| Georgia homeowner kills three teens wearing masks in possible 'stand your ground' case Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:15 PM PDT  The fatal shooting of three teens by a Georgia homeowner this week could be a 'stand your ground' case, the Rockdale County Sheriff says.
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| The Saudi drone attack took out a known weak spot in the oil supply chain with a cheap, low-tech weapon that billions' worth of air defenses are powerless to stop Posted: 16 Sep 2019 04:24 AM PDT  Saudi Aramco officials said Sunday that 5 million barrels per day had been affected, carving a 5%-sized hole in the world's total oil supply.
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| UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:35 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports]( "UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports") Russian border guards have detained two North Korean boats in Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan after one of them attacked a Russian patrol, local media cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying on Tuesday. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast and detained the first vessel, prompting the second one to open fire, the FSB was quoted as saying. Three Russian border guards were wounded in the incident.
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| French boy, 10, dies 8 years after supermarket burger poisoning Posted: 16 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  A French boy aged 10, who fell gravely ill in 2011 after consuming a beef burger from supermarket discounter Lidl that was infected with E.coli bacteria, has died of complications stemming from his poisoning, the family's lawyer said. The boy, Nolan, died on Saturday "as a consequence of his poisoning", the family's lawyer Florence Rault told AFP on Sunday. Rault said that Nolan had not "ceased to suffer" after consuming the burger in June 2011.
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| Couple reveal they are raising child 'gender neutral' and haven't even told close family their baby's sex Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT  A couple have decided to keep their baby's sex a secret from close relatives in a bid to avoid gender bias. Hobbit Humphrey, 38, and Jake England-Johns, 35, refer to their 17-month-old child, Anoush, with the pronoun, "they", and dress them in both girls' and boys' clothing. The married couple, who are members of the climate action group, Extinction Rebellion, have been accused of "virtue signalling". However, they are keen to let their child, Anoush, choose their own gender identity when they are old enough, because they wish for them to "grow into their own person". Close family members have not been told the child's sex and grandmother, Camille, only found out when she changed a nappy. The couple, who live on a houseboat in Keynsham, Somerset, discussed the ways in which they could challenge gender bias after discovering Ms Humphrey was pregnant. Mr England-Johns told the BBC's Inside Out: "The neutral in gender neutral refers to us trying to behave neutrally towards our child rather than trying to make them neutral." "Eventually, we decided that we wouldn't tell people whether they were a boy or a girl … in order to create this little bubble for our baby to be who they are," Ms Humphrey said. However their decision has sparked some controversy. Rosa Freedman, Professor of law conflict and global development at the University of Reading, said: "While this is an individual case the worry would be that in the unlikely event many parents took up this way of parenting, that the NHS, government, and service providers would not know what to plan for in the future as they would not know how many boys or girls exist." "Parents concerned about gendered social construct would do better to fight patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia rather and try to virtue signal to their friends and communities so they can get praise." The couple have said that the reaction to their decision has been mixed. However Mr England-Johns said: "But over a year in, it's clear that we are serious and gradually people have got used to it. "Although, that still doesn't stop some pretty confused looks from old ladies in the park when they come up to us and ask if they're a boy or a girl. It can take a bit of explaining. "We are quite good now at holding space for people's discomfort in us going, 'Oh well, actually we don't tell anyone, we're not telling anyone for now."
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| Video shows burglars kick in California family's front door, before being scared away Posted: 16 Sep 2019 04:50 AM PDT  Two masked-man kicked in the front door of a Pleasanton home in an attempted home-invasion -- and it was all caught on surveillance video.
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| Sheriff indicted for plotting to kill deputy who had tape of his 'racially offensive' remarks Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:57 AM PDT  A North Carolina sheriff was indicted for obstruction of justice for allegedly plotting to kill one of his deputies.
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| A flight from Vietnam to South Korea was delayed for 11 hours after the pilot arrived at the airport and realized he had lost his passport Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:13 AM PDT  T'Way Air said it was investigating the incident and how the pilot lost his passport, and that it put passengers in a hotel and fed them breakfast.
