Seven men accused of belonging to a white supremacist group called The Base were arrested this week in separate raids in Delaware, Georgia, Maryland and Wisconsin, according to authorities.

There have been threats on law enforcement posted on their official social media sites in the last 24 hours, according to an official with the Virginia State Police.

The threats, which are considered credible by law enforcement, come from mainstream channels and alternative dark web ones used by violent groups and white nationalists from outside of Virginia, according to Northam. The governor added "the conversations are fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories."

Gilbert acknowledged that although there may be policy differences among the state's GOP and Democratic lawmakers, it was important for all elected officials to stand together against hate. "While we and our Democratic colleagues may have differences, we are all Virginians and we will stand united in opposition to any threats of violence or civil unrest from any quarter," Gilbert said. Gilbert represents the 15th district in the Virginia House of Delegates.

To get an idea why the government is spending so much on Trump's border wall, look no further than the construction sites down in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

On one side of a caliche road, you can see the pedestrian fence that was erected more than a decade ago. At 18 feet, it looks downright puny. On the other side of the road are massive steel bollards topped with an "anti-climbing plate" that rise 30 feet above the cotton fields, surrounded by men in hardhats and heavy equipment.

"The cost of almost $20 million per mile cost is four times as much as the most expensive other walls being built,"

Border walls are much in vogue in the post-Cold War era, he said, and there are now at least 60 around the world.

Some of the extra money will be used to build the wall higher and 10 miles longer. There have also been "increased project costs due to unforeseen site conditions" — to wit, serious seepage problems where the levee wall crosses a canal that empties into the Rio Grande.

Taking private land through eminent domain involves multiple agencies, including the Department of Justice, and can lead to lawsuits.

"Where you have private property and the government has to go through the courts to get that property, it takes a lot longer and it drives the cost up because you have to pay for that land,"

Contrary to President Trump's claims, the wall is not "going up at a record speed." In fact, construction has fallen months behind schedule because of the complexities of acquiring private land in the South Texas.

Democrats say they do want border security, but the way to do it is with manpower and technology, not steel and concrete.

"I live on the border. I don't want to see chaos. I want to see law and order at the border," Cuellar continued. "But I don't want to just be spending billions of dollars to those federal contractors."

The federal contractors are mostly giant construction companies with experience handling complex federal projects.

Now, the Pentagon inspector general is reviewing the contract. Auditors want to know if the White House steered it to Fisher, who maintains his bid was the best.

President Xi Jinping ended term limits on China's leaders in 2018. You don't even have to mention Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia or any other authoritarian government to see how, all over the world, leaders left and right wing just hold on to power

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan took power as prime minister in 2003 — was elected president in 2014, then established an "executive presidency" in 2017. He has suppressed a free press and arrested political opponents and academics.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the Israeli parliament to give him immunity from prosecution on bribery and fraud before Israel's next elections in March.

This week, there may have been a message in all the American messiness.

Elections count.

Even an imperfect democracy can give dissident voices the chance to be heard and keep open chances for change.

President Trump's misconduct presents a danger to our democratic processes, our national security, and our commitment to the rule of law. He must be removed from office.

Last week, the House of Representatives delivered the articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named seven Democratic members of Congress as the managers who will argue the case for impeachment.

On Thursday, a nonpartisan federal watchdog concluded that Trump broke the law when he froze assistance funds for Ukraine. The White House has said that it believed Trump was acting within his legal authority.

Twenty Republican senators would need to break with the president and join with all Democrats to remove Trump from office. There is little to no indication at this point that this is likely to happen — or come close.

"I absolutely acknowledge the tremendous anger and frustration in the community and in the neighborhood, and it's warranted," said County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes the trail.

"We're legally mandated to provide alternatives to every single resident along the trail before we move forward with clearing the encampment," Hopkins said. "We really need to get an encampment opened in a place that is actually appropriate for it."

the encampment still is rife with open drug use, violence and crime, local officials said. Drug needles recently littered the path amid the piles of trash and junk.

"Yes, there are thieves and there are addicts,"

"But there are also people struggling that just lost their job. You have to take each case individually."

Edwards, who said she worked as a nurse's aide in her home state of Nebraska, followed a boyfriend to California, she said. A bad breakup left her homeless."I hate to think that I will die out here and didn't make anything of myself," she said.

