| Popular Bulgarian Journalist Victoria Marinova Raped And Beaten To Death Posted: 08 Oct 2018 04:07 AM PDT  A popular Bulgarian journalist who had reported on an investigation into alleged corruption involving European Union funds was raped and beaten to death, authorities said.
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| Cory Booker says Kavanaugh impeachment shouldn't be off the table Posted: 07 Oct 2018 03:30 PM PDT  In an interview with Yahoo News, Booker said he supported the idea of a Kavanaugh perjury investigation.
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| 5,000 People Remain Missing, Are Feared Dead, After Devastating Indonesia Quake Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:29 AM PDT  Thousands of people are still missing, and feared dead, in Indonesia following
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| Trump's future-be-damned climate change policy Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:00 AM PDT  Yahoo's Jerry Adler examines the Trump administration's so-what climate change policy.
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| Palestinian kills two Israelis in West Bank shooting: army Posted: 07 Oct 2018 11:03 AM PDT  A Palestinian shot dead two Israelis and wounded another at a West Bank settlement's industrial zone on Sunday, sparking a manhunt for the suspect who worked at the site, the army said. Since the attack was allegedly carried out by a Palestinian employed at the Barkan industrial zone in the occupied West Bank, questions were raised over whether he knew the victims and over the motivation behind the shooting. Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus called it a "terrorist attack" but added that other unspecified factors were involved.
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| Thousands Of Marriott Workers Strike In 7 Cities Posted: 08 Oct 2018 11:38 AM PDT  Nearly 3,000 Marriott employees went on strike in Hawaii on Monday, adding to
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| Exclusive: Turkish police believe Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed in consulate - sources Posted: 06 Oct 2018 08:17 PM PDT ![Exclusive: Turkish police believe Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed in consulate - sources]( "Exclusive: Turkish police believe Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed in consulate - sources") "The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. The Turkish sources did not say how they believed the killing was carried out. A Saudi source at the consulate denied that Khashoggi had been killed at the mission and said in a statement that the accusations were baseless.
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| Vatican defends pope against 'blasphemous' cover-up claims Posted: 07 Oct 2018 09:39 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — A top Vatican cardinal issued a scathing rebuke Sunday of the ambassador who accused Pope Francis of covering up the sexual misconduct of a prominent American cardinal, saying his claims were a "blasphemous" political hit job.
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| 'The Walking Dead' Season 9 Premiere Addresses One Of Its Oldest Plot Holes Posted: 07 Oct 2018 07:30 PM PDT  As the countdown to the final days of Rick Grimes begins, "The Walking Dead"
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| Christine Blasey Ford Can’t Return Home Due To ‘Unending’ Threats, Lawyers Say Posted: 07 Oct 2018 09:12 PM PDT  Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who publicly accused now-Supreme Court
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| Mitch McConnell Refuses To Say He Wouldn't Confirm A Supreme Court Nominee In 2020 Posted: 07 Oct 2018 10:54 AM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been peddling a new story
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| Earth's temperature to rise 1.5C as early as 2030 amid dire warnings from UN climate panel Posted: 07 Oct 2018 10:00 PM PDT  Avoiding global climate chaos will require a major transformation of society and the world economy that is "unprecedented in scale," the UN said on Monday in a landmark report that warns time is running out to avert disaster. Earth's surface has warmed one degree Celsius - enough to lift oceans and unleash a crescendo of deadly storms, floods and droughts - and is on track towards an unliveable 3C or 4C rise. At current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, we could pass the 1.5C marker as early as 2030, and no later than mid-century, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) reported with "high confidence". "The report shows that we only have the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that supports life as we know it," said Amjad Abdulla, the IPCC board member and chief negotiator for the alliance of small island states. "Historians will look back at these findings as one of the defining moments in the course of human affairs." A Summary for Policymakers of the 400-page tome underscores how quickly global warming has outstripped humanity's attempt to tame it, and outlines paradigm-shift options for avoiding the worst ravages of a climate-addled future. Global warming impacts have come sooner and hit harder than predicted Credit: John Giles/ PA UN report on climate change | At a glance Before the Paris Agreement was inked in 2015, nearly a decade of scientific research rested on the assumption that 2C was the guardrail