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| Iran charges three detained Australians with spying Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:20 AM PDT  Iran has charged three detained Australians with spying, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, after the reported arrest of a travel-blogging couple and an academic. Two of the Australians were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of military sites, while a third was accused of spying for another country, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters. It was the first official confirmation that Australians have been detained in Iran after the families of three of them said last week they had been arrested in the Islamic republic.
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| NYC to Allow 1.1 Million Students to Skip Class for Climate Protests Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:49 AM PDT  New York City public schools will allow 1.1 million students to skip classes Friday in order to attend the planned "climate strike" ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit.The protests aim to press the Summit for immediate action to stop climate change, and are geared specifically for the participation of young people.Reactions to the decision have been ecstatic in some cases, as protest organizers contemplate what they hope will be the largest climate change protest in the history of the U.S."This completely changes things, and it's our doing," Xiye Bastida, 17, a senior at Beacon High School in Manhattan, told the New York Times. Some teachers at her school were planning to accompany students to the protests even before the school district granted permission to do so."We're not against the school system," she said. "We need the schools to work with us because our larger goal is to stop the fossil fuel industry."
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| Is Russia's Crazy Status-6 Nuclear Weapon a Great Idea or a Really Bad One? Posted: 16 Sep 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Let's take a look.
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| California GOP congressman won't seek re-election Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:26 PM PDT  A Republican congressman in California said Tuesday he won't run for re-election next year, making him the 18th GOP incumbent to bow out of the U.S. House of Representatives now that the party is in the minority. U.S. Rep. Paul Cook announced he will instead run for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2020. California has 53 U.S. House seats, the most of any state.
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| Afghan president narrowly avoids Taliban bomb in worst violence since collapse of US negotiations Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:15 AM PDT  Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more in two blasts Tuesday - one at a campaign rally for the president and the other in Kabul - with the insurgents warning of more violence ahead of elections. The first attack saw a motorcyclist detonate a suicide bomb at a checkpoint leading to a rally where Ashraf Ghani, the president, was addressing supporters in central Parwan province, just north of the capital, killing 26 and wounding 42. Just over an hour later another blast also claimed by the Taliban rocked central Kabul near the US embassy. Authorities initially did not give casualty figures, but later said 22 people had been killed and a further 38 wounded. The explosions came after Donald Trump, the US president, abruptly ended talks with the Taliban earlier this month over a deal that would have allowed the US to begin withdrawing troops from its longest war. One of the bombs was detonated near the US Embassy in Kabul Credit: AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi In a statement sent to media claiming responsibility for both blasts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack near Mr Ghani's rally was deliberately aimed at disrupting the September 28 elections. "We already warned people not to attend election rallies, if they suffer any losses that is their own responsibility," the statement said. An image from the scene near Mr Ghani's rally, roughly an hour's drive north of Kabul, showed the remains of a burnt motorcycle, with a body on top, covered by a blanket and next to a badly damaged police car. Taliban control in Afghanistan Women and children were among the causalities, Parwan hospital director Abdul Qasim Sangin said. The president, who was speaking to his supporters at the time of the blast, was unhurt but later condemned the attack, saying the incident proved the Taliban had no real interest in reconciliation. "As the Taliban continue their crimes, they once again prove that they are not interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan," said Mr Ghani in a statement.
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| Divided Fed set to cut interest rates this week, but then what? Posted: 16 Sep 2019 10:04 PM PDT  Deep disagreements within the Federal Reserve over the economic outlook and how the U.S. central bank should respond will not stop policymakers from cutting interest rates at a two-day meeting that began on Tuesday. An oil price spike after attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend added to the list of risks facing an economy already slowed by ongoing trade tensions and global weakness. At one end of the Fed's large boardroom table sit St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who are expected to argue for a steep reduction in borrowing costs to counter low inflation and an inverted Treasury yield curve.
