It’s not even what the museum has it labeled as.
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago / Via oi.uchicago.edu
Wyndham Lathem, left, and Andrew Warren, right.
LinkedIn/Oxford University
Chicago police have issued arrest warrants for a Northwestern University professor and an employee of Britain's Oxford University over the killing of a man last week.
Wyndham Lathem, an associate professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern, and Andrew Warren, a senior treasury assistant at Oxford's Somerville College, are wanted for first-degree murder, a Chicago police spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
Because the alleged crime is of a violent nature, the pair are considered armed and dangerous.
Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, was found dead in Lathem's River North apartment in downtown on Thursday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Police were called to the 10th-floor apartment after a maintenance worker received an anonymous call stating that a crime had been committed, according to the newspaper.
Officers found the victim unresponsive and with multiple lacerations to his body, the police said.
Trenton Cornell-Duranleau
Cornell-Duranleau and Lathem appear to have known each other as they were friends on Facebook.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lathem's research focused on how pathogenic bacteria cause disease in humans.
In a statement, Northwestern spokesman Alan K. Cubbage said Lathem had been a member of the department of microbiology-immunology since 2007.
Lathem has been placed on administrative leave and banned from entering Northwestern campuses, Cubbage said.
"There is no indication of any risk to the Northwestern community from this individual at this time," he said.
"This is now a criminal matter under investigation by the appropriate authorities, and Northwestern University is cooperating in that investigation."
On Monday, Mischelle Duranleau, Cornell-Duranleau's adoptive mother, posted an obituary for her son on Facebook.
"Throughout his life he loved music and animals," the obituary stated. "His enthusiasm for life was infectious. Trenton was a caregiver and loved to help others."
Records show Cornell-Duranleau was a licensed cosmetologist in Michigan, where he was born.
Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
President Trump on Wednesday heralded a bill curtailing legal immigration that has been stalled in Congress for months and would now give preference to people who speak English.
The RAISE (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment ) Act has been sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee since it was introduced in February by Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, who flanked Trump at his Roosevelt Room announcement. The two senators unveiled a revised version at the White House Wednesday.
Trump's brief comments — he didn't take questions — were peppered with unproven remarks like immigrants are dependent on welfare and notions that play to cultural fears, like saying immigrants need to culturally "assimilate" in America. (The White House, in part, has cited this study conducted by a thank tank that advocates against immigration.)
"This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy," Trump said. "The RAISE Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting welfare and protects U.S. workers from being displaced."
"The reforms in the RAISE Act will help ensure that newcomers to our wonderful country will be assimilated, will succeed and will achieve the American dream," he continued.
The bill is unlikely to be passed by Congress.
"I like their suggestions," Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told BuzzFeed News. "But as they came to my office and I talked to them, we have a major problem that any bill you get out on the floor, the people that don’t want any immigration will try to amend it, and the people that want citizenship yesterday for the people who have come here undocumented, they will amend it, and if you could just get a clean bill like they’re suggesting through, I would be very much for going that route.
"But," Grassley added, "I think it’s an impossibility."
It's unlikely that the bill will gain support from Republicans who have taken more moderate stances on immigration issues, such as Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain. But even if they did somehow get on board, Republicans would still need at least eight Democratic senators to support it for it to pass, which is extremely unlikely.
After Wednesday's event, Graham tweeted that the bill would be "devastating to SC [South Carolina's] economy".
The announcement comes off a tumultuous two weeks for Trump — his health care bill was defeated, he shook up his staff several times, and the Russian investigations raise new questions almost daily. Wednesday's event provided tough-on-immigration talking points that will likely play well with Trump's base.
Trump’s support of the bill is partly in contrast to statements he made two months ago to The Economist supporting legal immigration.
"I want people to come into the country legally. No, legally? No. I want people to come in legally. But I want people to come in on merit.”
Asked if he would cut the numbers of legal immigrants, he said, “Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, we want people coming in legally. No, very strongly. Now they’re going to be much more strongly vetted as you see.”
He went on to say that he wanted farm workers to continue to immigrate to the US. “We also want farm workers to be able to come in. You know, we’re going to have work visas for the farm workers. If you look, you know we have a lot of people coming through the border, they’re great people and they work on the farms and then they go back home. We like those people a lot and we want them to continue to come in.”
The legislation proposes cutting legal immigration in half from around 1 million people each year to around 500,000 by 2027. It aims to do that mostly by reducing the number of family-based visas issued, in part by limiting the extended family members who qualify, including adult children. It also limits the number of refugees allowed to enter the country to 50,000 per year, and eliminates the Green Card visa lottery program.
The bill, if passed, would be a step in line with the president's executive order — which will go before the Supreme Court in October — temporarily banning all refugee arrivals to the US. Refugee resettlement agencies say it would drastically change the role America has historically played as a world leader during humanitarian crises.
“In the face of the largest global refugee crisis in recorded history, restricting refugee admissions to 50,000 would run contrary to America’s proud tradition offering safe haven to those fleeing violence and persecution," said Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency that works with refugees arriving in the US, in a statement.
(In 2013, 2014, and 2015, nearly 70,000 refugees were admitted to the US each year. according to the State Department).
Senators Cotton and Perdue worked with Trump advisor Stephen Miller on the bill, according to Politico. Miller is known for his anti-immigrant stances and rhetoric against multiculturalism.
Win Mcnamee / Getty Images
Trump said Wednesday that the bill is about attracting more skilled workers to the country. The legislation does not increase the number of skilled workers who would be allowed to immigrate, but introduces a "points system" based on age, education, profession, awards, investment capacity and English language proficiency. Trump mentioned his preference for a merit-based system during an address to Congress earlier this year.