for a climate-safe world. The IPCC report, however, shows that global warming impacts have come sooner and hit harder than predicted. "Things that scientists have been saying would happen further in the future are happening now," Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, told AFP. To have at least a 50/50 chance of staying under the 1.5C cap without overshooting the mark, the world must, by 2050, become "carbon neutral," according to the report. "That means every tonne of CO2 we put into the atmosphere will have to be balanced by a tonne of CO2 taken out," said lead coordinating author Myles Allen, head of the University of Oxford's Climate Research Programme. Drawing from more than 6,000 recent scientific studies, the report laid out four "illustrative" pathways to that goal. A #Reasons for hope display set up by Greenpeace activists before the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in Incheon Credit: AFP The most ambitious would see a radical drawdown in energy consumption coupled with a rapid shift away from fossil fuels and a swift decline in CO2 emissions starting in 2020. It would also avoid an "overshoot" of the 1.5C threshold. A contrasting "pay later" scenario compensates for a high-consumption lifestyles and continued use of fossil fuels with a temporary breaching of the 1.5C ceiling. It depends heavily on the use of biofuels. But the scheme would need to plant an area twice the size of India in biofuel crops, and assumes that some 1,200 billion tonnes of CO2 - 30 years' worth of emissions at current rates - can be safely stocked away underground. "Is it fair for the next generation to pay to take the CO2 out of the atmosphere that we are now putting into it?", asked Allen. "We have to start having that debate." The stakes are especially high for small island states, developing nations in the tropics, and countries with densely-populated delta regions already suffering from rising seas. Limiting global warming to 1.5C comes with a hefty price tag: some $2.4 trillion (2.1 trillion euros) of investments in the global energy system every year between 2016 and 2035, or about 2.5 percent of world GDP. That amount, however, must be weighed against the even steeper cost of inaction, the report says. Key elements | Paris climate change agreement The path to a climate-safe world has become a tightrope, and will require an unprecedented marshalling of human ingenuity, the authors said. "The problem isn't going to be solved with a silver bullet," Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute, told AFP. "We need a hail of silver bullets." The IPCC report was timed to feed into the December UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, where world leaders will be under pressure to ramp up national carbon-cutting pledges. Matthew Spencer, Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy said: "Climate change has set our planet on fire, millions of people are already feeling the impacts, and the IPCC is clear that things could get much worse without immediate action. "The faster governments phase out coal, embrace the renewable energy revolution and move to protect communities at risk, the more lives and livelihoods will be spared." He warned the world was already seeing the beginning of "massive displacement and a shocking rise in hunger" - and unless temperatures stayed below 1.5C, island nations would disappear beneath rising seas. Five places | threatened by climate change Rachel Kennerley, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "Just like ignoring credit card statements so that repayments only become sharper and steeper, this report shows that weak responses will make it harder in the long-run. "Right now it's difficult, but not impossible, to contain climate chaos, but the window of opportunity will close for good the longer we delay." She warned the predicted loss of all coral reefs if governments could not contain warming would mean a massive loss of fish that people rely on for food and costing lives and livelihoods. She said: "That is the kind of reality we must face if governments don't take notice of this report."
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| Netanyahu, Putin to meet after Syria friendly fire incident Posted: 07 Oct 2018 02:16 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss coordination in Syria after the accidental downing of a Russian plane led to tensions. Netanyahu said he had spoken with Putin and the two agreed "to meet soon in order to continue the important inter-military security coordination". Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu again pledged to stop "Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria and to thwart the transfer of lethal weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon".
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| 20 killed in limousine crash Posted: 08 Oct 2018 09:23 AM PDT  The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the accident that the NTSB has called deadliest U.S. transportation crash in nine years.
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| Indonesian officials fear 5,000 missing as Christians pray Posted: 07 Oct 2018 09:00 AM PDT  PALU, Indonesia (AP) — Christians dressed in their tidiest clothes flocked to Sunday sermons in the earthquake and tsunami damaged Indonesian city of Palu, seeking answers as the death toll from the twin disasters breached 1,700 and officials said they feared more than 5,000 others could be missing.
