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The MS-RT R-Spec Transit Custom is certainly unlike any other Transit we’ve ever come across. Based on Ford’s regular Transit Custom - the best-selling van so far in 2018 - the R-Spec takes that winning formula of car-like handling, a punchy diesel engine and serious load-lugging capacity and, erm, adds to it. Rather significantly. Before we delve into those additions, though, let’s talk about the company responsible for bringing the R-Spec Transit Custom into existence. Based in south Wales, MS-RT is a collaboration between Van-Sport and motorsport icon Malcolm Wilson that specialises in turning regular Ford commercial vehicles - Rangers and Transits in particular - into something else entirely. That something else, in the case of the R-Spec, is a van that resembles the sort of vehicle Darth Vader might use to move house. MS-RT has fitted it with an extreme bodykit it says is inspired by those fixed to the cars run by Wilson’s Ford-backed M-Sport rally team, as well as 20in OZ Racing alloys shod in 255/40-section Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S rubber. It’s a menacing-looking thing, particularly when finished in black. That’s not to say the changes made to the R-Spec are purely cosmetic. Eibach springs lower its ride height, while the standard 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ecoblue diesel engine has been tuned to produce 205bhp and 359lb ft of torque. MS-RT has also equipped the R-Spec with uprated brakes, as well cosseting bucket seats up front. There’s a twin sports-exhaust system, too, to ensure you’ll hear the R-Spec coming long before you see it. It really is that loud. Driving the R-Spec Transit Custom is certainly a novel experience. It’s also one that - unfortunately - wears thin after an extended period at the wheel. This is down to the fact that it’s a van - so it’s never going to be the most comfortable vehicle to drive long distance – and the rumble from that exhaust. Don’t get us wrong, that rumble certainly sounds cool when you first start the van up. It’s brash, attention-grabbing and almost reminiscent of the noise an older Subaru Impreza WRX would’ve made. Only louder. Trundling around town is an entertaining undertaking, if only because you can really enjoy the sound this van makes under partial throttle, as well as the shocked looks cast towards the van by anyone you drive past. Get the R-Spec up to motorway cruising speeds, though, and the sound doesn’t exactly go away. Volume-wise, it doesn’t quite sit on the edge of being deafening, but it did leave this tester with a bit of a headache after a blast down to Beachy Head and back. Luckily, there is a smartphone app you can download to alter how much noise the exhaust makes, so we’d advise getting that if you’re planning on forking out the £35,995 (excluding VAT and RFL) required to get your hands on one. Ride-wise, the R-Spec isn’t particularly stellar, feeling a touch brittle - although not particularly nervous - over rough surfaces. Ensuring the three rear seats are occupied and the cargo area full (it has a capacity of 3.5 cubic metres) will no doubt go some way to settling things down. The cabin is decently insulated against wind noise, though, but there is a degree of road roar from those 20in alloy wheels. The steering is decently weighty and reasonably communicative, although considering the R-Spec’s slab-sided shape and tall centre of gravity it’s never really going to be the sort of vehicle for taking on a particularly challenging stretch of British B-road. Still, if the mood takes you, you will find there’s a commendable amount of grip at the front axle, while the brakes provide plenty of stopping power. Of course, body roll will never quite be eliminated in a vehicle shaped as such, although the Eibach lowering springs do an amicable job of keeping the van reasonably in check. The tweaks to the 2.0-litre Ford Ecoblue diesel engine are particularly welcome. The added poke the Steinbauer tuning box provides means overtaking manoeuvres are dispatched with ease, while the six-speed automatic transmission is responsive enough when you need to call on the 208bhp and 358lb ft of torque. If you have taken a look at the R-Spec Transit Custom and immediately come to the decision that your regular Transit just isn’t quite thuggish enough, then you’ll need to move quickly to get your hands on one. It’s a limited-run model launched to celebrate MS-RT’s second anniversary and only 50 will be built. Compared with the regular short-wheelbase double-cab-in-van Transit Custom that it’s based on, it’s fairly reasonably priced, too; excluding VAT, it’s a shade under £3,600 more expensive than the top-flight Sport variant. For the money, you get air conditioning, custom seats, a rear-view camera, a DAB radio, satellite navigation and smartphone connectivity via USB and Bluetooth, although all are housed within Ford’s now outdated Sync infotainment system. As far as fuel economy is concerned, we saw an indicated average of 27.9mpg during our time with the R-Spec. The Transit Custom’s sales figures already speak volumes for the van’s success in the UK. And while the R-Spec does have its flaws, there’s no denying that it’s a fresh take on Britain’s best-selling van. It might not be to everyone’s tastes, but the fact that it exists at all is to be celebrated. MS-RT R-Spec Transit Custom Where East Sussex, UK Price £35,995 excl VAT and RFL; On sale now; Engine 4 cyls, 1995cc, turbocharged diesel; Power 208bhp at 3850rpm; Torque 358lb ft at 2430rpm; Gearbox 6-spd automatic; Kerb weight Not stated; Top speed 92.8mph; 0-62mph Not stated; Fuel economy 27.9mpg (test); CO2 Not stated; Rivals Renault Master, Vauxhall Combo, Nissan NV300

