| 'A slap in the face': Trump's ethanol waivers are sparking rebellion in farm country Posted: 27 Aug 2019 09:01 AM PDT  "If people connected to agriculture decide to vote for the president, they're just voting to cut off their own economic prosperity."
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| Alarmed tourists watch huge volcanic eruption on Italy's Stromboli island Posted: 28 Aug 2019 08:23 AM PDT  A powerful volcanic eruption on the Italian island of Stromboli sent a huge cloud of ash into the sky, nearly two months after a similar eruption killed a hiker. Frightened tourists watched the eruption as lava cascaded down the sides of the volcano, one of the most active in the world. The eruption was preceded by a deafening boom, witnesses said. Known as a "paroxysmal eruption", it sent up a tall column of smoke and ash which could be seen from many miles away. Water-bombing aircraft were deployed to the island, scooping up sea water to put out small wild fires on the flanks of the mountain. The eruption on Stromboli sent a huge plume of ash and smoke into the sky Credit: Twitter There were no reports of injuries. Video footage showed one boat, with Italians on board, fleeing the island in panic as gigantic clouds of black ash rolled across the sea. On another boat, a British family watched in awe as the eruption took place. "Wow, the whole mountain is shaking," an Englishman says on a video clip of the eruption. "Oh my goodness, that is really bad guys." Nicole Bremner, an Australian who lives in London, was on a boat off Stromboli when the volcano erupted. "We were just at Stromboli volcano watching the small eruptions. We left and then this giant eruption happened!" she wrote. The property developer said the smoke and ash had left "a metallic taste in our mouths… waiting to see if we need to help with evacuations." Water-bombing aircraft were deployed to put out fires on the flanks of the volcano Credit: Italian fire service/AP Some tourists watched the eruption from the safety of the nearby island of Panarea. In video posted on social media, an American woman is heard to say: "Oh my God. I don't think we should go there today." The volcano last erupted on July 3, when a 35-year-old Italian hiker was killed by falling debris. He was with a companion who survived. At the time, one tourist wrote: "I've never felt so much fear in my life." Stromboli is part of the Aeolian archipelago of islands, which attract sailors and celebrities during the summer months. "The situation is under control, but all the same we have activated the normal civil protection procedures," said Marco Giorgianni, the mayor of Lipari, the most populated of the islands. Volcanologists believe Stromboli has been in nearly continuous eruption for at least 2,000 years and the eruption on Wednesday is not considered unusual. There are small eruptions on an hourly basis, with the volcano spewing out chunks of incandescent lava, ash and volcanic rock from its cone. At night the explosions can be seen far out at sea, lending the island the nickname "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean." There have been several fatal explosions in the past – four people were killed in 1919, three people in 1930 and one person, a biologist, in 1986.
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| A flight from the UK to Portugal was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot reportedly fainted Posted: 27 Aug 2019 03:33 AM PDT  A Jet2 plane from Manchester, England, to Madeira, Portugal, diverted to Porto. The First Officer landed the plane, and an off-duty pilot helped.
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| Attorney who 'refuses to prosecute' domestic violence cases between same-sex partners faces suspension Posted: 28 Aug 2019 08:06 AM PDT  A district attorney in Tennessee could face suspension after saying he does not prosecute domestic violence cases between same-sex partners.Coffee County district attorney Craig Northcott came under fire in June after a video emerged of him saying he would not prosecute anyone with domestic violence charges if they are in a gay marriage because he does not accept their legal status.
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| UK alone will be to blame for no-deal Brexit: EU tells Johnson Posted: 27 Aug 2019 10:40 AM PDT  Britain will be solely to blame if it crashes out of the EU in a chaotic "no-deal" Brexit, the bloc told Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday in the latest clash between Brussels and London. With the clock ticking and Johnson adamant the EU must accept significant changes to the existing withdrawal agreement, fears are growing that Britain could leave without a deal, causing major economic turmoil. Days after Johnson and EU Council President Donald Tusk traded jibes over who would be responsible if Britain leaves the bloc on October 31 without an agreement, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker waded into the row.
