| Russian police arrest over 1,000 in Moscow election protest Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Russian police cracked down fiercely Saturday on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some people and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for Moscow city council. Police also stormed into a TV station broadcasting the protest. State news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protests, which lasted more than seven hours.
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| Romania suspect admits murdering two teenage girls Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:55 AM PDT  A man in Romania has admitted to killing two teenage girls including a 15-year-old whose disappearance this week shook the country and claimed the scalp of the police chief, the suspect's lawyer said Sunday. The suspect, named as 65-year-old Gheorghe Dinca, "has confessed his crimes", lawyer Alexandru Bogdan was quoted as saying by Agerpres news agency. After initially refusing to answer any questions, Dinca eventually caved and admitted to the murders of Alexandra who vanished on Wednesday and 19-year-old Luiza, missing since April.
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| Airline asks two strangers to share hotel room with one bed after missing flight Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:45 AM PDT  An airline has been asked to apologise after offering two strangers who had missed their flights an overnight stay in a room with a single bed.Elizabeth Coffi Tabu, 71, had been due to return to Paris on 19 July after spending a month with her family in Canada.However, when she missed the second leg of her journey from Montreal after her first flight was delayed, she was offered an overnight stay with another passenger - a 35-year-old man she had never met before.Speaking to CNN, Coffi Tabu's daughter Jerryne Mahele Nyota said: "My mother told the Air Canada agent, 'I don't know this man. We are not a couple,' - but they said there was only one room."She added that her mother, who makes the trip out to North America every year, struggled to make her connection as she was currently a wheelchair user following a run of cancer treatment.Upon discovering the room only had a single bed for them to sleep in, the man offered to spend the night on the sofa.Ms Mahele Nyota added: "He was a perfect gentleman but I obviously felt uncomfortable with my mom spending a night with a man half her age, a man that's a total stranger."After several hours Ms Mahele Nyota was able to arrange for another hotel room for her mother, who received two $10 (£8) food vouchers for her flight and a seat with additional leg room from the airline after explaining her ordeal.She was returned to Paris almost 24 hours after her scheduled arrival time.Mahele Nyota has since called on the airline to apologise, and expressed concern that vulnerable people unable to ask for help could be left in the same situation as her mother.She told Canadian broadcaster CBC: "Now [my mother is] realising, how is it possible? You know? And she said, 'It's not fair, it's not fair, they never gave me another option.'"In a statement an Air Canada spokesperson said: "It is not our policy to have passengers who are not travelling together share a room. In this case an error was initially made allocating rooms."
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| Sorry, AOC and Bernie Sanders: Scandinavia Is No Socialist Paradise Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:40 PM PDT  Liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., frequently hold up Scandinavian countries as successful experiments in "democratic socialism." A historian and native Swede, however, is speaking out against their failure to observe the clear capitalistic traits of Scandinavian markets."Whatever you think about Sweden and what we did, you have to realize that we had a great society first," Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian, filmmaker, and Cato Institute senior fellow, said in a recent lecture titled "No, Bernie! Scandinavia Is Not Socialist!" "We were incredibly wealthy, we trusted each other socially, there was a decent life for everybody. That's what made it possible to experiment with socialism; then it began to undermine many of those preconditions," Norberg said during the June 20 event hosted by The Fund for American Studies and the office of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. "That's the one thing that it's important for people to get, because if they just look at Sweden and think, 'Oh look, they're socialist and seem to be doing quite all right,' then they've sort of missed the point," Norberg added. It appears both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have missed the point, according to the historian. In April, Sanders explained his views on democratic socialism to an audience gathered in Burlington, Iowa:
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| Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:58 AM PDT ![Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue]( "Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue") (Bloomberg) -- President Rodrigo Duterte visited the northern Philippine province of Batanes on Sunday, a day after earthquakes struck the region and killed at least eight people including a newborn.Duterte conducted an aerial inspection of the damage and order authorities to ensure supplies are provided to victims, the Manila Bulletin said on its Twitter account. He pledged 40 million pesos ($783,000 million) to the province, after his spokesman Salvador Panelo said early Sunday that the president will initiate "the rebuilding of one of the most treasured destinations in the country."The government's disaster risk-monitoring agency has recorded about 180 aftershocks following early Saturday's 5.4 and 5.9 magnitude temblors in the town of Itbayat that left 63 people injured. One person is missing, while nearly 3,000 are staying at a public market after more than a dozen houses, two health facilities and two schools were damaged, the agency said on its website.Duterte also asked the coast guard to patrol Batanes and proposed expanding its runway, the Manila Bulletin said.Houses in Batanes, at the northern tip of the Philippines and less than 400 kilometers away from Taiwan, are made of meter-thick walls of cobblestone and limestone designed to withstand strong typhoons. There are more than 17,200 people in the province, according to statistics agency's 2015 data, and they rely mostly on agriculture for a living.Located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 2013, a 7.2 magnitude quake hit Bohol province and areas in central Philippines, killing more than 200 people and affecting 600,000 families.(Updates with details of Duterte's visit from first paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Shikhar BalwaniFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US drug busts in Pacific net cocaine worth $350 mn Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The US Coast Guard have seized $350 million worth of cocaine in a series of operations in the Pacific Ocean, captured in a dramatic video showing suspected drug smugglers frantically tossing their cargo from a speeding boat. The Coast Guard released images late Friday of the high-speed chase by one of its cutters, one of six recent interdictions in international waters of the Pacific Ocean, off the Mexican and Latin American coasts. The Coast Guard did not specify how many arrests were made in the latest actions, but said that so far this fiscal year it has detained more than 400 suspected smugglers in the Eastern Pacific while seizing more than 230,000 pounds of cocaine.
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| Arizona lawmaker criticized for saying US might look like South America Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:17 AM PDT  Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake, made the comments at an event celebrating Mormon political pioneers, according to the Phoenix New Times.
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| Every Mid-Engined Sports Car—Including a Few You Might Afford! Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:59 AM PDT |
| Police: 1998 Arkansas school shooter killed in crash Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:39 PM PDT  A man who was 11 years old in 1998 when he and a friend fatally shot four students and a teacher at their Arkansas middle school has died in a crash on a northeastern Arkansas highway, the State Police said. Drew Grant, 33, who had legally changed his name from Andrew Golden and had been living in Jackson, Missouri, died at around 9 p.m. Saturday, television station KAIT reported. The vehicle he was driving crashed head-on into another vehicle on Highway 167 near Cave City, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Little Rock.