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| Big promises for a thriving urban core in Detroit vanish in a swath of parking lots Posted: 08 Oct 2018 03:00 AM PDT  Downtown Detroit is seen in 2013. Along the streets leading to Detroit's recently minted Little Caesars Arena, colorful banners hang from temporary fencing, informing visitors they have arrived in the District Detroit. The neighborhood holds "a dynamic mix of shopping and dining" with "places to live in the heart of the action", the signage reads.
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| Interpol's former Chinese chief accused of bribery Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:26 AM PDT  The former Chinese head of Interpol, who went missing last month, was accused of accepting bribes on Monday, becoming the latest top official to fall in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption dragnet. After days of concealing the fate of Meng Hongwei -- who is also China's vice minister for public security -- from the international community, the public security ministry said Monday he had accepted bribes but provided no further details on the allegations or the conditions and location of Meng's apparent detention. French officials disclosed on Friday that Meng had been reported missing after leaving France for China, while his wife voiced concern for his life on Sunday some two weeks after he texted her an ominous knife emoji.
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| Correction: Chicago Police-Laquan McDonald-BLM story Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:44 PM PDT  In a story Oct. 6 about the conviction of a white Chicago police officer in the death of black teenager Laquan McDonald, The Associated Press erroneously reported that another black teen, Michael Brown, was killed by a white officer in Missouri in August 2013. Brown was killed by the officer in August 2014.
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| The Fraudulence Of Susan Collins Posted: 07 Oct 2018 02:25 PM PDT  People who expected Sen. Susan Collins, allegedly one of two remaining
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| Here Are The Best Costumes From 2018's New York Comic Con Posted: 07 Oct 2018 02:08 PM PDT  Fans of film, TV, comics, anime and general pop culture descended on the East
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| Ex-Paratrooper on Brink of Brazil's Presidency Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:52 AM PDT  Jair Bolsonaro took 46.2 percent of valid ballots, falling just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff, and will face the leftist Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad, who won 29.1 percent, in a second round on Oct. 28. With such a wide margin of victory, the presidential race is now his to lose. In every election since Brazil's return to democracy from military rule over three decades ago, the winner of the first ballot went on to capture the presidency in the runoff.
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| Who is making Princess Eugenie's wedding cake, and how can you make your own? Posted: 08 Oct 2018 04:22 AM PDT  Following the lead of her cousin, the Duke of Sussex, Princess Eugenie and her fiancé Jack Brooksbank will be eschewing a classic iced fruit cake in favour of something a little more up-to-date for their forthcoming nuptials. The Queen's granddaughter will be serving guests a red velvet and chocolate cake which Kensington Palace are describing as "a traditional cake, with a modern feel." In May this year, Prince Harry and the then Ms Markle opted for a lemon and elderflower cake, joining many couples who have preferred fresh fruit and flowers over dried vine fruits and crisp white icing for their wedding cake. Who is making Princess Eugenie's wedding cake? Professional cake designer Sophie Cabot will be handling the creation of the bespoke cake, which she has described as "special and unique". Cabot, a former costume designer who founded her cake business in London in 2014, has been interested in baking since she was a young girl, inspired by her mother's and grandmother's kitchens. She first came to the attention of the royal family when Eugenie's father, the Duke of York, commissioned her to craft decorated biscuits for a series of events during his Pitch@Palace programme. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sophie Cabot cake designer �� (@sophiecabot) on Jul 12, 2017 at 3:23am PDT Cabot produces everything from wedding cakes to bespoke biscuits and cupcakes, but her specialism in sugar-crafted flowers and hand-painted finishes should come in handy for this particular commission, since the cake is said to be an autumn-inspired epic. In its announcement, Kensington Palace said it will incorporate "the rich colours of autumn in its design and will be covered with detailed sugar work including ivy." So far, no images of the cake have been revealed though Cabot did share an image of her crafting a cake in an announcement post on Instagram, and said in a statement, "I am incredibly excited to be given this wonderful opportunity to create such a special and unique cake. It has been lovely working with Princess Eugenie and Jack and I really hope they enjoy the cake on the day." Those hoping