When the Warriors took to the streets of Oakland a year ago to celebrate their championship, Draymond Green marked the occasion by donning a “Quickie” t-shirt featuring the logo from the Cavs arena. There’s a long history of sartorial beef between the Warriors and the Cavs, and highlights from the other side of the aisle include LeBron’s Ultimate Warrior shirt and rude Halloween party decorations. Naturally, Green was not about to let today’s parade go by without getting his jokes off. LeBron still has a chance to own Green like he did last year, and if he wants to, he’s got plenty to mock him for. In other Warriors news, Nick Young appears to be enjoying his first championship J.R. Smith style.

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Paul Newman came to racing later in life, but once there, he kept at it. In the 20-something years he drove, he piloted a wide range of road cars, everything from Datsuns to a Trans-Am Oldsmobile. Ten of Newman’s cars made their public debuts at the annual San Marino Motor Classic Sunday, from his original Triumph TR6 to the Porsche 935 he co-drove to first in class and second overall at Le Mans in 1979. The cars belong to podcaster, carpenter, drywall specialist and all-around hilarious funnyman Adam Carolla. Carolla made a documentary about Newman’s racing career and has also produced other racing films. His latest focuses on the driving career of Willy T. Ribbs and is titled “Uppity.” “He wanted that title, I didn’t,” Carolla said at the show. Carolla didn’t originally set out to collect Newman race cars. “I just wanted something fun and fast,” he said. “I was into Nissans, then I found out Newman was into Nissans.” So he started buying them. Pretty soon he had a garage full, including racing suits and helmets from the po[CENSORED]r actor/racer. The “Adam Carolla’s Paul Newman Collection presented by Passport Transport” was parked on the west end of the big lawn of Lacy Park. Passport Transport stepped in at the last minute to haul the cars to the show for free. For his part, Carolla expressed the trepidation any collector feels putting his own cars in front of the public for the first time. “I just want to say one thing, the ten Newman cars here, if I see one goddam shift knob unscrewed I will hunt you down and get you.” Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/events/ten-paul-newmans-race-cars-make-public-debut-together-2018-san-marino-motor-classic#ixzz5IAXSWLXt On the opposite side of Lacy Park’s enormous lawn were the Ferraris of local collector David Lee. The centerpiece of his collection -- at least on this day at this show -- was a Dino he had modified extensively. The biggest change, apart from interior and exterior styling details, was that Lee swapped out the Dino’s original six-cylinder for a 3.6-liter V8. Lee is the latest in a new line of enthusiasts to modify sports cars, including Porsche shop Emory Motorsports, and Singer, the latter a “boutique restoration shop.” Running rings around these two collections, literally if not figuratively, were the rest of the 350 or so cars that made up this year’s San Marino Motor Classic. This show is dedicated to diversity. If it wasn’t on the field in San Marino, you probably didn’t want to see it. The classic and collectible show in the tony LA suburb of San Marino, a town that was monied when Beverly Hills was still orange groves, threw open its gates (well, one gate) to welcome the eighth annual San Marino Motor Classic. From the Classic Car Club of America’s Duesenbergs, Packards and Cords, to real Bugattis from The Mullin and from everybody’s favorite car guy Bruce Meyer, there was something for everyone. Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/events/ten-paul-newmans-race-cars-make-public-debut-together-2018-san-marino-motor-classic#ixzz5IAXaJrob Officially, there were 331 cars listed, but with sponsor cars and a few latecomers the number was likely over 350. These ranged from the LaSalles, Auburns and grand old Lincolns of the CCCA, to Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis, to American muscle cars and Tri-Five Chevies to a class for Bantam and American Austin. The weather was perfect -- tickets were only 25 bucks if you bought them in advance -- and there were even 12 food trucks parked on Lacy Park’s west ring road. In eight years of the Motor Classic, it has raised over $1.6 million for charity, and that’s before counting this year’s receipts. This is a fine concours, on its way to becoming an event on par with the best in the country. Put it on your list of shows to see in 2019 and beyond. Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/events/ten-paul-newmans-race-cars-make-public-debut-together-2018-san-marino-motor-classic#ixzz5IAXfWfp8

