| Detained Iranian tanker sets sail from Gibraltar as Tehran warns US not to seize ship Posted: 18 Aug 2019 11:27 PM PDT  The Iranian tanker seized by British royal marines near Gibraltar in July on suspicion of carrying oil to Syria has left port.Shipping data showed the Grace 1, renamed the Adrian Darya 1, leaving Gibraltar around 11pm on Sunday, and is believed to be heading to Kalamata in Greece.
|
| Regime advance cuts off Turkish convoy in northwest Syria Posted: 19 Aug 2019 01:50 PM PDT  Rebel-backer Turkey said its forces were targeted by an air strike, while the Syrian regime accused Turkish forces of backing "terrorists". The convoy had entered Idlib province before heading towards a key town where Russian-backed regime forces are waging a fierce battle to retake the area from jihadists and rebels. Turkey claimed an air strike hit its convoy, killing three civilians, though a war monitor said a Russian air raid took the lives of three rebels in the surrounding area.
|
| A Florida man fed a kinkajou. The next morning, the 'super aggressive' exotic creature attacked him Posted: 20 Aug 2019 03:32 PM PDT ![A Florida man fed a kinkajou. The next morning, the 'super aggressive' exotic creature attacked him]( "A Florida man fed a kinkajou. The next morning, the 'super aggressive' exotic creature attacked him") A Florida man was attacked by a kinkajou, a raccoon-like carnivore native to the rain forests of Central and South America.
|
| CNN Pundit’s Bodyguard Charged with Assault after Removing Reporter Covering Her Speech Posted: 20 Aug 2019 09:59 AM PDT  CNN pundit April Ryan's security guard has been charged with assault after he forcibly removed a local New Jersey reporter from an event at which Ryan was delivering a speech.Charlie Kravotil, editor of New Brunswick Today, claims that Ryan's bodyguard, 30-year-old Joel Morris, approached him during Ryan's speech at The Heldrich Hotel on August 3 and stole his camera after he refused to stop filming.A video of the incident shows Kravotil, who secured press credentials for the event, following Morris into the lobby of the hotel to retrieve his camera. After the local journalist reclaimed his camera, Morris grabbed his arm, placed it behind his back, and shoved him out of the hotel.Morris has been charged with harassment, assault, and theft in connection with the incident.Kravotil says he was invited to the event and was allowed to film for roughly two hours before Ryan took the stage to deliver a speech, at which point Morris stole his camera but allowed other people in the room to continue filming. He called on Ryan to apologize for the incident in a Monday tweet."She's been silent about the unacceptable and illegal behavior of her bodyguard, Joel Morris, and we are still waiting for her comment on this unfortunate incident," Kravotil said in a video posted to Twitter. "Maybe now that there are criminal charges, we might hear something from her. I hope, sincerely, that she does comment and I hope she does condemn this. This is unacceptable. . . . In our country, we have freedom of the press."Ryan is a vociferous critic of President Trump and routinely disparages him for his rhetorical attacks on the press, even authoring a book on the subject last year entitled Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.
|
| The Latest: Philadelphia police commissioner resigning Posted: 20 Aug 2019 03:38 PM PDT  A Philadelphia official says the resignation of Police Commissioner Richard Ross is related to allegations made by a corporal and a patrol officer against several department employees. Deana Gamble is a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney. Kenney's announcement Tuesday referred to a sexual harassment prevention policy and efforts to prevent discrimination and harassment that were implemented a year ago.
|
| Man pees in sink behind Starbucks counter and douses merchandise, Penn. cops say Posted: 19 Aug 2019 02:47 PM PDT  Pennsylvania police are looking for a man suspected of peeing in a Starbucks sink and onto merchandise in the store.
|
| A man lost his wife in the El Paso Walmart shooting, then his car was stolen during her funeral. His community came together to replace it. Posted: 20 Aug 2019 10:12 AM PDT  Antonio Basco's Ford Escape was stolen after a funeral for his wife, Margie Reckard, in El Paso. The community banded together to find him a new one.
|
| U.S. Steel plans to lay off hundreds of workers in Michigan Posted: 19 Aug 2019 05:44 PM PDT  United States Steel Corp will temporarily lay off hundreds of workers at its Great Lakes facility in Michigan in coming weeks, according to a filing the steelmaker made with the State of Michigan. In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed on Aug. 5, the Pittsburgh-based company said it expects to let go fewer than 200 workers following its decision to halt production at the Michigan facility. In mid-June, the company said it would idle two blast furnaces at its Great lakes and Gary Works plants, citing lower steel prices and softening demand.