to have their own wedding cake designed by Cabot are looking at costs of £180 for a single decorated tier, with additional tiers being priced accordingly. Should they emulate a five-tier creation (like the one Eugenie's parents, the Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson enjoyed, albeit in traditional fruit cake), it may cost around £900. What is red velvet cake? Red velvet cake uses vinegar and buttermilk to keep the sponge moist and fluffy. The reaction between the two tends to bring out a red pigment in the cocoa powder, giving the cake its signature red or mahogany hue. These days, many bakers augment that colour with red food-colouring or occasionally beetroot. This particular style of cake has been around since the days of Queen Victoria, when it was served as an extraordinarily extravagant and luxurious dessert. Some claim that devil's food cake (which uses chocolate for flavouring) was the progenitor of red velvet cake, which stars cocoa. Princess Eugenie's wedding version will comprise of red velvet layers with a chocolate ganache (Britain's 19th favourite cake, according to a recent survey), instead of a more usual lighter-coloured filling such as cream cheese frosting. Red velvet cake has experienced a huge resurgence in popularity over the last few years, thanks in part to the Hummingbird Bakery's famously vast selection of red velvet desserts. Red velvet cake recipe Credit: Stacie Bakes: Classic Cakes and Bakes for the Thoroughly Modern Cook When making red velvet cake, it's really important to use the right red food colouring: either Sugarflair Red Extra paste or Dr Oetker Natural Red. Don't get the standard red colouring, as the cake will turn brown when you bake it. MAKES one 20cm round cake INGREDIENTS 175g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing 450g caster sugar 3 eggs, at room temperature 3 tbsp cocoa powder 38ml bottle Dr Oetker Natural Red or 1 heaped tsp Sugarflair Red Extra food colouring 1 tsp vanilla extract 500g plain flour 1 tsp salt 340ml buttermilk 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1½ tsp cider vinegar For the cream cheese frosting 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature 175g full-fat soft cheese 500g icing sugar METHOD Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease two 20cm diameter cake tins and line with baking parchment. Beat the butter for a minute or so, until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the cocoa, food colouring and vanilla extract. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then add to the butter mixture in three stages, alternating with the buttermilk and scraping down after each addition. Put the bicarbonate of soda and cider vinegar in a small bowl and whisk until it bubbles up. Add this to the cake batter and give it one last quick beat. The addition of the vinegar and bicarbonate will make the colour of the cake develop and stay red when cooked. Spoon the mixture into the tins and level the top of the batter. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. After 30 minutes, cover the top of the cake with foil to prevent it from browning too much. Test the cake after 45 minutes; when it is cooked, a knife or skewer inserted in the centre will come out clean. Remove the foil and leave to cool on a wire rack for around 30 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave until completely cool before decorating. To make the frosting, beat the butter until softened, then add the soft cheese and beat for a few seconds to combine. Scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is mixed, then add the icing sugar and beat again. The longer you beat, the creamier the icing will be. Set aside at room temperature until you're ready to use it. If it's a warm day, put it in the fridge but take it out 10 minutes before you want to use it. To decorate the cakes, you first need to level them. Use a bread knife to slice a small section off the top and make it as flat as possible. (Keep the sliced-off section to decorate the cake.) 8. Next you have to cut each cake in half horizontally; again, use a bread knife. Now you have four layers of cake. Put the bottom layer of cake on your cake plate. Spread with the icing, making sure it's not too thick; about 1cm is perfect. Repeat with all the layers. Next, cover the outside of the cake with icing; I use a palette knife or a butter knife. Finally, crumble the reserved sliced-off sections of cake, and scatter the crumbs all over the top of it. The cake will keep in an airtight container for around four days, but it's far too beautiful to hide or keep! Recipe from Stacie Bakes: Classic Cakes and Bakes for the Thoroughly Modern Cook, by Stacie Stewart (Pavilion, £18.99)
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| Trouble for Hubble: gyro fails on space telescope Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:07 PM PDT  The Hubble space telescope, which has been in orbit since 1990, has temporarily suspended operations because of a gyroscope failure, the US space agency said Monday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Hubble went into "safe mode" on Friday. "Hubble entered safe mode after one of the three gyroscopes actively being used to point and steady the telescope failed," NASA said in a statement.