DOTHAN, Ala. — Heading into the midterm elections, President Trump has become a one-man litmus test in some of his party’s primaries, imperiling incumbents in races where policy issues seem to matter less to voters than personal loyalty to the president. Perhaps nowhere has this been seen more acutely than in Alabama’s Second Congressional District, where Republican voters face a peculiar choice in a runoff: A congresswoman who condemned Mr. Trump but has since voted nearly in lock step with him, or a challenger who was once a Democrat who supported Nancy Pelosi, but now sounds much like the president. “It’s like a lot of elections: Which is the best of a bad choice?” said Brandon Shoupe, a Republican and county commissioner in southeast Alabama who has not endorsed either the incumbent, Martha Roby, or her runoff rival, Bobby Bright. “You’ve got an unpo[CENSORED]r flavor of Republican currently holding the office, and then you’ve got a former Democrat that’s running.” But the unusual pairing barely fazed many Republican voters. Indeed, Linda Lane-Overton, who lives in Alabama’s Wiregrass region, said she had comfortably arrived at a two-part test for making her decision. “We have to look at both candidates and feel sure that our vote will be for the candidate that can win the election in November — and be loyal to our president,” she said on Thursday. The fact that an incumbent like Ms. Roby has been forced into a runoff by questions of personal fealty illustrates the potency of the issue in this year’s Republican primaries. Another test of just how dangerous it can be for a Republican lawmaker to cross Mr. Trump looms on Tuesday. Republican voters in a South Carolina district will decide whether they want to nominate Representative Mark Sanford for another term or replace him with Katie Arrington, a state lawmaker who has made Mr. Sanford’s criticisms of the president the centerpiece of her insurgent campaign. Mr. Sanford has spent nearly $400,000 on advertising in recent months to try to hold on to his Charleston-based district, airing a commercial in which he says, “Overwhelmingly, I’ve voted with the president.” “We’re at an interesting inflection point in American politics,” he said in an interview. “If somehow dissent from your own party becomes viewed as a bad thing, then we’re not really vetting and challenging ideas in the way the founding fathers intended.” Broadening his argument, Mr. Sanford said America was meant to be “a nation of laws, not men” and that “we weren’t a cult of personality.” Mr. Sanford said he recognizes that Republicans in his district, which Mr. Trump carried by 14 points, want him to line up with the president, and cited a survey saying that he had voted with Mr. Trump in Congress 89 percent of the time. “I love my brother and sister, but I don’t agree with them 89 percent of the time,” he said. Still, his opponent, Ms. Arrington, has made extensive use of clips of Mr. Sanford taking aim at Mr. Trump. She argued in a debate this month that “our first job is to listen to the captain” and that “Mark Sanford has spent the better part of two years bashing our captain.” Ms. Roby, by contrast, has not staked out a position of anything approaching regular dissent; she essentially opposed Mr. Trump in public only for a short period near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, over his personal behavior. After a recording surfaced of Mr. Trump making vulgar comments about women, she said he was “unacceptable as a candidate for president” and urged him to step aside. “When she came out against Trump, the people down here in this part of the state — oh my God, they hate it,” said Will Matthews, a Republican lawyer in Ozark. “She showed her true colors to kowtow to the traditional Republican Party people.” On Election Day, Mr. Trump easily carried the Second District, but Ms. Roby won re-election with only 49 percent of the vote; two years earlier, she had taken about two-thirds. Things only seem to have gotten worse for her since then. Facing better prepared opposition than the last-minute write-in campaign her critics mounted in 2016, Ms. Roby managed to attract just 39 percent of the vote in the five-way Republican primary last week, necessitating a runoff on July 17. Her primary performance, dismal for a four-term incumbent, stemmed from a political reality of the Trump era: Republican primaries often draw voters with enormous, and largely unquestioning, affection for the president. Recognizing that reality, Republican candidates for the United States Senate in Mississippi have been jockeying over who is the most faithful to Mr. Trump — a striking echo of a Senate race last year in Alabama. Ms. Roby’s district, covering all or part of 15 counties, was ripe for just such a contest, with voters scattered from Montgomery’s northern suburbs down Highway 231 toward the peanut farms around Dothan, near the Florida border. Indeed, the danger for Ms. Roby, especially in a part of the Second District known for its conservatism as well as the texture of its grass, was clear almost immediately after she questioned Mr. Trump’s fitness.