|
| Chevy Baits Ford Mustang Owners with Special Camaro Discount Posted: 19 Aug 2019 07:15 AM PDT  It's a good try, but Ford's still ahead on sales and has an offer of its own.
|
| US court convicts far-right members over clashes with leftists Posted: 19 Aug 2019 02:46 PM PDT ![US court convicts far-right members over clashes with leftists]( "US court convicts far-right members over clashes with leftists") Two members of a far-right group were convicted Monday of brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare, 27, and John Kinsman, 39, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty of several counts of attempted assault and rioting by a Manhattan court. A jury decided the pair assaulted four members of Antifa, an anti-fascist group, who were protesting outside an event that Hare and Kinsman had attended on October 12 last year.
|
| It looks like the Russians are trying to hide the truth about that nuclear accident in Nyonoksa Posted: 19 Aug 2019 02:07 PM PDT  Evidence is mounting that Russia may be covering up a tragic nuclear accident after a mysterious blast killed seven at a military-weapons testing site.
|
| A Neutron Star Might Have Just Collided with a Black Hole Posted: 19 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Scientists are comparing the historic explosion to "the night before Christmas."
|
| 'Ticking time bomb': Violence surges amid guard shortage, lockdown at Mississippi prison Posted: 20 Aug 2019 05:34 PM PDT  As a lockdown at this Mississippi prison enters its seventh month, violence is rampant. It's "not a sustainable situation," ACLU official says. Others agree.
|
| Assad troops force Syrian rebels to retreat from key town Posted: 20 Aug 2019 12:54 PM PDT  Bashar al-Assad has vowed to recapture all of Syria as his forces made significant battlefield gains and drove rebel fighters out of a strategic town he once attacked with chemical weapons. Syrian regime troops pushed rebel forces from Khan Sheikhoun, a town where Assad's jets once dropped chemical weapons and killed nearly 100 people, prompting Donald Trump to launch retaliatory airstrikes in 2017. The town has been under rebel control since 2014 and its fall marks a victory for Assad as his troops attempt to conquer Idlib, the last opposition-held province in the northwest of Syria. Rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda, said they were retreating to an area south of the town but would continue fighting against the regime's advancing troops. Regime troops advanced into the outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun but had yet to fully occupy it. Speaking at a meeting with MPs from Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, Assad hailed his forces' progress. "The victories that were achieved prove the determination of the people and the army to defeat terrorists until the liberation of the last inch of Syrian territory," he said. He also accused Turkey and Western states of supporting jihadist groups in Syria. Tensions between Turkey and the Syrian regime have been rising sharply as Assad's forces drive into Idlib, where the Turkish military has 12 military outposts. Regime jets bombed near a Turkish military convoy on Monday, killing three civilians, according to Turkey's defence ministry. After eight years of civil war, the Idlib region on the border with Turkey is the last major stronghold of opposition Credit: AFP The fall of Khan Sheikhoun means that one of the Turkish military outposts is now effectively surrounded by regime forces. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said that his country would not withdraw from the outpost at Morek and warned the Syrian regime not to interfere with it. "We don't have an intention such as moving this elsewhere," Mr Cavusoglu said. "We will do whatever is necessary for the security of our own soldiers and observation posts." Turkey says it established the outposts to counter jihadist groups and help enforce a ceasefire it brokered alongside Russia. The Syrian regime says the outposts are a violation of Syrian sovereignty but has so far refrained from directly attacking them. However, as the regime advances further into Idlib the chances of a direct confrontation with Turkish forces seem to be rising. Assad's forces launched their offensive against Idlib in April but made relatively little progress until the last few weeks, when they have advanced rapidly with the support of withering airstrikes by Russian warplanes. Around 500 civilians have been killed since the offensive began, including more than 100 children, according to aid groups. A young girl named Jana was killed by Russian bombing on Tuesday, opposition activists said. The fighting has displaced over 500,000 people in southern Idlib and the northern of the neighbouring province of Hama. Khain Sheikhoun was seen as important symbol of opposition to Assad by rebel supporters "One of the revolution's castles is occupied by its destroyers," said one Syrian man in Idlib. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said the Islamic State (Isil) remains a threat in Syria and Iraq but has lost much of its ability to carry out centrally-planned attacks on the West. "There are places where ISIS is more powerful today than they were three or four years ago," Mr Pompeo told CBS. "But the caliphate is gone in their capacity to conduct external attacks, it's been made much more difficult," he said. The jihadist group was driven from its last territorial stronghold this year but continues to mount insurgency attacks in both Iraq and Syria.