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| 'A Star Is Born,' 'Venom' both shine at the box office Posted: 08 Oct 2018 08:19 AM PDT  Overseas, "Venom" earned an estimated $125.2 million, for a record October worldwide opening topping $205 million.
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| 6 Minnesota Children Diagnosed With Rare 'Polio-Like' Illness Posted: 08 Oct 2018 07:52 AM PDT  Symptoms to watch out for include sudden muscle weakness, drooping facial features, neck stiffness and difficulty swallowing or speaking.
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| US and China engaged in 'fundamental disagreement' Posted: 07 Oct 2018 10:30 PM PDT  The US is in "fundamental disagreement" with China over trade and foreign policy, Washington's top diplomat said, as relations between the two superpowers continue to deteriorate. Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, arrived in Beijing on Monday to brief China on his visit to Pyongyang and his latest talks with Kim Jong-un, the North Korea leader. But recent diplomatic spats, in which the US have ramped up its trade war and accused China of meddling in the midterm election, appeared to dominate, manifesting in a frosty public exchange between Mr Pompeo and Wang Yi, Chia's foreign minister. "We have grave concerns about the actions that China has taken," Mr Pompeo told a press conference while standing next to his counterpart. Mr Wang reciprocated the terse tone, saying the US had made "a direct attack on our mutual trust, and has cast a shadow on US-China relations". North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang Credit: Reuters He added: "We demand the US stop the unwarranted accusations and wrongdoings against China immediately." The public airing of discord shows how an escalating trade spat between the countries could thwart joint efforts on other issues such as North Korea. Last Thursday Mike Pence, the US vice president, gave a scathing speech about China, accusing Beijing of unfair market practices, meddling in American elections and orchestrating a widespread campaign to undermine the US and bolster Chinese influence worldwide. Beijing has denied those claims. In private Mr Wang on Monday urged the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan and to cut off official visits and military ties with the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. Mr Pompeo is concluding a visit to Asia which included stops in North Korea, South Korea and Japan, where he met with the top leaders of all three countries. In a sign of continuing friction with the US he met with Mr Wang instead of Xi Jinping, China's president. At a glance | CVID On Monday Mr Pompeo said Kim was ready to allow international inspectors into the North's nuclear and missile testing sites. Pyongyang was previously reluctant. Those sites include a missile engine test facility and the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and a visit will commence once both sides agree on logistics. He also said the US and North Korea were "pretty close" to agreeing on details of a second summit. Mr Trump and Kim held an historic first summit in Singapore in June. This is Mr Pompeo's fourth trip to Pyongyang this year following a stalemate as North Korea resisted Washington's demands to irreversibly dismantle its nuclear arsenal. North Korean state media said on Monday Kim "expressed satisfaction" regarding his talks with Mr Pompeo. The state newspaper also featured eight photos of the meeting on its front page, including shots of the pair as well as some with Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong. Senior US officials said the United States still expected cooperation with Beijing on efforts to denuclearise North Korea, whose chief ally is China. If ties between China and the US continue to deteriorate, there could be "profound changes" in the strategic environment for such regional issues as North Korea, China's state-backed Global Times tabloid warned in an editorial. "For Asia, the severity of China-US frictions is taking up much attention and is, to some extent, diluting attention paid to the Korean peninsula issue," it said.
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| Poland sees first anti-paedophilia rally against Catholic Church Posted: 07 Oct 2018 10:03 AM PDT  Some 200 people took to the streets of Warsaw on Sunday to protest child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, in the first major such rally in staunchly Catholic Poland. There are no official statistics on the number of Polish priests convicted of child sex abuse, but a Polish association that helps victims estimates there were around 56 over nearly two decades, including clergy convicted of possessing child pornography. The protesters stopped in front of four churches in Warsaw to read out victims' accounts.
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| Supreme Court moves right, but how far, how fast? Posted: 07 Oct 2018 01:32 PM PDT  With Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation comes the shadow of a bitter fight that is likely to hang over the court as it takes on divisive issues.