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| Montana searchers find body of missing Oregon child Posted: 28 Jul 2019 04:29 PM PDT |
| Trump campaign appoints beauty queen who was ‘stripped of title over offensive tweets about Muslims and black people’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:24 AM PDT  A student who lost her beauty queen title over tweets about Muslims and black people is joining a Trump campaign advisory board.Kathy Zhu said she was crowned Miss Michigan but lost her title after organisers discovered her tweets."It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America (MWA) that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content," MWA appears to have said, in an email Ms Zhu posted online.The organisation stated the removal of the title would be enforced "effective immediately", adding that the Republican supporter must remove any reference to herself being a MWA participant on all social media platforms.But the 20-year-old has now been appointed to a Trump campaign advisory board, despite the controversy."I am so excited to now be part of the Women For Trump Coalition Advisory Board!" Ms Zhu said on Friday."Let's get Trump re-elected for 2020!"The official Trump campaign Twitter account described the University of Michigan student as "a patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown"."Thank you for your support of President Trump," the account added.Ms Zhu's controversial tweets have now been deleted.According to screenshots obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the student had encountered and taken umbrage at a "try a hijab" booth at her university campus."So you're telling me that it's now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing?" she wrote. "Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?" In a second post, the student replied to a tweet about police violence against the African American community."Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others," she wrote.In a statement earlier sent to The Independent the 20-year-old said: "I stand by each and every one of my tweets on my account."She added that in her opinion, "Coming out as a conservative is way harder than coming out as gay in today's society."In 2016, Ms Zhu starred in a YouTube video with TV network Fusion titled: "Why this 18-year-old is voting for Donald Trump."While several social media users have expressed messages of support towards her, others have condemned the student over her comments."Don't get it twisted – Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title for disgusting tweets. Tweets that were racist. Not because she is a conservative," one Twitter user wrote.The Independent has contacted Miss World America for comment.
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| World War III? How Russia, China, Japan and South Korea Nearly Started a War Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:25 AM PDT  The morning dawned peacefully enough on July 22 as Chinese and Russian warplanes soared towards a rendezvous point over the Sea of Japan for what was to be their first-ever joint patrol.As Russia's defense ministry put it, this was intended to deepen "Russian-Chinese relations within our all-encompassing partnership, of further increasing cooperation between our armed forces, and of perfecting their capabilities to carry out joint actions, and of strengthening global strategic security."Representing the PLA Air Force were two H-6K jet bombers which threaded their away through the international airspace of the Korean Strait to meet over the Eastern Sea with two modernized Russian Tu-95MS "Bear" bombers, each with four turboprop engines with noisy contra-rotating propellers.Accompanying the Bears was a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning plane with a huge rotating radar dish mounted on a dorsal pylon to helped coordinate the multinational elements.These aircraft repeatedly entered and exited South Korea's air-defense identification zone (ADIZ), so the South Korean air force dispatched eighteen domestically-built F-15K Slam Eagle and KF-16 jet fighters to intercept them.
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| 'Democrats overreached on this': Chris Christie on Mueller hearings Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:03 AM PDT  The Powerhouse Roundtable discusses the Mueller report, election security and the Democratic debates on "This Week."
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| Bernie Sanders denounces 'greed' of American drug companies Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:26 PM PDT  Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused American pharmaceutical companies Sunday of letting diabetic patients die out of "greed," after he accompanied a group of Americans to Canada to buy insulin. Sanders joined the group, which took a bus from the US city of Detroit to Windsor, Ontario to restock on insulin, which costs 10 times more in the United States than in its northern neighbor. "How come the same exact medicine, in this case insulin, is sold here in Canada for one-tenth of the price it is sold in the United States?" Sanders demanded after visiting a Windsor pharmacy.
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| Hong Kong police fire teargas and rubber bullets as demonstrators defy ban on protest against triad thugs Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:14 PM PDT  Hong Kong police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Saturday to disperse huge crowds holding a banned rally, snarling the city in its eight consecutive weekend of protests that show little signs of abating. Tens of thousands defied authorities and flooded main roads in Yuen Long, a small town close to the border to mainland China, to protest against a white-clad mob that viciously beat up pro-democracy demonstrators and bystanders with iron bars and bamboo sticks last weekend. The march began peacefully but quickly descended into chaos after crowds swarmed a police van. Demonstrators swore at officers and spray painted expletives on the side, while another group broke down metal barriers even as rows of riot police assembled. The tense standoff escalated in a matter of minutes when riot police shot dozens of tear gas rounds, stinging the Telegraph, and sending protesters into running battles with officers in a scene now all too familiar in the financial hub. For hours in the afternoon and as the sky turned dark, protesters with hard hats, elbow protectors, face masks, and hiking sticks unfurled umbrellas to shield against the tear gas, scattering as more canisters were flung into the air. Some taunted the police, throwing stones and bricks at them. Crowds of Hong Kong protesters defied a police ban and began gathering in a town close to the Chinese border to rally against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators there last weekend. Credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images Hong Kong has been plunged into a political crisis after millions of demonstrators took to the streets, sparking violent confrontations between police and smaller pockets of radical protesters, some of whom stormed the city's legislative building earlier this month. Protests kicked off over an extradition proposal that would have allowed suspects to be sent to face trial in mainland China, where the ruling Communist Party largely controls the courts. Demonstrators first called for the bill to be scrapped, but have since expanded their demands to include wider democratic freedoms and an independent investigation into police brutality. People demonstrate outside the police station during a protest against the Yuen Long attacks in Yuen Long Credit: REUTERS/Edgar Su As violence continues, fears have grown that Beijing will use the military – in a move that would be reminiscent of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 – as Hong Kong leaders appear unable or unwilling to restore order. In a rare move, police didn't grant protesters a letter of no objection for Saturday's demonstration, classifying it an unauthorised assembly and citing safety concerns. But it didn't prevent the crowds from staying home. One woman sported a t-shirt that read, "kind heart, fierce mind, brave spirit." "We have to show we're not afraid," said Thomas Wong, 25, who has participated in several rounds of marches and plans to keep coming out until protester demands are met. "We're still not satisfied." While most protesters left as clashes with the police turned violent, hundreds remained and peacefully regrouped in the Yuen Long subway station; some prepared to go home. But a special tactical unit charged into the station late at night, using pepper spray and beating people with batons creating pandemonium in a move some have compared to the violent attacks last week. Eleven men have been arrested, aged between 18 and 68, and four officers were injured, police said in a late night press briefing. The authorities confirmed use of tear gas, rubber bullets and foam rounds, a response of "appropriate force," saying some protesters threw smoke bombs and bottles containing corrosive liquids at officers. Rights groups, however, condemned the strong response. "The violent scenes in Yuen Long tonight were in part because Hong Kong police chose to inflame a tense situation rather than deescalate it," said Man-Kei Tam, director of Amnesty International Hong Kong. Demonstrators march to protest against the Yuen Long attacks in Yuen Long Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu "While police must be able to defend themselves, there were repeated instances today where police officers were the aggressors, beating retreating protesters, attacking civilians in the train station and targeting journalists," said Mr Tam. "Alarmingly, such a heavy-handed response now appears the modus operandi for Hong Kong police and we urge them to quickly change course." Protest signs and art have popped up all over the city. A mock funeral was even held Saturday for the city's leaders, including chief executive Carrie Lam and police commissioner Stephen Lo. Protesters have continually demanded Ms Lam to resign, and public anger has raged over police handling, accused of reacting too slowly and even colluding with the violent mob last Sunday. Police say twelve people have been arrested so far in connection with the violence, nine of whom have known triad links. Yuen Long is in an area of Hong Kong called the New Territories, where many of the surrounding rural villages are known for triad gang activity and support for the pro-Beijing establishment. Most stores and government facilities in Yuen Long were closed Saturday, though a few drink stands drew long lines of thirsty protesters under the sweltering summer sun. Despite halting traffic on the main roads of Yuen Long, some vehicles were allowed through, with passengers flashing thumbs up or shaking fists in solidarity, causing cheers to erupt among protesters. On Friday, thousands protested at Hong Kong airport's arrivals hall. Many fear freedoms are eroding in the former British colony, which are meant to be guaranteed in a 50-year agreement that kicked in when the territory was returned to China. More rallies are scheduled for Sunday, and are planned through the end of August. And they'll keep going, "because the government is not answering us," said a university student, 20, who declined to give his full name. Additional reporting by Yiyin Zhong
