| Police: Man with rifle, bulletproof vest arrested at Springfield, Missouri, Walmart store Posted: 08 Aug 2019 05:22 PM PDT  Springfield, Missouri, police said the man had body armor and entered the Walmart store carrying a "tactical rifle" and another gun.
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| Indian PM: Changes in Kashmir will free it from 'terrorism' Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:20 AM PDT  Modi's Hindu-led nationalist government imposed an unprecedented security lockdown and a near-total communications blackout in the Muslim-majority region since Sunday night, arresting more than 500 people. Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and its archrival Pakistan, although each controls only a part of it and rebels have been fighting Indian rule in the portion it administers for decades.
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| Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:32 AM PDT ![Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency]( "Atlantic hurricane forecast revised higher -U.S. agency") U.S. weather forecasters expect "above normal" activity in the current Atlantic hurricane season, revising an earlier forecast of "near normal" activity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday. The earlier forecast in May reflected the presence of El Nino, the climate phenomenon that warms the Pacific Ocean and tends to prevent storms from developing in the Atlantic. Since then, El Nino has abated, making for conditions that increase the likelihood of hurricanes forming, forecasters at the NOOA's Climate Prediction Center said in a statement issued as the hurricane season enters its peak months.
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| Judge greenlights libel suit against NPR over Seth Rich reports Posted: 07 Aug 2019 06:06 PM PDT  The lawsuit will proceed to the discovery process, including demands for documents and depositions from the journalists involved.
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| American Volunteer Branded 'Enemy of State' and Shot Outside His Home in the Philippines Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:44 AM PDT  He volunteers with a group fighting against a hydropower project
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| Man in anthem attack convinced Trump ordered it, lawyer says Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:41 AM PDT  A Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do, his attorney said. Attorney Lance Jasper told the Missoulian he will seek a mental health evaluation for Curt Brockway, a U.S. Army veteran who became caught up in the heightened animosity and rhetoric gripping the nation, and convinced himself that he was following the president's orders. Brockway suffered a traumatic brain injury in a vehicle crash in 2000 that has affected his decision making, and Jasper said he plans to raise that in his client's defense.
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| Manhunt after Israeli off-duty soldier killed in West Bank Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:07 PM PDT  An off-duty Israeli soldier was found dead with stab wounds near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "terrorist" attack, sparking a manhunt. The killing between Bethlehem and the flashpoint city of Hebron risked raising Israeli-Palestinian tensions weeks ahead of September 17 polls in Israel. The body of 19-year-old Dvir Sorek was found in the early hours of Thursday "with stabbing marks", the Israeli army said in a statement.
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| A woman in Arizona stole a Tesla Model S, but it ran out of battery as she tried to make her escape (TSLA) Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Once the Model S ran out of battery, authorities broke one its windows to remove the suspect, according to the Payson Roundup's report.
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| 'We were all scared': Walmart employee saved dozens during El Paso shooting by hiding them in shipping container Posted: 07 Aug 2019 09:06 AM PDT  Walmart employee Gilbert Serna is being hailed as a hero after he says he saved dozens of people during the El Paso Walmart mass shooting.
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| Modi Promises New Era in Kashmir After Scrapping Autonomy Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:39 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- India's government rid Kashmir of dynastic politics and entrenched corruption by revoking its seven decades of autonomy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an address to the nation late Thursday.Modi's address came after rival Pakistan cut diplomatic and trade ties and sought to garner international support for its opposition to what New Delhi has called "entirely the internal affairs" of India.The federal government will look at ways to reduce the state deficit in Kashmir, Modi said, seeking to reassure Kashmiris that governance will continue as normal without undue influence from the capital, New Delhi. Several leaders, including former state chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who belong to prominent political families, have been arrested in the recent days.Under Article 370 of India's constitution, the state of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed complete autonomy and the state legislature was free to draft its own laws except in the areas of communications, defense, finance, and foreign affairs, while Indian citizens, living outside the state, were prohibited from purchasing land."A new era has been started in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh," Modi said. "Article 370 did not give the people anything apart from separatism and terrorism and kept them from progress -- it was being used as a weapon by Pakistan."Modi made not more than a couple of references to Pakistan in his 40-minute speech which aimed to explain the decision to scrap Article 370. Instead, he kept the focus firmly on jobs and governance in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh."For decades, the political dynasties have kept my Kashmiri youth from the opportunity to govern," Modi said. "I appeal to young men and women to come forward and lead their own areas."The government would immediately begin hiring for posts in police, the armed forces and federal government-run businesses, Modi said. Promises of job benefits like rent and travel allowances -- not as yet available to local government employees -- and extending scholarships to students and sportspeople also took up a large part of his speech.He emphasized that Kashmir would revert to full-statehood under India's federal structure, although Ladakh would continue to be administered by the federal government. Modi also indicated that restrictions on movement and communication in Kashmir would be lifted soon.His Kashmir move fulfilled a campaign promise made to his Hindu base, which opposed special treatment for the region. The state has been the main flashpoint between the two nuclear powers, which have fought three wars since the British left the subcontinent in 1947.Yet the manner in which the decision was implemented -- imposing restrictions on movement, cutting telephone and Internet connectivity, evacuating tourists and Hindu pilgrims and arresting local political leaders -- has raised concerns.Pakistan TiesThe Indian decision triggered Pakistan into downgrading diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with India.As Modi was delivering his address, Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted criticisms of India's treatment of citizens living in Kashmir. "The whole world is waiting to see what happens to oppressed Kashmiris in IOK when curfew is lifted," Khan said. "What should be obvious is the international community will be witnessing the genocide of the Kashmiris."His government announced a series of measures on Wednesday to oppose what it called "unilateral and illegal actions" by India. He also said Pakistan will take the matter to the United Nations Security Council and ensure the army remains vigilant. It also canceled a two-decade-old bi-weekly train service between the two countries.New Delhi urged Pakistan to review its actions so "that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved," foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.'Undermines Sovereignty'China has also criticized India's actions.A strongly-worded statement released by Beijing was most critical of the impact of India's actions on the mainly Buddhist region of Ladakh -- an area of strategic importance nestled between Tibet and Pakistan."The recent unilateral revision of domestic laws by the Indian side continues to undermine China's territorial sovereignty, which is unacceptable and will not have any effect," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying said in the statement Tuesday.To contact the reporters on this story: Archana Chaudhary in New Delhi at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net;Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Unni KrishnanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:08 AM PDT ![Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row]( "Gazans too poor to afford sheep for Eid sacrifice under blockade, Israel cash row") Ali usually marks the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha with his family in the Gaza Strip by sacrificing a sheep, a customary annual ritual for those who can spare the cost. Gaza has suffered under years of blockade by Israel and Egypt, which cite security concerns for restrictions the World Bank says have severely damaged its economy. Ali said that in March, the PA cut his monthly salary in half, leaving him with of 1,500 shekels ($431).
