North Korea vows to unleash ‘unimaginable’ nuclear strike on U.S. – NY Daily News

North Korea issued another threat of nuclear annihilation against the U.S. on Thursday, vowing to unleash an “unimaginable strike at an unimaginable time.” The warning comes as American military forces conduct ongoing joint naval exercises with South Korea. “The U.S. is running amok by introducing under our nose the targets we have set as primary…

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The opioid epidemic: How Congress and drug company lobbyists worked to neutralize the DEA – Washington Post

In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation’s streets. By then, the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of…

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Where’s Zinke? The interior secretary’s special flag offers clues. – The Washington Post

At the Interior Department’s headquarters in downtown Washington, Secretary Ryan Zinke has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government. A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building….

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Failure Has a Name at Equifax. Al Franken Says It’s ‘Gus’ – Bloomberg

Gee thanks, Gus. Gus isn’t a real person, but it’s the pseudonym Senator Al Franken assigned to the Equifax Inc. employee who holds a lot of the blame for the theft of 145.5 million Americans’ personal data. Former Chief Executive Officer Richard Smith told Franken and other senators Wednesday that Equifax was breached largely because of…

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United States rejects UN resolution condemning use of death penalty to target LGBTQ people – ThinkProgress

So far, no explanation has been given. CREDIT: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews The United Nations approved a resolution Friday condemning the use of the death penalty in a discriminatory fashion, including its use to punish “apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and consensual same-sex relations.” But the United States joined a minority of states who voted against it. ILGA, the…

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