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| Triple threat: Tropical Storm Imelda swamps Texas, Humberto nears Bermuda and TD 10 forms in Atlantic Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:16 PM PDT  While Hurricane Humberto nears Bermuda, there's flooding in Texas due to Tropical Storm Imelda, and Tropical Depression 10 is spinning up in the Atlantic
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| A flight in India was delayed when a swarm of angry bees covered the cockpit window and attacked staff who tried to remove them Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:54 AM PDT  Firefighters were eventually brought in to get the plane, with 135 passengers and Bangladesh's information minister on board, to take off.
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| DEA agent accuses Chavez of easing drug trafficking to US: Spain court Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:31 AM PDT  A US Drug Enforcement Administration agent accused late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez of cooperating with Colombian rebel group FARC to ease the shipment of cocaine into the United States, a Spanish court ruling published Tuesday showed. The accusation was cited in a ruling by Spain's National Court, the country's top criminal court, rejecting a US request to extradite Venezuela's former military intelligence chief, General Hugo Armando Carvajal, on drug trafficking charges. The ruling includes a sworn statement from an agent from a DEA agent that was included as evidence to back the extradition request.
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| Putin Loses Legendary Approval-Rating Crown to His New Neighbor Posted: 16 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Vladimir Putin takes great pride in his sky-high approval rating. But with Muscovites rising up and a new government instilling hope in Ukraine, he's being outshone by the president next door, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.It's still early days for the administration in Kyiv. While pushing a raft of popular reforms, Zelenskiy, 41, remains in his honeymoon period, while cries he's too close to a local billionaire grow louder.The 66-year-old Putin, meanwhile, is approaching two decades as Russia's leader. Economic expansion has fizzled out, and along with it the spending largess that kept the masses happy.The last time his popularity sagged meaningfully, Putin famously got a boost after annexing Crimea from Ukraine and fomenting a war between the two former allies.Zelenskiy has a long way to go to match the 89% rating Putin reached back then.To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Langley in London at alangley1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Gregory L. WhiteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| McConnell says Congress in 'holding pattern' on gun control Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT  Six weeks after a pair of mass shootings killed more than 30 people, Congress remains "in a holding pattern" on gun control as lawmakers await proposals from the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. While President Donald Trump has said he would veto a House-passed bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, McConnell said he is hopeful there are other gun-related proposals that Congress can approve and Trump can support.
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| Exclusive: Russia carried out a 'stunning' breach of FBI communications system, escalating the spy game on U.S. soil Posted: 16 Sep 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Russian compounds and diplomats in the U.S. played key roles in a counterintelligence operation that stretched from the Bay Area to the nation's capital, according to former U.S. officials.
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| Boy Scout leader sang naked in front of kids, and organization failed to investigate: Lawsuit Posted: 16 Sep 2019 12:03 PM PDT  A Boy Scout leader who was accused of singing naked in front of several young boys was not investigated by his troop despite multiple complaints.
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| 'A war zone': Propane explosion kills firefighter, injures 8 others, levels building in Maine Posted: 16 Sep 2019 03:12 PM PDT  A firefighter was killed and eight others were injured when a powerful propane explosion destroyed a new building Monday in Farmington, Maine.
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| Belgian F-16s scrambled to intercept 2 Russian nuclear-capable supersonic bombers over the Baltic Sea Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:23 PM PDT  The Belgian Air Force intercepted two Russian Tu-160 supersonic, nuclear-capable bombers at close range in Baltic airspace.
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| Suspected serial killer arrested after 14 years Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Daytona Beach police have been searching for a man accused of killing four women between 2005 and 2007.