|
| Boycott the Oven With These Summer Slow Cooker Recipes Posted: 20 Aug 2019 02:38 PM PDT |
| Germany takes back four Islamic State children from Syria Posted: 20 Aug 2019 02:55 AM PDT |
| Teens swept up in night raids in Kashmir clampdown Posted: 20 Aug 2019 06:55 AM PDT  Ali Mohammad Rah sat on the pavement outside a police station in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Tuesday, waiting to see his teenage sons, who were swept up in government raids overnight. Government sources say at least 4,000 people have been detained in Kashmir since India revoked the restive Himalayan region's autonomy on August 5 and imposed a massive security lockdown on the restive region. To try and stop the raids, residents in Srinagar's Soura area have erected barricades and dug trenches in roads that lead to their cluster of homes.
|
| Woman Taking Over a Subway for Her Glamorous Selfie Photoshoot Is the Latest Example of Knowing One's Worth Posted: 20 Aug 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A hero and an icon
|
| 4 last wolves in Washington pack killed by state hunters Posted: 19 Aug 2019 11:04 AM PDT  The last four members of a wolf pack that preyed on cattle in a rural Washington state area bordering Canada have been killed by state hunters, prompting protests from environmental groups. The four wolves were part of a pack that originally had seven members and attacked cows, killing or wounding them 29 times since 2018 and nine times over the last month, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement last Friday. Agency director Kelly Susewind authorized the killings of the remaining pack members on July 31.
|
| I've treated suicidal prisoners — Jeffrey Epstein's death is a medical, security disgrace Posted: 19 Aug 2019 10:20 AM PDT  No matter what happened in Jeffrey Epstein's cell, medical personnel and prison authorities clearly failed in their duty to monitor and treat him.
|
| Top Democratic presidential candidates lead Trump in new Fox News poll Posted: 19 Aug 2019 04:34 PM PDT  President Trump takes issue with results of latest Fox News poll matching him against top Democratic presidential rivals.
|
| Rep. Steve King wants media to apologize for reporting what he said about rape and incest Posted: 20 Aug 2019 07:50 AM PDT  King was arguing in favor of an abortion ban with no exceptions for pregnancies that resulted from rape or incest when he made the comment at an Iowa event last week.
|
| Gina Lopez, foe of Philippine mining industry, dies at 65 Posted: 19 Aug 2019 02:40 AM PDT  Former Philippine environment minister Gina Lopez, who led a high-profile fight against the nation's powerful mining industry, died Monday aged 65, her family's media company announced. Lopez rose to international prominence in 2016 by ordering many Philippines mines shuttered on environmental grounds, and also issued a ban on open-pit mining. The Philippines, which is one of the world's top nickel ore producers, has long faced accusations of looking the other way while major firms flout regulations.
|
| I am Mexican American with no hyphen and no apologies – and am haunted by a history of hate. Posted: 19 Aug 2019 05:30 AM PDT  I didn't know how to write about the El Paso massacre because for two weeks I've been too angry at too many people.
|
| Rape victim facing 40 years in prison after suffering stillbirth is cleared by court Posted: 19 Aug 2019 12:23 PM PDT  A rape victim who faced up to 40 years in prison after she suffered a stillbirth has been cleared at retrial.Evelyn Hernández was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide by a court in El Salvador in July 2017. She was prosecuted under the Central American country's strict abortion laws.
|
| Pompeo warns of 'new turmoil' if U.N. arms embargo on Iran lifted in 2020 Posted: 20 Aug 2019 01:14 PM PDT |
| Jail parents over skipping school? Some 2020 Democrats threatened it Posted: 20 Aug 2019 05:13 PM PDT  Kamala Harris says she didn't send anyone to jail, but critics say her policy "perpetuates poverty." Other 2020 Dems worked to decriminalize truancy.
