| 'How dare you': Greta Thunberg tears into world leaders over inaction at U.N. climate summit Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  In an angry and emotional speech at the United Nations climate summit on Monday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders for failing to act.
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| Indonesia forest fires: Video shows sky turned blood red by 'scary phenomenon' Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:14 AM PDT  Skies over Indonesia turned a frightening shade of blood red this weekend, leaving some locals frightened by their surroundings.
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| High school player collapses, dies in twin brother's arms: 'I'm about to pass out' Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:01 AM PDT  A high school is struggling to come to terms with the death of a football player after he suddenly collapsed and died in his twin brother's arms.
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| 15 Coffee Tables Under $300 (That You'll Actually Like) Posted: 23 Sep 2019 02:06 PM PDT |
| Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:34 AM PDT ![Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife]( "Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife") Five kids were left home alone for about 30 minutes. Their mother and grandmother were charged with neglect after one child hit another with a knife.
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| U.S. Air Force is Prototyping a Replacement for the Stealth F-35 Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:18 AM PDT  And it could be revolutionary.
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| At UN General Assembly, Iran and US historically at odds Posted: 22 Sep 2019 04:49 PM PDT  Iran has often commanded center stage at the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, turning the organization's headquarters into an arena for arguments over the Persian Gulf's daily complexities and hostilities. As Tehran's leadership prepares to address the U.N. General Assembly this week, there are fears that a wider conflict, dragging in Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, could erupt after a summer of heightened volatility in the region. After the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal — and Washington hit Tehran with escalating sanctions —Iran has begun to break some of the limits that were set in return for sanctions relief.
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| China buys about 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans after trade talks Posted: 23 Sep 2019 09:28 AM PDT  Chinese importers bought about 10 boatloads of U.S. soybeans on Monday following deputy-level trade talks in Washington last week that were overshadowed by the abrupt cancellation of a U.S. farm state visit by Chinese agriculture officials. Benchmark U.S. soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade <0#S:> jumped about 1.5% on news of the renewed buying, the market's steepest rise since Chinese buyers bought a large volume of U.S. soybeans on Sept. 12. Purchases of U.S. agricultural products like soybeans, the most valuable U.S. farm export, and pork are seen as key to securing a deal to end a bilateral trade war between the United States and China that has lasted more than a year.
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| GM furloughs 1,225 more workers as strike enters 2nd week Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:55 PM PDT  General Motors temporarily laid off an additional 1,225 workers in Canada and the United States on Monday as a strike entered its second week. The actions affect 525 hourly workers at its DMAX engine plant in Moraine, Ohio, a GM spokesman said. DMAX is a joint venture owned 60 percent by GM and 40 percent by Isuzu.
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| Baby Archie receives traditional African name Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:53 AM PDT  "This name of Xhosa African origin means 'pillar of strength.' May you always be a pillar of strength for those who need you."
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| Greta Thunberg Calls Out World Leaders at United Nations: ‘You Are Failing Us’ Posted: 23 Sep 2019 09:01 AM PDT  UNITED NATIONS— Greta Thunberg shocked the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday with an angry, accusatory tone and direct, frank talk."This is all wrong," said the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, fighting back tears. "I shouldn't be up here – I should be in school, across the ocean."Taking an angry tone, she continued, "You come to young people for hope? How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.""And yet," she said, "I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?"Thunberg's rage hearkened back to the youth-led Climate Strike last Friday, in which an estimated 4 million people took to the streets across the globe."For more than thirty years," Thunberg said, "the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away?"Thunberg said she would prefer to believe that present-day leaders simply do not understand the extent of the crisis."You say you hear us and understand the urgency," she said. "But no matter how sad and angry I am, I don't want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and went on failing to act, you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe."President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were briefly in attendance. Trump has publicly questioned the scientific consensus that humans are causing the earth's climate to change in dangerous ways (97 percent of the world's climate scientists say that is the case).Thunberg said that even existing efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half within ten years are woefully inadequate. "The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in ten years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C degrees, and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control," she said. "But those numbers don't include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of justice and equity."But, she said, "there will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures today. Because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.""You are failing us," Thunberg concluded. "But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this."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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| These DIY instant noodles are healthier than the store-bought versions and so easy to make Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:48 PM PDT  These homemade ramen noodle recipes are quick and easy, and you can make them up to four days in advance.
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| US military apologises for threat to blow up millennials if they stormed Area 51 Posted: 22 Sep 2019 07:39 AM PDT  The US military has apologised for threatening to deploy a stealth bomber on millennials who had been planning to "storm" the Area 51 test base in the Nevada desert. Over the weekend, an estimated 150 people descended on the highly secretive base, about two hours drive from Las Vegas, which has long been a magnet for UFO enthusiasts convinced that it housed aliens from outer space. Thousands had been expected after a student created a Facebook page in June called "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us". The page became a viral sensation with more than three million people expressing an interest in turning up to "see them aliens". On Friday, fearing a mass invasion, the Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) - the US military PR arm - posted a picture of service personnel standing by a B-2 stealth bomber alongside the caption: "The last thing Millennials will see if they attempt the area51raid today". In reality, the feared flood of alien-spotters turned out to be little more than a trickle of eccentrics in an eclectic array of costumes who were an irritant rather than a danger to national security. Last night a DVIDSHUB employee posted a Tweet that in NO WAY supports the stance of the Department of Defense. It was inappropriate and we apologize for this mistake.— DVIDSHub (@DVIDSHub) September 21, 2019 Given the festive atmosphere and small crowd, military chiefs soon realised that their stealth bomb threat was a rather excessive response to a bunch of curiosity seekers whose presence had led to a handful of arrests for such heinous offences as public urination. DVIDS sought to undo the damage by deleting the offending tweet and posting on Saturday saying that the previous day's message "in NO WAY supports the stance of the Department of Defence. It was inappropriate and we apologise for this mistake." The local police approach to the good-natured invasion had been somewhat more measured, advising those who pitched up to watch out for rattlesnakes and setting out some rudimentary ground rules. This was not the first time the US military has been obliged to say sorry for posting inappropriate tweets. On December 31, US Strategic Command, which is responsible for the country's strategic arsenal apologised for a tweet saying it was ready, if necessary, to drop something "much, much bigger" than the New Year's Eve ball in New York.