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| UPDATE 1-Russia, Turkey discuss supply of Russian warplanes - RIA Posted: 28 Aug 2019 01:43 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Russia, Turkey discuss supply of Russian warplanes - RIA]( "UPDATE 1-Russia, Turkey discuss supply of Russian warplanes - RIA") Russia and Turkey are discussing the possibility of deliveries of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jet and Su-35 aircraft to Turkey, the RIA news agency cited a Russian official as saying on Wednesday. Russia began delivering S-400 missile systems to Turkey this year, in a step that strained ties with Ankara's NATO allies and prompted Washington to begin removing Turkey from its programme for manufacturing F-35 jets, which Turkey also planned to buy. The head of Russia's Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation said he planned to discuss the S-400 missile defence system with a Turkish colleague later on Wednesday as well as "possibly deliveries of the Su-35 or Su-57".
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| Students rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir against India Posted: 27 Aug 2019 10:44 AM PDT  More than a thousand students rallied Tuesday in the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir to denounce India's downgrading of the special status of the portion of the disputed region it controls. The demonstrators chanted "We want freedom" and denounced human rights violations in Indian-administrated Kashmir. Kashmir, which is split between two countries and claimed by both, has been the cause of two of wars between Pakistan and India since they won independence from British colonialists in 1947.
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| Former Pence aide Nick Ayers removes self from Georgia Senate consideration Posted: 28 Aug 2019 12:01 PM PDT  In 2017, Ayers considered entering the Georgia gubernatorial contest but ultimately chose not to run
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| See Photos of the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT53 4-Door Posted: 28 Aug 2019 10:59 AM PDT |
| 'Fair maps': Barack Obama launches new initiative to help take on partisan gerrymandering Posted: 26 Aug 2019 07:49 PM PDT  Former President Barack Obama said gerrymandering is an issue he has made a top priority from his "2008 campaign until now." But the Supreme Court recently ruled maps that resulted from partisan redistricting are constitutional.
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| Mnuchin Says China Trade Meeting Will Happen But Won't Say When Posted: 28 Aug 2019 03:16 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said U.S. trade officials expect Chinese negotiators to visit Washington, but wouldn't say whether a previously planned September meeting would take place."We continue to have conversations. We're planning for them to come," Mnuchin said Wednesday in an interview, declining to say whether the September encounter would happen.Tensions between the two nations reached a fresh peak last Friday when China threatened retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. and President Donald Trump responded with a plan to ratchet up duties on Chinese products further and ordered American companies to look for alternatives to the country. The remarks prompted U.S. stocks to suffer one of their worst losses of the year.By Monday, Trump had softened his tone, saying the two nations had had phone conversations and that China was eager to strike a deal.Compounding the battle over tariffs, the two nations are engaged in a dispute over the value of their currencies. Mnuchin said Wednesday that he's been in contact with China's top central banker, the International Monetary Fund and other counterparts in Beijing over what the U.S. has deemed manipulation of the yuan."We've had conversations with the IMF and directly with our counterparts in China, including the governor of the PBOC," since the U.S. formally labeled China a currency manipulator on Aug. 5, Mnuchin said, referring to Yi Gang, who heads the People's Bank of China.China's currency broke the 7 per dollar level earlier this month for the first time since 2008, unleashing tumult across global markets. The U.S.'s manipulator announcement followed a declaration by PBOC's Yi that his nation wouldn't use the yuan as a tool to deal with trade disputes.The designation of China as a currency manipulator was seen as largely symbolic since the potential penalties are less punitive than steps Trump has already taken against China."We will have a separate dialog and discussion on currency as part of the trade discussion but separate from the trade discussion," Mnuchin said.To contact the reporter on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Brazil's president said he would accept $20 million from the G7 to tackle the Amazon fires, but only if Emmanuel Macron apologizes for calling him 'extraordinarily rude' Posted: 28 Aug 2019 02:53 AM PDT  French President Macron called Jair Bolsonaro rude after he appeared to endorse a Facebook post mocking the age gap between Macron and his wife.
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| Colorado mom found guilty of killing newborn, throwing her in neighbor's yard Posted: 27 Aug 2019 07:17 PM PDT  A young woman accused of killing her newborn daughter and then tossing the baby over a fence into a neighbor's backyard was found guilty of first-degree murder.
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| Tropical storm Dorian gathers strength in Caribbean as Puerto Rico braces for first hurricane Posted: 27 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT  A tropical storm is gathering strength and is expected to become a hurricane by the time it hits Puerto Rico.A state of emergency has been declared in the US territory as residents prepare for Dorian to bring the first hurricane of the season.