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| Yang surpasses Beto in Iowa poll, qualifies for fall debates Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:00 AM PDT  Yang is the ninth candidate to qualify for a pair of debates in September and October.
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| Wife of US student held in Iran says husband 'not a spy' Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:18 PM PDT  The wife of a Princeton University graduate student imprisoned in Iran said Thursday that her husband is not a spy as she appealed for international cooperation to secure his release. "I plead for the gate of mercy to be opened for him, and I hope he can come back to us as soon as possible," Hua Qu said in a speech marking the third anniversary of her husband's detention. Hua also said there have been no recent productive conversations between the United States and the Iranian government about Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American history researcher who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of "infiltrating" Iran and sending confidential material abroad.
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| Google is getting better at making sure you book the cheapest possible flight Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:29 PM PDT  For the past few years, I have been almost exclusively using Google's online travel tools to book flights. It's often the most convenient way to sort through dozens of flight options at once, and the interface is decidedly more manageable than what most competitors have to offer. That said, it does lack some features that other sites provide, but this week, the platform came one step closer to being the ultimate online travel companion.Google has been updating its travel tools rather frequently in recent years, highlighted by the launch of a travel portal in May which unified all of the features and menus into a single webpage. But that was just the beginning, as the new features arriving this week seem built to convince users never to book travel anywhere else.As Google Travel's Richard Holden noted in a blog post on Thursday, Google already shows you if prices for a flight you're about to book are high, low, or typical. But starting today, you will see all the same information for your exact itinerary. Google will also show you how the price has changed over the past few months on some flights, and will even warn you when it expects the price to go up or predicts the price won't go any lower.For a limited time, Google is offering a price guarantee for flights it predicts won't drop in price. If you book a flight on Google Flights between August 13th and September 2nd with Google's price guarantee, and the price drops, Google will refund you the difference. You don't even have to check -- Google will do the work for you.Other new features include recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and activities at destinations you're flying in to, and suggestions for which neighborhoods to stay in depending on how much you'll willing to spend, what you plan to do on your trip, and more. These should all roll out to Google Travel in the coming weeks.
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| Woman convicted of murdering alleged sex trafficker freed from prison Posted: 07 Aug 2019 05:32 AM PDT  Cyntoia Brown, who received a life sentence at 14-years-old for killing a real estate broker, has been released from prison after 15 years.
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| Badass Planes, Ranked Posted: 07 Aug 2019 06:50 AM PDT |
| Radiation 'spike' and two killed in blast at Russian missile testing base Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:53 AM PDT  Two people have been killed when an engine exploded and burned at a Russian missile testing base, the third major fire involving the country's military this summer. The defence ministry said six employees of the military and a weapons developer were injured in a blast during testing of a "liquid-fuel reactive propulsion system," which then reportedly caught fire. State media have reported that 15 people were injured. The accident took place in the Arkhangelsk region in the far north. Reports placed it at a base near the town of Nyonoksa where the navy tests ballistic missiles. The town is south of Russia's main submarine-building facilities in Severodvinsk. Authorities in the city said radiation levels had shot up briefly on Thursday before decreasing, while the defence ministry said they had remained normal. The Arkhangelsk port said the bay near the base where the explosion occurred would be closed to shipping for the next month. An earlier picture of the missile testing base where the explosion reportedly occurred Credit: AFP/Getty In 2015, a missile fell near a home in Nyonoksa during tests. Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying the incident was caused by safety violations. The incident was only the latest deadly conflagration for Russia's armed forces. On Monday, a massive fire set off explosions in an arms depot at a base in Siberia. One person was killed and 16,000 had to be evacuated. A fireball rises from an ammunition depot in Siberia that caught fire on Monday Credit: Dmitry Dub/Reuters In July, a fire on a nuclear-powered deep-sea submersible killed 14 sailors and nearly caused a "global catastrophe," a naval officer said at their funeral. Russia has been pouring billions of dollars a year into modernising its military, which still relies heavily on Soviet-era equipment.