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| Human Tower Competition in Catalonia Posted: 08 Oct 2018 06:22 AM PDT ![Human Tower Competition in Catalonia]( "Human Tower Competition in Catalonia") The tradition of building human towers or "castells" dates back to the 18th century and takes place during festivals in Catalonia, where "colles" or teams compete to build the tallest and most complicated towers. "Castells" were declared by UNESCO one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. (AP)
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| SpaceX Rocket Launch (Not Aliens) Lights Up The Night Sky Above California Posted: 07 Oct 2018 09:40 PM PDT  The sky above California lit up on Sunday when Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully
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| US midterm elections 2018 poll tracker: Who will win the Congress? Posted: 08 Oct 2018 02:45 AM PDT  On November 6, America will go to the polls to elect members for each of the 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats in Congress. Donald Trump and the Republicans will hope to maintain their majority in both houses during the midterm elections, but with the Democrats having a healthy lead in the polls, it is believed that they have a decent chance of taking the House of Representatives. A Democrat victory in either chamber would grant powers to open investigations into President Trump, so the stakes are high. The latest polling and forecasts indicate that Donald Trump and the Republicans could hold onto both houses, although the House of Representatives looks the more likely to fall to the Democrats. But the Republican president, who has faced tough weeks after his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight charges in his fraud trial, is reportedly planning 40 days of campaigning for the elections, and so the polls are likely to move further before election day. US mid term elections header General ballot between Republicans and Democrats The latest polls show that the Democrats are around eight percentage points ahead of the Republicans, standing at an average of 47.1 per cent compared to the Republicans' 40 per cent. This is an average of the last eight polls, and has indicated a consistent lead for the Democrats on a national level. While the Democrats are ahead in the general ballot, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are decided by a series of local elections, which means that the Republicans may still hold both houses. The Democrats need 24 seats to flip the House of Representatives, and two to flip the Senate. But to make matters harder, the Democrats are defending 26 of the 35 seats up for election in the Senate this time. US mid term elections poll tracker House of Representatives forecast: Democrats knocking on the door Of the 435 seats up for re-election in the House of Representatives, the Democrats need to flip 24 seats - something that should be within reach for the party. The latest forecast, from the Cook Report, has the Democrats on a likely 205 seats and the Republicans on 199. This means that the remaining 31 "toss-up" seats, which are too close to call, will be incredibly important for the outcome of the election. House of Representatives forecast Senate forecast: A tough Republican nut to crack Only needing two seats to take the Senate, it would at first seem that the Democrats should be able to take control. But there is an issue with this: Of the 35 seats up for election, 26 are currently defended by the Democrats. That means that the Democrats need to claim two seats from the remaining eight Republican-defended seats. According to the Cook Report forecast, this seems unlikely, as there are only 45 seats that are marked as "leaning" Democrat or stronger. To claim a majority, the party would have to pick up a further six seats that are either toss-ups or leaning towards the Republicans Senate forecast Key seats to watch In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won big in rural and working class communities. This helped him flip - albeit with small margins - traditionally Democrat states in the rust belt, including Wisconsin and Michigan. If the Democrats are to have hope of taking the House of Representatives from the Republicans, they need to ensure that they retain seats in these areas, before moving onto Republican territory in others. US cartogram map - House seat forecasts A series of both Republican and Democrat seats are currently classed as a "toss-up" by the Cook Report, indicating that there could be turnovers for both parts in the mid terms. The Republicans will hope to hold onto their under siege seats in places like Tennessee and West Virginia, while making inroads in Democrat areas that Trump claimed with huge majorites in the 2016 presidential election. Seats in Indiana and North Dakota are among those places where the Republicans will hope that Trump's base will help them flip seats. Key seats to watch in the Senate Does President Trump's approval rating matter? Donald Trump's approval ratings are at relatively healthy and stable levels as the mid-terms according to The Telegraph's poll tracker. The tracker, which takes an average of the last eight polls, puts Trump's approval rating on 41 per cent in mid-September. While this level is quite high for Trump, it is relatively low for sitting presidents - and this is important, as presidential approval ratings are a good indicator of net losses at mid term elections. Only two presidents - Truman (1946 and 1950), and Bush (2006) - had a lower approval rating than Trump when going into their respective mid term elections. All three of these ended up losing over 28 seats in the House of Representatives and over five in the Senate. Presidential approval matters, and Trump's is lower than most The Telegraph's poll tracker takes an average of the last eight polls in order to take a full picture of the broad movements in the polling environment and not put too much weight on individual polls. Polls used are nationally representative with adequate sample sizes.