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| Thirteen Marines Charged with Smuggling Illegal Immigrants into U.S. Posted: 23 Sep 2019 11:12 AM PDT  The Marine Corps has charged 13 members with smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S., in addition to a range of other offenses including failure to obey an order, drunkenness, endangerment, larceny, and perjury, according to a statement released Friday.Lance Corporals Byron Law and David Salazar-Quintero were specifically charged with transporting illegal immigrants into the country for financial gain. The two were based in Camp Pendleton, located between San Diego and Los Angeles, Calif.The other marines included in the indictments, some of whom were charged with distributing cocaine and LSD, were not named.Law and Salazar-Quintero were pulled over by Border Patrol agents seven miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border after picking up three migrants who had just crossed the border illegally, according to a federal complaint filed in July and first reported by Quartz. Law was found in the driver's seat with Salazar-Quintero on the passenger side, along with three undocumented immigrants in the back seat.The three were reportedly found to be Mexican citizens without documents needed to enter the U.S. legally. Two of the immigrants told agents they planned on paying $8,000 to their smugglers.During his interrogation, Law told investigators that Salazar-Quintero had suggested they pick up an illegal immigrant to make $1,000. They then succeeded in bringing one person into the U.S. but weren't paid for their endeavor, and so decided to smuggle more people and receive pay for the total number of people they brought in.
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| Why Russia's Air Force Is So Dangerous Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Cheaper than Western aircraft and almost just as good.
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| White House press secretary: Trump stopped briefings because reporters were mean Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Any hope that Americans may one day see Trump's new press secretary taking questions from reporters in a formal White House press briefing went out the window on Monday morning when Stephanie Grisham sat down for her first appearance on "Fox & Friends" since taking over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year.
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| Indonesia finds design flaw, oversight lapses in 737 MAX crash: WSJ Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:56 PM PDT  The draft conclusions, expected to be the first formal government finding of flaws in the design and U.S. regulatory approval, also identify a string of pilot errors and maintenance mistakes as causal factors of the Lion Air crash, the WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesia-to-fault-737-max-design-u-s-oversight-in-lion-air-crash-report-11569185664?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 said. The Boeing 737 MAX has been grounded since March in the aftermath of two fatal crashes in five months. A Boeing spokesman did not comment on the newspaper report but said the plane maker continued to offer support to the investigating authorities as they complete their report.
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| Face transplant recipient's donor face now failing Posted: 22 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT  A woman who was severely burned in a domestic violence attack in Vermont is hoping for a second face transplant after doctors recently discovered tissue damage that likely will lead to the loss of her donor face. Carmen Blandin Tarleton, 51, was burned over 80% of her body when her estranged husband beat her with a baseball bat and doused her body with lye in 2007. Six years ago, she received a face transplant at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston, where she's being evaluated for a possible second transplant.
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| Israeli woman dies months after wounds from Gaza rocket Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:07 AM PDT  An Israeli woman wounded by Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in November 2018 has died from her injuries, officials said Monday. The southern coastal city of Ashkelon, where she lived, announced the death of Nina Genisdanova in a statement. Israeli media said she was 74 and died last week.
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| Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg sets stare on Donald Trump at UN in viral video Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:49 PM PDT  The video of the 16-year-old Swede came after she delivered an emotional speech regarding the climate crisis, telling world leaders, "How dare you?"
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| A Crackdown on Islam Is Spreading Across China Posted: 22 Sep 2019 09:14 AM PDT  YINCHUAN, China -- In China's northwest, the government is stripping the most overt expressions of the Islamic faith from a picturesque valley where most residents are devout Muslims. Authorities have destroyed domes and minarets on mosques, including one in a small village near Linxia, a city known as "Little Mecca."Similar demolitions have been carried out in Inner Mongolia, Henan and Ningxia, the homeland of China's largest Muslim ethnic minority, the Hui. In the southern province of Yunnan, three mosques were closed. From Beijing to Ningxia, officials have banned the public use of Arabic script.This campaign represents the newest front in the Chinese Communist Party's sweeping rollback of individual religious freedoms, after decades of relative openness that allowed more moderate forms of Islam to blossom. The harsh crackdown on Muslims that began with the Uighurs in Xinjiang is spreading to more regions and more groups.It is driven by the party's fear that adherence to the Muslim faith could turn into religious extremism and open defiance of its rule. Across China, the party is now imposing new restrictions on Islamic customs and practices, in line with a confidential party directive, parts of which have been seen by The New York Times.The measures reflect the hard-line policies of China's leader, Xi Jinping, who has sought to reassert the primacy of the Communist Party and its ideology in all walks of life.The campaign has prompted concerns that the repression of Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang has begun to bleed into other parts of China, targeting Hui and other Muslims who have been better integrated than Uighurs into Chinese society. Last year, a top party official from Ningxia praised Xinjiang's government during a visit there and pledged to increase cooperation between the two regions on security matters.Haiyun Ma, a Hui Muslim professor at Frostburg State University in Maryland, said the crackdown was continuing a long history of animosity toward Islam in China that has alienated believers."The People's Republic of China has become the world's foremost purveyor of anti-Islamic ideology and hate," he wrote in a recent essay for the Hudson Institute. "This, in turn, has translated into broad public support for the Beijing government's intensifying oppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and elsewhere in the country."None of the new measures, so far, have approached the brutality of Xinjiang's mass detentions and invasive surveillance of Uighurs. But they have already stirred anxiety among the Hui, who number more than 10 million."We are now backtracking again," Cui Haoxin, a Hui Muslim poet who publishes under the name An Ran, said in an interview in Jinan, south of Beijing, where he lives.To Cui, the methods of repression that are smothering Uighur society in Xinjiang now loom over all of China. "One day, this model will not only target Muslims," he said. "Everyone will be harmed by it."'Sinicization of Islam'Islam has had followers in China for centuries. There are now 22 million to 23 million Muslims, a tiny minority in a country of 1.4 billion. Among them, the Hui and the Uighurs make up the largest ethnic groups. Uighurs primarily