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| A Tale of Two Jeffreys: How the Virgin Islands Welcomed a Rich Sex Offender—and Punished a Poor One Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:01 AM PDT  Police HandoutsFrom the Virgin Islands comes a tale of two Jeffreys, and the difference great wealth can make when it comes to sex crimes—until it doesn't. Both Jeffreys were convicted of shameful crimes that required them to register as sex offenders in whatever state or jurisdiction they resided.Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to engaging a minor in prostitution in a 2007 plea deal only a super-rich guy could have swung. He did 18 months locked up, mostly in a private wing of the Palm Beach County jail, where he only stayed at night, returning each morning to "work release." He then proceeded to prove that a registered sex offender with enough money in the Virgin Islands can just continue to come and go from a private island off the coast of St. Thomas, with an ever-changing entourage of girls who appeared to be barely in their teens. He would announce his periodic return by raising the American flag over the opulent hideaway identified on the maps as Little Saint James Island, but known to locals as "pedophile island."Jeffrey No. 2—Jeffery Cole—was convicted in Ohio of a misdemeanor charge of voyeurism in 2009. He was a schlub of modest means, but his offense was relatively minor (if creepy) and he needed neither wealth nor influence to receive just a suspended sentence of 90 days and two years probation."The underlying conviction, which requires Mr. Cole to register as a sex offender, did not involve a minor, physical violence, or physical touching of any kind," his present attorney, Melanie Turnbull, noted in court. We Found Red Flags All Over Jeffrey Epstein's Jail RecordsOnce he successfully completed probation, Cole moved to Georgia, where he registered as a sex offender. He moved to the Virgin Islands in 2018 and has not been charged with engaging in further voyeurism or any other crimes.The problem for this Jeffrey was that he failed to register promptly in his new home as a sex offender. The U.S. Attorney for the Virgin Islands, Gretchen Shappert, did not miss an opportunity to convey through the media how seriously her office takes such matters."USVI resident indicted for not registering as sex offender," the headline in a local news outlet read.That February 28th article was accompanied by a photo illustration that showed a parked auto with a driver-side front door emblazoned with the words "SEX OFFENDER In This Car." It also pictured a house with a sign out front reading, "SEX OFFENDER LIVES HERE." On April 12, Cole entered into a plea deal where he faces a sentence of no more than a year."St. Thomas Resident Pleaded Guilty to Failing to Register as a Sex Offender," the U.S. Attorney's press release announced. In the meantime, on March 15, the other Jeffrey flew into St. Thomas aboard his private jet. He made his annual check-in at the local sex registry office, a gesture that can now be seen as a kind of mockery, as it's been revealed that he had been seen still bringing young girls to his private island. "Everybody was like, 'Oh, yeah, that's pedophile island,'" remembers a Wall Street numbers cruncher turned pizzeria owner who arrived in the Virgin Islands from New York in 2009.Where were the authorities when it came to this Jeffrey?Epstein's Coney Island Days: From Math Nerd to 'Arrogant' PrickAt least four members of the local legislature accepted significant campaign contributions from Southern Trust Company, Inc., one of a host of business entities Epstein founded in the Virgin Islands. Those companies began with L.S.J, LLC, through which he bought his private island for $7.95 million in 1998. Epstein had hired Cecile de Jongh, wife of former Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh, as the office manager for Southern Trust, which was granted income tax breaks of up to 90 percent by the U.S. Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority. The former first lady also managed the Epstein VI Foundation, which supported everything from brain research at Harvard to the girls' volleyball team at St. Croix Central High School in the Virgin Islands.After Epstein was arrested in Florida for a sex crime involving a minor, a Virgin Islands newspaper called The Avis ran an article suggesting that Cecile de Jongh's connections with Epstein might muddy her husband's political prospects. The Avis also noted that the arrest called into question whether the girls' volleyball team should have jerseys bearing the name Epstein.A purported grassroots movement collected 5,000 signatures on a petition accusing The Avis of yellow journalism. Epstein attorney Gerald Lefcourt issued a statement saying, "The grand jury and the prosecutor's office... determined that no serious offense had occurred."Really.Epstein kept partying on Pedophile Island. He is said to have met some resistance when he sought to buy the nearby, larger island of Great St James. The blue-blood Danish family that owned it is said to have been reluctant to sell to someone with Epstein's unsavory reputation. But he appears to have managed to acquire it anyway in 2016 by cloaking the buyer's identity with a company called Great St. Jim LLC. He is said to have paid $18 million.Epstein immediately applied for a permit to erect two 80-foot flag poles, arguing that the 45-foot limit on the books should not apply to his property. No doubt at least one of the poles would be used to fly an American flag and announce for everyone to see when the owner of Pedophile Island was back.But construction of a compound on the bigger island was delayed by environmental concerns that even somebody as well-connected as Epstein could not just circumvent.And there was far greater trouble brewing for Epstein as the result of a determined reporter, Julie Brown of the Miami Herald.Brown revealed and documented the unconscionable plea deal Epstein had been granted. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney launched a new investigation. In reviewing the 2007 Florida case, the FBI noted a court document reporting an incident that when agents served Epstein's personal assistant Lesley Groff with a grand jury subpoena, she excused herself, purportedly to check on her child. She is said by the court document to have used the moment to telephone Epstein, who was headed in his private plane from Palm Beach to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York. He was in the company of another assistant, Nadia Marcinkova, who has been accused of complicity in his sex trafficking."Mr. Epstein became concerned that the FBI would try to serve his traveling companion, Nadia Marcinkova, with a similar grand jury subpoena," the document reports. "In fact, the agents were preparing to serve Ms. Marcinkova with a target letter when the flight landed in Teterboro. Mr. Epstein then redirected his airplane, making the pilot file a new flight plan to travel to the US Virgin Islands instead."The American flag no doubt again went up over Pedophile Island as the FBI stood thwarted at Teterboro. A dozen years later, the FBI took great care that Epstein received no warning. He flew unsuspecting on July 6 from Paris to Teterboro and a waiting pair of handcuffs. On July 8, Epstein was arraigned in Manhattan federal court on charges of trafficking in underage girls. He was remanded as a flight risk and a danger to the community. He was consigned to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, briefly in general population but within hours assigned to the Special Housing Unit due to threats from inmates who apparently take a dim view of "short eyes," as child molesters are known behind bars.Epstein must have considered the arrest a possibility, for some time ago he commissioned an artist to paint a mural in his Manhattan mansion of him in a prison yard. Neither he nor the artist seem to have foreseen that he would find himself locked up 23 hours a day in an eight-by-eight foot cell infested with cockroaches and rodents. A thickly screened single narrow window faces a brick wall and lets in only enough light to tell night from day. Mold is said to grow on the walls. Water seeps in under the door from a shower to which he has access only once every three days. For two weeks, Epstein's cellmate was an ex-cop named Nicholas Tartaglione, who is accused of a quadruple murder. Tartaglione says the two became "friends," whereby he joined a list that once included two presidents, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. A realtor who asked not to be identified recently told The Daily Beast that Trump exclaimed at a business gathering at Tavern on the Green some years ago that Epstein was "my best friend."Tartaglione has reportedly told authorities that he saved Epstein from a suicide attempt. But Trump may not be the only liar on Epstein's list of pals. Tartaglione ended up in the Special Housing Unit after he was caught with a cellphone that he insisted had just been given to him by another inmate. Tartaglione then moved to keep the government from inspecting the phone's contents on the grounds it may have privileged communications with his lawyer and with his wife. Never mind it was supposedly not his.Epstein is now said to be on suicide watch. He is 66 and, if convicted, he stands a good chance of dying in prison even if he takes the best possible care of himself. He may have finally landed in a situation where all his money cannot save him from suffering the consequences of his actions.Also behind bars is the other Jeffrey, having been remanded when he entered his guilty plea in April. Cole had been free on his own recognizance since his arraignment, the court having deemed him to be neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. His attorney petitioned for him to remain at liberty pending sentencing, which is set for August 15. The attorney noted that Cole is a 57-year-old graduate of Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape architecture, had been steadily employed for more than 30 years and was presently a fleet manager at a car rental company. He would be able to continue working there until his day of reckoning. The judge remanded Cole nonetheless. Cole was shipped off to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. His attorney has since filed a motion to expedite matters."The current sentencing date inevitably results in a period of incarceration of four months," the petition noted, adding that Cole was eligible to receive probation and no time at all.As of Saturday, the sentencing was still set for August 15. Cole remains behind bars in Guaynabo. But he will almost certainly be free within the next few months.And you can bet that this Jeffrey would not trade places with the other one for all the money in the worldRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Israel says Arrow-3 missile shield passes U.S. trials, warns Iran Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:18 AM PDT  Israel's U.S.-backed Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, casting the achievement as a warning to Iran. Jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Boeing Co, Arrow-3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in space, an altitude that would destroy any non-conventional warheads safely. It passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017.