But like a lot of people on the trail, Edwards seemed to have no plan or path, indicative of broader challenges associated with the homeless crisis.

Using meth, she said, helped ease her mental anguish.

They searched for patterns that would help them form a clearer picture of Trump as a person and a president, and of this moment in history, ultimately emerging with a new book. A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America charts the first three years of Trump's tenure.

One such episode occurs six months into his presidency, during a Pentagon meeting in which the journalists report that Trump called senior military commanders "a bunch of dopes and babies."

Leonnig and Rucker cite the anecdote as a climactic "inflection point," marking Trump's determination to drive away those who try to offer him counsel.

increasingly the decisions have become more chaotic,"

"And the people that he's surrounded by are increasingly those who think their mission is to tell him, 'Yes.'

The one-child policy was put in place in 1979 by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who feared that the country's exploding population would hold back economic development.

Experts say that improved education and higher incomes in China have led to delayed marriage and childbirth and that once-strict government restrictions on births have made one-child households the norm.

By 2050, a third of China's people will be 60 or older, according to current projections, placing a significant burden on the government to care for the elder

Meanwhile, the world's second-largest economy cooled to its slowest pace in nearly three decades, with China posting year-on-year growth of 6.1% last year — a further sign that the protracted trade war with the U.S. has taken a toll.

Its economy has been undergoing a painful shift away from heavy industry and commodities. Instead, Beijing has aimed for a more consumer-based economy.

In 2007, the Chinese economy grew by a blistering 14%.

The new trade deal eases U.S. tariffs on some popular consumer goods manufactured in China, such as cellphones, but leaves in place hundreds of billions of dollars of other tariffs, including on components that U.S. factories use to assemble finished products.

The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere on the planet. While the melting sea ice has alarmed scientists and residents, newly accessible waterways mean commercial ships are increasingly plowing along polar lanes.

A binational working group study concluded in late 2018 that the project, estimated to cost more than $3 billion, will not be "financially feasible."

Rafaelsen wants to turn his tiny town into a major logistical hub, including a massive port and train line to Finland.

He envisions building a massive new container terminal and a 300-mile railway to the city of Rovaniemi in neighboring Finland, which would key to moving cargo into Western Europe.

"Our plan is that you should [have] 10 trains from Kirkenes every day ... and we should handle about 1 million containers [per year]," he says.

The Norwegian government drew up a concept study for a mega-port for the area. That idea is on hold amid doubts that there would be enough cargo to warrant the cost.

Kirkenes is the first western harbor you meet when you start from Shanghai and go along the Russian sub-Siberian coast,"

There has also been pushback from the Sami, an indigenous people who herd reindeer across northern Finland. A rail line could harm their livelihoods and culture, Sami leaders and the working group said

The lack of interest and financing have done little to dampen Rafaelsen's enthusiasm.

"I have promoted it a lot in China, and the Chinese [have] been here to look at the possibility,"

About a year ago, the Chinese government launched an Arctic white paper, considered its first formal articulation of policies for the region. It emphasized the region's strategic economic importance — calling China a "Near-Arctic State" — and elaborated on a plan to include a "Polar Silk Road" in its broad Belt and Road Initiative to build trade links across several continents.

In February 2019, the Norwegian town's annual winter festival was themed "The World's Northernmost Chinatown."

"People get angry. Now they think Kirkenes should not be Chinese at all. But it's engaged people. That's the best," he says.

"The issue here is population, especially in the eastern part of northern Norway," Stokvik says. "We need jobs — we need the youth to stay, not going away."

But Thomas Nilsen, a journalist who covers Arctic issues for the Independent Barents Observer, says he doesn't see Kirkenes ever becoming the new Singapore.

China insists on its acceptance as a prerequisite for building economic ties with Taiwan, precisely because doing so is an explicit denial of its existence as a de facto island state.

"And also, the things happening in Hong Kong, people get a real sense that this threat is real and it's getting more and more serious."

Taiwan's interests, she believes, are not best served by semantics but by facing up to the reality, in particular the aspirations of the Taiwanese youth who flocked to her cause.

She has, for example, stopped short of the formal declaration of independence

hina has said it would regard such a move as a pretext for military action.

she is also well aware that as a result of her victory, Beijing may well increase its pressure on Taiwan.