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| Book Review: Justice Neil Gorsuch’s A Republic, If You Can Keep It Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Just over 30 years ago, President Ronald Reagan nominated a former Yale law professor, then serving as a D.C. Circuit judge, to the Supreme Court. His views on the meaning of the Constitution were considered by some of the political class to be iniquitous. The nominee's constructive criticism of the mainstream of legal analysis was its failure to show allegiance to the actual language of the Constitution. "I don't think the Constitution is studied almost anywhere, including law schools. In law schools, what they study is what the court said about the Constitution. They study the opinions. They don't study the Constitution itself."Of course, the nominee was Robert Bork. His view that the Constitution had an ageless meaning was cruelly savaged by Senator Ted Kennedy. "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids," and other shameful regressions would exist. Critics condemned Bork's view that the words in the Constitution mean now what they meant when written in 1787. No living, breathing, mutating Constitution for Bork. At his death in 2012, some labeled him the "original originalist."The Senate rejected Bork's nomination, but his approach to constitutional interpretation has thrived — though by no means has it conquered. Justice Neil Gorsuch in his new book explains and vigorously promotes originalism. The significance of that form of analysis is indicated by the title he chose for his book: A Republic, If You Can Keep It. Those were the words of Benjamin Franklin in explaining what the Constitutional Convention had created. The centrality of originalism to the survival of the Republic, Gorsuch writes, arises from separation of powers. If judges abandon their constitutional role of simply interpreting (though often it is not so simple) what the political branches have done, they are assuming the roles that the other branches are to perform.Gorsuch says the book is for the general citizenry, not academics. He wants to revive and encourage "interest in the Constitution of the framers' design and the judge's role in it." Even with that goal, the author gives those who are knowledgeable, imperfectly so like this subordinate federal judge, a lot to ponder. A significant part of Gorsuch's book reprints speeches, court opinions, and other prior writings. Much new is interspersed, though.This is not a memoir. Readers who want the details of his selection and confirmation for the Supreme Court will not be sated. One's appetite is whetted at the beginning of the book, when Gorsuch discusses receiving the White House call, being interviewed, and being announced. Then the book's final chapter, as the author previews it, "collects some of the statements I made during and shortly after the nomination and confirmation process." That's it. Justice Gorsuch may have decided that persuasively presenting his principles about the judicial role was both more appropriate and more important than recounting a recent political battle. Clarence Thomas is the one current justice who has written extensively about his confirmation controversies, but he waited 17 years to publish. As a personal aside, I too wrote about the pains and sufferings of a difficult confirmation, mine merely for a circuit court. I waited six years until the wounds had (mainly) healed.There is just a little about his personal background. What is recounted can be charming. Gorsuch quickly describes several ancestors, including a grandfather in Denver who was a trolley-car driver, then a lawyer. This is the ancestor who had an awful voice but enjoyed using it to sing — loudly. A grandmother's family built a small hotel near a railroad depot in Wyoming, which still stands and is used by the current generation during visits to the area.Mom and Dad were both lawyers, though the father little enjoyed being one. What he passed on to his son was a love of the outdoors, of camping, hunting, and skiing, but of fishing most of all. Gorsuch's mother graduated from college at age 19 and from law school at 22. She became the first female assistant district attorney in Denver, and later was a state legislator. Gorsuch's wife is a native of England. He gives a brief description of her background and their meeting while he was studying for a doctorate in England. She agreed to marry him and move to Colorado, then fell in love with the West.Introduced to fishing by his father, Gorsuch has considerable knowledge of its mysteries. He recounts an amusing episode with a possibly novice fly-fisherman, Justice Antonin Scalia. There was no calm casting of lures for Scalia during a visit to Colorado — "he would storm over in his waders" to a spot Gorsuch thought was promising, surely scaring any fish. An affecting photo of the two, a Supreme Court justice and his not-yet-successor, is included, neither man in waders but a lake and a boat behind them.In Justice Scalia's defense, he was an able hunter. The head of an elk he named Leroy which once adorned his chambers is now on the wall in Justice Gorsuch's.The book is divided into only seven chapters. Within most of them are previous writings by the author, including lengthy excerpts from judicial opinions. He analyzes the importance of separation of powers in one chapter and of originalism and textualism in another. A chapter on the "Art of Judging" focuses on the need for courage to strive for the correct result and not the comfortable, easy