A man carrying a backpack with mace and a letter for President Donald Trump was arrested Friday night after he breached security at the White House complex and was discovered by a Secret Service officer near the south entrance to the executive residence, officials said.
The incident happened just before midnight while the President was at the White House.
The suspect, identified in court records as Jonathan T. Tran, 26, of California, told the agency’s officers that he was there to see the President.
“No, I am a friend of the President. I have an appointment,” Tran said when approached by an officer, according to a report released Saturday by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
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Asked how he got there, Tran told officers: “I jumped the fence.”
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The arresting officers found two cans of mace and a passport on Tran, who appeared in D.C. Superior Court shortly before 5 p.m. dressed in a dark blue hoodie and khakis. He spoke only briefly, offering a faint “yes” when told his rights. He faces a charge of unlawful entry and will be arraigned in federal court on Monday.
Cities across the country were awash in red on Wednesday as thousands gathered to show support for International Women’s Day.
The rallies ― which mobilized men and women in New York, California, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., among other states ― was part of “A Day Without A Woman,” which organizers described as a day of “economic solidarity.”
Women were encouraged to take the day off and strike to “highlight the economic power and significance that women have in the U.S. and global economies,” Women’s March organizers said. Many people wore red to show their support for the movement.
The strikes were similar to last month’s A Day Without Immigrants, a nationwide protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
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mayoredlee/Instagram
At San Francisco City Hall, hundreds gather to honor International Women’s Day on Wednesday.
If President Donald Trump and Republicans make good on their promise to angry rural voters to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, those voters may wind up a lot angrier.
And it won’t be good for their health or for the electoral prospects of the GOP.
Democrats, at least, certainly think so, and are looking at both fresh polling data and history for evidence that the GOP’s repeal and replace effort will also repeal Republican control of Congress.
For Jill Hanauer, who runs the progressive election research and strategy outfit Project New America, the landscape is starting to remind her of Colorado in 2004, when Democrats did especially well, running in part on a health care message.
“The way we really won in Republican-leaning districts of the state legislature was talking about the specifics of health care ― particularly breast cancer and prostate cancer and other cancer screenings and other prevention,” Hanauer recently told The Huffington Post. “Thirteen years later, those same issues are, I believe, going to tear this party potentially apart if they don’t smell the coffee.”
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
In labs around the world, robots are sprouting legs. Engineers are fine-tuning their abilities to walk, climb, and stay balanced so they can carry heavy loads or scout hazardous environments.
Just a few years ago, many of the elite robots at the DARPA Robotics Challenge struggled with simple tasks. But robots are becoming more nimble all the time, and the age of awkward, clumsy machines is receding.
Many of these impressive robots don’t look particularly humanoid — or friendly. Handle, the newest limbed robot from Boston Dynamics, has even been described as “nightmare-inducing” by company founder Mark Raibert. Others scuttle along with an unsettling resemblance to spiders, ostriches, and mammals.
But their freaky designs are meant to help these robots move about more easily, both in remote wilderness and human cityscapes. Soon, legged robots will walk among us, and their inventors are already planning how they will make our lives easier and safer. Here are a few of the newest generation of bizarre-looking but mobile robots.
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Agility Robotics is planning to use Cassie for future tasks including telepresence, inspecting industrial sites, and curb-to-doorstep package delivery. Agility Robotics
Everyone hopes and wishes for that last-minute cancer breakthrough that will save doomed patients. It almost never actually happens. With Gleevec, it did.
The once-a-day pill turned chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, from a certain death sentence into a manageable disease. Now data shows it’s helped 83 percent of patients live 10 years or longer, even with side-effects that include a characteristic rash, nausea and fatigue.
And some may be able to stop taking the pills altogether, even though they are not cured, the original team of researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.
“It’s the first targeted personalized medicine that had ever been used. It was also the most successful,” said Dr. Richard Silver, a hematologist and oncologist at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center who helped first test the drug in patients.
. Gleevec the cancer drug. Carlos Chavez / LA Times via Getty Images
When Brian and Jeri Wilson brought home their 10-year-old adopted son Jason, formerly known as JiaJia, for the first time last year, the couple quickly realized they needed to move.
“Our old house had stairs everywhere,” says Brian. “For the first four months, Jason had to rely on us for everything. We had to carry him everywhere.”
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Jason, who chose his name when he became a US citizen, has no use of his legs, the result of botched spina bifida surgery as an infant in China.
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The Wilsons, both 51, knew they couldn’t carry Jason for much longer. He’s already gained 15 pounds and grown nearly four inches since they adopted him from a Beijing children’s home last January.
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“I think (carrying Jason) really helped us build a relationship with him,” Brian says — choosing to look at the bright side of each challenge the family faces.
Two protesters died during demonstrations in the South Korean capital Friday, after the country’s president was removed from office over alleged corruption.
A statement from acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn also said that several people were injured during the protests in Seoul. It called the casualties regrettable and didn’t provide further details on the deaths.
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Earlier Friday, Park Geun-hye’s presidency came to an end after a Constitutional Court upheld a December impeachment by South Korean lawmakers.
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South Koreans immediately took to the streets in their thousands, with some groups protesting against the decision and others wildly celebrating her removal from power in emotional, sometimes violent scenes.
Between spreading illnesses, ruining crops, and infesting our homes, insects have had a long, adversarial relationship with humans. But not all insects are pests — think bees — and if scientists and engineers have their way, several more species will soon become our unwitting allies.
In labs throughout the world, researchers are hacking the brains and bodies of insects, creating so-called “biobots” that can do their bidding. Just as insects have recently been hailed as a potential solution to our impending food security crisis, the shudder-inducing creatures may also save human lives in various other ways.
For example, crawling cyborg insects could someday explore disaster zones and aid in search-and-rescue operations. By effectively surveying areas inaccessible to rescue teams, these remote-controlled insects could help find people buried under collapsed buildings. Similarly, a mass of airborne biobots could quickly search forests, canyons, and other areas for missing hikers.
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Researchers at North Carolina State are hacking cockroaches and a moths for search-and-rescue missions. Alper Bozkurt / NCSU
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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The devastating effects of three consecutive years of failed rains.
James' World 2 