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The Washington Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding broke the state's antidiscrimination law. Barronelle Stutzman, a florist in Richland, Washington, had been fined by a lower court for denying service to a gay couple in 2013. Stutzman said she was exercising her First Amendment rights, and her lawyers immediately said they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Thursday's decision. She had previously sold the couple flowers and knew they were gay. However, Stutzman told them that she couldn't provide flowers for their wedding because same-sex marriage was incompatible with her Christian beliefs. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the couple sued her, saying she broke state anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws, and the lower court agreed. The state's nine high court justices upheld that verdict. The case thrust the great-grandmother into the national spotlight and she te

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Bonn, February 16, 2017. Source: Flickr / MFA Russia U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington is ready to seek new common ground for cooperation with Moscow, Reuters reported "As we search for new common ground we expect Russia to honor its commitment to the Minsk agreements and work to de-escalate violence in Ukraine," Tillerson said after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. In his turn, Lavrov noted, that they "have discussed the situation in bilateral relations, which were seriously undermined by the Obama administration." "Tillerson has confirmed readiness to overcome this period expressed by President Trump during the phone talks with President Putin," Lavrov added. The first meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary  of State Res Tillerson was held in the German city of Bonn on the sidelines of th

China first, Russia second by Michael Klare If there’s a single consistent aspect to Pres. Donald Trump’s strategic vision, it’s that the simple principle of “America First” should always govern U.S. foreign policy, with this country’s vital interests placed above those of all others. “We will always put America’s interests first,” he  declared  in his victory speech in the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” he  insisted in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017. Since then, however, everything he’s done in the international arena has, intentionally or not, placed America’s interests behind those of its arch-rivals, China and Russia. So to be accurate, his guiding policy formula should really be relabeled America Third. Given 19 months of bravado public rhetoric, there was no way to imagine a Trumpian presidency that would favor America’s leading competitors. Throughout the campaign, he  castigated China for i

Donald Trump with Michael Flynn during a discussion on national security in his offices in Trump Tower in New York on August 17.AP Photo/Gerald Herbert In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted reporting on his campaign's ties with Russian intelligence officials as "conspiracy theories and blind hatred." "The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!"  Trump tweeted . Both MSNBC and CNN led Wednesday morning shows with a  New York Times report published Tuesday night that said members of Trump's campaign  had multiple communications with senior Russian intelligence officials before the US election,  as CNN White House video producer Elizabeth Landers  observed. Landers also said Fox News had not reported on the Times article Wednesday morning. In a follow-up tweet, Trump dismissed the "Russian connection non-sense" as

British Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and US President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House on January 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP) The British government says an invitation for US President Donald Trump's state visit is still in place, despite an outpouring of public and political protest. More than 1.8 million Britons have signed an online  petition  urging the government to withdraw the invitation that Prime Minister Theresa May extended to Trump while she was visiting Washington last month. The petition, which is expected to be put to debate in Parliament, called for Trump to be allowed to enter the UK but not be granted an official state visit because of fears it would cause embarrassment to Queen Elizabeth. In a statement sent to petition signatories, the Foreign Office said the government "recognized the strong views ... but does not support this petition." It also said that the US president should be granted the “full courte

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear deal as the ‘worse deal’, we don’t think the White House will be killing the nuclear deal,” Roozbeh Aliabadi, managing partner of the Global Growth Advisors from New York, told Press TV on Tuesday. European states, Russia and China are behind the nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the analyst said adding, “it is highly unlikely that we will see killing of the deal.” “It is reasonable for all of us to assume that the nuclear deal will stay in place,” the analyst noted. He said the fact that Trump in his first three weeks in office has not yet discussed the JCPOA with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) means that the nuclear

David Shepard Toyota's automated driving technology test vehicle on a Lexus vehicle displayed in Tokyo in Nov. 2014.  Photo credit: BLOOMBERG WASHINGTON -- General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. officials will tell a U.S. House panel on Tuesday that automakers need changes to automotive safety rules to allow the deployment of self-driving cars on American roads. "Without changes to those regulations, it may be years before the promise of today’s technology can be realized and thousands of preventable deaths that could have been avoided will happen," Mike Abelson, vice president of global strategy at GM, said in written testimony released Monday. "It is imperative that manufacturers have the ability to test these vehicles in greater numbers." On Monday, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Senator John Thune, the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, said in a joint statement they are exploring legislation that "clears hurdles and advances innova