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| Eight killed as quakes hit far northern Philippines Posted: 27 Jul 2019 12:45 AM PDT  Eight people were killed and dozens injured when a series of earthquakes struck islands in the far northern Philippines early Saturday, toppling historic buildings and sending terrified locals fleeing their homes. The tremors hit the province of Batanes, a group of sparsely populated islets north of the nation's largest Luzon island, tearing deep cracks in roads and forcing the evacuation of a hospital.
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| The Latest: 2 American teens jailed in Italian cop killing Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:34 AM PDT  An Italian detention order says two American teenagers from California are being held in jail for investigation of murder in the fatal stabbing of a police officer. The detention order was displayed on Italian state broadcaster RAI and it named the two suspects as Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder. Police confirmed that the detention order shown on state TV was authentic.
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| Turkey Stockpiled F-16 Parts Ahead of Getting the Russian S-400 Anti-Air System Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:30 PM PDT  NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days.A Bloomberg report says Turkey has been stockpiling parts for F-16s and other military equipment in anticipation of a U.S. sanction for acquiring the Russian S-400 air defense system.Two anonymous officials from Turkey who spoke to the news outlet refused to clarify on what types of spares were accumulated, how much was acquired and how long they can last.Relations between the two countries deteriorated over the course of the Syrian civil war, when the U.S. armed a Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a terrorist group, and in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan that his government blames on a Turkish imam residing in the U.S.(This first appeared earlier in July 2019.)NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days."The first batch of S-400s will be delivered in a week or 10 days," Haberturk newspaper cited him as saying in a report Monday. "I've clearly told this to Trump, Mr. Putin also said it."
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| Trump Fed pick’s push for gold troubles lawmakers Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:57 AM PDT  Prominent economists agree that a return to a gold-linked dollar would not be better for the average American.
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| Vatican says no recent bones found in search of ossuary Posted: 28 Jul 2019 07:33 AM PDT  Experts say they have found no recent bones in their examination of a ossuary as part of a search for a teenager who disappeared 36 years ago, Vatican officials said Sunday. A Vatican spokesman said a team of specialists, who completed their work Sunday, had found no bones old enough to match those of Emanuela Orlandi, the missing teenager. Forensics specialist Giovanni Arcudi, who led the team, said they had found "no bone structure dating back to a period later than the end of the 19th century," said the statement.
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| Indian villagers beat tiger to death after attacks Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:46 AM PDT  An investigation has been launched in India after a tigress blamed for injuring a number of villagers was clubbed to death in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The killing was compared to a "lynching" by Indian media and online commentators after news channels aired footage of over 40 villagers beating the tiger to death with sticks and clubs. Forestry Department officials said they tried to intervene and remove the animal from the game reserve that bordered the village in Uttar Pradesh but rangers were also set upon by the mob and had to flee for their lives. Villagers said the tiger had attacked people working in the fields - a claim disputed by forestry officials. The incident took place last week after a child "suddenly went near the tigress without any reason," said Naveen Khandelwal, Divisional Forest Officer at the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. When the youth raised a cry, villagers rushed to save him. Around 40 people entered the jungle and assaulted the tigress, leaving it seriously injured, said Mr Khandelwal. A post-mortem conducted by wildlife experts concluded that the tigress died "due to shock" as a result of blood hemorrhage, broken bones and numerous injuries with sharp and blunt objects, according to local media. Mr Khandelwal said locals also attacked the forest officials monitoring the tigress and created obstacles in their work. Four people have been arrested and an investigation has been ordered into the incident. Around 30 people were killed by tigers in India in 2018, and more than 60 tigers have died or been killed so far this year across the country. Tigers were close to extinction in India a few years ago due to poaching. But the country is now home to more than half the world's tiger population with more than 2,220 found in special reserves in a 2014 census. The Indian government is expected to announce a further increase in tiger numbers in the 2018 census.
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| Nadler: Mueller report 'broke the lie' of no obstruction of justice Posted: 28 Jul 2019 04:11 AM PDT  House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., discusses the Mueller report, President Trump and impeachment on "This Week."
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| The Second 2020 Democratic Debate Is Almost Here. Here’s Everything You Need to Know Posted: 28 Jul 2019 07:19 AM PDT  20 presidential candidates will face off in Detroit
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| Cuban officials attend funeral service for Cardinal Ortega Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:52 PM PDT |
| Off-duty Los Angeles police officer killed; gunman sought Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:26 PM PDT  An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was shot and killed at a Lincoln Heights taco stand early Saturday and authorities are searching for a suspect. Officer Juan Diaz was out with his girlfriend and two other males when he was shot, according to an official who had been briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to speak publicly. Diaz was standing in line at the food truck with his girlfriend and two other males when he noticed a man vandalizing something nearby and approached him, the official said.