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Investing almost £200,000 in a vehicle that you hope to rarely, if ever, use to its full potential might seem an odd thing to do. But should it ever be called into action, the cost of the British Touring Car Championship’s new safety team truck will absolutely be worth every penny. The truck, which will feature at every BTCC event, is packed with cutting-edge tools that will allow the four-person medical team in it to quickly assist trapped or injured drivers. Series boss Alan Gow openly admits he copied the idea from Nascar and IndyCar safety teams in the US, which also partly explains why all those tools are packed onto a 6.8-litre V8 Ford F-250 Laredo. “Since I was taking the idea from America, I thought I might as well get a great big US pick-up rather than using a pathetic local one,” says Gow. The BTCC has a Porsche Panamera Turbo that is used as a fast response medical car, carrying medical director Dr Paul Trafford and emergency equipment to the scene of an incident. But more substantial equipment, such as cutting tools, was previously loaded into a Ford Galaxy and accessing it during an emergency, such as a driver being trapped in a car, was difficult. The Galaxy remains as a support vehicle, but the F-250 has now taken on the role of getting the equipment and trained rescue team to the scene of accidents quickly. “It holds more,” says Gow. “Four volunteers in safety gear have to sit in it all day, so you want something comfortable. Plus, it’s got the capability to pull cars out of ditches.” Gow used an import specialist to source an F-250 from a Canadian dealer, and then spent three weeks running it in over Christmas (“Given the weather, it was fantastic,” he says), before it was sent for wrapping and then modifying. The modifications were done to specifications laid out by safety team leader Martin Hunt and Trafford. They advised on the equipment needed – provided by Holmatro, MacTools, DeWalt and RDT – and its placement, so they could get to every tool as fast as possible. “We spent a lot of time working out how the equipment would best fit, and what we’d need first in an accident,” says Hunt. The truck was pressed into service to attend the scene of an accident at Donington Park earlier this year. Gow adds: “I’m really proud of it. It shows that we keep putting money back into our series. We take safety incredibly seriously, and the safety and rescue equipment on the BTCC package is way above anything else in Europe.” The safety team prefers to dismantle cars rather than cut into them, but if they need to do the latter they have a range of battery- powered Holmatro tools, cutters, saws and rams, along with spare batteries. “Because racing cars need to be strong for crash tests, they use lots of exotic materials to save weight, and having the latest kit is essential in allowing us to actually be able to cut into it,” says Hunt, who adds that the team trained by cutting up the shell of an old BTCC race car. There’s also general equipment that might be useful in an accident, including self-heating blankets, tarpaulins for privacy and towing ropes.