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| Lebanese army fires at Israeli drones that entered airspace Posted: 28 Aug 2019 12:01 PM PDT  Lebanese army gunners opened fired at two of three Israeli reconnaissance drones Wednesday after they entered Lebanese airspace, a security official and the state news agency said, amid heightened tensions between the two countries. The security official told The Associated Press that the drones left Lebanese airspace after being fired on and that none of them was shot down. The Israeli military in a statement acknowledged a confrontation but appeared to deny any of its drones were shot down.
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| U.S. 30-year bond yields hit record low, curve inversion grows Posted: 28 Aug 2019 12:21 PM PDT  U.S. Treasury debt yields fell on Wednesday, with 30-year yields setting all-time lows, as fears about a recession and trade tensions between China and the United States stoked unrelenting demand for low-risk government debt. Inversion is spreading across the U.S. yield curve, where short-dated yields are running above long-dated ones, which has also unsettled investors as yield curve inversion often precedes a recession. "A deeper inversion is sending a stronger statement that a meaningful slowdown is coming," said Brian Rehling, co-head of global fixed income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis, Missouri.
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| Climbers in Dolomites injured after picking up First World War explosives Posted: 27 Aug 2019 09:11 AM PDT  Two climbers have been injured after picking up First World War munitions in an abandoned military position high up in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The Spanish climbers, both 21, were at an altitude of around 9,000ft when they noticed an opening in the rock and ice. Inside the cave-like emplacement, they found abandoned ammunition and ordnance, left over from fighting between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces more than a century ago. One of the climbers picked up some of the munitions and the object exploded in his hands, leaving both him and his companion injured by shrapnel. Climate change is melting glaciers on the highest peaks of the Dolomites and revealing the remains of First World War battlefields, including abandoned military equipment and the skeletons of soldiers. Austro-Hungarian soldiers in the Dolomites in 1916 Credit: Getty Hikers in the area heard the explosion and went to the climbers' aid, calling the rescue services. Alpine rescue volunteers reached them and treated their wounds before carrying them down the mountain on stretchers. They were then taken to a hospital in the town of Trento. Explosives experts from the paramilitary Carabinieri police cordoned off the area and will remove the remaining ammunition. More than 750,000 Italian soldiers were killed on the Italian front, many of them amid the crags and ridges of the Dolomites. The Italians and Austro-Hungarians engaged in fierce fighting in the mountains, with each side trying to gain advantage by constructing artillery posts, trenches and bunkers higher than the other. To try to maintain discipline, Italian generals adopted the practice of decimation – the random execution of soldiers from units that retreated or protested the senseless slaughter. The skeletons of two soldiers, believed to have been members of an Austro-Hungarian artillery unit, emerged from the ice in 2012. They were found on the Presena glacier, not far from where the climbers stumbled on the ammunition. The remains of an Italian soldier were found in 2017, also at around 9,000ft.
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| Rare 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy’s ancestor, gives insight into early man Posted: 28 Aug 2019 01:07 PM PDT ![Rare 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy's ancestor, gives insight into early man]( "Rare 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy's ancestor, gives insight into early man") A 3.8 million year old skull from Africa is giving researchers a peek into humanity's evolutionary history, a new study suggests.
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| Trade insiders say Trump’s botching chances of a China deal Posted: 27 Aug 2019 03:42 PM PDT  "He's undermining the credibility of his negotiators."
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| Republicans have themselves to thank for socialism Posted: 28 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Socialism has been an incredibly divisive issue in American politics for decades. But its recent uptick in popularity has Republicans wondering what's wrong with the left. Little do they know they have their own actions and policies to thank for democratic socialism's rise in America. In this opinion piece, Business Insider's Manny Ocbazghi analyzes the role Republicans played in Obamacare's rollout, the Green New Deal, and more.
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| Only 33% of Americans believe that Jeffrey Epstein actually died by suicide Posted: 28 Aug 2019 06:36 AM PDT  Conspiracy theories flourished after Epstein was reported dead on August 10 in what was deemed a suicide.