live in Xinjiang, but the Hui live in enclaves scattered around the nation.The restrictions they now face can be traced to 2015, when Xi first raised the issue of what he called the "Sinicization of Islam," saying all faiths should be subordinate to Chinese culture and the Communist Party. Last year, Xi's government issued a confidential directive that ordered local officials to prevent Islam from interfering with secular life and the state's functions.Critics of China's policies who are outside the country provided excerpts from the directive to The Times. The directive, titled "Reinforcing and Improving Islam Work in the New Situation," has not been made public. It was issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, in April of last year and classified as confidential for 20 years.The directive warns against the "Arabization" of Islamic places, fashions and rituals in China, singling out the influence of Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's holiest sites, as a cause for concern.It prohibits the use of the Islamic financial system. It bars mosques or other private Islamic organizations from organizing kindergartens or after-school programs, and it forbids Arabic-language schools to teach religion or send students abroad to study.The most visible aspect of the crackdown has been the targeting of mosques built with domes, minarets and other architectural details characteristic of Central Asia or the Arabic world.Taken in isolation, some of these measures seem limited. Others seem capricious: some mosques with Arabic features have been left untouched, while others nearby have been altered or shut down.But on a national scale, the trend is clear. Cui, the poet, calls it the harshest campaign against faith since the end of the Cultural Revolution, when so-called Red Guards unleashed by Mao Zedong destroyed mosques across the country.Targeting Domes and Arabic ScriptIn the state's view, the spread of Islamic customs dangerously subverts social and political conformity.In Ningxia, the provincial government banned public displays of Arabic script, even removing the word "halal" from the official seal it distributes to restaurants that follow Islamic customs for preparing food. The seals now use Chinese characters. That prohibition spread this summer to Beijing and elsewhere.The authorities in several provinces have stopped distributing halal certificates for food, dairy and wheat producers and restaurants. Chinese state media have described this as an effort to curb a "pan-halal tendency" in which Islamic standards are being applied, in the government's view, to too many types of foods or restaurants.Ningxia and Gansu have also banned the traditional call to prayer. Around historical mosques there, prayer times are now announced with a grating claxon. One imam in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan, said authorities had recently visited and warned him to make no public statements on religious matters.Auuthorities have also targeted the mosques themselves. In Gansu, construction workers in Gazhuang, a village near Linxia, descended on a mosque in April, tearing off its golden dome. It has not yet reopened. Plainclothes policemen prevented two Times journalists from entering.In the southern province of Yunnan, where there have long been Hui communities, authorities last December padlocked mosques in three small villages that had been run without official permission. There were protests and brief scuffles with police, to no avail. The county issued a statement accusing the mosques of holding illegal religious activities and classes.In one of the villages, Huihuideng, Ma Jiwu carried his grandson outside the shuttered local mosque, which had operated inside a home.Ma, wearing the distinctive skullcap that many Hui wear, said the imams there had ignored warnings to move their services to the village's main mosque, where a Chinese flag hangs in the central courtyard and a large red banner exhorts worshippers, "Love your country, love your religion.""They did not listen," Ma said.Near the main mosque, a woman said the closing of the smaller one had stirred resentment, but also a feeling of resignation. She used a Chinese idiom for helplessness against a superior force, in this case the government: "The arm cannot twist the thigh."Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic studies at Minzu University in Beijing, defended the government's recent actions. He said that China's far-reaching economic changes over the last 40 years had been accompanied by a loosening of restrictions on religious practice, but that the laxity had gone too far."Now China's economic development has reached a certain height," he said, "and suddenly problems related to religious and other affairs are being discovered."In the case of Islam, he cited the proliferation of mosques and the spread of "halal" practices into public life, saying they conflicted with the cultural values of the majority Han Chinese population.Official statistics indicate that there are now more mosques in China than Buddhist temples: 35,000 compared with 33,500. In the last year, scores of mosques have been altered, closed or destroyed entirely, many of them in Xinjiang, according to officials and news reports.'The Major Enemy the State Faces'The party asserts that it has the right to control all organized religion. Critics ascribe that to its fear that religious organizations could challenge its political power. In the past, the party's repression has triggered violent responses.In 1975, during Mao's Cultural Revolution, the People's Liberation Army surrounded Shadian, a mostly Hui Muslim town in Yunnan province where residents had protested the closure of mosques. Clashes ensued, prompting a massive military intervention that razed the town and left more than 1,600 people dead.The current pressure has also been met with unrest, though not on that scale. In August 2018 in Weizhou, a village in Ningxia, protests erupted when the authorities sent demolition workers to a newly built mosque. After a tense showdown that lasted several days, the local government promised to suspend the destruction and review the plans.Nearly a year later, police officers still block the roads into the village, turning away foreigners, including diplomats and two Times journalists who tried to visit in May.China claims that it allows freedom of religion, but emphasizes that the state must always come first. The Ningxia government, asked about its recent restrictions on Islam, said that China had rules on religious practice just like any other country.Mosques that violate laws such as building codes will be closed, it said, and schools and universities will not permit religious activities."Arabic is a foreign language," the government said about the restrictions on public signage, adding that they had been imposed "to make things convenient for the general public."In an interview, Ma, the Frostburg State scholar, said the current leadership viewed religion as "the major enemy the state faces." He said senior officials had studied the role played by faith -- particularly the Catholic Church in Poland -- in the collapse of the Soviet Union and its dominion in Eastern Europe.Believers have little recourse against the intensifying crackdown. Ma predicted that it would not relent soon, but that it would ultimately fail, as other campaigns against Muslims have."I really doubt they can eliminate religious faith," he said. "That is impossible."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| In the 1980s, the World Acted to Save the Ozone Layer. Here's Why the Fight Against Climate Change Is Different Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:47 AM PDT  A scientist who helped saved the ozone layer in the 1980s weighs inn on why it's been harder for science to lead to action on climate change
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| Long-live the Electoral College! All of the Reasons to Keep It Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., recently proposed killing it on the grounds that the presidential selection mechanism leads candidates to focus on just a handful of "swing states" that are most likely to determine the election.