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| Facebook's security is so bad it's surprising Zuckerberg hasn't deleted his account Posted: 08 Oct 2018 03:00 AM PDT  Facebook missed serious holes in their security system. Less than a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal launched a privacy reckoning, Facebook is back in the news over yet another data breach, this one a security breach affecting almost 50 million accounts, leaving many wondering, again, how safe their personal info really is. The blunder – in which a security flaw in the code for the "View As" feature was exploited by hackers to steal access tokens, allowing them to log in to people's accounts without a password – is wholly Facebook's fault.
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| Syria rebels say to remove heavy weapons from buffer zone within days Posted: 07 Oct 2018 03:47 PM PDT  El-Eis (Syria) (AFP) - Turkish-backed rebels said Sunday they expected to finish withdrawing heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone in northwestern Syria within days under a deal to stave off a regime attack. Regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey reached the agreement on September 17 for the northwestern region of Idlib on the Turkish border to avert what many warned would be one of the worst humanitarian disasters of Syria's seven-year conflict. Idlib "and other Syrian territory still under terrorist control will return to the Syrian state," he reportedly said at a meeting of the central committee of his Baath party, employing the regime's usual term for both rebels and jihadists.
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| China slashes banks' reserve requirements as trade war imperils growth Posted: 07 Oct 2018 09:32 AM PDT  The reserve requirement cut, the fourth by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) this year, comes as Beijing has pledged to expedite plans to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects as the economy shows signs of cooling further, with investment growth slowing to a record low. Reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) - currently 15.5 percent for large commercial lenders and 13.5 percent for smaller banks - would be cut by 100 basis points effective Oct. 15, the PBOC said, matching a similar-sized move in April. Beijing has stepped up liquidity support across the financial system this year as policymakers have focused on calming fears of capital outflows and sought to soothe battered markets even as anxiety grows that a heated trade war with the United States could deal a damaging blow to the broader economy.
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| Collins Downplays Talk Kavanaugh Vote Will Prompt Her Defeat Posted: 07 Oct 2018 04:00 PM PDT  Collins, who voted for Kavanaugh in what she termed one of her hardest decisions ever, said in response to a question about a potential challenge from former U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she did what she thought was right.
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| Police Searching for Ex-Boyfriend After Young Mother is Shot and Killed Posted: 08 Oct 2018 06:03 AM PDT  A young mother was shot and killed while walking with her mom and boyfriend in New York City Sunday night, according to police who say they are searching for the woman's ex-boyfriend.
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| Meghan McCain Returns to 'The View' for the First Time Since Father John McCain's Death Posted: 08 Oct 2018 10:05 AM PDT  She said she was overwhelmed by the show of support she received.
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| Kim, Pompeo agree to 2nd US-North Korea summit 'at earliest date' Posted: 07 Oct 2018 05:00 PM PDT  Kim Jong Un has agreed to hold a second summit with US President Donald Trump as soon as possible, Seoul said Sunday, after Washington's top diplomat held "productive" talks on denuclearisation with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim on Sunday morning for around two hours of talks followed by a lunch in the North's capital, before flying to Seoul on a whirlwind diplomatic visit to the region.
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| Liz Weston: How to fund college if you didn't save enough Posted: 08 Oct 2018 07:24 AM PDT  If college tuition bills are looming and you don't have nearly enough saved, you have plenty of company. But you also have options for making it more affordable.