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| UN report: Climate change threatens our food supply. Here's how we can fix it Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:53 PM PDT  The report from United Nations scientists describes a cycle in which the problems of land degradation and climate change exacerbate each other.
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| Biden: ‘Everything’ Trump ‘Says and Has Done Encourages White Supremacy’ Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:11 PM PDT  Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said Thursday that he believes "everything" President Trump "says and has done encourages white supremacy.""I believe everything the president says and has done encourages white supremacy, and I'm not sure there's much of a distinction," Biden told reporters after his remarks at the Iowa State Fair. "Whether he is or is not a white supremacist, he encourages them -- everything he does -- he speaks to them, he's afraid to take them on.""If you notice, the one time he used the word white supremacy, he was -- talk about sleepy - he was awful sleepy in the way in which he talked about it," Biden said, in an apparent reference to Trump's derogatory nickname for him, "Sleepy Joe."Biden also confronted a Trump supporter at the fair who accused him of misquoting Trump's remarks on the deadly violence that took place at the 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va."He walked out and he said, let's get this straight, he said there were 'very fine people' in both groups. They're chanting anti-Semitic slogans, carrying flags," Biden told the man.During a press conference after the Charlottesville rally, Trump condemned racism, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists, but said, "You also had some very fine people on both sides" of the rally.Biden currently leads the crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa, with the support of 28 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers, according to a Monmouth University poll published Thursday. Senator Elizabeth Warren has gained twelve points in the poll since April and now sits in second, at 19 percent support.
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| Russia freezes bank accounts linked to opposition politician Navalny Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:41 AM PDT  Russian authorities on Thursday froze a slew of bank accounts linked to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny as part of a money laundering investigation that his allies say is a trumped-up attempt to cripple his political movement. The move comes ahead of a series of planned nationwide demonstrations on Saturday being organized by Navalny's allies to protest against the exclusion of opposition candidates from a Moscow election next month. Russian investigators said in a statement on Thursday that they had frozen the bank accounts of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, those of another organization, and those of more than 100 linked individuals and legal entities.
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| The US Air Force grounded over 100 workhorse C-130 transport planes after discovering unusual wing cracks Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:21 AM PDT  The Air Force is grounding nearly a third of its C-130 fleet at a time when the service is struggling to keep its planes ready for missions.
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| Thailand's fugitive ex-premier gets Serbian citizenship Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in Thailand to five years in prison on graft-related charges, has received Serbian citizenship. State news agency Tanjug reported Thursday that the Serbian government granted her the citizenship "because it could be in the interest of Serbia." Serbian officials did not comment on the reason behind the decision. A government decree confirming she was granted citizenship was published in June in Serbia's official gazette.
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| U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:10 AM PDT ![U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures]( "U.S. Sanction Plan for Russian Pipe Could Repeat Reagan Failures") (Bloomberg) -- Efforts by the U.S. Senate to hamper a controversial natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany have probably come too late.The Senate is yet to vote on a bill to impose sanctions on construction of the undersea part of the 750-mile Nord Stream 2 link under the Baltic Sea, but the project is already almost complete and scheduled to be finished this year.The faltering U.S. attempt to prevent the pipeline mimics similarly unsuccessful moves to limit Soviet gas exports to Europe during the Reagan era in the early 1980s, according to Jonathan Stern, a senior research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies."They were resisted and ineffective then and I think we can expect the same result today," he said. "This all looks likely to be too late to be very significant since most of these pipelines have already been laid, unless the U.S. attempts retroactive sanctions, which I think could really raise a storm on this side of the Atlantic."The project has split the European Union, with nations including Poland concerned about Russia's Gazprom PJSC, already the region's dominant supplier, boosting its influence in the region when the link is finished. It also raised trade tension with the U.S., with President Donald Trump warning that the project would boost dependence on Russia and Energy Secretary Rick Perry touting "freedom gas" from North America.It's not so much that this year's attempts by the senators will stop the project, but there "might be a bit of disruption," said Wayne Bryan, a trader and analyst at Alfa Energy Ltd. in London. Gas prices for 2020 in the Netherlands are 55% higher than for delivery next month, signaling the market's assessment of heightened supply risk next year.Germany and other backers of Nord Stream 2 say the pipeline is needed to replace coal and nuclear plants being shuttered across Europe in order to help back up intermittent renewable supply and meet climate goals.The legislation creating the sanctions sponsored by Texas Republican Ted Cruz and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen would target vessels that lay the pipeline and sanction executives from companies linked to those vessels. Shaheen said that the only companies that would be affected are Allseas Group SA of Switzerland and Saipem SpA."Saipem does not believe this legislation as drafted applies to Saipem's existing contractual commitments for this project," said Vincenzo Romeo Tramontano, a spokesman for the Milan-based company. "Saipem understands that this legislation is aimed at imposing future sanctions on certain vessels providing construction support" to the pipeline.Allseas, which is laying the twin pipelines, declined to "speculate on potential impacts of proposed sanctions," the company said by email.While the U.S. had few objections to the first, almost identical, Nord Stream link that started operations in 2011, two subsequent events may help explain the current opposition.The first is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a key transit nation for Gazprom's gas that stands to lose billions of dollars if supplies go via Nord Stream 2 instead, which culminated in the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the imposition of sanctions by the U.S. and European Union. The second is the start of U.S. shale gas exports in 2016, which have since boomed to make the nation the third-largest liquefied natural gas exporter.With plunging renewable-energy costs the U.S. may be worried about the future of global gas demand, said Laurent Segalen, a former commodities banker who is now a partner at Megawatt-X in London, advising on financing wind and solar projects."In Asia, U.S. LNG is undercut by the Qataris and the Aussies -- Germany is the prize, and the U.S. LNG industry want to snap it from the Russians," he said. "If Nord Stream 2 goes through, the U.S. LNG exporters can kiss goodbye to hundreds of LNG cargoes to Germany in the coming years."\--With assistance from Daniel Flatley.To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Rob Verdonck, Lars PaulssonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Emotions Erupt During Court Hearing for DUI Vehicular Homicide Suspect Posted: 07 Aug 2019 02:38 PM PDT  A 62-year-old Washington state woman who has a history of driving while under the influence has pleaded not guilty in the death of a 24-year-old man.