Michael Flynn resigned because he had a telephone conversation with the Russian Ambassador and then lied about it. That's a little bit different from "links" to Russia. Unless it's now treasonous to enter into dialogue with other nations? Rudy Panko   They've done it again : Phone call = linked. QED. We've really hit rock bottom, folks. Links? As NBC reports, Flynn "misled Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials about his communications with Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States." This is what qualifies as having "links" to Russia? A telephone conversation? We thought that a major part of being in government was "talking with people"? Oh, but this saga of espionage and intrigue just gets better. Our friends at NBC News  claim that Flynn was forced to resign  after it was learned that "the Justice Department [had] informed the White House that it believed he could be subject to bl

Reuters ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari discussed a possible new arms deal with U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone on Monday to help the West African nation fight terrorism, the Nigerian presidency said. Nigeria has been fighting since 2009 against an insurgency by Boko Haram militants trying to set up an Islamic state in the remote northeast. The unrest has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. Abuja has been trying to persuade the U.S. to sell it military aircraft, a request being reviewed by Congress. "President Trump assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," the presidency said in a statement. Buhari is currently on medical leave in Britain. It gave no other details of the call, their first since Trump's inauguration, except that the U.S. president had invited Buhari to Washington. Under Buhari's predecessor Good

  Bob Bryan Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinWin McNamee/Getty Images Steven Mnuchin was confirmed by the US Senate on Monday night as the new Secretary of the Treasury. Mnuchin's confirmation came down nearly on a party line vote of 53 to 47, with no Republicans voting against the confirmation. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted for Mnuchin. Mnuchin, a former  Goldman Sachs banker and hedge fund manager , came under fire during his confirmation for various mistakes in financial disclosures to the Senate, as well as several previous investments. Mnuchin's fund invested in a mortgage lender called IndyMac at the height of the housing crisis (the name was later changed to OneWest). The lender's subsequent foreclosures on homeowners was called out by opponents as proof that the Treasury nominee profited from the financial woes of everyday Americans. Democrats claimed Mnuchin's company used  tactics such as robo-signing  to foreclose on as many people

By  Trevor Mogg   NASA The mission could provide vital information that helps pave the way for a human trip to Mars. As the rover’s own name cleverly suggests, Mars 2020 is set to head for the red planet in three years’ time. The mission, assuming everything goes to plan, will see the rover carry out geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, as well as examine the habitability of the harsh environment. It’ll also search for signs of ancient Martian life, and attempt to make an assessment of the natural resources and hazards for future human visitors. Its work could also lead to the first-ever return of rock samples from the planet. Landing site After a recent meet-up with scientists at a workshop in Monrovia, California, NASA has taken a big step toward choosing the all-important landing site for Mars 2020. The team narrowed the choice from eight locations to three, though the original list included 30 different sites. First up is Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater. “Miner

Thousands of people living below America’s tallest dam in northern California have been evacuated after the discovery of a "hazardous situation" that could cause the structure to fail. At least 160,000 people residing in Oroville and nearby cities were ordered to evacuated on Sunday night after water started to flow over the sides of an emergency spillway at the 230m-high Lake Oroville Dam. The spillway - used to alleviate pressure on the dam - is severely corroded and could fail imminently and unleash flood waters, according to Butte County Sheriff's Office. A large section of concrete at the bottom of the dam’s main spillway had already collapsed by Sunday, sending large chunks of concrete downstream. “Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered,” said Sheriff Kory L. Honea on Facebook. "This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill." However, latest state figures showed that water levels had falle

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters in New York City on January 27, 2017 (Photo by Reuters) The United Nations Security Council has announced an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The United States, Japan, and South Korea on Sunday requested the meeting on an “urgent basis.” North Korea launched the missile near the western city of Kusong on Sunday. It flew east about 500 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) later on Monday confirmed that Pyongyang had “successfully” tested a “surface-to-surface medium long-range ballistic missile.” The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, “expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means, which adds to the tremendous might of the country,” the KCNA said. A man wat