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| US senator helps pregnant migrant with life-threatening condition apply for asylum at US-Mexico border Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:25 PM PDT  A pregnant Mexican woman suffering complications was told by immigration officers that they couldn't process her family's asylum claim at the US border on Saturday before a US senator intervened to persuade the officers to take the woman to a Texas hospital.While visiting a migrant shelter on Saturday, Ron Wyden grew concerned about a woman who was 38 weeks pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia and other complications.The senator and his staff decided to take the woman, her husband and 3-year-old son to a port of entry to make their asylum claim.At the Paso del Norte Bridge linking Juárez and El Paso, the family approached two US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, presented their identification and said they wanted to request asylum.They then heard the words that tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been told for more than a year at the US-Mexico border: "We're full," a CBP officer told them.Mr Wyden, who had followed behind the family along with an entourage of staff members and friends from Oregon, then stepped forward and identified himself.He told the officers that Mexicans are exempt from the "metering" programme CBP has used to strictly control the number of people allowed to request asylum at ports of entry.He also told the officers the woman was late term in her pregnancy and suffering complications.The officers called a supervisor, who arrived minutes later, and allowed the family to go to the port of entry to make their asylum claim.Mr Wyden was clearly shaken by his two-day visit to the border, which included a tour of CBP holding cells and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.At the Juárez shelter, he met a 3-year-old boy who had stopped speaking after being held with his father by the US Border Patrol and then sent back to Mexico.Mr Wyden spoke with families who were required to stay in Mexico for six months before their first US immigration court hearing."These policies that I've seen are not what America is about. And in fact what we saw with respect to the woman who is here today is just a blatant violation of US law," Mr Wyden said, referring to the pregnant woman.He said he believed the CBP agents would have turned away the family if he had not intervened, a sentiment echoed by Taylor Levy, an El Paso immigration attorney who took Mr Wyden and his staff to Juárez."I feel very confident that if the family had tried to present alone, they would not have been allowed in," Ms Levy said.A CBP spokesman said the officer would not have told the family that asylum processing was at capacity if they had explained that they were Mexican and that the mother was pregnant.However, the family gave the officer, whose uniform identified his last name as Loya, a folder that contained their Mexican birth certificates and identification.Shaw Drake, the policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Border Rights Centre in El Paso, Texas, said he asked the officer afterward if the family had identified themselves as Mexican asylum seekers, and the officer said they had.Mr Wyden was also critical of a CBP officer who told the senator's staff they were not allowed to take photos or video on the bridge.The ACLU's Mr Drake said the officer, whose name tag identified him as Castro, was wrong, and he told the staff they could continue to record."Certainly it looked like it had the potential for not going well. The ACLU folks talked about their legal rights to be able to record the [processing], and one of the officers said, 'We have a situation'," Mr Wyden said."So having done this for a while, those are the kinds of things that concern you and might suggest it's not going well."Metering is used as a way to cap the number of people allowed to apply for asylum at ports of entry.Mexicans are supposed to be exempt from metering under US asylum laws, Mr Drake said. He said he had seen CBP agents turning back Mexican asylum seekers before."If someone arrives on our border and expresses a fear of return to their home country, the government is barred from returning that person to their home country until a process has been followed to determine whether they have the right to remain in the United States as an asylee or a refugee," he said."And so turning a Mexican away at the border, back into Mexico, is directly returning an asylum seeker to the country from which they're fleeing persecution with no process to determine whether they have a fear of returning to that country."Mr Wyden met the family, who asked not to be identified, at a shelter that houses about 250 migrants in Juárez. They were sharing a small room with 11 other migrants.They said they were from the Mexican state of Guerrero and wanted to seek asylum because they feared violence from drug cartels and their government allies."There's a lot of insecurity, and the government is involved and corrupted with the cartels. There's just no way to survive," the father told Mr Wyden.The family showed Mr Wyden their number for the metering list, which is kept by the Chihuahua State Population Council in Juárez.The number 17,647 was handwritten on a slip of paper. More than 5,000 people were ahead of them on the list, meaning they faced a four- or five-month wait before being allowed to come to a US port of entry and seek asylum.The family said they had not previously gone to a port of entry because they thought they had to get on the metering list.Lauren Herbert, an Oregon paediatrician who accompanied Mr Wyden on the border tour, said she became concerned when talking to the mother."She had a previous diagnosis of preeclampsia, which already places her at high risk," Herbert said after the family crossed the border."And then she described two days of leaking fluid," which could indicate a ruptured membrane that threatened the life of mother and unborn child. "This is a high-risk pregnancy, and she needs to be seen by a doctor. Now."After Mr Wyden met the woman and her family, Ms Levy, the immigration attorney, and Mr Drake urged the senator to push CBP to get the woman to a hospital as soon as possible."The US government keeps saying that they don't put Mexicans on the metering list and that Mexicans will always be accepted because they're fleeing Mexico," Ms Levy said. She suggested Mr Wyden approach the border officers along with an ACLU representative and lawyers."That's what we're going to do," Mr Wyden said.About an hour later, the family was undergoing initial processing by CBP to begin their asylum claim. CBP officials told Mr Wyden that the mother would quickly be taken to a hospital for evaluation. Their status was not clear on Saturday night.Ian Philabaum, programme director for the legal group Innovation Law Lab who accompanied the senator on his two-day border tour, said the family's plight would have been much different without Mr Wyden's assistance."If not for the presence of a US senator, another asylum-seeker would have been sent back to dangerous conditions in Mexico, the same country she is fleeing, and despite the fact that she is pregnant and in dire need of medical attention," he said..Washington Post
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| Man Who Claims He Started ‘Storm Area 51’ Facebook Page Reveals Identity Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:15 AM PDT  The reported creator of the viral Facebook page "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us" revealed his identity to KLAS-TV of Las Vegas on Thursday.Matty Roberts, a California resident, claimed he created the satirical Facebook page, which calls on people across the nation to raid Area 51, the top-secret Air Force facility in Nevada on Sept. 20, 2019. Roberts said he never expected the page to attract so much attention. Since its launch on June 27, 1.6 million people responded they would attend the public invasion, while another 1.2 million are "interested."The Facebook page invites attendees to meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction in order to coordinate the entry, an area that has been surrounded by secrecy for decades."If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens," the event description reads."I posted it on like June 27th and it was kind of a joke," Roberts said. "And then it waited for like three days, like 40 people and then it just completely took off, out of nowhere. It's pretty wild."Roberts said he initially intended for it to be a "meme" page and got the idea after watching podcaster Joe Rogan interview Bob Lazar, an Area 51 whistleblower, about hidden UFO technology in the Nevada desert, according to the KLAS-TV segment."It's entirely satirical, though, and most people seem to understand that," he said.Roberts was hesitant to come forward as the creator, fearing that the FBI would show up to his house.
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| President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:19 PM PDT ![President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel]( "President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel") The visit capped off a big week for the president.
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| Fighting talk: Ireland raises stakes in Brexit showdown Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:53 AM PDT  With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit becoming ever more likely under Boris Johnson, the remaining EU member state with most to lose -- Ireland -- is hardening its rhetoric. Ireland has a land border with Britain that it wants to keep free-flowing after Brexit and it fears massive economic disruption if Britain crashes out of the EU. Since Johnson took over on Wednesday, Irish leaders have warned his plans are unrealistic and could lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom and a united Ireland.