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| Pentagon chief makes rare visit to Mongolia Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:40 AM PDT  US Defense Secretary Mark Esper made a rare visit to Mongolia on Thursday –- the latest leg of an Asian tour aimed at shoring up partnerships to counter China's growing influence in the region. Esper has visited several regional US allies including Japan and Australia in his maiden tour abroad following his confirmation as Pentagon chief last month. Including Mongolia in his trip is partly a reflection of the landlocked country's geo-strategic importance -- sandwiched between China and Russia.
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| The U.S. is Close to a Peace Deal With the Taliban, Officials Say Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:07 PM PDT  American troops could leave Afghanistan by November 2020, but hurdles remain and some critics are skeptical
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| View Photos of the 2019 Fiat 500X Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:59 AM PDT |
| Popeyes is launching a new fried chicken sandwich nationwide Aug. 12 Posted: 08 Aug 2019 09:24 AM PDT  Fried chicken fans will soon be able to get Popeyes chicken on a brioche bun for $3.99 nationwide.
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| Texas shooting suspect's mother alerted police about his gun ownership: CNN Posted: 07 Aug 2019 10:52 PM PDT  The mother contacted the Allen Police Department because she worried whether her son, aged 21, was mature or experienced enough in handling such a weapon to have purchased an "AK"-type firearm, CNN said, citing lawyers for the suspect's family. CNN quoted the lawyers, Chris Ayres and R. Jack Ayres, as saying the mother's call was "informational" in nature rather than motivated by concern that her son posed a threat to anyone. "This was not a volatile, explosive, erratic-behaving kid," Chris Ayres told the network.
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| New Mexico faces extreme water scarcity on par with the United Arab Emirates. Experts warn more 'day zeros' are looming. Posted: 07 Aug 2019 09:03 AM PDT  The global water crisis will bring more "day zeros," when a city's taps run dry, a new report says. Worldwide, 17 countries face extreme water stress.
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| India's splitting of Kashmir opposed in Muslim border city Posted: 07 Aug 2019 06:29 PM PDT  India's surprise move to carve out sparsely populated Ladakh from the state of Jammu and Kashmir to make it a territory directly controlled by New Delhi has been met with protests in Kargil, a Muslim-majority border city in Ladakh that identifies culturally with Kashmir, suggesting that the Hindu nationalist-led government's plan to redraw the country's political map will be far from easy. While some Ladakhi lawmakers from Leh, the main city in the heavily Buddhist region with historic ties to Tibet, hailed the move as a long-overdue response to their requests for separation from restive Kashmir, organizations in Kargil condemned the decision. Mountainous Jammu and Kashmir comprises three regions: Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir, and heavily Buddhist Ladakh.
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| U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:45 PM PDT ![U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying]( "U.S. Holds Off on Huawei Licenses as China Halts Crop-Buying") (Bloomberg) -- The White House is holding off on a decision about licenses for U.S. companies to restart business with Huawei Technologies Co. after Beijing said it was halting purchases of U.S. farming goods, according to people familiar with the matter.Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department has vetted the applications to resume sales, said last week he's received 50 requests and that a decision on them was pending. American businesses require a special license to supply goods to Huawei after the U.S. added the Chinese telecommunications giant to a trade blacklist in May over national-security concerns.Huawei suppliers Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. declined as much as 2.2% after the news on the delay in license approvals. The Australian dollar and offshore yuan fell versus the greenback and the yen gained.Trade TrucePresident Donald Trump said in late June after agreeing to a now-broken trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan that some restrictions on Huawei would be loosened. But that promise was contingent upon China beefing up its purchases from American farmers, which Trump has complained the country has failed to do.In the past week tensions have escalated further as Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports as of Sept. 1 and his Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator.Still, Trump said last week there were no plans to reverse the decision he made in Japan to allow more sales by U.S. suppliers of non-sensitive products to Huawei. He said the issue of Huawei is not related to the trade talks.The White House had no immediate comment, and the Commerce Department declined to comment.Tech PitchTechnology companies have already made their pitch to the White House for a rapid granting of licenses that would allow them to resume some shipments of components to Huawei.The Chinese company is one of the world's biggest purchasers of semiconductors. Continuing access to that market is crucial to the fortunes of chipmakers such as Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Inc. who sent their chief executives to meet with Trump in July.Companies such as Xilinx Inc. and Micron have publicly said they've applied for licenses and called on the U.S. to allow them to resume doing business with Huawei. They argue that many of their products are easily obtainable from their overseas rivals, making a ban ineffective and also harmful to the industry that the trade dispute with China is supposed to be helping.Some U.S.-based makers of electronic components have already reported earnings and given forecasts that show the negative effects of the trade dispute.