Venezuela goes dark: Country hit by major blackout

REUTERS REPORTING TONIGHT:
People at a shopping mall during a blackout in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday.

A major power outage hit crisis-stricken Venezuela on Thursday, according to Reuters witnesses, a problem the government of President Nicolas Maduro quickly blamed on “sabotage” at a hydroelectric dam that provides much of the country’s power.
Electricity outages are frequent in Venezuela, where the economy is collapsing under hyperinflation, with chronic shortages of food and medicine and a mass emigration of more than 3 million citizens.
Critics say corruption and under investment have left the country’s power grid unable to function, while Maduro says the problems are intentionally created by political adversaries.

Rep OMAR somewhat censured

RT:

The House of Representatives adopted a resolution condemning all forms of bigotry (including anti-Semitism) after a long day of linguistic gymnastics that saw it morph from censuring Rep. Ilhan Omar to frowning on… intolerance. 
The thrice-rewritten bill was barely recognizable as a rebuke of the alleged anti-Semitism of the Minnesota Democrat, instead bristling with denunciation of bigotry against every imaginable minority group in the US – a process that began when Omar's supporters requested the language be modified to include Muslims 
The final resolution veered close to self-parody after Democrats insisted Latinos, Asians, Pacific-Islanders, and LGBTQ people be added to the “traditionally persecuted peoples” list, pushing the vote back an hour on Thursday afternoon. Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and even the Dreyfus affair – which took place in 1800s France! – were name-dropped in the final version of the bill.
Dems pass watered-down anti-hate bill, upsetting those thirsty for ‘anti-semitic’ Omar’s blood

HISTORY