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| Tehran ex-mayor who killed wife free on bail: lawyer Posted: 28 Aug 2019 04:54 AM PDT  A former mayor of Tehran who murdered his wife has been released on bail, his lawyer said Wednesday, two weeks after her family spared him from the death sentence. Mohammad Ali Najafi, 67, was sentenced to death last month after being convicted of shooting dead his second wife Mitra Ostad at their home in the Iranian capital on May 28. Ostad's family had originally appealed for "qesas" -- the Islamic law of retribution -- to be applied, which would have seen the death penalty served.
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| Russia: No involvement in Berlin daytime slaying of Georgian Posted: 28 Aug 2019 07:17 AM PDT ![Russia: No involvement in Berlin daytime slaying of Georgian]( "Russia: No involvement in Berlin daytime slaying of Georgian") Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Wednesday denied media reports that Moscow may have been involved in the brazen daytime slaying of a Georgian man in Berlin. Berlin prosecutors have released little about Friday's killing, except to say the 40-year-old victim was shot by a cyclist, who was captured shortly afterward and identified as a 48-year-old Russian man. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had nothing to do with the crime.
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| 'Now or never': Hong Kong protesters say they have nothing to lose Posted: 27 Aug 2019 04:03 PM PDT  Exasperated with the government's unflinching attitude to escalating civil unrest, Jason Tse quit his job in Australia and jumped on a plane to join what he believes is a do-or-die fight for Hong Kong's future. The Chinese territory is grappling with its biggest crisis since its handover to Beijing 22 years ago as many residents fret over what they see as China's tightening grip over the city and a relentless march toward mainland control. The battle for Hong Kong's soul has pitted protesters against the former British colony's political masters in Beijing, with broad swathes of the Asian financial center determined to defend the territory's freedoms at any cost.
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| America's first mass shooting: 70 years ago, a WWII veteran killed 13 of his neighbors Posted: 28 Aug 2019 05:29 AM PDT  Howard Unruh displayed the same temperament reflected in many of his modern counterparts — rigid, angry and blaming.
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| Trump suggested using bombs to fight hurricanes. These 4 graphics show why that would never work. Posted: 27 Aug 2019 12:19 PM PDT  President Trump has suggested hitting hurricanes with nuclear weapons. But no nuclear bomb is powerful enough to continuously disrupt a hurricane.
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| The Hebron Riots of 1929: Consequences and Lessons Posted: 27 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  In 1929, Arab clerics and politicians provoked riots across Palestine by accusing Jews of plotting to take control of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque. This month marks the 90th anniversary of those riots — but they are not a bygone. Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders incite violence today using similar falsehoods and ideology.The 1929 riots destroyed the Jewish community in Hebron. They persuaded Labor Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion that socialist fraternity among Jewish and Arab workers and peasants would not ensure peace. They impelled Palestine's Jews to bolster the Haganah, their underground self-defense group. And they vindicated Zionist warnings against relying on foreigners for security.To investigate the riots, the British government, which controlled Palestine at the time, appointed an inquiry board known as the Shaw Commission.The commission noted that Arab objections to Zionism were ideological, comprehensive, intense, and inflexible. In its report, it nonetheless devoted thousands of words to minute details of specific Arab grievances. It plumbed complaints that Jews, on one occasion, brought a chair to Jerusalem's Western Wall and, on another, set up a screen there to divide male and female worshipers.All this brings to mind the story of a man who thoroughly detests his wife but makes his case for divorce on the grounds that she doesn't put the cap back on the toothpaste tube. Obviously, what he gripes about is not what accounts for his detestation. Confusion on this score was characteristic of Middle East policy officials in 1929, and it still is.Today's conventional wisdom holds that Palestinian–Israeli peace will result from resolving the "final-status issues" (borders, water rights, security arrangements, settlements, etc.). This is to assume away profound Muslim religious and Arab national objections to Israel's very existence. It is like believing that the man detests his wife because of the toothpaste cap.In the run-up to the 1929 riots, Arab leaders claimed (falsely) that the Jews intended to desecrate al-Aqsa. They called for fighting the Zionists without mercy. On a Friday in late August, armed Arab villagers entered Jerusalem for weekly prayers. The British police commandant considered disarming them, the Shaw Commission reported, but accepted assurances that the weapons were defensive. A few hours later, "crowds of Muslims with sticks and