A single photo on Angela Merkel’s Instagram says everything you need to know about this weekend’s G7 summit in Canada. The German chancellor shared the photo on June 9 and captioned it simply, “Day two of the G7 summit in Canada: spontaneous meeting between two working sessions.” In it, Merkel stares coldly, both hands braced on a table, at a defiant US president Donald Trump, who is seated with his arms crossed. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, French president Emmanuel Macron, and British prime minister Theresa May can also be seen standing in the photo. Merkel’s Instagram photo has already been declared an instant classic, drawing comparisons to a Renaissance painting with its strong body language and composition. BuzzFeed reported that the moment captured global leaders pushing for multilateral trade, while Trump refused to budge on his protectionist stance. The photo was reportedly taken by Jesco Denzel, a previous winner of the World Press Photo award. The G7 summit is an annual gathering of seven major industrialized nations—the US, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan—that represent more than half of global net worth. By its second day, the summit had dissolved into chaos, with Trump leaving early and then retracting his endorsement of the final statement from the G7. Trump clashed with Trudeau after the prime minister said Canada would enact retaliatory tariffs in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said. Trump, of course, had a retort on Twitter:

Porsche Taycan will be the name for the firm's first all-electric car. It had previously been unveiled as the Porsche Mission E in concept form. The name, confirmed by the firm's CEO Oliver Blume as part of Porsche's 70th anniversary celebrations, is said to translate loosely as "lively, young horse" from a Eurasian dialect- a nod to the firm's crest, which has featured a leaping horse since 1952. The news follows the release of the the first official drive footage of the Taycan last month, which showed the electric sports car being driven at pace by Mark Webber around the brand's Weissach test track. In the video, the Formula 1 race winner and 2015 World Endurance Champion demonstrates the all-electric car's agility and traction on the technical layout, stating that it's a "game changer". Webber also announces that the car has "600hp", which equates to 592bhp, confirming speculation that its lithium ion battery pack-powered dual electric motor architecture will rank the Mission E second only to the 911 GT2 RS for power. This output should give the car, which Webber admits is "heavier" than a standard Porsche due to its electric powertrain, a 0-62mph time of around three and a half seconds. It is expected to have a range of at least 300 miles. Although it's not due for reveal until 2019, ahead of arriving in showrooms in 2020, Porsche has already racked up thousands of test miles in mules that appear to be further advanced than regular cars at this stage of their development process. With new so-called J1 architecture that will enable fast-charging to 80% in just 15 minutes, the Taycan will reach the market with one of the most high-tech powertrains used on an electric car yet. The brand's first EV will feature 800V charging technology that is intended to future-proof the car for several years after it hits the market. The Taycan's four-seat interior suggests it will be more closely aligned, in terms of character, with the Panamera than pure sports cars such as the 911. But the Taycan's floor-mounted batteries should give it an extremely low centre of gravity to allow for hunkered-down handling that's comparable with more focused performance machines. The central location of the batteries and twin-motor set-up will also give the car's technical architecture a better front-rear weight balance than combustion-engined cars, potentially allowing Porsche's engineers to soften the car's anti-roll bars to aid ride without hindering handling. The most recently photographed test car was being towed by a Cayenne. Bbreakdowns are common during early phases of testing. Some of the spotted cars have been wearing exhaust exit surrounds that were fake and fitted to conceal the car's identity. A panel of autonomous sensors has also been seen in the car's nose, nestled between what appear to be two sets of louvres in the lower grille. These can be opened to allow battery and brake cooling. The development for the car is headed by Stefan Weckbach, who previously led product strategy and more recently was responsible for the development of the Boxster. The future Tesla Model S rival's J1 structure is one of three new electric car platforms being developed within Porsche's parent company, the Volkswagen Group. The J1 structure is described as being different in construction to the C-BEV platform planned to underpin sister brand Audi’s forthcoming E-tron SUV, which is due for reveal later this year. “The J1 has a low floor, while the C-BEV is constructed differently with a higher floor that suits an SUV,” said company chairman Oliver Blume. Despite the differences in construction, Blume also confirmed that production versions of the Taycan and E-tron will feature similar lithium ion battery technology. Details remain scarce, but Porsche is rumoured to be working with Japanese electronics company Hitachi on the system, which Blume describes as the key to providing the 15 minutes fast-charge capability. Blume also confirmed that Porsche plans for the Taycan to have Level 4 autonomous driving technology (self-driving in nearly all situations, with driver attention not required), but denied that it would allow fully autonomous driving over longer distances. “There are situations in traffic jams where you will be able to read a newspaper, but our customers take pleasure from driving and this will remain,” he said. Additionally, Porsche is working on providing the Taycan with software that will allow over-the-air updates such as those pioneered by Tesla with the Model S. “It will be possible to work with over-the-air options,” said Blume. “It isn’t decided yet, but it could be possible to charge up with more power. For example, when you have 400bhp, it could be possible to upgrade to 450bhp." His comments suggest that Porsche is planning the Taycan as a line-up of models with differing performance levels similar to the strategy undertaken with its current 718 Boxster/Cayman, 911, Panamera, Macan and Cayenne ranges. The brand is using the Taycan to spearhead its growing investment, which has totalled £5.3 billion for EV technology. Part of this money has helped to develop a plug-in hybrid version of the next-generation 911. Porsche revealed a more rugged version of the Taycan at the Geneva motor show. The Mission E Cross Turismo concept is based on the same platform but raises the ride height and adds an estate body. This version is expected to arrive on roads in 2021.

