On Thursday morning, 16 U.S. Marines were arrested at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, with their alleged crimes involving drugs and human smuggling.
An official told CNN several of the arrests were related to an incident that took place earlier this month, involving two lance corporals and three Mexican citizens. Border Patrol pulled their car over about 20 miles east of the Tecate port of entry, and officers learned from the Mexican citizens that they had agreed to pay thousands of dollars to gain entry to the U.S. The Marines, Byron Law II and David Salazar-Quintero, have been charged with transporting undocumented migrants for financial gain.
"Information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation precipitated the arrests," the Marine Corps said in a statement. "None of the Marines arrested or detained for questioning served in support of the Southwest Border Support mission." Catherine Garcia
Former Special Robert Mueller's Wednesday testimony had one unmistakeably takeaway: Russian election meddling is a massive threat.
American intelligence officials agree that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and as Mueller put it Wednesday, they're continuing to do so "as we sit here." But more countries than just Russia are capable of attacking the U.S. electoral system, and they've been doing so for years, a report from The Washington Post reveals.
On Wednesday, Mueller warned that Russia's 2016 interference "wasn't a single attempt," and that "many more countries" were already borrowing its tactics. Those countries include "Saudi Arabia, Israel, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela," researchers tell the Post — though "it's often not clear" if official governments or other actors are doing the meddling. But with "rising tensions between Iran and the United States," it's become clear that that country will only become a bigger player in spreading disinformation across American social media, human rights lawyer Simin Kargar tells the Post.
Like Russian social media operations, Iranian disinformation accounts have often expanded from state-run operations. But unlike Russia's, they tend to only voice one side of a political issue, mostly taking the side opposite President Trump's, the Post notes. For example, "of 1,666 Iranian accounts taken down by Twitter in June ... Trump was mentioned more than 1,400 times — almost always in critical ways," the Post writes. And these operstions aren't going anywhere. As Kagar put it, "I wouldn't be surprised if the Iranians weren’t trying to expand their operations for the coming election" and "trying to harness as much division as possible."
Read more about Iran and Saudi Arabia's disinformation campaigns at The Washington Post. Kathryn Krawczyk
Margot Robbie's final performance in Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood has earned a glowing response from Sharon Tate's sister.
Robbie in Quentin Tarantino's newest film portrays the late actress, who was murdered in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson, and although Debra Tate was supportive of the project throughout, it was only this week that she saw the finished film in its entirety. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Tate praised Robbie's performance, saying the actress did "such a damn good job" to the point that "I had Sharon back in front of me again," although it was admittedly "too short a visit."
Sharon Tate's limited role in the movie has drawn some debate, with Tarantino shutting down a question critical of Robbie's limited number of lines when the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, although the character has slightly more screen time in the version hitting theaters on Friday. Debra Tate, it seems, has mixed feelings about this, telling Vanity Fair she respects that Tarantino's vision was a film focused on Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth, even if she would have loved to see more of her sister.
"I mean, I really wish that Quentin Tarantino would do the Sharon Tate story, and I would love to see Margot play [that]...But that was not the movie that Quentin had written, and I knew it and I understood it," Tate told Vanity Fair, adding that Tarantino did a "wonderful job" and that the way Robbie captured her sister's essence was "beautiful."
Tate had previously expressed her approval of the film after meeting with Tarantino, although she had previously been critical of Sony's plan to release the film in August on the actual 50th anniversary of Sharon's murder, which she said would have been "tacky and exploitative," per TMZ. Sony ultimately pushed the film up to its current release date of July 26. Brendan Morrow
If a tree falls in a forest, is it really dead?
A peculiar tree stump in New Zealand is testing this question. Scientists found a tree stump of the species Agathis australis, known as the kauri tree, that is still growing new tissue despite having no leaves. They discovered that it was actually being helped by other trees — under the forest floor, an interconnected root system allowed nutrients from the other kauri trees to pass to the stump, letting it grow even when it had no leaves.
Their research, published in the journal iScience on Thursday, reveals that this natural oddity is causing scientists to rethink what it means to be a tree. Interconnected roots provide a system of interaction between trees and tree stumps for some species, which makes them "much more complex than previously assumed," said the study's authors, Sebastian Leuzinger and Martin Bader.
It's not clear what benefit living trees would have by looping a leafless stump into their network of resources — but that stump is able to use its community to get access to "water, carbon, mineral nutrients, and microorganisms," Gizmodo explained.
Given this ability for some trees to help each other out in such a direct way, maybe it's time to stop thinking of trees as individual organisms. Perhaps they're all just parts of one "superorganism" that comprises the whole forest, Leuzinger said. While we're far from having proof that such a scientific reclassification is necessary, it's safe to say that trees are a lot more complicated than we thought. Read more at Gizmodo. Shivani Ishwar
The Turning Point USA aide responsible for a parody presidential seal featuring a Russia symbol and golf clubs being projected behind President Trump has already been fired.
After reports emerged that Trump appeared at the conservative group's event on Tuesday and stood in front of a parody presidential seal meant to look like the Russian coat of arms and with golf clubs added, Turning Point USA told CNN on Thursday an aide has been fired.
A source with the group also told CNN, though, that they think it was not intentional but that the person simply did a Google search for the real presidential seal and "with the pressure of the event, didn't notice that it is a doctored seal." The source also apologized and said "we're sorry for the mix-up and meant no disrespect to the White House or the president or the advance team."
The group also confirmed to The Washington Post, which previously reported on the fake seal appearing behind Trump, that the aide has been fired. "I don't think it was malicious intent, but nevertheless," the spokesperson said.
The White House had previously directed questions about the incident to Turning Point USA, and a White House official told CNN "we never saw the seal in question before it appeared in the video." Still, a former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, argued to the Post that Trump's team still shares some blame, as "to let someone project something on the screen that isn't controlled by the White House is pretty stupid." Brendan Morrow
Samsung is taking another stab at launching the Galaxy Fold, but this time, at least one carrier wants nothing to do with it.
The company's first foldable smartphone was originally scheduled to launch in April, but its release was postponed after numerous reviewers found that their device's screen broke within days for various reasons, with some reporting that it wasn't clear a layer on top of the screen isn't supposed to be taken off. Late on Wednesday, Samsung said it had made "necessary improvements" and is "conducting final product tests" so that the device can launch, for real this time, in September.
But T-Mobile told The Verge on Thursday that it won't sell the Galaxy Fold "because we already offer customers a wide range of the latest smartphones," with The Verge characterizing this statement as "probably about as close as shade as you're going to get" in a situation like this. T-Mobile was previously on board to sell the Galaxy Fold but had to cancel pre-orders as the device was delayed. T-Mobile users likely will still be able to buy the phone elsewhere and use it on the company's network, but Engadget writes that this nevertheless "will come as a blow to Samsung."
AT&T, which was also previously on board to sell the Galaxy Fold, hasn't yet confirmed whether it will still do so ahead of the September launch. No specific release date in September has been confirmed. Brendan Morrow