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| Brazil miners kill tribal leader in Amazon land invasion Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:33 AM PDT  Armed miners have reportedly invaded a village in a remote part of Brazil and killed a tribal leader. Villagers fled but were planning to return, sparking fears of a "bloodbath," according to local reports. The violence began last week when the indigenous leader was reportedly stabbed to death in an area belonging to the Waiapi tribe in Amapa state, in the north of the country. It came as around 50 miners, known as "garimpeiros," were said to have overrun the Waiapi village of Mariry. The leader's body was reportedly found with stab wounds in a river. The village is 186 miles from the state capital and a team of police departed to investigate. Randolfe Rodrigues, an opposition senator from Amapa, writing on his Facebook page, said: "The situation is urgent." He warned of a "bloodbath" and added: "This is the first violent invasion in 30 years since the demarcation of the indigenous reserves in Amapa." Jawaruwa Waiapi, a Wajãpi leader, said the government should send soldiers because the miners were armed with rifles. He said: "We're in danger." There are more than 1,000 Waiapi living in remote villages near the Brazilian border with French Guiana. Brazil's tribal peoples have long faced pressure from miners, ranchers and loggers. Activists say the threats have intensified since Jair Bolsonaro, the pro-business president, took power in January vowing to increase development in the Amazon rainforest. The Waiapi live deep inside the Amazon in an area rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper. Their territory is one of hundreds Brazil's government demarcated in the 1980s for the exclusive use of indigenous inhabitants, and access by outsiders is strictly regulated. Reports of the attack emerged as Mr Bolsonaro once again defended mining in the Amazon, highlighting the "absurd quantity of minerals" there. Mr Bolsonaro said he was looking for the "first world" to help Brazil exploit the areas.
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| US citizen says he lost 26 pounds under 'inhumane' conditions at border facility in Texas Posted: 27 Jul 2019 09:31 AM PDT  An 18-year-old U.S. citizen from Dallas says he lost 26 pounds while being held for more than three weeks at a U.S. border detention center.
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| Death toll in Nigeria Boko Haram attack up to 65: official Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:22 AM PDT  An attack this weekend by Boko Haram fighters on a funeral in northeast Nigeria has left 65 people dead, almost triple the initial toll, a local official said Sunday. "It is 65 people dead and 10 injured," local government chairman Muhammed Bulama said. Bulama said more than 20 people died in the initial attack on a funeral gathering.
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| China rejects U.S. lawmaker's comments on HK protests, human rights Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:18 AM PDT  China said it strongly opposes what it calls "erroneous" claims made by Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Eliot Engel, who criticized China's Communist Party over its position on protests in Hong Kong. Engel said in a statement on Friday that he was "deeply concerned" by reports of police brutality in Hong Kong and criticized Beijing's "increasingly harsh responses and propagandic depictions" of the protesters. China's Foreign Ministry Office in Hong Kong responded on Sunday with a sharply-worded statement, saying it "urges foreign politicians to stop sending the wrong signals over this violent behaviour".
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| Kenya governor of president's home area held for corruption Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:53 AM PDT |
| Southern California water polo players among injured in deadly balcony collapse at South Korea nightclub Posted: 27 Jul 2019 12:26 PM PDT  Several USA Water Polo team members from Southern California were among the 16 people injured when a balcony collapsed inside a South Korea nightclub, killing two others, officials said.
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| The Navy Reportedly booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:00 PM PDT  When the commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve unceremoniously booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq this week, the U.S. Special Operations Command justified it "due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods."But according to an alarming new report in the New York Times, "deterioration of good order and discipline" seemed to be an understatement.While the Navy initially indicated that an alcohol-soaked July 4th party was the core driver of the decision, a senior Navy official revealed to the New York Times' David Philipps that a senior enlisted platoon member had allegedly raped a female service member assigned to the SEAL platoon.In addition, "when commanders began investigating the allegations, the entire platoon invoked their right to remain silent" under the Fifth Amendment, Philipps reports. "At that point, the official said, commanders decided to send the whole platoon home, including the lieutenant in command."When reached for comment by Task & Purpose, SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw said the command was "unable to confirm the nature of any allegations that are currently under investigation."
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| Trump attacks black congressman for second day in a row amid growing anger over racist use of 'infested' Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:34 AM PDT  Donald Trump has attacked a senior Democratic congressman of colour for the second day in a row, after sparking backlash over claims Elijah Cummings represented a "rodent infested" district in tweets widely viewed as racist.The president continued his criticism of the Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings on Sunday after tweeting that he "does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district" a day prior.He also attacked Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco district on Sunday morning, while insinuating it was the House speaker with racial issues rather than the president himself, writing.It came amid mounting criticism of his attacks against a growing list of minority politicians. Many people noted how the president has often used the term "infested" to describe cities and entire countries with large black populations, including CNN anchor Victor Blackwell, who delivered a tearful defence of his hometown of Baltimore in response to the president's attacks. "There are challenges, no doubt, but people are proud of their community," he said, speaking of Mr Cummings' hometown and the district he grew up in. "I don't want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there. They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans too."The president's incendiary tweets were just the latest in a weeks-long series of insults he has used against minority members of Congress. Mr Trump used an old, racist trope against freshmen Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar just last week when he said to "go back" to their countries — despite all of them being US citizens and only one having been born outside of the country.> Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > > July 27, 2019This weekend, it was Mr Cummings turn. The president shared videos posted by other Twitter users alleging to show run-down portions of the congressman's district, adding tweets that read, "why don't you focus on your district?!" and "Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry". Mr Trump said Mr Cummings was a "brutal bully shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous".The criticism drew sharp, immediate backlash nationwide and on Capitol Hill, where Ms Pelosi described Mr Cummings as "a beloved leader in Baltimore" and a "deeply valued colleague"."We all reject racist attacks against [Mr Cummings] and support his steadfast leadership," she wrote, adding the hashtag ElijahCummingsIsAPatriot. Mr Trump, who was reportedly golfing on Sunday, also attacked Democrats over former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's public testimony last week, writing: "The Democrats are still doing the Russians dirty work as they continue to push the fake crime".The former special counsel described in detail the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, adding that the Kremlin was continuing its operations "as we sit here" and that Mr Trump was not cleared of obstruction of justice and other potentially criminal wrongdoings in the nearly 448-page report.