(Updates with share price moves in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Adam Haigh and Jeran Wittenstein.To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net;Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, ;Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, ;Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregor, Scott LanmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'More than 100' immigrants tear gassed by ICE in US detention centre Posted: 07 Aug 2019 11:15 AM PDT  American immigration officials used tear gas and allegedly fired rubber bullets on more than 100 immigrants conducting a hunger strike at a detention facility in Louisiana over the weekend, just a day after as many as 40 detainees who were demonstrating against their detention conditions were reportedly pepper sprayed at a separate facility in the state.The spraying occurred at a facility in Pine Prairie, where more than 1,000 detainees are held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a time, according to legal representatives for detainees in the facility who spoke to The Independent.According to a legal representative with the Southern Poverty Law Centre representing a detainee who witnessed the incident, more than 100 detainees were sprayed and hit with tear gas by law enforcement "in riot gear" on Saturday in a central yard of the facility. Many were then taken to a separate facility for decontamination, and legal representatives have since indicated they believe those impacted are being moved to different facilities.Another legal representative with a different immigrant legal group told The Independent that their clients reported seeing the use of "rubber bullets, which is painful but not deadly"."When an individual in detention goes on hunger strike, it means the person is willing to put their body on the line just to be heard," Sofia Casini, the southern regional co-ordinator for the group Freedom for Immigrants, said in a statement. "Multiple hunger strikes happening simultaneously are no coincidence: they are indicative of the desperation and suffering that immigrants are facing inside these human cages."When contacted for comment, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox confirmed that an incident had taken place, and said the pepper spray was deployed after the detainees refused to disperse from the outdoor recreation at the facility."Facility staff and ICE officers gave the detainees multiple opportunities to disperse and allow for the restoration of orderly operations. When the ICE detainees refused to comply, facility staff and ICE officers deployed pepper spray to disperse the group," Mr Cox said in an email.Mr Cox continued: "Medical staff evaluated all individuals who came in contact with the pepper spray; no detainee or staff injuries were reported."The incident came just days after dozens of immigrants were allegedly pepper sprayed and beaten at a facility in Bossier Parish, about 30 miles north of Shreveport."There are lots of cops who came from another prison, they beat up the Cubans, they pepper spray them and handcuff them," one of the men inside of the jail later texted his lawyer, according to Mother Jones, which was able to access those messages.Another text message from the same man claimed that the Cuban immigrants were attacked after they requested to be released on bond, and "to change the judge because he's violating our rights".The incident at Pine Prairie has once again drawn attention to the facility, which is operated by the private prison corporation GEO Group, which runs many of the jails that ICE relies upon for immigrant detention.
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| DRC medics arrested over murder of WHO Ebola doctor Posted: 07 Aug 2019 01:53 PM PDT  Three Congolese medics have been detained over the murder of a World Health Organization (WHO) doctor who was fighting an Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, a military prosecutor said on Wednesday. Cameroonian doctor Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung was shot dead on April 19 in an attack on a hospital in the eastern city of Butembo. The arrested doctors will be prosecuted for "terrorism" and "criminal conspiracy," Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Baptiste Kumbu Ngoma, military prosecutor for Butembo in North Kivu province, told AFP.
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| 57 people are dead and 18,000 were hospitalized in Japan as the country grapples with a stifling heat wave Posted: 07 Aug 2019 01:58 AM PDT  Scorching temperatures have plagued Japan for weeks, resulting in scores of heat-related deaths this summer.
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| U.S. Intel Officials Eye Disinformation Campaign Targeting John Bolton’s Family Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:38 AM PDT  GettyAmerican intelligence officials are monitoring a social media disinformation campaign that attempted to falsely implicate the White House National Security Adviser in a global money laundering and drug trafficking operation.On Monday, a Twitter user claiming to be a high-ranking Canadian law enforcement official posted records supposedly showing a $350,000 wire transfer from a Canadian children's apparel company to a Swiss bank account owned by National Security Adviser John Bolton's daughter. "Police investigations show [the company] and its CEO are accused of laundering and transferring dirty money between Canada and some European countries, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States," the Twitter account claimed.The claims are clearly fabricated, and the effort does not appear particularly sophisticated. But a U.S. official familiar with the apparent disinformation campaign said intelligence community officials were aware of the effort. And Lee Foster, an information operations intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, told The Daily Beast that the hoax's techniques are "consistent with what we've seen with previous pro-Iranian influence operations."Foster emphasized that there wasn't enough information to attribute the Bolton hoax to Iran or any other specific party yet, but said the incident did share some similarities with other campaigns documented by FireEye.The Twitter account at issue impersonated a high-ranking Toronto police officer named Donald Belanger. Twitter suspended the fake Belanger account and Toronto Police Service spokesman Alex Li confirmed to The Daily Beast that it was "a fraudulent" persona. The real police official the account had impersonated has never had a Twitter account and Toronto's Police Service does not tweet out information naming witnesses, victims, and other sensitive information in the course of criminal investigations, Li said. The tweet from the fake police official also made another mistake when