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| How a routine training flight ended with 6 Marines killed in a tragic midair collision and 4 officers out of a job Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:01 AM PDT  The deadly incident led to to a loss of "trust and confidence" in a squadron commander and saw the firing of another three Marine Corps officers.
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| Mexican president praises historian at center of dispute with business leaders Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:26 PM PDT  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday praised a historian whose comments about the killers of a prominent industrialist in the 1970s sparked an angry response from a top business lobby and other corporate leaders. Last week, Pedro Salmeron, head of the National Institute of Historical Studies of the Revolutions of Mexico (INEHRM), described the left-wing guerrillas who fatally shot Eugenio Garza Sada in 1973 as "courageous youths" in a blog post. Garza, an 81-year-old businessman from the northern city of Monterrey, was killed along with several others when resisting a failed kidnapping attempt by members of a group known as the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre (September 23 Communist League).
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| UNC denies claims of bias in Middle East studies program Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:54 PM PDT  The University of North Carolina is disputing the Trump administration's accusations of bias in a Middle East studies program that the school operates with Duke University. In a letter sent to the department Friday and obtained by The Associated Press through a records request on Monday, UNC's research chief defends the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, saying it has been a leader in Middle Eastern language studies for years. UNC, which houses the consortium, was responding to an Aug. 29 letter from the department.
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| Government warns people against using conditioner after a nuclear explosion Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Last month, the United States pulled out of a nuclear treaty with Russia that prohibited the two nations from possessing, producing or testing thousands of land-based missiles. The U.S. then conducted a missile test that would have been forbidden under the treaty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a few dos and don'ts that citizens should remember in case a nuclear explosion were to take place.
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| Florida caretaker napped while man with Down syndrome died in hot car, according to police Posted: 23 Sep 2019 07:14 AM PDT  Joshua Russell took Kratom and fell asleep, leaving the 'non-verbal' man inside a van reaching 125 degrees, Pinellas County officials said.
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| White House Press Sec: Trump ‘Put a Stop’ to Briefing Because Reporters Were Being Mean Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:09 AM PDT  Any hope that Americans may one day see Trump's new press secretary taking questions from reporters in a formal White House press briefing went out the window on Monday morning when Stephanie Grisham sat down for her first appearance on Fox & Friends since taking over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year. Before Grisham even got a chance to explain why she has yet to brief the media, the Fox hosts were giving her cover. Steve Doocy suggested that President Trump "doesn't really need anybody to do the talking for him" because he's such a "great communicator.""He's his own best spokesperson, it's true," Trump's official spokesperson replied, pointing to Trump's helicopter-side chats with the press as evidence that he's the "most accessible" president in history. "Is this the new press briefing?" Ainsley Earhardt asked. "Before, we saw all of his press secretaries in front of the podium." Noting that Saturday Night Live "made fun of" Sean Spicer for his briefing behavior, she told Grisham, "You'll never have that moment because no longer are we doing that, right?" "Not right now," Grisham said, adding, "to be honest the briefings had become a lot of theater and I think that a lot of reporters were doing it to…" Doocy finished her sentence for her with, "get famous!" Without naming names, Grisham seemed to criticize White House reporters like CNN's Jim Acosta and ABC's Jonathan Karl for writing books about their experiences. When Brian Kilmeade asked Grisham if Trump "took it personal" when reporters demanded answers in briefings with Spicer or Sanders—in other words, doing their jobs by holding the administration accountable—she replied, "Absolutely.""I think it's so important that the spokesperson for the president can adequately speak to his policies and get his message out there. And I think the president saw that that's not what was happening," she said. "It had become, again, theater, and they weren't being good to his people. And he doesn't like that. He's very loyal to his people, and he put a stop to it." Sean Spicer Has Most Embarrassing 'Dancing With the Stars' Debut Ever, PeriodRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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 cuts power in parts of West Bank over debts Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:21 PM PDT  Israel's national electricity company said Sunday it was cutting power to parts of the occupied West Bank due to outstanding payments amounting to nearly $483 million. The Israel Electric Corporation said it was owed 1.7 billion shekels in debts from the main Palestinian power distributor for the West Bank, which is based in east Jerusalem. From Monday, the company "will reduce the current in some areas of the West Bank" because of the debts, it said in a statement.
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| See This Strange Cannon? It Was Hitler's Secret Weapon to Crush the Allies Posted: 21 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  The German Heavy Gustav was the largest gun ever built. It was more than 150 feet long, 40 feet tall and weighed almost 1,500 tons. The steel giant Krupp A.G. made only two, and neither worked well.
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| Delta has an incredible fare sale through Wednesday with flights as low as $97 Posted: 22 Sep 2019 06:06 AM PDT  Regular travelers probably don't associate the idea of sales and low-fares with a carrier like Delta Airlines, which are more in the wheelhouse of a low-cost brand like Southwest that offers up flash fare sales on the regular.Nevertheless, that's exactly what Delta has going at the moment \-- a fare sale with deals that start as low as only $97, though they come with a few important catches.One is that you've only got until September 25, to lock one of these fares in. Just as important to know: These are Delta basic economy fares, a classification that leaves several things to chance. You'll be assigned a seat at check-in, for example, and you'll be stuck in the last boarding group and thus will probably have to gate-check your luggage.If you can be fine with those limitations, though, there are some great deals to be had. In most cases, they're fares that are meant for travel happening sometime between October and February 2020, and the deals include a $97 round-trip offer in basic economy between Atlanta and Nashville; a $99 round-trip offer between Los Angeles and San Diego; a $117 offer between Austin and Cincinnatti; and a $127 offer between Seattle and San Jose.The full list of routes and discounted fares offered can be found on Delta's sale website. Of course, just because a fare that's discounted here looks pretty low doesn't mean you won't find a comparable offer elsewhere -- one that may also have some of the perks like earlier boarding that you're denied through this Delta sale. Speaking of those basic economy limitations here, savvy travelers should be able to easily get around them using certain co-branded credit cards that offer perks like early boarding, luggage benefits and the like.If you decide these deals are worth it, though, remember -- you've only got a few more days to decide, as the fare sale is only good through Wednesday.