one. He argues that good intentions have led to the worst Supreme Court decisions, such as Dred Scott, which found constitutional protection for slavery in 1857, and Korematsu, which in 1944 found no constitutional barrier to imprisoning American citizens during wartime if their country of origin, Japan, had started a war with the United States. He argues convincingly that the two decisions resulted from the Supreme Court's seeking what appeared to be the best policy results at the time, as opposed to applying the plain language of the Constitution.It is an optimistic book, urging the avoidance of cynicism and promoting reasonable discourse on the issues that divide us. One way he has literally taught such perspectives is in a class on ethics at the University of Colorado. He asks, over at least the silent groans of many students, that they write their own obituary. Their written responses often show they are receiving what he is trying to give them, which is an understanding that what most of us, on reflection, will want to be remembered for are such things as kindness, love of family, a contribution to the world around us.Gorsuch's writing style is conversational, as are many of his court opinions. He leavens his descriptions of legal debates with asides such as, after admitting that letting courts update the Constitution to reach the best results was not "completely insane," saying that many things might not be insane but are still ill-advised — a point he often makes to his teenage daughters.In addition to using originalism to interpret the Constitution, Gorsuch promotes adoption of its close relative, textualism, to interpret statutes. Both approaches rely on the words of the relevant text as they would have been understood at the time of their creation. He acknowledges that these tools do not always provide a clear answer. Revising a Churchill quote about democracy as a form of government, he says that at the very least, originalism "is the worst form of constitutional interpretation, except for all the others." It provides considerable determinacy; as much as humanly possible, it leaves out of judicial analysis the policy desires of judges; it allows the compromises inherent in our form of government to be upheld — Congress decides what statutes are to do, and the difficult method to amend the Constitution remains the only way revisions are made. The fact that judges are largely expected to wander free of such texts was recently, and startlingly, made apparent to me when an attorney in his oral argument stated dismissively that the only thing the other side had to support its position was the statute, while his side had the case law.Those whom the justice most admires are identified along the way. Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch clerked, are among them. A long-ago Tenth Circuit judge, Alfred Murrah, is another, highlighted for his tireless work ethic and as a representative of the people who toil quietly in the service of country. Also receiving considerable praise are such historic figures as George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Theodore Roosevelt. Gorsuch quotes the segment of TR's speech about credit belonging not to the critic but to the person in the arena, with "face marred by dust and sweat and blood," who, through defeat or victory, is not to be found among the "cold and timid souls." By praising both the tireless Judge Murrah and this part of TR's legacy, Gorsuch is urging his citizen audience to strive mightily, and as he emphasizes, also calmly and respectfully, to preserve this Republic.Three years after his confirmation defeat, Robert Bork wrote a book detailing his disagreements with the direction of the Supreme Court and explaining the benefits of originalism, closing with a lengthy narrative of his blocked path to the Court. Fortunately for Gorsuch and for the nomination process more generally, his selection was not met with the hyperbolic condemnation that Bork's invoked. His book about originalism comes two years after his confirmation victory. Justice Gorsuch has written a temperate book, with civility shown to all. Such fairness, though, does not reduce the fervor with which he urges that we keep this country a republic.
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| Houthis Have an Arsenal of Ballistic and Cruise Missiles (Some from North Korea) Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:01 AM PDT  Know this: The Houthis inherited from the defunct Yemeni military a large number of Soviet-exported Scuds as well as North Korean-made Scuds called "Hwasong-6s.
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| CORRECTED-WRAPUP 8-Saudi oil attacks came from southwest Iran, U.S. official says, raising tensions Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:03 AM PDT ![CORRECTED-WRAPUP 8-Saudi oil attacks came from southwest Iran, U.S. official says, raising tensions]( "CORRECTED-WRAPUP 8-Saudi oil attacks came from southwest Iran, U.S. official says, raising tensions") WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The United States believes the attacks that crippled Saudi Arabian oil facilities last weekend originated in southwestern Iran, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday, an assessment that further increases tension in the Middle East. Three officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the attacks involved both cruise missiles and drones, indicating that they involved a higher degree of complexity and sophistication than initially thought.