In response, she is trying to diversify Taiwan's trading relationships and boost the domestic economy, in particular by encouraging Taiwanese investors who have built factories in China to consider relocating back home.

And she is planning for all eventualities.

"You cannot exclude the possibility of war at any time," she says.

"Invading Taiwan is something that is going to be very costly for China."

With 1,600 sq m of potagers (gardens) that have produced 5 tonnes of organic produce since 2016 and partnerships with chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants, Terre de Monaco is a local success story.

Monaco is mostly concrete; I didn’t think I’d find the room. I really needed to convince people.”

The country may be associated with glamour and excess – from hedonistic frolics on a superyacht to a flutter in the grand casinos – yet this corner of the Côte d’Azur is, surprisingly, emerging as a leader in environmental responsibility.

Everywhere I looked, there were sustainable ways of shuttling me from A to B that help to reduce my carbon footprint; whether it was a hybrid bus snaking along Monaco’s winding roads or a leisurely cruise on the solar powered “bus boat” that crosses Port Hercules every 20 minutes. 

, I also noticed the abundance of eateries offering local, organic produce, some highlighting meat-free menus.

The lavish hotels scattered throughout this jet setters’ paradise are also playing their part, with many boasting green certifications recognising their sustainability efforts.

he so-called “Temple of the Sea” has watched over the Mediterranean for more than a century, raising awareness for the protection of the world’s oceans since its founding in 1910 by Prince Albert I.

“You can’t shut down the economy of an entire country, so we try and balance it out, it’s about offset,” said Anderson, acknowledging the steady stream of gas-guzzling luxury wheels that share the streets with the principality’s free-floating electric cars. “

“But it needs to go further in striking a balance with the demands of tourism, because we’re not yet perfect.”

While Tehran may have temporarily pulled its punches, we should all be very worried about the new risks we will confront in a world where senior government officials are considered fair game.

ehran can now attempt to justify a future assassination of one of our officials on the basis that they represented an "imminent threat" to Iran.

But even if Iranian leaders were demonstrating strategic restraint, it should not be mistaken for standing down. Iran has restarted its nuclear program and still has U.S. personnel squarely in its sights.

Iran was never going to mount a full-frontal assault in retaliation for the killing of one of its top commanders.

Instead, it has spent years building a specialization in asymmetric attacks, often through its wide network of proxies across the planet.

Perhaps the White House approach is best described as "bully them until they break." Based on my diplomatic experience, such strong-arm strategies don't work

What is it exactly that Trump expects Iran to do? The president said over the weekend he "couldn't care less if they negotiate."

Without a clear roadmap for how to move forward, there is a high probability we will find ourselves back on the cliffs overlooking a crisis in the coming months.

How can we avoid things getting out of hand and Iran developing nuclear weapons? First, forget about presidential summits, which haven't worked with North Korea.

It should make some clear, concrete demands for Iran to end support to proxies and protection of Iranians' fundamental rights.

How can we avoid the Soleimani strike boomeranging back against Americans serving abroad

Congress needs to do more than set stricter conditions for war. It ought to demand detailed answers for how we avoid it.

Trump ostensibly took out Soleimani to protect our people serving in the Middle East. He ended up putting them and many others in much greater danger.

It allows the courts to modify the original criminal sentences to "no longer require completion" of things that were originally required. Under that law, money owed can be waived or lowered, and other requirements like community service hours can be reduced.

In counties under Democratic control, more people are getting their voting rights back. And in counties under Republican control, many potential voters are missing out.

"You can't have two classes of voters — people who can afford their right to vote and people who can't," Warren said. "At this point it's really just a determination that once someone has an inability to pay off their fines and fees, then they're eligible to have their right to vote restored."

The lack of participation in Republican-leaning Florida could be a political liability later this year, especially if local Republicans don't take efforts to help restore voting rights for white and Latino voters, said DePalo-Gould, the FIU professor.

"If they're missing out on those votes, you know — we have very close elections in the state of Florida," she said. "This could mean a huge difference going into 2020."

Where coal’s plentiful energy came at the cost of grueling, dangerous work, early oil culture was even more exuberant. Speculators could strike it rich with minimal investment or work.

And then came oil.

That frontier adventurism soon gave way to what Buell calls “oil-electric-coal capitalism.” John Rockefeller monopolized the oil industry, eliminating the bold speculators but transforming daily life for consumers.