North Korean defector Kim Young-il is the 39-year-old founder of People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE). He escaped North Korea at 19 years old. Kim said that it is obvious to North Koreans that the government of Kim Jong Un is lying to the people about the country's situation and its reality. The one thing it is impossible for North Koreans to understand, however, is how big the difference in prosperity is between their country and developed nations like the US and South Korea. North Koreans understand that their government regularly lies to them and feeds them propaganda that contradicts their current situation, but few understand the true discrepancy between their country and the outside world, according to North Korean defector Kim Young-il. Kim, the 39-year-old founder of People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE), escaped North Korea when he was 19 years old. PSCORE is a nonprofit that promotes reunification, raises awareness about human rights issues in North Korea, and helps defectors adjust to life in South Korea. In 1997, Kim and his father left the country in the midst of a four-year-long famine and economic crisis that some estimates suggest claimed the lives of between 240,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans, out of a po[CENSORED]tion of 22 million. The dire situation made it obvious to North Koreans at the time that the government was not telling the truth about country, Kim told Business Insider in a recent interview. Kim, whose organization helps defectors escape North Korea and China and assists them once they reach South Korea, said that, even now, the situation is much the same; North Koreans know their government is lying. "The people know these are all lies because it's obvious. When the government says, there is prosperity in terms of food and rice, we see it ourselves and see that there is a drought and there is no food for us," Kim said. "When they see that what they say doesn't match with what is actually happening, they understand the government is lying." The one thing that North Koreans can't know, according to Kim, is the actual disparity between the country and other nations like the US, South Korea, or China. "They know [those countries are more prosperous and developed], but they don't know at what level and how different the countries are. They have no frame of reference. All the government says are lies, Kim said. "They have no way to obtain information about what South Korea or the United States look like." As Kim told the International Business Times last year, he and his family thought it was normal to "have our freedoms restricted." It was only upon arriving in South Korea that Kim said he realized "how unhappy we were."

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If you’re in the market for a new car, it’s worth getting excited – 2018 looks set to be a great year for new models from the majority of the world’s major car manufacturers. All-new designs join updated long-standing favourites in 2018’s wide and varied lineup, with a diversity of engines, bodystyles and technology never seen before. The year will see electrification continue across the board and before too long, whether it’s a supermini or a supercar, the chances are you’ll have the option of hybrid power at the very least. The usual year-on-year trends are present and correct; EV models will be more advanced and usable than ever before. Many of these will offer viable alternatives to petrol, diesel and hybrid models which themselves will offer improvements in economy and emissions for 2018. Superminis, family cars, saloons, coupes, sports cars and supercars will all arrive over the next 12 months, but buyers of SUVs will be particularly spoilt for choice, with new models of all shapes and sizes on the way. The hot topic of autonomous vehicles is likely to rumble on and we’d bet on seeing considerable improvements in the effectiveness and safety of the systems that run these cars – both those on sale and on test by pioneering manufacturers. Read on to get a sneak preview of the new cars worth waiting for in 2018.

A comedian and Kim Jong Un impersonator claims he was detained at the Singapore Changi Airport on Friday ahead of promotional events he has planned for the coming days. “(They) asked me what my political views were and if I have been involved with protests in other countries,” the lookalike, who gave his name only as “Howard X,” told Reuters. “They said, ‘It’s the Trump-Kim summit, you’ve come at a very sensitive time.’” X, who hails from Hong Kong, is in Singapore as part of a promotion for a mall and a seafood restaurant, the Associated Press reported. He claims police at Changi Airport held him for two hours on Friday, before telling him to stay away from the Sentosa Island, where President Trump and the real Kim Jong Un will be meeting on June 12, and the Shangri-La Hotel, where President Trump will reportedly be staying. Later on Friday, X met up with Donald Trump impersonator Dennis Alan to pose for photos in Singapore’s Merlion Park. Alan, too, said he believes the real-life meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un was directly inspired by his and X’s February publicity stunt at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where they managed to sneak into a press area during the opening ceremony before being removed. Despite stern warnings from police, X says he doesn’t think he’ll be getting any more trouble during his visit to Singapore. "I'm here to stay. I don't think they will try and kick out the president. It wouldn't be good press for Singapore," X said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democratic optimism about the 2018 midterms