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| 20 dead as truck falls off cliff in southern Philippines Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:12 AM PDT  Twenty villagers were killed and 14 others were injured when the truck they were riding in lost control and fell off a cliff Tuesday in a remote mountain village in the southern Philippines, police and the Red Cross said. Provincial police chief Joel Limson said the truck was negotiating a downhill road in Tboli town in South Cotabato province when its brakes apparently failed and plummeted down a ravine, pinning 15 people to death. Police, Red Cross volunteers and villagers retrieved the 15 bodies from the wreckage at the bottom of the ravine.
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| US-Russia nuclear war would kill 34 million people within hours and is increasingly likely, Princeton study concludes Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:26 AM PDT  More than 90 million people would be killed or injured in a nuclear war between the US and Russia if a conventional conflict went too far, according to a new simulation created by researchers.Such a scenario has become "dramatically" more plausible in the last two years because the two countries have dropped support for arms-control measures, according to a team from Princeton University.
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| Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Rhinos Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT |
| Earth warming more quickly than thought, new climate models show Posted: 17 Sep 2019 07:59 AM PDT  Greenhouse gases thrust into the atmosphere mainly by burning fossil fuels are warming Earth's surface more quickly than previously understood, according to new climate models set to replace those used in current UN projections, scientists said Tuesday. The new calculations also suggest that the Paris Agreement goals of capping global warming at "well below" two degrees, and 1.5C if possible, will be challenging at best, the scientists said. "With our two models, we see that the scenario known as SSP1 2.6 -- which normally allows us to stay under 2C -- doesn't quite get us there," Olivier Boucher, head of the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace Climate Modelling Centre in Paris, told AFP.
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| Wisconsin brothers charged with operating counterfeit vaping cartridge operation Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:15 AM PDT  Tyler and Jacob Huffhines ran an operation that cranked out 3,000 to 5,000 counterfeit vaping cartridges each day, authorities say.
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| India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:00 PM PDT ![India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran]( "India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- India's government will shortly find itself at a fork in the road. Will it choose globalization and export-oriented growth? Or will the isolationists in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party win, and keep India out of a giant Indo-Pacific trading bloc?This weekend, New Delhi hosted negotiators for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – from the 10 members of ASEAN as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China – in the hope that it could swing last-minute safeguards for some of its producers. Indian officials have stalled RCEP's progress as much as they could, and the others are now losing patience. One way or another, the deal will have to be concluded by November, when the leaders of the 16 RCEP countries will meet in Bangkok. Malaysia's Mahathir Mohammed, not a man known for patience, said in June that the other countries could go on without India, if necessary.Many in New Delhi, even within the commerce ministry, would be relieved to see that happen. The belief that India has "lost" in most of its trade agreements is pervasive here. Influential lobbies tied to the country's laggard producers are happy to remind officials how trade deficits soared with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations after a free-trade agreement was signed some years ago, for example. And there has always been a strong isolationist wing within the Hindu nationalist BJP – right-wing ideologues don't just want India out of RCEP; they would prefer existing agreements with Japan, Korea and ASEAN be renegotiated, if not abandoned.Of course, India can only be said to have "lost" if you ignore the considerable gains to consumers from cheaper imports. Once upon a time, Indian households had to worry constantly about high and variable prices of cooking oil. That's no longer a concern, thanks to imports of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, in spite of the steep duties permitted by the Indo-ASEAN free-trade agreement. And when producers' lobbies complain about losing market share to Southeast Asia, they merely underline how uncompetitive Indian industry has become.There is, in fact, a far better reason than any of these for India to feel doubtful about RCEP, and it's geopolitical more than economic. For Beijing, the trading bloc is just another method to ensure that the People's Republic embeds itself as the hub of Asia's economic geography. That's not something anyone in India is comfortable with. India runs a massive trade deficit with China, of course; but, even more than that, officials here are conscious that concluding RCEP in the middle of the Sino-U.S. trade war would be a boost to Beijing. The problem is that all options for New Delhi are unappetizing. If only there was a large and comprehensive alternative to the RCEP that excluded China — but, of course, President Donald Trump has killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, leaving Beijing