the supposed wire transfer record in "Belanger's" tweet misspelled Bolton's daughter's name.The operator of the account first registered it in 2013 and appears to have originally tweeted in Arabic before repurposing the account into a fake Toronto police service official. The account, under the now defunct handle @BelangerPolice, retweeted an unremarkable stream of content from Canadian police accounts and mentioned nothing about Iran or Bolton until Monday.A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to questions about the "Belanger" account.Bolton is among the Trump administration's most aggressive critics of the Iranian regime. The U.S. official, while not commenting on this week's disinformation campaign specifically, said Bolton has been the target of state-sponsored influence operations designed to weaken his standing in the administration.Though Twitter quickly removed the tweet on Monday and suspended the account, it had already been picked up and covered by a handful of websites with editorial positions sympathetic to the Iranian government. News outlets such as Iran Front Page blared "Belanger's" claims that a Canadian business had supposedly transferred the funds at issue had been caught smuggling "a significant amount of opium" and "has close ties with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group."The outlet attributed its story to a tweet from a "senior Canadian law enforcement agent from the Toronto Police Drug Squad"—the fake police account—but has not updated or corrected its story to reflect the account's suspension or the Toronto Police Service's confirmation that the account was fake. "John Bolton," the "exclusive" article added, "is a fervent supporter of MKO terror group," using one of several acronyms for the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization, or MEK. Bolton has earned tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees for appearances at MEK conferences. The MEK participated in the 1979 revolution which installed Iran's theocratic government, but eventually sought exile in Iraq, where it carried out terrorist attacks in Iran on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government. The United States removed the MEK from its list of designated terrorist groups in 2012, but critics claim the organization, which has paid influential former American officials thousands of dollars to speak at events, is a cult bent on pushing the U.S. to war with Tehran. In May, FireEye assessed with "low confidence" that a series of fake Twitter accounts impersonating U.S. and Israeli political candidates and reporters "was organized in support of Iranian political interests." The fake accounts published content in line with Iranian foreign policy, but FireEye was unable to pinpoint the identity or location of those behind it. In other cases, FireEye has found more direct ties between social media influence campaigns and Iran. An August 2018 report from the company cited a network of interconnected fake news websites and Facebook pages echoing "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes" tied to Iranian state-run media outlets. Send The Daily Beast a TipFoster noted that one of the Iran-linked fake news websites identified in that FireEye report, "US Journal," published a story based on the fake account's tweet. In contrast to the other stories, which summarized the fake Torono police account's tweet, U.S. Journal also claimed to have "other documents we got our hands on," in addition to the @BelangerPolice tweet. The apparent disinformation campaign comes as the feud between Iran and the Trump administration over U.S. sanctions and a 2015 nuclear agreement have grown increasingly personal. In late July, the Trump administration sanctioned Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif "because Zarif acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Zarif has spent the past few months blasting Bolton as part of a so-called "B_team" bent on war with Iran and undermining President Trump's attempts at diplomacy with the Islamic Republic. The Daily Beast was initially alerted to "Belanger's" tweets by a Twitter user claiming to be a U.S.-based freelance journalist covering the Middle East. The Twitter account was created in June, and has posted numerous tweets in broken and grammatically incorrect sentences consistent with someone whose first language is not English.Of the account's 63 tweets, 47 were devoted to promoting the "Belanger" story. Another 11 attacked Bolton by name.The Daily Beast could not identify any bylines by the purported Middle East freelance reporter. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Family of Dayton mass shooter 'shocked and devastated' by Sunday deaths Posted: 07 Aug 2019 09:04 AM PDT  For the first time, the family of the Dayton mass shooter issued a statement to the public, read by Bellbrook Police Chief Doug Doherty.
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| Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in Germany Posted: 08 Aug 2019 06:36 AM PDT  A 92-year-old former SS private will go on trial this fall in Germany on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder, accused of helping the Nazis' Stutthof concentration camp function, a Hamburg court said Thursday. "Surveillance was necessary for the concentration camp to function, and the camp was made to kill people," Hamburg state court spokesman Kai Wantzen said of the prosecution's argument. Wantzen said the suspect did not deny to authorities that he had served in Stutthof and said he was aware people were being killed.
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| Muslim pilgrims descend on Mecca for haj, Saudis warn against politics Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:28 AM PDT ![Muslim pilgrims descend on Mecca for haj, Saudis warn against politics]( "Muslim pilgrims descend on Mecca for haj, Saudis warn against politics") Hundreds of thousands of white-clad pilgrims, many gripping umbrellas to ward off Saudi Arabia's blistering summer sun, descended on Mecca this week ahead of the annual haj. Saudi officials asked Muslims to focus on rituals of worship, warning against politicizing the rite as wars rage on in the region and at a time of heightened tensions between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Muslim adversary Iran. "Haj...is not a place for political conflicts or to raise sectarian slogans that divide Muslims," Abdulrahman al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, told reporters.