reached crescendo levels this winter after improbable wins in special elections in Alabama and western Pennsylvania. Liberals began to predict a “blue wave” — a sweeping series of electoral victories comparable to the GOP’s 2010 successes — that would vindicate the resistance and check Donald Trump’s power. But now Trump’s approval ratings are ticking up. The “generic ballot” polls are tightening. And Senate races across the country are shaping up to be much more competitive than Democrats had hoped in states like West Virginia, North Dakota, and Indiana. Even safer-looking Democratic senators like Bill Nelson in Florida and Sherrod Brown in Ohio are facing extremely well-funded opponents with solid statewide name recognition. The question for many liberals, then, is: Did the wave peak too soon only to dissipate in the face of a strengthening economy? Though it feels like the odds for liberals have gone from overwhelmingly positive to desperate quickly, the reality is a bit duller. As a country, we have, in many ways, failed to process some of the key lessons of the 2016 campaign. Modest-size polling errors are common; events are important to politics, and they are inherently unpredictable. But Democrats retain an edge in the polls, and the results from California continue to suggest that Democrats are modest favorites to win a House majority. House Democrats’ polling advantage has narrowed Back in the final week of 2017, Democrats held a generic ballot polling advantage that averaged 13 points or more. The numbers have bounced up and down since then, but the general trend has been in Republicans’ favor; Democrats now have an advantage of roughly 5.5 points. This narrowing has been happening for some time and is not a sudden news event. Two months ago, for example, Democrats were 8 points ahead — meaningfully better than their current numbers but also far worse than the December numbers. It’s worth saying that by the time of Conor Lamb’s surprise victory in the PA-18 special election, the Democratic lead was already down to “only” 8.5 points. Most of the narrowing, in other words, happened before Democrats’ most impressive special election victory rather than representing a recent deterioration. A glance at Trump’s approval ratings, however, does make it clear that the shift in the news environment since 2017 has been advantageous to his cause. Back in 2017, there was a lot of scandal news and coverage of Trump antics, but there was also intensive coverage of ongoing congressional debates on health care and taxes where Republicans took unpo[CENSORED]r positions. That unpo[CENSORED]rity helped contribute to Doug Jones winning a special election in Alabama in December. Jones’s victory, combined with John McCain’s poor health, have largely prevented Republicans from advancing a contentious legislative agenda in 2018. A news climate dominated by Trump scandals and culture war stuff isn’t exactly amazing for Republicans, but it’s more favorable than one dominated by Trump scandals and unpo[CENSORED]r Republican legislation. There’s offsetting good news for Democrats Interestingly, Democrats’ odds of capturing the House have not declined nearly as much since November as their poll numbers. G. Elliott Morris’s statistical model, for example, gives Democrats a 63 percent chance of taking the House in November, which is down only about 4 or 5 points from its high. Gamblers are a bit more pessimistic than Morris (whose model believes, based on history, that the opposition party is more likely to gain in the polls than decline) but similarly see a fairly modest change. One key issue here is simply the passage of time. Your odds of winning on Election Day are a function of both how large your polling lead is and how far away the election is, since the more time until Election Day, the more time there is for things to change. Democrats’ June polling lead is a lot smaller than their December polling lead, but the June lead is more valuable. The other really significant factor is the change in Pennsylvania’s congressional map from one highly gerrymandered to favor the GOP to one that’s about proportional in its partisan lean. The overall map still has a strong pro-Republican tilt, but Pennsylvania is a big state. That change meaningfully altered the overall slant in a way that’s boosted Democrats’ fortunes. Similarly, while final results are not yet in from California, the votes counted so far strongly suggest Democrats successfully avoided getting locked out of the general election by the Golden State’s weird “top two” primary system, greatly improving their odds of winning some of these seats in November. Democrats can also take solace in the fact that recent election outcomes have been better for their party than the polls. Some extra reasons for Democratic optimism (or wishful thinking) You may recall that last November, there was an extraordinary level of hand-wringing in Democratic circles about Ralph Northam’s extremely narrow polling lead over GOP nominee Ed Gillespie. Was the party about to blow it again, but this time in a clearly blue-leaning state where Donald Trump fared poorly in 2016? It turns out that, no, polling errors can happen in both directions. While Republican candidates moderately outperformed their poll numbers in 2016, Democrats outperformed their poll numbers in 2017. Northam didn’t beat Gillespie narrowly, as the polls suggested he would — he beat him solidly. And Democrats picked up a ton of House of Delegates seats. Phil Murphy romped to victory in New Jersey as well. And then in the Alabama special election, Doug Jones outperformed his poll numbers, winning narrowly when the polls said he would lose narrowly. After polls moderately overrated