In April, a group of 1,470 economists wrote a letter to legislators expressing their professional consensus that immigration — both low-skilled and highly-skilled — benefits the US economy.
"Some of us favor free markets while others have
championed for a larger role for government in the economy. But on some issues there is near
universal agreement. One such issue concerns the broad economic benefit that immigrants to this country bring," the economists wrote.
The group that coordinated the letter, the New American Economy (NAE), is made up of around 500 mayors of both parties and business leaders including co-chairs Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg, and mayors from cities in Illinois, Texas, South Carolina, Michigan and Utah, among others.
NAE Executive Director Jeremy Robbins told BuzzFeed News that from his group's perspective, attracting highly-skilled immigrants is a good thing. "But the notion that to do this you need to dramatically reduce low-skilled immigration is not only unsupported by economics, it's contradicted by it," he said.
One of the problems with the bill, Robbins said, is that it assumes that the number of jobs in the economy never changes, and that everyone—immigrants and citizens—is competing for the same set of jobs.
"The problem that Senator Cotton seeks to address — namely the impact of globalization and automation on millions of American workers — is very real. But immigration has far more potential to be a solution to that problem than an exacerbater of it, if we get the policy right, since it is a way for America to ensure we have the skills to meet the new economy so that our companies can grow and better create jobs," he said.
Lissandra Villa Huerta contributed to this report
One company is even recalling the cases after at least 24 people suffered skin irritation or chemical burns.
"Throughout the day, I felt a burning sensation on my leg but I thought they were just razor burns or something because thats usually what it is," she said. "When i got home my leg was a really bright red."
“Are you guys really defending capitalism? Are you serious? Right in front of my salad??”
After months of denigrating the media as fake news, President Trump has launched a news program of his own on Facebook featuring his daughter-in-law.
"Watch here for REAL news!" a post on the president's Facebook page said Sunday.
Lara Trump, who is married to the president's son Eric, appeared as the video's host in front of a Trump campaign background. Speaking to the camera like a TV news anchor, she offered updates on news favorable to her father-in-law.
"I bet you haven't heard about all the accomplishments the president had this week because there's so much fake news out there," she said.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
A Google search shows mainstream media outlets did cover the stories she recounted, such as Trump donating his salary, a new Foxconn manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, and economic growth. But they also reported on the turmoil within the White House, the failure of his party to repeal and replace Obamacare, and the president's tweets that he wanted to ban transgender people from serving in the military.
Trump's abrupt reversal of Department of Defense policy was a dominant news story in the mainstream media last week. BuzzFeed News reported that the White House did not have a plan for its implementation, how the news seemed to stun military leaders, and how the news was received by trans veterans.
Those stories were not included in Lara Trump's news update.
"The president also met with some incredible veterans this week in Ohio, giving his thanks to them for their service to our country. Likewise, the vice president visited Walter Reed hospital, where he sat down and talked to so many wounded soldiers who have put their lives on the line for all of us."
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how the video came to be produced and if Lara Trump should be considered part of the president's communications team. She previously worked as a producer for Inside Edition and has frequently made appearances in support of the Trump campaign.
She first promoted what will apparently be a series two weeks ago, encouraging the president's 23 million followers on Facebook to tune in every week.
"We're going to bring you nothing but the facts, stay tuned," she said.
Since the campaign and as recently as Tuesday, Trump has bragged that he doesn't need the mainstream media to reach his supporters given his large audiences on social media. The creation of some form of Trump TV was long rumored, and his Facebook page already streams many of his public appearances.
With her video update, Lara Trump offered one more way the president's supporters could avoid news reporting on the issues surrounding the White House.
"Thanks for joining us everybody. I'm Lara Trump, and that is the real news," she signed off.
“Number one, they should go after the leakers in intelligence. I don’t mean the White House stuff where they’re fighting over who loves me the most, OK? It’s just stupid people doing that.”
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
However, Politico got a hold of the transcript and on Tuesday published the entire 45-minute conversation, which was led primarily by the Journal's editor-in-chief, Gerard Baker. The remarks had circulated around the Journal's newsroom and others in New York and Washington, according to Politico.
When asked why the paper did not print the interview in full, a spokesperson told Politico that they "published the noteworthy excerpts from the interview. We saw no reason to publish the crosstalk that inevitably accompanies any conversation."
In it, the president called his son-in-law a "good boy," said the Boy Scouts called and told him his speech was the greatest "ever made to them," and that he was amazed when he found out how many people live in other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
There was a lot going on in the interview, so we highlighted the most ~interesting~ parts.
Steve Helber / AP
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Biggest crowd they’ve ever had. What did you think?
WSJ: I thought it was an interesting speech in the context of the Boy Scouts.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
WSJ: They seemed to get a lot of feedback from former scouts and –
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Did they like it?
WSJ: It seemed mixed.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: They loved it. (Laughter.) It wasn’t – it was no mix. That was a standing –
WSJ: In the – you got a good – you got a good reaction in –
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean, you know, he writes mostly negative stuff. But that was a standing ovation –
WSJ: You got a good reaction inside the arena, that’s right.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: – from the time I walked out on the stage – because I know. And by the way, I’d be the first to admit mixed. I’m a guy that will tell you mixed. There was no mix there. That was a standing ovation from the time I walked out to the time I left, and for five minutes after I had already gone. There was no mix.
And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful. So there was – there was no mix.
In fact, an official with the organization told BuzzFeed News they were unaware of any such phone call to the president.
Not long after the speech, the chief of the Boy Scouts of America apologized to the scouts for the president's "political rhetoric" that spurred backlash from some the scouting community.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News on Tuesday, Boy Scouts of America said that "the Chief Scout Executive’s message to the Scouting community speaks for itself."