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| Detroit Resident Dies After Trump Administration Deports Him to Iraq, Report Says Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:55 AM PDT  The man had never lived in Iraq before he was deported to the country
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| Police should prioritise animal welfare over protesters' rights, says Countryside Alliance after activists accused of killing thousands of pheasant chicks Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:52 AM PDT  The police should prioritise animal welfare over the rights of protesters who storm farms and upset livestock, the Countryside Alliance has said, after activists were accused of causing the deaths of thousands of pheasant chicks. Direct action from animal rights campaigners, in which they storm farms, is on the rise, according to Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the organisation. Over the last year, activists have been accused of disturbing and even killing animals including piglets and turkeys. Last month, pheasant farmer Eloise McDonald, 23, found dead chicks with hundreds of birds huddled together after a raid on her family farm near Ashford, Kent. She wrote on Facebook: "Some lowlife scumbag so-called 'animal lovers' let out 20,000 of my birds, cut all the fencing, cut gas pipes, hundreds of week-old birds dead, gasping for water and starving!" Ms McDonald estimated that around 3,000 birds had perished. Mr Bonner said that while hunt saboteurs have engaged in forms of direct action for decades, there is a new wave of vegan activists who storm farms in order to get pictures for social media and raise awareness of their cause. He told The Telegraph: "It's a relatively new phenomenon, the farm invasions isn't something we've seen much of before. "Another prominent one is vigils at abattoirs and I understand people take views and don't like animals being killed but all they are doing is increasing the amount of time they are spending on the vehicle and are making things more stressful. "Obviously people can protest about whatever they want, but when animal welfare is impacted that is not acceptable." While the Countryside Alliance had found that police took the game farm vandalism seriously, the chief executive said there are issues with farm invasions. He explained: "With the farm invasion sometimes the policing does tend to be slightly biased towards ensuring people can protest - but if those protests are having an impact on the welfare of animals, if suffering is caused by that "There's a level of cynicism among the hardcore extremists and among the new generation of activists there's a level of ignorance. Making your views known - there's nothing wrong with that - but make sure you demonstrate in a way that doesn't impact the welfare of animals."
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| Police shootings are a leading cause of death for young American men, new research shows Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:12 AM PDT  The phrase "leading causes of death" might bring to mind cancer, heart disease, suicide and drug overdose.But new research published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that young American men are at a surprisingly high risk of being killed by a police officer.Among men of all races, ages 25 to 29, police killings are the sixth-leading cause of death, according to a study led by Frank Edwards of Rutgers University, with a total annual mortality risk of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 people.Accidental death, a category that includes automotive accidents and drug overdoses, was the biggest cause at 76.6 deaths per 100,000, and followed by suicide (26.7), other homicides (22.0), heart disease (7.0), and cancer (6.3).The data used in this study do not differentiate between police killings that were later determined to be justified and those that were not. FBI data, which is widely acknowledged to be incomplete, shows that 400 to 500 homicides each year are determined to be justified, which is defined as "the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty". Those deaths represent about half of the roughly 1,000 annual police killings that independent tallies, including those by The Washington Post and The Guardian, have found.For a black man, the risk of being killed by a police officer is about 2.5 times higher than that of a white man. "Our models predict that about 1 in 1,000 black men and boys will be killed by police over the life course," the authors write.In the 20 to 24 age group, black men represent nearly 2 per cent of such deaths, compared with 0.5 per cent for whites. A 40-year-old black man has about the same risk of being killed by a police officer as a 20-year-old white man.Because no reliable federal data exists for police killings, the authors turned to the data compiled by Fatal Encounters, a project that uses news reports, public records requests and crowdsourced information to tally officer-involved fatalities.The authors note that Fatal Encounters was "endorsed as a sound source of data" by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in a 2016 report, but they warn that the data likely undercounts the number of officer-involved killings: "If any death is not covered by news organisations or is not documented in searchable public records," they note, "it will not appear in the data."The study excludes police-involved deaths determined to be a suicide, the result of a car accident or an accident, like an overdose or fall.Police killings are far more common in the United States than in other advanced democracies. That is partly because the US has a much higher homicide rate – "25.2 times higher" – than economically similar countries, according to a 2016 study.One of the prime drivers of that difference, research shows, is the nation's high rate of gun ownership: Americans make up 4 per cent of the global population, but own nearly half the guns in the world.The nation's high rates of violence and gun ownership make many police fearful for their lives, research shows. Data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows that, in recent years, 100 to 200 officers are killed annually in the line of duty. And other research shows that police are more likely to be killed in the line of duty in states with more permissive gun laws.Officers can respond to the threat of violence by using lethal force of their own: more than half of the 544 people shot and killed by police to date in 2019 were found to be carrying firearms, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.The authors of the PNAS report note another factor at play in the country's high rate of police shootings: "Austerity in social welfare and public health programmes has led to police and prisons becoming catchall responses to social problems," they wrote.In his recent book, "The End of Policing," sociologist Alex Vitale of Brooklyn College argues that police often end up being the de facto first responders for mental health issues because of "a decision that's been made by political leaders not to fund adequate community-based mental health services".At least 20 per cent of people fatally shot by police so far this year had documented mental health issues, according to The Post's data.The study's authors say their findings reinforce calls "to treat police violence as a public health issue" with "profound consequences for public health, democracy, and racial stratification".The Washington Post
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| Hong Kongers harness traffic cones, kitchenware to battle tear gas Posted: 07 Aug 2019 08:53 PM PDT  As a tear gas canister clatters onto a street in Hong Kong, a pro-democracy protester wearing heat-proof gloves and carrying a traffic cone sprints from the crowd to put it out. Police have ramped up their use of the crowd control measure as two months of rallies in the global financial hub have turned increasingly violent, peaking with 800 rounds fired on Monday in what protesters called a "tear gas buffet". Hardcore demonstrators are responding with ever more creative methods to neutralise the threat, harnessing everything from traffic cones to kitchenware.