clubs, some even with swords" made their way through the city and attacked the Jews.As news of the violence spread, it sparked more rioting. The next morning, "Arabs in Hebron made a most ferocious attack on the Jewish ghetto and on isolated Jewish houses. . . . More than 60 Jews — including many women and children — were murdered and more than 50 were wounded." The commission found that "this savage attack, of which no condemnation could be too severe, was accompanied by wanton destruction and looting. Jewish synagogues were desecrated, [and] a Jewish hospital, which had provided treatment for Arabs, was attacked and ransacked."In the immediate aftermath, a Canadian journalist visited one of the massacre sites, a religious school. Blood was still pooled on the floor. The Arab attackers, he reported, had mutilated their Jewish victims, severing the sexual organs of the males and the breasts of the females.Jews in other locations were also attacked. In a village near Jerusalem, the commission said, "the horrors of Hebron were repeated on a smaller scale." A few days after the Hebron attack, the Jewish survivors departed the city under British escort. No Jews lived there again until Israel won the West Bank in the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.For Ben-Gurion, according to Anita Shapira, the biographer of the future prime minister, the riots were a "turning point." They killed his hope that the Arab masses would join with the Labor Zionists in class solidarity against the bourgeois landowner-effendis. They showed that violent, uncompromising anti-Zionism had become a Palestinian Arab mass movement. From then on, he supported transforming the Haganah into the kind of professional and national force that would in time evolve into the Israeli army.Though Britain had issued the pro-Zionist Balfour Declaration during World War I, British officials in the Middle East generally disfavored Zionism. The Shaw Commission shared their slant. It would denounce the savage murder of Jews but not endorse their ambition to be able to defend themselves within a Jewish-majority state in the Jewish homeland. Accordingly, the commission blamed the riots not on extremist hostility to Zionism but on understandable Arab resentments. In effect, it blamed the Zionists.Similarly, today, enemies of the Jewish State blame anti-Israel terrorism less on the terrorists and jihadist ideology than on actions by Israel — building security barriers and operating checkpoints in and around the West Bank and Gaza, for example — which are described as "provocations" that fuel Palestinian resentment. To commemorate the 1929 riots is to refute the common error that the conflict is about the "occupation" that began in 1967. Arab anti-Zionist violence predates not only 1967 but Israel's birth in 1948. It started even before the Hebron massacre.United Nations resolutions routinely label the West Bank "Palestinian Arab territory," implying that the area belongs to the Arabs and that Jews have no right to live there. But, in the years before the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, the area was exclusively Arab because the Jews had been expelled. In some cases, as in Hebron, the expulsion was accomplished through mass murder.Arab rejection of Israel and Zionism emerges from an all-or-nothing view of justice and honor. It has never brooked compromise or moderation. It has justified, indeed demanded, murder of the enemy and destructive sacrifice of Palestinian lives. If the conflict were a matter of practicalities — a line-drawing problem of how to partition the land — it would have been resolved long ago. Until the Palestinians have a leadership willing to set aside the ideology and cool rather than inflame the passions that spawned the Hebron massacre, the conflict will not be resolved through diplomacy.Douglas J. Feith, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, served as under secretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration. Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for the Committee for Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
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| Balkan Rift Deepens With Some Unexpected Help From... Togo Posted: 28 Aug 2019 01:59 AM PDT ![Balkan Rift Deepens With Some Unexpected Help From... Togo]( "Balkan Rift Deepens With Some Unexpected Help From... Togo") (Bloomberg) -- The biggest territorial dispute in the Balkans, which has hampered Serbia's and Kosovo's integration with the European Union, has gone global instead of moving closer to resolution.While publicly stating that it wants to resume EU-mediated talks, Serbia has been campaigning to persuade nations not to recognize Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence.Vowing never to accept the Western-backed split of Kosovo, Serbia is working to reduce the number of countries that recognized Europe's newest state after the total peaked at 116 of 193 United Nations members.In the latest twist to the diplomatic saga, Serbia's Deputy Premier Ivica Dacic said this week he persuaded Togo to revoke its recognition made in 2014, making the west Africa nation 15th in the world to switch sides in the dispute and back Serbia's stance. Previous Serb wins include Grenada, Suriname, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, Papua New Guinea and Lesotho, he said.Serbia aims to reduce the number of states recognizing Kosovo to at least half