workplace model and, quite honestly, employers’ understanding of how to support their workers’ productivity,” said Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of … [Read more...]