By the time Buell was writing, in 2012, a new cultural regime had begun, one blending exuberance and catastrophe, or so he argues. Robotics, nanotechnology, and the internet promised rapid advances for human culture

Will climate disaster, or intentional self-restraint, create new scarcity, rolling back the material progress of the twentieth century? Will dangerous, highly technical power sources like nuclear plants elevate technocratic authorities? Could distributed renewable energy systems and microgrids promote new kinds of localism and democracy? The history of energy cultures suggests that the implications of following any of these paths will be more complicated than we can predict.

The recent victories in Syria in favor of the Iran- and Russia-backed forces of President Bashar Al-Assad as well as the end to UN sanctions on Iran have the potential to aggrandize newer groups in the military, state, and business elites.

But without democratic oversight, the influx of European business and investment after sanctions has the potential both to increase corruption in state enterprises and to polarize inequality within the upper and middle classes.

The clerics, however, were mostly conservative and sympathetic to the sanctity of property ownership. They dismantled working class organizations and reversed nationalizations. Led by individuals like Rafsanjani, their policies ultimately empowered the middle class bazaari merchants and mid-sized entrepreneurs.

Shortly after the death of founding Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mansour Moaddel examined the socioeconomic counterrevolution that occurred in the late 1980s against peasant and worker movements for social change unleashed starting in 1978. The revolution shattered the control of western corporations and their foreign agents. Appealing to religious revolutionary ideology, farmers seized land from their landlords and workers organized to support better conditions and nationalizing industries.

Even if President-Elect Trump does not significantly alter the status quo in U.S. and Western diplomacy with Iran, many countervailing factors prevent such a simplification of Iranian politics. Many large Islamic charitable organizations exercise considerable economic and political power semi-independently from state institutions.

Factionalism continues to fire ideological rhetoric, discouraging diplomacy and foreign business engagement in Iran.

All those fancy titles and statuses are left at the door, though

All of those were steps in a larger plan to revitalize his Crenshaw district in South L.A. — plans that were cut short when Hussle was gunned down outside his store in broad daylight on March 31.

And on this warm summer morning, as so often happens, the book club quickly turned into therapy.

Here, they can be themselves

These books all educated and empowered Hussle — to release albums, start a record label and hire people with felony records to work at his shop, Slauson Tees, which later became The Marathon Clothing Store.

For years, black men rarely discussed mental health, even among themselves. But recently there has been a shift that has coincided with the maturation of hip-hop.

It was an hour and a half into the meeting before anyone mentioned Hussle’s name. The conversation had turned to sacrifice, and what one must do to move to the next level in their careers, relationships and other areas of their lives

He spoke of waiting tables while he taking acting classes and waiting on his big break. Hussle did something similar, Cash insisted, as he pivoted from street hustler to a Grammy-nominated musician.

The men examined their mortality. They discussed plans to live each day with purpose.

The men then packed up their belongings and returned to the outside world with the teachings of Hussle guiding them.

“He is irreplaceable and indispensable” to Iran’s military establishment.

The killing of General Suleimani was a major blow for Iran and a major escalation of President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which began with economic sanctions but has steadily moved into the military arena.

The Americans responded by bombing three sites of the Khataib Hezbollah militia near Qaim in western Iraq and two sites in Syria. Khataib Hezbollah denied involvement in the attack in Kirkuk.

Pro-Iranian militia members then marched on the American Embassy on Tuesday, effectively imprisoning its diplomats inside for more than 24 hours while thousands of militia members thronged outside. They burned the embassy’s reception area, planted militia flags on its roof and scrawled graffiti on its walls.

President Trump said on Tuesday that Iran would “be held fully responsible” for the attack on the embassy, in which protesters set fire to a reception building on the embassy compound, which covers more than 100 acres. He also blamed Tehran for directing the unrest.

General Suleimani led the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, a special forces unit responsible for Iranian operations outside Iran’s borders. He once described himself to a senior Iraqi intelligence official as the “sole authority for Iranian actions in Iraq,” the official later told American officials in Baghdad.In his speech denouncing Mr. Trump, he was even less discreet — and openly mocking.“We are near you, where you can’t even imagine,” he said. “We are ready. We are the man of this arena.”