of all UN members to make sure the latter never joins the organization, not even as an observer, according to Serbia's foreign minister. The biggest former Yugoslav republic also relies on the backing from Russia, China, India and five EU states that have not recognized Kosovo.The diplomatic dispute, which has intensified in the past three years, has stirred another wave of unease in Kosovo, with the Foreign Ministry saying on Facebook it has faced "an unprecedented diplomatic and propaganda campaign by Serbia with the support of Russia and other countries to hinder Kosovo's integration into the international community."The government is working with the U.S. and other western allies to counter the campaign by Serbs who use "bribes, corrupt affairs, arms sales and visa waiver agreements" to win nations over, the ministry said.Serbia and Kosovo fought a war that only stopped in 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia. The Balkan neighbors signed in 2013 an EU-brokered framework deal to mend ties but the efforts stalled last year when Serbia blocked Kosovo from joining Interpol, triggering a retaliatory 100% tax on Serb imports.The trade barrier will remain until Serbia accepts Kosovo's statehood, said Premier Ramush Haradinaj who has made the tariff a key theme of his campaign ahead of Oct. 6 snap vote in the landlocked nation of 1.9 million people.The U.S., France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. have urged the Balkan neighbors to sit and talk rather than use resources to battle it out globally."For Kosovo, that means suspending the tariffs imposed on Serbia," the western nations said in a joint statement in mid August. "For Serbia, that means suspending the de-recognition campaign against Kosovo."Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed this, saying that under the 2013 deal signed in Brussels both sides were to halt the hunt for allies at the time when the total of countries accepting Kosovo as a country was just over 80.Kosovo "never accepted this, and since they didn't, we just did our job" to seek reversals, Vucic said after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week.The next showdown may be in October when Interpol holds its conference in Chile and Serbia will again seek to block Kosovo from the organization, Foreign Minister Dacic said.(Updates with Serb plan to block Kosovo from Interpol in last paragraph.)\--With assistance from Gordana Filipovic and Jasmina Kuzmanovic.To contact the reporter on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, ;Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Alan CrawfordFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Pound dives on increased no-deal Brexit prospect Posted: 28 Aug 2019 06:40 AM PDT  The pound fell versus the dollar and euro Wednesday as Britain's government moved to extend the suspension of parliament, increasing the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.
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| 245 rescued from burning ferry in Philippine waters, 3 dead Posted: 28 Aug 2019 03:54 AM PDT  Fishing boats and passing ships rescued 245 people from a ferry that burned overnight in choppy waters in the southern Philippines but at least three people perished, including a child, coast guard officials said Wednesday. Survivors described how they feared being killed by either the fire or waves while waiting for hours to be rescued as bright-orange flames engulfed much of the vessel, the M/V Lite Ferry 16, off Dapitan city in Zamboanga del Norte province. The fire apparently started in the engine room, coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said.
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| Exclusive: China denies Qingdao port visit for U.S. warship amid tensions Posted: 27 Aug 2019 08:40 PM PDT  China has denied a request for a U.S. Navy warship to visit the Chinese port city of Qingdao in recent days, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Tuesday, at a time of tense ties between the world's two largest economies. This marks at least the second time China has denied a request by the United States this month, having earlier rejected a request for two U.S. Navy ships to visit Hong Kong, as the political crisis in the former British colony deepened. The defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the destroyer was supposed to visit on Sunday but China denied the request prior to that.
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| A Florida surfer caught a wave and crash landed onto a shark that bit him Posted: 28 Aug 2019 08:51 AM PDT  Donald Walsh, a chiropractor from Florida, caught a wave while surfing and landed on a shark. It's the 11th shark bite reported in the area this year.
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| Florida city, under fire for imposing massive fines on homeowners, drops lawsuit against woman Posted: 27 Aug 2019 01:25 PM PDT  The city of Dunedin, Florida, has been under scrutiny for massive fines lodged against homeowners over code enforcement violations.
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| Trump said his Florida resort where he wants to host the next G7 has 'no bed bugs.' The resort settled a lawsuit over bed bugs there in 2017 Posted: 27 Aug 2019 11:38 AM PDT  Trump said his Florida resort doesn't have bed bugs. In 2017, the Doral resort reached a settlement with a guest who was allegedly bitten by the bugs.
