After comedian Jon Stewart raked him over the coals for dragging his feet (once again) on extending the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell complained Monday morning that Stewart was just looking for some way to be offended. And the senator added that he didn’t get why he was “all bent out of shape.”Following his emotional House testimony on behalf of 9/11 first responders in which he excoriated Congress for seemingly not caring about the plight of the victims, Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday and shamed McConnell for not prioritizing the bill.“I want to make it clear that this has never been dealt with compassionately by Senator McConnell,” the former Daily Show host said. “He has always held out until the very last minute and only then, under intense lobbying and public shaming has he even deigned to move on it.”Appearing Monday on Fox & Friends, McConnell was asked to react to Stewart’s comments. The Kentucky lawmaker essentially shrugged and said this is just how Congress works.“Well, many things in Congress happen at the last minute,” he responded. “We’ve never failed to address this issue and we will address it again. I don’t know why he is all bent out of shape but we will take care of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.”Co-host Steve Doocy noted that Stewart appeared to be upset during his House testimony that many members of the subcommittee didn’t show up that day, prompting McConnell to claim that members of Congress tend to “have a lot of things going on at the same time.”“It sounds to me like he is looking for some way to take offense,” the senator added.McConnell concluded the interview by insisting that there was “no way we won’t address this problem appropriately” and assuring the Fox hosts that the Senate will make sure the bill is funded.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 10:09:04 -0400

At minimum, Iran and America need a hotline to deconflict their military forces and avert a serious escalation. But that has been rejected before.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 09:50:26 -0400

If you have an iPhone but not an Apple Watch, you're really missing out. It's so awesome to not have to pull your phone out of your pocket or bag every time you get a notification. On top of that, Apple Watch complications are like smartphone widgets so you can see important information without having to open any apps. Now is the perfect time to get in on the Apple Watch action because the Apple Watch Series 3 just dropped back down to its lowest price on Amazon, starting at just $199 for the 38mm version and $229 for the larger 42mm model! Definitely check them out.Here are the key details from the product page: * GPS * Optical heart sensor * Digital Crown * S3 with dual-core processor * Accelerometer and gyroscope * Swim proof * watch OS 5 * Aluminum case

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 09:49:09 -0400

A South Carolina woman who police say was driving drunk will not be cited with a DUI because her vehicle of choice was a toy truck.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 09:27:23 -0400

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Monday announced the acquisition of Array BioPharma, a biotechnology firm that specializes in cancer drugs, the latest in a long list of biotech mergers in recent years. In a statement, Pfizer said it offered $48 per share in cash for Array, putting an $11.4 billion value on the company. "The board of directors of both companies have approved the merger," Pfizer said.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 09:15:37 -0400

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Sunday praised former vice president Joe Biden for his recently announced opposition to the Hyde amendment and said that her own opposition to the prohibition on the direct federal funding of abortion is rooted in her concern about income inequality.“I’m encourage by the fact that he is now against the Hyde Amendment,” Ocasio-Cortez told ABC’s Jonathan Karl when asked about Biden’s recent reversal on the issue.Ocasio-Cortez, who launched a petition over the weekend to build public support for the amendment's repeal, went on to explain that the direct federal funding of abortion is necessary to protect the abortion rights of incarcerated pregnant women.“Reproductive health care for incarcerated women should be guaranteed as it is with all women in the United States, so I think it really depends,” said the freshman New York lawmaker. More from her remarks:> And that’s really what the Hyde amendment is really about. The Hyde amendment isn’t about abortion per se. The Hyde amendment is truly about equality of healthcare and healthcare access for low income women and women of color and women that get caught in our mass incarceration system. And so the Hyde amendment is about income inequality and it’s about women’s healthcare in a system of income inequality. So I think that we need to repeal it.After maintaining support for the Hyde amendment throughout his decades-long career in politics, Biden reversed himself last month in response to pressure from abortion-advocacy groups.“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's ZIP code,” Biden said at a Democratic National Committee gala in Atlanta, citing the restrictive abortion bills recently passed in a number of southern states as the impetus for his reversal.Biden's high-profile reversal on the Hyde amendment prompted an outpouring of public statements from his 2020 Democratic primary opponents about the need to repeal the amendment, which has been added as a rider to federal spending bills in the decades since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

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Mon, 17 Jun 2019 08:00:00 -0400

Japan has protested what is says was an unauthorized Chinese maritime survey within its economic waters near disputed East China Sea islands, officials said Monday. Japan's Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protest with Beijing after a Chinese maritime research ship was seen dropping a wire-like object into the water off the northwestern coast of Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands on Sunday. China also claims the islands, which it calls Diaoyu.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 07:54:24 -0400

The Vatican formally opened debate Monday on letting married men be ordained as priests in remote parts of the Amazon where priests are so few that Catholics can go weeks or months without attending a Mass. The call for study on the proposal was contained in the working document, released Monday, for an October meeting of South American bishops on the Amazon. The document, prepared by the Vatican based on input from the region, affirmed that celibacy is a gift for the Catholic Church.

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 06:38:32 -0400