German tennis has responded with outrage after the United States Tennis Association (USTA) made the embarrassing error of playing the Nazi-era version of Germany's national anthem during a Fed Cup tie in Hawaii. The version played included the first stanza, beginning "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles, uber alles in der Welt" which was used as Nazi propaganda. It translates as "Germany, Germany, above all, above all in the world" and was dropped after World War Two because of its association with Adolf Hitler But Deutschlandlied, written in 1841, is still listed as the official national anthem, with only the third verse now being sung. Unfortunately, the male soloist on the Hawaiian island of Maui somehow sung the wrong version. "I thought it was the epitome of ignorance, and I've never felt more disrespected in my whole life, let alone in Fed Cup," Germany's Andrea Petkovic said, adding that she considered walking off court before the s

Chicago police search for evidence at the scene of a shooting in Chicago, Illinois, on February 11, 2017. (Photo via the Chicago Tribune) Two teenage girls have been shot in the head in separate incidents less than 30 minutes apart in Chicago, Illinois. A police bulletin released on Sunday said that one of the girls, aged 11, was in the back seat of a parked car at around 7:40 pm, when someone fired shots, "striking her in the head." The girl, identified by her grandmother as Takiya Holmes, was said to be in critical condition at Comer Children's Hospital. "They are treating her as best as they can with all kind of aggressive measures that the hospital can do for her, but it's grim and we want prayers to go up for her. We want whoever saw what happened to tell the police," Patsy Holmes told local media. According to police, she was hit in the back of the head during the incident on the city’s South Side, which saw another head shooting less than half a

Handout/Getty Images Russia could return Edward Snowden to the US as a "gift" to President Donald Trump, according to two US intelligence sources  cited by NBC News on Friday. One unnamed official, who NBC said gleaned information from "a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports," said such a move could be an attempt to "curry favor" with the Trump administration. Snowden is a former US National Security Agency contractor who stole top-secret documents in 2013 that revealed mass surveillance efforts by the US government. He shared those documents with journalists. Russia has been sheltering Snowden since 2013, and recently granted him permission to stay through 2020. Trump has in the past called Snowden a  traitor  and  a spy , and suggested Snowden may have given US secrets to other countries. Snowden  denied those allegations on Friday , saying on Twitter, "I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest

David Choi   Foreign nationals are arrested during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 2017.Charles Reed/US Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested hundreds of people in a nationwide sweep in what they called a routine "enforcement surge." The moves, however, were seen by immigration advocates as a consequence of President Donald Trump's  recent executive orders  on immigration. According to officials  cited  by The Associated Press, the five-day operation was designed to round up undocumented immigrants who have criminal histories and pending deportation orders. Hundreds of arrests - from Atlanta to Chicago to New York, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and South Carolina - drew backlash from several immigration advocacy groups. ICE officials arrested about 160 people in Southern California alone. "This is not nor

President Trump said Friday that he is considering rewriting his executive order temporarily barring refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, indicating that the administration may try to quickly restore some aspects of the now-frozen travel ban or replace it with other measures. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would probably wait until Monday or Tuesday to take any action, and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said several options — including taking the case to the Supreme Court — were still on the table. Trump hinted that the ongoing legal wrangling might move too slowly for his taste, though he thought he would ultimately prevail in court. “We will win that battle,” he said. “The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily, but we will win that battle. We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand-new order.” He said among the revisions he might make are “new security measures.” A t

Terrell Jermaine Starr Last night, the U.S. Air Force test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. It’s not an event that happens every day, but it’s done to verify the reliability and accuracy of the weapons system. While it could be seen as a message to a belligerent North Korea, it’s still a test of a system wildly outdated compared to what Russia is arming up with. The missile, equipped with a reentry vehicle, flew 4,200 miles to a test range near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was pulled at random from a silo at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota, then transported and reassembled at Vandenberg. There are no more details on how the test went. See the video below: Though, given how North Korea  recently announced  that it is developing an ICBM that can reach the U.S. mainland, the Minuteman III launch may have just been a message to Pyongyang that Washington can strike it with little notice. ADVERTISEM

Mark Wilson/Getty Images US President Donald Trump seems to have patched things up with China by promising to honor the "One China" agreement between the world's two biggest economies on his first phone call as president with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A press release from the White House said that during an "extremely cordial" conversation on Thursday evening, the "two leaders discussed numerous topics and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our 'one China' policy." The release also said the two leaders extended invitations to meet in their respective countries, and that representatives of each country "will engage in discussions and negotiations on various issues of mutual interest." Trump rattled the Sino-US relationship after his inauguration by breaking with decades of US policy and  taking a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen  in December. The "One China" policy, which the