in control of the future of Asian trade.In the end, though, it's hard to see how India would be best served by turning its back on RCEP. In spite of his pro-trade rhetoric at places like Davos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has started putting up tariff walls in recent years, as early attempts to boost Indian competitiveness failed to show quick enough results. This turn to protectionism needs to be reversed, if India has any hope of employing the millions of young people graduating its schools every year.It's true that signing a sweeping free-trade agreement would be a significant change in direction for a government that is most comfortable speaking a 1970s-vintage language of import substitution, industrial policy and protective tariffs. But Indian negotiators have already moderated their demands considerably. New Delhi has made it clear that it would be satisfied with a two-track agreement that keeps some walls up against Chinese imports while opening up to the other RCEP countries.I'm still hopeful that, come November, Modi's signature will be on this agreement. If nothing else, it would be a massive humiliation on the international stage for him to stand aside as all the other leaders of the Indo-Pacific come together to declare a new era is dawning. So much of Modi's domestic popularity is wrapped around the carefully constructed myth of his international importance, that this might be seen as an unacceptable political hit. At least that's what we should hope the calculations within New Delhi's corridors of power are – because, if not, then India is condemned to long decades of being an also-ran on trade and growth.To contact the author of this story: Mihir Sharma at msharma131@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Stalin's Dreams of a Soviet Navy of Battleships Never Came True Posted: 16 Sep 2019 05:00 AM PDT  It never happened.
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| Wisconsin man accused of making THC cartridges charged Posted: 16 Sep 2019 02:55 PM PDT  A Wisconsin man suspected of running an illegal operation to manufacture vaping cartridges flew to California last month to get THC oil in bulk to fill thousands of cartridges to sell, prosecutors said Monday in charging documents. Authorities in Kenosha, Wisconsin, arrested 20-year-old Tyler Huffhines on Sept. 5 after parents tipped off police when they saw their teenage son with one of the cartridges. Prosecutors say Huffhines employed 10 people to fill the cartridges with THC oil at a condo he rented with a stolen identity.
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| UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission]( "UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission") The United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed on Tuesday to extend a U.N. political mission in Afghanistan after last-minute talks overcame a Chinese threat to veto if there was no reference to Beijing's global Belt and Road infrastructure project. "To our regret a few countries refused to keep the text of consensus previously agreed," said China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun, describing the adopted resolution as a technical rollover. The resolutions mandating the mission in 2016, 2017 and 2018 all included a reference welcoming and urging efforts like China's Belt and Road initiative to facilitate trade and transit, but in March the United States and some other council members said they could no longer accept that language.
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| A new image of a mysterious object careening toward our solar system strongly suggests it's the first comet from another star system Posted: 16 Sep 2019 12:25 PM PDT  C/2019 Q4 is likely the first comet ever detected that came from another star system. Our clearest image of it shows its dust cloud and gas tail.
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| California woman who dreamed about swallowing engagement ring woke up to realize she actually did Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:19 AM PDT  A California woman had her dreams come true earlier this month — although probably not in the way she would have liked.
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| US sanctions Italy, Panama and Colombia firms over Venezuela ties Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 16 companies linked to Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, an associate of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move is the latest US escalation of sanctions targeting the inner circle of Maduro, who is grappling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of Venezuela's 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
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| Football players give classmate new clothes after he was bullied for always wearing same outfit Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:33 AM PDT  The kind act received a lot of praise from people commenting on the video saying how much they loved what the boys did for their classmate.
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| Police clear major migrant camp in northern France Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:32 AM PDT  Grande-Synthe (France) (AFP) - French police began clearing around 1,000 migrants from a gymnasium near the northern port of Dunkirk on Tuesday after a court ruled it was a health and security hazard. The mayor of Grande-Synthe in December 2018 opened up the sports hall to migrant families seeking shelter from the cold. Since then, it has grown into a makeshift camp with around 800 people sleeping in tents pitched around the crammed gymnasium where some 170 people, mostly Iraqi Kurds hoping to reach Britain, had been sheltering.
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