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| Taylor Swift breaks silence on politics by backing Tennessee Democrat Posted: 08 Oct 2018 07:58 AM PDT  Taylor Swift has renounced her long-held political neutrality and waded into the US midterm elections, urging her 112 million Instagram followers to vote for Democrats in her home state of Tennessee, and enraging alt-right sympathisers who saw her as their poster girl. An analyst on Good Morning America, a leading breakfast show, mused over what "a weaponised Taylor Swift will look like", while alt-right chat boards exploded in disgust at her announcement. "She was supposed to be our girl! Why did she break our hearts?" wrote one person on the 4Chan forum, while another added: "They took her from us". The 28-year-old, who moved from Pennsylvania to Nashville to pursue her musical career aged 14, rose to fame as a country music star and, in a bid to avoid alienating fans, has vehemently avoided the subject of politics. But on Sunday night she broke her silence and announced her support for the Democrat candidates in her state. "In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," she wrote. View this post on Instagram I'm writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I'll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway. So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting! ������ A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Oct 7, 2018 at 4:33pm PDT "I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. "I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love." She said she could not support senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, despite wanting to see more women in politics, because "her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She continued: "She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values." Singer Taylor Swift says she is speaking out now due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years Credit: AP Swift said she will, instead, vote for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. "Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway," she said. "So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count." Swift also urged all her fans – many of them young girls – to make sure they register to vote. Her post had been "liked" by almost 1.5 million people within 24 hours, but not all embraced her new-found political voice. Katrina Pierson, a former spokesman for Donald Trump, tweeted: "So, over the weekend Taylor Swift announced that she doesn't support women and endorsed a rich old white privileged man who supported the Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation instead? Weird and extremely tone deaf." Taylor Swift, in London in December 2017 Credit: PA Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and father of White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, mocked her attempt to rally support. "So @taylorswift13 has every right to be political but it won't impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote," he tweeted. "Still with #MarshaBlackburn." Many of her fans refused to believe it. "That looks ghostwritten," one wrote. "All PR nonsense," said another. "She just doesn't want to be labelled as a white nationalist. Probably got paid to say all this." George Takei, the Star Wars actor and outspoken anti-Trump activist, said it was a sign of the times. "Guys, things have gotten so dire that even Taylor Swift had to say something," he tweeted. "#VoteBlue."
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| Eric Reid Becomes The First Carolina Panther To Take A Knee Posted: 07 Oct 2018 07:07 PM PDT  NFL safety Eric Reid became the first player on the Carolina Panthers to kneel
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| Worried Your Facebook Account Has Been Cloned? Here's What to Know About This New Hoax Posted: 07 Oct 2018 01:53 PM PDT  Users are being duped into thinking that their accounts have been cloned
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| Nigerian ex-minister and Chibok girls champion to run for president Posted: 07 Oct 2018 01:40 PM PDT  Ezekwesili, 55, a former vice president for Africa at the World Bank, said she would run as the candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN). Nigeria's presidential election is scheduled to take place in February 2019. President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office in 2015, has been selected by the ruling party as its candidate while the main opposition People's Democratic Party selected former vice president Atiku Abubakar at its convention on Sunday.[L8N1WN0G8] "I want to run for, and win, the 2019 presidential election to serve and put the citizens first by mobilizing and taking decisive actions on a number of big ideas that will help all of us build an exceptional nation," Ezekwesili said in the capital Abuja.
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| 17 Indoor Swimming Pools with Incredible Designs Posted: 08 Oct 2018 05:00 AM PDT |
| Wife says Interpol officer sent knife image as danger signal Posted: 07 Oct 2018 02:09 PM PDT  LYON, France (AP) — The wife of Interpol's president made an impassioned plea Sunday for help in bringing her missing husband to safety, saying she thinks he sent an image of a knife before he disappeared in China as a way to warn her he was in danger.
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| U.S. Stocks Reverse Losses as Tech Gets Beat Up: Markets Wrap Posted: 08 Oct 2018 01:07 PM PDT  Technology firms remained lower on concerns that trade tensions with China are rising again. The S&P 500 Index retraced an earlier slide to trade little changed, while the Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled to the lowest since Aug. 1 on its third day of declines, with software companies and semiconductor manufacturers the worst performing groups in the market. Volatility appears to be returning, with the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, at one point touching its highest intraday level since June.
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| Trump Lambasts Democrats As 'Angry Left-Wing Mob,' 'Party Of Crime' At Kansas Rally Posted: 07 Oct 2018 07:23 AM PDT  Hours after the Senate confirmed embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett
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