|
| Girlfriend of U.K. Consulate Worker Says China Has Detained Him Posted: 20 Aug 2019 09:21 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- China has detained an employee of the U.K. consulate in Hong Kong during a trip to the mainland, according to his girlfriend, in a case that threatens to further strain ties between Beijing and London.Simon Cheng, 28, was reported missing after failing to return from an Aug. 8 meeting in the adjacent city of Shenzhen. The Hong Kong police said it has launched a "missing person" investigation and was keeping "close contact" with Chinese authorities. News site HK01 first reported Cheng's disappearance."Simon's disappearance and detention without reason will create panic among investors and entrepreneurs all over the world," said Annie Li, Cheng's girlfriend. "I call on relevant authorities in the mainland to release Simon as soon as possible and restore confidence of foreign investors and the public."The incident comes at a sensitive time for the U.K. and China, which has accused the British government of meddling in its former colony by defending the rights of pro-democracy demonstrators. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Aug. 9 to discuss "concerns about the situation in the city and the protests there," the foreign office said in a statement that made no mention of Cheng's case.Diplomatic SpatConcerns about the safety of foreign diplomatic staff operating in China have increased since Michael Kovrig, a global security analyst on leave from the Canadian foreign service, was detained in December and later accused of espionage. The move came amid a spat between Beijing and Ottawa over the arrest of a Chinese executive accused of sanctions violation in the U.S.The U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office said Tuesday it was providing Cheng's family with support and seeking information from authorities in Hong Kong and Guangdong, the southern Chinese province which includes Shenzhen.Cheng was concerned about his safety as he prepared to pass through immigration on his return home to Hong Kong, according to text messages shown by Li. "Passing through. Pray for me," he told his girlfriend.China has stepped up border controls near Hong Kong as authorities seek to prevent the financial hub's unrest from spreading. Travelers into China are being asked to unlock their smartphones so Chinese agents can examine their chats and social media, Bloomberg News reported last week, citing a person familiar with the procedure.Read more: China Border Agents Probe Hong Kong Travelers' DevicesIt wasn't immediately clear whether Cheng successfully crossed the mainland border and made it to the high-speed railway station staffed by mainland agents on the Hong Kong side. Also unknown was what, if any, diplomatic protections were available to Cheng.He's employed by the U.K. Consulate General and works for Scottish Development International, a body that encourages companies to do business with and invest in Scotland. SDI said it was seeking further information, and that Cheng's welfare was its priority.Immigration authorities told Li that Cheng was being held in administrative detention, though they don't know why or where he is being held in. Authorities can hold people for as long as 15 days under that process. He holds a British national overseas passport, the New York Times reported, which entitles him to consular representation but does not grant automatic rights to live or work in the U.K.'Foreign Forces'Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular press briefing Tuesday in Beijing that he wasn't familiar with the reports on Cheng's disappearance.The Chinese government has said "foreign forces" are interfering in Hong Kong, and its envoy in London accused British politicians of behaving as though the territory was still part of the U.K. Liu Xiaoming said Hong Kong faces the "gravest situation" since the 1997 handover due to the unrest.The Hong Kong Immigration Department told Bloomberg News that the agency has reached out to the city's trade office in Guangdong seeking information about the case. The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong confirmed it received the request, and said it would follow up with the agency."We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen," Foreign Office said.\--With assistance from Peter Martin, Iain Marlow, Dandan Li, Karen Leigh and Michael Sin.To contact the reporter on this story: Sheryl Tian Tong Lee in Hong Kong at slee1905@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Spain sends navy to save migrants as Italian justice intervenes Posted: 20 Aug 2019 01:52 PM PDT  Spain on Tuesday deployed a naval patrol boat to pick up migrants on a charity rescue boat that has been stranded off Italy's Lampedusa island for days after numerous people jumped overboard in a desperate bid to swim ashore. Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio also ordered the Open Arms charity vessel preventatively seized after inspecting the Spanish boat on which migrants have spent 19 days and "given the difficult situation on board", a judicial source said. Against the backdrop of a major political crisis in Italy, Patronaggio intervened as part of his probe into alleged kidnapping and refusing to obey orders targeting far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
|
| Bernie Sanders wants to completely ban cops using facial recognition tech from firms like Amazon Posted: 20 Aug 2019 04:08 AM PDT  As part of a sweeping set of promises on criminal justice reform, Bernie Sanders says he will ban the use of facial recognition by police.