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| Johnson & Johnson Was Ordered to Pay $572 Million for Its Role in the Opioid Crisis. With Similar Lawsuits Across the Country, That Could Be Just the Beginning Posted: 27 Aug 2019 08:01 PM PDT  A slew of legal challenges that could be affected by the Oklahoma verdict are underway in state and federal courts throughout the country.
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| View Photos of the 2019 Hyundai Tucson Ultimate Posted: 27 Aug 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| Michigan Man Accused of Murdering Wife by Putting Lethal Dose of Heroin in Her Cereal Posted: 27 Aug 2019 06:51 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/FacebookFive years after a Michigan mother died of what was deemed an accidental overdose at the time, police have charged her husband with murder—with investigators alleging he spiked her cereal with a lethal dose of heroin. Jason Harris, 44, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with first-degree murder, solicitation of murder and delivery of a controlled substance causing death. His wife, 36-year-old Christina Ann-Thompson Harris, was found dead in her home in September 2014 in a case that, at the time, was seen as a tragic accident. According to MLive, neighbors found Christina in her bed and were unable to wake her on the morning of Sept. 29. At the time, Jason told police his wife had a cold and he asked a neighbor to check in on her after he left for work.The Genesee County Medical Examiner ruled Christina's death an accidental overdose, though her family never knew her to be a drug user. Now, prosecutors say Christina's family members long had their suspicions about the shocking death. In October 2014, Jason Harris' siblings approached local police and said Jason had previously made remarks about "getting rid of Christina" and alleged he had been seeing other women before his wife's death, police said. Christina's mother also told authorities that her daughter "seemed fine" one day before her death, contradicting Jason's story.Jason's co-workers recalled him saying he had spiked his wife's water with Xanax pills, and asked what pills were odorless and tasteless. He was also accused of offering a hit man and his fellow co-worker $5,000 to kill Christina."We believe Jason Harris murdered his wife," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton told reporters Tuesday. "We believe he put heroin into her cereal and milk the night that she died after getting it from someone, thinking it would be tasteless and odorless much like he had asked his coworkers multiple times."Leyton also said Christina's previous blood work before her death showed no sign of heroin use. At the time of her death, Christina had also recently given birth, and tests of the breast milk she had produced and stored for her baby in the days before her death showed no traces of heroin or any other drug. Jason allegedly told a co-worker that he "just needed to get rid" of his wife so he wouldn't have to deal with a divorce, child support payments, or a custody battle. He also allegedly offered a man $5,000 to kill his wife but the man was caught while performing surveillance, Leyton said. Investigators later confirmed the family's allegations, and determined that Jason had been communicating with several other women before Christina's death—including one woman from Rhode Island. He allegedly traveled to the state just days after his wife's death to visit the woman, and police say Christina found text messages on his phone with the woman prior to her death. The woman and a child moved in with Jason less than two months after Christina died, ABC12 reports. The woman was reportedly still living with Jason at the time of his arrest.While he was fired from his job after testing positive for methamphetamine use, Jason was able to get a $100,000 life insurance check from Christina's employer and $20,000 life insurance check from his job after Christina died. A Legacy.com obituary for Christina also directs memorial contributions to be made out to Jason "in lieu of flowers."Jason could face life in prison if convicted. According to the Associated Press, he was denied bond at his Tuesday court appearance. His attorney, Nicholas Robinson, told MLive that his client "pled not guilty" and will contest the charges."Mr. Harris has been completely cooperative throughout this five year investigation and is eager to have all of the facts revealed when this case is presented," Robinson said. Jason is due back in court on Sept. 5.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Report says Rep. Ilhan Omar had affair with a married man Posted: 27 Aug 2019 05:39 PM PDT  Report: D.C. man ended marriage to be with Omar; Trace Gallagher has the details.
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| Mississippi getting set for hard-fought governor's race Posted: 28 Aug 2019 02:42 PM PDT  The Mississippi governor's race this year could be the toughest in nearly a generation, between two politicians who have already won statewide races and are known for digging in against opponents: two-term Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and four-term Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood. Reeves secured the Republican nomination Tuesday by defeating Bill Waller Jr., a retired Mississippi Supreme Court justice and son of a former governor. Reeves and Waller advanced to a runoff from a three-person primary Aug. 6, the same day Hood defeated seven low-budget candidates for the Democratic nod.