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| Hong Kong’s Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says Posted: 27 Jul 2019 10:39 PM PDT ![Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says]( "Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says") (Bloomberg) -- Social unrest gripping Hong Kong has affected the city's economy and businesses, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise from current levels, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post.In the Chinese-language post on his website, Chan said many local retail and catering businesses had experienced a "sharp decline" in business, and he warned that the longer the historic protests go on, the more pressure they will pile on small and medium enterprises."For foreign tourists and enterprises, the unrest in Hong Kong dampens their appetite for traveling and investment," Chan said in translated comments. If the movement lasts, he said, "everyone's employment and livelihood will be at stake."The Hong Kong government will consider countermeasures to stabilize the economy, Chan said, without providing details.The overall economic downturn that Hong Kong is experiencing, including because of external factors such as the U.S.-China trade war and frictions in the technology sector, will "inevitably be transmitted to the job market." The jobless rate will likely rise from its current 20-year low of 2.8%, Chan wrote. The import and export, wholesale and construction industries are among the most affected and their situations have begun to deteriorate, he said.Read more about the protests' hit on Hong Kong's economyOver the past eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against proposed legislation that would ease extraditions to mainland China. While the planned law has been suspended, the movement has grown to include calls for Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation, causing a political crisis in the city.Hong Kong is set to report preliminary second-quarter gross domestic product on July 31. The government will also conduct an interim review of the year's economic growth forecast to reflect possible changes in the coming months more accurately, Chan said.There have been signs this month that the mass demonstrations are starting to take a toll on the financial hub's economy as big-spending travelers stay away. Some global luxury retailers said the unrest weighed on sales due to store closures and fewer tourists. The Hong Kong Retail Management Association expressed concern that civil unrest could damage the city's image as a safe environment, culinary capital and haven for shoppers.\--With assistance from Evelyn Yu.To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Climate change warning as Arctic Circle burning at record rate Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:41 AM PDT  An unprecedented outbreak of wildfires in the Arctic has sent smoke across Eurasia and released more carbon dioxide in two months than the Czech Republic or Belgium does in a year. As 44C heatwaves struck Europe, scientists observed more than 100 long-lasting, intense fires in the Arctic in June, the hottest month on record, and are seeing even more in July, according to Mark Parrington of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Mostly in Alaska and Russia, the infernos have collectively released more than 120 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual output of most countries. It is the most carbon emitted since satellite monitoring began in the early 2000s. This will further exacerbate climate change and has sent smoke pouring toward more populated parts of the world. Pollutants can persist more than a month in the atmosphere and spread thousands of kilometres. "You ask people about the Arctic, they think ice, polar bears, a clean environment, but clearly that's changing and that's no longer the case," Mr Parrington said. "It should be an alarm bell that something isn't right, but the way it could directly affect them is the long-range transfer of smoke pollution. I don't think it's getting as far as western Europe just yet but that could happen." The huge amounts of carbon from the fires will exacerbate climate change Credit: Maxar Technologies via AP While some have estimated that up to half a million kilometres have burned worldwide this year, Russia has been especially hard hit. Already, dangerous levels of smoke pollution have been reported this week in the cities of Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, where a curtain of smog turned the daytime sun a deep red. The number of patients in some cardiac wards have reportedly doubled. Fires first erupted in the peatlands of northern Siberia in June and have been joined by blazes in the massive boreal forests south of the Arctic circle. More than 30,000 square kilometres of Russian territory are currently burning, already about as much as in 2018 and twice as much as in 2017. This has created a 4.5 million square kilometre "smoke lid" that reaches as far east as the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Kazakhstan. To the west, thick smoke haze has drifted into more populated parts of the country, obscuring the streets of cities like Yekaterinburg and Perm and being detected all the way in Kazan on the Volga River. "This morning I thought a rubbish bin was burning outside the window, but it hasn't passed, the smoke is staying there," Yekaterinburg resident Yevgenia Panasyuk told local television. Impressive extent of heavy smoke across much of central Russia/Siberia, Alaska & Canada from numerous intense boreal & Arcticwildfires shows up in latest Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service aerosol optical depth forecast https://t.co/N5E33mccshpic.twitter.com/br0kkT02HY— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) July 24, 2019 Once rare in the cold, wet tundra and forests, fires in the Arctic, which is warming at twice the world average, have been flaring up with increasing frequency. The Copernicus satellite system has observed an average of 50 to 60 Arctic hotspots on summer days since it began monitoring in 2003. This summer it has been seeing about 250 per day. And while in the past Arctic blazes would typically go out in a few days, the duration of this year's fires, many of which of have been burning for nearly two months, is shocking, Mr Parrington said. The long-term effects could be dire. Already in June, fires began to deposit soot known as "black carbon" on Arctic sea ice, accelerating its melt. Russia has mobilised 2,715 personnel and 28 aircraft but they are only fighting fires in about 1,500 square kilometres of territory. A brush fire burns in South Anchorage, Alaska Credit: Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP Like in Alaska and Canada, not all fires here receive a response. Since 2015, Russia has declined to combat blazes in vast, remote "control zones" unless they threaten towns. "The logic is clear, we need to save money," the head of the Krasnoyarsk region said this month. But the policy of leaving fires alone until they spread to populated areas has resulted in an "environmental disaster at a national level," Greenpeace Russia said on Friday. It claimed that hundreds of villages were within the control zones, calling on these boundaries to be redrawn and for the government to send additional firefighting forces to defend villages. Also on Friday, a study published in Science found that some Alaskan glaciers were melting 100 times faster than previously thought. Drawing on data about the terminus of a glacier in LeConte Bay collected by local high students since 1983, scientists scanned the glacier with sonar, radar and time-lapse cameras for two summers to discover that the underwater part of it was melting up to 16 feet per day in August. Their results have demonstrated that glaciers are more sensitive to warming ocean temperatures than researchers had known.
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| Emmett Till memorial will be made bulletproof after photo of gun-toting students surfaces Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Emmett Till's memorial will be bulletproof after outrage over a photo of three gun-toting Ole Miss students posing in front of the sign.
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| Iran invites Pompeo for interview by reporter once detained in US Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:53 AM PDT  Iran on Sunday invited Mike Pompeo to be interviewed by a state television anchor who was once detained in America, after the top US diplomat said he was willing to talk to its people. Pompeo said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg that he would "happily" go to Tehran and willingly appear on Iranian television to explain US reasoning behind its sanctions against the Islamic republic. "Our reporter Ms. Marzieh Hashemi can go and interview (Pompeo) so that he can say what he intends to say," government spokesman Ali Rabiei said, quoted by official news agency IRNA.
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| AP Explains: How big a threat is an electromagnetic attack? Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:29 AM PDT  When much of Venezuela was plunged into darkness after a massive blackout this week, President Nicolás Maduro blamed the power outage on an "electromagnetic attack" carried out by the U.S. Blackouts are a regrettably frequent part of life in Venezuela, where the electric grid has fallen into serious disrepair. "In Venezuela, it's a lot easier for him to say we did something to him than he did it to himself," said Sharon Burke, senior adviser at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, and former assistant secretary of defense for operational energy at the Department of Defense.
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| UPDATE 2-Beijing says millions of tonnes of U.S. soy shipped to China, U.S. data reflects less Posted: 28 Jul 2019 05:34 AM PDT |
| Almost a War?: Russian and Chinese Planes Violated South Korean Airspace Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:02 AM PDT  Intrusions into East China Sea airspace claimed by both China and Japan are fairly common — even sometimes involving South Korea. What HappenedAn odd set of confrontations unfolded July 23 around the Korean Peninsula involving South Korea, Russia, China and Japan. According to an official South Korean account of the events, early on July 23, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near Ieodo, a submerged rock claimed by both South Korea and China in the Yellow Sea. They later entered the ADIZ once again at Ulleung island off South Korea's east coast in the Sea of Japan before being joined by Russian TU-50 bombers and re-entering the ADIZ for a third time. After this, a Russian A-50 early warning aircraft and two Tu-95 bombers entered the ADIZ around Dokdo Island — a maritime space that Japan also claims as the Takeshima Islands — before the A-50 passed into South Korean-claimed airspace, leaving it and then reentering it again. South Korea scrambled jets to respond to both alleged entries by the A-50, firing both warning shots and flares.