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| CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-At least 40 civilians at wedding party killed during nearby U.S.-backed Afghan army raid Posted: 23 Sep 2019 02:03 AM PDT ![CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-At least 40 civilians at wedding party killed during nearby U.S.-backed Afghan army raid]( "CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-At least 40 civilians at wedding party killed during nearby U.S.-backed Afghan army raid") HELMAND, Afghanistan/KABUL, Sept 23 (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians attending a wedding party were killed by explosions and gunfire during a raid by U.S.-backed Afghan government forces on a nearby Islamist militant hideout, officials in Helmand province said on Monday. The raid, days after a U.S. drone strike aimed at militants hiding among farmers killed 32 pine nut harvesters, showed how civilians have borne the brunt of a war that has re-intensified since U.S.-Taliban peace talks collapsed two weeks ago.
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| Karen Pence's attempt to help Trump 2020 online falls flat Posted: 23 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT  Karen Pence has joined Twitter to help with President Trump's reelection campaign, but it's not going well.
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| The Latest: British PM questions Thomas Cook bosses' pay Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:03 AM PDT  Prime Minister Boris Johnson says a "huge effort" is underway to bring home British tourists and passengers stranded by the sudden financial collapse of travel company Thomas Cook. Gambian Tourism Minister Hamat Bah has told The Associated Press the country's government has convened an emergency meeting to deal with the collapse of travel company Thomas Cook. A Swedish Thomas Cook customer stranded on Cyprus is making the best of a bad situation, saying he'll enjoy the sunshine until Friday when arrangements will hopefully be made for his return.
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| Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:07 PM PDT ![Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds]( "Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds") A Florida police officer has been suspended and is being investigated after arresting two 6-year-olds for separate disciplinary incidents at their school, police and a prosecutor said on Monday. Dennis Turner arrested the children on Thursday while working as a resource officer at a charter school in Orlando, charging them both with misdemeanor battery, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala told a news conference. Ayala said Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón told her he did not intend to prosecute the children and had asked for the charges to be dropped.
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| AOC says bigger scandal than Trump's 'lawbreaking behavior' is Dems' refusal to impeach Posted: 22 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  Ocasio-Cortez added further fuel to the impeachment fire by saying the bigger scandal was Democrats' refusal to impeach President Trump.
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| Germany Mulls Emergency Aid for Thomas Cook’s Condor Airline Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:25 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- German authorities are considering emergency financial aid for Thomas Cook Group Plc's Condor subsidiary as Deutsche Lufthansa AG remains tight-lipped on the fate of a unit it bid for earlier this year.Germany's Economy Ministry on Monday said it's urgently assessing Condor Flugdienst GmbH's request for a bridge loan after Thomas Cook collapsed under a pile of debt. The state of Hesse, where Condor's base at Frankfurt Airport is located, is ready to help with a loan guarantee and is already in talks with the airline and the federal government, Premier Volker Bouffier said."Condor is in a difficult situation thanks to its British parent Thomas Cook," Bouffier said in a statement. "Both are victims of Brexit, which has created uncertainty among companies and its customers."The federal government in 2017 made a similar loan to Air Berlin Plc to keep the airline flying while Lufthansa considered taking it over. The European Union Commission may also have to sign off on potential aid, a government spokesman said. Lufthansa earlier this year bid for Condor but in June said the offer would likely be rejected."The federal government is examining the application," an economy ministry spokesman said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for Lufthansa declined to comment on Thomas Cook's bankruptcy.European airlines are struggling to turn a profit due to the surplus of seats on tourist and business routes. Despite the demise of Air Berlin, Monarch, Wow and several other airlines since the end of 2017, too many planes are still flying to too many places."All Condor flights are taking off as planned today, and we will do everything within our means so that our fleet can continue to take our guests to their holiday destinations and back," Condor Chief Executive Ralf Teckentrup said in a statement. About 240,000 of the airline's customers are currently abroad, he said, adding that tickets sales are working without restrictions.Authorities came under increasing pressure to act on Monday, as labor groups and industry associations weighed in. Germany's UFO cabin personnel union said Condor is a profitable company that "deserves a chance at survival," a position echoed by unions representing the pilots and ground staff, as well as the country's airport association ADV.Slots Available"We very much hope that the decision makers in the federal government and in Hesse look closely at the situation and contribute to make this happen," UFO head Sylvia De la Cruz said in a statement.While a spokesman for Lufthansa on Monday wouldn't reveal details of its earlier bid, the airline is unlikely to be interested in the company's medium- and long-haul jets, which are mostly older than its own. Condor's slots would be valuable to Lufthansa, although Chief Financial Officer Ulrik Svensson in June said an integration with its low-cost unit Eurowings would be "complex".That complexity could prove insurmountable as the Cologne-based airline has issued profit warnings and is under pressure from investors to turn Eurowings around after years of underperformance. Investors have also lambasted management for its costly integration of the Air Berlin jets.One option for Lufthansa would be to wait for Condor to go bust and then acquire the airline's slots from airport operators. The Condor brand would likely also be of value, as the airline is popular with German travelers.Main BattlegroundThomas Cook flew German customers with three different airlines. All three remain airborne for the time being, meaning just over half of the company's 105 aircraft are still flying. Lufthansa owned Condor before selling the unit to Thomas Cook a decade ago.Germany's aviation market is one of the main battlegrounds in a Europe-wide fare war to gain market share. Ryanair Holdings Plc and Easyjet Plc rushed into a vacuum created by the collapse of Air Berlin, forcing Lufthansa into a price war in which the firm's Eurowings subsidiary has lost hundreds of millions of euros.This summer has seen heated competition on holiday routes to western Mediterranean destinations such as Spain, after Ryanair added a plethora of flights from Lufthansa's main Frankfurt hub to the Iberian peninsula.(Adds comment from Condor CEO from seventh paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: William Wilkes in Frankfurt at wwilkes1@bloomberg.net;Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net;Birgit Jennen in Berlin at bjennen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| India seizes one tonne of ketamine on boat, arrests six Myanmar crew Posted: 22 Sep 2019 02:02 AM PDT  India's coast guard has arrested six Myanmar men and seized $42 million worth of ketamine after spotting a suspicious vessel in the Indian Ocean near the Nicobar Islands. The 1,160 kilogram (about 2,500 pounds) drug haul came after coast guard aircraft spotted the boat, which had its lights off, on Wednesday in India's Exclusive Economic Zone, the defence ministry said in a statement. The boat's crew did not respond to radio calls and the coast guard eventually boarded it, with officials finding "57 gunny bundles of suspicious substance" on Friday.