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| Disaster feared if 'ticking time bomb' Yemen tanker explodes Posted: 28 Aug 2019 10:27 AM PDT  An abandoned oil tanker anchored off war-torn Yemen that is degrading along with its cargo could explode and cause an environmental disaster, experts said Wednesday as UN inspectors prepared to visit. The ship "Safer", used as a floating storage platform, is laden with some 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded with no maintenance since early 2015, leaving it to deteriorate and potentially allowing explosive gases to build up. United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that a technical assessment team was waiting in nearby Djibouti preparing to board the Safer for a first-hand evaluation.
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| Kentucky school board wants Ark Encounter to pay higher taxes Posted: 27 Aug 2019 07:33 PM PDT  The Grant County Board of Education says the county is undervaluing the life-size replica of Noah's Ark in Northern Kentucky.
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| Let it burn: U.S. fights wildfires with fire, backed by Trump Posted: 28 Aug 2019 04:00 AM PDT ![Let it burn: U.S. fights wildfires with fire, backed by Trump]( "Let it burn: U.S. fights wildfires with fire, backed by Trump") It was the kind of fire that has terrified communities across the drought-ridden U.S. West in the past few years: a ponderosa pine forest ablaze in the mountains of New Mexico filling the air with thick, aromatic smoke. Except this fire was deliberately set by state penitentiary prisoners, dressed in red flame-resistant clothing and dripping a mix of gasoline and diesel around trees and scrub. The managed burn — a low-intensity controlled fire - was meant to clear undergrowth and protect the Santa Fe National Forest, and surrounding villages, from future wildfires that are growing more frequent and severe across the West with climate change.
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| Citi Adopts $15 Minimum Wage After Prod From Maxine Waters Posted: 28 Aug 2019 03:45 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. quietly boosted its minimum wage to $15 an hour, joining competitors in awarding raises to rank-and-file staff, after House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters prodded the firm.Unlike other major banks that announced similar moves in news releases, Citigroup disclosed its decision directly to Waters after she asked Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat whether he would consider raising the minimum to $20. The move to $15 took effect June 1, the bank told her in a statement, according to a copy of the exchange released by the California Democrat's office on Tuesday.A spokesman for the New York-based company declined to elaborate on how much the move might boost employees' pay and offered no additional comment. Median pay at Citigroup rose 3% to $49,766 in 2018, bank data cited by Waters's office show.Corbat stood in a lineup of seven leaders of major U.S. banks at an April hearing, where lawmakers took turns chiding them over a wide range of issues. At one point, representatives noted that Citigroup pays its CEO about 486 times more than the median for employees. Waters posed her question to Corbat as a follow-up to that session. And since that appearance, Corbat has said the nation's widening income gap ranks high on the list of things that keep him up at night.Waters has used such events to wrest incremental changes from banks. Ahead of that hearing, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it would stop financing private prisons. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set more aggressive targets for improving diversity.Last year, JPMorgan increased its minimum wage to a range of $15 to $18, a move that's primarily affected 22,000 of its full- and part-time workers in branches and call centers across the country. Bank of America Corp. has said it plans to raise its minimum wage to $20 over the next two years. Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-largest U.S. bank behind Citigroup, announced in late 2017 that it was boosting its minimum wage to $15.Throughout the industry, banks typically pay branch staff far less than people in their securities businesses or operations serving corporations and the wealthy. And in contrast to other large U.S. banks, Citigroup has a smaller branch footprint in its home country. Instead, it operates an unusually large consumer division internationally.(Updates to note Wells Fargo's move in 2017 in sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net;Austin Weinstein in New York at aweinstein18@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, David Scheer, Josh FriedmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| An 18-foot-long Burmese python was found in the Florida Everglades Posted: 27 Aug 2019 08:53 AM PDT  The animal, which is really, really long, was removed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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| El Paso shooting suspect says AK-style gun came from Romania Posted: 28 Aug 2019 03:36 PM PDT  The suspected gunman in the deadly mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart earlier this month told police that the AK-style rifle he used in the attack came from Romania, according to an investigative report. The Texas Tribune reported Wednesday that Patrick Crusius, 21, told police he ordered the weapon online before picking it up at a gun store near his suburban Dallas home. The Tribune cited a Texas Department of Public Safety document that also says the suspect told police he purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition from Russia.
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