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| Why Are So Many House Republicans Retiring? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  On Monday, Representative Kenny Marchant became the twelfth House Republican (and the fourth GOP member from Texas) to announce that he will not seek reelection in 2020. What explains the House GOP exodus in general and the "Texodus" in particular?There are a few different factors. First, being in the minority simply isn't as interesting or fun as being in the majority. Plenty of Republicans saw the writing on the wall in 2018, when 39 House GOP incumbents, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, declined to seek reelection. Some are learning that lesson now."It would be unusual if Republicans weren't experiencing a high number of retirements," David Wasserman, who analyzes House races at the Cook Political Report, tells National Review. "That's what happens when you lose the majority. That's what happened in 2008, which is one reason Democrats had a banner year in House races twice in a row." Wasserman notes that 2020 GOP retirements are "on pace to match or exceed 2008."A second factor contributing to the GOP retirements is that the Trump presidency has turned safe Republican suburban districts into battlegrounds.For example, Kenny Marchant's margin of victory in his suburban Dallas district was 25 points in 2012, 33 points in 2014, 17 points in 2016, and 3 points in 2018.Texas congressman Pete Olson, who has also announced his retirement, won his suburban Houston district by 32 points in 2012, 35 points in 2014, 19 points in 2016, and 5 points in 2018.Those are trend lines that no incumbent wants to see."The suburbs are diversifying and moderating so rapidly that many of the districts Republicans drew back in 2011 are no longer reliable," says Wasserman.In 2018, Democrats ousted two Texas Republicans in Houston and Dallas. "Historically, the cities have been bright blue and surrounded by bright red doughnuts of Republican suburban voters," Texas senator Ted Cruz told the Washington Post last week. "What happened in 2018 is that those bright red doughnuts went purple — not blue, but purple. We've got to do a more effective job of carrying the message to the suburbs.""The president's reelection campaign needs to take Texas seriously," said Cruz, who won reelection by just 2.6 points in 2018. Cruz added that it is "by no means a given" that Trump will carry the state in 2020.The GOP's suburban problem isn't limited to Texas. Retiring Georgia congressman Rob Wooddall won reelection in his district northeast of Atlanta by 21 to 31 percentage points from 2012 to 2016, but he won reelection by just two-tenths of a percentage point in 2018. When a blue wave swept over the House GOP in 2018, Republicans lost districts that include suburban areas in states as red as Kansas, Utah, and South Carolina.A third factor contributing to GOP retirements, says Wasserman, is the "disconnect between President Trump's worldview" and that of some in the Republican caucus. This is the best explanation for the retirement of Texas Republican Will Hurd, a former CIA operative and the lone black Republican in the House, who won narrow victories in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Many thought that Hurd, at age 41, could be the future of the party.But Hurd said in a statement last week that he has decided to "pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security," without saying what exactly he plans to do. Hurd has disagreed with President Trump on the border wall, free trade, and foreign policy. And he was one of just four House Republicans who voted in July to condemn Trump's tweets telling progressive Democratic congresswomen to "go back" to the countries "from which they came," fix them, and then "come back and show us how it is done." (The four lawmakers he was addressing are minorities, and three are natural-born citizens.)Martha Roby, an articulate and promising 43-year-old member from Alabama, also announced her retirement this summer. In 2016, Roby said she couldn't vote for Trump after the Access Hollywood tape became public, but she supported the Trump presidency enough to win the president's endorsement in 2018.Another possible factor nudging members toward retirement, a factor that no one would ever likely admit to, is that members of Congress haven't gotten a pay raise in a decade. On one hand, a member's $174,000 salary is three times the national median salary. On the other hand, members of Congress are expected to maintain two residences while making a salary well below what they could likely make outside of government. At this populist moment, it's not clear when the next raise for members of Congress is coming: A deal to raise congressional salaries by 2.6 percent collapsed in June.Some of the retirees are stepping down for reasons that have little to do with the weakness of the House GOP. A couple are seeking higher office, such as Alabama's Bradley Byrne, who is running for the Senate, and Montana's Greg Gianforte, who is running for governor. And a couple of retirees, Rob Bishop of Utah and Mike Conaway of Texas, come from safe districts but are losing their status as committee ranking members owing to the GOP's self-imposed term-limits.But any way you look at it, twelve retirements so far is bad news for the House GOP. We're still only seven months into the new Congress, and several more representatives will probably announce their retirement in the coming months. For all the talk about voters' anger at Washington, incumbents are still much more likely to win their elections than are candidates running for open seats. This summer, the GOP's slim odds of winning back the 19 seats necessary to take back the House have become even slimmer.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Acura NSX in Indy Yellow Pearl Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:00 AM PDT |
| 2nd ex-New Orleans cop takes plea deal in Hispanic beating Posted: 07 Aug 2019 02:48 PM PDT  WDSU-TV reports that Spencer Sutton pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace. John Galman, the other officer in the case, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in February. Both officers, who are white and were off-duty at the time of the incident, had been on the force less than a year and both were fired a day after the July 24, 2018, beating.
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| Gaez: Democrats are trying to relitigate Kavanaugh confirmation after failing with Mueller hearing Posted: 07 Aug 2019 04:55 PM PDT  Nadler demands Kavanaugh emails from Bush White House; Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera and Rep. Matt Gaetz react.
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