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| Patriot Missile Defense: America's Answer to Ballistic Missiles, Drones, and Aerial Threats Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Can it handle 21st-century threats?
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| Will the Supreme Court Nix Montana’s Anti-Catholic ‘Blaine Amendment’? Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  As a second-grader, Raelyn Sukhbir used to cry every night. She was being bullied "unmercifully" in the public school she was attending. Life at home was miserable because the poor girl was so anxious and despondent — which had her parents worried about how bad things might be all the rest of the time, when she wasn't home. Raelyn "did not want to be around other kids and was clingy whenever we would visit friends," her mother told lawyer Andrea Picciotti-Bayer. "She did not want to participate in any activities or sports." Her father, a retired army veteran who was injured in Afghanistan, talked to the teachers and administrators, but there was no improvement.Brittany and Kyle Sukhbir had heard good things about the nearby St. Mary's Catholic school — that it had a "zero tolerance policy" against bullying. Picciotti-Bayer writes that "the Sukhbirs did not think that they could afford private school, but the daily bullying simply became too much for Raelyn to bear." They contacted the school just before Christmas, and Raelyn spent a day trying on the school. "Every single teacher knew her name, and every student was excited to meet Raelyn and play with her," her mother said.Two years later, the girl is transformed. She's not shy and reserved anymore, but outgoing. She fully participates in the life of the school, including sports. "St. Mary's is teaching self-confidence and kindness," her mother reports. She's thriving academically, and even the Sukhbirs' family life is better. "Now that Raelyn is no longer crying when she comes home from school, we can really enjoy being together," Brittany says.Brittany works as an office manager at a local physical-therapy clinic, and Kyle works in North Dakota on an oil field two weeks of every month. Their combined salaries would not cover tuition for Raelyn, now eight, and their son, five-year-old Wyatt. She used to think that "St. Mary's was only for rich kids," she says. "But I now know that that is 100 percent not the case." Knowledge of tuition assistance from the school or other widely available helps from private and public sources could help save other families from similar situations. "My kid would not be the kid she is today if we did not have the scholarship supports to send her to St. Mary's," Brittany notes. Raelyn "really has flourished into an amazing child."Piccioti-Bayer interviewed Brittany Sukhbir and other parents of children benefiting from tuition assistance, for an amicus brief just filed at the U.S. Supreme Court by the Catholic Association Foundation. The brief is in support of a challenge to a decision by the Montana supreme court that religious schools cannot benefit from public tuition aids — not even from tax credits for people donating to private scholarship funds. (The Institute for Justice is representing moms of Montana.) The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation, has the potential to remove the anti-Catholic Blaine amendments that remain in many state constitutions. Such a decision could change children's lives in America.Other parents profiled by Piccioti-Bayer include Christina and Justin Schye, who had sent three children to public schools. Their nine-year-old with Down syndrome needed something else, they concluded. His public-school situation was "traumatic." By contrast, when he went to St. Francis school, some eighth-grade boys would wait for Kellan's arrival every morning, giving him "hugs and high-fives" as he entered school. He was immediately a welcome part of the community, and his needs were attended to. If he needed extra time, including time for eating lunch, he would get it. School staff and families of students rallied for him when he competed in this first Special Olympics. (The teacher arranged the transportation, and parents even chipped in to get pizza for him and for all the three second-grade classes who came to cheer him on.) The flexibility and love at St. Francis for Kellan is a "huge blessing" for the whole Schye family. "We have peace of mind now that Kellan is where he belongs," his mother says.Some but not all of the parents Piccioti-Bayer interviewed are Catholic. Catholic schools serve all. In some settings, such as Montana, the students are mostly non-Catholic. Parents choose these schools because of they are staffed by educators with a missionary, vocational approach. The families Piccioti-Bayer talked with experienced religious education as the leaven it is — communities where human dignity is respected and served in gratitude for the gift of life.It worth a prayer not only that this case winds up a win for religious liberty and school choice — for families across the country who shouldn't be deprived of giving their children the best chance at a good life — but that it is a reinvigoration of Catholic education and our collective need for it. In their book Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America (2014), Notre Dame law professors Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett make the case that, statistically, when a Catholic school closes, social capital, "the web of connections and trust between people," declines. Catholic schools have been closing, and we see the deterioration in our culture. Let's do everything we can to ensure that families have access to the good ones in operation. A Supreme Court win here for these Montana families would be no small dose of hope for family life, freedom, and the health of our nation.This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal's Newspaper Enterprise Association.
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| Trump news: President reacts as impeachment speculation intensifies and his own lawyer admits he cannot rule out that aid to Ukraine was used as bribe Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:05 AM PDT  Donald Trump has insisted that he is not taking talk of impeachment seriously as he once again claimed he had done nothing wrong in a phone call with the president of Ukraine.Arriving at the United Nations in New York for a session on religious freedom, Mr Trump said the row over his "perfect" phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky was a "Democrat witch-hunt", adding: "They failed with Russia, they failed with recession, they failed with everything, and now they're bringing this up." Meanwhile, his personal lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, told Fox Business he could not be "100 per cent sure" the president didn't threaten to cut off aid to Ukraine unless the former Soviet country agreed to investigate Joe Biden's son.