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| 'Abortion is freedom': Pro-choice billboard adverts protest all-male council declaring city ‘sanctuary for the unborn’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Almost overnight, a small town nestled in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt has become a battleground for America's deeply divisive debate over women's reproductive rights.There are no abortion clinics in Waskom, located near the Louisiana border, but last month an all-male city council passed an ordinance largely written by an anti-abortion group declaring it a "sanctuary city for the unborn".Officials insisted it was a preventive measure, designed to allay the council's fears that the signing of strict abortion bans in the neighbouring state could prompt clinics to move across the border and into their town of about 2,200 residents.Responding to the proclamation, abortion rights activists from Austin, around 300 miles away, erected two billboards on the edge of town that asserted "abortion is freedom" and directed women needing care to a website with information on local services.That small act of external resistance has galvanised many of the of men and women who live in the town.Heated disagreements have broken out on local Facebook groups since the billboards appeared, and a small number of women have reached out to the billboard sponsors to thank them for their visible protest.Others in town said they were considering volunteering to collect signatures from those who oppose the ban and setting up a support network for those who need it.The majority of local residents of Waskom interviewed by The Washington Post said they supported the ordinance and resent more liberal parts of the state plastering their views on billboards in a largely conservative community."I think they did it to take a dig at Waskom," said Jayna Lay, 37, who owns a local garage. "They send the wrong message in my opinion. 'Abortion is freedom', that's a messed up phrase. That's pretty much saying, 'Kill your children and you're free'. That's crazy to me."Ms Lay said she knew the council's action would cause controversy. "The day before the meeting, Facebook exploded. But I would never see Waskom having an abortion clinic anyway; it's such a small town full of churches."Corey Gossens, 31, who works in the railroad industry, was one of the few Waskom residents willing to speak out publicly against the ban."It baffles me how a group of all white middle-class men adopted an ordinance making abortion illegal within the city limits of Waskom," he said."It's been my personal experience that some people of this calibre in these small towns are in support of a pro-life stance only when it doesn't directly involve their lives and their perfect little white-picket-fence world."Mr Gossens asserted that men who agreed with the ordinance "would likely drive hours away from home with their pregnant teen daughter in tow for an appointment with Planned Parenthood, if they thought the birth of this hypothetical child would compromise their position in society, or their seat on the church pew".He added: "I have seen this myself, and many who remain silent beside me will attest. This is why I feel the billboard is a beautifully and perfectly timed juxtaposition to the absolute insanity taking place in a town that is barely on the map."Women living in Waskom who oppose the ordinance and support the message of the billboards would only speak on the condition of anonymity. They said they feared being "shunned" by their churches and, in some cases, even their own husbands."A woman should be able to have the right to have an abortion," said one woman, who spoke with unconcealed fury about the council's move. "You can't just take people's rights away. There is a reason why you get an abortion – we don't know what happens behind closed doors."There are young ladies around here I've spoken to whose family don't believe that an uncle has been raping them. So they've been forced to get an abortion. Things get swept under the rug here."There are women here who agree with me and a lot who have had abortions but are too afraid to say anything," she added. She offered no further details.Delma Catalina Limones, the communications manager for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, which helped pay for the billboards, said they had no contact with anyone in Waskom until the billboards were erected. "People reached out to thank us for them," she said.The city ordinance declared her organisation, along with other reproductive rights allies, "criminal," despite the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalising abortion. "Organisations that perform abortions and assist others in obtaining abortions are declared to be criminal organisations," the ordinance states.It adds that it "shall be unlawful" for any of these organisations to offer "services of any type," rent office space, purchase real property or establish a "physical presence of any sort" within Waskom."We refuse to be intimidated, and we will continue to work to expand and protect abortion access in Texas," Ms Limones said.Cristina Parker, communications director for the Austin-based Lilith Fund, an organisation that also helped fund and erect the billboards, said her group wanted local women to know abortion was still legal and available to them.When abortion bans are voted on, "it does create a lot of confusion," she said.Jesse Moore, the local mayor, insisted the matter was closed. "We have no intentions whatsoever to go [head] to head with anybody who opposes it," he said in an interview in his Waskom office. "As far as I am concerned, we are done with the abortion clinic issue."Texas has historically been at the forefront of the abortion rights battle. Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision, originated here.As the state-by-state battle over abortion rights has intensified this year, Republican lawmakers have increasingly pushed strict bans on the procedure as part of a strategy designed to give the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn the landmark ruling.Neither side indicated they expect the Waskom ordinance to advance that far.Mr Moore insisted the move in Waskom was solely about stopping a clinic from ever opening in the city.He said he "didn't hear a word" of opposition from anyone who attended the packed meeting when the ordinance was passed, and that the meeting prompted "the largest crowd I have seen"."I want to make clear that we passed that ordinance to keep abortion clinics out of Waskom," he said. "I don't like what they [the billboards] say, but they have got that right."The abortion clinic closest to Waskom is Hope Medical Group for Women, just over 20 miles across the border in Shreveport, Louisiana.Mr Moore said the council "got wind" that this clinic was planning on relocating, or putting a satellite office in Waskom.The clinic's administrator, Kathaleen Pittman, said there was never a plan to move."Hope Medical Group for Women never had any intention of moving there," Ms Pittman said. "Information provided to the city of Waskom was absolutely incorrect."Townspeople point to external groups as stirring up confusion and using the town as a front for both sides of the debate to promote their agendas.Lobbying for the ordinance was led by Right to Life of East Texas, whose director, Mark Lee Dickson, applauded the move on Facebook."Mark approached us and we talked to him about it," Mr Moore said. "He and his group came up with an ordinance and a resolution."There were some little changes made to it, and we decided that was the one we were going to go with; we felt like it fit us better than anything we'd seen."It is not hard to find residents who are willing to speak in support of their council's new ordinance. Erin Grable, 47, rejected the idea that an abortion is acceptable in any circumstance.As she served customers settling down for lunch at Jim's Bar-B-Que, she described herself as a Christian."So of course I don't believe in abortion," she said. She said she believed there are a "million other options that nobody wants to talk about," including adoption.Asked whether she supported the right of a woman to seek an abortion in cases of rape or incest, she replied: "In my heart, no. I'm a full-on Christian, and I think there are always different things you can do."I pray for people who are lost, in my mind. People who believe in abortion ... need prayer."She also rejected criticisms levied at the male council members who passed the ordinance. "The thing they don't want to tell you is that 90 per cent of the people at that meeting were female," she said."They want to say we are letting men make our decisions. I think that's ridiculous. We are strong women in Texas; we know what we think and believe all by ourselves, and we will tell you."Suzan Maxwell, 58, owns an embroidery printing business, added she, too, is "very proud" of what has happened in the town.A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found support for legal abortion stands at its highest level in more than two decades, with a 60 per cent majority nationwide who say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.Even in Waskom, some uncertainty surfaced. Speaking on the outskirts of the town, Damon Anderson, 60, a father to one daughter, said he struggles to justify the right to abortion when women have access to birth control. However, he said, in the instance of rape or incest, it was "different."He said: "If you got raped or beaten, I think you should have a choice as to whether you want to be a mother or not."I wouldn't necessarily want an abortion clinic in this town," he added. "I would hate to know that there are babies being killed across the street, but people have got to go somewhere."Washington Post
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