Democrats in the 2016 and 2014 cycles, people with short memories grew accustomed to the idea that maybe pollsters systematically underrate the GOP. But in the 2012 cycle, polling error favored Republicans. And so far in the Trump era, the same has been true with Democrats, who are performing, on average, 2.3 points better than their polling. By the same token, we haven’t yet had much polling that focuses on the question of who is likely to vote in 2018. But the evidence we have so far suggests that Democrats will have a turnout advantage. Some of this is psychological, with the “out” party naturally more motivated to vote in the midterms. But some of it is demographic. Trump has made the GOP more po[CENSORED]r with working-class white voters but less po[CENSORED]r with white college-educated professionals. That’s a geographically efficient swap in terms of the Electoral College, giving up useless or superfluous votes in Texas and California in exchange for valuable ones in Michigan and Pennsylvania. But it’s a bad deal in terms of turnout, since educated voters have a higher propensity to vote than working-class ones. Of course, this all may be no more than wishful thinking. At the end of the day, the most important thing to know about the November midterms is that they won’t be happening until November. Events in the rest of the summer and fall will likely change things, and it’s perhaps not productive to spend too much time worrying about the inherently unpredictable nature of events when we can actually speak more authoritatively about the policy stakes. A little rant about the “wave” metaphor It’s become common in recent years to speak about certain elections — 2006 for the Democrats, 2010 for Republicans — as representing metaphorical “waves.” A lot of 2018 commentary has ended up focusing on this metaphor. That, in turn, has tended to devolve into a kind of semantic quibbling over what a wave is. If Democrats secure a narrow one-seat majority in the House, is that really a wave? Does it matter that due to gerrymandering, securing a narrow majority would almost certainly entail a large 6- or 7-point win in the po[CENSORED]r vote? If Democrats carry the po[CENSORED]r vote by 5 points and pick up 22 House seats and one Senate seat despite a very unfavorable map, is that a non-wave just because it would leave the GOP in possession of razor-thin majorities in both bodies? Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report says that wave-ness (or lack thereof) actually has nothing to do with the magnitude of the electoral win.

Newly released footage from Arizona appears to show another example of police using undue force on an unarmed citizen. The surveillance video opens with a Mesa police officer exiting an elevator onto an apartment complex's fourth-floor deck. A man — later identified as Robert Johnson, 33 — comes into view. He leans forward on a railing and checks his phone. About three minutes later, four officers surround Johnson while he appears to be on his cellphone. They talk to him and he shifts his body against a wall. Then they grab him, knee him in the gut and throw several punches to his head and body until he slumps to the ground. They place him in handcuffs. Later, an officer shoves his head into the elevator door. The 20-minute clip released publicly Tuesday is part of an internal investigation that led the officers to be placed on administrative leave, Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista told NBC affiliate KPNX. While the incident occurred May 23, Batista said he only learned of it a week later. "This in no way represents the whole work that is done everyday," Batista said. "They're human beings and certainly at first glance this looks like a mistake, it doesn't look right. And it's my job, it's our job to collectively investigate and find the answers to this." Johnson was not being investigated at the time, but was at the complex while his friend allegedly tried to get into an ex-girlfriend's apartment, police said. Authorities were called as part of a domestic dispute. Johnson, who did not have any weapons on him, is facing disorderly conduct charges, KPNX reported. The video does not contain audio, although police claim Johnson was argumentative and refusing commands to sit down. Another man can be seen in the video sitting against a wall. "There is no explanation that can justify that level of force," Johnson's pastor, Andre Miller, told reporters. "When you look at the video, even after he was unconscious, he was still struck." Johnson's attorney, Benjamin Taylor, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. He said in a statement Tuesday that his client was cooperative and being peaceful against the wall. "The misconduct of these officers would have gone unnoticed if it had not been captured by surveillance videos at the apartment complex where the assault occurred," Taylor said. He wants the police department to hold the officers accountable and "develop a law enforcement culture that meets community and constitutional norms." The Mesa Police Association, which represents the officers, said in a statement that the video does not provide the full context of the encounter because there is no audio. "It is important to understand that any use of force, when viewed, is difficult to watch and never looks 'good,'" the union added. As a result of the incident, the Mesa Police Department has changed its use-of-force policy so that officers can only hit people in the head or face if they become physically violent, officials said. Previously, the policy could be interpreted that it was acceptable for an officer punch someone even before they turned violent.

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