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| Two years after María, many in Puerto Rico 'are still living as if the hurricane happened yesterday' Posted: 22 Sep 2019 04:18 PM PDT  Outside of the town of Yabucoa, Fermín Pérez keeps his new refrigerator in a box and his new mattress in its packaging. He keeps them stored so they aren't damaged by the water that still leaks from his roof when it rains, despite the aid that came to repair it after Hurricane María made landfall practically in his backyard two years ago.María made came ashore as a strong Category 4 storm on Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, tearing into his home. Not having the money to make repairs and no family around to help, the 71-year-old man had reached out for aid. Even then, it wasn't until a year later in 2018 when he received electricity after the news organization Metro Puerto Rico brought attention to his story.The news outlet visited Pérez three times: last year, again when aid arrived within the week and a third time last week. Fermín Pérez stands in front of his house in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, a year after Hurricane María made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm. The storm had broken his windows, his door and had damaged his roof. A year later, after having asked for aid, no help came until Metro Puerto Rico covered his story. (Metro Puerto Rico/José Encarnación) When Metro Puerto Rico returned in 2019, Pérez's door, roof and windows had been repaired after María had pummeled the city, though the outlet noted the job had looked rushed. The ceiling leaked when it rained. Pérez's house wasn't one of the thousands of roofless homes still shielded by blue tarp, but mold still clung to the walls, and the living conditions hadn't looked much better than when they had first met Pérez a year ago. They noted that while there is water, electricity and a standing structure, the home that was once there was gone.Pérez told Metro Puerto Rico that FEMA had given him the fridge and some Americans had been in charge of the infrastructure, but Peréz wasn't living in much better conditions than when the hurricane had hit. Fermín Pérez lived for about a year without electricity after Hurricane María made landfall in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. (Metro Puerto Rico/José Encarnación) "Many Puerto Ricans are still experiencing a livelihood or a situation that is very similar to Sept. 21, Sept. 22 after Hurricane Maria. Many Puerto Ricans are still living below blue tarps," Penn State assistant professor of human development and family studies Alexis Santos told AccuWeather. "Many Puerto Ricans are still living as if the hurricane happened yesterday, and we strive and we hope that we can help them get their lives back to normality even if it's two years after the hurricane has happened."Santos had been a part of a research effort that was run from Penn State with support from individuals from the University of Texas at San Antonio, which published a study in early August of 2018 that contributed additional deaths in the months following María to the death toll. Originally, the Puerto Rican government had said 64 people had died from María. Santos said their estimates had placed them between 1,200 to 1,300 at the time before the official investigation by the Milken Institute School of Public Health.Metro Puerto Rico editor and reporter Ronald Ávila-Claudio, who has been reporting on María since before the storm made landfall, has said that the time that Puerto Rico will take to recover will depend on the money they receive for aid. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has estimated that Hurricane María caused about $90 billion in damages.Recently, Trump falsely claimed in a pair of tweets in July and again in August that Congress had given $92 billion to Puerto Rico for hurricane relief. Although Congress has allocated $42.5 billion to disaster relief for the United States territory, Puerto Rico has only received about $14 billion. In this Sept. 8, 2018, file photo, Alma Morales Rosario poses for a portrait between the beams of her home being rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane María a year earlier in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Morovis, Puerto Rico. On Friday, May 10, 2019, The Associated Press has found that stories circulating on the internet that Puerto Rico has received $91 billion from Congress for hurricane disaster relief, more than any state in the U.S, are untrue. Congress has approved $41 billion in aid for recovery efforts in the U.S. territory, but only about $11 billion of that aid has been dispersed. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) Bureaucracy has also slowed down recovery and has impacted the lives of the people on the island, Ávila said."There are still a lot of people today who don't have a roof. There are buildings with blue tarp because the bureaucracy of the housing departments," he said.Ávila has described the government's response as "negligent," and that they are still fighting for information and to get accountability from the state and federal government."We received a lot of aid from outside. I have to be honest, I didn't see a lot of this aid and help in the hands of the people," Ávila said, though admitted that it was difficult to keep tabs on the government's activity while communications had been down.Ávila first found himself in the dark a few hours after María had hit. He had been reporting in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on their preparations and had taken shelter at an Emergency Management base when María had struck, taking down communications with it. With no power or way to communicate over long distances, the island was in the dark on the amount of devastation María had caused. Ávila couldn't reach his newsroom, his editors or even his family. Hurricane María decimated Puerto Rico's power grid, causing the largest blackout in U.S. history. This photo from Dec. 2017 shows a fraction of the destruction caused. (Photo/Dan Vineberg) "All of the coverage plan was down, so I started to improvise what I could do now to get all the information I could so I could write it all down and get the news to the people," Ávila said.Only a few hours after María had left the island, Ávila found out from a first responder that a woman in the community had died from the storm. It was the first death he had heard of from María.He did some investigating, finding his way to her public housing building, where the woman's neighbors directed him to her first-floor apartment. The elderly woman had lived alone. Ávila said she hadn't been able to walk and had died in her bed from the water that had flooded her room."When I got down there, the body was on the floor. It was...it was really tough for me, and that's the moment when I started to realize the devastation was really big," Ávila said, who had been 24 at the time. "It was the hardest part of my coverage there in Aguadilla."It was one of the first of the 2,975 deaths that would illuminate the reality of María."Socioeconomics seems to be the driving force here not only for deaths, but for getting back on their feet during recovery or after the hurricane and mitigating the recovery efforts," Santos said. He estimates about 30,000 houses still have blue tarps covering their homes in the place of an absent roof. In this Oct. 19, 2017, file photo, homes in the Cantera area are covered with FEMA tarps, where buildings from the Hato Rey area stand in the background in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The U.S. government announced Tuesday, April 10, 2018, that it will award $18.5 billion worth of disaster recovery grants to Puerto Rico to help repair homes, businesses and its crumbling power grid as the U.S. territory struggles to recover from Hurricane María. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti) In the aftermath, Santos and his research team found that it was the people with low income levels who were more likely to end up suffering from the post-disaster dynamics. Research had also found that older persons were more likely to die post-María, whereas people more likely to leave the island were younger people.In his research, Santos and his team found that deaths were concentrated in places like nursing homes, where people were already vulnerable to pre-disaster conditions. People with a cardiovascular disease were also more likely to die than someone who didn't have one. People with diabetes also found themselves vulnerable.After María, "People were leaving the elderly patients in the hospital because if they stayed at home, they were going to face certain death," Santos said. Nerybelle Perez poses with a portrait of her father, World War II veteran Efrain Perez, who died inside an ambulance after being turned away from the largest public hospital when it had no electricity or water, days after Hurricane Maria passed, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Thursday, June 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti) It was the experiences of his mother, a nurse at one of the major hospitals in Puerto Rico, which encouraged him to venture into his research on the original death toll. The numbers hadn't matched her narrative. Her story had been one of devastation, one that had made her sick as she drove to the hospital."The hospital was overrun by patients," Santos said.He describes María both as an environmental event and environmental disaster - an event with stronger impacts than what might be considered normal and that is tied to the environment and climate."This was the worst hurricane I have seen in my life," Ávila said, having experienced a few on the island before. In this December 2017 photo, debris is piled at the side of the road as residents begin to clean up the destruction caused by Hurricane María. Blue tarp still covers thousands of homes even two years after the storm. (Photo/Dan Vineberg) Seeing the devastation of buildings collapsed and overturned and listening to the stories from the people in Aguadilla after the hurricane, Ávila eventually was brought to the point where he could no longer stay in the city. He needed to know about his family."When I started to find all these buildings that were down or houses that were moved and all the people without anything, because people lost everything, I yelled, I said I have to go back to my house and my home to see my mom," he said. In this Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, file photo, the foundation of a heavily damaged house stands amid broken trees in the mountains after the passing of Hurricane María in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Morovis, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa,File) After driving nearly the entire length of the island, Ávila found his family was safe in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico. He continues to cover the impacts of María, despite the psychological challenges it has presented."The coverage of the emergency process of the response of the government, it was really difficult for us journalists here in Puerto Rico," Ávila said. "I went six months without power in my apartment, so I was covering this, I was visiting the island, I was talking with people that lost everything and when I get back to my house, I was living that too. It was really stressful for us. It was a psychological challenge for us journalists to cover it."People across Puerto Rico pulled blue tarp over their homes in the place of the roofs that had been blown away or demolished by María. Two years later in late August, Puerto Rico and its 30,000 blue tarp-covered houses braced for a hit from Dorian. The storm took mercy upon the island.The people of Puerto Rico are well aware of where they are and the probability of another hurricane hitting the island. Ávila said that now they know what to prepare for."The people know that there's the probability that we have to save ourselves," he said. "There is no one that is going to go up to your house and help you."
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| Lawsuit calls for full public view of executions in Virginia Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Prison officials are unconstitutionally limiting public access to executions in Virginia by blocking witnesses from seeing certain steps in the process, four news organizations allege in a federal lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond allegesthe department is violating the First Amendment by using curtains to block witnesses from seeing "crucial steps" in carrying out a lethal injection or electrocution — the two execution methods allowed under state law. "These limits on witnesses's ability to view Virginia's executions severely curtail the public's ability to understand how those executions are administered, or to assess whether a particular execution violates either the Constitution or the state's prescribed execution procedures, or is otherwise botched," the news organizations state in the lawsuit.
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| Twenty suspects held in child serial killer investigation in Pakistan Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:47 AM PDT ![Twenty suspects held in child serial killer investigation in Pakistan]( "Twenty suspects held in child serial killer investigation in Pakistan") Pakistani police have detained 20 suspects as they investigate the possibility of a serial killer being behind the suspected murder and sexual assault of three boys in a district which has a history of child abuse and abduction. The body of eight-year-old Muhammad Faizan was found on an industrial estate, after he went missing on the way home from nearby shops. Local media reported three other children from the area had been missing since the middle of the year and another child had disappeared late last week after the bodies were found.
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| 'How dare you?' Sweden's Greta Thunberg thunders at UN and world leaders on climate change Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:32 PM PDT  Swedish activist Greta Thunberg gave an angry and emotional speech to hundreds of world leaders at the United Nations in New York City on Monday.
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| Iran claims UK was open to paying £400m in owed money to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Posted: 23 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  The Iranian foreign minister has claimed that the UK offered release £400m owed to Iran from a decades-old deal in return for Tehran freeing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Javad Zarif said that both Philip Hammond and Boris Johnson were open to the proposal when they were foreign secretary but that it was taken off the table by Jeremy Hunt. The idea involves the UK returning £400m which the Shah of Iran paid in the 1970s to purchase 1,750 tanks and armoured cars from Britain. The UK did not deliver the tanks after the Shah was overthrown and Iran has repeatedly demanded the money back. Mr Zarif said both Mr Hammond and Mr Johnson considered the idea but that it was nixed by Mr Hunt because he harboured ambitions to become prime minister and did not want to be seen to be paying a ransom to Iran. "Jeremy started talking about 'you're asking for ransom'. And I said: 'Come on, this is not something that I started. This is something that Philip started,'" Mr Zarif said. "Jeremy started to play tough because he wanted to become prime minister and it didn't work out for anybody." Javad Zarif made the claims at a briefing in New York Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images He added that he had also discussed the proposal with Dominic Raab, the current foreign secretary, without reaching a conclusion. "[Mr Raab raised it] and I told him that there was an offer from their side which unfortunately hasn't been fulfilled. Basically he made a statement and I made a rebuttal and then we said goodbye." Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin's husband, told the Guardian he was glad that Mr Zarif had made the offer of an exchange of payments for his wife's freedom so explicit. "I am glad that foreign minister Zarif has been so clear. Transparency has been a long time coming," he said. An international arbitration court ruled in 2009 that the UK must pay the money back but Britain's own high court has yet to issue a ruling on the subject. British officials have said privately that the money will have to be returned at some point but that it cannot be seen to be encouraging Iran's arrest of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK citizens. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We do not, and have never, accepted any suggestion that the UK would pay Iran to release UK nationals who have been arbitrarily detained. They must be released unconditionally. The UK will not be blackmailed, and the Foreign Minister's comments only bring the Iranian government further into disrepute. "We will highlight our concerns over innocent people being held in Iran without due judicial process at the UN this week."
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| November 9, 1989: the day that changed the world Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:21 PM PDT  Guenter Schabowski scratches his head, puts on his glasses, hesitates, then fumbles with his handwritten notes. A member of the Politburo of East Germany's communist party, and its spokesman, this member of the inner ruling circle of the "workers' and peasants' state" as the German Democratic Republic was known just announced to a few flabbergasted journalists the fall of the Berlin Wall. Was it the result of a misunderstanding in the communist hierarchy, caught flat-footed by events, or a calculated gesture by the East German dictatorship which had reached the end of the line?
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