|
| Ocasio-Cortez: The Electoral College Is a ‘Scam’ Posted: 20 Aug 2019 12:56 PM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Monday called the U.S. Electoral College "a scam" that negatively affects minorities."We're coming to you live from the Electoral College," the New York Democrat said in a video on Instagram, which featured her driving along a sparsely populated highway in what appears to be a desert somewhere in the western part of the country. "Many votes here, as you can see. Very efficient way to choose leadership of the country. I mean I can't think of any other way, can you?"The freshman congresswoman went on to cite a New York magazine story titled, "Here's Every Defense of the Electoral College — and Why They're All Wrong.""Due to severe racial disparities in certain states, the Electoral College effectively weighs white voters over voters of color, as opposed to a 'one person, one vote' system where all our votes are counted equally," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Could you imagine if we had this kind of democracy-altering 'fairness' provision for literally any other group? If we weighed, for example, black and indigenous voters more because of unfairness?""Facts are facts America," said the 29-year-old progressive, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens. "The Electoral College has to go."Several Democratic presidential candidates, including Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg, have also said they believe the Electoral College should be retired.The notion of ending the Electoral College has picked up steam lately in blue states. A number of states have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would give the states' electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote. But the agreement will not take effect until the electoral votes of participating states total 270.
|
| Detained immigrants sue over conditions, medical care Posted: 19 Aug 2019 11:11 AM PDT ![Detained immigrants sue over conditions, medical care]( "Detained immigrants sue over conditions, medical care") Immigrants held in U.S. detention facilities filed a lawsuit Monday decrying what they called shoddy medical care and a failure by authorities to provide accommodations for disabilities. In the suit filed by disability and civil rights advocates in U.S. District Court, immigrants said they're placed in isolation as punishment and denied recommended medical treatment and surgery. The problems harm disabled immigrants and threaten anyone in one of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's more than 50,000 detention beds who winds up getting sick or isolated from other detainees, said Monica Porter, staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, one of the organizations that filed the suit.
|
| For Trump, appeals to white fears about race may be a tougher sell in 2020: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 19 Aug 2019 03:08 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and focus on the grievances of white voters helped him win the 2016 election. The analysis comes amid widespread criticism of Trump's racially charged comments about four minority women lawmakers and the fallout from a mass shooting of Hispanics in El Paso, Texas, that many Democratic presidential candidates swiftly blamed on the president's rhetoric. While Reuters did not measure anti-Hispanic biases in 2016, political scientists say that people who express them closely overlap with those who are biased against other racial minorities.
|
| Suspect in Utah student Mackenzie Lueck's death is charged in a second case Posted: 20 Aug 2019 12:01 PM PDT  The man suspected of killing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck was charged Tuesday with sexual abuse and kidnapping of another woman.
|
| Demolition derby accident kills woman after car flies into crowd Posted: 20 Aug 2019 01:57 AM PDT  A woman was killed and seven other people injured when an out-of-control demolition derby car veered into spectators, it has been reported.The woman, believed to be a paramedic in her 30s, died after the crash in Deer Lodge, Montana, which happened during the final event of a tri-county fair on Sunday.
|
| Hiker Who Survived Being Lost in Montana Wilderness for Days Speaks Out Posted: 19 Aug 2019 02:59 PM PDT  Sunday marks a week since Kaden Laga went missing in Montana. He and his wife Arden, who are expecting their first baby, were out visiting family when a normal hike turned into a search and rescue.
|
| Russia's new high-altitude drone just flew for the first time, and they want to arm it with one ton of bombs Posted: 20 Aug 2019 02:09 PM PDT  On Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense shared video of a test flight for the Altius-U, a major step forward in its drone program.
|
| Hong Kong officers arrested for beating man in hospital Posted: 20 Aug 2019 04:56 AM PDT  Two Hong Kong police officers were arrested Tuesday after a video emerged of them beating an older man on a hospital trolly, heaping further pressure on a force already facing accusations of brutality. The footage, recorded in late June, shows two uniformed officers assaulting the man with batons and holding a cloth over his mouth. "It is clear that the actions committed by the police officers concerned are unlawful," said police spokesman John Tse, adding that police viewed the video for the first time on Tuesday.
|
| Palestinian leader fires advisers, wants bonuses returned Posted: 19 Aug 2019 09:34 AM PDT  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday laid off all of his advisers and ordered a former prime minister and other ex-Cabinet ministers to return tens of thousands of dollars from a pay raise he had secretly approved. Palestinian officials said the decisions, announced in official statements, came as part of efforts to cut costs and recuperate funds after Israel stopped delivering tax revenues earlier this year. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has long faced charges of corruption and mismanagement.
|
